The Master's Game (Doctor Who)

The sound of drums

It was the strangest of feelings Roka experienced when she came back into the console room. The Doctor had removed all remnants from the tinkering and now stood there, observing the terminal and humming a melody-less tune.

With a tug at his sleeve she interrupted the Doctor's humming. He turned around, wearing the familiar look of surprise and sudden recognition she was so familiar with. And now it was mixed with wariness.

She stepped back a bit and lowered her head. "I... I just wanted to say sorry. So much has happened and it was all so fast and..."

The Doctor smiled and took on his glasses. "I couldn't take a proper look at you before," he said. "You changed quite a bit. Especially your eyes... and your posture."

"Uh..." She wasn't quite sure what to answer. "It's... been quite a while, I guess."

"Mhm..." He made his funny thinking face, head slightly tilted. "If I convert it to earthen time it's been... something around seven or eight months."

Had it really been that long? It hadn't felt like it. Something inside her wanted to say that she had missed him, but the truth was, she hadn't lost too much thoughts about him during that time. A painful sting of guilty conscience went through her.

With the need to regain his attention every few minutes she started to tell what had happened. Not in much details and she left out everything they had done during their travels. She also left out that the Master owned her life, that he had dug out all her memories and cut her chest open. And of course she didn't mention everything that had happen afterwards. That really wasn't any of his busyness.

"My, my, that's a story!" the Doctor let out. "Seems like you two really have become... friends," he stated in a tone that was somewhere in between worried, happy and surprised, and smiled. "That's an accomplishment."

"Yah, it... is." She smiled, then asked hopefully, "Can you really not let him go?"

"That... I can't do that. I know what he will do otherwise and I won't even ask what he made you do in the past months." A bit uncomfortably looking he rubbed his neck and took a breath. "You... might want to consider the possibility that he is using you for something. Don't get mad yet!" He held up his hands in a conciliating manner. "I've seen him doing exactly that way too often. Please... at least keep it in mind."

Roka swallowed her anger and nodded. "Okay. I will. But only if you consider that he might not."

"I... alright." The Doctor took his hands down.

"Could you at least take off those handcuffs that can liquify his organs? They scare me."

A strange look appeared on his face. Was that a hunch of fear? It was gone too fast to really tell. Then he shook his head and a smile came to his eyes.

"Not yet at least. And... ah, maybe it's better he doesn't wander around too much. Last time he managed to hack the doors so every single one was leading into the lava core." Roka didn't even ask why there was something like that inside here. "And then flooded my room with jelly. Not to mention he reprogrammed my radio to play the same two jazz songs over and over."

Roka snorted. That sounded a lot like him. Somehow she didn't even wonder that the Master wasn't imprisoned here for the first time. Although she wondered how he had escaped back then.

"The handcuffs are completely harmless! Yeah sure, he shouldn't attempt teleportation, but other than that... I also changed the core to craforin metal, so he can't get too close to me."

Check! She had never heard of that metal, but that shouldn't be a problem.

"Mhm... fine." She sighed and pondered how to inconspicuous ask about the laser. "Seems I need to find something to do again. Have you... by any chance... taken this screwdriver thing he had? I really would love to take that thing apart." She put on a wide grin. "Haven't seen something like that before."