Rico and the girl found their way to the control panel. Very carefully, the girl grabbed onto the panel and pushed some buttons. With this, the gravity shifted and the floor was the floor, so to speak. The control panel was no longer an attachment on the wall, but instead a proper panel on the floor. It was large, with many buttons, levers, and lights.
"What is this place?" Rico looked around. "It's just..."
"It's what?" the girl asked.
"It's...smaller. On the outside."
"Yes, it is. Good job on noticing the most obvious thing. But you have it backwards, it's bigger on the inside."
Rico just ignored her. "How is that even possible?!"
"Weeeellllll.....," the girl said. Rico could tell she was about to start rambling on.
"Just...nevermind. Who are you?" Rico padded around her and examined her carefully.
"Skuba," she said. "Skuba Grey."
"Huh. Ok," Rico said. He jumped up and put his paws on her thighs. "Why are you here, eh? How did your box get into the snow?"
"Long story short, crash landings are not planned as far as the course they take. Excuse me if I disturbed anything."
Rico stood on all fours. "Yeah, actually. You did disturb something." He walked around the control room, inspecting everything.
"Oh, well I'm sorry, I didn't try to," Skuba said sarcastically. "Didn't exactly try to get into your little life anyways." She was getting mean and a bit persnickety.
"Whatever," Rico mumbled. "I'm getting out of here." He reached for the door to open it."
"No!" Skuba lunged to the door, and just in time, too. The door opened, and Rico found that outside was not the soft, powdered snow that was there when he got into the box. Instead, it was a deep reach of space, where he could not even see the Earth.
"What the heck?!" Rico looked at Skuba, bewildered and shocked. "Take me home!!"
"Okay, okay!! Relax!! It's a time machine, and a spaceship. I can take you there and be there in 5 seconds. Calm down."
"Wait, what?!" He flew to a small surface just big enough for him where a column split into two. He pawed at Skuba. "A time machine?" He suddenly was much more interested, and he had forgotten that they were thousands of light years away from home.
"It's a TARDIS," Skuba said. "Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. It's dimensionally transcendental."
Rico was confused. "It's who-a-what-a-where-a?"
"It's bigger on the inside."
"Smaller on the outside," Rico said, and he flew down.
"Same thing. Anyways," Skuba said, walking to the control panel. "Off to Edinburgh we go."
"Wait!" Rico flew and hovered in front of Skuba. "What if something goes wrong..?" He landed and his ears went down in sudden fear as he looked up at her.
"What do you mean?" Skuba asked. She squatted down to get closer to him.
"I mean...I trust you and everything, but...but what if it goes wrong? What if we can never go back?"
"It's going to be okay," Skuba said. "Trust me. I'll take you home."
Rico hesitated, but agreed. "Okay."
With that, Skuba walked to the control panel and began to operate the TARDIS. The time rotor made the familiar whooshing sound, and the TARDIS shook.
But something, as Rico had predicted, went wrong.
The lights went out, with nothing left for the two travelers to see by except a few emergency lights.
They were in space, alone, in the dark.
YOU ARE READING
The Time Crew
AventureSkuba is the daughter of the Doctor. He's been missing for 23 years, and Skuba has been looking for him ever since he disappeared. When she meets a strange talking, flying dog named Rico, finds her father, and meets many other new friends, her world...
