All of Space and Time

Team Work Makes the Dream Work

"Where do you think it is right now?" Yaz asked as we went down the corridor.

"I don't know." The Doctor replied. The emergency lights through out the ship glowed an eerie red and I stayed close to the Doctor. "Can't trace it, since the diagnostic systems drained."

A door opened near one of the patient pods and Mabli stepped out. "Doctor, quick word. Private." She said looking at the group.

"Catch you up, go on." She said stepping aside so we could pass. I continued down the corridor with the others.

"I think the Doctor said the drive was this way." I said walking to a door on the left. I opened it and we all walked in. "Ha! Found it." We all walked in and the Doctor soon followed.

"Sorry, where were we?" She asked before glancing at the drive in the center of the room. "Oh, anti-matter drive. What century is this?" She asked.

"You're joking?" General Cicero asked.

"No, we're time travelers." I said walking up next to the Doctor.

"Are you joking now?" She asked.

"No." The Doctor replied looking back at the anti-matter drive.

"Sixty-seventh." Durkas supplied.

"Oh, nice century. Bit tricky in the middle. Turns out all right in the end." The Doctor said. "See this, Yaz? Anti-matter drive."

"Oh I did a bit in Anti-matter at school." She said getting closer to look at the drive. She was fascinated with it, even thought we were in the middle of a life or death situation. "Never quite understood it."

"No neither did I. Science wasn't really my thing in school." I said looking from the drive to the other's. "No, I was more of a history buff, and engineering was more my thing."

"The thing with anti-matter is you have to find it or generate it. That's what this bit does." The two of them looked back at the drive system. The coils in the center glowing. "Particle accelerator."

"Like at CERN. We did that in physics. No, but the thing a CERN is massive." Yaz said.

"In your time, generating anti-matter cost a massive amount of money. This is progress. Things get smaller, faster and cheaper. This is like the iPhone version of CERN." She said excitedly. "Accelerating enough particles to power this entire craft."

"So, how does that work?" Yaz asked.

"The particle accelerator smashes the atoms together, like a little anti-matter factory to produce positrons. Which are then stored very carefully inside electric and magnetic fields. The positrons interact with the fuel materials to produce heat, which then produces thrust." The Doctor explained. Yaz still looked confused.

"Basically, what Barry Allen is trying to explain." I said looking over to Yaz who smiled at my reference. "Is positrons made from this drive, mixes with the fuel and powers the ship." I explained more simply and she nodded her head in understanding. I understood the Doctor completely, but traveling with her for a couple hundred years and you learn a thing or two. Yaz was new still, but in time she'll get the hang of it.

"Pretty old school this one." Durkas said glancing at the drive system.

"It's beautiful. Anti-matter, powering the movement of matter, bringing positrons into existence to move other forms of life across space. I love it. Conceptually, and actually..."

"Great, now I'm in competition with an Anti-matter drive." I said rolling my eyes.

The Doctor shook her head looking back to me. "Sorry, got lost in the moment for a second." She then turned back to Yaz. "Yaz, you have to keep this safe from the Pting. If this drive gets destroyed, this ship will lose propulsion, will drift endlessly while the Pting-"