Across the Universe

"I told you I wasn't crazy! Granted that was quite a few years ago, but here's my damn proof." Sonya crowed, clapping him on the back as she leaned over his shoulder to stare at the controls hidden behind the wall with a grin on her face. "If we can trip the life support, we can manage to keep oxygen to a low level, just enough to keep us coherent, and cool his place down as well, blimey it gets hot in here fast." She added, brushing her hand across her forehead again with a small frown of distaste at the dampness there.

Stepping back, she studied the wall for a moment with a critical eye. "If we could cut away the surface here, it would be much easier to get to the controls back there, rather than risk dislodging our shoulders from stretching our arms in there. Not to mention the heat that thing is putting off right now." She added, turning her gaze back over to the Doctor with the same grin she had since spotting the panel.

The Doctor gestured his head over to the side as he exaggerated yet another word, "Weeellll.." he mumbled with a sniff, "The time it would take to cut around the panel..our life support would be gone anyways. Suffocate trying to cut...even with our screwdrivers put together.". Turning his body so that he is able to see her in full rather that from the side, The Doctor smiled, "There's only one thing we can do....there's only one word we can say. Allons-y!!!".

Without another word or moment of hesitation, The Doctor spun back around and thrust his hand, holding the sonic screwdriver, into the open panel immediately trying to find the master controls. "Just....have to find it..." The Doctor grunted as he reached further and further down into the steaming hot mechanics behind the wall until finally, the diode of the screwdriver hit the master control panel with a thud.

Sonya watched him with a trace of envy. The only reason he did it was because his arms were long enough to reach into the small area and had the best chance to reach it. Crossing her own arms over her chest, she let out a slight sigh, staring down at her shoes with a frown. Her next regeneration had better be taller, she hated being short. Looking up, she spotted the flash in his eyes. "Oh, you got it! Well get the damn thing started, I'm sweating buckets over here." She said wryly, reaching up to lift her damp bangs off of her forehead as evidence of her discomfort.

"Oi!" The Doctor shouted over his shoulder as he tried to the best of his ability to activate the life support systems on the master control console, which his sonic screwdriver was currently pressed up against. Unable to turn his head and see what he was doing, The Doctor released a sigh then finally just activated his screwdriver and wavered it across the entire panel until the portion of the ship they were currently in, roared to life. The lights in the hallways flickered on, the vents released fresh cool air, immediately the atmosphere began to lighten up. With a smile on his face and the excitement of the event roaring over him, The Doctor quickly lost sight of what was happening inside of the panel where it began to shut and quickly got caught onto his arm.

His eyes widened as he began to realize what was happened, "Sonya..help" he said with an initial lower tone until the tone of his voice began to break open into a shout, "Sonya! Pull me back! Hot hot hot! The panel is heating up! My arms...well....a bit stuck".

Sonya darted forward and gripped his arm, pulling on it quickly, trying to get it free of the panel's grip. "What did you do?" She snapped, eyeing the steam seeping out from around his arm and up into the now-cool air. narrowing her eyes slightly, she pulled her Sonic out and buzzed it around the edge where his arm was trapped, forcing it open just enough to where the Doctor's arm could slip out. Stumbling back slightly as his arm fell free, she let go of him and stared at the panel as it slowly finished closing. "Well... This felt like a familiar moment." She chuckled lightly, glancing over her shoulder at the Doctor.

Years ago, when she first met her first version of the Doctor, his fifth form in fact, she had some how managed to get her arm stuck in a mirror. Oh Damon had fun with that, constantly tormenting her on a daily basis for a week afterwards. "Well... At least we won't die... Right away." She said idly, her eyes flicking up at the lights with a relieved smile. "Good job, Doctor."

The Doctor released a sigh, rolling his eyes as he forced himself up, trying to grab anything around him, finding nothing to help him, he slipped and fell back, each time harder than before. "Blimey, this ship is wrong, completely and utterly...wrong!" He proclaimed as he slowly rolled off of Sonya, shouting out the last word just before hitting the cold, hard, metal floor face first, "Wrong!" he mumbled, his lips pressed up against the floor, his hand shooting up in the air behind him to exaggerate his meaning.

Without another comical gesture or word, The Doctor stood up and peered around the newly lit hallway that was teaming with electricity, "Now! We've got power! Which means, the engines are working!" he exclaimed, spinning around to Sonya, "We can direct the engines like the control console does but! We..we..can" he paused as he rubbed the back of his head, "gestimate...".

"Gestimate? What do you mean, 'gestimate'?" Sonya asked slowly, unwilling to acknowledge the fact that he might not know what exactly they were going to do. "So... You have no idea how to drive this thing. Alright then." She nodded her head, trying to think of something she could suggest. Suddenly she snapped her fingers and grinned at him brightly. "Propulsion! We could use air to direct us, a bit mid-evil, but any port in a storm, yeah?" She said excitedly, bouncing on the balls of her feet before spinning in a circle to study the area again. "There are exhausts on the outside of this ship to let out bad gasses that have been used up by the engines yeah? They always have emergency releases next to them. let a little air out of each side, direct us the way we need to go."

"Yes!" The Doctor proclaimed suddenly jumping straight up to land on his feet, finding new energy deep within him as he spun on his heel, quickly glancing around the nearby hallways to see if he could see anything that could aid them in their quest. Failing to see anything right away, The Doctor gestured to the engine room with head down to Sonya, "Fancy getting us a ship?" he said with a chuckle and a grin that shined from ear to ear as he turned once more and raced down the hallway, only to turn completely around and run back the other way past Sonya yelling, "Going the wrong way!!".

Sonya let out a bark of laughter before following him down the hallway, racing along beside him with a large grin on her face. "You need to get a better internal compass, Doctor. I'm older than you are and still have a better sense of direction than you." She teased before putting on another burst of energy and shooting past him, nearly falling down as she turned a corner, causing her shoes to slip on the floor slightly. "Engines this way! Onward!" She shouted over her shoulder, pointing at the door just ahead of them.

Once she got near, she realized too late that the door wasn't automatic. Before she could stop in time, she face planted into the metal door with a loud 'bang'. "Ow... Remind me next time to pull my sonic out before running towards a door. Just in case." She mumbled, her voice coming out as a garbled sound from her face being pressed into the metal. Stumbling backwards, she rubbed her nose with a scowl at the offending block in front of her.

The Doctor caught up to Sonya, his smirk forming into a full grown smile then a laugh as he watch her react to the face plant she just committed, "Is that your sense of direction then?" he teased her, "That old age is getting to you". Finally putting away from his childish antics, The Doctor turned to the door and simply opened it with his sonic screwdriver, tucking it away in his suit with a smirk, glancing down to Sonya, "See, amazing how technology works" he joked, chuckling as he passed her and walked through the now open door to the engine room.

"Shut up." Sonya grumbled at him, her eyes watering as she rubbed her smarting nose. "I wasn't asking for your opinion, kid." She added wryly, dropping her hand down and sniffed sharply, clearing anything that might have clogged it. Without dignifying him with a glance, she walked over to the emergency valves and studied them for a moment. "You take the right, and I'll take the left yeah?" She called, turning around the study the dark room with a slight frown on her face. "There's always an emergency window... Screen something..." She muttered under her breath, patting at the blank wall in front of her until her fingers connected with a button, switching the screen active and nearly blinding her with the momentary white light that flashed. "Ah! Twice in one day! Twice! This ship hates me, it's out for me and I want to get out of here." Sonya grumbled, rubbing at her eyes in frustration.

The Doctor nodded and went off his way while Sonya went hers. Pipes, steaming vents, damaged control panels and coils alike passed by The Doctor as he walked along a narrow path, hoping that it would lead to something useful. Then, something caught his eye, or shoulder to be exact. A pipe that protruded outwards hit The Doctor in his shoulder, causing him to shift his attention over to the pipe and where his eyes would hit the sight of a small control panel with dust acting as a layer that covered its touch screen operating systems. Walking over to it, he brushed his hands over it then quickly read through the systems it had in operation, one of them being the heating and cooling stations, "Sonya!" he called over his shoulder, eyes fixated on the controls, "I think i found our make shift steering".

Sonya turned her attention from the screen and wandered over to where the Doctor was, her eyes lighting on the screen with a large smile. "Oh, brilliant! Can you get it working?" She asked excitedly, clapping him on the back as she gestured towards the screen she had just vacated. "I found our eyes too, so it shouldn't be hard to get back. Our only problem is once we dock back on, we'll have a whole welcoming community." She added in an undertone with a low sigh. "Anyway, get it running, I"ll go see what I can do to the engines to give them a bit of a boost." Walking back the way she came from, she cast another glance at the screen with a scowl. The ship was drifting away farther and farther away from them, hopefully it wouldn't be too late.

The Doctor nodded, his eyes turning from Sonya and immediately over to the screen in front of him, his sonic screwdriver ran over the console. The console lit up with life as it's controls shined brightly, allowing The Doctor to see what he was doing more easily. Looking over it for a moment, he paused then, once finding what he was looking for, slammed his thumb on the touch padded screen. The engines roared with a mighty fury, the haul of the ship beginning to move forward, after it's other half, much to The Doctor's delight as a grin appeared on his face. "Engines are up!" He called over his shoulder, "Get those ventilation shafts open so we can steer!!".

"Aye Aye, Captain!" Sonya whooped, saluting him quickly with a grin before sprinting over to the vents and flung them open wide, letting out a cough as a cloud of dust flew up in her face. "You can tell they never used this part of the ship, look at the state of it!" She shouted, her eyes darting over to the view screen and studied the main ship as it slowly grew once again. "Ah! Get your butt over here Space boy, I can't run back and forth between these things and steer properly. I'll end up sending us into a planet, sun, asteroid, space station... You name it, and I'll hit it, I guarantee."

Squinting in the dark, she fumbled along the wall until her fingers came in contact with a button. Pressing it down, she winced from the sudden flood of light from overhead. "Oh, found the light switch."

The Doctor dashed over to the side of Sonya, his fingers running through the controls in a blur as they past over the touch screen. Outside, the ventilation shafts shot pockets of air and exhaust which steered the bottom half of the ship. Inside of the top half, the captain and his crew gazed at the TARDIS in utter confusion, "What in the blue hell is this?!" the captain spat, turning around and slapping his second in command for bringing him down to see this, "It's what he showed up in sir" the man who, was just slapped, "And the woman..or as you like to call her..the loud mouthed female..was a stowaway". The captain rose an eyebrow and turned his attention back over to the TARDIS, "Any idea on getting this thing open?" he asked his crew behind him, "Uh..no sir. Key's like that hasn't been used in hundreds of years..especially a police box. We haven't used the word police in-". "Shut up!" The captain proclaimed, his hand shooting upward to the side, "I asked a question with an answer. Not a damn life story. By the way who ever was saying that is fired, go jump out the damn air hatch".

Sonya studied the screen for a moment then nodded over at the Doctor. "A few more feet upwards and we should dock pretty smoothly." She murmured, her eyes locked onto the screen, studying the distance between them as it became nonexistent. Reaching over, she shifted her control slightly, allowing their half of the ship to twist to the right just enough to center their screen on the top half completely. "Do you know how to dock this thing? Because honestly, I haven't even been around ships like this and I have no clue what they do to dock. The ones I have been in had a button, or a command, but..." She lifted her shoulders in a shrug as she studied the screen for a moment then another thought struck her. "Do you think they found Lady?"

The Doctor looked over to Sonya sternly, his face blank and cold but also revealing as it, in it's on special way, replied to Sonya's final question before he turned it over to the control panel and slammed his thumb down onto it. Suddenly the ship jerked forward, nearly sending The Doctor on his rear end; only thanks to the console and his grip on the sides, was he able to avoid this reaction to his initiation of the boosters on the engines.

Warning! Warning! Incoming projectile! Warning! Warning!

The captains ship called out a warning that echoed throughout the entire hull of the infrastructure, "What the hell is that?!" the captain proclaimed, gazing up in utter confusion as one of his crew members checked the scans on his wrist pad and replied, "It's..the other half of the ship..".

Sonya's face set in a determined line as they flew towards the ship in front of them, eyeing the docking ports as they approached. "On the bottom, it should clamp on automatically." She instructed him, not really caring if he knew already, just searching for something to say and break the tense silence that descended between them once she mentioned the TARDIS.

Reaching over, she pulled her valve shut to cut back on the drag they were getting and gripped onto one of the pipes next to her tightly, bracing herself for what she knew would be a rather violent jolt once they connected with the upper half of the ship again.

"I'm not aiming for the clamps" The Doctor called over to Sonya, glancing over his shoulder at her with a growing smirk before turning back to the controls, "So you may want do hold on a bit tighter". Meanwhile, the captain raced down to the edge of his ship, where a force field was placed to seal in the oxygen. From there, him and his crew watched as the bottom half of the ship raced towards them, he laughed, "What are they going to do, ram us?!" he proclaimed; the crew behind him looked at one another then b lined it as fast as they could back to the bridge, "Men?" the captain said after a moment of silence before turning around to his now gone crew, "oh...". The shadow of the bottom half of the ship loomed over the captain, his eyes grew wide and he let out a slight yelp just before it rammed straight through the force field, crushing the captain beneath it as it ripped through the ship until coming to a stop.

The ship creaked and moaned as did the crew who were slowly rising from the bottom of the floor where they were sent because of the shock wave of the two parts slamming together. Now the ship resembled a make shift boomerang, with the bottom of the ship tilted at the angle it rested, parts of it's tip protruding out from the top. The Doctor dusted himself off, standing up straight and looking over to Sonya, "Perfect landing, wouldn't you say?" he asked rhetorically with a grin.

Sonya sat up from her spot and shook her head slightly, trying to rearrange her thoughts. "I'd give it a nine out of ten. You really need to work on the angle, the floor is tilted." She grinned over at him and pulled herself to her feet quickly. "Though, I couldn't have done better myself either." She grinned over at the Doctor before striding over to the entrance to the hallway, past the broken view screen and down the way they came from. "Come on, we have to try and get the hatch open before they do." She called over her shoulder before picking up the pace and beginning to jog.

Reaching into her pocket, she slipped out her Sonic and fiddled with the settings on it as she slowed to a stop in front of the exit. Studying the control pad next to the hatch, she pressed it against the screen gently and flicked it on. The screen flickered on and flashed green just as the hatch slid to the side, allowing her to see the damage done to the main part of the ship. "Ouch... Make that nine an eight, Doctor. You wrecked the control room."

"oh..sorry" The Doctor said, lowering his eyebrows as he witnessed the damage that his actions had done to the ship and especially to the captain, whose hand he stepped on. Picking it up, he turned to Sonya and waved at her, "I got to hand it to him, he had a killer personality" he joked, tossing the hand over his shoulder then motioning to the doors of the bridge with his head, "Come on then. Let's go give them a hand in fixing our mess". Without noticing her verbal comedic crime, The Doctor grinned and turned around to the bridge doors, ordering them to open via sonic screwdriver and entering cautiously as the crew turned their bodies and attentions over to Sonya and The Doctor.

"You are such a barbarian sometimes." Sonya grimaced as he plucked the hand from the floor then tossed it away. She felt like she should feel bad for the man, but after what he did, she couldn't muster up an ounce of sympathy. Shaking her head slightly, she wandered behind the Doctor, gazing at the damage they had caused before stepping through the doorway and catching sight of the crew there. "Didn't think it would be that easy to get rid of us, did you?" She asked wryly, an eyebrow arching up at their surprised and slightly shocked expressions.

When they didn't say anything, she turned to the Doctor and lifted her shoulders into a shrug. "Maybe they swallowed their tongues when we crashed." Sonya said lightly, a small smile hovering around her lips before she turned back to them and motioned to the wreckage around them. "Care for some help? Or you could just drift around in space with a broken ship that's loosing it's atmosphere by the minute."

The crew glanced at one another, whispering something, two words that eventually reached the nearest man to the Sonya and The Doctor, who nodded and approached them. "All command is given to the second in command.." He gulped, "So that'd be you then?" The Doctor asked, looking down to him; the man looked around nervously then finally shook his head no, "No" he replied. The Doctor rose his eyebrow and quickly scanned the room, taking a step forward and proceeding down one of the set of steps in front of him, "Then who is in charge?" he called out, looking for the second in command.

The suddenly, one of the doors on the side opened, the shadow of a figure emitting from deep within it's trenches, immediately catching The Doctor's attention. Then, finally, the figure's shadow ran down the side of the wall as the true identity of the figure came to the edge of the hallway. "Who is inside my bridge?" A squeaky voice called out from the hallway which was immediately answered by the man who spoke to The Doctor just minutes before, "Stowaways...sir!", "Stowaways hmm? Well..there is only one thing we can do with stowaways..". Just as the voice ended, a duck wearing a collar, with a blue flashing light, jumped out from the hallway and then spoke, "Give them fish! Lots and lots of fish!". The Doctor tried furiously to contain his amusement and laughter but was forced to released a laugh that caused him to bend over, looking up at the duck with a grin that shinned from ear to ear as he laugh uncontrollably.

A baffled expression crossed Sonya's face as she stared at the duck. Biting down on her lip sharply, she tried to keep the laugh that built up back, but once the Doctor started, she couldn't help herself. Leaning against him, she giggled loudly, unable to contain the amusement at the thought of a duck commanding a whole ship of people. "That... No..." She broke off as another wave of laughter washed over her.

Choking back the giggles, she forced herself to straighten up and fix her jacket. "Sssssorry." She mumbled, pressing her lips together tightly as she tried to look apologetically down at the duck as he stared at them. She wasn't sure if he was amused or frustrated that they were laughing at him. "Erm... You mentioned fish. What kind of fish." She asked, trying to redeem herself by being interested in what he had said. "I mean, I'm not picky, but some kinds I just can't get past you know..." Nudging the Doctor in the side sharply, she grabbed his upper arm and pulled him upright from his bent over position. "We were wanting to help with cleanup..."