Why Exactly?

(For Robin and myself)

A grinding noise ecoed in the stillness of the night, bouncing off of the buildings around as the TARDIS materalized in the middle of a park. Stepping out, Sonya patted the side of the box with a smile. "Good landing, Lady. Looks like we weren't noticed. Now I'll be back in a minute, Just picking up some things real fast." Closing the door tightly behind her, she locked it quickly then strode off into the shadows, her eyes locked onto the road just ahead of her. "Grab some food... Then some supplies. I really have to work on that batch of wires in her matrix." She mumbled under her breath, going over the list of things she had to do.

After stopping at a shop to get some chips to go, Sonya wandered down the sidewalk towards the hardware store and ducked inside. "Excuse me, would you happen to have any eletrical wires fit for replacing frayed ones? Different colors are preferred." She asked one of the workers with a grin. Ignoring the glance at her bag of chips, she followed him as he lead her towards the back of the store and motioned to a wall full of coiled wires.

Robin sighed as she dragged her 'borrowed' bike up to the nearest hardware shop. "And to think I was almost excited about trying bike riding." She leaned the bicycle against the wall next to the door - just to have it fall down anyway. Shrugging, she reached her hands into her pockets, a smile forming on her face. For once, she wasn't completely broke. Hopefully she had enough to get a bike chain. They sold those at hardware stores, right? Eh, worth a shot. She walked inside and looked around. Batteries... car thingies... darn it. Her smile was replaced with a frown as she moved to wait by the check out counter. Of course no one was standing there, why would they be? With a sigh, she leaned back and waited for a clerk, sparing a glance at the keychain flashlights.

Sonya grabbed several different types of wire then followed the man back towards the counter, immediately spotting Robin standing there. "Oi! Are you stalking me? This is the... Second time in one week I believe." She said brightly, placing the packages down on the counter and waited while he rang up the price. "What are you doing here anyway? Not exactly an exiting place or anything." She added in an undertone while handing over several pound notes and grabbing the bag of items.

Moving towards the door, she stopped next to it and glanced back at Robin curiously. "Care to join me? I was going to travel around for a bit after fixing up my ride." She asked with another bright grin, keeping her words censored in light of the man at the register staring at them with a slightly annoyed look on his face.

Robin had to restrain from fist pumping and shouting "YES!" Forget bike riding, she could 'borrow' another one any time. "Sure." She replied semi-calmly, trying to ignore the fact that she couldn't shake the stupid grin off her face. "But just for the record, I'm not stalking you. If anything, you're stalking me." A giggle slipped out of her mouth as she walked towards the door and held it open. That was the least she could do to repay her for taking her into space. Well no... she could do nothing... but that wouldn't be nice, now would it? "After you," Robin gestured outside, waiting for Sonya.

Sonya winked over at the man before stepping outside and into the night once more. "Now then, back to Lady, but I have to fix some things up first, then we'll take off, yeah?" Sonya said quickly, already striding towards the park where she had parked the TARDIS a few minutes ago, already seeing the vague outline of the blue box sitting there from where she was. Glancing over at Robin with another grin, she took off running, the bag of wires and the bag of chips she bought bouncing along beside her.

Once she neared the doors, they swung open to admit her before she smacked right into them. "Ah, thank you, Lady. Always the helper, aren't you?" She asked brightly, setting the wires out on the console and studying them for a moment. "I brought a friend along, hope you don't mind. Some company is usually welcome anyway." Sonya added as an afterthought, waving over at the still-open doors where she knew Robin would be entering shortly. "Now, tell me, exactly where are these wires you keep griping about?"

Robin strolled into the TARDIS, the same stupid grin still stuck to her face. She'd only been in a TARDIS a total of 3 times, so the whole 'bigger on the inside' bit still amused her. Turning around and shutting the doors, she let her grin fade to a simple smile, realizing how obnoxious it was only when her face started to hurt. She turned to face the console again, walking up to see all the dials and levers, fully convinced this would never get old. "Well that's just not fair, you two get to hang out all the time while I'm stuck in a linear timeline," she giggled, moving back to lean against the railing. "Good luck trying to get me to leave when this is done."

Sonya slid under the console and began working on the wires underneath as Robin walked towards her. "Oh I'm sure you'll get tired of me eventually, Robin." She said, her voice somewhat muffled by the controls as she shifted through the bundles of wires, looking for the frayed ones and replacing them with new bits. "I have a dangerous life, in fact, I'm probably in deep trouble as it is, I borrowed Lady here from the Doctor's Ninth incarnation. He wasn't using her, and I figured why not?" Chuckling to herself, one of her hands reached out from under the console and felt around on top until coming in contact with another roll of wires.

"Besides, I don't mind having someone around, saves me from thinking I'm mad. Talking to myself and to Lady, there are only so many topics you can cover before going in full circle again." She added dryly, flinching slightly when a spark went off over her head. "Oi! Don't you get smart with me, Girl. You know exactly what I mean!" She snapped, rolling her eyes at the TARDIS's snarky attitude as she continued working. "So, what have you been up to as of late, Robin?"

Robin bit back a giggle at the TARDIS and shrugged, "Normal human kid things. Gosh, it's boring. It's my own fault though, I fell for my brother's con. He took my manipulator." She sighed, frowning at the thought. Next time she saw him, he was so dead.... "But yeah, just trying out normal kid things. I was going to get a bike chain so I could try that next. Honestly half of this stuff wouldn't be so bad if I had friends who weren't busy flying across the Universe to do them with." Shrugging again, she crouched down to look at what Sonya was doing.

Sonya glanced over at Robin as her face came into view on the edge of the console. "Normal kid things? Sounds boring." She stated simply, returning to her work with a focused frown on her face. "Tell you what, this trip is for you, pull that scanner over and go through it's logs on leasure planets and tell me what one you want to go to. Code for the logs is T9-67." Another spark flew in her face, causing a yelp to slip out of her and another wince. "I know I should be focusing, but it's a tad hard when I'm talking to someone I haven't seen in ages, keep your matrix on." She snapped up at the panel above her.

Waving a hand at Robin to go look at planets, she fell silent once more, putting all of her attention on the wires once more with a pronounced scowl. If the Doctor spent less time picking up young human girls and more time tending to Lady, I wouldn't have to do this every time I stepped inside the console room. Sonya snorted to herself, feeling her lips quirk up into a smile when the TARDIS hummed in agreement with her train of thought.

Robin nodded, and moved over to see the screen. "T9-67..." She mumbled to herself, a smile settling back onto her face. Hm... no, too boring... too grassy... how is that a leisure planet? She frowned for a moment before continuing. Um... nope... ooh! She grinned as she looked down towards where Sonya was. "How about this planet? It's made out of diamonds, that's not something you see everyday. It's called..." She leaned over to see the name again. "Midnight." Looking back to Sonya, she started bouncing on her toes in anticipation. "Sound like fun? Unless, of course, the TARDIS disagrees..." She looked up at the column in the center of the console, thinking about the crazy ride she hitched with Theta. That wasn't very fun.... Well.. yeah it was, but whatever.

Sonya fell silent, contemplating what Robin suggested, plagued by memories of the Doctor telling her of his last visit to the planet. "Hmm, Sure, but we will not be taking that trolly onto the surface. Long story, don't care to tell it, my decision. We'll go find something else to do there." She said quickly, finishing up with the wires and sliding back out from under the console, wiping her hands on her pant legs with a slight grin. "Hold on to something, she's all sorts of excited right now, might take a bit of a jump because of the new wires." She flashed an amused look up at the time rotor as the ship hummed loudly around them. "Relax, we're going, we're going."

Shaking her head with a laugh, she began setting the coordinates into the controls, running from one side to the other the entire time. Humming along with the ship, Sonya began to flip a couple of the switches, ensuring the engines were at maximum then nodding to herself before reaching over and gripping the lever. "Hold on, might be a bit bumpy." She called over to Robin before yanking it down, sending the ship thrusting into the vortex at a high speed and making them be knocked off of their feet. "Ah!! Ha ha! She has some giddy-up now!" Sonya shouted from her spot on the floor, laying on her back and laughing up at the ceiling in delight as they were rocked about inside the control room.

Robin yelped as she was tossed off her feet and onto the floor. "This is worse than that one time with Theta!" She shouted, giggling as she gripped the railing to avoid falling down some random hallway. "Woah!" Her fingers slipped and she slid across the floor to the other side of the TARDIS, just for them to lurch and send her falling the other way. "Definitely worse than Theta!" As soon as she was close enough to the railing again, she clung to it the best she could. "And you people say manipulators are bad!" Robin couldn't help but laugh - this may be completely insane, but that didn't mean it wasn't fun.

Sonya chuckled and struggled to her feet and over to the console, flipping a couple of switches to even out the flight and make it easier to stand. "Sorry about that, I told you she'd be a little excited when we took off." She grinned up at the time rotor as it bounced up and down, almost joyfully as the TARDIS hummed around them. Then just as quick as they took off, they landed with the usual groaning and grinding noise, indicating they were at their destination.

Looking over at Robin, she waved to the doors with a smile. "Go on, this is your planet, go take a look." Folding her arms over her chest, Sonya nodding in encouragement before returning her attention to the screen in front of her and checking the energy levels quickly to be sure everything was running fine. "Ah, a few fixed wires and she's a happy gal, aren't you, Lady?" She asked fondly, patting the edge of the controls as she grabbed the jacket off of the floor next to her and slipped it on.

Robin stood up from her place on the floor and stepped out of the TARDIS and looked around in awe. This place was beautiful - not the inside, although that was rather magnificent too. Looking up, she saw a big glass dome, and through it, a bright star shining over the diamond planet. Her head craned up, she spun in a circle, catching glimpses of the peaks of crystal mountains. "Woah..." She stopped and faced Sonya, a goofy grin stuck on her face once more. "Why can't we take a trolley onto the planet? It's gorgeous!" A giggle forced it's way out as she spun around once more. "Please?"

"Absolutely not. I've heard stories and I don't care to live them myself. I'm sure we can find some trouble for us to get into inside." Sonya said shortly, leaving no room for discussion as she stepped out behind Robin and shut the locked door behind her tightly. Slipping her hands into her pockets, she strode towards the central plaza where food and other items were sold in small stalls around the edge of the area. "It's a big place inside, Robin. Come on, there's a spa, there's a tour of the underground mines." She said with a wide smile as she spun around to walk backwards, keeping eye contact with the young girl.

"Let's go get a map and look for a place to start with, yeah? That would be easier." Sonya said as an afterthought, turning back around and heading over to an information stall to pay for a map and sat on one of the benches there to pour over it curiously. "I've been here a couple of times myself, not much happened, nothing that caused me to remember it for any specific reason."

Robin sat down next to Sonya, leaning over at taking a look at the map. She didn't really care for looking, though - touring an underground mine sounded almost as fun as going outside. Almost. "The mine tour sounds cool, wanna check it out?" She really hoped Sonya wasn't against that too. That sounded like it would be even more dangerous than the trolley - which may or may not have been the reason she wanted to check it out. Maybe Sonya wouldn't mind and they could go on the trip? "Maybe we'll see a ghost while we're down there." She giggled, thinking of all the ghost stories she'd heard about mine shafts and such. Although after meeting real ghosts... "Well, no. Let's hope there aren't any. I'd like to keep my soul, thank you very much." Shaking away that thought, she stood up in front of Sonya and grinned, "So, mine tour?"

Sonya eyed the details about the tour and grinned in agreement. "Alright then, mine tour. Their next one is... Five minutes from now. Care to get a snack while we wait?" She asked curiously, folding the map back up and shoving it into her back pocket once she got to her feet and looked over at Robin. "Something quick that way we can eat it on the way over to the meeting spot for it." She added quickly, not wanting the girl to say no for fear of missing the tour. Her stomach was starting to grumble at her, she had forgotten to eat for about a week now, it was no wonder.

Without waiting for an answer, she turned around and walked over to one of the food stalls, studying the menu for a moment before ordering a couple of meals for the both of them. Once she received the bags, she walked back over and handed one to Robin. "It's like a burrito, I think... Looks like it anyway. Eat up, dunno how long the tour is." She added before taking a bite out of her wrapped meal and chewing thoughtfully for a moment. "Not bad, could use some hot sauce tho."

Robin unwrapped the top of her space burrito and took a test bite. "Pretty good." She shrugged, taking a proper bite. Mexican food wasn't really her favorite - beans being, well.. beans - but this was actually nice. Most space food was, though, in comparison to Earth anyway. "So which way is the meeting point?" She took the map from Sonya's hand, a bit to eager for manners. Unfolding it, she scanned it for the tour, then for where they were at. "So then... this way!" She grinned, pointing forward and to the left a bit as she took another bite of her space burrito. Taking a couple steps, she turned around and quickly swallowed her bite. "Coming?"

Sonya watched her in amusement before tilting her head in the opposite direction Robin was heading in. "The map image is inverted, right is left sort of thing." Taking another bite of her food, she turned and started walking towards the meeting area with long strides, eager herself to see what the mines looked like under the planet. The description did mention something about suits, considering the fact of x-tonic rays constantly shining down on the surface, it was bound to seep below to the center, just with less danger to anyone venturing below.

Finally spotting the group standing over by a large elevator, she waved over at Robin and pointed so she'd know where it was and jogged over herself to set up a place for them in the tour. "Hello there, Sorry I'm late, two for the mine tour, yeah?" She asked brightly, finishing off her food before pulling out her psychic paper that she had finally found a few days ago and flashed it to the guide. "Ah yes, Ms. Hyatt and younger sister. Suit up, we'll be leaving here in a few moments. There is still a lot to cover over 'Dos and Don'ts'." The woman spoke quickly and cheerfully while handing over two folded suits, perfect sizes for them.

Robin frowned as she ran back towards where Sonya was going. With a sigh, she took another bite of her space burrito and threw it in a trash can. She wasn't really hungry anyway. She reached the others just as she heard "and younger sister." "Oh, I'm your sister now am I?" She laughed, looking around at the other people who were to come on the tour with them. "You don't even know what my real name is," she remarked, turning back to Sonya and taking her suit - still ignoring manners. Her attention was directed to the tour guide as she wondered if she ever got bored of taking people down there.

"Now, these mines are ancient, thousands of years old from our closest inspection. The walls, floor and ceiling all are made of diamonds and we found out on our first trip, that hanging lights up wasn't the best considering the reflections." The guide laughed and shook her head at the memory, obviously finding their mistake hilarious. "But, we have fixed that, on the outside of each of your visors is a small light that will project a beam in front of you, with our small lights shining on the diamonds, it will be enough to light the path as if it were a sunny day."

Sonya zipped her suit up and lifted the helmet, studying it for a moment then found a switch on the side to turn the light on. Flicking it on experimentally, a weak beam shot out and shone on her face. Not even bright enough to read a book by. She thought with amusement. They really were using the diamond's reflective surfaces to their advantage down there.

Robin climbed into her suit, zipping it up and putting the helmet on. "Well isn't this just beautiful. I think I could model this down a runway," She joked, striking an obnoxious pose. Waiting as the rest of the group, including the guide, put their suits on, she fidgeted impatiently. She cursed herself for being too excited, but knowing she practically lived on adventure, she didn't care too much. Her hand reached up to mess with the light on her helmet, turning it on, and off, and on, and off, and on, and off again until the point the either started or someone told her to quit it - which wasn't likely since the light was so dim.

Sonya slipped the helmet on her head and hit the pressurized button, causing it to clasp onto the collar of her suit snugly. Looking over, she did the same for Robin once she realized she didn't do it herself. "Have to keep the suit pressurized or your helmet will slip off and you'll get dosed with low-level radiation." She stated softly to the young girl then turned back to the tour guide as she finished going over the traditional precautions.

"Right then folks, remember, don't wander off and if you do get separated, use your communicator in your helmet to keep in contact until we find you." The guide said after donning her own helmet. "Into the elevator, we're going now. If you have any second thoughts, now is your last chance to back out and turn around now. There will be climbing, stumbling and crawling in some places. Two hours of it, so if you think your up to the challenge, step in, if not, take your suit off and walk away." She said sternly, casting a sharp look around the group of people.

After a few moments, several people shuffled towards the elevator, along with Sonya and Robin. Only one person remained behind, a sad-looking young man as he miserably pulled his helmet off and set it aside. "Don't feel ashamed, boy. Men older and stronger than you have stepped down." The guide said softly, placing a hand on his shoulder for a moment then stepping into the elevator with the rest of the group. "Down we go, lights on!" Reaching over, she pulled a lever causing the basket to shift slightly then start to descend slowly.

Robin stopped messing with the light as Sonya came over and clamped her helmet on for her. She frowned, I'm not a baby, I could've done it myself... if I knew I was supposed to... Her frown was gone as soon as the tour guide let them into the elevator. Once she got inside, she was practically bouncing on her toes. This was gonna be so cool! Hearing the guide say 'lights on,' she reached up and turned her own on, glad for the.. erm... 'practice' a moment ago - just her luck, she probably wouldn't have found it in the dark of the elevator. Looking up at Sonya, she grinned brightly, knowing she probably looked like she was enjoying this way too much - especially because they haven't actually done anything yet.

Sonya flicked her own light on and glanced down at Robin's face once more with amusement. "Enjoying yourself, already? Just wait until you see the mines." She said quietly, her voice coming through the comm speaker in Robin's headset. "Hmm... Directional sound waves. Love it. You look at who you want to hear you, look at a whole group and they all hear you." She said to herself next, glancing over at the man beside her only to have him jump slightly as her voice piped up in his helmet. "Oh, sorry, testing it out." She said brightly and looked back over at Robin with a wink.

"We're nearly at the bottom, when you step out, be careful, the floor is worn smooth and is tricky to walk on at first. Your shoes will grip the surface fairly well, but you must get used to walking with them, so take a few moments to get accustomed to the shoes and the proper way to walk without tripping every few feet." The guide said suddenly, her voice coming through the units in everyone's helmets.