Oi! Watch It Time Girl!

((Closed to Sonya and myself))

"Sonya!!!" The Doctor exclaimed, reaching over the edge of his lawn chair to knock on the closed door of the TARDIS while holding an ice cream cone in his other hand. With sun glasses planted firmly on his face, The Doctor turned and gazed out across the horizon. Sitting atop a lone rock floating, drifting through the center of a galaxy was the TARDIS with The Doctor leaned back in a lawn chair with sun glasses and an ice cream cone in his left hand. Around them was other floating rocks, some the same size as the one they were sitting atop of and others gargantuan.

Directly in front of The Doctor was a sun, a sun collapsing on itself, a black center forming in the middle of it. Around the sun were a rainbow of colors, spiraling together into a stream of light that poured into the sun, "Sonya! You're going to miss it!!" The Doctor proclaimed once more before licking his ice cream, "It doesn't take that long to make ice cream using the TARDIS circular isomorphic stabilizer! Just flip it to its side and pop in crystals the Spiritans gave us! Blue for vanilla, red for chocolate and green for strawberry..forgot the others..".

"Funny, because I remember the green being for mint." Sonya muttered as she stepped outside of the blue box she called home, glaring at the ice cream in her hand as it steadily changed pink in front of her. "Ah well, I suppose strawberry is fine." With a huff, she plopped herself down on another lawn chair beside the Doctor, sliding her own sunglasses down from the top of her head and grinning out at the collapsing sun. "Fantastic idea, haven't watched a star collapse in on itself in ages. Forgot how much fun it was, especially when you have Z-ray sunglasses, loads of different colors."

Laughing to herself, she took a tentative lick of her ice cream before lifting the glasses from her eyes and staring at the frozen treat in dismay. "It isn't even strawberry! It's Barkleberries, you know I hate barkleberries, why on earth would you have that on the ship?" With a low groan, she settled back into the chair again, ice cream forgotten in her hand as she turned her attention back to the sun once it began reaching it's final stages. "Ah, about time!" She cheered brightly, immediately forgetting the awful aftertaste in her mouth at the sight of the star in front of them slowly turning in on itself.

"Take it up with its creators not me, they told me it was strawberry" The Doctor mumbled a reply with a sniff before taking another lick as his attention turned fully to the sun as it reached its final stage. One moment before the sun imploded on itself, a ship jumped into view and hovered directly in front of the imploding sun. The Doctor stood up from his chair, his eyebrow raising up as the ship extended out a fuel pipe towards the sun just as it imploded into a black hole. Once the black hole appeared, the ship turned and retracted its fuel pipe, turning its sights on the rock on which The Doctor, Sonya and the TARDIS stood on. The ships roared to life, speeding it forward with tremendous speed and before The Doctor could dash into the TARDIS, the ship hit the side of the rock, missing its entirety by mire inches. The thrust from the impact sent The Doctor hurtling forward and over the rock, his ice cream falling into space and out of the TARDIS's protective oxygen field.

Gripping the side of the rock, The Doctor clung for his life, trying to pull himself up before realizing his ice cream was gone, "My ice cream..i loved that ice cream" he groaned, turning his head to see the ship slowly speed off as if the encounter never happened. "Sonya!" The Doctor called upwards, hoping his friend was alright and at the very least was safely by the TARDIS and still on top of the rock, not hanging off the side like him, "Little bit of Allons-y would help".

Sitting up quickly, Sonya rubbed the back of her head from the impact on the rather large bit of rock sticking up that she landed against after being jolted from her chair. "Agh. I'm fine, gimme a mo. My head is spinning..." Mumbling under her breath, she slowly stood on her feet and stumbled over to where the Doctor was, laying down on her front and gripping onto his arms to slowly haul him back onto the rock with her. "What the bloody hell was that about?" She asked, her other hand reaching up to touch the back of her head again only to come away with blood sticking on her fingers with a groan. "Best get back inside the ship and patch me up, this won't end up well if I let this go."

With a low sigh, she slowly got to her feet again and stumbled towards the TARDIS, forgetting about the chairs as she pushed the door open and tripped inside, an arm immediately searching out one of the coral struts nearby to hang onto for balance. "You alright? Nothing broken?" Sonya added suddenly, remembering the Doctor had nearly been flung out into space as she twisted her head slightly with a wince of pain to look at him with a frown.

The Doctor balanced himself out as he followed Sonya into the TARDIS, using the side of the door frame to help himself from falling. "Nothing broken...well..not that seems just yet" He replied to Sonya, shutting the doors behind him and placing a hand on her back, helping her up the ramp and to the control console, "I hope i can say the same about you". Setting Sonya down onto the chair, The Doctor knelt down and examined her eyes, "No concussion" he commented before placing his hands on the sides of her head, "Everything seems to be in order..well..apart from your consciousness yelling at me to get out". Chuckling, The Doctor released his hands from the side of Sonya's head and turned to the controls, immediately walking over to the scanner and typing on the keyboard and flipping a few switches, "Luckily the ship hasn't gotten far off...we can still track it and land hopefully in the center of the ship".

Yanking down the main lever, the TARDIS jolted backwards, spiraling after the ship, tailgating it until finally dematerializing and then materializing within the ship a moment later. With a thud and an echoing landing sound, the TARDIS landed firmly in the ship causing The Doctor's attention to turn back to Sonya, "You alright? I don't need you running in there with injuries..last thing i need is an agitated and injured Sonya on board my ship" he joked.

"I'm always agitated or injured if you haven't noticed." Sonya murmured, a smile flitting across her face at his expression before getting to her feet and rubbing at her temples. "A small headache really, just kind of irritating to have a double pulse in my head. Let's find whoever did this and give them headaches I say." She murmured, vaguely aware her wording was slipping slightly. "Ah forget it, come on." Shaking her head gently, Sonya led the way to the TARDIS doors then opened it slightly to reveal a dim room. "I think we're in a storage room." She called before stepping out of the ship and looking around, her eyes narrowing in the dim lighting. "No one here either."

The Doctor smirked, following Sonya out of the TARDIS doors and peering eagerly out to the storage room before him. Stepping out, he shut the doors behind him and stared out in awe at the surrounding ship interior. "Come on headache" The Doctor replied to Sonya, rubbing her head as he walked past her and opened up the door of the storage room then entered the next room. In the center was a TARDIS like control console with a time rotor looking device protruding from the top and hitting the ceiling. Around the sides were panels attached to the walls, hovering as it waited for someone to come up to it. As The Doctor entered the room, his left hand brushed the side of the wall causing the panel to shift over to him as though there were a projector projecting the image.

Surprised an utterly amazed by the technology, The Doctor spun towards the panel on the wall and flipped on his glasses, "Blimey.." he mumbled, placing his fingers on the wall, and in turn, the panel "This...this is fearsome technology" as the panel brought up the schematics of the entire ship. "Look at this. There's no way this ship has this technology on it..i mean...not even Time Lords figured some of this out..." The Doctor commented further as a black painted robot silently approached the duo, it's eyes and chest, which featured a small black orb hovering in the center, glowed a light blue.

"Then why is it here? Any race older than the Time Lords went extinct, didn't they?" Sonya asked quietly, her interest locked onto the panel as a familiar itch in her fingers grew. Touch, she wanted to take it apart, see what made it tick. That's all, just a couple of hours and she'd be good. Surely it couldn't be that important to the ship if it's all the way down here...? Before she could attempt to get near it, a soft footfall behind her made Sonya spin around and gape at the robot.

Unable to come up with the words to describe it, she simply reached over and tugged on the Doctor's coat sleeve, trying to get his attention as it stepped closer then stopped a few feet away from them, simply watching the two of them. "Doctor... If you..." Realizing her voice came out as a soft squeak of excitement, she cleared her throat to try again, relieved to hear it more normal. "If you think that's advanced, take a look at our welcome wagon..."

The Doctor slowly turned around, reluctant to leave his sight of the high tech panel but when his eyes met the robot standing firmly in front of him, his attention immediately shifted and locked. "Oohhh...aren't you beautiful" The Doctor exclaimed, leaning over to get a better look at the machine in front of him, "No, i really mean it. Cross my hearts, you are magnificent". The robot glanced from Sonya then to The Doctor before speaking, "This is the Alterinium. We are a exploration unit from the vinvocci, discovering the uses of dark matter" it finally said, grabbing The Doctor's attention even more. "Oh! But that's just wonderful!" The Doctor exclaimed, looking at the robot and all of the systems around him in a new light, especially the black orb in the center of the robot held in placed by a light blue hue and electric pulses that zapped the orb every few seconds.

"Mastering black matter takes years though...eons...decades to perfect. Much less use" The Doctor commented further as he turned back around to the panel then over to the central console that looked like a TARDIS console, "Somehow you've managed it. Using it in amazing ways...what would the vinvocci need with this much power?" he asked, glancing back at the robot. The robot followed The Doctor, making sure he did not touch anything he wasn't supposed to, "I do not question my directive. Only follow. Why have you boarded my vessel?" it replied then posed a new question, "Oh...you know. Just...traveling about..ran into you..well..you into us actually. More interested in why you were by that sun just before it exploded".

Sonya eyed the robot curiously, her gaze drifting down to the glowing blue in it's chest for a moment before tearing her attention away from it and over to the Doctor as he questioned it. "In fact... If anything, you looked like you were about to leave then you spotted us. Rammed right into the rock we were sitting on in fact." She added, her hand lifting up to rub gingerly at the back of her head again, reacting from the jolt in her head from the contact with a slight wince before dropping her hand back down to her side. "Nearly tossed this one off of it too. Then again, it's not that hard, he's easy to toss around." Flashing the Doctor an innocent smile, she tucked both hands into her pants pockets. One thing she couldn't resist: Teasing the Doctor any chance she got. Even in desperate situations.

The Doctor smirked, listening to Sonya's addition to the conversation from over his shoulder as his eyes were currently fixed on the control console down in front of him, "B156 apologizes for your inconvenience. The ship becomes unstable after refueling its systems and gathering more dark matter" the robot replied. Hearing the robot's response, The Doctor turned around, "Wait. Hang on, this entire ship runs on dark matter?" he asked, the robot nodded, "Correct. Including my operating systems". The Doctor rose an eyebrow, his mind processing the information as he took off his glasses and tucked them away, "Have you any idea how dangerous that is? Dark matter is unpredictable. Having that much stored in one place...there's no telling what it can do", the robot paused before turning its attention to Sonya, "During our exploration this vessel has not come across your species however...a DNA sample must be taken for categorization".

The Doctor immediately rushed to the defense of Sonya, placing one arm over her and his body partially in front as if to defend her, "Umm...i don't think that'l be necessary...in fact..emm..we..we were just leaving. Sonya and i..just came to take a peak". Back tracking slowly to the TARDIS, The Doctor turned around to enter his time machine only to find two identical robots shutting the doors before he could enter. "Negative" The robot behind him ordered, "This operation is not computed. All encountered species must be documented. Resistance is not recommended, this will only take a minute".

"You can forget it if your taking bits from me." Sonya snapped at them, knowing full well it was useless to do so. "You've already nearly given me a concussion, what makes you think I'll willingly give you a sample of anything after that? Not to mention your keeping us from our ship and now your advancing on us like we're prisoners... Oh. Doctor, I think we're prisoners..." Sonya mumbled, trailing off from her tirade as the robots led them from the room and down a hallway outside.

"We were here what? About five minutes? That's a new record for us, even for you, Doctor. Usually you take off and leave me to be locked up while you 'formulate a plan' by playing checkers with the leader or something" She added idly, her gaze refusing to leave the black bot in front of them. "You know, one of these days you'd think we'd learn."

"Actually five and half, i counted" The Doctor retorted with a smirk, "Our fastest time was three minutes with the king and the red shirt you decided to wear. If it wasn't for me you would have been trucked into the jail once you stepped out of the TARDIS". Placing his hands into his pockets, The Doctor walked nonchalantly through the hallway as if nothing were happening as they were escorted into a medical room. White painted robots walked around the room, accessing panels around two tables in the center of the room. The robots entered the room and spoke to the white robots who took over the operation and approached Sonya and The Doctor, "Greetings. One DNA sample from both of you will suffice for our research needs and be documented in the Vinvocci data base".

The Doctor glanced over to Sonya, then nodded upon looking back at the robot, "Actually i'm not that fond of needles. Never liked them" he mumbled as the robot completely ignored him and turned to the other robot who handed over to patches. The robot turned back to the duo and handed each one patch, "Place patch on your arm. DNA will be scanned and ran through upon connection with ski-". Just before the robot finished its sentence, the entire ship lurched forward followed by a siren sounding over head. "Flight monitors report to bridge. Flight monitors report to bridge" A robotic voice echoed through the speaker, the robots inside of the medical station dashed passed The Doctor and Sonya and back up the hallway.

"Oh thank god." Sonya hissed under her breath, holding the patch away from her at arm's length and dropping it onto the floor with a disgusted look on her face. "Honestly, drones, robots, cybermen and Daleks are all alike in one thing. They never listen to reason." Turning around, she surveyed the room for a moment then looked over at the Doctor with a sudden grin on her face. "Shall we see what that was, or do we wait for them to come to us? I'm in favor of going honestly, standing still isn't my strongest suit at the moment."

As if to make the statement believable, she began shifting from foot to foot, her eyes looking over at the door then flicking back to the Doctor's face. Honestly, she was more antsy than he was now. It drove her crazy at points, and she was surprised it hasn't driven him mad as well with how often she nagged at him to get moving lately. "Come on. I'm going, you can stay here in the... 'Medical Room'." She said ominously, raising both hands up to quote the air with a wide grin. Walking to the door, she patted him on the shoulder before stepping through and out into the hallway.

The Doctor grinned, rushing quickly in front of her, jumping up and down with excitement as he placed both of his hands onto her shoulders, "Let's go then!" he proclaimed. Spinning on his heel, he bolted down the hallway, "Allons-y!!!!" his voice echoed throughout the entire ship, causing the robots from the medical station to stop and turn to see where it came from, only to have The Doctor race by them in the blink of an eye. "The unidentified species will stop!" The robot pleaded but to no avail as The Doctor continued to dash madly down the hallway until reaching the bridge where four robots worked tirelessly on panels encircling the room. In front was a glass wall where one could see a ship opening fire on the vessel with one single robot looking out at it. Upon The Doctor entering, the robot turned and approached him, "I am B160, commanding unit of this ship. Who are you?" it asked, "I'm The Doctor and i am here to save you and everything on board this ship. Allons-y?".

The robot cocked its head to the right, baffled at the statement provided by The Doctor, following him to the glass wall as he viewed the ship that was firing at them. "Recognize that ship?" The Doctor asked the robot over his shoulder, "Confirmed. This is a human fighter ship. Type 19 fighter", The Doctor paused, turning to face the robot, "Humans....why would they fire at this ship?".

"The only thing I can figure is you have something they want." Sonya commented from the doorway, her breathing still a little harsh from trying to keep up with the Doctor, who she shot a dirty look at for leaving her behind the way he did as she walked into the room. "Or maybe it's something you don't have and they think you do. You're in their territory, your too close to a certain planet, they find you annoying, or maybe they think your going to attack. Humans really are unpredictable." She concluded with a shrug, her arms folding over her chest while she leaned against a wall, her teeth working on her lower lip in thought.

"Type 19 fighter... Those are... What, search and recovery ships, aren't they? So I'm sticking with my 'You have something they want' theory." Sonya finished with a firm nod, her eyes locked onto the screen as the ship drew closer all the while she was talking. "I say we get out of here before they start shooting the ship up then boarding. I don't care to face another one of them with a large blaster shoved in my face. Had that happen enough to last me several lifetimes." Her eyes shifted over to the Doctor before letting out a huff of irritation. "Fine, we'll stay, but if I have another one of those things shoved at me, I'm going to find that scarf of yours and tie you to the jumper seat so I can find the next place to go without you interfering with my piloting."

"But what?" The Doctor replied, walking over to Sonya, "I haven't got anything..well..besides my TARDIS, screwdriver, suit, shoes and my hair and sideburns" he added, flirting with himself with a growing smirk. Before the smirk could grow anymore, the ship lurched forward as yet another shot was fired upon the research vessel. "They are boarding!" One robot pleaded from the other end of his control panel, glancing up as he said it then peered back down to it afterwards. The Doctor spun to miss Sonya by just inches and planted firmly on the cold, hard, metal floor beneath him. "Before you ask...yes...i meant to aim...for the ground" The Doctor grumbled as he picked himself up as the doors of the bridge suddenly lit with life as sparks ran down the sides.

Immediately the robots bolted to the bridge doors and extended their weapons, which were implanted in their arms, and awaited the men behind the door. With three loud booms, the door fell slowly down and landed firmly on the robots causing their oil to splatter everywhere along with several of their parts. Rushing through, several heavily armed men approached The Doctor and Sonya, quickly taking out the remaining robots before they could even shoot. "Hello!" The Doctor greeted happily before a tazer made its way to the side of his neck, sending volts of electricity throughout his body and causing him to fall down once more to the metal floor.

Blinking at the sudden change in events, Sonya froze for a moment, staring at the Doctor on the ground as the electricity coursed through his body before she finally managed to react by pulling her Sonic out and disabling the tazer in the others hand. "Oi! That's not exactly polite zapping people that just say hello! Where did you learn your manners from?" She snapped in irritation, already moving over to crouch down next to the Doctor and pull the barbs from his neck and check the marks they left behind before looking back up at them. "You're lucky that it didn't do much damage. You wouldn't have liked the consequences."

Pausing for a moment, she frowned suddenly. "Blimey, I sound like a old rerun of that movie with the green man." Sonya grumbled before looking back over at the men with a return of her earlier irritation once more. "Well? Tell us what the hell it is you want."

The human guards scrutinized Sonya carefully, the one who had zapped The Doctor contemplating doing the same to her before one finally stepped forward and replied, "We're here for the dark matter deposits this ship has been picking up. This technology can aid in the war effort against the Sontarons". Smirking, the man turned back to his men, "Alright men. Let's clear this place out, take everything you can and lets get out of here quick before the Vinvocci come looking for this thing". The men nodded before rushing off down the hallways of the ship, their eyes set on the advanced technology and more specifically, dark matter. "You won't have...to worry about..Sontarons anymore" The Doctor grumbled, his consciousness coming back to him as he weakly pushed himself up to a sitting position, "You've just wagged war against the Vinvocci..and trust me, you don't want to do that".

The man turned around as The Doctor spoke and laughed when he stopped, "Please. Like i said, we get this dark matter in the war effort then we can beat both of them...fuel the empire" he replied, "If taking dark matter is for war then i will not allow it" The Doctor spat. The man smirked, "And what are you going to do from the ground? Send your little woman on us? Ha!", The Doctor shook his head, "No..i'll just start a chain reaction within the dark matter cells causing them to explode. Reversing the polarity of their neutron flow", "You're...you're bluffing. Nobody can do that!". The Doctor flipped out his sonic screwdriver as he rose to a standing position, "We're Time Lords. Over two thousand years between us both. Stopped entire civilizations from being destroyed, entire galaxies! Stopped monsters you only have nightmares about. I'm The Doctor..and she's Sonya!" The Doctor paused, "Look us up" he hissed, holding his sonic screwdriver up with his finger hovering over the button, a glare in his eyes as he stared deep into the soul of the man in front of him.

Chuckling softly to herself, Sonya flipped out her own sonic and pointed it at the same man, choosing this moment to be silent for once and let the Doctor finish his speech. "Don't put it past him, I've actually seen him blow up a building... And me... Well, I'd best stay off that subject, been around, me. Attacked some, saved others... Killed a few, but what's another body in the light of a war brewing in the universe?" She said idly, hardly caring if she made any sense, if the Doctor deemed them a threat, then she stood by him in whatever decision he made. Shaking her sonic slightly, she motioned to the door they came through. "Might want to get going before either of us gets impatient. We aren't exactly well-known for being the most patient beings in the universe. I might add."

Flicking her eyes between each of the men, she raised an eyebrow as they stayed where they were, staring at the sonics pointed at them in a mix of fear and confusion. "You know... It would only take a few seconds to reverse the polarity. Maybe five if your lucky, still not enough time to get back to your ship if your standing there holding containers full of it..."

The Doctor rolled his eyes, partially agitated at Sonya's deliberate break down of his rather, in his opinion, brilliant speech. "The point still stands!" The Doctor finally said, stopping Sonya from spiting out any more rambles about how accurate his speech was, "One press of this button and this entire ship blows. All of us with it if this will stop a war. Don't test me". The man gulped before turning on his heel and bolting back out of the hallway; The Doctor released a sigh as he lowered his sonic screwdriver and glared at Sonya before making his way over to a control panel. "Next time i try and spare us six minutes to calculate the damage of the situation with a rather amazing speech...don't destroy it" He grumbled, using his fingers to sort through the data on the panel before coming upon the amount of dark matter on board the ship, and the humans, at this time "It defeats the purpose of me talking".

Following in the footsteps of the man, The Doctor walked out of the bridge and entered the loading bay where the human guards were placing all of the dark matter containers back from their ship. "Alright, alright. That's it!" The man cried at the sight of The Doctor, who nodded, "Then go. Leave here and i don't ever want to hear about humans and dark matter!". The man nodded and escorted his men back onto his ship before taking off, leaving The Doctor alone in the loading bay with eight containers of dark matter placed in the center before he too left and walked back to the bridge. Shaking his head, The Doctor tucked his sonic back into his pocket and glanced down at the panel, making sure they had no dark matter on board and once sure, he peered back up to the viewing portion of the bridge. The human ship could be seen hovering away before activating light speed and zipping off, "There's something wrong" The Doctor suddenly mumbled, "There's something very wrong".

"What's the point in having me around if I can't completely defuse your... 'Brilliant' speeches?" Sonya grumbled back at him as they walked back towards the loading bay, her hands automatically sliding into her pockets once they reached the room. Staying silent this time, she let the Doctor finish scaring the humans off before turning to him as he walked back out of the room. "Blimey, it's hard to keep up with you. Don't stay in one place for more than a few seconds... Ah, what am I talking about?" Shaking her head, Sonya cut herself off before finishing her ramble and walked over to stand next to him, watching the ship fly off.

Hearing him mumble about something being wrong, she had to laugh. "When isn't there something wrong? No matter where we end up, something always ends up being wrong somehow." Looking at him with a deep sigh, she leaned back against the railing beside her, eyeing the Doctor as he thought to himself in silence. "I feel it too though. Felt it nearly as soon as we got onto the ship to be honest. I just brushed it aside, thought it was the technology we were surrounded with..." Trailing off, she cast another look at the view window, teeth catching on her lower lip idly.

Just as The Doctor went to reply to Sonya's commented, a sudden explosion caused the ship to rock back and forth, sending The Doctor flying into the panel behind him, back first. "Agh!" He exclaimed, grabbing the sides of the panel to keep himself from flying over it as he did so before the shaking stopped. The Doctor jumped forward, his eyes grown wide as he peered out of the viewing window at the debris from the human ship flying over top and around their ship. "What! What? What?!" The Doctor proclaimed, running his hands over the panel to scan the debris which quickly came up empty with no life signs of any kind, "But..what?! I don't understand, they had nothing!". Suddenly the panel lit up with life as red lights flashed across the screen and projected on the viewing screen in front of them. An incoming missile was heading straight for them and from the screen, it was twelve seconds out from hitting the side of the ship, "Sonya!!! Run!!" The Doctor exclaimed, turning and jumping completely over the panel behind him and dashing back to the TARDIS as sirens roared overhead followed by flashing red lights.

"Bloody hell! You're a magnet for horrible luck, you are!" Sonya cried out, already chasing him down the hallways back to their ship as the sirens and lights blared around them brightly. Squinting slightly, she struggled to see past the flashing red ahead of her, trying to spot the bay where they landed. "I swear, anytime we go anywhere remotely calm and interesting, something always happens!" Casting a slightly irritated look at her friend, she put on an extra burst of speed once she spied the doorway to the TARDIS, her shoes slipping slightly on the slick floor as she raced for safety.

"Next time we go anywhere, you aren't leaving the TARDIS. I mean it, I'll lock you in a closet if I have to. Without the sonic." Sonya added over her shoulder once she reached the familiar blue doors, flinging them open in her rush to get inside and ran to the console, hands flying over the controls before he even joined her.

The Doctor chased after Sonya, the doors of the TARDIS within his reach before suddenly the floor beneath his feet gave way. The missile struck the side of the ship, immediately causing the engines to explode and burst into flames. The explosion echoed like a wave of sound throughout the ship as walls began to fall and panels began to roar up in flames. Beneath The Doctor's feet stood empty space, seemingly endless stars beneath him as he leaped for the TARDIS as it began to operate under Sonya's control. "Sonya!!!!" The Doctor exclaimed, his hands struck the edge of the TARDIS doors and hung on for dear life as the TARDIS spun away from the exploding ship and into deep space. With his legs dangling into space, The Doctor held on to the edge of the TARDIS, his life and breath only being sustained by the protective oxygen field surrounding the time machine, but that was quickly fading as Sonya piloted the TARDIS into the time vortex.

"Sonya!!!" The Doctor exclaimed as the walls of the time vortex became visible around him, "You go into the time vortex, the TARDIS won't sustain the oxygen field!!!", looking down his eyes only grew wider and the strength to pull himself up slipped away with each passing second.