Halfway Out Of The Dark || The Doctor

42

The Artist ran her sonic screwdriver over Martha's phone. "Right, there we go." she said as she finished, "Upgraded to Universal Roaming. Thought it was about time you had it." She handed Martha the phone back.

"No way! It's too... mad!" Martha grinned, seeing 'Universal Roaming activated' on the screen, "You're telling me I can call anyone, anywhere in space and time on my mobile?!"

"Long as ya know the area code." the Doctor remarked, pressing buttons on the console, "Frequent flyers' privilege."

"Go on, try it." the Artist encouraged Martha. Martha began to dial a number when the TARDIS jolted suddenly, nearly sending her toppling to the floor had the Artist not caught her in the nick of time.

The Doctor looked at the monitor, which was now flashing red. "Distress signal!" he said, "Locking on!" He activated a switch on the console with his foot. "Might be a bit of..."

"Turbulence?" the Artist cut in, "Easily remedied." She pressed a blue switch on the console and the flight became much smoother, then she and the Doctor piloted the TARDIS into land.

"Come on, let's take a look!" the Doctor said, rushing to the doors. Martha ran after him and they stepped out of the TARDIS to see that they'd landed in what appeared to be an engine room, which was glowing red from extreme heat. "Whoa! Now that is hot!" the Doctor remarked.

"Whoo! It's like a sauna in here!" Martha agreed, slipping her cardigan off.

"I've had worse." the Artist remarked, stepping out last. She'd checked the environment on the scanner, so had wisely left her jacket in the TARDIS, having transferred her sonic screwdriver and psychic paper to her jean pockets first.

"Venting systems." the Doctor observed, looking at pieces of equipment, "Working at full pelt, trying to cool down..." He stood up straight again. "Uh, wherever it is we are. Well, if ya can't stand the heat..." He walked towards a heavy-duty door, opened it and the trio walked through into a corridor that was somewhat cooler. "Well, that's better." the Doctor said.

"Oi, you three!" a voice called, and the trio turned to see three people sprinting towards them. One was a woman while the other two were men. All three looked rather grubby and sweaty.

"Get out of there!" the woman hollered.

"Seal that door, now!" the older-looking of the two men ordered the younger one, who slammed the door shut and locked it.

"Who are you? What're you doing on my ship?" the woman asked the three time travellers.

"Are you police?" the young man asked.

"Why would we be police?" the Doctor questioned.

"We got ya distress signal." Martha explained.

"If this is a ship, how come we can't hear the engines?" the Artist frowned.

"It went dead four minutes ago." the woman replied.

"So maybe we should stop chatted and get to engineering. Captain." the older man said irritably.

"Secure closure active." a computer voice announced.

"What?!" the woman stared.

"The ship's gone mad." the older man breathed.

A young woman came running up the corridor, doors slamming shut behind her. "Who activated secure closure?" she panted, "I nearly got locked into area 27." Then she noticed the three time travellers. "Who are you?"

"He's the Doctor, she's the Artist and I'm Martha. Hello." Martha replied, somewhat distracted by something out of the nearby viewport.

"Impact projection: 42 minutes. 27 seconds." the computer announced.