Ties Between Time and Space

✦39✦

Chapter Thirty-Nine
Not A Good Voice To Hear

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"Doctor, what's wrong? What is it?" Emma shouted after him.

They ran through two doors before getting back to the habitation area they'd arrived in. But the last door wouldn't open. The Doctor pressed frantically at the numbers on the lock but it was useless.

"It can't be. It can't be!" he yelled.

"What's wrong? What is it?" Emma asked, placing a hand on his forearm. "Doctor, the TARDIS is in there. What's going on?"

He stared through the small circular window, but nothing was on the other side of the door.

Nothing good, at least.

"The TARDIS is gone."

"Door 16 out of commission."

The Doctor took a step back before his gaze slowly met Emma's. "The earthquake. This section collapsed."

Emma shook her head, not believing it. She took his place in front of the small window, looking out of it at the solid black rocks in the distance.

"She's got to be out there somewhere, she can't have- "

"Look down," the Doctor told her.

Emma's eyes reluctantly fell. She swallowed hard and with a shaky breath at the complete black void below them. She was gone. The TARDIS was gone.

*---*---*---*---*---*

"The ground gave way. My Tardis must've fallen down right into the heart of the planet. But you've got robot drills heading the same way," the Doctor quickly explained to Zach.

"We can't divert the drilling," he shrugged with a hopeless look.

He tried to round the console but the Doctor followed him.

"But I need my ship. It's all I've got. Literally the only thing," he desperately told Zach.

Emma's heart ached, she couldn't begin to imagine what the Doctor was feeling right now. Even she was feeling a big loss. She always felt the TARDIS. After the Doctor's regeneration, it was like the TARDIS reached out to Emma. She spoke to her in writings on Emma's hands, she blinked and hummed in response to Emma's questions. Now that she was gone it felt like that alternate Cybermen world all over again. Silence. A presence that no one ever noticed but had to be there for things to make sense, feel okay, be okay.

"Doctor, we've only got the resources to drill one central shaft down to the power source, and that's it. No diversions, no distractions, no exceptions. Your machine is lost. All I can do is offer you a lift if we ever get to leave this place, and that is the end of it," Zach tried hard to explain so the Doctor would understand.

"I'll er, put you on the duty roster. We need someone in the laundry," Ida told them trying to remain optimistic about the situation.

She and Zach walked off leaving the Doctor and Emma alone.

"Open door 1. Close door 1."

The Doctor looked at Emma, she didn't know what to say to him and he didn't know what to say to her. He rounded the console back to her side and their eyes met. Emma hesitated for only a second before hugging her Doctor, wrapping her arms around him tightly. He sighed at the comfort and warmth. It felt nice despite what he'd just lost. His only piece of home that he had left. He rested his chin down on her shoulder.

"I've trapped you here," he whispered against her skin.

"Don't worry about me," Emma muttered.

The base started to shake again, a tremor passing through that made Emma and the Doctor pull away to look up at the open ceiling where the black hole still resided.