Ending of the Hours (Book Four of the Bad Wolf Chronicles)

Failed Attempts

"Jessie!" Saleen shouted at a computer monitor as she and Skye powered the monitors to reach out to the other world. "Jessie!"

She saw a brief flash of a military room and the back of a curly blonde head turning to look at the computers before the screen winked out. "Damn it!" she cursed.

Grant patted her on the back. "That was just the first attempt," he soothed her. He looked over at the other end. "Jake?"

"Working on it now, sir," Jake replied, tapping a few commands on his laptop before blinking. "Doctor!" he shouted. Saleen ran over to see what he was looking at. "Doctor!"

Saleen saw the Doctor she knew aim his sonic screwdriver at something before leaning back in his chair, legs propped up on something. "They're in the same room, then," she remarked.

"Let's hope Skye has better luck," Grant muttered.

***

Skye typed away at her computer a million miles a minute, trying to connect to the other world. Sure, Saleen had a bunch of computer experience, but Skye had been hacking since she could walk. She knew how to use technology like a pro.

She saw the inside of the TARDIS, and her eyes widened. "I did it!" she whispered before shouting. "Jessie! Doctor! Can you hear me?"

She saw a flicker of an older woman with ginger hair walk over, but she didn't get a good look at her face before the connection fizzled out. She groaned in annoyance, smacking the top of the monitor before cursing and shaking her hand.

"Skye?" Grant's voice came over the intercom.

Skye sighed, reaching out and turning her speaker on. "I'm here," she told him.

"We connected in here, but neither the Doctor nor Jessie heard us. Did you get a connection?"

"I got the TARDIS," Skye replied, "but neither of them were there. There was a ginger woman there, though. I think it was that Donna Noble."

"Donna Noble?" Saleen asked to double check.

"Yeah."

"That's the second time we've run right into her while using the dimension hoppers," Saleen noted.

Skye frowned. It was. And that was the weird thing. Whenever they moved to the original world, they went straight to Donna.

How was that possible?

"Can we take a look into that?" Skye asked.

"Of course," Grant replied instantly.

"And I think I want to try the dimension cannon again," she added.

"What?" Jake shouted.

"Skye, are you crazy?" Saleen asked. "Every time we've used the cannon, we haven't ended up where we need to be!"

"But if we land with Donna in our original world, what would happen if we landed in other worlds?" Skye asked, making a good point. "Would we lock onto her as well?"

There was silence on the other end. "She has a point," Jake finally spoke up.

"But Saleen and I are going to be using them, then," Grant finally said.

"Fine," Skye replied. "As long as we get the chance to. I'll be down in a few minutes."

"Copy."

Skye put her head in her hand as she leaned on her elbow. "Where are you two?" she whispered, staring at her blank monitor. "Where are you?"

***

Not much, but I wanted an interlude into the next episode so you weren't hanging for too long. :)

So Torchwood SHIELD is starting to connect the dots to Donna. We won't see them reappear until after "Midnight," though, unfortunately. And then we'll launch into "Turn Left." I think you'll be a bit surprised as to who we'll see in Donna's world. ;)

"The Doctor's Daughter" is being worked on, and then this will be going on hold as I finish up "Apocalypse Rising."