Chapter 8 -- Miner Complications
Dec. 6th, 2006 05:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teleidoplexTitle: The Possibility of Ways
Rating: NC17 (eventually)
Media: Doctor Who (Season 2 AU)
Characters: Nine/Rose
Summary: In an infinite Universe nothing is set and everything is possible, but in choosing an alternate route there are always repercussions.
Spoilers: Doctor Who, New Seasons 1 & 2, Old Season 16
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, but I wouldn't mind ten minutes alone in the TARDIS
Archive: At A Teaspoon and an Open Mind. If you want it, check with me first.
Finished: Not by a long shot
Sorry it took so long to update. For some reason I had a real struggle with the chapter. It still feels like the middle is too plodding, not quick-paced enough.
On the other hand, romantic tension is reaching Code: Mauve.
Chapter 8 – Miner Complications
Foreman Ozlack stared at Rose following her pronouncement, his expression slowly hardening, a red flush rising up his neck. He opened his mouth, probably to demand just what she was going on about and to tell her to bugger off. She interrupted before he could get anything out. If there was one thing she’d learned from the Doctor and especially from that debacle with the Sycorax, it was that how you said something was sometimes more important than what you said.
“You see, the NUW has been working with…”she paused, pulled a name from her memory that the Foreman had seemed to respect, “with Mr. Fibuli to investigate the Mentiad threat. We’ve been put on Code: Mauve alert. We have reason to believe the Mentiads have tricked the scientists about the omens. That’s what my associate has gone to report. The Golden Age is coming faster than anyone knows. You have to believe me. You have to get those men out of there.”
Ozlack goggled a moment, and she waited for him to grab her and bodily expel her from his operation. Instead, he sagged slightly.
“Look, miss. I’m sure you believe that those men are in danger, and if they were I’d pull them out. I would. But I been mining longer than you’ve been breathing, and I know a thing or two about—”
He was interrupted by a buzz from his control console. He looked vaguely perturbed, but strode over and punched a button. From the speaker on the console emerged the sounds of bustling activity. Rose edged closer to listen in.
“Ozlack here.”
“Foreman Ozlack? This is Ensign Venton from the Bridge. We are a go for the new Golden Age in t-minus ten minutes. Confirm.”
Ozlack shot Rose an incredulous glance, but quickly turned back to the console. The beginnings of worry were coloring his tone, “Negative. Our drill is still blocked. I have men in the Hollow working on it.”
“Well, you better get your men out of there, Foreman. The demat—er…that is, the Golden Age is starting. We can’t do anything to stop it.”
Rose was on the verge of giving the Foreman a big, fat “I told you so”, when an exchange in the background of the broadcast caught her attention.
“No, Doctor,” a man’s condescending voice was saying, “not whilst we have the psychic interference transmitter.”
Rose caught Ozlack’s sleeve before he could cut off the com.
“What, that?” responded another man in a rich baritone.
“Yes, yes. You see, whilst that is fully operational the Mentiads are powerless,” the condescending man paused. Ozlack was looking at Rose in confusion, and she could hear the Ensign on the other end of the com asking if there was anything else the Foreman needed. She couldn’t quite make out the next exchange, but it sounded like it had something to do with the door. Just before Ozlack shook off her grip and shut down the com, she heard a third man shout "Stop Him!" in a booming voice.
Doctor? The Doctor? Her Doctor? She hadn’t recognized any of the voices, but she greatly doubted that the name she’d heard mentioned was just a coincidence. Wonderful. He’d managed to get himself caught or in some kind of jam, and now she’d have to go and rescue him. She wavered between exasperation and vindication. Served him right for leaving her behind.
“Looks like you were right,” the foreman was conceding grudgingly, “Sorry I doubted you, miss. Narell!” he called down the drill well, “emergency extraction. We’re winching you back up. Hang on,” he looked back at Rose, “You ever work a winch before? No? Well, I suppose you’ll have to go down and get the miners instead. You’ll need gear.” He moved quickly, handing her a map, helmet and lamp, then began flipping switches on the control panel. The winch jerked into reverse.
“Wait, what? Go down there? Don’t you have a com-system or something? Can’t you call them back that way?”
Ozlack looked at her like she was daft, “Com-system? With that much geo-interference?” He shook his head, “No, we have to do things the old-fashioned way down in the Hollow. Don’t worry. Shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes to get down there. Once you bring the men back up to the mid-levels you’ll be safe.” A beeping sounded from the console and Ozlack turned to fiddle with it. Rose hesitated. The Doctor needed her, but apparently so did the miners.
“But my friend, the one I came with, he’s…” she paused, reluctant to let the Foreman know that she and the Doctor weren’t exactly on the up and up, “he needs me up at the Bridge to…to advise him.”
“Miss,” the foreman fixed her with a stern gaze, “If I leave this winch, Narell might get stuck and die. We don’t have the most up-to-date equipment in case you hadn’t noticed. If somebody doesn’t go down and get those men, they’ll die. Just tell them I said it was an emergency extraction. I’m certain your friend can do without you for a few extra minutes.”
Rose dithered a moment longer, then resolutely clamped the helmet on her head and switched on the lamp.
“Right. You’re right,” she turned and hurried towards the basket lift, muttering under her breath, “Looks like I’m gonna save some canaries after all.”
***********************
The Doctor paused in his escape from the Bridge to open the closet where he’d stashed Sergeant Grieg.
“Sergeant,” he explained as he hopped into the skiff, before the startled guard could do anything more than stand, “This entire planet is about to suffer major earthquakes that will kill most of the people on the Bridge. In about an hour the Bridge is going to be blown to bits. Now, you could shoot me or take me captive or try to stop all this, but if I were you I’d leave this place, find whoever it is you care about, and make sure you all are safe before the world comes tumbling down…or out…or in. Got it?” He grinned when the confused guard nodded, “Fantastic!”
The Doctor slid the throttle forward, guiding the skiff away from the Bridge. He kept low, even though he was traveling in the opposite direction of his Fourth self and Romana. One close call had already been one too many.
He sensed trouble the moment he landed at the mining facility. He could see the Foreman working at the drill platform, but of the other miners and Rose there was no sign. Leaping from the skiff he jogged over to the Foreman.
“Where’s Rose?” the Doctor demanded.
The Foreman was in the process of helping a young, weedy-looking boy climb out of the well and free himself from a complicated harness. The boy glanced up at Rose’s name, a look of puppy-dog adoration on his features. The Doctor contained a snort. Another conquest for his Rose. He’d swear she collected them across space and time like those pokey-cards. The boy’s face fell when he realized there was no blonde in sight. The Doctor jostled the foreman’s arm.
“She’s just gone into the mines to warn the miners…get them out of the Hollow before—”
“She went into the mine!” the Doctor interrupted with rising alarm Of all the stupid, impetuous…he’d told her that the mines were dangerous, that they were going to…or had he? Cursing himself, he began sprinting towards the lift, checking his watch. Three minutes. He had three minutes before the tremors started, before the unstable crust of the hollow planet was bombarded by the effects of a transmat materialization convergence, before Rose was caught in a deathtrap of his making.
Frantic, he began pounding on the lift call button. He had to get her out of there.
*************************
Rose hurried through the lower levels of the mine, checking from time to time the map Ozlack had given her, although the noise of the miners was becoming more distinct.
“Hey!” she shouted, “Pisser? Anyone?” a light flashed from a steeply sloping shaft and she scrambled down towards it.
She emerged on a sturdy, iron scaffolding that had been embedded into the stone walls. The vast expanse of darkness above, below and all around her caused her to stumble slightly in awe. She grasped the railing of the scaffold as she was hit by a strong wave of vertigo. A gnarled hand reached out to support her, turning her gently away from the black nothingness.
“Breathe,” Pisser’s gravelly voice instructed.
“Yeah,” she gasped, fixing her gaze on the rock wall, the corridor from which she’d come. She tried to stammer an apology for her reaction, but Pisser just cut her off.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said, “happens to everyone. Nobody ever gets completely used to it. Some men never get over it. Me, I’ve come to find it a little comforting. S’like looking into the face of God or something. Reminds you how small and insignificant you are.”
She got the feeling he was not really considering his words…that he was just nattering on to give her time to recover. Something about what he said unearthed a deeply buried memory. No, she wanted to say, God’s face is suffused with golden light, not impenetrable blackness. Looking on it doesn’t make you feel small. It reminds you that you’re part of something bigger. She didn’t speak, but the anchorless memory bolstered her. She straightened and this time when the black swam into view at the edge of her vision, she didn’t flinch.
With the momentary vertigo overcome, she recalled her original mission in coming down here. Pisser and the other miners were gazing at her with various levels of curiosity and expectation.
“Foreman Ozlack. He sent me down to warn you. He just got a call from the Bridge people. The Hollow’s going to be filled in,” she glanced at her watch, “about three minutes. We have to get out of here. It’s an emergency whatsit.”
“Extraction?”
“Yeah.”
Pisser looked around at the miners, all of whom looked shocked, “Well, you heard the lass, men. Pack it up.” Startled into motion, the miners grabbed their gear and moved quickly to the corridor. Pisser and Rose hurried to bring up the rear.
The trip back out went much more quickly since Rose didn’t have to be constantly checking her rough map. She knew the instant they reached the safety of the mid-levels because all of the miners seemed to relax, their pace slowing from the previous urgency. She could tell they were nearing the main tunnel and the lift out when she heard a shout in a familiar Northern accent.
“Rose!”
She smiled. Apparently she hadn’t needed to rescue him after all. His lean form appeared at the mouth of the tunnel they were traversing, and her stomach did an odd flip-flop at seeing him. She ruthlessly tamped down on the reaction at the same time that she flashed him her widest grin. The grin dimmed as she realized he wasn’t grinning back – was instead frantically gesturing for them all to hurry.
“Run!” he shouted.
Before she had the chance to react, in the brief second between thought and action, the world began to collapse.
“Doctor!” she screamed as she was thrown against Pisser and both of them were knocked to the ground. Most of the miners had been knocked over by the sudden, massive tremors that shook the tunnel. She tried to scramble up, to regain her footing, to move forward, but the unstable ground made it difficult. She heard a groan beneath her and realized that in cushioning her fall Pisser had knocked his head against a rocky outcropping.
“Pisser!” she braced her hand against the wall, which helped to steady her slightly, and helped the groggy miner to rise, guiding him against the wall as well. She grunted from the mans weight and another miner assisted her, draping Pisser’s arm over his shoulders and supporting him at the waist. Small rocks and rubble began to rain down from above as the shaking grew progressively worse.
Then the Doctor was at her side, wrapping long arms about her, hugging her so tightly she worried a moment about being able to breath. He pulled back slightly and grinned, as if they weren’t trapped underground in the middle of a massive earthquake.
“What have you been up to? Keeping yourself out of trouble?”
“Just saving some canaries. You?”
“Nothing as exciting as this. I miss out on all the fun,” as quickly as it had appeared, his humor was gone, replaced by deadly seriousness, “we have to get out of here before the whole place collapses. The shaking’s only going to get worse. Think you can make it to the TARDIS?”
“What about them?” she motioned to the miners, who had managed to get to their feet and were making a stumbling passage up the tunnel towards the lift, “we can’t just leave them…what if the shaft collapses.”
“Right,” the Doctor threaded his fingers through hers and they both lurched their way forward, using the wall to steady them, “You lot! You’ll never make it out that way. Follow me.” He turned the opposite direction from the lift shaft, back towards where they’d left the TARDIS, tugging on Rose’s hand when she paused to see if the miners were following.
The men had hesitated at the junction, vacillating between a known egress that was sure to be unsafe and the promise of the unknown. It was Pisser, still being supported by one of his fellow miners, who decided them.
“I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m following the Inspector and Miss Rose. They’re the experts down here.”
Rose beamed at the old man, and then they were all rushing down the corridor towards safety. She and the Doctor stumbled several times, and she could hear the miners behind them struggling to keep up. At one point the Doctor practically yanked her arm out of its socket to pull her aside from a large tumble of falling boulders. She fell into him, knocking him into the cave wall, and they both fought to keep breath and footing. Then the corridor opened up and they were racing across the cavern to the safety of the blue police box. Crystal mushroom light danced crazily off the walls and the ground lurched even more violently beneath them. Without the walls to lend support, their dash became a graceless scrambling.
The Doctor threw open the doors of the TARDIS, ushering her and the miners inside and slamming it shut. Several miners collapsed on the grating, their legs unaccustomed to the sudden steadiness of the ground after so much shaking. Rose pulled her way up the ramp after the Doctor, supporting herself with the railing. Making it to the captain’s chair, she sank bonelessly into the cushions and watched as the Doctor checked the TARDIS’s controls. After a moment, he sank down beside her. She leaned into him, using his physical presence to remind her that they were both okay. His arm slid around her waist, and for the briefest moment she thought she felt his lips brush the top of her head. She pulled back, sure she must have been mistaken.
“Looks like the entire shaft has collapsed. We’ll have to dematerialize to the surface. It’ll be a few moments before it’s safe to do that,” the Doctor said quietly. Rose glanced over to the miners, most of whom were only just now noticing the ship’s unusual dimensions. Only Pisser seemed to have fully recovered, and was hobbling his way over to them.
“What is this place?” He asked.
“Special mining lift,” the Doctor replied, rising again, “reinforced against tremors. It’ll have us back on the surface in no time,”
“Hmm,’ he glanced around skeptically, “awfully roomy for a lift. Guess it’s part of those benefits you were talking about, huh miss?” It took Rose a moment to realize he was referring to her earlier talks about unionizing. She struggled with an answer, but the Doctor was much quicker on the uptake.
“Oh, yes. Remarkable what workers can accomplish if you lot band together. Not to mention the importance of being connected to the products of your labor. You should consider what Rose told you,” the Doctor was pulling levers now, and Rose could feel the subtle vibrations of the TARDIS in flight. Amazingly, there was none of the usual shaking about, just a gentle, almost imperceptible rocking. The rocking stopped and the Doctor strode back down the ramp. Rose and Pisser followed.
“It’s going to be a different world out there,” the Doctor was saying, “you need to take care of it. Be careful not to over-mine it. Sustainable use of resources, that’s what you need to get accustomed to. But you’ll do fine,” he clapped Pisser on the shoulder, then flung open the doors. Pale sunlight streamed in, and outside Rose could see grassy hills and in the distance a town of squat buildings.
The miners filed out, Pisser nodding contemplatively at the Doctor’s words. Unexpectedly, the old man turned and engulfed Rose in an awkward hug.
“Thanks for coming for us, Miss. We’d have been dead if it weren’t for you.”
Rose squeezed him back, “Naw, don’t think anything of it. You just take care and make sure you don’t let anyone get away with treating the miners like they have been, okay?”
“Will do, miss,” he tugged his cap and began to walk away, then turned back to her, “Oh, and miss…my name? It’s Pinzer.”
“Oh. Right. Sorry,” she responded, flushing guiltily, but he had already smiled and turned away. Rose closed the doors to the TARDIS and turned back to the console room. The Doctor was leaning casually against one of the supports, arms and legs crossed, small smile on his lips.
“I was right. You collect them.”
“What’s this? Collect what?” he just grinned wider, “What do I collect?”
He still didn’t answer. She strode back up the ramp and planted herself in front of him, “C’mon, tell. What do you mean?” She pushed against his shoulder.
“Just you and your boyfriends, scattered across the universe.”
“What, him?” She gestured back towards the door, “He’s old enough to be my father. My grandfather, even.”
“Oh, so age gaps are a problem for you?”
Any response she might have made choked in her throat. That jibe had been a little too close for her comfort. She vividly recalled words she’d spoken to him so long ago, on the top of one of the Council Estate buildings – That is one hell of an age gap. She wanted to assure him that, no, where he was concerned age gaps didn’t matter a whit.
“So,” she floundered for another topic, “mission accomplished then? We on to the next one?”
“We could be, but you might want to shower and change,” she glanced down to see that she had been turned a uniform pale white from the mine dust, looking back up just in time to catch his smirk.
“Don’t you laugh at me. You don’t look any better, you know. You could be a distant cousin of the Cliffs of Dover,” she reached up with both hands to brush pale dust from the shoulders of his jacket, then her hands moved to his hair, ruffling it slightly. She smiled as a cloud of the dust rose above his head. Then she realized that he had a darker smudge of dust along one cheek, and it seemed perfectly reasonable to rub at it gently with her thumb.
Then she realized that she’d had to move quite close to reach up to him, her chest practically brushing against his. And she realized that he wasn’t moving. Or blinking. Or breathing.
Oh, bollocks.
She gulped, eyes suddenly wide as they met his intense gaze. Her hands fluttered down to her sides. His reached up to frame her face. She self-consciously moistened her lips and she saw his eyes dart down briefly to track the movement of her tongue.
“Rose,” he began. His voice was rough.
“I—”
Her phone rang.
Blessing whatever force in the universe protected her from making a complete fool of herself, Rose pulled away from his touch, ducking her head as much to break eye contact as to dig the bleating device from her pocket. She flipped it open to check the display.
“S’Mickey,” she mumbled, “wonder what he wants. Hello?” she spoke into the receiver. She listened to Mickey’s rambling explanation, trying to ignore the Doctor as he moved away from her and began puttering at the console. It was difficult given that her entire body seemed tuned to his presence, the slightest shift in his movement. After a few minutes, she closed the phone. The Doctor was leaning over the console, examining the view screen intently, but she wondered how much of that was an act.
“He says there’s something going on at one of the local schools. Something about lights in the sky and UFO sightings, and weird behavior, and maybe some kids disappearing,” she hesitated to ask, but finally forged ahead, “think we should check it out?”
“Well, if Ricky says it’s a problem—”
“Mickey,” she inserted futilely.
“—then by all means, let’s rush to investigate the minutiae of everyday existence on Earth.”
“Look, there’s no need to get tetchy,” she began, “I just thought—”
“What? That your boyfriend hearing about a couple of pretty lights in the sky was more important than saving the entire universe from the ripple energy that you unleashed?”
A half-dozen angry, defensive retorts leapt to mind, but when she opened her mouth, her voice was soft, tentative, “There’s kids involved, Doctor.”
His mouth worked, but eventually settled into a grimace, shoulders sagging, “Oh, fine. We’ll check it out,” he began flipping controls, and the rotor began pumping and wheezing, “but don’t blame me if this detour ends up taking longer than we expected.”
Rose smiled tightly. She just hoped that by the end of it, they’d both have forgotten about the moment when she’d nearly ruined everything.
Rating: NC17 (eventually)
Media: Doctor Who (Season 2 AU)
Characters: Nine/Rose
Summary: In an infinite Universe nothing is set and everything is possible, but in choosing an alternate route there are always repercussions.
Spoilers: Doctor Who, New Seasons 1 & 2, Old Season 16
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, but I wouldn't mind ten minutes alone in the TARDIS
Archive: At A Teaspoon and an Open Mind. If you want it, check with me first.
Finished: Not by a long shot
Sorry it took so long to update. For some reason I had a real struggle with the chapter. It still feels like the middle is too plodding, not quick-paced enough.
On the other hand, romantic tension is reaching Code: Mauve.
Chapter 8 – Miner Complications
Foreman Ozlack stared at Rose following her pronouncement, his expression slowly hardening, a red flush rising up his neck. He opened his mouth, probably to demand just what she was going on about and to tell her to bugger off. She interrupted before he could get anything out. If there was one thing she’d learned from the Doctor and especially from that debacle with the Sycorax, it was that how you said something was sometimes more important than what you said.
“You see, the NUW has been working with…”she paused, pulled a name from her memory that the Foreman had seemed to respect, “with Mr. Fibuli to investigate the Mentiad threat. We’ve been put on Code: Mauve alert. We have reason to believe the Mentiads have tricked the scientists about the omens. That’s what my associate has gone to report. The Golden Age is coming faster than anyone knows. You have to believe me. You have to get those men out of there.”
Ozlack goggled a moment, and she waited for him to grab her and bodily expel her from his operation. Instead, he sagged slightly.
“Look, miss. I’m sure you believe that those men are in danger, and if they were I’d pull them out. I would. But I been mining longer than you’ve been breathing, and I know a thing or two about—”
He was interrupted by a buzz from his control console. He looked vaguely perturbed, but strode over and punched a button. From the speaker on the console emerged the sounds of bustling activity. Rose edged closer to listen in.
“Ozlack here.”
“Foreman Ozlack? This is Ensign Venton from the Bridge. We are a go for the new Golden Age in t-minus ten minutes. Confirm.”
Ozlack shot Rose an incredulous glance, but quickly turned back to the console. The beginnings of worry were coloring his tone, “Negative. Our drill is still blocked. I have men in the Hollow working on it.”
“Well, you better get your men out of there, Foreman. The demat—er…that is, the Golden Age is starting. We can’t do anything to stop it.”
Rose was on the verge of giving the Foreman a big, fat “I told you so”, when an exchange in the background of the broadcast caught her attention.
“No, Doctor,” a man’s condescending voice was saying, “not whilst we have the psychic interference transmitter.”
Rose caught Ozlack’s sleeve before he could cut off the com.
“What, that?” responded another man in a rich baritone.
“Yes, yes. You see, whilst that is fully operational the Mentiads are powerless,” the condescending man paused. Ozlack was looking at Rose in confusion, and she could hear the Ensign on the other end of the com asking if there was anything else the Foreman needed. She couldn’t quite make out the next exchange, but it sounded like it had something to do with the door. Just before Ozlack shook off her grip and shut down the com, she heard a third man shout "Stop Him!" in a booming voice.
Doctor? The Doctor? Her Doctor? She hadn’t recognized any of the voices, but she greatly doubted that the name she’d heard mentioned was just a coincidence. Wonderful. He’d managed to get himself caught or in some kind of jam, and now she’d have to go and rescue him. She wavered between exasperation and vindication. Served him right for leaving her behind.
“Looks like you were right,” the foreman was conceding grudgingly, “Sorry I doubted you, miss. Narell!” he called down the drill well, “emergency extraction. We’re winching you back up. Hang on,” he looked back at Rose, “You ever work a winch before? No? Well, I suppose you’ll have to go down and get the miners instead. You’ll need gear.” He moved quickly, handing her a map, helmet and lamp, then began flipping switches on the control panel. The winch jerked into reverse.
“Wait, what? Go down there? Don’t you have a com-system or something? Can’t you call them back that way?”
Ozlack looked at her like she was daft, “Com-system? With that much geo-interference?” He shook his head, “No, we have to do things the old-fashioned way down in the Hollow. Don’t worry. Shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes to get down there. Once you bring the men back up to the mid-levels you’ll be safe.” A beeping sounded from the console and Ozlack turned to fiddle with it. Rose hesitated. The Doctor needed her, but apparently so did the miners.
“But my friend, the one I came with, he’s…” she paused, reluctant to let the Foreman know that she and the Doctor weren’t exactly on the up and up, “he needs me up at the Bridge to…to advise him.”
“Miss,” the foreman fixed her with a stern gaze, “If I leave this winch, Narell might get stuck and die. We don’t have the most up-to-date equipment in case you hadn’t noticed. If somebody doesn’t go down and get those men, they’ll die. Just tell them I said it was an emergency extraction. I’m certain your friend can do without you for a few extra minutes.”
Rose dithered a moment longer, then resolutely clamped the helmet on her head and switched on the lamp.
“Right. You’re right,” she turned and hurried towards the basket lift, muttering under her breath, “Looks like I’m gonna save some canaries after all.”
***********************
The Doctor paused in his escape from the Bridge to open the closet where he’d stashed Sergeant Grieg.
“Sergeant,” he explained as he hopped into the skiff, before the startled guard could do anything more than stand, “This entire planet is about to suffer major earthquakes that will kill most of the people on the Bridge. In about an hour the Bridge is going to be blown to bits. Now, you could shoot me or take me captive or try to stop all this, but if I were you I’d leave this place, find whoever it is you care about, and make sure you all are safe before the world comes tumbling down…or out…or in. Got it?” He grinned when the confused guard nodded, “Fantastic!”
The Doctor slid the throttle forward, guiding the skiff away from the Bridge. He kept low, even though he was traveling in the opposite direction of his Fourth self and Romana. One close call had already been one too many.
He sensed trouble the moment he landed at the mining facility. He could see the Foreman working at the drill platform, but of the other miners and Rose there was no sign. Leaping from the skiff he jogged over to the Foreman.
“Where’s Rose?” the Doctor demanded.
The Foreman was in the process of helping a young, weedy-looking boy climb out of the well and free himself from a complicated harness. The boy glanced up at Rose’s name, a look of puppy-dog adoration on his features. The Doctor contained a snort. Another conquest for his Rose. He’d swear she collected them across space and time like those pokey-cards. The boy’s face fell when he realized there was no blonde in sight. The Doctor jostled the foreman’s arm.
“She’s just gone into the mines to warn the miners…get them out of the Hollow before—”
“She went into the mine!” the Doctor interrupted with rising alarm Of all the stupid, impetuous…he’d told her that the mines were dangerous, that they were going to…or had he? Cursing himself, he began sprinting towards the lift, checking his watch. Three minutes. He had three minutes before the tremors started, before the unstable crust of the hollow planet was bombarded by the effects of a transmat materialization convergence, before Rose was caught in a deathtrap of his making.
Frantic, he began pounding on the lift call button. He had to get her out of there.
*************************
Rose hurried through the lower levels of the mine, checking from time to time the map Ozlack had given her, although the noise of the miners was becoming more distinct.
“Hey!” she shouted, “Pisser? Anyone?” a light flashed from a steeply sloping shaft and she scrambled down towards it.
She emerged on a sturdy, iron scaffolding that had been embedded into the stone walls. The vast expanse of darkness above, below and all around her caused her to stumble slightly in awe. She grasped the railing of the scaffold as she was hit by a strong wave of vertigo. A gnarled hand reached out to support her, turning her gently away from the black nothingness.
“Breathe,” Pisser’s gravelly voice instructed.
“Yeah,” she gasped, fixing her gaze on the rock wall, the corridor from which she’d come. She tried to stammer an apology for her reaction, but Pisser just cut her off.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said, “happens to everyone. Nobody ever gets completely used to it. Some men never get over it. Me, I’ve come to find it a little comforting. S’like looking into the face of God or something. Reminds you how small and insignificant you are.”
She got the feeling he was not really considering his words…that he was just nattering on to give her time to recover. Something about what he said unearthed a deeply buried memory. No, she wanted to say, God’s face is suffused with golden light, not impenetrable blackness. Looking on it doesn’t make you feel small. It reminds you that you’re part of something bigger. She didn’t speak, but the anchorless memory bolstered her. She straightened and this time when the black swam into view at the edge of her vision, she didn’t flinch.
With the momentary vertigo overcome, she recalled her original mission in coming down here. Pisser and the other miners were gazing at her with various levels of curiosity and expectation.
“Foreman Ozlack. He sent me down to warn you. He just got a call from the Bridge people. The Hollow’s going to be filled in,” she glanced at her watch, “about three minutes. We have to get out of here. It’s an emergency whatsit.”
“Extraction?”
“Yeah.”
Pisser looked around at the miners, all of whom looked shocked, “Well, you heard the lass, men. Pack it up.” Startled into motion, the miners grabbed their gear and moved quickly to the corridor. Pisser and Rose hurried to bring up the rear.
The trip back out went much more quickly since Rose didn’t have to be constantly checking her rough map. She knew the instant they reached the safety of the mid-levels because all of the miners seemed to relax, their pace slowing from the previous urgency. She could tell they were nearing the main tunnel and the lift out when she heard a shout in a familiar Northern accent.
“Rose!”
She smiled. Apparently she hadn’t needed to rescue him after all. His lean form appeared at the mouth of the tunnel they were traversing, and her stomach did an odd flip-flop at seeing him. She ruthlessly tamped down on the reaction at the same time that she flashed him her widest grin. The grin dimmed as she realized he wasn’t grinning back – was instead frantically gesturing for them all to hurry.
“Run!” he shouted.
Before she had the chance to react, in the brief second between thought and action, the world began to collapse.
“Doctor!” she screamed as she was thrown against Pisser and both of them were knocked to the ground. Most of the miners had been knocked over by the sudden, massive tremors that shook the tunnel. She tried to scramble up, to regain her footing, to move forward, but the unstable ground made it difficult. She heard a groan beneath her and realized that in cushioning her fall Pisser had knocked his head against a rocky outcropping.
“Pisser!” she braced her hand against the wall, which helped to steady her slightly, and helped the groggy miner to rise, guiding him against the wall as well. She grunted from the mans weight and another miner assisted her, draping Pisser’s arm over his shoulders and supporting him at the waist. Small rocks and rubble began to rain down from above as the shaking grew progressively worse.
Then the Doctor was at her side, wrapping long arms about her, hugging her so tightly she worried a moment about being able to breath. He pulled back slightly and grinned, as if they weren’t trapped underground in the middle of a massive earthquake.
“What have you been up to? Keeping yourself out of trouble?”
“Just saving some canaries. You?”
“Nothing as exciting as this. I miss out on all the fun,” as quickly as it had appeared, his humor was gone, replaced by deadly seriousness, “we have to get out of here before the whole place collapses. The shaking’s only going to get worse. Think you can make it to the TARDIS?”
“What about them?” she motioned to the miners, who had managed to get to their feet and were making a stumbling passage up the tunnel towards the lift, “we can’t just leave them…what if the shaft collapses.”
“Right,” the Doctor threaded his fingers through hers and they both lurched their way forward, using the wall to steady them, “You lot! You’ll never make it out that way. Follow me.” He turned the opposite direction from the lift shaft, back towards where they’d left the TARDIS, tugging on Rose’s hand when she paused to see if the miners were following.
The men had hesitated at the junction, vacillating between a known egress that was sure to be unsafe and the promise of the unknown. It was Pisser, still being supported by one of his fellow miners, who decided them.
“I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m following the Inspector and Miss Rose. They’re the experts down here.”
Rose beamed at the old man, and then they were all rushing down the corridor towards safety. She and the Doctor stumbled several times, and she could hear the miners behind them struggling to keep up. At one point the Doctor practically yanked her arm out of its socket to pull her aside from a large tumble of falling boulders. She fell into him, knocking him into the cave wall, and they both fought to keep breath and footing. Then the corridor opened up and they were racing across the cavern to the safety of the blue police box. Crystal mushroom light danced crazily off the walls and the ground lurched even more violently beneath them. Without the walls to lend support, their dash became a graceless scrambling.
The Doctor threw open the doors of the TARDIS, ushering her and the miners inside and slamming it shut. Several miners collapsed on the grating, their legs unaccustomed to the sudden steadiness of the ground after so much shaking. Rose pulled her way up the ramp after the Doctor, supporting herself with the railing. Making it to the captain’s chair, she sank bonelessly into the cushions and watched as the Doctor checked the TARDIS’s controls. After a moment, he sank down beside her. She leaned into him, using his physical presence to remind her that they were both okay. His arm slid around her waist, and for the briefest moment she thought she felt his lips brush the top of her head. She pulled back, sure she must have been mistaken.
“Looks like the entire shaft has collapsed. We’ll have to dematerialize to the surface. It’ll be a few moments before it’s safe to do that,” the Doctor said quietly. Rose glanced over to the miners, most of whom were only just now noticing the ship’s unusual dimensions. Only Pisser seemed to have fully recovered, and was hobbling his way over to them.
“What is this place?” He asked.
“Special mining lift,” the Doctor replied, rising again, “reinforced against tremors. It’ll have us back on the surface in no time,”
“Hmm,’ he glanced around skeptically, “awfully roomy for a lift. Guess it’s part of those benefits you were talking about, huh miss?” It took Rose a moment to realize he was referring to her earlier talks about unionizing. She struggled with an answer, but the Doctor was much quicker on the uptake.
“Oh, yes. Remarkable what workers can accomplish if you lot band together. Not to mention the importance of being connected to the products of your labor. You should consider what Rose told you,” the Doctor was pulling levers now, and Rose could feel the subtle vibrations of the TARDIS in flight. Amazingly, there was none of the usual shaking about, just a gentle, almost imperceptible rocking. The rocking stopped and the Doctor strode back down the ramp. Rose and Pisser followed.
“It’s going to be a different world out there,” the Doctor was saying, “you need to take care of it. Be careful not to over-mine it. Sustainable use of resources, that’s what you need to get accustomed to. But you’ll do fine,” he clapped Pisser on the shoulder, then flung open the doors. Pale sunlight streamed in, and outside Rose could see grassy hills and in the distance a town of squat buildings.
The miners filed out, Pisser nodding contemplatively at the Doctor’s words. Unexpectedly, the old man turned and engulfed Rose in an awkward hug.
“Thanks for coming for us, Miss. We’d have been dead if it weren’t for you.”
Rose squeezed him back, “Naw, don’t think anything of it. You just take care and make sure you don’t let anyone get away with treating the miners like they have been, okay?”
“Will do, miss,” he tugged his cap and began to walk away, then turned back to her, “Oh, and miss…my name? It’s Pinzer.”
“Oh. Right. Sorry,” she responded, flushing guiltily, but he had already smiled and turned away. Rose closed the doors to the TARDIS and turned back to the console room. The Doctor was leaning casually against one of the supports, arms and legs crossed, small smile on his lips.
“I was right. You collect them.”
“What’s this? Collect what?” he just grinned wider, “What do I collect?”
He still didn’t answer. She strode back up the ramp and planted herself in front of him, “C’mon, tell. What do you mean?” She pushed against his shoulder.
“Just you and your boyfriends, scattered across the universe.”
“What, him?” She gestured back towards the door, “He’s old enough to be my father. My grandfather, even.”
“Oh, so age gaps are a problem for you?”
Any response she might have made choked in her throat. That jibe had been a little too close for her comfort. She vividly recalled words she’d spoken to him so long ago, on the top of one of the Council Estate buildings – That is one hell of an age gap. She wanted to assure him that, no, where he was concerned age gaps didn’t matter a whit.
“So,” she floundered for another topic, “mission accomplished then? We on to the next one?”
“We could be, but you might want to shower and change,” she glanced down to see that she had been turned a uniform pale white from the mine dust, looking back up just in time to catch his smirk.
“Don’t you laugh at me. You don’t look any better, you know. You could be a distant cousin of the Cliffs of Dover,” she reached up with both hands to brush pale dust from the shoulders of his jacket, then her hands moved to his hair, ruffling it slightly. She smiled as a cloud of the dust rose above his head. Then she realized that he had a darker smudge of dust along one cheek, and it seemed perfectly reasonable to rub at it gently with her thumb.
Then she realized that she’d had to move quite close to reach up to him, her chest practically brushing against his. And she realized that he wasn’t moving. Or blinking. Or breathing.
Oh, bollocks.
She gulped, eyes suddenly wide as they met his intense gaze. Her hands fluttered down to her sides. His reached up to frame her face. She self-consciously moistened her lips and she saw his eyes dart down briefly to track the movement of her tongue.
“Rose,” he began. His voice was rough.
“I—”
Her phone rang.
Blessing whatever force in the universe protected her from making a complete fool of herself, Rose pulled away from his touch, ducking her head as much to break eye contact as to dig the bleating device from her pocket. She flipped it open to check the display.
“S’Mickey,” she mumbled, “wonder what he wants. Hello?” she spoke into the receiver. She listened to Mickey’s rambling explanation, trying to ignore the Doctor as he moved away from her and began puttering at the console. It was difficult given that her entire body seemed tuned to his presence, the slightest shift in his movement. After a few minutes, she closed the phone. The Doctor was leaning over the console, examining the view screen intently, but she wondered how much of that was an act.
“He says there’s something going on at one of the local schools. Something about lights in the sky and UFO sightings, and weird behavior, and maybe some kids disappearing,” she hesitated to ask, but finally forged ahead, “think we should check it out?”
“Well, if Ricky says it’s a problem—”
“Mickey,” she inserted futilely.
“—then by all means, let’s rush to investigate the minutiae of everyday existence on Earth.”
“Look, there’s no need to get tetchy,” she began, “I just thought—”
“What? That your boyfriend hearing about a couple of pretty lights in the sky was more important than saving the entire universe from the ripple energy that you unleashed?”
A half-dozen angry, defensive retorts leapt to mind, but when she opened her mouth, her voice was soft, tentative, “There’s kids involved, Doctor.”
His mouth worked, but eventually settled into a grimace, shoulders sagging, “Oh, fine. We’ll check it out,” he began flipping controls, and the rotor began pumping and wheezing, “but don’t blame me if this detour ends up taking longer than we expected.”
Rose smiled tightly. She just hoped that by the end of it, they’d both have forgotten about the moment when she’d nearly ruined everything.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-12-07 03:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-07 02:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-07 05:33 am (UTC)“I—”
Her phone rang.
GAH! Motherfucker! Stupid phone! *stomps on cell phone*
no subject
Date: 2006-12-07 06:18 am (UTC)*Runs around room screaming*
Damn!
no subject
Date: 2006-12-07 02:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-07 03:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-07 02:04 pm (UTC)Don't worry, only a little while longer until the UST breaks.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-07 06:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-07 02:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-10 01:18 am (UTC)