FIC: Timepiece (Rose, Romana I, PG-13, 3/5)

[lizbee]

Summary: Unscrupulous temporal engineers and a major breach in the laws of time lead Rose Tyler and the first Romana to join forces to rescue the Doctor. Both of him.
Rated: PG-13
Notes: So, I posted the first three chapters a few months back.  But it's been a while, and I changed a couple of minor details in the early chapters, so I decided to repost. 


Timepiece
by LizBee


Three

Romana led Rose through the liner's drab corridors.  They passed a few people, fellow passengers and staff.  Everyone ignored them.

"Wait," Rose hissed.  Footsteps were approaching.  Heavy boots.  Rose unsealed the door of what she hoped was an empty storage locker, and pulled Romana inside.

They held their breath as the footsteps passed.

"How can we get off the liner?" Rose whispered.  "Steal an escape pod?"

"Escape pods are conspicuous and almost impossible to pilot.  It will have to be a shuttle."

"Sounds good."

"Of course," Romana added, "a shuttle will certainly be guarded."

"Times like this," Rose said, "and they don't come often, I ask myself, what would my mother do?"

"And?"

Rose straightened her spine, smoothed her hair, put her shoulders back and her chest out.

"Flirt, bribe and distract," she said proudly.

"How quaint," Romana said.

"Got any better ideas?"

"In the absence of K9?  No."

"Don't worry."  Rose reached for the door release.  "Just smile at the guards a bit.  That's like a weapon anyway."

Bribery was unnecessary in the end, which was good, since they were running out of money.  Flirtation and distraction, on the other hand, were maybe a bit too successful.  They got their shuttle.  Only the guard came too.

His name was Kev; he was a human from the Titan colony, and he was twenty-eight.  He'd gone into private security after failing to get into the police.  There was, he hinted to Rose, a tragic romance that had driven him so far from home.  But Temnein was weird and miserable; it was always day there, and there were rumours about what went on in the admin zone beneath the markets.  And now this business of seeking and snatching time travelers, and he was a pacifist at heart, and wanted to get away, maybe meet a nice girl and settle down (this was to Romana).  If she wanted to, that is.

"How long have they been taking time travelers?" Romana asked.

"Oh, days.  Well, a day.  I mean, I heard it had happened once before.  Earlier today.  On another liner.  On the other side of the system."

"What's it mean?" Rose asked as soon as he was distracted.

"I think they've learned something from the Doctor," said Romana.  "And now they need ... more energy."  She frowned.  "I took us back to a point two days before he was taken, to give us time to take the slow route to Temnein, but that whole planet is subject to massive temporal distortions.  I may have miscalculated..."

"Then," said Rose, swallowing her frustration, "we'd better hurry."

"Yes," said Romana with a hint of sharpness, "I'm quite aware of that."

"Right.  Sorry."

"If," Romana said slowly, "if we fail ... and we survive ... you might want to come with me."  She looked suddenly shy.  "I'll have to continue the search for the Key, and I'll need an assistant ... and I don't want to do it alone."

Rose couldn't think of anything worse, but at least she'd be able to get home.  Probably.  She shrugged and looked away.

"The Temnons have the TARDIS, too," Romana said sadly.  "My TARDIS, I mean, my home.  Not that they'll be able to get inside..."

"Well," said Rose firmly, "at least we'll have a way out then, yeah?"

"True," said Romana.  She turned away to start preparing the beacons that would get them through Temnein's outer defenses, and said no more.

They landed without incident on the outer edge of the markets.  Kev shook his head.

"If I were you," he said, "I'd have gone straight in the opposite direction.  Anywhere but here."

"We have business to attend to," Romana told him.  "But there is something you could do for us...?"

Kev looked intrigued but wary.  "Let me guess.  Guard the shuttle."

Romana laughed.  "Much more important than that," she said, but whatever it was, Rose couldn't hear.

"Is it just me," she said as they set out for the entrance to the subterranean city, "or is the wind picking up?"

"It's not just you."  Romana pointed upwards.  "The time bubble is weakening.  Stray seconds are leaking through.  The storm is coming in."

"We're on the core of a gas planet," said Rose, looking at the storms swirling overhead.

"Yes," said Romana patiently.

"That's not good."

"No.  But don't worry."  Romana looked pleased with herself.  "It's all in hand."

They changed into their drab technicians' disguises behind a convenient outcropping of rocks.  Rose was worried about surveillance cameras, and not just because she didn't want to end up on an alien pervert's website ... or whatever ... but Romana seemed unconcerned.  Which was either alien genius or blindness, Rose couldn't say which.

No one stopped them from entering the administration wing.  No one gave them a second glance as they emerged from a long, carpeted corridor into the bio-cybernetics labs.

"What now?" Rose asked quietly.

"We find out where they keep their biological components," said Romana.  She had looked over the computer for a moment, then got to work as if she'd been using it all her life.  Rose watched her for a moment, then went to keep a look-out.

"Come on," said Romana, grabbing her shoulder.  Rose jumped.  "This way."

One hall, then another.  A woman in a blue coat stopped and told them to fix her vid-screen, she'd been requesting an upgrade for an age, and now it wasn't working at all.  Romana promised they'd get to it as soon as possible, and the woman moved on.

They passed two guards, talking between themselves.

"Between you and me," said one, "I wish they'd hurry up and finish the integration.  At least he'd stop talking."

Rose glanced at Romana, and dared a thumbs up.  Romana nodded.

They turned down the corridor from which the guards had come.  There was a plain white door at the end.

Romana pulled something from her pocket and fiddled with the lock.

Rose said, "Hey, you have a sonic--" but Romana hushed her.  The door swung open.

The room was empty.

"Sorry," said a voice behind them, "were you looking for me?"

Rose and Romana turned.

"Doctor?" they said.


chapter four