tampered | Log; Completed

The Doctor really didn't need any help putting the TARDIS back together after Lucy's attack, but it would be nice to have some help and it was a good chance to meet Toshiko. He had followed her on the network and knew about her from Jack, but it was always nice to meet someone in person.

With the knock on the door the Doctor opened it up and smiled broadly at the woman, all trace of the pain he felt at having the TARDIS attacked was lost behind the jovial mask.

"Toshiko, welcome! It's so nice to finally meet you!"

"It's nice to meet you too, Doctor," Tosh replied, with a warm smile. There'd been that whole thing on the Titanic, but she didn't exactly count it as meeting a person when that person didn't even know who they really were. Also, she was keen to put that whole experience out of her head.

"And it's nice to get a chance to meet the famous TARDIS as well."

The Doctor stepped aside and let Toshiko come into the TARDIS. He was immensely proud if it but this was one of the times it looked less than her best. He had worked hard to get her up to snuff but there was still a good deal of broken or strewn about parts.

"I wish it was under better circumstances," he said, lovingly running a hand along the console in the middle of the ship, there was a flicker of pain on his face before it brightened into a smile. "But that won't be the case for long, right?"

"So do I," Tosh agreed, frowning at the damage she saw. "But I don't mind, and we'll have her shipshape in no time."

She was a bit nervous about touching anything without invitation, and hugged her bag in her arms as she gazed around. It really was incredible, even in its current state. "Is it...she? Really alive?"

"She is," the Doctor said with a nod. "A TARDIS is grown, not built. There's used to be thousands of them and now... just this one. Now if you look over here..."

The Doctor let her around to the other side of the command console to where there was a deceptively small door.

"Is the door to the Eye of Harmony. It's the black hole that powers the TARDIS. Sort of think of that as a 'do not touch if tampered with it could destroy all immediate reality' type area."

"It's powered by a black hole?" Tosh looked up at the Doctor, incredulous. "Right, well, I'm fond of reality so I'll just be keeping myself on this side of the door."

Which, she was sure, was the whole point to being shown. And she certainly wasn't going to have to be told twice.

"Well, serious time travel involves some serious power. Plus you might have noticed the TARDIS is a bit bigger on the inside than on the outside," he said with a grin. "That sort of technology takes a lot of energy to power."

The Eye of Harmony was really one of the pinnacles of Time Lord technology, it was what made just about everything else possible. When you had a big enough power source what you could do was almost limitless.

"There are some parts of her navigation systems that I haven't got going just yet," he told her, pointing to a lever and some circuit boards that were lying down on the ground. "If you want to take a look and see if you can figure out how they go up there?"

"You know, it's one of those things where it's obviously bigger on the inside, but I hadn't really thought about it until you mentioned it. That's because of the black hole itself, or is it some technology that's powered by the black hole?"

Ooh, circuit boards! Tosh was itching to get her hands on the TARDIS's workings, and she nodded quickly at the suggestion. "Absolutely! Let me unpack and I'll get right on it!"

"Really, it's sort of the first thing most people mention. Well, most of the time they just stare at it with their mouth open. Well done for not doing that," he complimented her. "But no, the black hole is just a power source that powers the technology."

Meandering over to where she was unpacking the Doctor hovered a bit as he watched. "So what sorts of tools do you have?"

"I was absolutely staring with my mouth open on the inside," Tosh laughed. "There might also have been some squeeing."

She filed away the bit of information about black hole-powered technology, and tech that made things bigger on the inside (which played merry havoc with all kinds of laws of physics, and that sort of thing just made Tosh gleeful). At the Doctor's question, she gave a sheepish shrug.

"Oh, just the usual sort of things -- screwdrivers, spanners, forceps, soldering iron, miniature welding torch...stuff you can find in any hardware store really. I've modified my PDA a bit, but all of the really good stuff got left behind."

"Well, at least you looked very composed on the outside," the Doctor said with a grin. "Style definitely counts for something."

The Doctor glanced over her equipment. It was all rather primitive but he understood in the City sometimes you had to make due with what you had. Not everyone could have a sonicscrewdriver.

"Oh I think that will be more than sufficient for most of the work."

Tosh smiled gratefully and picked up one of the circuit boards to examine it.

"Would have been a lot better prepared if the City had been nice enough to send a note beforehand," she joked. "How long have you been here, anyway?"

The Doctor glanced at what Tosh and picked up and scratched his head for a moment as he puzzled over what it was for. Some of this stuff hadn't come out of the TARDIS in a long time.

"Oh, that's for temporal navigation, if that helps at all. And it would be rather nice of the City gave us a note, wouldn't it?" he said, smiling and nodding in agreement. "And I've been here for a few months, but I went back for a short while in December."

Tosh nodded thoughtfully. "I think it will help. Always easier when you know what the bits are supposed to do."

She looked up quickly, remembering that she'd heard something about the Doctor having left and returned. "Jack and Owen disappeared for a day, during the mirror curse. I think they went home. Did you come back because you wanted to, or because you had to?"

"Yeah but isn't it fun sometimes to just stick them where they fit and see what happens?" he asked, a bit of a mischievous look on his face. "Or when you see a big red button and you just can't help but push it? I love pushing big red buttons..."

He didn't miss how quickly she looked up when he mentioned that he had gone back home. The Doctor knew from talking to Ianto that Tosh was one of the people from Torchwood that died in the near future.

"It was a bit of both," the Doctor admitted. "I didn't exactly remember this place but I knew there was somewhere I had to get back to. I think the TARDIS did most of the work getting me here."

Tosh grinned. "Yeah, that is sometimes the best part. I do usually know better than to randomly push red buttons, though. I'd rather take the thing with the red button apart and see how it's made and figure out what it does that way. It's lot easier on the equipment."

Looking thoughtful, she watched the Doctor intently as he talked about his return. "So you sort of...chose to come back, and managed it because of the TARDIS?"

"I never find myself with much time to examine the button," the Doctor said, scratching his head as he thought back to all the big red buttons he had pushed. Usually things were a bit to frantic.

"Well, it's a bit complicated but I think I was half taken back and the TARDIS half brought me back," he told her, reaching out to stroke the console. "She knew there were things back here I needed."

"That would definitely change things. Suppose if I really didn't have the time to think too much on it, I'd probably push the red button too."

Tosh went back to examining the circuit boards and the spot the Doctor had told her they belonged, but she was working out more than one puzzle in her mind as she did. "Wonder if it'd be possible to build something that would pull you back after a certain amount of time," she murmured.

"Oh, that's the best way to be, Tosh," the Doctor said, still grinning in approval. "When in a tight spot, always push the big red button."

Crouching down, the Doctor began to repair another portion of the console, one of the parts that was actually damaged severely and not just ripped out. Taking out the sonic screwdriver he began to pass it over the area.

"Well, once you know where you need to go and where you are that wouldn't be so hard," he told her. "Sort of like setting a radio to jump between two stations."

"Worst thing it can do is blow everything up, which is probably what would have happened anyway?" Tosh replied, smiling back at him.

She spent a moment being distracted by the sonic screwdriver, which was shiny and now she really wanted one and she didn't even know what it was.

"So if you already knew ahead of time where you'd need to leave from, and when, and where you needed to come back to... Maybe something that two parts? One that got left where you wanted back to, and one you carried with you."

"Exactly, they hate it when you blow things up prematurely," he said. It always disrupted their plans when you started blowing things up.

"Well, you could do it in two parts. The TARDIS could do it by herself if she was working properly but she's been having some troubles," he explained. "This place is outside of time and space and shouldn't exist. She has trouble readjusting."

"She's just like the rest of us then," Tosh said wryly, reaching out to gently pat the wall next to her. "Don't imagine I'd be able to build anything like a TARDIS, though, even if I had a spare black hole lying around. But maybe two pieces that were attracted to one another, like magnets. Only...well, not really anything like magnets."

She carefully begins to fit one of the circuit boards back into place, handling everything as gentle as possible since she's not sure how fragile any of it might be, especially after being damaged.

Log; Completed

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject