And you say that time goes rushing by, but it seems so slow to me...

[thatsortofaman.livejournal.com]

Any other day, maybe, the Doctor might be wandering the ship, looking for something interesting to pull apart or poke his nose into. He still hasn't had a chance to inspect the brain of the ship, after all, and there's that great big city he'd like to explore as well...

But right now, he'd rather not. He's tired and annoyed, and any place he could wander, it wouldn't be far enough. So instead, the Doctor has sprawled on his back, halfway upside down, on one of the couches on the Obs Deck. It seemed as good a place as any to sit still for a while - maybe not the place to go if he wanted to be alone, but he'll take company over quiet just now.

He doesn't actually seem to be paying attention to anyone who might be in the room, though. Instead, he's playing with an unidentifiable bit of patched-together technology - it's got buttons and flashy lights and a little dish and there is absolutely no outward indication of what it actually does. It's... entirely possible it's not meant to do anything, at least at the moment; he just wanted something to do with his hands, though someone to talk to (or talk at) would undoubtedly be a better distraction.

Comments

[bonnypiperlad]

"How would that work, anyway? If ye were able to get close enough?" Jamie knows perfectly well that he probably won't understand most of the explanation, but maybe if he asks enough questions, it'll keep the Doctor from being bored. It's worth a try, at any rate.

In the meantime, he shifts position so he's got his back propped up by the arm instead of his side. The practice chanter - which was in the hand resting on his hip - is brought up, and Jamie plays a few simple notes before lowering it again.

"I've not died of boredom yet," he says dryly, "So I think ye will probably be fine."

[thatsortofaman.livejournal.com]

"Well, yeah, but that's you. No offense, of course, it's just... different. For me. Going through time all in the proper order." He considers that for a second, and then groans a little, muttering under his breath, "This is going to be 1969 all over again."

Which isn't quite fair, because at least he's able to travel this time, and no one has to get a job in a shop, but he's fairly certain Jamie's not about to call him on being overdramatic about the whole thing. He appreciates that.

He glances up after a moment, eyeing the chanter in Jamie's hand with an expression somewhere between amused and wary. "You, ah... haven't got bagpipes on this ship, have you?"

[bonnypiperlad]

The Doctor would be correct in that Jamie's not going to call him out on being overdramatic, but there may just be a teeny bit of an eyeroll that happens when he thinks the Time Lord's not looking.

Even so, the Doctor has a point. Jamie may find it easier coping with the situation because he's human, but he still knows what it's like to travel through time. He thinks about this for a moment. How can he try and put it so it doesn't seem as bad? If they can defeat the Ohm and restore their universes, presumably the TARDIS would be functional again, and things can go back to normal. If he suggests it being a temporary situation, that might work.

"Ye seemed fine enough with it when we were on adventures. Maybe if ye thought of it as only being for a wee bit, aye?"

Satisfied with this attempt, he resumes messing around on the chanter, only to glance up himself at the question. He's not entirely sure he likes that particular expression on the Doctor's face, and he remembers the distinct lack of enthusiasm at that long-ago offer to fix the pipes that he had found in the chest on the TARDIS. Accordingly, he's a little wary himself when he replies.

"Aye, I do. They were able to find me a set for the funeral."

[thatsortofaman.livejournal.com]

The Doctor smiles a little, and decides to let the matter rest for the moment. He doesn't need Jamie worrying about him - he's probably got his own problems here on the ship, and as much as it might bother him, a little boredom won't kill him. Probably.

He nods slowly at Jamie's answer. "Well, that's... good..." he says, though he sounds as if he's not entirely sure about it. He remembers not being fond of bagpipes in the past, but who knows, maybe this regeneration might enjoy them. It hasn't exactly come up before, this time around.

"I mean... you know... always good to have things to keep you occupied - not you specifically, mind... There was a funeral?" he asks abruptly, changing tacks without much warning. "Who died?"

The second he says it, the Doctor finds himself rather hoping it wasn't someone Jamie was close to. That question... could have been phrased more tactfully.

[bonnypiperlad]

He doesn't answer right away. Instead, Jamie carefully sets the chanter down on a free space on the meat-couch, and pulls out his Omnicomm from where he usually keeps it in his sporran.

While he's still fairly slow at using the device, it's clear that he's handled it enough by now that he knows what he's doing. It takes him a minute or two, but he does find what he's looking for, and offers the device out to the Doctor.

There's a list of names there that seems to stretch on and on. Over five thousand souls lost.

"It was for them," Jamie says finally, his voice quite soft. "They died when some of the crew went to free the bridge. One of the crew died as well. He was..." Not a friend, no. But someone Jamie thought he could have at least gotten to know better, and he regrets he never did. "He died to save the rest of us."

[thatsortofaman.livejournal.com]

The Doctor takes the omnicomm from him and starts scrolling through it, fast as the device will scroll. He reads very quickly, and while there's little chance he'll recognise any of the names on that list... he still has to check.

"I'm sorry," he says quietly, glancing briefly back to Jamie. "But... how did this happen? There are thousands of names on this list. How do that many people die trying to get to the bridge of a ship? Even on a ship as big as this one..."

[bonnypiperlad]

There shouldn't be anyone listed that the Doctor will know - there's so many people in the pods that the chances of that are infinitesimal, even for someone like the Time Lord. Jamie had looked himself, but found none of the people he personally traveled with, which was a relief. Or, really, as much of a relief as it could have been at the time.

He picks up the chanter again, turning it in his hands and studying it for a moment before he explains.

"They...didn't go to the bridge. No one knew what was waiting, so only a small part of the crew went there. The rest of us went to wait in the City."

Jamie pauses for a moment, reluctant to continue. Horrible things have happened before, but this was on a scale he'd never seen, even when he traveled with the Doctor. Even Culloden wasn't like this - at least the Highlanders got to fight before they died.

"One of the AIs tried to kill us there by releasing some...things that were kept locked away. Have ye ever heard of zombies, Doctor?"

((OOC: mods had said at the time that the names weren't anyone the crew recognizes so I'm going with that, if that's okay with you?))

[thatsortofaman.livejournal.com]

He reaches the end of the list without any particular name catching his attention or jarring his memory, and that's something, at least. Still terrible, still... horrifying, that many people dying at once, but it's nothing he's not used to... and no one he knows. He'll allow himself a bit of selfish relief at that.

The Doctor sets Jamie's omnicomm down on the couch beside him, and glances up at him once more. "Zombies, as in... reanimated corpses? The walking dead? Taste for brains, or... flesh, anyway?" He nods a little, with a slight frown. He can pretty much guess where that question is leading, and he doesn't much like it. "Never run into anything I'd call a zombie, but... I have heard of them, yes."

[bonnypiperlad]

He doesn't pick up the Omnicomm right away, as he's still caught up in his seeming study of the chanter. He's not really looking at it - instead, he's staring just past it at a spot on the floor.

"Aye, those. They...got into the pods first." Jamie frowns slightly as well, uncertain about how exactly the people became zombies other than the 'they died horribly' part. He hadn't seen any of the transformations first hand, so he keeps the explanation fairly simple. He figures the Doctor will be able to figure out the details of what happened there, anyway.

"They made more of themselves that way, then came after the rest of us."

[thatsortofaman.livejournal.com]

The Doctor winces. Even not knowing about these specific zombies... he can guess how unpleasant all of that was. Still, at least the people who were attacked in the pods probably weren't conscious. Hopefully weren't conscious, anyway...

"On second thought, I guess boring's not so bad, on this ship..." He smiles, and even if the cheerfulness may be put on, he's very good at faking it. "And anyway, you survived, and it's not likely to happen again. Probably. Is it? No one here decided to... I don't know, keep one for experimentation or anything?"

That could be bad, but setting aside that possibility, zombie attacks just can't happen all that often.

[bonnypiperlad]

Jamie's willing to take the cheerfulness even if it's faked. While his thoughts likely won't go to thinking about if the people in the pods who died were awake or not, he really doesn't care to dwell any longer on something he can't change. He finally reaches over to retrieve the Omnicom, and puts the device away.

"Aye, it's not so bad," he says with a nod. Hopefully that means that the Doctor's gotten past being convinced he'll die of boredom. He's got a suspicion that it's likely not the case, though. A rather dry note enters his voice as he adds, "It's a wee bit easier on the City, too. Seems like it's just getting fixed when something or other happens to it."

There's times when it's considerably less boring on the ship. Although, personally, Jamie's just as happy that it won't be zombies in the future. He hopes. Still, he shakes his head.

"No, they'll not trouble us again. Stacy destroyed the ones that were attacking once she knew they were there, and they had us get rid of the plantsuits...in case those were infected, aye? I'd not say there'd be anything left. Unless...och, no. They'd not be so daft as to keep samples around."

He gives the Doctor a rather worried look. "Would they?"

[thatsortofaman.livejournal.com]

The Doctor's silent for a moment, looking thoughtful, and finally shrugs. "Very hard to say. You'd know the people on this ship better than I do, so... if someone here's likely to do that, your judgement's probably better than mind. However, generally speaking... I will say that scientific curiosity can make people do some pretty stupid things."

He should know, after all - though his stupidity in those matters tends toward poking dangerous things with sticks and not running away fast enough, not keeping samples or specimens of deadly creatures.

He pauses momentarily, considering, and then realises he could have been... a bit more encouraging there. "But I'm sure it's fine!" he adds. "Almost definitely fine. The crew, they're... mostly sensible people, yeah? Common sense and-or senses of self-preservation more or less intact?"

[bonnypiperlad]

From the look Jamie has on his face, he's not at all certain that there aren't at least one or two members of the crew capable of letting their curiosity get the better of them. He may also be including himself in that, although he probably wouldn't qualify it as 'scientific'. More 'impulsive'. He also doesn't actually mention this out loud.

"Aye. I would say most of them are...sensible. Dr. Sera would know if there was anything like those samples, though," Jamie says instead. "He usually can be found in Contagion..er, Contagion Containment and Treatment. I think that's where the zombies were before they were released."

A thought occurs to him them - maybe the Doctor would be able to find something there that would help with the boredom. He visibly brightens. "Hey! There's a lot of things in there that ye might find interesting, come to think of it."

[thatsortofaman.livejournal.com]

The Doctor perks a little at that, like a dog swiveling its ears forward in interest, possibly after spotting something small and furry and fun to chase. "Are there really? Contagion Containment... Probably a lab of some sort, am I right? I love a good lab..."

Not so much for the laboratory itself - though that's useful, he's been known to do his science just as comfortably sprawled on the floor in the balcony of a theatre as in a sanitized and polished lab - but because laboratories are where you find scientists. The Doctor - this Doctor, anyway - will never pass up a chance to meet someone clever and scientifically-inclined.

[bonnypiperlad]

"Eh?" Jamie's thoughts had wandered off for a moment as he wondered idly what a meeting between the Doctor and Dr. Sera would be like, but he catches on to the question quickly enough. "Oh, aye. It's a lab of some sort. I was only there the one time, but Dr. Sera was working on something for..."

Jamie breaks off, frowning. He can't remember who it was. Maybe Dr. Sera hadn't mentioned the name? That seems likely. It's not like Jamie would have needed to know who it was anyway. There's a shrug and he says, "Someone, anyway. I don't think he said."