Spring Cleaning, Round 2 [Backdated to just after podpop]

[fantastix]

Who: The Doctors, their assistants and friends, some visitors [Open], and the Master.
Where: The TARDIS, the blue police box located in the Hangar.
Summary: Somebody's made a mess of the old ship. The Doctors are very unhappy. Time to dig in and clean up! Also, there's some necessary hashing-out of titles and ownership between three men who happen to be the same person. And a bit of a problem arises...
Warnings: Possibly mild swearing on Nine's part.


The Doctor and his immediate successor with the long coat had run straight from the Observation Deck when they'd learned where the TARDIS was and gotten their bearings. They'd been whisked through the uncomfortable transport tubes, spilled into an arsenal of ships, and been left to search. Luckily, as diminished as their abilities were, they could still sense the old girl. It wasn't long before she was found.

They wasted no time in opening the door, winding up in a console room that could never fit inside the seemingly small exterior of the police box without some serious dimensional shifting. It was a wide space, well-lit, but definitely not the room the two new arrivals were used to.

Here, they'd finally find this other Doctor the other crew members have told them so much about. And with any luck, they'll have some answers too.

Comments

[lastgallifreyan]

"Well, normally there would be lots of ways for us to look around. But we're not sure where everything is at the moment. We might crawl down a vent and find ourselves in the bog. Or trapped underwater in the aquarium."

He rubbed the back of his neck.

"They are books. They're intelligent. We could always ... try and reason with them?"

That was where his strength lay, even if it didn't always end up going according to plan.

[fantastix]

"Right, but someone should have a torch right behind them. Just in case that doesn't work," he insisted, crossing his arms. What he'd said was perfectly good! Okay, so some of the details were missing, but they'd work it out along the way.

"Think we'll get any more from listening to it shuffle, or should we go?"

[first_in_time]

"We should do something now rather than letting it continue." While Barbara, like everyone there, was against any kind of harm toward books, something needed to be done and it had to be done soon.

"Look, why don't a couple of people head in as a distraction? Arm yourselves with some of the broken Dalek casing like shields, while the second half of us try and...I don't know...capture it somehow? Throw a net over it, or trap it in a box?" It all seemed logical to Barbara.

[lastgallifreyan]

It was a good suggestion, but the Doctor had to shake his head.

"No, there's too many of them. And they're quick. We won't get them all that way."

In fact, they'd probably just make them angry.

[bonnypiperlad]

Jamie pursed his lips, thinking. A net would be a good idea, but if this library beastie's as big as the Doctor seems to think, they'd not have anything nearly big enough. But if they could somehow trap it even so, box it in and make it look like there was no way out, maybe then it'd be willing to cooperate. But how would they manage that?

He brought his hand up to stroke at his chin, and his eyes caught a glimpse of one of the morphers attached to his wrist. Something sparked in his eyes - that particular look that generally heralds a plan he's come up with - and he straightened up, turning to gesture at the others.

"Hey, Doctor! I think I have an idea that just might work. What if we made it think it could get burnt, even though we've no intentions of doing so? Block off the exit here with a large enough source of fire, and it would think twice about trying to get past. Ye could maybe talk to it then."

[splendid_roman]

Ian would be all for the plan, even if they didn't know where the vents led, except for the likelihood of ending up somewhere that might kill them. And the fact that they might never get there, which would make the attempt pointless.

"That's a good idea," he said to Jamie. "We can make sure none of the books get burnt and if the Doctor can talk it out, we can clear a narrow path and trap it at the end."

[fantastix]

Ah, there it was. The Doctor grinned.

"So we've got it. Add a bit of threat, reason, and should reason fail, fight. Right then!"

Off they go. They'd better go. He'd lead the way if he had to, already taking the door handle.

[first_in_time]

Barbara stuck to Ian's side as they followed, but a problem occurred to her; "how are we going to start a fire? And what with?" she placed a hand on the Doctor's leather covered arm before he could open the door. "We need things like matches and torches, and a way of controlling the fire or we could lose the entire library."

[bonnypiperlad]

"Aye, well," Jamie pipes up. "I-I may be able to help a wee bit with that." He holds up his wrist for the others to see the strange, bracer-like device worn on it.

"This is something called a morpher, given to me a while back by a friend of mine. With it active, I can...er, well, send out small bursts of fire. We could try to find something to use as torches and see if we can light them with those. And I've got a certain amount of control over how it can be used, so if it comes down to a fight we'll have that on our side."

[splendid_roman]

Ian tried not to be jealous as Jamie pointed out his morpher. It sounded useful, even if the only thing it could do was control fire. But even so, he wanted one.

"We need to get ourselves some wood, scrap paper, sand and buckets of water," he suggested. "Then we can be certain to have complete control over the fire, whatever happens. I'll get some water," he volunteered. He knew where the kitchen was and there was bound to be a bucket or similar container he could use.

[fantastix]

"Right. I've got the wood and water! Whoever can carry some more, come with me. The rest of you, go with them and get the rest," he called, gesturing at the other Doctor.

With any luck, they'd make it back fairly quickly. This one did after a few minutes, settling two rather large buckets just outside the door. "That should do it."

[first_in_time]

Lugging a barrel full of wood, Barbara followed the Doctor back to the door, dumping it just outside.

"We should light this out here, then open the door and push it through with the Doctor," she pointed out as she wiped her hands on her trousers. "There should be minimal risk of injuring anything that way."

[lastgallifreyan]

Fortunately, even sand was easy enough to find on the TARDIS. If you knew where to look, you could find almost anything on a dimensionally transcendental space and time ship.

The Doctor carried a bucket in each hand when he rejoined the group, as ready for the fight as they were ever going to be.

"I'm going to want to ask you a few questions about that morpher later," he commented to Jamie. Later. For now, they had a job to do.