The Bookworm Strikes Again (open)

[first_in_time]

Who: Barbara and Anyone
Where: The Media Library and possible roaming
Summary: Research, tea, discussion and all that jazz. Feel free to simply come and bug her.
Warnings: None

After watching the Daligig slaughter the previous crew twice, Barbara went in search of any kind of material on the Daligig, Stacey, pod-popping and the crews which had traveled on Stacey. She didn't expect to find much more than what GLaDOS had told her but it was worth a look. Especially with all this talk of rebellion and distrust.

So, in a corner of the Media Library Barbara sat with piles books, stacks of visual recordings and audio recordings, plus pot of tea which had been sitting empty for a while. She was lost in her own world, memorising what she could and trying to gain a better picture of the ship, the war and everything else which could be considered relevant.

Comments

[first_in_time]

"Stacey is a lot more like a proper spaceship," Barbara agreed and snapped a book shut, deciding that it was no longer of any use, "if you believe a spaceship is a living, breathing, secretive thing that allows people to sleep in its nose."

[splendid_roman]

"I don't think it's really her nose. She'd have sneezed by now, if there were." Although even if Stacy had a nose there was nothing in space to breathe in. "I wonder what Stacy lives on."

[first_in_time]

"Will this end in another exploration that results in us being thrown about by tentacles?" she joked with less humour than her tone suggested. "I believe I've only just recovered from the concussion I got from hitting my head against Howard's the last time we tried that." The bruises were still fading.

[splendid_roman]

He grinned. "I can't guarantee it." Although when she spoke about concussion he was worried. "Are you all right?" He hadn't noticed at the time, what with being covered in who knows what and in close proximity to a dead cow.

[first_in_time]

"Yes, I'm fine," she smiled softly. "I don't think it was a proper concussion. I was in a daze for a while but after a bit of rest, I was fine. Are you alright?" Barbara realised that she hadn't asked how Ian had been getting on, she just assumed he was alright because he was alright, even if he had been hit in the head, or something similar.

[splendid_roman]

"I'm fine, I wasn't hurt. I still can't bring myself to eat that slop." He made a face, remembering what was in it.

[first_in_time]

Of course he was fine.

"I went back to food blocks," she chuckled, "much better than the slop after all of that." Not that it seemed any better before they went running about the innards of the ship. "The less of two evils, as it were."

[splendid_roman]

"At least they taste of something." Even if it was still odd that they didn't taste like what they looked like. "I wish we could go back and check what was going on, but I don't suppose Stacy would let us given the way we were thrown out."

[first_in_time]

"At least the workings of the food machine won't attack you if you're curious," that Barbara knew, anyway.

"I suppose I'm still a little curious. I'd like to know just how extensive the data base is and how Stacey gets the readings and information she had, not to mention exactly what it was she was collecting." She rested her chin on a hand and sighed a little. "Not sure I'd want to risk my life doing it again, however."

[splendid_roman]

"She could have done it all while we were in the pods. After all, we were being kept alive in there." It would probably be easy for Stacy to take any readings she wanted and extract any fluids she liked.

[first_in_time]

"She could have but things change, I suppose. Our needs aren't forever the same things and I suppose Stacey wants to monitor all of that so we're getting exactly what we need." That wasn't going to stop Barbara using the food machine, however.

"I say, did you know that the Doctor kept all our things after we vanished?" Because as far as Barbara could tell, the didn't get home, didn't board the Dalek ship and were last on Earth in the year 2050.

[splendid_roman]

"No, I didn't." The Doctor hadn't mentioned it and he hadn't come across any rooms with their things in it. But he supposed the TARDIS was big enough that he didn't need to throw things out that often. "Has he has kept everything?"

[first_in_time]

Barbara pulled a face and sat back in her chair, "I believe so. Although, I don't recognise some of the things in my room - I didn't look in the room labelled with your name, I'm sorry." It didn't seem right to snoop through Ian's room, and she was too busy going through what were apparently her things. "The Doctor said they were from a life I might have lived if I'd stayed on board and not arrived on Stacey."

[splendid_roman]

He frowned. "I remember you living that life." He still didn't really understand how that worked and suspected he was never going to. "What sort of things were in there that you didn't recognise?" He wondered if he'd recognise them.

[first_in_time]

Barbara frowned a little in thought, "all kinds of things. There was a photograph of us with the Doctor and a little light-haired girl who wouldn't have been older than 15 or so, and a fetching Roman dress was laid out across the bed - because he has designed this storage room to look like a bedroom of all things - and I found little ring box but I think I was a little distracted and didn't actually look inside. A few other elaborate and beautiful things hung in the wardrobe, too. I could have sworn that one dress was 12th century Middle Eastern."

She tilted her head to the side, curiously. "I don't understand how you can remember me living that life and I don't

[splendid_roman]

"I don't either, but I know who the girl is and I remember you wearing the dresses." Assuming they weren't other random Roman dresses, but that seemed unlikely. He wondered if he could sneak the ring box out of there without her knowing. "You'll have to show me sometime. Perhaps there's a room for my things nearby."

[first_in_time]

"I'd say there is. It's a corridor full of doors with names." She stared at the books a moment longer before standing up, like she was determined to do something else for a while. "Let's go and look. I've had enough of these wretched records for the time being anyway."

Barbara bent to tidy the table a little before leaving. The books still open were closed and stacked neatly, the scrolls closed and lined up, and the data pad things switched off. She then picked up the teapot and her little cup so that they wouldn't be left behind and the TARDIS wouldn't kick up a stink over the missing things.

[splendid_roman]

"All right." Ian put the chair back and went with her to the TARDIS. "Do you have a key?" He'd tried the door once or twice when he'd been in the hangar, but it had always been locked. He could have asked the Doctor for a key, he supposed, but he'd never had need to go into the TARDIS.

[first_in_time]

"Of course." The teapot and cup were passed to Ian so that she could pull out a little silver key from her pocket. A long loop of twine gave the option of hanging the key around her neck but Barbara found that it scratched, and the loop was so long that even as she slipped the key into the lock, the end of the twine was still in her pocket.

She held the door open for her friend to come through and shut it after him, then led him up a small set of stairs, over the glass floor (which she glanced distastefully at; a developed automatic response), and into a corridor which not only housed the wardrobe room, but also the old companion rooms.

[splendid_roman]

Ian missed the look at the glass floor, not that it mattered because he couldn't see anything wrong with it. It certainly made the room look bigger. "I haven't been down here before," he said, when Barbara led him down the corridor. He looked at the doors on either side of it and saw the one with Barbara's name on it. "Ah, here's yours." He stopped in front of it. "I can tell you if I recognise what's in it, if you like."

[first_in_time]

"We can do that," she smiled and opened the door.

The room - entirely clean and immaculate - looked lived in, even though Barbara had only been there for a short while. There was a small dip in the pillow where she slept, two pairs of shoes sat outside of the wardrobe, beside the bottom of the bed, and not one speck of dust rested on any surface.

She opened the wardrobe and pulled out the robes Nero would have made her wear in the Roman palace, the outfit as given to her by Saladin and a few bits and pieces picked up from various places, including the photograph with the strange woman and the little ring box. Everything was laid out over the bed, bar the ring box. It was small enough to get lost among all the things on the bed, so she kept tight hold of it.

"Do you recognise all of this?" she asked Ian, taking the teapot and cup from Ian to put out of the way.

[splendid_roman]

He nodded. "I do." At least her holding the ring box meant he could ignore that and concentrate on the things on the bed. "That you wore in Rome," he said, pointing to the robes, "that was during the Crusades." He picked up the photo. "That's Vicki with us." He remembered it being taken and he wondered where she was now. Was she sleeping in one of the pods?

"Is this where you're sleeping now?"

[first_in_time]

It did seem a little unfair that Ian should remember these things she didn't. "I would love to have visited Rome. What was it like? And the Crusades, what were they like? Knowing the Doctor you probably landed in the middle of it all and were nearly killed."

Barbara nodded at his question, "it's a lot more comfortable than where I was before and I have an entire room to myself." Ian most likely had a room to himself, too but he also had a room to himself on board the TARDIS while Barbara shared with Susan. Not that it bothered her terribly, but it was nice to have the space when she wanted it.

[splendid_roman]

"Yes, we did." It was still too recent to make light of yet. "We didn't spend much time in Rome. We spend most of the time having a relaxing holiday in a villa outside Rome." He smiled. "It was nice to just laze around drinking wine and eating grapes."

[first_in_time]

"A holiday?" Barbara scoffed in surprise but there was still a delighted smile upon her face. "I can't imagine you being the one to laze around. Weren't you out fighting in the arena and wrestling lions, or rescuing just about anyone including the Doctor?"

"And what about this?" she asked and held out the little ring box before she forgot about it. "Where was this from? Did we go looking for diamonds in Africa or join in on the Gold Rush?"