Chapter Text
'You see, Peri, it's a very simple concept.' The Doctor scrawled more symbols onto an increasingly intricate diagram, 'The TARDIS collects a database of all written and spoken languages it encounters. It can then use machine learning - similar, really, to the Raston technology, it's quite fascinating really, I'll have to introduce you to that some time - to extrapolate the meaning and intent of a sentence and translates it in real time.'
Dusting chalk off of his hands, the Doctor leaned over Peri's shoulder.
'Taking notes, are you? Smart girl,' he patted Peri on the back. 'This is fascinating stuff. I wish I had studied this at your age.'
Peri looked up at him in confusion. 'This is my organic chemistry lab. Was I supposed to be paying attention?'
'Well, I wasn't just talking to thin air.'
'You could have fooled me.'
The Doctor sighed and shook his head. 'Simple, simple science. Of course. How on earth you can occupy yourself with such banal studies is beyond me.'
'I'm sure it's old news to you, Doctor, but I'm just learning it.' Peri dismissively thumbed through her notes.
'That's what I don't understand: how something so simple could not be common knowledge.' The Doctor returned to his chalkboard. 'Anyways, the TARDIS then psychically edits in the translated information and edits out the original. It's as if you were listening to them in your own native tongue. It's truly an unparalleled piece of technology; every good Time Lord has one.'
'Ah yes, unparalleled.' Peri mumbled. 'Just like every other piece of Gallifreyan technology you've mentioned.'
'And what does that tell you about Gallifrey, my dear?'
'That you're all very full of yourselves.'
The Doctor ignored her and sat down at his desk. He produced from under it a thick hardcover book and perused it through a pair of long-handled opera glasses. Quietly, Peri cleared her throat, and the Doctor looked at her in anticipation.
'Are you always like this when you're bored?'
'Bored?' The Doctor said indignantly. 'Bored? My dear, if you consider this grounds for boredom then you clearly haven't lived nearly long enough.'
'Well, no, I'm twenty-two. But we've only been camped out here for a week and you've already read "In the Shadow of Man" two and a half times, explained every little inner working of the TARDIS, and finished our two months' supply of chips.'
'If you think that is every inner working of the TARDIS, you are sorely mis-'
'You know what I mean.' Peri interrupted, impatiently highlighting large passages of her notes.
'Right. Also, I think I am hardly to blame; they don't sell ketchup-flavoured crisps in Britain. I was caught up in the excitement of it all.'
'Well, I'm not buying you any more. And before you say anything,' Peri held her hand up as the Doctor opened his mouth to protest, 'about not having Earth money, some of us earned it at our Earth jobs. An Earth job I've probably been fired from cause I haven't shown up since I got kidnapped by a time-travelling alien.' She took slight enjoyment in the Doctor's displeased mumbling.
There was an extended pause as Peri repeatedly tried and failed to learn - or care - about sulfides; she shut her notebook and tossed to the side with an exasperated sigh.
'I'm going to go for a walk. You can come with me, if you'd like.'
The Doctor looked at her in confusion. 'Why ever would I want to do that?'
'Because it's nice outside.'
'You don't know that.'
Peri swung the TARDIS doors open and took a deep breath of the Canadian summer air; she glanced over her shoulder at the Doctor, whose face was firmly buried in his book.
'Oh my!' Peri said in a mockingly fake accent, feet buried in the grass, 'What a lovely evening this is indeed.'
'Mhm.' The Doctor mumbled absent-mindedly. 'Don't wander too far. I can't come find you if you get lost; the Master has been waiting for exactly such a moment of weakness.'
'Yeah, yeah. I won't go far, I just need some fresh air. Anything's better than being stuck in that stuffy, god-awful box.'
'Close the door behind you.' The Doctor wondered how one could consider such an infinitely large space to be stuffy.
Nevertheless, he reveled in the quiet, free from Peri's grumblings about simple human sciences; he had briefly considered explaining it to her, but thought it better that she figure it out herself like the rest of her species. He flipped yet again through the pages of his book, adding to his notes in the margins and fondly reminiscing the time he brought Jane Goodall to see the Ape-Dogs of Muttai. The silence was short lived, of course, before Peri burst back into the TARDIS. Twigs stuck out of her hair and she was covered in mud.
'My word, what's happened to you?' The Doctor gestured for her to stop tracking in dirt any further, 'I told you not to wander too far.'
Peri laughed. 'Nothing's happened to me. I found a clearing at the top of the hill and you can see the stars.'
'That sounds lovely, good for you. Next time, please wash yourself off before you come back.' The Doctor peered up at her over his glasses.
'No, silly, come with me.'
The Doctor met Peri's eager eyes with a stare of utter confusion. 'Why?' He sounded almost insulted.
'Because it's nice outside.' Peri ran impatiently in and grabbed the Doctor by the wrist.
Stumbling out of his chair, the Doctor dropped his book and his glasses on the TARDIS console and hopped unsteadily to his feet as Peri dragged him out into the warm night. She lead him through the woods like a reluctant dog dragged out for a walk, stopping to pluck leaves from trees and shove them in his face.
'Yes, I am well aware of your Earth plants, and I'm just as aware that they are your field of study.' The Doctor grumbled, quietly adding, 'You could have at least let me put on my shoes.'
There was a large grassy clearing on the crest of the hill, bordered by trees and blackberry bushes. Peri plucked a handful of blackberries and handed one to the Doctor, who inspected it with great suspicion before popping it in his mouth and returning to pick a few more of his own. By the time he reached the top, Peri had lain down in a patch of dryish grass. The Doctor sat cautiously down beside her, trying to brush the dirt off the ground below him.
'You know that I have seen the creation of the galaxy, don't you? I have watched planets come and go, the very birth and death of stars which we can only see here as pinpricks.'
'Just shut up and enjoy yourself.'
The Doctor let out a sharp exhale and lay down. He lay down for only a few minutes before getting up and repeatedly pacing the clearing in narrowing concentric circles like a vulture, then walking loose circles around Peri until he became dizzy. He lay down again with a sigh. It began to grow colder as the night drew on and Peri regretted not bringing a jacket, or indeed a pair of shoes.
'Doctor?' She poked the Doctor gently in the shoulder. 'We can go back now.'
He let out a quiet mumble and began to snore. Peri giggled.
'Oh, so you don't like it out here?' She joked to herself briefly before looking out at the pitch-black path back through the forest.
<<I guess I'm stuck out here in the cold.>> She thought, sitting back down.
Peri unfolded the side of the Doctor's coat and curled into a ball to keep herself off of the ground before quickly falling asleep, the cool summer breeze blowing over her.