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The TARDIS was picking up a signal as it zipped through space. The Doctor, fairly recently regenerated, grabbed the monitor and spun it towards himself. He could see his close cut hair in the reflection.
A distress call.
HELP! CREW VANISHING! STATION UNDER ATTACK! ASSISTANCE REQUESTED! HELP!
He pressed a few buttons and flicked some switches on the console to triangulate the time and place.
It was a code red so that meant it was a human settlement.
31st century in origin.
It was coming from a space station orbiting the gas giant Lorne, right above it’s rings, which were mined for resources.
“Alright then old girl, let’s get back to work.” He punched in the coordinates as the TARDIS beeped at him. He slammed on the lever to materialize. Then he felt the TARDIS shake as though it had hit something. “Whoa! Steady old girl!” He placed his hand on the console. “What the hell was that?”
The TARDIS beeped, confused as he was. “Alright. Let’s try landing again.” He pulled on the lever again. This time it worked without issue.
And The Doctor could have sworn he heard another TARDIS land at the same time as his.
It had to be him hearing things. There were no more Time Lords but him! He had made sure of that! They all burned! It was probably just wishful thinking anyways…
But maybe someone had stolen a TARDIS? He gripped the sonic screwdriver tight as anger burned inside him. How dare someone steal a TARDIS! His mind went back to The Monk and his meddling in time. If that weasel had managed to survive the Time War… He wasn’t sure what he would do, probably sock him in his stupid meddling face. Somewhere in the back of his brains he had a feeling that maybe something was wrong.
He flung open the TARDIS doors and glared around. He saw a hologram terminal, at least 7 feet tall next to his TARDIS, it was wildly out of place as they both had materialized in a hangar bay. The hangar bay was a large room with two setups for mechanics. It had a single shuttle inside, it almost looked like it was out of Star Wars, the Imperial Shuttle, with its three wings and white outside with a protruding cockpit that was where the pilots would sit. The only difference between that and Star Wars’ version was the white wasn’t sleek, it looked beaten up, parts of the wings and body of the craft were clearly repurposed from other ships.
“Alright, now I don’t know who you are or how you got a hold of a TARDIS, but I’m going to ask nicely that you reveal yourself or things are gonna get ugly.”
A young woman with tan skin stepped out from behind the terminal. She had her hands raised. This woman was wearing a battered dark maroon shirt and pants with thick military style boots. This is what the Time Lord soldiers wore in The Time War under their armor. Her hair was brown and her eyes were dark, her face was dotted with freckles. She looked very scared for a moment.
The last time The Doctor had seen that face he was rescuing her and her platoon from a Dalek ambush during the Battle of Ixmus on the fields of Scrinarii. She wore that exact expression then too.
“Please, I'm here to help!” She squeaked. And then she blinked, taking in the police box.
“Doctor—Am I allowed to call you Doctor?”
“Sheyar?” He could barely believe it. He took in every inch of her. She didn’t seem to battered up. He saw a few bruises and scars, but otherwise she seemed fine. Mentally was a different question of course.
The pair stood dumbfounded at one another.
“I thought you were dead!”
“I thought you were dead!”
Sheyar brushed her hair out of her face and laughed. It wasn’t a good laugh really, it was strained, and more like a laugh of someone who had just realized she was not alone on a desert island. While she was still laughing she flung herself and the Doctor and hugged him tight. After a beat he reciprocated, lifting her off her feet.
“You look good in a leather jacket.” She said tearfully.
“Thanks.” He replied. There were many emotions buzzing in his chest, if not for the fact that he knew that this was him getting choked up, he would have assumed his respiratory bypass needed to kick it. “I think your outfit needs a little work though. You just took off your armor and helmet and called it a day!”
“Well I don’t have a lot of clothes!” She huffed.
“Your TARDIS should have a—“
Distantly they heard some doors open up across the hanger bay and footsteps marching towards them. The Doctor gently dropped Sheyar to her feet.
The Doctor could see a group of nine people in orange jumpsuits carrying guns walking towards them.
“Alright you two, who the hell are you and where did you come from?” The leader, a woman with a buzzcut and scar over her eye, asked.
The Time Lords both realized they needed to stuff their emotional reunion away for now.
“Oh! Uh!” Sheyar stammered. “I’m Sheyar, this is The Doctor and—uh—“
The Doctor stepped forward.
“Sorry about my friend, she’s nervous.” He said. “Like she said, I’m The Doctor, she’s Sheyar, our ships got a distress signal. So here we are! What’s the issue?” He smiled at them, which didn’t seem to make them feel better.
The leader looked back to her people, confused. She lowered her gun and the others followed suit.
“I’m Head of Station Security Officer Adya. And we didn’t… send out a distress signal?” She said slowly. “Hold on.” She brought what looked like a very slim walkie talkie to her mouth and started speaking into it.
“What?” Sheyar and The Doctor said in unison. His brain was whirring a million miles a minute. Well, it always was, it was just focused on what the issue at hand.
Maybe two TARDISes trying to land at the same place bounced off one another and caused them to arrive too early? They were definitely early by at least a few hours if not days. Maybe a month?
“Alright. You two come with me to the bridge.”
“Why? I mean if there’s no issue we should be able to lea—“ Sheyar started, turning hack towards the TARDISes. But the guns were raised on the pair once again.
“Sheyar.” The older Time Lord whispered, grabbing her arm. “I think we arrived early.”
It seemed to take her a few seconds too long to process that.
“Oh… Oh no.”
“You two should come with us.” Adya said. “We have some questions for you.”
“Alright. We’ll come along.” The Doctor said. The Time Lords allowed themselves to be taken from the hangar bay.
-
The pair were walked through the corridors, up to the top of the space station. The midsection of the station was apparently where they landed.
“So. Are we in trouble?” Sheyar asked.
“Likely.” The Doctor replied. “We showed up in the middle of their hangar bay talking about a nonexistent distress call.”
“What do we do?” It was very clear she hadn’t done anything like this before.
“Wait for trouble to stir and then help when it does.” He replied.
“Got it. Do you know what kind of trouble we’re looking for?”
“Something involving disappearances.”
“Oh Rassilon…” She muttered.
“What are you two talking about?” Adya asked, reminding the Time Lords they were in earshot of normal colonists.
“Just our arrival and the mysterious distress call.”
Everyone looked at one another with confused and worried expressions. They were all definitely wondering why these two were talking about a nonexistent distress call.
“Get in the elevator.” Adya said, as the doors slid open.
-
The office was a fairly large room, with giant windows. A wooden desk stood out starkly against all the high tech monitors. A tablet sat on the desk, it looked like where the leader took notes.
“Sir these are the… people we discovered.” Adya gestured back to the pair of Time Lords said.
“Ah thank you.” A woman in a neat dark orange uniform said. There were some emblems on there, presumably for rank. The Doctor had seen enough to realize this person was high ranking.
“Whoa! The view is gorgeous here!” Sheyar said looking at the windows with wide eyes.
“I am Captain Ivanna Huron.” The woman said, side eyeing the younger Time Lord with some confusion.
“I’m The Doctor, that is Sheyar.” He pulled out the psychic paper from his coat pocket and flashing it to the captain, who looked at it. She nodded as she read it.
“You are the Colonial Safety Inspector.” Huron said. “Well, we appreciate you coming by. Usually there’s a notice ahead of time, or we summon you.”
“Yes Captain, we just think some wires got crossed. We received a distress signal, it involved people vanishing.”
“Well no one has vanished. So maybe your ship picked up another distress signal?”
“Is there even another colony near by to be confused with?” The Doctor replied.
Huron was silent, that gave him all the answers he needed. She looked past him and frowned, seeming to find a different subject.
“Is it bring your daughter to work day?” The captain asked, pinching the bridge of her nose.
“Daughter?” He replied. A pang of guilt hit him as he thought of Susan for the first time in a while. He stuffed down that feeling and let his confusion rise. “I didn’t bring my daughter.”
“Then who is she?” Huron pointed at Sheyar, who had her palms pressed against the window and was looking at the rings of Lorne below. He could just see some movement on the rings, probably the mining equipment dragging the material back to the station.
“An old friend.”
“She looks like she’s still in school.”
The Doctor looked at his friend for a long few moments. She was very young. Not as young as Susan had been when she was traveling with him, but a few decades older. She had only been off Gallifrey for fighting in the war. No wonder she was looking around like a tourist.
Again that pang of guilt hit and he pushed it away.
“She’s young but she’s saved my life a few times. She’s a good kid.”
“Doctor! They’re mining from the rings!” She gasped.
He sighed quietly and smiled at her.
An intercom buzzed.
A deeper voice came through.
“Bringing up our mining haul sir.” They said. “Ready to give a full report on today’s haul.”
“Thank you Joren.” Huron looked up at The Doctor. “I’m going to take this.”
“Fantastic. I need to talk to my friend.” He walked across the room to Sheyar at the window.
“Doctor this place is gorgeous.”
The Doctor and Sheyar huddled together.
“Managed to convince them we’re here to help.” He said quietly, holding out the psychic paper. Sheyar took it in her hands and looked at it. “You should get yourself one of these if you’re gonna poke about the universe.”
“Where do I get one?”
“Just remind me once this is all over and I’ll give you one.”
“Doctor, Sheyar.” Huron said. “I will take you two on a tour of this place.”
-
They were now in the comms room, which had an awful lot of computers and screens in it. Some were monitoring the hangar bay, storage, mine production, hallways and outside of the station.
“Comms Officer Eiffel.”
A young man with stubble and long hair tied in a bun was in the seat, glancing at the monitors over his own little holopad.
“Oh! Captain Huron sir!” He jumped up, almost dropping the holopad in his haste to salute.
“At ease.” She waved a hand and he sat back down. “I’m showing around these Colonial Station Inspectors.”
“I’m The Doctor.”
“I’m Sheyar!”
“Ah. A surprise inspection?” He asked.
“Yes.” The Doctor leaned over the console, pretending he was inspecting the technology. If he had to guess he this tech was from around the 26th century. “Is that a pulse beacon relay? Kind of old tech.” He pointed at what looked like an old Earth radio and a seismograph had been taken apart and put together.
“Oh yeah.” Eiffel said, patting it gently. “The station was made from a bunch of old space stations from the early days.”
“Fascinating!” The Doctor turned to Sheyar. “My colleague here would love to hear all about it.”
“Oh yes I would!” Sheyar nodded enthusiastically.
She took a seat next to Eiffel and started pointing and asking questions. Eiffel did his best to explain but he was out of his depths it seemed.
The Doctor was poking around meanwhile, opening panels, inspecting the insides, sticking his sonic screwdriver where he could.
“Doctor.” A voice said from behind him.
“Yes?” He turned to see Huron, arms crossed in a way that worried him.
“What are you doing?”
“Inspecting. Seeing if there was some kind of error on your end that caused us to get a distress signal.” He replied cheerfully.
She scrutinized him for a long moment.
“Alright.”
-
There was a sound like an error and a flashing red light on the desk console. It interrupted the conversation Eiffel and Sheyar were having.
The Doctor had since walked over to the console.
“We’ve lost contact with our mining officers sir.” Eiffel said. “Last audio log just cuts off all of the sudden.”
“It’s begun.” The Doctor whispered to Sheyar. “Watch me.”
“Check the cameras.” Huron said, brow furrowed in concern.
“Yes sir—“ Eiffel said, pulling up the screen and typing some commands. “—er—seems to be a connection issue.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s just not responding sir!”
“May I offer some assistance?” The Doctor asked.
Huron looked at him for a long moment. She was trying to decide whether she should trust him.
“Fine.” She stepped aside and gestured for the comms officer to do the same.
The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver.
“Now lets see if I can just boost the signal a little.” He said, twisting the sonic. There was a static scream and then it seemed to be online again. “Hello? Mining team—what are their names?”
“Marill, Donovan and Kingsley.” Huron replied.
“Marrill, Donovan, Kingsley! This is The Doctor speaking, do you copy?”
Only silence met his question.
Huron turned to another comms officer.
“Kelli, go down stat!”
“Yes sir!” A man in the standard orange jumpsuit said. He had glasses, a bald head and a bushy beard.
“Wait, we don’t know if it’s safe!”
“Doctor, your help is appreciated, but this is my station. We will do things my way.”
Kelli walked out of the room.
-
The Doctor was pacing. Why did no one ever listen to him?
“Approaching mining facility.” Kelli said over comms. “Unlocking door.”
Everyone could hear the sound of the door hissing.
“Very dark in here. Much darker than it should be. Turning on flashlight.” A click came through.
“Everything seems normal. Now entering the room.” They could hear his boots moving in. “Oh! Oh my gods…” Kelli sounded horrified.
“What are you seeing?” The Doctor asked, before Huron could.
“There’s—There’s nothing but skeletons left!” The panicked man said. “What could have done this?”
What indeed. The Doctor wracked his brains for something to tell him what had done this. What killed and only left skeletons?
There were plenty of species that met that criteria. Giant Humblings from the planet of Zardoz that spat acid at you if you interrupted their games, leaving you a skeleton. Some carnivorous bat like creatures from the Land Of Fiction. Sentient slimes. Think Doctor! Think!
“Okay. Kelli. Listen to me. I know this is hard. But do you notice anything off about the room?“
“N-No.” He sniffled.
“Any signs of other life?”
“No.”
What could hide perfectly? A Skovox Blitzer? No it would have left a charred husk behind.
“Alright. You need to get the hell out of there as quickly and quietly as possible.”
“I’m going to try.” He sounded choked up. “Oh my gods…”
“We’ll look at the monitors. See if we can find anything.” The Doctor assured him. Huron put the comms on mute.
“Doctor, three of my crew are dead. Do you know what is going on?”
“Not yet.” He replied.
This entire time Sheyar was standing there, it seemed to hit her that this wasn’t a vacation. This wasn’t the Time War, but it could be just as unpleasant. They had lives to save.
She set her jaw and wiped away tears welling in her eyes.
“Let’s do this.”
Before anyone could move, Kelli came through on the comms. It sounded like he was running.
“Sir! There’s something! Something in the shadows! They’re moving! I repeat! There is something in the—AUGH!” And then the line went dead as there was the sound of something hitting the ground.
Shadows! He knew exactly what that was!
“Oh. Oh I’m thick!” The Doctor smacked his forehead. “It’s the Vashta Nerada!”
“The what?!” The crew and Sheyar asked in unison.
“A swarm microscopic carnivores living in shadows.”
“Oh gods.” Captain Huron said. “What do we do?”
“Only one thing to do. Evacuate.” The Doctor replied.
“All our resources—“ Huron started.
“Captain is now really the time? Your crew are being picked off one by one by living darkness and we don’t have time. You all will have to come with us.”
“You mean in your capsules? Those aren’t big enough!”
“They are. Trust me.”
“Call everyone in the station and tell them to meet us here and we will as a group head down to the hangar bay. Make sure they count the shadows and avoid stepping on as many as possible.”
Captain Huron nodded and started speaking into her communicator.
“Sheyar I’m going to need you to make sure everyone is keeping up with us.”
“I can do that!” She nodded.
-
When everyone gathered, it was less than The Doctor was expecting, only 13 people.
“Is this everyone?”
“No.” Huron said grimly. Judging by her tone, she knew what happened to them. “There’s supposed to be 30 of us.”
“I’m sorry.” He said.
Sheyar had mostly been silent, just watching, presumably she was just watching him to understand how he worked outside the Time War. He was also worried that she might have been infected by the Vashta Nerada. They would love to get a hold of Time Lords. He checked her shadows.
Just one.
He let out a soft sigh of relief.
He looked at her face. Her right hand was curled under her chin, her index finger was curled around to touch her lips, and her brows were furrowed. He could see the gears turning in her head.
And then with a bit of a start he realized she was making the face he made with his previous face in the Time War, right down to the way she crinkled her face. And then her face lit up, dispersing the similarities to his previous incarnation.
“Doctor, I have an idea.” She said.
“Alright, let’s hear it.”
“UV light, sometimes it’s used to disinfect things, I saw lab techs on one of the planets—I forget which—I was on use them to make sure it was clean.”
“Hmm. That might work.” The Doctor said. “Is there a place where you all have sterilizing UV lights?” He turned towards Huron.
“In the lab.” She said. “It’s down one level.” She looked grim for a moment. “Doctor, are the Vashta Nerada able to move through all shadows? Or are they confined to moving through shadows?”
“They should be making their way up the station.”
“Alright, I’m gonna need names from everyone. I know Huron, Eiffel, Adya, others?” She looked around at the group.
“Ithaca.”
“Tomes.”
“Smith.”
“Jones.”
“Allan.”
“Addams.”
“Minkowski.”
“Dieter.”
“Goldsmith.”
“Hector.”
Sheyar noted each and every one who stood and said their name.
“Okay. Excellent. I’ll do my best to remember.” She gave a thumbs up. “Might call you by like your hair color or something. And we’ll all get through this, hopefully.”
“Good job.” The Doctor patted her on the shoulder. “Might want to not say that last bit though.” He added quietly.
-
The Doctor walked with the colonists between him and Sheyar.
They stopped ahead of a corridor shrouded in shadows. He pulled out the sonic screwdriver and held it up.
“Let there be light.” He said, turning to setting 31-Z. The lights buzzed overhead. Everyone shielded their eyes.
“Come on! They’ll only be slowed down! We have to hurry!” He started running and everyone followed.
“The lab is on the right!” Adya said, throwing herself against the door and thrusting it open. It looked like a standard lab to The Doctor. It had microscopes, test tubes, centrifuges, and advanced computers.
“Where are the lights?”
“In the storage closet!” Another member of the group said.
The Doctor grabbed them and started tinkering with them. He just needed to reroute the wires and put in an internal self sustaining battery, and make sure the binary light system wouldn’t overheat.
To any outside observer it looked like he just took some bits out, put some others in, and used the sonic screwdriver a bunch.
“What are you doing?” Eiffel asked.
“Making it self sustaining.” He had already gotten two done and was working on a third.
“Doctor! They’re turning off the lights!” Sheyar yelled.
“Damn! Grab the UV lights!” The Doctor handed them to Adya and Huron. “Two will be in the front, one will be in the back, if you see shadows moving, blast ‘em.”
Everyone nodded in understanding.
Adya took hers and stood in the doorway next to Sheyar.
“Take this!” She yelled, pointing the light at the shadows in the hall. The Vashta Nerada screamed as the UV rays hit them and the shadows retreated.
“It works!” She grinned triumphantly.
-
Sheyar was in the back with one of the UV beams.
Huron and Adya were in front with their own UV beams.
The group was a floor away from hangar bay.
The shadows were trying to advance on them, every time someone with the UV beams would blast them.
“Uh—!” One of the colonists, possibly Dieter, said. “My shadow has an extra head!” She turned around. “What does that mean?”
“Sheyar! UV beam!” The Doctor shouted.
Sheyar spun on her heels, looking very determined and shining the light on the shadow’s second head. The extra head vanished.
“Oh! Thank you so much!” Dieter sighed. “I was really worried for a sec–”
It happened in an instant, and it was just as terrible as it sounded over the comms, just as terrible as all the other times The Doctor had seen it, in his Fourth, Seventh and Eighth incarnations. The shadows enveloped her and in a moment they were gone, the skeleton was all that remained, clattering to the ground.
“Everyone run!” The Doctor shouted.
This was not ideal, he couldn’t keep track of the shadows or the colonists, or Sheyar. The last one eally worried him more than it should have. He should be worried about the humans like he always did. Sheyar was a fellow Time Lord, and had survived the Time War, she had survived so much. He couldn’t let her die now. If he had to, he’d save her over the others.
Oh what was he thinking? He had to do his best!
They were just outside the hangar bay now. Just a bit further!
Inside, towards the TARDISes, stumbling and running. The Doctor stopped outside his TARDIS, and Sheyar outside hers.
“Alright! Everyone in two groups! Into the ships!” The Doctor ordered. “Go! Go! Go!”
He patted each one on the back, making sure to count their shadows.
Everything seemed to be alright. The Time Lords made eye contact and nodded and jumped inside their TARDISes.
The Doctor brushed past the colonists, including Captain Huron, marvelling at the fact that the TARDIS was bigger on the inside.
“Alright hold on for a bumpy ride!” He shouted as the TARDIS shook as the Vashta Nerada tried to attack. He really hoped Sheyar was alright. “Alright folks! I’m dropping you off on Earth! Where should I go?”
“Dublin.” Huron said.
“Ah! Dublin! Lovely place! Been there a few times!” He started to punch in coordinates.
“Doctor, you and Sheyar aren’t from Colonial Safety Inspections are you?” Huron asked.
“Nope, surprised it took you this long to ask.” He replied.
“Well, we were busy.” She shrugged.
There was the final thud of the TARDIS landing, and the column stilled.
“We have arrived.” He strode over to the doors, opening them, and saw a nice park. The city streets were filled with hovercars above his head and skyscrapers. “Ah! Dublin! 3040!” He gestured for them to follow him. They all exited the TARDIS.
“Nice to be home.” Huron said.
“You said it Cap.” Eiffel sighed.
Together they sat around and waited for Sheyar to arrive. Five minutes passed. Then ten. Fifteen. Twenty. The Doctor was getting antsy by the ten minute mark. He was pacing around.
Maybe he should have contacted her. Maybe he should have just piled everyone into his TARDIS. Lots of maybes were cluttering in his head. He had only just found out he wasn’t the last of the Time Lords now and he is alone again.
When the TARDIS arrived, in the form of a 31st century vending machine, The Doctor let out a sigh of relief.
“Sorry, still working things out!” Sheyar said as she exited the TARDIS. The Doctor wrapped her in a tight hug. “Whoa! Okay!” She laughed and hugged him back.
Huron cleared her throat as she was eunited with her crew. The pair separated.
“Thank you Doctor, Sheyar, for saving us.” Huron said, shaking both their hands.
“Just doing what I can to help.” The Doctor replied. “Might want to inform people of the dangers of mining those rings.”
“Take care!” Sheyar smiled.
“Will do.” Huron waved as she left with her remaining crew.
“Meet me on the Cliffs of Pallor on the planet Jarraplex, I’ll show you how to access the wardrobe.” The Doctor said. They got in their TARDISes.
-
The TARDISes materialized on a gorgeous cliff overlooking a sea of soft pink water.
The view wasn’t the purpose, The Doctor needed to help Sheyar with her TARDIS.
As he stepped inside it was clearly a Type 63 TARDIS, it had a hum to it that was different than his, more energized, newer. The interior was sleek and white and blue hues. It wasn’t decorated at all, in fact he could see the Time Lord soldier armor haphazardly piled in the corner of the console room. She didn’t even bring her gun into the TARDIS. She was taking his no weapons policy seriously. That was nice.
“Hmm.” He said. “You got a newer one than mine.”
“Yeah well, I didn’t have access to a battle TARDIS, and I didn’t want weapons anyway.” She said. “It was also the first one that responded to me when I said I needed to get the hell off Gallifrey.” She patted the console affectionately. The TARDIS chirped back with just as much affection.
The Doctor smiled.
“Alright. I’m gonna show you how to access the wardrobe.” He walked over to the console. “May I?”
Sheyar’s TARDIS beeped affirmatively in response.
“Good.” He turned to Sheyar. “So you just have to ask for access. It’s simple.”
“Yeah I did just run in here and take off immediately. I did fine on the TARDIS exams at the Academy. But I wasn’t the best. And when I was floating in space I just was trying to catch my breath.”
“Hey, you’re fine, I failed my tests.” The Doctor laughed. “If I can fly my TARDIS like that, you can fly yours with an average grade.”
Together they walked deeper into her TARDIS.
“So in my TARDIS, it’s three doors down on the left. Let’s see if it’s the same here.” He was counting the doors as he walked and then stopped and opened it.
A room full of racks of clothes from lots of eras in the universe was inside. There were more Gallifreyan designs than anything else. There was a notable Earth section too which he led Sheyar towards.
“Take your pick.” He gestured. And she spent a good few minutes looking around, picking up pieces of clothes and holding them up to herself. “I can leave the room and you can try them on if you’d like.”
Sheyar poked her head from around a massive pile of clothes in her arms.
“Oh! Yes that’d be nice!” The Doctor nodded and walked out of the room. He waited. And waited. He went through his pockets.
Sonic screwdriver.
Yo-yo.
Bandages.
Some bolts.
Some computer bits.
Some coins from ancient Lydia.
Low quality copper from that damn trickster salesman, Ea-Nasir.
He started playing with the yo-yo. It had been a long time since he had done it. Still had the skills though.
“Doctor! What do you think?” Sheyar said. He looked up and saw her dressed like a Roman Senator in all black robes and with fishnets and streaked eyeliner.
The Doctor blinked as he took in her outfit.
“Wow. Okay. Uh. That might not be a good idea for running about the universe. Trust me I had a 18 foot long scarf! You don’t want to trip over those robes.” He said. “But I know that would be a good look among some humans. They’d love that.”
“Alright!” She turned around and before she even got in the room again she started taking it off and The Doctor politely averted his eyes.
She returned later with what appeared to be an 1800s French military uniform.
“Maybe save that for if you go to France in the 1800s and need to get into the military for some reason.”
Sheyar took off the feathered cap and sighed, returning to the closet.
She shortly returned with what was essentially a copy of his outfit, but more fitting to her build.
“Oi!” The Doctor said.
“Yeah, I figured you’d say that.” Sheyar laughed, taking off the jacket and walking back inside.
“You did that on purpose.”
“Yep!” She gave him a shit eating grin before closing the door.
“I guess impersonation is the highest form of flattery.” He laughed to himself. He could hear her laugh from inside the closet too.
Sheyar was taking longer this time, and had returned to yo-yoing.
“You doing alright in there?” He asked once he noticed it had been almost 30 minutes.
“Yes! Just struggling a little!” Sheyar said, annoyance tinging her voice. The Doctor could tell she wasn’t annoyed at him, but probably with some part of the outfit.
“Alright I think I’ve got it! You have to close your eyes though!” She said. He did as she asked.
“Okay. My eyes are shut.” He heard the door open.
“You can open your eyes now.” He opened his eyes and saw Sheyar standing there, hair a little frazzled. She was dressed in a blue vest over a black dress shirt, black leggings, a grey skirt, grey boots with chunk heels, and a blue bow-tie the same color as her vest hung limply from her collar.
“Couldn’t get the tie?” He asked, folding his arms and smiling.
“It’s hard! I’ve never exactly done this before!” She said, flustered.
“Here, let me help.” He adjusted the tie and started tying it slowly. He could recall once tying a bow-tie for Ace when she wanted to wear a suit to a dance they were infiltrating. She made a comment about her looking like James Bond and then made a joke about using that as a pseudonym for the infiltration. She then had found another girl to loop into their scheme and even had a nice dance with her.
“There we go. Perfect!” He said. “Now. There’s a neat trick where you just kind of loosen it and lift it over your head like so.” He demonstrated. “And then you always have a perfect bow-tie.” He patted her shoulders. “You look fantastic.”
She beamed up and him and pulled him into another hug.
“Thanks a bunch Doctor!”
“Of course!” He hugged her in return.
Together they walked back to the console room.
“You know you can change the way the console room looks.” The Doctor said.
“Yeah. I’ll figure that out. Don’t worry! You have more people to save and places to see I’m sure!” Sheyar waved her hand.
The Doctor laughed.
“It was lovely seeing you again.” He said. “Keep in contact. If you ever need any help feel free to let me know.”
“Likewise!” She gave him a bright smile and walked outside her TARDIS. She sat down cross legged and just looked out at the sea.
The Doctor walked into his own TARDIS and Sheyar waved at him. Just as he was about to close the door, she stood up and stopped him from closing the door,
“Psychic paper!” She said.
“Oh! Yes right. Of course. Give me one moment.”
He walked into his TARDIS and started searching around. He knew he had a spare somewhere around. He went through some drawers, secret compartments under the TARDIS console, coats in the wardrobe. He finally found it when the TARDIS beeped at him and told him she made one for him in the console room. And it was sitting on the console with an embroidered “Sheyar” in Circular Gallifreyan on one of them.
“I see how it is.” The Doctor laughed. “Might need a perception filter over that.”
He walked out and handed it over to Sheyar.
“Here ya go! See you around!”
“See you!” She gave him a bright smile that made his hearts swell with hope. She took her seat overlooking the sea again, admiring the psychic paper as he walked back into his TARDIS.
“Well, I hope I see her again.” He said and set the TARDIS to dematerialize.