Timelord in Ten Forward

[thelasttimelord]

The Doctor is sitting on the window ledge again, one knee up and one leg hanging down, tapping on his absolutely, ordinary PADD. (That has been upgraded and hacked with a sonic screwdriver that would make The Sixteen Ways since Saturn12 split to retrograde pieces and stopped having Green Light Parties during the year of AppleBlackslash look slow even.)

There are more people, again. He doesn't need the PADD to tell him that. Every molecule of his body is attuned to every new rip of space and time that deposits them here. To every path being walked by every person who shouldn't be right here. (To the spot where Jack is, and everything is wrong.) To the nexus of this room, and the other parts of the ship that they are most drawn to.



The PADD can't tell any of Them any of that either.



But it does let him see what the Enterprise has on these new people so far.

Comments

[themerlin]

"A moment of time, by most accountings. Perhaps, if one were honest, two moments." Merlin grinned, then, and his eyes lit with interest.

"A little here, a lot there. Less now, but more then." He nodded. His meaning was clear, to him, but less than obvious to most.

[thelasttimelord]

"Well, then, welcome aboard the good ship." The Doctor said, springing down off the ledge finally, and holding out a hand, with wiggling fingers to shake. Politeness, as he tucked the PADD away in one of the many pockets of the jacket that served the needs he might ever have of it, in any situation he might be wearing it and having needs of. "She's a sturdy lass, so far, and her people seemed to be made of the same kind of mettle."

The smile was manic, with a kind of pleasure that couldn't be masked or faked. "You have to appreciate their zeal."

[themerlin]

"They are quite intriguing for a group in uniforms. And polite, most of the time." Merlin shook the man's hand and nodded, bouncing in a bow that was almost full-court style, but not quite.

"Are you enjoying your stay here? It seems an interesting voyage, and it holds one of the most dear of all people I have ever known, so it is as much home as ever there has been." His words were spoken softly, but surely and with a firmness that might surprise others, but ever had been his way.

[thelasttimelord]

"Oh? You one of the lucky souls who came in groups from somewhere?" It was a delightful, and sometimes frustrating, hair rending, mystery he kept turning over all with all the others. It's own spinning plate. How some people came in groups all from the same place, and some people came in singles never to have another of their own appear with them.

"I like them." The Doctor said, shifting his weight bouncily between his feet after the man released his hand. "Very full of big ideas and idealism, this group." His eyes were bright and his smile was unruly. The best kind of adoration. "Out there, exploring the stars, full of hungry curiosity, trying to do it peacefully, without disturbing anyone else's chart to the future."

[themerlin]

"Nay, but one whom I truly call friend was brought here from a different place and time. A reunion some 2400 years in the making." Merlin smiled, nodding as he recalled her. "This place is like another place I knew, in my time, a place where people from many worlds and times were brought together. That place was a home to me once, for a time, and therein, I found those I could call brother and sister. "

Merlin eyed the other man. "There ever are such times, when the darkness if pushed back for some small hours and the light reigns."