A New Place, A New Time (Introductions)

[tragic_optimist]

Another wasted opportunity.

Once again, The Doctors attempt to finds a means save his best friend and his great grandson from their horrid fates met with abject failure. He had been trying to find a loophole a side law, means to circumvent the damage done by that idiot known as The Monk. And yet it was another dead end. Modifying the TARDIS to allow a quick in and out jump to ensure Lucie was caught before the bomb exploded. Something that could have been done differently.

The Doctor was left stew in his mind when he felt as if he was pulled. It was a heavy tug, as if someone had lasso'd him from the Vortex itself. In what was both an eternity and an instant, the Time Lord found himself pulled hard and then deposited. How far away he couldn't ascertain, but The Doctor knew immediately that he was far away from where he had been, drudging through old Gallifreyan archives and through the old codes of the earliest writings of Rassilon. He wasn't on Gallifrey anymore, and more importantly he was no longer near his TARDIS, the thing he had called his home for years on end. he was now what looked like the hallway of a starship whose design he didn't recognize.

"Hello? I don't know who you are, but I rather don't appreciate you pulling me away from my home! Reveal yourself!" The Doctor yelled at the mostly quiet hallway. He could hear the hum of power and the vibration of the engines. Judging by the pitch and the smoothness, most likely a matter/antimatter drive with some sort of crystalline stabilization structure. But where and when wasn't possible at the moment.

Comments

[lucie_bleeding_miller]

"Doctor?" a familiar voice called out. "What just happened? How'd we get here?"

[tragic_optimist]

"Well, this isn't good, I'm hearing her voice now. Perhaps I have gone mad-"

The Doctor's bitter words are caught in his throat when he turns and sees her. His best friend. Lucie Bleeding Miller. And she's standing there as if nothing had happened at all.

"Lucie?"

[lucie_bleeding_miller]

"Who were you expecting?" she smirked, looking around to take in her surroundings. Her Blackpool accent was as thick as he remembered. "Lady Gaga? C'mon, Doctor -- did someone grab us up with a Timescoop whatchamajigger, or is this something else altogether?"

[tragic_optimist]

"Lucie...Lucie Bleeding Miller!"

The Doctors movements are swift, and in an instant the smaller woman is engulfed in a massive hug, harder than one would expect from someone his size. But it's big and excited and sad all at once.

"Lucie, you would not believe how wonderful it is to see you! how did you get here?"

[lucie_bleeding_miller]

"Woah!" she protests, pushing him back from the hug. "Hey there, sailor, it's only been a few minutes!" She glanced at him, as if noticing him fresh for the first time. "Woah. What happened to you, anyway? Rough night?" She winked and hipchecked him gently. "What's her name?"

[tragic_optimist]

"I have a slight change in wardrobe and somehow it was a 'rough night'? I don't think I appreciate the innuendo, Miss Miller," The Doctor said, overreacting a bit to the hipcheck with a big smile.

"Wait, you said it's only been a few minutes? It's been...a great deal longer for me. Where were you last you remember?"

[lucie_bleeding_miller]

"We were just talking about taking me back for Christmas in Blackpool?" she said, cocking a curious eyebrow. "I went down to my room in the Tardis to gather my things? Sounding at all familiar?"

[tragic_optimist]

The Doctors hearts dropped at the mention of Christmas in Blackpool. So many horrid things were about to happen to her...to them, and it was right in her immediate future. She had no idea the pain that she was about to go through, and all he could do was simply play along as best he can.

"You mean just after the Eight Legs invaded Earth? Oh, that was dreadful business. That is indeed a good deal in my past, so I will have to refrain from many of the things we've done together after that point."

His words are carefully chosen. He has to give an impression, one that will not jeopardize her future, and he needs to play it as if he didn't know what happens to her, on that dreary day in 2170.

[lucie_bleeding_miller]

"What, you mean you know what's going to happen to me?" She grinned widely. "C'mon, tell me. You can wiggle your rules just a little for me, can't you? Just a hint? Maybe at least tell me what I got for Christmas?"

[tragic_optimist]

Pain. You almost dying. Loss of your Auntie Pat. Destruction of our friendship. The end of a wonderful thing that leaves me a sad and broken Time Lord.

"Socks."

[lucie_bleeding_miller]

She snorted. "Fine, be that way." She looked around, curious about the surroundings again. "But anyway, Doctor, how'd we get here, anyway? And where is 'here' anyway? And why are we from two different times?" She looked at him curiously.

[tragic_optimist]

"And a thingy for your whatsit-"

Thread jack with permission

[just_be_quiet]

Just as the Eighth Doctor is speaking a big friendly dog rounds the corner. The dog pauses then just moves forward happily wagging his tail. He ignores Eight and goes right for Lucie.

He sits right at her feet and just starts to wag his tail. Hello person. You seem nice. You should be his new friend.

Re: Thread jack with permission

[lucie_bleeding_miller]

"Well, that's descriptive..." Lucie began, then paused. "Uh, Doctor? There's a dog here." The dog seemed friendly enough. She gingerly reached out a hand to let him sniff at it, then pet him. "Um... good dog?"

[tragic_optimist]

"Well now. Canis Familiaris, German Shepard by the look of him...well, this is definitely a human ship of some kind. But not one that I recognize. I was feeling what I'm sure is an antimatter drive, but I don't recognize the layout of the ship."

The Doctor reaches down, tentatively to let his hand be sniffed as well.

[just_be_quiet]

Bernie is happy to let them talk about him. Especially once Lucie starts to pet him. Once Eight lets Bernie sniff him the dog starts to really relax.

Just as this happens a boy comes out. "Bernie? Come on. You shouldn't run ahead. I don't want..."

He trails off and blinks at the Time Lord and his Companion. He blinks a little more because of all the different feelings. "Um. Hello. I hope he isn't being a bother."

[lucie_bleeding_miller]

"Hello," Lucie greeted the boy. "No, no. No bother at all. Um... this might seem like a really weird question, but... can you tell us where we are? And when?"

[tragic_optimist]

"So his name is Bernie, huh? Interesting. Would have expected a Saint Bernard to have that name more...but yes! We seem to be lost. I'm The Doctor, and this is my friend Lucie Miller."

[just_be_quiet]

"I'm Andrew McKee," the boy offers. His fingers twitch a little as if he is holding back on petting his dog.

"Uh. We're on the USS Enterprise. And I think the year is 2362? Or something. It's not actually my time period."

[lucie_bleeding_miller]

"Doctor? Does that name sound familiar?" she asked.

[tragic_optimist]

"Enterprise is a very common name for Human ships. But many of them are smaller, frigate sized ships. This feels a lot larger. And the only Enterprise I know of with the USS beginning did *not* look like this. Of course, it's been several lifetimes since I was in contact with them, so it could have been changed."

The Doctor shakes his head.

"Apologies, we just seemed to have gotten here without our normal mode of transport. Have you happened to have seen a large blue box around here?"

[just_be_quiet]

"No," Andrew says very quickly. He is telling the truth. He has never seen a big blue box on this ship and certainly not anywhere else either.

He just lets his mind wander for a moment. The Doctor is very calm acting and honestly it is very soothing to the empath who has no idea that he could learn how to shield.

"Actually.... According to someone I spoke to we were kidnapped by an alien who calls himself Q. By the sounds of it he got bored and decided to harass the crew of the Enterprise. It sounds like a silly game. Like when my friend Rob decided Susan wasn't paying enough attention to him."

[lucie_bleeding_miller]

"Well, don't you worry," Lucie smiled. "The Doctor and I will get everything sorted out, you watch."

[tragic_optimist]

"We do have a tendency of doing that. Doctor and Miller, Interlopers In Time And Space. That has quite the nice ring to it, don't you think, Lucie?"

The Doctors smile is easy, and with the boy there there's something to distract him from the fact he's talking to his dead best friend.

[lucie_bleeding_miller]

"Just call me Interloper. On second thought, that's a rubbish name. Just call me Lucie. With an IE, not a Y."

[just_be_quiet]

Andrew wants to comment that's a strange way to spell 'Lucy' but he decides that he doesn't want to argue. Sometimes names are weird. Like Mark and Marc who are two of the boys in his grade.

"Well as long as someone does something. I literally just started my summer vacation." He gives something very much like a frown. His mouth forms into a flat line.

"I was going to get to do something important. More important than a game."

[lucie_bleeding_miller]

"Well, is there anyone else around here?" Lucie asked. "Some grown-ups or anything?"

[just_be_quiet]

"Um."

He looks back and fourth. "There should be. This ship has a really big crew. I was just sort of..." He kicks one foot a little sheepishly. "I was exploring. I got bored. But they have a neat sort of restaurant called Ten Forward. There's usually all kinds of people there when they're not on duty."

[lucie_bleeding_miller]

"Oh, good. I'm starved," Lucie smiled. "How about you, Doctor?"

[tragic_optimist]

"I'm not all that hungry at the moment, but a single place to socialize seems like a good place to start on a spaceship."

The Doctor smiles at the small boy and his large dog.

"Go forth, Bernie! Show us where the food is!"

[just_be_quiet]

Food? Did someone say food?

"B-" And before Andrew can say Bernie's name the dog is off! In the direction of Ten Forward thankfully but boy is Andrew going to face palm.

"He's going to beg for food now. You used the magic words."