Assembly of the Daleks (Rina)

[Deleted]

Although the navigational interfaces of the Overseer’s TARDIS were exceptionally advanced compared to conventional universal positioning methods, they were also rather outdated. After all, it had been about six hundred years since he had “borrowed” the bio-ship from his home planet of Gallifrey, but he had done very little improve her systematic functions. She actually functioned quite beautifully on her own – she just didn’t agree with her pilot’s mostly feeble attempts at recalibrating her controls. The Overseer’s first incarnation was admittedly quite dreadful at playing the role of mechanic, and the TARDIS hadn’t quite recovered from the trauma since, despite the fact that her captain had regenerated twice since then, boasting new perks accompanied by a new body and personality each time.

Gaunt and gangling, the Third Overseer was currently perched precariously over the central control column of his vessel. He was a far more careful pilot than his previous two incarnations, and the unintentional hitting of a switch or lever would bode ill for him, albeit with more freaking out on his part. He treated commandeering the TARDIS as a carefully orchestrated dance, which required intensive concentration and relaxation in order to succeed in getting from point A to point B without incident. As a result of his additional alertness, the bio-ship shook a lot less while in transit, with only the occasional bump of space turbulence being felt here and there.

As a result, it wouldn’t be unusual to think that the Overseer began to go into conniptions when the TARDIS suddenly gave several erratic jolts, akin to the first few tremors of a large earthquake, because that’s exactly how the surprised Time Lord reacted.

“Wait a moment! What’s happening, darling?” the Overseer asked absentmindedly, fiddling and fumbling around with the stabilization dials nearest to him. The TARDIS was actually intended to be piloted by a team of six in the event of an emergency; however, the Overseer was used to tackling in-flight emergencies alone. However, rarely were said occurrences as extemporaneous as this one. His efforts were ultimately in vain; the TARDIS began to shake even more erratically, forcing the Overseer to grab hold of the guard rail behind him with one arm. His free arm groped helplessly for the controls, as if it were trying to catch a fish jumping around in shallow water. Although one lever would occasionally meet his grip, he inevitably wouldn’t be able to pull or push it.

The TARDIS gave another violent lurch, causing the Overseer to lose his grip on the guard rail. He plummeted forward a few inches and hit the metal floor, ducking so as not to accidentally bonk the control column. Momentarily disoriented, it didn’t take long for him to realize the origin of the shaking. As the bio-ship’s seizing progressed, the Overseer began to notice something odd about the trajectory of the flight path. It seemed like his TARDIS was being pulled into something – oh, this couldn’t be good.

Traction beams were notoriously difficult to break free from because of their sheer strength and intensity. Since the TARDIS’ windows were often closed in-flight as a precautionary measure, the Overseer could not assess the situation outside. Instead, he relied on the sensation he was feeling in the ground, and the way that it was vibrating. After about three minutes of ordeal, the TARDIS suddenly screeched to a halt, the spontaneity of the stoppage sending the Overseer flying forward a few more feet. Dazed but uninjured, he scrambled back over to the control column after the mayhem had ceased and attempted to restart her “engines”. It was no use; the traction beam had completely powered her down, rendering the Time Lord essentially stranded.

This is not an ideal start to the day, the Overseer thought to himself vehemently. Being disgruntled would have to wait; the eerie silence that awaited him outside quelled any reason for alarm, and not in a good way. The chameleon circuit was still active even in a deactivated TARDIS; the only factor that mattered upon disembarkment was memorizing the object or shape it would take to conceal its true identity.

The Third Overseer opened the steel-plated front door furtively, briefly scanning his surroundings via an insignificant little crack in the doorway. He had landed on either a satellite or starship of some sort; probably the latter. It was probably just a reconnaissance vessel, and the Overseer may have simply wandered too close to its traction beam. Traction beams were quite innovative; they could pull a vessel out of a spacial path, but not out of time warps. The Overseer, though capable of traveling through both, was only using the former, as he had no need to travel through time at the moment. Either way, he was now shipless.

Cautiously, he walked out and away from his disabled TARDIS, still stumbling slightly. The worst thing to do in this instance would be to attract excessive attention. A quick glance behind him revealed that his TARDIS had taken the appearance of a large storage unit, gold in color, essentially camouflaging with the rest of the storage containers. Evidently, the Time Lord had been pulled into the vessel’s docking bay. This was fortunate; many docking bays were not under heavy surveillance compared with the rest of the ship they encompassed. Only a handful of species prided themselves on surveillance, but surely none of them were on a typical vessel like this one.

Suddenly, a petrified, metallic screech filled the air around the Overseer, forming itself into broken words that lacked syllabic structure. The Overseer was unfortunately very familiar with this call, and he felt his insides turn to ice almost immediately as the cacophonic reveille was raised.

“INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER HAS BEEN RETRIEVED AND IDENTIFIED!”

No, not here. Surely there can’t be Daleks here, of all places. I thought my kind subdued them into submission a while ago, the Overseer thought, his dual hearts beginning to hammer faster within the confines of his sternum. He stood stock-still, frozen as a Weeping Angel being actively stared at. The metallic screeching became more prominent; ten seconds passed, and two Daleks entered the docking bay, their sinister blue eyestalks immediately catching sight of the Overseer. The latter raised an eyebrow in a sort of neutral position, respiration rate beginning to rise. Daleks were notoriously dangerous creatures, and their armor repelled most forms of combat. Fortunately, they moved rather slowly on their concealed wheel-like feet.

“WHO ARE YOU? WHERE IS YOUR VESSEL? EXPLAIN! EXPLAIN!” one Dalek blared impatiently in its characteristic dissonant voice.

“Pushy as ever,” the Overseer dismissed, suppressing every urge to lash out. “Why not take the time to acquaint yourselves with me? I’m sure we’d become fairly good chums if we ever took the time to get to know each other.”

Both Daleks were struck speechless.

“Unfortunately for you two,”the Overseer continued, striding forward gradually. “I have no mercy for your kind. Step aside.”

“HALT!” both Daleks shouted in unison. “WE CANNOT SEE YOUR VESSEL!”

“Well, of course you can’t. That would be too easy,” the Overseer chortled. “And if you have even a nanoparticle of a brain infused with those dull metal craniums of yours, you’d realize that I just gave myself away. And I’d rather not waste my breath with either of you, so au revoir!”

The Overseer turned on the spot and began to run in the direction of a closed door to his distant right.

“THE INTRUDER IS FLEEING! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!” the Daleks shouted simultaneously. Bolts of Dalek ray subsequently flew overhead, illuminating the docking bay with a crackling white-blue tinge. The Overseer was too nimble for either of them, having both ducked and reached the door before either Dalek could ready another bolt. He plucked a rigid gold cylinder from the bowels of the pinstriped vest he was wearing and pointed it at the locked door. The sonic probe had almost assembled itself, or at least it had seemed so to the Overseer. With the flick of a small switch on its side, a red light issued from the probe’s front, accompanied by a tinny whirring noise. Almost instantaneously, the door blasted itself open, prompting the Overseer to duck into it and barricade it once more, so as to prevent the Daleks from getting in. This would only delay them; it was very likely that an entire squadron of Daleks were serving on this ship, and the Overseer could not afford to waste precious time.

Catching his breath, he scanned his surroundings once more. The door he had so abruptly chosen had opened into a corridor lined with steel, but it appeared disused. Surreptitiously, he followed the corridor’s length, which seemed to go on for quite a while. The air around him was becoming ambient once again. Now, all that remained was to formulate a plan of escape. But with one Time Lord against a whole potential squadron of Daleks, this outcome seemed a bit unfavorable. Indeed, traveling alone could apparently have unforeseen consequences after all.

[Deleted]

Katharina Diederich didn’t consider herself a very danger-seeking person. She liked to travel and she liked to explore, but never would she seek danger. The love of traveling led her to her current position. She had finally convinced her parents to let her out on her own once more – the last time she had been shot in the leg for offering chocolate-chip cookies in the midst of a drug operation she’d unknowingly ‘crashed’. Her parents didn’t keep too close of an eye on her and yet now, as she sat in the corner of some dirty cell, she found herself wishing she’d stayed home with her little bakery.

The vacation itself had gone splendid – it was when she was trying to go back to Earth that things had gone wrong. Her travel pod had screeched to a halt and it felt like she was being shaken like a rag doll. For a moment, she was icily certain that she had traveled too close to a black hole and she had sighed in defeat, preparing to be split apart molecule by molecule. To her great relief, her small travel pod landed sharply on a starship. It must have been a defensive system, Katharina realized. She patted down her pockets, making sure she had proper identification. Surely, it was just some sort of checking point.

She had just pulled out her identification triumphantly when she’d heard the screech. Unwilling to believe that such a ghastly noise came from a sentient creature, Rina had looked around, bewildered. “IN-TRU-DER!” the voice screeched. Rina widened her eyes and held her hands up, stumbling backwards into her travel pod. Her hearts were beating wildly in her chest and she felt her blood rush in her ears as she trembled. It was certainly a misunderstanding – she was no intruder! An intruder would imply she had a choice in going on the satellite, didn’t it?

“O-oh, well, no, I-I’m not…” she stuttered, scrambling out of the travel pod. She looked around quickly. The voices had echoed from the large docking bay. She stepped forward, her hands clasped together and pressed against her chest nervously. Rina didn’t have anything to be worried of from intergalactic police. The worst thing she had ever done was when she accidentally stepped on a spider. “H-hello? I’ve got my identification here… I’m very sorry to have imposed on your ti—” she began meekly, but her voice trailed off as the creature rounded the corner.

They resembled the trash bins found on every corner on the streets she grew up. And yet the beady, glowing blue eye stalk made the rolling trash bins look terrifying. Her legs quivered beneath her, and her first instinct was to run as fast as her little Dulcian legs could carry her. Still, there was no way for her to run, and she didn’t want to find out what sort of power the laser attached to the creature was capable of. She took a shaky breath and a small step backwards.

The creatures sped up immediately. “DO NOT MOVE! DO NOT MOVE!”[/b] they screamed. Katharina dropped her wallet and held up her hands again, her ID still in one, a whimper escaping her lips pathetically. Okay, Katharina. They’re just having a very bad day. She swallowed and put on her biggest smile.

“Good evening! H-how are you?” she asked politely. “I don’t mean to worry you. I’m not an intruder, you see. I believe your tract—”

“SILENCE!”[/i]

Katharina shut her mouth obediently. She kept her hands in the air and held her breath. “Scan for concealed weapons,” one of the creatures said to the other. Concealed weapons?! Katharina widened her eyes desperately. The only dangerous thing that she had on her was a ballpoint pen and the bobby pins holding her hair up.

“Scan complete. Prisoner is unarmed.”

She drew out a breath of relief that they didn’t find her hair accessories and writing utensils dangerous, then she thought over the creature’s choice of wording. Prisoner? Rina licked her lips, almost opening her mouth to ask another question, but she shut it immediately, not wanting to suffer the wrath. “Perform scan to determine threat level.”[/i]

The creature who had declared her unarmed approached. “Biometric signs indicate prisoner is Dulcian,” it reported. “Threat level nonexistent.”[/i]

Katharina smiled a bit meekly and wriggled her fingers to the other creature as a greeting. That was her: the nonthreatening Dulcian who was beginning to wonder what she had accidentally wandered in on… again. “Analysis of scans indicate subject is category ten,”[/b] the creature indicated. “Category ten subjects present no threat to Dalek authority.”[/i]

The Dulcian nodded, relieved for the third time in fifteen minutes. She looked back over to her travel pod and then to the creatures – the Daleks, they called themselves – and smiled winningly again. Or, rather, tried to smiled. She was beginning to think the Daleks were impervious to her charm, to the courtesy of even a small smile! Those poor creatures. She wanted to ask if this meant she had permission to run back to her travel pod with her tail between her legs and return to her bakery.

“You will move forward. Any attempt to escape will lead to the prisoner’s extermination,”[/i] the Dalek who wasn’t scanning her demanded. Katharina’s mouth opened, a little squeak escaping the tiny woman. Extermination?! That sounded entirely unpleasant! She nodded her head. “Is that understood? Understood?” Katharina blinked and nodded her head more furiously than she had been. “SPEAK, YOU WILL SPEAK,” the Dalek screamed.

“Yes! Yes, I’m sorry! Yes!” Katharina replied quickly, biting her lip to keep from crying out again. The Daleks moved closer to her, ushering her forward. A Dalek moved to the front of her, keeping her trapped in the middle. Her hearts continued to race to the point she was beginning to wonder if the threat of the Daleks’ lasers should be the last thing she should be worried about. She held hands to her chest against as she was led into a long corridor. The door slammed automatically shut behind them after the last Dalek entered behind her.

Rina continued to follow quickly, dropping her ID on the floor. She continued walking and squeezed her eyes tightly, expecting to be shot in the back. Fortunately, if the Dalek noticed her intergalactic identification card dropping to the ground it must have assumed it was an accident. She glanced over her shoulder at the Dalek behind her. She was a little comforted that they hadn’t killed her yet. She smiled cheerfully. If they were going to have her ‘exterminated’, they would have done it already?

Yes! They would have! Perhaps there was a heart somewhere in that trash-bin body!

“You will remain! You will obey! Obey!”[/i] the Dalek demanded, cutting off Kat’s thoughts. It nudged her into a cell. The lock whirred and clicked into place. The Dulcian blinked, awaiting further instruction. Instead, the two Daleks left immediately. Obey? Obey what?

“Wait! Mr. Dalek! I-I don’t… wait!” she called, her fingers wrapping around the thin bars of the door. The Daleks rounded the corner of the corridor, leading her all alone. She sighed and leaned against the bars. The hallway was thick with steel and rather dusty – it was obvious that the Daleks either needed a new housekeeper (Katharina made a mental note to offer her services to the next Dalek who wandered by) or they simply didn’t bother coming in on a regular basis.

A sick feeling went through her, the kind that happened when she ate too much powdered sugar from the bag. What if the Daleks intended to keep her there until she died? She sighed and took a step back. It would be easier to justify this if the Daleks had given her a reason for her imprisonment. Perhaps there was someone very special on this ship? Someone that they needed to keep very much protected? It would then lend to reason that anyone who came close enough to get caught in the tractor beam would be a threat.

She swallowed thickly and nodded. Well, if keeping her locked in a prison made them feel safer then who was Katharina to argue? It was really no worry of hers, and… well, there was no reason for her to be afraid of the creatures. Katharina sighed and lowered herself behind the door, leaning against it. She shut her eyes, thinking of her mum and dad. They had given her a new life on Earth to escape from the Dominators. What would happen now if she died?

She’d never get to bake again! Katharina gasped a little, trying to imagine not baking ever again.

Rina stood restlessly, rubbing her arms out of habit. She heard the door slam shut in the distance and she grinned. Well, perhaps those silly Daleks changed their mind and decided to let the Dulcian go. She bounced on the heels of her feet cheerfully. After all, what could she do? Bake them to death?

However, instead of a Dalek, a man rounded the corner. A very tall man. (Or was she just a very small person?) “Hello there!” she chirped brightly, waving to him happily. “Can you help me, sir?”[/size]

[Deleted]

The corridor was completely barren, save for a couple of disused storage units and aged machinery. Perhaps this part of the ship was no longer in use. Perfect. An unoccupied space could serve as an ideal vantage point for an escape plan. The only glaring drawback was that the two sentry Daleks in the previous room likely summoned backup by now, and said backup would probably sweep by the Overseer’s location in a matter of moments.

The long corridor tapered off into a leftward bank at its terminus, and the Overseer took great care in attempting to muffle the footsteps he was taking as he approached the corner. It was no easy feat; the 1950s-era black shoes he was wearing produced a small clamor in some manner with every step taken. The Time Lord inhaled sharply, filling his lungs with the air that would temporarily put his racing binary hearts at ease, even if for a few meager seconds. Furtively, he rounded the corner, adhering like fine welding to everything he knew about being discrete. The succeeding hall resembled the first, but with a distinctive exception: this hall was lined with jail cells, their foreboding metal bars inciting and instilling fear in the Overseer’s powerful mind even though he wasn’t actually a captive prisoner. But for all he knew at this point, he very well could be.

What puzzled him, however, was rather conspicuous. He was stranded onboard a hostile Dalek frigate, and yet they still kept their prisoners at bay with the now-obsolete behind bars method? It was a silly thing to mull over, but the Overseer honestly couldn’t help himself. The Dalek race was infamous for their captivity methods (a la Genesis Ark). So unless the abundance of outdated steel bars served chiefly to ingrain fear into whoever was unfortunate enough to be behind them, there appeared to be no use for them.

The Overseer’s train of thought was derailed when another piercing scream echoed through the air around him. He recoiled, poised to act once more.

No. It was different this time. A Dalek’s screech was much, much more dissonant than this. The words uttered in this dictation actually boasted impressive clarity, as if they had been spoken by an expert linguist. The Overseer processed the rest of the voice’s contents in a matter of milliseconds. Feminine. Insinuating plight. Appeared to be capable of seeing and identifying his features even in the dim fluorescence of the prison hallway. He subsequently deduced that she was taken prisoner, and that she, like him, was destined for the Dalek equivalent of a chopping block if she didn’t execute her exodus successfully. But the irony in all of this was the fact that the voice had a cheerful, jovial heir to it.

The Overseer didn’t respond for the next few seconds, and instead scouted out the source of the noise. To his astonishment, a woman was standing behind the locked cell door to his immediate left. He could now make out her physical features. She was attractive, brunette, and admittedly a bit short, even for a female. She was humanoid in appearance – same general skin tone and anatomical representation. She could be human, Time Lord, Dulcian, or an entirely different species putting on a very convincing masquerade. Either way, the Overseer’s attention was now fully affixed to this woman.

“Sir?” the Overseer asked quizzically, attempting to quell the lingering unease running rampant in his stomach. “That’s a bit posh, don’t you think? I’m not a fan of posh. Too poshy. Anyway…”

He brandished his sonic probe once more.

“I’d advise you to stand back,” the Overseer warned sternly.

With careful aim, he flicked the switch, and the probe did its work. The lock on the cell burst apart with a loud bang, a shower of short-lived sparks complementing the noise. He wrenched the metal cell door open with his free arm, the probe still clenched closely in his other hand’s grasp.

“Stay silent, whatever you do. The Daleks are already doubling the amount of sentries they’re patrolling this ship with, possibly tripling. Come quickly now. There’s no time for idle chitchat. You’ll just have to trust me for the time being,”the Overseer warned, his deep voice barely registering above a whisper. He motioned toward the end of the hall, signaling his rescuee to accompany him.

[Deleted]

Katharina smiled at him gleefully, waving as he looked at her. He seemed a bit surprised to see her – or, at least, surprised at something. Rina wasn’t too keen to ask. She let go of the bars and glanced down pointedly to the sophisticated lock, a blatant juxtaposition with the old-fashioned bars. He seemed to be observing his surroundings. Rina tilted her head. “Sir?” she repeated quietly, politely. Perhaps the man had been wounded? She peered at him curiously, but it was too dark for her to make anything else out.

“Sir?”[/i] the man asked. Katharina shook her head quietly, about to correct that she wasn’t a man when she decided to remain quiet. Perhaps he had never seen a woman before? She certainly didn’t want to embarrass him! She looked down at herself, trying to imagine herself through a stranger’s eye. She giggled. “That’s a bit posh, don’t you think? I’m not a fan of posh. Too poshy.”[/i][/color]

Rina stopped giggling. “Oh!” she said, nervous. She clasped her hands together and stared up at him, standing on the tips of her toes to appear just a little taller. “I didn’t mean to be posh,” she apologized. It was hardly nice of her to be posh when he clearly didn’t like it! What was the opposite of posh? Pish? “They must have thought there was a problem with my identification,” Rina said, frowning a little as she tried to explain what she was doing in prison. “I didn’t mean to insult them…”

What had they done with her travel pod? The creatures hadn’t seem interested in her vehicle. Oh, she did hope that she would be able to get off this starship. Perhaps the Daleks would be pleasant company, but she suspected that they were not fond of her company. It was no fault of their own. Maybe she had accidentally offended them by not being a robot! Maybe she drifted off into a part of space that was restricted to only robots? She bit her lip, worried.

“I’d advise you to stand back.”

Katharina startled, and looked up at him. He held a strange device in his hands. Katharina took a long stride backwards. She certainly didn’t want to get hurt. The man already seemed annoyed with her for being posh – whatever ‘posh’ meant. She didn’t want an accident to break one of her bones again. A Dulcian’s bones were both hollow and extremely thin. “What is that? Some sort of sonic device?” she asked curiously.

To answer her question, the probe came to life and destroyed the lock. It tore apart, raining down sparks through the cell. “That was very effective,” Katharina said politely, hurrying back to the door. She gave it a weak push as she tried valiantly to help him get the door open. The man managed with one hand what was impossible for the Dulcian using all of her strength.

She smiled sheepishly up at him, her cheeks tinged red from embarrassment. Although Dulcians prided themselves on their gentle demeanor and ‘aggressive niceness’, Rina was a little self-conscious of her utter lack of strength. “Thank you,” she said politely, before remembering that he didn’t like ‘posh’. Perhaps posh meant polite? Or even worse, what if it meant nice? She couldn’t be grumpy with him! He just saved her life, and anyway, Dulcians couldn’t get angry. “O-or not, if that makes me any less posh,” she said, laughing nervously.

Oh goodness, this was just certainly the strangest day of her life! She had never been kidnapped and taken prisoner for doing nothing, and she had certainly never been rescued by a very tall man who had some sort of sonic device. It was very exciting, even if she was a little scared of the creatures who had threatened her.

“Stay silent, whatever you do. The Daleks are already doubling the amount of sentries they’re patrolling this ship with, possibly tripling,” the man told her. Katharina stared at him, then nodded trustingly. She didn’t have a reason not to believe him, after all. He had saved her life without even asked why the woman was in prison! She was a little confused about the Daleks, but he had told her to be silent, so she remained obediently quiet. “Come quickly now. There’s no time for idle chitchat. You’ll just have to trust me for the time being,”[/i][/color] he told her quietly.

This might have been the point that a human – or any other humanoid, in fact – demanded to know the identity of her rescuer and how they knew about the Daleks. Katharina, instead, smiled broadly at him once more and nodded, giving him two thumbs up. He motioned to the end of the hall, and Katharina stuck to close to him as she hurried to the end of the corridor.[/size]

[Deleted]

If there was one thing that the Overseer could deduce about this woman despite not even being on a first name basis with her yet, it was her tendency to talk. She sure enjoyed talking; it was almost a bit excessive for the Overseer’s liking, but voicing his grievances now wouldn’t accomplish anything. Instead, he resorted to leading his escort down the remaining length of the hallway, nodding his head in response to the gratitude she had voiced just now. Her voice seemed more timid than before.

The remaining cells were empty, indicating that this fleet of Daleks didn’t receive visitors often. It was to be expected; parking a reconnaissance frigate smack-dab in the middle of an asteroid belt wasn’t exactly the most inviting spectacle. The prison corridor tapered off into another left-hand corner, indicating that this particular wing of the vessel had a rectangular layout. Perhaps the next hallway would spill out into the main chamber of the ship once more, the latter of which would no doubt be patrolled by even more Daleks. If the Overseer was to escort this maiden-in-need to safety, he’d need to reach his TARDIS back at the docking bay and steer it away from the larger ship before it could ready its traction beam again. But returning to the docking bay would be no easy feat, and the Overseer was almost skeptical to try it. Had he refused himself, however, there would be no other way to escape other than to double back the way he came, and that wouldn’t be the wisest method.

The Overseer hurriedly led the woman down the length of the succeeding hallway, which was just as dilapidated and decrepit as the first one. Holding prisoners in a disused auxiliary wing was both a poor showcasing of hospitality and a foolish way to contain intruders, especially without the advent of at least one Dalek patrolling the area.

The hallway’s end was flanked by another door. Pausing briefly to ensure that no immediate danger was abounding, the Overseer turned to his companion and addressed her again in a low whisper.

“There’s only one way we can reach my ship from here, and reaching it will be a risky maneuver. My intuition tells me that there’s a whole swarm of Daleks gracing the next area, as it’s probably a thoroughfare for the entire ship. And my intuition hasn’t failed me yet. Ah, but we’ll likely be subdued before we can even get close to the docking bay again,” he said breathlessly, closing his eyes in sudden exasperation before focusing on the woman once more. He hoped he wasn’t being too forward with her; crises often brought out the more undesirable characteristics in people.

“When I open this door,” the Overseer began once again, “We’ll run. And we’ll run as if our lives depended on it, because they certainly do in this situation. Do we have a mutual agreement here? Yes? No? Maybe? Preferably the first one?”

He concluded his statement in a huff, withdrawing his sonic probe and turning to the barricade, preparing to administer the impending breach.

[Deleted]

If there was anything that was more awkward than being a pathetically weak girl in need of saving, it was being a pathetically weak girl in need of saving whose hero was a man who just didn’t seem to like her much. She followed him, a cheerful smile still plastered on her lips. It could be worse! He could have refused to help her and left her there to the whims on the Daleks. He could have been a homicidal maniac, even! Or worse – he could have just left her alone after letting her out. She clasped her hands together nervously.

The man was a fast walker. It made Katharina think of the first time they had ever needed to run the track in her primary school. The other students would run quickly, stumbling and laughing and giggling. Katharina always hung back, scared to death of falling. She’d always been teased for being so fragile, and she could only imagine how worse the teasing would have gotten had she broken a leg or an arm trying to run track. Now she wished she hadn’t been so frightened, because the extra training would have certainly paid off. She half-jogged after him, trying to keep up.

It wouldn’t have been so nerve-wracking if Katharina could have talked. It was how she always talked her nerves out. When she was small and afraid of the Dominator under her bed, she always rambled to her mother about a variety of topics. When she was nervous for a test, she would always ask inane and repetitious questions just to fill the air. When she was first opening her bakery and trying to get customers, she would chat them to death. It was what she did, and it was clear the man was the complete opposite of her.

There had to be something that Katharina could help with! She looked around, determined as she continued trying to keep up his pace. She couldn’t fight – and if even if she could, she wouldn’t. Rina was an excellent baker, but something told her the Daleks didn’t like baked sweets. She frowned a little, trying to determine that she was, indeed, at least a little helpful. Perhaps if they were going against something other than brute strength she would have been more suited. Unfortunately, life didn’t think to consult her weaknesses and strengths before throwing her into a situation.

She ran straight into his chest as he stopped walking and turned to her. Rina stepped back, trying not to give him any more reason to abandon her. “There’s only one way we can reach my ship from here, and reaching it will be a risky maneuver.” Oh thank her lucky stars! At least this man had a plan, because she was really just relying on her utter faith and trust in this stranger. “My intuition tells me that there’s a whole swarm of Daleks gracing the next area, as it’s probably a thoroughfare for the entire ship. And my intuition hasn’t failed me yet. Ah, but we’ll most likely be subdued before we can even get close to the docking bay again,”[/b][/i] he said, appearing to be talking himself out of his plan.

Katharina nodded again, unsure if she had permission to talk once more or not. Whatever the man told her to do, she’d do it. She smiled at him confidently.

“When I open this door, we’ll run. And we’ll run as if our lives depended on it, because they certainly do in this situation. Do we have a mutual agreement here? Yes? No? Maybe? Preferably the first one?”[/b][/i] he asked, all in one breath.

“Yes,” Rina answered tentatively, keeping her voice quiet. [/size]

[Deleted]

In one swift movement, the Overseer flicked the switch on his sonic probe, the light and sound that it produced synchronizing together in a way that overtook the heavy door’s locking mechanism, forcing it apart and open. The room before them now lay unfurled like a dog-eared map, and it looked far more updated than the previous three hallways. The room in question was also a hallway, but a slightly more modern one at that; if the Daleks had any sense of grandeur, this would probably be it. The neon-garnished metal walls were polished to a respectable shine, and the floor was remarkably pristine and clean. It was admittedly a sight for sore eyes, although the Overseer had processed all of this in less than a second.

One succinct finger gesture beckoned his companion to follow him, and the Overseer instantly broke into a run, charging down the grand corridor as fast as his body would allow. As the woman followed behind him in haste, a harsh wailing filled the air. Just as he had predicted, the alarms has been raised. But the door leading back into the docking bay was about seven or eight yards ahead of them, still fully ajar, and the Overseer, provided that the woman could keep up, could possibly duck into it before it closed again. This reasoning was shot down almost instantaneously, however.

Door after door began to close, succeeding each other by only a second or two. With each successive door that barricaded itself, a small vessel of two to four Daleks came trickling out of it, their silver-ebony armor glistening in a malicious sort of way, their menacing plungers and ray guns primed for combat. The Overseer counted seven doorways total as Dalek after Dalek poured through them, not including the one that they had just exited. This brought the final Dalek count to approximately twenty-five. Twenty-five heavily clad war cyborgs, each of them programmed exclusively for the purpose of hatred and warfare. The Daleks then arranged themselves into a multifaceted oval, completely encircling the Overseer and the woman he had rescued. They were surrounded, and the Overseer felt his twin hearts begin to quicken in frenzied sort of circulatory samba. The wailing alarm stopped abruptly.

For one precarious moment, the room was silent. Neither the Daleks nor their new found captives uttered a single word. The Overseer could clearly hear his own vitals speeding up as adrenaline began to seep into his system like a water faucet turned to full intensity. Suddenly, one line of Daleks suddenly began to part away. The Overseer remained still, attempting to coolly highlight any remaining options in his head.

His thoughts were interrupted when a larger Dalek suddenly appeared in the adjacent doorway to the split Dalek line, its armor a bloody crimson hue. Evidently, this was their commander.

“YOU ARE INTRUDERS. SHE IS A PRISONER,” the commanding Dalek began in an abrasive, eardrum-grating tone. “YOU ARE TRESPASSING OUR RECONNAISANCE VESSEL. IDENTIFY YOURSELF, MALE!”

Reluctantly, the Overseer held both arms aloft in a supposed sign of surrender, and motioned for his companion to do the same. Illusionary tactics served as excellent facades in traditional warfare.

“You’re the presiding Dalek, aren’t you?” he started calmly. “Your fleet and I – well, us,” he continued, giving the woman he had rescued a brief sidelong glance, “– appear to have a small misunderstanding. I was merely going about business on my own ship when it was suddenly intercepted by your little traction beam. It’s a difficult thing to pilot, I’ll have you know.”

“THAT IS NOT THE DALEKS’ FAULT!” the commanding Dalek screech dismissively. “YOU ARE LYING. WE DID NOT INTERCEPT A SHIP IN THE DOCKING BAY.”

The Overseer sighed exasperatedly, his vehemence beginning to amass.

“One of the most superior species in the universe, and you lot are still bone-dead stupid,” he snarled. “You have my ship in your possession. Like I previously stated to your two insignificant sentries in the docking bay, it has a sophisticated cloaking device. Therefore, you cannot see it, even with those highly developed eyestalks of yours.”

Many years had passed since the Daleks were at war with the Time Lords. As a result, modern Daleks were likely devoid of any knowledge about the biology of a TARDIS. The Overseer had fibbed about the cloaking device aspect; the TARDIS had actually camouflaged herself with one of the storage containers in the docking bay, thanks to the chameleon circuit she had. With any luck, these Daleks would believe him.

“THAT MAY BE TRUE,” the head Dalek began once more, wheeling itself a little closer to the Overseer and his companion. “BUT YOU HAVE NOT IDENTIFIED YOURSELF. IDENTIFY!”

“I don’t see why you’re so intent on storing a lowly peddler like me in your archives. What’s that going to accomplish, anyway? I don’t have any special powers, and I’m unarmed. You just forgot to activate the security settings on your ship’s doors,” the Overseer replied in the most humble tone he could muster. Lie after lie had issued from his mouth, and the Daleks had still not caught on. He had a hunch, but if said hunch was incorrect, then he would likely be vaporized or shot where he stood.

The commanding Dalek did not reply.

“That’s right. I don’t show up in any of your databases. They were erased, purged from your access long ago,” the Overseer added firmly. “And I intend to keep it that way. As a result, you’ll have to release us. No phony background check is going to work on me. Oh, but I’m hasty to assume that you’d release us willingly…”

As the Overseer finished his statement, he thrust his head upward in an attempt to divert the woman’s attention to the ceiling. This was the crux of his hunch: The Dalek frigate kept its energy stored in highly advanced fuel cells on the ceiling of the main hall they were in. These cells had an extremely long life, but were also very flammable. The Time Lord had noticed this at the very moment he and his companion first entered the room. Phase one of his scheme had concluded.

“ENOUGH!” the overseeing Dalek shouted, its crude, rustic speech reverberating off the walls and ceiling of the chamber. “EXTERMINATE THEM, DALEKS! EXTERMINATE!”

Fortunately for the Overseer, Daleks “enjoyed” creating a choral cacophony before acting. As varied metallic octaves of “EXTERMINATE!” began to fill the room, the Overseer withdrew his sonic probe again and immediately thrust it straight upward, aiming directly at the fuel cell above him. He had seconds to act before the Daleks would power up their ray blasts and send both him and the woman he had rescued to their unfortunate doom.

In one final flick, the Overseer activated the probe, the sonic wailing mixing with the Dalek symphony, inadvertently creating a concoction of auditory mayhem in the process. Despite the unpleasant dissonance, the Overseer did not relinquish the stiff grip he had on his trusty probe, which was now bombarding the fuel cell above him with its invisible contents.

BANG.

The diversionary tactic’s second phase had worked: The fuel cell burst open in a staged combustion sequence, sending a shower of sparks and bio-injected petrol down to the floor, which immediately burst into flames on contact, causing the Overseer to promptly leap away from the impact site. Ideally, this would not only cause the Daleks to cease their impending assault, but it would perhaps cause significant damage to the vessel as well. Adding to the beneficial side of the equation was that all doors on this type of ship, no matter how many mechanisms were instilled into them, would open automatically when an internal emergency arose.

The flames began to arc and spread rapidly, and the Overseer vigorously tapped the woman he had rescued, the Dalek horde beginning to disperse in their equivalency of panic.

“Now, we truly need to run for our lives,” the Overseer said to his companion at breakneck speed. “Run! Follow me and run!”

The door leading to the docking bay was dead ahead, fully open and awaiting their return.

[Deleted]

Katharina Diederich had never had nightmares. Her dreams were full of sugarplum fairies, friendly unicorns and even the occasional fluffy kitten. The worst that she had ever experienced was being shot in the leg, and even then, the pain and terror had only been there for a few brief moments. This situation was, then, the worst that Rina had ever experienced, had ever even imagined. She bit her bottom lip, watching as the horrible creatures filed into the doorways.

She looked anxiously to the man. What sort of starship had she accidentally stumbled on? She could understand the security being so tight if… if… Katharina was struggling to justify the Daleks’ actions. It seemed they were just cruel. It was a foreign concept to the Dulcian. People aren’t born cruel. She let go of her poor chewed bottom lip, instead wringing her hands in front of her as a nervous gesture.

They had been tantalizingly close to the exit to the docking bay. Or, at least that’s where Katharina assumed they had been heading. She edged closer to the man as the Daleks encircled them. She looked up at him and imagined to herself that she could even see his mind working. She shut her eyes tightly, liking the noises the Daleks made while moving hidden beneath the alarms. As long as she could hear, that meant she was still alive. Rina smiled, a little comforted by the thought.

The smile faded when the silence took over. She opened her eyes and looked around. The man was standing beside her, seemingly totally unaffected by their current situation. The only clues that he wasn’t utterly stoic was the wary look in his eye and his shallow breathing. Rina moved her gaze to the Daleks – they were terrifying now, and didn’t resemble the trash bins of London. She doubted that she was going to be able to charm her way out of this one…

“YOU ARE INTRUDERS,”[/b] the singular red Dalek screamed. Katharina shrunk back, almost wishing for the silence again. “SHE IS A PRISONER. YOU ARE TRESPASSING OUR RECONNAISANCE VESSEL. IDENTIFY YOURSELF, MALE.”[/i] A prisoner… Weren’t there laws that stated you needed a reason to arrest and imprison someone? Rina decided not to ask, instead opting to continue her silence.

The man raised his hands in the air. Rina followed his lead. She had done this earlier for them and all that had managed to do was to get her imprisoned. Was this the end of his plan? It was a very valiant plan, but a tad ineffective. Not that she was complaining, mind you. It was much better than her own plan of rotting away inside the cell.

As the man mentioned her in his short speech about misunderstanding, Katharina waved blithely, keeping her hands in the air. Well, this was going better than expected. She’d expected to have been shot dead around five minutes ago. Her confidence renewed, Rina opened her mouth to politely tell the Dalek that she had, indeed, been captured. Unlike her new friend here, the travel pod wasn’t quite so advanced, particularly in the ‘cloak’ category.

The words died on her lips as he called them bone-dead stupid. Her mouth dropped open a little as she stared at him. Did he not realize there were many weapons trained directly at them? The red Dalek rolled closer, and Rina took an instinctive step back, casting a look over her shoulder to the Daleks behind them. The Dalek seemed to ignore the insult about their intelligence – perhaps they weren’t so bad, then? She looked between the Dalek and the man.

He was much braver than she was. If the Daleks had demanded her identity, she would have given them her life’s story in an attempt to spare her life. He just continued to tease them. She stared at him, absolutely incredulous. Did this strange man have a death wish? Well… he had gotten her out of the prison cell and he had led her to… relative safety… sort of. He jerked his head up, and Rina frowned a little again, looking up.

She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be seeing. There were fuel cells, a bit of lights, and some other miscellaneous piping. Or, at least, it looked like piping to the Dulcian. She wasn’t so sure about anything on this ship. It was a strange mixture of highly advanced equipment and dark-ages prison cell bars. But clearly the man had been trying to get her to look up, hadn’t he? There wasn’t anything he could do with lights except turn them off, and somehow she doubted that would work very well with these creatures.

That left the fuel cells. What could he do? I’d advise you to stand back, he’d warned her earlier, before making the lock explode. No. No way! If he used that device on the fuel cells, he’d probably blow up the entire ship! Rina felt panic rise in her throat as the Dulcian ‘flight’ instincts kicked in. They had been genetically selected again the ‘fight’. “ENOUGH! EXTERMINATE THEM, DALEKS! EXTERMINATE!”

Katharina flinched as they began to shriek, as joyfully as these creatures could muster, about killing the two humanoids. She saw the man pull something out and she backed up, immediately realizing that her instinct about his plan had been accurate. While they would both be safe, what of the Daleks? They were just following orders weren’t they? Sure, following them very happily but it wasn’t as if they were bad for that. Right?

She covered her ears as the fuel cells burst open. She hurried away from the petrol beginning to spill to the floor, catching fire. She’d set her oven on fire once when first beginning to bake, but the heat from her little oven had nothing on the immense temperature emanating from this fire. The man bounded away from the impact site and over to her. She stared up at him, beginning to wonder if she had put her faith in the hands of a brilliant madman.

“Now, we truly need to run for our lives. Run! Follow me and run!”[/color] he said.

Rina frowned and ran after him, stumbling a little as she tried to dodge a fleeing Dalek. “But, sir! Won’t the fire hurt them?” she called after him, sticking as close as she could to him. “A-are they fireproof?” Rina asked, hopefully.[/size]

[Deleted]

The Overseer sprinted vigorously down the rapidly burning corridor in the direction of the docking back, barely hearing the woman’s plighting inquiry as she darted along behind him.

“No, they aren’t fireproof,” the Time Lord said stiffly, his legs still propelling him forward. “Why? Do you want them to be?”

He had his suspicions about the identity of this woman, but he would have to postpone this examination. He couldn’t forgo the fact that the flames were spreading at a rather alarming rate. A few Daleks screeched in agony, but the Overseer didn’t dare turn around. If his suspicions about this woman were true, then she would be disgusted with his action, or at least try to be. She would ultimately have significant trouble in doing so.

The Overseer hadn’t run this hard in a very long time, although it didn’t tax his bi-circulatorial organs much. As the duo ran into the docking bay, the Time Lord briefly scanned the room once more and located the gold-colored storage unit in the room’s far right corner, near the ship’s main disposal chute. By now, no Daleks could be following them, although the flames would potentially spread into this area in a matter of moments. Backdraft effects were admittedly quite nasty.

Without taking another breath, the Overseer hauled and launched himself at the storage unit, his eyes now glazing over back to the woman running behind him.

“I lied about the cloaking device. My ship is really in this storage unit – well, it’s not actually a storage unit,” the Overseer noted dryly, wrenching the metal door of the large container open, his leg muscles beginning to spasm from the impromptu workout they had received. He then ducked into the container, the bigger-on-the-inside effect becoming evident at once.

“Get in. We’ll talk momentarily. I need to whisk us out of here first,” the Overseer ordered, his voice becoming rigidly authoritative. He thrust a long, slender pointer finger at the now-ajar TARDIS, and then charged into its interior. He subsequently made a beeline for the central control column, allowing the woman he had rescued to acquaint herself with the bio-ship’s exquisite interior.

The Overseer’s TARDIS was a heavily modified Type 90 variant, which was primarily used for warfare. However, when he had stolen her from Gallifrey, he had decommissioned her weaponry and remodeled her inside, albeit with a little direction from the sentient vessel herself. The main doors opened into a multi-tiered dome-shaped room, two stories high. The central control column was located on the second story in the very middle of the room, connected to the TARDIS’ other rooms by four walkways. The color scheme was essentially a grainy dark-gray sulfuric hue paired with neon green highlights. In addition to the flight controls, the TARDIS also played host to four bedrooms (the Overseer having claimed the biggest one), an infirmary, a storage room, a kitchen, two bathrooms, and a small recreation room (which contained various forms of entertainment, including Gallifreyan and other intergalactic media), all found on the lower level.

“Come on, darling,” urged the Overseer, who was now crouched over his beloved’s main controlling interface. “We may be in a safe haven for the time being, but I’d like to warp us out of here. Your vortex thrusters should’ve undergone their rehabilitation sequence by now – aha!”

The TARDIS roared to life, her control column pulsing an attractive neon green which matched her adornments.

Beaming at his success, the Overseer set the TARDIS to cruise in a time-and-space purgatoric vortex until further notice, and turned to his newcomer once more, clearly amused with the evident expression of surprise plastered onto her face.

“Well, now…” the Time Lord began cheerily, expanding both arms outward in a welcoming sort of manner, as if he was greeting a steady stream of guests at a fancy party. “What do you think? She’s quite beautiful, hm?"

[Deleted]

She found herself again wishing that she had tried a little harder in the human gym classes. “No, they aren’t fireproof. Why? Do you want them to be?” he asked. Rina pondered over the question carefully. It didn’t much matter what she wanted, did she? If the Daleks were destined for death, then no amount of wishing was going to save them. Would she have liked for them to live? Of course. Katharina believed that everything could be solved if the proper diplomatic protocols were in place…

But this man had tried being diplomatic, hadn’t he? She’d heard him herself. He’d given them a choice to let them go peacefully. Katharina shook her head slowly, deciding the man probably wasn’t actually interested in her answer enough to vocalize her thoughts. She hurried after him, deciding not to entangle her in the morals of things she didn’t quite understand. Her parents had often told her that doing nothing was better than doing the wrong thing, but everywhere she turned people were constantly telling her that indecision was an unattractive quality.

Rina decided it was very hard to please people.

She noted the man slowing down in front of her, and Rina skidded to a stop to avoid crashing into him for the second time. “I lied about the cloaking device. My ship is really in this storage unit – well, it’s not actually a storage unit.”[/color]

Katharina tilted her head. “Okay…” she said quietly, nodding slowly.

The man ordered her to go inside the container. Rina bit her lip, a little unsure about which made her hesitant. That he was going to whisk her away or that he was trying to stuff the both of them in a storage container. She shut her eyes and let out a little sigh once he disappeared. What had her mother warned her about men who wanted to whisk her away?

She squeezed herself through the container and shut the door behind her, and looked through the console room. She blinked once, twice, and tilted her head again. It was a very nice ship – gray and green seemed to be his favorite colors. They suit him, Rina thought, taking another look around. He wouldn’t be much of a fan of her bakery shop layout. Her favorite colors were pink and white, and she used them copiously.

“Come on, darling,” the man said, and Rina startled, looking around for someone else. Her cheeks colored, shading to a light pink. “We may be in a safe haven for the time being, but I’d like to warp us out of here…”

Oh thank goodness! He wasn’t talk to her and addressing her as darling. As good-looking as the man was, Rina was very relieved her strange rescuer wasn’t referring to her like that. She crossed the large room to near him and the console. He turned to her, looking amused by… well, she didn’t know, but he was certainly amused. She smiled at him.

The man spread his arms out, asking if Rina thought ‘she’ was beautiful. He seemed to be in a much better mood now that they weren’t on a ship full of creatures intent on their destruction.

“Oh, but of course she is!” Katharina chirped. “You didn’t tell me it was dimensionally transcendental,” Rina said, taking another look around her curiously. “It’s an Einstein-Rosen Bridge? Or I suppose it’d be much more effective to instead have a fourth dimension, a fourth space dimension,” she clarified.

Although Rina could understand the science of it, she had certainly never experienced anything quite like this. And although it only seemed to be two stories, something told her that there was much more than she was able to see. “You said she…” Rina began, resting her hand daintily on one of the walls. “She’s a sentient being? That’s just marvelous! Oh! She’s gorgeous!” Rina said cheerfully, clapping from excitement.

“Thank you. I know I said it before but…” Rina shrugged happily. “Do you have a name? I don’t want to keep calling you ‘sir’. My name is Katharina Diederich, but you can call me Rina. All my friends do,” she said, politely curtsying.[/size]

[Deleted]

Before he knew it, the Overseer felt his jaw unhinge itself into an awkward little grin as the woman spoke. He had been correct; she was marveling in his vessel’s grandeur. He couldn’t help but feel proud of her at this point. He had certainly rescued the right prisoner, although he didn’t necessarily have a choice in the matter, either. Honestly, he was quite baffled by the whole notion, especially since she seemed to possess a decent understanding of the TARDIS’ concept already.

“Dimensionally transcendental indeed!” shouted the Overseer jubilantly, clapping his hands together. “Ever heard of a TARDIS? That’s exactly what she is. Oh, and she’s flattered by your remarks. A bit flustered, actually. She's never been complimented by anyone other than me. Not your fault, though. I haven't exactly had the luxury of playing the role of host before.”

He paused briefly, attempting to suppress a toothy grin.

“Katharina Diederich,” the Overseer recited in response to the woman’s introduction. “Lovely name, quite unusual. I like unusual things. Usual things are horribly monotonous.”

The excited Time Lord began to pace around in a small semicircle, trying not to fidget excessively. He loathed it when he got flustered. Relinquishing such a strong onslaught of emotion was not an easy task for him.

“I’m the Overseer, by the way,” he continued pleasantly. “And you’re currently speaking with a Time Lord from the distant planet of Gallifrey. The pleasure’s all mine. I have to wonder, though. Wondering is fun. How did you wind up on that Dalek frigate? I assure you that Daleks don’t make for very good company. I’m sure you’d be aware of that by now.”

The Overseer concluded his inquiry with a slight jerk of the neck, involuntarily caused by his superfluous curiosity. It seemed like it was a natural chemical of his, if emotions were at all substantial.

Was the curtsy really necessary?[/i] the Overseer thought to himself amusingly.

[Deleted]

“A TARDIS?” Rina repeated, watching him with an amused smile. “I’m afraid I’m not familiar with that term. Perhaps you can elucidate me?” she asked. “Oh my, I didn’t mean to fluster her. You simply must forgive me, my dear,” Rina said sheepishly, not sure where she should direct her gaze to ‘speak’ with the TARDIS. “How does she speak? Oh, this is just so grand! Is she telepathic? Or perhaps there are chemical signals that you’re sensitive to?” Katharina asked curiously.

He did seem rather excitable now that they were off the Dalek’s ship. That was good – she had been ever so worried he didn’t like her. He’d seemed a little surprised at her knowledge of things dimensionally transcendental, but Rina figured that since he didn’t asked, he wasn’t too curious. He repeated her name, and she smiled in response. A lovely and unusual name? She looked down at her shoes, feeling her skin flush from the compliment. People told her that her name was too difficult to pronounce – too many odd syllables, too much emphasis on her family’s ‘Germanic’ heritage.

She looked back up at him, watching as he began to pace. “Thank you. I like unusual things, too, but I also like usual things. Monotony is ever so dull, however…” she said pensively. He was still pacing. Rina chuckled. “Are you all right?” she questioned.

The Overseer? How mysterious! Mystery novels were Katharina’s favorite type of novel. Her parents didn’t agree; they were like the typical Dulcians, they enjoyed science and math. “A Time Lord? Gallifrey?” she repeated, tapping a finger to her lips contemplatively. She had heard of Time Lords. Her parents had cautioned her against them – they were rash, and they always wanted to fight back. Katharina grinned. Oh, if her mother could see her now!

“Well, Overseer, I am a Dulcian from the not-so distant planet of Earth.”

She bit her lip as he asked what she was doing a prisoner on the Dalek ship. “It’s not a very interesting story. My travel pod was caught by them. I tried to show them my identification, but they weren’t interested…” Rina looked down at the ground, still unsettled by the Daleks. “I’m sure I would have enjoyed my stay a lot more if they hadn’t been trying to kill me. As far as prison cells go, I’m sure there are worse. And they could have killed me. I’m thankful they didn’t!” Rina said.

“I still don’t understand why they felt they had to imprison me. I’m not dangerous at all,” Rina frowned, casting her eyes back to the taller man. “I guess I could talk them to death,” she giggled.

[Deleted]

Almost at once, the Overseer stopped in his tracks, yet still continuing the conversational exchange. It was certainly panning out to be a vibrant one. How many species or even Time Lords could verify that they had met an actual Dulcian? Surely this would make for an interesting memoir component.

“A Dulcian?” the Overseer repeated, as if the term was a completely foreign one. His felt his already-wide eyes begin to boggle from the sheer surprise. “Surely you don’t mean a legitimate Dulcian? I haven’t seen one of your species before in all eight hundred and twenty-five years of my existence, but I’ve heard and seen descriptions… Now it all makes sense…”

The Overseer approached Katharina once more, his eyes visually examining her form, trying not linger on any one feature for too long. Her short height, thin physique, and pallid stature matched the biology of a typical Dulcian. Her account of being captured seemed credible too, as if only a real-live Dulcian could explain it.

“I think we’re both in relative awe of each other’s origins,” the Overseer noted, returning to the spot where he originally stood at when he first addressed Rina. “I mistook you for a very small human at first. But now I understand why you conveyed a sort of mercy to the Daleks. Dulcians are incapable of anger. I wish I was incapable of anger. I’m not very dignified when I’m riled up.”

He shot her a smirk, then followed up his monologue with a (modest by his standards) proposal.

“Where were you bound, Rina?” asked the Overseer, returning to the control column and affixing his gaze to the sentient core within the refined glass casing that housed the central cognition. “I can warp us there within minutes, regardless of where in the universe it’s located.”

[Deleted]

“A legitimate Dulcian?” Rina asked, giggling. “Well, yes. Both my parents are Dulcian, and both their parents. I’m afraid I don’t have access to my full family’s history,” she said, still a little puzzled by his inquiry. Most of the places she went to, the locals merely assumed she was a humanoid – either a human or one of the many relatives to. “My parents left Dulkis shortly before the Dominators seized it.” Rina bit her lip, feeling a little odd once more. Dulkis wouldn’t have been lost so easily had the Dulcians not been so pacifistic. That was no matter for her to ponder over.

Katharina took a step towards him, her curiosity piqued. “Eight hundred and twenty-five?” she repeated, incredulous. “How marvelous! You’ve aged splendidly, if I’m not being too bold,” Rina told him. There were a million women all over the Earth who would have loved to have the Overseer’s secrets to aging, Rina decided. “Are Time Lord stem cells permanently active? I’d imagine so, being the biochemical mechanism responsible for aging and healing… but how fascinating! Time Lords must have enhanced FOXo3. Your immune system must be very effective. I bet you never get the sniffles, do you?” Rina asked.

She wasn’t sure what the Time Lord thought was so interesting about meeting a Dulcian, but she smiled politely. If she were going to marvel over him, then she wouldn’t mind him making her a clinical study. Rina felt her cheeks heat up as he stared at him. She stood perfectly still, waiting for him to be done with his study. He must have been very interested in her species. It was something she couldn’t understand, but she wouldn’t question him.

Once his eyes stopped traveling and he moved back next to the TARDIS, she let out a short breath, unaware she had been holding it. “Everyone mistakes us for humans. It’s only inconvenient when we have to go to the hospital and they take x-rays…” Rina said, smiling nervously. “Oh, but maybe you know how that is. Do Time Lords have binary vascular systems? You’ll have to forgive my curiosity. My parents spoke of your kind as legends. As though there weren’t any,” she told him.

“Dulcians are incapable of anger. I wish I was incapable of anger. I’m not very dignified when I’m riled up.”

Rina smiled. “No one ever is. Anger rarely solves anything and neither does aggressive kindness,” she mused. “It seems to me everyone is too much on one side, but no one can be perfect. Wouldn’t it be such a nice place if the universe could get along? Just one day with no fighting…” she said wistfully.

Anywhere in the universe within minutes? The trip on the travel pod was going to take a week – and it was the fastest technology available on Dulkis before her parents left. She immediately paled, her hand covered her mouth. The travel pod! It was still on the Dalek ship that he had destroyed! Oh, her parents were not going to be happy with her at all. “Earth… I was just going back home. But… well, you never did explain what a TARDIS is. Perhaps you could give me a demonstration before taking me home?” Rina said hopefully.
“You did mention whisking us away,” Rina pointed out. “A-and I won’t be a bother! I can cook! I have my own catering business. And I don’t take up much space. Y-you won’t even know I’m here. I can even stay quiet, if you’d like it. And I’ll clean! You don’t even have to worry about me being a psychopath, if you’re worried. I had a mate who was murdered by a homeless bloke she picked up in Cheshire, but I’m Dulcian,” she reminded him, crossing over him and holding out her arm. “Feel my bones? Hollow. I’d break my arm trying to hit you, I bet.” She took his hands and placed them on her chest cheerfully. “Two hearts. Dulcian.”

She moved her hands from his and smiled up at him. “If I’m not imposing, that is…”

[Deleted]

Eight hundred and twenty five years indeed, but as the Overseer would divulge in a few moments, they weren’t spent entirely with his current body.

“Aged splendidly, have I?” he began with a grin, crossing his arms over his chest. It took nearly all of his remaining composure to prevent himself from pacing again. “I don’t know about that. I haven’t always been in this form, you see. But that’s another story for another time. As for the binary vascular system, you’re correct in that regard. I have two hearts as opposed to one. I honestly don’t know how humans can manage with only one of those things. Being deprived of one heart would be like borderline hypoxia for me.”

Even the mere thought of being deprived of one of his hearts was giving his stomach the digestive equivalent of hypoxia. It turned a couple of times queasily, but the unpleasant sensation overall didn’t translate to the Overseer’s current facial expression and demeanor, which was still on the jovially curious side of the spectrum.

“I’m still a little curious, to tell your the truth...” the Overseer continued, approaching Katharina once more. The task of truly understanding her biological makeup was facilitated in this closer position. The gap between the two beings was now less than a foot. “You’ll have to forgive me if this seems out of line. Prior experience has convinced me that handling a stranger this way is considered frowned upon, for the most part.”

However, Katharina already seemed like she was one step ahead of the Overseer, as she had just extended her arm for him to feel. He glossed over it gently with his right forefinger, feeling the bone and muscle structure. Both felt significantly lighter in tone than his own, indicating that they would likely spasm if he grasped her arm too forcefully.

“Intriguing, very intriguing…” the Overseer admitted finally. “I wonder how your vascular system is configured. Perhaps much like mine, if it’s binaural…”

Katharina had actually done the task for him before he readied himself. She placed his hands on her chest, directly on the third intercostal space, just above her breastline. He steadied himself, taking care not to depress her sternum too much. Being held liable for damaging a rare species would bode ill for what was to come.

Her heartbeat, for the most part, seemed to resemble his. Each cycle was thumped out in a series of four, although her small stature contributed to her rapid heart rate of two hundred beats per minute. The Overseer’s was likely beating at about one hundred and seventy – the normal pulse of a Time Lord. He was no doctor, but far as he was concerned, Katharina’s heart was perfectly healthy. How did such a simple and menial exchange morph into playing the role of doctor and patient? Perhaps it was all in good fun.

“Ah, Earth,” the Overseer replied, quickly withdrawing his hands from Katharina’s chest and amending his slackened posture once more. “Quite a diverse planet. I’ve been there many, many times. Humans are a bit hit or miss, really. They’re either wonderfully knowledgeable or completely idiotic. Luck of the draw, I think.”

The Overseer took a few steps backward, in the direction of the vacant control column.

“A TARDIS is a wonderful vessel… Not only can it travel in space, but it can also travel in time,” the Overseer explained, a slow grin beginning to metastasize across his face once again. “Heh, I expect you weren’t anticipating a response quite so outlandish, were you? And never mind the imposement, I utilize that state of thinking nearly all the time. After all, they say imposement ad curiosity, when applied together, are a very elegant and enigmatic formula. I don't know who said that. Probably some philosophical nutter. If he's a nutter, I probably symapthize with him in some way, shape, or form. Oh, don't mind me, I have a tendency to let my mind and mouth wander on occasion..."

By now, everything had been made plainly conspicuous. A lost Dulcian now had nearly every figment of time and space at her disposal. A few carefully chosen words could potentially put the pair in a perpetual cycle of traveling. The Overseer then uncrossed his arms and extended them into the same position he had voluntarily put them in just a few moments prior.

"My TARDIS has plenty of accomodations, so don't worry about being in the way of things. Unless you fiddle around with the controls or something along those lines, I welcome all forms of visitation and habitation. Because I sure as hell don't get much of either," the Time Lord noted with a small laugh.