Firefly/Doctor Who crossover fic: A Different Kind of Companion (7/20)

[locker_monster]

Title: A Different Kind of Companion (7/20)
Rating: PG-13
Characters/Pairings: Ten, Rose, Ten/Rose, Mal, Inara, Mal/Inara
Timeline: A week after "Heart of Gold" for Firefly, and just before "Army of Ghosts" for Doctor Who
Summary: After an encounter in the 26th century, Inara and Rose find themselves in unfamiliar settings.
Disclaimer: Firefly and Doctor Who belong to their respective creators and showrunners. Too much awesome would happen if Joss Whedon and Russell T Davies ever worked on something together.
A/N: The biggest thank you goes out to browncoat_2x2 for betaing this story and helping with the minor changes.

Chapter One. Chapter Two. Chapter Three. Chapter Four. Chapter Five. Chapter Six.

            The Doctor walked through a maze.

            His ship was enormous. As he led the way to the control room, Inara glimpsed various rooms and more hallways leading off into new directions. This was beyond any current technology available, even beyond what the Alliance was developing. And it all fit inside a moderately sized blue box.

            Up ahead, the Doctor pushed open a set of doors. Inara quickened her pace.

            She found herself in a large domed room. Curved spires reached to the ceiling, made out of the same coral material as the rest of the ship. In the middle of the room on a raised section sat a console, a tall glass column rising up out of its centre. A closer look at the console evoked memories of Serenity’s controls; old and weathered but still functional. A gentle pulsing sound permeated in the background.

            Inara caught the Doctor staring at her. He had a smile on his face despite the situation. “Everyone has the same reaction to the TARDIS their first time.”

            “TARDIS?” repeated Inara, picking up on the word.

            “Time And Relative Dimension In Space. A bit long-winded if you have to say it a lot, so, T-A-R-D-I-S.”

            Her hand trailed along the edge of the console as she walked around it. The central column gave off a beautiful blue-green glow. “You have power,” Inara realized.

            “If only a lack of power was the problem. I could fix that lickety split.” The Doctor paused. “Lickety spilt. Fascinating word. Sorta rolls around in your mouth.”

            The Doctor’s enthusiasm helped to ease some of Inara’s apprehension. This was a situation completely foreign to her but the Doctor wasn’t dismissing her presence. “So what is the problem?”

            He suddenly grew serious. “The TARDIS has a protection system, a Hostile Action Displacement System, or HADS. Hmm, we Time Lords are fond of acronyms… It activates if the TARDIS thinks she’s in danger. Without prompting from me, she can materialize in a new place.”

            “This system activated when I was shot.” Inara hazarded a guess.

            “I usually don’t allow weapons to be fired inside the TARDIS, but not much can be done if the weapon is being fired from the outside. So the TARDIS, fearing injury of her only pilot, activated the system.”

            The Doctor approached one section of the console. It was blackened, as if from a fire. “But before we could dematerialize, a bullet damaged the materialization circuit. The poor girl left not knowing where she would end up.” The Doctor fondly ran his hand over the console.

            “You care very much for this ship,” said Inara.

            “Oh, how can I not? We’re a pair, we are.”

            It was almost like there was a bit of Mal in the Doctor. “I assume with this circuit damaged we can’t return to Aberdeen.”

            “We could rematerialize inside of a solid wall, around a planet, or not even materialize at all. That’s the problem with spatial dynamics.”

            Inara let her gaze wander around the room. It was all so elegant. It didn’t even seem like a ship. “So where are we then?” she asked.

            “You can see for yourself.” The Doctor walked down a ramp and opened the doors. Bright sunlight streamed into the TARDIS. “Come on!” He stepped out.

            Inara followed. Her footsteps clanked against the metal ramp as she walked down it. At the doors, she hesitated. Taking a deep breath she slowly stepped over the threshold.

            Her foot came down on soft green grass. Another step and she was completely outside of the ship. She took one more glance back at the spacious interior before moving away from the doors. A lush green landscape stretched out before her. Turning her gaze to the sky, Inara was startled to realize that it was coloured a light purple rather than a light blue.

            “Light waves,” offered the Doctor as he appeared beside her. He turned his gaze upwards as well. “The gas molecules in the atmosphere here absorb the violet light more readily than the blue light. And Voilà! A purple sky.”

            She couldn’t look away. “It’s beautiful.”

            The Doctor smiled. “What’s your name, by the way?”

            “Inara.”

Some further A/N: Pardon my butchering of Doctor Who science. The HADS is canon and a dematerialization circuit was mentioned during the Third Doctor's era. I was going to say the dematerializaation circuit was damaged but then it was pointed out to me that the TARDIS couldn't have left in the first place. So, hopefully the Doctor's explanation made sense. Also, the light waves thing should be true; I Googled it. :-)