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eponymous_roseTitle: The Deepsky Atlas (1/?)
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
eponymous_rose
Word Count: 1,591
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Adventure, Humour
Characters: Fourth Doctor, Harry Sullivan, Sarah Jane Smith
Author's Note: Since I should have the next chapter of The Wanderer Fantasy up in the near future, it seemed perfectly natural for me to start another multichaptered fic. Because, obviously, I'm utterly insane. :D Not posting elsewhere just yet - I ran a bit too close to deadline on this one for comfort and would like to look at it in the morning before crossposting. Let me know if you spot anything/would like to beta this fic/think it's worth continuing!
Summary: Constellations are nothing more than whole stories written in the sky for anyone to see - this is one of them.
THE DEEPSKY ATLAS
CHAPTER ONE
“It’s a sort of compass, really,” the Doctor intoned, hands clasped behind his back, staring up at the sky.
His companions exchanged exasperated glances when he didn’t elaborate. “It’s your turn,” Sarah hissed at Harry, who conceded the point with a shrug and strolled over to stand next to the Doctor, who seemed entirely unaware of his presence.
Undeterred, Harry followed his gaze to the stars overhead. “Eh? What’s a sort of compass, then, Doctor?” he asked good-naturedly, with a wink at Sarah; they’d begun a running tally of how many times they’d had to ask a similar question to the Doctor, and coming up with new and different ways of phrasing the same query was becoming something of a competition. She smirked back at him.
The Doctor adjusted the brim of his hat, squinting at the twin suns overhead. “Well, all of it, I should think. Come on, Harry. You too, Sarah, and stop pulling faces! It’s just a brief stopover. We’ll be back on our way in no time at all.” He paused, considering. “Maybe even less time than that.”
And with that, he strode off towards the horizon, a flat, charred plain which was only very distantly broken by a vast, ragged chain of inhospitable-looking mountains.
Sarah was practically jogging to match his long strides, and even Harry was having trouble keeping up. “Where are we, Doctor?” Sarah asked after a moment.
“I thought you said it was my turn!” Harry protested. “I’d a real corker of a question planned, too.”
She patted his arm unapologetically. “Sorry. Forgot.”
The Doctor cleared his throat. “What was the question?”
Harry shrugged. “Well, I will admit that it seems less funny now that-”
“Not you, Harry.” With a grin, the Doctor stopped and turned to face them. “Sarah, you were wondering where we are? That’s a very good question, isn’t it?”
Sarah and Harry stumbled to a halt. “I thought so,” Sarah said, breathing heavily from the exertion of her forced run. Harry restrained himself from asking if she was all right, because it seemed the sort of thing she might take offense with, and he still wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with her when she was angry.
“We,” the Doctor said with a wave of his arm, “are on the planet Xanphregnos 17.5. Not a particularly social sort of place, but rather admirable in its way.”
“I’m sure it’s got loads of hidden charm,” Sarah said dubiously, scanning the vast, barren landscape.
“It’s a haven for travellers,” the Doctor continued, turning and striding again towards the distant mountains. “The sun it orbits is called Larinusala, and it’s part of a constellation that your people call Circinus.”
Harry thought back to his Latin master, to the long days spent slouched over his textbook, dreaming of better things-
“The Compass,” he hazarded, and the Doctor beamed.
“Well done, Harry!”
Sarah nudged Harry with her elbow. “Show-off.”
“The Compass!” the Doctor echoed, pointing. “Straight ahead is where the ancient civilisations of this planet established their trading post, and it’s since become an excellent place to swap stories with fellow travellers - or to use the remarkable magnetic properties of this planet to recalibrate field equipment.” He reached into his coat and pulled out a chunk of machinery that seemed much too large for the pocket that had concealed it. “Like so.”
Harry had long since given up on trying to rationalise most things pertaining to the Doctor, but those infinitely deep pockets of his were still dashed frustrating to consider. He could see by Sarah’s slight grimace that she felt much the same way.
“So it’s a pit stop, then?” Sarah grinned.
“Something of the sort. But, well, you never really know about this sort of place, do you? It’s important to keep your eyes-”
There was a swish, a cutting of the air, and for a terrible moment they all stood in silence, wondering what had just-
The Doctor stumbled. “Someone’s shooting at us!” he shouted, grabbing Sarah’s arm and pulling her to the ground with him. “Get down!” Harry dropped like a stone, instantly recalling the brief supplemental training he’d had back when he’d first been attached to UNIT. He scanned the area as best he could with his face buried in the sandy ground.
His first thought was that there was no conceivable cover from which anyone could attempt such an assault. Keeping flat on the ground, he shifted back and forth, and suddenly became aware of a hovering form, a vaguely mechanical mass, some twenty feet away, flickering in and out of view.
“Over there, Doctor-”
“I see him,” the Doctor snapped, then raised his voice. “Have you quite finished shooting at us, whoever you are?”
“-is a-” A voice flickered into view, as unsteady as the image of their attacker. “-restricted zone do not-”
Harry raised his hands and shifted up to his knees. “Look, we’re not really-” He flinched and dove down again as a bolt of energy sizzled over his head.
“Doctor, what are you-” Sarah was whispering, but Harry didn’t dare turn to look at them. He could faintly smell the smoke wisping from his singed hair - that had been rather too close for comfort.
The Doctor shushed her, and Harry relaxed as he heard the familiar whirr of the sonic screwdriver. “If I can just get the frequency-”
There was a snap, and Harry risked a quick glance up at the menacing figure. It was bobbing in the air, as insubstantial as ever, but still very obviously armed and present. The Doctor gave a disappointed cough. “I was rather fond of that screwdriver, too.”
“-be disassembled-” the voice rasped. “-be disassembled be-” There was a jolt of static, and the machine disappeared for a few seconds this time, before flickering back into existence, more solid than ever. “-disassembled-”
“Don’t much like the sound of that,” Sarah said, and her voice quavered slightly.
“Shh,” the Doctor said again. “Be as still as you can.”
For lack of a better plan, Harry obeyed, letting his tense muscles relax and trying not to close his eyes against the stinging dust carried by the wind. The machine was flickering more, now, and its muttered words were becoming less and less distinct.
“-disassemblelelelele-” it croaked, and vanished. Silence swept the plain, and Harry was suddenly fiercely aware of his own breathing, of the pounding of his heart-
“Hah!” the Doctor shouted, and Harry jumped. “Just your garden-variety guardian robot, transmatted about based on a motion-sensor link.” He sprang to his feet, and Harry followed, a bit more unsteadily. “But it looks very old - the transmat’s breaking up or it would’ve killed us right off the bat.” He grinned, then bent down to retrieve his hat and stuffed it into his pocket. “Fortunately for us, this place seems to have fallen into disrepair.”
Harry grimaced. “Everyone all right?” He took Sarah by the arm and helped her to her feet - she looked pale but unharmed, shaken enough that she didn’t get upset at his concern, and she nodded in response to his query.
The Doctor was squinting at the sonic screwdriver, which looked to Harry as though it had been sliced neatly in half. “That’s not very encouraging,” the Doctor said after a moment, and pocketed the remains with a solemn dignity.
“Why would there be guardian robots in the middle of the bally desert?” Harry snapped, then winced at the hysteria in his tone. He caught himself glancing all around them for any signs of another friendly visitor.
“He’s got a point,” Sarah said, rallying at last. “You said this was a sort of trading post. Why would they be trying to keep intruders out?”
“Oh,” the Doctor said, rubbing his chin, “I think there’s more to it than that. Incidentally, were you both paying very close attention to the direction in which we were travelling?”
Harry and Sarah exchanged puzzled glances. “Just towards the mountains,” Sarah said, pointing.
“Little to the left, I should’ve thought,” Harry added.
“That’s about right,” the Doctor said. “Well, left, anyway. It’s not much further.”
“Good,” Harry said. “But why-”
The Doctor turned, and suddenly his expression was very serious. “Listen to me, both of you,” he said, and Harry had the familiar impression that the Doctor was doing more than just talking, was using some form of hypnosis to imprint the importance of the situation onto them. “It is vital that you don’t return to the TARDIS until I say so. Is that clear? I’ve a very nasty suspicion about all this, and I think the TARDIS is probably the most dangerous place on the planet at the moment.”
“If you say so, Doctor,” Harry said, startled.
“Good, good,” the Doctor said, and his face relaxed into a smile. “Now, I think I should probably warn you.” He shifted the scarf on his shoulder; Harry couldn’t suppress a little gasp, and Sarah took a shocked step towards him.
The Doctor’s coat was torn at the shoulder, and blood was rapidly seeping into the fabric around the wound.
“It’s worse than it looks, probably,” the Doctor said, but the sudden weakness in his voice was far from reassuring. “Anyway, these sorts of robots generally keep a nice supply of tranquiliser mixed in with their ammunition, to keep even the stronger intruders down for the count. I’ve been fighting it, but I expect that any minute-”
And with that, he crumpled to the ground.
Author:
eponymous_roseWord Count: 1,591
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Adventure, Humour
Characters: Fourth Doctor, Harry Sullivan, Sarah Jane Smith
Author's Note: Since I should have the next chapter of The Wanderer Fantasy up in the near future, it seemed perfectly natural for me to start another multichaptered fic. Because, obviously, I'm utterly insane. :D Not posting elsewhere just yet - I ran a bit too close to deadline on this one for comfort and would like to look at it in the morning before crossposting. Let me know if you spot anything/would like to beta this fic/think it's worth continuing!
Summary: Constellations are nothing more than whole stories written in the sky for anyone to see - this is one of them.
THE DEEPSKY ATLAS
CHAPTER ONE
“It’s a sort of compass, really,” the Doctor intoned, hands clasped behind his back, staring up at the sky.
His companions exchanged exasperated glances when he didn’t elaborate. “It’s your turn,” Sarah hissed at Harry, who conceded the point with a shrug and strolled over to stand next to the Doctor, who seemed entirely unaware of his presence.
Undeterred, Harry followed his gaze to the stars overhead. “Eh? What’s a sort of compass, then, Doctor?” he asked good-naturedly, with a wink at Sarah; they’d begun a running tally of how many times they’d had to ask a similar question to the Doctor, and coming up with new and different ways of phrasing the same query was becoming something of a competition. She smirked back at him.
The Doctor adjusted the brim of his hat, squinting at the twin suns overhead. “Well, all of it, I should think. Come on, Harry. You too, Sarah, and stop pulling faces! It’s just a brief stopover. We’ll be back on our way in no time at all.” He paused, considering. “Maybe even less time than that.”
And with that, he strode off towards the horizon, a flat, charred plain which was only very distantly broken by a vast, ragged chain of inhospitable-looking mountains.
Sarah was practically jogging to match his long strides, and even Harry was having trouble keeping up. “Where are we, Doctor?” Sarah asked after a moment.
“I thought you said it was my turn!” Harry protested. “I’d a real corker of a question planned, too.”
She patted his arm unapologetically. “Sorry. Forgot.”
The Doctor cleared his throat. “What was the question?”
Harry shrugged. “Well, I will admit that it seems less funny now that-”
“Not you, Harry.” With a grin, the Doctor stopped and turned to face them. “Sarah, you were wondering where we are? That’s a very good question, isn’t it?”
Sarah and Harry stumbled to a halt. “I thought so,” Sarah said, breathing heavily from the exertion of her forced run. Harry restrained himself from asking if she was all right, because it seemed the sort of thing she might take offense with, and he still wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with her when she was angry.
“We,” the Doctor said with a wave of his arm, “are on the planet Xanphregnos 17.5. Not a particularly social sort of place, but rather admirable in its way.”
“I’m sure it’s got loads of hidden charm,” Sarah said dubiously, scanning the vast, barren landscape.
“It’s a haven for travellers,” the Doctor continued, turning and striding again towards the distant mountains. “The sun it orbits is called Larinusala, and it’s part of a constellation that your people call Circinus.”
Harry thought back to his Latin master, to the long days spent slouched over his textbook, dreaming of better things-
“The Compass,” he hazarded, and the Doctor beamed.
“Well done, Harry!”
Sarah nudged Harry with her elbow. “Show-off.”
“The Compass!” the Doctor echoed, pointing. “Straight ahead is where the ancient civilisations of this planet established their trading post, and it’s since become an excellent place to swap stories with fellow travellers - or to use the remarkable magnetic properties of this planet to recalibrate field equipment.” He reached into his coat and pulled out a chunk of machinery that seemed much too large for the pocket that had concealed it. “Like so.”
Harry had long since given up on trying to rationalise most things pertaining to the Doctor, but those infinitely deep pockets of his were still dashed frustrating to consider. He could see by Sarah’s slight grimace that she felt much the same way.
“So it’s a pit stop, then?” Sarah grinned.
“Something of the sort. But, well, you never really know about this sort of place, do you? It’s important to keep your eyes-”
There was a swish, a cutting of the air, and for a terrible moment they all stood in silence, wondering what had just-
The Doctor stumbled. “Someone’s shooting at us!” he shouted, grabbing Sarah’s arm and pulling her to the ground with him. “Get down!” Harry dropped like a stone, instantly recalling the brief supplemental training he’d had back when he’d first been attached to UNIT. He scanned the area as best he could with his face buried in the sandy ground.
His first thought was that there was no conceivable cover from which anyone could attempt such an assault. Keeping flat on the ground, he shifted back and forth, and suddenly became aware of a hovering form, a vaguely mechanical mass, some twenty feet away, flickering in and out of view.
“Over there, Doctor-”
“I see him,” the Doctor snapped, then raised his voice. “Have you quite finished shooting at us, whoever you are?”
“-is a-” A voice flickered into view, as unsteady as the image of their attacker. “-restricted zone do not-”
Harry raised his hands and shifted up to his knees. “Look, we’re not really-” He flinched and dove down again as a bolt of energy sizzled over his head.
“Doctor, what are you-” Sarah was whispering, but Harry didn’t dare turn to look at them. He could faintly smell the smoke wisping from his singed hair - that had been rather too close for comfort.
The Doctor shushed her, and Harry relaxed as he heard the familiar whirr of the sonic screwdriver. “If I can just get the frequency-”
There was a snap, and Harry risked a quick glance up at the menacing figure. It was bobbing in the air, as insubstantial as ever, but still very obviously armed and present. The Doctor gave a disappointed cough. “I was rather fond of that screwdriver, too.”
“-be disassembled-” the voice rasped. “-be disassembled be-” There was a jolt of static, and the machine disappeared for a few seconds this time, before flickering back into existence, more solid than ever. “-disassembled-”
“Don’t much like the sound of that,” Sarah said, and her voice quavered slightly.
“Shh,” the Doctor said again. “Be as still as you can.”
For lack of a better plan, Harry obeyed, letting his tense muscles relax and trying not to close his eyes against the stinging dust carried by the wind. The machine was flickering more, now, and its muttered words were becoming less and less distinct.
“-disassemblelelelele-” it croaked, and vanished. Silence swept the plain, and Harry was suddenly fiercely aware of his own breathing, of the pounding of his heart-
“Hah!” the Doctor shouted, and Harry jumped. “Just your garden-variety guardian robot, transmatted about based on a motion-sensor link.” He sprang to his feet, and Harry followed, a bit more unsteadily. “But it looks very old - the transmat’s breaking up or it would’ve killed us right off the bat.” He grinned, then bent down to retrieve his hat and stuffed it into his pocket. “Fortunately for us, this place seems to have fallen into disrepair.”
Harry grimaced. “Everyone all right?” He took Sarah by the arm and helped her to her feet - she looked pale but unharmed, shaken enough that she didn’t get upset at his concern, and she nodded in response to his query.
The Doctor was squinting at the sonic screwdriver, which looked to Harry as though it had been sliced neatly in half. “That’s not very encouraging,” the Doctor said after a moment, and pocketed the remains with a solemn dignity.
“Why would there be guardian robots in the middle of the bally desert?” Harry snapped, then winced at the hysteria in his tone. He caught himself glancing all around them for any signs of another friendly visitor.
“He’s got a point,” Sarah said, rallying at last. “You said this was a sort of trading post. Why would they be trying to keep intruders out?”
“Oh,” the Doctor said, rubbing his chin, “I think there’s more to it than that. Incidentally, were you both paying very close attention to the direction in which we were travelling?”
Harry and Sarah exchanged puzzled glances. “Just towards the mountains,” Sarah said, pointing.
“Little to the left, I should’ve thought,” Harry added.
“That’s about right,” the Doctor said. “Well, left, anyway. It’s not much further.”
“Good,” Harry said. “But why-”
The Doctor turned, and suddenly his expression was very serious. “Listen to me, both of you,” he said, and Harry had the familiar impression that the Doctor was doing more than just talking, was using some form of hypnosis to imprint the importance of the situation onto them. “It is vital that you don’t return to the TARDIS until I say so. Is that clear? I’ve a very nasty suspicion about all this, and I think the TARDIS is probably the most dangerous place on the planet at the moment.”
“If you say so, Doctor,” Harry said, startled.
“Good, good,” the Doctor said, and his face relaxed into a smile. “Now, I think I should probably warn you.” He shifted the scarf on his shoulder; Harry couldn’t suppress a little gasp, and Sarah took a shocked step towards him.
The Doctor’s coat was torn at the shoulder, and blood was rapidly seeping into the fabric around the wound.
“It’s worse than it looks, probably,” the Doctor said, but the sudden weakness in his voice was far from reassuring. “Anyway, these sorts of robots generally keep a nice supply of tranquiliser mixed in with their ammunition, to keep even the stronger intruders down for the count. I’ve been fighting it, but I expect that any minute-”
And with that, he crumpled to the ground.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 07:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 04:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 01:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 04:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 03:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 04:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 03:23 pm (UTC)Gasp! Poor Doctor! (Four does seem to fall over quite a bit in general, though.) And they can't go back to the TARDIS! And they're in the middle of the freaking desert! You cruel, cruel, fabulous thing, you.
Looking forward to the next bit from your pen, whether it be this fic or Bigbang! (PS: AIM me sometime!)
no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 04:53 pm (UTC)since it will probably stop you from working on the Bigbang
Oh, nonono. I've been puttering away at a bit of everything, lately - this just happened to come out of a drabble I was writing (hey, I had forty-five minutes to post something), and I liked the setup enough to want to see where it might lead. As long as I have some fic that's readily posted on a daily basis, there should be no trouble at all updating the bigger ones. (Thus the short chapters - if I did Wanderer Fantasy-style 5,000 word monstrosities, I'd never get it posted!) Big Bang's first on my list of priorities - I'll let you know once I've got the first section finished up!
And they can't go back to the TARDIS! And they're in the middle of the freaking desert!
Things don't look too good for our heroes!
PS: AIM me sometime!
Will do, will do! New laptop, alas, which means that I don't have most of my old programs installed, but I hope to get that all sorted out in this next week. :D
no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 05:20 pm (UTC)After reading the last two fics you posted with Sarah & Harry in I've friended you on the basis that there might be more good stuff to read.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-06 05:43 pm (UTC)I've friended you on the basis that there might be more good stuff to read.
Yay - friending right back, if that's all right, since we seem to frequent the same places and I was on the point of doing it anyway. :)
I've managed to get myself motivated to try and post a fic every day in 2008, so hopefully there'll be something of interest here!
no subject
Date: 2008-01-08 10:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-11 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-08 06:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-11 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-13 04:37 am (UTC)*blinks*
Ahh!
(I see I've got a lot of catching up to do. But first, I hope you've resolved the cliffhanger in the next part.)
no subject
Date: 2008-01-20 06:15 am (UTC)Ooh, that's interesting. I think mine wound up being Ten, because that was the Doctor I'd just finished watching when I started on to Classic Who. But I quickly familiarized myself with the voices. Tom Baker's in particular is really something. :D
no subject
Date: 2008-01-16 12:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-20 06:15 am (UTC)