taxonomites | ☆ 1 [Holo] Another sky, a new sun, new air, a new life.

"ASTRIIIID!"

It was over, she'd done it. For him, for all those people on the planet beneath, all six billion of them, because he would save them. This will have been worthwhile, her life well spent and it only took a moment's thought, barely seconds of hesitation before she knew what she had to do.

Faster and faster she seemed to plummet towards the ship's nuclear drive, blasts of scorching air rushing past her. She could still see him, a tiny speck of hope high above her, and the fall seemed never ending. She reached out to him in vain hope, that brilliant man who'd offered her the whole universe, a dream made tangible and now she could barely see him.

"I'm falling." Flashes of burning heat ever nearing, but never closing. It was as if somehow time itself had allowed her the chance to dream, to cling to her belief in him. How long would she fall? Why wasn't it over yet?

"I keep falling. Stop me falling Doctor."

It was never going to end, it felt like her fall would last for eternity.

"I can do anything!" Angry, the Doctor's words were snarled venomously with frustration.

Wait!... She could hear him, she could actually hear him! That was his voice, she didn't imagine it did she? Was her mind playing tricks on her, was she dead, is this what happens when you die? No. No. It had to be more real than that, he'd found a way, he had to have done. He was the Doctor, and he could do anything. She was breathless, bewildered and confused, but she clung to her absolute belief in him. She was only half solid matter, half ethereal stardust as she stood there in the sterile cylindrical room?

"Doctor?" Astrid spun on her heels, taking in her unfamilar surroundings. She looked whole, but she'd realise all too soon that when she tried to pick anything up that her hand would simply fall through it. "Doctor, where are you?" After a few moments, she looked down at the tablet already attached to her wrist.

"Hello?"

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"That's him!" Astrid seemed relieved to hear a friendly voice and smiled hopefully at the image on the tablet. She didn't remember him being onboard the Titanic, but there could have easily been survivors that they'd missed. The ship was so vast, there could have been any number of cubby holes or hiding places the Host hadn't reached. This room, for instance. It wasn't even a room she knew existed and she worked there.

"Is he alright? Are you alright?" Oh Astrid, still looking out for others' wellbeing, despite everything.

"More than likely he's fine." Flouncing world to world in his TARDIS being an overall idiot. "You've practically just missed him. And I'm well enough." The tablet shifted oddly as the Master got up, taking it with him and sliding out of his room into the halls of the Sanctuary. "I'm more worried about your safety right now. Wherever you were before, you're now in a place called Taxon. If you can get yourself out of that first room, then I can be more of service..."

She'd been about to query why he'd left so suddenly, confusion etched onto her features. But as the gentleman continued it became quickly apparent she wasn't where she thought was.

Still, she'd been through this much and the adrenalin was still flowing, so she simply nodded in 'back to business' mode. Perhaps she should have been more shocked, or maybe even skeptical, but she just took it in her stride. The reality of it all would hit her later, probably.

"Okay, I'm out as soon as I can be," and that's when she placed her hand on the door handle. The handle that her hand missed entirely...

...because the door had opened automatically for her. It seemed Taxon's arrival room was accommodating its incorporeal arrival, and in the meantime saving her the shocking news.

There she was, right about where he was assuming she would turn up. Good. No one else had interfered. He had a freshly clean slate with this woman of the Doctor's...

"It's not so bad here, now that you're out of that stuffy room. What's your name, darling? What do you know of the Doctor?"

If Astrid had been half expecting to find herself still onboard the Titanic, the clinical feel to the Sanctuary's corridors, revealed that she really wasn't. Thankfully enough she hadn't wandered more than a few feet from the door when the man who had greeted her turned the corner.

"I... I don't understand. Where is this Taxon place, how did I..." Astrid stopped herself when she realised she hadn't properly answered his questions.

"Astrid, sir. Astrid Peth. What about Earth though? Sol 3? Did he manage to stop the ship crashing?"

"You've been transported from presumably your ship to this underground city, although you can hardly tell it's underground. And you can find about anything you need here, save for a way back home." That line sounded more than familiar to him. He really must avoid that.

"Earth has a habit of surviving anything, and no doubt whatever the problem, the Doctor gave it his all to save it, and anyone involved."

He's keeping himself devoid of bitterness, instead being a regular, charming gentleman. Though it didn't look like he'd be able to sweep her off her feet. Shame. Well, the next best approach was to offer her a simple bow and his award-winning Saxon smile.

"It's a pleasure meeting you, Miss Peth. I am the Master, one quite like your friend the Doctor."

"Likewise then," Astrid smiled in return, completely taken in hook, line and sinker by the Master's gentlemanly show. If he was like the Doctor, then he was a man that she could admire, and he was certainly sending out the right vibes to potentially live up to that reputation.

She had questions, tons of them. She almost wanted to fire them all at him, one after another in quick succession (now wouldn't that please the Master?) but instead she chose to stick to the most pressing issues initially.

"Transported? By who? You said I just missed the Doctor, is he here somewhere then?"

So much for the Doctor picking up smarter companion, though he supposes if he met Martha Jones on his own terms, he would have felled her just the same.

"The rumor is aliens, which I find fitting enough. Why of course, we haven't been able to figure out. They haven't been very kind about rearing their heads from their hiding place."

He shrugs, folding his arms and leaning against a nearby wall calmly.

"He's gone," he tells her, voice a bit hollow. "He disappeared a bit ago. But knowing him - and I know him very well - he'll be back in no time." Because he would never trust leaving the Master on his own, anywhere.

Edited 2009-12-30 19:21 (UTC)

"Oh." Astrid didn't manage to hide her disappointment very well, and she did try. But she just (well she thought she was going to) died for him, and has just lived through the most traumatic experience of her entire life. So to even try to accept his absence gracefully was nothing short of 'aww bless'.

"Well aliens is a fairly broad category, is that really all we have?" She's worked at an interplanetary port diner, aliens is about as specific as saying 'people'.

"Have you been here long, Master?" That didn't roll off the tongue as easily as Doctor did, something about it seemed very pompous for obvious reasons. So far she hasn't realised that although she looks solid, she isn't, her feet have made contact with the ground, and that's really all she's had opportunity to touch.

She was use to aliens, then. She had either been traveling with the Doctor for a long period of time, or already accustomed to this sort of business.

"It's really all we have," he replies with a sigh. "If there are any, they've kept themselves well hidden."

He doesn't answer her second question, stepping towards her to place a hand on her shoulder - his intention was to lead her elsewhere to get her settled - only his hand passes through. He purses his lips and gives her a wary look. "Oh dear," he says solemnly, "what trouble did he involve you in?"

"And you have no idea why, well what are they doing with us if..." Astrid's sentence was cut off mid-flow. The shock of his hand falling straight through her shoulder making her gasp.

"Oh my Vot!" Her head whipped round to watch the Master's fingers as they fell through her as if she wasn't even there. "I... I... this must be because of here somehow, I wasn't... I wasn't like this before I arrived."

Then she sees that she's still wearing the teleporter bracelet, on the opposite wrist to her new one. "They brought me in mid-teleport! That has to be it." Well it made sense in her head, even if she couldn't explain the ins and outs. It wasn't good though, not by a long way.

"It can be fixed though, if that's what it is. It can be fixed?"

"Of course it can be fixed," he tells her, quite determined, "I'm a genius, so just calm down and don't panic." He scans her over, head to toe, eying the bracelet that was 'courtesy' of Taxon and the so-called teleporter.

"I'll take care of you," he says sincerely, looking her in the eye as he does so. "I promise." Because he needs her; he needs her to fall so deeply into his webs that getting back out will be near to impossible. He'll fix her up and that will give him the ultimate power over her...

☆ 1 [Holo] Another sky, a new sun, new air, a new life.

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