Mind Control

The TARDIS suddenly lurched to a stop, nearly throwing Nick off her feet. She clung to the control panel and waited for the vibrations to subside. The Doctor looked a little perturbed at the abrupt halt, but a second later a smile formed on his face. Either that was a normal reaction for him or he was good at shrugging things off. There were times when she still couldn't tell.

"Here we are, Alog-Placoon. Otherwise known as Plat."

Nick laughed at him. She couldn't help it, just the way he announced it with that goofy look on his face, the amusement was contagious. He flipped a few levers.

"So what's this place like?" Nick asked, eyeing the door.

"Oh, it's lovely! Trees the size of skyscrapers. Lemon-lime grasses as far as the eye can see. Big, bright sun and beautiful blazing blue skies stretching over the horizon. Wonderful place for a picnic."

She laughed again and offered her arm once he was close enough. "Shall we?"

He grinned at linked arms with her. "We shall!"

The TARDIS door folded open and they stepped out.

"Whoa." Nick gazed around, shocked to find herself in a place the complete opposite of the Doctor's description. "This doesn't look like a planet."

Rusted metal surrounded them in a cramped space full of steam hissing vents and piping. Dim lighting made it difficult to see and gave everything an ominous air. Nick shifted closer to the Doctor and ventured a look at his face. At once she knew something was wrong—and even he didn't know what it was.

"This shouldn't be here," he said, his brow furrowed and a deep frown set in his face. "I've been to Plat before—this isn't right."

Nick nibbled her lip in thought. "You've been here before, but have you been here at this time?"

She wanted to be helpful and began to think it was s fruitless question when he looked down at her, a grin on his face.

"I think you're the first person to have ever asked me that!"

She beamed at him, feeling smart and special. The Doctor examined their surroundings.

"Truth is, no, I haven't been here at this point in time before, which is why I chose now to go." He tilted his head toward her. "Didn't want to bump into myself. Still, guess I shouldn't always expect a planet to be where I left it. After all, nothing lasts forever." His last words trailed off, as though he'd just remembered something precious he had lost in time. Nick wondered what it was, but figured it might be best to keep him in the present—so to speak.

"Any ideas on what this place is then?"

He puckered his lips slightly. "Looks to me like a hallway."

She laughed and pushed him. "Full of jokes today aren't you? I can see it's a hallway, but in what? I mean, maybe we are on Plat, but just inside a building."

The troubled look returned to his face. "There are no buildings on Plat."

"Ah," Nick said, feeling a little saucy, "there were no buildings on the planet the last time you visited."

"I'd give you points for that except no one lives here."

"Until now."

"Will you stop that?" The amusement in his voice belied the order. "It shouldn't matter when I come here—or when we come here—Plat's long since been designated as a universally protected planet."

Nick considered saying, "Maybe it's not anymore," but let it go. Instead she went with, "Then I suppose you're right and something's wrong."

He made a little "Mm" sound. She wondered if he planned on walking around to investigate. Usually he did and usually it got them into trouble. But that didn't bother her. How could it be possible to travel time and space and not bump into trouble? Besides, there had been plenty of wonderful things to experience and magnificent places to see. The trouble was a small price to play and completely worth it.

"We're not going to look around?" she asked after several minutes. The way the Doctor stood there, unmoving, looking almost angry made her unsure whether or not it was a safe question to ask. With all the rusted metal and dim lighting and steam columns, it wasn't a place she'd be too excited to check out. A sudden desire to get back into the TARDIS and drag the Doctor struck her. The Doctor was thinking way too much about this place, he had gone much too long without moving and she caught glimpses of something threatening behind his eyes. She shivered.

Bad. Something very bad is here. We should just leave. She spoke softly, "Doctor? Doctor, let's just go. We can always rewind back a bit and find out, can't we?"

The loud clang of heavy footsteps on metal caught their attention. Both of them froze, Nick in the middle of settling her hand on the Doctor's arm. Out of a branching hallway, a hand and arm swung forward. Nick saw irregular splotches of black crawling up the arm before the Doctor dove to the left, dragging her with.

He crouched low, his hands on her shoulders. Nick could feel the heavy pulse of his two hearts through his palms. She desperately wanted to know what was going on, but knew enough about traveling with him to know now would be the worst time to speak. Her instincts had been right—they should have left.

"Nnn?" A woman's voice floated down to them. "What's this?" She sounded perfectly normal—cheerful even—but it made Nick want to throw up. The Doctor squeezed her shoulders painfully and she knew he felt the same way. She reached back to touch his fingers.

"Well, well, well, what have I got here? A silly Chameleon circuit." The woman, or whatever it was, sounded excited, as though she'd just found something interesting. Nick's heart skipped a beat. The TARDIS.

The Doctor started tugging on her shirt and she turned to see him cramming himself into some sort of duct. Moving as silently as possible over the metal, she crept in after him and replaced the grate he'd taken off.

"Come out little Time Lord, I know you're here! I have your little box!"

The Doctor shuffled down the duct, Nick following as quickly as she should. Her hair began to stick to her face from the steam and her shirt felt wet against her skin. A sudden slam behind her almost made her gasp, but she held it in and kept after the Doctor. Finally he emerged into another room and once she secured the grate, Nick crept up to him.

"What was that?" she hissed, frantic to know what made that thing so bad they'd gotten out of there as fast as possible, but keeping her voice down in case the place was rigged with recording devices and speakers. He didn't answer right away and suddenly it hit her—he was afraid. Completely shaken up. She'd seen him scared before, but it was always in a concerned, this-might-not-work way, never a terrified couldn't-even-answer-her way.

"Doctor!" She snatched the front of his jacket and jerked him toward her. "What was that?"

He seemed to come back to himself and gently pulled her hands from his coat. He looked directly into her eyes.

"That," he said the word with a vehemence that surprised her, "was—is—a Paresh. As bad as the Daleks, every one of them. They could have been worse than the Daleks if they ever managed to get together properly. But they're too vicious, too territorial, and thankfully it's kept them from every amassing any power."

"But what's so horrible about it? How did it know you?" She stared back, mesmerized by those unblinking eyes.

"Paresh were known to kidnap Time Lords and use them like puppets, building weapons and tampering with time events."

"How?"

"They know how to take control of a Time Lord's brain."

Oh God. Very, very bad. She already knew what he was telling her without having to say it: If I'm captured, it might get control of me.

"There was always a handful of us," he continued, "sent to times where Paresh messed with things. Had to set it straight and destroy them." For the first time he looked around the room they were in.

"So what's this tone doing on Plat? It's uninhabited right? What's there to mess with?"

"She's not on Plat. If she's here, Plat is gone. That means we're on her ship."

"Wait, what do you mean Plat is gone?"

The Doctor paused in his room examination. "Think of a pyrotechnician that really, really loves his job. Now multiply that by one hundred trillion and take away his respect for life and you're nearing the Paresh mindset. They love to watch planets explode, they love the destruction. Doesn't matter if the planet is inhabited, uninhabited, gas giant, frozen rock, with rings, without rings, one moon, two moons, no moon, pink, blue, or black—if it looks like it would make a pretty explosion, they'll find a way to do it."

"Oh my god."

"And they'll use the energy to power their ships and move to another planet."

Silence fell over them for a moment.

"What did you do with the Time Lords you got back?"

The Doctor grew increasingly agitated with their location, but he kept talking. "We had a place for them where they could sit comfortably the rest of their lives. We had to execute the Paresh to keep them from calling the Time Lord for escape or to do other damage. Some eventually came out of it, others…" He let his voice trail off. Nick knew. They never came back. Puppets with cut strings the rest of their lives.

"So we need to get you out of here," she said. "Can't we go back through the duct?"

"No, that noise earlier was a sealout door, no doubt deadlocked. We're cut off from the TARDIS. We'll have to come up with another route that inevitably leads to the control panel for those doors. Then I can open the door."

"But she'll be waiting there for you, won't she?"

He stared at her. "Yes."

"My little Time Lord!" Nick jumped from the sudden intercom announcement. "Where have you gone?" The Paresh's sickly-sweet voice made her skin crawl. "I won't hurt you—I have your little time travel machine. Come here and I can give it back to you."

Again, Nick felt nausea rear its head in listening to the Paresh, but to her shock it was the Doctor that suddenly doubled over and threw up.

"Doctor! Doctor, are you okay?" Panic replaced the nausea, but she ignored it, holding the Doctor's shoulder with one hand and rubbing his back with the other.

"Yes," he said, breathing heavily. He wiped his mouth on the back of his sleeve. "Yes, I'm all right. Paresh just have this underlying frequency in their voices that makes us sick is all."

"Here—here, sit down. We can think this through. She can wait. Let's just take this one step at a time."

She sat him down on a block of metal and stood close, gently stroking the back of his head. Even though he claimed to be okay, she knew he was far from it. The way he had his arms wrapped around her waist and his head pressed against her stomach told her his reaction to the Paresh's voice shook him up more than he wanted to admit. Had he ever faced a Paresh before? He had definitely seen the damaged Time Lords, she didn't doubt that. It was as though suddenly he became a little boy, lost and afraid. Though that worried a part of her, it made the rest of her even more determined. She'd made sure he got out of here safely, no matter what.

"All right." She swept her fingers though his already tousled hair. "There's a door in here we can get out of. How likely is it that it leads to the control room?"

"Very unlikely." His voice was slightly muffled against her stomach.

"Come on Time Lord!" the Paresh suddenly demanded, her voice blaring through the ship's speakers. "If you don't show yourself, I'll have to come looking for you."

Nick felt his hands tense against her back. It unnerved her to see him so freaked out and she hated the Paresh for doing this to him.

"Okay, she doesn't know there's two of us," she said in an effort to get him focused. "I could find some way or luring her away from the control panel once we get there. Do Paresh eat humans?"

"No."

"Are they faster than humans?"

"No."

"Is this a Paresh ship or did she steal it?"

"Probably something she stole or put together from poor scrap." His voice gained some of its sureness back.

"Do the ducts run throughout the ship?"

"It's very likely. She probably needs it to help with all the venting."

"So if worse comes to worst, I'll give into a duct and scramble around until I get back to you. I only saw her arm, but it looked pretty fat to me." A shadow of a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. "Are Paresh fat?"

He paused. "You know, they usually are, yeah."

"So, um, do you think she could be angry if I told her she was a fat ass?"

A snicker escaped him. Finally he looked up at her, a half grin on his face. "I'll bet she would be. I don't recommend doing that."

Nick shrugged, feigning indifference. "She's a fat ass and the thought of her makes people throw up. I'll tell her its no wonder she's stuck alone on this piece of junk she calls a ship. That's why she's not coming after us yet—she's too busy being a slob eating chips and watching TV."

This time he laughed and playfully slapped her arm. "There is no TV out here."

"Space TV then. Whatever." They both knew she was being silly to lighten the mood, but it still managed to work.

"You're ridiculous," he said.

"I'm a lot of things. Look," she grew serious and knelt in front of him, taking his face in her hands, "we've been in worse situations than this. Remember the R-39 Vortex? The Lansing machines? I almost got eaten by a galfegor a couple of months ago! We can make it out of here just fine. There's only one of her, right? No minions, no deathtraps?" He nodded. "I can get her to come after me first—she might think I'm a Time Lord. You did have female Time Lords right?"

The corner of his mouth curved up. "Time Ladies."

She blinked. "What?"

"Time Lords and Time Ladies."

She marveled at how much she still didn't know about him. "Then there you go. We can do this."

They stared at each other for a few moments until the Doctor spoke. "Nikki, in case she does managed to capture me—"

"You are you," she told him in a firm tone. "She can't take complete control of your mind, I don't care how good Paresh are supposed to be. You said yourself Time Lords have come out of it. If anything happens, you won't lose to her. I know you won't. Because you're smarter—and you're the Doctor. Just keep remembering that."

She leaned forward and kissed his forehead, letting her lips linger there like a seal of her trust in him.

The moment she pulled away and stood, the Doctor jumped up, newfound determination emanating from him.

"You're right. There's nothing more at stake here than you and I! Wait, that didn't come out right."

Nick grinned, glad to see him back to himself once again.

"All right Time Lord," announced the Paresh, "I'm coming for you."

The Doctor whipped out his sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the corner above Nick, zapping the speaker into silence. "Now, if I can just get into a panel here…" He wrenched open a slab of metal and shuffled through a mass of wires. "Why, hello…"

"What is it?"

He spun around to show her a tiny screen inlaid into the wall beyond the wires. His excitement saturated the room.

"Let me guess—she just used that as a spare piece but you can hack into it and get the ship's layout?"

He cocked his head. "Absolutely."

She squeezed in beside him to peer at the screen. It took him several more tries with the screwdriver and plenty of rewiring to finally get a fuzzy picture of the ship's schematics.

"Right, so I'm willing to bet we're here and the TARDIS is in this compartment here. The number of vents and doorways matches up. This should be the control room," he tapped a larger empty space in the middle of the ship. He looked at Nick. "Do you really want to do this?"

"You have a better idea, babe?"

He stared at her. "Babe?"

"What?"

"We've been together over three years now and never once have you called me 'Babe.'"

She felt herself blush. "Don't read into it too much. It's just a term of endearment I use with my guy friends."

A tiny, entertained smirk remained on his face. "Well, as for having a better idea, no, I can't say I do at the moment."

"Okay, then where am I going?"

"We'll make our way here," he pointed at the control room, "and you lure her this way. Once you've gone, I'll get in and unlock the door blocking the TARDIS. Take the ducts back around to get into this room and head back the way we came. I'll seal off as many doors as I can to keep her in one spot or at the very least slow her down. Once you're back at the TARDIS, hop in and we'll head off to talk to the Head of the UPPA."

"UPPA?"

"Universal Planet Protection Agency."

"Ah. Should have known. That's it then?"

"That's it."

"See? I told you we'd figure it out." She clapped him on the shoulder and flashed him a grin. "Let's do it."

The two stepped through each door he opened, taking care to be as quiet as possible. The place was uncomfortably maze-like, but Nick had memorized exactly where she needed to go once they reached the control room. Piece of cake. She worked taunts against the Paresh into her head.

"Okay," the Doctor said, "she should be behind this door. Are you ready?"

"Ready." She winked at him. "Babe."

Without warning, the door slid up and Nick found herself face to face with the Paresh. Though relatively humanoid, the dark splotches dotted pale bulges of fat flesh. It had the face of a young woman—and yet it was horribly wrong. Cute blond curls clashed with a beak-like nose. A perky smile was plastered to her face, but it was drowned out by the pale green eyes with cattish slits in the center.

"Hello," the Paresh said as though she truly was glad to see Nick standing before her, and Nick realized in this situation, she probably was. Then the Paresh looked over at the Doctor.

"I can't close the door!" he shouted as he shoved his screwdriver back into its pocket. "Run!"

The Paresh stepped forward and reached for Nick, but she was already running after the Doctor. The door behind the Paresh slid shut, but when Nick looked back again, the Paresh was nowhere to be seen.

"Wait, wait!" She yanked on the back of the Doctor's jacket. "She's gone!"

They stopped and stared at the place the Paresh had stood mere seconds ago.

"Oh no," the Doctor said, something dreadful dawning on him. Nick spun to ask him what and gasped. The Paresh was right behind him.

"Hello Time Lord."

Nick grabbed the Doctor's jacket again and heaved him back. He stumbled behind her, caught off guard by her sudden move. Nick snatched up a pipe from the ground and swung it at the Paresh, who moved back several steps.

"I'm the Time Lord, not him," she said, holding the pipe like a sword.

"Of course you are." The Paresh's nostril's flared.

"You leave him alone or I'll smash your ugly face in." Nick hoped the Doctor was making his way to the door behind them.

"I'm sure you will," said the Paresh, her words sugary-sweet, like an adult humoring a child.

Bitch! Nick swung the pipe again but to her surprise the Paresh caught it with ease and yanked it from her hands. It rang out against the ground. Behind her the sound of the Doctor's screwdriver could be heard.

"Oh no you don't!" the Paresh snapped. A door slammed down between Nick and the Doctor, a red light appearing around the Paresh before she vanished.

What the…? Nick spun to stare at the door, horrified. Oh God, she can teleport! She grabbed the pipe again and began hammering at the door.