silent thanks

For a moment she simply gasped from her position on top of the Doctor, knocked out of breath by the jump and resulting crash to the floor of his… TAR-something. Ship. Box. His chest rose stutteringly underneath her and she rolled off quickly, trying to resist the urge to roll her eyes when he breathed a sigh of relief.

He got up quickly and ran to the control thingy in the middle of the room, leaving her to sort out her tangled skirt and check her own self over for injuries—a bit hard to do when the floor was swaying underneath her.

Thoughtless prawn. She wrinkled her nose after she thought it—it really wasn't a nice thing to think about someone who'd just saved her life. The floor underneath her vibrated with a sudden humming sound and she was up on her feet like a shot, tangled in her skirt or no. She put one hand on the rail and immediately snatched it back when she felt the same vibration running through it. She instead grabbed onto one of the coral-like beams for balance.

"Look, I'm sorry," the Doctor was saying and she turned to look at him. He was dashing about the controls, flicking switches and turning knobs. She could only guess he was talking to the ship, because he certainly wasn't looking at her. His eyes were trained on the… the glow-y column thingy as he continued, "I know you're not a lorry—"

The humming sound increased and Donna winced when the grille under her feet rattled in the resonance.

"How else was I supposed to save her? She was in a movingcar!"

Donna's cheeks grew hot at that. The TAR-thingy was angry at the Doctor because of her. It wasn't until that thought was fully formed that she realized just how odd it sounded, but with the way this day was turning out…

"Okay, okay, I'll find us some place to land, just hold on," he said, glaring at the ceiling. The hum intensified for a moment and then died away.

He turned over a few more switches, ducking out of the way when sparks flew up from the console. The floor, which had been rocking pretty steadily, began to level out and Donna felt safe enough to let go of the coral. At the last moment, they hit a bump that nearly knocked her flat on her bum, but she managed to catch herself on the rail. A flare of heat caused her to shriek—something beside the ramp was on fire.

The Doctor was on it before she knew what had happened. He grabbed a silvery fire extinguisher from… somewhere and gestured at her, saying, "Get outside! It's safe; I'll be there in a second!"

She backed off as he began spraying and finally turned around toward the doors. Before she slipped outside and into the… wind? Yeah, wind. Before she stepped out into the wind, she patted the door frame in silent thanks.