Falling Through Portals

Greymare

Chapter 104

The Tardis was quiet. Percy never remembered it being particularly loud, but since it was "night time" for the passengers it all seemed quieter.

The dinner meeting came and went without new information. The Doctor was still puzzled and was nowhere closer to a good location for them to travel to. Apparently, against Percy's warning, the doctor was running a test on the bleeder poison on the arrow. He had even managed to get Lorem to lend him one of her stones (he called them power capsules, but whatever) for him to study. But he said it would take a while for the results to come in. the only good thing that had come from it was discovering the blue pie on the menu in the dining hall. Blue berries on all natural bright blue crusts. It was like death by chocolate, except pie. Obviously.

It had taken a lot of self-restraint to keep himself from eating the whole pie on his own.

After they had finished dinner Amy and Rory showed each of them to one of the bedroom wings. But the wing didn't have enough rooms for all of them to be separate, so Percy ended up bunking with Militum. There were more rooms- plenty more- that he could choose from but since this place was a maze he wanted to stay with the group.

When they had said goodnight, Lorem and the married couple went out like lights. But everyone else was still awake late into the night. John and Militum had set up camp in Percy's room. The two of them were talking about war stories when Percy left. He would have joined in, but he was making a point not to think about Annabeth, and all of his war stories seemed to be steeped in memories of her. Instead he decided to take a walk around. Sherlock hadn't left the library to come to dinner, or bothered to see his room. And sure enough, when Percy passed the Library he had spotted the detective on the floor surrounded by dozens of books scattered in stacks around him. Percy didn't see the Doctor's bedroom but he had a feeling that wherever it was, he wasn't in it.

Instead he found himself back in the console room. The bright glimmering lights never seemed to fade in that place. He mounted the stairs onto the platform and walked around the console. All of the shiny buttons were so tempting. He knew he could (and probably would knowing his luck) accidentally hit the self-destruct button. One crystal handled lever really caught his eye, but instead of doing something he would regret, Percy plopped himself down on the bench facing the console.

Staring at the glass pipe going up into the ceiling, he wondered what it was really for. What was any of it for? Whatever technical terms that explained it would probably go way over his head but he was curious all the same.

Annabeth's smiling face appeared in his mind. A bitter feeling rose in his stomach. He tried to ignore it but his mind just started running rampant.

But, against his better judgement, he gave in. Memories flooded back into him. Not specific moments or anything, just times when she looked back and smiled at him, or crinkled her nose just before she laughed.

Percy swallowed hard and closed her eyes.

"Annabeth would have loved coming here," he said out loud, "She was obsessed with Doctor Who. I remember when the 'cast' made an appearance in New York City and she dragged me there. I think it was the first and only time she skipped school to do something other than save Demigods." Percy chuckled. "Zeus must have been particularly angry with me because it rained the whole time. There were so many umbrellas and weird ponchos that we couldn't even see them when they arrived." A sad smile broke his face. The silence became more oppressive as the memory flew by. "I don't know why I am saying any of this out loud," he whispered.

Percy let his eyes drift to the hallway he had come from. He had a distinct feeling that he was being watched. But there was no one there.

There was a little beep and the screen on the console came to life. Percy slid off the bench and adjusted the screen so it was directly in front of him. Portrait pictures of people (including aliens) were flying over the screen. Dozens of hundreds of them flashed for a moment before disappearing, like when police ran a face through the 'database' in movies. He narrowed his eyes and frowned.