CHARLOTTE ::: DW¹

xxxvi. the salvage of the millennium

That just furthered Clara's case. "You're like one of those guys who can't go out with a girl unless his mother approves," she commented, giving Charlotte a snort.

The Doctor gave a sigh. "It's important you two get along. I could leave you alone together."

"Can you two stop walking in circles?" asked Charlotte. "You're making me dizzy."

The Doctor nods to her, before looking back at Clara. "Take the wheel... not the wheel," he tells her before standing still at the console. "I'll make it easy. Shut it down to basic mode for you." The Doctor twists some switches.

Clara leans on the console beside him. "Basic!" she exclaimed in horror. "'Cause I'm a girl?"

Moving to stand on Clara's other side, Charlotte looks over to the Doctor. "Yeah, is that why you haven't taught me either, Doctor?"

"No." The Doctor sighed. "One second you think my face is fine, the next you're ganging up on me."

Charlotte crossed her arms over her chest. "You know I didn't mean it like that..." she mumbled.

Not long later, after the Doctor gave her a quick lesson on how to fly the ship, Clara beams as she brings a switch down on the console. Nothing happens for a second before red lights begin to flash in a darkened console room.

"What have I done?" Clara questioned herself as she stepped away from the console.

"Er... Okay," grumbled the Doctor, moving over to the screen to see their location. However, as he looked at it, the screen starts cracking.

Charlotte holds on tight to the console's bar. "Doctor? What's happening?"

"All the electrical impulses are jammed," he answered, flicking the switches. "I can't get the shields back up. She's completely vulnerable." The Doctor attempts to push a lever, grunting when it won't move.

Clara, holding onto the railing, watches in shock as large explosions send sparks. "I swear I just touched it," she said. With a large explosion sent from the Doctor moving a lever, the TARDIS moves sharply and the three of them fell.

The Doctor quickly moves back to the console. "Magnetic hobble-field," he said. "We're flying right into it. Charlotte, Clara, stay by me!"

Charlotte, unable to move her hair out of her face, looks to the Doctor. "There better be some button to fix this," she commented. "I'm really not in the mood."

The Doctor nods with a grin. "Oh, yes. Big friendly button."

"You're lying," said Charlotte, leaning away from a spark.

"Yep."

"To stop me freaking out?"

He shrugged. "Is it working?"

"No!" she shouts over the explosions, bringing Charlotte and the rest to be thrown away from the console with shrieks.

---

With the TARDIS lying in a heap of wires, the three who took the TARDIS- Tricky, Gregor, and Bram- group up at the other end of the room.

"We did nothing," Gregor tells them sternly. "If anyone asks, that ship was already busted. You got that?" He looks to Tricky, the humanoid android of the three. "And you, make sure you keep your oily-mouth shut."

The Doctor, sneaking up on them with his arm over Charlotte's shoulders, grins as he whispers, "It's rude to whisper." The three men back up, facing the two. "Hi. I'm the Doctor." Taking his arm off of Charlotte's shoulders, the Doctor shook their hands.