Chapter Text
“Not that, not that, no, no, no…” the Doctor muttered, throwing a different incomprehensible piece of junk over his shoulder with each word.
Peri stood and watched, arms crossed.
After their last attempt to find a diagnostic tool for the technical failures once again plagueing the tardis had failed, the intergalactic market the Doctor praised so highly having turned to selling only body parts, and tools for removing said body parts from other people, in the decade and change since the Doctor had last been, the Doctor had taken them here, to… well, to Peri it just looked like a colossal dump, heaps of garbage and twisted metal stretching as far as the eye could see. The Doctor called it a scavenger planet, a place where vagabonds and do-it-yourselfers the galaxy over came to help themselves to other people's discarded treasure.
Otherwise known as trash, Peri surmised.
Oh well, at least it didn't stink. Too badly, anyway.
“Aha!” the Doctor cried suddenly, thrusting what appeared to be a large abstract sculpture into Peri's arms.
“You found one?” she asked hopefully, staggering slightly under the weight of the dull metal monstrosity. “We can go now?”
“What? Go?” said the Doctor, in his best scandalized tone. “Go?!”
“Well, if you've found your… your wave detector thing…”
“Wave Fluctuation Detector.” the Doctor corrected. “Honestly, Peri, you must learn to listen to what other people tell you!”
“Yes, Doctor.” she muttered, rolling her eyes.
As usual, he didn't detect her sarcasm.
“I haven't found a Wave Fluctuation Detector, Peri.” he told her patronizingly. “Not yet.”
“Oh.” Peri shifted the thing in her arms slightly, trying to get a better grip. It was heavy and extremely awkward. “What’s this, then?”
“A cryogenic feedback looper!” the Doctor exclaimed. “I've wanted one for years!”
“Oh.” Peri said again.
She continued to stand there as another couple of dozen rejects sailed over the Doctor’s shoulder.
“No, no, no, no… clothing duplicator, have two already… quantum splitter, have six… no… unstable element fabricator, trite!... no…”
Peri sighed.
The Doctor looked at her sharply. “Not bored, I hope?”
“Of course not, Doctor.” Peri replied, positively dripping sarcasm.
“Hmm!” the Doctor gave a satisfied nod, as if he'd expected nothing less. “Glad to see you maintaining some appreciation for the finer things in life. The thrill of the hunt, the…”
Peri rolled her eyes. She seemed to do that a lot these days.
“...the excitement of discovery, the satisfaction of the well-constructed jugaard, the –”
“It's just that my arms are getting sore.” she cut in. “Can I at least take this back to the tardis?”
“What?” the Doctor sounded momentarily baffled at the idea that Peri could experience such a mundane thing as arm soreness when there was a world full of treasure just waiting for them to explore. But he quickly collected himself. “Yes, yes, I suppose so.”
“Great. See you later.” Peri turned to go.
“Wait!” cried the Doctor suddenly. “Take this too!” he thrust a… flowerpot?… covered in flashing lights, still humming and bleeping, into her arms on top of the metal statue.
Peri sighed and departed, trudging back between the mounds of junk to where they'd parked what felt like a lifetime ago, but in reality was probably no more than an hour or so.
The tardis wasn't there.
At first, she thought she must have gotten turned around, gone off in the wrong direction through the endless identical piles of junk. She even began to head back to where she'd left the Doctor to ask for directions, or maybe the tardis locator (assuming, of course, that he'd been smart enough to take it with him), kicking herself for forgetting to do that in the first place.
But, no. This was the way they'd come before – she'd recognize that whirling silver spiral, jutting into the grey sky next to the forlorn-looking rubber duck, anywhere.
“Doctor!” Peri broke into a run, pausing briefly to impulsively grab the yellow duck and shove it in her pocket. The poor thing deserved better than moldering away here.
“Back so soon?” The Doctor looked up from his treasure hunt, a mixture of confusion and concern lining his forehead when he saw Peri still carrying his erstwhile items, heaving with exertion.
“Doctor, the tardis! It's gone!”
“Gone?” the Doctor repeated. “Nonsense. You've gone off in the wrong direction, that's all. Here, take the locator.”
“No, Doctor.” Peri said. “I thought that too, but it's definitely not where we left it!”
The Doctor stood, suddenly deathly serious. “Show me.”