A Chance Encounter (The Doctor)

[samus]

Not good. Not at all good.

No matter how many times Samus went over what she had onboard and no matter how many times she checked the gunship's repair status and diagnostics she kept reaching the same conclusion - there were simply not enouch resources on board to fix everything. It would have been an entirely different matter had they made landfall on a planet, but out here in the middle of nowhere there was nothing - the nanomachines stored aboard the gunship for self repair were impressive but they couldn't manufacture matter from vacuum. The only things left for her to cannibalize were the ship itself, life support and provisions, and last of all her Fusion Suit, and while it certainly wasn't her Power Suit there was no way in hell she was going to "recycle" that.

The maddening thing was that Adam, as resourceful and seemingly all knowing as he was - even more so in his newly reborn "form" - had reached the exact same conclusion, but unlike her he had been able to assign exact numbers; they had two interstellar jumps before their newly (and barely) repaired engines died, and with no way to fix them again they would be stuck for good wherever they ended up, assuming that a jump was even possible - without actually knowing where they actually were, attempting such a thing was about one of the riskiest maneuvers a pilot could attempt lest they accidentally run into a star or some other large form of matter. Aside from that they, or rather Samus, had only another two and a half days of life support and provisions left, four to five if she was stingy with creature comforts. In short, the clock was ticking down and she had zero options - Adam, while mercifully silent as he kept trying to futilely find a way out of the mess, had been "gone" for nearly a day. In the interrim Samus had little to do but wait, as she'd already done all that could be done from her end, and it was just as the woman began to drift off to sleep inside of her suit that a sharp noise from the ship's pilot's console drew her attention.

I have something.

As the simple text filled the only active screen on the console, the others having been shut off to conserve energy, Samus felt something akin to a wave of relief pass through her as she read them - while short and terse, Adam would not have bothered mentioning anything if he hadn't thought that whatever he had found didn't show promise.

"Show me."

The moment Samus replied a second and third screen lit up alongside the first, and while the first was merely a display of various readings taken by the ship's sensors, what caught Samus's attention was the second, showing a clear direction of a energy spike - not natural, and while not an exact match it closely resembled the kind given off by civilian ships, and big ones. Even better was that it was only a single jump away - the only problem was that if Samus was anywhere near her original starting point or in the uncharted areas, that likely meant survey vessels or scientific transports, both of which would have Federation escorts. As it was, though, that reading was all she had to go on, and staying where she was wasn't much of an option - plus there was the fact that if the reading was in fact what she thought it was, there would be civilians present, a fact that would hopefully prevent the Federation vessels from taking any sort of offensive action against her, assuming they were even after her to begin with. Still, it was her best shot at actually finding a way to get her ship repaired, nevermind finding out where she actually was.

"Keep looking, but I think we have a way out. If there's any sign of Federation activity I want to know about it." Samus said as she sat up, leaning forward to reach the gunship's controls, powering up the engines and bringing the front of the vessel about to face the direction the energy spike was originating from. As Adam's screen simply went blank as he set to his appointed task Samus activated the ship's drive, the vessel seeming to leap forward as they shot towards the source of the signal. As they moved Samus kept a close eye on the ship's engine status - while the source of whatever Adam had found was only a few minutes away, the engines were already beginning to make sounds they should not have been making, and the engines were already beginning to redline. Thankfully they managed to stay in one piece until Samus shut them off herself, but as they dropped back into normal space she saw probably one of the last things she expected to see, and something that couldn't help but cause her spirits to plumet.

A wooden box. How the hell it had gotten out there Samus couldn't even begin to imagine, but given what the thing was made of it wasn't even salvagable for raw materials. Bringing her palm to her forehead in a motion that most people tended to use when suffering headaches, Samus flopped back into the pilot's chair, Adam mercifully silent. Their last jump, gone, and nothing to show for it with them still for all intensive purposes in the middle of nowhere, and life support slowly draining away. Had there been any alcohol on the ship, Samus figured now would have been as good a time as any for a drink.

[The Tenth Doctor]

As per usual for the Doctor, he was... running. There was quite a bit of running involved in his life, particularly when Daleks were involved. The Daleks weren't clever things at all and their main tactic was to throw laser beams at everything and hope it worked. For their goal of killing everything that wasn't a Dalek, that was a decent strategy. Killing the Doctor... that was a bit harder. The Doctor knew that he'd managed to fool the four Daleks that were chasing after him into being trapped in the abandoned warehous the Doctor had managed to get the Daleks to go into. The only thing was, if he couldn't reach the TARDIS he would be trapped in it to. The Doctor sped down the corridor as blaster bolts from the Daleks flew past him. Eventually the Doctor reached the room where he'd put the TARDIS.

The Doctor snapped his fingers, which opened the TARDIS' door just as the Daleks reached the room. As quick as he could, the Doctor entered the TARDIS and shut the door. He could hear the sounds of lasers battering the door as he stepped towards the control panel and... the TARDIS suddenly teleported itself. The Doctor was used to that. More often than not it was actually the TARDIS randomly teleporting than the Doctor controlling it. Most of the time the TARDIS brought him to somewhere that had something important happening that he needed to intervene in. When the Doctor checked the coordinates.... He realized that he was just floating in space; literally the middle of nowhere, to be precise. How... strange. But, the Doctor figured that if the TARDIS went there, it went there for a reason.

The Doctor opened the door of the TARDIS and saw a spacecraft hovering there. "....Why, hello there...." The Doctor said softly to himself. The Doctor made an educated guess and assumed that the TARDIS brought him there because of something to do with that spaceship. How to get the attention of whoever was inside {if anyone was inside} was very much beyond the Doctor... Until he remembered the radio system in the TARDIS. The Doctor shut the door and turned on the radio system. He waited for someone on the other ship to get the transmission, if there were anyone on the other ship...

[samus]

Right. So, what now? As Samus leaned back in the pilot's seat the hunter found her mind simply going blank, unable to think of anything beyond the fact of how utterly screwed she was at that given moment. She'd wanted to get beyond the grasp of the Federation...... well, mission accomplished, as usual. Unfortunately, that also meant beyond the reach of anyone else who could have possibly helped her, or any supplies or salvage she could have attempted to take by force - an irony given that the only beings she'd even consider attempting that with would have been the Pirates, but as far as she could tell she was beyond even their reach now. Beyond anyone's reach - it was the void, the empty space between galaxies, and the chances of encountering anyone out here was astronomically slim unless they knew she was there and looking for her. Hell, even running across the useless piece of flotsam ahead of her gunship was a one in a million chance, for what little good that did her.

Letting out a long, resigned sigh, Samus removed her fingers from her forehead but remained where she was with her eyes closed for several more seconds, simply taking a moment to let the situation finally sink in before pulling herself upright and looking at the console in front of her seat. It might have been a futile gesture, but at the very least she could pick a star at random and set course for it - it would likely take years to get there at sublight speeds, years of life support that Samus simply did not have, but she would be damned if she didn't at least go out fighting. As she began looking over the console for the controls she needed, however, something stood out - Adam, who had been uncharacteristically silent upon reaching the end of their jump, had completely filled the command screen with her name, repeated over and over again. Not at all how he'd behaved up to that point, and needless to say quite unusual - normally he would simply leave a message asking if she were present and leave it at that until she could respond, but there was an almost manic sense of urgency to this time.

"You have something? Samus said wearily, biting back her tongue and stopping herself from mentioning their last set of actions - the stress was getting to Samus and she knew it, but the last time Adam had brought something to her attention it had been genuine, and an act of desperation that led to them jumping at the chance of another ship being out here, however slim it had been.

We're being hailed by another vessel. As improbable as it seems the signal is originating from directly ahead, and it's short range.

Another ship? Impossible, unless.... no, it couldn't be. Leaning forward to take another look out of the forward viewport towards the box they'd encountered, having now drifted to well within visual range. The thing she was looking at would barely be able to contain her old Power Suit nevermind the machinery needed for interstellar travel, let alone intergalactic - it wasn't even the size of a fighter. It had no engines that she could discern, no real viewports, hell, the thing was made of wood - there was no way it could have been vacuum proof, but in glancing over at the comm controls Samus confirmed Adam's assertation. There it was, the signal that they were receiving an inbound transmission, clear as day, and no mistaking it for something else. As Samus took a closer look at the hail, though, she noticed that something was off about it - very, very off. While there was indeed the standard hail on the normal civilian frequency, there was back chatter on dozens of other channels as well, some used by the government, some by criminal factions, and others by military. Exactly what could have been putting off that much power to the point of being able to flood entire bandwidths in such a fashion was beyond Samus given the only other thing out there besides her gunship, but it certainly wasn't something she wanted to ignore. Exactly how to respond to it, though, was the question...... she was in all likelyhood a wanted fugitive at this point, but then again she wasn't in Federation territory anymore..... nowhere near it, in fact, and the chances of whoever was out there being affiliated with them was next to none. Besides, if they had been Federation.... well, Samus had a feeling she'd be dodging ship to ship fire by now rather than being asked to talk. Reaching over to the comm controls, Samus opened a channel.

"This is Samus Aran, independant bounty hunter and pilot of the gunship you are hailing. Please state your intentions."

Not exactly the friendliest of greetings, but the Hunter was done taking chances - she had no idea who was on the other end of the line, and had no intention of informing them that her ship was damaged. One hand still on the comm controls, the woman awaited a response.

[The Tenth Doctor]

It took a moment for the transmission to be answered. The Doctor waited patiently, despite not even knowing if there were anyone on board the other ship to answer. The Doctor figured that if there were no answer he would simply have to find some way aboard, likely by materializing the TARDIS onto the ship. He would likely have to do so soon, seeing as his older model TARDIS couldn't fly through space like most spacecraft for too long without being damaged. Having an older model TARDIS was rather inconvenient, but getting another version would be even more inconvenient. Besides, it did the job it needed to do and it's spontaneous dematerialization and rematerialization on places the Doctor was needed was very useful. How else would he know where he was needed?

The Doctor immediately put his hands on the radio system's controls as a voice sounded from it. The voice was female and sounded serious. It showed no signs of being in any danger and claimed to be a bounty hunter. The Doctor couldn't have said he liked where this seemed to be going in his mind. Bounty hunting was a job the Doctor thoroughly detested. Being well-versed in technology, the Doctor had before realized that it was a gunship he was hailing. That didn't mean he liked it and he particularly didn't like it that a bounty hunter was piloting it. It was a shame that it was the most dangerous people who had the most destructive weapons. The Doctor considered his response. Speaking to bounty hunters {and everyone who's job it was to kill people, really} was not his cup of tea. But, if this bounty hunter was in danger it was up to the Doctor to save her.

Come to think of it, the Doctor felt as though he'd heard that name before. Samus Aran... Ah, that's right! He'd heard of her before. The Doctor had read about her. She'd exterminated about three species and destroyed four planets, at least that's what he'd heard. The Doctor's eyes narrowed for a moment before remembering that those things were necessary as far as he'd read. The species were likely more dangerous than most of the things the Doctor faced. Though he disapproved of genocide as a whole... It seemed unavoidable the way he'd heard it. So, until he heard otherwise, he'd simply have to let those things go. If he did hear otherwise... the Doctor wasn't quite sure what he'd do. Suddenly, the Doctor realized that he'd put off sending a transmission back for a while. His hands flew to the radio system's controls.

"Hello." The Doctor greeted in his usual friendly tone. "I'm the Doctor, my intentions are to..." The Doctor considered what he was going to say for a moment. His intentions were to see if she was doing well? Sure, why not? "...See if you're doing well." It always was difficult to explain what he was doing at a given moment.

[samus]

His intentions..... were to see if she was doing well? For the first time in her life Samus couldn't help but feel that she was on the receiving end of what she imagined might be a prank call, and it did not do wonders for her mood. Looking at the comm display to confirm the signal strength yet again as well as the direction, Samus took a brief moment to think over her next course of action before muting the comm pickup on her end to avoid whoever it was from hearing her.

"Adam, see if you can find out exactly where that signal is coming from, and while you're at it see if it's being bounced from anywhere. I'll do what I can to keep them talking." Samus said, not at all in the mood for games but resigning herself to them anyways. Whether she liked it or not - and did she not - whoever was on the other end of that line was her only real way out of this mess, and if she could find them she would. So far she saw one of two possibilities.... well, three, but the last one was something she'd rather not consider. The first and possibly the worst - or at least the worst she would admit - was that she was dealing with a cloaked vessel, something she couldn't see and that might have been bouncing the transmission from that box.... it was certainly big enough to house communications equipment, and it would be the ideal way to avoid detection, although why they would want to avoid detection was where the problems started. The second possibility, and the one that might present difficulties, was if the signal was being bounced from the object as with the previous theory, but via a long range booster, beyond her current travel capabilities - assuming that they were willing to help and given the fact that whoever had put the thing out here clearly had been capable of reaching the place, though, not an insurmountable problem. The third possibility, though, and the one that Samus refused to accept, was that it was in fact coming directly from the box, and was completely automated - any low level intelligence routine could keep a conversation going with relative proficiency, and if that was the case she was dead, plain and simple. Actually, not entirely so....... communications equipment meant metal, material for her to salvage for the nanites to use in repairs. So, not entirely hopeless after all.

As Adam went to work, made evident by a silent Affirmative. on his screen, Samus unmuted her end of the conversation and began internally debating exactly how much information to let slip. While she might not have been the most talkative of people, she already had enough faults and failings that she didn't like the idea of adding blatant lies to the list, but that wasn't to say she had a problem with misleading someone if circumstances required it. Then again, though, the last thing she wanted to do was get on the bad side of whoever she was speaking with, even if it was only by a lie of omission. In the end, Samus decided simply to put the pressure on them instead.

"Could be doing better. You didn't exactly mention a name when you identified yourself, though, and given how things have been as of late I'd rather know who I'm speaking to, especially when I can't see your vessel. All I've got on my end is what looks like a satellite cobbled together out of wood and plastic."

[The Tenth Doctor]

For just a moment the other side went silent, leaving the Doctor waiting. Thinking back, it hadn't been the best explanation of what the Doctor had meant. But he'd already said it and there was really not much else he could do except wait for some kind of reply. Samus seemed to have either encountered trouble or was a bit surprised at what he'd said. From what the Doctor had read, most things Samus had encountered were openly hostile. It might have been quite a shock to find someone who just wanted to know what was going on. The question of what Samus Aran was doing floating around in the middle of nowhere arose in the Doctor's mind. It wasn't as if a ship like her's wasn't able to get to some civilization and it really was not like there was anything she could have been doing floating around in the middle of nowhere. Maybe he was supposed to help her get out...?

Finally, a reply! ...But it was an awfully simple reply. Then again an awfully simple reply was all that was needed for an awfully simple reason to communicate with another ship. Most of it was questions. They weren't questions the Doctor hadn't answered before, but one would be hard pressed to find a question that the Doctor hadn't answered before. "You're speaking to the Doctor. I thought I told you that." He replied. Yes, he did know full well what Samus had meant by not quite giving a name. But the question of what his 'real' name was... Well, maybe one wouldn't be that hard pressed to find a question the Doctor hadn't answered before. "Oh, that would be my vessel. It's an old model TARDIS, you see, and the camouflage is jammed to look like this." The Doctor didn't really mind the camouflage being jammed. It's not like it looked too out of place on Earth. On other planets... Okay, maybe it looked majorly out of place on most of them, but he didn't really mind.

The Doctor then decided to get going with what he believed he was supposed to be doing. "You see, I'm not quite sure what your ship is doing floating in the middle of nowhere." The Doctor said. "A ship like that... You should be able to get out of here pretty easily. Do you need any help getting your ship running?" Hopefully that would do it. The Doctor didn't expect Samus to trust him immediately. From what he'd heard of her past, it would be difficult, nigh-impossible even, to get her to trust anyone immediately. Plus, not giving a real name wasn't really the most trustworthy of things.

[samus]

So, not an automated response..... if he could see her ship and had enough intelligence to comment on it she wasn't dealing with some kind of prank, but that still didn't quite convince her of two things - one, that this wasn't some artificial intelligence the way Adam was since the blue box that he had claimed to be his vessel couldn't possibly be a ship, or two, she was dealing with a born idiot. Or a madman - in either case, not someone's hands she felt comfortable placing her fate in. Throwing a quick glance towards the ship's diagnostics panel, though, reminded Samus of what she already knew but would have rather forgotten - she didn't have much choice in the matter, and the utter lack of control would have been infuriating under any other circumstances. Given the alternative, though, it made the only other option aside from jsut giving up terribly attractive.

What was said next, though, put something of a dent in the idea that she was dealing with a complete moron, at least to the point of being too stupid to live - once again his observations confirmed that he was able to see her small ship, the only way anyone should have been able to detect it given the passive stealth capabilities, but his deductive skills, while rather simple, were spot on. She was trapped there, and he had a pretty good idea that was the case. What to do now, though, was completely up to Samus as to how it played out - she still had life support, sublight capabilities, weapons, power and a dozen other functions save for the one that she needed. If she needed to she could put up a fight, but - no. As soon as Samus realized exactly where her line of thought was going and how paranoid she was acting she began to realize how much of a toll the last handful of months had taken on her - she was so worn down, so jumpy that she was starting to naturally suspect attack from any direction and was jumping at shadows. If he'd been able to deduce as much as he'd had simply from looking at her vessel, he'd have made a move if he was intending to board, capture, destroy or salvage it - by now she'd have already been in a dogfight or he would have simply cut off communications and waited for her life support to die on its own. Suspicious or not, treating this man, computer, AI, whatever he was wouldn't get her anywhere - she'd remain on guard, but for now he was the one in a position of power, not her. Yet another reminder of why she'd gone solo - she hated it when the other guy had all the cards.

"You're..... not wrong there. I've got weapons, shields, sublight, life support, everything except for FTL. I've repaired as much as I can, but I simply don't have all the materials on board to fix anything else." Samus replied after several long moments, feeling a rather bitter taste at the back of her throat and recognizing it as what was left of her pride. Asking someone for help, and with a ship that she'd designed herself..... a new low, and not something she had any intention of repeating anytime soon.

"Adam, you can stop looking. We'll play ball for now. Just keep a low profile, though, I want one card left to play if things go south." Samus said, the AI replying by shutting down everything except for the absolute essentials needed to keep him running.

[The Tenth Doctor]

The Doctor listened to the following transmission, planning out his next move while doing so. The presence of weapons didn't really aggravate him. It was more the knowing of what they were being used for. Seeing as she was a Bounty Hunter... Well, the Doctor was sure that they weren't just being used for self defense. But, he had to swallow his hatred of weapons. Samus used them against things that couldn't be reasoned with, in most cases. At least, that was what the Doctor had heard. He wasn't quite sure he liked the idea of helping her out... But he knew he couldn't just leave her to die. At the end of the day the things she had done were necessary, even if they were things the Doctor generally disapproved of, like genocide and planet destroying. It had been necessary, though the Doctor was unsure if he would have done the same.

"Right, right..." The Doctor said, still thinking as to what he could do. Maybe if she'd let her board the ship he would be able to get a better look at it and see what he could do. Maybe it would just take the Sonic Screwdriver to get things working again. The Sonic Screwdriver was pretty useful for getting things to work, even technology like the kind that powered starships. But from what she'd said earlier the Doctor figured she wasn't the type to let anyone onto her ship, which the Doctor understood. If some random person who was checking up on him asked if they could board the TARDIS he'd be a bit suspicious too. Perhaps it was best to just let it go until it got to a point where she'd let him onto her ship so he could help her. "Well, I'd be glad to help you out. I've got a few things that might be able to help you repair your ship." That would get things moving along...

The Doctor needed to plan out his strategy better from there. Perhaps being friendly just wasn't the best thing to do. Though, had he known who he was talking to he would have done something completely different. The Doctor decided that thinking on his next move would just be a waste of time, seeing as he honestly had no idea what Samus would say next...