When Harry joined UNIT, he knew he would encounter some very odd things. UNIT dealt with the unusual. But the past few weeks had been so far beyond that, it was hard to keep it straight in his head.  A series of strange encounters, and some unwelcome interference, had landed him in prison. Specifically, a prison in the scientific elite bunker on the planet Skaro. The Doctor was trying to explain to him about the daleks, and exactly why they had to succeed in their mission for the Time Lords, but Harry was rather more concerned with trying to open the door.

"That's all very well, Doctor, but how do we get out of here? They've even taken your sonic whatsit!"

"Screwdriver, Harry," The Doctor was lying on the plain metal bench that was the only furniture in the cell. "And I am not too worried. I have a feeling we won't be in here long. Ronson was told to come and interrogate us. You saw his face. I think we are getting through to him." He swung his legs off the bench, and took a step towards the door... and then all hell broke loose.

A horrifying swirling vortex of red and black energy - and, apparently, slime - opened beneath his feet. He fell down into it with a cry of alarm. "Harry!" His hat fell off, and he clawed at the featureless metal flaw desperately. "Help!"

Harry was not always expert at listening--and so, in this particular instance, he had caught on about some parts of this whole matter, and would have had to profess ignorance about other aspects. He did not exactly see the point in fully understanding the situation or having rather broad plans to do something quite big at this moment. Not when the door keeping them contained in a rather small section was in their way.

So he understood a little bit what the Doctor meant about this Ronson. More than seeing the look on his face, Harry had seen the look on the Doctor's face, how he smiled over at that Ronson fellow. And he could scarcely have missed how Ronson interceded and saved their lives. But he wasn't really certain that Ronson wanted to help them, just yet.

It was really no hope. Harry was not some locksmith, nor a man of great genius in contrivances or tricks. So he could, probably, work at opening this door for an eternity without finding a workable solution on his own. And here, now, troubled by such things as these Daleks which the Doctor has told him about, as well as his own fate and that of the Doctor's fellow companion Sarah--well, there was simply no hope at all.

And, well, that's when the very shocking thing happened.

"Doctor! Hold on!"

Harry rushed in, slipping against the...well, the slime on the floor. As he slid, he both landed quite painfully on his tailbone and grabbed onto the hand of the Doctor. Swinging out with his other hand, he searched for purchase as he tried to push off with his feet. But, of course, his hand merely landed on the hat which had just fallen off of the Doctor's head.

Amidst the sudden chaos, he had an entirely explicable but still peculiar feeling that this very strange and bad day was about to become even stranger and worse.

OOC: Let me know if I've misunderstood the placement of this scene in the serial. :)

The rather clumsy attempt to help was less than useful, but in Harry's defense, it was unlikely he could have done much about the situation even if he had produced a Herculean rescue effort. Inexorably, and with much yelling and struggling, the Doctor was pulled down into the reeking hole, until... he was given one final, rapid yank, and vanished beneath the swirling morass. There was a repulsive explosion, spraying out more rancid gunge, and he was... gone.

No sign of him remained, except for his hat.

The cell remained quiet for a moment, as the gravity of the situation sank in. With the Doctor gone, Harry's chances of escaping from Skaro were approximately zero.

But then, something else happened.

A swirling white vortex appeared, glowing, and being extremely unlike the previous stinking thing that had come and gone so suddenly. And, from within the vortex, came a voice.

"Oh, what a relief! I thought I'd never be able to track you down! Without the TARDIS to lock onto, finding the Doctor's timeline can be really tricky. You are Harold Sullivan, aren't you? I'm sorry, I am having terrible difficulty confirming your coordinates. Where are you right now?"

It was the voice of a very refined woman, polite, but clearly concerned.

OOC: You got the placement right, yes. :D
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:31, Sun 02 Oct 2022.

At first, Harry set about making...excuses for himself, as if there were some obvious extenuating circumstance that would have made it full possible for him to rescue the Doctor. It was the slime, that was it! Or it was a matter of leverage. But when his hand slipped and the Doctor went under...his face went totally white.

It was only a short time, but as Harry sat there holding the Doctor's hat, he found himself experiencing an eternity. His thoughts moved very slowly--or, rather, very quickly, making it seem like everything else had gone slow.

With the appearance of the new vortex, Harry at first jumped out of his seat, throwing himself back and fumbling awkwardly with the hat, which he almost dropped several times, before steadying himself and taking in the sight before him.

"A-ah, yes? Well, I prefer Harry, if you don't mind. Who are you? What's happened to the Doctor?!"

He paused, thought on it, and just before the voice could respond with anything, he continued, saying, "My coordinates? Well, I'm on Skaro. There is...ah, this bunker, and this Davros fellow made a Dalek. What can I do without the Doctor?"

Holding the hat against his chest in one hand, he bit down on a knuckle on his other hand.

OOC: Switching to...coral dialogue style text for myself.

The swirling vortex lady's voice became much more agitated. "Skaro? They never told me they'd be looking into THAT part of your timeline! You need to get out of there right now! Listen, what you saw was someone, somehow, editing the Doctor out of time. He's vanished, temporally speaking. And this causes enormous problems, as everything he did will be undone. I don't need to tell you how bad that would be for you, the Earth, and probably everything else in the universe. I'm a Time Lord, like him. We're putting together a team of his friends to try to track him down and bring him back. We could really use your help! Believe me, important as your mission on Skaro was... is... will be..." Tenses could be very difficult in this situation. "It won't matter at all if the whole universe vanishes in a puff of smoke! This will probably be a very risky prospect, with a lot of danger, but my file says you are a human doctor. That might be very handy. So, if you step into this portal, you'll be brought to Gallifrey, and we can tell you all about it. I don't want to rush you, but in about ninety seconds, someone is going to open your cell door, and when they find the Doctor missing, they will probably do some very unpleasant things to you to find out how, and why. And don't worry about your other friend. Belive me, she's a lot safer where she is than where you're likely to be going!"

If this was meant to be a reassuring pep talk, she needed a lot more practice.

There were a few times opened his mouth to speak, but didn't know exactly what he should say. After all, what was there to say in this situation? Nothing, it seemed! Anything he could think to say seemed inane the moment he thought to speak the words aloud, and thereby, muttering came out as a sort of punctuation for the voice on the other side. It didn't help that he was becoming more stressed by the second, with every new tidbit of information compounding the pressure he was experiencing.

He paused after she spoke, making strangled noises for a good thirty seconds. But at the end of the day, the answer was obvious: he had to try and help the Doctor, and that much was completely obvious. He made a final mumbled noise--although not a noise with a sense of finality about it--and he started moving ahead. Holding the hat firmly in hand, albeit a hand that was shaking, Harry stepped into the portal.

Stepping into the portal was like walking into a washing machine - swirling everywhere, but no clue which way is up or down. It was also short, fortunately. Harry emerged in a small room, with pinkish grey walls, and the only thing in it was a simple door. Beyond which, there were voices - and a distinct odour of food. It was a lot nicer than a cell in the Kaled bunker, but it was otherwise more or less the same thing. With piped harp music.

OOC: Please move to IC: HQ Zero
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:04, Tue 04 Oct 2022.