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have you ever actually tried to blink one eye at a time? it doesn't work very well
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She grimaces a little.  "The Angel hit my head for me, but not too badly."

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"We uh.  There's probably not like a tactful way to say this but.  We figured it was trying to injure you badly enough that you'd die in the past."

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"Well I'm not the happiest I've ever been but I'm not that badly off, don't worry," she says.  "Do you and he have a phase two?"

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"I talked to him, and - to the TARDIS - and she and I are going to do something called a Catalax maneuver and hopefully get sent back the same amount of time you did.  The Doctor said you could walk me through it."

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"I can," she says.  "It was the first thing I ever did with the TARDIS too, in fact.  It was her idea then."

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"That's what she told me.  The second part, I mean, that it was her suggestion."

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Nod.  "Now, for a Catalax maneuver the thing to do is set the coordinates for a time jump about twice as far back as you want to go, to start with.  I've had a look on my phone, and according to Google it's about seven months ago, so you'll set it for fourteen months back.  The trouble is, they're not in Earth units..."

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There's a few moments of setup, mostly twiddling dials on one of the six terminals.

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"...if you stand at the six o'clock terminal, you should be able to see two levers on the terminal to your left, and a sort of pole or plunger to your right, that you can pull out and turn and push in.  Don't do anything with it yet.  The leftmost lever starts the journey; the lever to its right is the handbrake.  The plunger is the boost control.  Pull the leftmost lever, wait for the pillar in the center to light up and start moving.  You'll hear a warbley sound and the floor will probably shake, that's normal.  Pull out the plunger, turn it a quarter turn to the right, then push it in as hard as you can while you swipe the handbrake at the same moment.  If you do it right there'll be an absolutely ghastly noise and all the lights will go off for a second, then there'll be an alarm.  Hit the button on the ten o'clock terminal I showed you before to override that alarm."

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"Lever one, wait a moment, pull the plunger, turn the plunger, then push and hit the second lever at the same time.  Got it."

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"Over to you, then."

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" - I'm actually gonna pause you for a second, while I do this.  If that's okay."

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"If you're confident.  Hit play the instant something goes wrong, I'll talk you through it as best I can."

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"Thanks."

Pause.

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There's a slight noiseless hum, an anticipation in the air, from the coordinates he's punched in.

"I'm gonna do it, in a second.  Are you ready?"

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I'm ready.  And don't be gentle, hon, rip it off like a bandaid.

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"All right."  He - pats the terminal.  It seems like the thing to do.

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"Okay," he says.  "One."  He pulls the first lever.

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An echoing warble, and the floor shudders under him -

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"Whoa, okay," he says, steadying himself on the railing behind him.  "Hope that's supposed to happen."

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The pillar in the center lights up bright eerie green, and mechanisms inside it begin to move, rhythmically up and down.

(There's another sound, like a distant gasp.)

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"Two - "

He pulls out the plunger.  He doesn't love how shaky the floor still is but he can handle it.

"Three - "

Quarter turn, and it chunks into place, ready to be pushed in.  He leans over and reaches, awkwardly, to put his left hand on the brake while his right hand is still on the plunger.

" - and four - "

Right hand pushes left hand pulls and he screws up his eyes in sudden anticipation -

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The whole room goes dark, and there's a sound like grinding gears or tearing metal - a screech -

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The room lights up in pulsing red, and a whooping klaxon sounds off, and now the floor isn't just shaking but positively rattling.  He clutches the terminal with one hand and awkwardly hits the play button on the screen and his phone with the other.  "Is this the right alarm??"

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"I think so!" says Sarah Jane.  "If the floor's not steady enough then don't worry about turning it off, just hold on to something!"

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