For those who want to meet an inspiration...

Part 4

The TARDIS jerked to a stop, causing you to fall. Luckily, the Doctor was there to catch you.

"Sorry! Forgot to warn you about take-off and landing, usually gets really bumpy. The rest of you alright?"

Your eyes fell on the pile of humans across the room. There were groans and complaints, but other than that, no harm done. That was further confirmed with a weak thumbs-up from Graham.

As you walked over to help them up, Ryan whispered, "First timer's privilege. Don't get used to it."

"Who said I'll be here permanently?" you told him. He shrugged, leaving you with a thought: After seeing the spaceship and the alien, would you stay or would you go?

This mission would be the deciding factor.

"Where are we then, Doc?" asked Graham, who was then followed up by a question by Yaz, "And when are we?"

You almost forgot you were in a time machine.

The Doctor readjusted some settings of the TARDIS and squinted at the screen, "1918, not Sheffield. Berlin! Brilliant! I've never been so accurate before!"

"Hold on, Berlin? Like, Germany, Berlin?"

"Isn't there only one Berlin?" you gave Yaz a weird look.

"Well, there's the Berlin three galaxies away, but it got destroyed when a comet collided with it. Huge explosion," the Doctor said a little too casually, "So yes, this is Germany."

There was a flicker of excitement in Ryan's eyes, "World War One?"

"Yep," the Doctor patted Ryan's shoulder, "You pay attention in history class! Well done!"

The Doctor then ran to the door, with the rest of you following behind. Although this was a mission to save your life, you couldn't help but feel the adrenaline rush that the anticipation gave you. Out of that door, it was Berlin, 1917. One whole century before your time. You would probably regret it later, but you allowed yourself to feel thrilled, just for now. If you're going to die, might as well die happy.

"Hold on!" Graham put on his coat and was the last to get ready, "How're we supposed to save her life here?"

The Doctor gestured towards the door, "I'll explain on the way. Come on!"

The moment you stepped out, you felt an odd feeling. It was like a mix of excitement, nervousness and a pinch of panic. You jumped on the spot and the ground didn't give way. There was a war raging out there, yet you grinned. You really did travel in time!

Okay, maybe for someone who's about to die, it was a little inappropriate to be so happy. You wiped the smile off your face, unable to let go of the guilt building up in you.

You started to absorb your surroundings. The TARDIS had landed in a house. Not extravagant, yet not dilapidated. It was a humble home. It would have provided a homey feel if the lights weren't all off. You could still see though, the light from outside had managed to sneak into the house through the gaps where the curtains had been drawn.

The sound of a glass piece breaking made your heart stop. You just realised that you and the others were intruders.

With the Doctor taking the lead, you made it a point to stay behind, seeing as the rest were doing the same. Ryan grabbed a lamp.

"It's me!" the Doctor declared, "Remember me?"

From the dark corner of the living area, a figure held the broken glass in its hand. It moved forward, stopping just before the light so its face remained hidden. A pause, and then came its reply.

"No."

Realisation seemed to dawn on the Doctor as she nodded very slowly, "Right. I forgot, but surely you remember her? The big blue box? Bigger on the inside? Ring any bells?"

The figure remained silent, considering and perhaps searching in its memory for an image of the TARDIS. As you held your breath, waiting for its response, you saw Ryan tighten his grip around the lamp. The Doctor noticed too.

"Put the lamp down, Ryan."

The figure spoke after he did so, "Doctor?"

The atmosphere became slightly cheerier than before as the Doctor grinned, "Hello! Sorry about this, but you know me. Alien and all."

"First, a dimension that extends beyond its borders, and then a complete change of biology, you truly are not of this world, Doctor," the figure's accent sounded foreign, but you didn't have time to think of where it came for as it stepped into the little light.

Graham was the first to react.

"No way..."

The lady raised a brow, "You know who I am?"

While you, Yaz and Ryan replied with a 'No', Graham said 'Yes!' with enthusiasm.

"My wife mentioned you before! She always spoke highly of your humanity!"

She looked confused, but she thanked him for the praise. You guessed it was because she knew about the Doctor's time travelling habits.

To avoid further confusion, the Doctor launched into an introduction, "Anyway, Lise, this is Yaz, Ryan, (Y/N) and Graham. They're my new best friends," she beamed at you and the group, "Gang, this is Lise Meitner."

Her name certainly sounded familiar, but you wanted to make sure. Luckily, Ryan beat you to it.

"Who?"

Yaz started explaining, "She's a physicist, don't you remember? She was the one that-"

"Hey! Why don't you make us a cup of tea so I can explain why we're here?" The Doctor suddenly interrupted before mouthing the word 'spoilers' to you four. Meitner agreed, equally curious as to why a huge gang of time travellers decided to crash her living room. As soon as she was out of sight, the Doctor continued Yaz's explanation in a low whisper.

"She's the one that discovered nuclear fission. When the Manhattan Project, the nuclear bomb creation, was started, she refused to join because she never wanted her discovery to be fatal."

As soon as you heard the phrase 'nuclear bomb', you couldn't help but let the question slip. Apparently, Ryan, Graham and Yaz had the same thought as all of you asked at the same time, "You're going to save her/me with a bomb?"

For a split second, you saw the horror in the Doctor's eyes and you felt chills spread throughout your body. Was that the plan? Kill the creature with the bomb? Using you as bait? You glanced over to the others. All of them wore a worried and fearful look on their faces, Yaz's more obvious than the other two.

"No," came the Doctor's firm reply, "Besides, we're early. Don't forget, Lise Meitner made plenty of breakthroughs in her life. Other than nuclear fission and the Auger effect, she and her colleague discovered an isotope of protactinium. Specifically, protactinium-231."

Seeing as your education was not useful in this context, a bunch of questions appeared in your head. What was protactinium-231? How did it look like? And most importantly, will it save your life?

Before you could ask, the Doctor broke the circle and said, "Anyway! Questions and answers in a bit. Let's go have tea with Lise Meitner."

"But we just ate."

"Now we're drinking, Ryan! It's different," the Doctor put on an innocent smile, "Besides, Graham isn't complaining."

You looked over at the older man who shrugged, suggesting that you just go along with it. Following his actions, you went with the group to the only table that seemed appropriate for tea.

As you waited, you decided to go through the entire day again. First, you were in a clinic waiting to see a doctor, but the doctor turned out to be the Doctor and a little girl was trying to kill you. You blacked out, hoping it was a dream but it wasn't, because when you woke up, you were on a spaceship that defied the laws of physics and was travelling in time and space. Now, you were in Berlin, 1918, and you're just met the Lise Meitner who has the answer to save your life.

"I'm having tea with Lise Meitner in 1918," you accidentally blurted out. The Doctor flashed you a smile.

"Pretty cool, right?"

The next thing that came out of your mouth was unintentional, "I'm about to die too."

The Doctor rolled her eyes and walked over to where you were seated. She squeezed your shoulders, "C'mon (Y/N), think positive! There's always hope when it comes to saving a life."

Yaz leaned over to you and whispered as soon as the Doctor was done, "She must really like you."

You laughed, but the thought of dying didn't leave your head. It felt like days since you went to the clinic and you could have died then, but you haven't. The Doctor and her gang helped you, maybe they weren't so bad.

Lise Meitner came back with a tray of cups filled with steaming tea. Each of you grabbed one apart from her, and she waited until you've all had a sip before asking, "So what brings you here, Doctor?"

The Doctor set her cup down, complimenting the tea. She placed her folded arms on the table and looked at Meitner with her eyes full of determination, "Remember last year? You and your pal Hahn?"

At the mention of her colleague, she said, "Is Hahn in trouble again?"

"No! No no, nothing of that sort," the Doctor said, "Okay, maybe something like that, except not Hahn," she looked towards you, "Actually, it's everything like that, except..."

All eyes fell on you and you couldn't help but feel self-conscious. You sank deeper into your seat. The Doctor sensed it, so she directed the attention back to her by snapping her fingers.

"So," she said, "Protactinium-231?"