A/N- Hello, brilliant readers. This is my first Dr Who, fanfic, so reviews will be most welcome! Especially criticism! Enjoy!
Chapter 1
The familiar whirring of ancient engines filled the air as the TARDIS materialized in the middle of a dense forest. The doors swung open, and a dark haired man wearing a suit with trainer's fell outside along with a blond girl, laughing.
'Did you see there teeth!!'
'I know! There breath was disgusting! Haven't they ever heard of toothbrushes?'
At this they both fell to the floor with renewed silent laughter. After a few minutes they gained control of themselves, and the girl looked up.
'So…where are we?'
'That's a good point. I've got no idea. Shall we go and meet the locals?'
'Go on then. As long as they've invented toothbrushes….'
The man made a noise half way between a laugh and a cough, and they set of in search of the inhabitants.
'So… when are we Doctor?
The Doctor pressed a few buttons on the complex device attached to his wrist, and said-
'Around 300 years into your future. Hang on.' The Doctor stopped abruptly and whacked the device. 'It must be malfunctioning. It's saying the whole planet's covered with trees. '
'What? How can the whole planet be covered? Is it like a massive version of the Amazon?'
'Must be. There's about 200 meters squared that's been cleared not far from here. It must be worth a look. Come on.'
As they made there unsteady way towards the camp, they marvelled there last adventure. They had met Queen Elizabeth the fifth, been chased by monsters with breath that bad it could knock out the best heavy weight champion, saved her majesty from an assassination attempt and fled from the bad breath monsters across and acre of Greenland.
'Rose, what did you think of the Queen?' Asked the Doctor, curious.
'She was alright. A bit… pompous, but other than that she was nice.' said Rose in response.
The Doctor laughed, and stumbled as he did so and fell flat on his face. Rose collapsed with laughter as the Doctor said-
'Oww. That hurt. It's not funny!'
'It is!' She chuckled, helping him up.
The Doctor looked wounded. 'Oh I see. All those times I helped you up when you when you fell over, all those times when I supported you when it all got too much,' Rose's smile faltered. 'All the times I've saved your life, I even took you back to see your father, you almost caused the end of the world and I forgave you when most time lords would have left you in the middle of a sun, and I took you back without a second mention, and this is how you repay me? Laughing at me when I fall over?' The Doctor's eyes were shining mysteriously, and he was smiling. Rose looked shocked, and tears of regret swam in her eyes.
'Rose, you are honestly the most gullible person in the galaxy. Did you know they discover a planet two months after we left Earth? They name it after superman's home planet, Krypton.' He said into the top of her hair as he cuddled her.
'Really? You didn't tell me!' She said through her tears.
'Rose, I hereby crown you the most gullible person in the galaxy. No they did not, and I was joking. Do you really think my kind would have left you in the middle of a sun? I told you, were a calm race, do you ever listen?'
'No. I had enough of that in school.' said Rose, her voice slightly muffled. The Doctor let go of her and took her hand as they made their way through the forest again, slowly this time.
They carried on walking for a few minutes, still warbling on about there last adventure and how they must go back and introduce them to toothbrushes. A shadowy figure appeared through the trees. The Doctor stopped so abruptly that Rose nearly walked into him.
'What? What is it?' Whispered Rose.
'Got no idea. Shall we go and have a look?' Rose nodded and they crept towards the shadow. As they got closer, they realized that it was the inhabitants.
The aliens looked like they were made out of tar. They had an eyepiece that looked like a Dalek's, except it wasn't on a stalk. Its teeth were so menacing the Doctor shivered when he looked at them. They wore a chain around there necks, with enough buttons to give NASA a run for there money. There arms were ridiculously long, and had claws the size of knives. There teeth were like shark's teeth, with as many rows.
The Doctor stood forward bravely, hiding Rose behind him. 'Erm… Hi. Sorry, what's your name?' He gave the new creatures his most winning smile, and they looked at him precariously.
'Were the creatures that live on this planet. The over-ruling factor.'
'…right, but you didn't answer my question.' He said with a puzzled look.
'The Exmazons, Doctor.' The tallest one was apparently the leader, because he spoke for all the other creatures.
'How did you know my name?' The doctors frown increased.
'Follow us, Doctor.' The Doctor and Rose let the Exmazons gain a head start, and then proceeded to follow them.
'Where are we going?' The Doctor called out to the Exmazons, a few feet in front of them.
'You'll see.' They came to a stop just before a huge oak tree, and they spotted a com device at waist height. The leader of the Exmazons bent down and spoke the password in a whisper. Luckily, with the Doctor's keen hearing he heard- detonator, origami, creative, trees, ornate, reading. It was a strange password, but passwords had to be hard to guess, he thought.
A space opened at the base of the tree. The leader crawled in, and the others beckoned for them to follow. They did. The Doctor went first, followed by Rose. He found himself in complete darkness. He took a few steps cautiously, and slid down a slide two feet from the entrance. He knew that Rose had done the same, he heard her yell in surprise half way down. He landed at the bottom, and stood up abruptly before Rose could crash into his back. True to form, the Doctor caught Rose when she came whizzing out the bottom.
'You all right?' The Doctor said with concern.
'Yeah, I'm fine.'
Rose took hold of the Doctor's hand, and together they made there was down the corridor. After turning a corner, they both looked up in awe. They were standing in the middle of a top of the range laboratory. The Doctor let go of Rose's hand instantly, and was off to investigate. Test tubes, Bunsen burners, a thing that looked suspiciously like a toe floating in a jar, and a water tank containing a creature that looked like a nymph were just some of the things that inhabited the lab. It was as wide as the average spaceship, and seemed to for on forever. At the far end the Doctor spotted a figure, and went to say hello.
As he got closer, the Doctor realized the figure wasn't human. He had four arms and four legs for a start, and he was at least seven foot tall. His skin had a greyish tinge, and his features were much different to a human's. His eyes were much higher on his face, and his nose was just two slits near the mouth. The mouth was a blue colour, and he looked at them as if they had just killed his best friend. Overall, the creature looked like he had stepped out of a child's nightmare. The Doctor stopped a few paces in front of the creature.
'Hi, I'm the Doctor. What's your name?' he spoke to the creature in a tone you would use on a toddler, which seemed to annoy the person.
'Rhulian.' said the creature.
The Doctor gave him a winning smile, and called over his shoulder to Rose.
'Rose! Come and say hi to Rhulian!' The Doctor's voice carried all over the lab, and Rose came running.
'Hi.' She said, slightly out of breath. 'I'm Rose. How are you?' Rhulian seemed to prefer Rose to the Doctor, for Rose treated him like an adult rather than a two year old.
'I'm fine, thanks. How did you get into my lab?' Rhulian said with clear concern, thinking he needed to update his security systems.
'The Exmazons let us in.' Rose said easily. 'They wanted us to follow them, so we did and they led us here.'
Rhulians expression cleared, and was replaced by a dreamy one.
The Doctor and Rose looked at each other in confusion, and the Doctor said in a clear voice-
'Rhulian? Are you ok?' Rhulian snapped out of his trance and looked at them with unfocused eyes.
'Sorry?' He shook his head like a dog with water in his ears. 'Must have spaced out. So what did you come here for?' the dreamy look was still present, and the Doctor looked at him in concern.
'The Exmazons led us here. They didn't tell us why. Do you want us to leave?' Rose said, feeling like they had already overstayed there welcome.
'No, no, stay; I was just wondering why they brought you here. Been as you are here, can I show you a project of mine?'
The Doctor and Rose looked at each other. 'Sounds interesting. Lead the way. '
Rhulian led them to the end of the room, and pressed a concealed button on the far wall. A secret entrance opened, and Rhulian entered the darkened room. At first, the room appeared to be empty, but at a second glance, you could see the room contained a table with a sheet of mapping paper on the top. He crossed the room to inspect the paper, and they followed. The paper contained a map of the planet, the Doctor knew so because he had seen an outline on the TARDIS screen. The map had been drawn over, there were squiggles covering most of the planet. After inspecting closely, the Doctor realized it was a plan to convert the planet into an intergalactic space station. Concern bubbled inside him.
'Rhulian…' he adapted the tone used on a two year old again. 'What are you planning to do to the forest?'
Rhulian looked angry. Colour rose up from his neck, and his face turned an unhealthy purple colour.
'Doctor, I am not a child.' His voice shook with controlled rage. 'Please do not treat me like one. I treat you with respect, please return it.' The Doctor looked shocked. He looked down, and muttered a heart felt 'Sorry'.
'Apology accepted.' Rhulians face turned back to its normal greyish colour along with a smile. 'A space station, Doctor. This part of the galaxy has to travel 45000 km to reach the nearest space station, something which annoys the occupants greatly. It's such a waste of 3 hours. If I convert the planet into a space station, it will be greatly appreciated and very popular, also a great money earner.'
Rhulian looked pleased with himself. The Doctor was a portrayal of the complete opposite emotion.
'Rhulian, did you go to school?' The tone used on a two year old was adapted again in his anger. 'Do you know that living beings need oxygen to survive?' Rhulian turned the unhealthy purple colour again.
'Yes, Doctor. Like I said before, I am not two years old. Three hundred and ninety seven years off it to be precise.' Rhulian glared at him again.
'Well you're acting it!!! This planet creates over half the oxygen needed to keep life forms alive in this galaxy, and you're planning on chopping down the very thing that creates that! Are you mad or just crazy?' The Doctor was two inches from Rhulians chest, anger consorting every part of his face. The same emotion was mirrored in Rhulians. The doctor stepped back in fear of having his head pulled off.
'With my calculations,' Rhulian picked up a piece of paper. 'The galaxy would still support all life forms present at this very moment even if all the trees on this planet are chopped down.' He dropped the paper and it unravelled towards the floor. It reached the Doctor's feet that were three feet away. The Doctor's eyebrows raised and he held his hand out for the top of the paper. Rose watched in amazement as the Doctor's eyes whizzed across the impossibly complicated equations. After a minute his eyes stopped and he said-
'Err, no, it won't. Here it says that there are only 26 planets in this galaxy, and there are five times those amounts. Your calculations need to be five times the amount that they are now, and by my calculations, the galaxy will collapse in around…oh, a month? If you carry out your plan.' He had a glint in his eye and his head was held high.
'You are mistaken Doctor. My calculations have been checked and checked again by the most famous mathematician of our realm, Javelune the fifth.
'Oh, good old Javelune. I remember her; she made an extremely good cheesecake. But the last thing that I heard from her, she moved to the other side of the galaxy, she sent me a batch of shortbread in farewell. So when did she check your calculations?' His voice held a note of sceptical ness.
'Two months ago.' Rhulians eyes were hard and cold. 'Just after she decided to move, they arrived a few days ago, the messenger got lost.' He rolled his eyes. 'Only a hundred and one got completely lost by the asteroid congregation of delta two.'
'What's the date?'
'89th of Herpitary. She left on the 5th of Rijuliun.'
The Doctor made a quick calculation and said- 'She left six years before you sent her your calculations. She went mad three months after leaving here... Of course!' Realization hit the Doctor. 'When she left, there were only 26 planets in the galaxy, but the number more than doubled when Dobalium exploded and created a hundred and thirty new planets! She marked them as correct because as far as she knew there were only twenty six planets. This makes your calculations completely wrong.' He had a look of sympathy in his eyes.
'I don't believe you. She seemed perfectly fine when I spoke to her.'
'She would do, her brain is still in tact but her ability to take in new information has completely disappeared.'
'You're just trying to stop me because you know that I'm right and you want to steal my idea and make all the money yourself!!! Well I won't fall for it!!! I'm turning this planet into a space station whether you like it or not!' Rhulian was an inch away from the Doctor and was pointing a finger at him accusingly.
'No you will not!' The Doctor was standing on tiptoes in a vain attempt to intimidate him. 'The whole of this galaxy will suffocate and die and it will be all you're fault! I won't let that happen!'
Two things happened at once. Rhulian raised his fist as if he was about to hit the Doctor, and then he froze. When the Doctor had composed himself again, he grabbed a chair and stood on it to reach Rhulians head. He snapped his fingers in front of his face, but he did not react. A frown appeared on the Doctor's face. Rose called up to him.
'What's wrong with him?'
'I've got no idea.' He pulled out his sonic screwdriver as he spoke. 'Hang on, he must have been controlled. It seems the controllers have caused a brainwave when they stopped. But why did they stop? Rose, chuck me your TARDIS key.' She did so with a frown on her face, but experience had taught her to never doubt the Doctor. After holding the key in front of the screwdriver and scanning it, he placed the screwdriver to Rhulians temple. He jerked back into life, and looked around with a strange look on his face. The doctor was still scanning Rhulians brain, but then the Doctor froze. A look of sorrow was etched on his face.
'I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.' The doctor removed the screwdriver from his temple, and Rhulian keeled over. Rose backed off in horror.
'What happened?! He was fine a minute ago!' She looked expectantly at him.
'He was being controlled. His brain had been removed and replaced with a metal one. He was alive at one point, but he'd been a vegetable for at least a year. But why? The real question is who his controllers were.' As he spoke the room filled with the tar like creatures that call themselves Exmazons. Rose shot the Doctor a look full of meaning.
'Hi. Were you looking for Rhulian?' Her voice was falsely carefree. Rose appeared to be ignorant, but like most people, she was cleverer than she looked.
They decided to talk to Rose like a toddler, seemingly because she was acting like one. 'Yes, I was.'
'Well, he's kinda busy right now. You see, he was being controlled by some nasty people. They wanted to kill all the people in the galaxy by taking away there oxygen supply. Do you know anything about it?' Rose smiled sweetly at them, but her eyes showed anger beyond words. The leaders eyes narrowed and he crossed his arms. At this point Rose lost it and all that could be seen was a blur of limbs. The Doctor grabbed one which looked like it might be human, and pulled with all his might. Rose came free, with scratched and newly formed bruises all over her. She struggled to get back to the fight, but the Doctor pulled her aside and hissed in her ear-
'What are you doing?? Have you seen the size of them? He could have flattened you in two seconds!' She was looking at him with hatred in her eyes that the Doctor had never seen their before.
'You've seen what they did to Rhulian. They can't get away with it. I am sick to the core of brainless aliens that abuse and main millions of people, all for a bit of a laugh. I know Rhulian is only one, but if they get away with it then they will do it again, and you've seen the mess that they leave us with. How can you stand there and tell me that they didn't deserve that?' Her hands were on her hips and she had never looked more adorable to him. The Doctor's chest filled with love, and then deflated when he remembered she was waiting for an answer.
'I can't. But you know as well as I do that a blonde 5 "5 girl isn't going to stop a whole room full of Exmazons with brute force, is she?'
'No, but she has as much of a chance as a…' She glanced at the top of his head and guessed. '6 "…1 Time Lord.' Rose's eyebrows were raised and the Doctor had to look away to hide his grin. He led Rose back to the waiting Exmazons.
'Right, time for a civil chat, I think. Sound good to you?' He looked the leader of the Exmazons in the eye, with some difficulty. Rough translation- Ill interrogate you with words and you'll tell me everything thought Rose, but went along with the plan. The Doctor led the way out of the lab and round a corner, which led to a large kitchen. How the Doctor knew it was there was a mystery to Rose, but she had long since gotten used to the many wonderful things about the Doctor, although she was occasionally surprised when she was caught of guard. The Doctor flicked the switch of a mechanism that looked vaguely like a kettle, and searched for mugs. He did a quick head count and pulled out seventeen mugs. He searched in his jacket pockets and pulled out a small jar of something which looked like crystallised chocolate spread. He put a small amount in each cup, and topped up the mugs with what was the alien equivalent of hot water from the kettle like mechanism. He passed the mugs around, and gave Rose the last one. He whispered in her ear- 'Don't drink it, it's an alien relaxant. Only a weak one, but it could kill humans.' She raised her eyebrows at him, and he whispered- 'These things will never tell me the truth- I had to do something.' Rose nodded in agreement and the Doctor went and sat on a spare chair.
'So, how did you come to this planet? As always, the Doctor was brutally blunt.
'Out ancestors crash landed, on there way to the Jagrafess Congregade. Their ship was too badly damaged to repair, so they were forced to live here. This planet is so out of contact with every other planet, so we weren't able to escape. It's got all the basics, so it's not that bad. Enough food, dry land and clean air. Not that bad of a life to be honest.' The leader paused to gulp his drink, and the others followed suit. Soon after, all the Exmazons were unable to move from their chairs with a lopsided grin on their faces. Rose looked at the Doctor with knitted eyebrows. She mouthed 'Are they alright?' The Doctor nodded and mouthed back- 'There fine- they'll tell the truth now.' The Doctor then turned to face the now giggly Exmazons. It was a strange sight to Rose; here in front of her were eight foot tall vicious looking monsters with girlish grins on their faces. The Doctor was speaking to them.
'Now, tell me the truth about how you came to live on this planet. I did some research- this planet was uninhabited until two years ago. So how did you come to live here?' The leader looked at him with unfocused eyes.
'Our population grew to quickly back at home. Soon enough we were living on top of each other. We tried to appeal to the House of Galaxy, but they forbade us to take over another planet. We've caused too much trouble over the years- been in too many wars. Just for asking, the House of Galaxy exiled my whole family. So we did a scan for uninhabited planets within two million miles, and we found this place. We've lived here ever since. That was four years ago.' The leaders head lolled back, and he closed his eyes. The Doctor addressed him again, and asked him how he came across Rhulian. 'We picked him up on the way over. We found him wondering delta seventeen. We knew that if anyone from the House of Galaxy called we needed someone to greet them, so we took him with us and controlled him.'
This confirmed the Doctor's suspicions and asked why they had come up with the plan to destroy the forest. This time a lower rank Exmazon answered. 'We need to shield ourselves from the House of Galaxy. The only way we can do this is by chopping down the forest and building an intergalactic space station on a quarter of the planets surface, and live on the rest of the land. This way we get a place to live and the galaxy gets a space station in return.' But the rest of the galaxy will suffocate before they get the chance to use it!!!! Thought Rose angrily.
Rose couldn't resist any longer. 'There's got to be another way!!! All these people will die and it will be your entire fault!!! If you do it in some other way, like…like…' realization hit Rose. It wasn't out of hate to the galaxy that they were doing this; it was because they had no other option. Whatever they did, they would still have to chop down all the trees, and that would cause the galaxy to suffocate. And then another thing hit Rose. 'Hang on a minute, even if you do go ahead and chop down the trees and build the space station, its only going to cover a quarter of the planet. People will expect a huge centre, and you're only giving them a tiny one. Won't people notice? And what about the land you're going to be living on? They'll be able to see you. You'll be on show to the world and its neighbour. How does that fit in with the hiding from the House of Galaxy?'
The leader sighed in exasperation. "The station will appear to be as big as the planet. The maps will be modified and anyone exploring will have a guide with them. The House of Galaxy will not see us, the docking centre will be controlled by machinery and guides will be robots. We have thought this through you do realize." His voice was riddled with sarcasm. The Doctor realized that the relaxant was starting to wear off; some of the Exmazons were starting to twitch. He excused himself and Rose and walked out of the room, leaving the creatures to twitch themselves back to life. The Doctor and Rose half walked half jogged down the connecting corridor, and burst into the Lab. The Doctor closed the door hurriedly, and turned to face Rose.
'So, what do we do?' Rose was looking at him expectantly.
'The Exmazons plan will suffocate thousand upon thousands of people, and I can't let it happen. So we have to stop them. If we take the blunt approach again then they'll get all defensive and then were screwed. But if we offer them another planet on which they can create a space station the size of the solar system if they want then I think it may work. That's a very big may. So, by my calculations the sedative should have worn off by now. Shall we go and tell them the news?'
Throughout the whole speech Rose had been nodding her head in appropriate places, having succeeded in keeping up with he Doctor's monologue for once. She said yes in reply and they made their way down the corridor. The Exmazons were indeed free from the effects of the sedative, and were standing there with a look so terrifying even the Doctor had thoughts of running as far away as possible. But instead he gathered his courage and stood up to the terrifyingly tall Exmazons.
'Hiiiii. Sorry about the wait. Just had to discuss dinner plans with Rose.' He smiled winningly. 'So, I've got a deal for you. Instead of building the station on this planet, how about I find you a lovely big uninhabited planet without thousands of trees, and you can build your station their?'
The Exmazons just stared at him. 'Doctor, you've just given us a sedative without us knowing.' His voice was riddled with sarcasm, and his eyes were patronising. 'Do you really expect us to trust you now?' Oops. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to give them sedative. Oh well, Even if I am a Time Lord I can't cross my own timeline and erase what I did. Time for Plan B.
'Okay, I had an inkling that you would say that. Let me put it this way. Unless you let me take you to another planet, I will have to stop you.' They just stared back in disbelief.
'You're not armed. We scanned you when you first arrived, and there was no threat. How do you plan to destroy so many of us when there are only two of you? Well Doctor, were not taking any of your crap. Try and stop us, and we kill the girl.' Two of the biggest ones came forwards and tried to take Rose, only for her to dart out of their way. After all this time, Rose was well practiced in avoiding big scary monsters. While they performed their dodging trick, the Doctor had taken his screwdriver out of his pocket and tinkered with the controls like a man on a mission. After a few minutes of letting the monsters make prats out of themselves, he dragged Rose behind him, blocking the creature's view of her.
'Now, chopping down tree's I can live with. I could have even forgiven you if you started building the plant. But mess with Rose, and I can't forgive you. You've left me no choice.' The Doctor bent down, and touched the screwdriver to the clinical white floor. The temperature soared and an eerie white blue glow filled the room, and suddenly the creatures cried in pain. There tarmac like bodies were rippling and breaking up. With one last cry of pain the Exmazons were nothing more than a lump of melted tarmac.
'What did you do?' Rose was stood behind the Doctor, unable to move.
'I broke the gravity field surrounding each of them and raised the temperature. Without the force to protect them there bodies melted. All that's left is a melted pool of tarmac.'
'Wow. You really know how to make a point.' He smiled winningly at her and she melted inside.
'But that's why you're still with me.' She forced herself to wake up and smell the coffee, and composed herself into lateral thinking.
'So what do we do now?'
'Well, if I put the tarmac into a jar and stick it in the TARDIS furnace, then they wont be able to solidify and comeback to life again. 'Rose looked baffled, and he shot her a 'what?' look.
'It's that simple. I was expecting a full scientific explanation.'
'That was a scientific explanation. It was just a simple one. Anyway, let's get them in the jar before they solidify and try to kill us again.' He grimaced and took a small jar out of his pocket.
'There is no hope in the world that the whole of the tarmac is going to fit in there.' She was staring at him as if he had gone mad.
'Rose, it's from Gallefray. It's bigger on the inside.' A look of relief passed over her face, and the Doctor bent down to start scooping up the wet tarmac. A few minutes later there was nothing left but a faint stain on the floor.
'If I sick this in the furnace then that's the last of the Exmazons.' He looked leased with himself.
'So where next?' Rose asked as she linked arms with the Doctor as they made there way towards the TARDIS.
'You tell me, Rose Tyler.'
A/N- So, what did you think? Did you like it? Please ell me my mistakes so I can make the next chapter even better (hint hint, lol)