The extraterrestrial gentleman
There was a whirl and a clatter, a rumble and a shake and as the occupants of this wondrous living time machine grabbed onto whatever machinery they could for balance, it came to a stop and they let go, standing straight.
"What time have we arrived at Doctor?" A dark woman asked, beaming.
"Ah, it appears to be 1888 and we've arrived at London." He remarked.
"Right. I'll just go to the wardrobe room then and change?"
"Sounds like a plan." He said smiling and starting to stoke a nearby console screen.
Minutes later, Martha re-entered the main console room, in an extravagant 19th century formal dress.
The doctor stood there smiling at her for a moment. "Ah Martha, you look wonderful!"
She blushed. "Thank you, doctor."
"Now to do the exact thing you did a moment ago!" He exclaimed, running into the wardrobe room and returning to the main console room in a top hat and a coat which was cut at the back vertically a little while later.
He looked just as a wealthy man might look in the late 19th century, in formal attire. Except he wore a pair of low red converse shoes.
"Shall we go then?" He said, holding his arm out crossed, for Martha to wrap her arm around.
They exited the TARDIS with a small click after them. Instantly they were met with a sharp, icy air and Martha held onto the doctor a little tighter, feeling the cold.
"Let's find somewhere warm, huh Martha?" He suggested and she nodded, looking up at him a shivering.
They roamed the cobblestone streets, Martha watching as her and the doctor's shadows were being projected onto the walls of the city buildings, flickering with every movement of lit street gas lamps.
Around corner, after corner they went. At this hour, the city of London seemed like a maze.
"Doctor, I'm scared." He looked down at her sadly, his arm still intertwined with hers.
"It's okay Martha. We'll find somewhere for the night." She looked up at him and smiled.
"Ah! Brilliant!" He exclaimed, suddenly looking ahead. Martha could hear a familiar clatter noise but she couldn't make out anything in the street until whatever it was that was making that noise, came so close to her and the doctor.
"Good evening." A small man said who had large white mutton chops and was sitting behind 2 horses, looking smug, in his top hat.
He held tightly onto 2 set of leashes which were attached to the 2 horses pulling the carriage, in front.
"Need a ride?"
The doctor smiled. "I was just about to ask you, my good sir." He said, using appropriate language of the time.
The man helped the doctor and Martha inside the carriage door later, taking a seat on the front part on the carriage.
"You two from outside the city?" He enquired, audible from outside the carriage compartment.
"You could say that." The doctor answered. Martha smiled.
"You two attending his grace's ball, tonight?" Martha looked confused.
"Pardon?"
"The Duke," he answered. "You two sure do look fancy." The doctor looked at Martha, who was sitting next to him and quirked an eyebrow at her.
"Whatdaya say, Martha?
"Well, we do look fancy she laughed."
"Ball it is, my kind sir!" The doctor exclaimed, and the man, sitting behind the horses, let the leashes whip them a little, getting them to move.
The wheels of the carriage turned and the sound of the horse's hooves on the cobblestone roads became a relaxing rhythm.
The doctor looked out of an open window inside the carriage's compartment. "You know, it's quite beautiful, 19th century London."
Martha looked at the doctor dreamily. "Yeah, I agree." The doctor oblivious to Martha's feelings, merely smiled at her.
The man, still controlling the carriage laughed. "How old are you, gent? 19th century London?"
The doctor smiling answered. "I don't think you'd believe me, if I told you."
Again, the man chuckled. "Nonsense! What are you? 30? 40? Er – If you don't mind me asking." He added, feeling rude.
"Ah if you must know, I'm 50 actually." The doctor lied. "How old are you gent? If you don't mind me asking?"
"55, young man." He joked. Martha giggled. "And what may your names be my good sir and lady?"
"Ah, I don't really go by name, more of a title." The doctor answered.
"Ah," The man, riding at the front of the carriage said. "And what may your title be?"
"Doctor."
"Ah, an educated man," the carriage driver mused. "Must be wealthy then?"
"We seem to get by okay." The doctor laughed.
"And what be your name, pretty lady?" Martha blushed.
"Martha, Martha Jones. What's your name?" She asked.
"Cornelius."
"Ah, good name, that one."
"Why thank you doctor." The carriage came to a slow stop.
"I do believe you've arrived." Cornelius remarked. Cornelius jumped from his seat and helped Martha and the doctor out of the carriage.
"Thank you very much." Martha said. The doctor smiled.
"Same here."
"Ah, don't mention it." He said, lifting his top hat slightly to them in a courteous way.
With a whip Cornelius and his carriage, moved from the doctor and Martha's views into darkness. Behind them, in front of the street they had just rode on, was a large, magnificent looking building, showing light from inside.
The doctor extended his arm out for Martha to take. "Shall we?" He said with a smile.
She laughed softly and wrapped her arm entwined with his, and they made their way to the ball.
Inside the building, it looked even grander inside. Couples were dancing together closely, the women's long dresses twirling as they made tight turns on the ball room floor.
The doctor let go of Martha, caugh up in the sight. "Ah the waltz." Martha looked surprised. "Do you know how to dance, doctor?" The doctor laughed.
"Do I know how to dance? You don't live to be 903 years old without picking up a thing or two." He bowed to Martha, and when he stood upright again, he looked at her, smile wide. "Would you do me the honours of the dance, Martha?"
"Yes!" She said, a little too loud for her liking. Blushing she took the doctor's hand and he led her to the dance floor. Martha didn't know what she was doing, but she didn't think she had to. The doctor was so good, she felt as if she was floating above the ground, being caught amongst beautiful classical music playing, and resonating throughout the room.
With a twirl she saw the colours of the room whirl by and she didn't care. She felt absolutely safe. Everything was so perfect at that moment, she thought she was dreaming.
Every move made by the doctor was in perfect synchronicity to the music and the other dancers. She couldn't help but feeling like a flower, caught in a pleasant breeze.
She had lost track of the time that went by, lost in the music, the colours of the room and the feeling she got around the doctor: As though for every minute that went by, a year had gone.
A harsh man's voice broke her ethereal thoughts and she noticed that the doctor, she and everyone else in the room had just stopped dancing to listen.
"People of London, I give you, The Dude of Whitechapel, Edmund the third."
Applause erupted in the mansion as the Duke of Whitechapel, entered the dance floor, via a grand curved staircase. The man who had announced him, bowed, and soon followed the men in the room with the women curtsying not long after.
He waved a hand slowly in the air slowly as if to say, carry on. And that is exactly what the people in the room did. The musicians resumed playing, the couples started dancing together again and the room was filled with life, once more.
After a dance or two more, Martha stopped and explained to the doctor she needed a rest. The doctor winked at her understanding, saying something about humans not able to cope properly with only one heart.
She merely laughed at this, and headed to a buffet table to get a drink while the doctor saved a table for both of them.
She took a glass of champagne and a glass of red wine for the doctor back to the table. She gave the doctor his glass awkwardly as she noticed another woman she hadn't seen before sitting at the table.
"Why, thank you, Martha." He said with a smile. "Martha, Roselle. Roselle, Martha." Martha looked out of place. Roselle raised her eyebrows at Martha, "Charmed." Although the tone of her voice didn't sound it at all.
The doctor didn't seem to notice though; he was acting a bit odd. Martha noticed empty glasses around him. "Have you been drinking, doctor?" She asked, concerned.
"Don't worry; it's only a bit of rum." Roselle said, smiling a little too long at the doctor.
"Doctor," she said, laying a hand on his shoulder softly. "How did you get all these drinks here, so quickly?"
He looked at her sheepishly, "Roselle gave them to me. She said, she couldn't finish all of these by herself and well, I offered."
Martha shot Roselle a cold stare. She looked at Martha, in feign innocence. "Is there something wrong, my dear?" Martha ran her hand down the doctor's cheek, worried.
"You know exactly what." Roselle smiled satisfied with herself as Martha went to get the doctor some water and food. She took Martha's seat next to the doctor. "You know your friend," she let the sentence hang for a while as she tried to remember her name.
"Martha." The doctor told her.
"Oh, yes, Martha." She continued. "She really is being a sad sport. I mean this is a party. Secrets stay with parties, after all." She reminded him, running a hand over the doctor's inner thigh. He was disorientated and Roselle's fast advances had made him for a short moment in his life, confused. She lent in to kiss him, all the while Martha, with a plate full of bread and water, stood there, disbelieving.
"Doctor?" Her voice came out as a small croak.
She dropped the tray and covered her mouth with her hand in shock. When the doctor saw her face, he recollected his thoughts and his surroundings and pushed Roselle off him gently. "Martha, I know this looks really bad -." She shook her head; too upset to listen to what she thought were lies. She ran out of the ballroom, tears running down her checks and her lavishly decorated dress, getting soaked in puddles, of the cobblestone streets.
But she was too despondent to notice. What she has seen had torn away at her. The wonderful evening she had had, was ruined, by the infamous Roselle. She thought she heard the doctor call out her name. But she didn't care; she wasn't going to run back to him. He was the last person she wanted to see now.
She felt her legs run through London's streets, trying to escape the doctor as much as she could. She held her hands over her eyes, crying as she ran, not knowing where she was or where she was going.
The doctor, not far behind her, was suddenly anxious when he heard a scream ahead that sounded like Martha's.
He pushed his legs harder then he felt in all his years, relishing in the fact that he had two hearts and his stamina was much better then an ordinary man's.
He heard her scream again, from around a corner and was disgusted by what he saw. There in front of a fear stricken Martha, on the side of a cobblestone road, was a female body, lifeless, with blood all around her. The doctor ran up and hugged a crying Martha. "It's going to be okay," he promised, stroking her hair as she cried, "I swear to you Martha."
When the doctor let go of Martha he told her to look away for as long as she could, while he got some help. "Police!" He ran down a street at a random, "Anyone! There's a woman! She's been killed!"
Clonk!
The doctor's head spun around in the direction of the noise. Someone was out there. He heard hurried footsteps. He chased after the noise and soon after came to an alley way. The man at the end was covered in darkness, with his silhouette just noticeable. "Stay back!" He yelled. He pointed a dagger at the doctor and it's steel glinted in the moonlight.
"You can end this!" The doctor said between a clenched jaw. "You can end it all now! You just have to hand yourself in!"
A moment of silence pasted between the two, both waiting for the other to act first. "Fine then, I'll turn you in myself!" The doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver, activating it, it's light shining towards the assailant and the noises coming from it humming ever so loudly.
The figure stood from the darkness into the light of a gas lamp illuming a section of the alley. Out from the shadows stood a man, dressed in a police uniform holding a weapon of his own, pointed towards the doctor. "No, I don't think you'll be doing that, doctor." He said, showing him his weapon. The doctor didn't need to speak. "That's right. Time lord, it's a staser. Now don't you think of turning me in now, or you'll know what this will do to you."
From the streets a woman entered the alley way and stood behind the doctor. "Don't do anything doctor, we have to leave!" He could tell from her voice, it was Martha and she sounded worried.
"I can't do that Martha."
"Do you know what a staser will do, earthling?" Martha looked up. Whatever it was, it wasn't human. She shook her head, in the light, able for the alien to see.
"A staser is the most devastating weapon to a time lord. It won't only kill them, but stop them from regenerating too." The doctor kept his stance.
"Doctor, no! You can't!" Martha tried to pull him out of the alley.
"I have to Martha," he said, loud enough for every living thing in the alley to hear. "You see what he did!"
Martha looked into his eyes and pleaded. "I know, but if you're gone for good, he'll get away with it!"
A rummaging noise was heard and the man had vanished. "He already has." The doctor said in a low growl.
The doctor lowered his sonic screwdriver in defeat. "Doctor," Martha placed her hands on his shoulders gently. "I'm sorry. I was scared. I couldn't think of losing you."
He looked into her eyes and managed a smiled. "I know Martha, it wasn't you're fault." He removed Martha's hands from his shoulders softly. "I've got a plan." Martha saw a twinkle behind his eyes.
The doctor took Martha's hand in his. "Do you trust me?" He asked her playfully.
"Of course." She replied, still a little shaken over everything that had happened.
He smirked and starting running through London's streets, as fast as he could, Martha barely keeping up.
They turned kerb after kerb, crossed road after road, and heard a loud patter, patter as they ran, from the cobblestone streets they dashed on.
Finally, when Martha began to feel as though she couldn't keep going for much longer, the doctor stopped running and let go of her hand.
She looked up, doubled over from exhaustion, and saw the TARDIS in front of her.
"The TARDIS?" She said confused, looking directly at it. "Are we leaving, doctor?"
"No better." He said, smiling. "Well, go in then." He motioned for her to enter first. "All part of the plan." He pointed to his nose. She arrived inside the main console room and looked around. Nothing was out of place.
"I don't understand, doctor." She said, puzzled.
"Wait, right here." He said, running, apparently, not affected from the long run back to the TARDIS. Martha nodded her head, still in her tracks, perplexed.
The doctor returned to the main console room, to find Martha hadn't moved from her spot.
The doctor seemed to be carrying something under his arms. But Martha couldn't tell what. "Put this on." He said seriously. Martha caught what she thought looked like armour. "Doctor, what's this green stuff?" She said, noticing splotches of green on it. A strange expression came across the doctor's eyes for a brief moment, and Martha didn't like it. "Sontaran blood." He answered grimly.
Martha wasn't sure if his answer relieved her. But she put the armoured suit on anyway, trusting the doctor. "So doctor," She asked, a little playfully this time. "What's the plan?"
The doctor smiled at her. "Ah! I thought you'd never ask!"
"Well, you heard that thing, I'm not sure yet, what it was, that it had a staser. And you know what a staser is now, yeah?"
Martha nodded. "Well, a staser might be able to kill a time lord off completely, but not a Sontaran. Well, penetrate sontaran armour, at least." He said, smirking.
"Doctor! You're a genius!" Matha exclaimed, understanding his plan.
"Well, yeah, actually." He said with a smile. "Come on," he said, putting his sontaran battle helmet on. "We've got a crime to solve."
They exited the TARDIS into the early hours of the day. It was still dark and the doctor and Martha took no chances that someone would see them, dressed how they were.
"Where are we going, doctor?" Martha asked. Clearly audible in her sontaran battle armour.
"To the police station." He said sternly. "We're going to ask a few questions."
They hurried past buildings, keeping to the shadows, making their way stealthily through London towards Whitechapel, where they met the mysterious alien with the dagger.
They headed for Whitechapel's police station hoping to find the murderer there. When Martha and the doctor finally reached the police station, in full Sontaran battle armour, Martha stopped the doctor just before he got out his sonic screwdriver, ready to open the door.
The doctor faced Martha and she spoke. "Doctor, are you sure about this?"
"I'm always all right." He said and Martha imagined him smiling. She nodded in her armoured suit, (with difficulty) and the doctor persisted to open the door to the police station with his sonic screwdriver.
When it swung open, Martha and the doctor got a different reaction then they imagined.
The man, they had recognised from the alleyway, stood up, unnerved. "My lords, what brings you to this planet?" The doctor in his suit looked at Martha and she didn't say anything. If she was confused, she knew the doctor wouldn't be.
The man from the alley twitched this way and that, his body structure contorted until he took on another form, a form the doctor new.
His new form, was gruesome. Human looking, with crimson red eyes, sharp teeth and claws and exposed blood vessels.
The other policemen copied his action and shape shifted back to their original forms.
"Nostrovites." The doctor took off his helmet and Martha copied him, feeling safe to do so.
The man from the alley's eyes widened. "Doctor!" He pulled out his staser from an inside pocket in his uniform and pointed it towards the doctor once more.
Martha gasped. "What's your game? Pretending to be human?" The doctor's voice was clam, but his words came through a clamped jaw.
The other nostrovites in the room stood in their places, listening to the heated conversation between the two.
"What is your game? Pretending to be our Sontaran lords?"
"So they're you're lords now? Why?" Martha stood still, daring not to say a word.
"If you must know, we're woking with the Sontarans, to keep the Rutan technology at bay."
"What about it?"
The nostrovite's eyes shifted. "That's classified information to you, doctor."
"Oh! Come on! Travelling all the way to this galaxy? To this planet? It must be important."
The nostrovite's eyes shifted again. "The Rutans, they're trying to learn how to take the form of humans."
The doctor stared at the nostrovite speaking. "Oh, yeah? And what would killing innocent humans have to do with stopping Rutans taking the form of humans?"
The nostrovite pointing his staser at the doctor spoke. "We have killed nobody! Us nostrovites are innocent!"
"What were you doing near that woman's corpse then?!" Martha asked, tears rolling down her cheeks. The doctor's grip on his sonic screwdriver tightened.
"Chasing the Graske. I saw him turn an alley, then the human on the ground, then a blue glow."
The doctor's eyes narrowed towards him. "There was blood on your blade."
"That was nor mine, or any other nostrovites blade here! I picked it up, next to the woman's body. It had been used to take some of her organs."
Martha screamed. "Stop!"
The nostrovite cocked it's head towards Martha. "This will not stop human, until the Rutans get all the organs they need. This is how they perfect their shape shifting technology."
"And what would the Graske's have to do with the Rutans, now?"
The nostrovite from the alley spoke. "They plan to turn the inhabitants of this planet into changelings."
"So the rutans need to Graskes as a key to their plan. Is that it?" The doctor's voice was harsh. "And all the Sontarans are doing to stop them, is to send 4 nostrovites to Earth to prevent their plan?"
"Doctor?" Martha said, trying to stop crying. "Once the Rutans assume human form are they ok to do what they like?" The doctor didn't answer her. Instead he's gaze directed at the nostrovite from the alley, coldly. "Why aren't the Sontaran's here?"
"They, believe to fight one Garlek and not an army of their enemies at once, is dishonourable." The doctor, rolled his eyes. "Dishonourable! If they don' get over this honour business they'll be no cause fighting for!"
"Doctor," Martha said, looking into his eyes, softly, hoping to calm him down. "There is only one Garlek. Surely you, can stop him?" She smiled warmly at him but he didn't smile back. "It's not that simple. The Garlek's have teleportation devices. They can teleport anywhere in the universe before I get a chance to stop them."
"That is the blue glow I saw in street, human." The nostrovite holidng the staser said.
"Well, maybe you don't have to stop him. Maybe they can help us."
The doctor looked up at the nostrovite, pointing his staser towards the doctor. "The earthling has a point. We both want to stop the Rutans, this is the only way. To stop the Garlek, together."
The other three nostrovites in the room nodded in unison. "Will you help us doctor and friend?" He said, looking at Martha. Martha looked at the doctor and his face was a mixture of sternness and worry. "I'll do it. But once this is over, you leave this planet." The nostrovite lowered his staser and looked at the other nostrovites in the room. "Agreed."
"What's the plan then?" He asked walking towards the nostrovite from the alley. Martha followed the doctor towards the desk the nostrovite was standing infront of.
The nostrovite infront of the wooden desk looked at the doctor's screw driver.
"You're screw driver can disrupt the workings of technology? Doctor?"
"That and other things, but you'll never know." He told him harshly. Martha placed a hand on his shoulder gently. "We're working with them doctor." She tried to remind him.
He nodded and Martha took this as a, I know. She took her hand off the doctor's shoulder and faced the nostrovite once more. "What is your name?" She asked suddenly. "I do not believe the english language has the syllables to pronounce it."
"Well, I think I'll give you a name then." The doctor eyed her curiously.
"I think I will call you bob." The nostrovite cocked his head in a confused manner.
"This name booooob." He said, pronouncing the 'o' a little too long. "Is a name, fit for the most respected humans, am I not right?" Martha smiled.
"You most certainly are." The doctor laughed but the nostrovite bob didn't know why.
"Now, this plan of yours," the doctor said, shifting the conversation to a serious one. "What are you doing so far to stop this Graske?"
"Why I asked earlier," Bob said. "was I think you're device might give us the advantage." The doctor cocked his eyebrow.
"And why is that?"
"We believe it is powerful enough to disrupt this Graske's teleportation device."
"Ah! Brilliant plan! I couldn't have thought of a better one, myself! Well maybe, but that's not the point." The doctor said, smiling. "How do you plan to distract him from teleporting?"
"Well," spoke up, Martha. "He's been targeting humans, right?" The doctor shook his head, understanding what Martha was getting at. "I'll be live bait." She continued, ignoring his worried face. "Ah! Clever idea, human!" Bob remarked.
The doctor interrupted him. "I won't have you out there." Martha looked at him, upset.
"It's too dangerous Martha!" Bob looked confused. She held her hand against the doctor's cheek softly, "This is planet Earth, doctor. And it needs me." He looked at her, eyes burning with worry. "Humans…" He muttered.
"So it is settled?" Bob said, eyeing the two. "When he comes for the human, you disrupt his teleportation device so he cannot teleport anymore. Then, you leave him to us."
At these words, the doctor's face contorted as if he had felt pain. Martha nodded, seeing the doctor's face, but she couldn't back down now, not when the stakes where this high.
After Bob, Martha and the doctor had discussed the plan in detail, Bob went away to tell the other nostrovites, the plan they had come up with.
The doctor's face, through out all of the planning was one of pure sorrow and worry. Martha faced him, feeling a little ashamed and guilty. But she didn't feel as bad as she did courageous for doing her part, to save planet Earth.
"Doctor, I'm sorry." She said looking him in the eyes. "But I have too." The doctor turned his gaze to the floor. "I know, I just," he said, looking up, meeting her in the eyes.
"If anything happens to you, Martha. I won't forgive myself. I can't keep losing people I care about."
She leant in and kissed him on the cheek, softly. "I'll be ok doctor. Don't worry." She turned to join the nostrovites who were discussing the plan, and behind her the doctor touched his cheek, where a warm had suddenly radiated, smiling in a sheepish manner.
The doctor joined the others shortly a jump to his step. "Are you excited to be executing the plan, doctor?" The doctor smiled widely.
"You could say that." Martha smiled at him, a twinkle in her eye.
"We have found a perfect spot that the Graske would be sure to go to." Martha nodded.
"Good."
"You are dressed in this era's clothing which is also good for our plan." Bob remarked. "The Graske would dare not make a move while it is daylight. I suggest we wait until sundown." The other nostrovites in the room nodded.
"Are we staying here until the night?" Martha asked.
"That is indeed correct." He answered.
"But there isn't even a bed." Martha remarked.
"Nostrovites do not require beds, we can go for months without slumber."
"Well that's all well and good for you, isn't it?" Martha rolled her eyes.
Bob not understanding nodded his head. "Why, yes it is." Martha turned away from them, slightly frustrated. She looked around the police station. There was a desk, with pieces of paper and maps scattered on top of it, important for the mission, so that was out of the question. The only other option she saw was the wooden floor.
While she was thinking the doctor appeared behind her and took off his trench coat, laying it on the floor. "It's not much," he started.
"Doctor, it's lovely!" She said, laying down on his trench coat. He shifted awkwardly, crouching next to Martha as she laid in front of him. She lifted her hand and ran it through his hair. "An extraterrestrial gentleman." She said smiling at him.
"Don't forget, you're the alien to me." He said, standing up and placing Martha's arm on his trench coat gently. She laughed sweetly and stopped, furrowing her eyebrows. "Where are you going to sleep, doctor?"
He made a motion of his hand that resembled someone shooing away a fly. "Ah, sleep is over rated." He looked at her and winked. "I'll wake you up when it's night out."
"Thank you." She whispered, closing her eyes, and feeling herself fall into light slumber.
After what felt like five minutes, she felt the doctor gently tap her arm. "Martha," he said a little sternly. "The plan is going ahead. It's time." She nodded and stood up slowly, picking the doctor's trench coat up and handing it back to him.
Bob made his way to them both. "Elizabeth street, Whitechapel, you are to go to, human. The plan is in motion."
She nodded, and the doctor put on his trench coat, sliding a hand down her upper arm slowly. "I'll be there, Martha." He said, seriously. "No matter, what."
They made their way out of the police station, with the nostrovites leading the way to Elizabeth street. Nerves began to grip Martha as she got closer. She hoped this mission went smoothly. She didn't want to think of never seeing the doctor again.
They turned a few corners, Elizabeth street not very far away from Whitechapel police station. When they arrived a road away from Elizabeth street, the nostrovites stood still and Bob spoke up quietly. "We cannot go any closer, human. As it might compromise our mission. The rest is up to you, earthling."
She nodded. "May you be safe throughout your role in the plan." She looked confused. "T-thank you." She said, nervous.
The nostrovites nodded in unison.
Before she took a step closer, the doctor placed his hands on her shoulders gently and she turned her to face him. "Martha, I won't let anything happen to you. I swear."
She kissed him on the lips softly. "I know doctor." She took his hands off her shoulders softly and made her way into the street before looking back, smiling at everyone.
Bob and the other nostrovites waved back to her in an unusual fashion, and the doctor smiled at her anxiously, looking like he could hardly bare it.
She turned around to face Elizabeth street, choosing to ignore the doctor's anguish. What she need to do now, was far more important.
She took a position next to a gas lamp, burning away in the street, knowing the doctor and the nostrovites where just around the corner, watching her. Nothing happened after a while, her being the only one in the street, shivering from time after time, feeling the night's chilly breeze.
She looked beautiful, in her elegantly decorated dress, and her hair, sitting on her shoulders so neatly. She gasped suddenly when a figure turned the corner, opposite to the doctor. From their silhouette she could make out a top hat, and a long trench coat. They were holding something in their hand, a bag.
She inhaled sharply, waiting for the person or alien to approach her closer. She needed to be sure this was the Graske and not just some seedy human pervert.
Martha knew the code word. She and the nostrovites had discussed it over and over again. She hopped they had told the doctor what it was. She had forgotten to do so, feeling so tired after all the previous night's happenings.
The man or thing came so close; she could make out his facial details. He had small beady eyes, and a hooked nose. His smile was yellow and his chin stuck out like a sore thumb.
"Shall we do this?" He asked, his voice higher then she expected.
"You tell me," she said, trying to get more time with this man, or alien. Just enough to figure out her situation.
He laughed a high pitched, almost squeal. "Ah, feisty. Don't worry, I'm sure I have something in my bag that will get you to do things my way."
Martha was almost completely sure this man was just, well that, a man. A seedy, prostitute paying, man.
She was not expecting his bag to contain an assortment of knifes and daggers. This had taken her by surprise and she forgot the code word, screaming, "Doctor!"
From around the corner, the doctor's silhouette was visible holding an object emitting a blue light, and making a loud humming noise.
It was his screw driver and he held it towards the Graske, disrupting his teleporting device, located on his belt, which was hidden from view, underneath his trench coat. He tried again, and again to teleport anywhere, anytime he could, but it wouldn't start. Apparently, his teleporter was now not working well enough to teleport living beings. Furious he grabbed a knife from his bag and held it towards Martha, who was still at her spot, gripped with fear.
"I'll do it doctor!" He shouted, recognising the doctor's sonic screw driver. "Don't you try anything funny!"
Before the nostrovites ran into the street, the doctor, using his sonic screwdriver, teleported the Graske to the void, in a fit of fury.
His being vanished from Elizabeth street and the nostrovites looked at one another confused. "What did you do doctor?" Bob asked.
"Sent him exactly where he belonged, hell."
"You don't mean?" Martha spoke up, her voice shaky, frightened after all that happened.
"Yes, Martha." He said, putting his sonic screwdriver away. "I sent him to the void."
Several of the nostrovites gasped. Bob spoke up. "Doctor, that was not part of the plan."
"I know." He whispered.
"We needed him for questioning." Bob said. "Who knows if he attacked any other humans?"
"You think I don't know that!" He shouted.
Martha ran to the doctor, hugging him. "Thank you." He stroked her hair.
"I just couldn't wait for you to say the codeword or Bob and the other nostrovites. You were in danger, I swore, Martha." She stayed hugging him, resting her head on his chest. "It's okay, thank you doctor, really." "By the way," she spoke up, after a while, tilting her head up to look him in the eyes. "What was the codeword again?"
The doctor smiled. "Boob." Bob cocked his head towards the doctor.
"Yes?"
Martha and the doctor laughed. While Bob stayed behind, scratching his head. He turned to the other nostrovites. "Do you know what was humourous?" The shook their heads, not laughing. "Must be a human joke." The all nodded their heads, together in agreement.
The doctor and Martha didn't hear them, they were too busy, just standing there, in each other's embrace.
"So," the doctor said, his hand around Matha's waist as she stood next to him and did the same. "You lot staying here? Looking into the case a little further?"
"Of course!" Bob said seriously. "No telling what that Graske has been up to. I'm sure he won't be hurting anymore humans or any species now that he's in the void." He remarked. The doctor nodded. "Where will you be going to, doctor?" Bob cocked his head to side, curious. "Ah, who knows. Could be anywhere, anytime. All part of being a time lord." He smiled. Martha smiled with him and they headed back to the TARDIS together.
"I'll miss you Bob!" Martha shouted to him, from the end of the street.
"I will miss you too, funny human!" The other nostrovites nodded in unison and Martha and the doctor waved to them, leaving the street, with the nostrovites waving in a way unusual to the doctor and Martha back.
It was not soon before Martha and the doctor had entered the TARIS when the nostrovites inside Whitechapel police station got a most unusual letter. It read:
From hell
Mr Lusk,
Sor
I send you half the Kidne I took from one women prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nise. I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longer
signed
Catch me when you can Mishter Lusk
Bob looked around the room. "Did any of you acquire a human name called, Mr. Lusk?" One of the nostrovites raised his hand in a weird fashion. "Ah." Said Bob, who then started to laugh. "Boob! I get it now." None of the other nostrovites had a clue what it meant.
