My Name Is The Master
Chapter One:
The lights inside the TARDIS console room turned red, flashing constantly as an alarm blared throughout the room. The Doctor made her way expertly around the console, hearing but not answering her new friends' confused questions. She stopped at the monitor and tilted it a bit to read it with a serious expression.
She read the circular words and a grin spread across her face despite what it said- a distress signal. Coming from somewhere far across the galaxy, on a planet unknown even to her. Somewhere called Jottoh. She loved exploring places she'd never been before- especially of she could make a good first impression by hopefully saving everyone.
"To answer all your questions," she said to her friends, finally acknowledging them, "the TARDIS just picked up a distress signal."
"Why's it flashing red, then?" Ryan asked. "It don't normally do that."
"She, Ryan," the Doctor corrected, exasperated, "and, I suppose she must've thought this one was pretty important. Not the first time she's done it."
Graham, who was holding onto one of the honey-coloured crystals for dear life with all the rocking and shaking the TARDIS was doing, spoke up next, "I suppose we'll be followin' the distress signal, then?"
"Of course!" Answered the Doctor as if it were obvious- and with her, it was. "Can't just leave people in need of a hand, can I?"
"S'ppose not," Graham agreed. "So, where is this signal comin' from, may I ask?" He continued when the Doctor got to work piloting them to their destination.
The Doctor pulled a final lever, ultimately ending the loud alarms ceased, as did the lights and the shaking. "Jottoh," she told him, "oh, I hope I said that right. I've never been there before, never even heard of it until now! But they need our help and when people need help, I never refuse."
"Let me get this straight," Graham said, "we're about to go out there, to a planet not even you've been to, unprepared?"
"Yep! Should be fun, right? Love not knowing stuff! Wait, no. That's not right. I hate not knowing stuff. Oh, well. Let's go, fam," the Doctor rambled and rushed off to the doors.
"Though we weren't doin' 'fam'?" Ryan complained, cringing.
The Doctor turned to him, looking mildly upset and trying to do puppy eyes. Ryan sighed and shoved his hands deep in his pocket, trying to avoid her gaze. When he could still see from his peripheral vision that she was still facing him, he groaned.
"Fine," he relented, "I'll let it go just this once."
"See, knew you'd come 'round!" She said happily, brightening immediately.
As the Doctor exited the TARDIS, she could hear Graham chuckling and Yaz mocking Ryan from behind her.
"Glad to see you're warming up to it," she said and there was the distinct sound of Ryan grunting, and the Doctor knew she must've been nudging him.
Ryan huffed, "no, she cheated!" He protested. "She did those...eyes," he said weakly.
"Nah, I think you secretly like us bein' called 'fam'," Yaz laughed.
Leading the way, the Doctor grinned smugly, knowing she'd won. She'd have to remember for later that 'the eyes' worked on Ryan.
A distant sound alerted them all, and the group each stopped in their tracks, listening. The sound was familiar, the Doctor could recognise it in a hearts beat. She spun around, looking back in the direction of her TARDIS and listened for just a second more to the sound of the Cloister Bells.
"What is it, Doc?" Graham questioned, apparently noticing her worried look.
"The TARDIS- the Cloister Bells. We need to leave, now!" She told him and the other two, already running back to her ship.
"The what bells?" Graham demanded as he and the others took off after her.
"What about the distress call? I thought we were gonna help these people?" Yaz asked as she caught up the Doctor who had finally reached her precious TARDIS. Graham and Ryan finally caught up, too, both panting and muttering about much they hated the running.
The Doctor turned to Yaz, fishing her key out of her pocket, "I know. I know. But, the TARDIS- she's warning us. Thinks there's something here that could be a threat to us all, even her."
"When isn't somethin' threatenin' us?" Graham pointed out, recovering from the short run back to the TARDIS.
"This is different," she said. "I don't know what's happening here, I don't know who sent the distress signal, but this whatever it is, it's dangerous."
"Most of our a adventures so far have been dangerous," Ryan added.
The Doctor let out a puff of irritated air, her key half way in the keyhole. "I know that," she ground out through gritted teeth. "Look, what I'm sayin', is I want you lot to stay inside the TARDIS. I'll go deal with whatever's here, while you lot stay safe," she ordered, and twisted the key, opening the doors to her ship.
Unfortunately for her, her companions didn't move an inch, staring at her, unimpressed. This prompted her to make a sort of desperate gesture for them to get inside the TARDIS, which the ignored.
"We're not gonna stay inside the TARDIS while you run off into some unknown danger," Yaz said, arms crossed.
"Yeah, we're a team, remember?" Ryan stated.
The TARDIS doors stayed open, the Cloister Bells having stopped when they reached her, as the Doctor tried to think of a way to persuade her friends to stay safe in her ship.
"Look," she started, "I don't want any of you gettin' hurt because of me. You'll be safe here in the TARDIS, nothin' can get through these doors."
Said doors suddenly slammed shut, making the Doctor jump and yank her hand away. A wheezing sound filled the air and the Doctor whined as the TARDIS started slowlt fading from view.
"No, no, no," she moaned, hands flying to her head as if she couldn't comprehend what had just happened. When the TARDIS was gone, she looked down at the small silver key on the floor where it had fallen when the ship took off.With a huff, she bent down and picked it up, repoketing it.
"What just happened?" Ryan questioned, the first to speak up since the TARDIS disappeared a moment ago. "Where'd the TARDIS go?"
Gathering her bearings, the Doctor straightened up and pulled her sonic out of her pocket, scanning around with it. "Dunno. Looks like something interfered with it and pulled her away from here," she mused, looking at the readings on her sonic. "Guess we're stuck here till she comes back!" She told her friends, trying to seem happier than she actually was.
"So, what do we do till then?" Asked Ryan.
"Well, we did come here because of a distress signal. Might as well check it out," the Doctor reluctantly answered.
"Thought it was 'too dangerous'," Ryan jokingly said.
"It is, but we don't have much choice until the TARDIS comes back. Come on, fam, let's get a shift on!" The Doctor grinned and started heading back the way they'd started before turning around for the TARDIS.
"Do you even know where you're goin', Doc?" Graham asked as he, Ryan, and Yaz trailed after her.
"Like I said, I've never been here before. But, I am getting some strange signals from over there," the Doctor trailed off, eyeing her sonic and looking in the direction of a large, intimidating building far in the distance by itself as the sun set on the horizon behind it.
"Anyone else getting a bad feelin' 'bout that buildin'?" Graham asked casually.
No one answered, but the Doctor couldn't say she diagreed with him. Either way, the unusual signals were coming from the building and, with nothing else to do until the TARDIS returned, the Doctor picked up her pace and headed for the building in the distance.
