Disclaimer: I don't own "Doctor Who" or "Twilight", and the essential details of the original concept of this fic came from a video posted on YouTube by heroesdwtw- which has unfortunately now been taken off YouTube- and is used with their permission
Feedback: Much appreciated
AN: As promised, an original plotline for the penultimate story in this series; hope you all enjoy it.
Evolution Control
"You know," the Doctor mused as he adjusted the TARDIS's controls, in a manner that I'd come to recognise as him choosing a specific location rather than the TARDIS's usual random journeys, "one thing I've always liked about human beings is your absolute refusal to give up on a large scale."
"Really?" I said, grateful for Doctor's emphasis on our large-scale accomplishments; in a strange way, it felt like him reaffirming that he didn't hold my near-suicide attempt when we'd first met 'against me', as he indirectly acknowledged that event without drawing too much attention to it.
"Mmm; you stumble sometimes as individuals, but the species as a whole always manages to pick itself up again later," the Doctor said, nodding in confirmation as he continued to adjust the settings on the console before he looked at me with a smile. "Which is why I think you'll like this place."
Realising that the sound I'd come to recognise as the TARDIS materialising had stopped, I indicated the door with a hopeful smile, waiting for the Doctor to nod in confirmation before I hurried out of the ship, to be greeted by a breathtaking view.
The actual town we were standing in was simple enough in design, putting me in mind of basic holiday villages used at resorts to give people separate accommodation from the main hotel. Most of the houses gave the impression that they'd been assembled at fairly short notice, with only a few buildings looking like they were more than just four walls and another bit of metal slapped on top for a roof. My eyes were particularly drawn to one large building near the centre of the town, with all kinds of satellite dishes and other advanced stuff on its roof that put me in mind of military bases I'd seen in movies back on Earth, but the building was soon forgotten as I took in the view above the town.
The sky was dominated by a large yellow sun, but there was a smaller blue sun just behind it, along with something smaller that I could only call a planet because it wasn't glowing and seemed too large to just be a moon. I could see what looked like walls scattered around the outskirts of the gathering of houses, as though something had been erected and then torn down, but thoughts on the walls were quickly forgotten as I took in the scale of the plants and life-forms all around us, trees reaching up to a height that looked like it could surpass most skyscrapers back home. As I looked more closely, I saw that a few trees on the outskirts of the town actually had small windows and doors carved into them, and I could even glimpse something moving around inside the windows, but I was too far away to make out any clear details…
"The planet Primator," the Doctor said, grinning as he walked out behind me. "It's been an active colony for a few years, but it's only reached this stage in the last few months; there were various problems with the terraforming projects that delayed colonisation en masse, but it was such an astronomical breakthrough that scientists couldn't resist the possibilities of living here."
"Astronomical breakthrough?" I asked curiously.
"Contrary to what you might think from Lucas's work, it's actually rather hard to find a location where a planet can safely orbit more than one sun and be inhabitable," the Doctor explained. "Normally the intense gravity of the stars will tear the planet apart even if it finds an orbit that won't destroy anything that walks on it without some kind of artificial protection, but there are a few rare cases where planets manage to find the 'goldilocks zone' where everything's just right for it to exist without being destroyed, even in a stellar location like this one. In the case of Primator, it received its name because it was literally in the prime 'goldilocks zone' for any colony; not only does it maintain an atmosphere capable of supporting life without too heavy a gravitational pull, but it's so perfectly positioned between the two suns that it's held in place without actually moving in an orbit, meaning that it maintains the current peak temperature throughout the year without the inconvenience of a winter."
"Really?" I said, smiling as I took in the planet around me with new fascination at this news. Astronomy might not have been something I was particularly interested in when I was in Forks, but spending time on other planets was certainly one way to increase your interest in the wider universe, and learning just how unique this sky was made it all the more interesting.
"Of course, it wasn't as simple as just landing here and setting this place up," the Doctor explained. "They had to install an atmospheric shield to limit the radiation getting through from the suns so that it wouldn't be fatal to everyone on the planet after the first colonists nearly died of skin cancer, but that's the point of us coming here now; it gives us a chance to appreciate everything they overcame to reach this point."
"Ah," I said, my mood suddenly dimmed at the knowledge that people had died before this place came together.
"It's like Roanoke, in a way," the Doctor continued. "The first colony there may have completely vanished, but that didn't stop people coming to the new world later on."
"On that topic," I said, recalling an old history lesson on the lost colony the Doctor had just mentioned and deciding to use the opportunity to satisfy my curiosity, "do you know what happened to Roanoke?"
"Oh, yeah; they were abducted by alien arms dealers as part of a plan to sabotage a conference being held on Earth," the Doctor said with a shrug. "Most of them were all killed when the alien race that took them tried to activate the bombs to destroy an important interstellar peace conference, but my allies were able to stop that by keeping the detonator fragment away until the colonists could be relocated to the saboteurs' ship."
"You killed them-?" I began.
"They were already dying of radiation sickness long before I arrived," the Doctor clarified, looking at me with a grim expression as he recounted these long-ago events. "Even with advanced technology, I couldn't have done anything for them by that stage…"
He sighed sadly at the memory for a moment before he smiled and indicated his surroundings. "Anyway, that's in the past; right now, with this colony becoming a thriving centre for astrological research, they won't mind a few additional guests, so shall we take a walk?"
"Why not?" I grinned at the Doctor.
I wasn't sure if I'd understand most of what was being worked on here, but that didn't mean I couldn't enjoy the location…
AN 2: If it seems like a slow start, don't worry; I have a definite plot planned, but I want to give the Doctor and Bella a chance to get a feel for the place before they dive into the crisis