Theta Sigma was, quite actually, having what he could've considered the time of his lives…if it hadn't been for the fact he was now dreadfully lost.

It had all started with a simple trip to Sol III. Except it wasn't 'simple,' due mostly to the fact that students at the academy usually didn't leave on field trips unless they were very, very, very highly regarded by their Tutors, and considered responsible enough to handle traveling to a lower level planet without causing any trouble.

Theta was neither of those. By a long shot.

His older brother, Braxiatel, might've been considered for such a treat. Braxiatel was far better a than Theta at studies, and farther better at being able to get away with acting like an absolute snot. But instead, Theta was accompanied by the rest of his friend group, the Deca. Which…was extremely unadvisable, at the very least. Some of them, had they been brought individually, could have maybe, maybe been trusted with not exploiting the opportunity. But all together? What was Tutor Borusa thinking?

Then again, that was the question, wasn't it? Borusa had actually gotten permission from the academy to take them, the Deca, a group of very clever and very rebellious students, to Sol III. And he had actually been cleared to go through with it. Theta was sure that either sepulchasm had actually frozen over, or that this was some sort of Celestial Intervention Agency scheme to wipe them out of existence. Or Theta's best mate, Koschei, had hypnotized Borusa and the rest of the academy officials, though Koschei had swore on Rasslion he hadn't.

Despite all this, however, Theta had actually enjoyed his time of on Sol III. He and the other Deca had managed to find ways to break away from Borusa's watchful gaze, which allowed them to properly enjoy themselves. Theta had found himself drinking an earth 'milkshake,' playing around in the earthling's knickknack shops (primitive stores made to be full of junk-amazing), and getting plenty of opportunity to gawk at the local intelligent life. The earthlings were strange to look at, looking like time lords but much too small, much too frail. Looking at them was like looking at a faint, barely there imprint of a shoe in the dirt. A two dimensional outline that looked just enough to resemble the print but not at all the three dimensional shoe itself; soon enough, with the help of the wind and rain, it would be gone from memory.
Theta found them in his memory perfectly vivid.

The way they talked, barking and laughing, the way they walked, scuttling by or lounging around the stone paved squares, the way they had multi colored garments, each for a specific part of their body, with ridiculous designs stitched on that were bore proudly. It was ridiculous. It was wonderful, beautiful even. It was one of Rassilon's fever dreams with a bit more greenery and level 5 life forms.

Theta wasn't the only one who found them amusing. Koschei thought it funny the way the way they went about, with their loud voices and waving limbs and colorful reactions to every little thing. He practically rolled with laughter the way an earthling jumped and cursed foul when they found an earth bird pecking around their food. Ushas was of a different opinion. She found the planet, with its primitive structures, smelly and noisy transports, and even noisier humans, as practically miserable. She found the 'milkshakes' a bit too sugary, the 'ham burgers' a bit too chewy, and the knickknacks a bit too stupid. She did, however, concede to the humans and their weird ways, as well as their silly animals, to be fascinating from a scientific standpoint. Not as fascinating as Theta would've liked her to say, but fascinating enough. Drax took interest in their technology, in their cellular devices that they screamed into, into the big screened televisions they displayed behind glass walls. He nearly regenerated when he found out there was a store willing to allow him to play around with some of them. It took all ten of the Deca to drag him away from a device playing some game that involved flinging enraged birds at boxes.
'You're as primitively entertained as the stupid natives,' Ushas had complained.
'It was a good game!' protested Drax.
'Who knew earthlings were entertained by infantile physics? Oh, and Drax,' Jelpax said.
'You didn't even try it!'
'You didn't happen to snag one of those devices with it one it, did you?' Mortimus piped up before Theta could ask, Mortimus' eyes glinting with mischief.
'Weeeelllllll,' Drax slowly pulled out a white cellular device from his robes, 'It depends who's asking…'
Mortimus grinned. Jelpax was shaking his head, and Ushas looked less impressed than if Drax showed them a lint collection.
'Congrats, Drax,' Vansell deadpanned. 'You proved that you could successfully steal from a level five planet shop.'
'Aw, c'mon, Vansell,' Koschei smirked. 'At least he was more successful than that time he tried to steal candy from a baby.'
Vansell's face turned red.
'False accusations!' Drax waved the device in protest. 'I have never stolen anything from babies in my lives! Except maybe that one time!'
'I don't think the rest of us want to here about your criminal exploits,' Jelpax said, just as Theta interjected, 'I would!' in the most obnoxiously eager voice possible, earning quite the glare from Jelpax.
'Maybe we should do something else besides fight about this,' Millennia said in a quiet tone. Rallon nodded. 'We shouldn't waste the time we have; this is the only time we'll be getting to explore another planet-legally,' he added after Theta gave him a look.
'That's right,' Magnus said. 'Mortimus, if you and Drax want to play primitive physics games, you can go sit at that bench over there,' Magnus pointed, 'While the rest of us do some more actually exploring.'
'If we're splitting up, I think I'd rather go back to the library,' Ushas said. 'Even the earthlings know when to shut up there. Or go back to that pet store with the earth rats.'
'If it wouldn't be too much of a bother, Rallon and I would actually like to go back to that 'caramel apple' cart we saw earlier,' Millennia added.
Magnus rolled his eyes. 'Fine. Do what you want. We'll meet back here in,' he waved his hand, 'forty micro measures. Don't do anything too stupid, or I'll have to use the mind probe on you.'
'Yes Lord President,' the rest of the Deca had chorused in unison, and off they had went their separate ways, until eventually Theta had found himself lost and alone among the earthlings, under their singular sun and blue sky.

Which was exactly the problem, now that Theta thought about it. He had come back, after forty (more like fifty) micro measures to the same place where Magnus'd said they'd meet and…no one. Absolutely no one. And Theta had checked-all around the square, under the benches, behind trees, inside the shops-no sign of any of the Deca. Even when he reached out telepathically, he felt nothing. Some of them were very good at hiding under their mental shields, but others? He should've been at least been able to feel someone and not this strange, unsettling silence that responded to his every call with such…emptiness. Theta shuddered. He felt like he could hear his time stream echo in the deathly silence.
Could it be that Borusa had found them and left without him? No, no matter how much Borusa found him annoying, there was no way he'd leave Theta Sigma Lungbarrowmas, known academy troublemaker and Deca member, back on this infant of a planet. The kind of upset that it would cause among the academy officials…unless they were in on it. No, that'd be stupid. If they wanted him gone, the Lord Burner could've just gotten rid of him already.

It could've been that the rest of the Deca tricked Borusa into thinking he was with them. Which shouldn't've been possible unless Koschei had done a really good hypnosis trick…would Koschei have just left him on Sol III? Well…he did have to get back at Theta for that beard shaving incident. But would the other Deca even let him? Mortimus might've found it funny, but someone like Vansell? No way. Unless Koschei managed to put all the other Deca under hypnosis, but that was doubtful. Ushas would've fed him to her rats if he had dared even try.

Ugh. This too frustrating to even think about. Worst of all, Theta was starting to suspect his perception filter was somehow wearing out. Some earthling girl was watching him, brow furrowed, like he was some sort of mystery equation and she was trying very hard to puzzle out the right answer.

Naturally, being the mature and educated timelord he was, Theta stuck his tongue out at her.

That settled it. She walked over to where he was, looking very determined. Theta wondered if he'd made her angry. He didn't exactly care for getting possibly assaulted by some earthling tot.
"Excuse me, are you from here?" she asked him.
"No, out of town," he gave her an easy, confident smile.
"Are you lost?" She asked. "You've been wandering off around the square for the past few minutes."
"You've been watching me?" Theta asked her.
The girl shrugged. "I was deciding whether or not to talk to you. You look like you need some help."
"It's nothing too complicated." Theta shrugged back. "I just lost my friends. We were supposed to meet back here, but they didn't show."
"Were they the other kids in the red robes, led by an older man?" She asked.
Theta started. "You saw them?"
She nodded. "Saw them leave a while before you came, actually."
So they *did* leave without him. Bloody gits. He would've thrown a proper internal fit then and there if the girl hadn't continued on by saying, "They left in a spaceship." Theta gave a nervous laugh he tried to pretend was good natured. "Spaceship? What do you mean, spaceship?"
"A group of kids in red robes came all walked back into the square, and then a black trash bin appeared out of thin air, making some kind of whistling sound. The older man got out and motioned for the kids to come inside, and then they did, and the bin disappeared with just a whistle." The girl lowered her voice. "No one noticed. Except for me."
Theta rubbed his palms together, feeling the sweat on them. He tried to give her his best unruffled chuckle. "You've just made it sound like you watched a scene out of some scary movie."
"I'm not going to hurt you," The girl reassured him. "I just want to help."
"Very reassuring," He said, nodding and giving her the fakest smile since the time he had pretended to enjoy Mortimus' lasagna. "However, I really don't think you can help."
The girl was undeterred. "I think I know what planet you're from."
Now this was interesting. Theta crossed his arms. "Try me."
"Gallifrey."
Theta uncrossed his arms. "Okay, okay, and how did you know that?" He waved his arms. "You're a level five planet. You barely have any concept of space travel or life on other planets." Theta regarded her with suspicion. "Are you with the earth government? The shadow proclamation? Blood smugglers?"
"My name's Rani Chandra," The girl said. "And I'm not with anyone, thank you." "You're quite welcome," Theta replied.
The girl, Rani, rolled her eyes. Now she was starting to look a little frustrated. "Look. Me and my friends Clyde and Luke, and Luke's mom Sarah Jane, run into aliens all the time. Sarah's got an alien supercomputer in her attic. She's practically an expert on this sort of thing. We can help you get home. We've done it before."
Theta paused, considering his options. He could take a chance with Rani Chandra, meet all her earthling friends who had apparently 'run into aliens all the time'….or he could end up wandering Sol III for the rest of his lives (or whenever it was Borusa came back for him) and become a shobogan hermit. As much as being a hermit sounded fun, meeting some New Media Age earthling tots who claimed to know all about aliens, and even knew the name of his planet, sounded much more interesting.
"Alright," Theta nodded, "Take me to your friends."
Rani smiled. "Okay. You won't regret this, I promise."
"Well," Theta said, following her down the road, "I would hope not."