"Apalapucia", said The Doctor, as the console made whirring noises and the engine did its normal whooshing sound it does when it appears in a new place.
"Say it again?" Amy requested, hands on hips.
She was wearing a lavender, purple polka dotted blouse, a tight pair of jeans in a muddy green colour and lengthy brown boots. A golden charm, bearing the first initial of her name hung delicately from around her neck. Her ginger hair was mostly straight, except for where it ended at ringlets near the tips. Amy was incredibly eager for yet another adventure. She thought to herself that she would never grow tired of this. How could she? Always travelling to other worlds and times, being able to step out those blue wooden doors and always be completely surprised at what she saw. How lucky was she that she got to experience and enjoy these wonders and thrilling adventures with her two favourite boys right by her side.
Her husband, Rory, was next to her. He leant casually on the console, fingers intertwined. He was dressed plainly in loose blue jeans, checked shirt and trainers with stripes on them, topped with a thin green jacket. Often, Rory felt like it was just The Doctor and Amy who had the real adventures. He saw himself as merely a tag-on, being taken along for the ride, but not feeling as though he was seen as important or necessarily needed. In truth, all he wanted was a quiet life, on Earth. Yet, he was here, because Amy got pleasure from these travels and Rory cared about making his wife happy, at all costs. If the costs meant living on the edge a bit to humour her, he could do that.
"Apalapucia!" came a cry from The Doctor, who was racing around the central console, flicking switches and adjusting settings. His long green coat swished and flapped as he did so.
"Apalapu-", began Amy.
"-chia!" finished The Doctor.
"Appalapu-chia?" Rory attempted.
"Apalapucia", repeated The Doctor.
"Apalapucia", Amy announced with delight. "What a beautiful word."
"Beautiful word, beautiful world", added The Doctor, who had now come to a standstill and pulled one final lever. There was a sudden jolt and a look of half surprise and half annoyance on both companions' faces, including a cry from Amy, which The Doctor seemed to ignore.
The TARDIS's central core stopped its pulsating and the entire ship swiftly halted, indicating that the Time Lord and his two companions had landed. "Apalapucia, voted number two planet in the top ten greatest destinations for the discerning, intergalactic traveller", said The Time Lord with a smug nod. The tall, scarlet bow-tied man had walked over to by the door, hands gesturing all over the place and stood in his usual slumped posture. His hair was gelled and slicked so that a messy fringe swished over one side of his long face.
Rory trudged over towards where The Doctor was standing, meeting the Time Lord eye to eye, hands clasped together and asked,
"Why couldn't we go to number one?"
"It's hideous!" replied The Doctor. "Everyone goes to number one, planet of the coffee shops." Amy had now joined the two men, standing at her husband's side. "Apalapucia.." The Doctor continued, twirling the rest of the way to the TARDIS doors, with Rory and Amy following along behind. "I give you sunsets, spires, soaring silver colonnades." Amy was now twirling along also. "I give you.. ", and he opened the door.
Harsh, hot sunlight beamed down on the three traveller's faces, causing them to blink until they're eyes had adjusted from the dim interior lighting of the time machine, to the bright outdoors of Apalapucia. "Doctor", said Amy worriedly. "Why are they all wearing masks?"
The wide-eyed Doctor scanned their surroundings. There were indeed people with masks. Several miserable-looking, masked Apalapucians were being convoyed along by faceless robots with human hands, while others were being lead into a building labelled in big letters on the side "QUARRANTINE". The robots' voices were calm, but all saying the same thing.
"All those infected with Chen7, please go through to the Two Streams Facility."
The Doctor immediately covered his face with the collar of his jacket and pulled his companions back into the blue box, slamming it shut.
Amy and Rory had each landed on the TARDIS floor in a heap. Both had expressions of pure perplexity and of having just been startled. Rory spoke first.
"Doctor, tell me we didn't just catch some alien disease."
"You didn't just catch some alien disease", said The Doctor, who was looking more flustered than even his companions. He held his face in his hands and proceeded to drag them down slowly, long fingers pulling at his eyelids and then lips on the way down, coming to rest on his enormous chin.
Rory stood up and grabbed at one of The Doctor's arms.
"But, there were all those people in masks and that quarantine building and they said something about being infected with Chen-.. Chen-.."
"Chen7, the one-day plague," he said in a hushed tone, reaching within his coat.
"What, you.. you get it for a day?" Rory asked.
"No." The Time Lord's voice cracked. "You get it and you die in a day."
"Are we safe?" asked Amy.
"It only affects two-hearted species," explained The Doctor.
This information hardly put any of them at ease. The Doctor had produced from his pocket what he'd been rummaging for, a stethoscope. He had then unbuttoned his own shirt and placed the stethoscope's cool bell on one side of his bare chest, curled his lips in tight, shut his eyes and proceeded to move the bell to the opposite side of his chest and listened to his second heart. They stood in stony silence.