Chapter One
"So… Doctor, where have we landed, this time?" Ian nipped over to the Doctor's side of the TARDIS console room. "Not England 1963, I presume."
The Doctor turned to face his somewhat ungrateful companion. "Hmmmm. Well, you're always presuming and assuming, my boy." He tinkered with some of the TARDIS controls. "I show you the stars and planets beyond your solar system and yet you are very ungrateful. Sometimes I do wonder if I should just drop you off at the next planet we come by and fly away. It would be very easy, you know?"
"Oh, Doctor! Don't be like that!" Vicki begged, "Ian was just being sarcastic. He loves it here in the TARDIS and he is very grateful of you." She gave him a smile, which he couldn't resist returning.
"Well perhaps he could show it a little more." The Doctor coughed nervously and returned to being, or rather pretending to be busy. Ian rolled his eyes and returned to the Doctor's side.
"Anyway, where are we?"
"Well, according to my instruments we appear to be on Earth. The atmosphere is the same and from the looks of it we're in England." He pointed to the TARDIS scanner which displayed a green field, drenched with rain, surrounded by other fields, also drenched with rain.
"Well, last time we thought we were in England, we turned out to be in France, in the middle of the French Revolution!" Ian exclaimed jokingly.
"Don't be so negative, young man! Anyway, I remember you quite enjoyed our little adventure, especially when you got to meet Napoleon!" the Doctor chuckled then returned to the TARDIS console. Ian turned back to Vicki, and guided her to the other side of the console room.
"Why do you think he is so grumpy? He's not usually like this." Ian whispered to Vicki. She shrugged.
"I have no idea…" she paused for a moment, "Maybe this is just his way of dealing with the fact that you'll be gone pretty soon, since we're back where you and Barbara started." She suggested. Ian considered this.
"Yes, that seems feasible. As far as I know, he is not one for soppy endings. He just likes to get on with things. Thank you, Vicki."
"You're welcome." She grinned "Now, you better go fetch Barbara. She wouldn't want to miss this."
"Good idea." Ian gave Vicki a smile, a sad smile, then exited the console room, searching for Barbara. Vicki slowly strolled to the Doctor's side.
"Shall we check outside, and see if it is really England in 1963?" she requested.
"We shall." He replied. Vicki grabbed his arm and dragged him outside of the TARDIS, right into a huge puddle of mud.
Barbara sat in the corner of the dim room, whimpering. What did she do to deserve such a horrible fate? She missed Ian dearly and feared she'd never get to see him again. She thought of all their adventures together; on Skaro, Marinus, the Sense Sphere, Dido, Vortis and Earth - half a dozen times. She thought of how many times he had saved her, and she in return. She thought of what their future held for the two high school teachers, after they got back from all the adventuring with the Doctor – well, if they got back. She was lost in her thoughts, her head buried in her hand, thinking of what was and could have been what should have been. She didn't hear it at first, but as it gradually got louder she heard it, thousands of voices screaming her name.
The soles of their shoes got crusted with mud, as they squelched their way across the field, looking for anything that could tell them their location. They had no such luck, for all they could see in each direction was either endless fields, or endless forests.
"What now?" Vicki was getting frustrated wading her way up and down the fields, as she wasn't a big fan of mud.
"I think it's best if we follow the edge of that forest," he pointed to the friendliest-looking forest, "and hopefully we'll reach some sort of civilisation." Vicki then grabbed his arm and marched briskly toward the forest. Only to be interrupted by the Doctor's protesting.
"We should wait for Ian and Barbara. We don't want to get split up. You do remember what happened back on Vortis?" The Doctor managed to free his wrist from Vicki's grip and crossed his arms. Vicki rolled her eyes.
"Yes, I do remember." She sighed, "I should probably go back them, their taking a while." Vicki sprinted past the Doctor, who stumbled forward, trying to hold her back.
"What did I just say?" he shouted. Vicki slowed down, and came to a stop.
"That we should stick together!" she replied.
"And what are you doing?"
"Don't worry! I'll only be a moment." She turned and continued sprinting back to the TARDIS. The Doctor mumbled a few words under his breath about the youth and their apparent need to run around everywhere.
"Barbara?" Ian called as he made his way through the TARDIS's many corridors. He'd been searching for her for a good 10 minutes or so and he couldn't find her anywhere. He was getting tired of shouting her name and receiving no reply, scanning every inch of various rooms, only to find them empty and constantly thinking horrible thoughts.
What if she had got lost and couldn't find her way back? What if he would never see her again and for the rest of his life he would never know what happened to her? What if the next room he entered contained her dead body? How would he live without Barbara?
He tried to think back to the last time he saw her, he racked his brain countless time, trying to remember. Then he did; the console room. They were in the console room. She had asked the Doctor where the bathroom was. She was feeling ill. She had mentioned something about seeing a hologram, and then changed the subject, as if she wasn't sure about whether she had actually seen whatever this hologram thing was. Did this hologram have anything to do with Barbara's disappearance? He hoped not. Hologram sounded Alien. Alien sounded bad. But how could an alien get into the TARDIS mid-flight? Ian knew better than to the think the TARDIS was unsafe and easy to get into. But now he wasn't so sure.
He put his hand in front of the sensor, which would open the door. The door started to slide open and Ian caught sight of the room inside. It was empty and dark but there was movement in the right corner. Someone was inside. Before he could see anymore the door shut, as if someone or something wasn't allowing him to enter. He tried again, but it shut faster this time. He drummed on the door.
"Hello?" he shouted, hoping whoever was inside would hear him "Barbara is that you? Are you in there?" There was no reply. He tried to open the door, again and figured if he was super-fast he might be able to zip through the opening and get inside. He thought it was worth a try.
The door was very close to shutting on him, but luckily he made it through.
It took a while for his eyes to adjust but once they did, he studied the person in the corner. It looked like Barbara, but he couldn't be sure, since whoever it was had their head down and was huddled in a little ball. They seemed to be crying.
"Barbara?" he almost whispered. The person in the corner removed their head from their hands and looked up and tried to find where the sound was coming from. It was Barbara!
"BARBARA!" Ian shouted as he paced up the room, towards her.
"Hello? Who's there?" Why couldn't Barbara see him? Ian thought. The room seemed to stretch out in front of him, Barbara moved further away. He started to jog, and just when he was just 10 metres from her, he hit something invisible. Like an invisible wall. He placed his hands on the invisible wall and traced it. It went from one side of the room from the other. It was like a force field. There was no way to get through.
Barbara cautiously moved towards Ian, though from the looks of it, she couldn't see him. Her eyes danced around the room.
"Ian? Is that you?"
"Yes! Yes it is!" Ian shouted
"Where are you? I can't see you! I can hardly hear you! You sound like an echo." She moved closer.
"It must be the force field!"
"What force field?" Barbara walked straight into the invisible wall.
"That one."
"Oh… what? How many of you are there? What lights?" Before Ian could claim he wasn't saying anything, there was a weird sound, that sounded familiar, but Ian just couldn't put his finger on what it was. In the left corner of the room, on Barbara's side of the force field there was weird lights dancing around, which must have been making the noise. Barbara turned her gaze to the... whatever they were.
"What are they? You mentioned these before, the lights." Barbara asked. Ian could hear the fear in her voice.
"No I didn't" he squinted as he studied the weird lights "they're like particles, little light particles…"
The light moved towards Barbara slowly.
"Ian…" Barbara tried to back up, but bumped into the force field.
"Don't worry, it'll be okay. It's probably just the TARDIS playing with us, or something. It means no harm" He knew that the weird lights probably did mean harm, and Barbara knew too, but they both desperately hoped for the best.
Ian hammered against the invisible wall, hoping for some sign of prevail over it, but had no luck. Barbara joined in, and threw herself at it. The lights began moving faster, then when they were just meters from Barbara spread out and encircled her. Ian pounded, until his fists hurt. He knew it was hopeless, but he tried anyway.
"It's useless. I'm sorry. Ian, I- uh. Goodbye." The lights came forward and envoloped her completely.
Ian stood behind the force field as he watched the lights dissolved into the air, Barbara with them.