Prologue
Thursday
May 4, 2006
1:21 PM
The interior console room of the TARDIS shook violently. Rose stumbled backwards against the far wall as the Doctor grabbed onto the main terminal and held himself study.
"What's happening?" cried Rose Tyler.
The Doctor was perplexed. "Well, it's not good."
Rose moved to the Doctor's side, grasping desperately at the control panel to prevent herself from being thrown away again.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say we're being pulled into a black hole," the Doctor spoke after a moment.
"A black hole?" exclaimed Rose. "What's on the other side of a black hole?"
"Generally speaking, death," answered the Doctor calmly.
She looked at him with disturbed shock. "Can't you do something?"
"It wouldn't seem so," said the Doctor with annoyance. "The TARDIS is letting itself be pulled in."
"What?!"
"The good news is that there's no indication of any black holes within a thousand miles of this area on the TARDIS' radar. The bad news, of course, is that by the way it's acting, I'd say the TARDIS itself has completely malfunctioned," explained the Doctor.
"Well, what do we do?" demanded Rose.
"Hang on," said the Doctor.
The room rocked fervently, tossing the Doctor and Rose to the floor. The lights inside shut off. The Doctor stood slowly, holding his head.
"What happened?" asked Rose as she pulled herself to her feet.
The Doctor looked around. "We've lost power."
He began to examine the controls.
"Can you fix it?" asked Rose.
"Fix it. Fix it," the Doctor muttered. "What fix it? There's nothing to fix!"
"What do you mean?"
The Doctor opened the main control panel and began examining the interior wires with his sonic screwdriver. "Curious and curiouser," he said to himself. He slammed the panel shut. "Everything's working. Perfectly well. Better than ever." He leaned on the control panel, resting his head in his hands contemplatively.
"Then what's the problem?" prodded Rose.
"This bloody machine's the problem," he said, pounding on the control panel. "It's cut off its power source on its own. It's shut itself down."
"Maybe it's sleeping," suggested Rose.
"TARDISes don't sleep," said the Doctor, pacing back and forth. "It chose to shut itself down. For the time being. Something must have prompted it to. Whatever that thing we went through, that 'black hole' that the TARDIS went through, that's what caused it to shut down. But why? Why did it go through it and why did it shut down?"
"What do we do now, Doctor?" Rose came up behind him.
He turned to look at her. He released a heavy sigh. "I've lost connection with the TARDIS. It came here for a reason. So we might as well see where we are, eh? No sense in staying put here."
The Doctor led Rose to the doorway. They stepped out into darkness of late evening. Rose narrowed her eyes and gazed around.
"Looks like Earth," she said.
"Certainly does," acknowledged the Doctor. He gazed around. The Police Box that was the disguised TARDIS sat next to a large billboard. A large grassy meadow surrounded them on either side and they stood on a long stretch of highway. He went forward, Rose lightly chasing after him. He spotted a sign in the distance and hurried to it.
"What's it say?" asked Rose, peering over the Doctor's should.
The Doctor read the sign. "Well, let's go."
"Go where?" asked Rose.
"That sign says there's a town two miles away," said the Doctor. "Let's start walking."
Rose read the sign. "Hill Valley," she said aloud. "Wonder where that is?"
"Don't know. Sounds like a paradox though, doesn't it?" the Doctor shook his head. "Come on, Rose, let's go!"
She turned from the sign and hurried after the Doctor.