Raychel was hellbent on scrubbing the tables in the cafe. The weather outside hadn't let up in a while, with snow falling in fat flakes, and the customers were few and far between. She was a woman of her mid-twenties and of about five and a half feet tall. Pretty, she had dark black dreadlocks and wore the cafe uniform of all black with a green apron. Above the apron, her shirt collar only covered half of the tattoo that was on her chest, the face of the Green Man. The Green Man was a face of blue and green vines and leaves with soft eyes, similar to that of a wise old man.
Scrubbing the tables, mostly to kill the boredom of an almost entirely empty cafe, Raychel took note of the only two customers who were present. The first was a large, bulbous headed man. He was broad of shoulder and dressed in a t-shirt and jeans that were both very dirty. The man had no hair on his head at all, not even eyebrows. His eyes seemed slightly too large, and instead of drinking any coffee or eating a scone, he was just sitting there with his eyes just darting back and forth, looking at nothing in particular.
The other man, smiling just a little too brightly, was sitting on the far side of the cafe with his feet stretched out in front of him sipping on a latte he'd bought earlier. While most of the time his attention was everywhere, his main focus was the man across the cafe from him. This man was tall and thin, dressed in a long trench coat hanging to the floor and a pinstripe blue suit. His shoes, stretched out in front of him, were dirtied Converse sneakers.
As Raychel approached him, cleaning the tables near him, the man in the trench coat leaned towards her.
"Hello, I'm the Doctor." he jabbed out his hand in a hand shaking gesture, the man's voice was of an obviously English accent. Warily, Raychel took it and was shaken generously.
"Hello. I'm Raychel."
The Doctor looked over in the other man's direction and then back up to Raychel. "I was wondering if I could get a mug of steamed milk?"
"Just steamed milk?"
He winked at her, "Yes ma'am!" He touched her arm as she took off as a means of halting her progress. "But it has to be exactly one hundred and sixty-eight degrees. Any warmer and it won't work. I need it exactly one hundred and sixty-eight degrees." The look in his eyes was intense and pleading.
Raychel started to question it, but decided that it was easier to just handle the crazy customer and took off to make the steamer.
When she returned, the Doctor was standing about ten feet in front of the broad shouldered man. Raychel held the cup out to him, the Doctor took it and handed her five dollars. "Raychel is it?" She nodded in answer. "This here is Fred. Say hello Fred." Fred didn't move at all. "Oi! That's rude." He turned to Raychel and gestured towards Fred. "Fred here isn't from Earth. He's from an old race, ancient and, well, immobile. Never really moves, not in the sense that you and I do anyways."
Raychel interrupted here. "Wait. You're trying to tell me he's an alien?"
The Doctor nodded. "Oh yes! Not just any type of alien, though. He's a Gravitonian, and that means that he feeds off of gravity fields. Well, not so much feeds as melds with. Its kind of complex, but anyways, he just feeds and feeds on the gravity of a planet. Feeds and feeds until he's had his fill."
Fred was still not moving. "And then?" Raychel begged. The way the Doctor talked about the Gravitonian was creating a whole lot of build up and suspense.
The Doctor pointed with his cup this time. "And then they leave. The gravity they consumed feeds a tear in space that propels them through time and space to another gravity source. The resulting tear consumes the planet."
"Right." Raychel said, nodding. She enjoyed the crazy train, but was figuring it was time to hop off. "I'll just leave you two alone then."
"But the milk," he continued as if she hadn't said anything. "The milk, at one hundred and sixty-three degrees, as that's how much it'll have cooled by the time I do this." He popped the lid off of the cup and threw its contents at Fred.
Raychel jumped back, surprised.
To her surprise nothing happened. Nothing at all. The milk flew at Fred but then stopped in front of him, hovering and then coalescing into an orb around his head. Fred still moved not an inch.
As she watched the Doctor pulled a little flashlight looking device from his pocket with a blue light at the end. Aiming at Fred, he switched it on, lighting it up with a sharp whistle.
"I just reverse the polarity and the milk will reverse his feeding process and send him somewhere else." The milk continued to expand encompassing Fred's entire self into an orb of milk as he sat at the table. Finally, the milk shrank quickly around Fred and he vanished, leaving not a drop of milk or anything else.
Pocketing his flashy blue light, the Doctor turned to face Raychel. "You, Ms. Raychel just saved the planet Earth."
Raychel was mostly still in confusion and shock but she had enough of herself left to stutter out a "W-what?"
"Wait a second, wait just a second, is that the Green Man?" The Doctor asked, getting a glance at her chest tattoo as it peaked out from the top of her shirt.
Something more tangible to handle, Raychel grasped onto it. "Yeah, you know the Green Man?"
"Know him? I invented him some eight hundred years ago, well, suggested that someone invent him, well, more described a rather leafy friend of mine to a monk over a drink." He pointed at her tattoo. "More importantly, you can help me with keeping world peace!" He grabbed her hand and yanked her behind him as he ran from the cafe and into the colder, snowier outside. Too confused to really understand much of what was going on, she followed willingly, part of her hoping for answers, other parts just wanting to kill the mundane boredom of a snowy day in the cafe.
Getting outside, Raychel saw a large blue box, covered in snow, just resting in a parking space as if it had been there for years. The label on the box said "Police Box," and had Raychel confused.
Pulling a key from his pocket, the Doctor inserted it into the lock of the blue box and turned to Raychel. "I should probably ask you. Would you mind accompanying me on a peace keeping mission?"
"What kind of peace keeping mission?"
He cocked his head and grinned. "The best kind."
Raychel stepped back and pointed at the cafe as the snow fell around her, "More like that?"
Impossibly, the Doctor's grin only got bigger. "Oh yes!"
She thought about it for a second and then pointed at the Police Box. "In there?"
"Oi! She'll do point five past lightspeed."
"Star Wars?"
"It was funny." He pointed at the Police Box. "I'll make you a deal. Step inside there, I'll wait right here, if you still don't want to go when you see what's inside, I'll disappear and you'll never see me again."
They eyed each other, each waiting to see through the other. The Doctor trying to see if she'd take the deal, and Raychel trying to see through his bluff.
Finally, Raychel pushed past him and stepped through the door of the blue box.
She jumped out about as immediately as she had gone in. "It's bigger on the inside. You're...you're..."
The Doctor nodded, glancing around at the parking lot. "Yeah." He waved his hand at the blue box. "That's the TARDIS. It's my space-ship."
"Its bigger on the inside!" She was getting louder and pointing inside the TARDIS.
"Dimensionally Transcendental."
"What the hell does that mean?"
The Doctor grinned, "Bigger on the inside." He pushed past her and went in. "You coming?"
Raychel shook her head and then followed him in, shutting the door behind her as she did so.
The inside of the TARDIS was amazing outside of being ridiculously too large for its exterior. Round marks on the walls, and overhead walkways and curving stairs. As she slowly walked up the ramp behind the Doctor, Raychel noted the almost corral surroundings and pillars with an awe that she was starting to find commonplace since her having met the Doctor such a short while ago.
Commonplace or not, she gasped when her eyes fell upon the center console. Organic in construction, much as the rest of the interior, but with mechanical knobs, levers and even several mallets of varying sizes hanging from it. The whole thing looked as if someone had shoved a large amount of junkyard into the middle of a corral reef and added mood lighting.
Center of the console was a large, cylindrical tube of glass lit up with some sort of piston in the middle of it. As the door shut behind Raychel, the Doctor threw a leg up and slammed a lever while reaching across and turning dials. To only make Raychel's jaw drop even further, the center piston started to shift up and down.
The Doctor stood upright and and shoved his hands into his pocket.
"Well?" he asked.
Raychel crossed her arms and did her best to hide her awe and crossed her arms, tilting her head to the side. "It looks a little old." She walked up to the console and waved a hand at it. "How do you find anything?"
The Doctor frowned, "Oy! This is my ride!" Turning back to the console he mumbled, "I'd like to see your time-traveling spaceship."
Raychel stood across from him on the other side of the console. "Alright, I'm impressed if that was what you were going for. So you're an alien too, then?"
"Yup!" He flipped another knob and pulled a monitor closer to examine it.
"And you need a young human woman...why?"
The Doctor's face shifted to genuine sadness. "Three years back, a...woman...helped me save an entire space station from being assassinated." He turned back to the monitor, trying to distract himself. "She died." He slid the monitor aside, finished with it. "You're Green Man is her people's god. They worship nature and plant life. You, Miss Raychel, are going to be my ambassador."
Raychel touched her tattoo, still peaking out above her t-shirt. "Was she an alien, too?"
"Actually, she's probably more native to your planet than you are. Well, not her, but her species. Well, not her species as it is when we're going, so much as her ancestors, but you get the idea." Raychel looked at him, her face not hiding her waiting for him to just spit it out. "Oh, right! She's a Tree!"
Raychel was leaning against the railing around the console. "She's a tree?" She looked around for a bit. "Ok, that makes sense."
The Doctor returned to slamming knobs and running around the console as a buzzer went off somewhere. The TARDIS started rocking as he kept on talking. Raychel only held on tighter to the railing.
"About twenty thousand years from your time, trees start to get smarter. Well, they always were smart, weren't they. All time and space, extinction event after extinction event and they come out on top, a little different, yeah, but always on top, always so alive." He stops to pull another lever, propping his leg against the console for leverage. "Well finally, something happens, I don't know, haven't checked it out yet, but something big happens and they get smarter. The tree evolution takes leaps and bounds."
Raychel is just listening at this point and the Doctor takes a moment to type something into a keyboard on the console before slamming another lever. This last act and the TARDIS makes a thud, landing. Running down the ramp, the Doctor reaches for the door heading out.
Stopping at the door he turns back.
"Humans and Trees work together, and find the Trees this." He points at the door. "The Forest of Cheem. An entire world forest to make their home." Raychel came down the ramp and stood next to the Doctor, who pulled a small potted tree from his jacket pocket. "She was leader of the Trees. They need to know she died saving others."
Raychel nodded, looking back at the console and then turning back to the Doctor. "So time machine, too?"
The Doctor grinned ear to ear. "Oh yes!" He then threw the door open.
The Doctor and Raychel walked into a wall of Trees, each holding a large weapon aimed at the two travelers.
The Doctor raised his hands above his head, the one still clutching the potted plant, while Raychel followed suit.
There were four of the Trees. Raychel noted that they looked like seven foot tall men, with a slightly grainy texture and wood and leaves sprouting from their heads.
"So, I'm on an alien world...?"
The Doctor frowned at her. "You've had the whole trip to be in awe, and you pick now at gunpoint? You must be a riot after a party."
"Who are you?" boomed the nearest Tree.
Still holding a face that Raychel would describe as his "Serious face," the Doctor stated. "I'm the Doctor, a Time Lord and friend of Jabe Ceth Ceth Jafe. I was there as she died." He nodded to Raychel. "This is Raychel, ambassador from Earth and friend of the Trees. She'll be speaking for me."
Raychel leaned forward and whispered to the Doctor. "I can't do this. I don't know anything about them. I worked in a coffee shop just fifteen minutes ago."
The Trees lowered their guns, slightly, at the Doctor's declaration. As he lowered his hands, he asked plainly, "We need a minute," and pushed Raychel back into the TARDIS.
He looked Raychel directly in the eye. "Day in and day out you deal with people. You make coffee, you sell books, you deal directly with people every day and all the time. You know their moves and their thoughts and you calm them and you manipulate them, egging them on to buy that slightly more expensive size. All of it interaction and control. All of it what an ambassador does." He waved out the door. "That planet has no leader and is tearing itself apart trying to mend that. This is your chance to save an entire world, and all you have to do is customer care." He straightened and put his hands into his pocket.
Raychel grinned and eyed him back. "You practice that?"
The Doctor tilted his head to the side, returning her grin. "Yeah," he drawled out. "Whole trip in. Time Lord brain, I can multitask with the best of them. Was it good?"
"I'll give it an 8."
"Back to the big Trees with guns?"
Raychel bowed and gestured towards the door. "After you." With that, Raychel followed the Doctor back outside the TARDIS, both of them raising their hands back above their heads. Much to both of their surprise, the Trees had holstered their guns.
Raychel looked from the guards to the Doctor, "All pals now?"
"For now," the lead guard answered. "Please, this way." The Doctor just shrugged, shoving his hands into his trench coat pockets and nodded the direction indicated by the Tree guard. "That way," he smiled and took off.
Their armed escort led them both through a stone archway into a beautiful courtyard. Open to the sky, the courtyard had no actual walls or fences, but was enclosed by a thick gathering of rooted Trees.
The Doctor, seemingly forgetting their escort, broke from the line up and ran to the nearest rooted Tree. Circling it excitedly, he examined it up and down.
"You are gorgeous! Absolutely brilliant!" He was waving his hands in excited admiration. "I mean, I've heard of the Forest Council, but I never thought that..." He cut off and immediately yanked his glasses out from inside of his jacket and looked closely at the Tree. "You are gorgeous." He said the last bit quietly, frowning.
Putting his glasses away, he moved quickly back to Raychel and his escort. Frowning still, he asked "How long have they been like this?"
The lead guard answered, "Ten years now."
Raychel spoke up now, "Like what?"
The Doctor took his time answering, lost somewhere in thought. "Hm? Oh, they're sick. Dying even."
Raychel asked her next question even though, to appearances, the answer seemed obvious. "What are they? Trees, right?"
The Doctor got excited again. "Oh Raychel, they are the Forest Council. Leaders chosen to be planted and tended to for their wisdom on all matters."
The lead guard took over from here, seemingly enjoying the reprieve from guarding and diving headlong into cultural tour guide. "It is the highest and most honorable position in our society. To be asked to be rooted to the Forest is only offered maybe once in a thousand years of devoted service."
"How are they all sick?" Raychel pressed.
The Doctor nodded his approval. "Good question." He turned to their escort. "What she said."
The guard frowned, "The light has become a weapon."
At this the Doctor pulled his glasses back on and aimed his sonic screwdriver at the sky, waving it in all directions before pulling it back and looking at it.
"Its not sunlight... Almost...artificial...and something..." He tucked the screwdriver back into his jacket and nodded to Raychel. "Ambassador."
Raychel took up the hint and looked to their escort. "Please continue. We should probably speak to...um...to..." She looked to the Doctor who mumbled just loud enough for her to hear, "Right!" Raychel said a little too loudly. "We should be taken to Jabe Ceth Ceth Jafe's family as soon as possible." The lead Tree guard nodded in agreement and started moving again. The Doctor winked at Raychel and they followed their escort out of the Forest Council's courtyard and out into and through a miraculous city carved out of a lush green mountainside and almost overgrown with gardens.
The city had few shelters, as Trees had evolved for millions of years without them, and the shelters it did have were more for guests or markets. Gardens lined every walkway with plants both recognizable and jaw-droppingly different to Raychel. The lead guard was talking the whole time, finally introducing himself as Procarbor, and the city as Cascade, capital of Cheem before the tensions had begun. Procarbor hadn't spoken much on the dispute, but from what Raychel could pick up it had began at Jabe Ceth Ceth Jafe's death, the power vacuum causing turmoil between the two species of Tree: Coniferi and the Decidui.
Once again she found herself in the type of shock that accompanies being on another planet for the first time.
As they reached their destination, Raychel realized that no shelters didn't mean no homes. The Ceth Jafe family home was a walled in area with an open view to the sky. Another courtyard, really, but gardened as the rest of the city and just as gorgeous.
Entering the abode, the guards, led by Procarbor, stepped aside and let Raychel and the Doctor continue to the center of the courtyard where two Trees stood awaiting their entrance, having been forewarned of their guests arrival. Raychel took to her role more fluidly this time and with no prompting from the Doctor.
"Hi," she nodded to them. "This is the Doctor, friend of Jabe Ceth Ceth Jafe and I am Raychel, a human from the planet Earth and," she lowered the collar of her shirt a bit to reveal the Green Man tattoo that adorned her chest, "friend of the Trees."
The Trees that she addressed bowed their heads in recognition of their deity. "A large claim to make from a stranger who brings such sad news." Spoke the female tree, gorgeous by most humanoid standards yet obviously of Tree decent and much taller than those whom addressed her. "I am Brindi and this," she waved towards her companion, the male Tree, and also fairly attractive by most humanoid standards, "is Tandakka. We are Jeth's seedlings."
"Please," pleaded Tandakka sadly, "Tell us how."
The Doctor stepped forward and gave a slight nod to Raychel that he would take over from here.
Somberly, he spoke, his words weighted with a sadness that could be heard in his soul. "Oh, so bravely. It was the day the Earth died in an explosion of fire. The observatory was going to join it. Jabe Ceth Ceth Jafe didn't hesitate, sacrificing herself to save all of those lives." A tear came down his face. "She was fantastic!"
Her seedlings nodded appreciatively. "Thank you, Doctor." said Brindi. "We greatly appreciate your coming to us with this. It says much about your character and of those you travel with." She bowed to Raychel. "Please stay with us for the duration of your visit. We can provide a tent and facilities for your species' needs."
"Like camping?" Raychel blurted. "Are we going to camp on an alien world?" The ambassador had completely vanished, replaced by Raychel, outdoors enthusiast.
The Doctor nodded. Somber attitude replaced with an excitement that matched Raychel's own. "A camping trip. With Trees no less." He stepped closer to Tanakka and Brindi. "And while we're here, maybe we can be of assistance in this matter concerning the political tensions?"
Tanakka glanced at Brindi, "Unless you can end it and stop the affliction affecting us all, then I believe that there is very little you can provide on this matter."
The Doctor shrugged, "Well, if you mean the genetic blocker being administered through the plasma field surrounding your planet, then yes. I can help."
"That won't stop the Coniferi from turning it back on." Countered Brindi. "The Coniferi are leading us towards the brink of war."
The Doctor nodded, shoving his hands into his pockets. "If they turned it on in the first place. Either way though," before the Doctor could finish that sentence, Raychel broke in.
"If that plasma thing surrounds the whole planet than the other Trees probably don't want that device on any longer than they have to." She looked at the Doctor but kept talking. "As ambassador and friend to all Trees, I could act as an 'in between' if talks could be organized..." She trailed off.
"Raychel, you are brilliant!" The Doctor beamed.
Raychel gave a nervous smile. "That's why I'm here right?"
Tanakka was still frowning. "For what you've done for us, I will discuss this with the Forest Council. It is highly unlikely, though."
The Doctor smiled. "Thank you, both." He turned to his most recent companion. "Raychel, lets get set up for the night and in the morning we can find out more about this Plasma field."
The next morning brought bright sunshine filtering through the overhead plants and shining right through the tent bright enough to wake Raychel. She crawled out and noticed that the Doctor was no where to be seen. The lady Tree- Brindi, Raychel remembered-was waiting silently outside of Raychel's tent.
Brindi shifted only barely as she spoke. "The Doctor asked us to take you to the Forest Council where you have been granted permission to talk to the Coniferi and Decidui. Of course, this will be after you get some morning food."
Raychel stretched as she stood up. "And where'd the Doctor go?"
Brindi turned to lead the way towards breakfast and continued talking. "The Doctor took a shuttle into the atmosphere to examine the plasma shield."
The Doctor wasn't flying the shuttle, he was content being the noisy backseat driver to Procarbor who didn't hide his excitement at being invited along.
"Don't get out much do you, Procky? All the guard time doing guard things like..." the Doctor tilted his head a bit, "...guarding. But this," he through his hands wide, pointing out the front window, "Getting out, exploring, saving worlds. This is something every Tree needs a little bit of."
Procarbor didn't hide his smile. He liked this being. "Yes." He looked back at the Doctor, who sat behind him as Procarbor flew the ship. "Do you think you can save our planet, stop the fight from erupting?"
The Doctor frowned a bit. "Procky, when you drop a bomb you stand safely in a bomb shelter while it goes off. Safe. You don't drop a bomb on yourself. This plasma shield is killing everything on the planet. Everything." The Doctor shook his head. "The Coniferi didn't start this, not on purpose anyways."
Procarbor was still looking forward as he asked, "Then why the talks of war? Why not tell us and work with us to stop it?"
The Doctor sat back in his seat. "The planet's leader is dead. Plasma shield goes up: boom! Everyone thinks the other did it as a bid for power." The Doctor smiled. "Raychel knows that, she's seen people. Raychel's good, she'll get everyone to sit and talk and...wait a second!" The Doctor leapt forward and pointed at the screen. As he'd been talking the ship had come up to the outer atmosphere of the planet. "Oh, look at that. There's a source for the plasma field." He started tapping hard on the console to the right of Procarbor.
"See that?" Using his screwdriver he brought up a 3-D representation of the planet with the plasma field around it and pointed at one of the poles. "That point there. The field is strongest there, and as it radiates outward it gets weaker. The source of the field is directly beneath that. Like the defense shield of Hoth..." The Doctor looked at Procarbor, "Star Wars? Ice planet? Giant robot camels? Luke, I'm your father? Nothing? Blimey, you need to get out more than I thought." The Doctor tilted his head, "Lots of guards in those movies, you'd probably love it."
The delegation consisted of two Trees. That was it. One Coniferi by the name of Pinekko and Brindi from the Decidui. Only one guard was present standing outside the Forest Council as they surrounded the talks. Raychel's only discomfort was that the Trees never seemed to need to sit, so on top of being nervous about the fate of the planet Cheem, she was starting to shift from foot to foot in discomfort. Forests can stand for centuries, Raychel would have killed for a chair.
Mostly, Raychel's work as ambassador had been limited to just keeping the talks going smoothly, acting as mother hen whenever the chicks started pecking each other. Raychel couldn't help but remember the Doctor's comparison to customer service.
The tensions all arose, understandably, from the plasma field. Both sides accused the other. The Decidui thinking that the Coniferi were making an aggressive bid for power while the Coniferi assumed that the Decidui were attempting to aggressively solidify their own.
If the plasma field weren't an issue, both sides would be in an agreement that Brindi, as Jabe's seedling and trained in the same arts of delegation, should be presiding leader.
Raychel decided it was time to offer a suggestion, hoping to curb the growing verbal tension. "Right now the Doctor and Procarbor are investigating the plasma field, to find the cause. It's his belief that neither the Decidui or the Coniferi are to blame." She let out a breath slowly and calmly. This was the first time that she'd spoken this long without one side accusing the other. "Both of you need to stop bickering and instead think of how pick up the pieces." She'd have stood up now for emphasis if they'd have sat down at all during this. "Take a recess and enjoy the beauty of Cascade until the Doctor returns with what he finds out. Once we know what we're dealing with we can move on from there. Agreed?"
Brindi and Pinekko were obviously tired of insulting each other and nodded.
Raychel smiled and sat on the ground at her feet. "When the Doctor returns we'll start this back up then."
As she sat there resting, Brindi and Pinekko wandered off. Oddly enough, seemingly enjoying each other when not in delegation mode.
Hoping she wasn't creating some taboo, and slightly hoping she was, Raychel lied back on the grass of the Forest Council courtyard.
"Raychel!" The Doctor's voice snapped Raychel back from her rest and bolt upright.
Remembering she was on Cheem wasn't nearly as shocking though as the floating head of her recent traveling companion.
The hologram of the Doctor started speaking, "Brilliant, isn't it? Very Christmas Carol. Although, not really, Dickens and I lived that out with the Gelf. Well, almost-"
"Doctor," Raychel interrupted before he could continue his rant, "What's up?"
"Oi, someone woke up on the wrong side of the forest." He smiled. "Miss Raychel, I've got excellent bad news!"
She just looked at him quizzically.
"The plasma field is getting stronger. Exponentially. The part that makes it excellent is that its creating heat and not just within the field. I found the generator producing the field and the heat directly around and inside is intense."
"How's that good news?"
The Doctor looked at her eyes trying to tell her. "Come on, Raychel. You're from America. Think California."
Then it dawned on Raychel, "It's too hot for Trees!"
"I knew you'd get it. You're brilliant, did I tell you you're brilliant?" His eyes went wide as he switched from complimenting to explaining. "You don't build a weapon that you can't turn off. They get too close to that and whoosh! Instant match."
"Couldn't it be turned off by remote?"
The Doctor's floating head shook. "Great question but no. The reason no one else picked it up is that the field gets too strong near the generator and it plays havoc on any signals. It has to be done manually."
The Doctor looked over his shoulder at something Raychel couldn't see. "Right, alright."
He turned back to Raychel. "Tell the delegates and wait for the shuttle. Procky can't handle the heat and I need another set of arms."
Raychel rolled her eyes. "I'll bet you say that to all the girls."
The Doctor tilted his head, "Well, not the armless ones."
Upon hearing that the plasma field wasn't the fault of either set of Trees, both Brindi and Pinekko thanked Raychel and encouraged her to join her friend while the worked on patching the peace that would instill Brindi with her inherited role as leader.
Procarbor soon arrived in the shuttle and had Raychel board. While the time it took to travel to the Doctor implied a short distance, the view-port was slightly more honest. As the shuttle rocketed over the landscape, Raychel did her best to suppress her awe as foreign forests and cities just as beautiful, if not more so, than Cascade flew under them. Despite herself, and her deep need to not be stereotyped as the gawking tourist, she let out a gasp. Procarbor hid his smile, amused at her endless excitement.
"First time on a forest world?"
She never took her eyes from the view, "First time on any other world."
Procarbor nodded and stood from the pilot seat. "Would you like to drive?"
Raychel yanked her eyes away from the view finally, and let out a yelp. "What are you doing?"
Procarbor laughed. "Giving you the full space traveler treatment. You haven't traveled the stars until you've driven an alien spacecraft."
"I don't know how to fly this!" Raychel screamed.
Procarbor held his hand out, trying to instill calm. "Breath human." He grabbed her arm and firmly but gently pressed her into the pilot seat. Still panicky,, she hesitated at grabbing the wheel. Once she did, Raychel noted that it was very similar to the type of controls you'd see in a plane.
"You're a human from Earth, correct Ambassador?"
Raychel's panic was starting to settle down, but was still evident enough to stop her from noting the fun Procarbor was having at her expense.
"We're from the same planet, have the same general shape, and lived together for centuries before finding Cheem. Our technologies are very similar. If you can pilot or drive anything on Earth, then it is more than likely you can do so here."
While he'd been giving his little history lesson, Procarbor noted that Raychel was testing the touchiness of the controls. She tilted the ship left, then right, and then pushed the wheel forward and then back, respectively moving the ship down and then up.
"See? You already know how. Don't let the alien-ness of things you don't know blind you to the things that you do."
For the next ten minutes of the trip, Raychel flew the ship with ease that most pilots don't experience.
Upon landing, which Procarbor did for her, he complimented her natural gift. "You are truly blessed by the Foliated One," he said and nodded towards the Green Man poking out of the top of her shirt.
"Thank you, Procarbor. Thank you, very much."
Stepping from the ship, Raychel was on her own. The ship's cooling wouldn't extend beyond the door and the heat was already too much for Procarbor to continue. "Tell the Doctor that I'll wait until you both return. Don't forget that humans can burn as well. Be careful."
She thanked him again and was off on a path into the generator. It was a large metal grate of path that led directly into a much larger orange, metal building. As far as Raychel could tell, there was nothing more extraordinary about the building than its color. Otherwise, it was just a square building with no windows, similar to some sort of warehouse.
Walking in the only opening she found she quickly found the Doctor examining a wall.
"There you are! Where have you been? Enjoying the sights I bet."
"You have no idea," Raychel replied, still high on flying the Cheem vessel.
The Doctor waggled his sonic screwdriver at the wall he'd been examining. "This is a door."
"No, that," she knocked on it, "is a wall."
The Doctor buzzed his tool at the wall and a seam appeared as the hidden door ratchet back and then slid into the ceiling.
"Door."
"You've just been sitting here for the last twenty minutes waiting for me to show up so you could do that." It wasn't a question.
The Doctor looked at her with a look as though she'd called him a murderer. "Not ever. It was actually thirteen minutes." Not skipping a beat he continued. "This is all alien technology, and I don't mean alien to humans, although it is, I mean alien to Cheem and the Trees. This was all put here by someone else who wants to do some remodeling to the planet."
"Who put it here?" Raychel asked.
"Once again, Ambassador, you ask an excellent question." He nodded into the dark doorway. "Let's go find out."
The hall was dark, and as they went further down the hall, they had only the light of the screwdriver to direct them around corners. Walking farther and farther, Raychel had to keep wiping her forehead of sweat. Finally, the came into a room with a single occupant facing away from them operating some controls. The job was obviously not too complex, as some sort of intergalactic television show was on a monitor near the beast.
It's back to them, Raychel noted that it stood taller than a person, was almost a gray green and was bulbous and round. It also had with it large claws at the end of each of its long arms.
Taking a big sniff, it spun around facing both Raychel and the Doctor. Its face was small and scrunched up with a tiny noise and tiny mouth. Both of which were horribly offset by the large bulbous black eyes.
The Doctor took on a look of disgust. "Oh, of course, it had to be you. You couldn't possibly want to destroy the world for some sort of domination scheme. Nope, always about money."
"Do I know you?" It sniffed. "You are not Tree or Human."
The Doctor shook his head. "No, you don't know me, but I know you, and your family." He turned to Raychel and aimed his thumb over his shoulder at the creature, "He's of the family Slitheen, of the planet Raxacoricofallapatorius. A business man." He turned back to the Slitheen. "I'm the Doctor, and you are?"
The Slitheen tilted his head to the Doctor and Raychel. "I am Forn Tel Hootch Slitheen."
"Well Forn, let me guess what you're doing here? Burn the planet up? Kill all inhabitants? Sell the remains and energies left behind to the highest bidder?"
The Slitheen nodded.
Raychel ran forward as the Doctor raised his screwdriver like a sword, distracting the Slitheen as Raychel punched the Slitheen in its big left eye. "Over my dead body," she yelled.
Forn, having not expected the attack fell back, clutching his eye, swinging at Raychel and knocking her back towards the Doctor who caught her just barely before she hit the floor.
"You're amazing Raychel. You ok?"
Raychel was already standing up, "Better than he's going to be."
The Doctor stopped her from lunging forward again, as the seasoned hunter of a Slitheen was already well prepared for the next attack. Even Raychel had her doubts about being able to land another blow. "We need to destroy this entire building. I think I can do it, but I don't think our friend Forn is going to let me." The Doctor looked around them as the Slitheen watched their every move. "This place is pouring out energy into the plasma field. If we can put a banana in the tailpipe we can take down this whole place."
"A banana in the tailpipe?"
He looked at Raychel almost at a loss for words. "Banana's are good."
That's when the Slitheen got impatient. Eye still sore, he leaped at his attackers and almost had them. The Doctor saw Forn Tel Hootch coming and threw Raychel back, leaping back himself. Falling away from each other the Slitheen flew past them and into the hall they had just vacated. The Doctor tossed Raychel his screwdriver and grabbed up the large chair the alien had been using to watch TV. Picking it up he lunged at the hall and used its wide bottom as a kind of deterrent, thrusting it back and forth into the narrow hall to keep the Slitheen back in much the same way a lion tamer would work.
"Under the TV, Raychel! There's a set of two large green jewels that look like they can snap together." He grunted as he pushed back against the large beast with the chair. "Grab them."
Raychel found the jewels quickly. "Now what?"
The Doctor hesitated to answer, slightly occupied with his wrestle match with a higher weight class. "Jam the screwdriver into the port directly to the left of where you found the jewels." On the crowded control console she found a small round port that looked just big enough to fit the screwdriver.
"Now what?"
The let go of the chair after one more big push and ran towards Raychel yelling, "Turn it on!"
Raychel hit the button on the screwdriver just as the Doctor got to her and grabbed the jewels out of her hand.
The Doctor turned back to the now recovered Forn Tel Hootch Slitheen. "All of the plasma energy is feeding back into this building without any outlet." As the Doctor said this, Raychel immediately noted the temperature rising. "Either you come with us and face trial with the Trees, or you can stay here."
The Doctor had to pull Raychel back as once again the enraged Slitheen leapt at them, missing them barely and getting close enough this time to have torn Raychel's shirt with his claws. As Forn Tel Hootch screamed in anger, the Doctor pressed the jewels together.
Outside of the building, Procarbor was sitting silently in the ship watching for any sign of the Doctor or Raychel as suddenly, and surprisingly enough to make the Guardian Tree jump, both the beings of flesh appeared out of thin air directly being the pilot's station.
Before either Raychel or Procarbor could ask what just happened, the Doctor said. "It's a teleport and we don't have time, get us out of here, fast!"
Procarbor launched the ship upwards and then out, narrowly escaping the resulting blast that took out the building and a large city-wide radius around it.
Brindi had thanked Raychel in the best way she knew how, giving her a cutting from one of her own branches, already sprouting from the pot. She and her brother offered the same to the Doctor, but he turned them both down. Guilt on his face could be seen as he remembered the cutting that Jabe had giving him.
Procarbor was the hardest for Raychel and the Doctor to say goodbye to, as they had both bonded with him the most. Giving them both hugs and fond farewells he walked them to the TARDIS, unarmed this time.
"May the wind be in your favor, Ambassador."
She hugged him again. "You'd make a great member of the Forest Council, Procky, and I told them so before I left."
He looked shocked as the Doctor smiled a huge toothy grin. "Thank you, Raychel. Thank you very much."
Procarbor nodded to the Doctor and watched as Raychel and the Doctor both boarded the TARDIS and shut the door.
Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor was still smiling.
"What's so funny?" Raychel asked.
The Doctor shook his head as, once again, he started flipping switches and spinning dials.
"Nothing is funny, just...just...You are brilliant."
Raychel was confused. "What'd I do?"
The Doctor walked over and grabbed her by the shoulders. "The Forest Council is picked by political emissaries, commissioned by allies. You, Ambassador, just gave Procarbor his life long wish and made him a member of the Forest Council."
She was stunned silent for about the thousandth time during her two day journey with the Doctor.
"Now to get you back home."
This snapped her out of her silence. "But it's a time machine, we could go anywhere and I'll still get back before work tomorrow. Let me come along with you."
The Doctor shook his head. "Sorry, but I need to be traveling alone right now. If I were going to take anyone along with me, it'd be you. But not this time."
Raychel just stared at him, disappointment evident. "Will I see you again?"
He matched her disappointment with a large toothy grin. "Oh yes! Can't keep me away. Still have so much to show you. I'm worse than the common cold. As soon as you start feeling better, bam, there I am back again to mess everything up." He flipped another lever.
"Allons-y!"