Disclaimer: I don't own the Doctor, the TARDIS, Rose or any of the characters, planets, technology etc that appear in Doctor Who. I wish I did but who doesn't?

This is my first Doctor Who fic, hope you like. I'm trying to stick as closely to the mythos of the TV series, rather than the books, but there are contradictions in that, so if I make any mistakes, I'm sorry.

Chapter Summary: The 10th Doctor and Rose have received a distress signal and are going to answer it. Rose complains about the Doctor's driving. They arrive at their destination.

Chapter One: Signal

Through the void of space, wide and silent, tumbled a blue police box. A truly incongruous item to be found this far away from its own time and place. It hurtled through space, with the groan and grind of engines that were ancient and powerful.

'What's happening?' Rose yelled above the sound of the TARDIS.

'Got a distress call!' the Doctor yelled back. He was grinning widely, literally leaping around the TARDIS in excitement. 'Going to go and find out who needs our help!'

'Where's it coming from?' she shouted.

'Hey, I told you to hold that down!' he snapped and then added, 'I have no idea where it's coming from! Could be anywhere, anywhen!'

'You don't know! So we could be going anywhere and you don't know?'

'Yeah!' His grin was infectious. 'Fun, isn't it!'

Rose couldn't help herself and started laughing. 'I know better than to ask you how dangerous it's going to be!'

'Course you do!' He grabbed a mallet and smashed it down on the TARDIS. 'Come on, work!' he hollered. 'Honestly, this is the best ship in the universe and I still have to bang it to make it work! Work, dammit!'

There was a miniature explosion, a flurry of golden sparks and both Rose and the Doctor were hurled backwards onto the floor.

'Don't be like that!' the Doctor implored, spreading his arms wide. 'Come, work!'

'Maybe hitting it isn't the best idea in the world?' Rose suggested, picking herself up off of the floor. This Doctor drove far more crazily than his previous incarnation, and seemed to enjoy the perils of his steering far more. However, he always took insults about his driving very much to heart…hearts.

He rounded on her. 'I told you to hold that down!'

'Well, I was until you decided to try and electrocute us both!' she shot back.

The Doctor either didn't hear or ignored her. She reckoned it was the latter. He was busy pressing buttons and muttering under his breath at a hundred miles an hour, darting around the control panel of the TARDIS as if he had springs in his trainers. He was beginning to make Rose feel dizzy.

'Are we nearly there yet?' she asked loudly.

He stopped and stared at her. 'Are we nearly there yet?' he mimicked. 'How old are you?'

'I was just asking,' she muttered.

'Well don't, hold that down!' The TARDIS swerved and veered crazily. Rose had to hold onto the TARDIS as tightly as she could to prevent herself from being hurled across the ship.

'Here we are!' the Doctor yelled, waving his arms excitedly in the air. At that exact same moment the TARDIS halted and Rose crashed onto the floor again. 'Try not falling over,' he advised, 'it's less painful.'

Getting up, trying to straighten her hair and clothes, she said, 'You really need to learn how to drive this thing properly.'

His expression darkened and for a moment he looked suddenly sad. 'An old friend of mine used to say exactly the same thing,' he said quietly. 'She was always criticising my driving.' He shook his head and smiled again. 'Come on, then! We're here! Let's go see what we've found!'

'I'm already worried,' Rose murmured but she followed him towards the door. He grabbed up his coat and pulled it on as he walked. He opened the door and peered out.

'Hmm,' he said thoughtfully. 'This is interesting.'

Rose looked over his shoulder. 'It's a room,' she said flatly. 'With nothing in it and no windows.'

'Exactly,' he said thoughtfully.

'Is this where we're supposed to be?'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

Rose gave him a hard look. 'How many times have we ended in the wrong place? The wrong time?'

'There's no need to be like that,' he said, sounding hurt. 'You try driving the TARDIS next time. Anyway, I was following a signal,' he added. He sauntered over to the door, hands deep in the pockets of his coat.

Rose shook her head and followed him. There was no point in arguing to make her point about his terrible driving. She was certain his driving had got worse. But whenever she tactfully suggested that maybe he go for a refresher course of TARDIS driving lessons, he got all cranky. Once he had told her very shortly that, to quote, 'as a big pink and yellow ape' she would have no idea how to steer the TARDIS so she was to quit bugging him. The second time he said very crossly that the TARDIS was ideally designed to be steered by several Time Lords and since he was one Time Lord and she definitely did not qualify as even a quarter of a Time Lord, in his opinion he was doing pretty well. Since these conversations usually ended with one of them sulking in the corner, she had long ago stopped trying to make her point.

'So where are we?' she asked.

He wrinkled his nose as he thought. 'The Year 3Billion,' he said reflectively. 'The planet Tenarca.' He grinned suddenly. 'Fantastic! I should be able to get some parts for the TARDIS here. Once we find out who sent that distress signal and it gives us a decent reason for being here.'

'What, there's like – TARDIS dealerships?' she asked, bemused.

'No,' he said, 'but I can get proper wiring and circuit boards that will make her run more efficiently.' He smiled. 'Best not let anyone know we travel in a TARDIS, okay? She's the best ship in the universe and I don't want anyone trying to get inside or start fiddling with her.'

'I won't tell anyone we travel in a TARDIS,' Rose said wearily.

'Good.' Whilst they had been speaking, he had been examining the door and now he took out the sonic screwdriver and started fiddling. 'Odd,' he said eventually.

'What? Can't you get it open?'

'Course I can,' he said scornfully. 'Just take a bit longer than usual. But still, odd.'

The sonic screwdriver buzzed and hummed and finally the door slid open. They walked out into a bare, white corridor that was very similar to the room they had just come out of.

'There we are,' the Doctor said happily. 'Remember, if anyone asks, we're travellers here to look at parts for ships and if they ask what kind of ship, pretend to be a useless idiot who has no idea what kind of ship you travel in.'

'Great,' Rose muttered.

'It's nothing personal,' he assured her, quickly. 'Just you don't know much about ships and well, I do…' He trailed off. Rose was simply lost for words. They had come to the end of the corridor.

In front of them was a vast window. It spread across an entire wall, and they found themselves looking down upon a vast, sprawling city that was all black stone and silver metal, with small ships and shuttles flittering about the towering spires like tiny, shiny beetles. The sky was dark, a single moon floating above the city. It was a city of towers and sky-scrapers, and the building that they were stood inside was so high that when Rose peered at the view outside, she couldn't even see the ground.

'Welcome to Cyber City,' a computerised, female voice said from above their heads. Rose jumped and looked up. The Doctor continued to look down at the view.

'That's what this place is?' Rose asked him.

He nodded. 'However many times I see this, it's still strangely beautiful,' he said. 'But what a name for a place, honestly. How tacky is that? It's not as if this place is the centre of technology and information in the universe. Although, to be fair, it was when it was first built. Did you know that there are people who live here who have never set foot on the ground? Amazing. And this building,' he continued. 'This is the Spiral, the central building of the city. Oldest building on the planet, all the bigwigs live here. All the powers. I remembered when they opened it.' He smiled reflectively. 'It was a nice day but then it started raining and all the aristocracy got wet. That was funny.'

'Where do we go from here?' she asked, not replying to the monologue. He didn't expect her to and it was more for his own benefit than hers.

'Oh, I don't know,' he said cheerfully. 'We'll take a look around, trouble will come and find us at some point.'

'It usually does,' Rose agreed.

He gave her a wide grin and offered his arm. 'Shall we go?' he asked.

She took his arm and returned the grin. 'Why not?'

Hopefully, the next chapter won't be too long; unfortunately, my current timetable isn't as dedicated to writing as I am and assessments have to come first!