Although I've had the vague shape of this story in my head for a while, I've found it difficult to get down on the page. Thankfully my university exams are finishing soon (tomorow afternoon) and my good friend and fellow Who and Eddie Izzard fangirl Phe has been there to listen to my rambling and workshop my ideas through Instant Message RPG! Here's the first chapter!
As ever, reveiws are love -
The planet of Tanel was not a particularly hospitable planet. It had no atmosphere and howling sola winds. However it's situation between Faraq, a farming planet where the best Fara meat could be obtained, the constellation Cetes containing the planet Varos, where the valuable fuel zeiton 7 was mined, and the highly wealthy planet of Gaxatron Major, where both Fara meat and zeiton 7 was consumed in large quantaties, meant Tanel settlers had built a enviro-dome which had become a good stop-over spot for traders and smugglers alike. It was a rough place where you had to keep your wits about you and where the predominant business was made-up of small bars and greasy diners.
The Doctor was of course, neither a trader nor a smuggler. He had no particular reason for coming to Tanel at this point in time, other than it was a place where he could sit, think and be left alone. He sat with a glass of water in front of him, staring out at the surface of Tanel from within a bar that boasted the best views of the planet surface.
After he had left Donna on earth, the pain had hit him fully. He could never see Rose again. She wouldn't even know how he felt about her. The fact that the Doctor himself didn't know exactly what it was that he felt about her, did not make it any easier.
She however, had laid her feelings bare on the beach in Norway. Choking back tears she said. "I love you."
"Quite right too," The Doctor had replied, unable at first to come to terms with his emotions. But by the time he had been able to say the words it was too late. Why hadn't he been able to reciprocate initially?
"Drowning your sorrows with water is no good! This one's on the house sweetheart." Said a female voice from behind him.
The Doctor snapped back to reality as a hand put a stronger drink in front of him. He realised a few tears were trailing down his face. Embarrassed and not wanting the stranger to see his grief, he wiped them away with the pinstriped sleeve of his blazer. The stranger took a seat next to him but the Doctor, wanting to be left alone, did not look over and kept silent.
After a period of silence, the young woman introduced herself "My name's Dita Gardener, what's your name?"
"John Smith." The Doctor replied quietly, hoping that the woman would realise he didn't want to talk and leave him alone.
"Good name," replied the stranger, "I had a good friend who went by that name. He's dead now though." The Doctor didn't reply, just thought of all of his dead and lost friends. "What brings you to Tanel?"
The Doctor spoke up this time, realising the woman was not going to leave him alone "Just ended up here, I wanted to loose myself." he mumbled sulkily.
"Me too, I tend to end up places and seem to always get jobs serving as a waitress or barmaid." The woman said chirpily, "And as for loosing yourself, you just have to make sure you don't loose your wallet and your morals here too!" and with that he turned to serve the other less-savoury characters in the bar.
The Doctor rolled these words around in his head for a bit and something in his memory set alarm bells ringing. He brushed it off and finished the water. He gave the other drink a sniff and thought it better not to consume it. He stood up to leave, putting on his brown jacket and looked over to where the barmaid was serving an alien customer. She turned her head and the Doctor gasped.
She looked to be in her late twenties and wore lots of tribal-looking jewellery including a spiral of bone priced through her nose and ear lobes and lots of intricate metal bangles which seemed to rattle as she moved. Despite being hidden under the elaborate jewellery having aged somewhat the Doctor recognised the woman. Her name wasn't Dita Gardener, but Dorothy Gale McShane, better known as Ace.
Seeing the Doctor leaving, Ace walked over to try to convince him to stay and spend some money. "Sure I can't convince you to buy yourself another drink?"
But the Doctor ignored her. "I'm sorry but, what did you say your name was again?"
"Dita," Ace replied, she looked confused but there was no doubt about who the girl was.
The Doctor realised he had been staring at her for some time and thought it better to find a reason to stay until he could talk to Ace without blowing her cover. She was probably using the false name for a reason and the Doctor didn't want to put her in danger.
"Yes a drink, I'll have another drink." He said, before adding "Soft drink."
The Doctor searched through his jacket pockets for some of the Tanel currency removing an assortment of things from his jack: string, some crumpled up paper, a large, broken remote control, the battered leather wallet in which is psychic paper was stored and his sonic screwdriver. Ace stared at the device and the Doctor saw that she recognised it. She had been there when he had made one of his sonic screwdrivers and despite his current version of the device looking different to the one she had seen him make, she definitely recognised it. She stared into the Doctor's eyes, looking like she'd seen a ghost.
"Is that you Professor?" she asked in a timidly, lacking the confidence she had spoken with before. She suddenly looked younger to the Doctor, more like the Ace he had first met on Ice World all those years ago.
The Doctor stared levelly at her before giving the slightest of smiles and a wink. Ace put her hand to her mouth and looked as though she was either going to be sick or break down crying. Luckily she did neither. "I know it isn't safe to talk here," The Doctor said as quickly and quietly as he could for her to still hear and understand him "so is there somewhere we can talk?"
Ace nodded, "My shift finishes in an hour. Stay in the bar and tail me to my apartment." She whispered.