Doc Seven Prologue
When you hear a noise in the dead of night you should most definitely, under no circumstances walk towards it.
Samantha Anderson knew this. She had seen it on horror movies countless times, sneaking back downstairs when her aunt wasn't watching to catch the ending. The person who wandered off alone was the first to meet some bloody, gory Hollywood style ending. If you went to check out the noise on your own, you were gonna be killed.
As she sat up in bed with slightly too large Pokémon pyjamas, she thought about it for a second. But the alternative was never knowing what the noise was. And that wasn't really a great option, either. She ungracefully fell out of bed, rubbing sleep from her eyes, and took a step forward.
Ouch. Sam let out a hiss of pain.
Hopping around awkwardly she rubbed a toe, not noticing what she had stubbed her toe on. She paused and looked down, realization hitting her. And she picked it up. "You beauty." Sam told the torch. It was a plastic green torch and designed for a keyring. Flicking it on, Sam was momentarily blinded as a flash of white light hit her eyes.
"Oww…" Sam moaned. The adventure hadn't started well. Sam was tempted to just go back to sleep. It hadn't even been a loud noise, and school started again tomorrow.
Then Sam heard it again. A low pitched hum and footsteps. Slower than before she left her room, shining the torch a few feet in front of her. She walked on tiptoes past her Aunts room, but her aunt was always a deep sleeper and even now Sam could hear deep rumbles of sleep coming from her room.
Making it to the stairs she hopped down two at a time, and walked straight into the police box.
"Whoa." She muttered, staring up at the blue phone box. She remembered seeing pictures of it in the old photos her Grandad had shown her when she lived with him. "…and those were police boxes. You used to have a police man inside and you'd have to shout for them." Sam remembered thinking they looked like red phone boxes, only blue and bigger.
Sam walked round to the front and knocked because she thought it was the polite thing to do. Sam was still going to go in, because if no one answered then it wasn't like she was trespassing or anything, cause there was no one there in the first place. Sam reached for the door handle when-
"Oi! That's my ship!"
Sam turned. There was a man standing there. Sam couldn't really see anything- he was standing too far in the shadows- but he sounded northern.
"Uh…" Sam said, and then felt stupid.
"What's a twenty-first century kid doing in sixteenth century Paris?" The man asked, but he didn't sound angry. He just sounded curious.
Who managed to get London confused with Paris? Maybe he wasn't great at Geography. Sam could relate. "What's a strange man doing in my Aunts house in the middle of the night?" Sam retorted. Then remembered her aunt said you should be polite to strangers. It was possible he was a lost postman, delivering letters in the middle of the night. "This isn't Paris. This is where I, like, live." Sam said in an attempt to be polite.
A blue light shone in a circle for a few seconds. "Oh, so it is." The man said, and in the brief blue light she could see the outline of big ears.
"Who are you?" Sam asked. She wasn't sure if she should've started a conversation with that. Adults did a lot, but Sam figured it kind of wasted time. But there was a strange man standing at the foot of her Aunt's house stairs. If this wasn't a good situation to ask, she didn't know what was.
"I'm the Doctor." The man –the Doctor- said.
"I'm Sam. Sam Anderson."
"Nice to meet you Sam."
Sam looked from the Doctor to the elephant in the room. Well, police box in the room. "If you're a doctor why d'you live in a police box?"
"It's my ship, the TARDIS. All of time and space, and back in time for tea." The Doctor said, and he sounded impressive, standing there in the half shadow and casually bringing up time travel. "Oh. Okay." Sam said. Maybe she should have said something deep and meaningful, but it seemed too good to be true. Like, had he said time and space?
Sam began rambling suddenly. "Is this a dream? Like, no offence, but northern bloke turns up with a time travel machine. Ahh, this is a dream isn't it? And I've got maths tomorrow and everything…" Sam groaned. Of course time travel wouldn't exist outside of films.
"It's not a dream! Why do humans always have to see a reasonable explanation when there isn't one?" The Doctor said. He held up the glowing blue stick and the blue light. "The TARDIS is bigger on the inside. That seem like the kind of thing you find in a dream?"
"Yeah." Sam said.
"Fair point, actually. Wanna have a look inside anyway? If this is a dream it won't do any harm."
The Doctor stepped into the TARDIS and Sam hesitated for a second. If she stayed there was school, homework and getting up in the morning. If she went… what would happen? Was this even a dream? No, it had to be a dream. A weird, realistic dream. Sam decided she needed a pep talk with her subconciousness.
Sam followed the Doctor into the box anyway.
Sam had thought he had been joking. Or it was a reality TV show. Or there was some normal explanation for everything.
There wasn't.
The blue box was bigger on the inside. Sam stood in the door frame. She took a step in. She took a step back out, like a weird version of the Hokey-cokey.
The room was had a hexagon theme- hexagons on the walls. The room was a coppery colour, a bit steampunk-y and there was a console in the centre, which was lit up with a greenish light like a Halloween decoration. Bits of machinery covered the console. It was an alien spaceship- an actual spaceship. A part of Sam wanted to ask if it had warp drive.
"It's bigger on the inside." Sam said, feeling like it was a cliché. "Yep." The Doctor said, popping the P.
"So, like, when you said it travels the universe…" Sam said, her mind well and truly blown.
"Anywhere and everywhere." "Have you shown this to anyone else?" Sam asked, feeling like she might be the only person in the world who had been in the spaceship. Exhilarated, but a bit lonely, too.
"Yeah, a few." The Doctor said. Sam was overcome with curiosity but there was a sort of guarded look on the Doctors face that she couldn't work out so she decided not to ask. "Hey d'you have any shoes?" Sam asked suddenly, remembering she was barefoot, wearing Pokémon pyjamas and in an alien spaceship shaped like a police box.
If it had been a normal adult Sam would've expected them to give a sigh. A sigh that said You really should have brought shoes but because I'm so prepared I have a spare pair, here, take it you unprepared, shoeless child. The Doctor wasn't a normal adult though. "Yeah, course. You see that door? Third corridor down, door on the left." He gestured to one of the hexagon doors.
Sam hesitated a second. The Doctor hovered near the controls. "Do you always tell people this?" "Tell people what?" The Doctor looked confused. Sam was used to it. She had that effect on people.
"You know, like, say you're at Time Travellers Anonymous. My names the Doctor, and I have a time machine that travels in space. Oh, did I mention it travels in time as well?"
The Doctor laughed. But then he looked up. It was the same look her grandad used to have when he was looking for his glasses but then found them on top of his head.
"No. I don't always tell them that." He said softly.
As abruptly as flipping a switch he began to flip switches and turn controls with a manic energy.
Sam stumbled and reached out for support, grabbing onto some of the support railing that surrounded the console, not having a clue when or where they would end up, if this was a dream or not, and if she was ever going to find a pair of shoes.
Okay, so first half of the prologue. To be honest, I kind of think it isnt great, but Ive been trying to get it right since September, so Ive just gone for it. Reviews please! Constructive criticism please.