The Doctor stood in his TARDIS, the doors open, leaning against the frame. With a smile, he looked out at a nebula, deep into space. Every so often, he would come here, just because it was so peaceful. Normally, he thought peaceful was boring, but the beauty of the nebula captivated him. He was always running around the galaxy, getting into trouble, saving people from trouble, losing people, sometimes he liked to stand there and be at peace. To see something so beautiful it was beyond words gave him the strength to carry on with his journey's. The nebula was formed from billowing clouds of green and blue dust, swirling around each other as if dancing. Small streaks of red followed the clouds, then took paths of it's own, before coming back. A yellow haze encircled all the other colours, as if it were a protective blanket keeping the dancing children safe. There were few other places in the universe where the Doctor felt he could stand and just smile. This place had never been tarnished with battle or strife, it held no bad memories for the Doctor, it held no conflict. All it held for him was a sense of peace.
Behind the Doctor, he heard footsteps walking up to the main console. He turned around slightly to see Amy Pond's fiery red hair, pale skin, blue shirt and darker blue shorts.
"Good morning, Pond," the Doctor said cheerfully.
"Does it even count as morning if there's no sun to go by?" Amy said in her thoughtful sarcasm.
The Doctor laughed and turned back to look out of the TARDIS doors. Amy noticed he was stood there and stepped towards him.
"What'cha looking at?" She asked, inquisitively.
"It's a nebula," the Doctor said calmly. "No one has ever named it I don't think, at least the TARDIS console has nothing on it anyway. I like to call it the Child Nebula though."
Amy stood beside the Doctor and looked out at the beautiful sight. She was speechless for a second, taking in the vast billowing clouds and perfect colours. She had seen many things whilst on her journey with the Doctor and Rory, many beautiful things and many horrible things, but nothing quite compared to this.
"It's beautiful," Amy simply said.
"Where's Mr. Pond by the way?" The Doctor asked, realising the other man was absent.
"I told him to clean our room," Amy said, putting on a stern face.
"Clean your room?" The Doctor exclaimed, outraged. "Why would you want to clean you room? No, it's much more fun messed up. I insist that you go tell him to stop immediately."
Amy turned her stern look on the Doctor.
"Or, not," the Doctor said, fearing that expression.
"Where are we going today anyway?" Amy asked, stepping away from the door and towards the control console.
"I was thinking we could go to Corrosolvis," the Doctor said excitedly, stepping away from the door as well. "Each member of the ruling species has 6 heads on long necks and tiny little arms, their plays are just hilarious."
The Doctor clicked his fingers and the TARDIS doors closed. Then he looked round and saw Amy's disapproving face.
"Ok," the Doctor continued. "How about the Jelly Comet?"
"Jelly Asteroid?" Amy asked, completely confused.
"Ah, yes," the Doctor hesitantly answered. "There was a small planet and two men got into a practical joke war. Long story short, a practical joke went wrong, really really wrong, and they wound up with a few hundred tonnes of jelly. So they shot it into space and it froze as a giant ball."
"That was your practical joke, wasn't it?" Amy said dryly.
"Well, he started it!" The Doctor exclaimed.
Amy laughed at his reaction. Then considered the Jelly comet.
"I think it'd be interesting to ice skate on frozen jelly," Amy said, thoughtfully.
"Oh and there's more to it than just ice skating," the Doctor continued. "The jelly wibbled about a lot when it was sent off, so there are some really interesting formation in the ice too!"
Amy laughed again, then stood up leaned on the console.
"Alright, let's go ice-skating," Amy said, smiling.
"We're going ice skating?" A male voice asked behind the Doctor.
"Yes, Rory, on jelly," the Doctor said, spinning round. "Do try to keep up, will you?"
"But I..." Rory began. "Wait, jelly?"
"I'll explain later, stupid face," Amy called to him.
"Right then, off we..." the Doctor began, but was interrupted.
There was a beep from the control console. The Doctor looked it at curiously. Amy and Rory followed his line of sight and saw what he was looking at. A small light was flashing on the console that wasn't before. The Doctor walked round and took a closer inspection.
"Doctor, what's wrong?" Amy asked, a little worried.
"That wasn't flashing before, why is it flashing?" The Doctor asked, looking a little concerned himself.
The flashing changed, different durations the light stayed on, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. The Doctor watched. He quickly realised it was morse code. He grabbed a pen and pencil from inside his pocket and began to write the letters.
"I-L-L-E-N-D-2-4-H-O-U-R-S-A-N-D-T-H-E-E-A-R-T-H-W-I-L-L-E-N-D-2-4-H-O-U-R-S-A-N-D-T-H-E-E-A-R-T-H-W-I-L-L-E-N-D-2-4-H-O-U-R-S"
"Doctor, what is it?" Amy asked, becoming a little frantic. "What does that mean?"
"Someone is sending a message," The Doctor said, very quietly. "24 hours and the Earth will end."
"What?" Rory asked, surprised.
"They sent it straight through the console," The Doctor said, jumping up and running around to the other side. "Whoever it is must be sending one hell of a signal to get it in here, which means this is simple. I can track the signal back to it's origin, get a time and date and follow the signal all the way back."
He pressed a few buttons and dragged the monitor around in front of him. On the screen showed a time and a date. 27th June 2012. The Doctor ran around to the other side of the TARDIS and flipped a switch, then span a dial next to it. Then he came back round and pulled the lever down to send the TARDIS flying through the vortex. A few seconds later, the familiar engine sounds blared out, signifying that they had landed. The Doctor ran towards the door, looking at his watch as he went. He opened the doors and shot out, followed by Amy and Rory.
"Everything's normal," Amy pointed out.
"I missed a bit, we're 20 seconds early," the Doctor explained.
"But, everything's normal, shouldn't there be something more going on if the world is about to end?" Rory asked.
"Just wait, 2 seconds," the Doctor said.
Almost as soon as he'd finished saying that, the 2 seconds were up. Dong, dong, dong, sounded the TARDIS cloister bell. The Doctor span round to look at the TARDIS as the doors closed.
"What?" The Doctor screamed.
The engines flared up and the TARDIS began to de-materialise on it's own. The Doctor ran forward, but the TARDIS had disappeared before he could reach it.
"No!" The Doctor shouted, looking up at the sky. "Come back here!"
"Doctor," Amy asked, panicking. "What is going on?"
The Doctor span round and looked at Amy with a look neither she nor Rory had ever seen before. Pure panic.
"The TARDIS is so scared it's run away without us," the Doctor said, every inch of his face creased with fear. "It's the end of the world."