Chapter 1

The amateur spy

The TARDIS parked on the garden in the middle of the night, waking up everyone inside. Thais jumped out of her bed, laughing at the sound of the spaceship, and ran outside. The ten year old rushed into her father's arms as he stepped into the garden, and buried her head on his shoulders.

"Hello, darling" he said, caressing her hair and grinning, "How have you been? I bet you were a good girl while I was travelling, eh?"

"Where did you go this time, daddy?" she asked, and started searching his pockets. He always brought sweets or toys from his trips, and this time was no exception: there was a box of jelly babies in one of his coat pockets.

"Don't open that, young lady. You can have those tomorrow morning" said a familiar voice, and Lune Birtai, renowned scientist, head of the investigation department of the Academy of Gallifrey, Thais' mum and the doctor's wife, came out the door in a dressing gown.

The doctor left Thais on the floor and went towards his wife. Thais watched (and ate jelly babies) as her parents joined in a big hug, and her dad started asking questions about the past week. He was always like that: he left without warning, for days, weeks and sometimes even months at a time, but when he came back he only wanted to hear the news about Gallifrey. Thais could count with her hands the times he had told her about his adventures.

It didn't really matter, though. Her big sister Runa said that once she grew up, dad would take her on adventures too. He had even taken Thais' niece Susan, a long time ago, so long that Thais hadn't even been born yet. It was one of the things about timelords: they lived for so long that sometimes one couldn't meet even their own nieces and nephews.

Thais had two older siblings: Runa, who was five hundred and seventy four years old and piloted a super cool spaceship in the army, and Ainur, who had just turned three hundred and wanted to become a writer. None of them lived at home anymore (Runa had lived in Antares with her husband since forever, and Ainur was working in Fines as a lawyer while he wrote his first book), so there was only Thais and mum to welcome dad back from his trip.

They finally went inside (mum took the jelly babies from her first, and told her off for eating them so late at night), and then Thais' parents sent her to bed. Knowing that complaining was of no use, she went to her bedroom and waited a good ten minutes, until she was sure her parents thought she was asleep. Then, she got out of bed and walked as quietly as possible to the living room door, from where she could hear their voices. That was the only way of hearing dad's stories. Ainur had told her about it, and she was determined to test her brother's idea.

Just like Ainur had said, dad was talking about his trip. Mum seemed to know the people he was mentioning, but Thais couldn't understand a thing. Who the hell had names like Brigadier, K9 or Sarah Jane? Humans were very weird.

Dad kept talking for a while, telling mum a story about daleks and spaceships. He seemed pretty tired, and Thais started dozing off. Maybe mum was right, it was really late.

She opened her eyes and realized she had fallen asleep in the corridor. Her parents were talking about something completely different now, but it looked like they hadn't noticed her. She let out a breath in relief.

"What was that thing you wanted to tell me earlier?" dad asked, all of a sudden. "The one you didn't want Thais to hear."

Thais held her breath. Alright, this was getting interesting! She couldn't make any noise now, or she might never know.

"Oh, that" mom said, and was it Thais' imagination or she seemed a little flustered? "I have some news for you".

Dad's armchair creaked, and Thais supposed he must have sat upright. "Good news or bad news?"

"Good. Fantastic news, in fact."

"Well, don't leave me hanging. What is it?"

"We're having another baby."

Thais cried "Oh!" out loud without even noticing. She covered her mouth with her hands, but it was too late. Her parents were already at the door.

"Well, look who's here!" dad said, but he didn't look angry. "Miss Thais herself! Didn't I tell you to go to bed an hour ago?"

"Uh… Are you really having a baby?"

Mum picked her up and gave her a hug. "Yes we are, monkey. But it was supposed to be a surprise."

"Is it a boy or a girl?" Thais asked, too excited to think about anything else. "When will she arrive? We can share my bedroom if she wants to. And what are we going to call her?"

"Easy, Thais." Dad laughed, "It might be a boy, you know. And babies take a while to arrive."

"How long?"

"Seven months. Hey, don't be like that. Some species take longer. Humans, for example, need nine months."

"We'll talk more about it tomorrow, alright?" mum said. "But now you're going to bed. No tricks this time."

She didn´t have an option to trick them anyway. Her parents stayed at her bedroom door until they were completely sure she had fallen asleep.

Dad was right, the baby needed a long time to arrive. The days passed, summer ended, Thais had to go back to the Academy, and mum was still pregnant. You couldn't notice much the baby, either. But everybody was really excited. Dad said he wasn't going on a trip for at least two years (that was really good news),and Ainur and Runa visited a lot more than usual. Still, the schoolyear started and Thais had to say goodbye.

The Academy was at the heart of Arcadia. It was by far the biggest building, even though there wasn't that much people inside. It was fully equipped with everything the students might need, so much so that no one left the Academy except for holidays. Classes started very early in the morning and ended late at night, and Thais ended up so tired she barely had time to think about anything else. She liked school, though.

Mum and dad kept sending her letters (it was the only way of communication allowed): mum's letters were very long, and contained tons of stories. Thais' best friend Maya said that mum didn't write letters, she sent Thais pages of her diary. Dad's letters were much shorter, but much more fun. He always told her random things that went through his head, and funny stories that had happened. Thais found out that Runa had regenerated (her third regeneration, she believed) through mum, but it was dad who told her that the new Runa's first words had been: "Do I really have two eyes? Really? But I can only see one picture. Where is the second one?"

According to dad, poor Runa had been very disoriented during the first hours of her regeneration cycle. She got better, though. Thais' sister was tough as nails.

Her birthday came, and Ainur got permission from the Academy principal, Rassilon, to visit Thais. Only one family member was allowed, and the baby was about to arrive, so mum and dad couldn't come, he said. But he brought his phone, and while nobody was looking he got Thais to facetime with mum and dad. They had to cut it short because a teacher approached them, but it was nice to see her parents after so many months.

The baby was a boy, she already knew it, and she had been pretty bummed about it, but she couldn't help to notice that Ainur was really enthusiastic about having a little brother. Three hundred years younger, he said, but still a little brother. Mum and dad had just decided on a nickname for him: Edain.

"What do you mean a nickname?" Thais asked. "What is going to be his name then?"

Ainur looked confused. "We don't know, monkey. Haven't you learned that lesson yet?"

"Nope." Thais shook her head. "What is it with the name, then?"

"Well, you know that names are dangerous, right?" She nodded. "Okay, the thing is that nobody is supposed to call you by your name, not even your family. If we did, someone might come, memorise it and use it against you in the future. That's why everyone goes by their nickname."

"Wait, so Thais isn't really my name?"

"No, it isn't. Mum and dad are the only ones that know your name, monkey. They'll tell you when you finish school, like they did with me and Runa."

"So mum and dad have to choose both a name and a nickname, right?"

"Oh, no. Nobody knows what a kid's name is until they're born. Your name is your history, Thais. It explains the best and the worst things you're ever going to do, that's why it's so dangerous. And nobody is allowed to see the future and tell afterwards, so nobody knows the baby's name yet."

"But then…"

"Let me finish. When Edain's born, his name will be written on the sky for a split second. Dad will be outside waiting for it, and he'll write it down so that he can tell Edain when he's older."

"Ooh. Okay, I think I get it. Wait a second, does that mean that grandma and grandpa named their baby Doctor? You can do that?"

"What?" said Ainur, and he laughed. "No, dad simply changed his nickname when he grew up. He had a normal one when he was a baby, I think."

"Alright. I suppose that makes sense. It would have been weird otherwise."

Ainur had to leave soon after that conversation, but he promised to take her home as soon as Edain was born. He said mum had already talked about it with the principal, and that they had agreed to make an exception. He also said that it might happen in a few weeks, three maximum. When she heard the news, Thais wanted to scream in happiness.