Chapter 1: Vita
The TARDIS landed with the usual bump sending sparks everywhere. The Doctor fell across the control panel and Donna landed on the floor with a heavy bump.
"You're a careful driver then!" said Donna, as gingerly regained her balance, "I take it you didn't pass your driving test, or if you did then you must have bribed the examiner!
"Always and no I didn't pass the test," replied the Doctor, then he turned to her with a large grin, "but who needs tests to tell you, you can do something anyway!"
"Hmmm" replied Donna, smiling back.
The Doctor was looking into the control screen trying to figure out where they had landed, while Donna walked back to the captain's chair and sat down with a small "oww". The Doctor noticed.
"Are you ok? Sorry about that but that's a hazard of time travel, you see. You only get a few nano seconds to actually see where you're landing!"
"I'll be ok" replied Donna. She looked at the Doctor as he raced around the control panel and pressed a few more buttons. He suddenly gave a look of astonishment.
"Where are we?" asked Donna.
The Doctor ran his hand through his hair and scratched the back of his head in thought, while still looking at the screen,
"I don't know" he said, seriously.
"You don't know? Wonderful!"
He suddenly smiled, ran towards the door grabbing his brown coat and turned to Donna,
"Let's have a look!" he said seriously, "but there are some rules that I have to make you aware of…1," he raised his hand, with one finger raised, "don't touch anything at all…nothing, nada, zilch, zip" he said emphasising the "P"
"2," he raised another finger, "Keep close to me and if you see anything odd then keep away from it, 4… no…3… umm, just be cautious and keep your wits about you. And I'll get to 4 when it comes to me! Ok?"
"Ok, that seems like sound advice, but you don't trust me do you?" replied Donna
The Doctor didn't reply but turned towards the door of the TARDIS. Donna just kept standing where she was until the Doctor turned around again, wondering why she wasn't coming.
"You're not coming then? New alien world out there, don't you want to see it?" asked the Doctor, indicating towards the doors.
"Yeah, but you told me to keep away from anything odd so I am," she said jokingly, half- smiling.
"What do you--… oh," started the Doctor, as he got what her meaning, "charming…that's all I can say! I can't believe I am being insulted already and I haven't done anything yet! ", "TYPICAL!" he said, with a mock hurt expression on his face
"But," he began after a moments thought, "if I wasn't 'odd' then I wouldn't be that interesting would I?" he said with a smile.
"Come on; let's have a look around before I go past being odd."
Donna smiled and walked towards the door. They both went through the door, the Doctor going first. Donna walked through, expecting to see a strange world with something like a purple sky and red sand (she didn't know why she was expecting that but never mind). What she saw disappointed her. All she saw was a normal looking alleyway, empty and silent. It reminded her of Earth.
"Is this Earth?" she asked the Doctor.
"Oh, no but a good imitation though. Very clever," replied the Doctor, looking around the alleyway.
"Then where are we?"
"We are on a planet called Vita. They use, I believe, holograms or computer projection thingies to make the traveller believe they are on earth," replied the Doctor.
"I thought you didn't know where we were?" said Donna
"I know everything!" he grinned
"Ok, so if you know everything then why would they do that?" asked Donna
"No idea, what do you think?" asked the Doctor
Donna thought about it for a minute.
"Err…maybe its like making a TV set, an image to cover something up?" she replied
"Good answer, but why, is the question that needs answering and by whom." replied the Doctor, "We need to have a look around a bit more,"
He turned to Donna, "Come on!"
After locking the door of the TARDIS, they began walking up the alleyway. They followed it as it turned left, right, this way and that.
"Doctor, have you ever been here before?" asked Donna, as they continued walking up the alley, which seemed to her to never end.
"No, I haven't although, I have heard several stories."
"Like what?" asked Donna
The Doctor started telling Donna the various stories he had been told as a child, about how the Vitans, whom he was told, were a peaceful and docile race with a beautiful planet. Then he thought to himself, in his mind, why on earth would they want to cover it up?
Meanwhile, Donna looked around trying to take everything in, while acting like she was listening to the Doctor. She had never been one to pay attention when someone was talking about something that seemed boring or uninteresting. Although, she thought she would be interested because she wanted to see new worlds. Then she remembered how she had always been told that she had the attention span of a gnat or that she was stupid, just because she didn't find something interesting. Thank you mother, she thought.
Suddenly, she saw something glint in the corner of her eye. She looked to see what it was, while the Doctor kept walking, talking to himself. As she drew closer, the object slowly revealed itself to be something resembling a mobile phone. She picked it up and took a closer look.
It looked like one of those sliding ones, but she wondered why something like that would be on an alien planet, maybe it was part of the fake alleyway. She tried calling the Doctor but he seemed engrossed in what he was saying.
The Doctor kept walking up the alleyway still talking to him-self then he suddenly noticed that Donna was not beside him. He stopped and looked back to see Donna holding some kind of object in her hand.
"Donna, what have you found?" he shouted.
It appeared that she wasn't listening. He started to move towards Donna.
"Donna?" he shouted again, but still there was no response.
"Donna, put it down and back aw…" he begun.
He was interrupted by a sound of something sliding out and opening up. This made him start to race back to Donna. He knew this was something bad but before he reached her, he heard a voice saying, "Come to me". Suddenly, a bright light lit up the whole alleyway, so brightly that it blinded him for a few seconds. There were screams and a sudden sound of a hurricane breezing through. The Doctor was knocked off his feet and landed heavily on the floor. It was over as fast as it had begun. Everything was dark again and there was only a noise of the object hitting the stone floor.
The Doctor felt himself on the floor, after being knocked back by the energy, or whatever it was. He took a minute to get his breath back as it had been knocked out of him by his fall. He shouted for Donna again but there was no reply. He quickly looked around a bit more but Donna was no where to be seen. All he could see was a small black object on the floor where it had fallen.
He got himself up and began towards it. He picked it up and started turning it in his hands. He couldn't figure out what it was. It didn't even look familiar to him. He had never seen anything like it in his life. He then realised that the device had actually taken her itself. Where to and how? he thought. He found no way to know the answers exactly for sure.
He headed back towards the TARDIS and began to perform tests on it. He tried to activate the device with his sonic screwdriver but nothing seemed to happen. It was puzzling but he knew that all puzzles had an answer and he already knew that he would reach one. The question was when.