Chapter One
„Damn these handbrakes!" the Doctor ranted.
The lights were flickering when the Tardis hit the ground ruggedly.
He had to hold on to the guard rail to avoid to be catapulted to the floor.
Something was wrong.
The stabilizers should at least have absorbed the main landing force. Unless….
He dragged one of the screens towards him. The outside camera was showing flat badlands. Nothing conspicuous, no offenders, just the alarming fact that someone did send a distress call from the surface of this planet.
He felt thousands of butterflies performing a wild dance inside his stomach. The picture on the monitor was peaceful, but still as faked as the cheap tricks of a bad magician. He felt the strong beat of his two hearts, pumping adrenaline through his body.
Since he was travelling alone again, he did not leave out any chance to find an adventure. Every kind of stagnancy tortured his body like thousands of small needles. It was the emptiness inside his head that was driving him mad. There was a blank space inside is memory, which was occupied years ago. But he could not remember anything. And now, when even River was gone, he was drifting around time and space, feeling like an ageing balloon that's floating to the ground, slowly and inexorably. Only the upswing of a new adventure kept him alive. Who ever had sent this call for help, he was going to find him.
The Doctor squared his shoulders, opened the Tardis door and stepped outside.
He inhaled, tasted the air and understood instantly. The picture in front of his eyes, did not match the atmosphere. He saw meager wasteland but the air was sticky and clammy like the tropes. He slowly prostrated, grabbed a bit of sand and grated it between his fingers. It was wet.
Far too late he noticed the movement behind his back. A loud bang indicated that the Tardis had switched to safety modus and closed the door automatically.
Just when he wanted to turn around, the world surrounding him blurred like an acrylic picture doused with water. The desert melted and all of a sudden the rich green of tropical plants appeared between the brown stones.
Of course! A Hologram!
That's why the landing was so rough.
The Tardis had counted with a flat surface, but actually it was standing on a small hill.
The reality appeared and uncovered a dark jungle as well as a bunch of human looking people.
"Oh! Hello! I'm the Doctor!" he said kindly and was trying to stand up.
Then something hard hit the back of his head and dragged his reality into black darkness.