Jackson was unpacking his things in the small room on the TARDIS where he would be sleeping. He jumped on the cot and he saw it was soft and moderately comfortable. He had definitely slept on worse. It took a little time to take in. He was traveling the universe with a strange woman in a blue box. It wasn't like anything Jackson had done, but then again it wasn't like anything most people ever did. Just then the Doctor, dressed in her trademark pink sweater, jeans and sneakers came into the room. Jackson also noticed her blond hair was tied up in a double bun.
"So Jackson, ready to go see the universe?" asked the Doctor.
Before responding Jackson noted that the Doctor had called him his real name instead of her nickname "ginge boy".
"Hell yeah," answered Jackson.
"Then come on down," said the Doctor who led Jackson to the control room.
"You know," said Jackson, "I don't even know what species you are," he said.
"I'm a Time Lady of Galifrey. The oldest and most powerful species in the universe," she explained.
"Oh so are we going to visit them anytime?" Jackson asked.
"We can't, Galifrey is trapped in a pocket universe," she explained.
"Oh, it must be hard knowing you can't go back," said Jackson.
"Trust me its much better than thinking they're dead," said the Doctor. "Now where would you like to go first?" she asked. "It's called Time and Relative Dimension in Space so anywhere in the universe you want."
Jackson thought for a second.
"Well I've always wondered about the future, and there's no point staying on Earth when you're on an alien ship so I'll go with another planet in the future," Jackson reasoned.
"You've got it," said the Doctor.
She pressed a few buttons on the control panel, pulled a lever and Jackson heard the familiar wheezing sound. As he heard the thump of the TARDIS landing he felt his heart thump in excitement.
"Where are we?" he asked.
The Doctor gave a knowing smile and walked out. Jackson followed and saw that they were in the middle of a lush jungle. Jackson could tell it was steamy and hot as soon as he was outside and felt glad he had only worn his t- shirt. It was a wonder the Doctor could survive in the sweater. Jackson would've believed they could be in the Amazon if he didn't see a green planet in the sky next to the sun.
"Welcome to the jungle planet, Magella in the 33rd century," announced the Doctor.
"Wow is it inhabited?" Jackson asked.
"Not until now, the Earth has started colonizing again after the fall of the First Earth Empire. I suspect we might see some human explorers around," said the Doctor.
"Hands in the air, both of you!" came a loud voice.
Jackson turned to see a thin young woman in a beret and a camouflage t- shirt pointing a huge gun at them.
"Is that one of the human explorers?" asked Jackson.
"Yeah looks like it," said the Doctor.
"Is it like this everywhere for you?" Jackson hissed.
"Pretty close," the Doctor said.
"Show me some ID," said the soldier.
"It's ok," said the Doctor.
She pulled out a blank white card, which Jackson had learned was "psychic paper". The Doctor said it should be able to fool anyone in the universe into thinking the holder was who they said they were. Jackson hoped it worked because he didn't feel like getting shot by a technologically advanced gun. The Doctor strode up to the woman soldier.
"I'm Joan Smith, government inspector of the Haitian Empire," said the Doctor. "That's my assistant, Jackson Rogers," she said pointing to Jackson.
The Doctor gave the woman soldier the psychic paper. The woman gave it back and smiled.
"Hello Ms. Smith sorry for the hostility. You can never be sure when the Greenlandic Nations will send out spies," she said.
The woman motioned for Jackson to come over and shook his and the Doctor's hands. Jackson smiled. "Haitian Empire"? "Greenlandic Nations"? It seemed much had changed on Earth also in the future.
"My name is Carla Cook," she said.
"Nice to meet you Ms. Cook," said the Doctor
"Uh yeah nice to meet you," Jackson repeated
"Let me bring you two to the camp," said Carla.
She led them through the thick jungle. She cut through the undergrowth with a weapon that looked like a regular machete but made a buzzing sound. Jackson wondered what it was.
"Is that machete sonic?" the Doctor asked.
"Yeah, why did you want to know?" Carla responded.
"Oh I just love sonic stuff," she answered.
"So you seem young to be a government inspector Jackson," Carla inquired.
Jackson's brain froze. Was their cover blown? He tried to think of a good answer. Luckily the Doctor answered for him.
"Oh yeah he's right out of the academy," said the Doctor.
Carla shook her head.
"Next thing you know the Empire's gonna be recruiting teenagers," she exclaimed.
They cut through the last patch of undergrowth. They walked out to find a shoreline with a vast ocean beyond it. A few yards away Jackson saw a few tents set up in a circle around a small torch looking device. It reminded Jackson of the Goblet of Fire from the Harry Potter books. That is if the Goblet of Fire had a hologram as flames. Jackson saw a tall Asian man with wavy hair waving to Carla. Jackson, the Doctor and Carla finally walked to the tents.
"I see you've found some new people, Carla," said the tall man.
"Government inspectors from the Empire," Carla explained.
"Oh that's just what we need now," said the man exasperatedly.
"That's Jackson Rogers, I'm Joan Smith," said the Doctor.
"Well I guess we might as well introduce ourselves," said the man. "Guys get up!" he ordered.
An older man with a light jacket, a young blond guy and a woman who looked remarkably like Carla came out of their respective tents.
Pointing to the older man the tall man said "That's Thagnox, the blond guy's Rakor, you've met Carla, the woman is her twin sister Kirene, and I'm Pete," he finished. "We're the Third Regiment of the Haitian Exploratory Commission," Pete said.
"Nice to meet you," said Jackson plainly. Meanwhile the Doctor was closely inspecting the hologram fire.
"Is that a holo-heater," asked the Doctor.
"Yeah it really comes in handy during cold nights," said Kirene.
"Ok well you guys can go back to what you're doing," said Pete. "Carla you come with me to show these guys along," he said.
He led them to a huge tent. Jackson followed the Doctor, Carla and Pete inside. Pete grabbed a big device from the back of the tent.
"This is your basic uni-scanner," Pete explained. "We use it to scan for life signs, water, air type etc." he finished.
He pulled out a much smaller device that looked like an incredibly tiny, Ipod. He held it in front of him.
"This is an advanced flash disk," Pete said. "In case we find sentient life it contains information on our history, our physiology and basically an account of the Human race," he finished.
The Doctor nodded.
"Everything looks in order. We'll just need to stay a few days, and see your day to day routine," she said.
"Ok you'll need to stay with us," said Pete.
"Where do we sleep?" Jackson asked.
"We have plenty of extra tents," said Carla.
Jackson might have been imagining it but he thought he saw Pete shoot Carla a look of warning. The Doctor looked like she had noticed it too. A thoughtful look crossed her face.
"There aren't many people here for a full regiment of the Exploratory Commission," the Doctor pointed out.
This time Pete and Carla definitely exchanged a look.
"We had a few members drop out before we came," said Pete quickly. "Let me show you your tents," he said, changing the subject.
After they were shown their tents and left alone Jackson turned to the Doctor.
"I think they're hiding something," said Jackson.
"Yeah I got that too," said the Doctor.
"What do you think it is?" asked Jackson.
"I don't know but it's definitely something important enough that they want to hide it from us," said the Doctor.
Jackson was very curious about what was going on, but the curiosity was forgotten after he and the Doctor got settled in with the group. First they waded into the water and found some small alien fish and picking them up. (The Doctor seemed to be communicating with it). They came out as it started to get dark. Jackson got into a competition with Rakor who turned out to be really cool, to see who could get more pebbles in the holo- heater. Pete eventually broke it up and told them they should go to sleep because they would be starting up early the next morning.
Unfortunately an hour later Jackson was still not asleep. He just couldn't get over being on an alien planet. He crawled out of the tent to see the Doctor standing outside of her tent.
"Couldn't sleep?" she asked, turning to Jackson.
"No, its just I can't get over being here I mean…" he trailed off.
"Go on," said the Doctor.
"I mean I died over 1000 years ago across the Universe," he said. "It's just hard to believe it's possible," he said.
The Doctor nodded. In the moonlight, or rather the two moons light Jackson noticed how tall she was. She was definitely attractive even if she was probably almost ten years too old for him.
"It's not uncommon. A lot of my companions feel that way their first couple journeys," said the Doctor.
So I'm not the first Jackson thought in the back of his mind.
"Do you ever feel that way?" he asked her.
She laughed.
"I'm over a thousand years old, I've kind of gotten used to it," she said.
Okay, so she was more like 990 years too old for Jackson.
"Wow your life must be amazing," he said.
"It's not always so amazing," she murmured in a barely audible tone.
"Now go to sleep! Don't want to be late for the first day of work with the Third Regiment of the Exploratory Commission!" the Doctor yelled in her usual excited voice.
"Okay I'm going," Jackson said crawling back into his tent.
This time sleep came before his head hit the pillow.
The next morning he heard Pete yelling for them to wake up. Jackson groggily got up to find the Doctor helping the explorers load up supplies onto two vehicles.
"Don't just stand there, help," the Doctor said.
Jackson shuffled over to grab the uni- scanner. Jackson saw that the holo- heater, the flash disk, the uni scanner, and five of the guns that the explorers carried were packed onto the two sleek vehicles. Pete, Carla, Kirene, and Thagnox went on one vehicle. The Doctor, Jackson and Rakor got into the other.
"What is it?" asked Jackson.
"The vehicle you mean?" Rakor asked.
"Yeah," said Jackson.
"It's a military grade hovercraft, haven't you ever seen one?" responded Rakor.
Jackson shook his head.
"Man you really are from the middle of nowhere," said Rakor. "At least you like basketball though," he commented.
"Yeah I'm a big 76ers fan," blurted Jackson.
He immediately covered his mouth. How would he explain supporting a basketball team from a thousand years ago?
But Rakor showed no reaction.
"Yeah they're all right I suppose," he said.
"Uh yeah," Jackson said.
He leaned over and whispered to the Doctor, "The 76ers are still around?"
"Oh yes," she said. "Although now they play on the planet Philadelphia, and half the team are cyborgs," she explained.
Just then the engine of the first hovercraft started up and Rakor pressed a button that started up the one Jackson was on. Their hovercraft followed Pete's.
"This is where the fun part comes," said Rakor.
"Where are we going?" Jackson asked.
"You'll see," said Rakor.
The hovercraft moved very smoothly and made little noise. They rode along the shoreline. They stopped and turned as they got to a path leading into the forest. After a few more minutes the came to some thick bushes. The hovercraft stopped and Rakor motioned for the Doctor and Jackson to get out. Jackson turned to see the explorers from the other hovercraft also get out.
"We have to walk from here," said Pete. "Every day we cut farther into the forest and every week we move camp closer to the trail," he explained. "Our goal today is to find a freshwater stream the uni- scanner picked up."
"We understand," said the Doctor.
Jackson and the Doctor followed the rest of the group through the trail. All the explorers hacked away at the growth with their sonic machetes. As they walked they passed some remarkable flora and fauna. Jackson watched as a humongous leaf from a plant reached out and grabbed a fly. A small, scaly bird flew down and rested on the Doctor's hand.
"Aw isn't it a cutie pie," said the Doctor.
Jackson watched it fly off. As it flew a tiny plume of fire came from its mouth.
"I love fire- breathers," said the Doctor.
Finally the group got to the murky stream.
"Ok mission accomplished guys," said Pete. "The water appears to be fresh," he said.
After a taking a break by the stream they set on back to the hovercrafts. As they got close Jackson heard a whirring noise.
"What was that?" Jackson asked.
"What?" the Doctor asked.
"I don't know I just heard a noise," Jackson said.
"It was probably nothing," said Kirene.
Up ahead, Rakor had gotten into the hovercraft. He looked frustrated.
"Pete, the engine won't start," said Rakor.
"That's impossible," said Pete. "Let me check."
"It's no use," said Rakor.
"This one's not working either," said Thagnox.
"This can't be happening," said Pete. "Two hovercrafts can't break at the same time," he said.
"Not unless they're sabotaged," the Doctor chimed in.
Pete snorted.
"We can't have been sabotaged, we're the only one's on the island," he said.
Then the whirring noise came again. It was louder this time, and it was unmistakably the sound of a voice.
"If that's true then what was that?" Jackson asked.
The Doctor looked furious. She grabbed Pete by the shirt.
"I've had it with you, I know you're hiding something so you might want to tell us now, or we may well die," she demanded.
"Th- three of us disappeared," he said.
"What happened to them?" the Doctor asked.
"We don't know," said Pete.
"Why didn't you contact the government?" the Doctor asked, fuming.
"We've only been here six months. We have to be here a year to get paid," he finished.
"So you put your pay over other people's safety," snarled the Doctor.
"We need to get out of here," said Carla holding up her gun.
Just then a circular being came out from the forest. It seemed to be a robot of some sort. It was like a giant disco ball that could move.
"At-t-t-ack-ck s-sequence in-nitiat-ted," said the robot.
The Doctor's eyes lit up.
"It can't be," she murmured.
Suddenly a rod with a small hole at the end came out of the robot. Two more of the robots came out of the jungle.
"Run!" yelled the Doctor.
A blast of fire shot from the robot's rod. It missed Jackson by an inch. They ran on down the trail.
"What are those things?" Jackson asked in between breaths.
"Mechonoids," the Doctor answered.
The Mechonoids were still hot on their tale. Two more blasts of fire went past them and lit up the ground beside them. Carla shot back and hit one. It only moved back a few feet and kept on coming after a few seconds. Another blast of fire came and this time it hit Thagnox in the back. He fell down to the ground screaming.
"Throw off your coat," the Doctor urged.
He did so. The Doctor helped him up. But this wasted precious time. The Mechonoids were getting closer. They turned a corner.
"We need to go into the trees," said the Doctor.
"We can't! This is the most direct way to the stream, and we can lose them there," said Pete
"We're not going to make it to the stream. Trust me we have to go into the trees," said the Doctor.
They heard the mechanical sound of the Mechonoids behind them.
"Let's go," said Pete dashing into the trees.
They went in. It had gotten dark and Jackson was blind in the undergrowth. He felt enormous pain as he got pricked and stabbed by pricker bushes. Then he turned back to see the Mechonoids on the trail. He expected them to shoot or come at them. But instead they just turned back. Jackson was shocked. They had been trying to kill them and then just stopped. Why? The other explorers looked just as confused. But the Doctor marched on and the explorers followed him. They kept walking quietly until Kirene pointed somewhere.
"Look," she said.
Jackson could barely make out a small cave. They all tramped inside.
"Looks like there's enough space for all of us barely," said Carla.
"Yeah but even so we don't have our holo- heater and this planet has erratic weather patterns," said Thagnox gruffly. "It's going to be a cold night," he said.
"Why didn't those things go after us?" Jackson asked.
"The Mechonoids are robots that were used for human colonization and then forgot about," said the Doctor "They're programmed to protect the planet but they take it a step farther. They won't harm the planet and will kill anyone who does, they're like the ultimate environmentalists. They're trying to kill you because they saw you cutting through plants to make paths," she finished.
"So they didn't follow us because they didn't want to have to cut through the bushes," said Jackson.
"Exactly, they're that extreme, kind of like the Earth religion the Jains," said the Doctor.
"You're not a government inspector are you?" asked Rakor.
"No I'm the Doctor," she said.
"Now go to sleep," she said. "The Mechonoids are clever, they'll be here soon so you need to rest up and I need to think up a plan," the Doctor explained.
No one argued. Luckily there was some moss on the floor of the cave. It was still pretty hard though and very cramped. But the exhaustion of the day won out and Jackson fell asleep.
The next morning Jackson woke up to see the Doctor pacing back and forth.
"Did you get any sleep?" Jackson asked.
"Some, I just can't think what to do," said the Doctor.
She groaned.
"How can I not think of what to do?" she exclaimed.
Jackson saw that the others were waking up.
"So you think of a plan?" Carla asked the Doctor.
"Not yet… oh no," she murmured.
Jackson looked out too see multiple objects flying above the treetops. It was the Mechonoids!
"I knew they'd come," said the Doctor.
The Mechonoids, about ten of them touched down on the ground outside the cave. Carla held up her gun, but Pete motioned for her to put it down.
"It's time I take responsibility for this," he said.
He walked out with his hands up. He began to speak to the Mechonoids.
"I'm Pete Grant, leader of the Third Regiment of the Haitian Exploratory committee," he said.
"Look we didn't mean to harm the planet, we're explorers and we just want to explore. So I'm begging you, please give us another chance," he finished
Every thing was silent for a moment. Then one of the Mechonoids said "Ac-ct-tiv-vat-te s-susp-picion r-ray".
A beam of purple light hit Pete in the chest. He crumpled to the ground. The team ran out to Pete. Carla pointed her gun at the Mechonoids. Kirene got to Pete first.
"Are you okay Pete?" she asked.
Pete slowly got up.
"No Kirene stay away from him," the Doctor yelled.
"Die, Robot," said Pete.
To the team's horror Pete pulled out a small gun. He pulled the trigger and a laser beam hit Kirene in the chest. She fell to the ground dead. Now he pointed it at Jackson.
"What's going on?" Rakor asked.
"He's been hit with a suspicion ray, he thinks we're Mechonoids!" the Doctor yelled.
Suddenly a laser beam hit Pete and he went down. Jackson saw that Carla had shot it, a tear coming down from her eye.
"We surrender!" the Doctor yelled.
The Mechonoids turned to her.
"We have a right to be brought before our leader before our execution," she said.
"S-sec-ction t-two of c-cod-ding. Th-the h-hum-man is r-right," said a Mechonoid.
"V-very w-well," said another Mechonoid. "G-give up y-your w-weap-pons," it demanded.
The team of explorers went back into the cave and collected their supplies. The Doctor looked furious with herself.
"I can't believe I let this happen," she said in frustration.
Jackson nodded and then the flash disk caught his eye.
"We should bring this, at least they'll know our history before they kill us," said Jackson sarcastically.
"Yeah, I guess so," said the Doctor. "Wait yes of course!" she yelled. "The flash disk, oh Jackson you're a genius!" she exclaimed.
"What, what did I say?" Jackson asked.
"Just bring the flash disk," the Doctor ordered.
They were led out of the cave, around the trees. With the exception of the Doctor everyone else looked furious. Clara seemed completely broken- hearted at the death of her sister while Rakor ranted on about Pete.
"He didn't even tell us he had a gun. He could've used that a thousand times before," he said.
"How are we going to get out of this," asked Thagnox.
"Don't worry, I've got it all put together," the Doctor said smiling.
They stopped as they got to another shoreline. And on the sand they saw dozens, maybe even hundreds of Mechonooids. The Mechonoids led the explorers to a bigger Mechonoid on a stone.
"All h-hail th-the M-mech-chon-noid k-king" said one of the Mechonoids who had brought them there.
"Bow," the Doctor mouthed.
The explorers did this. Then the Mechonoid King spoke.
"W-what is in th-the h-hum-mans r-right l-limb," it said, pointing its rod/gun at Jackson.
"It's just a flash disk," the Doctor said. "Jackson give it here, I just want to update my calendar to make room for my death," she said.
Jackson gave it to her and saw her pointing her sonic at it and pressing buttons on the touchscreen.
"Th-the h-humans h-have v-viol-lated th-the pr-prime pr-progr-gramming," the king started.
"So before you kill us, oh great Mechonoid King. Tell me how this great Mechonoid tribe survived the Daleks," she said.
"Th-the gr-great M-mech-chonoid K-king s-surv-vived," said the same Mechonoid that had talked before.
"But then how did you all come about?" asked the Doctor.
"I b-built th-them," said the King.
"But that means you violated your prime programming. You couldn't have built them without using resources from the environment," said the Doctor.
"K-king is th-this tr-true?" asked the other Mechonoid.
"L-lies, th-the h-hum-mans d-do not have evid-dence," said the Mechonoid King. "Exec-cution w-will c-commence," he ordered.
"Hold on," the Doctor said. "You might want to see this first," she said, holding up the flash disk.
Another Mechonoid beside the king came over. A disk holder came out of its chest and the Doctor placed the disk inside it. It started to make a buzzing noise.
"What are you doing?" Thagnox asked.
Jackson had been thinking the same thing. The Doctor smiled.
"It wasn't hard really. Just entered in keywords like "environmental protection" and I have a complete history of the environmental accomplishments of the human race," she finished.
The Mechonoid stopped buzzing.
"D-disk sh-shows ev-vidence of h-human env-vironm-mental pr-protection. Exec-cution w-will h-halt," it said.
Jackson breathed a sigh of relief. The explorers started cheering. It seemed like the Doctor had bailed them out until the Mechonoid King spoke again.
"N-no I d-did not ord-der th-the exec-cution to st-stop," it said.
"Didn't you here your friend, the disk shows that humans are protectors of the environment. That overrides the violation of the prime programming," the Doctor said.
"N-no th-the h-humans l-left us t-to th-the D-dal-leks. Th-they m-must d-die," it said.
"I don't believe it, a leader of the great Mechonoid race is killing over hurt feelings," she said.
"D-death w-will c-commence," it yelled.
"Duck!" yelled the Doctor.
Jackson obeyed and a blast of fire went right over his head. He felt the heat over his cheek. He turned to see the fire had missed them all and hit some nearby trees. Now the Doctor was grinning.
"Oh you just screwed up big time, Mechonoid King because you just violated the prime programming," she said.
The last thing Jackson heard out of the Mechonoid King was a metallic scream as three Mechonoids fired on it and it was reduced to scrap metal.
A few days later it was time to leave. The Doctor and Jackson said by to everyone. Jackson was especially sad to say bye to Rakor who had been most friendly to him, but he was also excited about the next adventure. The Doctor said bye to Carla first.
"I wish you luck as Leader Ms. Cook," she said.
"Thanks, the Mechonoids want to start negotiation but I'm pulling us out and letting the government do it. I'm not taking any chances," Carla said.
"I'll see you around," said the Doctor.
The Doctor and Jackson walked to the TARDIS and Jackson sprinted in, excited for the next adventure. And too excited to notice the gray armored, humanoid figure watching the Doctor and him from behind the trees.