I'm sorry for the re-upload, but I had found quite a lot of grammar mistakes... ;)
Chapter 2
"I'm the Doctor."
"The Doctor?"
"Yes, the Doctor, the definite article."
"Why, are you the last one or the best one or what?" I ask confused and try to explore my surroundings.
"No, just The Doctor."
"Don't you have a name?"
"That is my name."
"No, that's what you call yourself. Your name is another one...why me?"
"As you just proved to yourself, you ask the right questions."
"Like 'Doctor Who?' for instance?"
"For example, yes. So...what is your answer?"
I look up, try to meet his glance but then turn away again. Somehow, this guy is also a bit scary. "I have exams to write, I'm studying."
"It's a time machine."
"But don't you have to – I mean, stay parallel to this timeline here on Earth? I can't go back when I'm looking much older."
"It is your decision."
I hesitate. All of time and space, everything I have ever dreamed of. Before I even decided, I slowly start to nod.
"Great," he says and I am still surprised that his face is able to smile.
"You said you met some of these monsters – sorry, aliens already. Are there many of them up there?" I ask and point to the ceiling – if there was one. I can't really tell how it looked, it just – limited this room.
"Oh, yes. Some are friendly, some aren't."
"You fought some?"
"Yes, Cybermen, Sontarans, living plastic,-"
"Living plastic?"
"Oh, yes. Living plastic walking down the streets of Great Britain. But that was quite a long time ago. I was a different person back then."
He wants to say more, but I hold him back, "a different person?" If I travel with this stranger, I definitely need to know at least as much as I can before I run off.
"Well...I have thirteen lives. And when I die, I change."
"You get a new body, a new face? Like replacing an actor in a TV series?"
"Kind of, yes," he nods thoughtfully. "I've become quite younger now than I had been the last few times."
"You look like in your mid-thirties," I notice.
"And actually I'm hundreds of years old," he says. "Now, where do you want to go?"
"I don't know. I know nothing about the universe. We're always told that the chances for other intelligent life forms are so rare."
"'Intelligent' life, if you could hear yourself."
"What about your home planet?"
"Not a good idea," he comments.
"You rip me off my timeline and don't even want to show me where're you're at home?"
"Perhaps later," he says but obviously tries to avoid the topic.
As my best friend said, never get the guy angry who should bring you back home. "Alright...what about Mars, in the distant future?" I ask. "When it's colonised, I assume."
"Mars, 2398. Sounds good?"
"Sounds good," I agree and hold tight on the console when the time machine starts. Suddenly, sparks burst out of the hanging screen.
"Don't worry. That's normal. She does that," he tries to calm me down.
"'She'?" I am surprised.
"The TARDIS. Stands for Time and relative dimensions in space."
"Okay," I only say. I think I should book a bed in psychiatry already. Perhaps I'm going to do that yesterday.
"So...you left people behind, why?"
"Some had to. For some it was better. Some I had to leave behind."
"Don't you consider going back to revisit them? Like, the first person that pops into your mind right now?" I ask. Although he appears young, his eyes and soul seem so very old.
He stares at me and his look is blank. He has someone in mind, someone very special, I can see that. I should have studied psychology. "I had to leave her," he simply says and checks the radiation controls. We have landed.
"Which aliens had you fought that time?"
"Daleks...on Earth," he sighs shortly, he hardly ever seems to like remembering his past. "Don't you want to have a look outside?" he proposes and points to the door.
I smile and quickly walk to the door. "And this is really Mars?"
"Yes, but unfortunately 2399, not 2398. It's really hard to fly that thing," the Doctor answers and follows me when I push open the doors. When I step out, onto this extraterrestrial soil, I cannot believe my eyes. The soil is red and a bit dusty, but not too much that it would make my shoes dirty. Only a few meters ahead of me do white tiles lie on the floor, finally leading into huge, white buildings that are shimmering slightly in the sunlight.
"This city is the biggest human colony in this solar system. It was the first one after a disaster in the 21st century and it took around 50 years to start a new rocket up to the sky. The city is protected by this glass dome, its diameter is over two kilometres. Only three more years, and the first settlers will reach Pluto and explore the rest of the universe."
"Wow, that is...fascinating," I say and remember all the Star Trek episode I watched. This is hardly a comparison. "Can we go to the city?"
"Of course we can," he answers and closes the doors behind us. Silently, we walk towards the huge buildings. There's a long hallway with market stalls at the walls and thousands of other alleys pointing into all directions and undiscovered ways that I can never walk. I recognise that there is so much that I will never ever see.
"Wow...some of them are...alien."
"Yes, of course. You humans made first contact in the later half of the 21st century. The first settlers and interracial exchange programs start in the 22nd century. You are now part of something bigger."
"But you also said it isn't always friendly out there. Will the humans live on? Survive those Cybermen and Daleks?"
"I don't know."
"But you could just travel to the end of the universe – and see who has survived."
He laughs. "Time is in a constant flux. Things can be changed, others are fixed."
I nod. I should have paid more attention during Physics lessons. But this Doctor could teach me so much more. "Is...that a cinema?" I ask surprised.
"Yes, it is."
"Three hundred years and we still go to the cinema. Oh, it's not in English."
"Don't worry, the TARDIS will translate for you. Shall we go there?"
"What do you mean, the TARDIS translates?" I ask confused.
"I show you," he says with his 'I-know-better'-smile and takes my arm to lead me to the entrance queue.
The colony of Mars, the Opera in New New New Sydney, the university of Raxacoricofallapatorius, the space museum where we hardly escaped – twice (the Doctor seems to have been there before, so that he was not surprised to meet an immobile version of himself), a planet where the Doctor fled as soon as he could, something about a tomb and meeting a younger version of himself (I only got a short glimpse and damn it, I'm glad to travel with this incarnation standing next to me right now).
There were so many things he showed me, so many wonders of the universe. But still he seemed so sad. So one night, I wanted to approach him. He has probably never talked to anyone about his problems, about what is on his mind. So why should he tell me? But it was worth a try. And so we talked, and so he decided to try everything to bring her back – the woman he obviously missed and he regretted leaving her.
"But she's on Earth, happily," he argued.
"But you left her!"
"With another man, I told her to become happy with him. She shouldn't always watch me. I was getting too old."
"But now you're young again – or at least appearing so," I said and walked to the TARDIS console. "When did you say, you left her?"
"Oh, not even I can fly the TARDIS. She never brought me to where I wanted to go."
"But probably where you needed to go," I say and push some buttons, and suddenly the TARDIS wakes up. It does its funny sound again and I know that she not only has a heart, but also a soul. And she knows the Doctor better than anybody else – and she knows that whatever the Doctor is going through right now, he cannot do this alone. He needs someone. Someone he abandoned a very long time ago on Earth, claiming it would be for her good.
Who do you think the Doctor is talking about? Which regeneration was the one leaving this special person behind? And who is he now?
Write your answers (three questions = three answers) as a review and see if you're right when I upload the next and last chapter :)