"So," said the Doctor, clapping his hands as Isadora showed him and Clara through the corridors of the Armstrong, "how long exactly have you been here?"
"We've been stranded for a bit over three years," said Isadora, marching swiftly through the dimly lit corridors. Her brother may have trusted these strangers, but she didn't, and getting them to him was her top priority.
"I see," said the Doctor, looking around at the architecture of the ship. "Standard 23rd Century spacecraft used by early human explorers, am I right?"
"Yes," said Isadora hurriedly.
"I knew that," said the Doctor quietly to Clara, grinning smugly. "And how many of you are there?"
"Just two of us, sort of,"
"What do you mean 'sort of'?
"Well the only crew members left are my brother Percy and I, but a few days ago we had someone answer our distress call." Having reached the cockpit, Isadora stopped and beckoned the Doctor and Clara in. Percy stood up when he saw them walk in and shook the Doctor's hand. "You must be the Doctor," he said, clasping the Doctor's hand firmly with both hands. He turned to Clara. "And you must be Clara," he said, shaking her hand, again with both hands, but with a softer grip. "I'm Percy Darlington, the acting senior officer of this ship."
"I thought she was the acting senior officer," said Clara, looking towards Isadora.
"Yes, that's what she'd like to think," laughed Percy.
Isadora was less amused. "It's nearly time for my watch captain," she said bitterly. "Go take these two to the engine room and see if they can help Aurelius."
Percy laughed again and indicated for the Doctor and Clara to leave the cockpit.
"So," asked the Doctor, "I'll take it this Aurelius is the one who responded to your distress call, yes?"
"Yes that's right," said Percy, guiding them through the system of corridors.
"I suppose he'd have to be, your sister said there were only the two of you here as crew members, unless you happened to have a dog called Aurelius or something, and you left him in charge of the engine room. I had a dog once, he was a robot."
"Don't worry," said Clara to Percy, "he's normally this weird."
"Actually I've taken a funny turn recently," said the Doctor, casting his mind back to his recent regeneration, "if I say something out of place pay me no mind."
"Oh, sure," said Percy, someone confused.
"But enough about that," said the Doctor, "how is it you happen to be stuck out here anyway?"
"Well," began Percy, "there was a larger crew of us, on an exploration mission. We were supposed to just survey the moon and travel back home, but we got hit by a small asteroid and it knocked us off course."
"Damaging the engine in the course of driving the ship onto the surface?" asked the Doctor.
"Along with our long-range communication, they probably think we're all dead back home," said Percy solemnly. "Otherwise they'd have sent someone to help us by now."
"Well three years is a pretty long wait for anything, even tech support," said the Doctor absent-mindedly.
"What about the rest of the crew, where are they?" asked Clara.
"Dead," said Percy, "it wasn't in the crash though. After we crashed our engineers were going to set to work finding out what went wrong with the engines and fixing them. But before that they had to make sure everything else was fine and dandy. It turned out that when the engines packed up, the flight co-ordinator deployed the landing gear, and it was now embedded in the rock. The captain got Izzy, me and a few other technicians to blast the rock away before the engineers began working on the engines. When Izzy and I were on blasting duty, we came back from our shift to find the whole crew dead."
The Doctor stopped walking and reached inside his jacket, gripping his Sonic Screwdriver. "Did you find out what did it?"
"Oh yes," said Percy, and the Doctor pulled his arm out of the jacket and crossed his arms. "Our head chef; Oliver, was a lovely guy, but he was getting on and tended to be a bit forgetful. Our captain came from a big family and insisted on a strong family environment, so we all ate together. Anyway, that day Izzy and I missed out on dinner because we were busy working, and Oliver, some way or another; subjected everyone to food poisoning. Likely he mixed cooked and raw meat or something. I don't know whether you've seen a large group of people in an airtight environment get sick, but it's not fun. When we got back from our blasting, we sat waiting in the airlock, but no one let us in. The sickness had just started affecting people and the captain kept us in the airlock. They had staples and stuff in the airlock chamber so we wouldn't starve or anything and one by one the crew all dropped dead. The last one to die was one of the science officers, and he pre-programmed the airlock to stay locked for another month after he died, to make sure whatever it was had dissipated by the time we were let back in. They gave their lives for us, but since then we've been trapped here."
"Haven't you tried fixing the engines yourself?" asked Clara.
"We're not engineers," said Percy. "We've read every engineering book the library between us several times over, and while we've been able to effectively run the ship, we can't fix the engines. Even Aurelius hasn't had much success, although he's done a lot better than we ever could have."
The Doctor pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver. "Percy, I may be just the man you need, now take us to those engines, it's time to get you back home."
"Aurelius, Aurelius?" called out Percy upon entering the engine room. "Are you decent?"
A tall figure walked out from behind the engines and presented himself to the Doctor and Clara.
"Aurelius," said Percy, "This is the Doctor and his friend Clara. They've come to help you try and get us off here."
Aurelius sank into a low bow in the Doctor's direction, and then again in Clara's. "Doctor, Clara," he said, straightening up and baring his teeth, which were yellow and slightly crooked. The Doctor returned the gesture and motioned for Clara to do the same. "I am Aurelius Aurelio."
Clara surveyed him. He was tall, maybe six foot two, with short black hair and heavy stubble. He had one of the thickest sets of eyebrows Clara had ever seen and his eyes were pale blue and he seemed to be staring at her, even when facing away from her. His skin was pale, almost milky in colour. He was dressed exclusively in black leather and stood upright, with his hand behind his back.
Aurelius turned to the Doctor. "I didn't catch your last name Doctor, what was it?"
"I don't have one," said the Doctor, "I'm just the Doctor."
"Doctor," he said, pausing. "I feel I should know who you are, should I?"
"Oh I shouldn't think so," said the Doctor, "I'm just a passing traveller."
"Yes," said Aurelius, drifting away.
"Well," said Percy, "I'd best leave you two to it. Clara, would you like to come with me?"
"Sure," said Clara, eager to get away from Aurelius and his ever-watching eyes.
Percy was escorting Clara through the corridors and elevators of the Armstrong. "When we left home," he said, "this was the finest ship for its size out there. I suppose they'd have come up with something better since, and being stuck on a moon for three years is a pretty average way for a ship to spend its days."
"Oh yeah," said Clara, trying to peek through each room they passed.
"What's your ship like?" asked Percy.
"Well," said Clara, thinking before breaking into a smile. "It looks quite small from the outside, but you'd be surprised just how big it feels from the inside."
"That's the hallmark of any good ship," said Percy, "making the most of the space you've got."
"Oh, she does that all right,"
"'She?'"
"Sorry, bad habit the Doctor's got me into. He's always referring to it as a woman. And not just as 'she' and 'her', but he even has nicknames and stuff, and strokes her from time to time."
"It sounds like he loves his craft. Hopefully he's as useful as he is devoted."
"Oh yeah," said Clara, "he'll have you out of here in no time."
"Just our luck that you were around then," said Percy. "It's uncanny isn't it? Three years without any contact and just days after Aurelius arrives, you come here with your ship that according to Isadora just appeared out of nowhere. And you bring along the perfect man to get us out of here. Totally uncanny." Percy stopped walking. He stared at Clara, moving closer and closer. Clara, arms crossed defiantly backed off when she could begin to feel his breath on her face. He straightened up. "Let's see how Isadora's getting on."
Clara followed him towards the cockpit, but she couldn't help but feel things were not as they seemed.
"Ah, Percy," said Isadora as Percy and Clara walked into the cockpit. "I was just about to ask you, you haven't seen my necklace have you?"
"No, which one?" asked Percy.
"The one with the big Sapphire in the middle and the row of diamonds around it, I swear I had it sitting on my dressing table, but it's not there now."
"When was the last time you definitely saw it?" asked Percy, who had sat down in one of the cockpit's chairs and started playing with some dials on the cockpit's control panel.
"I don't know, maybe this morning? I couldn't say."
Percy stood up and began to walk out, his eyes fixed on Clara, who stared back, somewhat confused.
"Where are you going?" asked Isadora.
"To go and put on some dinner," said Percy, "I thought I might make something special since we have company, but special takes time."
When he had left the room Clara sat in the seat Percy had just left. "I think he thinks I stole your necklace," she said to Isadora.
"Does he now?" asked Isadora.
"I didn't," emphasised Clara, "you can search me if you want."
Isadora laughed. "I'll believe you."
"He was getting pretty antsy on the way here," said Clara, "I don't think he likes me very much."
Isadora turned to face Clara. "He's probably just scared." She put her hand on Clara's knee. "We've had nothing but each other's company for three years. Even if we weren't brother and sister, being stuck in that sort of scenario's going to change how someone sees the world. Having three new people suddenly come into his life unannounced is a pretty big thing, especially when they're all as suspicious as you are." She removed her hand and began rubbing the back of her neck. "I mean, you only have to look at Aurelius to get a bad vibe from him, and having to work and interact with the guy isn't much better. And then there's you and the Doctor. I still don't know how you got here, and it'll probably keep me up all night."
"So you don't trust us then?" asked Clara, one eyebrow raised.
"No," said Isadora, leaning in, "but then I trust Aurelius even less. Percy's been trying to look at the situation in a very open-eyed manner, but you can see, or at least I can see the cracks beginning to form. I don't know who you are Clara, but we have our reasons for our doubts, and I just hope it's paranoia, because even though we've been away from home so many years, we've still got hope left, and I'm not prepared to see it slip away from our fingers by a group of strangers we've let into this ship. I'd sooner die than let them win."
"So," said the Doctor, examining the Armstrong's engines with his Sonic Screwdriver. "What were you doing when you answered the distress call? I mean, Ganymede's not exactly the typical holiday destination."
"I could ask you the same thing," muttered Aurelius, who was wiping his hands on a dirty piece of cloth. The Doctor could see his long, pointy fingernails as he did so.
"Clara and I are travellers. We go all over the place, but more often than not we're based in Earth."
"I see, and you're from Earth, are you?" Aurelius was not the chattiest man the Doctor had ever met, but despite his dark and ominous appearance, he was not anti-social, although it was clear he was the sort of traveller that kept his cards close to his chest.
"Clara is, I'm not," said the Doctor, pacing around one of the engines. "What about you?"
"I'm from Earth, and what about you Doctor, where are you from?"
The Doctor paused and put down his screwdriver. "It's from a long way away, you'd never have heard of it."
Aurelius stood up. "Try me," he said flatly.
The Doctor could feel the man's eyes on his face. It was little use trying to tell a lie to a man like him. "It's a place far away called Gallifrey," said the Doctor, his thoughts casting away from Aurelius and fixing the Armstrong and instead thinking of his lost home.
Aurelius' stare did not wane. "Never heard of it," he said after a pause of what felt like years, and he returned to examining the engines.
The Doctor broke off as soon as Aurelius' back was turned. He grabbed his screwdriver and held it up above his head, examining it. "Well Aurelius Aurelio, I think I'm just about ready to start," he called out.
Any response Aurelius may or may not have made was cut short by the sound of Isadora's voice over the PA. "Doctor, Aurelius," she said, "we were just about to have dinner if you'd care to join us? We're in the bar on Floor 2."
The Doctor walked over to the control panel by the entrance to the engine room. He looked at Aurelius, who nodded. The Doctor pressed the intercom button on the panel and spoke into the metal grille at the top of the panel. "We'd be delighted Isadora, see you soon."
"Good," said Aurelius, standing up and brushing dirt and dust off his leathers. "I'm about hungry enough to kill." He smiled a rotten, toothy smile at the Doctor, who didn't smile back.
The Doctor stood by the door and waited for him to leave, keeping one firm eye on the intimidating stranger all the way to the bar.
At one of the tables scattered across the bar floor, the Doctor sat next to Clara, opposite Aurelius and Isadora, who didn't look too happy at her present company. Clara wasn't too impressed either, aside from having to sit directly opposite Aurelius and his creepy eyes, the Doctor had also put on a skinny black tie he claimed to have found in his jacket pocket. Having no collar to tie it around, it hung loose below his neck. "What, what did I do?" he asked, feeling her discomfort.
"Why are you wearing a tie?" she asked, her nose scrunched up.
"To look more formal," he replied as if it were the most obvious answer there was.
"It might be more formal if you happened to be wearing a shirt," she said, "not that daggy thing."
"Daggy?" he said, ruffling the white t-shirt. I'll have you know if I was wearing this back home, they'd think I look pretty trendy."
"What does it even say then?" she asked, turning towards him and indicating the Gallifreyan text across the body of the t-shirt.
"This?" he asked, "This is a very funny joke on Gallifrey."
"What's it mean?"
Whatever it meant, Clara never found out, as at that moment the Doctor was cut off by the arrival of Percy. Wearing an apron that read 'Licence to Grill' and carrying a tray bearing five plates of roast beef, Percy placed a plate in front of his four diners and then placed the fifth at the head of the table, next to Isadora and the Doctor.
"It had better be funnier than that apron," said Clara and she and the Doctor laughed quietly as Percy sat down.
"Well, tuck in everybody," said Percy, smiling and reaching for his knife and fork.
"So Isadora," said the Doctor, carefully slicing his roast beef into tiny cubes and skewering them on each of his fork's prongs while Clara watched him angrily and embarrassedly, "just how many crew members did this ship hold before the accident, if you don't mind me asking?"
"There were about forty of us," said Isadora, "from all around the world. The captain was Korean, the navigation officer was South African, the cook was from New Zealand and most of our fellow techies were from North America. Aside from Percy and I there were only two others from Britain."
"And to think," said the Doctor to Clara, "your lot objected to having Slitheen in parliament. Actually what am I thinking of?" he said, "I objected to that. Wow that was ages ago." The Doctor trailed off and Clara turned her attention to Isadora. "Was this ship the first one to reach Jupiter?"
"With life on board yes," said Isadora, "but we were having issues with the long-range communications link between us and Earth, so even if they have sent other ships since we left, they wouldn't have a clue where we are, and probably never bothered checking the emergency frequencies. There wouldn't be much point, seeing as though it's only us out there."
The Doctor glared at Aurelius. Aurelius had told the Doctor he was from Earth, but the Doctor could smell a rat. He had eyed Aurelius' spacecraft through one of the ship's windows on the way to dinner, and it was of no Earth design, even from a time beyond the 23rd Century. Isadora and Percy wouldn't have known that, he reflected, and getting them off this moon and away from this shady stranger suddenly seemed more important than ever, no matter what intentions he had. He stood up.
"Where are you going Doctor?" asked Clara.
"To fix the engines," he said, giving her a look that said that they were not in perfect safety. "Thank you for a great meal Percy, but I just can't eat any more."
"But you haven't touched your salad," said Aurelius, his voice brooding and sending shivers down the Doctor's spine.
"If I told you half the things I knew about salad," said the Doctor, staring Aurelius in his cold eyes, "you'd probably give up eating, cold turkey." He made the comment light-heartedly so as to not draw attention from Percy or Isadora, but his stare told Aurelius otherwise.
"I think I might help you with the engines Doctor," said Clara, also standing up.
"How long do you reckon it'll take you Doctor?" said Percy relaxedly, dabbing the corner of his mouth with a napkin.
"Ooh, maybe an hour?" said the Doctor.
"Wait until the morrow," said Percy calmly. "If you get it fixed now we'll probably only have time for a few hour's flight before we have to call it quits for the night. The autopilot's busted and Izzy and I will have to work shifts at piloting her back home. I'd rather we both had a decent rest before setting off."
"I can fix the autopilot for you too," said the Doctor, waving his Sonic Screwdriver.
"Oh no, you've done too much for us already Doctor," said Percy. "You too Aurelius, spend one more night on our company, please."
Wishing to avoid any tensions or feelings of unease, the Doctor sat back down and Clara followed suit. "But don't think I'm going to finish this salad," said the Doctor to polite laughter from Percy and Isadora, but he felt dreadfully nervous inside. So much for avoiding adventure indeed, he reflected.
That night Percy and Isadora slept in their own cabins, with Aurelius in a third and the Doctor and Clara sharing a fourth.
"Why do we have to share?" asked Clara, although she knew the answer as soon as she'd asked the question.
"Because I don't trust Aurelius one little bit," said the Doctor, locking the door with his screwdriver.
"That's ok, neither do Percy and Isadora."
"I trust him less, they don't know what I know."
"They don't trust us either,"
"I wouldn't trust us either, but I know us, I don't know him."
"Fair enough," said Clara.
When Clara was settling into her bed, the Doctor rose from his and made his way to the door. Taking off his boots, he unlocked the door and began to open it.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"To lock some doors," said the Doctor, flipping the screwdriver and walking outside.
Locking the door once it was shut, the Doctor quietly made his way through the ship. Finding Isadora's cabin, he pressed his ear to the door. When he could hear she was asleep, he locked the door, covering as much of the screwdriver as he could with his palm to muffle the noise it made. He did the same to Percy's cabin, but left Aurelius' untouched. He also locked the door to the engine room, and when done, made his way back to his own cabin stealthily. When inside he locked the door once more and tried his best to get to sleep without clouding his mind with the worry of what was yet to come.
