"Good, marvelous actually... Except the bit about burning, what's that all about?" said Rose looking skeptical.
"It's a bit fascinating that place. The only life forms who can survive on that particular planet are the Saharashans; the planet is so close to a nearby star that it is quite literally burning hot. The planet and all life forms indigenous to Saharasa have an oil in their skin or on their surfaces which attracts an organic chemical that is in the air. This mixture of the chemical and the oil basically creates a barrier between their skin or surface that is like a type of "super sun block" blocking lethal UV rays from their sun. Once the plant or Saharashan dies the oil is no longer produced, thus no barrier resulting in burning after death. There are no graveyards on Saharasa mind you. Now the brilliant part of this planet is that when a hurting economy started taking a toll on the Saharashan's well-being they managed to pool resources and ingenuity to turn it a corner of their planet into a veritable paradise and..."
"Does sound brilliant, but what about the ocean you talked about," interrupted Rose, " it simply can't be in a constant state of evaporation."
"Well, they made their own sort of "ocean" with waves and everything, depending on what vacation package you purchase of course. This clever race found a way to keep their planet afloat, by doing the unthinkable of creating a tourists location right smack in the middle of one of the harshest environments in their system. They started growing mass quantities of plants containing a very high concentration of the unique oil much like farmers produce crops. After harvesting the oil they mixed it with it with a crystallizing substance that preserves the oil in its freshest and most potent form. Once they had enough to start harvesting mass quantities they began building one of the galaxies largest glass structures, it is built from the ground and arches into a ceiling stretching for miles around protecting their ocean and occupants from instant evaporation or death. It's remarkable; you can hardly see that it is even there!"
"Sounds awfully grand, but how do we know its safe? I mean, what if it has cracks? It could just collapse on everyone. And the construction for such a thing!" exclaimed Rose.
"Oh Rose," laughed the Doctor. "I forget your race hasn't advanced very far in the way of technology and invention, granted though; brilliant ideas have come about. I have always wanted to find Edison and give him a "bravo." He wasn't a quitter and quite an unusual man for his time," The Doctor peered past Rose, his eyes softened with nostalgia as he spoke. "Anyway, a silly little crack in their ceiling can be fixed in a pinch."
"Oh, give us some credit now!" said Rose, "we have plenty of technology, no we haven't advanced to time travel or visiting planets for fun but we haven't been lazin' about! We landed on the moon for one. We had no idea of there bein' any other alien life out there and we struck out into the unknown. Yeah it's a baby step to you but for us it was so much more. Right Jack?" called Rose turning to look at Jack.
Jack coughed into his hand trying to muffle laughter, once under control he managed to say he agreed with Rose.
The Doctor laughed again softly and walked up to Rose and took her hand in his own. "I am sorry. I shouldn't ridicule you for not knowing of things you haven't even seen or heard, you are limited somewhat but you lot are always trying to discover more, and I am impressed. Bright ones like you will always keep the earth moving, eh?" he tugged playfully on a lock of Roses hair and she softened up again.
"Oh, you better believe it Doctor," said Rose tilting her chin in playful defiance, "now where were we before we got off track?"
"Ah yes, back to Saharasa…installing the glass ceiling and repairing it are all guided by highly sophisticated computers and molecular transportation devices, you feed the design into the computer, have a grid set in place giving instructions where everything needs to be and molecular transportation device turns the blue print into solid craftsmanship. As far as maintenance there are computers constantly scanning the structure, even the slightest appearance of a flaw calls for instant attention."
"Impressed!" declared Rose "let's be off then, snap snap boys, I've got a beach with my name written all over it!"
"Hold on Rose, aren't you forgetting something?" Jack was giving her a wicked grin.
The Doctor furrowed his eyebrows in frustration; he typically thought of everything and didn't like thinking he'd missed something important.
"We've got everything we need here," said the Doctor gesturing towards the Tardis, I've set the coordinates and what could Rose possibly need?"
Jack shook his head slowly from side to side chuckling, "Oh Doc, you had us fooled for a moment having us think you could vacation like the rest of us, do you even own a pair of swimming trunks?"
"No, don't see much of a point in having one, I have better things to do than splash around in water." the Doctor replied briskly "I like my jumper just fine, it's perfectly versatile."
Jack held up his hands in mock surrender "Hey, hey...it's your thing, but I'm guessing Rose here doesn't care to lie on a hot beach in her slacks and t-shirt, and personally I think she'd look cute in a bikini."
The Doctor paused for a moment; Rose in a bikini didn't seem quite right, too edgy for her...who was typically fully clad. Perhaps they could travel to the 1920's and find her a nice, comfortable swim suit that covered her quite nicely.
"Blimey! Jacks right, I forgot to pack a swim suit, never thought I'd have time to use one honestly...we could visit my place to retrieve it but we'd have to stay for dinner with Jackie or I could just buy a new one somewhere out 'ere..." Rose looked at the Doctor expectantly.
"Alright, alright, you're starting to know how I operate aren't you? I don't care much for shoppin' but dinner with your mum...drag me to every mall in the galaxy first."
"Hey! She's still my mother; and if it wasn't for her bein' so gracious she wouldn't 'ave let me leave the apartment to go anywhere with you. Really you should be thanking her for allowing me to stay with you; especially after some of the few close calls we've had, mm?"
The Doctor nodded his head "Can't disagree with you there Rose; just can't stomach the thought of listening to your mum rattle off a million questions while we sit over cups of tea hours cold...at a table...just sitting and listenin'." The Doctor's face contorted in disgust as he spoke.
Rose disagreed silently as she believed Jack and him would sit at a table forever talking space and forget they even had tea cups in front of them at all.
"Well, she does get a bit riled up but you know it's only because she cares so much. Anyway, enough about my mum and about those credits!" said Rose enthusiastically.
"Let's make it on me," said Jack pulling out his wallet from inside his utility vest. "Call it residual guilt over the time I tried to scam you both for the non-existent Chula warship.
"Or your hoping I'll model a set of bikini's for you," retorted Rose
"Won't deny that I would enjoy it," said Jack grinning.
"Right then, time to go!" said the Doctor deftly moved about the Tardis console pressing, pulling, and pushing buttons and knobs in a way that never ceased to hypnotize Rose. She knew pilots had to be quite experienced but watching his speed and the confident way he navigated with the controls would put any weathered pilot to shame. The Tardis was more than just navigation, far more than just a machine or vehicle. The Tardis required a different sort of experience and instinct; two things of which this Time Lord had an abundance of. Rose sometime could swear that the Tardis was buzzing with life; that the Doctor in his own way communicated and understood her when he was steering at her helm.
"Let's see, adjust the velocity detractor a bit here, and tune the suspension a bit there and voila! We have a nice little drift through an interstellar shopping market." The Doctor stepped back from the console with a look of satisfaction.
Jack strode towards Rose linking his arm through hers "ready big spender?" said Jack, "Oh don't you know it, a young earth girl with a good lookin' man who happens to have a wallet full of cash, born ready!" said Rose. She turned to look back at the Doctor with inquiring eyes "Are you coming with?"
The Doctor seemed to be fidgety for a moment; he looked out of place which was something he rarely, if ever was. He stared intensely at the Tardis console as if trying to figure something out by staring harder at the panel. "You know, Rose, like I said...domestic isn't really my cup o' tea, better run along without me on this one."
"Rubbish! I've seen you haggle before, you're an expert!" she replied. "You can handle a bit of shopping can't you?"
"Haggling for engine parts is another thing entirely! Shopping, now that's something else...might as well compare a shooting star to a black hole," he said defensively.
Rose rolled her eyes then shrugged "You're worse than the Earth boys; I practically had to kidnap Mickey to get him to come with me but at least he would give in. Granted he would mope the whole time...well if anything it proves Earthling boys and Time Lords have more in common than I thought; one would think shoppin' trips were the plague."
"Good thing you got me Rose," Jack chimed in "a handsome time agent who happens to be a great shopper."
"Verrry true," mused Rose. "Alright then Doctor, we'll be off now."
The Doctor grinned and gave an abrupt wave to see them off. He frowned a little when he saw Jack's hand on Rose's back start to slide lower. Was it such a good idea to leave Rose with the scoundrel? The Doctor shook his head as if to shake the idea away as well. It bothered him sometimes; these moments when this caution and concern started to weave its way into his thoughts unexpectedly. He most certainly cared for all of his companions but caring too much was a painful road, best to leave it be and forget about it. Though, Jack would be helping her shop for a swimming suit...he remembered his perfectly normal, physiological reaction to seeing Rose in the black dress when they visited Charles Dicken's time. His hearts skipping a beat and his mind going blank for just a second were perfectly normal reactions to seeing any young, lovely woman in a pretty dress. Weren't they? A stubborn, small voice tried to tell him he could have ignored seeing any other lovely, young woman. After all, hadn't he seen many beautiful women all over the universe and in every time? The darn voice tried insisting to the Doctor it was his precocious, blonde Rose who turned his head, not just a matter of physiology alone or a well tailored dress. It was Rose in the black dress and that made all the difference in the world; though the Doctor wasn't ready to admit to himself such things as that.