One of the reviews mentioned the Family of Blood, in the context of whatever is coming after the Doctor in chapter 1... and yes, they had crossed my mind. I think you'll find that our alien-in-question has some things in common with the Family of Blood, which sorta bothers me, but I think, in the end, the crucial differences will be what make the story exciting!
Thanks for all you lovely reviewers! And off we go with chapter 2!
TWO
The TARDIS, almost of her own accord, followed the communiqués coming from the unknown ship, that seemed to be searching for the Doctor. As expected, the trail led them straight to Mallorca, off the coast of Spain.
The entire island was green, temperate and spectacular. It was a popular place for people of all walks of life (western Europeans, especially) to find a refuge, and pretend for a while that the outside world didn't exist. It offered a tropical air, idyllic scenery and impeccable hospitality.
"Wow, this is… this is just… Wow! Honestly, why do they think you're here?" Donna asked, taking in the cobalt-blue ocean vista. She seemed in a bit of shock, as they stepped out of the TARDIS.
"Oi," the Doctor protested. "I could be here. I am here!"
"Yeah, but you're really not, are you?"
He sniffed, by way of a haughty response, and began to wander to the left.
They'd parked the TARDIS in what seemed to be a concrete hallway, carved into a hillside. At the end of the hallway, they could see, was a door marked, "Maintenance," and it opened onto a gentle slope that led a hundred yards or so down to a beach, where numerous people now cavorted. On either side of the hallway, there was a concrete staircase, and the Doctor had chosen one, and was now climbing, with Donna in tow.
They could see now that they had landed in some sort of extremely posh resort. A path was leading them uphill, along the side of a pool area, where beautiful people bathed. Actually, it was three separate pools on three different levels of the hillside, connected by a tile wall facilitating a sheet-like overflow from higher pools to lower ones. The gigantic building behind it, presumably the hotel, was pale pink mock-stucco, and sported ornate white marble staircases and Romanesque columns – five storeys of luxury. It appeared that every room on the two upper floors had a balcony, with table and chair set, which meant, of course, a stunning view of the Atlantic Ocean.
"Blimey," Donna said. "I've been to Mallorca before, but we didn't stay in any place like this!"
The Doctor didn't say anything – he just scowled, staring at the scene.
They gave themselves a tour of the grounds, with Donna commenting on the opulence of it all (including the tanned, muscular, Mediterranean men serving drinks), and the Doctor making note of everything he saw. Every courtyard, garden and atrium they walked through, he wondered even harder, why here? What was it about this place? Would he pick up on some energy signature, attracting an alien species here? Were they making it their base of operations, or did they really think that the Doctor could be, possibly, hiding here? How did this, in any way, seem like a place where the Doctor would hole up, unless there was some kind of intergalactic threat already occurring here… was there some sort of intergalactic threat already occurring here? Well, it was a possibility, of course. Perhaps the resort was already the base of operations of some faction or other…
He looked for bizarre art that might hide beckoning signs, detectable to certain civilisations (like crop circles, but less-obvious). He looked for statues that might harbour magnetic conductors, but every statue, via sonic scan, was confirmed bona-fide marble (without quantum-lock). He even looked in the corner of his eye once in a while, whenever something moved, just in case there was a perception-filtered door that might lead them into the belly of the beast.
But the more time that went on, the less it seemed as though this would be the standard type of reconnaissance situation.
"Damn it," he whispered, walking from a restaurant under a paned glass dome, back out into the true outdoors.
"What?" Donna said. "Tell me you're feeling peckish as well, because I really fancy this place. I saw a guy eating eggs Florentine with lobster polenta! How brilliant is that!"
"I'm not feeling peckish," he muttered. "That's not why we're here. Wait… lobster polenta? How did you even notice that? What did you do, a walk-by tasting?"
"I looked at the menu when we came in," she said. "And I don't like to boast, but I've sort of got lobster radar."
"Lobster radar. Wow, that is…" he said, with his eyebrows raised incredulously high. He exhaled through pursed lips, contemplating an adjective. Then he said, "… well, not something I expected to hear today."
"I'm full of surprises," she quipped, taking his arm, letting him lead her into a kind of cloister area, alongside a balcony that looked down into a Zen garden.
They stopped, and looked down in to the tranquil area, peopled with tourists following a Tai Chi class. The Doctor scowled hard. "Let's go down there."
"Really?" she asked. "Doesn't seem like something you'd do. Zen garden!"
"I don't want to go down there to be Zen, I want to go down there because those trees are in a trapezoid pattern."
"What's that got to do with anything?"
"It might be a Howktac conductor."
"A what?"
"Come on," he said, softly, walking away, toward a set of stairs. As they descended, he explained, "The Howktac are a civilisation with some sophisticated infiltration software outfitting their ships. And, if they can get their Howklian metals into the picture, and then arrange the pieces into a trapezoid pattern, they can use it to conduct messages between their ships, if they triangulate properly round the planet."
"Oh, so… wicked sophisticated infiltration," Donna said. "They might be the ones coming after you. The ones who could penetrate the defences round the TARDIS."
"Yep," he said, popping the P. "And if that trapezoid is a conductor, then it might explain what they're doing here."
They arrived in the enclosed area, floored by white gravel. There was a sign that said, "Silence, please. This area is for Tai Chi and meditation only." The Doctor and Donna breached the Zen garden, and stood in the middle of the trapezoidal pattern, while the nearly silent Tai Chi group moved beside them, apparently unfazed by their presence. The Doctor inspected the trees, as though if looked at them closely enough, the wood might melt away and reveal Howklian metal underneath. He examined each tree trunk, as Donna watched. And then, he took out the sonic screwdriver and aimed it at one of the trees.
When the noise began to vibrate the air in the Zen garden, they heard a noise they hadn't expected.
It was a "Shush," from a spot outside the tree enclosure.
Startled, both the Doctor and Donna looked in the direction from which the sound had come, and saw a woman, sitting in the lotus position on teak bench. They had wholly failed to notice her when they'd arrived upon the white gravel.
"Oh! Blimey, I didn't see you there!" Donna exclaimed with a start. She clutched at her chest momentarily, and then thought she ought to cover for the noise the sonic had made. She elbowed the Doctor and said, "I told you to turn that thing off. Honestly, I've never heard a ringtone so obnoxious in my life."
Some members of the Tai Chi class were now giving them dirty looks.
"Yeah," the Doctor said absently, staring at the woman with a bit of a scowl. "Didn't mean to interrupt your meditation."
For her part, the woman gave a half-smile, and a sniff, but didn't say anything. She simply closed her eyes and returned to her apparent state of transcendence.
The Doctor took Donna's hand, and led her back up the stairs silently, ostensibly, so that meditation could continue. But when they reached the top of the stairs, Donna could read on the Doctor's face that there was something amiss.
"What's that look?" she asked.
"I swear I've seen her somewhere before," the Doctor whispered, turning left, going in the opposite direction than from where they had come.
"Really? Where?"
"I don't know Donna," he told her, with a hint of exasperation. "If I knew I'd, say, met her in a lumber camp on the planet Katros Katros Phi, I would have said, I know that woman from Katros Katros Phi, not, I've seen her somewhere."
"All right, all right," she whined. "No need to get snippy!"
"Sorry," he muttered. He leaned on a banister, and peered back down into the Zen garden, where the woman still sat, perfectly still. "It's just… ugh, it's on the tip of my brain. Is that right… the tip of my brain?"
"Could she be a Howktac person? Maybe she's interfacing with the trapezoid thingie with her mind."
"I'm pretty sure she's human," the Doctor said absently.
"Well… okay," Donna said. "I didn't hear her say anything, so we can't tell where she's from. And even if she had spoken, it would have sounded like English to me, right?"
"Right," he said. He trained his eyes on the woman, and squinted.
Donna decided to do the same, and attempt to add the woman to her mental catalogue of faces… not that the catalogue was particularly reliable, but a girl had to try something.
The woman was black, attractive, and, Donna guessed, in her early twenties. She had long, light-brown, stick-straight hair, that was pulled back at the temples and tied behind her head. She was wearing what looked like a very light-weight, powder-blue track suit.
They actually watched her for quite a while, Donna occasionally trying to get the Doctor's attention, but not really succeeding. Clearly, this woman was familiar, but her presence must be on the very periphery of the Doctor's experience and memory. Eventually, the woman got up slowly, and stretched. Even from above, they could both tell that she was taller than the average woman, but was rail thin. She did what seemed like a few brief yoga poses, then walked tranquilly through a gate on the other side of the Zen garden.
The Doctor dashed rather stealthily along the walkway where they were standing, heading in the direction the woman had gone, but not descending into the Zen garden. Donna had the presence of mind not to ask any questions just now; she simply followed his movements as best she could.
The walkway led them to a corner, where there was another staircase, that led down toward a grassy area. The woman came out from underneath the staircase, and strode diagonally across the space, and entered the building through a door, that was part of a wall entirely panelled with windows.
The Doctor and Donna made their way down the stairs. As they reached ground-level, they realised that on the inside of that windowed wall was a play area for children. It was an indoor playground, with foam floors, several cordoned-off areas for different age groups, and even an espresso bar for the parents.
"You go inside," the Doctor said. "Find her, tell me what she's doing. You can text me. Give me your phone."
"You have a mobile?"
"Yes," he snapped. "Hurry."
She pulled her phone from her back pocket, and handed it to him. He programmed in the number of the silver razor flip phone currently resting in his pocket, and handed it back to her.
She folded her arms, and asked, "Why do I have to go in there?"
"Because, frankly, you're a woman," he said. "Single girl walks in there without a kid, no one cares. If a couple does it, or a single man, well…"
"Ugh, fine," she sighed. "I'll tell you what I see."
"Don't let her see you looking at her."
"Yeah, yeah."
Donna walked through the door, and almost immediately spotted the woman in a section in the far corner. She was placing a small girl onto a playground platform, with a big smile on her face. The little girl was about eighteen months old by Donna's estimation, and she toddled adorably across the platform, and up onto another one. She sat down at the top of the slide, and then hesitated with an unintelligible protest of some sort. Donna noticed there was a tall black man nearby, also in his early twenties, and at this point, he squatted at the bottom of the slide, and said, "It's all right love, Daddy will catch you."
The little girl slid down, and the man caught her, scooped her up in his arms, and kissed her, praising her for a slide well-slid. The little girl leant down toward the slide, signaling she'd like to do it again, so her father took her to the platform. The woman came round to the slide and said, "Okay, this time, Mummy with catch you!"
Donna tried to blend in by getting in line for a lattè, from which she could easily watch the little family. She pulled her phone out and texted the Doctor that the woman in question was just here with her husband, and they were playing with their daughter.
"What's the husband like?" his response asked.
"Tall. Good-looking. Young. What do you want from me?"
"Does he seem all right?"
"Yes!"
"What about the child?"
"She's a child!"
"Keep watching. Let me know if anything weird happens."
"Like what? One of them grows tentacles?"
"Whatever. Just let me know."
Donna obtained her lattè, and then sat down at one of the café tables, to observe. The family moved to the see-saw, then to some giant foam mushrooms, then moved across the room to the ball pit for a while. Donna didn't bother to follow them around the whole place – she just watched.
After about twenty minutes, with the little girl crying and fighting, the parents crossed the room again, and removed some personal effects from a cubby, near the coffee shop. They used a bench to do a quick, on-the-go nappy change, then headed for the door.
"They're coming out the door." Donna texted to the Doctor.
By the time, she got outside, the family had well passed the Doctor, who was standing behind a column in front of the building.
He took her hand and made to follow the family.
"What? Still?" she asked. "They're perfectly normal, Doctor."
"I know."
"Then what's the problem?"
"I know who they are."
"Really? You know them?" she wondered, as they rounded a corner and watched the family cross another grassy area bordered by a steep hill and a magnificent view of the ocean.
"Well, I know the man. Seen the woman before, I guess, just maybe in passing."
"Who is he?"
"Leo Jones."
All righty! How'd you like this chapter? Don't forget to leave me a review to let me know! :-)