Chapter 1

The first of the two suns rose over the planet of Makarosh. Since the second sun was to rise three hours after the first one a very hot day was promised, which was normal this time of year. Rising the way they did prolonged the day and made midday extremely hot. Only once every second year did the two suns rise together. The day after the twin sunrise, or twinrise as it was also called, was the only time the people of Makarosh held a festival to celebrate two more years of fortune. The fortune lie in the fact that when the two suns rose together there was a risk of them colliding and if they did they would effectively take the planet with them in the great explosion that would follow. Because of this risk every second year the inhabitants of Makarosh lived in fear the weeks leading up to the twinrise. This day, it was a month until the twinrise was to happen again, but there was something other than that bothering the people of the planet.

A research facility called simply 'The Corporation' had been built many years back promising to find a way to avoid the inevitable explosion. It was a large building in grey stone surrounded by a wire fence located just outside Makarosh's biggest city. Regularly they were looking for new staff and personell to help them with their research but the only thing they had accomplished so far was creating an illness that caused everyone who had been in contact with the Corporation to become sick and some also die from it. The illness had symptoms like heat strokes, dementia, frequent nose bleed, extreme fatigue and tumors in some cases. Because of this the people of Makarosh avoided the Corporation as much as possible, but when the twinrise approached, more and more applied for a job to ease their fear and highten their hope of surviving two more years.

Drey-La, a young Makaroshian, was sitting in the sunlit market-place thinking about her fear of the next twinrise, her family and especially her mother. One or two tears ran down her cheeks. The twinrise often made her think of her mother. Drey-Las mother Madi-La had been one of those who signed up for a job at the Corporation and it had seemed to go well the first few months. The payment meant the family was making quite an amount of money and from what Madi-La was saying the Corporation was making progress in finding a solution to the explosion. But then even her mother had gotten sick. It had started with a few nose bleeds which had worried Lash-El, Drey-Las father. Madi-La had assured them all that she was fine and they had believed her for a while but when she started getting dizzy and forgetful the hole family knew that she wasn't. Three months later she had passed away. That was three years ago today. Her death had affected the whole family greatly. Lash-El had decided to quit his job to be able to grief, Drey-Las brother Krae-El was in his fathers stead forced to find a job and Drey-La had to be at home to take care of her depressed father. The atmosphere between them was not very good and whenever Drey-La had time to get out of the house she did. It was the only time she felt that she could grieve and be herself.

As she sat there she heard a strange noise she hadn't heard before on Makarosh sounding like a swirling, wheezing sound. Was the explosion about to happen earlier than what was told? In the middle of the market-place a blue angular form was appearing. Drey-La blinked a few times, half believing she too had fallen ill but suddenly the form was fully materialized. "Police box" was written on it, a word she had not heard before. Cautiously she approached it but stopped in her step when the doors suddenly opened and a thin man exited. There were not many people in the market-place so the thin man looked directly at Drey-La. He had dark, unruly hair and dark brown eyes. His thin body was draped in clothes she had never seen before, a striped suit of some kind much different from her brother's or her father's baggier garments which was the natural thing to wear on Makarosh. Drey-La herself wore a long purple-coloured dress. The Doctor greeted her and she nodded in response.

"Wh- who are you", asked Drey-La. "And what is that box thing?"

"I'm the Doctor and the 'box thing' is my ship", the Doctor replied.

"You have a functioning ship?"

Drey-La lit up and approached the Doctor and his ship, happy to see a possible way of getting away from Makarosh. Was this a way for some of her wishes to come true? The ship wasn't very big, but if he could maybe help the Corporation in making more ships they could leave the planet before the explosion.

"Are you here to help the Corporation and us with the twinrise, Doctor?".

The Doctor looked at the ash blonde girl and thought of Rose. How long had it been? He quickly cast that thought aside and noticed that the young woman in front of him had been crying not long ago. In relation to that he answered her question.

"Maybe I can. What is the twinrise, and the Corporation?"

He listened intently to what Drey-La had to say. If he could help them it would be a chance for him to focus his thought and energy on something other than his lonelyness for a while. As Drey-La as thoroghly as she could explained the situation on the planet, the Doctor could indeed se the problem Drey-La and the Makaroshians had and wanted to delve into the mystery of Makarosh as soon as possible. Drey-La invited the Doctor to her home hoping that her father wouldn't be too angry of having a stranger unexpectedly in his house. As they walked the narrow streets to Drey-La's house he tried to get a sense of the city. It seemed to be a pretty small city although Drey-La had said it was the planet's biggest. The houses were grey, probably made out of sand, with roofs made of what appeared to be some kind of thatch. There weren't much vegetation although large yellow and green flowers were planted here and there and tufts of blue grass were growing in clusters. Other than that the planet seemed to consist mostly of sand. It was probably because of the two suns the vegetation looked as it did and the Doctor assumed that it didn't rain very often either.

As they came closer to Drey-La's house the Doctor noticed a young man leaning against one of the sandy buildings, seemingly dizzy or exhausted, and walked up to him. The almost black hair lay plastered on the young man's face.

"Are you alright", the Doctor asked, putting a compassionate hand on the man's back. The man took a deep breath and nodded in response.

"Thank you, yes I will be in a moment." The Doctor fished up a small bottle from one of his deep pockets containing some water and gave it to the man. He thanked for the kindness and then insisted of leaving them so that he could continue on his way. From what Drey-La had told him the Doctor suspected that this man suffered from the illness the Corporation caused and he hoped that the black haired youth would be OK.

They continued walking and was soon approaching Drey-La's house. Loud voices were heard from the inside that sounded as if Lash-El and Krae-El were arguing about something. Seconds later Krae-El stormed out and almost walked straight into the Doctor and Drey-La. Krae-El looked alot like his sister, ash-gray hair, bright eyes and a small mouth. He wore burgundy baggy trousers and a short sleeved shirt over a tanned, muscular body. While doing this observation Drey-La and Krae-El had already started talking.

"What's wrong, why did you storm out like that?, asked Drey-La. "Why don't you come inside again, I have something important to tell you. This man has promised to try and help us."

"Hello, I'm the Doctor", the Doctor said and held out his hand. Krae-El took one look at him but didn't take his hand. Instead he turned back to his sister.

"I can't take this anymore", he started. "I'm going to the Corporation. Something has to be done, and we need the money! I can't take seeing our father in this state much longer." Drey-La tried to stop him, convincing him to stay knowing what would happen if he went there.

"And so do you!", she half screamed to her brother. But it was futile, her brother had already decided to go and he left Drey-La and the Doctor where they stood, marching away from the house.

With tears in her eyes Drey-La turned her head away as her brother walked off. She told the Doctor that she really hoped he could help them. The problems escalated all the time and now it looked as if her family was falling apart even more. She took some deep breaths and then opened the door to the dark, dimly lit room inside where Lash-El was sat on a sofa-like piece of furniture deep in thought. He hardly looked up as Drey-La and the Doctor walked inside. Drey-La took some slow, cautious steps up to the old man.

"Father, this is the Doctor. He has promised to help us with our problems. Will you talk to him?" She sat down in front of him looking him up in his eyes. They were grey and sad.

"What's the point, my daughter." He spoke with a slow, mumbling voice, as if it was hard to pronounce the words. "The next twinrise is soon to happen, which could well be the last, I have lost my dear wife and now I have also lost my son. I wouldn't blame you if you walked away aswell, leaving me in my misery." His eyes seemed to get even greyer and Drey-La knew it was meaningless to say anything more. Now all her hopes lay with the Doctor. She got to her feet and turned to the Doctor, a man she had just met, but who had been standing reassuringly behind her the whole time. He too looked a bit sad but gave her a small smile and led her outside again. He told her it was better not to worry her father even more.

"I have to do something, Doctor!", Drey-La spoke with a tearful voice. He agreed.

"I must say that I had planned on gaining some more information first, but now I'm getting eager in making acquaintance with this Corporation. It's better if you stayed here though, it would ruin your father if something happened to you." The Doctor knew it could be, and most certainly would be, dangerous to enter the Corporation facility. It was the usual when it came to the Doctor.

"You can't leave me behind on this. My whole family is on the line and if I don't come home with my brother intact my father is already ruined! No, Doctor, I insist on coming with you."

"Fine", the Doctor stated. "But you'll have to do as I say, it might be very dangerous!"

TBC