Chapter Three

"Right", said the Doctor, "Where would you like to go?"

"I thought we were here to buy re-decoration stuff", replied Rose

"We are, but I thought we might take advantage of this magnificent shop first."

"Fine. I wish to visit this fantastic clothes department you mentioned then."

"Thought you would. Which department?"

"The clothes department, I just said that."

"I meant which department within clothes." He gestured towards the giant list of departments on the wall of the lift they were currently standing in. rose couldn't understand the language, but she could see that there were a lot of departments. "There are precisely 27 different clothing departments", the Doctor informed her, "Which would you like?"

"Erm, I need a new jacket…"

"Jackets it is then. Jackets please!" he called to the lift. Instantly, it shot upwards, so fast Rose fell over onto the Doctor. "Whoa there!" he said. "They're pretty fast."

"No kidding", replied Rose as she straightened herself up. "Just a question Doctor, but will they have my size, seeing as the tallest locals on this planet seem to be no taller than my waist?"

"We'll just have to shop in the alien section then." On seeing her look, he added, "They're very prepared here. They know there's a big market for aliens coming and shopping. Why do you think they added the souvenir department?"

"One wonders", said Rose, as the lift continued to shoot upwards.


After what seemed like ages, the lift finally slowed down, and came to a halt. "Long journey", remarked Rose.

"Big shop", replied the Doctor, stepping out the door.

They walked out into another giant room. Rose was getting very used to seeing things on gigantic proportion now. "Why are all the rooms so big if they're so small?" she queried, but the Doctor hushed her.

"Shh! This isn't right."

"How?" questioned Rose. She looked around the room. It was painted dark grey, and was lit quite dimly. There were many Gratians walking around looking at different jackets, which were hung neatly on neatly placed rails. "It looks perfect to me."

"Precisely. This is probably the greatest shop in the universe, but it is not organised. The last time I came here, nearly everything was in complete chaos. The rails were not placed neatly, the jackets were not ordered, and nobody shopped quietly!"

I was true; the only sounds from the shoppers were hushed whispers as they went around their shopping. It was strangely eerie.

"Maybe things have changed?" suggested Rose, "that's what you said yourself."

"Things don't change this much in three years, not here. Something wrong is going on here." He looked around. "Ah! Customer services, let's go query."

Rose rolled her eyes and followed him as he walked towards the desk. Suddenly though, he stopped, gasped, ran forward and jumped over it, almost squashing the poor girl sitting behind it.

"Doctor!"