Chapter 3 of my tale...
"Right" continued Ten "Now to do a search for Amplatan, and what's going on here."
"What are you going to use?" asked Donna. "Google? Wikipedia?"
"Nah, you won't find anything there, though to be fair the Gallifrey Wikipedia page is rather good, as I wrote it myself!" Ten grinned. "The TARDIS has information on all planets and solar systems, right throughout history of time, so if I input Amplatan and threats… here we go, oh, interesting."
"What is it Doctor?"
"Amplatan is a rich source of the mineral oxybortalite" Ten read out, "which became increasingly useful and valuable from around the year 3000 onwards. The water sources on the planet have a high concentration of the mineral – that explains why they don't freeze over – which is easily obtained from just below the surface. As the value of this mineral increased, the planet increasingly came under threat by invaders wishing to exploit this natural resource. As a result of all the mining and quarrying, the planet's already dramatic natural landscape had been made even more extreme, with massive mountains and valleys where oxybortalite has been extracted."
"So who do think has captured the Doctor and Clara then?"
"I don't know Donna, it could be the Amplatan people, who think that they are invaders after the oxybortalite, or it could be the invaders themselves. First thing tomorrow, we need to get down there, but as it's pitch black out there now, we might as well get some sleep as it's too risky to go outside now. Unless you have any other ideas. Charades or perhaps karaoke?"
"Goodnight Doctor."
"Oh, Goodnight Donna then. Is my singing that bad?"
The next morning, Clara and Eleven were woken by distant noises from within the cave.
"I guess everyone's up now" spoke Eleven. "Not that I slept much, Timelords don't need much sleep anyway. How did you sleep Clara?"
"Not too badly in the circumstances, though did get woken up after I bumped my head on that chin of yours."
"Well I can hardly remove it can I!"
At this point they heard footsteps approaching them, and the door to their cell being unlocked. Into the room came a vaguely humanoid creature, followed by two others who appeared to be guards of some sort.
"You two will be escorted to face the wrath of our supreme leader" spoke the creature with a distorted voice. "You've invaded Amplatan territory, and are charged with attempting to steal the precious oxybortalite of us, the noble Amplatan people."
"Oxy what?" cried Clara. "What are they talking about Doctor?"
"Very funny" replied the Amplatan, "Acting all innocent, and pretending you know nothing, but we can see through your lies. If found guilty, you will face a firing squad tonight."
"Firing squad!"
"Don't worry Clara" whispered Eleven, "I'll explain everything. We'll be fine. Hopefully."
The two guards untied the legs of Eleven and Clara, and pointing guns to their heads they were escorted out of the room, and along several passageways, deep into the heart of the cave, until finally they emerged into a large and impressive chamber. There they marched past a large crowd of Amplatans to a position in front of a throne, where an impressively attired Amplatan sat in court. One of the Amplatans came up and addressed them.
"I am the Chief Prosecutor of the court of Emperor Kyrtur 14th" he announced. "Bow down in the presence of the Emperor of Amplatan, and tell me your names."
"I'm The Doctor and this is Clara Oswald."
"Doctor who?"
"No, just The Doctor."
"But the other two members of your invasion party, who you warned off so they could escape, one of those you called Doctor as well. How can he also be called just Doctor?"
"Um, it's quite complicated, as we're both actually the same person."
"Stop talking in riddles!"
"It's true; he's me, but earlier in my timestream."
"Enough of this nonsense! Tell us why you were here."
"Well, Amplatan is a very beautiful planet, and I'm a time traveller so I was taking Clara here to see it. To see the natural beauty, the forests and giant mountain peaks, the beautiful rivers and waterfalls."
"Complete nonsense, it's obvious that you're here for the oxybortalite. I know your sort."
"I've never even heard of oxybortalite! What I said was true."
"So you expect us to believe that you came here to show a girl the scenery."
"Well, um you know how it is, when you take a girl out on a date, you take her somewhere nice."
Clara's skipped a beat at this statement, though at the back of her mind she wondered if the Doctor was just using this as part of their defence. She hoped that the Doctor had the same feelings for her that she had for him, but he had conveniently manage to get out of taking her to Space Luna Park, and the promised return trip to the Tunnel of Love, so still hadn't actually told her properly. It had apparently been a problem with the TARDIS that day, though whether it was the Doctor crying off or his jealous snogbox trying to keep them apart she couldn't be sure of.
"If you were taking her out on an intimate date, Doctor" continued the interrogation, "What were the other two doing with you? Two people both called The Doctor both taking girls out on dates?"
"No, they weren't meant to be here. Or rather they were meant to be here, but not at the same time as us. Or to be precise, they're here at the right time; it's us that are here at the wrong time, because we're here at exactly the same time as them. That was an accident, or rather it wasn't because the TARDIS, which is my time travelling machine, otherwise known as old sexy, deliberately chose this time. All very, um timey-wimey, as I really shouldn't be crossing my own timeline, which is completely, er wrong."
"Enough of this drivel" cried out the Emperor, who had been listening patiently. "I don't believe any of what you've said, but don't want to do anything hasty, so take them back to the cell while I have a think."
And with that the guards grabbed Clara and Eleven and marched them back to the cell, where once again their hands and legs were tied up.
"I thought that went rather well" announced Eleven.
"In what sense?" hissed Clara. "They didn't believe a word of it!"
"Well apart from that minor issue perhaps."
And with that the two of them sat there in silence.
Back on his TARDIS, Ten and Donna were ready to leave, but Ten had noticed something.
"I'm getting some strange readings on the console screen" he mused. "There's something distant up in the sky above this planet. Let's take a closer look. Hmm, it looks like we're not the only visitors Amplatan is going to get today. We'd better go and warn them. And rescue the Doctor and Clara, hopefully at the same time."
Ten and Donna hurried back towards the cave.
"Here's the passageway they took. Hopefully, this path will take us to the Amplatan people rather than a group of enemy invaders."
They passed along the passageway, following the same path that Eleven and Clara had taken. Eventually they heard footsteps ahead of them, and two armed guards came out to 'greet' them.
"Drop your weapons and surrender or we will kill you!" called out one of them.
"Are you Amplatan people?"
"Yes."
"We come in peace, we're not armed. We have grave news for you. Your planet is under threat. Take us to your leader."
Donna smirked at that last line.
"Ok. We will scan you first" replied the guard.
The guards scanned Ten and Donna, and found no weapons.
"You are telling the truth. Come with us!"
"I can't believe you said Take us to your leader" whispered Donna to Ten, as they proceeded deep into the cave complex. "That's so corny!"
"You're just jealous you never got to say it!"
After what seemed like an eternity, Eleven and Clara heard footsteps and the noise of their cell door being unlocked.
"The Emperor will see you now."
And with that they were marched back to the Emperor's court, where he spoke.
"Having considered the evidence, and spoken with my esteemed colleagues, I find you two guilty of invading our planet and attempting to steal our oxybortalite. As a warning to all other potential transgressors, your punishment will be broadcast across the galaxy, to show everyone that anyone caught by us will be dealt with in the strongest possible way. I hereby sentence you to death by firing squad this afternoon!"
"Noooooooooo!"
Cue titles and music... (always end on a cliffhanger)
Thanks for the comments, all reviews very welcome.
It was nice to see many of the stars of the show at Buckingham Palace yesterday, including a rare shot of Jenna and Catherine together. Clara and Donna at Buck House :-)
