The Rings of Akhaten Pt 1: Have You Seen Her?

{Elissa's POV}

"Would you like to do the honours?"

The Doctor and I stood outside The Maitlands' house where Clara was staying. We had just gotten back from seeing Clara at her mother's funeral only minutes before. It was odd going back to see her after I was just peeking in on her life.

Technically it had only been a few hours since we left, but It was now morning. I don't know how long we were actually travelling for, but it was nighttime when we left. I still hadn't gotten the 7 hours of sleep i needed t or did I really need them at all since this was a dream? I definitely felt like I did.

"You mean I can ring a doorbell?" I ask, with obvious sarcasm. "Oh goody." I add, as we walk up the path towards the door.

"Oi, alright if you don't want to do it then..." The Doctor begins to say, as he lifts his hand toward the button.

"No...wait...I do." I say, changing my mind and yanking his hand out of the way.

I begin pressing her doorbell repeatedly, enough times so she would definitely hear it. It took only a second before Clara opened the door with a huge smile on her face.

"Oi...hi!" She shouts, smiling. "You're here?!" She looks at me. "You're still here?" She asks, grabbing me into a big hug, her book of '101 Places to See' jabbing into my back.

She then turns in the direction of the Doctor, who is standing slightly behind me, grinning at her.

"Good morning, Clara." He says.

"Morning, Doctor," she says to him as she steps outside, book in hand and closes the door behind her. She was wearing a navy blue dress with black stockings underneath. She had a black jacket over top of it and was carrying a red messenger bag. It looked sort of like old librarian chic.

"My how good it is to see you both," Clara says, pulling the Doctor into a hug.

"We never got a proper introduction, did we?" She states, after letting go of the Doctor and reaching out to me. She gives me her hand as we faced each other.

"I'm Clara and you're Elissa. How bout that?" She starts to shake my hand way before I could even try to shake hers. "Let's stir up trouble for this bloke, shall we?"

"Whatever you say," I tell her laughing. "You are really excited", I note, as she drops her hand.

"Yeah, well - " She begins.

"And you were waiting by the door, weren't you?" I ask her.

"Of course she was." The Doctor declares. "Now, come on you two... let's go." He beckons, as he turns around, back in the direction of the TARDIS.

Clara and I just stand by the door watching him walk. I remember specifically that Clara wanted him to ask her something so I assumed that's why she was waiting. Clara raises an eyebrow at the Doctor, then looks up at me as she was a good 3 inches shorter than I was even in her 2 inch heels.

"Ladies! Why don't I hear footsteps behind me?" The Doctor says as he stops midway, without turning around.

"Um Doctor, aren't you going ask me something?" Clara calls out.

The Doctor turns around. "Oh right...Clara..." He begins to say, pointing a finger in the air.

"Yes!" she shouts and dashes off towards the TARDIS before he can even finish.


"So we're moving... through actual time?" Clara giggles while peering through the TARDIS doors.

She then runs over to the Doctor who is leaning against the console. "So what's it made of? Time?" She asks. "I mean if you can just rotor through it...it's gotta be made of stuff like jam is made of strawberries...so what's it made of?"

"Well, not strawberries...no. No no no. That would be unacceptable..." He says straightening his bowtie. "Right Elissa?" He asks me, taking me out of my trance.

"Sorry - what?" I walk over to the steps and sit down. "I wasn't listening. I have no idea what you're talking about." I reply, resting my chin on the palm of my hand.

I wasn't really paying attention to him and I didn't bother paying attention to Clara either. To me they were just talking nonsense.

I jiggled my knees as I sat on the steps watching them, ready to be done with all this chatter. I don't see why Clara needed to have time explained to her. Time was time and space was space. Why did my dream Clara have to be so damn inquisitive anyway?

"And Elissa doesn't seem at all fazed by any of this," Clara notes, stopping and turning round to look at me. The Doctor turns to look at me as well.

"You're right. She doesn't seem to be aware of how amazing my ship is." The Doctor agrees. "Even when she was traveling through time with me. She's been as cool as a cucumber."

"Yeah..." I say, glancing up at them.. "It's almost like I've seen it all before. Strange," I mutter sarcastically.

"Plus," I add, finally leaping up. "I've been through time before...with him and we didn't exactly go see space or the future did we?" I ask. "We just went to see Clara and..." I stop before I say too much. The Doctor just gives me a wary look.

"...pick her up and whatever." I finish. "It was a really short trip, like 2 seconds." I assure.

I walk over to them.

"That's right. Two seconds. Definitely two seconds only." The Doctor agrees.

"Good point," Clara says.

"Well, all in good time ladies... Now Clara?"

"And we can go anywhere?" Clara asks, spinning round the console at the same time as the Doctor where they meet, on the opposite side.

"Within reason...well, I say reason." The Doctor lifts his hands and shrugs.

I begin looking at some of the buttons, and go to brush my fingers over one of them.

"Don't touch anything." he warns me, still looking at Clara.

"Relax," I tell him.

"So, we could go backwards in time?" Clara asks, glancing up.

"And space, yes." He adds.

"And forwards in time?" She asks.

"And space...totally...so..." He begins enthusiastically. " Where do you wanna go, eh? What do you wanna see?"

They both spin around the console, and found themselves on the opposite side where the TARDIS doors were. I look at Clara hoping she has an idea of somewhere we could go.

I had to admit that I had no problem being the silent observer. As long as I didn't up dying in this dream, I was fine. I was just waiting for the Doctor to actually take us somewhere. Though I was quite annoyed with all the spinning and turning they were doing that was making me feel dizzy.

The Doctor and I both look at her, waiting for her to answer. Clara's eyes light up, but a reply doesn't leave her lips.

Then her smile falls. "I don't know..." She says. Then she turns to me. "Elissa?"

"Um..." I begin, unsure of what answer to give.

"No don't look at her...Ignore her. She's not here." The Doctor tells Clara.

She turns back. "OK. Um...You know when someone asks you what's your favourite book and straight away you forget every single book that you've ever read?"

"No...Totally not." The Doctor answers, eagerly looking into Clara's eyes.

"Well, that's a thing... That...happens...Elissa knows what I'm talking about." She turns to me.

"And...'" He interrupts. "Back to the question."

"OK...So..." She nods. "So...So..." She says again, this time raising two fingers in the air, then running to the rail by the entrance.

"So", Clara says again facing the door, as the Doctor rubs his hands together behind her, while I walk over to stand beside him. We both face Clara's back, waiting for her to decide,

"I'd like to see... I would like to see...What I would like to see is..." Clara begins.

Meanwhile the Doctor was squirming around like he had ants in his pants.

Clara finally whips back around and is smiling. "Something awesome," she says.

The Doctor doesn't even hesitate. He snaps his fingers, makes his way to the console and yanks down a lever. I perk up a bit on the steps knowing that finally something is about to happen.

Clara swings down off the entrance step and makes her way over to me running, with her hand outstretched.

"Come on, Lissa, hold my hand," she says in front of me. "This is going to be so amazing."

"Lissa." She repeats aloud, then stops. "...you don't mind if I call you that, do you?"

I get up with a smile and take her hand. "No not all," I say. We both turn towards the Doctor.

"So this is it?" I ask, my excitement growing. "Are we actually going somewhere?" I ask aloud. "...somewhere not...here?"

"Yes... As far away from "here" as possible!" The Doctor shouts.


"Both of you close you eyes and give me one hand." The Doctor instructs us both.

Clara and I close our eyes and put out our hands.

"Clara you step out first," He says. I listen to the TARDIS door creak open and can hear their footsteps as he leads her out.

It was silent for a few seconds, Then I feel the Doctor's hand as he comes back to lead me out as well.

I step with hesitancy, causing the Doctor to place his hand on my shoulder and guide me forward.

I feel sand beneath my boots.

Then he stops. I hear heavy breathing beside me. Clara's. I reach out to the right and touch the side of Clara's dress. In return, Clara finds my hand with her fingers and latches onto me. I'm absolutely certain she has a big smile on her face.

Then I felt something cool and leathery being placed around my shoulders.

"I thought you might need this." The Doctor tells me. I realize it's a jacket.

"Thanks," I say. I let go of Clara's hand for a moment while keeping my eyes closed, while the Doctor puts my arms through the sleeves.

"Can you feel the light on your eyelids?" He asks after my arms are lowered. "That is the light of an alien sun."

The Doctor had one hand on my back, and I assume the other on Clara as he nudged the both of us ahead.

"Forward a couple of steps. OK. Are you ready?" He asks dropping his hands.

I peaked partially through my eyelids and saw orangey light coming through. Was it the sun? Was he about to throw us into a pit of fire?

"Yes...No...Yes?" I hear Clara say finally.

"Elissa?" The Doctor asks.

"Yes," I answer slowly.

Clara and I both open our eyes to see we're in space and standing on a small ledge. A sky full of stars and floating asteroid rocks. There is a huge orange sun or planet in the background and a larger rock thing that looks like it has people living there.

"Welcome to the Rings of Akhaten." The Doctor declares.

I turn to see the Doctor slightly behind us, grinning from ear to ear.

"It's..." Clara begins to say.

"Beautiful," I finish, as I stared up at the sky like I was in a trance.

"It is," The Doctor says. "It so completely is. But wait, there is more."

"More what?" Clara asks sounding out of breath.

"Wait, wait, wait." He looks down at his wrist watch.

"In about five, four, three, two.." He says, as he guides us forward some more, so Clara and I are now standing on the tip of the ledge.

We look into the sky waiting for it. Then, the asteroids move out of the way to reveal a golden pyramid glinting on a rock closer to the sun

"What is it?" I ask in complete awe.

"The Pyramid of the Rings of Akhaten. It's a holy site for the Sun Singers of Akhat."

"The who of what?" Clara asks, glancing back at the Doctor.

"Seven worlds orbiting the same star. All of them sharing a belief that life in the universe originated here, on that planet." He says, pointing to the left towards a huge rock planet with a bunch of structures and buildings.

"All life?" Clara asks.

"In the universe." He says.

"Did it?" She wonders.

"Well..." He pauses. "It's what they believe... It's a nice story."

"Can we see it... Up close?"

Doctor grins and reaches for our hands as he pulls us backward toward the TARDIS.


The Doctor and Clara run out of the TARDIS first, while I follow closely behind.

We find ourselves in a bazaar full of different shops as the three of us stood beside each other all looking at all the different species of aliens. Short ones, fat green ones, one with pointy heads,Purple ones with huge bug eyes, robots, some even human looking, but with odd coloured skin.

"Where are they from?" Clara asks the Doctor.

"Oh, you know, the local system, mostly." He tells us.

"And what do we call them?"

"Well, let's see. Ah! There go some Panbabylonians." The Doctor points to the tall purple ones with bug eyes and ribbed skulls

"A Lugal-Irra-Kush. Some Lucanians. A Hooloovoo." He continues, pointing to an array of different aliens.

Then he walks up to a purple man with a saggy face who was wearing armour dark glasses, a black hood.

"Ah" the Doctor says, clapping hands with the alien. "Qom VoTivig."

I gaze on as they wiggle their faces at each other, cross their hands with each other, then do a pelvic thrust.

What the hell? I think to myself and Clara just stares on in wonder. If the Doctor showed her alien dog shit, I bet she would think it was the best thing ever.

"That chap's a Terraberserker of the Kodion Belt." He muses. "You don't see many of them around any more.

"Oh!, he says running ahead of us. "That's an Ultramancer."

It was a robot thing with red eyes that had metal pipes coming out of his head.

"Do you know," he says walking back over to meet us. "I forget how much I like it here. We should come here more often."

"You've been here before?"

"Yes, yes, yes." He tells her. "I came here a long time ago with my granddaughter."

"Wait - what?" I ask.

The Doctor then dashes off through the crowd, leaving us to follow.

"Hang on!" Clara shouts, taking off after him. "Lissa!" She calls, beckoning me to come along.

I follow them.

When we catch up to the Doctor, he is carrying a gold basket full of fluorescent blue round things.

"Exotic fruit of some description." He says.

Clara reaches for one as the Doctor scans then uses his screwdriver to inspect them

I take one as well, but just poke it, before placing it back. Clara eagerly bites into hers.

"Right. Non-toxic, non-hallucinogenic. High in free radicals and low in other stuff, I shouldn't wonder."

Clara shakes her head.

"No?" He asks, putting the basket back down.

"So, why is everyone here?" Clara asks, with fruit still in her mouth. I look around for the fruit she just had in her and saw that she had just dropped it onto the floor. How rude.

"For the Festival of Offerings. Takes place every thousand years or so, when the rings align. It's quite a big thing, locally, like Pancake Tuesday."

As the Doctor and Clara walk on, I slow down for a moment to look at an array of beads on display.

Clara noticing I was gone, turns around to look for me, but instead walks right into angry bald alien with teeth.

"Oh!" She exclaims. The alien just barks snarls at her like it wants to bite her.

I go over to try and help her, holding onto her right arm in defence I guess. Though I was not really sure what I can do if the thing decides to take a chunk out of her.

"Erm... Doctor?" She calls out to him. As she stays frozen, I look around for him.

The Doctor then comes up from behind us on our left, barking at the thing like a Yorkshire terrier.

"What's happening? Why is it angry?" Clara asks, still a bit shaken up and not moving. At least we know there is nothing to worry about now that the Doctor is here. I let go of Clara's arm.

"This isn't an it, it's a she." He tells her. "Dor'een, meet Clara. Clara, meet Dor'een." He says, introducing them. I look at Dor'een and she - the alien, actually looks like it's smiling at us. In a creepy, evil way.

"Doreen?" Clara laughs at the name. It was an odd name for an alien.

"Loose translation." He says. "She sounds a bit grumpy but she's a total love actually, aren't you? Yes, you are." The Doctor begins tickling her alien dog jowls as she coos. The strained half smile on my face is telling of how confused I am.

"No, actually, she's just asking if we fancy renting a moped." The Doctor tells us.

"Well both of you... Dor'een this is Elissa." He gestures towards me.

"Um...Hi," I say as I wave at her cautiously.

Dor'een barks something as she steps back and guides us toward what I guess was how their mopeds looked. It was a large silver thing with lights.

Clara barks back at Dor'een, seeming pleased with her self. I'm not sure she actually knows what she's saying - but Dor'een replied so I guess it did make sense somehow. I laughed. Well, cool then I guess.

"So, how much does it cost?" Clara asks.

"Not money." He says, looking at the both of us. "Something valuable. Sentimental value. A photograph, love letter, something like that. That's what's used for currency here."

I don't know why anyone would want to give up something as precious as that. I still wouldn't even think of throwing away my Mickey Mouse blanket I still had from when I was a baby.

The Doctor continues. "Psychometry. Objects psychically imprinted with their history. The more treasured they are, the more value they hold."

"That's horrible." Clara tells him, crossing her arms.

"Better than using bits of paper." He retorts in a ridiculing way.

"How is that better?" I ask.

Clara looks at me, then back at the Doctor. "Then you pay for us." She says to him, shrugging her shoulders.

I doubt either of us have brought anything with us that has sentimental value. I mean the Doctor had his screwdriver, but there was no way he would give that up, nor would I want him to.

"With what?" He asks.

"You're a thousand years old. You must have something you care about." She challenges.

Clara then turns around excitedly, and my gaze follows her for only a second before I turn around and see that the Doctor is now gone. I hear Clara giggling to herself. I frown.

{Clara's POV}

I begin to laugh about how extraordinary this place is until I turn around and notice the Doctor's absence and that Lissa doesn't even seem to be looking for him. She looks at me like she's waiting for me to do something. Lissa frowns, her full lips pouting. She puts her hands in her jacket pocket and shrugs as I maneuver my way around her.

"Doctor?" I call out as I glance around. I grab onto Lissa's arm as I look, so she doesn't decide to go off as well for any reason. I didn't want to lose her also.

"Uh...He's gone," Lissa says to me.

I didn't now much about Lissa, but I guessed she was probably in her late teens. It was still younger than me so I felt I needed to look out for her. I take Lissa by the hand as I run off to try and find The Doctor.

"Doctor?" I call out again. I let go of Lissa, as we both turn around to try and look this time.

Then, out of nowhere a young girl with flowing blond hair and a long red robe, runs right into us.

"Oh...Are you OK?" I ask, looking down at her. The little girl looks frightened and alone. A closer look at her reveals odd flesh-coloured raised markings on her face.

"Hey..." Lissa begins to say soothingly toward her, but then the girl just runs off. Lissa and I both look at each other startled, before turning around to see where she was headed. Through a back exit with green string beads handing down it.

We turn back around to see two tall men, with similar markings and clothing as the little girl who just passed.

"Have you seen her?" One of the taller men ask, directing his question at Lissa. I look at her and hope she doesn't say anything.

"Who?" She says in response.

"The Queen of Years." He says glancing at us both, like we are imbeciles.

"Who?" I reply this time. The only person I had seen was a little girl and she did not look like a queen to me. Unless...

The slightly taller man squints his eyes and just looks at the other one in confusion. He just dismisses us, as he points to the other one to get moving. They both go off in different directions.

"OK? What was that about?" Lissa asks, turning to me, her curls bouncing as she does. "Why do you think they wanted that girl?"

I look at her. So Lissa did agree with me that it was the girl they wanted and that it was good that we didn't say anything to give her away.

"I'm not sure.." I muse quietly as I look around to confirm that the two men were out of sight and going the wrong direction. "...but let's go after her and find out."

I take off and decide to follow the girl and hope that Lissa stays close behind.

*...*


A/N: Thanks for reading! Every review is appreciated.

NEXT UP: Chapter 5, Pt 2