"Salvage"

4. Welcome to the Team

Inside the TARDIS

As their surprise guest was waking up, Rose watched him, wondering who he could have been, and how he knew the Doctor. It was entirely possible, with how old he was, that he would have met loads of other people, but he couldn't place him, and that added to the mystery.

"Are you alright?" she asked him. "I didn't mean to hit you, but you were… I'm sorry," she told him, helping him sit up.

"It's alright, don't worry about it," he told her, touching his face where she had hit him. It looked like he might have a bruise for a while. She only briefly thought about this, as she realized something else.

"You're American?"

"Born and raised," he confirmed. "Sam Evans," he introduced himself, holding out his hand. She took it.

"Rose Tyler, nice to meet you. When you started waking up, you said Doctor…" she approached the subject carefully.

"I did?" he asked, pausing for a moment. "My head was kind of spinning, then I saw you. I must have thought that was what you were, a doctor," he explained.

Rose looked up to the Doctor, and if he had an 'oops' face, maybe that was what he was giving her. The TARDIS gave a shudder, signalling their arrival, and he moved toward the man still half laid out on the ground. "No, that would be me, I'm afraid. I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor who?" Sam spoke as he turned and saw him.

"Just the Doctor," he replied, crouching. "Thing is, Sam, there was a bit of a mix up, and now we've had to take you with us."

"To go where?" Sam asked.

"Far, very, very far, and then add about three hundred and eighty-six more 'very,'" the Doctor told him.

"This is a ship, a space ship," Rose revealed. Sam looked from one to the other, like he was about to laugh. But then he kept looking, beyond them and all around him. He saw the interior of the TARDIS, and he didn't stop looking as he worked to get up, almost stumbling for a moment before getting a hold of the railing.

"Are you serious?"

"You don't even know the half of it, and we have to make this brief. Rose, you've met Rose, she's human. I'm the Doctor, and I'm not. This is my ship, it's called the TARDIS, it travels in space, specifically the planet Mesphoria at this time. We're responding to a distress call, which means unfortunately I can't take you back at the moment. Any questions?"

"A few," Sam blinked.

"And we will be happy to answer them, now out through those doors and please don't wander off," the Doctor moved past him and pulled the doors open. Sam turned to Rose.

"If I were you, I'd step outside and look at the ship again," she smirked, following the Doctor out. Sam hesitated, but he went, and as his feet landed on a grassy hill, he turned and found the wide open ship, here, looked like a blue wooden box, not even as wide as the width of his arms. He touched it, turned to the pair of them. "See?" Rose told him.

"Yeah…" he continued to touch it, like he wasn't completely sure. Turning about, he could not deny they no longer were in Cardiff. The hill overlooked the ocean, with a water so clear, it didn't seem to belong with the grass along the hill and growing down towards the shore, but as a whole it did make for an impressive sight.

"What do you suppose is going on down there?" the Doctor asked, more concentrated on the group standing near and around a wide hole.

"Doctor?" Rose spoke, and again there was something new for them to discover, as they saw what she saw: they had company.

They came marching up the hill from behind the TARDIS, and the trio moved around the ship. There were eight or so of them, from what they could see, and the closer they got, the more was visible. All of them wore matching uniforms, which included something almost skirt like, for the men and women both. This was hardly the thing that would concern them in the end. Their skin was green, a tone that reminded them of the sea, and he thought he could see specks of gold here and there. As they came closer still, something else became evident: they were giant. Sam would estimate their height averaged around ten feet tall. His neck craned up, as did the Doctor and Rose's.

"Hello," the Doctor raised his hand and bowed his head with a smile. The twin rows had parted, and the ninth of their group, thus far unseen, stepped forward. The woman was easily two feet shorter than the rest of her group, though still two feet taller than the three she was coming toward.

"Doctor?" she hesitated. He approached, giving a short gesture that came off halfway between a salute and a curtsey. "Is that really you?" she asked.

"Still me," he promised.

"When I saw you last, what did you tell me before getting back on your ship?"

"I told you holding on to that crown didn't have to change you. Did it?" he asked with a smile, and she did the same.

"Not one bit."

"Mind you some things did change," he looked at her. Last time he had seen her she was all of ten years old, but he would put her at twenty-six years old now.

"You're one to talk," she pointed out.

"They still call you the Child Queen?"

"They do, for… different reasons now," she looked to her Queen's Guard, towering over her.

"Well, please, allow me to make the introductions. Rose Tyler, Sam Evans, of Earth, you stand before Orielle, crowned ruler of all Mesphoria. So how can we help?"

TO BE CONTINUED (SUNDAY)