So the time had finally come. All we had to do now was defeat an army and find an item, which could potentially destroy the world, before the thief that stole it. I bet most people don't get entertainment like that when they go on holiday. I wasn't looking forward to it at all but I knew it had to be done. At least it would all be over soon, I hoped...
"Hang on. If the Cleptraal stole the engine, why is he looking for it? Shouldn't he know where it is?" I asked puzzled.
"If he had the engine he would have left by now. My guess is he came here to sell it but whilst he was waiting someone moved it."
"Alright. I guess the next question is how exactly do you steal an engine? You can't just climb in through the window and sneak out with it hidden up your jumper."
"It's actually a lot easier than that. He probably just got close to the Cheltakkas' ship and used his teleporter."
"But don't they have shields or something to stop things like that?"
"You've been watching too much TV," the Doctor said, "The real world isn't like that. Space travel is not as glamorous as you like to think it will be."
"So what do we do now then?"
"Head back to Earth and find the engine."
"What the engine that a whole army and a professional thief have been trying to find without any success?"
"Yep. That's the one."
"Whereas just the two of us stand a much better chance of finding it."
"That's right," the Doctor said distractedly whilst working at the controls. I got the feeling that the Doctor had almost forgotten me again so I just waited patiently for the Tardis to land. By now I had gotten used to the Doctor forgetting about me so I headed towards my usual seat and started to plan what I would do with the rest of my holiday, after all this business with the aliens was done and forgotten. I had planned two days and was just contemplating a visit to the zoo when I felt the familiar jolt and realised I was back in England. The Doctor headed out of the door.
"Here we are then. Back were we started. Smell that sea air. We're even in the exact same spot. A nice bit of parking if I do say so myself," the Doctor beamed, obviously proud of his achievement.
"Am I supposed to be impressed?" I said as I followed him.
"It's not easy travelling across half the galaxy you know. It's like you throwing a ball at a flea that's on the moon," the Doctor said a little annoyed.
"Point taken. So I guess we should head out there and find this engine," I said eager to finish this as soon as possible, "It can't be too hard to find an engine. I wouldn't think there would be many places big enough to hide it in."
"How big do you think it is then?" the Doctor asked me. Puzzled I searched for a reply.
"Well you said that it needed a gravity equalizer or something to make it light enough for the ship to carry it so I'm guessing it's pretty big."
"Something doesn't have to be big to weigh a lot. Most of its weight comes from the fusion reaction in its core. The matter in there is incredibly dense. The engine itself is actually quite small."
"How small?"
"I don't know. A little bigger than a five pence piece. Any bigger and the reaction inside will be too powerful to handle. Instead of providing energy to run the ship it would just destroy it. It could even start to form into a bigger star."
"Oh. That makes things a little bit trickier. How exactly are we supposed to find it then if it's that small?" I asked exasperated.
"That's the problem. Why do you think it's taken the others so long to search for it? To be honest I don't really know where to start," the Doctor admitted.
"I don't suppose we could go to the Police lost and found." The Doctor gave me a look which made me feel stupid for even mentioning the idea.
"I didn't think we could either. I just thought I'd mention it though," I mumbled.
"Do you have a phone?"
"What?" I said confused, "Yes, why?"
"Can I borrow it? I want to go onto the internet and see if there have been any strange occurrences. Maybe that could give us a clue."
"Of course," I said. I reached into my pocket to get it for him but stopped as I felt something warm. Withdrawing my hand I saw that I still had the pendant that I had bought earlier. As my eyes traced the pattern around its edge I realised something.
"How big did you say the engine was?"
"About the size of a five pence piece maybe a little bigger, why?" I looked at him as I held up the pendant which was a little bigger than a five pence. It took the Doctor a few seconds to realise what I was showing him. When he did, his eyes widened.
"Where did you get that?" the Doctor asked excitedly.
"I bought it in a shop this morning. Just before I met you actually."
"And just before the Cleptraal started following you. That must be why I needed you to help me. There I was running around all over the place and you had the answer all along hidden in your pocket," the Doctor said with a wide grin on his face.
"So what's the plan now? If we have their engine the Cheltakkas can't destroy Earth and the Cleptraal has nothing left to gain from being here. Does that mean it's all over?"
"Not yet, there's just one more thing that we have to do before everyone will finally leave Earth."
"What's that then?"
"Give the Cheltakkas their engine back."
A/N I got a little carried away whilst writing so this won't be the last chapter, as you might have guessed. It got a bit long so I decided to split it into two. The next chapter will definatley be the last one though so you are running out of time to review. The next chapter should be updated fairly soon.
