Chapter 9: Yellow

I must have been inside of there for hours. I could not believe the technology! A center console was ascended in the center of the large, circular, cockpit. She had given me permission to open up the console. If my calculations were correct, this tiny blue box was generating a ridiculous amount of power. And is that a tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator?! This craft is amazing! And huge! Well compared to the outside, anyway.

"Who are you calling huge?" said the voice of the woman from before.

"Whoa, sorry. I still need to get used to that," I laughed.

We continued like that for hours. I was so lost exploring the controls of the ship that I barely heard the door open up behind me. A head popped into the cockpit. A dark skinned man with short brown hair poked his head in with a frown. He was holding a small silver tube that illuminated with a blue light. He pointed the light towards me.

"Who are you? Get out of there," said the man I would later know as "The Doctor." I pulled my head out from inside of the center console and stood up.

"Guess daddy's home," laughed The Tardis.

"Whoa, it's bigger on the inside," said a tall blue woman. I didn't recognize her species but she was beautiful with golden horns. An exposed midriff showed that she was in incredible shape!

"You'll get used to it," said a beautiful woman with bright red hair. Finally, some marrying age women have arrived on Ferros. I tried to fix my grease-stained blonde hair into something presentable. I then looked down at my horribly oil-stained silver jumpsuit that draped over my skinny shoulders. I wish I had known. I would have worn a clean jumpsuit at least.

"This isn't what it looks like!" I tried to explain, as I nervously put wires back into the compartment. The Doctor walked up right towards me, as I closed the console door. He was not happy. He was inches from my face.

"How dare he get jealous!" complained The Tardis. "I'm here playing chauffer as he escorts other woman all around the Universe! And a few weeks ago, he flew me through a blackhole! But did he ask me if I care? Did he ever ask me where I want to go? Did he ask me if I minded taking his little companions on road trips!"

"Hahaha!" I laughed. "Did you really fly through a black hole?"

"Who are you talking to?" said The Doctor.

"You guys can't hear her?" I asked.

"Hear who?" said my beautiful, red-headed, contender for future wife.

"Wait... You can hear The Tardis?" asked The Doctor.

"Yeah. Can't you guys?" I asked as I looked up at The Tardis roof.

"It's not like he would listen even if he could," joked The Tardis.

The Doctor stared at me for a moment. He scrunched his face up and then spun around on his heels. He made a few weird noises, as is he were thinking and then ran into a back room. I didn't even know there were other rooms! We heard crashing and bangs from the back, until he finally came back with a small silver ball.

"This is a psychic sphere," The Doctor said as he threw the ball to me. "It is a children's toy on my planet. It's kind of like a rubix cube... with a twist."

I looked at the ball. It had two small blue lines on it. The Doctor explained that the idea of the toy was to line up the two lines, one after another, so that then ends met and formed a longer line. The small ball had panels that rotated to make this possible. The problem was, every turn you rotated, the ball would get a turn. And the ball rotated to prevent you from lining up the blue lines.

"Even the smartest Time Lords on my planet take almost a whole day to crack a psychic ball," started The Doctor. "I can actually do it in 3 hours..."

"Finished," I said as I threw the ball back to The Doctor. It wasn't too hard. It took me about 14 rotations, maybe 40 seconds. The Tardis and my red-headed future girlfriend both let out a laugh. The Doctor was frowning again.

"I hope his stupid face gets stuck that way," laughed The Tardis.

"Who are you?" asked The Doctor bewildered.

"My name is Dowitcher Ibis. But you can call me Dow. I am kind of a scavenger... and inventor."

The Doctor explained to me that I am something called a "Technopath." It is the reason that I was always good with machines and computers. I can communicate with technology, and The Tardis' psychic field amplified my abilities.

"Your Tardis really is amazing," I said to The Doctor as I stroked a side panel. "If I were you, I'd treat her better."

"Do not tell me how to treat my Tardis!" he objected.

The Tardis started to shake violently. Buttons started to beep and light up in fury.

"I think you two have a lot to talk about," I said as I walked out of The Tardis to give them some privacy. My 2 contenders for girlfriend followed behind me as we left The Doctor and his Tardis alone. I had been in The Tardis for so long, that the sunlight from outside hurt. When my eyes adjusted, I saw a tall, brown, insect looking alien standing outside. I had not been to any planets other than Ferros, but even I knew that this brown alien was strange. I just hope he isn't the boyfriend to either of these two girls. He didn't speak.

"I never got your names," I said as I bowed to the two girls. I can't believe I bowed! How lame! This is what happens when you have no experience talking to girls. I raised my head and they stared at me awkwardly. I extended my hand to the beautiful girl with blue skin, who I would later know as Ceranus. She gave me an even stranger stare.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," I said as I took off Gauntlet from my right arm. "I call it Gauntlet. It was formerly a droid arm that I had calibrated to my own nervous system. It is extremely cool... and useful. It has hundreds of uses. On board computer, soldering iron, tons of tools... I use in my everyday work in the yard... It's like a portable droid."

I realized that I was doing all the talking. But I was proud of my Gauntlet! It was one of my first inventions. It belonged to the arm of an old protocol droid we had. My Gauntlet was bronze, and sleek, and I had been upgrading it with new features every chance I could. The girls were not as charmed.

"So... You guys want to see some of the other projects I have been working on?"

"They are here," rang a loud male voice in my head.

"Did you guys hear that?" I said as I shook my head.

"Yeah," said the beautiful red-headed woman, that I would know as Erin. I followed her eyes and saw three pieces of debris streaking across the atmosphere.

"Oh no, that always happens here on Ferros. You see, there is something about the magnetic field of this planet that..."

"No!" rang that same loud male voice in our heads.

"Fornicks?" said Erin confused as she looked towards the brown alien.

The pieces of debris started to move strangely. They started to zig and zag through the atmosphere and made a direct line towards us. Seconds later, they were visible as ships that were making a deliberate line towards us.

"Here we go again," said Ceranus as she pulled out a lightsaber. She is a Jedi?! So hot!

The three ships landed around us, each about 500 yards away. Out of them came people. People of all different races. Many species I did not recognize. Women, children, men, tall races, short races... about 30 people in each ship. The red-head ran back towards the blue box and started knocking. I heard the faint sound of music coming from the box.

"Doctor! Get out here!" she screamed.

They started to surround us and they made a circle around us in a radius of about 50 yards. We were surrounded. We all stood in front of The Tardis. The one they call Fornicks and the Jedi stood the most frontward, towards the surrounding mob. It started to rain.

"Hello? Excuse me, but this is private property!" I explained to the mob around us. They stood silent.

Erin was trying at the door and knocking with furor.

Out of the top of the two ships that laid in front of us, we saw claws emerge. Long, black, and sharp claws that ripped open the hulls of their vessels like a feizard emerging from an egg. They pulled their bodies out to reveal their large mass. They were strange looking creatures. They didn't seem to have any true form, and the blackness of their bodies shifted. Tall sharp moving creatures. One from the west moved on all fours, while the one from the north moved on two.

"Doctor! Get out here now!" Erin screamed from behind me.

The creatures started to move quickly. The one on four got to us first. The mob parted to allow it to pass. Fornicks waved his right arm, and a flash of blue mist struck out and sliced the creature in half. The second creature jumped upwards, over the crown, and onto the top of The Tardis. Erin jumped backwards into my arms. Her hair smelled really good. Like a rare and exotic fruit I have never smelled before. The creature let out a devastating roar.

"EEEEEAAAAAAAKKK!"

The creature jumped down, and I put myself between Erin and the creature. We walked backwards away from it. I looked backwards as Ceranus ran past us towards the remaining creature. She extended her lightsaber and passed by the creature, emancipating its leg from its body. The creature fell to its arms and its remaining knee. Its sharp head inches from Erin and I. It had no real face, but it's head opened up to show dark teeth, again, without any true form. From above the creature, Ceranus descended, and with a slash decapitated the dark beast.

"What is all this racket?" said The Doctor as the Tardis doors burst open. "My Tardis and I were having a conversation!" He appeared disheveled. His tie was loose around his neck and the first couple buttons of his shirt were undone. He had a stupid little grin on his face. He then looked out to see the bodies of the two dark beasts in front of us. He then shot his glance to behind The Tardis.

That same roar was heard from the third ship.

"EEEEEAAAAAAAKKK!"

Out of the ship emerged another of those creatures. This one had the barrel of his ship's cannon attached to it's arm. It was pointed at our party. It fired. The ship and creature were about 500 yards away, but there was no way to dodge it. The Doctor jumped in front of where Erin and I stood. I closed my eyes and heard the blast fire.

It should have been over. I felt Erin's hands clench onto my right arm from behind me. I opened my eyes. In front of me was The Doctor with his hands shielding his face. And in front of The Doctor was Fornicks, with his hand extended and a greyish-blue mist creating a barrier that shielded us from the blast. It may have been my imagination, but the barrier appeared as a giant hand?

The creature took aim to fire again, but it didn't fire. Instead it slumped down, over its ship like a wilted plant. The civilians that surrounded us also all fell over. They laid on the floor in a circle around The Tardis.

"Doctor?" started Erin, "What is going on?"

"I don't know Captain," said The Doctor bewildered. "Let's get back into The Tardis."

We all ran in. The Doctor and Erin first, followed by Ceranus. Fornicks and I brought up the rear.

"Now that I have my Tardis, we can get to the middle of this," started The Doctor. "Cera, start to input the names of all the species and all the makes of starship you saw."

"Okay," Ceranus began to recount. "We saw a Kanzian transport... Umm... A Hillucian cargo ship..."

"And a Wookie," said The Doctor calmly. "Put in Kashyyyk."

"And we saw that big, brown, hairy think at the Jedi temple!" exclaimed Erin.

"That would be a Wookie," laughed The Doctor as he rubbed Erin's head.

"Oh, sorry. I'm still new to this," blushed Erin.

"Hey! Why are you here?" shouted The Doctor as he turned around, just now realizing I was inside. "Get out of my Tardis!"

"You need me," I replied. "Do you even know what they are?"

"Of course!" The Doctor snorted. "It is some type of pathogen. A bacteria or a virus that travels in the rain and..."

"Nanomachines," I said smugly. "That is why Ferros' magnetic field shorted them out. I've never actually had the chance to work with nanites, but I imagine they rely on communicating with each other by perpetuating a signal to each other from a central relay. Ferros' magnetic field would interrupt that signal."

"NO!" the Doctor exclaimed adamantly. "There is no more room."

"Oh! So you decide who gets to ride do you!" exclaimed The Tardis angrily. The others could not hear what she said, but she started to shake violently again in protest to The Doctor's obstinacy.

"Okay, Okay! Fine!" said The Doctor as he gave up. "But we are going to need a plan."

The Tardis landed and The Doctor handed us "umbrellas". What an interesting invention. Wish I had thought of it. The doors opened and The Doctor walked out with Erin on his arm. They skipped out of The Tardis, shielded from the heavy rain by a black umbrella. There were only two umbrella, so I extended my arm towards Ceranus.

"Try and touch me and I'll cut your hand off."

Okay, so no touching. That's alright, as long as my mom doesn't mind having a Jedi daughter-in-law. Fornicks walked out into the rain behind us, without an umbrella. The scene was interesting. The planet was wild with plant life. A deep and dense forest surrounded us, with large roots that broke up a landing pad underneath The Tardis. Ahead of us, barely visible over the flora, was a large research facility. We approached closer to reveal about 20 buildings, ranging from a single level to ten stories tall. We appeared to be at the front of the main building. A large dome shaped building with the name "G.R.E.E.N." embedded onto the front. The large facility probably took up the better part of a mile. In the rain, in front of the main door, stood two young scientists wearing white lab coats. On the left of the door stood a short blue alien with large white eyes that covered almost his entire face. He stood about 3 feet tall, and his lab coat hung down to the floor and was covered in mud. He carried a clipboard and stared out at us, blankly. On the right was a young orange skinned girl, whose lab jacket flattered her form well. She had short and curly light brown hair and a beautiful face. She would most definitely been future wife material, except she also had those haunting white eyes.

"Hello All!" exclaimed The Doctor with a wave to the two young scientists as we approached. "We are here for the tour."

"We have been expecting you Doctor," said the orange girl gleefully. "Right this way."

"Erin," whispered The Doctor. "Can I keep her?"

"Now behave yourself Doctor," joked Erin. "Or no gift shop for you!"

Chapter 10: G.R.E.E.N.