One.
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The Doctor flicked another contrl on the console of his machine.
Ian Chesterton was alone in the console with him, the girls having gone off to explore. Barbera had dared him to ask the question he was about to ask, and he intended t rise to the challenge - even if it was a little scary to do so.
"Doctor," he asked, summoning his resolve, "do you mind if I ask…"
"Yes?" the Doctor snapped, knocking all that resolve away again. Ian gathered his courage once more, before asking the most difficult question he could.
"Who are you?" Ian said, bluntly. "Barbera and I... we've been travelling with you for quite some time, and we still don't know anything about you."
The Doctor raised an eyebrow, and then, to Ian's surprise, he smiled warmly.
"That is a complicated question," he said. "I am from a small planet near galactic centre. You wouldn't have heard of it. It isn't very interesting, to be honest."
"So…?" Ian prompted, after a moment.
"Hm? What? Oh yes… well, I… spoke out, against our culture – it's a very… insular, society," the Doctor smiled. "We're very deicated to keeping ourselves to ourselves. I spoke out against it, and for that, I was cast down from the point in society I had been in – forced to resign you might say – so I left, taking the TARDIS with me. And Susan of course."
He smiled, and leaned against the console.
"One day," he said, "I shall return to Gall – to home," he finished. "One day, I shall share the wonder I have seen, but… not yet. Not yet."
And, laughing, he returned to work ,leaving Ian shaking his head at this strange old man…
