Here is the next chapter :) Enjoy!
Chapter 48
"So, beach?" the Doctor asked, as all three time-travellers sat in the console room.
"I don't care where. Somewhere to relax." Donna corrected.
"I know just the place." the Doctor grinned. "There's this planet, completely toxic to all forms of life. And they've built this leisure palace there for tourists." the Doctor told them.
"Sounds perfect." Donna grinned, Rose nodded eagerly.
"Time for some pampering." Rose grinned.
"Allons-y!" the Doctor grinned, throwing a switch to send the TARDIS flying.
The moment they had landed and the Doctor had checked them in with the psychic paper, Rose and Donna both hunted out the pool and spa and massages. Leaving the Doctor on his own.
So when they found themselves relaxing under the glass roof, they half expected the man to appear, instead a worker brought a phone over.
Donna picked up, since she knew Rose wouldn't be able to say no, even though the girl wanted to relax.
"What?" Donna asked.
"Sapphire waterfall - it's a waterfall made of sapphires! This enormous jewel, size of a glacier, reaches the Cliffs of Oblivion, and then shatters into sapphires at the edge - they fall 100,000 feet into a crystal ravine." the Doctor described it beautifully.
"If you're trying to flirt your way into changing our minds, you want Rose."
"Will you put her on?" the Doctor asked.
"No." Donna snorted, as Rose laughed.
"Oh, come on! They're boarding now! It's no fun if I see it on my own. Four hours, that's all it takes." the Doctor pleaded. "What about Rose?"
"No, that's four hours there and four hours back, it's like a school trip. I'd rather go sunbathing. And Rose deserves some relaxation, and she wants to so you don't get to go trying to guilt her into changing her mind."
"You be careful, that's Xtonic sunlight." the Doctor warned.
"Oh, I'm safe. It says in the brochure this glass is fifteen feet thick." Donna told him back.
The Doctor sighed. "All right, I give up. I'll be back for dinner, we'll try that anti-gravity restaurant. With bibs."
"That's a date. Well, not a date. Oh, you know what I mean. Oh get off!" Donna chuckled as Rose laughed.
"Don't go stealing my Doctor." Rose mock-argued.
"See you later." the Doctor grinned.
"Oi! You be careful, all right?" Donna added, before the Doctor hung up.
"Nah. Taking a big space truck with a bunch of strangers across a diamond planet called Midnight - what could possibly go wrong?" the Doctor grinned, then hung up.
"Jesus, what have we unleashed on the world?" Donna asked Rose.
"I'll go clean up after him in 8 hours when he gets home." Rose shrugged.
xxx
Rose woke up next to Donna. She frowned as she realised what had woken her and she shut her eyes, reaching out to the Doctor to see what it was that was happening.
"For your entertainment, we have the Music Channel playing retrovids of Earth Classics." the Hostess was saying. A button was pushed and screens in front of each passenger shows Raffaello Cara singing "Do It Do It Again". "Also, the latest artistic installation from Ludovico Klein." A hologram show began playing. "Plus, for the youngsters, a rare treat - the Animation Archives." A projector began playing old cartoons. Everything was flashing and going and making noise.
'Ew.' Rose told the Doctor. The Doctor glanced around and discreetly used his sonic to turn it all off. 'Thank you.' Rose told him.
'You could have been here with me.' the Doctor told her.
'Enjoy yourself. Try not to lick anything disgusting. See you when you get back.' Rose told him, as she turned over to go back asleep.
The Doctor sent a wave of warmth to her mind and turned back to the cart he was in as he announced they'd all have to talk to each other.
xxx
Rose and Donna woke up and moved inside to the masseuse area to get a massage, only half way there, Rose stopped in the middle of walking. Donna walked into her.
"Oi, watch it." Donna told her, as she stared into space.
"The Doctor, the engines have stopped They did a little while ago and now they're sending a rescue." Rose told Donna. She glanced at Donna.
"I'm not going to like what you're about to say, am I?" Donna sighed.
"You can stay and get the massage," Rose began, "But I, I just have a bad feeling. I need to get to him as soon as possible. I feel like he's going to need help this time."
"So we're getting on the rescue mission?" Donna asked.
"You don't have to if you want to stay here." Rose told her.
"Like hell am I going to leave you to go off on your own. What if you two need me? No, come on then, how are we going to get on?"
"With this." Rose grinned, holding up the psychic paper.
"How'd you get that?" Donna asked.
"Nicked it off the Doctor after he checked us in. In case we wanted to do something we needed a ticket for." Rose shrugged. "Come on."
They found their way to the dept place, and Rose marched up to the counter. In her thongs, sunglasses and pale blue sundress, with dark blue bikini on underneath, the straps around her neck visible. She didn't look official, she looked like a tourist.
"I heard there was a rescue truck called for for the current group out to the waterfall." Rose said, sounding official and haughty. She held out the psychic paper. "We're to come along."
The man behind the counter lifted an eyebrow, didn't look at the papers and said, "Alright darl, try to tell me another one."
"If you value your job at all, or even your future ability to get a job, you'd drop your condescending act and look at my credentials. Both my colleague and I are from the head deparment. We've had inquiries into the safety and use of these trips and if something has gone wrong, we must look into it. Don't want the department to shut them down, now do we?"
"Those trips are part of the appeal of this place." the man growled. "They wouldn't shut them down."
"If they get our report of how unsafe and useless the trips are, they will." Rose snapped back. "Now you will let us on. If there is to be a problem, since we're here we might as well check it out first hand." Rose told him.
The man finally looked at the psychic paper and turned pale. "You really are from the department?" the man asked.
"I get we don't look like we are, but we didn't want to miss the rescue truck." Donna spoke up, "We were to start tomorrow, so were soaking up what relaxation we could before then."
The man nodded and led the way to the truck, where a crew of 4 were waiting. There was a driver for this truck, two mechanics and a medic. "These two women are to come with you. They're from the head department, looking into these trips and reviewing them and what not." he told them. They accepted the pair readily enough, as the man left and the truck doors shut, and they began to set off.
"I'm Milla." The medic introduced herself. "You two don't look official." she said.
"We were tourists today. Officials tomorrow." Rose told them.
The medic nodded, then said, "You guys aren't officials, are you? Don't worry, I won't tell."
Rose grinned, "Nah, my partner's on that truck, and he always gets into trouble. I'm going to make sure he is ok."
Milla laughed. "Well hopefully this time he is just in trouble with you." she joked. "Oi, Clive, Gus, come over here." She waved the two mechanics over. "These two are the mechanics who will hopefully either be able to fix the other truck, or at the very least attach our vehicles together, so we can tow them home then look into the problems. Our driver is Tom, he's busy but I'm sure he'd say hi. Getting out of the resort and onto the route is the tricky bit, I'll take you to say hi afterwards."
"I'm Rose and this is Donna." Rose introduced themselves.
"So you two ain't officials?" Clive asked, sitting down in the row in front of them, kneeling up to face them. He was young, clearly only just made an official mechanic or still a trainee.
"Do we look professional?" Donna joked.
Clive grinned at the pair, but particularly at Rose, who seemed oblivious of the younger man's attentions.
Donna grinned to herself in amusement.
xxx
They spent a little while chatting with their new friends, then Rose went with Milla to talk to the driver.
"Tom, this is Rose, she's one of the new ones with us this trip."
"Ah, one of the 'officials'." Tom grinned.
"Why do none of you lot care we lied our way to get on this trip?" Rose asked.
"You're driving an hour out to pick up a truck to come an hour back home, when you could be in the spa or getting a massage or whatever. Someone important must be on that truck, so why not let you come with to get them." Tom shrugged.
"Oh." Rose grinned, shocked at the generosity and kindness all four people here were displaying. "Yeah, he is special. How long til we get to them? And have you heard anything from them?"
"They aren't replying to my messages, which is a worry, but we can't get there any faster than we will. We'll be there in just under 45 minutes." the man told Rose. "I'll do what I can to go faster." the man added, eyeing the girl.
"Am I obviously that worried?" Rose asked, a little nervously.
"You must love him." Milla shrugged.
Rose smiled widely. "Yeah, completely. And I just, have a feeling, that something is wrong. That he needs me."
"That's alright, we'll be there in time, don't you worry." Milla grinned.
xxx
Rose realised she must have drifted off as she jerked awake as someone screamed. She realised it was someone with the Doctor and she was just hearing her through him and she focused on what was going on, only to find the bus rocking and shaking and something knocking and then everything calmed down, only the lights remained off. The woman who screamed had her back to the Doctor and hence to what Rose could see. Rose felt herself be forced back out of the Doctor's head, jerking back to hers with enough force to leave her a headache.
"Ow." Rose muttered, rubbing her throbbing temples.
"Headache?" Milla asked, offering a pill.
"What's in it?" Rose asked, trying to focus on the pill. "Nothing poisonous for human or Time Lord?"
"Not that I know of." Milla shrugged. "Is that what you are? Time Lord?" I've never heard of them."
"It's complicated. I was human, now I'm, different." Rose shrugged, taking the offered drug. After swallowing it, there was immediate relief and she smiled at Milla, "Thanks." Milla nodded and moved to the other side to talk to the mechanics
"What happened?" Donna asked.
"Something attacked their truck. It was all rocking and shaking and something was knocking on the walls." Rose told her, quietly so none of the others heard. "And then something kicked me out of the Doctor's mind. I can still feel him, but it's hard to reach him, like reaching through honey or toffee, something hard."
"They said we'd be there in half an hour. They'll be fine.
TBC
