Chapter Fifty Five

The Doctor and the others sat around discussing where to go next. They had gone through several options but none of the teens seemed to come to a mutual agreement about where to go.

Then Clyde had a thought.

"Doctor, I want to know. Was there really an Atlantis?" he asked him.

"Yes."

The teens looked at each other.

"Can we go there?" Rani said.

"We can but are you just wanting to go and see it or do you wanna go to the day it sinks into the ocean because that might be exciting," the Doctor teased.

"No, just looking at it is fine," Clyde said while they laughed.

"Is it true about them being advanced?" Rani asked.

"Yes, most of what Plato wrote about is true," the Doctor said. "The reason why it was advanced was because it was a kind of experiment by aliens to form colonies here. Humans at the time weren't that advanced but after Atlantis and Lemuria disappeared, the survivors made their way to the other continents and helped build the Egyptian and Aztec pyramids and helped advance human civilization somewhat. They also gave them the crystal skulls that were in the recent Indiana Jones movie. Although…they weren't alien skulls, they are carved crystal skulls that contain great knowledge that is meant for the human race when they become advanced enough to access it. But yes, that's why the Atlantians and Lemurians were advanced."

The teens looked at each other.

"We wanna go there then. To Atlantis," Clyde said.

"To the day it fell into the ocean?"

"No!" Clyde said while they laughed.

The Doctor giggled.

"Just having ya on. Alright then, Atlantis it is!"

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"Wow!" Luke said when they stepped outside the TARDIS.

About fifty feet from them was a large gleaming futuristic looking city. There were huge white marble towers that were capped with domes at the top. Marble buildings were in between them and there were small spacecraft flying in and among them.

"No one will ever believe we've been here though," Rani said.

"Eh, we believe you were here and that's what's important," Alan said, shrugging.

The group walked towards the city. On the way there, several spacecraft flew above them and the teens waved but they couldn't see any windows as they zoomed past.

"Do they have windows in those things?" Rani asked, pointing up to them.

"Yes, but they're one way windows. Those are Andromedian space skimmers. Andromedans are the main colonists here and everyone else adopted their mode of transportation because the skimmers are small and quick," the Doctor said to her.

As they neared the city they could see several different species of aliens walking among the buildings while they talked to each other or went about their business. They walked into the city limits and immediately a small white robotic orb flew up to the Doctor's face.

"Good day, welcome to Aslatian, gleaming jewel of Atlantis," the robot said. "Are you here on business or pleasure?"

"Pleasure," the Doctor said to him.

"I am Ronco 2X. I would like to assist you with your visit here," the orb said. "Might I be of service?"

"Sure. Please assist us," the Doctor said cheerfully.

"Very well, I am your humble servant," the orb said tipping forward in a kind of bow. "Do you want accommodations for the night?"

"No, we're just visiting for the day," the Doctor said.

"Very well. Follow me and I will guide you on a tour of our lovely city."

"Brilliant," the Doctor said.

They followed the orb while he led them towards the heart of the city.

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Ronco 2X led them around while he gave them a tour of the city. They found it fascinating. The buildings were all clean and looked like there had never been a speck of dirt on them. There was no pollution that they could see and everything seemed peaceful. The aliens they saw were all assorted shapes, sizes, colors and genders and were wearing everything from skin tight bodysuits to long robes and everything in between. The Doctor pointed to one that looked humanoid with an enormous nose and identified him as an Andromedan.

"So, that's what he looks like without the huge helmet," Awinita teased.

"Yes, the whole stereotypical alien with the big head and black eyes is their spacesuit," the Doctor said to the teens. "People see the helmet and skin tight bodysuit and assume that's their head and skin but yes, this is what they really look like underneath it."

The Andromedan paused and stared at them before coming over. They stopped and Ronco 2X waited while he shook the Doctor's hand.

"Greetings, I am Darus," he said.

"I'm the Doctor and these are my family and friends."

He made a quick introduction of all of them and Darus nodded. He looked at the Doctor.

"Might I inquire where your home world is?" Darus said to the Doctor.

"Gallifrey. We're all from Gallifrey," he said to him.

"Ah, I see. I have been there before on business. You're a Time Lord?" Darus said.

"Yes, I am."

"What brings you to the backwaters of Earth, my friend?"

"Oh, we're just kinda slumming it," the Doctor said. "We were curious about these lower life forms here."

Darus chuckled.

"Yes, the poor creatures. They are so dim it amazes me sometimes," he said. "Is this your first trip?"

"Yes, it is."

"Then come with me and I'll show you something," Darus said. "And you can get rid of your robot, I can show you around."

He dismissed Ronco 2X and everyone followed him further into the city.

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"Ah, here we are," Darus said ushering them into a building. "The local menagerie."

He shut the door behind him and they followed him through an enormous room through a door. Behind the door was a large zoo with hundreds of animals inside Plexiglas enclosures. They walked down a narrow walkway following Darus while he led them. There were animals both familiar and strange to them including some that had become extinct by modern times.

"They have a couple of people who have the task of rounding up animals from Earth and all over the universe," Darus said, looking back over his shoulder. "It's quite a collection as you can see."

Um…what's the point of bringing us here? Mingxia thought to her family.

Darus looked at her.

"The point, my dear one, is I have something to show you," he said to her.

He noticed the shocked look on her face.

"Andromedans are telepaths too. You didn't know that?"

"I…uh…forgot," Mingxia said sheepishly.

He led them down several pathways before he finally came to what he was looking for. The Doctor and the others were shocked to see a human being crouched down inside one of the enclosures. He had light brown skin and looked Egyptian. He was clad in nothing but a loin cloth and had a light fuzz of dark hair on his head that the Doctor assumed was starting to grow back in after the man had shaved it all off. The Doctor felt anger flair up when he saw the frightened look on his face. Darus calmly walked to the front and gestured to the man.

"If you wish to see humans, here's one up close," he said to the Doctor. "Quite a fascinating species. Not very intelligent though. Apparently this one was captured without too much trouble. At the moment they just have the male, they're looking for a female now and maybe try to breed them."

The Doctor nodded politely, trying to keep his anger in check. Darus stared at the man for a moment and then looked at them.

"Well, anyway, I just wanted to show you this. Would you care to dine with me?" he said.

"Well, actually, we need to get back to my TARDIS. I just remembered I forgot to take something with me when I left Gallifrey and I need to go back and get it."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Well, peace be with you, my friends," he said, bowing.

They bowed in return and forced polite smiles on their faces while they waved at him. They quickly hurried away from him and the Doctor looked back at Jack, Sarah Jane and the teens.

"I was afraid of that," he said softly to them. "That's why I introduced you as Gallifreyan. Humans are curiosities to the aliens here so don't say a word to anyone about being human or you'll end up alongside that man, alright?"

They nodded. He looked at Mingxia.

"And yes, Te'lesu, most aliens here have telepathic abilities so everyone watch what you think."

They nodded and they quickly hurried out of the building before Darus caught up with them.

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After leaving the menagerie, they walked over to a local food stand and got a yellow fruit juice to drink that tasted a bit like raspberries. They walked around in a group sipping it and looking up at the buildings.

"So no humans live here?" Rani asked the Doctor.

He shook his head.

"Believe it or not, Atlantis and Lemuria were built by the colonists. The land was brought up from the ocean floor which is why they fell back into it eventually. Neither continent is very stable and eventually violent earthquakes do them both in. but the colonists guard their borders well so no humans can mix with them."

"So why do they help humans then?" Jack asked.

"Well, after the continents are destroyed, the colonists that are stranded here suddenly find themselves mixing with humans and they "help" them because they couldn't stand living in such primitive conditions after being here. So they share some of their knowledge and help them along so they aren't completely backwards and are more tolerable. That's the reason. It wasn't because they were particularly benevolent towards the humans here. Same with the crystal skulls. They did make and use them but when they finally were rescued, they left them here in the hopes that someday humans could make some progress and become as advanced as they were."

"Because then they wouldn't have to interact with the hillbillies of the universe," Awinita said.

He chuckled.

"Yup. Humankind isn't thought of too highly by most species. But not me, I love ya. But when they first came here mankind was like the Australopithecus we saw and they weren't about to live among a bunch of hooting apes so they made these continents, set up camp and gradually built a civilization apart from humans."

"So they're a bunch of snobs here basically," Mingxia said.

"Yes, but put yourself in their place. Would you want to live with a bunch of hooting apes? You saw how violent your kind was back then. The murder of that female's infant because her mother wouldn't shag a randy male that wanted her. Would you wanna live by that? It is snobbishness but back then they considered your kind animals and still do. Which is why that man is an exhibit here. Gallifreyans are actually respected among the higher beings so there's no ridicule of them like there would be for a human. It's actually a good thing you communicated telepathically with us because that proved to him you weren't a human. But like I said, you lot back there be very careful because if it gets out you are…you know, that could cause trouble for you because no one will allow you to roam free here. It's akin to having wild animals roaming London streets."

"So we shouldn't have come here," Luke said.

"No, you're alright. As long as you don't say anything about what you are, no one will harm you and we wouldn't let them harm you anyway. You have nine people here who would fight if someone tried to nab you. Don't worry about it, Luke. Just enjoy the pleasant day."

Luke nodded and they walked along, sipping their juice while they glanced around. While they walked, they passed by a short alien with dark purple skin, a bird beak and claws on his hands. He was wearing a black skin tight tank top and skin tight pants. He glanced back at Rain and smiled when he telepathically nudged her mind. Rain looked back at him and saw him wave to her. She waved back.

"Who are you waving at, Te'lesu?" Alan said to her.

"Purple skinned alien. He nudged my mind when he passed us," Rain said to him.

They stopped, turned and looked at him. The alien smiled while he walked up to them.

"Sorry, she's very beautiful," he said to the Doctor. "I have a bit of an eye for the ladies but I meant no harm. I'm Follos. Nice to meet you."

"And you," the Doctor said, shaking his hand.

He glanced at Rain.

"Are you mates?"

"Yes, she's my livesmate," the Doctor said.

"Lives? What species are you?"

"Time Lord."

"Really? I've never met a Time Lord before," he said with interest. "Are all of you…"

"We're all Time Lords or Ladies and there a few regular Gallifreyans here," the Doctor said.

"Really? I was under the impression that Time Lords didn't mix with regular Gallifreyans," Follos said, frowning.

"We do from time to time," the Doctor said. "We're on a holiday of sorts."

"As am I. Actually, Cheem where I'm from has a package tour of several planets in the Milky Way Galaxy. 100 credits for seven planets. Earth is actually the second planet I've been to. A bit rustic here but it has its charms. Still, nothing like Cheem. It's a wonder the humans are able to function with the brain capacity they have. They haven't even mastered telepathy. I can't imagine not being able to communicate telepathically. That would be irritating to say the least."

The Doctor nodded politely.

"Anyway, It's nice to meet you and I apologize for the mental nudge but you are very beautiful," he said to Rain.

"Thank you," Rain said.

"Well, I need to go catch a skimmer. I'm meeting some friends in Eros about 60 kilometers from here but have a safe journey."

They wished him the same and waved when he walked off.

"Doctor, is that true about Time Lords not mixing with regular Gallifreyans?" Sarah Jane asked.

He stopped with them and turned to her.

"Yeeees, although it's not because we were prejudiced against them. It's more because Time Lords were segregated from the rest of society because we had a different task in life and frankly, most normal Gallifreyans had trouble understanding us since they couldn't see the Time Lines like we could. But we went to different classes at university, we lived different places, we were sorted into different houses after looming. We only interacted with them if we went to the shops for instance. But yes, to an extent what he said was true and why it was a shock when I said some of you weren't Time Lords."

"But…if he recognizes you, doesn't that mean Gallifrey still exists now?" Luke said when they resumed walking. "Couldn't we go to it?"

"I don't want to see it," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "I have put my memories of it to rest and I don't want to go there and open old wounds. Plus, humans aren't allowed there at this point in time which is why I eventually had to part company with Sarah. My family and I save Jack would be allowed there but you'd have to wait in the TARDIS and trust me, they would know if you were human or not because they wouldn't be able to feel you or communicate with you and you'd be in a lot of trouble. So I'm sorry but I'm afraid Gallifrey is out."

They nodded and they resumed walking.

After touring some more of the city, they finally decided to go back to the TARDIS and go back into the vortex.

"Well, I hope you enjoyed your tour of Atlantis," the Doctor said to the humans.

"I did but I hate that everyone is prejudiced against humans," Rani said.

"Eh, like I said, at this point you were still fairly primitive and like I said to Mingxia, if you were advanced would you want to live next to those who weren't? None of these aliens are evil. They are good people but this was really just a crazy experiment much like Americans did when they headed out west to unknown lands. I can't say what their eventually purpose was and whether they would have eventually spread out and overtaken the Earth because both continents disappeared before that happened but I do know that if that hadn't happened your species might not be as advanced as it is today and you wouldn't have structures like the pyramids of Giza to marvel at."

He walked up to the TARDIS, unlocked it and let them all inside. Once they were all inside. He walked in behind them, closed the door and took the TARDIS back into the vortex.