CHAPTER FOUR

'Well,' she said, shoulders slumping slightly, 'that's that, alone again.' Looking around Claire wondered what she was going to do. 'Maybe I should have asked if there was a cafe nearby or something. I could check out how how customer service works on another planet, maybe get some tips. Marcus would go wild if I came back with some mad alien hospitality skills.' Her hand drifted towards the blob Harry had left on her hand before she stopped. 'Get a grip,' Claire muttered to herself. 'I can't go calling for help in the first two minutes of being left alone. And what kind of person goes looking for a cafe on an alien planet? Who even knows if I can eat alien food, not to mention its not like I have any money to pay for it. I mean do Floxians even have money, maybe they use shells or starfish for currency?' Realising she was talking to herself, Claire looked around and was relieved to see no one was near. 'And stop talking to yourself,' she growled, 'it's weird.'

Straightening her shoulders, Claire took a deep breathe and let it out sharply. She watched a big cloud of bubbles escape her mouth and rush towards the far surface, 'yeah, still getting used to that,' she told herself, 'right stop slacking, go explore, find strange new people and all that.'

Looking off into the distance, Claire reasoned that she should find lots of fellow tourists at the nearby cluster of buildings. Bending her knees, Claire launched herself upwards, thinking it would be faster to swim than walk. Besides it seemed to be the preferred way of traveling by everyone else she had so far seen and when in Rome and all that. Not the most graceful of swimmers it took Claire several minutes to reach the buildings, her feet settling back onto the warm sand Claire looked around, there were people everywhere. Some swam and walked and well lets be honest slithered about individually, while others were huddled together surrounding a translator seal, looking like tourist tour groups that wouldn't have seemed out of place back home . . . except for the seal part, and the underwater part, and the part where some of them weren't even human looking.

Claire closed her eyes and began deep breathing, fighting the beginning of another bout of panicking.
Come on, get a grip. They're just people. you've met a crazy man, survived two Reaving attacks and traveled through space to another planet. What's a few weird aliens compared to that?

'First time?'

Claire eeped a startled squeak and opened her eyes to see a blue man standing next to her. she looked around to see who he was talking to before realising it was her. 'Sorry?'

The man looked amused, 'I said, "first time" as in, first time visiting Floxaica?'

'Uh, yeah, yeah,' Claire nodded, 'definitely a first for me, how did you know?'

The man snorted now, then gestured towards Claire. 'You're wearing clothes.'

She was wearing -? Looking about Claire realised that most people were in some form of bathing suit, or even more daring completely naked. Claire glanced back at the blue man, who didn't seem to be wearing much at all. Her eyes drifted south, correction nothing at all! She was standing next to a completely naked and very blue man.

'I -,' Claire squeaked before stopping to clear her throat, 'I'm, uh, shy that's all.' Change the subject, quick. 'You here for the spawning?'

'Oh yes,' the blue man said, 'I never miss it, it's my ninth one.'

'Wow, that many,' Claire stared intently at his face, to avoid her gaze drifting further south.

'I'm an artist,' he explained, 'maybe you've heard of me, Tork of Xalanthes II? I'm particularly known for my piece "spawning by moonslight #4121".'

'Oh, Tork, right,' Claire said, falling back into her patented "when in doubt agree with the customer" mode, 'my friend Becky loves your work.'

Tork grinned back at her, 'You have good taste in friends.'

Claire fought back a snort, yeah right.

Tork looked past Claire, 'Is she here? I always love meeting fans.'

'Oh, no, no she couldn't make it.' Honestly even on another planet Becky was getting more attention than she was.

'Oh,' Tork seemed disappointed at the news, then he rallied as he glanced back at Claire. 'Her loss, say have you ever considered posing for a painting. I'm sure under all that clothing you'd look nice. I've been thinking about expanding my next spawning piece to include some models.' Tork raised his hands, closed his eyes and gestured towards the surface. 'Picture it, two or three bipeds posing in front of a spawning coral reef.'

'Clothing optional?' Claire wondered out loud. Seriously what was it about artists and sleazing onto people? Next thing you know he'd be asking her up to see his etchings. 'I'm not even sure we're sticking around for the spawning,' she hurried to say before he got any ideas.

Tork opened his eyes and looked at Claire, 'We?'

'Yeah, my friend that I came here with. It was all very spur of the moment.' Claire waved back towards where she had swam from. 'He's just seeing a Floxian about a thing, a medical thing. He's got a - thing.' She trailed off, for someone who worked in retail Claire never had been any good at small talk.

Tork looked impressed, 'Your friend must be really rich, to get a booking during a spawning event. I have to save for months just to afford the cheapest transport.'

Rich? Claire hadn't even thought about that and why did Tork assume the Doctor was the rich one, she could have been the sugar mummy. I mean sure he dressed like a rich eccentric . . . maybe he was rich, like some sort of intergalactic super rich playboy Batman for all she knew. What exactly did she know about the Doctor anyway? 'Oh you know,' she replied casually, 'he does alright, and he has his own ship.'

'Is he interested in the arts?' Tork asked, suddenly switching his interest from Claire to the Doctor. 'I've been looking for a patron, maybe you could introduce us?'

Claire sighed, while she enjoyed the idea of not getting hit on by a naked blue alien guy, it was a little insulting how quickly Tork's attention moved away from her. 'I'm not sure, I mean he's a little busy at the moment.'

'With his?'

'Thing,' Claire finished for Tork. 'But, you know maybe when he's finished . . .' she trailed off, suddenly feeling guilty that she might have inflicted the Doctor with Tork's unwanted attention. She wouldn't be surprised if Tork asked the Doctor to model for him.

'Maybe we could meet up after his thing?' Tork suggested.

Claire shrugged, 'I dunno, maybe, I could ask him.' She glanced back towards where she had left the Doctor. 'Listen I should probably get back.'

Tork nodded as he drummed his fingers on his ribs. 'Shame you don't have a tablet then I could give you my number. Say,' he snapped his fingers suddenly, 'we could meet up at the cafe.'

'Cafe?'

'The big one near the subport, all the visitors meet up there. We could grab a bite and your Doctor friend and I could discuss business.'

Claire nodded, 'Sure, sure, we could do that.' She said, with no intention at all of dragging the Doctor anywhere near the place.

'Great,' Tork said, excitedly. 'I'll wait a few hours then head on over there. Listen piece of advice since it's your first time visiting, if you get there first and order some food, avoid the purple seaweed entree.'

'Why?' Claire asked.

Tork leaned in and whispered, 'It can make you a bit gassy.'

'Why would that -?' Claire's gaze flickered upwards as Tork's and her combined bubbles of air floated towards the surface. 'Gassy,' her eyes widened in understanding, 'yeah that could be a bit, um, awkward.'

'Right?' Tork snorted, 'so embarrassing. Not for me,' he hastened to explain, 'I never eat seaweed, but first timers like yourself, I wouldn't want your friend to leave with less than the perfect spawning experience.'

Wouldn't want the Doctor to leave without giving you any money, more like. Claire thought.

'Well, I'll try and see you -.' Claire trailed off, Tork was walking away from her towards a group of women, already starting into his model spiel. And just when she was starting to like him a little. Claire hurried off in the opposite direction, determined to place as much space between her and blue artist. Just in case he decided to follow her around until she met back up with the Doctor.

Claire swam slowly along, it had been a long time since she had nowhere to go, most days she was hurrying to or from work, or just hurrying through her day. Now she had all the time in the world and no idea what to do with it. She had stopped for a while to watch a group of people performing some sort of slow moving aquatic martial arts, or maybe it had been a dance routine, Claire had no idea. It looked very relaxing whatever it was and some of the audience had joined in but worried at the thought of accidentally offending anyone Claire had moved on.

A large group of squealing and laughing children off in the distance caught Claire's attention and she decided to swim towards them, whatever they were doing it sounded like fun. But before she reached them Claire swam past an open, sandy hollow that was filled with brightly coloured shells. A sudden memory of freezing cold water and a pebbly beach flashed through Claire's mind, where was that? It had to have been one of the few proper holidays her family had gone on when she was little. Claire remembered being disappointed that the beach wasn't covered in shells, she had wanted to take one home with her. But here were shells now, not just any old shells proper alien ones, she could picture it right now, an alien shell sitting on her kitchen table. Claire could imagine having visitors over and them admiring her shell, where did she get it from, they'd ask?

Oh that old thing, she'd reply casually, got it from some shop. All the while knowing it was from an alien planet, that she'd been someplace her visitors would never go. Course she would need someone to visit so they could admire her shell, the Doctor was right she really did need more friends. Looking about Claire saw about eight or nine other people standing about in the hollow so she decided it was okay to enter and look. Floating to the sandy floor Claire walked over towards the shells, they were really beautiful, all shapes and colours. Some of them looked like they would fit right in on a beach back home, others looked like nothing on Earth.

Claire stopped in front of a blue conch-style shell. Slowly bending down she picked it up, the blue started off darker at one end, slowly fading to a faint blue at the open end of the shell, there were gold flecks throughout and it was heavier than she thought it should be. Turning it over in her hand Claire saw a flicker of movement from deep in the shell.

'What?'

A thin blue tendril poked itself out of the shell Claire was holding, quickly followed by three more tendrils, no not tendrils Claire realised, arms! A tiny Floxian popped out of the shell and rested itself on Claire's palm.

'Oh wow,' Claire whispered, 'you're so cute. No wait, what I meant to say, ' Claire remembered the Doctor's instructions to assume everything was intelligent, 'hello, is this your shell? I didn't mean to intrude.'

The baby Floxian stretched its arms as it's blue colouring deepened to a reddish purple before fading back to blue.

'Sorry I don't speak Floxian. Hope that was "hello" and not "get off my porch before I call the police".'

The baby Floxian crept its way along Claire's palm towards her wrist. She shivered at the strange sensation as the small suckers of the baby's arms flexed and coiled across her skin. It wrapped two arms around the base of her thumb and slowly pulled itself upwards until it was resting on her nail. The tiny Floxian waved a few arms at her again, it's colouring shading from blue to green.

Claire lifted her hand for a closer look at the baby, 'Best holiday experience, ever.' She whispered at it.