41. Alyssa's Stowaway.
1. Encrewed.
"Uncle Meran, can we go now?" Alyssa wants to leave the party fairly soon after it started. She's chatted with her sister Chloe, Chloe's boyfriend Simeon, the Doctor, her father Devyon, and her Uncle Meran but then there aren't many other people she knows there, although it's a big party. Everyone else must be Gallifreyan.
"I think it's due to go on for quite a while," Meran says. "Are you sure you want to go?" He's feeling alien, too, but a little more at home on Gallifrey than Alyssa, having met more of the people there on more than one occasion.
"Quite sure, thank you," Alyssa assures him. She's feeling like a fish out of water. She only knows a few of the people at this party. But she also feels almost kidnapped to be there (ref.40).
It's her sister Chloe's party for some odd event she's dreamt up - Elevation - or something. Why didn't she just get in a lift like anyone else? .
Then there's the venue. Why wasn't it just down the road from her house at home, just a short walk? Why did it have to be on Gallifrey? .
And why did she have to attend? Alyssa hadn't been outside her own small town before, let alone to another planet where she'd no interest.
Alyssa has spent too much time at home, determined to only ever stay at home or nearby.
She's never raised her horizons above this, and her interests have always only been with being at home.
They walk the short distance back to a make-shift shop where a Tardis is unobtrusively parked as a changing room, awaiting their return.
"So, how did we travel here?" Alyssa asks. She'd just gone shopping with her Uncle Meran in a shop near her home and found herself on Gallifrey (ref. 40).
"Actually, we both came by Tardis," Meran says, trying to simplify the arrangement. "Chloe parked it as my fitting room in the back of your favourite shop near your home and brought me here to be ready for you arriving. Then she re-parked it as your fitting room, then brought you here. Neat?"
"No, annoying!" Alyssa seems antagonised, as if she's been kidnapped and brought against her will.
She hadn't known that her Uncle Meran had walked with her to her favourite clothes shop as a part of Chloe's plan to bring her to Gallifrey for the event.
They arrive at the Tardis door which opens to Meran's touch. The changing room has been removed from its immediate interior, and they both walk straight into Chloe's Tardis.
Alyssa doesn't realise initially and marvels at the aircraft style seating - apparently all in a changing cubicle at the back of her favourite shop - she thinks! A pre-programmed journey makes a zizzing sound that Alyssa had heard earlier. She's heard it plenty of times before, but never travelled in the Tardis or associated the sound.
Alyssa freezes as she makes the association. Tensed up as if the slightest movement might topple her, she grabs at the handrail and holds on tight.
Meran's amused at her antics. The Tardis journey has been very smooth!
The journey is completely uneventful, leaving her looking a bit silly if you knew what was happening or if you had travelled that way before.
"Have we arrived?" Alyssa asks. "Has it stopped?" .
"Yes," Meran says hopefully. He has no idea, but he heard the zizzing sound, so he expects the journey to be complete.
Alyssa releases her grip on the handrail and advances slowly and carefully towards the Tardis Console, studying it.
"What does this lever do?" she asks cautiously.
Meran has seen the Tardis used on a few occasions and knows a little of its operation.
"It's the dematerialisation lever," he says.
"And this keyboard?"
"They use it to tell the Tardis where to go to."
Alyssa taps a few buttons casually as Meran watches. He's wishing they would both just step out of the Tardis and resume their normal playfulness at Alyssa's house.
Alyssa turns to the dematerialisation lever and taps it, then tries to wobble it gently to see if it falls off at the slightest touch.
A zizzing sound greets their ears. It's Meran's turn to freeze and gasp. What has Alyssa done? .
The Tardis Console Monitor starts to show statistics of landing on a planet from a few unguided random digits as being infinitesimally small. Behind the text, the background now just shows black, the darkness of space which it then goes on to define in terms of the emptiness of space and what's out there - just a few atoms whizzing around, unlikely to interact much for the entire duration of the Universe. Yet interstellar space bears the signs of carrying sound waves which is the interaction of such particles.
Meran reads it and laughs nervously. "You've taken us to the depths of space."
This appears to please Alyssa, and she taps on the keyboard again, randomly, before joggling the materialisation lever. The zizzing sound is heard again but doesn't bother Alyssa.
The Tardis monitor screen starts showing humorous statistical analogies - it's far more likely for someone to be struck by lightning twice on a specific day than to land on any planet.
Meran starts secretly wondering just how the Doctor manages it!
"How does anyone manage this thing?" Alyssa asks. She's not sure whether to call the Tardis a machine or quite what.
Meran knows that anyone but the Doctor uses a blue button marked Voice Control. Glancing at Alyssa, he sees a glint in her eye, and he feels suddenly certain he mustn't show her this.
A sudden noise behind them makes them jump! They had thought themselves to be alone in the Tardis.
It seems they have a stowaway.
A small, wizened old Gallifreyan is climbing the steps from a lower deck, a maintenance deck, below the Console room.
He looks so old, he couldn't possibly be a threat to them. They relax somewhat.
"Who, who are you?" Alyssa asks nervously.
"I'm Trelim!" the old man croaks, but then more forcefully, "Who are you?"
Meran has a brief moment of recollection. He's seen that face somewhere before, quite recently. He doesn't have much time to recall.
"I'm, Alyssa," he hears Alyssa say, but she doesn't introduce him. He falters, half expecting Alyssa to say more.
"Well, come on, answer me!"
"Erm, Meran," Meran finally stutters.
"Alright, Ermeran," Trelim says irritably. "What are you doing in here?" .
This catches them off-guard. Even Meran hasn't spent much time in the Tardis, and he's always been with others who have seemed to know what they're doing. Now he finds they're lost in space and being challenged by someone he hasn't met properly before. If only he could recall just where he's seen that face. Had it been on their way to the party (ref. 40)?
"We went to a party," Meran says limply. It all seems so improbable now. How could they possibly have used a Tardis just to go to a party?
"I was kidnapped!" Alyssa claims abruptly.
"Kidnapped, you say," Trelim weasels. "By him?"
Alyssa hardly likes to say so. She's enjoyed her honorary Uncle Meran's company at home during his visit playing mostly board games. Her sister, Chloe, might have organised this, she doesn't know for certain. Uncle Meran may have taken her along with him and may have had a hand in what she thinks of as her kidnapping, but she isn't sure. Instead, she hangs her head.
"It seems I'm in charge now," Trelim asserts. His acquired passengers aren't putting up any resistance.
Only a few minutes earlier Trelim had gained entry to the Tardis using a small piece of bent wire. He definitely ought not to have done so, but he saw an opportunity to have a Tardis of his own. A temptation far too great for him.
Now it seems he has a crew!
Something of a disaster!
Are they passengers, crew or slaves?