4. Sorting out Trelim.
Alyssa is devastated, then angry and upset. Meran hopes he might comfort her and somehow help her over her loss.
Alyssa walks across to the Tardis Console and views it. More than anything else she wants to not see the view of her destroyed home.
Angrily she clutches the dematerialisation lever and pulls it. The now familiar zizz tells her that they are travelling... but where to?
Then the Monitor screen changes to show... Alphon Three.
Trelim is approaching the Tardis.
What happened there?
When the dematerialisation lever is pulled with no change in programming, it merely returns to the previous location and time.
Meran groans. "Oh, no! We don't want him."
Alyssa agrees. "What do we do?"
"Pull the dematerialisation lever again!"
Alyssa pulls it. The zizzing is again heard. The monitor screen reverts to Alyssa's destroyed house. Then Trelim steps away from the Tardis. He's taken a ride on the outside of the Tardis!
What happened there?
If someone holds on to the Tardis when it dematerialises, they can travel with it! Captain Harkness once did that (ref. TV episode Utopia). But that was a much longer journey!
"Let's go and leave him here," Alyssa says, grasping the dematerialisation lever again. Their view of Alphon Three reappears on the screen.
Meran doesn't know which is worse - Alyssa's home on Tinsel with Trelim or Alphon Three. It seems they have only two choices. .
Alyssa feels sad not to be able to return to Tinsel and go to see what remains of the town nearby. "Could we somehow get Trelim off Tinsel?"
"He's a bit of a nightmare!" Meran agrees. "Let's go back to Tinsel and see what we can do."
"I don't want him in here, in the Tardis, though!" Alyssa declares, pulling the dematerialisation lever yet again.
Tinsel appears on the screen and Trelim with it.
"Let's just go out of here and close the Tardis door," Meran says. "Hopefully he can't get in!"
"No," Alyssa retorts. "He was in here when we arrived in the Tardis. He must have got in somehow."
"Surely, we only have to wait until he's holding on and we move - he will come with us. Then we only have to make him let go!"
Alyssa pulls the dematerialisation lever again. Alphon Three appears on their monitor screen.
"He can't stay hanging on for ever," Meran says.
A scratching sound is heard from the door.
"Bother, he's trying to get in!"
Alyssa pulls the dematerialisation lever again - they're back on Tinsel.
"I have an idea," Alyssa says. She taps a few random keys and pulls the materialisation lever.
The scratching stops.
"What's happened to him?" Meran asks.
The screen shows black dark deep space.
"You can't leave him here!" Meran objects.
"We could still go to Tinsel and return here to pick him up," Alyssa says, pulling the dematerialisation lever.
Alyssa is relying on returning to the same instant to pick him up, as that might appear to be how things are working just now. But will things continue that way?
They step out onto the front lawn of Alyssa's destroyed house. Trelim is nowhere to be seen, so they set out to walk to the nearby town.
Whatever destroyed Alyssa's house appears to have been very localised and they soon arrive near Alyssa's favourite shops; in particular, her favourite clothes shop!
"All my clothes have gone. I'll need some more clothes," she says, rummaging through a rack and retrieving a stack of clothes for herself. After paying, they leave the shop, but Alyssa sets off in another direction.
"Where now?" Meran asks, concerned.
"I've a schoolfriend I want to invite along with us," Alyssa says.
They approach an overgrown garden with a small house amongst many trees and bushes. The friend answers a knock on the door.
"Hi Rimba, have you seen my house? It's been flattened!" Alyssa says almost flippantly.
Apparently no-one has seen the damage to Alyssa's house. No news has reached anyone yet.
"Flattened? When?"
"I've no idea. I only just got back from a party. I've had to re-buy my wardrobe." She flutters her stack of clothes to emphasize them.
Was this really the most important aspect of her loss?
She must have spent too much time at home doing nothing!
She's heavily dependent on her father sorting many things out and expects not to have to sort out her house. Meran is the nearest capable person…
She looks at Meran momentarily. "Until somebody sorts out my house... I'm going on an adventure! I'm told it's in a time machine, so you can return any time you want! Would you like to come?"
There's nothing Meran can think of to say to try to simplify the situation; there will definitely be another member of the Tardis crew!
How Meran longs for the Doctor to be there to sort it all out for him!
How can they do anything?