9. Call the Doctor.
"Meran, there are so many things I'd find very difficult to sort out. I think I'll call the Doctor."
"Where are we now?" Meran asks.
Chloe feels it doesn't matter, yet for some reason the current location isn't displayed.
"It doesn't matter," Chloe says firmly.
"But the Doctor will have to be able to come here," Meran says.
For Chloe, it feels as if Meran is fighting her, ever so gently. She just wants everything sorted out and back to normal. She nods to Meran.
"Tinsel, please," Meran says.
Chloe turns to face him. "Alright," she sighs. "I suppose it will do as well as anywhere else."
She reaches for her communication device and plugs it into the Console.
"Doctor, can we meet up, please, we're on Tinsel."
"You sound very tired," the Doctor's voice says from the communicator. "I'll land inside your Tardis."
The familiar grinding noise heralds the Doctor's arrival in their Control room. His Tardis door opens, and Chloe has rarely been so pleased and relieved to see the Doctor. Meran is, too!
"Thank you for coming! There are so many tricky things to sort out!"
The Doctor saunters to a chair and sits down. "They're all bound to be easy! Try me! Start at the beginning!"
"There's Trelim," Meran interjects.
"Where's he?"
"Floating in space somewhere, but I've no idea where!" Meran looks hopefully at Chloe as if she'd know.
"How do you expect me to know?" Chloe says indignantly.
"It's alright, Chloe, I'll solve this," the Doctor says, wandering over to the Console.
He presses a few buttons, and a list of recent destinations appears on the screen. The Doctor whistles. "Wow!"
He selects one of them and steps to the door, reaches out and drags poor Trelim inside. He's only been floating in space for a moment.
"Up to mischief again? It's home for you!"
A few button presses later and Trelim is propelled out of the Tardis near his home!
"I want to know what destroyed our house," Chloe says.
"That may take a little longer," the Doctor says, trying to avoid having to do it next.
"We've to return Alyssa's friend, Rimba," Meran says.
"Chloe, could you bring them here?"
Chloe races through and wakes the sleepy girls.
"The Doctor's taking you home, Rimba," she says.
"What's he doing for me, I wonder?" Alyssa says.
"Jail, probably," Chloe quips in a moment of unguarded sibling rivalry, but it doesn't go down well with Alyssa, and Rimba visibly shudders, too, as she remembers something. .
Just as well Chloe doesn't know all of what happened, or she might have thought it might be too true for her to jest! She's tired after her long day and her judgement isn't at her best.
They walk quietly together back to the Console room where the Doctor and Meran are waiting.
"Do either of you have anything you need to say to me?" the Doctor prompts hopefully.
"Thank you," Alyssa says. Rimba follows suit.
"That's a pity," the Doctor says.
Then he points to the golden shimmering object near the door. "Who knows about that?"
He's trying to be calm in the face of adversity.
Rimba steps forwards. "I'm really sorry, that was me."
"Where's it from?"
Gentle though the Doctor's being, it feels like pulling teeth to the others. The Doctor knows exactly where it's from, judging by the Tardis destination list he viewed earlier!
Rimba's mouth goes dry and she can hardly speak.
"I'm sorry, we need to return it before they miss it. The Cybermen will come across the Universe to retrieve it."
Rimba feels sure the Cybermen won't or can't do so but tells the Doctor about fetching it into the Tardis from the vault.
"I'll return it!" the Doctor promises.
But there's a part of that story she doesn't know about…
They let Rimba walk the short distance home from the Tardis.
"So, you had a taste of adventure," the Doctor asks Alyssa, kindly. "How did you like it?"
Alyssa's unsure if the Doctor will be annoyed that she's done so many things, and Chloe's been shouting at her today, unsettling her.
"It's all been a bit too much today."
Alyssa's phone alerts her to a message from Rimba.
"I'll go and sleep over at Rimba's tonight!"
The Doctor groans. He had hoped to encourage her rather more and see if she might rise to a proper adventure, rather than an uncontrolled mess.
Alyssa runs the short distance to Rimba's house. Rimba opens the door as she approaches.
"Come and see what I have in my room!" .