The Tardis door creaked open and Jasmine's face, framed by her dark ringlets, appeared in the gap.
"Eugh."
The Doctor's face appeared directly above hers.
"I'm forced to agree."
A hot, dusty wind blew across the desolate landscape laid out before them; nothing but brown sand and dull, mud-coloured rock stretching to the horizon.
Jasmine twisted her neck to look up at him.
"Can we go back in and try again? Perhaps we'll end up somewhere nice."
"Yes." He was pushing the door further open and strolling out past her into the wilderness. "Yes, of course. Just a quick look round first."
She folded her arms and kept her feet firmly inside the portal. She watched him push his coat back to thrust his hands into his trouser pockets, scan his surroundings, then wander off to the right, circling round out of view to the other side of the Tardis.
"Please can we go?" she shouted into the wind. "It's horrible here. There's nothing to have a quick look round at."
"Au contraire," came the Doctor's voice from somewhere out of sight. "Have a look at this."
Jasmine gave a deep sigh, but it was one of resignation. She ventured gingerly out, picking her way carefully through the loose rocks, and made her way behind the Tardis to join him.
The Doctor placed his hand on her arm to guide her forward and point her in the direction he was looking. With eyes screwed half shut against flying dust she took in the view.
"Now unless I'm mistaken," he remarked smugly, "That's something you haven't seen before."
A vast, crater-shaped dip in the terrain. Glinting in what sunlight penetrated the dirty grey clouds, a cluster of several dozen single storey metal buildings crouching low in its shelter. And illuminated by the blue flame of its thrusters stabbing at the ground, an ugly bulbous spacecraft lowering itself to the diamond shaped open space at the centre.
The nearest building was a good mile from where they stood, but the Doctor was stroking his chin, looking fascinated and intent. He glanced down at Jasmine.
"Up for a stroll?"
-----------
Twenty minutes later Jasmine was standing bewildered at the centre of a buzzing swirl of human activity. In the narrow, dusty streets between faceless steel structures, armed men in grey jumpsuits patrolled at a leisurely pace in groups of two and four, purposeful, official-looking people hastened along, perusing notes or deep in conversation, and chunky six-wheeled vehicles hummed powerfully by. She floundered for a moment, unable to find a place to stand that was not in someone's way, until the Doctor's hand on her shoulder drew her back into the shelter of a doorway."I don't understand," she complained. "If they've got a... a spaceship..." She waved a pointing finger at the looming form of the craft, visible above the rooftops. "... and they can go wherever they want, why do they all want to come here?"
The Doctor nodded briskly, looking around him with a lively curiosity.
"Intriguing isn't it? Well worth looking into. Now this looks like a sensible place to start."
He indicated the door behind them - a sturdy looking affair with the words "Authorised Access Only" printed in big red letters across the front.
"It looks a bit locked," commented Jasmine. "Can you open it?"
The Doctor had turned away from her and was looking up and down the street. He stepped away from the door, beckoning her to follow.
"I have a special technique for this," he said.
Stood against the wall on the opposite side of the street, Jasmine and the Doctor watched as a middle-aged woman with neatly close cropped hair and businesslike brown overalls walked up and swiftly tapped a complex sequence into a neat little keypad set into the doorframe. There was a low hum in response and the heavy door swung open willingly at a push of her fingertips.
"Now," said the Doctor.
Jasmine followed him as he stepped unhurriedly forward and favoured the woman with an ingratiating smile as she held the door open for him.
"Morning," she said.
"Morning," he replied.
They were in, and left alone as the door slammed shut behind them and the woman disappeared down a corridor without a backward glance.
"Right," said the Doctor. "This looks promising."
The sign over the sliding glass doors in front of them said "Main Lab Decontamination Zone". The Doctor strode ahead, the doors parting for him obediently, and on through the gleaming silver chamber with its array of hi-tech cubicles and neatly folded white clothing, through another set of doors, and into a vast room housing fully a hundred people, wrapped from head to foot in all-over body suits and breathing apparatus, bent over plastic workbenches and busily probing and dissecting countless different impossibly complex fragments of machinery.
"Now we're getting somewhere," the Doctor announced, taking in the scene. "This is what they're up to here. Question is, why set up a scientific research centre in this hellhole rather than anywhere else? It can't just be the low property prices and favourable tax situation."
Jasmine wasn't clear on whether he was talking to her or to himself, and hovered awkwardly by the door while he strolled over to the nearest table and plucked a chunk of gadgetry from under the nose of the startled technician who had been attempting to work on it.
"Hmm. Interesting." He gave the device a twist and opened it up to examine its innards. "Either a remarkable scientific achievement considering the mediocre technology I've seen here so far, or else..."
"Put that down!"
The technician, recovered from his initial astonishment and backed by several of his fellows, made a grab for the object with a white-gloved hand. The Doctor held it up out of his reach.
"This is a restricted zone," the man insisted. "Where is your identification?"
A hubbub of agreement with this demand emanated from the gathering crowd as all work in the laboratory came to a halt.
"Silence." With an athletic bound the Doctor was standing on top of the nearest workbench, a vantage point from which he could address the whole room. "Do you want my help or not?"
This question gave the lab workers pause, and he took this as an answer in the affirmative.
"Very well. Now then..."
"Halt!"
Jasmine started as the command was bellowed by a deep voice at her shoulder, and on either side guards came pouring in through the entrance. Working with rushed efficiency, a second later they had the Doctor hemmed in on all sides. They raised their energy weapons to shoulder height.