Chapter Six
"Today Is Full Of Surprises."
Not more than a mile from the TARDIS the man Ace considered her Doctor was struggling through the forest. He had come upon a rough footpath that would have verified Jason's observation that the TARDIS had landed in an old park. The day was clear and warm, the sun high and bright in the sky. A beautiful summer's day, he mused. Normally one would expect to hear the odd woodland creature scurrying though the undergrowth, but there was nothing. The forest was completely silent. Suddenly realizing this, the Doctor paused a moment and listened. There weren't even any birds singing. He looked around, checking the trees a little more closely. Now what does this remind me of? Come on, Doctor, think! Suddenly he recalled the incident when he and Sarah Jane had inadvertently landed in a duplicated earth town on the Kraal's planet. Another duplicate world? No, these trees were real, not plastic. There just didn't seem to be any other life on this planet.
"Now that could be worrying," the Doctor muttered as he trudged on.
Seeing a clearing up ahead, the Doctor emerged from the forest to see what appeared to be a crashed spaceship. There were two people on the ground beside it, but from where he stood he could not tell if they were hurt or just lounging in the sun.
It turned out to be the latter. Prince Juris and Lady Asta had decided to wait outside while the damaged vessel was being repaired and the combination of the warm sunshine and pastoral surroundings were a tonic to their frazzled nerves. They had dozed off without realizing.
"Hello! Nobody hurt, I hope," the Doctor called from the edge of the forest, startling the Royal pair.
"No," Prince Juris called back as he sat up. "Just some minor damage to the ship."
The Doctor extracted himself from the undergrowth and came over to join them, stopping short when he saw the gold collar around the young man's neck, a familiar design engraved on the jeweled medallion attached to it. He studied the couple a moment before finally placing them in his memory. "Good grief," he gasped, "this is certainly a day for surprises. It's Prince Juris, isn't it? And Lady Asta?"
The Royals exchanged a mystified look as the Time Lord bubbled on. "Yes, of course it is. My dear Asta, you look positively radiant. No pun intended, I assure you."
Asta smiled amusedly and would have blushed had she known how.
"You'll forgive me, I'm sure," Prince Juris began politely, "but we meet so many people we can't…" His voice trailed off and he left the sentence unfinished.
"In that case," the Doctor said, drawing himself to his full height and tugging on his lapels, "I shall jog your memory. I'm the Doctor."
"The Doctor!" Asta squealed in delight. She was out of her chair and hugging the astonished Time Lord before he knew what was happening. "Oh, Doctor, how wonderful!" she said happily, planting a kiss on his cheek. "I don't care if we did have to crash, I'm so glad to see you again."
The Doctor disengaged himself awkwardly, turning to the equally delighted Crown Prince. "Are you going to kiss me too, your Royal Highness?" he asked dryly.
"No," Prince Juris laughed. "But I'll bet my father will when he gets back."
"He's here as well, is he?"
Juris nodded, an odd look passing across his face. "We were en route to—" Cutting himself off, he waved a hand in the air. "Not that that's important. Anyway, he went to see if there was any kind of town nearby. He can't've gone more than a mile or so. He hasn't been gone an hour yet."
The Doctor laughed delightedly. "Don't underestimate him, dear boy. I've known him to cover thirty miles in less than an hour. Upwards of fifty, if the wind is right."
"Nobody can walk that fast, Doctor," Asta said reasonably. "Especially in this terrain."
"Walk! An Alterran?" The Doctor snorted indignantly at the very idea. "My dear Asta, he'd've flown; an eagle by day, an owl by night. If you ask me, it's his favorite mode of transportation. He always did the reconnaissance when we were together, especially when an area seemed inaccessible."
Juris shook his head. "No wonder he insisted on going himself. I never would've thought of that."
The Doctor marveled at him. Here was a being with the power to change into anything he wanted, and he had forgotten all about it. Choosing not to remark on this, however, the Time Lord suggested instead that the pair return to the TARDIS with him, since Jason would certainly have seen it from the air.