Disclaimer: BBC owns Doctor Who... And I only wish I could be as clever as RTD.
Thanks for your review Angels. Throughout the other chapters, I've been keeping it in mind, paying attention to better descriptions.
"Where are all the people?" Rose asked, turning to face the Doctor. "It's a museum, so there should be people checkin' out the exhibits. We've passed hall after hall and room after room, but no one. That's strange yeah?"
The Doctor scanned the area for any signs of recent activity. They were in a fairly large room again. Also circular, however much larger than the one they arrived in. He noticed how there were various glass tunnels going in every other direction whereas the first room they'd been in only had one tunnel connected to it.
This must be the center of the museum. To the right of their entrance, stood two ticket kiosks along with a small section devoted to tour maps, time schedules, and the like. Every so often they came across a gold stand with the information plaque depicting information about the creatures housed in the facility.
"I don't know. Perhaps it's not open hours." He glanced at his watch, "It is nighttime afterall."
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They were walking peacefully for a while; talking and laughing about past adventures, when out of the corner of Rose's eye a catfish swam passed them right beneath her feet. She automatically jumped and grabbed onto The Doctor as if holding on for dear life. Her heart skipped a beat. "Oh my god! Doctor!"
"What? What's wrong?" His voice was firm as he looked deeply into her eyes and held onto her arms.
"A thing - a catfish swam right underneath us and you ask me what's wrong!" She shouted, fright still showing in her eyes. "You telling me ya didn't notice..."
"OH. That. Sorry, I thought you noticed the glass floor." He smiled reassuringly at her. "It won't break though, I promise. Cross my hearts."
"It's alright," she sighed, "Guess I should've noticed. Odd. I mean, I coulda sworn I looked at the ground, but it just didn't register."
"The mind can do that. It's like the police box – Put a blue box on the street and no one will notice. It's just there like this glass floor."
Rose suddenly sighed, looking down at the floor. The Doctor didn't need to see her face to know that the sad dullness had returned. Because he could feel it within. He squeezed her hand for a moment. Then he turned away and said softly, "Something's bothering you."
"It's Mickey." Rose pulled out her phone and stared at it; her tongue, poking out the side of her mouth. "I'm just having a hard time getting over the fact that I can't ever call him or see him again. He's in this parallel world... I can't believe he chose to stay there. To leave me. Off on his own." She took in a trouble breath. "And with those Cybermen still out there."
"I wish there was a way to get communications up between both worlds, so you could at least call. But I can't, and I'm sorry. You've got to move on though." The Doctor's voice was calming, a mix of sympathy and firmness.
"I know... It's just hard. S'pose it just takes time. Well, at least he's out there making a difference." She smiled.
The Doctor smiled back. "He is."
After several more tunnels and passing a couple of small rooms, there was a sign which read, "Food Service Platform". They turned right, and entered an archway that lead them straight into a great big kitchen. It had all the latest equipment – state of the art technology. Everything stood firmly in place, slender and shiny.
Rose sniffed and sniffed. She looked passed the Doctor and sniffed some more. "Something smells - warm - like someone was just cooking in here."
The Doctor walked over to an oven and touched it lightly. "Oven's warm."
"I wonder if there are chips frozen somewhere!" Rose grinned and the Doctor half rolled his eyes at her. "What?" she chuckled.
"You and your chips."
"Oi! You like 'em too!" She smirked and wagged her finger at him.
"Well, if you're hungry then I suppose we should find something to eat. Certainly don't want a grumpy Rose on my hands." He crossed his fingers and grinned. "Well, here's to hoping they've got chips."
Together they eagerly raided all the cabinets, refridgerators and freezers. Most of the cabinets were either completely empty or stocked with worn out china sets. There was one freezer door in particular that was locked. Rose eyed it curiously, wondering why only one of the freezers were locked. She called the Doctor over and he unlocked it with the sonic screwdriver.
"And now, ladies and gents... Brace yourselves. Behind door number one..." The Doctor announced and as the door slowly opened, Rose's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.
"Chips!" Rose yelled as she jumped up and down, clapping her hands. The freezer was filled with many bags. She grabbed one and eyed it hungrily, practically devouring them with her eyes. "To the oven Doctor!"
Thirty minutes later, they were in the room next to the kitchen enjoying fresh, hot chips. Nothing in the world could disturb them now.
"It's weird," the Doctor began, but instead stopped to take a bite.
Rose mumbled, "Who keeps chips locked in a freezer?"
"Exactly." He agreed and returned to his original position - his chin resting in the palm of his hand, and elbow on the table. "They sure are possessive of them. 3,000 years into the future and humans still don't like to share. Amazing."
"Can't really blame 'em though. These are some damn fine chips."
"Indeed." He said, while polishing off the last of his companion's chips.
"Oi!" Rose shouted, watching helplessly as he ate her last one.
"C'mon..." The Doctor wiped off his hands. "We've gotta see what else we can find. There must be something. People don't just disappear without a trace."
Rose got up. "Maybe they all just left."
"I don't think so."
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Later, they were wandering down another glass tunnel when the Doctor suddenly pointed at something in the water and yelled out, "Oh, Rose look! Over there."
Her eyes followed the direction he was pointing. She didn't see anything right away. It took a couple seconds before she saw a sudden yellow glow, and just as she did it was gone. But when the glow had shown, she also caught sight of a small piece of coral moving. And there it was again, a piece of coral, crawling around the ocean floor. It was emitting a yellow glow off and on. "A Coraglow crab!" He declared, excitedly. "The next stage of evolution for the crab."
"That's so cool." Rose laughed. "Are all the creatures here from Earth?"
"Most of them yeah. Some of them have been brought from other worlds."
She sighed, "I never get tired of this Doctor."
While the Doctor is fascinated with the glowing crab Rose notices something else paculiar. A rather large catfish was approaching their tunnel. "Doctor... that catfish is heading right for us."
He looked up. "Hmm, it is..."
"So we should probably go back to the TARDIS, like right now." A beat. "Doctor!"
"Hold on. I don't think it's gonna crash into us. Just a feeling."
Like the Doctor thought, the catfish stopped a few feet short of the glass. It was floating in front of them, just staring – its ears twitching back and forth. Now that it was up close, they could see it's head more clearly and see that unlike its body, the fur was all tabby.
"Hello," a deep, northern voice said.
"Was that coming from..." Rose pointed at the catfish. The Doctor nodded. "This better not be New Earth all over again."
Slowly, the Doctor spoke to the creature. "Hello, I'm the Doctor and this is Rose. What are you called?"
It meowed. "..."
"A name?" A beat. "Do you know what happened here?" Nothing. The Doctor sighed.
Again it meowed.
"Limited on the speech I see. Shouldn't come as a surprise. I take that as a yes? Yes. Did you see what happened here? Oh, you probably don't even understand me."
Rose thought it was amazing at first, to see a catfish that actually looked like a cat, but then it talked. After those cat nurses, meeting another talking feline was a bit too much to handle. Even if it did seem very friendly and maybe even a bit cute. She took one more look at the catfish and turned around, heading back towards the kitchen.
When she was nearing the kitchen entrance, she passed a closed door with a light shining through. A light which hadn't been on before. Cautiously she poked her head inside the door to find an empty room. Who turned on the light?
Rose took a few steps inside. It wasn't very large room, she noticed. In the center of the room there was a short podium with a gold plague resting on top. In black letters, it read, "Generator - Asteroid Pluto - Underwater Museum of Planet Pluto – Founded by The Pluto Underground in 2,998". Generator, the word ran through her mind. This room must have something to do with the power source or is the power source. After all, the power had to be coming from somewhere. "Wait a tick – asteroid Pluto." She said out loud. "I can't believe it. Wait till the Doctor hears about this."
She made a move to turn around and then stopped. Straight across from her, was a black metal door with silver bolts along the edges. Doubtful that it'd be unlocked considering how confidential it looked, but it was worth a shot to at least attempt to open it. So she gave the knob a few quick, forceful turns and yanked hard. Rose rolled her eyes. Of course it wouldn't open.
She'd have to hurry back and get the Doctor.