Chapter Two – Dedicated to Becsi Lexy
Thank you
Don't mention it
I'm pleased to meet you
Don't think I'm very good at this
But let me show you
'Did we make it?' She paused. 'I can't see.'
'Try opening your eyes then.' He groaned.
'Try getting off me then.'
He obligingly rolled over in the sand and she sat up blinking. They were both sprawled on a sand dune, just outside the village. It was late sunset, and freezing cold already. Soon the sand would lose the little absorbed heat it still had, and resemble snow.
But they were alive.
The Doctor stood up and held out a hand. She took it, and was yanked to her feet. She shook her head to clear it of sudden dizziness from getting up too quickly, and shivered. The Doctor looked around and noted the lack of temple. Oops. He then spotted a tall rectangular object not fifty metres away.
'C'mon. We'd best be inside before you freeze to death.' He walked towards it. She sighed, and made to follow before noticing the obvious.
'Uh, there's a village that way.' She pointed out.
'My ship is closer, and less likely to be annoyed at its temple having just collapsed.'
'Right..'
After a while, she saw it properly. 'It's a blue box.'
'Yep. Looks like a 1950's Police Box.'
'Looks a bit small for the both of us.'
'It's bigger on the inside.'
'I'm not even gonna bother asking how the hell that works.'
'Good idea. Ah, here we go!' He pulled out a key from his rather sandy jacket and unlocked the door. He held it open for her, like a doorman in a hotel.
'After you.' He said cheerfully. Rose hesitated, suspicious. 'C'mon. Ladies first. Don't stand there all day like a witless human.'
Not bothered to be insulted, she tentatively went in, and stared. This was so weird.
There was a large, raised circular platform, made of metal grill and complete with stairs and a railing on the other side. In the centre of that there was a console glowing bluish-green and covered in odd metal instruments, including a flat computer screen. It was surrounding a transparent shaft filled with the light. There was a sort-of couch behind this.
She stepped up beside it and looked around curiously. Some of the railings had pieces of foam wrapped around them. And there were long wires hanging off some of the large curvy supports. She saw an opening in the far wall, leading off somewhere, like a passage.
How big was this ship?
The Doctor closed the door behind him, and leaned against it, arms folded. He enjoyed watching the awed expression on her face as she took everything in. She turned to look at him, speechless. He walked over to her and patted the console.
'Meet the TARDIS. That stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space.'
'A pleasure.' She said quietly, then laughed as one who is too stunned think of anything else to do. Or one who is drunk.
'And who says blue, green, orange, and black don't go?' She added.
'Impressed?'
'Go figure.' She looked at him. 'Not that you have to be so smug about it.'
'I'm the Doctor, by the way.'
'Doctor of what?'
'No, that's my name. The Doctor.'
'Okay then. Sure. Anything seems possible now dunnit?' She laughed again, this time not so high-pitched. 'My name's Rose.'
'And what were you doing underneath that temple, Rose?'
'Uh, you put me there last I checked.'
'No. What I did was just reverse a previous teleportation. So you must've, at some stage, left it. And judging by your clothes, you went to late 20th or early 21st Century Earth.'
'Must've. I don't actually remember.'
'And why should I believe that?'
'Seriously. My life, strangely enough, began in that box. Can't remember anything before that about myself. But I teleported out. The next thing I know, I'm in hospital, can't speak, and had apparently been hit by a car. I thought it was a dream from when I was in a coma.' She folded her arms. 'How about you, Doctor? What were you doing there?'
'We detected a signal. Of alien technology doing something under that temple.' He said absently, thinking aloud. 'Stasis cell.. if the stasis cell malfunctioned it might have wiped your memory.'
She shrugged. 'Makes sense. What do you mean "we detected a signal"? Whose with you?'
'A friend called Jack Harkness. He's probably enjoying himself in the village at the moment and I don't want to interrupt, or get involved. At all. So I'll leave him where he is for the moment.' The Doctor turned back to her, with an earnestly puzzled expression – like a child who's got a new toy but doesn't know how to work it just yet. 'What I don't get is how there was a signal if you were already long gone.'
'Maybe another malfunction?'
'Or another alien coming for a look, like we did.'
'You're an alien?'
'Last I checked, yeah.'
'Oh. What kind?'
'Only the best kind.' He grinned.
'Uh-huh.' She laughed. 'And, uh.. whatsisname-Jack?'
'Nope. 51st Century human.'
'How can he be? This is like something-thousand BC!'
'And your stasis cell sent you to the 20th Century.'
She stared blankly at him. He gave her a look.
'Time travel. Like the TARDIS travels in both time and space.'
'Oh right. Of course.' She shook her head. 'Sorry, it's just-'
'You're having a bad day?'
'Actually it's not so bad. Just unbelievably weird. So you can take me home then?'
'Maybe.' He suddenly became cheerful again as something occurred to him.
'Don't know about you but I'm starving. Fancy getting something to eat?' He said, turning to the console.
She blinked. 'But, I've only just met you.'
'Well I'm not gonna force feed you or anything. Just thought you might be hungry too.'
'Yeah, I spose.'
'What does that mean?'
'Yes. I'm just not really into food. Tastes no better than paper most of the time.'
He turned from inputting coordinates to look at her.
'What do you eat at home? White bread? Lots of stuff in tins and plastic? Microwave meals?'
'Uh, yeah. Pretty much.' She admitted.
'Well don't worry. I'll take you someplace with real food.' He turned back to fiddling with the controls.
'What about your friend Jack?'
'Like I said, he's busy.'
She shrugged.
'Don't worry,' he added. 'We can come back a few seconds from now and he won't have even noticed we left.'
The Doctor did something and suddenly there was a noise that sounded like mechanical grating and like a siren, as the central shaft slid up and down. The whole room pitched but he caught hold of her hand before she fell. After a short while it stopped.
The Doctor, still holding her hand, calmly led her to the door, and opened it.
She couldn't believe what she saw. He met her surprised look with a manic grin.
'Welcome to Beijing, China. It's the 3rd of June, 1988.'
(sigh) I'm now thinking two weeks is v optimistic now. I went and copy/pasted all the chapters from the website itself (so as to get The Latest Version of it to work with) and put them in a word doc so I could edit and post them quicker.
Then I tried to copy it, along with several other files, from my iPod to a school computer. And it disappeared. Never to return. Go figure.
(Stupid Windows/Microsoft/Bill Gates..)
Anyhow, this means the chapters I'm working with (seeing as the internet chapters were of course deleted) are older drafts. Maybe that's good 'cause then it will be more like a rewrite without actually having to start from scratch. But is bad because it's taking too long, I have so many assignments that ought to be higher on the priority list thing, and I will need to send it to a beta editor before I can trust it to be posted.
Is Eeveekitty45 up for it? Or, is there anyone with an objective mind who has a LOT of time on their hands? Beta editors get multiple dedications/mentions and, erm, hugs!
Btw, I've also thus lost the original list of dedications for the chapters. Will have to just start again. Sorry. Not my fault.
Thanks so much for the 103 reviews! Nobody I know believes me when I say the count is now in the triple figures! Methinks unbelievers should be made to read it hey?
