7. The Final Moments of the Hotel.

Chloe knows they won't have long before the Bicx Captain takes his revenge. Yet how can she possibly get all these people to safety?

For her to use her Wristwatch Tardis to get all the staff off the planet they must all be touching at the same time; it just seems impossible. She walks to the centre of the room.

"I'm going to try to activate a form of transportation to get everyone off this planet," Chloe says. "You know that for instant transportation to work you have to all touch. Can I ask everyone to hold hands, please?"
An eruption occurs with none of the staff willing to hold hands. The visitors are of many different kinds and some of them would rather die than touch certain others.

"I'm sorry, but it's important, even essential just now. If you don't, then you will be left behind! Check who you are next to and move if you might fit in better somewhere else, but we have only a few moments to do this."

Chattering starts as beings move about.

"Order, please," Chloe shouts. "On my home planet we used to have a tradition that we imported from our parent planet, but we kept it. We used to sing a song called Old Lang Syne. It is very important to maintain traditions, and it's important that I teach all of you this song right now, and that goes for everyone. Now. Could you all hold hands like this, please?" She demonstrates the crossed-over arms with hand holding. It will ensure they all make good contact, she thinks.

"We'll all start singing when everyone's holding hands, follow me for the words..." She looks around the room, encouraged to see all the people holding hands with at least one other person; they've got the idea! She knows the words won't matter as she thinks of planet Skelp and activates her Wristwatch Tardis.

Nothing appears to have changed. The foyer and beings are all the same. Chloe begins to worry. Has her Wristwatch Tardis failed to work for so many people?

A busy waiter carrying a full tray of drinks runs across the foyer at one end, glances across and sees the large crowd of people. His drinks tray crashes to the ground as he distracts himself.

"Wh... Who are you all?" he asks, horrified to see so many people in the foyer unattended.

Then he recognises one of the distinctive ladies in the large group.
"Beatrice, I thought you were away working on Nolland. Why are you back so soon?"
Beatrice steps towards the waiter. "Terry, what are you doing on Nolland? I didn't think you were coming."

"Aren't we all going to sing a song?" someone else says. .

Chloe recognises what's happened.

"I have an announcement," she says. "Having all held hands, we have completed our transport and we are all now on planet Skelp. You are all safely home. Now I must save Nolland and the local fauna, the Nolls! Please excuse me, I think I'm going to be busy for a while."

A small cheer goes up as Chloe walks slowly towards Simeon and holds his hand.
Simeon is wondering who this small and rather volcanic angel is who is standing before him. He's worked with her, dated her, and now she's his girlfriend. Where has she learnt to be so strong as to dare to stand up against such a big bully as the Bicx Captain? Simeon had been quaking in his shoes.

Chloe senses his questioning air. "I'll explain later, shall we go and check whether the Bicx Captain told me the truth when he claimed to own this planet?"
"Okay," is the best Simeon can muster just now. His mind is raising too many other questions for him to focus on this one.
Chloe thinks of the Hotel Nolland and activates her Wristwatch Tardis...

The foyer stays the same, but all the people disappear.
"That's strange," Simeon says. "Where's everyone gone?"
Chloe knows! "They're all staying on Planet Skelp, but we're now on Nolland. The Hotel Nolland foyer is identical."

A quick dash upstairs to pick up their bags and Chloe thinks of home just after they left and activates her wristwatch as they hold hands...

Stepping into her mother's Tardis at home, Chloe requests to know if the Bicx purchased Nolland in the year they've just visited Nolland.

A question mark appears on the screen. Tiny explanatory text tells them that there appears to be some unknown detail.

"Bother, we'll have to go and find out. Tardis, can you tell me about the sale meeting?"

Information about a planet auction appears on the display screen. Chloe's wristwatch pings as the spacetime information completes download from the helpful Tardis.

"It looks like we're going," Chloe says, reaching for Simeon's hand. "Would you like to come and see what happened at the auction of Nolland?"

Chloe wants Simeon to be there with her to hold her hand as she isn't always able to stand up against bullies - only when she knows she is in the right and she is mid anger burst! Otherwise, she is as frightened as Simeon.

This wasn't the highest priority thought for Simeon, he wonders how Chloe finds so much energy.
Chloe notices Simeon's slight hesitation before he says "Yes". She's surely on a roll, with her adrenaline at a high after her ordeal with the Bicx Captain in the hotel reception.
This trip promises to be short and factual, yet something tells Chloe that something might go amiss; she's not sure quite what. It's just an auction, isn't it?

Chloe thinks of the auction room and activates her Wristwatch Tardis...

Auctioning Nolland.

The auction room throngs with beings of all different sorts. No Cybermen or Daleks, though - they might easily be banned as potentially too warring. What would they want at an auction?

Chloe glances around the room. Display screens adorn much of the back of the room; it looks like a Zoom multi-participant meeting. She wonders where the cameras are that the remote participants are viewing.
"Simeon, I can't see any cameras," Chloe says.
Simeon points upwards. A bunch of tiny dots emerging from a straight twig protruding from the ceiling and looking like a spiky hairbrush may hold the answer to that.
"Should we have joined remotely?" Simeon asks, seeing Chloe's horrified face when she sees the cameras.
"No," Chloe says. "There's so much more identification required for remote access. All these people in here have confirmed their ID at the door. We by-passed that." .
"Do you want to hide?" Simeon offers.
"Yes!" Chloe now realises that the Bicx Captain might easily see her, if he's there, though he won't necessarily associate her with Nolland at this venue or at this point in his history. Chloe backs against the wall holding Simeon in front of her.

A burly being passes near to them; Simeon recognises the Bicx Captain. He groans. The Bicx Captain leans against the wall just in front of them, almost blocking their view.

The lot is announced. "We are asked to sell the planet, Nolland, compete with insolvent hotel overlooking the twin structures, the, erm, Tonsils. A popular holiday destination, but not popular enough, it seems." .

Suddenly the bidding starts as the sound of a gavel striking its block is played. Chloe reaches around Simeon to pull him closer so she can't be seen. Simeon feels an uncomfortable object in his pocket and retrieves it. He holds it in his hand and looks at it. Ah, it's some little box thing the Doctor gave him.

Simeon becomes aware that everyone in the room is looking at him. The auctioneer is pointing at him. "Sold to the being by the wall."

The Bicx Captain cheers and raises both arms in a celebratory gesture and activates his teleport. He's off! He thinks he just bought Nolland for a pittance.

"Name please," the auctioneer asks loudly across the room. All eyes are still on Simeon.
He takes a deep breath. "Simeon Stanley Ground," he replies, trembling.
"Sold to Simeon Ground. Step forward please, and collect your paperwork."

Simeon wonders how that happened! Chloe must emerge from her hiding behind Simeon as he steps forward, but she missed it, whatever happened.

Simeon steps to the front where an old clerk passes a sizeable title deed to him. A crackly voice addresses him. "Nolland, it seems, is yours, my good man." The clerk winks at him. "Well done."

As Simeon looks at the wrinkled clerk's face, it is as if he has seen the face somewhere before, recently, but he can't fully see the face as heavy locks of hair obscure most of it.
"Don't I have to pay now, or something?" Simeon asks, worriedly, quivering as he hasn't even got any small change on him, and now he's expected to pay for a planet. .
"That's all done," the clerk says. "You paid for it by Box Transfer, that little box in your hand there."

The next lot is announced loudly for all to hear and the clerk retreats leaving a stunned Simeon to return to Chloe. His legs feel wobbly, but he reaches Chloe. "Wow, should we go now?"
"Yes, but let's hide first, so no-one sees us go!"

Facing up the Bicx Captain.

Chloe chooses to confront the Bicx Captain by hologram. She sets up the costly call and appears on the bridge of the Bicx mining spaceship. The Bicx Captain is there, upbraiding a crew member for some minor incident involving a remote navigation terminal diagnosis.

"Captain Throng." Chloe stands arms akimbo expecting the bully captain to listen carefully. She cuts a fine but wispy figure, one that the uncaring, burly Bicx Captain is unlikely to respect.

The Bicx Captain turns and sees Chloe standing clearly on his bridge. He instantly orders a guard to kill her. The guard turns to him. "It's a hologram, Sir," he says as calmingly as he can.

Chloe decides she needs to speak now. "You thought you bought Nolland. I am here to tell you that you didn't! You didn't outbid your opponent, you didn't pay, and you didn't collect any title deeds for Nolland. How did you expect to have bought it?"
Captain Throng is confused by this. "I bid and the auctioneer pointed at me and told me I'd bought it!"

"You haven't been to many auctions, have you?" Chloe says almost sympathetically. She's very glad she had been to one with the Doctor and learnt the methods used. "After you bid, someone else bid. They were standing almost behind you. They were congratulated on buying Nolland, not you. They paid for Nolland, not you. And they received the title deeds, not you. So, you don't own Nolland at all! Now I'm here to tell you to go!"

The infuriated Bicx Captain lashes out at the hologram, his hand slicing through it. All to no avail. Chloe has won.

Chloe feels she wants to rub it in and produces the title deed and victoriously sports it for the Bicx Captain to see that she has it.

She is careful not to let the Bicx Captain see the name of the new owner, though. That might lead to trouble!

THE END

The previous episode in this series is called "The Lady with Secrets" (ref. 32).

The next episode in this series is called "Implosion."

I hope to add further episodes soon.

Sparse References.

Reference 9 Episode Gallifrey Exhumed in this series,
where Crystelle rescued an entire copy of the Gallifreyan Library from under the Master's nose as he destroyed Gallifrey (ref. TV series 12, The Timeless Children).

Reference 12 Episode Crystelle Growth in this series,
where Crystelle acquired her Tardis (storeroom rescue).

Reference 13 Episode Crystelle Lattice in this series,
where Crystelle uses clones to protect herself.

Reference 14 Episode DalexDev in this series,
where Daleks were developing yet another form of attack.

Reference 26 Episode Master Trap in this series,
where Crystelle put the Master in the Judoon Master Palace.

Reference 28 Episode Theia Coincidence in this series,
where the Doctor took Chloe to meet Fred Flintstone, or the nearest the Doctor knew about. Chloe met Fox and Vixen who went on to walk through a natural rift to Gallifrey...

Reference 29 Episode The Wristwatch Tardis in this series,
where Chloe built her Wristwatch Tardis.

Reference 31 Episode Peace at Last in this series,
where Chloe had accidentally caused a fragile peace to break out in many unexpected areas.

Reference 32 Episode The Lady with Secrets in this series,
where Chloe worked in the Gallifrey Tardis Manufacturing company,
where Chloe met Simeon,
where Chloe took Simeon to Nolland for his first visit when life on Nolland was simple for the Nolls.

Frequently asked questions.

When Chloe left Simeon and Violet on their own, why did Chloe go on her own?

This is to do with baggage. It's much more difficult to do something stealthily whilst taking someone else around with you (they would become as baggage to drag around). And then she would have to explain what her instantly variable plan was as it changed, each time it changed. It would just not be practical as she isn't very confident in her capabilities, yet.
The Doctor could doubtless have managed it.

Who was the clerk in the auction room?

You may have guessed it's the Doctor in disguise! Simeon recalls seeing his face recently, but not when covered with heavy locks of hair. The Doctor may have easily known they would go to that auction and approved of them buying Nolland but needed to provide the missing element to provide the means for him to bid for the planet and then to buy it.

Will Simeon have to settle down and maintain Nolland?

No. He can easily give the planet back to its previous, doubtless deceived, owners.

At points in the story where there is humour, an additional full stop is added. .

ANOTHER END