Chapter LXXXII
Martha
She slowly opened the TARDIS door and peered out. The Doctor had brought them to a place called Ayxelurius, one of the most beautiful moons of the known universe, as he had put it. She had gotten quite excited, as it was the first time they went to an actual alien world. Sure, she had been on New Earth, but that had neither been overly beautiful nor really alien. But even with all her excitement and the enthusiasm the Doctor had had when speaking about this planet – or, more precise, moon – she had noticed that Mira didn't look too well today. Her eyes were swollen and a bit red, and her whole face had that slightly puffy look that still lingered in the morning when one had spent the whole evening crying. And she had been quiet – more quiet than usual, that is. She had also noticed painfully clear that the Doctor had mainly tried to cheer Mira up, and never left her side, quite literally. She wondered what had happened, but pretty soon she accepted the fact that they most likely wouldn't tell her, so she wouldn't let it spoil this beautiful alien moon for her.
And beautiful it was indeed. The sky was a dark violet, dotted with a few, bright stars, and the horizon gleamed in a silver-blueish colour. High clouds painted soft patterns, the ice-crystals in them reflecting the sunlight in all colours of the rainbow. She could not quite tell if it was dusk or dawn, but the little drops of dew that glimmered on the turquoise, soft grass which grew up to her knee and slightly moved in a light breeze led her to believe it was rather dawn than dusk.
She took a few steps away from the TARDIS. The time-ship was sitting on a small hill, and in front of her, not quite a mile away, she could see a small village. The next moment she had to correct herself, it was rather a small town; with small, low houses neatly lined up, some of them with light in their windows. Spaces between them were left free, trees growing in them, probably serving as parks. They looked quite like normal houses, as far as she could judge in the dim light and from that distance. Apart from the fact that they all seemed to be round.
On her right hand side it looked like the edge of a forest about three-hundred yards away. She could not really tell the shape and colour of the trees yet, but she definitely wanted to head over there later on when it was getting brighter. The air was filled with a slightly sweet scent. It reminded her faintly of roses and lavender - sweet but not too sweet. Suddenly an insect, looking a bit like a rather big dragonfly with transparent, shimmering wings, came by and orbited her head. She turned around to follow it with her eyes, and then she saw it. The planet this moon was orbiting hung up in the sky behind the TARDIS, filling it almost completely. It was only half lit, and for a moment she had to fight the impulse to duck and cover her head, as it looked as if it was about to crash down on her.
"It's great, isn't it?" the Doctor suddenly said, standing next to her, dressed in his brown coat, looking up to the sky as well.
She almost jumped, turned her head and saw the big, boyish smile on his face.
"Don't worry, it's not falling down," he added.
Oh God, she thought, had it been that clear on her face? She felt a bit embarrassed, but the sight of the planet let her forget it quickly. It reminded her a bit of Jupiter, just that it wasn't red, but rather green and blue. And it had a system of rings, spreading out across the sky. She wondered for a moment how huge that planet was, for the moon she was standing on right now appeared to be pretty big to her – but then again, the Earth Moon had seemed huge as well – she assumed Earth was much further away from it than this planet was from its moon. But then it hit her. There was an atmosphere, and the gravity was also much higher than on the Earth-moon. So it had to be bigger, hadn't it?
Mira
She couldn't remember too clearly what had happened or had been said the evening before, and quite frankly she didn't really care either. The only thing she remembered quite clearly was him whispering words in her ear in that incredibly soothing, melodic language she had never heard before. It didn't take a great deal of guesswork to figure out that it must be his native language. But even so, she just wanted to forget about the last evening and pretend it hadn't happened. Just as if she had never been one step away from the edge, act as if everything would go it's way without her losing her mind. She just would have to stay away from mirrors – or from anything else that would send her over the edge by staring too long at it. And keep company, the Doctor's, but certainly Martha's as well. Martha in all her youth and carefreeness – relatively to her own problems at least – who was now staring silently in wonder at the planet above her head. She took a look around herself, and the Doctor hadn't been exaggerating; it really was an exceptionally beautiful moon. The colours – ranging from the deep violet morning sky over the blue-green of the planet and its rings to the light turquoise of the grass – were absolutely striking. Sure, she had seen a lot of planets similar to this one before, but there seemed to be a particularly peacefully mood here. She couldn't quite tell why, and didn't care enough about anything right now to just ask. Instead she watched Martha, trying to remember the first time she herself had been on a foreign planet like this. As she realised she couldn't quite remember, she quickly stopped trying to. Not again. Not again being afraid to forget everything.
Stop it.
She was more than slightly startled about how fragile her mental condition still seemed to be.
Get yourself together.
She focused again on Martha as she heard the Doctor say, "Let's get down there."
She looked at him and saw him nodding towards the small town.
"They have the best pancakes in the whole galaxy," he added.
"Pancakes?" Martha spun around to him, slightly confused. "And who's 'they'? Humans?"
"Humans?" the Doctor repeated in astonishment. "Nah, way too peaceful here for humans. Ayxeluriusians, of course." He started to walk down the little hill, and she followed him, Martha walking next to her. "The most peaceful bunch in all the universe, as far as I'm concerned. You noticed it, didn't you Mira?" he continued talking as they walked, pretty much without waiting for an answer. "It's a pretty remote place out here, and when I say remote, I mean it. Remote like the outskirts of Andromeda Galaxy-"
"We're in Andromeda?" Martha interrupted him. "That's- No way. That's- Millions of-"
"Two point five million light years away from Earth," she said quietly. At least for her universe it was true.
"Yeah, pretty far from home Martha, hm?" the Doctor continued, turned around for a moment and grinned at Martha. "As said, pretty remote spot here. Nothing of interest either. No natural resources to speak of, just the normal stuff to make a living here. The whole system mainly consists of gas giants, this moon is the only inhabitable one here."
"And do they look human?" Martha asked.
"Who?" the Doctor asked, stopped and turned around again.
"The Ayxale- no. Ayxul-"
"The Ayxeluriusians? Nah, why would they?"
"Won't we stick out then?" Martha asked as they followed on his heels again.
"Oh, sure we will. They are a bit taller in general. Oh, and yellow. Yellow fur I mean. But as said, they're a peaceful bunch. Quite self sufficient. Actually it's really good they hardly ever get visitors. And if someone actually pops by, they just don't mind. They can't quite grasp the concept of someone not meaning well to another."
Doctor
They were sitting in a nice, little cafe. Quiet music was playing, the food was as good as he had promised, and by now the sun was full up, dyeing the sky in a soft blue with a hint of green. As unambitious the Ayxeluriusians were, as much sense they had for the good things in life. They felt completely content on their little moon, enjoying the day, occasionally wondering about the universe (not that they were stupid, actually they were quite intelligent – they just didn't mind.) and apart all that were just glad to live. It was really a quite unique people, and wouldn't have survived for too long wouldn't it be for the remote location of their little moon.
And it was as he had said it – they didn't care much for them, even though they clearly stuck out. The Ayxeluriusians were bipeds, just like he himself and humans, but there the similarity ended. Their heads where about the hight where his head was, but they also head three flexible, about twenty inch long eye-stalks sticking out on top of their discus-shaped heads. Their noses and ears were hidden within their silky, yellow fur, only the thin lips were hairless. They had two arms with one thumb and two fingers each, and were looking a bit plump in their proportions. They were dressed in wide, colourful tunics, only the very small children were running about only covered by their much paler, almost white coloured fur. It was slightly longer as it was with the adults – it would become deeper yellow and shorter with puberty.
He had tried to explain to Martha for the last thirty minutes just exactly how the Ayxeluriusians were seeing the universe, why the had no concept of evil and distrust, but he was afraid she was not quite getting it. Probably they were just too different from humans.
Mira on the other hand didn't need to understand it. She would just feel it as if she was one of them. With a small shudder he remembered how he had felt the pain of the living sun – as interesting it had been, he didn't want to repeat it any time soon. Not to speak of being confronted with other people's feelings the whole time.
But right now he hoped their peaceful, trusting and content attitude of being one with the universe would rub off on Mira – at least a little bit and for a while. At least he could imagine that they were a quite pleasant bunch of people to be around for an empath. Apart from that, it was really a nice place to be, even though probably not the most remarkable place in the known universe as he had said.
Mira
It was really a lovely place, and she was still absolutely fascinated by the locals. She had never before felt such an absence of aggression and distrust in a crowd before. She wondered for a moment if the Doctor had come here because of that. True, the moon was lovely, but hardly unique as he had put it. She caught his eyes for a moment as he was talking to Martha, and wondered once more how he managed to look that innocent time and time again.
Oh well, she thought, it's never wrong to try to enjoy peace and quiet as long as-
She instinctively covered her ears with her hands and ducked under the table when a loud bang of an explosion reached her ears. A few seconds later, as no further explosions followed, she lifted her head again and looked around. The whole place seemed to be frozen for a moment. Everyone was staring over to the dark cloud of smoke that formed not so far from their own location. It was definitely within the town, probably two-hundred yards away.
She jumped up, together with the Doctor. But as she turned to head towards the black cloud, she saw that he was about to head into the opposite direction, back to the TARDIS.
"Mira, come!" he yelled, grabbing Martha's hand, who was standing right next to him. "We have to leave!"
"What? Why?" she asked, and just at this moment finally the Ayxeluriusians started to move. It was not that panic broke loose, she could clearly feel they weren't panicking. But nevertheless, they started hurrying towards the site of the explosion. Suddenly the whole place was filled with people, and she could feel how she was slightly pushed with them.
"Mira, come!" the Doctor yelled again.
"We have to help them!" What was going on with him? Not only would he leave those people alone now, but he seemed to be quite shocked about something.
"They'll help themselves! Now come!" he replied and tried to reach her, but a few of the aliens ran by between them and she finally lost sight of him as she was carried away by the crowd. Not that it would have been hard to just turn around, as the locals still weren't panicking or violently pushing each other, but she didn't quite see why she should leave them alone now. She could at least have a look to see what had happened. Apart from that she still wasn't quite sure about the level of their technological development. Maybe they actually needed help.
A few moments later she must have almost reached the site of the explosion, but unfortunately the Ayxeluriusians where all taller than she was, so she could not really see anything. A siren went off and came closer – probably some sort of fire brigade. Something was still burning, filling the air with smoke and smell.
Then something else caught her attention. Something was disturbing, was steering up the still peaceful if slightly worried emanations of the locals. Something foreign, something hostile. Something that clearly didn't belong here. As she tried to figure out where it was coming from she got knocked over by one of the locals who obviously hadn't seen her when turning around.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" he – or she? - said and a second later she felt lifted up by two strong arms and put back on her feet.
"It's okay, nothing happened," she said and as a response the alien patted her affectionately on her shoulder, his three black, glossy eyes on their stalks looking right down at her. "Say, do you know-" she started to say, wanting to ask him/her (the voice had been quite indistinctive) about any other strangers in this town, but before she could finish her sentence the alien had rushed off.
"Fine, then don't," she murmured and tried to focus again. And indeed, she could feel the strangers again, this time not too far away. She turned her head until she looked into a small, rather empty alleyway, two buildings away from the one that must have blown up. She walked over to it, changing her way multiple times to walk around small groups of locals. When she finally entered it, it was seemingly empty. But she was certain those strangers were here somewhere. She could see doors in the curved walls of the buildings on both sides of the way, and a few yards ahead of her was a corner to the left. Whoever was here, they were there, just ahead. For a moment it crossed her mind that she was about to seriously endanger herself by just walking up to some clearly hostile strangers all alone with no weapons, but probably the peacefulness and the feeling of security coming from the locals had blinded her judgement. Actually, it might have been only the harsh voice behind her that made her think about it at all.
"Hands up!"
She had no idea how he had gotten behind her. Didn't matter now anyway – and she couldn't see if he actually had a weapon, but she felt that he was pretty self secure and serious about it. So most likely he really had one.
As she slowly lifted her hands, two more figures appeared in front of her, coming around the corner. And they were both armed. Apart from that, they were a bit smaller than she herself, her heads ending where here shoulders were. Their skin was dark-red, and they looked rather round – a bit like balls with arms and legs, dressed in black, ragged looking clothes.
"Can I shoot her?" the voice behind asked.
"Nah, wait," one the figures said. She sounded female and was slightly shorter than her companion to her right. "You're alone here?"
"Who are you?" she asked instead of answering their question.
"Non of your business. I'm asking the questions. Are you alone?"
"No," she said. No point in lying. And apart from that, they would probably kill her on the spot if she said she was alone.
"Can I kill her now?" the voice behind her asked again.
"Oh shut up, would you? Idiot. What use is she dead?"
"Okay, maybe you're right..."
"I'm always right, idiot. Now get her off that street, before someone sees us."
"And what if? They're so bloody stupid, as if they would-"
"Just do it!"
She heard steps behind her and muffled swearing. She didn't even have the time to turn around – there was only a sudden blow to her head before the sun went out.
…
The next thing she noticed was a stinging pain in her head. The centre was at the back of her head, sending waves all across her brain, making her feel sick. There were muffled voices – or maybe they weren't muffled and it was just due to her being dizzy. She didn't move whilst she tried to understand what was spoken – should they think that she was still unconscious. But then suddenly a shrill alarm sounded, causing her to startle quite visibly.
"Idiot!" the woman from before yelled, "You left the locks open!"
"I didn't!"
"That's the intrusion detection, of course you did! Give me that gun!"
"But-"
"Shut up and move your arse, Do you think I'll check everything on my own?"
Then she heard steps leaving the room. As she was about to open her eyes, lift her head and look around, she heard steps again, this time coming into the room. Though, they sounded different from the heavy, waddling steps of her kidnappers.
"It's okay, they're gone. For now at least," a male voice said lightly.
Well, that might be the case, she thought, but who in hell was that now? She tried to figure it out with her psychic senses, but her head was still hurting pretty badly. Well, he wasn't human, that's for sure, neither one of those red guys.
But who-
Suddenly it hit her. Her eyes flung open and she sat up so fast that next thing she saw was little stars and snowflakes dancing in front of her eyes. She rubbed her head and blinked a few times, hearing that the door to the cell she was in got unlocked and opened.
"Not so fast," said the man now and kneeled in front of her. "You took quite a blow to the head."
She looked up, nodded slowly and carefully and studied him. He was rather tall, dressed in dark trousers and a black leather jacket. His dark hair was cut short, and the most prominent features of his face clearly were his ears and his nose – and piercing, blue eyes.
With them he eyed her for a while with such intensity that she finally had to avert her gaze.
"Say, do we know each other?" he finally asked. "Oh, and, by the way, I'm the Doctor," he added with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes and held out his hand for her to shake it.
A/n: Sorry, I know, another short chapter again. I had planned to write a bit further, but unfortunately someone thought his radio/phone whatever was more important than the traffic in front of him and crashed with 30mph into the back of my car whilst I was standing still and waiting to turn right this week. But I really wanted to post a new chapter, so it's a bit shorter ;-) Oh and yes, we're both fine, more or less. Can someone give me a new neck please?
OneWhoReadsToMuch, StarGazer, bored411, E-man-dy-S, DarknessShallSpreadXx, Julia N SnowMiko, HueHueFanfiction, xXEndlessImaginationXx, NeoMulder, MiaEther, Saffronellen: Thanks for reviewing :-)
