13. Crystelle Lattice.

1. Atomized.

This episode follows on from episode Crystelle Growth in this series.

So Far…

Ommera met the Doctor after she wandered into the Tardis when the Doctor had left the door open. She had thought it was a museum. Then she became his companion. (Episode 1, Maintenance Mission in this series.)

Crystelle was of comfort to the Doctor in an earlier adventure. (Episode 4, Step Carefully in this series.)

The Doctor asked Crystelle to copy the whole of the Gallifreyan Library to memory chips, right under the nose of the Master. (Episode 9, Gallifrey Exhumed in this series.) But Crystelle misused a copy of the Library for her own purposes and enlisted a DNA biologist to develop a single regeneration capability in tablet form. This gave her courage that she had lacked. Then Crystelle stole a Tardis from beneath the fall of Gallifrey just before the storeroom roof caved in and used it to defeat the Cybermen. (Episode 12, Crystelle Growth in this series.)

Atomizing Day.

Crystelle wakes up after a good night's sleep. She is at home in her bungalow on planet Tinsel.
Her boyfriend, Devyon, will call around shortly. It is Crystelle's turn to get breakfast. She goes through to the kitchen.
She has been extremely successful recently. With a little help from her friends, and a few others, she has been able to defeat the Cybermen, at least on Cyberium One, or so she thinks.

Aromas of breakfast greet Devyon as he arrives. There is always something revivingly wonderful about breakfast smells.
"What's the plan today?" Devyon asks.
"Work as usual," Crystelle replies. "Just another workday." It is a bit more than that, but she has only just woken up.

"What are you up to on your course?" Devyon knows, but he wants to hear how she feels about it.
Crystelle pauses for a little more thought. "A more daring test flight today. The new StarFreight, or is it Star Fright?" she quips.
"I heard it was unstable."
"I heard that, too. I'll be taking my Tardis with me. It can form a small door on a small bit of plain wall where I can dive into it if I'm going to crash."

"Very reassuring," Devyon says. He hugs and kisses her. "I want you back in just ONE piece, please!" he jests. He's never seen her Tardis. He's heard about it, though.

After Work.

Crystelle arrives back home after a traumatic day.
Devyon is there to greet her. "I heard on the news, so I thought I'd better be here for you."
Devyon hugs her and holds her. "You're still shaking. Come and sit down."
"Yes," Crystelle says. "They said I was atomized! I only just made it into the Tardis in time. That's scary. I could have died."
Devyon kisses her and holds her safe. "Really glad you didn't."
"The D word. So close. Even regeneration wouldn't cope with that," Crystelle says.

"True," Devyon says. "Do you think you can eat any tea?"
"No. Not yet. Not for a while." Crystelle doesn't want tea at all. Her day was just too traumatic.

"Want to talk about it?"
"I had to choose where to re-appear," Crystelle says. "I thought I'd do it in style."
"Where did you choose?"
"The main Control Room."
"Bet everyone looked up!"

"I shouldn't have done that," Crystelle says. "They didn't believe I'd been in the StarFreight. Even though they'd seen me on screen the whole time! Nearly lost my job."
"What did you say to get out of that one?"
"I said that I've done some amazing things, and that's one of them! I made them sit down and watch the recording of me on-screen all the way through."

"What would you like to do just now?" Devyon asks gently.
"Thanks. I'll just go and have an early night. I'll let you out just now."

Another Day Dawns.

Crystelle is feeling much better the next morning. So well that she might have had a whole week off to recover!

Devyon calls around for breakfast. His turn to cook. "Another wonderful day. We shouldn't waste any days. We only have so many. What shall I cook?"

"Adventure!" Crystelle is bouncing. "Do you want an adventure? It's the weekend."
"To come with you on an outing?" Devyon says. "Which restaurant shall I treat you to?"
"No, a real adventure. Dastardly evil men doing dastardly evil things to innocent beings."

"Do we try to stop them?" Devyon hasn't got the foggiest idea what Crystelle is aiming at.
"Yes, we try to stop the dast…"
"Yes, but who's being dastardly around here?" Devyon asks.

"You see that door over there?" Crystelle asks. "I had it put in. There's a whole room behind it."
"Yes, your bedroom!" Devyon says. "You're not inviting me into your bedroom!"
"No, silly," Crystelle leads him across to the door. "Let's have a look and see what's behind that door."

Crystelle opens the door. She pushes Devyon into her Tardis.
"Wow. That's more than cool! A flight trainer in your own house! I wondered what you kept in your bedroom."

"I suppose I could have kept this in my bedroom. Good to sneak out after hours, but I didn't. It's your first time actually in my Tardis."
"Ah, so this is your Tardis! Yes, I've never been in it before."

"I want to go shopping," Crystelle says.
"In here?" Devyon asks.

Crystelle presses the Voice Control button. "Let's go to the Being shop."
Unfortunately, Crystelle didn't say which planet she wanted the Being shop to be on. She had meant just down the road.

Her Tardis zizzes.

The Tardis that Crystelle stole is several generations upgraded from the Doctor's Tardis. It only shows as a door in a wall camouflaged to look like other doors in the wall. And it doesn't grind. They hardly know they've moved!

"Just remember where the Tardis door is. I don't want you getting into trouble by trying a broom cupboard by mistake."

They go to the Tardis door and go out.

The Being Shop.

The Being shop is busy. They wander through the store.

"What do you want to buy?" Devyon asks.

"Just a few things for tea tonight," Crystelle says. "That's strange, they've laid the aisles out differently since the other day."

"Look out of the shop window," Devyon says. "That's a very red sky. I've not seen one like that before at home on Tinsel."

Crystelle stops and grabs Devyon's arm. "We're not on Tinsel!"

"How come?" Devyon asks. "I thought we just went down the road in your Tardis."

"Yes, but which road?"

A heavy hand lands on Crystelle's shoulder. "Got you!"

Erm, what just happened?