Chapter 11

The Robinson of space

Edain's new life as the last of the timelords had a tough start. He found Dee under the remains of the fallen wall. He'd been trapped in the explosion, and there wasn't much of him left. Poor Dee's head had been smashed, and all the vital controls were completely useless now.

"Oh, Dee" Edie murmured, holding the body of the android. Mik and Yan, each on ono of his shoulders, looked at him as if asking if he could fix him.

"I'm sorry, guys." Edain shook his head. "There's not enough of him left. I'd have to rebuild him from scratch, and I can't do that now. We have bigger problems."

The other two just looked at him sadly.

"Well, if I have to say goodbye, I'll do it now, at least."

He went to the living room (yes, there was one, I did mention Ona was bigger on the inside) and lit the fireplace. Dee was an android, but he could at least have a gallifreyan funeral.

Once the fire was hot, he placed Dee in it carefully.

"Goodbye, Dee", he said. He'd only had the chameleon for a couple of years, but it was still hard to say goodbye to him. The last victim of the fall of Gallifrey.

On his left shoulder, Yan whimpered. Edie put him and Mik on the floor, next to the fire. Then he left the room. He'd had enough goodbyes to last a lifetime.

Once that was over, he turned his efforts to fixing Ona.

It was soon obvious that he needed to land as soon as possible. Not only that, but it would be a long time before he could properly fly. According to the stats, the closest planet was Endemira, in the Hyperion system.

"It's not real big, but it'll do" he told Mik, who was back at his usual place on Edie's shoulder. "There's not much people there, you know. It's the year 5048, a community of scientists has been here studying the zone for about three years. It was on one of the books at home's library."

Mik squeaked sarcastically.

"I do know not everything on books is real, dummy. But for you information, grandpa wrote this one. Besides, we have no choice."

He turned and called: "Yan! Come here or you'll get hurt!"

The dragon jumped on his shoulders and Edain took control of the ship.

Wibbly lever. Slow down. Buttons three, nine and six. He loved flying. He had so focused it was hard to think of anything else. Now buttons two, six and four. Wibbly lever again, they were entering the atmosphere. Switch off the brakes. Blue lever up. Thirty seconds, and blue lever down. The surface was close. Button number one, and make sure the shields are switched on. They were.

Ona landed on the surface of Endemira with a crash, leaving a crater in the middle of the forest. Edie sighed. There was only so much one could do with a damaged spaceship.

All the lights inside Ona turned off. The effort had been too much, and she needed fixing. Edain opened the door (manually, there was no electricity) and looked outside for the first time.

They'd crash-landed in the heart of a forest, in the middle of the summer. The trees were two or three times than those in Gallifrey. Some had green leaves and were full of fruits, and the shortest ones had purple leaves, as big as Edie's face. The tops of the trees were full of nests, but they weren't occupied by birds: instead, dozens of dragons of all colours, the biggest the size of a horse and the smallest the size of a Chihuahua, flew among the trees.

Edain couldn't move. He could only stare at the scene, eyes wide open, wishing he had ten more eyes to see everything. Eventually, he remembered what he was doing there and climbed out of Ona, holding both androids in his arms. Yan couldn't take his eyes off the other dragons, and screamed continuously, trying to attract their attention.

Edain had never been so amazed, nor had he ever felt so small. He walked through the forest, eyes fixed on the animals. But the dragons were peaceful, and none of them attacked.

He kept walking until he found a river. The water was clean, and seemed safe to drink. There weren't any fish, but that was a good sign. First rule of drinking water from the rivers: if there are fish, be careful.

Well, now that he'd found water, he could establish his base camp. Not just because he needed to fix his spaceship, but because right now he was burning up with tons of questions and, as if following his father's footsteps, about ninety percent of them had to do with the new planet he was on, not Ona. Did the dragons spit fire? And if they did, why did they live in a forest? If they didn't, then what species where they? Where did the bigger dragons build their nests? Where there any other animals in the forest? And how come some trees had purple leaves?

Yep, he was definitely staying in the forest for a while. After all, he was in no hurry to fix Ona, was he? There was no one waiting for him.

A couple of days passed by, and he started to regain a sense of normalcy. He developed a new daily routine, and got used to the fact that there was no war on Endemira. At first he thought the place was too silent, and then he realised he couldn't hear bombs anywhere near. The air was clean, free of smoke, and the biggest problem he could have was getting caught outside Ona without a light when the sun set. Endemira was a completely peaceful planet, and the only traces of the war were his nightmares.

Still, it got better with time. He found out with joy that investigating his new environment could help him fix Ona, and got to it happily. And while he fixed his ship, his soul started healing.

He found out that the dragons (they were actually dragons, they spat fire) could live in the forest because the trees were fire-resistant, and that he could use the wood for the new wall panels that would go in the console room.

All the nests he'd seen had been built by the smaller dragons, who lived in the treetops. And the big ones? He discovered their refuges by accident. They dug holes each night, and slept underground. In the mornings, they refilled the holes, so Edie only found out one night he fell in an occupied hole and had to run for his life to get rid of a very angry dragon. Lesson number one: dragons hate to be rudely awakened.

The bigger dragons left their eggs in holes as well, but didn't bury them, and they abandoned the shells as soon as the eggs hatched. It took Edie fourteen tries with different materials to see the egg shells were perfect for substituting the burned controls.

It took him time and effort, but after a few months he could finally switch Ona back on and admire his work.

She'd been completely redone, outside and inside, and everything had been accomplished with materials from the forest. Edie knew he would've done a much better job had he had all the resources he had at home, but the final result wasn't bad at all. In fact, it was fantastic.

And, in the end, there came a day in which Edie took Mik and Yan, got inside Ona, and said goodbye to the forest.

Next stop: the scientific base.