Chapter 1
Donna had almost got used to the fact that the teenager standing beside her was actually a sixty-year-old widow. Almost. What made it harder to believe was that she was also the granddaughter of the young man standing at the control console. Who is actually an alien, she reminded herself. But she'd learnt to expect the unexpected with the Doctor, so the initial shock had worn off pretty quickly.
"Where are we going, Martian Boy?" she asked the Doctor.
Shooting her a withering look, he shrugged. "I'm about to put the TARDIS onto "shuffle"," he said.
"What, like an MP3 player?"
He flashed her a trademark grin. "Exactly like an MP3 player."
She girl beside Donna snorted softly. She'd plaited her long brown hair into two long ropes that hung down her back. Despite the Doctor complaining that Susan should get her hair cut, she'd flatly refused.
Donna would never forget the morning the Doctor came to pick her up after a night away from time travelling and world-saving at her parents' house, and introduced her to his sixty-year-old granddaughter.
She wasn't sure what she'd have expected from a descendent of the Doctor. Certainly, Susan was very clever, but she actually tried to make things understandable; she'd become a sort of unofficial translator of the Doctor. She also had a confident air of independence, which Donna had taken an instant liking to.
A sudden rocking of the TARDIS floor jerked Donna out of her thoughts and off her feet.
"That the play button you've just pressed, then?" she yelled, staggering, reaching out for the railing around the console. The part of her not concentrating on maintaining her balance noted that the Doctor had one leg wrapped round the console, his foot pressing a lever that looked suspiciously like a bottle top, whilst one hand was whacking a set of buttons with a small hammer. He nodded, his sonic screwdriver between his teeth.
With a last whine of the TARDIS engines, the floor stopped moving and the passengers were able to stand unaided. As things quietened again, they became aware of music playing.
"That's Neptune," said Susan.
"Neptune?"
"From The Planets by Gustav Holst," she explained. "I played it with a youth orchestra last year."
"Are we on the planet Neptune?" asked Donna excitedly.
The Doctor shrugged again. "Might be. Go take a look."
Donna had heard all about the protective shield around the TARDIS when she'd first met the Timelord, and knew they'd be safe so long as they stayed inside the TARDIS. Nevertheless, she was still apprehensive about going out onto a gas planet. "Why don't you go first, Susan?"
With a wink, Susan walked to the door, which the Doctor opened by pressing a button that looked rather like a bottle top. Then she fell forwards as her foot snagged on a loose cable, and fell out of the TARDIS with a squawk and a splash.
A splash?
The Doctor and Donna ran to the door, to see that the TARDIS was parked on the edge of a large pool. They were just in time to see Susan emerge with a splutter, only to be dragged back down again with a yell. Donna yelled too when she saw the Doctor dive in after her. At the same time, she saw a blue figure leap in at the other side of the pool.
The minute he saw his granddaughter get pulled under, the Doctor had pulled off his jacket and shoes and plunged in after her. Despite the fact that he knew her lungs were bigger than the average humans- due to her Timelord genes- he wasn't sure how big they were. Hell, he hadn't even bothered to check if she had a second heart!
He peered through the water, and saw Susan getting pulled even deeper by a grey shape that looked oddly familiar.
A blue shape arrowed towards the grey one and prodded it. Abruptly, it let go of Susan, and she was pulled to the surface by the blue figure. The Doctor kicked his legs and followed.
When he surfaced, he saw Donna standing in the TARDIS doorway, her mouth hanging open, staring at the other side of the pool. Turning his head, he saw the blue figure leaning over Susan, who appeared to be coughing up large volumes of water. He swam over.
The blue figure looked up at him with bright green eyes. The shape of his body and the short white hair told the Doctor that he was male. His blue skin was wet, and the Doctor was sure he could see gills flapping on his neck. The blue person raised webbed hands in a gesture of reassurance.
"She's okay, I think. I don't know why she's coughing up water, though. Does she have gill problems?"
"No," replied the Doctor, hauling himself out of the pool. "She doesn't have any at all. We're not from around here, you see." He bent anxiously over Susan.
"Oh? In that case, I should be saying, "Welcome to Atlantis." My name is Jalem."
The Doctor cracked such a huge grin so suddenly, Jalem stepped back a bit, alarmed.
"Atlantis! Oh, I've always wanted to come here!" He grew serious again. "What was that thing in the water?"
"My dolphin, Petra," said Jalem, blushing. This caused his face to go an interesting shade of purple. "She must have thought it was me; that's how she always greets me. I'm sorry, she won't do it again." Jalem looked a little worried now.
The Doctor smiled again and turned to face where Donna was still staring at them.
"Come on in, Donna, the water's fine!"