Chapter Three: Wander Lust

Being somewhere architecturally between a cathedral and the Nautilus, the TARDIS console room was bathed in a dim blue glow from the round ports in the walls and the bright white floodlights up above, pooling the console itself in a pocket of brilliant brightness. All varnished wood and polished brass fittings, flashing buttons and switches, intricate levers and cranks all denoted in the bizarre Gallifreyan script-- the great column of the time rotor reaching high into the ceiling, glowing with incandescent orange and green gas. The Doctor had left his overcoat hanging on the rather out-of-place coat stand and stood scrutinizing the monitor screen set in the console. With one hand poised over a crooked lever, he guided to TARDIS effortlessly across the glorious devastation of the universe. His hard, cold eyes bore into the controls, his magnificent machine humming and chirruping with every button he pressed. He cut an enigmatic demeanour in the light, almost forbidding no hint of the previous nights anxieties. This was the Doctor that Angel knew the universe cowered from, from who whole armies turned and fled. The old man in the time machine. She didnt buy it for a moment.

Angel lay stretched out on a fainting couch the Doctor had, for reasons he never fully explained, rather casually eating from a bowl of purple grapes and watching him at work. It was almost as though the night before hadnt even happened, he had melted so seamlessly back to his same old self-- to that hard exterior that diamond couldnt cut. No one was left who knew the Doctor nearly as well as Angel, and what she knew was comparatively little. As she lay there eating he grapes, she remembered how he had always kept a bowl of them by the couch because she liked them. He looked after her as his own, as he looked after everyone he came across. Her thoughts of the Doctor were laden with nothing but the utmost respect, admiration, he had saved her so many times before and all he asked for in return was her company. Why, then, did she feel so powerless at being unable to help him? She knew his hearts were breaking but couldnt comfort him, he wouldnt accept comfort- it wasnt in his nature. He must be impassive, peripheral, within and without, and she as his companion should stand and gawp with no concern for the old man who showed her these wonders. No. Thats not how it works Doctor. She would care, and with all her ability she would save him-- it was the least she could do. She put the bowl down and swung her legs over the side of the couch, pulling herself up.

No, The Doctor said, moving around the console.

What? Angel was startled.

Theres nothing you can do to help. He looked up and smiled reassuringly. Angel stood up defiantly and balanced on the edge of the console, dangling her legs as she watched the Doctor work.

Its freaky the way you do that

Call it intuition. He only looked up at her on the words he put the most emphasis on, usually the last one, as though they required extraordinary attention. Anywhere you have in mind? He cooed. His manner invited a rare opportunism that Angel seldom saw in the Time Lord, his nature was almost apologetic for the night before. Ordinarily their travels were at best bohemian, at worst random. We could try the opening night of The Importance of Being Ernest? He glanced at her, eyes wide and bright, lips tight. Oscar does owe me a favour. There is, if my instruments are anything to go by, a migration of pseudo-mammoths on the ice planet Pelago. Considered the epitome of the rugged beauty of the natural world inspired the human poet Wystan Morrissey to write he stopped and stared at Angel. She was just looking at him, smiling weakly. He heaved a sigh, stretched himself up, folded his arms and looked at her. Whats wrong?

Are you alright Doctor? She asked weakly. He winced, and cast his gaze back to the console.

Im always alright he muttered.

No youre not, I know youre not she hesitated a step closer to him, and took it. Im worried about you Doctor she cut him off before he could argue, which undoubtedly he was about to. I know theres nothing I can say to reassure but I do care what your feeling Doctor, I wont stand for you going all moody on me. It was like a three year old telling their father off. The Doctor stood for a moment, the TARDIS humming all around them. For just a second he half fancied he was looking at his own daughter all over again. So long ago now. Her sincerity shone through her, her seriousness creasing her beautiful face. The Doctor stood up straight and opened his arms, folding them around her and they stood for a moment in the time-light.

Thank you Angel, he said softly.

After a time, a series of lights lit up in sequence across the console, and a red panel began to pulsate. The TARDIS shuddered, and Angel staggered from the Doctors embrace. He wasnt there to help her back up, instead, he was enthralled by the TARDIS independent actions. The time rotor was inactive, the orange and green gasses swirling in their own space. The Doctor busied himself, flicking switches, turning handles, forcefully beating the scanner screen with his palm to make it work properly. Red alien letters flashed on the screen. Even Angel knew it was an alert.

What is it? She said, leaping up to the console. Whats happened?

The Doctors face was a picture of intense thought and solemnity, the TARDIS light picking out every line and wrinkle.

Premature materialisation he said. The TARDIS has landed herself. His stomach heaved and a lump developed in his throat. The TARDIS limited consciousness sometimes rendered it capable of independent thought and decision- especially when there was something running through its temporal databanks caught its attention. The Doctor took a step back and pressed his forefinger to his lip. Everything was normal, or at least as normal as things got with the Doctor. No wild catastrophe or call to man the battle stations. But that didnt stop the Doctor turning a paler shade of white. The TARDIS had intervened in his life, he had been summoned to an established event--- something that he, or Angel, or both of them were a vital part of. He cleared his throat, shook himself free of the wariness and, glancing at the console one more time, plucked his coat from the stand. Coming?

Following suit, Angel snatched her own denim jacket from the Doctors proffering grasp.

What do you think? She asked, waving her hands around her outfit.

Well you wont freeze he said sternly, flicking the release switch. The dark doors hissed, swelled and slid apart--- the dull wooden police box doors waiting for them on the other side. The Doctor led the way out of the TARDIS into the brilliant, dazzling breaking dawn. Angel trundled out in his wake, bringing the doors to a close behind her. She let out a sharp gasp and threw her arm up across her eyes. The sun was blistering, the air dry and dusty. Blurred by the glaring sun, she heard the Doctor lock the TARDIS doors.

You werent kidding-- its got to be about eighty Celsius out here she felt something cold and plastic touch her hand- with a sigh putting on the sunglasses the Doctor offered her. The prairie stretched for as far as they could see, not a sign of life or water. One vast, sun baked plane that just rolled on and on forever, not a hint of it giving out. But the air was fresh enough even if the sand caught up in their throat. Alright, Ill coin a clich where are we Doctor? The Doctor turned from the police box, gaunt and blue against the brilliant open sky-- the only upright thing on the whole prairie. Is this the wild west? Have we come to play cowboys and Indians? I didnt bring my lasso. The Doctor frowned, turned his head slowly and smiled at her. The smile softened his terminally serious presence.

Its the frontier certainly, he said putting on his own dark glasses. But youre unlikely to see the entire Sioux nation coming over the horizon. Well not on horseback anyway. Its the mid fiftieth century, and we are on the colony world Ranx They started to walk across the taut low-lying grass, leaving their lifeboat all alone with only its shadow for company. Angel had never as long as she had known the Doctor been one to constantly ask questions and need to be guided. She was no damsel in distress. She wasnt a little girl who needed the Doctor to show her which way to the sweet shop. But she was no smart-arse either, and dutifully listened when he had something to say more often than not it would be for her own good. The whole planet is just prairie, grassland, savannah and desert the closer you get to the equator-- the name Ranx actually means parched . The two oceans are melted icecaps-- and all that moisture from either end of the planet stop the planet from drying out. He had a glow about him when he was lecturing, but the silence came across him almost immediately afterwards. He never made eye contact, instead preaching to the prairie flowers.

So why has it been colonised then if its so inhospitable? She rolled her eyes. She was asking questions.

Same reason humans colonise anywhere, he sniffed in. Money.

Dont flatter us will you Doctor She said. The Doctor didnt pay attention.

Every human settlement here is a mining town, whole planet worth of minerals to harvest.

Mine what though? The Doctor stopped and looked at her.

You do ask a lot of questions. They carried on across the plane.

You dont know do you

I never did find out, no.

Can I ask one more question?

What?

Arent you warm in that coat?

The Doctor looked at his coat. It hadnt even occurred to him.

Now that you mention it I suppose I am. He took the dense woollen over garment off and fumbled with his free hand inside the breast pocket, removing a dark pair of folded binoculars no more than a few centimetres thick. They popped open with a charming little chirrup and he peered through them. The digitalised imagery broke the horizon down onto a computerised green grid and homed the image automatically onto, well, anything that wasnt just sand and grass and ditches. Aha a settlement about two miles in that direction He settled off into his own little mumblings of calculation, working out how long it would take them to get there before sun down, whether there was any other means of getting there Angel had stopped listening. She wandered a few feet away from the Doctor, kicking the sand. So this was the future. It never failed to amaze her-- how real it was, walking on a ground so far from home, to breath air that wasnt hers, and it never failed to excite her how normal it was. The ground felt the same, the sun still glared in the same way. But it thrilled her so much. The moment shed taken off with the Doctor, the moment that wander lust had got under her skin--- it all changed. It was taken in her stride. And so here she was--- in an alien desert thousands of years after her own time bored.

It made her smile.

That sun really was becoming a pain though. She couldnt remember if hers was any brighter though.

This planet, Ranx, was just as the Doctor said. One big prairie or a savannah. Hed explained that the number of planets with just one topographical feature that were colonised was due to the fact that they seldom created life forms that developed much of a civilisation. Score one for the old man, there was no sign of civilisation here. Not even a sign of life. Except of course for that shape wobbling across the horizon. A dense brown shape zigzagging its way across the dry grass. Angel raised her hand to block out the glare and squinted behind her sunglasses as the shape raced towards them. It was an animal. A very large and very fast animal.

She backed away, it was moving at incredible speed.

Er she stammered. Doctor? He turned around and didnt need to be shown. He stepped forward and moved Angel aside with his arm. What was the point in running? Itd only come after them. And as the ground began to vibrate under its weight it became more obvious what it was, even if it seemed ridiculous just to suggest. It was a Gecko. A Leopard Gecko as big and as mean as a bull. Its hips jogged from side to side as it scuttled like a deranged horse across the sand. It galloped to a stop and lowered its body, opening its enormous jaws and hissing, a hiss that came from deep inside and caked the Doctor and Angel in warm, stale breath. Its soft pink mouth was lined with a thousand razor sharp teeth, stringy saliva dripping from them. The eyes blinked in the son, its huge three toed feet pounded the ground and its tail hooked around stopping either of them escaping. Those huge reptilian eyes

They were hungry.