Chapter five
Jessie stood waiting, bored, by the screen on the TARDIS. "Can we go now, Doctor?" she asked, standing up straight and walking around. The Doctor didn't answer. He was down below the controls of the TARDIS and so Jessie couldn't see him. She lay on the wire messing and looked below to see the Doctor tangled up in wires and cutting them. "Doctor, what are you doing?" she asked. "You wouldn't understand." he replied shortly, and continued to cut the wires. Jessie stood back up and stared at some numbers on the screen. She recognised them as her house coordinates and then heard the whirring of the TARDIS. They landed and the Doctor sprang out the door, followed by Jessie. It was day time now, and the air was fresh and cool. Jessie inhaled the sweet scent of the countryside and then strode after the Doctor. "So…where are we going?" she asked
"Back to the hall…we need to talk to Susie Carter." he said sternly. Jessie could tell he was scared…
"I told you to go away." said Susie, tapping her foot.
"Too bad. I'm not going until I get some answers. Who are you and what do you want?" he asked. Susie rolled her eyes. "You wouldn't know me." she said.
"Try me."
Susie hesitated. "Alright, fine. We are the Keroslates. Happy now?" she said, bored.
Jessie looked at Susie. No…this time Susie Carter was not lying, she could tell. "So, you're an alien?" she asked.
"Yes." replied Susie. The Doctor took a glance at Jessie and then looked back at Susie.
"So am I. So I can help you. If you need a planet…a home…a form, I can help you there. You don't have to take these innocent humans." he said angrily. Jessie stared at him, then realising this wasn't the time for asking questions to whether he really was an alien, stared back at Susie.
"If you don't mind, I have to go now. I have a plane to catch in half an hour and it takes that long to get to the airport. Good bye." she said. "No! Wait!" shouted the Doctor. But it was too late, she had departed out the door and the Doctor didn't see the point in following her.
Instead he paced the room up and down. "Come on brain THINK!" he said, frustrated. Jessie sat on the bed, thinking hard.
"Well, at least I know who they are. The Keroslates. Come from their own planet, and - like you said Jessie - come through the mirrors, which in this house are windows. And like I said before, they come through your eyes to take over the body. But you must have to make eye contact with your reflection, and if you don't it uses a perception filter to see that the reflection is not moving.
"And then they'll transform you into one of them. Right. But why? WHY?" he said, thinking allowed. Jessie watched him pacing the room. He then went to one of the mirrors and touched it. "DON'T!" shouted Jessie standing up. The Doctor turned his head to face her and smiled. "Like I said, you have to look at your reflection's eyes." he said, and then continued to touch the mirror with his hand. He took out his Sonic Screwdriver and pressed the button. The mirror suddenly disappeared and a window appeared. Jessie leapt up and looked through the window. There was a strange dark sky, with orange lights and ash falling down and down, smothering the ground. "Is that their planet?" she asked.
"Must be. Perhaps there was a war going on, and they had to run away…" he said, his voice trailing off as he remembered the Time War and loosing all his family, friends and seeing those horrible bombs exploding and destroying the orange sky and…
"So they're trying to make this their planet so that they don't have to stay in their war." said Jessie sternly, disrupting the Doctor's thoughts. He nodded and they departed from the room, walking slowly. The Doctor put his hands in his pockets. Jessie looked at him. He's upset. She thought, reading his body language. "What's wrong, Doctor?" she asked with concern. The Doctor stared at her, with a look that Jessie could not describe on his face.
"Did I say anything was wrong?" he asked.
"I can tell, from your body language."
"What am I doing that makes me look sad?" he said in a quiet voice. Jessie looked confused. She stared at the Doctor and suddenly realised that he didn't look at all sad. So how did she know he was? "I…I don't know." she stammered. The Doctor gave a small smile and then looked away. Jessie could tell the conversation was over, though she wanted to know why she could read body language this well. "Now…we need to find that Keroslate. If I'm right, she won't really be leaving, she was just saying that to make us think she's not here so we don't go looking for her. But the hideout must be somewhere around here." the Doctor said, his voice turning back to normal.
"And so we need to find the hideout, talk to these 'Keroslates', and ask what their plan is, and if we can help them to get to different inhabited planet to live on instead of this one." said Jessie, loosing her breath at the end of this sentence. The Doctor grinned."You must be one of the most intelligent kid I've ever met." he said. Jessie grinned back.
"That's the first compliment I've ever had." she said, still grinning, "Where do you think the hideout will be?"
"Well, you'd want to remember where it is, so I'd say under a massive…landmark." he said.
"But, there aren't any 'landmarks' here. In fact, there's hardly anything here!"
The Doctor fell silent. He stared ahead of him, head on one side. Jessie followed his gaze and saw that they had come to a small shed. "But…I've never seen that before. I know every inch of this place…and that has never been there!" she said in disbelief.
"Exactly." said the Doctor, satisfied. "We've found their hiding place!"