I was standing in a room.
Room is an understatement. It was a huge. Beneath my feet, glass covered the floor reflecting golden light all over the place. In the middle of the room, there was a hexagonal table with buttons and levers of all size and shape. In the middle of this control table, there was a glass needle moving up and down.
The Doctor skipped to the hexagon thing and brought the monitor which was suspended over the table, to eye level.
"Right then, let's see" he said to himself. The monitor was showing circular patterns, which he seemed to be reading. I was slowly processing what had just to me.
"Um, Doctor?"
Without looking away from the screen, he said "yes Aurora?"
I walked towards him. "Where are we?"
Still staring at the screen, he said, "You're in the TARDIS. It's a machine which travels in time and space hence the name: Time And Relative Dimensions In Space." He seemed to be repeating himself as if he's said this too many times.
I decided to let the 'travels through time and space' go as I had other questions and I was not planning to leave unanswered.
"Okay. What about these 'Weeping Angels'? What are they?"
This time he pushed the monitor back above the table but he still didn't look at me.
"The Weeping Angels are a race as old as the Universe itself or at least almost as old."
"A race? What are you talking about?"
"A race, as in another species. A very special species. They developed the best defence mechanism possible. They are quantum locked meaning that they are only active when you look away from them. That's why I told you to keep looking. When you look at them, they turn into stone. You can't kill statue. Then again you can't be killed by a statute but once you look away, they kill you." He hesitated and stared into the distance as if remembering something. "The Lonely Assassins they used to call them. They kill you in the most elegant way possible. They send you to another time and leave you to die slowly." His face grew dark and I saw a tear rolling down his cheek. He wiped it away then turned to face me.
"They feed on time energy" he explained, "and apparently, you own something which has a lot of time energy." He looked at the suspended monitor again. Then he looked back at me. He shook his head and kept reading. "Right now our top priority is to keep the angles away from the TARDIS. If they get hold of this machine they would have enough energy to turn off the sun. Which, believe me, is not a great day for the Earth." Finally he looked away from the monitor and walked towards me. His face was dark, it was odd not seeing him smile. He grabbed his screwdriver and pointed it at me. After a few whirring sounds he examined the results displayed on the short stem. His brown eyes studied my face.
"What are you?" He whispered. I was getting scared now. He seemed on edge and I suddenly didn't feel safe anymore. "Doctor? What's going on? What do they want from me?"
He got closer to me. Our noses were almost touching. "Aurora." He hugged me. I hugged back still feeling quite scared but somehow the touch of his tweed jacket made me feel better. He kissed my forehead. "Aurora, they want you."
"What?" My response came out as a whisper. "You. You are different. You've got something in you. Something very much part of you. They want it."
I was horrified at this statement. My face must have given my horror away because he grabbed my hand and pulled me to the Hexagonal table.
"This is the TARDIS console; it's the thing that operates the whole ship." He explained. "I want you to touch it."
I looked at him quizzically. "Why?"
He gave me a trust-me-look. I turned my eyes to the golden table. The Doctor was nodding at me. I lifted my hand and as soon as my hand made contact with the cold smooth metal, a warm rush of air hit me. I felt dizzy and then I was in another room. It was darker than the one I was in before. But same console and a blue front door like the other room. There was no glass needle, in its place stood two blue tubes moving up and down inside a glass casing.
"What?" I heard a voice from behind me. I turned around and saw a tall skinny man dressed in a blue pinstripe suit and a brown trench coat. He was wearing spectacles and holding a blue jacket. His hair seemed to be sticking upwards making him look a bit like Sonic the Hedgehog. He had a confused look on his face. "What- How did you get here? Who are you?" He asked curiously rather than angrily. "I'm Aurora." I replied. I looked around me taking in the bronze of the room. "Where am I?"
He walked up to me still holding the blue jacket. "You're in the TARDIS" he said. "No the TARDIS is golden and orange-y."
He seemed confused at my remark. "No the TARDIS is blue. I'm pretty sure of that."
"Who are you?"
He walked up to me. Obviously no one on the TARDIS had any sense of personal space.
"I'm the Doctor"
"What?" I exclaimed confused by this whole encounter. I felt dizzy again and when I blinked, I found myself in the TARDIS. The golden one, with the bow tie and chin guy. "What happened?" He asked, his eyes sparkling with curiosity.
"There was a bronze version of this room and a tall man claiming to be you." I said quickly gasping for air. Whatever happened to me had increased my heart rate.
"That was me. I'm a Time Lord we regenerate."
Everything that was coming out of the man's mouth was confusing me. He seemed to (finally) notice my confusion. "Right. You're still going through the Wibbbly Wobbly phase. Right. Okay. Sit down on that chair." He said gesturing to what seemed like a car seat. I did as I was told. Once again he came too close to my face. He put his index fingers on my temples and closed his eyes. "Aurora I need you to concentrate on me please."
I closed my eyes and thought about the madness that was going on. Suddenly, it was like something hit me with a brick, a red-orange planet with two suns came to my mind. Two suns burned in its sky and its name was Gallifrey. I saw the people of Gallifrey walk along its roads, the elders at the Academy and a man. The Doctor. But not the Doctor I knew. He was different. There were twelve versions of him. Different faces but surely enough, it was him. The visions stopped and I saw him the twelfth version of him. I felt like I had walked into a wall. I sat down on the nearest chair and tried to wrap my head around what had just happened.
"Are you alright?" He asked his hands midway above his head. I shook my head slowly.
"Right. Was too much too fast?" I nodded. He chuckled softly and hugged me.
"So you're an alien?" I asked while still embracing him.
"Yep."
"Gallifrey?"
"Yep."
"All of time and space?"
"Yep."
"Can I see?"
He stopped hugging me and looked me in the eye. He smiled a smile that I could only compare to that of the Cheshire Cat. "Yes you can." He skipped to the doors and opened them exposing a black outside. But it wasn't night in London. I walked towards him and peered out of the door. The most beautiful sight welcomed me. I stood there looking down on the Milky Way Galaxy. Its middle white as snow while fusions of colours circulated it. The air around us was still. Was it even air? It felt cold yet warm. It was odd. It was like nothing I had ever seen. It was fantastically beautiful.
"Wow" I whispered. "Yeah it is." His eyes were glittering. He looked down on the galaxy as though he was a proud father. As if he had created it. He could've for all I knew.
"You see there?" He pointed at a tiny speck of light within the colours. "The sun; your sun. That's where your solar system is."
"We're so small." I said still whispering.
I could feel him smiling. I didn't want to stop looking at the marvellous view. So I just stood there gaping down on our relatively puny galaxy.
"Aurora?" The Doctor asked after a while of allowing me to amaze myself with the marvel that is the Universe.
"Yeah?" I replied not taking my eyes off the speck of light going around.
"Do you want to come with me? See all of time and space? I like travel companions." He said this with the Cheshire cat smile on his face. Without hesitation I just went: "Yes."
I mentally slapped myself for the millionth time in his presence. "But I have a wedding in a month. I can't miss that."
His smile got even wider if that were possible. "It's a time machine. You could travel for thousands of years and still be home in time for tea." He let that sink in. "Will you come away with me?"
I smiled at him and realised something. I didn't know him and yet I trusted him with my life. I nodded and cheekily said "Allons-y!"
