Sorry for the delay! I'm having more trouble with this arc than I thought.

Anyway, thanks for everyone who has reviewed so far, it's great to hear from you and I really appreciate the feedback!

So here we go, have the first chapter of a new adventure arc! :)

Live a life less ordinary
Live a life extraordinary with me
Live a life less sedentary
Live a life evolutionary with me
Well I hate to be a bother,
But it's you and there's no other, I do believe
You can call me naive but...
I know me very well (at least as far as I can tell)
And I know what I need

Honey understand, honey understand
I won't make demands
Honey understand, honey understand
We could walk without a plan.
Honey understand (honey), honey understand
I won't rest in stone all alone
Honey understand, honey understand
I'm all ready to go
But you already know...

Life Less Ordinary – Carbon Leaf

The TARDIS landed with its usual wheezing and the Doctor and his companion came out of it and found themselves in the midst of a large, bustling crowd.

"Where are we?" Aliya asked, taking in their immediate surroundings, which was mostly just people, people and more people.

"No idea, set the controls to random," He told her gleefully, "Though I imagine I can make an estimate." He inhaled deeply only to frown a few moments later.

"Nasal GPS not as good as you thought?"

"No, it's just…we're inside."

"But there are buildings."

The two of them looked up, and around them were various buildings, some moderately sized and others incredibly tall, all made of various materials. The travellers were on a street, and therefore presumably outside. The other thing that pointed that way was the fact that they were in a marketplace. All around them were various stalls selling all kinds of wares from food to pottery to fabric.

"Good point. Why would you have buildings inside another building?"

"Unless it's not a building…" Aliya breathed. She ran off down the street, leaving him no choice but to follow her. Companions, he thought with a touch of annoyance, not even the clever ones stay put. After at least five minutes of running, she had come to a stop and was staring up at something. He didn't realise what until he halted next to her.

"Oh," He said. In front of them was a wall of thick glass that stretched up and out of their sight, and while it looked flat enough, closer examination showed it to be part of a very large curve. "It's a dome."

"It's a citadel," His friend with a twist of irony in her voice, probably thinking of the Citadel on Gallifrey, "And I think that's water. I think we're in an underwater city."

The Doctor got out his sonic and scanned the glass in front of them. He peered at the results before putting the screwdriver back into his jacket. "Yep, that's definitely salt water out there."

"Great," She muttered, and he glanced sideways at her and was surprised to see her standing stiffly and looking rather nervous.

"Are you alright?"

She looked at him. "I'm in a giant glass dome that could theoretically break at any time, surrounded by Rassilon knows how much water, and I've had a grand total of three swimming lessons in my entire life." She snorted. "No, I'm great," She said sarcastically, "Not concerned at all."

The Doctor was almost amused by her worrying. "Aliya, it's not going to break."

"Can you promise me that with one hundred percent certainty?"

"Well…no."

"Exactly."

"Aliya…" He drew her name out long enough for it to make her look at him again, with expectancy replacing worry in her expression. "We'll be fine." She gave him a tiny, sheepish smile.

"I know, I just-" She sighed and before she could say another word he just wrapped an arm around her shoulders and looked down at her.

"If it helps, in the unlikely event that we get sucked out into the ocean, I promise to help you not drown," He told her, grinning at her as they looked at their reflections in the glass. Her reflection then grinned back at him.

"Alright, Doctor, now the fact that I can't swim is on your head." They began to head back to the marketplace.

"Unless I die saving you, in which case it would be back on your head along with my death," He speculated.

Aliya frowned. "I don't think we should joke about this."

"True, with our luck, it'll actually happen."

"Your luck, you mean, my luck is just fine." That was when her eyes darted away from him and narrowed on something else. "Food! Can we try some?" When she looked back, her eyes were back to being bright and eager, the way his companions' eyes always would be, the way he loved to see.

"Course we can, what about some of this?" They approached a nearby store and he bought them both a ridged golden fruit that was big enough to barely fit in Aliya's hand. They simultaneously took huge bites and the Doctor found the tangy taste pleasant on his tongue. The flavour was like a cross between banana and mango and it was clear that Aliya enjoyed it too just by the look in her eyes as she swallowed her mouthful.

He indicated with his head for them to walk with it, and they continued past some more stalls while taking more bites out of their delicious new snack.

There were two noticeable species in the city from what the Doctor could see. One appeared to be your basic humans or humanoids – which was why no one had paid much attention to either of the newcomers, even if their attire was slightly different. But the other race was one that the Doctor had – he realised with slight surprise – seen once before. They were short and blue, with small silver fins protruding from just behind their ears.

"You know, I've seen this blue species before," He told Aliya, who lifted her eyebrows with interest.

"Really? Where?" She took another bite of her golden fruit.

"Your cousin tried on about four different bodies before she stuck with that princess's one," He said, recalling how against it he had been at the time, her copying someone else's appearance, "One of them was like this. Small, blue, with silver fins. But it was too short so I told her no."

Aliya laughed. "That sounds like Romana, always branching out. After all these years, I still find it odd that she copied the princess though, that's practically never heard of."

"Did you ever try different bodies on?" During their childhood on Gallifrey, it had been becoming slightly more common for female Time Lords to be able to have several bodies changes before settling on the one they wanted. For whatever reason, the males weren't able to do it.

The blonde shook her head. "No. They did give us a brief tutorial about it once, but they did say that not everyone was capable and that it was difficult to do. Not to mention dangerous. Romana was the top of her class, always an overachiever, it's not surprising that she managed it on her first attempt."

"So you never even tried it?"

"The first time, I just wanted to survive the process," She said, chuckling, "I was a bit busy growing a second heart. And the second time…well, I was hardly thinking straight. The third time-"

"What actually happened the third time?" The Doctor asked suddenly. "I just realised I never asked."

"I took a ray blast for Anna, and the regeneration was so quick that I didn't have time to even think. The time after that I think had to have been triggered by Romana when she put me in the mountain…the next couple were absorbed by the void in said mountain, and you saw my latest one, it was far too explosive to control, it just burnt through me like a-" Her voice immediately cut off and when he looked at her, her cheeks had gone pink.

Very quickly he realised the problem. As someone had once explained to a companion of his, regeneration on Gallifrey was treated much like sex was on Earth. He had explained regeneration to several of his companions, and had a very in-depth discussion with a very intrigued River Song about it. He was used to being casual about it because no one else understood the implications it should have had.

Until Aliya had been thrown back into his life. Based on how easily she had talked about it before realising, he suspected that perhaps she had discussed it with a human as well – most likely Jack.

But the two of them discussing it the way they had been, her giving him details about it, even almost saying how it had felt…he abruptly moved his eyes to look straight in front of them, and felt his own face grow warm just as hers had. Definitely over the line. Definitely inappropriate. Definitely incredibly, painfully awkward considering their past.

"Hey, a street performer, let's have a look at that!" His voice came out quite high, as it did when he was nervous. Luckily, she was in no mood to criticise or notice, she just nodded and nibbled at her fruit, probably so that she didn't have to speak to him again just yet.

The performer was of the blue species, and had drawn in a small crowd. It was hard to be entirely sure what she was doing, but it looked like a combination of hula-hooping, contortionism and juggling. Her small body twisted and moved to keep several of the hoops around parts of her body moving, while throwing others in the air and letting them fall onto one of her limbs before replacing it with one that had been on her body a moment before. It was endless and almost impossible and utterly astounding to watch.

The crowd watched raptly and when she finally came to a stop with all hoops on one arm, the group of people cheered and happily threw some small silver coins into a bowl that her friend was holding out.

As the crowd began to dissipate and move along, the Doctor approached the performer. "Can I just say that you are amazing, utterly brilliant," He told her enthusiastically, clasping her hand in greeting before she could even blink.

"Uh...thank you," She said, looking quite bewildered by his praise.

"Did it take a long time to get right?" Aliya had popped up next to him.

The girl's grey eyes flicked between them. "Yes."

"And no small amount of natural talent, I'm sure," The blonde complimented, making the other female's pale blue cheeks flush a darker blue.

"You are very kind," She said. "But somehow, not of this city, I think."

The two Time Lords exchanged a look of surprise. "How did you know?"

"Humans here would never compliment an Aquian so easily." The male Aquian joined them and eyed them with suspicion mixed with curiosity.

"Human colonists, I'm assuming," The Doctor said. "Your lot was here first?"

"You wouldn't think so with the superiority complexes most of the humans have," The female Aquian muttered.

The Doctor nodded sympathetically. "It's very common actually. For them to invade and assume dominance over the indigenous culture. They did it a lot back on their home world, Earth. Only, to each other." The Aquians looked very intrigued by his words. The male narrowed his eyes.

"You speak as if you're not one of them," He noted.

"Oh, we might look it, but me and Aliya here are nowhere close. Cross our hearts," The bow tie wearing man smiled pleasantly at them. "I'm the Doctor."

"I'm Ardi," The performer said, now smiling widely, "This is my cousin, Sif. And if you don't mind my asking, if you are not human or Aquian, then what are you? We know little of what other species inhabit the world on the surface."

"We're from a different world altogether," Aliya said, and Ardi's eyes filled with wonder while Sif just rolled his eyes.

"Impossible, biggest lie I ever heard."

Aliya lifted an eyebrow at him. "Have a lot of knowledge about interplanetary travel, do you?"

He blinked. "No."

"Then how are you possibly informed enough to be able to claim that it is impossible?"

The Doctor giggled like a delighted child. There was the Aliya that he had missed. She wasn't trying to be clever, or to make Sif look stupid (or at least, not really), she was genuinely curious as to why he would claim something like that without the information to back it up.

"Well, I believe you," Ardi told them, and the Doctor smiled at her.

"I rather thought you would," He said. "So do you lot not have much connection with the surface world, then?"

"We have the teleports up to the capital city, but they cost a lot of money, so most people in the Dome have never been to the surface. And if you haven't noticed, we're not exactly employed," The girl held her arms out, making the hoops still on her left one jingle.

"Though with all that's going on, that might be changing soon," Sif said to her, looking positive for the first time. She brightened and nodded.

"That's true."

"Job market looking up?" The Doctor guessed, and the two blue cousins exchanged a look.

"Not exactly," Ardi said cautiously, "But more jobs are freeing up every day. More and more humans are getting drafted. Some sort of governmental project, only none of us know what. Not even the families of the ones involved know."

"But only humans, not Aquians?"

"No, we're just filling up the jobs they're leaving behind. But it's all very hushed up."

The Doctor thought it over for a moment before glancing over at Aliya. "What do you think? Worth investigating? Psychic paper would get us into the parliament building or whatever they have here."

"Sure, if we can get another piece of that fruit on the way."

"Hang on…" Ardi frowned at them. "You can't just go and investigate at the parliament buildings. You'll be arrested, and they wouldn't tell you anything anyway. You might have the looks but if you're from a different planet you won't have credentials anywhere near valid."

"I have credentials that should do just fine," He told her, thinking of the psychic paper, "And if we do find out anything interesting…do you want us to come and tell you? After all, you told us about it."

The blue girl smiled, clearly unsure whether they were serious or not but eager all the same. "Sure. Impress me, Doctor from another world."

"I can do one better than that," The Doctor said as he and Aliya turned to leave.

"Like what?"

He turned and pointed at Sif. "I'll impress him."

As they walked back down the much emptier market street, the Doctor purchased another golden fruit for Aliya just before the stall closed. His mind was still going over all the possibilities of what the governmental project could be. Something exciting, hopefully.

"So do you really think that this hushed up project could be something worth looking into? I can see where you're coming from, but it just seems like a tiny bit of a stretch," Aliya said as she munched the fruit contently, "By the sounds of it, it's just the humans cutting out the Aquians of whatever is going on purely out of prejudice."

"Maybe, but even then, they would need a reason to do so," He considered thoughtfully, "It can't hurt to have a look. Besides, investigating is much better than sight-seeing."

"That's debatable," She muttered, and he pretended to not have heard.

"You love getting into mischief," He told her. He knew it was true. Her face would light up during their adventures, and she had a tendency to laugh while they were running for their lives. Assuming it was her fault that they were doing so. If it was his fault, she tended to yell at him instead. Talk about a double standard.

"Maybe, but I also like just being to relax and not have to worry about potentially getting arrested, thrown in jail, shot, threatened to be executed, or drowning when the giant bloody Dome is smashed," She said pointedly. He just rolled his eyes.

"Nothing like that is going to happen. We're going in, having a look, finding out if it is anything interesting, and leaving. Either way, we'll be back to sightseeing in a few hours."

"You say so, but it's never that simple with you, and so I'm not convinced in the slightest."

He sighed and tried to show with hand gestures how exasperated he was. "But simple is boring!"

"I know, that's why I'm not actually complaining, just making a commentary on the likely outcomes of this investigation."

The Doctor turned to look at her, smiling as he realised that she was right. He was so used to her complaining that he hadn't realised that this wasn't actually one of those times. "Have I ever mentioned that you're amazing?"

She grinned, with a slightly smug glint in her eyes. "Not sure. Feel free to do so, just to be safe."

"Aliyanadevoralundar, you are amazing."

"Ooh, I even got the full name, you must really mean it," She laughed, and he just shook his head.

"You didn't let me finish. You are amazing…if not a little indirect, repetitive and critical."

When he glanced sideways at her, she was rolling her eyes. "I should have seen that coming."

Once they had located the parliament buildings, the two travellers exchanged grins before heading inside. They were barely in the door before someone was approaching them.

"Excuse me, who are you and what are you doing here?"

The Doctor just held up the psychic paper and smiled pleasantly at the man, whose eyes immediately widened.

"Oh, my apologies, Senator," He stammered, "How can I help you?"

"I need to see the specifications on your new project," the Doctor said. The man paled slightly.

"Which one?"

"The one you seem to think I don't know about."

"Oh," The man looked slightly relieved, "I'm sorry, Senator, I just didn't know whether those on the surface were aware of the project."

"Of course we are, do you think your government does anything without our permission?"

"No, naturally, no, I must just be uninformed…"

The Doctor clapped him on the shoulder and smiled. "It's not your fault, you're only a middle man. If you could just show us to the paperwork, we'll only be ten minutes."

"Of course, sir." As he led them through the entrance hall and through into a corridor, Aliya grabbed the psychic paper to have a look.

"Your personal assistant?" She asked, not sounding happy about it. "Do I look like a personal assistant?"

His eyes ran over her yellow converse, denim jeans, and short tan leather jacket over what appeared to be a plain white tank top. He smirked. "No, not really. You'd need high heels and a fancy skirt."

"I don't have a problem with skirts other than the fact that they aren't massively practical," Aliya said, "But high heels? Urgh. Never in my life will I be able to walk in those things, it's impossible."

"I know, I've tried," The Doctor muttered, and her eyebrows nearly disappeared into her hairline, but before she could ask, the man leading them stopped and unlocked a door.

"The cabinet on the left at the back, sir, and I'll be right down the corridor if you need anything."

"Thank you…helpful person."

The man left the two of them in the room and shut the door on his way out.

"That was easy," Aliya commented. "So we're looking in that one?" He nodded and they began to search through it. Most of it was irrelevant, just paperwork on the shifting of jobs. But the new jobs of the humans were just listed as Project 46.

"So this Project 46 is pretty secretive, if it was just them hiding the details from the Aquians, they wouldn't have such a lack of information in here."

She nodded and tried to tug the middle drawer of the cabinet open, but it didn't budge. "What about this one? It's locked. They probably have the details in it."

"Good spotting." He took the sonic from his pocket and with a point and press, tried to open it. Tried, and failed. "Oh. It's deadlocked."

"What? That one drawer? Okay, I'm agreeing with you now, this is definitely suspicious." She sighed and went back to the folder of papers she was looking through, only to brighten a few moments later. "Hold on, I might have something. These are records of payment for mechanics…for a rather large job. Sounds like they got paid to build something."

"Submarine pods," The Doctor said, having found the answer in a folder of his own, "This is an inventory. They've had twenty built, hard to say how large. City this size though, don't reckon they would be able to afford pods that can hold more than thirty. But look at this…" She came to stand next to him and peer over his shoulder – not easy considering that he was taller than her. "Drilling equipment as well. One large one, but much smaller pieces as well. Possibly handheld, for the workers."

"So…they're leaving the city, and drilling somewhere?"

"I think so. But where? And why?" He flipped back through the paper to try and find any details he had missed. Aliya's hand stopped him.

"We'll find out, but these records are sealed and there isn't much that we can do. But there is one thing that we could try," She said.

He looked at her expectantly. "What?"

"We got friendly with two natives of the city. Why don't we ask them if there is anything around here worth drilling for? Surely they would know of some of the possibilities."

The Doctor put the file back in the cabinet and offered her his arm. "Well, who am I to argue with that? Nothing here anyway. Let's go learn about the local geography."

Hope it was interesting enough to get you all curious! Feedback is always very welcome. :)

Love you all,

-MayFairy :)

p.s. I have in no way been distracted from this story by an idea for a Kate Stewart/The Rani femslash long oneshot.

p.p.s. Because that would be extremely weird if surprisingly enjoyable.