This is going to be a weird one, thought Sam. Travelling through time he'd ended up in more than his fair share of strange places, but never one quite like this. He was wearing a bowtie and a long green coat, and in some bizarre vehicle with a British couple who called him "Doctor". Even stranger was that they seemed to be time travellers. The man was called Rory, and he was a nurse, and his red headed wife seemed to be called either Amy or Amelia. They both seemed very concerned about him; when he had almost fainted at the sight of open space, somehow being held back by an invisible force field, they had given him some water and sat him next to what they referred to as the "console", which was a control panel that seemed to have been assembled in the dark. It was a mass of wires and levers, but also included a hot and cold tap, a typewriter, and what seemed to be a glass sculpture in a glass cylinder. After a good hour, Rory was still playing the part of nurse.
"Just breathe, Doctor. Do you need some more water?"
Sam looked down at the empty cup which now seemed to be welded to his hand. "No, I'm fine thanks". He did his best to give a confident smile. But Rory's wife was still worried.
"Doctor what happened? You were repairing the console, and you just seemed to freak out. You said some outside force was attacking the TARDIS".
"'TARDIS'?"
Amy spread her arms out. "This. This vehicle. It's called the TARDIS. Doctor, did you hit your head?"
Before Sam could answer, a door opened revealing a bright light. Amy and Rory, of course, didn't notice. But to Sam, it was the most welcome sight in the universe. His companion Al walked through it, smoking a freshly lit cigar. Ziggy was beeping away in his left hand. Sam felt better immediately. "Al! Boy am I glad to see you! I don't know what's happened, but I've landed somewhere really strange!"
The hologram gave a knowing stare. "You think this is weird, you should see the guy in the Waiting Room".
"The Doctor?"
"Yeah, that's what he calls himself. Sam, do you realise you're in orbit?""
Amy again approached Sam. "Doctor, who are you talking to?" Thinking quickly, Sam noticed something on the console that looked like a telephone receiver. He picked it up and put it to his ear, and smiled warmly at the girl. "Phonecall". Amy nodded uneasily and joined her husband who was observing Sam from the lower level of the TARDIS, near the hat stand. Sam pretended to speak into the phone. "Al, what's going on?"
"Well, it's 1959. You're in orbit about twenty miles above the Arizona desert. When the Doctor told me that I thought I'd have to use the sodium pentathol. But I got Gushie to check it out, and it turned out to be true. I think you're on some kind of spaceship. In fact, let me check it out".
Sam tried to stop his companion, but, since he appeared only as a hologram, he knew it was impossible to stop him when his curiosity got the better of him. He pressed a button on the side of Ziggy's hand module which zapped him immediately to the door near the hat stand. He then calmly proceeded to walk through the door. A good few moments passed, and Sam was beginning to get worried when Al walked back through the door, with a look on his face like he'd just seen a ghost. Pressing the button on the hand module again, he appeared at the console, next to Sam. The scientist didn't want to be kept in the dark any longer. "Al, what's wrong?" The other man took in a deep breath. "Sam, it's just a small box!"
"A small box?"
"Yeah, a wooden blue box. It's bigger on the inside!"
"'Bigger on the inside'?"
Amy heard Sam's last utterance. "Course it is. Doctor, are you okay?"
Sam clasped the receiver firmly to his ear. "I'm fine. I'm just speaking to my friend, Al".
He heard Rory say that he'd never mentioned anyone called "Al" before, but that didn't bother him at the moment. "Al, what can I do? I can't land this thing. The controls are totally crazy. Anyway, what does Ziggy say I'm here to do?"
"At the moment, Ziggy has no idea. For the first time ever, she has no clue".
"Well, can't you get the Doctor to tell you how I can land this thing? I'll feel much better once I get back to earth".
Reluctantly, Al nodded. Then he lifted his head slightly and raised his voice. "Gushie, bring the Doctor to the Imaging Chamber!"
For long moments Sam continued to cast his eyes over the levers and buttons on the bizarre control panel. His main thought was just to avoid more questions from Amy and Rory. His many leaps in time had made him extremely good at coming up with excuses and explanations for what must seem to be bizarre behaviour on his part, but he was beginning to think that all his previous experience wouldn't be any use to him here.
Mercifully, before any further awkward questions were put to him, he saw the familiar sight of the imaging chamber door opening. At first he couldn't see anything beyond the bright light, but when Al reached out toward the door, a strange man appeared. If Sam had tried to describe this "Doctor", the man whose shoulder Al's hand was now resting on would hardly have been the first image to come to mind. He seemed to be in his mid twenties. He had an oddly shaped, pale face, with a mop of long dark hair coming down over his eyes. Both time travellers looked at each other. Al couldn't work out whether it was mutual respect, or a knowing glance; he thought he'd better break the awkward silence. "Okay, now as long as I'm touching him, you'll be able to see him, but you won't be able to hear him". The Doctor impatiently turned to Al and said something Sam couldn't lip read. Al then looked at Sam with an almost envious expression on his face. "And believe me, that makes you the lucky one". Sam just smiled as Al continued. "Now, what's going to happen is the Doctor will point to all the switches you need to press. And when he nods at you, you have to wait three and a half seconds, and pull…", he paused as the Doctor pointed his finger, "… this lever. That should bring you to a safe landing. We'll disappear when you start to phase out (I don't really understand any of this), but we'll be there when you land. You got that?" Sam swallowed and nodded. He slowly put down the telephone receiver, and addressed the young couple also in the ship. "Hold on tight, guys. I'm going to try to land". Amy and Rory grabbed tight on whatever they could find. Sam nodded toward the Doctor and said a silent prayer.
With no warning, the Doctor shot forward. Al's arm was stretched to its full length just to keep his image visible to Sam. The Doctor pointed to a seemingly random series of switches. After pressing only one or two buttons, Sam decided that the controls of this strange craft were totally counter-intuitive to anything he had ever seen, leaving him in the uncomfortable position of putting all his trust in this stranger.
But remarkably, he seemed to know what he was doing. The pitch of the engines (if they really were engines) began to change, and the glass structure in the glass cylinder started to move slowly up and down. Only once did the Doctor vigorously shake his head when Sam was about to press a wrong button. Then, just when Sam had got used to following the Doctor's hand movements, the stranger nodded his head at Sam, making his long hair shake. Sam just managed to gather his wits and count three and a half seconds before pulling the lever. There was a strange "whooshing" sound, and the image of Al and the Doctor abruptly faded from Sam's vision. And then everything was still. Sam noticed the young couple relax their grip on the rails. The young girl was clearly anxious. "Doctor, have we landed?"
Sam smiled as he nodded. "Think so. Let's see". Just as he had when he first materialised, he ran across the room and opened the door next to the hat stand. He was greeted by a warm sun and sand and blue sky as far as the eye could see. Al and the Doctor now appeared outside the craft, and the Doctor mumbled something to Al. "What did he say?" asked Sam.
Al turned to his companion. "Oh, he says that there's hope for you yet".
As Sam stepped out of the craft, Rory and Amy followed. "Doctor, are you all right?" asked Rory. Sam turned to face his companions. "Just give me a moment, Rory…". His sentence trailed off as he saw the craft they had just left. It was a blue box, no bigger than a telephone cabin. His mouth dropped open as he started to walk around it. Amy was about to say something, but Rory took her hand and stopped her, wanting to respect Sam's last request. Al followed Sam to the back of the ship. "Like I said: bigger on the inside".
Sam's mind raced. "Al, this is incredible. It must be some kind of tesseract space trapped within the wooden frame. This kind of thing is only at theoretical stages, but…". Again, he was cut off, this time by Ziggy's beeping. Al lifted the small computer and read off the screen. "Okay, Sam, Ziggy thinks she's worked out why you're here: there's a 94% chance it's to do with the nuclear testing going on in the desert".
Sam's face turned to a mask of horror. "'Nuclear testing'?"
Al nodded. "Yeah, in three hours a bomb goes off five miles away…", he pivoted around, getting his bearings, and then pointed out across the sand. "…over there. In 1965, some remains were discovered that scientists believed were human".
"Five miles and back in three hours. Cutting it a little close, isn't it?"
Al hit the side of the computer in frustration and it gave out a simulated screaming sound. "Well, they find the remains of what they think is some off road vehicle as well, so you'll probably be able to get back a lot quicker".
Sam nodded. "Okay. So I'd best get going straightaway".
"Not without us you don't", came Amy's voice. "Doctor, what's going on?"
"You have been acting very odd", Rory agreed reluctantly.
Sam knew he needed to be decisive. "Look, I can't tell you why, but I need to get going now. There are people in danger and I have to save them. You two, stay here. No point risking your lives as well".
Amy folded her arms. "And like I say, you're not going anywhere without us".
Sam knew he had no time to argue. "Okay", he nodded. He then hurried off in the direction Al had pointed him in. As the hologram watched his friend depart, he pressed the button to open the imaging chamber door once more. If anything were to happen unexpectedly, the Doctor would need to be in the waiting room. He figured it was a pity; as strange and annoying as the Doctor was, his advice may have come in handy to Sam and his newfound companions.