Sights
"Jenny! Jenny, come on! You have got to see this!" He grabbed her hand, and pulled her down the corridor.
"What's going on?"
"You just have to see this! You'll love it! Come on!"
They barreled into the console room. "Hit the shield-projection valve, third setting!" Jenny pushed down the lever. Her father grinned, grabbed her hand and pulled her down the ramp. With a flourish, he flung open the door.
They had materialized in an area of space alive with stars, dusted with billions upon billions of lights like chips of silver scattered into the black of space. Just ahead a gas-giant was silhouetted by its star, a crescent of white brilliance that peeked over the rim of the planet and set blue-white fire to its rings. The light radiated from the star in waves of luminous blue, never fading, picking out two more planets against its bright backdrop. The light seemed permanent, almost solid, waves upon waves fanning out from the radiant heart.
"Oh!" Jenny stared, her eyes absorbing every detail. The rings of the nearest planet glowed with a shifting, pearly opalescence, gossamer bands of light fluctuation that surrounded the dark bulk of the world. Starfire rippled and danced through the system, never fading, a perfect sapphire in the black velvet of space.
"They call it Rhea Forty-Two in the data bank." Her father said softly. "But the neighbors a few systems over call it the Blue Homecoming. There's so much dust in this section of space that the light from the star is constantly reflected, caught and held. You can see it from six hundred thousand miles, and its light, they say it reaches out to guide travelers."
Jenny stared, her whole body leaned forward in the thrall of the sight. "It's so…so beautiful."
"Isn't it just." The Doctor stared out the door, wonder in his eyes, watching the light dance and ripple. He reached out, took his daughter's hand, and stepped off the lintel. Jenny had stepped out the door before she'd realized it, entranced by the glow. She let out a surprised laugh when she did glance down, down into the endless stars.
""What are we standing on?"
"Momentarily frozen and spatially stabilized gasses, dust and spatial effluvium. The TARDIS will stabilize a path for us for about ten feet out." Her father rattled off. Then he glanced at her, and gave a small, cheeky smile. "Or you could say you're standing on stardust."
He stepped forward, and his daughter followed, holding his hand. They walked to the edge of the force field together, Jenny alternately staring down into the whirl of star-flecked space and the perfection of blue light playing across the rings of the gas-giant like aurora borealis. She wanted to drink in the sight and hold it forever. There was such wonder in this, a moment like this.
The Doctor drew a deep breath. This was why he traveled. Never mind the fighting and threats to existence and the petty little battles. When wonder like this could be found just about anywhere, you had to go everywhere, look for it, find it and see the beauty.
His daughter's face shone like one of the stars in the ever-changing light, her face full of wonder and ecstasy, mirroring her father's. This was worth fighting for. Worth living for.
Hand in hand, two small beings stood among the stars, and watched a sun rise in space.