My Shining Cohort Lewis:
It took all of my willpower to start this letter today. I am so appalled at the capacity for evil some humans have. All it takes is one little sign of danger and a lot of stupid humans to be a potentially fatal risk.
The day didn't begin that way. As I mentioned in my last letter to you that I planned to take Donna on a relaxing break to a planet made entirely of diamonds. While we were there I found a tour to take a trip to a sapphire waterfall. It would have been incredible Rose! A waterfall made entirely of sapphires! This enormous jewel the size of a glacier reaches the Cliffs of Oblivion and then shatters into sapphires at the edge. They fall a hundred thousand feet into a crystal ravine!
Donna refused my offer to take her though. She'd rather sunbathe, can you imagine that? You wouldn't have turned that experience down for anything! Donna's rather different than you are, but still nice to have around. I wish I could have taken you there.
But yet as I look back on all that happened, for once I am glad you are stuck, safe in that parallel universe, as what happened to me today I never ever want for anybody, most of all you to experience.
A group of strangers traveling in a space bus on a planet that can't support life. Doesn't sound too terrible does it?
Well the trip started out well, pretty fun actually. Talked with the other travelers and laughed a lot. Even mentioned you to one of them. Sky Silvestry her name was. I wonder when exactly she died...
Ahead of myself again. Mind you, if you were here you would stop me from doing that. I miss you. And look I'm also off subject. Wait, where was I, let me read what I wrote last...
Oh yes, Sky. That was where it started. About half way through the trip the Crusader bus slowed to a halt. I immediately knew something was wrong and out of the ordinary.
There was nothing wrong with the engines so we were forced to wait until a rescue car could pick us up.
The others began to panic, which was then I knew we could all be in trouble unless something happened soon.
Well something did happen, but it only made it worse. Even now I still don't know what it was. Some sort of creature, a gaseous form...I just don't know. I don't think I want to know. All I want to do is forget everything that happened. But for mine and your sake I'll go through it one last time.
It began with a knocking. Just a two beat knocking, on the outside of the bus. Should have been harmless, except we were traveling on a planet where the air is extonic (which means any creature out there would have been instantly vaporized). And yet it continued. Knock, Knock. Knock, Knock.
Never did figure out what that thing was. But it did scare the hell out of the passengers. Not me of course, I was curious to know what it was.
But now I believe what it was is best left alone.
Back to the tale, Sky was so freaked out about it that I believe she opened herself up to the...creature thing. In an instant the lights flashed off and we found the driver and the mechanic who were sitting in the pilot's cabin to be gone. Vaporized along with the entire front cabin.
Meanwhile the alien had inhabited Sky's body. Her movements had become strange and unhuman-like. Plus she repeated every word anybody said to her. It was absorbing the words we all spoke, adapting to our language until it could repeat every word we said, at the same time. It was beyond impossible, by human terms.
Suddenly the idea of throwing her out suddenly came up. Can you believe that Rose? Throw the woman out! I can see you now, had you been there. You would have verbally knocked some heads together and gotten some sense into those people, because that's what they really needed. You have compassion for every single living creature over the well-being of your own life. A trait I see in myself. Maybe that's why... never mind.
But every single one of those people on the bus didn't think like you do. They only cared about their own puny, miserable lives. Even if the creature was supposedly hostile, it was a new life form, and they were only proving how murderous and barbaric humans could be. But just as I thought things could not get worse, they turned those intentions against me, the only one who was trying to help. Accusations were thrown at me, like I made it happen. I've never met a bunch of more pigheaded, treacherous, stupid ape-like...I'm sorry Rose, just thinking about it makes my blood boil.
Then the creature in Sky latched on to me. She repeated only my words, and it didn't help the constitution of the other passengers, they already thought I was a threat. I knelt down in front of her to try and communicate with it a final time. I gave it every option, every thing I could think of.
And then I felt it. It jumped into my throat. I felt it passing into my body, and my cells immediately stopped, paralyzing me instantly. It stole my voice, I couldn't move, all I could do was tremble with anger and intense fear. Because I knew what it was planning to do. It saw how volatile and predictable the humans were, and it would turn them against me, causing them to believe that Sky was no longer the danger, but rather I was.
I don't know why the creature was so hostile against me. Probably because it was frightened by my intense brilliance! A reasonable excuse mind you.
But I was so scared Rose. So scared. It was using my voice, my words, pretending to be Sky again. I begged it with my eyes not to do this, to do anything but this. The Professor, Biff, Jethro, Val, none of them remembered my words about how it would get stronger and overpower us. Well, overpower me. None of them remembered, except Dee Dee, the smartest one of the bunch.
It all reached a high point when the creature finally convinced them to throw me off the bus and into the extonic air of the planet. I felt Biff's hands on my arms, dragging me. I fought him with every last ounce I had.
Strangely, I felt you there, in that moment, as if you had some how connected with me. I saw your face in front of my eyes, calling my name. I tried to cry out to you but my lips only repeated Sky's words as I was dragged toward the door.
The creature made a mistake though. By using my voice and my words it caught the attention of the hostess. She finally saw the truth and sacrificed herself by pulling the creature out the doorway with her. And it was gone, for good.
After it had left me I couldn't let myself talk to any of those people, I just couldn't. I was disgusted by their inhumanity. I nearly lost sight of why I loved and protected these humans in the first place.
But then I saw your face again and I whispered your name, so softly no one could hear.
"Rose."
You're so much more than any of them. If there's one thing I'll ever be able to tell you, is that you're the best, compassionate, most beautiful human being I've ever met. And don't forget it. Don't let others push you around or make you do anything you don't want to do. You're my shining Bad Wolf who, for a while, powered the stars and turned the sun in your hands. You taught me what it meant to see things as precious again. To believe in Life, Love, Hope, and Faith. My Rose.
Blimey am I getting sentimental in my old age! I should get some sort of award for that kind of dedicated speech. Yay for me!
To end the story of this horrid trip, nothing, absolutely nothing of incident happened after the creature was destroyed. My hearts seemed to drop into my stomach when I couldn't even remember the hostess' name, the one who sacrificed herself to save our lives. None of us knew her name. It felt like the final blow to all that was good and true.
When I got back Donna could see the empty look in my eyes, and her hug seemed to also awaken that love that you taught me. Some things could be beautiful again.
She tried to cheer me up but only reminded me of the fear, the pain and the overwhelming disgust I had gone through in the past day.
As soon as we got back into the TARDIS I set up a blocking signal to the planet in the TARDIS database. I am never, ever taking any of my companions to the planet Midnight again, regardless of its' intense beauty.
Despite all that's happened being over, I feel...well it's hard to explain. I just feel like something big is going to happen soon, and I have no way to prepare for it. The lost Moon of Poosh came up in one of the conversations I had with Dee Dee and I can't seem to get it out of my mind. But what can I do about it? All I can do is travel on with Donna at my side and try to forget about the trip across the silent planet.
What I really need is to be around people. Good, moral people that is. Mainly my TARDIS, Donna, and my memories of you.
That should be enough for a long while.
-I believe in you-
Your Doctor