AN: I'm so sorry for the delay. I had a bit of a writers block.

Thank you so much for all the reviews I got for the last chapter. They made my day!

A big thank you to Persiflage for beta-reading.

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who

Chapter 5

It was already getting dark when Martha reached the hill outside the small town where they had left the TARDIS. Martha inserted her key into the lock and pushed the door open.

"Doctor?" she asked as she stepped into the console room and closed the door behind her. She stopped in the middle of the ramp that led up to the console. Something was wrong.

The light in the console room wasn't bright enough. They had shut down some of the TARDIS' systems for the time of their holiday. But if the Doctor had returned, he would have activated all the systems again.

There wasn't any sign of the Doctor's presence in the room. His coat wasn't slung over the coral column like it always was when he was in the TARDIS.

Martha started to get worried. Maybe something had happened to him on the way back. Maybe someone didn't want him to find out whatever it was the Doctor had found out according to Giranlo. She wasn't even sure if Giranlo had told her the truth.

Martha took a deep breath to calm herself down a bit. She walked through the door that led deeper into the TARDIS and called the Doctor's name. She knew the TARDIS would make sure the Doctor would hear her if he was anywhere in the TARDIS. She wasn't really expecting an answer but it was still possible that whatever he came back for wasn't in the console room. She walked toward a door near the console room and looked inside. It was a lab the Doctor sometimes used when he needed to give something a closer check than the scans he usually did in the console room and Martha wasn't surprised to find it empty. She turned around and headed back to the console room. As soon as she reached the console she pressed a few buttons to reactivate all the systems.

The Doctor had once showed her how to operate the scanner so she knew what buttons she had to press to scan for Time Lord life signs, first inside the TARDIS, then on the entire planet. Both scans were negative.

Martha frowned, now really worried. She was now sure that something must have happened to the Doctor. Someone had kidnapped him and was blocking the signal so the scanner couldn't find him. At least she hoped that was the reason. If he wasn't on the planet anymore she would most likely never find him. At least she knew that he was still alive. The Doctor had a telepathic link to his ship and if he died the TARDIS would shut herself down.

...

It was late evening when she left the TARDIS, ensuring she had locked the door behind her. She had spent the last hours reading everything about Durelia and the museum she had found in the database of the TARDIS. She couldn't find anything suspicious about the museum and its owner, a man called Anres who had been living on Durelia for years. Apparently he was very rich and had left his home world to move to Durelia to open his museum, bringing a lot of the exhibits with him. He seemed to be obsessed with everything unique according to an article a journalist had written about him a couple of years ago.

After she had searched all the information she could find and had again scanned for Time Lord life signs without any results she had decided to go back to the hotel. She wanted to talk with someone who lived on this planet to get more information, especially whether or not there was some kind of police force that could help her find the Doctor, and the only person she could think of was Firala, the owner of the hotel she lived in. Tomorrow she would go back to the city and the museum to see if she could find out anything there. She hoped she would see Giranlo again. He was the last person who'd seen the Doctor before he'd disappeared.

...

She reached the hotel in a short time and saw Firala sitting in her office through the open door. Martha walked toward the office and stopped in the doorway.

"Still working?" she asked.

Firala looked up. "Oh, yes. I don't like doing the paperwork so I always wait and do it all at once. Would be easier to just do it instantly so I don't have to spend an entire day to catch up but I never learn." Firala grinned.

Martha returned the smile. "Look, I wanted to know if you could help me," Martha began.

"Sure, what is it?"

"You remember the man I arrived with, the Doctor?"

"Yes, of course I remember. I don't have enough guests to not remember all of them," Firala smiled again, but the smile looked worried and nervous. As if a fear she had had was about to come true.

"Well, he's missing. We went to this museum and I lost sight of him there, and now I can't find him. I even scanned the planet for him. Is there some sort of organisation on this planet that can help in this situation?" Now Martha could clearly see the dread on Firala's face.

"A museum," the Durelian repeated.

"Yes," Martha said. "What is it?"

Firala got slowly up and walked toward the window. "Oh my gods," she whispered, not looking in Martha's direction any more.

"Firala," Martha said, raising her voice a bit. "Do you know something about this?"

"It's my fault," Firala said, turning back towards Martha.

"What are you talking about?" Martha asked.

Firala looked at her for a few moments before she seemed to make a decision. "A few years ago a man showed up in my hotel. He said he was looking for someone he believed might come to Durelia someday. He said he would pay me if I informed him when I saw this man. He said the man would call himself "the Doctor" and if I heard of anyone with that name I should call him immediately. I know that a few of my colleagues also had visits from this man, but he said he was working for Anres, the owner of a museum in the city on this island."

"That's the museum we went to today"

Firala nodded. "The man said that Anres only wanted to meet the Doctor and talk to him but that the Doctor was hard to find. I met Anres a couple of years ago and he seemed very nice so I didn't think anything odd about the story. I didn't hear anything from him for a really long time till your friend called to book a room and told me his name. I contacted the man who had asked me to tell him if I heard something about the Doctor. He was here in only an hour. He promised me a lot of money if I would inform him about where the Doctor was going while he was here and he assured me once again that Anres only wanted to talk to him. I had a bad feeling in that moment but my hotel wasn't doing so well. I had lost a lot of money and I really needed the money that man promised me." Firala fell silent for a moment and closed her eyes. When she opened them again and looked Martha in the eye Martha could see the remorse and shame in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry," Firala said. "I should have listened to my feelings and not made that deal with that man." Firala walked a few steps towards Martha and stopped again.

"What do you think Anres wants with the Doctor?" she asked.

Martha had thought about that question since Firala had revealed that Anres had something to do with the Doctor's disappearance.

"I don't know. I have a theory but..."

"What's your theory?" Firala asked.

"Anres seems to be obsessed with everything that's entirely unique. He's spent his entire life collecting everything unique. And the Doctor is the only surviving member of his species."

"Oh my gods," Firala whispered again. "You think he would add a person to his collection?"

"It's just a theory," Martha stopped for a moment. "And if I'm right they would be after the TARDIS as well." With that she turned around, ran through the door and out of the hotel. She ran the entire way up the hill next to the small town till she reached the top and the tree that stood there. The TARDIS was nowhere to be seen but Martha noticed a square imprint in the grass.

She heard someone behind her and turned around. Firala had followed her and now reached the top of the hill. She stopped next to Martha, panting for breath.

"They must have followed me," Martha said.

"What happened," Firala asked confused. Martha realised Firala probably had no idea why she had run here all of a sudden.

"The TARDIS, that's the Doctor's ship, was parked right here. They must have followed me earlier and when I went to your hotel they took it." Martha felt panic rise within her. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down and keep a clear head. She had become very good at keeping a clear head in desperate situations ever since she'd walked the earth for a year on her own, constantly living in fear of being found by the Master or his Toclafane.

"Firala, the man who'd contacted you. Did he give his name or can you tell me what he looked like?"

"No, he didn't give his name," Firala said. "But I've never seen another member of his species before. He might even be the only one on the planet. I don't know what his species is called but he looks like a humanoid fish. He's got blue scales."

Martha's eyes widened when she realised that Firala's description exactly matched Giranlo.

AN: Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.

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