2. Past Discovery.
The Doctor and Chloe again find themselves back in the Tardis Control room, just hugging the Tardis pillars.
As they step away from the pillars, the Tardis grinds.
The date display changes to show an earlier date, still without the location display changing away from the misty grey nothingness.
"We need to see what the Tardis has found for us, Doctor."
The Doctor sighs. "Why have we gone to earlier than my birth? Decades earlier?"
"Let's just see," Chloe says, leading the way to the door. She's determined not to question the Tardis Consciousness!
They look out. It is the same squishy moss land, but just here there is a muddy bubbling pool. A small boy is playing at the other end, covered in mud.
A distant voice calls out sharply, "Ox, come here now!"
Reluctantly, the boy pulls himself out of the muddy quagmire and heads homewards, a scolding seems likely.
The Doctor feels unsure of something. "Come inside the Tardis for a moment," he says.
He taps a few buttons on the Console and a small box appears. He picks it up and takes it to the door. As he approaches the door, the box starts clicking until it is clicking furiously at the door, unevenly playing a note higher up the musical scale.
The Doctor closes the Tardis door and the clicking ceases abruptly.
"Radioactivity! That's a radioactive mud pool! And Ox was playing in it!"
"And playing in it for hours," Chloe says.
"Probably for weeks on end," the Doctor says, horrified.
"Might that have changed him genetically?" Chloe asks, beginning to be appalled.
"Very definitely," the Doctor agrees. "But usually much for the worse - cancer!"
"Doctor, might that have produced the genetic change for your regeneration?"
"Possibly, but at what cost to my father? He won't live long after that! No wonder he looked so unwell!"
The Doctor and Chloe look at each other, contemplating the health of the Doctor's father.
"He seems to have passed healthy genes to you, Doctor," Chloe says.
"Yes, thank you," the Doctor replies. "Too good!"
"So lucky!" Chloe observes.
"Yes, for me," the Doctor says dubiously. "That could have gone so wrong!"
"Let's focus on the positives," Chloe says as decisively as she can. "It was lucky for me, too!"
"How did you get from here to anywhere else?" Chloe asks. "How did they have any links with the outside Universe? They couldn't see it and the outside Universe couldn't see them!"
"Yes, that's a mystery," the Doctor owns. Obviously something had happened. This planet still had mud huts! So many unanswered questions!
Further discovery.
"Shall we see where the Tardis takes us next?" Chloe asks.
"It doesn't seem the right way around - to simply let the Tardis take us," the Doctor retorts. "We should be telling the Tardis where or when to go to!"
"But it's showing us such key moments, Doctor. We should at least follow its lead for now?"
Without them doing anything the Tardis grinds.
"Oh, a bit further into the future," the Doctor says. "That's four years after we first arrived here." He's pleased to be looking at what happened next.
They open the Tardis doors and view a different squishy moss land. . Bushes and trees enjoin the surroundings in this location. The Doctor checks for radiation levels, but nods permission to proceed after finding normal levels.
After a few steps away from the Tardis they find a path.
"Uphill or downhill?" Chloe asks.
"Uphill - we'll get the better view!"
A few hundred yards later they reach a small summit, but the local flora prevents having a good view.
"Let's go down again," Chloe suggests.
"I could give you a piggy-back for you to have a look around," the Doctor offers. "If you were even just a head higher than we are, you might see something."
Chloe feels she must go along with this plan. Surely she'll see something!
From the Doctor's back, Chloe looks around.
"We should go down the path, Doctor. There's something poking above the trees about a mile over that way."
She dismounts.
"What sort of thing?"
"If it were anywhere else, I'd say it's a Hyperspace trading landing capsule." .
"What? Here? This I must see!"
The Doctor starts running down the path with Chloe keeping up easily. They pass near to the Tardis and continue down to the flat valley floor.
The path forks and they have to choose. Chloe looks at the Doctor, hoping he will have input to the as yet unasked question.
The Doctor looks at Chloe. "Which way do you suggest?" He has an inkling, but it was Chloe who actually saw the place.
Chloe can only go by the vague direction she saw, but the path hasn't been straight!
"Doctor, the path has twisted and turned. I'm unsure. My gut isn't telling me anything. How about you? Do you recognise any of these paths? You lived here once."
"Yes," the Doctor says, affirming his new-found belief that he lived here once. Now considering this turn of events he's unsure which way to go. "But I can't recall ... Let's go this way. If we get it wrong we can always try again!"
"I'll mark our entry path with a simple chevron in the mud for our return journey," Chloe says.
Some time later they can see something through the trees.
A large landing capsule is making a clattering noise.
"Contraction sounds from the heat shields," the Doctor says. "It may have recently landed. We should stay out of sight and watch."
As they approach the clearing, an insignia reveals itself to them; "Kerblam!" .
"That's a delivery company," the Doctor affirms. Chloe already knew, she's seen their logo before.
They find a clump of bushes nearby and climb in.
A hatchway opens and a man lowers a rectangular box to the ground. Then he prepares a descent ladder.
The Doctor turns to Chloe. "There's no-one here to receive the delivery."
"Should we oblige?"
"Certainly not! That would change history!"
"Oops!"
The man climbs down the ladder and carries the box a short distance away from the landing capsule and returns, climbing the ladder and stowing it. He takes a photograph before returning into the landing craft. .
"We'd better get out of here before he goes, or we'll be gently singed." .
They climb out of the bushes and head away along the path for a short distance before a roar tells them the landing capsule is departing. The trees where they are bend slightly in the brief hot wind before relapsing to their previous posture.
"Let's go back and see what happens," the Doctor suggests.
"What are we likely to see?" Chloe asks.
"No idea!" The Doctor grins, then laughs. "We might see how I got hold of a Rift Stimulator!" (Ref. 48.)
"Is that likely?"
"Let's go and see."
From the obscurity of the same but freshly scorched bush, they see a young boy come running happily along a path. The sight and smell of scorched flora cause him to pause in his game, counting red berries, and he approaches the prominent delivered box.
"Surely he can't open it?" Chloe asks under her breath.
"Let's see," the Doctor whispers.
The lid of the box yields easily to the boy's touch, maybe a quality check had been made just before delivery.
The boy reaches into the box and retrieves a pocket-sized object.
The Doctor stifles a whistle he was about to make. "Wow!" he whispers instead. "That's it!"
The boy happily examines it and accidentally finds the "On" switch. Colourful lights please his gaze.
He randomly taps buttons giving the Doctor an uneasy feeling.
"I have the feeling that first activation isn't far away!" he whispers. .
"Was that green pathway there before?" Chloe asks as the boy happily skips away along that path. A blink and the boy and the greener path are both gone!
"That was quick!" Chloe gasps. "You didn't waste any time there!" .
"Now I have a choice - to discover where this planet is, or ... to follow my younger self somehow without endangering my own past!"
"You need to find out where this is," Chloe insists. The rest of the young boy's travels seem irrelevant to her. Yet she does have an idea how to find out at least something.
Chloe climbs out of the bush and approaches the delivered box. She starts looking carefully at the box from all angles. At last, she finds what she's looking for.
"The delivery address!" she calls out. She bends closer to see what it says.
"Sontar?" .
"What?" the Doctor leaps out of the bush to look closely. "This isn't Sontar! This definitely isn't Sontar!"
"So, it's a mis-delivered box!" .
"Sontarans aren't permitted to have Rift anything! Never have been and never will be!"
"Could that be why it was mis-delivered?"
"Deliberately mis-delivered?" the Doctor croons. "It makes sense." .
Chloe takes a picture of the delivery label. .
Later in the Tardis.
"Alright, so how can we find out where this is?" Chloe asks.
"Knowing the Tardis, it will simply take us away; light years away and not tell us. It's not as if we can make our own landing craft and project ourselves up into the misty sky and expect to see any stars to navigate by. The surrounding nebula will prevent that!"
"How did the Kerblam delivery hyperspace trading ship get here?" Chloe asks.
"Off-course?"
"I know! Doctor ... Can we go to the Kerblam delivery depot and ask about the delivery label? It's got a unique delivery number. They're bound to be able to trace it!" .
The Doctor looks sadly at Chloe. His dealings with Kerblam suggested they might be detained rather than trace a delivery (TV episode "Kerblam!"). Yet it might be worth a go.
His mind starts to race ahead with possible plans for many helpers to infiltrate the Kerblam distribution centres, but Chloe has other ideas. She can see when the Doctor's thinking deeply and senses what it's about.
"Doctor, I can go," she simply claims. Her unsaid inference is for her to go alone, without the Doctor.
The Doctor looks at Chloe and sees that annoying smile that signifies that he can't stop her even if he tried. .
"No risks!" he says, but he knows she's likely to take unlimited risks once she's bitten the bullet. .
What can he say? How big are the risks he's taken in the past? .
But then, why is he so concerned about Chloe? Can't she take care of herself?
"I love you," the Doctor says as he fully recognises why he's fussing about her.
Chloe comes to him and envelopes him in her arms. "I love you, too." she says, looking into his eyes and kissing him.
It's a large task she's set herself. She knows she must discover how the distribution giant works before ploughing in. She reflects on her time in the Gallifreyan Tardis Manufacturing company (ref. 32). Can she ever find that miniscule piece of information she's aiming to find in a large company?
The Doctor reflects on the probability of her discovering anything at all, and on the clumsiness of his Tardis which just now seems to be so inferior to Chloe's personal transport. He knows his Tardis has many preferable features, but stealth isn't one of them!
"Doctor, can I borrow your sonic screwdriver?"
"That's my only one!"
"Don't worry, I'll take care of it."
The Doctor isn't keen to lend it, even to his currently favourite lady.
"I know you want to do this thing for me, but it would be much better for us to travel together!"
Chloe feels as if her wings are being clipped. For her the Doctor might restrict what she can do - where she might infiltrate, how she might use her transport to move around.
"Okay," she says guardedly.
"I'm coming too!" he says emphatically.
How will it work out?
After all,, it's only a delivery company, isn't it?