5. Non-sensical Text.

Chloe's intrigued by the text she couldn't make sense of. She toys with it, even asking the Tardis if there's more to it.
"What do you make of it, Doctor," she asks.
"I think the Tardis doesn't want us to know, so it's not translating it for either of us!"
"I have an idea," Chloe says cautiously. "But I'll need someone sympathetic on Kandoka or it's moonbase, Kerblam!"
"That's unlikely," the Doctor observes. "They're all just looking after number one - the me brigade!"
"There was one more sympathetic person at the meeting I attended today," Chloe says. "Her name was Rosen Dawes."
"She had a room on that executive corridor. Responsibility for Fabric I recall." The Doctor can easily recall the nameplates on each door on that corridor.
"I'll go to her and see what she makes of this," Chloe says.
It seems like a plan, but Chloe feels she really wants to go there alone. The woman in the conference room had been helpful towards her. Dragging the cleaner in might muddy the waters. .
The Doctor can read the signs and tell when Chloe's just going to do her own thing. At least it's much less risky here.
"Just when will you plan to arrive? It should be before I get caught in the Operation Manager's room, but after the conference ended. Rosen Dawes might not have gone back to her room just then! And then you'll have to avoid meeting ourselves in the corridor!"

Now it all seems much more difficult!

Chloe smiles sweetly at the Doctor, and he immediately knows she has a plan! .
She touches her wristwatch transport as she always does and disappears before his eyes. All he can do is hope and wait.

Naturally, Chloe has a plan! Not to see Rosen Dawes, particularly, but she thinks of the despatch area. The despatch labels are applied there, so maybe someone might know something?
If the Doctor had known of her idea, he would have ridiculed it. In his opinion, the despatch area only stuck on pre-printed labels and had no input on their content!
Chloe emerges from a cleaner's room she had chosen from a building plan and approaches a despatch girl dressed in green.
"Wow, what colour's that when it's at home?" Chloe asks.
The despatch girl turns and sees Chloe dressed in light blue. She takes a quick breath, wondering what an executive is doing prowling around in despatch.
Still she's adequately trained in her professional approach to answer properly.
She smiles. "It's Go-Go-Green!" she says. . "That's supposed to make the packages go faster! They made us wear stripes last year - Go-faster stripes!" .
"That's a good one! What's your name?" Chloe asks amiably.
"Chloe," the despatch girl says. .

How confusing! .

"What's your name?" despatch Chloe asks.
Dressed in executive blue, Chloe looks the part, yet recalls her pseudonym is Eileen Dover.
"Eileen Dover," Chloe says. It's so tempting for her to say that she's Chloe, too, but as her role is executive she feels she ought to act the part as well as look the part! .
Despatch Chloe giggles, then controls herself. She clearly found humour in the name. .
Chloe wants to minimise the despatch down-time. "I have a quick question for you, would that be alright?"
The presence of an executive on the floor passes all expectations for despatch Chloe. She's in awe.
Eileen Dover Chloe takes her copy of the non-sensical text from a velvet blue pocket and shows despatch Chloe.
Despatch Chloe giggles. "That's typical of what we put on packages that must not be delivered!"
"Does it say where it is to be delivered?" Eileen Dover Chloe asks. This is her payload for coming down here to despatch.
"It says Red Fez Nebula," despatch Chloe says. She giggles again. "We never deliver anything to any nebula - the delivery craft can't use full Hyperspace speed and we don't have any customers from Nebulae – I don't think they're aware of anything beyond their own star system!" .
Eileen Dover Chloe considers for a moment. "How do you know all that?" she asks.
"That's part of the briefing when we arrive on day one! Everyone knows all that!" .

"I'd better let you get on," Eileen Dover Chloe says before despatch Chloe starts asking why she doesn't know! . She steps away back to her arrival cleaner cupboard.
"You won't get far in there," despatch Chloe calls after her.
"We'll see! I'll see if the cleaner's in here! The sign on the door says she is!" . Eileen Dover Chloe smiles and closes the Cleaner cupboard door after her.
Relieved of having to live the persona part, she thinks of the Doctor's Tardis and activates her wristwatch transport...

"How did it go, then," the Doctor asks casually. For him it's only a minute or two since Chloe left and he's busied himself around the Tardis Console.
"Red Fez Nebula," Chloe reports her findings immediately. She feels she must get straight to the point.
"The, erm, what?" The Doctor stops what he's doing and comes to where Chloe's standing in a few steps.
"Apparently the delivery label says it must be delivered to the Red Fez Nebula."
This feels suspicious to the Doctor. "Is someone having a joke?"
"Why? Where is it?" . Chloe expects the location of the nebula to be unusual.
"I used to enjoy wearing a red fez!" .
Chloe can now see where the Doctor's coming from. "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"
"What chicken? What egg?"
"No, it's just a saying for when it's unclear what happened first. Did you go on to like wearing a red fez because you were born in the Red Fez Nebula, or ..."
"Did someone go back in time and name it after my liking for a red fez?" the Doctor completes her logic. He perceives an additional side to this discovery.
"Doctor, either way we now know the name of the approximate place you were born."
"I bet it doesn't exist!"
"What, the place you were born or the Red Fez Nebula?" Chloe says. . "Let's ask the Tardis what it knows about the Red Fez Nebula."
"I think you just did," the Doctor says.

The Console screen fills with pictures of the nebula, discovery date and circumstances leading to its naming. The images clearly suggest its name. Maybe it's just a coincidence the Doctor later came to enjoy wearing a red fez!
"Doctor, it's not very big, but it's very dense," Choe observes. There's only a few stars in the whole nebula. We could visit them all. I doubt there will be more than one inhabitable planet there."

"Do we need that much proof?"
"How do you mean, Doctor?"
"I only want to know that there is a place where I was born. I don't have to know exactly where it is, just that there is a place. You were born in a hospital, but you never go back to visit the ward!" .
The Doctor strolls to a Tardis pillar, reaches out and places the palm of his hand onto the pillar.
"And for that knowledge, I have to thank my own trusty Tardis ... and you, Chloe."

Chloe can see that the Doctor no longer wishes to continue this quest for his precise birth location. She relaxes and sprawls along the park bench in the Tardis Console room.

The Doctor walks some of the way back to her. "That park bench once graced your home planet."
Chloe's heard all of the detail of the story of its acquisition (ref. 2). She wants to avoid repetition of the tale.
"Yes, Doctor, it's a beautiful story!"
She rises from the bench and embraces the Doctor. She can tell that the Doctor wants to share something special with her, the story of the bench might just be a prelude.
"Are you a little more at peace about things?" she asks as she looks into his eyes. She sees the Doctor smile.
She senses that a loving encounter will do more to bring about that sense of peace for him than anything else ever could. She kisses the Doctor tenderly and carefully, contemplating his expression, sensitive to any whim that might occur for him.
The Doctor relaxes more in her arms and kisses her. "You are so good to me!"

THE END

The previous episode in this series is called "The Origins of the Doctor" (ref. 48).

The next episode in this series is called "Alyssa's Tardis".

I hope to add further episodes soon.

Sparse References.

Reference 2 Episode Lateness in this series,
where the Tardis enclosed and removed a park bench.

Reference 5 Episode Double Master Plan in this series,
where the Doctor had accidentally thought he had a new enemy called Ox.

Reference 28 Episode Theia Coincidence in this series,
where the Doctor treated Chloe to a few outings in her earlier years.

Reference 32 Episode The Lady with Secrets in this series,
where Chloe worked in the Gallifreyan Tardis Manufacturing facility (GTM).

Reference 48 Episode The Origins of the Doctor in this series,
where the Doctor and Chloe started looking into the origins of the Doctor.

* In Chapter 1, in the mud hut, the Doctor looks sharply at Chloe as if she's said something revealing. Only the Doctor and a few select others know his real original name. Maybe Chloe has just said it at a key moment? .

** In the mud hut, originally Ox might have called his child The Doctor as that was what he most desperately needed at the time. After the Doctor and Chloe visit, Ox might call his child The Doctor after the Doctor ... or might he? .

At points in the story where there is humour, an additional full stop is added. .

ANOTHER END