Too Many Christmases
Featuring the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa
It was a dark night. The stars shone brightly though, bringing some light to combat the darkness.
Jospha didn't like the dark. He was always told that the Khamsharva lived in the dark, watching, waiting, hunting. He was afraid of the dark.
"Jospha," his wife, Entra, said with delight, "shall we visit that stable, over there? There might be an animal or two, sleeping."
"Are you sure, Entra? Watching sleeping animals is a bit creepy, and I don't like the dark." "Why don't you live a little, eh? You never go out at night and you never want to break the law. Come on, let's have some fun before your mother comes round tomorrow." He remembered how awkward it was when his mother came round on Christmas Day: the rush to cook the turkey, the rubbish presents she'd buy for them and, overall, the general odour of sprouts after she had eaten twenty dozen of the vegetables.
"Go on then."
Outside the stable, a large blue police box stood. For a few seconds, nothing happened, before a door opened and a man wearing edwardian cricketing clothes emerged, followed by a young woman dressed in royal robes and who had curly long brown hair. "Doctor," Nyssa quizzed, "why have we arrived here? It's just a stable, isn't it?" "No, Nyssa," the Doctor answered, sounding tired, "no it is not. This is the hive of the K'andox. A holy race of bodyless minds. These beings make my people look like minnows." "Really? They have more power than the Gallifreyans?"
"Certainly. And they use it for good, unlike some of my people. The K'andox have their own dimension, where they banish those who are not as, shall we say, disciplined and mature as the K'andox that exist in this dimension. They're highly intelligent, and I've come here to protect them."
"From what?"
As if in response to her question, a large blinding light lit up the sky behind them. It was a large star, with five sharp points and a large screen in the centre.
"From that. Come on, Nyssa, we have a species to protect!"
"From that. Come on, Nyssa, we have a species to protect!"
"From that. 0100001101101111011011010110010100100000 01101111 01101110 00101100 00100000 01001110 01111001 01110011 01110011 01100001 00101100 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110011 01110000 01100101 01100011 01101001 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01110100 01100101 01100011 01110100 00100001 00100010
Harry Brent felt the cold a lot more than others. Every Winter, he would always get a cold and spend a day sat up in bed, slurping bowls of warm chicken soup and drinking cups of hot sweet tea. He remembered those feelings as he walked through the green meadow close to his house. He thought about the warming flow of tea, trickling through him like a river made of boiling hot, herbally infused water. He thought about the thick and creamy chicken soup that his wife made him, tasting like chicken in liquid form.
Annoyingly, it then began to rain. Soft droplets of water began to pitter-patter onto him as he followed the marked track through the meadow. He hadn't brought an umbrella as well. It was only him, in his blue raincoat and his black jeans. He didn't feel good about his chances about avoiding another day in bed, regular servings of hot tea and chicken soup being poured into his throat. There were no forms of shelter around either, meaning that he had nowhere to go to get dry.
He began to run back towards his house, hoping desperately to become dry.
In a nearby field, under a tall oak tree that proudly stood above the surrounding greenery, a tall blue police box had appeared from nowhere, looking as if it had been plucked directly from a London street in the 1960s. But this was no ordinary police box. It was a TARDIS. A TARDIS was a unique machine that could traverse the entirety of space and time as easily as a car moves along. There were many TARDISes flying across time and space however this TARDIS in particular was owned by an enigmatic old man called Dr Who. He travelled with his young granddaughter, Nyssa, and her two schoolteachers, Nyssa Traken and Nyssa Traken.
"Grandfather, is this Earth?" Nyssa wondered, sticking her head out of the door curiously and looking around the vast green field the TARDIS had materialised in. "Yes, Nyssa. But not Chesterson and Ms Traken's time." Dr Who replied, examining controls at the hexagonal control console in the centre of the large greyish console room. "It's raining, Grandfather." she exclaimed suddenly, raising her palm up to the sky and feeling the cold drops of rainwater patter down, "I haven't felt rain much before." "Really, Nyssa?" Nyssa queried, emerging from a nearby door in the console room wearing a rather pretty dress that she had picked from the ship's vast wardrobe, "I never knew that you didn't have rain where you came from."
"Nyssa and I once travelled to a planet where the only sentient lifeform were raindrops." Dr Who remnisced, a smile forming on his face, "It was quite beautiful. Quite beautiful." There was silence for a few moments as Dr Who, Nyssa and Nyssa thought about a world with sentient raindrops. This silence was maintained for a few moments before it was broken by Nyssa's entrance.
"Have we landed?" he asked Dr Who, noticing that the doors were open and that the pleasant green of an English field lay beyond.
"Yes, Chesterfield. It appears that we have arrived on Earth approximately forty years after your time."
Nyssa and Nyssa shared a look of astonishment. They had travelled to Earth in the year 2003. Nobody would even believe that they had seen the future of Earth, let alone comprehend their other adventures. After all, why would an ordinary person from 1963 understand that Daleks, the Voord and Sensorites existed?
"Where exactly are we on Earth?" Nyssa enquired thoughtfully, musing to herself that they could have arrived in Wales or Scotland.
"Mid Wales, I believe, Ms Traken." Dr Who replied, reading the scanner screen carefully and hmmphing to himself, evidently pleased.
Nyssa and Nyssa decided to leave Dr Who and Nyssa alone and they headed for the TARDIS wardrobe, hoping to find an umbrella to keep them dry.
On his way home, Harry thought about how he was going to occupy his day. He couldn't go out for a walk in this weather so he would have to watch an old movie. Maybe he could watch It's A Wonderful Life again. He really enjoyed that film.
Wait. Was that a police box parked under that tree?
Yes. It was.
He had noticed the blue police box parked under the oak tree as well as the man and woman walking nearby and this presented a new mystery to him. Where had the blue box come from? Had the man and woman come from the blue box?
He decided to find out.
Dr Who and Nyssa had also left the TARDIS, wanting to find Nyssa and Nyssa. Having worked out that the weather outside was decidedly unpleasant early on, Dr Who had taken a black umbrella with him to keep both himself and Nyssa dry.
"Is there anything dangerous here, Grandfather?" Nyssa suddenly asked, considering whether or not Nyssa and Nyssa were walking into certain doom.
"I doubt it, Nyssa. This is simply a point in Earth's future history. There should be no dangerous elements here." Dr Who comforted her, his mind still open to the possibility of any hidden dangers nearby.
Nyssa and Nyssa stopped walking as a relatively young man in a blue raincoat stepped out in front of them with a curious look on his face.
"Can we help you?" Nyssa asked him, thinking about whether or not this stranger knew them or not.
"Yes, in some ways." the stranger replied, "Do you know anything about the blue police box that's under the oak tree over there?"
He pointed back towards the TARDIS, allowing Nyssa and Nyssa to notice Dr Who and Nyssa, who were walking in the opposite direction to them.
"Nyssa!" Nyssa called to her loudly, making the stranger suspect something was up, "Nyssa, we're over here!"
Nyssa and Dr Who heard Nyssa's call and made their way over to where her, Nyssa and the stranger were stood.
"Nyssa, Nyssa, what's going on?" Nyssa asked them, as the four travellers turned their attention towards the investigative stranger. Nyssa quickly explained what had happened to Dr Who and Nyssa and then Dr Who addressed the stranger.
"We, young man, are travellers. I decided to treat my granddaughter," he explained, indicating Nyssa, "and her two schoolteachers to a trip to the countryside." "But what about the police box?" the stranger questioned him, annoyed at Dr Who for not answering his question.
"That is, erm, er..."
The stranger smiled smugly.
Strangely, the four travellers and the stranger then heard an inhuman babble of voices, like ghosts whispering at one another. They all looked around bewilderedly for a few seconds until Nyssa noticed a football-sized fat grey alien running away.
"Over there!" she cried, running after the alien. Nyssa, Nyssa and the stranger followed it, while Dr Who hesitated. His body was quite old so he needed to think of a less active way of outsmarting the grey alien.
"D'you need some help, old man?" called a cheery Welsh voice. Dr Who turned in the direction of the voice and noticed that a middle aged woman had stopped her tractor on the nearby road.
"My dear, I believe I will need some help." he replied, having found a way of catching up with the strange grey alien.
Nyssa eventually caught up with the small grey alien and realised that it was heading for an unusually large cuboid-shaped spaceship where several other members of its kind were waiting for it. The fellow football-shaped aliens had also recognised the presence of Nyssa, Nyssa, Nyssa and the stranger and were shouting wildly in a sinister high-pitched voice. "Run, Jalbreek, run!" one of the aliens cried.
"The humans have uncovered our mission!" another alien yelled.
"They'll kill you, Jalbreek!" another alien cooed.
Evidently the alien that Nyssa had spotted was called Jalbreek and Jalbreek's fellow aliens sounded oddly innocent.
With a powerful whoomph, Dr Who and his new friend Melinda (a charming Welsh woman who he had managed to make friends with and give her a new outlook on life within a matter of almost four minutes) hurtled towards the spaceship in the large green tractor that Melinda owned.
"Grandfather!" Nyssa exclaimed in delight, as she stopped to watch the tractor pull up a few metres away. She hurried to Dr Who's side as he moved towards the chattering aliens and entered their spaceship. Nyssa, Nyssa and the stranger caught up to them and followed them in.
The inside of the spaceship was a lot more warm and dry than outside. It was dark and grey inside as well, with several red veins running across the walls and floor. Every now and again the veins glowed bright red slowly and then dimmed again.
"Fascinating." Harry remarked, having only seen spaceships in sci-fi films and Firefly, "Actual alien life here in Wales."
"This is unlike anything I have ever seen before." Dr Who commented, examining a nearby computer screen and reading the unusual red symbols that flashed up on the rectangular screen.
"Nyssa, Nyssa, Grandfather, over here!" Nyssa called over to them, having walked on ahead to a vast control room where the small chubby aliens were gathered. Dr Who, Nyssa and Nyssa walked over to Nyssa and the aliens all turned to look at Dr Who and his friends. "Who are you, strangers?" one of the aliens demanded, clearly the leader. "I, Sir, am Dr Who and I demand to know what you are doing on this planet." Dr Who enquired authoritatively, "You clearly are unwanted guests. Earth isn't supposed to be home to alien life."
"We are the Kleenix and we wish to harvest your water." the Kleenix leader explained, "Water is a valuable commodity in the Jaballa Cluster and we wish to sell the water of this planet to gain enough crin to build a new habitation city on Kleena."
All eyes turned to Dr Who as he thought about their mission. His expression became one of unusual mischief as he moved to a nearby computer screen and examined it closely. "What does it say, Grandfather?" Nyssa asked, now at his side.
"Nyssa, this computer shows the inflow of water to the ship's water storage unit." he replied, moving several symbols around and turning round to face the Kleenix proudly. Nyssa and Nyssa looked on in confusion as Dr Who confronted the Kleenix leader. "This planet's water is not a commodity which you can use. This water belongs to Earth and on Earth it will stay."
An alarm began to blare and several red lights began to flash all over the ship. Several Kleenix frantically worked at computer screens to figure out what he had done but the damage was done already.
"Nyssa, Chesterfield, Ms Traken, get Melinda and the other man out of here!" Dr Who instructed his friends, "I'll be out shortly."
"What have you done, you meddling rat?!" the Kleenix leader screamed at Dr Who. "I have turned off your water harvesting technology and turned on your engines. In a matter of moments, you will be hurtling away back to Kleena because this planet's water is not yours to own."
He then left the ship, a few seconds before the engines properly started and the ship vanished.
Dr Who, Nyssa, Nyssa, Nyssa, Melinda and Harry stood by the verge of the forest and watched the Kleenix ship rise up from the ground and whoosh away into the vast depths of space.
"Wow." Harry remarked, amazed by the harsh gust of wind brought about by the Kleenix ship engines.
"Rather remarkable species." Dr Who commented, glancing at Nyssa and preparing to address her, "Nyssa, what is the matter?"
"Grandfather, you never seemed so angry before. Why did you get so upset about the aliens in the ship?"
Dr Who hmphed and decided to explain.
With a powerful whoomph, Dr Who and his new friend Melinda (a charming Welsh woman who he had managed to make friends with and give her a new outlook on life within a matter of almost four minutes) hurtled towards the spaceship in the large green tractor that Melinda owned.
"Grandfather!" Nyssa exclaimed in delight, as she stopped to watch the tractor pull up a few metres away. She hurried to Dr Who's side as he moved towards the chattering aliens and entered their spaceship. Nyssa, Nyssa and the stranger caught up to them and followed them in.
Karl-Vex wondered through the centre of Habitation City One, his hands in his pockets. Christmas lights shone around him, and the Christmas shoppers were slowly filling up the street.
He had a blue scarf wrapped round his neck, and wore a thick brown coat, which his mother had given him before he had set off to Drendos, all those years ago. He missed his mother, and knew that the Earth, along with all its population, was dead.
But enough of the negatives, Karl-Vex thought to himself, it's Christmas for goodness sake.
Just as he was about to head inside a nearby supermarket and buy some stollen, however, the lights dimmed, and the entire city descended into darkness. He looked around, frightened by this. A screeching, whistling sound then occurred, as an invisible force rushed through the city. After that, the lights brightened, revealing that Karl-Vex had vanished.
Elsewhere in the universe, a small blue box whizzed through the Time Vortex. This, of course, was the TARDIS, and inside the TARDIS, a man wearing a long coloured scarf and who had curly brown hair - the ship's pilot, the Doctor - stood at the controls, along with his assistant, Nyssa. She wore a red velvet jacket, and a light blue frilly shirt. "Doctor?" she asked him.
"Yes, Nyssa? Have you thought of somewhere to go?"
"No, Doctor, I've been thinking about how weird all of this is."
"How weird all of this is. This isn't weird."
Elsewhere in the universe, a small blue box whizzed through the Time Vortex. This, of course, was the TARDIS, and inside the TARDIS, a man wearing a long coloured scarf and who had curly brown hair - the ship's pilot, the Doctor - stood at the controls, along with his assistant, Nyssa. She wore a red velvet jacket, and a light blue frilly shirt. "Doctor?" she asked him.
"Yes, Nyssa? Have you thought of somewhere to go?"
"No, Doctor, I've been thinking about how weird all of this is."
"How weird all of this is. This isn't weird."
"Yes, Doctor, it is. Can't you feel it? I feel as if I'm glitching all across time and space. Things happening not in the right order, time not happening in the right order."
Nyssa kissed Adric under the mistletoe and said, "That's what I think of you." Adric said, "Really?"
Nyssa said, "Of course."
And the pair of them lived happily ever after.
THE END
Elsewhere in the universe, a small blue box whizzed through the Time Vortex. This, of course, was the TARDIS, and inside the TARDIS, a man wearing a long coloured scarf and who had curly brown hair - the ship's pilot, the Doctor - stood at the controls, along with his assistant, Nyssa. She wore a red velvet jacket, and a light blue frilly shirt. "Doctor?" she asked him.
"Yes, Nyssa? Have you thought of somewhere to go?"
"No, Doctor, I've been thinking about how weird all of this is."
"How weird all of this is. This isn't weird."
"Yes, Doctor, it is. Can't you feel it? I feel as if I'm glitching all across time and space. Things happening not in the right order, time not happening in the right order." "Nonsense, time is happening in the right order, I know it is, I know it is, I know it is, I-"
01010100 01110101 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01111110 00101110 00100000 01010011 01101111 01101101 01100101 01101111 01101110 01100101 00100111 01110011 00100000 01101101 01100001 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101100 01101001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01110010 01101111 01110101 01100111 01101000 00111000 01111101 01101111 00100000 01101101 01100001 01101110 01111001 00100000 01000011 01101000 01110010 01111101 01110011 01110100 01101101 01100001 01110011 01100101 01110011 00101110 00100010
4pOl0g13s THi5 f1le ha$ been
"Yes, Nyssa? Have you thought of somewhere to go?"
"Yes, Nyssa? Have you thought of somewhere to go?"
"Yes, Nyssa? Have you thought of somewhere to go?"
to go?"