After the Doctor piloted the TARDIS into outer space, he grabbed Alex's arm and pulled her over to one of the staircases that led off into the further depths of the ship. Amy was still looking around the console room and didn't notice.

"Excited?" the Doctor asked, cocking an eyebrow. He already knew her answer; he just wanted her to say it again.

Alex was only happy to oblige. "Of course!" she cried. "Like I said, I love it!"

"I take it you got my letter." The Doctor nodded at her knapsack, which she had just managed to pick up before he spirited her away for a private conversation.

"I've been ready for two years since I got it," Alex informed him. She raised an eyebrow. "So, not the best driver, are you?"

"Oi!" the Doctor cried, feigning hurt. "It's a new TARDIS! If you want to blame anyone, blame her!" There was an indignant hum from the TARDIS at this comment.

Alex snickered. "No, I think she's pointing the blame at you. By chance, did you have to pass a test to fly her?"

The Doctor grinned at her. "Yes, and I failed miserably!"

Alex groaned. "Oh, that makes me feel so much better!"

The Doctor grabbed her arm and started pulling her down the hall. "Oh ha-ha. Come on, Ally, let's find you a room. I doubt I'll be getting rid of you anytime soon."

"You invited me, remember?" Alex reminded him.

"Yes, and I don't intend on getting rid of you," he said, suddenly very serious, nothing at all like he had been during their joking little banter and mild flirting . . . because they had been flirting, hadn't they? Alex mentally slapped herself. Thinking stuff like that was not a good idea. He was an alien for crying out loud! Who knew if they even did . . . that.

They walked down the corridor for a few minutes before Alex abruptly stopped. She felt drawn to one of the few doors in the hall. Turning slowly, she saw a white door in front of her. After noticing she was no longer following him, the Doctor stopped as well. He gently pushed her towards the door. "Open it," he urged.

Alex reached out and carefully turned the knob, pushing the door open. As she stepped across the threshold, she smiled and laughed slightly. It seemed that the TARDIS knew her already and had made the room to match her tastes.

The walls were a dark purple with elaborate black stenciling, something Alex had attempted to do to her room back in Leadworth before discovering she was horrible at stenciling. A black chandelier dangled from the ceiling. On one side of the room was a large bed with a black leather-covered headboard with a plain white comforter and pillows. Alongside another wall was a desk and two bookshelves. A black leather couch and two matching club chairs over a zebra-patterned rug sat against the wall directly across from that. She then noticed two doors on the other side of the room, presumably leading to the closet and bathroom. Still smiling, she whirled around to notice the Doctor studying her room with great interest.

"Interesting," he mused, running a finger over a leather club chair. "You seem to like black."

Alex rolled her eyes. "I've always been a little Goth, okay? Believe me, it was worse than this a few years ago."

"Okay, okay," the Doctor said, raising his hands and admitting defeat. "Get settled and come back and join us in the control room. I'm sure Amy's going through culture shock right now."

"She never stopped hoping you'd show up again," Alex said softly. "Even though, come to think of it, she told me to shut up whenever I mentioned you."

For a split second, there was a pained look in the Doctor's eyes. It was so quick that Alex only just caught it. But before she could comment on it, it was suddenly gone, as if it had never been there, and the Doctor was talking again. "Yeah. So, control room, yeah? Don't worry if you get lost. The TARDIS will show you the way." And with that, he left.

Alex shrugged. So he felt guilty about leaving them for two years. He probably should at any rate, what with his driving. Knowing they'd be expecting her soon, Alex made quick work of unpacking. She discovered that one of the doors led to a small-walk in closet with dressers and made quick work of unpacking the few clothes she had brought. She remembered the Doctor mentioning a wardrobe and knew she wouldn't need to go shopping anytime soon. She put her toiletries in the bathroom and placed her diary in a small hidden drawer in the desk that the TARDIS had conjured up for her. Patting the wall in thanks, Alex quickly made her way back to the control room.

As she walked into the control room, Alex noticed that Amy was floating outside the open TARDIS doors while the Doctor held her ankle to keep her from floating off. Alex didn't think that was very safe but she was no expert on space. Even her intelligent and prideful mind was forced to admit that.

She skipped up next to the Doctor's side and called up to Amy, "How's the weather out there?" She wasn't positive, but she was pretty sure Amy stuck her tongue out at her. The Doctor laughed at her antics.

"Care for a go?" he asked her.

Alex shook her head. "No, thank you. I don't like heights."

"Liar!" Amy called down. "You were practically bouncing in your seat with excitement that time at the Ferris wheel, when you dared me and Rory to go up with you."

"Okay, I don't like heights with zero gravity," Alex clarified.

The Doctor shot Amy an amused glance. "Amelia Pond, scared of heights?" he mocked.

"Shut up," Amy muttered.

Alex and the Doctor laughed. "Come on Pond," the Doctor called, gently pulling Amy back inside.

"Now do you believe me?" the Doctor asked her as soon as her feet hit the ground.

"He figured you'd be going through culture shock," Alex added.

"Okay," Amy laughed in disbelief. "Your box is a spaceship! It's really, really a spaceship! We are in space! Whoo!" Amy leaned out to cry this but suddenly jerked back. "What are we breathing?" she asked, as it had suddenly occurred to her that in space, there was no oxygen.

Luckily, Alex had already figured this out. "You extended an air shell around the TARDIS, didn't you?" she asked.

The Doctor was impressed. "Exactly. You must've done well in school."

Alex shrugged, trying to act modest. "Top of my class," she said. "Octavian only took the best." Her expression fell at the reminder of Octavian and before she could be fully depressed, the Doctor suddenly said, "Now, that's interesting."

Alex was about to retort that there was nothing interesting about getting kicked out of college due to scandal when she noticed something floating beneath them. Craning her neck out slightly, she caught sight of a large gray steel spaceship. "What is that?" she wondered, but the Doctor didn't hear her as he was already racing back to the console.

"29th century, solar flares roast the Earth," he babbled as he ran around the console.

Alex grimaced at his words. Okay, no going to the 29th century then! She told herself, heading up to stand beside him at the console.

". . .entire human race packs its bags and moves out till the weather improves. Whole nations. . ." the Doctor chattered on.

"Doctor," Amy's voice called out.

". . .migrating to the stars," the Doctor added on, not hearing her.

"Doctor?" Amy called again, sounding a little more impatient. But the Doctor and Alex still didn't hear, the Doctor too busy babbling and Alex too busy listening.

"Isn't that amazing?" he asked Alex.

"DOCTOR!" Amy shrieked. This time, the Doctor and Alex heard her perfectly and both looked up from the console to see that Amy wasn't there. Spotting the open doors, Alex shrieked and raced over to them, the Doctor hot on her heels. Alex skidded a little just as she reached the doorway. Just as she was about to fall out into deep space, the Doctor's arm hooked around her waist and pulled her back.

Alex pointedly ignored the jolt in her stomach she felt when the Doctor touched her while the Doctor ignored how his arm practically buzzed with energy as he kept it wrapped around Alex. Alex smiled sheepishly up at him and he returned it before looking up at Amy, who was clutching the top of the TARDIS for dear life.

"Well, come on. I've found us a spaceship." Reluctantly releasing Alex, the Doctor reached out and helped Amy back in. A few seconds later, the girls found themselves at the TARDIS console, staring at a monitor as the Doctor talked.

"This is the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland - all of it, bolted together and floating in the sky," the Doctor explained as they stared at the spaceship on the monitor. "Starship U.K. It's Britain, but metal. That's not just a ship - that's an idea," he added approvingly. "That's a whole country, living and laughing and . . .shopping." Suddenly, he didn't sound so impressed. Alex laughed at the look on his face before he quickly said, "Searching the stars for a new home."

"Can we go out and see?" Amy asked, her voice hopeful.

"Course we can," the Doctor answered, but Alex sensed a 'but' coming. "But first there's a thing."

I knew it, she thought.

"A thing?" Amy repeated.

"An important thing," the Doctor clarified. "In fact, thing one," he looked at the girls through a magnifying glass that he hadn't had a few seconds ago, "we are observers only. That's the one rule I've always stuck to in my travels."

"Somehow, I doubt that," Alex argued. The Doctor's words completely contradicted his actions with the Atraxi. A person who only observed would have let the Earth fry, but the Doctor hadn't done that.

The Doctor, knowing that she was right, ignored her and continued. "I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets." The TARDIS shook a little at this, almost as though she was laughing at the absurdity of this statement. The Doctor frowned at the control panel slightly as Alex fought to keep her laughter down.

The Doctor finished his mild glaring at the TARDIS console and refocused back on the monitor. "Ooh, that's interesting." Curious to see what had captured his attention, Alex and Amy turned to look at the screen. The screen was showing a little girl of about twelve in a red sweater, crying quietly on a bench all alone. Almost instantly, Alex's heart went out to her and she could tell that Amy's had too, judging by the sympathetic look in her eyes.

Still watching the screen, Amy asked, "So, we're like a wildlife documentary, yeah? 'Cause if they see a wounded little cub or something, they can't just save it - they've got to keep filming and let it die." She leaned closer to the screen, still watching the girl. "That's got to be hard. I don't think I could do that. Don't you find that hard - being all, like, detached and cold?" Instead of an answer from the Doctor though, the two were surprised to find him showing up on the screen. He crouched down to talk to the little girl, but she just ran away.

"Doctor?" Amy called out, surprised.

Alex frowned. "That isn't going to be a regular thing with him, is it?" she asked no one in particular. Back onscreen, the Doctor stared straight at them and waved for them to come out. With a look at each other before shrugging, Alex and Amy dashed out of the TARDIS onto Starship U.K.

The two looked around in amazement and shock at their new surroundings. They were in a large market with several stalls and booths all around them. Several people were all around them, eating, drinking coffee, walking to a booth, all talking and laughing like regular people did back on Earth. Alex was quite pleased to see that some things, despite strange happenings like huge solar flares and large spaceships, didn't change.

"Welcome to the London Market," an electronic voice rang out. "You are being monitored." It also seemed to Alex as though security systems hadn't changed much either.

The Doctor walked up to them, studying their expressions. While Amy seemed shocked and generally overwhelmed, Alex seemed amazed and calm all at the same time. It was as though she had immediately adapted to her new surroundings and that made him like her all the more. "Not too shabby for a futuristic British ship," Alex was saying as he came up.

Amy's reaction was a bit different though. "I'm in the future. Like hundreds . . . of years in the future. I've been dead for centuries. . ."

Really? Alex thought, taken aback. You focus on that?

The Doctor seemed to share her thoughts for he stared at Amy and said, "Oh lovely. You're a cheery one." But suddenly, he was acting maniacal again and focusing on something other than Amy's reaction to her first time-traveling trip. "Never mind dead, look at this place." He glanced around, as if expecting something unexpected to pop out and stare him in the face. "Isn't it wrong?"

Now that he mentioned it, there was something a little strange. Alex narrowed her eyes and carefully examined the market, looking for something out of place – or as out of place as you could get on a 29th century spaceship - that would tell her what was wrong. Even as her whip-fast mind started turning its gears even faster, she vaguely heard Amy ask, "What's wrong?"

"Use your eyes, notice everything," the Doctor advised. "What's wrong with this picture?" He had already noticed Alex concentrating on everything around her intently, so he didn't bother saying this to her as well.

Amy's brow furrowed as she tried to keep up. "Is it . . . the bicycles?" She pointed to a machine Alex recognized as a rickshaw. "Bit unusual on a spaceship, bicycles."

The Doctor smirked at her. "Says the girl in her nightie," he retorted.

Amy's eyes widened as she realized she was still in her nightgown and robe. "Oh my God, I'm in my nightie!" She looked over at Alex, envying her tight jeans and leather jacket. "That's hardly fair, Alex."

Alex shrugged, still too intent on figuring out what was wrong with this ship really focus on Amy's fashion envy. She listened to the Doctor say, "Now, come on, look around you. Actually look."

"London Market is a crime free zone."

"Life on a giant starship, back to basics. Bicycles, washing lines, wind-up street lamps," the Doctor rattled on. He put an arm around Amy's shoulders and led her further into the market as Alex followed right behind them. "But look closer. Secrets and shadows, lives led in fear. Society bent out of shape, on the brink of collapse. A police state. Excuse me." Alex and Amy watched as the Doctor ran over to a nearby table, grabbed a glass of water from the people sitting there, and carefully placed it on the floor. He looked at it intently for a few moments before abruptly setting it back on the table.

"Sorry, checking all the water in this area. There's an escaped fish," he told the confused looking couple. "Where was I?" he said, turning back to Alex and Amy.

Alex shook her head. "An escaped fish?" she demanded, her voice expressing disbelief. "That was the best you could come up with?"

The Doctor looked at her challengingly. "And I suppose you think you could do better?"

Alex placed her hands on her hips and attempted to stare him down, a difficult task with her height. "I know I could do better."

The Doctor smirked at her, a mischievous glint in his eyes that made a tingle of heat race down Alex's spine. "How about the next time we need to come up with a lie in a hurry, I leave it to you? When you inevitably mess it up, you can't really complain about my excuses then, now can you?"

Alex cocked an eyebrow. "Inevitably?" she repeated. "Please."

Amy was getting impatient with their banter during the matter at hand however and quickly blurted, "Why did you just do that with the water?"

This managed to snap the two out of their playful, somewhat flirtatious banter and back to the problem with the ship. "Don't know," the Doctor admitted. "I think a lot. It's hard to keep track. Now, police state - do you see it yet?" He looked around the marketplace rapidly, effectively distracting Amy, but not Alex, who had gone back to carefully reviewing the past few minutes in search of a clue.

Well, from what I've seen, it doesn't look as though the ship is under martial law, so that's a good sign, she mused. Okay, the glass of water. Let's see, this ship was pretty big. A ship this big must have big engines. And big engines make a lot of noise, so with a ship this size and engines that big, you would be able to hear them and things would be constantly falling over. Suddenly, it dawned on Alex and she looked around, noticing that nothing was falling over and nothing except the people were moving. Of course! The water in the glass should've moved when the Doctor placed it on the ground! But it didn't. Wonder why. . .

Once glance at the Doctor told her that he had already figured out the strange lack of engines; he just wasn't saying anything, probably so as not to scare her or Amy. Suddenly, Alex realized she had missed a little bit of dialogue as the Doctor was suddenly dragging her and Amy to a bench, just a little ways away from the crying girl. They sat there silently for a few moments, just watching her. "One little girl crying," Amy observed. "So?"

"Crying silently," the Doctor said quietly. "I mean, children cry because they want attention, 'cause they're hurt or afraid. When they cry silently, it's 'cause they just can't stop. Any parent knows that." Alex nodded her head at this logic. She could attest to the fact that over the years, she had cried silently because she couldn't stop the tears from falling. After she had lost her parents, she had cried loud, heaving sobs just to make someone come and comfort her, but no one had come.

As these thoughts raced through Alex's head, Amy was staring at the Doctor curiously. "Are you a parent?" she asked.

The Doctor, however, avoided answering this question, for reasons that Alex believed were probably painful. "Hundreds of parents walking past this spot and not one of them is asking her what's wrong, which means . . . they already know, and it's something they don't talk about. Secrets. They're not helping her, so it's something they're afraid of. Shadows - whatever they're afraid of - it's nowhere to be seen, which means it's everywhere. Police state."

Amy looked over at the bench and noticed that the girl was gone. "Where'd she go?" she cried, looking around.

"Deck 207, Apple Sesame block, dwelling 54A," the Doctor rattled off. "You're looking for Mandy Tanner. Oh," the Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out a large ID wallet. "This fell out of her pocket when I accidentally bumped into her."

Alex eyed him, not believing that for a second. "How many goes? Three?"

The Doctor blushed slightly. "Four goes actually. Ask her about those things - the smiling fellows in the booths. They're everywhere."

Upon this, Alex looked around and noticed what the Doctor was talking about. A little ways away was a large red booth with a strange smiling mannequin in it. Alex shivered. That booth, for some reason, gave her the creeps. And judging by the amount of people walking around it, she wasn't alone in that feeling. No wonder the Doctor wanted to know more about them.

"But they're just things," Amy insisted as she glanced at one of the booths.

"They're clean. Everything else here is battered and filthy - look at this place. But no-one's laid a finger on those booths. Not a footprint within two feet of them. Ask Mandy, why are people scared of the things in the booths?"

Amy shifted slightly as the Doctor leaned close to her, in an effort to get his point across. "No. Hang on - what do I do?" she cried, somewhat panicked. "I don't know what I'm doing here and I'm not even dressed!" She cast an eye down at her nightgown.

The Doctor eyed her critically. "It's this or Leadworth. What do you think? Let's see. What will Amy Pond choose?" Amy made a face, knowing he already knew what she would do. The Doctor laughed at her expression. "Ha-ha, gotcha!" He checked as his watch as he added, "Meet us back here in half an hour."

Amy leaned back against the bench, resigned. "What are you going to do?" she quizzed.

"What I always do," the Doctor answered, mocking her voice. "Stay out of trouble. Badly." He reached out and pulled Alex to her feet before leaping over the bench. Amy watched, amused, as Alex shook her head before running around the bench and racing after him.

"So this is how it works, Doctor?" Amy called to him. "You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there are children crying?"

Alex stopped for a second to listen to the Doctor's answer. Without any hesitation, he replied, "Yes." Then, he was walking off again and Alex was racing to catch up with him.

"So, no engines huh?" she said as she stepped in synch with him.

The Doctor shrugged, by this point not surprised that she had figured it out. "Hard to tell. It could be anything."

Alex stared at him. "But it could be no engines, couldn't it?" she inquired again, this seeming like the logical answer to her.

The Doctor sighed, defeated. "Yes, that is the most likely possibility. You're hopeful that's going to be it, aren't you?"

Alex gawked at him. "I'm not eager to be on a ship that can't technically fly, thank you very much. But I am eager to see if my conclusions are correct or not."

"Let me guess, you're used to being the smartest person in the room, right?" The Doctor knew he was right when he saw the way Alex flinched slightly.

"I was, until you turned up," she dismissed. "Quite interesting now if you want the truth."

"But also a little irritating, right?" the Doctor asked quietly. He already knew that Alex put a high bounty on her intelligence. He had seen it when she talked about getting kicked out of Octavian. It had to be humiliating not being able to afford the high college tuition rates. Therefore, whenever a situation arose where her intelligence was needed, she would use it and flaunt it gladly.

Alex bit her bottom lip. She knew this was also true. She liked being the smartest person in the room because it made her feel important and appreciated, something that had been sadly lacking for her after Octavian. But she hated to admit it because she hated feeling so vain and self-righteous. So, instead of answering the Doctor's question, she caught sight of a doorway that inexplicably read ENGINES and tugged on his arm. "Come on, the engine room is this way.

~Living the Life of Ally~

"Put one hand on my ass and that pretty little face will get squished," Alex warned as she felt a tingle of heat in her back that meant the Doctor was about to reach for her.

Behind her, the Doctor rolled his eyes. "Not the section of anatomy I was aiming for," he retorted, carefully grabbing her by the waist and helping her down from the ladder. He kept his eyes focused on Alex's hair instead on how her backside looked in her skinny jeans and placed her gently on the ground. Once her feet were safely on the ground, the Doctor pressed his ear against a wall, trying to listen for something. Alex did the same next to him.

"Can't be," he muttered, waving the sonic screwdriver around for a reading.

Alex tapped the wall with her knuckle and jerked back when she heard a faint echo. "This can't be hollow!" she cried. She turned to notify the Doctor when she saw him lying on the ground, studying a glass of water that had been placed there. Sure enough, it wasn't moving. She had just crouched down next to him to study it when a voice rang out.

"The impossible truth in a glass of water," the faint, wispy voice said. Looking up, the Doctor and Alex saw a woman standing in front of them. She was tall, black, and dressed in a red cloak with a beautiful porcelain mask covering her face. "Not many people see it," she commented.

The time-travelers stood up and the Doctor tugged Alex close to his side, in case the mysterious stranger in front of them proved to be harmful. Before the Doctor could say anything, the woman said, "But you do, don't you, Doctor, Alexandria?"

Alex resisted the urge to correct her as the Doctor stepped protectively in front of her. "You know us?" he asked.

"Keep your voice down," the woman warned. "They're everywhere. Tell me what you see in the glass."

"Who says we see anything?" the Doctor retorted.

"Don't waste time. At the marketplace, you placed a glass of water on the floor, looked at it, then came straight here to the engine room. Why?"

Alex couldn't bear to keep silent for any longer. "No engine vibration on deck," she answered, poking her head out from behind the Doctor as she spoke. "Ship this size, engine this big, you'd feel it. The water would move. So . . . we thought we'd take a look."

The Doctor walked to a nearby wall and opened a power box. Much to his and Alex's surprise, there was nothing connected inside. "It doesn't make sense!" he cried as Alex went over to him.

She frowned and fiddled with one of the power coupling ends. "These power couplings, they're not connected," she mused. The Doctor nodded encouragingly and added, "Look. Look - they're dummies, see?" He crossed over to the opposite wall and rapped on it with a closed fist, similar to what Alex had done a few moments ago.

"That wall's hollow!" Alex called out. The Doctor, most likely ignoring her, cried, "And this wall, nothing. It's hollow." Alex threw up her arms in an exasperated manner and she was pretty sure the masked woman in front of her chuckled a bit. "I JUST said that!" she muttered.

The Doctor continued by concluding, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say there was. . ."

"No engine at all," the masked woman and the Doctor said in unison. Alex raised her eyebrows. Okay, she wasn't the only one who did that with him.

"But it's working," the Doctor argued. "This ship is travelling through space. I saw it."

"The impossible truth, Doctor. We're traveling among the stars in a spaceship that could never fly."

"How?" Alex demanded.

"I don't know," the mystery woman admitted. "There's darkness at the heart of this nation. It threatens every one of us. Help us, Doctor. Help us, Alexandria. You two are our only hope. Your friend is safe." The woman gave the Doctor some strange looking device and added, "This will take you to her. Now go, quickly!" She quickly started strutting off until Alex called to her.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"How do we find you again?" the Doctor chimed in.

The woman turned back to them. "I am Liz 10," she said with an air of importance. "And I will find you." A crash suddenly sounded throughout the room and the Doctor and Alex looked around for the source before turning back to where Liz 10 had been. But she was gone.

Alex and the Doctor turned to face each-other, their eyes wide. And suddenly, they were giggling like a bunch of middle school girls at their first dance, completely slap-happy with what just happened. Alex ran a hand through her hair. "Did that seriously just happen?" she asked incredulously.

The Doctor swallowed a burst of laughter. "Welcome to my world, Alexandria," he said eloquently.

Alex rolled her eyes. "Please don't call me that. I much prefer Alex. Alexandria is just too long."

The Doctor nodded. "So, should we see what Amy's been up to?"

Alex nodded, hoping her friend hadn't gotten into some serious trouble. "Yes, come on!" She grabbed the Doctor's sleeve and they raced up the ladder, the Doctor pointedly looking anywhere else but at a certain asset of Alex's in front of him.

~Living the Life of Ally~

Alex and the Doctor raced all around Starship U.K., following the device in the Doctor's hand until they finally came to a large steel door. The crying girl from earlier, Mandy, was sitting outside of it. She started visibly as they skidded to a stop in front of her, but relaxed when Alex winked at her. Her eyes widened at seeing Alex's eyes change from copper to chocolate brown, but she still returned Alex's wink with a smile.

"Hi, I'm Alex and this is the Doctor," Alex explained as the Doctor examined a security pad by the door. He looked up from it long enough to give Mandy a reassuring smile before turning back. "Don't worry, you're safe with us."

Mandy smiled at this. She liked this Alex. Calmness and enthusiasm radiated off of her like perfume. "Your friend is in there," Mandy said, nodding her head at the door. "I tried to stop her from looking. . ." Her voice trailed off.

Alex sighed and nodded. "Yeah, she tends to do that. I swear, Amy doesn't listen to a word anyone says except her own."

Suddenly, the door hissed open and all three straightened up, ready to face whatever was in the room. The Doctor quickly walked into the room with a grin on his face but it diminished as he caught sight of Amy, sitting in a chair in front of a series of screens, looking confused and alarmed all at once. Tears were in her eyes and her mascara had pooled around them, creating the impression of a raccoon. In the back of the room, there was another red booth with the smiling mannequin inside it.

"Amy?" Alex called softly. Amy jumped and turned to them, a look on her face that Alex could only describe as a deer caught in the headlights look.

"What have you done?" the Doctor asked. A few moments later, he was standing on the chair, scanning a lamp above it as the others watched him.

"Yeah, your basic memory wipe job. Must have erased about twenty minutes," he explained.

"But why would I choose to forget?" Amy wondered.

"'Cause everyone does," Mandy said, the first words she had said in the past few minutes. Despite Alex's calming presence, she had remained silent while the Doctor studied the mind-erasing lamp. "Everyone chooses the forget button."

"Did you?" the Doctor questioned, jumping down from the chair and crouching down to Mandy's height.

Mandy smiled slightly and shook her head. "I'm not eligible to vote yet. I'm twelve. Any time after you're sixteen, you're allowed to see the film and make your choice. And then once every five years. . ."

"And once every five years, everyone chooses to forget what they've learned," the Doctor finished. He then grinned. "Democracy in action."

Alex frowned. "That is not democracy in action," she started to protest, but Mandy interrupted her.

"How do you not know about this?" she asked, directing her question to the Doctor. "Are you Scottish, too?"

"Oh, I'm way worse than Scottish," the Doctor laughed as he studied the screen. "I can't even see the movie. Won't play for me."

"It played for me," Amy pointed out. Alex watched as she checked the Doctor out. Honestly. . . Alex closed her eyes, shook her head, and resisted the urge to shake Amy back into some sense of clarity. She was getting married tomorrow, for crying out loud!

"The difference being that the computer doesn't accept me as human," the Doctor explained. He glanced at Alex as he added, "I doubt it'll play for Alex either, seeing as she's American."

Alex nodded, confirming this. "Right. Speaking of which, Amy, remind me to renew my temporary visa whenever we get home."

Amy nodded that she would and returned her focus back to the Doctor. "Why not?" she quizzed. Suddenly, the truth finally dawned on her. "You look human," she said, getting up from her perch in the chair to stand by the Doctor's side, looking him over carefully. Alex wondered if she expected to find a fin poking out or something.

The Doctor shook his head. "No, you look Time Lord. They came first."

"So, there are other Time Lords, yeah?" Amy asked, the excitement of such a possibility running through her veins. However, Alex didn't miss the flash of sadness and pain that came and went in the Doctor's eyes at her words.

"There were but there aren't . . . just me now," the Doctor said slowly. He ran a hand through his hair. "Long story. Bad stuff happened, and you know what? I'd love to forget it all, every last bit of it, but I don't. Not ever. 'Cause this is what I do - every time, every day, every second. This." He turned to look at Alex and then back at Amy. Acting on a hunch, Alex carefully maneuvered Mandy to where she was now standing outside the door.

"Hold tight," he continued. "We're bringing down the government." The Doctor then reached out and slammed down the protest button. The door slammed shut and Alex thanked God that she had had the sense to put Mandy on the other side. The Smiler in the booth turned to show a very angry look on his face. The Doctor raced across the room, dragging Amy along with him, and wrapped his arm around Alex's waist, pulling her to where her back was touching his chest. The floor began to disintegrate into tiny cubes.

"Say whee!" he whooped as Amy and Alex screamed bloody murder. The trio suddenly found themselves falling down a chute where the Doctor got separated from Alex, much to the despair of both. Alex then found herself lying on a squishy floor, surrounded by what appeared to be garbage.

Oh great! She groaned. He's gotten us sucked down into a goddamn dump!

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Amy lying a small distance away, also looking disgusted with their surroundings. The Doctor had already gotten up and was running his sonic screwdriver all around.

"What the hell happened?" Alex demanded, sitting up and wincing at her wet jacket.

"High-speed air cannon," the Doctor answered. "Lousy way to travel." He shot her a smile but Alex merely narrowed her eyes. The Doctor bristled slightly, still not used to the fury in her eyes when she did that, and turned back to examining their surroundings.

"Where are we?" Amy asked, picking up a piece of organic matter and throwing it down, disgusted.

"Six hundred feet down, twenty miles laterally - puts us at the heart of the ship. I'd say . . . Lancashire." Alex snorted at this.

"What's this then - a cave?" she asked, getting up to better situate herself.

"Can't be a cave," the Doctor replied, rejecting that theory.

"Looks like a cave," Alex persisted.

"It's a rubbish dump, and it's minging!" Amy stood up and threw a piece of garbage into the distance.

"Yes, but only food refuse." The Doctor sniffed a piece of garbage and Alex nearly threw up. "Organic, coming from feeder tubes from all over the ship."

Amy got down on her hands and knees and kneaded at the ground. "This floor's all squishy," she announced. "Like a water bed."

Alex's brain was working at hyper speed, connecting the dots to come up with a picture she was already starting to hate. "But feeding what?" she asked the Doctor, hoping for once that she was wrong.

"It's sort of rubbery, feel it," Amy urged. "Wet and slimy."

The Doctor shifted slightly. "Er . . . it's not a floor, it's a. . ." The way he trailed off confirmed that Alex was right in what she suspected the floor really was. He put his sonic screwdriver away. "So. . ." he said awkwardly.

"It's a what?" Amy and Alex stepped over to him.

"The next word is kind of a scary word," the Doctor said, attempting to calm Amy before she inevitably freaked out. "Take a moment. Get yourself in a calm place." Alex snorted again, knowing that that would not work. "Go 'omm,'" he instructed.

"Omm," Amy obeyed, frowning, her face full of questions.

"It's a tongue," the Doctor told her.

Amy stared at him, the words sinking in. "A tongue?" she repeated.

"A tongue," the Doctor confirmed, actually sounding excited by it, which bewildered Alex. "A great big tongue!"

Amy was less enthusiastic however. "This is a mouth?" she cried, sounding horrified. "This whole place is a mouth? We're in a MOUTH?!"

"Yes, yes, yes, but on the plus side, roomy."

Amy shot him a glare. "How do we get out?" she nearly shrieked.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic and flashed it all around the mouth. "How big is this beastie?" he asked no one in particular. "It's gorgeous! Blimey! If this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach!"

Alex could have killed him. "Shut up!" she snapped as a grunting noise rang throughout the vicinity.

The Doctor's eyes widened. "Though not right now!" he added hurriedly.

"Doctor, how do we get out?" Alex asked, trying her best to remain calm.

"Okay, it's being fed through surgically implanted feeder tubes, so the normal entrance is. . ." The Doctor trailed off as he saw the creature's mouth was tightly shut. "Closed for business," he dejectedly finished.

"We can try though," Amy said, determined, and she started forward.

"No!" the Doctor objected. "Stop, don't move!" Just a second after the words left his lips though, the ground started rumbling. The Doctor grimaced. "Too late. It's started."

"What has?" Amy cried.

"Swallow reflex," the Doctor answered as they all fell to the ground. He brought out his sonic screwdriver and scanned it on a nearby 'wall'.

"What are you doing?" Alex cried as she flung a piece of rubbish off her jeans.

"Vibrating the chemo-receptors," he replied.

"Chemo what?" the girls cried in tandem.

"The eject button!" he clarified.

"How does a mouth have an ejection button?" Amy demanded. Alex gave her an incredulous look.

"Amy, remember when I had that bad bout of food poisoning?" she asked. "Think about it!" she and the Doctor yelled. The creature growled and the trio turned around to see a wave of bile heading straight towards them. Alex and Amy raced over to the Doctor's side while he fiddled with his bowtie.

"Right then," he yelled over the roar of the approaching sick, "this isn't going to be big on dignity!" Oh, you think?! Alex wanted to shout but her eyes were widely fixated on the bile rapidly approaching them. "Geronimo!" he yelled as Alex and Amy screamed.

A/N: And here's the first part of 'The Beast Below!' I hope you enjoyed it! Believe me, there's more suspense (and Doctor/Alex moments) to come, and even a few moments that I think might get a few people upset... :)

Thank you to ElysiumPhoenix and XxKicking Your AxX for reviewing and to all those who favored and followed this story.