Star pulled a lever landing the TARDIS in Trafalgar square when there was a knock on the door.
The Doctor glanced at Star, "did you tell Clara we were coming?" she was the only person who would knock, but she wouldn't even knock, she would just barge in and they were due to go and get her, not for her to come and get them. they were just planning on going to collect their drinks before meeting the woman at Coal Hill.
"No..." she opened the doors, looking down to see a young brunette girl there, "hello."
"I'm lost." The girl looked up at her. "Please, can you help me?"
The Doctor appeared behind Star, "It's that way." He pointed and shut the door on the girl.
"Wait a minute," Star reopened the door, "Are those trees?"
"I need the Doctor." The girl said, "Are you the Doctor?"
"Yes." The Doctor nodded, "Do you have an appointment? You need an appointment to see the Doctor."
"Please. Something's chasing me."
"Come on then," Star led her in, the girl gasping at the sight.
"When you drink a glass of Coke," the Doctor explained to her, "it's only this big, but it's actually got this much sugar in it. It works a bit like that."
"What does?" the girl frowned.
"The TARDIS. It's bigger on the inside than the outside, or did you not notice?" he led them up to the upper gallery, taking out a map of London.
"I just thought it was supposed to be bigger on the inside, so I didn't say anything."
"Well, of course it's supposed to be bigger. Most people are confused by that."
"I find everything confusing, nearly. So, I don't say anything. That's how come I'm in the woods. I thought Miss Oswald told me to find the Doctor. But it wasn't her. It was just in my head."
"Miss Oswald?" Star turned to her, "Brown hair? Highly unpredictable? Round face? Quite small?"
"Everyone says she's in love with Mr Pink."
Star grimaced at the name, "I hate that man."
"The PE teacher?" the Doctor frowned.
"Maths," the girl corrected, "I really like him. I was in his group."
"Mr Pink was looking after you and you got lost, he didn't do a very good job did he?" Star smirked, what teacher looses a child. Oh, she'd have fun about this.
The Doctor tossed the map away, and looked at the girl, "It doesn't surprise you that we know all about your school?"
The girl shrugged, "Everyone seems to know everything about everything, apart from me."
"That's not quite true. I, for instance, have no idea why, when the terrestrial navigation…"
Star pulled the girls hand away as she reached for a button, "don't touch," she chastised.
"The terrestrial navigation starts up," the Doctor continued, "It closes down all the other systems."
"You should ask somebody who knows." The girl suggested.
"Yeah, well we can't," Star grumbled, "last of our species, no one else, and even if we weren't we're too stubborn to ask for help."
The Doctor set the TARDIS is motion again, they were supposed to be in Trafalgar square, not a forest.
"You have reached your destination." The navigation announced.
"No, we haven't." the Doctor argued, "We're supposed to be in the middle of London."
"You have reached your destination." It repeated.
"Stop saying that!" Star hit the console, only to get a shock, "Ok, I deserved that."
"She's only saying it because it's true." The girl remarked, "We are in the middle of London."
"We are in the middle of a forest." The Doctor countered.
"Come and see." She took the Doctors hand in one and Stars in the other, leading them outside. "Nelson's Column. Do you like it?"
"Do I. Sorry, what?"
"Do you like the forest being in Trafalgar Square? I think it's lovely." The looked up to see the whole of London covered with ivy and branches and trees.
~
They went back inside the TARDIS, trying to figure out why trees were covering the city, when Clara phoned them, "You're always showing me amazing things." Was Clara's way of greeting, "Well, I, Doctor, have finally got something amazing to show you.
"Yes, well, there are some things I've never seen, but that's usually because I've chosen not to see them." He replied, "Even my incredibly long life is too short for Les Miserables."
"Oh, you're going to love this."
"Well, come and collect this child and you can tell us this 'amazing' thing yourself." Star called.
"Huh? What child?" she asked.
"Small young girl. Your boyfriend, Mr Pink was supposed to be looking after her. I bet he doesn't even realise she's missing."
"What her name?"
"I dunno." She shrugged, "Im not a mind reader."
"Star…"
"Oh wait, yes I am."
"You." the Doctor pointed at the kid, "Have you got a name at all?"
"Maebh." she told them, "My name's Maebh."
"Lovely name," Star winked at her.
"What? Maebh?" Clara called. "Where are you?"
"Trafalgar square." The Doctor answered, "We found her wandering around the brand new forest."
"Brand new forest?"
"Yes. It's like the New Forest, except even newer."
"Is that the forest that's covering London?"
"Was that the amazing thing you were going to show us?" Star mocked, "We saw it first!"
"Look, is she all right? Will you bring her over?"
"No, I can't bring her over." The Doctor said, "I'm a Time Lord, not a childminder."
"You're a dad; you can deal with a kid."
"Im not a child!" Star huffed.
"Oh, course you're not," they could practically hear her rolling her eyes, "You've got a spaceship. All we've got are Oyster cards."
"And we've got a global rapid afforestation crisis to deal with." The Doctor countered.
~.~
The Doctor stood on the lion's plinth, scanning the tress as Maebh watched a broadcast on her phone. Clara had eventually agreed to come and meet them with the rest of the children from the group, along with Mr Pink. Star had complained about that little detail.
"Good luck, scanning those trees," Star called, leaning on the lion, "they are wood, remember."
"Why would there be no reading?" the Doctor frowned at the sonic, "Because they are actually made of wood. No circuits. No mechanism. Wood."
"Still no setting for wood then?"
"Shut up," he whined, jumping down to the ground.
"What's this for?" Maebh looked at the sonic in his hand.
"This is a sonic screwdriver. It interacts with any form of communication you care to mention. Sadly, trees have no moving parts and don't communicate."
"They communicate a bit, though."
"What?"
"Otherwise they wouldn't all grow at the same time, would they."
"So, what, do you think that's how spring begins? With a group message on Tree Facebook? Do you think they send texts to each other?"
"You don't need a phone to communicate, do you? I haven't phoned home, and I know my mum is worried about me."
~.~
"Trafalgar Square." Danny led the group of school kids and Clara to the area outside the TARDIS as Star stood by the monitor in the console room, watching as the group arrive, the Doctor wondering around the area, thinking abut why the tress have appeared, "Well done, Bradley. Excellent navigation skills."
"Ah ha!" Clara cheered seeing the TARDIS, "There it is. All sorted now. Come on."
"Can we take a picture with the lion, sir?" one of the boys asked, "Please?"
"Er, stay together, but ok." Danny nodded. The kids all grinned and huddled together, taking pictures.
"I cannot believe Bradley just said please." Clara gaped at the boy.
"Really?"
"Yeah. He usually prefers other means of persuasion. And Ruby. You bring out the best in them"
"Don't say anything!" Clara pointed warningly as Star stepped out of the TARDIS, mouth open to talk.
Star slapped her mouth shut, pouting. It was scary at how well both Clara and the Doctor knew exactly what she would say.
"Ow!" the girl with braids, Ruby, cried as she held up a piece of broken branch, "Look, sir. No rings. Trees usually have rings to tell you how old they are. This one's got no rings. Why's that then, sir?"
"The rings mark the years of growth." The Doctor walked over, "One ring for each year. This grew up overnight. That whole tree is the result of just one night's growth, and they're still growing."
"Everyone, this is the Doctor and his daughter Star," Clara introduced, "and they're going to sort everything out. Isn't that right? It's what they do."
"Well, having looked at things, I think, probably, the answer to that is no."
"He always says that. He's really clever."
"Oh, yes, I am. Very clever. But what use is clever against trees? They don't listen to reason. You can't plead with them. You can't lie to them. They have no moving parts, no circuits. This is a natural event."
"How can it be natural for a tree to grow in one night?" Danny scoffed.
"Exactly what they said about the Ice Age." He countered, "How can whole glaciers just pop up out of nowhere? Well, they just did. That's how this planet grows, a series of catastrophes. Farewell to the Ice Age. Welcome to the Tree Age. Possibly. When the Ice Age was here, you lot managed to cook mammoth. Now there's a forest, you'll just have to eat nuts."
"I can't eat nuts. I've got an allergy." Bradley called.
"Don't worry. It's a thing he does." Clara assured the kids, "He pretends he's not interested and then he has an idea. He's playing for time."
"Time. Interesting." The Doctor murmured.
"See? Clever kicking in."
"A tree is a time machine. You plant a little acorn in 1795, and in the year 2016, there's an oak tree, there, in the same spot, with a tiny little bit of 1795 still alive inside of it. You can't create an overnight forest with extra special fertiliser. You have to mess with the fabric of time. And communicate with trees." He ran into the TARDIS, the others all following.
"So you're saying it's an act of aggression?" Clara asked.
"By trees?"
"Er, trees clean the air." Ruby called
"Exactly." Clara agreed, "Well done, Ruby. Someone or something who's trying to scrub the atmosphere before colonising or invading. Ah, yes. Ahem. This is Coal Hill Year Eight Gifted and Talented Group."
"What are the round bits for?" a young black boy asked, looking around the room.
"Ask your teacher. Come on! Down from there! Hey! Away from the console. Come on." The children ran to the console, pressing random button.
"Hey! Don't touch! Clara!" Star turned to her, "control your kids."
"Haven't any of you been struck by the fact that it's, look, it's bigger on the inside?" the Doctor shook his head at the kids.
"There wasn't a forest. Then there was a forest. Nothing surprises us any more." Ruby reasoned.
"These trees all appeared at once. That wasn't a coincidence. There's no such thing as an arboreal coincidence. Something, someone has coordinated this. To coordinate, you need to communicate. Every communication channel on the TARDIS is open, and nothing."
Danny picked up a school book form a pile, looking on a page of a drawing on a sun sending light rays to the tree tops.
"Let me see that." Star grabbed the book from the man.
"Homework books. Why are these here?" Danny demanded, they didn't belong here, they belonged to the children at the school.
"Maebh Arden." Star read the name. "Where's Maebh?" she scanned the kids, not recognising the small brunette, she turned to Danny, "you're doing a good job looking after all these kids."
"Oh, my God." Ruby gasped, "Maebh's gone. Maebh's lost in the forest. Maebh's going to die!"
"Ruby, that's enough!" Clara cried, "Doctor?"
"We've got to find her!" the Doctor deadpanned.
"Yes, I know that we have to find her." Clara agreed, "Doctor, listen to me. Her sister went missing last year. She's on medication. The child is barely functioning. She hears voices. She's very vulnerable."
"What do the voices say?" Star asked, she knew how it felt to hear things when no one else did and no one believed you.
"I don't know. She takes tablets and they stop."
Star's mouth fell open at that.
"You people." The Doctor shook his head, "You never learn. If a child is speaking, listen to it." he learnt that, when Star said she had heard someone talking to her and grabbing her leg, he should have listened to her.
"Oh, like you listened to her?" Danny rolled his eyes.
"Maybe you should have kept a closer eye on her," Star shot back.
"He's right." The Doctor brought the scanner on to see a large solar flare heading to Earth. "She was trying to tell me something and I ignored her. Maebh Arden is tuned to a different channel. She can lead us to the source, to the heart of the forest. We have to listen to her. We have to find her."
"Not everything can be fixed with a screwdriver." Clara pointed out, "It's not a magic wand."
"Do you have her phone number?" Star asked Clara, recalling the girl had been watching a broadcast on her phone.
"Er, yep." She pulled out her phone, handing it to the Doctor.
He soniced it, showing where she was "Maebh Arden. 500 yards south east of here. Star and I'll go get her."
"I'll go with you," Danny offered.
Star casually leaned on the console, looking at Danny, "you do know if you come with us, Clara will have to stay with the kids and you'll be alone with us. And I will kill you because Clara won't be there to stop me."
"I'll go," Clara volunteered, "you can..."
"You haven't seen them for months?" Danny guessed.
"Something like that."
"You didn't even say hello. You just sprung straight into action. Special unit."
"This is so cool." Ruby grinned.
"Don't touch!" Star stopped Ruby from pressing a button, "that would blow the universe up."
"See?" Clara offered a smile, "Someone needs to go. Child protection."
~.~
The Doctor, Star and Clara walked through the tree invested streets, leaving Danny and the kids in the TARDIS alone. Good luck to the TARDIS.
"Gifted and talented?" Star turned to Clara.
"Furious, fearful, tongue-tied." She replied, "They're all superpowers if you use them properly. Are they going to be all right?"
The nearby traffic lights turned off, the trees disrupting the electricity, "They're in the TARDIS, the safest place on the planet."
There was a rumble and they looked up to see the statue of Horatio falling towards them, they threw themselves out the way, the statue barely missing them as it smashed to the ground.
"If this is an invasion," Star began, looking back at the fallen statue, "then we're screwed. They're here, they've won."
"What do they want?" the Doctor wondered, growing more confused by the minute.
Clara glanced back, as they walked on, "Doctor, Star? Look behind us. The path we just walked down. It's overgrown already."
Star picked up a pink phone from the ground, "is this Maebh's?"
"Yeah. Why would she put her phone down?"
"Doesn't want to be followed?" the Doctor suggested, "Lost a hold of it in a struggle? Left it as a clue, so we would know where she was going? Trail of breadcrumbs. Hansel and Gretel."
"I'm actually frightened." Clara admitted, "I never get frightened. Why am I frightened?"
"You just lost a little girl."
"Yes, that is a worry, but I know you'll find her. No, no, no. This is not a worry, this is a dread. Maebh!"
"You're pursuing a little lost girl through a mysterious forest. The path has disappeared. You find yourself with a strangely compelling masculine figure. Maebh!"
"Any minute now we're going to find a gingerbread cottage with a cannibal witch inside. Maebh!"
"Exactly. The forest. It's in all the stories that kept you awake at night. The forest is mankind's nightmare."
"I love it!" Star grinned.
"I don't understand you half the time," Clara shook her head at her. Sometimes, like on the Orient Express, well sort of, Star was easy to get on with, she was nice and a friend but other times, Star scared her with her threats and the things she said.
"Clara," Star picked up a pink pencil case, "is this hers?"
"Yes." Clara nodded taking and putting it in her bag, "Clever girl." She walked on, pushing a branch away to be greeted by men in hazmat suits.
"Get back!" one warned, "We're burning here. Stay back."
"We're looking for a little girl."
"Stay back. We're about to burn." The men aimed a flame thrower on a tree. "Good job!" the flamers faded away, "What's going on? Trees aren't responding to flame-thrower. I mean, they don't catch fire. They just don't catch. It's like they're flame proof or something."
The Doctor, Star and Clara walked off, needing to find Maebh, "Trees control the oxygen on this planet." The Doctor explained, "They withhold it, they smother the fire. What sort of forest is clever? What sort of forest has its own in-built fire extinguisher?"
"What do they want?" Clara frowned.
"Why now?" Star shook her head.
"What do you mean, why now?"
"The whole natural order is turning against this planet. But why now?"
"Well, what else?"
The Doctor pulled out Maebh's homework book that Star showed him early, showing Clara the drawing, "How did she know this?"
"What is it?"
"This is a massive solar flare headed for Earth, like the one that destroyed the Bank of Karabraxos. I've got an entire TARDIS and I didn't notice this. But she knew. How?"
"This is Maebh's." Clara read the name on the front, "Where did you get this?"
"You left the books in the TARDIS when you were marking them," Star replied.
"Oh, great," Clara groaned, "right, well, that's just brilliant, isn't it. You don't think Danny saw this, do you?"
"Yes he did."
"Oh great."
"You tell me to stab him and he's stabbed. For you."
"You're not stabbing my boyfriend!" Clara cried.
She had no idea why the Time Lords didn't like him, the Doctor was a least civil, of course he insulted him (he insulted most people) but Star wasn't afraid to show that she hated the man with passion. She was actually growing concerned for Stars sanity, it was getting worse as the months past and she dreaded to think if they girl turned out even worse.
"I've just informed you that a solar flare is going to wipe out your planet." The Doctor rolled his eyes at Clara, "You're worried about a row with your boyfriend. How did she know this? She even put the date on it!"
"I always make them date their homework."
"It's today's date."
"Well, there must be a way?"
"They want something. They're saying something. If there is a way, the way is Maebh Arden."
"Okay, you know they're not really gifted and talented, don't you? I just tell them that to make them feel good."
"She's lost someone." Star murmured, "People who've lost someone, they're always listening, always looking, always hoping. So, they notice more. They hear more."
A wolf howled in the distance, "Was that a howl?" another replied to the first. "Was that a wolf? No. That is impossible. We're in London."
"London has a zoo," Star countered, "a zoo with wolves."
"The trees have probably broken the gates." The Doctor added, "The animals can get out. Stick to the path, little red riding hood."
Clara looked around at the tress and branches, "There is no path."
"Then we're lunch." The Doctor stated as they heard a pack of wolves howling.
There was a small scream in the distance, "Maebh?" Clara gasped, and they ran off, stopping as they reached an iron fence, Maebh on the other side, with the wolves.
"Maebh! Doctor, give me a boost so I can pull her over. Maebh? Maebh!"
Maebh ran through the gate, onto their side.
"Maebh." The Doctor began, crouching down to her height, "You came looking for us. You didn't …" Maebh waved her hands around, as though trying to swat something away, "Maebh, Maebh; you didn't just stumble into the TARDIS. Tell me what you know."
"Doctor…"
"This is important."
"Yes. Can we please deal with the wolves first?"
"These are zoo wolves." Star waved off her concern, "They're not even used to hunting. They're scared puppy dogs."
"Then why are they baring their teeth?" Clara asked.
The Doctor looked up to see the wolves, ready to attack "Alright, ok. We've just got to look as if we're too much bother to eat, right? So, stay still. Stay together. Look big. Look big like a big three-headed, six-legged scary thing!" The wolves ran away, whining, "Ha ha! Told you they were rubbish. Those wolves are terrified."
"What are wolves frightened of?"
"Well, at the moment I'd say that tiger," Star reasoned as a tiger appeared out of the trees, growling at them.
"There are very good solid scientific reasons for being really quite frightened just now." The Doctor breathed as they kept their eyes on the tiger.
Star slowly pulled out her dagger when a light shone on the tigers face, making it growl and run away.
"Mr Pink!" Clara grinned as he and the children appeared, him having shone a torch in the tigers face, "Why, thank you very much."
"Ah, no problem." He smiled "Just decided it was best not to leave you alone with them. They've worked well together. Noticeable increase in confidence and energy levels."
Maebh waved her arms again, making the Time Lords eye her.
"Well done. And for saving us from a tiger, too."
"I was about to handle it!" Star defended.
"You was about to kill it." Clara turned to her.
"Threaten it. It's a cat, threaten it and it'll run away."
"Er, has she had her medication yet?" Danny cut in, seeing Maebh wave her arms around.
"Oh. No, I…" Clara trailed.
"No, no. Not her medication." The Doctor shook his head, "We don't want to shut her up. We want to know what she knows. Maebh, what's the…Maebh, what is this? What is this?" he mimicked her waving.
"Apart from being almost savaged by a tiger and abducted by a Scotsman and his violent daughter, she's allowed any nervous tics she likes, okay?"
"This is not a nervous tic. This is react…"
"Please! Just give her her tablets" Ruby pleaded, "She's been in a state since her sister went missing." Maebh ran off again.
"Hey!" Star called, running after her.
"Maebh!" Danny shouted after her as he and the others quickly followed, "Maebh! Maebh!"
"You won't find your sister out there." Ruby yelled.
Maebh ran to a clearing with the sun shining down, with Star right behind her, the others soon catching up.
"Miss? What is it, miss?" Ruby asked.
"It's coming." Maebh gasped, eyes wide, "It's coming for everyone, and I can't unthink it."
"Maebh." Star knelt in front of her, "Maebh, this forest is communicating with you, and only you. No technology can hear what it's saying, but you can. Tell us what it wants. Where it came from. Do you know who did this? You can tell me," She looked in her eyes, "trust me."
"It was me. I did this. I did these trees."
"That's silly. You couldn't make a forest appear around the world over night."
"Thoughts come to me. Ever since Annabel went missing, I look for her everywhere. I don't find her, but I find thoughts. The big forest was one. I thought everyone would love it. The thoughts! The thoughts! They go so fast."
"This is stressing me now." Bradley muttered, "When I get stressed, I forget my anger management."
"Yeah, tell me about it," Star agreed, "don't get me angry." And that was saying something because she was always angry, it was her little secret, keep herself always angry, she had more control of her anger.
"Maebh," Clara eyed her, "can you see something that we can't see?"
"Nearly. Too fast. Everywhere." Maebh waved her hands around.
"Everything's subject to gravity." The Doctor remarked, "If I can create a little local increase..." he pulled out the sonic screwdriver.
"No. You're not experimenting on…" Danny began to argue when golden lights appeared around Maebh head, showing from the sonic.
"They're lovely!" Maebh smiled, no longer swatting them away, "They don't like it when you're holding them. They want you to let them go."
"Who are they?"
"We are Here." Maebh stiffened as a voice spoke through her, "Here, always, since the beginning and until the end."
"Here? That's it?"
"We are the green shoots that grow between the cracks, the grass that grows over the mass graves. After your wars are over, we will still be Here. We are the life that prevails."
"Why now?" Star demanded, "Why are you here now?"
"We hear the call and we come, as we came before to the great North Forest, where we lie still in a great circle. As we came to the vast Southern Forest."
"Who is calling you now?" the Doctor frowned.
"The sun that creates. The sun that destroys. You are hurting us. Let us go."
"You sent for us. The girl came looking for us. Why? Why us?"
"We did not send." The voice stated, "Pain. Did not send for you. We don't know you. We were here before you and will be here after you." the Doctor turned the sonic off, the lights disappearing.
"That was actually quite cool." A boy stared at Maebh as the girl fell to her knees, Danny and the Doctor catching her.
"Maebh, you came looking for the Doctor." the Doctor said to her, "Think. Who sent you to us?"
"It was just a thought." She murmured, "It was just a thought that came. I think it came from Miss. They've gone. Why does everything have to go?"
"This really is going to happen, isn't it?" Clara asked the Doctor quietly.
"Stars implode. Planets grow cold. Catastrophe is the metabolism of the universe. I can fight monsters. I can't fight physics." The Doctor shrugged.
"Why would trees want to kill us? We love trees."
"You say you love them, yet you've been chopping them down for furniture for centuries." Star argued, "If that's love, no wonder they're calling down fire from the heavens."
"But we saw the future. Lots of futures. Earth's futures."
"All erased."
"If you can't save them all, save who you can. The TARDIS. It's a lifeboat, isn't it? Not everybody has to die."
~.~
The group walked back to the TARDIS, Star walking ahead, groaning as Danny and the kids sang as they walked. She had nothing against the kids singing, it was just the fact that Danny was leading them off, singing himself.
As they approached the TARDIS, ivy had grown over it since they had left.
"Right, come on, team." Danny clapped his hands and they all pulled the greenery away.
"When they're done, you need to get in your box and go." Clara turned to the Time Lords.
"We're all going. We're taking the kids." The Doctor remarked.
"Taking them where? What are you going do with them? Leave them on an asteroid? Find a space academy for the gifted and talented? They just want their mums and dads, and they're never going to stop wanting them."
"We can save you and Danny."
"Danny Pink will never leave those kids so long as he is breathing."
"Come on, team." Danny smiled as they pulled away the last of the greenery.
"Can we take another selfie, sir?" Bradley asked.
"Of course. Come on, then."
"Yes!" the kids cheered, taking a picture.
"We can save you." Star looked at Clara.
"I don't want you to." She shook her head.
"Why not?"
"I just…"
"Tell us."
"Don't make me say it."
"Say."
"I don't want to be the last of my kind." She said quickly and quietly.
"Then why did you bring us all here?" the Doctor frowned.
"Because it's the only way to get you back to the TARDIS, make you think you're saving someone. Well, you know what, Doctor, Star? This time, the human race is saving you." Clara unlocked the TARDIS doors. "Make it worthwhile, both of you."
"You said it yourself, we walk your earth, breathe your air." Star reminded her, from when they left her to make the hard decision of killing the moon.
"It's our world too." The Doctor agreed.
"And on behalf of this world, you're very welcome." Clara offered a small, sad smile, "Now, go. Save the next one."
"Maebh!" the Doctor turned to her, "I'm sorry that we couldn't help you."
"You helped me loads." Maebh smiled back at them, "I thought it was all my fault. I feel much better now. Are you going to get rid of the forest?"
"Hard to get rid of a flame-proof forest, Maebh, eh? Come on." Clara led her back to the others taking a selfie.
The Doctor went inside the TARDIS. With a final glance at Clara, Star followed.
~.~
The TARDIS floated around in space, above Earth. The Doctor at the scanner, watching the storm, both trying their hardest to find out why the trees have appeared, why now?
"Flame proof forest," Star mused as she slowly began to realised, sitting on the stairs "flame proof forest! Dad!" she jumped up and ran to the console, "we need to go back to Earth!"
"Why?" he frowned, still utterly confused as to why the forest just appeared.
"Think it through. Flame proof forest, a solar storm heading to Earth."
"Oh!" his eyes widened as he realised, "I am Doctor Idiot!" they quickly piloted back to Earth, Star stepping out the TARDIS, teleporting and reappearing in front of Clara.
"Clara!" she cheered.
Clara blinked at seeing her, "Star!"
"How did you do that?" Danny asked, she had just appeared out of no where.
"None of your business," she snapped at him, turning back to Clara, "you have to come back to the TARDIS, right now!"
"Why?" she asked, unsure if this was a way for Star to just get her of the planet.
"All of you now, I'll explain when we're there," she ran off, leaving them no choice but to follow.
The Doctor stood at the TARDIS door, ushering them all in, "Maebh, quick. Good girl. Come on."
~.~
The humans all sat on the stairs leading to the gallery as the Doctor stood at the console with Star, explaining to them.
"It's all there in the screen," the Doctor gestured to the scanner as the solar flare appears on it, "big solar flare heading this way. A thousand kilometres a second. Coronal mass ejection. Geomagnetic storm. It's huge. Brewing up a solar wind big enough to blow the whole planet away."
"Clara didn't tell you?" Star guessed at their blank faces.
"I thought it would spoil an otherwise enjoyable walk," Clara remarked dryly.
"Ok. Ok," the Doctor cut in, "well, this is the bad news. The good news is, it's happened before. And you're still here. The Tunguska Blast, 1908. That should have blown the whole planet off the axis, but it didn't. It knocked a few trees over. Well, a few 10s of thousands of trees over. Curuca in Brazil. Same story. Earth shops have been smashed, but it wasn't. What do these things have in common?"
"They're really, really scaring us?" Ruby offered.
"Trees." he corrected, "when ever there's a planet-threatening, extra terrestrial impact, trees. Massive forest, filling the atmosphere with oxygen. Impinge it up like a massive, highly flammable airbag, do that when trouble hits."
"Everyone dies." The nut allergy boy finished.
"No. The impact burns off the excess oxygen. You have some fairly hectic weather for a few days and some fairly trippy looking sunsets, but apart from that, you will be all right. I was wrong. The trees are not your enemy. They're your shield. They've been saving you since forever. Protecting you from everything that space can throw at you."
"The wide ring," Clara recalled, "the red ring. In the museum. Ruby saw a cross section of a tree. One of the rings was wider than the others and red."
"Atmosphere dust, captured by the trees," the Doctor nodded, "the fingerprint of an asteroid."
"Happy Red Ring Day." Star cheered as the Doctor snapped his fingers at her. that was a brilliant name for the day.
"I don't get it," Ruby frowned, "if they're good, then why are we chopping them down?"
"The Government are sending out defoliating teams," Danny added, "they're dropping chemicals on them right now."
"What is it with you people?" the Doctor wondered, "You hear voices you want to shut them up. The trees come to save you; you want to chop them down."
"Or you think you need to save the world when it's already saving itself," Clara pointed out.
"I admit that I was wrong." he typed away in the console, "excellent. Mobile networks are still operative. Right. We are going to call everyone in Earth and tell them to leave the tress alone."
"Can I do it?" Maebh spoke up, "I started it. I should finish it."
"Ok. Ok. Class project. Save the world."
~.~
The children sprawled out in the floor as Maebh wrote down the script in her homework book, the others offering suggestion as she wrote.
"Ok," Maebh stood up, "and I think that's it."
Star flicked a switch and all the mobile phones in the TARDIS and the planet rang all at once.
"Essential services have been disrupted due to an unexpected forest," Maebh spoke into the speaker on the console, "we'd like to reassure you that the situation will be rectified very soon. Please don't be scared. And please don't chop, spray or harm the trees. They're here to help. Be less scared. Be more trusting. Oh and Annabel Arden, please come home."
The Doctor ends the transmission, "ok, who would like to witness a once in a billion years solar event at close quarters?"
"Mum!" Maebh gasped, seeing a woman in the scanner, "that's my mum!"
~.~
Clara and Danny led the kids to Trafalgar Square where Maebh was reunited with her mother. Star and the Doctor stayed in the TARDIS waiting for them to come back so they could watch the solar flare from space, only for only Clara to come back. Danny had gone to take the kids back to their parents.
The trio stood at the doors of the TARDIS watching the flare from a safe distance.
"I hope we're right," Star remarked, "it would be horrible if the Earth was destroyed right now."
"What?" Clara looked at her sharply.
"Joking! Im joking. I hope." She added quietly.
The solar flare reached Earth atmosphere, igniting the oxygen.
"There goes the planets sized airbag," the Doctor said, "that the trees harvesting the solar fire."
~.~
The solar flare had passed, the Earth was still standing. The Doctor, Star and Clara stood in the woman's baloney, watching as the trees disappeared before their eyes.
"This is amazing," Clara breathed, "how will they explain this tomorrow?"
"You'll forget it all," Star shrugged.
"We are not going to forget an overnight forest."
"Yeah you will."
"You forgot last time," the Doctor reminded her, "you remembered the fear and you put t into fairy stories. It's a human superpower, forgetting. If you remembered how things felt, you'd have stopped having wars. And stopped having babies."
The trio looked out watching as the greenery disappeared in a golden light as far as their eyes could see.