51. A Tale of Two Planets

1. A Binary Planet.

The Doctor surveys his chosen family, detecting some sadness from Devyon. Aware of his fading bereavement, he decides to sit and chat briefly to see if he can be encouraged. The Doctor might not be very good at this sort of thing. .
"What are you missing most?" he asks bluntly. The Doctor's straight to the point! .
"I'm concerned for my daughter, Alyssa," Devyon replies. It might not be the most important thing, but he'd happened to be thinking about it at the time. "She's alone at home and might be getting up to all sorts of mischief!" He's more concerned that she's bored. .
"But let's say she isn't," the Doctor prompts. He's seen signs that Alyssa has become more useful lately, and mischief might not be so likely.
"Then the house might be attacked by the Master - he knows where we live!" (Ref. 37.)
"But that's unlikely," the Doctor prompts. He's used to many people having many things to worry about. Besides, Meran is far more at risk from this possibility.
"Ah, and it's a while since I've seen her!" Devyon shares.
This seems much more likely to the Doctor. "Shall we invite her along?"
"Oh, please." Devyon is surprised then relieved and perks up at the prospect of having both his daughters with him.

Chloe, his other daughter, has been listening in at the suggestion of the Doctor.
"Tardis, can we enclose Alyssa, please?" she asks.
The familiar grinding noise tells them that the action is happening, and Alyssa appears in the Tardis Console room, sitting comfortably in an armchair from their home. .
"Oi," Devyon says. "Can we leave the armchair at home, please? I don't want to lose that!" .
Alyssa can see that her quiet time is at an end and gets up. Immediately a grinding noise confirms the reason why the armchair disappears from the Console room.
"Is this what it feels like to be summoned to be here?" she asks. .
Devyon laughs. "I guess it is. Wonderful to see you!" He steps to Alyssa and hugs her.
"Can I bring Simeon, too?" Alyssa asks.
"Why? I thought we dropped him off on Gallifrey," Chloe asks (ref. 48).
"Erm, I re-planned his return," Alyssa says (ref. 50).
"How do you mean?" Chloe's bemused.
"I grabbed him back from his workplace on Gallifrey."
"What? Why?"
"I wanted his company on an outing," Alyssa says.
"Why?" Chloe demands to know. She'd only recently stopped dating Simeon, so she's surprised at Alyssa's interest.
"I thought he might like a few weeks to recover after you dumped him."
Chloe can feel her hackles rising. She's annoyed that Alyssa should interfere, but she decides she must be professional.
"Alright, so what did you do? Where did you go?"
"We got lost in time on a planet called Vadar, we were called InVadars by a chief called Darth!" .
Chloe rolls her eyes. She's heard plenty. .
"So, can Simeon come, too?" Alyssa asks.

The Doctor steps in and smiles. "I'm sure he can." He'd like some friendly Gallifreyan company.

A little later.

"There's an incoming voice message, Doctor," Meran announces.
He likes to hover around the Tardis Console to ensure every little thing that might need consideration is attended to.

Maybe he worries too much, or maybe he's trying for Uhura's role from the original Star Trek? .

"Let's hear it," the Doctor replies, remaining recumbent on the park bench in the Console room (ref. 2).
He's trying to educate his currently favoured family in using the Tardis Console facilities and not needing to stress.

A booming, crackly voice is heard. "Help me!".
The message is distorted and repeated. After three iterations Meran has heard quite enough and cuts the sound. The waveform continues to show on the monitor for a moment until he cuts that, too. . It suddenly seems too much for him to bear.
Alyssa looks to the Doctor. "What can we do?" she asks.
The Doctor has a foreboding feeling about this message; he's heard one before.
Meran starts tapping away at the Console keyboard. "I'll isolate its source," he says.
The Console screen shows a star field and starts zooming in towards the centre, slowing as it finds just one star near the edge of a distant galaxy.

"Can we go and see?" Alyssa asks.
The Tardis automatically grinds, and the screen shows the orbits of the planets pictorially before zooming in on one area in particular.
Alyssa's now enjoying accompanying both Simeon and the Doctor's family. It's better than maybe being bored at home on her own! .
Simeon cuddles up to her. Chloe's uncomfortable and annoyed. She had been going out with him but had dumped him only a few days earlier in her timeline (ref. 48), but Simeon seems completely over things. On his timeline, he's had several weeks (ref. 50).

Alyssa looks at the graphic image and a question forms for her. "Doctor, why are planets so far away from each other in every solar system? They seem like tiny specks."
The Doctor smiles. It's a simple enough question for him. He's seen enough solar systems in his time and been able to traverse time for a better view.
"My dear, if they were any closer, the planets would have hit each other over the billions of years orbiting their star. There used to be more planets in most planetary systems, but some break up, others collide, and some might even be ejected from their solar system. Billions of years is a long time to maintain a stable orbit, even worse when there's more than one star in the system!"

Two planets in this solar system are clearly far too close, in a tight orbit around each other, but something appears to be happening between them. Some kind of technologically highly advanced illuminated structure looks as if it's holding the planets apart.
"That must take a lot of power," Devyon says. He's practical, having been a scientist in his working life, but he's no astrophysicist! Now retired, he's choosing to accompany his daughters, Chloe and, where possible, Alyssa, on their outings with the Doctor, while he copes with the loss of his wife, Crystelle. He feels this is better for him than simply being alone at home.

Meran's a friend of a friend, but his choice to accompany the Doctor is driven rather differently - The Master knows where he lived! He was accidentally the Master's apprentice at one time and now dares not return home (ref. 23)! The Master has already re-visited his home to compel him to accompany him on some dubious exploits (ref. 25)!

"No," the Doctor says. "Can you see the two planets are rotating about a central axis? They're a binary planet system and might just be in such a tight orbit together, gravitationally locked, the same side always facing each other. I've rarely seen two planets so close yet stable enough to stay like that for long."
"What's the thing looking lit up between the two planets, then?" Devyon asks. They can clearly see there's something that looks like bright shafts of light stretching between the two planets.
"Yes, it's interesting," the Doctor says. "Shall we have a closer look? Any lit-up structure must be man-made! But who made this?"

Chloe enters from the corridor. She's been in the kitchen, cooking.
"Sorry guys, the blender's broken. The cake will be behind schedule!" She's jesting - there's no schedule! .

The display on the Console screen zooms in towards one of the strands that appears to stretch between the two planets.
"I wonder what's going on there?" Devyon asks. As a scientist by training, he wants to know the nitty-gritty of what's physically there.
A few words appear on the Tardis screen in response to his question. Devyon steps across closer to read them.
"Purely laser light rays? Well, that's not going to support anything! Who's set it up like that?

Meran's reading some of the text about the planets. "They've had a fry-up here!" he says. "There's hardly any life there now, but there's been a lot of people living there."
"Oh, yuk!" Alyssa says, revulsed at the thought of so much carnage.
"But then it says they got most people off each planet onto another nearby planet. There appears to have been an inter-planetary war here between these two planets, but then somehow they've patched up their differences."

Alyssa's relieved, but they're still puzzled about the apparent structure lit up between the two planets.
"Why is that laser-lit structure there?"
Simeon reads the screen. "I think there's a room suspended between the two planets, maintained there by something. Two inhabitants who the people on both planets needed to exile. I wonder who they are?"
Meran's been reading the monitor screen, too. "There's been too many hostilities here," he says, "Doctor, what do you make of it?"

The Doctor's also been reading the screen. .
"To find out what went on here we'll have to go to that meeting there!" He jabs his finger at the screen. "Something happened there, then that changed everything! Before that meeting they were at each other's throats, yet afterwards they agreed on something! Momentous! That must be worth seeing!"

Chloe has a problem to raise. "Will we blend in?" . It seems highly improbable! "How are we going to go to that meeting?"
"We could just go," Alyssa says, "and get lost in the crowd!"
"We must go a day earlier and meet some of the local people," the Doctor says. "Finding out how they're all feeling will be as good as going to the meeting!"
He taps plenty of buttons and pulls the dematerialisation lever.

What can they hope to do?