2. A Tale of a Planet.
The Tardis has attempted to hide itself out of the way in a corner between two external walls and cloaks itself.
The Doctor emerges first and looks around furtively. The coast is clear, so he beckons the others to follow him.
Meran has chosen to stay in the Tardis by the Console.
Maybe he's feeling fragile?
Or maybe his sense of Console ownership is growing too much?
Devyon feels he needs to protect his daughters, Chloe and Alyssa, so he feels he should lead the way. To the consternation of the Doctor, he strides forwards, leading the group at speed. The Doctor would much prefer to lead the way!
"Go carefully," the Doctor calls out from near the back of the group. .
As they round another corner in the wall, they join a dusty track where a group of people can be seen vociferously discussing something a short distance away.
The Doctor advises caution. "Can we listen in from the other side of the wall?"
"Ah, they've spotted us," Devyon says. .
The Doctor groans. The lack of any covertness was bound to affect them sooner or later.
"Be very careful not to show any aggression," the Doctor says, running to catch up. "Let me do the talking."
The group of people approach them. Most of them stay a short distance away while one of them, a larger, dominating man, approaches.
"Where are you from?" the large man asks forcefully.
This seems to be the prime question and is a tricky question for the Doctor to answer.
"We walked straight into that one," Alyssa comments quietly to Simeon.
"We're from around the corner," Devyon says, quite truthfully, forgetting the Doctor's advice to let him speak. . It's a response that's unlikely to last long under interrogation, though. .
"I've not seen you before," the large man says suspiciously.
"What's your name?" the Doctor steps forwards to try to dissipate the direct onslaught.
"Trevon," the large man says. "Who are you?"
"I'm the Doctor. Something happened to your corner of this world." He'd like to gain knowledge of the history of the problem here.
"Where've you been that you don't know?" Trevon asks suspiciously.
"Just around the corner," Devyon answers. .
"More than one corner," the Doctor adjusts Devyon's response.
"Why? What happened to you? How many corners?" Trevon asks. "Where are you from?"
Alyssa steps forwards. "Why does that matter so much to you?"
Trevon looks at her sternly and Alyssa quails.
"Because, if you're from Tellee you're not welcome! That's that planet up there!" He jabs his finger upwards towards the other binary planet in the pair. .
Devyon nearly bursts out laughing. I've a telly at home! He thinks. .
Simeon feels he must step in. "We're not from Tellee. I'm from a little further away than just around that corner," he says. "I may have come from a backwater that hasn't heard what's going on. Could you explain it to me, please?"
Devyon glances at Simeon and wonders, Does he have a telly at home on Gallifrey? How does he keep a straight face? .
Trevon looks at Simeon in amazement. "Everyone else on the planet knows except you?"
"Maybe so!" Simeon says. He stands his ground. If they're to discover anything of use, then they must ask questions and get answers.
Chloe can see the slow pace of knowledge acquisition and wanders towards the group of others who were with Trevon and starts chatting to one of the ladies. It seems safe enough, but even the ladies seem hostile, somehow, almost like Trevon had been.
The next chapter shows what she discovered.
"See that other planet up there in the sky, close by?" Trevon asks. "Our twin planet. It's been there from time immemorial. We could see them, and they could see us! We used to be on better terms than we are now, but right now, we're at war with them! Does that answer your question?"
"What's the story with the laser light structure between the planets?" Devyon asks.
Trevon groans but acquiesces. "You've been living in a backwater! Our previous leaders were suddenly ousted and replaced by far worse leaders! Two of them. Those two war leaders!" He becomes angry. "One leader on each planet. They said they came from the stars! Likely story! But no-one had seen them before."
The Doctor's suddenly much more interested. "What did they call themselves? Who were they?" Maybe he might have heard of them?
"The Blue Guardians, or something like that. I just dreaded them being around!" Trevon says in disgust. "Under those leaders we developed inter-planetary missiles on both planets! Every city was hit on both planets! It was mad! The survivors had to go to the countryside. That was bleak. Those war leaders have a lot to answer for! So, we tricked them, caged them and suspended them up in a box in the sky between the two planets! Everyone loathed them so much, we teamed together, both planets, against them both. That's what the light structure's for - to mark the box out so that no-one will simply crash into it. Ha! We made it spin, too, so they couldn't tell what was outside by looking through the window! After those two, we found we could at least agree on something – they had to go!"
"So, what's happening tomorrow?" the Doctor asks gently, hoping to ease Trevon's growing stress.
"Oh, so you know about that, then?" Trevon says. "A right mess we've made of both planets! There's a meeting in their main building to decide where we have to go from here. Some people say we might all go to our next neighbouring planet, Marsh. Others think we might weather it out here, until the, erm, weather returns more to normal!"
Has the Doctor heard enough? His companions turn to look at the Doctor to check.
Trevon notices. "You seem to be the leader of the group, here. Just who are you?"
"I'm the Doctor. I've come to try to mend things if I can."
"So, if you're not from Tellee, up there," Trevon points upwards again, towards the other planet of the binary planet system, "and you're certainly not from here, then where are you from? You say you came to help! Where from?"
Devyon starts to open his mouth to say We're from just around the corner, but the Doctor steps in. .
"We're actually from lots of different places. Two of us are from Gallifrey and three of us are from a place called Tinsel. But we must let you get on! We mustn't detain you any longer!" These names are unlikely to mean anything to Trevon, but they are at least accurate!
With that the Doctor leads them hurriedly back around the corner they just came around, leaving Trevon wondering whether to follow or not. He's curious about these people, but not that curious. They're surely just country folk who didn't know. Little does he know! .
Back in the Tardis, they notice that Chloe's not with them.
"She went to chat to some of the women here," Alyssa says. "She's safe enough. She can take care of herself."
"What do you make of what Trevon said?" Devyon asks. The story seems so weird to him.
"What do they need us to do?" Alyssa asks.
The Doctor appears deep in thought. After a few minutes he shares his thoughts, much to the relief of everyone.
"It seems that there will be a meeting tomorrow. There, representatives of both planets must agree to a momentous change in attitudes towards each other, suddenly turning from warring to peacefully living together in just one place, wherever they choose."
"They'll do that, won't they?" Alyssa asks.
"They've been warring for so long they may have forgotten how to relate better!" the Doctor says. "It will be interesting!"
Simeon approaches the Console and starts tapping buttons. The screen starts showing timelines for the meeting on the next day. The outcomes appear to be unclear.
"Doctor, they might not resolve anything," he says.
The Doctor knows Simeon hasn't studied timelines for long and doesn't know how best to read them. He studies the timelines briefly himself.
"No, it's getting closer to the time of the meeting, so the outcome will be unclear just now!"
Devyon has his two-penn'orth to contribute. "If we don't do anything it should all just happen, shouldn't it?"
"Should we go to the other planet to see what they're feeling about it?" Simeon suggests.
"No," the Doctor says. "The less we interfere the better!" He's seen many times when even minor interference has had adverse consequences. "Besides, we must wait here for Chloe. She's only chatting. She won't be long."
Will the Doctor be persuaded to do more?