We turn through twists and corridors, our blonde companion out of sight.
"Where could she have gone?" I mumble, the Doctor shrugs before tugging me through the corridors.
"Would the owner of the blue box in private gallery fifteen please report to the Steward's office immediately. Guests are reminded that use of teleportation devices is strictly forbidden under Peace Treaty 5.4/Cup16. Thank you." the Stewards voice rings through the speakers.
"Ha, see told ya!" I exclaim. The aliens snarky retort is interrupted by the constant countdown.
"Earth Death in twenty five minutes."
"Good too know." I grumble to myself. We look down the hall, watching as the Oompa Loompa looking dudes were pushing the TARDIS down the corridor, making noises of complaints.
"Oi, now, careful with that. Park it properly. No scratches." the Doctor warns, I watch curiously as one of them scuttles towards us. It holds a small card with writing. I take it before reading out loud.
"Have a nice day." I look up at the Doctor chuckling slightly at his confused expression. "Thanks I think."
I shove it in my pocket before sliding my hand into the Doctors, we continue the search for our lost friend.
"Rose? Are you in there?" I call out as we stroll into a room, the Doctor happily prances over to the stairs, flopping down on one to the left of Rose. I sit in between the two still holding the Doctor's hand.
"Aye, aye. What do you think, then?" he exclaims, peering excitedly at the two of us.
"Great. Yeah, fine." Rose starts, "Once you get past the slightly psychic paper." we both chuckle at that, even if it was blank to me. "They're just so alien. The aliens are so alien. You look at 'em and they're alien."
"Rose, they look alien. Because they are alien." I state, smiling ruefully at her. She rolls her eyes at me before looking away to the viewing window.
"Good thing I didn't take you to the Deep South." the Doctor jests, squeezing my hand gently. I giggle remembering a dream about that once, well at the time I believed it to be a nightmare.
"Where are you from?" Rose asks, the Doctor's entire demeanor changes. He looks down at our hands.
"All over the place." he avoids. Rose seems to get the hint that it was a sore subject. There's an awkward silence which I choose to fill.
"They all speak English. I assume that has something to do with you." I ask, taking the Doctors mind off of whatever was causing the crinkle in his forehead.
"It's a gift from the TARDIS. Telepathic field, gets inside your brain and translates." he explains, leaning back to lounge on the ground. Our hands disconnecting at the movement. My hand feels empty now. Wait why the fuck does it matter. I just met the guy. Albeit I have dreamt of him for a very long time but still.
"It's inside my brain?" Rose asks. I wince at the tone, I should've picked something else.
"Well in a good way." the Doctor tries to salvage.
"Your machine gets inside my head. It gets inside and it changes my mind, and you didn't even ask?" Rose's voice getting louder as she continues.
"I didn't think about it like that." he admits.
"Rose I don't see why it's such a proble-" I start but she cuts me off yelling,
"No, you were too busy thinking up cheap shots about the Deep South. Who are you, then, Doctor? What are you called? What sort of alien are you?"the Doctor sits up at this. I huff pissed at their arguing.
"I'm just the Doctor." his tone final.
"From what planet?" she pushes.
"Rose please stop." I beg standing up as it gets more heated.
"Well, it's not as if you'll know where it is!" he snaps.
"Where are you from?" she continues completely ignoring me.
"What does it matter?" the Doctor exclaims.
"Tell me who you are!" Rose demands. Oh my God they are like children.
"This is who I am, right here, right now, all right? All that counts is here and now, and this is me." he bellows, I flinch still stood between the two as Rose yells back,
"Yeah, and I'm here too because you brought me here, so just tell me!"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I roar over them. The stand shocked, both slowly turning to me. "God you are like children. Rose he doesn't have to tell us anything, he doesn't know a single thing about us it's not fair for you to expect him to disclose his entire fucking life." I say sternly before turning to the Doctor. "And you. Yes we may be human but you've got to give us some slack, she wasn't trying to hurt you. She just wants to know a bit more about the man who we quite literally followed across the universe." I then walk off, closer to the window. Watching the planet hoping it'll let me cool down. I'm soon joined with the two others who stand on either side of me.
"All right. As my mate Shareen says, don't argue with the designated driver." Rose speaks up,what I'm assuming is her apology. I turn expectantly to the alien who was already looking at me in guilt.
"I'm sorry for snapping." I think that's as close to an apology I'm going to get from him. I smile gently at him taking his hand. Rose pulls out her phone looking down at it dejectedly.
"A bit out of range I think." I say pulling my own out to see no bars.
"Tell you what." the Doctor says gently taking my phone from my hand. He drops my other hand to pull out his sonic. "With a little bit of jiggery pokery." he adds taking the back off and switching the battery. He hands it back before doing the same to Rose's. I giggle as Rose walks off to call her mother. I on the other hand was involved in a very serious game of Snake against some dude called UrMom135. As I win a cheer quietly to myself careful to not interrupt Rose's call. I look up to find the Doctor watching intently I smile at him before flashing him my screen. He grins back before taking my hand again.
We walk over to Rose, catching the last part of her conversation.
"No. I'm fine. Top of the world." she moves the phone away from her ear standing the shocked.
"Think that's amazing, you want to see the bill." I snort at Rose's face at that. Good job I didn't call anyone then.
"So, she's dead now. Five billion years later, my mum's dead."
"Everyone we knew/know is dead." I mumble after she whispered that. The mood suddenly becoming rather sombre.
"Bundle of laughs, you two are." he mutters squeezing my hand gently. The spacecraft shakes suddenly. Almost as if we hit something. "That's not supposed to happen."
"Honoured guests may be reassured that gravity pockets may cause slight turbulence, thanking you." the PA states I look up at the Doctors face, something in my gut telling me that it wasn't a gravity pocket. We walk back to the other guest hand in hand with Rose trailing behind.
"That wasn't a gravity pocket, was it?" I ask looking up to the Doctor as he stops before looking at a controller on the wall.
"No, I know gravity pockets and they don't feel like that." he answers before spinning around to talk to the beautiful tree coming towards us. I smile flirtily at her gaining a small one back.
"What do you think, Jabe? Listened to the engines. They've pitched up about thirty Hertz. That dodgy or what?" he rapidly spews.
"It's the sound of metal. It doesn't make any sense to me." she replies slightly confused. I smile slightly at that.
"Do you know where the engine room is?" I ask gently she turns her head gently to me.
"I don't know, but the maintenance duct is just behind our guest suite, I could show you and your husband and partner." she says indicating to the Doctor and Rose.
"No they're not my partners." I explain looking at Rose's awkward face.
"Concubines?"
"Nope."
"Prostitutes?" I wince at that. Rose is going to blow.
"Whatever I am, it must be invisible. Do you mind?" she voices insulted. "Tell you what, you three can go and pollinate. I'm going to catch up with family. Quick word with Michael Jackson." she snaps.
"Don't start a fight." the Doctor warns I smile at that. Cassandra wouldn't last long. I turn to Jabe offering my arm.
"I am all yours." I flirt, winking at the two of them. Jabe rests her hand on my arm whilst the other alien took my free hand.
"And I want you two home by midnight." Rose orders before walking off. Smiling we walk off following Jabes directions.
"Earth death in 15 minutes."
~1~
We were walking behind the scenes, wires and tubes sticking out of the metal walls.
"Who's in charge of Platform One? Is there a Captain or what?" the Doctor queries, ducking under some low poles.
"There's just the Steward and the staff. All the rest is controlled by the metal mind." Jabe answers, confused by the question. I furrow my brow at 'metal mind'.
"You mean the computer? But who controls that?" I question, turning too look at her.
"The Corporation. They move Platform One from one artistic event to another." she answers as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"But there's no one from the Corporation on board." Doc points out, this is weird.
"They're not needed. This facility is purely automatic. It's the height of the Alpha class. Nothing can go wrong." Jabe replies, her lack of trust in the modern technology obvious. I wince at her phrasing though, flashbacks of history class when people were saying the same thing about a boat.
"Unsinkable?" I jest, only the Doctor understands. His face creasing as he holds his laughter.
"If you like. The nautical metaphor is appropriate."
"You're telling me. I was on board another ship once. They said that was unsinkable. I ended up clinging to an iceberg. It wasn't half cold." Doc says, I giggle slightly at the thought of the Doctor vibing in the ice. "So, what you're saying is, if we get in trouble there's no one to help us out?"
"I'm afraid not." Jabe answers, we all stop moving at this. Well that's great, some horror movie shit that is.
"Fantastic!" the Doctor exclaims, a grin plastered on his pink lips.
"I don't understand. In what way is that fantastic?" Jabe questions, her brows furrowed in raw confusion. We continue on travelling towards what I hope is the engine.
"So tell me, Jabe, what's a tree like you doing in a place like this?" I question, breaking the silence that had ensued for a hot minute.
"Respect for the Earth." is her small reply, I nod not believing her answer.
"Oh, come on. Everyone on this platform's worth zillions." Doc points out, he also not believing her.
"Well, perhaps it's a case of having to be seen at the right occasions." she truthfully adds.
"In case your share prices drop? I know you lot. You've got massive forests everywhere, roots everywhere, and there's always money in land." he states as we continue through the small corridor full of wires.
"All the same, we respect the Earth as family. So many species evolved from that planet. Mankind is only one. I'm another. My ancestors were transplanted from the planet down below, and I'm a direct descendant of the tropical rainforest." Jabe discloses, I smile at that. That is incredible to think a walking, talking, sentient being can be from the trees back home.
"Excuse me." the Doctor says as we get to a control panel. He begins to scan that glowing screen as Jabe continues the conversation.
"And what about your ancestry, Doctor? Perhaps you could tell a story or two. Perhaps a man only enjoys trouble when there's nothing else left." she sympathetical states, the alien next to me ignores her though causing me to gently rest my hand on his shoulder. "I scanned you earlier. The metal machine had trouble identifying your species. It refused to admit your existence. And even when it named you, I wouldn't believe it. And you Alula, it refused to name you. Almost broke attempting to." the Doctors movements had ceased as his body tenses, his jaw clamped shut. My face twist in confusion, I'm human why would it have trouble identifying me? "Forgive me for intruding, but it's remarkable that you even exist. I just wanted to say how sorry I am." I slide my hand up and down the Doctors arm, tears gathering in our eyes. My brain had instantly gone back to the death and destruction in my dreams. Only it turns out they weren't dreams they were visions. He places his hand over mine, gently holding it. We intertwine our hands before standing up and ignoring our feelings and flashbacks.
We have finally found the place we needed. Thank God. Our trio walk into a room full of turbines spinning. The temperature had significantly dropped the second we entered.
"That's a great bit of air conditioning. Sort of nice and old fashioned. Bet they call it retro." Doc compliments. He bends down slightly to scan the panel, opening the front. "Gotcha." I shriek slightly as a metal spider-like thing crawls out.
"What the fuck!" I exclaim, attempting to flatten the thing with my heel. It runs away and clambers up the wall. "What the hell is that?"
"Is it part of the retro?" Jabe asks, I shake my head. The Doctor holds his screwdriver up to the weird thing, only for it to be out of reach. Randomly, a long liana flies from Jabe hitting the creature knocking it out. The Doctor catches the spider before we turn to Jabe in awe.
"Hey, nice liana." we compliment in unison.
"Thank you. We're not supposed to show them in public." she blushes, I smirk nudging her.
"Don't worry, I won't tell anybody." I flirt.
"Now then, who's been bringing their pets on board?" Doc interrupts, he seemed disgruntled.
"What does it do?" I question peering down at the now dead spider toy thing.
"Sabotage." he replies shortly.
"Earth death in 10 minutes."
"But the temperature's about to rocket." I point out, slightly panicked.
"Come on." Doc says, gripping my hand before we rush out of the room.