64. Aliens at Cricket.
1. The Invitation.
"Doctor, why is the Universe expanding?" Alyssa decides she must ask a question she's had for quite a long time. Only just occasionally there seems to be time to ask something unrelated to the current quest.
"If it wasn't expanding, we would have a bright sky, not a black sky," the Doctor says. "There are stars in every direction you might look. It's only black because stars in that specific direction are moving away so fast that the light has changed frequency towards red so much that we can't see them, except with instruments. We'd fry if the Universe wasn't expanding!"
Then he has another approach. "If it wasn't expanding it might be contracting, heading for a Big Crunch! That might have happened a long time ago and ... we would never have happened if there'd been an early Big Crunch. We would likely not have had so many billion years in a safe place to develop!"
Alyssa pauses to consider the Doctor's response. "So, there might have already been a big crunch but as there wasn't enough time for sentient beings to develop then, it didn't matter because there was no-one there to see it?" .
The Doctor likes to encourage thought, but might disagree with the didn't matter part of her reasoning! . But then, he's certainly not going to try to take her there – the Tardis instabilities had been far too great when he'd got anywhere near the Big Bang!
The Printer.
The Tardis Console printer attracts Alyssa's attention. It makes a small noise when printing or creating something.
She's been travelling with the Doctor for a while now, and it's her sister Choe's turn to look after their rapidly aging father, Devyon, left at their home along with another recent addition to the companions, Mike, who is trying to familiarise with the Doctor's enemies by watching videos provided by the Tardis! Whether this works as an approach remains to be seen! .
She sports a new Ring of Confidence the Doctor bought for her recently, but she wonders whether it might ever be of use. It's pretty colours reflecting white and milk chocolate colours don't exactly conceal it! She feels conspicuous wearing it! .
Alyssa wanders to the Console. "Doctor, there's an envelope addressed to John Smith. Who's that?"
"Oh, just one of the aliases I used to go by."
"Should I open it?" she asks, "the Tardis has printed it beautifully and it seems a shame to damage it by opening it." .
The Doctor decides to rescue her from her hesitancy. He opens the letter with a flourish and reads out the contents.
He smiles. "We are invited to a cricket match. Just a small one at Bathampton. John Smith plus One. ... We're going!"
Alyssa wonders what might happen at a small event. She's never been to a cricket match and has no idea what might happen there. .
"Doctor, should I read up about cricket?"
"You can if you like." .
"What happens?"
"People sit or stand or around the edge while the game is played on quite a large area in the middle! Oh, and there's likely to be a scoreboard that works ... if you're lucky!" .
"No, I mean, should I read up the rules of the game?"
"As I say, you can if you like." He smiles as he recognises the small circle of the conversation. . He doubts the invitation has much to do with the scoring, though! .
"Oh, shut up, Doctor!" . His response hasn't invigorated her interest in the game. .
The Match.
They take their seats near the back of the outdoor stand and the game starts. The Tardis is parked unobtrusively behind a pavilion nearby.
The Doctor has a bucket of popcorn. "I don't know if this is appropriate for a cricket match," he comments. .
Alyssa looks around at other spectators, but none have popcorn. She sighs. Sometimes the Doctor gets it wrong, and she worries that he might get something more important wrong, but they seem to succeed … mostly, well some of the time, well it depends on your definition of succeed. .
Just then, a ball is hit directly at the Doctor. He deftly catches it with one hand without spilling his brimming popcorn (TV ref. Human Nature where he deftly throws a ball to save someone). . With localised applause he throws it back into the game for play to continue.
Shortly, again, the ball is hit directly at the Doctor! He coolly catches it again and throws it back with more applause.
"They're just keeping me on my toes," he says, stuffing his popcorn into his mouth rapidly to reduce the wastage if he needs to abandon it. .
"Is that a coincidence or deliberate?" Alyssa asks, ignoring the popcorn. .
"No-one could be that accurate for it to be deliberate!" the Doctor says, "Not twice!" . He knows it isn't likely to be coincidence either! .
"If it happens again, surely it's more than coincidence!" Alyssa says, finding herself trying to convince the Doctor that something odd is happening. .
"Alright." The Doctor feels he must permit Alyssa's point, earlier rather than later.
The Doctor's already sure something odd is happening or the invitation wouldn't have got through to him.
He trusts his Tardis - surely it has to sort through countless urgent situations before it does its best to attract his attention! . Though he doubts that this eventuality covers many of the situations he encounters! .
A third time the ball is hit directly at the Doctor. Again, he catches it and throws it back. This time he knows there's more going on and he can't simply wait! .
"Mobilise!" he says quietly to Alyssa, when all eyes are back on the pitch again.
As Alyssa gets up, she turns and sees something in the seat behind them. Just fleetingly. Then it disappears!
"Doctor, there was an alien sitting in the seat behind us!"
"What? What sort of alien? I suppose a bug-eyed little monster?" He half ridicules the idea, after all, it hadn't attacked them, and he can't see it.
"Shall I pick it up? I can still recall just where it was." Alyssa reckons it won't necessarily have moved and might have instigated something like the Krillitane perception filter, but so that she can't see it (ref. 58). She thinks that as long as she simply reaches out, she might touch the thing whether it's visible or not.
"That'll be interesting! It's probably using a perception filter," the Doctor says, concluding similarly. .
Alyssa extends her hands and can feel a hard-shell casing in her hands. "I can recall where its many legs were - all at the front."
"Don't let it nip you! I still don't know what it is," the Doctor says urgently.
He withdraws a stethoscope from his coat. "Can I listen to it?"
Alyssa guides the sensor end onto the bug where she recalls a flatter area.
The Doctor hears a gurgling tummy sound. .
"I think it might be hungry. We must take it to the Tardis."
"And feed it there? I wonder what it likes to eat," Alyssa says. "I hope it doesn't eat the Tardis!" .
I doubt that, too! .
Quite a thought, though! .