TURLOUGH'S TALE
Chapter Six
According to the Doctor, Carbalexina, like Earth, has had a few Ice Ages, through which some of the inhabitants of each somehow adapted and survived. Tegan follows the Doctor outside and immediately cries out, runs back into the TARDIS, almost knocking me over, and into the TARDIS interior. I venture out and see the Doctor shivering happily, looking all around at the fairyland fields and hills of ice and snow, the gently tumbling flakes lying upon one another like little legos constructing an imaginary landscape, lying too on the Doctor's hair, and on mine as well. Tegan comes back out, wearing a fur coat over her short dress and carrying a huge thermal parka for the Doctor. He is so delighted with the winter wonderland that she has to begin to put the parka on him just to catch his attention; then he cooperates, coming back down to… well, Carbalexina, I guess; that'll never make the Oxford English dictionary.
"Don't tell me we're going to go trekking through any of this," says Tegan.
"No," admits the Doctor. "It is a touch on the cold side."
"A touch," I repeat.
"It would be nice to meet some of them and find out how they're getting on," he continues. "I don't see anything resembling a settlement, though." He shades his eyes and squints into the distance. "This isn't the most urban landing site."
"Urban," I snort. "Are you expecting cities?"
"Well," says the Doctor, "it depends on which Ice Age this is. Planetary climate change is not just for hunter-gatherers. It affects lawyers and Girl Guides and jockeys and…"
"… Doctors," laughs Tegan.
"And air hostesses," I add.
"Even ex-air hostesses?" I am shocked; Tegan is almost smiling at me.
"Anyway, what are we doing here?"
"Patience, Turlough."
"Don't tell me you'll explain later!"
The Doctor makes a zipped-lip gesture and smiles. I guess he'll explain later.
We end up making that trek after all. The Doctor and Tegan have to wait for me; the cold finally has got to me and I rush back into the TARDIS to find something warm to wear, and some boots. Tegan sees the boots and goes back inside to find a pair for herself. The Doctor now has a nice warm coat but elects to stick to his trainers, perhaps because he is growing impatient, eager to get moving. "It won't stay light forever," he reminds us, then thinks for a moment. "Actually if we're far enough north, it will, not forever but for a good long time. We can't count on that, though. Come on."
I've brought along a scarf for my face; it is hard to breathe with snow blowing up your nose. The Doctor pulls out his handkerchief and holds it to his face as he battles the wind and snow. Tegan has nothing; I tell her to stay behind me and use me as a shield. This she does. The Doctor walks ahead of us but at one point stops so suddenly that I stumble into him and Tegan stumbles into me, falls into a drift and has to be pulled out.
"I see something over there," says the Doctor, nodding toward something neither Tegan nor I can see. He turns slightly leftward and heads toward the invisible something, and we follow him.
The something turns out to be the remains of what must once have been a nice, middle-class home. Most of it has no roof, some of it has no walls and of course there is no power of any sort, nor any inhabitants but the rodent-like creatures who shelter there under broken bits of furniture, inside the remaining walls and even inside a doorless refrigerator displaying only shreds of packaging on its rusted shelves. The Doctor is delighted. He holds his arms out wide and turns around and around, taking it all in. Tegan and I look at each other; apparently, she, as I, sees nothing special here.
"Ah ha," declares the Doctor, moving something large away from a piece of wall, to reveal an intact fireplace; the flue and chimney are gone but the fireplace itself is whole, has wood (some of which is dry) stacked in it and more (all soaked and rotten) by it. It is still snowing on us, but there is a bit of none-too-stable flooring above what would have been the hearth, and we stand under that. The wind still blows snow in our faces but it's slightly better than being all-the-way outside. "Oh, look at that," says the Doctor, leaving that minimal shelter and going to what has once been a staircase. What remains goes all the way up to that bit of flooring, but it all looks incredibly rickety.
"Doctor," starts Tegan, "you're not going to…" but the Doctor is hanging off of a piece of railing at the top of the stairs and reaching up to the flooring. The stairs, railing and all, collapse under him; Tegan and I both gasp as the Doctor grabs the flooring and swings there for a full minute before the flooring too collapses and falls onto the hearth, We scramble away just in time but the Doctor lands on me and something heavy lands on us. Tegan digs us out and we stand up, dazed, looking around and up. There is no roof; the snow falls relentlessly and the wind whips it around and into our eyes just as relentlessly. "Now what?" sighs Tegan.