The look of astonishment on the Doctor's face was priceless. Then, her grin grew even larger and she gave a whoop of delight, as she pulled Jenny into a big hug and lifted her right off her feet, spinning the both of them about on the spot .
"No way! Jenny!" said the Doctor, when she finally stopped her exultant dance, feeling positively over the moon. "It's really you! But how? How is this possible? You died in my arms on Messaline."
"Long story short, I got better. And apparently, you had a bit of a wardrobe change and a haircut," Jenny quipped, her smile never leaving her face. The Doctor chuckled, ruffling Jenny's hair in a gesture that was as familiar as it was foreign to her. It had been so rare that she felt such a simple, loving gesture from anyone, let alone her father—no, her mother.
They broke away from the embrace, both a little self-conscious, but the bond between them remained unbroken. The Doctor looked around the desolate landscape, taking in the sight of the living planet in its monstrous form. "So, this is where you've been hiding, you young rascal?" she murmured, almost to herself.
Jenny stepped back and gave her 'mother' a once-over, trying to reconcile the image of the man she had known with this new, female form. Yet the essence of the Doctor was undeniably present. The same mad spark of genius, the same boundless enthusiasm for the wonders of the universe, shone through those hazel eyes.
The Doctor looked back at Jenny with a mix of wonder and joy. "I can't believe it," she said, her voice a mix of the northern lilt and something softer, more feminine. "But here you are, all grown up and... well, I can't say 'all grown up', can I? You're still a sprout in the grand scheme of things."
Jenny could not help but laugh at this.
"Well, young lady, you'll have to tell me more about it all once we're back on the TARDIS," said the Doctor joyfully, before suddenly realising, "Hang about. Where is the TARDIS?"
"Gobbled up, I'm afraid," said Jenny gently, and she told the Doctor in clipped tones how her own ship got devoured, and how the TARDIS was dragged away by the tentacles to meet a similar fate.
The Doctor's smile faded, and she took a moment to process the information, her mind racing with questions.
"Ohh, I've lost my TARDIS!" groaned the Doctor. "The console room was exploding (I really should try to regenerate outside the ship in future), then I got thrown out into this place. Okay, well, don't panic, not the end of the world, well, could be the end of the world, but one thing at a time-"
"Mum, you're rambling," cut across Jenny.
"Yeah, I do tend to that," said the Doctor sheepishly, then suddenly asked, "Why are you calling me 'Mum' instead of 'Dad'?"
Jenny suddenly realised that the Doctor had not yet twigged that she had changed gender, presumably for the first time in her many lives.
"Because you're now a woman," she said slowly and simply, unsure how her parent would react to this news.
"Oh, am I?" said the Doctor in delighted surprise. "Does it suit me? Oh yeah, now I remember, half an hour ago I was a white-haired Scotsman. But you still recognised me, didn't you?"
"Yeah, I can't quite explain it, but I could sense deep down that it was you. Must be some 'Time Lord' instinct I picked up from you. Plus, the large blue box you fell out of was a dead giveaway."
"Yeah, I guess it would be," conceded the Doctor. "Well, never mind about that now. Which direction did these tentacles take the TARDIS?"
"It'll be this way," said Jenny, as she took the Doctor's hand and led the way back towards the giant mouth. "Bit of a walk I'm afraid, and watch out for more of those tentacles."
They marched together over the spongy ground, the Doctor's eyes darting around, taking in every detail of her surroundings with a keen interest that Jenny had always found fascinating. The tentacles had retreated back into the mouth, as if sensing they had no more need to capture prey.
So together they started to head towards the planet's mouth, and along the way, Jenny filled her parent in on some of the adventures and escapades she had been up to for the last three years. The Doctor in turn told her daughter about some of her subsequent travels since Messaline. Jenny's hearts broke a bit when she heard about the tragic circumstances of Donna Noble's departure, as she had been quite fond of the resourceful redhead who had helped the Doctor's tenth incarnation accept Jenny as his daughter. However, Jenny was glad to hear that the Time Lords of Gallifrey were not extinct as had been believed for so long, as she remembered seeing on her Dad's face how much the painful loss of his home-world had weighed on his mind.
"You know, I knew somehow that I'd find you again," said Jenny. "But I was also kinda afraid that you, well... Might have forgotten me."
"Forget you? Not a chance!" said the Doctor, a sincere look in her eyes. "When you died in my arms, it really tore me up. Maybe I am too quick to move on, afraid of having to deal with the pain of losing so many people throughout all my lives, but I never, ever, forgot you. All those dear to me, I carry them with me. What they would've thought and said and done. I make them a part of who I am. So even though they're gone from the world, they're never gone from me. And believe me when I say, if I had known before you were still alive, I'd have come looking and gone to the ends of the universe to find you."
Jenny felt a warmth spread through her, a comfort she had not felt in so long.
"Thanks, Mum," said Jenny, a small tear forming in her eye as she hugged her mother again, before they carried on walking. "You know, it's actually my birthday today."
"Really? Well, happy birthday, Jenny," said the Doctor with an affectionate look on her kindly face.
The conversation flowed easily between them, a mix of catching up on lost time and sharing tales of their travels. Jenny still could not believe her luck. Not only had she found her mother, but she had also found a companion in her adventures.
The Doctor too was amazed at being reunited with her daughter, whom she had long believed to be dead. She silently pondered to herself this strange turn of events, wondering if the TARDIS had deliberately brought her here after perhaps sensing Jenny's presence in time-and-space. That was certainly how the circumstances of Jenny's 'birth' had come about, with the TARDIS bringing the Doctor to Messaline because it had sensed Jenny's presence, only to arrive too early and cause a time paradox that resulted in Jenny's very existence. Could it be that the TARDIS had picked up Jenny's trail again and decided to bring the newly-regenerated Doctor to her?
The Doctor was still musing over all this, when they came up to a small 'hill', which Jenny wondered was like a 'zit' on this world's grassy 'skin'. Suddenly and without warning, a large purple, jelly-like creature emerged from behind the other side of the hill, coming up directly in front of them.
"Oh, hello there, mate!" said the Doctor cheerfully. "Aren't you a beautiful thing!"
"Wow! It looks like a giant amoeba," observed Jenny, with equal fascination, though she kept her guard up, the military experience implanted in her mind warning her that this alien life-form could be dangerous. "Uh, perhaps we ought to step out of its way?"
"Smart thinking," agreed the Doctor. "Okay, step slowly backwards, don't do anything to annoy it..."
But before either of them could get clear, the large organism slimed forward with fantastic speed and formed a giant tendril, which it used to grab hold of Jenny.
"Hey! Get off!" cried Jenny, as she struggled to pull herself free.
"Oy! You let go of my daughter, right now!" shouted the Doctor at the amoeba, as she quickly got hold of Jenny's arms and tried to pull her free. But the alien refused to relinquish its prey, and it slowly began to pull Jenny in and envelop her!
"It's no good, Mum!" cried Jenny, as the amoeba engulfed her legs and began to drag the rest of her in. "Get away before you get eaten up too!"
"Not on your life, Jenny! I'm not losing you again!" said the Doctor through gritted teeth, as she strained in a valiant, but fruitless, attempt to pull Jenny free.
Just then, an unexpected ally came to the rescue, as one of the planet's glowing tentacles appeared and grabbed hold of the amoeba, squeezing it tightly, and unwittingly forcing it to release its hold on Jenny. Taking advantage of this fortuitous turn of events, the Doctor pulled Jenny free, and together they ran clear, as the tentacle lifted the struggling amoeba up in the air and carried it away.
"Golly, that was lucky!" said the Doctor in relief.
"You can say that again!" said Jenny, as she caught her breath. "What was that thing anyway?"
"Some kind of parasite, I guess," replied the Doctor. "It exists on this living planet's skin like a flea on a dog. It eats up anything that it comes across, then gets eaten up itself!"
Moving more cautiously, the two women carried on their way, keeping an eye out for any more surprises. Eventually they reached the mouth of the huge creature they were standing on. Fascinated, the Doctor stepped carefully over and peered over the planet's 'chops', which seemed to cover a good three-mile radius.
"Hmm, yeah, I see what you mean," said the Doctor. "It does seem to be a mouth. I guess those tentacles break up anything they can get hold off and deposit them all in here."
"Yeah, and you know that 'thump-thump sound all around us?" said Jenny. "Sounds rather like a giant heartbeat if you ask me."
"Smart thinking," said the Doctor approvingly. "This entire planet is definitely one giant creature, in constant search of food."
"What kind of food?"
"Anything I reckon!" said the Doctor grimly. "Spaceships, asteroids, even whole planets! The planet's tentacles are large enough and powerful enough to crush anything in its path apart, and tear them into small enough pieces for it to feed on."
Jenny suddenly realised something. "Wait a minute. When I first entered this region of space, there were no planets of any kind here, though there is a sun. You don't think...?"
"What's the name of this system?" asked the Doctor.
"Bellazon, according to the carts."
The Doctor's expression was grave. "Oh no... There used to be three populated planets in this region of space. They must have all been gobbled up by this oversized beast."
Jenny was horrified. "You mean... It ate up all the planets in this sector?"
"Presumably. Not really its fault. It's only an animal doing what it has to in order to survive. All the same, something ought to be done to prevent it going any further."
"And fairly soon too," said Jenny. "I noted the path this thing was taking when I first spotted it, and if it keeps on going in its current direction, it'll start devouring its way through the most densely populated parts of the next galaxy along."
"Well, first we need to get to the TARDIS," said the Doctor. "Presumably it's right at the belly of this thing, so we need to get down there."
"Looks like we'll be in for a bit of a climb," mused Jenny, as she gazed down at the large and dark tunnel that was the planet's throat.
"Who said anything about climbing?" said the Doctor with a mischievous grin. "We're gonna fly down!"
She suddenly turned on her heel and headed over to Jenny's escape pod, which was still lying abandoned nearby.
"Wait, you want to use the escape pod to fly down into the planet's mouth?" said Jenny, as the Doctor began tinkering with the pod's damaged engines.
"Why not?" said the Doctor cheerfully. "I reckon there's enough fuel in here to get us down there."
"Well, let's get on with it then!" said Jenny with a smile, as she came over and began to help the Doctor with the repairs.
Progress was somewhat slowed down by the fact that the Doctor did not have her Sonic Screwdriver, and Jenny's own tools had gone down with her ship, but working together they were able to patch up the damaged engine and modify the pod's control for manual flight control. Within a couple of hours, the work was finished and they scrambled into the pod. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but they managed okay, with Jenny readying herself at the controls.
"Okay, we're all set," said Jenny, as the pod powered up and lift up into the air. "Brace yourself, Mum, we're in for one bumpy ride!"
Jenny stabbed a control, and the pod began to zoom at rapid speed, so fast that the creature's tentacles did not have time to react and catch the metal object themselves. As Jenny worked fast at the controls, she sent the pod flying straight through the monster's open mouth and down into the blackness of its oversized throat.
"Ya-hooo!" cried Jenny excitedly, and even the Doctor gave an enthusiastic yell, as the pod plummeted further and further down into the darkness.
To Be Continued...