AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hi everyone, and welcome to my latest 'Doctor Who' story, 'Family Reunion'.

This is a completely out-of-continuity tale, inspired by the 'Doctor Who Unbound' audios done by Big Finish Productions, which present 'What If?' scenarios based on key events in the Doctor's long history. In this case, I am looking at what would happen if the 13th Doctor, immediately following her regeneration in 'Twice Upon A Time', was reunited with her daughter, Jenny, who first appeared in the 2008 episode 'The Doctor's Daughter'.

Since this fanfic is set in an alternate continuity, I have opted to disregard a lot of the retcons done by Chris Chibnall in the 2020 series, as I prefer to try my own approach to the 13th Doctor's adventures. So things like the destruction of Gallifrey and the introduction of the Fugitive Doctor will not happen here, though I might try my own take on the Timeless Child concept in the future. I have also decided to give a new look to the 13th Doctor, partly to tie-in with the concept established in the 'Doctor Who Unbound' series that the Doctor's alternate incarnations are different from those in the main continuity.

This fanfic is going to be a bit unusual from my previous writings. I plan to write and post various stories for this new continuity, based on some 'Doctor Who' and sci-fi related comics I used to read. But rather than post them all as separate stories, I intend to publish them all together here. Each time I finish posting one story, I shall mark the fanfic as complete, until I add a new adventure to it. I have already written up the first two stories, and after I've published them here, I plan to write up more stories to add on at a later date.

The opening story is based on 'The Hungry Planet', a Third Doctor comic strip published in the 1974 'TV Action' annual. As I mentioned, it immediately follows the ending of 'Twice Upon A Time' with the newly-regenerated Doctor falling out of the TARDIS, but in this version of events, she falls down to an alien world rather than Earth.

All characters and concepts are owned by the BBC. I take no credit for material I've adapted from the original comic strips I've used for inspiration. This story is written for entertainment purposes, with no copyright infringement intended.

Many appreciated thanks to jettmanas, who kindly did the cover art for this story.

It was a planet of death. A gigantic parasite that drifted through the vast vacuum of space in search of substance. For years it had wandered through the cosmos, with but one purpose: To feed.

It did not know how it had first came into being. In fact, it had virtually no intelligence or understanding at all. It was simply a predator, on the constant look out for anything that might appease its near-unbearable hunger. It had no interest in anything beyond it simple aim to survive at all costs. As far as it was concerned, all objects that came into its path were to be treated as food and nothing more. It paid no heed to the screams of terror that came from those it devoured, and wherever it travelled, it left nothing in its wake but dust and rubble.

The creature was massive beyond comprehension. Its gaping maw stretched miles wide, filled with teeth that could grind the hardest metal into dust. Its tentacles, which it used to capture its prey, were long and covered with hooks that could snag onto the smallest of spaceships and drag them into the abyss. It had no eyes, yet it could somehow sense the presence of life around it, a sense honed by millions of years of hunting. Its body was a swirling mass of shadowy tendrils, shifting and moving in a way that seemed to defy all known laws of physics. The creature had no need for a star to warm it; it was warmth and light unto itself, casting a shadow of dread wherever it went.

The planetoids it consumed were mere appetizers, providing little nourishment. What it truly craved was the rich, bountiful energy of a living planet. The pulse of life was like a siren call to the creature, guiding it through the endless expanse of the galaxy. And when it found what it sought, it would not be denied.

But this day was going to be different. Today, the creature was about to get more than it bargained for on the dinner menu...

Her name was Jenny, and she was one of the most unique individuals in the vast reaches of time and space.

It was hardly surprising, considering the way she had first came to be in this universe. From the very moment she had been 'born' on Messaline, she had been thrust straight into a life of constant running and fighting, and had developed a thirst for adventure and a passionate desire to explore the universe. Traits that she had picked up from her 'Dad', the mysterious traveller known as the Doctor.

Jenny was an intelligent girl with long blonde hair, who, despite being only a few years old, had the physical appearance and mentality of a young adult woman in her mid-twenties. She had been first created in a progenitor machine during a time of war, using a skin sample forcibly taken from the Doctor. Although she looked human, Jenny had the full biology of a Gallifreyan, the species that the Doctor was a member of. This meant that she not only had two hearts beating inside her, but she also had reflexes, precision timing, and acrobatic abilities far beyond that of an average human.

Being created during a time of war, Jenny had initially been mentally programmed to be military-minded and goal-orientated, but, encouraged by her 'father', she refused to let this dictate her actions, and instead adopted the Doctor's own values and principles as her own. She would have loved to travel the universe with her Dad, but fate, as it seemed, had other plans for her, for mere hours after her birth, she seemingly died, having taken a fatal bullet intended for her father. Somewhat miraculously, she was revived sometime later by a terraforming device called the Source, but by the time she had awakened, a grief-stricken Doctor had already left Messaline, believing her to be dead.

As soon as she had revived, Jenny had immediately 'commandeered' a space shuttle and departed Messaline, her intention to explore the cosmos, and save planets and civilisations, just as her father does.

Having modified her ship with a wormhole generator, allowing her to travel farther with her limited fuel, Jenny went forth to have numerous adventures of her own, visiting various worlds and making new friends, and along the way, she made a living by trading engineering support for resources to keep her ship going. Her travels had been mostly peaceful, though she had encountered a few hostiles here and there. The wormhole generator had allowed her to bypass most of the dangers of space, but it was not infallible. Sometimes it would miscalculate and spit her ship out in the middle of a asteroid field or a sun's gravity well. Yet she had always managed to pull through, using her sharp instincts and quick thinking to navigate through the cosmic hazards.

Jenny had also spent some time studying on some of the more academic worlds she visited, learning everything she could get her hands on about the Time Lords, her curiosity piqued by the whispers of a lost heritage she could hardly imagine. Some ancient texts spoke of a powerful civilization that had once ruled over time and space, a race that had the power to live forever, or so it seemed. They had built a society of knowledge and wisdom, but it came at a cost. Some said they had become arrogant, meddling in the affairs of lesser species. Others whispered darker tales of them using their power to manipulate and control.

The stories varied wildly, from reverent awe to outright loathing. On one planet, a withered old historian spoke to her of the Time Lords' fall from grace, recounting tales of a great war that had ravaged the universe. The historian spoke with a heavy heart, his eyes filled with a sorrow that reached back through the millennia. He spoke of the Time Lords of Gallifrey as beings who had once held the power to shape galaxies, but who had been brought low by their own hubris.

In contrast, the legends about the Doctor were generally much more positive, largely praising him for all the various worlds he had saved during his travels across time and space. A being who could change his whole physical appearance, and travelled around in a small blue box, which is believed to be much bigger on the inside than on the outside. He had also made many enemies throughout his different lives, so Jenny had learnt to be careful to keep her origins and Time Lord nature a secret, lest one of these foes decided to try and hunt her down.

As the months went by and turned into years, Jenny continued to roam the universe, and she always kept an eye open, in case one day she might find her father, though she felt in both her hearts that this was unlikely to happen.

However, all that was about to change.

It was Jenny's 3rd birthday, and she was bored out of mind. The wormhole generator had brought her ship out into the middle of a black void, devoid of planets or anything of interest. Just one big sun, which blazed brightly away and gave some illumination to this dark system. The generator needed at least an hour to charge up, so Jenny was at present left twiddling her thumbs impatiently in the cockpit. She gave an exasperated sigh as she leaned back in her seat and gazed through the window at the far distant stars surrounding her.

As she gazed out at the blackness outside, she suddenly frowned as she spotted something in the distance. There was a small glowing speck at the starboard bow, a bit faint, but definitely there, and gradually getting bigger. Quickly checking her long-range scanners, Jenny grinned as she realised that it was some kind of planet, and it seemed to be moving through space. Judging by the path it was currently taking, it looked like it would be passing by her fairly close.

"Well, I might as well check this out while the generator is still warming up," Jenny thought to herself, as she activated her ship's impulse engines and and began to pilot the shuttle towards the mystery planet.

As she drew nearer, the planet began to fill her view of vision, and she could make it out more clearly. It looked liked a giant green ball, with no oceans or vegetation of any kind on its surface, and according to the scanner results, no inhabitant life-forms of any kind. It did not seem a particularly interesting world, but Jenny decided to draw in for a closer look anyway, just in case.

But as the shuttle came nearer, Jenny was alarmed when something shot out from the planet's surface. They looked like large tentacles of some kind, translucent and glowing, like a cross between the appendages of an octopus and a jellyfish. There were numerous of them, and they were coming straight for her.

Jenny's instincts kicked in and she slammed the ship into a dive, narrowly avoiding the first set of tentacles. The shuttle rocked as the gravity from the planet tried to pull her in, but she managed to stabilise it, her reflexes honed by her Time Lord heritage and the military experience programmed into her. She knew she had to get out of this predicament fast. She had encountered many strange phenomena in her travels, but this was something new.

As she manoeuvred away from the planet, the tentacles grew more numerous and more persistent. Jenny quickly hit the controls to get the shuttle to reverse, but it was already too late, as the tentacles moved with frightening speed and wrapped themselves tightly around the ship. With a firm grip on the craft, the tentacles began dragging the vessel down towards the planet, towards a large gaping hole running right across the barren landscape. Jenny gulped as she realised that the 'hole' was a giant mouth, which opened and closed eagerly, displaying a series of ginormous and very sharp teeth from within.

Jenny could immediately tell from this that this 'planet' was in fact some kind of giant alien life-form, and it was determined to eat her ship for lunch, and her with it! Ignoring the urge to panic, she increased the engines to maximum power and tried to pull herself free. But the tentacles simply tightened their grip and pulled even harder, causing the metal hull to warp and break apart.

Jenny let out a loud groan of frustration. There was no way she could break free, and by the time the wormhole generator had finished powering up, it would be too late to escape. There was nothing for it but to abandon ship. She dashed out of the cockpit and hurried to the nearest escape pod. As she tumbled into the small egg-shaped module, she slammed her hand against the launch button, and the doors quickly slid shut. She had just managed to buckle herself in, when the pod shot itself out of the shuttle and began to fly away from the danger zone. However, before it could get clear, another tentacle lashed out and knocked off one of the thruster engines, sending the pod spinning out of control down towards the terrain below.

"Oh boy," said Jenny, before the pod bumped against the ground and skidded to a halt. As alarm lights began flashing, she was a little surprised to find she was still in one piece. The crash landing had been a relatively soft one, as though the pod had impacted with a soft surface, which cushioned the impact. Unbuckling herself from her seat, Jenny leaned over to the window and gazed at the view outside. To her dismay, she saw her ship disappear from sight as it was dragged into the chomping mouth, some distance away.

Jenny felt a pang of sadness at the loss of her craft, which had been her home and pride-and-joy for the last three years. But she knew she could not hang around to mourn the total destruction of her vessel. For all she knew, those tentacles might come back to have the escape pod for seconds. She checked the atmosphere readings on the pod's computer, and she was somewhat relieved to find that there was perfectly breathable air outside, with no radiation or other hazards to worry about. So, she quickly slipped on a hefty backpack containing emergency survival supplies, then opened the pod doors and ventured outside.

As she jumped onto the ground, she found that it was indeed a bit bouncy and rubbery in nature. This accounted for how her pod's landing had been cushioned, saving her from injury. Taking a deep breath, Jenny began walking away from the pod and started to explore her surroundings. There was not really anything to see. The whole place was barren, just as it had appeared from space. There was no animal life of any kind to be seen, and no planet-life either, save for some 'grass' running across the rubbery terrain. Jenny wondered if this 'grass', which presumably was generating the oxygen here, was this living planet's equivalent of hair stubble.

"Heh, maybe someone should get it a moon-size razor!" Jenny chuckled to herself, as she pressed on. She had also become aware of a loud, rhythmic 'thump-thump' sound all around her, though she could find no obvious source of where it was coming from.

Continuing to wander around for an hour or so, Jenny's spirits began to droop, as she could find nothing that could help her out of this predicament. Starting to get hungry, she sat herself down and extracted a sandwich from the backpack, which she devoured with very little enthusiasm. Even though she had not yet seen any more of those tentacle things, her chances of survival were not looking too good, as she could find no other source of food or water. Once her rations were used up, she would presumably starve, assuming that this world did not decide to eat her up first.

"Some birthday this has turned out to be," she grumbled to herself, as she zipped the backpack shut and got back to her feet.

But as she continued to wander, Jenny could not help but feel a thrill of excitement. Despite the dire circumstances, she was on a living planet, something she had never encountered before. Her curiosity overcame her despair, and she found herself eager to uncover its secrets. As she walked, the 'thump-thump' grew louder, a heartbeat that resonated through the very ground she trod upon.

Jenny had picked up various languages and dialects during her travels, but she had never encountered any that could translate the whispers of a living world. Yet, as she approached the source of the sound, she felt as though she could almost understand it—a low, mournful chant that seemed to carry the weight of a billion lost souls. It grew into a crescendo that filled her with a strange mix of sorrow and exhilaration.

Then, the most extraordinary thing happened, as a loud wheezing, groaning noise cut across the air. Spinning around, Jenny's eyes widened in surprise, as the shape of a large blue cuboid box formed in the air a short distance away from her. As the box juddered about erratically in the sky, Jenny could see more of those tentacles shot out and grab hold of it. As the blue container was slowly dragged in the direction towards the gaping mouth, a pair of doors opened up at its front, and a figure tumbled out, falling towards the ground below.

Jenny broke into a run towards the figure, her hearts racing with excitement. She had recognised that blue box instantly. It was her Dad's ship, the TARDIS! Which meant that the figure that had just fallen out might just be her father!

Hurrying along, Jenny soon spotted a figure lying prone on the ground, their face turned away from her, so she could not immediately make out their features. As she got closer, Jenny remembered the research she had done before, and she realised that her Dad might not necessarily have the same face he had when she had last seen him. Certainly, the figure on the ground had longer hair, and they seemed to be dressed in rather baggy and ragged clothes that had seen better days.

Kneeling down onto her knees, Jenny quickly leaned over and turned the dazed figure onto their back, whereupon she gave a gasp of surprise. The person before her was an attractive woman, apparently in her early-to-mid thirties, with a pale skin tone and long, straight shoulder-length brunette hair. Her eyes were currently closed, but she was breathing, which was a good sign.

A little taken aback, Jenny wondered if the person before her was a companion of her father's. Then she remembered a paragraph in the various texts she had studied which had suggested that Time Lords could occasionally change gender when they... What was the word again? Ah yes. 'Regenerate'.

Jenny quickly put her ear to one side of the unconscious woman's chest, then the other. Sure enough, she could hear, to her relief, a double heartbeat, exactly like her own.

Jenny grinned in delight. She knew in both her hearts that this person before her was indeed her father, or rather, her mother. She could sense it somehow.

As Jenny tried to comprehend all this, the woman's eyes snapped open and she sat up with a gasp, so abruptly that Jenny was flung off and sent sprawling across the ground next to her!

"Oh, that nap did me the world of good!" said the woman with a distinct northern accent, a big goofy grin forming on her face, as she jumped to her feet. "Well, can't lie around here all day! Things to do, planets to save, and..."

She suddenly broke off and staggered a little uneasily on the spot. "Oops! Still not feeling 100% yet. Regeneration, always takes it right out of you!"

"Yeah, and I bet that fall didn't help either," said Jenny, as she got to her own feet and gently got hold of the unsteady woman, keeping her from falling over.

"Oh, yeah, I did fall out, didn't I?" said the woman, as she tried to get her thoughts together. "Now I remember! One moment, I was in my TARDIS, and the next... I'm sorry, where exactly am I?"

For the first time, the woman looked at Jenny properly, and her hazel-coloured eyes widened in recognition and surprise. "Wait a sec... Don't I know you? Yeah, I do! But that's impossible... You're... Oh. Ohh!"

Now it was Jenny's turn to smile. "Yeah, it's me. Hi, Mum."

To Be Continued...