by Gary Russell
And the Doctor took her hand. ‘Hullo, Sarah Jane.’
‘That’s the Doctor?’ said Rani incredulously.
‘What Doctor?’ asked Jo. ‘The Doctor? My Doctor?’
‘He can change his face,’ Sarah Jane said quietly. ‘His whole physical form.’
Jo nodded. ‘Oh, I know about regeneration,’ she said. ‘But into a baby?’
The Doctor laughed. The last time Jo had seen him, he’d been in his…what would it have been? Oh yes. His third body. Tall, grey-haired, dynamic and bright, like a light bulb that never turned off. He’d always quite liked that body.
‘Imagine it from my point of view,’ he said to Jo. ‘Last time I saw you, you were what? Twenty-one? Twenty-two?’ He took her hand, too. ‘What a marvellous life you must have led! Look at you – older, wiser and been out in the sun a lot. Looks like someone’s baked you!’
Jo stared in mock shock at him, and then gave him a huge hug.
After a few seconds, the Doctor unwrapped her from him. ‘So, what’s going on exactly?’ he asked.
‘Umm…ask them?’ Santiago suggested.
And the Doctor turned to see that behind him, the three Shansheeth were entering the huge empty car park.
He adjusted his bow tie and stepped towards them. ‘Yes, right. The Claw Shansheeth of the Fifteenth Funeral Fleet.’
Azure stepped ahead of the other two. ‘I am Azure of the Claw Shansheeth. I’m sorry for your loss.’
‘Blimey,’ the Doctor muttered. ‘It’s like hearing Eeyore on a bad day. When he’s got toothache. Cheerful lot, aren’t you? Now then, I’ve been looking for you. Have you been telling my friends that I’m dead?’
Azure bowed his long neck slightly. ‘I apologise. The Death Notice was released a little too early.’
Amaranth stepped forward. ‘Though we can rectify this.’
Aureolin stepped forward too. ‘Immediately.’
And all three Shansheeth unfurled their wings and rose slowly, almost majestically, into the air and circled the group below.
And all three pointed forwards and down at the Doctor with their twisted clawed hands.
‘We are so sorry for your loss,’ they said in unison and a blast of savage red energy erupted from their combined talons and hit the Doctor squarely in the chest, sending him crashing to the floor and across the ground.
He tried to get up, but a second blast floored him. Sarah Jane and the others could only gasp in horror as he tried to stagger away, but he could only get onto one knee before a third blast floored him completely.
Azure flew down so low his talons almost shredded the back of the Doctor’s jacket.
‘Rest. In. Peace!’ he screeched at the fallen Time Lord.
Chapter Eight
Come along, Smith
Clyde was standing alone. Lost. And it was really quite cold and getting dark. He looked into the alien sky, trying to see where the stars were, but the mist was so low, so thick, that he couldn’t see more than about thirty feet in the air.
After a few moments, the mist parted and Clyde could see part of the night sky. The moon, he could see the moon! He felt a brief feeling of joy as the light moved across the landscape. Then he saw something astonishing – there was a second moon. Slightly bigger than the first.
He wasn’t on Earth, because Earth certainly didn’t have two moons.
‘Thanks, Doctor,’ he muttered. ‘My first alien planet, and no one around to share it with. ’
He shivered.
He listened to see if he could hear anyone or anything else in the area. Something, anything, that would give him someone to talk to, to maybe find out where he was.
But there was nothing except a slight electrical chime coming from back where he’d first arrived. ‘Should’ve stayed put,’ he said out loud. Anything to break the silence.
Moving back to where he’d first appeared, he realised the mist had lifted slightly and now he could see a tall, thin device, shaped like a small, skinny missile.
A missile?
Clyde held his breath. Was it a bomb about to go off?
Veep. Veep. Veep.
A small blue light was flashing up and down the device in time with the “veeping” sound.
Was this a countdown?
‘Doctor…what have you got me into?’
At which moment, Clyde found himself back in the UNIT car park, on the floor.
He looked up – the Shansheeth were flying! Above him!
He looked across, and saw the astonished Sarah Jane, Rani and the others.
‘But I was on a planet...’ he said.
‘Never mind that,’ Sarah Jane yelled, ‘Get up and run!’
Clyde didn’t need telling twice and he followed the rest of the gang back into the thin corridor.
‘They can’t fly down after us!’ Santiago yelled.
But he was wrong – the Shansheeth were now on their sides, their wing tips just missing the floor and ceilings of the UNIT corridor as they expertly glided down it, screeching their awful noise as they pursued them.
Sarah Jane pushed open the door to her bedroom. ‘In, in, in!’ she yelled.
And then stopped. Instead of Clyde, she was again facing the Doctor.
‘Come along, Smith,’ he smiled and pulled her into the room.
‘Sarah Jane, Jo, Rani, pretty boy whose name I don’t know, all here, marvellous!’ The Doctor was counting them off as they went into the room.
He went to slam the door shut, but a female UNIT officer was suddenly standing there.
‘I’m sorry,’ she was saying, ‘is there a problem?’
The Doctor slammed the door in her face. Then he reopened it just a crack. ‘Sorry,’ he said quietly, ‘that was rude of me. Nevertheless…’ and he slammed the door again.
He turned to face the others. ‘Need to lock the door.’
‘Sonic screwdriver?’ suggested Jo, relishing saying the words again.
‘Don’t have it on me,’ he said. Then looked at Sarah Jane. ‘Sonic lipstick?’
Sarah Jane got it out of her pocket and zapped the door.
‘They do sonic lipsticks now?’ asked an incredulous Jo.
‘We’re running out of time,’ the Doctor said. ‘Clyde and I keep swapping places.’
‘We noticed,’ Rani said.
‘I need you, Sarah Jane. And you, Jo.’ And he grabbed both their hands.
‘What do you need me for?’ Jo asked him.
‘Remember the days when we’d go zooming off to faraway worlds?’
Jo nodded.
And they all vanished in a blue flash.
Rani and Santiago found themselves facing an astonished Clyde again.
‘I feel space-sick,’ Clyde said.
Rani reached forward to steady him. ‘Where were you?’
Clyde took a deep breath. ‘I was on another planet.’ And he grinned. ‘Another planet! Wow! That’s just sunk in!’
Santiago crossed to the door. ‘Someone’s outside,’ he whispered. ‘I think it’s that Colonel woman.’
There was a tap on the door, and then Colonel Karim’s voice came from outside.
‘I’m sorry? Can I help you in there? Is something wrong?’
Santiago went to open the door but Rani pulled him away, shaking her head.
‘But she’s on our side, isn’t she?’
‘Think about it,’ said Rani. ‘The Doctor avoided her, but why? Because someone inside UNIT had to fake the DNA results – Colonel Karim! She must be in league with the Shansheeth!’
At which point there was a crash as the ventilation grille in the corner of the room fell to the floor, and the little blue Groske was there.
‘Hurry, hurry,’ he said urgently. ‘Follow me!’
And once again, the three teens found themselves following the diminutive alien into the maze of metallic ducting.
Outside in the corridor, Colonel Karim had her ear pressed to the door, and then she moved back and faced the three Shanshe
eth, now with wings folded, looking malevolently at the door, as if wishing their stares could burn through it to the people within.
‘They have powers unforeseen,’ Azure said.
Karim nodded. ‘Not as daft as they look, for two batty pensioners and a bunch of ASBO kids.’
‘How did they summon the Doctor?’ was Amaranth’s question, but Karim had no answer. ‘Good thing I had the base cleared, sent everyone away on manoeuvres, otherwise half this base would be asking the same question! And you lot flying around, screaming your heads off, aren’t helping. Now, all I can do is shut the place off completely, activate all the internal security measures for a few hours and keep this lot trapped. And while I’m doing that, you should go and get everything prepared in the Funeral Chamber.’
The Shansheeth looked at one another and then with a defiant sweep of his cloak, Azure led them away.
Shaking her head and then throwing a last angry look towards the door, Colonel Karim headed after the aliens.
Chapter Nine
A madman with a box
Sarah Jane was staring at the misty sky, just as Clyde had moments before. It was an alien sky, seen from an alien world. With two moons. And constellations above of kinds she had never imagined before.
Then she bent down and scooped up a handful of the dusty ground, letting the particles trickle through her fingers. All around were the remnants of things that might have once been crashed spaceships. Or rockets. Or something. They were old, rusted and pitted, so whatever disaster had befallen them had happened a long time ago.
She glanced over at Jo, who was still staring upwards, her face reflecting the same thrills that Sarah Jane was feeling.
Jo realised she was being stared at and looked back at Sarah Jane, a massive grin on her face.
It was infectious and Sarah Jane smiled too, before letting it break into a small whoop of joy.
‘An alien world,’ she said.
‘A different planet,’ agreed Jo.
‘Two moons!’ they said together.
‘I never thought I’d do this again,’ Sarah Jane called over to the Doctor. ‘Thank you!’
The Doctor was crouched down by the missile-like device, which was flashing blue in rapid increments.
‘Welcome to the Wasteland of the Crimson Heart. Glad you like it,’ he said, while trying to prise a panel off the device. ‘Can I borrow you and your lipstick please?’
Sarah Jane was at his side in an instant, sonic aiming at an area he was indicating with his finger.
‘Zap there, please.’
She zapped.
‘And there.’
Zap.
‘And…there.’
Zap.
Sarah Jane looked at this new Doctor, who carried himself so confidently one minute, and at another, resembled a new-born Bambi, all arms and legs flapping madly in the wind, wide eyes staring around, trying to take everything in. And yet, behind those same eyes, burned the passion and experience of the same old Doctor she’d known in a variety of bodies over the last thirty or so years.
‘Did it hurt?’
The Doctor looked at Sarah Jane, frowning. ‘Did what hurt?’
‘Regeneration. That last body of yours…was he okay, in the end?’
‘It always hurts. And there, please.’
Zap.
‘So, how’d you end up here?’ Sarah Jane gesticulated around them. ‘This world?’
The Doctor stopped working and stood up. ‘The Shansheeth lured me. Mighty old battlefield, just begging to be explored. Sounds interesting, so I headed here after dropping Amy and Rory off.’
‘Amy and Rory?’
‘Who I’m travelling with. They got married, so I dropped them off at a honeymoon planet…which isn’t what you think. It’s not a planet for a honeymoon, it’s a planet on a honeymoon – it married an asteroid! But then they nicked the TARDIS. The Shansheeth, not Amy and Rory. Fortunately, once stranded on this planet, I managed to find bits and bobs and build this space-swapping-doo-dah.’
Jo, who had sat down on a boulder a little way back, looked over with a sad frown on her face. ‘So, you’ve got a married couple in the TARDIS?’
‘Mr and Mrs Pond!’
And Jo sighed. ‘I only left you cos I got married.’
The Doctor looked down at his feet and closed his eyes for a second, then guided Sarah Jane’s hand holding the sonic lipstick back towards the device. ‘And another zap there.’
But Sarah Jane didn’t zap. She was looking at poor Jo.
‘Did you think I was stupid?’ Jo asked quietly.
The Doctor turned to look at her, then walked over. ‘Why d’you say that?’
Jo shrugged. ‘Well, I suppose I was a bit blonde. A bit dumb. Still am, I suppose.’
The Doctor waved his hands around, as if trying to work out what to say to that. He settled on a quite heartfelt, ‘What in the world makes you think that? Ever? Ever??’
She looked up at him, as if trying to see the face of the Doctor she knew behind the current one. ‘Cliff and I, we’d been travelling along the Amazon for months after we’d married. And we got to this village in Cristalino, the only place with a phone for a thousand miles and I phoned you. I thought I had to say hello. And they said you’d gone, left UNIT one day and never came back. So I waited. Because you said you’d see me again – you did, I asked and you said yes. You promised. So I thought one day I’ll hear that noise again. One day! Deep in the jungle, that funny wheezing and groaning noise and there was gonna be a big blue box standing in the rainforest, because he wouldn’t just leave. Not forever. And not me.’
Jo took a big breath, and Sarah Jane’s heart broke a little, because Jo was doing her very best not to get more upset, not to cry in front of this fantastic, amazing man, who had contributed so much to their lives.
Jo looked the Doctor right in the eye. ‘I waited all my life.’
For a long time, the Doctor didn’t move, not even a blink. Then he suddenly clapped his hands together, the sound echoing across the deserted alien world.
‘Oh, Jo, you are an idiot!’
‘Well,’ Jo shrugged, ‘there you are then.’
And the Doctor was on his knees in front of her. This much older woman whose early twenties had been shaped and directed so much by the Doctor, and who had lived so much afterwards.
Just like Sarah Jane, who knew exactly what the Doctor was going to say next. Because she had asked herself those same questions some years ago, before meeting up with him again. And although she’d never had it spelled out to her, she had realised. The Doctor never forgot anyone, never abandoned anyone.
‘Don’t you see?’ he said, taking Jo’s small hands in his large ones. ‘How could I ever find you? You’ve spent the last thirty-five years living in huts, and climbing trees, and tearing down barricades. You’ve done everything from flying kites on Kilimanjaro to sailing down the Yangtze in a tea chest! Not even the TARDIS could pin you down!’
‘But I –’ Jo started, then paused, before her eyes widened further. ‘Hang on, I did sail down the Yangtze in a tea chest! How do you know that?’
‘And that family,’ the Doctor laughed. ‘All seven kids and twelve grandchildren, thirteenth on the way. He’s dyslexic by the way, but that’ll be fine – great swimmer.’
‘Do you mean, all this time, you’ve been watching me?’
The Doctor shook his head slowly, released Jo’s hands and stood up, taking in both his old friends. ‘No. Because you’re right, I don’t look back. I can’t. But the last time I was…dying, I did look in on all of you. Every single one. And I was so proud.’
And a tear trickled down Jo’s cheek, but it was a tear of happiness, and she was smiling her biggest, hugest smile.
And Sarah Jane was smiling too. Because she had actually seen the Doctor that last time, before his tenth body transmuted into this, his eleventh. She had seen him in Bannerman Road, seconds after saving Luke from being hit by a car.
An
d she had known, then, that he was saying goodbye, even though he hadn’t said a word. It had just been a look. An understanding that time and space could never break.
‘Anyway,’ she said. ‘We’ve got that lot back at home, with the Shansheeth on their tails!’
The Doctor spun round, arms flailing as he started to think. ‘Yes, yes, yes. And Jo, I need you. In that bag of yours – I can smell blackcurrant. Is it buchu oil?’
‘Hand picked in Mozambique,’ she said, pulling a small bottle out of her bag and holding it towards him.
‘Perfect. These circuits need conductivity…’ and he was back at the strange device, taking the bottle from Jo at the same time and unscrewing it, trickling a small amount on to some circuits, the ones Sarah Jane had been about to zap with the sonic lipstick earlier.
‘Sarah Jane?’
She zapped it and the whole device suddenly lit up properly, and the beeping noise cut out, replaced by a steady, healthy hum.
He grinned at his two former companions. ‘What a team,’ he yelled. ‘We are brilliant!’ He punched a couple of buttons. ‘There, that should work.’ He stood back proudly. ‘Intergalactic molecular streaming, with just a hint of blackcurrant current.’ He laughed. ‘Blackcurrant current? Did you like that? No? No. Right, won’t say that again.’
‘But what’ll happen to Clyde?’ Sarah Jane asked.
‘Ah, fixed that! All I needed was you two. Oil and sonic. You could be a TV detective team. Oil and Sonic Investigations! Ha!’
They just gave him a look.
‘Okay, maybe not that either. Anyway, we can get back, and Clyde will stay where he is. Now, hold tight.’
And he gripped a hand of each of them. Tight. And squeezed. And grinned a marvellous grin that reminded them both of how much they loved, trusted and adored this madman with a box.
And all three of them vanished in a blue flash.
Chapter Ten
Trapped
In the Funeral Chamber Azure was giving orders to his fellow Shansheeth. ‘Dispense with the coffin, prepare this room for the coalescence.’
