Night Of The Humans
Page 16
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Amy laughed softly.
'I guess! she said. 'You're not going to ask me to dance, are you?'
Charlie shook his head and smiled. 'No! he said. 'Sittuun don't dance.'
Just then they heard the clanking sound of footsteps on the stairs and a familiar voice, singing along: 'The moon will guide us I As we go drifting along...' The Doctor stepped down into the loading bay.
'Ella Fitzgerald!' he said. 'You know, I once jammed with her at the Roseland Ballroom. I played recorder. Didn't go down too well with the audience. Or her, for that matter.
Anyway... Are you ready?'
Amy nodded. 'As I'll ever be.'
'Very well! said the Doctor. 'In that case... to the TARDIS!'
He pointed at the little blue box with a dramatic flourish and then frowned.
'Was that a bit much?'
'Yeah! said Amy. 'It was a bit. Don't do it again.'
'Right. OK. Funnily enough, it didn't feel the right last time I tried it.' He turned to Charlie. 'Goodbye, Charlie.'
'Goodbye, Doctor.'
With a sad, crumpled smile, Charlie looked at Amy.
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'Bye, then! he said.
'Yeah! said Amy. 'Bye.'
And then she reached up and gave him a single kiss on the cheek. With his face once again turning an embarrassed shade of turquoise, Charlie laughed nervously, and gave a small bashful wave as the Doctor and Amy stepped into the TARDIS and closed the door behind them.
Moments later the light on its roof began to flash and the loading bay was filled with that noise, like the sound Charlie imagined a galaxy might make as it turns. First the TARDIS
became translucent, the wall behind it appearing as a faint outline, and then the blue box and its two passengers were gone, leaving Charlie alone with the music.
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BEAGLE XXI!OBJECT 556C INTERNAL INQUIRY Final Conclusions
Though a thorough cross-system investigation found no records of 'the Doctor' (presumed human) or ^Amy Pond' (presumed human), both Captain Jamal al-Jehedeh and Lt Baasim 'Charlie' al-Jehedeh testify that, without their assistance, escape from Object 556/C would have been impossible, and the mission would have failed.
It is the decision of this board that all information regarding the human inhabitants of Object 556/C and the final fate of the Herald of Nanking should remain classified, in the
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interest of Human-Sittuun relations. The death of the wanted criminal Dirk Slipstream has been reported to both the Volag-Noc facility in Mutter's Spiral and the Intergalactic Crime Bureau.
It is this board's recommendation that all crew members of the Beagle XXI, surviving and deceased, are awarded the highest commendation the IEA can offer for their bravery and commitment: the Silver Helix. We would also recommend that Cpt. Jamal al-Jehedeh and Lt Baasim 'Charlie' al-Jehedeh are promoted forthwith, to the ranks of Admiral and Lieutenant Commander respectively.
'The Doctor' and 'Amy Pond' are awarded the Civilian Cross in absentia.
File status: Closed.
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Acknowledgements
Big thanks to everyone at BBC Wales and BBC Books who helped along the way, including Gary Russell, Justin Richards, Steve Tribe and Edward Russell. Special thanks also .to Lord Tinlegs (aka EF), who listened to the story in instalments, and to the writers and other animals with whom I discussed ideas, including Joe Lidster, Scott Handcock and Oli Smith. Lastly, a posthumous thank you to Vaughan Williams's Sinfonia Antartica, which became the soundtrack to this book as I was writing it. If you've not heard it, I believe it is readily available on LP and cassette.
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When the TARDIS arrives in Smyrna in 1929, the Doctor and Amy find themselves in the middle of an archaeological dig. Soon a terrible chain of events is set in motion, and the Doctor is confronted with an ancient evil...
by Stephen Cole
On Orkney in the near future, the construction of dozens of new electricity pylons is met with local resistance. Just as the Doctor and Amy arrive, the protestors are terrified to see the pylons come to life and begin to walk...
Available on CD from www.bbcshop.com and all good booksellers. Pre-order your copy now!
Also available to download from www.bbcaudiozone.com and other audio digital retailers.
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An astronaut in full spacesuit appears out of thin air in a busy shopping centre. Maybe it's a publicity stunt.
A photo shows a well-dressed woman in a red coat lying dead at the edge of a crater on the dark side of the moon, beside her beloved dog Poochie'. Maybe it's a hoax.
But as the Doctor and Amy find out, these are just minor events in a sinister plan to take over every human being on Earth. The plot centres on a secret military base on the moon - that's where Amy and the TARDIS are.
The Doctor is back on Earth, and without the TARDIS
there's no way he can get to the moon to save Amy and defeat the aliens.
Or is there? The Doctor discovers one last great secret that could save humanity: Apollo 23.
A thrilling, all-new adventure featuring the Doctor and Amy, as played by Matt Smith and Karen Gillan in the spectacular hit series from BBC Television.
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New York - one of the greatest cities on 21st century Earth... But what's going on in the Museum? And is that really a Woolly Mammoth rampaging down Broadway?
An ordinary day becomes a time of terror, as Ice Age creatures come back to life, and the Doctor and Amy meet a new and deadly enemy. The vicious Army of the Vykoid are armed to the teeth and determined to enslave the human race. Even though they're only three inches high.
With the Vykoid army swarming across Manhattan and sealing it from the world with a powerful alien forcefield, Amy has just 24 hours to find the Doctor and save the city. If she doesn't, the people of Manhattan will be taken to work in the doomed asteroid mines of the Vykoid home planet.
But as time starts to run out, who can she trust? And how far will she have to go to free New York from the Forgotten Army?
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The inside scoop on 900 years of travel aboard the Doctor's famous time machine.
Everything you need to know about the TARDIS is here
- where it came from, where it's been, how it works, and how it has changed since we first encountered it in that East London junkyard in 1963.
Including photographs, design drawings and concept artwork from different eras of the series, this handbook explores the ship's endless interior, looking inside its wardrobe and bedrooms, its power rooms and sick bay, its corridors and cloisters, and revealing just how the show's production teams have created the dimensionally transcendental police box, inside and out.
The TARDIS Handbook is the essential guide to the best ship in the universe.
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An archaeological dig in 1936 unearths relics of another time... And - as the Doctor and Amy realise - another place.
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Obvious illusions could be real - and deadly.
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In the city-state of Geath, the King lives in a golden hall, and the people want for nothing. Everyone is happy and everyone is rich. Or so it seems.
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A thrilling, all-new adventure featuring the Doctor and Amy, as played by Matt Smith and Karen Gillan in the spectacular hit series from BBC Television.
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Station 7 is where the Earth Forces send all the equipment captured in their unceasing war against the Daleks. It's where Dalek technology is analysed and examined. It's where the Doctor and Amy have just arrived. But somehow the Daleks have found out about Station 7 - and there's something there that they want back.
With the Doctor increasingly worried about the direction the Station's research is taking, the commander of Station 7
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