Haunted Series One
Episode Four
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the TARDIS
Written by the Genie
Foreword – by the Genie
Written before, during and after Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the TARDIS was conceived with the 2013 TARDIS in mind but also with a number of new rooms and contraptions which weren't included in the series. It also features the debut of the Hitchhiker, a Scott-Moriarty-esque arch-nemesis for the Doctor with a timey-wimey chronology worthy of River Song herself. Hitchhiker's Guide deals with a lot, from the unspeakable end of The Sarah Jane Adventures to the return of Kate Stewart's UNIT, at the time it was written only returning after one appearance. Ultimately, the episode sets the direction for the rest of the series, and through moving at its unpredictable and frantic pace is able to ground the Doctor and Olivia into a very different world.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the TARDIS
“Ooo-ooo-ooo-oo-oo-o-o-o,” hummed the Doctor as Billy Joel’s ‘Uptown Girl’ resounded through the console room. He and Olivia, opposite sides of the console, rotated around the magnificent piece of machinery, engaged in hilarity. Olivia was dressed in a yellow summer dress whilst the Doctor had his usual attire on – however, he’d hung his trench coat over the railing, and so was just in a waistcoat. The fedora also rested on the hat-stand and a fob-watch hung around his neck.
They’d been happier since they’d both come out to each other about the past. Olivia supposed it was because bottling up depression only worsened the psychological torment. They both knew. If one bowed their head in silence and wiped a tear from their eye, the other would know why. That meant something to both of them.
“Uptown girl…” continued the Doctor, “She’s-been-liv-ing-in-her-uptown world…”
“You,” chuckled Olivia, “are a… a…” She searched for the right word.
The song came to an abrupt end as the song jumped a few times and the Doctor turned it off. The TARDIS made a strange noise – a sort of creaking, or scraping or… groaning?
“a… a…” Olivia persisted, trying to ignore this abnormal behaviour.
“You’re a-“the TARDIS jerked suddenly, and Olivia’s trembling hand grabbed onto a side rail, whilst the Doctor stared alarmingly at the screen. “an intergalactic 80s hipster!”
The TARDIS jolted violently and Olivia and the Doctor were thrown to the floor. Olivia fumbled around for something to help her up as the Doctor threw himself at the console, flicking dozens of switches and hammering buttons with his fist.
“What is it? What have you done?!”
“I haven’t done anything!” yelled the Doctor; indignant and panicked. “It’s the time vortex! There’s a hole in the time vortex!”
“Does this happen often?” cried Olivia over the sound of malfunctioning systems and collapsing foundations.
“It’s happened before, a couple of times, but this time – this is-“
Before the Doctor could get any further, he was knocked unconscious by a final tremor, and he and Olivia laid side-by-side, as the TARDIS plummeted into the Earth.
***
Luke Smith sat in his laboratory studying the picture of his mum. She was so young; so beautiful. Her face was illuminated with joy; with the blessing of prosperity and the vigour of youth. And there was the man next to her – an eccentric, unearthly man, who was the centre of all attention – he could only be the Doctor. Luke twiddled a pen in his hand, contemplating on how much Sarah Jane hadn’t told him about her past.
His desk was such a mess, and he felt that in every possible sense of the word. His work seemed to have lost order – he was clinging to every project with his fingertips as they slipped away from him; sometimes great opportunities just passing by in seconds. The diagrams on the walls were pinned haphazardly on top of each other, and with all their different colours and meanings, all you could see was a bedazzling blur.
“Luke,” came a voice from the intercom, “I think we’ve found one for you. You need to be at Parliament Hill Fields in ten minutes. Think you can make it?”
“Well, it depends on what it is.”
“This is definitely one for you.”
“One for me?” Luke’s voice was forlorn and apathetic. “They always start that way.”
“No, Luke. I mean this is really one for you. In ways I can’t tell you in case I’m intercepted.”
Luke’s head darted up attentively like an animal hearing a pack call. Could it be…?
***
PARLIAMENT HILL FIELDS – 12PM
“Is that it?” asked Kate Stewart, “Do we know for sure?”
The crash had formed a crater in the ground, which the TARDIS was laid in on its side, with trees collapsed in on it. It was a normal field at night; vegetation surrounding the area, but beyond them nature came to an end and you could see the vast and ultramodern London landscape. Yet in that one area, it looked like an apocalypse: a scorching pile of unworkable junk.
Luke stepped forward in awe of the ship, carefully examining every detail.
“That’s it,” he replied, “that’s definitely it. Should I contact her?”
“Yes,” responded Kate resolutely, “if this is the genuine article, she deserves to see it for the first time. But I’ll contact her. I’ll let you help the technicians get in.”
Luke approached the UNIT officers who encircled the box. They were trying to get the door to open; from lock-pickers to chainsaws, and from knives to hammers.
“You won’t get in,” remarked Luke, gazing intently at the machine, “that thing’s reinforced beyond Earth workmanship.”
“The ship’s been badly damaged and we think the doors were slightly open when it was drifting,” replied one of the men. He was a lofty, muscular and bald man with fortitude in his eyes and a serious expression of concentration. “Phillip, sir. Phillip Pitman.” He held out his arm and offered Luke a firm handshake.
“We’re in!” gasped one of the men working at the door.
“I’ll head in first to give the all-clear,” announced Phillip in his booming virile voice, “we let Mr Smith in afterwards but he’s got to be surrounded on all angles. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
Phillip cautiously made his way in. He couldn’t see much; the room was clouded in a thick layer of smoke. Coughing, he clambered down a wobbly flight of stairs. In the mist he could see the shape of a body.
“Down here, boys!” he spluttered. “Think I’ve got something!”
Three more men including Luke made their way down the stairs and examined the body. It was hard to see anything through the mist but it looked like the figure of a middle-aged man, though he was dressed in some well out-of-date clothes.
“Is that him, sir?” asked Phillip.
“I don’t know…” murmured Luke. “It doesn’t look like him, but he does this thing, where he…”
The man awoke in a fit of coughing and Phillip saw to him immediately. When the coughing stopped, the man stood up unexpectedly, shaking, and tried to climb the staircase.
“Are you okay, sir?” inquired Phillip.
“I’m fine,” wheezed the man, “just got to-“
He yanked a leaver with all his might and the haze began to clear. Everything was properly visible now. It was a magnificent room; grand and futuristic, with a vivid blue lighting. It was a dark place, though. No one quite felt safe.
“Are…” Luke eyed him warily but curiously nonetheless. “…Are you the Doctor? Is it you?”
“You know…” the man approached Luke and regarded him with admiration – a recognizing gaze. “…it’s been so long, but I still recognize you today. Luke Smith. Is it really you?”
“Doctor!” cried Luke, and they shared a brief hug.
“Luke, over here now!” Kate’s voice penetrated from outside.
“And Kate Stewart!” The Doctor beamed. “Now, where’s Olivia?”
“Doctor, Luke, out here now! This is an emergency!”
***
“You fell through some kind of wormhole, correct?” queried Kate.
“There was nothing wormy about it,” re-joined the Doctor, “it was a hole through-and-through. And an unusual one. You don’t get rips like that in the vortex. That’s the fabric of time torn in half – nothing I know is capable of that. Why?”
“Because we set up some detection equipment out here.” Kate signalled to a laptop, balanced on a box, with wires leading to what looked like some kind of space-age phonograph. “And we found the hole. We cordoned off the area – it’s invisible. But it’s growing, and rapidly. Based on our readings, we predict that within 24 hours, it will have swallowed up the world.”
“There’s one more thing,” interrupted the Doctor, “that I forgot to mention. I can fix this. This hole in time, this rip, can be closed! I have the correct parts with me. All we need to do is literally pull it back together. But it’s not on a human level so we need similar technology – aka, TARDIS technology – to fix it!”
Kate and the others breathed a sigh of relief. “So that means this can all be done… now?”
“Well…” the Doctor frowned in worry. “Not exactly. The parts are all on-board the TARDIS, and the TARDIS is infinite. Normally she can direct me around where I want to go but she’s in one hell of a state. We’re going to need to be quick. I have no idea how to find the workshop now she’s like this.”
“She?” interjected Phillip.
“Yes, she!” countered the Doctor, indignantly. “She is alive!”
“I suggest, sir,” came back Phillip, “that we begin now – I’ll guard you the whole way to make sure you stay safe.”
“No!” the Doctor shocked everyone as he snapped. His expression softened, a little. “She’s perfectly safe. I need you lot to stay in the main control room and look for my friend Olivia. The TARDIS is more likely to help me when there aren’t people with…” the Doctor eyed the soldiers cagily, “…guns, on my ship. But Luke-“ Luke looked up sharply at the Doctor’s calling. “You’re coming with me.”
***
“Are you sure this is safe?” asked Luke doubtfully.
“Of course!” replied a visibly collected Doctor. “The ship’s been damaged badly but it’s not going to eat us!” he chuckled merrily. “It’s just freed up the air space by putting in a lot more corridors than usual!”
The Doctor was right. After five minutes, they seemed to have gone through corridor after corridor. The grey walls imprinted themselves onto their minds like words carved onto a tombstone. The TARDIS was acting surprisingly unremarkably.
“Aha!” cried the Doctor. “A room!”
He was right again. Before them was a metallic archway, through which was the most magnificent… swimming pool!
The water was crystal clear and glistened from the light from above. The light was something like daylight, but brighter; bathing the room in a heavenly sunlight. The Doctor carefully led Luke around the outside of the pool.
The ground was wet and slippery; it had clearly been used recently. Two or three white sunbeds were lined against the wall, one of which had a brown towel folded neatly on it. The Doctor and Luke cautiously stepped over these sunbeds and made their way to the archway at the other end.
The Doctor eyed Luke who was gawping in astonishment at the pool.
“I know,” said the Doctor, in a murmur, “it’s a swimming pool, and it’s very exciting. But we need to focus on the task at hand.”
Luke diverted his attention back to the Doctor, nodding in agreement, and continued through the winding passages.
“W-where next?” stammered Luke, as they came to a junction with two new routes available.
“I’ll go left,” suggested the Doctor, “you go right. If your way doesn’t lead anywhere, come and find me. I’ll do the same. If you lose me, meet back here.”
Luke did as the Doctor instructed and persisted through the winding passageway. He was highly surprised when he entered the next archway, and found what gave the impression to be a bedroom.
He studied the room deeply. It was only the size of a standard master bedroom, and despite the space-age corridors which led into it, the room itself was relatively old-fashioned: avocado-green patterned wallpaper, a wooden single bed and some sleek white cabinets. There were framed photographs on the wall of a beautiful young brunette and the Doctor. She was smiling jauntily, and he stood behind, looking unusually bamboozled.
It had been left untouched since the last person to be inside: the bed unmade, and the hairbrush resting on the bedside table – yet dust was beginning to clog up on the cabinets’ surfaces, and the fruit in the bowl had gone off; the bottom of a mug was now mildew.
The Doctor ran in to join Luke but halted at the door and turned back.
“What is it?” demanded Luke. “Why can’t you look at it?”
“It’s my friend’s room.” The Doctor turned to face Luke and stared back at the room sullenly. “It… was my friend’s room.”
“What happened to your friend?”
“She… she had to forget me. She was a weapon. Against me. I can still see her here now…” he grimaced, and clenched his fists; suffering in mental agony. “…but that’s over now. She was perfect. Now she’s gone.”
“What was her name?”
“Clara.”
The Doctor studied Luke. He was so much older now. He still had the same concentrating expression and short dark hair, but he was a man, not a boy. He had grown into his looks and there was a kindness when he smiled. His clothes weren’t standard; he was in black trousers and a lab coat, but underneath was a thick patterned jersey. He’d developed uniqueness. It didn’t matter that he was genetically created. He was human. That thought was oddly familiar to the Doctor.
“What year is it?” asked the Doctor.
“It’s 2022. Technically I’m only thirteen years old.” He chuckled.
“That makes your mum…” the Doctor paused to do the calculations. “… Seventy-one?”
“Seventy,” countered Luke.
“No,” re-joined the Doctor, “seventy-one! I’m sure of it!”
“Seventy,” insisted Luke, “she would have been seventy-one.”
The Doctor frowned and then realised what Luke was implying. He shook his head in frustration and wiped a tear from his eye.
“All of them…” he bowed his head sorrowfully. “… They’ve all gone now, I think. I’m always left alone. I’m sorry… I never knew.”
“You never asked,” returned Luke. He turned away and continued through the room, until they came back into the corridor, and resumed their hectic tour through this impossible maze.
***
“Ma’am!” yelled one of the men from inside the TARDIS. “We’ve found her! We’ve found Olivia!”
But Kate wasn’t listening. She was too busy watching the readings on the computer soar beyond anything she could imagine. In minutes, they’d be swallowed by this gateway – and so would the TARDIS.
“Get her out,” called Kate inside, “and get as far away from here as possible. There’s nothing we can do for the Doctor now. We just have to hope he makes it out in time…”
***
“Where are we now?”
This room was the most unusual yet; at least an acre long, and completely organic. It was akin to a greenhouse; enclosed in a domed window, a dazzling light percolating through the roof, and fruitful vegetation from every angle. Not just visibly; you could smell it. The natural smell of plants and herbs, infesting in the nose, overwhelming the senses.
There was a series of concrete slabs that followed a single trail down the centre of the glasshouse, and they’d been there a long time; moss was creeping in between the gaps, and overstretched weeds covered up the edges, so much so that the path blended in with the flora. A series of connected paths also sprouted off in different directions; down alleys of exotic fruits; some small cube-like berries, others enormous crimsoned spheres. Long branches and leaves hung down from above, blocking certain areas from sight, and making it even harder to find an exit.
“This…” the Doctor looked around as if he was double-checking. “…This is the garden!”
“And are we near the workshop?”
“Well… it’s sort of hard to say.” The Doctor picked up on Luke’s disillusioned and somewhat infuriated state. “Don’t worry. The TARDIS will guide us there in time – she always does. We’re not in any danger here.”
At that moment, the light dimmed, and the room was plunged into complete darkness. From the distance a faint but definite laughter could be heard. A sadistic cackle.
“Did I say something about danger?”
***
At first everything was a blur. Olivia could hear muffled voices – something about expansion. Then her fluttering eyelids attracted attention and she naturally acclimatized to her surroundings.
She was in some sort of research facility. It was on about three levels (the bottom of which Olivia was on) which all overlooked each other with verandas. Everything was almost clinically white and ultramodern. It was a workplace; tables which were the home to unfinished experiments, the sound of clicking mice and rustling papers, and the smell of hot tea were all proof of this.
“Welcome to the UNIT special operations HQ”, said a middle-aged blonde woman, “I’m Kate Stewart.”
“W…” Olivia tried to sit up but couldn’t manage. “…Where’s the D-Doctor?”
Kate looked over to her right remorsefully, exchanged a worried glance with a college, and looked back down at Olivia.
“We’ve had to leave him. The gateway in time was increasing in size and the TARDIS couldn’t be moved. We’re doing everything we can to put things back to normal.”
Olivia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. After everything the Doctor had shown her… had he finally lost?
***
“Don’t move,” whispered the Doctor. He couldn’t see Luke in the darkness, but he could hear his heavy breathing and could sense his rapid heartbeat. “When I say run – we run. Straight forward until we’re out of here. No diversions – no stops. OK? Three… Two…” The Doctor hesitated, adding up his chances of survival, considering the risks involved, then tossing his doubtful thoughts aside. “…One… Run!”
Neither of them could see where they were going; they simply ran, sprinting as fast as they could. They could feel the air on their faces; they could feel the leaves brushing against them, thorns prickling their sides and were mildly aware of the obstacles around them.
Suddenly, they were in another room, where it was light. This room was much different. You entered it through the same metal archway, but the floor was made of Beachwood, and the walls were a plain white. The room was quite small but led into a number of other similar rooms like a junction. There were all sorts of ornaments preserved importantly in glass cases. There was a brooch, glistening in majesty, with a case to itself. To the right was a smaller case, in which stood a copy of a book: ‘The Journal of Impossible Things’. It seemed familiar to Luke but he couldn’t place why.
“The museum!” beamed the Doctor, “That’s lucky; I could do with using this indirect route. Is it in here? No, hang on, next section…”
The Doctor dragged a completely awestruck and terrified Luke along into the next section. This room was slightly bigger; in the centre, on a circular white platform, stood a canary-yellow Edwardian roadster. A golden plate on the platform named it simply ‘Bessie’. The Doctor ran to the back wall and grabbed a strange device which was hanging from the wall. It looked like a laptop, a school electronics project and a car mirror amalgamated into one potpourri piece of machinery.
“Species matcher…” the Doctor turned around proudly to face Luke. “…and I’ve had it updated to scan interior biology!”
He held the device up to Luke, and a couple of blue lights flashed. Then he turned it around smugly to show him, as Luke read what the screen said.
SPECIES RECOGNISED
EARTH
HUMAN
“What do you need that for?” asked Luke, puzzled and unimpressed.
“You’ll see…” said the Doctor enigmatically, and they continued on.
They ventured down a few more corridors, until they came to one area where the trail ended – well, nearly.
The corridors were about eight feet high before, but at this point you looked up and it was like a sort of elevator shaft – well, more precisely, the same corridor, but going upwards. But there were no ladders or ropes to climb, so it was a dead end.
“Keep going!” shouted the Doctor insanely. “We’re nearly at the workshop now!”
“B-but…” stammered Luke.
“It’s an anti-grav corridor!” the Doctor finally caught up with Luke who was hitherto ahead of him. “Just keep walking and you’ll find yourself going up.”
Gingerly and reluctantly, Luke followed the Doctor’s instructions. The moment he put his foot on the wall, he felt a brief spell of dizziness, as his world spun around. Then, he was back in a corridor. When he looked up, he could see the Doctor, where he’d been standing before, only from Luke’s perspective; it looked like he was glued to the wall.
“We’ve done timey-wimey,” said the Doctor, “meet wibbly-wobbly!”
The Doctor followed Luke’s trail and they continued as normal.
“You sure you know where you’re going?” quizzed Luke.
“Of course! At the end of this trail is the SVR-“
“SVR?”
“Space Visualisation Room! A scale hologram of the entire cosmos, generated by the TARDIS, for the TARDIS! Yes, it is quite a big room, how did you guess?”
“Err, Doctor…” Luke was getting concerned.
“The workshop should be at the end of it. It’s quite useful, because if I don’t have the right materials or equipment, I often consult the SVR to find out exactly where to find them.”
“Doctor…”
“I think,” the Doctor was so submerged in his ramblings that he hadn’t even noticed Luke, “We’re beginning to get close to the Engine Rooms. Now that’s an impressive sight. Can you imagine; great-“
“Doctor!” exclaimed Luke.
“What is it?” said the Doctor nonchalantly.
“I feel like I’m being dragged backwards.”
The Doctor’s merry expression turned deadly serious.
“I’m feeling it too. And we’re not being dragged backwards at all. This is an anti-grav corridor. Someone’s turned off the gravity. Run!”
They did just that; tearing rapidly down the corridor, as they started dizzying again, losing their grip…
Suddenly, they were safe. The room they were in seemed enormous. There were no visible walls or ceiling; everything was black, even the floor. A blue hologram was all that was distinguishable – and this stretched across the whole diameter of the room, with only a tiny path not covered by it.
The hologram was spectacular: orbs all connected by miscellaneous cords which stretched around bigger orbs which spun around swirls of more orbs which all connected in this brilliant theoretical sculpture.
“See?” said the Doctor, “the Space Visualisation Room! Come on, no time to stare!”
Luke was once again grabbed involuntarily and pulled along the hall by the Doctor, until they were through the next grey archway – and finally into the workshop.
The workshop wasn’t at all how Luke had envisioned it. His mind’s eye had pictured a small workspace, something more personal; like the inside of a shed – slightly old and worn, with a mug of tea on the window sill and a scarred workbench that had seen better days. But this was remarkable.
The room wasn’t too wide but it wasn’t one room either. It was like the library that Luke had passed earlier, except it was… bigger. If you looked up, the floors seemed to go on forever; each one aisles of various materials; Earth-made timber, alien crystallised globes, bizarre instruments that went from the length of a fingernail to about eight feet high – the bottom floor was the work area; a giant wooden table in the centre, on which stood a number of assorted machines, from standard vices to imposing drills which looked scarily dangerous.
“Follow me!” exclaimed the Doctor. “Floor twenty-seven, Deadsmith Weaponry.”
“Wait-“stuttered Luke, following the Doctor up a magnificent wooden staircase, “- weaponry? I thought…”
“The Deadsmiths of Goth were the greatest weapon makers the universe ever had,” explained the Doctor as they passed the seventh floor, starting to feel breathless, “and one of their creations was the Closer. The Time Lords, you see, in their earliest wars, created a fantastic temporary defence mechanism. They could open their own pocket universe – as small as a cloakroom – on the field of battle, and hide there until it was safe to continue. Only they could enter this universe. But the Closer was made for the opposing force. It was incredibly strong and could close any gateway of the like, so that the Time Lords were trapped in their tiny universe for all eternity. Very cruel, and that’s why the Time Lords abandoned that strategy. But in principle, with Deadsmith workmanship, this should work for the hole in the Time Vortex. I haven’t seen anything like this before, so I can’t be sure though.”
Soon they reached the twenty-seventh floor and had to pause for breath, wiping their brows. It was a tiring journey that was beginning to get the better of them.
“Come on,” panted the Doctor, “let’s find the Closer.”
The Doctor located an aisle which had ‘CL' engraved onto a golden plaque on the ground. Hurrying up this aisle, he stopped at an impressive gun (or that’s what it looked like), and lifted it from its place.
The gun was silver and about three quarters of a meter in length. It had two sections; the lower which was a long barrel of some kind, and the upper which was a sleek tube from which the ray would presumably be fired.
“…That’s my girl.” The Doctor slung the gun under his arm and set off to find the next archway, which came at the end of this floor.
The Doctor was disillusioned when he emerged through it; stopping and looking on in dismay and hopelessness, stamping his foot in frustration.
Luke was too busy staring at the room to notice this. It was possibly the biggest room yet – he’d say infinite. Apart from the raised platform that they were on, the whole place was machinery. He looked over the railings and saw an immeasurable drop below. The machines were all connected, and were a different proportion to those on Earth; cogs the size of spaceships and screws which held tower-sized beams in place. The sounds of chugging and stamping and creaking and spinning and grinding and scraping could be heard, and the room emitted smells of fumes, and fire, and burning metal.
“Welcome to the engine room…” uttered the Doctor, taking a step forward.
“I… thought Mum said that that eye thing powered the TARDIS?”
“The Eye of Harmony? Yes, it does. But there’s still an engine. This is a time machine – the most complex machine in the universe. This is how it works.”
Just then, the Doctor and Luke both turned around in shock, as they felt a hand resting on their shoulders. Standing in the archway they’d just come through stood a man. He was little above thirty years old, with a devilish smile, devious eyes and smooth, short blonde hair. He spoke wittily but cruelly and was dressed in black suit and tie and a white shirt.
“Hello there, boys!” It was undoubtedly the same voice as the vindictive laughter they’d heard earlier. “I’m the Hitchhiker.”
The Doctor immediately consulted the Species Matcher he’d slung over his shoulders earlier, and after the blue lights had flashed, he scrutinized it in terror.
SPECIES RECOGNISED
GALLIFREY
TIME LORD
“You’re a Time Lord…”
“Indeed I am…” the Hitchhiker took another step forward, which alarmed the Doctor and Luke, so they both took a step back to even the gap. “I’d hoped it would take longer, but then you were always such a sharp young man, Doctor!”
“I’m not young.”
“Neither am I. We’re both older than we look, Doctor. It means that people pass us on the street without looking back. We-“ he gestured to Luke who looked towards the ground uncomfortably “-we can go on forever, and fight battles, and watch terrible things – we pop out for a pint of milk and no one expects a thing! But humans – you lot, all obvious and BORING! You waste away and die and everyone looks at you and sees the last glimmer of life fade from your eyes – your lives drift by in moments, and you must look up at us eternals, thinking – why must our lives be so fleeting?“
“-That’s enough games!” interjected the Doctor. “How do you know who I am? And how did you get in my ship?”
“I got in your ship via the TDS.”
Luke looked up at the Doctor for an explanation, but the Doctor shrugged it off. Luke scowled. He felt insulted – detached.
“And I know you…” he continued, emphasizing the odd word. “…I knew you. And I will know you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re meeting me now, but soon you’ll meet me again. Little do you know…”
“Little do I know what?” The Doctor was getting agitated.
“Little do you know that you’ve met me before…”
“When?”
“BORED!” The Doctor and Luke stepped back again as he bellowed this last word. He then moved towards them and they continued to back away; now swapping places – the Hitchhiker was nearer the railing, and they were nearer the archway.
“I’ve-been-manipulating,” said the Hitchhiker in his sing-song voice, “messing with your systems, playing my games. Your ship is so delicate – so changeable, it seems!” He abruptly pulled a pistol out of his inside pocket which made Luke instinctively back up into the archway.
“Luke, no!”- But it was too late. Luke had gone through and the Doctor had impulsively followed. But they both realised the facts at that moment. The Hitchhiker was in complete control of the ship’s mechanics. And he’d redirected them. This was all part of his twisted master-plan.
The Doctor looked around, and realised in terror where he was. His hand shook, his voice trembled and his eyes bulged in… fear?
“Where are we?” whispered Luke, his voice also quivering.
“Luke, I’m so sorry…”
“Where are we?” he demanded, harsher this time.
“We’re in the danger room. It’s… it’s where I put the things I can’t – or won’t – kill. The deadliest things. All the things that have infested this ship – sometimes they’re even hidden by the TARDIS before I’m aware - ergo, I don’t know some of them!”
“What… sort of things are we talking?”
“Physical beings mostly. Some predators that we’ve picked up in places. Sometimes even non-physical entities… they’ve drifted into the TARDIS, somehow, from somewhere – sometimes the vortex itself. Imagine what it would be like to live in the vortex, Luke. All of time spinning around you, chasms of age, lights and noises and sensations beyond human understanding – it would drive you insane.”
Luke looked around for proof. The place was like outside. There were no visible archways, or walls. It was a misty forest at night; tall trees, a layer of fog, rustling leaves, snapping twigs and a hissing from afar.
“For someone who’s very clever,” came the Hitchhiker’s cruel, excited voice, “you surprised me!”
His words were heard as an echo; like a god speaking to his dominion.
“You walked right into my little trap. Though, to be fair, I don’t blame you. I was wondering… if you die now, what will happen? Will my future then cease to exist? Still, I can probably change it back. Let’s not worry. You only live once.”
The sound of thunder resonated through the forest, and a robotic laughter sounded from the left. The Doctor and Luke intuitively chose to dash in the opposite direction, hearing suspicious noises as they went; some from their imagination, some from their own running, and some…
“It’s funny. I never thought watching my archenemy being tortured and murdered in front of my very eyes would be quite such fun. I guess I underestimated my sadism!”
The pair paused and turned slowly back. They realised their mistake. There was a reason they couldn’t see anything, and a reason the sounds came from so near. There was a reason the laughter sounded like an echo. Because the TARDIS isn’t a forest. And the trees weren’t trees.
“Did you ever wonder,” continued the Hitchhiker, “what happened when you left all of your victims down here?”
The twosome began to run again, trying to reach the end of the forest, as the trees started to sway, though there was no breeze.
“I wonder… what would they like to do to you?”
The Doctor and Luke saw a clearing and headed at full speed towards it, as the trees all awoke.
“My guess would be probably tear out your soul and turn you into one of them. But that’s only a guess!”
When they reached the clearing, they found themselves at a dead end. In front of them was an enormous waterfall; water powerfully swishing down the rocks and smashing bits off of them. It was lethal. And looking down, it led into an endless black pit.
“I’ve seen things, Doctor, happen to you, that make even me have just a little bit of pity. I’ve seen what you are yet to see. If you knew – it would break your hearts.” As the Doctor finally gave up, he thought he could see, in his mind, the Hitchhiker’s evil smile, relishing in his victory. “And trust me… it did.”
“Tell me one thing, before we die,” demanded the Doctor, “is it you? Were you the person following me in the darkness since Moscow, eh? Was it you who ripped the hole in the time vortex? You’ve been manipulating me, haven’t you?”
“Doctor… I’d love to say I have, but I honestly haven’t. But hey, I’m a time traveller. I might be about to.” Once again, he giggled callously, as the trees advanced on the Doctor and Luke; burning red eyes protruding from their trunk, penetrating their souls. As they backed up again, they reached the edge of the cliff, and looked down to see the daunting drop of the waterfall.
“Bingo.”
In a moment of instinct and a surge of inspiration, the Doctor grabbed onto Luke and threw them both into the waterfall. As they fell, they could hear the sound of the water powerfully hammering down along the rocks, but not hitting the ground; the drop seemed to be infinite. Then water was all around them; no rocks could be seen, just a constantly swirling spiral of liquid, like a tunnel. Then, as the water vanished, they stopped falling, and found themselves in…
…a scullery.
It had to have been the smallest room yet. It was also of a different architecture to the others; more enclosed, paler, with golden roundels on the walls. The cabinets were white, the wall was silver brickwork and the floor was made up of modern black tiles. On the worktop rested some simple Earth-grown foods; a pile of grated cheese, leeks, and some eggs. The upper cabinets held various vintage wine bottles and antiquated glasses (which looked like they’d break if you touched them), and the overhead light shone brightly, illuminating the room. At that instant, a man walked in – not through the archway, though; this time there was a simple white doorway instead, to match the pallid simplicity of the kitchenette.
The man was astonished. He was elderly, with a wise but somewhat grumpy countenance; distrusting brown eyes and an engrossed appearance; strands of greyish-white hair combed backwards and some patchwork clothes with a frock coat and a tie over the top. There was something Edwardian about his dress sense; he even had the tartan trousers.
“What are you doing here? Who are you?” He spook with irascibility and impatience.
“Listen,” began the Doctor. “I know this is hard, Doctor, but-“
“How you do know my name, hmm?”
“Because I am you! In your future!”
The Doctor was already irritated by his former self, whilst Luke stood back, bewildered, wondering what was going on and how they could possibly be the same man.
“Do you have any proof of that, young man?”
“Young?” he sniggered. “I’m older than you, Doctor. And I know everything. Do you really want me to go blurting out about your past in front of guests?” He gestured to Luke.
“I need some kind of proof to know that you’re not an impostor, my dear boy!”
“Fine! The outside of your TARDIS is a police telephone box-“
“Yes, that’s fairly obvious I think-“
“-and you always tell people you’re going to get it fixed, but you never will. You know how, really, but deep down… you love her the way she is.”
The old man stared back at his counterpart in amazement.
“Well, I never… Then, what can I do for you, Doctor?”
“Well… I used the TDS.”
“Doctor!” moaned Luke, “For goodness sake, can’t you tell me what it is!?”
“Temporal Displacement System!” clarified the Doctor. “The TARDIS is a time machine, so moving along her timeline is no different. That waterfall is access to it, like the time vortex, in a way. I’d forgotten. That’s how the Hitchhiker got on-board; he was in the TARDIS in my future but used the TDS to move back in time. That’s what we did. Except the forest didn’t exist all those years ago, so it re-directed us to the scullery. We’ve gone back a bit far.”
“Dear boy, you talk much quicker than I! I’m hardly catching any of this!”
“Don’t worry, Doc.”
“What did you just call me?”
“What you don’t like being called.”
The old man scowled. “What can I do for you then, eh, Doc?”
“I need to use the TDS again. And I need to use the one in your control room.”
“That’s all very well, but first, explain why you’re carrying that gun under your arm.”
“Deadsmith weaponry; the Closer. I need to close a rip in the time vortex. I need to get to…” he beckoned Luke to give him the exact date.
“Err – the 24th of May, 2022. Can you get a specific time?”
“I’m afraid not, dear boy. But I’ll make sure it’s on that exact day – as early as I can, I’d presume?”
“Yes please.”
“Very well then. Follow me…”
They were in the console room in no time. The Doctor had been absolutely right. The TARDIS did a fine job of helping the crew when it – no, when she – was fully functioning.
The control room was so different. Smaller, whiter, with more of the golden roundels on the walls. The console itself was less striking; littler, more compact, with a lower glass section. The earlier Doctor flicked the switches manically, sometimes even getting things wrong. This amused the other Doctor greatly, but he contained his laughter.
“Doctor, now, err, you stand over there. I’ve connected, err, the space-time visualizer to the, the... um... TDS, so we all need to envisage that exact date in our minds! Let’s get to work!”
The Doctor and Luke stood where instructed, to the right of the console, and waited a moment. Then, the sound of a powering engine could be heard from the ground, and the old man lit up.
“Haha!” he cried, “It’s working! You’ll be there in a number of seconds. Now, one question…” he approached the Doctor, as if to probe him. “How old are you now?”
“I’m 1500 years old – probably.”
At that point in time, the pair disappeared, leaving only a small layer of mist, and the Doctor turned back to the central column of his ship, chuckling merrily.
“1500 years old, eh? He-he!” muttering jovially to himself, he strode off again; chortling like Father Christmas after a few pints.
***
“Olivia,” said Kate Stewart, approaching the girl in question, who was still resting on a bed, “I’m so sorry. Within moments the TARDIS is going to be sucked in. We’ve tried everything, but it’s not moving. We’ve had to leave the site now. We think that we may have just found a way to close the bridge, but it won’t be in time. I’m afraid we’ve lost them both.”
***
The Doctor, back in the console room, checked his watch.
“Right now, we’re in there somewhere – our previous selves, probably just approaching the workshop. We need to get out now!”
Luke led this time, darting out of the door, and into the open, as the Doctor swiftly followed.
You couldn’t see the rip in time, exactly, but the air in a particular area was distorted, and anything behind it was blurred. You knew where it was, if you were there. And it was dangerously close to the TARDIS.
The Doctor aimed the Closer at the fissure, his finger playfully twiddling with the trigger…
“Better hope this works…”
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and fired. A vivid ray of blue light fired viciously out of the weapon and lit up the crack; suddenly, it became a sphere of cerulean electricity, fluctuating, shrinking, growing, slimming, widening, until…
In a flash of light similar to lightning, it expanded a final time, and snapped shut.
“Did we do it?” asked Luke. “We did it, didn’t we? Oh, yes, we did it! Whoooh! Well, you did it.”
“No, Luke. You were the one who ran into the forest, and I followed, and we found the TDS because of that. It might only be chance, but… we would definitely all be dead if you hadn’t been in there with me. Well done. She’d have been proud of us, Luke. Both of us.”
He jumped up and embraced the Doctor, the two of them beaming at their success, but only the Doctor knowing the price that he’d paid.
***
“Everyone,” exclaimed Kate Stewart from the highest level of the base, “we’ve just got confirmation. He did it! And with only a minute to spare before it consumed the area!” she exhaled a breath of relief, and quietened her voice, just a tad. “Drinks are on me tonight; just this once. But I want you all back into work at seven tomorrow morning!”
Olivia woke up from her sleep. The world was still spinning for her, but she could see the blurred figure of the Doctor standing over her.
“You… did it…” she murmured, half-awake.
“Yeah… I did. But…” he contemplated whether he could tell her the truth. “When you’re better,” he said, half to Olivia and half to himself. He climbed the staircase to Kate’s office. It was a nice room, overlooking the vast base, with pictures of her family on the wall – her children.
“Doctor,” she said, sensing his presence, “I never really got the chance to say hello to you today. Well done. You did a marvellous job. I assume you’ll be off now, then?”
“I’m afraid not.” The Doctor leant against the doorway. “The TARDIS has been damaged. And it’s 2022. And I can’t leave here. My friend, Olivia… I’ll have to tell her. I can go to Cardiff and link up with the rift, and we can see then how long we’ll have to wait to get the TARDIS operational again. I think it will be more than a few days. Maybe a couple of weeks, a month, and for Olivia that could be it - the second she returns to her old life, she'll be stuck here, forced to take her place in the timeline. Difficult for her, but it would work for me. You know…” he gave her a half-smile, reassuring himself with the trivial matters of paying a mortgage and getting things insured. “I never thought I’d actually settle somewhere for more than about a day. Now I’ve got no choice. And there’s someone I’ve got look out for, in my near future. The Hitchhiker.”
“Aha,” said Kate, unusually happy. “This is where we come in. This is the UNIT special operations team – and we’re based in this part of London for a reason. Two years ago, we found traces of rift activity on this exact spot. You can put your TARDIS here, and live in it if you like. And during the day… you can work for us!”
“No, I’m not-“
“You’ve got to pay your rent, Doctor. What do you say? Scientific advisor again? Doctor John Smith?”
“And you’re team leader?”
“No. I’m higher up than that now – I oversee operations, but I generally do the paperwork. Team leader is-“ She looked down over the balcony “-here, now. Come and meet her.”
The Doctor vaguely recognised her pretty, albeit harsh face from somewhere, and her frizzy black hair. And Olivia, sitting up, did even more so.
“Sorry I’m late, got caught in some awful traffic, and my phone went dead! What have I missed?” She was startled when she looked over at Olivia, and dropped the phone she was holding to the floor.
The Doctor's heart sank. Trapped in the timeline forever. Olivia... I'm so sorry...
Olivia put her hand over her mouth, and then released it a second later.
“…Alex? Alex Paige?”
Written before, during and after Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the TARDIS was conceived with the 2013 TARDIS in mind but also with a number of new rooms and contraptions which weren't included in the series. It also features the debut of the Hitchhiker, a Scott-Moriarty-esque arch-nemesis for the Doctor with a timey-wimey chronology worthy of River Song herself. Hitchhiker's Guide deals with a lot, from the unspeakable end of The Sarah Jane Adventures to the return of Kate Stewart's UNIT, at the time it was written only returning after one appearance. Ultimately, the episode sets the direction for the rest of the series, and through moving at its unpredictable and frantic pace is able to ground the Doctor and Olivia into a very different world.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the TARDIS
“Ooo-ooo-ooo-oo-oo-o-o-o,” hummed the Doctor as Billy Joel’s ‘Uptown Girl’ resounded through the console room. He and Olivia, opposite sides of the console, rotated around the magnificent piece of machinery, engaged in hilarity. Olivia was dressed in a yellow summer dress whilst the Doctor had his usual attire on – however, he’d hung his trench coat over the railing, and so was just in a waistcoat. The fedora also rested on the hat-stand and a fob-watch hung around his neck.
They’d been happier since they’d both come out to each other about the past. Olivia supposed it was because bottling up depression only worsened the psychological torment. They both knew. If one bowed their head in silence and wiped a tear from their eye, the other would know why. That meant something to both of them.
“Uptown girl…” continued the Doctor, “She’s-been-liv-ing-in-her-uptown world…”
“You,” chuckled Olivia, “are a… a…” She searched for the right word.
The song came to an abrupt end as the song jumped a few times and the Doctor turned it off. The TARDIS made a strange noise – a sort of creaking, or scraping or… groaning?
“a… a…” Olivia persisted, trying to ignore this abnormal behaviour.
“You’re a-“the TARDIS jerked suddenly, and Olivia’s trembling hand grabbed onto a side rail, whilst the Doctor stared alarmingly at the screen. “an intergalactic 80s hipster!”
The TARDIS jolted violently and Olivia and the Doctor were thrown to the floor. Olivia fumbled around for something to help her up as the Doctor threw himself at the console, flicking dozens of switches and hammering buttons with his fist.
“What is it? What have you done?!”
“I haven’t done anything!” yelled the Doctor; indignant and panicked. “It’s the time vortex! There’s a hole in the time vortex!”
“Does this happen often?” cried Olivia over the sound of malfunctioning systems and collapsing foundations.
“It’s happened before, a couple of times, but this time – this is-“
Before the Doctor could get any further, he was knocked unconscious by a final tremor, and he and Olivia laid side-by-side, as the TARDIS plummeted into the Earth.
***
Luke Smith sat in his laboratory studying the picture of his mum. She was so young; so beautiful. Her face was illuminated with joy; with the blessing of prosperity and the vigour of youth. And there was the man next to her – an eccentric, unearthly man, who was the centre of all attention – he could only be the Doctor. Luke twiddled a pen in his hand, contemplating on how much Sarah Jane hadn’t told him about her past.
His desk was such a mess, and he felt that in every possible sense of the word. His work seemed to have lost order – he was clinging to every project with his fingertips as they slipped away from him; sometimes great opportunities just passing by in seconds. The diagrams on the walls were pinned haphazardly on top of each other, and with all their different colours and meanings, all you could see was a bedazzling blur.
“Luke,” came a voice from the intercom, “I think we’ve found one for you. You need to be at Parliament Hill Fields in ten minutes. Think you can make it?”
“Well, it depends on what it is.”
“This is definitely one for you.”
“One for me?” Luke’s voice was forlorn and apathetic. “They always start that way.”
“No, Luke. I mean this is really one for you. In ways I can’t tell you in case I’m intercepted.”
Luke’s head darted up attentively like an animal hearing a pack call. Could it be…?
***
PARLIAMENT HILL FIELDS – 12PM
“Is that it?” asked Kate Stewart, “Do we know for sure?”
The crash had formed a crater in the ground, which the TARDIS was laid in on its side, with trees collapsed in on it. It was a normal field at night; vegetation surrounding the area, but beyond them nature came to an end and you could see the vast and ultramodern London landscape. Yet in that one area, it looked like an apocalypse: a scorching pile of unworkable junk.
Luke stepped forward in awe of the ship, carefully examining every detail.
“That’s it,” he replied, “that’s definitely it. Should I contact her?”
“Yes,” responded Kate resolutely, “if this is the genuine article, she deserves to see it for the first time. But I’ll contact her. I’ll let you help the technicians get in.”
Luke approached the UNIT officers who encircled the box. They were trying to get the door to open; from lock-pickers to chainsaws, and from knives to hammers.
“You won’t get in,” remarked Luke, gazing intently at the machine, “that thing’s reinforced beyond Earth workmanship.”
“The ship’s been badly damaged and we think the doors were slightly open when it was drifting,” replied one of the men. He was a lofty, muscular and bald man with fortitude in his eyes and a serious expression of concentration. “Phillip, sir. Phillip Pitman.” He held out his arm and offered Luke a firm handshake.
“We’re in!” gasped one of the men working at the door.
“I’ll head in first to give the all-clear,” announced Phillip in his booming virile voice, “we let Mr Smith in afterwards but he’s got to be surrounded on all angles. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
Phillip cautiously made his way in. He couldn’t see much; the room was clouded in a thick layer of smoke. Coughing, he clambered down a wobbly flight of stairs. In the mist he could see the shape of a body.
“Down here, boys!” he spluttered. “Think I’ve got something!”
Three more men including Luke made their way down the stairs and examined the body. It was hard to see anything through the mist but it looked like the figure of a middle-aged man, though he was dressed in some well out-of-date clothes.
“Is that him, sir?” asked Phillip.
“I don’t know…” murmured Luke. “It doesn’t look like him, but he does this thing, where he…”
The man awoke in a fit of coughing and Phillip saw to him immediately. When the coughing stopped, the man stood up unexpectedly, shaking, and tried to climb the staircase.
“Are you okay, sir?” inquired Phillip.
“I’m fine,” wheezed the man, “just got to-“
He yanked a leaver with all his might and the haze began to clear. Everything was properly visible now. It was a magnificent room; grand and futuristic, with a vivid blue lighting. It was a dark place, though. No one quite felt safe.
“Are…” Luke eyed him warily but curiously nonetheless. “…Are you the Doctor? Is it you?”
“You know…” the man approached Luke and regarded him with admiration – a recognizing gaze. “…it’s been so long, but I still recognize you today. Luke Smith. Is it really you?”
“Doctor!” cried Luke, and they shared a brief hug.
“Luke, over here now!” Kate’s voice penetrated from outside.
“And Kate Stewart!” The Doctor beamed. “Now, where’s Olivia?”
“Doctor, Luke, out here now! This is an emergency!”
***
“You fell through some kind of wormhole, correct?” queried Kate.
“There was nothing wormy about it,” re-joined the Doctor, “it was a hole through-and-through. And an unusual one. You don’t get rips like that in the vortex. That’s the fabric of time torn in half – nothing I know is capable of that. Why?”
“Because we set up some detection equipment out here.” Kate signalled to a laptop, balanced on a box, with wires leading to what looked like some kind of space-age phonograph. “And we found the hole. We cordoned off the area – it’s invisible. But it’s growing, and rapidly. Based on our readings, we predict that within 24 hours, it will have swallowed up the world.”
“There’s one more thing,” interrupted the Doctor, “that I forgot to mention. I can fix this. This hole in time, this rip, can be closed! I have the correct parts with me. All we need to do is literally pull it back together. But it’s not on a human level so we need similar technology – aka, TARDIS technology – to fix it!”
Kate and the others breathed a sigh of relief. “So that means this can all be done… now?”
“Well…” the Doctor frowned in worry. “Not exactly. The parts are all on-board the TARDIS, and the TARDIS is infinite. Normally she can direct me around where I want to go but she’s in one hell of a state. We’re going to need to be quick. I have no idea how to find the workshop now she’s like this.”
“She?” interjected Phillip.
“Yes, she!” countered the Doctor, indignantly. “She is alive!”
“I suggest, sir,” came back Phillip, “that we begin now – I’ll guard you the whole way to make sure you stay safe.”
“No!” the Doctor shocked everyone as he snapped. His expression softened, a little. “She’s perfectly safe. I need you lot to stay in the main control room and look for my friend Olivia. The TARDIS is more likely to help me when there aren’t people with…” the Doctor eyed the soldiers cagily, “…guns, on my ship. But Luke-“ Luke looked up sharply at the Doctor’s calling. “You’re coming with me.”
***
“Are you sure this is safe?” asked Luke doubtfully.
“Of course!” replied a visibly collected Doctor. “The ship’s been damaged badly but it’s not going to eat us!” he chuckled merrily. “It’s just freed up the air space by putting in a lot more corridors than usual!”
The Doctor was right. After five minutes, they seemed to have gone through corridor after corridor. The grey walls imprinted themselves onto their minds like words carved onto a tombstone. The TARDIS was acting surprisingly unremarkably.
“Aha!” cried the Doctor. “A room!”
He was right again. Before them was a metallic archway, through which was the most magnificent… swimming pool!
The water was crystal clear and glistened from the light from above. The light was something like daylight, but brighter; bathing the room in a heavenly sunlight. The Doctor carefully led Luke around the outside of the pool.
The ground was wet and slippery; it had clearly been used recently. Two or three white sunbeds were lined against the wall, one of which had a brown towel folded neatly on it. The Doctor and Luke cautiously stepped over these sunbeds and made their way to the archway at the other end.
The Doctor eyed Luke who was gawping in astonishment at the pool.
“I know,” said the Doctor, in a murmur, “it’s a swimming pool, and it’s very exciting. But we need to focus on the task at hand.”
Luke diverted his attention back to the Doctor, nodding in agreement, and continued through the winding passages.
“W-where next?” stammered Luke, as they came to a junction with two new routes available.
“I’ll go left,” suggested the Doctor, “you go right. If your way doesn’t lead anywhere, come and find me. I’ll do the same. If you lose me, meet back here.”
Luke did as the Doctor instructed and persisted through the winding passageway. He was highly surprised when he entered the next archway, and found what gave the impression to be a bedroom.
He studied the room deeply. It was only the size of a standard master bedroom, and despite the space-age corridors which led into it, the room itself was relatively old-fashioned: avocado-green patterned wallpaper, a wooden single bed and some sleek white cabinets. There were framed photographs on the wall of a beautiful young brunette and the Doctor. She was smiling jauntily, and he stood behind, looking unusually bamboozled.
It had been left untouched since the last person to be inside: the bed unmade, and the hairbrush resting on the bedside table – yet dust was beginning to clog up on the cabinets’ surfaces, and the fruit in the bowl had gone off; the bottom of a mug was now mildew.
The Doctor ran in to join Luke but halted at the door and turned back.
“What is it?” demanded Luke. “Why can’t you look at it?”
“It’s my friend’s room.” The Doctor turned to face Luke and stared back at the room sullenly. “It… was my friend’s room.”
“What happened to your friend?”
“She… she had to forget me. She was a weapon. Against me. I can still see her here now…” he grimaced, and clenched his fists; suffering in mental agony. “…but that’s over now. She was perfect. Now she’s gone.”
“What was her name?”
“Clara.”
The Doctor studied Luke. He was so much older now. He still had the same concentrating expression and short dark hair, but he was a man, not a boy. He had grown into his looks and there was a kindness when he smiled. His clothes weren’t standard; he was in black trousers and a lab coat, but underneath was a thick patterned jersey. He’d developed uniqueness. It didn’t matter that he was genetically created. He was human. That thought was oddly familiar to the Doctor.
“What year is it?” asked the Doctor.
“It’s 2022. Technically I’m only thirteen years old.” He chuckled.
“That makes your mum…” the Doctor paused to do the calculations. “… Seventy-one?”
“Seventy,” countered Luke.
“No,” re-joined the Doctor, “seventy-one! I’m sure of it!”
“Seventy,” insisted Luke, “she would have been seventy-one.”
The Doctor frowned and then realised what Luke was implying. He shook his head in frustration and wiped a tear from his eye.
“All of them…” he bowed his head sorrowfully. “… They’ve all gone now, I think. I’m always left alone. I’m sorry… I never knew.”
“You never asked,” returned Luke. He turned away and continued through the room, until they came back into the corridor, and resumed their hectic tour through this impossible maze.
***
“Ma’am!” yelled one of the men from inside the TARDIS. “We’ve found her! We’ve found Olivia!”
But Kate wasn’t listening. She was too busy watching the readings on the computer soar beyond anything she could imagine. In minutes, they’d be swallowed by this gateway – and so would the TARDIS.
“Get her out,” called Kate inside, “and get as far away from here as possible. There’s nothing we can do for the Doctor now. We just have to hope he makes it out in time…”
***
“Where are we now?”
This room was the most unusual yet; at least an acre long, and completely organic. It was akin to a greenhouse; enclosed in a domed window, a dazzling light percolating through the roof, and fruitful vegetation from every angle. Not just visibly; you could smell it. The natural smell of plants and herbs, infesting in the nose, overwhelming the senses.
There was a series of concrete slabs that followed a single trail down the centre of the glasshouse, and they’d been there a long time; moss was creeping in between the gaps, and overstretched weeds covered up the edges, so much so that the path blended in with the flora. A series of connected paths also sprouted off in different directions; down alleys of exotic fruits; some small cube-like berries, others enormous crimsoned spheres. Long branches and leaves hung down from above, blocking certain areas from sight, and making it even harder to find an exit.
“This…” the Doctor looked around as if he was double-checking. “…This is the garden!”
“And are we near the workshop?”
“Well… it’s sort of hard to say.” The Doctor picked up on Luke’s disillusioned and somewhat infuriated state. “Don’t worry. The TARDIS will guide us there in time – she always does. We’re not in any danger here.”
At that moment, the light dimmed, and the room was plunged into complete darkness. From the distance a faint but definite laughter could be heard. A sadistic cackle.
“Did I say something about danger?”
***
At first everything was a blur. Olivia could hear muffled voices – something about expansion. Then her fluttering eyelids attracted attention and she naturally acclimatized to her surroundings.
She was in some sort of research facility. It was on about three levels (the bottom of which Olivia was on) which all overlooked each other with verandas. Everything was almost clinically white and ultramodern. It was a workplace; tables which were the home to unfinished experiments, the sound of clicking mice and rustling papers, and the smell of hot tea were all proof of this.
“Welcome to the UNIT special operations HQ”, said a middle-aged blonde woman, “I’m Kate Stewart.”
“W…” Olivia tried to sit up but couldn’t manage. “…Where’s the D-Doctor?”
Kate looked over to her right remorsefully, exchanged a worried glance with a college, and looked back down at Olivia.
“We’ve had to leave him. The gateway in time was increasing in size and the TARDIS couldn’t be moved. We’re doing everything we can to put things back to normal.”
Olivia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. After everything the Doctor had shown her… had he finally lost?
***
“Don’t move,” whispered the Doctor. He couldn’t see Luke in the darkness, but he could hear his heavy breathing and could sense his rapid heartbeat. “When I say run – we run. Straight forward until we’re out of here. No diversions – no stops. OK? Three… Two…” The Doctor hesitated, adding up his chances of survival, considering the risks involved, then tossing his doubtful thoughts aside. “…One… Run!”
Neither of them could see where they were going; they simply ran, sprinting as fast as they could. They could feel the air on their faces; they could feel the leaves brushing against them, thorns prickling their sides and were mildly aware of the obstacles around them.
Suddenly, they were in another room, where it was light. This room was much different. You entered it through the same metal archway, but the floor was made of Beachwood, and the walls were a plain white. The room was quite small but led into a number of other similar rooms like a junction. There were all sorts of ornaments preserved importantly in glass cases. There was a brooch, glistening in majesty, with a case to itself. To the right was a smaller case, in which stood a copy of a book: ‘The Journal of Impossible Things’. It seemed familiar to Luke but he couldn’t place why.
“The museum!” beamed the Doctor, “That’s lucky; I could do with using this indirect route. Is it in here? No, hang on, next section…”
The Doctor dragged a completely awestruck and terrified Luke along into the next section. This room was slightly bigger; in the centre, on a circular white platform, stood a canary-yellow Edwardian roadster. A golden plate on the platform named it simply ‘Bessie’. The Doctor ran to the back wall and grabbed a strange device which was hanging from the wall. It looked like a laptop, a school electronics project and a car mirror amalgamated into one potpourri piece of machinery.
“Species matcher…” the Doctor turned around proudly to face Luke. “…and I’ve had it updated to scan interior biology!”
He held the device up to Luke, and a couple of blue lights flashed. Then he turned it around smugly to show him, as Luke read what the screen said.
SPECIES RECOGNISED
EARTH
HUMAN
“What do you need that for?” asked Luke, puzzled and unimpressed.
“You’ll see…” said the Doctor enigmatically, and they continued on.
They ventured down a few more corridors, until they came to one area where the trail ended – well, nearly.
The corridors were about eight feet high before, but at this point you looked up and it was like a sort of elevator shaft – well, more precisely, the same corridor, but going upwards. But there were no ladders or ropes to climb, so it was a dead end.
“Keep going!” shouted the Doctor insanely. “We’re nearly at the workshop now!”
“B-but…” stammered Luke.
“It’s an anti-grav corridor!” the Doctor finally caught up with Luke who was hitherto ahead of him. “Just keep walking and you’ll find yourself going up.”
Gingerly and reluctantly, Luke followed the Doctor’s instructions. The moment he put his foot on the wall, he felt a brief spell of dizziness, as his world spun around. Then, he was back in a corridor. When he looked up, he could see the Doctor, where he’d been standing before, only from Luke’s perspective; it looked like he was glued to the wall.
“We’ve done timey-wimey,” said the Doctor, “meet wibbly-wobbly!”
The Doctor followed Luke’s trail and they continued as normal.
“You sure you know where you’re going?” quizzed Luke.
“Of course! At the end of this trail is the SVR-“
“SVR?”
“Space Visualisation Room! A scale hologram of the entire cosmos, generated by the TARDIS, for the TARDIS! Yes, it is quite a big room, how did you guess?”
“Err, Doctor…” Luke was getting concerned.
“The workshop should be at the end of it. It’s quite useful, because if I don’t have the right materials or equipment, I often consult the SVR to find out exactly where to find them.”
“Doctor…”
“I think,” the Doctor was so submerged in his ramblings that he hadn’t even noticed Luke, “We’re beginning to get close to the Engine Rooms. Now that’s an impressive sight. Can you imagine; great-“
“Doctor!” exclaimed Luke.
“What is it?” said the Doctor nonchalantly.
“I feel like I’m being dragged backwards.”
The Doctor’s merry expression turned deadly serious.
“I’m feeling it too. And we’re not being dragged backwards at all. This is an anti-grav corridor. Someone’s turned off the gravity. Run!”
They did just that; tearing rapidly down the corridor, as they started dizzying again, losing their grip…
Suddenly, they were safe. The room they were in seemed enormous. There were no visible walls or ceiling; everything was black, even the floor. A blue hologram was all that was distinguishable – and this stretched across the whole diameter of the room, with only a tiny path not covered by it.
The hologram was spectacular: orbs all connected by miscellaneous cords which stretched around bigger orbs which spun around swirls of more orbs which all connected in this brilliant theoretical sculpture.
“See?” said the Doctor, “the Space Visualisation Room! Come on, no time to stare!”
Luke was once again grabbed involuntarily and pulled along the hall by the Doctor, until they were through the next grey archway – and finally into the workshop.
The workshop wasn’t at all how Luke had envisioned it. His mind’s eye had pictured a small workspace, something more personal; like the inside of a shed – slightly old and worn, with a mug of tea on the window sill and a scarred workbench that had seen better days. But this was remarkable.
The room wasn’t too wide but it wasn’t one room either. It was like the library that Luke had passed earlier, except it was… bigger. If you looked up, the floors seemed to go on forever; each one aisles of various materials; Earth-made timber, alien crystallised globes, bizarre instruments that went from the length of a fingernail to about eight feet high – the bottom floor was the work area; a giant wooden table in the centre, on which stood a number of assorted machines, from standard vices to imposing drills which looked scarily dangerous.
“Follow me!” exclaimed the Doctor. “Floor twenty-seven, Deadsmith Weaponry.”
“Wait-“stuttered Luke, following the Doctor up a magnificent wooden staircase, “- weaponry? I thought…”
“The Deadsmiths of Goth were the greatest weapon makers the universe ever had,” explained the Doctor as they passed the seventh floor, starting to feel breathless, “and one of their creations was the Closer. The Time Lords, you see, in their earliest wars, created a fantastic temporary defence mechanism. They could open their own pocket universe – as small as a cloakroom – on the field of battle, and hide there until it was safe to continue. Only they could enter this universe. But the Closer was made for the opposing force. It was incredibly strong and could close any gateway of the like, so that the Time Lords were trapped in their tiny universe for all eternity. Very cruel, and that’s why the Time Lords abandoned that strategy. But in principle, with Deadsmith workmanship, this should work for the hole in the Time Vortex. I haven’t seen anything like this before, so I can’t be sure though.”
Soon they reached the twenty-seventh floor and had to pause for breath, wiping their brows. It was a tiring journey that was beginning to get the better of them.
“Come on,” panted the Doctor, “let’s find the Closer.”
The Doctor located an aisle which had ‘CL' engraved onto a golden plaque on the ground. Hurrying up this aisle, he stopped at an impressive gun (or that’s what it looked like), and lifted it from its place.
The gun was silver and about three quarters of a meter in length. It had two sections; the lower which was a long barrel of some kind, and the upper which was a sleek tube from which the ray would presumably be fired.
“…That’s my girl.” The Doctor slung the gun under his arm and set off to find the next archway, which came at the end of this floor.
The Doctor was disillusioned when he emerged through it; stopping and looking on in dismay and hopelessness, stamping his foot in frustration.
Luke was too busy staring at the room to notice this. It was possibly the biggest room yet – he’d say infinite. Apart from the raised platform that they were on, the whole place was machinery. He looked over the railings and saw an immeasurable drop below. The machines were all connected, and were a different proportion to those on Earth; cogs the size of spaceships and screws which held tower-sized beams in place. The sounds of chugging and stamping and creaking and spinning and grinding and scraping could be heard, and the room emitted smells of fumes, and fire, and burning metal.
“Welcome to the engine room…” uttered the Doctor, taking a step forward.
“I… thought Mum said that that eye thing powered the TARDIS?”
“The Eye of Harmony? Yes, it does. But there’s still an engine. This is a time machine – the most complex machine in the universe. This is how it works.”
Just then, the Doctor and Luke both turned around in shock, as they felt a hand resting on their shoulders. Standing in the archway they’d just come through stood a man. He was little above thirty years old, with a devilish smile, devious eyes and smooth, short blonde hair. He spoke wittily but cruelly and was dressed in black suit and tie and a white shirt.
“Hello there, boys!” It was undoubtedly the same voice as the vindictive laughter they’d heard earlier. “I’m the Hitchhiker.”
The Doctor immediately consulted the Species Matcher he’d slung over his shoulders earlier, and after the blue lights had flashed, he scrutinized it in terror.
SPECIES RECOGNISED
GALLIFREY
TIME LORD
“You’re a Time Lord…”
“Indeed I am…” the Hitchhiker took another step forward, which alarmed the Doctor and Luke, so they both took a step back to even the gap. “I’d hoped it would take longer, but then you were always such a sharp young man, Doctor!”
“I’m not young.”
“Neither am I. We’re both older than we look, Doctor. It means that people pass us on the street without looking back. We-“ he gestured to Luke who looked towards the ground uncomfortably “-we can go on forever, and fight battles, and watch terrible things – we pop out for a pint of milk and no one expects a thing! But humans – you lot, all obvious and BORING! You waste away and die and everyone looks at you and sees the last glimmer of life fade from your eyes – your lives drift by in moments, and you must look up at us eternals, thinking – why must our lives be so fleeting?“
“-That’s enough games!” interjected the Doctor. “How do you know who I am? And how did you get in my ship?”
“I got in your ship via the TDS.”
Luke looked up at the Doctor for an explanation, but the Doctor shrugged it off. Luke scowled. He felt insulted – detached.
“And I know you…” he continued, emphasizing the odd word. “…I knew you. And I will know you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re meeting me now, but soon you’ll meet me again. Little do you know…”
“Little do I know what?” The Doctor was getting agitated.
“Little do you know that you’ve met me before…”
“When?”
“BORED!” The Doctor and Luke stepped back again as he bellowed this last word. He then moved towards them and they continued to back away; now swapping places – the Hitchhiker was nearer the railing, and they were nearer the archway.
“I’ve-been-manipulating,” said the Hitchhiker in his sing-song voice, “messing with your systems, playing my games. Your ship is so delicate – so changeable, it seems!” He abruptly pulled a pistol out of his inside pocket which made Luke instinctively back up into the archway.
“Luke, no!”- But it was too late. Luke had gone through and the Doctor had impulsively followed. But they both realised the facts at that moment. The Hitchhiker was in complete control of the ship’s mechanics. And he’d redirected them. This was all part of his twisted master-plan.
The Doctor looked around, and realised in terror where he was. His hand shook, his voice trembled and his eyes bulged in… fear?
“Where are we?” whispered Luke, his voice also quivering.
“Luke, I’m so sorry…”
“Where are we?” he demanded, harsher this time.
“We’re in the danger room. It’s… it’s where I put the things I can’t – or won’t – kill. The deadliest things. All the things that have infested this ship – sometimes they’re even hidden by the TARDIS before I’m aware - ergo, I don’t know some of them!”
“What… sort of things are we talking?”
“Physical beings mostly. Some predators that we’ve picked up in places. Sometimes even non-physical entities… they’ve drifted into the TARDIS, somehow, from somewhere – sometimes the vortex itself. Imagine what it would be like to live in the vortex, Luke. All of time spinning around you, chasms of age, lights and noises and sensations beyond human understanding – it would drive you insane.”
Luke looked around for proof. The place was like outside. There were no visible archways, or walls. It was a misty forest at night; tall trees, a layer of fog, rustling leaves, snapping twigs and a hissing from afar.
“For someone who’s very clever,” came the Hitchhiker’s cruel, excited voice, “you surprised me!”
His words were heard as an echo; like a god speaking to his dominion.
“You walked right into my little trap. Though, to be fair, I don’t blame you. I was wondering… if you die now, what will happen? Will my future then cease to exist? Still, I can probably change it back. Let’s not worry. You only live once.”
The sound of thunder resonated through the forest, and a robotic laughter sounded from the left. The Doctor and Luke intuitively chose to dash in the opposite direction, hearing suspicious noises as they went; some from their imagination, some from their own running, and some…
“It’s funny. I never thought watching my archenemy being tortured and murdered in front of my very eyes would be quite such fun. I guess I underestimated my sadism!”
The pair paused and turned slowly back. They realised their mistake. There was a reason they couldn’t see anything, and a reason the sounds came from so near. There was a reason the laughter sounded like an echo. Because the TARDIS isn’t a forest. And the trees weren’t trees.
“Did you ever wonder,” continued the Hitchhiker, “what happened when you left all of your victims down here?”
The twosome began to run again, trying to reach the end of the forest, as the trees started to sway, though there was no breeze.
“I wonder… what would they like to do to you?”
The Doctor and Luke saw a clearing and headed at full speed towards it, as the trees all awoke.
“My guess would be probably tear out your soul and turn you into one of them. But that’s only a guess!”
When they reached the clearing, they found themselves at a dead end. In front of them was an enormous waterfall; water powerfully swishing down the rocks and smashing bits off of them. It was lethal. And looking down, it led into an endless black pit.
“I’ve seen things, Doctor, happen to you, that make even me have just a little bit of pity. I’ve seen what you are yet to see. If you knew – it would break your hearts.” As the Doctor finally gave up, he thought he could see, in his mind, the Hitchhiker’s evil smile, relishing in his victory. “And trust me… it did.”
“Tell me one thing, before we die,” demanded the Doctor, “is it you? Were you the person following me in the darkness since Moscow, eh? Was it you who ripped the hole in the time vortex? You’ve been manipulating me, haven’t you?”
“Doctor… I’d love to say I have, but I honestly haven’t. But hey, I’m a time traveller. I might be about to.” Once again, he giggled callously, as the trees advanced on the Doctor and Luke; burning red eyes protruding from their trunk, penetrating their souls. As they backed up again, they reached the edge of the cliff, and looked down to see the daunting drop of the waterfall.
“Bingo.”
In a moment of instinct and a surge of inspiration, the Doctor grabbed onto Luke and threw them both into the waterfall. As they fell, they could hear the sound of the water powerfully hammering down along the rocks, but not hitting the ground; the drop seemed to be infinite. Then water was all around them; no rocks could be seen, just a constantly swirling spiral of liquid, like a tunnel. Then, as the water vanished, they stopped falling, and found themselves in…
…a scullery.
It had to have been the smallest room yet. It was also of a different architecture to the others; more enclosed, paler, with golden roundels on the walls. The cabinets were white, the wall was silver brickwork and the floor was made up of modern black tiles. On the worktop rested some simple Earth-grown foods; a pile of grated cheese, leeks, and some eggs. The upper cabinets held various vintage wine bottles and antiquated glasses (which looked like they’d break if you touched them), and the overhead light shone brightly, illuminating the room. At that instant, a man walked in – not through the archway, though; this time there was a simple white doorway instead, to match the pallid simplicity of the kitchenette.
The man was astonished. He was elderly, with a wise but somewhat grumpy countenance; distrusting brown eyes and an engrossed appearance; strands of greyish-white hair combed backwards and some patchwork clothes with a frock coat and a tie over the top. There was something Edwardian about his dress sense; he even had the tartan trousers.
“What are you doing here? Who are you?” He spook with irascibility and impatience.
“Listen,” began the Doctor. “I know this is hard, Doctor, but-“
“How you do know my name, hmm?”
“Because I am you! In your future!”
The Doctor was already irritated by his former self, whilst Luke stood back, bewildered, wondering what was going on and how they could possibly be the same man.
“Do you have any proof of that, young man?”
“Young?” he sniggered. “I’m older than you, Doctor. And I know everything. Do you really want me to go blurting out about your past in front of guests?” He gestured to Luke.
“I need some kind of proof to know that you’re not an impostor, my dear boy!”
“Fine! The outside of your TARDIS is a police telephone box-“
“Yes, that’s fairly obvious I think-“
“-and you always tell people you’re going to get it fixed, but you never will. You know how, really, but deep down… you love her the way she is.”
The old man stared back at his counterpart in amazement.
“Well, I never… Then, what can I do for you, Doctor?”
“Well… I used the TDS.”
“Doctor!” moaned Luke, “For goodness sake, can’t you tell me what it is!?”
“Temporal Displacement System!” clarified the Doctor. “The TARDIS is a time machine, so moving along her timeline is no different. That waterfall is access to it, like the time vortex, in a way. I’d forgotten. That’s how the Hitchhiker got on-board; he was in the TARDIS in my future but used the TDS to move back in time. That’s what we did. Except the forest didn’t exist all those years ago, so it re-directed us to the scullery. We’ve gone back a bit far.”
“Dear boy, you talk much quicker than I! I’m hardly catching any of this!”
“Don’t worry, Doc.”
“What did you just call me?”
“What you don’t like being called.”
The old man scowled. “What can I do for you then, eh, Doc?”
“I need to use the TDS again. And I need to use the one in your control room.”
“That’s all very well, but first, explain why you’re carrying that gun under your arm.”
“Deadsmith weaponry; the Closer. I need to close a rip in the time vortex. I need to get to…” he beckoned Luke to give him the exact date.
“Err – the 24th of May, 2022. Can you get a specific time?”
“I’m afraid not, dear boy. But I’ll make sure it’s on that exact day – as early as I can, I’d presume?”
“Yes please.”
“Very well then. Follow me…”
They were in the console room in no time. The Doctor had been absolutely right. The TARDIS did a fine job of helping the crew when it – no, when she – was fully functioning.
The control room was so different. Smaller, whiter, with more of the golden roundels on the walls. The console itself was less striking; littler, more compact, with a lower glass section. The earlier Doctor flicked the switches manically, sometimes even getting things wrong. This amused the other Doctor greatly, but he contained his laughter.
“Doctor, now, err, you stand over there. I’ve connected, err, the space-time visualizer to the, the... um... TDS, so we all need to envisage that exact date in our minds! Let’s get to work!”
The Doctor and Luke stood where instructed, to the right of the console, and waited a moment. Then, the sound of a powering engine could be heard from the ground, and the old man lit up.
“Haha!” he cried, “It’s working! You’ll be there in a number of seconds. Now, one question…” he approached the Doctor, as if to probe him. “How old are you now?”
“I’m 1500 years old – probably.”
At that point in time, the pair disappeared, leaving only a small layer of mist, and the Doctor turned back to the central column of his ship, chuckling merrily.
“1500 years old, eh? He-he!” muttering jovially to himself, he strode off again; chortling like Father Christmas after a few pints.
***
“Olivia,” said Kate Stewart, approaching the girl in question, who was still resting on a bed, “I’m so sorry. Within moments the TARDIS is going to be sucked in. We’ve tried everything, but it’s not moving. We’ve had to leave the site now. We think that we may have just found a way to close the bridge, but it won’t be in time. I’m afraid we’ve lost them both.”
***
The Doctor, back in the console room, checked his watch.
“Right now, we’re in there somewhere – our previous selves, probably just approaching the workshop. We need to get out now!”
Luke led this time, darting out of the door, and into the open, as the Doctor swiftly followed.
You couldn’t see the rip in time, exactly, but the air in a particular area was distorted, and anything behind it was blurred. You knew where it was, if you were there. And it was dangerously close to the TARDIS.
The Doctor aimed the Closer at the fissure, his finger playfully twiddling with the trigger…
“Better hope this works…”
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and fired. A vivid ray of blue light fired viciously out of the weapon and lit up the crack; suddenly, it became a sphere of cerulean electricity, fluctuating, shrinking, growing, slimming, widening, until…
In a flash of light similar to lightning, it expanded a final time, and snapped shut.
“Did we do it?” asked Luke. “We did it, didn’t we? Oh, yes, we did it! Whoooh! Well, you did it.”
“No, Luke. You were the one who ran into the forest, and I followed, and we found the TDS because of that. It might only be chance, but… we would definitely all be dead if you hadn’t been in there with me. Well done. She’d have been proud of us, Luke. Both of us.”
He jumped up and embraced the Doctor, the two of them beaming at their success, but only the Doctor knowing the price that he’d paid.
***
“Everyone,” exclaimed Kate Stewart from the highest level of the base, “we’ve just got confirmation. He did it! And with only a minute to spare before it consumed the area!” she exhaled a breath of relief, and quietened her voice, just a tad. “Drinks are on me tonight; just this once. But I want you all back into work at seven tomorrow morning!”
Olivia woke up from her sleep. The world was still spinning for her, but she could see the blurred figure of the Doctor standing over her.
“You… did it…” she murmured, half-awake.
“Yeah… I did. But…” he contemplated whether he could tell her the truth. “When you’re better,” he said, half to Olivia and half to himself. He climbed the staircase to Kate’s office. It was a nice room, overlooking the vast base, with pictures of her family on the wall – her children.
“Doctor,” she said, sensing his presence, “I never really got the chance to say hello to you today. Well done. You did a marvellous job. I assume you’ll be off now, then?”
“I’m afraid not.” The Doctor leant against the doorway. “The TARDIS has been damaged. And it’s 2022. And I can’t leave here. My friend, Olivia… I’ll have to tell her. I can go to Cardiff and link up with the rift, and we can see then how long we’ll have to wait to get the TARDIS operational again. I think it will be more than a few days. Maybe a couple of weeks, a month, and for Olivia that could be it - the second she returns to her old life, she'll be stuck here, forced to take her place in the timeline. Difficult for her, but it would work for me. You know…” he gave her a half-smile, reassuring himself with the trivial matters of paying a mortgage and getting things insured. “I never thought I’d actually settle somewhere for more than about a day. Now I’ve got no choice. And there’s someone I’ve got look out for, in my near future. The Hitchhiker.”
“Aha,” said Kate, unusually happy. “This is where we come in. This is the UNIT special operations team – and we’re based in this part of London for a reason. Two years ago, we found traces of rift activity on this exact spot. You can put your TARDIS here, and live in it if you like. And during the day… you can work for us!”
“No, I’m not-“
“You’ve got to pay your rent, Doctor. What do you say? Scientific advisor again? Doctor John Smith?”
“And you’re team leader?”
“No. I’m higher up than that now – I oversee operations, but I generally do the paperwork. Team leader is-“ She looked down over the balcony “-here, now. Come and meet her.”
The Doctor vaguely recognised her pretty, albeit harsh face from somewhere, and her frizzy black hair. And Olivia, sitting up, did even more so.
“Sorry I’m late, got caught in some awful traffic, and my phone went dead! What have I missed?” She was startled when she looked over at Olivia, and dropped the phone she was holding to the floor.
The Doctor's heart sank. Trapped in the timeline forever. Olivia... I'm so sorry...
Olivia put her hand over her mouth, and then released it a second later.
“…Alex? Alex Paige?”