Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ Rose and Ten The Inbetweens and backstories ❯ Chapter Fifteen ( Chapter 15 )

The Doctor and Rose walked back to the TARDIS in silence, deep in their own thoughts. Rose took the opportunity to take one last look at the wonderful planet and her heart went out to poor Rez, who had been forced to leave this paradise.

`Will he be all right?' she wondered out loud.

`I think so,' the Doctor answered after a moment or two. `Humans are very adaptable.'

`But this is all he's ever known.'

`Until now.' The Doctor smiled. `Anyway, it's the only way this place can get back to its normal state.'

`A paradise planet that no human can ever visit. That's a bit sad, isn't it?'

The Doctor shrugged, searching in his pocket for the TARDIS key. He'd figured it out when he read the final entry in Maurit Guillan's journal.

“And now we must leave this heavenly paradise, and take away with us our human and ancient imperfections. Faced with such beauty we have no choice but to accept our uncleanliness and return to the harsh realities of our own filthy lives.”

Professor Shulough had spent her life following Guillan through his journal entries, until she had found Laylora. And now, they couldn't stay, because the planet was literally allergic to them. It would produce quakes, storms, and the four armed gorillas called Witiku, to eliminate the alien infestation.

He put the key in the lock. `You know that feeling on a winter's day, when it's snowed in the night and you come downstairs and everything is different. There's a blanket of white and it's all perfect, untouched?'

`Yeah,' Rose said, `and you want to go out in it but at the same time you don't, 'cause then it'll get mushy and covered in footprints and . . . spoilt.'

The Doctor nodded. `It's the same thing here. Nothing lasts for ever, not even the Paradise Planet. But it can last for a bit longer yet.'

He opened the door and stepped through into the impossibly cavernous console room of his own ship. Rose hesitated for a moment in the doorway, looking back at the beach.

`Oh, well,' she said, following the Doctor and closing the TARDIS door behind her, `there's always Clacton, I suppose. Not much call for a bikini there, though.'

The Doctor was already at the controls, setting switches and preparing to dematerialise. `I think we can do a bit better than that,' he said, grinning.

He pulled at a lever and set the central column in motion. `Let's go and explore!' Moving around the console, he started adjusting the controls, and the time rotor pumped up and down. After a short while, he prepared for landing, and struggled to lock the coordinates, as if the TARDIS were reluctant to land.

`That was a tight fit, we nearly didn't make it,' he said, as they walked down the ramp.

`I don't know what's wrong though. She's sort of queasy. Indigestion, like she didn't want to land,' he said, inspecting the exterior shell.

`Oh, if you think there's going to be trouble, we could always get back inside and go somewhere else,' she said seriously, and then they burst out laughing. Like that was ever going to happen.

`I think we've landed inside a cupboard.' He walked over to a yellow bulkhead door with a big wheel on it. `Here we go,' he said as he turned the wheel and pushed the door open.

`Open door 15,' a female computer voice said.

`Some sort of base,' he observed. `Moon base, sea base, space base, they build these things out of kits.'

`Close door 15,' the computer said helpfully as he closed the hatch.

Rose became aware of howling and buffeting from beyond the walls. `Glad we're indoors, sounds like a storm out there.'

`Open door 16.' The Doctor opened another door onto a long corridor.

`Human design, you've got a thing about kits. This place was put together like a flat pack wardrobe, only bigger . . . and easier.'

He opened the door at the end of the corridor. `Open door 17.'

There were three steps down into an area with tables and chairs, and a big 3 on the wall.

`Oh, it's a sanctuary base' he said, pleased to be able to identify the architecture. Rose closed the door and walked down the steps.

`Close door 17.'

`Deep Space exploration, we've gone way out . . . and listen to that . . . underneath, someone's drilling.'

`Welcome to hell,' Rose said.

`Oh, it's not that bad,' he said, trying to find something positive to say.

`No, over there.' She pointed to the wall opposite, where there were words painted on the wall in big block letters, and a vertical alien script underneath.

`Hold on . . . what does that say?' He moved quickly to the script and crouched down to inspect it. `That's weird . . . it won't translate.'

`But I thought the TARDIS translated everything, writing as well, we should see English.' Rose didn't know why, but that troubled her more than any obvious, physical threat. Here was something that was really unknown.

`Exactly, if that's not working, then it means this writing is old, very old, impossibly old. We should find out who's in charge,' he said with urgency in his voice.

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The Doctor's voice came over the comm-link in the cockpit of the escape rocket. `Zach? We'll be off, now. Have a good trip home. And the next time you get curious about something . . . Oh, what's the point? You'll just go blundering in. The human race,' he said with a `tut' in his voice.

Ida was desperately trying to remember what had happened. `But Doctor, what did you find down there? That creature, what was it?'

The Doctor looked at Rose. `I don't know. Never did decipher that writing. But that's good, Day I know everything? Might as well stop.' He closed the comm-link for a moment.

`What do you think it was, really?' Rose asked him. She was worried. If he didn't know what it was . . .? Well, there was no telling what could have happened.

`I think we beat it. That's good enough for me.' He tried to sound upbeat to lift the mood.

`It said I was going to die in battle,' she told him, not sure if it was telling the truth or just trying to scare her. If it was the latter, then it had succeeded.

`Then it lied,' he told her with conviction. She was not going to die in battle. Not on his watch. He opened the comm-link again. `Right, onwards, upwards. Ida? See you again, maybe.'

`I hope so.' Ida's voice came back over the speaker.

`And thanks, boys!' Rose shouted back.

`Hang on though, Doctor,' Ida called. `You never really said. You two, who are you?'

Rose looked at him. “Good question” she thought, “who are we?”

He could see the question in her eyes. In Habitation 3, when they had lost the TARDIS, they had talked of living a life, perhaps together. “Yeah, but stuck with you, that's not so bad”, she had said, selflessly.

He gave her one of his special smiles and answered Ida's question. `Oh, the stuff of legend,' he said and closed the comm-link.

“I can live with that” she thought. “The stuff of legend”. That held a promise of things to come. Conversations to be had, wishes to be fulfilled, actions to be taken. Yes! She could live with that . . . for now.

The time rotor started grinding up and down as they left the escape rocket behind. Rose took her phone out of her pocket and checked it, she had lost the signal on Krop Tor, but it was back now.

She speed dialled her mum. `Hi Mum, how are ya?'

`Rose, oh it's lovely to hear you, where are you?'

`Well, we've just been on the event horizon of a black hole, an' I lost the phone signal, so I just wanted to check that I could still contact you an' see if you were all right.'

`An' when are ya comin' home Sweetheart?' Jackie asked, as though visiting a black hole was a routine as going to the shops.

`We'll call by soon Mum.'

`I'll see you soon.'

`I promise.'

`All right, be careful . . . bye.'

`Love you, bye.' Rose ended the call, and smiled at the Doctor.

`Where do you want to go next then?' he asked her, running a hand through his dishevelled hair.

`What . . . ? Oh, I don't know. Where and when haven't we been before?' she asked him, as she put her phone in her pocket.

`Y'know, I really don't know,' he told her. `That Krop Tor thing has thrown me a bit; I'm still a bit spooked by it.'

`Hey, it all worked out all right in the end,' she reassured him.

`Yeah, but it very nearly didn't.' He had a concerned look on his face. `I destroyed the energy field holding the planet in place before I knew the TARDIS was there! I had condemned us all to that horrible fate,' he confessed to her.

`Oh come here you.' Rose pulled him into a hug. `You did what had to be done,' she whispered into his ear. `I trust you . . . Always have, always will.' With that she released the hug and without thinking, almost gave him a kiss on the lips. She hesitated and kissed him lovingly on the cheek.

`Tell you what, let's go to some place where I can dress up again,' she said with a beaming smile.

His dark mood was suddenly forgotten, filed away in that superior Time Lord brain of his. `Okay. Here's a first. Let's get the TARDIS to make the choice. She usually does anyway!' he said with a glance up at the rotor, the lights flickered in a `huffy' sort of way.

`Right then Rose, come over here and you can set the coordinates,' he said holding out his hand. She rushed over, took his hand, and hugged his arm all excited.

`What? I get to fly the TARDIS?' she said disbelieving.

`Welllll, sort of. You're going to select the `where' and `when' and I'll do the flyin'.' Rose squealed with delight and clapped her hands together.

He grinned at her; that was so cute. He showed her dials and levers that she twiddled and set at random, before nodding in satisfaction.

`Right then, here goes, grab your ears and grab your nose, where we end up, nobody knows.' He engaged the drive with his usual flourish as Rose collapsed in fits of laughter. The level of wheezing changed as the TARDIS made its way through the Vortex and into normal space.

The rotor stopped and the Doctor took the systems off-line. They both went over to the view screen which was suspended over the console.

`Where are we then?' Rose asked as he examined the readouts.

`Oh, this is great!' he said with enthusiasm. `Early 6th century England. The last time I was in this period, I had white curly hair, wore frilly shirts and a velvet jacket,' he announced quite matter of fact.

Rose snorted a laugh. `You're kiddin', right? You used to dress like Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen? You must have had a great sense of humour.' Rose howled with laughter.

The Doctor looked hurt. `Actually, I was quite a serious fellow and a bit of a sour-puss, but Sarah Jane didn't seem to mind. She thought I looked quite “dapper”. In fact, it was this time period where we had our first adventure.' He had a faraway look in his eyes as he remembered.

Rose wiped her eyes with her fingers. `So come on then. Are you gonna tell me where we are?'

His eyes went wide in amazement; he put his hand over his mouth. `Oh Rose! This is brilliant!' He gave a little giggle and grinned at her. `No, really. Absolutely brilliant! The stuff of legend.'

`What?' she laughed. `Where are we?' She was getting excited as she picked up on his emotion.

He quickly went into lecturing mode. `We are on Earth. 510 A.D. 21st of June. It's a Monday. We are in the City of Legions, also known as Chester, and this is the really cool bit, outside of those doors . . .' He pointed at the wooden doors of the TARDIS.

`What? What? Tell me. Where are we?' she squealed.

He waggled his eyebrows and grinned. `The courtyard of Camelot castle. The home of the legendary King Arthur!'

Rose's mouth fell open, her eyes like saucers. `No! You are kiddin' me. Camelot! Really? I thought King Arthur was a myth.'

The Doctor smiled at her. `And what do we say about myths Rose Tyler?'

She looked up and smiled back at him. `Most myths have a grain of truth in them?' she said tentatively.

Exactly! You're thinking of Historia Regum Britanniae by that old rogue Geoffrey of Monmouth. He made the whole thing up. Never was one for letting the facts get in the way of a good story. Actually you'd have liked him. Reminds me of Jack Harkness.'

`And isn't Camelot supposed to be in Cornwall? Tintagel?' she said, recalling the stories that she thought she knew.

`Now you're getting your myths, your legends and your history mixed up,' he told her.

`Oh, silly me,' she said, rolling her eyes.

`This time period wasn't well recorded due to the Saxon invasions and the loss of Roman rule. There's no Sir Lancelot, no Holy Grail quests, just a brilliant king trying to unite a kingdom. So c'mon Rose Tyler, let's go and play dressing up.' He grabbed her hand and they headed for the clothing department that he still called a wardrobe.

For the Doctor, it was quite easy to pick a simple green robe with a hood that he could wear over his brown suit, along with a broad leather belt.

He was first back to the console room and set about scanning the castle and familiarising himself with the floor plan.

`Well?' He heard the simple question from the doorway and turned around to look at Rose. His breath caught in his chest. There, standing in front of him was a vision from a Robin Hood film or something similar.

She wore a simple, pale blue shift dress which hugged her figure in all the right places. A low square collar gave a hint of her cleavage and a broad leather belt hung on her hips, accentuating her narrow waist. She had braided her hair along her temples and behind her ears ending in small ponytails behind each ear. She had a white linen scarf on her head that fell across her shoulders, held in place with a silver headband which sat on her head like a small crown.

`What'cha think?' she asked him. He just stood there, opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish, lost for words.

`I, er . . . you, er . . . Blimey!' is all he could manage. Rose gave him that special smile, the one with her tongue just poking between her teeth.

`Yep. Still got it' she thought to herself.

`R-R-Rose? You know when I had big ears and wore a leather jacket?' he started to ask.

`Yeah?' Rose replied cautiously.

`I was an idiot! I can feel another compliment coming on, a real one this time. Rose Tyler, you look stunning. You really are beautiful.'

Rose blushed and looked down at her hands. `Why thank you my lord. Thou art too kind.' She looked back up at him, still smiling.

The Doctor snorted a laugh. `Well that's an improvement on your Scottish,' he laughed.

He held out his hand for her and together they headed for the door.

The first thing Rose noticed when she stepped out of the TARDIS was the stink! The TARDIS had materialised in a makeshift stable and they were surrounded by sheep, goats, and chickens.

Rose hitched up her dress and picked her way past the animals and their droppings, over the straw and onto the flagstones. The Doctor smiled to himself when he saw that she had kept her trainers on, ready to run.

She wrinkled her nose as she looked around and took in the view. To the left of the TARDIS was the barbican with the main arched passageway, complete with a raised portcullis and a drawbridge over a moat. Each corner of the octagonal castle wall had a round tower with a wooden door at the base which allowed access to the spiral staircase that led to the battlement walkways on top of the walls.

Directly opposite them were the walls of the inner bailey and the passageway to the keep. Through the open doors, Rose could just make out the manicured gardens in front of the great hall. The outer bailey was similar to a small market town with traders setting up stalls and carts, selling a bewildering array of goods.

The Doctor looked at Rose with a raised, questioning eyebrow as she snorted a laugh. `I was just thinkin' that after one and a half millennia, we still have car-boot sales. And then I thought that they'd be called cart-boot sales.' She cracked up at her own play on words.

`Greetings sire. Yonder maiden seems amused this fine morning.' A tall, handsome young man was smiling at them. The Doctor suspected from his clothing that he was a knight.

Rose waved her hand in front of her mouth in an attempt to stop the giggles. `Ooh, I'm sorry, I just had a funny thought,' Rose said. What came out of her mouth was, `Pray forgive me kind sir. An amusing thought came unbidden to my mind,' Rose looked up at the Doctor with an amazed expression. Had she really just spoken like she was in a Shakespearean play?

The Doctor bowed slightly. `Greetings sire. It is indeed a fine morning.' The Doctor held out his hand in greeting. `I am Doctor of Tardis, a Lord of Gallifrey, and this is the fair Lady Rose of the estate of Powell in London. We have travelled from . . . Shrewsbury to visit this fine castle.'

The stranger shook the Doctor's hand firmly, and then took Rose's hand and kissed it in a very gallant fashion. Rose blushed slightly at the appreciative gaze of the handsome stranger and felt herself giving a small curtsey.

`My name is Patrice, and a more beautiful rose I have never seen,' he said, flashing his brilliant white teeth.

`Sir Patrice?' the Doctor asked. `One of the King's knights?'

`The very same. You have heard of me?' he said with a hint of pride in his voice.

`Who has not heard of King Arthur and his knights of the round table? Trust me, the stories of your courage and deeds will be told for centuries to come.' The Doctor grinned and held out his arm for Rose. `Come Rose; let us explore this fine castle. Good day to you Sir Patrice, mayhap our paths shall cross again.'

`I look forward to it,' he said, winking at Rose and making her blush again.

They walked towards the `cart-boot' market arm-in-arm.

`Doctor? How come I'm talkin' like I'm in a Shakespeare play?' she asked him.

`It's the TARDIS; she's translating your English into Olde English. Normally you don't hear the words if it's a foreign language, but in this case it's . . . Well . . . English,' he said with a shrug.

`Forsooth!' is definitely not what she said.

They wandered through the stalls examining the goods on offer and chatting to people. On any planet, in any time period, this is what they enjoyed the most, interacting with the locals.

They browsed the large market within the walls of the outer bailey for a while, when they heard a fanfare of horns on the battlements.

`The King!' someone shouted.

`The King has returned!' someone else called out.

The clip-clop of hooves echoed through the entrance passageway of the barbican, and a large, black horse entered the courtyard. Mounted on the horse was a large, impressive, middle aged man. He exuded charisma and authority. There was no doubt that this man was the King. Behind him followed his retinue of equally impressive knights on horseback.

As the entourage passed by, the Doctor spotted the King's sword. `Rose! Look! Hanging from his belt! The King's sword!'

`Is that Excalibur?' she asked in awe. `The magical sword?' She noticed that his enthusiasm had turned to concern.

`Rose, there's no such thing as magic, only misunderstood technology,' he whispered, almost to himself. `Do you see the intricate pattern on the scabbard?' he asked. Rose nodded as he continued. `It's Tezzarian, an alien language, which means that sword is off-world technology.'

Rose's mouth fell open. `No way!' she exclaimed. `You mean we've landed in the middle of an adventure . . . ? Brilliant!'

In the darkened passageway of the keep entrance, a local man, with odd body language was holding an open book, paying a great deal of attention to the King's sword.