Doctor Who Collaboration/fan fiction by Jen and Nikki. Idea by Nikki. Title partially by Jen. Awesomeness by both of us.
Prologue[]
Ding! The sound rang through the campus loudly.
A tall man surveyed the campus, holding himself up high. He wore a crisp suit, and dark sunglasses. The college students milled about, unaware of the dark presence. His white gloves and clean haircut gave off the impression of someone quite wealthy- if they had seen him.
"Lunchtime." He announced to seemingly nobody. He had a smile on his face, as if he knew something that nobody else did.
The man strode soundlessly to the cafeteria, as enigmatic as a phantom. He would examine each of the students, who would pay no attention to him. A satisfied grin would accompany each examination.
Nobody noticed his odd inspections.
Except for two students.
Chapter 1: Katy's POV[]
The cafeteria was jam packed with students, and the two of us push through the crowd to get into the lunch line.
"Move!" Charlotte shoves a tall football player, who stood intentionally in front of us. He looked angry, but Charlotte gave him her patented death stare.
I just follow behind her, meekly. Charlotte and I had been friends since third grade, but our personalities couldn't have been more different. I was the quiet geeky girl who only talked about school work. She was smart too, except she had one if those edgy personalities.
We fit well, because I wasn't really one to stick up for myself. But at the same time, I was the one who kept her from punching all of the jerks that were at the college. Each other were our only friends, but that suited us just fine.
Despite our being only 20 each, we were close to finishing our first four years of college. Graduating at 16, we were both the tops of our classes. Somehow, we were always together at school.
"Come on." I mumble, when Charlotte was about to go after the football player.
"Everybody at this school-" she starts angrily.
"Are just such idiotic jerks." I finish, rolling my eyes. "I know, but just don't give them the satisfaction of getting to you."
I pull her into the lunch line, and grab a salad and a Starbucks Frappe. Charlotte glowers at her burger, muttering about thick headed football players. I completely agree with her, but I didn't let it show.
"Come on, lets go outside to eat." I push her playfully, and she smiles.
"Fine." We pay for our food and walk outside.
While eating, we discussed next week's reading, and compared science notes. Charlotte is freaky good with numbers, and so we always play this game where I would rattle off numbers, and she would have to find a pattern. Half the time, I didn't think of any particular pattern, but she could find one anyway.
"You're really losing your touch at this game." She says nonchalantly, after solving a puzzle in seconds.
"Haha SUUURE. Hey do you- wait, who's that?" I point to a tall figure lurking around the cafeteria.
"Dunno. Probably a professor or someone." Charlotte says casually, and starts peeling the skin off of a cluster of grapes. "Creepy though."
"Yeah...but it's 90 degrees out. Why would be be in such a suit like that?" I point out. The man wore a dark grey blazer and matching slacks, as well as a black tie. His short grey hair was greased down, and he had thin wire spectacles on the end of his nose.
"Does it really matter?" Sighs Charlotte exasperated. "Katy, just give it a rest with all of yor investigative stuff."
I blush bright red, because she knew I had always loved to observe and analyze everything. She gave me a look, and returned to eating. I quietly resume picking at my salad.
When I looked back up, the man was gone. But I didn't say anything to Charlotte.
We had all of our classes in the morning, so the rest of the day we just wandered around, doing our homework in odd places. We wrote our essay in a tree, practiced reciting the table of elements at an ice cream shop, and reviewed a seminar in the planetarium. When the sun started setting, we went to our dorm.
"Ah, I love having the whole afternoon and night free." Sighs Charlotte as she stretches out.
"You know, I bet the library is still open..." I muse, much to Charlotte's displeasure.
"We can't spend our whole lives in the LIBRARY." She groans. "It's great and all, but every day?"
"Fine..." I grab a worn copy of And Then There Were None, and re-read it. Charlotte browses Etsy, and listens to music.
We sat in silence, until I heard the curfew bell. The college, Chevalon, was super strict, and we were were required to go to sleep at a required time. Gently, I set down my book, and pull my covers over me.
"Goodnight Charlotte." I say.
"Goodnight Katy."
Chapter 2 Charlotte's POV[]
I tap my pencil, making an clinking noise against the wood. Not like the teacher notices. Some morons asking stupid questions that he taught not two seconds ago, blends in with my clinking. Katy scribbles in her notebook about the Periodic Table. She writes about each and every material, in complete detail. She makes me insane sometimes.
When the kindergarten kids sit down, I sigh and take out a piece of paper for some other assignment because people aren't learning. Geez, give it a rest some people won't learn. And they never will.
"You remember that guy we saw yesterday right Charlotte?"
"Yeah, that creepy one."
"Well what if he is meant to be here?" She asks.
"Katy, that's ridiculous, no such thing could happen." I say, annoyed.
"But.."
I take my laptop out and hand it to Katy. "Oh just look it up already." I groan. She nods, smiling. I scoot my chair right next to Katy's so I can see. "So what should we put in?" Katy asks. "Professor," I say instantly. Her fingers tap rapidly. She hits enter and clicks on everyone for the first ten pages.
"Nope."
"OK, fine." I sigh.
"What else?"
"He could be a campus director or investigator or something."
Katy types it in, and fails to see any results that really mattered.
"What next?" I ask.
"I don't know."
I shut my laptop and walk around campus again and again with Katy. I wonder if he's here again today," Katy mumbles. We look around but there's nothing there. Bored, I open my laptop and sit down on the hot concrete. "What are you doing?" Katy asked. "Waiting until you'll find him, I'll be here." She groans and walks off. I laugh to myself.
I just sit there, for what seems like hours, but only minutes. I look up my favorite artists on YouTube, and still Katy hasn't come back.
"Have you come to see some spaceships of some sorts?" Someone says. I look up from my laptop. Face to face, with that creepy guy on campus, with my friend on the other end of the college. I found him.
Chapter 3: Katy's POV[]
"So, I'll take that as a no?" I sigh exasperatedly. The head of staffing gives me a blank look.
"I don't believe any teachers fit that description." She said slowly. "Especially not in a suit. All of the professors and staff are wearing summer clothing."
"Well, thanks..." I turn around out of the grey office. "....for nothing." I mumble under my breath.
So far, nobody had even heard of a campus inspector. The creepy professor/stalker dude had absolutely no traces. All of the kids at lunch hadn't seen anybody, and most thought me quite inside.
I sit down on the pavement outside the main building, when my phone rings. Charlotte's name flashed on the screen. I flip it open.
"Hey, Katy. Um, come back, will you?" Tension lingers on Charlotte's voice, and a sense of urgency is prominent. She hangs up immediately after, leaving me confused.
Well that was weird, I think to myself. I pick up my purse and start jogging over to the other side of the campus. The campus is almost silent, with everybody else at classes or something.
Chevalon has always been a pretty small campus. It's quite fancy, and you either get in if you got a fancy scholarship for being a genius, or your rich daddy payed for it. Charlotte and I aren't rich, so we got a scholarship. Of course, we could've gone to Harvard, or Princeton, or even abroad, but Chevalon is one of those super classy schools that not many have heard of.
The school resides on a small island off the coast of California. Which means, tons of rich, empty headed surfer boys and girls come. But the dorms are posh, and it's all payed for. Charlotte and I knew we had to go to the same college, and she didn't want to go to MIT, and I didn't want to go to Cambridge. I wanted to stay close to home, Illinois, while she wanted find a college as far as possible.
But we've been happy here. My jog takes me past the college coffee shop, so I stop to get an iced coffee. When I walk in, the bitter aroma of coffee beans hits me- my favorite. It drives Charlotte nuts, the way I can just smell a can of coffee beans for hours. As I step in line, I think to call Charlotte to see if she wants one.
"Hey, Char, want a coffee?" I ask, when she picks up. I hear her pause, and I hear her muffled voice ask someone else something.
"Um, sure... Vanilla latte please." She says quietly, a lot less nervous than last time, but still wary sounding. The phone hits something, and I take it to be the sudden exchange of the phone.
"I'll take one too. A strong cup of black coffee, please. Oh, and do they have jammy dodgers? I do love a good jammy dodger." Says an upbeat voice, in a unmistakable British accent. It was definitely a he, but who?
"Um, I think... Well, I'll just...get that." Who the heck does Charlotte know with a British accent? I hang up, and order three coffees, with a few "jammy dodgers" they were called. It just looked like a shortbread cookie with jam, but I bought some anyway. They didn't seem very popular anyhow.
The place I left Charlotte was only 50 yards or so from the coffee shop, and she was sitting on the pavement on her laptop, just like before. Except the creepy guy was right next to her.
Up close, he looked quite normal. His attire had changed from a stiff old suit to dark pants, tan shirt, suspenders, and a bow tie. Actually, he was quite attractive, with dark ruffled hair and mischievous eyes. Charlotte gave me a significant look before accepting her coffee.
"Thanks." She says, and takes her vanilla latte.
"And this is..." I beckon to the strange man, who accepts his coffee.
"Oh! How rude of me. I'm the Doctor." He holds out a hand, which i shake warily. "You must be Katy. Charlotte has told me lots about you."
I open my mouth to say something, but he continues to rattle on. "So, Katy, have you seen any spaceships around here?"
"Excuse me? Is this some kind of joke?" I raise an eyebrow at his easy use of the word spaceship.
"Yes, she was around here somewhere... You see, I was following recharging her at the lovely Rift on this campus, but something happened...and she just disappeared without me. Some outside source was also harnessing the energy of the rift, and somehow recalibrated the TARDIS to form somewhere else.... Of course, she couldn't have gotten very far..." The Doctor looks down, and starts mumbling to himself.
I look to Charlotte, gives me a shrug.
"Wait, so Doctor....who?" I ask, still minutes behind in the conversation.
"Just 'The Doctor.'" He says, as if he answers this question a lot.
"Okay, Doctor...so...what?" Don't get me wrong. I'm a straight A student, and I am studying for my major in Engineering, Environmental Science, Physics, and Tech. But everything he just said was spinning around in my head.
The Doctor looks at me, and gives me a rather exasperated look. Who does this guy think he is?
"Humans...don't understand a thing..." He grabs a metal cylinder out of his front pocket, and it starts pulsing and glowing.
"You talk as if you aren't human!" I say, my arms crossed.
"He isn't, apparently." Adds Charlotte. "Apparently he's...a...um...Time Lord."
"A what?"
"Time Lord, yes, please direct all your questions to Charlotte. We just went through all of this." The Doctor waves around the cylinder.
"And you're in America, because?"
"Rift, energy, recharging...this is America?" The Doctor turned to me all of a sudden. "One second I'm headed for Cardiff, then the TARDIS tries to find a 'better' energy source...ugh." He turns around and starts running off towards the dorms.
"Um....what was that?" I turn on Charlotte, now thinking of this man as more of completely mental, and less creepy.
"I'm not really sure... He just came up to me and asked about a space ship." Charlotte shrugs, and I hold up the package of jammy dodgers.
"And these?" All of a sudden, the Doctor comes running back.
"My jammy dodgers!" He grabs the bag and turns back. "Thanks, see you two around." Charlotte and I sit in shocked/confused silence as he runs away, chasing who knows. When I look at her sternly, she holds up her hands innocently.
"Hey, you wanted to find the guy." She points out.
"Shut it. Anyway, the guy seems....dangerous." I give him a disdainful look, as he examines a bed of hydrangeas with that silly little cylinder of his.
"Sure- but he's kind of hot." Charlotte raises her eyebrow, and I laugh at her silly face.
"Yeah right...for a complete psychopath."
"Did you make any sense out of anything he said?"
"No...you?"
"Seriously?" Charlotte shakes her head. "Wonder how he got on campus. Probably with his sonic screwdriver."
"His what?"
"Sonic screwdriver. The funny little silver cylinder."
"Oh. Right." I take a step back.
"Ha ha. It can pick locks." She explains.
"Oh. So he's trying to pick a lock in the hydrangeas. Much more sane now." I laugh. I turn around and start running towards him.
"What are you doing?" Charlotte catches my shoulder.
"Finding out what he's doing of course!" We share a mischievous smile, And start running towards him.
~*~*~
"So...in short, you're an alien whose time traveling spaceship was hijacked and now you're checking our flower beds for radioactive material?" I confirm.
"Pretty much." The Doctor raises head out of a patch of daisies. "You see, the Rift is a breach in Time and Space. It was sealed a while ago- it's a parallel to one in Cardiff, which was closed in the 17th century. It leaks raw energy, but it has an affect on the area around it. So far, I haven't seen anything wrong. If it was affecting the students, I would've been able to tell. But it wasn't, and so the next thing to check is soil!"
Bending down, he analyzes the soil with his sonic screwdriver.
"Cool." Charlotte laughs, and punches me in the arm. "For an insane guy, he's pretty awesome."
"Awesome...awesome...is that an American word?" The Doctor asks suddenly.
"Uh, yeah. It's like...brilliant." I say, stifling a laugh.
"Brilliant. Fantastic." The Doctor looks down again, and frowns.
"So the flowers tell you anything?" Asks Charlotte. Her eyes were bright, and I could tell she was this close to having a crush on him.
"Well, it's definitely showing that theres increased sodium, and it's rich in carbon...hmm...are there many animals around here?"
"No, their pest control is amazing. I've never seen a single rat or mouse on the premises." Charlotte tells him.
"Fascinating...but that's Impossible...unless."
And with that, he runs off. Again.
Chapter 4 Charlotte's POV[]
"Where the heck did he go?" I ask, partially wanting to just crush on him some more.
"I don't know, maybe he comes back and takes you in his spaceship with his jammy dodgers and annoying British accent?" Katy asks, obviously annoyed.
"Maybe he will, and leave you behind," I laugh.
"Hey!"
"You want to come."
"No."
"There's no need for a psycho on board is there anyway." I say, trying to hold back tears.
She groans.
"Fine you win."
"Yay!"
"Anybody miss me?" A voice asks.
I whip my head around, recognizing that voice from anywhere. "Doctor!" I squeal a little to loudly. Katy rolls her eyes. I glare at her.
"Where have you been?" I ask.
"Inspecting...and uh...in my TARDIS...and, yeah."
"What the heck is a Tardis?" Katy asks, interrupting my thought process.
"My spaceship as you call it." He smiles very widely, and awkwardly.
"Can I see?" I ask, a bit too eagerly, by the looks of their faces.
"Uh....I don't know..."
Katy shoves me into him. "You know what to do, crazy," She smirks at the Doctor.
"Fine," He sighs. He extends his hand. I grab hold of his hand. Katy laughs.
"You're such a psycho with him."
"So?" I ask, trying not to make him feel ignored. She points to the Doctor.
"Go!" She mouths.
"So this is the Tardis? It looks like a police box!" I say, wondering if he actually is crazy.
"It is, but look," He says, grasping onto the handle. He pulls the door open and I gasp.
"Wow." That's all I could say. It's huge. The middle with a mint green light coming out of a tube. And a bunch of gears surrounding it.
"The TARDIS," I say, laughing.
"Amazing isn't it?"
"You designed this?" I ask, touching the gears.
"Be careful, won't want to change course."
I rip my hand from it.
"So Doctor, this is your "spaceship"?"
"Of a sorts yes."
"You time travel, in a box."
".....Yes....."
"That's magnificent!" I sigh.
"Yes...but I only come to places where there's one thing."
"Which is what?"
"...Danger."
Chapter 5: Katy's POV[]
Charlotte disappeared into the blue police box with the Doctor, but I just rolled my eyes. Tough, calm Charlotte completely gaga over some kook who thinks he's so hot because he has a spaceship that's, "bigger on the inside."
So I guess now she's the compliant sidekick, while I play edgy and refusing. For a minute I sit outside and wait for them to come out, but one minute turns to five pretty quickly. I take a seat on a stone bench and watch the closed door, occasionally hearing bubbly "Cool!"s, or loud gasps.
When I get fed up with waiting, I pull open the door.
"What the heck are you guys-" I stop mid sentence as I take in the scene before me. I'm about to point out the obvious that its bigger on the inside, but I stop and start to look hostile and bored again.
But in fact, it's quite amazing. The huge circular control panel confuses even me, and I can only identify a small fraction of his equipment. What is concealed behind wooden blue walls is a spaceship the size of a mansion. Clear glass floors creak beneath my Converse, and the walls seem to be made of thick steel instead of wood.
I lean back against a silver railing and roll my eyes, as the Doctor shows a dewy eyed Charlotte the different rooms. I reluctantly turn my eye as he points out the swimming pool and game rooms.
"You're joking!" Charlotte's head peeks out of the corridor. "Did you know there are 87 rooms in use on the TARDIS? But, the system has archived over 200!"
The Doctor leans on the control panels with a smug smile- as if he enjoyed his command of attention. I purposely chip at my neon yellow nail polish, trying not to let him savor the awe. In reality, I was completely blown away by the technology, but I wasn't going to TELL him that.
"TARDIS? Who thought of THAT name?" I ask with a low and careless voice. The Doctor gives me a superior look that I could tell he relished.
"Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. This is the only one in existence!" He announces proudly.
"What happened to the others?" The Doctor's arrogant expression immediately leaves, replaced by an uncertain and definitely uncomfortable one.
"This and that." He answers vaguely. I'm about to ask him again, when a loud scream from down a corridor jars me.
"Charlotte!" I race down the halls, and follow the sound. "Where are you?!"
"I'm fine!" Comes a yell to the right. The girl herself stands in a classic looking hallway, with a fine carpet and chandelier in the center.
"What's the big deal?" I ask, because the hallway itself was nothing spectacular- downright boring, I might even venture- compared to the rest of the TARDIS.
"I was just looking around, and two rooms just appeared!" Charlotte pointed to the two doors at the end of the hall. One was a polished mahogany wood door, with a handsome brass knob and knocker. The other was completely opposite- a sleek and silver sheet with no visible way to open it.
"Doctor!" I yell, as the Time Lord saunters by, recovering his happy mien from our last encounter. "Why are doors appearing?"
"Well, sometimes, the TARDIS creates rooms she thinks are...necessary." The Doctor looked down the hall.
"Interesting. This is the bedrooms hall." He looked at the end of the hall. "Hmm, never seen those two...oh wait...Charlotte-" He looked like he was going to stop her, but Charlotte was in the room past the mahogany door in no time.
"NO WAY!" Her face aglow, Charlotte beamed at the Doctor from the doorway. "You mean we can help you?"
"Well- I mean, if the TARDIS-" He stuttered, losing his cool and blushing.
"What the heck is going on?" Both of them stop and face me, each different. Charlotte looked happier than ever, with a tinge of color on her cheeks, whereas the Doctor looked conflicted and nervous.
"Well, these bedrooms...they were for my past- past...companions." He gulped.
"And where are they now? Dead?!" I ask furiously.
"No, no, they moved on. But, ahem-"
"Just come and see, Katy!" Charlotte interrupts, and beckons to me. I give the Doctor a questioning look, who just points down the hall. So I follow.
Charlotte beams at me from the room she was in, and points to the silver door. I stand in front of it uneasily, wondering where the doorknob was. Suddenly, the door lifts, and I am in a room that looks more or less like the one I know back home.
Except, it is every improvement I would want in my bedroom, and everything is a sleek silver, and technologically upgraded. On my bed, a stuffed bear I've had forever sits atop the fluffy blankets. It's the exact same bear, right down to the hot chocolate stain.
I peek my head out of the room, and look at the Doctor.
"So what's this supposed to mean?" I ask.
"Well, I've been sort of companion-less for a while, and well, the TARDIS sometimes lands me in convenient situations where she thinks I should, I guess-" The Doctor stammers awkwardly, until Charlotte cuts him off.
"He's asking us to travel with him through time and space."
"Oh." I raise my eyebrow at Charlotte, who gives me a confident grin. "And you want to?"
"Of course!"
"But, it's mad! We still haven't finished our majors, and you're working on a PhD!"
"If I might butt in, the TARDIS also makes wonderful macaroons." Added the Doctor, less blushingly than before.
"We just met you." I point out, and cross my arms. "How can you expect us to just be whisked away because you have a nice macaroon making spaceship and a sonic screwdriver!"
"Funny, my previous companions were much easier..." The Doctor mumbles. "Anyhow, the TARDIS is very meddlesome, and she brought me here for a reason. You two are that reason."
"Well what's so special about us?" Asks Charlotte, confused now.
"Usually, when a town is on top of a Rift, an island in this case, the inhabitants are virtually unaffected. But you two, why, you're scientific anomalies! All of that harmless energy has gone right into you!" He beams, and I gape.
"So what you're saying, is that we've basically soaked up a ton of radiation? And you want to travel with us because of that?" I ask incredulously.
"Well, sort of. You two have to be very special, and very intelligent for the Rift energy to have affected you. Tell me, have you ever been so exceptional at something, you couldn't explain it? Something you've only discovered since coming here?" Inquires the Doctor.
"Well I used to be rubbish at skateboarding, but I'm really good now. But that's just practice, isn't it?" Charlotte frowns, her bubbly attitude fizzing out.
"Maybe....but maybe not." The Doctor whips out his sonic screwdriver, and scans us, a green light shining on us.
"Well?" I ask, exasperated. Honestly, I was sick of all of this "Doctor drama." For a second I thought I saw a flicker of panic on his face, but it was gone before I could register it completely.
"Perfectly healthy. So yes, or no?" The Doctor smiles broadly, waiting for us to accept.
"Absolutely!" Charlotte says, regaining her state of ecstasy.
"No." I shake my head. "I just want to graduate. Sorry, but you have fun Charlotte." I turn to walk away, when Charlotte catches my arm.
"C'mon, it'll be amazing!" Charlotte pleads. "It's not like we'd never return."
"Is it safe?" I spin to face the Doctor. "Can you guarantee that my best friend will be safe from harm?" I give him a piercing glare, and see his confidence falter.
"It's not that- like there's- I mean, it's not TOTALLY risk free. But I'll take good care of her." The Doctor stuttered, but didn't look completely sure.
"Fine. Have fun." I stormed out of the hallway, and out of the blue box.
"Katy!" I hear Charlotte call out, but a rush of anger overcomes me. I couldn't believe that she would just be such a pushover!
Angrily, I ran back to the dorm. The door of the dorm is still open, a mistake I chide myself for.
"Idiot..." I breathe, and close it properly when I am inside. I turn to grab my book, when I see something standing in the center of my room.
Chapter 6 Charlotte's POV[]
"Katy!" I yell, raising my temper.
"Calm down," The Doctor says, very annoyed.
"Sorry." I say, sitting down in the parlor chair I created.
"Char, Doctor!" Katy yells from outside.
"Katy?" I ask running to the door.
"You won't believe what I just saw in my room." She says, breathing heavily.
"Take a gander, I've seen werewolves, aliens, clockwork robots, try me."
"I saw.... I saw..... I saw a thing! Huge! I don't know how to describe it was so...."
"Alien." I say, filling in her sentence.
"Yes alien!" She smiles.
"Enough reunion time, let's go see what "it" is." The Doctor laughs to himself.
We reach Katy's dorm, small with a huge door pasted right in the middle.
"Here?" I ask.
"Yes."
The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to open the lock.
"Ahhh!" Haven't seen these in a long time!"
"What are they?"
"No idea, just backing up."
Katy groans.
"So why is it here? In a college?" I ask.
"My guess something due to control, maybe mind control?" He asks.
"Maybe". Katy ponders.
"She wants to be a detective." I whisper to the Doctor, he chuckles in response.
Her picture are hanging to the side, grasping onto their life. Her bookshelf has fallen onto the floor, leaving a mystery and crossword tornado to help make the room look all "Put together". Not.
"An alien must be here for the rift."
"He must want it open!" Katy squeals.
"I guess so..." I say, feeling left out.
"Brilliant!"
He never said that to me. Sigh.
"He went that way," I point.
"Yes!"
The Doctor tuns off, making us chase him for the death sentence that awaits.
Chapter 7: Katy's POV[]
"So what exactly did you see?" Charlotte calls as we run down the halls.
"I'm not really sure...it happened so fast." I take a deep breath as we skid to a stop at the corner of a hall. The Doctor whips out his sonic screwdriver and scans the area.
"What happened?" The Doctor asks.
I shudder as I recall the incident. Right after I had left, I had gone into my dorm. But when I turned around, a thick, pale blue thing confronted me.
"It was slightly bigger than a human, with huge bug eyes..." I look down. "It's eyes were full of pain."
"Must've been a baby..." Muttered the Doctor. "But how did you escape?"
"When I saw it, I just froze for a second. But then...I told it to leave. And it disappeared in a beam of light."
"Oh my...I'm getting so idiotic in my age...of course! It was a Draxacolora baby! From Clom! And you've been absorbing the rift...so it would be- I've been so THICK!" The Doctor grabs his head, and looks down in obvious concentration.
"Okay...I'm confused." Charlotte crosses her arms, and stares at him warily. I nod in agreement.
"You've been absorbing the Rift- raw time energy, how I don't know. Draxacolora are energy pigs. They find time energy and eat it, sometimes causing holes in the universe. But something as large as the Rift- that's not good. It would gorge itself to death."
"And it obeyed me because...?"
"Draxacolora are blind, but they have amazing perception. In addition to scent, hearing, taste, and touch, they can manipulate waves around themselves to figure out their surroundings. You two give off astronomical amounts of time energy. The baby thought you were adult Draxacolora! It couldn't have gone far." The Doctor runs his hand through his hair anxiously. "But why are they here...why is it alone..."
"The Rift." Repeats Charlotte. "Katy said they wanted it open."
"Yeah, you said they were energy pigs. But something that scale is dangerous, right? So it's a baby, it wants energy, and it doesn't understand that the Rift would kill it. And it wanders off to find the best energy source?" I suggest.
"Of course..." The Doctor smacks his hand to his head. "Brilliant. I'm losing my touch."
"So are we just going to let it die?" Charlotte asks.
"Of course not! It's a baby! It's probably the first Draxacolora on Earth. Usually they are the vultures of dead worlds. We have to find the flock." The Doctor looked down a hallway, sniffed the wall, and then swabbed the floor with his finger. He pointed to the right. "This way!"
Charlotte grinned at me, and grabbed my arm. The three of us ran through the dorm and to the dorm lobby. The huge blue police box- TARDIS- stood to the side. The Doctor opened it and ran in. I hung back for a moment, but after a pleading look from Charlotte, I ultimately decided to go in. The Doctor stood at the circular control panel pushing, pulling, and twisting different things.
"So what are we going to do?" Pipes up Charlotte. The Doctor faces us, as if just realizing we were there.
"No no no, you two are not coming. A lost baby is very dangerous and murderous- especially to a human. No, you two are going to forget you ever met me." The Doctor grabs me, and starts to push me out the door.
"Wait a minute, you start up acting like we're going to travel with you, and now you're trying to shoe us away?" Charlotte protests. The young woman gives the Doctor a piercing look, and I can't help admire her bold attitude.
"Look, too many people can get hurt. Now why don't you go and enjoy a jammy dodger and tea." The Doctor shoved a piece of British money into my hand.
"This is America. We drink Coke, eat fries, and use dollars." I cross my arms. "I am not getting off this vehicle until you tell us why you've suddenly changed your mind." Charlotte smiles at me and stands at my side.
The Doctor gives a look partially grudging admiration, and part annoyance.
"The Draxacolora are NOT a force to be reckoned with. The whole campus could be in danger, and two kids aren't going to risk the lives of hundreds." He says, but I can tell he's lying.
"Yeah, what's the real reason? You know we're both 21." Charlotte asks, rolling her eyes.
"You two aren't safe. You don't realize how special you are." The Doctor runs his hand through his hair. "You have absorbed more of the Rift then you imagine."
"So what does that matter? Our chances of dying are roughly worse than others?" Charlotte retorts. "I've been living in the suburbs of some obscure town my whole life. Then you come running around our school, in this amazing blue box, show us things we didn't think possible, then tell us to forget you? Likely." For a second the Doctor is speechless, but then clears his throat.
"Goodbye." He punches a button, and the whole TARDIS starts to create a whooshing sound, and the vehicle slowly disappears.
"What?!" I shriek. Charlotte looks blankly at the area around us.
"He just...left?" Desolate confusion is quickly replaced by fierce determination. "If we would be in danger, so is he. We're finding him. The Draxacolora think we're Draxacolora too, right? It will obey us."
"Yeah, but how do we find him?" I ask logically. I knew that the TARDIS could reappear anywhere, so how do we find it?
"Obvious, isn't it? We find the Draxacolora first."