She felt the Doctor grab her by the arms and she slowly lowered herself to sit on the sand.
“Are you alright?” he asked, smiling down at her.
She looked up at the Doctor and then up at the grey clouds set against the starry sky. This was fantastically unbelievable. She tried to tell herself that she was simply on the beach somewhere and it was a very, very clear night up above. But no, that couldn’t be it. The fact that there were two red planets high up in the sky defeated that idea.
She looked down at the sand and ran her hands through the grains. It felt much, much different to the sand on Earth. This felt so soft. Almost like it wasn’t there at all as she let it fall between her fingers.
She watched, mouth open as the sand trickled down onto her jeans. Then she put a hand to her forehead, looked up at the Doctor and laughed.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” laughed the Doctor back at her.
She shook her head, still smiling at the absurdity of it all. “I’m…I’m fine,” she said, looking up at him and smiling. “It’s just…all real!”
“I told you,” said the Doctor, reaching out and helping her to her feet. “Just take it easy.”
They both looked over to where Danny was standing. He was stock still beside the TARDIS, half-leaning, half-trying to move away from it. His eyes were unblinking and they had glassed over.
“And what about you Mr Lennon?”
“Yeah,” was all Danny could manage. “Planets.”
“What kind of people live here?” asked Caroline. “I don’t see anyone.”
The Doctor frowned. “I’m not sure. The inhabitants have always been private. Whenever they attend galactic peace conferences they always wear hoods. I have no idea why. They‘re rarely seen off-world.”
“Then won’t they be unhappy that we’re here?” she asked worriedly. “You know, if they’re private?”
“Yes, this planet is on the restricted level.”
“What!” spat both Danny and Caroline at the same time. “You mean we shouldn’t be here?”
“Absolutely not,” said the Doctor. “No one visits Trixatin.”
Caroline sat down on a nearby rock and gathered together her thoughts.
“It’ll be fine,” said the Doctor. “I’m the Doctor. Access all areas.”
The Doctor allowed Caroline and Danny to get acquainted to their new surroundings while he popped back in the TARDIS and emerged with three bottles of water. He tossed them to his two companions and headed off towards a distant dune.
“Where are you going?” asked Caroline, unsure of whether to follow or not.
“Over here,” he said, hands in his pockets and striding off into the distance.
“Is it safe?” asked Danny.
“Probably not,” came the Doctor’s voice, “but that’s space travel for you.”
“Maybe we should stay near the TARDIS,” shouted Caroline after him.
“Why come all this way and stay near the ship? C’mon! Let’s investigate!”
Caroline and Danny hesitated for a moment and looked at each other. “Well?”
Danny sighed. “This was what we came for.”
“Not exactly,” said Caroline. “I came for some answers about myself.”
“Maybe the answers are that way,” said Danny, nodding in the direction of the Doctor.
“Maybe,” she replied, unsure about that.
“Let’s find out,” said Danny.
Caroline smiled, grabbed his hand and they both started running after the Doctor.
By the time they had reached him he was standing at the top of the dune, looking out over the panorama, hands still firmly in his pockets.
Caroline and Danny reached him, out of breath from climbing the dune.
“About time,” said the Doctor, taking a swig from his bottle of water. “Drink.”
Caroline took a sip from her bottle. “Why do we need this?”
“Because the heat is going to get worse as the day goes on.”
“But it’s night,” said Danny, looking up at the stars.
The Doctor swung around, pointing up and behind them at a huge, burning sun that Caroline was sure hadn’t been there before.
“Short nights. Short days.”
“Lovely,” she said, shielding her eyes against the huge glowing orb.
“So, is there anything to see?” asked Danny.
“I think so,” replied the Doctor, diverting his gaze down the other side of the dune. “Can you see that?”
They squinted their eyes and in the distance they could see a large, metal object with wreckage trailing from what looked like some advanced form of rocket engines.
“Is that…?”
“A spaceship,” said the Doctor, answering Caroline’s would-be question. “And it looks like it’s crashed. Come on, let’s see if they need help.”
They made their way down the dune until they reached the plain. As they got closer to the ship they could make out much more detail. It was a huge, dark metal ship. At the front was a curved section with windows set into the front. Almost a dome but with a flat underside. A thinner tubular section extended back from this with two huge engines extending from the sides. One of them was damaged and wreckage from it was strewn across the sand. Underneath the other engine the sand was blackened and scorched and a trail snaked off into the distance.
As they approached the ship the Doctor called out. “Hello! Is there anybody there? Do you need help?”
Caroline looked up at the ship in awe. It was one thing to come to another planet, but now they were seeing a real life spaceship. She almost went giddy again, but managed to compose herself.
“What do you think happened?” asked an equally awed Danny.
“It looks like their engine was hit. Or at least something caused it to explode,” said the Doctor, looking over to the large hole ripped in the side of the damaged engine. “It’s been a good week or two since it happened as well. The engine’s have gone completely cold.”
“Do you think anyone survived?” asked Caroline.
“I don’t know. Maybe. Let’s find out.”
They reached an open airlock in the side of the ship. By the side of the door there was a name and code stamped in black onto the grey metal: Pythagoras - ES23.
“Looks like the name of the ship,” said the Doctor, running his hand along the letters. “In we go.”
They stepped inside the airlock. The air felt stale and everything was shrouded darkness. The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. He ran it along a control panel beside the inner door and there was tiny explosion and the keypad came loose, damaged. The Doctor slipped his hand into an handle alcove and pulled, forcing the door to slide open. As soon as he did an alarm started blaring out.
“Alert. Alert,” came a computer voice. “Unexpected entry at airlock 4. Unexpected entry at airlock 4.”
“Umm, Doctor,” said Danny, looking around nervously. “Perhaps we should get out of here.”
“Good idea,” said the Doctor.
They turned to leave and the outer door slid shut in front of them.
“Use the screwdriver,” said Caroline, pressing a button on the control panel in an effort to open it.
Before the Doctor could activate his screwdriver there came the click of guns behind them. The three of them turned to be confronted by a man and a woman, both pointing rifles at them.
The man wore glasses and had a bald head with a little grey hair around the sides. He looked stern and serious. The woman, meanwhile, was blonde with green eyes. She looked a little nervous and her hands shook as she pointed the rifle at the travellers.
“Move,” said the man in a gruff voice.
“If I could just explain-” started the Doctor.
“I said move!” said the man. “You’ll have ample time to explain yourselves later.”
“Well, that’s alright then,” said the Doctor, holding his hands up and edging around the man and woman.
Caroline and Danny, keeping quiet, raised there hands as well and followed the Doctor into the corridor beyond the airlock.
Elsewhere in the spaceship a group of about 15 children were sat on the floor, all of them reading books on biology, but looking ever so slightly nervous. A young, Asian man was standing beside a white screen which was showing a diagram of a frog. He took out a stick and pointed it towards the screen. A section of the frog was highlighted in blue.
“The colour of a frog's skin is used for thermo-regulation. In cool damp conditions the colour will be darker than on a hot dry day,” he said. He then looked towards the door to the classroom as if expecting someone to burst in. Then he quickly looked back to the kids. “And can anybody tell me what the tree frog can do?”
None of the children answered. They continued to look at the books, still looking nervous.
“Anyone?” He looked across at a blonde girl with pigtails who was looking over to the classroom door as well. “Alison.”
“Sir?” she said, her head turning quickly to look at the man.
“What can the tree frog do?”
Alison fidgeted, cross-legged. Now the rest of the children were looking at her. None of them had been paying attention and each child was wondering if Alison was as clueless as the rest of them.
“What can the tree frog do?” asked Alison, repeating the question in her head.
“That was the question,” said the teacher, smiling a little to ease her worries.
“It can…croak!” she said, giving a smile back which showed that she had no idea what the tree frog could do.
All the rest of the children laughed. The teacher smiled and closed his eyes. “Okay, kids, settle down. Settle down. We’ve obviously all been distracted by the alarm.”
“Sir,” said a small voice from a curly haired boy in the corner. “Was it Mr Reynolds coming back?”
The teacher looked to the door again, lost in his own thoughts. “I doubt it, Marcus. He knows the access codes. He wouldn’t have set off the alarm.” He suddenly realised he was talking out aloud and this wasn’t really what a bunch of scared children wanted to hear.
“Then who was it, Mr Sanada?”
Sanada looked back to Alison. “I don’t know. And we needn’t concern ourselves with it. Our job here is to continue to learn. The ship may have crashed, but help is on the way and we have to carry on. We must not let our fears overcome us.”
“But Mr Reynolds has been gone for ages,” said another boy.
“Mr Reynolds has gone on a scouting mission. He’ll be back,” said Sanada, smiling.
“Scouting for what? It‘s been two weeks!”
“For food,” said Sanada. “Back to the books, children.”
“But there’s no food out there,” said Alison. “It’s just all desert. And anyway we have enough rations on the ship.”
“Our charts say there might be food somewhere out there.”
“Then where? If we have rations why does Mr Reynolds have to find more food? We‘re not going to be here that long, are we?” asked Marcus.
“That’s enough,” said Sanada in his sternest voice possible. “Just let the adults deal with this. Everything’s going to be okay. Now,” he said, returning to the screen, “back to the books, please. What can the tree frog do?”
The Doctor, Caroline and Danny were taken down identical, narrow metal corridors, each with various doors leading off at intervals. They were finally marched into a room with a number of tables and chairs filling it. The man indicated for the three travellers to sit down, which they did.
“Can someone explain-”
“Shut up,” said the man again. He turned to the woman. “Annie, go get Hideo.”
The woman nodded, looked back at the travellers and then went through a door leading out of the room.
The man went over to what looked like a futuristic coffee machine, typed in a code and a glass of water materialised in an alcove.
“Just like Star Trek,” said Danny.
“Really?” said the Doctor.
“Yeah,” whispered Danny. “Surely you’ve seen it?”
“Never happened in Captain Kirk’s day.”
“No. TNG. The Next Gen. Captain Picard.”
Caroline rolled her eyes. “Will you two shut up. We’re in big trouble here.”
“Kirk wins,” said the Doctor quickly.
The door swished open before Danny could reply and the woman called Annie was followed in by the Asian teacher - Hideo Sanada.
“Where are these two from?” he said, crossing over to the older man.
“We thought we better get you in here before we questioned them. Are the kids alright?”
“They’re fine,” said Hideo. “They’ve still got questions, but I left them reading a book on frogs.”
“Have they said anything yet?” asked Annie.
“Nothing of any importance,” said the man.
“Excuse me,” said the Doctor, “but we’re still here, you know. We can hear you.”
“Who are you?” asked the man.
“We’re travellers from Earth.”
“From Earth!” said Hideo excitedly. “Where’s your ship?”
“Over the dunes. About ten minutes away.”
“We never heard a ship land,” said the older man. “We never heard engines.”
“Well, it’s pretty quiet,” said the Doctor with a smile on his face. “It’s only a small thing.”
“Who are you?” asked Caroline.
“We’re asking the questions,” said the older man. “Until we’re sure you’re not hostile you won’t be getting any answers out of us.”
“Well, I’ll be happy to answer anything you’ve got to ask. We’ve got nothing to hide. We’ve already told you that we’re travellers from Earth.”
“Why did you come here?” asked Hideo.
“Just exploration,” said the Doctor. “Actually we didn’t expect the planet to be like this at all.” He looked around. “There’s a few too many chairs in here for just the three of you. Where’s the rest of your crew?”
“Shut up,” said the old man again.
“Look, this is getting stupid,” said Caroline. “I don’t know what more you want out of us. We just landed here. You’re the ones acting hostile and pointing guns at us.”
“Did you crash?” asked Danny. “Cos it looks like it from the outside.”
“I said-”
“Oh, Headmaster,” said Hideo, “give them a break. They look harmless.”
The Headmaster was about to say something when the same airlock alarm went off again. Red lights began flashing in the room they were in.
“You must have damaged the lock,” said the Headmaster. “Something’s gotten in. Stay here!”
The Doctor, Caroline and Danny watched as the three people ran from the room to the direction of the airlock. They waited a few seconds and then the Doctor motioned for them to follow.
At the airlock the door was open and a large, brown cover was half in and half out of the doorway. It was covering something. The three teachers rounded the corner of the corridor and Hideo crouched down over the bag.
“What is it?” asked Annie, nervously.
Hideo braced himself as he pulled back the cover. The three of them stepped back in shock. Annie turned away and let out a cry. Underneath the cover was the skeletal remains of a human, it’s ragged clothes still attached. Around it’s neck was a necklace of a star.
“Please don’t tell me-” started the Headmaster.
“It’s William,” said Hideo turning the star between his fingers. “Something’s eaten him.”
The Doctor, Caroline and Danny watched on in the background.
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