The Beginning of the End (Doctor Who)

Chap. 24

The interior of the tent is extravagant, a man dressed in expensive looking robes sits on what could be classified as a throne. Something doesn't feel right, having a tent like this in the middle of a desert. Also, the feeling of the suns doesn't disappear, like this doesn't exist...

"This is lavish, for a tent." The Doctor comments, "I'm the Doctor, this is Y/n and my new best friends, Ryan, Graham and Yaz. Now..." She waves a hand through him, causing him to flicker.

"Hologram." You hum.

"Thought it might be. Good one, though. I love a good hologram." She turns around to face you, "I was a hologram once, for three weeks. The gossip I picked up." She looks to the man, "What are you, projection reality or AI interface?" She bends down, "Cos if you're an interface, those are excellent nose hairs."

"Oh gosh." You sigh.

"Who are these people?" The man inquires, as if he's better than all of you.

"Bonuses." The woman answers.

"No." He denies.

"What?" The other man exclaims.

"I told you, bonuses and snaketraps are over."

"They were hanging in the starfield when we exited hyper. Are you saying we scooped them for nothing?" He angrily asks.

"Yes." The rich one casually nods.

"I sacrificed my ship."

"If you can call it that." You say just quietly enough for him to hear, and apparently the Doctor.

"Sorry." She winces, shooting you a look. "Some of this is my fault. Hi. We were loads of solar systems away, I was trying to find my own ship, I got a fix on it here... and then it all went quite badly wrong, actually."

"Very wrong." You mutter.

"Three of them are being very good not going on about it." She turns to the two new ones, "Very grateful you came along." She looks back to the very bored rich man, "Can I ask, what is actually going on here? Cos I'm confused. Are you confused?"

"Pretty confused." Yaz agrees.

"Proper confused."

"I'm way beyond confused." Graham takes off the shades, looking quite lost.

"You're intruding on the final stage of the last every Rally of the Twelve Galaxies." He answers.

"So, what, like a race? Like Paris-Dakar, in space? Are you two space-racing each other?" She excitedly asks.

"We're the finalists." The woman proudly says.

"Four thousand entered, two are left. Only one will claim the prize." The male racer adds.

"Oh, let me guess. A cheesy little plastic trophy?" You ask, remembering that's all you got in school.

"3.2 trillion krin." He corrects.

"3.2 trillion what?" The blonde asks.

"Krin." The other woman whispers.

"How much is a krin?"

"200 kavlons."

"90 forvalars." The other man adds.

"No..." She shakes her head.

"4,000 trynties." The other blonde offers.

"Well, in old money." He corrects.

"Bit behind on my exchange rates." She decides.