Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space - Book One

V1 E1 - 'Absolute Zero' (I)

Synopsis: The Doctor has regenerated. The TARDIS is gone, and the new Doctor is left on his own, with only a nurse and her boyfriend. And yet in his new body, he cannot rest. A city is freezing, and an old enemy waits in the shadows. Watch out for the ice...
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Volume I, Episode I - 'Absolute Zero'
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She falls to her knees.

The Doctor pushes one final time to complete the most painful of all regenerations. An almighty grunt as she bites her lip to conclude the process that felt like it had gone on for an eternity. It was done.

Her arms became his arms. Her face became his face. The Doctor had changed biological sex, once again. Those arms that are now his fell to his side, that face that was once hers looked around dazed. He looks around his console room, with the TARDIS groaning in concern for the Time Lord. The Doctor did not even hear his ship's fears, as his ears rang out to drown the noise, as his new auburn eyes coordinated on the time rotor, and the ringing of the ears stopped. The cloister bells chimed as the Doctor rose to his feet.

Changing from one sex to the other is always a problem for the Doctor. His interesting dress sense is difficult to be accustomed to when his entire physiological structure is edited, but this one was quite irritating for him. The Doctor adjusts the fabric of his predecessor's shirt, as his new form seems to be taller than his old one. Same tinge, and complexion. He slightly chuckles, before pacing around the damaged but still functional TARDIS console room. Resting his hand on the lever to land, he finally opened his mouth.

"Well then, here we go again," he said, looking around with a smile looking for somebody to share his new face with. To no avail – as his face falls, he realizes nobody is there to joke with. It's who he is, and as history has proved the Doctor is much less without them. Deflated, he pulls the lever.

But the TARDIS falls suddenly, at a rate so indescribable. The Doctor realizes that he's pulled the wrong lever: he's pulled the one to disable the anti-gravitational field and hurries to fix the problem. As the cloisters ring out again, the Doctor slips and brutally hits his head on the walls of the interior, knocking him unconscious.
The cloisters ring out even louder, as the TARDIS attempts to avoid hitting the surface of the Earth with the full strength of her contraption.

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Portsmouth, Great Britain - June 18, 2022
"Yes, I'm on my way," Diana said. "Just been caught up at work, that's all. No need to get so irritated, David."
"Can you hurry up then? As always you just seem to be taking forever." he answered.

Diana rolled her eyes as she continued to drive home. The pair had been having issues lately. Their relationship had been taking a few hits lately. For starters, since Diana began her new job at the independent hospital for the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, her time with David had been severely reduced. It's a job she had been enjoying, as it had always been her dream. Diana had always been a brighter one, as had David, and that was how they met. Yet, as two intelligent people do, they clash too frequently. And Diana was getting ever so slightly tired.

"You need to get off my back," she snaps. "You can't just expect me to always be running around for you. This is my job."
Diana could hear a very audible sigh, followed by David acknowledging his mistake in what he said.
"I'm sorry Di. It's been confusing lately. I just want to see more of you again," David says. Her face falls, as she realizes that they really have grown apart, and by a lot too. She keeps her eyes focused on the road, but did manage to reply to her estranged partner.

"I promise you, I'll be back soon. It'll be just you and-"
A loud thump in the distance caused Diana to jump in surprise and hang up the phone call out of nowhere. Intrigued, she pulls over on the side of the road and exits her car. She pulls out her phone in order to text David as an apology for such randomly ending the call, but the text was rather hurried, as she was too intrigued to bother with checking the text.