The Littlest Timelord: The New Doctor

Chapter 23 (Kill the Moon)

Elise woke up in the Doctor's armchair. She shot up.

Clara!

The Doctor was standing at the console.

Elise ran down the stairs and reached for the controls.

The Doctor grabbed her.

"We have to go back!" Elise told him.

"This is a decision that Clara needs to make for herself."

"Says who!"

"Says me!"

Elise pulled away from him. "God, Rory was right! You make people dangerous. You're turning her into you."

The Doctor suddenly reached for the controls and they landed. He threw open the door.

They were back on the cargo carrier.

He turned to Clara, Lundvik, and Courtney. "One, two, three, into the TARDIS."

"What's happening?" Lundvik asked.

"Let's go and have a look, shall we?"

They piled into the TARDIS and they took off.

"Bloody idiots. Bloody irresponsible idiots," Lundvik cursed.

The Doctor walked over to her. "Mind your language, please. There are children present."

"You should have left me there, let me die. I wanted to die up there with the universe in front of me, not being crushed to death on Earth."

"Nobody's going to die."

"Could you please let us see what's happening?"

They landed on a beach and stepped outside. The sky was a bright blue with a few fluffy clouds. The moon broke apart as the alien spread its wings.

"What's it doing?" Courtney asked.

"It's feeling the sun on itself. It's getting warm. The chick flies away and the eggshell disintegrates. Harmless," the Doctor said.

"Did you know?" Clara asked.

"You made your decision. Humanity made its choice."

"No, we ignored humanity," Lundvik said.

"Well, there you go."

"So what happens now, then? Tell me what happens now."

The Doctor turned around and closed his eyes. He took Elise's hand in his and showed her what he was seeing. "In the mid-twenty first century humankind starts creeping off into the stars, spreads its way through the galaxy to the very edges of the universe. And it endures till the end of time." He turned back to the trio. "And it does all that because one day in the year 2049, when it had stopped thinking about going to the stars, something occurred that make it look up, not down. It looked out there into the blackness and it saw something beautiful, something wonderful, that for once it didn't want to destroy. And in that one moment, the whole course of history was changed. Not bad for a girl from Coal Hill School, and her teacher."

Courtney looked up at the sky. "Oh, my gosh. It laid a new egg. It's beautiful. Doctor, it's beautiful."

"That's what we call a new moon," the Doctor said.

Courtney turned to Lundvik. "You can be the first woman on that."

"I think that somebody deserves a thank you."