Since We'll Forget

The City

Yaz only just managed to hold down her lunch during the rumbling, bumpy truck ride into the city. As it turned out, 'transport' meant shoving as many tourists as possible (roughly twenty to a load) into an open hay truck and hoping no one fell out as they drove through the meadow, leaving tire tracks of crushed grass in their wake.

Their driver, Unigarde, was a leathery, taciturn man with dark eyes and the same pale pink skin as Ferrin and Rivvick. He said little as they rode along; the trip took twenty minutes and saw them winding past farmers' fields; vast swaths of lavender and violet-colored flowers with petals that made them look like fireworks bursting to life, freshly-tilled plots with tiny red seedlings just starting to poke through the dirt, dense rows of shrubs with what appeared to be golden-colored corn cobs growing from them. The tourists did all the requisite "ooh"ing and "aah"ing, and a few tried, unsuccessfully, to ask Unigarde questions, but he merely shrugged in response. Naturally, the Doctor took over.

"Unigarde, what's that growing out of the bushes?" one woman, who looked human but for her pointed, elf-like ears said into the open cab.

"Food," Unigarde said bluntly.

The Doctor, who'd up to that point been at Yaz's side, visibly straining with the effort of not answering the questions, looked at Yaz pleadingly, as though asking for permission to jump in. Making sure it wasn't a social faux pas. Yaz smiled at the woman's shining hazel eyes, alight with knowledge and eager to share. She put her hand over the Doctor's, an innocent enough gesture --friends hold hands, right?-- and nodded.

The Doctor took a deep breath, the vein that had been pulsing in her forehead settling.

"It's redpin," the Doctor said.

"Excuse me?" asked the woman.

"Redpin; the plant that's growing out of those shrubs. You can eat it straight off the cob, though a lot of people around here prefer to turn it into a mash. Tastes sweet... although some people have a gene that makes it taste rather like metal. Lucky for me, I love metal," she added with a cheeky grin, though Yaz knew she was likely being candid.

The woman looked at her peculiarly, but apparently decided her answer was satisfactory, as she gave a terse nod of thanks and sat back, gazing at the fields of redpin.

"What about that plant we saw way back, the one that was sort of orange and oblong?" the Slitheen from earlier asked.

"Oh, that's quatrille, it's a vegetable closely related to redpin. Grows like mad, that. Has all your essential vitamins and minerals. Really great crop. Going to become one of Nothing's biggest exports in the next few years."

The Slitheen also looked at the Doctor quizzically, but she pressed on, apparently unaware that the rest of the group didn't know she was a time traveller.

"Yeah, love quatrille. Doesn't even taste like a vegetable! More like a custard cream," she said, nudging Yaz and giving her a knowing grin.

"And the purple flowers?" said Mr. Lemming. Yaz hadn't even realized he was on board; he was so much quieter than Tinni.

"Byzoniums," the Doctor said. "Beautiful. They can get almost as tall as me, if they have the space. But when they're all crowded in like that, they stay small. Live for up to eighteen years, those can."

Mr. Lemming looked impressed, as did the other passengers. Pretty soon, nearly all of them were firing off questions, not one of which the Doctor couldn't answer. Yaz looked at her proudly; she was practically glowing with joy at getting to show off and share her wealth of information.

'She'd make a great teacher,' Yaz thought.

By the time they arrived, having passed the city's security checkpoint rather slowly (Zaribones, the species to which the woman with the pointed ears belonged, apparently greatly resembled Kalsparans), most of the guests wanted to follow the Doctor around rather than their own guides. Out of the corner of her eye, Yaz could see Tinni cross her arms in frustration and begin whispering feverishly to Mr. Lemming.