The Dreamer Who Changed

2

The Doctor frowns. "London's overrated. Too many alien attacks."

I pat his face. Smiling sweetly, I say: "Doctor?"

"Yes, miss Brown?"

"London. United Kingdom. Now," I demand, still smiling.

"What if I say no?"

"You get a hard slap on the cheek as a late Christmas present," I inform him.

"Very well, then." He pulls up some London coordinates. "Here we are!" He flips a switch, and the TARDIS starts up. After a short fit of shaking, the whooshing stops. Daniel and I walk out the doors.

The view in front of us is amazing. All of London lies below. The TARDIS is parked inside the London Eye. "Kate...is this real?" Daniel asks softly.

"It is," I answer, memorizing every detail of the city, every detail of Daniel's expression. Memorizing this perfect moment.

The Doctor closes the TARDIS doors and puts his arms around us. "Do you want me to park somewhere else, or...?"

"No. No, don't," Daniel says. "I want to enjoy this as long as possible. I might never get the chance to see this again." Our glass ball reaches the very top of the Ferris wheel, and it's as if everything somehow becomes more amazing, more surreal. I feel a pair of lips quickly make contact with my cheeks. I stare at Daniel. "I wanted to do that as soon as I saw you at my door."

I kiss him on the cheek back. "Ditto."

"What do you want to do when we get off at the bottom?"

"Let's just let time go by. No future. No past. Only...the present," I whisper.

Suddenly, the TARDIS engines start. It slowly disappears from the ball. Daniel and I exchange glances. The whirring continues, and the time machine reappears at the bottom the ride. I smile. Thank you, Doctor, I think.

When our ball reaches the bottom, we hop off. The Doctor steps out of his TARDIS. "How was the ride?" he asks.

"The greatest," we answer at the same time.

"Great. Would like to just explore the city? Or we can go back in time, forward in time, anywhere in space if you want," the Doctor offers.

"How about we go for another ride on the Eye? We never went all the way around," I say. Right on cue, all the glass balls turn to water, and every rider starts a fast descent toward the cement ground. As they fall, the metal column holding the glass balls shoots out black wires that wraps around the passengers' ankles, holding them in the air. "What the hell?" I mumble.

A woman's voice echoes around us. "Hello, Doctor! You may have gotten rid of my pods, but you never got rid of me. Therefore, I have a fun little choice for you! Give yourself over to me so I can kill you, or I'll let all these innocent people crash and die. Report to my ship in 24 hours. Goodbye."

The Doctor growls, "Jessica."

"Huh?" Daniel replies, confused.

My eyes light up. "That ship that crashed into Waterloo Bridge a few days ago! Remember?"

"Oh yeah! And two wackos actually jumped off the bridge. I heard they wanted to check the ship out," he says.

The Doctor rolls his eyes. "I was one of those two wackos. My...partner, Bryan, was the other."

"Oh, so you were, like, partners in crime?" I ask.

"In a way. Anyhow, we need to get to that ship. Let's go," he says. I start toward the TARDIS, but he stops me. "No need." He sonics the sky, and, in a blink, we're somewhere. A gray-walled, black-and-white-checker-floored, rolling-chair-holding console room. A woman with long, shiny gray hair and piercing blue eyes sits in the rolling chair. She inspects us with a cold, calculating stare.

"Doctor, Kathryn, Daniel, how nice of you to join me," she greets, no sign of emotion in her voice.

I'm taken aback. "How do you know my name, or Daniel's? I've never seen you in my life."

"Didn't your new friend tell you? Every single Leeth is an android. A single glance at any life-form, I can upload every single piece of data about that life-form faster than any super-computer. My voice was being projected through one small megaphone some off-duty policeman left on his car. I increased the volume by 500% with only my mind," she explains, grinning smugly.

"What she said," the Doctor supplies. "Now, Miss Eve. Why do you require my death for the life of other people?"

"You foiled my plan, simple as that. These two children, can be dismissed, but you? You're a problem. My race doesn't do well with problems. We like everything to be flawless."

I step in, thinking. "I would like to make a bet," I blurt.

Jessica Eve's gaze shifts to me. "You want to be against me. You're a mere kid!" she exclaims, laughing at my outburst.

"Yes, I would. And here it is. I bet that the Doctor can fix your ship and send you off into space again within fifteen minutes. If he does that, no one dies," I respond.

"If he can't?"

"You kill all three of us," I finalize.

I can see Jessica's mind processing everything I said. She's coming up with all the possible outcomes of this bet. She crosses her arms. "Okay. You have a deal. His fifteen minutes start...now," she declares.

The Doctor stares at me. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!" he whisper-screams.

"If she told you how the ship crashed in the first place, you can fix it! You fixed my bus in Alabama last night!" I remind him.

"That bus was a bus. This? This is nothing close to a bus. This isn't even close to a car!" the Doctor retorts.

I sigh. "How did the ship crash?"

"The waves from the satellites above interfered with the instruments."

"Re-route the waves, then! Everyone can deal without technology and bird's eye views of the planet for a few minutes!"

"Really? What about all the planes flying in the air right now? What about the human spaceships in distress? The armies at war who need their weapons?" the Doctor points out.

"Use your sonic to keep the waves from every satellite above Earth at bay. This ship can probably travel light years at a time!" Daniel inputs. "It'll take no time at all."

Jessica says, "Fourteen minutes, Doctor! The clock is ticking."