Not Just The Doctor's Companion - The Doctor {1}

The Empty Child

"What's the emergency?" Jennifer asked. "It's mauve," The Doctor said. "Mauve?" Jennifer said. "The universally recognised colour for danger," The Doctor said. "What happened to red?" Jennifer asked. "That's just humans. By everyone else's standards, red's camp. Oh, the misunderstandings. All those red alerts, all that dancing. It's got a very basic flight computer. I've hacked in, slaved the TARDIS. Where it goes, we go," The Doctor said. "That's safe, right?" Jennifer asked. "Totally," The Doctor said. A spark came from the console. "Okay, reasonably. Should have said reasonably there. No, no, no, no! It's jumping time tracks, getting away from us," The Doctor said. "What exactly is this thing?" Jennifer asked. "No idea," The Doctor said. "Why are we chasing it?" Jennifer asked. "It's mauve and dangerous, and about thirty seconds from the centre of London," The Doctor said.

The TARDIS materializes. The Doctor and Jennifer stepped out. They were in an alleyway. "Do you know how long you can knock around space without happening to bump into Earth?" The Doctor asked. "Um . . . Five days," Jennifer said. "Must have come down somewhere quite close. Within a mile, anyway. And it can't have been more than a few weeks ago. Maybe a month," The Doctor said. "A month? We were right behind it," Jennifer said. "It was jumping time tracks all over the place. We're bound to be a little bit out. Do you want to drive?" The Doctor asked. "Yeah. How much is a little?" Jennifer asked.

"A bit," The Doctor said. "Exactly a bit," Jennifer said. "Ish," The Doctor said. "What's the plan, then? Are you going to do a scan for alien tech or something?" Jennifer asked. "JJ, it hit the middle of London with a very loud bang. I'm going to ask," The Doctor said. The Doctor took out his psychic paper. "Doctor John Smith, Ministry of Asteroids," Jennifer read. "It's psychic paper. It tells you -" The Doctor said. "Whatever you want it to tell me, I remember," Jennifer said. They walked up to a door. "Sorry," The Doctor said. "Not very Spock, is it," Jennifer said.

"Door, music, people. What do you think?" The Doctor asked. "I think you should do a scan for alien tech," Jennifer said. The Doctor started scanning the door with the Sonic Screwdriver, and looked at Jennifer's Union Flag top. "Are you sure about that t-shirt?" The Doctor asked. "I'm taking it out for a spin," Jennifer said. The Doctor nodded.

"Mummy? Mummy?" A child's voice was calling. The Doctor got the door open. "Come on if you're coming. It won't take a minute," The Doctor said. He went inside. "Mummy?" The child's voice called again. Jennifer looked up and noticed a child on the roof. "Doctor, there's a kid up there," Jennifer said. Jennifer walked in the direction towards the child. "Are you all right up there?" Jennifer called. "Mummy?" The child called.

Jennifer climbed up the set of stairs. She got to the roof and saw the child. "Mummy?" The child called out again. "Okay. Don't move," Jennifer said. The child looked down at her. The child was wearing a gas mask. There was a rope dangling in front of Jennifer so she grabbed it. She began climbing up the wall. "Mummy. Balloon," The child said. The rope was hanging off a blimp. The blimp was moving as Jennifer was hanging onto it for dear life. "Doctor! Doctor! Doctor!" Jennifer called. There were planes heading in her direction. She was hanging on tightly as some planes were zooming under her. "Maybe not this t-shirt," Jennifer said to herself.

Her hands slipped of the rope and she began to fall. Luckily, some kind of beam had caught her. "I've got you," A voice said. "Who's got me? And how?" Jennifer asked. "I'm just programming your descent pattern. Keep as still as you can and keep your hands and feet inside the light field," The voice said. "Descent pattern?" Jennifer asked. "Oh, and could you switch off your cell phone? It interferes with my instrument," The voice said. "You know, no one ever believes that," Jennifer said as she turned her phone off. "Thank you. I'll be with you in a moment," The voice said.

Jennifer suddenly started falling while remaining in the light field. She fell straight into a man's arms. "I've got you. You're fine, you're just fine. The tractor beam, it can scramble your head just a little," The man said. Jennifer looked at him. He looks good Jennifer thought. "Hello," Jennifer said. "Hello. Are you all right?" The man asked. "I'm fine," Jennifer said. The man put Jennifer down. "I'm fine. It's not like I'm going to faint," Jennifer said. "You look a little dizzy," The man said. "You're not in focus. I don't know what you're talking about," Jennifer said. Jennifer fainted and fell into his arms. He lifted her and carried her to a nearby bed.