The Adventure of a Lifetime

Chapter Three - Allons-y!

You see, the weirdest thing is that I never even told him my name. I didn't have a chance to. So I took this opportunity and started questioning him.

"How did you know my name?" I asked inquisitively.

The Doctor replied with confidence, "Oh sorry, yeah. Well... You're sort of wearing a necklace with the name 'Eve' on it so umm yeah..." His face scoured into a confused look, wondering about my stupidity.

"Oh! My necklace!" I said, my cheeks turning into bright red cherries warm with embarrassment, "I'm so stupid... Haha..." I looked down at the floor and a long, silent pause hit us. All that was heard was the never ending wheezing and groaning of the TARDIS. I decided to get the conversation going again.

"You're a... a Time... a Time Lord then?" I paused to think. "Is that like a job title or something?" I asked jokingly, but I don't think it came out that way.

"No... The people on my planet, Gallifrey, are called Time Lords. I'm a Time Lord just like you're a human." The Doctor explained with a stern, but friendly voice.

"What's your planet like? Is it far away?" I asked.

"Here, let me show you." The Doctor smiled and gestured for me to come closer to him. We stood face to face, about 10cm away from each other. He took his hands, placed them gently on each of my temples and slowly closed his eyelids. A rush of images and memories of his flooded my mind, causing my eyes to close too. I gasped surprisingly, but managed to stay still and take in all the information from the images, which told me the story of his life.

The Doctor had a lonely childhood, not one to be proud of. At the age of 8, just like every Time Lord, he was made to look into the Untempered Schism, which was a gap in space and time where the Time Vortex was seen. This was called the Time Lord Academy initiation ceremony. He ran away after that, and has never stopped running. He fights against monsters, aliens and other creatures, in hope of restoring peace in the Universe. He has grown fond of the planet Earth, so fond in fact that he spends quite a lot of his time defending it. The Doctor has had many companions, friends that keep him company. But some leave and break his precious hearts. He has had many faces, many lives; and this is his tenth. The Doctor has seen conflict like no one else. He has seen the birth of time and the death of the Universe. He's travelled to the farthest corners of every galaxy and knows every single language that is spoken.

All that information, and more, somehow implanted itself in my memory within seconds. The Doctor took his hands away and I opened my eyes, which were welling up with tears.

"You're surrounded by friends, but yet you're... You're the loneliest man in the Universe..." I said those words with sympathy and I could see sadness gripping onto his face.

"Don't worry Doctor, I'll stay with you forever. I promise. Now, get rid of those big, sad eyes and put a smile on your face." I then found myself going up to him and giving him a hug. It strangely seemed like the right thing to do, considering that I've only properly known him for a few minutes. The Doctor's smile returned to his young face and he asked "So, where, or when, do you want to go?"

"Wait, hang on. Are you saying that this thing can travel through time? Go back and forward and stuff?" A puzzled look lingered on my face.

"Yeah! I'm a Time Lord, I can do anything." The Doctor said excitedly, as if he was still a child, "Well... Almost anything... I still haven't figured out how to solve a Rubik's cube..."

I giggled as The Doctor carried on talking. "Oh and look! I have two hearts, let me show you." The Doctor said as he passed me a stethoscope and pressed the end against the left side of his chest, and then the right. I listened and couldn't believe my ears. A clear heart beat was snuggled on both sides of his chest. I looked up at him in clear astonishment. No words were needed. He looked at me and raised his left eyebrow, still bearing that cute, child-like smile on his face.

"See? Two hearts." He said. "So, where, or when, do you want to go?"

"You could take me somewhere.. Wonderful, amazing and out-of-this-world." The words just rolled off my tongue as I smiled. The Doctor cheerfully ran over to the other side of the console, with a beaming smile on his young face, and excitedly said "Let's see what I can do... Hold on... Allons-y!" whilst pulling a few levers. The TARDIS shook playfully, making us do a strange dance when we were actually trying to maintain our balance. The engines groaned and wheezed in the background. There were smaller cylinders inside the one in the centre of the console. They moved up and down in sync, glowing with bluey-green light.

The 'turbulence' soon stopped, the cylinders ground to a halt and there was a sweet smell of excitement in the air. The Doctor ran to the door, picking up and putting on his long, brown coat, whilst saying "Right! Come on!" with that smile on his face. He pulled the doors open and walked outside in a 'cool' manner, putting his hands in his trouser pockets and stopping a few steps away. My jaw fell open and my body turned to stone. It was such a shock that I couldn't move a muscle. The Doctor turned his head and gestured, as if to say "come on!". My body suddenly decided to move and carried me outside. The view was a m a z i n g. Dozens of oddly coloured planets, of all shapes and sizes, encircled the never-ending pale orange sky. One of them was a bit like Jupiter. It had beautiful rings, bearing the fifty shades of blue, oscillating around the circular giant; which carried many battle scars in the form of gargantuan craters on its surface. The planet glided graciously across the distant horizon, just like a King. The other spheres, some being quite distant whilst some where much closer to us, lay lifelessly in the sky. The soft ground was covered in lush purple grass and there were colourful flowers scattered at our feet. There were futuristic looking structures in the distance, some of which were probably homes. A toned, orange river was flowing a few feet away from where me and The Doctor were standing. It was moving calmly, carving new pathways with its gentle waves. A light breeze dragged in a strong scent of strawberries, which was strange because there were no trees, nor shops nearby.

"So? What d'ya think?" The Doctor's voice ranged in tone as he said those words and winked at me. I only just realised that my mouth was still wide open, so I closed it, whilst struggling to make words come out of it.

"Wow. I just. Wow. Did we just- that thing actually works. We're on a different planet! What even- wow." I laughed as I said the last few words, still not entirely being able to believe what just happened.

"We're on Sidrat, in the Mirror Nebula - part of the newly formed human empire. This is the smallest planet in the whole of existence, with the largest population. 25.2 billion people on one small rock." The Doctor explained.

"What's th-" I tried to say something but The Doctor interrupted me.

"Wait. Where is everyone?" He suddenly sounded more alarmed, and it showed on his face too. He looked at me, then back towards the buildings, then back at me.

"The busiest planet in existence, but there's no one to be seen." The Doctor took a deep breath in, "we should go. I'm sorry but we really need to go." He started to walk back to the TARDIS and I was just about to start questioning him when an ear-piercing scream beaconed from a building, not that far away from us. We both looked in that direction and then at each other. The Doctor already had his key out but hesitated to unlock the door to his time machine. He scratched the back of his head and a puzzled/scared look was attached to his face. He gazed down at the ground, tapping his foot in a rhythmic beat and put the key back into his pocket.

"Looks like someone doesn't want us to go... We're really not supposed to be here.. I'll regret it but.. come on!" The Doctor took my hand and we ran towards the direction of the sharp scream.