Touch The Sky: Doctor Who/Studio C [Book 3]

Voyage of the Damned (Part 3)

The Doctor nudged open a doorway, noting the scattered debris and ominous sparking in the staircase behind it. There was little they could do, though, if they wanted to get out of there alive. "Careful," he called back to the others. "Follow me."

Astrid pushed through the door after him, followed by Mr. Copper. "Rather ironic," the old man said, "but this is very much in the spirit of Christmas. It's a festival of violence. They say that human beings only survive depending on if they've been good or bad. It's barbaric."

The Doctor held in a groan. "For one, Mr. Copper, it's not Christmas down there. It's February, Christmas was two months ago. For another, that's really not true. Christmas is a time of... of peace, and thanksgiving, and what am I on about? My Christmases are always like this." He shoved aside more debris, eyes widening as he saw the angel robot behind it. "We've got a Host," he said. "Strength of ten. If we can mend it, we can use it to fix the rubble."

"We can do robotics," Morvin piped up. "Both of us."

"We work on the milk market back on Sto," Foon added. "It's all robot staff."

"See if you can get it working," the Doctor said. "Let's have a look," he added to the others, continuing up the stairs. They only made it a little further before running into a roadblock.

"It's blocked," Astrid pointed out.

"So what do we do?" the Doctor asked, admitting to himself that he was definitely testing to see if she was companion material.

"We shift it," she said.

"That's the attitude," he replied with a grin. "Rickston, Mr. Copper, and you, Bannakaffalatta—look, can I just call you Banna? It's going to save a lot of time."

"No!" Bannakaffalatta said firmly. "Bannakaffalatta."

"All right, then, Bannakaffalatta. There's a gap in the middle, see if you can get through."

Bannakaffalatta, only waist-high to the Doctor, stepped forward toward the aforementioned gap. "Easy. Good." As soon as he moved into the gap, the ship rocked alarmingly.

"This whole thing could come crashing down any minute," Rickston said.

"Oh, Rickston, I forgot," the Doctor snapped. "Did you get my message?"

"No. What message?"

"Shut up!"

Rickston gaped at him for a moment before Bannakaffalatta's voice came through from the other side. "Bannakaffalatta, made it!"

"I'm small enough, I can fit through," Astrid pointed out.

"Careful," the Doctor told her.

"I'm fine."

"Thing is, how are Mr. and Mrs. Fatso going to get through that gap?" Rickston said.

"We make the gap bigger," the Doctor snapped in return. "So start."

Below, still working with the Host, Foon ducked her head. "Hey, hey," Morvin said. "Come on, sweetheart. Don't listen to him."

"No, but it's my fault, though," she said sadly. "The tickets."

"We won them fair and square."

"I know. I never told you. I dialed the competition line five thousand times. That's five thousand credits. I might as well have paid for the tickets. I've been hiding the vone bill for months now."

"...Five thousand credits?" Morvin said incredulously. "You spent five thousand credits?"

"Don't hate me!" she exclaimed, looking at the floor.