"There, that's it. Then pull that one. There we go!" The Doctor cheers, putting up his hands for a double high five.
"So, I'm doing it? Actually flying the TARDIS?" Peyton asks ecstatically, high-fiving him in celebration.
"No, not really, you just turned the air conditioner off and on again. But... baby steps," he grins cheekily. "Where's Amy? I have an idea."
"Down there I think," Peyton points at the glass floor of the console.
The Doctor prances to the railing before dropping to the floor and letting his head hang over the side.
"Va voom!" He exclaims.
"Va what?" Peyton hears Amy say.
"Get up here!" He yells jumping to his feet again and racing around the console. "I can't believe I've never thought of this before. It's genius!"
"Right," Peyton raises an eyebrow as Amy joins them quietly. The two share a look and giggle at the Doctor's antics.
He pulls the large lever and Peyton quickly grabs the console to stop her stumble. "Landed, come on."
"Where are we?" Amy asks as the Doctor walks toward the door.
"Planet one," he says.
"That's a rubbish name," Peyton scoffs.
The Doctor sends her a warning look with a pointed finger before continuing. "The oldest planet in the universe. There's a cliff of pure diamond, and according to legend, on the cliff there's writing.
Letters fifty feet high, a message from the dawn of time. And no one knows what it says, 'cause no one's ever translated it, till today."
"What happens today?" Amy asks.
"Us," the Doctor taps her on the nose before racing back toward the door. "The TARDIS can translate anything. All we have to do it open the doors and read the very first words in recorded history."
He offers a hand to Amy and she offers her hand to Peyton, so in a chain, they barge out the TARDIS doors.
It's a tropical sort of planet. Giant mushrooms are a first though. Peyton can tell what the Doctor meant by a giant cliff face. It really is immense. And on it, writing in plain old English.
HELLO SWEETIE
Below it, a set of symbols Peyton recognises as universal coordinates.
Peyton smiles, there's only one woman it could be. She's only met her once, but she already knows that this is exactly the sort of thing she'd do.
Amy laughs. "Va voom!"
• • •
"Hail, Caesar," the legionnaire salutes and drops to one knee.
"Hi," the Doctor says awkwardly.
"Welcome to Britain. We are honoured by your presence."
"Well, you're only human," the Doctor nods, Peyton nudges him as she rolls her eyes. "Arise, Roman person."
"Why does he think you're Caesar?" Amy sighs.
The legionnaire gets to his feet. "Cleopatra will see you know."
If Peyton's not mistaken, Cleopatra never came to Britain. And if she's also not mistaken, that's a lipstick stain on the corner of the soldier's mouth.
• • •
Peyton steps inside the tent behind the Doctor and bumps into his back as he stops in his tracks. She moves beside him to see an Egyptian queen sitting on a chaise lounge with two manservants dressed in Egyptian garb doting on her.
YOU ARE READING
The Time Lord's Apprentice
Fanfiction"But, you're impossible!" "Yeah, and the world is ending, I don't think now is the time." Peyton is an orphan, taken from her mother as an infant by the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. She is raised separately from other children because she is spec...
