One Last Chance |6| The Ascension

Chapter Thirty-Three: Mummy on the Orient Express

The doors to the TARDIS swung open and the Doctor gestured outside. "Your train awaits, my lady."

McKenzie stepped out, dressed in a glittering, diamante one-shoulder dress that made her silver-grey hair shine. She gasped quietly, looking around her surroundings with an expression of awe and wonder. "It's... Oh, Kas, it's beautiful..."

"It's the baggage car," he corrected as Wanda and Clara joined them amidst the racks of suitcases, "but thanks for lying." McKenzie grinned at him, and he winked. "The real beautiful is through here." He led them through the carriage. "There were many trains to take the name Orient Express... but only one in space." They came out into the lounge carriage, with a bar and comfy chairs and a jazz band.

Wanda beamed. "Oh, now, this is beautiful." She nudged the Doctor. "You've outdone yourself."

"Completely faithful recreation of the original Orient Express," he told her excitedly. "Except slightly bigger. And in space. Oh, and the rails are actually hyperspace ribbons. But in every other respect, identical. Painstaking attention to detail. Most of the time." He looked at Clara, and winced. "You're doing it again."

"Doing what?" she asked, blinking in surprise.

"The smile."

Her brow furrowed. "Yeah, I'm smiling."

"It's the sad smile," he told her. "It's a smile, but you're sad. It's confusing. It's like two emotions at once. It's like you're malfunctioning."

"Sorry."

"You guys are exhausting," Wanda told them both, smiling and shaking her head. "Will you get over yourselves?"

"I'd love to," the Doctor joked. "I just thought this would be a good one to—"

"To end it," Clara nodded, giving him a genuine, warm smile. "Yeah, it is. It's a good choice. A good one to end on."

"Well, come on, then," McKenzie said, rolling her eyes. "It can't be a last hurrah if there's no hurrahing." They walked over to a table, taking glasses of champagne from a passing waitress. As they looked out of the window into the depths of space, the onboard computer dinged.

"Ladies and gentlemen," said the tannoy. "If you would be good enough to look from the windows on the right of the train, you'll be able to see the soaring majesty of the Magellan black hole."

"Oh," McKenzie sighed sadly. "I remember when this was all planets as far as the eye could see. All gone now. Nothing lasts forever." She gave a bitter smile at the irony.

"Hey, now you're doing it now," the Doctor complained. "I don't even know how you people do that."

"I really thought I hated you two, you know?" Clara admitted.

McKenzie blinked. "Oh. Right... Well, thanks for keeping it to yourself." She looked back out of the window, making a face. "There was this planet, Obsidian—the planet of perpetual darkness."

"I did," Clara continued. "I did hate you. In fact, I hated you for weeks. Every time you abandoned us and flew off God knows where."

"Well, I love you too," McKenzie said sarcastically. "There was also this planet that was made completely of shrubs—"

"I went to a concert once," Clara said. "Can't remember who it was. But do you know what the singer said?"

"Frankly," the Doctor said, even as McKenzie sighed uncomfortably beside him, "that would be an absolutely astonishing guess if either of us did know."