Welcome to Gaia! ::

Cardiff, Wales, UK, Sol 3 - February 9th, 2020

Sweat dripped down his long slender nose as he was cornered by the rounded shadows. His hearts pounded hard within his ribcage, trapped, as he was, in the darkness.

Two bright lights came from one of the creatures as it’s mechanical voice screamed, “Exterminate.” Oh God, “Exterminate!” he closed his eyes in terror, “EXTERMINATE!”

“Let me help you!” He shouted, his thin arms over his face as if they would protect him, “I can take you away from here, get you a new home! You don’t have to kill!” He knew it was pointless, these monsters, these Daleks, would never stop killing.

“Daleks need no help!” A secondary Dalek shrieked, it’s lights pulsing with each word, “Now die, Doctor!”

He pressed up against the cold brick wall, wincing in advance as the three creatures aimed their death rays. A mechanical buzzing erupting from them as the pale blue lasers shot out. This would hurt, but the Doctor was cornered, with no chance of escape.

An all too familiar sound came from around the Doctor, just as the see through walls of a strange ship came into view. He ducked, grabbing his head as the lasers went through the transparent ship and hit the brick behind him. Again the sound came forth, the walls of the ship gaining opacity. There was a golden column curving through the ship and the Doctor hid behind it, so as not to be seen by the pilot or crew.

Completely in sight the ship stopped it’s strange noises. The Doctor peered around the column to see the crew. Could it be another Timelord? They rarely went to Earth, although, if they were looking for him, there would be no better place to go.

The man at the console of the magnificent ship ran around frantically without a crew. He was thin, a bit too thin, and tall, giving him an awkward appearance. His suit was tight and blue with dark brown pinstripes, ending in bright red trainers. His hair was a mess and it just kept getting worse as he ran his boney hands through it.

“Oh no, oh no!” He muttered, panicking, “What’s the matter with you, hey? Hey?”

The Doctor knew what the problem was. He could see it from where he was hiding. A panel had come loose from the floor and some of the wires were exposed. A quick fix. But this young idiot couldn’t seem to see it. And the Doctor didn’t know him. Usually, Timelords could tell who one another was through they’re regenerations, but he had no idea. He must have stolen the ship, the Tardis, from a Timelord.

“I’ll fix it later!” The man said, grabbing a large brown trench coat from the couch. He ran towards the door of the Tardis, towards the Daleks outside. The Doctor couldn’t let that happen. He sprang from his hiding place and chased after the idiot, hand out to grab him. But he was too late, the Tardis door slammed in his face and as he tried to open it, realized he was now locked in.

He turned, resting his head against the door, “Poor fool” he muttered under his breath. His eyes looked back at the console of the magnificent ship. He knew how to fix it. And he had the time to since he was locked in and the man with the key was most likely dead.

He pulled his long hair back behind him and wrapped a strand around it for a makeshift ponytail, not wanting any of it to get in his way while he worked. He knelt down, pulling off his green overcoat. His sleeves were too long as well, so he rolled them up to his elbows before finally pulling the panel the rest of the way off. The wire had gotten pinched and broke apart.

“Shh…” He tried, calming the great Tardis as he grabbed the damaged wires. He didn’t want to hurt her, and he definitely didn’t want her to hurt him. He peeled some of the insulation off of the wires and set it on the exposed DNA analyzer, knowing that the heat would help melt the insulation for future use. The exposed metal wires he wrapped around each other, returning the connection. Tardis’s were complex, emotional things. If they thought you were attacking them they would shut down completely, or try to kill you. If any part of them was hurt they wouldn’t work at all, except maybe to escape from further damage. The broken wire must have been hurting her greatly if she was to trust the Doctor so readily.

Digging through his overcoat pocket, the Doctor found a spoon, which he used to scoop the insulation off of the hot analyzer. He dripped it back onto the wires. “Almost done” he cooed. He then pulled out his sonic screwdriver, turned it to frequency 29, and shot the insulation with it, hardening it.

He replaced the panel and stroked the living metal, “There you are, all better now.”

There was a click from behind him. The Doctor spun, looking towards the door. He was alive! Doctor grabbed his coat from the floor and looked to his hiding place. He didn’t want to be caught, but this man was no Timelord, he would have recognized him immediately. The door creaked open the buzzing of lasers coming through. The shields were up! No wonder the man was still alive.

The man did not see the Doctor, just spun around and locked the door hurriedly. “Oh no, no, no, no!” He muttered, fearfully. He turned again, back towards the glowing consol then stopped, face to face with a sonic screwdriver.

“Oh…”He squeaked, his voice reaching an octave not commonly found in full grown males, “Um…Hello?”

“I order you to relinquish command of this Tardis under Article fifteen of the Shadow Proclamation.” the Doctor forcibly spewed.

“Oh…” The man repeated taking a step back towards the door, he seemed to be looking for words, “What’s a… Tardis?”

The Doctor pointed at the floorboards of the magnificent creature, “This is a Tardis! T. A. R. D. I. S. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space.”

“Really? It didn’t look like much from the outside.” The man said, more confidently, “Have you seen the outside?”

“No,” the Doctor replied, shaking his head without taking his bright blue eyes from the stranger, “You materialized on top of me and I really must thank you for that as those Daleks out there were bound to kill me! Now then, there’s a Timelord out there in need of his Tardis. Tell me when and where you got it so we can return it to it’s rightful owner before great harm comes to him.”

The man just stared at him.

The Doctor stared back, waiting.

The man finally broke the silence, pointing at the door behind him, “What about those things outside? The Dalek things? Shouldn’t we stop them or something?”

Of course, the Doctor wanted to stop the Dalek’s first. They had been brainwashing humans and turning them into slaves! If he didn’t act quick enough the whole planet would be lost! But he didn’t want this fool to get himself killed and he was hoping he wouldn’t try anything brave.

“Alright…” the Doctor sighed, regretfully, dropping his screwdriver. He pushed past him toward the door. “I’m the Doctor, by the way.”

“Um, John,” the man relied, running his boney finger through his brown hair, letting it stick up oddly, “John Smith.”

The Doctor smiled as John unlocked the door. “John Smith? I’ve gone by John Smith. Quite a few times, actually.”

“Well,” John explained, opening the door, “it’s a very common name.”

“That it is.” the Doctor turned, facing their opponents, “That it is.”

A streetlight’s beam reflected brightly off of the golden domes of the three Dalek’s outside. They were otherwise dark in the abandoned nighttime alleyway. One of them, the leader, flashed as it screeched, “The Doctor approaches! Prepare…Prepare…PREPARE!”

The two men stop at the edge of the force field, observing the metallic monsters. Both shove their hands in their pockets, their legs spread shoulder width apart. “Prepare for what?” the Doctor asked, with such superiority in his voice it made John jump, “I’ve been in Cardiff for a good couple of days now and I’ve only seen three Daleks! THREE! What do you plan to do with such a small amount of soldiers?”

“That we cannot say!” Screamed the Dalek on the left.

The Doctor started pacing, stroking his chin while he thought. “Cannot say?” He asked, “Daleks always say! It’s part of who you are!”

“Secrecy is key to our success!” Shrieked the leader.

“We must protect the Para-” The Dalek on the right started before being struck by a thick blue beam.

The beam faltered before turning, knocking into the next Dalek. The third had enough time to turn it’s massive eye around, followed by it’s own laze before being taken out by the beam.

Past them stood a man, holding a massive gun, it’s blue power cells almost empty. It was a man that John knew all too well. He approached the pair, his long grey coat flapping behind him. He stuck out a muscular hand, “Captain Jack Harkness,” He explained, “And who are you?”

“Stop it!” John interrupted, impatiently, as if he had been apart of the Captain’s flirting one time too many.

“I don’t protest though,” the Doctor exclaimed, louder than he meant to, before taking Jack’s hand, “I’m the Doctor.”

Jack looked over at John, eyes wide. His response was to purse his lips oddly, almost duck-like, and rock back onto the heels of his cream trainers.

A group of young humans ran from around the corner, joining them in the alley. The woman in the lead, glared at the Captain with huge brown eyes, before shouting, a gap in her teeth shining like a black hole, “Jack! You can’t just run off like that!”

Dressed in a leather jacket and worn jeans, the man in the back bends, over, his hands on his knees. “And just where are we?” he asked, a certain amount of smugness in his tone.

“Cardiff.” the Captain replied, sharply, before turning back to the group, 2020.” He turned looking at the Daleks. “We should move, before those Daleks wake up.”

“So, they’re not dead?” the Doctor asked as he hurried to join the group as they stormed out of the danger zone, away from the Tardis.

Jack holds his gun out, “It’s a magnetic manipulator. Doesn’t kill, doesn’t maim. All it does is stops their casings from being able to move."

“That is quite ingenious.” the Doctor murmured taking a closer look at the weapons elegance.

“So, who are you guys, anyway?” The man in the leather asked, his beady eyes going from one to the other.

The Doctor smiled, sheepishly, “Well, I’m the Doctor. No other name, just ‘the Doctor’.”

John waved one slender hand, trying to fade into the background, “John Smith.”

“John and I go back quite a ways,” the Captain explained before pointing at each member of his team in turn.

“This is Ianto Jones, Torchwood Operative, he makes sure we’re awake and on time.” A man in a trim suit over a light pink shirt smiles and nods, friendly but distant.

“Toshiko Sato, our technical advisor. You’d get a kick out of her, Doctor.” The smallest of the group, an older Asian woman, waves.

“Gwen Cooper, my second in command.” The gap toothed girl smiles before muttering a hello.

“And Owen Harper, medic.” The man in leather nods, emotionless.

All seven of them look back as a metallic voice echoes off of the walls of the alley, “Motor activity restored!”

John smiles at the group, exposing all of his straight white teeth, “It’s time to run!”

The Captain returns the smile, “Always is with you!”

They run, legs pumping, not looking back. As the sweat starts to run they think of nothing, nothing but the feeling of one leg beating against the other and the ice that begins to form in their lungs. They don’t even think to look back. Don’t see that the Daleks are not following them.

Instead they mill about together in the alley, silently. Emotionless and lacking imagination, they think, but are only reactionary. They used to be able to plan, to scheme, but that disappeared with the emperor.

A light peaks out from under the Tardis door. One Dalek heads to it, nudges the wood with it’s plunger like appendage, turning the crack into a gap. One of those strange men had left the Tardis doors open and the shield was now done, powering up.

They entered, eyes moving quickly to take in their golden surroundings. None had ever been inside a Tardis before without being destroyed soon after. They knew what they could do with a machine like this, even if they didn’t have the training. They were smart, brilliant even. The leader put it’s plunger like appendage to a panel, alien letters popping up on the screen immediately.

The doors closed and with the sound of high wind in a small tunnel, it slowly disappeared.



The Doctor spent a long time deciding on what to order. So long that Tosh ordered for him. A glass of shiraz, almost perfect for him or at least as perfect as you could get on Earth. He smiled to her before sipping at the wine like an expert, swishing it about in his cheeks before swallowing.

“And?” she asked, a white wine in her own, long nailed hand.

“Wonderful!” he smiled, the area around his almost human eyes crinkling. “How did you know?”

Owen leaned over, a smirk on his wide mouth, “Tosh here always knows. Is a gift!”

“Oh, shut up!” she joked.

They sat together, talking, as the Doctor observed them. He was never good at interacting with large groups of humans, was always too busy to really sit down with them. It was always chasing aliens or running away from them with him. It was nice.

John and Jack sat together, having a glass of ale each, apart from the rest of the group. They knew what they were doing, they didn’t want to be heard.