Doctor Who_ Night Of The Humans Part 21

The Doctor shrugged and shook his head.

'Then I'd suggest, Doctor, that you think about it this way.

Today you saved three lives several times over. Because of your warning, the bomb was activated and the Gyre destroyed.

One world has been destroyed, but another twelve in this system are safe. The most important choices that we make in life are never the easiest. You're a good man, Doctor, and you did everything you could. We all did.'

'So I suppose you'll be going soon?' said Charlie.

He and Amy were in the loading bay, sat on crates either side of the TARDIS. Amy hadn't spoken in some time, and the silence was beginning to feel awkward.

'Yeah,' she replied. 'Soon.'

'Right. And this thing really can travel in time?'

Amy nodded.

'So you could go anywhere?'

'Yeah. Just about. Although I'll have to go home sooner or later. I can't keep putting that off.

238.

I've got such a big day tomorrow. If you can call it tomorrow.

I mean... It's not really tomorrow. It's a day two hundred and fifty thousand years ago. And between you and me, I'm having such a hard time getting my head around this stuff. It's like jetlag. But really, really bad jetlag. Like, when you get jetlag your body thinks it's nine o'clock in the morning, but it's three o'clock and everyone else is still asleep. Right now my brain thinks it's the twenty-first century. I've run around a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p in my nightie. How weird is that?'

Charlie laughed. 'Yeah. That is kind of weird. So... Have you got anyone back home?'

'What do you mean?'

'Well... Like, a boyfriend or anything?'

'It's a bit more complicated than that,' she told him, chewing her lip anxiously.

'Oh. I see. Only... You know, if you and the Doctor were planning on hanging around for a little while, maybe coming back to our planet for a bit, I thought, maybe...'

'Were you about to ask me out on a date?'

Charlie looked down at the ground, his cheeks turning a funny shade of turquoise. He could feel himself blus.h.i.+ng, but was unable to stop it.

'Oh my G.o.d! You were!' said Amy. 'You were asking me out on a date! But... you're an alien!

'Er... so are you,' said Charlie. 'From my perspective, I mean. I'm sorry. Forget I said 239.

anything. I understand. It's the no-nose thing, isn't it? Lots of Earth girls freak out with the no-nose thing. And that's fine. To be honest, I find eyebrows a little bit weird. I mean... It looks like your eyes are wearing tiny little wigs or something.'

Amy started to laugh and couldn't stop. She laughed until there were tears rolling down her cheeks, doubled over and hugging herself and almost falling from the crate. Charlie felt himself blus.h.i.+ng again.

'What?' said Charlie. 'Well they do. I'm sorry.'

Tiny little wigs.. .'Amy laughed. That's... that's hilarious.'

She wiped the tears from her eyes and took a deep breath, trying her best to compose herself.

'Oh, this is still so weird. I haven't laughed that hard in quite a while. I wasn't sure I still could... after that place.'

And now the smile faded from her face, and she looked thoughtful and pensive once more.

'I just keep thinking about the people who were there,' she said. 'I mean... I'm a human, and they were humans, but they seemed so different, when we first saw them. And then I started noticing things, when we were in their city. Familiar things. The things they were saying and doing. And I thought, hang on... they're not that different. They're not that different at all. I mean... All the wars and things that happen back on Earth. All 240.

the violence. How are we any better? And is that all we're really good at, at the end of the day? Just being horrible to each other?

Certainly seems like it sometimes.'

Suddenly, Amy looked very sad and troubled, but Charlie knew exactly what to do. He got up from the crate, and crossed the loading bay to the far corner, where the Sittuun's possessions and supplies were stacked. He opened up what looked like a silver briefcase and took out a small white plastic cube. Placing the cube on top of the crate next to Amy's, he hit a b.u.t.ton, and seconds later the loading bay was filled with the sound of an old, 1940s big band and then a woman's voice, singing: 'Let's build a stairway to the stars...'

'What's that?' asked Amy, scrunching up her nose.

'That...' said Charlie, 'is Ella Fitzgerald. And she was human.

Brilliant, isn't it?'

'Well... It's not really my kind of music. It's like the kind of thing somebody's grandmother would listen to. But... yeah... I suppose it's all right.'

'All right? All right? It's beautiful. We don't have anything like this back home. We don't have songs. We don't even have music. When I think about humans, Amy... I don't think about wars or anything like that. I think about this. This is what you lot are capable of. This and so much more. And it's beautiful.'

241.

Amy laughed softly.

'I guess! she said. 'You're not going to ask me to dance, are you?'

Charlie shook his head and smiled. 'No! he said. 'Sittuun don't dance.'

Just then they heard the clanking sound of footsteps on the stairs and a familiar voice, singing along: 'The moon will guide us I As we go drifting along...' The Doctor stepped down into the loading bay.

'Ella Fitzgerald!' he said. 'You know, I once jammed with her at the Roseland Ballroom. I played recorder. Didn't go down too well with the audience. Or her, for that matter.

Anyway... Are you ready?'

Amy nodded. 'As I'll ever be.'

'Very well! said the Doctor. 'In that case... to the TARDIS!'

He pointed at the little blue box with a dramatic flourish and then frowned.

'Was that a bit much?'

'Yeah! said Amy. 'It was a bit. Don't do it again.'

'Right. OK. Funnily enough, it didn't feel the right last time I tried it.' He turned to Charlie. 'Goodbye, Charlie.'

'Goodbye, Doctor.'

With a sad, crumpled smile, Charlie looked at Amy.

242.

'Bye, then! he said.

'Yeah! said Amy. 'Bye.'

And then she reached up and gave him a single kiss on the cheek. With his face once again turning an embarra.s.sed shade of turquoise, Charlie laughed nervously, and gave a small bashful wave as the Doctor and Amy stepped into the TARDIS and closed the door behind them.

Moments later the light on its roof began to flash and the loading bay was filled with that noise, like the sound Charlie imagined a galaxy might make as it turns. First the TARDIS became translucent, the wall behind it appearing as a faint outline, and then the blue box and its two pa.s.sengers were gone, leaving Charlie alone with the music.

243.

BEAGLE XXI!OBJECT 556C INTERNAL INQUIRY Final Conclusions Though a thorough cross-system investigation found no records of 'the Doctor' (presumed human) or ^Amy Pond' (presumed human), both Captain Jamal al-Jehedeh and Lt Baasim 'Charlie' al-Jehedeh testify that, without their a.s.sistance, escape from Object 556/C would have been impossible, and the mission would have failed.

It is the decision of this board that all information regarding the human inhabitants of Object 556/C and the final fate of the Herald of Nanking should remain cla.s.sified, in the 245.

interest of Human-Sittuun relations. The death of the wanted criminal Dirk Slipstream has been reported to both the Volag-Noc facility in Mutter's Spiral and the Intergalactic Crime Bureau.

It is this board's recommendation that all crew members of the Beagle XXI, surviving and deceased, are awarded the highest commendation the IEA can offer for their bravery and commitment: the Silver Helix. We would also recommend that Cpt. Jamal al-Jehedeh and Lt Baasim 'Charlie' al-Jehedeh are promoted forthwith, to the ranks of Admiral and Lieutenant Commander respectively.

'The Doctor' and 'Amy Pond' are awarded the Civilian Cross in absentia.

File status: Closed. Closed.

246.

Acknowledgements Big thanks to everyone at BBC Wales and BBC Books who helped along the way, including Gary Russell, Justin Richards, Steve Tribe and Edward Russell. Special thanks also .to Lord Tinlegs (aka EF), who listened to the story in instalments, and to the writers and other animals with whom I discussed ideas, including Joe Lidster, Scott Handc.o.c.k and Oli Smith. Lastly, a posthumous thank you to Vaughan Williams's Sinfonia Antartica, which became the soundtrack to this book as I was writing it. If you've not heard it, I believe it is readily available on LP and ca.s.sette.

247.

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Coming soon from BBC Audiobooks: by James Goss When the TARDIS arrives in Smyrna in 1929, the Doctor and Amy find themselves in the middle of an archaeological dig. Soon a terrible chain of events is set in motion, and the Doctor is confronted with an ancient evil...

by Stephen Cole On Orkney in the near future, the construction of dozens of new electricity pylons is met with local resistance. Just as the Doctor and Amy arrive, the protestors are terrified to see the pylons come to life and begin to walk...

Available on CD from www.bbcshop.com and all good booksellers. Pre-order your copy now!

Also available to download from www.bbcaudiozone.com and other audio digital retailers.

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Available now from BBC Books: by Justin Richards 6.99 ISBN 978 1 846 07200 0.

An astronaut in full s.p.a.cesuit appears out of thin air in a busy shopping centre. Maybe it's a publicity stunt.

A photo shows a well-dressed woman in a red coat lying dead at the edge of a crater on the dark side of the moon, beside her beloved dog Poochie'. Maybe it's a hoax.

But as the Doctor and Amy find out, these are just minor events in a sinister plan to take over every human being on Earth. The plot centres on a secret military base on the moon - that's where Amy and the TARDIS are.

The Doctor is back on Earth, and without the TARDIS there's no way he can get to the moon to save Amy and defeat the aliens.

Or is there? The Doctor discovers one last great secret that could save humanity: Apollo 23.

A thrilling, all-new adventure featuring the Doctor and Amy, as played by Matt Smith and Karen Gillan in the spectacular hit series from BBC Television.

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Available now from BBC Books: by Brian Minchin 6.99 ISBN 978 1 846 07987 0.

New York - one of the greatest cities on 21st century Earth... But what's going on in the Museum? And is that really a Woolly Mammoth rampaging down Broadway?

An ordinary day becomes a time of terror, as Ice Age creatures come back to life, and the Doctor and Amy meet a new and deadly enemy. The vicious Army of the Vykoid are armed to the teeth and determined to enslave the human race. Even though they're only three inches high.

With the Vykoid army swarming across Manhattan and sealing it from the world with a powerful alien forcefield, Amy has just 24 hours to find the Doctor and save the city. If she doesn't, the people of Manhattan will be taken to work in the doomed asteroid mines of the Vykoid home planet.

But as time starts to run out, who can she trust? And how far will she have to go to free New York from the Forgotten Army?

A thrilling, all-new adventure featuring the Doctor and Amy, as played by Matt Smith and Karen Gillan in the spectacular hit series from BBC Television.

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Coming soon from BBC Books: by Steve Tribe 12.99 ISBN 978 1 846 07986 3.

The inside scoop on 900 years of travel aboard the Doctor's famous time machine.

Everything you need to know about the TARDIS is here - where it came from, where it's been, how it works, and how it has changed since we first encountered it in that East London junkyard in 1963.

Including photographs, design drawings and concept artwork from different eras of the series, this handbook explores the s.h.i.+p's endless interior, looking inside its wardrobe and bedrooms, its power rooms and sick bay, its corridors and cloisters, and revealing just how the show's production teams have created the dimensionally transcendental police box, inside and out.

The TARDIS Handbook is the essential guide to the best s.h.i.+p in the universe.

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Coming soon from BBC Books: by Gary Russell 6.99 ISBN 978 1 846 07988 7.

An archaeological dig in 1936 unearths relics of another time... And - as the Doctor and Amy realise - another place.

Another planet. But if Enola Porter, noted adventuress, has really found evidence of an alien civilisation, how come she isn't famous? How come Amy's never heard of her? Come to that, since she's been travelling with him for a while now, how come Amy's never even heard of the Doctor?