Chapter 35: The
Long Game
The TARDIS
materialised. The Doctor, Rose and Felica stepped out. Rose turned
around. “Adam? Out you come.”
Adam also emerged
from the TARDIS and was immediately in awe. “Oh...”
“Don't worry,
you'll get used to it,” Rose said.
“Where are we?”
Adam asked.
“Good question,”
Rose said. She looked around. “Let's see. So, er, judging by the
architecture, I'd say we're around the year two hundred thousand. If
you listen.”
“Yeah,” Adam
said.
“Engines. We're on
some sort of space station. Yeah, definitely a space station. It's a
bit warm in here. They could turn the heating down. Tell you what –
let's try that gate. Come on!” Rose said.
Everyone else
followed Rose to a massive viewing window.
“Here it is. I'll
let the Doctor describe it,” Rose continued.
“The Fourth Great
and Bountiful Human Empire. And there it is, planet Earth at it's
height. Covered with Mega-cities, five moons, population ninety six
billion. The hub of a galactic domain stretching across a million
planets, a million species, with mankind right in the middle,” the
Doctor said.
Adam fainted.
“He's your
boyfriend,” the Doctor said.
“Not anymore,”
Rose responded.
Felicia looked at
the planet below. “There doesn't appear to be much nature left.”
“You're right,”
the Doctor said. “But there are many planetoids where the
ecosystems have been preserved,” he added.
“But do you know
if all of them have been?” Felicia asked.
“Not sure, but
certainly most,” the Doctor said.
“That at least is
good,” Felicia said.
They entered the
center of the station.
“...Come on Adam.
Open your mind. You're going to like this. Fantastic period of
history. The human race at its most intelligent. Culture, Art,
Politics. This era has got fine food, good manners...
A man then barrelled
past them. “Out of the way!” he said.
“Good manners?”
Felicia asked.
Suddenly they see
people everywhere, some of them hawking junk food.
“Fine cruisine?”
Rose asked.
“My watch must be
wrong,” the Doctor pondered. “No, it's fine. It's weird.”
“That's what comes
of showing off. Your history's not as good as you thought it was,”
Rose said.
“My history's
perfect.”
“Well obviously
not,” Rose retorted.
“They're all
human. What about the millions of planets, the millions of species?
Where are they?” Adam asked.
“Good, question.
Actually that's a good question. Adam, me old mate, you must be
starving,” the Doctor said.
“No, just a little
time sick,” Adam retorted.
The Doctor found out
how much a burger was and then soniced a nearby credit outlet. It
produced three cards. He gave one to each companion. “There you go,
pocket money. Don't spend it all on sweets.”
“How does it
work?” Adam asked.
“Go
and find out. Stop nagging me.The
thing is, Adam, time travel's like visiting Paris. You can't just
read the guide book, you've got to throw yourself in. Eat the food,
use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete
strangers. Or is that just me? Stop asking questions, go and do it.
Off you go, then.”
Rose, Felicia and
Adam went off. The Doctor approached two ladies nearby. “This is
going to sound daft, but can you tell me where I am?”
“All staff are
reminded that the canteen ara now operates a self cleaning table
system. Thank you!”
Rose handed
something to both Adam and Felicia. “Try this. It's called Zaphic,
it's like a, er, Slush Puppy,” she said.
“What flavour?”
Adam asked.
Rose sucked on the
straw. “Sort of beef,” she answered.
“Interesting,”
Felicia said, as she sucked on hers.
“... It's like
everything's gone. Home, family, everything.”
“The TARDIS can
take you back,” Felicia said.
“But at this
moment, its all gone,” Adam retorted.
“You can call
home,” Felicia said.
Rose took out her
mobile phone and handed it to Adam.
“The Doctor gave
it a bit of a top-up.” Rose explained. “Who's back home, your mum
and dad?”
“Yeah,” Adam
said.
“Phone them up,”
Rose said.
“But that's one
hundred and ninety eight thousand years ago.”
“Honestly, true
it. Go on.
“Is there a code
for planet Earth?” Adam asked.
“Just dial,”
Rose said.
“Sure,” Adam
said. He input his parents number...
23 January 2013
Somewhere in
England
A
phone rang. An answering machine (the owners hadn't moved to the BT
provided voicemail) answered the call coming in from the future. “I'm
sorry, we're not in. Please leave a message. Thanks. Bye.”
“It's
er. Hi. It's me. I've sort of gone travelling. I've met a few people
and we've gone travelling together.”
23 January 20,000
Sattelite 5
“But er. I'm fine
and I'll call you later. Love you. Bye,” Adam concluded. “That is
so...” he began before an interuption happened. An alarm sounded
and the venders started closing up shop.
The Doctor called
the three of them over. They went over, Adam still holding onto
Rose's phone...
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