Running Through the Stars (Book One of the Bad Wolf Chronicles)

Chapter Nine: The Empty Child

Jessie ran into the console room a few hours later, after she'd had a shower and changed into the first thing she could throw on: a Union Jack T-shirt and dark jeans with her combat boots. "What the hell is going on?" she shouted.

"It's mauve!" the Doctor replied, moving around the console wildly.

"Mauve?" she repeated.

"The universally recognized color for danger."

"What happened to red?" she asked, moving to help him.

"That's just humans," he replied as he kept moving. "By everyone else's standards, red's camp. Oh, the misunderstandings. All those red alerts, all that dancing . . . it's got a very basic flight computer. I've hacked in, slaved the TARDIS. Where this thing goes, we go."

"And that's safe, is it?"

"Totally."

Part of the console exploded, and sparks showered everywhere. Jessie leaped away with a soft yelp before glaring at the Doctor. "Totally?"

"OK, reasonably," he corrected. "Should have said reasonably there." He looked at the monitor, and his eyes widened. "No, no, no!" She looked up as he began going around the console in his odd dance once again. "It's jumping time tracks, getting away from us!"

"What exactly is this thing?"

"No idea."

"Then why the hell are we chasing it?" Jessie yelped.

"It's mauve, and it's dangerous," the Doctor replied, looking at the monitor. "And about thirty seconds from the center of London!"

"WHAT?!"

***

"Do you know how long you can knock around space without happening to bump into Earth?" the Doctor asked as they got out of the TARDIS.

"Five days?" Jessie guessed, then grinned at him mischievously. "Or is that just when we're out of milk?"

He shook his head. "Of all the species in all the universe, and it has to come out of a cow."

"What did they ever do to you?" Jessie joked.

"Down, girl," he warned, smiling as she giggled. "Must have come down somewhere quite close. Within a mile, anyway. And it can't have been more than a few weeks ago. Maybe a month."

Jessie looked at him incredulously. "A month?" she gasped. "We were right behind it!"

"It was jumping time tracks all over the place," he replied. "We're bound to be a little bit out. Do you want to drive?"

"Yeah," she replied, smirking at him. "How much is a little?"

"A bit," he replied.

"Is that exactly a bit?"

He paused. "Ish."

Jessie chuckled. "What's the plan, then? You gonna do a scan for alien tech or something?"

He looked at her. "Jess, it hit the middle of London with a very loud bang. I'm going to ask!"

She snorted when she looked at the psychic paper she was offered. "Doctor John Smith, Ministry of Asteroids. You're kidding me."

"Psychic paper. It tells you - "

"Whatever you want it to tell me," Jessie finished, throwing him a smirk. "Yeah, I remember."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow when they made it to a door with "Deliveries Only" on it. "Sorry," he said.

"Not very Spock," she commented. "Is it? Just asking."