The Time Lord's Angel [1] // Doctor who

The Beast Below -Return of the Raggedy Man and the Floating City

***

It was beautiful, amazing, so quiet peaceful, floating there in the middle of space with my Raggedy Doctor holding me there. I always thought Space to be black with little specks of light here and there, but no, there was a range of purples and blues and pinks, it was truly beautiful. "Come on, Pond." The Doctor pulls me in and I fall into him as gravity floods back in. I lean into him as I try to comprehend the fact that I was just floating in space. "You alright?" He asks, as he holds me pright whilst I'm in my daze.
"It's beautiful." I say quietly.
"It most certainly is." He replies grinning at me as I find my balance. "So Miss Pond, now do you believe me?" We both turn to look at my sister who was watching us with a smile of her own.
"Okay, your box is a spaceship. It's really, really a spaceship. We are in space! What are we breathing?" She says excitedly. I turn to hug the wall of the Tardis as I look out, rolling my eyes at my sister.
"I've extended the air shell. We're fine." The Doctor squats down looking to so a floating city. "Now that's interesting. Twenty ninth century. Solar flares roast the earth, and the entire human race packs its bags and moves out till the weather improves. Whole nations." He says running back into the Tardis, I watch him from the Door.
"Doctor?" I hear Amy call but I don't listen as the Doctor continues.
"Migrating to the stars."
"Doctor?" I turn around at her second call to find she isn't in the doorway, I poke my head out and up to see my sister gripping on for dear life. I let out a small laugh.
"Doctor!" I shout to him, giggling a little at my sister's situation. He runs over to us.
"Well, come on. I've found us a spaceship."

"This is the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland. All of it, bolted together and floating in the sky. Starship UK. It's Britain, but metal. That's not just a ship, that's an idea. That's a whole country, living and laughing and shopping. Searching the stars for a new home." The Doctor says as we lean against the railing. "Can we go out and see?" Amy asks him, I raise my eyebrow as I look to the Doctor, awaiting his answer.
"Course we can. But first, there's a thing."
"Oh, a thing!" I say nudging Amy excitedly.
"An important thing. In fact, Thing One. We are observers only. That's the one rule I've always stuck to in all my travels. I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets." I narrow my eyes at this, that isn't what he did on Earth. He interfered a load back home, why are we not allowed to interfere here? Suddenly a picture of a girl waiting by an elevator appears on the scanner.
"Ooo, that's interesting." The Doctor comments.
"So we're like a wildlife documentary, yeah? Because if they see a wounded little cub or something, they can't just save it, they've got to keep filming and let it die. It's got to be hard. I don't think I could do that. Don't you find that hard, being all, like, detached and cold?" I nod with my sister before turning to find the Doctor's gone and when I look to the scanner we see him speaking to the crying girl.
"Doctor?" I ask. He gestures for us to join him and I look to Amy. "I thought he said we don't interfere, he literally just said that we only observe." I complain.
"Well now he doesn't want us to, don't complain." She tells me as she leaves the Tardis. I follow her quickly trying to keep up.

"Welcome to London Market. You are being monitored." A voice tells us as we walk into the market.
"I'm in the future. Like hundreds of years in the future. I've been dead for centuries." Amy says dampening the mood slightly.
"Is it possible that I have great, great, great, great, great grandkids here?" I look up to the Doctor.
"Yeah, if you have children, sure. It's good to see which one of you is the cheery and the not so cheery one." He puts his hand on Amy's back and pushes her forward and grabs my hand pulling me along with them "Never mind dead, alive," He says giving us new nicknames, Amy scowl at him quickly but the Doctor ignores her. "Look at this place. Isn't it wrong?"
"What's wrong?"Amy asks.
"Come on, use your eyes. Notice everything. What's wrong with this picture?" The Doctor says moving us around to get a proper view of the place, but my eyes keep going back to the crying girl.
"Is it the bicycles? Bit unusual on a spaceship, bicycles." Amy suggests.
"Says the girl in the nightie." I retort laughing a little.
"Oh my God. I'm in my nightie."
"Now, come on, look around you. Actually look." The Doctor tells us. "Life on a giant starship. Back to basics. Bicycles, washing lines, wind-up street lamps. But look closer. Secrets and shadows, lives led in fear. Society bent out of shape, on the brink of collapse. A police state. Excuse me." He walks over to a couple sitting at a table and takes the glass of water from the man and places it on the floor before he puts it back up on the table. "Sorry. Checking all the water in this area. There's an escaped fish. Where was I?" He walks back over to us.
"Why did you just do that with the water?" Amy asks.
"Don't know. I think a lot. It's hard to keep track. Now, police state. Do you see it yet?" The Doctor asks and looks to me. I look back over to the girl, the girl, still stood there crying, at least some of the people in this room have to be mothers so why is no one comforting the crying child?
"The girl." I say, the Doctor looks to me, seeming a little surprised that I answered, and from the looks of it, answered correctly.
"What about her?" Amy asks. "It's one little girl crying. So?" She asks as we sit facing her a few rows down from where she's sitting.
"No one's comforting her, she's been crying since we arrived and no one's come to make sure she's ok." I reply, the Doctor looks to me impressed.
"And why's that?" He asks me, he knows the answer, he just wants to see how far I get.
"She's crying silently. I mean, children cry because they want attention, because they're hurt or afraid. But when they cry silently, it's because they just can't stop." I tell him.
"Any parent would knows that." The Doctor finishes for me.
"Are you a parent?" I ask him, he looks to me, and avoids the question as he carries on speaking.
"Hundreds of parents walking past who spot her and not one of them's asking her what's wrong, which means they already know, and it's something they don't talk about. Secrets. They're not helping her, so it's something they're afraid of. Shadows, whatever they're afraid of, it's nowhere to be seen, which means it's everywhere. Police state." I sit watching him curious about why he didn't answer my question.
"Where'd she go?" I suddenly ask realising Mandy was gone.
"Deck two oh seven. Apple Sesame block, dwelling 54A. You're looking for Mandy Tanner. Oh, er, this fell out of her pocket when I accidentally bumped into her. Took me four goes. Ask her about those things. The smiling fellows in the booths. They're everywhere." The Doctor says to me, handing me a wallet.
"But they're just things." I tell him.
"They're clean. Everything else here is all battered and filthy. Look at this place. But no one's laid a finger on those booths. Not a footprint within two feet of them. Look. Ask Mandy, why are people scared of the things in the booths?"
"No, hang on. What do I do? I don't even know what I'm doing here." I object.
"It's this or Leadworth. What do you think? Let's see. What will Mackenzie Pond choose?" When I don't say anything he continues. "Ha ha, gotcha. Meet me back here in half an hour."
"What are you going to do?" I ask in a grumpy voice.
"What I always do?" He replies mocking me. "Stay out of trouble. Badly." He says standing up and hopping over the bench. "Come on other Pond." He calls Amy. "Let's let baby Pond sulk on her own." He teases.
"So is this how it works, Doctor? You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying?" Amy asks still sitting next to me.
"Yes. Off you pop baby Pond." He tells me and Amy stands up following after him.
"You know bumping into someone four times to find out where they lives classifies you as a stalker!" I yell at him, half annoyed, half amused. He spins around to look at me grinning.
"Yes baby Pond, I am perfectly aware of that!" He calls back. I huff before walking off in a different direction towards Mandy.

As I walk into a corridor of deck 207 I notice another one of the booths and hesitate before entering. I walk past a few containers before I hear a voice that makes me turn around. "You're following me. Saw you watching me at the marketplace." Mandy says. I was lost of words for a moment, a minute ago this girl was crying her eyes out silently.
"You dropped this." I say plainly offering her, her wallet.
"Yeah, when your friend kept bumping into me." She responded snatching it off of me.
"What's that?" I ask following after Mandy as she walks away and we reach a fenced area.
"There's a hole. We have to go back." Mandy tells me.
"A what? A hole?" I ask as I move the fencing and approach the tented area
"Are you stupid? There's a hole in the road. We can't go that way. There's a travel pipe down by the airlocks, if you've got stamps. What are you doing?" But I ignore her as I approach the tent.
"Oh don't mind me, I never could resist a keep out sign." I reply looking back to her. "What's through there? What's so scary about a hole? Something under the road?" I crouch down looking at the padlock.
"Nobody knows. We're not supposed to talk about it." Mandy replies.
"About what?" I ask. She furrows her eyebrows a moment.
"Below."
"And because you're not supposed to, you don't? Watch and learn." I say taking a bobby pin out of my hair and press it into the lock, moving it around like I was taught until I feel a click.
"You sound Scottish." Mandy comments.
"I am Scottish. What's wrong with that? Scotland's got to be here somewhere."
"No. They wanted their own ship." Mandy tells me.
"Hmm. Good for them. Nothing changes."
"So, how did you get here?" Mandy asks me.
"Oh, just passing through, you know, with a guy and my sister." I tell her.
"Your boyfriend?" I think for a moment, he's not my boyfriend but he is always holding my hand. "What?" She asks when I don't reply and she realises I've stopped trying to pick the lock.
"I've never thought about it is all, but no he's not my boyfriend." I say turning back to the lock. "Hey, hey. Result! Coming?" I ask as I open the curtain.
"No!" I start to enter the tent. "Stop! You mustn't do that!" I ignore her and enter finding a windup torch.
"Oh my God." I whisper looking at the weird tentacle thing was now faced with. "That's weird. That's-" But I don't have time to finish my sentence as the tentacle begins to lash out at me. I back out of the tent to find I'm faced with four men. One of them raises their fist to my face and as they do a gas sprays out and I fall unconscious.