"We're here. Want to see?" Galaxy asked Donna as she went over to her once the Tardis stopped. "I suppose." She said sighing. "Oh, that scanner's a bit small. Maybe your way's best. Come on. No human's ever seen this. You'll be the first." The Doctor said going to the doors with Astro. "All I want to see is my bed." Donna said as she and Galaxy walked up.
"Donna Noble, welcome to the creation of the Earth." Galaxy said and pushed the doors open. Outside, lumps of rock floated around in space while the sun shone in the distance. "We're back 4.6 billion years, there's not a solar system yet just dust and gas. Got the sun though, beginning to burn." Astro explained. "Where's the Earth?" Donna asked them. "All around us in the dust."
"Puts the wedding in perspective. Lance was right. We're just tiny." Donna said. "No, but that's what you do. The human race makes sense out of chaos. Marking it out with weddings and Christmas and calenders. This whole process is beautiful, but only if it's being observed." The Doctor told her. "So I came out of all this?" Donna asked. "Brilliant, isn't it?" Galaxy asked just as a large rock drift past them.
"I think that's the Isle of Wight." Donna joked. "Gravity will soon take hold. A single big rock, heavier than the others will start to pull the other rocks to it. All this dust and gas and elements will get pulled in. Everything, just piling in until you get..." "The Earth." Donna summarised Galaxy's explanation. "But the question is, what was that first rock?" The Doctor asked.
"Think we got our answer." Astro said as he picked up something and soon enough a seven pointed star spaceship came out of the dust cloud in the distance. "The Racnoss." Galaxy said recognising the ship. "Hold on. The Racnoss are hiding from the war." The Doctor said and went to the console, "What's it doing?" He asked. "Exactly what Galaxy said." Donna said and he rejoined them.
They saw as the rocks and dust were drawn toward the spaceship like some sort of beacon. "Oh, they didn't just bury something at the centre of the Earth. They became the centre of the Earth. The first rock." The Doctor said. 'Astro, you may want to tell them there's a problem.' Astro heard in his head but as he turned to the console, explosions went off. "What was that?"
"Trouble." Astro said as Galaxy closed the doors and they went back to the console as the Tardis started throwing them around. "What the hell's it doing?" "Remember that little trick of mine, particles pulling particles. Well, it works in reverse. They're pulling us back." The Doctor said. "Well, can't you two stop it? Hasn't it got a handbrake? Can't you reverse or warp or beam or something?"
"Hold on. The extrapolator!" Galaxy exclaimed and grabbed a surfboard device and placed it down on the console, "It won't stop us but it will give us a good bump." She added. "Now!" The Doctor shouted and hit the device which caused the Tardis, which had appeared before the Empress, to change it's location to a lower basement corridor and the three ran out while Astro stayed behind.
"We're about two hundred years to the right. Come on." The Doctor said and they ran down the corridor. "But what do we do?" Donna asked them. "I don't know. We make it as we go along. But trust us, we've got a history." The Doctor said as they came to a door that he used his stethoscope on. "But I still don't understand. I'm full of particles, but what for?"
"A Racnoss web is at the centre of the Earth and our people unravelled their power source. The Huon particles ceased to exist then but the Racnoss were stuck." Galaxy said both she and the Doctor unaware of a robot grabbing Donna. "They've just taken hibernation for billions of years. Frozen, dead, kaput. So you're the new key. Brand new particles, living particles! They need you to open it and you have never been so quiet." The Doctor added and the two realised she was gone.
"Great, I'm turning more into you of not noticing things." Galaxy sighed and brought her sonic key out to open the door only for her and the Doctor to see two robots pointing their guns at them.
-9-
"Harvest the humans! Reduce them to meat. My children are climbing towards me and none shall stop them." The Empress exclaimed as two robots walked up the steps, "So you might as well unmask, my clever little doctor man and lady friend." She said and the Doctor and Galaxy removed the robot masks and robes.
"Oh well. Nice try. We've got you, Donna!" The Doctor said and pointed his sonic at her, and the web that was holding her started to fall apart. "I'm going to fall!" She exclaimed. "No, you're going to swing! We've got you!" Galaxy assured her and screaming, Donna swung across the hole, past the Empress...and stopped underneath the landing where the Timelords were standing and she dropped to the ground with a clang.
"Oh. Sorry." The Doctor said as Galaxy winced slightly. "Thanks for nothing." She said to them. "The doctor man amuses me." The Empress said. "Empress of the Racnoss, we give you a final chance. We can find you a planet where you and your children can co-exist in the universe, take the offer and we can end this now." Galaxy told her, wanting to end this in a civilised manner. "These men are so funny."
"What's your answer?" Galaxy asked. "Oh, I'm afraid I have to decline." "What happens next is your own doing." The Doctor told her. "I'll show you what happens next. At arms! Take aim! And..." "Relax." The Doctor said and the robots all slumped. "What did you do?" Donna asked them. "Guess what we've got, Donna?" The Doctor then pulled out a robot remote control, "Pockets."
"How did that fit in there?" She asked. "They're bigger on the inside." Galaxy smirked. "Roboforms are not necessary. My children may feast on Martian flesh." "Thing is, we're not from Mars." Galaxy informed her. "Then where?" The Empress asked. "Our home planet is far away and long since gone. But its name lives on. Gallifrey."
"They murdered the Racnoss!" The Empress hissed at the two. "I did warn you, Empress. But this was your own doing." Galaxy told her and brought out some Christmas tree decorations from her pocket. "No! No! Don't! No!" The Empress shouted and Galaxy threw the baubles in the air so the Doctor could direct them with the remote control.
He sent some of them to blow holes in the corridor wall which let the waters from the Thames in and sent the rest to surround the Empress. Fires broke out and manholes cover burst under the pressure of everything and the flowing water ended up flooding into the lair and down the hole where the screams the Empress' children could be heard.
"No! No! My children! No! My children! My children!" The Empress cried as she was unable to do anything to save her dying children. "Doctor, Galaxy! You can stop now!" Donna called to the two and they looked at her than back at the Empress. "My children!" "Come on. Time we got you out!" The Doctor called to Donna and he, Galaxy and Donna walked up the stairs to make their escape.
"But what about the Empress?" Donna asked them as they climbed up a ladder. "She's used up all her Huon energy. She's defenceless." The Doctor told her and they make it up on to gate 8 of the Thames barrier just in time to see the Empress' ship crumble after being shot by missiles. "There's just one problem."
"What?" Galaxy asked Donna. "We've drained the Thames." She said and they saw in the distance the Thames no longer had its water. 'Astro's probably gonna kill us.'
-9-
The Tardis was parked across the road of Donna's house once they had gone back for her and Astro and Galaxy was right in him not being happy about the Thames, the frown on his face and the way his tail thumped on the ground was enough to let her and the Doctor know they were in trouble.
"There we go. Told you she'd be alright." The Doctor said as they exited the Tardis. "I'm pretty sure I had to assure you a couple of times there Doctor. Blue can survive anything though." Astro said looking at the Tardis proudly. "More than I've done." Donna said and Galaxy quickly scanned her with her wrist computer. "All those Huon particles are gone now. No damage, you're fine." She told her smiling. "Yeah, but apart from that, I missed my wedding, lost my job and became a widow on the same day. Sort of."
"We couldn't save him." The Doctor told her. "He deserved it. No, he didn't. I'd better get inside. They'll be worried." Donna said. "Best Christmas present they could have. Oh, no. I forgot you hate Christmas." The Doctor said. "Yes, I do." She said. "Even if it snows?" Galaxy said and made the Tardis lamp turn yellow and it fired a bolt of energy into the sky which made a shower of snow to start.
"I can't believe you did that!" Donna exclaimed laughing. "Just some basic atmospheric excitation." 'You're gloating like the Doctor now Galaxy.' Astro remarked with a smirk in hie eyes. "Merry Christmas." Donna said to them smiling. "And you. So, what will you do with yourself now?" The Doctor asked her. "Not getting married, for starters. And I'm not going to temp anymore. I don't know. Travel. See a bit more of planet Earth. Walk in the dust. Just go out there and do something."
"Well, you could always..." "What?" "Come with us." Galaxy told her. "No." She turned down. "Okay." The Doctor nodded. "I can't." "No, it's fine." "No, but really. Everything we did today. Do you live your lives like that?" Donna asked them. "Not always." Galaxy told her. "I think you do. And I couldn't." "But you've seen it out there. It's beautiful." The Doctor said.
"And it's terrible. That place was flooding and burning and they were drowning, and you two were stood there like, I don't know, strangers. And then you made it snow. I mean, you two scare me to death." Donna explained and Astro was surprised to hear they had done something rather dark, they always tended to avoid a dark route. "Right."
"Tell you what I will do, though. Christmas dinner. Oh, come on." She said to them. "We don't do that sort of thing." The Doctor said. "You did it last year. You said so. And you might as well, because Mum always cooks enough for twenty." She said. "Oh, all right then. But you go first. Better warn them. And don't say we're Martians. We just have to park her properly. She might drift off to the Middle Ages and Astro won't like that. We'll see you in a minute."
The Doctor, Galaxy and Astro went into the Tardis then and soon the engines started up. "Doctor! Galaxy!" Donna screamed seeing this and the Tardis stopped and Galaxy and Astro popped their heads out. "Wow have you got a pair of lungs on you." Galaxy said smirking. "Am I ever going to see you guys again?" Donna asked her. "I hope so." Astro said. "Me too." Galaxy agreed with him. "Just promise me one thing. Find someone."
"We don't need anyone." She told her. "Yes, you do. Because sometimes, I think you need someone other than Astro there to stop you." She said and Galaxy could see where she was coming from. "Thanks Donna. Good luck with what you decide on doing. And carry on being fantastic." Galaxy told her smiling. "I think I will, yeah. Galaxy?"
"Yeah?" "That friend of yours. What was her name?" Donna asked and Galaxy's smile turned a little sadder. "Rose. Rose Tyler and there was our other friend Micky Smith." She said and gave Donna one last smile before she and Astro went back into the Tardis and Donna watched as the Tardis dematerialise then shot up straight into the sky before vanishing.