District 7
District 7.
Well, the Rings of Akhaten was interesting, bizarre and... well, awesome. But this time, I wanted to see something I've been largely fascinated by nearly all my life - space! As I grew up, I'd stare out my bedroom window, gazing into the night sky. I'd watch the rare opportunity of meteorites shooting by and dream of their beauty for nights on end. I always liked to imagine that they were alive. Magical objects flying gracefully through the vastness of space. I liked to think about what they saw. All the stars they flew past, all the unknown planets they'd crash on and all the rest of space they got to explore. 'What would it be like to be one of them' I used to think. Then, I met the Doctor. Now, I was in an object, flying through space. An object that came in the colour of blue and the shape of a police box. The Doctor told me he'd take me to District 7. A space station in the year 2055, built on a meteorite and sailing through space. It's purpose was to allow scientists to explore all of space and study it in depth. Not through a telescope or satellite, but to get a personal view of all it's mystery. The Doctor said he'd been there once before with his friends Amy and Rory - whoever they are. He didn't really elaborate. As soon as he mentioned them he suddenly went quiet. He changed the subject by stating that the station was build around about the size of Wales which is pretty big.
When the TARDIS landed, the Doctor giggled in excitement. He turned to look at me and put on a big stupid grin whilst rubbing his hands together.
'Are you ready?' He asked eagerly.
'Yes!' I replied in the same manner. The Doctor ran to the main doors and slowly pulled them open. I couldn't begin to comprehend what was on the outside of those doors. What amazing, futuristic architecture the space station possessed. Would there be robotic servants to greet us? How big would the holographic screens be? As the Doctor opened the doors, I slowly followed him out, staring adamantly at my feet as I stepped out of the TARDIS. As I began to raise my head slowly, I tried to anticipate what my eyes would witness... nothing great! Actually, everything looked quite similar to things back home. Medical packs hung up on the wall, walls painted with a dull imagination. Some
automated doors - which seemed to be the only 'futuristic' looking thing there - with some old science labs that looked similar to that at my old school. I looked at the Doctor confused and disappointed. His stupid grin turned into a
slight frown.
'What's wrong?' He asked.
'I 'dunnow. It's just... I thought it would look more like something out of Star Wars or something. Least it could of had is a hovering gurney.'
The Doctor suddenly smirked again and gestured his hand to follow him. We walked down the hallway and came to two doors, again, any other automated door you'd find on Earth. He pulled out a wallet from his jacket pocket and swiped it across a scanner at the side of the
door. As the scanner buzzed, allowing us access through, he looked at me and said, 'Psychic paper.' The doors slid open as we walked in. Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with all that I saw. This was everything I had anticipated and more. Scientists wondering around the place, working as hard as the day is long. Some were stood at lit up desks where they seemed to be studying some bits of rock and debris. Others stood with holographic notepads in their hands, resembling that of an iPad only transparent. A tray of equipment flew past me with a bright
blue light glowing from beneath. One man came up to us. He was dressed slightly different from the rest. His appearance suggested he was likely the head scientist or something.
'Who are you?'
'I'm the Doctor. I'm here on behalf of Dr. Seth Phelps. I've been instructed to observe and evaluate District 7 of NASA's SOP.' The Doctor flashed his psychic paper in front of the scientist's face.
'This is my assistant, Dr. Clara Oswald. Now, tell me, what's the 'NASA SOP'?' Said the Doctor quickly. The scientist looked at me and the Doctor.
'Right. Yes. Of course. Uh, NASA's Space Observation Programme created to explore the far reaches of space and send home any important findings.' The Doctor quickly glanced at me with a smirk.
'Well done. Full mark. Now, back to work. Me and my assistant will take a look around. Pretend that we're not here.' The scientist nodded in uncertainty and walked away. I giggled at the thought that we've just technically broke in to a massive space programme, told the head scientist to 'get on with it' all for us to have a little nose around.
'What's that?' I asked. I jogged over to some sort of microwave-looking machine. The Doctor put on his 'smart' face and walked over.
'It's a teleportation unit.' The Doctor rested himself against the wall and crossed his arms as if he were used to these types of questions and had grown tired of explaining them. 'You put a solid object inside, type in the coordinates of the desired destination, push the button and then it divides the object into small atoms, sends them hurdling through space at about 5 miles per second until it's gotten to it's input coordinates. The only thing it can't transport, though, is debris.'
'Why's that?'
'Well, most debris are made up of particles so small that once the transport unit divide's them, the particles will likely get lost on the journey or just have difficulty reforming once delivered.'
'Oh.' I said only listening to parts of what he said. My attention had been drawn to one of the scientists walking in from the outside.
'How did he do that?' The Doctor looked in the direction I was and instantly understood what I meant. He walked over, swiped his psychic paper once again opening the door for us. The Doctor stepped out first as I stood reluctant to follow.
'Well, c'mon.' he yelled to me. I trusted him and carefully stepped out and... nothing. I expected to suffocate or at least freeze to death. But... nothing. I looked around and found some plants and trees, some grass and stones and all I could do was wonder how this could be done. I looked at the Doctor in confusion and he flicked out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it into the air. As the emitter lit up, a loud
echo passed over our heads. 'Force field projected over the entire meteorite. Keeps the oxygen and gravity inside and prevents anything from crashing into us.' He said. I picked up a small stone from the ground and tossed it as hard as I could into the air. It hit the force field, causing the loud echo again, and bounced off. I giggled in amazement. I know I've already met living Wi-Fi, an alien with two hearts and a bigger-on-the-inside time and space machine, more aliens than you can imagine, a mummy and a soul-eating star... but there was something about this that was just so much more amazing. As if it was the one thing I was meant to see. The Doctor turned around and began walking inside. 'Where are you going?' I asked. He turned around and smiled whilst directing his eyes upwards, I turned around slowly and I saw the sun passing overhead. But it wasn't the sun you'd see from Earth. No. This was so much more beautiful! It shone a turquoise blue with small flares of purple and green. I always thought about what space contained, but I never expected something like this! Everything around me went silent. As if nothing else except me and that sun existed. A few moments went by until everything was interrupted by the sound
of an alarm coming from inside. I turned around quickly to find that the Doctor had disappeared. I ran inside to find all the once-hard working scientists running around in terror. Some were evacuating through the doors me and the Doctor had entered, others were running through a door to the left. The Doctor's words lingered in my mind:
'We never walk away.'
I immediately rushed to the door on my left to see the Doctor being pinned up against the wall by the scientist we'd spoken to earlier.
'What did you do?' He yelled, pinning the Doctor up against the wall tighter. 'Nothing- nothing!' Yelled back the Doctor.
'What the hell were you doing in there, it says clearly on the door 'DO NOT ENTER''
'I wanted to check something...' Suddenly, the door behind me closed. I turned back and tried to pull it open to no avail. I realised that I needed the psychic paper.
'Doctor, quick I need your psychic paper-thing...'
'It's no use' He replied straightening his bow-tie after being unhanded by the scientist. 'The whole base station's under lockdown. Psychic paper won't get us through and it's deadlocked so the sonic won't work either.'
'Then how are we supposed to get out' I asked as my claustrophobia began to kick in. The scientist walked over to a hatch in the floor. He opened it using a key he had pulled from around his neck and looked up to us.
'This'll take us down to the lower levels. We'll make our way to the monitor room and call for help.' He said. The Doctor turned and looked at him.
'No, I have a machine that can get us out of here, we just need to make it to corridor AB.' Said the Doctor as if he was demanding it.
'In case you haven't realised, you've just exposed everyone to Syriumpitus an-'
'-Wait... what's 'Syriumpitus'?' I asked. As if being trapped in a small corridor sealed off from both ends wasn't bad enough. The scientist stood up and looked me in the eyes the same way my dad did when he told me my mother had died.
'A few years ago, we found a rock that contained a virus known as 'Syriumpitus'. Most objects that carried the virus were locked away in that room. After one hour it will begin to burn your insides, killing you instantly. But a few moments before you die, your arms will come out in a large rash... That's how you know you're infected' I looked at him lost for words, I literally couldn't think of a word to sum up how scared I was.
'Yes, but that isn't going to happen because in my ship, I have a cure. You don't travel all of time and space without knowing some of the viruses existing out there and what can cure it. All we have to do is get to corridor AB and I promise, there'll be enough for all three of us.'
'Uh... what about everyone else?' I asked.
'They evacuated before the virus could fully infect them. It's only us that's exposed.' Replied the Doctor.
We made our way down to the lower levels and began walking through what seemed to be the engineering room. Steam burst from pipes from all directions. Water dripped to the ground, forming a large puddle. The heat was overwhelming. If it weren't for the fact we'd all die soon, I'd of sat down and taken a break. As we made more progress down what seemed to be a never ending corridor, we eventually found a ladder leading up. When we got to the top, we found what was supposed to be the observatory room. A huge white room with a big glass ceiling, giving a perfect view of space. Below that was a few chairs tempting me to sit down but I knew if I did, I wouldn't get back up.. On the left was a huge glass window. We looked and saw something floating off in the opposite direction. 'That must be the last evacuation pod. Everyone's out... but us.' Said the scientist. The words hung in the air, everything went quiet. We all stood completely still as
we watched knowing we were all that was left. We felt helpless. The Doctor said he had a cure but the look on his face proved he wasn't sure we'd make it out. Suddenly the ground shook forcefully, throwing all three of us to the ground. I scanned the room trying to figure out what caused it.
'It's the force field' said the Doctor, slowly making it to his feet.
'All the evac-pods have escaped. Once that's done, the force field is programmed to go down. This whole project demanded we all had to stay here until instructed we could go home. The only good reason to leave was if we had to evacuate and if we do, the defence goes down. All of our findings and experiments get destroyed.' Said the scientist in a way that he was almost confirming our deaths. The Doctor looked out the window and saw a meteorite coming toward us at least more than half the size of the one we were on.
'Oh, well... that was obviously going to happen. OK, No time to lose. We're tired- yes? Afraid? Well, then... what more motivation do we need. One last push. Come on!' The Doctor did his best to persuade us not to give up. He lead the way checking his watch as we moved, estimating how long until we'd die by either our inside's burning or being crushed by a meteorite. The more he flicked his wrist up to his face, the more time felt to fly by.
A long walk later, we found a small plaque which said 'Corridor AB'. We were so happy. The scientist was still convinced there was no way out of it. I've never been a fan of blue, I'm a red kind of girl, but boy was I happy to see that blue box standing in all it's glory. The Doctor laughed and walked over and opened the door. The scientist behind me fell to his knees screaming.
'Hey- hey- hey... it's okay, it'll be okay. The Doctor's getting the cure'. I tried to support him but I wanted to get inside the TARDIS as quick as possible.
'Go! Get inside that thing, there wouldn't be room for me anyway.' There was no time to explain and he was too stubborn to make his way inside. 'Do it! Either stay here long enough to burn or get crushed or get in that box! GO!' I didn't want to leave him but I thought I could speed things up by doing something myself. I ran to the doors but was thrown back. The doors were locked.
'Doctor... Doctor!' The same thing happened at Akhaten. The TARDIS seemed to lock me out. Then, the ground shook more rapidly and brutally than before forcing me to the floor. Explosions I knew were distant sounded as if they were happening right beside me. The meteor had finally crashed into us! The station tipped slightly to the right causing me to slide down the long corridor we had just ventured. I quickly grabbed a small groove at the side of one of the doors and it seemed the scientist had done the same. I looked for the TARDIS to find it was
dematerializing. I wanted to scream for him but there was no use. There was no chance of being heard. Just as began to lose grip, the station decided to tilt the other direction, throwing me to where the TARDIS once stood. The scientist seemed to have found a steady grip and kept himself secure enough. 'Hello? Clara?' The Doctor's voice! He seemed to be speaking over the tannoy or something. 'I've got the TARDIS positioned directly below you, so when I say let go... let go! Both of you!' I looked at the scientist as glass and other elements that once formed the base station flew passed my face and caught in my hair. He stared back. Neither of us delivered any positive expression.
'Now!....' My body froze. The scientist gave a slight yelp as he clutched his gut. He looked quickly at me and let go. I watched him fall toward
what looked to be certain death. Flames burst out of the doors me and the Doctor had once passed through and the part of the ship we had once been in was completely torn apart. 'Clara- NOW!' I didn't want to but I knew I had to. I completely relaxed my muscles and fell. I could feel tingling rush through my body. Butterflies polluted my stomach and all I could think about was the small meteorites shooting across the sky as I watched from my bedroom window. I remember how I always wanted to be one of them and now I was. I was an object
flying through space, not knowing where I'd end up... I closed my eyes... 'Clara... Clara...' I opened them to find the Doctor holding me safely in his arms. He looked at me, smiled and said, 'Gotcha!' I looked around to find that we were in the TARDIS. The humming of it's engine and the lights around us provided the great feeling of safety.
'Where's the scientist' I asked, only barely being able to speak the words.
'Over there, he's fine. I've given you both the cure, the only side-effect is you'll feel sleepy.' I could feel the tiredness kicking in. The only thing that kept me awake was his repeating words in my head:
'I've given you both the cure'. I found the strength to say a few more words
'Both? What about you?'
'... I wasn't infected to begin with. Syriumpitus: doesn't infect Time Lords'
'So, why didn't you just get the TARDIS and bring it to us?' I could feel my body falling asleep.
'The last time I turned my back, I lost my two best friends. I had to keep you fighting!'
'Amy and Rory?!' The two names had stuck in my head all day. The Doctor smiled but beneath it you could see all the guilt and sadness. 'Whatever happened... it wasn't... your fault' and with that, I fell asleep.
A few hours later, I woke up to the Doctor cleaning around the console. Dusting it off with an old rag. 'Where's the scientist?' I said, announcing my waking up. The Doctor tossed the rag over his shoulder and pressed a few buttons on the console before answering me.
'Dropped him off, he's probably having a few medals for his heroism as we speak. Ralph Eisenstein - The last survivor of District 7!'
'Ralph?' Me and the Doctor shared a laugh before he wondered off. 'What now?'
The Doctor turned to look at me. 'Home. You need some proper rest and... chores. And I have some research to do.'
'Research on what?' The Doctor gave the stupid grin he did before and walked away. I opened the doors to find my house standing in front of me with the sun reflecting massively off of the windows. I walked inside while listening to the engines of the TARDIS fade away. The house seemed to be empty meaning I had some time on my hands, so I went upstairs and fetched the '101 Places to See' journal from my bed-side table which accompanied my book. I searched for a pen and began writing...
"District 7.
Well, the Rings of Akhaten was interesting, bizzare and... well, awesome..."
Next time... A Prisoner's Tale.
Well, the Rings of Akhaten was interesting, bizarre and... well, awesome. But this time, I wanted to see something I've been largely fascinated by nearly all my life - space! As I grew up, I'd stare out my bedroom window, gazing into the night sky. I'd watch the rare opportunity of meteorites shooting by and dream of their beauty for nights on end. I always liked to imagine that they were alive. Magical objects flying gracefully through the vastness of space. I liked to think about what they saw. All the stars they flew past, all the unknown planets they'd crash on and all the rest of space they got to explore. 'What would it be like to be one of them' I used to think. Then, I met the Doctor. Now, I was in an object, flying through space. An object that came in the colour of blue and the shape of a police box. The Doctor told me he'd take me to District 7. A space station in the year 2055, built on a meteorite and sailing through space. It's purpose was to allow scientists to explore all of space and study it in depth. Not through a telescope or satellite, but to get a personal view of all it's mystery. The Doctor said he'd been there once before with his friends Amy and Rory - whoever they are. He didn't really elaborate. As soon as he mentioned them he suddenly went quiet. He changed the subject by stating that the station was build around about the size of Wales which is pretty big.
When the TARDIS landed, the Doctor giggled in excitement. He turned to look at me and put on a big stupid grin whilst rubbing his hands together.
'Are you ready?' He asked eagerly.
'Yes!' I replied in the same manner. The Doctor ran to the main doors and slowly pulled them open. I couldn't begin to comprehend what was on the outside of those doors. What amazing, futuristic architecture the space station possessed. Would there be robotic servants to greet us? How big would the holographic screens be? As the Doctor opened the doors, I slowly followed him out, staring adamantly at my feet as I stepped out of the TARDIS. As I began to raise my head slowly, I tried to anticipate what my eyes would witness... nothing great! Actually, everything looked quite similar to things back home. Medical packs hung up on the wall, walls painted with a dull imagination. Some
automated doors - which seemed to be the only 'futuristic' looking thing there - with some old science labs that looked similar to that at my old school. I looked at the Doctor confused and disappointed. His stupid grin turned into a
slight frown.
'What's wrong?' He asked.
'I 'dunnow. It's just... I thought it would look more like something out of Star Wars or something. Least it could of had is a hovering gurney.'
The Doctor suddenly smirked again and gestured his hand to follow him. We walked down the hallway and came to two doors, again, any other automated door you'd find on Earth. He pulled out a wallet from his jacket pocket and swiped it across a scanner at the side of the
door. As the scanner buzzed, allowing us access through, he looked at me and said, 'Psychic paper.' The doors slid open as we walked in. Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with all that I saw. This was everything I had anticipated and more. Scientists wondering around the place, working as hard as the day is long. Some were stood at lit up desks where they seemed to be studying some bits of rock and debris. Others stood with holographic notepads in their hands, resembling that of an iPad only transparent. A tray of equipment flew past me with a bright
blue light glowing from beneath. One man came up to us. He was dressed slightly different from the rest. His appearance suggested he was likely the head scientist or something.
'Who are you?'
'I'm the Doctor. I'm here on behalf of Dr. Seth Phelps. I've been instructed to observe and evaluate District 7 of NASA's SOP.' The Doctor flashed his psychic paper in front of the scientist's face.
'This is my assistant, Dr. Clara Oswald. Now, tell me, what's the 'NASA SOP'?' Said the Doctor quickly. The scientist looked at me and the Doctor.
'Right. Yes. Of course. Uh, NASA's Space Observation Programme created to explore the far reaches of space and send home any important findings.' The Doctor quickly glanced at me with a smirk.
'Well done. Full mark. Now, back to work. Me and my assistant will take a look around. Pretend that we're not here.' The scientist nodded in uncertainty and walked away. I giggled at the thought that we've just technically broke in to a massive space programme, told the head scientist to 'get on with it' all for us to have a little nose around.
'What's that?' I asked. I jogged over to some sort of microwave-looking machine. The Doctor put on his 'smart' face and walked over.
'It's a teleportation unit.' The Doctor rested himself against the wall and crossed his arms as if he were used to these types of questions and had grown tired of explaining them. 'You put a solid object inside, type in the coordinates of the desired destination, push the button and then it divides the object into small atoms, sends them hurdling through space at about 5 miles per second until it's gotten to it's input coordinates. The only thing it can't transport, though, is debris.'
'Why's that?'
'Well, most debris are made up of particles so small that once the transport unit divide's them, the particles will likely get lost on the journey or just have difficulty reforming once delivered.'
'Oh.' I said only listening to parts of what he said. My attention had been drawn to one of the scientists walking in from the outside.
'How did he do that?' The Doctor looked in the direction I was and instantly understood what I meant. He walked over, swiped his psychic paper once again opening the door for us. The Doctor stepped out first as I stood reluctant to follow.
'Well, c'mon.' he yelled to me. I trusted him and carefully stepped out and... nothing. I expected to suffocate or at least freeze to death. But... nothing. I looked around and found some plants and trees, some grass and stones and all I could do was wonder how this could be done. I looked at the Doctor in confusion and he flicked out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it into the air. As the emitter lit up, a loud
echo passed over our heads. 'Force field projected over the entire meteorite. Keeps the oxygen and gravity inside and prevents anything from crashing into us.' He said. I picked up a small stone from the ground and tossed it as hard as I could into the air. It hit the force field, causing the loud echo again, and bounced off. I giggled in amazement. I know I've already met living Wi-Fi, an alien with two hearts and a bigger-on-the-inside time and space machine, more aliens than you can imagine, a mummy and a soul-eating star... but there was something about this that was just so much more amazing. As if it was the one thing I was meant to see. The Doctor turned around and began walking inside. 'Where are you going?' I asked. He turned around and smiled whilst directing his eyes upwards, I turned around slowly and I saw the sun passing overhead. But it wasn't the sun you'd see from Earth. No. This was so much more beautiful! It shone a turquoise blue with small flares of purple and green. I always thought about what space contained, but I never expected something like this! Everything around me went silent. As if nothing else except me and that sun existed. A few moments went by until everything was interrupted by the sound
of an alarm coming from inside. I turned around quickly to find that the Doctor had disappeared. I ran inside to find all the once-hard working scientists running around in terror. Some were evacuating through the doors me and the Doctor had entered, others were running through a door to the left. The Doctor's words lingered in my mind:
'We never walk away.'
I immediately rushed to the door on my left to see the Doctor being pinned up against the wall by the scientist we'd spoken to earlier.
'What did you do?' He yelled, pinning the Doctor up against the wall tighter. 'Nothing- nothing!' Yelled back the Doctor.
'What the hell were you doing in there, it says clearly on the door 'DO NOT ENTER''
'I wanted to check something...' Suddenly, the door behind me closed. I turned back and tried to pull it open to no avail. I realised that I needed the psychic paper.
'Doctor, quick I need your psychic paper-thing...'
'It's no use' He replied straightening his bow-tie after being unhanded by the scientist. 'The whole base station's under lockdown. Psychic paper won't get us through and it's deadlocked so the sonic won't work either.'
'Then how are we supposed to get out' I asked as my claustrophobia began to kick in. The scientist walked over to a hatch in the floor. He opened it using a key he had pulled from around his neck and looked up to us.
'This'll take us down to the lower levels. We'll make our way to the monitor room and call for help.' He said. The Doctor turned and looked at him.
'No, I have a machine that can get us out of here, we just need to make it to corridor AB.' Said the Doctor as if he was demanding it.
'In case you haven't realised, you've just exposed everyone to Syriumpitus an-'
'-Wait... what's 'Syriumpitus'?' I asked. As if being trapped in a small corridor sealed off from both ends wasn't bad enough. The scientist stood up and looked me in the eyes the same way my dad did when he told me my mother had died.
'A few years ago, we found a rock that contained a virus known as 'Syriumpitus'. Most objects that carried the virus were locked away in that room. After one hour it will begin to burn your insides, killing you instantly. But a few moments before you die, your arms will come out in a large rash... That's how you know you're infected' I looked at him lost for words, I literally couldn't think of a word to sum up how scared I was.
'Yes, but that isn't going to happen because in my ship, I have a cure. You don't travel all of time and space without knowing some of the viruses existing out there and what can cure it. All we have to do is get to corridor AB and I promise, there'll be enough for all three of us.'
'Uh... what about everyone else?' I asked.
'They evacuated before the virus could fully infect them. It's only us that's exposed.' Replied the Doctor.
We made our way down to the lower levels and began walking through what seemed to be the engineering room. Steam burst from pipes from all directions. Water dripped to the ground, forming a large puddle. The heat was overwhelming. If it weren't for the fact we'd all die soon, I'd of sat down and taken a break. As we made more progress down what seemed to be a never ending corridor, we eventually found a ladder leading up. When we got to the top, we found what was supposed to be the observatory room. A huge white room with a big glass ceiling, giving a perfect view of space. Below that was a few chairs tempting me to sit down but I knew if I did, I wouldn't get back up.. On the left was a huge glass window. We looked and saw something floating off in the opposite direction. 'That must be the last evacuation pod. Everyone's out... but us.' Said the scientist. The words hung in the air, everything went quiet. We all stood completely still as
we watched knowing we were all that was left. We felt helpless. The Doctor said he had a cure but the look on his face proved he wasn't sure we'd make it out. Suddenly the ground shook forcefully, throwing all three of us to the ground. I scanned the room trying to figure out what caused it.
'It's the force field' said the Doctor, slowly making it to his feet.
'All the evac-pods have escaped. Once that's done, the force field is programmed to go down. This whole project demanded we all had to stay here until instructed we could go home. The only good reason to leave was if we had to evacuate and if we do, the defence goes down. All of our findings and experiments get destroyed.' Said the scientist in a way that he was almost confirming our deaths. The Doctor looked out the window and saw a meteorite coming toward us at least more than half the size of the one we were on.
'Oh, well... that was obviously going to happen. OK, No time to lose. We're tired- yes? Afraid? Well, then... what more motivation do we need. One last push. Come on!' The Doctor did his best to persuade us not to give up. He lead the way checking his watch as we moved, estimating how long until we'd die by either our inside's burning or being crushed by a meteorite. The more he flicked his wrist up to his face, the more time felt to fly by.
A long walk later, we found a small plaque which said 'Corridor AB'. We were so happy. The scientist was still convinced there was no way out of it. I've never been a fan of blue, I'm a red kind of girl, but boy was I happy to see that blue box standing in all it's glory. The Doctor laughed and walked over and opened the door. The scientist behind me fell to his knees screaming.
'Hey- hey- hey... it's okay, it'll be okay. The Doctor's getting the cure'. I tried to support him but I wanted to get inside the TARDIS as quick as possible.
'Go! Get inside that thing, there wouldn't be room for me anyway.' There was no time to explain and he was too stubborn to make his way inside. 'Do it! Either stay here long enough to burn or get crushed or get in that box! GO!' I didn't want to leave him but I thought I could speed things up by doing something myself. I ran to the doors but was thrown back. The doors were locked.
'Doctor... Doctor!' The same thing happened at Akhaten. The TARDIS seemed to lock me out. Then, the ground shook more rapidly and brutally than before forcing me to the floor. Explosions I knew were distant sounded as if they were happening right beside me. The meteor had finally crashed into us! The station tipped slightly to the right causing me to slide down the long corridor we had just ventured. I quickly grabbed a small groove at the side of one of the doors and it seemed the scientist had done the same. I looked for the TARDIS to find it was
dematerializing. I wanted to scream for him but there was no use. There was no chance of being heard. Just as began to lose grip, the station decided to tilt the other direction, throwing me to where the TARDIS once stood. The scientist seemed to have found a steady grip and kept himself secure enough. 'Hello? Clara?' The Doctor's voice! He seemed to be speaking over the tannoy or something. 'I've got the TARDIS positioned directly below you, so when I say let go... let go! Both of you!' I looked at the scientist as glass and other elements that once formed the base station flew passed my face and caught in my hair. He stared back. Neither of us delivered any positive expression.
'Now!....' My body froze. The scientist gave a slight yelp as he clutched his gut. He looked quickly at me and let go. I watched him fall toward
what looked to be certain death. Flames burst out of the doors me and the Doctor had once passed through and the part of the ship we had once been in was completely torn apart. 'Clara- NOW!' I didn't want to but I knew I had to. I completely relaxed my muscles and fell. I could feel tingling rush through my body. Butterflies polluted my stomach and all I could think about was the small meteorites shooting across the sky as I watched from my bedroom window. I remember how I always wanted to be one of them and now I was. I was an object
flying through space, not knowing where I'd end up... I closed my eyes... 'Clara... Clara...' I opened them to find the Doctor holding me safely in his arms. He looked at me, smiled and said, 'Gotcha!' I looked around to find that we were in the TARDIS. The humming of it's engine and the lights around us provided the great feeling of safety.
'Where's the scientist' I asked, only barely being able to speak the words.
'Over there, he's fine. I've given you both the cure, the only side-effect is you'll feel sleepy.' I could feel the tiredness kicking in. The only thing that kept me awake was his repeating words in my head:
'I've given you both the cure'. I found the strength to say a few more words
'Both? What about you?'
'... I wasn't infected to begin with. Syriumpitus: doesn't infect Time Lords'
'So, why didn't you just get the TARDIS and bring it to us?' I could feel my body falling asleep.
'The last time I turned my back, I lost my two best friends. I had to keep you fighting!'
'Amy and Rory?!' The two names had stuck in my head all day. The Doctor smiled but beneath it you could see all the guilt and sadness. 'Whatever happened... it wasn't... your fault' and with that, I fell asleep.
A few hours later, I woke up to the Doctor cleaning around the console. Dusting it off with an old rag. 'Where's the scientist?' I said, announcing my waking up. The Doctor tossed the rag over his shoulder and pressed a few buttons on the console before answering me.
'Dropped him off, he's probably having a few medals for his heroism as we speak. Ralph Eisenstein - The last survivor of District 7!'
'Ralph?' Me and the Doctor shared a laugh before he wondered off. 'What now?'
The Doctor turned to look at me. 'Home. You need some proper rest and... chores. And I have some research to do.'
'Research on what?' The Doctor gave the stupid grin he did before and walked away. I opened the doors to find my house standing in front of me with the sun reflecting massively off of the windows. I walked inside while listening to the engines of the TARDIS fade away. The house seemed to be empty meaning I had some time on my hands, so I went upstairs and fetched the '101 Places to See' journal from my bed-side table which accompanied my book. I searched for a pen and began writing...
"District 7.
Well, the Rings of Akhaten was interesting, bizzare and... well, awesome..."
Next time... A Prisoner's Tale.