Fam Away From Home

Kerblam!

Astra was hyper anal about how much time she spent with the gang. Her eyes jerked around the three humans as they were thrown about the ship. The Doctor was at the helm, as usual, racing them away determinedly. "Hold on," the Doctor called out. The brunette stood on a higher level, farther away from the console, hands wrapped around the railing. 

"We are holding on!" Yaz yelped. 

Their blonde driver was in no mood. "Well, hold on tighter."

"Can you do something about this turbulence?" Graham demanded. 

"I'm avoiding something. Argh, can't get the hang of these new systems," she complained, leaning over a monitor, keeping her balance somehow despite her demands that the humans hold on. She looked up at another monitor. "No! It's still coming after us."

Yaz lost her footing briefly and got flung sideways, into Ryan. "What is it?" 

The brunette casually held onto her railing and watched their awkward asses stammer at one another. 

Realization donned on the Doctor. "Oh! It's a teleport pulse."

Ryan was flung likewise into Yaz and he let out an awkward squeak at the odd position. "What's that?" he demanded. 

A star's pinprick of light seemed to go through the walls, manifesting a human's height from the ground. It was a robot, obviously, but dressed in a uniform and it had a hat. Between its hands rested a red lined box. He had his own intro song. "Delivery for the Doctor."

The Doctor jumped into the air, a wide grin splitting her face as she circled the console, leaving them where they were. "It's the Kerblam man!" she shouted excitedly. She stood directly in front of the robot.

Astra slowly stepped down the octagonal steps, meeting her at the robot.

"The what?" Yaz demanded, conveniently still against the boy she'd gone to school with.

The Doctor glanced backwards at them. "The Kerblam man," she repeated, still excited.

"You're just making sounds now," Graham complained, as he was wont to do.

The Doctor very carefully took the box from the robot. "Delivery fulfilled," it retreated. "And remember if you want it," both the robot and the alien leaned sideways, "Kerblam it!" Then it disappeared with another 3 musical notes.

The Doctor turned around, looking down at the box.

"Space postman. I've seen it all now," Graham gaped.

The blonde knelt and Astra did not notice her calf poking from behind the box. But she did divert her eyes. "Delivery bots. Kerblam's the biggest retailer in this galaxy," she explained, opening the package. "I don't remember ordering anything. Must've been a while back." She pulled a red fez from the box, bubble wrap on the inside. She let out a low gasp and smiled. "What do you think?" She flipped it upside down, the tassel hanging widely. She looked at them all. "Still me?"

A pale hand reached across the space and tucked some blonde hair, smushed beneath the rim of the hat, out from her nose. "'d have to be here for last time, love," she whispered.

The trio watched the interaction with a bittersweet feeling. She still wouldn't come within arm's reach of them most of the time. "Nice," Graham commented all the same, leaning back on the console now that the turbulence had ceased. Yaz picked up a piece of paper from the box.

The women looked over at him, slight abashed to be so public with Astra's touch, which she retracted.

Ryan picked up the innards of the hat, laughing. "Check it out, they even use bubble wrap." He squeezed a few between his fingers.