Halfway Out Of The Dark || The Doctor

The Long Game

The TARDIS materialised in a large, brightly-lit room, full of TV screens broadcasting news channels. The Doctor and Rose stepped out of the box first ."So, it's 200,000." the Doctor told Rose, "It's a spaceship... no, wait a minute, space station, and uh... go and try that gate over there." He pointed to a gate in the corner of the room. "Off yer go."

"200,000?" Rose clarified.

"200,000." the Time Lord confirmed.

"'Kay." Rose nodded and knocked on the TARDIS door, "Adam? Out ya come."

Adam stepped out, followed by the Artist, who had been checking the scanner to see if they'd arrived in the right place. As the Doctor had chosen the destination for Rose's first trip, the they'd agreed that the Artist would choose for Adam's.

Adam's mouth dropped open when he saw their surroundings. "Oh, my god!" he breathed in awe.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it." Rose said casually.

"Where are we?" Adam asked.

"Good question." Rose said knowledgably, "Let's see. So, um... judging by the architecture, I'd say we're in the year 200,000. If ya listen... engines. We're on some sort of space station. Yeah, definitely a space station. It's a bit warm in here, they could turn the heating down..." she commented, "Tell ya what, let's try that gate. Come on!" She led the way to the gate the Doctor had indicated earlier, an awestruck Adam following her and the Time Lords bringing up the rear.

The quartet found themselves on an observation deck that gave a grandstand view of Planet Earth down below. "Here we go!" Rose said, "And this is..." She paused as she looked down upon the Earth. Adam had to hold onto the railings for support as he joined her by her side. "I'll let the Doctor describe it." Rose finished, feeling a bit awestruck herself.

"Actually, I think Artist should do the honours." the Doctor replied, and gestured for the Time Lady to begin.

"Welcome to the Fourth Great & Bountiful Human Empire." the Artist told Adam, "And there it is, Planet Earth in it's prime. Covered in mega-cities, and featuring five moons and a surface population of 96 billion. This is the heart of a galactic domain which stretches across a million planets and encompasses a million species, with humanity right in the middle."

Adam promptly fainted with a girlish sigh. The Artist managed to catch him before he hit the floor, while the Doctor and Rose didn't even bother to turn around. "He's your boyfriend." the Doctor commented dryly.

"Not anymore." Rose shrugged.

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When Adam came to, the quartet returned to the room they'd landed in. "Come on, Adam, open yer mind." the Doctor said cheerfully, "Yer gonna like this fantastic period of history. The human race at it's most intelligence: culture, art, politics. This era has good fine food, good manners..."

"Outta the way!" a man said rudely as he barged past the Doctor and the floor suddenly sprang to life around them. Food stalls were set up and people bustled past the four time travellers to queue up with much chatter.

"One at a time." a dishevelled chef ordered his customers then started taking orders as the place became very busy. The Time Lords could only look on in bemusement. "Oi, you mate!" the chef called to a spiky-haired man, "Stop pushing! Get back, I said, back!"

Rose took a moment to examine the food being offered. "Fine cuisine?" she grimaced.

"My watch must be wrong." a wrong-footed Doctor muttered and checked his watch, "No, it's fine. What about yours?" he asked the Artist, who checked her watch too.