Home, the long way round [1]

Chapter 16 - Christmas Carol

Author’s note: I have decided to put it in the story then in a one shot. So i hope you all like it.

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The Doctor and Maddie stumbled out of the fireplace. “Ah. Yes. Blimey. Sorry. Christmas Eve on a rooftop. Saw a chimney, my whole brain just went, what the hell.”

“Yeah and my brain went what the hell either, cause that was just stupid.” Maddie told him as then she looked at the family that stared at them.

The Doctor went to them. “Don't worry, fat fellow will be doing the rounds later. I'm just scoping out the general chimney-ness. Yes. Nice size, good traction. Big tick.”

“Fat fellow?” The father asked.

“Father Christmas, Santa Claus or, as I've always known him, Jeff.” He replied to him.

“There's no such person as Father Christmas.” The boy countered.

“Oh, yeah?” The Doctor produced an old photograph. “Me and Father Christmas, Frank Sinatra's hunting lodge, 1952. See him at the back with the blonde? Albert Einstein. The three of us together. Brrm. Watch out. Okay? Keep the faith. Stay off the naughty list.” Then he spotted what looks like a big cinema organ. “Ooo. Now, what's this then? I love this. A big flashy lightly thing. That's what brought me here. Big flashy lightly things have got me written all over them. Not actually, but give me time, and a crayon. Now, this big flashy lightly thing is connected to the spire in your dome, yeah? And it controls the sky. Well, technically it controls the clouds, which technically aren't clouds at all. Well, they're clouds of tiny particles of ice. Ice clouds. Love that.” Then he noticed the girl in ice thingy. “Who's she?”

“Nobody important.” The old man replied harshly.

“Nobody important.” The Doctor repeated. “Blimey, that's amazing. Do you know, in nine hundred years of time and space, I've never met anyone who wasn't important before.” Then he went to a machine. “Now, this console is the key to saving that ship, or I'll eat my hat. If I had a hat. I'll eat someone's hat. Not someone who's using their hat. I don't want to shock a nun, or something. Sorry, rambling, because, because this isn't working!”

“The controls are isomorphic.” The old man told him. “One to one. They respond only to me.”

“Oh, you fibber. Isomorphic. There's no such thing.” The Doctor told him, rudely. Then the old man reached over and switches it off then on again. All the Doctor was getting annoyed from the beeps, even with the screwdriver. “These controls are isomorphic.”

“You don’t say.” Maddie muttered sarcastically.

“The skies of this entire world are mine.” The old man explained. “My family tamed them, and now I own them.”

“Tamed the sky?” The Doctor looked confused. “What does that mean?”

The old man turned and walked off, he shook his head. “It means I'm Kazran Sardick. How can you possibly not know who I am?”

“Well, just easily bored, I suppose.” The Doctor glanced at the children that were in the room with them.

Maddie looked at Sardick. “So, we need your help, then.”

“Make an appointment.” Sardick grumbled.

The Doctor wanted to talk, but Maddie interrupted him and walked toward the old man, looking angry. “Excuse me, but there are four thousand and three people in a spaceship trapped in your cloud belt. Without your help, they're going to die.”

“Yes.” Sardick nodded.

The Doctor and Maddie blinked at the old man. “You don't have to let that happen.”