Jeremiah Crumb - A Doctor Who Story

Chapter 1 - The Doctor and the Crumb

Jeremiah ran, his feet numb and his legs aching. He ran and ran and ran. He'd been running for what seemed like forever, but if you were being chased by a gunship from the city in the clouds high upon the mountain top, you'd be running too. He'd had a head start on the ship by about twenty minutes, but it was quickly catching him up now that it had spotted him and descended from above the cloud layer and was speeding straight for him over the green fields that surrounded the city's mountain. He knew he'd have a chance of escaping the ship if he could make it to the tree line a few kilometers ahead, he just had to keep up the pace but he was certain his legs would give out at any second and the ship would scoop him up in it's web and take him back to the city, and probably a swift death for what he had done. He kept telling himself not to look back, but as the thought crossed his mind he found himself looking over his shoulder to see how far away the gunship was, regretting it instantly as the curved winged glider was almost on top of him, ready to release the capture web and end his short lived freedom. The shock of seeing how close the ship was sparked him to run faster, his legs burning with pain. But what was even more of a shock was turning back around to find himself tripping through large blue wooden doors that seemed to appear out of nowhere and landing on a metal floor, magically inside!

How the hell had this happened? A moment ago he was running straight towards a forest and now he was in a dark place looking up at a large spinning circle hanging down from the roof. It was covered in strange symbols and seemed to emanate a soft glow over the entire room. He quickly rolled over and sat upright to see where in specters name he had fallen into and he was met with an even more shocking sight! A man in suspenders and a bright red bow tie standing before him, looking just as confused as he was. 'For Pete's sake! I open my doors for two minutes to let the breeze in and you lot just come blundering in like always! I can't park anywhere these days! Oh well since your here you might as well come along for the ride' Said the man with the curved fringe as he adjusted his bow tie and snapped his fingers, causing the big blue doors behind Jeremiah to slam shut. Jeremiah sat speechless and terrified as he watched the man bounce around a control desk in the center of the large room, he couldn't tell if was talking to himself or the controls as he circled the hexagonal panels several times flipping switches and pulling levers.

Outside, the gun ship hovered over the mysterious blue box that had appeared from nowhere and seemingly swallowed their prey. After a moment it fired it's capture web at the box covering it in arcing electricity. Inside sparks flew out of the controls the man was playing with knocking him to the ground. He immediately bounced back to his feet and frowned in annoyance, flipping a blue colored switch that caused a small microphone to fly out of a hole in the floor that he started yelling into 'OI! What the hell do you think your doing?!' He swung a screen around that showed an image of the gunship hovering outside.
Jeremiah saw the ship and called out to the man 'They've got you in a capture net!'. This seemed to annoy him even more 'Oh! Oh do they now! Well that's a bit rude,I've only been here a few minutes and the locals are already shooting at me' He leaped up from the chair and down onto the floor, pulling up some of the grating and started digging through a box of wires, talking to himself again.'What have the big meanings done to you dear, we'll show em what happens when they mess with my TARDIS'.
TARDIS?that was a word Jeremiah had never heard before, what the hell was a TARDIS?. A joyful sounding 'A-ha!' brought the mans head back up from being berried in the box, he had a long red cable in his hands and was now getting busy attaching it to his control panel muttering to himself as he worked, something along the lines of Why should anyone do anything for the sake of Pete?

Jeremiah slowly got to his feet and looked around him in amazement at the place he had stumbled into. The room was massive, he looked up at the roof and realized that it wasn't the roof at all, it was just black and it kept on going up and up and up. He noticed that corridors spanned off the main room and wondered just how big this place was? He found himself backing up towards the doors and tried to open them, they wouldn't budge and then he saw the strange man at the controls pause what he was doing for a moment and peeked his head over the controls he was fiddling with and looked right at Jeremiah. He stood up and stormed straight over to him with a piercing glare and stopped right in front of him. He seemed to study Jeremiahs face for a moment and then leaned in closer with a sheepish grin on his face 'Hello...I'm The Doctor, mind telling me who you are? Man who fell through my doors' Jeremiah couldn't help but laugh a little 'The Doctor? What kind of name is that? And what on specters land is that on your neck?' This seemed to offend this so called Doctor who took a few steps backwards 'Hey! Don't knock it! It's called a Bow Tie and it...is..cool' He said with a spin and removed his bow tie, then attached it to Jeremiahs shirt 'See! What'd I tell ya! Cool!'. Jeremiah looked down at the thing he had now stuck to his shirt and when he looked back up at The Doctor he saw that he had produced a second purple colored tie and attached it to himself, pulling both ends tight. Then he stepped back up close to Jeremiah and continued his manically fast paced talking 'Now in regards to your first question, The Doctor is the kind of name that I! have..and I still don't know yours! So come on now out with it, who...are...you?'
Jeremiah looked The Doctor up and down, not quite sure what to make of him 'Jeremiah Crumb' He said and The Doctor made what can only be described as the sound of blowing a raspberry and giggled 'Jeremiah Crumb!' He laughed 'Blimey, your having a go at my name and here you are walking around with the name Crumb! Do you have a brother called Bread? Because that would be amazing'. Jeremiah just stood there staring at The Doctor while he blabbered on a tangent about being shrunk to the size of an ant once and how he had met a group of sentient crumbs on a kitchen bench and may have accidentally started a war with them.

Outside a deep voice boomed from the gunship 'Identify yourself and release your prisoner to us or be destroyed'. The Doctor immediately stopped talking and marched to the doors and yelled up at the flying gunship 'Do you mind?! I'm trying to tell a story here?!'. He looked back at Jeremiah and winked, then the gunship gave the TARDIS a charge of electricity through the capture net pushing The Doctor back and slamming the doors shut but doing little more than annoy the time lord further. 'Fine! Be that way' He said to himself and started running around the hexagonal console flipping switches and pumping what looked like an old bicycle tyre pump.
Eventually he shouted a word Jeremiah had never heard before 'Geronimo!' and pulled a large lever down, the whole place began to shake and the cylinder in the center of the controls began to rise and fall then a grinding, whirring sound filled the room.
Outside, the TARDIS shot straight up out of the capture net and into the sky, sending an electrical shock wave from the destroyed net onto the curved winged ship causing it to loose power and drift backwards.

'Ha! Taste of your own medicine, that'll keep them busy for a minute or two' The Doctor said as he slowed the rising TARDIS to a stop and stabilized it in position. 'What did you do?' Asked Jeremiah, still clinging to the handrail confused. The Doctor smiled at the chance to show off how good he is 'Reversed the polarity of the electrical field on the net and blew it back at them, and old trick from way back' He went to lean of the console but missed, falling and rolling backwards he popped straight back up again like he intended to do that all along, then ran over to the doors 'Let's get a better look at this place'.
He swung the doors open and cold air rushed in blowing The Doctor's jacket tails out like a cape as he stood there smiling 'Come take a look, it's perfectly safe' He said to Jeremiah waving him over. He came to the doors and looked out in amazement as the clouds parted and he saw they were suspended in mid air high above the mountains looking down on the city below 'By specter! I've never seen it from the air before' He said peering down. The people looked like ants in the streets from this high up 'Pretty city, whats it called?' The Doctor asked. Jeremiah's smile faded and he stared in silence for a moment before responding 'Mount Anya' He said Solemnly and turned back into the TARDIS 'And it may look pretty from up high, but 'Anya is a city under siege Doctor' He turned around and looked at The Doctor. Leaning on the now closed doors The Doctor looked up from the ground concerned 'Sieged by what?'
Jeremiah laughed to himself 'Your not from around these parts are you?' The Doctor smiled and tugged on his bow tie 'What gave it away?'
'Oh you know, the bad fashion sense and the scary blue spaceship' Jeremiah grinned at him as The Doctor walked back to the controls 'Your dodging the subject, who's got this planet under siege?'.

Jeremiah's grin faded from his face and his eyes met The Doctors deep stare 'The Specters' he said with a hint of fear in his voice but The Doctors stare didn't even flinch 'So who are they when their at home then?'. The response put Jeremiah back a step, he had never met anyone who didn't know who the Specters are 'Only the worst thing to happen to the galaxy since the great formation' Jeremiah's eyes narrowed 'You've seriously never heard of them?'. The Doctors face in the snap of a finger went from one of deadly seriousness back to the joy filled madness it had been only a minute earlier and he leapt up from the railing he was leaning on and grabbed the largest lever on the console 'Nope! Guess I better introduce myself then!'. Before Jeremiah could say another word The Doctor pulled down the lever and the ship once again shook into life and the groan of what Jeremiah assumed had to be the ships engines returned, the rise and fall of the cylinder pulsed through the entire place until with an almighty thump fell silent once more.
The Doctor ran for the doors with Jeremiah yelling after him 'Doctor no!'. The Doctor stopped at the door and looked back at Jeremiah 'I can't ever go back there Doctor' Said Jeremiah, to which The Doctor walked back over to him and put a hand on his shoulder 'It's ok, I'm with you now and I wont let anything bad happen to you, trust me'.
Jeremiah looked at The Doctor skeptically 'How can I trust you? I've only just met you' The Doctor puts his hand back by his side 'Well give me a chance to prove it then' He said with a smile and walked back to the doors 'Just gonna pop my head out and see where we landed'.
'Can't you just do that from your screens?' Jeremiah questioned to which The Doctor simply responded with a wink 'Where's the fun in that!'.
He opened the doors and stepped out into the city of Mount Anya, only to be immediately confronted with what The Doctor would only describe as the stuff of nightmares.

He stood face to face with a shining black Cyberman.