A New Beginning

[James Blake]

This was not a regular day for James Blake.A regular day involved a lot of phone calls and tons of paperwork.But today was special.The Minister of Defence was nearly killed by an assassination attempt.And James was assigned head of the investigation team.

He was already at the crime scene,interrogating the witnesses,when he saw a strange man dressed in Edwardian clothing,running towards a strange 1960s police box.The most suspicious thing about him was that he was carrying a sniper rifle!He immediately started running after him,not knowing that this would fundamentally change his life...

[The Eighth Doctor]

The Doctor set the rather large squirt gun by the doors after he had entered. "It seems I have picked the wrong time to do some shopping today." he murmured to himself. The cobwebs on the higher shelves of the library had been getting thicker by the minute and the best way he'd found to get rid of them was to spray a web-dissolving solution on them. He had cleaned what he could reach but there were so many just a bit out of reach. After pondering the problem he hit on the idea of using a squirt gun but in spite of all the items he had collected over the centuries a good strong water weapon just wasn't among them. No problem, or so he thought. Any Earth city would have a toy store. Land near one, go out and pick one up and return. Simple!

He should have known nothing was ever simple. As soon as he had entered the shop there had been some sort of chaos outside. Through the sirens and shouting he had resisted the temptation of going out to find what was happening and just paid for his purchase. Sometimes a Time Lord just had to allow humans to sort things out for themselves.

Of course as soon as he got out there was more confusion. 'I don't know what's going on and I don't want to know!' he told himself firmly. 'For once keep your nose out of their business, Doctor!' It was hard but he forced himself to turn away and return to the TARDIS.

[James Blake]

The strange man reached the police box and opened it.Then he did the most peculiar thing.He opened the door and went in!Now was James' chance.The door was left open.Jim slowed down, prepared his pistol and went carefully in.He was in for a huge surprise.Instead of the small cramped space he expected,he instead entered a huge room.The strangest room ever.In the middle of the room stood something like a console,full of buttons,switches,levers and other strange stuff.Above it was the strange man who was seemingly playing with the switches,shifting and moving them.James remembered why he was there and,despite the situation,raised his pistol and shouted "Halt!".The stange man raised his head. "You are arrested with the charge of assassination against the Minister of Defence. You will follow me,be interrogated and possibly trialed. ",he continued. The man had the most confused expression on his face.

[The Eighth Doctor]

(Um, you can't say what the Doctor does, please. Only your own character )

Startled, the Doctor looked up and saw a man in an official uniform with a gun pointed straight at him. Inwardly he sighed. These humans bent on arresting him for one charge or another were getting rather old. With a deft wrist twist he operated the door panels.

"My dear sir, I have not made any attempt on any assassination on anyone and I do not know the current Minister of Defence so why would I? And I am certainly not going anywhere other than where we are right now." He operated the screen monitor. "Which happens to be a nice relaxing orbit around what you call Saturn!"

The huge screen showed the large planet with its many rings. The Doctor smiled at the sight. "One of my favorite views!"

[James Blake]

(Oops!Sorry,I didn't know that!)

James eyed the man with disbelief.What was this madman muttering about!Saturn.For god's sake,he was a psycopath!James would definitely get a promotion when he arrested this one.But he had a couple of questions.
"What you say is utter nonsense!Do you sincerely expect me to believe you?You will follow me,whether you want it or now.But,first,tell me how have you done that?Why is this box bigger on the inside?What's all that stuff?Who the bloody hell are you?Start talking man!",James shouted.

[The Eighth Doctor]

"I was going to explain all that, if you'd give me a chance. There really is no need for shouting," the Doctor answered with a slightly reproachful expression. "You know, I never could understand why the donning of an official uniform seems to make the wearer raise their voice more. I realize it does give them a sense of power but it does border on the ridiculous at times. Even the Vargons had learned one catches more flies with honey than with vinegar. I do mean that literally, as honeyed flies is considered quite the delicacy there. I told that story to Ben Franklin and next thing I know he quotes that in his paper!" He paused again, remembering. "Quite a nice chap, Ben. You may not know it from the artwork that's generally seen now but he was quite the partier. Anyway..."

Here he clapped his hands together and stepped around the console towards james cheerfully. "I am the Doctor! And this is the TARDIS! Yes, it's bigger on the inside than on the outside but I can't help that, it's the way it was built, y'see. So much better than trying to work in more closet space, even though it does have plenty of those. Care for tea?"

[James Blake]

"Tea?Tea?What do you mean "tea"?I'm arresting you and you're offering me tea?What on earth are you?",shouted James.
But he could see that this man was telling the truth.He had studied Psychology before being recruited by MI6.And he could sort of read people since he was a child.He had read something about a blue box in a file in MI6.When he worked for the Paranormal Department.He decided to give the man a chance.He lowered his gun and put it back in its holster."I believe you mate.Now,let's start with the basics.Who are you?What's your name?Where are we?I want to know everything!And I wouldn't say no to some tea.",James said and sat comfortably on an armchair near the console.

[The Eighth Doctor]

"There now, wasn't that a bit easier than making me 'assume the position' against a wall and you frisking me down? We all have the ability to be reasonable if we'd only exercise that a bit more." The Doctor walked over to a tea set on a nearby table, lifted the lid for a peek inside and made a face. "I'm afraid this pot's gone cold. Just a minute and I'll have a fresh pot brewing. I'm the Doctor, I'm a Time Lord and we're now...." He looked up to the roof of the TARDIS, studying the various patterns flowing across it. "I see we're almost to the Crab Nebula. Wonderful place for star spotting, if you had a few millions years to stay in one place and stare."

[James Blake]

"Oh my god!It's you!The Doctor!And this is the TARDIS,isn't it?The time travel machine that looks like a blue box!I should have known when I saw it!I knew it reminded me of something!You're the one who solved that nasty case with the Ice Warriors quite some years back!And the man who defeated the Auton invasion force back in 2005!You are my hero!You are the Doctor!It's my utter honour,sir!",James shouted,delighted that he had finally met the man he had read and heard so much about,by all these old chaps in the MI6 Paranormal Department."Will you offer me the chance of travelling with you sir?Of getting to know you better?I have dreamt of this since I was 5 years old!And I have really got fed up with all that nasty business with guns and stuff in MI6.Please,sir,may I travel with you?

[The Eighth Doctor]

The Doctor seemed flustered, he wasn't used to being reminded of all his earlier exploits, never mind having hero worship attached to them. "Well...yes..but it's been so long ago. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. And in hindsight I really could have handled a lot of them so much better than I did. But...oh well." He shook his head and quite forgot the teapot he still held.

"As for traveling with me, aren't you doing that right now?" he smiled.

[James Blake]

"You're amazing!Just like the stories!Well,do you know what I want to see first?I want to see an alien planet.Any alien planet.I want it to be inhabited and I want its inhabitants to be interesting.What would you suggest?",said James full of enthusiasm.This was certainly a change of lifestyle!

[The Eighth Doctor]

The Doctor smiled broadly at the young man's excitement; this was why he liked the human species so much. His own people lived so long that just about everything became routine, jaded. But humans, with their short life span, embraced almost all aspects of life with heart-felt passion. When they expressed it he also felt it once more, seeing the universe anew.

"Certainly! Let's see......interesting alien species...." He walked back to the console, setting the teapot rather haphazardly on the edge of a nearby table. "We could go to the Nevaris System, the people there live their whole lives in suspended nets strung throughout the forests, as the ground itself is acid. Not good if you don't have a head for heights. Then there's Tarborous, it has the most beautiful cities that look like they're made from soap bubbles but in fact they can stand up to anything short of a supernova. And then there's the Seaweed People on Hittitistis, but don't try the tea. It's a bit on the salty side. And then there's...."

Something made the Doctor glance up and he frowned.

"And then there's....that." he said quietly, referring to the ugly squat form of an alien spaceship floating slowly towards them. "Oh dear, now what d'we have here?"

[James Blake]

James was astonished.Despite the stories he had heard,he had never seen a spaceship before.
"Oh,my god!This looks utterly spectacular!I'll tell you what,why don't we take a look at this spaceship?The beings aboard it could be interesting and friendly.Shouldn't we give it a try?"

[The Eighth Doctor]

The Doctor studied the rather ugly shape and then looked at the instruments on the console. "It's not moving under any power, in fact it's just...drifting. A derelict? Let's just move a bit closer."

As the TARDIS crept towards the metal giant it loomed even more over them on the large monitor. Silent and dark, it looked like a monstrous dead whale. "I don't see any evidence of damage but there doesn't seem to be any life aboard. But at least there's a tolerable atmosphere so we could go onboard. Strange though. It looks like it's come quite a long way but then, what happened?"

A moment later the view above them returned to the normal high ceiling and the console rotor stopped. The Doctor switched of the controls then turned to James. "With your training I doubt that I have to warn you not to do anything foolish, but let's be cautious just the same." He activated the door controls. "Now let's see what we have here."

[James Blake]

James stepped out of the doors cautiously.He took a look around.The spaceship was dark and there seemed to be no power but the temperature was normal.Earthly normal,about 25 degrees Celsius.The walls were obviously metal and the ceiling was too high to be visible.Nobody was to be seen.The ship was utterly quiet.Except for a strange sound which sounded like it was far far away.

"Do you hear that?",asked James."That sound far away in the shadows?You know what?I think we should investigate!",he said enthusiastically and pulled a torch from his pocket.