Name: The Monsters Inside
Writer: Stephen Cole
Fanhome: Doctor Who
Characters: 9th Doctor, Rose
Wherever it was, it wasn’t Earth.
Rose Tyler threw open the TARDIS doors and stood looking out,
A massive grin on her face. The sky was a shimmering green. Three
Suns shone through the haze, their heat prickling her skin. The muddy
Ground was the colour of olives and sloped up sharply, while beyond it
A range of pale mountains, perfect pyramids, stood like pitched tents
On the far horizon.
It wasn’t Earth. She was, officially, Somewhere Else.
‘Another world. . . ‘ Rose closed her eyes, opened her arms and
Leaned out a little. She felt giddy for a moment as a gentle breeze
Blew up and ruffled her long blonde hair about her shoulders.
‘You did it, then,’ she called to the man who’d brought her here.
‘Huh?’ He sounded preoccupied. ‘Oh, yeah, right. The alien planet
Thing.’
‘And about time. We’ve done space stations. . . space-ships. . . ‘
‘We’ve done your planet so often we should get T-shirts made up.’
Rose heard him crossing to join her and smiled to herself.
‘What, you mean, like, I saved the Earth and all I got was -‘
‘Aggro?’
He gave Rose a gentle shove in the small of her back and she stumbled
Outside. The alien soil squidged beneath her white trainers. ‘Oi!
Doctor, I was building up to that!’
The Doctor grinned at her. He was a tall, imposing man with heavy
Features and dark, close-cropped hair. His leather jacket, jeans and Tshirt
Lent him a casual, unassuming air. If you passed him on the street
1
You wouldn’t look twice. But up close, there was an intensity about
Him that crackled through every movement, each lingering look.
‘What
were you gonna do?’ he said. ‘Plant a flag? Make a speech?’
He stepped out after her, looking all about. ‘Nah. Take a giant leap for
Humankind, and nine times out of ten you squash whatever’s beneath
You. The best things are always just stumbled upon.’
‘The way you stumbled on me, you mean?’ she asked cheekily. That
Had been back on Earth, in the middle of an alien invasion. They’d
Beaten it together; he’d shown her she could make a difference to
Things. Now she travelled with him, and felt a sense of belonging
She’d never dreamed possible.
‘Look,’ he said softly, pointing to something just the other side of
The TARDIS. A single flower.
Rose went over to see. It was a scraggly specimen, but smelled
Sweet, and its red petals were the only splats of colour in the muddy
Desert.
‘There you go,’ the Doctor murmured. ‘Your first contact with alien
Life on its own turf.’
‘Literally.’ Rose picked up a fallen petal. It felt velvety between her
Fingertips, made them tingle.
‘This could be the rarest flower in the universe, the last of its kind.’
The Doctor’s eyes fixed on hers suddenly, clear and unnervingly blue.
‘Or it could be one of billions. Common as daisies. Just the first to
Poke its head through the soil to greet the three-sunned springtime.’
She smiled. ‘Doesn’t matter, does it? It’s here, and so are we!’ He
Grinned back.
‘But where are we?’
He shrugged. ‘Dunno. Edge of the galaxy somewhere.’
She got up. ‘TARDIS not telling?’ TARDIS stood for ‘Time And
Relative Dimension In Space’. This was supposed to explain how come
You could disguise a massive control room inside a poky police box
And travel anywhere and any time in the universe, but it left Rose
Little the wiser.
‘Might be on the blink.
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