Storms Gathering

"How is it bigger on the inside?" Ellie asked in awe as she looked around the inside of the Tardis, her eyes wide in curiosity. She had just followed her new history teacher, the Doctor, into his strange blue police box, only to discover that somehow, it was massively huge inside, despite the outside being small and stuff. The girl was half tempted to go back outside just to double check that it wasn't an illusion, but she'd seen how small it was outside, and she could see how huge it was inside. It was amazing!

"Is it a spaceship?" She asked eagerly, suddenly excited at the possibility. She'd met many aliens in the last year, so the idea of a spaceship wasn't too unbelievable for her, but it would be very exciting, just the same. "What's that for?" She pointed to the central column thingy, then bounced over to the hexagonal thingy that surrounded the column, and tried to see what all the buttons and levers were about. "What's all that stuff do?" She inquired, her curiosity mixing with her wonderment of this place.

"Do you live here?" She asked, turning to the Doctor with wide, curious eyes. "How big is it?" She could see some doorways and stuff that apparently went off deeper into the ship, and she wondered how many rooms there were. "Is there lots of rooms? Are they all as huge as this one? Don't you ever get lost?" She asked. She couldn't seem to stop asking questions, her curiosity making her more and more excited. She bounced up and down a little in her excitement.

"How'd those people get your box, anyway? Who are they, and why did they take it? Were they trying to get in or something? It looks like there's lots of sciency stuff in here, is that what they were after?" She inquired, tilting her head to the side slightly. Then she paused briefly, realizing she wasn't giving him a chance to answer. "Oops, sorry.. I'll try to stop asking so many questions.." Ellie said quietly, blushing faintly. She fidgeted a little as she waited for her answers to be answered.

(Open only to Ellie, Eric, and 11)

Shock was the first emotion Eric experienced when he stepped inside the blue police box. Then awe took over as he stood on the edge of the silver railing that separated him from the Tardis controls. When he had first run in after Ellie and the Doctor man, he wondered why they were all running into a small closet space. Now he couldn't get over just how huge the interior was. It was like stepping through a magic door, into a fantasy world filled with sci-fi tech. A wide grin slowly spread across his face when he realized the interior was some gigantic kind of machine.

Ellie's question piqued a similar interest, but he quickly attributed the interior's size due to them being in a different dimension. He was reasonably sure. Doubt aside, he raced down the stairs and around the console that supported a huge column of green cylinders. From there, he just stood in front of it, staring up towards the center and the ceiling. Torchwood tower was impressive with all its cool gizmos and gadgets...but it didn't have the enormous console in the center, nor did it scream "I'm a spaceship." Was it a spaceship? He looked towards Ellie and the Doctor for confirmation. Course it was! Every space ship had those blinking lights and button panels on the console.

It was very tempting to touch, but as the Doctor was practically watching him, he resisted for the moment. He didn't want to get yelled at for making them crash into a building...but how did it fly? How fast did it go? Could it cross galaxies and go to far off planets he'd seen in pictures? Could they go to Mars and Pluto? Suddenly the galaxy felt a lot bigger, and he wanted to explore it all with this new boxy spaceship they'd found. Well, if the Doctor allowed them to of course. His fingers fidgeted as he moved round the console, back into view of the Doctor.

"It's a spaceship, right?" He asked. "Could I..." his fingers started fidgeting again, "Could we, fly it?"

The Doctor smiled slightly as the two children looked in wonderment around the TARDIS. That is when the inevitable questions started. Ellie started spouting off questions starting with how it was bigger on the inside. Then she asked if the TARDIS was a spaceship before she moved over to the console asking about all the buttons. Then she started asking about how many rooms were in the TARDIS and if he had ever got lost. Finally she asked how UNIT got his box and why they wanted it before she finally said sorry for asking so many questions. That is when the little boy that he had almost forgot was there piped up and asked if they could fly the TARDIS.

The Doctor walked over to the console and took a deep breath before he started answering the questions. "Well first answer is that the inside is actually in different dimension so it can be as big as it wants actually," he said leaning against the console slightly.

"This is command center of the TARDIS, I can fly her from here," he says pointing to a group of levers and buttons. It felt like it had been a long time since he had explained to someone the workings of the TARDIS.

"The TARDIS is Time and Spaceship...a time machine as it were, I do live here and it has been a while since I have got lost in the TARDIS but it has happened," he said with a small at the little girl. He moved his hand to adjust the bowtie which made him look down at his outfit which was the outfit he wore when he traveled with Amy and Rory.

"Um..excuse me I just need to change really quick," he said softly as he leaned down pulling out a trunk and dragging it out of sight. After a few minutes he returned wearing a Purple-Brown Frock Coat, a brown bow tie, a blue shirt underneath a purple colored vest that housed a pocket watch, and black dress pants with brown shoes.

"Right, sorry about that, that other outfit brings back bad memories that I would rather not remember right now, back to the questions," he said forcing a smile onto his face as to not show the children the pain he had been feeling.

"The people are called UNIT, and I kinda work for them but haven't for awhile, normally they keep a watch out for the TARDIS," he said thinking back to the last time he had worked for them when he met two of his previous incarnations.

"When they found it abandoned they likely brought it here for safe keeping until I came to get it which I have now done," he said rubbing his wrist slightly realizing that he still had the TVM on it he took it off and set on the console so he could deal with it later.

"And no...you can't fly the TARDIS...the last time I let someone fly the TARDIS it almost ended up blowing up the universe," the Doctor said looking at Eric with a serious face. He then turned back to Ellie and looked at her.

"Now then, as a Thank you for helping me for finding the TARDIS again I would like to do one thing for each of you that you most want, think carefully because it will only be one thing," the Doctor said now looking before looking between the two children waiting for an answer.

Eric couldn't help a skip and exclamation of "I was right!" when the Doctor said the interior was in a different dimension. He didn't understand how, but he didn't think he needed to. He also already figured that you flew the spaceship, Tardis, from the huge array of buttons. What he didn't know, was that it could travel in time, and his big brown eyes went wide as he stared at the Doctor. And as the Doctor said something about living here, and needing to change, he averted his eyes to the column. It seemed to glow and hum, and he imagined it as a strange outer space fuel that powered the spaceship.

As soon as the Doctor had left, he moved over to the control panel, and began eyeing the different switches and buttons. There were so many! It likely meant that flying a spaceship like this was super complicated. And somewhere in there there was a button to go back in time! Did it go forward? His eyes moved over various displays, looking for a button that said "Past" or "Present." Sadly, there was none, and the only writing seemed to be a bunch of weird symbols on the monitor. They looked kind of like gears strung together. Probably some kind of code. Maybe he'd also find a codebook telling him what circle was what letter.

Ellie warned him not to touch anything, which was extremely hard for Eric not to do. Just as he was about to experiment with a dial, the Doctor showed up, sporting a long coat and vest, and Eric quickly snatched his hands away from the controls. Hands behind his back, he wore an innocent look as he studied the Doctor's stern face. He wouldn't let him fly the Tardis...which was disappointing. The fact that it nearly blew up the universe, meant that this ship had to be the most powerful ship in the whole wide universe. It would probably take years for Eric to learn how to fly it, but he was willing to learn. But maybe the Doctor was unwilling to teach him, and Eric frowned a bit.

Then he had a new dilemna, and he rocked from one foot to the other as he pondered the Doctor's question. What was the thing he most wanted besides candy and icecream? He didn't know, but he didn't think the Doctor meant that. In fact, he wasn't sure what he meant at all. So what was he supposed to say? He continued to fidget, looking over at Ellie as she asked if the spaceship could go anywhere in time she told it to. Eric really did want to go back to the past when the ancient heroes killed the bad guys, but he also wanted to come back home, and he wasn't sure whether the Doctor would abandon him back in time. He didn't have anybody back then...then again, he didn't have anybody here for him either, except Captain Jack. And he was beginning to wonder if Captain Jack was coming back. At least he had Ellie...if he stuck with whatever Ellie wanted and where-ever Ellie wanted to go, he would probably be safe.

"Could you take Ellie and I on an adventure? In space? Or time..." he finally asked, his voice a little unsure as to what the Doctor would say. "Somewhere we've never been before? I don't know where Ellie would want to go though," he added, looking over at Ellie and poking at his fingers.

The Doctor looked at the two children as they seemingly thought for second what he had all said. The first one to talk was Ellie asking him if he was an alien. He grinned slightly thinking that was quite a funny question to ask due to everything she had saw from already. The next thing she said was about the TARDIS being a spaceship. He heard her talking while he was getting changed but he hadn't heard exactly what was being said.

When he had come back and taken off the TVM from his wrist, Ellie asked what it was. Before she quickly jumped to a question if it was possible that crashing the TARDIS could cause the end of the Universe. Finally it came to the last question he asked both of them, Ellie asked if the TARDIS could go anywhere he asked it to. Eric on the other hand asked if he could take them on an adventure through time or space. The Doctor remembered the last time he took children on an adventure, it almost led to the Cybermen making a comeback and almost converting him into a Cybermen. Eric also said it depended on where Ellie wanted to go.

"Yes I am a Timelord, but I do call Earth my home from time to time, he said grinning slightly at the two children. He kept a keen on eye on Eric who seemed to want to press buttons, he wanted to make sure he did not do that.

"Oh that, it is a Time Vortex Manipulator that I built so I could travel through time when I was having memory issues but I no longer need it because I have the TARDIS," the Doctor said reaching out and rubbing the center column slightly with a look of affection on his face.

"Yes it is possible, almost happened once when the TARDIS exploded but the other incident wasn't exactly her fault that the TARDIS crashed, some of it was me but we ended up fixing it anyways so it is all good," he said with a small smile remembering Clara slightly.

"Yes, I can take the TARDIS almost anywhere...except the Tower of London..and places that have a lot of temporal energy but otherwise we can go anywhere you want," he said moving his hands around wildly before slapping together.

"I am guessing you have somewhere in mind Ellie?" he asked looking toward the girl.

The moment the Doctor confirmed he was an alien, Eric stepped forward to peer at him. His eyes travelled from his feet up to his head with careful scrutiny, but he did not see anything different about him. He looked like an ordinary human adult to him. "You don't look like an alien," he commented as he walked around the Doctor to see if his back was any different. Grabbing up the back of the coat, he peered underneath, but seeing only a plain shirt and pants made him drop it down again. Walking around to his front again, he stared at him, trying to figure out what was different about him. There was nothing he could see, so maybe it was something inside? Maybe he had different organs, or a different kind of brain. He couldn't tell without one of those x-ray machines doctors had.

He did his best to pay attention to what the Doctor said, noting the fact he could take the Tardis anywhere in space and probably time, and the fact that he didn't need a Time Vortex Manipulator. Looking over at it, he noted that it looked like an oversized watch. He could also use that to travel through time? Then why did he need a giant spaceship? Well, maybe the watch was for emergencies and he just lived in the spaceship. That meant that it probably had a lot of cool rooms to explore, which Eric fully intended to do later, if the Doctor let him.

He listened as Ellie explained her situation, and wondered if Ellie's daddy had been the caring sort. Would he have gotten so careless as to have gotten lost? Did he get lost, or was it just like his mother who had abandoned him one day on the streets? Ellie seemed to care a great deal, so maybe he really was lost. He wondered if Captain Jack had gotten lost while on a mission too.

"Do you get lost alot when you go out into time and space?" he asked curiously. "I know Captain Jack takes a long time to come back." Eight years was a long time to be gone though. He looked over at Ellie's pleading face, then looked up at the Doctor, wondering if he would accept her request.

The Doctor looked over at Eric sideways and ignored him as he did his searching around him as he was more focused on Ellie. The young girl seemed very nervous about what she wanted to ask of him. From her previous question he could only assume that she wanted to go through time. He was surprised when the young girl spoke up and asked if they could go get her father. He raised an eyebrow slightly thinking that would be rather easy and was about to say so before the girl spoke again.

This time he was even more surprised as she explained a story about her father being an astronaut. That explained her earlier comment that her father taught her about space. She also explained that he had been declared lost by the space agency but she didn't think that he was dead and wanted to go save him.

The Doctor looked at her face the happiness that he had seen on the face before had disappeared. It was now replaced with sadness and nervousness. He heard Eric ask something but he was sure it wasn't very important. He thought for only a few seconds before he answered her request.

"Search and Rescue, that is a wonderful idea Ellie, I promise that I will find your father for you," he said turning serious before squatting down and taking her hands and squeezing them slightly. He mouth spread into a smile before he stood up. He quickly moved over to the console and flicked a few switches as the engines started to whir.

"Right then, Ellie all you need to do is put your hand on the console there so that TARDIS can scan your DNA to find your father in the Database, then we can go right where he is, easy as that," he said as he continued flipping switches. He had pointed to what looked a like a hand scanner, but in reality it scanned DNA. He winked at Ellie slightly so that she wouldn't be scared to do it.

The Doctor, Eric decided, was a good man. He was perfectly willing to help Ellie find her missing dad. And since this was apparently a time machine and spaceship all rolled into one, they would have her daddy back within a few seconds. It was such a powerful and brilliant machine, and Eric wished he could use it for something. But what? His parents had deserted him. A sad smile crossed his features as he was momentarily in his own little world. Then he quickly pushed that to the back of his mind as he determined not to think on the past, but instead on the future. And that was traveling on an adventure with the Doctor. He had promised them that. If her daddy was an astronaut, they would most likely time warp onto a space shuttle near the moon. Or would the space shuttle warp appear inside the Doctor's spaceship? He wasn't sure, but he guessed either one would work. It all depended on which one was bigger. This one was definitely bigger, after all, it was bigger on the inside, right? Or was it actually smaller on the outside, so they could fit inside a tiny shuttle?

He wandered around the console as the Doctor focused on Ellie and reassured her of getting her daddy back. Somehow, there had to be some way to make this thing fly, but there were so many switches and buttons it was hard to make heads or tails out of it all. Not without pressing buttons randomly, and he'd be sure to be yelled at. When the Doctor wasn't in the same room, he decided, and stopped in front of the watch. The Doctor had called it a "Vortex Manipulator." He said it could also travel through time, but what exactly did that mean? Could it not appear in a certain spot because it wasn't a space ship? Picking it up, he opened the flap to examine the interior. It was small, but confusing. Lots of little dials and numbers displayed on it, and to an unknowledgable mind, it meant nothing to him. Yet another thing he would have to play with, or ask the Doctor about.

Then a flurry of movement caught his attention, and he looked up to see the Doctor moving swiftly over to the controls, pressing buttons as he went, and indicating a device to Ellie. Instead of putting the vortex manipulator back where he had found it, he absentmindedly stuffed it into his picket, and wandered over to where Ellie and the Doctor stood. He watched Ellie's hand as it seemed to glow underneath, wondering what exactly it was they were doing.

"How is putting her hand there going to help her find her daddy?" Eric quizzed, confused. "Does she have..." he searched for some big words to use, "Residual energy from her daddy's hand? But wouldn't that have disappeared when she washed her hands?"

The Doctor smiled as Ellie put her hand on the scanner, he watched the green light quick scan her hand before turning off. He also raised an eyebrow at the time the shuttle was taken but he couldn't put a finger as to why it was familiar. He heard Eric ask how scanning her hand would help him find her father. To him it was rather easy because Ellie had her father's DNA in her as well, so all the TARDIS had to do was find it.

"Actually Eric, I just need her DNA so I can find her father's part of it and then TARDIS will search the database and hopefully find him," he said smiling slightly as he moved in front of the of the screen as the TARDIS did a quick search. After a few minutes a name popped up, Mission Specialist Altair Storms, the Doctor turned to Ellie.

"Is your fathers name Altair?" the Doctor asked looking down at Ellie hoping that it was. Ellie looked surprised, but nodded. "Yes, Altair Storms." She confirmed, looking curious as to how he knew that. He smiled slightly at the curious look on Ellie's face before he continued talking.

"The TARDIS has a database that I update frequently, but now that I know that is your father and that is his DNA, I can tell the TARDIS to get as close as possible to where he is," he said moving away from the monitor to the switch which he threw again as the Engines whirred to life. After a few minutes the engine whirred to a stop. He took a quick look down at when they were the date was Christmas Day 2005. Again it struck him that he should know this date but he didn't know why.

"Right then, are you two ready to have an adventure?" he asked smiling at the both of them.

"Oh." Eric nodded as he noted the mysterious DNA, which he guessed was a biology thing, being similar to their parents and all that. What amazed him though, was he could use her biological makeup to find her dad. Did he have a gigantic database with all the physical aspects like fingerprints, to be able to find him? He went over to the machine, and watched curiously as a bunch of strange gears flew by, before they settled on one name. When Ellie confirmed it was indeed her dad's name, he was awed. It really did have a huge library of all the people on Earth. Did it have a catalog of all the people in the galaxy? Just as he was about to ask, the Tardis started a grinding, followed by a humming as they shook a bit. Then they had stopped moving, and for a while he wasn't sure if they were travelling or not. But soon there was a thump, and the ship trembled slightly, before all was quiet.

Eric looked warily around, wondering where the space shuttle was. When he didn't see it appear inside, he guessed it must have been outside now. Would they be on the bridge? Watching Ellie run out the doors, he grinned with eager anticipation and ran after. He cleared the doors and looked about in awe as he stood near Ellie. The inside was enormous, and it seemed to be made out of rocks. However when he looked about, he realized they WERE in a cave. Rocks and stalagmites seemed to stud the ceiling, and Eric looked disappointed. He thought they'd be in outer space, and instead they were in some dumb cave.

But when he looked down, he realized they were not alone. There were people wearing astronaut suits. What were they doing underground? And who were all those strange people wearing masks? They also held some strange weapons of some kind. Were they tribal warriors? Eric crept over to Ellie and whispered in her ear, "Is one of those guys your daddy? I don't like the way those masked men are looking at us."

The Doctor walked out of the TARDIS looking out over the crowd of aliens. He spotted a small group of humans in space suits. As he saw the aliens and a small rush of memories into his head. It was almost exactly the same except the astronauts..he guessed this was before the invasion started. He knew that because his previous self showed up after to almost the exact scene.

"Ohhhh! This is why it was so familiar...Hello...we haven't met yet but I am the Doctor," he said with a small grin. With the amount of aliens he would need a plan that he didn't have at the moment so he needed a distraction.

The Sycorax leader was in the middle of saying something when he was interrupted by an odd noise, as the Tardis materialized. They all stopped and stared at the odd blue box that appeared out of nowhere, and then two children burst out, followed by a man. The Sycorax leader snarled at the interruption, and glared at them.

"How did you get in here?!" the alien asked hissing slightly at the group. The Doctor just smiled slightly before he walked out toward the group almost casually.

"My TARDIS brought me here as it will again shortly after I leave I think," he said his hand waving in the air slightly. "I came to rescue the humans...and if you know what is good for you, you will let me have them without a fight."

The Doctor knew that this was mostly a bluff but sometimes the bluff worked. Most times though he had to come up with a clever plan to get out of the trouble the bluff caused. He hoped the children would do something that would distract the aliens.

The Doctor stepped forward and one of the aliens began speaking; english. It struck a funny chord in Eric that they knew how to speak english, and at the same time, it seemed perfectly normal, perhaps because aliens in the movies did all the time. Maybe the astronauts were teaching them? But it seemed awfully demanding, and as the Doctor began to pass Ellie and himself, he sprinted forward alongside the Doctor, lest he leave them behind to the mercy of these weird looking aliens. Then suddenly Ellie shot forward towards the group of astronauts, and Eric grabbed for her.

"No wait, Ellie!" But it was too late, she was already gone, and he watched the alien with the whip worriedly, fearing he might strike at Ellie. But he didn't, he seemed to only glance after her, and go back to glaring at the Doctor. He looked over at Ellie again, finding she'd gone right up to another astronaut and hugged him. That must be her daddy, he thought, and looked up at the alien. The Doctor and the alien seemed to be at a stalemate, and he didn't know what one or the other was going to. So he reached up, and tugged at the Doctor's coat.

"Why is it so mad at you, Doctor? Did you do something to it? And what is it anyway?"

The Doctor grinned slightly knowing that Ellie running to her father was just the small distraction he needed. Though the Alien only looked away for a brief second he was able to reach inside his jacket and grab his sonic hiding it in his hand. He felt Eric tug his jacket and ask him a question but the Doctor was too busy to answer at the moment.

"So from your inaction I am guessing you aren't going to give the humans to me peacefully are you? The Doctor said his smile turning into a small smirk.


The Sycorax leader snarled. "The humans will die!" he said snapping the whip hard on the ships deck making the other Sycorax's hiss at the Doctor as well.

"You aren't the first person to tell me that, and likely not the last but you will fail like the others," he said raising his sonic and pointing it at the "weapon".

"Right, now I just disabled your weapon, I just want you to know that I could destroy you but I won't..would ruin the timeline but I am taking the humans with me understand?" the Doctor said, he face turning serious his bangs blocking out his eyes slightly.

The Sycorax leader looked at his weapon and then back at the Doctor furiously, then ordered his army to attack them. The Sycorax hissed at the Doctor moving quickly toward him their hands out in front of them in anger. The Doctor not really disabling the weapon turned his sonic to the ceiling turning the frequency up slightly as the room went black.

"Ellie, follow the light of my sonic and bring the astronauts, we need to go..now!" the Doctor said yelling out in the darkness as he grabbed Eric's shoulder attempting to pull him toward the TARDIS. The Sycrocax hissed in the darkness confused as to what to do.

A whir and a beep sounded as the Doctor pointed his device at the alien's whip, and Eric stared at him in astonishment as he announced he had disabled his whip. What kind of a device was that? He had thought it was a flashlight, or a lock picking kit. Was it magnetic or electrical, or something else? Even with the alien snarling, and fuming, Eric continued to stare at it in awe, wondering what he could do if he had such a device as that. Then a roar filled the room, and alien upon alien began moving down the rocky incline towards them. Eric gulped as he stood there, routed to the floor, and looked up to the Doctor for help. Could his device shoot laser beams?

"Um, Doctor?" But he didn't have to say more, for the Doctor pointed his magical device at the ceiling, the lights going on. Again, Eric was in awe, as he noted the device could turn off the light too! He would've asked what else it could do, but the Doctor had grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around to face the Tardis. There was no trouble getting Eric to move into the box, for he had no intention on staying out in the room with a bunch of strange aliens, certainly not by himself. Particularly not with that storm of hissing and growling outside. He looked over his shoulder to make sure that Ellie was following, and he beamed when he saw Ellie and the other astronauts move in the door, single file. When the last one was in, he looked out to see the aliens they had just left, and gasped as he saw an alien rushing at the door. He wasn't sure whether to run away or yell, but he knew the Doctor was behind him, and he had to brave. Quickly he slammed the door shut, and although there was resistance, there was the relieving sound of a latch clicking shut. He breathed a sigh of relief as he let go of the latch. They were safe.

The Doctor felt Eric move toward the TARDIS and he squinted slightly into the Darkness as saw the figures of Ellie and Astronauts moving quickly toward the TARDIS as well. After all the humans as got into the TARDIS he slipped in closing the door.

"Well that was fun huh?" he said as he moved past the small crowd near the door. He moved to the console starting to flip levers and pushing buttons. The engines whined to life as the TARDIS lurched into the Time Vortex.

"Right, well we are going back to the future...sorry always wanted to say that," he said smiling at the humans.

"Where are my manners, I am the Doctor and welcome to the TARDIS," he said almost non-nonchalantly like that really wasn't a big deal.

The Doctor waved slightly as Ellie made the introductions to her father. It had been sometime since he had this many people in the TARDIS, he was used to either being alone or having only other person. He walked back over to the console and started flipping more switches.

"Right, Ellie I am taking you back to the present day, otherwise the timeline will become wibbly," he said with a small grin. He looked over at the other astronauts who seemed to be rather shocked by how big it was on the inside. He grinned to himself, he always enjoyed seeing the reactions of new people in the TARDIS. After a few minutes the TARDIS' engines stopped with a resounding thud.

"Ok everyone, last stop Earth..2014," he said with a small grin of satisfaction. He watched as the adults and the two children streamed out the door they had just come in before closing it behind them. He flipped the switch on the console as the TARDIS engines whirred to life again..back into time he went.

When Ellie introduced him, Eric merely waved, before stuffing his hands in his pockets and rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. He wasn't quite sure what to do regarding Ellie's father, so he figured standing there quiet and not saying a word would be safe. Besides, he and Ellie were busy hugging. Instead he looked over towards the Doctor, watching as he flipped switches adn announced he would be taking them back to present day...he assumed that meant when they left earth. Would they have been gone only a second? His eyes focused on the column as it moved up and down, and looked about as a thud sounded. They'd landed!

"So, do we get to go on one more trip? Because..that was two of us..." But the Doctor didn't seem to hear him again, and Eric sighed as he followed the last one out of the Tardis. The Doctor DID seem to have a hearing problem, or at least he didn't seem to want to listen to Eric. Yeah, nobody listens to me, he thought glumly as he shoved his hands into his pockets and stared balefully at an astronaut's back.

Just then a terrible grinding and wheezing came from behind him, and he nearly jumped out of his shoes as he moved away from the Tardis. He turned around, the generated wind blowing his face as he watched the Tardis in awe. He'd been inside when the Doctor had flown the Tardis aboard that other ship, but this was something new. He'd never seen the Tardis disappear! He stared at it open mouthed. Was that how it traveled? It disappeared from one place and appeared in another place? That truly had to be a cool way to travel.

After a few seconds of staring, the magic box was gone. With the Doctor gone, he was reminded that he had skipped classes, and the teacher would probably be in a huff looking for him. Or perhaps she'd never notice he was missing. For that matter, neither would Captain Jack as he was off on yet another assignment. He tried his best to keep the disappointment at bay, but it made itself apparently slightly on his face. Now that he was outside the magic box...he had to return to the everyday boring school that didn't seem to get any father because of the slow students. Looking after the astronauts, he shuffled away from the place where the Tardis had been standing, looking for Ellie.