Story [Doctor Who] Fifteenth Doctor Adventures

Fifteenth Doctor Adventures
A Meeting in Time Part 1
It was a dreary day. It had been pouring rain since there was enough light to see by that morning. Xander Ericson had been bored since he had got to work. He breathed a long sigh as yet another lightning stroke lit up the grey sky. There had hardly any customers all day. He once again paced behind the counter and looked out at the drizzle again. Then suddenly as the wind blew the door open, a young woman with her long dark hair tied in high pigtails entered. She wrung the water out of them as she came to the counter.
“How may I help you?” he asked.

“I would like a Cappuccino, with oat biscuits on the side,” she said, in a West Country accent.

“Sure,” he said as he input the order. ‘A little unusual,’ thought. But then he also noticed that she was dressed in a gothic manner. Certainly not one to conform to what most of society wanted. He also noticed the deep look in her eyes, as if she was older than she appeared. ‘Maybe she is,’ he thought. But it was none of his business!


Five minutes later, he brought the order over to where she was reading from her tablet, while also playing with an unusually thick stylus. “That will be four pounds fifty,” he said.

“Sorry,” the woman said as she pressed a button on her stylus. The transaction took place.

“That’s ok.”

“Wait,” she said as he began to turn.

“Yes?”

“What do you know about that building on the edge of town?”

He knew to which building she was referring to. An ominous looking block of a place, with hardly any windows despite being nearly twenty stories high. “Not much, other than that a tech company built it a year ago. Something to do with robots. I don’t know much more.”

“Seems like nobody really knows.”

“The Council would,” he said.

“I talked to several officials. They didn’t know much other than that the documents required for approval were a little late,” she said with a sigh.

“Sorry I couldn’t help,” Xander said.


She left the café less than half an hour later. ‘Quite strange,’ he thought.


Xander thought that he wouldn’t see her again.


The next day he was having a look at that mysterious building from a nearby Park. The mysterious woman’s questions had inspired his curiosity. The looming concrete façade looked oppressive. It certainly didn’t have any answers.

As he was walking along, he crashed into someone else. “Oof!” she said.

“Didn’t I see you, yesterday?” Xander asked.

“Yes,” she answered. He saw that she had dressed the same as the previous day.

“Xander,” he said, indicating himself.

“Nice to meet you, Xander. You can call me the Doctor.”

‘Doctor? She doesn’t look old enough!’ he thought. “Doctor,” he considered.

“Excuse me, but we have to run,” the Doctor said as she grabbed his hand.

“Run? Why?”

“There she is!” came a cry in the distance.

“That’s why!” the Doctor said.

“Did you break into that building?” Xander asked.

“Running now, answers later. They may think you’re an accomplice.”

‘Of course!’ he thought.


They ran, the Doctor leading the way.


They soon came to the edge of the park, where there was a strange two and half meter tall blue box. “We’ll be safe in there!”

“How?” Xander asked.

The Doctor let go of his hand and clicked her fingers. The doors to the box opened, and the Doctor plunged in. “Come in!” the Doctor said urgently.

“What have I got myself into?” Xander asked himself. He took the plunge and followed the Doctor into the box.


He blinked as his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. But where he had expected a small space where he would have squashed against the Doctor, he could see a large room with some kind of computer system that looked like it came from the previous century in the middle of it. The doors closed, responding to another click of the Doctor’s fingers. “Impossible,” he said.

“Not impossible,” the Doctor said. “The Console Room’s dimensions are as you see them.”

“This room is larger than the box outside!”

“Yes,” the Doctor stated. “And the security people following us won’t be able to get in.”

“What is this place?”

“TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimension in Space,” the Doctor answered. “There’s more to her than this room, but this is where most of the action is. Have a look around, while I’ll fill you in on what I have found out that building.”


Xander looked around. The Console dominated the centre of the room. Consisting of buttons, screens and various mechanisms, it looked like there wasn’t much rhyme or reason to it, other than a large central column made of what looked like glass. Surrounding it were three chairs and many bookshelves filled with books and various disks, including vinyl records. The floor was made of some kind of dark metal, which also extended to what could be seen of the walls.
There were two higher levels, also containing bookshelves, tables and more chairs. There were ramps going up to those upper levels, as well as more doors heading off somewhere else in the ship. “I arrived here two days ago,” the Doctor commented as she looked at a reading on a screen. “The TARDIS picked up strange energy readings from that building. Something is happening there. Something that shouldn’t be.”

“Is that what you do? Interfere?”

“Yes. Because others don’t. I looked around yesterday. That’s one reason why I came to your café. But people didn’t know. So, today I decided to infiltrate. But I found more intense security than expected. That’s when I ran into you.”

Xander sat down on one of the chairs. It was a lot to take in. The Doctor, the TARDIS, that mysterious building. “This is a lot.”

“I know it is, but I need help. I Usually have help in situations like this. But I haven’t had an assistant, or fellow traveller for a while.”

‘Maybe they got overwhelmed,’ Xander thought. But he knew that he wanted to find out. “You know what, I will help you find out what is happening.”

“Good,” the Doctor said as she started typing something into the Console.

“What are you doing?”

“Do you work tomorrow?”

“No. Why are you asking?”

“We’re going forwards,” the Doctor answered. She pressed a button and some of the mechanisms turned briefly before ending up in different positions.

“You mean…” Xander realised.

“Yes. The TARDIS travels in time. They will think I have given up.”

“Right!”

“Hold on!” the Doctor cried as she flipped a lever. The central column lit up and began moving up and down. There was a thud, and a strange Vorrp! Vorrp! sound filled the air around them as vibrations rang through the floor. “We’re on our way,” the Doctor said with excitement.