The Problem with Death: Chapter 2 (Caroline)

I looked at the blue box standing in front of me and sighed. This box was full of magic and wonder, but it was also responsible for screwing up my life. Before this all began I was just a simple super market check-out girl, dreaming of a job as an assistant manager. But now…now I was an intergalactic explorer, getting engaged to Victorian gentlemen and fighting killer dogs.

I should be sat at home watching Deal or No Deal I thought to myself.

Danny stepped out of the box, supported by the Doctor and he almost slipped in the wet mud underfoot.

‘Everything okay?’ asked the Doctor.

‘It’s raining,’ I said, already having pulled my hood up. ‘And it’s muddy as well.’

‘It could be England,’ said Danny, groggily.

‘It’s definitely Xanji-For,’ said the Doctor. ‘Smell the air?’

I sniffed up. It smelt of a weird mix of vodka and cucumber. Not an unpleasant smell, but odd at the same time.

‘So where are these gleaming cities we saw on the TARDIS info panel?’ I asked.

‘We must be on the outskirts of City Nazar.’

‘Can’t we just hop back in the box and try and get closer,’ I said, hopefully.

‘Nope,’ said the Doctor, locking his ship up. ‘I don’t want their scientists getting too close to it. They may be quite a shy race and keep themselves to themselves, but you know what happened to the curious cat, don’t you?’

I frowned. ‘The TARDIS isn’t going to kill them, is it?’

The Doctor thought for a moment, realising that what he had said hadn’t made much sense. ‘Come on,’ he said as he helped Danny to trudge through the mud and through the densely packed forest.

Eventually we approached a small hill and, with some difficulty, clambered up it. At one point I slipped and ended up getting mud all over my backside. Danny offered to help clean me up, but I politely declined. I smiled though. Despite all that had happened to him, Danny was still trying to be the ladies man.

Eventually we reached the top of the hill and stared out across the rainy vista in front of us. There appeared to be a wall around a huge, gleaming metal city. Skyscraper’s towered high into the sky and in the centre of the city was a huge, towering building which dominated the skyline.

‘No bus service then?’ I said.

‘Why build a wall around the city?’ pondered the Doctor.

‘To keep people out?’ I suggested.

‘Or keep people in,’ said the Doctor darkly.

Already I had a sense that the Doctor was about to lead us into danger. I wouldn’t say that he went looking for it, but it did tend to follow him around. Usually when we land on a planet the locals tend to see us as being hostile and we end up in all sorts of problems. I suppose the plus point here was that we had Aleena. She was from Xanji-For and would help sway the locals in our favour if need be.

We clambered and slipped and squelched down the other side of the hill until we reached an old, stone path. The path continued for about another mile towards the city wall.

‘Be on your guard,’ said the Doctor ominously.

‘Why?’ I asked. ‘Surely we’re safe. There’s nothing out here.’

As if to punctuate my stupid statement, something whizzed past my ear and almost hit the Doctor in his shoulder.

‘Get down!’ yelled the Doctor, dropping himself and Danny to the ground.

‘What was that?’ I asked, trying to look for any sign of where it had come from.

The Doctor belly crawled over to the wet, muddy ground where he picked up the object that had just almost-killed us.

‘It’s an arrow.’

‘Who’s firing arrows?’ said Danny, trying to work out what was happening around him.

There was another whoosh and another arrow whizzed just past my head.

‘Crap shots,’ I said, somewhat relieved.

‘I don’t think they’re intending on hitting us,’ said the Doctor. He got to his feet and cupped his hands to his mouth. ‘Okay, okay. We’ve got your message. You’re armed and dangerous. Now show yourselves.’

A few seconds after saying that around five or six blue-skinned, hooded figures emerged from the trees that were dotted at various intervals along the hill.

‘Why are you heading towards the city walls?’ came one, young-sounding male voice.

‘We need urgent medical help,’ said the Doctor.

‘You appeared in that blue box. You’re aliens.’

‘We are indeed,’ smiled the Doctor. ‘Can you take us inside?’

The figure looked to another on his left and then back at us. ‘No.’

‘Oh,’ said the Doctor, expecting a little more than that. ‘Why not?’

‘We don’t live in the city. We are Outer-Zoners.’

‘Well if you don’t mind,’ said the Doctor, hauling Danny to his feet, ‘I’d like to get my friend inside City Nazar. He really does need urgent help.’

‘We can’t let you do that,’ came a familiar, female voice from the back of the group.

‘Aleena?’ I heard the Doctor say, a looking surprised.

‘Got it in one,’ said Aleena, as she removed her hood, pushing herself through the rest of them. She was frowning and certainly didn’t look as chirpy as the last time we saw her.

‘Who are they?’ asked the male.

‘Friends,’ said Aleena. ‘Bring them.’




We were marched about two miles through the rain and mud, deep into the forest and past streams and rivers. Two of the blue-skinned men had carried the almost-unconscious Danny and my feet were killing. Aleena hadn’t said another word since she turned and led us away and the Doctor simply watched on in interest.

Eventually we reached a clearing in the trees. All around were ragged tents and make-shift shelters dotted about, and soon a group of about twenty people - men, women and children - started to gather in a circle around us.

‘Okay, people,’ said Aleena, ‘calm down.’

‘Who’s this lot?’ asked a bearded, young man with what looked like a permanent scowl.

‘Some old friends,’ said Aleena, sitting down on a rock, removing her sandals and rubbing the souls of her feet. ‘We found them near the city walls.’

The man looked from Aleena and then back to us and walked across the clearing to the Doctor.

‘You’re the leader, yes?’ asked the man.

The Doctor stared at him. ‘Not exactly. But these two people are under my protection.’

He nodded and extended his hand. ‘My name is Jettel.’

The Doctor shook his hand.

‘And these people are under my protection.’

The two who were carrying Danny put him down on a bit of bracken on the ground and walked away.

‘What is up with him?’ asked Jettel, crouching down beside the now-unconscious Danny.

‘He’s very, very sick and we need to get him to a doctor,’ said the Doctor.

Jettel looked up at the Doctor and smiled. ‘We have doctor’s here.’

‘Do they have the medical equipment to help him?’

‘Unfortunately not,’ said Jettel. ‘We have no technology of any kind.’

‘By choice?’ I asked, wondering why anyone would choose to live out here in the mud.

‘No, my dear,’ said Jettel, taking my hand and shaking it. ‘We were banished from the city. We are what they affectionately refer to as the Outer-Zoners.’

‘Why were you banished?’ asked the Doctor, crouching beside Danny and checking his pulse.

‘Because we spoke up against Ireel.’

I looked confused, unsure if I’d heard the name before, and Aleena spotted this.

‘Ireel is our God.’

‘So you were thrown out for your beliefs?’ I said, shocked that a civilised society would be able to do that.

‘It’s not that we don’t believe,’ said Jettel. ‘It’s that we have demanded proof. And the Council have brought it upon themselves.’

‘How?’ I asked.

‘Constantly telling the entire planet that they had seen Ireel, and then refusing the people when they wanted to see him.’

The Doctor shook his head. ‘I rarely get involved in religious matters,’ he said, clambering to his feet, ‘and so I’d rather we be left out of this.’

‘Not a chance,’ said Aleena, who was now eating what looked like a red banana.

‘Why not?’ asked the Doctor, clearly a little troubled by the change to Aleena’s personality. ‘What’s happened to you?’

‘What do you mean “what’s happened to me”?’ She laughed.

‘You’re nothing like the Aleena I used to know. The Aleena that helped me.’

‘Maybe I’m not,’ she said, finishing off the banana.

‘But we were friends. We helped each other. You helped me when I was close to death.’ The Doctor crossed over to her. ‘And yet you and your friends just shot arrows towards me.’

‘Doctor,’ said Aleena, looking at him with almost-tears in her eyes, ‘that was almost a year ago.’

‘What?’ I said, looking at the shock in the Doctor’s eyes. It had been only a few days for me, Danny and the Doctor. Only a few days since we had left the lighthouse through the time windows and gone back to Thornsby.

‘It’s true,’ said Jettel, crossing over to Aleena and putting an arm around her.

She turned to him and smiled.

‘Aleena has been with us for many months now.’

‘I returned to Xanji-For. The council took me in for questioning and I spoke out of line. The next thing I knew I had been banished.’

‘And you met these people?’ questioned the Doctor.

‘That’s right.’

‘So why the hostile reception towards me? What have I done?’

‘I thought you may have come back to help me like I helped you. I thought you would have come back and helped to make the President understand why we should be allowed to have our own beliefs.’

‘I don’t interfere with a persons beliefs,’ said the Doctor.

‘But you interfere with everything else,’ said Aleena. ‘You forget that I’ve watched you throughout all of your incarnations. I remember what happened on Mars and Trenzalore and how you took Ivy Coldstone away with you. I’ve seen it all. Yet you won’t help me?’

The Doctor looked as though someone had just picked out his most painful memories and made them even more painful. ‘I didn’t say I wouldn’t help you,’ he said, ‘but I can’t force your council into showing you your God.’

Jettel looked at Aleena and then back to the Doctor. ‘All over our planet there are groups of us, banished like this. There are some reports that on the other side of the world those that don’t believe in Ireel are executed.’

The Doctor shook his head. ‘It sounds like your planet needs to realise that other people have differing opinions. But part of the problem is you.’

‘Why?’ asked Aleena. ‘Surely we should challenge things.’

‘Not to such extremes though,’ said the Doctor. ‘Just because you don’t believe, it doesn’t mean that you can shout it out to the world. Just quietly get along with your own belief system. Every single person in this universe is entitled to their own beliefs.’ The Doctor shook his head. ‘Anyway, I said I wouldn’t get involved in your belief’s or religion anyway.’

‘But you will help us? You will talk to the council?’ asked Jettel.

‘If you’ll help me to get Danny into the city, then I’ll have a word and see if your two factions can come to a compromise.’

I watched the Doctor and Jettel have a conversation with each other on the other side of the clearing. This was one step towards helping Danny, and if it meant that the Doctor had to fight for these people’s beliefs, then I was all for it. I just wanted Danny better.

Aleena came up to me and put a hand on my shoulder. ‘How you doing?’

‘I’m good,’ I said. I lied a little. I still wasn’t that good, but things were starting to feel a little better.

‘Found any answers to yourself yet?’ asked Aleena.

‘No,’ I said, ‘but I’m sure after we’ve helped Danny that we’ll be able get some answers for myself.’

Aleena nodded. ‘Make sure he helps you. Don’t let him skirt around the issue. He’s very secretive, you know?’

‘In what way?’

‘The Doctor lets information out a bit at a time so as not to confuse people. He never tells you the whole story. Not in one go, anyway.’

I looked at the Doctor. Surely he wouldn’t hide things from me. Why would he? Having said that, since they left Thornsby he had been a little quiet with me. I just took it to be concern at what was happening to Danny.

Soon Jettel and the Doctor returned to us. They appeared to have settled on something.

‘It has been agreed,’ said Jettel. ‘Aleena will accompany the Doctor and Danny to City Nazar and Caroline shall remain with us.’

I was a little frustrated with this. ‘Why me?’

‘Because I want someone to stay with these people. Talk to them. And I’d rather you be out of the action.’

‘That still doesn’t make any sense,’ I said.

‘The Xanji-For don’t like outsiders,’ said the Doctor. ‘There’s a good chance we won’t be coming back from this.’

I was shocked. The Doctor looked stern and serious. He meant it.

‘I’d rather not get you killed as well.’

‘But, Doctor-’

‘No,’ said the Doctor. ‘You stay here and stay safe. I’ll get Danny some help and then maybe we can leave.’ He turned to Jettel and Aleena. ‘I do need some help with something else, by the way.’

Jettel nodded.

‘I need to make a slight excursion to my TARDIS.’

‘Why?’ asked Aleena.

‘Because I need to wake up Matthew Cole.’

The Problem with Death: Chapter 1 (Aleena)

I sat in the shuttle waiting for the planet to come into view, a sense of dread making me feel more nervous than I should do. I wasn’t sure I was ready to return so soon. I’d spent such a long time on Equinox, on the lighthouse, enjoying my life watching the Doctor.

But the Doctor had been right, of course. He was always right. I couldn’t spend the rest of my life there. I needed to go home and face my fears and see my family at last.

And so, eventually, the planet appeared on the view screen. Xanji-For. A green and blue world - not too dis-similar to Earth - getting closer and closer, surrounded my satellites and blinking space stations. I could see my country - Areeno - surrounded by the lush, green forests outside the city walls. Not many of my people lived outside the walls, and those that did were said to be violent and vicious and evil. Not my words; the words of the council.

I sighed as the ship got closer and closer. Eventually the communications console beeped and I reluctantly answered it.

‘Please identify yourself,’ came the officious male voice.

‘This is Aleena Vorella.’

There was a pause.

‘Where have you been? You’re on a Missing Persons list.’

‘I’ve been off world,’ I said, suddenly having a longing for the lighthouse again.

‘And why have you returned? You know the council don’t appreciate people leaving the planet.’

‘I know, I know,’ I said. ‘I’ve come home because I have no reason to be travelling anymore.’

There was another pause.

‘Stand by for clearance. The spaceport at City Nazar has a few bays available.’

A few moments later I was given the clearance and took my old, battered shuttle into the atmosphere. It shook violently and soon I could see Areeno getting closer and closer. I aimed for City Nazar and towards the gleaming, towers of the central city. Beyond the towers was the large spaceport, virtually unused save for supply ships and traders coming in. My people didn’t like to leave their planet and so they did most of their trading through interstellar communication.

The ship touched down and I made for the exit.




When I emerged from the shuttle there was a big, burley guy with a clipboard standing beside the engines, a serious look on his face.

‘Aleena Vorella?’ was all he said.

‘Yep, that’s me Chief,’ I said, noting the insignia on his boiler suit.

‘The council want to see you.’

‘Thought they might,’ I said, grabbing bag and slinging it over my shoulder. ‘Lead the way.’

The Chief took me through the doorway and into the main area of the spaceport. It must have been a Silent Day as there was nobody about. The hot sunlight shone through the large, domed glass roof that covered the spaceport. I gazed up at it, forgetting that I had hated the constant sunlight. Don’t get me wrong, I loved warm weather as much as the next person. But all the time….no, that was too much.

I was taken through some double doors that led to the outside. The steel skyscrapers towered over me as the Chief escorted me to a hover-car.

‘The driver will take you to the council building. Don’t try and escape.’

‘Am I under arrest then?’

‘No,’ said the Chief, ‘but the council want to see you before you are allowed to return to your living space.’

I knew what it was about. Abandoning the planet. My people aren’t entirely keen on people leaving the planet and forging their own path. They believe that inhabitants of the planet should stay and work for the good of the home world.

I didn’t believe in that. I wanted to get out there and explore. Except I didn’t really explore, did I? I ended up stuck on a lighthouse watching others explore.

I climbed into the black, sleek hover-car and was whisked through the city. As the skyscrapers whizzed by I gazed all around me. Had I really missed all of this? I doubted it. But looking at it now…well, it was just so beautiful.

Eventually the car brought me to the council building. It’s high-gleaming towers reflecting the blue sunlight off it’s great glass windows.

I stepped out of the car and listened to the faint trickling of the water fountains that lined the elegantly golden-plated road leading towards the door.




Inside the building I was taken along a wood-panelled corridor and towards a large, oak door at the end. I had been here once before as a little girl when my father had requested permission for my mother to travel to the Outer-Zones to look for my sister. She, like my sister, had never returned.

The doors automatically opened and I was led into a huge chamber. The walls were made of marble and various statues of all the former presidents of Areeno towered over me, their gazes almost following me as I made my way up to the council seats raised high up a flight of steps and towards the back wall.

Sitting in the centre was Areeno’s current president - Uthal Hark. His old, blue skin has faded and he moved a monocle to his right eye as I approached.

I made the customary bow to him and then stood, waiting, with my hands behind my back.

‘Aleena Vorella?’ said his old, cracked voice.

‘Yes, my President,’ I replied as respectfully as possible.

He tutted as he looked down at a collection of papers laid out before him. ‘You have been gone for a number of years.’

‘That is correct, my President.’

‘Living on a moon called Equinox.’

‘Again, that is correct, my President.’

‘Why?’

I frowned. ‘Why? Because I couldn’t live here any longer.’

Uthal looked at the middle-aged woman to his right and then back at me. ‘What would Ireel think?’

Ireel was the our God. Many wars had been fought on my planet over our God. The councillors all had proof that Ireel existed, but the Outer-Zoners didn’t believe. They believed in living life for the here and now - much like I did - and had deserted the cities to live in the Outer-Zones.

‘Forgive me, my President,’ I said hesitantly, ‘but if Ireel hadn’t wanted me to go, then why didn’t she stop me herself?’

There was a murmur of disapproval from the twelve councillors.

‘You were part of an interstellar battle,’ came a harsh, male voice from the end of the line of councillors. I looked at him. He was a tall, thin man with a receding hair line and narrow lips. His eyes were black and piggy-like.

‘And who are you?’ I asked, forgetting the President.

‘Forgive me, my President,’ said the man.

Uthal nodded for him to continue.

‘My name is Rix. I’m responsible for Outer World Communication.’ He straightened himself up, looking proud of his title. ‘You were part of an interstellar battle with the Human company named the Eyeglass.’

‘Involved is a strong word,’ I said.

‘You were indirectly responsible for one of their ships crashing on Equinox, destroying the technology within the lighthouse.’

‘The key word there was indirectly. Anyway, what do you care?’ I said, with a little laugh.

‘You will show more respect,’ said the woman beside Uthal.

‘Forgive me, my President, but I have a right to make my own choices.’

‘Not in this city you don’t,’ said Rix.

Uthal motioned for him to sit and smiled down at me. Despite his ignorant councillors, the President had always come across as being a kind man. ‘All residents of Areeno are entitled to their own choices, as long as those choices reside on our planet.’

‘And that’s why I left.’

‘Why?’ asked Rix.

‘Because I couldn’t stand it anymore. I couldn’t stand by and watch friends and family die and you do nothing to stop it.’

‘But they travel to the Afterlife.’

‘Rubbish!’ I said, a little more venomously than I had intended to. ‘You have no proof that the Afterlife exists.’

There were gasps from the chamber.

‘Only the councillor’s have spoken to Ireel, yes?’

Uthal, Rix and the others didn’t respond.

‘So,’ I continued, ‘why should we believe you?’

‘You’re starting to sound like an Outer-Zoner,’ said Rix, glancing quickly towards the President.

‘Maybe they have the right idea.’

‘If you don’t believe in Ireel-’

‘I never said that!’

‘If you don’t believe in Ireel or the Afterlife, then why did you maintain a link back to the planet. At the first sign of you dying you were able to jump straight back to us.’

‘I… I don’t want to die.’

‘You are conflicted,’ said Rix, with a smirk. ‘You don’t believe, but you want to.’

‘Then let me see Ireel,’ she said.

There were more gasps.

‘Let me see our God.’

Uthal looked down at her, his eyes flickering, trying to work me out. And then he shook his head. ‘No one but the councillor’s of each country see Ireel.’ He stood up, helped a little by his advisor, and looked down at me. ‘All you had to do was say sorry, but I’m afraid we can’t have anyone causing descent in our country.’ He picked up a large, brass globe and brought it crashing down on the podium in front of him.

‘My President…’I said. I knew that I had overstepped my mark.

‘Aleena Vorella, it is with the greatest regret that we must take extreme measures. You will be banished to the Outer-Zones were you will hopefully learn from your mistakes. Once you are ready to believe in Ireel, then you shall be allowed to return.’

He brought the globe crashing down again as I felt my insides deflate.

Story 2.4: The Problem with Death

‘Where am I?’ I asked again.
‘Welcome to Hell, Miss Parker.’

The Doctor and Caroline take Danny to Xanji-For - the home world of Aleena - to help with his condition, which has been rapidly deteriorating.

Things, however, do not go to plan when they come up against a hostile Aleena and the Outer-Zoners - people banished for not believing in Ireel, the Xanji God.

The Doctor heads into City Nazar, but soon finds more problems when the Xanji God decides to put in an appearance.

Is Ireel genuine? Has Caroline really been transported to Hell? And can the Xanji finally help Danny, as well as repair the Doctor's regenerating predicament?

This is the fourth story in the second series of adventures starring the Doctor, Caroline, Danny and guest appearances from Aleena and Matthew Cole.

Lockdown: Chapter 8 (To The Beach)

Richard Baker lay on his side on his bed. He was busy flicking through a car magazine, dreaming of the day he had saved up enough money to finally buy a car for himself. It had been a year since he’d left school and he was busy studying sociology in college. He was determined to get a good job out of it. He was determined to have the money to buy a car.

But, more than that, he was determined to prove himself to his father. His mother had died six months ago and it had left a huge hole in his family. His father had been distraught and had never come out of the fog he was in. Richard thought that if he could do well at college and make something of himself then at least his father could at last have something to smile about.

He had been wearing his headphones and had wondered why Town FM had been playing a loop CD for the last fifteen minutes. He’d heard three songs, but no DJ and he was coming close to removing them. He liked the banter between the different DJ’s and just listening to ongoing music was boring.

He was about to pull them from his ears when there came a high-pitched whine. He froze, his face a look of confusion. He started to shake and convulse, the whole bed rattling under his weight.

For a moment he thought, amongst the noise and the white light, that he saw his mother, smiling at him sadly.

But then she was gone.

And so was Richard Baker. His body still and unmoving.




‘Switch it off!’ screamed Caroline as Danny glowed white, his eyes quivering in their sockets.

‘DO NOT TOUCH IT!’ yelled Don. ‘I will have her back. I will. I will.’

Caroline waited until Don wasn’t paying attention and crept up next to Danny.

‘Danny, can you hear me?’ she whispered into his ear. ‘Danny, it’s me, Caz. Your old friend. I don’t know what they’ve done to you, but I know you’re still in there somewhere.’

‘We need to get out!’ hissed Phil.

‘We need to save the station,’ said Lee, unsure of whether to tackle Don to the ground or not.

Gaz simply stood there, not knowing whether to run or fight.

‘Danny, please tell me that you can hear me,’ said Caroline, desperation in her voice.

She was about to give up when Danny’s lips moved.

‘What was that?’ she asked, leaning in closer.

‘Caz…’ was all she could make out.

‘Yeah, it’s me. It’s your Caz,’ she grinned. ‘Remember when I helped you back when we first met the Doctor? Remember fighting them at the church? Well, you need to do it again.’

‘Caz…’

‘Fight them, Danny. Fight them. You and I need to get out of this. We need to get back to the Doctor and go and find out what’s up with me. We need to help the Doctor. We need to help you.’

‘Caz…’

‘Please, Danny, please.’ She grabbed his face and looked into his eyes. ‘You’re my best friend. You have and always will be, and I love you.’

With that Danny rose from his seat and threw out his hand. It was glowing white hot and Don turned to look around in shock.

‘What are you doing? Sit down?’

‘It is not time,’ said Danny in a rasping, growl of a voice. ‘You will not disrupt the normal course of things.’

‘I said sit down,’ said Don, crossing over to Danny.

A bolt of white light flew out of Danny’s hand, knocking Don back. He staggered backwards and then scrambled forwards again, running towards Danny.

‘Lilly has forgiven you, but she cannot forgive you for what you’ve done now!’

Danny flung out his arms and a wave of white light flew from him and hit Don full-on in the chest. Don flew back and hit the control desk.

And then the lights went out.




The Doctor had decided to go with Sophie after all. He laid Caroline down on the sofa in her living room and turned to her mother. She looked sad and drained of energy. Her face was pale and she was on the verge of tears.

‘What’s wrong, Mrs Parker?’ asked Sophie.

‘I just…I never wanted this for her. I wanted her to live a normal, happy life.’

‘And she will do,’ said the Doctor. ‘She’ll have a fantastic life.’

‘But she’s with you now,’ said Cath.

The Doctor sighed. ‘Life has it’s ups and downs. I can’t tell you everything, but I can tell you that your daughter grows up to be a kind and caring woman. She is very, very determined and she knows her own mind. You couldn’t ask for anything more.’

‘But her father. He won’t treat her as his own. It’s like he hates what she is. It’s like-’

‘Hush,’ said the Doctor, holding up a finger. ‘The future is still out there for you. I hope the three of you learn to enjoy it.’




An hour or so later Caroline had awoken in her bed with the worst headache imaginable. She frowned and rubbed her temples. She was sure she had forgotten something, but she couldn’t think what it could possibly be.

She got out of bed, put her slippers on and headed down the stairs. Her mother opened the door to the living room and stepped out, her arms folded.

‘How do you feel love?’ asked Cath.

‘I’ve got a pretty bad headache actually,’ said Caroline, wincing.

‘I’ll go get you a paracetamol,’ said her mum, kissing her on the top of her head.

Her mum returned with a glass of water and a tablet which Caroline washed down quickly.

‘Oh,’ said Cath, ‘by the way, your friend, Danny called.’

‘Is he coming over?’ asked Caroline hopefully.

‘No, I told him you’re still not well enough.’

Caroline looked dejected.

Her mum brushed passed her and then turned back to look at her. ‘I don’t want you seeing him anymore.’

‘Mum,’ said Caroline, ‘I’m almost sixteen. I think I can learn to look after myself now.’

‘He’s a wildcard,’ said her mum. ‘I don’t want you introduced to…dangers.’

‘What dangers?’ asked Caroline, getting more and more angry.

‘There are just…dangers out there. You won’t see him again.’

Caroline made a sound which looked as though it should have been accompanied by a fist punch, turned and then ran up the stairs.

Catherine walked into the living room, sat down and burst into tears. She wasn’t exactly sure what was to come, but she was damned if she was going to let her daughter become involved in anything dangerous - and that included this Doctor.

But at the back of her mind, she wondered if meeting him was inevitable.




‘Where’s he gone?’ asked Caroline, clambering through the wreckage of the mixing desk.

‘Don’s dead!’ said Gaz. ‘He’s dead!’

‘No more than he deserved,’ coughed Lee.

‘Phil!’ called Caroline, ‘where’s Danny?’

Phil coughed and clambered over to Caroline. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I didn’t see anything after the lights went out.’

‘We need to get out of here,’ said Gaz, hearing the sirens in the distance.

‘No way,’ said Lee, ‘I’m not letting the station go to ruin cos of this lunatic.’

‘All the equipment’s bust,’ said Gaz, trying to salvage a few CD’s from the wreckage. ‘It’s useless. If we get caught we’ll get arrested!’

‘You go then,’ said Lee, sitting himself down on the battered remains of the mixing desks chair.

‘There’s a dead man lying there in front of you! You’re insane,’ said Gaz as he made for the exit.

‘We need to find Danny,’ said Caroline. ‘He must have made a run for it.’

Caroline and Phil turned and ran out of the remains of the caretakers office and into the bright sunshine.

Lee watched them go and then turned to the mixing desk. There was still a little power running through it and a CD was jammed inside the player. He checked the readout and then the CD inlay and then picked up the twisted headphones that were lying across Don’s body.




This is Town FM 107.9. We’ve had a bit of a rough morning here. I can hear police sirens in the distance. It looks like time’s finally up for us….I don’t want this to end. It was all such a big, big mistake. There should have been another way. I just wanted to help people. I just wanted to help you all. Are there any of you still out there? Can you still here me?…. This is our last song. Remember us. I hope you enjoyed our broadcasts. This is “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” by Radiohead. Town FM signing off.




Caroline and Phil had spotted Danny boarding a bus headed for the neighbouring town of Yarathorpe. They just missed the bus so instead caught the next one.

‘Why do you think he’s heading up to Yarathorpe?’ asked Phil.

‘I don’t know,’ said Caroline, watching the houses whoosh by. ‘Me and him used to go up to the beach a lot when we were together.’

‘So you think he’s reminiscing or something?’

‘Perhaps he’s trying to find a connection. Somewhere that was special only to us.’

‘Sounds like he still has a thing for you.’

‘I don’t know,’ said Caroline sadly.

‘Do you still have a thing for him?’

She shook her head. ‘We’re friends. We’ll always be friends. But I don’t love him in that way. Not anymore. I met someone and I fell in love with him. My heart’s with him, no matter how far away he is.’

The bus eventually came to a stop on the sea front after about ten minutes. The pier stretched out across the beach and into the sea, but standing on the beach, in the shadow of the pier, was Danny, looking out to sea.

Caroline told Phil to wait there and then raced down the stone steps and onto the sand.

Danny’s eyes were glazed over as she ran up and put a hand on his shoulder.

‘What are you doing out here?’ said Caroline.

‘Thinking,’ said Danny.

‘You’re freezing cold,’ said Caroline, touching his face with the back of her hand. ‘We need to get you inside.’

‘Nobody can help me,’ said Danny. ‘That thing’s trapped in there.’

‘But you stopped them coming through. You stopped them before their time.’

‘The link’s gone, but that one is still inside of me.’

Caroline sighed and walked in front of him. ‘Why did you come here?’

‘To help me to remember who I am.’ He turned to face her. ‘Can you remember when we had both left school?’

‘We came up here,’ smiled Caroline.

Danny nodded. ‘We came up here and got my cousin, Gina, to buy us a couple of bottles of Hooch.’

Caroline smiled, remembering the drunken memory, the sharp taste of the alcoholic soft drink.

‘First time we ever drank,’ said Danny. ‘You looked so beautiful that day, you know.’

Caroline smiled. ‘Danny, if this is about you and I-’

‘It’s not,’ said Danny. ‘I know we’re friends and we’ll never be anything more. And I don’t want to be anything more. Not now. But I have and always will love you.’

Caroline smiled. ‘Look’s like you’re not in that boat by yourself then.’

Danny managed a smile. ‘Fancy a swim?’

‘You must be joking!’ she said, managing to laugh.

‘It didn’t stop you last time. Hey, maybe we’re around here somewhere.’

‘It was bloody freezing. And anyway, it was night back then. I’d never go skinny-dipping in the day!’ laughed Caroline.

Danny laughed and then winced, keeling over. He was pale and his eyes like glass.

‘Danny, we need to get you back to the Doctor. We need to find a way to get that Apparite out of you before it’s too late.’

‘I want to stay here. Stay where I’m happy. I don’t want to be forgotten.’

‘You won’t be forgotten,’ said Caroline, trying not to cry.

‘But it’s taking over me. Every day I feel it taking over me! I am Danny Lennon. I can’t let it take me!’

‘Then come with me. Come with me now. Let’s get this sorted once and for all.’




Around an hour had passed when Caroline, Danny and Phil had finally met up with the Doctor and Sophie. They had both exchanged stories, but the Doctor had left out the stuff regarding meeting the younger Caroline. To Caroline it seemed like the Doctor had had a rare, uneventful day.

Danny was hunched over on the bench beside the TARDIS.

‘What are we going to do?’ asked Caroline.

‘We need to get him somewhere that can help,’ said the Doctor. ‘Aleena’s people can help. They have some advanced equipment on that world.’

‘And kill two birds with one stone?’ asked Caroline, thinking about the Doctor’s ongoing predicament with Matthew Cole and his regeneration.

‘Exactly. Hopefully their scientists can help us.’ The Doctor crossed over to Danny and knelt down beside him. ‘We’re going to take you to where there’s help, Danny.’

Danny nodded, a look of confusion on his face.

‘Everything’s going to be alright,’ said Caroline.

The Doctor stood up. ‘Help him inside. I’ll join you shortly.’

Caroline helped Danny to his feet and took him into the TARDIS.

The Doctor stood there with Sophie, the two of them unsure of what to say to each other.

‘Well,’ said the Doctor, finally breaking the silence, ‘you’re quite welcome to come with me. I’d be over the moon to have you with us.’

Sophie looked as though she couldn’t decide between saying yes or no. She opened her mouth, frowned and then closed it again.

‘It’s entirely up to you,’ said the Doctor.

‘You were right what you said earlier,’ said Sophie, a little sadly. ‘I need to go back home and sort out things with my husband. I need to be there for my daughter.’

‘Don’t let me get in the way of your family.’

Sophie stood there with her hands on her hips, looking around and trying to hide the fact that she had started to cry.

‘Sophie’ said the Doctor, ‘I’m always around. You know that. If you ever need me then give me a call. You have a direct line to the TARDIS now.’

Sophie nodded remembering the mobile phone the Doctor had given her.

‘I won’t write the article,’ said Sophie. Her voice lowered. ‘I know we need to keep this thing quiet from Caroline.’

‘Until I find the right time to tell her,’ said the Doctor, looking worried.

Sophie put a hand on his arm and looked up at him. ‘Tell her. You still have that memory stored in the TARDIS, don’t you?’

The Doctor nodded.

‘Then be honest. Give that memory back to her. Give it to your Caroline.’

‘Maybe. Eventually,’ he said.

She reached up and kissed him on the cheek. ‘Take care of yourself, won’t you?’

The Doctor smiled. ‘You too, Sophie.’

She turned to go and then stopped, taking one more look at him. ‘What about that letter?’

‘Clearly I wrote it.’

‘I think you wrote it to help me,’ said Sophie.

‘That’s effectively a time loop,’ said the Doctor. ‘I wrote it because I saw that I’d written it.’ He smiled to himself.

‘Then you better go and write it and get it sent quickly.’

She smiled and then turned to go.

For a while the Doctor watched her as she disappeared into the crowds of shoppers. And then she was finally gone.

‘Has your friend left?’ asked Caroline, emerging from the doorway.

‘Yes,’ said the Doctor sadly. ‘How’s Danny?’

‘He’s sleeping in his room. Are we really going to get him sorted out?’

‘I hope so,’ said the Doctor. He turned to her, almost told her about what had happened with her fifteen year old self and then stopped himself. ‘I’m proud of you.’

‘Proud?’

‘You were able to tackle those Apparites without even needing me.’

‘It was all Danny,’ said Caroline, slightly embarrassed.

‘Nevertheless, I didn’t know anything about what was going on.’

‘But, Doctor,’ said Caroline, ‘doesn’t this affect what happens in the future?’

‘I don’t see why,’ he said, heading towards the TARDIS. ‘Clearly this was just another, small-scale attempt at breaking through to our universe.’

‘But do you reckon we’ll ever find out exactly who they are? That bloke - Don - said that there were others, interested in stopping them coming through.’

‘Caroline,’ he said, putting an arm around her, ‘I do have a plan, believe it or not. But first we need to get Danny to Aleena’s home world and save him. And then I have every intention of finding this woman called Jayne and getting some answers out of her.’

‘Good,’ said Caroline, ‘because I need answers about myself as well, and I’m sure there’s some connection.’

The Doctor stopped himself and looked guilty. He knew a hell of a lot of truths about her, but he wasn’t sure what he should do. Instead he shook his head clear and went inside the TARDIS.

‘Caroline!’ called a familiar voice.

Caroline turned and saw Phil running down Victoria Street towards the TARDIS.

‘Just give me a minute,’ said Caroline.

The Doctor nodded and entered the time machine.

‘Were you going without saying goodbye?’ said Phil.

‘I’m not very good at goodbyes,’ said Caroline with a weak smile.

Phil flung a paper into her face. ‘They arrested Lee. They found him babbling to himself about aliens and monsters.’

‘How are they explaining it all?’

‘The police say high frequencies causing people to have seizures.’

Caroline sighed. ‘I guess the truth would be too much. And Gaz?’

‘Lee’s that screwed in the head he hasn’t even mentioned Gaz or me or any of the others.

‘Good,’ said Caroline. ‘I think Gaz was caught up in something he had no control of.’

‘Me too. He wasn’t such a bad person.’ Phil stuttered. ‘Are we ever going to see each other again?’ asked Phil.

Caroline smiled. ‘Maybe. I’m still sort of around in the future, you know?’

‘I’ll be around your age in 2012.’

‘Yep,’ said Caroline.

‘Take care, won’t you?’ said Phil.

Caroline kissed him on his forehead. ‘You too. And stay away from dodgy blokes with illegal radio stations.’

Phil laughed. ‘I will do.’

‘And get yourself into college and go out there. Get a grip on life. Have a laugh. That’s the best way forward.’

Phil nodded. ‘See you Mrs Fieldgate.’

She smiled at the name as she went into the TARDIS.

A few seconds later the blue box dematerialised into thin air as Phil watched on in surprise. He then smiled, turned and headed home.

As he passed the church area he saw two woman - one with long, curly blonde hair and the other with her reddish-blonde hair tied back. She was speaking with an American accent and the other spoke in English. They seemed to be concerned about something. Phil was sure he heard the American woman mention Town FM, but he just continued to walk past them, happier in life…and wondering if his mum was going to forgive him for screwing up the job interview…




In the TARDIS the Doctor had just finished writing the letter and popped it into an envelope, sealing it with a blue drop of wax.

‘So we’re on course for Xanji-For then?’

‘Yes,’ said the Doctor. ‘I’ve just got to pop this letter in the post.’

Caroline shook her head. ‘You and a letter. You never make any sense. Hey,’ said Caroline, frowning, ‘I’m really surprised we never bumped into my mum or dad or even me.’

The Doctor shifted uncomfortably and tried not to meet her gaze. ‘What were you doing back in 1998?’

‘Loads of stuff,’ said Caroline. ‘I know I was pretty ill during that month though. It’s all a bit of a blur really. I do remember being disappointed that Town FM had gone off the air though. The rest of the memories…well, like I said - bit of a blur.’

The Doctor tapped the console. The part that he had used to extract the memory from the younger Caroline.

‘Oh well,’ said the Doctor, ‘hopefully it’ll come back to you one day.’

‘Yeah,’ said Caroline distantly. ‘I better go check on Danny.’

The Doctor watched her go and then sighed, leaning with his head down against the console. He would tell her, but only when the time was right.




Sunday May 10th, 1998




Caroline heard the knock on her window. She pulled the headphones off from her ears and turned to look behind her. Standing there at the window was Danny looking nervous and worried. She frowned, clambered out of the bed and opened the window for him.

He clambered inside and shook his head. ‘Never doing that again.’

‘I thought they only did it in the films,’ said Caroline groggily.

‘It can stay in the films.’

Caroline patted the bed. ‘Sit.’

‘How you feeling?’ asked Danny, sitting next to her.

‘Still like rubbish, but a bit better.’

He smiled and kissed her on the forehead.

‘You can’t be here though,’ said Caroline. ‘If mum catches you then I’m dead.’

‘She won’t catch me.’

They both heard a noise outside and Danny leapt off the bed. ‘I need to get revising anyway.’

‘Yeah me too.’

‘When you’re feeling better though,’ he said, holding a finger up as he clambered back out of the window.

‘Danny,’ said Caroline, a look of confusion on her face.

‘Yeah,’ said Danny.

‘Have you ever had one of those weekends where everything seems a blur.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I don’t know…I just feel like something’s…missing.’

‘Me of course. We haven’t seen each other since Friday afternoon at the park. It’ll be the flu,’ he smiled.

They heard another sound.

‘I’ll see you later,’ he said, clambering down the sloping roof.

‘Love you,’ said Caroline.

Danny looked back up at her and smiled. With a final wink he disappeared from view.

Caroline returned to her bed and soon fell asleep. In her dreams she saw a bald man standing in a church-like room. But the dream soon faded and she forgot.


THE END

Next time: "The Problem with Death" - The Doctor, Caroline and Danny arrive on Xanji-For - Aleena's homeworld - looking for help with the ailing Danny, but they soon find themselves embroiled in a new adventure when the Xanji God, Ireel, puts in an appearance.

Lockdown: Chapter 7 (Donald)

The Doctor opened the TARDIS doors and Sophie stepped inside. She smiled at the 15 year old Caroline and then crossed over to the Doctor. She looked all around her, her eyes full of wonder. She couldn’t help but smile to herself.

She soon realised that the Doctor was ignoring her wonderment, simply hunched over the console.

‘This is amazing,’ said Sophie. ‘Much, much more than I expected.’

‘Have you come to take me home?’ asked Caroline.

Sophie looked at her sadly. ‘Hopefully,’ she said. She crossed over to the Doctor. ‘I thought the idea was that she wouldn’t wake up.’

‘I couldn’t stop her. I tried to sedate her, but it didn’t work.’

‘Then surely this is changing her future,’ she said in a hushed voice. ‘She’ll remembering meeting you now.’

‘I know,’ hissed the Doctor, a dark look in his eyes. ‘That’s why I’ve called you here. She needs to be taken home, and not by me.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I need to wipe her memory,’ he said as quietly as possible, and she needs as little contact with me as possible.

‘So everything’s okay then?’

‘No,’ snapped the Doctor. ‘Everything is not okay.’

‘Okay, okay,’ said Sophie, frowning, ‘I was only asking.’

He turned to her and his expression softened a little. ‘I’m sorry, Sophie. It’s just that this process is incredibly dangerous. I have to carefully draw out the memories and dump them into the TARDIS telepathic circuits. But it’s like pulling away a block of wood from the Jenga game. If you’re not careful you’ll end up pulling everything. I could cause her entire memory to collapse, leaving her like a vegetable.’

Sophie shook her head. ‘Surely it’s too dangerous.’

‘I can’t change what’s happened to Caroline - my Caroline. It’s not fair. I need to remove her memory and you need to take her home. And her mother needs to keep it a secret as well. That shouldn’t be hard though considering the lies she’s told to her all of these years. How is she by the way?’

‘Happy knowing that I’m collecting her daughter,’ said Sophie. ‘So we better do this quickly.’

‘Is anybody going to explain this to me?’ came Caroline’s voice. ‘All you’ve told me is that we’re in some hi-tech hospital because of the fit I had.’

The Doctor turned and smiled. He crossed over to Caroline and put a hand on her shoulder. She shrugged him off her.

‘I’m going to make you better. And then this lady’s going to take you home.’

‘Don’t talk to me like I’m a kid,’ said Caroline, arms folded.

‘Of course not,’ smiled the Doctor, guiding her towards the console.

He opened a small panel amongst the controls on the console.

‘Place your hand on here. It will clear your head and make you feel better.’

‘Never heard of medicine that works like that,’ said Caroline.

‘Trust me.’

‘I don’t even know you.’

‘You will do,’ said the Doctor, grabbing her hand and placing it on the white panel.

Caroline was about to protest when she suddenly went stiff and stood there with her eyes wide-open and in a trance.

‘Is she okay?’ asked Sophie.

‘Just be prepared to catch her if she falls,’ said the Doctor. ‘And keep your fingers and toes crossed that this works.’




Don surveyed the room and then turned to Danny. He crossed over to the young man and tapped him on the top of his head. Danny’s eyes snapped open.

‘Are you okay, lad?’ asked Don

‘Are we free?’ asked Danny.

‘Not yet,’ said Don. ‘Soon, hopefully.’

A tear fell from the corner of Danny’s eye and he looked like he was fighting back the emotion.

‘What are you doing to him?’ asked Caroline.

‘Ah, Miss Parker,’ smiled Don.

‘It’s Mrs Fieldgate,’ said Caroline.

Don burst out laughing, his big, booming voice filling the room. ‘Parker. Fieldgate. Farrington. None of those names really matter.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Caroline.

‘You really have no idea, do you? You’re as much in the dark as these fools in here,’ he said, indicating Lee, Gaz and Phil.

‘Hey!’ said Lee. ‘I’ve helped you and your alien friends out.’

‘They’re not aliens,’ said Don, crossing over to the mixing desk and flicking a few switches. ‘They’re Human beings.’

‘What?’ asked Caroline. ‘Humans?’

Don turned to her and smiled. ‘Have you ever heard of the Ancestor’s, my dear?’ he asked.

Caroline thought back. She had heard of them. April Nivere, who they met on Theen, was one of them. The Doctor had been trying to find out more information but hadn’t been successful.

‘Who are they?’ asked Caroline.

‘The people I used to belong to,’ said Don. ‘We were responsible for what happened to the ones trapped on the other side. Except the others weren’t interested in helping them to come through. They were only interested in stopping them.’

‘And you felt differently?’ said Caroline.

‘I felt that we should be doing more to help them. So I left them.’

‘And killed people?’ suggested Phil.

‘I don’t like killing people, but the only way they are going to come through is by inhabiting other bodies. The person dies when the body rejects the being.’

‘And this doesn’t bother you?’

Don got up from the chair and crossed over to Caroline. ‘Those people are lost and alone and are frightened. They simply want to come home. It’s not their fault for what happened to them.’

‘Then who’s fault is it?’ asked Caroline.

‘Jayne. And her idiot brother who shouldn’t have even been there.’

Lee had had enough and stepped between Caroline and Don. ‘We are doing all we can. You have to give us more time.’

‘I can’t,’ said Don. ‘I need to bring them through now.’

‘No way,’ said Caroline, ‘they can’t come through now.’

Don laughed. ‘Let me guess, they try and make an attempt in the future?’

‘How do you know?’ asked Caroline.

He tapped the side of his head. ‘There’s a lot more you don’t know about me and the Ancestors.’

‘We can’t do it,’ said Lee.

‘We need to broaden the band-width. Transmit the signal to everyone listening to Town FM.’

‘But there are hundreds all over the town listening,’ said Gaz, worriedly. ‘You’ll kill them all.’

‘But a few out of those hundred may accept my dimensional friends. Surely that’s worth it? To save them? We can’t afford to refine it anymore. I need to get them out.’

‘Why? Why are you so desperate?’ asked Caroline.

‘Because my wife is over there,’ said Don. He looked like he was about to break down, and then suddenly composed himself. ‘We need to help them all.’




The Doctor picked up the younger Caroline, who had collapsed into Sophie’s arms, and took her over to the sofa.

‘Is she alright?’ asked Sophie.

‘She will be,’ said the Doctor, rubbing the back of his head thoughtfully. ‘I’ve managed to erase the last hour or so. She’ll hopefully wake up, slightly groggy, but her mother will help to convince her that it’s just her sickness.’

‘Do you think she will?’ asked Sophie, sitting down next to the youngster and looking at her thoughtfully.

‘I’m sure she will. Her mother’s determined to protect her, even if that means Caroline hating her.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Caroline told me that she eventually fell out with her parents. They tried to protect her even when she’d gotten older, but she wouldn’t have it. They were overbearing and they managed to drive her away.’

‘Then if Caroline knew now-’

‘She can’t know now.’

‘Then are you going to tell her the truth at last?’

‘How can I?’ asked the Doctor, leaning against the TARDIS console. ‘The woman’s been through enough pain and heartache to last a lifetime. She spent an entire year in the early 20th century. She was meant to marry the man she fell in love with and I had to pull her away from all of that. No matter how hard I try, I always seem to end up destroying somebody’s life.’

‘You haven’t destroyed mine,’ said Sophie, giving him a sad smile.

‘But I will do,’ said the Doctor.

‘What do you mean by that?’ asked Sophie, frowning.

‘What are you running from?’

Sophie looked uncomfortable and straightened herself up, unable to make eye contact with the Doctor. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I can’t help but notice the indentation on your finger.’

Sophie instinctively touched her finger and tried to hide it.

‘You were married, weren’t you?’

She looked down and nodded.

‘You told me that you weren’t. What happened?’

‘I became too wrapped up in my job,’ she said sadly. ‘He ended up leaving. He took my daughter away from me.’

‘And so you came looking for me?’

She nodded.

‘To escape?’

She nodded again.

The Doctor crossed over to her and crouched on the floor, bringing his face level with hers. ‘Sophie, this life is dangerous. It’s wonderful and amazing, but it’s unpredictable. You never know what’s around the corner. As much as I try, you could end up dead.’

‘I was scared,’ said Sophie. ‘I was scared to settle down with him and Abby.’

‘Settling down doesn’t mean you stop having an exciting life. You should never think like that.’

‘I know, I know,’ said Sophie, drying her eyes. ‘I’ve let her down.’

‘It’s not the end though, is it?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘There’s always a chance. You can go back to Seattle and repair things.’

‘But the article-’

‘I’m always around,’ said the Doctor. ‘I’ll drop in on you one day.’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Think about it,’ said the Doctor. ‘Surely your daughter is more important than me and a silly old article.’

Sophie nodded. Putting it like that made things seem much more clearer.

‘Now, come on,’ said the Doctor, getting to his feet. ‘I need to get this young lady back to her mother.’

‘Will you tell her then?’ asked Sophie again.

The Doctor sighed. ‘I have a plan.’




Don had hooked Danny back up to the machine and had activated the console. He was busy checking readings and information. Daniel looked as white as a ghost, his eyes blank, but his mouth was quivering. It looked like he was trying to say something, but the words wouldn’t come out.

‘You need to stop this,’ said Caroline.

‘Yeah,’ said Lee, ‘the stations been playing dead air for the last few minutes.’

‘I’ve got a CD on loop,’ said Don, putting on the headphones. ‘Your listeners are still out there.’

Phil shook his head. ‘What do we do?’

Caroline crossed over to Danny, but Don quickly turned around. He had a gun trained on her.

‘You’re insane!’ said Caroline, feeling completely helpless.

‘Not insane. I just know my path.’ Don looked back at the readouts and then closed his eyes. ‘We’re ready.’

Lockdown: Chapter 6 (Teen In The TARDIS)

The Doctor dropped to the ground beside Caroline and whipped the headphones off from her head. The high-pitched whine was still coming from the speakers, and so the Doctor stamped on the device, knocking the batteries out of their compartment. He knelt down and checked Caroline’s pulse.

‘It’s very faint,’ he said. ‘I need to get her to the TARDIS to run some tests.’

‘Wait,’ said her mum. ‘What’s happened? She needs an ambulance.’

‘The hospital won’t be able to help her,’ said the Doctor, picking her up into her arms.

‘But she’s sick. She needs to go to the hospital.’

‘Mrs Parker,’ said the Doctor, sternly, ‘your daughter is in need of medical help. Help that she can only receive from me. She has just suffered from an alien attack. Now if you don’t allow me to leave with her then she may well die,’

‘Then I’m coming with you,’ said Cath, grabbing her coat from the peg in the hallway.

‘No. I need you to stay here. The less you know the better.’

‘But she’s my daughter!’

‘Mrs Parker,’ said Sophie, ‘the Doctor knows what he’s doing. Believe me, it’s for the best.’

‘How can you expect me to sit by while my daughter is taken away by a strange man?’

The Doctor sighed and rolled his eyes. ‘Sophie, stay with her. Make sure she doesn’t leave.’

‘But you need my help,’ said Sophie.

‘Sophie,’ said the Doctor, moving closer to her, ‘Caroline’s entire existence hangs in the balance here. I need to get her to the TARDIS and make her better. Then I need to make sure she doesn’t wake up. Can you imagine the implications of her meeting me now? What would happen to my Caroline?’

Sophie nodded, realising she couldn’t argue with that.

‘Stay here,’ he said again, holding a finger up to the two women.




Back in the radio studio Lee was looking frustrated. He pulled the headphones off his head and leant back in the chair.

‘Did it work?’ asked Gaz, checking on the almost-zombie-like state that Danny had entered.

‘No,’ said Lee. ‘One of them tried to break through again, but somebody stopped it.’

‘Who?’

‘How the hell should I know?’ asked Lee, rounding on Gaz. ‘What a stupid bloody thing to ask!’

Lee got up and walked over to Danny. He crouched down in front of him and looked him in the eyes. He flicked the side of Danny’s face with his finger and frowned.

‘What are you doing?’ asked Gaz.

Danny managed a half-hearted smile.

‘If you’ve got one in you, mate, then you need to help the others. They’re trapped in their own world and they want to come out.’

Danny didn’t respond this time.

‘It’s a waste of time,’ said Gaz, crossing over to the mixing desk and sitting down. ‘We should never have gotten involved in this. You’ve melted his brain.’

‘They promised me power.’

‘You? Power? Don’t make me laugh.’

Lee was about to get up and beat the living crap out of Gaz when Danny’s hand quickly snatched at Lee’s arm.

Lee tried to break free but couldn’t.

Danny turned his head to look at Lee, his eyes blank. ‘It is too early.’

‘What do you mean it’s too early? Let me go!’

‘It is too early. You will not succeed.’

‘Let go!’ said Lee, finally breaking free of Danny’s grip. ‘We’ll do things how I want them done. You will help and you will do as a I say.’




Down Devonshire Avenue, Phil was just leaving his house. Caroline was waiting on the pavement outside his front garden and gave him a little wave when he turned onto the street.

‘What are you doing?’ asked Phil. ‘I missed you this morning.’

‘I didn’t want to wake you,’ said Caroline. ‘And I certainly didn’t want to wake your mum.’

Phil grinned. ‘She’d be thinking all sorts of things. And with a woman your age-’

‘Hey,’ said Caroline, ‘I’m not that old. Thirty isn’t old nowadays.’

‘You look good for it,’ smiled Phil. ‘Anyway, why didn’t you knock on the door?’

‘I don’t like disturbing people, but I figured you’d be out eventually anyway.’

The two of them continued to walk the tree-lined avenue.

‘Where are you heading?’

‘The station,’ said Phil. ‘I’m due on in an hour.’

‘Good,’ said Caroline. ‘I couldn’t find my friends this morning, so I’m going to tag along with you instead.’

‘The more the merrier,’ said Phil, ‘but try and stay out of Lee’s way, won’t you?’

‘I intend to,’ said Caroline, ‘and I also intend to get to the bottom of what happened at Gulliver’s last night.’

‘What do you think happened?’ asked Phil, inquisitively.

Caroline sighed. ‘I don’t know. Something coming from your radio station killed those people.’

‘But how can a radio station kill people?’ laughed Phil.

‘When you’ve been doing this for as long as I have you start to believe that anything is possible.’

‘Doing what?’

Caroline turned and smiled. ‘Fighting aliens.’

Phil simply stood there, opened mouthed, whilst Caroline continued.

She turned to look back at him. ‘Come on. I’ll tell you on the way.’




She opened her eyes. Everything was out of focus. There was a sound. A humming sound coming from all around her. And her out of focus surroundings seemed to have a green glow to them. She felt around. She was on something soft. It was a sofa. She was aware of movement in the room and she tried to sit up. She felt like her brain had become dislodged in her head and was floating around, making her feel dizzy.

She heard a man’s voice.

‘No, no, no,’ he said anxiously.

She felt his hand on her forehead and she lay back down again.

‘You must rest, Caroline. You’ve had an accident, but I’m going to help you. Try and sleep,’ came the man’s voice.

‘I…I don’t want to…sleep,’ she said, dozily.

‘This can’t happen. This can’t happen,’ she heard the man say as he walked away from her.

She heard him come back and then felt something sharp prick the side of her neck.

‘No!’ she said, panicking and pushing the man away.

‘Trust me,’ said the man, ‘this is the best for everyone.’

‘I don’t even know you,’ said Caroline, sitting up, clambering off the sofa and falling onto her hands and knees.

Her vision was becoming more and more sharper and she could make out some sort of mushroom-shaped console in the middle of the room. A glass cylinder rose from it towards what looked like a high-ceiling. An almost church-like ceiling.

‘You must rest,’ came the man’s voice again. ‘Please, Caroline, you don’t know what you’re doing.’

Caroline scrambled backwards until she hit the console behind her. The shape of the man was coming into focus. He had a bald head and wore a long, black jacket with a blue shirt. He looked extremely worried and was holding a syringe.

‘What are you going to do? Drug me?’

‘You can’t be here. Not now. You had an accident.’

‘Yes,’ said Caroline, remembering, ‘there was some sort of sound from my headphones.’

‘What were you listening to?’

‘Town FM,’ said Caroline, rubbing the back of her neck. ‘What does it matter to you?’

‘It’s very important. It could mean the difference between life and death, but you must let me inject you.’

‘No chance, you weirdo,’ said Caroline, trying to back up and realising that she couldn’t.

‘I’m not a weirdo,’ said the man, putting the syringe down, ‘but this is all wrong. You’re not supposed to meet me now. Not yet.’

‘What do you mean? You’re not making any sense.’

The man sat down on the sofa with his head in his hands. His hand went into his jacket pocket and he pulled out a pill, swallowing it quickly.

‘Have I been kidnapped?’ asked Caroline, wondering why the man was taking pills.

‘No,’ said the man. ‘Your mum knows exactly where you are.’

Caroline scrambled to her feet. ‘Then why can’t I see her?’

Her vision was now in sharp focus as she looked around the large, stone-like room. Green, glowing circles were set a few inches into the walls in regular patterns.

The man sat there, his eyes closed in abject defeat.

‘Tell me where I am!’ yelled Caroline.




Across town at the school caretakers store room, the older Caroline had arrived with Phil. Phil knocked on the door.

A few moments later there was a voice. ‘Who is it?’

‘Rolf Harris.’

The blue double doors of the store room opened and Gaz beckoned them inside.

‘A password?’ asked Caroline.

‘Gotta have a password,’ said Phil.

Lee turned in his chair to face them and almost had a fit when he saw Caroline.

‘What the hell is she doing here?’

‘Charming!’ said Caroline.

‘How many more strays are you gonna bring in, Phil?’

‘Stray?!’

‘You’re not one of us,’ said Lee, getting up out of the chair and crossing to Caroline. ‘Get out now.’

Caroline was about to say something when she noticed out of the corner of her eye, a familiar figure sat in the dingy light in the corner.

‘Danny!’ she said, relieved.

‘Do you know him?’ asked Gaz.

Caroline crossed over to the sleeping Danny and knelt down in front of him.

‘He asked you a question,’ said Lee.

‘What have you done to him?’ asked Caroline, ignoring the question. ‘What’s happened?’

‘Nothing,’ growled Lee.

‘It’s clearly not nothing,’ said Caroline, lifting Danny’s eyelids and staring at his pale eyes, the pupils dilated.

‘Get her out of here, Phil,’ said Lee.

‘Something’s going on here,’ said Phil, crossing over to Danny and Caroline.

‘Get them both out of here,’ said Lee to Gaz.

‘Let go,’ said Phil, shrugging off Gaz.

‘You’re sacked, Phil!’ shouted Lee. ‘Get out!’

Phil rounded on Lee, his face a look of fury. ‘You can’t sack me, this isn’t a job. It’s a bloody hobby, and you two seem to have forgotten that.’

Caroline turned to face the two men. ‘That’s right,’ she said. ‘Where you responsible for what happened at Gulliver’s last night?’

‘What?’ asked Lee, trying to look innocent.

‘Everybody in that club was killed,’ said Phil, ‘and they were piping through Town FM, just like those people who had died. They were all listening to our station.’

‘Who are you?’ asked Caroline.

Lee looked at Gaz who looked back at his friend with fear in his eyes.

‘You might as well tell us now,’ said Phil. ‘What the hell’s been going on here?’

Lee went back to the mixing desk, sat down and flicked a few switches. A CD changed in the stereo system and then he turned back to Caroline and Phil.

‘Well?’ said Caroline.

‘I started Town FM last year. We were doing well. We got a lot of calls, a lot of e-mails. The kids of this town love us. Then I met this bloke in the White Hart. Called himself Don - probably short for Donald or something. Anyway, Don said that he wanted us to do a job for him. Just wanted us to hook up some bits of equipment and occasionally switch it on.’

‘Did you know any of this?’ asked Caroline to Phil.

‘No,’ he said, shaking his head in bewilderment.

‘So Don gave me a bit of money and we hooked it up. Then he called us about a month ago and told us to turn it on. No probs.’

‘Didn’t you ever ask why he wanted you to turn this machine on or even what it was?’ asked Caroline, arms folded.

‘Listen, love, when you’re handed 500 quid, you don’t ask questions. Anyway, he would call every now and then and we’d switch the machine on. No problem. Then one day we blew the machine and I ended up having to pay him to get a replacement. And then he kept meeting us more regularly, upgrading the device and soon we were paying him each time he did it. He said if we didn’t, he’d kill us.’

‘And how does Danny fit into this?’

‘Well the other day, Don finally gave us a bit more info. I told him I wouldn’t be doing Town FM anymore and I’d shut it all down. So he got scared and told me. He said there were creatures that lived out there, in another dimension. They were trapped and wanted to come through. Every time we switched on the machine they’d try to filter into any random person that was listening to us at the time. The only problem is that every time we did it the person would die and the aliens would be trapped.’

‘Then why keep doing it?’ asked Phil, looking distraught at what Lee was telling him.

‘Because I didn’t want to die,’ he said through gritted teeth. ‘Don kept telling us to adjust frequencies and try again.’ He looked across to Danny. ‘Then I found him. Just wandering the streets. He was interfering with my phone, same as what the alien signals do. Didn’t take me long to figure out that he was possessed by one of them. A real life alien living inside him.’

Caroline was becoming more and more worried. So the things that where coming through the radio waves were the same creatures - the Apparites - that she, Danny and the Doctor had faced in the future - in 2011. But she knew that they hadn’t come through in 1998. To be fair, most of this month was a hazy memory for her. She had been ill with the flu and it was a blur, but she was certain that no aliens had broken through and invaded, certainly not in the way that they were due to in 2011.

And what worried her was the confirmation that an Apparite definitely was still in Danny. She and the Doctor had known it, but this was the last bit of confirmation she needed.

‘So what happened then? You hook him up or something?’ she asked.

‘Exactly,’ said Lee. ‘He amplified their power. He helped them to come through stronger.’

‘But it still failed, didn’t it?’ asked Caroline. ‘You thought that targeting a mass group would help the Apparites - sorry, the aliens - more, but they ended up killing all of those kids in the club.’

‘A side effect,’ said Lee. ‘We’ll get there in the end.’

‘You’re just a monster,’ said Caroline.

‘And this Don? Why is he helping them? What does he want?’ asked Phil.

‘That’s a good question,’ said Gaz. ‘We don’t know much about him.’

Suddenly the door to the store cupboard was flung open. Daylight streamed in and standing there, in shadow, was a man in a long, brown mac. He wore a beanie hat and as he stepped into the room Caroline noticed he was unshaven and had small, piggy-like eyes.

‘Bloody hell,’ said Lee, getting up. ‘I wasn’t expecting you.’

‘No,’ said the man. He turned to Caroline and smiled. ‘You must be Caroline Parker. Caroline Parker aged 30, yes?’

‘Yes,’ said Caroline, a little unsure of this new man. ‘Who are you?’

‘I’m Donald Turner, and I know exactly who you are and where you come from.’

He smiled.

Caroline didn’t know what to think.

Lockdown: Chapter 5 (The Truth)

Saturday, May 9th 1998




The night had turned into early morning, and after Caroline and Phil had given their statements to the police, they had been allowed to go home.

Phil had offered Caroline his bed whilst he slept downstairs. They had managed to sneak in past his mum, but getting out the following morning would be another matter.

Caroline lay there for a long, long time, wondering what had happened to those poor people on the dance floor. It had had something to do with Lee and something to do with Town FM and she was determined to get to the bottom of it, but she needed the Doctor’s help. He was the expert on things like this and she wasn’t too keen on getting involved without him by her side. She already felt bad for running out on him and then staying out all night. He and Danny would be getting worried.

As soon as it was light she left a note for the still-sleeping Phil and quietly made her way out of the house.

She made her way down Devonshire Ave with it’s large, grand houses all with their curtains closed to the early morning light. The leafy avenue shielded her from the little sprinkling of rain that had started to fall.

Eventually she turned into Weelsby Road and made her way down Farebrother Street and towards town. She’d go back to the TARDIS and wait there.




Back at the TARDIS the Doctor hadn’t slept. He had something on his mind and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He had accessed the TARDIS databanks and was busy looking up information on the time period when he had a thought. A thought that maybe he should leave well alone.

He could find out some answers for Caroline. It wouldn’t have to involve her, but he could at least try and visit her parents and discover some answers. As long as the younger, fifteen year old Caroline didn’t see him, it’d be ok.

But it was a risk.

He continued to stare at the screen which showed the address of the Parker residence, when there was a knock on the TARDIS door.

Outside, the Doctor opened the door, and standing there, in the cold-grey morning light, was Sophie.

‘Good morning,’ said the Doctor, unsure of whether to smile or be surprised.

‘Hey,’ said Sophie, a little nervously. ‘I…I know it’s early, but I couldn’t sleep.’

‘Me neither.’

‘So I thought I’d pop round and ask if you’d care for some breakfast.’

‘Absolutely,’ said the Doctor, grabbing his coat and putting it on. ‘Where do you suggest?’ he asked, locking up the TARDIS.

‘There’s a café just around the corner. They opened about ten minutes ago.’

‘Sounds good to me.’

They made their way past the bus station and river and arrived at “Sam’s Café” on the corner of Town Hall Street and Victoria Street.

They entered and the Doctor ordered them two full English breakfasts and two mugs of tea. The Doctor fiddled around in his pockets and brought out a whole array of different coinage (including what looked like a cat’s toy mouse) until Sophie ushered him away and paid for it herself.

‘Sophie,’ said the Doctor, slurping on his steaming hot tea, ‘I was wondering if you could help me out with something.’

‘Sure,’ said Sophie.

‘I know you want to write this piece on me, but I’ve been giving it a lot of thought. I’m not sure if I want my entire life broadcast across the national newspapers.’

‘Okay,’ said Sophie slowly, sounding a little disappointed. ‘You were all for it last night.’

‘I’ve had a good think though and I reckon, rather than doing a piece on me, you should do a piece on how people can be more open to what’s around them. List invasions and aliens, but maybe keep me out of it.’

‘But people need to know your story.’

‘They really, really don’t,’ said the Doctor, trying to let her down as gently as possible. ‘What they need is help.’

Sophie smiled, a little sadly. ‘I guess you’re right. We don’t want millions of people trying to track you down.’

The Doctor laughed. ‘Thank you.’ He took a bite of a sausage. ‘And there’s another thing.’

‘Go on,’ said Sophie, a tomato hovering near to her mouth.

‘I was wondering if you could come with me. I need to go and see a Mr and Mrs Parker on St. Augustine’s Avenue.’

‘Sure,’ said Sophie, ‘but who are they?’

‘My companion, Caroline, is fifteen in this time. She has some sort of hidden powers and so far I’ve been unable to return her to her own time. She needs some answers and the only way I’m going to get them is by secretly going to see her parents.’

‘Sounds a bit risky to me,’ said Sophie. ‘What if her younger self sees you?’

‘Caroline once told me that she used to go to guitar lessons every Saturday morning.’ The Doctor checked his watch. ‘She should be leaving in about 45 minutes.’

‘That’s a bit of a risk though.’

‘I checked the database. Caroline’s guitar school is open today and she’s pencilled in for a session.’

‘Your TARDIS can do all of that?’

The Doctor looked pleased and proud.

‘And you want me to go along so…?’

‘For a bit of support. They seem to be a very private couple. They have decent jobs, but don’t mix with the neighbours. They keep out of trouble. If Caroline really does have some hidden power, then they may be a little nervous about talking to anyone about their daughter.’

Sophie nodded. ‘Okay. We’ll go find these Parkers, and then we’ll do my article. Deal?’

‘Deal,’ agreed the Doctor, smiling.




Back towards the TARDIS, Caroline had just arrived. She unlocked the time machine and went inside. The place was in darkness but soon grew lighter once she stepped inside.

‘Doctor!’ she called out. No reply. ‘Danny? Anyone here?’ Still not reply.

She sighed and sat down on the sofa. It looked like everyone had cleared off. She’d wait a little longer and if the Doctor didn’t arrive then she’d have to investigate this matter herself.

And if the Doctor had been paying attention outside, he would have noticed the area around Gulliver’s nightclub cordoned off by police as they removed the bodies of the night clubbers one by one.




Instead the Doctor and Sophie had finished their breakfasts and headed the opposite way towards the small, horse-shoe-shaped St Augustine’s Avenue with it’s large houses and tall, leafy trees.

They had walked in the early morning drizzle and had made sure they timed it right so that they’d miss the teenage Caroline. The last thing they wanted to do was to have Caroline meet the Doctor too early and cause irreparable damage to the timeline.

They knocked gently on the door and after a few moments a well-built man with greying hair and a thick, dark moustache opened the door. He was holding a brief case and nodded to the Doctor and Sophie.

‘Cath, I’ll leave ‘em to you,’ he said as he bustled past them and got into his car and drove away.

The woman, Cath, was standing there in a grey suit and skirt, her blonde hair tied up high and a look of frustration on her face.

‘You must excuse my husband,’ she said, ‘he’s always in such a rush to get to work. Especially on a Saturday.’ She eyed them both up and down. ‘Can I help you?’

‘Yes,’ said the Doctor. ‘Are you Catherine Parker?’

‘I am,’ said Cath, folding her arms and looking slightly defensive.

‘Good,’ said the Doctor. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you at last.’

‘Could we get to the point,’ said Cath. ‘I’m due at work in an hour.’

‘Yes,’ said the Doctor, ‘I was wondering if I could have a few words about your daughter, Caroline.’

Cath straightened herself up and looked down her nose at the Doctor. ‘I’ve already told you people. I don’t want to see you.’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘We’ve gone through 15 years without needing any of those health checks. I’m not about to subject her to them now.’

‘Mrs Parker-’

‘Could you leave, please?’

She was about to shut the door when the Doctor said, ‘Mrs Parker, we know your child is special.’

Cath stopped closing the door and opened it again. ‘How could you possible know that?’

‘Because I’ve met her. In the future.’

‘Doctor, is this the wisest way forward?’ asked Sophie, who had remained quiet up until now.

‘Don’t be absurd!’ said Cath. ‘You can’t be from the future.’

‘Strangely,’ said the Doctor, ‘you don’t fake surprise very well.’

Cath sighed and then opened the door for the two of them. ‘You better come in. But let’s make this quick, please.’

After ten minutes the Doctor and Sophie were sat in the very plain, pink-walled living room of the Parker’s house with a cup of tea and a packet of custard creams.

‘Go on then,’ said Cath, crossing her legs and arms at the same time.

‘Why aren’t you particularly surprised that I’m from the future?’

Cath shook her head. ‘Because they said that they’d come for her one day.’

‘Who would come for her?’ asked the Doctor.

‘Bad people. That’s all they said. People who might want to experiment on my little girl. Because of her powers.’

‘What are her powers?’ asked Sophie, finding herself getting dragged into this.

‘I don’t know,’ snapped Cath, on the defensive again. ‘She’s never shown any sign of powers, but they’re meant to be there. Hidden deep down inside.’

‘I don’t understand,’ said the Doctor, automatically grabbing another custard cream. ‘Who told you all of this?’

‘Before I tell you, I need to know exactly who you are.’

‘My name is the Doctor,’ he replied. The Doctor plucked out a photograph from his inside pocket. It showed himself, Caroline and Danny posing for a photograph in front of a beautiful double-sunset. ‘There is your daughter, aged 30. Beside the double suns of Tatooine.’

Cathy put her hand to her mouth. There was no mistaking it. That was Caroline. ‘Oh my word,’ she said, barely holding back to the tears. ‘My little girl.’

‘Mrs Parker, I believe Caroline is in great danger. My Caroline. Your daughter in the future. I need to know everything that you know about her.’

Cath nodded, handing the picture back to the Doctor and wiping the tears with a tissue.

‘So, who told you that she was special? Who told you that bad people will come?’

‘The Farrington’s did. Thomas and Rebecca Farrington.’

‘And who are the Farrington’s?’ asked the Doctor.

Cath pinched the bridge of her nose, fighting back the tears. She took a deep breath. ‘They’re Caroline’s parents. Her real parents.’

The Doctor looked confused.

Cath looked him right in the eyes. ‘She’s not our real daughter. We adopted her.’




This is Town FM on 107.9. We hope you all enjoyed our show last night. We’re sorry to hear about the mysterious deaths that took place at Gulliver’s nightclub last night. We send out our condolences to the families of the victims and hope that the police can get to the bottom of it. As a tribute this is “Don’t Go Away” by Oasis.




In the caretakers room - the makeshift radio studio - at the school, Lee put his headphones down and rubbed his eyes.

‘Did we do that?’ asked Gaz. ‘Did we really kill all of those people?’

‘It was an accident.’

‘It was supposed to help them!’ snapped Gaz.

Lee jumped to his feet and grabbed Gaz by his t-shirt. ‘Look, we said we’d help them. How were we meant to know that they’d end up killing an entire nightclub full of people.’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ laughed Gaz. ‘Perhaps them killing other people may have given us some clue!’

Lee snarled at Gaz. ‘They were all accidents. They need our help to come through.’

‘Who?’ came Danny’s whisper-like voice from the corner of the room.

His eyes were sunken in and red and his lips were blue. His skin was pale and he looked like he was in desperate need of some sleep.

‘Don’t you remember?’ asked Lee.

‘I don’t remember anything since leaving the Doctor and Caroline,’ said Danny, wearily.

‘You tried to help them through. It didn’t work though. You have to try harder,’ growled Lee.

‘Harder…?’

‘Yes. We’re going to try again. This time on a smaller scale again.’

‘No,’ said Gaz. ‘Can’t we just stop? We’re meddling in crazy things, mate.’

‘We will try again!’ shouted Lee, picking up the headphones. ‘Get him hooked up.’




The Doctor sat there in silence whilst Sophie twiddled her thumbs in the armchair. Cath had gotten up to make more drinks.

‘Bit of a bombshell then?’ asked Sophie.

‘I suspected a little more actually,’ said the Doctor.

‘Sounds to me like there is more. Ask her,’ said Sophie, hearing Cath returning.

‘Mrs Parker, who exactly are the Farrington’s?’

Cath settled down. ‘A couple that me and Tony met a long time ago. Back in the early 80’s we’d travel around the country in our caravan. We were at Primrose Valley - a holiday campsite - when we met them. She was already three months pregnant. They always seemed to be looking over their shoulder.’

‘So…?’

‘So they stayed at the holiday camp with us and we got talking. Became good friends. And then when we moved on, they came with us. The caravan was big enough for an entire family.’

‘And what did they tell you?’ asked the Doctor, leaning forward on the edge of his seat.

‘Not much really. Just that they were from the future, like you. They took an age to convince us, but we believed them in the end. They told us that they were hiding from something. They had been forced into leaving their people because of the pregnancy and they were doing their best to hide from anyone who might be able to use them and their powers.’

‘And you just straight up believed this?’ asked Sophie.

‘Like I said, it took them a while to convince us.’

‘And what was the tipping point?’ asked the Doctor, grabbing another custard cream. ‘What was the point which made you genuinely believe them?’

‘It was when Rebecca froze time.’

The Doctor nodded slowly.

‘She threw a tennis ball in the air and just…stopped everything. Only myself, Tony and Thomas could move. It was…crazy!’

‘Do you think they’re your people?’ asked Sophie.

‘No,’ said the Doctor. ‘That’s impossible. But they obviously have some kind of power to be able to freeze space and time.’

‘Rebecca gave birth,’ continued Cath, ‘and out of the blue they asked us to care for her, like she was our own.’

‘But why?’

‘Thomas did some tests on her, but couldn’t find any sign of any power in her. It broke their heart, but they knew she had to live a normal life and that meant them not being around.’

‘So you pretended she was your own?’

‘Exactly. We came back to Thornsby and just informed our friends that we’d had a baby whilst we were travelling. It’s caused us some problems with the authorities as they have no concrete proof that she is ours, but we’ve always got by.’

‘And has Caroline ever shown any signs of powers?’ asked Sophie.

‘No. Not yet. And I hope she never does.’

‘And Thomas and Rebecca?’

‘They just vanished. They said their goodbyes and then left a few weeks after Caroline was born. We never heard from them again.’

The Doctor relaxed back into the armchair and stared across the room and out of the window. He was pleased he had managed to find more pieces of the puzzle, but the more pieces he found, the more confusing the final picture had become. Caroline clearly had powers, but they were deep under the surface. The first time he had met her she had been stalked by one of the Apparites, and then she had been able to touch and widen the crack that led to the Apparites dimension. Somehow Caroline, Rebecca, Thomas and the Apparites were all connected.

There came a sound from upstairs and coughing.

‘Who’s that?’ asked the Doctor, a worried look on his face.

‘That’s Caroline,’ said Cath.

‘What!’ spluttered the Doctor. ‘Why isn’t she at her guitar lessons?’

‘She’s not well,’ said Cath, frowning. ‘She’s got some kind of flu bug so I’ve kept her home for a few days. How did you know about the guitar lessons?’

‘We need to leave,’ said the Doctor, quickly getting up from the armchair.

The sound of footsteps came from the landing upstairs and then steps down the staircase.

‘We can’t meet her. Not now. It could severely disrupt the space/time continuum!’




Town FM continues on your Saturday morning. This one is for all you kids waking up with hangovers. You know who you are! Keep it locked down on 107.9. This is “It’s Like That” by Run DMC.




The door to the living room slowly opened and in stepped a young, 15 year old girl with long dark hair, a thin but pretty face and wearing a fluffy, pink dressing gown. She looked very pale and had her arms folded to keep herself warm. Her eyes looked tired and dark and the end of her nose was red. She was also wearing some headphones connected to a portable walkman/radio player. The sounds of a song could be heard coming from them. She simply looked at the Doctor and Sophie.

The Doctor didn’t known what to say. This was quite clearly Caroline, but looking considerably younger. He gulped and was about to slip past her and out of the house when there came a high-pitched whine from the headphones and the younger Caroline threw her head back, screaming in agony.

‘Caroline!’ yelled her mum as the teenager fell to the floor in a heap.

Lockdown: Chapter 4 (The Club Of Death)

The Doctor was happy. He was enjoying the company he had. Sophie Hamilton had turned out to be quite a nice young lady. She was mature and intelligent and she believed everything he told her. Normally he would have said that that was a foolish way to be, but this time he didn’t think that all. She’d definitely done her research on him and she seemed to know more about him than he did.

He looked down at Sophie’s drink and realised she’d finished her coffee. ‘Would you like another drink?’

‘Yes, okay,’ she smiled.

‘Another coffee?’

‘Yes, please.’ She watched the Doctor get up and then stopped him. ‘Actually, I think I’ll have something a little stronger. How about a glass of wine?’

‘Coming right up,’ said the Doctor as he headed off for the bar.

He soon returned with the drinks. He placed Sophie’s wine on the table in front of her and then had a drink from his refilled glass of mineral water. ‘So, tell me a bit about your life.’

‘There’s not much to tell really,’ said Sophie dissuasively.

‘Oh, come on. You seem to know everything about me. It’d be nice to know some more about you.’

Sophie took a sip from her glass and then put it back down. ‘Well, as you know, I’m from Seattle. I grew up there and I’ve lived there all my life. I never even left the city to go on holiday. My friend Roz used to tell me that I’d never see the outside world.’ She laughed. ‘Well a few years back I began work at the Seattle Times. I had to start travelling a bit and it opened my eyes to the rest of the world. That’s when I discovered you.’

‘Literally it seems.’

‘Well, not quite. It seems the paper had reports of alien invasions across the century in their record archives. They were only news reports which, of course, were dismissed as rubbish, but throughout the century your name would always crop up. “The aliens were defeated by a man known as the Doctor”, “The Doctor, UNIT’s scientific advisor, refused to comment on the invasion”. Both the US and UK governments had refused to allow the stories to be printed and each invasion was-’

‘Covered up? Yes,’ said the Doctor grimly, ‘your people have a habit of covering up the truth. Maybe one day they’ll realise that it won’t help them.’

‘My boss told me not to talk about the stories I’d have to keep quiet or he’d fire me. I spoke. He fired.’

‘Oh dear. I’m sorry to hear that.’

‘It’s no problem now. The point is that I made copies of these reports and then I started finding leads. I met some of your old friends, Doctor, and began to build up this picture of you. Of course I was sceptical about you at first, but I was soon convinced. There are so many people out that have a lot of faith in you.’

The Doctor smiled. ‘It’s good to know.’

‘Of course I could only find out stuff over the past century, but it was enough.’ Sophie took another sip of her wine. ‘And I’m determined for the world to know the truth about these alien invasions.’

‘Surely the authorities will just block any information you try and get out. They have done before.’

‘Maybe. But then again maybe public demand will be so high that they’ll have no choice but to tell the truth and release it.’

‘I suppose it might be a step in the right direction for this planet. Goodness knows they need some kind of direction,’ said the Doctor, half to himself.

‘What do you mean?’

He looked up at her green eyes. They were so full of questions that demanded answers. The Doctor sighed. ‘Sophie, this planet is going to come up against a lot of tests in the near future and you’ll be around to see them.’

Sophie frowned. ‘What tests?’

‘Terrorism. Then maniacal leaders and terrible, ongoing wars. Then there’s the actual alien menaces that come here.’

‘Oh god! You make it sound like a nightmare.’

‘Life goes on, but life is tinged with an air of fear. Eventually, though, things will get better.’ He could see she was concerned. ‘Things will get better, Sophie. By the mid 21st century there’ll be a moon base and space stations orbiting the Earth. Intergalactic space travel is only a few decades away.'

Sophie smiled. ‘I suppose it must be difficult to know the past, present and future of an entire planet.’

‘Sometimes it’s difficult, but sometimes I learn to cope with it. Earth will live, die and then be reborn again. It’ll happen a number of times. But life will go on for you Humans.’




Caroline and Phil had taken a bus which had stopped just outside the college. Phil lived nearby. It was weird for Caroline seeing this place. In a few months her younger self would be a student at the college, studying politics. Right now, though, she was just a sixteen year old dating Danny and working towards her school exams. And right now she was living with people who knew more about her life than she did.

They turned into a tree-lined avenue with large houses and sloping lawns heading up to their front doors. ‘You sure your mum won’t mind me being here?’ asked Caroline as they stepped up to Phil’s house.

‘She won’t be in. She works in the library and they always update their records on Friday and Saturday evenings.

‘Will she be mad about you missing your interview?’

‘Mad? She’ll be furious. But there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m happy to just do part time work at the factory, but she won’t have it. She says I waste my time drinking and buying pointless electronic equipment.’

‘Does she know about the radio station?’ asked Caroline as Phil unlocked the door.

‘No way!’ said Phil with a laugh. ‘If she knew about that she’d lock me away forever.’

‘What about other family members?’

‘My sisters at Cardiff Uni and my dad works away in Germany a lot. He’s an expert in power stations or something in Cologne.’

It was a nice place, thought Caroline. An oak staircase rose from the Victorian-tiled entrance hall and upstairs to a balcony. The floor was polished and the air smelt of lavender. It seemed odd that Phil would get involved with someone like Lee and the others at the radio station, but Gaz seemed half-decent as well, so she supposed that must have been the link between the two.

‘Wait in the living room,’ said Phil. ‘I’ll go get us something to eat. Fancy a sandwich?’ he asked as he disappeared to the end of the house and towards the kitchen.

‘Yeah go on then,’ she shouted back after him. ‘Cheese please.’

Phil returned 10 minutes later with a plate of cheese and ham sandwiches and some lemonade. He handed her the plate and then sat down in the armchair across the room from Caroline.

‘It’s nice to have some down to Earth food for once,’ said Caroline as she munched on the sandwich.

‘Why, where’ve you been? Mars?’ laughed Phil.

‘A bit further than that,’ replied Caroline.

Phil laughed, but Caroline didn’t. ‘So tell me more about yourself.’

‘What would you like to know?’ asked Caroline as she sipped on her lemonade.

‘Where do you live? What are your hobbies. Those sort of things.’

Caroline sighed and put down her drink and finished her sandwich. ‘It’s difficult to talk about it.’

‘You can take your time,’ said Phil.

Caroline sighed again. She was dying to get this all of her chest. She was fed up of meeting people and never being able to tell them the truth. She knew Phil would never believe her, but she didn’t care. She was getting on well with him and she had to tell someone. Taking a deep breath and a sip of her drink again she cleared her throat. ‘Phil, do you believe in time travel?’

‘Well, no,’ said Phil with a laugh.

‘You should do.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I’m from the year 2012. I’m a time traveller.’




‘Thanks for cheering me up, Doctor,’ said Sophie as she finished her drink.

‘I’m sorry,’ said the Doctor. ‘Perhaps I shouldn’t have gone on about the end of Humanity and stuff like that.’

‘Well it was…interesting,’ she said with uncertainty.

‘Let’s talk about something else,’ smiled the Doctor.

‘Yeah,’ said Sophie. She checked her watch. ‘Actually I better be getting back. I can’t believe the time. We’ve been chatting for hours! I said I’d call my mum tonight. I’m a grown woman, but she can’t help worrying about me when I go away anywhere.’

Sophie got up to leave and the Doctor stood up at the same time. ‘Where are you staying?’

‘Oh, just a little guesthouse up on the sea-front. It’s nothing special, but it’s quiet at least.’

‘Would you like me to walk you there?’ said the Doctor.

‘Walk me there? It’d take about 45 minutes to walk there. I’ve hired out a car while I’m here.’

‘Oh, right,’ said the Doctor. He smiled. ‘Look, what are you doing tonight?’

‘Oh, I’ve got lots of reports to make tonight,’ said Sophie apologetically. ‘I wish I didn’t, but I’ve gotta make a start on the info on you.’

The Doctor smiled. ‘Well at least I’ll be there in some form or another.’

Sophie looked at him and then smiled. ‘Your a nice man, Doctor.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Are you planning on staying long?’ she asked, putting her coat on.

‘Not really. I just need a couple of days to power up the TARDIS. Maybe I can stick around whilst you make some more notes on me.’

Sophie beamed at him. ‘Really? It’ll only take a couple of days.’

‘That’s fine,’ said the Doctor.

Sophie grinned. ‘That’s great. Look, I’ve gotta run, but I’ll meet outside your police box at, say, 9am tomorrow?’

‘Agreed,’ smiled the Doctor.

‘Good. Thanks for the drink,’ she crossed over to the door and then turned back. ‘See you soon.’

The Doctor nodded as she disappeared into the night. He picked up his water, drained the glass and then smiled to himself a warm, comforting smile. He liked travelling with Caroline and Danny, but they didn’t seem to want to be with him. Now here was Sophie. A person who was clearly fascinated by every aspect of his life and he felt sure she’d like to travel with him in the TARDIS.




The white van turned into a idyllic, sloping road lined with tree’s and large houses. It headed down the street and towards the end where a school sat in the middle of a large, sloping field. The van parked up at the gates and then Lee and Gaz jumped out.

‘They’re locked,’ said Gaz as he rattled the gates.

‘Of course they’re locked. This is a school, remember? Private property,’ said Lee as he dug in his pockets.

Gaz rolled his eyes and Lee looked around to check he wasn’t being watched and then unlocked the padlock on the large iron gates.

‘This is bloody dangerous.’

‘In case you’ve forgotten, Gaz, running a pirate radio station is dangerous. Deal with it!’ He opened the gates wide enough to let the van in. ‘Get in and drive it through.’

Gaz did as he was told and drove the van through the gates. When he was fully through Lee closed the gates behind them.

It took them only twenty minutes to unload the gear from the back of the van. Behind all the equipment was Danny who was cowering in a corner of the van and shaking.

‘What’s up with him?’ said Gaz.

Lee crossed over. ‘Dunno.’ He clambered into the back of the van. ‘Come on, Dan, snap out of it.’

Danny gritted his teeth and looked up at Lee. ‘Release me!’ he hissed.

‘We’re gonna do,’ said Lee, trying his best to sound sympathetic, ‘but you’ve gotta work with us. You’ve got to help yourself as well.’

Danny shook his head and closed his eyes. ‘I don’t know what’s going on,’ he whimpered. ‘Tell me what’s going on.’

‘I’m not exactly sure,’ said Lee, putting a hand on Danny’s shoulder. ‘Look, if you come inside with us I’ll try and explain everything.’

‘Yes,’ sobbed Danny. ‘Explain. I feel so close to them now.’

Lee looked back at Gaz and indicated for him to help. The two of them stood Danny up and, between them, helped him out of the van and into the school car park.

‘Now where?’ asked Gaz nervously.

Lee scrambled in his coat pocket and pulled out the keys. ‘One of these will open the door to the caretakers office. C’mon.’

The school was a fairly squat and modern looking building spaced out along a large field that disappeared into the growing darkness. Night was drawing in after Lee and Gaz had spent the last few hours collecting up more equipment from Lee’s house and collecting the portable transmitter.

They had arrived at the back of the school where the caretakers office was situated. They headed for a set of blue double doors set into the wall. Gaz leant Danny against the wall as Lee tried different keys. With each key he cursed and then tried another. Finally the lock clicked and the double doors opened.

Lee turned and grinned. ‘I’ll get Danny boy in here and you start getting the equipment.’

A few minutes passed. Lee had gotten Danny into the small office and sat him down on a stool. He had now passed out. The room was pretty small with no windows. A single bulb cast an orange glow over the wooden walls and a table was set against one wall with a school chair under it. On the other side of the room was another doorway leading to a store room which contained buckets, spades and other cleaning appliances.

Lee and Gaz had shifted all the equipment into the room and eventually the others arrived. Gaz led them into the small room as they prepared to recommence the radio shows.




Night had come and Caroline and Phil had made their way back into the town centre. They passed a number of bars, the loud dance music blasting out from them. Caroline had noticed in recent years - back in her time - that the bars had quietened down and most people had chosen to stay in due to the recession, but in 1998 everything was lively again. Everything felt new.

They arrived at a bar beside the train station called Huxters and went inside. Phil had no problem getting in. Probably because Caroline was with him, and she looked pretty striking amongst all the youngsters.

Phil went to the bar and got them a couple of drinks.

They made their way into a quieter area of the bar and sat down at a table. After a few moments of watching people mill around and dance, Phil spoke up.

‘So, you’re a time traveller then?’

Caroline looked up at him and smiled. After she had told him earlier back at the house he had gotten a little flustered and excused himself to take a shower and get ready. They hadn’t really spoken much on the short walk into town, but Caroline had sensed that he was feeling a little freaked out about the situation.

‘Do you believe me?’ asked Caroline.

‘I don’t have any reason to believe you,’ said Phil. ‘But then again, I don’t have any reason to not believe you.’

‘Okay,’ said Caroline slowly, ‘how about I tell you that I’m not from the future.’

‘That would make matters a lot less confusing.’

‘In what way?’ asked Caroline, sipping on her cider and black.

‘In a way that wouldn’t turn my life upside down,’ said Phil taking a huge gulp of lager.

Caroline smiled. ‘Okay. Maybe we can leave the stories for another time. Right now we need to enjoy ourselves. So come on,’ she said, clambering off her stool and grabbing Phil’s hand, ‘let’s have a laugh!’

And the pair of them danced. They danced and then they drank and then they danced some more. Later on in the evening they made their way to a nightclub near to the Riverhead called Gullivers.

Caroline found she was really enjoying Phil’s company. He felt like the little brother she never had. It was nothing more than that and she hoped that Phil didn’t feel any differently. It was just nice to let her hair down and have a good time for once.

The time was approaching 1am and they were both a little worse for wear. And then it happened. The DJ cut the music and picked up the microphone. The feedback hurt Caroline’s ears, which were still pounding with the sounds of ‘Ecuador’ by Sash.

The crowd groaned, but the DJ urged them to stay calm.

‘Well, ladies and gents,’ he said in a fake-as-anything, over-excited DJ’s voice, ‘we have some good news tonight. You’ve all heard of Town FM, haven’t you?’

There was a cheer from the crowd.

Phil drunkenly looked at Caroline and she raised her eyebrows.

‘Well we have come to an arrangement to let them broadcast straight from their studio, right into our club for the next hour!’

The crowd whooped and cheered.

The DJ continued. ‘And if it’s successful, their number one DJ, Lee, has agreed to broadcast the next Saturday night show live from Gullies!’

The crowd erupted in a roar which deafened Caroline and Phil.

‘So, without further ado, I’ll hand you over to DJ Lee!’

There was silence and then the familiar jingle of Town FM came over the air followed by Lee’s familiar, bad-attitude-sounding voice.




This is Town FM and we are broadcasting live to the clubbers in Gullivers. We’re glad to have you lot along for our ride on this wonderful, wonderful Saturday night. Remember to open your hearts and open your minds. You never know what might climb into your soul! This is ‘Brimful of Asha’ by Cornershop!




And so the night continued with Lee broadcasting songs for the next hour into Gullivers. And Caroline and Phil found themselves enjoying the night even more.

That was until a high-pitched whine filtered into the room and everyone started to scream. Caroline managed to grab Phil and drag him off the dance floor and into the corridor outside.

‘What was that?’ asked Phil, clutching tightly at his ears.

The people in the room were still screaming and the bouncers ran inside. And then suddenly everything went quiet.

Caroline still covered her ears and ducked back inside. Every single person was lying down on the floor, unmoving and silent. The music had stopped and soon the high-pitched whine had died away. Caroline ran over to one of the girls and checked her pulse. Nothing. She checked the pulse of the person next to her and then crossed to the DJ. Nothing.

They were all dead.