Halfway Out Of The Dark || The Doctor

The Girl in the Fireplace

The Doctor emerged from the TARDIS to find himself in a dank industrial setting. Mickey, Rose and the Artist followed. "It's a spaceship!" Mickey said excitedly, "Brilliant, I got a spaceship on my first go!"

"Looks kinda abandoned." Rose remarked, looking at the messy, apparently disused room. "Anyone on board?" she asked the Time Lords.

"Nah, nothing here." the Doctor replied, "Well, nothing dangerous. Well, not that dangerous."

"Famous last words." the Artist remarked. The Doctor had a habit of tempting fate by making comments like that.

The Doctor seemed to consider her point. "Ya know what, I'll just have a quick scan... in case there's anything dangerous." he said, moving over to a control panel in the centre of the room and he started tapping on buttons.

Rose turned to the Artist. "So, what's the date?" she asked the Time Lady, knowing that she had done an environment scan before leaving the TARDIS. "How far we gone?"

"3,000 years." the Artist replied, "We're in the 51st century."

The Doctor pulled on a switch and the lights turned on, the ceiling gradually opening into a window which showed a spectacular view of the stars outside. "Dagmar Cluster." he observed, "Ya a long way from home, Mickey. Two and a half galaxies."

Mickey moved to a side viewport and gazed out in awe. Rose walked over and placed her hands on his shoulders. "Mickey Smith, meet the universe." she smiled, "See anything ya like?"

"It's so realistic!" Mickey grinned in amazement.

The Time Lords meanwhile, were looking around at the mess on the floor. "Dear me, had some cowboys in here." the Doctor remarked, casually tossing some pieces of junk away, "Got a ton of repair work going on. Should've called you in." he said to the Artist.

"Looks like the handiwork of robots." she replied, "Repair droids probably."

The Doctor noticed a monitor displaying a diagram of the ship they'd landed on. "Now that's odd, look at that." he said, and the others crowded round him to study the diagram. "All the warp engines are going... full capacity. There's enough power running through this ship to punch a hole in the universe... and we're not moving. So where's all that power going?"

"And where are the crew?" the Artist wandered, "There's only our life signs aboard."

"Well, we're in deep space; they didn't jus' nip out for a quick fag." Rose remarked.

"Nope, I've checked all the smoking pods." the Doctor replied, then caught whiff of something. "Can you smell that?" he asked.

"Yeah, someone's cooking." Rose replied.

"Sunday roast, definitely." Mickey agreed.

The Doctor pressed something else and a door opened behind them. They walked through and saw that part of the wall and floor had 18th century décor, complete with a fireplace and mantlepiece. "Now there's something ya don't see on ya average spaceship." the Doctor remarked, moving closer for a better look, "18th century, French. Nice mantel." He scanned the woodwork with his sonic screwdriver. "Not a hologram. Not even a reproduction, this is actually an 18th century French fireplace."

The Artist bent down and examined the fire carefully. "And it's double-sided." she observed, "There's another room on the other side."

"It can't be." Rose objected, looking through the adjacent viewport, "That's the outer hull of the ship, look."

The Doctor kneeled down to join the Artist in looking at the room beyond the fire. A little blonde girl in a nightgown was looking back at them. "Hello!" the Doctor called.