Chapter 1 (Shell Suits for Holly)
“What’s the story then?” said Holly, her hands on her hips and standing in the front doorway.
“We’re a bunch of students renting out a house,” said the Doctor, dropping his suitcase at the bottom of the stairs.
“Nope,” said Lilly, leaning against the door frame to the living room.
“Nope?” said the Doctor.
“She’s right,” said Holly, “me and Lilly would pass for students, but you’re too old. What are you? Mid-thirties?”
“Oh, what a compliment,” smiled the Doctor.
“Gotta be something else,” said Lilly.
“Okay…I’m a tutor and you’re my students.”
“Absolutely not,” said Holly.
“Why not?” said the Doctor, scratching the stubble on his chin.
“That’d be too weird. A bloke and two young women.”
The Doctor rolled his eyes. “You Humans…”
“How about…we’re all just mates? Mates who are renting a house,” suggested Holly.
“Sounds good to me, Dangerfield,” said Lilly.
Holly and Lilly wandered into the living room whilst the Doctor walked to the doorway. He leaned against the doorframe, one arm reached up, and gazed at the street beyond. All the houses looked like identical boxes with their gravelled drives and little wooden fences. “Yes,” said the Doctor. “We’re just mates renting a house…who happen to be hunting an alien.”
Earlier
Holly wandered into the console room. Lilly was curled up on the sofa, a book in one hand and a banana in the other. Holly tried to see the cover and was amused to see it was Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix.
“Just catching up, are you?” said Holly, nodding at the book.
“Never read ‘em before,” said Lilly. “They’re good.”
“The eighth book was my favourite,” said the Doctor.
“She didn’t write an eighth one.”
“Just you wait,” winked the Doctor.
Holly walked over to the console, touched a couple of controls and then walked up to the Doctor, her hands clasped in front of her and a look of innocence on her face.
“Soon be home,” said the Doctor.
“Actually,” said Holly. “I was wondering if I could stay.”
Lilly’s book slammed shut and she got up. “I knew it. I know it would come to this.”
“Calm down, Lilly,” said the Doctor.
“No,” said Lilly. “She can’t stay.”
“I thought you two were getting on,” said the Doctor.
“I thought we were,” said Holly.
Lilly walked up to Holly and stared at her. “I’ve gotta admit, she’s not annoying me as much as she once did, but she still can’t stay. Out of the question.”
“Actually,” said the Doctor, idly flicking a few switches, “this is my ship.” He looked at Lilly.
Lilly looked back at him and frowned. “But our home.”
“Yes. Our home. Holly has a home. She’s not here forever. If she wants to travel with us until we get this Kro’Tenk business sorted then I have no problem.”
Lilly shook her head. “But why? You hated things in prison!”
“I’m not in prison now, Lilly,” said Holly, laughing.
Lilly stumbled, looked like she was about to say something else, threw her book to the floor and marched off into the corridor beyond.
“I’m sorry,” said the Doctor. “Yes, you can stay. You’ve more than proven your worth, but it won’t be forever, okay?”
“Absolutely not,” said Holly. “I have a life to get back to at home, you know?”
The Doctor found Lilly sitting underneath a willow tree in an artificial park in the depths of the TARDIS, throwing plastic stones into a duck pond, causing the ducks to quack loudly at her in annoyance.
“Leave the ducks,” said the Doctor, sitting down beside her.
“They’re not real,” she said glumly.
“Look,” said the Doctor, “what’s wrong?”
“You know what’s wrong.”
“I know we’ve been travelling on our own for some time now, but this is still my ship. Our home, but my ship. I choose who lives here. I choose who stays with us.”
“I know that, Doctor, but…” Lilly looked away, shaking her head.
“She won’t die, you know?”
“What?” said Lilly, turning to face him again, a confused look on her face.
“I promise I won’t let any harm come to her. Not like last time.”
Lilly swallowed and closed her eyes, a trickle of a tear fell from beneath her eyelids.
He put his arm around her. “You’re allowed to like her, you know? You’re allowed to make friends.”
“I know. I know,” she said, leaning her head on his shoulder. “I just…I’m so scared.”
“Don’t be,” said the Doctor. He kissed the top of her head and then got up. “Anyway, we’ve got work to do.”
“What do you mean?” said Lilly, looking up at him.
“We’ve got an alien to hunt.”
“So let me get this straight,” said Holly. “You’ve detected alien signals in a small, English town in the 1990’s?”
“That’s correct,” said the Doctor, leaning on the console.
“And you want us to investigate?”
“Yes, but not the normal procedures, I’m afraid.”
“What do you mean?”
“This alien has disguised itself as a Human being, and I’m afraid it’s not going to be easy to make him - or her - show themselves.”
“Then what’s the problem? If the alien is just living a normal, every day life, surely that’s okay? I mean it’d freak the locals out if they knew the truth, but what’s the problem?”
“The problem is that it shouldn’t be there, and usually an alien hiding must be hiding from something. Something dangerous. If that something dangerous happens to locate the alien…well, all sorts of innocents could be hurt.”
“I see,” said Holly.
“So I’m afraid it’s going to take stealth, cunning and patience.”
Lilly re-entered the console room, sniffed and smiled weakly at Holly. “Sounds like a charming town,” said Lilly, looking at some info she had pulled up on a town called Hanwick. “Started life as a village a few hundred years back and grew into a town during the latter half of the 19th century. Got a population of 180’000, and one of them is an alien.”
“And what do we do? Go searching? Ask questions?”
“No,” said the Doctor. He flicked a switch and an holographic display appeared to the right of the console. It showed a small housing estate with lots of identical looking houses. “This is an area of the town known as the Runswick estate. It was built only six months ago. Around forty families, couples, single people, etc moved in at the same time.”
“So we just look for single people?” said Holly, watching the housing estate spin around and around.
“Unfortunately not. We have no idea if this is one alien or a small group. They could be disguised as a family.”
“Same old story,” said Lilly. “Never the simple answer.”
“What we have to do,” said the Doctor, pointing at a small house with a red dot illuminating it, “is to live with these people. Breathe the same air as these people. Work with them and be their friends. Only then will we discover who our alien imposter is.”
“And how long’s this going to take?” said Holly, gazing up at the house.
“As long as a piece of string.”
Day 1
The Doctor was sat in the sparsely decorated living room complete with cream walls and cream carpets. They had moved the sofa in from the TARDIS and the Doctor had rigged up a small TV monitor. He had his feet up on a small pouf and was sipping a cup of coffee.
Holly walked into the room and crossed to the window, pulling back the net curtains.
“You won’t find him that way,” said the Doctor.
“I know,” said Holly, “but it’s worth looking.”
“You need new clothes,” said the Doctor, nodding at Holly’s attire. Apart from the prison garb she had worn, she’d been in the same clothes since she launched herself at the TARDIS. Those clothes she had lost in the prison, so she was now having to wear a hoodie, jeans and underwear from Lilly, much to the Scottish girls disapproval.
“I’m off shopping in a bit. Nineties clothing! Yay!”
“Early nineties clothing as well, Dangerfield,” said Lilly, emerging from the backroom through the double doors. “I’m sure we’ll find a shell suit in your size.”
“No way!” said Holly.
“Not just clothes though. We need things to do. Reading material. Things like that. And there’s no wi-fi in the 90’s.”
“I know that,” said Holly. “I was around in the 90’s, you know?” She looked at Lilly. “Were you?”
Lilly smiled sweetly at her. “I’m a time traveller, Dangerfield.”
“Somewhere out there is a scared and frightened alien,” said the Doctor, getting to his feet and crossing to the window to join Holly. “Just remember that. We’re hear to investigate and to track down, not to spend time idling away with pleasures.”
“Yes, boss,” said Lilly, giving him a mock salute.
And whilst the Doctor looked out across the road, someone, somewhere, sensed the presence of a threat.
To be continued...
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