Elsewhere (Chapter 2)

Chapter 2 (Roger Stark)

Roger Stark was sat at his mahogany desk writing on a pad of paper. He was a man in his mid-fifties. He had swept back chestnut hair and a lined face with a square jaw line. He wore black-rimmed glasses and his eyes were concentrating intently on what he was writing.

The door to his office burst open and the Doctor strode in, followed by a small, young soldier in his 20’s looking flustered.

“Sir, this man insisted on visiting you.”

Stark looked up from his pad and frowned at the soldier.

“He says his name is the Doctor.”

“You haven’t seen this face before,” said the Doctor, pointing all over his face with his finger. “I suggest you leave us, Private…? What’s your name, kid?”

“Private Vickers. Colin Vickers.”

“Go and take five minutes, Vickers,” said the Doctor. He slipped his coat off and flung it over a chair in the corner. Then he went to his pocket, pulled out a two pound coin and flicked it to the befuddled soldier, who caught it instinctively. “Go get yourself a coffee from the shop down the road.” He turned back to Stark. “Or tea.”

“That’ll be all, Vickers,” said Stark, motioning for the Private to leave. Stark was well-spoken, his voice as smooth as molten toffee.

“Aye, sir,” said Vickers, saluting Stark, turning on his heel and marching out of the office.

The Doctor sat down on a chair on the other side of the desk and folded his arms. “Roger.”

Stark opened a draw and put his pad inside before closing it again. “Nice to put a face to the voice,” he said. “And you’re looking much younger these days.”

The Doctor closed his eyes and smiled. “You haven’t aged well, Roger.”

“I prefer this face to your bald-headed one. Then again I preferred your bald-headed incarnation to your white-suited fool look. Take a compliment, man.”

“I’m not here to discuss my face,” said the Doctor. “I want to know why Richard Hick’s family have gone? And where have they gone to?”

“I couldn’t stop them,” said Stark, pouring himself a brandy, offering one to the Doctor - who refused - and then taking a sip.

“What do you mean you couldn’t stop them? Cheryl Hicks was a doting wife. She didn’t want her husband to do this in the first place.”

“It got too much for her,” said Stark.

“No, no,” said the Doctor. “I don’t believe that for a second. What really happened?”

Stark sighed and looked up at his ceiling fan. It wasn’t turned on yet as it wasn’t particularly warm in the office block. “Okay, we sent her away.”

“I beg your pardon? You sent her away?”

“That’s correct. She was there every day at the facility. Every single day.”

“And? What’s wrong with that?”

“In case you’ve forgotten, Doctor,” he said, leaning forward in his chair, “UNIT is a top secret operation. The X branch even more so. She was starting to turn it into a family centre. She was getting to know the X team.”

“Oh, perish the thought!”

“Scoff if you want, Doctor, but it was becoming a concern for me.”

“So what did you do?”

Stark looked at his glass, swirled it around again and then drained it. “I told her that her husband had died.”

“WHAT!” said the Doctor, leaping up out of his chair.

“It was the simplest way. Sit down, man.”

“You told a distraught woman and her children that their father had died just to keep them away?” The Doctor crossed to a large bookcase that lined the wall. “This is unbelievable. I told Cheryl that her husband would be looked after. I told Richard that his family would be looked after.”

“Believe me, Doctor, I didn’t like doing it. I know what family means to people.”

“Coming from the man who has no family,” said the Doctor quickly.

“Barbed words will not make me change my mind. I believed it to be the best course of action.”

“And how about the body? I presume they wanted a funeral.”

“I convinced them for a cremation.”

“Oh my word,” said the Doctor, head in his hands. “And I presume you just handed over a random body.”

“You know my X team, Doctor. They are capable of anything. We found a dead tramp and cosmetically altered him to look like Mr Hicks.”

“I need to go and see her.”

“You need to concentrate on the matter at hand,” said Stark. “Namely the Kro’Tenk.” He got up from his chair. “Mr Hicks is 24 hours away from his wake-up call. In 24 hours the skies will open up and the Kro’Tenk will descend on our world. I trust you have a plan.”

“Not exactly,” said the Doctor, refusing the meet Stark’s glare.

“Not exactly? What have you been doing in that box of yours?”

“I’ve been busy,” said the Doctor, rounding on him. “I’ve had…things to deal with.”

Stark shook his head. “Well, it’s lucky for you that I have been working on a plan.”

“Really?”

“I am head of UNIT:X, remember?” He smiled. “I think it’s time we paid a visit to Mr Richard Hicks.”




Holly finished her summer fruits Kopparberg and drained the glass, plucking an ice cube out with her tongue.

“I really need to get home, you know?” she said, as she crunched the ice cube.

“How can you do that?” said Lilly, watching Holly happily eat the ice cube, a smile on her face.

“You should try it,” she said, offering her up the glass.

“No thanks,” said Lilly.

“Are you finished yet?” said Holly, nodding towards the half-full glass of coke and rum that Lilly had bought.

“In a minute,” said Lilly.

“I’m in a rush. My parents and Agatha haven’t seen me for five months!”

“They don’t know you’re back yet, either.”

“I need to see them though. To explain why I’ve been gone for five months.”

“You told them you spent five months in Sheffield with a friend to clear your head, didn’t you?”

“I did,” she sighed, “but it’s hardly believable, is it? I mean my family always got on. I’ve had no reason to go running off.”

“Your grandfather’s death hit you pretty hard,” said Lilly. “Use that.”

Holly looked at Lilly and almost felt angry at herself for using his death as a way to lie to her own family about where she had gone.

“I don’t know…”

“Well you need to make a decision. In 23 hours we’re gonna be up to our necks in lizard men on flying bikes.”

“I’m not ready, you know?” said Holly, looking a little worried.

“No,” said Lilly, shaking her head, “neither am I.”

A few minutes later they were walking from the pub and about ten minutes away from Holly’s house when a rumble of thunder came from the distance.

Holly looked to the sky. To the west dark clouds were rolling in and it was getting dark.

“We’re gonna get soaked,” said Holly.

“It’s just a bit of rain,” said Lilly. “When the Doctor was trying to…well, rehabilitate me after I…after Caleb died, we went to this planet. I think it was called Pelios or something. It never stopped raining there. Ever. But the planet was mostly water and the Pelions were used to it. After a few days I got used to it too. It became the norm. It became beautiful.”

Holly smiled at her as the first drop of rain came down, splashing her on the middle of her forehead.

Lilly burst out laughing and put her hand to her mouth. “Oh, Dangerfield, trust it to get you first.”

Holly wiped the rain drop off her forehead and smiled back, laughing with Lilly.

And then more drops came down. Huge, thick, heavy drops of rain thundering down from the dark clouds.

The two girls turned and Lilly grabbed Holly’s hand as they started to run down the street. They turned the corner into a tree-lined avenue. Lilly pulled Holly under the shelter of a low-hanging tree that had reached out over a high brick wall.

The both of them laughed as they watched the rain come thundering down. Lilly turned to Holly, her hand still tightly holding hers. The two of them looked at each other and smiled.

“I didn’t like you when I first met you,” said Lilly.

“I know. You’ve told me that before,” said Holly, laughing.

She took her other hand. “But I got used to you. Like I got used to that rain on Pelios.”

“And it became the norm?” said Holly.

“It became the norm. It became beautiful.”

Holly could feel her heart beating. Lilly’s face was just centimetres from hers. She closed her eyes as she felt more drops of rain trickle through the gaps in the tree above them. She waited.

And waited.

And then opened her eyes. “Lilly?”

But Lilly wasn’t looking at her. She was instead turned to the right. Standing in the rain, under an umbrella, was a woman in a long mac with curly hair, glasses and a small collection of freckles around her nose.

“Holly Dangerfield,” said the woman, angrily. “Where the hell have you been?!”

“Hi, Roxy,” was all Holly could manage as she felt her heartbeat subside.




The Doctor and Roger Stark had been taken, by a chauffeur-driven car, from Stark’s London office in Earl’s Court, through London and to a small facility 20 miles away on the outskirts of Epping Forest

The Doctor checked his watch nervously.

“It’s 5pm, Doctor,” said Stark.

“I know what time it is. It’s only 22 hours until the Kro’Tenk come through.”

“Or thereabouts,” corrected Stark.

“Yes, Roger, I know that. I could have done without a 60 minute drive to Epping.”

“We could have taken your TARDIS,” said Stark.

“No,” said the Doctor, “I don’t want your team getting their hands on it.”

“Oh, come now, Doctor,” said Stark, with a laugh, “in all the time you worked for UNIT did you ever have to fear for the safety of your TARDIS’s secrets?”

“Times were different back then,” said the Doctor. “Back then UNIT was UNIT and was run by a decent man with a decent team and decent goals.”

“I’m hurt, Doctor.”

“Nowadays I don’t know who to trust. UNIT? UNIT:X? Torchwood? Eyeglass?”

“Eye-who?”

“What I’m trying to say, Roger, is that back in the day there was a clear distinction on who was who.”

“My X Team are a splinter from UNIT. UNIT as a whole is too tied up in politics and having to obey the rules that the world governs them by. UNIT: X was devised to operate separately from that. To continue to do UNIT’s work, without them having to make it public knowledge.”

“With you leading your merry band?”

“Doctor, I’m aware that you and I will never have the same relationship that you and Sir Alistair had, but does that mean that we have to bicker?”

The Doctor shot him a glance. “Roger, you will never, ever ascend to the level of Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. If you remember that and try and be the best person you can be then maybe you and I can become…agreeable with each other.”

“Don’t try to hard, Doctor.”

The car pulled up outside a large, white and grey building. From the outside it looked like a factory. Two guards stood beside a double door at the base of the building. The car parked up outside and the two men exited.

The Doctor looked up to the sky. Over in the distance were thunder clouds.

“Somewhere near Huxley,” said Stark, noticing the Doctor’s head turned to the sky. “It shouldn’t come near us.”

“A spot of rain doesn’t bother me. It‘s what the rain brings with it.”

The double doors opened and a striking, blonde woman walked out of the building. She wore a blouse and easy-fitted grey suit. She looked to be in her forties, but was looking good for her age. She could have been mistaken for being ten years younger.

She tied her blonde hair back into a ponytail and approached the two men. “Welcome back, sir,” she nodded to Stark. She had a light Australian accent.

“Doctor, I’d like you to meet Faith Crossland. She’s my second in command at UNIT:X and my Chief Medical Officer.”

“Good to meet you at last, Doctor.”

“Nice to meet you too, Miss Crossland.”

“Mrs Crossland,” corrected Faith, smiling a little sheepishly. “The divorce hasn’t gone through yet.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” said the Doctor, apologetically.

“Don’t be. I’ll be happy when it’s all over.”

“How’s the patient, Sentinel?”

“Sentinel?” said the Doctor, with a confused frown.

“We use code names,” said Faith, looking a little embarrassed. “Keeps us all safe.”

“Same here,” said the Doctor, as Faith led them through the double doors and into a brightly lit corridor with doors going off at regular intervals.

“Mr Hicks is doing fine. His breathing is steady and his heart rate is stable.”

“Do we have any idea what his counterpart is up to on the other side?” asked Stark as two soldiers walked past and saluted him.

“Unfortunately not,” said Faith. “But we can only assume that he’s still alive.”

“But still in a coma as well,” said the Doctor, striding up to walk alongside Faith instead of Stark. “If either one of them had died the Kro’Tenk would already be here.”

Faith turned and smiled at the Doctor. “Do you mind me asking you a question, Doctor?”

“Sentinel…” said Stark with a hint of caution in his voice.

“Of course not, Mrs Crossland,” said the Doctor, turning to look at Stark and giving him ‘the eye’.

“My father worked for the old UNIT under Lethbridge-Stewart and later Bambera. He met a few of your…previous faces. Perhaps you remember him? Sgt Ian Kerrigan?”

“I’m afraid I don’t remember,” said the Doctor, sadly. “When you’ve lived as long as I have people seem to fade away.”

“Oh,” said Faith, sadly. “Well, at least I’ve got to meet one of you now. Which number are you?”

“Mrs Crossland,” said Stark, a little more forcefully.

“I can be whatever number you want me to be,” said the Doctor, his hands in his pocket, a smile playing on his face

“But seriously-”

“How about number 22? How does that sound? The Twenty-Second Doctor?”

“Again, seriously? You’re really the 22nd incarnation?”

The Doctor just smiled and tapped his nose. “It doesn’t really matter, Faith. It doesn’t really matter.”

“No, of course not,” she smiled back.

They turned to face one of the doors and Faith entered a code on a number pad. She then swiped a card through the coder and the door clunked and slid open.

Faith held out an arm and the Doctor entered, followed by Stark.

But what was inside wasn’t Richard Hicks at all. Instead it was a large rig with a huge dish sat on top. An antennae reached out from the centre of the dish and pointed towards the ceiling.

“Either Richard Hicks has been converted to a satellite dish, or you’ve paid for Sky HD, Roger,” said the Doctor, gazing up at it.

“Richard is in another area,” said Faith. “This is what our weapons expert, Double Zero, developed.”

“A satellite dish?”

“Not a satellite dish,” said Stark, gazing up at the dish. “A weapon. This thing is going to wipe the entire Kro’Tenk race from the face of the Earth.”

“I wish you’d said you’d gotten Sky HD,” said the Doctor.

To be continued...