Elsewhere (Chapter 3)

Chapter 3 (Awkward Conversations)

Holly was sat in an armchair that had its back to the bay window in her parents house. Her mum and dad were sat to her right on the sofa with Agatha in-between. Lilly was sat in the other armchair across the room and Roxy was stood with her back to the wall and her arms folded.

Holly had returned home to excited yelps and hugs, but the excitement had soon devolved into anger and frustration from her parents.

“Five months, Holly?” said her mum again, shaking her head. She had had her hair cut since Holly had left. She used to have long, dark hair - like her - but now she wore it short. It suited her better.

“Like I said,” said Holly, still feeling guilty, “I just needed to get away.”

“But you didn’t even leave us a contact number. Not even an address,” said her dad.

“I know, and I’m sorry. But you have to understand that everything just got a bit too much for me.”

“I know you were close with your granddad, darling,” said her dad, “but that still wasn’t any excuse to go running off like that.”

“And what about your job?” asked her mum. “Because they were on the phone all that first week asking where you were.”

“Well I’ll have to find another job,” said Holly. “I’m waiting for the interview at Waterstones.”

“Waterstones sent you an interview time.”

Holly looked hopeful.

“Yeah, it was 4 months ago though,” said Agatha, frowning at her sister.

“I’m…sorry,” said Holly again. What more could she say? There was no chance in hell that she was going to tell them the truth - that she’d boarded a time machine disguised as a police box and done a runner into outer space with a madman and a grumpy blonde. She’d done her best to send then an occasional text to say she was okay, but she couldn’t have done more. She already felt terrible.

She glanced over at Lilly who was still keeping tight lipped. Holly was thankful for that at least.

“Are you planning on leaving again?” asked her dad.

She looked momentarily at Lilly, who looked back at her. “I don’t know yet.”

Agatha looked upset and shook her head.

“Sheffield can give me more opportunities that I can’t get in Huxley,” she said. She felt sick. She was starting to believe her own lies.

“I understand that, darling, but are you going for the right reasons?”

Holly sighed. “If I go it’ll be because I really have something to be there for.” She looked at Lilly again who flashed a very slight smile.

“Look,” said her mum, getting up from the sofa, “why don’t I go and put the kettle on? Agatha, Peter, you can both come and help.”

Agatha groaned and got up off the sofa.

Her father, Peter, followed suit. “Yes, I’m sure Roxanne would like a few explanations as well.”

Roxy’s eyes followed the trio as they left the room and shut the door. Her eyes then flicked to Holly and she exploded. “What the hell are you playing at, Holly?”

“I’m sorry, Roxy.”

“No, don’t give me that. You’ve not been in Sheffield, have you? That text you sent to me…you don’t send one text and one text only to your best friend and then ignore her for five months.”

“I know,” said Holly, looking down at her lap.

“So where have you been?”

“Roxy-” began Lilly.

“Shut it, blondie,” said Roxy.

“Just a minute, Roxy,” said Holly, holding her hand up. “There’s been a few changes since I’ve been gone.”

“Like what?”

Holly hesitated.

“Oh, look if you can’t tell your best friend then who can you tell?!” she said, pushing herself off from the wall and storming out towards the front door.

“Chase her then,” said Lilly to Holly.

Holly found Roxy sat on the step to the front garden, her hand brushing her curly hair out of her eyes. She looked sad, and Holly wasn’t certain, but she wondered if she may have been crying.

“I’m sorry,” said Holly as she sat down on the step next to her.

“You just left me with my coffee whilst you went chasing after those two,” said Roxy. “Anything could have happened to you.”

“It’s not been that long for me,” said Holly. “I swear it. Only a few weeks really. I didn’t think it’d effect everyone this way.”

“You went into space, didn’t you?” said Roxy. “They said they had a time machine.”

“I went further than that,” said Holly. “I went to a planet full of robot men. I got locked up in a massive tower prison. Loads of stuff.” She tried to contain her excitement.

“Sounds great,” said Roxy glumly.

Holly put her arm around her. “I truly am sorry,” she said, “but I’m back now. We can get back to normal.”

“Isn’t it time though?”

“Time? Time for what?”

“The alien invasion?”

Holly was brought back to reality. She’d not even thought about it for a few hours, but it was so close now. She was scared about it for the first time, but not scared for herself. Scared for her family. For Roxy. For Lilly.

“The Doctor will deal with it,” smiled Holly, trying her best to hide her fear.

“Oh, and one other thing?” asked Roxy.

“Yep?”

“Why did I catch you in the rain about to kiss the face off that blonde girl?”

Holly blushed bright red.




Double Zero - aka Oliver Osborne - was the weapons expert at UNIT: X. He had served in the marines up until about two years ago when he had been recruited by Roger Stark. Only in his early 30’s, he was a handsome, but rugged man with light brown eyes, short-cut dark hair and designer stubble.

He was the definition of cool as he stood next to the large satellite dish in his leather jacket and jeans.

“May I introduce you to Double Zero,” said Stark, gesturing towards Osborne.

“Just call me Ollie,” said Osborne, waving away the code name. “Double Zero is a bit of a mouthful.”

“You built this?” said the Doctor, pointing towards the weapon.

“I didn’t build it, Doc, I drew up the plans.”

“It still came from your mind though,” said the Doctor, with disdain.

“I haven’t even told you what it is,” said Stark, walking in front of the Doctor and frowning at him.

“You said it’ll wipe the Kro’Tenk from the face of the Earth. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that it’s a weapon.”

“But you don’t know how it works,” said Faith.

“Plus,” continued Ollie, “why would you object to us wiping out the Riders?”

Stark stepped forward and smiled. “The Doctor has always had a problem with big super weapons, haven’t you, Doctor?”

“I have a problem with genocide,” said the Doctor.

“Let me ask you this, Doctor, how were you expecting to defeat the Kro’Tenk?”

The Doctor shook his head and held his hands out. “I don’t know. Perhaps by talking? Perhaps by forcing them back to the other dimension.”

“But surely,” continued Stark with a smirk on his face, “that would mean the people in the previous dimension would have to continue to suffer their oppression?”

The Doctor remained silent.

“Excellent,” said Stark. “Now, Osborne, perhaps you can explain how this works.”

“Right you are, sir,” said Ollie. He brought up a holographic display of the dish. Above the dish was a collection of swirling clouds. The clouds then opened and hundreds of holographic Riders began to descend on their sky-bikes.

The dish then emitted a beam of light at opening, which sealed off the gap in the clouds.

“All I see is you sealing the gap,” said the Doctor. “What about the Kro’Tenk that are already through?”

“We fight them in the usual style,” said Stark. “But the main objective is to close off that breach. What you saw was the breach being sealed, yes, but the energy pulse actually shot through into the previous dimension and obliterated everything in that world.”

“What?!” exclaimed the Doctor. “So not only are we going to wipe out the Kro’Tenk, but we’re also going to wipe out the poor people from the previous dimension with some kind of Death Star ray?”

“It’s called survival, Doctor,” said Roger. “It will stop them for good.”

“By erasing an entire alternate universe! No, I can’t allow it.”

“Well, unfortunately you have no say in the matter.” Stark checked his watch. “We have very little time now.”

“Tell him the rest, sir,” said Faith glumly.

“We’re going to have to do this in Huxley.”

“Why not here?”

“Because,” continued Faith, her arms folded, “the biggest breach is going to be in Huxley. Your TARDIS landed there five months ago and made the area a little more unstable. It’s the perfect place to launch our attack.”

The Doctor hung his head and punch at the glass table showing the holographic display.

“Believe me, Doctor, this is the only way,” said Stark. “Osborne, I want you and Sentinel with me. We’ll be departing for Huxley in thirty minutes. Get this thing loaded up ASAP.”

“I need to see Richard,” said the Doctor.

“When we get to Huxley. Sentinel, you might as well load him up as well. Might as well keep all of our eggs in the same basket, eh?” He laughed.

Nobody else did.

To be continued...