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“It’s a work in progress, but so is life”
Sparks flew from the crystal rotor at the heart of the console as the TARDIS was flung through the time tunnel. To say the ride was turbulent would barely be scratching the surface, and Graham had been a bus driver. Years of potholes, roadworks and temporary traffic lights was something he’d become all too familiar with.
“I don’t know if they have the equivalent of a driving test for one of these Doc....” Graham stammered, clinging onto the console for dear life “...but if they do, I’m guessing you weren’t a natural first timer!”
The Doctor briefly looked up from the assortment of buttons and levers, her face a picture of excitement and bemusement.
“Not my first no, but I got there on my seventeenth try!” she beamed, causing Yaz, Ryan and Graham to exchange a look of horrifying uncertainty.
Their attention was broken away by the flashing of the scanner panel, indicating a problematic situation outside of the TARDIS that was causing the immense turbulence felt from inside. Something appeared to be throwing the ship violently off course.
“Doctor...what is actually happening?!” Yaz scoffed.
Before any answer could be provided for the bizarre occurrence, the gang were thrown forcefully to the floor as the TARDIS crashed to something of a landing.
Naturally in a situation wherein one would not expect it, The Doctor began to laugh at the unfortunate style in which they’d arrived at wherever the ship had bought them.
“Urgh” Ryan groaned as he picked himself up “only you could find a crash landing funny, Doctor”
The Doctor replied with a gasp of faux offence.
“It wasn’t a crash landing!”
“Then what was it?” Yaz asked rhetorically.
The Doctor looked to Graham and Ryan, as if searching for a hint and back at Yaz in defeat.
“Well...it was a...sort of controlled....yeah no it was a crash landing” she admitted “...anyway, come on fam! We better see where we’ve ended up”
Graham indicated toward the scanner panel “shouldn’t we have a look and see what’s out there first?”
“Ordinarily I would” she replied “but the dodgy landing damaged the visual control matrix so we’ll have to do it the old fashioned way. Just stick behind me you three, keep your eyes peeled and we’ll be fine. Probably”
*******************************************
‘ROGUE ELEMENTS DETECTED IN SECTOR 19. SEARCH AND RETRIEVE. UNITS ALPHA 7A AND 7B TO RESPOND’
Once upon a time billboards had contained advertisements for movies, the latest smartphones and overpriced botanical skin creams. Now they were used against the remaining survivors, only the strongest faction had survived the uprising and ensuing takeover. Now the technology that had once unified the people was the very thing dividing them.
Sonya found herself running quite literally for her life all too often, she’d spent what felt for her like most of her life running. Sixteen long years she’d spent going from one resistance faction to another, each time barely making it out alive and usually being the only one to do so.
It was hard to remember a time when she could get up, go to work, come home, inevitably argue with her parents and sister and go to bed mad at the people she truly loved. Her parents were gone now, her sister had disappeared even before the uprising. Nani Umbreen had passed nearly twenty years previous. Now it was just her left.
“Sonya. Sonya come in” called a distorted voice emanating from her radio.
Sighing, she detached the radio from her utility belt and held it up to her face.
“This is Sonya, what’s going on?” she replied discreetly.
After a few seconds, the radio cackled as the voice came over once more.
“It’s here Sonya. The box.”
“ The blue box”
*******************************************
The stillness of the night was broken by the wheezing of ancient engines as a wooden blue police telephone box faded into view from nothingness, settling with a ‘thud’, leaving only the lantern atop the roof which pulsed a brilliant aqua blue.
Maya watched from afar as four people stepped out of the impossibly small box. There was no way four people could squeeze in there....was there?
She watched on as the blonde woman in the long coat pulled out some kind of device, swirling it around her and the other arrivals. It seemed to emit a high pitched sound and glowed a soft orange. The woman looked toward her friends, Maya could see the older man of the group looked curious, as if he hadn’t been here before.
“Well Doc” the man queried “where’s the universe spat us out this time?”
The woman with the blonde hair lifted the device so that it was eye level and turned to face her friends.
“Doctor?” queried the other woman amongst them.
She hesitated but quickly gave an answer “exactly where we’re supposed to be...but not when we’re supposed to be”
Maya wanted to get closer to the group but dared not for fear of giving herself away. No one could be trusted in this life.
“What d’ya mean we’re not when we’re supposed to be?” asked the younger man.
Once again, the woman pulled out the device and it emitted the same sound and glow.
“We were supposed to materialise in Sheffield in twenty nineteen” she explained, pocketing the device a final time “this.....this is twenty fourty seven!”
The older man observed the surroundings, clearly horrified and not at all where he expected. How could these people not know? Who were they?
Maya slowly took out her radio and whispered into the microphone.
“Sonya. Sonya come in”
Silence loomed for only a few seconds before the a voice came over the frequency.
“This is Sonya. What’s going on?” called the voice.
Maya immediately responded and continued to observe the group of strangers as they headed back inside the strange wooden box that had appeared from nowhere moments earlier.
“It’s here Sonya. The box. The blue box”
There was nothing but the sound of interference and white noise for a moment before the voice once again crackled through the receiver.
“Are you absolutely sure?”
Maya did not hesitate to give confirmation. The amount of times Sonya Khan had mentioned the strange, disappearing reappearing police telephone box during their years spent fighting together there was no doubt about its authenticity.
“Definitely the one” she spoke into the radio “big blue police box, a blonde lady with a long coat and three others. Is it them?”
“It’s them”