THE CHOSEN CURSE
Chapter 5 "But Doctor, what about the TARDIS?" Donna asked abruptly. His head jerked up, then he leaned over towards Donna and kissed the top of her head. Getting up from the cottage's kitchen table, the Doctor stood and smiled down at Ringstaff. "Never say never. That's my motto." The Doctor paused and thought about that. "Well, it should be my motto. Or maybe it should be "Smile if you love running! Or maybe I shouldn't have a motto. Makes me sound like I'm flogging athletic trainers. What do you think, Donna?" "What are you on about, Doctor?" Ringstaff asked, thoroughly puzzled. "Didn't you believe me? I just told you that the world was ending." "Of course I believe that you believe that the world is coming to an end." He replied, looking suddenly energized, "But you know what I didn't believe, Ringstaff? It's what you said before that, that one man can't make a difference. Because not only do I think that one man can indeed make a difference, I think that three men and a woman—" the Doctor flashed Donna a grin, "can make all the difference for worlds." "You really think that, Doctor?" Asked Nazene from the doorway, a pensive look on his face. "Yeah, sergeant, I do. If you'll help, I think we can stop the emperor from destroying two worlds in one go." The Doctor said, looking the man straight in the eye for the first time since the incident in the woods. "The First thing we need to do," The Doctor said, as the four of them left the cottage, "is find a way back to my ship. I can get us there before the emperor arrives. Or before he left. Or before his great-great-great granddad was born. Meh—better not, though." The Doctor said, rubbing his neck pensively. "Wouldn't do to mess up the time lines. Then we'd have the whole universe to worry about. But, I promise you. Once we get to my ship, I can get us back to your home planet, and stop the emperor from sending those bombs." "But, your ship is a couple of miles from here, Doctor." Ringstaff said, following on the Doctor's heels like a worried terrier, "We'd have to go through enemy territory. In the dark. On foot. It's impossible!" "Ringstaff, If I stopped to worry about impossibilities," the Doctor scoffed, " I'd never have bothered to regenerate. I'd of turned to dust over forty years ago. And, Donna here would be Racnoss Chow." Ey?" Nazene asked, wondering if the strain had harmed the Doctor's mind. "Racnoss? A mythological creature? Honestly, Doctor." Ringstaff jeered. "Next you'll be saying you've met the devil himself." "Well, actually..." The Doctor admitted. "I thought you were taking the mickey, back on the Ood planet." A suddenly gobsmacked Donna interjected, tugging on the Doctor's sleeve to get his attention. "You mean you really have?" "Poppindoodle!" Ringstaff snorted. "You've met the devil, alright, Doctor." Nazene muttered darkly. "Only his name is Emperor Yenhir." "Weren't you scared?" Donna asked. " QUIET!" The Doctor shouted. Everyone shut up. "Thank you. You two. Sergeant, Ringstaff." The Doctor instructed crisply, "Make yourselves useful. Go and see if you can find anything resembling a mode of transport around here. Before it gets too dark to see." "Donna! With me." The Doctor told her, as he hurried off to look in a large shed behind the barn. Donna followed him, hoping he was right about getting to the other planet in time. m "Poppindoodle?" The Doctor said, stopping so abruptly that Donna almost walked into his back. "There's a word I've never heard before. That's brilliant! I love new words." "Made your day, has it?" Donna said raising her eyebrows, and brushing a strand of hair from her eyes. For all his genius, sometimes it felt like the Doctor had the attention span of a puppy. "Yes. Yes it has. Though I have to admit, it's not nearly so good a word as 'flapenboggle.'" The Doctor admitted, carrying on towards the shed. "And no, I wasn't." "Wasn't what?" Donna asked, mystified. "Scared of the devil. Because I had my best friend with me. Exactly like I do, right now." He said, taking Donna by the hand and jauntily striding forward. Nazene having already searched the barn earlier, went to check out some outbuildings near the livestock pens. Ringstaff decided to see if there was anything behind the cottage. Though the sun had just set, it was still light enough to see in the farmyard. Yet, the deep woods and darkly shadowed places had already donned the cloak of night. The Doctor carefully swung back the large wooden shed doors, using the torch setting on his sonic screwdriver to see inside. Donna was behind him, standing on tip-toe, trying to peer over his shoulder. He entered the building. It smelled faintly of pseudo-petrol. He decided that might be a good sign. A huge plastic tarp lay draped over some kind of large, bulky object in the centre of the floor. The Doctor asked Donna to help him remove the tarp. Donna began to lift it, when she saw a movement. She gave a startled cry. There was a man's frightened voice saying, "Oh no!" from under the tarp, which was followed by a young woman's voice saying, "Eep!" Donna and the Doctor looked at each other. They shrugged, and lifted the tarp higher. "It's alright." The Doctor said kindly, squinting into the darkness under the plastic covering, "you can come out of there. We don't have any weapons, we won't hurt you. I give you my word. We're friends." Two figures emerged from under the tarp. Donna's eyes widened at what she saw. They were human in appearance, only with deeply tanned shiny artificial skin. The man had dark wavy hair, and the woman's hair was long and blond. Both wore matching tight-fitting light blue jumpsuits with white trim. The man's appearance was young was handsome, with a body like a football player. The woman was about the same age, and looked like a super model. Both had blue eyes, but they didn't blink and their faces had fixed happy expression on them, though the lips were designed to move. They were androids. "Hello! I'm the Doctor and this is Donna. Are you two alright? What are you doing here all on your own?" The Doctor asked. "We are functioning normally, thank you Doctor." Said the man, bowing formally. He had a pleasant, masculine voice. "Though our emotion chips were ready to short circuit. We've never been left on our own before. Our owners, the Browns, decided to leave in a hurry. Their neighbour's...their name is Spott, rang them up, with news that there was to be a big battle in the valley." "But it still didn't keep the mister from leaving us here to fend for ourselves. And the cat. And the chickens. I ask you. Have you ever heard of anything so irresponsible?" The woman complained. "Mr. Brown was most apologetic though, you must admit." The man said to her. In the first few seconds she'd met them, Donna had been a bit weirded out by the fixed expressions on the two androids faces, but now that they'd begun talking, Donna realized that she was already forgetting about that. They seemed as a comfortable with each other as some old married couple. "I agree with you, sweetheart, that wasn't very nice of them, leaving you here. What if we'd been soldiers or something?" Donna said to the woman. "Do you two have names? I mean, what do I call you?" "Oh, forgive my manners. I must be getting hay dust in my cortex circuitry." The android woman responded. "I am Barbeede's android model Oh-five-eight-one," she said, pointing at herself, "and this useless pile of bolts standing next to me is Kendliss manufacturing android model Six-five thousand. But the Brown's simply call us Barbie and Ken." "Barbie and Ken? Android Barbie and Ken? You're kidding me!" Donna exclaimed, trying hard not to laugh. She looked at the Doctor. He was pretty much in the same condition. "Now you can really one up that childhood friend who had Malibu Barbie with the beach house and the sports car." The Doctor said as an aside to her, with a twinkle in his eye. "Did I say something to cause alarm?" A bewildered Barbie asked. "Oh, no, no. It's fine." Donna said reassuringly. "Anyway," The Doctor asked, rubbing the side of his eye trying to maintain a serious demeanor, "we were wondering if you might know where we could find some sort of transport? I need to get back to my ship, but it's a few miles from here. We'd be happy to take you with us, if you'd like." Barbie and Ken went to opposite sides of the tarp. They lifted it off, revealing a large, futuristic looking tractor. It sort of reminded Donna of some farmer's modified hot-rod tractor she'd seen on display at a country fair, a few years ago. This one had chrome pipes coming out of the engine and was painted shiny red and black. It looked almost new. The Doctor made an 'Ooooh' noise, and ran his hand lovingly over the machine. "Oh, you're not actually planning on..." Donna said. The Doctor flashed her a ecstatic grin, chuffed as a boy who'd just been given a motor bike for Christmas. "That's what I was afraid of." Donna sighed. The Doctor, Donna and the two androids met Nazene and Ringstaff out in the farmyard. The Doctor explained that they'd found transport back to the TARDIS, and that they were taking the two androids with them. "Fine by me." Nazene shrugged. "I just wanna' get the hell out of here." "But they're nothing but of a pair of agricultural androids, what do we need them for?" Ringstaff protested. "They'll be just taking up space." "What've you got against androids?" Donna demanded. "It's nothing personal. I don't think it's not necessary for them to come with us, that's all. I mean, it's not like they're...people." Ringstaff told her. "We can hear you!" Barbie said. "Last time I checked, androids didn't come with an invisibility cloak. We are programmed with feelings, you know." "Artificial feelings." Ringstaff said, looking down his nose at her. "I suppose ignorance does make your life so much simpler, doesn't it?" Ken sniffed. . "Listen you." Donna told Ringstaff. "I'd rather have androids with feelings, than humans without them. And I'll tell you what else. I like them a whole lot better than I like you right now, buster." "Alright, boys and girls," The Doctor intervened, "play nice! The androids are coming with me and Donna, so you can stay here or come along, Ringstaff, but I suggest that you make up your mind in the next ten seconds." "Why, what happens in the next ten seconds, Doctor?" Donna asked, suddenly worried. "Erm—them." The Doctor said, pointing towards the night dark woods, where three imperial guardsmen emerged in a row, pistols and pulsar lances aimed towards the group in the farmyard.
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