Post by Fitz Kreiner on Apr 8, 2010 13:44:06 GMT
Day one, the Anubians.
Well, as you probably guessed, as I wrote what happened earlier and am writing this now, the Anubian guards didn’t kill us. And for once we weren’t locked up either. I have to admit, I was wrong when I thought the Doctor had landed us in trouble. Maybe I’m getting cynical and thinking it will happen a lot. It doesn’t always happen like that, we do have some really good peaceful adventures. Anyway, this one, well, I don’t know yet, we’ll see together.
There were seven of these big dog things surrounding us just outside the TARDIS. And they’re pretty imposing, especially those baring their teeth! I wouldn’t argue with them. Where we were and if it was a restricted area, I couldn’t tell you. All I was aware of was the Anubians. Yeah, they bloody terrified me, but they were bloody impressive as well. I’ve never been a big one for dogs.
I’ve got my hands up, and I know Tom has as well. The Doctor seems a little confused, he’s always the same when it comes to things like that, either he rattles off a load of something so confusing that whoever is holding a gun at us is so confused, or he just charms them round.
“Wait,” the voice was deep and gravelly, one of those you can feel in the pit of your stomach.
I watch in amazement as another Anubian pushes its way through the semi-circle of the guards. This one is slightly smaller, but still pretty damn tall, and instead of the grey fur, this one is brown and has yellow eyes. Instead of the big ankh staff, this one is holding a shorter one, with a crook on the end. Not a criminal crook, more like that thing Bo Peep had, only pretty fancy, gold and jewelled. It’s even got a tuft of fur under its chin, almost like a little beard. This one looks a lot cuter than the others. Well, not as fierce anyway.
“The travellers are not to be harmed,” it growls to the guards, who immediately step back and raise their staffs. The Anubian turns to the Doctor now and bows. “Welcome, my lord Doctor. You and your courtesans are most welcomed.”
Ok, this is far far far too wierd! Even the Doctor is confused and shoots a look at me and Tom. We’ve still got our hands up, but we’re too shocked to move.
“You, erm, you know me?” the Doctor asked the Anubian.
“Of course, the legends of the lord Doctor and his mystical temple of wonders are well documented,” the Anubian said. It seemed really humbled by the Doctor, even though it’s a good foot taller than him. “Our astronomers have been watching the heavens, that you have chosen to visit our city station is most honoured.”
Ok, so the dog men have been watching us! I’m not sure whether it’s a good or a bad thing. I mean, they look pretty damn fierce, but one thing I’ve learnt from being with the Doctor, is that not every alien is as evil or scary as they look. They certainly seem to be pleased to see us, well, this brown one does.
“You’ve been expecting us?” the Doctor asked.
I look over at Tom, he seems to be as confused as I am. He looks back at me and mouths, ‘I have no idea either’. See what I mean, the cheeky bugger knows what I’m thinking!
“Not as such, my lord,” the Anubian started before being pretty quickly cut off by the Doctor who held his hands up.
“No, please, just ‘Doctor’,” he said, waving the Anubian down.
“I apologise,”
This Anubian is an odd one. I’m not too sure what to make of him. I think it’s a him, I’ve met some female aliens who are more masculine looking than the men. But I’m not sure I quite get on with all the bowing and everything, its kinda making me a little uncomfortable. I don’t know whether I’m being paranoid or not, but it does make me wonder what they want.
“Our astronomers had seen your trans-celestial temple in the Great Whirling, bearing upon our Prefecture. Our calculations indicated the time and location of your arrival,” the Anubian explained.
Now, I’m trying to keep up with what they say and how they say it. The Doctor told me that the telepathic circuits of the TARDIS help translate alien languages, so we speak them and understand them. I have no idea how it does it, but I think it’s probably how it does it here. I doubt the Anubians are speaking English, not if we’re about 5000 years BC!
“Ah, I see,” the Doctor says. I think it’s clicked for him. I’m still a bit unsure. “You weren’t expecting me until you saw me coming. I do hope I’ve not arrived at a bad time?”
“Oh no, lord Doctor,” the Anubian bowed again. It clearly didn’t take in the Doctors’ comment about just calling him Doctor. “But records of your travels have been documented. Many great civilisations have been visited by you.”
“Ah excellent,” the Doctor turned and grinned at Tom and me, “It’s always nice to know you’ve made an impression.”
“So, what’s going on?” I ask.
“Oh, the Anubian astronomers spotted us on our way and set up a welcoming committee for us, they’ve heard of me before,” the Doctor explains.
“Big head,” I tease him. “How though, I thought we were in the time vortex.”
“Not all astronomers use telescopes like on Earth,” the Doctor replies. “The Anubians are highly advanced, and their astronomers can infiltrate both space and time it seems.”
“That is so,” the Anubian said, cutting into the conversation. “We observed your trans-celestial temple in the Great Whirling.”
“Great Whirling?” Tom asks before realising. “Oh, you mean the Vortex?”
“The Whirling, yes my Lord,” the Anubian bows.
“How much do you know about us?” I ask him.
“Lady, I am afraid I know little about yourself or your associate. The Lord Doctor is known through legend, in his blue box. It is a secret of God-like power,” the Anubian says to me.
Ok, so the Anubians don’t know me or Tom, but they’ve heard of the Doctor. And they seem to think he’s like a God or something.
“You must forgive me, I have failed to introduce myself,” the Anubian says. He knocked me off my train of thought. I’d completely forgotten he hadn’t done that. “I am Tuchaneth, attendant to the grand governor of Intheop.”
“So, your boss knew we were coming, you have some high regard for the Doctor, but he can’t be bothered to come see us himself?” Tom asks.
This rather shocks me and I find myself looking at him. I don’t think he meant it as it came out, I know that’s not like him. The Doctor doesn’t seem to have noticed. Maybe it’s just me. I don’t know if I’m wary still of the seven Anubian guards still stood there behind Tuchaneth, but they seem really pacified now that he’s here.
“Governor Rameso sent me in his stead, he is preparing for the coming delegation.” Tuchaneth said.
I didn’t even have to look at the Doctor to know that this would have got his interest.
“Delegation?”
Told you! His whole posture has changed and he’s moved closer to Tuchaneth as if he’s an old friend. I’ve seen him do this many times before, and before you know what’s happening, we’ve been invited back for tea or drawn into a web of intrigue, so watch this space!
“The Drachnith Assemblage is going to be arriving within the next 28 cycles,” Tuchaneth replied, bowing slightly. There’s a lot of bowing going on with these blokes. I guess it’s like a common thing for them, like nodding or something. “There has been great distrust between our realms and we are hoping the resolution can be met with this delegation.”
“Ah, a peace conference,” the Doctor cried out. He loves this sort of thing. And it’s almost like me and Tom get overlooked during this, but it gives us a chance to explore and if things go tits up, we’ll end up doing Gods know what.
I turn to Tom and he’s already got that look on his face, the whole ‘here we go again’ look. It’s got the whole building up thing to something exciting, I just hope I’m not psyching things up for you. It could all just be boring with the peace conference, so don’t expect me to give you a blow by blow account of that. After all, you’re not reading this to read about who said what and who drank the most coffee or whatever it is they drink here and what was decided upon.
Anyway, Tom and I both know that we’re going to end up getting involved somehow, the Doctor will want to go to this conference, or at least learn something about it. Although something tells me that he knows something about it already and he’s not quite letting on. One of those sixth senses that you get after you’ve travelled with him for a while. He can be bloody sneaky like that, but in a good way.
But yeah, I have to admit I kinda drifted off when the Doctor started talking about this peace conference. I guess I should have listened, so I’ll have to ask him when he gets back (I’ll explain about that later).
I was snapped back to reality when Tuchaneth snapped his fingers with a loud popping sound that actually made me jump. I looked around as four of the Anubian guards stiffened before turned away. The others seemed to move behind Tom and me and the Doctor was already starting to walk off beside Tuchaneth. I shrugged at Tom before grabbing his arm and pulling him along with me. If I’m going, I’m going to make sure he is too, mostly because I’ve not seen much of him the past few weeks and I’ve been worried about him.
It was then I really got looking about where we were. It certainly didn’t look like any sort of space station that I’d seen before. They were mostly metal and dark, some almost Star-Trekky in ways, but this was totally different. It was almost like being inside a large shopping centre, only it wasn’t. The floor looked like polished white marble and there were statues of Anubians and some other strange alien creatures dotted all over the place. I then noticed that there were more Anubians about, some of them were guards, but mostly they were probably normal Anubian people, different shades of grey and brown. I guess there must be like a breed thing like there is with dogs.
The place almost seemed like some sort of indoor garden mixed with large columns and buildings. It really was like an Ancient city inside. The large columns went up hundreds of feet supporting walkways and some bizarre things that looked like, well, I’m not sure. I’ll go on about that later. There were large areas of grass as well with alien flowers growing and Anubian children, or puppies, playing and chasing cats. That actually made me stop and double take. There were cats everywhere it seemed. Black cats, very like the ones you see in Egyptian galleries and the likes. I knew that Egyptians worshipped cats, so maybe this was where it came from. The cats didn’t seem to be bothered by the big alien dogs, or the alien dog children chasing them. They seemed to enjoy it really.
I asked the Doctor what Anubis was the Egyptian God of, and he had told me that he was the God of the underworld, escorting souls to the next life, and looking around here, you could see why people thought that, if the Anubian space ships were anything like this. It looked like it was a heavenly scene. It was wonderfully serene and rather peaceful. I like it, I really do. I can see scenes like that where I am at the moment, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Tom and I followed the Doctor and Tuchaneth, who were talking about this conference, the Doctor seemed to know about both the Anubians and the Drachnith. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had deliberately aimed to get here for this time. If not, then it’s a pretty good coincidence, they’ve happened a fair few times. Some of them can be rather amusing.
Tom seemed to be rather relaxed at this, although he was grumbling slightly about not having been able to have his breakfast. Ok, I took that as read that I could tease him about that. He’s one of those people you can tease and he’ll give you the puppy look before getting you straight back. I think that’s one of the things I like about him, he’s a lot of fun, especially when we’re in the TARDIS for a while and the Doctor’s off on one of his repairing moods.
We were walking passed a load of trees (yes, there were trees on the grassy areas too) when I spotted the fruit hanging from them. They looked a bit like apples.
“Doctor,” I shouted forwards to him, “can we eat these?”
The Doctor and Tuchaneth paused as the Doctor gave him one of his questioning looks which asked the question without him having to actually ask it.
“They are, Lady Jess,” Tuchaneth answered drawing his lips back in what I assume is the Anubian version of a smile. “They are grown for the people to eat as they will. All fruit-bearing trees and plants are. You are free to pick and eat.”
Cool, like a free green grocers. I nudged Tom gently in the stomach as I threw the apple thing to him. He winked a smile at me as he caught it, the smile turning to a slight grimace as he bit into it.
“Not nice?” I asked him.
He looked thoughtful for a couple of seconds as we followed the Doctor and Tuchaneth more, the three guards still behind us. I wasn’t sure whether they were there to stop us wandering off or what. Some of the Anubian civilians had stopped what they were doing and stared at us as we passed. Some of the children puppy things had pointed to us and must have been asking their parents what we were because the adults were pulling them away, waving their arms down. It was like being on Earth and seeing an embarrassed parent stopping their child from pointing at someone in a wheelchair or something.
“It’s not bad,” Tom said after another bite. “Takes a little getting used to though.”
“Happy breakfast,” I said to tease him. “Don’t say I never give you anything.”
He was finishing off the apple thing when we spotted the Doctor had stopped, we’d clearly fallen behind a little. The Doctor had stopped near what looked like a balcony thing, it was sort of like the holes you get in the upper levels of shopping centres, to use the same likeness I’d used before, only the drop was somewhat more than just one floor. Tuchaneth was striding out ahead on what was, and this is what I meant earlier, a really weird path. It was like two long bars, with white lights along the insides facing each other. Between them seemed to be what looked like water. You could see straight through and down the gap, and my Gods, it really sent me cold. You could see up for hundreds of feet and down the same.
“What is that?” I asked, pointing at the pathway thing.
“Just a path,” the Doctor replied, stepping out onto it. “Come on, I was waiting for you.”
I felt my back creep as he stepped on. The floor rippled like he had stepped onto a puddle, but he stayed well put. I could see several different layers below him, I don’t think I’ve really grasped how big this place is. I still can’t.
“Force fields?” Tom asked, tentatively placing his foot on the path. He looked like he was enjoying the ripples from where his foot touched the path.
“Not quite,” the Doctor said. He was now further out. “It’s a bit more advanced than that.”
“What if you fall over the side?” I asked, looking down before taking a step back. It was bloody high and the path wasn’t the widest I’d ever seen, about four feet wide.
“You mean like this?”
My heart nearly stopped as the Doctor smiled and leant dangerously over the edge until he overbalanced.