Doctor Who - ''One Day'' - Chapter 1

DOCTOR WHO

“ONE DAY”
by Matthew Killmer

“One day, I shall come back.  Yes, I shall come back.  Until then there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties.  Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.  Goodbye Susan.  Goodbye my dear.”

-The Doctor, “The Dalek Invasion of Earth”


Chapter 1

The Doctor sat alone in the console room of the TARDIS.  A somewhat blank look covered his face as if he was trying to remember something.  Something important.  The Doctor was 1200 years old and he was doing his best to ignore that fact.  A series of memories began to drift through his trail of thoughts.  Memories of those he had loved--and lost.  Donna… Martha… Rose.  But there was one more: one whose memory he had held onto for more than nine hundred years.
Just then, the Doctor’s companion, Clara Oswald entered the TARDIS console.
“Doctor, just how long have you had an Italian restaurant in here?” she said as she entered.
“What? Oh, hello Clara!” the Doctor started as his train of thought was brought to a halt.
“‘Cause it’s absolutely delicious!” Clara continued.
“Glad you think so,” the Doctor said half-heartedly.
“So where are we going this time?” Clara inquired.
“I’m not sure,” the Doctor answered while with a lack of enthusiasm and getting up from his seat.  He stepped towards the console and checked the scanner.  As he went about stabilizing the TARDIS’ operations, Clara’s expression quieted as she sensed the Doctor’s unease.
“Doctor,” she said quietly.  “Is there something wrong?”
The Doctor paused at what he what was doing and turned to look at his companion.  He flicked one last switch with a sigh.
“Yes Clara,” he replied.  “There is.”
He paused a few seconds more before continuing.
“Clara, I am 1200 years old.   You are by no means my first companion.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“When I left Gallifrey all those years ago, I left with my granddaughter.  Her name was Susan Foreman.  We first landed on Earth in the year 1963.  She went to school like any other girl her age and I took her on adventures like I have taken you.  We’ve seen the planet Quinnis in the Fourth Universe, the metal seas of Venus, we taught cavemen how to make fire, we even saw the Rings of Akhaten…”
He trailed off.  A smile of reminisce began to spread across the Doctor’s face as he continued.
“Oh, those were the days.” the Doctor’s happiness then came to a stop as he began to speak of a bad memory.  “And then we witnessed the Dalek occupation of Earth when we landed in 2167.  The Daleks were defeated, but it was I who had the greatest loss.”
“What happened?” Clara asked, worried.
“Susan grew up,” the Doctor answered, trying to hold back tears.  “She fell in love… and I left her there.  She is the only family I have left now that the Time War has destroyed Gallifrey… and I have no idea where she is now.  She and I… the Last of the Time Lords.
“But you have a time machine!”  Clara exclaimed.  “Why don’t you go back?”
The Doctor sighed and paused for a moment  before answering, “I am afraid.”
“Afraid of what?” Clara asked.
“Afraid of what I’ll see.”
Clara fell silent. The two pondered this for a couple seconds. Finally Clara spoke.
"Well," she said, "you'll never know at all if you don't go look, will you?"
The Doctor stared at his companion for a few short moments until his face finally broke into a devious smile.
“You Clara Oswald,” he said, turning to the console.  “Are absolutely right!”
“Now that’s more like it,” Clara replied.
The Doctor pulled a lever on the console.  The central column began to rise and fall as the TARDIS’ engines gave out their distinctive wheezing, groaning sound.
“Do you know where to go Doctor?” Clara questioned.
“Nope!” the Doctor answered.  “I’m setting the spatio-temporal tracker to pinpoint Susan at the point in her timestream where time is still being rewritten.”
The Doctor dashed around the console frantically as he piloted the TARDIS in his “regular” fashion.
“If I do this right, we should land no more than within a three-mile radius of her.”
A bright flare of sparks shot out of the side of the console.
“Oh, the TARDIS hates being this specific!” the Doctor exclaimed.  “Hang on, Clara!”
The commotion then soon came to a stop, signifying that the TARDIS had landed.
“We’re here,” the Doctor said.  He then pulled the scanner monitor towards him.  A map of the TARDIS’ surrounding environment was on display along with a blinking red dot.  The Doctor cross-checked the data before finally saying, “That’s her.  We’ve found her, Clara.”
The Doctor stared a little bit longer at the screen, contemplating his very near reunion with his long-lost granddaughter.  After a brief moment of this, the Doctor went to grab his purple frock coat.
“Shall we, Clara Oswald?” he asked, putting it on.
“Yes, Doctor, we shall,” Clara replied.
The two stepped out of the TARDIS and onto the street.  They breathed in the peaceful late afternoon air and began to walk down the street.
“We’re in London,” Clara acknowledged.  “But, it’s no London like I’ve ever seen.”
“Yes, because this is London in the year 2281,” the Doctor explained.  “December the twenty-sixth to be more specific.”
Clara looked off into the horizon.
“Is that a mountain?” Clara asked, a bit amazed.  “There aren’t any mountains in England!”
“It’s actually a volcano,” the Doctor explained.  “It should be inactive by now.  It first erupted when I fought the Daleks some years ago from now.  Long story…”
The Doctor trailed off as his acute Time Lord senses picked up the sound of a police siren.  He noticed it was getting closer and closer.
“Doctor?” said Clara.
“Shh!  Quiet!” the Doctor interrupted.  Just then a young woman with short black hair quickly rounded the corner and abruptly pushed past the Doctor and Clara.
“So sorry!” she apologized in a voice familiar to the Doctor as she continued to run.
“Susan…” the Doctor said under his breath.  He stood aghast with his eyes widening in disbelief.
“Doctor… is that…?” Clara questioned.  But before she could finish her sentence, the Doctor had already dashed off after whom he had come for.
“Susan!” he yelled.  But his cries were drowned out by the police bullhorn that called out the same.
“Susan Foreman, we have you surrounded!  You have nowhere to run!” the gruff voice of a policeman ordered.  Susan stopped dead in her tracks as she realized her predicament.  Several police officers came out of their vehicles and seized Susan.  The Doctor stopped running as well with a look of complete confusion in response to his granddaughter’s situation.  Susan was then loaded into a police car.  The Doctor cried out her name one last time.  Susan turned her head to look at the strange man who called her name.  As the car door slammed shut, an emotion of shock and sadness came over the Doctor as it became apparent to him that Susan had no idea who he was.
Clara finally caught up to the Doctor.  She watched as the police cars sped off into the distance and then looked back up at the Doctor.
“Doctor,” she asked.  “Was that…?”
“Yes,” the Doctor replied.  “It was… and she’s gone again.”
The Doctor straightened his bow tie as his eyes narrowed fiercely.
"Let's go Clara," the Doctor said as the two began to walk toward where the Doctor suspected Susan was being taken.