Doctor Who - Short Trips (Big Finish) - 27 - Christmas Around the World by Xanna Eve Chown

Author:Xanna Eve Chown
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781844353422
Publisher: Big Finish Productions Ltd
Published: 2008-12-15T08:00:00+00:00

Indian Ocean 1814

No Room

Rebecca Levene

An adventure of the Seventh Doctor, with Chris

Chris was poised to cut open the final coconut when the ship hove into

view over the horizon. He put down the machete and concentrated on

watching it, in the distant hope that it might actually sail anywhere near

them.

Beside him, the Doctor was sleeping beneath his hat, only his chin

exposed to a severe shaft of light from the midday sun. If he stayed that

way very long, he was going to get burnt, but Chris didn't bother to wake

him. It was, after all, entirely his fault that they were stuck here.

Remarkably, the ship was still approaching. Chris could make out its

masts now, three of them, and the fine white spread of canvas that was

driving it before the wind. Then, just when he was beginning to hope, it

stopped. He sighed.

The Doctor sat up beside him, shading his eye to peer at the ship. 'Ah.

There she is at last.'

'She's not coming any closer,' Chris pointed out.

'Draws too much water. Too many reefs around here. Nasty things.

They'll send a jolly boat.'

The Doctor was right. Chris could see it now, ten white-suited men

pulling at its oars as it drew closer. He supposed they did look rather

cheerful, with blue bands on their straw hats and ribbons sewn into the

seams of their trousers.

Nearer still, and he saw that there was a passenger, a big-boned, fair-

haired man with a face so red even the tropical sun couldn't bleach it to

blankness. When the boat was playing in the breakers, he hopped out with

surprising agility and strode through the surf towards them.

The Doctor stood up and doffed his hat as Chris scrambled to his feet

beside him.

'Good day, gentlemen,' the man said. 'You are in want of a ship, I

collect.'

In the annals of the bleeding obvious, this scored pretty high, but

the Doctor grinned delightedly. 'Oh yes, indeed. Ours met with a rather

unlucky accident.'

Chris snorted, and the Doctor trod heavily on his toe as he moved

forward to shake the man's hand. 'You'll be the Captain of that lovely

vessel, I imagine.'

The man bowed his head, and Chris saw that his fair hair was caught at

the back in a tight bunch. 'I have that honour. And may I ask your name,

sir? And the name of the craft that had the great misfortune to leave you

stranded here?'

'I'm the Doctor, and this is my - my loblolly boy, Cwej.'

Chris glared at him. 'Your what?'

'Please forgive him,' the Doctor said to the Captain. 'He's foreign.'

'And your ship?' the Captain asked.

'The Tardis.'

The other man frowned, an expression which sat uncomfortably on his

cheerful face. 'I fear I'm unfamiliar with her. Was she an Indiaman?'

'A Gallifreyan,' the Doctor said, and skipped through the waves to hop

into the jolly boat before the Captain could ask him anything further.

Chris sat at the back of the boat as they approached the ship. The sea had

looked calm from the shore, almost peaceful but - rather like the Doctor

- it was restless and powerful and always in motion, no matter how still

it seemed. The last coconut he'd eaten was in severe danger of paying a

return visit

The Doctor didn't seem bothered at all.

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