"Does this even make any sense?" I look up from the thick book that's sprawled across my lap. I'm on the floor of the TARDIS near the doorway, trying to make sense of the thick instruction manual titled: The TARDIS Instruction Manual. "All I see are bleeps and dots and circles all over the page."

"Oh of course it doesn't make sense." The Doctor pulls the book of my lap and looks like he's found an old lost friend. "It's in Gallifreyan! And it's the only language the TARDIS doesn't translate."

"Oh, well you COULD HAVE TOLD ME THAT!" I stand up abruptly. "I wasted half an hour looking through that thing!"

"Look here." The Doctor grabs my hand and shoves the book in front of my face, tracing down the lines of a huge circle in the middle. "The TARDIS is controlled by a main switch." He moves my hand to the left following a stright line. "Which is connected to the central power." And then he moves it down. "And switched to the very heart of the TARDIS."

"Yeah, that's not making sense. It's just stuff all over the page. And don't say you'll teach me Gallifreyan it looks like it would take hundreds of years to learn. And... I doubt I'll live past 100 soo..." I shove the book at him and climb up to the platform. "Just explain to me how to fly it. I mean it can't be hard than driving a car, right?"

He puts on his glasses, dropping the book on the floor. "Well of course it is. You only have 3 elements to control in a car..." 

"And you have to balance them." I argue.

"Yes but here you have many. So first thing you know if to turn on the TARDIS." He points to the central switch. I flip it upwards and the TARDIS whirrs to life. "I love that sound." He muses. "Next, we input the date. Where would you like to go?"

"I hate it when you ask that." I make a face. "You know that moment someone asks you a question, and your mind goes blank even though you know there's hundreds of places you want to see. But seeing I get to choose... let's just so... I don't know go to... Paris! Let's go to Paris in the 1900s. We can do some shopping... try on some fancy clothes... Or..."

"Right then," The Doctor interrupts with a wave of his hand. "Moving on." He winks. "You've already done this before. Input the data into the switchboard." He points to the black box in the centre which has room for a time and date.

"OK." I hit in the numbers. "Now what do we do?"

"Well now she's going to start... flying. And we have to make sure to keep her steady. See here, these three levers." He points down. "Thrust, accelerator and break. These all have to stay level. They'll move, which is why you have to keep an eye on them." He points at them again dramatically and I adjust them so they're level. "Good, now at the same time you have to keep an eye on the shields and main frame. If we're flying through an asteroid belt those can take a beating. The more hazardous the atmosphere the more shielding we need. See here." He points to a screen. "Right now we're flying through the time vortex which is extremely peaceful. Any warnings flash up on the screen. If there was say - an asteroid belt or a black hole or a swirling vortex coming up you'd need to increase the shields and - in extremely harsh circumstances you'll need to use these." He points to two mean looking levers. "You literally have to switch the TARDIS into manual mode and drive her yourself, but you're not ready for that yet. Next - these two levers. These are the stabilisers - one of the most important parts of the TARDIS. She keeps herself pretty steady but sometimes she can't help it. You know all that rocking we do?" 

"The time you almost knocked me out by sending me headfirst into the pole just after we first met? Yeah I remember that." I say wryly.

"Right, well, they're extremely hard to keep steady, you have a go." He moves over. I grab the two and pull back. It's sort of like playing XBOX only about 100 times harder because they seem to want to pull themselves upright all the time, which would mean the TARDIS would tip over, and probably start flipping through space instead of flying.

"So if I don't do this, what happens? We go turning upside down?"

"No, the TARDIS has a gravity hold. It means it will always be the right way up, so when it flips it over corrects itself back to gravity. But it's extremely bad to have to use its' gravity feature. Uses a lot of power. If I had to use that it would drain the TARDIS in no time so... it's best not to let it get that way."  He yanks on the levers again. "See? Now pay attention." 

****************

"Hey uh... is this light meant to be flashing?" I ask, pulling back on the stabilisers.

"Hmm?" He looks up from his book, glasses falling off his nose slightly.

"There's a sort of... green light flashing on the board." I say, watching it get bigger and bigger.

"Oh nothing to worry about. Probably just picking up some alien interference. We'll be close to a planet probably." He drops his head back to his book. I run around to check all the levers are level and go  back, pulling on the stabilisers hard. When I look up a warning flashes across the screen. Approaching planet Earth. Warning - approaching planet earth. Impending crash.

"DOCTOR!" I yell, bracing myself against the base of the control pannel and pulling with all my might on the stabilisers. "COME HERE NOW!"

He races up to the pannel and groans. "Oh, really?" He presses a button on the side of the computer and the warning flashes off. "It's alright it's just the TARDIS playing a little joke.

"A sick joke." I mutter, then stare at the computer again. "Is it meant to show us hurtling towards Earth or... is that just another one of its little jokes?"

"Hold onto your seat." He sighs. "We're going to crash."

"WHAT?!" I ask, aghast. "What do you mean crash?"

"Somebody forgot about the triggers." He points to a grid full of buttons.

"YOU NEVER TOLD ME ABOUT TRIGGERS!" I yell, eyes wide with fright.

"Oh page 7 of teaching how to fly the TARDIS." He runs his hands through his hair. "Whoops. I'm sorry I haven't taught anyone how to fly her in ages."

"We're going to crash!! And for the records... YOU'RE A RUBBISH TEACHER!" The TARDIS lurches to the side, flinging me into the railing. Gasping for breath I reach up to push the thrust back to halfway. 

"What has the mean lady done to you?" The Doctor croons, patting the TARDIS and yanking another red lever all the way to the left. "Hold on Darcy. This is going to get rough."

There's a huge jolt and the TARDIS seems to groan, and we hurtle faster than ever towards the Earth.

"What's happening?" I look at the red lights that are going off everywhere. "Doctor?"

"Well I thought it was self-explanatory... we've lost power. We are going to crash."

The TARDIS hurtles down and bumps into a building, flinging me to the floor. I grab onto the control pannel and hold on for dear life as it speeds back with sickening speed the other way, crashing yet again, and finally slamming to the ground. I lie on the floor, panting, with the wind knocked out of me, too afraid to open my eyes.

"Open up!" The Doctor pokes my shoulder. "You won't believe where we are! ANCIENT GREECE!" He literally grabs me off the floor and hugs me. Startled, I pull back, looking at him in horror.

"I'm no genius... but didn't I ask to be taken to PARIS?! I WANT TO GO TO PARIS!" I let out an exasperated sigh, releasing all the built up stress of crashing.

"Well we've lost power, and we won't be able to leave Greece until we can power it up again. I'm no expert but Ancient Greece wasn't exactly one for telephone wires and mobile phones so... we could be here for a while." He throws open the door. "As they say... or is it just me?... ALLONS-Y!"

"Oh now you're just rubbing it in. Why does your catch phrase have to be French?" I pout. "I didn't want to go to Ancient Gr... whoa." I step behind him, taking in a deep breath. It's amazing. Literally amazing. We've landed outside what looks like some sort of Greek building. Huge, white pillars. People in togas hurry everywhere, not even taking any notice of us.

"What is this, a colliseum?" I gape at the huge building.

"Wrong era." The Doctor smirks. "Looks like a... temple of some sorts. Judging from the smell." He waves a hand past his nose as pungent incense comes floating out.

"Oh of course it is." I cough as I breathe in too much of the cloud.

"Ancient Greece? 600... maybe 700 BC? Greece was powerful then." The Doctor looks arond. "Ohh, look at the market place."

Stertching out before us is a massive expanse of stalls. There's blankets and towels on the ground with things spread out everywhere, stretching on further than the eye can see. Every sort of fruit imaginable, even a few spice stalls. There's things cooking over open fires, and buskers playing on harbs and flutes. Well - primitive harps and flutes. There's certainly no amps or electrical equipment.

"Watch where you're going, boy." A tall man dressed in white robes says condescendingly as a young boy collides with the Doctor, sending the bowl of water he was carrying flying everywhere, and scattering the contents of his basket. 

"It's alright." The Doctor says, ignoring the water on his suit and bending down to help retrieve the contents of the basket.

"No, please, a slave should be more careful." The Greece person looks at the Doctor curiously. "You have strange attire, sir." 

"Oh yeah we're visiting from a far distant land." The Doctor says unconvincingly. 

I bend over to pick up what looks like a pomegranate and hand it back. "Here you go."

The boy nods in thanks, smiling at me, showing up his bright white teeth... but no tongue. I stumble back in horror as he steps away beside his master.

"Well he was charming." The Doctor says sarcastically. "What are you doing on the ground?"

"N...uh...nothing." I dust the dust off my jeans. "That slave... had... no... tongue." I say slowly with another shiver. "Who would do that?"

"Ah the ancient Greeks. He probably commited some sort of offence they found punishable by taking his voice away."

"I think we should dress more appropriotly." I look down at my jeans and jacket. "Don't you? For one thing I'm sweltering... and we're liable to get thrown in jail or something, and probably fed to the lions or something in one of their games."

"You can go ahead." The Doctor points back to the TARDIS. "Why don't you meet me down over by that temple in say.. 10 minutes?" 

"Sure." I start to head back. "Uh... how am I going to find the wardrobe anyway? Cause the TARDIS is infinite and... I don't exactly have all day."

"First right, turn left, then follow the hallway and it's right, right, left and left again."

I stare at him for a second until he gets the message. "You can fly her, she'll show you where the wardrobe is." He laughs.

I take a rather excited run up to the TARDIS, let myself in and then start walking down one of the long hallways, taking whatever direction comes into my head until I'm facing a massive big double door room.

"WHOA!" I throw it open and look at the tremendous amount of clothes - all labelled with different time periods. I ignore the flashy stuff and go for a simple white sheet thing that drapes down to my ankles, a light blue stole that wraps around one shoulder, and a gold belt. At least that'll show I'm not a slave. I finish it with a pair of sandals and then hurry back out of the TARDIS. This time I don't get so many strange looks as I go back to the temple.

I'm almost around the corner when I see the strange slave boy with no tongue following me. He has a huge gash across his face, stretching down to his neck and on his bare shoulder. Immediately, concern courses through me and I stop in the shadow of a building and motion for him to come closer. He does so cautiously, eyeing me with flickers of fear.

"It's OK." I say. "I won't hurt you. I want to help you. Come here." He eventually creeps over to me, and I tear off a piece of my long skirt and hold it to his cheek. "What happened? Oh. I know you can't talk. But you can write, can you?" 

He shakes his head and mimes something at me. I study his lips closely. "Thank you? You're welcome. What's your name? Don't worry, I can lip read quite well. My grandmother used to be very deaf." It was probably from all the loud music she used to listen to.

Lupus he mouths.

"Pleased to meet you Lupus. My name is Darcy."

"And I'm the Doctor." The Doctor comes up behind me suddenly. "You're late."

"I was helping Lupus." I retort. "Well what are we going to do here anyway? I don't think we're going to have any  problems here. This is just normal boring... Greece."

I look down as Lupus tugs on my sleeve and concentrate on reading his lips.

"People missing? A new Greek sport that's rolled out..." I frown at him. "What the heck are you t... oh my g..." I turn around and glare at the Doctor. "HOW COME EVERYWHERE WE GO HAS DANGER AROUND EVERY FLIPPING CORNER?! WHy can't we just have a NORMAL trip anywhere?"

"What is it?" He asks impatiently.

"Well Lupus says there's been disappearances around the city - lots in the past few moons - days - whatever. And then he said there was this new olympic sport - and he said he's seen a few people that have disappeared - have appeared as the statues - have the same faces and everything."

"Oh blimey." The Doctor runs his hands through his hair. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Ancient Greece? Statues? People missing, returning as statues?"

"Oh absolutely." I grind my teeth together.

"Medusa." We say at the same time.