Human Timelord

“This is fantastic,” I said sitting in a swivelling chair. “My first assignment and you want me to go back home?”

“Don’t worry,” he replied. “I’ll come with you.”

“Oh, so at least I’ve got a body guard. By the way, are you going to introduce me to the, uh…Highterion?”

“Sorry,” he said quickly, “Erica, this is Naramanikqui’aka. Generally known as Nara because her name takes too long to learn and say.”

“Nice to meet you,” I called across the room.

“Likewise,” she said in her accented alien voice.

“So,” I said, ignoring Jack and walking over to Nara who sat at the computer. “What’s that?”

The screen showed DNA that couldn’t possibly be human. I looked at it closer and saw a slight wavering in the pattern.

“It can’t be.” I said, falling back into another chair and biting my lower lip. Turning to the side, I switched on the computer. Within one minute I had hacked into the Torchwood database and was scrolling through alien species faster than lightning. Finally I stopped on one.

Species – Pevalimon

Status – Extinct

Planet of origin – Pevalie

Last sighting – 1853 Earth

“Extinct?” I scoffed. “You really need to keep on top of things Jack.”

“It was only three hours ago by my watch which hasn’t been set back to normal time.”

“The Pevalimon told me it was invading,” I continued ignoring him. “Maybe it meant an invasion of the human world. Nobody knew they were here; maybe they just want to reveal themselves.”

“But then again,” I said, continuing my own argument. “If they only wanted to reveal themselves, why do it in this kind of way. They don’t just want to reveal themselves. This isn’t a short term plan – they’re willing to wait. They want to take over the world and we have to stop them.”

“Then why are you complaining about going back home?”

“I was not complaining,” I replied angrily. “I was being sarcastic.”

“They sound the same,” he muttered walking away to go check on the one unconscious Pevalimon we had in custody. I reached for the nearest thing and threw it with precision towards his retreating back.

“OWW!” I turned back to Nara with a smug look on my face.

“Are you going to give me the lowdown on all the gadgets and gizmos and stuff?”

“Depends,” she replied, not moving her eyes from the screen.

“Depends on what?”

“Whether you come back from this assignment alive or not.”

“You think I’m going to die,” I stated.

“It’s not that I want to believe that, but I do. And considering you have no prior experience and no training its just…I feel like I shouldn’t be giving you all this information if you’re just going to die anyway. And I’m not too sure if I can trust you either.”

“Well,” I replied coldly, my mood now suddenly dropping rapidly, “thanks for the vote of confidence. I’m going to go and get changed before we leave. See you around Nara…or not.”

“Erica,” she started.

“What?” I said sharply turning around.

“Good luck.”

xxxxx

I was home again. It was nine o’clock and I lay in my bed staring at the ceiling. Mum had written me a letter stating that the last few days of term I would be away. But I had to be back in two weeks to do my HSC after the holidays. I so did not like exams.

So even though my name wasn’t going to be marked on the role and I ‘officially’ wasn’t going to be at school, Jack and I would be hiding out. There were a lot of hideouts in our school which I assumed was one of the reasons why the Pevalimon had chosen our school. They’d started out on a small scale in Australia.

I fell asleep wondering what the next day would bring.

It arrived faster than usual after a dreamless sleep. The wind forced me to wear dark jeans and a thick jacket – no way was I going back to wearing uniform.

“Here,” Jack said, passing me a vest as we walked towards my school.

“You really think that aliens need guns?” I asked sceptically putting the bullet-proof vest on underneath my jacket.

“It’s just a precaution. As I said, I-”

“Don’t want to see anyone else die. Yeah, I know.”

As we walked through the back entrance of the school, no teachers or students were about. School had started an hour ago so everyone was already in class.

“So where are these hiding spots?” Jack hissed.

“This way,” I replied, running across the basketball court to the back of the art rooms.

“You sure we’re not going to get caught?”

“Pur-lease,” I said. “No one ever comes out here.”

“Then how are we meant to get to the Pevalimon.”

“Uh…” I hesitated. “Good point. Follow m – get down!”

I dragged him down behind the shrubs as two teachers came out of the back door.

“That’s them,” I hissed. “What do we do?”

“Take this.” He passed me a gun similar to the one he’d used last time. “And just in case.”
He handed me a regular gun.

“I take it that it doesn’t matter if I don’t know how to work them?”

“Just try your hardest.”

“This is so not going to work,” I muttered, turning back to the Pevalimon in human form who were communicating in that hissing dialect. As they went in separate directions Jack followed one and I followed the other.

Mine moved quickly between buildings until I caught up to it outside the science labs.

“Hold it,” I said. The person turned around and looked at me questioningly. The gun was pointed directly at them and I looked around it to try and find the trigger.

“Please work,” I whispered as I closed my eyes and pulled the trigger.

The Pevalimon was back to its original form and captured inside the portable prison.

A gun shot rang throughout the air. I ran towards the sound and saw Jack being backed up against a wall by a Pevalimon.

“Oi!” I yelled out. The alien looked at me and in that moment’s distraction, Jack disappeared around the corner. I didn’t have another cool gun with me, so normal would have to do.
I shot the Pevalimon in the arm and started treading backwards just as Jack ran around the corner.

“Here!” he yelled, throwing me the laser gun. Three seconds later both Pevalimon were imprisoned and the battle was done. The stranger thing was that as soon as it was over, Jack pulled me towards him and pressed his lips to mine. I was completely astonished, but when he broke away and we were both breathing heavily, all he said was, “You were amazing.”

I smiled, both from the kiss and from the joy that I had just stopped an invasion.

“We’d better get back home,” Jack said.

“Yeah,” I replied, smiling. “Back to Torchwood.”