Prologue

Rose Tyler blew on her coffee, a task she found pointless considering she was in the Tundra. She ought to be drinking the coffee from the moment it was handed to her, letting the liquid warm her freezing body even if it might mean scarring her throat from the heat. The Tundra was just too damned cold, the cold seeped through all the layers she put on, through the tiny holes of the nylon and wool fibres of her winter clothing.

Rose held the black liquid in the Styrofoam cup almost irreverently. In this cold wasteland, coffee was the only simple pleasure she afforded herself. A hot cup of coffee, and she was able to tune out the white surroundings, black sky, the cold harsh winds that was intent on tearing into their equipment and the whine of the saw and drill as her team tried to hack though the ice to get to the alien probe or ship or whatever it was that was sending out the distress call.

Rose sighed. She could see from the corner of her eye Mickey shuffling towards her in the snow, probably hoping for a sip of her coffee.

Fat chance. Day 23 in the Tundra, coffee was a scarce commodity; the last thing she'd want to do was to share her coffee.

"How are you holding up, babe?"

"You're not getting any of my coffee, Mickey." Rose spun away from him to stare into endless white space.

"Aww, come on. Just one sip? Please, Rose?"

Rose took a sip from her coffee and was disappointed. The liquid was lukewarm. She allowed her coffee to cool down so much. But she was not about to let Mickey know that. Rose closed her eyes and continued to drink the coffee, sipping the coffee and savouring every drop.

"Hmm!" she intoned breathily. "So good!"

She opened her eyes in time to see that Mickey was about to play shove her. She jumped away from him, careful not to spill her coffee.

"Hey!" Rose protested good-naturedly.

"That's for teasing me," Mickey mock-warned, folding his arms on his chest with a self-satisfied smirk. Rose grinned, the way she always did, tongue between her teeth. But the grin lessened and it was all-business again. Rose was field leader now; she couldn't afford to fool around as much.

Rose turned her attention to her team who was busy sawing and hacking through the ice.

"How's it going?" she asked Mickey.

Mickey moved awkwardly underneath all the thick clothing, she could barely see the upward movement of his shoulders as he shrugged. He sort of reminded her of the Michelin man. "Same as always," Mickey sighed. "You would think that aliens would find a less cold place to land. Or under less ice."

"Somewhere in the Tropics maybe?" Rose teased.

"Yeah, on the beach. Where there's beautiful ladies."

"They wouldn't be under much distress there, would they?" Rose finished the last of her coffee. She was starting to get antsy with being out here. First the tea ran out, and then the coffee. The excavation was taking far too long for her liking. There was every possibility that the distress call was a trap and it could be some hairy, scary alien about to suck all their brains out.

There was a shout and the sound of drilling that Rose has been accustomed to for the past three weeks stopped. Rose could see Jake running towards the two of them, and Rose had to stifle a giggle, seeing Jake covered in flakes of ice.

"They've chipped off enough of the ice. We can use low level explosives to take out the remaining ice." Jake reported.

"Are you sure it won't damage the probe or spaceship or whatever it is giving that distress call?" Rose asked.

Jake cocked an eyebrow and gave Rose an exasperated huff.

Rose grinned but the humor did not reach her eyes. She put up her hands in defense. "Just checking."

"We should be prepared," Jake continued.

Rose and Mickey exchanged a look of understanding. Mickey reached for his gun, strapped to his Michelin outfit. One can never be too sure.

Rose remembered with a slight pang: the Doctor would have disapproved of Mickey and his guns. Or hers for that matter. But Rose nodded at Mickey and the three readied their weapons. The three of them headed towards where the rest of the field operatives worked.

Out of respect and intimidation of the Rose Tyler, the field agents backed off a bit and kept silent waiting for her go ahead.

"Ten quid it's an alien who we've never seen before and will probably want to eat us," Mickey said to Jake. From the corner of her eye, Rose could see her newer field operatives look a little nervous, unused to gallows humour.

Jake grinned. "Only one way to find out."

There was steel in Rose's gaze at the ice. She nodded imperceptibly. James, one of the field operatives specializing in bombs, pressed the detonator. The explosion was loud and the roar of the ice crumbling was deafening. The wind from the explosion battered against the Torchwood team. Rose was tense , she was on guard, ready in case of anything.

As the cacophony died down, what remained was the eerie silence that came after any explosion and an ice cave created inside the ice. And then there it was, the alien probe that had been sending the distress calls, picked up by Torchwood a few weeks back.

There in the centre stood a battered, blue Police Box, standing tall and proud not at all strangely as though it was meant to have been there, in the icy plains of the Tundra.

It was as though someone punched Rose in the gut. Somewhere through the haze of pain and distress she could feel Mickey put a hand on her shoulder. But her gaze never left the blue box.

"Blimey," Jake breathed out finally. "It's a Tardis! What's that doing here?"