CHAPTER 1: PROOF OF LIFE

"Do you always fly like this?"

Amid the violent rocking of the TARDIS, Amy Pond desperately scrambled for a stable anchor - something, anything, to grasp as her journey through time and space became increasingly erratic at the hands of the Doctor. Even with a handful of trips now under her belt, she often found the ordeal of flying - or travelling, or transwarping, or whatever he called it - to be more perilous than the exploits that would envelop them post-journey, harbouring equal parts jealousy and admiration that her once raggedy friend could find such explosive joy in his ship of hard knocks.

Well, normally he could. But not today.

There he was, pushing and pulling all manner of levers on the antique mish-mash that was its central console, but doing so without his usual gleeful gusto. If anything, he seemed distant, focused. Occupied by something else. His body moved with the ship out of simple reflex while his face told a clear tale of someone detached from the now and reflecting on the-

"Oy! Doctor!"

Amy's demanding holler seemed to cut through, and the Doctor's gaze immediately flicked around to see the fiery redhead staring daggers right back at him.

"Right. Yes. Sorry," he fumbled. "Was off in my own little corner shop there."

"You're not still thinking about those dall-things, are you?"

"Daleks, Amy. They're called Daleks. And no, I wasn't. Well, I might have been." He sighed. "Okay, I was, but why weren't you? Why can't you remember them? It doesn't make sense!"

Amy rolled her eyes. "What doesn't make sense is how the heck you managed to get a licence to fly this thing. Are you trying to hit every space pot-hole out there?"

The Doctor blinked. "Space doesn't have pot-holes."

"Whatever! Bumpy! Amy no-likey!"

He looked around, as if noticing the violent movements of the ship for the first time, and turned his attention back to the console. "Oh, well, why didn't you say so! A quick twiddle here and..."

The Doctor effortlessly navigated the impossible array of switches and melodic violin music started to fill the TARDIS, its gentle tone playing at right angles against the savage jolts occurring within. Amy couldn't see this as any sort of result.

"And what?" she demanded.

"And what what?"

"It's still bumpy!"

"Well, yeah, that's the ride you pay for 'round here. But doesn't the music make it seem much more pleasant?"

Before Amy could return fire, the Doctor noticed a flashing circle on the console's monitor. "Oh. Oooh. Oh?" he pondered, moving himself over to the typewriter embedded nearby. Hammering away at its keys seemed to produce some sort of result, because "ah" started to filter in between every other "oh", until he came to a string of understanding. "Ah. Aha. Ahh."

And then: "Uh-oh."

Like lightning, the Doctor heaved downward on a nearby lever. The TARDIS immediately shuddered to a stone-cold halt, the noise and movement of the cabin replaced by sudden stillness and silence. Even the music had stopped. Amy stumbled forth, not expecting such a dramatic shift from all to nothing, and hastily gathered herself as she brushed her hair from her eyes. "Result!" she exclaimed.

The Doctor didn't respond. His eyes were still studying the monitor.

Amy wandered up to his side and matched his gaze. On the screen was a map of England layered over what looked like a random array of letters and numbers. To her human eyes it meant very little, but clearly, to her non-human friend, it meant something completely different.

"Doctor? What is it?"

"Energy," he said. "So much energy. And so advanced... wait, what? Five? No, six? This isn't right. Not for 2081." He paused, cocked his head. "Sorry, not 2081. By then you lot have disposable particle accelerators, and we all know how that one worked out."

The Doctor rotated a dial and the display's numbers shifted. "Ah, that's better! 1981. No, wait, that's not better. That's worse. Much worse." He bit his lip.

"Just tell me what's going on!" Amy exclaimed.

The Doctor pushed back from the console and started pacing the room. "The TARDIS has picked up a processing signature coming from Earth in 1981 - a very powerful signature from a very powerful device. Enough go-juice to solve every unsolved equation in the universe in the time it takes you to say there's nothing good on telly. It's highly capable, highly advanced, and it simply does not belong in this point in time on Earth. That's bad enough. But then there's the 'and'."

"The and?"

"And... there's also signs of non-human life in the signal's immediate vicinity," he said, taking a deep breath. "Six beings, all within slapping distance, and my guess is they're not there for a cup of tea and a chat. The ones that are normally phone ahead first."

"No chance they're there for holiday?" Amy asked, only half-teasing.

"The Shadow Proclamation likes to keep a close eye on starhoppers more advanced than their destination," said the Doctor. "Especially those who haul their own gear to a planet that's not ready for it. Introduced species that can ruin an ecosystem? Same thing, but with gizmos. Besides, even if they were there on holiday, they're travelling during peak season. Imagine the traffic!"

Amy allowed herself a giggle. "So if they didn't bring their boardshorts, what is it that they're doing?"

The Doctor grinned before wrenching forth the downward lever, bringing the time rotor to life and setting the TARDIS back into motion. "Six foreign lifeforms using a wotzit that just happens to be the most powerful wotzit this side of the Canis Major? That's trouble, Miss Pond. And we're about to sort it out!"

CHAPTER TWO COMING SOON!