"Midnight! What a beautiful planet! An entire planet made out of dazzling crystals! Brilliant!" The Doctor smiled down at his companion. "Don't you think?"

"Oh it's magnificent!" Rose said as she looked out of the window. The sapphire-blue stones of Midnight shone brightly across the landscape. Light reflected off them making the rocks sparkle like tiny water droplets in the morning dew. Rose's eyes darted across the glass trying to take in every rock or pillar of the sparkling crystal.

"It's absolutely beautiful!" she shot a smile at the Doctor then turned back quickly to admire the planet. She pressed her forehead against the glass attempting to get a closer look.

"You be careful, that's Xtonic sunlight."

"Oh I'm safe," Rose rolled her eyes. "It says in the brochure, this glass is fifteen feet thick!"

The Doctor laughed and grabbed her hand, pulling away from the window.

"Come on," he said. "We're going to miss our ride!"

"Ride?" Rose asked furrowing her brow. "What do you mean?"

"Didn't I tell you?" The Doctor grinned, "We're going to see a sapphire waterfall! A waterfall made of sapphires!"

"You serious?"

"Picture this. This enormous jewel the size of a glacier reaches the Cliffs of Oblivion and the shatters into sapphires at the edge! They fall a hundred thousand feet into a crystal ravine! Absolutely dazzling!"

"Bet you say that to all the girls," Rose joked.

"Well, do you want to go?"

"Of course!"

"Then come on!" The Doctor pulled Rose along as they walked, eager to show her something new. "It's a four hour trip, but it'll be so worth it!"

"Four hours?" Rose asked. "Wait do you mean like four hours there and four hours back? That's like a school trip!"

"So? We'll be back for dinner and then try that antigravity restaurant. With bibs."

"Oh alright," Rose smiled. "It's a date!"

The Doctor glanced at her.

"Well not a date. Oh, you know what I mean," Rose could feel her cheeks grow warm. "Oh, get off."

The Doctor raised his eyebrows and smiled cheekily at her.

"C'mon!" she shouldered him softly. "The train's boarding!"

"Right then!"

The two ran through the halls of the space station. Rose kept frequently glancing out at the side windows, craning her neck to see the scenery.

"Now this is going to be a safe trip, right?" Rose asked as they neared the station. "No mishaps or anything?"

"Nah, taking a big space truck with a bunch of strangers cross the diamond planet called Midnight? What could possible go wrong?"

-DW-

The Doctor and Rose sat side by side on the space truck watching as the other passengers boarded. The car was divided into two columns of chairs, each row with two seats in them. A large aisle was in the centre of the vehicle and storage compartments hung above their heads where they were attached to the ceiling. It was very much like the interior of a fancy airplane. There was even an attendant moving about offering complimentary objects for a more comfortable ride.

"That's the headphones for channels 1-36," the stewardess said coming up to the Doctor and Rose. She began listing off the complimentary items and passed two sets of each to them.

"Modem link for 3D vidgames, complimentary earplugs, complimentary slippers, complimentary juice pack, and complimentary peanuts," she finally finished. "I must warn you, some products may contain nuts."

"That'll be the peanuts," the Doctor quipped, making Rose snort in laughter.

"Enjoy your trip."

"Oh we can't wait! Allons-y!"

"I'm sorry?"

"It's French," he said with a goofy smile. "For 'let's go'."

"Fascinating," the woman said dryly. She gave the Doctor another forced smile, and then continued down the aisle. Grinning, the Doctor turned to Rose and shrugged his shoulders. She patted his arm twice, a small gesture telling him to behave.

The Doctor looked around at the other passengers. There were six other crew members, not including Rose and him or the attendant, spread out among the car. Sitting a few rows in front was a woman with blonde hair and a cold expression on her face.

Boarding the vehicle was a middle-aged couple and teenage boy. The boy was dressed in all black, with black hair and painted black nails, and did not seem to be very thrilled about going on this trip. His parents in turn were frowning at him and appeared to be thinking of ways to liven him up.

Seated behind Rose and the Doctor was an older man, looking to be a teacher of some sort, and a woman who seemed to be his assistant.

"Oh, no thank you. Not for us," the man said when the stewardess offered them the headphones and slippers.

"Earplugs please," his assistant piped up. "Thank you."

"They call it a sapphire waterfall," the man had started to converse with the woman. "But it's no such thing. Sapphire's an aluminum oxide, but the glacier is just compound silica with iron pigmentation!"

The Doctor looked over his shoulder at them as the man labeled off various items they were supposed to have brought with his assistant. Looking up, the man noticed the Doctor and gave him a smile.

"Oh, Hobbes," the man introduced himself as he leaned forward. "Professor Winfold Hobbes."

"I'm the Doctor and this is Rose," the Doctor reached forward to shake the man's hand.

"Hello!" Rose smiled and waved.

"It's my fourteenth time!" Hobbes said.

"Oh," the Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Our first."

"And I'm Dee Dee," Hobbes assistant stood up to shake the Doctor and Rose's hands. "Dee Dee Blasco."

"Don't bother the couple," Hobbes said.

"Er—we're not, er," the Doctor stammered.

"We're not a couple," Rose finished for him.

"Oh, terribly sorry," Hobbes nodded and leaned back in his seat again. "Now where's my water bottle?"He murmured to Dee Dee.

As Rose inspected a pamphlet about the sapphire waterfall, the Doctor looked around at the remaining passengers. The woman across the aisle glanced at him when he looked her way, then went back to reading a small book in her hands. Sniffing, he turned to look at the family behind him.

"Don't be silly," the mother was saying to her son seated in the row across the aisle from them. "Come and sit with us! Look we get slippers!"

"Jethro, do what your mother says," the man beside her said.

"I'm sitting here," the boy retorted.

"Oh, he's ashamed of us," the father said. "But he doesn't mind us paying, does he?"

"Oh don't you two start," the mother said when Jethro shot his father a glare. "Should I save the juice pack, or have it now? Look, peach and clementine."

"People watching?" Rose nudged the Doctor.

"Just seeing who's ridding with us!" He grinned. "They seem like a lively bunch!"

"Ladies and gentlemen and variations thereof," the attendant came down the aisle quieting the two. "Welcome on board the Crusader 50. If you would fasten your seatbelts, we'll be leaving any moment."

The passengers began fumbling with their belts, strapping themselves in.

"Doors," the stewardess continued and the doors shut. "Shields down. I'm afraid the view is shielded until we reach the waterfall palace. Also a reminder: Midnight has no air, so please don't touch the exterior door seals.

"Fire exit to the rear. And should we need to use it, you first!" the woman let out a little snicker. "Now I will hand you over to driver Joe."

"Drive Joe at the wheel," a voice came on over the intercom. "There's been a diamond fall at the Winter Witch Canyon, so we'll be taking a slight detour, as you'll see on the map. The journey covers five hundred kliks to the Multifaceted Coast. Duration is estimated at four hours. Thank you for travelling with us, and as they used to say in the olden days, 'wagons roll.'"

The vehicle began to shake as the engines started. Turning to Rose, the Doctor gave her hand a squeeze, a wide grin on his face.

"For your entertainment, we have the Music Channel playing retrovids of Earth classics," the hostess said. From the ceiling, a video screen folded down in front of each row. A singing woman appeared on screen followed by music. Rose cast the Doctor a weird glance.

"Also, the latest artistic installation from Ludovico Klein."

Holographic lights appeared around them and Rose let out a squeak in surprise.

"Plus, for the youngsters, a rare treat. The Animation Archives," the attendant said as a screen rolled down featuring old black and white cartoons from Earth. "Four hours of fun time. Enjoy."

"More like four hours of brain killing time," Rose muttered. "Honestly, I thought people would have thought of better ways to entertain themselves this far in the future."

"We'll soon fix that," the Doctor whispered to her. Pulling out his sonic screwdriver, he slowly turned it on. After a few seconds, all the screens and music and holograms stopped and we're shut off and folded away.

"Oh, I bloody love that device," Rose said and the Doctor smiled. The hostess tried to turn on visual effects with her remote, frowning when they refused to respond.

"Well that's a mercy!" Hobbes said from behind the Doctor and Rose.

"Er, I do apologize, ladies and gentlemen and variations thereupon," the attendant said slightly flustered. "We seem to have had a failure of the Entertainment System."

"Oh?" the Doctor winked at Rose.

"But what do we do?" Jethro's mother asked.

"We've got four hours of this?" her husband put in. "Four hours of just sittin' here?"

"Tell you what," the Doctor called out pushing himself higher in his seat to look at the other passengers. "We'll have to talk to each other instead."

Everyone started to look at one another with disbelief. The Doctor turned to Rose and smiled broadly. This was going to be fun.