An Ordinary Wednesday - Part 1

[fardell24]

Doctor Who – An Ordinary Wednesday
The young woman sat at a table in a London café that seemed like most others in that seemingly ordinary city. It was close to a Tube station, but then many were. A cooling coffee was in front of her, as was a tattered crossword book. She had finished one of the intermediate crosswords when she was interrupted, by her phone ringing.
“Angie?” she wondered. Why was she calling? She wondered as she answered the phone. “Hello? Angie?”

“Miss Oswald,” Angie began.

Miss Oswald interrupted her. “I have said that you can call me Clara.”

“Yes, Clara,” Angie said. “But your boyfriend is here, with his Box.”

Ordinarily, Clara would have denied that the Doctor was her boyfriend, but after Trenzalore she wasn’t sure. “Tell him that I’m waiting at the ‘Bean of Plenty.’ He’ll know where it is.”

“Sure, Clara, bye,” Angie said, before hanging up.

Clara placed the crossword book back in her handbag and took a sip from her coffee before she heard the familiar sounds of a TARDIS beginning to materialise. Soon, the displaced air was blowing away empty (and nearly empty) cups throughout the establishment. The Doctor stepped out, wearing something on his head. “What’s that?” Clara asked.

The Doctor took it off. “This?” he asked. “It’s an Akubra. Akubra’s are cool.”

“Really?” Clara asked.

“I got it from an Australian town named Tocumwal after I drove a Bunyip back into the Murray River,” the Doctor answered.

Clara didn’t doubt that. She knew of Tocumwal due to it being close to one of Australia’s large roadside attractions she wanted to see, the Big Strawberry. “I see,” she said.

“So, where do you want to go?” the Doctor asked.

Clara thought for a moment. “Back to Australia? A town called Gundagai?” She suggested. The ‘Dog on a Tucker Box’ seemed more interesting than any of the Big Fruit.

“Cool,” the Doctor said, oblivious to the fact that the TARDIS’ arrival had drawn attention in the café (despite the Perception Filter).

Clara followed the Doctor into the TARDIS, not realising that one of the baristas was following her.


Gundagai
It was early evening when the TARDIS materialised in a side street.
Inside however…
The Doctor had set the TARDIS in motion, not realising that it wasn’t only himself and Clara in the console room. “What is this?” the barista asked.

“Who are you?” the Doctor asked.

“Dani. I work at the Bean of Plenty,” the barista, Dani, answered.

“So you just came in?”

“You did disrupt the café,” Dani answered. “Strange, this Box is bigger on in the inside than the outside.”

“Is it?” the Doctor asked rhetorically.

“I’m not original, am I?”

“Far from it,” Clara said.

“Why did you land in the café?”

“Because that was were Clara was,” the Doctor answered.

“I see,” Dani responded. “Where are we now?”

“Gundagai, a town in New South Wales,” the Doctor answered.

“As much as I’d like to look around an Australian town, I need to get back to work,” Dani said.

“This is a time machine. We can get back to the Bean of Plenty within a minute of us having left,” Clara explained.

“Time machine?” Dani asked incredulously.

“Yes. TARDIS, Time and Relative Dimension in Space,” the Doctor said, “Odd…”

“What’s off?” Clara asked.

“We arrived here, in Gundagai, straight after I left Tocumwal. My earlier self is talking to Angie right now.”

“And?” Dani asked.

“And there is usually a greater time span between subsequent journeys,” the Doctor pondered.

“You think there may be a connection,” Clara stated.

“Yes,” the Doctor answered.

“If you can get me back to work at the same time then I can have a look at this town with you,” Dani said.

“Be warned. Whereever I go, there is danger,” the Doctor said as he opened the TARDIS doors.

“I can handle it,” Dani said with a shrug.

“I’m sure you heard him say he drove something back into a river at Tocumwal,” Clara added.

“A Bunyip.”

“Not something you want to encounter in the dark. Gundagai is itself located on a river, the Murrumbidgee,” the Doctor added.

“I’m willing to take the risk,” Dani said.

“Just be aware that it’s dangerous,” the Doctor added as he exited the TARDIS.


Dani looked around the area the TARDIS had appeared in as the Doctor locked the doors. “So, are we near the river?” Clara asked.

“We’re close to the centre of the town, between the shopping area and the High School,” the Doctor answered. “It should be quiet.”

“It does seem quiet,” Dani said.

“That can change quickly,” Clara added.

“We need to get to a pub.”

“A pub?” Clara asked.

“Either that, or a restaurant, somewhere people would be gathering for a relaxing dinner after a long day of work,” the Doctor said.

“Of course,” Clara said. Just wandering the town looking for things that seemed to be out of place probably wasn’t a good idea.


“Have you and the Doctor been together long?” Dani asked Clara as they walked away.

That seemed to bring Clara up short. “You mean, together as in… together?”

Dani nodded.

“Um, no?” Clara said. Although she brushed her hair out of her eyes with a nervous expression on her face.

“Known him long?”

“It’s a bit hard to tell time in the TARDIS. Probably several months. Where is this going? Do you want to travel with him to?”

“Probably,” Dani admitted. She had been growing bored of wondering what to do with her life, other than working at the Bean of Plenty and going out clubbing.

The Doctor overheard Clara and Dani’s conversation. We’re he and Clara together? He would have denied it. But, maybe they were. Afterall, River was dead. He could move on. It appeared that Clara was more than the Impossible Girl. After all, wasn’t that mystery solved at Trenzalore? Even before then, he had found himself attracted to her. (Still, he hated to admit that the Cyberplanner was right!) But were the feelings really reciprocated?

Suddenly there was a sound! He turned to find the source. He whipped out the sonic screwdriver and ran a scan, while looking around. “Clara! Dani!”

“Here,” Clara said as she ran up, Dani close behind.

“What is it?” Dani asked.

“Readings, similar to those in Tocumwal,” he answered as he read the sonic readout.

“So, a Bunyip, yeah?” Clara asked.

“I said similar, not the same. Not necessarily a Bunyip,” he said. “I can’t see anything. Can you?”

“No,” Clara answered. “Just looks like a normal street in a small country town.”

“I can’t see anything either. I concur with Clara,” Dani added.


They waited for about half a minute. The reading vanished. “That’s strange,” the Doctor commented.

“What’s strange?” Clara asked.

“It’s vanished.”

“Well, we can still find a restaurant or pub…” Clara suggested.

“Of course,” the Doctor responded.


They soon arrived in the Main Street, and found a restaurant that was open, at the Services Club. There didn’t appear to be many to choose from. “Want to have Dinner rather than lunch?” the Doctor asked.

“Maybe just an entrée,” Dani answered.

“I will,” Clara said, with a mischievous smile on her face.


“Three for Oswald,” Clara said as she came up to the counter.

“There are many tables available tonight, Ms. Oswald,” the lady behind the counter said.

“Cool,” Clara said.

“We don’t get Poms here often.”

“Pom?” Dani asked.

“A colloquial term for someone from England,” the Doctor answered.

The lady laughed. “That’s right.”

“So, I just choose a table, yeah?” Clara asked.

“Yes.”


They sat a table near other groups of people. (So as to overhear any details of strange happenings.) There was a television tuned to one of the news channels.

“Strange Fog in Tocumwal this evening…”

“A fog? That’s how they explain it?” the Doctor mused incredulously.

“What? The Bunyip?” Dani asked.

“Yes, of course the Bunyip!” the Doctor retorted. “The capability for self-deception. I can hardly believe it at times.”

“That’s part of what makes us human,” Clara said.

The Doctor grumbled. He had to admit that she was right. He grabbed a menu. This was his first time at a restaurant in an Australian country town. “Yabbie and Prawns?”

“Probably some kind of crayfish,” Clara considered.

“Who would eat a meal consisting only of crustaceans?”

“Aussies apparently,” Dani added.

“I’ll try the ‘Bangers and Mash’,” Clara decided.

“Isn’t that just sausages and mashed potatoes?” Dani asked.

“One can add side vegetables,” Clara said.

“Then I’ll have the Fish and Chips. I always wanted to try that,” the Doctor said.

They then made their order.


That done, they could hear a conversation at a nearby table. Something mysterious, indeed was happening in Gundagai.
“…Those things have shown up again.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course!”

The Doctor turned. “I couldn’t help but overhear…”

“You shouldn’t listen to others conversations!” One of the others said.

“…That something has ‘shown up again’?” the Doctor continued despite the interruption.

“None of your business.”

“Doctor!” Dani interrupted.

“Oh, let him,” Clara said with exasperation.

“I’ll have to ask someone else,” the Doctor decided.

“We can do it,” Dani said, with a glance at Clara.

“Sure,” Clara said.

“Fine,” the Doctor conceded. “I’ll just keep the table!”


Clara and Dani went over to a couple who had just arrived. “Hi,” Dani said.

“Hi,” the woman said.

“We have heard that strange things have been happening here in Gundagai,” Clara said.

“There have been rumours,” the woman said with visible discomfort. She looked to her partner.

“Conflicting rumours,” he added.

“We’d still like to hear them,” Clara said with curiosity in her voice.

“We should introduce each other first!” the woman objected.

“Peta!” her partner objected.

“One doesn’t a conversation like this without knowing each other’s names, Alan,” Peta said.

“So, you’re Peta and Alan?” Dani asked.

“I’m Dani.” She held out her hand.

“Yes,” Peta said, shaking Dani’s hand.

“I’m Clara.”

“So, you’ve been in Australia long?” Peta asked.

“Not long,” Clara said enigmatically.

“Not long either, but I just met Clara today,” Dani said. “Ran into each other at a café.”

“I see,” Peta said.

“But then we started hearing of strange things happening here,” Clara added.

Peta sighed. “There’s not much to go on.”

“It’s just rumours,” Alan said.

“But every legend has a kernel of truth,” Peta pointed out.

“I guess so,” Alan said with a sigh of resignation.

“So, strange things,” Peta said.

“Like creatures?” Clara asked. “Or strange lights?”

“Like Min Min Lights?” Peta asked.

Clara had heard of the phenomenon. “Yes,” she answered.

“Min Min Lights?” Dani asked.

“Strange lights that follow people in vehicles in the Outback,” Clara answered. “I should really ask the Doctor about them one of these days.”

“Maybe they’re linked with why we’re here?” Dani asked.

“The Doctor?” Peta asked.

“Over there,” Clara said, pointing to where the Doctor was. “He’s been researching strange phenomena in Australia. I’ve been travelling with him.”

“So, you’re asking us for him?” Alan asked.

“Maybe. But I’m curious about what’s been happening too.”

“We haven’t seen any Min Min Lights,” Peta said.

“Nor anything that might be like that strange fog that might have been in Tocumwal,” Alan added.

“But there have been other things, like people getting lost in the streets after seeing multicoloured lights,” Peta explained.


The Doctor could see that Clara and Dani were having success. “I suppose that’s one way to do it,” he said. Even so, he listened to other conversations going on, until the dinners arrived.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t be more of a help,” Peta said.

“That’s to be expected in a situation like this,” Dani said with a sigh.


The Clara and Dani came back over to where the Doctor was sitting. “Well?” he asked.

“There were some things,” Clara answered.

“Such as?”

“People getting lost in the streets after they saw multicoloured lights,” Dani answered.

The Doctor thought for a moment. “That is certainly strange. But that can caused by many different things.”

“They haven’t seen Min Min lights,” Clara added. “Nor was there a Bunyip. They mentioned Tocumwal in connection with the Fog cover story.”

“There’s certainly something happening,” Dani said.

“Just something worthy of further investigation,” the Doctor said.


Soon the meal arrived. As they ate, Clara thought on the matter. There was obviously something happening in Gundagai that they needed to deal with. She glanced at Dani and wondered how she was coping. It was less than an hour since they had left the Bean of Plenty.


As Dani returned the plate she had eaten off, she thought about the situation she had found herself in. Clara was friendly enough, but the Doctor was inscrutable. ‘Is his real name unpronounceable or something,’ she thought as she turned to go back to the table. However, something happened. The lights flickered and went out. “Doctor! Clara!”

“Over here!” the Doctor called as a green light lit up.

Just as suddenly, power was restored. Many of the people continued what they were doing. “Does this happen often?” Dani asked as she came back to the table.

“Not too often,” the Doctor answered.

“Sometimes,” Clara added.

The Doctor waved the… object around. “It wasn’t an ordinary outage. Something interfered with the lines,” he said.

“Where?” Clara asked, as she stood up.

“Somewhere outside, in the street,” the Doctor answered.

“Let’s go then,” Clara said.

Once outside, the trio looked around again. “I still can’t see anything unusual,” Clara said.

“Neither can I,” Dani added.

“Whatever it was that interfered with the lines has disappeared,” the Doctor murmured.

“So, it caused that flicker and then just wandered off?” Clara asked.

“Not just wandered off,” the Doctor said, annoyed. “It literally just vanished.”

“Like teleportation?” Dani asked.

“Pretty much, except I didn’t pick up any of the usual indicators of teleportation,” the Doctor answered. “It’s like whoever, or whatever, it was just shifted dimensions.”

“Blimey,” Clara murmured. “Quite difficult to deal with, yeah?”

“I’ve rarely come across such a phenomenon.”

Clara saw some hope there. “Only rarely?” she asked.

“The other times may not be applicable.”

“Why not?” Dani asked.

“They didn’t happen on Earth, or even in the Solar System.”

“So, what do we do?” Clara asked. “Go back to the TARDIS?”

“Of course!” the Doctor said, almost slapping himself in the face. “The scanner can pick up what the sonic missed.”

“Sonic?” Dani asked.

The Doctor showed her the sonic screwdriver. “Sonic screwdriver. It does everything, except wood.”

“You use it to scan things, and yet you call it a screwdriver?” Dani asked.

“He must have called it that for a reason,” Clara said as she lead the way back to the TARDIS.

“I’m not sure why,” the Doctor said. “Probably because that’s what I used the original version for, and I just kept adding functions as I continued to travel.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Dani said. ‘But I wonder if such happened with the TARDIS too? A time machine probably doesn’t need to be bigger on the inside.’


Once they were back in the TARDIS, the Doctor scanned the whole town. “No distortions in space time in Gundagai.”

“None right now,” Clara clarified.

“Scanning further back…” the Doctor said.

“The TARDIS can do that?” Dani asked.

“There’s little the TARDIS can’t do,” the Doctor responded.


Soon, there were blips. “What are those blips?” Clara asked.

“They are something unusual,” the Doctor responded. “They occurred at the same time as the power outage. But the TARDIS can’t determine much.”

“It’s determined their locations though?” Dani asked.

“She’s determined the locations, yes,” the Doctor answered. “And they’re uploaded to the sonic and Clara’s phone.”

Clara took out her phone and looked at the maps app. “I see. Let’s go then.”

“You can upload them to my phone too,” Dani pouted.

“Sure, just put it on the console.”

Dani put her phone on the console and the Doctor pressed several buttons. “There you go!” he said. She picked it up again. “You’ll find that you have true universal roaming. Never go without a signal again.”

“Cool.”


Five minutes later, the trio approached the closest of the locations, halfway between where the TARDIS had landed and the river. The Doctor scanned the area with the Sonic. “There’s nothing now, but there may be residual traces.”

“If you can modify our phones, could they be used to scan, like with that sonic?” Dani asked.

“Maybe. The modifications are mostly in the software,” the Doctor responded.

“So, if new hardware is needed, we'd be out of luck?” Dani asked.

“Probably,” the Doctor answered.

Clara opened the Scan app. Nothing showed immediately, but a notification came up several seconds later. Unknown distortion detected; unable to trace. “Unknown distortion.”

“I read it too,” Dani said.
“A faint trace…” the Doctor murmured.

“Can it be followed?” Clara asked.

“Yes.”

“Let’s go.”


Five minutes later, they came to the location. There was nothing visible. But Dani felt a little, unsettled, as if something walked over her grave, as it were. She said so.

“Same here,” Clara said.

“Quite odd,” the Doctor added. “I’m not sure what to make of it.”

“Anything remaining?” Dani asked.

The Doctor ran another scan on his device. “Inconclusive! What do your phones say?”

“The same thing,” Clara reported.

Dani shook her head. Her phone said the same thing. “We could try one of the other locations.”

“It would probably say the same thing,” the Doctor said.

“We should try anyway.”

“Let’s go.”


They soon came to the closest of those other locations. Again, there was nothing visible. “There’s that feeling again,” Dani commented.

“Blimey!” Clara exclaimed.

“And as odd as the other place,” the Doctor added. “Still not sure what to make of it. Better take another scan.”

The other two nodded.

“Inconclusive again!”

“Same!” Clara said.

“The same here,” Dani said.

“We’ll go a third location and see if there’s anything different,” the Doctor decided.

“Sure,” Clara said.

“I hope it isn’t a waste of time,” Danielle groused.

“We’ll get more data and hopefully we’ll make some sense out of it,” the Doctor said.


“Do you usually do this much running around?” Dani asked Clara shortly afterwards.

“Quite often,” Clara answered with a smile on her face.

“You must like the exercise,” Dani mused.

Clara nodded.