Moon Hopper - A Brand New Doctor Who Story!

An adventure for the Thirteenth Doctor, Graham, Yaz and Ryan.

Yaz’s stomach lurched again. The ship juddered, like it was trying to keep itself in the air. Something rattled as it did, like the ship simply couldn’t cope with this effort of trying to maintain the semblance of being a working vessel. Ryan and the ship pilot, Marcus, were in the poky control cabin, trying to keep the ship from dipping below the moon’s horizon.

“You ok, Yaz?” Ryan shouted over the sound of the engine. Yaz turned to look at him, trying not to throw up as she did.

“Yer. I’m cool,” she said, not particularly convincingly. As she did, there was another violent shudder. Yaz leaned back in her chair, breathing heavily in a desperate attempt to avoid being sick. It was like being at Alton Towers, back when she was 14, only much, much worse. There was no rhythm, or patten, to the drops: they just came, alarmingly and violently, with no warning as to their coming. The ship juddered again, and Yaz threw herself forward. The padded harness kept her in place, but she was now on the verge of sending her lunch across the small hold. She swallowed, trying to fight back the sensation. “How close are we?” she shouted over the racket of the ship’s engine, desperate that this experience would soon be over.

“We’re closing in on them,” Marcus replied. “Although I’m not sure that the gravity compensator on this old crate will last!” Yaz’s head shot around to face the cabin.

“You what?” Marcus turned his chair to face Yaz, his muscular body fitting snugly into the harness that kept him in place. 

“Well, I was servicing it, before you decided to borrow it!” Ryan turned to face him for the first time, his eyes leaving the view into space the control cabin provided.

“And what happens when this compensator fails?”

“Simple. We crash!” came the terse reply. Yaz sighed back into her chair, dejectedly. As if this experience couldn’t get any worse, she thought to herself. Not only had the Doctor and Graham, together with the TARDIS, been stolen away from them, and the craft that her and Ryan had borrowed to go after them had been a run-down moon hopper, but now, they were going to crash into one of the many moons they were using to catch up with their friends, or they would die in space. Yaz wished she hadn’t got out of bed that morning.

“Vennis!” The Doctor had declared, throwing her hands into the air as she did. “This is nice!” Yaz hadn’t been keen on the place at all, and her suspicions had been confirmed by the looks on Graham and Ryan's faces. They were just as unimpressed as she was.

“Doctor, this place is a dump. No offence.” Ryan replied. He had been as blunt and tactful as ever, Yaz had thought. She’d still smiled at his remark, however. She liked him, despite the fact they had little in common. Not really. Sure, they’d investigated a mysterious pod that had arrived on Earth, and helped the Doctor to stop the Stenza that had been inside it from completing his deadly hunt, and then both joined the Doctor in her TARDIS. But, if Yaz was being honest, she knew that their paths would probably never have crossed again, had it not been for the Doctor. But, regardless, she still liked him. Probably, she suspected, more than he did her. The Doctor had turned back to face Ryan, a look of indignation spreading across her face like ripples on a pond.

“Now Ryan, don’t be rude.” Her broad Yorkshire accent seemed rather at odds with the fact that she was an alien, Yaz thought. When they’d first met, Yaz seemed to remember something about her saying she had been Scottish, but a lot has happened that day, so Yaz had simply pushed it to the back of her mind. She would have to ask her about it someday. “It’s a planet of spaceships. Of industry. I thought that was in your heritage, comin’ from Sheffield.”

“Yer, it might be in his ‘eritage Doc, but Ryan’s right, why did we come here anyway?” It was Graham who had made this last remark. Yaz thought Graham was fun, though in the short time they’d been together, they’d not really said a lot to each other. Graham had been more focused on looking after Ryan than bothering about her. She suddenly realised how alone she was in the group. Graham and Ryan were close to each other, and the Doctor… well, she was the Doctor. But Yaz wasn’t sure where she fitted in. Not yet, at least. 

“Well I think it’s nice. What about you, Yaz?” Yaz suddenly realised the Doctor had been addressing her, and she snapped back into the moment.

“What? This place? Well, to be honest, I have to agree with Ryan and Graham. It’s a bit shabby.”

“Oh, well, I’ll fit right in then?” she beamed. She then turned, and started striding off in a seemingly arbitrary direction. All three of her companions had turned to look at each other, with that telltale, knowing look. Sure, they hadn’t been travelling in the TARDIS for long, but there was one thing they had all learned: the Doctor loved to wander off. Graham spoke for all of them.

“Come on, we better not lose her.” At this call to action, Yaz and Ryan nodded, and the three of them set off down the street to follow their friend in whatever mad adventure she got herself into next.

They caught up with the Doctor just as she was rounding the next corner. She was looking at some engine parts that had just been discarded in the street. Yaz immediately looked at these parts with a trained, analytical eye: her police officer instincts kicking in.

“Someone's been fly-tippin’?” The Doctor shook her head, and turned to look at Yaz.

“Nah, it’s common here on Vennis. I told you, industrial world.”

“Yer, but that’s no excuse for just leavin’ stuff in the street.”

“People just put out the parts they don’t need here,” the Doctor continued, attempting to assuage Yaz of her concerns. “This is a planet constantly buildin’, remember? Everyone here needs parts.” By now, Ryan and Graham had caught up with the pair.

“So what’s this off them?” asked Graham.

“Looks like an engine. Bit bigger than a car engine, mind,” Ryan speculated. The Doctor turned, looking at Ryan with a gleam of pride in her eyes.

“Very good, Ryan. Yer, it’s an engine. For a Moon Hopper.”

“A Moon Hopper? What’s a Moon Hopper?” asked Yaz.

“Local transport,” the Doctor continued. “It’s a kind of spaceship, powered by gravity. It rides in the upper atmosphere of a planet or moon, and it uses the gravitational pull of the moon or planet for power.”

“That doesn’t seem very safe, does it?” Graham asked, skeptically. The Doctor smiled at him, with a mad gleam in her eye. 

“Of course it’s safe. It’s quite common in this section of the galaxy. The problem is the gravity itself. Planets or moons with high gravity can be too much for the ships, and pulls them apart if they get too close. It’s a balancing act.” Yaz didn’t really share the Doctor’s enthusiasm for this type of transport. It seemed, frankly, dangerous. “You’ve gotta know your maths,” she added. Obviously Ryan shared Yaz and Graham’s skepticism, because he added:

“Well, I hope we’re not going to be taking a trip on one anytime soon.”

Yaz was jolted back to reality by yet another lurch. But this time was different. The lurch was much, much more violent, and, all of a sudden, a panel on the opposite side of the cramped hold that she was sitting in exploded in a shower of steam. Yaz cried out in alarm as it did.

“You know something’s blown back ‘ere!” she shouted, as they were rocked by yet another lurch. She could hear an alarm ringing out across the control cabin, it’s tone deafeningly loud.

“Yes, I am aware, thanks for that!” Marcus shouted, as he desperately gripped the flight controls. More alarms started ringing out, and the control panel lit up as a variety of lights flashed up on the display. “Ryan, cut in the emergency stabilisers! We’ll break up if we don’t get this buffeting under control!”

“You said this ship was as safe as a house!” Ryan shouted back, as he scanned the control panels, trying to find the control to activate the emergency stabilisers.

“Yer! As safe as a house in a hurricane!” Marcus responded. The ship lurched once more, this time nearly throwing Yaz out of her seat, despite the padded harness. “Blue switches Ryan! Push them up!” Ryan flicked the switches up as he had been instructed, and a low whining started up from the back of the ship. Yaz breathed a sigh of relief, as the rocking motion started to settle. She breathed deeply, in an attempt to settle her stomach. She barely had time to draw her first breath, when, all of a sudden, there was a loud bang from the back of the ship. The hopper rocked, as if a giant fist had punched it, and Yaz could smell smoke coming from where she thought the explosion had come from. 

“What was that?” she shouted. Both Ryan and Marcus turned back to look at her, with a grim look in their eyes that worried Yaz even more.

“That bang was the emergency stabilisers,” Marcus eventually said. “They’ve cut out.”

Yaz had rounded a corner to be faced with a sight she hadn’t been expecting. The Doctor, Ryan and Graham were looking for parts for the TARDIS, and so weren’t paying attention to the hovering crane device that had picked up the TARDIS, and was carrying it towards a ship sat waiting in it’s landing cradle.

“Doctor!” she shouted, with a tone of urgency. “You might want to look at this!” The Doctor came quickly over, her arms full of parts. However, as soon as she saw the TARDIS, she dropped them all, and started running towards the dock where the ship was birthed. 

“Doc, what’s going on?!” Graham shouted, but she was already out of earshot. Ryan was the next to follow her, Yaz hot on his heels. She knew that Graham must be behind her. They ran down side-streets and back-alleys, desperately trying to catch sight of the Doctor. She was far ahead, effortlessly twisting and turning her way towards the dock. The travellers nearly lost her as they ran through a busy market street. The hubbub of traders and street market vendors was almost deafening, and Yaz was nearly cut off from her friends several times. Eventually, they pushed their way through, following the Doctor past a cantina, and towards the spaceport. It was a huge, sprawling complex; with different bays stretching out in a number of directions. They caught up with the Doctor as she was looking at a sign indicating where to go: which ships docked in which birth, signs to vital services and the like. 

“Where do we go?” Yaz asked. The Doctor just looked, baffled, at the signs as she attempted to work out where the TARDIS was. As she did, Ryan looked up, to see the hovering crane carrying the ship pass overhead.

“Doctor, look up!” he called out. The Doctor, Yaz and Graham all looked up. 

“It’s heading north-easterly!” the Doctor surmised quickly. “That means it must be…” She did a quick mental calculation in her head, and then turned back to the others. “Bay 14! Come on!” She sprinted off in the direction of Bay 14.

“You don’t think she just made that up, do you?” Graham moaned, before joining her in her chase for the TARDIS.

The Doctor was the first to reach the bay. She immediately held out her Sonic Screwdriver, pressing the button on the side. It emitted a strange hum, and the door leading to the walkway slid open. Yaz, Ryan and Graham were close behind. Graham ran in first, not realising how ferocious the wind would be. He was nearly knocked off his feet by the current of air flooding through the launch bay, and had to grab hold of the railing for support. The Doctor was charging on regardless, seemingly unconcerned by the wind. Yaz and Ryan, meanwhile were struggling. They had a hold of the railings too, but were struggling to make any headway against the huge gusts of air. Yaz tried shouting, but Ryan couldn't hear her. The wind tore at her clothes, and dragged her feet across the walkway. It was at this moment that Yaz made the mistake of looking down. Below her was what appeared to be a straight drop down. There were walkways below the one she was currently standing on, but other than that, there seemed to be straight blackness. Yaz couldn’t go on. The wind held her back too much, and her feet were slipping. Ryan turned back to look at her: the Doctor and Graham had pretty much reached the ship, while he was about halfway along the gangplank. She, on the other hand, seemed miles away from the ship. Ryan could see she was struggling, and was starting to fight his way back towards her. Suddenly, an alarm rang out throughout the vast chamber, and Yaz felt a lurch, as she realised the walkway they were standing was retracting. She could see the Doctor and Graham, standing in the airlock door of the ship, shouting towards them, although she couldn’t hear what they were saying. Ryan reached her as the walkway started to reach the door leading back into the spaceport. As it did, they stepped back into the corridor, and, as they did, the door shut behind them.

“No!” Ryan called out. “The Doctor and Graham, they’re on that ship!” Yaz took a moment to catch her breath before she, like Ryan, pressed her face up to the portole to watch the ship blasting its way out of the docking bay. Both of them could only stare in horror as the ship disappeared in a cloud of smoke and fire. “What do we do now?” was Ryan’s response after a few moments. Yaz took a deep breath, and then answered:

“Follow them.”

The moon hopper was screeching in pain. Yaz grabbed hold of her padded harness, and gripped it as tightly as possible, so hard in fact that she felt her hands cramping with the force. She channelled all her energy into holding onto the harness handlebars. It was the only thing she could do to stop herself screaming. From pulling herself out of her chair, and trashing the room around her in a blind, mindless rage. She wasn’t going to die like this, on a ship completely out of control, piloted by a man who had no idea what he was really doing. That wasn’t how Yasmin Khan was going out.

“Can’t you do something, Marcus? There’s gotta be some way to stop us crashing!”

“Don’t worry,” Marcus called back, sounding almost calm about it. “We’re not crashing! At the angle we hit this moon, we’ll simply burn up before we hit the ground!” Another alarm sounded out, as the sounds of the ship’s thrusters started to fade.

“What’s that?” asked Ryan, nervously. Yaz could tell he was keeping quiet, silently trying to take in the enormity of what could be about to happen.

“We’re losing power!”Marcus called out, although he didn’t need to shout as much now the drives were quieter. “The hull’s heating up too quickly, all the ship’s systems are cutting out!” He flicked some switches on the control panel, bringing up a display of the ship on a grimy looking screen, showing all the vital points under stress. “If we lose power, I’ll never get us out of this death dive!” Yaz had had enough. She pulled at her harness, un-clipping the straps that were holding her into the seat in the small and cramped hold. She stood up, swaying with the motion of the ship as she did. She pulled herself forward, into the equally cramped and tight control cabin. She wasn’t going to die back here. She was going to go out fighting if she had to.

“Is there a way to stop this?” she asked Marcus, grabbing hold of a railing mounted above the cockpit glass as she did. Marcus turned to look at her.

“You should get back in your seat!” he shouted. Yaz ignored him.

“There must be something you can do! Is there anywhere you can get extra power from? Some kind of reserve maybe?”

“It’d never work!” Marcus shouted, with a defeated tone. “We’d just be swapping one death  for another!”

“How come? Why would it be just another death?” Yaz was getting infuriated now. There was no way she was giving up on her life just yet.

“Because we only have enough auxiliary power to get out of orbit! After that, that’s it! We’d be stuck!”

“We could always send a distress signal! Get help!” shouted Ryan. Marcus just shook his head.

“We wouldn’t have any power! No power for a signal, no power for gravity, no power even for life support! We’d be a dead ship!”

“Not the best phrase, mate!” Ryan called out. 

“But we’d still have time to think of something else!” Yaz knew she was clutching at straws here, but she was trying to think like the Doctor. She knew the Doctor would always try, even if everything seemed impossible. Because, at the moment, that’s what it felt like. There was no way out. But she was going to go out the best way she could. Fighting. “Do it, Marcus!” she bellowed, straining to be heard over the whine of the engines. The curvature of the planet was starting to disappear, being replaced instead by the planet filling the screen. Yaz knew they were running out of time. After a second that stretched into eternity, Marcus nodded. He started pressing controls and switches, frantically, almost at random. Yaz couldn’t help but note that it was just like the Doctor when she was at the controls of the TARDIS.

Ryan and Yaz ran through the spaceport bay, looking desperately for some hope. They’d passed multiple ships, although each pilot they had spoken to had demanded the one thing they did not have; money. Eventually, they reached a group of smaller pens, which, as Yaz started to realise, was for the Moon Hoppers the Doctor had previously mentioned. These ships were really beaten up, and, to both Yaz and Ryan, didn’t look to be space-worthy at all. And yet, their pilots were either joshing around, or loading up with cargo, ready to take flight. When Yaz and Ryan explained their situation to the pilots, they just laughed. Yaz really felt angry at that. She wanted to shout at them: to show them up for their lack of compassion. However, Ryan, sensing her frustration, took her hand, and led her gently away before she said anything she would regret. As he did, she spotted a man in the corner of the bay, tinkering with the insides of one of the ships. He seemed different, somehow. Yaz could sense that he would be someone who’d be willing to help. Breaking free of Ryan’s grip, she slipped down between two parked vehicles, and straight into the man’s eye-line. He turned to look at her immediately.

“Hi,” Yaz started, as cheerily as she could manage. She was desperate to make a good first impression. The man leaned back against the wall of his ship, and folded his arms, un-subtly demonstrating his well-built physique. His t-shirt was tightly fitted around his body, aiding the effect. She couldn’t help but be momentarily lost in admiring him. It was only Ryan calling out for her that jolted her back to her senses.

“Your boyfriend seems to be looking for you,” he said, almost sympathetically for someone who was obviously disappointed.

“Oh, he’s not my… We’re just… Just friends.” Yaz fumbled this. She’d let herself get distracted. “I was wondering… Is that your ship?”

“My pride and joy, for what it’s worth. Why do you ask?” he almost murmured. Yaz was finding herself more and more carried away the more and more she stared at him. At that moment, Ryan hobbled into view, having hit his ankle on one of the parked ships.

“Because we need it,” he spluttered. Yaz sighed.

“Yes, we’ve got some friends. They went off in the ship that’s just left. We need to follow them.” The man smiled.

“So, you want me to take you two on a fool-hardy mission to reunite you with your friends, who are on-board one of the cargo freighters that just left? The cargo freighters that take off from here every hour?” Yaz sighed, and it was clear that Ryan shared her disappointment. She wasn’t expecting what came out of the man’s mouth next. “Ok. Let’s do it.” Yaz looked up, straight at him, with a look that must have been resembling shock. There was a big, broad grin on his face. “I’m Marcus, by the way.”

The ship was dead. That was Yaz’s assessment of the situation. The seconds after Marcus had agreed to Yaz’s plan were a blur. She’d thrown herself back into her seat, on his advice, as he’d diverted every bit of power the hopper had into one last hope. Moments later, the ship lurched forward, as Marcus fired the engines, attempting to pull them out of their death dive. The force had been immense, as Yaz felt the breath pulled out of her body with the force. She knew what she was experiencing was G-force: she’d felt something similar when the ship had taken off. But, without any of the safety nets that she knew were there before, this was much, much more violent. Both Ryan and Marcus shouted to her, she knew that, but, over the howl of the engines, she couldn’t hear them. She couldn’t even hear her own scream: the scream of pure terror and adrenaline that you could only really, truly, feel by travelling with the Doctor. The only sounds she could hear was the ship’s death rattle, and her heart banging in her chest. And then, in a matter of seconds, it was over. Yaz was screaming into silence. And the ship was dead.

“Did we do it?” asked Ryan, after a silent minute while the three of them tried to pull themselves together after what had just happened. 

“Yes.” Marcus was practically breathless, unable to speak after what had just happened. “We made it.” And, for a moment, they revelled in joy. Simply happy in the fact they were alive. They were jubilant, ecstatic even. And then, they stopped. Because it dawned on them what Marcus had said before. There was no more power.

“How long have we got?” asked Yaz, after a subdued silence had replaced breathless hope and ecstatic joy. 

“About four minutes, roughly,” Marcus replied. “It depends on how quickly we use up the oxygen that’s left.” Yaz sighed, suddenly realising that, by doing so, she was using up more oxygen.

“I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you, Marcus. It would have been quicker, at least.” Marcus smiled at her, with that sweet smile he’d had when they met.

“No. You were right. It’s better we went out fighting. We may have made it.”

“But we didn’t,” she despondently responded.

“Who cares?” Ryan interrupted her before she could continue. “We tried. You tried, Yaz.” Yaz turned to look at him at that comment. “This was your idea, Yaz, and it was a great idea. It didn’t work out, but that happens.”

“He’s right,” Marcus continued. “It was a great plan. You just needed more time. Now, save your breath.” After that, they sat in silence. They didn’t say a word, just started taking shallower and shallower breaths. Yaz looked around the cramped, grimy spaceship. If she was being brutally honest, this isn’t how she’d have chosen to die. But, then again, at least she was doing it with people she cared about. She looked over at Ryan. He was staring out of the window, staring into space. Like he knew. Knew there was no hope. She wanted to reach out to him, just to hold his hand. But she couldn’t free herself from the harness, and, even if she did, she would simply drift through the cramped space, knocking into things until she eventually knocked herself out. Or worse. She turned to Marcus, who had already shut his eyes. She wanted to panic. She thought they’d all die together, not one by one. There were things she wanted to say to him, before the end. She tried to speak, but, as she did, she suddenly caught her breath in the vacuum. There was no air. Desperately, her throat tried to find some to latch onto, but there was nothing. Nothing tangible. She was desperate now. Their four minutes were up. Ryan wasn’t moving at all. Yaz panicked, and, as she did, she used more oxygen. Her vision was becoming blurry, like mist on a car windscreen. No, no, no! This wasn’t how it was going to end, she decided. She tried to push at the harness, but she couldn’t. She didn’t have the strength. Her muscles sagged, and she slumped into the seat. As her hearing and sight faded completely, she thought she could, distantly, hear a slight gust of air. But maybe that was the lack of oxygen causing her brain to hallucinate. She couldn’t tell. And, in that moment, Yasmin Khan drew her last breath.

A sharp sensation, just like cold water, roused Yaz back to her senses in a moment. She was immediately gasping for air, her lungs trying to suck in the vast amount she had been denied all at once. It took a good couple of moments before she even thought about taking a look around the space she was in. She heard it first: the constant and ever present hum that indicated to her that she was inside the TARDIS. Then, as her eyesight came back into focus, she picked out more details, such as the gargantuan mess of levers and switches that made up the TARDIS console. She was in the TARDIS console room, she decided, but how did she get here? She was dying in the Moon Hopper, wasn’t she? More details swam into view: faces, shapes and lights. She could see the console, but that was about it. She was also aware that someone was talking to her, but she had no way of telling who the voice was, and what the voice was saying. She took another deep breath, contrasting with her short, sharp breaths she’d been taking while she was trying to work out where she was. As she did, more cleared. She could see moving shapes now, in the forms of people. She could even work out who one of the shapes was. There was simply no way she couldn’t. It was so distinct, so recognisable, that it couldn’t be anyone else.

“Doctor!” In that moment, the whole world revolved back into view. The Doctor and Ryan knelt over her, while Graham and Marcus stood a couple of paces back. Yaz took a deep breath as she did. She could see she was definitely in the TARDIS now. She reached out to grab Ryan’s hand, just to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. 

“It’s alright, it’s alright Yaz. You’re safe, in the TARDIS.” the Doctor smiled, looking down at her. “You’ve been through a lot, but you’re ok now.” Yaz sighed, deeply, just letting the air back into her lungs. She wanted to stand up, but her legs were much, much too weak to support her just yet. “You’re probably a bit confused.”

“Yeh, you could say that. What happened?” Yaz asked.

“Well, when we got separated from you and Ryan, we found the TARDIS, and dematerialised,” the Doctor explained. “We went back to Vennis, ‘oping to meet up with you. However, when we got there-”

“When we got there, you’d hoped it!” called out Graham, finishing off the Doctor’s sentence. The Doctor turned, her face looking like a child trying to scowl for the first time.

“Graham! But yer, we tried looking for you. And then, we spoke to the Moon Hopper pilots. They told us that you’d gone with your new mate, and we tracked you. Found you just in time, as well.” Yaz remembered the breathlessness. The Doctor stood up, and ran back across to the controls of the TARDIS, starting to press switches and buttons as she did. “Right, Marcus, is it? Let’s get you back to Vennis.”

“Thanks,” Marcus replied, rather sheepishly. “Although I haven’t got a ship anymore.”

“Don’t be so sure,” the Doctor replied, with a knowing grin on her face. “Look up.” They all looked up, to see, above their heads, Marcus’ bashed and damaged spacecraft.

“Materialised around you,” the Doctor said, with a knowing grin on her face.

Hours later, Yaz was sitting in the TARDIS, watching the console’s central column rise and fall. She was thinking about Marcus. They’d left him and his ship back at the spaceport, after the Doctor helped him to fix it up. It was a patched-up job, but that was the Doctor all over really. When they’d said goodbye, he and Yaz had been slightly awkward, not quite sure what to say to each other. Maybe they were trying to get around something, something that, in the rush of everything that had happened, they had ignored. Yaz knew that, in a different time, a different place, they could have… But Yaz didn’t want to dwell on regret. As she was deep in her thoughts, Ryan placed a hand on her shoulder.

“You ok?” As blunt as ever, Yaz thought to herself.

“Yer, I’m grand,” she replied. She looked back to the console, back to the Doctor, who was fiddling with the controls of the TARDIS, while Graham was talking with her about getting home. “I was just thinking.”

“About what?” Ryan asked.

“Do you think we’ll ever get home?” It was the question Yaz had been asking herself ever since they’d been swept up by the Doctor’s teleport device and found themselves drifting in deep space. Ryan looked genuinely thoughtful for a second.

“I d’unno. What do you think?”

“I think,” Yaz said, looking at the Doctor as she did. “That I don’t wanna. I don’t wanna stop travellin’. Not yet.” She turned, as Ryan walked away to join the Doctor and Graham at the console. She looked at the two police box doors that marked the entrance to the magical world she’d found herself in. She wondered where she’d end up next. That was the thrill of being with the Doctor. And she wasn’t sure if she was ready to give that up. Not yet. Maybe, even, not ever.

THE END.

All pictures copyright to the BBC. Thank you very much for reading.