(Jared's POV)
The Moon 2049...
Clara is using a communications console. She, Courtney Woods, and I, are wearing orange spacesuits from the Tardis.
"Hello, hello. Hello, Earth. We have a terrible decision to make. It's an uncertain decision, and we don't have a lot of time. The man who normally helps, he's gone. Maybe he's not coming back. In fact, I, I really don't think he is. We're on our own. So, an innocent life versus the future of all mankind. We have forty five minutes to decide." Clara said.
Because that is how long is left on the countdown to detonation of the 100 nuclear devices within range of the trigger.
Coal Hill School...
Previously, in the now time.
"Courtney Woods. Doctor, Jared, she has gone crazy. She's uncontrollable. Doctor, she took your psychic paper. She's been using it as fake ID." Clara said.
"To get into museums?" The Doctor asked.
"No, no, no. To buy White Lightning or alcopops or whatever."
"She used it to buy the British equivalent of White Claws!" I said, excitedly. "Okay. That's hilarious!"
"No. It's not. It's bad!"
"I've no idea what you're talking about. What, what is Courtney Woods?" The Doctor asked.
"She's one of my year tens. She was in the TARDIS." Clara said, sadly.
"Doing what?"
"Throwing up."
"Oh, her. Oh, that was ages ago."
"It really was. After dealing with a younger brother that's motion sick. I've kept plastic bags and trash cans all around the TARDIS." I said, happily.
"That doesn't excuse you from letting her drink, Jared." Clara said, frowning. "Look, Doctor, she says that you told her that she wasn't special."
"Rubbish." The Doctor said.
"She says that's what sent her off the rails."
"Pffff."
Store cupboard...
The Tardis has found a larger place than the previous supply cupboard, with glass panels in the door.
"Doctor. I know, I know. But, you say something like that to somebody, it hurts. Especially if you're somebody of her age, especially if you're you. Doctor, it can affect her whole life." Clara said, looking at the Doctor.
"Bah." The Doctor said, annoyed.
Tardis...
Courtney is inside, at the console.
The Doctor runs over to Courtney, "Oi! Give over!"
"I got stuff to clean up with." Courtney said, holding up paper towels.
"What?" The Doctor asked.
"And I got these from the chemist."
"Grief Seeds?" I asked, looking down at the small dark orbs surrounded by grey designs around them.
"Travel sickness." Courtney said, happily.
"Good. Because I don't like people being sick in my Tardis. No being sick. And no hanky-panky." The Doctor said, grabbing the Grief Seeds from Courtney and tossing them to me.
"Doctor!" I yelled, catching the Grief Seeds and placing them inside my sling bag. "Don't talk to Courtney like that!"
"Sorry, that's the rules."
"Look, Courtney, you're not going to be needing those because you're not going to become a Magical Girl. Doctor, will you just, just tell her?" Clara asked.
"Tell her what?" The Doctor asked.
"Tell her that she's special." Clara said, through clenched teeth.
"Have you gone bananas?"
"Do you really think I'm not special? You can't just take me away like that. It's like you kicked a big hole in in the side of my life. You really think it? I'm nothing? I'm not special?" Courtney asked.
"Pfft. God." The Doctor said, before talking normally. "How'd you like to be the first woman on the moon? Is that special enough for you?"
"Yeah, all right."
"Okay. Now we can do something interesting." The Doctor said, setting the TARDIS flying.
"Hey, Doctor!" Clara said, angrily.
Cargo bay...
We step out of the Tardis in full spacesuits into a storage area filled with cylindrical objects, some in racks. Some have a US flag on them, some have Cyrillic writing.
"This isn't the moon. Where are we?" Courtney asked.
"On a recycled space shuttle. 2049, judging by that prototype version of the Bennett oscillator." The Doctor said.
"Oh." I said, while we took our helmets off. "So, where's the gravity coming from?"
"What are they?" Clara asked.
"About a hundred nuclear bombs." The Doctor said.
An alarm sounds.
The Doctor looks out through the airlock window, "Ah. We're on our way to the moon. Check that. We're about to crash into it! Hold on! Hold on!"
We grab hold of cargo nets.
"Why didn't you just tell her you didn't mean it?" Clara asked.
The space shuttle belly-flops onto the moon's surface and skids to a halt. The three person shuttle crew enter, lead by a woman.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Lundvik asked.
"Why have you got all these nuclear bombs?" The Doctor asked.
"I'm not going to give you another chance."
"Oh? Well, you're just going to have to shoot us, then. Shoot the little girl first."
"What?" Courtney asked.
"Yes. She doesn't want to stand there watching us getting shot, does she? She'll be terrified. Girl first, then her teacher, then the fanboy, and then me. You'll have to spend a lot of time shooting me because I will keep on regenerating." The Doctor said, as Courtney sits on the deck behind the big Russian bomb and sulks. "In fact, I'm not entirely sure that I won't keep on regenerating for ever. Jared will just keep on dying and coming back to life forever."
"Doctor, what are you doing?" Clara asked.
The Doctor is making slow steps backwards and forwards. He ends up doing bunny hops.
"Gravity test. So, it'll be very time-consuming and messy, and rather wasteful, because I think I might just possibly be able to help you. You see, I am a super-intelligent alien being who flies in time and space. Are you going to shoot me?" The Doctor asked.
"No." Lundvik said.
"Good. Why have you got all these nuclear bombs? No, no, no. Easier question. What's wrong with my yo-yo?" The Doctor asked, and he uses a yo-yo to test the gravity.
"Doctor, it goes up and down." Clara said.
"Bingo." The Doctor said.
The penny finally drops.
"Ah." Clara said.
"Ah ha. We should be bouncing about this cabin like little fluffy clouds. But we're not. What is the matter with the moon?" The Doctor asked.
"Nobody knows." Lundvik said.
"Do you know what's wrong with the moon?" Clara asked.
"It's put on weight." The Doctor said.
"How can the moon put on weight?" Lundvik asked.
"Oh, lots of ways. Gravity bombs, axis alignment systems, planet shellers."
"So it's alien."
"Must be causing chaos on Earth. The tides will be so high that they will drown whole cities."
"Yeah."
"So what are you doing about it?" The Doctor asked, while Lundvik takes a case from the wall. "This?"
"That's what you do with aliens, isn't it? Blow them up?" Lundvik asked.
Moon...
Helmets on, we open the airlock onto the moon's surface.
Courtney goes first, "Wow. Wow! One small thing for a thing. One enormous thing for a thingy thing."
"So much for history." Lundvik said, annoyed.
"Jump!" I said, as we leave the scorched and pretty much wrecked unnamed space shuttle and walk over to a modular settlement in a nearby crater. "Like a kangaroo! Boing!"
"Jared. Now is not the time to be quoting Neptune." Clara said, when Courtney takes her mobile phone from a pocket and takes lots of photos, as a half-Earth hangs in the sky.
"There was a mining survey, Mexicans. Something happened up here. Nobody knows what. That's when the trouble began back on Earth. High tide everywhere at once. The greatest natural disaster in history." Lundvik said.
We walk around the building. The airlock is wide open.
"Cobwebs?" Clara asked.
"Henry, go back and prime the bombs." Lundvik said, looking at Henry.
"Er, is there any instructions?" Henry asked.
"There's a switch on each of them. The light goes red."
"They won't go off?"
"No, not till I fiddle with this thing." Lundvik said, as the red case she has kept with her since she took it off the wall.
Middle-aged Henry turns back, looking worried, "Okay."
"Shall we?" Lundvik asked.
"Is that the best you could get?" The Doctor asked.
"Second-hand space shuttle, third-hand astronauts."
Module...
A remarkable lot of cobwebs for a building open to vacuum. We close the door to the corridor behind us.
"How many people here?" The Doctor asked.
"Four. Minera Luna San Pedro. It was privately financed. They where doing a mineral survey up here." Lundvik said.
"So have there been any messages sent? Any maydays? Any SOS?" I asked, clutching the strap of my sling bag.
"Pretty much all the satellites had been whacked out of orbit. They managed to send back some screams." Duke said.
"So then you came up here to rescue them with your bombs?" The Doctor asked.
"Not quite."
"They disappeared ten years ago." Lundvik said.
"So, nobody came." I said, sadly.
"There was no shuttle."
"But you had one shuttle!"
"It was in a museum. They'd cut the back off it so kids could ride in it. We'd stopped going into space. Nobody cared. Not until..." Lundvik said, looking at me.
Courtney screams.
"Courtney!" Clara said, and Courtney has found a spacesuit hanging in a cocoon. "Oh, my God. Doctor, tell me there wasn't anyone inside that thing."
The Doctor scans the spacesuit with his screwdriver, "I could, but it wouldn't make it true."
"I'll get some power back on." Duke said.
"Come on. Now, Courtney, come here. Don't look. You all right?" Clara asked.
"I'm okay." Courtney said, frowning.
The Doctor cuts the corpse down.
"Hey. Look. Look at me. Look. It's all right if you're not." Clara said, looking down at Courtney.
"I'm fine. What did it?" Courtney asked.
"Maybe something trying to find out how you're put together. Or maybe how you tasted." The Doctor said.
"Do we have guns?"
"Not unless you brought some." Lundvik said.
"Chicken, apparently." The Doctor said, while the settlement powers up. "Save the air."
We take our helmets off. A few notes of that Psycho shower scene theme sound in the background.
The Doctor powers up a computer console and looks at the survey records, "They didn't find anything."
"Eh?" Lundvik asked.
"The Mexicans. They didn't find any minerals on the moon at all. Nada." The Doctor said, looking at photographs of the moon strewn on a table. "Oh."
"Oh?" Clara asked.
"What's up?" I asked, clutching the strap of my sling bag.
"Lines of tectonic stress." The Doctor said, still looking at the photographs.
"That's the Mare Fecunditatis. It's been there since the Apollo days. It's always been there." Lundvik said.
"No, no, no. These are much, much bigger. Sea of Tranquillity. Sea of Nectar. Sea of Ingenuity. Sea of Crises." The Doctor said.
"Meaning?" Clara asked.
The lights flicker.
"Meaning, Clara, Jared, that the moon, this little planetoid that's been tagging along beside you for a hundred million years, which gives you light at night and seas to sail on, is in the process of falling to bits." The Doctor said.
"Shit." I said, hearing a banging noise nearby and everything shakes. "That's not good."
(Open POV)
Moon...
Henry, who is still on his way back to the shuttle, is knocked to his knees. He gets back up on his feet and tries to use his communicator, "Hello, Captain? Captain? Captain?"
Something is going on inside a nearby slit in the ground.
Henry shines his torch in, then stagger backwards and fall as if something is heading for him, "Argh!"
(Jared's POV)
Module...
There is a high-pitched sound and a scuttling noise.
"What the hell was that?" Courtney asked.
"Duke, is that you?" Lundvik asked.
"I don't sound anything like that." Duke said, over the speakers.
"Can you try and get the lights back on?"
"That's what I'm doing."
"Torch. Give me your torch. Whatever it is, it's in here." The Doctor said, as we are hearing sounds of running claws. "I think we've found your alien." A giant space spider with luminous red knees heads for them down an adjoining corridor. "Back, back, back! We need a door. A door, a door!"
"Here! Here! The door's locked." Clara said, sadly.
"Come on, come on! There's no power to work it. Come on!" The Doctor said, worried.
"Doctor." Clara said, sadly.
"Be careful." I said, and the Doctor drags us down behind the table.
"Stay still. It's sensing movement. It can't see you. Fast movement. There must be another exit through there. Slowly. Slowly. Head to that exit. Slowly. Slowly. Slowly, slowly." The Doctor said, while we inch our way. "Gently, gently. When I say run, run."
"Who made you the boss?" Lundvik asked.
"Well, you say run, then." The Doctor said.
"Duke!" Lundvik said, angrily.
The giant spider leaps on Duke as he comes in from another corridor.
"Argh!" Duke said, terrified..
"Duke!" Lundvik said, worried.
The locked door opens.
"Run! We have power. Run!" The Doctor yelled.
"Quick, it's shutting." Clara said.
The door slams shut, and Courtney is on the wrong side, because her feet are no longer in contact with the floor.
"Miss! Jared!" Courtney said, looking between Clara and I.
"Courtney! Courtney!" Clara said, grabbing my hand.
"Miss! Jared!"
"Shit! Courtney! The power's gone again." I said, while Clara squeezed my hand.
Courtney is floating in mid-air, "It's killed him. It's coming in here! Doctor, it's coming in here!"
"You'll be okay!" The Doctor said, looking at Courtney.
Lundvik uses her communicator, "Henry? Henry?"
"Courtney, look at me. Look at me! Courtney!" The Doctor said, as the spider is walking across the ceiling. "Try and get to the door! Try and get yourself down here." He gets the glass pane out of the door. "Courtney, grab my yo-yo!"
Courtney does, just as gravity returns and she drops to the floor. The spider rears over her and she screams, then reaches for something in her backpack.
"Courtney!" I said, and Courtney stands and pumps something out of a bottle at the spider. "Hurry up!"
The rest of us re-enter.
"Courtney." Clara said, sadly.
"Kills ninety nine percent of all known germs." Courtney said, looking down at the clean-up stuff she brought with her.
"Good stuff, Courtney. Just don't try that at home, okay?" The Doctor asked.
"You all right?" Clara asked.
"Why did I just fly? This is nuts." Courtney said, smiling.
"You thought that was nuts. Wait till you see me fighting aliens with the Avengers." I said, happily.
"You fought with the Avengers?"
"Yeah."
The Doctor scans the remains of the spider with his screwdriver, "Did you say germs? Oh, God, this is incredible. Look at the size of it. It's the size of a badger."
"Doctor..." I said, frowning. "Not the time."
"It's a prokaryotic unicellular life form, with non-chromosomal DNA. Which, as you and me know. Well, not you and me. Well, you, certainly not. You and me, yes, scientists know, this is a germ. You flew because that one point three billion tonnes shifted. It moved. It's an unstable mass." The Doctor said, looking at Courtney.
"I'm scared, Miss, Jared." Courtney said, looking between Clara and I.
"Okay." Clara said, looking down at Courtney.
Lundvik has looked at what is left of Duke, "He'd just had a grand-daughter. Elina. She was his first. He was my teacher. He taught me how to fly. We were both given the sack on the same day."
"Which way to the Mare Fecunditatis?" The Doctor asked.
"Please can I go home now? I'm really. I'm really sorry, but I'd like to go home." Courtney said, crying a lot.
Moon...
The Doctor leads us in a single file.
"Henry, come in. If you don't mind, Henry, come in." Lundvik said.
"Doctor, this is dangerous now." Clara said.
"It really is dangerous." I said, clutching the strap of my sling bag.
"It was dangerous before. Everything's dangerous if you want it to be. Eating chips is dangerous. Crossing the road. It's no way to live your life. Tell her. You're supposed to be teaching her." The Doctor said.
"Look, I have a duty of care, and Jared has a duty of care too for his friends, okay? You know what that is?" Clara asked.
"Course I know what a duty of care is. What are you suggesting? She's fine. What are you, thirty five?" The Doctor asked.
"Fifteen." Courtney said.
Clara shakes her head.
Tardis...
"Don't touch anything, Courtney." I said, taking out my Nintendo Switch out of my sling bag to give to Courtney. "Except my Nintendo Switch."
"You got any games?" Courtney asked, taking my Nintendo Switch.
"Yup. They should be all downloaded there. The TARDIS has WiFi. So any multiplayer games should connect with my Switch."
"Can I get reception up here?" Courtney asked.
Cargo bay...
Lundvik is setting the triggers on the nuclear devices.
"Get in." The Doctor said.
"Why are you shutting her in? We don't need to stay, do we?" Clara asked.
"Eh?"
"It's obvious, isn't it? The moon doesn't break up."
"How do you know?"
"Because Jared and I have been in the future, and the moon is still there. I think. You know the moon is still there, right?"
"Maybe it isn't the moon. Maybe it's a hologram or a big painting, or a special effect. Maybe it's a completely different moon." The Doctor said.
"But you would know." Clara said, grabbing my hand.
"I would?"
"If the moon fell to bits in 2049, somebody would've mentioned it. It would have come up in conversation. So it doesn't break up. So the world doesn't end. So, let's just get in the Tardis and go."
"I agree. I want us to go to Gamindustri." I said, smiling. "I want to eat pudding with Neptune and defeat some Dogoos. The world won't end if we leave now. Doctor."
"Clara, Jared, there are some moments in time that I simply can't see. Little eye-blinks. They don't look the same as other things. They're not clear. They're fuzzy, they're grey. Little moments in which big things are decided. And this is one of them. Just now, I can't tell what happens to the moon, because whatever happens to the moon hasn't been decided yet. And it's going to be decided here and now. Which very much sounds as though it's up to us." The Doctor said.
"Neither of you are going anywhere. I've lost my crew. We were the last astronauts. This is the last shuttle, these are the last nuclear bombs. We're the last chance for Earth, and you're staying to help me." Lundvik said.
"Decision made." The Doctor said.
"Yeah." Clara said, happily.
"A good one at that." I said, squeezing Clara's hand. "Hopefully."
In the Tardis, Courtney walks around with my Nintendo Switch, bored playing Megadimension Neptunia VII. She touches some controls, which burble and release a bit of steam, then she sits down.
Moon...
Looking down on the Mexicans' survey and sample equipment.
"What is killing the moon?" The Doctor asked.
"How can the moon die, Doctor?" I asked, looking at the Doctor. "Is it like the Earth?"
"It is. Everything does, sooner or later."
"Can we save it?" Lundvik asked.
"Depends what's killing it." The Doctor said.
"There are the other three."
We go down to the spacesuits in cobwebs near cracks in the crust.
"Is it those germ things, then? Are they like cockroaches? Is it, is it an infestation?" Clara asked.
"Is it?" Lundvik asked.
"Well, I've only seen one of them. It would take an awful lot more to cause the moon to put on one point three billion tonnes." The Doctor said, as a giant spider-germ comes out of its lair next to a spacesuit and jumps him. "Argh!"
"Doctor!" Clara said, trying the disinfectant spray.
"It's a vacuum. It won't work." Lundvik said, annoyed.
We grab at the spider's legs and get it off the Doctor's faceplate. The spider scuttles back into its lair.
"Well, that makes two." The Doctor said.
"Sunlight." Clara said, happily.
"What about sunlight?" I asked, squeezing Clara's hand.
"If they're germs. My nan says it's the best disinfectant there is."
"Shine your light down there." The Doctor said.
Lundvik does. There are lots of the red-kneed germs.
"Where have they come from?" Lundvik asked.
"Maybe they've been there all the time. It's warmish. They're multiplying, feeding, evolving." The Doctor said.
We leave, rapidly.
"Doctor, if the moon breaks up, it'll kill us all in about forty five minutes." Lundvik said.
"I agree. Unless something else is going on." The Doctor said, using his yo-yo to get a sample from another fissure.
"Water." I said, when the yoyo comes back wet. "How?"
"There's no water on the moon." Lundvik said, her eyes widening.
"It's not water. It's amniotic fluid. The stuff that life comes from. I've got to go down there." The Doctor said.
"Doctor." Lundvik said.
"Back to your shuttle. Get your bombs ready. Clara, Jared, you, get to the Tardis. Get safe. Get Courtney safe. I will be back." The Doctor said, taking the germ killer spray from Clara.
"What? No. Doctor. Doctor!" Clara said, when the Doctor jumps down into the fissure. "Doctor!"
"Will he?" Lundvik asked, while Clara raises her arms in surrender, then lowers them and sighs. "Will he be back?"
"If he says so, I suppose he will." Clara said, letting out a sigh.
(Open POV)
Tardis...
"Miss? Jared? Come in." Courtney said.
"Courtney? What's up?" Jared asked, over the TARDIS speakers.
"I'm bored. When are you and Miss coming back?"
"We're on our way back, Courtney. Whatcha doing?"
"Playing Megadimension Neptunia VII." Courtney said, looking down at Jared's Nintendo Switch, playing Megadimension Neptunia VII.
(Jared's POV)
Moon...
"Those games are a lot of fun." I said, happily. "I should visit Neptune again."
"My granny used to play those Neptunia games." Lundvik said, as a small moonquake makes us stagger. "There he is."
We have reached Henry. His helmet is open to the vacuum and he is a skeleton now.
Clara looks across at the shuttle, on the opposite side of a ravine, "Was that where we landed? It looks so different."
Cracks form in the moon's crust.
"It's going down." Lundvik said.
The shuttle tumbles into the widening ravine.
"Courtney! Doctor!" Clara said, worried.
"We going to have to take cover. We're running out of oxygen." Lundvik said.
"Doctor! Where the hell are you?" I asked, squeezing Clara's hand..
The Doctor appears behind us, "Today's the day, humankind."
Module...
"So, where's the Tardis? Did you move it?" I asked, rolling my eyes.
"She's in the shuttle, isn't she? She'll turn up." The Doctor said, smirking.
"Last time you said that, she turned up on the wrong side of the planet." Clara said, annoyed.
"You two have never gotten on, have you?" The Doctor asked.
"Look, we need to know where Courtney is."
"Courtney is safe. Och. Well, do you have her phone number?"
"No, no, no. Of course I don't have her phone number." Clara said, sadly.
"Well, what about the school? Does the secretary have her number?"
"I can't. The secretary hates me. She thinks I gave her a packet of TENA Lady for Secret Santa. Look. Courtney's gotten off of Jared's game console and is now posting stuff on Tumblr. Doesn't that know where you are?"
"I don't know. I'm not a historian." Lundvik said.
"Phone. I know what the problem is. Oh, she can't post that. She can't put pictures of me online." The Doctor said, sonicking Clara's phone then aims at a monitor up on the wall. "It's fine with her posting photos of Jared online since he's an Avengers."
"Yeah?" Courtney asked, on the monitor.
"You can't put pictures of me online."
"Courtney? Are you okay?" I asked, squeezing Clara's hand.
"Er, I'm fine. Jared, your Nintendo Switch died. What's up?" Courtney asked, on the monitor.
"You said you know what the problem is." Lundvik said.
"Yes, yes. It's a rather big problem." The Doctor said.
"Doctor. Do you want to tell us what you have in mind? Want to tell us?" I asked, clutching the strap of my sling bag.
"Well, I had a little hypothesis. The seismic activity, the surface breaking up, the variable mass, the increase in gravity, the fluid. I scanned what's down there." The Doctor said, moving a mobile console and sonicks it, then creates a 3D projection of the moon. "The moon isn't breaking apart. Well, actually, it is breaking apart, and rather quickly. We've got about an hour and a half. But that isn't the problem. It's not infested."
"What are they, then, those things?" Courtney asked, on the monitor.
"Bacteria. Tiny, tiny bacteria living on something very, very big. Something that weighs about one point three billion tonnes. Something that's living. Something growing." The Doctor said.
"Growing?" Clara asked.
"That." The Doctor said, sonicking the image to show what looks very like a baby dragon curled up inside the moon.
"That lives under the moon?" Courtney asked, on the monitor.
"No."
"What is it?" I asked, looking at the Doctor.
"That doesn't live under the moon. That is the moon." The Doctor said.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Lundvik asked.
"The moon isn't breaking apart. The moon is hatching."
"Huh?" Clara asked.
"The moon's an egg."
"Has it, er, has it always been an egg?" Clara asked.
"Yes, for a hundred million years or so. Just, just growing. Just getting ready to be born." The Doctor said.
"Okay. So the moon has never been the moon?"
"No, no, no, no. It's never been dead. It's just taking a long time to come alive."
"Is it a chicken?" Courtney asked, on the monitor.
"No!" The Doctor yelled.
"Cos, for a chicken to have laid an egg that big..."
"Courtney, don't spoil the moment."
"Doctor, what is it?" Clara asked.
"I think that it's unique. I think that's the only one of its kind in the universe. I think that that is utterly beautiful." The Doctor said.
"How do we kill it?" Lundvik asked.
"Why do you want to kill the Moon?" I asked, looking at Lundvik.
"It's a little baby." Courtney said, on the monitor.
"Doctor, how do we kill it?" Lundvik asked.
"Kill the moon?" The Doctor asked.
Lundvik nods.
The Doctor turns off the hologram, "Kill the moon. Well, you have about a hundred of the best man-made nuclear weapons, if they still work. If that's what you want to do."
"Doctor, stop..." I said, sadly.
"Will that do it?" Lundvik asked.
"A hundred nuclear bombs set off right where we are, right on top of a living, vulnerable creature? It'll never feel the sun on its back." The Doctor said.
"And then what? Will the moon still break up? You said, you said we had an hour and a half?"
"Well, there'll be nothing to make it break up. There will be nothing trying to force its way out. The gravity of the little dead baby will pull all the pieces back together again. Of course, it won't be very pretty. You'd have an enormous corpse floating in the sky. You might have some very difficult conversations to have with your kids."
"I don't have any kids."
"Stop. Right, listen. This is a, this is a life. I mean, this must be the biggest life in the universe." Clara said, frowning.
"It's not even been born." Courtney said, on the monitor.
"It is killing people. It is destroying the Earth." Lundvik said.
"You cannot blame a baby for kicking." Clara said.
"Let me tell you something. You want to know what I took back from being in space? Look at the edge of the Earth. The atmosphere, that is paper thin. That is the only thing that saves us all from death. Everything else, the stars, the blackness. That's all dead. Sadly, that is the only life any of us will ever know."
"There's life here. There's life just next door." Courtney said, on the monitor.
"Look, when you've grown up a bit, you'll realise that everything doesn't have to be nice. Some things are just bad. Anyway, you ran away. It's none of your business."
"Doctor, I want to come back."
"Courtney, you don't have to come back." I said, letting out a sigh.
"Jared's right. Courtney, you'll be safer where you are." Clara said, squeezing my hand.
Lundvik enters the code to start the countdown on the bombs.
(Open POV)
Tardis...
"Doctor, I'm sorry. I want to come back, okay? I want to help." Courtney said, sadly.
"Ah, there's some DVDs on the blue book shelf." The Doctor said, over the speakers.
(Jared's POV)
Module...
"Just stick one into the Tardis console. That'll bring you to me." The Doctor said.
"Right." Courtney said, on the monitor.
"And make sure you hang on to the console, otherwise the Tardis will leave you behind."
"So what do we do? Doctor? Huh? Doctor, what do we do?" Clara asked.
"Nothing." The Doctor said.
"What?"
"What do you mean by nothing?" I asked, grabbing the strap of my sling bag.
"We don't do anything. I'm sorry, Clara. I can't help you and Jared." The Doctor said, looking at Clara.
"Of course you can help." Clara said, happily.
"The Earth isn't my home. The moon's not my moon. Sorry."
"Come on. Hey."
"Listen, there are moments in every civilisation's history in which the whole path of that civilisation is decided. The whole future path. Whatever future humanity might have depends upon the choice that is made right here and right now. Now, you've got the tools to kill it. You made them. You brought them up here all on your own, with your own ingenuity. You don't need a Time Lord. Kill it. Or let it live. I can't make this decision for you and Jared."
"Yeah, well, I can't make it."
"Neither can I. I'm not Amy. I can't make a decision over a Star Whale." I said, sadly. "This is a decision I can make."
"Well, there's three of you here." The Doctor said, smirking.
"Well, yeah. A school teacher, a journalist, and an astronaut." Clara said, scoffing.
"Who's better qualified?" The Doctor asked.
"I don't know! The President of America."
"Oh, take something off his plate. He makes far too many decisions anyway."
"She." Lundvik said.
"She. Sorry. She hasn't even been into space. She hasn't been to another planet. How would she even know what to do?"
"We are asking you for help." Clara said, grabbing my hand.
"Listen, we went to dinner in Berlin in 1937, right? We didn't nip out after pudding and kill Hitler. I've never killed Hitler. And the two of you wouldn't expect me to kill Hitler. The future is no more malleable than the past." The Doctor said.
"Doctor, I've been through four regenerations of yours." I said, looking at the Doctor. "Don't you dare make this into a point."
"Sorry. Well, actually, no, I'm not sorry. It's time to take the stabilisers off your bikes, Clara, Jared. It's your moon, humanity. It's your choice." The Doctor said, looking between Clara and I.
"And you're just going to stand there?" Clara asked.
"Absolutely not."
The Tardis arrives, and Courtney comes out.
"Doctor?" Clara asked.
"A teenager, a journalist, an astronaut and a schoolteacher." The Doctor said.
"Hang on a minute. We can get in there, can't we? You can sort it out with that thing." Lundvik said.
"No. Some decisions are too important not to make on your own."
"Doctor. Doctor? Doctor!" Clara yelled.
The Doctor goes into the Tardis and shuts the door.
"You fucking idiot!" I said, when the TARDIS dematerialises. "Ugh! He had to do that!"
"Oh, what a prat." Lundvik said.
Another moonquake. The germs come flooding onto the surface from new fissures.
"I'm going to detonate the bombs, agreed? Agreed?" Lundvik asked.
A porthole breaks and the air rushes out.
"Hang on tight, there's been a breach!" Lundvik said, worried.
The vacuum sucks a handy piece of metal over the hole and seals it.
"If we let it live, what would happen if the moon wasn't there?" Clara asked.
"Listen, we haven't got time for this." Lundvik said, annoyed.
"Shut up! If you're not willing to help. Shut up!" I said, crossing my arms. "We're talking about reality here!"
"Jared's right! We're discussing it! What would happen if the moon wasn't there?" Clara asked.
"I have a physics book in my bag. There's this thing on gravity?" Courtney asked, taking out her physics book out of her bag and opening it.
"Super. Is there a word search?" Lundvik asked.
"Okay, there would be no tides. But we'd survive that, right? They've knocked out the satellites. There's no internet, no mobiles. I'd be fine with that." Clara said, happily.
"It's not going to just stop being there, because inside the moon, Miss, is a gigantic creature forcing its way out. And when it does, which is going to be pretty damn soon, there are going to be huge chunks of the moon heading right for us, like whatever killed the dinosaurs, only ten thousand times bigger."
"It was a spaceship that crashed into the dinosaurs with a friend of the Doctor's on it. His name was Adric." I said, frowning. "The moon isn't made of rock and stone, apparently. It's made of eggshells."
"Oh, God. Okay, okay, fine. If, by some miracle, the shell isn't too thick, or if it disperses, or if it goes into orbit, whatever, there's still going to be a massive thing there, isn't there, that just popped out. And what the hell do you imagine that is?" Lundvik asked.
"Loads of things lay eggs." Courtney said, happily.
"It's not a chicken."
"I'm not saying it's a chicken. I'm not completely stupid."
"It's an exoparasite."
"A what?"
"Like a flea. Or a head louse."
"I'm going to have to be a lot more certain than that if I'm going to kill a baby." Clara said, while I squeezed her hand.
"Same. Killing a baby isn't right. Unless it's necessary for health complications." I said, looking down at the floor.
"Oh, you two want to talk about babies? You've probably got babies down there now. You want to have babies?" Lundvik asked.
"Well, yeah." Clara said, smiling.
"Mister Pink." Courtney said, looking at Clara.
"Shush!"
"Courtney. In a possible timeline, Clara and Danny are married." I said, letting go of Clara's hand.
"Really? How do you know?" Courtney asked.
"I just do."
"Okay. You imagine you've got children down there on Earth now, right? Grandchildren maybe. You want that thing to get out? Kill them all? You want today to be the day life on Earth stopped because you couldn't make an unfair decision? Listen, I don't want to do this. All my life I've dreamed about coming here. But this is how it has to end." Lundvik said, setting the trigger.
"Oi!" Courtney said, angrily.
"I've given us an hour. There's a cut-out here. If anyone has any bright ideas, or if the Doctor comes back, that stops it. But once it's pressed, it stays pressed." Lundvik said.
"What if the Doctor doesn't come back?" I asked, still looking down at the floor.
"I didn't expect to survive anyway."
"He's going to come back, though, right? Isn't he, Jared, Miss?" Courtney asked, looking between Clara and I.
"Hey, why don't you call me Clara?" Clara asked.
"I prefer Miss, Miss. We just need to make up our minds, that's all. Well, you know and Jared him."
"I think he really might just be leaving it to us." Clara said.
The communications system on the computer console crackles.
"Can anybody hear me? Come in, please. Can anybody..." McKean said, over the speakers.
"This is Jared Shay. I'm the President of the World." I said, walking over to the communications system. "Or I'm going to be someday. Who is this?"
"This is ground control." McKean said, on the monitor.
"I can tell. How are things going on Earth?"
"Pretty bad. Yeah. Pretty bad. Listen, we're patched in to one of the TV satellites. We haven't got long. How are things up there?"
"Can we broadcast on this?" Clara asked.
"Who are you?" McKean asked, on the monitor.
"School trip. Can we broadcast on this?" Clara asked.
"Well, yes." McKean said, on the monitor.
"Hello, Earth. We have a terrible decision to make. It's an uncertain decision and we don't have a lot of time. We can kill this creature or we can let it live. We don't know what it's going to do, we don't know what's going to happen when it hatches. If it will hurt us, help us, or just leave us alone. We have to decide together. This is the last time we'll be able to speak to you, but you can send us a message. If you think we should kill the creature, turn your lights off. If you think we should take the chance, let it live, leave your lights on. We'll be able to see. Goodnight, Earth." Clara said, as the transmission ended. "Was that okay?"
"Yeah." Courtney said, happily.
"It was!" I said, excitedly.
Bang! The lights flicker.
Clara takes Courtney's hand and my hand, "Come on. Let's see."
Lundvik picks up the trigger case and they walk along a corridor. The moon shakes and the power fluctuates. We run to a porthole as something explodes in flames behind us, and Clara looks out at the Earth with a small pair of binoculars. The only visible artificial lights are of course Europe and the Americas. Africa, Asia and Australia don't get a vote in this. Thirty nine minutes to go, then thirty two. Lights go out across the world. Eighteen minutes, five. The planet finishes going dark.
"Night, night." Courtney said, sadly.
"Oh, Doctor, where have you gone?" Clara asked. "Jared, do you know?"
"I don't." I said, squeezing Clara's hand.
"We can't risk it all just to be nice." Lundvik said.
"Okay." Clara said.
"Miss? Jared?" Courtney asked.
"Nine seconds." Lundvik said.
"You can't!" Courtney said, worried.
"Sorry, everyone. See you on the other side. Two..." Lundvik said.
"Oh no, you don't." I said, and Clara and I hit the cut-out switch. Detonation aborted. "You are not killing a baby."
"Hey!" Lundvik yelled.
The Tardis materialises.
"One, two, three, four, into the Tardis." The Doctor said.
"What's happening?" Lundvik asked.
"Let's go and have a look, shall we?"
Tardis...
The Doctor sets the Tardis flying.
"Bloody idiots. Bloody irresponsible idiots." Lundvik said, annoyed.
The Doctor walks over to Lundvik, "Mind your language, please, There are children present."
"You should have left me there, let me die. I wanted to die up there with the universe in front of me, not being crushed to death on Earth."
"Nobody's going to die." The Doctor said.
"Could you please let us see what's happening?" Lundvik asked.
Beach...
The Tardis lands on a Lanzarote beach below a full moon in a bright blue sky with fluffy white clouds. The moon is falling apart as the baby spreads its wings.
"What's it doing?" Courtney asked.
There is a faint image of a giant winged creature in the sky, making noises.
"It's feeling the sun on itself. It's getting warm. The chick flies away and the eggshell disintegrates. Harmless." The Doctor said.
"Did you know?" Clara asked.
"You made your decision. Humanity made its choice."
"Doctor, we ignored humanity. I never ignored humanity." I said, looking up at the sky.
"Well, there you go." The Doctor said.
"So what happens now, then? Tell me what happens now." Lundvik said.
The Doctor turns his back on us and closes his eyes briefly.
"In the mid-21st century humankind starts creeping off into the stars, spreads its way through the galaxy to the very edges of the universe. And it endures till the end of time." The Doctor said, while he turned back to us. "And it does all that because one day in the year 2049, when it had stopped thinking about going to the stars, something occurred that make it look up, not down. It looked out there into the blackness and it saw something beautiful, something wonderful, that for once it didn't want to destroy. And in that one moment, the whole course of history was changed. Not bad for a girl from Coal Hill School, a journalist, and her teacher."
"Oh, my gosh. It laid a new egg. It's beautiful. Doctor, Jared, it's beautiful." Courtney said, happily.
"That's what we call a new moon."
A blank white round thing in the sky waiting for fresh meteorites to start decorating its surface.
"You can be the first woman on that." Courtney said, looking at Lundvik said.
"I think that some people deserve a thank you." The Doctor said.
"Yeah, probably." Lundvik said, walking over to Clara and I. "Thank you. Thank you both for stopping me. Thank you for giving me the moon back."
"It's not a problem." I said, sadly.
"Okay, Captain. Well, you've got a whole new space programme to get together. NASA is er, it's that way. About two and a half thousand miles." The Doctor said, walking over to me. "Jared? Do you have some vortex manipulators? You can give Courtney a run home."
Tardis...
Courtney and Clara come back upstairs from below the console after getting changed back into their school clothes. I am wearing my hoodie and jeans, coming back upstairs from below the console.
The Doctor is dropping books on the steps to the gallery, "Not that it's any of my business, but I think the both of you did the right thing."
"Yeah, you're right. It's none of your business. Come on, Courtney, off you go. Double Geography." Clara said.
"Can we do it again?" Courtney asked.
"Go. Go, go. Chop chop." Clara said, happily.
"Courtney, Clara's usually the boss around here." I said, while Courtney leaves the Tardis, and the Doctor sets it flying. "I'll see you later."
Clara stops the TARDIS from flying, "Doctor, tell me what you knew."
"Nothing. I told you, I've got grey areas." The Doctor said, frowning.
"Yeah. I noticed. Tell me what you knew, Doctor, or else I'll smack you so hard you'll regenerate." Clara said.
"I knew that eggs are not bombs. I know they don't usually destroy their nests. Essentially, what I knew was that you and Jared would always make the best choice. I had faith that the two of you would always make the right choice." The Doctor said.
"Okay. Doctor. Honestly. Do you have music playing in your head when you say bullshit like that?" I asked, leaning against the TARDIS console.
"It wasn't my decision to make. I told you both."
"Well, why did you do it? Was it for Courtney, was that it?" Clara asked.
"Well, she really is something special now, isn't she? First woman on the moon, saved the Earth from itself, and, rather bizarrely, she becomes the President of the United States. She met this bloke called Blinovitch..." The Doctor said.
"You know what? I spent four regenerations with you, Doctor. Shut the fuck up! I'm so sick of listening to you! And Clara is too!" I said, angrily.
"Well, I didn't do it for Courtney. I didn't know what was going to happen. Do you and Clara think I'm lying?"
Clara is crying with rage, "I don't know. I don't know. If you didn't do it for her, I mean. Do you know what? It was, it was cheap, it was pathetic. No, no, no. It was patronising. That was you patting us on the back, saying, you're big enough to go to the shops by yourself now. Go on, toddle along."
"No, that was me allowing you and Jared to make a choice about your own future. That was me respecting you both." The Doctor said.
"Oh, my God, really? Was it? Yeah, well, respected is not how we feel." Clara said, grabbing my hand.
"Right. Okay. Er..."
"Doctor, Clara nearly didn't press that button. Clara nearly got it wrong. And I nearly had the urge to stop her from doing it. I nearly made us make the wrong choice." I said, with Clara squeezing my hand. "Even with my foreknowledge, I had the choice to fuck this all up and let a baby die!"
"Jared's right. He could have stopped me but chose to press the button with me." Clara said, looking at the Doctor. "I nearly didn't press that button. I nearly got it wrong. That was you, our friend, making us scared. Making us feel like bloody idiots."
"Language." The Doctor said.
"Oh, don't you ever tell me to mind my language. Don't you ever tell us to take the stabilisers off our bikes. And don't you dare lump us in with the rest of all the little humans that you think are so tiny and silly and predictable. You walk our Earth, Doctor, you breathe our air. You make us your friend, and that is your moon too. And you can damn well help us when we need it."
"I was helping."
"What? You were helping by leaving?" I asked, letting out a sigh.
"Yes."
"Yeah, well, clear off! Go on. You can clear off. Get back in your lonely, your lonely bloody Tardis and you don't come back." Clara said, squeezing my hand.
"Don't come back, Doctor. I treated you well when you had the big ears and looked like Dumbo. Or when you had pinstripes and glasses that made you look good. Or when you had a bow tie that you thought was cool and a fez that looked ridiculous." I said, rolling my eyes. "When I say I'm done, Doctor. I am done."
"Clara. Jared. Clara. Jared." The Doctor said, looking between Clara and I.
"You go away. Okay? You go a long way away." Clara said, slamming the door shut behind us.
The Tardis dematerialises as Clara and I leave the store cupboard, leaving a few papers flying around in the resulting breeze as the air rushes into the hole it has left.
(Open POV)
English classroom...
The study book this time is David Copperfield, according to the white board.
"Hello." Danny said, happily.
"Hey. Now then." Clara said, smiling.
"What've you been up to?"
"The usual."
"It happened, didn't it?"
221B Baker Street...
"Hey. River. I'm at 221B Baker Street." Jared said, his iPhone 15 Pro Max near his ear. "I was wondering if you could take me to Planeptune."
River appeared in a flash of blue light and looked at Jared's face to see how heartbroken it was.
"Darling? What's wrong?" River asked, walking up to Jared to hug him. "Did something happen?"
"The Doctor did it. He finally pissed me off." Jared said, sadly. "Can we go to Planeptune?"
"We can. But why do you want to go there?"
"I need to get away from this time period on Earth. I need a break."
"Ah. That tells me when you are."
English classroom...
Clara has told it all from her point of view.
"Well, the Doctor was wrong, wasn't he? Wasn't he? Danny, what do you think?" Clara asked.
"I think I've seen this look before." Danny said.
"No, you haven't. This is new for me."
"No, not on your face. On mine."
"What did you do?"
"I left the army."
"You loved the army." Clara said, sadly.
"Yep. And then one day I didn't." Danny said, frowning.
"I'm done, I'm done. I am finished with it. I am, I am, I'm done. It's over. I'm finished with the Doctor, and I told him that. What is that face for? Why don't you believe me?"
"Because you're still angry. You can never finish with anyone while they can still make you angry. Tell the Doctor when you're calm, and then tell me."
Clara hugs Danny, "When did you get to become so wise?"
"Same way as anyone else. I had a really bad day."
Clara's apartment...
Clara goes home with her shopping and pours herself a glass of red wine, then looks out of the window at the impossibly big full moon with exactly the same crater markings as the old one.
Planeptune...
River and Jared appeared in a flash of blue light and the Doctor's wife looked at the fanboy.
"We're here." River said, grabbing Jared's hand. "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure. Thank you, Melody." Jared said, squeezing River's hand and walked around her to give a hug. "I don't know how long I'll be here. I'll figure something out."