I've been sifting through my old files and emails for certain bits and pieces, and while naturally I can't find what I was actually looking for, some interesting bits have popped up. I wrote this story twelve (!) years ago, for a young lad called Edward. My mum used to work as a teaching assistant, and Edward was one of her pupils. I think he'd have been eight or nine at the time, but it was a long time ago so I'm not 100% sure. I met him on one occasion I dropped in to see mum (might have been a bit of voluntary work there now I think of it, but again, this was a long time ago). He was a huge
Doctor Who fan, so naturally we hit it off. He was having a hard time of it back then,so I wrote a little story for him in the hopes it would cheer him up. By all accounts, it worked, and he loved it.
I thought this was long gone, but I'd attached to an email which was still sitting in my drafts folder. It's very much written for kids, and not particularly original to be honest, but reading it back I think it works pretty well. If you happen to stumble on it Edward, I hope you're doing well. You'll be around twenty now, I guess, not far off my age when I wrote this for you. I hope you enjoy it again.
The Orb of
Amarella
Edward Thomson was pretty bored. Winter
could be like that. There wasn’t much on the telly this time of
year, with all the good stuff being saved for Christmas, and it was
too cold and damp to go outside. A little snow would have been better
– the cold never mattered so much if it was snowing – but the
closest the weather got was a layer of frost on the cars first thing
in the morning. It was enough to melt into a film of icy water by
lunchtime, so that all the hard, frozen ground would be turned into
sticky mud and ensure that no one was allowed outside during playtime
at school. It wasn’t even wet enough to be proper mud weather. You
couldn’t go out in your wellies and jump in muddy puddles; there
was just about enough mud to make sure you slipped over and fell flat
on your face.
So, on the weekends, when his homework
was done, there was little for Edward to do but let his imagination
wander. It was that or think about school – and he didn’t like to
think about that any more than he had to.
It was on a Sunday night, as another
dreary and drizzly weekend drew to a close, that Edward forgot his
boredom and drifted off to sleep. He found himself woken some time
later. What had disturbed him? Edward realised that he could hear
something – a faint sound, a whistling, like in old Looney Tunes
when a character fell from a cliff. Only, this was getting louder.
He got out of bed, and rushed to the
window, pulling aside the curtains. He saw, in the sky, a glowing dot
of light, brighter than the moon. It burned with a golden light. As
he watched, it grew from a point to a sphere. It was getting closer.
At first, he thought it was headed towards him, but he realised it
was angled downwards, and that it would land further away. As he
watched, the glowing orb sped into his back garden – crashing, not
with a loud bang as he’d expected, but with a dull thump.
Edward rushed out of the house, not
caring how cold he was or about the feel of frost against his feet.
He gingerly approached the glowing orb, sitting, undamaged, on the
lawn. It was about the size of a tennis ball. The glowing softened,
until it appeared simply as a shiny golden ball. Carefully – would
it be hot? – Edward reached out, picking it up in his hands. It
wasn’t hot, merely a little warm. Rushing back indoors, Edward went
into his room.
He decided he’d keep his discovery a
secret for now – no one else had woken up, and who knew what this
might be? He’d have to take it with him to school, to make sure it
wasn’t found while he was there. Carefully, Edward put the orb into
his schoolbag, a jumper stuffed around it to keep it from producing a
suspicious lump.
Eventually, despite the mystery and
excitement, he fell asleep.
Later, the next day, after the school
bell had rung for the long-awaited final time, Edward trudged out of
the school gates, the orb still in his bag. He could feel it there,
pressing against his back, the slight heat of it just perceptible
through the fabric. He looked around for his mum, hoping to get his
new find back to home to safety as quickly as possible. What he saw
was not his mum. It wasn’t even human. Standing over the other side
of the road, large as life and twice as ugly, was what could only be
called a monster. It had to be seven feet tall, and at least three
wide. It was roughly the shape of a man, but was incredibly bulky,
with the sort of proportions that would dwarf a sumo wrestler. Its
body was a deep, metallic green – something like a tank’s hull,
or maybe more like the shell of a beetle. In fact, a beetle was what
it reminded Edward of most. Its head was little more than a shallow
lump between its huge shoulders; two dully glowing red eyes were
facing him, beneath stubby antennae.
Edward gasped – the eyes were facing
directly at him. The monster was looking right at him!
It began to stride over towards him –
moving quickly, despite its bulk. It ignored the other children who
stood around, stuck with fear and awe, and made straight for Edward.
What should he do? What did it want? The answer came to Edward
quickly – the creature had to be after the orb he had found. What
else could it want with him? What should he do – hand it over to
him?
A car screeched around the corner. The
man driving it was going far too fast, and couldn’t brake quickly
enough. Edward saw the look of shock on his face as his car smashed
straight into the monster. The car buckled in the middle, as the
driver opened his door, toppling out as he tried to escape. The
creature was still standing, oblivious to the children screaming all
around it, its attention momentarily taken by its collision. It
didn’t look hurt – but Edward bet it was pretty angry.
Then, Edward did something possibly
very brave, or possibly very foolish. He ran. He turned on his heels,
and legged it as fast as he could in the opposite direction to the
monster. He bumped and crashed into kids in his way, pelting down the
road as quickly as he could. What was he doing? Wouldn’t the
monster come after him? Why shouldn’t it have its orb back?
However, something within him told him he had to keep the orb safe –
and it wasn’t safe with the monster.
He snuck a look behind him – the
monster had started coming after him. It wasn’t running, simply
walking, calmly and purposefully towards him. It didn’t need to
run. It would catch up with him eventually. Puffing, Edward continued
to run – this was worse than cross-country!
He was concentrating so firmly on his
running, that he didn’t notice a man step out in front of him from
around the corner of the road. He ran straight into him , knocking
the man back a bit. The man grabbed Edward by the shoulders, forcing
him to a halt.
‘Whoa, steady on there, fella!’
said the man. Edward looked up at him. He was youngish, tall and
skinny, with sticky-up brown hair. He was wearing a blue pinstriped
suit with a shirt and tie, underneath a long, brown suede coat.
‘What’s the hurry? You late for
your tea?’ the man had an enthusiastic voice, with a bit of a
cockney accent.
‘There’s – there’s a monster
after me!’ panted Edward.
‘A monster?’ said the man, then
seemed to notice the creature that was approaching for the first
time. ‘Oh, that monster – no worries. I’ll sort him
out.’ The strange man pulled some kind of tool out of his jacket
pocket – a thin, silvery instrument, sort of like a wand. He
pointed it at the rapidly encroaching monster, and activated it. A
blue light shone brightly from its tip, and an ear-torturing,
skull-splitting whine filled the air.
The monster fell to its knees,
clutching at its stumpy head. Edward felt like doing the same, but
the man grabbed him by the hand and went running down the adjoining
road. They swiftly came to a blue box, bizarrely just standing in the
middle of the pavement.
‘In here – quick!’ he shouted.
The box was just about big enough for
two people to squeeze inside, but it seemed better than no cover at
all, so Edward followed the man through the narrow doorway…
… and into a vast golden cavern, in
the middle of which stood some kind of futuristic machine, glowing
from within with a blue-green light. Elegant crests of coral linked
the floor to the ceiling. The man slipped off his coat and flung it
casually onto a crook in one of the coral branches, dashing up a
metallic gangway to the unfathomable device in the centre.
‘Go on, then,’ said the man, as he
began to fiddle with buttons and levers on the machine. ‘Say it.’
‘Say what?’ asked Edward.
‘ “It’s bigger on the inside.”
It’s what everyone says when they first come in.’
‘It’s fantastic!’ said Edward.
‘What is it?’
The man turned around to face him, a
huge grin across his face. ‘It is fantastic, isn’t it?
It’s called the TARDIS. It stands for Time And Relative Dimension
In Space. It’s a sort of space-and-time-ship. It can take you
anywhere, and anywhen. Brilliant, isn’t it?’
‘It really is,’ said Edward. ‘Um…
am I allowed in here? I mean, I’m not really supposed to go with
strangers.’
‘Very good policy,’ said the man,
‘but this is a pretty unique situation, wouldn’t you agree?’
‘Yes, but… who are you?’
‘I’m called the Doctor. What about
you?’
‘Edward. Edward Thompson.’
‘Edward! Ed. Ted. Eddy-boy! Pleased
to meet you!’ The Doctor dashed forward and shook his hand
vigorously. ‘Now, before you ask, that thing outside is a
Normanite. It’s from the planet Norman. Yes, it’s a ridiculous
name, but it means something thoroughly grand and impressive in
Normanish, I’m sure.’
‘What does it want?’ asked Edward,
although he was sure he knew the answer already.
‘Same thing as me,’ said the
Doctor, once more attending the strange central machine. ‘I’m
looking for something very valuable. It has to be around here
somewhere – I’ve been tracing it, tracking it across the Galaxy.
I’ve been to Valuensis, Lonsys, Magathoria, Viltvodle Six,
Baragwin… spent three weeks stuck in the Great Fellasorian Republic
on Mannaton Three, after I took a wrong turn in the Sylvannic Wastes…
got locked up for a month on Slarn, and totally lost the blooming
thing. Finally got another trace on it, and where did it finally
land? Only Earth! Can you believe that? Of all the places, on all the
planets, in all the star systems, it lands in England!’ He finally
stopped to take a breath. ‘Not entirely sure where, though, but it
can’t be far. In fact, I think I’ve got its location traced…
very strong signal… incredibly strong! In fact… it’s in here!’
The Doctor spun round to face Edward.
‘It’s in your backpack, isn’t it?’
Sheepishly, Edward removed the bag from
his shoulders, and fished out the orb, still glowing gently.
‘Where did you find that? said the
Doctor.
‘It landed in my garden.’
‘And you had to go and pick it up!
Honestly, humans, have to go and have a poke… still, can’t whinge
really, I’m the same. But, I’m afraid I’d better take that
right now.’ The Doctor held out his hand, expectantly.
‘What is it?’ asked Edward, handing
it over, a little reluctantly.
‘Only the most powerful object in
this Galactic Cluster. That, Eddy-boy, is the planet Amarella.’
‘How can that be a planet?’ asked
Edward, confused. ‘It’s tiny.’
‘Well, so’s the TARDIS on the
outside. But it’s just huge on the inside. Amarella’s sort of the
same.’ The Doctor sat down in front of Edward cross-legged. ‘You
see, the Amarellans are an incredibly advanced race. About a million
years ago, they developed psychokinetic abilities unparalleled in
this Universe since the Carrionites and Hervoken wiped each other out
in the Dark Times. It was practically magic – as close as you can
get to magic in the real world, in any case. Of course, all the other
species in the Galaxies wanted this for themselves. So to stop
everyone trying to invade them, the Amarellans shrunk their planet
down to the size of a tennis ball, enclosed in a protective sphere,
trapped a baby sun inside to keep them warm and suntanned, and set it
shooting off around the Universe. Clever, eh?’
‘So, what do you want it for? Are you
after the power too?’
‘Me? Power! Nah, I’m just trying to
keep it safe. After it swung back round into this Galaxy, I knew
someone would get wind of it. Sure enough, the Normanites got a whiff
of its power trail and set off after it. Found it had landed here
just about the same time I did, it seems. Fortunately, you found it
before them. I shudder to think what they could be capable of with
that kind of power. Right bunch of thugs, the Normanites. They
invaded Trion once, went around smacking the Trions with half-bricks
in socks. Anyway,’ he took another deep breath, ‘I’ve got it
now. Just need to get it back into the intergalactic void and away
from trouble. Then I can nip back and send the Normanites packing.’
The Doctor leaped up, returning to the
bank of machinery at the centre of his ship. ‘All I need to do…’
he said, flicking a series of switches, ‘… is dematerialise, and
rematerialise somewhere between the Andromeda and Triangulum. Should
be plenty far enough.’ The glowing object in the dead centre of the
ship began to rise and fall, a noise like a warped trumpet rising
from the depths. The movement stopped with a sudden clunk.
‘Now, wait a minute…’ said the
Doctor, under his breath. ‘This isn’t right…’
‘What’s wrong?’ asked Edward, a
bit worried about the idea of an alien spaceship going wrong with him
in it.
‘Oh, nothing, nothing,’ said the
Doctor, as he frantically pressed levers and twiddled with buttons.
‘Come on, old girl, what’s wrong?’
‘Doctor,’ said Edward, getting a
mite panicky, ‘what is wrong?’
‘We’ve materialised on a planet,’
said the Doctor, straightening and sweeping his hair back. ‘A
planet where there shouldn’t be a planet. And now the TARDIS is
refusing to leave. Something is keeping her here, and I don’t
understand what…’
He grabbed hold of a computer screen
that protruded from the central machinery, swivelling it round to
face him.
‘That’s impossible…’
‘WHAT?’ shouted Edward, and you
couldn’t really blame him.
‘The planet we’ve landed on,’
said the Doctor, looking surprised, and a little dumbfounded, ‘is
Amarella.’
‘But, that’s the planet you’re
holding!’
‘Yeah, that’s right. So, the TARDIS
is on Amarella, and Amarella is in the TARDIS.’ He broke into a
huge grin. ‘Brilliant! Only, a bit of a problem really. No wonder
we can’t take off – infinite recursion. A’s inside B but B’s
inside A… we’re stuck in a loop. The Amarellans final trick…
it’s a space-time trap.’
To be continued…
