The Last Cybertron

Louise stared at the TV, not particularly taking much in from it, as the rain crashing against the window drowned out the sound. Another dull evening at home. The thought came to her as the air around her quickly became muggy. A storm must be brewing.

At the first flash of lightning and rumble of thunder the power cut out leaving the entire house in complete darkness; luckily, she always kept a torch by her favourite chair in the lounge in case of such emergencies.

“Great, just what I need!” Muttering to herself, she grabbed her torch from the side and slowly made her way to the fuse box guided by the dim beam of light stretching ahead of her.

She shone the torch at the fuse box, moving it along until she found the one pointing in the opposite direction to everything else. Strange, they are all fine. Closing the box in a huff, she made her way back towards the lounge when another flash of lightening momentarily revealed something to her in the darkness causing her to come to a halt. She moved closer to the window, keeping her eyes fixed on the same spot wondering if the object would reveal itself again.

“You’re being ridiculous Lou, there’s clearly nothing there.” Whispering to herself again, Louise started to back away from the window when once again the object shone underneath a bolt of light, seemingly for longer this time. Long enough for her to see that it was some sort of tall, box structure standing at the end of her front garden.

An overwhelming feeling to investigate came over her despite the small amount inside her that told her it’s best left until the morning. Who knows what that box could be or be hiding within itself?

“Definitely better left until daylight.” Louise took a couple of steps towards the front door, muttering to herself along the way. “Don’t go out there.” Another couple of steps. “Don’t do it.” Her hand reached for the door handle and gradually pulled it all the way down.

One more lightening bolt made the presence of something else known, well someone. Louise gripped the handle tighter and stared out the small window at the top of the door, squinting like it would make the blurry image clearer. She was sure she saw what appeared to be a figure digging up her lawn.

“Okay you really need to sleep.” Louise shook her head. “And stop talking to yourself, you, mad, mad woman.”

She pulled the door open and stared into the distance, as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She cautiously took a step outside. Definitely not going any further. Despite the thought entering her mind, Louise knew she had to find out why there was a figure in her garden, what he or she was doing and what on earth that box was, that stood beside them.

She stood at a safe distance in the event she needed to dash back inside to the safety of her house as she called out to the figure.

“What on Earth do you think you are doing?”

“Digging!” Said the man as he hurriedly shovelled soil from a hole in the ground.

“Stop it!” She shouted as she turned towards the house. “I’m calling the police.”

The man stopped digging and put the shovel on the ground before slowly making his way towards her. Louise took a couple of steps back to stand under the small roof that protruded from the top of the front door, sheltering herself even though the rain had pretty much stopped now.

A high-pitched buzz sounded from beside her before a small but powerful amount of light appeared from the inside of the lamp attached to the wall of the house illuminating the face that looked back at her.

“How did you do that?”

The man held a small, silver tool in front of her face before returning it to his inner jacket pocket. “Sonic screwdriver.”

“A what?”

“It’s a sonic screwdriver.”

“Which is?”

“Well it’s a screwdriver and it’s sonic.”

“Right.” Louise nodded as if that explained everything. “What were you doing digging up my garden?”

“Looking for something.”

“What exactly were you looking for?”

“That’s for me to worry about. You go back inside and do whatever it is that humans do this time of night; I’ll deal with that.” The man pointed behind him with his thumb towards the garden. He soon returned to digging the hole further.

Louise stood watching him, intrigued, when what he last said finally registered in her head.

“Sorry,” Louise waited for the man to look up, but he ignored her, continuing to dig. “But you said humans, like, you aren’t one.” She laughed lightly, realising she sounded crazy. It’s not like aliens really exist, is it?

“That’s because I’m not.”

Louise didn’t have time to ask what he meant by that from the sound of the shovel on metal, and although her brain screamed internally to not, she had to look down and see what it was he had found; what it was he had been searching for.

“What is that?” Louise continued to peer down, squinting in the hope it would eventually become clearer.

“I thought I told you to go inside!” The man moved past her and held the small silver device towards the street lamp not far from her house, giving some light to her garden; most of all to the metal object sticking out of the hole.

“I’m not going anywhere when you’ve been digging my garden up without permission.” Louise crossed her arms and lent on one leg, keeping her gaze tight on the man.

He sighed. "Fine! You’d think I’d be used to you humans not listening to me by now; thinking you know better.”

“Stop saying humans like you aren’t one!”

Louise moved closer to him when a bright blue light appeared from the hole. The light moved left to right and back, continuously, like it was scanning for something. “Uh…” Louise paused realising she had no idea what to call the stranger.

The man turned slowly at her soft murmur, and upon seeing the blue light ran over, silver tool still in hand. He took some black glasses from his pocket and placed them on his nose before laying down on the ground in front of the metal object.

Though there was a little voice in the back of her mind telling her she should go in her house because this was clearly all a mad dream she would wake up from soon, Louise felt the urge to follow and see what he was up to. Even if it is a dream, may as well see it through to the end.

As the man laid there, moving his silver tool, a sonic screwdriver he had called it, whatever that was, along the lit-up slot, Louise felt herself drawn to the box beside them. With the street lamp working she could finally make out that it was blue and wooden. 

“TARDIS.”

Louise whipped her head around to the man still laid on the ground, no doubt his pin-striped suit was soaked all the way through now. “What?”

“That box is called the TARDIS.”

“What’s a TARDIS?”

The man ignored her and continued to hold the screwdriver against the slot until the light in it faded to black. Returning to a standing position he faced her as he took a small key from his jacket pocket attached to a length of string.

“Well, nice to meet you, what was your name again?” The man spoke as he walked towards the blue box.

“Louise.” She replied, wondering what the hell was going on right now; if she was simply going mad, or if this was all really happening right now.

“Nice to meet you Louise. Now, I must go.”

The man started to unlock the door when Louise laughed. “Hang on, you’re just going to leave that hole in the ground with that,” she paused to point behind her, “That thing, sticking out of my garden.”

“Well, um, yes, yes I am.” He opened the door and took a step inside before turning back to face her. “I’m The Doctor by the way.” He gave her a massive smile before saluting with one finger and disappearing inside the blue box.

Louise shook her head wondering why she was even considering following him inside that thing. After all it was a small wooden box, only capable of fitting one person, surely?

She took a moment to shut her front door and wrapping her favourite, pink and grey striped cardigan around her, made her way back to the box. She stood there knowing she shouldn’t follow this mysterious, and handsome (a thought she tried to keep out of her head) stranger, but also for some reason knew deep down she had to. She had to figure out who he was and what exactly he was doing here.

A loud mechanical whirring drew Louise from her thoughts as a bright, white light continually faded and came into focus again at the top of the blue box. It’s now or never. The thought entering her mind, gave Louise the only reason she needed to do what she did next.

With a smile on her face, she opened the door and stepped inside just seconds before the blue box disappeared from view completely.