"So," The Doctor announced as we stepped outside of the box onto the deck of a space ship. "Welcome to the 22nd Century!"

It looked as if we were in a hangar, surrounded by other ships, except they actually looked like ships, unlike the TARDIS. Deciding not to question the exterior, guessing it must have been some sort of cloaking technique, I gazed around, admiring all the different ships.

"That one looks like the Millenium Falcon!" I pointed out, gesturing to a ship in the far corner, right by a window spanning the length of the entire wall.

Running over, I noticed the window showed the whole galaxy, or, at least, my whole galaxy. Right in the distance there was earth, the moon next to it, and all the rest of the solar system, except for one.

"Wait, where's Pluto?" I frowned.

"In the year 2047 it was destroyed for fuel purposes, government officials decided it was worth sacrificing since it put an end to the debate of whether it was a planet or not," the Doctor explained, his tone purely derogatory.

"But that's not fair!"

"Welcome to the human race!" He exclaimed. "Humans use up all resources and then go and destroy a planet just for more, just because they can! I didn't bring you here for us to just debate politics though, no, this is Shuttle Five-Hundred, the first ever ship to attempt to make a passenger flight into full orbit,"

He began to lead us out of the hangar and into the main shuttle. A we went through the doors, we were in a corridor, the block being entirely metal, though it looked like the decorator had tried to distract from that, the floor being carpeted bright red as if it was a film carpet, and the walls papered in decadent patterns. In my eye, it all looked a bit garish, the true beauty being outside of the windows that rand down the walls, each one displaying a different view of the solar system.

"A bit decadent this isn't it?" I voiced my opinion, raising an eyebrow. "Who are the passengers? Probably a bunch of old rich folk, right? This is definitely the sort of stuff they'd buy in for just to boast to their other rich friends,"

"That'd make sense, good guess but nope," the Doctor shook his head, pointing down the very end of the corridor, where there was a long line of people being lead into a room. "Test subjects, not sure what for. You see, both of us get something new today! You, a new world, me, the feeling of the unknown! Great, isn't it!"

"Thought you were meant to be my guide, not much use if you don't know yourself," I pointed out sarcastically, elbowing him slightly.

We were both so caught up in our own jibes that we failed to notice someone approach. A man, a human man, dressed in a labcoat, followed by two armed guards. Instantly I felt intimidated; meeting my first human from the future!

"And you are?" his instant snarl at us both left me feeling disappointed but no less intimidated, until I noticed he was purely addressing the Doctor; then I just felt annoyed.

"I'm the Doctor," he introduced himself, pulling out a black slip of paper from his pocket, displaying it to the man confidently, a small smirk on his face. "I was invited here by the London Board of Science, and this is..."

"Yes, yes we know full-well who this is!" the man snapped, grabbing hold of my wrist. "You were told in briefing not to wander away or bother the guests, especially the important ones!"

"No, she's with me," the Doctor interrupted, frowning.

The man simply laughed. "Oh please, I know our subjects are pretty but you can't just claim them as your own, that's for us to do!"

"Oi," I spoke up, glaring at him, feeling oppressed and objectified by the way he was talking about me. "I am here, you know, and you don't own me!"

"Now no need for any of that talk, just come with us, there's a good girl!" I felt him grab at my wrist, pulling me away from the Doctor, who I looked at anxiously. Before he could do or say anything, the two gunned guards stepped in his way, leaving me as their victim; five minutes in a new world and I'd already been abducted. "Now, don't worry, you can be reunited with your gentleman friend at the afterparty!"

Unable to do anything but go along with it, I turned back to the Doctor as they pulled me down the corridor, shooting him a nervous look, which he returned with an anxious shrug. If he didn't know what was going on here I certainly didn't, so instead of feeling the safety of finding out together, I was ripped away from him, left to discover the truths of this new world alone.

I was led down a corridor, trying not to let on to my captors about my nerves, despite my heart pounding within my chest. They stopped, halting by a metal door, and the lab-coated man placed his hand on a sensor. The door slid open, leaving me dumbfounded, my mouth open in shock and amazement.

"That's amazing! Just like the Millennium Falcon too!" I gasped out, thinking of the ship from earlier, losing my worry momentarily, though a glance at the three unimpressed men brought it back not that I was going to let it show. "What? You losers in this century never heard of Star Wars?"

"Get back in there, and for god's sake put the uniform on!" the man snapped, ignoring my 'loser' comment, pointing furiously into the room.

I smirked sarcastically, rolling my eyes, though I did as he said. It was that moment I decided that no matter the danger surrounding the situation, I wasn't going to give them the pleasure of seeing the fear it was inflicting on me. What were they going to do to me that could possibly be worse than anything else I'd ever felt? Nope, I was definitely going to keep the upper hand by not revealing anything but snark.

As soon as I was in the room, I was stopped by another man in a lab coat. This man grabbed my arm, the arm that was still bandaged up and throbbing, his harsh grip on me making me hiss in pain. Ignoring it, he proceeded to shove a needle in my arm, surging the anxiety within me. I closed my eyes, forcing in a deep breath to fight the urge to freak out. I hated needles, and I hated people injecting me with them, especially when they don't ask first. A few seconds later, he withdrew, and I saw the needle contained a full sample of blood. He slapped a round plaster onto the hole he'd made on my arm, being the furthest thing from gentle, before grinning at me maliciously and shoving me further into the room.

Holding my now numb arm, I looked around the room with a frown to see there was about ten other girls, all dressed in white jumpsuits, each with a number marked on them. The ten were all milling around the room, most of them stood by the window, gazing out into space, one laid down on one of the plush sofas, another sat cross-legged on the floor across from someone who was obviously a friend, playing a card game, whilst the last was looking round the room eagerly, as if wanting to desperately make friends. As soon as they heard my entrance, they all turned around and glared, except for the lone one.

"Great, another one," the sofa girl muttered with hate in her tone. "Less attention for me,"

"Chill out, mate," I mumbled under my breath, before looking up at the other girls. "Sorry, I'm a bit new to this whole thing, latecomer and everything... any of you know what all this is about?"

The whole room fell into laughter, making my face blush red and my face slip into a frown. What I'd said was nothing but a joke to them, except it was an honest question. It felt like I was back in my history classroom and my teacher was laughing at me for getting another date wrong. The awful feeling of being an outcast was back, although I was already used to the feeling, so I decided to shrug it off, as if I was truly back at school, wandering over to the deserted food table, spying the big plate of chips.

That suddenly reminded me; Karrie had mentioned having chips for tea that night. That night I was walking home, which was now over a hundred years ago. I couldn't help but feel instantly terrible, thinking of Karrie getting the chippy tea ready whilst I was off gallivanting around the universe. With a time machine, it didn't matter where I went or for how long, but still, it hurt just a little to think of her so far away.

I didn't know why I suddenly cared. She was my foster mum, normally so restrictive. She'd have a fit just at the prospect of someone like the Doctor, nevermind me travelling with him. She hated sci-fi, she never even let me watch film of that genre when she was around. Jay was the opposite, he loved films and shows like that, but even he would hate this. The danger I was in... if only they could have seen me.

The rebellion against them made me feel guilty, but it was also exciting, and so thrilling. They should be happy for me, getting this opportunity. They should see it as an early gap year, except I'd be home in time for tea.

"I've never eaten those things before, they're so bad for you!" a shrill voice broke me away from my thoughts, making me internally sigh.

I looked up to see the lone girl from earlier, the only one who hadn't glared at me. She was tall and skinny as a twig, with long, chestnut brown hair with deep-set brown eyes. Her pale, freckled complexion suited her delicate face, and instantly I felt intimidated. I was just as tall, sure, but a bit bigger than her, my thighs and upper arms carrying more weight than any part of her seemed to be. Her hair was styled so nicely into a high ponytail, whilst my short, sandy ginger hair was tied into two plaits, the same plaits they'd been in for the past two days; I'd just not had enough time to take them out or do anything else.

The girl in front of me was a typical pretty girl, the sort that would be popular, and probably laugh at me at school. Even a hundred years into the future, and I was still being intimidated by other girls.

"Yeah, they are, you only live once though, right?" I shrugged, throwing a few into my mouth, trying to appear carefree.

"That's such an old saying, God, I think my grandma used to say that and she was born last century!" she giggled, her laugh being just as annoying as her voice and her gorgeous appearance. "If it makes you feel better, I don't know what we're doing here either, none of us do! That's what so fun about this all! We get to go up into space and get paid for it, just for one blood sample, how cool is it! I'm Kadey, by the way,"

"Laura," I muttered, already bored of her, especially how stupid she seemed when it came to our purpose; surely it should worry her, why she was here?

"Come on, you need to get the uniform on! You're the only one without it!" she exclaimed, grabbing the plate of chips from my grip, placing it back down on the table, pulling me along with her to what looked like a bathroom.

The bathroom was pretty basic: a few cubicles, a couple of sinks and clothes pegs, one of which had the last outfit hanging up on it. As I slipped out of my own clothes in the cubicle, folding my jumper, shirt and trousers carefully into a little pile, I realised the jumpsuit had no pockets, which led to the problem of where to put my phone. As I flicked it open, it flashed up saying 'no signal', making me snort out a laugh. I pushed it into the cup of my bra, stepping out of the cubicle to hear the noise of a siren.

"Come on!" Kadey squealed, grabbing my hand, pulling me back to the main area, where the rest of the girls were lined up by the door.

I initially felt my stomach flip in nerves, but then I remembered that wherever we were being taken the Doctor was probably going to be there too. I'd met him mere hours ago, but the act of him saving my life left me in a position of ultimate trust for him already, as reckless as that was. If he was going to be there, I knew the situation couldn't be too bad.

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Word count: 2203

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