━━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━━
STARSHIP UK
━━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━━

Hollie stared in awe and laughed as Amy's hair started to fan out on its own in space. Her best friend was currently floating outside the TARDIS, only kept in the area of the space ship by the Doctor who held her there by her ankle.

"Come on, Pond." The Doctor pulled her back in. Hollie laughed as Amy did.

"Now do you believe me?" He asked.

"Okay, your box is a spaceship." She nodded. "It's really, really a spaceship. We are in space!" She laughed. "What are we breathing?"

"I've extended the air shell." The Doctor waved an arm. "We're fine."

Hollie looked out of the ship and smiled before she frowned seeing a large looking like a ship come into view. "Doctor, what's that?"

"Now that's interesting." He hummed. "Twenty-ninth century. Solar flares roast the earth, and the entire human race packs its bags and moves out till the weather improves. Whole nations."

The Doctor and Amy headed to the console and looked at the Doctors scanner to get a better look. Hollie yelped when she lost her grip while learning out of the TARDIS and fell out, slowly floating.

"Doctor?" She called.

"Migrating to the stars." He told Amy.

"Doctor?"

"Isn't that amazing?"

Hollie huffed before shouting louder. "Doctor, help!"

The Doctor walked over to the doors and poked his head out before he frowned. "Come on, Holls. I've found us a spaceship. This is the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland." He pulled her back into the TARDIS. "All of it bolted together and floating in the sky. Starship UK. It's Britain, but metal." He headed towards the console where Amy was still watching on the scanner. "That's not just a ship, that's an idea. That's a whole country, living and laughing and shopping. Searching the stars for a new home."

"Can we go out and see?" Amy asked.

"Course we can." He nodded. "But first, there's a thing."

"A thing?" Amy and Hollie looked at him.

"An important thing." He nodded. "In fact, Thing One. We are observers only." He explained. "That's the one rule I've always stuck to in all my travels. I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets." Hollie frowned, that wasn't at all how she imagined. "Ooo, that's interesting." He commented after flicking the scanner.

"So we're like a wildlife documentary, yeah?" Amy asked. "Because if they see a wounded little cub or something, they can't just save it, they've got to keep filming and let it die." Hollie frowned at the image of a little girl crying. "It's got to be hard. I don't think I could do that." Amy shook her head. "Don't you find that hard, being all, like, detached and cold?"

Hollie frowned at the image of the Doctor walking towards the crying girl. "That's-"

"Doctor?" Amy looked at the open doors of the TARDIS. The Time Lord smiled and waved them over as the girl ran off.

Amy and Hollie both laughed and headed out of the TARDIS, they stopped and took in the busy market that was in front of them.

"Welcome to London Market." A voice said over a tannoy. "You are being monitored."

"We're in the future." Amy looked at her best friend. "Like hundreds of years in the future."

Hollie laughed and nodded her head in agreement. "And I've been dead for centuries."

Hollie giggled louder and the Doctor sighed. "Oh, lovely. You're a cheery one." He pointed at the ginger. "Never mind dead, look at this place. Isn't it wrong?"

"What's wrong?"

"Come on, use your eyes." He looked at them. "Notice everything. What's wrong with this picture?"

Hollie frowned and slowly nodded. Something did seem unusual.

"Is it the bicycles?" Amy asked, seeing a man ride past. "Bit unusual on a spaceship, bicycles."

"Says the girl in the nightie." The Doctor pointed out.

Amys' eyes widened as she looked down. "Oh my God, I'm in my nightie."

Hollie laughed out loud again before her hand brushed against the fuzzy dressing gown. Her cheeks grew dark and she quickly hugged herself. "And I'm in my dressing gown." She announced.

The Doctor grinned and grabbed the blonde's hand, dragging her down the street. Amy followed behind. "Now, come on, look around you. Actually look."

"London Market is a crime-free zone." The voice on the tannoy announced.

"Life on a giant starship. Back to basics. Bicycles, washing lines, wind-up street lamps. But look closer. Secrets and shadows, lives led in fear. Society bent out of shape, on the brink of collapse. A police state."

Hollie frowned and watched as the Doctor picked up a pint glass off of a table. "Excuse me."

"What are you doing?" The man asked.

The Doctor placed it on the floor and kneeled down. Staring at it with intent. Hollies eyes widened as she realised what the strange alien was doing.

"But that-"

The Doctor jumped up and covered the blonde's mouth with his hand. She quickly jumped back, her eyes the sizes of large marbles.

"Exactly." He then picked up the glass and returned it to the table. "Sorry. Checking all the water in this area. There's an escaped fish. Where was I?"

"Why did you just do that with the water?" Amy asked, crossing her arms.

"Don't know." He shrugged. "I think a lot. It's hard to keep track. Now, police state. Do you see it yet?"

"Where?"

"There." He pointed at the girl sat alone quietly crying.

The two friends watched as the Doctor repeatedly walked up to the crying girl a moment before she ran away. They decided to settle for a red metal bench as the Doctor kept following the girl for ten minutes or so before giving up and joining them on the bench.

"One little girl crying. So?" Amy frowned.

"Crying silently. I mean, children cry because they want attention because they're hurt or afraid. But when they cry silently, it's because they just can't stop. Any parent knows that."

Hollie frowned while Amy asked the question on both of their minds: "Are you a parent?"

The Doctor looked out to the people passing by the market. "Hundreds of parents walking past who spot her and not one of them's asking her what's wrong, which means they already know, and it's something they don't talk about. Secrets." He explained ignoring Amy's question.

Hollie continued to frown. Is he really that old?

"They're not helping her, so it's something they're afraid of. Shadows, whatever they're afraid of, it's nowhere to be seen, which means it's everywhere. Police state."

Amy looked across to where the girl was sitting, or rather where she had been sitting. "Where'd she go?"

"Deck two oh seven." The Doctor read off a small colourful wallet "Apple Sesame block, dwelling 54A. You're looking for Mandy Tanner. Oh, er, this fell out of her pocket when I accidentally bumped into her. Took me four goes." He chuckled. "Ask her about those things. The smiling fellows in the booths. They're everywhere." He nodded at one of the booths with a creepy face smiling at them as he handed Amy the wallet.

"Why would we ask about them they're just things?" Hollie asked.

"They're clean." He shrugged. "Everything else here is all battered and filthy. Look at this place. But no one's laid a finger on those booths. Not a footprint within two feet of them. So Amy's going to ask Mandy, why are people scared of the things in the booths."

"Wait Amy's asking?"

"Well, I need you here with me Holls."

"Me?" She frowned.

"No, hang on." Amy cut in. "What do I do? I don't know what I'm doing here and I'm not even dressed."

"It's this or Leadworth. What do you think? Let's see. What will Amy Pond choose?" He stared at Amy who blinked. "Haha, gotcha. Meet us back here in half an hour."

"What are you going to do?"

"What I always do. Stay out of trouble." He pointed at Hollie. "Look, Hollie's helping me."

"So is this how it works, Doctor?" Amy crossed her arms. "You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying?"

"Yes." The Doctor agreed. "Come on Holls."

Hollie rolled her eyes and followed the Time Lord while Amy sighed and headed in the opposite direction.

---

Hollie frowned as she followed the Doctor down a ladder, he hadn't said a word since Amy had followed Mandy. As soon as he got off the ladder he headed towards one of the walls and lightly touched it. "Can't be."

Hollie followed him down. "This the engine room right?" She questioned

"Mhm." He hummed pulling out his sonic screwdriver he started to scan the walls.

"Then why-" she began only to lightly tap the Doctor when she spotted a glass if water on the floor.

"Oh?" He returned his screwdriver to his pocket as a woman in a robe stepped out of the shadows of the dark engine room.

"The impossible truth in a glass of water." She stated, a mask covering her face causing Hollie to frown. "Not many people see it. But you two do, don't you, Doctor, Hollie?"

"You know me?" He blinked then held up a hand. "Wait, even better question: you know Hollie?"

The blondes frown deepened as the woman hushed them: "Keep your voice down. They're everywhere. Tell me what do you see in the glass."

"Who says I see anything?" He crossed his arms.

"Don't waste time. At the marketplace, you placed a glass of water on the floor, looked at it with Hollie then came straight here to the engine room. Why?"

Hollie shrugged. "The glass didn't move."

"And why is that?" The woman questioned.

"No engine vibration on deck." The Doctor cut in. "Ship this size, engine this big, you'd feel it. The water would move. So, I thought we'd take a look. It doesn't make sense." He opened one of the small boxes and pointed at the wires. "These power couplings, they're not connected. Look. Look, they're dummies, see?" He held them up for a moment before dropping them. "And behind this wall," he knocked on it, "nothing. It's hollow. If I didn't know better, I'd say there was... "no engine at all." The Doctor and the woman said together.

"But it's working though." Hollie looked at the Doctor. "The ship is travelling through space, we saw it."

"The impossible truth, Hollie. We're travelling among the stars in a spaceship that could never fly."

"How though?"

"I don't know." She shrugged "There's a darkness at the heart of this nation. It threatens every one of us." She looked at the Time Lord. "Help us, Doctor. You're our only hope. Hollie your friend is safe. This will take you to her. Now go, quickly!"

Hollie frowned at the mention of Amy while the robed woman handed the Doctor a small device.

"Who are you?" The Doctor asked. "How do I find you again?"

The woman turned to them before she left. "I am Liz Ten, and I will find you."

They watched her go and Hollie blinked. "We need to find Amy." The Doctor announced grabbing Hollie's hand and pulling her away.

"Is Amy okay?" Hollie asked the Doctor as climbed the ladder before he grabbed her hand again and dragged her down multiple corridors that all looked the same. The Doctor stopped for a moment and checked the tracker he was given and sighed as the yellow light blinked to signal that they were getting closer. "Is she Doctor?"

"What?" He blinked before he showed her the device. "The tracker says she is here."

"Where is 'here'?"

The Doctor frowned and pointed at her. "Good question." He headed further down the corridor and poked his head around the wall of another. "Voting station'." He muttered reading a sign hanging from the ceiling. "Why is she here."

"Doctor?" Hollie frowned spotting the girl Amy was following, sat down on a chair near one of the booth doors.

The Time Lord headed over and smiled at the girl. "Mandy!" He ran towards her. "What's going on, where's Amy?"

"In there." Mandy pointed to one of the doors. The Doctor bought out hid screwdriver and flashed it at the door. The door then opened and they watched as Amy stared at another Amy on a large screen.

"Listen to me. This isn't a trick. This is for real." The Amy on the screen cried.

"Amy?" The Doctor carefully questioned.

"You've got to find the Doctor and-" Amy quickly scrambled to the controls and ended the recording.

"What have you done?" The Doctor asked.

Amy stared at her friends and shrugged. She looked at the blank screen and swallowed "I'm not sure."

Hollie entered the room after the Doctor and watched as the man in the tweed jacket pulled a chair from the large computer and stood on it, scanning the light bulb hanging from the ceiling. "Yeah, your basic memory wipe job." He hummed checking the readings on his screwdriver. "Must have erased about twenty minutes."

Hollie stepped towards the computer and frowned, pointing at the two buttons on either side of the controls. 'FORGET' labelled one while 'PROTEST' sat underneath the other.

The Time Lord stepped down from the chair and walked over to the blonde and they both looked at Amy. "You chose to forget."

Amy frowned. "But why would I choose to forget?"

"Because everyone does." Mandy spoke up from the door. "Everyone chooses the Forget button." She shrugged.

"Did you?" The Doctor asked.

"I'm not eligible to vote yet." She replied with a frown. "I'm twelve. Any time after you're sixteen, you're allowed to see the film and make your choice. And then once every five years."

"And once every five years, everyone chooses to forget what they've learned." He scoffed slightly. "Democracy in action."

"How do you not know about this?" He asked. "Are you guys Scottish too?"

The Doctor chuckled. "Hollie's English but me? I'm way worse than Scottish. I can't even see the movie." He shrugged after trying a button on the panel. "Won't play for me."

"It played for me." Amy looked up at him.

"The difference being the computer doesn't accept me as human." He replied.

"Why not?" Amy asked. "You look human."

"No, you look Time Lord." He countered. "We came first."

Hollie snorted while Amy looked at the Doctor. "So there are other Time Lords, yeah?"

"No." The Doctor slowly shook his head. "There were, but there aren't. Just me now. Long story." He waved an arm. "There was a bad day. Bad stuff happened. And you know what? I'd love to forget it all, every last bit of it, but I don't. Not ever. Because this is what I do, every time, every day, every second. This." He grabbed Hollie's hand, making her jump slightly. "Hold tight. We're bringing down the government." He slammed his free hand on the 'Protest' button and the door slammed shut locking them in and Mandy out.

The Smiler in the booth inside the room slowly turned around to reveal another face, much grumpier than the last, scowling at the three. Hollie swallowed hard as the floor under their feet began to move while the Doctor laughed and grabbed the humans hands. "Say wheee!" He exclaimed while Amy and Hollie screamed.

The Doctor, Hollie and Amy all fell into a sort of funnel as the floor completely disappeared before they were in a chute.

Hollie screamed as she landed in a large, dark and very smelly cave looking area. "Ugh." She groaned as she went to stand up, placing her hand into what was sticky gunk with different pieces of food material. She yelped as she was pushed forward into the waste as the Doctor fell into the cave. "Sorry." He apologised and stood up, helping the blonde before they jumped out of the way as Amy fell in. "High-speed air cannon." He grimaced. "Lousy way to travel."

"Where are we?" Amy asked standing up.

"Six hundred feet down, twenty miles laterally, puts us at the heart of the ship." The Doctor frowned. "I'd say Lancashire. What's this then, a cave? Can't be a cave. Looks like a cave."

Hollie shook her head and wiped her hands before holding her nose to try and block out the smell. " It's a rubbish dump," Amy stood up and wiped her hands on her clothes. "And it's minging!"

"Yes, but only food refuse." The Doctor leaned down and picked up some of the slimy leftover food. "Organic, coming through feeder tubes from all over the ship."

"The floor's all squidgy," Amy muttered, lightly bouncing, "like a water bed."

"But feeding what, though?" He asked.

Hollie shivered. "It feels rubbery." She gagged. "Wet and slimy, ugh that's gross."

The three froze as what sounded like a large animal roaring echoed, making the whole cave vibrate.

"Er, it's not a floor, it's a..." He swallowed. "So..."

"It's a what?" Amy asked.

"Oh god." Hollie gasped understanding what was going on. "No!"

The Doctor slowly nodded at the blonde and then turned his attention to the ginger. "Amy... The next word is kind of a scary word." He took her hands. "You probably want to take a moment, get yourself in a calm place. Go omm."

Amy nodded and did as he said. "Omm."

Hollie winced as the Doctor told Amy what was going on. "It's a tongue."

Amy's eyes practically popped out of her head at his words. "A tongue?"

"A tongue." He nodded. "A great big tongue."

Amy stared at the Time Lord. "This is a mouth. This whole place is a mouth? We're in a mouth!" She shouted.

"Yes, yes, yes." The Doctor nodded. "But on the plus side, roomy."

Hollie frowned and looked at her friend as she spoke up: "How do we get out?"

"How big is this beastie?" He grinned, ignoring Amy's question. "It's gorgeous. Blimey, if this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach." The animal grumbled and the Doctors eyes widened as the ginger and the blondes eyes snapped to the Time Lord. "Though not right now."

Hollie sighed. "Doctor, how do we get out?"

"Okay," he nodded. "It's being fed through surgically implanted feeder tubes, so the normal entrance is closed for business..." They all turned towards the entrance of the mouth where a wall of teeth was snapped shut.

"We could try, though." Amy shrugged and went to step forward. The Doctors eyes widened and he held out his hands. "No, stop, don't move-" He froze as Amy placed a foot down and a rumble erupted from what seemed to be the stomach of the animal/

"Too late." The Doctor muttered. "It's started".

"What has?"

"Swallow reflex." He answered before getting his sonic screwdriver out. Hollie frowned as he waved it around in the air and activated it. "Doctor, what are you doing?"

"I'm vibrating the chemo-receptors." He explained

"The what receptors?" She repeated.

The Doctor huffed. "The eject button!"

"How does a mouth have an eject button?" Amy asked.

Hollie's eyes widened. "Remember when we went out drinking that one time Amy and because of that night I cannot taste gin ever again?"

"Yeah."

"What happened that night?"

"Well, you drank a lot of gin before throwing- oh."

"Yeah," Hollie whispered. "Oh."

The Doctor nodded and straightened his bowtie. "Right, then." He announced looking at the ginger and then the blonde. "This isn't going to be big on dignity." He explained before shouting: "Geronimo!" while Amy and Hollie screamed at the oncoming vomit wave.

---

Hollie groaned and gently rubbed her hand down her face as she woke up to an awful stench. "There's nothing broken," the Doctor called over, making the girl groan slightly at what sounded like a loud noise, "there's no sign of concussion and yes, you are both covered in sick."

Amy groaned and squeezed her eyes before she stood up and watched her friend do the same before she looked around. "Where are we?"

"Overspill pipe, at a guess." The Doctor shrugged.

Hollie gagged a moment after smelling herself. "It absolutely stinks!"

"Oh, that's not the pipe." The Doctor added.

"You're right about that." She muttered.

"Can we get out?" Amy asked.

"One door, one door switch, one condition." The Doctor explained eyeing the button labelled 'forget' by the door. "We forget everything we saw. Look familiar?"

"That's the carrot." He spun around before noticing the two smiler booths behind him as they lit up. "Ooo, here's the stick."

"I don't understand what they have to do with this place?" Hollie frowned. "What are they."

"Protecting whatever it is trying to stop us from finding out what is going on." He replied before looking back at the smilers. "There's a creature living in the heart of this ship. What's it doing there?"

The smilers turned around and the faces because very angry. " No, that's not going to work on me, so come on." He clapped his hands together. "Big old beast below decks, and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. That how it works?" The faces that were very much frowning before scowled at the Time Lord who rolled his eyes. "Oh, stop it. I'm not leaving and I'm not forgetting, and what are you fellows going to do about it? Stick out your tongues, huh?"

The booths then opened and the smilers stepped out. Hollie stepped back with Amy as the Doctors face fell. "What now?"

"Well-" the Doctor began only to stop as the woman with the mask, only she wasn't wearing the mask now stepped between the Doctor, Amy and Hollie before she shot the smilers.

"Look who it is." The Doctor nodded. "You look a lot better without your mask."

"You must be Amy." She looked at the ginger. "Liz. Liz Ten." The two shook hands and Liz grimaced at the squelch as she felt the sick on her skin.

"Hi."

"Yuck." She let go and shook her hand for a moment. "Lovely hair, Amy. Shame about the sick. You know Mandy, yeah?" She nodded at the girl who stepped into the room and waved. "She's very brave."

"How did you find us?" The Doctor asked.

"Stuck my gizmo on you." She tossed what could only be her tracking device to him. "Been listening in. Nice moves on the hurl escape. So, what's the big fella doing here?"

"You're over sixteen, you've voted. Whatever this is, you've chosen to forget about it."

"No. Never forgot, never voted, not technically a British subject."

"Then who and what are you, and how do you know me?"

"You're a bit hard to miss, love. Mysterious stranger, M O consistent with higher alien intelligence, hair of an idiot." Hollie and Amy snorted as the Doctors face fell. "I've been brought up on the stories. My whole family was."

"Your family?" The Doctor frowned following Liz as she walked over to the smilers.

"They're repairing. Doesn't take them long. Let's move." She headed out. "The Doctor. Old drinking buddy of Henry Twelve. Tea and scones with Liz Two." She rolled off. "Vicky was a bit on the fence about you, weren't she? Knighted and exiled you on the same day. And so much for the Virgin Queen, you bad, bad boy."

Hollie raised her brows at the Time Lord in slight shock. He was practically a child in an adults body, how could he of all people do that "Liz Ten." He noted.

The woman suddenly turned around holding her guns. "Liz Ten, yeah. Elizabeth the Tenth. And down!"

The Doctor quickly ducked, pulling Hollie and Amy with him, only seconds before Liz shot at the repaired smilers from before. "I'm the bloody Queen, mate. Basically, I rule."

Hollie and Amy both stared at Liz as she stared at the Doctor before she nodded and headed down a corridor, the Doctor quickly followed with the two humans behind him.