Silent Travels

Prologue: The Child of Earth & Moonlight.

. . .

"Doctor!" Rose Tyler shouted as she ran down the dimly lit hallway, looking over her to see no one behind her. Where was the Doctor? That thing couldn't have gotten him could it?

Just as she was turning her head around to face forward, a familiar hand clamped down over her mouth, and a muffled shriek of surprise was heard before she slapped the leather clad arm away.

"Where were you?" She whisper-shouted to him as soon as his hand was away from her mouth.

"Nowhere, just got a bit side-tracked… and had a very interesting conversation…" The Ninth Doctor said, brow furrowing for an instant; but before Rose could ask who he had been talking to, a loud bang like an explosion accompanied by a hissing noise sounded behind them, and grabbing her arm, the Doctor pulled her along the corridor, turning left and right as if he knew exactly where he was going.

"Doctor, what does that Smith-thing want?"

"The Child of Earth and Moonlight." The Doctor stated impatiently, as he pulled her down another corridor. This one had many doors, with windows on the sides revealing large rooms, only lit by the red emergency lights. In all the rooms, unconscious patients and doctors alike lay slumped about where they had been standing or sitting.

"And, what does that mean?" Rose demanded as they stopped outside two glass double doors, and then she looked inside and gasped. Inside, rows of small medical beds were arranged, with monitors of all sorts beeping quietly around them. Dozens of nurses and visiting parents slept peacefully, strewn about on the floor. On the medical cots, hooked up to monitors and other equipment, tiny human babies slept.

"Oh, no. No! That thing is NOT getting its hands or whatever it has on a baby!" Rose declared angrily as the Doctor pushed open the doors and quickly but carefully made his way over to a small cot in the corner of the room. Rose followed him, picking her way carefully between the cots and stepping over the sleeping people on the floor.

"Isabella Swan." The Doctor said with a small smile just as Rose reached his side.

"Huh? Who's that?" Rose asked, and then she looked down at the cot, where a sleeping baby lay. The baby's skin was oddly pale—most newborns' skin had a reddish shade to it, because you could see the blood that pumped just beneath the surface; at least, that's what Rose assumed from the pictures she had been showed of her mum's friend's daughter, who had been born premature—and there was a shocking amount of brown hair on its head already.

On a nametag near the baby's feet, was the name Isabella Marie Swan.

"Doctor, what's so special about her? Do you know her?" Rose asked, unable to contain her curiosity.

But the Doctor just smiled her favorite crooked smile. "Not yet, but I will," He said mysteriously, hands reaching out to gently cradle the tiny sleeping form in his arms.

Rose just looked on in wonder and bewilderment.

Just then another loud explosion could be heard, and the hissing noise seemed to be getting closer, so close that the one hiss heard before, now diverged into three separate primal warnings. Thick grey smoke poured into the end of the hallway nearest the room the Doctor and Rose were in.

The Doctor cursed quietly in a language unintelligible to Rose.

"Where is she? She said she'd bring it here!" The Doctor said loudly, casting about the room frantically. "Where is she?" He shouted again, getting frustrated and worried.

"Where's who? Bring what?" Rose asked, mystified, but her query went unheard.

Just then there was a loud, reverberating wheezing sound—like a cross between a leaf blower and a vacuum cleaner; the Doctor's face cleared of his earlier apprehension, while Rose's just became even more confused at the unexpected noise.

Next to them a blue, 1960's police box slowly materialized out of thin air, the light on top shining brightly with each whir.

"Quick! Get in!" The Doctor shouted, cradling the infant in one arm and unlocking the TARDIS with the other, before grabbing Rose by the sleeve of her shirt and pushing her inside.

Turning, he glanced back to see smoke pouring into the room. As he stepped in and slammed the doors shut, he glimpsed three tall, reptilian figures silhouetted in the doorway.

The creatures let out simultaneous loud, roaring shrieks of rage as they saw their prey disappearing in a whir of noise and flash of light.