It is said that what is not ordered by man is chaos.  What then of other things ordered by other peoples?  Are we as chaos to them?  Can we ever hope to have anything in common with someone from another planet?  What of love and joy?  Are these concepts that we take for granted as abstract to them as their feelings are to us?  So many questions to answer, how can we possibly hope to find someone to ask the right questions?  Can we hope that life out there is friendlier to us than we are to each other?  More importantly, does my bum look big in this dress?

“EXTERMINATE!”

I ran as fast as my legs would carry me away from the squat silver metal beasts with bright blue bumps on their lower parts.  My insides were like fire as I tried to breathe but it was getting harder and harder to do so.  I needed to rest, I had to find somewhere to stop and get my breath back.  I needed to reboot my system, but there was no power-points nearby.

I couldn’t think of their faces right now, must put it out of my mind until there’s time for grief.  Must stay alive, someone has to speak for the death of my world.  Someone must sing our songs and tell our stories, why does it have to be me though?

No, mustn’t get sentimental right now.  I must be strong, as cold as ice inside because everyone I’ve ever loved is now dead.

“EXTERMINATE!”

They’re getting closer now, too close.  Legs wobbling like jelly and something in me is thumping like a drum.  My head is all pains and aches, never did much exercise as a child did I?  Wish I had now; too busy having a sly strontium rod with my friends wasn’t I?  No, don’t think of them; don’t picture their faces in my mind.  They’re dead, all of them.  The horrible realisation that there is only me left slams into me like a bullet and I lose my footing once again.

Blasts of energy sizzle the mud around me and I pick myself up from the floor once more.  I ignore the seeping coldness against my legs and stomach from my fall.  I have to keep moving, I have to keep running.  I have to escape.  In my escape I did not see the strange blue box in my way and I ran straight into it.

Warmth, I felt warmth against my skin.  I was not cold, was I dead?  I opened my eyes and sat up, the strange material of a blanket slipped down my body, revealing that I’d been dressed in some sort of thin garment, and now I felt the warmth slowly ebb from my chest.

“You’re safe.”

My eyes focused on a plain looking man dressed slightly oddly.  He was the first living person I’d seen in three days.  Since those evil silver and blue things had arrived on my planet and started murdering everyone.  “Who, who are you?”

He smiled at me and motioned for me to lie back down.  Then he pulled the blanket back up to my neck.  “Get some rest, you’ve had a rather nasty experience.  You’ll need to get your strength back.”

“Are you an angel?”

He laughed softly.  It was not a nasty laugh but rather more like he had been amused that I thought so highly of him.  “No, I’m not an angel.  I’m the Doctor.”

I closed my eyes and tried to sleep but all I saw were the faces of my friends and family.  I suppose I must have slept because the next thing I knew I was awake and screaming his name.

“What is it?”  The Doctor rushed over to the side of my bed.  “Did you have a bad dream?”

I nodded.  “They killed everyone didn’t they?”

He didn’t want to answer, didn’t want to say but the silence and the look in his eyes were as much a yes to me as he could ever say with words.  “I’m sorry.  The Daleks wiped out every life form on your planet.”

I could finally hold the pain and suffering and loss and hurt and anger and misery in no longer and I broke into tears.  He put his arms around my shoulders as I sobbed and didn’t let go of me until I’d finished.

“You need rest, I’ll bring you something to eat later.  You need to be healthy and strong or you won’t get curly hair.”

It was an odd saying but I giggled anyway.

“There now, that’s better.”  He left once more but now I didn’t want to rest.  I wanted to explore.  I pulled on my torn and muddy clothing and went out to explore.

“Hello.”

I turned around to see a pretty girl a few years older than myself.  “Hello.”

“I’m Alice, what’s your name?”

“I, I’m called Rachel.”

“That’s a pretty name Rachel, do you want to play a game?”

I laughed with joy as Alice transformed herself into a big pink go-kart.  “Can we go racing?”

“Of course, sit in the seat and put the helmet on.”

We moved very fast down the long white corridors, Alice seemed to be very good with cornering so I left the steering to her.

“Oh dear.”  Alice put on her brakes.  “We’re not going to stop in time.”

I was very scared but somehow Alice changed herself from the pink go-kart into a pile of soft pink cushions, which stopped me from hurting myself.

“I see you two need no introduction then.”  The Doctor looked down at us and Alice changed back to her normal self.

“We were playing racing Doctor.”  Alice helped me to my feet.

“Yes, well she’s still not very well.”  The Doctor put his hand on my forehead.  “I think there may be some damage.”

“Can you fix her Doctor?”  Alice asked.  “I’ll lend her some of my spare parts.”

“That won’t be possible Alice, you’re a shape changing android and she’s a Movellan.  Your technologies are incompatible I’m afraid.  However I do know a little bit about her technology so I’m sure she’ll make a complete recovery.

Alice hugged me.  “I didn’t know you were a robot too, that practically makes us sisters.  Please let us be sisters, please, please, please?  Molly needs her Aunt Rachel.”

“Of course we can be sisters.”  I hugged Alice.  “Who’s Molly?”  She took hold of my hand and we ran back to her room.

“This is my daughter, she’s called Molly.”

I looked at the tiny pink plastic train and tickled it.  “Coochie coo.”  The little train gurgled at me with contentment.  “She’s very pretty, can she change shapes too?”

Alice nodded to me.  “Last week she was a pink metal bucket.  The week before that she was a pink spaceship.”

“Can’t she be more like we are now?”  I asked.

“She’s still learning to control her shapes, once she’s learned the basic twenty thousand inanimate shapes then we can move on to the more advanced shapes.”

Molly made steam come out of her funnel when I tickled her again.

“She’s burped.  I didn’t think she’d get her wind up at all today, thanks sister.” 

Alice hugged me again.  “What else do you do?”

“Well sometimes the Doctor and me and Mike go exploring new worlds and meet lots of famous people.  Last week I met Marilyn Monroe!  I can look like her, just for you.”

Alice turned from a happy go lucky petite blonde into a leggy white haired woman with a skirt that kept trying to move up to her waist.  “That’s great, but couldn’t she afford a dress that actually stayed around her ankles?

“No, you see she was standing over an air vent and the hot air made her skirt rise up.”

“Oh.”  I said understanding.  “I’m not allowed near heavy electrical equipment, it makes my head go all fizzy.”

“Me too.”  Alice said excitedly.  “One time my eyeballs popped out of my head before the Doctor realised what was going on.”

There was a knock at the door and a dreamboat of a guy entered the room.  “Hello Rachel, I’m Mike.  The doctor told me to tell you three that the Christmas meal is ready and we’re awaiting you to join us at table.  Personally I’d say the food is on the table so hurry up or it’ll be gone but the Doctor’s strange like that.”

“He’s trying to impress you.”  Alice whispered to me.

“He’s a honey.”  I whispered back.

“He’s not a robot.”  Alice whispered back.

“Nobody’s perfect, Oh well he still looks cute.”  Mike left us to get changed and Alice let me borrow one of her actual real dresses, a pretty yellow silk one, while she changed her outward appearance and texture to mimic a similar dress but in a bright pink colour.  Then she picked her baby up and we left to go to this party.

“I’m sorry about the last minute changes, I wanted Rachel to enjoy the meal too.”  The Doctor handed me a bowl of potassium flakes stored under oil.  “Try these, most refreshing.

I consumed one of the flakes before it could oxidise in the air, it tasted very nice as it fizzled on my tongue.  “How do you know so much about my people?”

“I’ve been around the Universe a few times.  You learn things here and there.  I’ve met your kind before.”

“You have?”

“Of course, your species is one of the more abundant robotic races in the galaxy.”

“There’s more of my people alive?”  I stopped eating.  “I’m not the last of my kind?”

“No, I can take you to them after we’ve finished eating if you like.  You may have family on another world that you knew nothing about.”

I looked at Alice who was like a sister to me now.  “I have my newly adopted big sister and my tiny little niece right here Doctor.  I’d like to stay with them for a while if I may?”

The Doctor nodded to me.  “Of course you may, I’m sure you can fit into our little group very well.”

I looked at the Doctor and Mike, although they were inferior organic beings they were both suddenly very important to me.  Mike was my big brother who always told me jokes and the Doctor was a favourite uncle, even if he did wear more make up than Alice and I from time to time.  It was apparently a very fashionable look on Rigel 4 among their males and the Doctor told me that it was very important to be aware of the different social laws on each of the planets we would visit.

Alice was always there to help me adapt to each planet we would visit, she would tell me never to judge and always to accept other cultures.  She helped me come to terms with my feelings of loss and grief and over time she helped me find joy in life once more and how to chat about the cuteness of boys.

She even managed to get me to unbraid my hair and put it into a ponytail or bunches and even one-time two buns, one on each side of my head.  When Mike and the Doctor started calling me Princess Leia however I threatened to cut all my hair off or dye it bright green and put safety pins through my ears.

We were a family, I had people around me that I loved and they loved me, although after some of the tricked Alice and I played on them it was hard to see why.  The TARDIS had become my home and now I could no longer imagine any other way of life.

For the first time since waking up inside of the ship I felt like I belonged somewhere in the Universe, I was helping the Doctor fight evil and somehow deep down inside my circuits I knew this was what I was meant to do.

Sometimes I spend hours reading books in the library or listening to the Doctor talking about his past adventures.  He’s so clever, he knows lots of things about everything and he’s claimed to have met lots of famous people.  I think that he’s the strangest person I’ve ever met because he never tells a story the same way twice.

He tried to show me how the TARDIS was bigger on the inside than the outside but my memory buffer nearly had a seizure when I tried to input the calculations into my processor.  He told me that smoke had started to come out of my ears, but I think he was telling me a joke.

Where we will end up next is a mystery to me, but I know that wherever it is we’ll cope with it between us, that’s what families do isn’t it?

Alice sighed.  “I miss Rachel.  She was like a sister to me.”

Mike nodded.  “I know, but she needs to be with her own people, her family.  They love her and will look after her and program her to be a good robot and I’m sure one day we’ll see her again, maybe.  The Doctor says that the Movellans are a very powerful type of robot, but very logical.”

“Unlike me.”  Alice hated logic, she preferred things to be nice and form their own kind of random sense.  “Lets eat cheese scones.”  She smiled suddenly.  “They always cheer me up.”  She handed Molly to her best friend.  “We all love eating scones.”

Mike nodded.  “Only when you put lots of jam on them.”

“Yes, Jam.”  Alice turned herself into a car and drove off down the corridors at speed.

“I hope she doesn’t get over me this fast.”  Mike muttered to himself.  “The Doctor’s still outside saying his goodbyes.”