Doc6/Mel story 
"Carrot Time"

Mel walked to the TARDIS console room, being very careful not to
spill the glass of carrot juice she was carrying.  She frowned
slightly when she noticed she didn't hear the exercise tape that
had been on when she left, and sighed in disapproval when she
walked in the room and saw the Doctor sitting at a table and
working on a piece of electronic equipment instead of exercising.
"Doctor!"

"Yes, Mel," the Doctor replied, "I'll get back to that."

"Well, at least drink your carrot juice," Mel said, holding out the
glass.

The Doctor groaned.  "Do I have to?"

"It's very good for you, Doctor!"

"How do you know it's very good for me?  For all you know, it could
poison me."

Mel gave the Doctor a very skeptical look.  "Doctor..."

"Oh, very well."  The Doctor reached out to take the glass, but
bumped her hand, spilling some carrot juice on the device on the
table.  "Oh, no!"

"Is it broken?"

"No, no, I'm sure it's fine," the Doctor replied, examining the
device.  He looked up as the TARDIS began to materialize.  "That's
strange, I don't remember anything in this area to land on!"  He
put the device in his pocket and got up to check some readings on
the console.

"Where have we landed, Doctor?"

"It appears to be some sort of space station."

"Is it safe?"

"I don't see why not!"  He opened the door and waved his hand in
its direction.  "Shall we go and take a look?  I'm sure the walk
will be very good exercise!"

Mel picked up the glass of carrot juice and held it out.  "At least
finish your carrot juice first, Doctor!"

"Carrot juice."  The Doctor drank the carrot juice and made a face.
"I don't think it does me any good!"



The mood was tense on Procyon Station.  Four large and heavily
armed fleets had arrived in the sector and decided to settle their
differences once and for all, making the sector a very dangerous
place for a small, nearly unarmed research station that wasn't very
good at getting out of the way.  A time like this called for strong
leadership, so the station's command team voted to turn on their
Electronic Captain.

Commander Greenway was the one normally in charge of running the
station, so he got to be the one in charge of switching on the
Captain.  He told the Captain about the four fleets.  He told the
Captain about their attempts to contact the fleets, all of which
were ignored.  He told the Captain about the defensive capabilities
of the station and how they compared - not well - to the offensive
capabilities of each of the fleets.  He told the Captain about the
station's one escape pod.  He asked the Captain for a decision.

The Captain decided to use the escape pod for itself, and wished
Greenway luck.

Greenway began to regret the command team's decision to buy the
cheapest Electronic Captain available.



The Alpha Gunner of the Demarian Fleet Flagship jumped up in
excitement as she saw the brief flash of an escape pod leaving
Procyon Station.  She rushed over to the gun controls, and hissed
in disappointment as she saw a ship from one of the other fleets
grab the pod in a tractor beam.  She considered firing at the ship,
but decided to restrain herself until the order arrived from the
command deck.



The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and looked around.  He seemed
to be in some sort of weapons storage room.  He pulled the device
he had been working on out of his coat pocket, extended its
antenna, adjusted a few settings, and frowned.  "Now that," he
declared after a moment, "is odd."

Mel stepped out of the TARDIS and looked at the Doctor's device.
"What's odd, Doctor?"

The Doctor stuffed the device back in his pocket and waved around
the room.  "Look around you, Mel!  What do you see here?"

Mel looked around.  "Guns, Doctor.  Shelves full of guns and things
that explode."

"Exactly!"  The Doctor pulled the device out of his pocket again.
"And this says none of them are really here.  Now, what does that
suggest to you?"

"That it doesn't work?"

"Doesn't work?"  The Doctor frowned.  "Doesn't work?  It took me an
hour to put this together!"

"Yes, Doctor, but if the room's full of guns, and your gadget says
it isn't..."

"Then maybe the guns aren't really here.  Let's have a look around,
shall we?  I'm sure the device is fine."  The Doctor consulted his
device and walked out the door.

Mel sighed and followed the Doctor out into the hallway, and was
immediately arrested by the half of the security team that wasn't
busy frisking the Doctor.



Greenway walked into the station's communication room.  "I don't
think the Captain is going to be much help," he announced.

"No kidding," replied Ensign Frederick.  "One of the fleets just
contacted us to say they had it on board, and wanted to discuss the
terms of our surrender."

The communications officer rushed up to the two sergeants.  "The
Gamotrian Fleet just sent us a message saying they've captured our
two spies, and wish to discuss the terms of our surrender."

Greenway stared at the communications officer.  "What?"  He turned
to Frederick.  "I didn't know we had any spies."

"We don't."

Greenway turned back to the communications officer.  "Tell them
they'll have to talk it over with the fleet that claims to have the
Captain."



The Gamotrian Supply Admiral pointed an accusing tentacle at the
Doctor.  "So!  Procyon Station tells us you and the girl are in
league with the Meclow Host."

"In league with the Meclow Host?" the Doctor repeated in disbelief.
"We most certainly are not!"

"You lie!" the admiral roared.

"Why should we lie?" asked the Doctor.  "How do you know this
Procyon Station isn't lying?"

The admiral opened his mouth to reply, closed it again, and
frowned.  "Security!  This man confuses me.  Take him and his
companion and fire them out the torpedo tubes."



The Demarian Beta and Gamma Execution-Commanders decided that if
someone was going to fire the first shots, it might as well be the
Demarian Fleet, and gave the order for a gross of missiles to be
sent in the direction of the other fleets.  The Alpha Gunner rushed
over to the gun controls, and fired half a dozen missiles at the
first ship she saw, which happened to be the Gamotrian Fleet's
supply ship.



"Guards!" the Doctor shouted as he and Mel were pushed down the
corridor.  "Surely you don't intend to place us in the torpedo
tubes without casings?"

"What does it matter?" asked one of the guards.

"It could matter a great deal!  Your torpedo tubes were designed to
fire torpedoes, not people."

The guards exchanged confused looks.  "I don't know," one of them
said.

"Think of the mess you'll have to clean up if it goes wrong," Mel
pointed out.

"She could be right."

"Could be right?  Of course she's right," proclaimed the Doctor.
"I'm sure I saw some torpedo casings in the weapons locker.  We'll
just stop there on the way to the torpedo tubes."

The guards thought this over for a moment.  "Oh, this is
ridiculous," one of them finally said.  He poked the Doctor with
his gun-tentacle.  "Get moving."

Suddenly, the ship lurched as it was struck with half a dozen
missiles from the Demarian fleet, and the guards all fell to the
floor.  "Come on, Mel!" the Doctor shouted as he ran off down the
corridor.  "I don't think we want to stay around for the
explosions!"



Greenway and Frederick watched the viewscreen in horrified
anticipation, as several dozen assorted missiles from the fleets
homed in on the station.  The communications officer looked up from
his console.  "Do you suppose it's too late to try some more
diplomacy?"

"Oh, no, it's never too late," Greenway replied sarcastically.
"Why don't you give them another call, get it all sorted out in
fifteen seconds, and they can just call their missiles back?"

"Very good, sir," the communications officer replied, turning back
to his console to place the call.

Suddenly the missiles disappeared.  Greenway blinked.  "What did
you tell them?"



The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, and pulled a small device out
of one of his pockets.  He extended the device's antenna, adjusted
a few settings, and frowned.  "Now this," he declared after a
moment, "is odd."

Peri stepped out of the TARDIS and looked at the Doctor's device.
"What's odd, Doctor?"

The Doctor stuffed the device back in his pocket and waved around
the room.  "Look around you, Peri!  What do you see here?"

Peri looked around.  "A lot of shelves full of guns and bombs."

"Exactly!"  The Doctor pulled the device out of his pocket again.
"And this device says none of them are really here.  Now, what does
that suggest to you?"

"That it doesn't work?"

"Doesn't work?"  The Doctor frowned.  "Doesn't work?  Doesn't
work?!"

"Look around, Doctor."

"It took me an hour to put this together!  Maybe the guns aren't
really here.  Let's have a look around, shall we?"  The Doctor
consulted his device and walked out the door.

Peri sighed and rolled her eyes, then ran to follow the Doctor,
almost tripping over the security officer the Doctor was busy tying
up.  The Doctor stood up and pointed down the hallway.  "This way!"

"I could have sworn you had red hair," the security officer called
after Peri as she followed the Doctor down the hall.



The mood was not good on Procyon Station.  Three large and heavily
armed fleets had arrived in the sector and decided to settle their
differences once and for all, making the sector a dangerous place
for a small research station that wasn't very good at getting out
of the way.  A time like this called for strong leadership, so the
station's command team voted to turn on their Electronic Captain.

Commander Greenway was the one normally in charge of running the
station, so he got to be the one in charge of switching on the
Captain.  He told the Captain about the fleets.  He told the
Captain about their attempts to contact the fleets, all of which
were ignored.  He told the Captain about the defensive capabilities
of the station and how they compared to the offensive capabilities
of each of the fleets.  He told the Captain about the station's one
escape pod.  He asked the Captain for a decision.

The Captain decided to use the escape pod for itself, and wished
Greenway luck.

Greenway decided this was as good an excuse as any to test the
station's offensive capabilities.



The Alpha Gunner of the Demarian Fleet Flagship jumped up in
excitement as she saw the brief flash of an escape pod leaving
Procyon Station.  She rushed over to the gun controls, but before
she had a chance to blow up the escape pod, she was surprised to
see the station fire a missile at it, destroying it instantly.  She
hissed in disappointment at having missed her chance to shoot at
the escape pod, and shot at the station instead.

The station shot back, and within seconds the station and the three
fleets were all shooting at each other.  The station was the first
to be destroyed, with the Demarian flagship following almost
immediately.  Within five minutes, all that was left in the sector
was a large cloud of debris, and a police box spinning off into the
distance.



The mood was belligerent on Procyon Station.  Two large and heavily
armed fleets had arrived in the sector and decided to settle their
differences once and for all, making the sector an even more
dangerous place than the large battle station usually made it.  A
time like this called for strong leadership, so the first thing
Commander Greenway did was order that the station's Electronic
Captain be thrown in the direction of one of the fleets, and then
he ordered the station's gunners to open fire on everything that
moved.



The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, and pulled a small device out
of one of his pocket.  He extended the device's antenna, pushed a
few buttons, and frowned.  "Now this," he declared after a moment,
"is odd."

Tegan stepped out of the TARDIS and looked at the Doctor's device.
"What's odd, Doctor?"

The Doctor stuffed the device back in his pocket and waved around
the room.  "Look around you, Tegan!"  He paused.  "Wait a minute.
What are you doing here?"

Tegan shrugged.  "How should I know?  I thought this was your
idea!"

Two guards burst into the room.  "So," one of them said, "you
thought you could sneak on board the flagship of the Meclow Host?"

"What?" the Doctor replied.

"Well," said the other guard, "you missed.  This is the supply
ship."  The guards grabbed the Doctor and Tegan and dragged them
towards the door.  "Come on, we've got a nice cell waiting for
you."

The ship lurched suddenly as it was hit with half a dozen missiles,
and the Doctor and Tegan broke free from the guards and ran for the
TARDIS, which exploded.



It was a routine day on Outpost Procyon.  A small battle fleet had
passed through the sector, stopping to refuel and buy some
supplies, but otherwise there wasn't much excitement.

The TARDIS arrived in the station's shopping mall, and the Doctor
and his companion emerged from it.  "I say," the Doctor's companion
said.  "This is some sort of shopping mall, isn't it?  I didn't
know they had these in space.  I almost worked in one once, but
they fired me before I actually started."

The Doctor walked over to the station's electronics supply store
and pulled a small device out of one of his colourful coat's
pockets.  He extended the device's antenna, adjusted a few
settings, and showed it to the clerk, Mr. Greenway.  "Do you have a
new timer for this?  I think this one's broken."

Greenway took the device and examined it.  "Ah!  A personal reality
detector and adjuster?"

"Yes, that's right," the Doctor replied.

"I say, that sounds very impressive!" the Doctor's companion
exclaimed.

Greenway opened the back of the device and looked inside.  "I think
we might.  I'll just go in the back and check.  This device might
do some very strange things if you used it with a broken timer."

The Doctor glanced at his companion and frowned.  "Yes, I had
noticed that."



Mel walked to the TARDIS console room, being very careful not to
spill the glass of carrot juice she was carrying.  She frowned
slightly when she noticed she didn't hear the exercise tape that
had been on when she left, and sighed in disapproval when she
walked in the room and saw the Doctor sitting at a table and
working on a piece of electronic equipment instead of exercising.
"Doctor!"

"Yes, Mel," the Doctor replied, "I'll get back to that."

"Well, at least drink your carrot juice," Mel said, holding out the
glass.

The Doctor groaned.  "Do I have to?"

"It's very good for you, Doctor!"

"How do you know it's very good for me?  For all you know, it could
poison me."

Mel gave the Doctor a very skeptical look.  "Doctor..."

"Oh, very well."  The Doctor reached out to take the glass, took it
carefully from Mel's hand, and drank it immediately.  He took the
device he had been working on and threw it in the closet, and then
he turned on Mel's tape and got on the exercise bicycle.

"That's the spirit, Doc!" Mel said cheerfully.  "We'll have you in
shape in no time."

The Doctor forced a smile.  "I suppose there are worse fates!"