Mercifully the flight was a short one and soon the grating materialisation noise echoed around the room once more. The instant that it faded the Doctor flicked the switch that opened the doors.

‘Right then,’ she said cheerily. ‘Let’s have a look at your gaff, then.’

Still trying to come to terms with the enthusiastic personality of this new Doctor, Ace led the TARDIS crew out through the doors and into her batcave.

‘Lights.’

As the lights came up, the Doctor gave an appreciative whistle. ‘Ooh, very nice.’ She started to scurry around the workshop, peering inquisitively at the objects that littered the shelves and benches, cooing appreciatively when she found something that she liked.

‘Make yourself at home,’ said Ace. ‘I’ll put the kettle on.’

Graham gave her a nod of approval. ‘You see? Someone who’s got her head screwed on. Someone who realises that you can go adventuring through time and space and still make time to get a decent cuppa!’

‘Oh, don’t start.’ Ryan rolled his eyes.

Ace grinned and made her way over to the small kitchenette in the corner of the workshop, filling the plastic kettle at the small sink. ‘There are some biscuits in the cupboard too.’

‘Oh, you can definitely stay,’ said Graham hurrying to join her and eagerly pulling open the cupboard door.

‘Careful,’ said the Doctor, amused. ‘Feed him too well and you might never get shot of him.’

Ace made a show of busying herself making the tea, using the time to get a proper look at the Doctor’s new travelling companions. She’d already made up her mind that she liked Graham. He was like an excitable puppy, although she sensed that some of it might be a front. There was a melancholy about him, a hint of underlying sadness.

Ryan seemed to be a fairly typical teenage boy, not unlike the kids that Ace had hung around with in her youth. He’d made a beeline for the dismantled Triumph Bonneville as soon as they’d landed and was examining the dismantled engine on the workbench in exacting detail.

Yaz was the one she hadn’t quite got a handle on yet. It wasn’t that she had been unfriendly, it was just that unlike the other two she seemed to content to watch rather than chat, and Ace could tell that she was watching everything. Unlike the Doctor, Yaz was making a slow methodical circuit of the workshop, as if mentally cataloguing its contents. That made Ace a little nervous.

‘Well, now I know how you managed to get to an alien spacecraft orbiting the Moon in record time!’ The Doctor was peering delightedly at the wrecked pod in the centre of the room. ‘A Rintlekk emergency escape vessel.’