"Rise and shine, you two! We've got places to go, things to see–you should look outside, there's lots of snow. Real snow, not ash."

Groggily, Rose opened her eyes. The Doctor was standing in the bedroom doorway, grinning with too much enthusiasm for a man who never slept.

"What time is it?" she asked, sitting up and yawning.

"Local time is a quarter past ten in the morning." The Doctor sat on the edge of the bed and gave her a kiss. "Which means it's high time we got moving." He leaned over her and kissed Jack on the back of the head.

"That's nice to wake up to," he said, his voice muffled by the pillow. He rolled onto his back to look up at the Doctor and Rose, grinning. "Was that a suggestion?"

The Doctor stood up and headed out of the room. "It was a suggestion–that you two get up and get moving. Oh." He turned when he reached the door. "You're going to need to wear something different–the wardrobe will know."

Jack and Rose exchanged glances.

"Layers!" called the Doctor from the corridor. "Dress in layers!"

When Rose and Jack reached the wardrobe, they found racks and racks of what looked like ski apparel. "Maybe we're in Vail," said Rose, zipping the pink parka the TARDIS had thoughtfully provided for her.

"Skiing would be fun," said Jack. He settled a pair of goggles onto his forehead and tucked the ends of his scarf into his coat.

"Do you ski?" asked Rose as they headed for the control room to find the Doctor.

"Some. I think I've learned six times now? I just keep forgetting how." He grinned. "Hot instructors."

Rose gave him a playful shove as they entered the control room. "You're full of shite, Jack Harkness."

The Doctor didn't look up from the console computer. "My, you're rude in the morning." He punched a final sequence of buttons and then looked up at them. "Ready?"

"Aren't you going to change?" asked Rose.

"Oh, that's right! I nearly forgot." The Doctor took his coat from the railing and put it on. "See?" he said when Rose looked at him quizzically. "Layers! Layers are good. Now let's go."

He grabbed Jack's and Rose's gloved hands with his bare ones and dragged them out of the TARDIS. As soon as she stepped out of the protective field of the ship, Rose was hit by an incredible wave of nausea. She let go of the Doctor's hand and dropped to her knees, overcome by dizziness. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that the same was happening to Jack. She felt the Doctor's hand grabbing hers and pressing something into it.

"Put this on," he said. "Oh, here." The Doctor grabbed her head to steady it and shoved something in her nose. Almost instantly, her symptoms subsided and she pushed herself into a sitting position. A few feet away, the Doctor was sticking another pair of what looked like swim plugs into Jack's nose.

"What the hell was that?" he asked, taking the Doctor's hand and standing.

"Altitude sickness." The Doctor helped Rose to her feet, too. "Sorry about that. I meant to give these to you when we were still in the TARDIS–she was protecting you. They're oxygen distributors. You should be all right now."

"Where are we?" asked Rose, wiping her hands on her trousers.

The Doctor grinned. "Guess?" he asked, waving at the scenery around them. Rose turned slowly, surveying the area.

"Oh my God," she gasped. The TARDIS was parked in a crevice between two large rocks against an enormous mountain. Rose took several steps back but she still couldn't see where the top was.

Jack joined her. "Now that is impressive," he said.

"That is Chomolungma!" The Doctor exclaimed, leaping over to join them. "Also known as Mt. Everest. Tallest mountain on planet Earth, if you're measuring from the base, that is. Otherwise, it's Mauna Kea, which doesn't have exactly the same ring. Though it does have scuba diving. We'll have to do that next time, hm?" He paused when he realized Rose and Jack weren't listening to him, too taken in by the impressive view. "Right," he continued. "Roof of the world. And see? Plenty of real snow, too." He knelt and patted it.

"We're going to climb that?" said Rose numbly, still staring at the mountain.

"Hm? Oh, yes, indeed we are." He pulled the psychic paper out of his coat pocket. "Once we get ourselves attached to a group with the necessary permits. We're geologists, apparently. Let's go. We shouldn't be too far from base camp." He offered his hands to Rose and Jack once more and off they went.

They walked along the base of the mountain for almost two hours. Even with the clothes the TARDIS had provided, which Rose guessed were made of some material not found on Earth, it was still very cold.

"Are you sure you're all right?" she asked the Doctor, pulling her goggles down over her eyes to combat the glare off the snow.

"Who, me? Oh, yeah." He thumped his chest. "Binary vascular system. Quite useful in high altitudes. But…" He paused and pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket. "Now that's better," he said, slipping them on.

"How much farther?" Jack asked.

"Shouldn't be too much longer to base camp," said the Doctor as they rounded a corner. "I tried to set her down–" He froze.

"What?" Rose looked up.

Not twenty yards ahead of them lay the remains of a camp. It looked as though it had been abandoned in a hurry. Tents were collapsed or left unzipped, some even looking as though they had been torn apart and ransacked, their contents scattered across the snow.

"What?" said the Doctor in shock. He marched through the campsite, picking through the debris. "This is 2029, start of the big mountaineering boom. New technology, political change–it all opened up high-altitude trekking to the masses." He kicked a pile of shredded tent material. "But where is everyone?"

Rose knelt by a cylinder lying in the snow. "They left their oxygen tank," she said. "That means they must've gone back down, yeah?"

Jack shielded his eyes and looked up at the face of the mountain. "Looks like it. They couldn't go up without supplies."

The Doctor began digging through the detritus. "If I can find us some supplies, we can go looking–up or down."

"Don't we want to avoid having whatever happened to them happening to us?" asked Rose.

"That would be ideal," said the Doctor, winding up a length of rope he'd found. "But if those people are in trouble, we should help them."

"Weather looks all right," said Jack. "We could try going up." He hefted a pick-axe and hooked it to his belt. "It's been a while since I did any ice-climbing, though."

"The TARDIS's weather forecast said it would be clear for several days," said the Doctor thoughtfully. "We could try to make a run for the top on our own."

"Or we could ask him." Rose pointed and the Doctor and Jack turned. A low concrete building stood several yards away from them, so well-hidden in the shadows of the mountain that she hadn't noticed it until that moment. It was surrounded by electric fencing with enormous warning signs in six languages placed every few feet and the roof of the building was covered with antennae and other equipment. There was a man looking at them through a window. As soon as he saw Rose pointing, he shut the blinds roughly.

"Well," said the Doctor, moving toward the compound, his coat flapping in the wind. "What say we have a little chat with the locals?" Jack and Rose followed him up to a security panel which had been affixed to the fence.

The Doctor leaned on the intercom. "Hello." He gave the camera a little wave. "We're just passing through and were wondering if you could tell us where everybody is." There was a long silence. "Look, we know you're in there. We can see you at the window."

There was a crackle of static over the intercom and a voice said, "Who are you?"

"I'm the Doctor and this is Rose and Jack." He waved the psychic paper in front of the camera.

There was another long pause before the voice said, "What university are you with? Didn't they tell you all expeditions have been cancelled?"

"Yeah, well." The Doctor scratched the back of his head. "We're not really with a university. We're more of freelance geologists."

"I really shouldn't let you in. It's just me and Cheryl up here. We're waiting for reinforcements."

Jack leaned over to the intercom. "What do you need reinforcements for?"

There was an audible sigh. "If you don't even know that… I might as well let you in, you'll get yourselves eaten."

There was a buzz and the lock clicked. The Doctor pushed the gate open and led the way through. Rose paused before she shut it, looking back at the ruins of the camp.

"They're sure worried about something," muttered Jack. There was another buzz as the fence re-electrified.

"What d'you reckon they think's going to break in?" Rose wondered, as they headed toward the building. "All the way up here. Seems like it'd be pretty safe."

"Come on, come on." The man they had been talking to on the intercom was waiting for them at the door, pale and fidgeting nervously. "Get in! You must be freezing. Where on Earth did you come from?"

"Very far away," said the Doctor, sticking his sunglasses in his pocket. "So. Who are you?"

"I should be asking you the same question." He sighed. "I'm Aaron. Aaron Lucas. And this–" He pointed to an auburn-haired young woman who was coming in from another room. "Is Cheryl Tate."

"Oh, honestly, Aaron, can't I leave you alone for five minutes?" Cheryl took a pen from the pocket of her lab coat and thrust it in front of the Doctor's nose. "Sign in here, please. I want a complete record of everything that happened here. Cardiff'll be wanting answers and if everything goes to hell, it isn't my fault."

"Nice to meet you, too." The Doctor took the pen and scribbled something on the paper. Cheryl looked at it quizzically.

"Doctor? Doctor who?"

"Just the Doctor."

Cheryl clicked the pen shut and put it back in her pocket. "Not. My. Fault."

"Tea?" said Aaron quickly. "Anyone up for a cup of tea?"

The Doctor grinned. "Aaron Lucas, I like your style."

**

"So," said Rose, warming her hands on her mug of tea. "What are you lot doing up here?" She and Jack had taken off their outer things and despite the great heating system warming the compound, she still felt a slight chill.

Aaron placed a plate of biscuits on the table in front of them. "This is a monitoring station. You know, weather, seismic activity, solar flares. That kind of thing." He smiled at Rose. "I didn't catch your name."

"Oh, it's Rose." She smiled and took a biscuit. "Aaron, right?"

He grinned. "Yeah, Aaron. I'm a… well, I'm not really a climatologist yet." He sat down next to her. "I'm getting practical experience while I work on my thesis. You said you were geologists, right? What's that like?"

"It's real interesting," said Jack sharply, pulling another chair over and parking it squarely between them. He grabbed a biscuit. "Now." He looked pointedly at Aaron. "Where is everybody?"

"Don't you know?" Aaron looked alarmed.

"No," said the Doctor, leaning across the table. "We've been underground–quite literally underground–geologists, remember?"

"It's the Yeti," said Aaron.

"Oh, come on," scoffed Jack, rolling his eyes. "That's just a legend."

"Oh no," said the Doctor with wide eyes. "Last time I ran into the Yeti they were giant... robot... things. Still. Things change. That was... oh, lifetimes ago."

"I didn't believe it at first either," said Aaron indignantly, choosing to ignore the Doctor. "But people have seen it, that's why everyone's gone." He looked down at his tea.

"Look," said Cheryl suddenly. "You can't stay here. What will our bosses think? If we let you stay long…" She shook her head. "You lot can stay for one night but you're starting back down to Lukla in the morning. We can probably spare some supplies. Can't imagine what's happened to yours," she added disapprovingly.

"Yeah, well." The Doctor took a biscuit and examined it. "We lost out gear in a tragic, geological mishap. Now, tell me about your 'Yeti'."

"Well, I haven't seen it," said Aaron.

"That's because it doesn't exist," said Cheryl. "A few weeks ago, a party of climbers started up and never came back. They probably went down in an icefall. When they didn't come back, base camp sent a search party, and they never returned."

"Doesn't that sound a bit suspicious?" prodded the Doctor.

"It's a dangerous climb. This is the most unforgiving landscape in the world. It's hard enough to get up here; you have to be practically suicidal to try for the top."

"But people do," said Rose. "People do it all the time and they're fine."

"Well, that doesn't mean there's a Yeti," said Cheryl, adding lemon to her tea. "Ridiculous if you ask me."

"What happened to the camp?" asked Jack.

"That was a snow leopard," said Cheryl, too quickly. "Almost everyone left after the icefalls killed those two parties, and then a snow leopard got whoever was left." She frowned. "It all happened so fast, by the time it triggered the alarm, it was too late for us to do anything. Didn't stop Patrick from going out there anyway."

The Doctor leaned forward. "Who's Patrick?"

"He was our leader," said Aaron. "But the Yeti got him."

"Oh, shut up about the stupid Yeti," snapped Cheryl.

"Yeah, well what do you think got him? And Annie? She was our wildlife expert, Annie. She went out to gather samples one day and never came back. Broad daylight and she wasn't going fifty feet from the base. I heard this terrible screaming and by the time I got to the monitor, she'd just disappeared."

"She must have slipped, Aaron." Cheryl glared at him.

"What do you know?" Aaron jumped to his feet. "You were down in the memory banks! Something's out there, picking us off one by one, and if Tor–"

"Whoa, whoa," said the Doctor, holding his hands out to keep Aaron and Cheryl apart. "Simmer down, everyone. I know we've all got a terrible case of cabin fever but we can't get at each other's throats. Now, Cheryl." He turned to her. She was still scowling at him. "You said something about memory banks. Can I have a look?"

"I thought you were a geologist."

"Oh, yes. Computer geology. It's a growth field."

**

Cheryl led them into a room across from the kitchen. The hum of an enormous computer system was audible out in the corridor.

"This is all our tracking equipment," she said, standing beside the doorway with her arms crossed. "And now that you've seen it–out."

"Oh, what harm can I do?" said the Doctor, pulling his glasses out of his suit pocket and slipping them on. He leaned in to examine a screen and tapped a few keys. "I don't know anything about computers."

Jack and Rose joined him on either side, blocking Cheryl's view as the Doctor slid the sonic screwdriver out his pocket and pointed it at the screen. Images began to flicker rapidly. Rose couldn't make them out, but the Doctor seemed to make sense of them.

Cheryl took a step forward. "Doctor? What are you doing?"

"Nothing!" announced the Doctor, standing up and sticking the sonic screwdriver back in his pocket. The computer screen returned to its original state. "Just having a look."

Suddenly, the computer beeped. The Doctor jumped. "Did I do that?" he asked innocently.

Cheryl pushed past him to get to the monitor. The Doctor stood on tiptoes to see over her.

"This is odd," she muttered. "There's a storm coming, but it seems to have come out of nowhere."

"How long can you usually track a storm?" the Doctor asked.

Cheryl tapped a few keys. "When it's at least a hundred miles away. This one seems to be forming right on top of us." She pushed a few more buttons and the radar focused. "Actually, it seems to be about four miles from here. Right where…" She trailed off, after looking over her shoulder to see the Doctor so close. "Listen, you three can't stay in here. I've got work to do. Why don't you ask Aaron to show you were you can stay? You can't go out in this storm."

The Doctor took his glasses off. For a brief moment, Rose thought she spotted a frown there, but it was gone as quick as it had come. The Doctor clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Well. Rose, Jack, let's go see if old Aaron will show us around this place."

"What is it?" asked Jack as soon as they had left the room.

The Doctor tucked his hands in his pockets. "This place is more than a weather station," he said, his voice low.

"I figured that," said Jack, nodding.

"Then what is it?" asked Rose.

"I don't know." His brows knit. "We should probably have stuck closer to your home time. Or gone somewhere else entirely. That storm shouldn't be here, according to the TARDIS."

"Will the TARDIS be okay out there with the storm?"

"She should. She's been through worse," he said briskly.

They were interrupted by Aaron coming around the corner. "There you are!" he exclaimed. "I've been looking all over for you. You shouldn't go wandering off like that." Aaron smiled at Rose. "It's a big place. You can get lost, if you don't know where you're going."

"Then keep an eye on us," said Jack, a bit of an edge to his voice.

"That's the plan," said Aaron, looking at him. "Come on. I'll show you where you're bunking."

Rose's room was the one that had belonged to Annie the wildlife expert. The room Aaron put the Doctor and Jack in was a disused bunk room. He explained that since the staff was currently so small, each member of the team was given a single room.

"You must be tired after that hike," he said to Rose. "Why don't you rest and I'll call you when dinner's ready?" He seemed very pleased with himself.

"That sounds like a good idea, thanks," she said, smiling.

"Aaron!" Cheryl cried from the lab.

He flushed. "I–I better go. See you." He hurried away.

"Look at you!" said the Doctor, when he was out of earshot. He looked at Jack. "I think our Rose has got an admirer."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Come on, you two." She grabbed their hands and tugged them across the hall into their room.

The room contained four sets of bunk beds and looked as if it had not been used in quite a long time. Everything was covered by a fine layer of dust.

"How many people are supposed to be manning this base?" Jack wondered aloud, surveying the room.

"Something tells me it's been a while since it was running at full capacity," said the Doctor, sitting on the bottom bunk and bouncing a bit. A cloud of dust escaped the mattress and the rusty bedsprings gave loud whines of protest.

"Do you think the Yeti cleared them all out?" Rose asked.

The Doctor frowned. "I don't know. I always thought the Yeti was just a legend… though I have been wrong before." He cocked his head and rubbed the back of his neck. "Once or twice."

"It's not like anything suspicious stopped us before," said Jack, crossing his arms over his chest.

The Doctor looked at him curiously. "What are you talking about, Jack? Aaron told us to sit here and wait. What you're suggesting could get us into quite a bit of trouble."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me this new regeneration doesn't like trouble."

"Oh, no." The Doctor stood up and grinned wickedly. "This new regeneration loves trouble."