A Family Enemy

There were countless wonders out in the universe, Jenny was sure of that. She'd only heard the briefest snippet, but she longed to see them; she shot through space in her 'borrowed' ship, watching the distant stars take on whole new configurations.

She'd never get tired of this, she was sure.

And then something shifted. For a moment she glimpsed something... strange in space, and in the next moment she was landing.

Implanted instincts took over and she quickly got to work, throwing switches and yanking levers down to do her utmost to stop this turning into a crash. The endless void around her had faded to white, the ship coming to a stop as it scraped against what seemed to be nothing.

Jenny panted. She gave herself just a brief moment of rest to catch her breath, before pushing herself back in her seat.

Readings said... Ok, wherever she'd ended up there was air, and gravity like a planet, and no sign of the gaping portal into space she must have come through. Well, she'd gone out into the universe to see splendours, this certainly qualified.

There was a grin on her face when she began to run back, slipping out of the shuttlecraft, her feet landing on emptiness. Her footsteps echoed.

All around her was white, a blank canvas. Despite that the ground under her feet seemed as solid as anything. Tentatively, Jenny turned on the spot.

An edifice came into view. The only feature to the endless blank dimension. Jenny frowned, peering at it. Ok. That was interesting. She started walking, pace quickly picking up.

It looked like a hut, some ramshackle little thing in the middle of nowhere; a low roof, chipped stone walls, and then a large window like some sort of shop. The closer she got, the more Jenny could make out. Ventriloquist dummies were lined up on shelves, staring out of the window, and behind them she could make out a dark room. Shelves upon shelves of boxes.

When she reached the door, she knocked.

"Come in, Miss... ah, your last name is quite a thing isn't it?"

Last name? She'd never gotten a...

Jenny pushed the door open. There was a man in the room, dressed in gaudy robes and a flat hat, an almost childlike smile on his face. He gestured invitingly.

Now she could make out the rest of the room. There was a table in the middle, two chairs on opposite sides, and beyond that... The walls, each one filled completely with shelves, and each shelf filled to the brim with board games and manuals and chess sets and puzzles and toys and countless more things.

"Uh, hi?" Jenny said. "Where am I?"

"Where does it look like you are?" the man said.

"Some kind of..." she glanced around again. "Toy shop?"

"Toyroom, perhaps," the man said. "Would you like to play a game?"

"What?" Jenny said.

"A game," the man said. "A diversion. An entertainment. Fun."

"I know what a game is," Jenny said. "What- why- Who are you?"

"If this is a toy shop, then I might be the Toymaker," the man said. "And you are Jenny. I am rather well-acquainted with your, well, father I suppose. Games with him are so dreadfully tiresome though, I would much rather see what challenge you can offer me."

She eyed the Toymaker for a wary moment. Ok, all this was new to her, but she had the feeling he might not get on particularly well with the Doctor. And if that was the case it might not be smart to stick around.

Especially if he could whip up a dimension for her ship to crash in like this.

"Can I say no?" Jenny said.

"You can say whatever you want," the Toymaker said affably.

Jenny nodded. Rather quickly she took a step back, walking through the door...

Into the same room. The Toymaker looked at her expectantly.

"You said I could say no!" Jenny said.

"Indeed you can," he said. "No one is forcing you to play. Many people, though, find that playing is by far the better choice."

And if he'd somehow warped things so that she couldn't escape this building, she could see why.

Then again, apparently her father had gotten on his bad side. That had to mean he could be beaten. Jenny exhaled, steadied herself, and mentally went over all the tactics and skills she'd had since her creation. Ok, most of it was military, but they were transferrable.

She walked over to one chair and sat down. Smiling, the Toymaker took the opposite chair.

"Excellent," he said.

"What are we playing?" Jenny said.

"Now that is the question," the Toymaker said. He pulled what looked like a deck of cards out from his robes and fanned them out. "Pick one."

"What?" Jenny said. The Toymaker sighed impatiently.

"On each card is enscribed a game," he said. "I use it when I can't decide. Every game you have ever heard of is here, you will choose, and we will play. A deck of choices; a game of games."

Well, this seemed like the only way out...

Hesitantly, Jenny reached out for a card.