A cargo ship glided slowly through the open space of the universe, 250,000 light years from Earth. "The
"THEY'RE COMING THROUGH!" A man in the blue overalls of a crew-member yelled as he leapt through an open metal doorway of The Voyager's bridge and thudded across the metal grated floor. All dignity was left behind as he ran with arms and gun flailing like a girl to the ship's control room, and away from the large explosions that were coming from behind him. "And man have they got guns." He exhaled as he clumsily stumbled through the open doorway to the control room and flopped over the back of a chair. The control room was roughly shaped like a hexagon, entirely fitted with the cheap, grey metal slabs featured throughout the ship for the walls and ceiling, and two passageways on the left and right points of the room. Various side-tables and chairs were scattered against the walls near the door while the top of the room featured a chunky control panel which five people sat around and worked on, the Captain and her second-in-command facing the large window looking out into the endless space outside. The lighting was mainly a weak white near the door with an odd blue hue, but up at the console many red alarm lights flashed and surrounded them in varying shades of red.
"Yeah we kind of got that Egan." The second-in-command young man with shortly shaved dark brown hair and rough, once-styled stubble said from the left driver's seat in the control room. "Is there anyone else out there?" He asked absent-mindedly.
"Just me, they got the others down at Zone 2." Egan said with a slightly pained expression.
"Good, we can shut down then." The man said coldly as he closed the heavy, reinforced metal door from the controls. "Platform 2 is down, so is every bridge, causeway and hold up to level B, zone C to G are being taken, no response from the Z back-up plan," The man continued to the crew around him with fingers swiping and tapping the blue touch-screen interface in front of him. Egan stared out of the large window in front of the controls as he caught his breath. It looked so empty and peaceful, surely it was only two minutes ago that everyone had been laughing, joking and bargaining the pay they'd get when they got back to Earth...Not two hours.
"And the engines happen to be failing." The man finished and swivelled his chair to the young woman next to him. "Any suggestions Captain?" He asked and she looked up at him, her short, wavy brown hair bobbing about, from the dashboard displaying the status of the ship's layout. Only the top third remained now. Everything else was red and offline.
"Stick to the plan, Peers." She said to him and he instantly swivelled around to face Egan.
"Hey Egan, go and back up Richards and John will you? God knows they need an extra hand down there." Peers ordered.
Egan hesitated and fiddled with his gun for a moment. "Captain," He started, looking directly at her. "Can we actually do this? Can we hold them off? Because they seemed to get through our wards pretty easy back there and that shouldn't ha-"
"Of course we can." Peers cut him off swiftly with a reassuring smile as the Captain refused to even look up from her computer. "Now go and help the others. Go!"
"Yes sir!" Egan replied with enthusiasm and ran through the left pathway of the control room.
"You sure about this? Last chance Blake." Peers said quietly to the Captain as Egan left the room, leaving just five.
"Definitely. It's a bit too late to go back now anyway." She replied and didn't take her eyes off the screen. "Turn those alarms off. We know what we're doing." Blake said to the other crew-members on the other side of the console. "And put on some music will you? So they can't hear us." She called over her shoulder to her second-in-command.
"All right then." Sam sighed and walked to the other end of the room where an old fashioned boombox sat on a dull, grey sideboard sticking out from the wall with a fluorescent blue light underneath. "You three begin the lockdown, nothing gets in or out. Not counting by force." He said to the other three crew members on the opposite side of the console and mumbled the last part under his breath. He tapped the top of the boombox to reveal a hologramic interface and picked a song from random, making sure to slide the volume up to high.
"It'll come on in a minute, once the power's caught up. The damage to the engines is slowing everything down." He said to Captain Blake as he went back over to the controls.
"Ok. Is everything locked down?" She asked the rest of the crew.
"It's at 80% Captain, not sure how long it will take." A woman replied and she nodded.
"Well it'll buy us some time. Lock your computers and go join the rest of the crew at your stations, we'll finish it off here. Buy us as much time as you can." She said and the crew quickly dispersed with various goodbyes and well-wishes through the left passageway. She sighed heavily and ignored the panel displaying the percentage of the security lockdown, putting her head in her hands just as the song Sam had chosen boomed over the sound system. A very upbeat, soul song.
"Well I've roamed about this Earth with just a suitcase in my hand, and I've met some bug-eyed Joes I've met the blessed I've met the damned." The singer warbled and the two remaining crew members listened to it silently, Blake slightly slack-jawed. "But of all the strange strange creatures in the air, at sea or land my girl my girl my precious girl, I love you you understand." The song continued and Blake laughed incredulously.
"God dammit Peers. Of all the songs to die to, I thought you'd have picked something you know, slightly more sombre? Dramatic? 'We'll keep on fighting to the end' sorta thing?" She said skeptically and Sam huffed.
"This is a classic you know, survived all the way back from the 2000s. Besides it was just one in a genre I picked at random." He defended and they both lounged back in their chairs and looked out of the window in an awkward silence.
"Upgraded to Captain by default and in 12 minutes you've already managed to destroy the ship, conspire against and condemn the crew." He jested and she glared back at him.
"I'm not exactly happy about it either Sam." She shot back and he nullified his expression. "I hate it. But there's nothing else we could do, we need him."
"'S that bad, huh?" He asked rhetorically and they fell silent again.
"So reel me in my precious girl, come on take me home," The song went on around them.
They both jumped as a loud boom came from the heavy metal door behind them. The intruders were coming.
"Are you sure you can do it then? Can you reach him?" Sam suddenly asked and Blake looked at him out of the corner of her eye.
"I have to. It's the only thing we can do, or everyone and everything in 20 million miles will die." She said sombrely after a pause.
"So you remember the message you said you needed to send then? Cause if this doesn't work, you're registered on the radio as being the one who killed us. And everyone will hunt you down." He said and Blake laughed uncomfortably.
"I'll die too you know." She pointed out at the unfairness of the accusation.
"You know what I mean." He stressed and they shuddered as another boom came from behind, louder this time, and the dying yells of people and the sound of machine guns came from the left passageway, silenced by searing WHOOMPs from laser guns, and the screams just got louder.
"They're through the first door." Blake said and they both jumped up and grabbed their guns from beneath the console. "All I can do is try." She said in response to his earlier question and caught his shoulder. "Look at it this way, if we'd resisted them we'd be dead, and if we gave them what they wanted everyone would be dead. At least this way we have a chance of getting the only person who can reach us. If it works then I'll see you two hours ago and this will have never happened." She said and focused on her computer interface, her fingers flying over the screen as she locked it down.
"The lockdown's still only at 89%, you won't have much time." Sam said, tapping desperately at his screen. "And what makes you think he'll come two hours ago?"
"I told you. He won't want to come when everyone's dead, he'll want to find out who said it, alive. And two hours ago the aliens had just boarded our ship and everyone was still alive. His ship likes coming in at those points." Blake responded and having finished her computer, adjusted the strap of her gun over her shoulder.
"Oh his ship? Great let's add another to the mix, and how exactly is he going to board?" Sam asked incredulously as Blake started to move away from the console when she suddenly doubled over in pain and clutched her head.
"I'm fine!" She seethed through gritted teeth as Sam started towards her. "I don't have much time either, we need to get going." She said and straightened up as the sudden surge in her head passed. "What are you doing?" She asked as she noticed him tapping away at his screen instead of shutting it down.
"Directing all the security to the right passage, it's no good down the left. We're dead men anyway Mia, we knew this from the start." He said to her as he shut his computer down and they looked at eachother, and another round of the screams of battle came from behind him.
"This is it then." She said and stood there awkwardly as the upbeat song still played over the sound system.
"They should be leaving the right passageway alone, just like we planned. I'll see you in hell Captain." He said with a wink and they both turned to go down their designated passageways.
"Oh and what happens if I die then? Two hours ago?" He asked over his shoulder.
"Then it's your own stupid fault!" Blake called back with a grin.
"Good luck!" Sam called after her and she raised her hand in goodbye as he ran down the left passageway with his gun aimed and ready to fire.
Blake jogged leisurely down the abandoned right passageway, trying not to pay attention to the sounds of battle coming from behind her, and thanked the gods that the song was still playing loud enough to cover the majority of the screams. She looked thoughtfully out of the windows on the wall to her left as she followed the path down to the communications room. No point in being breathless when she sent the message after all, and the intruders wouldn't be getting to her any time soon thanks to Sam re-routing the extra technology. The lights flickered over her head and she tried to ignore it, musing that the power from the engines must get up here more slowly as she was almost halfway to the top-right corner of the entire ship.
"And a fighting man forgets each cut, each knock each bruise each fall, but a fighting man cannot forget why his love don't roam no more-" The song abruptly cut off at the same time as the lights, and everything else electrical. Blake stopped and could hear her heavy breaths in the dead silence, she couldn't even hear the low, ever-present hum of the engines anymore. That meant there was no power, no light, no song to disguise her footsteps and the security Sam had sent down her way was cut off. Without any security to keep the doors locked, all the metal around her was just a brittle shell. But most of all she realised that the silence meant there were no screams, the dying cries of her crew had stopped and so had the gunfire. There was nothing left to stop the aliens.
Filled with adrenaline and a raw fear Blake burst into a desperate sprint down the walkway. She still had half of the way to go! She tore down the passage with no regard for her gun, throwing it down after a few moments as it was getting in the way, and focused only on getting to the communications room, or all the deaths and sacrifice was for nothing.
But by doing this she also let the guard down in her mind, and as she turned a corner which had a large closed doorway in an alcove next to it, one memory entered her mind. She'd been running down a walkway in a ship like this before. In another life, another age, with a man she once knew. Running for her life. Then, like it had been one pebble that caused an avalanche, the memories she'd been holding off for so long filled her mind and she gasped in pain, falling to the floor and clutching her head. It felt like she was going to burst, thousands upon thousands of memories flashing through her head all at once, going by too fast to be focused on. She tried desperately to get control over her mind and then as quickly as they came, they vanished. Leaving only a fierce headache behind.
Blake looked up at how much of the passageway she still had to go. Panting and sweating heavily she tried to pick herself up but froze as a loud boom came from the double doors in the alcove in front of her. Boom! it was followed by another, then another. She could see the metal door-frame straining on every side, she backed up in fear to the railing behind her. Sam was long dead, only the starlight weakly lit the space around her now and she squinted her eyes shut, shielding her face with her arm, as the doors crashed down with one last boom. She'd underestimated the speed of the aliens and the strength of the crew, the aliens had gotten her already.
The aliens strode through the door and stopped as just one walked forward to her. Blake could only focus on the hexagonical blue eye of the gun aimed at her. The blue end of the gun morphed into an eyestalk in her mind. An eyestalk with a blue hexagonical centre that was focusing on her. Or once did, a long time ago. The memory triggered another and she remembered something she -or another- had once done long ago, and in one moment of inspiration, she let all those memories she'd been holding off flood into her head. She could remember everything at once. The previous thousands of memories paled in comparison to the millions that now flooded through her head. They were burning her up, all that knowledge and life, it was going to kill her. Then as the millions upon millions of memories that flashed through her mind like a film-reel faster than the speed of light, the one memory she needed entered her head. It was just one word, but the strength and force of it filled all of her mind, repelling every other thought or memory, stretching to the very last corner of her mind. It was too much for her human brain to hold and she could not even try to think of anything else.
Then the alien fired the gun and the blue laser beam hit her body. She twitched and convulsed in agony, by all rights it should have killed her instantly but for one second she held on. And in that one second she whispered that one name that was filling her mind, too quietly for any human ear to hear. As she was already dying, all of her memories and life came together and formed one strand of silver energy. An echo of what could have been. The aliens looked up in victory and wonder as it left her lips with her last breath and floated up into the air, going through the ceiling and out into the universe, carrying the one name she could remember. The one name he couldn't forget.
Chapter 1:
The small, blue police phone box spun around and around through the time vortex like a smoothie in a blender.
His companion watched, grinning, from the railings she was clutching onto for dear life. She'd tried watching coolly with her arms folded but had soon realised it was futile when she'd almost landed face-first on the floor.
"So where are we going then? You said you'd take me to San Francisco?" Clara called to him as the Tardis jerked and almost sent her flying into the coat hanger.
The Doctor popped his head around the side of the console and said: "Indeed." With a knowing smile and a twinkle in his eye before going back to jamming buttons.
"So we are going then?" Clara grinned back and looked up dreamily. "Oh the 1920s, imagine the music...and the dresses! And the sun too. You need to get out more, I told you we spent too much time on that neon planet. Way too disco." She said, noting the Doctor's pale complexion. He rolled his eyes.
"And I told you that the 'neon' vegetation produced more than enough ultraviolet radiation to support a healthy lifestyle, I thought it was a lovely place, who needs a sun when you have glow in the dark carrots?!" He replied.
"Yeah well speak for yourself, Mr Retro." Clara said cheekily as she indicated the neon symbols on the walls of the control room. Before the Doctor could retort to defend his beloved ship however, the Tardis jerked violently and let out a mechanical screech that Clara could only describe as screaming.
"What's happening?" She asked warily as the Tardis sped up and jerked around ten times as quickly as before.
"I don't know!" The Doctor replied with a heavy frown and pummelled various buttons in desperation. "The readings are going insane!" He said as he pulled the scanner around to his side, the symbols on it going past almost too quickly for him to read. "She's found something. I'm going to pull us out of the Vortex, hold on!" He shouted over the various flashing lights and alarms the Tardis had set off. Clara gripped onto the railings for dear life but as the Doctor pulled just one lever to stop the Tardis -to her bemusement as it usually looked so complicated- the fierce shake his ship gave out resulted in her landing flat on her face.
She lay there a few moments and noticed the Doctor had gotten through it fine, but failed to acknowledge her.
"I'm alright, thank you." She said indignantly as he still didn't ask. She picked herself up from the floor and looked around at the disturbingly still and quiet Tardis. "Where are we?"
"Drifting in open space, near some galaxy out there." The Doctor said uncharacteristically vaguely and Clara made her way over to where he was staring at the circular language the scanner was displaying, somehow he'd remained upright during the tremors.
"No no no, this can't be right." He was muttering to himself.
"So what was it? What did she find?" Clara asked and peered over his shoulder.
"Some kind of energy reading. And I think it found her. No wait, a sound recording?" He said bemusedly and tapped a few symbols on the screen. "Feeding it into the speakers...now." He said and they listened to the voice that came from hidden speakers throughout the control room. It was barely a whisper, Clara couldn't tell what any of it was except that it was only two syllables. And yet he affect it had on the Doctor was immense, she'd never seen him react to anything so strongly before. If she thought he was pale a few moments ago, now he was practically an albino. He was scared.
"That's impossible." He whispered and staggered back a step. He turned his head to the scanner where a new reading on the energy the Tardis had absorbed came up. "Oh no." He murmured.
"Doctor...what was it? I couldn't hear anything." Clara said and the Doctor quickly moved back to the scanner.
"Don't try to. It's something that hasn't been said in, well, 900 years. And it never should have been heard again." He frowned deeply and was now almost frantically cycling through all the readings. "Everyone who once knew that name is dead. They're all dead. It just isn't possible." He said, doing that thing where he rambled on for ages, yet never noticed the person he was rambling to, and Clara desperately tried to make sense of what he was saying. "And silver, why was the energy silver? Where did it even come from? How it managed to lock onto the Tardis is inconceivable, especially at such a high velocity of-"
"Doctor!" Clara suddenly shouted, breaking his train of questions. "What was it? What did it say?" She asked quietly and the Doctor turned his attention to her, she sounded so concerned for him and nervous at the same time.
"They said my name." He said simply and Clara's eyes widened as she realised the gravity of what he just said, he'd let himself die at his own grave once just so it wasn't revealed. She'd been there.
"They?" She repeated.
"Well him or her, or it. I couldn't even tell if it was human." The Doctor said and started bustling around the console again, she could almost see all the doors slamming shut as he hid all his emotions behind his wisened and audacious demeanour once more.
"So what do we do now?" She asked carefully, tapping her fingers on the edge of the console. The Doctor frowned at one last reading then looked up at her. She could almost see his old self in his grey eyes as he said: "We find out who said it." With an anticipatory smile. She grinned back at her friend and knocked the thought aside, it was just wishful thinking.
"Ok so, where's that? Can you lock on to it?" She asked eagerly and the Doctor spun the scanner around to his side to do just that.
"Of course!" He said and for a moment a shadow of apprehension and the darkness that always lingered at the back of his eyes passed over his face, then it was gone. "According to the readings it came from a cargo ship in Delta nine-one-one-three, a small Galaxy near a spaceport of the great human empire of the 26th century."
"So we're going to the twenty-fifties then?" Clara asked curiously.
"Yees, but there's one slight problem." The Doctor said, waiting for her to respond.
"What?" She replied compliantly.
"Everyone died just five minutes ago." He said and Clara's face turned down in disappointment.
"So what do we do now then?" She asked and the Doctor's eyes crinkled up at her, this Doctor's version of grinning when he's about to reveal something clever.
"We go there two hours ago." He said with a knowing smile and Clara grinned in glee as he firmly pulled down a lever to start their journey, having already locked onto the co-ordinates.
The Tardis warped into a small space between two large, steel boilers in a hall leading out of a room, with barely a finger's width between the edges of the police box and the boilers. The walls were white but the floor was the usual metal grating featured throughout most of the ship.
The doors of the Tardis opened to reveal Clara's head poking out. When she saw that the room was deserted she emerged. "Well that was simple. Are you sure we arrived at the right time? There's no one here." Clara said to the Doctor and looked curiously around the room. It seemed to be a sort of common room, with a faded red rug and a few sofas around it in the centre.
"Yes, certainly. Exactly two hours before the last person's time of death. Detected life signs and everything. So where are they?..." The Doctor mused as he shut the Tardis doors behind him and peered into the square common room they were on the upper corner of.
"Isn't it a bit odd though? That she landed so quickly? I mean usually it takes so long, and we never get to the right place." Clara said and ventured back to the front of the Tardis.
"That's not true!...Usually. But what's wrong with that? Perhaps she agreed with me for once." The Doctor defended and peeked at her from examining the boilers and various wires around them. "Why?" He asked and Clara crossed her arms awkwardly.
"Well, doesn't it feel a bit like..." She leaned forward and whispered: "A trap?"
"Nonsense!" The Doctor scoffed immediately just as the sound of heavy boots running towards the room reached them. People in various overalls and worn, work clothing armed with big, black guns flooded through a passage at the bottom of the room. They were yelling orders and commands at eachother but as soon as they noticed the Doctor and Clara they surrounded them instantly with guns aimed and ready to fire.
"See, people!" The Doctor said to Clara's I-told-you-so expression.
"On a cargo ship. With guns." She said flatly and he gave her a look of admittance as they raised their hands in surrender.
"What is going on?!" A resounding female voice shouted from the back of the crowd. The Doctor and Clara watched warily as a short, curly strawberry-blonde haired woman in khaki combat gear in her mid thirties bustled her way through to them. "You aren't part of the crew, who are you/they?" She demanded furiously as she looked them up and down, making them both seem tiny even though she was shorter than both of them. Or at least Clara's height.
"I...I.." The Doctor stammered, caught off guard by this small megaphone of a woman, and patted his jacket down frantically in search of his Psychic Paper.
"W-well they aren't aliens Captain, they aren't tall or purple." A man behind her said timidly.
"Nope not us!" The Doctor chimed in.
"Not purple." Clara said, indicating her floral top.
"Or tall." The Doctor said, looking specifically at Clara.
"Oi!" She protested but fell silent as the Captain's gaze fixed on her.
"Well I can see that!" She seethed exasperatedly to the soldier and put her hand over her face. "So...who are you?" She wondered and paced in front of them slowly. "You aren't stowaways, we did a life scan when we left..."
"Doctor!" Clara hissed under her breath.
"I know I know." He whispered back. "Ah!" He suddenly exclaimed and Clara jumped. "Found it! Here you are, we're..." He said and flapped the psychic paper in front of the Captain's face.
"Oh god I knew it!" She groaned and Clara and the Doctor exchanged puzzled looks. "Damn UNIT, as if one soldier wasn't enough." She said and the people around her all relaxed their stances.
The Doctor's eyes widened but he quickly jumped on the case. "Yes yes, we're from UNIT. Sorry lost my ID there for a second...Sent as...back-up?" He added gingerly as he ran out of ideas for them being there.
"They're coming!" A man yelled from the passage that they'd all come through a moment ago. All heads turned towards him. "The aliens got through the doors in sector 8, only two between them and us now." He panted as he ran up alongside them.
"Uh oh, something's going on up top." Sam Peers said from the small security room below, watching the scenario from the security computers.
"What? I'm kind of busy here, trying to save my life." A voice from behind him complained.
Sam clicked a few buttons, moving the security camera around, and sat back as it focused. "Well... whatever we were going to do, looks like it worked." He said, immediately catching her attention and invited her to look over his shoulder. Before she could look however, the Captain's voice roared down both the stairs and the intercom.
"I think you should go see for yourself." Sam said, raising his eyebrows at her and nodding towards the metal stairs.
"I haven't got time for this." The Captain sighed in annoyance as she turned back to the Doctor and Clara who were listening to the conversation curiously.
"Do you have unexpected visitors, Captain?" The Doctor inquired and she scoffed.
"It doesn't matter, I'm putting you in Blake's hands. She can deal with her own kind, do something useful for once instead of tinkering around the ship all day." The Captain replied.
"Blake?" The Doctor repeated just as she yelled: "BLAAKE!"
"Where is that girl..." She muttered just as she focused on her coming up the stairs.
"Here, Captain." Maria said as she emerged.
"Ah, Blake, there you are." The Captain said as Maria walked over. "Apparently your, 'corporation', sent these two people, I need you to get them out of the way." She said and Maria looked over at them. The colonel hadn't told her anything about any other agents, and she didn't recognise either of them. "But they're not..."
"Not what?" The Captain repeated with a frown.
She was going to say 'not from UNIT' but then she looked behind them and saw it. The blue box that had haunted her all her life. The Tardis. And these people, the grey-haired man old enough to be her father, in the blue suit with no pinstripes, who was looking at her so warily. And his companion, a young girl no older than her with clothes dating from decades back. They'd recently come back into fashion but her eyes, so big and round with wonder and adventure, a girl out of place with time. And his eyes, so cold and tired, old, ancient even. But oh so clever and bright... It had to be him, and yet she didn't recognise either of them.
"Well girl?" The Captain repeated and Maria's eyes snapped back to her. Then she turned back to the two strangers in front of her. Unless she vouched for them now, they'd be stuck in the cells until they arrived back on Earth. And that was not the plan.
"Not..." She said. Clara was biting her lip in worry and even Sam held his breath as he came up the stairs to see what was going on for himself. The Doctor just watched. "Supposed to be here, yet." She finished and the Doctor and his companion let out a sigh of relief. "They were supposed to meet me back on Earth when we arrived," She explained to the puzzled Captain. "But we've been testing a new alien teleport system lately, and it must have malfunctioned. Right?" She directed to the Doctor.
"Oh, yes." He quickly agreed with plenty of frowning. "Blasted thing, we thought we'd got it working." He said and slapped the side of the Tardis.
The Captain frowned at them in confusion for a moment but decided it wasn't worth it and shook her head. "Fine, whatever, just get them out of here." She said to Maria and turned back to her crew, yelling orders at every angle.
"Right then," Maria said to The Doctor and Clara, still not quite sure if this was really happening. "Follow me." She said to them tentatively and headed down the passageway the Tardis had materialised on the outside of. She caught the eye of Sam as she passed the group of crew-members. He was mouthing to her questioningly but all she could do was widen her eyes at him desperately and shrug before he was ordered off by the Captain and she went out of view.
Maria led them quickly down the passageway into the messier, more exposed walkways of the ship. Stray wires, electronic grids and poorly-lit industrial lights covered the metal walls and various poofs of steam and sparks occasionally came from them.
"That was close!" Clara exclaimed in relief as they went out of earshot of the crew, coughing her way through a cloud of steam and wafted it away from her face.
"It was indeed," The Doctor agreed and ducked under a hanging wire. "Thank you for what you did back there." He said to Maria and she smiled back at him tightly.
"Don't mention it." She replied and tried to slow her increasing pace down. Her heart was beating so fast she might as well have been trying to outrun them.
"Why did you do it though?" Clara asked curiously, still not dropping her idea of a trap. "I mean to you we're just strangers."
"You're the Doctor and his companion, it's pretty much customary to help allies of UNIT, especially when they're as legendary as you." Maria replied after a brief pause with a raised eyebrow and the Doctor raised his in surprise. Her heartbeat still wouldn't slow down.
"But how did you know who we were?" Clara asked in amazement. "This guy's changed since we last met UNIT, trust me, I'd know." She said and Maria gave an inward sigh of relief, finally something she could answer truthfully.
"I read your files when I was studying back on Earth." She replied. "Your face may change, Doctor, but your ship never does. Big blue box behind you, young female at your side, waving psychic paper in the Captain's face - it wasn't that hard to figure out it was the Doctor and his companion."
"Ahh, someone who does their research." The Doctor smiled approvingly. "This is Clara by the way." He added and Maria nodded to her.
"Sarah Jane was right, they're getting younger every time." She said absent-mindedly as she looked at Clara and the Doctor suddenly frowned in confusion. Her eyes widened as she realised she'd said something she didn't even understand herself and tried quickly to cover it up. "Sarah Jane, my, ah, superior." She stammered and cleared her throat loudly. The Doctor frowned suspiciously in the background but quickly let it pass as he put forward his own questions.
"Ok but aren't you-" Clara started but the Doctor cut her off, seeing Maria's discomfort.
"Now now Clara, don't overwhelm her, this girl just stuck her neck out for us." The Doctor chided lightly and she relented. "But what I want to know is," He started as he quickly moved forwards to Maria's side and Clara rolled her eyes. "What are UNIT doing on a second-rate cargo ship like this?" He asked curiously with a cocked eyebrow.
It threw Maria for a second and she stammered again as she tried to think of what to tell him. "Oh I'm just here for the trip home, it was the soonest one so I jumped for it." She assured him and picked up the pace as they rounded a corner.
"Ah, so you wouldn't know of any reason for strange readings to be coming from this ship would you?" He asked.
"Readings?" Maria asked. She could swear her heart just went two decibels louder.
"Well, a message. Sort of a two-in-one. It's why we came here, looked like it might have something to do with all the deaths in two hours..." He said and Maria blanched. "No need to worry though, I'm here this time." He winked. "So any ideas?"
"Nope, not at all. You'd be better off asking the Captain about that. Like I said, I'm just here for the ride." Maria said firmly.
"Oh." The Doctor said disappointedly and they fell into silence as they walked along.
"So, where are you taking us?" Clara took the opportunity to ask.
"The living quarters in the East wing, you'll be safe there." Maria replied easily, back to something she was certain about again.
"Sorry, safe from what?" The Doctor asked.
"From the aliens." Maria said simply. She might not know much about it but at least she didn't have to lie again. Well, much. "I don't know much about them either, I was in the security room when they arrived, about fifteen minutes before you. They just boarded the ship and started attacking." She said with a shrug.
"Didn't you see them on the screens though?" Clara asked.
"I was busy...It wasn't my shift to watch them." Maria replied awkwardly and gave a sigh of relief as they finally reached a door. "This is the back entrance, we just have to go through the security room and then we're in." She said and shoved the rusty metal door open by slamming all her weight into it.
"And then what?" Clara asked.
"Then we wait." Maria replied meekly as she led them into a square, poorly-lit room with two windows on the far-wall looking out into the endless space outside. A single ratty sofa sat in the middle of the room. The door to the living quarters stood at the top of the room and looked much more secure and heavy than the one Maria had struggled to open.
"I'll just get the door open..." She said absent-mindedly as she saw Sam gesturing to her from inside the white control room sticking out of the rear wall like a bay window. She quickly went through the glass door on the left of it and Sam was on her instantly.
"Maria what's going on? Is it him?" He asked as soon as she opened the door from his swivelling black chair.
"How did you get here before us?" Maria asked, avoiding his questions.
"Simple, through the old power-grid shafts underneath the security rooms." He said and now that he'd answered her question he spread his hand out for her to answer his.
"I don't know." She groaned and flopped down into the seat next to him. "I mean it's definitely him but he's changed. Sam, I can remember him with three different faces, and this isn't one of them." She said and put her head in her hands. "I don't know if this Doctor has even met any of me yet!"
"Well can't you just tell him what you were going to anyway? I mean we planned this, he's still the same person right?" Sam asked and Maria laughed exasperatedly.
"No, he's not. Regeneration...it doesn't work like that. He'll have the same memories and everything but this is an entirely different person, new personality, new reactions... The Doctor I met probably would have responded like we planned but god knows how this one will. And he said that he got the message when everyone was dead. Something bad must have happened to make us wait that long...I just don't know." She said with a despairing frown.
Sam twiddled his thumbs thoughtfully for a few moments. "Well how long have you got left?" He asked.
"I don't know!" Maria replied and threw her hands in the air.
"Well you said you wouldn't last for the trip back to Earth, how long's that?"
"About two hours if the engines hold out." She guessed and Sam thought it over.
"Ok, well then, you have under two hours to find a way to get him to fix you or to stop the aliens from getting to the box, provided we aren't slaughtered by them first...or everyone dies." He said lightly and patted her on the shoulder as they got up.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence." She said sarcastically and entered the sequence to open the door in the console.
"I'll never get used to this. It's just so beautiful." Clara said in awe to the Doctor as she stared out of one of the small windows. "Come on then, what do you think's going on? Alien invasion and a jittery soldier, not exactly a classic cargo ship is it?" She nudged him as she eyed Maria and Sam still talking in the control room.
"I'm not sure. Could just be a raid." The Doctor mused as he looked over her shoulder. "But I've got a feeling we'll find out when we speak to this Captain again." He said and turned around as Maria came out of the security room.
"Sorry, the keys got jammed." She explained and the Doctor nodded understandably.
"Shall we continue then?" He asked and took a step towards the opening door just as the Captain came screaming out of a side door in the left wall.
"Shut that door!" She yelled with a red face and they quickly saw what she meant as a gun blast came through the increasing gap in the door, almost hitting the glass windows of the security room.
"Sam! Shut it!" Maria screamed over the noise of the blasts hitting the door and they all quickly ran into the door the Captain had come out of, Sam doing a curious type of skipping to avoid the blasts coming through the door.
"The living quarters aren't safe, the aliens seem to be focusing on this area." The Captain panted and looked up at Sam. "Good job you decided to come this way, Peers." She said and he groaned inwardly, his plan of evading her had failed. "I've got 15 men holding the bridge, hopefully these doors'll hold them back for awhile." She said as Maria turned the wheel on the back of the door to activate the extra locks on it.
"Hello, you're the Captain am I correct?" The Doctor asked and she looked back at him strangely.
"Yes, Captain Cassie Reynolds. Why, do UNIT hire uninformed idiots these days?" She asked.
"Nice to meet you Cassie. Yes, well we're not actually from UNIT." He said and continued too quickly for her to question him. "Now I have a question, why does everyone keep calling them aliens? It's a bit discriminating for the 26th Century isn't it?"
"Well we don't know what they are." Cassie spluttered. "The translators don't work and they haven't even tried to make contact, they just appeared out of nowhere and started gunning down everyone in sight." She said bemusedly.
"Well that soldier said we weren't tall and purple, what does that mean?" Clara asked.
"Good question." The Doctor pointed out and Clara smiled.
"The aliens are tall, humanoid as far as we can tell, and wear purple armour." Cassie shrugged. "But who are you then?" She demanded and the Doctor looked over his shoulder as a steady rhythm of bangs came from behind the door.
"Shouldn't we be going?" He asked evasively and Maria jumped on the opportunity to get them out of there before the Captain found excuse to lock them up.
"I know a shortcut to the main hall, it bypasses all the areas the aliens will have taken." She said and descended down a set of rusty metal stairs to their right, rather than the passageway that continued left.
"Onwards then!" The Doctor said and followed her down.
The area Maria was leading them through had a rusty red hue because of the lighting and clouds of steam that came out of various oversized pipes the width of five men which centred on two glowing domes covered by some sort of cloudy, aqua glass. metal scaffolding, walkways and steps edged the high walls of the room and crossed over above the large domes. And the heat was unbearable.
"Where are we?" Clara coughed and the Doctor looked curiously at the domes.
"Engine room, right at the base of the ship. We'll be out of here soon." Maria replied.
"Ahh so they're engines!" The Doctor said about them. "But it's far too hot in here, even for quadruples that large. Something isn't right." He said suspiciously to the Captain.
"They're fine." She insisted. "Just can't go as fast, that's all. We're getting repairs soon. Anyway, you still haven't told me who you are. I don't even know your name." She said just as suspiciously but was disrupted as Maria lead them up a set of stairs and opened a hatch above her at the top.
"I'm the Doctor." He replied as he let Clara go up before him, then hoisted himself up.
"'The Doctor'? What? As in the only one?" She asked dryly as she followed them up.
"Yes." The Doctor replied simply when she'd come over the top and she laughed wryly.
They'd emerged at the bottom of a long, white hall the width of seven men. Just about everything was clean and there wasn't a trace of the metal grating featured throughout the rest of the ship. Maria was peering down the hall for traces of the aliens while Sam emerged at the top of the hatch and sealed it back over.
"Ok fine." The Captain said. "But that still doesn't explain why you're here, on my ship." She said with her arms crossed.
"We're...travellers." The Doctor said as he peered at a large screen on the wall. "We got a very strange... reading from this ship and we decided to take a look. Tell me Captain, are all your crew human?" He asked with a frown and the Captain was taken aback again.
"Well yes, of course." She said bemusedly.
"Are you sure? No hidden plasmavores or anything?" He asked, still fiddling at the unresponsive screen and she sighed.
"No. I have every medical record of every crew member from the moment they were born. You'd think I know my own crew in a business like this." She muttered.
"And what business is that?" He asked.
"Sh-shipping." She said uncertainly and knocked him out of the away of the screen in annoyance. "Here, let me." She said and typed a quick access code into the keyboard that emerged underneath it when she pressed a concealed button. "This is the first security footage we got of the aliens when they arrived, after that the cameras cut out." She said and stepped back as they all turned curiously to watch the images that came up on the screen.
It showed a narrow docking bay hall with two aliens coming out of the door that connected to their ship. They were tall and humanoid like the Captain had said and wore purple armour, or rather a heather-grey fabric covered their limbs and neck while their joints, chest, feet, upper legs and heads were protected by a much darker, harder looking material that was intricately carved. One of them spoke commands to the other in a flowing language that no one understood, except the Doctor. The last few seconds showed the other alien marching straight up to the camera and shooting it, cutting out the footage to just a black screen and fuzzy white noise.
"Well? I presume you understood that?" The Captain said as she looked at the Doctor's fascinated expression.
"No.. Surely it can't be..." The Doctor said to himself and kept rewinding the image to the alien's face with the sonic screwdriver.
"Can't be what?" The Captain asked impatiently.
"Hriekel, they're Hriekel. A species thousands of years old that originated from my home planet. But they moved out ages ago and found their own planet. I haven't heard of them since before the Time War." He said and stood back, frowning in puzzlement.
"So they're from Gallifrey?" Maria asked and the Doctor turned to frown at her.
"Yes, but how did you know that?" He mused.
"UNIT files." Maria explained weakly and the Doctor shook it off.
"I didn't know they had that much information on my files, blimey what's happening to universal anonymity these days? Time to pay UNIT's database a visit soon I think..." He trailed off.
"So could they have sent the message?" Clara asked and the Doctor thought it over for a moment.
"No...I think not, even they wouldn't have that knowledge... You see the Hriekel are very intelligent and fierce when it comes to it, but they don't care much for everyone else, they're a peaceful and knowledgeable race who usually leave the rest of the universe to their own devices. So why come out now, after all this time, and attack a cargo ship like common bandits for goodness sake?"
The Captain frowned and shook her head at this. "Sorry to interrupt," She said ingenuously. "But what are they doing on my ship? You understood them, what were they saying?" She demanded and the Doctor looked back at her.
"Oh nothing much, just that the coast was clear." The Doctor said off-handedly and spun around on his heel to think. "If I could just speak to them, figure out what they want, perhaps we can figure out something more peaceful..."
"Well good luck with that." The Captain scoffed. "They're shooting everyone on sight out there, no matter what we say."
"Ok then," The Doctor said and went to applying his sonic screwdriver to the screen. "Does this thing have a camera?" He asked, slightly irked that his screwdriver wasn't working.
"Yes, but they stopped working when the security cameras were cut out." Sam replied. "We've tried fixing them but nothing works, and we've got bigger problems than faulty webcams. The only one that would work now I suppose is the one in the control room..."
"So we go there then." The Doctor said and started striding up the hall.
"But you can't!" The Captain called him back and he stopped. "The Hriekel are eating their way through the security in the first sector and coming up on either side, they'd reach us before we even got halfway up the ship." She said and they all gathered back in the centre despondently. "Besides, whoever you are Doctor, I'm only allowing you to remain here because you seem to be the only one who knows about those, things." She said with her chest puffed up, trying to regain control of the situation. "They've already killed a good twenty of my crew already, without warning or explanation. I can activate the radiation cells in the sides of the ship to flood any area of the ship I wish. They were good, innocent men and that's good enough reason for me, before they kill anyone else." She said firmly and reached for the screen console, only to pull back from the ferocity of the Doctor's stare. He walked right up to her, looming over her small frame, and even she took a step back as she saw the dark look on his face.
"I will sort this out, hopefully before anyone else dies. But for all we know they could be the last of their people, and I will not do it with genocide." He said evenly and menacingly with a glint in his eye.
"I-I could have you detained. Right now." The Captain retorted not quite so confidently and the Doctor raised his eyebrow.
"Would you really? You just said yourself that I'm the only one who knows these people. Is imprisoning me such a wise decision?" He asked and Maria butted in before the Captain could recover and think of a way to lock him up.
"Or we could shut off the security in Sector 1 as they've already gotten through it and redirect the energy to 2 and 3 so the security up here's stronger, giving us more time to get to the control room?" She asked and everyone turned to her with slightly stunned expressions like she'd just spouted a lecture on a genius-level off the top of her head.
"That could actually work." Sam said and started tapping away at a smaller console in the wall behind him.
"Let me," Maria said and budged him out of the way, typing much quicker. The top of three bars on the screen displaying the energy levels was swiftly decreasing, but the other two boosting up. "I've been tweaking with the security for weeks, nothing else to do in a place like this, I know it off by heart." She said and jabbed the last key with a flair. "Done, shields on the doors in Sector 2 and 3 are now up to 200%."
"But we're still only at the start of Sector 2, the control room's at the other end of the ship!" The Captain said.
Ignoring the Captain, the Doctor still looked at her curiously and she didn't know whether to be scared or not. "What did you say your name was?" He asked.
"Maria Blake." She replied hesitantly.
The corner of his mouth quirked up into a smile. "Well then, Ms Blake, run!" He enthused and lead the way down the hall, moving much faster than she'd expected for someone of his apparent age.
"Run! Run!" The words echoed in her head as she followed him, but they were being said by another man. She frowned puzzledly and had almost got a clear grasp on them when the Doctor called out:
"You too Captain! You're too dangerous to let out of my sight." and Sam came up next to her.
"Are you alright?" He asked and she shook her head to clear the fading echoes of the face that had appeared in her head.
"Fine." She assured him with a smile and continued running.
They ran down the hall in no particular formation, with The Doctor at the front, Clara to his left and the Captain just behind, with Maria and Sam to the right. The fresh and modern white walls and polished flooring had faded into green-grey tinted metal, or some similar material, and a few more parts of the ship's insides were exposed, like someone had only done half the job of redecorating. As they ran they could hear occasional bangs come from behind the walls on either side of them, echoing eerily through the ventilation shafts. The sounds of the Hriekel trying to get through the security-boosted doors in Sector 1.
"How far is this?" Clara panted as there still was no particular end in sight.
"Not long, we should be nearing the door to the third Sector now." The Captain replied and they continued on, as did the Hriekel. Maria and Sam exchanged edgy looks and it wasn't long before the Captain gave in herself.
"Doctor I can't do this." She said suddenly and stopped in the middle of the hall. Everyone stopped a few paces ahead and looked around questioningly as she strode to one of the several single doors they'd passed that lead to the other parts of the ship. "My crew are out there. You can go on your damned quest for a peace treaty fine, Sam'll know my access codes, but I can't leave my people out there without so much as a warning to what's coming." She said and started tapping in the password to the keypad next to the solid metal door.
"No no no no, Captain..." The Doctor said in warning and put his hand out cautiously as if to stop her. Then as she punched in the last key they all shouted "No!" simultaneously as he door slid up. Maria made a dive for the small security console embedded into the wall next to the keypad, but froze as they saw the Hriekel standing on the other side of the now-open door.
"Hold on a moment." The Doctor said to the alien with an awkward smile and his hands raised in the air. "Before things get out of hand..." He said and spotted Maria creeping towards the security console in the corner of his eye. "Why don't we just talk? Hm?" He asked and the Hriekel just stared down at him like it was raising it's eyebrow incredulously behind the visor. "I'm the Doctor..." He said and extended his hand out for a handshake as Maria flicked a switch on the console and nodded to him. "...And that's one clever girl from UNIT." He smiled as he suddenly reached forwards and poked the force-field she'd put up. The force-field rippled out from his finger and the Hriekel looked around the doorframe despairingly.
Maria grinned back at him and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Wait a minute there!" The Doctor called as the Hriekel began to back away and Maria looked up at it curiously. The armour around its joints, boots, midriff and head was almost black with a purple hue and made out of curved ridges. The fabric that covered the rest of its muscular body, however, was a kind of lilac-coloured material that fitted the body snugly. Up close appeared to be made of tiny interlocking chinks like Kevlar or chainmail, and yet it seemed to almost blend in to the grey metal walls behind it.
The Hriekel looked back curiously and the Doctor exhaled in satisfaction. "Now, before you run off to gather your friends, under Article 15 of the Shadow Proclamation I demand to know what you're doing here and why you're attacking this ship." He announced and the Hriekel sighed from underneath its helmet and walked back to the shielded doorway. "The mighty Hriekel, emerging back into the universe all to raid a lowly cargo ship? I don't believe it for a second/Tell me, what am I missing here?" The Doctor asked suspiciously.
"We are Wardain Division 3 Delta 2 of the Restoration Endeavour of the great Carsan Kilmotta of Riekon. We have come for The Architect." The Hriekel said with great reluctance in a muffled but distinctly male voice and shifted his weight to his right leg, with his hand relaxed on the gun holster on his left hip.
"Ok, so why did you attack? You could have asked, blackmailed them even. These ones wouldn't have resisted." He said and nodded at the Captain who scowled back. "Why kill them?"
"We did not know the circumstances The Architect was under, the lives of one ship is irrelevant to the cause of the Restoration." The Hriekel replied.
"So you slaughtered them all." The Doctor stated darkly and the Hriekel didn't respond. "This 'Architect' then, who is it?" He asked and the Hriekel looked back at him smugly, as much as a helmet could convey smugness at least.
"That is not of your concern." The Hriekel replied with his arms crossed. "But who are you to know so much?"
"I'm the Doctor, and that's all you need to know." He replied quickly and nodded to Sam, who was nearest to the keypad, to start closing the door. He was about to start walking off, assuming everyone would follow him, when he turned at the sound of the Captain cocking her gun.
"I don't know who you are, Hriekel," The Captain said to him with her gun held in both hands, pointing at him despite the force-field. "But you have attacked my crew and killed innocent men, and that means war." She announced and the Doctor groaned. The Hriekel inclined his head towards her slowly in acknowledgement of the challenge as the Doctor pulled her away. He was about to turn away himself when he heard the Doctor muttering: "Humans!" and looked at him sharply. The Hriekel watched them go as the door slowly slid down. When they'd gone out of sight, he noticed Maria was still standing there and glanced directly at her before turning away.
"Wait!" She called after him as only a third of the door had come down, but was moving quickly. "What's your name?"
He turned back to her and if it wasn't for the helmet she could have sworn he smiled. "Ristoff, my lady/ma'am." He said and gave what looked like a little bow before marching back up the hall behind him. She couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not, or if these aliens even had a concept of sarcasm, but nonetheless she smiled to herself and jogged to catch up with the others as the door continued closing behind her.
"Why can't you just leave things alone?" The Doctor ranted exasperatedly. "You just have to pull the guns out don't you?" He shook his head resignedly. "It's your crew's lives we're trying to save!"
"How could we understand him?" The Captain asked, ignoring him. "I mean if they're talking English now why not before?" She said with a sullen, dubious expression.
"It's the TARDIS, his ship," Clara responded quickly. "It translates alien languages in your head...don't ask me how it works."
"Oh great so now his ship's in my head too?!" The Captain exclaimed incredulously. "How do we know you aren't with them, Doctor? Why are you here?" She asked with squinted eyes.
"I told you, my ship got a message two hours from now, and I want to find who sent it." The Doctor replied slightly grumpily.
"Two hours from now? Are you saying it's a time machine?" The Captain meant it incredulously but the enthusiastic glint in her eye was unmistakable.
"Yes." The Doctor replied curtly and looked oddly at her reaction. "Now," He said and turned around to her quickly. "How many people were on this ship before the Hriekel arrived?"
"Twenty-seven, twenty still alive, not counting you two." The Captain replied authoratively.
"Right. You told me you can account for every person on this ship, but the Hriekel are looking for someone and so am I, and it's not one ordinary human working on a cargo ship. So I'll ask again, are you sure that you know every person on this ship? No...stowaways, unexpected changes in the crew or...?" He asked and trailed off as he ran out of ideas, hoping she might have an answer.
"No, every person on this ship has been for the last five years. The only newcomer was Maria when she came along with the shipment." She replied indifferently and Maria and Sam tensed up behind them.
"Really?" The Doctor asked and looked at Maria curiously. "Maybe it's something else then," He pondered and paced around slowly. Maria relaxed subtly as the focus was off her, but they soon tensed up again as the Doctor curiously asked: "What exactly are you shipping by the way, Captain? You never said."
"We-" The Captain was about to reply but stopped as she noticed Sam and Maria shaking their heads furiously at her behind the Doctor's shoulder. So did Clara as she noticed the shift of her gaze and though the Doctor's head hid her view of Maria, she saw Sam.
"Just... flour, as usual." The Captain replied with a weak smile. [Or a "special metal" for UNIT?]
"Flour?" The Doctor asked doubtfully.
"Yeah, carbohydrates and stuff. They can't grow it on the outer stations." She replied and the Doctor nodded curiously at her. Before he could grill her more however Sam jumped into the conversation.
"What about that recording we saw before?" He asked and the Doctor looked at him questioningly. "If your ship can translate things, why didn't we understand the Hriekel then?"
"Oh...Hriekelian is a very old language. And that recording wasn't very good anyway." The Doctor justified and everyone relaxed at the change in topic. Clara however still looked over at Sam suspiciously, even more so now he'd changed the subject.
"So what do you plan to do now then?" The Captain asked skeptically with her hands on her hips as Maria doubled over and clenched her head, unnoticed, behind them.
"Well, we still have to get to that control room. I need to speak to their leader, maybe he'll be less abrupt." The Doctor replied, still slightly bristled by Ristoff's bluntness. His eyes glazed over slightly as he thought to himself.
"What makes you so sure it's a he?" Clara asked with her arms crossed.
"Or a she." The Doctor amended pointedly and unexpectedly spun around on his heel to face Maria who'd just recovered.
"What about you, Ms Blake? What do you think of this?" He asked.
"I think if you invoke Convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation on their leader they'll be forced to speak to you under the legislation of Grand Judge Ar'koon and the Shadow Architect, or be subject to the ferocity of the Judoon al'k Kimojo." She said quickly and autonomously, having no idea what she was saying, gasping with wide eyes when she'd finished.
"Yes." The Doctor replied and looked at her curiously as the others looked at her like she'd spoken in another language.
"I...read a lot of files." She explained awkwardly.
OR:
"I think this is indubitably the bad wolf scenario." She replied automatically, having no idea what she was saying and the Doctor went deadly still.
"What did you just say?" The Doctor asked with a deep frown and Maria's eyes widened as she realised it had happened again.
"I-I mean if you use Article 15 again on the Hriekel's leader, they'll have to talk." She said and shook her head. "Sorry, it's just something I read in the UNIT files, I, uh, blurt things out when I'm nervous." She said as an excuse and the Doctor seemed to accept it.
"Yes well good plan anyway. Exactly what I was thinking. Now if only the rest of UNIT did as much research as that, they'd be much more efficient." The Doctor said and turned back to Clara as Sam went over to Maria. Before he could say anything however a loud boom came from the door they'd spoken to the Hriekel through that was still only a few yards away, and they all snapped their heads around to it.
"Maria...did you see that door shut?" He asked warily as they couldn't see the door because a beam of metal was sticking out in front of it.
"I don't know...I think so." She replied uncertainly and they all winced as another boom came from it.
"Perhaps we should get going anyway." He said and they all started running up the hall without question.
Clara jogged up next to him and whispered quietly into the general direction of his ear: "What do you think that was then?" She asked and the Doctor looked at her innocently. "Come on," She smiled. "You can't really believe they're shipping flour? Can you?" She asked again incredulously as the Doctor's expression didn't change.
He smiled knowingly and bent down towards her to quietly reply: "I think Captain Cassie Reynolds isn't everything she says she is. But I have a plan..." He hinted and abruptly broke away to question Sam over the statistics of the ship, causing Maria to drop back closer to Clara. They slowed down to a jog as they left the sound of the Hriekel trying to get through behind and eventually, a walk. Maria dropped back some more and took the opportunity to satisfy something that had been lingering on her own mind, now that the Doctor was preoccupied with Sam.
"So," She said enthusiastically to Clara. "The Doctor said you came here because of a message, right?" She asked curiously.
"Yep." Clara replied and Maria nodded in what she hoped was an engaging and thoughtful way.
"So what did it say?" She asked and mentally crossed her fingers.
"Well..." Clara paused and Maria nudged her.
"Come on, you can tell me." She said and Clara laughed at what she was about to do.
"Not much really, I couldn't even tell what it was myself..." Clara started and Maria willed her on as she eyed the Doctor almost finishing questioning Sam up ahead. "The Doctor said that whoever it was said his name. So it would have to have been someone who knew him but he says they're all dead, and it scared him." Clara said and Maria repeated "Someone who knew him?" to herself under her breath as she mulled it over.
"But whoever it was died straight after they said it along with everyone else, so that's why we're here. To find them." She finished and Maria nodded to her distractedly as she was pre-occupied with the unexpected revelation she'd been given.
"Sorry, I have to..." She trailed off to Clara as she saw the Doctor breaking away from Sam.
"Are you alright?" Sam asked as she made a beeline for him.
"Clara just told me that the message they received was his name!" Maria whispered to him urgently. "Nobody knows that, even I don't. Only someone who knew him as a child could know it..." She said and eyed the Doctor and Clara looking over at them.
"So, you...remembered you knew him before you died?" He asked.
"I don't know, he's just a Time Lord. The last one, I don't know anything about him! Not personally!... I don't think... But how did I know him if I did? And I was only going to send him a message, why on earth would I say his name instead?!" She hissed and Sam shrugged helplessly.
The Doctor had moved on to questioning the Captain on where exactly they'd been when the Hriekel attacked them but Clara had grown too uncomfortable with Sam and Maria conferring amongst themselves in whispers.
"Doctor," Clara spoke out clearly, catching everyone's attention. "Have you heard any banging lately?" She asked cautiously, only half-intending to disrupt Sam and Maria. The Doctor frowned and raised his head up attentively, holding his finger up for everyone to be silent.
"They've stopped." He realised and everyone exchanged nervous looks. The Captain reached for the gun on her belt. "Now why have they done that..." He mused and his answer came almost immediately as a massive clang and a thud echoed up from the bottom of the hall.
"I think they got through your security trick Maria." He stated bluntly and turned to the Captain. "How long until they catch us up from the door to Sector 1?"
"We took at least fifteen, and they can run faster than us, so...five minutes?" She estimated with a sense of impending doom.
"We'd better start running then!" The Doctor said and took off up the hall with the others close behind. "We're going to the cargo hold," He called over his shoulder. "The Hriekel seem to be focusing on that area so perhaps we'll find something they want there, hidden in the flour." He suggested with a cocked eyebrow. Maria sent a frantic look in Sam's direction and he stammered for an excuse.
"But you can't!" He called.
"And why not?" The Doctor asked and stopped abruptly.
"Because there's nothing down there except crates and junk...I've seen it." He said and Clara frowned. "Besides, there's probably a Hriekel behind every door, and now they've busted the controls of Sector 1 the shields won't work." He finished more assuredly and the Doctor nodded as he acknowledged the validity in what he was saying.
"So we head for the control room then." He finalised.
"Doctor!" Maria called in warning as the sounds of heavy, and fast, footfalls started to reach them.
"Yes, let's not waste any more time/lets go." He said and Maria felt a pang of remorse/ruefulness, but she didn't know why. They started running much faster than before now that they could actually hear what was chasing them.
"The door to Sector 2 will be locked!" The Captain boomed as the footfalls kept getting louder and closer. "But there are two control booths 30 yards before it, here!" She panted as they sped around a corner and the big, round door came into sight with two short paths opposite eachother leading to the control pads for the door. "Two people need to enter the key at the same time." She huffed and slowed to a jog. "I'll guard the door, in case there are any nasty surprises on the other side. Maria you come with-"
"No, I'll take her." The Doctor interrupted her. "I like her, she doesn't approach everything with guns." He said coldly as he eyed the handgun she'd just drawn from her belt.
"Fine." She sighed, not even bothering to argue with him now. "Sam, uh, Clara, you know what to do." She said and they parted, the Doctor and Maria going down the left path while Sam and Clara went right.
"Do you have a gun by the way?" The Doctor asked Maria as the Captain jogged out of earshot and she indicated the gun-shaped bulge in the pocket of her black cargo pants.
"Well I suppose you can't have everything/that was too much to hope for." The Doctor sighed and followed her into the narrow alcove.
Sam manoeuvred around Clara to open the glass case over the keypad and entered the code to start the process, being careful to not look directly at her. She looked over her shoulder to make sure they were out of earshot and cornered him.
"I don't know what you're doing but you're up to something." She hissed and Sam glanced curiously at her. "The Doctor may not think so, but I'm watching you." She warned and Sam smirked to himself. She looked suspiciously at the small screen as he typed a sequence of hidden numbers in and he looked at her smugly as "Password accepted. Lock two unlocked." came from the computer. He shut the case and shuffled sideways around her again to get past.
"Just keeping us alive Missy " He said innocently and she rolled her eyes. She looked at him discontentedly for a moment but gave in with a sigh and followed him back to the door.
The Doctor watched Maria tapping the codes into the keypad thoughtfully and folded his arms.
"So, what about you Maria?" He asked conversationally.
"Hm?" She asked warily, worried that she'd missed something important.
"Sam just told me everything about the ship, but what about you? Only 22 years old, joined at 19...that's a bit young for joining something as cold and advanced as UNIT isn't it?" He asked and watched her closely.
"I passed higher than anyone else in the application tests, it seemed pointless not to." She reasoned.
"So you're a genius then." The Doctor acknowledged and she reluctantly bowed her head in confirmation. "Very odd behaviour for a genius though." He observed and looked out of the pothole window at the end of the alcove. "Usually geniuses are shouting to the world how special they are, but you seem scared every time you say something clever." He said and raised his eyebrow at her.
"I-I try not to flaunt it." She explained and typed the password in more quickly. "Don't want to make anyone jealous." She laughed nervously as the Password accepted came up on the screen and she shut the case.
"Of course not." He replied and watched her as she stumbled past him with an apologetic smile and made a fast exit.
"The door's opening," The Captain announced as she jogged down to meet them. "But the Hriekel are gone." She said and the others frowned as they noticed the silence.
"No more footsteps, nothing." Clara said as still silence ensued.
"Where have they gone?" Sam puzzled.
"The locks you just opened opened every door in this sector, they must have gone through one of those." The Captain mused as she and Maria went down to look around the corner at the bottom of the hall.
"But this was their big chance to follow us, to stop us. We couldn't have held them off, why stop?" The Doctor puzzled and paced around.
"There's no sign of them!" Maria called and started to walk back with the Captain when chaos ensued.
"Sector 3 disengaging. Sector 3 disengaging." The computer's female voice announced over the sound system and every possible red light around them started flashing. The ground started to rumble and shudder and they tried to brace themselves against the walls.
"THEY'VE ACTIVATED THE EMERGENCY EJECT, GET TO THE DOOR!" The Captain screamed as the floor began to pull away from the door, exposing the endless space below the ship.
"Oxygen shields disengaging in one, two," The computer started as they all sprinted for the two-thirds open door.
"Three, four, five," It continued as Sam and the Doctor leapt across the gap into Sector 2.
"Come on!" Sam shouted over the alarms and held their hands out to catch Clara. She leapt over and just managed to grasp onto the edge of the platform, her legs dangling into space. She wouldn't have made it if Sam and the Doctor hadn't grasped hold of her and pulled her up.
"Six, seven,"
The Doctor focused on the Captain and Maria now. Maria was taller but the Captain had got a headstart on her. The Captain ran up to the gap in three, long, bounding steps like an Olympian long-jumper and threw herself over the gap.
"Eight,"
She made it with just an inch between herself and the edge of the platform. Only Maria was left now, and the gap was wider than she was tall. She came to an abrupt halt at the edge and stared down at the stars so far below them, and the darkness beyond. She looked back up at the others with wide eyes.
"You have to jump!" Sam yelled but she could only look at the Doctor. He nodded to her silently and she took several steps back.
"Nine,"
She took a deep gulp of what would be her last breath and started running towards the edge of the ship, the gap increasing every second. Her arms were pumping, her legs burning with the adrenaline-fuelled speed she was making them move at, then:
"Ten, oxygen shields for Sector 3 disengaged." The computer announced and Maria felt the absence of air all around her. It was all sucked into the gap between Sector 2 and 3 and the force propelled her forwards just that bit more. Her toe reached the edge of the platform and she pushed her body forwards with every scrap of energy she could muster towards the outstretched hands on the other side. Then, she was falling into nothingness. She gasped out but there was nothing to gasp, her lungs constricted as her throat tried to gulp something that simply wasn't there and she reached out towards Sam and the Doctor in a panicked scrabble. There was no gravity to pull her in either direction and the air had gone, so she was simply floating in the middle, with only her momentum slowly edging her forwards. The ship was slowly edging away from her and pulling their reaching hands away. Her eyes bulged with pain and her mouth open and closed desperately, she thrust her hand out for one last try but it was no use, she couldn't reach. They were yelling to her but she couldn't hear a thing.
Then the Doctor suddenly pulled back and went to the edge of the door. Holding onto the door with one hand he took a deep breath and leant out into the oxygen-less space between them. He reached out for her hand but she was losing consciousness. Holding on by his fingertips now with only one foot on the platform, his face clenched with the effort and he stretched out for her hand. His fingers only just grazed hers, but that was all he needed. He heroically grasped onto her wrist and pulled her back into the ship.
The sudden gravity brought her crashing down onto the metal floor but she was still alive, and gasping for breath. The Captain quickly went to the door's controls to shut it as Sam went over to Maria, and the Doctor collapsed against the wall.
"Thank you." Maria gulped breathlessly to the Doctor and he nodded to her.
"That's what they were planning." The Captain said, slightly shell-shocked. "The entire third section is gone. The cargo and engines will still be intact, they're below Sector 2, but without a docking bay, nothing can get in or out. No help, nothing. Not this deep in space." She said as they all stood up and got their bearings. Then just as she had finished a bright flash of blue light came from behind them along with a short but loud screech of energy. They spun around and as the light quickly vanished a handsome, square-jawed man with a dimple in his chin in a long blue military coat stood in its place and looked up from his vortex manipulator wristband.
"Hi," He grinned charmingly. "I represent Torchwood, and I hear you have something we'd be very interested in."
End of Chapter 1.
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