Star Trek Oswald 3: Beyond the Nightmare Child
Chapter 1
The Never Ending Nightmare
Pure Evil. That was the only way Clara Oswald could describe the race of metal humanoids, a race that she had faced a few times with The Doctor, and sadly a few times as a Starfleet Captain. The horrific interior of the Cyber ship was edged in Clara's nightmare; at least she hoped this was a nightmare. Alone and without The Doctor by her side, Clara made her way down the corridor and watched the Cybermen, who were frozen in hibernation cambers. She knew that at any second they could wake up, and advance on her. The cold emotionless faces made Clara's feeling towards them even worse. She could help but wonder what or who these people once were, before their heads' were cracked open and their brains' stolen and implanted into the Cyber-suit.
There was a flash of blinding white light, and Clara soon found herself laying flat on a surgical table, her clothing removed, and the icy cold metal of the table was pressed against her naked back, buttocks and legs. She tried to move her arms and legs, but found them strap down, and even her head was strapped up. Clara could only look up at a bright surgical light.
"HELLO!" she yelled.
"DOCTOR!" she yelled as she hoped he was nearby. "DOCTOR!"
There was no answer, no sign of the young bow tie wearing man, or the angry Scottish man. She was alone, and for the first time in her life, The Doctor had abandoned him.
"Human, Female. She will soon become upgraded".
Clara knew that dark emotionless voice belonged to only one race. The race that she had just been studying.
"No" she said in dismay.
"Relax Clara" said The Doctor in a Cyberman's voice. His youngish face was partly covered by Cyber technology. "You must trust me. I am The Doctor"
Clara just lay there in dismay as a surgical saw moving towards her forehead. She let out a loud scream as the saw dug into flesh and bone. For a split second Clara thought she was having a fit. She felt her whole body shaking, as blood running down her face. For one last time Clara scream.
"CLARA!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Clara sat bolt upright in the bed, her white nightdress was stuck to her body by sweat. She could tell that someone was at the foot of her bed.
"Computer, Lights, Dim" she demanded.
The lights came up and she saw a tall, thin man with grey hair and angry looking eyes. She began to pray that she didn't see Cybermen handles sticking out of the man's head, but there wasn't any.
"Doctor?" she asked as she pulled the sheets up to under her chin.
The Doctor looked at Clara with a slightly confused look. His dark eyes fixed on her as she yanked the sheet upwards, covering her nightdress.
"Why are you naked?"
Clara's eyebrows shot upwards in a horrified style.
"I am not naked" she snapped
"Then why are you covering yourself with that sheet?" The Doctor asked.
Clara opened her mouth to answer back at him, but she then noticed that her sheet was in fact right up against her chin. She lowered the sheet to reveille her sweaty night dress.
"See" she said sharply "I am not naked".
The Doctor nodded and moved across towards the TARDIS, which sat right next the bedroom door.
"Good" he said pushing the door open and motioning Clara to enter. "I need to show you something".
"Now?"
The Doctor had just entered the TARDIS when Clara had said that. He stuck his head out of the TARDIS and looked at her again.
"Yes now"
Clara threw the covers off her and got out of bed; she pulled on her dressing gown and stormed over to the TARDIS.
"Ok, but why couldn't this wait to the morning?" she demanded as she closed the TARDIS' door behind.
"You'll see" a Scottish sounding voice said from behind the central column.
Clara joined the Doctor at the console as the time ship disappeared from Clara's bedroom and span at speed through the time vortex.
When the TARDIS landed, Clara walked out of the warm console room, only to be met with a bitter cold win and a horrific downpour of icy cold rain. Her bare feet sank slightly in the mud.
"DOCTOR!"
The Doctor stuck his head out of the TARDIS and then came and joined Clara, who was now soaked from head to toe.
"Ah it never changes" said The Doctor.
Clara battled to keep her anger in check. She shivered as her eyes tried to make out where they were, however the rain made it imposable for her to make out anything. Let alone a towering skyline, which The Doctor was pointing at.
"Surely you know what world we are on?" he asked.
"Earth?" Clara tried to guess "Maybe England in the summertime".
The Doctor looked over to her, and judging by the look he gave her, he didn't get the joke.
"It's Ferenginar" he said. "And you work in Starfleet"
"Yes but I never been to Frenginar" she huffed. "The universe is a big place you know, and if you spent any time in remember my timeline and not that other Clara's that you keep bang on about, then you would know that I am in fact on the inactive roll".
"So you never have been to Ferenginar then?"
Clara held her hands up to the heavens, as if she was trying to pleading to the gods. She let out a loud yell of anger.
"NO! I have not been too..." she stopped and gasped.
High above Clara and The Doctor, the dark grey skies that were showering rain down onto the surface of Frenginar, were changing. The dark clouds were slowly beginning to turn into clouds of pink, yellow, and blue. The rain started to slow, and Clara felt the air temperature rise.
"Doctor?"
The Doctor looked up and he nodded.
"Bang on time".
"On time?" asked Clara as she looked over at the Timelord. "Do you know what it is?"
"Nope".
Clara became more confused "wait. You just said"
"Watch"
"Watch?" she asked "Watch what?"
But before The Doctor could answer, a large blot of green lighting shot out of the colourful cloud, and struck one of the tall buildings on the horizon. Clara couldn't do anything but watch in horror as yet more lightning bolts were fired from the cloud, there impacts making a lot more damage than any phaser or photon blast would do. Within minutes, the city skyline was no more, and the cloud just drifted away.
"That..." Clara began as the icy cold wind returned, along with the rain.
"Come" The Doctor said as he noticed Clara's teeth had begun to chatter. "Come back into the TARDIS".
Clara staggered back, her eyes still firmly fixed on the burning Ferengi city. She felt the Doctor pull her into his ship, but then the ship shock violently for a few seconds.
"What's going on?" she asked as she watched The Doctor study his console screen. She didn't like the look he gave her back.
"That was Ferenginar..." his voice became slightly weak and Clara had to edge closer to him to hear the next part of the sentence. "Exploding".
Tears danced in the bottom of Clara's eyes. She didn't want to believe that she had just seen the Ferengi homeworld being destroyed, so she quickly span around and threw open the TARDIS' doors, already knowing what she was going to see.
Where Ferenginar once was, there large lumps of rock, rock that was easily the size of Australia. The planet of Ferenginar had been shattered apart. The only thing Clara recognized from the dead world was the strange colourful cloud that had just attacked the planet. Clara closed the door and allowed her tears to run down her wet face.
"Here"
The Doctor handed Clara a cup of tea, he then returned the console and carried on working at it.
"When did that happen?" she asked.
The Doctor turned and looked at Clara, his eyes darted around her and then fixed onto her.
"No lying" Clara snapped "Please I can't take anymore nightmares. Not tonight"
"Five days from now"
"FIVE DAYS!" Clara yelled.
"Yes" said The Doctor. "Yes in five days time, that nasty cloud will destroy Ferenginar, in ten days time, the cloud will destroy the Andorian homeworld, in fifteen days, Vulcan will fall"
"And in twenty days, Earth will fall" muttered Clara.
"No" said The Doctor as he stuck his head around the console "in twenty-five days, get it right".
"Oh nice to see your so clam about all this".
It was at this point that Clara missed the old Doctor, her Doctor, The Doctor who was young and caring.
"Please tell me there is a way of stopping this".
"Yes" The Doctor said coldly. "That is why you are here"
"Me?" Clara asked looking up at him.
"I didn't bring to this point in time for a sightseeing trip. Only you can help stop the destruction of the galaxy".
"Why me? Why not you?"
"Because this cloud came from the one place the TARDIS will never ever go near. A place I swore I would never would go near again".
"And that place being?" Clara asked in a shaky voice.
"The Jaws of the Nightmare Child" replied the Doctor.