Skarasen! – by Rob Dew
Skarasen!
This is a one shot Doctor Who story. All reviews welcome!
Pain was his first thought.
He couldn't open his eyes. He reached something over to try to clear them. What was it? His hand that was it, he was pleased he remembered the word.
Where was he?
The ground felt gravelly.
"Ouch."
What had happened? His questing hand freed up whatever was clogging his eyes. Blood was covering his eyes stopping him from seeing.
His brain had found the word! Another thought said he would be happier if it was in his body, nice and tidy, rather than outside making an unsanitary mess.
Groaning to himself, he tried to sit up. Okay first question, who am I?
His mind was silent.
Okay second question, where am I?
He was on top of a flat roofed building somewhere. He breathed in through his nose.
Earth.
Tangy, tinny taste. Some sulphuric pollutants. Early 21st century. He breathed in again.
2015.
June.
Just a little after teatime.
Okay that was sorted out, what about the first question again.
Who was he?
His mind was a fragmented mess of memories. He closed his eyes and could see a patchwork of images from daleks to zygons. A more recent memory came to the fore.
A huge beast released by…
What were those creatures?
Zygons!
A flash of memory revealed a plethora of images of the strange green suckered, shape changing aliens. He shuddered.
They had released it onto London! What was it called? Skarasen! Biological weaponry at its most advanced. Release the beast, let it crush and subdue the local civilisation then take over. What was that?
Another memory came to the fore.
Top hat.
He grinned as he put it on and tried to get to his feet and then staggered. What had happened? A vague memory like a summer mist came to his mind. He had been trying to stop the Skarasen that was it. He could see himself in his mind's eye standing in its way trying to use his sonic screwdriver to interfere with the computer control system the Zygon's had implanted in the poor beasts head.
How had that gone?
He looked at the wreckage of the building. He was on an earth power station. With a sad crashing sound, a huge brick chimney fell to the ground behind him. A plume of dust erupted and enveloped him. He coughed for a few seconds before the cloud dissipated.
It hadn't gone well. He could see the legs of another man under some corrugated iron. He straightened his hat on his head and jogged over to him. He strained against the iron but it was too heavy. It must be something to do with half the building on it. A broken mirror was on the ground next to him and he caught a glimpse of himself. He smiled and his reflection smiled back. Why couldn't he remember much? A patch of blood on his head told the story.
He was a Timelord! Made of hardy stock, his memories would return. He got hold of the man's feet and pulled him out from under the wreckage. For the second time that day he saw himself. The duplicate wasn't quite complete though. Strange tendrils enveloped its head as if it was being grown!
He shuddered.
Zygon.
A Zygon duplicate! The Zygon was moaning and mumbling to himself. He didn't look badly hurt, just a knock on the head like him. He needed to stop the beast! He didn't have time to spend with this alien. What was that on the floor? His sonic screwdriver! He chuckled to himself. Something going right! He flipped it up and opened his top pocket where it landed with a plop.
This Zygon wouldn't be any trouble.
Now why was a huge beast causing him such problems? He looked at his sonic screwdriver. The controls looked odd but vague memories on how to configure it came to the fore.
He was…
He was…
The Doctor!
A spark appeared to his left on an old metal doorframe and an eerie whistling sound as something small and metal headed into the sky. Then there was a short sharp bang from some distance away.
What was that?
A gun! He smiled as another word wormed its way into his head. He was getting better!
He ducked down and his hat was whisked off his head by a bullet. He scampered after it, scooped it onto his head and started jogging off after the creature. That might explain the difficulty he had before! He probably had trouble concentrating on the creature in front of him because of the creatures behind him shooting.
He took his hat off as he ran and looked aggrieved at it. It had a hole in it. Both sides as well! How dare they! He turned around to remonstrate with them when another bullet went through his sleeve and burnt his arm.
Zygons behind and Skarasen's in front! He lived for such moments! Another bullet ruffled his hair and he ducked down again. Okay great to enjoy such antics but he would like to live for longer than now!
He could see in the distance the huge shadow of the creature. There was a rumbling sound as three jets roared overhead. The warplanes loosed off half a dozen rockets and they hit the creature with unerring accuracy on its back.
It didn't even slow it down. One jet, flying at about 30 foot from the ground, tried to pass the creatures head but it was too slow. The creature grabbed a wing in its jaws and then threw the plane into a row of houses where it exploded in a welter of flame and metal.
Bile filled his throat.
This was real.
People were being killed while he was worrying about his tailoring! He needed to catch up with it. A battered and scratched motorbike was lying under some bricks. He got out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at it.
Nothing happened.
He looked at it his screwdriver. How did it work? How had he forgotten?
Another bullet whistled past him. He looked behind him to see two burly bald headed men with big guns running purposefully towards him.
More Zygon duplicates!
He pointed the screwdriver at the bike again and pressed the button again. This time there was a reassuring throaty roar of the engine. He stood it up, several bricks falling off it, sat on it and rode determinedly after the monster. Another bullet whistled over his head. He jammed his top hat on firmly, grimaced at yet another hole in it, and headed through the destruction towards the monster.
A sharp crack caused him to bend low over the motorbike as a bullet whistled overhead. The road was pockmarked and damaged with potholes. Skilfully he wove around them. A burning car came rolling incongruously down the road towards him. What had happened to the driver? He didn't want to think about it! What had happened to his pursuers?
He risked a glance over his shoulder and could see they had got into a green land rover and were now heading after him. What was with these aliens! London was only a few miles away! The Skarasen was already ploughing its way through the suburbs. He rode past the burning houses caused by the jets and some of the missiles that had bounced off the beast.
Ooof!
The land rover had bumped against the wheel. He bit his lip and gunned the engine. He turned around and was shocked to see his alien duplicate, his face gaunt, driving the car. Two burly men with guns were with him. One of the men clambered out of the side of the land rover and reached a huge hand towards him.
He tried to accelerate but something on him had snagged the land rover and he couldn't escape. His coat! The Zygon duplicate had caught his coat. Somehow, without falling off, he got his jacket off and accelerated after the Skarasen. He shot past some crushed cars and towards the monster.
The bike shuddered and stalled. He looked behind him to see the Doctor duplicate holding the sonic screwdriver he had taken from his jacket pocket and pointing it at him!
The bike stopped and the land rover roared past. The Doctor snatched the sonic screwdriver back from his shocked duplicates hand and immediately his bike coughed back into life. Whatever sonic trickery the Zygon had used on it had stopped now.
The bike, weaving like a drunk leaving a pub, headed up the road towards the Skarasen. He kept hold of the sonic screwdriver in one hand.
He could hear the roaring sound of the beast and the panicked screams of the humans. The land rover behind him was getting closer! He took the pavement, the bike bucking like a stallion and shot past a shop window being painted. The decorators had long since fled in fear but they had left the paint behind. He reached down a hand, grabbed a pot and glanced at it. Magnolia, talk about playing it safe. He chucked it behind him and heard a reassuring crashing sound followed by tortured metal as it landed on the vehicle making it crash. Okay maybe it wasn't playing it safe.
He leapt over the pavement onto the road and nearly crashed into a young mother pushing her pram away from the Skarasen. The building behind him was about to collapse, it would crush all of them! He grabbed hold of her and swept her onto his lap while his other hand grabbed the pram and he took them to safety. Behind him, the building collapsed in a welter of dust and bricks where they had been.
He dropped her to the ground and handed her back her pram. She hadn't said a word just looked at him in shock!
"Thank you for saving our lives!" she finally said when she recovered her voice.
He tipped his hat to her. "No problem!"
"I will name my baby after you! What is your name?"
"The Doctor!"
She thought a moment. "That might give her too much pressure for a future career. I will stick with Ethel."
He pointed the bike back towards the Skarasen. It had been programmed to head to the centre of London and then stomp, eat and destroy anything it could. It would not stop until England had been thoroughly destroyed. Millions would die. Then the Zygon's would invade. This was just a small scout force designed to cause as much destruction as possible.
He squared his jaw determinedly. He would not let that happen! He had nearly caught up with it and rode skilfully between the beasts legs until he reached the front of the Skarasen.
Eeuuurrrrh!
Foul breath assailed him. He shot forward and screeched to a halt in front of the beast. The Skarasen stopped its rampage and looked down at him with small intelligent red eyes. On its head, he could see a small box with a blinking red light. The control box. What had he been trying to do before? Use the sonic to scramble the computer releasing the Skarasen from the Zygon's thrall.
"I am a Gallifreyan lord of time!" he roared. "Keeper of the bylaws of the Parish Council of Gallifrey! Protector of the fez of Rassilon! True believer of tea and biscuits! You shall not pass!"
The beast gave him a curious look and raised a huge scaled foot to squash this small insect in front of him.
"You've asked for it!" He raised his sonic screwdriver and pressed a button. He could feel his brain vibrate so much it was in danger of leaving his head via his ears. Right, wrong way round. He pressed a button on it and pointed it at the beast. The end of it glowed blue but that was the only reaction. He shook it irritably. "You shall not pass!" He said again as a huge foot was risen above him. "Please!" He ducked and rolled out of its way.
The creatures back foot nearly squashed him for a second time then the tail nearly crushed him. It swung to the left and demolished a mock Tudor house with a conservatory.
The Doctor straightened his hat on his head. Why couldn't he remember the settings on his sonic screwdriver? The knock on the head had done more than just knock his hat off his head.
The land rover was approaching. The Doctor duplicate had punched a hole in the windscreen and he could see his determined face driving towards him. Was that really what he looked like? Why can't duplicates ever get the hair right! He was proud of his hair it was one of his 57 best features. True possibly the magnolia paint daubing his duplicates face didn't really help.
"Doctor stop!" yelled his duplicate as they tried to stop in front of him.
They wanted him to stop saving London! Never! True parts of Walthamstow and the expensive shops in Greenpark he could quite happily see flattened but not Covent Garden! You could get some of the best coffee in London in Covent Garden! He gave his duplicate a rude hand gesture, which had been banned in 487 star systems, and headed back after the Skarasen.
"Well I never…" he heard his duplicate say, "stop shooting at him!"
Another bullet pinged off the side of the motorbike narrowly missing his dancing leg. Only one of his legs he felt could dance well the other one was like a fifteen-year-old boy in a disco, it just stood in the corner wondering if it should join in.
What was with his brain? He could remember a time it worked like a computer! And not like one of these earth ones that work fine for a couple of years then just get so filled with flappy birds apps and one that turns your profile picture into a clown that it grinds to a halt. Now his mind seemed to be made of thick stodgy porridge.
Why couldn't he remember how his sonic worked! If his duplicate would just stop chasing after him he could concentrate! He needed time to think!
What was his most recent memory?
Waking up from the building collapsing on him.
What about before? He could see the Doctor's face in front of him. He was pointing his hand up at the Skarasen with his sonic in his hand. He then looked over at him his jaw dropping in shock.
He stopped.
Why could he see that? Most memories don't involve seeing yourself unless you are in front of a mirror. He banged his head with a hand. Stupid thoughts showing things the wrong way round. It must be the hit on the head, it jumbled up his mind like badly built flat pack furniture.
That didn't help it still showed the same image.
If he could see the Doctor that way round in his mind that meant?
His heart felt cold.
He was the duplicate.
He was nothing more than a cold-blooded alien shape-changing killer.
The Doctor ran up to him and grabbed the sonic. "Mine I believe! As is that face! Am I really that good looking?" The two bald headed men with guns both had the label 'UNIT' emblazoned on them.
He wordlessly handed it to him. He was nothing. Just a copy; and a poor one at that.
He was useless.
"Well don't just stand there like a depressed shape changing lizard!" said the Doctor. "I can't do this by myself! The Skarasen's computer is shielded, that is why it didn't work before!"
He grinned and whirled around to face the Doctor. "We need to disrupt the shield modulation capacitor!"
"I couldn't have said it better myself Doctor," he placed a hand on his shoulder. "What would you suggest old chap?"
"I'll climb up the Skarasen and open up the computer. You sonic it!"
"How will you do that?" asked the Doctor.
He got on the motorbike again and roared after the Skarasen. "I will try and look like Skarasen food! Which is everything I think! And not get eaten! Not getting eaten is a big part of the plan!"
He wove through the creatures legs again and spun around in front of its huge mouth. "Hey toothy! Down here!" The beast glared at him and tried to bite him. There was a horrible crunching sound as it ate his motorbike. He had grabbed hold of the creature's nostrils and pulled himself out of its mouth before its jaws snapped shut. Too slow for one shoe though. What was that on his hand? Didn't pay to think of it!
He pulled his way up the creature's snout, its face was old and grey and scaly. It looked cross eyed at him as he crawled past trying not to lose his grip. There was the computer, which had been surgically implanted into its skull! A small sonic shield device was next to it. He opened it up and pulled out a few important looking wires. "Sonic him Doctor!"
Beneath him he could see the Doctor pointing his sonic at it. The computer control device exploded with a puff of smoke. The beast's eyes stopped glowing red. It shook his head a few times as if struggling to remember where it was. This shook him off his precarious perch and sent him flying to land upside down in a skip outside Clapham. When he eventually surfaced, through the empty crisp packets, he could see the Skarasen lumbering back to the Thames. A familiar looking hand was above him. He grabbed it and was pulled out next to a grinning Doctor.
"Thanks Doctor!" said the Doctor.
"I am a killer alien shape shifter," he mumbled. "I have lost all my memories, apart from yours I stole when I duplicated you. I am not the Doctor, I am nothing."
"Time to start some new memories! It doesn't matter what you were, it is what you are now that counts! You saved that family, you saved London, and you saved the Skarasen!"
"You're right I did!" He straightened his top hat and grinned. "What will I do now?"
"The Skarasen will need monitoring to make sure it keeps out of mischief," said the Doctor, wiping magnolia paint off his face with a hanky. "You know the sort of thing, stop him eating the Isle of Wight ferry, and stop the Zygon's taking over the world again."
He shook the Doctor's hands. "I will look after it as well you would!" He had a life again, different to what he thought, but it would do. He looked out at London, the streets beginning to hum with rush hour traffic again, its citizens not knowing how close they had been to total destruction. He grinned. It would do!
The End
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