Kate Stewart was woken up by the ring of her phone. As she took a closer look at who it was, she instantly knew there was a trouble.
"Yes, Nathan?" She asked him with a sleepy voice. God, she hated sleeping for only six hours. One day, though, she hoped she'll have that day, she'll sleep all ten.
At the other end of the line was her loyal Nathan Green who did sound a bit nervous.
"There's an emergency, miss. We think it might be the Doctor."
And that was the only word she needed to wake her up fully at last.
She was sitting on the edge in the back of the car sipping her £1 coffee. The Doctor. Last time they heard anything about him was long two years ago, from that moment – nothing. They had several cases of finding extraterrestrials on Earth but nothing too dangerous, one was found naked in Siberia with a ship crashed and honestly asking for help, others were found in cities all around the world but they weren't hostile.
Nathan gave her a brief the moment she entered HQ, everyone looked rather worried. What that Time Lord had done again?
"Big spiders." She massaged her temples as if she could dig this idea into her brain physically somehow. "In Sheffield. Really?" She looked at Nathan. Unbelievable. "You woke me at five in my weekend for this?"
"The Tardis was also registered there."
"So, the Doctor saved the day and we have no work to do. Great. He always does that, fix things. Save us from bigger threats. Shop in our bookstores."
"It's different this time, miss."
"How much different?"
"Not like him at all."
There were spiders all over Sheffield, lurking in the dark corners of houses, massive creatures that frankly gave Kate Stewart some chills down her spine when she was provided with a picture of one of them found on someone's garret. Already dead, thankfully.
If only it was one spider on someone's garret that would be just terrific. But the reality was much crueler.
There were reports of dead bodies cocooned in their own flats. One mid-terrace at Park Hill had a spider on the second floor, but no body was found; the owner probably had no idea what was happening in his house as he seemed to be somewhere else. The lucky one.
"Are you sure the Doctor was here?" Kate mumbled under her breath investigating the map with winking knobs.
Jac was monitoring new comments mentioning unusual spiders in Sheffield, Kate could see in her glasses a reflection of some of them, and they were getting more.
"We've caught artron energy trace, tracked several tweets with police blue box mentioning and we have a family which presumably contacted the Doctor. Shall we talk to them?"
"No. They met the Doctor, we don't want to disturb them even more."
"I wonder why he didn't contact us. This looks massive enough. I mean, the whole city is infected with big spiders and he just what – didn't notice them? And what was he doing in Sheffield in the first place?"
"No idea. Let's deal with the problem first and ask questions later. We need to catch all of the spiders."
"Catch? All of them?" She was looking at Kate as if she was mad. She probably was.
"Yes. Bring dog containers and our best biology experts. We're going to Sheffield."
"We? You mean you too?"
"Yeah. Always dreamt to see Sheffield."
This time it was different. Well, not exactly. Frequently the UNIT had to deal with emergencies on their own when the Doctor wasn't around. But this time the Doctor was on Earth, near the hot spot, and he left without a call.
"We have another witness who knows what's going on here."
He called them for damage compensation.
Jack Robertson. A ginormous pile of money which was sitting now in front of her in the UNIT convey. Of all the people on Earth, she had expected to see him the last.
"So, you've met the Doctor."
"Yes, I have. Is she one of yours? She ruined my hotel!"
Oh, so he's she now. Okay.
"And how exactly she did that?"
"Disgracefully," Robertson said with his face turning into a withered cabbage.
As the UNIT was busy catching abnormal spiders in Sheffield, Kate Stewart was on her way to Robertson's posh hotel with three small squads.
"Under no circumstances, do not open the panic room," Kate briefed her people. "Robertson says that's where the Doctor locked all of them. We're here to take bodies. Look for any survivors and be aware that there still might be spiders around. Right now, I need the area surrounded. Delta, you go with me. Clear?"
Before entering the hotel, Kate made a call to their best biology minds who were studying caught arachnids in one of their bases on wheels.
"Sean, tell me something good."
"They're not extraterrestrials. Their extreme size is natural, with a minimum dose of radiation and chemicals."
Well, that explains why they appeared so quickly and unnoticeably on Earth, Kate thought. One question out of the list.
"Anything else? Can we reverse them?"
"Into being small again? I don't think so. No, not now. I'm working on it."
"Good. Call me if you find anything."
"Straight away, ma'am."
They cut through the strong silk which scarfed the whole building like a gift-wrapping. Lights on rifles were on, and they appeared to be in the main hall of the hotel. They also weren't alone.
"Huge!" Nathan Green whistled. He also gave the command to the squad to be on alert. "Is it dead?"
Kate came closer to it, the giant spider, size of a van, laying on its back with no vital signs. In the centre of its gut was a gunshot hole.
"It was shot by Robertson. Boasted about it like a baby on sugar."
"And the Doctor just let him kill it?"
"According to Robertson." Kate nodded. "But I wouldn't believe him much. Now, let's concentrate on finding bodies or survivors. We also need to find the panic room but do not open it. We still have no confidence if we can save spiders or not."
Nathan made a command to split squads and send them on search. While they were at it, he coughed for Kate's attention.
"Have you heard yourself? 'Save spiders'! What's this?"
"Compassion." She shrugged, keeping her eye on the dead arachnoid. "We can always give them a merciful death but for now, let's try for a change."
"Where did that come from? They won't thank you if you save them. And they killed people!"
"They are an experiment gone wrong, they're just confused."
"They're just ugly spiders, Kate. Even the Doctor left them dead. She wouldn't do so if there was a chance for them."
"Well, maybe the Doctor was wrong. Finally." Kate smiled. "Trying saving won't kill anyone, would it?"
They found several cocooned bodies, ID's yet to be estimated, massive underground landfill and a big shiny metallic door. She could hear grieving shrieks behind it, clattering and chewing and hissing. Everyone could hear them.
Her phone rang.
"Sean?"
"I've got good news for you. We can make them smaller once again."
"Oh, that's just great, terrific. Spill it."
"I've contacted Osgoods and they think we have what we need in Black Archive. Something called Tissue Compression Eliminator, TCE for short."
"Okay. Send that thing here with someone who knows how it works. Escort with our best people. Don't let it into wrong hands."
In the other corner of the room, Nathan was looking at her unbelievingly. She smiled and nodded at him. Told you, we can save them.
Then Osgood called. One of them, she never knew which one which, especially when they changed their clothes every week. She sounded rather nervous and unpleased with her decision.
"Are you sure?"
"That's what the Doctor would do, right? They are not intelligent but they are one of us."
"That's not what bothers me. TCE is a very dangerous weapon belonged to the Master. The concept of this weapon is to make target so small it can no longer be alive. Very few records tell about survivors."
"We will be careful. No one will know."
"You will know. Sean will know. Everyone who sees TCE in use will know."
"We will. But we'll forget." She gave a small nod to Nathan, which he didn't understand at all. "You have my word. As soon as we have normal-sized spiders in our labs, I'll make sure no one remembers."
"Okay. And you're right in one thing, that's what the Doctor would do. I'll be there in three hours then."
"We'll be waiting for you."
"One more thing."
"Yes?"
"She still isn't answering. Maybe she changed the number?"
They were surrounded by elite UNIT troops who were pointing their rifles straight at the cell.
Osgood by her side, Kate was looking straight into eyes of the creature behind the cell. It was waiting. Anticipating maybe. In her hand was a Tissue Compression Eliminator, a dangerous thing which looked almost like a sonic screwdriver. She handed it back to Osgood.
"How do we know we need to stop compressing it?" Kate asked.
"We don't know. I guess we just have to assume their size and fix our mistakes later in the lab." Osgood nervously played with TCE in her left hand.
"Alright. Then let's begin. Be ready to catch the spider."
TCE made an ambient noise from its depths and blasted with a red-colour energy. At first, the spider shrieked in agony, but as it became smaller and smaller, its voice wasn't so prominent anymore. As it became smaller, the cell was becoming just too big for it, and when the process was done and Osgood stopped compressing it, the spider took it chance and squeezed through the bars. A troop caught it immediately in a new container, fit for the spiders size of Goliath birdeater.
"It worked!" Osgood exclaimed in surprise.
"Just fifty-one left."
Having spiders turned back into their normal size, they escorted them back to HQ, one of the laboratories would study their behaviour and new silk they made, which was thrice stronger than the normal. And then…
Kate Stewart woke up. She took a closer look at her phone.
It was ten o'clock.