The Empress Of mars
Chapter 1: The First Men In Mars
In the control room at the Kennedy Space centre, everyone was looking to the screens in anticipation. So many probes would just loose contact at this point. Years of work just vanished in an instant.
"Come on Valarie, don't let us down." Knibbs, the project leader, said to himself.
"Fingers crossed Alan." Coolidge said to him.
"I've got everything crossed." He pressed some buttons to bring a countdown up on the screen. "OK people. Transmission should arrive in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6…"
"5" A Scottish voice said from beside him. He turned to see a strange grey haired man stood there. "4, 3, 2, 1." The man finished. "Sorry. Never could resist a countdown."
Knibbs looked at the screen to make sure the image was slowly flickering to life, then turned to this strange apparition. "Who…"
"Is this Neil Armstrong?" Said another new voice. A young woman was stood, pointing at the huge mural of the Apollo 11 astronauts on the wall.
Knibbs struggled to comprehend what was happening. "What?" He managed.
"Neil Armstrong? First man on the Moon." She said.
"Not quite the first." Said the Doctor.
"What, you mean he wasn't the first man on the Moon?"
"That is such a human-centric question."
"I'm the human in this set up."
She is actually." Knibbs turned to see another stranger, drinking a cup of tea, with the bag still in. "It's a bit embarrassing realy."
Knibbs finally got out a sentence. "Who are you people?"
The Doctor waved his psychic paper at him "Friendly aliens. Don't mind us. Just a day out for the kids." Midway through giving Bill a lesson about the Mallard steam engine, he'd abruptly remembered that NASA had a probe reaching Mars today and hurried her and Nardole into the TARDIS so they could watch from the front row.
Coolidge took a look at the paper. "It's from the chief!" She said.
"Is it?" Said the Doctor. "Oh, yes. That's right. Authorising us to go anywhere we please. So… Valkyrie?"
Knibbs looked at the pixelated image in front of him, slowly coming into focus. He explained to the visitors. "Valkyrie is er probing the Martian ice caps with a new kind of camera on board. Uses a different spectrum to see under the poles and beam back pictures." Suddenly, something on the screen caught his attention. "What the hell?"
The probe had done its job. The pictures were so clear the ice cap may as well have not been there. But wat had caught his attention was a formation of rocks on the plains below. Precisely arranged to spell out words in English. The words GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.
The Doctor grinned. He now had an excuse to go on an adventure.
Bill did a thorough check on the space suit she'd picked up in the TARDIS wardrobe. When she was satisfied there were no deranged control systems, leaks or automated joints, she pulled it on and went to join the others in the drive room. She still found it hard to walk, due to the weighted boots Nardole had given her, but he assured her they'd be necessary in the lower gravity.
She entered the control room, where the Doctor was analysing the age of the rock formation in the photograph.
"We're there." He said, turning the screen to show her. "Mars 1881."
"Wait, so there were humans on Mars in Victorian times?" She said.
"No there weren't. That's why we're here."
Nardole was busy operating the scanner. "The Tardis registered multiple life forms below the surface, so this seems like the best place to look.." He copied some of the software onto a portable scanner.
They pulled their helmets on and moved towards the doors. Once outside, they were glad of the heavy boots, since the low gravity made them feel like the floor was slowly dropping away. The boots allowed them to walk around normally.
They shone their torches round a cavern of red rock. Seeing nothing nearby, they made their way onwards.
"Maybe someone's messing with time." Said Bill. "Like in the Terminator."
"The what?" Said the Doctor.
"You haven't seen it?"
"I'm a very busy man."
"You'd like it. It's got killer robots."
"Ooh, I'll put it on me list."
Bill pondered for a moment. "Even if people are here, why would they bother leaving messages?"
"State visit? Patriotic fervour? Rouge graffiti artist?" He shrugged.
Bill noticed something and shone her torch up at the ceiling to be sure. Round the corner, there was a yellowy flickering light. The three of them followed and found a collection of tents arrayed around a camp fire.
Bill reached for her helmet. "If there's fire, there must be oxygen."
"Wait wait!" Said the Doctor. "Let's not be too sure. I'll take my helmet off first."
But just as he was reaching for his seal, Nardole walked into view with his helmet under his arm. "Fire, oxygen. It's basic science."
"It could have been basic death." The Doctor glared at him.
"But how could there be oxygen here?" Said Bill.
"The indigenous Martians were superb engineers. Mind you, there's a lot round here that doesn't make sense." He shone his torch over a union flag in the ground.
Bill had a look at one of the passageways leading off from the camp site. "It's like those alien tunnels in The Thing."
"The what?"
"It's a movie. You'd like that one too. Everybody dies."
Seconds later, she trod on a thin patch of stone, covering a hole, which collapsed under her feet, sending her tumbling down a passageway and out of sight.
"Bill!" The Doctor called after her. "We'll get you out of there. Nardole, go back to the TARDIS. Get rope, climbing gear, anything you can find."
With a nervous whimper Nardole hurried back and into the TARDIS. But the moment he'd got the doors shut, something clicked on the console and the engines roared into life. He hurried over to stop it but had no idea what was even happening.
Horrified by the sound, the Doctor rushed back to the landing sight. "Nardole! What are you doing?" But too late, the TARDIS had vanished from sight.
After waiting a few minutes for it to return, he decided he was going to have to get to where Bill was himself. The tunnel was too narrow and windy to take him, so he hurried off into the passageways, trying to create a mental map of how far he'd run in each direction and how deep. One of these tunnels must lead down there.
After a while, he heard a steady thump thump thump from round the corner ahead. He paused, knowing what it most likely would be. Sure enough. The figure of an Ice Warrior emerged from round the corner.
Bill picked herself up and brushed herself down. A few scrapes and bruises but no major harm. She had a look at her surroundings and paused. Up ahead, was a metal door, completely out of place with the rocky surroundings. She approached it cautiously and reached for one of the buttons.
She froze suddenly as she heard a sound like a lift from the far side. The doors slid open and there stood a figure in brass armour, tubes winding their way across its skin. Its helmet had a series of tiny portholes arrayed around it.
The figure reached up to remove its helmet. Underneath was a moustached gentleman, who put the diving helmet under his arm and said. "I say. We weren't expecting company."
The Doctor knew this could either go very well or very badly. He knew the Ice Warriors changed their attitudes generation to generation, but their habit of hibernating for centuries made it hard to know what generation he was dealing with each time.
The Warrior saw him and rapidly stomped his way. This one looked a bit battered and past his best. The covering on one of the eyes was missing. But he could still smash the Doctor to pieces if he so wished.
"Halt!" The Doctor shouted. To his relief, it worked. He held his hand up in salute. "By the moons, I honour thee. I am the Doctor what is your name?" The Martian just tilted his head at him, so he continued. "I know your people of old. I was once an Honorary Guardian of the Tythonian Hive."
"Don't move!" Shouted a voice to one side. The Doctor turned and saw a redcoat stood there, levelling a rifle at them. "I'll sort this beggar out!"
"No, no, no, no! You don't understand." Said the Doctor. "This creature is no threat. He may look like a monster to you…"
The redcoat fired a shot at the Doctor's feet. "Wasn't talking to you." He snarled and stood by the Ice Warrior, keeping the Doctor covered. "You alright, Friday?"
"Sir." The Ice Warrior, Friday apparently, nodded.
The Redcoat turned back to him. "Now, who are you and what are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same question. And I will." He waved the psychic paper at them.
Nardole knew what about a third of the buttons and levers on the console did. He looked up more information on the TARDIS databank but most of it was pure gobbledegook. Something had thrown the TARDIS back to the Doctor's study at the university. He hit a sequence of levers he hoped would reverse course once more, but it just kept bouncing back. He rubbed his head. There was no way he could fly it unless he could identify what was wrong. And there was no one around who could show him. Actually, there was one, but it was only a slim chance.
"Indian or China, m'dear?"
"Er, I dunno. China, maybe." Bill was finding this all rather surreal, here they were, beneath the surface of Mars, and they were sat round a dining table, covered with tablecloths, while this Victorian officer poured her Chinese tea in a fancy china cup. To one side, Friday was waiting, like a good little footman.
The two redcoats had introduced themselves. The one she'd stumbled across was called Major Catchlove, while the one that had brought the Doctor in was Colonel Godscare.
"Where's Nardole?" She whispered to the Doctor."
"Er, well, he seems to have taken the TARDIS." He whispered back.
"What?" She'd heard the two of them hinting that Nardole may have been a con man before meeting the Doctor. She hoped she knew him well enough to know he wouldn't revert right now and leave them there.
"I'm sure it's only a temporary thing, you know, but it means that for the time being we're stuck here on Mars." He whispered, then turned back to the officers. "You were saying, Colonel?"
"Oh, er, well, yes, I was stationed out there. South Africa. One day, I, I came across something in the veldt. Something that was clearly not of this earth. An interplanetary vessel. I found Friday here on board, in a sort of coma, half dead." Said Godscare.
"Why'd you call him that?" Said Bill.
"Man Friday? As in Robinson Crusoe?" Catchlove gave her a bemused look. "So, according to your papers, you've been on board Friday's ship the whole time?"
"Yes. That we were." The Doctor nodded. "That was, that sounds, that sounds…"
"Convincing." Bill suggested.
"Quite. Yes, that's right. On his ship."
"Well, I suppose it was pretty roomy, what." Catchlove chuckled. They all knew their story sounded a bit awkward, but there was little to gain by perusing it further. The new arrivals seemed harmless enough.
"Very roomy." The Doctor nodded. "But the whole, you know, getting on board. I mean, that's all. It's all a bit hazy. Maybe you could tell us everything?"
Godscre continued his story. "Yes, well, after I woke him up, Friday asked for my help."
"To repair his spaceship."
"Yes. And to bring him home."
"In return for what?"
"Ah. Well, now. That is the question." Catchlove said, with a hint of irritation.
At this point, a blast echoed through the caves, followed by a rumble in the ground.
"That's the Gargantua. Friday helped us build it. A remarkable piece of mining equipment fashioned from one of his ship's artillery. Like a heavy artillery piece, but it fires pulses of light. He promised us gemstones, you see. Silver, gold. Treasure beyond our wildest dreams."
The Doctor frowned at him. "That's why you helped him come home. To claim Mars in the name of Queen Victoria." He nodded at a portrait of the Queen they had on a stand. Bill thought she looked a lot different than she did on ITV. "You came to loot it of its riches, stake a claim. The red planet turned pink."
"That was the general idea, old love." Catchlove said, not sensing his disapproval. "But there's nothing here. Whole show has been a ruddy wash-out. The ship crashed on landing. I go top side now and then to see if I can repair the beggar. That's what I was doing when I ran across you."
"And?" Said Bill.
"No joy so far."
"It could have been a fresh start. For all of us. Said Godscare. "But now, supplies are running as low as morale. Things are pretty desperate, I'm afraid."
He rang a little bell and Friday stomped over to take the china side plates from each of them. The Ice Warrior, whether accidentally or not, bumped into Catchlove on the way past.
Bill Nodded at Friday. "You've told us why you came here. What does he get out of it?"
"Nothing." Godscare said.
"Nothing?"
"Well, he was hoping to find his people, but it appears that he was asleep on that ship for much longer than he anticipated. Mars is dead. Dead as a coffin nail. Friday is the last of his kind." Godscare said, with genuine sadness.
The Doctor was intrigued. "Is he now?"
Nardole nervously walked up to the vault. The Doctor was so much better at dealing with her, and several decades assisting him weren't making it any easier.
He pressed the button to talk. "Hello? Hello, Miss? I was wondering if I could ask for your help? Er, I need to get to Mars. Well, I need to get back to Mars, in fact. Er, and it's a little bit urgent, only the Tardis is acting up and I was wondering if you could tell me how to fix…"
"Of course I can." Missy cut in.
"Oh! Er… Thankyou."
"But it's probably easier if I show you."
"Oh. Um…"