Authors Note: I don't own any of this. It belongs to the BBC. I just needed something to take my mind off the finale.
Congrats to anyone who spots the Seventh Doctor and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy References.
That First Mischievous Smile.
Jumping through hyperspace for the first time felt like having your internal organs pulled out with a vacuum cleaner. At least that's how it felt to the young woman with the curly mass of hair, as the transport shuttle flew between Dellah and Anapolis VI where she was going to help out at the excavation of the recently discovered Mausoleum. Leaning forward against the restraining straps, she let out a low groan. She shouldn't have had that drink last night. Or the other seven.
The woman across from her tapped her on the shoulder, "Rough night?"
She looked up and grimaced, "Yeah. Thought it might settle my stomach."
The woman reached into her bag and passed across a small yellow tablet, "This should sort you right out."
"Thanks," the girl said taking the tablet and swallowing it, before lapsing back into thought. It had been her archaeology professor at St Oscar's University Bernice Summerfield who had suggested she sign up for the expedition, promising it would help with her grade. Hence why she was winging her way on this rickety old shuttle. Last time she ever listened to Summerfield, who had probably never been on an interesting dig in her life.
Soon the shuttle came into land. The girl picked up her bag and wandering down the ramp stared around at the space port. Anapolis VI was a bustling colony world near the central of the galaxy, a hub of every type of import and export, both legal and illegal. But long before the humans had arrived; spreading their concrete view of progress over everything there had been a thriving empire here which had conquered half the sector, before collapsing. Traces of it were everywhere, in the architecture and the art work. But it was the Mausoleum of the Emperors she had come to see. Long sought but only recently found.
She had a few hours before her ride to the dig arrived, so she hopped a transport tube to the centre of town and began poking around. Grabbing some food (she wouldn't have touched the meal offered on the shuttle for anything) she wandered up and down the main arcade, before slipping into a small art gallery. It was a tiny place and it wasn't long before she had seen everything it had to offer. Slowly she made her way back to a picture she had seen when she first walked in, one of a massive six sided structure standing alone in a featureless desert. The six sides were capped with a round dome, at the top of which sat an immense jewel which glinted in the sunlight.
"Spectacular isn't it? Mausoleum of the Emperors," a voice said from behind her, "Circa 2235 in human years. The painting that is, not the Mausoleum. That was destroyed years before this. "
She turned to find a youngish man with wild brown hair standing behind her. He was wearing a tweed jacket and most unusually a bow tie. "It is spectacular," she said eventually, "I'm going to work at the excavation that's just started. See if we can find out more about the Mausoleum."
"Impressive," the man said, "The best archaeologists in the universe would give their right leg to work on this dig. How did you get involved?"
"My Professor, Bernice Summerfield recommended me."
"Ah Benny," the man said, "I really need to catch up with her." The man turned and began to walk away, "And who knows," he called back, "maybe we'll see each other again."
She watched him until he dissapered from sight.
Early the next morning, she crawled out of her tent and stretched. The night before she had been introduced to the other members of the dig team and the leader, Professor Harlson. He had explained what they would be doing over the next few weeks, before packing them off to their tents. Now the work could begin. She stood on a ridge, overlooking the sight. It seemed as if the Mausoleum had been destroyed by some sort of missile attack during the Colony Wars then buried by occupying forces. The colony had recently started expansion procedures out into the desert and had been about to build a highway across here, when their scans picked up the remains of the building. That's where they came in. After the initial excavation, they had to figure out how far the Mausoleum stretched in all directions and retrieve what treasures they could for shipment to various museums. Stretching again, she picked up a trowel and descended into the hole.
So the days passed. During the day she excavated the Mausoleum, rejoicing whenever she dug up something of worth, digging deeper and deeper into the history of the place and occasionally making a note of some things she thought she could get smuggle away. She spent the nights asleep, occasionally venturing out to stare at the stars and chart the new constellations. It was on one of those nights, as she sat, leaning against one of the foundation blocks, a bottle of Old Janx Spirit in her hand that she heard the noise. Pulling a torch from her belt, she flicked it on and shone it around, just in time to see a shape drop into the pit and slip away into the shadows. Cautiously she got to her feet and followed it.
She saw the shape wave some sort of torch at one of the standing stone. Then to her amazement she saw the stones shift to form some sort of doorway. The figure slipped through the gap and she follow him as it began to close again. Then she bought her torch up and said loudly, "Stop right there." The figure turned around and she gasped, "You?"
The man from the gallery smiled, "Hello again." Then he began waving his torch thing at the wall.
"What are you doing?" she said," And who are you?"
"I'm the Doctor," the man said, "And I'm trying to figure out why there is energy practically bleeding out of this place. It's like a nuclear reactor when it's about to go up."
"What do you mean energy? This is a mausoleum."
The Doctor (what type of name was that) smiled again, "That's what I'm trying to figure out." Just then his torch thing began to bleep madly and he twirled on the spot, "Ah ha. She's got something."
"She?"
"The Sonic Screwdriver," he haired off down the corridor, "You coming?"
They ran for miles, before entering a massive six sided chamber, littered with rubble and the remains of broken statues, "This is huge," she whispered, "How is it still in tact?
"Well there were a lot of Emperors and they probably wanted to make sure they could rest in peace" the Doctor replied before jumping into the centre of the chamber.
She stood and watched him for a few minutes. She should probably go back and wake the Professor and let him know that a raging maniac was burrowing round their dig, muttering about energy sources. But on the other hand, he might help them find out more about the Mausoleum and some of its secrets. Cautiously, she leapt down into the chamber and sat down on a block.
In the meantime the Doctor had pulled a stethoscope from his pocket and his it pressed up against one of the stones. "There's a faint pulse inside here," he muttered, "Like there's something alive inside the stone. But that's not possible." He shoved the stethoscope back in his pocket whirled around, "Could you please stop groaning when I'm trying to concentrate?"
"I'm not groaning," she said standing up, though as she said it she could suddenly hear it herself. She flicked on her torch and began to look about the chamber.
"Well what is then?"
"Umm Doctor," she said, her torch alighting on three figures, "I think it might be them."
Shuffling towards them, were three zombies, or at least something that resembled a zombie. They had a glassy fixed expression, pale skin that was flaking all over the place and one of them was missing an arm. They groaned again and picked up the pace.
"Oh that's fantastic," the Doctor exclaimed waving the screwdriver at them, "Absolutely brilliant."
"DOCTOR," she cried stumbling back "What do we do?"
"Umm," the Doctor chewed his lip, "Run I think."
They climbed some steps and ran back the way they had come, "What were those things?" the girl asked, "And why did one of them look so familiar?"
"Probably cause their the Emperors," the Doctor replied, "Or what's left of them anyway."
"How is that possible?"
He span and began to run backwards, "This place isn't just a Mausoleum. It's a cryo centre. The Emperors were probably put in stasis so they could be revived in the event of an emergency."
"So what happened?"
"Guess when the war broke out, they forgot about them. Then when this place was bombed the generator keeping them all in stasis must have been damaged. Not enough to wake them up, but enough that they would start to rot."
"And the energy spike?"
"Guess that was the generator finally giving up the ghost. Must have diverted all the power to waking them up?"
The girl stopped and leaned against the wall, "So now we have an army of Zombie Emperors who don't know there isn't an empire any more?"
"That's about the shape of it?"
"So what do we do?"
The Doctor smiled a big mischievous grin, "I'll figure that out in a minute."
Eventually they stumbled out of the entrance to the Mausoleum and blinked as their eyes adjusted to the light. "How much damage can they actually do," the girl asked, "I mean I know there's a lot of them but come on, their zombies. They won't be able to stand up to basic ordinance."
The Doctor stared at her, "You really need to start doing research. The one thing that allowed the Anapolis Empire to spread so far was their psychic powers. They could take control of any mind they wanted to and control them. So we've now got a lot of psychic zombie emperors who want their planet back."
Suddenly the girl fell to her knees, as a burst of excruciating pain swept across her mind, "Doctor," she moaned.
The Doctor knelt down in front of her and took her head in his hands, "Come on. Focus on me. You're stronger than this."
Eventually the pain passed and she climbed back to her feet, "Now what?" Before the Doctor could speak there was the sound of movement behind them as the camp began to wake up, "I guess the zombies found some volunteers."
"Okay," the Doctor shoved his hands deep into his pockets and began to wander around in circles, "First we need to shut off their higher brain functions,. Stop them from walking, groaning, taking over people that sort of thing but without hurting the people they have taken over . Then we need to block up the entrance. But how?" He kicked a stone block then jumped up in the air, "Got it," he cried as he began moving blocks into position.
"What?"
"It's all to do with shape," the Doctor explained, "This place had six sides remember? Shapes and patterns must help them focus their powers. If I can create the right shape I can route the energy back to them and over load the circuits. Grab that block will you?"
For a few minutes they worked in silence, moving stones into position, until the sound of voices could be heard at the edge of the dig, "Doctor. We're running out of time."
"Just one more stone," he muttered, moving it into place and then waving his Sonic Screwdriver over the pattern, let out a war whoop, "Almost," he said before casually kicking a stone "And lift off."
There was a ear shattering scream both from inside and outside the Mausoleum and the sound of bodies falling to the floor, "Well that's that," the Doctor said, pulling what looked like a laser pistol from his pocket. He aimed it at the archway and pulled the trigger. Blue squares shot out and in a few seconds it seemed as if the archway had never existed, "Job done," the Doctor said tossing the gun to her, "You might want to keep hold of that."
"So what happens now Doctor? How do we explain what happened?"
"I'm sure you'll come up with something," he replied, "You seem the imaginative sort."
"What do you mean I'll come up with something?," the girl demanded, "You can't just leave."
"Well no. But I'm going to anyway. Stuff to do, planets to save. You know how it is." He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek, "Say hi to Professor Summerfield for me will you?"
She blinked, "Of course."
"Good good." The Doctor turned and began to walk away. Then at the top of the ridge he looked back, "See you around River Song." Then he dissapered.
It was a few hours before she realised she had never told him her name.
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