They land in some sort of artic wasteland, plummeting into the snow. Amy comes into consciousness quickly, as a voice called over her "Hello, Hello?" she opens her eyes slowly, and as her brain kicks in, she realises she is cold. Scrap that, she is freezing.
She sits up quickly, panting heavily. That was not what she was expecting to do when she woke up this morning. "Who are you? Are you okay?" the voice continues to ask. She looks up to see a dark skinned man in a white snowsuit, standing above her. She ignores him, standing up quickly and looking around, skidding in the snow. "Rory?" she calls, to no avail "Doctor?"
"I'm Harvey" the man starts to say, but Amy isn't paying attention as she runs off to her left "Who's Rory? Where are you going?" the man calls, running after her.
The Doctor is lying flat on his back in the snow, as he comes back into consciousness, laughing softly. Well that was a ride he thinks. He digs his elbows into the ground, noticing the snow. As he turns his head, he stops laughing as he notices a camera zooming in on him. Music blares out for a few seconds as he tries to sit up, followed by a voice. "Sorry, pressed the wrong switch!"
"Soufflé girl?" he asks
"You could always call me Oswin, seeing as that's my name." she says, watching him climb closer to the camera, big chin and all "You okay?"
"How are you doing that, eh?" he asks, tapping the camera "This is Dalek technology!"
"Well, it's very easy to hack"
"No it isn't." he pulls out his sonic, and scans the camera "Where are you?"
"Ship broke up when it hit. I'm somewhere… underground, I think."
"Right, what about your- you mentioned a friend?"
"Yes, I'm not sure of her location either. Whatever she's using to communicate is much harder to hack. So, are you coming to get us?"
Suddenly in the background, Oswin hears a voice calling out "Doctor!" The picture began to fade and The Doctor tapped on the screen with his sonic, shouting 'hey! Soufflé girl, come back'
"Doctor- she-she did leave a message." Oswin tries, but the picture is too scrambled now. She furiously begins typing on her board.
"Doctor!" Amy shouts, running towards him in the snow.
"Amy!" he grabs onto her arms to stabilise her. He notices the other man to, but says nothing. "Where's Rory?"
"There was another beam!" Harvey says "over there!" he points right, and Amy and The Doctor take off running through the snowy wasteland. Eventually they come to a deep, dark chasm in the ground. They both peer into it, panting heavily."Rory? Rory!" Amy calls inside, her voice echoing.
Rory awakens as something cold and wet drips on his face. He winces a little, his head hurts. He doesn't know where he is, but it is definitely dark. And damp. And cold. He gets up quickly when he realises he is surrounded by daleks. He's panicky, but calms down slightly when he realises they aren't actually moving towards him. Not been killed yet, that's fair enough. He thinks.
The bracelet on his wrist glows bright as he steps towards one hesitantly. He knows Daleks are clever, so he's still cautious. He reaches his hand out slowly, trying to stop himself shaking. He touches the Dalek for a split second before jumping backwards, but thankfully it doesn't react. He reaches out again, this time more confidently and pushes it. As expected, the Dalek rolls backwards, more into the shadows, silently.
Satisfied, Rory shrugs his shoulders and pulls the little torch out of his pocket. He was used to carrying it around, back when The Doctor could show up at any minute. He didn't even realize he had picked it up this morning when he got dressed in his dingy flat. Amy kept the house, considering she earned a hell of a lot more as a model than he did as a nurse. The sales from her perfume alone were his earnings for several years. She had offered him money, if he needed it, but he had been too proud to accept, and pretended he was fine living in the one-bedroom apartment and eating baked beans every night when he was waiting for his pay check.
"We came down two days ago," Harvey says as the trio trudged through the snow "there were twelve other escape pods. I don't know what happened to them" He knelt down in the snow and began dusting snow off the lid to the pod. As he dusts it, they notice the name. "Alaska?" Amy asks "But that's the same ship as soufflé girl."
"Except she's been here a year…" The Doctor said.
"And her friend? Her mystery friend, was she part of the Alaska team too?"
"I doubt it."
Harvey began the climb into the pod, motioning for Amy and The Doctor to follow him down. They emerge in some kind of miniature space ship, seats, controls, monitors. "We should have some climbing rope long enough for that whole" Harvey says, reaching over to the wall.
The Doctor looks round, and sees the other seven or so people sitting in the seats, spacesuits on. They all have their backs to them. "Won't you introduce us to your crew?" the doctor smiles. Silence.
"Ah, yes, guys- sorry. Guys this is The Doctor and Amy."
Amy smiles, and The Doctor gives a little mock salute but they are met only with silence. Nobody answers, or even turns around. Nobody moves. "Guys?" Harvey says.
The Doctor walks forwards, patting one on the shoulder. The body falls forwards, into the light, but all that remains is a skeleton. "Oh my god."
The Doctor scans with his sonic, and then continues scanning around the room. "They're dead.." he says. "All of them."
"But that's not possible!" Harvey exclaims "I just spoke to them, two hours ago we were doing engine repairs!"
The Doctor exchanges a worried look with Amy, before turning his gaze back to the deceased. "Sure about that, are you?" he asks, pulling down their hoods "Because I'd say they've been dead for a very long time."
"But they can't be" Harvey says.
"Well they didn't get into this state in two hours," Amy points out.
"No, of course. Stupid me." Harvey says
"Of course what?"
"I died outside. And the cold preserved my body. I forgot about dying." He says, as his head begins to open and a Dalek eye stalk forces its way out with a horrific cracking sound. The Doctor picks up a fire extinguisher and sprays Harvey. He stumbles backwards, shouting. "Amy! the door!" The Doctor calls, and Amy is already there, opening it. Harvey stumbles inside and the door quickly shuts as The Doctor pulls a switch titled "Door lockdown"
"Explain" Amy says, coughing "That's what you're good at. How'd he get all Dalek?"
"Because he wasn't wearing one of these" he holds his wrist up, showing her the glowing bracelet. "Oh that's clever! A nano cloud!"
"Nano cloud?"
"Little micro organisms that automatically process any matter, living or dead and transforms it into a Dalek. Anything attacks this place it automatically becomes part of the on site security."
"Living… or dead?" Amy says, looking around, panicked.
"These wristbands protect us the only thing stopping us from be-"
"Doctor shut up." Amy says, through her teeth, stopping him short. "Living or dead?" she says again.
"Yes, yes, living or… or"
A whirring sound comes around behind them. They both turn their heads at the same time "Dead" The Doctor finishes, as the dead begin to rise, eyestalks in their heads and everything. "Oh dear."
They turn around to the door, and are met with a banging sound. Right. Harvey, that limits out that escape. The Doctor runs forwards first, grunting and jumping over the chairs, kicking the dead-Dalek hyrbids out of the way. One of them falls on the door switch, and it opens giving The Doctor enough time to grab Amy and pull her out of the doors. They all cling on to her wrist, and he helps her pull, hard and eventually they let go, the door shut.
They both lean against the banging door, panting and Amy turns her head to smile at The Doctor "Is it bad that I've really missed this?"
He just smiles in return, that's his Pond. "Yes!"
"Good!"
"I know."
"Alert Alert," an American voice rings out "Unauthorised personnel may not enter the cockpit."
"Oh shut up!" The Doctor calls
"Hey," Oswin protests, voice turning back to normal "Bad combo, no sense of humour in that chin."
The doctor peers closer into the camera, Amy standing behind him. "Is that her, is that soufflé girl?"
"yeah, she- Oi! What is wrong with my chin?"
"Careful dear," Oswin says, her voice condescending but friendly in her tone "You'll put someone's eye out."
"I'm scanning you, you're on another escape pod from the Alaska, the same ship I was on."
"Yes, but how can you hack into everything, it should be impossible. You're in a crashed ship!"
"Long story…" she says with a smile "Is there a word for total screaming genius that's sounds modest and a tiny bit sexy?"
"Doctor, you call me The Doctor."
"I see what you did there. She said you'd be like this."
"Who did?"
"My friend. Cocky, check. Clever, check. Handsome, eh."
"Eh?"
"Well. From her description I was imagining you a lot taller, with better hair and a pinstripe suit."
"Well yes, that was me. The last me, it's a long story. Who is your friend?"
"Like I said, I don't know. But we have to rescue her later. She did leave you a message."
"Well, we can get to that. Let's rescue Oswin Oswald first, considering you're the total screaming genius, and I just have a… funny chin."
"Nice to see you know where you stand."
Before he can persevere his attempts to rescue his ego, a beeping sound comes from Oswin's controls. "Here, I'm detecting a breach at floor level. There could be a way out. See you later""
"aha!" The Doctor says, Amy helping him move boxes out of the way marked 'Alaska' "A hatch. Looks like it's been used already and they tried to block it off behind them"
"I wonder why." Amy says sarcastically, as banging continues behind them.
"Well, the lower part of the pod is buried, so this part must go straight down into the asylum."
"Where Rory is?"
"Yeah, speaking of Rory. Is there anything you want to tell me?"
"Are we gonna do this, now?"
"Well what happened?"
"Oh! Y'know. Stuff! We split up! What can you do?" she shrugs.
"What can I do?" he asks, looking up into the face of the girl he thought he really knew.
"Nothing. It's not one of those things you can fix, like you fix your bowtie." She says, reaching her hand out to tweak the blue bowtie gently. She notices the sad, deep look he's giving her through his green eyes. "And don't give me those big, wet eyes raggedy man. That's life. Just life, that thing that goes on when you're not there."
He ignores her and goes back to working on the hatch, tugging it hard. Eventually, it gives and opens up. They peer inside and notice the long tunnel and ladder, so far down they can barely see the bottom. "Well someone else got out this way then." Amy said
"Yeah, let's go find ou-"
They are interrupted by the banging noise again. The Doctor and Amy run up to the security monitor outside the space pod. "Hello, hello, hello, wha are they up to?" he says. On the screen the four skeletons are almost gloating- if skeletons could gloat- and waving something with a glowing blue light about.
"What is that?" Amy asks.
"One of these." The Doctor replies, holding up his own bracelet. "But where did they get it?"
Amy's eyes widen as she looks down to her arm. Back when they had been trying to pull her in, they must have slipped it off her wrist. "Doctor." She whispers. "They got it from me."
"Oh Amy." he says softly, before grabbing her wrist, turning it over in his hands.
"Doctor what's going to happen to me, seriously?" he stays silent "Tell me. What?"
Rory continues to search around the room with his torch for a way out, moving old cables and wires out the way as he travels through the sea of dead daleks. He turns his light to one in particular, covered in cobwebs. He shines his light right into its 'face' and pushes the eye stalk around to get a better view of its face. Suddenly, slowly, the daleks head begins to move back around, eyestalk nearly hitting his head. It swivels in almost a complete circle, as if it was perhaps just the wind. But still, Rory hesitantly steps backwards, gritting his teeth. His foot hits a metal pole on the ground, a loud clanking noise rings out through the room. He holds his breath, but it's too late. The eyestalk lights up into the painfully familiar blue and the head swivels around slowly, creaking, to face him.
"Shhhhhh" he pleads, but once again, it is too late. The other dales are beginning to awaken, slowly.
"EX…" it croaks
"What? I'm sorry, what?"
"E-E-E-E-X"
"Eggs?" he glances to the body of the Dalek, several of the balls seem to be missing "You mean those things?"
"E-E-E-X"
"I don't- I don't know what you want." He says, wincing "Uh, those things." He points to the floor at several of the golden balls "Are those things eggs?" he holds it out to the Dalek "This? You-you want this?"
"E-X…" it continues and Rory looks around shrugging "STI-R…MI-N…." Rory's eyes widen "ATE." The metal ball drops from his hands and he steps backwards, cautiously. The other daleks are repeating it too now. "EXTERMINATE."
One of them lets out a shot that barely misses him. He dives to the floor, and ducks as he runs through the sea of daleks as they all shoot at him, crying "EXTERMINATE".
"RUN!" a voice calls out "They're waking up, they're slow. There's a door at the end. Run for it!"
Rory doesn't know who it is instructing him, but he obliges and continues to run as the daleks pace improves. He heads to the door, marked with a red light. It lifts, just high enough for him to take a dive and slide under it, before it closes, leaving the daleks outside.
He remains on the floor, on the other side, panting heavily. "So, anyway. What's your name?" the voice calls again.
"Uh, uh," he pants "I'm Rory."
"Lovely name, Rory. First boy I ever fancied was called Rory. Actually, she was called Shareen. I was going through a faze."
"Right, and you're soufflé girl?"
"No, that's Oswin, my friend. I'm… just call me wolf for now. Long story, trying to stay ominious over here, dint know who might be listening."
"Right…"
"Sorry, just flirting to keep you cheerful. I'm guessing you know The Doctor."
"Uh, yeah." Rory mutters, but he's distracted. He can hear the daleks screaming EXTERMINATE around him, and clanking into the door. He shines his light into the hallway, and moves closer towards the camera. "Right, any time you want to start flirting again is fine by me."
"Right," Amy asks as she continues to climb down, over the doctor "What is going to happen to me, and don't lie because I know when you're lying. To me and I'll definitely fall on you."
"Yeah, all around are little micro robots, the size of molecules. Nano-genes. Now you're unprotected you're being… rewritten."
"So what happens, I get one of those things sticking out my head?"
"Physical changes come later."
"Well what comes first?" he reaches out and grabs her hand, pulling her through the corridors.
"Your mind, your feelings-your memories. And I'm sorry, Amelia, but it's already started."
"How do you know?"
"Because we've had this conversation four times."
"Right, okay," Amy says, panting "Scared now."
"Good, hang onto scared. scared isn't Dalek."
Just for good measure, he pulls her into a tight hug. His Amy Pond, the girl who waited. He'll find a way to stop the change, to protect her, he will. No matter how long it takes.
*ugly smiling* please review and check out my other stories.
