The Doctor looked at Emily. "Are you ready?"
Emily was enjoying their adventure now. "Yes, but do you think we can reach it?"
"I don't know. Maybe if you give me a boost I can -" Flashing his candle around, the Doctor spotted a rope of some sort lying coiled in the dimly lit corner. "Curiouser and curiouser" he whispered with his raspy Scottish lilt. 'Look Emily!" he said pointing with his candle.
Emily grabbed it. "Curious indeed. How did this get here? I hope no one has been coming down here. No matter, we'll solve the mystery soon enough. Here, you boost me up and I'll lower down the rope. "
The Doctor pushed up on the grate,making it fly open into wherever it led, and gave Emily's foot a hoist up on his hand she she could pull herself up.
"What do you see up there." The Doctor called up, suddenly becoming concerned when she didn't say anything for a moment.
"I don't know, you have my candle. Here, hand them to me and I'll lift you up. " First a dainty white hand reached down to grab the candles, and the next moment the rope appeared in front of him. The Doctor grabbed onto it, noting that it felt strange, almost like nylon, but covered in grime.
" It's pretty dark, but I see a pipe overhead. You may be right about the utilities. Anyway, I can use it and the rope as a pulley."
"Clever girl, but are you insinuating that I've put on some weight?"
He could almost see Emily smiling as she called back "No, I'm just fond of contraptions" from the dark overhead.
"That's very good. They often come in handy for me." He grasped the rope tightly and attempted to climb up it as Emily pulled. Between him, her and the make-shift pulley, he was soon clawing his way up through the opening. Emily gave him a hand, and for a moment they stood together looking around in the dark.
"Where do you suppose we're now" Emily asked inquisitively.
"I'm not sure. It feels like a big room. Probably a place to access the plumbing, like you said. " the Doctor mused. As he said this, Emily shone the candle around and walked forwards slowly. After a moment of careful treading, the back wall became illuminated. Along it was some extremely dusty, cobweb covered, and strange looking machine. The Doctor thought it looked a bit like an old ENIAC vacuum tube computer. It was like a large cabinet covered in dials and glass tubes and metal wires and faded gauges.
"What the dickens is that?" Emily wondered out loud.
"It looks like one of those contraptions that you like. Only much more complicated"
"What does it do, do you think? What are all this wires and tubes for?"
"I can't be sure until I poke around. Push a few buttons"
"Are you sure that's wise. Poking around in the dark with a machine of which you don't know the function?"
"Quite frankly, It's probably a terrible idea, but that's just how I roll."
"Alright, but I'm keeping a close eye on you" Emily teased.
"This lever looks like it switches on the power."
"That's funny, we don't have electricity." Emily said with quizzical amusement.
"You didn't think you had an enormous machine under your house either."
"Fair point. Go ahead, I want to see what happens" Emily said with happy excitement.
The Doctor nodded with a mischievous grin and swiftly pulled down on the lever. For a moment all for still, and then they heard humming. A loud whirring noise came screeching from the machine and the hot musty the air started to feel heavy and warp slightly. Soon the whole room was twisting in front of them, creating a sense of vertigo and then swift forwards movement, but they themselves never seemed to move out of place. And then all was silent. Their candles had gone out. They were somewhere very dark, with muffled noises coming from somewhere else.
