The darkness faded quickly into an ominous, dark green glow. I looked up at the man next to me, mouth still agape. "Wha- What just happened?" I stammered.
"Well I'm not quite sure of the specifics of Lorian technology, but I would say something along the lines of gravitational spectrum reversal with a bit of flashy lights thrown in for effect. You're not impressing me! I know that was all for show!" he yelled up at no one in particular, "But in your layman's terms, I'd say something along the lines of anti-gravitational field. I'm the Doctor by the way, and you are...?"
He rambled all of this very quickly. It was obvious he liked to hear himself talk. "Lucy, I'm Lucy. What is this place?" I looked around at the walls. It was all most definitely alien. almost comically so. The deep green light was coming from some hidden source within the organic-looking walls. The walls themselves had black beams on them that were as shiny and smooth as obsidian. The room we were standing in was small and circular with a long hallway coming off it. It was impossible to tell what was at the end of the hallway.
"Well it's a Lorian ship of course!" the Doctor smiled.
"Of course," I muttered, mentally rolling my eyes.
"Quite a beautiful bit of technology that really shouldn't be in orbit above Earth. Similar to how you're really not supposed to be here on this ship with me, but I suppose that can't really be helped now can it? Come on now, let's go shoo these nasty Lorians away from Earth so that everyone can continue on with their day." The Doctor held out his hand.
I have to be dreaming. All the school, it finally got to me. Well even if that is true, I guess I have no choice but to follow through with whatever crazy thing my brain decided to cook up for me. I took his hand. We quickly started walking down the long hallway.
"Now the thing you have to know about Lorians is that they are a very curious race. They really love their sciences and poking their noses in things that they have no business poking their noses in. Don't tell them I said that though. They won't want to leave this planet without some kind of souvenir. Luckily, I brought just the thing!" He pulled out a tree stick from his pocket with a leaf bud still on it. I looked up at his face and he was grinning devilishly at me.
We arrived at the end of the hallway. We were facing what appeared to be a large door (really it was quite hard to tell, the only thing distinguishing it from the rest of the wall was the fact that it was slightly discolored from everything else), Two hallways went left and right down to who-knows where.
The doors unwrapped themselves from the wall (quite literally the best way I can describe it). We stepped into what looked like a larger version of the room we first arrived in. A table was on the other side of the room. It appeared to be moving slightly, I shivered.
Out of the shadows appeared a tall, slender figure, not unlike the greys people think of on Earth when they talk about aliens. This one appeared to be cloaked in some type see-through of veil, but the head was completely uncovered. The skin was so shiny that it appeared to take on the dark green hue that the walls were emitting.
This had to be a joke. There was no way this was real. It was too stereotypical. Being beamed up into a spaceship? Check. Weird green decor? Check. Obscure humanoid figure? Check. I started giggling. "Alright, joke's over. Very elaborate and well done, but way too conventional. Now where are the cameras?"
I started looking around the room searching for one. "The Doctor" put his hand on my shoulder and leaned down to whisper in my ear, "This is all very real. I can assure you it is no joke. I may have misjudged the reason for this group of Lorians visit. Now just stay calm and do whatever I say."
The tone of his voice made me immediately stop giggling. It was the kind of tone your parents take when they realize their kids are in a dangerous situation. "What? Are they angry I'm here or something?" I whispered back.
"I'm not exactly sure yet, but it seems like quite the opposite, they appear to be very happy you're here. Too happy. I don't like it."
The doctor strode to the middle of the room, a few feet from the table, with his hands in his pockets. The exchange that followed was bizarre indeed. They weren't speaking a language I had ever heard. The conversation, if that's what it was, continued on for a few minutes until the Doctor seemed to angerly spit something at the alien. He strode up to the table very quickly and slammed the branch down upon it. The alien picked it up, examined it and said something short back at the doctor. In return, the Doctor started to talk normally and quite a lot faster than he previously had been during the initial conversation whilst very quickly inching his was back towards me. The alien started to smile, if you could call it that. Whatever expression it was making, it seemed very sinister from my perspective.
When the Doctor was finally by my side, he swiftly finished up whatever he was saying, took my hand and said a single word, "Run!"
"What happened?" I said as he dragged me by my hand down the right hall. "Why don't we just go back the way we came?"
"No time to explain! Just run! We need to find the control room. The portal we came through was a one way deal."
"So, do you know where you're going?"
"No idea" he actually smiled at that. Like this was enjoyable. I had to admit, it was a bit more exciting than my everyday life, but not knowing whether my life was on the line was a bit terrifying. We took halls left and right. Some hallways slanted downwards, some upwards, a few were straight as an arrow while others zigzagged. What the Doctor was looking for, I had no idea. I had yet to see another door, although granted, it was a bit hard to tell because everything just seemed to blend together.
After a few minutes the Doctor paused at what seemed to be a little niche in the wall. "This will give us a little bit of cover for a few seconds while I..." he trailed off and pulled out a shiny silver stick with a blue light at the end. "Keep a look out. Tell me if you see anything, well, even stranger than normal." As he started fiddling with the object, it started to output different sounds at varying frequencies.
"What is that?" I kept looking back and forth, my chest heaving from our sprint. I wasn't used to this kind of exercise.
"Sonic Screwdriver! Now if I can calibrate it to pick up a high concentration of psychic waves, maybe that will lead us to the control room. Oh these Lorians love their psychic communication. I suppose they think it makes them look smart. Although it can sometimes be-"
"Doctor!" I whispered, effectively cutting him off as I pointed down the hall to our right. I could hear something coming. Whatever it was, it sounded quite large and mechanical.
"Ah yes, that would be their onboard security."
We flattened ourselves in the little niche as much as we could in hope that they wouldn't spot us. It took me a few seconds to realize I was holding my breath. The Doctor snuck a peek around the corner of the niche.
"INTRUDER ALERT. THE DOCTOR AND HIS COMPANION HAVE BEEN SPOTTED. COMMAND LEVEL B-2 HALL A3W" a computerized voice sounded.
"Oh that sounds promising, we're on the command level. Run!" The Doctor took my hand again and we sprinted down to the other side of the hall, all the while, the Doctor was holding his sonic screwdriver in his hand. It was emitting a high pitched sound.
While we were running, it dawned on me, "Doctor, why did those robots speak english while the aliens, er, Lorians, spoke, um, well, whatever it is they speak?"
He shot me a look and then looked down at his screwdriver, "It looks like we're getting close!" Just as he said that, two very large robots stepped out in front of us. "Very close." We came to a stop. The robots seemed as wide as they were tall. They were bipedal machines with very large shoulders that were covered in what looked like armor. The robots were made of entirely metal. Each had one hand that looked like some kind of sharpened tripod while the other hand looked like some sort of gun. No matter which part you looked at, the entire automaton looked very, very lethal.
"Now what?" I looked at the Doctor dubiously. We couldn't go back the way we came, there were robots following us and we couldn't go up the stairs in front of us.
"It appears as though the control panel is right up those steps. If we can just get up there, I can probably teleport us back down."
"Probably? Doctor, I don't even know what's going on. You sure as hell better get me off this ship. Dying today wasn't exactly in my schedule."
"To be fair, I don't think dying is penciled into many people's schedules. But don't worry. Lucy, I promise I will get you off this ship. You weren't supposed to be here, it's my fault that you are, so I promise you, I will get you off this ship." Despite his words, I didn't feel very reassured.
The robots that had been chasing us finally caught up. Our situation seemed to be getting worse by the second. I just looked back and forth between both exits in the room. Each option was equally as dangerous. "Alright Lucy, I'm going to try something. I don't know if it will work and even if it does, it won't stop them for very long. Cover your ears and as soon as I say run, I want you to sprint for your life towards those stairs." He started to fuss with his screwdriver again. "Ok, cover your ears and get ready." The robots were getting closer.
i covered my ears for all they were worth, but it wasn't nearly enough. The sound that the screwdriver started making when the Doctor pointed it into the air seemed impossible. Even more impossible was that it was coming out of that little device. The pressure in the room kept increasing until I thought I was going to pass out. However, against all odds, the robots seemed to come to a halt. I couldn't hear him, but when I looked back at the Doctor, I was able to see that he was mouthing at me to run.
We booked it for all we were worth up those stairs and onto the platform that contained, what I guessed, were the controls to the ship. The Doctor was looking around frantically, pointing his screwdriver at various panels. The only problem was, his little magic device wasn't doing anything.
"No, no, NO! Come on screwdriver, you've never failed me before, now's really not the time to start!" He kept running from panel to panel, occasionally pushing buttons. I kept looking over the platform down the stairs, expecting the robots to wake up at any second. What came into the room next was ten times worse. It was that horrible, veiled alien with the sinister smile on its face.
"Doctor, uh, I think we have a situation." The Doctor looked back at me and raked his hand through his hair and put his hand on his hip, thinking.
"Ok, Lucy, I promise, whatever happens next, I will get you off this ship."
"Doctor, what's going on? Can't you get the teleportal or whatever to work?"
"No, not without my screwdriver. That pulse seemed to temporarily drain its battery. Like I said, I'm not that familiar with Lorian technology." As he was saying this, the Lorian glided up the stairs and was flanked by two of the robots. "As for what's going on, the Lorians, they want humans. They take them, experiment on them. Sometimes they put them back in society to see how they function, sometimes they keep them for their own purposes. Those robots," he nodded at each, never taking his eyes off the Lorian, "were once human. They still might be under all that metal. It's hard to tell. As for this one, he wants you. He thought I brought you to them as a gift. These Lorians have been here much longer than I thought. They already know everything there is to about this planet. Like I said, they're a curious race. Lucy, I will be back for you. If you can, run, hide somewhere. It's a big ship." The tone in his voice turned more grave as he spoke and I swear, the smile on the Lorian got wider. It raised up one slender arm and pressed something that was hidden under the veil.
I looked back where the Doctor was and he was gone. I was alone, all alone on this alien ship. This couldn't be happening. I was just taking a walk, going home after a long day in class. I just wanted to curl up in a ball and hope that this would all go away, but I couldn't. Damn you Doctor, whoever you are.
I started to run.