Chapter 2
The Writing on the Wall
By the time they reached their destination, Rose was ready to scream. She did not need commentary on her driving.
"Tower," she said into her earpiece, turning it on. "This is Rose Tyler, checking in from our destination."
"Got you, Rose," Jake replied. "Stay on with us; we don't know what's out there. Did you kick Dr. Smith out onto the side of the road somewhere?"
Rose shot a glare at the Doctor. "No, he's just not putting his earpiece on."
The man in question frowned, but put his earpiece on anyway. "Dr. John Smith, reporting for duty."
"Confirmed, Dr. Smith."
"We're going to have a look around, Tower. Looks pretty normal from out here."
"Be careful, Rose."
Rose motioned for the Doctor to follow her. The abandoned grain silo loomed overhead, blocking out the sun. The door wouldn't open for Rose, but the Doctor had no trouble opening it with a bit of help from his sonic screwdriver. Rose ignored it; she was determined to keep the domestics out of her field work.
Inside the silo, Rose found it hard to believe there were aliens. The floor was still covered in grain an inch thick, with little piles around the edges. "I don't see anything alien here. Unless the aliens are some kind of biped cow."
"Rose, look at this," the Doctor said.
"Writing on the wall?"
"It looks similar to Barrian script, but I'm having trouble deciphering it."
"Well, you don't have the translation matrix in your head."
"I don't need the translation matrix in my head. Had to learn it all the hard way; the translation matrix just helps with fluency. But this isn't the same universe; I'm not surprised I can't understand it."
"Looks more like an animal got trapped in here. There're scratches all over these walls."
"Trapped?" He looked up, and Rose followed his gaze. "Those must be the chains it was hanging from when it wrote that. The writing's upside down."
"So, are you gonna stand on your head?" Rose covered her mouth with her hand to keep from laughing.
"Stand on my—of course I'm not going to stand on my head." He pointed his small torch up at the chains. "They're a bit high, but I think I can reach them."
"You're gonna hang upside down by your feet, then? I hope you know that human bodies don't really appreciate that sort of thing."
"Oh, I'll be fine. I'm only a few weeks old, after all."
"Rose? Dr. Smith?"
Rose touched the com button on her earpiece. "Yeah. We're inside. There're some markings on the wall. The Doctor thinks they're alien writing. He's working on translating it."
"Thank you, Rose. Anything else?"
"There're some big chains hanging from the top of the silo near where the writing is. He thinks there was an alien chained by its legs—its 'posterior extremities,' if you're gonna put that on the report." Rose shone her torch up while the Doctor scaled a bit of scaffolding. "How's it coming up there?"
"Bit—far," he replied, his voice strained to match the hand he was stretching toward the chain.
Rose smirked. "You're gonna have to stand on your head," she said triumphantly.
"No, no, I can get it!" He reached a little farther. The scaffolding he was clinging to with his other hand creaked. "If I can just swing it away a bit, it'll come back and I can—" He was cut off mid-sentence by a loud creak.
Rose took a few hasty steps backward and tripped over something buried beneath the grain as the scaffolding collapsed.
