Chapter Two
"Where did you find this stuff?" Amy asked as she smudged some of the pink zinc sunscreen off the Doctor's nose.
"1983."
"Figures."
"I would think 'Space Florida' would be advanced enough to have a sun that didn't cause sun burn to go along with the automatic sand." Rory said.
"Oh it does," the Doctor smiled "I just like the look."
Amy chuckled. She reached out and rubbed the pink off her finger on Rory's nose. He didn't look impressed and quickly rubbed it off on the back of his hand. Standing at the TARDIS console the Doctor mucked with the various buttons and levers. Rory had talked him into putting on a white t-shirt and Amy had convinced him the water wings weren't necessary. Ready to fly he put his hand on the large red lever.
"Off we go!"
With the usual fanfare of grinding and wheezing the TARDIS took off. Seconds later they landed hard with enough force to throw everyone off balance. Amy wrapped her arms over her stomach as a wave of nausea washed over her. Looking to Rory she could see he was a little green around the gills as well. The Doctor shook his head to clear it and tapped on one of the control screens as if that would change what he was looking at.
"Hmmmm..." The Doctor tapped on the screen again.
"I hate it when you make that noise." Rory lamented.
"Doctor? What happened?"
"Well if the sensors are to be believed: something that's never happened before."
"Are the sensors to be believed?" Rory asked.
"Only one way to find out!"
Sailing down the dais stairs the Doctor raced over to the doors and yanked them open. Amy wasn't exactly sure what she was looking at but whatever it was it caused the Doctor to make a noise of impressed surprise. From where Amy was standing all she could see was a uniform pale blue. Rory took Amy's hand and they joined the Doctor by the door.
Fascinated by the blue haze the Doctor pulled out his sonic from the pocket of his swim trunks, which he had explained once to Amy had Time Lord tech: drier on the inside. He began scanning the opaque sheet that covered the entrance. Amy's first thought was that they had landed inside a glacier and were looking at a solid wall of ice, but it didn't give off any cold air. Amy realized that the solid wall was starting to become more translucent as the Doctor changed the sound on the sonic.
"What is going on?" Rory asked.
"We're sinking." The Doctor beamed.
"What? Why are we sinking?" Rory asked in horror.
"Because the TARDIS doesn't float. Why else would anything sink? It's volume displacement issu..."
"Doctor, what are we going to do about the fact that we are sinking?" Amy asked trying to bring the Doctor back to focusing on the problem.
"Right now I'm working on getting us a better view." The Doctor said as he continued to muck with the sonic. "Ah, there, this should do it."
With a high pitched squeal from the sonic the frosty wall suddenly vanished allowing for a crystal clear view out into the ocean that they were currently heading to the bottom of. Amy gasped in amazement at the vast expanse that faded into a deep blue in the distance. A large shoal of tuna like fish swam a few hundred feet away in an organized blob that seemed to move as one creature. The surface could still be seen as a dazzling undulating sheet as the sunlight struck it, however the ocean floor was lost to the blue haze of the abyss as the light was scattered by the water.
"The same shield that keeps the air from rushing out in space is more than powerful enough to keep water out." The Doctor explained even though no one had asked. "I've never really bothered refining the shield's surface because it never mattered before. However with the water you need more of a glass like surface to get a good view."
"It's breathtaking." Amy said amazed as she stared out into the depths.
A small curious fish came up to the doors and fell into the TARDIS as it swam too close. The Doctor caught the colourful creature before it hit the floor. He tossed the fish back at the wall of water. Once back in the sea the fish dashed off with a bright glint as the sunlight bounced off its scales.
"I thought we were going to the beach." Rory said as he took a step back, even on Earth he had never been comfortable with the concept of the ocean and all the dangerous creatures that swam around in it.
"Slight miscalculation. This isn't anywhere near Space Florida...actually I can't say that for a fact."
"Why not?"
"Because I have no idea where we are and therefore I can't really know how far from Space Florida it is."
"You don't know where we are?" Rory asked in concern. "How can you not know?"
"It's a big Universe, even the Time Lords didn't have it all mapped out." The Doctor shrugged. "Wherever this is the sun is a lot more powerful than on Earth. We should be in the twilight zone by now."
"I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone every time you're around." Rory muttered.
"No, the twilight zone in the ocean is where the water has absorbed most of the light, even in the clearest waters it starts a little less than two hundred meters down."
"How far down are we?" Amy asked as she tried to judge from the rippled mirror of the surface, but without a sense of scale it was impossible for her to tell.
"I'd say five or six hundred meters, and plenty of light...the surface must be scorching hot."
Rory jumped back as the shadow of an immense fish darkened the doorway. The oversized grouper type fish swam near the entrance to the TARDIS and stared inside with an unblinking eye the size of a dinner plate. The Doctor flashed the sonic at the creature and it sped off. It wasn't long before a large school of purple minnows swirled around the TARDIS blocking the view of the ocean beyond with millions of tiny bodies.
"What are they doing?" Amy asked as she move up closer to the barrier to view the fish.
"I suspect that they saw us scare off the grouper and they want to be friends."
"Great." Rory sighed. "Just what I've always wanted, fish friends."
"Ocean going creatures can be amazingly curious and brave when confronted with a new element in their world." The Doctor said as he reached his hand out into the water causing the minnows to automatically move away and make space in the mass of fish for his hand. They swam in perfect unison a few inches from his hand no matter where he moved it as if his hand was a magnet pushing away metal shavings.
Amy went to stick her hand out into the water as well, however Rory lashed out and stopped her.
"Amy! We are hundreds of meters underwater the pressure will crush your hand."
"Don't worry, Rory, it's safe." The Doctor assured. "We aren't even a kilometer down, it would take at least fifteen to 'crush' a human. Most of the issues with deep diving have to do with blood gas mixes from breathing compressed air, so it won't hurt her hand any more than you are right now."
Rory looked down and saw that he had a white knuckled grip on Amy's wrist. Rory released her with a slight flush of embarrassment. Amy chuckled and put her palm against the vertical ocean wall before pushing through it. The water was surprisingly cold as the current brushed past her skin. The fish made room for her perfectly and formed a swirling living tunnel around her hand as they adapted to the new comer. Amy laughed as she moved her hand around and found that she was always just a few inches from the mass of tiny fish.
"Cool, eh?" The Doctor asked.
"Very."
Amy was just about to pull her hand out of the water when suddenly all of the fish surged away from the TARDIS. Amy yelped and jerked back as a pale white tentacle with large suckers on it darted into the TARDIS and latched onto the door. With amazing speed a mass of writhing slime covered snake like arms blocked the entire door. The creature seemed wary of the dry interior and kept the bulk of its mass outside. The arms that did invade the interior quickly fell to the floor or suckered on to the door, without the support of the water the arms had trouble holding themselves up against gravity.
"Oh dear..." The Doctor said as he stepped back from one of the arms slithering across the floor.
"Doctor!" Amy warned.
"Stay calm, it's probably more afraid of us than we are of it."
"I *highly* doubt that!" Rory cried as he pulled Amy further back.
"Excuse me," the Doctor addressed the squid directly "you really don't want to come in here, it's all dry and there really isn't anything good to eat."
The mass of arms pulsed and squirmed until a beak like mouth was exposed. The beak snapped at the Doctor, determined to decide for itself if he was eatable or not. The Doctor adjusted the sonic and lightly touched it to the nearest sucker arm. The squid instantly released its hold on the TARDIS and darkened the waters around them with a spray of dark purple ink. Lost in the dark the TARDIS jarred slightly as it reached the bottom.
"Oh wow..." The Doctor breathed as the ink cloud dissipated. "I...I don't believe it."
"Doctor?"
The Doctor didn't respond, he was hypnotized with the view out across the sea floor. Amy managed to untangle herself from Rory's protective grip and joined the Doctor back by the door. They had landed on a ledge of an undersea mountain and could see out over the flat rock bottom below. Off in the distance shrouded in the blue haze of the sea was a gigantic dome that had the spires of a city reaching up to and in some cases out of the protective glass.
Still staring at the city the Doctor had to reach out and put his hand against the TARDIS door frame to help keep him on his feet. It was hard to tell from this distance but the city seemed to be alive, there were lights in the windows of the buildings that shimmered with the distortion of the water. Amy pulled her attention away from the city and looked at the Doctor. His eyes had turned bright on the verge of spilling tears as they tracked back and forth over the cityscape. The expression on his face was that of a man seeing true beauty for the first time.
"Doctor?"
Locked in his own world the Doctor just smiled as he drank in the details of the underwater world. As much as Amy hated to admit it she couldn't see what about the city had captivated the Doctor's attention to this degree. An underwater city was certainly a spectacle, but it was no more wondrous than the other giant cities in odd places that they had come across. If anything it was a great deal less impressive than flying an entire nation on the back of a Star Whale.
"Doctor?"
"I'll be right back." The Doctor said absent mindedly as he tore himself away from the TARDIS doors and rushed towards the archway that lead to the inner halls.
"Doctor?" Amy called after him.
"What got him all worked up?" Rory asked as he looked out at the city.
"I don't know." Amy shrugged. "Maybe he's never seen an underwater city before."
"That doesn't seem likely."
"No, not really."
Amy gazed out the TARDIS doors at the aquatic city that shimmered as the sunlight filtered down through the blue depths. There was something oddly breathtaking about the city beneath the dome, but she was still concerned over the Doctor's reaction to it. Rory looked nervously at a small octopus that was slowly making its way towards them out of curiosity.
"Maybe we should close the doors." Rory suggested.
Before Rory could reach for the doors the Doctor returned. In the brief time that he'd been gone he'd changed out of his bathing outfit and back into his usual jacket and bow tie. He had a medium sized box full of various sunglasses with him that he brought over with great excitement. The Doctor dug through the glasses and tried on a few, dropping each to the floor with a noise of frustration until he came across the ones he was looking for.
"Ah! There is it, perfect!" The Doctor crowed in triumph. "That's just amazing. Beautiful. Perfect in every detail."
"Doctor?"
"Amy, you have to see this."
The Doctor put his hands on Amy's shoulders and guided her to stand directly in front of the open doors. He stood behind her and took off the glasses so that he could place them on her. He was panting in excitment as he carefully settled the glasses on the bridge of her nose. Amy was expecting the glasses to allow her to see whatever spectacular vision had captivated the Doctor. Instead the ordinary shades just placed an orange tint on everything rather than the blue one that was there naturally.
"What do you think? Amazing isn't it?" The Doctor asked with unmistakable pride in his voice.
"Doctor, I still just see the city...but orange."
"Exactly."
"I don't understand."
"Through those glasses it looks exactly like one of the great cities of Gallifrey."