"Doctor, you're quite sure this is the way?" Clara asked, puffing. They had been alternating jogging and speedwalking for what felt like hours, and she was cursing her high-heeled shoes. Mystery, watching the older woman struggle, was grateful for her far more sensible sneakers, although even she was starting to get blisters.
"Course I am," said the Doctor confidently, holding his sonic screwdriver out in front of him as he ran.
"What percentage?" asked Mystery with a smile, although she too was very out of breath.
"Don't be cheeky; it doesn't become you," the Doctor told her. Clara winked at her behind his back. "If you must know, I am 100% absolutely certain."
"How can you be?" asked Clara, both skeptical and impressed. "The sonic?"
"The sonic accounts for about 34%" he replied, flipping the screwdriver up and then sticking it back in his pocket, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that he was now jogging backwards. "The rest is because I can see our destination." He flung out a long arm and pointed slightly to their left. Far off in the distance they saw a small black dot, one too large and too square to be a rock formation.
"Looks like a building of some kind," Mystery said, shielding her eyes.
"An old energy plant, I would guess. Huge, by the looks of things. No longer in use, but there are still trace amounts of metals and radiation in the ground," he said, patting his sonic fondly.
"I'm sorry, did you say radiation?" asked Clara, alarmed. "How long have you known about this?" She was doing a sort of odd little hop now, as though trying to keep herself from touching the oobleck beneath her feet. Mystery was trying to choke in her laughter.
"As soon as we got out of the TARDIS," the Doctor replied airily, still jogging along. "Come along, Oswald," he said back to Clara, who was still trying to avoid the ooze. Once the two women had caught up, the Doctor continued, "Thank you. Try to keep up, would you?" Clara opened her mouth to make some tart remark, but he cut her off. "I said trace amounts, remember. It won't leave any lasting damage. Hopefully."
"Hopefully?" Mystery repeated, now sharing some of Clara's alarm.
"Well, there's always a slight chance," the Doctor admitted. "Very very slight. But when aren't we in at least a little danger? Complete safety would take all the fun out of life!" Clara had to admit that was true.
"Well, come on, then," said Mystery, anxious to get going and get off this planet. "Our only chance of being able to rest is that blob."
'In that case," said Clara, kicking off her shoes and hooking them into her waistband, "let's get going."
At long last, the trio drew near the great metallic behemoth. As the Doctor had said, the building was enormous, although very economical. Nothing about it was meant to be beautiful - it was composed entirely of great metal plates, with a massive cargo door on the front. All three ran to the slight ledge that protruded around the edge of the building, presumably meant as a walkway. Once there, they collapsed, panting and massaging their feet.
"You weren't kidding when you said there was a lot of running," Mystery panted. "Is it usually this much?"
The Doctor, who was laying outstretched on the ground, shook his head. "This would have...to be a...record," he puffed, fanning his face with the ever-present fez. "Usually it's...short bursts. I never was any good at distance running," he added, finally catching his breath and propping himself up on an elbow. "Excellent sprinter, though."
"If I may interrupt..." asked Clara primly. She was sitting on the edge of the walkway, leaning on the wall of the plant and bouncing her bare feet on the goopy surface, then watching the imprints slowly disappear. "I couldn't help but notice that we aren't sinking...?"
"Right!" exclaimed the Doctor, bounding to his feet and pulling out his screwdriver. Mystery shook her head at his seemingly endless excitement and energy. Even after running for miles in a tweed jacket and a fez, he was still jumping about like any other day.
Any other day? Mystery thought to herself. And how do I know what any other day is like? She watched him scanning the doors and walls with the screwdriver, thinking again how familiar the noise was. Frustrated, she closed her eyes and clutched her head, willing the memories to come back. To her surprise and delight, disconnected pictures flashed across her mind's eye: a tender smile, a glowing blue circle that whirred and buzzed, a grand city full of towers under a red sky, a line of a lullaby. Snatches of images she recognized but did not understand flew through her brain until a roiling white smoke appeared, filling her mind and smothering any hint of a memory. She screamed in frustration as she watched the last of the images fizzle and die, before even the memory of the memories was gone.
"Mystery? Doctor, we need you!"
She felt hands on her arms and shoulders trying to pull apart and realized she was crouched on the walkway. Despite the pressure on her to release her head and stand, she only curled up tighter, unwilling to lose whatever she had just seen. All too soon, however, the white smoke had eradicated any hint of what she had just undergone.
"Mystery! Doctor, come here! Mystery? What happened?"
Slowly, she sat up, looking around. "Why am I on the floor?"
Clara and the Doctor traded looks. "You collapsed," said Clara hesitantly. "You screamed once. We tried to ask what happened, but you wouldn't respond. It was like you couldn't hear us at all..." She trailed off at the blank look on the younger girl's face. "You don't remember any of this, do you," she said quietly.
Mystery shook her head, picking herself up off the ground. "Does it matter now?" she asked, curious about the compound once more. "Doctor, did you figure anything out about the walls?"
Clara opened her mouth to pursue the subject, but the Doctor shot her a look that clearly said later. She subsided unhappily, concerned for her younger companion.
"I did, actually," the Doctor said to Mystery. "It seems to be a kind of steel, but much stronger and more lightweight than anything you've got on Earth. Has a bit of aluminum in it, I'd say, and some nickel as well to control the crystal formation rate, give it more flexibility and heat resistance...In any case, impressive stuff. More advanced than I'd have expected a planet in this galaxy to be...But anyway, it goes all the way down to the center of this planet, which is a remarkable bit of engineering and also the reason we aren't sinking," he added with a nod to Clara. "Supported by a giant rock in the middle of all this." He swept his arm across the reddish landscape.
Clara nodded, trying to look as though she'd understood. "I suppose we'd best go in, then," she said firmly, putting Mystery's strange episode out of her mind for the time being. "Doctor, can you open it up?" she asked, gesturing to the massive cargo doors.
"No," he replied promptly. Clara propped her hands on her hips, waiting for the rest. The Doctor, she reflected, never simply says 'no.'
"But?" said Mystery, who was clearly thinking along the same lines.
"But," he said, beaming at them, "I can open this." With that, he dashed around the corner of the building. Smiling and shaking her head, Clara followed Mystery along the walkway until they saw the Doctor standing by a much smaller door. "Maintenance, I would guess," he said, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "But notice the shape of it."
Dutifully, Clara and Mystery noticed. The door was much shorter than any found on Earth, and wider as well, almost square. "Who is it made for?" Mystery asked.
"Better to ask 'what,' in this case," the Doctor replied, now trying to sonic the lock open. "And what it's made for, I suspect we'll soon find out." They heard a click as the lock popped open. Looking very pleased with himself, he pushed the door open and led the group into the murky blackness.
With only the light from the door and the screwdriver to guide them, the trio made their way into what appeared to be a storage facility. At least, Clara guessed it was used for storage. Glass containers of all shapes and sizes were stacked from floor to ceiling, filled with some kind of cloudy liquid. Clara thought she could see dark shapes floating in each. She shuddered and moved closer to the taller, more intimidating Doctor. "Is there anything here?" she whispered, the sound echoing in the dark room.
"Not that I can see," he whispered back, turning the sonic all around. "But that doesn't mean anything. We could be completely surrounded."
"Oh, that's encouraging," hissed Mystery.
"Slight chances," promised the Doctor. "Very slight."
"FREEZE, INTRUDERS!" A familiar, metallic voice shattered the hush.
With a sinking heart, Clara stopped in her tracks. All around her, small blue circles of light started popping into view.
"WHO ARE THESE INTRUDERS?"
"I'm the Doctor," he said as he stepped forward.
"THE DOCTOR MUST BE EXTERMINATED!"
All at once, the lights flashed on and Clara saw that the Doctor's earlier prediction had indeed come true.
Daleks. And they were completely surrounded.
A.N: Hello! Here I am with yet another chapter for you all. I honestly didn't expect to have anything done for you all today, but plans change and I ended up with more free time than expected. I hope you enjoyed the product of my labors! Mystery's little episode is rather mysterious, no? I'm overly proud of that bit, I think, but I'll see what you have to say! Do please leave a review: give me something nice to read when I get back on Friday! Better yet, something honest. That's what I'd really like. And if the two overlap, then so much the better! Also thank you to my two guest reviewers, whose reviews won't show up for reasons I don't understand...Help, anyone? Anyway, thanks for reading, and sorry about the imminent delay!
-Forever the Optimist