There were six people in the environmental room, two women and a man in uniform, three more men in t-shirts and shorts. They had a collection of crowbars, firefighting gear, and cutting tools, apparently intended to use for rescuing people trapped by power failures. Subaru had hastily bandaged her own injuries and then went to examine them. One of the crewwomen, who said her name was Allison, seemed to have taken charge, mostly by virtue of being the only one together enough to talk. She'd been near the door, and Subaru was checking her for injuries while she spoke.
"It started about twelve hours ago; apparently one of them was in the forward cargo hold. It killed at least five people before anyone was able to report it. Shipboard security responded, but…" she paused and winced, "We're just a transport; they're supposed to deal with crew troubles, unruly passengers, that sort of thing. It tore the first two to arrive apart; they lasted just long enough to tell us the bodies were standing up. The chief got the guns from the armory, and lead half his people to take them down. That's when we found out they explode."
"The captain got on the intercom, told us he was declaring a biological emergency. Quarantine protocols, seal all the bulkheads, lock in the monsters, move people into individual quarters, and stay that way until we could get a medical ship here. I'd been off-duty, but came here to help with isolating the ventilation systems. Right as I got here the monsters forced the first bulkhead. New orders; fortify the bridge and ship systems, gather everyone together and hold them off. Half an hour later the captain told us he'd decided the ship had to be destroyed; he'd already locked us on course and we needed to make sure the monsters couldn't cancel it."
"Last thing we heard over the intercom, they were hacking at the bridge doors. That was seven hours ago," she finished.
"This looks like a cargo hauler. Do you usually have a lot of passengers?" the Doctor asked.
"Depends, really. We can convert the cargo bays into passenger quarters, take charters. We had a couple on this trip."
"Anything unusual with them, extra cargo, boxes they won't explain, paying a lot to not ask questions, that sort of thing?" the Doctor continued.
"What are you getting at?" one of the men without a uniform, apparently a passenger, asked defensively.
Ginga's eyes narrowed. "We're trying to figure out how the monsters came aboard. Why does that concern you?"
"We're as much victims as anyone else," he shot back, "and what about you? Why were you out here?"
"Sightseeing. We wanted to see this place up close instead of through a telescope," Ginga said mildly. "Who are you?"+++He's up to something. Smuggling, probably. He's either new at it, or too small-time to get much official attention+++
+++I'll keep it in mind+++ the Doctor replied.
"I'm Tanaka," the passenger said, apparently belatedly realizing he should have kept his mouth shut. "I help new colonies set up systems; just finished an assignment and was heading home for vacation; company got me a berth with a tourist group that bought a block of space and had extra."
"So your last stop was a new colony, then. But with plenty of people wanting to visit, if you're taking a lot of passengers. Something special about it?" the Doctor asked.
Allison shrugged. "Prior inhabitants, apparently. Some old military outpost. We had some tourist companies, a big archeological trip from a university, that sort of thing. Cargo guys were whining about how the professors kept looking over their shoulders, telling them about how everything was so fragile, needed to be handled special. Nothing out of the ordinary, from what I hear."
"And this cargo went in the forward hold?" the Doctor guessed.
"I think so, yeah. Don't pay much attention," Allison replied.
"Yes, that makes sense. So, here's what happened. Long time ago, someone called the Flame King of Hades made himself, or maybe herself, an army of these Mariages, and tried to take over the universe. Didn't go too well, apparently, since I've never heard of them, but some of the Mariages must've been sent to destroy that outpost, and when their maker got stopped, they went into hibernation. Then some archeologists came poking around and dug one up. Thought it was dead, packed it up to stick in a museum. It woke up in transit, got loose, figured the war was still on, and decided to make some reinforcements."
The crewman spoke up. "That's all very interesting, but in case you forgot, we're currently on a ship full of zombie robots that's about to plunge into a sun! Focus!"
"Right, sorry, got a bit distracted," the Doctor apologized. "We've got our ship in the engine room, plenty of space to evacuate everyone."
The man leapt to his feet. "Then what are we waiting for!? Let's go!"
"Yes, right, just one problem. There's also a small army of monsters in the engine room. Second problem, we still need to check for other survivors."
"And we still need to figure out how they're spreading," Ginga added. "We have to make sure the TARDIS isn't contaminated before we stop somewhere else."
"Oh, that's not a problem," the Doctor replied. "Couldn't get into their control system, but I did get a pretty good scan. It's not contagious; there's some kind of central core that does the changes. Can move, probably, but it doesn't survive the self-destruct and it didn't have the ability to make more by itself. Must have been a crate of the things in the cargo hold."
"Wait," Tanaka said incredulously, "You mean they can't overrun a planet, and we won't spread some plague? We could have just gotten in the escape pods and warned the military? We've spent the last ten hours on a suicide mission for absolutely no reason!"
"No, the ship still needs to be destroyed," the Doctor replied "The cores aren't microscopic, but they are small. Could be thousands, and if they can get to a planet they might be able to set up a factory, make more."
Subaru finished checking the last of the survivors, and turned to face the Doctor. "Everyone here is well enough to move. Let's go to the other environmental section and the shuttle bay, then figure out a way to retake the engine room. They're not that strong up close, but they've got that heavy cannon."
Allison looked slightly dazed. "Most of them only seem to be able to make swords; before the intercom went out they said there'd only been a few guns spotted." She took a deep breath and shook herself. "Anyways, who are you people? You came out of nowhere, you have a ship big enough to evacuate us inside the engine room, you took out I don't know how many of those things in about twelve seconds, the girls look like teenaged kung-fu skaters, those things exploded in your faces and your clothes are just a bit singed," her voice rose as she gestured at Subaru, "and, and, she's been shot, a lot, and you're more worried about our health, and-"
"I'm Subaru Nakajima, a mage with the Time-Space Administration Bureau," Subaru said, trying to calm her down. She projected her ID as she continued. "That's my sister, Ginga, also with the Bureau; we've been traveling with the Doctor through time for about a month." She looked at the expression on Allison's face. "Um, are you sure you're all right?"
"You're saying you're time-traveling wizards here to rescue us from ancient robot zombies, and you're asking if I'm all right?" Allison shouted.
"Well, we're just riding in the Doctor's time machine," Subaru said lamely. She wasn't really prepared for dealing with adults who got more hysterical when she identified herself, and couldn't think of where to go from there.
The Doctor held up a hand to keep Ginga from trying to help, and waited while Allison took several deep breaths. "Right, sorry," she said, "Time wizards, here to save us, got it."
"It can take some getting used to," the Doctor said kindly. "Right then, you know who we are; what about everyone else?"
"Juan," the crewman said. "Environmental engineer, same as Allison."
"Terry," said the remaining crewwoman, "environmental engineer. I was on-shift when this all started."
"Jim," one of the passengers said. "Day job is mining, got some vacation time banked and went on a trip with my husband." He gestured at the last man.
"And I'm Nelson," his husband said. "I work in the sales division."
"Pleased to meet you," Ginga said. "Let's go; environmental two and then the shuttle bay. I'll scout ahead; Subaru, fix the door, then bring them."
"How are-"Jim started, then stopped short as a glowing triangle, with circles at the vertices and center, expanded around Subaru's feet. As Ginga slipped through the doorway, Subaru pointed her Revolver Knuckle at the wreckage and began to chant.
"What was will be. That which is done shall be undone." She ejected a cartridge. "Reverse the current of the worlds."
"Damage reset." Revolver Knuckle finished. Light flared around the ruined door, and when it dissipated the door was completely intact.
The Doctor blinked. "You can reverse time?"
Subaru blushed and started fidgeting. "Well, I kind of looked up to you, and when we were doing joint exercises with the aerial corps, captain Takamachi mentioned that colonel Yagami had a spell that could restore inorganic objects, so… uh…" She abruptly bowed deeply "I'm sorry I didn't ask for permission!"
"No, don't worry about it," the doctor muttered, feeling embarrassed by proxy. "Anyways, places to go." He started walking. "Lock up behind us."
As they filed through the corridors, the Doctor spoke to Jim and Nelson. "You were on holiday. To visit the ruins?" They nodded. "What do you know about them? Particularly about how they got destroyed." While they spoke, they clambered through the ruins of one of the emergency doors, torn apart by the Mariage on their way to the environmental section.
"No one knows much," Nelson replied. "The builders were humans, apparently, but it's been dated to sometime before the 20th century. The archeologists say it doesn't seem to be self-sufficient, unless there's hydroponics in the levels they haven't excavated yet, but they haven't found other sites from the same civilization. They're working on translating their language; apparently their ruler is called "Holy Emperor" or "Saint King" or something simi-"
"Wait," Subaru interrupted. "Did you see anything that looked like this?" She projected a Modern Belkan-style triangle and held it up for them to examine.
Nelson squinted at it. "Yeah, the writing looks kind of similar- wait, why can I read it? I don't-"
"Translator in the TARDIS," the Doctor explained quickly. "You recognize the title, Subaru?"
"Yes," Subaru replied, "It's from Ancient Belka. The Church Of The Saint King works with the TSAB now. Or, well, not now, I mean…"
"Okay, so you know about them," the Doctor said, recognizing tense-related confusion when he heard it, "How about fighting undead, or Galea?"
Subaru shook her head. "Not that I remember. The Saint Kings fought a lot of people." She opened an audio link to Ginga and relayed the conversation so far.
"I might've seen Galea in a textbook, but I can't remember anything else," Ginga responded.
"Seems like the sort of thing that would stick out, though," the Doctor commented.
"Not really," Ginga said. "The wars involved heavy use of Lost Logia; the Cradle, the Book Of Darkness, weaponized Jewel Seed activations, more. We're still trying to locate and secure them all. Heavy use of mass-based weapons, too; they even used radiation weapons, made entire regions uninhabitable. These Mariages would fit right in. And it would explain- hang on," the link cut off briefly, then an explosion echoed through the corridors ahead and the link came back, "It would explain why they're designed to fight mages."
Allison stared at Subaru. "This is what happens to things that are designed to fight you?" she asked incredulously.
Subaru shifted uncomfortably.
"Well, they're a bit unusual-"the Doctor started.
+++Doctor, our "condition" is private+++ Ginga interrupted. "Most mages fight at a distance, not up close like us," she said aloud, "So the ability to deflect magical attacks gives these Mariages a huge advantage."
Subaru looked confused. +++But Belkan Knights focus on hand to hand, and you remember that joint training-+++
+++I was lying+++ Ginga explained. +++I think everyone remembers that joint training+++
"We're getting close to environmental two," Allison said. "Do you have a plan for getting to the engine room?"
"Working on one," the Doctor assured her. "If we can figure out more about them, we might be able to reason with them."
"Reason with them?" Juan yelled incredulously. "In case you hadn't noticed, they want to kill us!"
"Yes, well, nobody's perfect," the Doctor replied breezily. "But they're not killing us for its own sake, they want to gain something."
"No one goes to war just to kill people," Tanaka snapped.
The Doctor's good humor abruptly vanished. "Oh, if only that were true. But no, there are things out there that do. Who want to kill everything else in the universe, just because it's different from them, and that's reason enough for it to die. Pray you never meet them."
An awkward silence fell, broken by Ginga. "I can see the other environmental section. We're too late; it's been torn open. Hours ago, at least. It looks like they rigged up an explosion for when the door breached."
Allison closed her eyes. "Urgent advisory RED1-2071-ENV; running all CO2 scrubbers and the heating system at maximum power while in quarantine configuration causes a ground fault, can produce hydrogen gas if exposed wiring comes into contact with the toxin filters. Risk of explosion if internal ventilation system is offline." She sighed, then opened her eyes. "Let's go to the shuttle bay."