Bummer. The Doctor had known Khiandrians had extremely keen senses, but he'd been hoping all the smells and sounds of the city would be enough to throw them off. He had definitely learned his lesson in that matter.
"I don't suppose your house has a secret third exit?" he asked T'ig hopefully.
T'ig didn't look the slightest bit amused. "No, it doesn't."
"Thought so. Well, no harm in asking. So, both exits are guarded, and -"
A demanding knock at the door stopped the Doctor's train of thought before it had even left the station. It was Getl, back with news. So much for plan B.
"The higher-ups don't seem to know what to do with you, either. We've been given orders to escort you to Maze City. T'ig, son of Sekh, your case will be handled locally, and you remain under house arrest. The rest of you, out. We're leaving."
A dozen guards surrounded them as they left T'ig's place behind. A dozen armed guards plus Getl, as opposed to the Doctor, Martha, and the four cavers, armed with one sonic screwdriver, which wouldn't be half as useful as before, since every other guard now wore earplugs. Nevertheless, as they marched through the streets, past a crowd of curious onlookers, the Doctor could've easily come up with a dozen ways to flee from the guards. The problem was, he knew he'd get caught again right away. It would be very hard to hide here, when he was so clearly alien, looks, smells, sounds, every single detail. He doubted he could get to the TARDIS unnoticed.
He considered making a dash for it anyway, but before he actually got to doing that, they were ushered into a small tram, with standing room only. It was a fully automatic one, by the looks of it - Getl just filled in their destination, and hit "go".
"So, where are we going?" the Doctor asked her, hoping against hope that they might end up in a situation where it would be easier to try and escape.
"South Entrance," Getl answered briefly. "Lift to the surface, then the train to Maze City."
The Doctor leaned back against the railing by the windows. Martha and the others kept glancing at him, clearly expecting him to come up with a plan. Unfortunately, he was short on ideas. He could easily wreck the tram with the sonic screwdriver, but once again, what good would that do?
Maybe he was going about this in the wrong way. Did they really need to run away right now? There were obviously major problems on the planet, and they might be able to help. Where better to start looking into those than the capital?
"Well, I always wanted to see Maze City," he said aloud, hoping the others would catch his drift. "I'm sure we can sort everything out over there."
The tram took them through the city, past church-like buildings with towers and spires reaching for the dark ceiling, past offices and schools and a sports stadium of some sort. Eventually, they reached their destination: the very edge of the cavern, right across from the cliff where the TARDIS still sat. There, climbing up the wall, was a row of lifts with transparent walls, like in some modern hotel or office building on Earth. They followed the slight curve of the wall for maybe a hundred feet, then disappeared into dark holes in the rock.
"The three of you," Getl gestured at the Doctor, Martha and Joseph, "Take that car. You, with them." She singled out four guards. Another four guards were given the orders to accompany Jess, Brian and Grant in the adjacent car. "Khif, you're in charge from now on," Getl added to a guard of the first team, who rather looked like a younger, shorter version of herself.
"You're not coming with us, then?" the Doctor asked conversationally.
"To Maze City? No time. I have my duties here. Enjoy your trip. It may be the last you'll see of our beautiful planet," Getl said ominously, made the Khiandrian salute, and returned to the tram with the remaining four guards.
The captives were ushered to the cars, which instantly began ascending slowly, clearly designed to give visitors another impressive view of the city. The guards took positions in the rounded corners of the small metaglass-walled space. Joseph stood at the front, gripping the handrail with white-knuckled hands, his expression tense, but curious nevertheless. This was probably his first time in a lift like this. Martha and the Doctor gazed at the landscape over his shoulders. It was still every bit as beautiful as before.
After a few minutes, their lift left the cavern, and then, there was nothing to see but darkness. They seemed to be picking up speed. The Doctor felt his ears pop. With no view outside, the seven people in the car began glancing at each other warily, avoiding eye contact.
"Ah, lifts. Another of those things that are the same everywhere in the universe," the Doctor commented.
To his surprise, one of the guards actually met his gaze, and seemed amused by his comment. It was the one Getl had left in charge - Khif, Getl had called her. She was wearing a Dark button.
"Tell me," the Doctor asked her. "Why do you hate aliens so much?"
"Who's said anything about hating? You've obviously been talking to Brights. Not all Darks are extreme xenophobes," Khif answered, taking him by surprise. Even though she looked like Getl, she sounded quite different, much less gruff.
"Good to know," the Doctor said. "If you don't mind me asking, what's the Dark agenda, then? If you're not an anti-alien party?"
"Well, the Preservationist Party originally began as an environmentalist movement. It's about protecting what's unique to us: our nature, our culture, our way of life. The Brights, on the other hand, they don't care if our age-old traditions disappear because they're not cost-effective. If we need to flood a nest to get more living space, it's only well and right, because petromites are just animals. If all small ranches go bankrupt because synthetic meat is cheaper, that's just progress. If..." Khif fell silent rather abruptly, eyeing the other guards, probably realising she'd got carried away. "Hm. You see what I mean."
"So, it's not as black and white as we first thought," Martha said thoughtfully.
"No, it's Dark and Bright," the Doctor noted. "Big difference. This is a cave world, after all, so there's nothing bad or evil about darkness. It's natural and familiar. Brightness is alien."
"Of course it is," Khif said, like she had never even thought it might be some other way. Most likely she hadn't.
"Not where some of us come from. I'm the Doctor, this is Martha, and that's Joseph. You're Khif, right?" the Doctor asked.
"Yes, but only to my friends," Khif declared, her tone making it clear that even though she didn't hate them, she was still a guard, and they were her prisoners. She didn't speak up again after that. The Doctor wondered if it was because she didn't want to, or because she was concerned it might undermine her authority over the other guards.
After fifteen minutes inside the rock, a bright, white light suddenly shone in through the lift's metaglass walls. It was only there for a passing moment, before the lift entered a building and came to a halt, but it was telling. It was sunlight. They'd reached the surface.
They were marched out of the car, and joined by the other group in a large, low hall, which was easy to recognise as a train station. There were only a few small windows in the stone walls, and they had green metaglass to filter the light.
The guards formed a circle around their prisoners, and escorted them through the hall, keeping the locals at a distance. They were taken to a platform, where an extremely sleek and streamlined train waited for them, gleaming a greenish silver in the soft light. It was a single car, with no locomotive in sight. The Doctor crouched to get a better look at the rails, or tracks, or whatever they might be, but one of the guards grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up.
"High-speed maglev, is it? Looks spiffy!" he tried, but the guard just glowered at him, waved a gun at him, and ushered him into the car.
The interior of their train was plain, but stylish, with low, green windows, just like in the station building. The seats looked very sturdy and were shaped rather like those in a racing car. Their lining, as well as the curtains by the windows, were in shades of silver and grey. Unlike the tram, the train had a driver, a middle-aged Khiandrian woman in a silver-grey uniform, which matched the surroundings perfectly. She nodded a wary greeting at them, and disappeared behind a door at the far end of the car.
"Sit down, stay still, and keep your hands where we can see them," Khif said, keeping up her tough guard act.
"How long is the trip going to take?" Martha asked as they settled in the seats.
"Almost four hours, unless the trains have evolved a lot," Jess answered.
"It's a tenth and a half these days," Khif said.
"About three hours, then. A tenth is about two Earth hours," Jess translated for them.
Smoothly and noiselessly, the train began to move. It glided slowly out of the station, but then, it started accelerating at such a rate that the passengers were pressed against their seats. It felt more like a rocket than a train. The Doctor leaned back his head, revelling in the rush of velocity.
"Just how fast are we going?" Brian spoke up. It was hard to tell if his voice was so soft because he was in awe, because he was wary of the guards, or just because of the strain of the g-forces.
"Just below supersonic speeds," Jess told him, grinning, seeming to enjoy the ride as much as the Doctor. "It's over two thousand miles from the City of Lights to the capital."
"Whew," Brian said, his eyes even wider than before.
All too soon, they'd reached their cruising speed. As they stopped accelerating, the feeling of great velocity was gone. The train moved perfectly steadily. The Doctor peered out of the window, but he couldn't make out much, and everything looked green, thanks to the filtering. It was a barren landscape, like Mars or the Moon. Something shimmering covered a good part of the ground, but he couldn't tell what it was.
The tenth-and-a-half trip turned out extremely dull. Apparently, Khif had decided that too much talk meant trouble. Every time the Doctor tried to speak up, to ask something, to marvel at the train, anything, she instantly told him to shut up.
They had already begun to slow down, when there was a muffled bang somewhere far away, and the train car shook around them, worse than the TARDIS on a bad day. The lights blinked off. Sets of five-point harnesses appeared automatically from their seats, tying them down securely. It felt like the train was skipping and sliding on its tracks. The Doctor was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to do that, because it would normally levitate just above the tracks, never actually touching them. Several guards had been standing up, and now, they stumbled. The Doctor thought he saw at least two of them fall, unable to get to their seats in time.
They were decelerating so fast that even the Doctor found it uncomfortable, squished between the seat and the harness so tightly that it was getting difficult to breathe properly. He wondered, worried, how the humans were holding up. He thought he could hear someone screaming, but the sound of tortured metal was so loud that it drowned everything else.
Finally, suddenly, the train came to a halt with a final, ear-splitting screech. Then, all was perfectly still and silent.
