Defender of the Earth

By Lumendea

Chapter Seven: Horath Academy: The Explosion that Started the End

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of the spinoff material and I gain no income off of this story, just the satisfaction of playing with the characters.

…..

Rose Marion Tyler hadn't planned on everything exploding all at once, she really hadn't. Explosions for no reason were Astra's thing and in fact, she could really blame the whole thing coming up like it had suddenly on her roommate. She had returned from winter break, wearing her ring on her right hand and accepting compliments on it from her fellow students. Rose was saying it was a Christmas gift from a friend since she had a short list of suspects that might have sent her a ring that Eve would care about. Astra had smiled at Rose, given her a huge hug and smirked slightly at the ring before going back to her chemical covered desk.

The school had settled back into classes, everyone performing wonderfully and the teachers rested from their break. As expected, many students had not returned from their breaks, either deeming the school too difficult or missing their families too much. A few people spoke about having slipped into poor moods with headaches at home which matched UNIT's reports, but nothing screamed aliens.

Their fifth day back was marked by heavy coursework as exams approached and Astra's experiment going all wrong. Rose had come back to their room from electronics class and dropped her things in shock. Astra was frantically adding chemicals into the complex system of tubes and flasks as the liquid inside glowed a strange green colour that Rose had never seen before.

"What did you do?" Rose shouted

Dashing over to the experiment, Rose pulled on the spare safety goggles as Astra started rambling on about a strange reaction with the local soil that she was looking at for extra credit. Rose filed the information away and examined Astra's notes which were almost too frantically scrawled to read. Her chemistry classes suddenly seemed utterly worthless.

Suddenly, Astra grabbed Rose' arm and hauled her across the room. Rose glanced behind her at the tubes to see them vibrating. Astra ripped the door open and the two girls stumbled out into the hall, slamming the door behind them. The explosion was fairly small and most of the smoke went straight out the window, but it shook the room. Rose could feel the shockwave hit the wall she was leaning against with a thud. Astra was slightly pale, but still standing and Rose listened to the brunette catch her breath. Taking a deep breath herself, Rose checked her safety goggles and slowly opened the door to their room.

The floor was covered with a softly green glowing liquid from the experiment and Rose avoided touching it as she entered. Astra's side of the room was a disaster. The explosion had knocked Astra's shelves and wardrobe over onto her bed, crushing the wooden frame. Her desk was partially intact with large splits in the wood and pieces in the wall.

"Oh my god, we are so expelled," Astra muttered as she looked at the carnage.

"At least it was fairly contained," Rose muttered as she looked around the room, noting the fragments of Astra's desk that had become embedded in the walls.

"I wonder if any of our stuff is intact?" Astra asked with a sigh. "My mum is not going to like this."

"What about your dad?" Rose carefully walked closer to Astra's chemistry station.

"Oh, he'll find it funny." At Rose's shocked look back at her, Astra grinned and shrugged. "Hey, no one was hurt so he'll find it funny."

Rose quickly switched off Astra's equipment and sighed in relief as the soft humming sound it was making stopped. Outside they could hear running and shouting for professors. Rose chuckled to herself; expelled from Horath Academy wouldn't please Colonel Adams. Then Rose blinked and looked around the room, realising now that the present danger was over than something wasn't right.

The light fixture had been destroyed and there was glass from the bulbs on the floor, yet Rose was aware of the extra light in the room. Her artist's eyes traced the light source to Astra's destroyed bed. Rose swallowed and approached the shattered bed frame that had been crushed by other furniture. She was vaguely aware of Astra watching her carefully.

"What caused the explosion?"

"I was running some basic tests on the area soil," Astra said. "Nothing in the mixture should have caused an explosion. Even black powder in the soil shouldn't have caused that."

"So you don't know," Rose responded.

"Something is in the soil here," Astra said. "Something highly volatile, but beyond that, I don't know."

Rose moved around the bed and gasped, the wood on the headboard had been crushed and behind it was a hidden panel of electronics beyond anything Rose had ever seen. They were flickering and sparking, giving off a faint glow that Rose realised the wood must have kept hidden.

"Rose, what is that?" Astra asked.

Rose frowned and stalked past Astra into the hallway. She ignored the other students who shouted questions as her and headed from the fire axe case at the end of the hall. Pulling off her jacket, Rose used it as a barrier between the glass and her elbow as she smashed the case's glass. Rose glared at an older girl who tried to stop her as she picked up the axe and ignored her when she yelled that she was going to get a teacher. Moving back to her room, Rose found Astra examining the small panel of electronics in her bed.

"I've never seen anything like this before… what is the axe for?" Astra asked as she looked up. "And you look really angry so I'm going to stay over here."

Rose swung the axe at the top of her own bed. The wood shuddered and Rose's eyes narrowed dangerously. Another swing cut deep into the wooden panel and when Rose pulled the axe back, ripped a huge chunk out. Using her hands, she pried open the wooden shell and gave a triumphant shout when another electric panel was exposed to her eyes.

"There is one in my bed too." Rose leaned forward to look it over. "This isn't regular electronics. Nothing here matches up to Earth technology."

Astra didn't respond as Rose went to her own desk which was intact but slightly dented from the explosion. She pulled out her laptop and hit the emergency contact button. She turned to Astra and smiled as she pulled off her safety goggles. Her roommate's expression was remarkably calm.

"Maybe you should go and get a professor."

"Yeah," Astra said softly as she looked at Rose. "You're probably right. Be careful." Astra gestured around the room. "Don't know what else might happen now."

After Astra left the room, Rose typed in her access code and became to speak into her laptop.

"Rose Tyler, identification number D79 calling from Horath Academy. Alien technology has been located in a dormitory and appears directed at the students. A UNIT team is needed to secure the area and a medical team is requested to perform full checks on students."

Rose repeated the message and noted the signal verification she was detecting. However, there was no response from UNIT to her message. Rose hit the emergency signal again, checking that her emergency beacon was activated in case the message wasn't getting through. A moment later her door flew open and Professor Buchanan stumbled in with wide eyes.

"Rose," he gasped. "You're alright?"

"I'm fine professor," Rose told him as she closed her laptop.

Buchanan walked over to Rose's bed and leaned forward. Rose heard him muttering to himself that he didn't understand and smiled slightly. She was glad that Buchanan didn't seem connected to whatever was happening here. Her professor shook his head and stood up.

"Head Teacher Duncan wants all the students in the cafeteria," Buchanan told her.

"It was only one little explosion," Rose protested. "We don't need to evacuate."

"Rose," he said firmly. "Come along."

Rose gave one last hopeful look towards her laptop, grabbed her phone and followed the professor out of the dorm room. Buchanan began to collect the remaining students and Rose flipped open her phone. Quickly, she hit the speed dial for Shareen and brought the phone to her ear as she followed the group heading out of the building.

"Hello, Rose, what's new at that fancy-"

"Shareen I can't talk long, but I need you to do something for me."

"What?"

Rose told Shareen the UNIT phone number and quickly told her friend the message to pass on to Colonel Adams there. As they reached the main hall, Rose whispered a quick goodbye and snapped the mobile phone shut. Head Teacher Duncan was standing calmly in his neat suit, watching the students file in. His eyes settled on Rose as Astra darted over to her roommate.

"Are you alright Rose?"

"I'm fine, you Astra."

"I'm okay, but something weird is going on." Astra hissed to Rose. "Duncan is acting weird."

Rose was about to reply when Head Teacher Duncan stepped forward and looked around at the all students. The two hundred and fifty students fell silent at the intense look on his face as he carefully examined them all as they sat down at the long tables, waiting to be addressed.

"We were not planning to move onto this stage so soon, but certain destructive students have made it necessary," he said darkly.

The main dining hall doors opened and a troop of twenty UNIT soldiers suddenly marched into the room, fully armed. Several students leapt up and started shouting while Rose glanced between Duncan and the soldiers in confusion. The back door opened and another large group of soldiers marched in, flanking the students. Captain Baker, who Rose had only met once at the Headquarters, looked over at her with a small smirk.

"How did you get here so fast?" Rose asked him.

"We've been preparing for this Miss Tyler and your discovery tonight forced us to activate the final stage." Captain Baker told her as he stepped into the centre of the room. "Students remain calm and cooperate and no harm will come to you."

"What are you talking about?" Rose hissed. She stood up from her chair, ignoring Astra trying to hold her back.

"Calm down Tyler," Colonel Adams said as he entered the room. "You've served your purpose marvellously. We feared it would take years and years of work to achieve our goal." Adams gave Rose a small twisted smile. "But I was right that adding you into the mix would speed things along." Adams turned away from Rose. "Take the students and the staff down into the computer system. We'll use a deeper scan to finish the process."

The UNIT soldiers aimed their weapons at various students and barked orders for them to move. Two soldiers grabbed Rose's arms as she tried to dart away. Twisting, Rose threw one of the men over her soldier and turned to attack the other one. From behind another man grabbed her as she tried to fight off the small group of soldiers. Finally, one of them secured her in a hold and placed a handgun against her head.

Rose stilled at the weight of the gun against her head and forced herself to relax. The soldier chuckled and started dragging Rose towards the door where the other students were being marched out to the lawn. She saw Astra sharply turn and roundhouse kick one of the soldiers standing guard over the students. Astra darted towards one of the high windows of the dining hall and vaulted towards it. Rose's vision started to blur as the soldier tightened his grip around her neck and turned sharply towards Astra, but she saw Astra going through the window, heard a gunfire and saw her friend's form tumble out of sight.

Rose heard screaming and only realised a moment later she was one of the many people screaming. Another gunshot made the room fall silent as Colonel Adams calmly announced to the students that no one else needed to die if they all calmly went with his soldiers. Rose was kept near Adams, under the guard of four soldiers who kept their guns trained on her as they left the dining hall. They arrived out on the lawn; the large outdoor lights had been switched on lighting up the area as dusk started to fall. Adams pulled out a small grey box and opened it with a flourish. Rose squirmed in the grasp of her guards, trying to get a better look.

"It is the remote control for my ship," Adams informed her calmly.

"Your ship?" Rose gasped. "You're an alien?"

"No Miss Tyler." Adams chuckled and gave her a pat on the head. "My ship was a gift from Lord Apep."

"You serve an alien?" Rose stared at him in horror. "You're sworn to protect Earth!"

"Earth is so small," Adams told her. "So very tiny compared to becoming a god."

Adams pressed a button on the small remote and the ground shook. The turf of the lawn split down the centre as a large metal tip began rising through the ground. Rose heard students gasp and few tried to run only to be knocked down by the soldier. The point rose up in front of them, revealing a huge four-sided pyramid shape. A large metal door appeared in the surface of the metal and slid open. Adams smirked at the shock on Rose's face and looked at his soldiers.

"Get the students hooked up to the machine. We need to finish charging the key."

"What key?" Rose demanded as Adams walked towards the entrance to the strange ship.

"The key to the greatest power in the galaxy. The deposed tyrant of the Dark Empire who was locked away on Earth three thousand years ago. A machine with the power to destroy and create worlds." Adams smiled gleefully, a look that made Rose shudder. "And once the key is charged it will be unleashed under the command of the Lord Apep."

Rose swallowed at the glint in Adams' eye as she was marched into the dark ship along with the other students. They were taken down a long dark corridor to a large room filled with rows and rows of transparent sarcophagi that made Rose think of glass coffins, the lids were a larger version of the technology panels Rose had found in the dorm room, each one flickering to life as a person was put into the sarcophagus. She watched, unable to move between the grips of two soldiers and the four guns points at her as the students were ordered under threat of death into each sarcophagus. The lids slid shut with a horrible thud, drowning out the soft crying of the scared teenagers as one by one they were pushed into the machines. It seemed to take forever for the hundreds of students and staff to be loaded into the machine while Rose watched in silence.

Her eyes scanned each little detail of the room, the light from each of the small machines adding to her ability to see as they were loaded. Finally, when Professor Greene was loaded in at gunpoint, Head Teacher Duncan turned to Colonel Adams with a smile.

"We are so close Colonel."

"Good, this has taken too long as it is."

"The school has only been here a few years," Rose argued trying to gather information.

"Oh we've been trying to recharge the key for years," Duncan said with a sigh. "For many years we used homeless people, but they lacked the mental strength we needed. We tried children, we tried adults, but to no success. Then we came here and charged the key off of young, but not infant minds close to Horath. Progress was still slow, but then Colonel Adams delivered the final piece of the puzzle."

"And what was that?" Rose asked trying to sound brave.

"Someone young intelligent, artistic and who knew about aliens," the Colonel replied. "I delivered you."