Dark Side of the Moon
When the TARDIS landed, it was completely dark and eerily quiet. None of us particularly wanted us to venture out, but we knew we had to, this was our next destination. I looked around at all the faces of my friends and it seemed to me as if they had the same feelings of loss and uncertainty, which had only come on since we landed here. It was horrible, I felt like I was on the edge of tears but there was nothing to cry about. The unusual solemness of everybody else seemed to be telling me that they had the same indescribable despair suddenly oppressing them.
"I don't want to go out there." whispered Donna to me, I happened to be standing nearest to her. "It makes me want to cry just being here."
I put an arm around her shoulders, "You and me both."
We wondered what it was, a dead planet maybe. An intergalactic cemetery? The usual things that would make you feel uneasy. I noticed nearly all of us had moved instinctively away from the door, leaning on the far walls or the control panel, except Jack I think he felt responsible for us mere females. He put his gun in its holster and turned to us.
"We have to do this you know." he reminded us.
We knew. The Doctor hadn't put in an appearance since we landed and we didn't know why. After several minutes standing in silence and anxiety we slowly moved forward as one. Jack hesitantly pushed open the TARDIS door, and we all braced ourselves, him pulling out his gun as he walked out first. I saw the back of him replace it, there seemed to be no threat.
"It's alright." He assured us. "No-one's here."
Slightly less nervous we filed out of the TARDIS doors, which slammed shut behind us, like she didn't want to see what we were seeing. It was mainly dark with a faint coppery light surrounding wherever it was that we were. It was freezing cold, and we huddled together, pulling our coats around us as an icy wind tugged at our hair. There was nothing anywhere. Just craters and boulders and sharp stalagmite type things standing up all over the place.
"Is this the moon?" asked Sarah-Jane quietly.
"No. It's a moon I think, just not the moon." replied Martha confidently. "I've been to the moon."
"And last time I checked, earth wasn't orange." pointed out Rose.
We all turned our gaze in the direction of whatever this satellite was orbiting. It seemed to be about earth sized. Of course I've never actually seen the earth up close in outer space first hand. It was mostly black, the planet we were staring at, with just the very hint of saffron, like extremely burnished copper. It was depressing to look at, so we tore our eyes away.
"It's freezing." Donna shivered.
"Why in heaven's name we were brought here?" Sarah-Jane didn't sound impressed. "Can you get a read on anything K-9?"
"Negative Mistress. Atmospheric disturbance." answered the little tin dog.
"Come on, let's get walking." Decided Martha, "It'll warm us up if nothing else."
We all agreed with that so slowly we made our way forward, not sure what other direction to head in. There were no sounds at all except the whistle of the wind passed our ears and our feet crunching on gravel and clumps of what I think was dirt and rock. It was like it had been hit by a nuclear bomb or something.
Donna and I happened to be walking a little behind the others; I don't think we wanted to stray far from the TARDIS. I sure didn't anyhow. My foot crunched on something and I quickly lifted it, it had sounded like glass or something. Something was glinting in the ground; I don't think I had broken it, just buried it deeper. I reached forward.
"Don't touch it!" cried Donna, "You don't know where it's been!"
I ignored her, and picked it up. A once gold chain entwined itself around my fingers, attached to a once-gold, thick ring, encasing a little glass ball, around the size of the top of your average light bulb. A smaller ring crossed it, like string on a parcel. The way it was arranged, I imagined it had swung around a bit like a compass before it rusted up. I brushed my thumb across the glass to get the dirt off and looked inside. Empty.
"Oh, that's lovely. A rusty old metal ball." Donna rolled her eyes. Then stared at me, "Oh, you're not thinking…"
Yes, I was. I pocketed it. Martha called us from in front so we made a move to join them, only my foot went through something. Next I knew Donna and I were falling in to a hollow, the roof collapsing around us, blocking off everything. We landed with a thud on a surface like very hard soil. Rubble showered down on us, so much we couldn't see the gap we had come through when we looked up.
"Donna! Daisy!" I heard the muffled voices of the others calling.
"Are you alright?" that was definitely Rose.
I stood up, we had fallen maybe ten metres. I was amazed we hadn't incurred more damage. I yelled up as loud as I could that we were fine, but couldn't get out. I looked around. It seemed to be a network of tunnels, just about tall enough for us to stand upright in, but someone like The Doctor might have had trouble.
"Looks like a tunnel! We'll follow it; see if we can get out. Got your phone on you?" I shouted to my sister.
She replied in the positive and I turned to Donna. Which way should we go? I don't think she knew either. We wandered left; there were fewer branches to get confused by. Not so long after, we both stopped, having heard something that sounded like running. We ducked down behind a boulder as it got nearer; the space was so small Donna was practically sitting on my lap. She leaned on my shoulder and looked over my head in the direction the noise was coming from.
"We've got company." She whispered to me.
"I see that. Please can you remove your elbow from my spine?" I growled quietly.
"Sorry."
The company was two people, they looked human. One was a girl with blonde hair which had the front bits dyed blue. She was wearing a leather boob tube, leather trousers and black boots. I think both Donna and I immediately thought 'Matrix'. She even had a gun complete with holster on her hip. Her partner was a really tall boy with spiky brown hair, wearing a dog collar and all in black. Goth Squad. I thought. He seemed to be unarmed.
"Who's there? We know it's somebody." Called the girl.
"Unless you jump us we're not gonna shoot you." Added the boy.
Well that was cheerful. Partly because my legs were cramping, and partly because Donna was nervously keeping extremely close to me, I stood up, walking out. Now I could see them, the two looked only a few years older than me. Somewhere between me and my sister. The girl had her gun in my face.
"You can put that away." I said, sounding a lot cooler than I felt.
Grumbling, Donna crept out and joined me as the girl holstered her weapon. We just sort of stood there for a few minutes staring at each other, neither me and Donna nor the boy and girl really knew what to say next. Finally the blonde looked me up and down; she was a good few inches shorter.
"Who are you, and how did you get here?" she questioned.
I shrugged, "I'm Daisy, this is Donna, and we fell. Who are you?"
"Name's Grace. This is Hal." She replied.
"Great. Now where are we?" asked Donna, cutting to the chase.
"You don't know? This is The Dark Side." Answered Hal.
"Do you have cookies?" the pair looked at Donna like she was nuts, and I hid a chuckle.
Deciding they might as well show us around, Grace and Hal walked through the tunnels like there were no choices at all, and stuck for options, we just followed them. I frowned; sure I could hear music coming in from somewhere. I looked around for speakers. Donna seemed to do the same. It got louder the further we walked. Then all of a sudden, coloured lights were flashing everywhere, the music was hurting my eardrums and we were in a night club. How on earth a night club got here I had no idea. But sure enough, there was a bar in the corner, tables scattered around and a stage in the middle. All the people there were dressed in as much black as our guides.
"A club? There's a night club under a moon?" Donna, or me for that matter, couldn't quite believe it.
Grace smirked, "Where better to put something you don't want just anyone to drop in to." I think she was hinting at something there.
Hal looked around, "Not many people here tonight."
I stared around. The dance floor, bar, tables, everything was jam packed. I raised an eyebrow at the guy. They must be speaking a different language to suggest the club was empty.
"Most people stay inside at the moment." Explained Grace, slightly less cold than she had been before. "Too scared."
Donna and I looked at each other. She turned to her, "Scared of what?"
"The demons." Hal said simply.
"Demons?" That did not sound good. I actually didn't mind Donna stepping nearer to me this time.
"You heard right. Demons." Grace regarded us coolly. "Most people think they're ghosts and by setting up here we're destroying some old cemetery or something. We figured when we first found this place that if everyone was dead, they wouldn't be needing it. All of us are outcasts you see. Exiled from our own planets for the stupidest reasons. They call us terrorists, we call ourselves Freedom Fighters. But anyway, a lot of people reckon the long lost are out for revenge."
"Which is the most plausible explanation we have." announced Hal.
"Plausible?" Donna raised an eyebrow.
The music cut off and a siren sounded, red and blue lights started flashing all over the place and people scattered. Grace and Hal looked at each other and we were joined by another four black clad young adults, with large guns. Grace turned to us.
"Fight or flight?" she asked.
In answer, I swiped one of the spare weapons being offered to us. Donna looked at me like I was mad, but she followed suit. I figured, what better way to investigate these demons than going out and finding them. Of course I had never asked stopped to think about asking why people were so afraid of these demons. Did they kill people? Haunt people? Hurt people? Too late for that, the eight of us ran across the club, heading for the back exit. I hadn't the slightest idea how to wield a gun. I'm not sure Donna was much better prepared either. The lights and the siren were a memory behind us as we ran into dim, cold and dusty tunnels.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except the running through underground passages with guns. Then there was a sudden hush and the group stopped, manoeuvring back to back so they were in a circle, all facing outwards in a different direction. Not quite sure what to do, Donna and I ducked into a little hollow. A wind that sent shivers down my spine and raised goose bumps on my arms blew through the tunnels.
It looked to me like the walls were moving, but things suddenly started coming out of them. They were human shaped shadows, with no features, no faces and genderless. They instantly focused on the group in front of them and descended, cuts and scratches appeared all over them without being physically seen. They shot back, they weren't bullets, they seemed to be little pea-sized points of light. They had the same effect though, the shadows split right down the middle of where the bullets hit and dissolved, howling in rage and pain.
Donna looked horrified. I knew she was sensitive to this kind of thing so I squeezed her hand for comfort, and she didn't let go. I cocked my weapon, though I was reluctant to use it, as some of the shadows detached from the group and made a bee line for us. I waited for the stinging to start, but I didn't feel anything. Nor did Donna. They hadn't hurt us, so I wasn't going to shoot them.
Instead things had fallen a lot quieter around us as two of these ghost things floated around us, bending down and walking around, looking at us. More had even detached from the group, who had stopped dead, staring at us in disbelief. I let my gun drop and Donna and I clung to each other as we were surrounded by more and more. I could have sworn I felt fingertips flutter over me and lift my chin. Hal and Grace ran over, arms at the ready.
"Don't you dare." Ordered Donna. They actually stopped.
I couldn't see Grace, Hal and the others for the density of these shadows, but I felt a tugging at my heart strings. A hand pointed at my pocket and I didn't realise what they wanted. Until Donna whipped out the now glowing ball thing and held it up. It was snatched from her eagerly. Something weird happened then, the gold begun to shine and the dirt melted off the glass. I thought my eyes might be playing tricks on me but whenever I caught sight of something through the glass, it seemed to gain colour, just the odd spot, the same size as the ball.
"Donna, do you see that?" I whispered. She nodded.
The shadow reached forward and put the chain around Donna's neck. Donna tensed beside me and clutched my arm. The weird ball thing was shining tangerine. I don't know what she was seeing when she looked around the caverns, but it was something that struck her dumb. Tears started rolling down her cheeks and I hurriedly put an arm around her, leaning forward to see what was wrong. I was close enough for her to adjust the long chain, so it hung around my neck too. I didn't see anything different for a moment, then the caves seemed to light up for me.
It was strange, from the centre of the ball, colour spread out like shock waves or a scratch card, slowly revealing a picture. The shadows changed in to the shapes of men, women and children, barely visible, like a double exposed film. I dared a glance at Hal, Grace and their soldiers, and their clothes went from black to the kind of style and colours I would recognise back home. It was like an optical illusion when you suddenly find what you're looking for and a picture is revealed to you.
"What on earth?" I murmured.
"It's a trick! Gotta be! Rookie mistake!" exclaimed Grace.
Donna stood up, so I did too. "Oh yea?"
She took the chain off us. Although I could see things like they had been before, I wasn't afraid. She hung it around Grace's neck. It was a transformation, slow at first, then her face lost the hardness and the front she had put up was cut straight through. It was slowly passed around the group, until it finally found it's way back to Donna.
She looked at me. "I think I know where we are." Then turned to Hal, "How do we get back to the surface?"
The shadows followed us as we walked through the tunnels, all in a thoughtful silence. It might have been me, but things seemed to be getting warmer. The tunnels were less cramped and I think fresh air was coming through. We eventually came to some steps cut out of clay and walked up them. There was a steel trap door above us, which Hal pushed up and back as we all climbed out.
The shadow things soared over head, like they had been trapped in the tunnels for years. Centuries even. Perhaps they had. As soon as us were all out, the shadows had melted away in to the night sky. The copper light was stronger here, like when the moon is full and gives everything a silver glow, enough to see by. A cry caused us to jump and turn. Rose and the others were running in our direction. We were practically where we were before. The TARDIS was literally just a few feet away from us and that poor dead planet was plain to see.
After hugged greetings and awkward introductions (This is Hal, Grace, and their army) Donna explained what had happened. She had a theory, well, it wasn't a theory. She had been told it by the ghosts. We worked out the central point to stand with the ball. She held it up, and the planet below us fitted perfectly in the middle from this distance. It floated up, out of her hand. There was a splash, like a single drop of water, and the tiniest speck of colour appeared on the planet. Then it spread and it was like watching everything in reverse on a huge screen. The ground went from scarred and scorched to a golden orange colour, buildings put themselves up from rubble and patches of silver appeared. At the top of the planet a bigger glass globe un-shattered and showed a citadel. The two dead suns either side blazed in to life.
"Oh my god." Rose whispered.
"It's just like he told me…" agreed Martha, awestruck.
"It's a sight for sore eyes." Sarah-Jane was choked up.
"Affirmative." Put in K9.
"Is this?" Jack realised.
Grace asked what on earth we were going on about. Donna explained that this dead planet was called Gallifrey. It had been thoroughly devastated in a huge war. The demons were the echoes of the past, the soldiers and civilians that had died, trapped in that form and the place by corrupt memories. They only attacked when threatened, because their mindset was still war and they had to defend everything to their last breath, last glimmer of life. When she had finished, the chain dropped back in to her hand. She passed it over to me for safe keeping.
"So, they won't bother us any more?" ventured Hal.
Donna shook her head. "No. But do me a favour. Don't forget them."
With the magic of the moment broken, the planet was destroyed again in slow motion, exploding and collapsing silently. There wasn't a dry eye on the moon. Grace and Hal promised to do as Donna instructed as we all trailed back to the TARDIS. The others explained how they had ducked in to a few caves of their own to try and find us, and had got nothing but buildings so destroyed only the foundations seemed to be left and a kind of barely recognisable graveyard.
"Imagine being out there in all that." commented Martha.
"I'd rather not." I said blankly.
The TARDIS opened her own doors for us, like she was welcoming us back. I know the thought at the forefront of all our minds was The Doctor, where he was, and if we could help. We decided that he would probably want to be alone for now, all having gotten to know him.
It was later that night that I was sitting in my room with Donna that he put in an appearance. We understood each other a lot more now, so we were just generally getting to know each other and winding down. She was letting me try out hairstyles that mum had taught me when he suddenly faded in to existence, just in front of our closed door. My arms stopped moving and I dropped them to my sides and we looked at each other.
"Hello." He greeted sadly.
"Hi." We chorused.
"I'm so sorry Doctor. It must have been horrible." Donna stood up, then remembered she couldn't hug him and stopped.
"It was."
This felt like a conversation that went over my head, and I made a move to leave them to it, but The Doctor stopped me by trying to touch my arm. I gasped, for a split second I thought I had felt the slightest warmth. I had six stones now, the latest one was a beautiful indigo. I think it must have been Donna's. Two thirds finished. Maybe that was why I could almost feel him. I got out the little ball and chain, holding it in my hand and I looked at him.
"What is it Doc?" I queried.
"Part of a TARDIS memory circuit." He explained. "A bit like a DVD playing images that it has seen back. Must have gotten separated from one."
"You should have it." I told him. "Is there somewhere I can leave it for you?"
"Look after it for now." He gave that sad smile of his.
I promptly passed it over to Donna. "She's the one that worked it all out."
"She's good at that." He agreed.
I handed it over to Donna, and The Doctor looked at me pointedly. So, he knew did he? I automatically put my hand in my pocket, hiding the fact that there was a band of metal replacing a ring of the skin around my wrist.