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Inside the Church was slightly less creepy than it had been the night before. Evie was still not happy about having to take afternoon tea with a roomful of fictional characters but, as the Doctor pointed out, it wasn't as if she had anything better to do. Sulkily she dropped into a pew as the Doctor waved his screwdriver around.
"Don't start sulking." He ordered, not even looking at her. "Have a look around."
"What for?"
"I dunno… anything weird."
"I'm looking at something weird." She muttered staring pointedly at the Doctor. He turned and looked at her, with raised eyebrows. Then he grinned and Evie found herself grinning back. "Stop it!" She said, not ready to forgive him just yet.
Evie walked slowly around the edges of the Church having no idea what she was looking for but looking hard anyway. As she walked along the far left of the Church, towards the alter, she suddenly walked over a patch of stone that seemed a lot warmer than the rest. Hesitating, she walked back again. The stones were definitely much hotter in that particular spot than any of the stones around them.
"Doctor?" She called, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Come here."
The man walked over quickly, scanning the stones Evie was pointing to with the sonic screwdriver. He grinned broadly at whatever the device was telling him and turning to Evie.
"Genius!" He laughed, taking the teenager's face in his hands and planting a kiss on her nose. Evie didn't know why she was a genius, but felt like she was swelling with pride and was unable to contain her broad smile.
"Can I help you?" A voice asked from behind them. Both Evie and the Doctor whirled around and saw a clergyman standing in the doorway looking at them curiously. The two time travellers looked at each other warily.
After a hasty explanation about coming to admire the Church and the Doctor looking for something in Evie's eye they escaped, grinning from the building and headed round the side. The teenager giggled and dropped into the grass beside a stone wall while the Doctor moved to the outer wall of the Church and started scanning it with the screwdriver. Evie flapped at her skirt, which had puffed up when she sat down and turned to face her companion, shading her eyes from the bright sun.
"What are you doing now?" She asked lazily. The sun was blazing down on them and it would have been perfect sunbathing weather. In the long sleeved, long skirted dress there was no chance of the teenager getting a tan. She pulled the skirts up to expose most of her legs. With no one else around she thought she might as well make the most of the weather.
"The 'hot spot' was on the other side of this wall." He told her vaguely. "If can find out… ah!"
He had moved the screwdriver down to the bottom of the wall. Somehow he'd hit a certain spot or frequency… the teenager wasn't sure what he'd done, but suddenly a section of the ground moved away, leaving a hatch and a stairway exposed. Evie glanced at him, her mouth open in astonishment. As the ground moved, the teenager jumped to her feet, moving quickly to the Doctor's side. She grabbed his hand, warily and he squeezed it reassuring her.
"Ladies first." He said, removing his hand from her grip and motioning her to go down the stairway first. "On second thoughts, I'd better go first…"
So the Doctor descended the steps, Evie close behind him. She was shivering with a mixture of anticipation and excitement. Under the ground, the teenager got even more excited. A large, metal shape almost filled the underground chamber. Every now and again several lights flashed bright green giving the Doctor's face a strange, alien glow. As she thought the words, Evie started laughing… alien… good choice of word.
"What?" The Doctor asked her, confused at her reaction. Evie just shook her head and worked hard to get her face back under control. He began scrutinising the space ship – well, that's what the teenager guessed it was, anyway – using his sonic device and muttering to himself. He clapped his hand to his forehead and spun around, grabbing Evie by the arms. "Ah! Slitheen!"
He turned and started up the stairs, pulling Evie behind him. She screwed up her face as he tugged her arm.
"Sleeveen? Slytheyn? What?"
"No, no, no! Slitheen!"
"Slitheen? What are they?"
"They're big green aliens from Raxacoricofallapatorius." He told her grinning like a maniac. "They use human skins like body suits… skin suits with great big zips on their foreheads!"
"And that's a good thing?" Evie asked, taking in his broad smile.
"Yes! Well, no, but yes!" The Doctor answered confusingly. "The compression method they use to get into the skin suits has a side effect… a gas exchange happens which causes the disguised Slitheen to frequently expel gas."
She stared at him. "So we're looking for a farting alien?"
"Exactly!" He grinned. Then his face fell slightly. "Well… maybe. The last time I met a Slitheen they'd managed to create a better suit, that allowed them to disguise themselves as thinner people but it also eliminated most of the gas exchange problem."
"So… we might NOT be looking for a farting alien."
"Maybe not."
Evie sighed and shook her head. "So we know WHAT we're looking for, but we don't know where or how to find them?"
"Hmmm…" The Doctor said, screwing up his face. He glanced around looking for anything else that might be of use to them. At least they knew what they were looking for now. The grassy trap door was shut again and there was no hint that anything was out of the ordinary.
"We could always do some surveillance… you know, hang around out of sight and see who goes down there?" Evie suggested hopefully.
The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "I don't think so. Besides, you've got afternoon tea to get to."