I'm sorry that this chapter is also Doctor-less, but not many of them have been, and the next one certainly won't be. Hope you enjoy the alien concept though! And of course the deepening plot and all that sort of stuff. I love you reviewers, you're brilliant people, so keep me smiling and I'll keep you reading!

14

I skittered out of the TARDIS kicking up orange dust, flinging the doors shut behind me.
There they were. Still waiting.
Trusting.

What a thing, to be trusted by aliens. Thank god for the ship's translation circuit.

"We've been out in the open for too long." their chief barked as soon as I emerged. "Let's go. Now."
I flinched and cried out as someone grabbed me – long spidery hands closing around my waist as though I were a baby – lifting me into the air where my legs thrashed uselessly.
"Hold on." a command was thrown up to me, and in another second I was raised straight over my captor's head onto its back.

My arms coiled automatically around its neck, just in time – I suddenly felt the pull of an incredible force, the force of arms and legs moving together like an ape's, with such speed and alacrity that I was almost thrown backwards.
And then everything started to move in fast forward. The auburn beach disappeared beneath their feet while the grey trees chased towards us, enveloping us in their limp leafless branches and thick trunks. Rotten dry vegetation crackled as we fled on and on, somehow never bumping into anything. I closed my eyes and felt myself soaring.

It occurred to me that I might never be able to find the way back on my own.
That certainly made me open my eyes again – but by this time the trees had thinned, and I wasn't sure whether there had been any turnings I'd missed. Besides, there were bigger things to focus on.
Like the solid wall of rock just ahead.

"Where are we?" I rasped, careful not to raise my voice. "Are we stuck?"
"Hardly." my carrier whispered back, a smile in its voice.

Their – our – leader had dropped to its knees and was exploring the crevices of stone in the earth with its long capable fingers. Abruptly, there was a snap – a kind of crunch – and a whole section of rock just jumped up as though on a hinge. And – light was rising from inside the hole it had created.

My bearer turned its head on a thin extensive neck, and grinned.
"You didn't think we would be primitive, did you?"
"Well… you've evolved nicely." I hedged, gazing at its flaky grey skin.
It laughed at me.
"Three steps behind." it noted, quite fondly.

It must have been pleasant for them. To find a new non-threatening companion.
I counted their flat heads. Nine.
Living with eight other people in hiding for the supposed remainder of my existence. Even with best friends, I didn't think I could manage it.

Thinking about best friends wasn't pleasant, so I peered down into the pit of welcoming brightness instead, as I was gently taken from the alien's back.
"Your den?" I asked the chief.
"Surprisingly well equipped, isn't it?" it replied, as it ushered me to enter via the small rung ladder. "We've had years to expand. And we've been salvaging fragments of our old technologies. We were even lucky enough to pick up one of our atmosdapters. You can thank that for the lights."

"An at-what?"
"Atmos-Dapter. Do you not have that where you come from?"
"We have electricity."
"How very crude. Is that what your ship runs on?"

"It's not my ship." I explained, trying not to squeal with excitement as I dropped into the underground room simply bursting with gadgets and fabrics and colours and panels and things. "It's a bioship, anyway. It absorbs its energies from all sorts. Mostly the Eye."
"The what?"
"The Eye of Harmony." I smirked, feeling a surge of smugness at my superior knowledge. Wherever it had come from.

"Yes. Harmony." another indistinguishable individual piped up, "Talking of that, are you going to tell us what you found? Were there records? Anything that could help us?"

I was encouraged to seat myself beside the central column, a vertical cylinder of pure light that illuminated the entire chamber, while the nine of them crowded to one corner, apparently engrossed in something that wasn't me.

"Yes – yes." I was glad that it didn't emit heat, after that burning sunlight – starlight – and the scorching fiery-coloured sands. The room's temperature was low in the way you expect caves to be.
I found myself wishing for water, just thinking about that hot landscape and the purplish powder that lay scattered instead of an ocean.

"Do you – sorry – do you drink? Have you got any water, or…"
"What a funny thing to ask! Of course we drink. Harla shrivelled ages ago, when the Res got too close."
"The res?"
"Yes, the thing in the sky that's hot."
"Oh. We called ours the Sun."

At that point I couldn't continue trying to make conversation – their subtle activity in the corner was far too intriguing.

"Are you – what are you doing to yourselves?" I cried in disgust.
The leader's voice rang out from amongst them, "Did you really think we'd evolved to look like dead plants?"
"Well. Perhaps." I watched them peeling, feeling my stomach wobble.

They were rubbery beneath. Still grey. But whale-grey, and sheened like a dolphin's.
"You didn't come from your oceans, did you? Before they dried up?" I hazarded a guess.

"In a way. We spent most of our lives there. Our homes were very different from this."
"Our oceans are blue."
"Honestly?"

"What are you hiding?" another voice broke in, surprising me with its harshness.

All eyes flew to the speaker.
"I'm not." I said, blankly.
"You're very keen to change the subject."
"No! It's just the first planet I've seen. It's a bit – surreal."
"We don't have time to explain our planet history to you. We need answers."

"Now, Lin." their chief's soothing diplomatic tones overruled the tension. "If the human is curious, it's the least we can do."
"Shall I just start?" I interrupted, hyper-aware of the repercussions a conflict like this could cause. "Do you want me to give you their background, or skip to –"
"It's perfectly alright. Honestly. Relax. Refreshments are over that side, in the green container."

Uncertain whether to make straight for it or hold back, uncertain of whom it was most important to be polite to, I sort of sidled and edged and dawdled my way towards the targeted box as slowly as possible.
The leader watched my progress with one side-eye, an amused expression playing around its wide mouth.

"We have all the time we care to take. It's not like we're exposed any more. You go right ahead and –"

The sentence was never finished.
All of a sudden, every alien dropped to a crouch, their eyes turned upwards, their mouths ajar with mingled terror and apprehension and rage.

Then I heard it, too. Footsteps. Very quiet, very stealthy. But there. Definitely, heart-stoppingly.

Time fell away from us. There was no time left.
I didn't know whether to be afraid only for them, or for my own safety above even theirs.
… That depended on exactly whom the footsteps belonged to.

"Tell me. Tell me quickly." I heard the faintest whisper from the corner.
I glanced over at the huddled group, their glinting frightened eyes, the raw urgency of their hunched figures.
"Tell me their weakness." the chief hissed once more, yellow and blue irises boring into me all at once.
And I wished that I had all the easy answers to give it. I wished I could help.

"I know how to detach them, once you've cut the scar open."
My words slipped helplessly around the heavy air of the room. Our underground cage.
They stared back at me as though waiting for more.
"That's it." I breathed through a thick lump in my throat, "There is nothing else. The only way to stop them is to knock them out. Or kill them. Just like us. You can't leave the bodies unharmed."

The silence that dipped over us was louder than any insults or despairing cries. Their collective, accusing gaze sounded all the way through me.

Their chief's mouth was poised, open, about to retort or condemn or plead. I couldn't guess which.
But the unspoken words remained a secret forever. A secret I would always be running from. A secret which still makes me shiver sometimes, even on the brightest of days.

For at that moment there was a crash like the thunder of angry gods, an almighty clap that seemed to rip through my very flesh like bolts of electricity.

The crack of rock above our heads being split.