Macra
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The Doctor stood in the middle of the car. He couldn't take it anymore. This was Rose! He couldn't just sit in a car for six months so he could finally get to the TARDIS to finally save her. He needed her now!
"If you won't take me, I'll go down on my own," he snapped. He scrambled down to the floor where there was a hatch. "Oh, Martha, staying or coming with me? It will be more dangerous, but-"
"Oh, I'm going with you," she cut him off.
"What do you think you're doing?" Brannigan asked, sounding worried. Both he and Valerie were looking at him in shock.
"Fining my own way," he told them as he sonic-ed the hatch and pulled it off. "I usually do."
"Capsule open," said the automated voice.
"Here we go," he said a bit more bouncily. He took off his coat and threw it at a panicked looking Valerie. "Look after this. I love that coat. Janis Joplin gave me that coat…"
"But you can't jump!" she cried at him.
"If it's any consolation Valerie, right now, I'm having kittens."
"This Rose, you must really care about her," Brannigan said.
"More than anything," he said aloud before he realised he had. "She's all I've got, and I'm all she has. It's like the universe keeps trying to split us up. But I swear, I'll die before I let that happen!" With that he dropped down the hatch and landed on the roof of the car below.
"And he say's they're just friends," Martha muttered before dropping out after him.
.
Coughing from the fumes, he opened the roof of they car they had landed inside. Then he turned back and caught Martha as she dropped in behind him. The interior of this car was completely white… as was the man at the wheel.
"Who the hell are you?" the white man asked.
"Sorry," he replied. "Motorway Foot Patrol. I'm doing a survey. How are you enjoying your motorway?" he went over to where the floor hatch was and opened it as the man talked.
"Well, not very much," the white man told him. "Junction five's been closed for three years!"
"Thank you. Your comments have been noted. Have a nice day!" The he swung down and waited for the next car to stop under him until he jumped. Martha landed beside him.
They carried on much this way for ages. Breaking into each car and going through it. They came upon many eccentric people on their travels. Sick of the smoke they procured some bandannas to cover their mouths, from a pair of stunned Asian girls. At some point they lost all pretences and excuses and just dropped in and jumped out. Making their way down the levels towards Rose.
?...DW…?
"Try again," Cheen told Milo, panic creeping into her voice. Milo pressed the 'Exit 1' button and the computer stated that it was closed. "Try the next one." He pressed 'Exit 2', but yet again the computer told them it was closed. "What do we do?" she moaned in anguish.
"We'll keep going round," Milo told her calmly. "We'll do the whole loop. By the time we come back around, they'll be open."
The rumbling noise came again, much louder, and the car shook. The three of them looked about in panic.
"And you're still calling that air vents?" Rose asked sarcastically.
"What else could it be," he said in a hushed tone. The car shook again more violently.
"What the hell is that?" Cheen cried in distress.
"It's just – the hydraulics…"
"It sounds like it's alive," Rose told them.
"It's all exhaust fumes out there. Nothing could breathe in that."
"Yeah, and what if it's not human?" she countered.
.
"Calling car 4-5-6-Diamond-6. Repeat, calling car 4-5-6-Diamond-6!" came an urgent voice over the transmitter.
"This is 4-5-6-Diamond-6," Milo said replying immediately. "Who's that? Where are you?"
"I'm in the fast lane," the woman replied. "About fifty yards behind. Can you get back up? Can you get off the fast lane?" they could hear crashing inside her vehicle.
"We only have permission to go down," Milo told her. "We-we need the Brooklyn Flyover."
"It's closed. Go back up."
"We can't. Well just go around."
"Don't you understand?" she shouted. "They're closed. They're always closed!" Cheen gasped in terror and clapped her hand over her mouth. Rose was slowly starting to see what was happening. Why the traffic jam was so big. No one could leave. "We're stuck down here," the woman continued. And there's something else. Out there, in the fog. Can't you hear it?"
"That's the air vents," he said, still clearly in denial.
"Jehovah! What are you, some stupid kid?" she shrieked. "Get out of here!" In the background there were more growls and crashing. Some girls screamed. The three people in the car looked at each other in fright. Cheen was down right panicking.
"What was that?" Milo asked them. There were more screams.
"I can't move!" the woman shouted, fear evident in her voice. "They've got us!"
"But what's happening-?" Sick of Milo's denial and stupid questions, Rose snatched the transmitter off him.
"What's got you?" she asked. "What is it?"
"I don't know…" she shouted back. There were loud bangs and crashes. The growling was louder than ever and the girls in the car were still screaming.
"Hello?" he said worryingly.
"Just drive, you idiots!" she shrieked as her car was battered about. "Get out of here! Get out!" Then all they could hear was static.
"Can you hear me? Hello?" Milo yelled into the transmitter.
"Just drive!" Rose told him. "Do what she said, get us out of here!"
"But where?"
"Just go straight ahead! And fast!"
"What is it?" Cheen sobbed in fear. "What's out there? What's happening?"
?...DW…?
The Doctor and Martha dropped onto the next car. The smoke was so thick down here that they couldn't see anything below it. His hopes rose that perhaps this was the last layer. Martha, even with the scarf, was coughing so hard, he didn't know how much more of it she could take. He could barely stand it as it was.
Quick as he could he took the hatch off and dropped in. Martha jumped in and sagged to the floor coughing.
"Excuse me, is that legal?" came a posh voice. Up the front of the car the driver, a smart looking businessman, sat up and looked at them doubtfully.
"Sorry, Motorway Foot Patrol…" suddenly he two was wracked with another coughing fit. "What ever," he said throwing away all pretences. "Have you got any water?"
"Certainly," said the Businessman. "Never let it said I've lost my manners." He reached over and filled up two of those cool cone shaped plastic cups for them and handed them over.
"Thank you!" Martha gasped, drinking gratefully.
"Is this the last layer?" he asked. "Like your suit by the way." Martha laughed seeing the Businessman's suit was a black pinstripe.
"Erm, Thank you," he said somewhat awkwardly. "Yes, we're right at the bottom. Nothing below us but the fast lane."
"Can we got down?" the Doctor asked. "There's three passengers."
"I-I'd rather not," he stuttered. The Doctor tried to push down his fear. Valerie had said something about risks… And now this man was too scared to go down.
"Right," he said. "If you'll excuse me." He made his way to the floor hatch and opened it.
"You can't jump," the man exclaimed. "It's a thousand feet down!"
"I just want to look," he said. Martha joined him.
"What's that noise?" she said as growling sounds floated up to them.
"I try not to think about it," the Businessman repressed a shudder.
"What are those lights?" he wondered. "What's down there." he coughed and waved away some smoke. "I just need to see!" Leaving Martha by the hatch, he ran to the front of the car and held the sonic to the screen. "There must be some sort of ventilation," he said to himself. "If I could just transmit a pulse through this thing, maybe I could trip the system. Give us a bit of a breeze!" He opened the bottom of the screen, exposing the wires and played around a bit. He snapped one of the blue wires and a whirring noise started up. "That's it!" he cried in delight. "Might shift the fumes a bit, give us a look." Both he and the Businessman joined Martha back at the hatch and the three of them looked out into the clearing smoke.
"What are those shapes?" Martha said as huge claw like things emerged.
"They're alive," the Doctor said.
"What the hell are they?" Martha cried in horror, finally seeing that the claws were attached to some sort of giant crab… much bigger than the cars at any rate!
"Macra," he said with a hard voice. This was not good.
?...DW…?
The car jolted around harshly, throwing Rose to the ground.
"Go faster!" Cheen cried over the noise.
"I'm at top speed!" Milo shouted back. He drove the car in a zigzag, narrowly avoiding what appeared to be claws. He frantically pushed the screen trying to get up to the next layer. But it only told them that there was no access. "But this is an emergency!" he yelled into the transmitter. He tried calling the police, but was placed on hold. Another crash jerked the car and they were all thrown tot the ground.
"Turn everything off!" Rose shouted at him.
"You've got to be joking!" he cried.
"I'm not!" she said. "Look, it's all fog out there, they wont be able to see. They must be able to hear us, or it's the heat, or light or – something! I don't know, but it's worth a try. Now turn everything off. They might not be able to find us."
"What if you're wrong," he said.
"The does it really make a difference! Just do it!" He gave a stiff nod and started flicking buttons. The car slowly powered down and he glided them onto the ground. The three of them sat, unmoving, just waiting for something to happen. But the creatures stopped trying to grab at them, and the noise quietened ever so slightly.
"They've stopped," Cheen whispered.
"Yeah, but they're still out there," Milo said pessimistically. They looked around nervously.
"How did you think of that?" Cheen said trying to distract herself.
"We travel a lot," she said. "And we run into dangers quite often… you really have to think on your feet. And you have to think of everything. I guess I'm just used to it. Only problem is, I'm not sure what we do now."
"Well, you better think of something," Milo told her. "Because we've lost the aircon. If we don't switch the engines back on, we won't be able to breathe."
"How long have we got?" he asked.
"Eight minutes, maximum," he said quietly.
Right… eight minutes… she could think of something in eight minutes, couldn't she? Oh, she wished the Doctor were here!
?...DW…?
Back in the Businessman's car the doctor, Martha and the Businessman sat staring down at the Macra
"The Macra used to be the scourge of this galaxy," he told them. "Gas. They fed on gas. The filthier, the better. They built up a small empire using humans as slaves and mining gas for food."
"They don't exactly look like empire-builders to me," the Businessman said.
"Mmm, more like a weeks worth of dinner at a seafood buffet," Martha added.
"Well, that was billions of years ago," he said. "Billons. They must have devolved down the years, and now they're just beasts. But they're still hungry and my friend is down there."
There was a clank above them and they all looked up to see someone's feet dangling through the roof.
"Oh, it's like New Times Square in here, for goodness sake!" the Businessman cried in annoyance. The woman dropped down and they saw it was one of the Catkind.
"I've invented a sport!" the Doctor said delightedly.
"Doctor," the cat said happily. "You're a hard man to find."
Then the business man seemed to notice that she was holding a gun. "No guns!" he cried. "I'm not having guns!"
"I only brought this in case of pirates," she defended. "Doctor, you've got to come with me."
"Do I know you?" he asked.
"Yo haven't aged at all," she said in wonder. "Time has been less kind to me." She looked down shyly. The Doctor recognised her voice and suddenly he grabbed her by the shoulders.
"Novice Hame!" he exclaimed then hugged her, a huge smile on his face. Then the smile melted and he pushed her back. "No, hold on, get off. Last time we met, you were breeding humans for experimentation!"
"What?" Martha cried in shock. The Businessman looked appalled.
"I've sought forgiveness, Doctor," she said. "For so many years, under his guidance. And if you come with me, I might finally be able to redeem myself."
"I'm not going anywhere," he replied. "You've got Macra living under this cit. Macra! And if my friend's still alive," he tried not to think about Rose's mangled body lying somewhere inside a crushed car in the claws of a Marca. "If she's still alive, she's stuck down there!"
"You've got to come with me right now!"
"No! I've got to find Rose!"
"I'm sorry, Doctor. But the situation is even worse than you can imagine." Quickly she took his wrist and pressed a green button on her wristband. "Transport," she said.
"Don't you dare! Don't you dare!" he cried in alarm, but it was too late.