Time of the Silurians (part one)
The mechanised glass teeth of the time rotor weaved together again and again around the Seal of Rassilon as the TARDIS entered its landing stage. Kate slowly pulled up the control for the stabilising system, reducing any swaying the Doctor might complain of to a gentle halt. Next, she turned a brass dial down to zero then flicked three switches to bring the time machine into real space. A resounding groan from deep within the console told her the ship was materialising into existence. If she had done it correctly, they should have landed just outside her front door.
From his place at the scanner, the Doctor smiled proudly as the groaning of his home died down. All readings seemed to be normal; meaning Kate hadn't landed the TARDIS underwater or halfway through a wall. If he was completely honest she had done better than his first time bringing a TARDIS to a stop. Of course, he was fairly certain that model didn't like him. The only message on the screen which worried him was the persistent 'Class One' notification, but that was there long before Kate had even touched the controls.
"Did I do alright?" Kate asked, somewhat nervously. She took several steps back from the console as if it might suddenly bite her.
In jest, the Doctor made a show of taking long, analytical strides around the panels before stopping in front of her.
"You've done well." He admitted, before hopping over to the leather lever opposite the doors and slamming it upwards. The teeth of the central column instantly stopped. "Except you left the time rotor on. Remember; just because she's not making a noise doesn't mean everything's off."
Kate made a mental note of this point as she went to his side, facing the doors. "But otherwise I'm alright?"
"At landing and taking off." The Doctor stated, patting her shoulder in congratulations. "It's just the actual flying part that's the trouble."
She smirked. In the few weeks he had been teaching her how to pilot the TARDIS, he'd only allowed her to touch the console while in flight once. The result had been her disabling the shields mid-journey, which had not only caused her to fall into the Doctor's past but had also later resulted in them entering a parallel universe. After that surreal experience, the Doctor focussed instead on how to start and stop the ship.
"So did we get there?" She pressed, eager to know if she had been successful.
"The scanner says so." He answered, taking one last look at the ever changing readings before nodding satisfactorily. "But she has lied to me in the past, so there's only one way to be certain."
Kate followed him eagerly as he headed towards the door, stopping only to pick up their coats. If she was honest she was extremely excited to be reunited with her mother, who, if everything had gone alright, wouldn't have noticed she was gone. There was still the issue in explaining to her mum that she had been travelling, from her perspective, for a month now and had met a host of interesting characters from Civil War era Aristocracy to a brief run-in with Al Capone on their trip to 1920s Chicago. However, the Doctor had assured her this had been done a number of times before, with people always taking it surprisingly well. Then again, she got the impression he was exaggerating the term 'surprisingly well' when he rubbed his left cheek in ghost pain.
Despite all her uncertainty in how receptive Sally Dennis would be to the revelation her daughter was now a Time Traveller, Kate was sure her mother would be interested to hear everything. And no fact would be omitted. Except, possibly, the near-death experiences.
"Ready?" Kate asked, taking one of the door handles in preparation for the grand reveal.
"Ready." The Doctor echoed, shaking the sleeve of his cutaway coat to a comfortable length.
The door released a high pitched groan as she pulled it open quickly. However, instead of the gravelled courtyard or the hills of the Cheshire Ridge or even the kitchen of her house; Kate was instead met with a dense array of exotic wildlife.
"Well that can't be normal." The Doctor observed needlessly from behind her.
He took the lead in exiting the box, almost immediately tripping over a tree root and stumbling into a low branch beside the door. The ground was a well textured mural of roots, twigs, leaves and dirt, with a sprinkling of pebbles across it all. Around them, trees blocked all vision more than ten feet ahead of them with various exotic floral arrangements of green, gold, purple and red. Their surroundings reached magnificently upwards into a great, thick canopy; restricting the amount of light from above. Notably also, the air was thick with heat to the extent of immediate sluggishness. As the overwhelming temperature flooded into the TARDIS, Kate could feel her fleecy hoodie begin to stick to her.
"It's certainly not Ridge Nook." The Doctor concluded once he had regained his balance. He swiped at his forehead, having produced a handkerchief from seemingly nowhere.
"Your powers of observation never cease to amaze me." Kate commented drily, removing her coat in an effort to cool down. "Do you know where we are?"
He kicked a pebble through a grouping of trees before answering. "Not really. I'd say on Earth, certainly. The TARDIS rarely gets more than fifty miles or twelve years off course."
"I'm fairly sure Ridge Nook, where I've lived for about fourteen years of my life, does not have a rainforest within that distance."
The Doctor looked at her while she spoke, before turning away to peer further into the impenetrable shield of plant life as if he could see something on the imaginary horizon. Wiping away the persistent perspiration again he began twisting on the spot to take further stock of their surroundings. Curiosity gaining the better of her, Kate stepped out to join him. The air was probably twice as thick outside the console room and she could feel the fabric of her polo shirt begin to cling to her sides.
"We could be in Brazil?" The Doctor half-suggested. "Or somewhere in the Amazon?"
"Won't the scanner tell us? Surely you have Google maps or something similar on there." Kate said, trying to find an even perch. Out of pure habit, from four years of conditioning, she shifted most of her weight onto her left leg to relieve the other of a pain she no longer felt.
"The Old Girl already thinks we're in Ridge Nook. She'll be too adamant to recheck."
Kate thought for a moment, replaying the flight to this mysterious jungle in her head.
"Was it something I did?" She asked, beginning to worry she wasn't as good as previously believed.
"Not unless you managed to activate the randomizer during the landing, and we would have felt it if you had. Of course, the chances of us landing anywhere on Earth in that event would also be statistically negligible and this is definitely Earth. I'm certain of that now." The Doctor explained, sticking out his tongue.
"How can you tell?" Kate asked, unsure of her friend's abilities.
"The atmosphere tastes right, although it's slightly denser." He answered, shrugging in his coat and hopping briefly. "There's also the orbit and the gravity, narrowing it down to three planets."
"If there are three matches, how can you be absolutely certain?" She continued questioning.
"These plants wouldn't grow on Mondas or Ravolox." The Doctor assured, indicating the thick forest around them. "One fell out of its orbit before trees became quite this diverse; the other was nearly burnt to a crisp by the Time Lords. Ergo, we are Earth-bound."
"I'll take your word for it." Kate accepted after a pause. "Do you know what year it is?"
The Doctor retrieved his watch from the depths of his Egyptian patterned waistcoat, flicking the cover over to check the relative time. To his not-so great surprise, the hands span uselessly around the clock face, indicating what he thought would happen.
"The TARDIS can't lock onto the timeline properly." He surmised, showing Kate the semi-irregular movements of his watch. "It's most likely a computing fault. She probably hasn't adjusted back from that trip into the parallel universe."
"Can you fix it?" Kate asked, becoming aware of how sticky her skin had become when she folded her arms. She now not only wanted to reach her mother's house, but escape the stifling heat also.
"Shouldn't be too much trouble." The Doctor answered, nodding his head from side-to-side in thought. "If I can find out what era we're in I'll be able adjust the chronometer."
He abruptly began marching forward, pushing back the wall of leaves in front of him. The tails of his coat wavered listlessly with each movement, as if the garment was incapable of bearing the heat. Its owner, on the other hand, hadn't seemed to notice the excessive temperature despite his mostly black choice of attire.
"Now where are you going?" Kate bemoaned, unconsciously leaning back towards the cooler interior of the TARDIS.
"I have to find a historical reference." He said, trying to call her forward with a wave of his hand. "An animal or a city or a newspaper should do it. Come on; get another story for your mother."
Kate groaned in frustration, feeling she should accompany her madman of a companion into the thick of it. However, she equally wanted to wait inside the TARDIS; cooling down in the swimming pool or with a cold shower or even by seeking refuge within the main library, which was unusually warm at the best of times. All of these options seemed better than a trek through unknown territory.
Eventually, Kate stomped across to the Doctor lazily; her thick-soled boots crunching the twigs underfoot as she passed him. Behind her, she heard the Doctor click his fingers and the doors to the time machine slam.
"We'll be about twenty minutes, probably." He assured her, falling into step with her and pushing most of the leaves in their path away.
She didn't make any verbal response, instead focusing on maintaining balance on the contoured forest floor. If her judgement was anything to go by, with her limited knowledge of flora and geography, it was conceivable they'd landed in an equatorial jungle. The trees would definitely not look out of place in a tropical country. That oppressive heat, which was convincingly un-English, matched the descriptions her friends in Ridge Nook had given after their holiday to Costa Rica. And the occasional rustle of the canopy overhead suggested there was at least some complex animal life. However, the Doctor had seemed reluctant to question the TARDIS's given location; which, by what he mentioned tiredly after a good ten minutes of pushing through branches and listening to the sounds of the jungle, had insisted they were where they had wanted to be. From her perspective, Kate was inclined to distrust the machine since, while extremely sophisticated, did not possess the sense of vision or the ability to feel the temperature.
The further they went into the woodland, the less she believed they would suddenly hit upon something that could quantifiably tell them what year they were in. Every tree had the same appearance, to the extent she began to wonder if they were going in circles. Of course, with his grand sense of direction, the Doctor insisted on continuing. When she attempted to reason with him, he only repeated his faith in finding an interesting object. It wasn't the case that she didn't trust the Doctor, or disagreed with his assumptions which were far more detailed than anything she could form at this point, but the humidity was beginning to severely fray her nerves. They were in an empty jungle and that was it.
"Why are you limping?" The Doctor asked suddenly after what felt like half an hour of silent hiking. His hair had begun to frizz into a hilarious form, though he refused to remove the layers that were surely melting him.
Kate stopped walking momentarily, before falling back into step with the Doctor. When she restarted, she noticed her left leg was in fact much sorer than her comparatively rested right leg. She had indeed been putting more weight on one than the other.
"Force of habit." She answered simply, brushing off the behaviour she had yet to abandon. After the crash, she had spent much of her time focussing on lessening the strain her weakened shin bone experienced. But now, she didn't need to. She was fine.
"Or possibly," The Doctor began, stopping only to avoid another low hanging branch in his path. "You have a psychosomatic disorder."
"And what makes you think that?" Kate asked back, confused by his sudden diagnosis.
"Just trying to make conversation." He attempted to pass off the comment, returning his concentration to the environment in his quest for 'historical reference'. Although he went back on his statement moments later with; "Some people believe physical diseases result from daily hassles."
"But I don't experience 'daily hassles'." Kate refuted, sidestepping a boulder. "I have adventures."
"Which can put you in stressful situations." The Doctor continued. "Are you stressed, Kate?"
Honestly, in her mind, Kate did not feel stressed. If anything she felt extraordinarily happy with her life at the moment. The whole universe was there for her to see, with the most excellent of people there to guide her. Any danger she faced was just a by-product. She had already experienced pain and loneliness after the accident. She had narrowly avoided losing a limb. She had narrowly avoided losing her life when the car had tipped over. In comparison, the danger of travelling was reduced in her eyes. Besides, she had complete faith that if she couldn't get herself out of a situation, the Doctor wouldn't be too far away to help her.
What she didn't want to consider, or even mention, was her worry. Since she had joined the Doctor, a month or so ago now, she had been constantly concerned for his future. At any one moment, she feared the next landing would begin his descent into war. That more than prophesised war with the Valeyard. The worst of it was that she couldn't tell him. If he knew he was to meet his fate with the appearance of the Valeyard, what might he do? Could he even do anything about it? From the theories her father had told her when she was little one could not knowingly prevent an event through the use of time travel. Back then it had been purely theoretical. Now she believed it to be fact. Maybe this worry was causing her supposed limp.
"I'm just frustrated I didn't get us home." Kate half-lied. She was frustrated in that failure, but not to the extent of a physical disorder.
"Don't worry about that, I doubt I would have done much better." He seemed to accept her words as the full truth, moving effortlessly on in the conversation.
At that point, however, before they could resume talking a very audible crack sounded from underfoot. Upon inspection, Kate saw that she had just stepped directly onto a long, thin stick suspended between the roots of the surrounding trees. Its position seemed unnatural, though unthreatening. So why then did they both feel there was something instinctively wrong?
As if answering their unspoken questions, the same snapping sound emanated roughly six feet away from them. Eyes darting over, they saw that another stick of a similar description had split; this time from where it met the roots of a slim tree. The action of breaking the rough wooden rod had released a sizable rock from where it had been suspended with what looked like a vine, which promptly fell towards the ground. But before it could hit the soil, it stopped and instead an animalistic cry rang from the treetops.
"I think we found the locals." The Doctor whispered, quickly grabbing Kate's hand as more noises began erupting above them.
Almost as soon as the Doctor and Kate began running, a wave of creaking branches started pursuing them under the collective weight of whatever was giving chase. Leaves fell down from the force, reducing what Kate could see even further than what the thick forest did already. The Doctor, on the other hand, didn't seem affected. Although rather than the slow meander they had been using to push through before, he was instead charging his way through with Kate close behind him. His coat caught on twigs and thorns as he continued shouldering his way through with no real bearing on where he was going.
The animal calls continued above them, with the persistent creaking of the trees accompanying. More and more cries echoed back. Whatever they were, they were in great numbers.
Despite every rational thought, Kate glanced back every now and again. When she did, for brief moments she would see a few of the pursuers drop down from their leafy habitat into the clear space of tree trunks to stare back at her before swinging back to join their brethren. From what she could pick out in those few seconds; the creatures were humanoid, ape-like and angry.
When they dropped down the next time, Kate felt projectiles being thrown at her before she saw them doing so. Varying sizes of pebbles were fired with thankfully little accuracy at her, but the ones that did make contact were sure to leave bruises. The cries of surprise the Doctor gave indicated he was meeting the same treatment.
She stumbled as her boot caught between collections of rocks, dragging the Doctor with her. The apes took this chance to pelt them with larger objects. Luckily, they were also somewhat softer. Fruit flesh splattered across her back and smeared the Doctor's coat as they build up speed again.
With this speed, Kate struggled to find breathe in the thick jungle air. Her feet were beginning to shuffle rather than step, making the escape all the more difficult. She swore one creature's fingertips lightly brushed her skin as it tried to grab her.
Suddenly, the Doctor tumbled to the ground, pulling Kate down with him. A number of pebbles and pieces of fruit flew over them as they rolled to a stop on the refreshingly smooth ground. The oppressive humidity lifted to a bearable standard now, and when Kate regained her feet she found they were no longer in the dark depths of the woods, but in the middle of quite a wide dirt road with the warm sun beating down.
"Does that give you any idea on the year?" She asked breathlessly as she attempted to recover.
Both breathed heavily as they shuffled into the middle of the track, thankful for the thinner air and the refreshing breeze they felt flowing past them. They were thankful also for the fact the chase had stopped. Looking back, Kate saw an army of chimp-like creatures suspended in the canopy. They stared back, fearful and angry, but none dared follow them further than the treeline.
"They narrow it down a bit." The Doctor admitted, wiping his face clean of sweat with his now filthy handkerchief.
Before anymore could be said, the creatures suddenly recommenced their assault. This time, they used larger stones aided with the greater aim an open space allowed them. The first to be thrown, a lump roughly the size of a fist, travelled as if influenced by some force of attraction into the side of the Doctor's head. He was unconscious before he hit the ground.
Kate stifled a scream of shock at this action, immediately scrambling to grab hold of the Time Lord in an attempt to drag him away from further harm. Sand started erupting in clouds around them as more rocks embedded themselves in the earth.
She struggled with his weight, him being deceptively heavier than expected. All feeling was lost in one arm as a stone glanced off her elbow, leaving a tingling sensation erupting up her forearm. It began to look increasingly unlikely she could get them both out of this situation as the rocks continued to grow in size and come closer with each one thrown.
Then there was a screech unlike any she had heard so far today, and the attack stopped. The creatures scarpered, the trees making a noise that sounded like a sigh of relief as the extreme weight left the branches.
Although Kate didn't notice the evacuation. Instead, she was met with a sight that would definitely count as a 'historical reference'. What with the scaly, dragon like appearance of the new arrivals; each of their feet armed with a frighteningly sharp talon and their thin lips masking rows of small, sharp teeth designed to rip apart smaller creatures. If she wasn't mistaken, Kate was looking at a pair of Velociraptors.
Even with the startling appearance of animals she had longed to see, it did not take long for her recognise the anachronistic features that accompanied. For a start, the long, ferocious jaws were restricted, as were their bodies, by two harnesses that kept them close together. Secondly, following the longer strips of each harness, Kate found the dinosaurs had been pulling quite an extravagant chariot behind them; it's form elongated and reminiscent of an open aired carriage set in gold and marked with symbols which may have equated to some cultural relevance.
The third thing she noticed, having followed the body of the chariot, was the fact reptilian people looking back at her. There were two of them, each roughly the same height as the average human and with the same biological structure. Their skin, in keeping with the order of animal already described, was bright green and made of hundreds of scales. Three fin-like ridges crowned their heads, both completely bald but somehow obviously feminine. One was dressed in a red tunic, with what could have been described as a chainmail military uniform beneath. She certainly held herself like a warrior. Her companion, in comparison, wore a midnight blue tunic over more casual articles of clothing.
"My word…" The red-tunic reptile began, staring at Kate with undeniable surprise. She set down the reins of the Velociraptors slowly, as if a sudden movement might scare Kate away, before stepping down from the chariot. Giving the human a further evaluation, she turned back to her companion. "Is there a new breed I don't know about?"
Any questions Kate may have had for the lizard woman, and any the lizard woman may have had for her, had to be set aside for the moment. The Doctor still lay on the dirt track, breathing steadily but body slack against Kate.
"Help him, please." Kate said quickly, sounding like she was pleading more than she had hoped. "My friend's been injured."
At the sound of her voice, both of the reptile women jumped to face. They each wore a look of overwhelming surprise. The red-tunic one took another step closer, bolder now.
"You can talk?" She said slowly, meeting Kate's eyes with pure wonder. "Intelligibly as well."
Kate was about to request help again, ignoring the lizard woman's question, when she felt a sharp object pierce her arm. There was just enough time for her to look at the reptile still on the chariot, which was now holding a pistol, before drowsiness overtook her and she slumped to the ground.
"Why on Earth did you do that, Tayak?" The first reptile asked, still absorbed in studying the strange apes lying in the road.
She heard Tayak climb down from the chariot, careful not to startle the velociraptors.
"You know what they say about Apes." Tayak explained, joining her wife in the middle of the road. The cries of the normal, unclothed apes still rang across the jungle. "They're supremely volatile animals."
"But have you ever heard one talk?" The first woman questioned, reaching to feel for the pulses of both the creatures. Their hair was much finer than that of their wild counterparts. The female ape had a steady pulse, the tranquiliser having worked perfectly. The male's pulse was far more erratic, going at twice the rate it should have been.
The pair of them stood in silence for a few moments, evaluating the creatures they had just happened upon being attacked. Neither could offer any sound explanation of what they were or where they had come from.
"Come on, we have to be at the Academy before midday." Tayak reminded, stepping forward to grab hold of the female creature and drag her to the chariot.
"So why are you taking them?" The red-tunic asked, puzzled by the action.
"No doubt you'll want to study them when we get there. At least they can be observed from cages in the zoo."
The red-tunic wearing reptile smiled at her wife, before beginning to drag the male creature across the ground. "You know me very well." She commented, gathering the reins again once both creatures had been securely fixed into the vehicle. Glancing to the sky as they set off, she couldn't help but notice the bright star gliding across the daytime heavens under the faint moon.
Tayak smirked from her perch at the rear of the chariot. "I know your fascination with Apes will one day cause me a lot of trouble, my dear Vastra."