Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who
Flatline – Part One
A man cowered by his telephone, speaking quickly and quietly into the receiver, eyes darting all around. "Police, please. Hello? Yes. I know who did it. Who did it all - I figured it out… No. No, I can't speak up. They might hear me" he whispered. He could hear something hissing, sizzling, nearby. It was creeping closer… "Oh, no" he muttered fearfully, "Oh, no. Listen. Listen! They are everywhere, all around. We've been so blind - Argh!"
In a flash of light, he was dragged downwards, and the phone was left dangling on its cord. The speaker on the other end asked in concern, "Hello? Sir? Are you in a safe place? Are you being held against your will? Sir?" they inquired. There was no reply, but the image of the man, screaming in horror, began to appear on the wall…
/
Clara walked up the steps to the main level of the console room, having cleaned up after their latest adventure on a swamp planet. Now she was heading back home to take care of 'normal, human things', like vacuuming and sorting her mail. "Okay, I'm all ready to go" she announced with a smile. The Doctor questioned, "Why don't you just ask Maths to do all this stuff for you?"
With a roll of her eyes, Clara replied "His name's Danny, and I can't just ask him to take care of my stuff for me. He has his own life, and things to sort out. I wouldn't be much of a friend if I just dumped stuff on him with no warning, would I?" she asked rhetorically. The Doctor looked up from the console and blinked at her. "Sorry, stopped listening a while ago" he admitted bluntly, before checking the co-ordinates. "Okay. Err, same time you left, same place…ish".
"Ish?" Clara repeated, "Don't give me an ish".
"These readings are very, err, ishy" said the Doctor, frowning in puzzlement at the readings. Romana, the Corsair and Flavia were also checking the instruments, but not Clara or Emily. "Mum, dad?" the teenager called. Then Clara added, "You might wanna look at this".
The four pilots turned their gazes to the TARDIS doors, which had apparently shrunk to being a meter high. The Doctor walked up and opened the doors, before struggling through them. The others followed, with a bit of difficulty (except for Emily, who was the smallest and got through easily), and they found themselves standing beside a much smaller TARDIS near to some train tracks. A sign read 'Bristol Sidings 344'.
"Well. Well, I wonder what caused this? I don't think we're bigger, are we?" the Doctor wondered, pulling out his sonic and scanning Clara. His companion, for her part, was more concerned about their location. "Bristol? Guys, we're in Bristol!"
"What's the big deal?" asked the Corsair, "It's just about a hundred and twenty miles from where you wanted to be. Look, you can get a train" he added, pointing at the tracks. Clara gave him an annoyed glare. "It is a big deal. It's annoying" she insisted.
"No, thisis annoying" the Doctor pointed at her mouth, "This is impressive" he continued, pointing at the shrunken TARDIS. "The TARDIS never does this. This is huge! Well, not literally huge. Slightly smaller than usual, which is huge" he rambled. Clara rolled her eyes again. "Yes. I get it. You're excited. When can I go home?"
Romana answered, "I really don't think you need to be in too much of a hurry to get back. However, we ought to be in a hurry to get our own home back to normal" she decided. The Doctor nodded in agreement, and then turned to Clara. "Could you not just let us let us enjoy this moment of not knowing something?" he complained, "I mean, it happens so rarely...Look, I don't think this is dangerous, but we wouldn't like you to get squished accidentally. Anyway, we need you to help us find out what's caused this".
"Fine" Clara sighed, "I'll go take a look around". She walked off past the train shed, and the Doctor began the tricky business of clambering back inside the TARDIS. Emily waited until he was halfway in before declaring, "Y'know, I think I'll go with Clara. You don't want me to get squashed either, right?" she reasoned, quickly walking off after Clara, and then breaking into a run.
"Emily! Emily, you come back here this instant!" the Doctor shouted after her, trying to scramble back out of the TARDIS. "Oh, let her go, dear" Romana sighed, "Clara will look after her". Ignoring his protests, she pushed him back through the door and let him help her inside. The Corsair looked at Flavia and gestured to the TARDIS. "After you, madam" he said mock-politely. Flavia rolled her eyes. "Thank you, sir" she replied sarcastically, moving to clamber inside the TARDIS.
/
"Clara! Hey, Clara, wait up!" Emily called as she ran full pelt down the street. Clara stopped and turned, waiting for her to catch up. Emily skidded to a halt beside her and smiled cheerfully. "Hey. I thought I'd come investigate stuff with you" she explained. Clara raised an eyebrow. "Did your dad say it was alright?" she asked, even though she could guess that the answer would be 'no'.
Emily rolled her eyes and replied, "I don't have to listen to everything my dad says. C'mon, we've got some investigating to do". She walked past Clara and sauntered down the street, looking all around for signs of trouble. It was times like this that she wished she had her own sonic screwdriver. Why didn't I ask for one of those for my birthday instead of a phone? She wondered, not for the first time.
"What are we looking for, exactly?" Clara inquired as she followed Emily through the streets of Bristol. Emily shrugged. "I dunno. Just something that looks out of place".
They came to a subway tunnel, and saw a sort of memorial shrine of flowers and photos lying beside the steps to the underpass. Three men were loitering at the top of the stairs, all of them wearing green shirts with numbers on the collar. "Cheer up" one of them called to Clara and Emily, "Might never happen".
"Have some respect. They're grieving" one of the other men scolded in a joking sort of way. "Oh, sorry loves. I didn't mean nothing by it" the first man apologised. Emily decided not to correct his grammar and just kept walking, but she did wonder what they were talking about. Maybe she ought to ask? The third person, a young black man, hurried after Emily and Clara as they went down into the underpass. There were paintings of people standing with their backs to them drawn on the walls.
"Sorry about them. They're idiots" the young man apologised. Before Emily could ask him what they had meant by 'it might never happen', Clara assured him, "That's all right, don't worry. I've heard worse".
"I've lost someone, too" he went on, "My Aunt Karina. Deaf as a post; didn't really know her that well but she's still gone. Are your lost ones in the mural?" he asked, resting a hand on the image of a small woman in a yellow jacket. Clara tried to explain, "Oh, no, we haven't actually"-
"I'm sure they'll get round to it at some point" he interrupted, before pointing back up at the men standing around at the top of the steps. "I'm not really with that lot out there" he explained, "I just have to do this community service thing. I just do graffiti. Not anything, you know, murder-y or"-
"What happened to these people?" asked Emily, "Have they died?"
The young man looked at them in surprise. "You mean you don't know?"
/
Emily and Clara walked back to the TARDIS, with Clara talking to the Doctor on Emily's phone, having accidentally left hers in the time machine. "Hey, I think we've found something" she reported, "People are missing all over the estate. Do you think there's a connection?"
"Could be"
"And where are you?"
"Exactly where we were"
"No, you're not. Emily and I are right here and we can't…oh" Clara trailed off as Emily wordlessly pointed at the mini TARDIS sitting on the ground. They walked over to the tiny time machine, glanced at one another, and snickered. "Oh my God, that is so adorable" Clara grinned, crouching down in front of the doors, "Are you guys in there?"
"Yes, we are" the Doctor replied via the phone, "And, no, it's not adorable. It's very, very serious".
"So is this more shrink ray stuff?" asked Clara, recalling when they were shrunk down and went inside a Dalek, "Are you all tiny in there?"
"No, we're exactly the same size. It's merely the exterior dimensions that have changed" the Doctor replied. The doors opened, and they could see most of his face through the gap peering up at them. Clara and Emily sniggered. "Stop laughing" the Doctor complained, "This is serious; and you, young lady, are in big trouble for wandering off. It's rule number one, don't wander off".
"I thought rule number one was 'the Doctor lies'" Clara pointed out. The Doctor shot her a glare, and then Emily said, "I thought the rule was 'don't wander off alone'. I wandered off with Clara, so it doesn't count".
"I knew that Courtney person would be a bad influence on you. You've become so…cheeky since you met her".
Clara inquired, "How are you going to get out?"
"Well, plainly we can't. Something nearby is leeching all the external dimensions".
"Aliens?"
"Possibly… Oh, who am I kidding? Probably" the Doctor admitted. "Sensors are down and I can't risk taking off with it in this state. Clara, I need you to pick up the TARDIS, carefully. It should be possible. I've adjusted the relative gravity" he explained as Clara gingerly picked up the small blue box. "You mean you've made it lighter" she guessed.
"Clara, the TARDIS is always lighter. If it landed with its real weight, it would crack the Earth" Emily informed her. The Doctor told them, "We've managed to get a rough fix on the source of the dimensional leeching". Clara jerked her head back as the Doctor poked his finger through the doors, pointing them in the right direction. "It's roughly north west, that way".
"Please don't do that. That's just wrong".
"Now, listen. You're going to need these" said the Doctor, as he held the psychic paper from the gap. Emily took hold of it since Clara's hands were full with holding the TARDIS. "Does this mean I get to be you for the day?" she asked eagerly. The Doctor frowned until he was nearly all eyebrows. "No, it does not, so don't get any ideas" he warned Emily, who was struggling not to grin in excitement. Finally, a chance to prove herself!
The Doctor passed his sonic screwdriver to her, with a stern warning not to lose it, and then an earpiece. "Tell Clara to put this in her ear" he instructed, to Clara's slight annoyance. "I'm right here" she pointed out, gently placing the TARDIS in her shoulder bag and taking the small earpiece from Emily. She put it her ear. "Clara, can you hear us?" she heard Romana asking.
"Yes. Ow!" she winced, putting a hand to her ear, "What just happened".
"Don't worry, we just hacked your optic nerve, that's all" the Corsair replied.
"What does that mean?"
"We see what you see" the Doctor replied. Romana spoke out through the TARDIS doors. "Emily? Darling, listen, this is important. Stay with Clara, no matter what happens. Do not leave each other behind" she instructed. Emily nodded dutifully, before remembering that her mother couldn't see her. "Don't worry, mum. We'll stick together, I promise".
Clara and Emily went back towards the subway where the memorial for the missing had been placed. Emily scanned the surroundings with the sonic as she walked; when they came to a shopping precinct, Clara took the sonic and held it out in front of her, turning in a circle. "Anything?" she asked the Time Lords.
"Yes, we're dizzy" the Doctor replied, "but nothing useful".
Just then, the young man who had told them about all the missing people approached. "You never did tell me your names" he pointed out.
"Oh, sorry" Emily apologised, "I'm…I'm the Doctor" she smiled. Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor was practically spluttering, "The little…monkey!" The Corsair was just sniggering behind his hand, and even Flavia and Romana were struggling not to laugh at the Doctor's indignation.
"Doctor Smith, but just call me Emily. Oh, and this is Clara".
"I'm Rigsy" he introduced himself, before asking, "Aren't you kind of young to be a doctor?"
"Yes. Yes, I am" Emily agreed bluntly.
"...Right. So, err, what are you a doctor of?"
"Oh, physics, history, all sorts of things really" Emily replied casually. She heard her phone ringing and gave Rigsy an apologetic look as she pulled it out of her pocket. "Hello?"
"We can also hear what Clara hears, missy" her father informed her, "Could you two stop fraternizing and concentrate, please?"
"Who are you two, exactly?" Rigsy asked Clara, "You don't seem like police, but that's some pretty cool gear you got there" he said, pointing to Clara's earpiece and then the sonic screwdriver in Emily's hand. "Are you like spies, or something?"
"Oh, he's a bright one, hang on to him" the Doctor said sarcastically through the phone and the earpiece. Emily and Clara decided unanimously to take him at his word. "If you say so, dad" Emily replied innocently, "Talk to you later, bye!" She hung up, ignoring his protests, and smiled at Rigsy. "Could you tell us a bit more about the missing people?" she asked. Rigsy smiled back and replied, "I can do you one better".
/
Rigsy led them to a flat with police tape across the door. "He was the last one to go missing" he explained as he pulled the tape away, "And when he disappeared all the doors and windows were locked from the inside". Emily sonicked the door open and the three of them moved into the abandoned flat, looking around for signs of trouble.
"Ooh, now you're talking. I love a good locked room mystery" the Doctor remarked to Clara, as he and his co-pilots watched her gaze move around the room, landing on a bookcase of CDS with a mural of a cracked, dusty surface. "Yeah, doesn't everyone?" Clara replied without thinking. Rigsy asked, "What?"
"Huh? Oh, sorry. I'm talking to somebody else. He's listening in" Clara explained vaguely, before asking Emily, "Are you getting anything?"
Emily was scanning the room with the sonic screwdriver. Her face screwed up in annoyed confusion as she looked at the results. "I dunno if I'm reading this wrong or if the results are just all iffy".
"Don't you know how to use that thing?" asked Rigsy, gesturing to the sonic. Emily explained, "It's not really mine. My dad let me borrow it. He's the one who's talking to Clara – well, him and my mum and my godparents".
"Right" Rigsy nodded, not entirely believing her but deciding to just go with it. "You know, I think this is great that someone's finally looking into this. I mean, I was expecting someone a bit older, but no offence. It's better than nothing. The police weren't doing anything. They never do on this estate. People were thinking that no one was listening. That no one cared. So, yeah. I think it's great what you're doing" he told Emily and Clara, before moving off to look around a bit more.
"Clara, look, I think that we can manage on our own from now on" the Doctor told his companion. She stepped away from Rigsy so he wouldn't hear her and answered, "Yeah, well, I think he could still be useful".
"He's a pudding brain. Worse than that, he's a fluorescent pudding brain".
"Doesn't mean he can't be useful" Clara heard Romana say reasonably, "After all, he actually knows his way around here".
"He could still be in the room" Rigsy suggested out of the blue, pulling Clara's attention away from the Doctor and Romana. "Sorry, what?" she asked.
"Sorry, nothing. I was just thinking out loud. It's like one of those locked room things you get in books" Rigsy explained with a shrug, "It's always something weird, like, he's still in the room or something. Do you want to go and check out another flat?" he asked them. Emily shook her head and told him, "That's a pretty good theory. Do you read a lot of mystery books?"
"Nah – I've read a couple of Agatha Christie books though, for school and stuff".
"Oh, I love her books! My mum and dad took me to meet her once, she was very nice" Emily smiled…then she remembered that Rigsy had no idea they were time travellers. Oops. "I mean, uh, they took me to meet her descendant, yeah" she corrected quickly. Much to her relief, Clara saved her from trying to explain further by announcing, "Okay, right. Are we missing something here? Missing man, locked room…shrink ray?"
"Sorry, did you say just say shrink ray?" Rigsy asked dubiously. Clara turned to him and elucidated, "What if he is still in this room like you said, only tiny? You know, like underneath the sofa or something" she suggested, moving over to a chair and lifting up the seat cushion. Rigsy began to edge towards the doors. "Okay. So err, my lunch break's nearly up. This this has been err, interesting" he said slowly.
"Wait, Rigsy, don't go!" Emily called out quickly. She'd overheard Clara saying he could be useful, and besides, she liked him. Rigsy paused, and Emily took a very deep breath. "Okay the truth is we're both time travellers and my mum and dad and godparents are inside our time machine which is shrunk all tiny and I know it sounds crazy but I can prove it here look!"
Before Clara could protest, Emily reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out the TARDIS. She set it down on a shelf at eye level and carefully tapped on the doors. "Mum, dad, can you open the doors please?"
The doors opened, and Emily moved aside to let Rigsy peer into the TARDIS. "Rigsy, meet my family; family, Rigsy" she introduced them all. The Corsair waved, and Romana greeted, "Nice to meet you, Rigsy". He was too busy staring into the box in surprise to reply. "It's bigger…on the inside".
"Do you know, I don't think that statement's ever been truer" the Doctor mused.
"So, what do you think? Tiny man idea" Clara asked them over Rigsy and Emily's shoulders. "Yeah, we remotely set the sonic to scan for that as soon as we entered" the Corsair replied. Clara frowned indignantly. "And you didn't think to tell me?"
"Well, of course he might have been squashed under a policeman's shoe by now" the Doctor pointed out, and Emily grimaced at the thought. Then Rigsy asked her, "What are you? Like, aliens, or something?"
"Clara isn't. Me and my family are though…you don't mind, do you?" she asked, but before Rigsy could answer her, an alarm went off inside the TARDIS. "Mum, dad, what's happening?" Emily inquired worriedly. Romana replied, "We don't know. Whatever just happened, it drained a massive amount of energy from inside the TARDIS".
"But…there's hardly anything powerful enough to drain energy from a TARDIS" Emily realised, starting to feel a bit scared. If whatever was behind the people missing also had the power to shrink the TARDIS, they couldn't be very friendly at all. "Emily, you and Clara and Rigsy need to get out of there, right now" her mother called through the open doors, before shutting them with a switch on the console.
Clara wasted no time in putting the TARDIS back inside her shoulder bag. "Come on Rigsy, time to run. Love the running" Emily grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the door. They ran from the flat and didn't stop until they were on the other side of the street. Clara could hear the Doctor complaining in the TARDIS. "I mean this is just embarrassing" he was saying, "We're from the race that built the TARDIS. Dimensions are kind of our thing. So why can't we understand this?"
Flavia replied, "Well, obviously we haven't collected enough data yet. Clara?"
"Yeah?"
"Ask Rigsy where else people have disappeared".