Chapter 12

The forest was alive with the sounds of spring. Despite whatever was going on, Clara could still feel life all around her in the rustling leaves and scurrying of small animals in the undergrowth. The song of birds surrounded their path as they walked on the mainland where the small boat borrowed from the colonists had taken them. It was as if the previous storm had washed everything clean and if it hadn't been for the looming alien threat, Clara might have considered this trip a peaceful vacation. Her job came back to her mind, the most recent papers on her desk that she still had to grade and everything about it seemed so far away whenever she stepped into the Doctor's blue box that this life of hers might as well have belonged to somebody else.

"What are we looking for?" Clara asked, suddenly remembering that she was following the Doctor without even knowing his plan even though, to be fair, that was the case most of the time. Despite his unpredictability, despite his often rude behaviour, she trusted him. But that didn't mean he always had a plan.

In response, the Doctor turned his head and threw her a glance, that small look of astonishment and excitement, paired with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"We don't know yet," she confirmed.

"I'll know when I see it," the Doctor said and marched on, deeper into the forest. As he did, he pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket that was still emitting a soft, green glow and it chirped when he pressed one of the buttons.

Clara wanted to ask what he was doing, what he was scanning for, but she knew that he would let her know all that as soon as he was ready and it seemed that he wasn't yet. Sometimes, she really hated that he liked to play his cards so close to his chest even in front of her, but right now, she didn't even mind. Surrounded by the birdsong and the beautiful spring forest, Clara felt content just taking a walk.

"I've been picking up a signal ever since I started scanning the area," the Doctor explained after a while. "It was weak at first, but it's getting stronger, so we're headed in the right direction."

Raising her eyebrows at him didn't help because the Time Lord was fixated on his favourite tool, so she just decided to go ahead and ask. "What kind of signal?"

Eye still on the sonic, the Doctor inhaled deeply. "Not sure. Could be anything, really," he said with a soft laugh. The unknown, the unpredictable always managed to excite him and Clara knew why that was. After travelling the universe for over 2000 years, she imagined that it was becoming rarer and rarer to find something he had never seen before and while Clara had only been with the Doctor for a few years compared to the amount of time he had already lived, she had run into the same kind of monster more often than she would have liked. The Daleks, the Cybermen, the Ice Warriors, the Zygons - all of those kept coming back with a new plan to cause havoc and she couldn't say that she liked that very much even though they kept on beating them. Sometimes, Clara was afraid that one day, they wouldn't, that one day, the bad guys would win. Then again, a familiar foe meant that they already knew its weakness whereas something new and foreign was always exciting as well as dangerous.

"It's not something I've ever come across before," the Doctor admitted after examining the sonic for a while. "The signal is… calling out to something or someone."

"Like a distress call? Someone in need of help?"

"Could be," he replied thoughtfully and when he looked at her again, the frown lines on his forehead had deepened and the look on his face made her shiver. "Or a call to arms."

Suddenly, the air around them felt colder and Clara instinctively reached up to cover her arms with her hands, not that it really provided much more warmth. Then, the sonic flashed up and the Doctor lowered his eyes to look at the device.

"Whatever it is, we're about to find out," he said, a broad grin spreading across his face and Clara felt her skin tingle with excitement.

Holding the sonic in front of him like a compass, the Doctor followed the signal to its point of origin and Clara walked a few steps behind him, taking cover behind the back of the Time Lord that was a little harder to kill than her. At first, she didn't even notice. She never paid any attention to the silence that was beginning to engulf them like a cloak, but as they moved on, Clara began to realise that the rustling in the undergrowth had stopped as if no animal dare to tread so close to the signal's source. The birdsong stopped, too, telling her that they were venturing into dangerous territory and even the birds were scared to fly over it. Whatever it was, she couldn't see it.

"What's happening?" Clara tried to ask, but as she opened her mouth, she couldn't hear a thing. At first, she thought that she may have gone deaf, but when the Doctor didn't react to her question or her attempt to yell at him, she knew that the sound had never travelled past her lips.

Quickly, she stepped forward and grabbed the Doctor by the arm, startling him with the sudden physical contact. He spun around and she tried to ask her question once more, but no sound came out. None that either of them could hear.

Frowning, the Doctor opened his mouth to respond and he looked even more surprised when the words got stuck in his throat. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong and Clara looked around nervously, realising only now that they were completely exposed out here in the forest. They could still see, but they would never hear any kind of danger in its approach.

The Doctor mouthed something and for a moment, Clara had hoped that it was the suggestion to turn around, but when he held up his sonic again and continued to follow the flashing, green light, she knew that he was still tracking down the signal - and probably whatever was causing the muted atmosphere.

They walked for a while longer and Clara had taken the Doctor's hand in the process, determined not to let go whatever happened. The silence around them never lifted, the birds didn't return and she was sure that whatever was sending the signal was doing this to keep everything and everyone away from the source. It didn't make sense, however. Why call for something or someone only to do your best to keep everything away?

Then, the Doctor came to an abrupt halt and Clara stopped next to him, raising her eyebrows in question as the Doctor nodded forward. Her confusion only grew because there was nothing to be seen apart from the trees and the setting sun that was scattering its light through the leaves. She wanted to ask, fully aware of how fruitless it was while she had no voice, but then she saw it. It was only a flicker at first, like a shadow caught in the corner of her eye that disappeared once she looked at it properly, but when Clara focused her eyes on the spot, it was beginning to become clearer.

"What is it?" she asked silently, marvelling at the strange shape that was there and wasn't at the same time.

In reply to her moving mouth, the Doctor reached into his pocket and searched for something, eventually pulling out the little wallet that held the psychic paper. Of course! How could she have forgotten about the one means of communication that they had still left?

When the Doctor held it up to her, it read: "Spaceship. Perception filter."

So that was what had sent the signal even though they still didn't know whether it was a call for help or something a lot more sinister. Clara reached out and took the psychic paper from the Doctor to answer him. When her hands touched the wallet, the writing started to change, spelling out "I'm scared". Clara shook it, focusing her thoughts on what she really wanted it to say before she held it in his direction.

"What do we do?"

The Doctor took the wallet back, but instead of using it to reply, he pocketed it again and nodded towards the ship. Clara didn't need to see it in writing to know that he was planning to have a closer look and despite her fear, she followed him.

The closer they came to the ship, the clearer the image became as if the perception filter slowly faded as soon as they had figured it out and looked past it, but the image in front of her was unlike anything she had ever seen. During her adventures with the Doctor, Clara had lost count of how many spaceships she had seen in her life - definitely more than the average human being, but this contraption was something new and as far as spaceship designs went, Clara thought that it was beautiful.

There was an elegance to the ship that was rare for this kind of vehicle and the size of it was more than a little impressive. She was used to a variety of shapes and sizes, the strangest of it being the Doctor's own TARDIS with its old-fashioned police box exterior, but other spaceships she had seen were ugly and bulky and built for purpose and not for beauty. This was different. It stood almost as tall as the trees on four silver legs that could be used as ladders and the body itself was reflecting the light, mirroring its surroundings. It was large and sleek and before Clara could begin to wonder what it looked like on the inside, the Doctor had started to climb up the ladder.

She wasn't entirely sure whether it was a good idea to just enter an alien spaceship without knocking, but not knowing what else to do, she followed after him. A small hatch at the end of the ladder blocked their entrance, but it opened upon the touch of his hand and slid aside to reveal the spaceship's interior. Taking a deep breath, Clara followed the Doctor inside.

It was clear as soon as she was inside that they had entered the cockpit of the craft because Clara spotted two seats and an array of buttons and switches and monitors, all of which were blinking and flashing in different colours. Clara once more marvelled at the design of it all because it had clearly been built for aesthetics and not for comfort. Everything about it was minimalistic and clean as if the Bauhaus movement had been contracted to develop a spaceship.

The Doctor bent down to examine the cockpit and the flashing lights a little further, but whether he came to a conclusion or not, Clara didn't know and instead, she decided to explore the ship for herself, but something in the corner of her eye caught her attention.

Just as she had glimpsed the spaceship itself in the woods, she saw a shadow move towards them, but when she spun around to look, it had gone. At first, she thought her mind had played a trick on her, but then she remembered what the Doctor had told her through the psychic paper. Perception filter.

As soon as she realised what was happening, the alien creature became clearer, a distorted shape coming towards her from the back of the ship and Clara tried to scream in panic, but no sound came out of her mouth. With nothing else left to do, she grabbed the Doctor's arm and pulled him towards the hatch, praying to every god in the universe that they would be quicker than whatever was after them.