Chapter 18
It was a strange sensation. Clara somehow felt as if she was floating. On more than one occasion, she had put on a spacesuit and gone out into the void, her arms and legs dangling in the vacuum with nothing to pull her in. At first, she had hated it. Eventually, she had come to love it. Being in space offered a certain kind of freedom you could only feel when your life was literally hanging by a thread, but Clara had always known that the Doctor would grab the cord and pull her back when she depended on him.
This was different. This kind of floating felt similar, but wrong in a way she couldn't quite place and there was an itch at the back of her neck that told her no one was holding the tether. She opened her eyes.
The panic was instant. As soon as she realised that she was surrounded by some kind of fluid, Clara held her breath until she remembered that somehow, she had been breathing the entire time. Still, she couldn't quite bring herself to open her mouth and risk it. Instead, she looked around and examined her cage. It was small, too small to even spread her arms and the panic inside her chest only grew. She was going to die. She was going to drown in a tub.
With all the strength she could muster underwater, Clara threw herself against the fogged glass front, but nothing happened apart from the shooting pain in her shoulder and her air was running out. Clara felt it in the way her heartbeat accelerated, in the way her lungs twitched inside her chest, in the way that she thought her body might burst if she didn't give in to the temptation. So she did.
Fresh air filled her lungs, stinging a little as it spread through her body but at the same time, filling her cells with life. It was a weird transformation and for a second, Clara felt like she was on fire, like she was smarter, quicker, stronger, and she looked around herself and spotted it. In the murky fluid, it was almost impossible to see, but her hands found the button quickly and pressed it right before her body was catapulted out of the coffin-like prison.
Clara gasped for air and the rush she had previously felt abated a little, leaving her to believe that whatever she had breathed in there was higher in oxygen than their natural atmosphere, but still, she was glad to be outside of her prison. While her body was still dripping wet from the strange fluid, Clara gathered her thoughts and focused on the more important matters. Where was she? Why was she here? And how could she get back to the Doctor?
Raising her head, Clara found the answer to her first question straight away. The design was unmistakable. Clean lines and shapes determined everything in front of her eyes and without having to take a second look, she knew that she was back on the alien spaceship in the woods, but this time, not in the cockpit. As she rose to her feet and walked along the narrow corridor, Clara spotted more of the containers like the one she been held in and from the outside, they didn't look so dangerous and threatening anymore. In fact, the longer she thought about it, the less it seemed like a prison. After all, what prison came with a door handle on the inside? And what ship needed a large array of prison cells? The containers covered everything and Clara wasn't sure she would be able to count them all. Most of them were dark but some, like hers had been, were illuminated in a soft blue glow and that was where she was headed.
When Clara came to a halt in front of the nearest occupied container, a frown appeared on her face even though she realised that she shouldn't have been surprised. The boy inside it was smaller than she was and had a lot more space to float around in, but he didn't seem uncomfortable. Quite the opposite. Clara thought he looked like a child who was happy asleep. For a brief moment, she considered engaging the button next to the container, but she quickly thought better of it. Yes, it was likely to release him, but first, she needed to figure out why he was in there at all.
"He will be alright."
A voice at the back of her head startled her and Clara spun around in an instant, only to see nothing. It was a trick, a trap, and she focused her eyes until the being took shape. Only this time, it was different. This time, the alien wasn't blurry or distorted. The woman who appeared in front of her was… her.
"I'm sorry if I've scared you," the alien said out of Clara's mouth. "That wasn't my intention, but I believe you will be more comfortable talking to me in this form."
Clara's eyes widened in disbelief. Just like a Zygon would, this alien had made a perfect replica of her that made it feel like she was looking into a mirror that wasn't quite obeying her. The hair, the eyes, the nose, the lips, even her clothes were the exact same. Not knowing what else to do, not caring that it might be dangerous, Clara reached out and touched the alien's sleeve, felt the cotton fabric between her fingers. A terrible thought crossed her mind, the thought that maybe, these aliens had come here to replace them, but Clara quickly brushed it aside. It didn't make sense. If it were so, they would have replaced the children immediately upon taking them.
"What are you?" Clara found herself asking, realising how much in awe she sounded. "Why are you keeping these people in… tanks?"
Tanks. That was the word for it. That was what these prisons really were.
"They are sleeping, preparing for the journey," the alien explained. "Don't worry, it's perfectly safe. The fluid protects them from any harm external forces might do to them. Not even age can touch them in there."
"So, it's like a stasis chamber?"
The alien nodded with her head.
"We are the Q'Uartar and we were on our way to a new galaxy when our ship malfunctioned in transit. We had to make an emergency landing here."
It was just like the Doctor had assumed. It wasn't an invasion. It was an accident. However, it didn't explain the kidnappings.
"What about the children? Why have you taken them from the locals?" Clara asked, keeping her voice low so as not to make it sound like an accusation.
Her own face smiled back at her. "The Q'Uartar nearly went extinct when our old world collapsed, but we were able to dispatch a few colony ships. The one you call Sally and I were the last of our kind to leave and we have so much space to offer on this ship. Where we're going, these children will have a good life."
Now, Clara was in the mood for an accusation as she raised her eyebrows at the alien. "You kidnapped them. Even if it was done out of the goodness of your heart, their parents miss them and they might not want to come with you," she shot back at the Q'Uartar, at her own face. And then she remembered something else: being in the tank. "Wait, you tried to take me. I'm not even from here, I'm just a visitor, like you."
The alien smiled amicably. "That is why I never sealed your tank. You don't belong in this time, but you were following me and I wanted you to understand we mean these people no harm."
"Tearing children from their families is harm," Clara retorted, finally raising her voice. "I get it, really, I do. You tried to do something good, but that doesn't automatically make it right. Please, just release the children and let them go back to their parents."
In a defiant gesture, the alien Clara crossed her arms in front of her chest and remained silent for a while, caught in a stubborn staring contest with the human one. Then, slowly, she parted her lips to speak again.
"There are enough tanks," she said eventually.
Clara didn't understand and there was no time to ask because the door suddenly exploded, the force knocking her back against a tank and her vision was reduced to smoke.
