AN: Surprise! Here's a little present for you - I hope you like it!
Chapter 10: The Satan Pit
Jefferson and a guard took aim at the area door, tensing as the computer announced,
"Open door 25."
They relaxed a little as Danny burst through, slamming the door behind him.
"It's me! But they're coming. It's the Ood. They've gone mad."
Eris shouted over to him. "How many of them?"
"All of them! All fifty!"
"Open door 25."
As the door opened, Jefferson shoved Danny out of the way, ignoring the man's protests.
"But they're armed! It's the interface device. I don't know how, but they're using it as a weapon."
The Ood proceeded into the room, with the leading one flinging it's globe directly at the forehead of the guard. The moment it made contact, she convulsed, screaming as she dropped to the floor, dead.
The group ran for it, putting three doors between them and the oncoming horde. Zach's voice buzzed from the computer's speakers.
"Jefferson, what's happening there?"
"I've got very little ammunition, sir. How about you?"
There was a slight clatter on the other end as Zach checked what he'd got.
" All I've got is a bolt gun. With er, all of one bolt. I could take out a grand total of one Ood. Fat lot of good that is."
"Given the emergency, I recommend strategy nine."
"Strategy Nine… Agreed. Right, we need to get everyone together. Rose? What about Ida and the Doctor? Any word?"
Rose shook her head, then remembered he couldn't see her.
"I can't get a reply. Just nothing."
The controls sparked a little as Eris twisted some loose wires.
"I'm trying to strengthen the connection, but I haven't had any luck so far.
"I keep trying, but it's-"
A burst of static drowned out the rest of her sentence.
"No, sorry, I'm fine. Still here." The Doctor's voice was the best thing Rose had heard all day.
Laughing with a mix of relief and anger, she grabbed the microphone.
"You could've said, you stupid-"
He winced at the feedback in his ears. "Whoa. Careful! Anyway, it's both of us. Me and Ida. Hello. But the seal opened up. It's gone. All we've got left is this chasm."
"How deep is it?" Eris asked.
"Can't tell. It looks like it goes down forever."
Rose was a little distant. "The pit is open. That's what the voice said."
Zach seemed to be trying to convince himself that everything was going to be fine.
"But there's nothing. I mean… there's nothing coming out?"
The Doctor reassured him.
"No, no. No sign of the Beast."
"It said Satan." Rose sounded like a small child who'd just woken from a nightmare.
"Come on, Rose. Keep it together."
"Is there no such thing? Doctor. Doctor, tell me there's no such thing."
Zach interrupted. "Ida? I recommend that you withdraw. Immediately."
Her response was almost a whine. "But, we've come all this way."
The captain clearly didn't have the patience to deal with an argument.
"Okay, that was an order. Withdraw. When that thing opened, the whole planet's shifted. One more inch and we fall into the black hole. So this thing stops right now."
"But it's not much better up there with the Ood."
"I'm initiating Strategy Nine, so I need the two of you back up top immediately, no ar-"
His voice was cut off as Ida muted the comms.
She turned to the Doctor. "What do you think?"
"I think they've given an order."
"Yeah, but what do you think?"
He thought for a second. "It said, I am the temptation."
"Well, if there's something in there, why is it still hiding?"
"Maybe we opened the prison but not the cell."
"We should go down. I'd go. What about you?"
"Oh. Oh, in a second, but then again, that is so human. Where angels fear to tread. Even now, standing on the edge. It's that feeling you get, eh? Right at the back of your head. That impulse. That strange little impulse. That mad little voice saying, go on. Go on. Go on. Go over. Go on. Maybe it's relying on that."
He fell quiet for a second, then took his foot off the ring around the hole.
"For once in my life, Officer Scott, I'm going to say retreat. Oh, now I know I'm getting old. Rose, we're coming back."
Hearing this, she grinned, relieved. "Best news I've heard all day."
Her joy was short-lived, however, as Jefferson aimed his rifle at Toby.
"What're you doing?"
"He's infected. He brought that thing on board. You saw it."
"Are you going to start shooting your own people now, Is that what you're going to do? Is it?"
"If necessary."
Eris stepped between Toby and Jefferson, a cold look in her eyes.
"You're better than this, Jefferson. Don't even think about it."
Rose joined her. "Besides, you'll have to shoot me if necessary, so what's it going to be? Look at his face. Whatever it was, is gone. It passed into the Ood. You saw it happen. He's clean."
Reluctantly, he lowered the gun. "Any sign of trouble, I'll shoot him."
"Are you alright?" Rose knelt by Toby's side.
He nodded nervously. "Yeah. I don't know."
Eris frowned sympathetically down at him. "Can you remember anything?"
"Just, it was so angry. It was fury and rage and death. It was him. It was the devil."
As Rose pulled the terrified man into a fierce hug, Eris turned away, thinking.
The Doctor and Ida were making their way back to the capsule.
"What's strategy nine?"
Ida sounded miserable. "Open the airlocks. We'll be safe inside the lock down. The Ood will get thrown out into the vacuum."
"So we're going back to a slaughter?"
She nodded. "The devil's work."
They climbed inside, and secured the door behind them.
"Okay, we're in. Bring us up."
Jefferson prepared them for the rise. "Ascension in three, two, one."
Then, the power went out. A deep, cold voice rippled through the dark.
"This is the darkness. This is my domain."
The monitors around them flickered back to life, showing images of the Ood.
"You little things that live in the light, clinging to your feeble suns which die."
Zach stated the obvious. "That's not the Ood. Something's talking through them."
"Only the darkness remains."
"This is Captain Zachary Cross Flane of Sanctuary Base Six, representing the Torchwood archive. You will identify yourself."
"You know my name."
"What do you want?"
"You will die here. All of you. This planet is your grave."
Aside from the group, Toby rocked back and forth on his heels, terrified.
"It's him. It's him. It's him."
Down below, the Doctor decided to take over the conversation.
"If you are the Beast, then answer me this. Which one, hmm? Cos the universe has been busy since you've been gone. There's more religions than there are planets in the sky. The Archiphets, Orkology, Christianity, Pash Pash, New Judaism, San Klah, Church of the Tin Vagabond. Which devil are you?"
"All of them."
"What, then you're the truth behind the myth?"
"This one knows me as I know him. The killer of his own kind."
He heard Eris sneering over the speakers. "How did you end up on this rock?"
"The Disciples of the Light rose up against me and chained me in the pit for all eternity."
"When was this?"
"Before time."
The Doctor pulled a face. "What does that mean?"
"Before time."
"What does before time mean?"
"Before light and time and space and matter. Before the cataclysm. Before this universe was created."
He scoffed. "That's impossible. No life could have existed back then."
The voice sounded smug. "Is that your religion?"
"It's a belief."
"You know nothing. All of you, so small." Then, it started to pick on each of them individually.
"The Captain, so scared of command. The soldier, haunted by the eyes of his wife. The scientist, still running from Daddy. The little boy who lied. The virgin. The abomination, created from chaos. And the lost girl, so far away from home. That valiant child who will die in battle so very soon."
Rose was shaking. "Doctor, what does that mean?"
"Rose, don't listen."
"What does it mean?"
"You will die and I will live." Then, the image of the Ood was replaced by that of an enraged horned beast. It showed for a fraction of a second, then vanished into the blackness again.
Danny's voice had gone up at least one octave.
"What the hell was that?"
Toby was shaking violently. "I had that thing inside my head."
"Doctor, what did it mean?" Rose could feel Eris' arms around her, but didn't really register it.
"What do we do? Jefferson?"
Jefferson went for the microphone. "Captain? What's the situation on strategy nine?"
Danny looked frantic. "Zach, what do we do?"
"The planet, the orbit, the black hole. Everything's true." Toby was rocking again.
"Captain, report."
Zach was angrily pushing at as many buttons as he could hit.
"We've lost pictures, Mister Jefferson."
The voices started to overlap now, and the Doctor couldn't pick apart who was saying what any more.
"Stop."
They didn't seem to hear him.
"Everyone just stop."
Again, nothing. He only got them to shut up by sending a wave of feedback through the comms, a loud piercing noise that made them all cover their ears.
Now they were listening, he spoke quickly.
"You want voices in the dark, then listen to mine. That thing is playing on very basic fears. Darkness, childhood nightmares, all that stuff."
"But that's how the devil works." Danny wasn't much calmer.
Eris couldn't resist adding her own thoughts. "Or a good psychologist."
Ida sounded a little weepy.
"Yeah, but how did it know about my father?"
It took the Doctor a moment to figure out what to say, but he managed to settle on the right words. "Okay, but what makes his version of the truth any better than mine, hmm? Cos I'll tell you what I can see. Humans. Brilliant humans. Humans who travel all the way across space, flying in a tiny little rocket. Right into the orbit of a black hole, just for the sake of discovery. That's amazing! Do you hear me? Amazing, all of you. The Captain, his Officer, his elders, his juniors, his friends. All with one advantage. The Beast is alone. We are not. If we can use that to fight against him-"
Bang! The cable snapped, and started to fall. It whistled as it whipped down the shaft.
Everyone in the drilling room could hear a brief commotion of voices over the comms before a loud crash. Then, silence.
Rose went for the comms. "Doctor, we lost the cable! Doctor, are you all right? Doctor!"
Zach groaned. "Signal's been blocked."
"Doctor? Doctor, can you hear me?"
"I've still got life signs, but we've lost the capsule."
"Say something. Are you there?"
"There's no way out. They're stuck down there."
Unfortunately, the capsule was unsalvageable. Little more now than a pile of scrap metal and cable. The Doctor sighed, and turned to Ida.
"You ok?"
"Yeah."
"How much air have we got?"
She glanced down at her arm panel.
"Sixty minutes." Then, a recheck. "Fifty five."
Rose was stuck focusing on the Doctor, ignoring the calamity around her.
"But we've got to bring them back."
Jefferson was a little short with her.
"They're ten miles down. We haven't got another ten miles of cable." Sudden bangs at the closest door interrupted him. "Captain? Situation report."
In the control room, Zach checked door one.
"It's the Ood. They're cutting through the door bolts. They're breaking in."
"Yeah, it's the same on door 25."
Eris leant over his shoulder.
"How long's it going to take?"
"Well, it's only a basic frame, it should take ten minutes."
There was a sharp crack as another bolt cracked.
"Eight."
Zach checked the system again. "I've got a security frame. It might last a bit longer, but that doesn't help you."
Finally, Rose got her head back in the game.
"Right. So we need to stop them, or get out, or both."
Danny raised an eyebrow. "I'll take both, yeah? But how?"
"You heard the Doctor. Why do you think that thing cut him off? Cos he was making sense. He was telling you to think your way out of this. Come on! For starters, we need some lights. There's got to be some sort of power somewhere."
"There's nothing I can do. Some Captain, stuck in here, pressing buttons." Zach sounded morose.
"That's what the Doctor meant. Press the right buttons."
"They've gutted the generators." He thought for a moment. "But the rocket's got an independent supply. If I could reroute that. Mister Jefferson? Open the bypass conduits. Override the safety."
"Opening bypass conduits, sir."
"Channelling rocket feed in three, two, one. Power."
The lights in the drilling area came on, and Rose grinned.
"There we go."
Danny sighed in relief. "Let there be light!"
"What about that strategy nine thing?"
There wasn't such good news on that front, and Jefferson shook his head.
"Not enough power. It needs a hundred percent."
"All right, we need a way out. Zach, Mister Jefferson, you start working on that. Toby, what about you?"
In the corner, Toby shrugged. "I'm not a soldier. I can't do anything."
Eris thought for a moment.
"No, but you're the archeologist. What do you know about the pit?"
"Well, nothing. We can't even translate the language."
"Come on, at least try!"
"Hold on. Maybe… since that thing was inside my head, it's like the letters make more sense."
"Well, get to work. Anything you can translate, just anything." Then, she turned to Danny. "You're in charge of the Ood, Dan. Any way of stopping them?"
He looked surprised at the question. "Well, I don't know."
Rose patted him on the back. "Then find out. The sooner we get control of the Base, the sooner we can get the Doctor out. Shift."
Ida examined the remains of the capsule.
"Well, we've got all this cable, we might as well use it. The drum's disconnected. We could adapt it, feed it through."
"And then what?" The Doctor frowned at her.
She seemed very calm. "Abseil into the pit."
"Abseil. Right."
"We're running out of air with no way back. It's the only thing we can do. Even if it's the last thing we ever achieve."
"I'll get back. My girls are up there."
"Well, maybe the key to that is finding out what's in the pit."
He shrugged. "Well, it's half of a good plan."
She blinked at him, confused. "What's the other half?"
"I go down, not you."
Mr Jefferson was doing his best to help Zach readfust the power flow.
"Open junctions five, six, seven. Reroute filters sixteen to twenty four. Go."
At the same time, Danny, Rose and Eris were huddled around one of the computer screens.
"There's all sorts of viruses that could stop the Ood. Trouble is, we haven't got them on board."
Rose rolled her eyes.
"Well, that's handy, listing all the things we haven't got. We haven't got a swimming pool either. Or a Tesco's."
As Eris smirked, the screen lit up with a bold message - Affirmative.
Danny grinned. "Oh, my God. It says yes. I can do it. Hypothetically, if you flip the monitor, broadcast a flare, it can disrupt the telepathy. Brainstorm!"
"What happens to the Ood?"
"It'll tank them, spark out."
"There we are, then. Do it!"
He shook his head, and Eris' heart sank.
"What is it?"
"I'd have to transmit from the central monitor. We need to go to Ood Habitation."
She nodded. "That's what we'll do, then. Mr Jefferson, sir. Any way out?"
He hummed in agreement.
"Just about. There's a network of maintenance tunnels running underneath the base. We should be able to gain access from here."
Rose joined them. "Ventilation shafts."
Jefferson laughed. "Yeah, I appreciate the reference, but there's no ventilation. No air, in fact, at all. They were designed for machines, not life forms."
Over the speaker, Zach put an idea to them as it sparked to life in his head.
"But… I can manipulate the oxygen field from here. Create discrete pockets of atmosphere. If I control it manually, I can follow you through the network."
Rose understood. "Right, so we go down, and you make the air follow us by hand."
They could almost hear Zach shrug.
"You wanted me pressing buttons."
"Yeah, we asked for it. Okay, we need to get to Ood Habitation. Let's work out a route."
At Point Zero, they had managed to mock up an abseiling mechanism using the cable and drum from the capsule. The Doctor had secured the free end of the cable around his waist while Ida watched, nervous.
"That should hold it. How's it going?" She asked, biting at the inside of her cheeks.
He stepped onto the rim of the trapdoor. "Fine. Should work. Doesn't feel like such a good idea now. Hmm, there it is again. That itch. Go down, go down, go down, go down, go down."
"The urge to jump. Do you know where it comes from, that sensation? Genetic heritage. Ever since we were primates in the trees. It's our body's way of testing us. Calculating whether or not we can reach the next branch."
He shook his head. "No, that's not it. That's too kind. It's not the urge to jump. It's deeper than that. It's the urge to fall!"
And he launched himself back into the chasm, falling fast.
"Doctor!"
Ida lunged for the brake, stopping his descent.
"Are you okay?"
He sounded extraordinarily calm. "Not bad, thanks. The wall of the pit seems to be the same as the cavern, just not much of it. There's a crust about twenty feet down and then nothing. Just the pit. Okay, then. Lower me down."
"Well, here we go then."
In the drill room, the Ood were moments away from breaking through the doors. Danny was still struggling with the virus download while the others pulled a piece of the deck plating up.
"Danny!"
"Hold on! Just conforming."
Jefferson grabbed him. "Dan, we got to go now! Come on!"
"Got it!"
He grabbed a neon orange computer chip and ran to the manhole they'd created.
"Put that in the monitor and it's a bad time to be an Ood."
Rose addressed all of them. "We're coming back. Have you got that? We're coming back to this room and we're getting the Doctor out."
Eris grinned. "Yes ma'am."
Adjusting his grip on his gun, Jefferson aimed at the door.
"Okay. Danny, you go first, then you, Miss Tyler, then Toby, then Eris. I'll go last in a defensive position. Now, come on, quick as you can!"
He dropped into the tunnel and slammed the mesh panel back into place above them. In front of him, Rose pulled a face.
"God, it stinks. You all right?"
Danny rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm laughing." He aimed his question at Zach through his watch.
"Which way do we go?"
"Just go straight ahead. Keep going till I say so."
They started to crawl, and Rose decided to lighten the mood.
"Not your best angle, Danny."
"Oi, stop it."
Behind her, Toby sniped. "I don't know, it could be worse."
"Oi!"
Eris tutted. "I know who I'd rather be behind. Come on, get moving."
A couple of minutes passed before Zach's next instruction.
"Straight on until you find junction seven point one. Keep breathing. I'm feeding you air. I've got you."
Danny, in the lead, reached the gate first.
"We're at seven point one, sir."
"Okay, I've got you. I'm just aerating the next section."
"Getting kind of cramped, sir. Can't you hurry up?"
Zach sounded irritated.
" I'm working on half power, here."
At the back of the pack, Jefferson groaned at their whining.
"Stop complaining."
Rose passed the message forward. "Mr Jefferson says stop complaining."
"I heard." Danny muttered.
"He heard."
Toby tugged at his collar. "But the air's getting a bit thin."
"He's complaining now."
Jefferson huffed. "I heard."
Eris smacked a hand against her forehead. "Will you all stop whinging? It's doing my head in."
They could only manage to behave for a moment, it seemed. Rose sniffed deeply.
"Danny, is that you?"
"I'm not exactly happy."
Zach tried to reassure them.
"I'm just moving the air. I've got to oxygenate the next section. Now, keep calm or it's going to feel worse."
A loud bang made them all jump.
Danny stiffened. "What was that?"
Rose and Toby asked the same. "Mr Jefferson, what was that?"
"What's that noise?"
Jefferson repeated the sentiment. "Captain, what was that?"
Zach's stomach dropped.
"The junction in Habitation Five's been opened. It must be the Ood. They're in the tunnels!"
Danny snarled. "Well, open the gate."
"I've got to get the air in!"
"Just open it, sir!"
Eris took over Jefferson's wrist unit. "Where are they? Are they close?"
The answer from Zach wasn't ideal.
"I don't know. I can't tell. I can't see them. The computer doesn't register Ood as proper life forms."
Rose rolled her eyes. "Whose idea was that?"
Danny had other things on his mind. "Open the damn gate!"
It finally slid up, and they all crawled through it, desperate to stay on the move.
Zach kept feeding them directions. "Danny, turn left. Immediate left."
"The Ood, sir. can't you trap them? Cut off the air?" Jefferson kept checking over his shoulder, aware of the sound of crawling a little way behind them.
"Not without cutting off yours. Danny, turn right. Go right! Go fast, Dan. They're going to catch up."
Jefferson settled with his gun.
"I'll maintain defensive position."
Rose tried to stop him. "You can't stop!"
"Miss Tyler, that's my job. You've got your task, now see to it."
Toby rolled his eyes. "You heard what he said, now shift."
As Jefferson braced himself, Eris gave him a salute and followed the others. Danny reached the next gate, and the firing started behind them.
"Eight point two. Open eight point two. Zach! Open eight point two!"
"I've got to aerate it."
"Open it now!" Danny roared.
" I'm trying!"
Danny started to thump at the gate, and Eris reached forwards to grab his hands.
"Danny, stop it. That's not helping."
Toby was getting impatient now too. "Zach, get it open!"
A decision had to be made now.
"Jefferson, I've got to open eight point two by closing eight point one. You've got to get past the junction. Now move. That's an order, now move!"
Further back in the tunnel, out of ammunition, Jefferson had resorted to his pistol. Zach was pleading now. "I'm going to lose oxygen, Jefferson, I can't stop for your dramatics!"
He retreated and the gate opened.
"Danny, turn left and head for nine point two. That's the last one. Jefferson, you've got to move faster. John, move!"
The others, realising that he was about to be trapped, started to call for him.
"Mr Jefferson!"
"Jefferson hurry!"
But it was too late. The gate slammed shut.
"Regret to inform, sir, I was a bit slow. Not so fast, these days." They could hear him panting over the open comm link.
Zach sounded miserable. "I can't open eight point one, John. Not without losing air for the others."
"And quite right too, sir. I think I bought them a little time."
"There's nothing I can do, John. I'm sorry."
"You've done enough, sir. Made a very good captain under the circumstances. May I ask, if you can't add oxygen to this section, can you speed up the process of its removal?"
Now, he was just confused.
"I don't understand. What do you mean?"
"Well, if I might choose the manner of my departure, sir, lack of air seems more natural than, well, let's say death by Ood. I'd appreciate it, sir!"
At the end of the corridor, the Ood had arrived.
"God speed, Mister Jefferson."
"Thank you, sir."
Fingers shaking, Zach pressed the necessary buttons, and there was a hiss of air. He paused a moment.
"Report Officer John Maynard Jefferson PKD deceased, with honours. 43 K two point one."
Now far more subdued, Danny spoke.
"Zach, we're at the final junction, nine point two. And er, if my respects could be on record. He saved our lives."
Eris' voice wasn't much stronger than his.
"I don't know if it counts for much, but add mine and Rose's to that record too. He deserves it."
Zach sniffed. "Noted. Opening nine point two."
The gate rolled up, but their relief was short lived - as an Ood crammed it's face into the gap that was forming!
Rose shouted. "Lower nine point two! Hurry, Zach!"
"Back! Back! Back!" Danny started shuffling backwards.
Toby groaned. "We can't go back! The gang point's sealed off. We're stuck."
Thinking fast, Eris pushed experimentally at the panel above her, grinning when it gave way a little. "We can go up! These panels are looser than the others! Rose, try the panel above you!"
She did so, shoving at the grating with all her strength and climbing up, encouraging the others to follow.
"Danny, Eris, Toby! Come on! Up!"
They burst up into the corridor near door 32, very aware that the Ood were closing in on them. The others had got up, but Toby was still in the tunnel.
"Come on! Toby, come on!" Rose extended a hand down to help him.
What the others couldn't see was that his eyes were red, and he was holding the Ood back with a simple gesture - finger on the lips.
"Toby, get out of there!"
His eyes switched back to normal, and he shouted up at them.
"Help me! Oh, my God. Help me!"
"Come on!"
As they pulled him up, they could see the Ood approaching the closed door in front of them.
Danny pointed in the other direction.
" It's this way."
And they made it into Ood Habitation.
Danny's hands were shaking as he tried to insert the chip into the computer banks as the voices of the others overlapped in his head.
"Get it in!"
"Danny, get it done!"
"Transmit!"
"I'm trying, I'm trying! I'm getting at it."
As the Ood broke through the door behind them, Eris took both of his hands and steadied them.
"I've got you. Breathe."
He managed to push it into the slot and the reading dropped instantly - basic 100 right down to zero. The Ood writhed in pain, clutching at their heads before dropping to the floor, motionless.
Rose cheered. "You did it! We did it!"
"Yes!"
She grabbed the microphone.
"Zach, we did it. The Ood are down. Now we've got to get the Doctor."
He replied. "I'm on my way."
Below, both of them knew that the cable was running out, but neither wanted to speak it out loud. Instead, the Doctor turned to his usual tactic of lecturing on planetary cultural differences.
"You get representations of the Horned Beast right across the universe, in the myths and legends of a million worlds. Earth, Draconia, Velconsadine, Daemos. The Kaled god of war. It's the same image, over and over again. Maybe that idea came from somewhere, bleeding through. The thought at the back of every sentient mind."
Ida frowned. "Emanating from here?"
"Could be."
"But if this is the original, does that make it real? Does that make it the actual devil, though?"
"Well, if that's what you want to believe. Maybe that's what the devil is, in the end. An idea."
The cable ran out with a sharp thunk, leaving the Doctor dangling in mid-air.
"That's it. That's all we've got. You getting any sort of readout?"
He tapped at the arm scanner.
"Nothing. Could be miles to go, yet. Or could be thirty feet. No way of telling. I could survive thirty feet."
"Oh no you don't. I'm pulling you back up." Ida started reversing the drum, but he stopped it again. "What're you doing?"
The Doctor sighed. "You bring me back, then we're just going to sit there and run out of air. I've got to go down."
"But you can't. Doctor, you can't."
"Call it an act of faith."
She sounded tearful. "But I don't want to die on my own."
"I know."
He was quiet as he undid the carabiners, one by one.
They were having technical issues in the drilling room again, and the comms were having trouble. Rose was doing her best to get through to the team, with little success.
"Doctor, are you there? Doctor, Ida, can you hear me?"
She could just about hear Zach, his voice interrupted by bursts of static.
"The comms. are still down. I can patch them through the central desk and boost the signal. Just give me a minute."
Still hanging there, the Doctor realised something.
"I didn't ask. Have you got any sort of faith?"
Far above, Ida shrugged.
"Not really. I was brought up Neo Classic Congregational, because of my mum. She was... My old mum. But no, I never believed."
"Neo Classics, have they got a devil?"
"No, not as such. Just er, the things that men do."
He snorted. "Same thing in the end."
"What about you?"
"I believe... I believe I haven't seen everything, I don't know. It's funny, isn't it? The things you make up. The rules. If that thing had said it came from beyond the universe, I'd believe it, but before the universe? Impossible. Doesn't fit my rule. Still, that's why I keep travelling. To be proved wrong. Thank you, Ida."
She shouted. "Don't go!"
One carabiner left.
"If they get back in touch, if you talk to the girls. Eris, my Eris, I'm so proud of her. And Rose, just tell her... Tell her... Oh, she knows."
He released the last one, and dropped.
A familiar voice crackled over the speaker in her helmet.
"Doctor, are you there? Doctor, Ida, can you hear me? Are you there, Doctor?"
They finally got a response back, but it wasn't what they wanted to hear. Zach - who'd run all the way from the control room - arrived just in time to hear;
"He's gone." Ida sounded like she'd been crying.
Rose became a little hysterical. "What do you mean, he's gone?"
"He fell into the pit. And I don't know how deep it is. Miles and miles and miles."
"But what do you mean, he fell?"
"I couldn't stop him. He said your name. And Eris, he had a message for you."
Eris chewed at her lip, and took the microphone.
"What did he say?"
"That he was proud of you."
Seeing that she was struggling to hold it together, Jefferson prised the microphone gently from her fingers and put it down, rubbing her arm soothingly. Zach took over the conversation.
"I'm sorry. Ida? There's no way of reaching you. No cable. No back up. You're ten miles down.
We can't get there."
He could hear her sigh.
"You should see this place, Zach. It's beautiful. Well, I wanted to discover things, and here I am."
"We've got to abandon the base. I'm declaring this mission unsafe. All we can do is make sure no one ever comes here again."
"But we'll never find out what it was."
"Well, maybe that's best."
Her voice cracked. "Yeah."
Zach got ready to confirm the fact that they were leaving her there.
"Officer Scott…"
"It's all right. Just go. Good luck."
He closed his eyes for the briefest moment, before sighing.
"And you. Danny, Toby, close down the feed links. Get the retrotropes online, then get to the rocket and strap yourselves in. We're leaving."
Rose took a deep breath.
"I'm not going."
"Rose, there's space for you."
"No, I'm going to wait for the Doctor. Just like he waited for me."
"I'm sorry, but he's dead."
She shook her head, voice shaking. "You don't know him. 'Cause he's not. I'm telling you, he's not. And even if he was, how could I leave him all on his own, all the way down there? No, I'm going to stay."
Over the girl's shoulder, Zach could see Eris motioning to Rose's neck, miming an injection. He understood.
"Then I apologise for this. Danny, Toby? Make her secure."
The boys each took an arm, holding her still.
She struggled against them. "No, no. No! No! No! Let me go! Get off me! I'm not leaving! Eris, please! Don't let them do this!"
The brunette stood back as Zach produced a syringe from his pocket and injected Rose with the sedative, catching her as she passed out.
"I have lost too many people. I am not leaving you behind. Let's get her on board."
He swung her over his shoulder into a fireman's lift, and led the way to the rocket.
As they made their way through the corridors, picking their way around the Ood sprawled across the floor, Toby spotted a small movement from one of them.
"Did that one just move?"
Danny twitched. "It's the telepathic field. It's reasserting itself."
"Move it. Get to the rocket. Move!" Zach picked up the pace.
Deep underneath the cavern, the Doctor lay still on the floor. He'd finally stopped falling. He stirred for a moment, his head clearing a little. Realising that the glass of his helmet was broken, he gasped for a second, before noticing that the air was fine.
"I'm breathing. Air cushion to support the fall. You can breath down here, Ida. Can you hear me, Ida?"
He got nothing back, and groaned. The signal must have dropped out… or been blocked.
Zach and Eris had managed to get everyone safely to the rocket and had taken the front two seats after strapping Rose in, leaving Toby to sit in the middle and Danny on his other side.
"Dislocating B clamp. C Clamp. Raising blu-nitro to maximum. Toby, how's the Negapact feed line?"
"Clear. Ready to go, sir. For God's sakes, get us out of here!"
As they did their flight prep, Rose started to stir, and Danny groaned.
"Captain, I think we're going to have a problem passenger."
Zach didn't have time to start an argument with the girl. "Keep an eye on her."
"Wait. We're not-" She was groggy, but quickly picking up.
Eris twisted in her seat, doing her best to reassure her.
"It's all right, Rose. You're safe."
"I'm not going anywhere! Get me out of this thing! Get me out!"
"And lift off! Whoo!" Zach cheered as the engines thrust them into space, up through the gravity funnel.
Spotting the bolt gun in a holster, Rose snatched it and aimed it at Zach's head.
"Take me back to the planet. Take me back!"
"Or what?"
"Or I'll shoot."
"Would you, though?" He snapped. "Would you really? Is that what your Doctor would want?"
Eris tore the gun from Rose's hand and slammed it down on the ledge next to their seats.
"You know he wouldn't. Now take a deep breath, and calm down. Let's focus on getting out of here."
"But-"
"No, Rose! We're not safe yet."
Rose slumped back in her seat, and Zach shot her a sympathetic look.
"Sorry, but it's too late anyway. Take a look outside. We can't turn back. This is what the Doctor would have wanted. Isn't that right?"
Above, the Doctor could hear the rumble of engines as he followed the tunnel along.
"A rocket."
Satisfied that the girls were most likely safe and on board, he kept going. Shining his torch at the walls, he could see delicately simple wall paintings - ancient, and yet as vibrant as the day they'd been done.
"The history of some big battle. Man against Beast. I don't know if you're getting this, Ida. Hope so. Anyway, they defeated the Beast and imprisoned it."
Part of the painting showed two bronze urns on two separate pedestals.
"Or maybe that's the key."
The sound of his voice echoing a little made him look to his right, and he could see the tunnel open out a short way away. As he walked towards it, a pair of pedestals rose out of the gloom. A pair of pedestals with bronze urns on top.
"Or the gate, or the bars."
He rested a hand gently against one of the urns, and it glowed a soft yellow. The other one did the same, and the whole cavern swelled with the same light.
The ledge he was standing on dropped off sharply a few feet in front of him, and the deep pit that it led to seemed to go down forever. Standing inside it, chained by the arms and horns, was a gargantuan beast. Hundreds of metres tall, with cracking red skin and curling ram-like horns. He could only think of one name to describe it. And he really didn't want to think about that.
In the rocket, Toby sat in chuckling to himself. Danny looked at him oddly out of the corner of his eye.
"What's the joke?"
"Just, we made it. We escaped. We actually did it."
Rose sniffled. "Not all of us."
Zach shook his head.
"We're not out of it yet. We're still the first people in history to fly away from a black hole. Toby, read me the stats."
"Gravity funnel holding, sir. Always holding. Stats at fifty three. Funnel stable at sixty six point five. Hull pressure constant. Smooth as we can, sir, all the way back home. Coordinates set for planet Earth."
Wiping her eyes, Rose continued trying to apply logic to the situation.
"It doesn't make sense. We escaped, but there's a thousand ways it could've killed us. It could've ripped out the air or, I don't know, burnt us, or anything. But it let us go. Why? Unless it wanted us to escape?"
Toby nudged her.
"Hey, Rose, do us a favour. Shut up." And she did. "Almost there. We'll be beyond the reach of the black hole in forty, thirty nine…"
Deep in the pit, the Doctor was speaking his thoughts aloud.
"I accept that you exist. I don't have to accept what you are, but your physical existence, I'll give you that. I don't understand. I was expected down here. I was given a safe landing and air. You need me for something. What for? Have I got to, I don't know, beg an audience? Or is there a ritual? Some sort of incantation or summons or spell? All these things I don't believe in, are they real? Speak to me! Tell me!"
The beast in chains simply snarled at him, and he frowned. "You won't talk. Or you can't talk. Oh, hold on, wait a minute, just let me... Oh! No. Yes! No. Think it through. You spoke before. I heard your voice. An intelligent voice. No, more than that. Brilliant. But, looking at you now, all I can see is Beast. The animal. Just the body. You're just the body, the physical form. What's happened to your mind, hmm? Where's it gone? Where's that intelligence?"
A terrible thought popped into his head. "Oh, no."
And then, everything started to slot into place.
"You were imprisoned, a long time ago. Before the universe, after, sideways, in between, doesn't matter. The prison is perfect. It's absolute, it's eternal. Oh, yes! Open the prison, the gravity field collapses. This planet falls into the black hole! You escape, you die. Brilliant! But that's just the body. The body is trapped, that's all. The devil is an idea. In all those civilisations, just an idea. But an idea is hard to kill. An idea could escape. The mind. The mind of the great Beast. The mind can escape! Oh, but that's it! You didn't give me air, your jailers did. They set this up all those years ago! They need me alive, because if you're escaping, then I've got to stop you. If I destroy your prison, your body is destroyed. Your mind with it!"
Grinning, he stooped and grabbed a large rock from the floor before raising it high above his head to smash the closest urn. But he lowered it again, realising.
"But then you're clever enough to use this whole system against me. If I destroy this planet, I destroy the gravity field. The rocket. The rocket loses protection and falls into the black hole. I have to sacrifice Eris and Rose."
The Beast laughed deeply, languishing in the man's torment.
"So, that's the trap. Or the test, or the final judgment, I don't know. But if I kill you, I kill them. Except that implies in this big grand scheme of Gods and Devils that they are just victims. But I know better. I've seen a lot of this universe. I've seen fake gods and bad gods and demi-gods and would-be gods, all kinds of powers. Things that can't or won't be explained. Hell, I travel with one! But out of all that, out of that whole pantheon, if I believe in one thing, just one thing - well, two things - I believe in them."
He swung the rock down and smashed the urn on the left, before running to do the same to the one on the right.
"This is your freedom. Free to die. You're going into that black hole and I'm riding with you!"
Just when they'd started to feel hopeful, the rocket began to tremble, subtly at first but then more violently. Danny started to panic.
"What happened? What was that?"
Toby was staring off into the middle distance, an odd look of anger on his face.
"What's he doing? What is he doing?"
Punching at the scanner, Zach swore.
"We've lost the funnel. Gravity collapse!"
Rose didn't like the sound of that. "What does that mean?"
"We can't escape. We're headed straight for the black hole!"
"It's the planet. The planet's moving. It's falling." She looked out of the window, heart breaking as the planet sped towards the centre of the black hole. As she looked back, she got the fright of her life as she set eyes on Toby - whose face was once again covered with the black symbols.
"I am the rage."
Eris twisted in her seat. "It's Toby. Zach, it's Toby!"
"And the bile and the ferocity."
Rose was pressing herself against the wall, trying to keep her distance as much as possible.
"Just do something!"
"I am the Prince and the Fall and the enemy. I am the sin and the fear and the darkness."
Danny's voice became a screech. "It's him! It's him! It's him!"
Zach shook his head. "Stay where you are. The ship's not stable!" A jet of fire shot from Toby's mouth. "What is he? What the hell is he?"
Toby was still shouting.
"I shall never die. The thought of me is forever. In the bleeding hearts of men, in their vanity and obsession and lust."
A thought flashed through Eris' mind.
"Rose, the bolt gun!"
Catching on, Rose picked it up and aimed it at the front window.
"Nothing shall ever destroy me. Nothing!"
She scoffed.
"Oh yeah? Go to hell."
And she fired at the screen, shattering it. Then, she reached over to undo Toby's seatbelt and he was instantly sucked out through the hole, roaring furiously.
"Emergency shield!" Zach flicked the nearest switch and a metal shutter scrolled down, sealing the gap. The ship was still falling. "We've still lost the gravity funnel. We can't escape the black hole."
Rose shook her head.
"But we stopped him. That's what the Doctor would've done."
"Some victory. We're going in."
In view of the side window, the planet vanished completely, and Danny groaned.
"The planet's gone. I'm sorry."
Zach sighed, resigned.
"Accelerate. I did my best. But hey! The first human beings to fall inside a black hole. How about that? History."
Eris reached over to lay a hand on his shoulder.
"We did all we could. Thanks for the ride."
Moment's later, the shaking stopped entirely. They sat for a moment, utterly bewildered. What had happened? They were simply drifting now, but how had they stopped?
Rose craned her neck to see out of the window. "What happened?"
Then, the ship pitched to the right, leaning dramatically.
Zach checked the sensors, and gasped.
"We're turning. We're turning around. We're turning away!"
Impossibly, the Doctor's voice took over the speakers. He sounded utterly jubilant.
"Sorry about the hijack, Captain. This is the good ship Tardis. Now, first thing's first. Have you got a Rose Tyler on board? Maybe an Eris, as well?"
Rose burst out laughing, happy tears pooling in her eyes.
"I'm here! It's me! Oh, my God. Where are you?"
"I'm just towing you home. Gravity schmavity. My people practically invented black holes."
Eris reached a hand over her shoulder, squeezing Rose's fingers as she called up.
"Oh here he goes, Mr Time Lord showing off again."
"Well, in fact, they did. In a couple of minutes, we'll be nice and safe. Oh, and Captain?
Can we do a swap? Say, if you give me Eris and Rose, I'll give you Ida Scott? How about that? I know it's a two for one trade so it's not exactly even, but somehow I don't think you'll mind too much."
Zach's face broke into a wide smile. "She's alive!"
"Yes. Thank God." Danny closed his eyes, overwhelmed with emotion.
They could hear the Doctor messing with the controls as he spoke to them.
"Yeah! Bit of oxygen starvation, but she should be all right. I couldn't save the Ood. I only had time for one trip. They went down with the planet." He sounded mournful for a moment, before the Tardis pinged in the background.
"Ah! Entering clear space. End of the line. Mission closed."
They could hear the Tardis engines in the storage bay behind the flight deck, and after a quick goodbye to the boys, Eris and Rose ran through to get back to their ship. Eris helped Danny take a dazed Ida back to the flight deck and got her strapped in, before leaving them to it. She could hear their conversation, and suppressed a laugh.
"I don't know. I can't remember."
Danny sounded confused. "Well, it looked like a box."
Zach was the only person who hadn't seen the ship. "What do you mean, a box?"
"Well, down in the hold. A big blue box. It just appeared. I don't know."
The Doctor switched on the comms again as Eris slipped through the doors.
"Zach? We'll be off, now. Have a good trip home. And the next time you get curious about something… Oh, what's the point? You'll just go blundering in. The human race."
Ida managed to croak out,
"But Doctor, what did you find down there? That creature, what was it?"
"I don't know. Never did decipher that writing. But that's good! Day I know everything? Might as well stop."
Rose frowned up at him. "What do you think it was, really?"
"I think we beat it. That's good enough for me."
"It said I was going to die in battle."
"Then it lied." Eris said firmly, putting an arm around her.
The Doctor said his goodbyes.
"Right, onwards, upwards. Ida? See you again, maybe."
"I hope so. Hang on though, Doctor. You never really said. You three, who are you?"
He laughed, "Oh, the stuff of legend." and switched off the link.
Once the dematerialisation was started, the Doctor turned to face the girls. He looked exhausted.
"Are you both okay?"
"Yeah, we're fine. Nothing a cuppa won't cure." Rose tried to joke, but his face was still stony.
Eris sighed, and pulled him in by his jacket, initiating a strong three-way hug.
"Are you alright?"
He nodded into his daughter's shoulder, relaxing slightly now he had them both back by his side.
"Come on, you two. Kitchen?"
"Kitchen."
"I'll go ahead, put the kettle on." Rose sensed that her friends wanted to talk alone, and left them to it.
Eris reached up and fixed his hair, smiling softly.
"You've got helmet hair! It's even more of a mess than usual."
"Oi!" He sounded affronted, but the twitch at the corner of his lips was enough to signal that the humour was working.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
He kissed the top of her head.
"Yeah, I'm always okay."
She raised an eyebrow at him, and he relented. "Fine, I will be okay. Happy?"
"Yep, happy."
Laughing at each other, they headed for the kitchen - hoping to put the memories to the back of their minds, at least for now.
AN.2: Hello my dears!
Now, there may be a fair bit of delay between this chapter going up and the next one - not because I'm insanely busy (which I am anyway) but because... it's Love and Monsters! And I have no idea how I'm going to write it yet. I haven't had to write such a Doctor-light episode yet, so it could take me a while to figure out exactly what I'm doing. So, sorry in advance if there's another long-ish delay.
Also, at the moment I'm working on another project, so that's taking a lot of my focus! I can't tell you what it is just yet, though. In the words of River Song... SPOILERS!
Much love,
Azzie xx