Ch 109
Shouts came behind them from the Chamber Room as creatures freed each other and Z'knoaa guards were drawn to the scene.
They only ran faster. River lead them into the room she had found the host for the Dalek, "Ramone?" She called.
There was no answer.
"It looks like a torture house in here," the other River muttered.
"That's because it is," her counterpart said, pushing through the room. They followed uneasily behind her.
"He's got to be here. He doesn't die here."
"Well, he might if we don't find him," River muttered.
"If he's going through the same treatment we did, maybe we can backtrack through our memory and find him," the other River suggested.
River frowned, "And how would we do that? I don't remember anything."
"I do," she said quietly. "I've been trying to forget. I want to forget, but I-I think I remember." She looked at the tools in the room.
The original River glanced at her husband, "What do you think?"
"It's the only lead we have," he glanced at the clone. "I'm sorry but, we need you to remember."
The copy nodded slowly, closing her eyes and pushing into her memories. She could remember most immediately being strapped to a table. Bright lights and machine surrounded her and sharp pain rippled up and her body. She cried out, head tilting back in pain and one of the Z'knoaa's coming into view. It was chittering to others out of her line of sight. It was hard to focus on what it was saying, let alone translate for herself but a few words like, "move" and "cloning chamber" she could recognize. She felt her body being lifted after a few moments, carried out of the room and down a long dark corridor, most likely towards the cloning chamber they had talked about. Rather than setting her on a table in the new room, they tied River to something high so she hung from her wrists.
The clone River's eyes snapped open, the pain of the memories making it unable to sustain the visions. "I think I know where to go."
"Then let's move." They followed close behind her. They ran along behind her as she led them to the cloning chamber.
A smell emanated from inside the room, a pungent mix of acid and something rotting. They held their nose, looking the room up and down. Decaying bodies were piled in one corner of the room, the floor beneath it damp with biomaterial. The bodies weren't immediately recognizable, but after a long look, they could see that each body matched one in a tank downstairs.
In the middle of the room was the source of the acidic smell: a large tank of fluid that looked similar to the preservation fluid in the clone chambers. Above it, Ramone hung struggling by his wrists.
"There!" River pointed at him.
"R-River!" Ramone cried. The lipstick had clearly worn off leaving him nothing less than terrified. "Get me out of here, please!"
"Just stay calm and we'll get you down," River called, already looking for a way to get him down. There didn't seem to be any Z'knoaa in the room. They must have fled to attend to the commotion of the clones escaping.
One of the Rivers managed to climb her way up to Ramone. The Doctor and the second River looked for controls to lower them down, trying to ignore the bodies and the distressed cries Ramone was making.
River was hanging by a second set of chains, struggling to both hold on and get his bonds free. Her neck was still bleeding as well, the wound oozing once more after the strain of climbing the chains.
Ramone was too terrified to do much else than hang there. "Get me out! Please, get me out."
"I've got you." She assured, getting one of his wrists free. He managed to cling to River's hand, though as he did the chains suddenly gave slack and they both dropped a few inches.
"Sorry!" came a shout from below. "I think we found the controls!"
"Let him free then!" River shouted back.
"Not while you're over that tank," the Doctor called back. "The fall is too far and I don't want to end up with two Ramones. Just hang on and we'll figure out how to move you."
"Hurry up! I can't hold on for too long here." River's arm was still injured from when her clone had tackled her, making it hard to hold herself up.
"Move out of the way, sweetie," came the other River's voice. After a long moment, Ramone and the other River started moving slowly away from the tank.
"Can you release him now?" River called, once they were away from the tank.
"I don't see the controls for that. And the drop is still too far for him. Maybe if I just.-" The chains started lowering to the floor with the accompanying sound of gears grinding.
With the jolt of the chain, River lost her grip, slipping from her position. "River!" Ramone shouted, trying to reach for her.
She yelped, catching onto his hand with her bad arm. "I don't have a good grip!" She called, feeling her fingers slipping through his hands.
"Just-just hang on! Can this lower faster?"
Footsteps pounded below as the Doctor ran over to them.
"Doctor, move! If I fall it could hurt you!" River called, they were still too high up and the chains weren't lowering fast enough.
"If you fall you're going to break something!" He protested with clear worry. "River, can't you make them come down any faster?"
"I'm trying. The speed is locked and I can't override it." The other River was fiddling with the wires, trying to adjust the speed.
The Doctor felt his pockets for his sonic but remembered it was still missing and instead looked around for anything useful. There was another chain discarded on the floor that seemed long enough to reach the ceiling. "Hang on, alright?"
"I don't think I can hold on much longer."
The Doctor moved quickly, grabbing the chain. It wasn't much of a plan but it was all they had at the moment. "Please work," he muttered. He swung the chain, aiming as best he could for it to loop over the scaffolding on the ceiling.
The chain looped over the scaffolding, making a loud clattering noise. The Doctor tried not to celebrate his victory prematurely. He dragged the now secure chain over to where River and Ramone hung. "One of you grab this."
"Okay, we're both on." River called. The Doctor started lowering the chain, able to do so faster than the machine.
Within a minutes, they were back on the ground. The Doctor rushed passed Ramone over to his wife, pulling her into his arms. "Are you alright?"
She nodded, leaning in to kiss him. He kissed her hard, trying to calm down again. "Good."
"Be careful. You're going to get blood on your clothes." She murmured, covering her bleeding wound with her free hand.
He glanced at her neck wound which didn't look much better. "We should get out of here."
"We're going to have to find a Z'knoaa. They've been using time travel to get their subjects for this experiment and that's going to be our ride home."
River shook her head, "There has to be another way. It's too dangerous."
"We don't have our vortex manipulators, River. I'm not even sure what time zone we're in or how far from Earth we are. You need medical attention at the least and I doubt this place has a hospital on stand by."
"It's a bad idea." She repeated, gaze hardening. "It could kill us."
He sighed. "Then what do you suggest?"
"Finding another way. Maybe we can harness their energy..." She started to think.
The other River jumped in with the same idea. "Find what powers their devices and make our own. They didn't look like they had modern tech-something that has a power source."
River nodded, "Exactly!"
"It's probably the same sort of power source for this whole facility," she continued, ignoring the confusion of Ramone and the worried look of him indoors. "The tanks, that creature, and their time travel devices. All of it is kept together with their power source! If we find that, then the rest should be easy."
"I think there was something down the main corridor." River thought, already starting to pull her husband in the direction of the room she had found when looking for the Doctor.
The others followed, the other River grabbing Ramone's sleeve and pulling him too.
"Are you alright?" River asked her husband as they ran.
"About seeing you nearly fall to your death or about the fact that we're in a hostile alien fortress with everyone trying to kill us?"
"I'll take that as a no." She mumbled, pressing on.
They arrived at the room and paused. The Clone pressed her ear to the door. "I think there's a guard inside. Maybe two. Of course, they wouldn't leave their power source unprotected even with all the diversions we've made."
"Well, we need to get around them." The original River murmured, "I can go in and try and distract them. If I can draw their attention away, then the three of you can get to the power source."
"No, I'll do it." The other River said. "You got Ramone down, so I'll do this part. Besides, you're in no shape to be a distraction. They'll kill you quicker."
River didn't say anything for a long moment, "Fine. But try to get back to us as quickly as you can."
The clone nodded and glanced at the other two. "You lot try to be quiet. This needs to work." She quietly pushed open the door, "Give me a minute to get their attention, then come in."
Inside the room was a platform covering the perimeter of the whole room. In the center was what seemed to be the entrance to a mineshaft, a glow coming from the hole. The clone slipped inside, going to distract the creatures.
Two of them were circulating the platform. One of them noticed her quickly and started for her, clicking its strange language. She ran from them, leading them away from the platform.
The others waited until they were sure they could be fast enough then darted for the ladder. They all jumped on the rungs, Ramone first, then the Doctor, then River.
They hurried down as fast they could. About halfway down, the ladder shook as the other River jumped on and scrambled down. "Quickly!" The clone shouted.
They moved even faster, getting the hint that the Z'knoaa weren't far behind. The bottom of the hole was cold and fairly dim. Tunnels extended in every direction. The rock walls provided a small amount of light from glowing veins of some material embedded within it.
"What direction do we go in?" Ramone asked, having reached the bottom first.
The Doctor and the first River jumped down, taking in their surroundings. "That looks brightest," the Doctor pointed down one of the tunnels. "Best chance of finding some already mined out pieces of this stuff."
River grabbed his hand and started to run down the tunnel that he pointed out. The deeper they got through the tunnel, the more the walls seemed to press in around them. It was a similar feeling to being in the room with that giant creature; time was flexing.
Ramone seemed to be the only one unaffected by the atmosphere, though it wasn't surprising given that he was only a human. Even the Doctor was having trouble, slowing down just as the Rivers were.
Ramone looked back at the three, realizing they'd fallen behind. "Well? Hurry up."
"We're trying. It's hard to concentrate." The original River murmured. Even the effort of talking made her stumble and fall, losing her focus.
"Why?" Ramone pressed.
The other River helped her to her feet, glaring at Ramone. "Just keep going."
The four pressed on, trying to focus on moving forward. They finally came to a place where the tunnel opened up into a larger cavern. It was was lit up by the glowing ore that stretched all the way to the top of the cave. On the ground lay various mining tools and in a barrel nearby were some already cut out pieces of the wall.
"Everyone, get a piece." The clone River instructed.
They did as they were told, picking up pieces of the glowing stone from the crate and from the floor.
"This is what we need to use to get back." The clone murmured, "You all need to focus. We need to try and get back to the Hub."
"The what?" Ramone frowned.
The Doctor interrupted him. "This is a very unstable material. It has temporal abilities on its own, it's going to be very difficult to direct without the proper technology accompanying it. I don't think we have time to throw anything together."
"Then what are we supposed to do?" River frowned, "We don't have time to make anything else."
"These will still get us out of here..." he started. "But it's possible we won't end up where we're trying to go. We might even get split up across the timelines."
"No." River shook her head, "We can't split up."
"I'm not saying we will, but there is a chance. We don't have a choice," he glanced at the tunnel they came from. Shouts were coming from down by the main ladder. "We have to try now or they'll find us."
"Hold onto me and don't let go." River murmured, grabbing onto the Doctor's arm, turning her focus to the energy in her hand. He took her hand and squeezed tightly before concentrating.
The four of them thought of home—well, three of them did since Ramone was too confused to do much but stare.
The rest of them, however, thought about birthday candles and grass-stained knees, and laughter. They thought about smiles on little faces and unsure steps of feet that have never walked before. They thought about cribs and adventures and a blue box that was waiting somewhere and somewhen just for them.