~revised~
Chapter XXXIII
Mira
She was – just like everyone else – staring down the shaft where the cable had just vanished, as Rose yelled, "But we've got to bring them back!"
She shot her a short glance, before asking Jefferson, "Do you have more cable?"
"Not another ten miles," he answered, confirming her fears. So, there was no way to get down there. And no way to get back up. Unless the Doctor would find the TARDIS. While she was still thinking about what unpleasantly few possibilities they had left, a loud bang on the door made not only her, but also everyone else, jump. The Ood.
"Captain? Situation report," Jefferson said into his comm.
"It's the Ood. They're cutting through the door bolts. They're breaking in!" Zach, still being in the control room, replied.
"Yeah, it's the same on Door 25," Jefferson told him.
"How long's it gonna take?" Rose asked. At least she was keeping a cool head, for now.
"Well, it's only a basic frame, it should take ten minutes," Jefferson said, just as another bang came from the door. "Eight."
"I've got a security frame, it might last a bit longer, but that doesn't help you," Zach said.
If the Ood would be able to get into the control room, Zach would be lost, that was pretty clear to her. Even with him, who knew how to handle the controls, would it be easy for them to open the airlocks and let all the air out, or would they have to do something else? The possibilities for misery were almost infinite in their situation.
"Right. So, we need to stop them, get out, or both," Rose said.
"Agreed," she said.
"I'll take both, yeah? But how?" Danny asked, obviously scared.
"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 a start, we need some lights. There's gotta be some sort of power somewhere," Rose replied.
"There's nothing I can do. Some captain, stuck in here pressing buttons," Zach replied defeated.
"Then you probably should start doing so," she replied. "Reroute energy, find some emergency power supplies, you must have something like that here. This is a deep space base, not some tourist station in Earth's orbit!" She hoped that would motivate him. They didn't have time for resignation right now.
"They've gutted the generators," Zach exclaimed, and, after a split second, this time with more hope, "but the rocket's got an independent supply. If I could reroute that…Mr. Jefferson? Open the bypass conduits. Override the safety…"
"Opening bypass conduits, sir."
"Channeling rocket feed. In 3…2…1…power."
And indeed, the lights went on again. Probably one of the most important things just now. Humans seemed to have an inherent fear of the dark, no matter if they were on a space station or in an old 'haunted' house on Earth. It had taken herself some time to overcome this fear when she had been younger, and even now she couldn't help but still remember the feeling that had made her turn around when she had been alone in the dark: the feeling of being watched by things creeping in the corners and shadows. This distinct tickling on the back of one's neck that tells that one wasn't as alone as they thought.
"There we go!" Rose exclaimed and made her almost jump. She had been completely lost in thought for a moment. What was going on? Was it the Beast, this thing in her head, trying to frighten her? She took a quick look around, but everyone else seemed to be unaware. Well, Toby was still behaving a bit weird, but she wasn't sure if he was still influenced or if Satan was looking for another victim by now.
"Let there be light!" Danny added, almost cheerfully.
"What about that Strategy Nine thing?" Rose wanted to know.
"There won't be a Strategy Nine," she said, before Jefferson could answer. She wouldn't be responsible for fifty dead Ood, who were only victims as well. Plus, she feared that maybe this entity would fully concentrate on them if the Ood were no longer useful.
Jefferson looked at her for a long moment, and suddenly she knew that the little trust he might have had in her was gone now. Not only had she questioned his authority twice, but she also had a different opinion on how to handle the Ood. She, an outsider. But there wouldn't be a slaughter here, not as long as she could prevent it.
"Not enough power. It needs a hundred percent," he eventually said to Rose, without taking his eyes off Mira.
"All right, we need a way out. Zach, Mr. Jefferson, you start working on that," Rose ordered, seemingly unaware of what was going on between Jefferson and herself, but she knew that Rose had seen it, had seen the distrust. Deep beneath all the emotions caused by the recent events, she could still sense how jealous, hostile, and determined the girl was.
"Toby, what about you?" Rose asked as she approached him.
"I'm not a soldier. I can't do anything," he answered shyly. There was still something weird about him, she was certain now, even though he might not be under the Beast's influence any longer. Well, it wouldn't do any good to tell the others, since Jefferson was a bit quick with his gun. She couldn't do anything to free Toby once and for all, and could do even less to make sure that no one else would be possessed after that. It was better to not spread any more panic.
Suddenly, her head was filled with the evil laughter of the Beast and she could see its ugly, horned head in her mind's eye. It only lasted for a few seconds, yet she hardly managed not to wince. Maybe she had wavered a bit. Thankfully, the others had been distracted, more or less. She drew a deep breath and then tried to concentrate on Toby again, with little success. It was concerning, to put it mildly, that the Beast was still able to get into her head that easily.
Meanwhile, Rose had turned to Danny, "As for you, Danny-boy – you're in charge of the Ood – any way of stopping them?"
"Well…I don't know."
"Then find out. The sooner we get control of the base, the sooner we can get the Doctor out. Shift," she ordered and smacked him playfully.
The next moment, they were all doing their best. Danny and Jefferson were on the computer terminal, Toby was trying to decipher the symbols, and all of them were occasionally interrupted by a bang as the Ood snapped another bolt from the door.
"There's all sorts of viruses that could stop the Ood. Trouble is, we haven't got them on board," Danny said, turning around to Rose and Mira.
"Well, that's handy, listing all the things we haven't got. We haven't got a swimming pool either. Or a Tescos," Rose replied, taking the lead once more.
Mira didn't mind; it would hopefully stop Rose from doing something stupid. Suddenly the computer beeped, the word 'Affirmative' flashing on the screen.
"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!" Danny said in excitement. Mira looked at him. That was actually a really good idea. Way better than Strategy Nine. Not exactly pleasant, and she hoped she wouldn't be influenced, but at least the Ood would survive.
"What happens to the Ood?" Rose wanted to know.
"It'll tank them, spark out!" Danny said.
"There we are, then! Do it!" Rose said cheerfully.
Suddenly, Danny's face fell, "No, but…" he looked up from the screen, "I'd have to transmit from the central monitor. We need to go to Ood Habitation."
"Well, no point in staying here anyway," she said as another bolt on the door cracked. "Jefferson, any way out yet?"
"Just about…there's a network of maintenance tunnels running underneath the base. We should be able to gain access from here."
"Ventilation shafts?" Mira asked.
"Yeah, I appreciate the reference, but there's no ventilation. No air, in fact, at all. They were designed for machines, not life forms."
Another bang sounded from the door. How many more bolts were left? Couldn't be many…
"Shit."
"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," Zach said over the comm., just as Mira was considering that maybe they really had to try and fight their way to Ood Habitation.
"Right, so, we go down, and you make the air follow us. By hand," Mira asked.
"Yeah. Don't worry, I'll see exactly where you are, at any time."
"Fine. We need to get to Ood Habitation somehow. Work out a route."
Doctor
They had made it out of the capsule in time. Unfortunately, the comm.-link seemed to be down, but there was nothing he could do about that now. "How much air have we got?" the Doctor asked as he brushed off the dust.
"Sixty minutes," Ida said, and, after checking her wrist-device, she added, "Fifty-five."
He frowned. He would have hoped for more. Here they were. Cable gone, no way up, the situation up there in the base – well, to put it lightly – difficult, no way out and air for only fifty-five minutes.
"We've got all this cable – we might as well use it. The drum's disconnected…we could adapt it," Ida said and started to gather the fallen cable, "feed it through. "
"And then what?"
"Abseil. Into the pit."
"Abseil. Right." Why hadn't he thought about that? On the other hand, she was human. Always pressing forward.
"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."
He looked at her for a moment. She was right. But there was something else…something that had stopped him before.
"I'll get back. Mira is up there. And Rose," he said.
"Well, maybe the key to that is finding out what's in the pit."
"Well…it's half of a good plan," he said. He knew that there was no way up right now. Ida was totally right. Well, not entirely.
"What's the other half?"
"I go down. Not you." He had expected her to object, but after a moment of observing him, she nodded. The next minutes they spent gathering and securing the cable.
"That should hold it. How's it going?" Ida said, as they were finished.
"Fine! Should work…doesn't feel like such a good idea, now," he answered, after pulling on the cable and testing the winch.
"Ha…there it is again. That itch," he said as he was standing on the edge of the pit. "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," Ida said, looking down now as well.
"No, that's not it…that's too kind," he said thoughtfully. Someone with acrophobia had told him once, that he wasn't afraid of the height, or afraid of falling. It was the urge to fall that scared him, the fear of losing control, wanting to fall. He turned around to Ida and continued, "It's not the urge to jump, it's deeper than that. It's the urge to fall!"
Right as he was finished, he jumped backwards into the hole.
Now or never.
"Doctor!" he heard Ida shout, and then his fall suddenly stopped as she had stopped the winch. "Are you okay?"
Okay, it had been a bit unfair to not warn her. "Not bad, thanks. The wall of the pit…seems to be the same as the cavern; just…" he shone down with his torch, "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," Ida said and started to lower him down further into the pit.
Rose
They were almost ready to enter the maintenance tunnels; only Danny was still at the computer.
"Danny!" Rose shouted.
"Hold on! Just conforming…" he said.
"Dan, you gotta go NOW!" Jefferson fell in. "Come on!"
"Yeah!" Danny yelled as the computer beeped. At that very moment, another bang came from the door, sending sparks flying around. Rose turned her head. They must have gotten almost through, she was thinking. Although she wouldn't admit it to anyone else, the Ood were frightening her; not because they were looking so foreign, but because of the red-eye-thing and how quickly they had killed one of the staff right in front of her eyes. As she turned her head around again, Danny took an orange looking computer chip from the console, and then hurried over to them.
"Put that in the monitor…and it's a bad time to be an Ood!" he said, showing them the chip.
"We're coming back. Have you got that? We're coming back to this room and we're getting the Doctor out," she suddenly said. She had to. She couldn't stop herself. The panic that was lurking in a corner of her mind had taken over her for a moment, and she was afraid that everybody could hear it in her shaky voice. She looked around. Everyone's eyes were resting on her for a moment, before Jefferson said, "Okay, Danny, you go first, then you Miss Tyler, then Toby, and Miss Rhodan. I'll go last in defence of position. Now, come on! Quick as you can!"
They all lowered themselves into the tunnels. She was landing next to Danny. It was a maintenance tunnel, just as she had expected it. But…
"God, it stinks. You all right?" she said to Danny.
"Yeah, I'm laughing," he replied just as Toby landed beside them. Behind him came Mira and Jefferson. He didn't seem to like her either, and Rose didn't wonder why he obviously wanted to keep an eye on her and have her next to him.
"Which way do we go?" Danny asked Zach.
"Just go straight ahead. Keep going 'til I say so." They began to move, and Rose could hear that the Ood must have broken to the door. That had been just in time.
"Not your best angle, Danny," she said to the man in front of her with a smirk, after she had been crawling behind him for a while.
"Oi! Stop it!"
"I dunno, it could be worse." That had been Toby, who was directly behind her.
"Oi!"
"Straight along until you find junction 7.1. Keep breathing. I'm feeding you air. I've got you," Zach continued in guiding them.
By the time they reached the junction, they were all breathing heavily. It was more exhausting than Rose would have expected it. Well, Mira didn't seem to be overly exhausted, she noticed with a hint of envy.
"We're at 7.1, Sir," Danny told Zach.
"Okay, I've got you…" she heard Zach's voice over the comm. "I'm just aerating the next section."
"Getting kinda cramped, sir…can't you hurry up?" Danny urged him.
"I'm working on half power, here."
"Stop complaining," Jefferson said from behind.
"Mr. Jefferson says 'stop complaining'," Rose passed it on, half-serious.
"I heard."
"He heard." She said back to Jefferson.
"But the air's getting a bit thin," Toby told Zach over the comm.
"HE'S complaining now," Rose said.
"Could you all just shut it? Talking won't give us more air." That was Mira. Her voice didn't sound as harsh as her words, and, hell, she was probably right, but nevertheless, she could just shut it herself. Fine, the air was really getting thinner, and…Uh.
"Danny, is that you?" she asked.
"I'm not exactly happy," he replied defensively.
"I'm just moving the air…" Zach announced. "I've got to oxygenate the next section. Now, keep calm…or it's gonna feel worse."
They were harshly interrupted by a loud bang from the other end of the tunnel. Rose looked back and saw how Jefferson aimed his gun.
"What was that?" Danny asked alarmed.
"Mr. Jefferson, what was that?" Rose yelled to the rear end of their little group.
"What's that noise?" Toby fell in as well. Only Mira remained silent, almost giving the impression as if she was listening to something. What was she doing now?
"Captain…what was that?" Jefferson finally asked.
"The junction in Habitation Five's been opened – it must be the Ood." And, after a short break, "They're in the tunnels!"
"Well, open the gate!" That had been Danny.
"I've gotta get the air in!"
"Just open it!" Danny yelled, followed by, " …Sir."
"Where are they? Are they close?" Rose wanted to know.
"Don't know, I can't tell – I can't see them... the computer doesn't register Ood as proper life forms."
"Whose idea was that?"
"They're relatively close," Mira said.
"Open the gate!" Danny cried into the comm., sweating and shivering. Finally the gate opened, and they rushed through it.
"Danny, turn left. Immediate left," Zach said.
"The Ood, sir – can't you trap them? Cut off the air?" Jefferson asked, as they were crawling further through the corridor.
"Not without cutting off yours."
Mira
The Ood were close behind them; she could feel their presence. Maybe she would be able to hold them back by breaking the influence the Beast had over them, but that would be a bit difficult, crawling through these tunnels, being overwhelmed by everyone's panic. She wasn't exactly in the best condition to concentrate long enough on the task.
"Danny, turn right. Go right! Go fast, Dan – they're gonna catch up!" Zach told.
"I'll maintain defence of position!" Jefferson suddenly said from behind her.
"You can't stop!" Rose yelled.
"Miss Tyler – that's my job. You've got your task, now see to it."
"Jefferson, don't be stupid. Go, and let me stop them," Mira said.
"Oh, and how wou-"
"Shut it. Do as I say, just this once." She said gravely and looked at him intently, hoping that he would come to a decision within the next second. He glanced back at her, and she could see the expression on his face change. She didn't know what exactly had made him change his mind, but suddenly he nodded.
"Stay with them. They'll probably need you at Ood Habitation," she said quietly, and he finally moved past her.
"You heard what he said, now shift," Jefferson told the group, and they moved on. She looked after them as they turned around a corner. A second later, the first Ood appeared from around the corridor.
She had no intention to sacrifice herself, and she was very well aware of the danger she had put herself into, but, on the other hand, she had had enough of killing the Ood. And maybe she also wanted to prove a point to Satan. She had no doubt that she would be able to interfere with his psychic energy; the only question was, would she be strong enough? It was basically a bit like the superposition principle in physics. Two waves of the same wavelength but opposite oscillation would annul each other, if they both had the same amplitude, meaning the same strength. That was the only thing she was worrying about as she stared at the approaching Ood. She could clearly feel how strong the influence the Beast had over them was, and, for a moment, she thought if it had really been such a good idea to stay behind. Unarmed. She shoved those thoughts aside and concentrated even harder. She was quite powerful and she knew it. She just had to focus. By now she was shivering with strain and she could feel cold sweat on her face. The Ood were still approaching. A stinging pain shot through her head, and it almost seemed as if she had overestimated herself, but, suddenly, the Ood stopped and grabbed their heads. She observed them carefully, not letting up in her effort. Just as she was about to turn around and seek refuge in flight, the first Ood looked up again. His eyes were back to normal, no more red glowing, and they all seemed to be rather confused by now.
She had managed it. She had no idea how long she would be able to keep up her focus, but it would be more than enough if they all got through the next gate.
She didn't hesitate for one more second, turned around and crawled through the corridor as fast as she could.
"MIRA!" she heard Jefferson yell. She turned around the corner and saw them in front of the open gate.
"I can't keep it open for much longer!" That was Zach over the comm. Funny. Had he ever tried to crawl through a corridor like that and trying to stop some rabid Ood at the same time?
"Hurry!" Jefferson urged. What, now he was worrying about her? Thankfully, she only had to crawl straight ahead, because her vision had gotten a bit blurred. Suddenly, she felt someone grab her by the arms and pull her forward.
"Ouch!" she said as her knees made rather painful contact with the grating of the floor.
"Close the gate!" Jefferson shouted into his comm. The gate slammed shut, and she let out a gasp of relief. Well, there really wasn't any reason for relief; she had only stopped the Ood for a short while. It would only work within a certain radius, and she wasn't able to keep it up for much longer. At least now there was another gate between the Ood and them.
"You're all in? Good, then I'll remove the oxygen now from the last section," Zach said.
"What?! NO!" Mira cried. He couldn't do that.
"Can you make sure that they won't follow us? What have you done anyway? Talked to them?" Jefferson asked.
"What? You're conspiring with them now?" Rose asked, instantly followed by Danny.
"You did what?"
"No, of course I didn't talk to them," she said, still breathing heavily.
"Doesn't matter," Zach said, "We need the air. Sorry."
She sat down, leaning against the wall. She could have cried out of frustration. It had all been in vain. They would die anyway; she had given the Beast a hint of her strength, and for what? She sniffed, opened her eyes again and looked directly into Toby's face. "You alright? You're bleeding."
"What?" She sniffed again and touched the skin right under her nose, where she could feel something wet. She looked at her fingers and saw the blood. Great. Not much, but… "I'm fine. Let's move." Suddenly, there was the image of the Beast laughing again in her head, and something more – a glimpse of the things to come, a hint of his plans, yet not enough to understand them. With it came the certainty that she wouldn't be able to stop it; at least that was what it wanted her to believe. If she had needed a final bit of proof that it was playing with her, now she was getting it. It probably had even calculated that the Ood would die anyway. It still had enough of them left for its plans.
They moved on in their original formation.
"Zach…we're at the final junction. 9.2," Danny reported.
"Opening 9.2."
The gate opened, revealing more Ood on the other side. She was completely caught off guard. How had Satan managed to disguise them from her?
"Lower 9.2. Zach, lower it!" Rose yelled.
"Back! Back! Back!" Danny shouted as they were already retreating.
"We can't go back! The gang point's sealed off, we're stuck!" Toby said.
"Come on!" Rose yelled while pushing a grilling above her head out of the way, and emerged through the floor of the corridor above with Danny at her heels. She pulled herself up, holding out a hand for Toby, who was still standing in the corridor, watching the approaching Ood as if hypnotised.
"Toby, get your arse up here!" she yelled, and she could see Jefferson pulling at his arm. She eyed him closer. No, he wasn't hypnotised. There was something else going on with him. Suddenly he turned around, visibly panicking from one moment to the next, and reached for her hand. "Help me!" he suddenly yelled. As soon as he was up, Jefferson followed and Mira slammed the grill back in place.
"It's this way," Danny announced, and they all followed him.
"Hurry up!" Zach urged over the comm. Finally they reached Ood Habitation. Danny immediately rushed over to the computer. There were already Ood inside, looking up at their arrival.
"Get it in!" Rose yelled, and Danny inserted the chip into the computer.
"Transmit!" Rose was trying to hurry Danny.
"I'm trying, I'm trying! I'm getting at it…"
"Stop them!" Toby cried.
"Danny, get that thing transmitting!"
Danny finally hit a button, and the reading on the screen went down to Basic zero. The Ood clutched at their heads and stumbled about, before finally collapsing to the floor. She had braced herself, but it didn't hit her that hard. Well, the experience in the corridor had been enough anyway, if it was for her. On the other hand, when had a situation like that ever presented itself to her liking? At least her nose had stopped bleeding, leaving only the stinging headache.
"You did it! We did it!" Rose yelled overjoyed.
The next moment Rose was hugging Danny, then Toby and at last Jefferson. They were all hugging each other, except for Mira. Well, she wasn't that much into all the hugging anyway, and at least it was honest from Rose not to hug her.
"Zach, we did it. The Ood are down. Now, we've gotta get the Doctor!" Rose finally said into the comm.
Quasi-Stellar: I think the Timelords might have actually known. But I guess it might have been in some archive on Gallifrey, so no chance for the Doctor to know right now. And, besides that, she´s not from a rather close parallel world as Pete´s World, but from a whole different universe. So, maybe they didn´t know at all. I guess both is possible :-)
Crimson Songstress, Jesse Wales, 10th Squad 3rd Seat, bored411, AxidentlGoddess, oXxgerogiaxXo: Thanks for reviewing :-)
