Author's Note: Well, I promised a new update before the weekend, so I'm just slipping in under the wire, LOL.
I've been totally blown away by the kindness of the people who took the trouble to leave me some feedback, so here's some big thanks to:- TheWickedHeart, EmmaMarie, SophieQueenOfTheWorld, Random Citizen, Celestial Valkyrie, Ali, kakashifan1792, Vincenth, MountainLord-92, MayFairy, emason109, Aietradaea, Drama-Queen's-Ramblings, ronnieangell, The Yoshinator, Lavender Time (x 2), Scholar of Imagination, skidney, XxCupcakeAssassinxX, Dragoneisha, Imorgen, kat-duchannes, Amaya-hime, Little Miss Fearless, Wishfulhamadryad and Son of Whitebeard.
To ali - So sorry to have made you sad. Hopefully there will be some more cheerful bits in the future which will make you smile instead :)
To Lavender Time - Welcome to the story, I was so happy to get your reviews and to hear that you were liking it so much, it made my week. I hope you continue to enjoy as the story progresses **waves**
- Chapter Thirteen -
Fascinated with his surroundings, the Doctor moved deeper into the gloomy hold, entirely unaware of Larry's growing discontent. Every now and then, he stopped to examine some more of the cast-off equipment, his curiosity growing stronger and stronger with every new object he came across. Allie followed along with him, listening patiently as he exclaimed in surprise and delight over a large tritanic endoskeleton; an antique Laserson probe; a bulky mass detector; a crate of ionic fusion bars; a black box from a Rokathian spaceliner; an Adiposian levitation beam generator; and various other equally-absorbing items.
"Oh, this is beautiful! I haven't seen one of these in centuries! Some of this stuff would qualify as genuine collector's items!" he said enthusiastically, his voice booming and hollow-sounding as he recklessly stuck his head inside a cylindrical gravitational accelerator. "It'd be worth a fortune in most galaxies. But this..." He pulled his head out again and hurried over to a small silver box. "This is a Basingstoke gene splicer, designed to accelerate evolution by increasing the amount of horizontal gene transfer. Nasty little thing, but extremely cutting edge technology. I could think of half a dozen hi-tech planets that would love to get their grubby little hands on one of these."
"But it doesn't look like anyone's been here in ages," Allie said, running her hand lightly across the top of the silver box and showing him the dark smudge of dust that appeared on her fingers. "And everything's just piled in here higgledy-piggledy. There's no storage system, or even proper aisles. It's as if no-one could care less about it. Why would anyone do that, if it's all so valuable?"
The Doctor shook his head. "That's just it, it's not all valuable." He pointed to a nearby tower of carelessly stacked machine parts. "That, for instance, is nothing but a pile of old rubbish." He turned in a slow, thoughtful circle, playing the torchlight over more of the surrounding objects, baffled by the mixture of technology, from so many different races and from so many different eras. "So's that. And that. So the real question is, why would all these treasures be left here gathering dust in this dank hold, in amongst piles of clapped-out, useless junk that nobody in their right mind would want to keep? And why store all of it on board an anonymous city-ship that shouldn't even exist in this time-stream?"
"Um...I've got no idea?" Allie replied, a slightly anxious look on her face, as if she was unsure whether or not he actually expected her to provide an answer to his question.
He gave her a quick, appreciative grin. He'd almost forgotten how good it was to have a companion to share his discoveries with. "Me either. None of it makes any sense. Which means it's a puzzle." Reaching into his pocket, he drew out his sonic screwdriver, already bursting to investigate. "And there's nothing I love more than a good puzzle!"
Not far away, sitting in front of a monitor screen, two creatures watched the small group in the hold with absorbed interest.
"Who are they?" the female asked in a high, gurgling voice. "I do not recognise their craft."
"They appear to be human," the male replied.
"That cannot be so. Humans do not have the technology to defeat the gravitational pull of a city-ship in warp drive."
"It is odd," agreed the male. "And see, Ranyan, the older, brown-haired male appears to be in charge. The woman and the younger blonde male defer to him."
"He shows an amazing knowledge of the technology in the hold," Ranyan observed, watching closely as the Doctor explained some of the various pieces of equipment to Allie, running his screwdriver over everything as he talked. "And he has a highly-advanced sonic device. Perhaps, Erka, at last this is the one we have been waiting for?"
"That remains to be seen. We must first test the strength of his mind."
The female nodded gravely. "It shall be done. And the others? If they enter, and have not the strength, they will die."
"Then let them," Erka said, leaning forward to get a better look at the screen. "We have no interest in them. We wish only to take their leader."
The Doctor was chattering away in a cheerful fashion, hardly stopping to draw breath, his sonic screwdriver buzzing almost continuously as he scanned the different items of equipment. Allie only understood one word in three he said, but that didn't matter. She enjoyed just watching him as he bounced back and forth, his face alight with enthusiasm.
Boys and their toys, she thought affectionately.
The horrible old city-ship wasn't exactly her idea of a good time, but each to their own. If she let him get this so-called mystery out of his system, maybe she could talk him into going somewhere warmer next time. She hoped so, anyway. None of them had bothered to put on their coats before they emerged from the TARDIS, and she was beginning to regret it more and more as she felt goosebumps rising on her skin beneath the long sleeves of her top. It had been cold enough back in her shop in London, but here it was not the familiar chill of a snowy winter, it was somehow more bone-deep than that. She couldn't help worrying maybe it was the cold of space, seeping in from outside the ship. Her thoughts kept drifting to Charlie, seeing him in her mind's eye as he fell from the asteroid, wondering how cold his terracotta body was right now as it tumbled end over end, towards the supernova. With a renewed shiver, she pulled her mind away from the painful image, and focused on the Doctor instead.
Despite his preoccupation, he must have noticed the shudder that wracked her body, because he paused for a second, and took her hands in his, rubbing her chilled fingers between his own. "You're freezing!" he said in concern.
She shook her head. "I'm fine."
"Oi! No fibbing! Your hands are like iceblocks!" he insisted. "This probably isn't exactly what you had in mind when I said I'd show you the wonders of the Universe, is it?"
She had to laugh at the rueful, sheepish expression on his face. "Maybe not...exactly," she admitted.
Tugging off his brown, pin-striped jacket, he draped it around her shoulders, leaving him in just his royal blue shirt and tie. "Here, take this."
A flush rose to Allie's cheeks and she averted her eyes. It was ridiculous, she supposed, but it seemed too odd to see him without his long coat and his jacket - almost as if she was seeing him naked, which was an idea far too disturbing for her to comfortably think about. She pushed her arms through the sleeves of the jacket and pulled it on. It was much too big for her, but the fabric was warm from his body and smelled enticingly like him. Clean, fresh and pure, like the air after a summer rainstorm.
"What about you?" she blurted out quickly, embarrassed by her own wayward thoughts. "Now you'll get cold."
"Oh, don't worry about me, Allie Castiel," he said with an exuberant grin. "Gallifreyans have a much lower body temperature than humans. It takes a lot to make me cold. Stimulating, that's what this is. Gets all the old synapses firing!"
"Gallifreyans?"
The question was an automatic reflex, but she was immediately sorry she had asked, because a shadow passed behind his eyes and the smile ran away from his face. "My people," he answered curtly. "My planet was named Gallifrey."
Again, she caught a glimpse of pain and darkness on his face as he turned away, his screwdriver already buzzing. "Anyway, never mind all that," he continued over his shoulder, his voice determinedly cheerful once more. "Just give me two more ticks, and we'll all go back to the TARDIS and get warm!"
Holding the pin-striped jacket closely around her body, Allie wandered over to stand next to Larry. It suddenly occurred to her that he might be feeling a bit left out. Throughout her entire exchange with the Doctor, he had said nothing at all, merely standing in the background with his arms folded, a stony expression on his face, his glowering eyes following every move the Doctor made. If Allie hadn't known any better, she would have said he was sulking. But that didn't seem at all in character for the happy, good-natured young man she had come to know over the last few days. Then again, maybe the injury to his head was hurting more than he let on, she reasoned to herself. Or maybe he resented the delay in getting back to his Sally Sparrow. Either way, he didn't appear to be in any mood for conversation, so she stood quietly beside him and let him be.
As she waited, almost cosy now in the Doctor's jacket, she found her attention drifting. All at once, for just a few seconds, she thought that she too could hear the eerie, sibilant whispering that Larry had mentioned earlier. However, it was so faint, and gone so quickly, she couldn't be sure. She glanced behind her sharply, but to her enormous relief, she could detect no sign of movement in the gloom.
The whole thing with Charlie has really given me the heebie-jeebies, she thought crossly. I'm starting to imagine things.
When she looked back, she noticed for the first time the outline of a door in the wall closest to them. She frowned, trying to remember if it had been there previously. Even though it was only about ten feet away, she couldn't recall seeing it before. But of course, it had to have been there, didn't it? Doors didn't just come and go. The Doctor must have moved the torch and the angle of the light had changed, that was all. She stared at the newly-discovered entrance. It was odd-looking, not at all the sort of thing she would have expected to find in the hold of a decrepit old space-ship. More the kind of door you might discover in a pyramid or a grand temple or something; tall and black and imposing, with a wide lintel above, supported on two ornate posts to either side. There were a series of marks deeply engraved into the lintel, but she couldn't tell what they were supposed to represent.
"Doctor!" she said urgently. "Look!"
The Time Lord turned around and saw the door. His eyes widened and his lips pursed in a soundless whistle. "Well, now that's impressive!" he exclaimed, abandoning his examination of the equipment and crossing over to it.
Allie and Larry followed him. Stretching out his hand, the Doctor touched the door lintel, and immediately the strange markings lit up from within, glowing purely and distinctly against the black metal on which they were engraved. Belatedly, Allie realised that it was some kind of writing.
"I thought so!" the Doctor said in satisfaction.
The writing was strangely beautiful, formed from an ever-varying pattern of swirling loops and intricate curlicues. Allie had never seen anything quite like it before. "What is it?" she queried softly.
"Asterion script," he replied. "One of the oldest forms of writing in the Universe."
She was about to ask him what the message said, when suddenly she realised that, by some arcane miracle, the words suddenly made sense. It wasn't that the letters had changed in any way - it was more like an extra part of her brain had unexpectedly kicked in, enabling her to understand what had been incomprehensible just moments before.
"I can read it!" she gasped, clutching at the Doctor's arm in confusion. "Just a few seconds ago, I couldn't make anything of it at all, but now all at once I understand it! What happened?"
"It's all right, don't panic," the Doctor said, putting his hand reassuringly over hers. "It's the TARDIS. Her gift to you. She's providing a telepathic field that gets into your brain and helps you translate other languages. Brilliant, isn't it? Usually it's a bit more instantaneous than that, so you don't even notice. But, as I said, Asterion script is a very old language, so it takes even the TARDIS a few seconds to decipher."
Allie felt a fizz of excitement in her veins at his words, as she turned her eyes back to the writing above the door. She had always been rubbish at languages at school – she had failed French spectacularly more times than she wanted to remember. But now, here she was, reading one of the oldest languages in the Universe – an alien language - without even trying.
"Beware all ye who enter here," she read aloud, eager to show off her new skill. "For in this place, thy dreams will become reality."
"It's a very loose translation, of course, Asterion script is too complex for anything else," the Doctor nodded. "But, yeah, that's the gist of it."
"So...these Asterions...are they likely to be the ones running this ship?"
"Nah. The Asterion civilisation broke up a long time before the Proxima Wars began. The remnants were absorbed into a myriad of different cultures. So, I'm afraid it still doesn't give us a clue."
"So what does the message actually mean? What's in there?"
The Doctor's mouth tightened into a grim line. "I'm not sure. But a cryptic message in Asterion script written in the hold of a decrepit old city-ship left over from a bygone age? Right where we so coincidentally happened to land? Call me a bit of a sceptic if you like, but I'm starting to get a very bad feeling about this place. One of those bad feelings with 'Ignore me at your peril!' written all over it in big, flashing neon lights. Maybe it's time we were getting back to the TARDIS."
"No argument here," Allie said, giving an inward sigh of relief as they turned away from the door and began to retrace their steps back towards the time machine. "Let's go." This place was just plain creepy. The sooner they left here, the better, as far as she was concerned.
"Why a bad feeling?" Larry spoke up suddenly, his voice harsh. Startled, Allie realised he had made no move to follow them. Instead, he had drifted even closer towards the black doorway, and was lightly running his fingers over the architrave with an almost loving touch. "It sounds pretty good to me. The place where dreams come true. Maybe, if I went in there, I'd find Kathy waiting for me. Maybe I'd find out that the Weeping Angels didn't take her from me after all. What d'you think, Doctor?"
Allie looked at the young man in surprise. His tone was resentful, almost hostile, as if he held nothing but absolute contempt for the Doctor. His face was twisted into a nasty expression and his eyes glittered with aggression.
"Larry, what on earth's the matter with you?"
"With me? There's nothing the matter with me!" he snapped. "I'm just curious to know why the Doctor's so keen to stop us finding out what's behind that door!"
The Time Lord shifted his position slightly, and with a shock, Allie realised that he had surreptitiously pushed her behind him, every line of his body tense and wary, as though he was shielding her. But shielding her from what? It was only Larry...wasn't it?
"Now, you listen to me, Larry," the Doctor said, his voice suddenly soothing and persuasive. "If there's one thing I've discovered in my travels, it's that if something seems too good to be true, it's because it usually is. I've heard plenty of people talk before about making dreams come true – more people than you've had hot dinners - but what they always forget to mention is that nightmares are dreams too. Just for once, I think it's better if we don't meddle in what doesn't concern us. So let's just go back to the TARDIS, all right? All three of us. And I promise I'll get you straight back home."
Larry gave a cackle of derisive laughter that made Allie's hair stand on end. "You think you can protect her, Doctor? You can't, you know, just like you couldn't protect any of the others. Look at you, the oh-so-great Doctor, the great puzzle solver, running scared like a little child afraid of the dark!" he sneered malevolently. "But then, you were always good at running, weren't you, Doctor? Especially after you destroyed your own people, ruthlessly condemning them to die, screaming in the flames, while you lived on. Not a nice feeling to be the last of your kind, is it, Time Lord?"
The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "Who are you?" he demanded.
Larry bared his teeth savagely like a wild animal. "I'm your friend, Doctor. I'm Larry Nightingale. Are you going to save me? Come on, then!" He laid his hand flat on the black door and it silently slid open. "This is your big chance! Come and save me!"
"NO! STOP!" the Doctor shouted, but it was too late. Larry disappeared into the darkness and was swallowed up.
The Doctor and Allie were left staring after him.
"What was that all about?" Allie said incredulously. "He must have gone mad. So much for your theory of space sickness!"
The Doctor's face was hard and his eyes were bleak. "No, something was using him. Some sort of psychic manipulation. His concussion must have made him more susceptible. I should never have allowed him outside the TARDIS. This was a trap from the very beginning. Somebody very badly wants me to go through that door."
"But...why?"
"I don't know. I expect I'll find out when I go in to look for Larry." He looked down at Allie. "You need to wait inside the TARDIS, where you'll be safe. If I don't come back, Emergency Program One will activate, and she'll return you to Earth."
Allie shook her head. "You're not going in there on your own."
The Doctor suddenly looked very tired. "I must, Allie. You're my responsibility now. Both of you are. I took on that responsibility when you came on board my ship. I have no idea what's waiting on the other side of that door, and I need to keep you safe."
The look on his face wrenched at Allie's heart. It was odd, she thought, how they both seemed to accept the idea that the doorway was evil and something that he might not come back from. It was something about the atmosphere of the city-ship – something that was dank and decaying, the subtle, corrosive aura of death.
"No way!" she said stubbornly. "I'm coming with you, whether you want me to or not. If Larry is having some sort of weird fit, you might need an extra pair of hands to control him." Then, as the Doctor drew breath to refuse, she added, "And don't you dare write me off because I'm smaller than you, mister. I'm stronger than I look!"
The Doctor's lips twitched in a small smile at her fierceness. "No, I would never dare to do that."
"Well, then," she said firmly, reaching out and taking his hand. "Let's do this."
He sighed in defeat. "All right. But once we're inside, you do everything I tell you to, when I tell you to do it, understood?"
She slanted him an impish look from under her eyelashes. "Aye-aye, Captain."
Hand in hand, they turned to face the sinister black doorway, gaping before them like a hungry mouth.
"Only one thing left to say then," the Doctor said ruefully. "ALLONS-Y!"
And together they stepped forward into the shadows.