Chapter 12: I've got that sinking feeling

Playing entry 26/?.

-FILE CORRUPTION-

-UNABLE TO PLAY-

-ADVANCING TO NEXT RECORDING-

Playing entry 27/?.

MILLENNIA: Someone, come in!

MILLENNIA: Anyone!

MILLENNIA: Nei'Veeto, are you there!?

The Doctor wiped his wet eyes, suddenly realising he still had the communicator, and Millennia's voice was now belting out of it, sounding desperate. He pulled it out of his pocket, sniffing and clearing his throat to try and disguise his grief before he replied.

'Receiving,' he said quietly.

'Oh, finally! Where are you?'

'I'm on Neyama somewhere, by a big tree at the top of a hill in a field,' he answered. 'Where are you?'

'By some water …'

'Are you hurt?'

'No.'

'What happened?'

'I don't know for sure, but I know we crashed. I ended up here,' she said.

'Are the others with you?'

'No. I haven't heard from them.'

'You haven't spoken to Leah?' the Doctor asked, alarmed.

'I've been radioing for about twenty minutes; you're the first one that replied …'

He instantly put everything he was feeling aside. 'We need to meet each other, find her and Jack, and make sure they're okay,' he said. 'And if we're lucky, I might be able to see you. Hold on.'

He stood up and jumped onto the rock the Goddess had now vacated, spinning around to survey the landscape below. Besides a village, a forest, and some distant mountains, he quickly spotted a large pool of water in the distance down a rolling hill, and with his keen Time Lord sight even spotted some figure that could be a person.

'Wave your arms a bit,' he instructed over the radio. He couldn't make out the details, but the figure he was looking at distinctly waved its arms.

'Perfect, I've got you. Stay there and keep radioing for Jack and Leah.'

'Okay.'

He set off, his pace accelerated by the hill's decline as he heard Millennia continue to radio. Thankfully, for the sake of the Doctor's nerves, it didn't take too long for a reply.

'Hello? Can you hear me, Millennia?' Leah asked.

The Doctor replied before Millennia had a chance, still making his way down the hill. 'Leah! Are you okay?'

'Daddy!' she said happily. 'Yeah, I'm fine.'

He breathed a sigh of relief. 'Where are you?'

'In the Tardis.'

'Is Uncle Jack there?'

'No, he's coming towards you from the other side of the lake,' Jack's voice suddenly said through the communicator. The Doctor looked up, scanning the horizon before spotting what was undoubtedly Jack Harkness running around the lake's edge towards them, waving.

'Actually, it's more of a large pool,' the Doctor corrected.

Jack sighed. 'Right. Pool. Feel better now?'

'Yep, I do. Okay, let's regroup,' the Doctor decided. 'Leah, can you figure out where you landed?'

'Okay,' Leah said.

The Doctor finally reached Millennia, who was sitting on the grass verge by the pool with one of the backpacks next to her. When she saw him, she got up and hugged him.

'You all worried me there for a bit, Nei'Veeto,' she confessed and then pulled back to look at him, suddenly confused. 'Have you been crying?'

Thankfully the radio interrupted his reply. 'Um, Daddy, the Tardis is underwater.'

The Doctor's eyes averted to the water they were standing next to. 'And I bet I know where. Okay. See if you can get her to move. Try the Safety Precaution Switch; she should jump to the nearest bit of dry land.'

'I'll try.'

Jack finally reached them in a jog, out of breath. 'Did we all just get kicked out apart from Leah?'

'Looks like it,' the Doctor said. 'Tardis could probably only keep one of us safe, so she chose Leah and threw us all out nearby. I don't understand, though. The Tardis should be floating. Leah, any luck?'

'She's not working.'

He sighed. 'Of course. She probably needs a reset, and that can't happen underwater. The emergency pulse must be working. Use that. It'll fire some light upwards so we can see where you are.'

'Okay.'

A second later, something launched out of the middle of the water with a large ripple and quietly exploded politely and mildly a few metres above the surface.

'Had to be in the middle, didn't it?' Jack moaned. 'How the hell are we getting the Tardis out of there?'

The Doctor's mind raced on the available resources and could only come up with one practical solution. 'Millennia, could the rope you packed reach that?'

'Yes.'

'Then get the rope.'

'Seriously? You suggesting we pull her out with rope?' Jack asked.

The Doctor rolled his eyes and raised his overpowered exotronic arm, waving it in indication. 'I think you're forgetting something. I can pull it.'

'Oh, yeah,' Jack realised.

'Um, Daddy, I think the defence shields are failing …'

'What d'you mean?'

'The monitor says critical error, and the shield percentage has gone from 100 percent to 95 in two minutes.'

'What is the meaning of this?' Millennia wondered.

'Trouble,' the Doctor muttered. 'The defence shields are failing. If they go too low, she won't be able to keep the water out. It'll start flooding the Tardis.'

'With Leah in her?'

'Yes.'

'What do I do?' Leah asked fearfully.

'Nothing. Stay there and don't open the door until I say, okay?' he instructed her. 'Stay on the radio and keep telling Millennia the shield percentage. If it gets below 45 percent, Millennia, scream at me. Right now, Jack, find something sturdy to tie one end of the rope around. I'll dive down and attach the other end to the Tardis. Then I'll pull her out. Any questions?'

Everyone shook their heads.

'Good.' He pulled off his red and gold Gallifreyan coat and boots before taking one end of the rope. 'Allons-y.'

Without hesitation, he waded into the lake until it became too deep to stay standing. He took a deep breath, put the rope end between his teeth, and dived in.

The water was very murky, and he dreaded to think about what he was swimming through. He kept going through the fog, headed towards where he knew the TARDIS had sent the emergency pulse.

As he progressed, it became darker and darker until he struggled to see more than a few feet in front of him. He came across what he assumed in the gloom to be a kind of pondweed and realised when he pushed it aside that it wasn't. He looked towards it, having to swim a bit closer to make it out, and a bolt of horror shot through him as soon as he did.

It was the floating body of an eyeless dead woman.

He choked briefly with the shock but kept his breath and pushed the cadaver away. It bobbed silently back into the murkiness. He took a few moments to regain his composure and then set off far more cautiously.

Another body rose out of the dark - this time, a man in the same state of decay. The Doctor deftly avoided him and finally reached the Tardis. As quickly as he could, he secured the grapple hook to the door handle, wrapped the rope around the exterior and secured it as best he could. He made to swim back up to the surface when he suddenly felt something cold grab his ankle.

He turned in the water, startled, and saw another woman. She opened what was left of her mouth and screamed something he couldn't decipher.

Now he was really panicking because he knew for absolute sure that this woman was dead. Besides her missing eyes and rotting flesh, she also didn't appear to have anything below her waist - her legs had been torn away. He shoved her away and kicked frantically, trying to clear the danger zone, only to crash into more of them. Now he knew what they were saying.

'Help me! Help me!' they all mouthed, their half-skeletal arms wrapping around his chest.

Panicking, he writhed away and forced himself up to the surface, kicking frantically to get rid of the dead hands before he finally emerged, bursting out of the murky depths back into the sunlight where he caught a brief glimpse of Jack and Millennia hovering on the edge of the lake.

'Help!' he just about managed before the hands found him again and dragged him back down under the surface.

Then they were all rising up - at least fifteen bodies scattered around him, trying to grab at him as he fought against them. He was now starting to run out of air with sheer panic. He found the surface again, managing a single breath before getting dragged down again, his arms flailing in self-defence.

Something suddenly grabbed him around the chest. He panicked even more before he realised they were the living fleshy hands of Jack. He let himself be kicked up to the surface, and then he joined Jack in swimming frantically to the edge.

Bodies were now rising around them, popping up onto the surface. The Doctor and Jack finally managed to get to dry land, and Millennia helped haul them both out, where they staggered to their feet and turned back to see the water's surface was now thick with bodies, all motionless and quite clearly dead for a long time.

'What the hell!?' Jack gasped.

'What is this?' Millennia asked urgently.

The Doctor, coughing, couldn't reply for a second.

'They're dead … they're all dead,' Millennia said shakily.

'There's gotta be about a hundred in this lake,' Jack gasped.

'It's not a lake,' the Doctor panted, finally managing to get enough air to talk.

'Yeah, pool, whatever!'

'It's not a pool either, Jack.' He looked at them both. 'It's a mass burial pit with some water in it.'

'Jesus Christ …'

'45 percent!' Leah's voice came through the radio, immediately refocusing them.

'40 percent and we're in trouble!' the Doctor shouted and found the rope. 'Okay, you two ground me; I'll pull her out!'

They obliged, holding him to keep him stable as he began to pull with his exotronic arm as fast as he could, hauling the submerged TARDIS metre by metre towards them. As it moved, more grotesque bodies rose to the surface, bobbing silently.

'40 percent! There's water coming through the door now!'

'Leah, get to… the highest point … in the console room!' the Doctor yelled between yanks.

'Get to the highest point, Leah!' Millennia repeated clearly down the radio.

'Okay!'

Finally, they saw the TARDIS - just the top rim of the sign - coming out on her side. Corpses caught by her were impeding progress, making it even harder for the Doctor to pull. Even with his supercharged arm, he was tiring rapidly.

'It's getting really high now!'

'Stay high! We are nearly there!' Millennia ordered the girl.

The TARDIS was now half out, covered in mud and weeds and pieces of people and clothing snagged on her exterior. Thankfully the corpse that had been holding up progress rapidly crunched and broke under the TARDIS' weight as she came to land, making the last few metres much easier.

Finally, she was out, with just three bodies washed up with her. The Doctor sank to his knees and doubled up, gasping and coughing.

'Leah, are you okay!?' Jack shouted into the radio.

'I'm okay!' the little girl confirmed.

'Doc?' Jack asked next.

He managed a nod, still exhausted.

'How do we put the Tardis the right way up?' Jack asked.

'There is a, err - what is the word? - exterior self-righting mechanism,' Millennia explained. 'Wait.'

As she spoke, the TARDIS briefly 'vworped' and, in the blink of an eye, disappeared and reappeared in an upright position. Jack opened the door as soon as possible and saw Leah standing on the balcony, clinging to the railing. The console room was soaked, and dirty water flooded the lower decks and engine. Somewhat thankfully, there was no sign of any limbs or corpses.

'Uncle Jack!' Leah said happily, clambering down from the balcony to meet them.

'Don't touch me; I'm soaked,' he warned her and then looked around at the mess. 'Oh, it'll be fun cleaning this up.'

'It is okay. It is not much. We will reset and then self-clean,' Millennia said.

Finally, the Doctor appeared behind them, cradling his exotronic arm. 'I've lost power,' he said by way of explanation, still out of breath.

'And we thought we were ready to go,' Jack pondered.

'Are we on Neyama now? What's it like?' Leah asked keenly, making to go out of the door.

The Doctor quickly stopped her. 'Don't go out.'

'Why not?'

'When we pulled out the Tardis, we pulled out a lot of other things you don't want to see.'

Leah's eyes widened. 'What things?'

'Dead people.'

'Eww,' Leah moaned and immediately stepped away from the door.

'Yeah, can we discuss what just happened?' Jack asked seriously.

'Let's get cleaned and charged up first,' the Doctor said.

Playing entry 28/?.

JACK: Are you actually saying some were grabbing you?

DOCTOR: Yes.

JACK: You must've imagined it.

It had taken the whole day, but with the TARDIS now cleaned up and the Doctor's arm fully recharged, they were now in the leisure room where they were having dinner and trying to make sense of the day's events.

The Doctor shook his head at Jack. 'Definitely didn't imagine it. They were all crying for help. I don't think they wanted to drag me down - they wanted me to swim them up to escape. I'm very sure they were all dead, though.'

'But that's impossible,' Jack said.

'Clearly. Something seemed to reanimate them at the point just before their death,' the Doctor said.

'Why is there a mass burial pit here anyway?' Leah wondered.

'All the corpses were burned, charred, and disfigured,' the Doctor explained. 'Men, women, and children. You only get those sorts of injuries on these sorts of people in either mass extinction or the most disgusting sort of warfare. And we already know Tuvala's end was through a war so destructive it ripped apart space-time. This sort of thing was probably quite normal by the end.'

'But everything was so peaceful around us,' Millennia mused.

'Exactly,' the Doctor agreed. 'I even saw a village that looked perfectly fine. There were no signs of a battle for at least ten miles. Wherever those bodies came from, it wasn't here.'

'That makes no sense,' Jack mused. 'I know I keep saying it, but unreality pocket?'

'Maybe, but I'm starting to think there's something else going on here. Something big.'

'What?' Millennia asked.

He sighed as his time in the past with the Goddess of Fate ran through his mind. He rapidly decided not to mention it. 'Don't know. But we need to find what we're looking for and get out of Tuvala as fast as possible.'

'Won't get anywhere now. It's got dark,' Jack said. 'I vote we try again tomorrow.'

'Agreed,' the Doctor said, nodding. 'Everyone try to get some sleep.'

Playing entry 29/?.

JACK: (Snore. Snore. Snore. SNORE. SNORE!)

JACK: (Choke.)

JACK: (…)

JACK: (Snore.)

The Doctor had tried to sleep. He'd really tried. But his head was so jammed with what he'd been through that he gave up, got dressed, and went to the console room instead. He sat on the pilot's seat with his feet propped on the console, gazing up at the TARDIS' rotor while trying to ignore Jack's snores rumbling down the corridor.

After a while, it got a bit too irritating to stay, so he decided to get some air. He got up and approached the door, but before stepping out, he heard little footsteps coming from the corridor. He turned and saw Leah standing there, fully dressed for the outside.

'Oh, hi,' she said, a little surprised.

'Hello,' he replied.

'Where are you going?'

'Same place you are?' he guessed.

She slowly spread a beautiful beam of a smile. 'Can I?' she asked eagerly.

'Let me look,' he said and ducked his head out of the TARDIS door. It was twilight, and the dead, decayed bodies which had previously littered the outside were now nowhere to be seen - washed back into the pool.

'All right, come out,' he invited, and she bounced out, wide-eyed and excited at what she'd see. Almost immediately, she looked slightly disappointed.

'Oh.'

'What?' he asked.

'It's… kinda boring.'

'Actually, I know what you mean,' the Doctor admitted, scratching his head as he gazed around at the very Earth-like surroundings of green grass and trees. 'The sun's purple, though. That's fun.'

She giggled and took his hand. 'Can we explore?'

'Not too far,' he cautioned and let himself be led by his young daughter up the hill he'd come down when he'd arrived so they could survey the landscape. She jumped onto the rock formation immediately, gazing out over the horizon. She looked to the village, snuggled between a forest and the mountains.

'Hey, look,' she said and pointed. 'One of us should go there tomorrow and ask about this monument.'

'Agreed,' the Doctor replied, nodding just as he heard the sound of an aircraft overhead. He looked up and saw a plane approaching. It was flying relatively low.

'I wonder if they know about the bodies?' Leah mused.

The Doctor didn't answer, frowning as the plane continued until it was directly above the tiny village. Then, it suddenly spiralled up.

'Daddy?' Leah queried.

Something dropped out of the plane. Something pill-shaped, something …

It was a missile.

'Leah, take cover!' he yelled, grabbing her and trying to shield her, just before the missile hit the tiny village with a calamitous bang. The shockwave rippled around the previously peaceful countryside, ripping the tree next to them from the ground in a spray of mud and roots as he desperately held onto Leah.

For a moment, the Doctor was deafened, but quickly his senses realigned, and he could hear screaming and burning from the distance. He looked across the rolling hills and immediately saw the village was now wrapped in fire. 'Are you okay?' he asked Leah.

'Yeah!'

'We need to get back to the Tardis,' he ordered, hauling her to her feet where she staggered slightly, still stunned by the blast.

'But … it hit the village!'

'I know, and there could be more.'

'But we have to help!'

He checked the sky. The plane was gone, and nothing was coming up behind it, and now the screaming was becoming more and more amplified. 'Okay,' he decided. 'This way, and stay back.'

He took her hand and led her down the hill directly to the village, with the sounds of distress gradually becoming louder. They didn't stop, carving their way through a patch of trees, when suddenly the Doctor felt an odd sensation of his toes tingling, forcing him to stop. 'Ah.'

'Ah,' Leah said similarly.

'You felt it too?'

She nodded.

'What did you feel?'

'Um, like a kinda tingle in my toes,' she replied.

'Same,' he said and then frowned as he realised something else. 'Uh, where's the noise gone?'

She blinked, confused as she listened with him. There was nothing but the usual sounds of nighttime wildlife. 'That's weird.'

'Très étrange,' the Doctor mused. 'Now I'm really intrigued.'

He kept going, pulling the girl by her hand through the last of the trees to emerge by the village, sitting there peacefully in the twilight without a single fleck of fire in sight.

'What?' the Doctor said, frowning.

'Um, where's the fire?' Leah asked.

'I have no idea …' he admitted, cautiously moving forward with Leah in tow.

'It's like it never happened,' the girl said, confused.

He frowned as they stood there staring at the quiet village, piecing together things in his head. 'Maybe … that's because it hasn't yet.'

'What?'

'Maybe …'

He didn't get to posit his theory as suddenly they were confronted by a blue-skinned alien, appearing out of nowhere with a large gun pointing straight at them. 'Stop and drop your weapons!' he screamed.

The Doctor stopped, pushing Leah behind him. 'It's okay; we're unarmed, no weapons,' he said, hands in the air.

'I don't believe you!' the man shouted.

'Then we've hit a conversational wall, haven't we?' the Doctor said. 'Just put that thing down.'

'Shut up!' The man's finger was far too near the trigger for the Doctor's liking. 'Zuberon spy!'

'What?'

'I'm taking you in for questioning!' the man roared, reaffirming his grip on his gun. 'Move!'

The Doctor realised he didn't have a choice. He glanced for Leah, but the girl had gone. He saw a rustling in the bushes behind them and knew immediately she'd scarpered.

'Good girl,' he muttered, and still with his arms in the air, he let himself be led by gunpoint to an unknown destination.