Lieutenant Adventures Series 16 Finalé, Episode 8, 30 September 2022. Cosmos Part 4.
Previously: He pushed himself off the door and went in search of his trench coat. He knew it was somewhere but not where he left it. He descended a flight of stairs and found it scrunched up against the engines. He retrieved it, flapped it out and put it back on.
He put his hand down on the Telepathic panel and transfered his energy into the panel and did not lift his hand until the lights were restored to the panel and it shone brightly again, full of life. He lifted his hand, then and, still glowing, he moved around to the Navigation panel and placed his hand onto that panel in the same way, again, not removing his hand until the panel, once again, shone brightly with coloured lights. Then he lifted his hand and the glowing stopped and he smiled, happy with his work. He then punched in the co-ordinates for Trenzalore and moved around to the steering panel. He looked up at the central column and grinned. 'Here we go, one more time, you can do it!' exclaimed the Lieutenant as he yanked the Master Lever.
The TARDIS rocketed through a healing Time Vortex. It was still glowing golden. Inside the TARDIS, sparks were spewing out of the panels which were not working and smoke was cloaking the console room.
The Lieutenant gripped the railing, he was hanging from one of the railings, swinging and sweating, feeling his grip on the railing slipping, his trench coat, in tatters, flapping behind him. He was watching the railing, hoping against hope that he would not fall. He pulled himself back up and swung a leg round the leg of one of the chairs and pulled, breathing heavily. He threw himself onto the chair and bounced, then, with all his strength, pushed himself to the console and caught on to it and gripped it.
The TARDIS shook violently and struggled and sighed.
The Lieutenant noticed the lights on the Navigation panel flickering. 'No, no, no!' he cried.
Suddenly, the TARDIS came to a shuddering stop and with a loud, bright and deafening explosion from the Navigation panel, the panel was lost, once again.
The Lieutenant shielded his eyes and coughed, looking at it. He sighed. 'I tried,' he said. He thumped the console hard and apologised for doing so. 'Please,' he said. 'Help me, you and I both know we have to get down there.'
The TARDIS creaked and stuttered and then plummeted.
The Lieutenant collapsed with the sudden motion, pinned to the floor.
With a jarring crash, the TARDIS landed on her side on top of a series of graves. There was another loud explosion from the console and the Telepathic panel was lost. There had also been an almighty crack on impact and the door of the TARDIS had gone flying.
The Lieutenant waited for silence, just in case of any objects falling, then he made his way around the console room on his front, the TARDIS was leaning, and to the door, which was no longer there. He got out and straightened up, looking down at his old, tired TARDIS. 'Well done,' he mumbled. The Lieutenant examined his surroundings and looked up. 'Oh, dear,' he said.
(On a Dalek ship above Trenzalore) A Dalek soldier examined readings and then turned to face the commander. 'Alert! Alert! The Lieutenant is detected, he has seen us!' exclaimed this Dalek.
'What of the Kasaavin?' asked the commander.
The Dalek turned back to the readings. Another Dalek turned around to face the commander. 'They are going in, commander, they are going to attack the Lieutenant,' they said.
'Let them go,' said the commander, 'let the Lieutenant think he's winning.'
The Lieutenant looked down at the graves he had damaged for the third and final time and realised the TARDIS was on top of the one he needed to be free. He bent down, catching the TARDIS in his hands and pushed with all his might to turn it over. He did this three times until it, accidentally, rolled a bit down a hill and came to rest beside a boulder. He winced.
Just as the Lieutenant was about to look back down at the grave, a bring, shining figure appeared in front of him and disappeared.
The Lieutenant stared ahead of him. 'That was Kasaavin,' he said to himself. His eyes darted around the landscape, trying to find where it might pop up again.
Just then, the Kasaavin popped up again, much closer to the Lieutenant than before, and popped away again.
The Lieutenant backed away a bit, his eyes still darting around the landscape. He glanced down the opening of the grave he had just cleared and looked back up. Then he jumped down the grave and ran as deep into the grave as he could.
The Kasaavin re-appeared behind the Lieutenant and stopped, seeminly staring in his direction.
The Lieutenant stopped dead and turned around, fearing what was to come next.
The Kasaavin seemed to be increasing in brightness and then they started multiplying and multiplying and multiplying untilt the Lieutenant was surrounded.
The Lieutenant watched them all in horror as they surrounded him. It could not end here. He watched the gaps between them narrowing and then made his run for it, slipping through a tight gap, just before it closed and back to the entrance of the grave. He jumped up, grabbing the sides, mud on his hands, dreadfully aware the Kasaavin would be following him. He pulled himself up and shoved a nearby boulder over the entrance to the grave and lay on his back, panting for a few moments. He then got himself up and dusted off his hands. His trench coat, he noticed, was now more brown than it was blue. He looked back into the sky and was alarmed at not seeing the ship he had seen earlier, it had moved. 'The Daleks are on the move,' the Lieutenant said to himself.
A Dalek approached the commander. 'Commander, the Kasaavin have been captured, they are in stasis!' they exclaimed.
'What of the Lieutenant?' asked the commander.
'He's still down there, commander,' they said.
'We move in now,' said the commander.
The Lieutenant looked back down at the grave and wondered if the Gate, yet, had recoginsed the species, the Kasaavin. He carefully removed the boulder and peered into the grave. He lay on the side of the grave and lowered down his head for a peak. It had worked, the Kasaavin were down there but in stasis. It was safe, once again, to leave the entrance to the Gate free. 'Nearly there,' he told himself, 'just the remaining Daleks left.'
'Exterminate!' yelled a Dalek and shot in the Lieutenant's direction.
The Lieutenant ducked and grinned. He had forgotten what this felt like. 'That's more like it!' he exclaimed. 'Right on cue!'
'Exterminate the Lieutenant!' yelled another Dalek, shooting at the Lieutenant.
The Lieutenant jumped down the grave again and ran into the depths of the grave. 'Catch me if you can!' he yelled.
Back on the surface of Trenzalore, the Dalek ship was landing and thousands upon thousands upon thousands of Daleks were leaving it and all entering the grave and chasing the Lieutenant.
The Lieutenant ran as fast as he could, dodging Kasaavin here and there. Finally he met a dead end and, breathing heavily, felt around for a way through. He did not find it. He felt around a bit more and then stopped, it was no use, he was stuck.
'There is no escape, Lieutenant,' said a commander Dalek behind him.
The Lieutenant sighed and slowly turned around to face them. 'I know,' he said, 'I've just done all the hard work in establishing that, you could have saved me a few minutes and told me before I tried...tell me something, now, that I don't know,' he said.
'Exterminate!' yelled a commander Dalek.
'I know that too, that's not new either,' said the Lieutenant, tensing up and clenching his eyes shut, waiting for the shot. Nothing happened. The Lieutenant slowly opened an eye and looked ahead of him. The Gate had recognised the Daleks and they had entered stasis just as they were about to kill him.
The Lieutenant's other eye flew open and his body relaxed. He looked around at the Daleks and Kasaavin one more time and then cheered. 'Yes!' he exclaimed. 'I've done it! I'm there!' He was delighted with himself. He had saved the Universe, a task which had, at one point, seemed so far away and impossible to achieve. He took just a few moments to breathe and think, he had not been able to do either of these for such a long time. He remembered his TARDIS and her sick state. He remembered he was still in his old, tattered, battered, dirtied clothes. He remembered he still had a new appearance he had not examined yet.
The Lieutenant began walking back the way he had come, following the flow of fresh which was blowing into the grave. On reaching the entrance, he jumped up, caught the side of the grave entrance and hauled himself up, further dirtying his clothes and used all his might to roll the boulder back over the entrance and he dusted off his hands.
The Lieutenant walked off in the direction of the TARDIS. He stopped at the top of the hill the TARDIS had tumbled down and looked down at the TARDIS apologetically. He knew he had to try and make his way down to it. He began climbing down towards the TARDIS but then he lost his footing and tumbled the rest of the way down and right into the doorless TARDIS.
As soon as the Lieutenant re-entered the TARDIS, she went haywire, making all sorts of nasty noises and dematerialising awfully quickly.
The Lieutenant slide around on the floor, looking up at the console as sparks and smoke spewed out of it.
The TARDIS very performed an emergency materialisation before performing an emergency dematerialisation, leaving the Lieutenant behind.
The Lieutenant picked himself up and looked around himself. He appeared to be in the Wild West. He did not know exactly where he was but he knew this was his home until further notice. He kicked off her shoes and threw off his trench coat. 'Getting rid of those anyway, horrible, horrible garments,' he said. He walked off, into the town, in search of people, sights, scenes, fun, work, food, for himself, a life.
COMING SOON
The Lieutenant had been in the changing room in a charity shop for hours. He had responded every time. Inside the changing room, the Lieutenant had removed the shirt and waistcoat and replaced it with a T-shirt and grey trench coat. He left the shop and sauntered off in the direction of home.
The Lieutenant
Liam Hickey
Director
Darwin Meads
Writer
Liam Hickey
Producer
Caitlin Parker
M/S 2022
