The Sweeper
"Did you find anything, Doctor?" Sarah Jane asked him.
"Well, there's a reason the mountains are there. There's life inside them. A ship." The Doctor said, "And they're afraid of it.." He indicated the bunkers inhabitants. "I was about to have a look, when they shot at me. Brought me down here."
"Who's the new comer?" The one addressed as Warren asked the Doctor's escorts.
"Said he was The Doctor. We found him by the mountain range."
"Was he hostile, Drake?"
"No, but seemed to think he wasn't in danger." Drake replied.
"They mustn't know about the creatures." Warren said, "Unless.. he's one of them," he finished darkly.
"No, they've only been here a few hours, Warren. They wouldn't have been able to survive that long here without oxygen." Another said.
"The males are not from the Arc, they haven't been in the cryogenic chambers, the girl has though.. Why are they here, do you think, Warren?" Drake asked him.
Warren thought, and turned to the Doctor.
"You were sent from the Arc?"
"Not sent. We were checking the Earth's stability. Checking for life forms. You've been down here a very long time, Warren."
"Ten thousand years, Doctor. And the others?"
"Just companions." The Doctor shrugged.
"She's been in the cryogenic systems on the Arc." Warren noted.
"Sarah Jane? Yes. She got caught up in the system."
"They are awake, then, the Arc dwellers?"
"Vira is reviving them, yes."
"Vira? What about Noah?"
"Ahh. well, there was a little trouble, space wasps, anyway, he's dead, along with Rogin, Lycitt, and Libri."
"Killed?"
"By the Warrn. The space wasps."
"And they plan to return?"
"Yes, why?"
"Our ancestors were left behind to perish. We long to avenge them."
"Ah, well, I don't think you can do that." The Doctor said, slowly.
"How so? We have evolved, Doctor, we have grown strong through the decades, while they were sleeping we've become greater than they."
"Yes, I see. You mean to kill them?"
"If we must, Doctor. Their re-appearance on our planet could set our species back generations. We've grown immune to diseases, and we survive wind storms, and hurricanes and earth quakes. The Arc dwellers could only bring back epidemics from space. They are sterile now, but wont be for long. There are illnesses their med techs couldn't even dream about. They will either die, or be killed."
"By what?" The Doctor asked.
"By the creatures beneath the earth." Drake entered the conversation.
"You?" The Doctor asked him.
"Doctor, leave our planet. An electrical storm is due. Return to the Arc. Tell them they may not return here. If they try, they will be killed." Was Drake's reply.
"I'd rather stay here, if it's all the same to you."
"Leave." Drake shouted.
"There's something here, isn't there, Drake. Something you fear, something that wants you gone, something that checks up on you. Something that hides under the rocks that you hide from."
"This is not true, Doctor. How could you know our affairs."
"Why haven't you returned to the surface, eh?" The Doctor said, picking up pace, "You could have been up there for centuries by now, making it fertile, growing things, farming, living, not stuck under the muck. Who haven't you gone up? Why have you languished in the bowels of the planet, eh? Because you're afraid that something will pick you off like flies. Something threatens your survival, if you inhabit the surface, I just want to know what. What is it, Drake?"
"Leave us, Doctor!"
"You threaten your own people, you're afraid they will upset the balance between you and the jailors keeping you prisoner down here in these bunkers? You think they might force you upwards, is that it?"
"We like underground, Doctor. It's shelter from the storms and flares. Our people are safe here. We do not need to move. We live off the rats and plants left behind by the Arc people. They left us to die."
"But you didn't die! Cant you see, Drake? Their going left you to become stronger. And you want revenge on them for making you great?"
"Doctor, look out!" Sarah Jane yelled, as Drake swiftly lifted his gun to the Doctor's face, the barrel pressing against his nose. The Doctor crossed his eyes, examining the gun.
"That's not very high tech, is it, Drake?" He said, quietly. The rest of the bunker's inhabitants ignored the scene, as though they were used to it. They continued with their talking, cooking, and building.
"Drake, put it down, you fool." Warren hissed.
"Touchy fellows, aren't they." Harry whispered in Sarah Jane's ear.
Reluctantly, Drake lowered the gun, and the Doctor rubbed gunpowder off his nose.
"Right, now, would you like to tell me what's trying to take over your planet?" The Doctor asked, calmly.
"It will soon be safe for you to return to the surface, then you will leave us." Warren said, and took Drake's elbow, and steered him away for a chat.
Sarah Jane crouched down on her heels, staring at the ground.
"So that's it, is it?" Harry asked. "Back to the Arc? I suppose we wont get another look around." He sat down, examining the hole in his boot, and trying to re-tie the shredded laces.
The Doctor sighed, frustrated, and stalked off, pacing the perimeter of the bunker, running his knuckles along the walls, trying to find a gap, and trigger, something.
Sarah saw a thin wire running between her feet. At first she thought it was hair, or straw. She lifted it off the ground, and saw it ran around the perimeter of the bunker, and into the centre, where an observation panel was set up, showing images of the surface and outer atmosphere.
Sarah followed the wire, on her hands and knees, to where it disappeared into a socket in the concrete lining, next to a tube from the wall, where Sarah could see a chink of light, it evidently came vertically from the surface. She put her eye to the hole, when something dropped down. A bundle of wires and chips. It hovered in the gap, until Sarah, surprised, fell backwards. It propelled itself out of the tube, and Sarah snatched it. It stopped buzzing, and lay in her palm. She proded it with a finger, but it didn't respond.
Suddenly, Sarah heard a click, and looked up into a gun barrel.
"Put it down." The figure behind the gun said, quietly.
Sarah dropped it, and the other person picked it up, staring at Sarah, suspiciously, with pale eyes.
"Is that the sweeper?" Sarah asked them.
"Quiet."
"Thought you were hiding from it. You've got a gap. It can get in, in here, I mean." Sarah told the person. They pocketed the device. "Shouldn't you .. do something, tell someone?" She asked, and the figure spun round, and jabbed her in the shoulder with a needle. Sarah Jane collapsed, and the figure quickly and silently took her into a second chamber, via a pad in the floor, by the livestock pens.
"Doctor!" Harry ran up to the Doctor, "Doctor, we've lost Sarah Jane."
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