Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC.
Rescue
"Thought the Wirrn were all destroyed. Noah made sure of that, the ship blew up, with all of them on board." Sarah said, standing by the bars of the cell, talking to Teral. Yarl was still sitting, his gun across his lap.
"Only one swarm was laid in the Arc. One Wirrn laid her eggs, the Wirrn you destroyed. A second swarm has been preparing itself, and a third is laid, lying dormant in the bodies of men. Living meat. So much better for growing larvae." Teral said, enjoying seeing Sarah grimace at the image. "Unfortunately, as they were forced to lay their eggs in the humans left behind on this planet, they are less intelligent than we had hoped, but they have their uses." Teral said, dramatically.
Sarah rolled her eyes, why did villains always love monologueing.
"Now, where is the Doctor?" He said, briskly.
"Who?" Sarah asked.
"Miss, you know perfectly well who. The Time Lord who you arrived on the Arc with, who defeated the Wirrn."
"Oh, him, he went. Left me here," Sarah shrugged, as naturally as possible. "I'm human, after all."
"Send the sweepers out, check for all signs of non-human life on this planet!" Teral barked at a couple of his body guards, who left with him, as he stalked off down the corridor.
Sarah scowled at him, watching him leave. She could see no other guards except Yarl, who didn't seem that interested in guarding her. She could just see down the corridor, to a door way.
She blinked, as she saw a panel in the wall shift slightly. There was a glow from a machine seeping through gaps in it. And then the panel moved completely. The slab was pushed out, and leaned against the wall. 2 people crawled out. The first, tall and blonde, ran up the corridor, checking for guards, the second, the younger, waited by the hole in the wall. A rescue attempt? or a lynch mob?
"It's clear, wait here," The first said, running silently down the corridor, to Sarah. "Sarah Jane Smith?" She asked Sarah.
"Er, yes," Sarah said, bemused.
"Yale, come on, keys!" She said to Yarl.
Yarl, or Yale, as he now was, jumped up, pulling the keys off his belt, and passing them through to her.
She unlocked the door.
"In you go," the woman said, as the first girl clambered into the chute. Sarah followed her, and crawled about 2 metres until the thin tunnel opened out, into a much wider stair case.
She moved out of the way as the woman followed her through, and finally, Yale.
Yale sighed, and removed a mask. Sarah couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed at the simplicity of the disguise. Just a big mask, and painted skin over the rest of his body.
"This way," He said, and lead the way up the stairs.
-
Harry was angry. Sarah Jane had been missing for hours, and the Doctor was perfectly calmly digging a hole. Harry had been instructed to do the same, but he was fed up.
"Doctor, what are you doing?" He asked. The Doctor ignored him. "We already know where these things are, the mountains! Why aren't we going there? Why are we just hanging about here?"
"Harry, I don't know about you, but I like to know what I'm about to encounter before I walk into it's lair and wake it up. It gives me comfort to know how to survive its fierce and bloody attack." The Doctor said, still not looking up.
"Well, have you found anything?" Harry asked, impatiently.
"Not yet, no." The Doctor replied shortly, wondering, not for the first time, why he didn't just leave Harry on some deadly, carnivorous planet somewhere in deep space.
-
"Have you seen the Doctor?" Sarah asked them, as they went quickly up the stairs.
"Yes. He's gone up to the surface." The woman stopped running. "I'm Sayal, this is Thea, and Yale," She introduced herself.
"And Harry?"
"Yes. Listen, we haven't really got time for this."
"And he's a spy?"
"Yes, I suppose that's what you'd call him," Sayal said, "Now, come on." They went up the stairs. They seemed, to Sarah, to go on forever. Finally, they flattened out, leading up to a trap door. Yale pushed it up with his shoulder. He peered out.
"Up you go, then," He said, and Thea and Sayal clambered out. Sarah Jane followed. Yale hung about.
"Aren't you coming?" She asked him. He hesitated. "You cant go back now. They'll either know you helped me, or kill you for incompetence," She reasoned. Yale climbed up.
They were up on the surface now. There was still no signs of life, though Sarah didn't know what she'd been expecting. Just because she'd met the monsters, didn't mean they'd all come crawling out the woodwork just for her. But that didn't mean she'd be allowed to live, they were bound to send out a search party. They were in the shadows of the mountains. She could feel the vibrations of machinery through her Wellington boots. And the hum was so loud, she was amazed no one had realised there was anything hidden there before.
Yale let the trap door down, and stamped it back in place.
"We've got to find Janis. The Doctor's with him. This way," Sayal set off, Yale following close behind. That just left Thea, who'd not said anything.
"So, what is this, then? Government Stuff?" She began. Sarah realised she'd probably missed all the important information about the planet that she'd need to understand anything that was going on. She didn't want to be another example of human ignorance for the Doctor to sneer at.
Thea snorted. "Hardly. There is no government. It was disbanded when the High Minister was sacked. We've got the head of the Army acting as some sort of leader. But, since there is no government, basically, Janis is seen as some sort of High Minister, he's the only living descendant of the last one, any way. So, I'd be careful, if I were you. There's probably a couple of snipers about if he's up here."
"They often try to kill him, do they?"
"Oh yeah. So be careful where you put your feet." Thea said, casually. "And watch out for land mines, and gas attacks. Maybe even the odd jackal." They continued walking. "There's only 6 of us in on this stuff. For some reason, most people don't really care. But we used to live up here a few months ago, and then we were just told to move back under. And no one thinks that's a bit odd. Warren claims it's dangerous, risks of flares, radiation and stuff, but it's all rubbish. He's scared of something out here. No prizes for guessing what, though."
"How long've you known about them?" Sarah asked, meaning the aliens.
"Not very. As soon as we found out about them, Yale went in. We were trying to find out more about them, but nothing so far. No one'll tell him why they're there, apart from just to eat and use the planet's resources, and he cant gather anything about what they are, their race memories, how advanced and stuff. It's been pretty useless him being there, actually. He's just a body guard for their big cheese."
-
"Ahah!" The Doctor said, triumphantly scraping sand away from a patch of ground. He fished his bit of wire out of one of his large pockets, and scraped up the membrane.
"More membrane? Like the Wirrn eggs?" Harry asked, unimpressed.
"No. Far thinner than that, Harry." The Doctor said, examining it, closely. It was a slip of thin, milky white, partially opaque skin. "I think something like this was depicted in a film once. A man who could turn himself into liquid, that is."
"What? That's ridiculous!"
"And yet, here it is. Evidence. Species can learn to do anything to get them out of a tight spot. It leaves behind a residue, when this creature turns itself into liquid, it needs something to keep it together, otherwise it would lose limbs on the journey, so, it secretes this thin membrane that keeps it in one piece. Quite ingenious." The Doctor admired it, appreciatively.
"Wonderful." Harry said, sarcastically, "So, we're going to have to rescue Sarah from a monster that'll turn into water at a moments notice? That's just-"
"Yes, it is." The Doctor interrupted Harry, "Sarah doesn't need rescuing, she's right behind you."
Harry spun around. It was a bit of an exaggeration, but Harry could make out, through heat hazes and clouds of dust, 4 figures tramping towards them. Though, he had to admit, the yellow mackintosh was hard to miss.
"This is rare, though.. I've seen only, what, 3 species who could even dream of this kind of shape shifting. Changing colours is easy, skins even, but elements?" The Doctor said, getting excited. "Of course, it's not really water, it's a mix of enzymes and proteins, sugars, water, the building blocks of life, only.. liquefied."
Harry grimaced, and sat down, heavily. "I think I'm going to be sick," he muttered.
There was a shout, and Sarah, Thea and Sayal came tumbling into the ditch.
"Wotcher, Harry," Sarah said, brightly. A shot rang out, and the Doctor stood up, furious, as Yale and Firen jumped down into the ditch too.
"What did you do that for!" The Doctor shouted.
"Stun-gun," Firen explained, and tossed the gun to the floor, at his feet. "We've taken his gun, he'll wake up soon, and go back underground."
The Doctor grudgingly agreed, and turned to Yale.
"You must be Yale, nice to meet you, and Sarah, good to have you back, where did you get to?"
"Nowhere much. A cell, a deep freeze, endless tunnels. Someone stuck a needle in me. I got away, but then.. didn't."
"Are you alright?" Harry asked.
"Yeah. They were very civil, actually. Doctor, they know what was going on in the Arc. Their top bloke, Teral, said there are more Wirrn alive, ready to help them."
"More Wirrn? Shouldn't we warn Vira?" Harry said, quickly.
"What's that, Doctor?" Sarah asked, indicating the membrane the Doctor was holding.
"Liquid monster, apparently," Harry said, and the Doctor shot him a filthy look.
"What?" Sarah asked.
"The Doctor thinks something can turn itself into liquid to get about.. without being seen, I suppose."
"That makes sense. Or at least, that'd explain why I couldn't see him until he was right in front of me."
"You've met one of them?"
"Yeah, they didn't say who they were, though. Only that they were working with the Wirrn. And that they've used some of the humans down here to lay their eggs in."
"Has anyone gone missing recently?"
"No, not very recently. We did have a whole squad go missing, that wasn't explained. But that was months ago."
"Then they must have housed the Wirrn swarm. Janis, has any one group of people been up here more recently?"
"Yeah, there was a group up 2 days ago, they got stranded in a sand storm. They're in isolation, got fever and keep vomiting. D'you think they've got eggs.. inside them?"
"Yes, I do." The Doctor interrupted Janis. "We need to get to them, fast."
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