Doctor Who
In
Corrupt Regime
By Daniel Rainey
Chapter 1: Intercept
"It should be near enough for us to intercept it soon."
"Good. Be ready for its arrival."
"Yes sir."
The vast control room was had no lights other then the illuminated controls and screens on the consoles and panels in the room. The largest screen showed a green grid with a flashing light making its way along it, getting closer and closer to a large ring on the screen. The closer it got the more tense the atmosphere became.
"Intercept in 10…9…9…7…"
In the TARDIS the Doctor and Rose clung on to the console as the time machine went into erratic mode!
"Right how many times has it done this?" Rose asked.
"In the whole time I've been using it I've lost count," the Doctor replied.
"Can't you get control of it again?"
"I could but I find it more exiting this way."
"3…2…1…intercept."
The TARDIS gave a hard jolt and the Doctor and Rose both fell over. The TARDIS became more erratic than ever.
"What's going on now?" Rose asked.
"Probably being sucked into an orange hole or something," the Doctor replied.
"What's an orange hole?"
"Dunno just made up of the top of my head."
The TARDIS continued shaking and then the sound of materialisation filled the console room and the TARDIS stopped shaking. The Doctor and Rose both got up unsteadily.
"Well that was interesting," the Doctor said, "I wonder what's outside."
"A cure for the after effects of being thrown about inside a time machine I hope," Rose said.
The TARDIS stood there. Men surrounded it, nearly all of them holding rifles and aiming them directly at the doors. They all stood there, some on one knee, waiting for the moment. "Fire at anyone who comes out of it, but only stun," had been their orders. They all wanted it to open. Then it did and the Doctor stepped out and promptly put his hands up.
"You don't need to tell me once," he said at this, "Rose stay in the TARDIS."
Then one of the men fired and burst of energy shot out of the barrel hitting the Doctor in the chest, he collapsed. The men quickly got to their feet and rushed into the TARDIS. Rose backed away from them as they drew closer, and then fired.
Darkness. That's all that deserved to be down there. Now the rock has been hallowed out and filled with vast machines and people. Slaves. Slaves forced to work in such terrible conditions that they if their existence was discovered that would be a good enough excuse for a revolution. The slaves were forced to carve new tunnels out of the rocks using hand held tools. This was dangerous work and the tunnels would sometimes collapse either killing or trapping the slaves inside. The chunks carved out of the rocks would then be fed into the machines and broken down into any useful minerals. The slaves only got one meal each day, and this wasn't much in itself. Just a small amount of something that was only remotely like porridge, at least it was the same colour. The slaves came from several different planets and species, some had been captured just for the purpose of slavery while others were conflicted criminals, some of them were innocent. But that didn't matter; an opportunity to acquire a new slave was always taken. The slaves worked nearly twenty hours non stop in intense heat, not every slave was still standing by the end. And when it was all over they were all sent off to small cells where they'd be locked in groups of five, and all of them would be chained together by the waist. Some slaves would be taken away for unknown reasons, they rarely came back, and when they did they were too traumatised to talk about it, or at all. New slaves came in at almost the same right that other slaves died. The slaves not only varied in species, there were men, women and children of varying age. The record for oldest slave sent down to work there was ninety five. And she'd only lasted two weeks.
Two men sat opposite each other at circular table, they'd just finished going through a rehearsed and scripted conversation. They both got up and left the room. They continued down a corridor until they came to another room and entered. Inside was something resembling an operating table with a lot of major equipment in the room. A man in white was preparing one of the bits of equipment.
"Are you both ready?" the man in white asked.
"Yes," the two men replied.
"Right then who's first?"
"Me."
"Right then, lie down on the table."
"I know what to do."
"Oh yes of course you do."
One of the two men lay down on the table, the man in white adjusted the controls of one piece of equipment, the apparatus moved in towards the man extending a small probe which contacted the man's forehead. Then it started to vibrate then after a few minutes it stopped. Extraction complete.
A vast crowd lined the streets of the Hictopine city, there was music playing in the background and small craft flew overhead jettisoning small explosive charges with let off a large stream of colours to great applause from the crowd below. The craft also put off spectacular displays of flying skills as they wound their way through the tall buildings and decorations that hung between them. Up the road came what the crowd had gathered to see. Two small mounts glided above the ground, their riders wearing deep red armour and carrying swords. Behind them came a much large vehicle, sitting inside and waving to the crowd. Then someone stepped out of the crowd in front of the procession, a girl in her late teens. A look of determination set into her face as she pulled a gun out of a concealed holster, she aimed and fired at the man in the vehicle. He ducked and she missed. The two men on the mounts in front dismounted and drew their swords which sparked into life with crackling blue lighting winding its way up the blade. The girl continued to fire but the blasts were deflected by the swords. Then one of them pointed his sword at the girl and released a blast of the blue lightning which knocked her off her feet. She landed back on the ground, unconscious. The two people pulled the girl to her feet and dragged her away. None of the crowd recognised the girl, they wouldn't because she wasn't local, it was Rose…