"So is it working?" Rose asked, watching as the streams of numbers gradually grew thinner and thinner.
"Hard to tell," the Doctor said, "Though it does seem to be homing in on the transmitter, the area it believes the source is located is just empty space."
The Doctor pressed a few buttons, showing different angles of space as the view gradually narrowed down.
"There's nothing there," Rose said.
"Nope," the Doctor said, equally confused, "Which means the signal is being relayed through a tiny transmitter out there that we can't see, or alternatively, the rouge operators of this theme park ran at the first sign of a fight and set this place to self destruct."
"Which of those is good?" Rose asked.
"I don't know," the Doctor admitted.
He was still twirling dials and adjusting the screens, trying to get a better idea of what was going on.
"Those numbers, they're getting less and less," Rose said, "That's good right, that means you are getting closer to finding the source, yeah?"
"Ah, no," the Doctor said, "The less numbers, the less data is being transferred. That just means they are shutting down everything. All the security, all the transport, all the lights, everything, just a few emergency services running on a backup generator."
He leaned really close to the screen showing a space landscape – endless stars and not much else. He searched for a sign, a hint of technology, a sparkle of non-organic origin that could be a relay transmitter.
"Nope, nothing," he said, banging the console in frustration, "Right! That means we are on a time limit."
He pushed a few buttons and the streams of numbers changed to a countdown. It showed just under half an hour.
"Doctor?" Rose asked nervously, "What's that?"
"Countdown to total park shutdown," the Doctor said, "when that counter hits zero, the whole place will explode."
"Jack and Amber are out there!" Rose said, alarmed.
"Along with possibly fifteen million other holiday makers," the Doctor said darkly, running round the other side of the console and grabbing his phone.
Jack's phone rang. He grabbed it out of his pocket, not pausing for a second as he ran.
"TARDIS calling?" He said out loud, "The TARDIS has a phone?"
Amber snatched it out of his hands.
"Hello, Doctor?" she said.
"Answering his calls for him now?" the Doctor said, grinning despite the desperate situation, "You'll be announcing your engagement next!"
"Jack was too busy announcing his amazement that the TARDIS had a phone."
"Why is everyone always so surprised that the TARDIS has a phone?" the Doctor asked, "I can travel through time, space, no question, but I make a phone call and you all get your knickers in a twist!"
"What do you want?" Amber asked dryly.
"How far are you from the radio tower?" the Doctor asked, suddenly serious.
"About five minutes, providing nothing gets in our way."
"I've tracked the signal and found nothing, our enemies have fled, so that's nothing to worry about, however, I've also decoded the signal. It's a countdown, Amber, you've got thirty minutes 'til this whole place blows."
"Thirty minutes?"
"Less than, now, the power is also gradually being shut down, except a few emergency buildings running on a back up generator – hopefully your radio tower will be a part of that. You have to contact Earth, as well as everyone else left alive on the Moon, get as many as you can off of here."
"Can't you cancel the signal?" Amber asked.
"No, it's too encoded, would take longer than the thirty minutes we have to unscramble it, even with a ship and brain as impressive as mine."
"Ok, no need to let your ego run rampant," Amber said with a humourless laugh.
"Work as fast and hard as you can, save as many as you can, good luck," the Doctor said, serious once more.
"And what are you doing?" Amber asked.
"Trying to decode enough of the signal to return power to the lighting and the transport, so people can reach you. I'm hoping there might be a Transmat system, so we can transport people directly back to Earth."
"Ok, good luck, see you in half an hour, for better or worse," and with that she hung up.
"Thirty minutes 'til what?" Quinn asked.
"Until nothing, the end, boom," Amber said, and ran faster.
"So you can't find the people responsible?" Rose asked, "You can't stop them?"
"Well I have stopped them," the Doctor said, "They've gone, vanished!"
"And what's to stop them coming back?" Rose asked, "This could start all over again."
"I know, but for now we have to concentrate on getting people off here before the whole place goes into meltdown, and that means power to the transport and to the lights. Rose, hold down that switch over there!"
"What is this doing?" Rose asked.
"Reinforcing the connection I have to that data stream, now, keep hold of that while I hack into the signal."
The Doctor charged all round the console, pressing buttons, twirling dials, flickering his sonic screwdriver and occasionally reverting to the 'hit the console with a hammer' method.
"Right, got it!" the Doctor said triumphantly, "Now we just need to sustain it, and try cancelling some of the commands."
Amber, Jack and Quinn ran up the stairs and through the corridors of the radio tower, Jack using his watch to check for electronic signals. He was closing in on the signal when all the lights went out, plunging the corridors into darkness.
"Oh what?" Jack said, skidding to a halt causing Amber to skid into him.
"The data stream is being cancelled out," Amber said, standing herself back upright with a little help from Jack, "All the controls of the park are being shut down. The Doctor is trying to hack into the stream, try to reverse the shut down process, but the signal is far to encoded to completely rework it. That's why we have to get everyone out."
"And how do you plan to do that with no lights, no radio signal?" Quinn asked.
"The radio and communications should run on a back up, emergency generator," Amber said, "And for light…"
There was a snap and a hiss, and suddenly the corridor was bathed in red light, issuing from a flare Amber was holding.
"Where did you get that from?" Jack asked.
"Quinn's jeep," she replied with a shrug, and continued down the corridor.
"Is there nothing else we can do?" Rose asked, holding on to the switch as she had been instructed, but feeling useless.
"Rose, I'm working here," the Doctor said shortly, not looking up from the wires he was playing with, "As hard as I can."
"I know, what I meant to say was, is there nothing I can do? Suzi can hold this switch, there must be a better thing for me to spend my energy on," Rose said gently.
"Rose, it's dangerous out there," the Doctor said.
"I know, and our friends are risking their lives while I hold a lever down!"
"Jack and Amber are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves," the Doctor said calmly, still not looking up from his work to meet her eye.
"And I'm not?" Rose demanded.
"No, that's not…" the Doctor began, looking up at last.
"Suzi?" Rose asked, ignoring the Doctor's attempts to apologise, "Would you like to help me?"
The girl eagerly jumped off the chair, turning off the television the Doctor had set up for her and skipped over to Rose.
"Can you hold this switch down for me?" Rose asked, moving to the side so Suzi could get her small hands onto the lever, "That's great, thank you!"
Rose petted the small girl's hair and smiled gratefully at her. Suzi beamed back, then tuned to the lever, a look of utmost concentration on her face.
"And where are you going?" the Doctor asked, marching over to where Rose was rooting through some of Amber's stuff in three long strides.
"To help where I can," Rose said firmly, "Don't worry, I'm a big girl, I can look after myself," she added, swinging a rucksack onto her shoulders and walking firmly towards the door. The Doctor tried to cut her off, but he was too slow. She darted out of the door, leaving to Doctor to call after her as she ran towards the radio tower, knowing he wouldn't run after her because he had important work to do.
"Is Rose your girlfriend?" Suzi asked as he turned back to the console, frustration and worry etched across his face.
"No," the Doctor said with an attempt at an amused laugh.
"But you love her, don't you?" the girl said, still staring avidly at the lever in her hands.
"Yes, I do," the Doctor said quietly to himself, admitting it for the first time. He looked down at the console, his head torn up with complex emotions he had never felt before, something catching his eye as he did. Rose's phone – Rose had left her phone behind.
A faint whirring became audible in the background, just loud enough to be heard over the hissing of the flare.
"That must be the backup generator," Quinn said, "Can you trace the signal again Jack?"
"Yeah, I got it – it's just down this corridor then right," he said.
"Let's go then, we haven't got any time to waste," Amber said, pushing ahead, holding the flare and her gun before her.
They gradually picked up speed until they were running down the endless corridor. As they ran, above the echoing sounds of their footsteps, the flare and the generator, another noise sounded. A feral growl that chilled even Quinn's heart.
"Keep running!" Amber called, "We might outrun whatever it is."
But as they neared the end of the corridor, it became clear that they wouldn't. Amber stopped suddenly, Jack skidding up behind her, grabbing both her arms in fear and pulling her backwards, away from the creature standing between them and the radio signal.
"What the hell is that?" Jack asked.
"No idea," Amber said, pointing her gun ahead of her.
The creature looked like a cross between a robot and a living thing. Beneath a shining layer of blue armour, a pair of beady red eyes glowed, taunting them. Its entire body seemed to be plated with a thick, hard shell not unlike medieval armour. It moved silently and gracefully, stepping closer to them one foot at a time, dragging out the suspense like it was enjoying itself. It didn't appear to be concerned about Amber's gun.
"I've seen one of these before," Quinn said, stepping backwards as he searched his brain for the image, the memory, "I know what it is, I know, but I can't remember."
"Who cares?" Jack said, "Just shoot it!"
Amber aimed her gun, her finger gripping the trigger, but she paused, sensing some uncertainness from Quinn.
"What's the matter with you girl?" Jack asked, grabbing her hand and squeezing the trigger for her.
"No!" Quinn said, too late.
The laser bullet hit the creature and bounced right back, forcing Jack, Amber and Quinn to throw themselves across the corridor to dive out of the way. Amber's gun and flare, along with Jack's phone went flying out of hands and pockets. The creature stepped over the gun, but crunched the phone beneath its armoured foot, destroying it completely, as it walked towards Amber. It stood over her as she tried to scamper backwards, raising a foot to crush her with. As Amber's hand brushed the wall, she realised she had nowhere else left to go.
Rose reached the tower and ran inside. It was dark, almost pitch black, but in her rucksack there was a little torch. Following the trail of heavy smoke suspended in the air, she ran towards where Jack, Amber and Quinn were. Though exhausted, she pressed on, trying to stay at least at jogging pace.
She went up the stairs, round the corner, eventually arriving at the long corridor, where a terrible sight met her.
Amber was pushing upwards with her telekinesis, against a huge alien-like life form that was attempting to crush her beneath its feet. The effort of keeping the creature at bay was so extreme, a thin trail of blood was dripping from Amber's nose, where the high pressure on her brain had burst a blood vessel. Jack and Quinn were slumped on the floor, struggling to keep conscious.
Rose looked at the alien creature. She had seen it somewhere before, she knew it. Some old Earth movie she had been to see with Mickey some time? Then it hit her.
"Jack!" she called, "Jack, you've got to hit it from behind!"
The Captain looked up, surprised into consciousness by the sound of Rose's voice.
"Jack! Shoot it in the back, it's the only place that its armour doesn't protect it!" Rose yelled.
Jack leapt to his feet and dived for the gun as the creature looked up at Rose. He grabbed it, scrambling around in the dark as the last dying light of the flare went out, then turned to the creature. It was now running toward Rose, but Jack could see a red orb of unprotected flesh bobbing around in the air. Taking aim he fired.
Rose screamed as the creature leaped at her, but it let out a strangled cry and crashed to the floor, about a foot in front of her. Rose shone the torch down the corridor. Jack was lying on the floor, giving her the thumbs up.
"How did you know what to do?" Jack asked as Rose ran up the corridor to join them, helping Quinn up as she passed him.
"It was a Hunter, from the X-Box game, Halo – Mickey's favourite computer game," Rose explained breathlessly, "God bless Mickey, hey?"
"Mickey the Idiot, we owe you big time," Jack said, offering a hand to Amber, who took it gratefully, "you alright?"
Gently, he brushed his thumb over her top lip, wiping the blood away then letting his hand linger at her neck. Amber went to say something, but stopped, like she didn't quite trust herself to speak. Jack slowly lowered his head towards hers; his heart beat tripling in speed at the thought of kissing her. He got as far as closing his eyes before she placed a gentle but firm hand on his chest and pushed him away.
"I'm fine," she said, though her voice sounded a little shaky, "Lets go find the radio signal, before something else tries to kill us."
She walked off, followed closely by Quinn and Rose.
"Damn it," Jack said, disappointed, and ran after them.
Please review! xx