The TARDIS materialized at a random point in time and space, however, the landing was not smooth - she groaned and wheezed as if finding it difficult. The Doctor and I stepped outside the doors, looking up at the TARDIS.
"I dunno what's wrong with her, she's sort of... queasy. Indigestion, like she didn't wanna land." The Doctor said.
"Oh, if you think there's gonna be trouble, we could always get back inside and go somewhere else..." I told him. We looked at each other for a spell before we both burst out laughing at this absurd notion.
"I think... we've landed inside a cupboard! Here we go!" The Doctor said pushing a door open and we entered another area.
"Open Door 15."
"Some sort of base... moon base, sea base, space base... they build these things out of kits." he told me.
"I remember." I told him listening to the wind blowing outside. "Glad we're indoors - sounds like a storm out there..."
"Open Door 16." the computer said as the Doctor opened another door.
"Human design - they've got a thing about kits. This place was put together like a flat-pack wardrobe, only bigger. And easier." The Doctor said as we went through another door into a canteen area.
"Open Door 17." The computer said.
"Oh, it's a sanctuary base!" The Doctor said going to the center of the room.
"Close Door 17." The computer said as I closed the door.
"Deep Space exploration. We've gone way out. And listen to that, underneath." he said pointing downwards, indicating for me to listen. I did and heard the hum of drills. "Someone's drilling."
"Welcome to hell." I read reading the wall behind him.
"Oh, it's not THAT bad!" he said, looking around and I laughed pointing to the wall behind him.
"No, over there!" I said and he turned to the wall to see the words "WELCOME TO HELL" scrawled on the wall, with ancient symbols written underneath.
"Hold on..." he said going over to it. "What does that say?" I walked with the Doctor look closer at the ancient text. I waited for it to translate but it remained stubbornly, incomprehensible.
"That's weird. It won't translate." I said touching the wall. "We should see English."
"Exactly. If that's not working, then it means..." The Doctor dropped the sentence.
"This writing is old. Very old. Impossibly old." I said, as the Doctor helped me stand and went over to another door. "We should find out who's in charge." He told me turning the wheel to open the door. "We've gone beyond the reach of the TARDIS' knowledge. Not a good move. And if someone's lucky enough-"
"Open Door 19." the Computer said. The door opened and we gasped in shock, stumbling backwards a few step. Creatures with tenticles covering where a mouth would have been were on the other side, blinking at us.
"Right! Hello! Sorry! Uh... I was just saying, uh... nice base!" The Doctor said as we smiled at them.
"We must feed." they said and my eyes widened, my hand going for a gun.
"You're gonna what?" The Doctor asked.
"We must feed." they said again.
"Yeah. I think they mean us." I told him as we backed away from the creatures as they advanced.
"We must feed." We tried to go for the other door, but it opened and more creatures came out. "We must feed. We must feed. We must feed." Yet another door opened and more Ood walked slowly through it. I drew my gun. "We must feed. We must feed. We must feed." The Doctor took his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket as the Hunter I pointed my gun. "We must feed. We must feed." We were backed against the wall by the advancing creatures. "We must feed. We must feed. We must feed. We must feed. We must feed. We must feed." One of the creatures shook and tapped the white orb he held before him that had been glowing as the spoke.
"You. If you are hungry."
"Sorry?' the Doctor asked lowing his sonic.
"We apologize. Electromagnetics have interfered with our speech systems." he said and I put away my gun. "Would you like some refreshment?"
"Uhm..." Before the Doctor got a chance to answer the door behind them opened.
"Open Door 18." A man flanked by two others holding guns walked in and just stared at us.
"What the hell...? How did...?" He asked approaching us, staring. He raised his hand to face and started speaking into the device on his wrist. "Captain... you're not going to believe this. We've got PEOPLE. Out of nowhere. I mean, real people. I mean two... living... people. Just standing here, right in front of me." The Doctor and I exchanged a look, not quite knowing what to make of this reception. We were mistaken for humans all the time, but no one ever reacted like this before.
"Don't be stupid, that's impossible." A man said from the device.
"I suggest telling THEM that." the man in front of us said.
"But you're a space base, you must have visitors now and then. It can't be that impossible." I told him.
"You're telling me you don't know where you are?" He asked us roughly.
"No idea. More fun that way." The Doctor said grinning at him before turning to me. His grin was contagious, I decided, as I grinned as well.
"Stand by, everyone. Buckle down. We have incoming. And it's a big one. Quake Point 5 on its way." A woman said over the device as the base started to quake and tremble. The man rushed to a door and opened it.
"Through here! Now. Quickly, come on!" He told us as sirens sounded. We quickly ran to follow him through the door, with the two other people behind us. "Now!" We went from one corridor to another which was shaking, smoke rising from the floor, complete chaos. "Move it! Come on! Come on, come on!" the man screamed. I screamed as I fell over, sparks flying over me. The Doctor came and helped me up and we continued running. "Move it, come on! Quickly! Move it!" We hurried down the corridor and found ourselves in a control room, where the crew were busy working. the people inside looked up when we walked in and their mouths dropped open.
"Oh, my GOD. You meant it." The black man said.
"People! Look at that! Real people!" the older woman said.
"That's us. Hooray!" The Doctor said and I cheered lightly with him.
"Yeah, definitely real. My name's the Hunter, and this is the Doctor." I introduced.
"Come on... the oxygen must be offline. We're hallucinating. They can't be... no. They're real!" A young boy said looking at us.
"Come ON, we're in the middle of an alert! Danny, strap up, the quake's coming in! Impact in thirty seconds!" The black man said and I watched as the seconds counted down on a computer screen. "Sorry, you two, whoever you are. Just... hold on. Tight."
"Hold on to what?" I asked him.
"Anything. I don't care. Just hold on. Ood, are we fixed?" he asked the creatures and we held onto the rail next to us.
"Your kindness in this emergency is much appreciated." The creature said.
"What's this planet called, anyway?" The Doctor asked them.
"Now, don't be stupid. It hasn't got a name. How could it have a name?" the woman asked us. I looked from her to the Doctor and back to her. "You really don't know, do you?"
"And... IMPACT!" The entire base shook violently. We all clung on tight to whatever we held, but it was over pretty quickly. The Doctor and I let go of our rails and he stood up.
"Oh, well, that wasn't so bad-!" He was thrown backwards as the base shokk even more violently than it did before. We clung to the railing for dear life. There is a small explosion from one of the consoles and sparks flew around the room. We were all tossed about like rag-dolls before it finally, it stopped.
"Okay, that's it." the black man said and the man from before hurried forward with a fire extinguisher. "Everyone all right? Speak to me, Ida?"
"Yeah, yeah!" The older woman, Ida, said.
"Danny?" the black man called out.
"Fine." Danny called back.
"Toby?" he called out another name.
"Yeah, fine." Toby told him.
"Scooti?"
"No damage." Scooti said to him.
"Jefferson?"
"Check!"
"We're fine, thanks, fine, yeah, don't worry about us." The Doctor told them, helping me stand before wrapping his arms around my waist.
"The surface caved in." the man said as the graphics on the computer screen indicated the part of the base that had been lost. "I deflected it onto storage 5 through 8. We've lost them completely. Toby, go and check the rocket link."
"That's not my department." Toby told him.
"Just do as I say, yeah?" The man asked him and Toby grudgingly left the room.
"Oxygen holding. Internal gravity 56.6. We should be okay." Ida said reading something on the console.
"Never mind the earthquake, that's one hell of a storm. What is that, a hurricane?" I asked, listening to the wind.
"You'd need an atmosphere for a hurricane. There's no air out there. It's a complete vacuum." Scooti told us.
"Then what's shaking the roof?" I asked her.
"You're not joking. You really don't know? Well - introductions. FYI, as they said in the olden days. I'm Ida Scott, science officer. Zackary Cross Flane, acting Captain, sir... you've met Mr Jefferson, he's head of security. Danny Bartock. Ethics committee." Ida said introducing everyone.
"Not as boring as it sounds." Danny said and I grinned at him.
"And that man who just left, that was Toby Zed, archaeology, and this is Scooti Manista. Trainee maintenance." Scooti smiled at us as Ida went to a set of controls. "And this... this is home." She turned a lever and a whirring sound started.
"Brace yourselves. The sight of it sends some people mad." Zack said. The room was flooded with a red light as an over head window opened, revealing a black hold right above us. We stood, amazed, watching the light being sucked into it.
"That's a black hole." I said pointing at it.
"But that's impossible." The Doctor said looking up at it shocked.
"I did warn you." Zack said.
"We're standing under a black hole." The Doctor said.
"We're in orbit." Ida told us and I looked at her in shock.
"But we can't be..." I told her.
"You can see for yourself. We're in orbit." She told me.
"But we CAN'T be." The Doctor repeated my words.
"This lump of rock is suspended in perpetual geostationary orbit around that black hole without falling in. Discuss." Ida told us.
"That's bad." I said looking back up at it.
"That doesn't cover it... a black hole's a dead star, it collapses in on itself, in and in and in until the matter's so dense and tight it starts to pull everything else in too. Nothing in the universe can escape it. Light, gravity... time... everything just gets pulled inside... and crushed." The Doctor explained.
"So, we can't be in orbit. We should be pulled right in." I added.
"We should be dead." The Doctor said.
"And yet... here we are. Beyond the laws of physics. Welcome on board." Ida said.
"But if there's no atmosphere out there, what's that?" I asked her, pointing to the clouds speeding rapidly towards the black hole outside the base.
"Stars breaking up... gas clouds... we have whole solar systems being ripped apart above our heads before falling into that thing." Ida told me.
"So, a bit worse than a storm, then." I said.
"Just a bit." She confirmed.
"Just a bit, yeah." I repeated before the base shook again. We all crowded around the control panel when Toby joined us again.
"Close Door 1." the computer said.
"The rocket link's fine." Toby told Zack. Zack tapped a button on the controls and a hologram of the black hold appeared in the center. The Doctor put his glasses on and stared at it.
"That's the black hole officially designated K37 Gen 5." Zack told us.
"In the scriptures of the Falltino, this planet is called 'Kroptor'. The bitter pill. And the black hole is supposed to be a mighty demon. It was tricked into devouring the planet, only to spit it out. Because it was poison." Ida told us.
"The bitter pill. I like it." I said smiling at the Doctor.
"We are so far out. Lost in the drifts of the universe - how did you even GET here?!" The Doctor asked them.
"We flew in. You see..." Zack pressed another button and the hologram changed to one of the planet with a field emanating out from it like a tunnel. "This planet's generating a gravity field. We don't know how - we've no idea, but... it's kept in constant balance against the black hole. And the field extends out there. As a funnel. A distinct... gravity funnel, reaching out into clear space. That was our way in."
"You flew down that thing?" I asked him.
"By rights, the ship should've been torn apart. We lost the Captain... which is what put me in charge..." Zack said.
"You're doing a good job." Ida told him.
"Yeah. Well, needs must." Zack said to her.
"But if that gravity funnel closes, there's no way out." Danny told us.
"We had fun speculating about that." Scooti said with a smile on her face.
"Oh, yeah. That's the word." Danny said whacking Scooti on the head with a scroll. ""Fun"."
"But that field would take phenomenal amounts of power! I mean... not just big, but off the scale! Can I...?" The Doctor asked, gestured to the controls.
"Sure. Help yourself." Ida said, pushing the calculator over to him and leaving him to it. I turned as one of the creatures from before approached me and gave me a cup.
"Your refreshment." he said to me.
"Oh yeah." I taking it. I'd forgotten I'd asked for it. Seeing a black hole will do that to you. "Thank you. I'm sorry, what was your name?"
"We have no titles. We are as one." he said, leaving. I looked at him confused before turning to Danny.
"Uhm, what are they called?" I asked him.
"Oh, come on. Where've you been living? Everyone's got one!" Danny told me.
"Well, not us, so what are they?" I asked him again.
"They're the Ood." he told me.
"The 'Ood'?" I asked.
"The Ood." he said nodding.
"Well that's... ood." I said smiling.
"Very ood! But handy. They work the mine shafts. All the drilling and stuff. Supervision, and maintenance! They're born for it. Basic slave race." Danny told me and my smile fell.
"You've got slaves?" I asked. I couldn't believe it. When did humans start having slaves?
"Don't start - she's like one of that lot. Friends of the Ood." Scooti said and I glared at her a bit.
"Well maybe I am, yeah. Since when do humans need slaves?" I asked them.
"But the Ood offer themselves. If you DON'T give them orders, they just pine away and die." Danny told me. I watched one of the Ood as it approached me.
"Do you like being ordered about?" I asked it.
"It is all we crave." he told me.
"Why's that?" I asked.
"We have nothing else in life." he said.
"Yeah, I used to think like that. A long time ago." I said remembering when I was human and when I was a child.
"There we go." I turned back to see the Doctor done with the calculator. I walked back to him as he continued talking. "D'you see? To generate that gravity field, and the funnel, you'd need a power source with an inverted self-extrapolating reflex of six to the power of six every six seconds."
"That's a lot of sixes." I said remembering something from when I was living with Mum and the Hunter.
"And it's impossible." the Doctor told us.
"It took us two years to work that out!" Zack told him.
"I'm very good." the Doctor told him modestly.
"But... that's why we're here. This power source is ten miles below through solid rock. Point Zero. We're drilling down to try and find it." Ida told us.
"It's giving off readings of over ninety stats on the Blazen Scale." Zack said.
"We could revolutionize modern science." Ida said.
"We could use it to fuel the Empire." Jefferson said.
"Or start a war." I told them.
"It's buried beneath us. In the darkness, waiting." Toby said and I gave him a look.
"And what's your job? Chief... dramatist?" I asked him.
"Well, whatever it is down there is not a natural phenomena. And this, er, planet once supported life. Eons ago, before the human race had even learned to walk." Toby said.
"I saw that lettering written on the wall. Did YOU do that?" The Doctor asked him.
"I copied it from fragments we found on earth by the drilling, but I can't translate it." Toby told him.
"No, neither can we. And that's saying something." The Doctor told them.
"There was some form of civilisation. They buried something. Now it's reaching out. Calling us in." Toby told us.
"And you came." The Doctor said grinning.
"Well, how could we not?" Ida asked him as Zack switched off the hologram.
"So, when it comes right down to it, why did you come here? Why did you do that? Why? I'll tell you why. Because it was THERE. Brilliant. Excuse me, ah, Zack, wasn't it?" the Doctor asked him.
"That's me." Zack said.
"Just stand there, 'cos I'm gonna hug you. Is that all right?" the Doctor asked him.
"I s'pose so." Zack said.
"Here we go. Coming in." the Doctor said before throwing his arms around Zack and clutching him, beaming. "Ahh, human beings, you are amazing! Ha!" I chuckled as the Doctor released Zack "Thank you."
"Not at all." Zack said.
"But apart from that, you're completely mad. You should pack your bags and get back in that ship and fly for your lives." the Doctor told them and I rolled my eyes.
"You can talk! And how the hell did YOU get here?" Ida asked us.
"Oh, I've got this um... this... it's hard to explain, it just sort of... appears."
"We can show you, we parked down the corridor from um... oh, what's it called? Uh, habitation area..." I said trying to remembering where it was.
"Three." the Doctor told me.
"Three."
"Do you mean storage six?" Zack asked us.
"Uh, it was a bit of a cupboard, yeah." the Doctor said cheerfully. I saw Zack glance uncomfortably at Ida. I looked between the two of them. "Storage six, but you said... You said... you said storage five to eight." without another word, he turned on his heel and dashed from the room with me right behind him.
"What is it? What's wrong?" I asked him as he frantically opened a door back into the canteen area.
"Open Door 19." the computer said as he sprinted the length of the room. "Close Door 19." The Doctor spun the wheel to try and open the door back through the other corridor.
"Stupid doors, come ON!" he shouted before it swung open to reveal another corridor.
"Open Door 17." We dashed down the corridor and opened another door. "Open Door 15." The Doctor slammed himself against the next door, frantically pushing the button to open it but it won't budge. "Door 16 out of commission."
"Can't be, can't be!" The Doctor said.
"What's wrong?! What is it?" I asked him. The Doctor opened a small round window in the door and looked through it. "Doctor, the TARDIS is in there. What's happened?"
"The TARDIS is gone." he said quietly. I watched horrified as he he backs away from the window, breathing heavily.
"Door 16 out of commission." the computer said again.
"The earthquake. This section collapsed." he said.
"But it's gotta be out there somewhere." I said hopefully. I peered out of the window to witness the rocky landscape of the planet outside.
"Look down." he told me and I did. There is a gaping chasm right beneath them.
The Doctor and I walked back in the control room slowly.
"The ground gave way. My TARDIS must've fallen down right into the heart of the planet. But you've got robot drills heading the same way." The Doctor told Zack.
"We can't divert the drilling." Zack said to us before walking away with us right behind him.
"But we NEED our ship. It's all we've got. Literally the only thing." The Doctor told him.
"Doctor, WE'VE only got the resources to drill ONE central shaft down to the power source, and that's it. No diversions, no distractions - NO EXCEPTIONS. Your machine is lost. All I can do is offer you a lift if we ever get to leave this place, and that... is the end of it." Zack said before leaving. Ida walked up to us and smiled sadly.
"I'll uh - put you on the duty roster. We need someone in the laundry." she said before she followed Zack from the room.
"Open Door 1." The Doctor and I looked at each other. We were all alone in this place. "Close Door 1." I leaned against the control panel and looked up at the black hole we were standing under.
"I've trapped you here." he said to me.
"No. Don't worry about me." I told him, smiling, as the base shook again. "Okay, we're on a planet that shouldn't exist, under a black hole... and no way out unless this lot find a way." I looked back up at the black hole and leaned on the Doctor's shoulder. "I've changed my mind. Start worrying about me." I laughed lightly and the Doctor pulled me in tightly to him and I wrapped my arms around him. We stared at the black hole, just holding each other.
"Entering night shift. Your chosen track for transition is Ravel's Bolero." The computer called out. Ravel's Bolero played as everyone did their jobs around the base. The Doctor and I sat in Habitation Area Three, staying out of everyone else's way. I glanced at the Doctor to see him staring at the ancient text Toby had put on the wall, his brow furrowed.
"Danny, check the temperature of Ood Habitation. It seems to be rising." Zack said. I got up and walked over to the hatch through which the food was being served. Scooti was already by the hatch with her tray as Danny got up to do what Zack had ordered.
"Help yourself." Scooti told me. "Just don't have the green. Or the blue." she laughed and I picked up a tray and went over to the hatch the Ood were serving food out of.
"Uh, bit of that, thanks." I told it. The Ood spooned some sloppy blue gloop onto my tray.
"Would you like sauce with that?" the Ood asked me.
"Sure, why not." I told it and it shook some sauce onto the tray. "Do you actually get paid? Do they give you money?" I asked it.
"The Beast and his Armies shall rise from the Pit to make war against God." The Ood told me.
"... I'm sorry?" I asked it, startled. The Ood tapped his communication orb.
"Apologies. I said, "I hope you enjoy your meal"." he told me.
"Yeah." I said picking up the tray and walking away.
Later on during the night shift the lights flickered above our heads.
"Zack - have we got a problem?" Ida asked Zack in her wrist device.
"No more than usual. Got the Scarlet System burning up, it might be worth a look." Zack told her and she turned to us.
"You might wanna see this. Moment in history." she said before pulling a lever which opened the overhead 'shutters', revealing the black hole overhead and flooding the room with soft red light. "There. On the edge." A stream of red light was spiraling into the black hole. "That red cloud... that used to be the Scarlet System. Home to the Peluchi... a mighty civilization spanning a billion years... disappearing. Forever. Their planets and suns consumed." We watched as the last of the Scarlet System disappeared into the black hole. "Ladies and gentlemen... we have witnessed its passing." She went to pull the lever to close the shutters again, but the Doctor stopped her.
"Er, no, could you leave it open?" The Doctor asked her. "Just for a bit. I won't go mad, I promise."
"How would you know?" Ida asked him and he smiled at her. "Scooti, check the lockdown. Jefferson, sign off the airlock seals for me." With that they all left, leaving the two of us alone.
"Open Door 18."
"I remember the Elders saying some black holes are like gateways to another universe." I said looking up at the black hole.
"Close Door 18."
"Not that one. It just eats." he told me.
"We're a long way from home..." I said.
"Go that way, turn right, keep going for um... about five hundred years... then you'll reach the Earth." he told me and I smiled at him. He was always finding ways to cheer me up. I took my phone out of my pocket and pressed a few buttons.
"No signal. That's the first time we've gone out of range. Mind you, even if I could... what would I tell them...?" I said. "Well, it could be worse. This lot said they'd give us a lift back."
"And then what?" he asked me.
"I dunno... find a planet... get a job... live a life, same as the rest of the universe." I told him.
"Pfft... I'd have to settle down. In a house or something, a proper house with... with... with... with DOORS and things. Carpets! Me! Living in a house!" he asked me and I laughed at the image in my head before looking at him. "Now that... that is terrifying."
"You'd have to get a mortgage." I told him, teasing.
"... No." he said, shaking his head over and over.
"Oh yes." I told him.
"I am dying. That's it. I am dying, it is all over." he said and I laughed at him.
"Hey, it's not like you'd be the only one, you know." I told him. "We could get married, properly for humans I mean, or something..." He caught my eye and I looked back up at the black hole. "I dunno, we'll sort something out-"
"Anyway." The Doctor said, he was probably feeling awkward.
"We'll see!" I told him, smiling. We sat in silence for a few moments before he sighed and I turned to him.
"I promised Jackie and Rose I'd always take you back to them." he said.
"Everyone leaves home in the end." I told him.
"Not to end up stuck here." he said.
"Yeah, but stuck with you - that's not so bad." I said, smiling.
"Yeah?" he asked me.
"Yes." I said. He held my hand tightly, smiling lightly at me. Suddenly my phone rang. I picked it up and looked at the bars on it. No signal. I looked up at the Doctor confused before answering it.
"He is awake." I gasped and flung the phone to the floor. I looked at the Doctor, scared and confused. We picked up my phone before making our way to Ood habitation.
"Evening!" The Doctor said happily.
"Only us!" I told him.
"The mysterious couple. How are you, then? Settling in?" Danny asked us.
"Yeah, sorry, straight to business, the Ood - how do they communicate? I mean, with each other." the Doctor asked him as I looked at the Ood. They were sitting in an area below us in what looks almost like an animal-pen. A balcony looked over this area and there were steps from there.
"Oh, just empaths. There's a low level telepathic field connecting them. Not that that does THEM much good. They're basically a herd race. Like cattle." Danny said.
"This telepathic field - can it pick up messages?" The Doctor asked him.
"Cause I was having dinner, and one of the Ood said something odd." I told him.
"Oh. An odd Ood." Danny glanced at me, joking.
"And then I got something else on my er... communicator." I finished.
"Oh, be fair. We've got whole star systems burning up around us. There's all sorts of stray transmissions. Probably nothing." Danny told him. The Doctor and I stared at him, far from convinced. "Look... if there was something wrong, it would show. We monitor the telepathic field. It's the only way to look after them. They're so stupid, they don't even tell us when they're ill."
"Monitor the field - that's this thing?" The Doctor asked him. I looked at the screen on the computer to see the reading on the screen saying 'Basic 5'.
"Yeah. But like I said, it's low level telepathy. They only register Basic 5." Danny said. As he spoke, the reading rose to Basic 6.
"Well, that's not Basic 5." The Doctor said and it rose, again and again. "10..." I turned to the Ood and watched them suddenly raise their heads as the reading ascended. "20... They've gone up to Basic 30."
"Guys..." I called to them.
"But they can't..." Danny said.
"Doctor, the Ood..." I watched the Ood turn, as one, and look up at the three of us on the balcony. "What does Basic 30 mean?"
"Well, it means that they're shouting - screaming inside their heads." Danny told us.
"Or something's shouting at them..." The Doctor said.
"But... where's it coming from? What is it saying? I mean- What did it say to you?" Danny asked him.
"Something about the beast in the pit." I said.
"What about your communicator? What did that say?" Danny asked.
"He is awake." I told him.
"And you will worship him." The Ood said suddenly as one.
"What the hell?" Danny said as we all watched them.
"He is awake." The Doctor called out.
"And you will worship him." The Ood responded.
"Worship who?" The Doctor asked, but got no reply. "Who's talking to you? Who is it?" The entire base shook as the Doctor and I were down in the 'pen' with the Ood, Danny remained on the overhead balcony when we were thrown violently around and we struggled to regain our balance.
"Emergency hull breach. Emergency hull breach."
"Which section?" Danny screamed into the wrist communicator.
"Everyone... evacuate 11 to 13, we've got a breach! The base is open. Repeat: the base is OPEN." Zack called out through the communicator and we ran.
"Open Door 19." we burst back into the canteen area, followed by Danny. "Close Door 19."
"I can't contain the oxygen field, we're gonna lose it!" I heard Zack say.
"Come on! Keep moving!" Jefferson said when we met up with him in a corridor. "And you too, Toby!" Toby fell to the floor face first and just stayed there.
"Beach sealed. Breach sealed."
"Everyone all right?! What happened? What was it?" The Doctor asked everyone.
"Oxygen levels normal."
"Hull breach! We were open to the elements. A couple of minutes and we'd have been inspecting that black hole at close quarters." Jefferson told us. I crouched down to help Toby, who was still sweating and panting on the floor.
"That wasn't a quake. What caused it?" The Doctor asked.
"We've lost sections 11 to 13. Everyone all right?" Zack said over the device.
"We've got everyone here except Scooti. Scooti, report." Jefferson called but he was met with only static and a beep on the communication device. "Scooti Manista? That's an order. Report." Again, he only came up with the blank beep and the static.
"She's all right." Zack called to us and Jefferson and Ida breathed a sigh of relief. "I picked up her bio chip, she's in Habitation 3. Better go and check if she's not responding, she might be unconscious." I saw Toby look at his hands - turning them over and over. "How about that, eh? We survived."
"Habitation 3... come on, I don't often say this, but I think we could all do with a drink. Come on." Jefferson told us. Everyone except Toby, the Doctor and I followed Jefferson down the corridor. The Doctor crouched down to Toby, who looks severely shaken.
"What happened?" the Doctor asked him.
"I don't- I dunno, I- I was working and then I can't remember. All- all that noise, the room was falling apart, there was no air-" Toby said quickly. I helped him to his feet, gently and offered him a smile.
"Come on. Up you get. Come and have some Protein One." I told him, before linking my arm with him and walking him along the corridor.
"Oh, you've gone native." The Doctor said and I turned and gave him a small look.
"Oi, don't knock it. It's nice. Protein One with just a..." I clicked my fingers. "...dash of Three." I said as we walked. The canteen, is slightly chaotic with everyone looking for Scooti, all talking over each other.
"I've checked Habitation 4..." Ida said. We heard her voice through the open door.
"There's no sign of her. The bio chip says she's in the area." Jefferson said as Toby and I walked through the door, followed by the Doctor. "Have you seen Scooti?"
"No, no, no, I don't think so." Toby told him.
"Scooti, please respond, if you can hear this please respo- Habitation 6." Ida said.
"Nowhere here." Jefferson said before lifting his wrist to his face. "Zack? We've got a problem. Scooti's still missing."
"It says Habitation 3." Zack told him.
"Yeah, well that's where I am, and I'm telling you she's NOT HERE." Jefferson said to him.
"I've found her." The Doctor said. We turned to him and saw him looking up. We followed his gaze and I gasped at the site we saw.
"Oh, my God..." I said. Scooti's body was floating eerily just outside the window.
"Sorry. I'm so sorry." The Doctor said as we stared, horrified.
"Captain... report Officer Scootori Manista PKD... deceased. 43K2.1." Jefferson told him.
"She was twenty... twenty years old." Ida told us. She went over to the controls and we stared up at Scooti's body, grave and silent. Ida pulled the lever to close the shutters and we watched as Scooti drifted further and further away towards the black hole as they closed.
"For how should Man die better than facing fearful odds? For the ashes of his father... and the temples of his Gods." Jefferson said, his voice dropping to a whisper. The shutters closed completely, leaving the room noticeably darker and gloomier than before. A strange silence had also fallen.
"It's stopped..." Ida said. I listened and heard a distant crash.
"What was that?" I asked.
"The drill." The Doctor told me.
"We've stopped drilling. We've made it. Point Zero." Ida said.
"All non-essential Oods to be confined." Zack announced over the system as the crew prepared to go down the mineshaft.
"Capsule established. All systems functioning... the mineshaft is go... bring systems online now." Ida said.
"Reporting as a volunteer for the expeditionary force." I turned and saw the Doctor standing in front of Zack in an orange space suit.
"Doctor, this is breaking every single protocol. We don't even know who you are." Zack told him.
"Yeah, but you trust me, don't you? And you can't let Ida go down there on her own. Go on... look me in the eye... yes you do, I can see it. Trust." The Doctor said.
"I should be going down." Zack argued
"The Captain doesn't lead the mission. He stays here. In charge." The Doctor told him.
"Not much good at it, am I?" Zack said bitterly. The Doctor didn't answer, but simply looked at him. Zack sighed. "Positions! We're going down in two. Everyone, positions!" The Doctor turned to me and caught my eye before walking to me. "Mr Jefferson! I want maximum systems..." Zack's voice faded as he walked away and the Doctor walked to me. The Doctor checked a device on the wrist of the spacesuit.
"Oxygen... nitro-balance... gravity. It's ages since I wore one of these!" The Doctor said smiling at me.
"I want you back in one piece, you got that?" I asked him.
"Yes, sir." he told me, before kissing me deeply. When we parted he out on the helmet.
"It's funny, 'cos people on Earth think that space travel's gonna be all whizzing about and teleports and anti-gravity... but it's not. It's tough." I told him.
"I'll see you later." he told me.
"Not if I see you first." I said laughing softly. I pulled his head down so I could kiss his helmet before he and Ida got inside the pod that was to take them down.
"Capsule active. Counting down in 10... 9... 8... 7... 6..." Jefferson closed the door behind them. "5... 4... 3... 2..." Jefferson saluted them. "1..." I waved, smiling, to the Doctor. The Doctor waved back, returning the smile. "Release." The capsule descended the shaft. A diagram on a computer screen showed the descent of the capsule into the depths of the planet. "Gone beyond the oxygen field. You're on your own."
"Don't forget to breath. Breathing's good." I said to them, worried out of my mind.
"Hunter, stay off the comm." Zack told me over the comm.
"Not a chance in Hell." I told him. The diagram on the computer screen indicated the capsule had reached Point Zero. Which caused the whole base to shake. As soon as I managed to steady myself, I was back on the comm.
"Doctor?" I called to him, but got nothing. "Doctor, are you all right?"
"Ida, report to me..." Zack said over the comm but was met with silence. "Doctor?"
"It's all right... we've made it... coming out of the capsule now." The Doctor called up to us and I breathed a sigh of relief.
"What's it like down there?" I asked him.
"It's hard to tell... some sort of... cave... cavern... it's massive." The Doctor told me.
"Well, this should help. Gravity globe." Ida said. "That's... that's... my God, that's beautiful."
"Hunter... you can tell Toby... we've found his civilization..." The Doctor told me.
"Oi, Toby - sounds like you've got plenty of work." I told him cheerfully. I was feeling a lot better after hearing the Doctor's voice.
"Good, good. Good." Toby said and I shook my head before turning back to the screen.
"Concentrate now, people. Keep on the mission. Ida... what about the power source?" Zack asked.
"We're close. Energy signature indicates north, north west. Are you getting pictures up there?" Ida asked us.
"There's too much interference. We're in your hands." Zack told her.
"Well... we've come this far. There's no turning back." Ida told us.
"Oh, did you have to? No turning back? That's almost as bad as "nothing can possible go wrong" or "this is is gonna be the best Christmas Walford's ever had" -" The Doctor told her.
"Are you finished?" Ida asked him.
"Yeah! Finished." The Doctor told her and I laughed.
"Captain, sir. There's something happening with the Ood." I heard Danny say over the wrist comm. I hoped the Doctor didn't hear this.
"What are they doing?" Zack asked him.
"They're staring at me. I've told them to stop, but they won't." Danny told him.
"Danny, you're a big boy. I think you can take being STARED at." Zack told him.
"But the telepathic field, sir. It's at Basic 100! I've checked - there isn't any fault. It's definitely 100." Danny told him.
"But that's impossible." Zack said.
"What's Basic 100 mean?" I asked them.
"They should be dead." Danny said and I looked at Jefferson.
"Basic 100's brain death." Jefferson told me.
"But they're safe? They're not actually moving?" Zack asked him.
"No, sir." Danny said.
"Keep watching them. And you, Jefferson - keep a guard on the Ood." Zack ordered.
"Officer at arms!" Jefferson said reading his gun.
"Yes, sir." another crew member said.
"You can't fire a gun in here. What if they hit a wall?" I asked him.
"I'm firing stock 15, only packs upon organics." he told me and I looked impressed that they'd really think they'd need that. "Keep watch. Guard them." he ordered.
"Yes, sir." mine and Toby's new body guard said.
"Is everything all right up there?" The Doctor asked suddenly.
"Yeah, yeah." I said quickly, hoping the others would catch on.
"It's FINE." Zack said, going with it. I knew that if he did, so would the others.
"Great!" Danny said sarcastically.
"We've found something. It looks like metal. Like some sort of seal. I've got a nasty feeling the word might be 'trapdoor'. Not a good word, 'trapdoor'. Never met a trapdoor I liked." The Doctor told us.
"The edge is covered with those symbols." Ida said.
"Do you think it opens?" Zack asked them.
"That's what trapdoors tend to do." The Doctor said.
"'Trapdoor' doesn't do it justice. It's massive, Zack. About thirty feet in diameter." Ida told him.
"Could be a trapdoor for something massive." I told them.
"Any way of opening it?" Zack asked.
"I don't know. I can't see any sort of mechanism." Ida said.
"I suppose that's the writing, that'll tell us what to do. The letters that defy translation." The Doctor said.
"Toby, did you get anywhere with decoding it?" Zack asked.
"Toby, they need to know - that lettering, does it make any sort of sense?" I asked him. "Toby raised his head in his arms, still crouched in the corner.
"I know what it says." Toby said.
"Then tell them." I told him.
"When did you work that out?" Jefferson asked him.
"It doesn't matter, just tell them." I said. Toby stood up finally and turned to us. I looked at him shocked to see he was covered in those symbols, eyes red.
"These are the words of the Beast." he said, his voice was deeper than it had been before. "And he has woken." Jefferson pointed his gun at Toby, but Toby just smirked. "He is the heart that beats in the darkness, he is the blood that will never cease. And now he will rise."
"Officer, stand down. STAND DOWN." Jefferson ordered. Toby flexed his arms. "Officer, as commander of security, I order you to stand down and be confined. Immediately!"
"He's come out in those symbols all over his face. They're all over him." I said into the comm, hoping someone would hear me.
"Mr Jefferson, tell me, sir... did your wife ever forgive you?" Toby asked him.
"I don't know what you mean." Jefferson said.
"Let me tell you a secret: she never did." Toby told him.
"Officer... you stand down and be confined." Jefferson ordered.
"Or what?" Toby asked him.
"Or under the jurisdiction of Condition Red, I am authorized to shoot you." Jefferson told him aiming his gun.
"But how many can you kill?" Toby asked. His eyes lit up and his mouth opened in a low roar as the symbols evaporated off Toby's skin and left him as swirls of black smoke. The smoke then entered the Ood, who jerked as the black smoke possessed them. Toby, himself again, coughed and collapsed and Jefferson pointed his gun at the three Ood on the deck with us.
"We are the Legion of the Beast." the Ood said. "The Legion shall be many. And the Legion shall be few...
"It's the Ood." I said into the comm.
"Sir, we have a contamination in the livestock." Jefferson said into his wrist comm.
"Doctor, I don't know what it is - it's- it's like they're possessed." I said down to him.
"They won't listen to us." Jefferson said.
"He has woven himself in the fabric of your life since the dawn of time. Some may call him Abaddon. Some may call him Kroptor. Some may call him Satan. Or Lucifer. Or the Bringer of Despair. The Deathless Prince. The Bringer of Night. These are the words that shall set him free." the Ood said. The three of us backed away as the Ood advanced on us.
"Back up to the door!" Jefferson told us.
"I shall become manifest." the Ood continued talking.
"Move quickly!" Jefferson said.
"I shall walk in might."
"To the door!" Jefferson ordered. "Get it open!"
"My Legions shall swarm across the worlds..." Suddenly the whole base started shaking and we continued trying to open the door.
"I am the sin and the temptation. And the desire. I am the pain and the loss and the dead will come."
"Get that door open!" Jefferson shouted.
"I'm trying!" I shouted back, desperately trying to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. Jefferson had his gun aimed at the advancing Ood, but they ignored it completely.
"I have been imprisoned for eternity. But no more."
"Door sealed."
"Come on!" I shouted.
"Door sealed."
"The door is open and I am free."
TO BE CONTINUED
Next time on the Doctor's Girl.
"It's the Ood. They've gone mad." Danny told us.
"Doctor, can you hear me?" I said into the comm.
The Ood chased us through the shaft.
"Doctor? Ida? Are you there?"
"Turn right." Zack told us.
"that thing is playing on very basic fears." The Doctor told us.
Jefferson and the other crew member shot at the Ood as I continued trying to open the door.
With a loud bang, the cable for the capsule snapped and fell down the shaft.
"The cable's snapped!"
"Get out!"
The three men whooped and cheered as the rocket lifted off.
"You will die and I will live."