O'Donnell hardly noticed us when we returned to the bridge. She was still focused on trying to get the base back into day mode, with no luck. I sat down at the table and swiveled the seat from side to side. The Doctor stood by the computer station, looking at the security camera relays as she leaned her shoulder against the wall.
"Have you spotted either of the ghosts yet?"
O'Donnell shook her head. "No. And they've done nothing, caused no incidents yet. I'm still waiting for everyone to finish reporting in."
"Well, Clara should be in the mess hall by now to help with provisions."
"Bennett's in there, and Cass and Lunn are in the Faraday Cage."
The Doctor hummed and looked back at the camera relays. "That just leaves Pritchard."
Scooting her chair to a different station along the wall, O'Donnell began speaking into a microphone. "Pritchard, you are unaccounted for," she said, her voice echoing throughout the base's speakers. "Contact the bridge or get to the Faraday cage immediately." She waited, checking the relays for any sign of him. "Pritchard, contact the bridge or get to the Faraday cage!" Leaning back in her seat, O'Donnell adjusted her cap. "No answer."
"I don't see him," the Doctor said as she shoved her hands into her trouser pockets.
Bennett's voice came through the speaker system by the microphone, crackling slightly. "O'Donnell, it's okay. Pritchard's in here."
O'Donnell rolled her eyes and grabbed the mic. "Pritchard, you moron, grab your stuff. We're locking down early." Ending the transmission, O'Donnell rolled back to the computer station. "In case I can't get this back into day mode," she said to the Doctor.
Just a few seconds later, Bennett's voice came over the speaker again. "Man overboard. Man overboard! We need a rescue team in the water now!"
"Bennett, wait!" said Clara. "Look. It's Pritchard."
The Doctor shot past me like a rocket, practically sprinting through the doorway. I turned towards the relays and saw her running across a few different screens. She burst into the mess hall and skidded to a halt a few paces in front of Clara and Bennet. Cass and Lunn came into view then, standing just behind the Doctor. They were all looking in the direction of the camera, but I couldn't see what it was that had them so spooked. Then Pritchard's ghost stepped into view.
O'Donnell tapped rapidly at the control panel, muttering to herself. "Come on, come on." I glanced back at the relay and saw the group start to back away slowly as Pritchard's ghost lifted a chair into the air. "Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on."
The nighttime lights faded into daytime lights and Pritchard vanished, the chair clattering to the floor immediately. The computer announced day mode and I let out a breath I hadn't even realized I'd been holding. O'Donnell groaned and fell forward, her elbows braced against the table as she let her face fall into her hands.
"You okay?" I asked.
She took a deep breath and smiled a little shakily at me. "These ghosts are gonna be the death of me," she grumbled.
Once the group returned and verified that no one else was hurt, the Doctor had O'Donnell play back the security footage to find out what happened to Pritchard. When he had left the ship earlier, he had apparently gone diving to look for the missing power cell the Doctor had mentioned. But when he returned to the base, the ghosts trapped him inside the airlock and drowned him. I had to look away when the chamber flooded with water.
"They're working out how to use the base against us," the Doctor said after O'Donnell ended the footage. "Altering the time settings so they can go about uninhibited, opening the airlocks. They're learning."
Clara nodded. "And now there's three of them."
Bennett cleaned his glasses on the corner of his shirt. "Cass, what do we do?"
She thought for a moment. "We abandon the base," Lunn said for her while she signed. "Topside can send down a whole team of marines or ghost-busters or whatever."
The Doctor shook her head. "Wait, wait-"
Cass rounded on her and signed angrily in her face. "I can't force you to leave, so you can stay and do the whole cabin in the woods thing and get killed or drowned if you want. But my first priority is to protect my crew."
Backing away with a single nod of acknowledgment, the Doctor walked over to the computer station to stand next to Clara. They whispered something to one another, but I couldn't be bothered to strain my ears to listen.
Cass continued signing, this time directed at O'Donnell. "O'Donnell, contact Topside. Tell them we're abandoning the base on my orders," Lunn said.
On the right side of the computer station was a telephone on a pedestal. She picked up the phone and pushed a button on the pedestal. "Topside, Topside, this is Lance Corporal Alice O'Donnell from Drum Control. Over."
Topside's reply played out over the speakers. "Drum Control, this is Topside. We have received your message. Submarine on its way. Over."
"Repeat, Topside. Over."
"We've received your request for a rescue sub. It's two minutes away. Over."
O'Donnell shook her head. "Topside, who did you speak to and when was this request made? Over."
"Drum Control, it was in Morse code and arrived maybe half an hour ago. Said it was urgent, comms were down, two crew members critically ill, full paramedic team requested. Over."
Snatching the phone out of O'Donnell's hand, the Doctor said, "Topside, this is the Doctor, UNIT security visa seven one zero apple zero zero. You may be familiar with my work. Call back the sub."
A brief pause. "Doctor, why would-"
"Call it back!" she snapped. "We have a hazardous and undefined contagion on board. This base is now under quarantine."
"What did you do that for?" Bennett asked after the Doctor replaced the phone.
"Well, none of us sent the message, did we? So that means that the ghosts sent it, which means they want that crew down here."
"Why would they do that?" Lunn said for Cass.
The Doctor shrugged. "Well, I don't know, but I'm pretty certain it's not so they can all form a boy band. Okay," she said. "We solve this on our own. The ghosts can only come out at night so they change the base's time settings. Why? What's different at night?"
"It's mainly atmospheric. The lights are dim, the noise from the engines is muffled," O'Donnell said.
The Time Lady shook her head. "No. Something else, something else."
Cass gasped. "The diagnostic sweep. When the systems are checked, that stops at night to save power."
"What systems specifically?"
"Life support, the locks. They're electromagnetic. They have to be secured in case of flooding, so throughout the day, they're checked, one by one, every few seconds," O'Donnell added.
"The answer is in there somewhere, I can smell it." The Doctor smiled. "O'Donnell, excellent work returning the base to day mode."
She blushed and smiled giddily. "Shut up. It was nothing. You- You really think so?"
"Mm. Now put it back into night mode."
Her smile dropped immediately. "What?"
"We know nothing!" the Doctor exclaimed. "We don't know what they want. That's what's getting us killed. Well, I won't run. Not any more. So, O'Donnell, kindly put the base back into night mode. We want to know what these ghosts are after? We ask them. We're going to do the impossible. We're going to capture a ghost."
The speakers sounded again with computer's greeting: "Good evening. Entering night mode."
Cass and I stood behind O'Donnell at the computer station, anxiously watching the relays. Bennett nervously stepped into the mess hall and I could see him visibly shrink away as he saw the three ghosts. He waved at them and then scrambled down the adjoining corridor, terror written plainly across his face.
"Bennett's got them moving and Clara's in position," O'Donnell said.
The Doctor was at the opposite end of the room by the door, focused on the base map. "Clara, Bennett is going to run across the top of the T-junction to your right in about ten seconds. Draw the ghosts towards you. Turn right, and then take second left."
On the relays, I could see Bennett as he ran out of view of one camera and into view of another with the ghosts just behind him. Clara jumped out from her hiding spot as Bennett ran past, shouting and waving at the ghosts to get their attention. They turned towards her and then advanced as she spun around and started running.
The Doctor had come up behind me while Clara did her part, watching the cameras. "Lunn, they're coming your way," she said as she went back to the map. "Clara's going to duck down to her left. You've got to keep the ghosts going on the same route they're on now. Then after about fifty yards on your left, there is a flood door. O'Donnell will close the door once you're through."
She paused, seemingly waiting for Lunn's response. She looked back at the cameras and put a hand to her headset. "Lunn, don't let them see where you go."
All four of us watched with baited breath as Lunn distracted the ghosts, hoping divert them so Clara could get to safety. But instead of all three ghosts advancing on Lunn, only one of them did while the other two went after Clara.
"They've separated," O'Donnell said worriedly. "Moran and the mole guy are going after Clara."
"Clara, look out. Two ghosts are still on your case. Right behind you!" O'Donnell said into her own headset.
The Doctor went back to the map and ran her finger along the corridors. "Clara, there's a flood door at the end of the corridor, around the corner to your right. We'll close it from here." She looked back at the cameras. "Listen to me. You've got to get through that door before Moran and the other ghost sees you."
Once Clara had gotten past the flood door, the Doctor gave O'Donnell the signal and the door was shut. The Doctor confirmed that she was safe before checking in on Lunn. Then, at her order, O'Donnell shut the second flood door and Lunn was out of range of the camera.
Cass and I couldn't hear anything that the others were saying since we didn't have headsets, but we could tell something was wrong when the Doctor's face grew more serious than usual. Cass touched my arm and asked what was going on, looking worriedly between me, the Doctor, and the relays.
"Doctor? What's wrong?" I said. "What happened?"
"It saw him."
The relay focused on Lunn showed Pritchard's ghost stepping through the flood door and into the chamber.
"We don't have a camera in there," O'Donnell said, shooting the Doctor a worried expression.
Cass, who had been reading everyone's lips to understand what was happening, shot towards the door only to have the Doctor block her. Cass groaned in frustration and paced back to the computer station, chewing nervously on her thumbnail as she watched the relay.
"Lunn, can you hear me?" the Doctor said into the headset. "Can you hear me? Lunn, what's happening?" She repeated herself over and over, clutching the headset as she stared at the relay in hopes of seeing something. Pritchard's ghost exited the chamber, melting through the door and then striding down the corridor. "Lunn? Lunn? Can you hear me?"
Both O'Donnell and the Doctor let out a breath a moment later, and the Doctor ran a hand through her hair. O'Donnell got up and smiled reassuringly at Cass, placing her hands on her shoulders. "Cass, he's alive," she said.
"What's wrong with you?" the Doctor said, making me turn at look at her incredulously. "Why didn't it hurt you? Never mind, we'll worry about that later. Bennett, you're on again. Bennett, where are you?"
We all let out a collective sigh when we spotted Bennett on the relay, caught in his hiding place with all three ghosts just around the corner.
The Doctor leaned against the back of O'Donnell's empty chair. "Bennett, can you hear me? There are two ghosts just around the corner from you." She frowned. "The Faraday cage is across the intersection and down the corridor to your right. This last bit is down to you."
On screen, Bennett dodged across the intersection and down another corridor. The ghosts spotted him and followed, easily catching up to him despite the fact that he was running at full speed. He ran down two more corridors, rounding a corner and finding himself at the Faraday cage just as planned. The cage door was opened and stepping into the doorway, a hologram of Clara appeared. The ghosts seemed to move even faster and strode into the cage, walking directly through the hologram.
The Doctor appeared on the relay and I looked over my shoulder, only realizing then that she had left. Back on the relay, the door quickly slammed shut behind the ghosts and as the Doctor ran up to the cage whilst fidgeting with her sonic sunglasses. The hologram disappeared with a wave of static. A cacophony of footsteps sounded by the door, and Cass, O'Donnell, and I turned to see the others running through the doorway.
Cass immediately pulled Lunn into a hug, while Bennett, who very clearly wanted to hug O'Donnell, just waved a little awkwardly at the other woman and let her playfully punch him in the arm. "Oh, I'm fine, by the way," Clara said, leaning against the table as she caught her breath. "Just in case any of you were worried."
"Sonic glasses Wi-Fi locked in," said O'Donnell. "On screen B2."
Clara and I turned. Cass was standing next to O'Donnell, staring at the relay that showed the Faraday cage. She signed something and shook her head. "She says she can't see them properly," Lunn said. "The glass is too thick and they're too far away."
The Doctor apparently said something because O'Donnell and Clara began protesting. "What?"
"Doctor, you can't go in there, they will kill you!" Clara practically shouted.
I grabbed Clara by the hand. "What did she say? What's going on?"
Clara shook her head in frustration. "She wants to go into the cage since Cass can't see them well enough. But it's too dangerous-" She paused, seemingly to listen to the Doctor. "O'Donnell, unlock the door."
"You're letting her in?" I asked.
"It's the only way."
Back on the screen, I could see the Doctor standing just inside the cage. The tall, dark skinned ghost, Moran's ghost, stepped forward and thrust a hand inside the Doctor's chest. She flinched and started to fall backwards until she suddenly stood upright again and began speaking. I still couldn't hear what she was saying, so I looked to Clara and asked what was happening.
She adjusted the headset and squinted at the relay. "I don't think she's hurt. She was just being melodramatic, as usual."
Lunn began speaking for Cass again. "She says they're saying the same thing- the same phrase over and over. They're saying: the dark, the score- no, the sword, the… for sale? No, the forsaken! The temple. Yes, she's sure. The dark, the sword, the forsaken, the temple." Lunn looked up at the screen, where the Doctor was pulling a confused expression. "Just that. Over and over."
A few moments later, Bennett started rushing around the room. I shot Clara a look and she sighed, pulling the headset off and then running a hand over her face. "The Doctor said she needed maps for… something."
"Why?"
"Apparently she know what the ghosts are saying, why they're saying it."
"And why's that?"
"Well, she's keeping us in suspense."
"As usual," I guessed, managing a smile and a genuine laugh.
Clara nodded, but her smile faltered for a second and her eyes flickered to mine. "Aren't you supposed to know what's going to happen?" she wondered. "Or at least have an idea, even though things are different?"
Her question caught me off guard. "Am I?" When she nodded, I shrugged and leaned back against the edge of the table. "Well that's dream logic for you."
"Don't you remember what's going to happen?"
I furrowed my brows, trying to recall details of the episode and what was supposed to happen next, and although I remembered, there was a fogginess in my brain that made it difficult to sort through each thought. "I, um, I remember some of it," I told her, adjusting my glasses so they were perfectly balanced on the bridge of my nose. "But it's hard to process. My head feels kinda foggy."
"Are you okay? Does your head hurt?" she asked.
"No, I'm- I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm a total baby about pain, Clara. If my head was hurting, you'd know," I said.
She hummed thoughtfully and smiled, but the worry didn't leave her eyes. "Okay, well, just take it easy. Why don't you sit down? Do you want some water?"
"Clara, I'm fine. You don't have to mother me."
She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I just- I worry about you, okay? The Doctor, too, she just isn't very good at expressing her feelings. That and she's possibly more stubborn than I am."
"That's saying something," I teased, daring to nudge her arm with my elbow.
"Shut up," she laughed. "Just for that, I'm going to mother you for the rest of the day."
The Doctor returned soon after, digging through her coat pockets frantically. Bennett had laid out some of the physical maps on the table and started up a screen in the center with a few more maps displayed there. The Doctor started pulling things out of her pockets; first a handkerchief and a yoyo, then an apple, a ping pong ball, a black cell phone, a handful of hair ties, a knobby stress ball, a guitar pick, and a spoon. She poured over the maps, fingers tracing marked lines and paths of solar systems and star charts, and I couldn't help but notice the gold ring on her left hand. Clara moved to sit down on the opposite end of the table, out of the Doctor's way, and I followed. We stayed sitting for a few minutes, Clara and I absently fiddling with whatever was within our reach, while the others chatted softly with each other. The Doctor remained focused on the maps, occasionally muttering to herself, until she cried out.
Clara stood up. "Doctor?"
"They're coordinates."
"What?"
"The words. They're coordinates."
"How can they be coordinates?" Bennett asked.
"The dark? Space. I figured that one out in a snap. So, whoever's following the coordinates knows they're going to another planet. The sword?" She picked up the apple and handed it to Bennett, then moved him so he was standing near the computer station. Then she moved O'Donnell in front of him, handing her the knobby stress ball. She waved Clara over and handed her the ping pong ball, then moved her in front of the others. She picked up the yoyo and looked over at me. "Diana, come here. Hold this."
She directed me in front of Clara and pushed the yoyo into my hand, then had all four of us hold our arms at a specific angle so the objects formed a diagonal line.
"Orion's sword. The sword, the three stars - although one isn't actually a star but the Orion Nebula - hanging down from Orion's belt. But if viewed from back here," the Doctor said, hurrying behind us to the computer station, "the Earth, which is Diana in this case, becomes the fourth bit of the sword. So, narrowed it down to a planet now. Getting closer."
She returned and took the items back, placing them haphazardly on the table. Turning around, she leaned back against the table to watch us. "The forsaken. The forsaken or abandoned or empty town. See? It's a location, beaming out to someone or something across the universe, over and over. And every time they kill one of us-"
"It strengthens the signal!" Clara realized. "Another ghost, another transmitter."
"Which is why they sent for that rescue sub," O'Donnell added.
The Doctor nodded. "Get more people down here, kill them, make even more ghosts to beam out the coordinates."
"But why are they beaming out the coordinates?" Cass signed. "Is it a distress call?"
"It could be. Or a warning. Might even be a call to arms. It could mean, 'Come here, they're vulnerable, help yourself-.' Wait a minute," the Time Lady said. "Wait a min-u-et. Do you know what this means? It means that they're not a natural phenomenon. It means that someone is deliberately getting people killed, hijacking their souls and turning them into transmitters."
O'Donnell crossed her arms over her chest. "But what do the coordinates lead to, though? To us? To the ghosts? What?"
The Doctor snapped her fingers and pointed at her. "Ah! What the coordinates are for. That is part of the answer to the other question you're all thinking." She glanced expectantly at each of us, a hopeful and excited look on her face. But when none of us said anything or offered an answer, her smile dropped. "Really? Come on. None of you? Surely just being around me makes you cleverer by osmosis? What. Is. The other. Question?"
"The temple," Lunn said for Cass. "The fourth part of the directions. What's the temple?"
"Finally," the Doctor groaned. "It's like pulling teeth. This is the flooded military town," she said, pointing to one of the maps. "Shops, houses, town square, and this."
Clara leaned over to look at it. "A church?"
"Whatever the coordinates are for, it's in that church. Find that and you're a hop, skip and a jump to stopping them."
"Wait, you're not actually suggesting that? But we're safe now," Bennett snapped. "The ghosts are in the cage. We can get out of here."
The Doctor set her jaw. "No one has to stay. In fact, I would prefer it if you went. You'll all get in the way and ask ridiculous questions. But, you know, you have chosen to protect and serve," she said, gesturing to Cass, Lunn, and O'Donnell. She turned to Bennett. "You have given yourself to science and the pursuit of knowledge. None of you have chosen anonymous or selfish lives. You go and a part of you will always wonder, 'What would have happened if I'd stayed? How could I have helped? What would I have learned?' I want you to go. But you should know what it is that you're leaving."
The others all looked at each other. They were all silent until Cass began signing with a resigned expression. Lunn raised his eyebrows at her and she nodded, gesturing for him to translate for her. "Cass says we should go, but everything that happens here is her responsibility now, so she's going to stay. So," he said, exhaling heavily, "I guess I should too."
"Well, count me in," O'Donnell chimed. "Who wants to live forever anyway?"
"Sorry. Um, have you gone insane? We can go home." He looked at O'Donnell and she shrugged and giggled. His face softened and the corners of his lips turned up. "They're ghosts, though. How can they be ghosts? Well, at least if I die, you know I really will come back and haunt you all."
Since the ghosts had already killed Pritchard after he went diving for the power cell, sending anyone else out to dive for the church was out of the question. Bennett suggested using one of the drone submarines the base had so that no one would be in danger. And transporting anything they might find or need back to the base would be easy since the drone was capable of hauling tons of weight.
But while the crew began planning to send the sub out, Clara pulled the Doctor outside and began speaking to her. I stayed by the table, unable to help anyone with the sub and too awkward to join the pair that had slipped away since it was obviously a private conversation. I grabbed the yoyo off the table and fiddled with the loose end of the string, glancing occasionally at the Doctor and Clara through the window. Whether she noticed me or not, I could very obviously see the Doctor looking at me every now and then. I tried to strain my ears and hear them, but Clara kept her voice low and the others were talking loud enough that it was of no use.
I replaced the yoyo and noticed that the Doctor had left her sonic sunglasses on the table. Making sure the Doctor wasn't looking my way, I slipped my glasses off and replaced them with the sonic ones. At first my vision was slightly fuzzy, as it usually was when I didn't wear my glasses, but then the lenses went static and my vision turned crystal clear. Everything was a shade darker since they were still sunglasses, but otherwise they seemed perfectly normal. That is, until I pressed my finger against the bridge to push them up after they slid slightly. The glasses buzzed and the light fixture above the Doctor and Clara sparked, then fizzled out.
Immediately, the Doctor's eyes fixated on me through the window and I felt my face grow hot with embarrassment. She hurried back inside and I yanked the shades off so quickly that they caught on the piercing at the top of my ear, making me wince. The Doctor took them out of my hands before I could put them back on the table.
"I'm sorry-"
"What did you do?" she asked. Her tone was low and stern, but not angry.
"I-I just pushed them back up because they fell. I'm sorry, I was just curious."
She slipped them on and went back outside, looking up at the fixture while she adjusted the glasses. Clara put a hand on my arm, but I pulled away and walked to the other side of the table, sitting down at the chair farthest away from everyone else. I was so embarrassed that I couldn't even look anyone in the eyes. Unfortunately, I realized only after I sat down that my glasses were still on the opposite end of the table and I'd have to walk back around to get them.
I crossed my arms over my chest and spun the chair around so my back was turned to the others. My cheeks felt like they were on fire and I pressed my fingers to my skin in the hopes of cooling off.
"Here." A dark hand came into view in the corner of my eye, my glasses held delicately in the Doctor's long, thin fingers. I took them without looking any higher and slipped them on. "I didn't mean to embarrass you. I, er, I know how much you hate it."
" 's fine," I mumbled.
"How's your head?"
"My head?" I briefly glanced over my shoulder.
"Clara said you were having trouble remembering things?"
"No, I can remember things fine. It's just understanding them is hard." I looked down at the Doctor's shoes. "Which, I realize now, isn't a good sign."
"It's probably just a side effect. You should be fine soon."
"A side effect of what?"
The Doctor scratched her chin. "Well-" A call from Bennett made her stop. He explained that O'Donnell had released the sub and was on her way back, so they would start the search for the church when she returned. The Doctor looked back at me, visibly agitated, and started fiddling with her ring. "I don't have the time to properly tell you what's going on and this certainly isn't the right time to do it. But I'll explain everything later, I promise."
"What do you mean? What are you even talking about?"
"I'm just sorry that this didn't happen another way, an easier way."
I narrowed my eyes. "Doctor, what-? I don't understand."
She bowed her head and traced a finger over the ring. "I know. And I'm sorry."
"Doctor," O'Donnell called as she entered the room, "we're ready when you are."
The Doctor looked seriously at me. "Just… Just stay close to me and Clara, alright?"
"Why- Doctor, wait." I reached out to grab the Time Lady by her sleeve, but she was already dodging the table and halfway to the computer station. Groaning in frustration, I trailed after her.
"Hey," Clara said, catching me by the arm as we passed, "you okay? She didn't say anything mean to you, did she?"
"No, she's just being incredibly cryptic and weird. Which I really shouldn't be surprised by," I grumbled.
"Shh," the Doctor hissed, waving at us half heartedly as she looked up at the camera relays.
Bennett stood to the side of the computer station with what looked like a virtual reality headset strapped around his head. He had both of his arms extended in front of him with tiny sensors strapped to his fingers, the wires all connecting to the headset. "Okay, the sub is approaching the town square," he said. "Which way is the church?"
O'Donnell checked the clipboard she was holding where she had scribbled something. "Northwest, one hundred and fifty yards. That's it. Starboard two degrees."
Clara leaned up against O'Donnell's chair. "What are we looking for, exactly?"
The Doctor squinted at the relays. "Something that has the power to raise the dead and turn them into transmitters. I expect we'll know it when we see it."
"Wait!" Bennett exclaimed. "I think I've found the church."
The Doctor nodded. "That's it, keep going." It was difficult to see much of anything through the murky water and the animals swimming by, but something bright and white was caught in the sub's lights. "Wait. What's that? Move closer."
"It's the suspended-animation chamber from the spaceship," the Doctor said as she circled the object, leaving a trail of wet footprints behind her.
Clara started fiddling with her thumb ring. Does everyone just fiddle with their rings then, or am I missing something? I wondered. "So the pilot could be in there?"
"There's something inside there. But it's deadlock sealed. I can't open it." The Doctor frowned as she ran a hand over the surface. "It should be the pilot, it should be. So why do I think it isn't? More questions. Everything I solve, just more questions. I have to go back to the beginning. We arrive, we see the ghosts. They don't kill us. They lead us here, they show us the spaceship. Then they try to kill us." She looked back at the ship, looming emptily behind us. She hurried up the steps to stare at the words carved into the wall. "Not translated by the TARDIS. Why?" Cleaning her sonic shades on her handkerchief, the Doctor slipped them on and leaned in closer to the wall. "Lunn, translate for me," she said after returning to the group. "Whenever I step outside, you are the smartest person in the room. So tell me: what's weird about this? I know that it's all bonkers, but when you think about it, one thing keeps snagging in your mind. What is it?"
"The markings on the inside of the spaceship," Lunn translated, clearly finding her comment more than a bit weird.
"The markings on the inside of the spaceship! Yes! Why?"
Cass frowned. "I don't think they're just words."
"They're not. They're magnets."
"Magnets?" Bennett echoed.
"Well, a localized and manufactured electromagnetic field, to be precise." Well that means absolutely nothing to me, I thought. "The dark. The sword. The forsaken. The temple. When we heard the coordinates for the first time, did anyone expect them not to be that? No? Exactly. Me neither. It's like we already knew, somehow. Like the words were already in us."
As the Doctor explained her reasoning, I could feel the fog start to clear. Everything she said was making sense and the instant she said it, I felt the memories click inside my head, but I couldn't catch up to her. Every detail, every memory of what she would say or what was about to happen was just out of reach.
"Everything we see or experience shapes us in some way. But these words actually rewrite the synaptic connections in your brain. They literally change the way you are wired. Clara, why don't I have a radio in the TARDIS?"
"You took it apart and used the pieces to make a clockwork squirrel."
The Doctor rolled her eyes. "Yes, and because whatever song I heard first thing in the morning, I was stuck with. Two weeks of Mysterious Girl by Peter Andre. I was begging for the brush of Death's merciful hand. But don't you see? These words are an earworm. A song you can't stop humming, even after you die."
Clara nodded. "Okay. So, the spaceship lands here. The pilot leaves the writing on the wall so whoever sees it, when they die, they become a beacon of the coordinates, while he slash she slash they slash it snoozes in the suspended-animation chamber-"
"Waiting for his slash her slash theirs slash its mates to pick the message up," the Doctor interjected. "My God."
Nearly scaring me to death, a loud alarm began blaring throughout the base, loud enough that I almost had to cover my ears. "Attention, all crew," the computer said over the speakers. "Evacuate base immediately. Emergency protocols have been initiated. This safety message was brought to you by Vector Petroleum. Fuel for our futures."
O'Donnell sprinted across the room where a large screen was propped against the wall. Flashing in big, red letters were the words 'FLOODING INITIATED. REACTOR MALFUNCTION. EMERGENCY COOLING.' "Oh, no!" she cried. "The ghosts tampering with the day-night settings caused a computer malfunction. I-Its first priority is to keep the reactor cool, so it's opening the hull doors and it's flooding the base."
Cass began signing rapidly. "Cass says, close the internal flood doors. That'll contain the water in the central corridor," Lunn said.
"Where's the TARDIS?" Clara asked.
O'Donnell pointed somewhere on the base map after following Cass' orders. "On the other side."
"We need to get there," the Doctor said. "It's our only way out."
"Okay, we've got thirty seconds before the flood doors close."
The Doctor grabbed my hand and bolted before I could even process where we were headed. O'Donnell led us through the corridors with Bennett, the Doctor, and myself right behind her and Clara, Cass, and Lunn behind us. I could hear Clara shouting, but I didn't bother listening. All I cared about was getting to safety and not falling behind and drowning.
As we turned a corner and dashed across a corridor, I felt water splashing on my legs. My feet stuttered and I stumbled for a moment. Something pushed me from behind and I fell forward, nearly tripping. Multiple voices were shouting, some of them saying my name, and I was tugged forward into a dry corridor by O'Donnell.
"Doctor!" Clara yelled.
Across the flooding corridor, the flood door had shut and trapped Clara, Cass, and Lunn behind it. The Doctor looked back towards me as our flood door began to shut. She dove forward, under the door and landed hard on her front.
"Doctor!" I scrambled forward to help her up.
She got to her feet and pressed her hands against the door, gazing through the glass window at Clara. Beside the door was another screen and she pressed a few buttons, activating an intercom to Clara's side. "I'll get you and the others out. Sit tight. I'll come back for you," she said breathlessly.
I looked over the Doctor's shoulder to see Clara peking through her own window, the water level rising quickly. "Just come over here in the TARDIS now."
The Doctor shook her head. "The TARDIS won't go there. It won't go near the ghosts."
"You can't just leave us!"
"I'm not! Clara, listen to me. I'm going back in time to when this spaceship landed. If I can understand why this is happening, I can stop them killing anyone else. I-I can save you. You trust me, don't you, Clara?"
The water stretched above the windows now, but I could still see a wavy, unclear vision of her and the others. She nodded and the Doctor sighed heavily. She bowed her head and stepped back, letting her hand fall. Then, swallowing and and setting her jaw, the Doctor turned and marched down the corridor.
"Wait, you're going to go back in time?" Bennett said as we hurried to keep up with the Time Lady. "How do you do that?"
"Extremely well."
The TARDIS hummed as we stepped inside a minute later. We filed into the console room one by one and the moment my hands touched the console, I felt the same warm, soothing sensation as before. My rapidly beating heart calmed and I took a deep breath. The Doctor typed something into a keyboard on the opposite end of the console and then flipped a switch.
"It's- It's-"
"Yes, I know. We don't have time for that right now," the Doctor said flippantly. She pointed to the lower level. "Go through that doorway, to your left, and open the door at the end. Grab coats, scarves, hats, whatever you need. It'll be cold where we're going."
Bennet and O'Donnell gaped at the TARDIS for a moment before O'Donnell took him by the hand and excitedly guided him into the hallway. The Doctor glanced at me, eyebrows raised. "You should change into something warmer," she suggested.
"Clara's going to be okay," I blurted.
Her remarkably pale eyes darted back to mine. "Do you know that?"
"I remember it."
"Can you remember things easier now?"
"I don't know. Not really, but I know she'll be okay. I can… feel it."
The Doctor managed to smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. She focused on the console again and continued typing. "Go change, Diana. I can't have you freezing to death in your wet clothes."
As I started down the steps, I turned to see the Doctor bent over the console with her face in her hands. She sighed, probably for the hundredth time that day, and then straightened to her full height. The TARDIS hummed again and the lights in the console room dimmed slightly. The Doctor rested a hand on the console. "I know, old girl. I know."
Author's Note:
I'd love to know what you guys think of this episode. I had a lot of fun writing it, especially since Di's starting to feel more comfortable and more interactive. Let me know if I missed any typos, or if you liked a specific part!