Author's Note: AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! you guys are not going to believe this. Well, nor are you going to believe that I actually have an update-ish. I really was planning on having this chapter be longer and have this a one part story, and actually, I had most of that written really only the conclusion left. Earlier tonight I wanted to go and write the last bit to discover that the bloody file with the chapter got CORRUPTED! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!.
"But Pridia, if your file is corrupted and you lost everything then how can you upload something now?"
Well, I thankfully didn't lose everything. Yours truly has a weekly back-up set in place for some key files which do include my writing (I can't backup everything cause the hard disk I can use for this is simply too small for that, I need to buy a bigger one sometime, but well that's kinda expensive), so through the backup I have been to recover the version I had as it was on the 16th of June (the last successful backup). I was on holiday last week and not on my computer but still writing and therefore the backup of last Saturday didn't run cause I was simply not there but I wrote a lot in the last week and that didn't get covered in a backup %$ #!.
This backup has about 650 words of the like 3000+ words I had written so yeah I'm pissed as that's about 20% of what I had and this chapter was already a pain in the arse to begin with. And now I can go through that again. Anyway someone just advised me to go and use google docs to write from now on (something I actually considered in the past for other reasons) so this shouldn't happen again.
Anyway I hope you guys can forgive me for this chapter being so short but I had planned on getting it done today or tomorrow or something and then uploaded somewhere in the next couple of days, well there's no way I'll have that done before then but it has been so long since an update already that I just decided that you'll guys have to contend with the writing that survived and that I'll just split the Miss the Missing story arch into 2 parts.
Now, about the actual chapter (storyline): I know I promised a completely action-packed story, but well I'm not really creative enough for that tbh, it's not my writing expertise I'm afraid so this actually is only a small story arch that really is just a bit of filler, it really is necessary for the story to continue to the next of series 3. Oh, also I'll say in advance that I'll skip the "Year that never was" story arch as that kinda conflicts with how I want to re-introduce Jack into this AU, I know I'll run into trouble with "The End of Time" but I'll come up with something for that. I hope...
Anyway, enjoy your brief chapter that's probably shorter than the author's note. (Sorry...)
I might add more to this part to keep it of a similar length to part two, this is probably the shortest chapter you can find on my account and I'm not liking how short it is, I do 1000+ words as my minimum for a chapter usually.
Edit: I added a part to this leaving the final chapter to have 2000+ words, I hope that's enough. (I'll haunt you if you claim that it isn't enough *stares at you with a threatening look* )
Disclaimer: Well, I might rival Sherlock with the amount of content that I release and the frequency of that. But even though both Doctor Who and Sherlock belong to the BBC I have absolutely no rights to either (now why I even name Sherlock in this disclaimer is a question that will never be answered I'm afraid.)
6. Miss The Missing (1/2)
"Over the last 19 days, a total of 420 people have gone missing in a similar way." Sarah Jane started her explanation.
"That would mean that 22.1 people got missing a day!" The Doctor frowned. "That figure doesn't quite add up. Anyway, you wouldn't have called me here if it was just that fact. In what way were the disappearances similar?"
"With each disappearance, there was the same yet to be identified alien substance found at the place they were last seen." Answered Sarah Jane.
"I guess you want me to give a shot at identifying it?" The Time Lord.
"Yeah, there's more you should know though. These people appear to start missing with a constant frequency and even the same amount of them, at least in a way." Sarah Jane explained.
"What do you mean with that? And do you have any actual numbers?" The Doctor asked.
"The first 8 days 3 people disappeared approximately every 5 and a half hours. Since the third disappearance of day 9, which was at approximately 11:20 AM, 6 people started missing each time instead of 3. This amount continued until the second disappearance of day 18, which was at approximately 6:15 AM, since then every time 12 people go missing." Mr Smith answered the Time Lord's question.
The Doctor nodded at the information, mentally making a list of alien species that fitted the information he was given. He wasn't really liking what he came up with, most of the species that the aliens would be difficult to get away from Earth and also be very dangerous to deal with. And while he was normally all-in for dealing with terrible dangerous things, some of the options absolutely terrified even him.
"Doctor?" Sarah Jane had noticed his horrified expression and the fact that he was becoming rather pale. "What is it?"
He turned his head slowly towards her and blinked a few times as he was trying to make sense of everything that was going through his head right now.
"I'm not sure too be honest." He finally said. "There are 6 species that fit the information you just gave me. You never would want to meet any members of 5 of those 6 species, meeting any of those would be very very very bad. If there really are aliens of one of those 5 doing this, we have a huge enormous problem."
"And the remaining one?" Martha asked, who, among Luke, had been quiet until now.
"The Pogans are a rather peaceful folk, if it's them we won't have to worry too much, they won't permanently alter Earth as part of there culture in any way. Well, at least not on purpose."
"But Doctor, why would they take the humans if they're so peaceful?" Luke wondered, then his eyes widened as he realised a possible answer."Could they eat them?" He asked horrified.
The Time Lord nodded. "They have to, on Earth, humans are the only thing Pogan's can find that's edible for them. They don't want to but they still have to survive. They would ensure though that the humans would die quickly and wouldn't even know what's going on though. It's probably the best what could happen with the missing humans."
"They are all dead now aren't they?" Sarah Jane concluded.
"Most likely, yes. Only one of the possible species would keep them alive but you really don't wanna know more than that." The Doctor shared with a shudder. "Anyway, if I remember correctly there was some unidentified substance that could tell us which species they are.
"So… if I push this button then the DNA-string of the analysed sample should appear on this screen." The Doctor pointed at the screen he meant. "Or... nothing shows up indicating that something went wrong during the process. Which I'm hoping didn't happen." He admitted.
"Can you just go and push that button now, people's lives are on the line if we don't figure this out quickly." Sarah Jane told him, the process had taken roughly 3 hours, time she would've prefered using to find those aliens and get them to stop taking humans. However, The Doctor quickly explained why this was necessary. They needed to know what they would be facing as most of the possible species were very deadly, they would need a plan based on the species that was here on Earth.
While she had to concede that he was right, she still didn't like it one bit.
The Doctor pushed the button he had indicated earlier and, just as he had said it would, the DNA-string showed up on the right screen.
The Time Lord only need a quick glance at it to identify from which species it was and let out a breath of relief as he realised what they were dealing with.
"Oh thanks every deity I don't actually believe in, we're dealing with Pogans." He told the others.
"That were the peaceful ones, right?" Martha sought to confirm.
"Yup." The Time Lord confirmed. "Which does mean that we will have to be a bit quick with getting them off Earth or doing so might become about 10 times more difficult."
"Why?" Luke questioned.
"Based on how much they are currently eating we're currently dealing with a population of 60 Pogans, they breed once every 9 days doubling the population, based on all the information we have just a bit more than 7 and a half days till they breed again. Depending on what the reason is that they're stuck here there could not be enough time to fix it." The Doctor stated.
"Why would the population doubling make it more difficult to get them off Earth." Martha wondered.
"Well, about 99,4% of the space travel ships containing part of the Poganium population have a capacity of 100 Pogans." The Time Lord answered.
"Which means that they wouldn't fit on their ship anymore if we're too late." Luke summarised.
The Doctor nodded in confirmation. "And finding another ship in which they would fit isn't going to be a walk in the park either."
Then he shot out of the door without another word. A couple of seconds later his head appeared around the door frame again.
"What are you lot waiting on?! Come on!" He ordered his friends.
They all quickly followed him after that.
The Doctor removed the hatch from the opening that let to the sewers, then crouched above it and shone into the dark with his sonic screwdriver looking for danger, not that he was expecting any here, but with his luck, it never hurt to be sure.
"Right, according to the TARDIS' information the Pogan population is in these sewers about 3 miles to the west, celestial latitude though, through the sewers that's more like 5 or 6 miles from here." The Time Lord told the others.
Martha frowned.
"If that's true then wouldn't there be an entrance somewhere closer to the population?" She asked.
"There is one just half a mile from the Pogan population." The Doctor answered absent-minded, distracted by his scan of the sewers.
"Then why don't we go through that one?" Sarah Jane wondered.
"Because that one is located in a busy shopping street and arranging access to that one would probably take longer than it will take us to walk from this entrance to the Pogan population." He explained. "Well then, let's go."
He then lowered himself in the sewer and his friends followed his lead.
They had been walking for an hour and a half, mostly in silence, there had been only a couple of whispered directions from the Doctor. All were too busy focusing on where they were walking and looking out for the aliens, even though for most of the time they shouldn't be anywhere close to the settlement
Then they had reached a junction, not the first they had come across, mind you. No, nothing about this intersection was special at all.
What made this particular junction so special for our travellers, out of who none has actually traveled in the past four months or so, but lets ignore that as the writer is running out of proper names on what to call the group that's following our favourite Time Lord around, was what happened on that particular intersection.
The Doctor had told them that they would go right there, but just as they reached the intersection a creature came around the corner from the right.
An alien, not a creature. Martha corrected herself mentally, even though she had been helping Sarah Jane, Luke Maria with taking care of aliens for the past three months, if she wasn't studying for her exams that is, she found that she sometimes still struggled with the terminology. She had also learned that terminology was really important in this business as you could accidentally insult some of the living beings if you got it wrong, so she really tried hard to get it right.
The form of the alien reminded her a bit of a caterpillar, a purple with pink caterpillar, the biggest difference seemed to be its limbs and posture, its backside appeared to be the same as the one from a caterpillar but on it's torso it had four rather human-looking arms, this meant that the alien was only resting on its backside and had its torso up, a bit like the posture of a Wurmple from Pokémon, it had 5 eyes with yellow irises and a green horn. It was about 7 feet tall 3 feet wide and 8 feet long. She guessed that it was a Pogan.
The Doctor had bowed towards it and had started speaking.
"This descendant of Gallifrey among with these descendants of Earth requests an audience with your Jilmeo."
The Pogan eyed the Time Lord and the humans for a few seconds before speaking.
"Very well, if you would follow me."
The Pogan turned around and went back to where they had come from, with the visitors following them.
While they were being escorted The Doctor had explained that the Jilmeo was the leader of a group Pogans, much like a King or Queen, well at least much like how they ruled when they still had the absolute rule. The Pogans didn't really have a settlement, they were living in the sewers without having changed anything on it. So this saw our favourite travellers being let through similar tunnels as they had walked through on their way towards the population, but this time they were filled with Pogans who seemed to be living there. To say that it was a tight fit would be an understatement, Martha learned a bit more about the bodies of those Pogans than she would've wanted to, well. at least not through that way.
Eventually, they reached a bigger room-ish place, where several parts of the tunnels converged into one bigger tunnel, which probably let to some sort of water filtering factory.
The Pogan that had escorted bowed towards the Pogan that seemed to be sitting on some sort of metal throne, the first thing she saw that didn't seem to be native to the sewers she'd seen until now. Well, she thought that they were bowing anyway, she wasn't sure what passed as bowing for those aliens.
"Jilmeo Patsae, this descendant of Gallifrey," They seemed to indicate towards the Doctor, again Martha wasn't sure what the Pogan equivalent was of pointing to someone. "Among with these descendants of Earth," They 'indicated' Martha, Luke and Sarah Jane this time. "Requested an audience with you, Your Jilmeola."
Jilmeo Patsae nodded towards their escort.
"Very well, Warrior. You're dismissed," they said in a soft, whisper-like voice. Their escort bowed once again and then left with a parting."Your Jilmeola.".
The Jilmeo turned their attention towards the group of humanoids, studying them. Then eventually their gaze settled on The Doctor.
"A descendant of Gallifrey, huh. It has been a long time since we have been blessed with the presence of one. Tell me, descendant of Gallifrey, what brings you and your company here?" Jilmeo Patsae continued in the same soft voice.
The Doctor took a step forward and bowed towards the Jilmeo.
"I'm here because the presence of your population is creating distress amongst its native population. Your Jilmeola" The Time Lord went for a direct approach, which was something that was considered the norm among Pogans.
The Jilmeo sighed at that, at least that was what Martha thought they did, it really was impossible to tell since their bodies differed so much from humans.
"We are very much aware what impact our presence here towards the population of Earth is. Unfortunately, we are unable to leave this planet, you see? We are out of fuel and as you are probably aware descendant of Gallifrey since Earth is a level 5 planet it is illegal to get a tanker ship towards us. Which leaves us effectively trapped here."
The Time Lord nodded.
"Is a lack of fuel the only thing that's keeping you here on Earth?" He enquired.
"You are correct in that assessment descendant of Gallifrey." Jilmeo Patsae confirmed. "If we had fuel we would gladly leave from here."
"We'll get you enough fuel to get away from here and to get somewhere you can continue from." The Doctor told the Jilmeo.
"If you can do that descendant of Gallifrey we would be forever grateful. Is there anything else you would like to discuss?" The leader asked.
"No, your Jilmeola. That was all." The Time Lord confirmed.
"Very well, in that case, you are dismissed, can you find your own way out or do I need to call for an escort?" Jilmeo Patsae enquired.
"We'll find our own way out." The Doctor bowed once more, inclining to his friends to do the same. Then he said a last parting "Your Jilmeola." before turning away towards the tunnel the had come from with the others following him.