Chapter 41

The Doctor woke to someone shaking her shoulder. They were saying something too, but she didn't really catch what, too caught in someone touching her.

"Get off you!" she said, sitting up and making a face. "That is more than necessary physical contact."

She scrambled to her feet while the person who'd shaken her took a few steps back.

"Sorry. Sorry, I was just trying to wake you up."

"Was I asleep?"

The Doctor looked around. She was in a round room. It reminded her of a public pool, with the low lighting, what the walls were made of, and the fact there was a large tank of water in the middle of the room.

"Where are we?"

The man shrugged. "Sorry, I'm not sure. The last thing I remember was being pricked by a needle. Next thing I know, I'm locked in this room."

"I think it's a good deal more than a room," the Doctor said.

"What?"

She ignored him for the moment, looking at the tank of water. There were bioluminescent fish in there. But they were a species that didn't glow naturally, and after a while, she noticed they were moving in a sort of pattern.

"It's a riddle," she said.

"What?"

"The fish. No. Shh. I'm thinking."

Lilly woke up, eyes flickering open to see a metal floor beneath her. Lifting her head, she tried not to groan. Her wrists were tied up behind her back. It made moving difficult. She was in some sort of control room. The controls were on the other side, a seat beside them, a window showing nothing but the stars outside. So they were in space?

It's safe to say we're far away from where we were captured.

Wait. We. Where's Pride?

Lilly looked around. She didn't like him, not even remotely, but she'd been captured with him, and he was not there. There was someone else though. Clearly an alien. Pale blue, kind of fleshy skin. She was standing by the controls.

"Oh, you're awake are you?" She didn't sound enthusiastic about it.

"Who are you?" Lilly asked. "And . . . what is this?"

The woman suddenly grinned. "Oh, I'm so glad you asked. I mean, don't get me wrong, you're dim and not supposed to be here. I'm going to have to explain this in simple terms, but a plan like this is far more fulfilling when you have an audience. The name's Aqua, and this is my testing ship. I take people of high intelligence and put them in deadly situations to test if they can get out."

"So you're killing people in this death trap?" Lilly asked, horrified. "What kind of person takes intelligent people just to slaughter them?"

"If they lose it's no great loss to the universe. But if there were zero chances of survival it wouldn't say much about their intelligence or mine. Your friends still have a chance to escape." Aqua scowled at her hands. "Though after what they did to me, I'd prefer it if they didn't."

Her friends? Logically Aqua had Pride. The Doctor too? And they'd met her before? Well, that wasn't that strange, and she had a worse thought. "Are you going to kill them anyway? If they escape, are they still going to die?"

Aqua frowned. "I'm not sure. Rules are rules, usually. And if they escape, they pass the test and I have to let them go. But there's always self-defense. And Pride there has already there has already cheated. The last time we met I thought he was the kid he appears to be. I don't kill them. He lucked out."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you asked. Try to keep up." After a pause, Aqua elaborated. "It's not like you can do anything to stop me. I bet you don't even know what these are." She waved a hand at the controls. "And don't count on outside rescue. I've made the ship invisible." Aqua grinned. "I'm good like that."

"Actually, you're bad like that."

Aqua stared in surprise, and admittedly the feeling was mutual. Lilly hadn't been planning to say that out loud, had barely processed it in her head. She'd just mouthed off to someone who put people in an invisible death trap. It was just, she was used to saying things like that to Pride, and it had slipped out.

Aqua walked over, glowering down at her. "Watch your attitude. I was planning to drop you off somewhere, but I could always just release you from the air lock."

Then she turned around and went to the controls, opening up some screens.

Lilly had to help, somehow. She wanted to believe the Doctor could get through this, but that could take a while, and who knew what awful things could happen in the meantime. This was when the Doctor or Pride would do something clever. But Lilly wasn't clever, and she didn't know what to do.