"They're ghosts!"
Danni shook her head. "No, they're not," she told the Doctor. He had such a happy grin on his face, one that said he was taking so much pleasure out of finding something new, but he needed to be realistic. "There's no such thing as ghosts. There never has been."
They had quickly made their way to the bridge even though there were no longer any 'ghosts' to worry about. The crew had automatically headed to their respective areas at the controls, which she had found pretty endearing. She and the Doctor had taken up residence at the head of the room, but while he paced eagerly through the people, she leant against the wall.
"Yes, well, there was no such thing as, as socks or smartphones and badgers until there suddenly were," he reasoned with a little stutter as his brain tried to justify his new belief. It was just so exciting! She had been asking for real ghosts for so long, now, and it was the perfect time to show her them. To prove that he had been listening, that he was who he said he was.
"So, you're suggesting that suddenly, in the 22nd century, in an underwater base on Earth, ghosts suddenly decided to exist?" Danni countered, a lot more cynical than he was. It was all just a little bit too suspicious. Not only had ghosts never existed, but each and every time they had come even close to them being real, the Doctor spent all of his time trying to prove that they weren't. And now he was suddenly happy to declare them real.
"Well, what else could they be?" he countered, rushing back over to her. He could see her listening, but desperately trying not to engage with his enthusiasm. He thought again about the gun in her pocket. This all needed to change. "They're not holograms, they're not Flesh Avatars, they're not Autons," he rambled off. "They're not digital copies bouncing around…" he trailed off as her eyes widened slightly. That may not have been the best example. "No, these people are literally, actually, dead." He turned, facing the crew. "Wow," he breathed, amazed. "This is, it's amazing! I've never actually met a proper ghost."
Cass signed angrily and Lunn didn't need to watch her sign to know what she was trying to say. "Moran was our friend," he snapped out.
Danni rolled her eyes, walking over to her husband who still looked confused no one was excited as he was. "He doesn't mean it," she told them, but specifically Cass who she signed to as well. "He just gets excited when there's something new. He's not trying to be cruel, he's…" She frowned, waving her hand. "Oh, how do you…" she mumbled to herself. She closed her hand into a fist, circling it on her chest. "Sorry," she apologised to Cass before turning to Lunn. "Can you tell her that's not trying to be insensitive, and he will try and do whatever he can to help, but he may not be very tactful, please?"
Lunn quickly signed that to Cass, who looked over the Doctor for a moment before nodding, accepting the apology and the help that was being offered.
The Doctor moved slightly closer to his wife. "See? The polite one," he commented. She shrugged, although the little amused smile that tried to appear on her face said that she agreed. "We just have to work on being the polite one without a gun."
"No gun, no Danni," she replied firmly.
"We'll work on it," the Doctor replied. "But don't you see what this means?" he asked her. "Death! It was the one thing that unified every single living creature in the universe, and now it's gone!" He knew that, despite the way she seemed to be trying to pretend she wasn't interested, she was just as intrigued as he was. He turned to the crew, none of whom looked particularly thrilled. "How can you just sit there?" he exclaimed. "Don't you want to go out there right now, wrestle them to the ground and ask them questions until your throat falls out? What's death like? Does it hurt? Do you still get hungry? Do you miss being alive? Why can you only handle metal objects?" He turned back to his wife. "Oh, I didn't know I'd noticed that."
She opened her mouth to reply, but he couldn't contain his eagerness and she couldn't take that away. She watched him be downright adorable, trying to calm himself down in the same way she'd only seen him do a couple of times before. Her lip, beyond her control, tilted up in one corner. A genuine smile was trying to break through and she kind of wanted to let it. There was nothing wrong with letting herself be happy, right? It's not like Missy would embarrass herself this badly, even if she was pretending to be the Doctor.
Just as she started to feel safe and secure in her belief that she was really home, though, the lights suddenly went out. Her hand went straight to her pocket, automatically checking for her gun even if she didn't get it out. She wasn't exactly a fan of it, but it had kept her safe and she wasn't about to give it up just yet.
She felt slightly better, though, when the Doctor was immediately back by her side. "What's going on?" she asked as O'Donnell jumped up from her chair.
"Good evening. Entering night mode," the computer declared.
"That's not right. We're switching back into night mode again. This can't happen!" she cried, sitting down at the main controls to try and fight the automatic change over.
Danni looked up at the Doctor. "Ghosts that only come out at night controlling when night is?"
"Also didn't expect that," he replied. "Lots of things I didn't expect." He grinned at her. "It's a good day!"
The sound of something chiming deeply echoed through the air. Both the Doctor and Danni fell silent, eyes widening as they recognised the noise.
"Er, what's doing that?" Bennett asked, confused.
"The TARDIS," Danni breathed before turning, running out of the room safe in the knowledge that her husband would quickly catch up.
The TARDIS was in a state when they opened the door. The lights were dim and red, there was smoke billowing around like some overactive fog machine. Both of them ran straight to the console.
"What's wrong?!" Danni cried, checking the monitor to see if she could get any indication of why their home was crying out so painfully. She'd forgotten how horrible it felt to hear her in pain.
"It must be the ghosts," the Doctor replied. He also rushed around the centre console, looking for a way to elevate her pain. "That's why she was upset when we got here."
"Because they're dead and yet aren't?" Danni guessed and he nodded.
"The ghosts are aberrations. A splinter of time in the skin. They're unnatural. She wants to get away from them."
"So how do we help?" she asked him.
He grabbed a large looking leaver, turning it anti-clockwise. Immediately the lights all came back on and the cloister bell stopped ringing. "Put the handbrake on."
Danni stared, incredulous. "What, that's it?" she asked. He nodded.
"That's it."
"I could have done that!" she cried out, almost annoyed at the simple solution. She hadn't even considered just changing a setting. She sighed. "Well, as long as she's okay. Come on."
She started heading back towards the door. "Danielle?"
She paused, glancing over her shoulder. "Yeah?"
The Doctor hadn't moved from the console, worrying his hands like a man who was about to have a conversation he really didn't want to have. "About the gun…"
"No," she replied sharply back. Her back straightened. "I'm keeping it. It's not up for discussion."
"You don't need it, though," he protested. "You're safe…"
"No, I'm not!" she snapped. She waved her hand to the door, indicating the trouble they'd just run through. "We're clearly not safe! I'm keeping the gun!"
She turned her back on him, straightening her jacket out so that she could feel the weight of it hit against her thigh. It was still there.
"Alright, alright," the Doctor replied, trying to calm her down and stop her running off. "Can you just answer one question?"
She gritted her teeth, before taking a deep breath. "What?"
"What's the gun made out of?"
Her frustration left her for a moment, replaced by confusion at the strange question. She turned back around and he could see that she had no idea why he was asking her. "Well, it's from Earth," she explained. "So, mainly, steel. I think there's some aluminium…" she trailed off as she realised the point he was trying to make. Her annoyance flared up again, all the more because he was right. "Metal," she stated. "It's made of metal, which is the only thing the bloody- the bloody ghosts can touch! The homicidal ghosts." She ran her fingers through her hair, grasping tightly for a moment. "And they like guns, because they shot at us with a fucking harpoon!"
The Doctor didn't say anything, but he shot her an apologetic smile. For some reason it felt like a dirty move to play. She wasn't going to give the gun up because she thought it was the right thing to do, she was giving it up because she knew keeping it wouldn't be a smart move. She wanted the gun.
"And, while the sonic screwdriver is made of metal, it's not like they can sonic us to death." She sighed heavily. "Fine." She stormed over to the console, pulling out the small gun and placing it onto the console top. She then turned to the Doctor. "Just this once," she warned him. "When we get back, I'm getting it back."
He nodded quickly, hands up. She took his silent answer as agreement and relaxed slightly. "We'd better head back," she said softly. "Come on."
He was right behind her as she left the TARDIS, but before shutting the door he dipped his head back in. "You know what to do, right?" he called to the TARDIS. He closed the door and hoped that, when they did get back, the gun would be gone.
He hated the fact that she'd had to adapt so much to survive. He hated the fact that she'd had to change so much, because he knew she felt almost as strongly as he had about guns. What was worse, though, was that he was almost certain that she still felt the same. His Danielle wouldn't carry a gun because she wanted to.
~0~0~0~
"I'd love to work for UNIT."
Danni paused, looking over her shoulder at Bennett. She and the marine geologist had been sent to the mess hall to collect whatever supplies were left. To be honest it had already been cleared out, but she found a couple of packets of food that would help.
"Earth's first line of defence, and all. I'm probably not suited, though. Not much of a fighter. More of a bleeder."
Danni caught sight of the figure facing away from them in what appeared to be a dry suit. Pritchard finally showing his face again. "Nothing wrong with not being a fighter," she replied. "I'm more of a lover myself, and let me tell you," she smirked at him. "It's a lot more fun." She shut the doors to the cupboard. "'Bout time you showed up," she called to Pritchard. "You could have just picked up one of the calls, you know?"
Bennett, who hadn't noticed that his boss had appeared, frowned at the other man. "Why are you in a dry suit? Where have you been?"
"Doesn't matter," Danni dismissed. "He's here, we can get going."
Bennett nodded, calling up to the bridge that they'd found the missing man. He couldn't tell if O'Donnell was relieved or not, but he couldn't really tell a lot about how she was feeling. He had never been good at reading people.
Danni watched Pritchard, who slightly swayed on the spot. That wasn't right. He was a man who liked the small amount of power he had, she'd already worked that out in the brief time they'd known each other. He should have been telling them off for ordering him about.
"Something's wrong," she said lowly, walking around the counter and next to Bennett. "Got your knickers in a twist?" she called over. He didn't answer, or turn around. "I mean, I know I was mean but…" They were both startled by the thud of something heavy on the window to the underwater town. There was a body floating in the water, with no helmet, slowly rotating.
"Man overboard," Bennett whispered, horrified before realising he needed to jump into action. "Man overboard! We need a rescue te-"
Danni cut him off, pressing her hand against his stomach to move him back towards the counter. "Doctor!" she called out. "It's Pritchard!"
The figure slowly turned around to reveal the sunken, black empty eye sockets that the other two ghosts had. His mouth was also moving, speaking silent words and now he was moving they could see the blur around his edges, like he wasn't fully there.
The Doctor, Cass and Lunn all appeared, dashing into the room and coming to a stop with the other two. Danni immediately moved over to the Doctor's side.
"What do we do?" she asked him lowly. Before he could even suggest anything, Pritchard decided that he'd been standing around long enough. He started walking towards them, reaching down only to pick up a discarded chair.
Danni's hand immediately went to her pocket, which was now void of anything that could actually help them. "You know what would be really handy right now?" she asked the Doctor out of the corner of her mouth.
"What would you do? Shoot the ghost?"
"You got any better ideas, Spaceman?" she shot back.
He felt rather guilty that he was happier to hear that little nickname from her than the lights coming on, signalling Day Mode was now back on again. She'd not called him it since she'd returned, nor had she really addressed him as anything but 'Doctor'. He had been surprised how much he had missed something as silly as a pet name. It was quite sentimental, really, wasn't it? Was he sentimental now?
"That will do quite nicely," he replied as the ghost disappeared and the chair dropped back to the floor.
She rolled her eyes. "Always by the skin of your teeth. Some things never change."
He nudged her in the side. "You know that's how you like it," he purred. "Come on."
It didn't take them long to find out what happened to Pritchard, and it wasn't pretty. He had gone out into the lake to search for the missing power cell. The ghosts trapped him in the airlock and had drowned him.
The Doctor turned away from the screen before the man died, troubled by what he was seeing. Sure, they had been a little kill-crazy but he had hoped that they'd be a little fun. Once again, this wasn't fun at all.
"They're working out how to use the base against us. Altering the time settings so they can go about uninhibited, opening the airlocks. They're learning." He glanced at Danni as he went to start pacing. She was still staring at the screen, frozen in place, eyes slightly wide and barely breathing. He frowned. "Danni?"
He reached out to gently rest his hand on her elbow, but she jolted the moment she felt him touch her. She moved out of his reach, spinning on the spot to face him. Her lips were pressed together but her chest almost heaved as if she should have been panting. She was terrified. Or, rather, she had seen something that had terrified her.
His hearts ached. "What did she do?" he asked gently, hopefully coaxing it out so she didn't have to remember it alone.
Danni, on the other hand, didn't want to reply. The panic was clawing at her as if it wanted to drown her, which was rather cruel considering the memories she had almost been thrown into. She didn't want to reply because, if this ended up being some rather elaborate fantasy, she didn't want to give Missy the satisfaction of knowing what she had done had affected her captive.
"Um," Danni replied quietly, almost inaudibly. "She… She liked to get me in the bathtub, and…"
And that was it. The Doctor watched her close down, pushing the memory away, forcing it out of her mind. It was obviously a well-used move on her part because it happened in a matter of seconds. But the implications in the few words she had spoken were enough for him to form a horrific image that he wanted to forget almost instantly.
"She's not here," he reassured her yet again. "She killed you once, she won't do it again."
Danni just nodded, swallowing heavily. She didn't correct him, or even look him in the eye. Now was not the time to talk about what had happened next. She'd get around to it, but they were currently being hunted by ghosts. That had to take the priority.
She looked at Cass, who looked as uncomfortable with the small exchange as everyone else. "You're in charge, what do you want to do?" she asked.
"We abandon the base," Lunn translated for the new commanding officer. "Topside can send down a whole team of marines or ghost-busters or whatever."
"Wait, wait," the Doctor quickly started, stepping forward. They couldn't leave yet. There was so much to learn. They couldn't exactly leave the ghosts to the not quite at all capable hands of UNIT.
Cass, though, wasn't happy to be questioned. She stormed over, glaring up at the Doctor, her signing as angry as she looked.
"I can't force you to leave," Lunn translated. "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."
Danni stepped forward, feeling a little less confident than she had a moment ago. But, she didn't want to come across as vulnerable, she hated feeling like she wasn't in control of herself. "That's fine," she told the woman, letting Lunn sign for her. "You're right, your crew needs to be safe. But we can't just leave these ghosts, or whatever they are, wandering around. But you should leave."
She could see the Doctor looking at her, waiting for her to explain why she was happy to send everyone away. "We'll do better on our own," she reasoned. "No distractions."
O'Donnell, under Cass's orders, grabbed the old-style telephone from the console and called the people in the base above them. "Topside, Topside, this is Lance Corporal Alice O'Donnell from Drum Control. Over."
The phone seemed pretty pointless considering the voice came over the loud speaker in reply. Danni couldn't help but think a microphone would have been the smarter option.
"Drum Control, this is Topside. We have received your message. Submarine on its way. Over."
"Repeat, Topside. Over," O'Donnell requested, the news a surprise to everyone on the base.
"We've received your request for a rescue sub. It's two minutes away. Over."
"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."
In unison, the two Time Lords strode over to the console, but Danni was the one who reached out first to O'Donnell. "Here, give me that," she commanded. O'Donnell, who really was out of her depth, handed the handset to Danni.
"Topside, this is Danni Fielding," she said to the man on the other end. "Your resident, rather charming and incredibly good-looking Time Lord. Give my code a look up – four three Theta, Theta, one, one, Sigma. Over."
"Mrs… Mrs Fielding, what are you…" the man stuttered out, obviously familiar with her.
"I appreciate the fanservice, but let's save it for another day, shall we? You need to call the submarine back."
"But why would we…"
"Because none of the crew requested it," she replied. "We're fighting something rather trigger-happy down here that wants more bodies. No one is to be sent down without express permission from me or the Doctor. Is that understood?"
"Mrs Fielding…"
"Are you arguing with me?" she snapped, angry. "You know who I am, you know my orders are not to be ignored. No one is to come down here without our express permission, is that understood?"
"Yes Mrs Fielding."
"That's more like it." She slammed the handset down before looking at Lunn. "Did you translate all that?"
He nodded, also translating her words now. "I-I did," he stuttered out.
She grinned, turning to Cass. "Don't let them give you crap," she signed.
"What did you do that for?" Bennett asked her.
The Doctor rolled his eyes. Not only could they not see the rather large issue with the submarine coming to the base, but Danielle had been rather authoritative and even he hadn't realised how much he liked that. Taking control was definitely something new to this body. He rather liked it.
"Well, it's like she said, isn't it?" he replied. "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 asked for Cass.
"Well, I don't know, but I'm pretty certain it's not so they can all form a boy band," the Doctor retorted. Danielle was right, this would really have been easier to solve if they had no distractions. "Okay. 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 explained.
"No. Something, something else."
"The diagnostic sweep," Lunn translated. "When the systems are checked, that stops at night to save power."
"What systems specifically?"
"Life support, the locks," O'Donnell said. "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."
"So they don't like the electromagnetic locks? But that doesn't make any sense, does it?" Danni asked, looking up to the Doctor. "The Faraday would be the perfect home for them, wouldn't it? Then why can't they enter?"
He didn't reply, instead he walked over to the map of the base on the bridge wall. "The answer is in there somewhere, I can smell it," he muttered to himself.
"This is all just guess work," Danni said with a heavy sigh. "Without the ability to talk to any of the ghosts, to ask them what they want, how are we even supposed to stop them?"
The Doctor grinned. She always said the right thing. His perfect muse. He turned back around, still smiling. "O'Donnell," he started, walking over to the woman who stood to attention at the sound of her name. "Excellent work, returning the base to day mode."
The fangirl in her appeared and she couldn't help but grin, dipping her head. "Shut up," she said, equal parts embarrassed and overjoyed at the praise. "It was nothing…" She looked up at him. "You really think so?"
He nodded. "Now put it back into night mode."
Her happy look was quickly swept away by one of complete disbelief. "What?"
"Danielle is right, we know nothing about them," he replied. "It's what is getting us killed. Well, I won't run. Not anymore. So, O'Donnell, kindly put the base back into night mode." He could see the protest that were about to be thrown at him. "We want to know what these ghosts are after? We ask them." He turned to Danielle, who instead had a little smirk on her face, one that she was trying to suppress. "We're going to do the impossible. We're going to capture a ghost."
She walked over to his side, her grin just growing. "Ghostbusters?" she asked, reminding him of an old house in the 1970s.
"Even better," he promised.
~0~0~0~
The plan was pretty simple. The ghosts would only come out at night, so night it had to be. It was really the only thing they had control over with them, but the Doctor put the crew and his wife to work trying to control where they went.
With a working theory that the Faraday cage could keep them out, they all ran through the halls to try and get them inside. The Doctor wasn't too happy at Danni being one of the lures, but then again he was never happy when she was in danger. He trusted her, though, and so he sent her off with the express instruction to never lose contact with him.
Of course, as she had known, nothing had come from the experience other than the fact that the ghosts really didn't seem to care about Lunn at all. It was something that the Doctor filed away for later. He had bigger problems to solve.
Danni's hologram was the last piece of the trail, and the ghosts proved to be just as stupid as he had suspected. They all walked straight through the doorway, the broken part of the barrier that was keeping them out, and the door was immediately closed behind them.
He couldn't resist from taunting them a little bit, but that was just what Danni expected of him. She had wanted to be by his side but he had been adamant; she needed to be on the bridge so that she could keep an eye on the hapless humans.
He had a point, but did he have to make it in front of the humans he was insulting? She'd not even tried to apologise for it. She had to pick her battles, sometimes.
She made sure she was at the front of the group, keeping a close eye on both the camera pointing at the Faraday cage door and the one the Doctor set up for when he got close.
"Cass, are you seeing this?" the Doctor asked the officer, who was watching the screen closely. It was quite ingenious, really. Cass could read lips, the ghosts were murmuring silently, it was definitely something they should have tried from the start.
Cass frowned, leaning closer to the screen to try and see more clearly. "She says she can't see them properly," Lunn translated. "The glass is too thick and they're too far away."
"Open the door."
"What?" O'Donnell asked as Danni pushed her out of the way.
"You want to run that by me again, Spaceman?" she asked.
"They don't have any weapons or access to any of the controls…"
"We don't know what they can do!" Danni protested. "There's still metal in there. You can't be serious!"
"They can't hurt me," he promised her.
"You don't know that," Danni insisted, although she knew that there was no other way. She knew, just as much as he did, that there was a chance that the key to the ghosts was in whatever they were saying. She also knew that, logically, he was also right in the fact that the ghosts weren't going to hurt him. She just… she never liked to see him get hurt. She didn't want to lose him again.
"Open the door," she said heavily. O'Donnell looked at her, making sure that she was serious, before unlocking the door. The Doctor quickly nipped inside, closing the door behind him so the ghosts couldn't get out. With no camera feed in the cage itself – which Danni did think was a little bit of an oversight – they all focused in on the feed from the sonic sunglasses.
Her breath caught at Moran stepped closer, reaching towards the Doctor. She didn't see what he did, but by the way the camera moved, it wasn't good. Her breath caught. This was a stupid idea. She should have never agreed to let him go on his own!
"Cold…" the Doctor wheezed before the feed suddenly straightened again. "Isn't it?" he continued, his voice back to normal and a little bit arrogant. He was fine. She was going to smack him. "Take away your weapons and you're not so scary, are you? Is that better, Cass?"
Danni turned, walking away from the screen to try and calm herself down, hands on her hips as she focused on the map on the wall. Did he really have to show off?
"She says they're saying the same thing, the same phrase, over and over," Lunn translated. "They're saying the dark. The score." Cass shook her head, changing her mind. "No, the sword. The for sale? No, the forsaken. The temple."
"What?" the Doctor exclaimed.
"Yes, she's sure. The dark, the sword, the forsaken, the temple," Lunn confirmed. "Just that. Over and over."
"Dark, sword, forsaken, temple. What does that mean?" the Doctor asked. The camera tilted and Danni stormed back over to the controls.
"Doesn't matter. We know now, so get out," she snapped.
"What…"
"No!" she interrupted and the room looked rather uncomfortable at her sharp tone. "Get out, now."
"Bennett!" the Doctor cried instead. "I need maps. I think I just worked out what our friend here is telling us."
He quickly darted out of the Faraday cage and Bennett looked to Danni, unsure of what he should do considering how angry she looked. She rolled her eyes and motioned to the door. "Go on then," she said, exasperated. "Fetch him the maps."
Bennett nodded. "Yes, yes, of course," he stuttered out before disappearing out the door. The Doctor came in a few moments later, pocketing his sunglasses. Danni walked over, looking at him expectantly.
"See? Told you I was fine," he offered in the hopes that it would calm her down. He wasn't too happy that she had been used at bait so he could understand her upset at him heading into the cage alone. He tried not to be too pleased. After all, if she really thought she wasn't really there, she wouldn't have been too concerned. "You had nothing to worry about."
"Nothing to…" she started, amazed before shaking her head. Arguing wasn't going to get her anywhere. "You know, you're doing a pretty good job at convincing me you're the Doctor," she told him sharply. "Missy wouldn't have been such a pissing idiot."
He grinned from ear to ear. "I've always been an idiot, my Pet," he told her. "And you've always been there to pull me back from it."
As much as she didn't want to, she smiled, nudging against him slightly. It was the closest to an actual hug she'd given him since they were reunited on Skaro, and it felt amazing.
~0~0~0~
The Dark was Space.
The Sword was Orion's Sword
The Forsaken was the empty military town the base was next to.
The Temple was the church within the town.
So the signal that the ghosts were trying to transmit, the one that they wanted more and more bodies for to boost the signal, was pointing to whatever was in the church, in the underwater town. That had been simple enough for him to work out, and although Danni didn't exactly approve of the convoluted way he decided to tell everyone else, she did appreciate that he was trying to keep them all involved. He made such a good teacher when he actually tried that when he did, she could stand on the side-lines and do her favourite thing; watch him work.
His enthusiasm even in the face of something horrible was admirable. He never lost that part of him that mourned everyone that might have been lost but he just always liked to learn something new. He collected data, storing it away for future adventures, future times of crisis so he could save the next people slightly quicker.
He'd always tried to fight the goodness inside of him, but it's what made him 'the Doctor'. He did everything not for personal gain, but for the goodness of it. The knowledge he gained was a bonus, not a requirement.
It was so infectious, in fact, that the crew of the base couldn't resist him tempting them to stay, just like he tempted her to visit far off planets when maybe she wasn't in the mood for it.
She was going to have to be careful with that. One wrong move and she could land herself in a whole lot of trouble that she really wasn't ready to explain to him.
Bennett sent out the base's drone submarine into the town and directed it towards the church, where they found a large white casket. Even under the water it was obvious that it came from the spaceship.
It had a shine that was only apparent when it was underneath the artificial light of the base. And it was huge, longer than the tallest of them and definitely a couple humans deep.
"It's the suspended-animation chamber from the spaceship," the Doctor confirmed as Danni lowered her sonic screwdriver.
"And deadlocked," she added. She looked to her husband. "It can't be the pilot, can it? Because who would be flying the ship?"
"If this chap wasn't flying it, then who was?" he countered. She slowly walked around it, letting her fingers trail on the smooth surface.
"Deadlocking it suggests they don't want people getting in," she pointed out. "So whoever is inside must be a target to someone. Otherwise, why go through the trouble? When they crash then no one can help them."
"More questions. Everything I solve, just more questions." He walked away from the chamber, his eyebrows furrowed, his concentrating look on his face. "I have to go back to the beginning." He paused before turning to Danni. "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 nodded. "So it's the spaceship," she agreed, heading up the stairs and into the open room. The Doctor was just behind her. The only thing that stood out to both of them were the markings scratched into the wall. In unison they both pulled out their sonic devices, the Doctor looking through his sunglasses at them while Danni scanned them yet again.
"There's an electromagnetic field," she commented. "They're not translating because they're not exactly words, are they?"
He took his glasses off to look down at her. She wasn't looking at him for a suggestion, she was looking to him for confirmation. She knew she was right but she wanted a second opinion. She'd really learnt how to read the sonic since they'd been parted. All that learning and he'd missed it all.
Instead of replying, he turned to the crew who were waiting for them. "Lunn, translate for me," he commanded, dashing down to Cass. "Whenever we step outside, you," he pointed to Cass, who looked surprised, "are the smartest person in the room. So, tell me, what's weird about this? I know that it's all bonkers but, you know, when you think about it, one thing keeps snagging in your mind. What is it?"
Cass took a moment to answer, as if she wasn't sure if she had it correct. "The markings on the inside of the spaceship."
"The markings on the inside of the spaceship," the Doctor replied, backing away and grinning. "Yes! Because Danielle is absolutely right! They're not just words, they're a localised and manufactured electromagnetic field, to be precise." He looked over at her. She was still stood in the spaceship, at the top of the stairs. He winked at her before turning back to the group. "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?" Lunn stopped signing, slowly holding his hand up but the Doctor ignored him. "No, exactly. Me neither. It's like we already knew, somehow. Like the words were already in us."
"So that writing is the coordinates?" O'Donnell asked.
"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," he explained.
"Something is messing with our brains?" Danni asked, striding down the stairs towards him. "Actually changing our brains? Because you know I don't like…"
"I know, I know," he quickly reassured her, hands out in front of him.
"You know that's what she does! She-She messes with my head and I can't tell if it's her or something else!"
"Danni," he said sharply, causing her to slam her lips closed as if she was conditioned to do so. He felt terrible for using it, but seeing the way Missy had affected her only over the short time they'd been together suggested it was going to work. "It's fine. It's more like… It's more like an earworm. Remember when I had Mysterious Girl by Peter Andre stuck in my head for two weeks?"
"Those were a long two weeks," she had to admit.
"Exactly! I was begging for the brush of Death's merciful hand," he replied. "Don't you see? These words are an earworm. A song you can't stop humming, even after you die."
"Okay, so, the writing is there to create beacons?" she asked. "People read it, then they die, then they kill more people to create more beacons while… while what? Whatever is inside sleeps the night away?"
"Waiting for their mates to pick the message up," the Doctor guessed. "My God. Every time I think it couldn't get more extraordinary, it surprises me. It's impossible. I hate it. It's evil. It's astonishing." He grinned. "I want to kiss it to death."
"Oi!" Danni exclaimed, completely and utterly offended. It was an involuntary action, one that surprised the happiness right off the Doctor's face and the annoyance off of hers. She hadn't expected to become so irrational over him getting so excited about a mysterious, probably murderous, creature. "Well," she said slowly. "I guess I'm a bit more territorial now."
The Doctor smirked. "We can play with that later."
An alarm started sounding, a deep constant tolling that was joined by the computer. "Attention, all crew. Evacuate base immediately. Emergency protocols have been initiated. This safety message was brought to you by Vector Petroleum. Fuel for our futures."
"Oh what now?!" Danni exclaimed. O'Donnell rushed to one of the terminals on the wall, quickly typing in her security code and bringing up the diagnostics.
"Oh, no. The ghosts tampering with the day-night settings caused a computer malfunction," she read off before looking over her shoulder at the Doctor. "Its first priority is to keep the reactor cool, so it's opening the hull doors and it's flooding the base."
Cass pointed at the screen before signing to Lunn. "Cass says, close the internal flood doors," he quickly translated. "That'll contain the water in the central corridor."
"Where's the TARDIS?" the Doctor asked.
"On the other side."
"Then that's where we need to be," Danni replied. "How long until the doors close?"
"Thirty seconds," O'Donnell replied.
"Alright, everybody move!" Danni commanded. They didn't need telling twice and the Doctor led the group out and down the hallway. The alarm continued to ring and the sound of rushing water began to get louder and louder.
Danni slowed down to usher Cass and Lunn down the last bit of the hallway. The flood door they were aiming for was just at the end. She just had to make sure that they reached them in time.
The Doctor stopped in between the two doors, looking back for his wife. The water was already gathering around his feet, she had to hurry.
"Doctor!"
He watched in horror as Danni skidded to a stop just before the door slammed down in front of her. He quickly turned around, rolling under the door on the other side just before it closed and water began pouring down the hallway between them. There was no getting back to her now.
He looked through the small circular window out and across to her. Her eyes were wide, she looked just as horrified as he felt. She then looked down, rummaging in her pocket and he knew exactly what she was doing.
He turned to the terminal that was to his side, quickly connecting to the one that was by her. "Danni, don't!"
~0~0~0~
Danni paused, her screwdriver in her hand, at the sound of her husband's voice. She quickly opened her side of the communications up. "I can unlock the door," she rambled out. "I'll be over there in just a moment."
"Look at the water," he told her. She glanced out and saw it already filling the hallway, almost halfway up the doors. "You'll get caught in the current and drown. Just sit tight. I'll come back for you."
She shook her head. "You can't. The TARDIS will never land here twice, no matter how much she likes me. We're- We're stuck, aren't we?"
Cass and Lunn shared a look at that dire news, but she didn't care. All she saw was the barrier between her and her husband. The one between her and her home. The one she didn't have a chance of getting through because the current alone would drag her down, and she'd been close enough to drowning enough times to know she couldn't fight it. She looked back out of the window at him.
"You-You have no idea what I did to get back to you," she whimpered. "Everything I went through. I- I don't want to – I can't lose you again. Not again."
"Listen to me," he said firmly. "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 can save you. Do you trust me?"
She looked up the hallway, watching the water flow, then back to him. She nodded once. She had to take the chance because what did she have to lose?
"Yes," she whispered. He raised his hand up, pressing it against the glass of his own window and she did the same. The water filled the hallway completely.
"I'm coming back for you, Danni," he promised. "Don't be afraid." Then, as if he knew she wouldn't move first, he turned and left her alone.
She watched him walk off before taking a moment to pull herself together. She then turned to Cass and Lunn, who looked just as terrified as she felt, but much calmer. She needed to be more like them. She had to distract herself from the thought that this was how it always went. That, at any moment, she was going to wake up.
"The ghosts are still trapped, but we need to get somewhere safe," she signed and said out loud. "What's closest?"
"The mess hall is just up the hallway," Lunn translated, even though he didn't need to. Danni nodded.
"We can haul up in there until the Doctor comes back," she decided. She set off, rightly assuming they would follow. Her first instinct was to work out how best to defend the room. There were two doorways, one by the counters where they'd just come in and one that would take them deeper into base. The ghosts weren't coming for them, but what if the creature decided now was its time to wake up? Chances were it would come from the more open end of the room, so she started to push one of the sofas that lined the room towards it.
"You're sure they're not going to hurt us?" Lunn asked her.
"They're trapped in the Faraday cage," Danni snapped back. "Help me block the door, will you?"
"Why?" he asked, nodding his head towards her to give Cass the request as well. She nodded and they both grabbed the end of a table each, moving them over to the door.
"Because we've got a creature in a box that could escape at any time and we have no idea what it is," she reasoned. "The ghosts aren't the issue, it is. If it decides that the reactor almost overloading is good alarm bell we need to be prepared."
"Do you think it will?" Lunn translated for Cass. Danni shrugged.
"I don't know, but I don't want to take any chances, do you?" she retorted. "This is why I should have my gun."
"And the Doctor won't just leave us here?" he translated. Danni stopped what she was doing, turning to look at the pair.
She was certain the Doctor wouldn't leave her behind, not again, not on purpose anyway. But was it even the Doctor? Were they even trapped in an underwater base. Was this just some sort of elaborate trick to make her believe that she was going to die, or drown, or be turned into some stupid ghost only to wake up with that woman staring over her, cackling and promising her that she loved her with all of her hearts?
"The Doctor would never leave us here," she signed to them both. "Because he would never leave me here. He's coming back, and we'll be…"
She trailed off as some movement from the outside caught her eye. She walked over to the window, trying to get another look. It was another ghost. It wasn't walking on the ground, or swimming, it was just gliding like the water meant nothing to it.
"Is it Moran or Pritchard or the mole guy? How, how did they get out?" Lunn asked her.
She gave a little shake of her head. "It's- It's not any of them," she whispered. "It's not- it's new."
"What does that mean?"
"It means." She paused, swallowing the lump in her throat. The ghost became clearer the closer it got, and the closer it got the less she could deny what – or rather who – it was. "No," she whispered, horrified. "No, no, it can't…"
With dark sunken eyes and torn clothes, the ghost of the Doctor floated towards them.
"He's dead."
~0~0~0~
Hope you liked the chapter! Please review if you did. I hate begging, and I hope this doesn't come across as begging, but I really really would appreciate it. I think any author on the website saying they didn't matter would be lying, because you have no idea how much more of a muse I get when I know people are enjoying what I'm writing XD
I also don't have time tonight for review replies, which seems a bit cheeky, but next week should be back to normal!
Also there should be a drabble up in the Outtakes in a couple of days because the 22nd November is Danni's birthday! Yey!