Danni automatically didn't like the fact that it was dark. A hallway with no one in it was always worrying. A dark hallway with no one in it was practically screaming out that they were about to run into trouble.

"I thought you said it was daytime," she said to her husband. He was already in the hallway, obviously. He wasn't going to take any caution in this sort of thing.

"I thought it was day, turns out it's night," the Doctor retorted, turning around so he was facing her. She was stood in the TARDIS doorway, one foot in and one foot out. She was nervous, he could tell. He held his arms out to his side. "Where's your sense of adventure, Danielle?" he asked. "Dark, mysterious hallways. Not a person in sight. We used to do this all the time. Can you even remember the last time we did this?"

"Yes," she replied. "We were trapped in an underwater base on Earth and I had to watch you become a ghost."

The Doctor barely paused. "And that turned out fine, didn't it?" he pointed out. "Come on, let's just go for a little explore. The TARDIS is fine where she is."

"Yeah, Danni-Girl," Jack said, appearing at her side. He handed her a torch before stepping out as well. She glared at the back of his head. "Live a little."

"I've lived at lot," she snapped back. "And I would like to continue living. Why are you so interested in getting killed?"

"Come on, Danielle," the Doctor almost whined. "We're in orbit around Neptune. It's somewhere new and exciting. Don't you want to experience it?"

She shifted slightly, nibbling on her lip as she looked around what she could see of the hallway. There were some lights in the ceiling above them, but they were dim and gave off an almost red tinge which really didn't help with the atmosphere. Everything else looked pretty standard, though. And this was her idea. She had been getting a little cabin crazy and she'd suggested a trip.

She pressed the button on the torch and was pleased to see it was bright enough to actually illuminate the immediate hallway. She could almost see down it. "Fine, I'm coming," she conceded. She stepped out and the TARDIS door immediately shut behind her. She spun, shining the light on the door. "Oi!" she exclaimed. "Rude!"

"It's three against one, Danni-Girl," the Doctor said and she turned, pointing the light onto his chest. He reached out, wiggling his fingers. "Coming for a walk?"

"Looks like I don't have a choice," she grumbled, but walked over and took his hand anyway. "Have we ever been to Neptune?"

The Doctor frowned as the trio started walking. "I don't think so," he admitted. "I do try and keep out of this solar system when I can. Why stay at home when you can go abroad?"

"Not my Earth, not my solar system," she reminded him. "I grew up on a different Earth, remember?"

The Doctor shook his head. "They have more in common than they do different," he dismissed. "You've told me so yourself."

Jack just walked at Danni's side as the two bickered over two different Earths. He did, actually, agree with the Doctor, but he knew better than to speak up. Danni had told him about her childhood and there wasn't anything different about her Earth and this universe's Earth. Still, he guessed she didn't get to explore a lot of her old home when she was a child.

He raised his torch up to shine it on one of the many corners the sectioned hallway had. There was an ornate wall hanging, red and gold with a face that felt very Earth oriental.

"Shouldn't we have been pulled into the planet by now?" he commented as a movement behind them caught his eye. He was quickly on alert but also didn't want to let whoever it was know they'd been spotted.

"They must have some pretty powerful anti-grav shielding on board," the Doctor offered in reply. Danni had tensed up beside him, her grip on his hand tightening. And, judging by Jack's sudden change in demeanour, something was about to descend on them.

"The decorations make even less sense than the dark, though," Danni said as they continued to walk down the hall. There were people behind them who were following them. They thought that the darkness was a good cover for them, and it probably would have been had she not taught herself to keep an eye out for people following her. At least she knew it wasn't Missy; she definitely wouldn't hide away with others like that.

"Could be a restaurant," Jack offered. "Some kind of Earth-Oriental place. Bet there's a nice view out of the windows."

"If there are any," Danni retorted.

There was a click and they were illuminated by light as four people stepped out of the shadows. The sound of their guns powering up caused them to turn around. Danni dropped the Doctor's hand and pulled her own gun out of her pocket. Jack mirrored her stance next to her.

The Doctor, on the other hand, just stared in slight surprise at them. He should have known that they'd be soldiers. It was never anyone with a giant cake, was it?

"Hello," he greeted lowly. One stepped closer. She had markings on her face that immediately identified her as a grunt. He really wasn't fond of clone races bred for military purposes. Danni probably wouldn't be best pleased, either.

"Are you crew?" one of them demanded. She was the leader. "Are you crew?"

The Doctor kept a close eye on them all as he reached into his pocket, pulling out his psychic paper. He didn't even check to see what they thought was being shown to them, he instead showed it to the grunt. When he took a step away from the trio he slowly made his way over to the rest, reaching out only to push the barrel of Jack's gun downwards.

"Engineering stress assessors?" the leader asked, sounding a little disbelieving.

"Yes," the Doctor immediately agreed. It was always a little interesting to see what people wanted to see. "Yes, we are." He placed the paper back into his pocket. "We're here to, er…"

"Assess stress," Jack finished for him.

"With guns?" one of them asked.

"There's a lot of stress," Danni retorted. Jack was already putting his gun away, but she kept hers out. Just in case. She wasn't completely convinced that they wouldn't just start shooting. They were soldiers, after all.

"So, what happened?" the leader asked them.

The Doctor frowned. "From the beginning of time? That's a very long story."

"Doctor," Danni hissed in warning. "We've only just arrived," she told the soldiers. "We came to do the assessment and there's no one about. What are you doing here?"

The leader looked the three over before deciding that they weren't a threat. She lowered her gun. "Twenty four hours ago, this station fell silent," she explained. "No comm signal. Nothing. Dead. We've come to find out why."

The Doctor glanced at his wife, who also lowered her gun and placed it in her pocket. The amount of relief he felt at seeing her do so was a little bit over the top, but never the less it was still there. "Theories?" he asked the leader.

"Could be anything," she replied. "Meteorite strike. Space pirates. Power outage."

"That makes you the rescue mission," Jack guessed. She nodded once. "They can't think there's much going on if there's only four of you."

"Cuts, pet," the woman replied. "Right, you're to consider yourself…

"Part of the furniture," the Doctor sung, a grin on his face. From his side he heard Danni snort in laughter and, although she didn't actually laugh, he nudged her anyway. Apparently she was rather fond of the more foolish Doctor he knew he could be. She always had been, but he filed that away under the new information he was still learning about her newest incarnation; looked serious, was a giant child underneath.

Just like he was, actually. He liked that.

The leader, on the other hand, looked distinctly unimpressed. "Under my command," she corrected firmly.

"Okay." The Doctor frowned. "Really?"

"Yes, really," she retorted and Jack shot her a salute.

"Yes, Ma'am," he agreed. "Can we get a name, though, before we start following commands?"

She looked between the three, gauging their trustworthiness. "Nagata," was all she offered. "Come on."

With a wave of her hand her little gaggle of soldiers followed. Jack was quick to fall by her side. "You're from Earth, aren't you?" he asked, trying to start a conversation and learn more about the little group at the same time.

"What of it, pet?" she replied as she scouted the area. He shrugged.

"Nothing, really," he said. "I'm from New Wales. It's nice to see someone from the same neck of the woods. Especially someone who seems to actually know what they're doing."

She didn't reply for a moment, moving her gun from side to side so she could see the hallway in the light it provided. "Well, that's why we're in charge, isn't it?" she said.

"In charge?"

She nodded. "It said on your ID that you were the team leader," she explained to him. "I thought you were. Well, you or the lass anyway."

Jack had to hide his amusement at being designated the leader. He knew it was only because both he and Danni had pulled out guns to protect themselves whilst the Doctor had stood there confused, as he was normally the one everyone thought to be in charge. It was just an insight to how everyone in the military felt about weaponry. Still, it was definitely something he could hold over their heads later.

"She's my second," he explained. "Nice spot, though. Captain Jack Harkness."

"Don't flirt with me, pet," she warned him. "You're still under my command."

He held his hands up. "I wasn't flirting!" he promised. "Why do people always assume I am?"

Behind them the Doctor and Danni took longer to follow. They watched the soldiers get into formation and follow their leader, leaving the two to follow at the back, the grunt waiting so she could take up the rear.

"You're an idiot," Danni muttered, walking closer to him so she could keep her voice lower. "Oliver? Really?"

"You liked my singing last night," he reminded a little cheekily. She rolled her eyes.

"I wouldn't have if you were singing Oliver," she told him. "There's a time and a place. Neither here nor last night were time to break out into Broadway classics."

"We'll have to agree to disagree on that," he retorted.

She didn't respond, which the Doctor took as a win. "So, Spaceman, when are we?"

The Doctor took her hand again, pulling her over to the wall. There were more decorations and a wall screen with a logo printed on it.

The Doctor quickly recognised the characters. "Indo-Japanese," he told her. He sucked on his finger, holding it behind his ear. "Thirty eighth century." He placed his finger in his mouth, giving it a good suck before taking it out with a pop. He pointed at her with it. "Tuesday."

That wasn't how that worked. Danni knew that, no matter how clever and in tune with time he was, there was no way that licking his finger to feel and taste the air would give him a sense of what time period they were in.

That was an argument for another day, though. Well, either an argument or a tutorial because that seemed pretty bloody handy to know. "Thirty eighth century?" she repeated. "Wasn't that just after the first Great Catastrophe?"

He looked down at her, vaguely surprised. "You know about that?"

She nodded. "The tectonic plates all shifted. India and Japan, you know," she brought her hands together in a clap, "and merged together." She looked at the screen. "I didn't realise there was a new language from it."

He was still staring at her and he watched her brows furrow in confusion when she looked back to him.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

He nodded. "You're very clever," he declared. "I like it."

She smirked slightly. "Well, I'll get some 'I'm clever' specs and you can see how I used to feel," she teased lightly before turning serious once again. "There's still no sign of the crew, though, is there?"

"Mind you," the Doctor said as he took in the hallway. "This place looks as if it's been dead for a long while now." He ran his finger along the edge of the screen before blowing the dust that he'd collected off, as if the demonstrate his point.

"That can't be right, though. She said that it only went dead twenty four hours ago," Danni reasoned.

"Come on," the Doctor said with a nod of his head. "We don't want to fall behind and risk leaving Harkness with a bunch of people to flirt with."

"Leave him alone," Danni chided. "He doesn't flirt with everything. When I'm around he reserves that strictly for me."

That didn't reassure the Doctor, who started to walk off. Danni took one last look at the screen and found herself unable to look away. Just the sight of it made her incredibly uncomfortable, a feeling that she had become used to over the recent and not-so-recent years.

The Doctor paused, looking at his wife who was staring at the screen like it had offended her. "Danielle?" he called and she turned her head to look at him. "Everything okay?"

Her first instinct was to tell him that everything was fine, but Jack's advice had made an impression on her. She didn't want to push the Doctor away. They'd fought so hard to make their marriage work again after he'd regenerated that she didn't want her regeneration to ruin that. But, she had reason to be suspicious. She'd spent a long time honing in the ability to bottle things away.

She nodded slowly. "I'm still getting that feeling of being watched," she explained truthfully. "Missy has used monitors on me before. I'm just…" She looked back at it. "It's fine," she whispered, more to herself than to him. "I know it's fine. She's not watching me. It's fine."

With a firm nod of her head to pretend she'd fully convinced herself that Missy wasn't watching her, she joined him at his side again. She took his hand and linked their fingers and all the Doctor could offer was a kind smile because he was so proud of her. Even though the feeling was there, one that he kind of agreed with even though he was more convinced it was from the spooky atmosphere, she was slowly starting to fight it.

He didn't want to tell her that, though, not out loud where people could hear it. He wanted her to feel safe first, so he moved them back into the middle of the group. They all continued silently, looking for any sign of the crew that had seemingly vanished. Danni really did try and ignore the thought that someone was watching her. She was always on the lookout for a door out of her perceived dream, or Missy to step around from a corner. The Doctor had tried to reassure her that she'd run into a mass of panicking Daleks and the chance of surviving had been quite low, but when had that stopped the Master in any incarnation?

Danni winced slightly, berating herself before looking over her shoulder. Nothing was there, just the dark illuminated very slightly by the emergency lighting. Missy wasn't here. No one was watching them.

"Danni," the Doctor encouraged gently and she turned back around.

"Sorry," she replied when she'd realised they'd all come to a stop around her. "I can really feel it."

"Eyes. Watch," the grunt declared. "Eyes in sky."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" one of the other soldiers snapped in annoyance.

"Chopra not worry. 474 protect Chopra," the grunt declared, walking over to the soldier. "Chopra pretty."

She reached out to stroke his cheek but he batted her hand away. "Oh, for the Gods'!" he exclaimed. "Just back off!"

He pushed the grunt – 474 what kind of name was that?! – away. All hell broke loose as 474 grabbed him, tuning him around and putting him in a chokehold. They both sunk to the floor as Chopra fought to get free.

Nagata and her fourth soldier rushed forward. "Let him go, pet!" she commanded, not sounding panicked or terrified, but just stern.

"474 sorry," 474 replied.

"Let him go, now!" Nagata commanded again.

"Not help it!" 474 cried before letting go. Chopra was quick to his feet as the grunt moved to the wall, curling up on herself.

"It could have killed me!" Chopra exclaimed, furious.

"She's a grunt!" Jack snapped. "They're grown to respond to any attack. You're the one who pushed her."

Chopra looked at Jack. "It attacked me!" he cried.

"You attacked her first," Jack pointed out. "You're lucky she didn't break your neck."

Danni looked from her father to the grunt, who was cowering against the wall and whimpering. 474 couldn't help it, she'd said so herself. Chopra was the one who attacked her, and he knew a lot more about the poor woman on the floor than Danni did. She had a few questions about them being 'grown', but she trusted Jack more than she trusted some soldiers.

She walked away from the Doctor and crouched down in front of 474. "Hey," she said softly, hands in front of her. "I'm not going to hurt you and I'm not going to tell you off, okay?" The grunt nodded. "Are you okay?"

"Is it okay?" Chopra said, still unsure why people weren't being more sympathetic to his trauma. "It's just a grunt!"

Danni's teeth immediately clenched in anger. Some people were just so rude and she really couldn't stand it. She smiled at 474 before looking over her shoulder. "She's not an 'it', she's a 'she'," she corrected. "And as you don't seem to get the whole 'respect other people'—"

"It's not a person!"

Danni raised her voice to speak over him. "-through your thick skull you can shut the fuck up until I say otherwise, understood?"

He opened his mouth and she raised her finger in warning. "Do I look like I'm joking?" she snapped. His mouth closed.

Danni turned back to 474, smiling at her again. "Are you okay?" she asked and the grunt nodded. "Do you need help getting up?"

The Doctor watched her, marvelling at her ability to be both as kind as he remembered and as angry as he remembered at the same time. She was once described as having anger in her eyes and her heart. That wasn't true, but she'd always been very passionate about what she believed in. This time around that appeared to be people's manners.

"No help," 474 replied and Danni moved out of the way and towards the Doctor.

"What do they mean 'grown'?" she asked him quietly.

"She's a grunt," he explained. "They're bred in hatcheries. Cloned muscles. Low intelligence. Brute force. Instant army."

Danni shook her head. Sometimes she really didn't like humanity. "The thirty eighth century," she murmured. "Sounds progressive, but really isn't."

The large growl from deep in the dark pulled everyone's attentions off the injustices against grown people and back into the immediate danger. Jack waited behind as the soldiers followed the noise, 474 immediately rushing to the front to be the brute force.

Danni and the Doctor caught up to him and they headed deeper into the space station. There was still no lighting, in fact the emergency lighting seemed to dim even further. Her hand was close to her pocket, ready to pull out her gun the moment she needed to. Jack already had his out.

Everyone came to a stop as the source of the growling came into view. A group of humanoid creatures, with long arms, no features and cracked skin were slowly making their way down the hallway. It was unclear if they'd noticed the new group of people, however.

"Hold my hand," the Doctor said lowly from Danni's side.

He was stood on the same side as her gun and her hand twitched slightly. "I'm not scared," she promised him.

"I am," he replied. She was a little surprised at his declaration, but quickly reached out and took his hand again. He held onto her tightly and she had to admit, she always felt better when holding his hand. Especially because she knew that this was her Doctor, not some dream, not some projection in a virtual world. Her Theta. He would keep her safe just as she would him. It was incredibly reassuring.

The sound of the guns powering up caught the attention of whatever the creatures were. With a combined roar they started advancing a lot quicker than they had been walking. The soldiers and Jack started firing. The Doctor turned and began to pull Danni the other way.

"Oh, run, run, run! Run! Run!" he shouted. Danni was more than happy to follow him. A few more fires of their guns and everyone else was quick on their tails as the shots didn't seem to do any damage at all.

"Follow me! Straight ahead!" one of the soldiers cried as they reached a junction, turning down the other way to where they were all heading.

There was no time to follow him. "No! This way! Deep-Ando!" Nagata shouted behind her as they continued down the hallway. She could only hope he'd listen, turn back, and follow them.

The first door they came across the Doctor opened, letting them all inside. It appeared to be some sort of laboratory, which could come in useful, but with only the one door in then they should be safe as long as they could keep the creatures out.

"Quick! Push anything in front of it!" he shouted over the noise. "We've got to keep them out!" Danni helped him chuck some equipment off a cabinet, ready to move it in front of the door but the creatures were already there.

"Deep-Ando! We've lost him!" Nagata shouted as she, Chopra and Jack tried to force the door closed. Whatever the creatures were, they were really strong. "What the hell are they?2

"Pissed. I'm going to say they're pissed," Jack grunted as the force from the other side shook them all.

"We've got to get Deep-Ando!" Nagata cried.

"He went the wrong way!" Danni replied. "If we go after him we're all dead. Hopefully we drew enough of them that he got to safety, but we can't exactly go looking for him right now."

One particularly heavy push from the other side allowed one of the creatures to reach in. The trio did their best to push it back out but the arm reached for anything it could grab whilst the creature roared angrily.

"474!" Nagata shouted. The grunt knew exactly what to do, rushing at the door. With the strength she had, she closed the door on the arm and it crumbled into dust. The thudding stopped immediately, along with the roars.

"What the hell were those things?" Jack panted as he leant against the door.

Nagata slowly approached the window in the door, looking out. There was no sign that they had even been there. "Where did they go?" she asked.

The Doctor looked out as well, but Danni crouched down to the floor where the dust had settled. She picked up a handful and let it run through her fingers. A creature made of dust? Well, it wasn't exactly original but also wasn't something she really thought she'd have to deal with. The dust wasn't reforming, which was good because they could have been dealing with a renegade arm. Or a miniature version of whatever the creatures were.

"Right, what do we do now?" Jack asked. "We can't leave in case they come back. We can't stay in case they come back."

"We need to work out what exactly we're dealing with," Danni replied, standing up again. "All we know is that they're big, strong and angry." She looked to the Doctor as Nagata began to instruct her soldiers to move a large container in front of the door before contacting Deep-Ando. "Are they from Neptune?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Well, not that I know of at any rate, and I do know a lot."

"And you don't recognise them from anywhere else?"

"If I did I would have said," he pointed out and she nodded.

"Well, sometimes your brain is so full of rubbish that I think things get lost in there. Sometimes it's just best to check." The Doctor shot her a suitably outraged look but she was already turning her attention to Jack. "What about you, Mr Ex-Con Man?"

He shook his head. "Nothing I've come across before," he said.

"Well, let's find out what they are," the Doctor declared, taking charge. "You two find out where we are."

Jack nodded. "On it, Doc."

The Doctor bent down, scooping up some of the dust. "Stop calling me that."

"Whatever you say, Doc," Jack replied, walking away to find something he could hack into, leaving Danni to wander around and look at the equipment. Everything in the near vicinity seemed pretty standard science tech. A couple of examining tables, some cabinets with test tubes and other equipment inside, and a microscope or two.

"What are you doing?" Nagata asked the Doctor as he walked over to one of the microscopes.

"Finding out what they're made of," he replied, placing a little of the sample underneath the lens. A couple presses of buttons and the results displayed on the screen above.

"Well?"

"Organic," the Doctor told her. "Definitely organic. Blood cells. Skin cells." His nose wrinkled up. "Mucus."

"Mucus?" Danni repeated, equally disgusted. "I touched that."

The Doctor didn't tear his eyes away from the screen as he reached into his pocket. He pulled out a small tube of hand sanitiser and chucked it her way. She caught it in one hand, surprised as she read the label.

"Thanks, sweetie," she said, genuinely meaning it as she squirted some of the gel into her palm. She placed the tube into her pocket as she walked over to Jack, rubbing her hands together.

He was stood by a group of large, white containers with controls down one side. She frowned. "What are these?" she asked him.

"They seem to be some sort of chamber," he explained. "For one person, I would hazard a guess. Look," he nodded to the top where there appeared to be a small opening covered with a panel, "that's where you'd talk to the person inside."

"It's Morpheus," Chopra said, having joined them in his frustration over the treatment of 474.

"Morpheus?" Jack repeated.

"Like the God of Dreams?" Danni asked. The Doctor walked over, looking at her impressed.

"You're being clever on purpose now," he accused.

"Actually sometimes I just can't help it," she replied. "If they're called Morpheus, are they just sleeping chambers? Why are they in a lab?"

"They're more than that," Chopra replied before he raised his hand to his ear. "Deep-Ando?" he asked, walking away. "Deep-Ando, can you hear me?"

Danni had to resist rolling her eyes. They were worried about their comrade, she understood, she felt for them. But did everything always have to interrupt getting a full answer?

The Doctor saw the flicker of frustration on her face. "I could take a look at that. You know, triangulate the signal, help you find your friend."

"First, tell me what those things are," Nagata said. The Doctor didn't have an answer for that.

"Deep-Ando, this is Chopra," Chopra continued before looking over at his leader. "I'm getting a signal," he explained before walking off. The Doctor shot Jack a meaningful look, nodding after the soldier and Jack followed. They wanted the Doctor focused on the monsters, but half of the mystery was finding out what happened to their friend.

Danni bent down and looked at the controls on the side. There wasn't much of a control panel, just a few buttons and one that was obviously an open switch. She pressed it and the lid immediately opened. She jumped back and into the Doctor, but the chamber was empty.

"What's so special about this, then?" Danni asked him, "It's just a chamber, right? Why is it in a lab?"

People were always asking him questions that he didn't know the answer to. He really didn't know what the creatures that were chasing them were, or where they originated from, or why they were made of mucus of all things. Danni's questions, though, never felt like they were demanding answers. They felt like she was just as confused as he was, and that sharing the confusion was more of way to figure it out quicker.

He pulled her close with an arm around her waist, placing a kiss on her hair. She tensed again, but the way she didn't pull back said she appreciated it as much as he did. He let go to head around the back to see what else he could see.

Danni leant in to take a closer look at the pod. It looked rather luxuriously lined, and there was a circuit on the lid. Wires came out from underneath the padding on the top of the lid, probably to connect to whoever was going to use it. She pulled out her sonic screwdriver, pointing it at the lid before giving it a quick buzz.

She screamed as the wires shot out, pulling her into the pod and the world went dark.

Across the room Jack reacted the moment she started to make a noise. He turned, running over to see the lid close down over his daughter. "Danni!" he cried, placing his hands on the lid to try and push it over. The Doctor reacted much the same, but both men couldn't get it to budge. The pod let out an alarm before a projection appeared just over the hatch on the top.

Four women, all dressed in black dresses with white spots, with pristine hair and heeled shoes stood on top of the pod. They danced lightly to the music that started playing before singing along.

"Bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom. Mister Sandman, bring me your dreams…"

The Doctor and Jack stared, perplexed, for a moment before the Doctor startled himself into action. He moved back to the side, trying to open it again. "Danni!"

"It's fine, it's just Morpheus," Nagata told him, sounding like she didn't understand what the big deal was. The big deal was that some large contraption had just ate his wife! Trapping a woman who had just spent the last god knows how long in a small metal box. He was surprised she didn't scream for longer.

"That thing just sucked her in while she was screaming," Jack snapped. "It's not fine!"

The Doctor reached down, pressing the button that Danni had used to open it up in the first place. Immediately the singing women stopped and the lid opened. Danni was lying on the padded surface, her eyes closed and with wires connected to her all over her face and hands, her sonic screwdriver lying just out of her reach. The Doctor felt so much better at seeing her and he began removing the wires.

"Danni, Danni, are you okay?" he asked as her eyes fluttered open.

Danni smiled at her husband, whose face always made her feel like waking up was a good idea. His presence alone was enough reason to not stay in bed all day. Of course, then she remembered that she hadn't gone to bed at all.

She shot up, eyes wide as she looked at all the people around her. The Doctor was next to her, there were soldiers staring at her, and Jack look positively relieved that she was awake.

She did not share that sentiment.

"Get them off, get them off!" she exclaimed, tearing at her hands to pull the sticky pads off her skin. The Doctor pulled the last off her face before catching it in his hands, forcing her to look at him.

"Calm down," he instructed firmly. "What happened? What were you doing?"

"I-I—" she stuttered. She didn't feel like calming down. She very much felt like she'd been pulled into a chamber without her consent, which seemed to be something to be worked up about. "I was just trying to see what the circuit did and the wires jumped out at me." She looked down at the wires that were sat in her lap. "I guess they thought I needed some sleep."

The Doctor helped her out, reaching over to grab her sonic screwdriver as she thought about it more. She'd been pulled in and then it had gone dark. But, almost as quickly the Doctor had been hovering over her. She barely remembered the lid shutting and she really didn't remember it opening again.

"Did it put me to sleep?" she asked quietly.

The Doctor knew that answering that question wasn't going to help her calm down. He still didn't know to what extent Missy had abused her whilst she was asleep, he just knew it was a thought that kept her awake at night instead of going to sleep when she needed to. It was probably the reason that the pod had dragged her into it in the first place.

He grabbed her hand, placing her screwdriver in her palm before closing her fingers around it. He kept hold of her hand in both of his. "It's a clever little sleep pod," he replied. The answer didn't give her much comfort, but the answer enraged Jack, who turned to Chopra.

"You said it was more than just a sleep bod," he snapped. "What did you mean by that?"

"Come on, everyone knows," Nagata replied dismissively. Jack turned to her. He wanted to point out how stupid it was to say that because if he was asking, he didn't know. Instead he just glared at her.

"We're here to assess. This is us assessing," he exclaimed. "What does the damn pod do?"

"Last pod," 474 called over. "This pod. Not empty."

Everyone's attention was pulled over to the pod, but Jack's was still firmly on his daughter. She was looking around, even as she followed the Doctor over to the sleep pod, trying to find the inaccuracies in the world around her. She clutched her sonic screwdriver tightly like it was a weapon. He knew her stance well; in her head, she was under attack and there was nothing she could do about it apart from fight.

The Doctor tried to open the sleep pod the same way he'd opened the one Danni had been sucked into, but the controls didn't seem to want to work. He pulled out his sonic sunglasses and gave them a quick buzz. All it did, though, was start the holographic video from before.

"Bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom."

He shook his head. "Oh, no. No, no. enough of that." He reached down underneath the controls, running his fingers along it until he found an eject button.

"Are they singing Mr Sandman?" Danni asked, a little confused.

"Yeah, it does that," the Doctor replied, ejecting a small disc. The hologram vanished and he took their place, taking off his glasses before trying to open the hatch. It made a whirring noise as he fought against the mechanism inside. "It's almost like… someone's…" he groaned, getting it almost got it open before it snapped back.

"Careful!" Danni told him. He nodded before looking at Jack.

"Captain," he instructed. Jack climbed up on the other side and the two tried to open the hatch. Once again it just snapped shut before they could see inside.

"Whoever is in there doesn't want to get out," Jack commented before giving the hatch three firm knocks with his fist. "Hi," he called through. "Captain Jack Harkness. We're the rescue team, we've come to save you. I'm going to guess you're hiding from the dust monsters. We are too. Perhaps we can help each other. How does that sound?"

There was nothing and Jack had almost decided that he really needed answers more than he needed to be calm and collected. Then the hatch opened an incredibly pale man with transparent framed glasses poked his head out.

"Ah, he rises," the Doctor drawled. "We want a word with you."

"Who- Who are you?" the man stuttered out. "Are you the rescue team?"

"Said we are, didn't I?" Jack retorted. "Wanna open the pod and join us?"

The man looked between the group, specifically the Doctor and Jack, to see if really did want to join them. He must have decided it was safe to do so because his head disappeared and the pod opened up. The short man in his white outfit stepped out.

"I'm—I'm Professor Rassmussen," the man introduced. "I was hiding from the creatures. I didn't know if it was safe."

"Nothing truly is," the Doctor drawled. "And you never answered the question."

Rassmussen frowned. "What question?"

"Not you," the Doctor dismissed before turning to Nagata. "What is Morpheus?"

"Oh, I can help with that," Rassmussen declared before Nagata could attempt to answer. "Let me just…" He walked over to the controls, giving them a poke himself before stepping back.

A disembodied head was projected above the pods. The woman was smiling, looking as if she was addressing them all.

"May the Gods look favourably upon us all," she greeted.

"Oh great, an infomercial," Danni muttered. The Doctor shot her a look and she took his hand in return. He held onto it tightly.

"Friends," the head continued. "We live in a time of unparalleled prosperity. A golden age of peace, harmony and industry. But every shift must come to an end. Every working day must stop." She held a hand out, a small yawning woman stood on it. "Of course, we can take stimulants to make that deadline, to keep us propped up through that important meeting. But always, always, sleep claims us in the end." The woman curled up on her hand before falling asleep. The head turned back to smile at them. "Until now."

"Sleep-deprivation pods?" the Doctor guessed.

"Not exactly," Chopra replied, sounding just as disgusted with them as the Doctor felt he was going to be when he finally got an answer.

"Welcome, Morpheus." In the background 'Mr Sandman' began to play, this time without the dancing women. "The Morpheus machine concentrates the whole nocturnal experience into one five minute burst. Now, you can go a whole month without sleep."

Danni's eyes widened. "A month?" she exclaimed, horrified.

"All the chemical benefits of rest, but freeing up the nights to continue working, working, working. To get the edge on your competitor. To turn that extra profit."

Danni turned to the Doctor. "Is that what happened to me?" she asked, her voice raising in volume. "Did that thing steal a month of my sleep? That's terrifying!"

"Finally, someone who sees it for what it is!" Chopra said, almost smugly.

"Leave the Rip Van Winkles behind and become one of a new generation of Wide-Awakes! The future is here. The future is now. Let yourself slip into the arms of Morpheus!"

The head disappeared and Danni could feel herself shaking. "No, no I don't want that," she rambled. "Nothing I did or said indicated that I wanted that! Sleep is…"

The head reappeared. "Terms and conditions apply," she said before the disappearing again. Danni just stared, her hearts pounding.

Missy had played with her sleep a lot. She'd put her to sleep for days, week, months on end, and then wouldn't let her sleep for the same amount. Being in control of her own sleep habits was something she was still getting used to. Having that torn away from her – even if to take away the need for it – wasn't something she was prepared to do.

"You weren't in there for five minutes," he promised her. "Sleep is vital. Sleep is wonderful. Why would you want to take it away completely?"

"Morpheus is mine," Rassmussen spoke up shakily. "My invention. It's changed Triton society forever."

"Yes, by making your workers take no more breaks, no more time to themselves?" Jack snapped. "Yeah, you've really done good for the world."

Chopra motioned to Jack. "It's disgusting," he agreed. "Making people into bloody drones. I've said it before…"

"Aye, you have," Nagata interrupted.

"Colonising our sleep. Is nothing sacred?"

"We spend a third of our lives asleep," Rassmussen reasoned. "And time is money."

"Nothing ever changes," Jack muttered.

"So, how does it work?" the Doctor asked him.

"The pod sends out a coded electronic signal that acts on certain parts of the brain. Changes the fundamental chemistry."

"It's amazing," Nagata said. "Everyone on Triton's using it."

"That doesn't make something actually good," Danni pointed out. "A lot of people play football, I'm still not convinced that's a good thing." She turned to the Doctor. "Whatever they're doing to themselves does not give them the right to do it to me," she stated bluntly. "I'm done. I want to go back to the TARDIS."

Jack was in two minds about that statement. There were monsters about, and pods that sucked you in to force you to stay away, he wasn't best pleased about having his daughter in the middle of that. Especially since he'd only scratched the surface of what happened to her. However, he also knew it was just her fear talking. Danni never ran away from something because she was scared. She loved being thrown head first into adventure, she had always been that way. She'd conditioned herself to run.

"You're fine, Danni," Jack promised her. "Don't you want to know what those creatures are?"

"Well, yeah, but…"

"Then you're not going anywhere, are you?" he replied. "You know you're not."

Danni crossed her arms and the Doctor actually felt like praising Jack for countering her fear. He couldn't do that because he felt the same as her. She was more than capable, but he also didn't want to lose her again. It was a hard balance.

He paced away, his mind racing. The best way to get to the end was to work out what was going on. "'Sleep, that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care'," he recited just to see the recognition on her face. Danni had always liked her Shakespeare. "'The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath. Balm of hurt minds, chief nourisher in life's great feast.'" He walked around, his mind racing over his newly acquired information. The science the professor spouted sounded good, but he didn't believe it was as easy as that. Changing the chemical makeup of anything was going to end badly, especially when done for greed and not for the benefit of the people at large. There would be residue, waste, debris from the change.

He came to a stop back next to Rassmussen. That was it, wasn't it? Those creatures were the waste.

He looked at Rassmussen. "Congratulations, Professor. You've revolutionised the labour market. You've conquered nature," he praised. Rassmussen straightened, surprised and a little smug.

"Thank you."

The Doctor stared at him, serious. "You've also created an abomination."

That also surprised the constantly startled man. "I'm—I'm sorry?"

"So you say," the Doctor dismissed before turning to Danni. "What do we do next?"

"Well, we still don't know what the creatures are," she reasoned. "We find that out and we can find a way to stop them."

He shook his head. "Wrong," he told her. "We find the soldier." He pointed at Nagata. "Did you manage to get a signal?"

"Chopra got through to him briefly, that's the best we got," she offered.

"We find the soldier, we get our answer," the Doctor declared. He wasn't convinced, but it sounded good. "We need to go looking." He headed to the door. "Danielle!"

She made a move to follow but Jack grabbed her arm. "I thought you didn't abide by rude behaviour?" he asked pointedly.

Danni shrugged. "If he's being that rude he must have an idea," she replied. "I can forgive him when he's being clever."

She left Jack behind to jog to the Doctor's side. She helped him move the large canister from in front of the door. "What are you thinking, Spaceman?" she asked. "Is it something to do with Morpheus?"

"I'd bet my collection of Rolling Stones records on it," he said through his grunt as they moved it out of the way. "I think they're generated when the machines are used."

She frowned. "You mean they're like, electronic waste?"

He shook his head. "They're organic," he explained. "They're part of us. Well, part of the users of Morpheus. They're sleep dust."

~0~0~0~

So, a little change in episode order, I know. I wanted Jack there for something because... well, cause he's Jack. Who doesn't want Jack around a little longer?

Reviews were lovely, but I'm absolutely exhausted so no replies today. I love them all, I'm glad that you didn't all hate the last chapter, and I hope you all like this one :)