A/N: Start of The Impossible Planet. Thank you for the response on The Idiot's Lantern, I'm glad people were happy that I was back!

Strange Happenings

John cocked his head as the TARDIS groaned and shuddered its way through a rocky landing. Worse than usual, and that was saying something. The Wolf looked confused as well as she led the way outside. "That was weird," John mentioned from behind her.

The Wolf nodded. "I don't know what's wrong though," she replied, brow furrowed. "Didn't want to land, did you, love?" she asked the ship, rubbing her doors worriedly. "Sort of queasy. Indigestion?"

Bad.

"Well, if she thinks there's going to be trouble, we could always get back inside and go somewhere else," John suggested. The two looked at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter.

The Wolf composed herself. "I think we've landed inside a cupboard," she noted, holding back giggles as she explored the small space. "Here we go," she said as she found a door, pushing it open into another empty, but larger, room.

"Open door fifteen," a female computer voice intoned.

The Wolf looked around curiously. "Some sort of base. Moon base, sea base, space base. They build these things out of kits."

"Close door fifteen," the computer said.

"That's going to get annoying," John murmured. "Good thing we're indoors, though. Listen to the wind. Sounds like a major storm out there."

Bad.

"Open door sixteen."

"Human design," the Wolf observed as they walked through a corridor, still looking around them at the base structure. "You've got a thing about kits. This place was put together like a flat pack wardrobe, only bigger. And easier."

"Open door seventeen."

"Oh, it's a sanctuary base," the Wolf said excitedly, eying the new room with appreciation. "Deep space exploration. We've gone way out."

"D'you hear that, Wolf?" John asked. There was a grinding noise that seemed to come from below.

"Underneath. Someone's drilling," she told him.

John spotted wording on the wall behind the Wolf. "Welcome to hell," he read.

"Oh, come on, Johnny. It's not that bad," she reprimanded.

John rolled his eyes. "No, Wolf. Over there." He pointed at the phrase.

The Wolf turned. "Odd," she remarked. She knelt down to look at the alien symbols beneath the English words. "Now what does this say? That's weird, it won't translate."

"But the TARDIS translates everything for me," John pointed out. "Even writing. And you speak four billion languages or whatever."

"Exactly. If that's not working and I can't read it, then it means this writing is old. Impossibly old. Or Gallifreyan, which this most decidedly is not. Since I can read Gallifreyan," the Wolf let slip.

"The TARDIS translated Gallifreyan for me. Back when you were in that regeneration coma. That book was in Gallifreyan."

"We should find out who's in charge," the Wolf interrupted, ignoring him. John looked at her suspiciously but let the comment slide. He'd ask her about her evasiveness later. She spun the wheel on another bulkhead door, opening it. "We've gone beyond the reach of the TARDIS' knowledge. Not a good move."

As the Wolf spoke, a low buzzing built in John's ears. He shook his head, trying to make it go away as door nineteen swung open. He and the Wolf both started when aliens with tentacles where their noses and mouths should have been and tubes leading to a glowing white globe in their hands were revealed.

"Oh!" the Wolf said in surprise. "Right. Hello! Sorry, I was just saying, er, nice base."

The buzz in John's head increased in volume, and then the aliens said, "We must feed."

John's stomach clenched in apprehension. "You've got to what?" the Wolf asked.

"We must feed."

"Yeah, I think they mean us," John muttered, backing away and pulling the Wolf along with him.

The aliens entered the room and the Wolf and John retreated even further. "We must feed. We must feed. We must feed." The noise in John's head got louder with every sentence the aliens spoke. More of them entered from other doors.

The Wolf pulled out her sonic screwdriver and held it out in front of her defensively. John eyed a chair, but decided it wouldn't be much use against the fifty odd menacing aliens approaching them.

"We must feed," one alien said as the others fell silent. It tapped on its globe with its free hand, and the noise in John's head suddenly ceased. "You, if you are hungry," it finished politely.

"Sorry?" the Wolf asked.

"We apologize," the alien said. "Electromagnetics have interfered with speech systems. Would you like some refreshment?"

The Wolf didn't relax. "Er –"

"Open door eighteen."

Sever people barged into the room. "What the hell?" a middle aged man exclaimed. "How did –"

The aliens made way for the newcomers. The man who had spoken originally activated what appeared to be a communicator on his wrist. "Captain, you're not going to believe this. We've got people. Out of nowhere," he said. "I mean, real people. I mean two living people, just standing here right in front of me."

"Don't be stupid," a man's voice crackled over the comm. "That's impossible."

"I suggest telling them that."

John spoke up. "But you're in a space base. You must have visitors now and then. Can't be that impossible."

The man looked at him in confusion. "You're telling me you don't know where you are?"

The Wolf grinned. "No idea. More fun that way," she said cheerfully.

A young female's voice interrupted over a loudspeaker. "Stand by everyone. Buckle down. We have incoming. And it's a big one. Quake point five on its way."

The man punched open a door. "Through here, now," he ordered. "Quickly, come on! Move!" he yelled when the Wolf and John didn't immediately obey. The pair rushed through the door, the man following and the strange aliens trailing after them.

As they were being ushered down a corridor, John heard the Wolf muttering to herself. "Low level telepathic synchronization with potential for infinite branching. Similar to the ancient Samayed race, extinct in twenty point five." She went on, but John didn't interrupt, letting her puzzle her private thoughts out on her own. She'd tell him if she felt the need.

The man that appeared to be in charge directed them into a large room with multiple computers lining the central area. A dark skinned man was standing in the middle, directing things around them. His mouth dropped open when he saw the two strangers. "Oh, my God. You meant it," he said in disbelief.

"People!" a young girl with the same voice they had heard over the intercom said excitedly. "Look at that, real people!"

"That's us. Definitely real," the Wolf announced, a bit uncomfortably. "Hooray!"

"My name's John," John introduced himself when she forgot. "Doctor John Smythe. She's the Wolf."

"Been a while since we've had a doctor on board. Ours died on the landing. Got a bit messy," the man who appeared to be the captain said.

"Come on," an Indian looking young man scoffed, "the oxygen must be offline. We're hallucinating. They can't be – no, they're real."

"Come on," the captain ordered, "we're in the middle of an alert! Danny, strap up," he told the Indian man. "The quake's coming in! Impact in thirty seconds. Sorry you two, whoever you are. Just hold on tight."

"Hold on to what, exactly?" John asked.

"Anything. I don't care. Just hold on. Ood, are we fixed?" the captain asked.

"Your kindness in this emergency is much appreciated," one of the aliens that were apparently called the Ood replied. The captain rolled his eyes at the response.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

"What's this planet called anyway?" the Wolf asked over the flurry of activity around them.

An older woman stared at her like she was insane. "Now, don't be stupid," she berated. "It hasn't got a name. How could it have a name?" The Wolf and John stared at her, clueless. "You really don't know, do you?" Realization dawned on her.

"And impact!" the captain yelled, gripping the central console.

The entire structure shook in its foundation, nearly sending the Wolf and John crashing to the floor, but they both gripped on to the railing in front of them, holding tight. The quake ended after a few seconds. The Wolf straightened, smiling breathlessly. "Well, that wasn't so bad." As if hearing her words, a second quake began, much worse than the first one. Consoles burst into flames around them as the crew held on for dear life.

John was thrown to the ground. Suddenly, it felt like his stomach dropped down through the floor and into the ground below, making him ache in a way he'd never felt before. The feeling passed quickly, but it left him with a sense of distance and foreboding. He lay there, unhurt but nervous, until the shaking finally stopped. The Wolf didn't look much better than he did.

The captain stood up, looking around. "Okay, that's it," he announced. "Everyone alright? Speak to me, Ida."

The older woman – Ida – answered. "Yeah, yeah!" she affirmed.

"Danny?"

"Fine," Danny said nervously.

"Toby?"

A blonde young man that hadn't spoken yet answered distractedly. "Yeah, fine."

"Scooti?"

The young woman reported, "No damage."

"Jefferson?"

"Check," the older soldier said.

"We're fine," John grumbled under his breath, getting to his feet. "Thanks, fine. Yeah, don't worry about us." The Wolf shot him an amused glance, but kept quiet.

"The surface caved in," the captain told them, scanning a schematic of the base's structure. "I deflected it onto storage five through eight. We've lost them completely. Toby, go and check the rocket link."

Toby stared at him. "That's not my department," he said, as though the answer should have been obvious.

The captain rounded on him. "Just do as I say, yeah?" he ordered. Toby nodded and left without another word.

"Oxygen holding. Internal gravity fifty six point six," Ida recited. "We should be okay."

"Never mind the earthquake," John spoke up. "That's one hell of a storm. What is that, a hurricane?"

"You'd need an atmosphere for a hurricane," Scooti replied. "There's no air out there. It's a complete vacuum."

"How can that work, then, the roof shaking? Motion is constant in a vacuum, neither gaining nor losing momentum. There can't very well be wind blowing," John pointed out.

The Wolf looked at him with pride in her eyes. "Glad to see hanging around me has taught you something," she praised him.

John grinned. "I do pay attention to your rambles sometimes," he teased back.

"You're not joking," Ida said in disbelief. "You really don't know." She shook her head. "Well, introductions. FYI, as they said in the olden days. I'm Ida Scott, science officer. Zachary Cross Flane, acting captain, sir." She saluted before moving on. "You've met Mister Jefferson, he's head of security. Danny Bartok, Ethics committee."

"Not as boring as it sounds," Danny butted in.

"And that man that just left, that was Toby Zed, Archaeology, and this is Scooti Manista, Trainee maintenance. And this? This is home." Ida pulled down a lever and the roof began to move. She turned to them. "Brace yourselves. The sight of it sends some people mad."

"That's a black hole," John said, stunned as he stared at the white hot disc shaped phenomenon with a black center that was dragging bits into it constantly.

"But that's impossible," the Wolf muttered.

"I did warn you," Ida said.

"We're standing under a black hole," the Wolf reiterated.

"In orbit," Ida confirmed.

"But we can't be."

"You can see for yourself. We're in orbit."

"But we can't be," the Wolf insisted once more.

"This lump of rock is suspended in perpetual geostationary orbit around that black hold without falling in," Ida described. "Discuss."

"That's bad, right?" John asked the Wolf quietly. "My physics class didn't go into that much detail about black holes and how they work. Pretty sure we don't actually have that many details."

"Bad doesn't cover it," the Wolf answered darkly. "A black hole's a dead star. It collapses on itself, in and in and in until the matter is so dense and tight it starts to pull everything else in too. Nothing in the universe can escape it. Light, gravity, time. Time especially goes strange in a black hole – becomes something you can influence. My people studied the phenomena extensively. We put what we learned to use in some of our first TARDIS' that were grown. But eventually, everything just gets pulled inside and crushed. Black holes are uncontrollable."

"So they can't be in orbit," John extrapolated. "We should have been pulled right in."

"And yet here we are." They had forgotten about Ida. "Beyond the laws of physics. Welcome on board."

"So if there's no atmosphere out there, then what's that?" John asked, pointing toward the howling wind overhead.

"Stars breaking up. Gas clouds. We have whole solar systems being ripped apart above our heads, before falling into that thing," Ida explained.

"So, a bit worse than a storm, then," John surmised drily.

"Just a bit."

John nodded. The base shook again, causing John to get a new handle on the railing in order to ride it out. The Wolf was silent beside him, obviously trying to puzzle out just how to get them out of their latest mess.

Bad.

A/N: This is just the introduction. In the next couple of chapters, we really get into some interesting stuff. Thanks for reading. You're all wonderful!