Disclaimer; There is some mild language and distressing/scary scenes.
All Alone In The Night.
Chapter 2
The Doctor pushed the barrel of the gun upwards with his umbrella and quickly stepped between the gunman and Ace. He couldn't really allow Ace to killed, not only would that mean he'd lost another companion it would also mean he would be alone, and he really didn't want to go looking for someone else to travel around with him. The young man regarded him with suspicion, an air of defiance surrounded his words.
"Who are you?"
"I am the Doctor and this is Ace." This was a very unusual way of starting a conversation? "Can I ask why you have just threatened to kill my companion?"
"You're not from round here." His cold blue eyes were not going to give anything away. The red tunic ran down like a jacket too small at the front to close, silver buttons ran in two lines from the neck and down the shoulders.
The Doctor glanced down to the six silver buttons, attached for decorative purpose, on the front of the tunic, at the stomach. He looked into the silver sheen of the buttons at the engraved emblem but it was too warn away to make out clearly. Slowly retracting his umbrella, the Doctor watched as the gun was lowered to the young mans side and the cock, released with out him even needing to look.
"I'm Tanim, I patrol this sector." He still eyed them with an air of suspicion. "Where did you come from, this area is out of bounds to civilians?" He was scrutinizing both the Doctor and Ace, their appearance in his sector could mean only one thing. "Stelos should have waited, I told him to wait."
The Doctor regarded this young guard with mild amusement. Once again he and Ace had managed to land in the wrong place at the wrong time. What was he going to say to get him out of it this time. His nag of tricks was running low, maybe it was time for the direct approach. "You seem to have mistaken us for someone else. We have just arrived here."
Lowering his voice he leaned closer to the Doctor. "I know, I know, just get lost till high call. The guards change then, you'll be able to get in, I'll keep the relief guard talking, that should give you time to get in and retrieve the files." He looked at the Doctor and Ace still stood there, couldn't they take a hint? "Get out of here."
"Professor?" Ace was confused, but she was used to it by now. "Professor?"
The Doctor turned round and took her arm. "Come my dear." He guided her away from the young guard who was looking round the area. He was obviously watching for someone, someone who he really didn't want to come past wile they were there.
After turning down a dark alley Ace pulled out of the Doctors grip. "What's going on Professor?"
"The revolt is beginning my dear Ace and we have just been mistaken for Emmiline Pankhurst." Glancing round the corner the Doctor could see the TARDIS, it was only a few feet away, but if that guard was still stood in the shadows they would have a lot of trouble explain why they were going back. Letting his eyes roam the alley he caught a glimpse of a welcome sight "Hungry?" With that he started to walk off down the ally.
Ace couldn't work out why he was going on about Emmiline Pankhurst, she wasn't sure, but Ace thought that that was the woman who had started the suffragette movement, she made the government re-think the law on women having the right to vote. What did British woman getting the right to vote have to do with this planet? She turned to see the Doctor slowly disappearing into the darkness of the alley, slinging her, sliding bag, back onto her shoulder she ran down the alley after him. "Knowing the Professor, it's got nothing to do with it... Professor, wait up."
---------------------------------------------------------------
The pool was cold, the thick liquid oozed between his thighs as he moved. The cushion of gelatinous fluid held his hair less, deformed, head safely as he opened those obsidian eyes to a would of darkness where fear would never hold him it's it grip nor compassion ever taint the heart that beat within his chest. His long fingers reached out, the warm liquid flowing past his hand as it reached the surface.
The room was dark around him, slowly the generators were starting up and breathing light and life into the dank stale room of rock. Pulling himself over the top of the stasis vat he fell to the floor. His bones jarred against the hard ground as lumps of gel dropped from his naked body crawled toward the suit. The suit retention chamber lit as he reached it, his long fingers reaching out for the release lever.
Green globals of semi-hardening liquid dotted the floor from the vat to the chamber as the orange glow of phosphorescent lights grew brighter. The hiss of the door sliding back as he reached his target, filled the cavernous room. His body shivering, the sickly grey skin crawled as he raised himself from the harsh floor. His face a twisted visage of insanity look all the more disfigured in the harsh lights of the chamber as he pulled himself up to the suit. His skin surrounded by the cold hard steel, his face encased in that great helmet, he would instill fear wherever he traveled Feeling the connections latching into place he felt the suit come alive, the life force pumped round the inhuman facade as he moved it from it's place of rest. It's place of imprisonment.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Pushing the thin steel door open the Doctor walked into the well lit room. The counter ran the length of the back wall with all manner of bottles standing on shelves behind it. The soft light flowed down from lamps covered with a deep red netting that seemed suspended in the air. He caught sight of the old man behind the counter and walked between the jumble of tables. He noticed how fine the cloths draped over the tables were, the intricate patterns weaved on them both wondrous and elegant in one flawless piece of material. Reaching the bar the Doctor glanced at a row of keys that were hung on nails along the wall at the end of the counter.
Ace clambered through the door and stopped at the sight of this rather comfortable looking room. "Professor, why didn't you wait up?" Passing between the tables to join the Doctor Ace glanced round at the pictures of the uniformed men on the walls, all of them with those sharp ridges running from the corners of the eyes around into the hair above the ears, she had noticed similar ridges, just not as pronounced. The medals were awesome, she had always liked oddities. She always wondered if that was the reason she got on the with the doctor so well.
"I think it's time we got some sleep." Taking a key from the little dark haired man from behind the counter the Doctor turned toward a door to the left and walked toward it.
The little man's brown eyes sparkled when he looked at Ace, she noticed how he resembled the men in the pictures. She wondered if they were his grandfathers, or some distant relatives. Glancing back as she walked through the doorway she saw the look of greed on his face as he watched her move.
They walked down a shabby corridor, the walls adorned with tatty tapestry's and pictured rugs only broken by the wall mounted lamps that, as in the lobby, were covered with deep red netting. Ace was looking round, the Doctor seemed not to notice the degradation on the doors that they were passing. She noticed how some were almost warn away at the corners and the odd one had chunks missing from their handles. A yellowish mist was seeping from the crack between the floor and one of the doors on the left, the air tasted of opium and she felt herself go a little dizzy as she rushed past, trying not to stay too long in the mist.
The Doctor had stopped at a door near the end of the corridor. He was twisting the key in the door but, to no avail, it would not open. Pushing hard against the door his shoulder slammed into the wood. A sharp pain ran down his arm and his hand shook. The door was not going to open. Turning to walk back toward the lobby.
Ace too the key from his hand as he turned.
"Ace?" He didn't have top wait long to see what his mistake had been.
She pushed the key into the lock. "Back at home, there was this old shed." She turned the key. "We deiced to use it as a hideout so we fitted the a lock to it." Holding the key in it's unlocked position, she grasped the handle. "It was attached to the handle so you had to turn the key and handle before the door would..." Turning the handle Ace pushed the door open. "Open."
---------------------------------------------------------------
In the lobby, the little man with the green eyes reached under the counter and pulled out a transmitter. It's long aerial had to be pulled out to full length and then moved to find a decent reception before he could pick up the handset and enter the frequency code. The signal cracked and white noise hissed over the channel.
"March heir to Wonderland... March heir to Wonderland..." He waited eagerly for a response.
"Wonderland receiving." The gruff voice echoed round the room. He turned the volume down and adjusted the pitch.
"Wonderland, Snow white has entered the forest, I repeat, Snow White has entered the forest."
After a short silence the gruff voice crackled back across the air waves.
"The Cheshire Cat will call, keep Snow White locked up."
"Snow White has someone with her. Wonderland, Snow White is not alone." He seemed worried by this, the man who had entered earlier should not have come here. He waited to hear what they would have to say, this had never been part of the plan.
"March heir, keep Snow White and her guest occupied, will inform the Cheshire Cat and proceed from there. Await orders."
The air waves hissed and clacked, the signal had been terminated. Wonderland could deal with it from here. Placing the transmitter back under the counter the little man blustered around the lobby cleaning tables that had never been used in years.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Ace had been sat on the bed since she had looked round the room when they had got in. The two beds seemed soft enough, a small chest of draws stood between the two beds with a motif emblazoned on the handles. Ace couldn't make out what it was, it looked to be made up of a large circle and two smaller ones within it but that was about as good as her eyes were in this dim light.
"Have you noticed how quite it is Professor?"
The Doctor had been watching out of the window, there room looked out on to the back of the building and a court yard that dropped away at least two stories. He had not seen anyone crossing the dark square in the time had been stood there, the only light a dim glow from the surrounding windows. He wasn't even sure of there was a way onto the yard. "It's peaceful Ace."
"Professor..." She rose to her feet and walked toward the window. "It's dead, Dead quite. It's not natural. This city's how big?" She knew then by the look he was giving her his the reflection in the window, that he had already thought of this but had chosen not to say anything. "Oh... why can you not tell me things, it makes me feel really stupid."
"Why don't you get a nice hot bath, it'll make you feel better." The court yard was still silent and the vortex that swirled above him, he still felt uneasy about being here. Glancing in the window he watched as Ace picked up her bag and walked toward the bathroom. Where were they, there was no record of any city in the vortex, there was no record a civilization surviving in the void, he didn't understand it at all.
Ace walked into the Bathroom. The tiled floor, white and green, she noticed with some disgusted that the green was mould growing between the tiles and not the grouting paste. The bath was an off pink colour and the divider that closed round the shower area was a stained glass, stained red and it was not paint. She placed her bag on the floor and turned the shower on using the touch sensitive tags on the side of the bath. Running her hand under the warming water she looked into the swirling liquid spinning down the octagonal plug hole. She could hear the cries of a baby, she could see the creatures rising form the sea... A hand covered her mouth another grasped her arm, she was being pulled back. She tried to struggle but the grip was too strong for her, it felt like the grip of a vice around her mouth. Her breaths were coming short and sharp and soon she was kicking out, striking the bath. She was moving back toward the wall, she kicked out again and this time caught a shelf piled with ornate glass bottles.
The smashing of glass brought his attention back to the here and now,. "Ace!"
Running over to the bathroom door and started hammering on the cold blue wood. He could hear her struggling, she was fighting against someone. "Ace! Let me in!"
-------------------------------
Author's Notes;
If anyone messages me about a 'Mary Sue' opening I will kill... I will try better next time but this is Doctor who.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Unlike some of the other things that I am writing I will try and get into the story as soon as I can and do the exposition along the way, I have no idea if that will work so please let me know what you think.
I would like to thank Laura Harkness, for bringing to my attention the fact my title also appears in the opening credits of Babylon 5; ""The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace: a self-contained world five miles long located in neutral territory, a place of commerce and diplomacy for a quarter of a million humans and aliens, a shining beacon in space, all alone in the night."" This was completely coincidental, but I thought it best that I should mention it. Thank you Laura.
The title; – All Alone In The Night, was also an episode title in season 2 of Babylon five, and is to be used for an up and coming, 2009 (exact release date unknown), production. (see please R&R, no matter how much or little you would like to say, I will be glad to hear all you comments.