The Doctor woke up with a start. As his eyes adjusted to the dimly lit surroundings, he saw that he was chained to a chair in a large room.
"Arthur! "He cried, looking around for his young companion.
"Doctor!" Replied Arthur, from a metal table to which he was chained. "What's going on?"
"Don't worry Arthur, I'll get you out of there!"
The Doctor studied the room. It was large, but completely unlit except for the light coming from the machines that were placed around the room.
"It looks like a laboratory, or medical room of some sort" he said.
At that moment, the lights suddenly switched on, and the dog they had seen in the alleyway entered the room.
"Doctor! It's the dog! What's it doing here? What's going on?" cried Arthur
"Yes, Arthur, I know" replied the Doctor "But you're no ordinary dog are you now? Show yourself!"
The collar on the dog's neck began to glow, and suddenly, in the blink of an eye, there stood a large strange creature in the dog's place.
Arthur gave a small high-pitched yell of shock
"what just happened?!How did that dog change into...into... THAT?!"
"THAT" was a creature with the head of a vicious looking wolf on top of a humanoid body covered with fur. It was wearing a suit of black and shiny material.
As if in response to the boy's question, the creature said, in a deep guttural voice, "I am Tommen III of the S.S COSMOS from The Intergalactic Republic Of Planet Basker V."
To everyone's surprise, the Doctor laughed loudly. "You're a dog and your name's Tommy? Ha! How original!" he said, and continued laughing.
"Silence!" growled Tommen III
"Oh c'mon! Even you've got to admit that's funny!" he said merrily, barely supressing a chuckle
"Do not insult me! I hold your life in my hands-I can crush it with ease if I so wish!"
Up until this point, Arthur, paralysed with fear and shock, had been rendered speechless by everything that was going on. At this point, however, he suddenly snapped out of it and asked loudly "Doctor! What's going on?!I don't understand! Who-WHAT is that?!"
"That is a Lykoi, from planet Basker No.5," explained the Doctor calmly "He's an alien, Arthur, he's not from our world"
"But that isn't possible!" howled Arthur, by now very confused and descending into hysteria
"I'm afraid it is, ," said the Doctor gently, in a soothing voice "You're going to be okay.I will get you out of here will be okay."
"What do you want from us Tommen?" said the Doctor to the Lykoi
"Nothing from are not human. We need human bodies for our research, like the one of your little friend here" replied Tommen, as he stepped towards the table on which Arthur was secured. He picked up an injection and what seemed to be a surgical knife from a tray. But the instruments were not proper ones-they were crude and blunt, instead of sharp and precise, like you would expect surgical equipment to be.
"Now, wait-hang on a minute," began the Doctor. The Lykoi ignored him and stood over Arthur, his instruments poised.
"Doctor! Help!" screamed Arthur
"Wait! You can't do that! Just wait for a minute! Listen to me!" yelled the Doctor at the same time.
Tommen paid no heed to their protests and continued with his work. He bent over Arthur and placed the knife on his chest. He was just about to cut through Arthur's skin, when suddenly, at that precise moment, the lights went out.
"Oh not again!" Grumbled Tommen under his breath. He put down the instruments and walked out of the room. The Doctor heaved a sigh of relief.
"Whew! That was close! Now then," he said, peering into his coat "If I could just reach it..." He bent his head into his coat "Aha!" He exclaimed, pulling out the sonic screwdriver from his inner coat pocket with is teeth. He dropped it into his open palm and then twisted it around so that it was pointing at the locks that bound his wrists to the chair. He unlocked them, and then did the same for the locks on his legs and the chain around his torso. He jumped out of his chair and used the sonic screwdriver to help Arthur out of his chains. While the Doctor had been doing all this ,Arthur had been trying to wrap his head around the situation-around the fact that he a was inside a strange room with a man he had only just met and had almost been dissected by an alien that was disguised as a dog. Needless to say, his efforts had been in vain, for all this was simply too much for a fourteen year old boy to process. He was trying to stay calm and divorce himself from the feelings of panic and fear that were welling up inside him, but his emotions got the better of him.
"Doctor! "He screamed, once he had been freed. "Can you please explain to me what is going on?" He said in a strained voice.
"Well, I'm not exactly sure,- and I might be wrong, but I'm usually right about these sort of things, so I'll tell you what I know, while I'm figuring out the bits I don't know" he said, running towards the door. Arthur followed him, and they stepped out into a dimly-lit corridor.
"Doctor, where are we?" asked Arthur as they walked rapidly along the hallway
"We are aboard an alien spaceship-the S.S COSMOS according to Tommy over there."
"And what was that …creature?"
"That was a Lykoi are a species of the planet Basker V, located in the Cumber galaxy"
"But...but...it was a moment it was a dog, and the next-it was that ...that thing...the Lykoi-How?!"
The Doctor began to explain, talking very fast.
You saw that collar he was wearing? That was a perception filter. It was changing your perception of it so that you couldn't see its true form. That explains how they've been going around capturing people without drawing attention to themselves-nobody pays attention to the dogs! The question is though, why the mist? Modern perception filters are developed enough not to require fog as an additional vision alterer, but some of the older ones do. No one uses them anymore though, except for the ones..."
He stopped dead in his tracks, realisation dawning on him "except for the ones kept as emergencies on ships! Of course! They crash-landed! They must've lost their equipment in the crash and are using the emergency supplies. That would explain those horrible crude surgical instruments. It would also explain the constant power cuts-repair work causes fluctuations. Oh look! Here we are!" They had reached a small nook in wall which had a large screen on tithe Doctor walked straight towards it and pointed his screwdriver at the screen. It hummed to life and displayed the ships vital statistics along with schematic diagrams.
"Right then." said the Doctor, looking at the screen "We need to find out what the Lykoi are doing here" He reached inside his coat for his screwdriver, but then seemed to notice something on the side of the screen. "Ohhhh it's one of those...brilliant!"
"Computer! State the purpose of the Lykoi on planet Earth!" he said loudly
"The Lykoi have come to planet Earth in order to research and gather information for Project Recuperation VI" said a cool female voice
"What's Project Recuperation VI?"
"The planet Basker V has been used to its maximum capacity and must now be abandoned for it contains inadequate resources to sustain its extensive population. The project is aimed at finding a new habitat for the has been chosen as the most suitable for Lykoi rehabilitation."
"But hang on a minute, the Earth has its own 'extensive population'. It can't support humans and Lykoi"

"The human race will be eliminated to make way for Lykoi recuperation"
"No, I'm afraid it will not be eliminated-not while I'm around say, just in case,you would be able to do something like that- how exactly would you go about destroying a population of seven billion humans with one broken down ship?"
"The S.S Cosmos is merely a research ship whose mission is to gather information about the indigenous population and establish a battle plan that attacks weaker human characteristics. This plan will be established at Planet Basker V to which the SS COSMOS will return after its research mission has been completed. Once this plan of attack has been finalised the battleships will implement it on planet Earth."
"That's not good" said the Doctor
"Doctor," said Arthur, his confusion increasing and his fear mounting, "Can you please explain to me what's going on?"
"Right Arthur, we're in a bit of a hurry, so I'll give you the brief version, shall The Lykoi are an alien species from planet Basker 're are a kind of semi-nomadic people. They have a history of over-utilising the resources of whatever planet they inhabit and when that happens, they just move to another one. They've inhabited around 50 planets till now,including10 Zoltars,8 Strongars,7 Drallfens and 5 they've done it again and are looking for a sixth seems to be a good match for them, but there's a tiny problem -the Earth's already inhabited, so being the dogs-literally-that they are, they decided that eliminating the existing population would be the best thing to ,they send out a research team to find out more about humans, and all their weak points, so that it's easier for them to be 's why all those people have been disappearing-the Lykoi have been abducting them so that they can be dissected. Did you get all that Arthur?"
Arthur still looked very confuse, but he nodded "Yes..." he said slowly "I think I understand."
"Brilliant!" said the Doctor, smiling "You're a smart boy Arthur!"
Arthur returned the smile tentatively. "So how long are they going to stay here? They can't keep taking people and killing them!"

"Good question Arthur," replied the Doctor. He turned to the screen and asked "Computer! How much of the mission is left?"
"95% of mission has been completed.5% remains."
"And what is this 5%?"
"The data collection on the human progeny"
"Kids! That's why they took Arthur! How much time us left before you fly back to your planet?"
"Approximately 24 hours
"Oh good! We have time then!"
But at that moment, the computer screen flashed red. "News update" it said "The S.S Cosmos will commence its return journey in 2 hours"
"What?!" exclaimed the Doctor "But how can you? You never got a chance to examine the child!"

"It has been determined that the human progeny is characteristically similar to the parent. Its examination is not required."
"But still-you can't leave! Your ship's broken down!"
"Maintenance work is in progress. It will be completed in 2 hours.
"Uh-oh" said the Doctor, his eyes wide "that's not good... that's very not good!"

"Commander, the boy and the Time Lord have escaped."
"Where are they now?"
"They are in west corridor 7, agents near Screen D45 report that they have acquired information about Project Recuperation VI. Should we order the attack, sir?"
" them to keep following him. Going by our previous knowledge of Time Lords, he is undoubtedly more technologically advanced than we are. If he tries to stop us by changing the systems, we will be unable to reverse what he does,unless we know what changes he has made and the soldiers to keep observing his actions and reporting them."
"Yes,sir."