The first creature was followed by two more that were about the same size, and one smaller one that must have been a child. For the moment they were peroccupied with exploring the room, but once they smelled fresh meat, the Doctor knew that would change.
"Sorrell" the girl breathed, desperatly trying to get his attention, but not the attention of the tharl. "Go over to that computer and start the power-up sequence."
"But… but that would… oh!"
The Doctor and Braxton looked at each other. Apparently Sorrell now inderstood the plan. The Doctor didn't like this feeling of not knowing what was going on; it had happened once before and he had vowed to himself that he would never let it happen again. He wanted to go and ask Sorrell what was happening, or call out to the stupid girl on the other side of the energy wall, but he daren't move or speak incase he got the attention of the tharl, which could end up being deadly for Jmpsuit Girl.
Sorrell was now pressing buttons with amazing speed, causing something to whirr loudly, and the platform that the girl was stood on to light up.
"Stop!" the Doctor called out, but it was too late. Whatever Sorrell was doing had caused the tharl to notice that there was something edable in the centre of the room.
"Commander, stay still, okay, don't move a muscle." Braxton ordered.
"I have to." She told him. "I need all of them on the platform, and I don't really want to be here when Sorrell activates it."
"You mean we're going to-"
"Yes." The girl interupted.
"Not a bad idea, if I may say so." Braxton was clearly impressed.
"You may. Sorrell, are we ready?"
"Almost commander!"
"Get a move on, whatever you're doing!" The doctor felt very left out now. He was the only person who didn't know what was going on and he really didn't like it at all. He could only watch, helpless with horror.
While they had been having this conversation, the tharl had devised a plan of action to catch their dinner. They were all approaching the platform from different angles, leaving their intended prey with only one escape route. She took it, slowly backing away towards the energy wall. Even she looked scared now. Maybe this hadn't been the best of ideas… but it was too late to turn back now.
"Ready!" Sorrell cried triumphantly.
"Good" she whispered. "Activate on my command."
She took another step back, off the platform. The creatures were getting worryingly close now; everyone held their breath.
"Commander?" Sorrell clearly thought that this had gone on long enough.
"Wait for it... wait for it…" The smallest tharl stepped forward, onto the platform. Clearly excited, it growled at the girl, who squared her shoulders and took another step back. All of the tharl were now on the platform, and one of them was bending forward, almost as if it was going to pounce.
"Commander…" Braxton warned.
"Wait for it" she told him again, taking another step back, now inches from her colleagues.
It happened so fast, had the Doctor blinked he could have missed it. The tharl pounced, and the girl yelled an order to Sorrell, who pressed a button on his computer. The room was filled with a blinding light, that even the Doctor had to shield his eyes from, and the whirring became almost deafening. Then it was gone. And so were the tharl.
The girl went over to a console and turned off the energy wall, before turning around and grinning at them all. She was clearly very pleased with herself.
"Where did they go?" the Doctor asked, cringing at having to ask such a rookie question.
"That," the girl told him, pointing to the platform, "is my time machine."
The Doctor thought about it for a moment. "You… sent them back in time?"
"I sent them back in time.
"I always wondered how they got there." Braxton said with a thoughtful expression. The girl laughed.
"Come on" she told them. "Let's go and get Jenny, then get you two on your way." The Doctor smiled. Talk about role reversal.
* * *
20 minutes later the Doctor finaly breathed again as he held his daughter in his arms. He hadn't realised how tense he had been until he relaxed. Jenny was the most important thing in the whole of space and time to him, and nothing, no tharl, no daleks, no… creepy girls in brown jumpsuits were ever going to make him let her out of his sight ever again.
He remembered this thought later, and hated himself for it.
The Doctor had his arm around Jenny as they followed the crew down a corridor, up some stairs and round a corner. He wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, he was just happy to be re-united with the pretty blonde girl beside him. He just wanted to get her back to the TARDIS and to whisk her away form the dangers of this place.
The quiet man, Sorrell, tapped the Doctor on the shoulder, and he turned round. What he saw made him go weak at the knees. There was no time to think; he grabbed Jenny's hand and yelled one word
"RUN!"
As predictable as ever, instead of following the command immediatley, the others turned around to see what was causing all of the panic. And they all regretted it.
Behind them was a tharl. It was bigger than the ones in the control room, with what looked like scars on it's face. It was the scariest thing they had ever seen, and that was saying something. They ran. They ran for their lives. And the creature followed them.
The Doctor didn't know how it happened, but somehow he lost Jenny. One moment she was at his side, holding his hand, keeping up with him , and the next she was gone. And so were the others. On the plus side the tharl was gone too, but he didn't have a clue where he was, or where they had gone. Had he taken a wrong turning? He backtracked down the corridor, but nothing looked familiar; he had been concentrating so much on getting away that he hadn't been paying attention to where he was going. And now he was lost.
* * *
"What do you mean you don't know where he is?!" The girl was furious. She looked aroung the Great Hall at her crew, but none of them answered her. She took several deep breaths. If she wasn't careful she could lose control in front of Jenny, and that was a risk she couldn't take.
"Go and look for him." She commanded. "Me and Jenny will stay here, incase he turns up. Find him and bring him back here so we can get them back to the TARDIS and fix this mess. GO!"
The crew divided into pairs and headed for the door. The girl closed it behind them and colapsed to the floor, her back against the cold metal of the door, her head in her hands.
"Are you okay?" a quiet voice asked.
"Stressed. And tired. It never changes with him. It's always the same, one problem after another. And it has to be fixed Jenny. Even if it means constructing a time machine and trecking through half of history to do it."
Jenny was about to respond, but there was a clang on the other side of the door, making them both jump.
"Maybe we should go and get the TARDIS, and bring it back here. You can drive it, just as well as dad can. Let's go and get it and bring it back here. And maybe we could use it to find him, before that creature does."
The girl smiled "You had me at 'drive'."
Minutes later, the two girls were wandering down the deserted corridor, hunting for the TARDIS. The corridor looked even more ominous to Jenny than it had earlier; she couldn't decide whether it was because her dad was missing, or because she had seen one of the creatures that had made all the scratches and destroyed all of the furnature. They both knew that it was a very real posssability that there was another tharl still in the corridor somewhere, but neither of them mentoined it, prefering to walk in silence towards their destination.
It took about 10 minutes to locate the Doctor. He was wandering the halls aimlessly, trying to find something he recognised. When found, he made some grumbled remark about the whole ship looking the same, and followed them back to the Hall in moody silence.
"Where's Jenny?" he asked, looking around the room.
"We think they went to get the TARDIS" Celia answered quietly.
"They what?" The Doctor was stunned. It was the worst plan he had ever heard. They had wandered off, which was against his only rule, and more than that, they had wandered into danger; there was always a creature protecting the nest, it was instinctual.
He didn't say any of this to the crew; there wasn't time. He dashed off towards the door, ignoring the big man's offer of a gun, running down the deserted corridor after his daughter.
"He's almost as unpredictable as she is" Sorrell whispered. The others couldn't help agreeing.
Jenny and the girl found the TARDIS with no problems. It was exactly where they had left it, not a scratch on her. Jenny unlocked the door and they stepped inside. The girl stopped and smiled.
"It always manages to surprise me, this thing." She told Jenny.
"Because it's bigger on the inside?" mocked the blonde.
"Because it's magnificent" the other girl answered. She stepped forward, a dazed expression on her face, and gently ran her hand over the control pannel almost lovingly. "I missed it." She whispered.
"Why did you give it up?" Jenny asked without thinking. "I don't think I ever could."
The girl's expression changed from one of happiness to one of pain. "He died" she said quietly, averting her yes and busying herself with one of the controls.
Jenny was in shock. Surely she hadn't heard right, or she had missunderstood… the Doctor couldn't have… "died?" she whispered.
"Yes" the girl answered without looking up "He was killed. Murdered. By the one other man I thought I could trust. I was right there watching and there was nothing I could do. I thought I-" the girl's voice broke, and Jenny noticed tears running down her face. "I was in love with him Jenny, and then he killed him."
Jenny didn't know what to say. At some point in the future, some point after they met this girl, her dad was going to be killed by someone that this girl was in love with.
"So you built a time machine and decided to go back and change it?" Jenny whispered eventually. The girl looked her squarely in the eye.
"Wouldn't you?"
The pair stood in silence for a minute, giving each other time to dry their eyes and compose themselves.
"Let's go and get your dad" the girl said, as if nothing had happened. Pulling a lever, she spurred the TARDIS into action, causing the familiar whiring sound to fill their ears.
* * *
The creature sniffed the air and snarled. The others had left ages ago… too long ago. They should have been back by now.
It was bored. It was the most juniour of the pack that was old enough to be left guarding the nest, so it was always the one to be left behind. It wanted to hunt it's own dinner for a change.
Suddenly it heard a sound, a strange whirring sound. The same strange whirring sound they had heard earlier, before they had discovered the possability of meat in the area.
The creature grinned and turned in the direction the whirring was coming from. That sound meant food. And the creature was hungry.