I don't own Doctor Who. *Sad face*
A few things that I would like to say:
First, I'm sorry that it took me so long to get this chapter up; my life has been filled with an unusually high level of craziness. My Internet has been down, school is insane, my grandfather got remarried, and I've been helping two of my brothers' move. Thank You all for reading and reviewing.
Second, I would like to take this opportunity to learn from an incident that occurred last week involving a friend's story. I always welcome positive reviews, suggestions, and/or constructive criticism. However, If you have something against me or my story in general, I ask that you PM me or keep it to yourself. It may just be the way that I was raised, but in my opinion it's just common courtesy to say something like "that" privately, instead of posting it for everyone to see. I'm not saying that any of you have or would do this, but it's better to say it now then have a problem later.
Thank you for sticking with me while I was MIA. - badwolf123
Another flash back chapter…
Chapter 5 - The Forest of Frosty Freeze
"What setting do you use to boil water?" The Doctor asked, with that annoying, know-it-all look plastered all over his face.
"247," Laura replied with a smile, confident that she knew this one.
She was about to start gloating, when, with an all too pleased smile, the Doctor replied, "247C, there's an A, B, and C to setting 247. setting A lights things on fire, B melts metal, and C boils water."
"Come on, I just asked to borrow your stupid screw driver for five minutes. If it makes you feel any better, I won't try to boil any water or light anything on fire."
"Oh! So now it's stupid?" The Doctor replied, pretending to be angry.
"Wow!"
They both turned to see the Master standing in the door way on the other side of the room. "Don't mind me, I'm just observing, this is the closest you two have ever come to fighting," he added with a mischievous smirk.
"Oh, forget it!" Laura said turning to the consol. "Where did you say we were going?"
"Frosty Freeze, the tardis has been picking up distress signals coming from the surface." the Doctor replied more seriously now.
"Is that really so unusual?" the Master asked, "I mean given where and what Frosty Freeze is."
Little did humans know, but a mysterious planet called The Forest of Frosty Freeze was actually the closest planet to the sun. The ship captain that discovered it, decided to name it after the original inhabitants, blue living tree shaped stone people. The blue coloring of the Frostonians made them look like trees on Earth on especially cold days in the winter. The planet was concealed by its proximity to the sun, shrouded in a never-ending cloud of steam. The constant solar flairs keep it protected from detection using instruments like radar. It is so close to the sun that you have to wear a special suit to be out side, but even that only workes for five hours of the night, when that side of the planet was most hidden from the sun. That meant that the other thirty-five hours of the day you where trapped inside. This drove most of the prisoners to the brink of insanity.
The original inhabitants had been run out about seventy years ago so that the planet could be turned into a prison. This prison was reserved for the worst of the worst, and those who had been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
During the five hours of each day that it was at all possible to be outside, the prisoners toiled to grow bubble gum plants. Unlike the wimpy bubble gum that humans chew, this was used as a building material. One teaspoon could hold two five thousand pound bricks together. The climate of the planet was perfect for growing the plants, which require heat and very little water. Frosty Freeze is actually the safest planet to grow bubble gum on because it is not safe to have it around large amounts of water. The Guards would bring in large drums of water for the plants and prisoners. The special drums had a device inside that regulated how much water could be pumped out at a time, and it was set so that it would only allow a small trickle of water out the faucet to avoid misshapes.
During the rest of the day the prisoners worked to manufacture ship parts in underground bunkers around the planet. Parts for famous ships, from the pirate ship The Jolly Roger V to the Empirical Cruise Line, came out of Frosty Freeze.
As she stepped out of the tardis, Laura found herself surrounded by greasy old rags and buckets full of murky black water. Rickety shelves held half empty bottles of cleaners, some spilled and leaking over the end of the shelf. "Amazing, the inside of a real mop closet," she said sarcastically as the Doctor stepped out.
"Oh, that's something you don't see everyday, we should document this," the Master called from inside the tardis.
"Just be happy we didn't land on the surface," the doctor replied, opening the door and peering out into the hallway.
"You there!" came a shout from down the hall.
"Who? Me?" the Doctor replied stepping out into the open.
"Yes you," the green, cactus like man standing at the other end of the hall replied. He was wearing a tattered pair of brown overalls over an orange t-shirt. He had a suit made out of a thick black, rubbery material hanging over his arm. "Hurry and suit up and get to the lifts, its time for the surface shift."
"Sorry, this might sound daft, but were new here," he added as Laura and the Master stepped out of the closet, "where would we get suits?"
The man made a grunting noise and turned, motioning for them to follow. Ounce they where changed and in the lift the Doctor turned to the man, "I'm the Doctor, and this is Laura." The Doctor said s he stepped between the alien and The Master.
"And I'm the Master," the Master added, pushing past the Doctor to shake the man's hand.
"I'm Hani, my real name is Hannakaffalatta, but no one can ever remember... or pronounce that, so they call me Hani. I've been hear the longest of anyone that's still alive, twenty-six years next week, so I was in charge while the guards went to get supplies, until three months ago, when those tin men arrived and cut off all communication between us and the outer world. Now we have to make parts for there ships," Hani said with a sad distant look in his eyes. "I've been sending out distress signals, but no one out there cares about a bunch of accused felons. I'm innocent of course, I was framed..."
"What m..." the Doctor interrupted, when the door of the lift creaked open revealing a tall metallic man, "Oh."
"Ya, you could say that," the Master said wide eyed.
Realizing that the cyber man had not yet seen Laura, the Master motioned behind his back for her to hide. She quickly ducked behind the control box and listened.
"Please present your Identification cards," the cyber man demanded.
Hani quickly responded by handing over his "card", a square of half rusted metal. The cyber man seemed satisfied and turned its attention to the Master and the Doctor.
"Ok, here's the thing we don't actually have cards," The Master began.
"Ya, we're new here," The Doctor added.
"You will follow me to be cataloged," the Cyber Man stated forcefully in its computer voice. With that it turned around and began to walk toward a group of people on the other end of the field.
"Give me your screw driver," Laura whispered.
"No, you don't even know the difference between the setting to resonate concrete and the setting to re-attach barbed wire. You'll break it."
"Seriously, at a time like this you're worried about me breaking it! Besides, It's not like it's brand new, it's seen better days," Laura added from behind the rusty control box, "IF something happened you could always get a new one."
"If it is that easy to get one, get your own," the doctor began, "I know how to use it." The Cyber man turned back to check and see that they where following, seeing that they were not it began to walk back toward them.
"Give her/me the screw driver!" The Master and Laura said in unison.
"Fine," he said, giving in and discreetly handing the small device to Laura.
When the Cyber Man came close, The Doctor mumble something about being confused whether they where supposed to stay put or follow. As they walked across the field, Laura slowly peered up at the top of the control box. She found the button she wanted and pressed it. The door slowly creaked shut, leaving her in complete darkness.
Now all I need is a plan, she thought as she examined the device in her hand.
Several hours later, Laura slipped out of the lift and quickly dropped to her hands and knees. There was nothing around to hide behind, but there was no one around, so hopefully staying low would allow her stay unseen. The black rubbery suit was constricting, and made crawling difficult. Finally she made it to the field, where she could stand up.
The plants where about six and a half feet tall, and looked like corn. The only difference was that where the ears of corn would be, there where large round red puffs, roughly the size of a basketball. While bubble gum is mostly used as a building material, very watered down forms of it for household repair and crafts where sold in stores.
Laura remembered the red bottle of "Super Bubblegum" she had when she was in pre-school back on Gallifrey, that was until she had tried to become a scientist and glued a top hat to a frog.
She ran through the field in the direction that the others had gone, and soon she could hear voices. She came to the edge of the field, in front of her where several cyber men, standing with their backs to her. In front of them where group of people in suits identical to hers. Another cyber man and Hani where up on platform. Hani was going on about how every one had done a good job today. She could see him sweat; he was obviously not doing this of his own free will.
She took a deep breath, and stepped out into the open, she had had a whole speech rehearsed but suddenly her mind went blank, an all she could think to say was, "Hey... you... I..." With that she turned and ran back into the field.
"Were doomed," two of the people in black suits said in unison as they watched the Cyber Men pursue their friend.
Stick to the plan, stick to the plan and everything will be fine, Laura repeated several times to herself. "Oh, who am I kidding, were doomed," she said breathlessly.
Finally, she reached the edge of the field. She put her hands on her knees and tried to catch her breath as she looked up at the water tower. She could hear the Cyber Men marching through the field behind her. She fumbled with the screwdriver, trying to adjust the setting. She pointed, and pressed the button, there was a small click, but nothing else. Wrong setting, she scolded herself. She tried again, but as she pointed it at the water spout, the warning siren went off.
"We have to get inside now," Hani yelled, "that siren means that we have fifteen minutes."
"We have to find Laura!" The Master yelled.
"She'll know what that sound means, she can take care of herself," Hani said, motioning for two of the larger inmates to pick The Master and The Doctor up and bring them along.
The sound of the siren had made her pause, realizing that time was of the essence now, she pointed and was about to pushed the button, when a laser hit the screw driver, flinging it out of her hand. She turned toward the field, they where still a ways off, but within firing range.
She reached down and grabbed it, adjusting the setting, she pointed and pressed the button.
Once they where in the elevator, The Master and The Doctor where set down. As the doors began to shut, there was a creek and then a thundering sound, like a waterfall in the distance. They all looked up and saw a wall of water heading toward the field.
"Laura?" The Master said with a smile. The Doctor couldn't tell if he was stating this or asking, but he smiled back.
The ride down felt like it took hours, but finally the doors opened. The Master took off running down the hall, while The Doctor turned to Hani. "The crops will be ruined, but the cyber men should be dealt with. That much water and the bubble gum would have expanded remarkably fast, mixed with the extreme heat, you've got one solid slab of bubble gum. I'm sure that they can send new seeds when the guards return." The Doctor shook Hani's hand, and then took off down the hallway. He stopped a few feet away, "You better hope she's alright, or I blame you for not letting me go look for her, and believe me, you don't want to see me angry." he yelled over his shoulder. He glanced at a gauge that said "outside temperature", and then continued running down the hall.
Laura sat with her back against the water tower, the one part of her brilliant plan that wasn't so brilliant, the large slab of bubble gum was blocking the way back to the lift. She could feel the sweat run down her face and neck as the temperature rose. She was beginning to lose consciousness, when she heard the sound of the tardis materializing. I must be hallucinating, she thought, as she slipped fully into unconsciousness.
Laura's eyes slowly drifted open, the room was dark and the only sound was the tardis's engine humming softly. She walked to the door and stepped out into the hallway. In the light from the lamps in the hall she could see that she had burns all over her body, they had been bandaged and didn't hurt, so she could only assume they had given her something for the pain.
She walked into the control room and saw The Doctor sitting on the steps with his head resting on his hand, asleep. She walked in and sat next him. He opened his eyes, blinking several times in an attempt to wake himself up. "What are you doing up?" he asked with a yawn. She shrugged in response. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a dented, blackened sonic screw driver, "I decided you can have it as a souvenir, you earned it," he said playfully.
"Oh, thanks," she said sarcastically, "what about you."
"I'll just get a new one," he said, quickly jumping up to avoid her hitting him. He yawned again, and added, "I'm going to bed."
"Is The Master asleep?" She asked quickly.
He turned to face her, his head cocked to the side and one eyebrow raised. "He wanted to stay up until he was sure you where ok," he said, turning back toward the direction his room was in, "but I sent him to bed. Idiot was burnt pretty badly from going out on the surface to get you. He ran out the door before I could expand the tardis's shield to include the area where you were laying."