With the door open, the Doctor expected there to be an influx of sand and dust, as the last time he had been to the planet, it was a very arid place. If, by any other circumstance, the planet would have somehow reverted back to its original state as being ice covered. However, what went on for miles brought the Doctor to speechlessness as he looked across the landscape. Clara, having never seen the planet, would not have known that it was wrong if it wasn't for the look on the taller figure's face. The look was similar, maybe even identical, to the one that he had worn just a few minutes earlier: that of puzzlement and anger. It appeared as though a second impossible scenario had come face to face with the Doctor, and he was not faring too well with that notion.
Clara stepped out of the TARDIS and sank into bright green grass that went up to her waist. The Doctor reached out instinctively, as to protect her from whatever poison or danger the grass may pose. However, since she was not lying unconscious or foaming at the mouth, he deemed it safe and stepped out as well. This grass stretched out for as far as their eyes could see, contrasting pleasantly with the dull gray of the sky. The grayness, Clara had learned from visiting a similar planet in the past, was caused by the excessive amount of Krypton gas in the atmosphere, which caused the nearest star's light to reflect the gray colour of the spectrum.
The pair stood there in silence for a few minutes, staring off into the distance. Nothing changed at all during those few minutes, and the grass continued to remain sedentary, blowing in a soft wind that caused Clara's hair to fly off of her shoulders. It was so peaceful and quiet, in fact, that it made Clara squeal slightly when the door behind her slammed shut. She turned to look at the Doctor, his right arm still outstretched with his hand in the shape of having just snapped.
"I thought all of the power was gone?" She asked, looking at the gray haired man.
"It is, Clara. But, this is still my machine, albeit stolen, so simple tasks such as closing the door will still happen when I ask it to. That is just common sense," The Doctor remained silent after that for a moment, before speaking again, "This day has just not been making any sense. First, the TARDIS is intercepted by a foreign signal, and then we land on a planet that is supposed to be extremely dangerous and dry and then it turns out to be," He gestured his arms outward to encompass the entire scene before them, "this."
"Are you sure that we are on Telos and not some other planet with similar properties?" Clara asked with genuine concern.
"I am one hundred percent sure that this is Telos. I can almost feel the planet trying to drain the energy out of me."
After that sentence came out of the Doctor's mouth, Clara started to notice something. She began to realize how her breaths were just slightly more shallow than they had been just a few moments ago. Along with that fact, a slight feeling of fatigue was over her, though it did not show on any exterior part of her body. Overall, she felt slightly weaker than she even had when they were barrelling towards this mystery planet. This sudden realization caused her immediate stress.
"Doctor, you said the planet takes energy out of whatever lands on it to rebuild itself?" She said, her eyes wide and her voice slightly high.
The Doctor looked at her, "Well, rebuilding is an interesting term, but yes. Since there appears to be a strange lack of Cybermen, the planet is regaining life that it has not seen in a while. It immediately took all of the energy out of the TARDIS because it is a machine, but it will also take that of organic creatures if they happen to come close to the planet-" Sudden realization hit him as well, and he snapped his finger again, opening the door, "Get in the TARDIS. Now."
Clara did as she was told and the Doctor soon followed her inside, leaving the door open behind him. He walked down the stairs and into the corridor which led into the endless complex of the machine, which only led Clara to wonder what he was doing. She sat down on the metal floor and brought her legs to her face, resting her head on her knees. Maybe if she stayed like this, nothing bad would happen to her on this planet.
The Doctor returned in a few minutes, armed with a book. This book, bound with black leather, simply had a one word title lain on the front: Telos. He immediately began rapidly flipping through the pages, and Clara could see that he was stressed out as well.
After what seemed like an eternity but probably only lasted ten seconds, The Doctor stopped on a page and read aloud, "The planet of Telos, first home of the Cybermen, was formed by the collision of two mega asteroids…" He went down further, "The properties of the planet were altered by the population of Cybermen, and soon the planet began fighting back in order to stay alive. If the Cybermen were to ever leave the planet, the energy of anything that came near it would be sucked out immediately for machines, and slowly for organics. However, this is very unlikely to happen, as the Cybermen only move planets every million years in an event commonly known as Cybermas."
Clara kept her head on her knees and asked, "Well, what does that mean for us?"
The Doctor sighed and closed the book, "If I had thought of Cybermas sooner and what year it was, I would not have even steered remotely close to this galaxy. Cybermas is when the energy of a certain planet runs so low that they move to a new planet and proceed to suck the energy out of that. They have timed it so that it occurs every million years of their existence, and it just happened here, which is why Telos is how it is," He took a breath, "What that means for us, as organic beings, is that the planet will take the energy out of us as well. It means no regeneration for me and certain death for both of us."
The man said this so matter-of-factly that Clara wanted to jump up and slap him across the face. However, she did not do that, and instead asked quite feebly, "How long do we have?"
The Doctor sighed once again, "Well, humans are much less complicated than Time Lords, so I would say you have a good 24 hours and I would live a couple more days longer than you."
And with that, Clara started to cry into her knees, and the Doctor started flipping through the book again, hoping to find a solution to their problem.