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Chapter 2 – Down to Earth with a bump!
It was a nice place. It was a peaceful place. It was the perfect place to come and contemplate your thoughts. At this point in time, Aaron had a bit to think about. Little did he know that in a few minutes, all that would be left of his thinking spot would be two smouldering craters.
He had decided to come to the Cardiff outskirts to relax. It was the area where people had claimed to have seen some kind of demon a year or so ago. It was really odd. Some people believed it, some didn't, and some just couldn't remember it. Aaron supposed that was the reason that no one else came here. He had tried to talk his friends into coming here but he got the same reply.
"No one wants to go to a demon's grave."
Aaron leant back and stared up at the sky. It had been a few days since the voice in his head. He probably would have ignored it. That is until more of them haunted his mind. Commands being issued that felt like a whisper and a roar at the same time, computers totally devoid of emotion and for some reason, someone with a cockney accent.
"Talk about being thrown in at the deep end,"
"No! No! No! No! No! No! Don't do this to me old girl"
"ALERT! BIO READINGS DECREASING!"
"A fragment of our past."
"The Galaxy shall soon realise the true might of the Necrofears!"
They couldn't be a coincidence.
Krhrhchrkrhkcrkrkcrhkrckhrckhkrhkchkhc
Aaron was thrown out of his thoughts by a deafening noise. This was accompanied by a flash of gold light.
"What the hell?"
The next thing that Aaron noticed was two unusual objects heading towards the Earth. Two out of control objects that appeared to have no conception of a crash procedure. A large bronze sphere and a blue box. Definitely not your average flotsam and jetsam. Aaron cautiously made his towards the two shapes. It was only a matter of time before people came to investigate. Probably that lot from Torchwood. Aaron chuckled to himself.
For the second time in an hour Aaron was thrown out of thoughts when the metallic sphere split down the centre. As Aaron peered closer at the strange craft, a hand gripped the door. This was followed by a very familiar figure. At this point, any attempt of coherent thought rapidly vacated Aaron's brain. He was dumbstruck. It just didn't make any sense. The person in front of him, who was now trying to adjust himself to his new environment could not have been more recognizable.
"Bloody landing!" the double muttered, obviously not aware of anyone in the vicinity.
Even the voice was the same! Granted the hair was slightly shorter then his and he was wearing a uniform that he personally would not have been seen dead in, Aaron couldn't deny the presence of the man who was now staring at him…
It was him!
The look on his doppelganger's face was a mixture of confusion, disbelief and incredulity. It looked like he was trying to construct a suitable response to the situation. The only thing was that if this guy was anything like Aaron, the reaction would probably be the same.
"What?" spluttered Aaron.
"What??" his double responded in kind.
"What??"
"Well," the double said "I think we've established the overall state of shock , now where am I? Come to think of it, who the hell are you?"
"I could ask the same thing!"
As the two men exchanged names, they failed to notice that someone or something was watching them. Something in the shadows.
"You didn't answer my other question." Doyle stated. "What is this place? It doesn't look like anywhere in the Morpok system."
"Morpok? This is Earth."
"Where's that?"
Aaron looked at his double with a dubious expression. Was he being serious? The blank look on Doyle's face seemed to confirm that statement.
"You don't know? Never heard of Earth? Solar System? The Milky Way?"
"Nope. Is this some form of outer colony?"
"No…" Aaron trailed off, not knowing how to continue. The conversation was going nowhere. "Let's try an easier question, what year do you think this is?
"5837," Doyle replied confidently. His look-alike shook his head. "Isn't it?"
"You're off by a bit," Aaron said. "It's 2009, nearly three thousand years in your past."
Three thousand years? The prospect was shocking to Doyle. If his double had said something along the lines of three months, he would have thought "Wow! That's a long time." Three thousand years? It just sounded… stupid! He was stuck on a planet he had never heard of, in a system he had never heard of, nearly three millennia before he would be born, talking to a look- alike who judging from his clothes was quite possibly colour blind.
"While we're on the subject," Aaron said, "How exactly did you get here? Why do you look like me? And what's that blue box?"
Doyle turned around, noticing the other ship. He turned back to Aaron and shrugged. "Never seen anything like it before. Looks quite sturdy, but it's a bit pokey for my liking."
"Pokey? Pokey? Cheeky beggar! That's my home you're talking about." A new voice emanated from the box. A few seconds later, the doors burst open and a young man
stumbled unceremoniously out of the box. He brushed the dirt off his trench coat and straightened his tie in order to regain a bit of dignity. He looked around and his face fell.
"Oh, not Cardiff again!" he exclaimed to himself. " Always London or Cardiff! Why not Ireland for a change? Or Australia? Haven't been to Australia for a while…" His rant was cut short when he noticed the two beings in front of him.
"Oh… Hello… I'm the Doctor, and you are?"
"Aaron, Aaron Black," the figure on the left replied. "I'm a biology student at the uni."
"Glad to meet you Aaron Black," the Doctor said, shaking Aaron's hand. He glanced at the figure to his right, who at present was examining the TARDIS. "Who's your friend?" he asked?
The figure turned around and gave the Doctor a salute. "Sub lieutenant Conrad Doyle of the Aurelian Resistance, ID code 000/theta 253 beta…"
"Okay Okay, less of the saluting," the Doctor said, dismissing Doyle's official address. "Let's just clear a few things out shall we?"
Aaron started first, telling them how he had been hearing voices the past few days and how he saw the two ships crash. Then, the Doctor told them how he had been tracing a temporal spike in the Morpok system and followed the space time trail of the escape pod as it travelled through the rift storm. Then it was Doyle's turn. As they took stock of the current situation, all three had failed to neglect the thing in the shadows slowly making its way towards them.
"… I then stumbled out the pod and noticed this guy here. Doctor, why doe he look exactly like me?"
"Well… in most cases like this, it's a form of spatial genetic multiplicity," the Doctor replied, scanning Aaron with the sonic screwdriver. He did the same with Doyle, but frowned at the results. "No correlation… in this case, I think it's just a coincidence. Anyway, what is it that you were trying to avoid Doyle? What attacked the Malachite?"
Doyle's expression darkened. "Creatures that hide in the shadows, beings of pure stealth that can infiltrate anywhere and thrive on the darkness."
A looked of fear flashed across the Doctor's face. "That sounds disturbingly familiar."
"What does?"
"Every race in the galaxy has an irrational fear of the dark, only it isn't irrational. It's Vashta Nerada!"
"What?"
"Creatures that attack in swarms. Hiding in the darkness."
Doyle pondered this for a moment. "I must admit, I've never heard the name that you describe them by."
The Doctor was incredulous. "You've never heard of the Vashta Nerada? The piranhas of the night? The keepers of the library?
"Library? These things inhabit the Morpok system. They had taken over the planet Valksythe, possessing the inhabitants. Everyone now refers to the planet as Dowwdor Shal, the Shadow world."
"Ummm… Doctor?" Aaron asked with a rather puzzled expression.
"Yeah?"
"Sorry to interrupt, but these Vashta things you're talking about, how do they attack?"
"They latch onto a person's shadow. Why?"
"The sun is directly above us."
It was now the Doctor's turn to look confused. "And?"
"There should only be a patch of shadow below us."
The Doctor looked down. Indeed, there was a small patch of shadow directly below him. "So what's the problem."
"How come Doppelganger Doyle over there has a five o' clock shadow?"
Please R & R.