This link is bigger on the inside. Isn't that amazing? No. No it isn't. I don't own Doctor Who but I do have a plot. Somewhere. If only I could find it…

The Rather Ravenous Garden

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Doctor felt a light tap on his shoulder and felt the cool of the metal through his suit. He glared up at the bug as it gave a startled hiss. The Doctor was forced to close his eyes as a bright light nearly blinded him.

Suddenly, the clicking of the spiders was drowned out by a hum and a short hiss of steam that stopped nearly as soon as it had began. The humming however, was an entirely different matter. It wasn't exceedingly loud; and it wasn't musical, as it had no beat or rhythm; it was soft and continuous- the humming. The plainness of the noise is what confused the Doctor at first, before he realized that the humming was only part of it. A white light blanketed the area around him as well. It was the shield.

The Doctor looked up to the spider that had, only moments before, been within centimeters from him. The spindly thing was now moving back and forth on the other side of the shield in confusion, in shock. One of its legs, the Doctor had noted, was missing its black tip. The dented up spider quickly disappeared as the rest of the swarm caught up, it was practically undistinguishable from the others in the confusion. The Doctor, Rose, and Raechek watched as the spiders ran back into the darkness of the tunnel and vanished from their vision.

"They're gone." Raechek sighed in relief.

The Doctor, on the other hand, was still a bit confused; he turned back to Rose, "What was it that was blocking the shield?"

"Tiny." Rose gave a small grin as the Doctor picked himself up from the ground, "The smallest thing…" she said.

The Doctor looked to her in confusion as the blonde raised her hand to show him. The object in her hand was not only small and smooth, but appeared to be a dull bronze in colour. That was all that stood between the Doctor and the spiders. It was the smallest thing but one of the most important- it was the difference between the Doctor's life or his death.

"Looks like a stone, yeah?" Rose glanced over to him, smiling.

"Well, I'd say it's… uh," the Doctor stepped over closer to Rose and peered down at the stone seriously, "more of a pebble really. Stones are more… biggish and such."

He met Rose's eyes and the two broke into a wide grin, in seconds they were laughing.

Raechek was the one who sobered the pair up a little, "Are you both mad?"

"Rose? No. But me…" he Doctor looked over to her still smiling, "I'm certified in two galaxies, three solar systems, and one planet. Well, they say it's not really a planet… it's kind of controversial. They've been switching its 'planet-ness' on and off for centuries."

"Pluto? The big frozen rock out on the edge of the solar system?" Rose glanced to him curiously, "But I thought it was uninhabited?"

"Your Pluto is deserted- nothing but a huge chunk of ice floating around out there. But back in 125 B.C. there were plenty of people." the Doctor continues, "Thousands of them. You wouldn't get away with calling it an icy rock without being blasted out of the cosmos. Or rather, attempted to be blasted out of the cosmos. Shields are wonderful things…

"'S too bad the Plutonian King didn't have much of a sense of humour... I'm sure we could have been great friends."

"With a King? From Pluto?" Rose watched him in disbelief.

"Why not?"

"And this is after that bit with the Queen wanting your head and having us chased on horseback, yeah?"

The Doctor turned to her, "You know…I still don't understand what she was on abou-"

Suddenly, a low buzzing was heard in the tunnel. The Doctor looked from the shield to Rose and then from Raechek to the sides of the tunnels all around them. His companion was just about as jumpy as he was; she looked around the tunnel in a slight panic.

"Is that the spiders again?" Rose asked as she stared up at the ceiling.

Raechek didn't reply as she turned away from the two slightly. The scientist pushed up a sleeve of her brown cloak to reveal a compact little watch-like device on her wrist. The screen was lit up a soft blue colour that cast Raechek's slender shadow on the opposite wall. Raechek pressed a button on the side of the device and the three heard Tychek's voice from inside the futuristic radio.

From where they were, Rose and the Doctor couldn't hear any of what was going on. Bits and pieces of the conversation were heard by the two- a line here, a sentence there. When the Doctor stepped forwards to hear him better, Raechek didn't mind. Rose stepped over to his side.

"Raechek," Tychek stated, "The mission has failed- there's no time now to get what we came for, and the suns have nearly risen. We will meet you back at Atlentios."

"What will the Doctor and his companion do?" Raechek glanced over to them as she spoke.

"They are welcome at the city, just-" static broke the transmission and the rest of Tychek's sentence was lost.

Raechek watched as the small watch gave out and shut down completely.

"Is he okay?" Rose asked as she looked down at the device.

Raechek turned from the shield, "Tychek is fine, it's only the radiation that interrupting the signal."

She gave the alien a lost look, "Radiation from what?"

"It's the suns." Raechek explained, "…Kech has two suns. One, Tror, is too far away from the surface and really only gives light. Zerto, the other one, is way too close; it got pulled into Kech's immediate orbit during the Ninth War. Zerto is what gives the planet all the extra radiation; it's why we've been living underground for the past century and a half. Nothing can survive up there during the daytime."

Raechek gave the shield one last look before she began down the tunnel with Rose and the Doctor right behind her.

"So that's why you're down here," the Doctor said as he pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket, "That's sad."

"It's not like we have a choice."

"I meant that a war destroyed your planet," The Doctor caught up to her, he held the sonic out like a torch to light their path, "your entire way of life. All of it gone and for what?"

There was silence for about eight metres before the Doctor broke it.

"What exactly is it that you lot were looking for out here?"

"An energy source." she said, "It's for the dome that protects the city. Lately it's been a bit dodgy, flickered a couple of times. The King says that we shouldn't worry but the power sources have been so rare… We might have to move again and find a new refuge."

"You need a battery?" Rose asked.

"It's a bit more than a battery, isn't it?" the Doctor looked over to Raechek, "Your whole civilization is on the brink of collapse because of it."

Raechek said nothing but her eyes met the floor with a quiet misery.

"Could you tell me something?" the Doctor said, "Why has the shield been powered by such a rare energy source to begin with?"

"It wasn't always rare." the scientist stated, "Only lately, since the spider attacks and sightings have become much more frequent."

The three had reached the end of the tunnel and Raechek had walked over to a panel in the wall. She opened it and revealed a control panel with at least fifteen different buttons, the scientist set to work on the pass code needed to open the doors.

"The spiders…" Rose glanced over to the Doctor, "Could they be linked to the batteries somehow?"

"Maybe." the Doctor replied, "Raechek. About the spiders… What happens to the people they take away?"

Raechek's eyes were distant as she replied, "There's no way to know. In one hundred and fifty years, no one has been seen or heard from again."

Ooh, scary right? I'm so, so sorry that I took such a long time. Vacations now and again do you good. Anyways, I hope I didn't over inform you about the planet and such. And I'm kind of sorry that the chapter was mainly dialogue… Don't worry about the Ninth War and stuff like that. I'm just trying to give the planet a bit of a back-story and make it seem a bit more 3-D. Kech was around before the TARDIS landed there you know.

Amethyst