"Get out of there!" The Doctor yelled, reaching a hand out to her. But just then the entire craft was hit violently and everything went black.
Installment 1: The Clock Strikes at Midnight
Chapter 6: Only an Echo in the Darkness
The shuttle rocked back and forth violently, flinging its passengers across the aisles and raining suitcases down from the overhead compartments. Only the sparks exploding somewhere in the chaos provided any light by which to try to avoid smashing your head against a seatback. Then the craft was still and the entertainment system, of all things, switched back on.
"How are we? Everyone alright?" Merlin hear the Doctor ask as he pulled himself up off the floor.
"Earthquake. Must be." Professor Hobbes immediately tried to explain the crash with science.
"But that's impossible." Dee Dee had it right. "The ground is fixed. It's solid."
"We've got torches. Everyone take a torch. They're in the back of the seats." The hostess herself had grabbed a light and flicked it on, allowing everyone else to reach for their nearest torch as well. For all that Merlin didn't like them as parents, Val and Biff immediately shined their lights over in his direction to check if he was alright.
"Oh, Jethro. Sweetheart, come here."
But Merlin was focused on someone else. The sense of a foreign presence was stronger now. As if it was closer. Closer as in inside of the bus and in the corner where he was aiming his own torch. "Never mind me. What about her?"
Sky was crouched alone in the corner of the bus among the remains of the front row of seats.
"What happened to the seats?" Val asked.
"Who did that?" Biff added.
"They've been ripped up." Turns out his adopted parents were actually quite decent in a crisis.
"It's alright, it's alright, it's alright," the Doctor reassured everyone. "It's over. We're still alive. Look, the wall's still intact. Do you see?" Merlin glanced over to see that, yes, the wall was still intact, but it was dented inward. He had a very good idea of how much force that would take and his estimation of this creature grew. "We're safe."
A bright light suddenly floods the room and Merlin whips around to see the hostess standing silhouetted in front of an open door. An alarm sounds and she slams her palm on the button to shut the door again.
"What happened? What was that?"
"Is it the driver? Have we lost the driver?"
The hostess turned to look at them in shock. "The cabin's gone."
"Don't be ridiculous," Professor Hobbes scoffed. "It can't be gone. How can it be gone?"
"Well, well, you saw it."
"There was nothing there, like it was ripped away." The hostess continued trying to digest this information while the Doctor ran and crouched in front of a metal panel in the wall.
Biff also noticed and walked over."What are you doing?"
"Ah, that's better. Little bit of light. Thank you. Molto bene."
"Do you know what you're doing?" Val asked.
"The cabin's gone," Biff added. "You'd better leave that wall alone." As if he was in charge. If it was up to Merlin, right now he would gladly follow the Doctor's lead. The man seemed good in a crisis and there was a sense of wisdom buried beneath his perpetual grin.
"The cabin can't be gone." The same sense of wisdom could not be said to apply to the professor. Merlin turned his attention back to Sky. Throughout all this she had not moved. She stayed curled up in the corner, hands clamped tight over her ears, not making a sound. Something was not right.
"Doctor, look at her," he said.
"Right. Yes. Sorry." The Doctor bounded up and strode to Merlin's side. "Have we got a medical kit?"
"Why won't she turn around?" Merlin asked him.
"What's her name?" he asked as he moved forward.
The hostess replied, "Silvestry. Mrs Sky Silvestry."
"Sky?" the Doctor asked gently. "Can you hear me?" He knelt in front of her. "Are you all right? Can you move, Sky? Just look at me."
"That noise from outside," Merlin added, beginning to find further proof for his funny feeling. "It's stopped."
Val let out a relieved sigh. "Well, thank God for that."
Merlin nearly rolled his eyes. "But what if it's not outside anymore? What if it's inside?"
"Inside? Where?"
"It was heading for her."
"Sky?" The Doctor continued. "It's alright, Sky. I just want you to turn around, face me." Very slowly, almost mechanically, Sky lowered her hands and turned around to face the Doctor. "Sky?"
"Sky?" she answered back, sounding confused.
"Are you alright?" The Doctor asked.
"Are you alright?' she parroted him.
"Are you hurt?"
"Are you hurt?" Again she copied him.
"You don't have to talk."
"You don't have to talk." This was going past the point of just post traumatic stress now. Something was very, very wrong.
"I'm trying to help."
"I'm trying to help."
"My name's the Doctor."
"My name's the Doctor."
"Okay, can you stop?" Despite his ever present hope, the Doctor knew she could not control this anymore than he could at the moment.
"Okay, can you stop?"
"I'd like you to stop."
"I'd like you to stop."
"Why's she doing that?" Hobbes asked. Sky whipped her head to face him and repeated him as well.
"Why's she doing that?"
"She's gone mad," Biff said and the same thing happened.
"She's gone mad." Panic was once more setting in as everyone tried to tell Sky to stop repeating their words. Seeing that that was only proving a well tested conclusion, Merlin tried a different form of speech. He reached out with his mind to communicate as he used to with the druids.
My name's Jethro, he said. No use giving this creature his real name. No answer came. Just the briefest flicker of her eyes in his direction and a flash of confusion before repeating the Doctor's latest words.
"Shush, shush, shush, all of you." But Merlin had to make sure it wasn't some weird fluke of his magic that protected him from being repeatable.
"My name's Jethro," he said aloud this time, smiling a smile that fell as soon as she spoke his words back at him.
"My name's Jethro."
"Jethro, leave it. Just shut up," the Doctor, and then Sky, scolded him. "Why are you repeating?" he asked of Sky.
"Why are you repeating?"
"What is that, learning?"
"What is that, learning?" Now that was an interesting theory. Merlin had noticed that she was acting less rigid now. Her repetition was faster, more confident.
"The square root of pi is 1.772453850905516027298167483341. Wow." Amazingly, Sky was only a few digits behind him and kept pace exactly with him, never lagging or pausing in her echo.
"But that's impossible." Professor Hobbes again, denier of the obvious.
"But that's impossible."
The rest of the cabin starting freaking out again. Dee Dee was stunned, Val couldn't stand her stare, Biff getting angry, the hostess confused, the Doctor trying to get everyone to shut up, and Sky repeating all of this. She never lost track of everything that was going on. She was also mimicking inflections in speech and volume too now.
"She can copy anything," Merlin muttered to himself.
"She can copy anything."
"Biff, don't just stand there, do something. Make her stop."
"Biff, don't just stand there, do something. Make her stop."
"You're scaring my wife." Right, because that would make her stop.
"You're scaring my wife."
"Six, six, six." Oops. Merlin's inner mischievous teenager had slipped out.
"Six, six, six." At least he currently looked like a teen and it could be excused.
"She's different. She's something else. Do something. Make her stop," Val whined.
"Make her stop," Sky repeated. Hang on. That was different. The lights came back on and everyone stopped talking.
"That's the backup system," the Hostess explained, relieved that it had finally kicked in. Only, something was missing.
"Well, that's a bit better." Biff had released some of the tension in his shoulders and rubbed his wife's back as she inquired how long the rescue vehicle would take to get here. Merlin was too preoccupied watching Sky to hear the answer. As the others kept talking, Sky's mouth was moving. In exact time with them. They couldn't hear the echo, because there was none.