The Impossible Planet Part 1
The TARDIS gave an uneasy rumble as the Doctor attempted to land her, the blue light in the Rotor flickering as she materialised at her destination. The Doctor gave a frowned as he exited his beloved ship, her lights continuing to flicker on and off. "I don't know what's wrong with her," the Doctor admitted as he stroked one of the TARDIS's panels. "She's sort of... queasy. Indigestion, like she didn't want to land."
"Well, if you think there's going to be trouble, we can always get back inside and head somewhere else," she told him, unable to keep a smirk from cracking on her lips for very long. The Doctor gave her a look, bursting into laughter a mere moment later. "Comical," the Doctor laughed. "Now, I think... that we've landed inside a cupboard," he told her, calming down as he took in his surroundings. Noticing a door, he strode towards it, Rose at his heels. "Here we go," he said, tugging on th handle.
"Open Door 15" the speaker next to the door said. The two walked through the speaking door and into a narrow corridor. "Some sort of Base," the Doctor observed. "Moon Base, Sea Base, Space Base, they built these things out of kits," he trailed off, walking through another door. "Open Door 16," the door said again, leading into another corridor. "Human design," the Doctor said, gesturing at the walls. "You've got a thing with kits. This place was put together like a flat-pack wardrobe. Only bigger. And easier."
"Open Door 17," the door said again. The Doctor sauntered through it, looking around the new room. "Oh, it's a Sanctuary Base!" he said giddily as Rose closed the door. "Deep Space Exploration; we've gone way out! And listen to that," he said, pointing down toward the ground, a low rumbling just about hearable. "Someone's drilling," he explained, wandering again as Rose looked at one of the walls.
"Welcome to Hell," she read.
The Doctor frowned, looking around the room. "Oh, it's not that bad," she told her, wondering why she would say something like that. She chuckled at him, pointing at the wall she was looking at. "Over there," she laughed. The Doctor turned to the wall, immediately seeing 'Welcome to Hell' scrawled on the wall, some sort of text underneath that. Had the Doctor not have seen the text, he would of carries on looking around. "Hold on..." he started, walking toward the writing. "What does that say?" he wondered, jogging up the stairs so he could get a better look. He stared at one of the symbols long and hard before muttering, "That's weird... it won't translate."
"But I thought the TARDIS translated everything, writing as well," Rose spoke up. She leaned down next to him to see the symbols. "I should be seeing English."
"Exactly," the Doctor agreed, cautiously eying the symbols. "If that's not working, then this writing is... old. Very old... Impossibly old..." He got up from the ground, rushing towards the nearest door. "We should find out who's in charge," he suggested, circling the wheel to open the door. "We've gone beyond the reach of the TARDIS' knowledge- not a good move," he told her. "And if someone's lucky enough-" he opened the door, jumping back in surprise. In front of them were three figure, all alien, with tentacle coming from their mouths. They all wore the same clothing, in each of their hands a circular white ball, a cord attaching the ball to their mouths. "Hello!" the Doctor greeted breathlessly. "I was just saying, uh... nice place."
The centre alien looked at them steadily, the white ball in its hand beginning to glow as it began to talk. "We must feed," it said, the other two behind it saying the same thing.
"You're gonna what?" the Doctor stuttered.
"We must feed," the aliens said again, taking a few steps into the room, the Doctor and Rose backing off quickly as more came into the room, cornering them into a wall. "I think they mean us," Rose muttered hastily, grabbing a yellow stood and holding it up securely. The Doctor held up his Sonic Screwdriver, hoping something in them would react to it.
"We must feed-" one of the aliens said, then shaking its head. It rattled and tapped the glowing white ball in its hand. "-you, if you are hungry," it ended, its tone a lot friendlier than before.
"Sorry?" the Doctor asked, lowering the sonic and he looked at the aliens in a confused manor.
"We apologize," the aliens replied. "Electromagnetics have interfered with speech systems. Would you like some refreshment?" it asked again as Rose gingerly put down the stool.
"Um..." the Doctor dragged as the door opened, both the confused people looking towards it, happy to find someone human looking. Three people stood in the doorway, two men and a woman, all wearing leather and the youngest two carrying guns. "What the hell?" asked the eldest man, looking towards the Doctor and Rose. They walked through the aliens, who quickly made a path for them, and approached the two. Inspecting the two thoroughly, he raised his wrist watch, pressing a button which showed the Doctor he was speaking into some kind of long distance communicator. "Captain, you're not gonna believe this, we've got people. Out of nowhere, real people! Two living people, just standing here right in front of me!"
A sceptical toned voice came back in reply. "Don't be stupid!" the voice said. "That's impossible!"
"I suggest you tell them that," the man remarked.
"But you're a sort of space base, you must get visitors now and then," Rose said. "It can't be that impossible."
"You're telling me you don't know where you are?" the man asked sceptically.
"No idea," the Doctor replied giddily as he chuckled. "More fun that way."
From over the speakers, a woman's voice filled the room. "Buckle down, everyone, we have incoming, and it's a big one. Quake Point 5 on its way." The man, with the other two, rushed towards the nearest door, opening it quickly. "Through here, now!" he ordered, the Doctor quickly ushering Rose towards the door as the man continued to bark at them. They rushed through a hallway, desperately ignoring the sparks that flew from the floor and falling towards the walls as a great rumbling began to work its way through the base.
They were guided into a large room, a large console in the middle, three people surrounding it as many other littered around the room. As the door behind them closed, the three looked up, staring at the two newcomers. "Oh my God," said one of the men, a dark skinned fellow. "You meant it!" The Doctor quickly realised this was the man who had spoken through the wrist watch.
"People!" said a young woman, looking at them happily. "Look at that, real people!"
"That's us, hooray!" The Doctor cheered.
"Yup," Rose agreed. "Defiantly real. My name's Rose, Rose Tyler, and this is the Doctor," she gestured the thin man next to her. He gave a smile, faltering slightly when he say a young man with black hair striding towards them. "Oh, come on," the man said, pointing at them in a disbelieving manor. "The oxygen levels must be offline. We're hallucinating!" he slapped the Doctor on his forearm, probably expecting for his hand to go straight through them, surprised when he felt clothe. "No... they're real!"
"Come on!" the Captain yelled from his seat at the front of the room. He looked towards the man who's slapped the Doctor, ordering, "Danny, strap up, the quakes coming in! Impact in thirty seconds!" He looked over to the Doctor and Rose, adding, "Sorry, you two, whoever you are. Just hold on- tight."
"Hold on to what?" Rose asked, looking around.
"I don't know, I don't care, anything," the Captain replied. The Doctor gestured the railings, him and Rose taking a tight hold of them next to each other as the rumbling increased. "Ood, are we fixed?" he asked the alien next to him.
"Your kindness in this emergency is much appreciated, "the Ood replied, turning around and walking out the door.
"What's this planet called, anyway?" the Doctor asked.
"Oh, don't be stupid," one of the woman scoffed. "It doesn't have a name. How could it have a name?" Taking in the Doctor confused expression, she muttered, "You really don't know, do you?"
"And impact!" the Captain yelled. The rumbling suddenly let out all its anger, the base shaking, as if falling through a narrow abyss. When the tremble seemed to cease, the Doctor stood up. "Well, that wasn't so BAD!" he yelled as he was thrown back by another quake. The main console in the middle of the room gave a flash of sparks, the others following suit as they quickly caught on fire. When the trembling had finally stopped, the man who had found them rushed to the fire, an extinguisher in his arms. "Everyone alright?" the Captain called. "Ida?"
"Yeah, yeah," the woman called back.
"Danny?"
"I'm fine!" he replied.
"Toby?"
"Yeah, fine," a man in a blue top replied.
"Scooti?"
"No damage," said another young woman.
"Jefferson?"
"Check!" called back the man who found the Doctor and Rose.
"We're fine, thanks, fine, yeah, don't worry about us," the Doctor said as he and Rose helped each other off the floor.
The Captain ignored them, turning his attention to the screen. "The surface caved in. I deflected it onto storage 5 through 8. We've lost them completely. Toby, go and check the rocket link."
The young man in the blue top looked at his Captain irritably. "That's not my department," he tried to reason.
"Just do as I say, yeah?" the Captain replied, the two staring each other down until, finally, Toby walked out of the room.
"Oxygen' holding," a woman announced. "Internal gravity 56.6. We should be okay."
"Never mind the earthquake, that's... that's one hell of a storm," Rose said in wonder as she looked to the ceiling, the sound of wind battering against the roof. "What is that, a hurricane?" she asked the two woman at one of the side consoles.
The youngest looked up at Rose as I she were mad. "You'd need an atmosphere for a hurricane. There's no air out there. It's a complete vacuum."
Rose frowned. "Then what's shaking the roof?"
"You're not joking. You really don't know?" asked the older woman next to her. "Well - introductions. FYI, as they said in the olden days. I'm Ida Scott, science officer.Zachary Cross Flane, acting Captain, sir... you've met Mr Jefferson, he's head of security. Danny Bartock. Ethics committee."
"Not as boring as it sounds," Danny told them as the Doctor and Rose grinned at him.
"And that man who just left, that was Toby Zed, archaeology, and this," Ida said, walking towards the remaining, unnamed woman and placing her hands on her shoulders. "is Scooti Manista. Trainee maintenance." Scooti smiled at them as Ida walked towards one of the walls, turning a lever stiffly, a whirling sound flooding the room. "And this, this is home," she ended, the roof beginning to open slowly.
"Brace yourselves," Zach warned them. "The sight of it sends some people mad." The room was soon flooded with a red fire light as the roof opened completely, revealing a large red and black ball right over their heads. The Doctor and Rose get up from the ground, staring at the light as bits of rock and rubble were being sucked into the black space within the red light, destroyed instantly.
"That's a black hole," Rose said quietly, pointing a single finger towards it.
The Doctor stared at it in disbelief. "But that's impossible," he muttered.
"I did warn you," Zach said.
"We're standing under a black hole."
"We're in orbit," Ida nodded.
"But we can't be..." the Doctor told her.#
"You can see for yourself," Ida replied. "We're in orbit."
The Doctor turned to her, insisting. "But we CAN'T be."
"This lump of rock is suspended in perpetual geostationary orbit around that black hole without falling in," Ida said sternly in finality. "Discuss."
Rose continued to look up at the black hole. "And that's bad, yeah?" she asked the Doctor.
The Doctor shook his head. "That doesn't cover it..." he said darkly. "a black hole's a dead star, it collapses in on itself, in and in and in until the matter's so dense and tight it starts to pull everything else in too. Nothing in the universe can escape it. Light, gravity... time... everything just gets pulled inside... and crushed."
"So, they can't be in orbit," Rose said. "We should be pulled right in."
"We should be dead," he agreed.
"And yet... here we are," Ida mused. "Beyond the laws of physics. Welcome on board."
"But if there's no atmosphere out there, what's that?" Rose asked, pointing towards the black hole.
"Stars breaking up... gas clouds... we have whole solar systems being ripped apart above our heads before falling into that thing," Ida explained.
"So, a bit worse than a storm, then," Rose said jokingly.
"Just a bit," Ida nodded as the base gave another violent shake. The two newcomers were invited around the main console where Zach was sitting, Toby returning not too long after. "The rocket link's fine," he told them quietly.
Zach nodded to him, them turned his attention back to the keyboard in front of him, tapping a few buttons, a hologram of the planet and the black hole appearing in front of them. "That's the black hole, officially designated K37 Gen 5."
"In the scriptures of the Falltino, this planet is called 'Kroptor'," Ida added as Toby leaned on the console, also looking at the hologram. "The bitter pill. And the black hole is supposed to be a mighty demon. It was tricked into devouring the planet, only to spit it out. Because it was poison."
"The bitter pill," Rose laughed, ignoring the rest of what Ida said. "I like that."
The Doctor stared at the screen as he stuck his brainy glasses on. "We are so far out. Lost in the drifts of the universe - how did you even GET here?" the Doctor asked.
"We flew in," Zach replied. "You see-" he continued, pressing another button, the hologram changing to the planet with some sort of gravity field pulsating out of the core, like a tunnel. "This planet's generating a gravity field. We don't know how - we've no idea, but... it's kept in constant balance against the black hole. And the field extends out there," he gestures the outside on the hologram. "As a funnel. A distinct... gravity funnel, reaching out into clear space. Thatwas our way in."
"You flew down that thing?" Rose asked as she grinned. "Like a rollercoaster."
Zach eyes the blonde strangely, continuing. "By rights, the ship should've been torn apart. We lost the Captain... which is what put me in charge."
"You're doing a good job," Ida said consolingly.
Shrugging, Zack replied, "Yeah. Well, needs must."
"But if that gravity funnel closes, there's no way out," Danny piped up.
"We had fun speculating about that," Scooti said sarcastically.
"Oh, yeah. That's the word," Danny scoffed as he whacked her on the head with a scroll in his hand. "Fun."
"But that field would take phenomenal amounts of power! I mean... not just big, but off the scale! Can I...?" he gestured to a calculator in front of Ida.
Ida pushed the item towards the Doctor. "Sure. Help yourself," she said before leaving the two. He pressed various button, redoing his work to get back on the right track several times as Rose talked with one of the Ood, Danny and Scooti. Finally, he got the right figure, giving himself a small cheer. "There we go! D'you see? To generate that gravity field, and the funnel, you'd need a power source with an inverted self-extrapolating reflex of six to the power of six every six seconds."
"That's a lot of sixes," Rose noted.
"And it's impossible," the Doctor added.
"It took us two years to work that out!" Zach exclaimed, clearly annoyed.
"I'm very good," he said, hoping they would just leave it at that.
"But... that's why we're here," Ida started. "This power source is ten miles below through solid rock. Point Zero. We're drilling down to try and find it."
"It's giving off readings of over ninety stats on the Blazen Scale," Zach nodded.
"We could revolutionize modern science!" Ida said enthusiastically.
"We could use it to fuel the Empire," Jefferson added.
The Doctor made a face, taking his glasses off. "Or start a war," he said darkly, Jefferson glaring at him.
"It's buried beneath us," Toby added, getting the attention of the two men off each other. "In the darkness, waiting."
"What's your job?" Rose joked. "Chief... dramatist?" The Doctor smirked and shook his head at her, Rose mouthing innocently 'what?'.
Ignoring her, Toby continued, "Whatever it is down there is not a natural phenomena. And this planet once supported life. Eons ago, before the human race had even learned to walk."
"I saw that lettering written on the wall. Did you do that?" the Doctor asked, remembering the 'Welcome to Hell' greeting.
Toby nodded. "I copied it from fragments we found on earth by the drilling, but I can't translate it."
"No, neither can I," the Doctor admitted. "And that's saying something."
"There was some form of civilisation," Toby went on, nearly frustrated. "They buried something. Now it's reaching out. Calling us in."
"And you came."
"Well, how could we not?" Ida asked as Zach switched off the hologram.
The Doctor continued to grin at them all, more fondly this time. "So, when it comes right down to it, why did you come here? Why did you do that? Why?" he littered them with questions. "I'll tell you why. Because it was there. Brilliant. Excuse me, ah, Zach, wasn't it?"
"That's me," Zach said uncertainly.
The Doctor beamed at him, opening his arms. "Just stand there, 'cos I'm gonna hug you. Is that all right?"
"I s'pose so."
The Doctor edged toward him, his arms still wide open. "Here we go. Coming in." He threw his arms around Zach, hugging him tightly as he beamed, the others staring in amusement. "Ahh, human beings, you are amazing!" the Doctor said, Ida looking confused at the comment as he laughed, releasing Zach. "Thank you," he said sincerely. "But apart from that, you're completely mad. You should pack your bags and get back in that ship and fly for your lives."
"You can talk!" Ida told him. "And how the hell did you get here?"
The Doctor stuttered for a few seconds, then muttering, "Oh, I've got this um... this... it's hard to explain, it just sort of... appears," he trailed off.
"We can show you," Rose laughed. "We parked down the corridor from um... oh, what's it called? Uh, habitation area..." she looked at the Doctor for help.
"Three," he supplied. Smiling, Rose turned back to Zach, who was looking at them uncomfortably. "Do you mean storage six?"
"Uh, it was a bit of a cupboard, yeah," he replied. Zach looked over to Ida, who shared his look. Slowly, the Doctor because to realise what they were silently talking about. "Storage six, but you said... you said... you said storage five to eight." Without warning, he turned on his heel, rushing from the room with Rose right behind him. "What is it?" Rose asked as they ran through a corridor. They ran back the way they came, pushing through and shutting doors as quickly as they could. "Stupid doors!" he spat, turning the vault furiously. "Come on!"
The door swung open, letting them through to yet another corridor. Seeing the door they'd first came out of, the Doctor slammed himself against it, pushing the button frantically, the door refusing to open. "Door 16 out of commission," the door said.
"No, no, no!" the Doctor screamed, opening the small round window, looking through it. There was a loud moment of silence, the Doctor not allowing his eyes away from the window, in case he was seeing wrong, he hoped he was seeing wrong. "The TARDIS is gone..." he muttered. He backed away from the window, horror stricken across his face as he leaned against a wall. "The earthquake. This section collapsed."
Rose stared at him, confused. "B... But it's got to be out there somewhere," she told him, peering through the window to see her statement was completely wrong. All she saw was black, empty space, a lone rock floating by every few seconds. Averting her eyes, she peered at the Doctor who was staring down at the ground, quickly doing some sort of pattern on the railing, what he always did when he was panicking. Slowly, Rose edged toward him and snaked her arms around his neck, his own arms snapping around her waist as he continued the pattern on her lower back.
They made their way back to the room where they left the others, the Doctor quickly walking up to Zach. "The ground gave way. My TARDIS must've fallen down right into the heart of the planet. But you've got robot drills heading the same way," the Doctor told him urgently.
Zach shook his head. "We can't divert the drillings," he said simply as he walked away. The Doctor stared at him for a few moments, quickly following him after. "But I need my ship. It's one of the only things I've got left." Rose gave small squeeze to his hand, trying to remind him not to panic.
Zach sighed, turning towards them. "Doctor, we've only got the resources to drill one central shaft down to the power source, and that's it. No diversions, no distractions - NO EXCEPTIONS. Your machine is lost. All I can do is offer you a lift if we ever get to leave this place, and that... is the end of it," he said in finality, walking away from him and Rose. Ida walked up to them, the Doctor looking helpless as he looked up. "I'll uh, put you on duty roster. We need someone in the laundry," she said awkwardly, quickly leaving the room to follow Zach. The Ood followed them shortly, leaving the Doctor and Rose in the room. The Doctor leaned against the console, Rose leaning back on the railing. There was a long moment of silence between the two, the Doctor breaking it quietly. "I've trapped you here," he muttered.
Rose shook her head, looking up at him. "No," she said. "Don't worry about me." The base gave another violent shake as Rose looked up towards the roof again. "Okay, we're on a planet that shouldn't exist, under a black hole... and no way out," she listed. The two caught eye contact again, Rose giving a stiff, nervous laugh. "Yeah, I've changed my mind. Start worrying about me." She gave him a small smile, the Doctor wordlessly and emotionlessly bringing her into another tight embrace as he looked up at the black hole again, cursing Gallifreyan in his mind.
