"Right then!" The Doctor beamed, his eyes bright with ideas. "Now that everyone can breathe, let's work on not being wiped from the time-line, shall we?"
"What do you mean?" Haim questioned. "Just what are those Reaper things, exactly?"
"You're a man of science, Geoffrey." He started, "So consider them like antibodies fighting an infection."
"An infection?" Moira snapped indignantly. She wasn't quite sure what it was, but something about those words offended her.
"A wound then." The Doctor shrugged, mostly ignoring Moira's outburst.
"A wound?"' Corl added to the conversation, looking just as puzzled as Haim.
"Yes!" The Doctor exclaimed, a hint of frustration in his voice. Why was it so hard to understand simple temporal physics? "A wound, a big ol' cut in time, oozing with energy. Like blood I suppose." He turned his nose up, shuddering a little. "Not puss though. Don't like puss. Ew."
"So these things are here because of some kind of distortion in time?" Corl said, disheartened. "I told you Geoffrey." She turned to her superior, her voice starting to crack little. "I told you there were some things that shouldn't be interfered with!"
"Is this true Doctor?" Haim also had a look of pain on his face, a look of guilt. "Is this our fault? Are these things here because of us?"
The Doctor looked at the pair in front of him. Not half an hour earlier, Haim had been so full of pride for his facility and his work, but now it looked as if that was all starting to fade. Hopefully the doctor could do something to ease that pain.
"I don't think this is your fault Geoffrey." He said kindly. "Unless you've come across any huge breakthroughs in the last hour that could possibly rip the fabric of space time," he paused for a moment, "you haven't, have you? Good." He added, as Haim shook his head. "This place has been here for years. If the Reapers were going to appear because of something you were doing, it would have happened years ago. No." He pondered for a moment, but was interrupted before he managed to speak.
"They are here because of something new." Moira said, in a rather monotone voice.
"Something new?" Corl muttered, her eyes dancing over the Doctor and Moira.
The Doctor winced. This was going to get awkward. He knew he hadn't been altering any timelines lately, not on purpose anyway. That just left Moira. There was no proof she had anything to do with it, but if the staff thought it was her fault, who knew what they might do? Haim and Corl seemed like trustworthy, nice people, but the Doctor had seen all to well how quickly humans could change from that in to something monstrous, something much more dangerous and unpredictable than many of the foes the Time Lord had faced.
A wave of relief washed over him as the communications panel buzzed in to life once again.
"This is Officer Ortel calling any available personnel." The young mans' voice hissed through the speaker, his breathing was heavy yet he remained calm. "I repeat, Officer Ortel to all personnel."
"Good afternoon Officer!" The Doctor said cheerfully, grabbing hold of the long microphone sat on the terminal. "Or is it good morning? Evening even?" He looked at his wrist before rolling his eyes. "Really must get myself a watch. Now," his voice suddenly went very serious. "First things first, what's your name? Your real name?"
"Travis." The voice replied. "Who am I speaking to?"
"It's the Doctor. You might remember me, long coat, nice brown suit. Lots of hair."
"The prisoner?"
"Well, not really." The Doctor replied. "But there's no time to explain. Are you ok? Where are you?"
"I'm heading towards the middle of the complex." Ortel gasped. "I think I've lost them, for now."
"They were after him?" Haim said, shocked before leaning towards the microphone. "Officer Ortel." The Doctor shot him a look. "Travis. What happened to Officer Jaran? Is he with you?"
"He was." Came the reply. "They got him. He made sure I could get away. But they got him. They killed him."
The Doctor was staring at the wall now.
"We'll make sure his sacrifice wasn't in vain." He promised. "Keep moving Travis. Whatever you do, don't stop." He turned his attention to the large screen in front, pulling the Sonic Screwdriver from his pocket again.
"What are you doing now?" Corl inquired, trying to look over his shoulder.
"Busy." He replied, matter of factly.
"He's recalibrating the scanner outputs." Moira explained. "So that we can see where the Reapers are."
As she finished her sentence, four large red dots appeared on the schematic of the facility.
"Precisely." The Doctor smiled. "And looks like we are in luck. They're moving rather slowly, means that the anomaly must be rather small, in comparison."
Haim looked at the doctor, confused. "In comparison to what?"
"Erm, in comparison to there being several different versions of you in this room?" The Doctor shrugged. "Or if someone had altered the time lines so that everyone in the universe loved pears. Imagine that." He shuddered, drifting off slightly. "We'd all have to eat them. Eugh." He pulled a face of disgust. "Anyway! It means the Reapers are relatively slow and weak, which gives us a chance. We need to get moving."
"Where to?" Corl asked. "We are just as at risk anywhere else."
"The Time Core." Moira answered.
"First place I would look for a time anomaly!" The Doctor smiled. "Quite an expert, aren't you Moira?"
"I just know." She replied, sadly. Looking in to her eyes, the Doctor felt a pang of sympathy. He'd experienced memory loss before and knew how it could feel to not know who you were. This was different though. Moira was demonstrating knowledge of what the Doctor was going to say and do, of what was going to happen, almost like a dormant precognitive talent.
"Doctor!" Haim shouted suddenly, his attention on the screen. "They are heading this way! We need to move now!"
"Couldn't have said it better myself Geoffrey! The Doctor cried. "Allons y!"
He looked at the three blank faces staring back at him and sighed.
"It means," he gestured, urging them out of the room with urgancy. "'let's go'!" He enthused, rushing towards the door like a whirlwind, his coat billowing behind him.
**
"Keep moving!" The Doctor shouted behind him, noticing Moira had started to lag a little.
"Have you ever tried running in a dress?" Moira retorted, struggling to keep up in her long white attire.
"I'm not going to answer that!" He winked as he turned yet another silver corridor. "This place looks a lot smaller from the outside!"
"Maybe it is." Moira commented uninterestedly. She was much more concerned with not falling flat on her face on to the metal grating.
"Nah. Bigger on the inside?" The Doctor said cheekily. "Impossible."
"There has always been talk about that." Haim added to the conversation. He was keeping up with the Doctor quite well, much better than the Time Lord had expected. "It is as if the corridors change sometimes. We put it down to the Time Rift years ago."
As she listened, an image entered Moiras' head. A large circular room, the floor covered with the same mesh as was below her feet at that moment. It was blurry, but Moira could make out something in the centre of the room, running from the floor to the high domed ceiling.
She slowed for a moment, shocked by the sudden picture in her mind. Ever since arriving here things had popped in to her head, words mainly, but nothing as clear as this. Something told her it was important, but she didn't quite know why. Suddenly she was aware of an odd tingling sensation in both her hands, the same one she had felt when she had found herself in the facility.
"Moira!" the Doctor cried, running back towards her. He was looking down at her. How had she not realised that she had fallen? "We have to keep moving." He looked to Corl and Haim, who had also stopped running and were turning towards them. "No, Keep running. We'll catch up." The Doctor could tell that Corl was unconvinced by what he had said, but soon made her mind up as Haim took her by the hand and led her down the corridor.
"I know you'll probably tell me off for asking this," The Doctor said gently, helping the young girl to her feet, her hair scattered across her face. "but are you ok?"
She looked at the Doctor with her wide blue eyes, wanting to snap at him again, but something stopped her.
"I don't know." She said eventually. "I could see something in my head. A room, a big round room. And something happened there. Or will happen." She held her head. "I just don't know what."
"Moira," The Doctor said sincerely, "I promise I'll help you work al this out, but right now," He was cut off suddenly by a deafening roar from around then. The Doctor stood up straight, looking around him, but couldn't see anything.
That was until the corridor walls gave way, ripped to shreds by the clawed wings of the Reaper as it focused its' attention on the blonde girl. She looked up at it with fear in her eyes as the creature swooped towards her, it's wings spread wide and teeth bared, ready to strike.
**
Moira felt her body crash on to the floor once again as something propelled her from the side, knocking her clean over. There was an almighty roar and crash as the Reaper slammed in to the wall where Moira had been seconds earlier. She looked to her side, expecting to see the Doctor at her side on the floor, but he was still on his feet, bending down to quickly help her up. Puzzled she looked to her other side, to see Ortel sprawled beside her. As she rose to her feet, she hurriedly pulled him up with her.
"Go!" The Doctor ordered, as the Reaper recovered from its' slight injuries and turned towards them. "Nice timing Travis!" he added, noting the cut across the young mans' head. "Jaran would be proud."
"I know." Ortel gasped as he sprinted after the Doctor and Moira, not looking back at the monstrous creature behind him. He didn't need to look to know it was following them, even without the sound of the walls being ripped apart it is what he would have expected. A true hunter never gave up on its' prey.
The adrenaline was pumping through the Doctors' body, both of his hearts beating frantically as he powered down yet another identical corridor. If only they had the chance to stop running, maybe he would be able to get an idea of what was really going on here. At least the last time he had dealt with the Reapers he had known what was wrong with the time line but right now, the Doctor had no real clue. Well, that wasn't quite true, he had clues, just not very coherent ones.
And what was that Haim was saying about the size of the facility? He hadn't quite had time to take it on board before. Maybe he was becoming a bit close-minded, at first he had completely dismissed the possibility that the dome could be bigger on the inside. Now, however, his mind was overflowing with ideas. Haim had said that the Time Core was salvaged from wreckage found decades ago. Right now, the Doctor was wishing he had pressed for more information, He was hoping it was all a big coincidence, that it really was the Time Rift that was altering the staffs' perception of the size of the facility and the Time Core was made from various bodged pieces of Time Agent technology and some scrap. It had to be.
After all, the other option was impossible. Well, improbable. Very improbable.
The Doctor looked behind him, relieved to see that both Moira and Travis were still behind him, barely ahead of the Reaper. Looking back in front of him, he could see Haim and Corl standing waiting for them.
"I told you to keep moving!" he shouted, struggling to be heard over the roar of the Reaper and the crash of debris as the corridor was smashed apart.
"This is my facility." Haim replied back with authority. "And therefore the safety of my staff and guests is my responsibility."
"Very honourable Geoffrey," The doctor replied, mock saluting as he passed him, "but we have to keep moving."
"No." Haim stared at him as Moira and Ortel caught up and passed him. "You have to keep moving."
"Geoffrey?" Corl said in surprise as her senior stepped forward towards the Reaper and turned to the wall, pressing a number of keys on a control pad.
"No!" The Doctor let out an anguished cry as a silver door slid down in front of them, separating them from Haim who stood his ground, staring at the Reaper as it swooped towards him.
**