The Hungry Earth
"Behold..." the Doctor cried as he opened the doors to the TARDIS, "Rio!"
Amy and Rory stepped out, looking around at the cemetery they'd found themselves in, "Nuh uh," Amy shook her head, hugging herself, a bit chilled.
"Not really getting the sunshine carnival vibe," Rory had to agree.
"No," the Professor laughed, stepping past the Doctor and out before stopping short, "Ooh…" she frowned and looked at the Doctor, "Do you feel that?"
He frowned and stepped out as well, starting to bounce in place, "Ground feels strange..." he nodded and then noticed something a few feet away, "Wait...that's weird."
"What's weird?" Rory asked.
"Stop trying to distract us," Amy sighed, "We're in the wrong place," the two of them just ran over to the side of a church and knelt in the grass, staring at the blue patches around them, "It's freezing and I've dressed for Rio. We are not stopping here," the Professor just plucked some out and looked at them as the Doctor did the same, "Professor! Doctor are you listening to me? It's a graveyard! You promised me a beach."
"Blue grass," the Professor frowned, looking around, "Patches of it all around the graveyard."
"So, Earth, 2020-ish, ten years in your future, wrong continent for Rio, I'll admit, but it's not a massive overshoot," the Doctor looked around.
"Especially considering I let the Doctor pilot this one," the Professor muttered.
"Why are those people waving at us?" Amy asked. They looked back to see Amy staring at two figures in the distance who were, in fact, waving at them.
"Can't be," the Professor squinted as the Doctor pulled out a pair of binoculars.
"It is!" he cheered, "It's you two."
"No, we're here," Rory shook his head, "How can we be up there?"
"Ten years in your future," the Professor looked up at him.
"Come to relive past glories, I'd imagine," the Doctor sighed, "Humans, you're so nostalgic."
"We're still together in ten years?" Amy's eyes widened.
"No need to sound so surprised!" Rory rolled his eyes at her.
"Hey, let's go and talk to them! We can say hi to Future Us! How cool is that?" she took Rory's arm and headed off.
"No, best not," the Professor cut in, "Really, you probably shouldn't. These things can get very complicated very quickly, and..."
"Oh, look!" the Doctor cut in, pointing at a rather large drill at the bottom of the hill, "Big mining thing. Oh, I love a big mining thing. See, way better than Rio! Rio doesn't have a big mining thing."
"We're not going to have a look, are we?" Amy groaned.
"Let's go and have a look!" the Doctor cheered, heading down the hill, "Come on, let's see what they're doing."
The Professor shook her head at him fondly.
"If he can't get us to Rio, how's he ever going to get us back home?" Rory wondered.
"Did you not see, over there?" Amy asked, "It all works out fine."
"And besides," the Professor put her arm around the man's shoulder, "I will forcibly tie him up if he tries to pilot you two back."
Rory laughed, able to picture the Doctor tied to the jump seat, and sighed, "After everything we've seen though," he looked at Amy, "We just drop back into our old lives, the nurse and the kiss-o-gram?"
"I guess," Amy shrugged, oddly not too disturbed by the thought of returning to a life with Rory.
"Come on, we should head after him," the Professor nodded at the Doctor's retreating figure, "He's getting away."
Amy stepped over and took Rory by the arm when he pulled back, "Hang on. What are you doing with that?" he pointed at Amy's engagement ring.
"Engagement ring!" she beamed, "I thought you liked me wearing it."
"Amy! You could lose it! Cost...a lot of money, that!"
"Hmm," she sighed, taking it off and giving it to him, "Spoilsport."
The Professor held up her ring finger, "A Whitepoint Star and unbreakable metal," she wiggled her fingers, showing them her rings, "Forged in the heart of a dwarf star. Nothing stronger."
"Well not all of us can stop by the local dwarf star," Rory remarked with a laugh, "You two go on. I'll catch you both up," he turned and headed to the TARDIS.
"I'll go with you," the Professor walked after him, "It'll be easier to track down the Doctor if I'm with you. You have yet to see him truly get lost."
Rory laughed and held out an arm to her which she took and they walked off.
Amy smiled, happy they were both getting along, before turning and running after the Doctor, "Doctor!"
~8~
Rory put Amy's engagement ring in its box and left it on the console before turning and taking the Professor's arm once more as they stepped outside the TARDIS, only to see a brunette woman standing there with a small boy beside her.
"Well, that was quick!" she remarked.
"Was it?" Rory eyed her a moment, confused, before looking at the Professor who could only shrug.
"It's great that you came."
"Bit retro," the boy nodded at the TARDIS, "What is it, portable crime lab?"
"Oh," the Professor glanced back at it, "Sort of."
"Ambrose Northover," the woman shook their hands, "I was the one who called. I run the meals on wheels for the whole valley. This is my son, Elliot."
"Where're your uniforms?" Elliot asked.
"Don't be cheeky, Elliot, they're plain clothes. CID, is it? Anyway, it's over here," she turned and walked off, leaving them to follow, confused, behind her.
~8~
The Doctor nodded to himself, hearing the Professor's report on where she and Rory had got to as he and Amy walked over to a large gate outside the drilling site, "'Restricted access,'" he read off the sign, "'No unauthorized personnel.' Hmm," he pulled the sonic out and flashed the lock.
"That is breaking and entering," Amy chastised.
"What did I break? Sonicing and entering, totally different," he pushed the gate open.
"Come on, then," Amy walked through and he followed.
~8~
Ambrose, Rory, the Professor, and Elliot stood before an open grave, looking down into it.
"It's a family plot, see," Ambrose explained, "My aunt Gladys died six years ago. Her husband, Alan, died a few weeks back. He lived in the house two doors down. There's not many of us left up here now."
"Mum, they don't care about that!" Elliot groaned, "They want to know about the dead bodies."
"Yes. Sorry. Well, they always wanted to be buried in the same plot, together. But when we went to bury Uncle Alan, Gladys wasn't there. Gone. Body, coffin, everything."
"What?" Rory frowned.
"The mad thing is, on the surface, the grave was untouched. No signs of it having been messed with."
"That's interesting," the Professor crouched down and looked into the grave, her curiosity peaked.
"Nobody has touched the grave since my aunt was buried. But when they dug it open, the body was gone. How is that possible?"
~8~
"What about now, can you feel it now?" the Doctor asked Amy as they walked through the halls of the drilling station.
"Honestly, I've got no idea what you're on about."
"The ground doesn't feel like it should."
"It's ten years in the future, maybe how this ground feels is how it always feels."
"Good thought! But no. It doesn't…" he paused, hearing a whirring noise, "Hear that, drill in start-up mode, after waves of a recent seismological shift, and blue grass," he pulled a bit of the grass from his pocket and stuck it in his mouth, quickly trying to pull it out, making a face.
"Oh, please! Have you always been this disgusting?"
"No, that's recent. What's in..." he turned and walked into a room at the end of the hall to see an Indian woman standing before a few computers, "Here? Hello!"
"Who are you?" the woman looked at them suspiciously, "What're you doing here? And what're you wearing?"
"I dressed for Rio!" Amy snapped.
The Doctor pulled out the psychic paper, "Ministry of Drills, Earth and Science! New Ministry, quite big, just merged, lot of responsibility on our shoulders, don't like to talk about it. What're you doing?"
"None of your business," the woman remarked.
He just ignored her and walked over to the monitors, "Where are you getting these readings from?"
"Under the soil," she answered, moving a piece of equipment from a hole in the floor.
"The drill's up and running again," an older man reported as he walked in, slowing at the sight of Amy and the Doctor, "What's going on? Who are these people?"
The Doctor knelt by the hole to test the soil, letting it fall from his fingers to the ground as Amy answered for him, "Amy, the Doctor. We're not staying, are we, Doctor?"
"Why's there a big patch of earth in the middle of your floor?" the Doctor looked at them.
"We don't know, it just appeared overnight," the woman shrugged as Amy walked closer to the hole and peered down at it.
The Doctor stood quickly, "Good, right, you all need to get out of here very fast," he walked back to the monitors.
"Why?" the woman frowned.
"What's your name?"
"Nasreen Chaudhry."
"Look at the screens, Nasreen, your readings. It's moving."
Amy knelt down.
"Hey, that's specialized equipment!" the man stormed over to him, "Get away from it."
"What is?" Nasreen frowned.
"Doctor, this steam, is that a good thing?" Amy called.
He looked over his shoulder at the hole which now had steam rising from it, "Shouldn't think so…" he walked over and waved a hand through it, mumbling something about needing the Professor and scanning, before sighing, "It's shifting when it shouldn't be shifting."
"What shouldn't?" Nasreen shook her head.
The ground began to shake.
"The ground, the soil, the earth, moving, but how?" he ran back to the monitor, "Why?"
"Earthquake?" Amy suggested.
"What's going on?" the man demanded.
"Doubt it," the Doctor waved her off, "'Cos it's only happening under this room," more holes appeared, "It knows we're here. The ground's attacking us."
"No, that's not possible!" Nasreen scoffed.
"Under the circumstances, I suggest...RUN!" he grabbed Nasreen's hand and pulled her towards the door, the man moving to follow when a hole opened before him, trapping him.
"Tony!" Nasreen shrieked.
"Stay back, Amy!" the Doctor shouted as Amy paused, "Stay away from the earth!"
Amy just leapt over another hole to Tony's side, helping him up, "It's ok," the ground under her opened and sucked her feet in, "It's pulling me down!"
"Amy!" the Doctor ran over to her.
"Doctor, help me, something's got me!" he reached out, on his stomach, grabbing her arms, "Doctor, the ground's got my legs!" she sunk down to her waist.
He grabbed her hands tightly, "I've got you."
"Ok. Don't let go."
"Never."
"Doctor, what is it, why is it doing this?"
"Stay calm, keep hold of my hand, don't let go," he looked back at Nasreen and Tony, "Your drill, shut it down! Go! Now!" they ran out of the room.
"Can you get me out?"
"Amy, try and stay calm. If you struggle, it'll make things worse. Keep hold of my hand. I'm not going to let you go."
Her arms slipped from his grip and she sunk lower, up to her chest, "Doctor, it's pulling me down, something's pulling me!"
"Stay calm," he gripped her wrist, "Hold on, if they can just shut down the drill..."
"I can't hold on!" she sank more, till her head and arms were the only thing visible, the Doctor strained to keep a hold of her, "What's pulling me? What is under the earth? I don't want to suffocate under there."
"Amy, concentrate. Don't you give up!"
"Tell Rory..."
"No. Amy!" Amy sank lower, "Amy, no!" and then she was swallowed by the earth, "No! No!" he dug through the dirt after her, "No! No! No! No! No! No! No!" he slapped the ground and stood up, "No. No!" he grabbed the sonic and flashed around just as Tony and Nasreen ran back in.
"Where is she?" Nasreen looked around.
"She's gone. The ground took her."
~8~
Rory stood in the muddy grave, not allowing the Professor to step into it and soil her skirt, jumping up and down like the Doctor had done.
"Do you want sugar?" Elliot asked as he came over to stand beside the Professor, crouched down, watching Rory.
"Sorry?" he looked up.
"In your tea. Mum's asking."
"No. Just white, thanks."
"Black for me," the Professor added.
"There's only one explanation, as far as I can see," Elliot remarked.
"What's that, then?" the Professor smiled at him.
"The graves eat people. Devour them whole, leaving no trace."
"Not sure about that…" Rory frowned.
"They didn't steal the body from above. They couldn't have got in from the sides. Only other thing is, they get in from underneath."
"Not very likely, though."
The Professor, however, was nodding at his deductive reasoning.
"'When you've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'"
The Professor smiled, "Sherlock Holmes."
Elliot nodded, tapping the headphones around his neck, "Got the audio book."
She laughed and stood up, brushing dust off her skirt, "Oh my old mate Shirly," she shook her head, "Taught him everything he knows."
Elliot eyed her curiously before shaking his head, she was probably just joking with him, "The graves round here eat people."
He turned and left, leaving poor Rory in the grave, shuddering. The Professor's smile started to fade though as she got a report in from the Doctor.
"We should try and find the Doctor," she turned to Rory, holding out a hand to help him out, "Fast."
~8~
"Is that what happened to Mo?" Tony gaped at the holes in the floor, "Are they dead?"
The Doctor paced, "It's not quicksand. She didn't just sink, something pulled her in, it wanted her."
"The ground wanted her?" Nasreen frowned.
"You said the ground was dormant, just a patch of earth, when you first saw it this morning. And the drill had been stopped."
"That's right," Tony nodded.
"But when you restarted the drill, the ground fought back."
"So what, the ground wants to stop us drilling?" Nasreen laughed, "Doctor, that is ridiculous."
The Doctor flashed the hole once more with the sonic and the ground started to vibrate, "I'm not saying that, and it's not ridiculous, I just don't think it's right. Oh! Of course! It's bio-programming!"
"What?"
He stood up, "Bio-programming!" he clapped, "Oh, clever. You use bio-signals to resonate the internal molecular structure of natural objects! It's mainly used in engineering and construction, mostly jungle planets, but that's way in the future, and not here. What's it doing here?"
"Sorry, did you just say 'jungle planets?'"
"You're not making any sense, man!" Tony cried.
'I think you're making perfect sense,' the Professor called to him silently, having been listening in after hearing Amy had been taken, 'They just can't keep up.'
He nodded, "I'm making perfect sense, you're just not keeping up. The earth, the ground beneath our feet, was bio-programmed to attack."
"Yeah, even if that were possible, which, by the way, it's not, why?" Nasreen remarked.
"Stop you drilling! We find what's doing the bio-programming, find Amy, get her back. Shh, shh, shh! Have I gone mad? I've gone mad!"
'You went mad a long time ago.'
"Doctor?" Nasreen frowned, watching as he flopped onto the ground and pressed his ear against the side of the hole.
"Shh, shh! Silence! Absolute silence! You stopped the drill, right?"
"Yes!"
"And you've only got the one drill?"
"Yes!"
"You're sure about that?"
"Yes!" Tony exclaimed.
"So, if you shut the drill down...why can I still hear drilling? It's under the ground."
"That's not possible."
'And that's not a drill,' the Professor assessed, listening to the noise through him.
The Doctor stood and ran over the computers, flashing them with the sonic.
"Oh, no, what...what are you doing?" Nasreen cried.
"Hacking into your records. Reports, samples, sensors, good, just unite the data, make it all one big conversation, let's have a look. So. We are here and this is your drill hole. 21.009 kilometers. Well done!"
"Thank you. It's taken us a long time."
"Why here, though? Why drill on this site?"
"We found patches of grass in this area, containing trace minerals unseen in this country for 20 million years."
'Don't tell me it was the blue grass…' the Professor nearly whined.
"The blue grass? Oh, Nasreen, those trace minerals weren't X marking the spot, saying dig here. They were a warning. Stay away. 'Cos while you've been drilling down...somebody else has been drilling up," he pulled up a screen on one of the monitors, showing a vertical network of tunnels around the drill, "Oh, beautiful. Network of tunnels all the way down."
"No, no, we've surveyed that area," Tony shook his head.
"You only saw what you went looking for."
Nasreen pointed to the bottom where a small lights were blinking, "What are they?"
"Heat signals. Wait, dual readings, hot and cold, doesn't make sense. And now they're moving. Fast. How many people live nearby?"
"Just my daughter and her family," Tony replied, "The rest of the staff travel in."
"Grab this equipment and follow me," he grabbed a computer case and headed for the door.
"Why?" Nasreen frowned, "What're we doing?"
He stopped and turned around, "The Professor was right…"
"Who?"
He ignored her, "That noise isn't a drill. It's transport. Three of them, 30 kilometers down, rate of speed looks about 150 kilometers an hour. Should be here in...ooh, quite soon…"
'12 minutes.'
"12 minutes," he turned around, "Whatever bio-programmed the earth is on its way up, now," he quickly left the room, Nasreen and Tony scrambling to do as he said.
~8~
The Doctor and Tony carried the computers while Nasreen followed behind with a wheelbarrow full of random equipment.
"How can something be coming up when there's only the Earth's crust down there?" Tony shook his head, not understanding.
"You saw the readings!" the Doctor countered.
"Who are you, anyway?" Nasreen frowned, "How can you know all this?" there was a whirring and a red light shot across the sky, "Whoa, did you see that?"
"No, no, no!" the Doctor pulled a slingshot from his pocket and fired a rock at the sky, only for it to hit a force field that struck red at impact. He pulled out the sonic and flashed it, revealing the whole village surrounded by the red dome.
"Energy signal originating from under the earth," the Professor called as she and Rory appeared with Elliot and Ambrose. She had touched the force field as soon as she saw the light and gotten a reading from it, "We're trapped."
"Doctor!" Rory called, seeing him, "Something weird's going on here, the graves are eating people."
"Not now, Rory!" he cut in, turning to the Professor for more.
"It's an energy barricade," she reported, "Invisible to the naked eye. We can't get out and no one from the outside world can get in."
"What?" Rory gaped at her, "Ok, what about the TARDIS?"
"The what?" Nasreen shook her head.
"No, those energy patterns would play havoc with the circuits," the Doctor shook his head.
"With a bit of time, maybe I could rewire the circuits to be able to handle the excess energy," the Professor added, "But we've only got nine and a half minutes."
"Nine and a half minutes to what?" Rory frowned. He'd guessed the aliens had read each other's minds, Amy having told him about their little talent a while ago, but it was very hard to keep up when they would come up with a plan silently and forget that the humans couldn't hear them.
"We're trapped," Nasreen told him, "And something's burrowing towards the surface."
Rory looked around, "Where's Amy?"
The Professor quickly turned to the small group, "Get everyone inside the church!" she took a computer from the Doctor so they each held one.
The Doctor turned to Rory, "Rory, we'll get her back."
"What d'you mean, 'get her back?'" he demanded, "Where's she gone?"
"She was taken. Into the Earth."
"How? Why didn't you stop it?"
"I tried. I promise, I tried."
"Well, you should've tried harder!"
"Rory," the Professor walked over, putting a hand on his shoulder and looking him square in the eye, "We will find Amy."
The Doctor nodded, "We'll keep you all safe. We promise. Come on, please. We need you alongside us."
Rory looked at them both a moment, before nodding and grabbing another case to follow them into the church.
It was in a severe state of disrepair, almost as dangerous inside as out. Boxes scattered around in disuse, crates and junk everywhere. The Doctor, Nasreen, Tony, and the Professor quickly got to work setting up the equipment wherever they could.
"So we can't get out, we can't contact anyone?" Ambrose nearly scoffed, "And something, the something that took my husband, is coming up through the earth."
"Yes," the Doctor nodded, "If we move quickly enough, we can be ready."
"No, stop. This has gone far enough. What is this?"
"He's telling the truth, love," Tony turned to her.
"Come on! It's not the first time we've had no mobile or phone signals. Reception's always rubbish."
"Look, Ambrose, we saw the Doctor's friend get taken, ok?" Nasreen turned to her, "You saw the lightning in the sky. I have seen the impossible today, and the only person who's made any sense of it, for me, is the Doctor."
"Him?"
"Me," the Doctor nodded.
"Can you get my dad back?" Elliot asked. Everyone looked at the Doctor.
"Yes," the Professor answered for him, but looked at his mother, taking charge, "But we need you to trust us and do exactly as we say from this second onwards because we are running out of time."
Ambrose swallowed hard, "So tell us what to do."
"Thank you," the Doctor smiled, kissing the side of the Professor's head, knowing she'd be able to round them together.
She smiled and nodded at him before clapping her hands, "We have eight minutes to set up a line of defense. Bring every phone, camera, every piece of recording or transmitting equipment you can find here. Everything. Every burglar alarm, every movement sensor, every security light. We need the whole area covered with sensors."
~8~
Ambrose and Rory ran around the outside of the church, setting up the cameras as the Professor moved to sonic them together with the Doctor's screwdriver. The Doctor himself was setting up the computer monitors to show the tunnels, watching the signatures come closer.
"Right, we need to be ready for whatever's coming up," he looked at Elliot, "We need a map of the village, marking where the cameras are going."
"I can't do the words," he mumbled, "I'm dyslexic."
"Oh, that's alright, I can't make a decent meringue, and don't even mention my attempts at soufflé to the Professor otherwise she'll never stop laughing," Elliot laughed, "Draw like your life depends on it, Elliot," he nodded and ran off. The Doctor checked his watch, "6 minutes 40."
He looked over at Nasreen as she watched the time count down while Tony set up another computer with an overlay of the village, "Works in quadrants, every movement sensor and trip light we've got," he reported, "If anything moves, we'll know."
The Doctor slapped him on the back, "Good lad!"
~8~
The Doctor and Professor were looking through Ambrose's van as she walked past with her arms full of gardening implements and even a few guns and weapons.
"Oi!" she glared at them, "What're you doing?"
"Resources," the Professor replied, "Every little bit helps."
"Meals on wheels," the Doctor patted the car, "What've you got here then, warmer in the front, refrigerated in the back."
"Bit chilly for a hideout, mind," Ambrose remarked, setting the items in the front of the van.
"What are those?"
"Like she said, every little bit helps."
"No!" he shook his head, "No weapons. It's not the way I do things."
"You said we're supposed to defend ourselves!"
"And we will," the Professor remarked, taking out her blaster, "But the only one of us who's going to have an actual weapon is me."
Ambrose glared, "And what makes you so special."
The Professor didn't even blink, "I know how to use it."
Ambrose faltered, looking down at the gun-like object in the girl's hand and watched as she put it back into the holster on her thigh, strapped around a pair of black shorts hidden under her skirt. It was a new addition to her outfit of choice, picked up after having to use the rope ladder during the Byzantium adventure. The Doctor was not very fond of her using the excuse of her skirt to head down first, so, she'd found a pair of shorts in the wardrobe and decided to wear them under her skirt.
"Ambrose, you're better than this," the Doctor added, "I'm asking nicely. Put them away."
He turned and walked away with the Professor, leaving Ambrose to shut the front of the car.
~8~
The countdown had just reached 3 minutes 23 when Elliot ran back with the map, handing it to the Doctor.
"Look at that!" he cheered, "Perfect!"
"Dyslexia never stopped Da Vinci or Einstein," the Professor ruffled the boy's hair, "It's not stopping you."
He looked at her suspiciously, "How did YOU know I have dyslexia?"
She smiled, "Secret?" he nodded, "I can read his mind," she nodded at the Doctor.
Elliot's eyes widened a moment, "Cool."
"Isn't it just?"
He laughed a moment before shaking his head, glancing at the computers, "I don't understand what you're going to do."
"Two phase plan," she explained.
"First," the Doctor continued, "The sensors and cameras will tell us when something arrives."
"Second, if something does arrive, we use this," she turned back to work on the computers, "To send a sonic pulse through that network of devices, a pulse which would temporarily incapacitate most things in the Universe."
"Knock 'em out," he nodded, catching on rather quickly, "Cool."
"Lovely place to grow up, round here," the Doctor remarked as the Professor got to work, tweaking the controls.
"Suppose," Elliot shrugged, "I want to live in a city one day. Soon as I'm old enough, I'll be off."
"I was the same, where I grew up. We both were."
"Did you get away?"
"Yeah."
"Do you ever miss it?"
"So much."
The Professor reached out and took his hand in her own, still typing with the other hand.
"Is it monsters coming? Have you met monsters before?"
"Yeah."
"You scared of them?"
"No! They're scared of me. And they're terrified of the Professor."
"Will you really get my dad back?"
"No question," the Professor smiled at him, before turning back to the computer.
"I left my headphones at home!" Elliot realized and ran off just as the countdown reached a minute.
~8~
The Professor made one more, quick round about the church, checking the cameras and sensors when she spotted Rory setting up the last one on a gravestone.
"How're you doing?" she asked him gently as she soniced the camera, connecting it to the system.
"It's getting darker," he commented instead of answering, looking up at the sky as the light was slowly blocked out, "How can it be getting dark so quickly?"
"Shutting out light from within the barricade. Trying to isolate us in the dark. Which means..." there was a rumbling, "It's time. They're here."
They turned and ran back to the church's door to see Ambrose trying to get in.
"I can't open it!" she shouted, "It keeps sticking! The wood's warped."
The Professor moved forward to try and help as Rory hung back, "Any time at all that you want to help Rory!"
"Can't you sonic it?" he asked her.
"It doesn't do wood!"
"That is rubbish!"
"Don't tell the Doctor that!"
Rory ran over and, between the three of them, they were able to open the door and enter the church. They ran through the door, seeing Tony, Nasreen, and the Doctor by the computers when the door shut behind them. The ground was shaking much worse.
"See if we can get a fix," the Doctor remarked as he typed something into the computer, items began falling off the shelves as the Doctor worked to narrow the area only for the computer to spark as the power went out.
"No power," Tony frowned.
"It's deliberate," the Professor sighed.
"What do we do now?" Rory asked as Tony turned on a torch.
"Nothing," the Doctor ground out, frustrated, "We've got nothing!"
"They sent an energy surge to wreck our systems," the Professor quickly checked the computers.
"Is everyone ok?" Rory looked around, "Is anyone hurt?"
"I'm fine," Nasreen called.
"I'm good," Tony nodded.
"Me too," Ambrose added.
A loud rumbling started.
"What was that?" Rory looked at the Time Lords.
"It's like the holes at the drill station," Tony frowned.
"Is this how they happened?" Nasreen asked.
The Professor knelt down and listened to the ground, "It's coming through the final layer of earth."
"What is?"
She stood up quickly and there was silence.
"The banging's stopped," Tony remarked.
Ambrose looked around suddenly, "Where's Elliot? Has anyone seen Elliot? Did he come in? Was he in when the door was shut? Who counted him back in? Who saw him last?"
"We did…" the Doctor realized, looking at the Professor.
"Where is he?"
"He said he was going to get headphones."
"And you let him go? He was out there on his own?"
Tony put a hand on her shoulder when someone pounded at the door, "Mum!" Elliot shouted, "Grandpa Tony! Let me in!"
Ambrose's eyes widened, "Elliot!" she ran to the door, struggling to open it.
"Let me in."
"He's out there! Help me."
"Open the door! Mum! There's something out here!"
Everyone ran over, trying to help get the door open.
"Push, Elliot, push, Elliot!"
"Mum!"
"Hurry up!"
"Mummy…"
"Come on!" Tony grunted, getting the door open.
"Elliot!" Ambrose ran out but Elliot as nowhere to be seen, "Where is he? He was here. He was here! Elliot!" she ran down the path towards the graveyard.
"Ambrose, don't go running off!" the Doctor shouted.
"Ambrose!" Tony ran after her.
"No one ever listens!" he grumbled before he and the Professor ran off after them.
"Dad!" they heard Ambrose shout as they ran over to see Tony fall back onto a headstone, sitting heavily.
"What happened?" the Doctor shouted.
"My dad's hurt."
"Get him into the church now!" the Professor ordered.
"Elliot's gone. They've killed him, haven't they?"
"I don't think so," the Doctor shook his head.
"They've taken three people, when they could've just killed them up here," the Professor remarked, "They're hostages."
"There's still hope, Ambrose. There is always hope."
Ambrose wept, "Then why've they taken him?"
"We don't know but we'll find Elliot, I promise."
"But first we've gotta stop this attack," the Professor told her, "Please, get inside the church."
Ambrose nodded and helped her father up, "Come on dad," heading off towards the church.
"So, what now?" Rory asked them, jogging over.
The Doctor sighed and turned to the Professor, "Can you keep an eye on them?" he nodded towards the church, "One of us should stay with them incase they're attacked."
She paused a moment, glancing at Rory, "Keep an eye on him?"
"Yeah, of course," he nodded.
She sighed and turned to head back to the church, normally she wouldn't be so ok with the Doctor going off on his own with an enemy out there. But...she just had a bad feeling about Ambrose. The impression she'd gotten of the woman was of a narrow-minded, stubborn, and very emotional woman...not a good combination when dealing with a possible hostile alien attack. She would need to be watched for now.
"Ok," the Doctor watched her go a moment before turning to Rory, "Rory…here's what we need to do…"
~8~
The Doctor walked down the street outside the drilling center, wearing sunglasses. He glanced at his hand, seeing the heat signature on it glowing red before hearing something. He looked up at the bushes and walked a bit closer, spotting a figure that gave off a blue signature.
"Cold blood," he smiled, "I know who they are."
He walked back to the meals on wheels van, whistling as he opened the front door and pulled out a fire extinguisher. He shut the door, catching sight of a creature approaching from behind in the reflection of the window, and spun around, blasting the fire extinguisher at it. The creature screamed and Rory jumped out of the back with a yell. He threw a blanket over the creature and they shoved it into the refrigerated back, locking the door.
"We got it!" Rory cheered.
"Defending the planet with meals on wheels!" he moved to high-five Rory when another rumble sounded.
"What was that?"
"Sounds like they're leaving."
"Without this one?" the darkness faded to allow the sun through, "Looks like we scared them off!"
"I don't think so. Now both sides have hostages."
~8~
Rory sat on a toppled grave marker as the Doctor and Professor came around the front of the church, having done a onceover to make sure no more creatures had remained.
"I've met these creatures before," he was explaining to the Professor, "Different branch of the species, but all the same..." they nodded at Rory and turned to the basement doors, "Let's see if our friend's thawed out!"
"Are you sure?" Rory asked as they walked down the steps to the room the Professor had chained the creature in, "By yourselves?"
"Very sure," the Doctor nodded.
"But the sting..."
"Venom gland takes at least 24 hours to recharge," the Professor stated.
The Doctor patted him on the shoulder, "We know what we're doing. We'll be fine."
Rory sighed and left as the duo walked down the remaining steps to the floor. They glanced at the creature, a humanoid figure with reptilian features, a gray face with large, dark, slanted eyes, wearing a sort of chainmail.
"I'm the Doctor," the Doctor held his hands up as it tensed, "This is the Professor. We've come to talk. I'm going to remove your mask," he reached out slowly and pulled the gray part off, revealing a humanoid face with green scales, "You are beautiful."
"Doctor…" the Professor mock hissed.
"Not as beautiful as you," he reassured her, giving her a quick peck before turning back to the creature, "But still…a remnant of a bygone age on planet Earth. And by the way, lovely mode of travel!"
"Geothermal currents, projecting you up through a network of tunnels."
"Gorgeous! Mind if we sit?" he moved over to the side of the room and pulled out two folding chairs, setting them up as they sat down, "Now…your people have a friend of ours."
"We want her back," the Professor added, crossing one of her legs over the other, casual.
The creature was silent.
"Why did you come to the surface?"
"What do you want?"
Still silent.
"Oh, I do hate getting no answers," the Doctor sighed, "Give us a bit back."
"How many are you?"
"I'm the last of my species," the creature hissed.
"Really?" the Doctor eyed her.
"No," the Professor cut in, "'Last of the species,' the Klempari Defense," she looked at the creature closely, "As an interrogation defense, it's a bit old, I'm afraid."
"I'm the last of my species," she repeated.
"No," the Professor said, a bit more forcefully, "You're really not. Because I can see the training behind your responses. You are NOT the last of your species because we are the last of ours and we KNOW how it sits in a heart. So, as a warning, don't insult us."
"Let's start again…" the Doctor cut in, putting a hand on the Professor's shoulder to relax her, pulling her back in the chair, "Tell us your name."
"Alaya," she replied.
"How long has your tribe been sleeping under the Earth, Alaya? It's not difficult to work out. You're 300 million years out of your comfort zone. Question is, what woke you now?"
"We were attacked."
"The drill," the Professor realized.
"Our sensors detected a threat to our life support systems. The warrior class was activated to prevent the assault. We will wipe the vermin from the surface and reclaim our planet."
"Do we have to say vermin?" the Doctor sighed, "They're really very nice."
"Primitive apes."
"Extraordinary species," the Professor countered, "You attack them, they'll fight back."
"But, there's a peace to be brokered here," the Doctor added, "We can help you with that."
"This land is ours," Alaya spat, "We lived here long before the apes."
"Doesn't give you automatic rights to it now, I'm afraid. Humans won't give up the planet."
"So we destroy them."
"You underestimate them," the Professor warned.
"You underestimate us."
"One tribe of Homo Reptilia against six billion humans?" the Professor shrugged, "Do you like those odds? The humans have evolved past simple sticks and stones and blades as you slept. They WILL fight back."
Alaya stood, glaring at them, "We did not initiate combat. But we can still win."
"Tell us where our friend is," the Doctor continued, "Give us back the people who were taken."
"No."
He sighed and stood, holding out a hand for the Professor to help her up, "We're not going let you provoke a war, Alaya," they folded up the chairs and put them away, "There'll be no battle here today," and headed for the door.
"The fire of war is already lit. A massacre is due."
"But to which side will the massacre fall?" the Professor wondered, trying to warn the reptile away from all-out combat.
"There will be no massacre," the Doctor stated, "Not while we're here."
"I'll gladly die for my cause," Alaya spat, "What will you sacrifice for yours?"
"You've no idea what we have scarified in the past Alaya," the Professor warned her, more forcefully, "It would put even your bravest warriors to shame. And…should it come down to it…we will fight for the humans. And if that should happen, you WILL lose."
Alaya stepped back just a bit. She could recognize a warrior when she saw one and knew not to take the woman's threats lightly.
The Doctor squeezed her hand and they walked out of the room.
~8~
The humans gathered around the Doctor and Professor as they explained their plan to head down and try to negotiate a peace.
"You're going to what?" Rory gaped.
"We're going to go down below the surface, to find the rest of the tribe," the Doctor repeated, "To talk to them."
"You're going to negotiate with these aliens?" Ambrose asked, nearly disgusted.
"They're not aliens," the Professor countered calmly.
"They're Earth...liens," the Doctor nodded, floundering slightly.
"Once known as the Silurian race, or, some would argue, Eocenes, or Homo Reptilia, or..."
"Not monsters, not evil," the Doctor cut in slightly, knowing she could probably come up with at least a dozen other names for the species, "Well, only as evil as you are. The previous owners of the planet, that's all. Look, from their point of view, you're the invaders."
"Your drill was threatening their settlement."
"Now, the creature in the crypt. Her name's Alaya."
"She's one of their warriors and she's our best bargaining chip. We NEED her alive. If she lives, so do Elliot and Mo and Amy."
"Because we will find them and while we're gone, you four people, in this church, in this corner of planet Earth, you have to be the best of humanity."
Nasreen eyed them both, looking between them, before turning to Rory, "Do they do that often?"
"You have no idea," Rory rolled his eyes.
"What if they come back?" Tony frowned, "Shouldn't we be examining this creature, dissecting it, finding its weak points?"
"No dissecting," the Doctor shook his head, "No examining!"
"We return their hostage, they return ours," the Professor reasoned, "Nobody gets harmed."
"We can land this, together. If you are the best you can be. You are decent, brilliant people. Nobody dies today. Understand?"
Everyone nodded quietly while Nasreen applauded, but stopped, nervous, as no one else joined in.
~8~
The Doctor and Professor headed for the TARDIS when Nasreen ran up behind them.
"No, sorry, no, what're you doing?" the Doctor turned to her.
"Coming with you, of course!" she smiled, "What is it, some kind of transport pod?"
"Sort of, but you're not coming with us!"
"He's right, you're not," Tony ran up as well.
"I have spent all my life excavating the layers of this planet," Nasreen replied, "And now you want me to stand back while you head down into it? I don't think so!"
The Professor reached out and checked the Doctor's watch, glancing at him, "We don't really have time to argue this Doctor..."
"I thought we were in a rush," Nasreen smirked.
"It'll be dangerous," she warned.
"Oh, so's crossing the road."
"Oh, for goodness sake, alright then!" the Doctor rolled his eyes, "Come on!" he unlocked the TARDIS and headed in with the Professor, both of them running to the controls and getting it ready.
They glanced up a moment later as the door shut to see Nasreen looking around in awe, "Welcome aboard the TARDIS," the Professor laughed.
"Now don't touch anything!" the Doctor added, "Very precious."
"No way!" Nasreen breathed as she walked over to them, "But that's...this is..." she grinned, "Fantastic! What does it do?"
"Everything! We're hoping, if we're going down, that barricade won't interfere," the TARDIS suddenly pitched drastically, shaking, as they grabbed onto the console, "Did you touch something?"
"No! Isn't this what it does?"
"We're not doing anything! We've been hijacked! We can't stop it! They must've sensed the electromagnetic field!"
The Professor looked at the monitor, seeing dirt and layers of crust fly past it, "They're pulling the TARDIS down into the Earth!"
They fell to the ground with a yelp as the TARDIS landed with a crash.
"Where are we?" Nasreen breathed after a moment, getting up.
The Doctor and Professor jumped to their feet and ran for the door, Nasreen following. They stepped out to see roots and fungus covering the small cavern-like room they'd found themselves in. The Doctor whistled in amazement as he looked up the way they fell, "Looks like we fell through the bottom of their tunnel system. Don't suppose it was designed for handling something like this."
"How far down are we?" Nasreen asked.
The Professor smiled, "A lot more than 21 kilometers."
"So why aren't we burning alive?"
"Don't know," the Doctor shrugged, "Interesting, isn't it?"
"It's like this is everyday to you!"
"Not every day," the Professor remarked with a smile.
"Every other day," the Doctor laughed, taking the Professor's hand and strolling down one of the tunnels. Nasreen shook her head at the pair of them and headed after them.
~8~
The duo walked past an opening where one of the tunnels connected to theirs but Nasreen stopped.
"We're looking for a small tribal settlement," the Doctor was saying, "Probably housing around a dozen Homo Reptilia. Maybe less."
Nasreen looked over at something surrounded by a golden light and walked to a small window-like opening, "One small tribe?"
The two walked back, "Yeah."
"Maybe a dozen?"
The Professor frowned and moved to join her, her eyes widening at the sight before them, a large community, very nearly like a city, with buildings and monuments.
"Maybe more than a dozen," the Doctor frowned.
The Professor scoffed, "Maybe more like an entire civilization living beneath the Earth."
To be continued…
A/N: I was so torn between having the Professor take Amy's place or get sucked down with her or something, but I really wanted her to be there during the interrogation scene. All I could think about watching this episode was that someone needed to be there to actually threaten Alaya and get through to her on a soldier-to-soldier level.
On another note, a lot of you remarked in reviews that you would have loved to see a Dream Lady appear in Amy's Choice and, thinking about it...I'm considering writing an alternative chapter to add onto the end of this story, or perhaps as a one-shot story, featuring Amy's Choice but with the Professor's dark side coming out instead of the Doctor's. What do you think? Interested? I'm going to put a poll up on my profile for a few days, you can vote there or drop a review about what you think. If I get enough, I might write one out :) And you can even make suggestions or drop some thoughts in your reviews if you'd like, I've only got a couple of ideas so far and your reviews/suggestions have always inspired me :)