The Beast Below (Part 1)
Amy was floating outside the TARDIS, the Doctor keeping her somewhat grounded by holding her ankle as Evy leaned against the side of the doors, watching and just a bit ready to grab the girl incase the Doctor accidently let go.
"Come on, Pond," the Doctor laughed, pulling her back inside.
"Believe us now?" Evy smiled, stepping into the TARDIS more so that Amy could be pulled in easier.
"Ok, your box is a spaceship," Amy nodded, "It's really, really a spaceship. We are in space! Whoo! What are we breathing?"
"I asked Evy to extend the air shell," the Doctor shrugged.
"Perfectly safe," Evy added.
The Doctor suddenly squatted down, "Now, that's interesting…" he muttered. Evy and Amy looked over, seeing a spaceship with skyscrapers and other buildings encased in glass drifting by below them. The Doctor stood, taking Evy's hand and pulling her back to the console, "29th century, solar flares roast the Earth, and the entire human race packs its bags…" he and Evy got to work putting in coordinates for the spaceship, "And moves out till the weather improves. Whole nations..."
"Doctor?" Amy asked.
"…migrating to the stars."
"Doctor?"
"Isn't that amazing?" he grinned over at Evy.
"Doctor!"
They looked over to see Amy was outside the TARDIS again, clinging to the top of it. Evy laughed as the Doctor walked back over to the door, taking Amy's hand and pulling her back in once more, "Come on. We've found us a spaceship."
He led Amy over to the console where Evy had pulled up a close-up of the spaceship on the monitor, "According to the databanks, the ship is the Starship United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland," she stated, "The Starship UK for short."
The Doctor grinned, "All of it, bolted together and floating in the sky. Starship UK. It's Britain, but metal. That's not just a ship, that's an idea."
"It's a whole country," Evy smiled, shifting through the images, displaying different parts of the ship. She always loved seeing the humans pushing their limits, stepping past their boundaries, surviving, they truly were a fantastic race, "Living, laughing..."
"Shopping?" the Doctor cut in, making Amy chuckle as an image of the marketplace appeared.
"Out among the stars," Evy finished, rolling her eyes at the Doctor, "On a quest for a new home."
"Can we go out and see?" Amy asked.
"Course we can but first, there's a thing," the Doctor turned to her, serious.
"A thing?" Amy frowned as Evy flipped through the monitor, showing more of the people on the ship.
"An important thing," he nodded, "In fact, thing one…" he held up a magnifying glass, looking at her through it, "We are observers only. That's the one rule I've always stuck to in my travels. I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets..."
Evy snorted.
"What?" he turned to her.
"You never get involved?" she raised an eyebrow, smiling at him, "YOU?"
"Ooh!" he turned to the monitor, effectively not answering, "That's interesting."
There was a little girl in a red jacket, sitting alone, crying...
Immediately the Doctor and Evy's hearts twisted and tugged.
"So we're like a wildlife documentary, yeah?" Amy asked, "'Cos if they see a wounded little cub or something, they can't just save it, they've got to keep filming and let it die," she frowned, watching the girl sob, "That's got to be hard. I don't think I could do that. Don't you find that hard, being all, like, detached and cold?" suddenly the Doctor appeared on screen with the girl but she ran away, revealing Evy in the background "Doctor? Evy?"
The Doctor looked at the camera and waved at her, motioning for her to join them. Amy frowned a moment before heading over to the door, stepping out.
"Welcome to London Market," a loudspeaker announced, "You are being monitored."
Amy looked around in amazement, seeing stars through the arched glass ceiling. The market stretched out the entire floor, with series of stalls and booths with vendors selling their wares.
"I'm in the future," Amy breathed, "Like hundreds of years in the future. I've been dead for centuries."
"Oh, lovely," the Doctor remarked as he and Evy walked over to her, "You're a cheery one. Never mind dead, look at this place!" he looked over at Evy to see her frowning and looking down, "Isn't it wrong?"
"What's wrong?"
"Everything," Evy breathed. The Doctor took her hand, the two of them walking along with Amy beside them.
"Use your eyes, notice everything," the Doctor told Amy, "What's wrong with this picture?"
"Is it...the bicycles?" she pointed to one, "Bit unusual on a spaceship, bicycles. "
"Say-eth nightie girl," Evy raised her eyebrow at her.
"Oh, my God!" Amy gasped as though just remembering what she was wearing, "I'm in my nightie."
"Now, come on, look around you," the Doctor said again, "Actually look."
"London Market is a crime-free zone," the loudspeaker announced.
"Nothing's ever crime-free," Evy remarked.
"Life on a giant starship, back to basics," the Doctor sighed, "Bicycles, washing lines, wind-up street lamps. But look closer. Secrets and shadows, lives led in fear. Society bent out of shape, on the brink of collapse."
"It's a police state."
"One moment..." he dashed over to a table and took a glass of water off of it, placing it gently on the floor, looking at it intently.
'No vibrations,' Evy remarked, 'A ship this big, it would need a huge engine, there's no way it wouldn't be felt.'
The Doctor nodded, setting the glass on the table, "Sorry," he looked at the people sitting there, "Checking all the water in this area. There's an escaped fish," he tapped the side of his nose and ran back to the girls, taking Evy's hand once more.
"An escaped fish?" Evy laughed.
"What's wrong with that?"
"I swear there was a time when you had better excuses than that," she told him, nudging his side.
"Why did you just do that with the water?" Amy asked.
"Don't know," he told her, "I think a lot. It's hard to keep track. Now, Evy was saying, police state, do you see it yet?"
"Where?" Amy looked around.
"There," Evy nodded over to the girl in red, sitting alone on a bench, still crying. Everyone walked past her, ignoring her.
They walked over to a bench away from her and just sat there, watching, the Doctor pulling Evy down into his lap in the process.
"One little girl crying," Amy shook her head, confused, "So?"
"Crying silently," he corrected, "I mean, children cry 'cos they want attention, 'cos they're hurt or afraid."
"Crying silently means they can't seem to stop," Evy eyed the girl sympathetically, "All parents knows that."
"Are you a parent?" Amy eyed her.
The Doctor looked down at the question even though it wasn't directed at him, squeezing Evy's hand. Neither of them had good memories of parenthood. First Eta with him and then Jenny with the both of them. He didn't want to think on that now because...he did want children, with Evy, so badly...but he was terrified. He'd lost Eta, he'd lost Jenny, he'd lost Riku as well...he did not have the greatest luck with children or those he cared for living full, healthy lives. He couldn't even say that about most of his companions. Within the last few years Rose had been torn away and locked in a parallel world, Martha's entire family had witnessed half the planet burn while Martha herself had been trapped wandering it, Donna could never travel with them again for fear of her mind melting...he'd barely been able to keep them alive. He'd been lucky so far that Evy truly was as resilient as he was, but...facing dangers like Daleks or Cybermen or any of the other hundreds of enemies he'd made in his travels were one thing, they were something he could do something about, something he could protect her from.
He couldn't protect her from the dangers of childbirth. He'd learned that the hard way. He couldn't lose her, he couldn't lose another child, not again. That pain...it would kill him. He didn't even want to entertain the thought of it. And that killed him, because he'd give anything for a child with Evy, a true child, not a genetic anomoly or a 'test-tube' baby, but an honest and pure baby.
"I had a lot of cousins," Evy replied softly, squeezing the Doctor's hand back, trying not to think about what had happened to her cousins, "Most of them younger than me."
Amy nodded, it made sense.
"Hundreds of parents walking past this spot and not one of them's asking her what's wrong," the Doctor continued, shaking himself out of his thoughts, "Which means..."
"That they already know what's wrong," Evy sighed, "But they won't talk about. They can't."
"Secrets. They're not helping her so it's something they're afraid of. Shadows, whatever they're afraid of, it's nowhere to be seen."
"So it's everywhere. A police state."
The girl stood up as a lift bell rang. Evy frowned, seeing a smiling figure in a nearby booth turn to watch her, she pointed it out to the Doctor with a gentle nudge and a nod.
"Where'd she go?" Amy asked.
"Deck 207, Apple Sesame block, Dwelling 54A," the Doctor answered, "You're looking for Mandy Tanner. Oh…" he reached into his pocket and pulled out an ID wallet, "This fell out of her pocket when I accidentally bumped into her," he handed it to Amy, "Took me four goes."
"At least you're a better pickpocket this time," Evy commented.
"You think so?"
"You tried to take my Filter off 17 times when we were in Shan Shen, remember? And you still couldn't do it."
"So I am," he smiled, turning to Amy, "Ask her about those things, the smiling fellows in the booths. They're everywhere."
"But they're just things," Amy shook her head.
"Except they're clean," Evy noted, "This place, everything in it, is battered and filthy and yet those booths are clean."
"Not a footprint within two feet of them," the Doctor agreed, "Ask Mandy, 'Why are people scared of the things in the booths?'"
"No," Amy shook her head again, "Hang on, what do I do?" she leaned in and hissed, "I don't know what I'm doing here and I'm not even dressed!"
"It's this or Leadworth. What do you think? Let's see. What will Amy Pond choose? Ha ha, gotcha!" he checked his watch, "Meet us back here in half an hour."
"What are you going to do?"
"What I always do," he told her, nudging Evy to stand so he could get up, "Stay out of trouble," and then he had to add, "Badly," before he leapt over the bench and walked away, turning around to walk backwards.
Evy sighed, "Which means I must do what I always do," she smiled at Amy, "Get him out of the trouble he baldy 'stays out of,'" she jogged around the bench and over to the Doctor, taking his hand in her own.
"So is this how it works?" Amy called over to them, turning to face them as she leaned on the bench, "This is the only time you interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets?"
"When children are crying," Evy nodded, the Doctor giving Amy a small salute as they turned and disappeared into the market.
~8~
The Doctor climbed down a ladder into a maintenance hallway, reaching out to place his hands on Evy's waist as she climbed down after him. She jumped down, turning in the Doctor's arms when she felt them lock around her. She draped her arms around his neck and gave him a quick kiss before pulling away and placing her hand on the wall, feeling for the vibrations that should have been there.
"No vibrations here either," she said, knocking, only to get a hollow sound.
The Doctor leaned against the wall to listen, but didn't hear anything, "Can't be," he pulled out his sonic, flashing the walls, trying to get a reading.
"Doctor," Evy placed a hand on his shoulder.
He looked back at her to see her looking at the floor. There was a cup of water there, still. He moved over to it, lying down and staring right at it.
"The impossible truth in a glass of water," someone hissed. They looked over to see a woman in a red cloak wearing a white mask, "Not many people see it," the Doctor stood, moving in front of Evy as they faced the mysterious woman, "But you do, don't you, Doctor?" she looked at him and then over at Evy, "And you Evy?"
"Do we know you?" Evy frowned.
"Keep your voice down! They're everywhere. Tell me what you see in the glass."
"Who says we see anything?" the Doctor replied.
"Don't waste time! At the marketplace, you placed a glass of water on the floor, looked at it, then came straight here to the engine room. Why?"
The Doctor sighed, "No engine vibration on deck and a ship this size would need a rather large engine, you'd feel it. The water would move."
"We thought we'd check it out," Evy added, "I'm good with engines."
The Doctor moved over to a power box on the wall to reveal two plugs not attached, "It doesn't make sense. These power couplings, they're not connected. Look. Look, they're dummies, see?" he crossed the hall and tapped the wall like Evy had done, "And behind this wall, nothing. It's hollow. If we didn't know better, we'd say there was..."
"No engine at all," the woman finished.
"But it's working," Evy shook her head in thought, "This ship is moving though space. We saw it before."
"The impossible truth. We're travelling among the stars in a spaceship that could never fly."
"How?"
"I don't know. There's a darkness at the heart of this nation. It threatens every one of us. Help us, Doctor, Evy. You're our only hope. Your friend is safe," she handed Evy a device, "This will take you to her. Now go, quickly!" she turned and walked away.
"Who are you?" the Doctor called after her, "How do we find you again?"
She paused, turning to face them, "I am Liz 10. And I will find you."
There was a crashing sound and the lights flickered. When they looked back over, the woman was gone.
~8~
The Doctor and Evy ran through the ship, following the device the woman had given to Evy, till they ran around a corner and saw the little girl, Mandy, pacing outside a door that said 'occupied.'
Evy pulled out her sonic and flashed the door, forcing it open. They stepped in to see a recording of Amy on the screens set up before a chair, "Amy?" Evy asked slowly, concerned. Amy looked like she had been crying.
Amy quickly turned the screens off.
"What have you done?" the Doctor asked her.
"I…I don't know," she admitted, looking at the screens.
The Time Lords exchanged a glance before stepping into the room. The Doctor began sonicing the screens while Evy worked on the lamp above the chair.
"Your basic memory wipe," she sighed, "It's erased the last 20 minutes from Amy's mind," she jumped off the chair she'd stood on and down to the floor.
"But why would I choose to forget?" Amy frowned.
"'Cos everyone does," Mandy replied, "Everyone chooses the 'forget' button."
"Did you?" the Doctor asked.
"Probably not," Evy remarked, "She doesn't look old enough to vote yet does she?"
Mandy nodded, "I'm twelve. Any time after you're sixteen, you're allowed to the see the film and make your choice. And then, once every five years..."
"And once every five years, everyone chooses to forget what they've learned," the Doctor nodded, following along, "Democracy in action."
"How do you not know about this? Are you Scottish too?"
"Oh, we're way worse than Scottish. We can't even see the movie. Won't play for us."
"It played for me," Amy said.
"The difference being the computer doesn't accept us as human."
"Why not?"
"Aliens remember?" Evy smiled.
"You look human."
"No, you look Time Lord," the Doctor countered.
"We came first," Evy added.
"So there are other Time Lords, yeah?" Amy asked, excited at the idea.
"No," the Doctor swallowed hard.
"There were, but…" Evy trailed, thinking of her brother, "There aren't..."
"Just us now," the Doctor took her hand, squeezing it before turning to Amy, "Long story. There was a bad day. Bad stuff happened, and you know what?" he became serious, "We'd love to forget it all, every last bit of it, but we don't."
"Not ever," Evy breathed.
"'Cos this is what we do, every time, every day, every second," the Doctor started to smile, "This. Hold tight. We're bringing down the government."
He pounded his fist onto the 'protest' button. The door slammed shut, leaving Mandy outside as the smiling robot in the booth in the back of the room turned its head to reveal a very angry face. Evy and the Doctor reached out and pulled Amy between them, leading her into the corner of the room as the floor began to slide open.
"Say, 'whee!'" the Doctor shouted.
Amy screamed as they fell down a chute.
They landed in a pile of chunks and liquid, the Doctor and Evy scrambling to their feet, trying not to slip as they flashed their sonics around, trying to find out where they were.
"High-speed air cannon," Evy commented, flashing the chute.
"Lousy way to travel," the Doctor shook his head.
"Where are we?" Amy asked.
"600 feet down, 20 miles laterally."
"The heart of the ship," Evy added.
"I'd say...Lancashire. What's this, then, a cave? Can't be a cave. Looks like a cave."
Amy grimaced as she picked herself up, "It's a rubbish dump, and it's minging!" she threw a piece of rubbish away.
"Yes, but only food refuse," the Doctor sniffed, "Organic, coming through feeder tubes from all over the ship."
"The floor's all squidgy," Amy remarked, kneeling and feeling the floor, "Like a water bed."
"But feeding what?" Evy shook her head.
"It's sort of rubbery, feel it. Wet and slimy."
There was a distant moaning from behind them. The Doctor and Evy spun to look towards it, realizing then exactly where they were.
"Er...it's not a floor, it's a..." the Doctor began, putting away his sonic, "So..."
"It's a what?" Amy stood.
"The next word is kind of the scary word," he told her, trying to calm her down for the inevitable freak out, "Take a moment. Get yourself in a calm place," he put his hands on her shoulders, "Go 'omm.'"
"Omm," Amy frowned.
"It's a tongue," Evy told her quickly.
"A tongue?"
"A tongue," the Doctor said, actually getting very excited, "A great big tongue!"
"This is a mouth?" Amy looked around, stunned, "This whole place is a mouth? We're in a mouth?"
"Yes, yes, yes, but on the plus side, roomy."
"How do we get out?"
Evy flashed her sonic around, trying to find the nerve that would regurgitate them, as far as directions went, out the mouth was the better alternative.
The Doctor pulled out his sonic, flashing it around, "How big is this beastie? It's gorgeous! Blimey! If this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach."
"Stop talking," Evy told him as there was a grunting noise.
"Though not right now!" he held up his hands, as though it was stop the noise.
"How do we get out?" Amy repeated.
"If it has to be fed through surgically implanted feeder tubes then the mouth must be..." Evy turned to see the row of sharp teeth, closed.
"Closed for business," the Doctor remarked.
"We can try, though," Amy stepped forward.
"No!" Evy shouted, "Amy don't move!"
The mouth heaved in agitation.
"Too late," the Doctor called, "It's started."
"What has?" Amy gasped.
"The swallow reflex," Evy answered.
The tongue moved beneath them, causing them to slip and fall backwards into the refuse. Evy began to sonic the mouth walls frantically.
"What are you doing?" Amy shouted.
"Trying to vibrate the chemo-receptors," she said.
"Chemo-what?"
"The eject button!" the Doctor realized, using his sonic to help her.
"How does a mouth have an eject button?"
"Think about it!" he shouted.
There was a groaning noise now.
They struggled to get on their knees as a wave of bile rolled towards them, "Right, then," the Doctor managed to stand up, taking Evy's hand, "This isn't going to be big on dignity," he tugged his bow-tie, "Geronimo!"
Amy screamed as there was a grunt and a splash.
~8~
Amy came to moments later to see the Doctor and Evy examining a door at the end of a little hall.
"There's nothing broken, there's no sign of concussion, and, yes, you are covered in sick," the Doctor said, answering all her questions before she could get them out.
"Where are we?" Amy looked around.
"Overspill pipe," Evy guessed.
"Oh, God, it stinks," she grimaced as she stood.
"That's not the pipe," he told her.
Amy sniffed herself, disgusted, "Whoo! Can we get out?"
"One door, one door switch, one condition," he said, stepping back to reveal a door with a 'forget' button on it, "We forget everything we saw. Look familiar? That's the carrot," a panel by Evy sparked as she flashed her sonic across it, lighting up their hall to reveal two smiling robots in booths behind them, "Ooh, here's the stick."
Evy walked over to the smilers, "Why is there a creature living in the heart of the ship?"
Their faces spun to show a mad sort of face.
The Doctor stepped up beside her, "No, that's not going to work on us, so come on. Big old beast below decks, and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. That how it works?"
The faces spun to anger.
"Oh, stop it. We're not leaving and we're not forgetting and what are you fellows going to do about it? Stick out your tongues?"
The booths opened and the two robots stepped out, walking towards them as they were forced to back away.
"You really need to stop talking," Evy told him as they neared the door in the back of the room, the smilers drawing nearer...
A/N: I know, sort of a short chapter, so far this is the second shortest, so at least you know there's probably only 1 that's shorter :)
Some notes on reviews...the Link is complicated. It can go in a number of directions, creating a platonic love that could develop as a friendship or sibling-like relationship, or push in the opposite direction towards a rivalry, or deeply connect two Time Lords that might lead to a romantic relationship. There will actually be a part of The Pandorica Opens where the Doctor talks about exactly what the Universe thinks the Link is and what they recognize it to be, it's...a bit more singular a definition than on Gallifrey, but we'll have to wait for that.
Also, I feel bad that Evy hasn't gotten much recognition, but she will soon be getting more. I've started, in the first two chapters, having the Doctor introduce Evy as his Link (he's definitely noticed that people don't know about her). This will continue throughout this entire series, and we all know word travels fast when it comes to the Doctor, so I imagine Evy will start to be noticed more and more.
Lol, I love the toaster references too, this is not the last we'll see if it, it'll be popping up again :)
Just to clear up a bit of scheduling. This story will, if all goes right, end on the 25th of September. I'm not making the SJA chapter 2 chapters as it is relatively short already, being only about a 25 minute episode (almost half a DW episode already), so that is only 1 chapter. I have an original chapter (also 1 chapter) set for the end of this series as well. That means that, after posting this chapter, there are 3 more chapters (beastie and Daleks), then 2 for River, then 4 (vampires and Dream Lords), then 2 for the Silurians, then 4 (Vincent and Craig), then 2 for River again, 2 for the Christmas special, and 1 SJA (the Death of the Doctor, where the dynamic-changer will take place) and 1 original chapter (not saying what it is lol). Making a total of 21 chapters left...so it should end on the 25th :)
And...I'm happy to report, I've already started writing out parts of the Academic Series for Series 7, so far it's just fleshing out my favorite parts of AOTD and writing out some original scenes for it, but it is in the works! Woo!
Next chapter...the Doctor gets protective. Liz's outfit is quite familiar. Evy gives Amy a clue to save a gentle alien.