The Beast Below Pt. 1
We are standing at the open doors of the TARDIS. The Doctor has Amy by the ankle as she floats in space. She is actually floating in space.
"Now do you believe me?" The doctor asks Amy.
"Ok, your box is a spaceship. It's really, really a spaceship. We are in space! Whoo!" I laugh at my sister's excitement as the Doctor brings her back inside.
"What are we breathing?" I ask.
"I've extended the air shell, we're fine." I follow the Doctor up to the console. "Now, that's interesting," he says pointing to a spaceship. "29th century. Solar flares roast the Earth, and the entire human race packs its bags and moves out till the weather improves. Whole nations…"
"Doctor?" I hear Amy call. I turn but don't see her.
"…migrating to the stars." The Doctor continues to talk.
"Doctor?" I say.
"Isn't that amazing?"
"Doctor!" This time he hears Amy's cry. We both run to the doors of the TARDIS. We find her floating outside and clinging to the TARDIS for life.
"Well, come on. I've found us a spaceship." We both grab a hand and pull her back in. We walk to the window. "This is the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland-all of it, bolted together and floating in the sky. Starship UK. It's Britain, but metal. That's just not a ship-that's an idea. That's a whole country, living and laughing and shopping…searching the stars for a new home."
"Can we go out and see?" Amy and I say at the same time.
"Course we can, but first, there's a thing."
"A thing?" Amy asks confused.
"An important thing. In fact, thing one-we are observers only. That's the one rule I've always stuck to in all my travels. I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets. Ooh! That's interesting." I look at the screen and see a little girl crying. He gives me the shushing motion and waves me on to follow. We creep out as Amy continues to talk.
"So we're like a wildlife documentary, yeah? Cos if they see a wounded cub or something, they can't just save it they've got to keep filming and let it die. 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? Doctor? Jaz?"
"Well, come along Pond." The Doctor says as we wave her along from outside the TARDIS.
"Welcome to London Market. You are being monitored." This can be heard from over the intercom.
"I'm in the future. Like hundreds…of years in the future. I've been dead for centuries." Leave it to Amy to find the morbidity in a situation.
"Oh, lovely. You're a cheery one. Never mind dead, look at this place. Isn't it wrong?" I notice immediately what is wrong. Amy, on the other hand, is not as observant.
"What's wrong?"
"Come on, use your eyes, notice everything. What's wrong with this picture?"
"Is it…the bicycles? Bit unusual on a spaceship, bicycles." I roll my eyes at the girl still in her nightie.
"Says the girl in the nightie." I reply with a smirk.
"Oh, my God! I'm in my nightie."
"Now, come on, look around you. Actually look. Life on a giant starship, back to basics. 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. A police state." He walks over to a couple and picks up a glass of water. "Excuse me."
"What are you doing?" Amy asks. We watch as he places the glass on the floor and looks at it. The water doesn't move at all. I find this quite strange because we are on big ship. There should be vibrations from the engine.
"Sorry." He says after giving it back to the couple. "Checking all the water in this area. There's an escaped fish. Where was I?"
"Why did you just do that with the water?" Amy asks.
"Don't know. I think a lot. It's hard to keep track. Now, police state-do you see it yet?"
"Where?"
"There." I say showing her the little girl crying.
"One little girl crying. So?"
"Crying silently. I mean, children cry cos they want attention, cos they're hurt or afraid. When they cry silently, it's cos they just can't stop. Any parent knows that." I take notice at that last statement.
"Are you a parent?" I ask. He just shrugs it off and continues.
"Hundreds of parents walking past this spot and not one of them's asking her what's wrong, which means…they already know, and it's something they don't talk about. 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, which means it's everywhere. Police state." We look back after the Doctor is finished and the girl is gone.
"Where did she go?" Amy asks.
"Deck 207, Apple Sesame block, Dwelling 54A. You're looking for Mandy Tanner. Oh, this fell out of her pocket when I accidentally bumped into her. Took me four goes. Ask her about those things-the smiling fellows in the booths. They're everywhere."
"But they're just things."
"They're clean. Everything else here is all battered and filthy-look at this place." I look around. He's right. "But no one's laid a finger on the booths. Not a footprint within two feet any of them. Look, ask Mandy, 'Why are people scared of the things in the booths?'"
"No. Hang on-what do I do? 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! Meet me back here in half an hour." He motions for me to follow.
"What are you two going to do?" She asks a little put out.
"What we always do. Stay out of trouble. Badly." The Doctor says and I laugh at Amy's face. She pulls me aside.
"Please be careful." She says into my ear.
"I'll be with the Doctor. You should be the one who's careful." I give her a wink and walk away.
"So is this how it works, Doctor? You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying?" She says to us as we walk away. The Doctor turns around.
"Yes." Amy laughs and the Doctor smiles.
DWDWDWDWDW
The Doctor and I make our way to the engine area.
"You saw it too, didn't you?" He asks me after a few moments.
"That there was no vibration from the engine?" He nods his head. "Let's just say I am a little bit more observant than my sister. I did find the wardrobe, didn't I?" He looks down at my outfit.
"You look quite nice." We get to the engine room and open up a panel.
"Can't be." I say as he opens the panel. There is no connection, no engine noise at all.
"The impossible truth in a glass of water." We turn to see someone approaching us. "Not many people see it. But you do, don't you, Doctor?"
"You know me?" The Doctor asks surprised.
"Keep your voice down. They're everywhere. Tell me what you see in the glass."
"Who says we see anything?" I ask.
"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 woman asks impatiently.
"No engine vibration on deck. Ship this size, engine this big, you'd feel it. The water would move. So…I thought I'd take a look." He goes over to the panel and points his screwdriver at it. "It doesn't make sense. These power couplings, they're not connected. Look. Look-they're dummies, see? And behind this wall, nothing." He bangs on the wall. "It's hollow. If I didn't know better, I'd say there was no engine at all. But it's working. This ship is travelling through space. We saw it." He says motioning to me.
"The impossible truth, Doctor. We're travelling among the stars in a spaceship that could never fly."
"How?" I ask. It's impossible.
"I don't know. There's a darkness at the heart of the nation. It threatens every one of us. Help us, Doctor. You're our only hope. Your friend is safe. This will take you to her." She hands me a device and starts away. "Now go, quickly!"
"Who are you? How do we find you again?" The Doctor calls after her.
"I am Liz 10. And I will find you." The Doctor and I look at each other and head off to find Amy.
DWDWDWDWDW
The Doctor and I find ourselves outside a voting box. There is a little girl sitting there waiting. We open the door to see Amy looking at a monitor with a blank expression. We catch the last bit of what she is seeing. It's her begging herself to get the Doctor off the ship.
"Amy? What have you done?" I ask. The Doctor takes out his sonic and points it at a vent in the ceiling. He looks at it.
"Yeah, your basic memory wipe job. Must have erased about 20 minutes."
"But why would I choose to forget?"
"Cos everyone does. Everyone chooses the 'forget' button." The little girl speaks up.
"Did you?" I ask.
"I'm not eligible to vote yet. I'm 12. Any time after you're 16, you're allowed to 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. Democracy in action." The Doctor explains. The little girl looks up at him shocked.
"How do you not know about this? Are you Scottish too?" I try to stifle a laugh at the girl's innocent assumption.
"Oh, I'm way worse than Scottish. I can't even see the movie. Won't play for me."
"It played for me." Amy says.
"The difference being the computer doesn't accept him as human." The Doctor looks at me in a questioning way. I don't know how I knew that either.
"Why not? You look human." Amy directs at the Doctor.
"No, you look Time Lord. We came first."
"So there are other Time Lords, yeah?" I ask.
"No. There were, but there aren't…Just me now. Long story. There was a bad day. Bad stuff happened, and you know what? I'd love to forget it all, every last bit of it, but I don't. Not ever. Cos this is what I do-every time, every day, every second. This." He goes over to the counter and presses the "accept" button. The door closes locking us in and the little girl out. "Hold tight. We're bringing down the government." The floor starts to open. "Say, 'Whee!'"
We all fall through the floor and down a tube. The Doctor comes out first, followed by Amy, and I come down last. We land on something squishy.
"Ah. High-speed air cannon. Lousy way to travel."
"Where are we?" I ask as Amy helps me to my feet.
"600 feet down, 20 miles laterally-puts us at the heart of the ship. I'd say…Lancashire." He turns to look around. "So, what's this, then? A cave? Can't be a cave. Looks like a cave."
"It's a rubbish dump, and it's minging!" Amy says as she picks up a banana peel and flings it.
"Yes, but only food refuse. Organic, coming through feeder tubes from all over the ship." Amy doesn't seem to be paying attention as she is back to crawling through the rubbish.
"The floor's all squidgy, like a water bed."
"But feeding what, though?" The Doctor goes on. I have realized that his talking is his way of thinking.
"It's sort of rubbery, feel it. Wet and slimy." I am still looking at the Doctor. I watch as realization comes across his face and something clicks with me.
"Uh…it's not a floor, it's a…" He stops and turns to look at me and my expression tells him I realize it too. He turns to Amy. "So…"
"It's a what?" She asks us urgently.
"The next word is kind of the scary word. You probably want to take a moment. Get yourself in a calm place. Go 'Om'." The Doctor places his hands on Amy's shoulders.
"Om." Amy says a little unsure of why.
"It's a tongue." I say.
"A tongue?" Amy asking looking at me like I'm crazy.
"A tongue. A great big tongue." The Doctor says motioning with his arms.
"This is a mouth? This whole place is a mouth? We're in a mouth?"
"Yes, yes, but on the plus side, roomy."
"How do we get out?" I ask.
"How big is this beastie? It's gorgeous! Blimey! If this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach." The creature groans. "Though not right now."
"Doctor, how do we get out?" Asks Amy more forcefully. The Doctor points his screwdriver around and reads it.
"Ok, it's being fed through surgically implanted feeder tubes, so the normal entrance is…" He turns around and points the sonic again, "closed for business."
"We could try, though." Amy says walking towards it.
"No! Stop, don't move!" The creature lets out another groan. "Too late. It's started." The Doctor says as we all struggle to keep our balance.
"What has?" I ask afraid of the answer.
"Swallow reflex!" He points his sonic at the back of the mouth.
"Ah! What are you doing?" Amy asks.
"I'm vibrating the chemo-receptors." I know this isn't going to be pretty. He is going to make it throw up.
"Chemo-what?" Amy asks.
"The eject button." I say.
"How does a mouth have an eject button?" Amy questions. I wish she wouldn't have such a problem figuring things out.
"Think about it!" The Doctor yells. Suddenly a wall of stuff comes rushing towards us. "Right, then. This isn't going to be big on dignity." The Doctor reaches over and takes Amy's hand in his. Amy turns to me with a look of fright on her face and grabs on to mine. "Geronimo!" The Doctor yells as we are overtaken. I lose my grip on Amy's hand and everything goes dark.