The door exploded into the room, landing almost dead centre, scattering many families against the for-now-safe walls. The Doctor in one lightning fast move shoved Lucy behind him, his thin frame still managing to mostly hide her thinner one. Before she could regain her footing however, Jack grabbed her too and pulled her behind him, though shorter than the Doctor, he was a sight more muscular. Quinto did not make some stupidly gallant attempt to hide Lucy. He just stood next to her, hands already wrapped around what looked like a gun. It probably shot lasers or something.

Through the door came the disjointed, yet rhythmic sound of many people walking. A hand came through first. The hand was slate grey in colour, the arm long and thin like the aliens in War of the Worlds. Lucy had no doubt though, that not even H.G. Wells could dream up something like these creatures. The first one through just stared at them with all the menace in the world. He towered over everything, maybe seven or eight feet tall. His head was shaped sort like a diamond; the top and chin pointed, the cheek bones sticking out beyond the norm for a human. The eyes were like slits, nearly disappearing into the cheekbones and were milky white. Were they blind? If they were anything like cave fish, they would be, and would find their way through other senses, like touch, sound and smell. The alien tilted its head and seemed to be glaring at the Doctor, its lips pulled back over razor sharp teeth that looked to be made of metal. The body of the beast was as wiry and slate grey as the head. Lucy couldn't tell if it was naked, or if this was itself, some kind of armour. The creature flexed its long fingers, which cracked and popped. Oh god, Lucy thought, he really is preparing for an attack. He lunged forward and the Doctor shouted, "Stop!" The creature halted, tilting its head to the left this time. It ducked its head, white eyes nearly invisible because the pointy top of his head was closes to them. "Why?" Its voice was a hiss, a powerful hiss that somehow sounded raspy. Lack of use, Lucy thought. It did not sound curious or like it was going to comply. It sounded like it was annoyed at the Doctor and was now going to relish tearing his head off even more.

"Because we don't want to hurt you and we don't want to fight." The Doctor said. "We came here by accident, but the planet doesn't have much time, it's self destructing and we need to get everyone out."

The creature laughed, sounding like metal scraping against a blackboard. Lucy felt herself shiver, chilled to her very core. "We know." Came the cold reply from the sinister nightmare in front of her. She wondered if it even knew she was there and risked a glance from behind Jack's shoulder. The creature immediately looked her way, directly into her eyes, as though it knew she was there all along and was now affirming its own assessment. Lucy blanched but did not look away. The creature shifted its eyes back to the Doctor. Maybe a second had passed. "We were the ones who ripped the charger cord from the escape pod charger. We were the ones who allowed the female to fall to her death. And we will devour the beings left behind after the sun breathes its last."

"But that makes no sense!" pleaded the Doctor. "You'll all be killed too, that sun is going to implode and it will take you with it."

The creature laughed again and said. "We have lived under ground for hundreds of years. Our people will stay under the earth and escape the sun's wrath." The Doctor looked doubtful, but didn't pursue the matter and instead went to a line of questioning that had been tugging at Lucy herself. "Well then, who's we? How many of you are there?"

The alien drew itself completely erect, Lucy had almost forgotten how tall it was. "My people have dwindled since the invasion of these half-breeds and drifters. We are now a dozen strong. One dozen will feast on one thousand." Lucy doubted there were that many people in this room, and then remembered that this building was several stories high and was bound to be holding many more refugees.

"And are you their leader? Their king?" asked the Doctor.

The creature shook its head, a feat that made one half of its face disappear completely behind the other when it turned one way and then the other. "We have no hierarchies. No governments like you half-breeds. I volunteered to be the first to inform the livestock of their doom."

"Ah, so you're just the messenger." interjected Jack. He stepped out from behind the Doctor and said, "I know it's bad etiquette to kill the messenger and all, but-" and he broke off, charging at the alien full speed. Lucy couldn't even open her mouth to scream at him, to warn him. The alien fixed its probing fingers around Jack's neck and flexed. Jack went limp and fell to the ground, motionless. Lucy couldn't help herself, she screamed. The Doctor just stood there, probably numb, she thought. Quinto moved to her and put his arms around her, his face tight. Lucy couldn't breathe, couldn't cry, and just stared at Jack's lifeless form. She had never seen anybody actually die before, and thought it only natural that her eyes were playing tricks on her; because there was no way that he could have just moved. No way had his whole arm just twitched. Hang on. He, he was getting up! Jack rose to his feet, a bit shaky and actually dusted himself off as he stepped away from the alien who had just killed him, the same alien that looked even more murderous than ever. Quinto's arms dropped from around Lucy and he looked as though he might lose his own footing. "Blimey, you're impossible!" Lucy screeched. Jack grinned and as he stepped up to her, arms out as though he would hug her, Lucy ran the rest of the way and hit him smartly on the chest over and over. "What the hell were you playing at, you idiot? He killed you, he did, and you're just grinning like an idiot!" Jack laughed and wrapped his arms around Lucy for the briefest moment and then spun round and faced the alien who had just killed him. The Doctor leaned down to Lucy and whispered, "It's sort of a long story, but basically, Captain Jackie Boy can't die." Lucy shook her head, sure she would never get used to information like this.

The alien, meanwhile, had beckoned to its friends. Out the door poured the other eleven tall, slate grey creatures. They all looked completely identical. Lucy couldn't tell who were men, women, adults, or children. They were just the same. And they all looked round the room hungrily at the hundreds of people surrounding them. Some even looked up at the ceiling, as though smelling those above. Lucy thought she might be sick. "Doctor, what do we do now? We have to get these people out!" The Doctor only nodded and said, "We need to find a way to incapacitate the, the, the, whatever they are. Then we need to get to the escape pod charger. That one said they pulled the cord, but there's always more than one way to get them going. My guess is, some sort of core. Quinto said Kath was trying to repair it; maybe she was just trying to activate the core. Then, we can get everyone out, alert the people on the other floors. But we'll still have to do something about the whatever-they-ares." Lucy nodded and tried to do some quick thinking.

"Oh! Doctor! What about diseases of some sort?"

The Doctor looked at her as though she were insane. "I mean, theses, these, things-"

"Whatever-they-ares."

"Right. Well, they're all the same, right? I mean they all look genetically the same. So species that don't adapt, don't change to their environment tend to die out all at once. If we can infect one, maybe they'll all-"

"Are you suggesting that we kill them? Commit genocide?" The Doctor sounded furious and Lucy hated the look he was giving her, hated the way he must think of her now.

"No, of course that's not what I'm suggesting. I would never suggest that." The Doctor's eyebrows lowered and he did look less angry. Lucy took a calming breath, hoping he would follow suit. Then she went on. "What I'm suggesting is that somehow we knock them out or something. Maybe if one goes down, they'll all be unconscious for a while. Enough time for us to boot up the pod chargers, get the people out and get of here ourselves." Their eyes met.

The Doctor looked at Lucy, not wanting to let her know that her idea made perfect sense. He felt guilty for jumping the gun so soon and actually thinking that she wished harm to anyone, even someone who wanted her dead. He should have known better. Her large blue eyes widened, begging him to act quickly, to forgive her. He nodded and she looked away, breathing a sigh of relief. Just on a whim, he trained the sonic screwdriver on the nearest whatever-it-was, the one that had spoken to them first. He aimed it right at its angled head. It looked enraged, and so did all the others. After only a few moments, it fell to the floor, and within seconds, so did the rest. Lucy beamed and sprinted for the door. The Doctor, Jack and Quinto were hot on her heels. "That shouldn't have been so easy."

"Don't question it now, though, we don't have much time!" Lucy called from over her shoulder. She was sprinting down the stairs, holding onto the railing. The Doctor watched as she shifted all her wait to her hands and vaulted herself past the last four steps onto the metal grating below. She was staring at the hovering pod charger when the rest caught up to her. It seemed to be dangling from several wires fixed to the ceiling. The Doctor looked down and saw that there were more frayed wires below. A metal beam extended from the railing in front of them to the cold, lifeless charger in the air. Lucy was eyeing it, looking for a clue that would tell her how to charge it back up. The Doctor found it before she did. "There, just in front of the beam, there's a door. That's a small door; someone very agile will have to climb through it. I'm guessing the means to firing this thing back up are inside, not outside." Lucy looked round at the three men in before her.

"Right then, I'll go." And she started climbing onto the railing. She already had hoisted herself over and had one arm on a support, one foot perched on the thin metal beam.
"Oh no, you don't!" The Doctor said and he moved to help her back down. She only let go of the support and stood upright, without swaying on the railing. Okay, she was agile, but that didn't mean he was going to let her do this.

"But you said yourself, someone agile. Well, you and Quinto are too tall, and Jack's too big, and I've been in ballet for almost twenty years! I can do it, Doctor. Please." The Doctor's brow pulled down and he stared at her as though seeing her for the first time. As an entirely capable woman, capable and stubborn. He nodded and before she could turn around and start waltzing along, he said, "But you be careful. Once you're inside, you're going to have to find the way on your own. I won't be able to help you."

"Have a little faith, Doctor." She said softly, and without another word or backward glance. She stood straight and barely looked down as she walked, arms out, to the little door. She knelt in one fluid motion and pushed the door in, and disappeared inside the pod charger.

Lucy let herself breathe again. She had made it. And her door hypothesis seemed to check out. The arrow had been pointing to the right, and the door had swung in, as had the very first one, the entrance to the metal room, filled with metal monsters.

Before her wad a control panel. Hundreds of buttons all stared at her while hundreds of lives hung in the balance. And she had no idea what to do. The Doctor wasn't kidding when he said she'd be alone. The room barely fit her small frame and the walls were so thick, she doubted anyone would hear her, even if screamed at the top of her lungs. There was one button that looked remotely promising. It was yellow, she thought, she couldn't be sure in the dark and it was bigger than the rest. She really, really hoped that if she pushed this one, the whole complex wouldn't blow up. She closed her eye, turned her head away, as though afraid it would bite her and pushed. Nothing happened. Great, what now?

Before she could get out and admit failure however, lights came to life all around her. The pod charger whizzed to life, noise filling her ears. The lights were outside too. Green lights in strategic intervals all along the expansive walls. The escape pods? But she knew she had to get out. This thing was taking off, where she did not know, but she did not want to be in it when it did. She pulled the door towards her this time, fitting her fingers in the crease, breaking a couple nails along the way. She stumbled out, hardly her usual graceful self and headed back toward the Doctor, back toward safety. Just as she reached the last step, the pod charger disconnected from the metal beam and she lost her footing, falling directly into the Doctor's arms. She kept ending up there.

The Doctor caught Lucy, pulling her up into a fierce hug. "Oh you did brilliant, you did, Lucy Blake. Just brilliant." Lucy grinned up at him and they all tore back up the stairs into the metal room, fearing what they would find once they stepped inside.

Inside, the whatever-they-ares, as the Doctor had so eloquently named them, were still incapacitated on the floor. The fish people from the Aquarius Colony looked terrified, the Kerrians half amused, half curious and the human drifters a mixture of the three. The Doctor addressed them all. "Hello, everyone! I'm the Doctor! Okay, so, the sun is about to implode as you all know and we have the escape pods all booted up and ready to go. So, go on in, walk, do not run, I'm guessing about four people will fit in each pod. We are going to warn the others on the next floors. And do try to hurry, those lot could wake up any second." The Doctor was met with stunned silence. Some of all races made a run for it, towards the pods. Some of all races looked at him with mistrusting eyes. Quinto stepped forward and said, "Please, go now. There are hundreds more people up there and we're running out of time. Drifters, I know you sort of appointed me when Kath fell, so please, take this as a command, and go!" The rest of the drifters did as were told, moving as one, some gathering possessions, some rounding up groups of four, some making promises to meet at an unfamiliar destination. There were still some lingering Kerrians and people from the Aquarius Colony. The Doctor knew it was no use to waste time trying to convince them. Maybe the flood of panicked people from above would sway them. "Okay, we'll have to split up. There are nine stories left. Jack take two and three, Quinto, four and five, Lucy six and seven and I'll take eight, nine and ten." They all nodded, not questioning, only trusting. They all headed for the recess near the kitchen, Quinto leading the way. They sprinted to their respective floors and set to work. The Doctor sensed that they would all have luck in their own way. Jack was charming, Quinto, one of them, Lucy so refreshing and captivating, and he himself was brilliant. Once on the eighth floor, The Doctor found that people were already in motion. They had more windows and could see that the sun was indeed on its last legs. He only managed to scream, "Go, the escape pods are ready, groups of four, go!" They all complied, every last one, and was not about to comment about it being too easy. The sun was growing bigger before his eyes and in no time, would suck itself in and implode, possibly creating a black hole, taking Antigone with it. He ran to the ninth floor and recited the same mantra, people more ready than ever. He couldn't even get to the tenth floor; people were already flooding down the stairs, pushing their way to the next level. "Please, go quickly, but don't shove, you'll all be fine!" The Doctor then realised that he, himself had to get down to the main level. If he couldn't get to the T.A.R.D.I.S., then Jack and Lucy would be trapped. He would disable Jack's latest traveling mechanism as well.

He finally made it down to see Lucy, Jack and Quinto standing apart from the rest. When he made his way to them, he looked at Quinto and frowned. "Aren't you going in a pod too? There's plenty of room." Quinto nodded and said,

"I just wanted to say thanks. We called Jack here sort of by accident. I used to work for Torchwood. Calling you two was the best thing that could have happened." Quinto looked appreciatively to Lucy and the Doctor. Quinto shook The Doctor's and Jack's hand and gave Lucy a quick hug before heading off to join the staggering number of people headed toward salvation. When the last of the stragglers had gone through the door, Lucy pulled on the Doctor's sleeve. "Doctor! The, the whatever-they-ares, they're waking up!"

"Well now, that was good timing, wasn't it?"

The three travelers ran for the entrance and stopped to watch the pods soaring in the sky, away from the red sun, which no longer sent its tendrils as dying messages.

Lucy was sure that they were nearly all gone. She was also sure that the aliens would not follow them outside, she was sure their milky eyes would forbid it. The Doctor was the first inside the T.A.R.D.I.S., followed by Jack who pulled Lucy in by her sleeve.

Lucy rested her head against the door and sighed, wiping her forehead. "I feel bad though." She said. The Doctor and Jack looked up at her, the Doctor manning the controls, Jack leaning against some railing. "I mean, you said so, Doctor, that sun was alive and there's nothing we can do to help it. And even those, those things, they don't deserve to die."

"Well, who knows? Maybe they were right about the underground. Maybe they'll be safe. There's no law saying that that sun has to create a black hole and suck everything up, I've seen that firsthand, well that was hell though." Lucy was confused, but too exhausted to ask any more questions. She could fell the ship pulling away from Antigone, and could feel herself pulling away from consciousness. The Doctor seemed to have things under control and strode over to Lucy, picking her up, carrying her to her room. Her head rested against his chest, arms and feet dangling. "I can walk you know. I'm not some damsel in distress." The Doctor smiled and said, "I know. Oh boy, do I know. I'm so proud of you, Lucy Blake."

But she didn't hear. She had fallen fast asleep.