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Under the Lake – Part One
In an underwater mining facility known as The Drum, in Caithness, Scotland, the captain of the operation recorded an audio journal entry. "Private journal of Captain Jonathan Moran, 21st November 2119" he recited, "We have located a craft of unknown origin on the lake floor. Visual scans in situ revealed nothing, so we have brought the craft on board and myself and the crew will now investigate".
The spaceship they had found was white, and blocky; the back hatch lowered into a series of steps, into a single compartment with a large white cuboid inside. Moran, a muscular dark skinned man in military fatigues, asked incredulously, "How did they miss this in the initial survey?"
A young man named Tim Lunn, standing outside the craft, looked at the base's second in command, Cass. She signed out a message to him. "Cass says it was buried, and then the currents of the water must have shifted the rubble around" he explained to Moran. Another man, the marine geologist Mason Bennett, scanned the craft with a Geiger counter, checking for radiation. So far, he hadn't found anything.
"A conversation needs to be had about who owns this spaceship" insisted their mining company's representative, Richard Pritchard, climbing inside the mysterious craft.
Moran sighed and requested, "Can we stop calling it a spaceship? We don't know what it is".
"A case could be made that this is an asset, and my company has bought the rights to all assets"-
"Whoa, whoa" Moran cut him off, peering at something on the port wall, "What's this? Lunn, grab me a torch, will you?" he called.
"It was found on MOD property, even if that property is underwater" Pritchard continued to argue, as Lunn walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a torch, not noticing something flash past behind him. When he shut the door, he briefly thought he saw a strange, almost ghostly face appear behind his reflection in the mirrored surface…but when he spun around, there was nobody there.
"What you bought was the oil under the ground" Moran told Pritchard firmly, "Lunn? Where's the torch?"
He brought it over; Alice O'Donnell, their systems technician, came down the steps out of the darkened craft and took the torch from him with a smile. She gave it to Moran, who shone it on the peculiar symbols he'd spotted engraved onto the inside of the hull. He couldn't make anything of them, and neither did the others, so he switched the torch off and they left the craft.
"Can I go in?" asked Tim, signing the question to Cass. She signed back to say 'it's not safe', just as Moran was asking Bennett, "What is the background radiation?"
"Pretty much background level" he called back from inside the ship.
"Anything more, it would have shown up on the initial survey twenty years ago" O'Donnell shrugged.
"If it's not safe, how come you can go in?" Tim signed to Cass. Instead of answering, she signed a question of her own, and he translated, "How long do you think it's been down here?"
"Well, there's next to no corrosion" Bennett replied, eyeing the craft, "I've not seen technology like this…"
"Please don't say 'on Earth'" Moran cut in.
"…On Earth before" Bennett finished, hesitantly. He was only telling the truth…whatever this thing was, it was clearly not from their planet. How could it be?
Moran was sceptical however, and sighed exasperatedly. O'Donnell sniggered behind him, but he ignored her, and suggested "Maybe it's some kind of experimental craft that got left behind when they abandoned the site".
"Wait, you think the Army would just lose a prototype weapon?" asked Bennett.
The captain turned to him and said a bit condescendingly, "You're new to the military, aren't you, son?"
"Cass says he might be right. It might have been here since the 1980s, when the valley flooded" Lunn translated for her; inside the craft, Pritchard was peering curiously at concentric rings of dots at the back…or was the front…of the mysterious vessel. Perhaps they were the key to figuring out what it was…how it was used…he glanced to his left in time to see a strange, ghostly figure, dressed in anachronistic clothing, reaching out for him. He pulled back in shock as it lunged at him; the dots glowed, and the craft's engines suddenly ignited.
"Cass!" cried Moran, dashing forwards; Cass was standing right in front of one of the engines. He leapt forward and shoved her out of the way, seconds before the engines ignited fully and a torrent of flame burst out, scorching him. Alarms blared and the rest of the crew fled for their lives. "Come on!" cried Lunn, pulling Cass to her feet, "Move! Come on, we need to go now!"
"Fire in main hangar" intoned the computer system, "Safety protocols have been initiated. All crew must evacuate immediately. This safety message was brought to you by Vector Petroleum".
They got out of the hangar and sealed the door, but Bennett had to pull O'Donnell back as she tried to get back in and help Moran. "We can't just leave him in there!"
"There was something in the spaceship, I saw it!" Pritchard cried out, panicking, as O'Donnell continued to struggle.
"O'Donnell. O'Donnell, he's dead" Bennett told her, "Didn't you see?"
"The fire, are we safe out here?" asked Lunn.
"It's fine" said Bennett, "The CO2 will put the fire out".
"It was you!" O'Donnell shouted accusingly, glaring at Pritchard, "You weremessing about with the controls on that ship!"
Before Pritchard could defend himself, Cass screamed in horror, grabbing Lunn and pulling him closer. Moran was there…he was mouthing something silently, and where his eyes should have been, there were just two large, dark holes…
"Moran" Bennett frowned, bewildered, "But, we just saw you…"
"He's…oh, my God…" O'Donnell muttered, "He's a…ghost".
Then another figure appeared, the same one that had tried to attack Pritchard, and the two ghosts advanced on the crew, hands outstretched…
/
Three days later, the TARDIS materialised in one of the bases corridors, whilst it was in 'night mode' – they had been heading somewhere else entirely, and the Doctor sensed that something was wrong with his time machine, as if she were agitated for some reason. He and Romana stepped out, partly to investigate and partly to find out what was wrong with the old box.
"What's wrong?" the Doctor asked the TARDIS, "You're not happy. Why aren't you happy? Tell me" he insisted, resting his hands on the smooth wooden exterior. Romana shook her head at him and pointed out, "She can't speak, love. How do you expect her to tell you anything?"
Before he could make a clever retort – which he would have – Clara stuck her head out the door. "Come on! We're on a roll!" she said impatiently. Ever since she'd begun travelling with the Time Quintet again, she'd wanted to embrace it, because she knew more than ever that life was too short to waste, and she knew they'd never let her down… "Monsters, things blowing up" she prompted, before asking Romana, "Oh, hey, can we go back to that place where the people with the long necks have been celebrating New Year for two centuries? I left my sunglasses there; and most of my dignity".
"Make that two of us" the Corsair quipped cheerfully, standing by the console and attempting to get the controls to do something. He only received a static shock for his trouble, and rubbed his hand, glaring at the Time Rotor. Flavia rolled her eyes and remarked, "Well, that's what happens when you become intoxicated. We wouldn't have had to leave in such a hurry if you hadn't punched that one alien that was talking to me in the face" she reminded him.
"Hey, he was coming onto you! I was defending your honour" the Corsair insisted, "Aren't you always saying you wish I was more of a gentleman?"
"Gentlemen don't get drunk and punch people in the face" she deadpanned, before adding, "And what makes you think his advances were unwelcome?"
The Corsair stared at her incredulously. "Were you drunk?" he asked bluntly; after all, why else would Flavia flirt with a complete stranger…or anyone, really. She didn't flirt, and he knew flirting.
Flavia stared at him, affronted, and huffed indignantly. "I most certainly was not. Really, Corsair, is it so hard to believe that I might appreciate a little bit of attention now and then?"
"Wait. You want to be flirted with?" Clara inquired from the doorway, surprised. She too had assumed that the Time Lady…just wasn't interested in that sort of thing, if the way she rolled her eyes at the Corsair whenever he started flirting was any indication.
The Time Lady blushed slightly, as if just realising what she'd admitted earlier, and cleared her throat. "Well, I…I won't say it isn't unwelcome…why would you think I don't, Clara?" she inquired, pointedly asking their friend and not the Corsair. She didn't want to know what sort of ridiculous answer he would come up with.
Clara shrugged and explained, "Well, you're always so…proper. And you don't normally take an interest in men…um. If I'm honest, I kind of thought…briefly, I mean…that maybe you were…y'know…."
Flavia raised a sceptical eyebrow. "You thought I was gay?"
"No! I mean, uh, yes…it was just a passing thought!"
"Who's gay?" asked Emily, stepping into the console room. She'd been changing her clothes, unlike her father she didn't want to wear the same thing all the time, it got boring. Right now she was wearing a pair of black jeans, red converse sneakers, and a plain red t-shirt emblazoned with the University of Mars logo. It was simple, but practical, just the way she liked it.
"Clara thinks Flavia is gay" the Corsair explained helpfully, ignoring the indignant glares he received from the two women.
"I do not!"
"I am not!"
They spoke simultaneously. The Corsair raised an eyebrow and commented, "You denied that awfully quickly, Flavia. What's wrong with being gay?"
"Well, nothing!" Flavia said hastily, flustered…which, she realised, was probably what the Corsair wanted. She cleared her throat, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of getting to her. "I meant no offence, and you know it. I was merely pointing out the fact that I'm straight".
"Good" he said firmly… "Err, it's good that you weren't being offensive. Not good that you're straight. Not that there's anything wrong with being straight, either"-
"Ahem" the Doctor cleared his throat loudly, and they all jumped, not having noticed him and Romana come back inside the police box. "As fascinating as this conversation is" he said, sarcasm dripping from every syllable, "The TARDIS landed here for a reason, and since Romana insists that I don't merely leave you all to your own devices, do you mind if we go and see where 'here' is?"
Without waiting for an answer, he turned on his heel and strode out of the TARDIS, leaving the others little choice but to follow him. "Where are we?" asked Clara, looking around at the corridors.
"Underwater" the Doctor said, looking up through the ceiling, "Some sort of a base. The technology's twenty second century. Maybe military, maybe scientific" he explained.
"Is there a crew?"
"Well, we're breathing, so I'm gonna go with 'yes'" the Corsair suggested. They walked off down the corridor, and soon came to a crossroads of sorts. Clara stepped through the doorway and complained, "I want another adventure. Come on, you guys feel the same. You're itching to save a planet, I know it" she told the Time Quintet, before stepping through the doorway opposite.
The Doctor smiled behind her back; he liked her enthusiasm, and she wasn't wrong, he did feel like playing the hero…
You are a hero Romana told him softly, and you don't need to save a planet for me to know that.
Saving a planet would be impressive, though, wouldn't it?
I shall refrain from replying at the risk of inflating your ego she replied, and he grinned at her. Theta, I'm worried about Clara she admitted.
Why? Is she sick?
No, but…she's been a bit over-enthusiastic lately, don't you think? Not to mention impatient. It's as if she's using the adventures to run away from something.
I'm sure it's nothing. She's probably just been bored, stuck on Earth, teaching, doing laundry. That's enough to make anyone crave a bit of adventure he said confidently.
Romana sighed. Maybe you're right…or at least, I hope you are.
"Mum, dad, this way" Emily called, beckoning to them before stepping through another open doorway. It led into the mess hall, which was an actual mess, chairs overturned and food scattered about.
"Well, looks like you got your wish" the Doctor commented to Clara as they looked around. The place was abandoned, but there'd obviously been some sort of scuffle.
"Food fight?" Clara guessed, half-jokingly; she twanged a knife that was embedded in the wall.
"Who would throw a knife in a food fight?" Emily scoffed, "In an actual fight, sure, but not a food fight. Something else happened here…" she stuck her finger into a cup of cold coffee, "Quite recently. About seven or eight hours ago, at a guess" she shrugged, before walking over to the fridges and pulling them open. "There are no bodies around, and look, the fridges are empty. So something must have made the crew abandon the base; they had time to gather all these supplies, but then they had to fight their way out" she deduced.
"Maybe they went for a swim, in the creepy flooded village outside" Clara suggested, gazing out of floor to ceiling windows, where the ruins of a long abandoned town could be made out, covered in algae. The Doctor and Romana smiled at Emily, proud of their daughter's reasoning skills. She smiled back, before going over to look at the ruins with Clara. "Oh, yeah. You see, this is more like it" the human grinned, holding her hand up. Emily grinned back and high fived her.
"So, mysterious enemy besets the base, forces the crew to retreat?" the Corsair summarised, "And what are the chances, do you suppose, that said mysterious enemy is still around?"
"Far too high" Flavia grumbled; it was just their luck, to land in the base after it had been abandoned but not after whatever had caused the abandoning had left. At least the Corsair was around to…to distract it! Yes, and hold it off, whatever it was…not to protect her, not her specifically, but all of them. The man wasn't half annoying sometimes, but when push came to shove he was very serious about protecting them, after all, they were all in this together.
They left the mess hall, and went further down the corridor, the Doctor in the lead. He stopped at a bend in the corridor. "Look, told you, crew" he said, pointing out two people crouched on the floor with their backs to the time travellers. Emily frowned a bit; the figures were awfully still, and they hadn't even heard anyone coming… "Are they alright?" she asked, keeping her voice low, just in case they turned out to be hostile.
"Let's find out" the Doctor murmured back, before walking forwards and calling, "Hello, sailors!"
The figures rose to their feet at the sound of his voice, and turned to face them…revealing that they weren't human; well, one of them was, the other was a Tivolian. More importantly, however, was the fact that they had black spaces instead of eyes, like skulls, and they were mouthing something. Clara and the Time Quintet stopped. "Right, did not expect that. Hands up, who expected that?" the Doctor asked as the figures advanced on them.
Clara and Flavia began to back away, but the Doctor quickly held up a hand to stop them. "Wait, wait. I don't think they're going to hurt us. I think that they're just curious" he said hopefully, leaning back as the Tivolian stepped right up to him, still mouthing silently, and the human…or whatever was left of him…stared down at Clara and Emily. The young Time Lady squinted at them, and wondered, "What is it they're mouthing?"
"Are you sure they're safe?" Clara inquired next, eyeing the two ghostly figures with a sense of unease. They were creepy, that was for sure…yet she loved the little thrill that ran up her spine because of that. It was strangely addicting.
"Well, I mean, define 'sure'" the Doctor retorted tensely, before looking back at the figures. "Look at you lovely chaps. What's happened to you, then?"
By now, the figures had stared at all six of them…or at least it seemed as if they were staring, despite not having any actual eyes to stare with. They turned, still muttering (in perfect unison, no less) and walked away from the time travellers, down the corridor. "We're following them, aren't we?" Flavia deadpanned. Oh well, she supposed she was a little curious…know thy enemy, and all that.
The Doctor nodded, and motioned for them to be quiet, as they cautiously made their way after the figures. "What are they?" Clara whispered.
"I haven't a clue" the Doctor admitted, "Isn't that exciting?"
/
The apparitions led them through the base towards the main hangar, where there were signs of a fire taking place that had long since been extinguished. When Clara and the Time Quintet walked in, the figures had disappeared, and the doors slid closed behind them. Flavia really hoped they weren't trapped.
"Where did they go?" Clara wondered aloud, before spotting the black craft and asking, "What is it, some kind of submarine?"
"No, it's alien" the Doctor answered, walking around to the back of the craft and up the ramp. Romana followed him, as did Clara and Emily, full of curiosity.
"You coming, V?" the Corsair asked Flavia, seeing that she wasn't coming to enter the craft. She sighed, having long since given up on telling him not to call her that…and it wasn't the worst nickname in the world, she supposed. "No, no, I'm going to look at the computer banks. There might be something on here that will tell us what happened to the crew, or what that spaceship is" she explained, nodding at some computers over to the side. The Corsair nodded, and stepped inside the craft.
The others were looking at four odd looking symbols carved onto the wall of the craft. "That's weird. The TARDIS hasn't translated it" the Doctor murmured. There was something odd about the symbols, but before they could put their fingers on it, Flavia heard a strange hissing noise behind her. She looked over to see that the two apparitions had returned. "Um, everyone, they're back" she called a warning.
The Doctor emerged from the spacecraft and said, "Hello! Did you want to show us this? It's very nice".
It appeared that the apparitions were still mouthing something. "Wait, are they saying something?" asked Clara, trying to get a better look at their lips. The human turned to the wall and hefted a fire axe off it, struggling a bit to lift the heavy weapon... "Okay, they now appear to be arming themselves" Clara noted, alarmed.
"Thank you for that observation, Clara" Flavia remarked sarcastically, getting up from her chair and moving away from the computers as the human advanced on them…although oddly enough, he was dragging the axe towards the others, as if Flavia wasn't even there. The others left the craft, as the Tivolian picked up a harpoon gun, and started to back away.
"Was it something she said?" the Doctor asked, pointing at Clara, "She does that. She once had an argument with Gandhi!" he announced, pulling Romana back as the human swung the axe at her, barely missing her stomach.
"I'm starting to see why the crew did a runner" Clara commented as the apparitions continued to advance. The Tivolian fired its harpoon, right at Emily, but Romana grabbed her arm and yanked her down in the nick of time. The Corsair whipped out his blaster, fired a warning shot into the air and yelled, "Run!"
They ran, dashing out of the hangar bay and into the corridor outside. A hand reached through the wall beside Clara's head; she screamed and jerked away, turning to see the human walk right through the walls, though they were now unarmed. That was less than comforting, especially when the Tivolian rose through the floor behind them. Clara grabbed at the Doctor's hand in fright, or tried to; but he'd already reached out to take Romana and Emily's hands, pulling them behind him.
"Run!" Clara shouted, taking off down another corridor. The others wasted no time in following, especially when a door opened at the end of the corridor and a young woman called out to them, "In here, quick!"
They put on a burst of speed, rushing into the small circular chamber, which quickly grew quite crowded with six extra people inside. The door was slammed shut moments after the Corsair tugged Flavia inside, doing a quick head count to make sure they were all accounted for. The other humans in the room backed away as the ghosts approached the doors, but the Doctor and his entourage peered at them curiously through the round, porthole like window.
The ghosts stared back at them, unseeing, but did not enter the room. "What are you?" the Doctor wondered as they turned and walked away. Emily turned to the other humans who had been hiding in the room and politely greeted, "Hello. Um…sorry to turn up out of the blue like this" she apologised, before snorting in laughter, "Out of the blue, blue box, that's…okay, it's not that funny" she admitted.
"Blue box?" asked the young woman who'd called to them, her eyes widening, sounding almost…hopeful.
The Doctor nodded and pulled out the psychic paper, flashing it at them. "I'm the Doctor. This is my wife, Romana, our daughter Emily, and our friends the Corsair, Flavia and Clara" he introduced them all.
"You're from UNIT" one of the men, with short hair and a blue shirt, declared a bit accusingly.
"Well, if that what it says" the Doctor replied unconcernedly.
"I'm Pritchard" the man introduced, before gesturing to the bespectacled young man next to him, "This is Bennet"-
"O'Donnell" greeted the young woman with a wide smile, stepping forwards to shake the Doctor's hand. "It's you guys, isn't it? The Time Quintet! I am such a huge fan!" she laughed in delight…before putting on a serious expression, embarrassed, and adding "I mean, err, you know, nice work".
"Tim Lunn" the last man introduced himself, gesturing to the woman beside him, "I sign for Cass".
"So what's up with the Creepy McCreeperton's out there?" the Corsair inquired, nodding back at the doors, "What are they, and why did they try to kill us?"
"Well, they're uh, they're ghosts" Bennet told them, not knowing what else to say. None of them had any idea what was going on, just that they were being besieged in their own base by the ghost of Moran and some mole guy.
"They're not ghosts" the Doctor insisted sceptically.
Emily was a bit more open-minded, as she remarked thoughtfully, "They do seem a bit like ghosts, dad".
"Yeah, I'm with Emz on this one" the Corsair nodded, "Skull like faces, walking through walls…definitely ghost-like".
Flavia sighed and declared, "Well, for once, I agree with the Doctor. There are no such things as ghosts".
The deaf woman, Cass, began to sign something. "Cass is saying" – Tim began to explain.
"Thank you, but I don't actually need your help" the Doctor interrupted rather rudely, as was typical for him, "I can speak sign. 'Go ahead'" he told Cass, signing at the same time. She blinked at him and started to sign the message out again…the Doctor watching her hand gestures with an increasingly confused expression on his face.
Emily, who was standing and watching them from the side, smirked at her father. "You've forgotten how to speak sign language, haven't you dad?" she guessed.
The Doctor sighed and admitted, "Err, yes, yes I have. I must have deleted it for semaphore. Someone get me a selection of flags" he instructed, as a rather annoyed Tim signed out his words for Cass' benefit.
"Oh, for goodness sake" Flavia rolled her eyes, stepping forwards, and signing fluently to Cass, 'I'm sorry about him. One more time, please?'
Cass sighed, but signed the message out a third time. Flavia nodded, smiled at her in thanks, and explained to the others, "She says the human was their former commanding officer, but they don't know who or what the other one is. He's actually a Tivolian" she explained for the benefit of the humans. Lunn signed the new word out to Cass, who picked it up quickly and nodded in understanding.
Clara stared at Flavia in surprise. "Since when do you speak sign language?" she couldn't help asking.
"Since I taught myself" she shrugged, "The TARDIS translation circuits can't really do much with signing, because it's a visual language and not an auditory one; I recently figured it might be useful to learn to actually translate and speak it. Turns out I was right" she smiled.
"Impressive" the Corsair nodded, actually sounding as if he meant it. Flavia's smile grew a little wider at that, and…if he didn't know any better, he'd swear a faint blush appeared on her cheeks.
Bennett declared, "See, I told you he was an alien. Didn't I say that?"
"Weird thing is, they're not violent" the Doctor informed the crew, "They're too cowardly. They wouldn't say boo to a goose".
"They're more likely to give the goose their car keys and bank details" Romana joked, before asking more seriously, "When did these…ghosts, for lack of a better word, first appear?"
"Oh, did you see that spaceship in the hangar?" asked O'Donnell, "Yeah, we found that on the lake bed and we'd just got it on board and one of the engines started up and Moran got…" she trailed off sadly, looking down, "Moran was killed".
"We're sorry to hear that" Romana told her sympathetically; Clara just came over and gave the other woman a hug. Lunn, on Cass' behalf, then explained, "Then they appeared and pretty much straight away started trying to kill us. So we grabbed what we could and we were looking for somewhere to hide, and that's when we realised the ghosts couldn't come in here".
"What is this place?" asked Clara, pulling away from O'Donnell, who gave her a grateful smile for the comfort.
"It's a Faraday Cage" the Doctor explained, "Completely impenetrable to radio waves, and apparently, whatever those things are out there. So, who's in charge now? I need to know who to ignore".
Lunn signed for Cass, "That would be me…her" he added, gesturing to Cass so there wasn't any confusion.
"Actually, that would be me" Pritchard corrected, handing the Doctor his card, "I represent Vector Petroleum. We've obtained the mining rights to the oil".
"The oil?" the Doctor asked, tossing the card aside, "Where are we?"
Emily picked the card up and handed it back to Pritchard, who nodded his thanks to her. Bennet explained, "This used to be a military training site. There was a dam overlooking it, but the dam burst and the valley was submerged".
"Then twenty years ago, we discovered a massive oil reservoir underneath it" Pritchard added.
The lights switched off for a moment, and then came back on, brighter, as a computerised voice announced "Good morning - entering day mode".
"Okay, it's morning" said O'Donnell, "We can go outside now".
"Thank God for that" Lunn muttered.
"At last, we can get out of here" Pritchard added in relief, heading for the door.
"Morning?" Clara asked in confusion.
Bennet took a towel from a hook and draped it over his shoulder, before explaining, "Yeah, we're too far below the surface for daylight, so we have to demarcate artificial days and nights".
O'Donnell pulled open the door. "I'd like to have a further look at that spaceship" the Doctor admitted, "but what about those things that aren't ghosts?"
"Oh, it's alright, they only come out at night" O'Donnell smiled, before she and her crew left the Cage.
"Weird how that is not comforting" Clara muttered to the Time Quintet, who only shrugged or nodded in agreement, before they followed the crew down the corridor.