Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who and I never will
Cold War – Part Two
Clara crouched on the seat beside the Doctor, resting her arms on the back of it. "Even if a missile did get launched, that wouldn't be… it, would it?" she asked him.
"It?" he questioned back.
"End of the world" she explained, "Game over. I mean, what if they fired one by accident. What would happen then?"
"I told you, Clara. Earth is like a storm waiting to break, right now. Both sides baring their teeth, talking up war; it would only take one tiny spark" the Doctor warned.
Clara protested "Yeah, but the world didn't end in 1983, did it, or I wouldn't be here".
"New" he smirked, explaining "History's in flux. It can be changed, re-written". Clara was somewhat disturbed by the notion that if the world ended now and they somehow survived it, she, Charlotte and Laura would just cease to exist. For that matter, Charlotte was wondering what would actually happen to her and Laura. Would they just die, or would they be sent home? Not that she wanted to end the world to get home, it was just a passing thought.
The Doctor went to talk to Zhukov; he and his men were arming themselves with rifles. "How many of us are left?" he asked the captain.
"Twelve, and we can't find Stepashin".
"We split up and comb this sub" the Doctor instructed, "One team stays here to guard the bridge".
"That's it? That's the plan?" Zhukov demanded sceptically.
"Well, it's either that, or we stay here and wait for him to kill us".
"Okay" the captain deadpanned, moving away. Clara, Laura and Charlotte approached the Doctor. "Is it true you've never seen one outside of its shell suit?" Clara inquired curiously.
"Shell suit?" he repeated, and she shrugged. "Clara! For an Ice Warrior to leave its armour is the gravest dishonour. Skaldak is desperate. He is deadly and we have got to find him" the Doctor murmured gravely.
"Will this help?" asked Grisenko, holding up the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.
"Ah! You saved it!" the Doctor cried in relief, taking it from the professor. Grisenko explained "No, no, it was on the floor with this", holding up the Barbie doll.
The Doctor took the doll from him as well and kissed it, earning odd looks from all three of his companions. "Oh, Professor, I could kiss you!"
"If you insist" Grisenko replied bluntly.
The Doctor stared at him and frowned slightly. "Later" he replied, before turning and flashing the sonic on. Now this would make things a lot easier…hopefully.
"Do we want to know why you've got a Barbie doll in your pocket?" Charlotte asked him.
"Probably not" he answered dismissively, before walking over to Zhukov and insisting on his going in search of Skaldak. After all, he actually had a way of tracking the Ice Warrior now. The captain was reluctant to let him go alone in case Skaldak attacked him; then Grisenko volunteered to go with the Doctor, and so did his companions…well, Laura was a bit reluctant, but she quickly changed her mind when Charlotte pointed out that the bridge was probably were Skaldak would come to fire the missiles.
The five of them made their way through the submarine in search of Skaldak. The Doctor led the way, Clara followed with Grisenko, and the two Whovians brought up the rear. Charlotte periodically looked over her shoulder, checking for any sign that they were being followed. Her skin crawled at the thought of Skaldak lurking just out of sight, ready to pounce…Ugh, come on Charlotte. This is no time to be paranoid she admonished herself firmly.
After they'd gone through a bulkhead door, Clara asked the professor, "So, why have you got a cattle prod on a submarine?"
"Polar bears".
"Ah, right".
"We run across them when we're drilling. Can be quite nasty, you know" he elucidated.
"I'd swap one for an Ice Warrior any day. Cuddlier" Clara tried to joke, but it came out a bit forced.
"Courage, my dear" Grisenko said encouragingly, "I always sing a song".
"What?"
"To keep my spirits up" he explained.
"Yeah, that would work, if this was Pinocchio" Clara replied sarcastically. Suddenly an alarm went off, the Doctor having fiddled just a bit too much with a control box he'd found. Grisenko spoke over the noise. "Do you know 'Hungry Like The Wolf'?"
"What?"
"Duran Duran, one of my favourites. Come on!" he prompted.
Clara insisted "I'm not singing a song!"
"It does kind of help" Charlotte remarked, "I sing sometimes to stop myself being scared…just not that song" she added firmly, she didn't really like that song.
The Doctor opened a hatch, which fortunately didn't pour in water, and stuck his head inside. A long, low, creaking echoed inside, sounding eerily like an animalistic roar. "What was that?" Clara asked nervously.
"It's just the pressure, I think" said Charlotte, "We're like, seven hundred metres below the surface, you know".
"Don't worry about it, think of something else" Grisenko suggested. He smiled and hummed a few lines of the song he'd mentioned. "Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, I am hungry like the wolf…"
"I'm not singing" Clara asserted.
"Don't you know it?"
"Course I know it. We do it at karaoke, the odd hen night" she shrugged.
Grisenko stared at her in puzzlement. "Karaoke? Hen night?" he repeated, bewildered, "You speak excellent Russian, my dear, but sometimes I don't understand a word you're talking about".
They continued to move through the submarine, but suddenly up ahead they heard growls and screaming. The Doctor broke into a run, the others close behind; but they were too late. All they found were two stiff, bloodied corpses. Charlotte and Laura hung back, having no desire to see the carnage, but Clara just kept staring, unable to tear her gaze away.
"Good God" breathed Grisenko, staring in horror at the dismembered corpses, "Torn apart. It's a monster, a savage".
"No, Professor. Not savage, forensic" the Doctor explained, "Well, he's dismantled them. Skaldak's learning; learning all about you, your strengths, your weaknesses. Come on" he beckoned to them, hurrying out of the room. Grisenko tugged Clara along after him. They moved to another part of the corridor, and the Doctor stopped at a ladder to another level. "Stay here" he told his companions firmly. Laura and Charlotte nodded emphatically, and Clara agreed "Okay".
"Stay here, don't argue" he insisted again, used to his companions wandering off the moment his back was turned.
"We're not" replied Clara, and he blinked, realising they actually were going to stay put. Well, he knew Charlotte and Laura would stay there, they'd listened to him before, but it was nice to know that Clara would as well. "Right, good" he nodded, before climbing up the ladder.
When he'd disappeared, Grisenko sighed and remarked "Oh, it's a young man's game, all this dashing about". He sat down to rest on the edge of the open bulkhead door, and noticed the young women's troubled expressions. "What is wrong?" he asked them.
Charlotte slung an arm around Laura's shoulders and replied "Nothing. We just got a bit creeped out back there, that's all".
"I see. And you, Clara?"
Clara insisted, more to herself, "I was doing okay. I mean, I went in there and I did the scary stuff, didn't I? We all went in there with the Ice Warrior and it went okay. Actually, it went just about as badly as it could have done but that wasn't our fault".
"Not at all" Grisenko shook his head.
"So I'm happy about that" Clara stated.
"Yes".
"Chuffed" she murmured, sitting down on a bottom rung of the ladder.
"And so you should be" the professor told her, "So what's the matter?"
"…Seeing those bodies back there. It's all got very real. Are we going to make it?" Clara asked worriedly.
Grisenko nodded encouragingly and replied "Yes, of course".
"Don't worry, Clara" Laura smiled at her, "I'm sure everything will be okay".
"Yeah, I mean, the Doctor hasn't let us down before, right?" Charlotte added, and Clara nodded in agreement.
The ship creaked around them and she looked around warily. "What was that?"
"The Doctor told you, it's just the boat settling" the professor reminded her, "Tell me about yourselves. What do you like doing?"
"Uh, well, I like drawing, and watching animation – oh, and baking" Laura replied, glad of an excuse to take her mind off the situation. Grisenko nodded, seemingly interested, before looking expectantly at Charlotte.
She shrugged and answered "I like reading and writing, that sort of thing. Nothing major".
"An artist and an author, eh? You make a good pair" Grisenko told them, before turning to Clara. "How about you, Clara?" he prompted.
"Stuff, you know, stuff" she answered, distracted by the noises she could hear, not sure if all of them were just the ship settling…
"Stuff, very enlightening" Grisenko said with mild sarcasm. His tone grew more serious as he asked, "And the Doctor. What he said, is it true? You're all from another time? From our future?"
The three women looked at one another, not sure how to answer or even if they should. "Um, yeah, we are" Laura replied hesitantly.
"Tell me what happens" Grisenko said urgently, his voice raspy. Clara stared at him in alarm. "We can't" she protested, backing away.
"Clara, come back" Laura said worriedly, remembering how she'd been grabbed by Skaldak. Clara ignored her, but Charlotte was reminded of that particular part of the episode and looked up at the ceiling, trying to spot the Ice Warrior lurking up there.
Grisenko moved forwards, insisting "Well, I need to know".
"We're not allowed!"
"No, please!"
"We can't!"
"Ultravox, do they split up?" Grisenko demanded. The three women stared at him, and then Clara laughed in relief. "Funny. You're funny" she smiled at him; then she gasped, feeling cold scaly claws grab her head. The other three cried out at the same time:
"Clara!"
"Stop!"
"Let her go!" Grisenko shouted, pulling out a pistol and shooting up at Skaldak. The creature released Clara, and Laura immediately wrapped her in a hug. "Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah, I think so" Clara answered shakily. She gave the professor a grateful smile; he smiled back and remarked, "See? I don't just like Western music". He twirled his gun around his fingers – and cried out in alarm and pain as Skaldak seized his skull, sharp nails digging into his skin.
"No, please don't hurt him!" Clara begged, as the Doctor came running up behind them, "Please, please!"
Grisenko cried out in pain as Skaldak gripped his head harder, as if about to crush it like an egg. "You attacked me" the Ice Warrior rasped, his voice cruel and angry, "Martian law decrees that the people of this planet are forfeit. I now have all the information I require. It will take only one missile to begin the process, to end this Cold War". They could make out a wide, scaly mouth and glowing red eyes in the gloom – a face of nightmares.
"Grand Marshal, there is no need for this" the Doctor insisted desperately, "Listen to me."
"My distress call has not been answered. It will never be answered!" Skaldak hissed furiously, "My people are dead. They are dust. There is nothing left for me except my revenge" he snarled, sending a shiver trickling down their spines. Back in the torpedo room, his still enchained armour closed itself up.
"There is something left for you, Skaldak" the Doctor contended, "Mercy".
"Mercy?" Skaldak repeated, almost mockingly. Before the Doctor could elucidate, Captain Zhukov strode up with another soldier in tow. "You must wear that armour for a reason, my friend. Let's see, shall we?" he remarked to Skaldak, raising his weapon.
The Doctor quickly ran over and pushed the gun back down. "No, Captain, wait!"
"I will do whatever it takes to defend my world, Doctor!" Zhukov glared at him.
The Doctor looked between him and Skaldak, making 'calm down' gestures. His companions huddled to one side, wisely keeping out of it all. "Yes, great, fine, good" he agreed, "but we are getting somewhere here. We are negotiating, jaw-jaw, not war-war".
"Churchill?" Grisenko guessed, surprisingly calm for someone whose life was on the line.
"Churchill" the Doctor nodded.
"Very well, we'll negotiate, but from a position of strength" Zhukov asserted, raising his weapon again but not firing.
"Excellent tactical thinking" Skaldak remarked, "My congratulations, Captain".
"Thank you".
"Unfortunately, your position is not, perhaps, as strong as you might hope" Skaldak commented with a growl.
"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked nervously.
A clanging noise announced the answer; Skaldaks armour had walked to him, having broken its shackles, which now clinked against the metal. Skaldak released the professor at last and darted inside the opened suit. "He summoned the armour" the Doctor said, rather obviously.
"How did it do that?" asked Clara.
"Sonic tech, Clara" he replied, "The song of the Ice Warrior".
The submariner who accompanied Zhukov stepped forwards and fired his rifle ineffectually at Skaldak's back, as the Ice Warrior stomped away.
"No!" the Doctor cried, pulling the man away. Honestly, couldn't any of them see that shooting at Skaldak was just going to make things worse?
Skaldak ignored the spray of bullets, stalking down the corridors of the submarine. "My world is dead but now there will be a second red planet. Red with the blood of humanity!"
"Skaldak! Skaldak, wait!" the Doctor called, running after him. Zhukov quickly followed, as did the other crewmember. The rest of them hesitated. "Are you alright?" Clara questioned Grisenko.
He rubbed his hands over his face and thinning hair, checking for any wounds. "Yes. Yes, I think I'm fine. Are you?"
"Yeah" she nodded, "Thank you for saving me".
"You were really brave" Laura smiled, "Both of you".
Charlotte moved to the hatch and climbed through it. "Meanwhile, Ice Warrior about to blow up the planet!" she reminded them, and they hurried after her, all four of them running as fast as they could to catch up. They passed soldiers slumped in the corridors; no time to check if they were alive or not, but there didn't seem to be any blood so hopefully they were just unconscious.
/
Skaldak reached the bridge, and plugged his cybernetic suit into the controls. The launch key locks turned, and alarms began blaring as a missile was prepared for launch. The Doctor ran in shouting "No! Skaldak, wait! Wait, wait!"
"He's arming the warheads" Zhukov warned, aiming his weapon at the Ice Warrior; the few crew members who hadn't been killed or knocked aside during Skaldak's rampage through the sub followed suit.
"Where is the honour in condemning billions of innocents to death?" the Doctor asked Skaldak, "Five thousand years ago Mars was the centre of a vast empire. The jewel of this solar system. The people of Earth had only just begun to leave their caves. Five thousand years isn't such a long time. They're still just frightened children, still primitive. Who are you to judge them?"
The Ice Warrior's suit unhooked from the controls, and he turned to face the Doctor head on. "I am Skaldak! This planet is forfeit under Martian law" he maintained.
"Then teach them" the Doctor insisted, "Teach them, Grand Marshal. Show them another way. Show them there is honour in mercy. Is this how you want history to remember you?" he demanded, "Grand Marshal Skaldak, Destroyer of Earth. Because that's what you'll be if you send those missiles" the Doctor declared, as his companions hurried into the room and pulled up short, "Not a soldier, a murderer". Skaldak grunted dismissively and turned back to the controls, reaching out to press the red button.
"Five billion lives extinguished! No chance for goodbyes. A world! A world snuffed out like a candle flame! Alright!" the Doctor shouted, "Alright, Skaldak, you leave me no choice. I'm a Time Lord, Skaldak. I know a thing or two about sonic technology myself!" he announced, pointing his sonic screwdriver at Skaldak.
The Ice Warrior turned around once more. "A threat?" he snarled, "You threaten me, Doctor?"
"No; no, not you, all of us" the Doctor replied, his voice low and dangerous, "I will blow this sub up before you can even reach that button, Grand Marshal. Blow us all to oblivion" he threatened.
"You would sacrifice yourself?"
"In a heartbeat" the Doctor replied, flicking his sonic on, the tip glowing red.
"Mutually assured destruction" Skaldak rasped, turning back to the control panel. Even though she knew he wouldn't press it, Charlotte felt her chest tighten fearfully. She blindly reached out and grabbed Laura's hand, squeezing it to comfort them both at the same time.
"Look into my eyes, Skaldak" the Doctor challenged, "Look into my eyes and tell me you're capable of doing this. Huh? Can you do that? Dare you do that? Look into my eyes, Skaldak. Come on, face to face".
The Ice Warrior turned once more. "Well, Doctor" he stated, his helmet falling back to reveal a reptilian visage with red eyes, a concave dip on the top of his head, and sharp pointed teeth. "Which of us shall blink first?"
"Why did you hesitate?" Clara asked suddenly. She didn't know what she was doing, really, she just felt like she had to do something. "Back there, in the dark. You were going to kill this man, remember?" she said, gesturing to the professor, "I begged you not to, and you listened. Why show compassion then, Skaldak, and not now?"
A slight frown creased Skaldak's scaled brow. "The Doctor's right" said Clara, moving forward warily, "Billions will die. Mothers, sons, fathers, daughters…Remember that last battle, Skaldak?" she asked him, "Your daughter…you sang the songs…"
"Of the Red Snows" he recalled, lowering his head in remembrance. Abruptly, the whole submarine shook, sending them tumbling and staggering about. "What's happening?!" Clara demanded in alarm. What was happening, in fact, was that they were being dragged up through the water by a tractor beam.
"My people live" Skaldak realised, "They have come for me!"
"We're rising" Zhukov realised, "We're rising!"
"Six hundred metres" Grisenko announced, checking one of the instruments, "Five fifty…"
As the pressure above them lessened, the faster they rose; in a couple of minutes the top of the submarine broke through the ice. "We've surfaced" the Doctor said to Skaldak, "Your people have saved us".
"Saved me, not you" Skaldak sneered.
"Just go, Skaldak, please. Please, go in peace" the Doctor insisted. Skaldak was teleported away in a burst of red.
"We did it" Clara gasped, "We did it!"
Charlotte shook her head, watching the Doctor, who had moved over to the controls. "It's not over yet" she murmured.
"No" the Doctor agreed, "No, no, no, no, no. It's still armed. A single pulse from that ship… I'll destroy us if I have to" he told himself firmly, "I will destroy us if I have to. Show mercy, Skaldak. Come on. Show mercy" he breathed, pleading, desperate.
Clara was scared, and she thought maybe singing to take her mind off her fear wasn't such a bad idea after all. "Da, da, da, da, I'm lost and I'm found, and I'm hungry like the wolf…"
Then, at last, the alarms stopped blaring. The missile silos closed up. The Doctor switched off his sonic screwdriver and rubbed his forehead. "Now we're safe".
Clara sighed in relief, before walking up to the Doctor and hugging him tightly. Laura decided she had the right idea, and practically glomped Charlotte, who laughed and hugged her back.
A moment later, Clara pulled back from the Doctor and cleared her throat. "Saved the world, then?" she smiled at him.
He smiled back, "Yeah".
"That's what we do" she grinned.
"Yeah" he nodded, grinning as well.
"Can we go on deck?" asked Laura, "Or, whatever it's called on a submarine?"
The captain nodded and beckoned for them to follow him. "It's this way to the conning tower" he explained.
They went out on the tower, leaning on the side of the sub, and looked up at the Martian spaceship. It was massive, a great silver and glowing blue vessel that vaguely reminded Charlotte and Laura of a crab. "The TARDIS!" Clara exclaimed suddenly, "Where's the TARDIS?"
"Oh well, don't worry about that" the Doctor hedged awkwardly. Clara wasn't having any of it. "Stop saying that" she demanded, "Where is it?"
"Yeah…well, I wasn't to know, was I?"
"Know what?"
"I've been tinkering, breaking her in. I'm allowed" he said defensively.
"Maybe you shouldn't be" Charlotte quipped from behind him. He shot her an annoyed glare, but she just grinned at him.
"What did you do?" asked Clara, in the tone she used when inquiring about what Angie and Artie had got up to whilst her back was turned.
"I reset the HADS" the Doctor mumbled quickly, looking everywhere but at Clara and the others.
"Huh?"
"I reset the HADS" he repeated, still murmuring the last two words.
"The what?"
"The HADS!" he blurted out at last, "The Hostile Action Displacement System. If the Tardis comes under attack, gunfire, time winds, the sea, it…relocates!" he explained with several gesticulations.
Laura and Charlotte shook their heads at him in amused exasperation. "Oh, Doctor" Clara sighed, summing up how all three of them felt.
"Haven't used it in donkey's years. It seemed like a good idea at the time" the Doctor protested weakly, before adding "Well, never mind, it's bound to turn up somewhere".
As if on cue, his sonic screwdriver began whirring. "Ooh, ha, see? Right on cue, brilliant" he smiled, pulling it out of his pocket.
"Brilliant" agreed Clara.
"What does it say?" asked Laura. She already knew, of course, but she figured she might as well act like she didn't.
"The TARDIS is at the pole".
"Not far, then" Clara remarked.
"The South Pole" the Doctor corrected.
"Ah…"
He looked at Zhukov and asked, "Can we have a lift?"
The captain and the others chuckled, retreating back into the depths of the submarine. The Doctor stayed outside a little longer, to salute the Martian ship as it flew away, before he too retreated into the…relative warmth of the sub. "We'll comb the sub, gather any survivors…and the bodies, put them to rest" Zhukov decided, the few crewmembers with him nodding solemnly. They set out to fulfil the duty, whilst Zhukov and the Doctor discussed the recent events.
Charlotte didn't want to interrupt them, but she had a concern…she sidled over to the submarine captain and the Doctor, waiting for them to notice her. When they looked at her she hesitated, before asking, "Err, if we did get a lift to the South Pole, how long would it take for the submarine to get there, exactly?"
"Well, at our current speed, if we set sail tomorrow we should arrive there in…roughly seventeen days" Zhukov informed her.
Charlotte blinked in surprise. "Oh, that's…really? I thought it'd take longer than that" she remarked, "Well, okay. That's fine, I suppose…what?" she asked the Doctor, who had a smug knowing smile on his face.
"You don't want to wait that long, do you?" he guessed. Charlotte rolled her eyes and retorted, "That's rich, coming from you. I'm not saying I mind waiting seventeen or so days, I just"-
"Well, actually, it'll take us an extra few days to reach the pole itself; how long depends on whether or not we can get a plane to fly us there" the Doctor interrupted. She glared at him a bit before continuing "Like I was saying, I don't mind the wait, I was just wondering if there were any alternatives available".
"Such as…?" the Doctor inquired curiously.
"I don't know…can't you summon the TARDIS using your key and a battery? You've done that before" she pointed out.
Before he could reply, Clara demanded "How do you know that? Both of you", she looked between Charlotte and Laura, "It's like you knew this was gonna happen. First the raincoats you insisted on bringing, and then you didn't seem surprised by Skaldak, and…and you knew about the security feed, and what to say to Skaldak…"
"To be fair, the last two things could have been lucky guesses" Charlotte pointed out. Clara stared at her, and she sighed. "Sorry. You deserve an explanation, but let's go somewhere more private first" she decided, before turning to Zhukov and warning him "By the way, all of that, strictly confidential".
He nodded in understanding. She nodded back, and then looked at the Doctor. "I give it about three hours before you start going crazy and figure out a way to bring the TARDIS back. You might as well get a head start" she smirked jokingly at him. The Doctor gave her an indignant frown, which looked more like an adorable pout in her opinion, and turned to Zhukov to ask if he wouldn't mind some of his ship's equipment being used to summon the TARDIS?
Laura, Charlotte and Clara gathered in a corner out of the way; the latter regarded the other two with expectant, questioning eyes. "We're really sorry we didn't tell you sooner" Laura apologised guiltily.
"We were going to, honest, we just…didn't have a reason before. I guess we were putting it off cos we didn't know how you'd react" Charlotte added.
"I don't care what it is, I just want to know the truth" Clara insisted.
Charlotte took a deep breath and explained, "Laura and I…aren't from this universe. We're still human, a hundred percent, but we…sort of walked through a crack in space-time, or something, and fell into this one. Here's the awkward part, so just, brace yourself…in our universe, you and the Doctor and the TARDIS and everything else is…well…fictional".
"Fictional?"
"Yeah, it's part of a TV series called 'Doctor Who'" Laura elucidated, "Charlotte and I have seen episodes of some of the Doctor's adventures, that's how we know some things are going to happen".
"Just a few things" Charlotte amended, "We don't really have that much foreknowledge or anything, and we're not allowed to talk about it anyway…but yeah, that's how we know. Sometimes we…probably me, most of the time – might mention things from past episodes, adventures from before you were travelling with him".
"Wait, so…so this was an episode?" Clara inquired hesitantly, trying to wrap her head around it all.
"Yeah, but I don't think anyone's watching us, if that's what you're worried about" Charlotte reassured her quickly.
Clara still had her doubts. "How can you be so sure?"
"I'm not, but seriously, we weren't in the episode, so I think us being here makes this an alternate timeline that nobody in our universe is viewing" Charlotte explained, before adding "It's probably best if we don't think about it too much. The next time we have an adventure that corresponds to an episode, we'll just have to…I don't know…do each other's makeup, or something" she shrugged.
Clara laughed. "Okay. Parallel universe, I can handle that. Parallel universe where I'm fictional…that's going to take a bit longer, but I'll manage" she decided, before wondering aloud, "Do you think the professor would give us a tour of the sub?"
"Hmm, I don't see why not" Laura reasoned. Charlotte nodded in agreement, eating a handful of raisins from a packet in her pocket, and offering some to Laura and Clara. She'd gotten into the habit of carrying snacks around with her in case she got hungry at an inopportune moment. Thus refuelled, the three of them went to ask Grisenko for a tour of the submarine, whilst they waited for the Doctor to finish whatever doohickey he was making to bring the TARDIS back.
/
A/N: Next time on 'Alterations' – Familiar places are visited, oddly familiar people are met, and Laura comes face to face with both her biggest dream and biggest nightmare…
Should I do 'next time trailers' for all the chapters? I might go back and add some in, just to be consistent, what do you guys think?