Obelix was quickly suited up, though unrecognizable inside the suit. Pandora had been worried that he wouldn't allow the Doctor to put the suit on him, then she remembered that he used to be a police dog, and was probably used to wearing a heavy vest. The Doctor attached the dog's helmet to his suit, and the two of them stood by the Tardis doors. The Doctor's sonic screwdriver could be seen poking out of a pouch on his belt.
"So, what exactly am I supposed to do? I mean, other than worry over your imminent deaths?" Pandora asked. She realized that she was pouting a bit about being left behind, but she felt justified, so she didn't care.
"Actually, I've been thinking about that," the Doctor said. He hooked his helmet on the hat rack and walked over to the console. He turned a set of dials and motioned for her to come over. He pointed out the nixie lights and split-flap display. "London, England. Earth. May Fifth 2017. Hyde Park." He walked around to another spot and rested his hand on the telegraph lever. "You've seen me do this bit. The coordinates are set. If anything happens to me, anything, you push this lever full forward. When the engines stop, you go out those doors, and you never look back. You forget about me, and you forget about the Tardis. You go see your mum, and you live your life."
"Doctor, you're scaring me," Pandora said quietly.
"Good. Now that you're properly scared…" He pried open a panel on the floor below the console and pulled out a large plastic bin. He lifted the lid off and rummaged around in it, then re-attached the lid and reached into the cargo space beneath the console again. He came up with a second identical storage bin, and when he pulled off the lid, he immediately found what he was looking for. "Ah!" he said, and pulled out two items.
The first looked like a game console controller, with two handles and a flat surface containing a set of thumbsticks, buttons, and triggers. The second item looked like a dinosaur egg or something. It was too big to belong to an ostrich, but it was white and egg shaped. The rounder bottom part fit nicely in the Doctor's open palm. "Have you ever used one of these before?" the Doctor asked, holding it out to her.
"I have no idea what that is," Pandora said. She reached out for the egg, but the Doctor pulled it away.
"Actually, this part goes with me. This is for you." He held out the controller.
She took it, flipped it over to look at it from all sides, then held it in both hands with her index fingers on the triggers, her left thumb on a thumbstick and her right thumb centered over the four buttons. It felt like a game console controller.
The Doctor walked back over to the doors and took his helmet in his other hand. "Give me just a second, then flip that little switch on the underside." He put his helmet on and activated the seal, then opened up the door. He held the egg out at arms length and nodded toward Pandora.
Pandora quickly located the switch and flipped it. The egg in the Doctor's hand hummed to life. The top half of it lifted about a centimeter, and a pale blue light shown out at the seam. The egg lifted up from the Doctor's hand, and the Doctor put his arm down while the egg hovered there.
Pandora was startled when a hologram appeared in the air above the controller she held. The image was of the ground just outside the Tardis, and the Doctor's leg in his orange environment suit. When she jumped, the image also jumped and briefly showed a knot of vines and leaves outside, then righted itself and pointed at the ground again. She saw out of the corner of her eye that the egg-drone hadn't moved when the image did, so she watched the drone while she tried it again. She kept her fingers off the buttons, triggers and sticks, but just rotated the controller in the air. The image in front of her showed the vine cluster again, then panned across the vegetation, over a narrow path, across more plant life on the other side, and finally a bit of the Tardis interior.
The Doctor's voice came through the controller then. "I was going to give you instructions on how to use it, but I guess, just play with it. You'll figure it out."
Pandora put her face up to the controller and said, "Can you hear me as well through this?"
"I can hear you, and so can Obelix. You don't have to get so close to it though."
Pandora pushed forward on the left thumbstick, and the egg hovered out the door and along the path. She found that when she held the controller vertically, she could see where she was going with it. She reached over with her right thumb and pressed the other stick forward. The egg shot up out of sight, and the image climbed through massive trunks of the Krynoid and finally broke above the canopy.
"Okay, careful with it. Move a bit slower so you don't run into anything," the Doctor cautioned. "If you do, the Krynoid will probably react by crushing or eating the drone."
The Doctor stepped carefully outside the Tardis, then called for Obelix. "Kom," he commanded, then he stepped aside as Obelix loped out past him. "We'll have to go single file. This path isn't wide enough for us otherwise, and we can't risk touching the sides," he said nervously. He held onto the handles of the Tardis doors, and his eyes met Pandora's. "Remember. No matter what happens, you do not leave the Tardis."
With that, he pulled the doors closed.
Pandora leveled out the controller, and she could see the Doctor and Obelix moving carefully between the walls of deadly vegetation below. She pulled back on the right thumbstick and slowly descended toward them. "Doctor?" she called out to him.
"I'm here," he responded.
"Doctor, why is there even a path?" she asked. "I mean, if the Krynoid actually is the entire planet, why would it need to move from place to place?"
"The Krynoid has many forms. Some of them are the eyes and ears. Maybe they need to roam the surface, like security guards in a museum. Otherwise…" the Doctor trailed off.
"Otherwise, what?" Pandora asked, concerned.
"Otherwise the path is just part of the trap," the Doctor said flatly.
Pandora followed them with the drone, keeping soberly silent, and making sure she had both of them in view. Obelix had a tendency to run ahead, then loop back, or simply wait for the Doctor to catch up. The Doctor on the other hand, moved with a great deal more caution. The walls of vegetation on both sides of the path were in constant albeit passive motion. If the Krynoid ever became aware of his presence, it would surely surround him and squeeze the life out of him, even if it didn't manage to take him over.
Now and again, a leafy shoot would probe out into the path, and the Doctor would stop for it, but inevitably, it would find some other section of plant mass to wrap around. Eventually, they came to a split in the path. The Doctor stopped, contemplating each direction. "Pandora, how about an arial view? Maybe you can see where the nearest of the escape pods is located, and which path will get me closer?"
"Yeah, hang on," she said. The drone shot up into the air until it was above the canopy. She swung the controller around to get a panoramic view. "It's hard to say… The types of trees or whatever changes up ahead. It looks like there's a clump of stuff, um, toward the right. Maybe that's it."
"How about when you use one of the other viewing modes? The gold button should do thermal," the Doctor said.
"Okay," Pandora said, and pushed the golden button. "Oh, cool! Yeah, that's it. It's way hotter than everything around it. There's a little white dot moving around inside it too."
The Doctor sighed with relief. "Good. I was worried that they were already done for."
"Oh, wow! Hey Doctor! I can see the ship here too, and it is huge. It's off to your left and goes on for miles. When I'm off thermal though, I can't see anything. The jungle has completely grown over it."
"That's to be expected. That's what it will do to us too, if we're not careful. Okay, we're heading right. Den här vägen Obelix. Let me know when we're close."
They followed the right path for a good ten minutes, when the sound of growling came over the speaker of Pandora's controller. "Doctor? What was that?"
"Obelix. He's found something." There was a pause that concerned Pandora, so she slowly lowered the drone back into the clearing of the path. The Doctor was kneeling down with one hand on Obelix's shoulder. "Very clever… There's a broad leaf laying across the path," the Doctor said. "Duktig pojke, Obelix." The Doctor looked up and around. "The path's been getting narrower as we progress, blocking out a lot of the light, and the leaf is almost the color of the dirt here. I wouldn't have seen it. If I'd stepped on it…" he let that sentence trail off. He stood up and pulled out his sonic. The white torch beam came on, and he commanded Obelix on. They walked on.
"How close are we?" the Doctor asked.
"Let me check," Pandora said. She brought the drone back up carefully, making sure not to touch the sides. When she reached the canopy, she switched back to thermal. "About another ten or fifteen meters, it looks like."
The Doctor walked a little further and came to a stop. "Do you see it?" Pandora asked.
"In a manner of speaking. There's another path leading off to the right, but this one isn't open overhead. It's like a cave." He shone his light upward. "With lots of stalactites." There were all manner of plant parts dangling down over the path; small shoots spiraling down here, flowers of one sort or another there, and even various types of fruit just begging to be picked and eaten by any crash survivor. The Doctor sighed. "On we go," he said, ducking low. He shone his light on the path below to make sure the fruit wasn't just a distraction. Once or twice they had to step over another leaf laying across the path, then ahead of them, he could see the smooth white surface of the escape pod. He stepped carefully up to it and shown his light around the edges of the path, then knocked on the door. He pressed a button on his suit to activate the external speakers on his helmet. "Rescue mission," he called out loudly.
Moments later there was a hiss of pressure equalizing. The door extended outward a few inches, then slid upward. A tall well-kept man stood in the entrance wearing a crisp blue uniform. In one hand he held a pistol, aimed at the Doctor, in the other, a machete. Obelix startled him by running past, but the man looked more scared than dangerous. Once he was sure he wasn't under attack, he said. "Get in, quick. The plants here move."
"There's no time. We have to keep moving," the Doctor replied. "Obelix, kom."
"I'm not going anywhere without my captain's say so. So you can come inside, or I can shut you out," the man said.
"Fine," the Doctor said, stepping inside. "But make it quick. The longer we wait, the more this planet tightens its coils around us."
The man pressed the button to slide the door shut, the moment the Doctor was inside. The pod was clearly not made for more than one inhabitant, but it was fairly roomy. There was one chair, built for the rigors of atmospheric entry, a food paste dispenser, and another for water. There were toilet facilities without privacy, and a view screen for entertainment, controlled from the arms of the chair. On the other hand, there was room to walk around, intended for exercise, but it also left room for several people to stand.
The man set down the machete, holstered the pistol and sat down in the chair. The Doctor took off his helmet and set it down by the entrance. He started opening drawers and cupboards, rummaging through them until he found the pod's environment suit. "Ah, excellent. Flimsy, but serviceable. Here. Put this on," he said, holding it out to the man.
The man ignored him. He activated the screen. "Ensign Goel to Captain Chadha," he said, holding down a button.
"Chadha here, ensign. How are you holding up?" came a voice over the monitor.
"Alive and well. And I have a visitor. He says he's with a rescue party," the man said.
"Oh, thank the gods. Can I see him?" the captain said.
The Doctor stepped out behind Ensign Goel. "Hello! Captain Aarti Chadha, so nice to finally meet you. Got your distress call. I'm the Doctor. Not so much a rescue party as a rescu-er and his rescue dog, though we're always up for a party, once we get you off this killer planet."
The woman from the distress call was on screen, a few stray hairs out of place, but otherwise as well as last he'd seen her. "Doctor, there are four survivors. If you and Ensign Goel can get through to me, I can show you where to find the other two."
"Right. Now listen. You stay put inside your escape pod. Do not attempt to leave on your own. Locate your environment suit and put it on. Instruct your crew to do the same. The plants here are dangerous. And though they look like many different types of plant, they are all the same creature. The planet itself is going to try to kill you."
"Understood." She glanced over her shoulder at a cupboard identical to the one where the Doctor had found Ensign Goel's environment suit. She looked back at the screen. "Ensign Goel, did you finish the weapon you were working on?"
"Weapon?" the Doctor asked warily. "Oh, no. No weapons. Weapons make people braver than they should be, then they do stupid things because they think they can."
Ensign Goel ignored him again. "Yes. Just now," he said to the captain. He got out of the chair and picked up something over by the door. He sat back down on the chair and held it up to the monitor, turning it to show all sides. It had two tanks, like a welder or a diver might use, duct taped to a long metal tube. At the mouth of the tube, two exposed wires were taped into place. A long strap ran the length of the tube, and he threw the strap over his shoulder. He held his left hand next to a trigger that would release the gas and caused a spark. "It's crude, but it ought to do the job," he said.
"Why does no one ever listen to me?" complained the Doctor. "Look, if you use that on anything, you're only going to make the planet angry — or worse, injure it. I'm sure you've heard, there's nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal? Try a wounded plant."
"Please, Doctor, you're not helping," the captain said on the screen. "Mr. Goel, keep the weapon in reserve. Use it only if you are cornered and threatened. Whatever else they are, they're just plants. If you wear the suit, and don't touch them, they won't even know you are there."
"Aye, captain. We're coming to get you. Goel out," he said. He pushed the button again, got out of the chair and accepted the suit from the Doctor.
Obelix was pawing at a cupboard the Doctor hadn't opened yet. The Doctor came to his side and opened the cupboard. Inside there were a couple dozen pouches of water. "Alright, Obelix. I'll take your helmet off for a moment, but when we open that door, it goes back on." He twisted it and pulled the helmet off of the dog, then he set it aside, tore open a pouch of water and held it out for Obelix to lap out of.
Ensign Goel was in his suit quickly, and the Doctor drank the last of the water in the pouch, then re-attached Obelix's helmet. Goel picked up his weapon and stood ready. The Doctor put on his own helmet and stood by the door control. He looked back at them and said, "Follow me carefully, and watch your step. Crouch low until we're through the tunnel." He activated the door and stepped outside.
They were back on the path. Once they'd gotten through the tunnel of vines, the Doctor checked on Pandora. "Pandora, are you still there?"
"Yes, Doctor," she called back. "I couldn't hear anything, but I could see three white blips inside the pod. It's good to hear you again."
The Doctor waved up at the egg-like drone floating up near the opening of the path. "Pandora, say hello to Ensign Goel. Ensign Goel, I never caught your first name," the Doctor said.
"Ensign Goel will do," the Ensign said, stepping out of the tunnel. Obelix hurried out after him.
"Fair enough," the Doctor said. "Pandora, where is the next pod?"
"It's like, half a mile ahead. But, Doctor? I was scanning around a bit while you were in there. There's something weird up ahead, before you get there. It's big, and the path goes around it on both sides. I don't know what it is, but I'd be careful."
"Okay. Thanks for the heads up," the Doctor replied. The three of them moved along the path again, wary of either side, and followed by Pandora's drone.
It had become almost routine by now, stepping over trigger leaves, waiting for the odd shoot to find purchase before continuing, so they made decent time, and before long, they'd reached the fork in the path that Pandora had mentioned.
"Oh, my giddy aunt," the Doctor said breathily. Ahead of him was a structure as large as a house, but looking like a dark green flower bud. Enormous roots snaked away from it and wrapped around the trunks of other plants. It pulsed rhythmically, squashing and stretching with the movement of fluids inside it.
"Yeah. You see what I mean?" Pandora responded. "What is that thing? It looks like Audrey II." The drone moved overhead and circled it.
"It looks like an enormous rose bud," Ensign Goel said in awe. Obelix whined and stayed as far away from it as the path would allow.
"If that thing's gonna bloom, I hate to see the size of the bee," Pandora said.
The Doctor reached out to touch it, but pulled his hand back. "I've never seen anything like it," he said.
"It's warmer than anything else too," Pandora said. "Not warm like you three, but way warmer than the other plants."
"Let's just stay away from it," the Doctor said.
"My captain is on the other side of it. I'm going on," Goel said.
"Are there any other ways around?" the Doctor asked.
"I don't think so, let me check," Pandora said. The drone shot up again, so she could have a look around. "No, at least not before you get back to the Tardis," she said.
"Okay, onward it is. But carefully." The Doctor stepped onto the path to the right of the giant flower bud and began edging around, keeping his face toward it. Ensign Goel followed, and Obelix reluctantly took up the rear.
"Wait, Doctor? It's getting warmer. I mean, Audrey. The color is changing! It's hotter than you now, pure white. Something's happening! Get back!"
The pulsations of the bud had increased. It looked like there was some sort of fluid build up inside, because it seemed to be growing with every pulse. New roots were reaching out in all directions and digging into the dirt or wrapping around anything they came into contact with.
"Back!" the Doctor shouted, "Back the way we came! Försvinn!" He pushed Goel in his urgency.
Obelix turned immediately and ran back along the main path. Goel turned and followed him, and the Doctor moved as quickly as he could.
"Hurry!" Pandora yelled. "It's so bright now, I can't see anything else!"
The Doctor reached the main path and dove forward, knocking Goel down. He hit the dirt with his helmet an inch away from one of the trigger leaves that lay across the path. The Doctor turned and looked back at the massive bud as it went through one final contraction.
It squeezed tight at the base and the top opened up. A chemical reaction occurred in the fluids inside it, and the fleshy pedal structure instantly became rock hard bark. There was a deafening sound as something shot out of the end of it like an artillery shell. It pulverized the drone instantly and continued on, up into the stratosphere and beyond sight in seconds.
The holographic image floating above Pandora's controller turned to static, then vanished. "What just happened?" she yelled.
She shook the controller, then banged it several times against one open palm. "Doctor? What happened? Are you okay?"
She tried all of the buttons, and the two triggers, then she started moving the thumbsticks around in random directions. "Doctor!" There was no response. She lifted the controller, making as if to smash it on the ground, but she was afraid to.
"Think, Pandora, what should I do?" She looked over at the console. "The monitor," she said. She ran to the console and set the controller down. She looked at the array of controls in front of her and had no idea which one turned on the monitor. She closed her eyes and tried to picture where the Doctor was standing whenever he turned it on. She took three steps to her right and opened up her eyes. There was a switch actually labeled 'Monitor'. She flipped it.
In the air above the console appeared a 360 degree view of the area directly surrounding the Tardis. They were in the middle of a path, taking it up entirely from side to side. The line of vegetation was taller than the Tardis, so most of what could be seen was just a massive wall of green that moved as if ants were crawling all over the surface. "That's no help at all!" she yelled in frustration.
Just next to the switch was a large dial, much like on old stereo equipment. She turned it, and the image zoomed out to show a larger area, but it was still centered on the Tardis. She looked back down at the console. There were a number of switches close by, but she had no idea what they did. She flipped one of them, and the gas lights went out all around the console room. She quickly switched it back on, and sighed with relief when the lights came back on. She decided it was too dangerous to just randomly hit switches, and she turned the monitor back off. She stepped away from the console.
She felt incredibly out of her league. She couldn't help but think that she should know what to do. The last thing she had seen from the drone was a brilliant flash of light across the screen, then static, then nothing. Maybe Audrey was a bomb or something. Maybe the Doctor and Obelix and that guy were out there dying right now.
She couldn't just sit there, she had to do something. She turned and looked over at the doors to the Tardis, then she looked down at the party dress she was wearing. She pulled the hat off her head and flung it across the room. She ran for the wardrobe, pulling off her high heels as she went.
"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked.
Ensign Goel backed slowly away from the trigger leaf. He got up to his knees and looked around for his weapon. "I am unharmed," he said. There was a shoot weaving toward the weapon's strap. He dove for it, and picked it up, just as the shoot was about to curl around it. He stood up and threw the strap around his neck, nervously looking at all the moving vines around him.
"Hey," the Doctor said. "Look at me." Goel turned around, pointing the weapon at the Doctor. "Don't freak out on me here. You start blasting away just because you see movement, and these walls will close in on all sides, strangling us in seconds. Just calm down."
"Exactly what about that sentence was supposed to make me calm?" Goel asked, but he seemed more in control of himself.
"Okay, that giant bud seems to be inert for now. We should move on. I don't want to be here when it gets dark," the Doctor said. He turned and headed back toward the spent cannon.
Goel was fascinated by its transformation. What had looked like a giant bulb about to bloom, now looked more like the husk of an ancient redwood, hollowed out by fire, but otherwise intact. The roots which had so recently been alive with movement were visibly dying. "What was the purpose of that?" he asked.
"That was how the Krynoid spreads its seeds around the galaxy, so that's one question answered. I always assumed it was something either tectonic or volcanic. I expect that's also what happened to the fleet of beacons surrounding the planet. It made quick work of Pandora's drone, it would make a right mess of any satellite it ran into as well."
"Beacons? What beacons?" Goel asked.
The Doctor continued around the massive cannon. "Ages ago, when it was clear that this planet would be overrun by the Krynoid, the Fledgling Empires established two hundred warning beacons in high orbit around this planet to warn anyone away. If those beacons were still in place, I'm certain your captain would have steered you away from here. Death in space would have been preferable to what this planet has in store for you. But the Krynoid shot them down with it's seed pods. There's nothing left but shavings. I wouldn't be too surprised if that's what happened to your ship too. Your captain mentioned that you were hit, either by meteors or enemy fire, but I'm thinking now that a few of these cannons fired on your ship."
That was a sobering thought, and Goel tread even more carefully, even well after the cannon was out of sight, wondering whether the Krynoid had actually intended to bring them here.
Pandora began hastily rummaging through the wardrobe. She wasn't hopeful of finding another environment suit, but she was looking for anything that might be serviceable instead. She found a pair of fishing waders that might work for her lower half, and threw them onto the floor near the entrance. She continued on. Here was a mackintosh with a hood, and there was a fencing mask that went into her pile. Finally she found a pair of rubber gloves that looked like they could be used with hazardous chemicals.
She laid them all out on the floor and stepped back. She rolled her eyes and swore. There was realistically no way these would work. Too many openings. She ran back and started going through the hangers again.
To her great surprise, she found another environment suit. This one looked just like the Doctor's, but was smaller and smelled vaguely of perfume. "Damn it, Doctor!" she said to herself. She realized that the Doctor hadn't actually said he didn't have another environment suit, but he had heavily implied it.
Pandora angrily started putting the suit on.
"There's another one just here, a big one," the Doctor said, shining his torch light on a trigger leaf as he stepped over it.
"How much further is it?" Goel asked. The path had become narrower again, and the type of plant life had changed. There were little orange and black flowers that peeked out of the walls, feeling like eyes that watched them the whole way.
The Doctor turned back to look at Ensign Goel, then continued walking. "I lost my eye-in-the-sky back there, so I don't really know, but it feels like it ought to be fairly close. Just keep looking for a side passage, like we went through back at your ship."
"But you're in front. Won't you see it before I do?"
"Yes, but you seemed to need something to do."
The two continued on in silence for some time, Obelix patrolling the ground between them. Before long, the beam of the Doctor's sonic illuminated an opening on one side. This one was round, leaving barely enough room for one foot in front of the other, without touching the sides. There were also a fruit that resembled grapes hanging in clumps from the ceiling of this passage. A group of tendrils hung down like a curtain at the entrance.
"There's no way I'll be able to duck down past those…" Ensign Goel said.
"Agreed," the Doctor said. "We have to find some way to move them out of the way." He crouched down in front of the entrance, considering what options they had.
"But they'll attack anything that touches them, won't they?" Goel asked.
"That is the crux of the dilemma," the Doctor agreed.
"There's got to be a dead branch or something laying around here that the Krynoid would recognize as itself," Goel suggested.
The Doctor turned to him, impressed. "That's actually a really good idea. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a single dead leaf since we landed. Any part of the Krynoid that falls off seems to become food for the rest of it."
Goel continued looking around for a stick anyway, but soon had to give up.
"I think I have an idea," the Doctor said, standing up. "These tendrils are just the young ends of vines, right? And plants have an instinct to grow toward the brightest light source…" He pulled out his sonic and held it about a foot above the ends of the tendrils. It buzzed as he activated it, and the tip glowed a faint purple.
"That's not bright enough to do anything," Goel said.
"It's ultraviolet. It operates in a wavelength you can't see. But let's up the brightness," the Doctor said. He pulled back on the ring that his index finger was looped through, and the sonic's whirring noise increased in pitch. The tips of the tendrils rose up and started growing toward the sonic. The Doctor moved it further up, and closer to the mass of vegetation at the side of the passage. The tendrils continued to grow in that direction, until finally they came into contact with the vines growing there, and quickly wrapped around them, pulling themselves tight.
"Let's go. Now," he said, and put his sonic away. He ducked down as low as he could and hurried through to an open area on the other side. He turned and motioned to Ensign Goel. "Come through quickly."
Obelix ran through, and Goel ducked inside. He could hear the sound of something small drag across his helmet, and he knew he'd brushed up against something. He lifted his weapon and put a finger on the trigger.
"No!" the Doctor shouted. "Just run!" He stepped inside and grabbed the barrel of Goel's weapon. He began pulling, even as he saw the sudden growth, and the passage closing in around Goel.
Goel ran, leaves and branches tearing at him as the walls closed in, and the Doctor ran as well. Together they got Goel out of the passage, just as it closed up, but the clearing they were in was shrinking.
The Doctor pounded on the escape pod door. "Let us in!" he yelled.
Ensign Goel joined him at the door, pounding with both fists. "Captain! Open the door!"
The strangling loops of ivy and brambles grew closer.
Pandora stood at the Tardis doors, suited up, but with her helmet under one arm. She had been about to run out there blindly in order to help the Doctor, but all of a sudden she felt a tugging. She looked back over her shoulder at the reading table, and, sitting on it, her box. "Come on," she told herself. "The Doctor needs your help. And he said it would be safe in here. 'Not even a microbe could make it into the Tardis once the doors are locked,' he said." Seeming to have convinced herself, she pulled the doors open.
A thorny vine cut diagonally across the entrance to the Tardis, from upper-left to center-top. It was tightening its grip as she watched, and a second one was coming in from upper-right to latch onto the first.
Pandora took a step backward. "Of course, I don't have a key, so it won't be locked. And those aren't exactly microbes." She put the helmet on and twisted it until it clicked into place. She ran back for her box, then, gripping it tightly to her chest, she ran out the doors, ducking under the snaking vines. She reached back for the handles and pulled them shut, then turned and hurried on her way. She didn't want to accidentally swing the wooden chest into the walls of vegetation, so she continued to hold it close to her with an arm wrapped around it. She fumbled with her other hand for the torch she had collected before she left. Flipping it on, she started running down the path, avoiding any leaves or tendrils on the path.
Her frame was significantly smaller than that of the Doctor, so she made much better time because she didn't have to worry as much about the walls. "This isn't so bad," she thought. "Just make sure you don't trip."
She played over in her mind the path that the Doctor had taken. "Right at the first fork, then past the opening to Ensign What's-his-face's pod, then right, around Audry." She ended up running much further than she thought she would have to, without seeing any fork in the path. She was about to go back, thinking she must have somehow missed it, when she saw a split up ahead.
She took the right fork and continued on quickly. She made a mental note that there should be a passage to her right, even though she didn't intend to take it. Several minutes passed and she didn't see it. She couldn't have missed it though… Is it possible it closed up after they left? And come to think of it, had the path curved like this before? "Sure looked different from the air," she thought, and continued on.
As she continued, it felt like it was definitely curving too much. But when she saw the gigantic plant bulb looming in her path, she decided that it was all just a matter of perspective. There it was, and even bigger than it looked from above. She looked around for any signs of the Doctor, or Obelix or the ensign, and was relieved to see that there were none. "They must have made it past," she thought. She checked the ground ahead, then proceeded around to the right, being careful to avoid all the roots this thing was putting out. The paths rejoined on the other side, and she continued on as quickly as she dared to.
At this point, she had no idea what to expect. She was hoping that she'd catch up to them, but was surprised to instead be approaching another of the giant buds. She looked left, then right. She reminded herself that last time, the paths rejoined on the other end, so it really didn't matter which way she went. She edged around it to the left this time, just to even things out. Part way around, she found the path she expected, and continued on.
The walls ahead of her began to connect above the path. It grew dark and she was starting to get too scared to continue. She shone her torch around though, and it didn't seem any more menacing. There were still trigger leaves along the path, but nothing dangling from overhead like the Doctor had described. She decided that the Doctor must have gone this way, and so she should too. She continued on, just more slowly.
To her great relief, after a couple minutes in this darkness, she came out into the sunlight again. Once she was in the open, she turned and shone her light up at the wall of viney plants behind her. She got the distinct impression that something very large was under all that growth. She continued on down the path.
It wasn't until she heard a noise that she realized how eerily still it had been. No birds, no insects, nothing. But now, there was a series of loud crashing sounds as of tree trunks snapping one by one and falling to earth. She crouched down low, clinging to her box, and remembering what the Doctor said these paths might be for. She remembered the images from the Doctor's previous run-in with the Krynoid, and imagined that giant lumbering mass of tendrils and roots coming toward her along the path.
Another crash, this one nearby, and she sprang to her feet. It came from somewhere behind her! She ran, close to panic, with just enough presence of mind to jump over any leaves that covered the path. She had no idea how long she ran for, but ages after she stopped hearing any crashing noises.
She saw another passage, cut through the vegetation to the left of her and ducked into it. There were things resembling figs dangling from the ceiling, but she stayed well clear of them. She decided there was no way a large lumbering creature, plant or otherwise, would be following her here.
That's when she saw the white, ball-shaped escape pod at the other end of this passage. Its door lay open. She'd found them! She quickly made it through the passage and stood by the doorway. What was it the Doctor had said? She found the button that activated her external speaker and called out, "Rescue party!"
Captain Chadha, wearing her powder blue environment suit, minus the helmet, opened the door. The Doctor, Obelix and Ensign Goel practically fell inside. "Close it! Quick!" the Doctor yelled, taking off his helmet.
The captain hit the button, and the door hissed downward. Thorny vines snaked their way in, but the door sliced them easily in half. A seed pod fell off of one of the cut branches and rolled across the floor. The Doctor jumped on top of it, covering it in his helmet. The pod cracked open, and out from it uncoiled a frond, dripping with slime. It writhed around, slapping the inside surface of the Doctor's helmet several times, then became inert.
The Doctor sighed with relief and stood up. Ensign Goel removed his own helmet as well. "I don't know why you appear so relieved! The plants outside are going to crush us now! We've only stalled the inevitable!"
"I don't think so," the Doctor said. He listened for a while. There was the sound of scratching coming from all around, and rending metal coming from somewhere above them, but the sounds soon died down.
"You see?" the Doctor continued. "When the pods first landed on this planet, it would have poked and prodded any opening it could find. If the Krynoid were going to crush this vessel, they would have done it then. No, it wants you to come out, because it knows it can't get in. Not without killing you, and it doesn't want you dead. It wants to turn you. No, mark my words. Give it a few minutes and it will retreat, resetting all its traps."
"So, thank the gods it won't crush us, it has other ways to kill us," Ensign Goel said sarcastically.
"That's enough, ensign," Captain Chadha said. "Thank you for coming to our aid, Doctor. How is it you know so much about these plants?"
"How is it you don't? This is your sector of space, is it not? But never mind that now. Let's get you lot out of here, then we can discuss setting up a new group of warning beacons."
"Stop!" came a voice from inside the pod! "Do not enter!"
Pandora came to a halt. She looked around self consciously, afraid that the vines would start closing in at any moment. While the clearing was mostly empty, there were a number of vines, which twitched from time to time, reaching out for the pod.
A short man with an unbuttoned dark blue uniform and two days beard growth limped up to the doorway. "Thank the gods," he said. "The forcefield would have fried you, and even worse it would have used all of the batteries to do it." He pulled a connection loose and stepped aside. "Okay. You can come in now."
With another look behind her, Pandora stepped inside. She took off her helmet and savored the taste of the air. "It's nice to know I rank just behind the batteries. I'm Pandora, by the way."
"Mahamati," he said. He extended his hand to shake, then withdrew it. "Just give me a moment." He reattached the wires he'd just disconnected, and wrapped some tape around the exposed ends. "There. We're safe again." He wiped his palms on his uniform then stuck his hand out again. "Mahamati Sastry, Tech - First Class."
Pandora took his hand and shook it. As she did, she saw green splotches on his arm where the uniform normally covered. She turned his arm over to get a better look at it, and Mahamati took his hand back. He pulled his cuff down self consciously and limped back to his chair. He more fell into it than sat down.
"Are you okay?" Pandora asked.
Mahamati laughed painfully. "I'll be okay. The pod hit harder than it should have, and I got pretty banged up. The pod took quite a beating too. There are cracks in the hull there, and there," he said, pointing. "The interior filled with smoke, so I opened the door to vent it, and then I couldn't get it closed again. I rigged up a forcefield at the doorway, but the plants keep testing it. To add insult to injury, I must have cut myself on one of the plants while I was out there." He groaned and lifted his leg onto a stack of equipment. "Burns like my veins are full of Bhut jolokia. Must be poisonous."
"Is that when you started getting the green spots?" Pandora asked. She was of half a mind to put the helmet back on, but she didn't want to appear rude.
He looked away from her and changed the subject. "Could I get some water, please? I'm very thirsty." He gestured toward one of the cabinets.
"Sure," Pandora said. She walked to the cabinet and found that it was filled with pouches marked 'Water'. She brought one of them over to Mahamati.
He grasped the pouch in both hands and tried to tear the top where indicated. Pandora saw his hands shaking too badly to get it done, and he finally put one corner between his teeth and pulled it off. He drank greedily. "More. Please," he said, laying back in his seat as if with great effort.
"Do you have any kind of external cameras on this pod?" the Doctor asked.
"We do, or at least did. One underneath the craft, and one on top. The former is buried, and the latter is covered," Captain Chadha told him.
"We'll just have to chance it then. Hopefully the plants have moved back by now. We cannot risk being here past nightfall," the Doctor said.
"Wait. I need to tell Prasad and Mahamati that we are coming for them." The captain got into her seat and activated the screen. "Captain Chadha to the crew of the Nirmala Joshi, please respond."
Mahamati's stricken face appeared on the screen. "Tech First Class Sastry here, captain."
"Hang in there Sastry, help is on the way. Officer Veena, please respond." She clicked off her audio broadcast and waited. "Still no response from Prasad," she said, looking up at Goel. She clicked back on. "I can only assume that you hear me and cannot respond. Sastry, Veena, get your environment suits on now. The rescue party is here, and we will be on our way to retrieve you immediately."
The Doctor leaned in to get into the picture. "Hello, Tech Sastry. I'm the Doctor. I can't help noticing you aren't looking too well. Have you, by any chance, had any contact with the plant life here?"
"Doctor?" came Pandora's voice over the screen. She leaned in from behind Sastry. "Oh, Doctor, it is so good to see you again!" she said with a bright smile.
The Doctor's face went white. "Oh, no, Pandora. What have you done?"
Pandora looked chagrinned. "I thought that flower thingy exploded. I was worried about you. I had to see if you were alright… if I could help."
"You weren't supposed to leave the Tardis!" the Doctor yelled. "You were supposed to go home if anything happened to me!" He began pacing, clutching his hair with both hands. He turned back to the screen, pointing. "You get your helmet back on, right now! You stay in that pod and do not move. I'm coming for you Pandora. You stay safe, because I am coming for you!"
He turned to the Captain. "Captain Chadha, have you had any communication from Officer Veena since you made planetfall?"
"Not communication, no," she said.
"I'm afraid the reason he's not talking is that he's gone. We should worry about the ones we can save, and go after Sastry and Pandora," the Doctor said.
"No, he's still alive," Chadha insisted.
"I'm sorry, but he's not."
"Of course he is. His communicator isn't working, but he's still alive, and I'll prove it." She tapped a few buttons, and the screen changed to a biometric feed. The three other pods showed up side by side. Goel's pod registered no life signs, but the other two did. "You see? If he were dead there would be no life signs."
"Why is there only one life sign showing up in Sastry's pod?" the Doctor asked, pointing. "Pandora's there as well."
"Because the pods are only expecting one. It's a binary result, either there is life, or there isn't. His has life in it, so does Veena's."
"Oh, it has life in it, but it's not human life. There's a Krynoid in that pod."
Captain Chadha stood up, her face livid. "Doctor, you are placing a priority on your friend's life over my crew member, and I will not have that. I am the captain of the Nirmala Joshi, and everything on board. I am responsible for the financial loss of my ship—"
"Don't tell me you're one of those, Captain Chadha! You put a dollar value on your investments, and you're worried about your financial losses at a time like this!"
"You didn't let me finish, Doctor!" she said, stabbing at his chest with her finger. "I am already responsible for the loss of my ship. It's gone. The only thing I have left to me is the well-being of my crew! I will not leave one of them behind based on your best guess! I will not tell you where to find this Pandora, until I have seen his body!"
The Doctor stopped short. "I'm sorry, Captain. I've misjudged you. We will go find Officer Veena, and I hope I'm wrong about him."
Pandora put her helmet back on and sat on top of her box, against the cupboards on one side of the pod. She wished she had something to distract her from the moaning sounds that Mahamati was making. He was getting worse. The green spots she had seen on his arm were now all over the back of his hands and were poking out of the collar of his uniform.
She had tried earlier to help him into his environment suit, but he begged her not to. "It's too hot. I'm burning up already. Please. I'll put it on when they come." Pandora had reluctantly agreed.
Now he seemed to have muscle spasms, and though he was doing his best to mask the pain, she could see that he was suffering. Finally she stood up. "Look, isn't there something I can get you for the pain? You must have a first aid kit."
Mahamati turned onto his side, but that didn't seem to be any better. "Yes," he groaned. "Top drawer. There." He pointed.
Pandora pulled open the drawer and found a large white box. She opened it to find alcohol swabs, bandages and a bottle of pills. She didn't recognize the medication, but since it was the only bottle in there, it must have been the pain pills. She tried to twist open the top, but she couldn't get a grip on it with the gloves of the environment suit. She decided just to give the bottle to Mahamati, but when she turned to face him, she knew there was no way he'd be able to open the bottle, the way he was shaking and convulsing.
She bit her lip and turned back to the counter. She set down the bottle, then took off her gloves and set them down next to the bottle. She pulled another pouch of water from the cabinet and tore off the seal. She opened the bottle and poured out three pills, then took the pills and the water over to Mahamati. "Can you sit up?" she asked.
He grunted the affirmative and struggled upright. He opened his mouth and Pandora dropped the pills in one at a time, then held the pouch of water up to his lips. He grabbed the pouch and drank thirstily.
She went back to the counter to put her gloves back on, but her attention was caught by a beam of sunlight on her skin. She started looking for the source of it. One of the cupboards had shifted in the crash, and she moved it to see if it was the source.
Several vines fell through a crack in the hull as soon as she moved the cupboard out of the way. One of them lashed out and whipped around her arm. She reacted quickly and pulled away from it, feeling thorns tear at her skin. She slammed the cupboard back into place and leaned her back against it, cradling her bleeding and burning arm in her other hand.