Here's the second part. And I would like to thank for the review and to BethanyK, Shichibi10, Wholock Whatgirl, angelloverkk, Cstephens91, and stateofadaydream723 for following me and Avloth, DolciFool and hp-ss4eva for favouriting me. Also to everyone who has read my story.
You're support is great.
Amber took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she felt the beat's sick wash over her and pull her along with it out of its mouth, or at least she thought it was the mouth, she didn't really know what it was all she knew was that she was on the floor. "There's nothing broken, no concussion and yes, you are covered in sick." The Doctor said.
"I really didn't need to know that." She spluttered while getting up. "Where are we?" She asked.
"Overspill pipe." He answered still looking at whatever it was he was looking at.
"God it stinks." The smell was filling her nostrils and it was everywhere. There wasn't anywhere she could turn.
"Oh that isn't the pipes." The Doctor said happily. I swear I am this close to slapping him again. Amber thought to herself.
"Is there any way we can get out?" She asked him.
"One door, one door switch; we forget everything we know. Look familiar?" He asked and sure enough, when Amber looked at it she recognised it from the voting booth. "There's a creature living at the heart of this ship, what's it doing there?" He asked the smiling things as he walked up to them.
They turned their head and their faces looked angry. "No that's not going to work on me so come on, a big old beast below the decks and everyone that protests get's shoved down it's throat. Is that how it works?" The heads turned again, this time it was the face that they had seen in the booth. "Stop it, I'm not leaving and I'm not forgetting and what are you fellers gonna do about it? Stick out your tongues?" This time the door slid open and the things got up and started walking to them.
"Oh you just had to ask didn't you?" Amber asked annoyed at him. They backed away and then the Doctor saw Liz 10 come forward and started to shoot them.
"Look who it is. You look a lot better without your mask on." The Woman smiled and walked towards Amber and held out her hand. "You must be Amber, lovely name. Liz, Liz 10." Amber shook her hand and then Liz wiped it on her cloak. "Love the hair, shame about the sick." She walked towards the door. "You know Mandy yeh? She's very brave." She put her arm around Mandy and smiled.
"How did you find us?" The Doctor asked.
"Stuck my gizmo on you." She said chucking the tracking devise at the Doctor. "Been listening in. nice moves on the hurl escape. So what's the big feller doing here?" She asked.
"You're over sixteen, you've voted. Whatever this is you've chosen to forget about it."
"No," she shook her head. "Never forgot, never voted. Not technically a British subject." She said almost lazily.
"Then who and what are you? And how do you know me?" He asked her.
"You're a bit hard to miss love. A mysterious strangers, hired alien intelligence, one with the hair of an idiot, the other with the hair the colour of snow." Hah, finally someone said it. Amber giggled to herself, then she hearlised what Liz had said.
She had been talking about her as well, unless someone else had her coloured haid - which wasn't common. That meant that Amber would be with the Doctor long enough to be known.
Amber smiled in realisation of what it meant. "I've been brought up on the stories, my whole family was."
"Your family?" She was about to answer when she saw the smilers start to repair themselves. "They're repairing. It doesn't take them long, let's move." She led them down corridors until they managed to get out of there and into a deserted area. "The Doctor, an old drinking buddy of Henry the 12th, tea and scones with Liz 2, bit on the fence about you wasn't she? Knighted and exiled on the same day and so much for the Virgin Queen you bad, bad boy."
"Liz 10?" Realization dawned on him who she was.
"Liz 10 yeh, Elizabeth the 10th and DOWN!" They all ducked and she started shooting at the things aiming precisely and they fell with a thud. "I'm the bloody queen mate. Basically: I rule."
They made their way towards Liz's chambers, following her through narrow tunnels and corridors until they got to a sort of chamber. Inside Amber saw the scorpion tail things and gasped, surprised that they were there. Liz asked if the Doctor knew what they were.
"Doctor I saw one of these things up top. It was coming through a hole, like it had burst through, almost like a – a root."
"Exactly like a root, it's all one creature. All of it, the same one we were inside and it's reaching out and bursting through the floor." The Doctor said looking up and closer at it.
"What? Like an infestation?" The Doctor did the smallest of nods but Liz saw it.
"Someone's helping it, feeding it. Feeding my subjects to it!" She stormed off, angry at what was happening. "Come on we have to keep moving!" They all followed her but the Doctor who stood there and looked at it. Amber noticed him standing there and walked back.
"Doctor?" She called for him lightly.
"Oh Winter, we should never have come here." He said before he walked off. Amber started to follow but she remembered the video. Don't let him investigate! Stop him, do whatever you have to but just please, please get the Doctor of this ship! The warning had told her and Amber had the most horrible feeling that the choice the Doctor would have to make was coming closer.
Amber walked into the room amazed at what it looked like. "So this is how royalty lives it up." She grinned. "But Uhh…where's the bathroom here?" She asked.
"Through that door to the left." Liz said, sitting down on her bed. Amber gave her thumbs up sign and a smile and walked into the bathroom. There were two things that Amber noticed as she walked into it; firstly, it was huge! And secondly: there was a shower there. Oh thank god there's a shower here, I can finally wash my hair. She thought. She walked over to it and turned it on and sighed as she felt the dirt and – disgustingly – the sick wash out of her hair.
She scrubbed it a few times before turning the shower off and wringing out her hair before tying up at the top of her head so it could dry a little. She walked back into the room and sighed contentedly before turning to the mirror and tying her hair into a bum. She heard Liz say that she was fifty and turned to look at her.
"Your fifty now? No way, you look too young." She walked closer to the Queen and sat on her bed, Mandy followed and sat next to her.
"Yeh, they slowed my body clock down. Keeps me looking like the stamps." She said grinning.
"And you always wear this in public?" The Doctor asked looking at the mask with a lot of interest.
"Under cover's not easy when your me; the autographs, the press." She explained.
"Yes but its porcelain, stays in by itself 'cause it's perfectly structured to your face." He brought the mask up to her face as if to prove it.
"Yeh so what?" Liz asked shrugging slightly.
"Oh Liz, so everything." The door opened and in came four men dressed in black. Those are the men that took me too the voting booth. Amber thought to herself, her anger and annoyance towards them growing by the minuet.
"How dare you come in here?" Liz asked outraged at their audacity.
"Maam you've expressed interest to the interior workings of Starship U.K, you'll come with us now." He said looking at her.
"Why would I do that?" She asked looking him up and down. His neck turned and the frightening and ugly face of the smilers showed itself. "What the hell is that?" Amber asked, frowning.
"He's half human and half smiler." The Doctor explained to her.
"You must come with us maam." It said again with the same voice.
"On whose authority?" Liz asked furiously.
"The highest authority." It said, it had no emotion in its voice, Amber noticed and that freaked her out enormously.
"I am the highest authority." She hissed. The smiler only looked at her with that face and answered back in the same monotone voice.
"Yes maam but you must come with us now." It seemed to Amber that they weren't really giving them an option and Liz seemed to understand that too. Either that or she wants to know the truth once and for all. Amber thought. They followed the smilers and all the way Amber wondered where they were going but she didn't say anything. No one spoke a word as they travelled through the streets of the Starship. They entered a room and as soon as they did Amber saw the scorpion tail things again.
"Doctor where are we?" She asked looking at them. "The lowest point of Starship U.K; the dungeon." He twirled around with his hands out showing them.
"Maam?" A voice sounded out. Everyone turned to look at who the voice had come from. Worthorn, so this is where you hid yourself." Liz said. "I think you have some explaining to do." She said the anger in her voice very clear to everyone in the room.
The Doctor came up to them. "There are children down here, what's all that about?" He asked ruffling the head of one of the boys.
"Protestors and citizens of low value are fed to the beast. For some reason it wont eat the children. You're the first adults it's spared, your very lucky." He said as if it was a privilege. Yeh great, were oh so lucky Amber thought and it seemed the Doctor agreed with her too.
"Yeh, look at us; the torture chamber of the Tower of London. Lucky, lucky, lucky, except it's not a torture chamber is it? Well except it is, except it isn't. It really depends on your angle." He made his way over to Liz and stood by her. Everybody gathered around it as well.
"What's that?" She asked looking at the brain looking thing.
"Like I said it depends on the angle. It's either the exposed pain centre of big feller's brain being tortured relentlessly or the accelerator; Starship U.K's go faster button."
"I don't understand." Liz said.
"Don't you? Think about it, a spaceship that could never fly. No vibrations on deck. This creature, this poor trapped, terrified creature, it's not infesting you; it's not invading you it's what you have instead of an engine. And this place down here is where you hurt it where you torture it day after day just to keep it moving!"
Amber looked around at Worthorn to see that he looked guilty. "Tell you what…" he moved over to the grid where he lifted it and one of the tentacles came up, "it's usually above the human frequency. This is what the rest of you don't want to hear."
He sonic-ed it and the room was filled with a painful screech. That's what it sounds like, there were tears forming in Amber's eyes and she had to wipe them away. "Stop it, stop it!" Liz commanded, she couldn't bear to hear the pain that this creature was going through. No, I will stop this! She thought.
"Who did this?" She asked looking around the room. "We act on instruction from the highest authority." Worthorn said.
"I am the highest authority!" She said once again. "The creature will be released. Now!" No one moved. "I said NOW! Is anyone listening to me?"
"Liz." The Doctor walked over to her with the mask in his hand. "Your mask."
"What about my mask?" He chucked it to her.
"Look at it. It's old. At least 200 tears old I'd say."
"Yeh, it's and antique so?"
"An antique, made by craftsmen over 200 years ago and perfectly sculpted to your face. They slowed your body clock down alright but your not fifty, your…your nearing 300." Her face fell and she frowned.
"No, I'm fifty, I've been on the throne for ten years." She said. She looked at Worthorn but he wouldn't look at her
"Yes ten years, the same ten years over and over again. Always bringing you back to here." He pulled her over to a chair and a screen and under it were the two buttons 'forget' and 'abdicate' and Liz looked at them before turning to Worthorn.
"What've you done?" She whispered.
"Only what you have ordered. We work for you maam the winders, the smilers, all of us." He flicked a switch and the screen came on and Liz was on it.
"If you are watching this…if I am watching this, it means I have found my way to the tower of London." The Liz on the screen sighed before continuing, "The creature you are looking at is a Star Whale. Once there were millions of them, they lived in the depths of space and according to legends, they were said to guide weary travellers through the stars. This one – as far as we are aware – is the last of its kind." Amber looked at the Doctor when this was said and she saw sadness and sympathy. But why and what happened to the Timelords? She wondered.
"The earth was burning. Our sun had turned on us and every other nation had fled to the skies. Our children screamed as everything around us burned. And then it came, like a miracle. We trapped it; we built our ship around it and then rode on its back to safety.
"If you wish our voyage to continue then you must press the 'forget' button. Be again the heart of this nation. Untainted. If not then press the 'Abdicate' button. Your reign will end, the Star Whale will be released and our ship will disintegrate. I hope I keep the strength to make the right decision." Horror washed through Amber as she looked at the screen.
"I voted for this," she whispered to no one but herself, and then she turned to the Doctor. "Why would I do that?" She asked him but deep down she knew the answer: I wanted to forget. I didn't want to remember all the pain that everyone had suffered, the pain that the Doctor would go through everyday…but it didn't do any good.
"Because you knew that if we stayed here then I would be left with an impossible decision to make: humanity or the alien. You took it upon yourself to keep me away from that. That was wrong! You don't ever decide what I need to know!"
"I did it to protect you! Doesn't that count or anything?" She asked him blinking back tears.
"You did it that's what counts." He told her.
"I'm sorry." She whispered to him.
"Oh I don't care. When were done here your going home." He told her and stormed off. For a moment she couldn't believe what he had said and then when it registered she felt anger welling up inside of her.
"Why? Because I made a mistake? It was one mistake and all to protect you!" Her voice was raising now.
"Yeh I know. You're only human." He told her and she felt the anger grow again.
"What are you doing?" Liz asked him quietly.
"The worse thing I'll ever do." He told her. "I'm passing a massive electrical charge through its brain. It'll leave it a complete vegetable. The ship will still fly but the whale won't feel it."
"But that will be like killing it." Amber said mortified.
The Doctor stopped what he was doing. "Three options: one I let the Star Whale carry on in unendurable agony for hundreds of years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship or three I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as possible and then I find a new name because I wont be the Doctor anymore." He went back to what he was doing and Liz looked at him.
"There must be something we can do…some other way?"
"Nobody talk to me nobody HUMAN HAS ANYTHING TO SAY TO ME TODAY!" Amber almost jumped at the Doctor shouting but she didn't say anything, she moved away, towards where the children were working and then something she saw made her wonder.
There in front of her was Billy working and then the tentacle of the Star Whale came down seemingly about to strike and just as Amber was about to shout to warn him, it tapped him on the shoulder. Billy turned around and stroked it as if it was the most normal thing in the world and then something clicked. "Think Amber. Use your eyes, look at the whole picture." She whispered to herself and then she remembered.
'Our children screamed,' flashes of the day drove through her head. The children playing, Mandy crying.
'And then it came like a miracle.'
'It won't eat the children.' Worthorn's voice flew through her head.
'The children screamed and then it came…it's the last of its kind.' Mandy sitting and looking so sad about something.
'Just me now.' the Doctor comforting Mandy.
'The last of it's kind.' The Whale banging on the cage.
'So is this how it works Doctor? You never interfere in other planets affairs-' Her asking the Doctor. 'The children screamed-' Her and the Doctor together twelve years ago. 'Unless there are children crying.'
'The last of its kind.' The Doctor comforting her.
'Yes.' The Doctor fixing the crack in her wall.
'It won't eat the children.' Liz talking on the screen.
'And then it came, like a miracle, the last of the Star Whales.' The Doctor promising he would come back.
Amber gasped and ran to the Doctor. "Stop! Stop what you're doing Doctor!" She screamed and she faintly heard the zapping slow down once again. "Sorry your majesty but I really need this hand." She made Liz press down on the abdicate button and then the whole ship started shaking.
"Amber what have you done!" The Doctor shouted as he clung onto something to hold onto. For a moment, Amber could hear the people's screams and she dreaded that she had done the wrong thing but then after a few seconds it stopped.
"What have I done? Nothing at all." She said smiling.
"We've increased speed!" Worthorn exclaimed happily.
"Well torturing the pilot couldn't have helped any but now that you've stopped…I'm not surprised!" She told them rolling her eyes. She grinned happily and looked around the room but her gaze fell on the Doctor and her grin fell.
"It's still here. I – I don't understand." Liz breathed.
"The Star Whale didn't come as a miracle all those years ago; it came because it wanted to help. You didn't have to trap it or torture it that was all just you thinking you had to. It came because it couldn't bear to hear your children's cries." She stopped and looked at the Doctor and said the bit she meant for him. "What if your were really old and really kind, and the very last of your kind, you couldn't just step back and let children cry."
0o0
The Doctor stood staring at the stars as they passed them from the observing deck. Amber saw him and moved closer and put a smile on her face before walking faster to him.
"From her majesty the queen. She says there will be no more secrets aboard the Starship U.K." She handed him the mask but he didn't take it. Sighing she let her and drop and the mask fell.
"Winter you could have killed everyone on this ship." He said not looking at her. Amber gulped slightly but didn't falter.
"I know, but you could have killed a Star Whale." He looked at her then.
"And you saved it, I know I know." Amber looked back at the stars again, not say anything for a couple of seconds.
"Amazing though isn't it? All that pain and suffering and loneliness it only made it more kind."
"But you couldn't have known how it would react."
"No you couldn't, but I could. I've seen it before you see? Very old, very kind and the very last of his kind. Sound like anyone you know?" He smiled at her and she smiled back but it was a sad smile.
The Doctor noticed a small tear from at the corner of her eye. "Hey what's wrong?" He asked her. She shook her head and stepped back wiping the tear before it could fall.
"We should probably go." She whispered but he still heard it and it confused him.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm a human remember? I make mistakes." Was all she said and guilt welled up inside of him as he remembered the words he had told her not that long ago.
"Yeh, your right. You make mistakes, your human but do you know what?" She shook her head. "That's what makes you brilliant and hey I make mistakes too." He smiled at her and this time when she smiled back it was a full happy smile because she understood what he was saying.
Amber walked forward and pulled him into a full on hug wrapping her arms tightly around him. "Hey, gotcha."
"Gotcha," she giggled back at him. They let go and started walking back to the TARDIS.
"Come along Swann," he told her walking quickly.
"But won't they wonder where we've gone?" She asked him trying to keep up in her slippers.
"For the rest of their lives. Oh the stories they'll tell and the songs they'll sing." He told her walking up to the TARDIS and opening it. "But forget about that, we've got places to go, people to see." He started fiddling with the controls when Amber heard the phone ring.
"Hang on, is that a phone ringing?" She wondered.
"Yes. Well it is a phone box." He told her seeing her shocked expression. "Answer that will you?" He asked her. Amber picked it up.
"Hello?"
"I need the Doctor right away it's an emergency." A voice tells her. She looked at the phone and then at the Doctor.
"It's for you. They say it's an emergency."
"Who is it?" He asks her. That is a weird smile he has, she thought.
"Who is it?" She asks. "It's the prime minister."
"Who?" She asked shocked. He repeated what he said and she looked at the Doctor. "You get around don't you? First the queen now the prime minister." He smiled at her almost lazily.
"Which prime minister?" he asked. She repeated the question into the phone.
"The British one."
"Which British one?" He asked her and she frowned.
"Oh my God I cant take it!" She cried. "You talk to him." She pushed the phone into his awaiting hand and walked around the console.
He took the phone from her and then started chatting to him like they were poker buddies. "Don't worry about a thing prime minister. Were on our way." He said smiling and then put down the phone. "Next stop…World War II." He flipped a switch and then the shaking started and Amber held on tight for dear life laughing out loud in sheer wonder.
In bed above or deep asleep, while greater loves lies further deep
This dream must end this world must know, we all depend on the Beast below.