Chapter Two:
The Doctor glared at Jack with one eyebrow raised and cleared his throat before addressing the Plevnians, "I really am sorry if we've inconvenienced you in any way, but our spacecraft was pulled here by something frightfully powerful. Do you know what that might be?"
"There is only our transmat," the middle one replied.
The Doctor and Jack exchanged puzzled glances. There was no possible way that a transmat could have pulled them in from so far away.
"Ah, well, perhaps one of the locals might have an idea," the Doctor proposed. "Would you mind directing us to the nearest town?"
The Plevnian on to the right pointed to a valley in the distance. "That is the village where the scrap merchants live. Just beyond is our city."
"Their city?" Jack whispered to the Doctor.
"The scrap merchants aren't native to the planet. They have a separate village from the Plevnians," the Doctor explained. He turned to the Plevnians with a smile and said "Thank you for your help. We'll just go talk to the scrap merchants and be on our way."
The Doctor started towards the village when one of the Plevnians nudged his arm with their gun. "You make sure that friend of yours doesn't give any trouble, you hear? I don't like the look of him."
"Oh, he'll be fine," The Doctor shrugged. "He just likes to put on a show."
The scrap merchant's village was like a giant junkyard. Bits and bobs from various spaceships and machines were strewn across what the Doctor assumed were the villager's yards. The merchant's houses appeared to be made of an adobe-like clay at first glance, but on closer inspection proved to be pulverized iron packed together with an alien glue.
"Don't you find it a bit strange that everything here is made of metal?" Jack commented. "You'd think they'd have saved the iron for their trade."
"That's the thing- look around Jack- they're overrun with metal. They have to think of every use they can for it or they'll be buried alive beneath it all. They take the useful bits and sell or trade them, but everything else is recycled."
"But with a gravitational pull this large, surely they'd have more than just metal falling into the atmosphere."
The Doctor stooped over a scrap pile a sifted through it with his left hand. After scanning the area around them a distinct frown formed on his face. "You know, that is odd. It's almost as if there's no gravitational pull at all and the planet is just a giant magnet." He picked up an object coated in dirt and wiped it on his coat only to reveal more metal. "We should return to the Tardis and scan the surrounding moons. I bet they're all composed of metallic elements."
"Shouldn't we talk to the villagers first?" Jack asked. He had sat down in a sort of lawn chair with steel legs. His feet were propped up on a tin box and he seemed a bit too comfortable. "They might already know about the moons, and they're closer."
"Hmm. Good point," the Doctor nodded. "I have a few more questions in mind as well."
After some prodding the Doctor convinced Jack to get up from his cozy spot and accompany him to a nearby house. Jack's stubbornness struck the Doctor as unusual, especially since it had been his idea to interview the villagers.
They knocked on the door of the nearest house and smiled wide when a middle aged woman answered the door. She had long brown hair and looked surprisingly human but that was, of course, impossible.
"Hello!" the Doctor greeted her. "My friend and I are researching the economies of scrap-trading communities. Do you mind if we ask you some questions?" He held up his psychic paper and the woman shook her head.
"Come on in," she said. "My husband has more knowledge on these matters, but he won't be home for another hour or so. Would you like some tea?"
Jack and the Doctor exchanged glances. Tea was a custom on Plevny as well as Earth? If these were human colonists, something had gone wibbly with time.
"That would be lovely," the Doctor replied with a grin. He turned to Jack and whispered, "Something is terribly wrong here."
"I like it here," Jack whispered back. "It's relaxing."
The Doctor squinted at Jack, scrutinizing every detail of his face and trying to determine if he was serious or not. When he found his answer he sighed and placed a hand on Jack's shoulder. "Would you accompany me outside for a moment?" he asked. He turned to the woman and apologized. "I'm sorry, my friend and I just need a moment alone to talk."
The woman excused them with a nod and the Doctor half-dragged Jack out of the room. After closing the door behind them and making sure they were away from any windows, the Doctor cleared his throat- and threw a punch. He hit Jack hard on the left side of the face and sent him staggering back.
"Wha-what was that for?" Jack whined. He rubbed his face with one hand and tried to step away from the Doctor.
"Jack, listen to me," The Doctor placed his hands on Jack's shoulders. "There is something on this planet that affects people's minds."
"Affects... minds? Don't be silly Doctor this is a perfectly safe place," Jack insisted. He was quite dizzy now, more from the new concept than the punch. He swayed in place and the Doctor tried to steady him.
"And how do you know that?" the Doctor said slowly. "What makes you think that this planet, of all the places in the universe, is safe?"
"I-I, uh... I have no idea. Is something controlling me?"
"No, not controlling you, more... containing you. You still think and behave relatively normal; it just prevents you from thinking anything negative about Plevny."
Jack laughed and looked up at the debri floating in the atmosphere. "But everyone in the universe thinks poorly of Plevny."
The Doctor laughed with him. "Exactly! That's why I knew something was up when you said you liked it here."
Jack shuddered. "Did I really say that?"
The Doctor nodded. "Yup. You seem in your right mind now, though. Let's go back inside and see if we can figure out what's going on."