A/N: Heya. There's been a few days to a week break between this, during which the Doctor and Talia ave formed a strong friendship. Nothing really eventful happened, that's why I've skipped to this part XD. Enjoy.
Chapter 4: Talia the Lab Rat
"Where are we?" I asked as the TARDIS landed.
"The planet…Gromna." He replied; the pause was due to having to pull himself up from the floor because of the slightly rougher landing than usual. "The Gromnans are incredible scientists; they're responsible for some of the biggest medical discoveries in the universe. There's really only one time we wouldn't want to be here, and that's not when I've landed us."
I stared at him, knowing how shoddy his navigation skills were. "Are you sure? What's so bad about this time?"
"Yes, I'm sure. It was about, aw…a hundred year span. Humans colonised some of the Gromnans lands. There was peace for quite a while…then humans begun disappearing. It turned out, Gromnans had begun using them to experiment and test on. Kind of like how humans use animals. They went…a bit crazy." He trailed off.
"Doctor…" My voice became slightly more urgent.
"No, no, definitely not!" He insisted. "Come on! Five million years of the planet's history, I am not landing us in a small hundred year period! Allons-y!"
And before I could ask him to check the monitor, he walked out the door. Shrugging – after all, I already trusted him with my life – I followed.
We had landed in what appeared to be a cave tunnel.
"We're underground." I stated.
The Doctor nodded. "Yep. The Gromnans have to live underground. They're sort of like moles. Now, the TARDIS has identified a slight weakness in the universe somewhere on this planet. I don't know if it's enough to be a crack, but either way this should be interesting." He spotted something over my shoulder. "Oh! Look, here come a few of them now!"
I turned to see five strange creatures walking up to us. The Doctor was right; their faces were snout-like, a bit like the star-nosed mole. They were covered in silky brown fur, but walked on two feet. I couldn't see much of the fur because they were wearing some kind of uniform. Unlike moles, however, their eyes seemed fully developed. They were large and white, with small irises and pupils. The very sight of them sent shivers down my back, but my eyes were fixed on what was in their hands.
"Doctor, they've got guns." I whispered.
"I can see that, thank you." He hissed back. Then, raising his voice normally again, he called, "Hello! I'm the Doctor, and this is Talia. We're just tourists, looking around, if that's alright with you?"
The Gromnan closest to us looked towards the Doctor. "You are trespassers."
"No, no, no!" he cried. "No, we came here on a tour and we've just gotten separated from our group. I can even show you proof, see?"
He raised the psychic paper.
To my horror, the Gromnan remained sceptical. "There have not been any tours in our lands for many years. You are therefore trespassers. The blue box behind you is some sort of teleport mechanism the humans have devised. Seize them!"
One approached me and grabbed my shoulders, and another did the same with the Doctor. The other two each pulled out a machine and pointed it at us. A red light scanned me and the Doctor from head to toe, before the machine was replaced in a pocket.
The lead one who had been doing all the talking received a quick word from those two, before turning to me. "You have been identified as human. You will be used in the laboratories."
I felt the blood rush from my head at his words and half-glared, half looked despairingly towards the Doctor, who appeared horrified.
The leader turned to him. "You are not human. Your species is unknown. Therefore, you are not needed. Dispose of him."
"No!" I cried, as the Gromnan holding him pulled out a syringe of a strange, purple-coloured liquid. The expression on the Doctor's face told me he knew what it was…and that it was extremely dangerous.
"J-j-j-just wait!" The Doctor stammered. "I can help you! I'm a scientist! Didn't you hear me introduce myself as a Doctor?"
"We do not need help from anyone. Goodbye."
The cold tone of the leader was lost to my ears as the syringe was placed against his neck and pushed.
"I'm so sorry." He whispered to me, staring at me intensely. Then his eyes rolled back into his head, he went completely limp and the Gromnan allowed him to fall to the ground in a heap.
Tears sprung to my eyes and spilled over as the gravity of what had just happened sunk in. "Doctor! Doctor! No!" I screamed, pulling against the Gromnan holding onto me with all the strength I could muster. "No!"
The Gromnan clamped a furry hand over my mouth as I continued to struggle. I kept my eyes on the Doctor's still form, waiting for a glow or a spasm…something that would indicate regeneration. He couldn't just be…gone!
Yet there was nothing.
The next ten minutes flew completely over my head. What scared me most was that the Gromnans were no longer making sense; the TARDIS had stopped translating.
Before I knew it, I was strapped by my hands and feet to a machine. Then, electricity coursed through my body about five or six times. I had no idea why, nor did I really care. Each blast left me exhausted and I hung forwards, due to being suspended above the ground, and allowed the tears that still prickled my eyes to fall. Hopelessness and depression filled me to the brim. I was stuck on an alien planet, being experimented on. I couldn't fly the TARDIS, or even get back to it at this rate.
And the Doctor was dead.
Several tests and God knows what else later, though my body ached and my head was fuzzy and dazed, I did try to escape. That ended very badly…with me on the end of a rather crude leather cane. Afterwards, they threw me in a cell of some sort and locked the barred door, leaving me to recover enough for another round.
Roughly an hour or so passed before my head cleared from the strange drugs they'd been injecting me with and I managed to push the majority of the aches to the back of my mind. It was only then that I noticed the very obvious fact that the single guard standing in front of my cell…was a Sontaran.
Several questions flew through my head. First, why would a single Sontaran be working as a guard? Second, why would his be facing its back to me, when that was his weak point? And finally, why was I wondering about this? The situation was there in front of me, why don't I take advantage of it?
Though I knew that I had no way of getting off the planet, I would be safer in the TARDIS. Perhaps the Doctor had regenerated. Perhaps he had recovered.
Or perhaps he was still lying there…
I pushed that thought to a dark corner of my mind, before standing as quietly as I could. My eyes went first to the air vent on the Sontaran's neck, then to the key hanging on his belt. My luck was unbelievable. I crept closer. Then before I hesitated any further and he turned around, I punched the air vent. He went rigid, and then collapsed. I reached through and grabbed the key.
Then I unlocked the cell. Slowly, looking everywhere before taking each step, I made my way through the tunnels in the direction of the TARDIS. Several times I had to take a different route or find a place to hide to avoid Gromnans. As such, I got quite lost more than once. Eventually, I made it around the laboratory where I had been 'tested' and started walking towards the final corner.
I took a deep breath before walking around it. As well as every other possibility that went through my head, the Gromnans could have removed his body and the TARDIS by now.
He was still there, lying in the same position in front of the TARDIS.
"Oh, Doctor…" I murmured, my eyes prickling again. But then I heard approaching footsteps and pushed my emotions away.
I ran forward and fished through his pockets until I found the key, mildly annoyed that he had never given me one. Then I unlocked the TARDIS, pushed open the door and dragged him inside. It was one hell of a struggle. Tired as I was, I was still surprised at how heavy he was! I made sure that those were the only thoughts in my head, rather than his cold skin, lack of a double heartbeat and still half-open eyes.
Shutting the door behind us, I gently put him down and turned to the console. For a moment, all I could do was stare at it, breathing deeply.
"Well, she's helped me before." I muttered to myself. Refusing to look at the Doctor's body, I slowly approached the screen, silently asking for instructions or aid. If we could get back to Earth…
Oh, what was the use? The Doctor was dead! Nothing was right anymore!
I flopped onto the chair, head in my hands.
A sudden loud beeping and flashing made me look up again. It seemed as though every light was on, alerting me to…something. I looked at the screen and saw two words appearing over and over.
HE'S ALIVE. HE'S ALIVE. HE'S ALIVE.
I know. Cliffhanger again. Sorry. The TARDIS likes Talia ^_^ So, what do you all think? Good idea? Or a bit too serious so early on in the fanfiction? Let me know in the comments!