Alright, it's time to see if they will succeed or not! And will they find Talia? Wait and see!
Chapter 23: Allons-y!
Half an hour later, the Doctor was urgently ordering us around to retrieve the various wires he was plugging both into his satellite and the laptop. Everything was underway; Mickey had gotten through and between the Doctor and River, the sonic satellite was finished. I had inserted the recorded CD into the laptop, which was now being connected to the satellite.
"Right." The Doctor said once everything was finished. He looked far more like his old self now, with a new suit on and his aura now radiating confidence, than he had when we had first come inside. "It's time. Allons-y!"
Grinning, the rest of us opened the huge door while the Doctor, with the satellite, and Mickey, with the laptop, strode down the tunnel. We followed, murmuring excitedly to each other.
"It's going to work!" I cried gleefully, amazed and quite proud of the idea that I had and also of the Doctor and Mickey who had, really, done all the hard work.
"I know!" Rose said, just as excited.
We burst out into the dim sunlight of Bad Wolf Bay…only to be confronted with around fifty Xenomorphs.
"The human Doctor has been located!" One of them screeched.
"All of his companions are present!" Another agreed and, for the first time I recognised an emotion in the Xenomorphs; a strange sort of sick joy.
"Yes, that's true!" The Doctor called out, knowing that he had to keep them talking while he fiddled quickly with his satellite to get it powered up. "B-but we have a plan! You, are all Xenomorphs! You see? Nothing more, nothing less. And what are Xenomorphs most afraid of?"
He looked around at the assembled aliens, while we all stood behind him nervously, as though he was a teacher waiting for an answer.
"You ready, boss?" Mickey asked quietly.
"Sure are." The Doctor whispered, before answering his own question loudly to the crowd. "Daleks!"
Then he thrust the satellite towards the sky and Mickey pressed play.
For a terrifying second, nothing happened, then, in our minds and as clear as day, a series of voices screamed, "EXTERMINATE! XENOMORPHS DETECTED, XENOMORPHS HAVE INVADED THE PLANET KNOWN AS EARTH! EXTERMINATE ALL XENOMORPHS! EXTERMINATE ALL XENOMORPHS!"
The recording went on in that manner for about a minute before, known only to the rest of us, it repeated.
I had expected surprise from the Xenomorphs, I had expected fear. What I hadn't expected was for them all to, quite literally, scream and scatter!
The Xenomorphs tore from the Bay like ants running from a human's boot. They slipped and stumbled up the dunes and away, while the rest of us cheered loudly and hugged each other in joy.
"Let's get back to London." River announced, programming her vortex manipulator. "We know they've got a base there. Let's scare them out of their nest!"
Of course, she was loving this. We all placed a hand on hers – the Doctor and Mickey with some difficulty due to what both were holding – and teleported. The next thing anyone knew, we were standing right in the middle of London near the Eye. The psychic barrier around the city must have broken, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten in.
Xenomorphs and humans were running everywhere. I grabbed a hold of one human and hissed, "It's not real! It's us! We're getting them off our planet!"
The person's terrified expression became one of shock, then amazement. She instantly started grabbing others and telling them the news, too. Soon all of the people were forming a crowd around us, as the recorded messages continued to be blasted all over the Earth.
The cheering was almost as loud as the Daleks' voices, but I don't think any of us cared. I felt almost giddy with relief that we had done it! It was all over…But then something happened.
I was looking up at the sky, so I think I was the first one to spot it. Three Xenomorph ships circling the city, armed and ready. Then, they drew everyone else's attention as a deep Xenomorph voice boomed, "There are no Daleks! No Dalek life signs detected! It is a ruse!"
I looked from the Doctor to Sarah-Jane to Rose and saw my expression of horror mimicked in them. Mickey stopped the transmission.
"What do we do?" he asked the Doctor.
He ran a hand through his hair, eyes wild, and I could almost see his mind working fifty times quicker than the rest of ours. Then something clicked and he ran, dropping the satellite. I struggled to keep up with him as we followed, as his longer legs took him twice the distance in one stride than it took me.
To my surprise, he was racing towards St Paul's.
"Doctor!" I called. "We'll never get there quick enough by running!"
He slowed but did not stop, now looking from side to side. Then he did something else that surprised me; he stole a car using the sonic part from the satellite that I hadn't even realised he picked up.
"Well don't stare at me like that, this is a bit of a life-or-death situation!" He snapped once sitting in the driver's seat. "Get in!"
We did, me rather dubiously. Could the Doctor even drive a modern car? I knew about Bessie, his yellow old-fashioned car when he was in his third incarnation…but a modern car?
Turns out my worries were needless; the Doctor drove us quickly to the cathedral, avoiding people and Xenomorph gunfire alike. He didn't hesitate to run over any Xenomorphs who didn't get out of his way, which was often a bumpy experience.
We pulled up and the Doctor did something to Martha, Mickey and River's guns – which they had brought with them just in case – saying that they would now kill a Xenomorph in one shot. I was impressed and wondered why the old Doctor, with his sonic screwdriver, hadn't done that before.
"These are new guns. We didn't have them before." River told me, as though reading my mind.
After that, basically, we stormed the place. Mickey grabbed Rose and headed off towards the weapon storage, returning five minutes later with extra guns for me, Sarah-Jane and Rose herself. The Doctor, of course, wouldn't have one, despite Mickey's protests.
"You're letting us use them!" he snapped.
"Exactly, so I don't need to use one." The Doctor replied.
"Both of you, shut up!" I hissed, prompting shocked looks. But I had heard, or rather felt something. The TARDIS was calling. A few seconds passed, then the Doctor and the others felt it as well. "That's what you came here for, isn't it?" (note: this is because they have all travelled in the TARDIS and so all experienced it in their minds)
He nodded, before tearing off at a run towards the source of the call. Whether it was our good luck or whether it was because most of them had abandoned the base after the first scare, but we hardly came across any Xenomorphs. The ones we did were quickly taken care of.
As expected, the door to the room where the TARDIS was being kept was locked. Before the Doctor could sonic it, Mickey stepped forward and blasted it open. Inside, the TARDIS instantly started shining its roof light, as though letting us know that it was happy to see us.
The Doctor raced inside and started pressing buttons and pulling levers like nobody's business.
"Where are we going?" Rose asked as we followed.
"Nowhere!" he replied, then started speaking really fast, rapid-fire-like. "Now that Mickey's tapped into the psychic network – could you give us the laptop, please? – I can use the TARDIS – Sarah-Jane, would you hold that down – to create holograms of Daleks while we play the recording."
"The TARDIS can do that?" I gasped, quite impressed. "But, they were scanning for life signs, holograms don't have life signs?"
"No." he agreed. "But my holograms do!"
As he pulled one final lever and got Mickey to plug the laptop into the TARDIS and press play, I suddenly remembered the time the Doctor had gotten 'revenge' for me getting him tipsy one night; holograms that felt so real they actually shot lasers.
A wild smile grew across my face as hope was renewed.
We returned outside again, once the Doctor assured us that it would work on its own. The Doctor and Sarah-Jane stayed in the cathedral to rescue Jack and any other prisoners, while we watched the very entertaining show.
Daleks were everywhere, shooting skywards at the Xenomorph ships. The recording played, as well, but everything was so well timed that it seemed real.
The Xenomorphs believed it.
"Dalek life signs detected!" Ships began screaming. "All Xenomorphs evacuate planet! All Xenomorphs evacuate planet!"
We cheered, and slowly the rest of the people realised what was going on and cheered, too. For the first time since I'd been here, the sky cleared of clouds and the sun shone its light on the city as the Xenomorph ships exited the atmosphere and vanished. People started turning on car radios.
"Yes, it's astonishing! They're disappearing!"
"Reports are coming in of the same phenomenon occurring all over Europe and America!"
"Xenomorphs are running!"
The various stations reported the global news, only increasing the volume of the cheering. Then something happened to make them even louder; a bunch of prisoners streamed out from the university and started re-joining their families. For a moment, I was stunned; what if they had baby Xenomorphs in them? But then I realised that the Doctor wouldn't have let people out if that was the case.
Among them were Martha's parents and Captain Jack Harkness.
Martha ran to embrace her mother and father, while Jack waved to us all and acted as if he hadn't just been a prison. I couldn't get the grin off my face.
The Doctor and Sarah-Jane came out and over to us.
"We'll keep that going to half an hour or so, just to make sure they're all gone." The Doctor told us, grinning himself.
Then… "Rose! Doctor! Martha!"
Wow! That was really strange! Everyone looked at me, then realised I hadn't said anything. We started looking around frantically.
I spotted her first; an eighteen year old girl with long blonde hair and brown eyes was running out of the crowd of freed prisoners towards us. It was like looking in a mirror. A mirror that showed me with a lot of weight lost and paler skin.
The Talia of this universe had been captured! That's why no-one had heard of her!