May 2018: re-edited since its original posting.
Chapter 5 - Save Them
Martha couldn't help her own scream as the car was jolted, again. She'd been kidnapped, had a dead cell phone, and was now being chased by monsters in the dark.
So much for a relaxing dinner on New Earth, she thought sarcastically.
"Go faster!" Cheen yelled, as another buffet shook the car.
"I'm at top speed!" yelled Milo back at her.
"No access above," the computer calmly reported.
"But this is an emergency!" Milo shouted into the transmitter.
"Thank you for your call. You have been placed on hold," the voice responded.
Okay, so they couldn't go up, and they couldn't dodge the whatever-it-was, down here, forever. One thing to do. "Turn everythin' off," Martha told Milo.
He shook his head. "You've got to be joking."
"No, listen," she urged. "It's all fog out there, so how can they see us? Maybe it's the engines, the sound, or the heat, or the light - I don't know! Turn everythin' off. They might not be able to find us."
"What if you're wrong?" Milo challenged.
"It can't be worse than this!" Martha shouted, at yet another scraping, jostling impact. "Just do it!"
He did it.
There was sudden silence. "They've stopped," Cheen half-whispered.
"Yeah, but they're still out there," observed Milo.
"How did you think of that?" Cheen asked, turning to Martha.
She almost laughed. "I saw it on a film," she answered. "They used to do it in submarines. Trouble is, I can't remember what they did next."
"There's always the Doctor," Martha said quietly, breaking the silence. "That friend of mine. He might think of something."
They'd been sitting in the car for what felt like ages, although Martha knew it could only have been about five or six minutes. The air was getting noticeably staler. They would have to start the engines again, soon.
"Martha, no one's coming," Milo told her.
"But he knows where we are," Martha countered. She'd gotten that much information to him before her battery had died. "And you don't know him; I've watched him saved the world."
"He looked kind of nice," Cheen observed.
Martha couldn't help but smile at her "nice". "He's a bit more than that," she said.
"Are you and him... ?" asked Cheen.
She laughed out loud at that, before she could remember to stay quiet. "Sorry," Martha said, regaining her composure. "But if you'd seen him and Rose - that's my other friend - if you'd seen them together for more than a couple of seconds, no way you'd've bothered askin'."
Cheen nodded her head, quiet for a while longer. Then, "I never even asked. Where's home?"
"It's a long way away," said Martha. Further than you could imagine, she thought.
She remembered the night of Leo's party, everyone storming off after her Dad, while Rose and the Doctor whisked her away.
"I didn't really think," she admitted. "I just followed the Doctor, and - they don't even know where I am. My Mum and Dad," she explained, the realization hitting her. "If I died here, they'd never know."
"So, um, who is he, then? This Doctor?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "Well, not really," Martha answered honestly. She thought about before they'd arrived, here, only just discovering his entire planet had been destroyed. "There's so much he never says."
"But that means that the only hope, right now, is... a complete stranger," said Cheen. "Well, that's no use!"
"It is, though," Martha insisted, "because you haven't seen the things he can do!" True, there was so much she didn't know about the Doctor, but she knew enough. "Honestly, just trust me, both of you. You've got your faith, you've got your songs and your hymns. And I've got the Doctor." And she meant it. Just like that, Martha realized there wasn't a doubt in her mind that her friends were doing everything they could to save her.
"Right," said Milo, starting the car's engine to get the air going, again.
"Systems back on line," reported the computer.
Milo and Cheen gave each other's hands a squeeze. "Good luck," said Milo.
"And you," said Martha.
As soon as she'd spoken, the car was jostled again, and Milo began to duck and dodge through the smog.
The Doctor picked himself up off the floor. "Oh! Rough teleport. Ow," he said, straightening. He turned at once to Novice Hame. "But you can go straight back down and teleport people out, starting with Martha," he demanded.
"I only had the power for one trip, just enough to bring you back with me," she told him.
"Then get some more!" he ordered. He looked around, hoping to find a power source. "Where are we?" he asked.
"High above, in the over-city," she told him.
"Good! 'Cause you can tell the Senate of New New York I'd like a word. They've got thousands of people trapped on the motorway! Millions!"
"But you're inside the Senate, right now," she said.
The Doctor looked up at her words, taking in the rows of benches arrayed on risers around them. They were littered with skeletons.
"May the goddess Santori bless them," Novice Hame breathed. "They died, Doctor. The city died," she told him.
"How long's it been like this?" he asked, subdued by the discovery.
"Twenty-four years," she answered.
The Doctor moved towards a nearby skeleton, lying on the ground, and knelt next to it. "All of them? Everyone? What happened?"
"A new chemical. A new mood," Novice Hame explained, joining him. "They called it 'Bliss'," she said, reaching out to remove the small, plastic label from the skeleton's neck. "Everyone tried it," she went on. "They couldn't stop. A virus mutated inside the compound and became airborne. Everything perished - even the virus, in the end. It killed the world in seven minutes flat. There was just enough time to close down the walkways and the flyovers, sealing off the under-city. Those people on the motorway aren't lost, Doctor. They were saved."
They both stood. "So the whole thing down there is running on automatic?" the Doctor asked.
"There's not enough power to get them out," said Novice Hame. "We did all we could to stop the system from choking."
"Who's 'we'? How did you survive?" He asked.
"He protected me," she replied. "And he has waited for you, these long years."
A low, grumbling voice called out, "Doctor."
He turned, immediately recognizing the Face of Boe. Rushing over to his tank, the Doctor knelt to speak to him. "The Face of Boe," he said, amazed.
"I knew you would come," the Face of Boe told him.
"Back in the old days," Novice Hame explained, "I was made his nurse, as penance for my sins."
The Doctor looked intently at the ancient creature. "Old friend, what happened to you?"
"Failing," he answered, weakly.
Novice Hame went on. "He protected me from the virus by shrouding me in his smoke. But with no one to maintain it, the City's power died. The under-city would have fallen into the sea."
"So he saved them," surmised the Doctor.
"The Face of Boe wired himself into the mainframe," she confirmed. "He's giving his life force just to keep things running."
"But there are planets out there," the Doctor argued. "You could have called for help."
Novice Hame shook her head. "The last act of the Senate was to declare New Earth unsafe. The automatic quarantine lasts for one hundred years."
"So the two of you stayed here - on your own - for all these years?" he asked, rhetorically.
"We had no choice," said Novice Hame.
The Doctor reached out, touching her shoulder. "Yes, you did," he said, all earlier mistrust and ire gone.
"Save them, Doctor," the Face of Boe begged. "Save them."
To be continued...