3RD POV:
"Life with the Doctor, Frost, and Angel was like this," Amy says with flashes of all the fun and action they have. "Real life was like this." She says.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
There are 59 messages on the telephone answerphone. Rory is putting clothes from a suitcase into the washing machine while Amy checks the fridge. "It's Lane's Opticians. Just reminding you your reading glasses are ready for collection. Bye!" The woman on the answering machine.
"Milk two months out of date. Yogurt." Amy groans and she smells it and looks inside and drops it to the floor. "Eek! Don't ask."
"We've run out of washing tablets," Rory says.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"We have two lives. Real life and Doctor and Frost life. Except real life doesn't get much of a look-in." Rory says.
"What do we do?" Amy asks him.
"Choose?" Rory asks and the sound of the TARDIS materializing in the distance stops them.
"Not today, though," Amy says.
"Nah, not today." Rory agrees.
"Every time we flew away with the Doctor, Frost, and Angel, we'd just become part of their life. But they never stood still long enough to become part of ours. Except once. The year of the slow invasion. The time the Doctor, Frost and Angel came to stay." Amy monologs. As Rory and Amy sleep, a black box appears downstairs and floats onto a shelf.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
Rory and Amy wake up to their doorbell going off. They look out of their bedroom window. "Dad, it's half past six in the morning." Rory groans.
"What are you doing lying around? Haven't you seen them?" Brian asks him and he holds out one of the boxes, and there are lots of them scattered around the street like three-inch square black hailstones.
"What are they?" Rory asks.
"Nobody knows. They're everywhere." Brian says.
"Well, where have they come from? Wait." Rory says as he sees a man in a tweed jacket sitting on top of a child's frame examining a box while a woman ( frost_in_power_three/set?id=219954625) in a leather jacket standing next to a girl ( cgi/set?id=219955209) with a red hat on.
"Doctor! Frost! Angel!" Amy shouts.
"Invasion of the very small cubes. That's new." The Doctor says and it shows the BBC News channel provides information.
"World leaders are appealing for calm." Matthew Amroliwala reports.
"After the global appearance of millions of small cubes. Despite official warnings, people have been taking the cubes from the streets into offices and homes." Joanna Gosling reports.
"What are they?" Matthew asks.
"Where do they come from?" Joanna asks.
"And why are they here?" Matthew asks.
"Well, they're certainly not random space debris. They're too perfectly formed for that. Are they extraterrestrial in origin? Well, you'll have to ask a better man than me." Professor Brian Cox says.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
Angel's POV:
"All absolutely identical. Not a single molecule's difference between them. No blemishes, imperfections, individualities." Dad informs.
"What if they're bombs? Billions of tiny bombs? Or transport capsules maybe, with a mini robot inside. Or deadly hard drives. Or alien eggs? Or messages needing decoding. Or they're all parts of a bigger whole. Jigsaw puzzles that need fitting together." Brian freaks out.
"Very thorough, Brian. Very, very thorough. Well done. Stay here. Watch these. Yell if anything happens." Mum tells him.
"Doctor, Frost, is this an alien invasion? Because that's what it feels like." Amy asks.
"There couldn't be life-forms in every cube, could there?" Rory asks.
"I don't know. And I really don't like not knowing." Dad says.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
We parked the TARDIS in the lounge. "Right, I need to use your kitchen as a lab. Cook up some cubes. See what happens." Dad tells them.
"Right, I'm due at work," Rory says.
"What? You've got a job?" I ask.
"Of course I've got a job. What do you think we do when we're not with you?" Rory asks.
"I imagined mostly kissing." Dad jokes.
"I write travel articles for magazines and Rory heals the sick," Amy tells us.
"My shift starts in an hour. You don't know where my scrubs are?" Rory asks.
"In the lounge, where you left them," Amy tells him.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"All the Ponds, with their house and their jobs and their everyday lives. The journalist and the nurse. Long way from Leadworth." Dad comments as he uses his sonic on something putting it together.
"We think it's been ten years. Not for you or Earth, but for us. Ten years older. Ten years of you, on and off." Amy says.
"Look at you now. All grown up." Mum smiles at her and the front door smashes open.
"Clear! Trap one, kitchen secured." A man shouts orders.
"Trap three, back garden secured." Another man shouts. There was a squad of men in uniform making there way around the Pond house and Rory is marched into the room by gunpoint.
"There are soldiers all over my house, and I'm in my pants." Rory comments.
"My whole life I've dreamed of saying that, and I miss it by being someone else." Amy jokes and a woman enters the room.
"All these muscles, and they still don't know how to knock. Sorry about the raucous entrance. Spike in Artron energy reading at this address. In the light of the last twenty-four hours, we had to check it out, and the dogs do love a run out. Hello. Kate Stewart, head of scientific research at UNIT. And with dress sense like that." She says and she holds out a scanner towards Mum, Dad and me. "You must be the Doctor, Frost and Angel. I hoped it would be you three."
"Tell me, since when did science run the military, Kate?" Mum asks.
"Since me. UNIT's been adapting. Well, I dragged them along, kicking and screaming, which made it sound like more fun than it actually was." Kate says.
"What do we know about these cubes?" Dad asks.
"Far less than we need to. We've been freighting them in from around the world for testing. So far, we've subjected them to temperatures of plus and minus two hundred Celsius, simulated a water depth of five miles, dropped one out of a helicopter at ten thousand feet and rolled our best tank over it. Always intact." Kate says.
"That's impressive. I don't want them to be impressive. I want them vulnerable with a nice Achilles heel." Mum says.
"We don't know how they got here, what they're made of, or why they're here," Kate tells us.
"And all around the world, people are picking them up and taking them home," I comment.
"Like iPads have dropped out of the sky. Taking them to work, taking pictures, making films, posting them on Flickr and YouTube. Within three hours, the cubes had a thousand separate Twitter accounts." Kate says.
"Twitter?" Dad asks both Mum and I look at him. We knew.
"I've recommended we treat this as a hostile incursion. Gather them all up and lock them in a secure facility. But that would take massive international agreement and cooperation." Kate says.
"We need evidence. The cubes arrived in plain sight, in vast quantities, as the sun rose. So, what does that tell us?" Mum asks.
"Maybe they wanted to be seen. Noticed." Amy says.
"Or more than that, they want to be observed. So we observe them. Stay with them round the clock. Watch the cubes, day and night. Record absolutely everything about them. Team cube, in it together." Dad says.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"Four days. Nothing! Nothing! Not a single change in any cube anywhere in the world. Four days, and I am still in your lounge!" Dad practically shouts.
"You were the one who wanted to observe them," Amy tells him.
"Yes, well, I thought they'd do something, didn't I? Not just sit there while everyone eats endless cereal!" Dad says.
"You said we had to be patient," Rory tells him.
"Yes, you! You, not me! I hate being patient. Patience is for wimps. I can't live like this. Don't make me. I need to be busy." Dad says.
"Fine! Be busy! We'll watch the cubes." Mum tells him as Dad creosotes the garden fence, plays a little football, mows the lawn and does something to their car.
"Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred. Amy!" Dad shouts as he kicks the football off the ground. He seems to have gotten bored again and started vacuums the house. "Four million nine hundred ninety-nine, five million." Then returns to the sofa with Mum lying on there, he hugged her from behind. "That's better. Nothing like a bit of activity to pass the time. How long was I gone?"
"Er, about an hour," Rory tells him.
"I can't do it. No." Dad says.
"Where are you going?" Amy asks.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"Brian, you're still here," Dad asks him.
"You told me to watch the cubes." Brian answers.
"Four days ago," Dad says.
"Ah! Doesn't time fly when you're alone with your thoughts?" Brian says.
"You can't just leave, Doctor," Rory says.
"Yes, of course, I can. Quick jaunt, restore sanity. Ooo, hey, come if you like." Dad says as Mum and I walk into the TARDIS.
"They can't just go off like that," Brian says.
"Can't they? Can't you? That's how it goes, isn't it?" Dad asks.
"I've got my job," Rory says.
"Oh yes, Rory. The universe is awaiting, but you have a little job too." Dad says.
"It's not little. It's important to me. Look, what you do isn't all there is." Rory argues.
"I never said it was," Mum says.
"All right. Fine. I'll be back soon. Monitor the cubes. Call me. I'll have the Tardis set to every Earth news feed" Dad says as we go off.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
3RD POV:
"I'm so pleased for you two. It's about time you made an honest woman of her." Amy tells her friend/
"Amy, about bridesmaids. You've missed quite a few things the last year or two." Laura says.
"I'm so totally there. Whatever you need." Amy promises her.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"Everyone here loves you. The nurses, the doctors. You're a life-saver, mate, literally." Ranjit praises.
"Ah, well, thanks." Rory blushes.
"But there are months when we don't see you. And we can't do without you. I want you to go full time." Ranjit says.
"Full time? Blimey. Er." Rory tries saying something.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"I said yes. I committed." Rory tells Amy.
"And I committed to being a bridesmaid. Months in advance. Like I know I'm going to be here." Amy tells him.
"So the Doctor's God knows where the cubes aren't doing anything at all. Did real life just get started?" Rory asks.
"I like it," Amy says.
"So do I." Rory agrees.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
Brian is keeping a video diary. "Brian's log, day sixty-seven."
"You, er, you can't call it that. Brian's log?" Rory asks.
"Brian's log, day sixty-seven. Cube was quiet all night, 0nce again. Cube was quiet all day, as per previously. No movement. No change in measurements. End of entry." Brian reports.
"You stay up and watch it all the time," Rory says.
"I film it while I'm asleep. When I wake up, I watch the footage on fast forward. I e-mail the result to UNIT. My middle name is diligence." Brian says.
"Wow. I can't wait to see day sixty-eight." Rory jokes.
"Don't mock my log. I'm doing what the Doctor asked." Brian tells him.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
The decorations are up and Noddy Holder is singing Merry Christmas Everybody. "That's it. Er, Mister Ryan, please." Rory says and a young man with his foot stuck in a toilet bowl. "Again?" Rory wheels him away. A young girl waiting her eyes flare blue, then so does the cube she is holding.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
An old man is lying on a bed, reading a paperback. A man enters wearing a mask and draws the curtain. "I'm fine. I've been done." Arnold tells him.
"What seems to be the matter?" The Orderly asks.
"I'm just waiting for a prescription," Arnold tells him.
"Where does it hurt?" The Orderly asks and a second identical man enters.
"I said I'm fine. Will you tell your colleague here that I. Stop!" Arnold shouts and pulls down the orderlies masks. They have snouts with grills rather than noses and mouths. The box by his bed glows red as he screams.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
In an office, the boxes are used to put post-it notes on, create targets for putting practice, and as paperweights.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
In the streets, there are piles of them by waste bins.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
The Williams are hosting a barbeque. Amy makes a telephone call. "Hey! Frost, it's me. Hello. So, the UN classified the cubes as provisionally safe, whatever that means, and Banksy and Damien Hirst put out statements saying the cubes are nothing to do with them. And the cubes, well, they're just here. Still. What's it been, nine months? People are just taking them for granted. Maybe we'll never know why they came. But anyway. I got to Laura's wedding. It was great. She's here tonight, being as it's our wedding anniversary. We thought you might have dropped by. I left you messages." Amy says into the phone and a man carries a large bouquet of flowers up behind Amy.
"I know! Happy anniversary! Come with me. And bring your husband." The Doctor says and Amy turns around to see the Doctor, Frost, and Angel all standing there.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"26th of June, 1890. The recently opened Savoy Hotel. Dinner, bed, and breakfast for two. Bonjour, bonjour. Merci, Auguste. You'll be back before the party's over. They won't even notice you went. No complications, I promise." The Doctor tells them and Rory kisses the Doctor continental style.
"Ooo!" Angel and Frost tease the Doctor.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
The couple are still dressed for 1890, and it is snowing. "Bit of a shock." The Doctor says.
"Zygon ship under the Savoy, half the staff impostors. Still, it's all fixed now, eh?" Frost says.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"Gentlemen, open the doors!" Henry demands.
"I thought we were going home?" Amy asks.
"You can't miss a good wedding. Under the bed. Under the bed!" Angel shouts as they all hide under the big four-poster bed.
"Shush!" The Doctor says.
"It wasn't my fault." Amy defends herself.
"It was totally your fault!" Rory tells her.
"Somebody was talking, and I just said yes," Amy argues.
"To wedding vows! You just married Henry VIII on our anniversary." Rory argues back as the monarch enters and The Doctor sneezes.
"Sorry." He apologizes.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
They were at a party and Brian goes up to the Doctor, Frost, and Angel. "How long were they away?" Brian asks.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Brian." The Doctor lies.
"Because they're wearing totally different clothes from earlier." Brian points out.
"Seven weeks. We got side-tracked. A lot." Frost tells him.
"What happened to the other people who travel with you?" Brian asks.
"Some left ys. Some got left behind. And some, not many but, some died. Not them. Not them, Brian. Never them." Angel tells him.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"Can we stay here, with you and Rory, for a bit. Keep an eye on the cubes. However long that takes." The Doctor asks.
"I thought it would drive you mad," Amy asks.
"No, no, no. I mean, I'll be better at it this time. I miss you." The Doctor says as he hugs Frost.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"Brian's log, day three hundred and sixty-one. Eight fifty pm. No movement. And I am cream crackered." Brian reports and falls asleep.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"I sent you out to sell as many cubes as you could in twenty-four hours. And look at you, you've made a right hash of it, haven't you. Well, Craig, you're fired." Lord Sugar says on the TV as the Doctor, Frost, Angel, Amy and Rory sit eating fish fingers and custard.
"If I had a restaurant, this'd be all I'd serve." The Doctor says.
"Yeah, right. You running a restaurant." Amy laughs.
"I've run restaurants. Who do you think invented the Yorkshire pudding?" The Doctor asks.
"You didn't," Rory says.
"Pudding, yet savory. Sound familiar?" Frost asks.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
Something jolts Brian awake. It's the box moving. He dozes off again and reawakens when it starts to spin around. "Do it again," Brian tells it.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"Good job, mister. Civilizations saved, surfaces wiped. What more could any woman ask for?" Amy asks.
"Ha, ha." Rory laughs.
"I mean it," Amy says.
"Where's the Doctor and Frost?" Rory asks looking at Angel who was reading a book in the garden sitting on the grass.
"On the Wii again. I'm going for a bath." Amy tells him and the cube on the work surface opens its lid and closes it again.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"Oh, yes! Second set, Doctor! Ha ha! Oh, if Fred Perry could see me now, eh? He'd probably ask for his shorts back." The Doctor says looking at Frost.
"I'm sure he would sweetie." Frost tells him.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
Amy sees the cube in the bathroom glowing. She puts her hand on it and gets stabbed by the square of 25 short needles. "Ow!" Amy jolts back and the needles disappear back inside the cube then a heartbeat line appears through the middle of it.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
Down in the kitchen, Rory spots the cube opening and closing. He tries to see what is inside it.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"Third set decider, come on, then." The Doctor says and a cube flies around him and blocks his view. "Out of the way, dear, I'm trying to. Whatever you are, this planet, these people, are precious to me. And I will defend them to my last breath. Is that all you can do, hover? I had a metal dog could do that." The Doctor says gaining Frost's attention and she rushes onto her feet looking at the cube as it points a tube at the Doctor.
"What's that?" Frost asks as the cube begins to fire, they dodge out of the way and a vase shatters. They escape after two more shots are fired, then the cube settles in front of the computer console and images begin to flicker across the screen very quickly.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
The Doctor looks in round the door. "Ooo, you really have woken up." The Doctor says.
"Doctor? Hi. Er, the cube in there, it just opened." Rory says.
"The cube upstairs just spiked me and took my pulse!" Amy shouts.
"Ha! Really? Mine fired laser bolts and now it's surfing the net." Frost say as Brian and Angel enter.
"You're never going to believe this. My cube just moved. It rattled." Brian tells them and Rory answers his mobile phone.
"Hello?" He answers.
"Rory, mate, I'm desperate for help. People are saying they've been attacked by the cubes. It's going to be a long night." Ranjit tells him.
"Okay, I'm on my way." Rory tells him, he puts his phone away. "I have to get to work. They need all the help they can get."
"Let me come, help out." Brian tells him.
"Take your dad to work night, brilliant! Okay, are you going to be all right here?" Rory says.
"Keep away from the cubes." Amy tells him.
"Right." Rory says as he and Brian leave and the Doctor looks at his psychic paper.
"What are you grinning about?" Amy asks.
"We're wanted at the Tower of London." Frost tells her.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
They arrive at the tower by car, they get out to see Kate. "Every cube across the whole world activated at the same moment." She says.
"Now we're in business. You sent me a message to my psychic paper. You know what? I'm almost impressed." The Doctor says.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"Secret base beneath the Tower. Hope we're not here because we know too much." Amy jokes.
"Yes, I've got officers trained in beheading. Also ravens of death." Kate says deadpanned.
"I like her." Amy smiles as they enter an area with lots of individual armoured cubicles, each containing a cube.
"There are fifty being monitored, and more coming in all the time. I don't know how useful it is. Every cube is behaving individually. There's no meaningful pattern. Some respond to proximity. Some create mood swings." Kate tells them and Amy touches one cubicle and the cube produces a flames. In another, a woman weeps.
"Er, what's this one?" Amy asks.
"Try the door." Kate tells her and Amy opens the door and the Birdie Song starts playing. "On a loop!" She shouts and Amy shuts the door again quickly. "This is the latest."
"Oh dear. Systems breach at the Pentagon, China, every African nation, the Middle East." Frost says.
"I've got government's screaming for explanations and no idea what to tell them. I'm lost, Doctor, Frost. We all are." Kate tells them.
"Don't despair, Kate. Your dad never did. Kate Stewart, heading up UNIT, changing the way they work. How could you not be? Why did you drop Lethbridge?" Frost asks.
"I didn't want any favours. Though he guided me, even to the end. Science leads, he always told me. Said he'd learned that from an old friend." Kate says,
"We don't let him down. We don't let this planet down." Frost says.
"They've stopped. The cubes, across the world, they just shut down." A researcher tells them.
"Active for forty seven minutes, and then they just die?" Kate says wondering what this could mean.
"Not dead. Dormant, maybe." The Doctor says.
"Then why shut down?" Amy asks.
"I don't know. I don't know. I need to think. I need some air. Who has an underground base? Terrible ventilation." The Doctor says.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"The moment they arrived, I should have made sure they were collected and burned. That is what I should have done." The Doctor says.
"How? Nobody would have listened." Amy tells him.
"You're thinking of stopping, aren't you? You and Rory." Frost asks her.
"No. I mean, we haven't made a decision." Amy answers.
"But you're considering it." Angel says looking concerned.
"Maybe. I don't know. We don't know. Well, our lives have changed so much. But there was a time, there were years, when I couldn't live without you. When just the whole everyday thing would drive me crazy. But since you dropped us back here, since you gave us this house, you know, we've built a life. I don't know if I can have both." Amy tells them.
"Why?" The Doctor asks.
"Because they pull at each other. Because they pull at me, and because the travelling is starting to feel like running away." Amy says.
"That's not what it is." The Doctor tells her.
"Oh, come on. Look at you, four days in a lounge and you go crazy." Amy says.
"I'm not running away. But this is one corner of one country in one continent on one planet that's a corner of a galaxy that's a corner of a universe that is forever growing and shrinking and creating and destroying and never remaining the same for a single millisecond. And there is so much, so much to see, Amy. Because it goes so fast. I'm not running away from things, I am running to them before they flare and fade forever. And it's all right. Our lives won't run the same. They can't. One day, soon maybe, you'll stop. I've known for a while." The Doctor tells her.
"Then why do you keep coming back for us?" Amy asks.
"Because you were the first. The first face this face saw. And you're seared onto my hearts, Amelia Pond. You always will be. I'm running to you, and Rory, before you fade from me." The Doctor tells her, Frost and Angel pull him into a hug.
"Don't be nice to me. I don't want you to be nice to me." Amy tells him.
"Yeah, you do, Pond, and you always get what you want. They got what they wanted." Frost says.
"What? Who did?" Amy asks.
"The cubes. That's why they stopped. Come on." Frost says.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"Kate? Before they shut down, they scanned everything, from your medical limits to your military response patterns. They made a complete assessment of Planet Earth and its inhabitants. That's what the surge of activity was." Frost tells her and the power cuts off. "Problem with the power?"
"Not possible. We've got backups." Kate says.
"Hmm." The Doctor hums.
"Doctor? Look." Amy asks.
"What?" The Doctor asks.
"Why do they all say seven?" Kate asks and every cube is showing the same number.
"Seven. Seven, what's important about seven? Seven wonders of the world, seven streams of the River Ota, seven sides of a cube." Frost lists off.
"A cube has six sides." Amy argues.
"Not if you count the inside." Frost says and it goes down to six.
"It has to be a countdown." The Doctor says.
"Not in minutes." Kate says.
"Why would it be minutes? Kate, we have to get humanity away from those cubes. God knows what they'll do if they hit zero. Get the information out any way you can. News channels, websites, radio, text messages. People have to know that the cubes are dangerous." Frost says.
"Okay, but why is this starting now? I mean, the cubes arrived months ago. Why wait this long?" Amy asks.
"Because they're clever. Allow people enough time to collect them, take them into their homes, their lives. Humans, the great early adopters. And then, wham! Profile every inch of Earth's existence." The Doctor says.
"Discover how best to attack us." Kate says.
"Get that information out any way you can. Go!" The Doctor says.
"Right." Kate says and the computers are still working.
"Every cube was activated. There must be signals, energy fluctuations on a colossal scale, there must be some trace. There cannot be. We need to think of all the variables, all the possibilities, okay? Go, go, go, go, go!" Frost shouts.
"This is a national security alert. The Government advises that members of the public dispose of all cubes. If there are cubes inside your house, remove them immediately." Matthew says and the number drops from five to four.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"We've got them out of the building. Away from here, as far as you can, and get back here before it hits zero. Dad, could you go and get me a box of tape for dressings? It's just the cupboard round the corner." Rory tells him.
"Yes, boss." Brian says.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
Brian is nearly knocked over by the twin orderlies pushing a trolley down the hallway. "Sorry. Er, excuse me? I'm looking for the supplies cupboard. I said, I'm looking for the supplies cupboard." Brian says and the orderlies turn and advance towards Brian and the countdown goes down to THREE.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"Have you seen my dad?" Rory asks.
"No, sorry." The nurse answers.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
Rory sees the orderlies at the far end, with Brian on the trolley. "Hey. Dad! Hey! Hey!" Rory shouts and the orderlies run into a goods lift with Do Not Use tape all over it. Rory presses the button, the doors open again but it is empty. He goes in and tries the floor buttons. The doors close. Rory touches the wall opposite and it wibbles. He walks through and onto a spaceship in geosyncronous orbit above an Earth surrounded by clouds.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"Doctor, please. You don't have to do this." Amy says.
"She's right. You don't have to be in there. We can do this remotely." Kate tells him.
"Remotely isn't my style. See you after." The Doctor says and he enters a cubicle as the number on the cube changes to two. Then it goes to one rather quickly, and finally zero. Then it switches off and opens its lid. "Geronimo."
"What's happening?" Kate asks.
"Well? What's in there?" Amy asks.
"There is nothing in here." The Doctor says.
"Er, well, that's good. It's not, it's not bombs, it's not aliens." Angel says.
"Why? Why is there nothing inside? Why? It doesn't make any sense." The Doctor says and comes out of the cubicle and goes to the bespectacled Researcher.
"Glasses, is it the same? Is it the same all around the world?" Frost asks.
"They're empty. We're safe, right?" Kate asks.
"Ah, no, no, no, we are very far from safe. All along, every action has been deliberate. Why draw attention to the cubes if they don't contain anything?" The Doctor asks.
"Doctor, look." Amy says and on the monitors, people are clutching at their chests in pain as they walk near cubes on the ground.
"They're CCTV feeds from across the world. They're showing the same." A researcher announces.
"People are dying." Kate says.
"What? They can't be dying. How? How are they dying?" Frost asks.
"I want information on how people are being affected." Kate demands.
"The cubes brought people close together. They opened and then argh!" The Doctors says as he clutches his chest, Angel and Frost rush to his side.
"Dad, what's the matter?" Angel asks.
"Argh. Ah, I don't know!" The Doctor shouts.
"Hospitals are logging a global surge in heart failures. Cardiac arrests." A researcher announces.
"That's it. Oh! Oh! Oh!" The Doctor shouts.
"Only one heart. Other one's not working." Frost says.
"Okay, I'm going to get you to the hospital!" Angel tells him.
"Oh, no, no, no, no. Just a short circuit. Turn around, turn around. Tell me, show me. Ten seconds after the cubes opened, show me the patterns in their electrical currents." The Doctor says and a heartbeat sounds. "See?"
"No!" Kate shouts.
"Yes, the power cut. They zapped the power and then argh! They're signal boxes. People leaning in, wham. Pure electrical surge out of the cube targeted at the nearest human heart. The heart, an organ powered by electrical currents, short-circuited. How to destroy a human? Go for the heart." Frost says.
"Ow. Crikey Moses." The Doctor says.
"Doctor, the scan you set running. The transmitter locations. It's found them." Kate says.
"And look at them all, pulsing bold as brass. Seven of them, all across the world. Ow! Seven stations, seven minutes. Why is that important? Argh! Ow, ow. How do you people manage? One heart, it is pitiful. A wormhole, bridging two dimensions. Seven of them hitched onto this planet, but where's the closest one? Glasses, zoom in." The Doctor groans.
"It's the hospital where Rory works." Amy points out.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
Rory spots his father amongst the people lying on slabs here. "Dad. Dad!" Rory shouts and the alien orderlies are there. "Just get away from him." The orderlies draw hypodermics and advance.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"How many deaths have been recorded?" Frost asks.
"We don't know. We think it could be a third of the population." Kate answers.
"Kate, I have to find the wormhole, but the attacks could still happen. Tell the world. Tell them how to deal with this. The world needs your leadership right now." Frost tells her.
"I'll do my best." Kate says.
"Of course you will. Good luck, Kate." Frost says.
"Argh! Argh!" The Doctor groans in pain.
"Okay, how long are you going to last with only one heart?" Amy asks.
"Not much longer. We need to locate the wormhole portal." Frost tells her and uses her sonic screwdriver.
"Hello. Hello!" The Doctor shouts and he finds the little girl. "You are giving off some very strange signals." And the girl's face glows blue.
"Oh, my God." Amy says.
"Outlier droid, monitoring everything. If I shut her down, I can." Frost says and walk towards her but stops as the Doctor staggers again.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"Ah. It's alright, it's alright. I can't, Frost. I can't do it. I need both hearts!" The Doctor shouts as she grabs a portable defibrillator.
"All right. Desperate measures." Frost tells him.
"What? No. No, no, no. That won't work. I'm a Time Lord." The Doctor argues.
"All right, clear!" Frost shouts.
"Whoo! Ooo. Ooo! Welcome back, lefty! Whoa-ho! Two hearts! Woo! Back in the game. Ah. Never do that to me again." The Doctor cheers and a lift bell dings.
"Ah, portal to another dimension in a goods lift?" Amy asks.
"The energy signals converge here. Does seem a bit cramped, though." The Doctor says and they find the wibbly wall.
"Through the looking glass, Amelia?" Frost asks.
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"Where are we?" Amy asks.
"We're in orbit. One dimension to the left." Frost answers.
"Rory!" Amy shouts as he's laid out on a slab next to Brian. The Doctor produces a small vial.
"Ah. Soborian smelling salts. Outlawed in seven galaxies." The Doctor says as Amy waves it under Rory's nose and he sits up quickly. Someone shoots at them. "Whoa! Whoa! What kind of a welcome do you call that? Get them out of here. You too. Now!" He shouts as they dodge and run.
"What are you going to do?" Amy asks.
"Absolutely no idea. Get him to the portal." Angel tells her and Brian wakes as soon as they move his trolley as the alien shoot at them again.
"Whoa!" The Doctor screams.
"So many of them crawling the planet, seeping into every corner." Shakri says and Amy, Rory and Brian leave. The alien vanishes then reappears in front of a bank of monitors.
"It's not possible. I thought the Shakri were a myth. A myth to keep the young of Gallifrey in their place. Frost did you know about this?" The Doctor asks and looks at Frost, she just shrugges.
"The Shakri exist in all of time, and none. We travel alone and together. The Seven." Shakri tells them..
"The Shakri craft, connected to Earth, through seven portals and seven minutes. Ah, but why?" Frost asks.
"Serving the word of the Tally." Shakri says.
"Why the cubes? Why Earth?" The Doctor asks.
"Not Earth, humanity. The Shakri will halt the human plague before the spread." Shakri tells them.
"Erase humanity before it colonises space. We thought the cubes were an invasion. The start of war." Frost says.
"The human contagion only must be eliminated." Shakri tells them and Rory and Amy return.
"Who are you calling a contagion?" Amy asks.
"Oi! Didn't I tell you two to go?" Angel asks them.
"You should have learned by now." Rory says.
"Yeah, and what is this Tally anyway?" Amy asks.
"Some people call it Judgment Day, or the Reckoning." Frost tells them.
"Don't you know?" Amy asks.
"I've never wanted to find out." Frost answers.
"Before the Closure, there is the Tally. The Shakri serves the Tally." Shakri tells them.
"The pest controllers of the universe, that's how the tales went, isn't it?" Frost asks.
"Wow. That's some seriously weird bedtime story." Amy comments.
"You can talk. Wolf in your grandmother's nightdress? So, here you are, depositing slug pellets all over the Earth, made attractive so humans will collect them, hoping to find something beautiful inside. Because that's what they are. Not pests or plague, creatures of hope, forever building and reaching. Making mistakes, of course, every life form does. But, but they learn. And they strive for greater, and they achieve it. You want a tally. Put their achievements against their failings through the whole of time, I will back humanity against the Shakri every time." Frost tells Shakri.
"The Tally must be met. The second wave will be released." Shakri tells her.
"What does that mean?" Amy asks.
"It's going to release more cubes to kill more people." The Doctor answers.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"Tell the Secretary General it's not just hospitals and equipment, it's people. Our best hope now is each other." Kate orders.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
"The human plague breeding and fighting. And when cornered, their rage to destroy. You're too late, Doctor, Frost. The Tally shall be met." Shakri says and vanishes.
"He's gone?" Amy asks.
"He was never really here. Just the ship's automated interface, like a talking propaganda poster. I can stop the second wave. I can disconnect all the Shakri craft from their portals, leave them drifting in the darkspace. Ah, but all those people who were near the cubes, so many of them will have died." Frost says.
"Frost restarted one of your hearts." Amy points out.
"You'd need mass defibrillation." Rory comments.
"Of course. Ah, beautiful. But, Ponds, Ponds. We are going to go one better than that. The Shakri used the cubes to turn people's hearts off. Bingo! We're going to use them to turn them back on again." The Doctor praises.
"Will that work?" Amy asks.
"Well, creatures of hope. Has to." The Doctor says as he finishes sonicking the alien computer. "Thirty seconds. Don't let me down, cubes, you're working for me now. Oh dear. All these cubes. There's going to be a terrible wave of energy ricocheting around here any second. Run." He shouts.
"I'm going to miss this." Rory comments and the spaceship goes KaBOOM! The Doctor, Frost, Angel, Amy and Rory land in the corridor. All around the world, people start to get up off the ground.
"Emergency hospitals and field units are working at full capacity around the world, as millions of survivors of cardiac arrests are nursed back to health after an unprecedented night across the globe." Matthew reports.
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"You, er, you really are as remarkable as Dad said." Kate smiles in thanks and kisses the Doctor on the cheek and hugs both Angel and Frost. "Thank you."
"My! A kiss from a Lethbridge Stewart. That is new. Oh dear, I'm late for dinner." The Doctor says and they salute Kate before getting into the UNIT Range Rover.
=ANGEL'S JOURNAL=
They all sit down for a family meal, Chinese with chopsticks. "Dear me. I'd better get going. Things to do, worlds to save, swings to swing on. Look, I know, you both have lives here. Beautiful, messy lives. That is what makes you so fabulously human. You don't want to give them up. I understand." The Doctor says.
"Actually, it's you they can't give up, Doctor. And I don't think they should. Go with him. Go save every world you can find. Who else has that chance? Life will still be here." Brian tells him.
"You could come, Brian." The Doctor tells him.
"Somebody's got to water the plants. Just bring them back safe." Brian tells him.
"So that was the year of the slow invasion, when the Earth got cubed, and the Doctor came to stay. It was also when we realised something the Shakri never understood. What cubed actually means. The power of three." Amy says.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Heart, Comment, Follow