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The wind rushed through Marion's hair and she was thankful that she'd put on a sweater. It wasn't freezing per say, but it was quite cool. Marion crossed her arms. The air outside smelt nice and clean and a little bit dusty. Marion sneezed.
"Look!" Jo exclaimed. Something had caught her eye. She bent down and picked up a large flower. It was a bit like a sunflower, only with a stem that was much, much stiffer and petals of many different sizes and colors.
"It's got different kinds of petals," She observed.
"It's quite pretty," Marion agreed, "It'd probably be super irresponsible to bring it with us back to earth though. Could be an invasive species...and the Doctor's left us," Marion finished, seeing the Doctor already walking up.
"Well then, let's go," Jo replied. And the two of them jobbed to keep up.
They met up with the Doctor at the base of a cliff. He was walking and following the trail left behind by some kind of machine with tracks.
"What are they?"
"They're tracks made by some sort of machine. This planet must be inhabited after all," the Doctor observed.
"There are people native to this place," Marion confirmed, "And you know, folks from off-world coming here as well,"
The Doctor pointed up a nearby hill.
"I think we'll get a better view from up there," The Doctor and Marion walked forward, but Jo remained where she stood, holding her flower. "Come on, what are you waiting for?" The Doctor asked.
"I feel a bit scared," Jo said, nervousness leaking into her tone.
"That's perfectly natural," Marion admitted. Marion's somewhat muted reaction to everything that had happened was mostly from her thinking that she was dreaming and, by the time she realized that it wasn't, she also discovered that she was unkillable. "But trust me. We'll be fine. Don't you want a cool story to tell your uncle later?"
"Come on, Jo," the Doctor coaxed, "Nothing to worry about,". He reached out a hand and Jo grabbed ahold of it.
They couldn't see much other than more rocks at the top of the hill. All they could really see other than tall rocky cliffs where the large metal domes resting on top of the cliffs.
"Those things up there," Jo said pointing.
"They look like some sort of prefabricated dwellings," the Doctor pointed out. Jo looked confused so Marion offered some clarification.
"They're ready-made houses. There aren't any trees around here, so they bring the stuff to make them here. It's like a large mobile home,"
"Oh look," the Doctor said looking at a mountain up to the left, "there's another one. A small one up there. Let's go and take a look at them,"
The Doctor and Marion went to walk towards it, but Jo grabbed their arms.
"Oh no, you don't. Let's get back to the TARDIS,"
"Well, we can't really leave unless we get our task done…," Marion added.
"But I supposed Marion and I could always bring you back to the TARDIS while we do whatever the Time Lords want us to do this time. But, er, do you mind if I take a look at that rock first? It's rather unusual,"
The Doctor crouched down. There was a large rock whose slight blue tint stood out greatly against the sandy color of the ground. Marion bet that it would look beautiful if it was put in a tumbler for a week or so.
"That rock is pretty interesting," Marion murmured.
It was pretty much impossible to walk silently on this kind of ground, so Marion heard someone walking behind them. Both she and Jo turned their heads. The Doctor was absorbed in getting some of the dust of the rock.
When Marion looked behind her she blanched. There was a scruffy looking man with long hair and a beard. He wore clothing in muted yellows and browns, and also, held a gun. A gun which he began to point at them.
"Ummmm," Marion tapped the Doctor's shoulder.
"Doctor?" Jo said, "Doctor?" she said a little bit louder. The Doctor looked up from the rock he was examining.
"Ah," he said, "I suppose that you'll be wanting us to come with you then,"
The Doctor put his hands up by his ears and Jo and Marion followed his lead.
"You lot come with me," the man said sharply.
The three of them were marched at gunpoint to one of the nearby metal domes. The room was wide and open. To one side of the room, the area was covered in supplies and towards another wall, were stairs going upward. The floor was a gray linoleum and it was faintly dusty from people walking inside the room with the outside dirt on their feet.
"What the-? Leeson, who's this?" A man said as they were corralled into the dome. The man holding them at gunpoint gave a nod to a woman at the entrance and she also pointed her gun at them.
"How do you do?" the Doctor greeted.
"Nice to meet you!" Marion said politely.
"Well, I must say this is all most impressive," the Doctor commented looking around the room.
"We found these two in sector twenty-seven," the man, Leeson replied, gesturing towards the three of them with their gun, "They say they're explorers,"
"Where do they come from?"
"From Earth sir," Marion replied.
"They were examining rock samples," he accused, "They're mineralogists. It was bound to happen,"
"Hey, hey," Marion said, "Maybe we just like collecting pretty rocks. No mineralogists here,"
"And even if we were, why all the hostility?" the Doctor asked, "It's a respectable profession,"
"Not if you don't want people surveying the place you live and kicking you out to get more minerals," Marion pointed out.
"The lady is right. We don't want our planet gutted. This is our world. You've no right to be here,"
Marion distinctly remembered there be native peoples on this planet that had already been living here for thousands upon thousands of years before these folks had arrived here from Earth but…
But that was a bit of a non-sequitur.
"Look, we've as much right to be here as anybody else," the Doctor argued.
"This planet has been classified as suitable for colonization. Once your big mining combines move in, you'll reduce it to a galactic slagheap!"
"That's awful. But also, we aren't with any mining company," Marion repeated.
"And haven't you got laws to deal with this kind of thing?" the Doctor argued.
The man who had been pointing a shotgun at them laughed. "Yes, there are laws. We can complain to Earth's government just like all the others. By the time you'll get a final decision, the planet's useless,"
"That tracks," Marion said with a nod, "Sorry to hear that,"
"I see. Yes well," the Doctor frowned, "I can sympathize with you, gentlemen, but I can assure you that I'm not working for anybody,"
The Doctor turned to leave but was stopped.
"Then just why have you come here?"
"Pure chance. My spaceship developed a fault. I had to land somewhere,"
"Can you show me your papers?"
The Doctor's eyes grew wide and then he looked at Marion. "Paper? They um-no, they're back in my spaceship. If you'd like to come back there with me, I-"
The Doctor might've gotten away with it if he hadn't stuttered in the middle of his sentence.
"I think it would be better if you spent the night here. We'll go to your spaceship in the morning,"
"Oh, we don't want to put you to any trouble," Jo tried.
"I'd rather you did as I say," he turned to the woman who was also pointing her gun at the three of them "Jane?"
"Yes, John?" she replied.
"Show our three guests to the dining area. We'll fix up your sleeping accommodation later,"
"Yes," the Doctor said, "Go with them you two," the Doctor said, "It's alright, I'll join you in a moment,"
"Cool, we'll see you in a bit,"
"This way," Jane beckoned.
"I don't care what Ashe says. You saw it, didn't you?"
"I'm sure Ashe believes you,"
The dining hall was barely the size of the third Doctor's console room and every bit of it was filled with long, rectangular tables with fold-out chairs around it. People were talking amongst each other loudly. Everyone seems to wear roughly the same style of brown and yellow and deep red clothing.
"You can sit where you like," Jane told them.
A couple of people glanced at them when they walked into the room but went back to eating their food. A conversation continued behind her between a man who might've looked young if not for his thick grey beard and a woman who's dark hair was styled in a way that reminded Marion of the mom from the Shining.
Jo sat down in a chair at the table near the large soup. Marion sat down at a chair across from Jo and against the wall. She was still listening to the conversation at the table on the other side of the room.
"He thinks we're seeing things. You two had better watch out. It could be you next,"
"Ashe will take care of things,"
But she was still doing her best to pay attention to what Jane said.
Jane grabbed two round metal bowls and poured a ladleful of some orange and warm looking soup.
"Is that the first course?" Jo asked.
'What?' Marion stared at Jo blankly, rather confused by the question.
Marion wished she had the courage to ask those kinds of questions. Miss Jo Grant over here was probably the kind of person to ask her friend's mom for an extra blanket while on a sleepover.
"It's the only course," Jane explained. She placed the bowls in front of Marion and Jo "Supplies are getting a bit low,"
"It looks good," Marion said, not really knowing what else to say. It didn't exactly look bad, Marion had to admit.
"I'd better get back to my husband," Jane said with a nod. She left the room.
Marion looked down at her food. Marion wasn't exactly hungry, but she didn't know how to say such a thing and besides it wouldn't be good to waste it.
She brought a spoonful to her mouth. It was...warm. So it had that going for it. The red was clearly coming from something tomato adjacent and there was a little bit of some kind of spice thrown in there. It wasn't great, but it wasn't inedible. And it getting cold obviously wouldn't help it in any way. She shrugged and continued to eat it.
She continued to listen to the couple having a conversation next to her absentmindedly spooning more and more soup into her mouth.
"It's getting harder all the time," said the man.
"At least it's better than being back on Earth," the woman replied.
"Oh, I don't know. Things weren't so bad there,"
"Weren't they? No room to move, polluted air, not a blade of grass left on the planet, and a government that locks you up if you think for yourself,"
"At least they fed you. This isn't exactly the Garden of Eden. And Ashe said we could make it perfect,"
Another man walked into the small mess hall. He had short blonde hair, a gun slung over his shoulder, and was in the same "if-it-weren't-for-my-facial-hair-I'd-look-like-a-twenty-something boat" as the man who had been talking to the woman with the long black hair.
"Are you ready, Martin? We're going to look for your monsters. Let's hope we find something,"
Martin, the man with the grey beard stood up along with the woman he'd been talking to. They both grabbed their rifles.
"You may be sorry if you do,"
"We can skin it and you can use it for a rug,"
The three of them left just as a young woman walked through the door. She had long, light brown hair, a simple white shirt with puffy sleeves, and a long peach-colored skirt held in place by a wide belt. She turned her body so they could slide past her. The woman grabbed a bowl of soup and joined them at the table.
"Hello!" She greeted cheerfully.
"Hello!"
"Hello!"
"I'm Mary Ashe," she said cheerfully. Marion wondered if it was because this was the first time a while that she'd met a whole new person. "My father told me about you,"
"Jo Grant. How do you do?" Jo shook the woman's hand.
"Marion Henson," Marion gave a little wave, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Mary Ashe,"
Mary looked down at their clothing.
"Is that what they're wearing on Earth now?" Mary asked, gesturing to Jo's black and lavender striped shirt and Marion's light brown sweater.
"More or less," Jo said with a shake of her head.
"It depends where you are really,"
"It was all quite different when we left back in '71," Mary said. Bringing another spoonful of soup to her lips.
"You left in 1971?"
Mary looked at Jo in confusion. "No, 2471,"
"Sorry, sorry," Marion waved her hand, attempting to salvage the conversation, "It's uh…it's like a joke thing? You ask people if they're from the 20th century when they just say the last half of a year and not the first part? The joke didn't come until after y'all left so…,"
That made it worse Marion was fairly certain.
"Nevermind, it's not important. How's it been here?"
Mary told them about how life in the colony was in the excited sort of way of a person who loved to talk and was excited to talk to a person who didn't already know basically everything they were about to talk about.
Marion finished her food, leaned on her hand and listened intently, nodding every now and then when she was asked a question about Earth and going "mhmm" when appropriate.
She wasn't necessarily interested in that goings-on of late 25th century Earth. However, Mary clearly was and Marion knew what it was like to find a new person to talk to who didn't already know basically everything that you knew about a particular topic and how crummy it felt when they dismissed you. So Marion watched the girl carefully while trying to rack her memory to see if there was any like, gunfire she was going to have to shove the girl away from or cliffs she'd have to pull her up.
They finished eating and Mary stood back up.
"Well, I have to go back to work now. I'm supposed to guard the radio in case of trouble you know," he eyes widened, "Oh, would you like to come with me? I don't think my father wants you two wandering around unsupervised,"
There was a mention of her father again. That was the other man right? The one who the Doctor was currently talking to if she remembered correctly.
Marion got up from her chair. "Let's go then. Are you coming, Jo?"
The radio room looked like it might've perhaps started off as a barn with its wooden floors, exposed rafters, and the corner boxed in by a fence made of chicken wire. In the corner a pair of brown-tinted windows. There was a map of the area pinned against the walls right above a wooden desk. Towards one wall was a dark grey and bulky with a set of headphones slung over the top.
Mary sat down in front of the radio. Before they had properly sat down, the light flickered on and a frantic woman's voice began to shout.
"Can you hear me?"
"This is the main dome," Mary replied calmly, "Please identify,"
'Shit,' Marion hissed. She knew that something was going on here, but she also knew that they already thought that she, Jo, and the Doctor were shady. Saying 'watch out, people are going to die' comes across as more of a threat and less of a warning. Marion stood up and looked at the map.
"This is Jane Leeson. Our dome is being attacked. Some kind of giant reptile! Please, you must send help!" the call cut out.
"Mary," Marion said quickly, " where did that come from. How far away is it?"
"Do you see that dome there?" she pointed to a circle on the map, "It's right there. But it's-"
"Great, Cool, Super," Marion said, already heading for the door. "Get the Doctor and your father! I'm going to see if she's okay!"
"But there's a lot of rocks and hill in the way,"
Marion was already out of the room.
Marion's sense of direction wasn't great and she was willing to come clean about that.
She tried to remember the map she'd seen against the wall. "Shit so that if I just came from there, and...agh,"
The area didn't look this hilly on the map. It was hard to see where anything was.
Marion should've taken her phone out and taken a picture of that map. Why didn't she? It wouldn't've taken too long. And this wasn't the 1960's. Taking out her phone and snapping a picture would've been seen as too out there. If anything, they'd be wondering what she was doing with such ancient technology.
But she didn't think that through, so she was left to wander her way around. She stopped running and then spun around trying to see if she could find anyone or anything. She then heard the sound of gunfire and shouting in the distance.
The gunfire lasted just long enough for Marion to figure out where it was coming from and then she ran in that direction. She had apparently gone too far and was on the whole other side of the compound. She ran around the front to the entrance. Men passed her as she ran through the door. There was a man in that room. He was that man with the blonde beard id she was remembering right.
"Who the hell are you," he demanded.
Marion didn't answer the man's question. "Is she okay? Jane I mean. I heard her over the radio. I rushed over here hoping she wa- oh,"
Jane was crumpled on the ground not too far from the radio where she'd contacted them and the whole room looked like it'd been ransacked.
"Is she…" Marion trailed off looking at Jane's body.
"She's dead," Winston confirmed. "I just sent some men to get stretchers. No answer my question,"
Marion's shoulder slumped. "Oh. I'm Marion. I was with Mary and Jo, that's the girl I came in with. Jane called for help on the radio so I rushed over here. I-I wish I had gotten here sooner. Everything looks basically the same 'cuz I didn't realize the place would be so...," she waved her hand, "and I got lost,"
"I don't think you killed them. But don't be too upset that you didn't come sooner," he said gruffly, "She was long dead by the time I got here. Both of 'em were,"
Then men returned with the stretchers and as they left the room, the Doctor came in followed by the man Marion was confident was Ashe. Once the men with the stretchers were out of the room, Winston shut the dome behind them and the Doctor went straight towards a back panel and examined its scratches.
"Robert, there's nothing you could have done," he assured, "It's like I assured Marion. They were both dead when we got here,"
"And why were you here," Ashe swiveled his head to look at her with suspicion.
"I was in the radio room with Jo and your daughter. Jane sounded like she was in trouble, so I ran out to find her. It took me a bit to get here though, I don't know my way around. But, you can ask Mary, I was in the radio room when the attack happened,"
"Did either of you see the creatures,"
"I didn't get here in time to see anything," Marion admitted, "But Jane said it was some kind of giant reptile, so I ran over here. I got lost, heard gunfire, and figured that since there was a giant reptile I'd probably find someone shooting at it when I got here. I didn't see a thing though,"
"And we caught a glimpse of one as we arrived. Everyone blazed away like mad,"
"And what happened?" the Doctor asked, looking up from what he had been examining.
"Nothing," Winstone shook his head in disbelief "It didn't even seem to notice."
"You must have missed,"
"They were firing those shots for a while though," Marion brought up, "They'd have to be really, really bad shots to not hit whatever it was at least once or twice,"
"We tried to get in closer but it just disappeared. Vanished into the darkness,"
"It'll be daylight soon," Ashe said, he turned to leave, "Perhaps we shall be able to pick up some tracks or bloodstains,"
"I doubt it," the Doctor was crouched down and looking at something on the way, "Come and take a look at these claw marks,"
Marion got close and finally saw what the Doctor was talking about. She brushed her hand over them.
"Well, what about them?" Ashe asked.
A chunk of the dome had been ripped out. It looked like something with big, sharp claws had planted its feet into it, and then didn't care to remove them properly afterward so it left a huge gash. There was a second smaller chunk that'd had a hole punched through it as well, and the area was covered in scratches.
"Are you trying to tell me these were made by a giant lizard, Winton?"
Ah, so that was the name of the man with the blonde hair and beard. Winton.
"Yes. It must have been a least twenty foot high,"
The Doctor stood up? "Twenty-foot high?" He looked at Winton and then over at the door, and then back at Winton.
"Yes,"
Marion walked away from the group and stood in the doorway.
"Are you sure?" she asked, "Because I'm just a little bit over five foot one and when I reach up," she reached up, standing on her tiptoes as she did, "I can touch the top of it. So, it can't be more than, oh, six and a half, seven feet tall,"
The Doctor looked at the men, "Could you kindly tell me how a creature twenty feet high could come through a door of that size?"
After that little revelation, Ashe went back to the main dome followed by the rest of them. And called a meeting. It took a couple of hours for everyone to get together, especially with how early it was, but they had heard that something bad had happened and wanted to speak to the man in charge about it.
So there they were, the majority of the colony on one side of the dome, Ashe and Winton on the other side of the dome, and Marion and the Doctor standing behind the rest of the colonist in a doorway, listening in.
"Why can't you admit defeat, Ashe?" A man shouted instead of a normal greeting. "We've got to get back to Earth," Marion was pretty sure that his name was Martin.
Ashe pressed his hands on the table. "If we go back to Earth, we'll be worse off than we were before. All our savings have gone into this,"
"Sunk cost fallacy," Marion murmured under her breath.
"It's hard to leave everything behind when you've already invested so much time into it," the Doctor whispered back.
Winton leaned against Ashe's table. "Then we must move on to another planet. If we stay here, we'll be dead," he slammed his hand down for emphasis.
Ashe shook his head. "I'm not sure that we can move on. Our spaceship was old when we bought it. It may not survive another trip,"
"Oh, Robert, why won't you admit your mistakes?"
"We've invested a year of our lives in this place. We've got the beginnings of a colony,"
Winton stood up and turned his back to Ashe; walking towards the rest of the colonists. "Our food stocks are getting lower all the time. We can't even support ourselves,"
"All right, we've got problems, but they can be overcome," Ashe shouted.
"Ashe is perfectly right," the Doctor said walking forward. The crown moved to the side to let him through. Marion walked through with him.
"There's got to be something or someone else living on this planet. So there's gotta be some way to grow crops,"
"There is no reason why this planet should not support a thriving colony,"
"I suppose you two are experts in agriculture?" Martin demanded.
"Yes," the Doctor sat down at the edge of the desk, "Yes, as a matter of fact, I am,"
Marion was glad the Doctor had left her out of this. She knew how to keep a house plant from dying and that was about it as far as agricultural expertise went.
"Then why won't my crops grow?"
"Because they are being inhibited by some unnatural force. We must track it down and overcome it,"
"But two people have been killed, or have you forgotten that?"
"I heard one of them calling for help over the radio. We haven't forgotten sir,"
"Killed by creatures that vanish without a trace?" Ashe said incredulously.
"Look, we saw something!" Winton insisted.
"And if it can be seen, and it can kill with its hands, then it can be dealt with," Marion said, crossing her arms.
"This colony is our only hope," Ashe pleaded, "If we leave, we'll have nothing. If we stay, we may have a future,"
"Why won't you-,"
"He's right," a woman spoke up. We've put too much work into this place to leave," Marion recognized her as the woman from the cafeteria. The one with the long black hair. And come to think of it, the other man, Martin, had been the one that she'd been talking to.
"What if these animals attack again?"
"We fight back," the woman replied matter-of-factly.
"Good!" Ashe said with a nod, "Now, what about the rest of you? Are you willing to give it another try?"
The crowd began to murmur as they talked amongst themselves.
"Well, if there really is a chance..." someone spoke up.
'Well these people are easy to convince,' Marion thought to herself.
"There is if we stick together," Ashe's spirits seemed to have been raised. "Now, what we've got to do is to organise patrols for the domes. The Doctor here will help us with-,"
"Robert, wait!"
Mary and Jo walked into the main dome with a heavily injured looking man's arms slung over their shoulders. shoulder as she tried to help him walk into the main dome.
"One of the patrols found him wandering in the south sector," Mary explained.
The man didn't look great.
They got him into the main dome and lowered him to the ground so that his back was leaned up against the wall.
"Get some water, somebody, quickly," Ashe ordered. He turned to the man "Where are you from?" The man stared at them blankly. "Can you understand what I say?"
"It's all right, old chap," the Doctor joined everyone else in crouching down near the man. "You're amongst friends now,"
Marion remained closer to the back of the group.
"Who are you?" Ashe asked.
Winton brought a cup of water to the man's lips.
"Where did you come from?"
"Colony," the man said slowly, between coughs, "Come from colony,"
"What colony?"
"Long way from here,"
"You mean there's another colony on this planet?" Winton asked, baffled.
"I've been wandering long time. Months,"
Winton gave the man another sip of water.
"These other colonists. Well, where are they?"
"Dead," the man's eyes flicked back and forth, "All dead. Giant lizards!"
"Lizards?" the Doctor asks.
"Came from nowhere. Killed everything. I'm the only one left,"
Marion had an issue. Well, two issues but they were connected. The first one was that she knew that the man was lying. And she also knew that she was going to have to keep an eye on him before he killed someone. The second issue was that she had basically no way to prove it and no way to even bring up what she knew without looking like an asshole.
The Doctor and Jo would probably believe her. But to everyone else, she'd look awful and untrustworthy. If a person was shaking, tired, and injured to the point where they had to be carried into the dome, and then told the awful story of how everyone they knew and loved was killed by giant lizards and two people (as far as anyone knew) had also been killed by giant lizards, there was no way for her to say "he's lying actually," without looking bad. If they didn't believe her, which was likely, it'd be much harder to get people to trust her. Not to mention, if bodies started dropping she'd be the prime suspect which would make things even more frustrating.
So instead of saying "he's lying," Marion just put her hands in her pockets and resolved to just be quiet for now.
The Doctor stood back up.
"Right then. I'm going to do some more investigating at the Leeson Dome. Coming Marion?" The Doctor asked heading out the dome.
"Sure," Marion stretched, put her hands in her pockets, and moved to follow after the Doctor.
"I'll take you there," Ashe said standing up, "Wouldn't want you two to get lost if there's a giant lizard walking around.,"
Marion walked a little bit ahead of the two of them as she listened to the Doctor and Ashe talk. She hadn't really gotten the chance to talk to this incarnation of the Doctor yet come to think of it.
"I hope you two find what you're looking for, Doctor,"
"I only hope you're right,"
Marion was so in her thoughts that she forgot about the people who were already inside.
As Marion walked through the door, she saw something out of the corner of her eye, something shiny. She turned to see a tall green figure in a light green and brown jumpsuit holding a knife. Their hand twitched as if to lower it and Marion reflexively jumped back with a shout.
She stood still with her hand holding on tightly to her bag's straps and ready to swing and run.
"No!" Ashe shouted. He put a hand on the figure's chest ready to hold them back if they decided to try and swing at her again. "No, she is a friend," That was nice. To be upgraded from potential spy to friend. The green figure slowly lowered their knife while glancing at Marion and the Doctor suspiciously.
Ashe noticed the things in the figure's hand. "These are ours. You must leave them,"
The figure looked down at the things in his hands and then slowly went back to put them where he found them.
"Do they have a language of their own?" the Doctor asked.
"I've never heard them speak but they seem to understand what I say,"
"That's pretty interesting!"
"It is quite extraordinary. Must be some rudimentary telepathic ability. Are they friendly?"
'One of them just tried to...oh never mind,'
Marion wasn't too mad. They didn't stab her, and even if they had, it's not like stabbing her would do much more than ruin her sweater and give a mark on her chest like the one on her neck and probably her scalp.
Marion wasn't quite sure why they saw fit to attack the first person to come through that door, but it's possible that they thought they were intruders and not supposed to be here?
Ashe answered the Doctor's question. "Depends on how you treat them. We had two colonists killed when we first moved here," The man stepped forward holding out his hands to the two figures. "You must go now," he said slowly and clearly.
The two of them looked at each other for a moment, and then at Ashe, and then they slowly, carefully left the dome.
The Doctor walked forward, rubbing the back of his neck in thought as he did so.
"I've no idea. Possibly some evidence to convince your colonists to stay,"
"Either something that shows that plants can actually grow, or something that shows the reason why they can't so we can come up with a solution," Marion elaborated. "Or at least, I'm pretty sure that's what we're looking for,"
"Yes, I thought I'd won them over until that man turned up. Now I don't know how long I can hold them,"
"You'll find a way Ashe," Marion said with a wave, "Just buy us some time,"
"Yes. Well, I'd better get back there to see what's happening. Can you find your own way back?"
"Yes. Oh, yes, of course," the Doctor replied.
"Right, I'll leave you to it then," he turned to leave, "and, be careful,"
"Wait!" Marion said, "before you go…," Marion reached into her bag, and pulled out her notebook and the first pen she could find. She needed to leave behind a letter for Jo. So she quickly wrote:
"Don't trust the man who you and Mary brought in. The Natives here aren't Savages. They are people. They aren't going to attack anyone who hasn't already attacked them. If anyone says that they were attacked by the Natives for absolutely no reason, they are lying. Be careful Jo. -M,"
She folded the note in half and then in quarters and handed the note to Ashe.
"Could you give this to Jo Grant? She's the blonde woman who came in with us. We might not be headed right back to the main dome after we're done here. If we find something, it might be a good idea to look around a bit for more evidence outside. Could you give this to her so she can find us?"
"Of course," Ashe nodded
"Thank you!" Marion replied.
The man left the dome, shutting the door behind him.
The Doctor reached into his many pockets and pulled out a vial and a scraping tool.
"What was in that note you sent with him Marion?" the Doctor asked crouching down and opening one of the vials.
"You know that man who came in all haggard just now?"
"Yes? What about the poor chap? Is he in danger?"
"He's the danger. I don't trust him. But I couldn't just go with Ashe back to warn 'er,"
"Why ever not?"
The Doctor broke off a small piece of the drywall like stuff the dome was made out of and put it in one of the vials. He handed it up to Marion along with the top and then retrieved another vial and went back to taking samples
The Doctor took another sample in a vial and then beckoned for the vial that Marion had sealed back. She handed it to him.
"I can't be in two places at once Doc. And I've gotta stick with you. So, I left her a note with what I would've told her, and I let her know ahead of time that something the man said was a lie- hey what's that noise?"
There was this awful grating noise like a mechanical bee caught in a blender and the noise got louder and louder and it gave Marion a headache.
Marion turned to see the source of the noise. It large, large enough that it only just barely fit inside of the dome.
The Lower half of its body, if it could be called that, was a large, wide thing with a logo on the front and a strip of metal hiding the wheels from view. Its upper body was narrower, and, in the place of its neck was a rectangular thing that reminded Marion of the Mars rover. However, unlike the Mars Rover, this thing had two metal claw arms that continuously swung up and down menacingly.
The Doctor moved to get away and feel back against the slanted wall of the dome. Marion grabbed him by his wrist and tugged him to his feet and off to the side and out of the way so that the robot would have to turn quite sharply to get to them.
And honestly, this robot did not look like taking sharp turns was a thing it was capable of. The robot got closer and its arms stopped inches above the metal of the dome and then it stopped.
A man walked from behind the robot. He was dressed in what Marion hoped was company uniform and not a personal choice. Black pants, a red and black tunic, and a black helmet with red stripes. All of this paired with pale green boots. The robot backed up and allowed the man to get past it.
The man looked at them apologetically. "My Apologies. Neither of you look hurt. Are you alright?"
"We're fine. No one was hurt. Although. you really ought to keep this thing of yours under better control you know,"
"You could've hurt someone!" Marion said, crossing her arms.
"Yeah, I'm sorry," the man took off his hat and smiled sheepishly, "He's only a mark three servo-robot. He's not very bright,"
Marion glanced at the robot. "I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of the way that things arms are still waving about a little bit,"
"My apologies Miss," the man said, "like I said, he's only mark three," The man then got a look at the trashed appearance of the dome, "What happened in here?"
"Well, I only wish I knew," the Doctor said rubbing the back of his neck, "Something attacked this place late last night,"
"Really late last night. Barely more than a few hours ago," Marion added.
"Is it your place?" the man asked looking around, "Or yours,"
"Neither," Marion said, "It belonged to a pair of colonists,"
"Colonists?" the man said, turning to look at them in surprise, "According to Earth Control, this planet hasn't been colonised,"
"Well then someone at Earth Control isn't doing their job the way they should be then,"
"May I ask what you're doing here?" the Doctor asked.
"IMC," the man said, gesturing to the symbol on the robot. When they didn't react to that name, he clarified, "Interplanetary Mining Corporation. We're doing a mineral survey,"
"How long have you been here?"
"We've just arrived," the man paused and sighed, "Colonists, eh? Well, now we've got trouble,"
"Not too much trouble," Marion crossed her arms, "Just go to another planet. Easy,"
"Well, it isn't up to me. They'll have to sort that out at Earth Control,"
"The same Earth Control who didn't even realize that this planet was colonized?" Marion brought up, "Not to mention that it's got people living here who aren't colonists," Marion said under her breath.
The man clearly either didn't hear or was ignoring Marion as he looked at the vials in the Doctor's hands.
"We're just making a few tests,"
"Are you some kind of scientist?"
"I'm every kind of scientist,"
"And you Miss?"
"I'm his Associate. Now if you'll excuse us," Marion and the Doctor made to leave the Dome but the man stood in front of the entrance.
"Look, I'm on my way back to my spaceship. How about you coming back with me?"
"Well, I'd like to, but I haven't really got the time. In any case, we ought to get back and tell the colonists that you've arrived,"
The man pressed the button and one of the robot's arms swung downward, barely avoiding hitting Marion in the nose and blocking her and the Doctor's path.
"You have got plenty of time, you know," the man said offhandedly.
"No need for all that," Marion said, backing away slightly from the claw, "Sure, we'll come by your ship. It's not like we had anything better to do,"
The man put his helmet back on as he prepared for the group to leave.
"You know, it's lucky no one was hurt,"
"It would've been lucky if no one had been hurt," Marion agreed, "but that didn't happen,"
"What gave you the impression that no one was hurt?" the Doctor asked.
"Well, surely, didn't you say?"
"No, I didn't say anything of the sort. The two colonists that were living here have been killed," the Doctor said sharply.
"Two people killed?" the casual grin on the man's face dropped.
"That's right," the Doctor confirmed.
"Er," the man seemed at a loss for words, "we'd better get moving,"
(Next Chapter: Hot Take: Corporations Suck)
Marion, glancing at the big robot with the metal claw arms: If I had a dollar for every time I ripped the arm off a robot, I'd have one dollar.
Marion: Which like, isn't much, but I'm absolutely prepared to get another.
As I'm getting closer and closer to the Master showing up, I'm very much regretting my commitment to having the Doctor and Marion not be romantically involved or attracted to each other because I think the dynamic of "Yeah, I stole your Boyfriend Koschei, what of it?" Would be very funny. I haven't seen that in a fic yet! Of course, I also haven't seen a fic where the OC and the Master's dynamic didn't involve the Master being incredibly creepy and obsessed with the Main Character so… at least y'all get that in a couple of chapters?