This is your reminder that if there's a particular comic, or book, or episode, or heck even a Big Finish audio that you want me to do just tell me and I'll see where I can fit it in. My only stipulation is that if you're going to suggest a Big Finish audio, I beg of you, please also direct me towards a transcript of some kind.

Thank you Momochan77 and Fizz1245 for following and I-Am-Annabel-Lee for reviewing.

P.S. Lucky you Fizz. Adding this to your follow list only a few hours before an update.

"I'll sit in the back. It's fine," Marion said after getting her first look at the IMC vehicle. It looked like a roofless golf cart fused with a flatbed truck. There were only two seats, but the aforementioned flatbed in the back was big enough to sit on, and there were a few guardrails in the back that were probably to keep boxes from flying off, but would be perfectly serviceable as something to hold onto.

She pulled herself onto the back of the truck and sat with her back against the actual seats and held onto the railings on the side. The Doctor took the driver's seat and the man from the mining company took the passenger seat.

From the corner of her eye, Marion saw the man took the remote from his pocket and pressed a few buttons on it. The robot's head thingy spun around in circles.

"What are you doing?" the Doctor asked.

"Programming Charlie to go back to the spaceship,"

"How far is your ship?"

"Only a few kilometers,"

"Which way,"

The man pointed to the tracks that the truck had left behind when he had arrived there, and the Doctor made a sharp turn to follow them. Marion held on tight to the railing.

"Are you okay back there Marion?"

"What? Yeah. I'm fine,"

The terrain was incredibly bumpy and the car constantly jolted around. Marion was thankful that she'd had the foresight to sit closer to the front with her back against the seats rather than towards the back facing them. If it was this bumpy this close to the front, she could only imagine how bad the back would have to be.

They went through a twisty path road between two steep cliffs and then up a hill. The Doctor suddenly came to a stop and Marion jolted.

"Are you trying to launch me off the side of the-"

"Marion! The TARDIS. It's gone!"

Marion looked around. 'Right,' she thought 'This is where we landed right?'

"It's fine," Marion assured, "It's not like we could leave right now anyway. When it's time for us to leave, we'll find the TARDIS. Don't worry," she gave the Doctor a thumbs up.

"If you're sure Marion,"

The Doctor took off again.

"What's this 'TARDIS'?"

"Don't worry about it. Doctor, drive,"

They finally arrived at the ship. They could see it before they arrived at it. The ship was the color of rust and looked like an overgrown airplane. It had landed in a wide, open area. It had cliffs on either side, but the distance between them was large enough that it didn't seem too crazy that they would be able to land it and get it off the ground when it clearly needed some kind of runway to accomplish such a task.

"Is this your ship Caldwell?" the Doctor asked. The Doctor had asked the man's name on their way there and they had come to find that he was called "Caldwell,"

"Yes! There she is. Come on, park over there,"

He pointed to an area not too far from the ship itself. The Doctor stopped the vehicle and helped Marion off the back of the truck.

"Thank you," Marion said. She was glad to be off the truck. She bounced in place a bit and stretched her arms.

"Come with me you two," Caldwell said, already heading towards the ship.

The first thing that she saw inside the ship was the robot "Charlie" which had managed to beat them there. The second thing was the way that the whole area oddly reminded Marion the of halls near the employees-only section of a Costco only with more green and less off-white.

Caldwell took them around the corner and to a room blocked with a grey metal door. He pressed a button on a black panel on the side of the door and it slid open to reveal some kind of office/lounge/recreation room.

"Would you too mind staying in here, please, while I let my colleagues know?" he asked.

"No problem," Marion said with a shake of her head.

The man turned to leave and then stopped at the doorway.

"Er, look, make yourselves at home. That's the entertainment console. I shan't be long,"

The man finally left, closing the door behind him. The Doctor examined a podium-like structure facing a wall covered by curtains. Marion grabbed the blue chair in the corner by the room and dragged it closer to where the Doctor was and sat down. The Doctor pressed a button that triggered curtains to unfurl in the back of the room to reveal a screen. Another button pressed and the screen flickered on. All the screen showed was explosions as tanks went off and explosions rang out. The Doctor stared at the screen in dismay. It was literally just the booms and explosions of a world at war.

"Well, that's certainly…" Marion trailed off. "Loud I suppose," She sat down in the chair.

The Doctor glanced from the screen to Marion to the screen and then back at Marion. "It's a bit ghastly what they're finding entertainment from nowadays isn't it,"

"I- don't know if I'd say ghastly," Marion said, crossing her arms, "but I'm also not a several-hundred-year old man. But on the bright side I don't remember whether they had cameras and recorders in here or not, so I guess that...whatever this is," she gestured to the screen as another explosion rang out, " is as good a background as any. So, any questions while we wait for Caldwell to come back?"

"Where did you just come from?"

"Uh," There were two main reasons that Marion didn't want to answer that question. The first was one the simple fact that the incarnation who she just came from was one that she knew this current Doctor didn't particularly like and she wanted to avoid that conversation.

There was also the fact that, if he managed to connect the dots between where she had just come from and what she was wearing, he might ask her about the nightmare that she was avoiding thinking about and, having someone ask you about the thing that you are avoiding all thoughts about makes avoiding all thoughts about it that much harder to do.

"Spoilers," she said, doing Jazz hands. "Ask something else please,"

"Can we trust them?"

"Who?"

"This, Interplanetary Mining Company,"

"Absolutely not!" Marion said simply. "No, Caldwell might be fine though, but that's because he's got enough of a conscience to reach the very, very low bar of believing that murder is wrong. The rest of the company employees?," Marion sucked her teeth, "I dunno,"

The explosions on the screen grew louder.

"I've changed my mind. Can we change the channel to like, anything else?"

The Doctor clicked a button on the podium thing and the screen flickered to something else. Some kind of news broadcast talking about the current state of the earth. It wasn't good.

Between climate change and industrialization, the world's global temperature had shot up to the point that pretty much nowhere within 25 degrees of the equator was suitable for people to live on and if that wasn't bad enough, sea levels had raised enough that the continents on the stylized globe that the news' opening graphic had shown that most of what Marion had known growing up as coastline was deep underwater. And then there was the fact that the current coastline was unsafe to live on because another side effect of the increased global temperatures was a massive increase in hurricanes and other serious natural disasters.

But just because the amount of land people had to live on was ever-shrinking doesn't mean that the number of people who had to live on that land had to as well. Because it wasn't.

All together, Earth's problem could basically be summed up quite simply.

The number of people was increasing and the places where those people could live were, quite literally, disappearing.

It was no wonder that so many people were leaving Earth for other planets where there was actually space to move and think.

The man on the screen was discussing another possible solution for this problem that didn't involve moving to another planet.

"Scientists have turned to new means for providing accommodation for our ever-increasing population. These floating islands, rising to three hundred stories, will make living space for five hundred million people,"

The Doctor rubbed his forehead and turned the TV off. The curtain slid back in front and the door to the room they were in opened and another man walked into the room. The man was dressed the same as Caldwell minus the helmet and his hair was in a blonde bowl cut.

He walked into the room like he owned the place, which, to be fair, he did. The Doctor and Marion stood up to greet him.

"I'm Captain Dent, in charge of this survey team. A great pleasure to meet you, Mister?"

He held out a hand to the Doctor.

"Not Mister," the Doctor corrected, "Doctor. How do you do?"

They shook hands and the man turned to Marion.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well Miss-,"

"Henson," Marion said, holding out a hand. "Marion Henson. Pleased to meet you," she said without much feeling.

"Charmed,"

"Well, it seems a most unfortunate mistake has been made," Dent said.

It was interesting to Marion how when this man talked the only thing about him that moved was his mouth. Nothing in his eyes or any other part of his body that could be mistaken for an emotion of any kind.

"That's certainly a way of putting it," Marion replied to what the man had said.

"Well, at least they admit it, Marion," the Doctor turned to Dent, "I take it you're preparing to leave at once?"

"It's not necessarily our mistake. As things have turned out, this planet doesn't seem very suitable for colonisation,"

"Oh? How so?"

"I understand it's still infested with hostile animal life,"

The man turned away from them and began to fill glasses with some brown liquid that was on the table in a carafe. Marion wasn't sure what it was. She was pretty sure it was some kind of whiskey though. Or at least some other dark-colored alcohol.

"Not to sound overly American, but guns exist you know,"

"The hostile animals, if they exist, can be found and destroyed, sir,"

"I admire your optimism. Is it shared by the other colonists?"

"Not a colonist," "We're just visiting,"

"I see," the man said with his back to them, "Then you're not really concerned,"

"Oi," Marion replied, sitting back down into her chair, "We didn't say that. We're very concerned about what's going on on this planet,"

"The colonists shouldn't be here," the man turned to face them holding two glasses of something Marion was sure was alcoholic and therefore not something she wanted. "My corporation has been assigned the mineral rights on this planet. Our preliminary survey indicates a very rich concentration of duralinium. You know how the Earth needs that mineral," He held the glasses out to them.

"Earth, or your corporation's profits?" the Doctor retorted making no effort to take the cup from the man.

"What's good for IMC is good for Earth," Dent placed the glasses on the table none too gently, "There are one hundred thousand million people back on Earth and they desperately need all the minerals we can find,"

"What those people need, my dear sir, are new worlds to live in like this one. Worlds where they can live like human beings, not battery hens," the Doctor replied, leaning forward.

"And even if colonists were to leave, there are still people native to this planet who live here you know. You can't just-just destroy their whole planet like that just because the people who live here aren't from Earth!" Marion added.

"It is of little concern to me. My only concern is for Earth and her people. Earth needs minerals and it's my job to find them,"

"Even if it means turning this planet into a slagheap?"

"I can see we're on opposite sides,"

"I should very well hope so. I would never want to be on the same side as someone willing to destroy a whole planet full of people living their lives just to make a profit,"

"To your health sir," the Doctor took a sip of the drink he'd been given and placed it back on the table. He stood up. "Now, if you'll excuse us. We've lost some very valuable equipment. Perhaps one of your colleagues told you about it. A tall blue box?"

"He's probably enquiring about it now. I'll go and check," the man walked to the door, "If you wouldn't mind waiting here, Doctor? Miss Henson? I'll detail someone to escort you back to your friends," the man tapped something on the side of the wall and the door slid open. He walked through and the door shut behind him.

"Unbelievable!" Marion stomped her foot, "Well," she shrugged, "not that unbelievable. It's completely believable. But STILL! It's just so…,"

"Frustrating to see how time and time again corporations chose what is profitable over what is right?"

"I probably would have worded it far less eloquently," and with more swearing, "but yes that sums it up quite nicely,"

"You really never have liked corporations have you?" The Doctor asked. He tapped a button near the side of the door and then frowned when the door refused to open.

"No, I haven't and I don't think that button's going to work. They'll have to unlock it from the other side. Unless you've got your sonic screwdriver on you,"

The Doctor tapped his jacket pocket and then shook his head. "Do you think that you could pry open the door?"

Marion examined the door.

"No, It's a sliding door that slides into a slot at the end. Unless there's something about me that you don't know, I don't think that I could shove it open. I'm strong, like, really, really, strong apparently? But, there's a difference between being able to shove down a normal door and a sliding door you know? I'm not that strong. Besides, a guy'll be here to unlock the door any second now, so it's not like we need to break out of here,"

'And even if we did, it'd probably be easier for me to slam my crowbar into a window or something,'

The Doctor tried the door again, tapping at different areas around the doorframe trying to find a button or a switch. Then he stopped.

"There's someone coming,"

"Yeah, they're about to open the door now. Step back. You're right up against the door. You wouldn't want to fall on top of them,"

"I suppose you're right," The Doctor backed up and remained close to the door.

The footsteps got louder and then the door slid open to reveal yet another man in the ugly red and black uniform. This one with the short, brown, and somewhat slicked back hair of that one kid in history class that insisted on playing Devil's Advocate in nearly every discussion to the point that the teacher would audibly sigh whenever they raised their hand before begrudgingly calling their hand after seeing that literally no one else had their hands raised.

"Who the blazes are you?" the Doctor demanded.

"My name's Morgan,"

"Nice to meet you, Morgan," Marion said politely. Then, in just as polite but more sharp tone she asked. "Would you mind telling us why you've locked the door?"

"Was it?" the man asked unconvincingly as the Doctor stepped back to allow Morgan into the room. "Must have jammed,"

"Of course!"

"I've been sent to take you back to your friends,"

"Well, where is the man who brought us here?" the Doctor asked, "And what happened to Captain Dent?"

"I'm sorry," the man said, not sounding sorry at all, "the Captain's busy. You've been handed over to me,"

"Oh, I see. Well, I take it that your Captain is coming to see Ashe?"

"Ashe?"

"Robert Ashe?" Marion explained, "Leader of the colonists? Probably someone worth meeting if you want to settle all this nonsense about the colony and you miners?"

"Oh, yes, yes. I'm to arrange the meeting,"

"Great. So I assume that we're to head there now then?"

"After you Miss," Morgan said, gesturing towards the door.

"Thanks, I suppose,"

Marion walked out of the room followed by the Doctor and then Morgan at the rear.

"By the way, Captain Dent wanted you to show me the dome that was wrecked,"

"Oh?" Marion asked.

"Well, we're just as interested in these creatures as you are. Who knows, they might attack us too,"

"Yes, that's a point," the Doctor agreed.

The three of them left the rocket.

The vehicle that Morgan led them to had four seats instead of just two and a flatbed. Marion climbed into the middle of the back seat thankful that she wouldn't have to hold to the railing on the side of the truck bed again. That wasn't something she had any interest in doing. Morgan took the driver seat and the Doctor climbed into the passenger side.

The car drove for a bit longer, and then came to a stop. People were standing in the road. Three Natives. Marion was pretty sure that they had a name other than "the Natives" but Marion couldn't recall it. The only other things she'd heard them be called were "the Primitives" and "the Savages" and those were very...no.

Seeing the car drive so close to them, the men held up their weapons in a warning. Morgan reached into his pocket and pulled out a gun.

"Get out of the way!"

He aimed it at the Native.

"No!"

The Doctor grabbed the man's wrist and pointed the gun upward. The bullet slammed into the side of the cliff, but fortunately, nothing living.

"What's wrong with you!" Marion admonished Morgan. "Look, now you've gotten them mad!"

The men's body language turned from defensive to angry. If there had been a chance of the three of them being able to go through this canyon confrontation free, well, Morgan had shot that in the face.

The Doctor got out of the car. Marion got out too. Marion and the Doctor stared at the Natives in silence for a moment. One of them hurled his spear at the Doctor who caught it in his hand with ease. One of the men charged at the Doctor and the other one at Marion.

He thrust his spear at Marion and she quickly side-stepped out of the way with a small shout. He stabbed at her again and she dodged again. On the third attempt, Marion managed to reach out and grab the spear with both of her hands. The two of them tugged at the spear for a bit.

Marion adjusted her grip on the spear and then pivoted on the balls of her feet and swung the spear in an upward arc using the leverage and the man slammed into the ground, the spear cracking in half as she did so.

The man's eyes shut when he hit the ground, but the fact that his chest still rose and fell meant that he wasn't dead.

"Sorry!" Marion anyway. "Now where is the-, oh, there he is,"

She looked to her left to see a man run at the Doctor swinging some kind of sling-thing over his head. He ran at the Doctor. He crouched down and shoved the blunt end of his spear at the man's stomach and sent him flying.

"Well, that's done," Marion said.

She snapped the spearhead off the broken weapon in her hand and put it into her bag just in case she needed, or, more likely, wanted it for something. It looked pretty cool.

Morgan drove the truck closer to the two of them.

"Next time, maybe ask nicely for the people to cross the road instead of, I don't know, firing a gun at them hmm?" Marion took her place in the back seat again.

"And It couldn't hurt to drive a little bit slower. Could it?" the Doctor added.

Another five or so minutes and they were back at the Leeson dome. Marion was beginning to feel a bit uneasy, but she couldn't quite remember why it was that she felt that way.

Marion wished that she had had a bit more...she wasn't sure...forewarning about what was to come? Was that it? She wished that someone had let her know that when she left her house to get ginger ale and Advil she wasn't actually going to get there. Because, if she had only known, she would've she wasn't sure, maybe pay more attention to episodes. Take a few notes? Something?

She'd better not get dragged into any Big Finish related nonsense because there was very little chance that she'd know or remember anything.

The point was that Marion was experiencing the uneasy sensation of knowing for sure that something was off. There was something that she should've known but didn't. There was something here that she should've been taking note of though. She wasn't quite sure of what, but it was on the tip of her tongue!

They stepped inside the dome together.

"Well, here we are," The Doctor said, gesturing to the interior of the dome, "Though I must say I still don't quite understand why you wanted to come here,"

"I wanted to see how much damage these creatures can cause,"

"Well, as you can see," Marion gestured to the back wall with its huge puncture holes and the way the room looked like a tornado had run through it. Or a bored cat. "A lot. Stuff's on the ground, there's claw marks all over the place! It's just a big mess,"

"And you say these same marks were found on the two colonists?" the man said, walking deeper into the dome to examine the back wall.

"That's right," the Doctor nodded, "Oh yes, it was all very efficiently done,"

"What do you mean?"

"He means that this whole thing? It's just really rather suspiciously convenient don't you think? The colonists were quite clearly killed not by a wild animal, but by some person who wanted to scare everyone else out of wanting to live in the colony,"

"But these claw marks. I mean, something made them,"

"Well sure, something must have. But it doesn't have to be a giant lizard. It could easily be something mundane and...mechanical," Marion felt a wave of dizziness roll over her. She suddenly connected the dots remembered. She blinked slowly and swore under her breath.

'Goddammit,'

"Something mechanical," the man said, rising to his feet, "You mean with something like this Miss?" The man held up a large, silver remote in his hand and pressed a button.

The radio emitted a high pitched noise which was echoed as the large robot from before drove into the room. Its metal claws had been replaced with ones that looked like they'd been stolen from the set of Jurassic Park.

The Doctor and Marion turned around.

"Yup!" Marion said. Her voice raised an octave as she moved to stand in between the Doctor and the clawed robot. "Something exactly like that. I don't suppose you'd be willing to send it back wherever you got it from. Would you?"

The robot took a step forward and Marion took a step back, bumping into the Doctor's chest.

"By the time they find you, the monster will have claimed another victim,"

"Oh you think so," Both she and the Doctor turned to face the man and the man whipped out a gun.

Marion was torn.

On one hand, if she stood in between the Doctor and the robot, there would be nothing between the gun and the Doctor. But if she stood between the man with the gun and the Doctor, it would result in the same issue, just in reverse.

Marion took a step towards the man. "Keep back. Purely business, you understand. Nothing personal," The man pointed the gun at Marion.

"Pull the trigger. I dare you,"

"She's right you know fire that thing, you'll spoil your whole story. Monsters don't carry guns, you know,"

That had actually nothing to do with why Marion had said what she said. She was hoping that if he shot her at point-blank range and she got back up again, she'd create some intimidation and make the IMC more likely to want to leave?

But his way sounded less like someone with no real concern for their well being.

The robot got closer. Marion's vision was swimming.

The Doctor moved around Marion and took a step closer to the man. Morgan held up his gun and the Doctor kicked up with a shout. The man lost his grip on his gun from the Doctor's kick to the arm and then his balance when the Doctor Aikido-chopped him in the neck. Morgan lurched off to the side and then ran out of the dome, dropping the remote in the process, It went sliding under something off to the side.

The Doctor quickly went for the remote but Marion could tell that there wasn't a way for the Doctor to reach it in time without getting hit at least once or twice.

Or was there,

Marion looked at the robot for a moment and noticed something about its arms. The way that they swung up and down and up and down left a rather safe spot in the middle where its arms couldn't reach as long as you weren't too big a person.

And that gave her an idea.

She backed up slightly to be out of range of the claws and then maneuvered herself to that middle safe spot.

Her vision returned to shore and steadied itself.

She held out her hands and shoved back against the robot. Leaning forward with all her weight. She could feel the air rush past her as claws on either side of her swung up and down. Her arms stung heavily and she hissed until they didn't. It tried to inch forward but Marion didn't budge and so neither could it. She could feel it trying to shove forward, but at its current point, if it moved any more, its claws would most certainly swipe at the Doctor as he reached for the remote from under a low shelf. So she kept herself and the robot still still. She didn't bother trying to push forward. She didn't need to. And anyway, stepping forward would require taking a foot off the ground and she didn't want to do that. Her boots had a fairly strong grip on the ground (thank God she was wearing something functional for footwear instead of converse) but she didn't want to risk moving unnecessarily and her feet sliding.

Marion hadn't needed to hold the robot in place for that long.

The Doctor had only needed thirty seconds (even if it had felt like far longer) after Marion's stopped the robot to get to the remote and then another two to press the button.

The robot's arms came to a halt and the resistance Marion had been feeling press against her palms came to a halt.

She didn't move though. Not a muscle just in case.

The Doctor tapped a hand on her shoulder.

"Thank you, Marion. You can let go now,"

Marion nodded and took a step back from the unmoving machine. When it didn't lurch forward, she lowered her arms as well.

"Well," she said. The Doctor took his hand off her shoulder. Marion's hands felt oddly sweaty. She wiped them off on her shirt. "It's a good thing that I was over here instead of with Jo,"

She shook her arms a bit. They didn't feel sore, exactly, but they did feel weird and kind of tingly.

"Well, Morgan's already making his way back to the IMC ship and Dent's gonna be on his way to the main dome, we better go there before he tries to pull something,". She moved towards the exit of the dome, giving the robot a wide berth as she left.

She then paused. "Of course..."

"Of course what?"

"Wouldn't it be hilarious if when we get there, he's telling them all how we're dead and it's tragic, and then we walk up into the dome-like 'What's up nerds? Guess who has two thumbs aren't corpses,'"

"I doubt that Jo would believe him even if he did tell her that we were dead," the Doctor replied, a smile in his voice.

"Eh, I was more talking about Dent's reaction which would've been funny. Although, us being alive when he knows very well that we know that he tried to have us killed sure be interesting,"

"Interesting is a word for it, Marion,"

They walked for a little while longer.

"That's the main dome right?" Marion asked pointing.

"Yes, yes I believe so," the Doctor replied.

They could hear the shouting match between Dent and one of the colonists as they approached the entrance and they heard it stop right as they walked into the room.

"Doctor! Marion!" Jo shouted when she saw them, "What happened? Are you all right?" Jo wrapped her arms around the two of them in a big hug.

"We're fine Jo," the Doctor assured. "I'm sorry if that spoils your plans, Captain Dent."

"I'm not," Marion piped up.

"My plans?" Dent said, trying to play dumb as Marion and the Doctor stepped closer to him "I don't understand,"

"Which part don't you understand?" Marion asked with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. The smile dropped. "The part where you got one of your employees to try to kill us with a robot you duct-taped raptor claws to so that you could continue to try to scare these fine people off the planet so you could reduce it to slag, or the part where we walked back in here a few minutes ago, still alive? Just tell me which part you're having issues with. I'm fine with elaborating,"

"Those are rather serious accusations, Miss Henson,"

"Yeah, and attempted murder is a rather serious crime,"

"Yes," the Doctor agreed, "and one that I shall have great pleasure in bringing before the attention of the proper authorities. You say there's some sort of procedure?"

"Yes," Ashe agreed, "we're going to send for an Adjudicator,"

"Good. I'm sure he'll be very interested in hearing what I have to say,"

Marion blanched. While it was technically true that the adjudicator would likely be interested in what the Doctor had to say, considering who it was, it wasn't going to be for the right reasons. She knew exactly who the adjudicator was going to be and was both eager and reluctant to meet him.

"Well?" Ashe asked.

"I refuse to listen to these ravings any longer. I'll send a message to the Adjudicator's Bureau right away. If you'll excuse me," with that, the man-made a quick exit.

"He really tried to kill you?" Winton asked.

"Well, he sic-ed a robot with monster claws on us and said 'by the time they find you, the monster will have taken another victim' so…,"

"The IMC people are using a robot to fake these monsters," the Doctor explained.

"Doctor, those monsters were real. I saw them!" Winton insisted.

"I don't doubt that you saw something," Marion agreed, "But what you saw was most certainly that robot with a projection or filter over it. Project a giant lizard, hide the robot with the projection, and then give the robot claws and boom, now you've got a monster to terrorize the colonist with,"

"The immobilized robot is at Leeson's dome," the Doctor stated. Then he made a face, "Or it was. They've probably removed it by now,"

"And even if isn't there," Marion added, "I doubt that they've fully gotten rid of all the tracks though. And even if they did, I don't think they'd get rid of the robot, and there's no real reason to have a robot with raptor claws,"

"This is unbelievable!"

"Yes, well, don't worry, old chap," The Doctor assured Ashe, "When the adjudicator hears of IMC's methods, he's bound to decide in your favour,"

"If they didn't I'd have to question their credentials,"

"That all hinges on us still being here,"

"Why wouldn't you be?" the Doctor questioned.

"We're in the middle of a power breakdown. Jo said that you might be able to fix it,"

The Doctor rubbed the side of his neck. "Well, I'd be only too pleased, but at the moment I'm looking for some lost property," he gestured with his hands, "It's a box, a tall blue box-like-"

Jo angrily marched to the Doctor. "Doctor! You haven't lost the TARDIS?"

"Well, no," the Doctor said, leaning away from the angry-looking woman, "I haven't exactly lost it. Let's say it's temporarily mislaid,"

"But don't you realise? Without the TARDIS we're stranded!"

"Look," Ashe rushed to the Doctor, "Doctor, the whole life of this colony is in danger. Now, we'll help you look for your blue box later,"

"Yes, all right. Come on," The Doctor patted Ashe on the shoulder and made to leave the room, "Show me what's wrong,"

"But Doctor!"

"Later, Jo, later. Stay with Marion,"

"Good call,"

Marion knew very little about Electrical Engineering the help she would've been able to offer him started and ended with the phrase. "Could you hold the light for me?"

Marion watched the Doctor and Ashe go down the hall and then she patted Jo on the shoulder.

"Don't worry Jo," Marion assured, "I promise that when it's time for us to leave, we'll be able to. Don't forget, even if we had the TARDIS right here with us as we speak, we couldn't leave until we were done here anyway. It's fine,"

"What are you talking about?" the liar who's name Marion wasn't quite sure of said getting very close in her personal space, "Projections? Robots? I've been hunted by those things," he appealed to Winton, "You've seen them!"

"I saw something," Winton agreed, "But, it could have been faked,"

"And I know for certain that I saw a robot with raptor claws be sent to kill us!"

"Those creatures are real and you know it! Woman, you are either crazy or a liar! "

Marion clenched her fists by her side.

"Oh, you'd know a thing or two about-,"

"Marion!" Jo interrupted! Marion realized that she'd taken a step forward towards the man only to be stopped by Jo's hand. "There's no need for you to get this upset. If you and the Doctor say that they were faked, then I believe you,"

"You might believe her Jo," Winton argued, "but she hasn't managed to produce any evidence, has she? Neither she nor the Doctor has,"

"Well, why don't we do something?" Jo suggested.

"Such as what?

"Well, we could find some proof?"

"Where?"

"We could start with the IMC spaceship,"

Marion shut her eyes tight and then opened them again.

"Jo, you do realize of course that sneaking onto the ship of a company who we know for sure has no problems killing people especially when they know too much is a bad idea right?"

"Are you saying that we shouldn't?"

"I'm saying that there's someone in this dome who's working for IMC and if they know we're on our way, then there'll be time to burn all the evidence and also, and this is important, they'll be able to put together an ambush! It's not a great idea!"

"There's no one here but us," Jo assured. "Oh, and Mary," she said, gesturing to where Mary had been standing and listening to them. "But surely you don't think Mary is working for the company do you?"

"Well, but what about-,"

Marion looked around. She didn't see the liar around. He'd left. Perhaps because of how insistent she was on them NOT going.

"Still!" Marion insisted.

It would have been one thing if Jo and Winton's little search quest had led to anything other than them finding a robot and getting captured but...

But then again, them getting captured had led to Dent trying to Blackmail the Doctor which made everyone know for sure what had been going on and also helped the Doctor know what was going on with the Natives in a sort of butterfly effect.

Thinking about this was giving her a headache.

Then again, it was possible that her little outburst had convinced the man that they weren't going and that it wasn't going to be a problem at all.

Marion pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Jo, I want it on the record that what you're about to do has a large chance of going poorly and that I've said that,"

"Will it end poorly? If we go, is one of us going to end up dead?"

"Well, no but-,"

"Then I don't see why we shouldn't go!"

"Unless of course there's no evidence at all and you and the Doctor were lying about the robots," Winton accused.

Marion shrugged her shoulders.

"You know what? Sure, fine, let's go,"

Marion dug into her bag and retrieved her notebook, her pen, and the small cloth sack screwdriver heads. She put the cloth bag in her pants pocket and wrote the Doctor a note.

"Jo wanted to investigate IMC and I didn't want her and Winton to go alone. If things don't go to plan, you'll know. Watch my stuff. M,"

She folded the note and took her bag off her shoulder. She held them out to Mary.

"Could you please give these to the Doctor? The note and my bag I mean,"

Mary nodded. "Yes! I'll bring these to him right away,"

"Good, good, great," Marion said with a sigh. Mary left the room, to deliver the items to the Doctor.

"What was in that note?" Winton asked.

"Just me letting the Doctor know where we'll be if we take too long to come back. And I gave him my bag too in case we get captured so my stuff's not gone,"

"Are you ready to go then?"

"Ready as I'll ever be I suppose. Come on,"

And with that, the three of them left the main dome and walked in the direction of the ship, one clearly more reluctant than the other two.

(Next Chapter: Things Go As Well As Expected!)

Norton: I know that I saw giant reptiles.

Marion: And I know that you're a lying bitch.

I think this is the third time I've taken a dig at that thing people do in fics where they have the OC wear converse? It's nothing against people who write their OC's wearing converse. I just don't like them. The shoes I mean, not the people who write and their OC's. They offer no arch support, they're super bad for running, they're just not good shoes for anyone who expects to have to do a lot of running. I get that Ten wears them but like, since when are we using ANY incarnation of the Doctor for fashion advice.

Uh, for the bit about what's going on on the Earth in 2472, it's not like, exact. All the show really says is "The population is getting too big for people to survive!" and that's all very...Malthusian? Which is a little bit…

Anyway, I added to it by taking the information that we knew about the Earth and adding some extra details to make things seem a little bit closer to reality. So the reason that Earth is a little bit fucked right now not just because the population is increasing but because the areas that normally house the world's largest populations (Eastern, Southern, and Southwestern Asia) along with coastlines are inhabitable.