This adventure will take a few chapters so here you go! Let me know what you think. I've got a few more chapters of this lying around I can post within the next few days. Enjoy~
I woke up, startled before relaxing quickly and rolling my neck with a groan.
"Can't you at least untie me from the chair and give me a proper bed?" I called into the mostly empty metal room. "I already said I'm not a threat. I didn't even have any weapons!"
The bulkhead across from me opened to reveal the gruff man who'd insisted on throwing me in here like a prisoner when I'd abruptly appeared in their underwater base.
"Shut up," he snapped. "I already told you, until you explain how you got here and who you're working for—"
"And I told you I couldn't tell you how I got here even if I tried—not that you believed me when I told you I just pop up random places—and I don't work for anyone! I used to work at a dog boarding place once. Is that what you want?"
He huffed and started to close the door as I pulled against my restraints.
"Oh, come on! I haven't done anything! At least untie me! Please?"
The door closed though and I groaned in frustration, dropping my head back and scowling at the ceiling.
"This is your fault. Stupid ass deity sending me places too early. I hope you know that if I die I will come up there and annoy the shit out of you until you go mad."
The door opened again and I snapped my head back down to see two new people enter. The woman was frowning and eyeing me cautiously, while the man beside her was a little more awkward as he held a tray of what could only be food. My stomach twisted and let out a growl as my gaze flickered to the tray and back to them.
"Do I at least get untied to eat? Oh, please tell me I get untied to eat. I'm really tired of being tied up."
The woman started signing and I grimaced.
"Ah, really starting to think I should've taken ASL in college instead of Chinese."
"She said we can untie you as long as you don't try anything stupid," the man translated, placing the food tray down on the ground and hesitantly moving around behind me to work on the ropes.
"What do you think I'm going to do? Try and stab you with a plastic spoon?" I huffed, wincing as the ropes were loosened and bringing my hands in front of me to rub my chafed wrists.
"There's no protocol for this," the man said as he moved back over by the woman. "People don't just pop up in an underwater base."
"Yeah, well, I said you wouldn't believe me," I grumbled, picking up the tray and eating, glancing up when the woman started signing again.
"What's your name?" The man translated. "Ah, I'm Tim Lunn. I sign for Cass."
"Asher Watkins. Asher is fine. Sounds stupid but I get thrown through time and space following after a moron alien who likes to meddle in everyone's troublesome affairs. Sometimes I show up before he does," I offered with a shrug. "Which apparently leads me to be tied up and imprisoned on more than one occasion."
I winced as a sharp pain went through my shoulder; setting the tray down on my lap and carefully rolling it. It still wasn't quite right after the witch but better than it was, even with getting tied up.
"Hold on. So there's more of you coming?" Lunn asked.
"Depends. You had any trouble lately? Any big events coming up? Drama in the underwater base?"
The two exchanged looks and I frowned.
"Yeah, that looked like a yes to me."
"We… We go searching for underwater minerals and oil, but there's something we picked up on the radar. We're going to bring it onboard once we have all the permissions set up."
Cass started signing as he explained what she was saying.
"She's asking how many more people and why they'll be here only when there's trouble. She says it's suspicious."
I snorted. "Two more. Maybe three depending on who it is," I muttered, not quite sure which Doctor or companions might show up. "And if you must know, he goes looking for trouble. Adrenaline junkie. Probably a hero complex. He likes saving the day."
I shrugged and handed him my empty tray as he hesitantly eyed Cass signing away. When she finished and gestured to me, he sighed softly.
"We'll… We'll talk to Moran. Cass thinks you might be helpful with whatever we're dragging in, at least."
"Whatever you need," I offered, willing to try and help so long as I was—at the very least—left untied.
When they left though, I lightly frowned.
"Underwater base, sign language, pulling something in… Damn this is familiar."
I remembered rather quickly when they finally released me from the room and brought me into the hangar where they had the ship they pulled in. I'd become slightly less of a prisoner and no longer had to be tied to a chair or questioned. Moran had given up on getting any actual answers from me and true to their word, Lunn and Cass had stood up for me. It was only Moran and one other member of their little group who didn't care for me much but no one actually hated me so there was that. Being led into the hangar to see a familiar black spaceship though, sent a chill down my spine.
"How did they miss this in the initial survey?" Moran questioned from inside the vehicle as my mind spun.
This is not good. I can't prevent anything here. It's such a sensitive situation where any small change could end up with so many issues. People dead who shouldn't be, the Doctor and Clara, but… but maybe… I grit my teeth for a moment, running a hand through my hair and drawing Lunn's attention.
"Something wrong?"
"Nope. Not yet, anyway," I muttered, earning a strange look from him. "Sorry. Trust me when I say that the words that come out of my mouth will rarely make sense and maybe twenty percent of the time they're what I mean to say… I get my thoughts down better on paper."
"Right." He glanced up at the crewmates inside the ship as Cass started signing. "Cass says it was buried, and then the currents of the water must have shifted the rubble around."
"A conversation needs to be had about who owns the spaceship," Pritchard—the other crewmember who disliked me—said, earning a roll of my eyes.
"Can we stop calling it a spaceship? We don't know what it is," Moran grumbled.
"It's a spaceship," I chimed in, getting a glare from him as I held up my hands in surrender. "Sorry, but it is. It's a hearse."
"What?" Bennett questioned from inside. "How do you know that?"
Whoops, slip of the tongue. "It's all black on the outside and white on the inside?" I offered poorly. "And the interior is empty other than a spot for the casket and the cockpit that we haven't gotten into."
"So, you don't actually know," Moran huffed, as Pritchard rattled on about assets before Moran noticed something. "Whoa, whoa. What's this? Lunn, grab me a torch, will you?"
"Uh, maybe we should just leave it?" I offered poorly, despite my previous thoughts, I didn't actually want the crewmates here to die.
I got ignored, of course as Lunn went to grab a torch and Moran bickered with Pritchard about ownership. O'Donnell took the torch from Lunn and handed it over to Moran, making me shift awkwardly from foot to foot beside Lunn until they finished. Now, it starts. Cass and O'Donnell stepped out and Lunn argued lightly with Cass about going inside himself.
"Can I go in?" He asked her as she shook her head. "If it's not safe, how come you can go in?"
She ignored his question and instead asked one of her own.
"How long do you think it's been down here?" He translated for the others as I offered him a sheepish smile.
"If it helps, you lot wanted me to go in and I refused. I'm with Cass on this. I don't trust it."
"Yeah, but you know about as much as we do on this. Little to nothing."
I shrugged, glancing back at the ship. "Still, I don't like it. You know, ignoring the whole respect for the dead sort of thing."
"You're religious?"
I grimaced. "Eh, not so much. Grew up with a family that was and fell out of it, but ghosts? Let's just say they don't tend to like me much."
"Maybe it's some kind of experimental craft that got left behind when they abandoned the site," Moran offered the others, not liking that we were all calling it a spaceship.
"Wait, you think the army would just lose a prototype weapon?" Bennett questioned and Moran shot him a look.
"You're new to the military, aren't you?"
Cass was signing again as Lunn explained.
"Cass says he might be right. It might have been here since the 1980s when the valley flooded."
"Could've crashed on site in the 1980s," I tried, getting a glare from Moran.
"And I'm not believing a thing you say, given you still haven't told us anything about you."
"Or, you just don't like the answers I give," I grumbled under my breath before I saw sparks out of the corner of my eye.
"Cass!" Moran shouted, tackling her out of the way and knocking into me as well, probably saving my own life.
The ship's engine turned on and fried him instantly, catching my left shoulder and arm as I fell. Lunn grabbed Cass and O'Donnell thankfully grabbed my other arm, hauling the both of us up off the floor and out of the room as alarms blared. I spat out a string of curses with tears falling down my face before I was released and O'Donnell had to be grabbed by Bennett before she attempted to go back for Moran. There was a bit of chaos as everyone talked over one another for a moment and I leaned my head back against the metal wall and shucked in sharp breaths through my teeth; eyes clenched shut in pain.
"The fire. Are we safe out here?" Lunn finally asked over the others and Bennett nodded.
"It's fine. The CO2 will put the fire out."
O'Donnell whipped around to Pritchard then. "It was you! You were messing about with the controls on that ship!"
Before a fight could break out though, Cass let out a scream, grabbing Lunn and turning their attention to the ghostly figure of Moran standing there mouthing words.
"Moran… But we just saw you…"
"He's… Oh, my God. He's a ghost."
"W-We need to run," I breathed, getting onto my feet shakily, as another figure approached and for half a second no one moved until the ghosts reached for us. "Now!"
Cass knelt down in front of the young woman they'd only known a few days, signing as she wearily watched.
"She wants to know how you're feeling," Lunn translated as Asher scoffed.
"Like shit, honestly."
Cass offered a small sad smile and went on.
"She says you're handling it well, given the situation."
"High pain tolerance," Asher sighed, gripping the top of her shoulder just above thick bandaging. "And your medic skills, Lunn. I appreciate it even if I'm not one of your crew members."
Lunn rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, you're just as caught up in this mess as we are. We might not know you well, but you've been trying to help. We wouldn't have even thought of using the Faraday cage at night."
She hummed as Cass pressed a hand to her forehead briefly, signing to Lunn who frowned lightly in concern.
"We'll need to change the bandages soon," he told Asher who eyed him quietly. "You still have a fever. We need to keep it clean."
She nodded idly—not really listening or dazed by the fever—before O'Donnell suddenly spoke up by the door.
"Hey. Hey, there's people outside."
"What?" Bennett questioned, joining her. "She's right. There are people. Where did they come from?"
"Let them in," Asher croaked, drawing attention to her as she nodded toward the door. "It's still night cycle. The ghosts will be after them."
"But we don't even know them," Pritchard argued and she gave him a bland look.
"And you didn't know me but I saved your ass once already, didn't I?"
He pursed his lips and O'Donnell nodded, opening the door and waving the new people through.
"In here! Quick!"
The two hurried in and the door was closed behind them as the older man stepped up to the porthole to eye the ghosts who'd been after them.
"What are you?"
"Who the hell are you, and what are you doing here?" Pritchard demanded, making him turn and gesture to the woman who'd come in with him.
"This is Clara and I'm the Doctor," he introduced, showing his psychic paper to the group.
"You're from UNIT," Pritchard gasped.
"Well, if that's what it says."
"I'm Pritchard. This is Bennett."
"O'Donnell!" Said woman hastily introduced, grinning at him and shaking his hand eagerly. "Are you really the Doctor? I'm a huge fan. I mean, uh… you know… Nice work."
"Tim Lunn. I sign for Cass," Lunn said before looking at Asher. "And this is—"
"You're late," Asher huffed as Clara grinned.
"Asher! What are you doing here?"
"Surviving, begrudgingly," Asher sighed as the Doctor frowned, heading over and eyeing her. "I'm early," she muttered, tiredly. "Don't say anything you'll regret… again."
He cracked a small smile, placing a hand on her forehead. "Cheeky as ever, Ash."
"Sorry," Pritchard interrupted. "You know them?"
Asher glanced at him in annoyance. "Well, if you were listening when I tried to explain to you guys before, I said others would show up."
"She did," Lunn agreed but gave me a glance. "You didn't say how though."
"It's complicated," Asher huffed as the Doctor retracted his hand and pulled out his sonic to scan her. "You wouldn't have believed me anyway, remember? You thought I was a stowaway who hid out for months on end." She glanced at the Doctor when he frowned at her. "Only been here a week maybe."
He gestured to her bandaged arm. "Only a week and already getting caught up in trouble?"
"Pot calling kettle," she countered, closing her eyes as the Doctor turned to the others.
"How long has she been injured?"
"Three days," Lunn explained. "I've been doing what I could with our medical supplies. I know a bit about first aid."
The Doctor nodded and stood, frowning at the sonic for a moment before clearing his throat. "Right. Tell me, what about those things out there? What are they? Why are they trying to kill us?"
"Well, they're uh… they're ghosts," Bennett offered, and he eyed him.
"They're not ghosts."
"Ghost-like," Asher muttered, making him snap his fingers and point at her as Cass started signing.
"Cass is saying—"
"Thank you," the Doctor cut Lunn off. "But I actually don't need your help. I can speak sign. Go ahead."
Cass started signing and the Doctor watched for only a moment before shaking his head.
"No, no. Actually, I can't. It's been deleted for semaphore. Someone get me a selection of flags."
"One of the ghosts is our previous commanding officer," Lunn explained instead. "The other, um… moley guy, we don't know what he is. Asher said he's an alien?"
The Doctor nodded. "And she'd be right. He's from the planet Tivoli. Weird thing is, they're not violent. They're too cowardly. They wouldn't say boo to a goose. They're more likely to give the goose their car keys and bank details. When did they first appear?"
"Oh, did you see that spaceship in the hangar?" O'Donnell asked. "Yeah, we found that on the lake bed and we'd just got it on board and one of the engines started up and then Moran got… Moran was killed and your friend got hurt."
"Then, they appeared and pretty much straight away started trying to kill us," Lunn finished, translating for Cass. "So we grabbed what we could and we were looking for somewhere to hide, and that's when Asher mentioned trying in here."
"What is this place?" Clara asked and the Doctor replied as he eyed the room.
"It's a Faraday cage. Completely impenetrable to radio waves, and apparently, whatever those things are out there. Excellent work, Asher. Very quick thinking," he hummed, getting a lazy thumbs up from the woman. "So, who's in charge now? I need to know who to ignore."
"That would be me," Lunn said, hastily gesturing to Cass. "Her."
"Actually, that would be me," Pritchard declared, handing the Doctor his card. "I represent Vector Petroleum. We've obtained the mining rights to the oil."
"The oil? Where are we?" The Doctor tossed the card to the ground as Bennett answered.
"This used to be a military training site. There was a dam overlooking it, but the dam burst and the valley was submerged."
"Then, twenty years ago, we discovered a massive oil reservoir underneath it," Pritchard added, picking up his card as the computer announced that it was entering day mode and a sigh of relief passed through the room.
"Okay, it's morning. We can go outside now," O'Donnell announced, opening the door.
"Thank God for that."
"At last, we can get out of here."
"Morning?" Clara questioned as Bennett explained.
"Yeah, we're too far below the surface for daylight, so we have to demarcate artificial days and nights."
The Doctor frowned though, confused. "I'd like to have a further look at that spaceship, but what about those things that aren't ghosts?"
"Oh, it's alright," O'Donnell hummed. "They only come out at night."
"Weird how that is not comforting," Clara muttered, turning to Asher with a worried look. "Are you okay? Can you get up?"
Asher went to respond but the Doctor cut her off.
"No, she's exhausted, in pain, and running a high fever due to her injuries." He knelt down and waved at Asher as she raised a brow. "Come on, turn so I can pick you up."
Clara half expected her to complain about his coddling but she just did as he asked and leaned up against his chest once she was safely in his arms.
"Wow, you're really not feeling good then, huh? Usually, you get all flustered if he starts acting all nice."
"It's weird," Asher muttered, cracking an eye open. "But I'm honestly just tired. He wants to be nice, then I'm not about to argue."
"Is there anything I can do?" Clara asked, feeling bad for the woman who was usually a bit more outspoken.
"I need to go look at the ship," the Doctor said, giving her a look as they walked. "See if you can find medical supplies and something to eat and drink. I'll check her over and I'm sure she hasn't been caring for herself properly while like this."
Asher weakly smacked his chest with her good hand in protest at his words and he glanced over at Clara.
"Something sweet too, if you can."
Asher huffed. "Shut up."
"If whatever they are—"
"They're ghosts," interrupted Pritchard as the Doctor rolled his eyes.
"They're not ghosts," he corrected before continuing where he'd left off. "Have been trying to kill you, why haven't you abandoned the base?"
"That was my call. We've got about a trillion dollars worth of mining equipment here. We're not just going to abandon it," Pritchard declared, making the Doctor stop and stare as he huffed. "What? If it all goes pear-shaped, it's not them that lose a bonus."
The Doctor glanced down at me as I sighed lightly and waved a hand.
"Just ignore him. He's an idiot."
"Excuse me?" Pritchard gaped, offended, and the Doctor cracked a smirk at him.
"Not often she openly insults someone. Consider yourself lucky. Now, why is there a Faraday cage on the base?"
"It's the mining equipment," Bennett explained as the Doctor placed me in a chair and started removing the bandages on my arm as Clara brought over a medkit. "It runs on nuclear fission. The Faraday cage has been lined with lead to act as shelter in the event of a radiation leak."
"So, we are fighting an unknown homicidal force that has taken the form of your commanding officer and a cowardly alien, underwater, in a nuclear reactor. Anything else I should know? Someone got a peanut allergy or something?" He scoffed, shaking his head at the group and frowning as he stared at the blistered burns on my arm while I took a slow, steadying breath at the ripple of pain going up it. "You're doing good, Ash."
I shot him an exhausted look. "Should've seen me w-when it happened. Crying mess and cursing like a sailor," I scoffed, but he smiled lightly.
"I'd expect nothing less. Lunn, clean her up again. You've been doing excellent thus far."
Lunn nodded and headed over as he started to walk toward the ship and I begrudgingly spoke up to stop him.
"They're not ghosts."
He paused, not moving for a moment before continuing while Clara looked between us for a second in confusion then trailered after him into the ship. I watched as he stepped in and looked down at the ground, opening up a hatch in the floor; using him as a distraction from the pain I was dealing with as Lunn did his best to clean my burns again.
"Sorry," Lunn muttered when I flinched, gritting my teeth and shifting my arm back to where it was; flexing my other hand before just gripping my leg tightly.
"What's happened to the stuff you've removed? This is for long-haul flights. There should be a suspended animation chamber for the pilot right here. Plus, one of the power cells is missing," the Doctor asked as most of the crew went into the ship to look.
"Power cell?"
"Yeah. You can see the casing is empty," the Doctor pointed out as Lunn finished with my arm and I spoke up.
"No one removed anything, Doctor."
The Doctor frowned, hopping back down the steps and approaching me. "Nothing?"
"Everything in the ship is exactly how they found it," I sighed, cringing as I shifted my arm. "They pulled it in, looked around, stepped out and Moran was killed. Then, we hid."
He knelt in front of me, lowering his voice. "Anything you can tell me?"
I winced, immediately trying to think about what I could say before he placed a hand on my uninjured one.
"I'm not asking you to break the universe, Ash. Don't think about it. Just off the top of your head."
"It's… complicated," I offered but he misunderstood.
"Yes, well, if you overthink it, sure."
"No, I mean this whole thing is complicated. It's one of those things where…" I frowned, trying to explain while my mind was still muddled with pain and fever. "I don't… I don't know what can be done. If anything can be done. It's paradoxal—Is that the right word?"
He smiled a little. "Paradoxical," he corrected before frowning. "Though if there's a paradox involved then I'm glad you're aware of it enough to know not to do anything. It's dangerous to toy with something like that."
"But it's…" I furrowed my brows, closing my eyes and rubbing at my face for a moment, trying to clear some of the fog in my head. "It's only with certain people? I don't remember all of it and I can't think straight right now."
"It's fine," he muttered softly, his hand lightly taking mine and rubbing his thumb over the back of it; an action I might have questioned from this version of him if I could focus. "Don't worry about it for now. If anything comes up, tell me."
I hummed as he gave my knee a pat and stood up, but I grabbed his hand, stopping him. "Don't… Don't let Pritchard split up from the group. He's an idiot but… but we don't need more ghosts."
The Doctor nodded as I let him go and he immediately pointed at Pritchard who was trying to slip away.
"You, resident idiot. Show me to the bridge."
Pritchard frowned. "But I was—"
"Yeah, don't care. I doubt it was important. Come on. Chop, chop."
Clara frowned though, confused. "Wait, so we have some commander dying then those ghosts start appearing who can walk through walls and only come out at night. Doctor, what does that mean? What's causing this?"
"I dunno." He shrugged with a grin as he scooped me back up out of the chair and we started for the bridge. "Asher says they're not ghosts and I'm obviously inclined to believe her. So, what do you call things that act like ghosts but aren't ghosts? They're not holograms, they're not Flesh Avatars, they're not Autons, they're not digital copies bouncing around the Nethersphere. No, these people are literally, actually, dead. However, I've never met a proper ghost. If I did, I would think this is Christmas!"
"Moran was our friend," Lunn translated for Cass as we stepped into the bridge and I was once again settled into a chair.
"Sorry," I offered tiredly, glancing at the crew as they eyed him in mild annoyance. "He's socially inept."
"Rude," the Doctor huffed. "I'm supposed to be the rude one."
"You are being the rude one," I grumbled. "I'm just trying to prevent it from being a problem when we're all stuck in an underwater base trying to survive Night of the Living Dead."
"They're not zombies."
"And they're not ghosts so your excitement over questioning the dead about what it's like being dead is invalid," I complained and he opened his mouth as though he was going to argue before closing it with a frown. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
"Alright. Fine. Question one then: What is a ghost? Question two: What do they want?"
The lights suddenly turned off then and O'Donnell stood up.
"Whoa, whoa. What's happening?"
"Good evening. Entering night mode," the computer announced as she quickly moved to a control panel.
"That's not right. We're switching back into night mode again. This can't happen! No, no, no!"
A loud chime went off then, echoing through the halls.
"Um, what's doing that?" Bennett questioned as Clara looked at the Doctor.
"Doctor?"
"The Tardis cloister bell," he blurted out before taking off.
I sighed, dropping my head back on the back of the chair as Lunn glanced over in concern.
"You alright?"
"Honestly? I would love to just sleep through this mess. Deal with my fever, relax until my arm is actually usable, then maybe I'd be a little more cheery but instead, I'm stuck here with murder ghosts and people who don't know how to listen." I swung my head back down, glancing around the room. "Where's Pritchard?"
"He's right—" Lunn looked around, seeing that he'd slipped away too. "Oh."
I muttered a curse under my breath and pushed myself up from the chair only to falter as my head spun. Lunn grabbed me to keep me from falling, thankfully.
"You shouldn't be moving around."
"Pritchard—"
"We can page him on the comms."
I shook my head, sinking back into the chair when it made spots appear in my vision. "No. No, someone needs to get him. The ghosts—"
"I'll get him," Bennett offered but I nearly fell again trying to stop him.
"No! No, not you. It can't be you."
He frowned, offended and suspicious. "What? Why not?"
My mind was spinning as Lunn pushed me back into the chair, making words tumble from my mouth without warning.
"You've all got it... Can't let more people get hurt but what… what can I do?"
"She's not thinking clearly," Lunn told Bennett as he carefully helped me up. "Look, we need to get back to the Faraday cage if we've switched into night mode again."
"No, I think I can switch us back," O'Donnell said. "I'm going to need a minute though and if it doesn't work, we need resources."
Cass started signing as Lunn explained.
"Cass and I will get supplies from the hangar. Bennett, can you get food from the kitchens?"
"Mind if I help?" Clara asked, returning with the Doctor to the bridge. "I get a bit antsy with nothing to do."
Bennett shrugged. "Sure."
She stepped out with him as the Doctor spotted Lunn with a hand on my shoulder as I wiped at the sweat on my face in annoyance. He frowned and headed over as Lunn spoke.
"She was trying to get up. I told her not to but then she started rambling things. I think her fever went up."
Lunn left with Cass, glancing back at me as the Doctor pressed his hand to my forehead again.
" 'm fine," I grumbled, annoyed with how useless I was.
"You're the opposite of fine but you're welcome to try lying about it all you want," he huffed, taking his hand back. "What were you trying to tell them?"
"Pritchard's gone."
The Doctor looked around and frowned. "Then, I'll—"
"No," I complained, frustrated with what I could and couldn't say. "No, you don't understand. We can't get him. Not everyone. They'll be next if they do, then the order is mixed up and—"
"Ash, take a breath for me please," he ordered calmly and I forced myself to inhale shakily, doubling over and pressing my palm to my forehead as I shook. "You said this was complicated," he murmured in my ear as he knelt down and rubbed my back slowly to try and help. "You can't tell me certain things and I get that, but right now, you need to focus on yourself. You can't help any of us if you're not well. Okay?"
I nodded slowly as he pressed a kiss to the top of my head.
"Now, you said there was an order, and not everyone can get Pritchard. I can work with that. Thank you."
I lifted my head, giving him a dubious look but he cracked a smile again before Bennett spoke up on the comms.
"O'Donnell, it's okay. Pritchard's in here!"
"They need to run," I breathed, drawing the Doctor's attention as O'Donnell scolded him on the comms and went back to working on switching us over into day mode.
"What do you mean, Ash?" He muttered to me, keeping his voice low so she wouldn't overhear.
We had to keep quiet about what I knew but the fever was making it hard to think straight.
"Pritchard's gone," I murmured, wiping sweat off my face before he did it for me with a handkerchief.
"They found him."
"No, no. He's gone. He's dead. Went to find… find something. Greedy idiot."
"Dead? But if he's dead then—"
"Man overboard. Man overboard! We need a rescue team in the water now!" Bennett said, comms still online in the cafeteria.
"Bennett, wait!" Clara stopped him. "It's Pritchard."
The Doctor had already taken off running to go help when I told him about Pritchard and I sighed, leaning back in the chair and closing my eyes; exhausted and wishing I could just be asleep instead of hurt, sick, and useless.
The security feed of what happened to Pritchard played for the crew in the bridge now that day mode had been brought back online and they were safe from the ghosts. The crew watched solemnly as Pritchard was drowned in the airlock leading outside by the ghost of Moran. The Doctor though, was wiping sweat off Asher's face quietly and with a small frown. She was asleep, worn out from the fever and her injury. It's for the best right now. As it was, she was struggling to think clearly and giving things away. It's dangerous if the crew were to hear of what she knows… though what she said has me curious.
"They're working out how to use the base against us," he told the crew, standing beside Asher. "Altering the time settings so they can go about uninhibited, opening the airlocks. They're learning."
"And now there's three of them," Clara added and Bennett looked over at Cass; the new person in charge with Moran and Pritchard dead.
"Cass, what do we do?"
Cass signed as Lunn spoke. "We abandon base. Topside can send down a whole team of marines or ghostbusters or whatever."
"Wait, wait," the Doctor tried to stop her but she got in his face about it.
"I can't force you to leave, so you can stay and do the whole cabin in the woods thing and get killed or drowned if you want. But my first priority is to protect my crew." She threw a finger at Asher. "Yours should be the same."
The Doctor couldn't argue that and Clara headed over to question him quietly.
"But we're coming back, aren't we?"
"Yes, we're coming back," he agreed as Cass ordered O'Donnell to contact topside.
"Drum Control, this is Topside. We have received your message. Submarine on its way. Over," Topside responded, confusing them.
"Repeat, Topside. Over."
"We've received your request for a rescue sub. It's two minutes away. Over."
"Topside, who did you speak to and when was this request made? Over," O'Donnell questioned, knowing that there was no way they were moving that quickly after being contacted just now.
"Drum Control, it was in Morse code and arrived maybe half an hour ago. Said it was urgent, comms were down, two crew members critically ill, full paramedic team requested. Over."
The Doctor instantly understood and took the headset from O'Donnell. "Topside, this is the Doctor, UNIT security visa seven one zero Apple zero zero. You may be familiar with my work. Call back the sub."
"Doctor, why would—"
"Call it back! We have a hazardous and undefined contagion on board. This base is now under quarantine," he ordered, setting the headset down at Bennett questioned him.
"What did you do that for?"
"Well, none of us sent the message, did we? So that means that the ghosts sent it, which means they want that crew down here," the Doctor explained.
"Why would they do that?" Lunn asked, worried.
"Well, I don't know, but I'm pretty certain it's not so they can all form a boy band. Okay. We solve this on our own. The ghosts can only come out at night so they change the base's time settings. Why? What's different at night?"
O'Donnell was quick to answer. "It's mainly atmospheric. The lights are dim, the noise from the engines is muffled."
"No, something, something else."
Cass signed then. "The diagnostic sweep. When the systems are checked, that stops at night to save power."
"What systems specifically?"
"Life support, the locks," O'Donnell explained. "They're electromagnetic. They have to be secured in case of flooding, so throughout the day, they're checked, one by one, every few seconds."
"The answer is in there somewhere, I can smell it," the Doctor grumbled, Asher's words still rattling through his head. An order… Order of what? Not everyone could save Pritchard… why not? She said…"They'll be next," he muttered, making Clara frown.
"Doctor? Doctor, what do we do?"
He shook his head of the thoughts for now, knowing exactly what he needed. "O'Donnell, excellent work returning the base to day mode," he praised, making her grin sheepishly.
"Shut up. It was nothing. You really think so?"
"Now, put it back into night mode."
Her smile fell quickly. "What!"
"We know nothing. We don't know what they want. That's what's getting us killed. Well, I won't run. Not anymore. So, O'Donnell, kindly put the base back into night mode. We want to know what these ghosts are after? We ask them. We're going to do the impossible. We're going to capture a ghost."