The Doctor, Ruby and Beatriz stepped onto the platform. The three of them exchanged looks before going off to separate levels. Ruby and Beatriz began to descend to the floor below them and the platform came to a satisfying stop, lining up perfectly with the floor. They stepped off to begin their search for the crew.
The first dozen floors went by slowly. Even with two people searching each floor, Ruby felt like time went by like a snail. So to pass the time, she tried to start a conversation. While they were in one of the rooms Beatriz was looking through a computer to find any signs of crew members. Ruby paced around the room looking at all the different types of electronic equipment fixed on the wall.
"So," Ruby started. "You're the navigator of this ship?" She looked towards Beatriz who didn't seem that interested in the conversation and instead kept working on the computer.
"Sort of," Beatriz replied, not turning around. "This ship has five navigators."
"What happened?" Beatriz stopped what she was doing and turned around to face her.
"Why do you want to know?" Beatriz asked. Ruby shrugged her shoulders and leaned against the wall.
"Just curious." Ruby replied. "Plus, it's a way to pass the time." Beatriz thought about it for a second before replying.
"I was working on one of the lower floors when it happened," Beatriz began. She continued to work on the computer while telling the story. "A while back, we discovered a small asteroid drifting around in space. We started to research it when we realised that no matter what, it read no signal. No sound, no heat, no texture, nothing. I was in the room with the rock when I heard a sound coming from the upper floors, it was like an explosion, but it sort of cut off half way through. Then it went silent. I walked to the elevator to try to find out what the noise was, but then I heard it."
"Heard what?" Ruby asked.
"Same thing you heard earlier. That horrible hum, only it was louder, it felt like my head was going to explode. It only became bearable when I hid in the room. Whenever I tried to leave and it made a sound, the noise came back. Once, I closed my eyes because the sound was so unbearable. Only when I opened them, the rock was gone and the door was damaged. A couple more hours of hiding and putting up with that noise, and you two showed up."
"This rock," Ruby asked. "What did it look like?" Beatriz was about to answer when the computer screen flashed red.
"We've got a problem." Beatriz said. " The oxygen cells are leaking."
"What?" Ruby exclaimed. "How long?"
"Half an hour," Beatriz examined the screen closer. "And it looks like the gravity is going even faster."
Ruby grabbed Beatriz's radio, which was sitting on the table, and called the doctor to warn him. The Doctor's voice crackled through on the radio. "Ruby!"
While Ruby was talking to the Doctor, Beatriz continued to look through the ship's files and discovered that one of the doors on the floor below them was opened ten minutes ago. The floor below them was the maintenance storage. Beatriz was surprised by the fact that someone was alive on the floor considering that none of their rooms were sound proof.
"It seems so obvious now!" The Doctor said a little too loud for Beatriz's liking.
Beatriz took the radio from Ruby's hand and spoke. "That's great but can you keep it down?" Beatriz said at a slightly lower volume. "I know the rooms are soundproof, but I'd rather not risk it." Beatriz handed the radio back to Ruby who finished the call a few seconds later.
"There's someone on the floor below us." Beatriz explained. "But there's no rooms down there so we'll have to keep quiet,"
Ruby nodded her head and the pair walked out of the safety of the soundproof room. When they walked on the elevator, it moved much slower than before because of the shorter distance. The platform descended into the maintenance storage, and it was a mess. Crates and boxes were thrown around the place, the lights were dim, and wires were hanging from the ceiling. As well as the mess, the room's design was completely different from the others. Instead of white and orange, the walls were a dark shade of green. Instead of a octagonal layout with four rooms, it was one large rectangle.
When the platform landed, they split up to search the room. Ruby stepped over broken equipment and puddles of liquid she'd rather not know the origin of. It was hard for her to see the whole room with all the crates in the way, so she hopped up on the tallest one to get a better view. From the top of the crate, she saw in the corner of the room, there was a small shoe poking out from behind a stack of crates. Ruby waved over Beatriz who quickly and quietly made her way over.
The two snuck their way around the corner and saw three maintenance crew workers knocked unconscious in a corner. They were under a large sheet of metal which had fallen from the roof. Ruby and Beatriz worked together to carefully lift the metal off the workers and place it down carefully. Ruby walked over to the nearest one, knelt down, and checked his pulse. It was slow and inconsistent. As Ruby was about to check the next worker, one of them sat up as fast as lightning and took a deep gasp of air. He looked around, then at Ruby and Beatriz who gestured for him to keep quiet. He didn't listen.
"What happened?" The worker asked loudly. His voice echoed throughout the large room, amplifying his words. Beatriz quickly over his mouth with her hand.
"Don't talk," she whispered. Ruby looked towards the elevator, hoping that the creature didn't hear them. Suddenly, the radio started buzzing. Wanting to make as little sound as possible, Ruby turned the volume to a minimum and went over to the corner to answer the call.
"Doctor!" She whispered as quietly as she could. "We've found the maintenance crew."
"Ruby, that thing is coming for you!" The Doctor shouted through the radio "Get into one of the rooms!" The atmosphere of the room changed into panic as the worst was about to happen.
"We can't." Ruby replied. She was beginning to panic. "There aren't any rooms on this floor"
"Then get on the elevator!" He shouted.
Ruby looked over to Beatriz who was trying to get the elevator to work, she looked up and shook her head implying it wasn't working
"It's broken!" She answered. The Doctor was saying something else, but the radio went silent. Everything went silent. Thinking quickly, Ruby ran over to Beatriz and the worker and dragged them to a nearby open crate. The three jumped in the crate and closed the lid. They all kept quiet, with the worker only doing so out of confusion.
There was silence, then the platform came into view. The three of them watched from the inside of the crate through a crack. When the creature landed on their floor, there was no noise. There was only silence. From the inside of the crate they could see the workers' chests rise and fall with each breath. The creature walked over to the two workers and put its hands on both their heads. The creature made a sharp high pitched ringing noise, and the workers stopped breathing.
The worker with Ruby and Beatriz gasped. Beatriz quickly covered his mouth. Even though no sound came out the creature whipped its head around and began to approach the crate with Them inside. Suddenly, the sound of an incredibly loud war horn blasted through the spaceship making the creature flinch and cover its ears. Well, the empty space where ears should be. The creature turned towards the elevator and made its way to the top floor. While it ascended, it glared at Ruby, Beatriz and the maintenance worker in the crate.
The three of them peaked their heads out of the crate. Ruby was the first to leave the crate walking over to the workers and checking their pulses. There was none. She looked back at the maintenance worker who was staring at them and shook her head. Then, the radio began crackling. At first, Ruby couldn't figure out what it meant, but then the quality became clearer.
"Ruby, are you guys ok?" The Doctor asked worriedly. Ruby picked up the radio and answered.
"Yeah, we're all ok. It didn't see us." Ruby replied. "But Doctor that noise, it was you wasn't it?"
"Yes it was me."
"What are you going to do?" There was silence, a few seconds of no reply. But then-
"Like I told you. We're going to have a little chat." The Doctor hung up the call leaving Ruby to wonder what he meant by that. She turned to Beatriz and the worker who had left the crate and were now standing next to her. She looked at them, all of them unsure of what to do. Ruby knew that the smart thing to do would be to go to the TARDIS and wait for the Doctor. It was what the Doctor told her to do, and it was the reasonable thing to do. Ruby had her answer.
"We need to help the Doctor"