A/N: Part two coming your way!
Enjoy :)
THE DEVIL'S IN THE DETAILS
"So I'll find what lies beneath,
Your sick, twisted smile,
As I lie underneath
Your cold, jaded eyes."
– Breaking Benjamin: 'What Lies Beneath' (Dear Agony [2009])
Habitation Three
The lights suddenly flicker overhead, causing Ida to frown up at them. She speaks into her wrist-comm.
"Zach? Have we got a problem?" She asks him.
"No more than usual," Zach replied. "Got the Scarlet System burning up. Might be worth a look."
Ida wonders over to the lever that releases the overhead shutters for a view of the black hole outside. She turns towards the Doctor and the Tyler sisters.
"You might want to see this," She invites them, and they nod interestedly. "Moment in history." The shutters open, revealing the Black Hole above, glowing away ominously as it continues to pull in the debris of dead planets, solar systems, and meteorites. A red streak suddenly comes into view and Ida points towards it. "There. On the edge. That red cloud. That used to be the Scarlet System. Home to the Peluchi; a mighty civilisation spanning a billion years, disappearing forever. Their planets and suns consumed." The Scarlet System disappears into the Black Hole. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have witnessed its passing."
Ida goes to retract the shutters back over the domed glass roof, but the Doctor stops her.
"Er, no, could you leave it open?" Ida blinks at him in surprise. "Just for a bit. I won't go mad, I promise."
"How would you know?" Ida smirks at him with amusement, earning a warm smile back from the Doctor. "Scooti, check the lockdown. Jefferson, sign off the airlock seals for me."
Both of them nod. Jefferson and Scooti leave by door 17 or 19, while Ida uses door 18.
'Open door 18'.
Rose sidles up the Doctor, looking at the Black Hole with semi-interest, while Katy observes from where she was sitting at the table, still sketching away at the picture she was working on.
"I've seen films and things, yeah." The Doctor inclines his head in Rose's direction, indicating that he was listening to her whilst not taking his eyes off the Black Hole. "They say black holes are like gateways to another universe."
'Close door 18'.
"Not that one," the Doctor corrected her. "It just eats." Rose pouts in disappointment when the Doctor never once broke away his observation of the Black Hole to look at her. But she continues her conversation.
"Long way from home," She notes, and this time the Doctor tears his gaze away from the hole and looks at her, contemplatively. He looks back at the ceiling, away from the Black Hole and thinks for a moment.
"Go that way," He points in a random direction. "Turn right, keep going for, er, about, er, five hundred years, and you'll reach the Earth." He smiles at her, before turning back to the Black Hole, studying it.
Katy rolled her eyes, amused at Rose's attempt to capture her boyfriend's attention for her own, and returned back to her artwork, as Rose turned dejectedly away from the Doctor and came back to the table. She takes a seat turning her phone back on.
"No signal," Rose announces to Katy, who frowned; surprised as Rose's phone had universal roaming and it was unusual that she was unable to even make a call to their mother to let her know that they were alright. "That's the first time we've gone out of range. Mind you, even if I could, what would I tell her?"
"'How's your day been?' 'How are you?' 'Just wanted to let you know I love you?'" Katy listed, helpfully.
Rose frowns down at her phone, then suddenly brightened when a thought occurs to her as she swiveled around to look at the Doctor.
"Can you build another Tardis?"
"They were grown, not built." The Doctor finally takes his eyes off the Black Hole and goes back to the table, taking a seat beside Katy. "And with my own planet gone, we're kind of stuck," He grimaced, apologetically.
"Well, it could be worse," Rose shrugged. "This lot said they'd give us a lift."
"And then what?" The Doctor frowned.
"I don't know. Find a planet, get a job, live a life, same as the rest of the universe," Rose listed, casually.
"I'd have to settle down," the Doctor realised. "Get a house or something. A proper house with, with doors and things. Carpets. Me, living in a house. Now that, that is terrifying."
"You'd have to get a mortgage," Katy teased, playfully.
He looks at her in horror.
"No."
"Oh, yes." She giggled, and the Doctor groans, like the very idea of being 'domesticated' was a hardship.
"I'm dying. That's it. I'm dying. It is all over…" He whined, and slumped back into his seat, staring up at the ceiling.
"What about me? I'd have to get one, too." Rose chimed in, then looked at the Doctor slyly, earning a suspicious look from Katy. "I don't know, could be the same one." Rose hinted innocently as the Doctor slowly looked at her, immediately looking uncomfortable when he realised what the blonde was getting at, while Katy started glaring daggers at her and then down at her artwork. "We could both, I don't know, share…" Rose looked up at him through her lashes, coyly, only to freeze when she realised that the Doctor wasn't paying attention to her and instead was observing Katy thoughtfully. Her mood immediately plummeted and she scowled. "Or not, you know. Whatever. I don't know. We'll sort something out."
"And what am I? Chopped liver?" Katy bit out, unaware that she was being watched tenderly by the Doctor.
"Anyway…" the Doctor jumped in, eager to change the subject. "I promised Jackie I'd always take you both back home."
"Everyone leaves home in the end," Rose pointed out.
"Not to end up stuck here." The Doctor was sullen, upset by the reminder.
"Well, yeah. But stuck with you, that's not so bad." Katy reminded him, and the Doctor grinned, pleased.
"Yeah?"
"Yes!" Katy smiled warmly at him.
Rose scowled resentfully at the couple and jumped when her phone randomly rings. All three of them look at it in surprise, and Rose answers it.
"Hello?"
"He is awake…" The eerie voice that had been tormenting Toby responds.
Rose tosses her phone to the floor, shocked.
Ood Habitation
To help Rose take her mind off the strange phone call she had received earlier, the Doctor decided to take both Rose and Katy to visit the Ood Habitation and discover more about this unusual alien lifeform.
"Evening!" the Doctor calls out to Danny, who stops what he was doing and turns to the trio as they walked casually across a metal catwalk towards him.
"Only us," Rose added, smiling at him.
Katy merely nodded politely, content with just observing the area for now, listening, and maybe asking a question or two where appropriate. Danny smiles at them in greeting.
"The mysterious trio. How are you, then? Settling in?" He asked, very curious about them since they had first appeared in the Control Room this morning. However, the Doctor wasn't completely interested in small talk, and smoothly dodged Danny's inquiry.
"Yeah. Sorry, straight to business. The Ood; how do they communicate?" Danny looks at him strangely, and the Doctor elaborated, patiently. "I mean, with each other."
"Oh, just empaths," Danny explained. "There's a low level telepathic field connecting them. Not that that does them much good. They're basically a herd race. Like cattle."
Katy bristles at the flippant terminology, but somehow manages to hold her tongue from saying something scathing back as she re-directs her attention down to the Ood who were sitting on some benches down below the catwalk they were standing on.
The Doctor observes them also.
"This telepathic field. Can it pick up messages?"
"Because Katy and I were having dinner," Rose added to the conversation. "And one of the Ood said something, well, odd." She explained, still feeling uneasy about the strange comment that Ood had blurted out during the serving session.
Danny looked amused.
"Hmm, an odd Ood," He responded with a grin.
"And then I got something else on my, er, communicator thing." Rose continued, awkwardly and clumsily covering up the fact that she had what would be considered a primitive item from a long time ago.
This time Danny scoffed incredulously.
"Oh, be fair. We've got whole star systems burning up around us," He argued. "There's all sorts of stray transmissions. It's probably nothing." The three time travellers just gave him an unimpressed look. "Look, if there was something wrong, it would show. We monitor the telepathic field," Danny explains. "It's the only way to look after them. They're so stupid, they don't even tell us when they're ill."
"I don't blame 'em. If you're gonna call them stupid." Katy sneered, and the Doctor gave her a sharp look to behave herself, and then gave one to Rose who had been smirking smugly at her sister, before sulking when she got caught.
He turns back to the conversation.
"Monitor the field. That's this thing?" The Doctor pointed towards a nearby computer that read 'basic 5' on the screen.
"Yeah. But like I said, it's low level telepathy. They only register basic five." Danny insisted.
But then the computer started reading basic 7, then 8, and 9. Katy's eyes widened and tugged on the Doctor's sleeve to get his attention.
"Uh, Doctor…" She points at the screen and the Doctor looks for himself and frowns.
"Well, that's not basic five. Ten, twenty. They've gone up to basic thirty." The Ood suddenly raise their heads, as Danny looked alarmed.
"But they can't."
"Why can't they?" Katy questioned.
"Doctor, the Ood. What does basic thirty mean?" She asked. Danny answers both questions simultaneously.
"Well, it means that they're shouting, screaming inside their heads."
"Or something's shouting at them," the Doctor theorised, grimly.
"But where is it coming from? What's it saying?" Danny questioned, looking panicked before questioning the sisters. "What did it say to you two?"
"Something about the beast in the bit," Rose hesitated, struggling to remember. But Katy, because of her dormant Time Lady consciousness, had a photographic memory, and was able to remember exactly what the Ood had said to them.
"It said: 'The Beast and his Armies shall rise from the Pit to make war against God.'" She relayed.
"Okay, and what about your communicator? What did that say?" Danny asked Rose, urgently.
This time, Rose hesitated before responding.
"He is awake."
"And you will worship him." All the Oods spoke up in unison, startling the sisters and Danny, who look down at them with wide eyes.
"What the hell?" Danny muttered.
"That is creepy…" Katy agreed. The Doctor faced the Ood, leaning forward on the metal banister.
"He is awake." He repeated Rose's response.
"And you will worship him." The Oods once again responded.
"Worship who?" The Doctor demanded, but the Ood don't respond. "Who's talking to you? Who is it?"
Toby's quarters
Unaware of what was unfolding in the Ood Habitation, Scooti makes her way to Toby's quarters to give him some important paperwork.
"Toby, I've got your expenditure," She tells him, as she walks into the room. But Toby wasn't there. Scooti frowns in confusion.
'Open door 41'. 'Close door 41'.
Scooti frowns when she hears what the computer had just said.
"Forty-one?"
Corridor
She steps out of Toby's quarters to investigate what she assumes is a computer malfunction, presumably because of electromagnetic disruptions to the system. Reason being door forty-one was an airlock door that lead outside the base, on the surface of the planet; exposed to the elements.
'Close door 40'.
"Computer, did you open and close door 41?" Scooti questioned the system.
'Confirmed'.
"But that's the airlock. Why would you open the airlock? It's the night shift. We're not allowed outside. Has someone gone out?" She inquires.
'Confirmed'.
"But who was it?" Scooti asked, worriedly.
'Cannot confirm'.
"Okay. But hold on. I know. Tell me whose spacesuit's been logged out." She requests.
'No spacesuit has been logged out'.
"But you're not making any sense," Scooti explained, impatiently. "You can't go outside without one." She raises her wrist-comm to her mouth. "Zach, I think we've got a breakdown on door 41. It's saying somebody's gone outside onto the planet's surface." Zach doesn't respond. "Zach? Zach! Computer, trace fault." She orders, urgently.
'There is no fault'.
"Tell me who went through that door!" Scooti demanded, angrily.
'He is awake.'
"What?" Scooti blinked.
'He is awake'. The computer repeated. Scooti frowned, unamused and disturbed.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
'He bathes in the black sun…'
Scooti looks out of a window by door 41 and is shocked to see Toby standing with his back to her on the surface of the planet; exposed to the elements, not wearing a spacesuit. Then suddenly, he turns, very much alive and smiling at her, covered in the strange symbols and with red eyes. But the smile on his face made Scooti shudder in horror.
It was menacing and evil … very evil.
"Toby," She breathed, stunned by what she was witnessing. "But there's no air, there's no…" She trails off when Toby starts beckoning to her. Scooti starts backing off, very much afraid. "No! Stop it! You can't be!" Toby clenches his fist, and the glass in the window begins to crack. Scooti turns and flees for her life back towards door 40. "Open door 40! Open door 40! Open door 40! Open door 40! Open door 40!"
The glass breaks.
Scooti screams.
Ood Habitation
The entire base starts shaking violently.
'Emergency hull breach. Emergency hull breach'. The Doctor, Katy, Rose, and Danny glance about in confusion.
"Which section?" Danny questioned.
"Everyone, evacuate eleven to thirteen. We've got a breach. The base is open. Repeat, the base is open!" Zach reports in over the hidden speakers. Immediately, the four of them start running towards Habitation Three.
Corridor
'Open door 19'.
The Doctor, Katy, Rose, and Danny stumble inside, shutting the door behind them firmly.
'Close door 19'.
"I can't contain the oxygen field. We're going to lose it!" Zach shouted. Elsewhere on the ship, Jefferson is herding the straggling crew members towards Habitation Three.
"Come on! Keep moving!" He yells, before spotting a 'disoriented' Toby, and pulling him in the right direction. "And you too, Toby!"
The rest of the crew make it to the corridor the three time travellers and Danny were currently standing in.
'Breach sealed. Breach sealed'.
"Everyone all right?!" The Doctor exclaimed. "What happened? What was it?"
'Oxygen levels normal'.
"Hull breach," Jefferson explained, gravely. "We were open to the elements. Another couple of minutes and we'd have been inspecting that black hole at close quarters."
The Doctor nodded, accepting the explanation, but still wanting to know what caused the breach.
"That wasn't a quake. What caused it?" He asked, concerned. But before anyone could respond to his questions, Zach suddenly chimed in from the Control Room.
"We've lost sections eleven to thirteen. Everyone all right?" He requested, and Jefferson did a quick head check of the crew, including the Doctor, Katy and Rose. He raised his wrist-comm to his mouth.
"We've got everyone here except Scooti," He confirmed. "Scooti, report. Scooti Manista? That's an order. Report." Jefferson demanded.
"She's all right," Zach confirmed. "I've picked up her biochip. She's in Habitation Three. Better go and check if she's not responding. She might be unconscious." Zach advised. "How about that, eh? We survived."
Toby's skin had returned to normal; nothing remotely resembling that he had somehow been possessed by something. Jefferson let out a relieved breath.
"Habitation Three," He gestures to the rest of the crew, and the Doctor and the Tyler Sisters. "Come on. I don't often say this, but I think we could all do with a drink. Come on!"
The Doctor notices how disoriented and confused Toby looked and went over to him, both looking for answers and to see if the poor young man was okay.
"What happened?" He asks Toby, gently.
"I don't … I don't know," Toby responds breathlessly. "I was working, and then I can't remember. All that noise. The room was falling apart. There was no air." He was about seconds away from hyperventilating, so Rose and Katy walk over and help Toby to his feet.
"Come on. Up you get. Come and have some protein one." Rose suggested, and Katy wrinkled her nose as the Doctor raised an eyebrow at the blonde.
"Oh, you've gone native." He observed, and Rose grinned at him.
"Oi don't knock it. It's nice," She shrugged nonchalantly. "Protein one with just a dash of three."
"I'll pass. I didn't like how it tasted." Katy stated, making a face.
Habitation Three
The crew searched the entire base for any signs of Scooti after the sanctuary base had been compromised and nearly sucked everyone out into outer space to be squeezed to death inside a black hole. Ida walks back into Habitation Three, looking very worried.
"I've checked Habitation four. Can you hear me?" She spoke into her wrist-comm to Scooti, but still not getting any response to her call from the young woman.
"There's no sign of her. The biochip says she's in the area," Jefferson acknowledged before turning to Toby and the three time travellers for assistance. "Have any of you seen Scooti?"
"No, no, no, I don't think so." Toby stammered. Ida shook her head, and tried to contact Scooti again through the wrist-comm.
"Scooti, please respond. If you can hear this, please respond. Habitation Six?" She asks Jefferson, who shakes his head no.
"Nowhere here," The older former soldier was also getting worried, and everyone could see it. Katy and Rose look at the Doctor worriedly, as he observed what was going on also with a stoic expression on his face. "Zach? We've got a problem. Scooti's still missing." Jefferson tells Zach.
A dark shadow floats overhead, catching Katy's attention and she pauses and looks around for whatever was casting the shadow. Then makes the mistake of looking up, and pales.
"Oh, god… Doctor…" He hears and looks at her and his grim face softens when he sees her distressed face.
"What's wrong?" He asks her, and Katy's only response was to nod her head to the domed ceiling above them. The Doctor looks and a dark expression crosses his face, as tears well up in Katy's eyes.
"It says Habitation Three…" Zach continues insisting, as the Doctor wraps an arm around his girlfriend's shoulders and brings her closer to comfort her.
"Yeah, well, that's where I am, and I'm telling you she's not here—"
"We found her." The Doctor interrupts Jefferson, still looking at the ceiling. Rose and the others look up through the open shutters, and Rose gasps.
"Oh, my God."
The body of Scooti is floating right above their heads, drifting away towards the black hole.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…" the Doctor extends his condolences. Jefferson swallows hard before slowly raising his wrist-comm to his mouth.
"Captain. Report Officer Scootori Manista PKD, deceased. Forty three K two point one."
"She was twenty. Twenty-years old." Ida reveals, solemnly. She closes the shutters, just as Jefferson starts quoting Horatius by Thomas Babington Macaulay:
"For how should man die better than facing fearful odds? For the ashes of his father…" He trails off.
"… and the temples of his Gods." Katy finishes the rest of the poem, earning a nod of thanks from Jefferson.
Suddenly, the loud noises stop, and the base falls silent.
"It's stopped." Ida realises, indicating to the drills the crew were using to dig through the planet's crust.
"What was that? What was it?" Rose questioned.
"The drill." The Doctor answered, still hugging and soothing Katy, who pulls away from him, wiping her eyes. He kisses her forehead, and she smiles gratefully at him.
"We've stopped drilling. We've made it. Point Zero." Ida reveals, relieved.
Drilling Area
The crew immediately set aside their grief for their fallen comrade and got to work on their assigned tasks. Katy and Rose stood off to the side watching the commotion with a sense of foreboding. What exactly were they trying to uncover?
"All non-essential Oods to be confined." Zach orders over the tannoy.
"Capsule established. All systems functioning. The mineshaft is go. Bring systems online now." Ida reported in.
Both Katy and Zach frowned disapprovingly when they spotted the Doctor strolling up wearing an orange spacesuit. He had an excited grin on his face; obviously eager to see what all the fuss was about this pit they had been creating for the purpose of their exploration.
"Reporting as a volunteer for the expeditionary force," the Doctor stated, and Zach let out an annoyed groan.
"Doctor, this is breaking every single protocol. We don't even know who you are."
"Yeah, but you trust me, don't you?" the Doctor persisted. "And you can't let Ida go down there on her own." Zach hesitated, earning a slightly triumphant look from the Doctor, knowing that he was wearing the reluctant Captain down. "Go on. Look me in the eye. Yes you do, I can see it. Trust."
"I should be going down," Zach insisted.
"The Captain doesn't lead the mission. He stays here, in charge." The Doctor pointed stubbornly.
"Not much good at it, am I?" Zach retorts bitterly, but ultimately gives in, and let's the Doctor have his own way. "Positions! We're going down in two. Everyone, positions!" Zach yells out his orders. "Mister Jefferson! I want maximum system enhancement."
Katy gets up from where she was sitting with Rose and goes over to the Doctor, looking concerned and worried. The Doctor grins at her as he looks himself over in the spacesuit with a look of nostalgia on his face.
"Oxygen, nitro balance, gravity. It's ages since I wore one of these," he said to her cheerfully.
"What are you doing, Doctor?" Katy questioned, quietly and urgently. He looks at her with confusion.
"I'm going down into that shaft," He replied.
"It's dangerous, Doctor. You have no idea what could be down there." Katy reasoned. The Doctor paused, realising what she was implying and becoming serious.
"And your point would be…?"
"My point is: why does it have to be you to go and check it out, when these people are already going to do it themselves?" Katy stated, slightly irritated with him.
"Why not?" He didn't see what the problem was. Katy just fixed him a very pointed look that heavily implied she felt he was being far too reckless, and he felt guilty. But he also felt incredibly exasperated. "Katy…"
"Look, Doctor. I can't tell you what to do, and I've known you long enough to know that you wouldn't put yourself in unnecessary danger without a good reason. But…"
"But?"
"I need you to promise me something … and mean it." Katy urges him, before grabbing him gently by the shoulders and looking him in his soulful brown eyes. "Promise me, that you'll come back to me. Please?"
"I promise," the Doctor agreed, smiling tenderly at her and found himself wrapped up in a tight hug by his very scared companion and girlfriend.
"Be careful!" She whispered into his shoulder.
"I will!" He grinned, very pleased and touched by her concern. "And you two behave yourselves up here, while I'm gone." He requested, mock-sternly.
"No promises," She grinned back and after a quick look to see if Rose was looking, stole a quick, but hard and passionate kiss from him. Katy stepped back from him, just as Rose turned around and came over.
"I want that spacesuit back in one piece, you got that?" She requested, playfully. The Doctor straightened up and mock saluted her.
"Yes, sir!" He puts on his helmet.
"It's funny, because people back home think that space travel's going to be all whizzing about and teleports and anti-gravity, but it's not, is it? It's tough."
"I'll see you later," the Doctor promises.
"Not if I see you first," Rose responded, pulling down the helmet and kissing where his forehead would be. The Doctor turns and heads over to get on board the capsule that would take him and Ida down into the pit, while Rose turns and gives a triumphant smirk at her sister.
Katy just gives her a bored look; much to Rose's surprise and confusion.
Ood Habitation
The Oods filed into their habitation single file and took a seat on their benches. Danny walks out onto the catwalk and looked down at them sternly.
"You will remain here. No command can override this. Have you got that? My instructions only." He instructed.
The Oods didn't respond, just sat quietly.
"Capsule active. Counting down in ten, nine…" Zach reported.
Drilling Area
"… Eight, seven, six," Zach continues counting down as the Doctor and Ida go into the capsule. Jefferson closes the door, and the Doctor takes one last look at Katy and Rose. He smiles and winks at them, as Rose waves and Katy blows him a kiss. "… five, four, three, two, one. Release."
The capsule begins lowering into the pit on its cable. Katy catches something out the corner of her eye and notices Toby looking nervously at his palms. She frowns, observing this curiously, but sensing that she should be very cautious around him for some reason. Rose checks their progress on the screen whilst clutching onto the microphone connecting them to the Doctor and Ida like a lifeline.
"You've gone beyond the oxygen field. You're on your own," He tells Ida and the Doctor who both switch on their life support.
"Don't forget to breathe. Breathing's good!" Rose needlessly reminds them, and Katy rolls her eyes at her sister's antics as Zach immediately chimes back in.
"Rose, stay off the comm."
The blonde pouts, continuing to clutch the microphone to her chest and staring at the process of the capsule on the computer monitor.
"Fat chance," she mutters underneath her breath. She watches as the capsule shudders even more than usual then suddenly drops, startling both the Doctor and Ida who weren't expecting that. "Doctor? Doctor, are you all right?" Rose asked, slightly panicky and Katy sighed feeling just as nervous, but dealing with it a bit better than Rose.
"They're fine, Rosie. I'm sure they would've said something if they weren't." She attempts to reassure her, but Rose just scowls at her. In Ood habitation, the Ood all stand up and turn to look up at Danny and one of the guards.
Eventually the screen reveals that that the capsule has reached Point Zero safely. Both sisters sigh with relief.
"Ida, report to me. Doctor?" Zach calls out to them.
Point Zero
The Doctor and Ida step out of the capsule and look around with interest. Wherever they were was almost pitch black; very difficult to see anything.
"It's alright. We've made it. Getting out of the capsule now." The Doctor reports back.
"What's it like down there?" Rose asks over the comms. The Doctor squints a bit, still unable to completely see to report back.
"It's hard to tell. Some sort of cave. Cavern. It's massive." He described, vaguely.
Ida sifts through her backpack.
"Well, this should help. Gravity globe." She produces a small ball, which when she throws it up into the air, immediately illuminates the cavern. Both the Doctor and Ida stare in complete awe and wonder when the cavern is revealed to them. "That's, that's. My God, that's beautiful!" Ida breathed, stunned by what she was seeing.
The Doctor grinned with excitement.
"Katy, Rose. You can tell Toby we've found his civilisation." He confirms.
The walls of the cavern are carved into pillars and statues.
Drilling area
Rose grins and turns towards a very twitchy Toby.
"Oi, Toby!" He looks over at her. "Sounds like you've got plenty of work." He doesn't smile, or look enthusiastic about this; which Katy finds very suspicious, considering how gung-ho about his job or the fact that he was so passionate about it that he drew the ancient language on the walls in Hibernation Three. It was like the man was preoccupied with something else.
"Good, good. Good." Toby acknowledged absently.
"Concentrate now, people." Zach chides a little sternly. "Keep on the mission. Ida, what about the power source?" He asks, authoritatively.
Point Zero
Both the Doctor and Ida start walking about the place, exploring a bit, rubbernecking about the place for the power source Zach was talking about. Ida holds up a device that was designed to pinpoint the location of the power source and consults it.
"We're close. Energy signature indicates north north west." She reports to Zach. "Are you getting pictures up there?"
"There's too much interference. We're in your hands." Zach responded, sounding a tad frustrated.
"Well, we've come this far. There's no turning back." Ida stated, earning an exasperated groan from the Doctor for what she had just said.
"Oh, did you have to? 'No turning back?' That's almost as bad as 'nothing can possibly go wrong', or 'this is the going to be the best Christmas Walford's ever had.'" He whines, and Ida looks at him flatly.
"Are you finished?"
"Yeah. Finished." The Doctor confirms.
Back in the drilling area, Katy giggles at what the Doctor had been saying, while Rose rolls her eyes. Both sisters used to the Doctor's complaints by now.
"Captain, sir," Danny's freaked out voice suddenly calls out from Ood Habitation. "There's something happening with the Ood." He reports.
"What are they doing?" Zach responds.
"They're staring at me. I've told them to stop, but they won't." Danny explains, and Zach sighs tiredly, while at the same time both Katy and Rose exchange glances; both believing that Danny was making a mountain out of a molehill over something as trivial as being stared at by a bunch of aliens.
"Danny, you're a big boy," Zach is slightly condescending. "I think you can take being stared at."
"But the telepathic field, sir. It's at basic one hundred," The smirks on the sisters' faces dropped, both not liking the sound of that; despite not completely understanding what they meant by basic one hundred. "I've checked. There isn't any fault. It's definitely one hundred." Danny insisted.
"But that's impossible…" Zach sounded shocked. Katy came over to where Rose was standing, and indicated to her to share the microphone so she could contribute to the conversation too.
"Why? What's basic one hundred mean?" She asked, warily. Rose looked worried also.
"They should be dead." Danny explained. Jefferson, who standing not too far away from the sisters monitoring the computer screen also, had been listening into the conversation with the sisters too, and chimed into the conversation to help explain.
"Basic one hundred's brain death."
"But they're safe. They're not actually moving?" Zach asked.
"No, sir." Danny confirmed.
"Keep watching them." Zach instructs Danny. "And you, Jefferson? Keep a guard on the Ood."
"Officer at arms!" Jefferson instructed his crewmen.
"Yes, sir." All of them cocking their guns and getting ready. Rose frowned at them, alarmed.
"You can't fire a gun in here. What if you hit a wall?"
"I'm firing stock fifteen," Jefferson reassures the blonde. "It only impacts upon organics."
"Oh, good. That makes me feel loads better," Katy drawls sarcastically.
Jefferson ignores her.
"Keep watch. Guard them." He instructs the crewmen to watch the three Oods who happened to be standing in the room with them at the moment.
"Yes, sir."
"Is everything alright up there?" The Doctor's concerned voice rang out over the comms, and Rose scrambled to answer and reassure him.
"Yeah, yeah."
"It's fine," Zach is quick to answer too, as is Danny.
"Great!"
Point Zero
The Doctor frowns at the quick responses but decides to let the topic go as he focuses upon a pair of massive pillars he and Ida had stumbled upon during their exploration. It was surrounded by a lot of rubble and was located not too far from a big round decorated door in the floor.
"We've found something," He reports. "It looks like metal. Like some sort of seal. I've got a nasty feeling the word might be trapdoor." He grimaces at the idea. "Not a good word, trapdoor. Never met a trapdoor I liked."
"The edge is covered with those symbols," Ida jumps in with her explanation to stop the Doctor's rambling.
"Do you think it opens?" Zach questioned.
"That's what trapdoors tend to do," the Doctor confirmed, shrugging. But Ida had a different explanation to give to her colleagues.
"Trapdoor doesn't do it justice," She disagreed. "It's massive, Zach. About thirty feet in diameter."
"Woah… Wish I could see that!" Katy let out a low whistle, sounding impressed with the description and against her best judgement, was intrigued to find out exactly what was hidden underneath that 'trapdoor'.
"Any way of opening it?" Zach asked. The Doctor and Ida did a quick march around the massive trapdoor, inspecting it for anything that might assist them in opening the massive hole in the ground.
"I don't know. I can't see any mechanism." Ida stated.
"I suppose that's the writing. It'll tell us what to do. The letters that defy translation," the Doctor took his best guess with what he had right in front of him.
Drilling area
"Toby, did you get anywhere with decoding it?" Zach asked him about the strange lettering that they all had been trying to decipher ever since they had first arrived on this planet. Rose turned towards Toby who had his back to them and attempted to be helpful by relaying what Zach had just asked.
"Toby, they need to know that lettering. Does it make any sort of sense?" She asks him.
"I know what it says," Toby replied in an oddly calm, cool tone of voice.
"Then tell them," Katy stated, getting a little irritated with him. However, Jefferson frowned at his colleague suspiciously.
"When did you work that out?"
"Does it matter? Just tell them!" Katy insisted, then jumped in shock when she sees that Toby was covered in the same symbols from on the wall. "Bloody hell!"
Toby's eyes were a sinister blood red and when Katy swore colourfully, gaining the attention of her sister, Jefferson and the crewmen; they turned to see what had startled the poor brunette and reacted just the same way as she did. Jefferson and his crew aimed their guns at Toby, while Rose and Katy huddled together protectively.
"These are the words of the Beast. And he has woken. He is the heart that beats in the darkness. He is the blood that will never cease. And now he will rise!" Toby intoned in a dark, sinister voice.
"Officer, stand down. Stand down!" Jefferson orders, sharply.
"What is it? What's he done? What happening?" The Doctor demanded, urgently. "Katy. Rose, what's going on?"
"Jefferson? Report. Report!" Zach was just as urgent as the Doctor to know what was happening in the drilling area.
"Officer, as Commander of Security, I order you to stand down and be confined. Immediately!" Jefferson demanded. Rose reaches for the microphone with a shaky, frightened hand, trying to explain to the Doctor exactly what was happening.
"He's come out in those symbols all over his face," Rose tells the Doctor. "They're all over him."
"Mister Jefferson. Tell me, sir. Did your wife ever forgive you?" The possessed Toby taunts Jefferson, who froze almost immediately.
"I don't know what you mean." He instantly denies. Toby smirked maliciously.
"Let me tell you a secret. She never did."
"Officer, you stand down and be confined," Jefferson glares at Toby.
"Or what?" Toby challenged.
"Or under the strictures of Condition Red, I am authorised to shoot you!" Jefferson warns.
"But how many can you kill?" Toby asks before opening his mouth.
The symbols leave him in the form of a dark vapour which floats over to the nearby Ood, who jerk to attention when the vapour settles over them. Toby collapses. All three of the Ood in the Drilling area, including the ones in Ood Habitation; suddenly start speaking in unison, possessed by whatever had taken a hold of Toby earlier.
"We are the Legion of the Beast."
"Katy? Rose? What is it, Katy? I'm going back up!" A frantic Doctor shouts down the comms.
"Report! Report!" Zach yells desperately. "Jefferson, report. Someone, report!" Katy takes the microphone from Rose and speaks into it, frightened.
"It's the Ood," She tells Zach, Ida, and the Doctor, who when he hears that, increases his efforts to get back to the surface to protect his companions.
"Sir, we have contamination in the livestock!" Jefferson reports to Zach.
"Doctor, none of us know what it is. It's like they're possessed." Katy continues explaining, still clinging to Rose who was staring at the possessed Ood with total shock and fear.
"They won't listen to us!" Jefferson stated, urgently.
"He has woven himself in the fabric of your life since the dawn of time. Some many call him Abaddon. Some may call him Kroptor. Some may call him Satan or Lucifer…"The Ood continued.
"Captain, it's the Ood! They're out of control!" Danny chimes in a bit late, reporting what was happening to all the Ood in their habitation.
"Or the Bringer of Despair, the Deathless Prince, the Bringer of Night…" One of the Oods in Ood Habitation walks up the steps to the catwalk. It releases its globe, which flies towards into the forehead of the guard standing next to Danny, who watches this with horror. "These are the words that shall set him free."
Jefferson immediately starts herding everyone together, and Rose and Katy immediately abandon the microphone; their only link to the Doctor and run over to Jefferson and the crewmen.
"Back up to the door!" He orders, and none of them hesitate to listen to him.
"I shall become manifest…"
"Move quickly!" Jefferson hastens all of them.
"I shall walk in might…"
"To the door! Get it open!" Katy, who was the closest to the bulkhead door, grabs onto the wheel and tries to turn it, but it is locked in place. She looks back at Jefferson, eyes wide in terror.
"It won't open! It's stuck!" She shouts, frantically.
"My legions shall swarm across the worlds…" The Oods continue their doomsday speech as they start converging on their trapped prey.
Point Zero
While a desperate, frantic Doctor listens helplessly to the commotion up on the surface, frustrated that he cannot help; the centre of the trapdoor behind him and Ida suddenly sinks, and the ground begins to shake.
"Doctor, it's opening!" Ida tells him.
"We're moving! The whole thing's moving. The planet's moving!" Zach realises as the overhead shutters start opening. The Doctor turns and runs back to Ida as the whole trapdoor opens in segments.
The possessed Ood continue converging on the trapped people in the drilling area, still taunting them all.
"I am the sin and the temptation and the desire. I am the pain and the loss and the—"
"Get that bloody door open!" Jefferson shouts. On Point Zero, the open trapdoor reveals a deep shaft, while in the Control Room; Zach was about to have kittens as he relays what was happening to the entire planet.
"The gravity field. It's going! We're losing orbit! We're going to fall into the black hole!"
"I have been imprisoned for eternity. But no more!"
'Door sealed'.
"Come on!" Rose urges Katy, who is still frantically trying to force the wheel to spin and open the door to let them all out.
'Door sealed'.
"The Pit is open. And I am free! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
A/N: That's the end of 'The Impossible Planet' chapters. Keep an eye out for the upcoming 'The Satan's Pit' chapters!
Hope you enjoyed reading. TTFN :)