Star-Echo Lab

Chapter Twenty-Six

Echo-Star Lab

The next week went by in a blur. She was relieved as they went on adventures that didn't end in almost dying again. A hike up a mountain full of fall-colored leaves, to look down on a planet where each season was visible from the top of the mountain took up most of a day, and they stayed in the cabin at the top before heading back down the next day to walk through the spring sections, and then the summer, and have a snowball fight in the winter (the Doctor had soundly won. Molly wasn't used to snow you could throw).

The next day, they went back to ancient Egypt. Molly had fun with the costumes, and they learned how to play Senet. They stopped by a ceremony to Hapi, a god and personification of the Nile. Going into the past again had been a lot of fun, but Molly always had an odd feeling of being somewhere she wasn't supposed to be.

Next came a rest day. Molly went through that sort of day as usual, doing her morning routine, reading from the book of Gallifrey, and dancing. She noticed a new lightness to her dancing now, and attributed it to being able to think about ballet without feeling the guilt of her mother's death. She even started to recall parts of their conversation on the way home from Giselle. It ached, but it didn't drag her under. It felt life-changing for her, to be able to remember her mother without being swallowed by guilt and flashbacks.

Afterwards, she watched a movie with the Doctor, and helped him with a few repairs to the TARDIS. When the Doctor headed to the engine room to make sure it was running optimally, Molly headed down to the storage, set on sorting it. They were a bit of a mess, and if they ever needed to grab flashlights quickly, or anything else, it could take a while.

But, as when she tried to organize, she got distracted by something new every few minutes. She found a pair of sunglasses that scanned things around her, and looking at her hand she saw they also worked like an Xray. Watching her bones move as she flexed and bent her fingers made her stomach squirm, so she set them on her head.

Another interesting thing she found was a thick, leather-bound book with a silken buckle around it, and etched in bronze across the cover, 'the 2000-year diary'. Coming across this made her fangirl heart skip a beat. It was a piece of Doctor Who that had been around since the classic era, a diary counting every year of the Doctor, each book a different set of years. There hadn't been a 2000-year diary on the show yet, of course. Holding it was exciting.

But Molly felt an odd sensation of judgement hanging over her. She looked around, but didn't see the Doctor. So instead, she looked up. "Stop giving me that look. I'm not reading it." To prove it, she ran her fingers over the cover once, and then set it back where she'd found it.

That was she heard the Doctor's footsteps come down the stairs. "Not reading what?"

Molly looked over to him, a little sheepish. "Your diary. I was trying to organize, and came across it. The TARDIS gave me a dirty look over it."

He blinked. "The TARDIS gave you a look?"

"You know what I mean," she countered. "You can feel it when she's displeased."

"Yes. Yes, you can," he said. He seemed oddly pleased over it.

Molly flipped the sunglasses over her eyes again with a shake of her head. "Wow."

"What?"

"The two-heart thing. It looks weird."

"Oi," he walked over and snatched the glasses off her face. "That's rude. And you're the one who looks funny with just the one heart. It's like you're lopsided."

Molly thought about it, and decided she didn't like it. She grabbed the glasses back, and then put them away. "I was trying to organize this, but I think it's hopeless."

"It was perfectly organized."

"You have clothes in random places, some flashlights in one, some in another. Tools in all of them. There's got to be a better system."

"And…you're going to come up with it?" he asked uncertainly.

Molly looked around at the mess surrounding her. "No, I give up. I'm just going to throw them all back in."

So, it ended up worse than when she'd started.

They spent the two next days at a theme park on another planet. The Doctor was very excited to take her on the longest rollercoaster in the universe. It took twenty minutes, and had a recovery room by the exit. If you didn't throw up, they gave you a prize. Neither of them won it.

The park took up most of the planet, and they could have stayed for months and not seen it all. But after the twentieth rollercoaster, Molly called it quits. They went back to the TARDIS and Molly laid down until the room stopped spinning. That wasn't until the next morning.

That day they headed back to Earth. They tried to teach each other to rollerskate, but more often than not just brought the other crashing down with them. It was a beautiful summer day, though, in a park. They got snowcones, and after Molly commented that she liked snowcones more than ice cream, the Doctor got excited and decided they should go around the universe trying every kind of snowcone to see which was the best. Molly's favorite was on a sort of jungle planet, with ice like snow, and hers was flavored with a creamy milk that tasted like coconut, mixed with some tropical green fruit and what was most definitely rum. She felt a little tipsy when they headed back to the TARDIS, and he let her finish his favorite, one that tasted exactly like a sweet, almost overripe strawberry, left out in the sun a little too long. She felt like she had a brain freeze the entire day.

The next morning, Molly went through her drawers uncertainly. It was difficult, dressing for the day when she had no idea what weather was in store. She settled on a basic outfit of denim shorts, a black tank top with little blue flowers, and her trusty emerald jacket, along with the new pair of boots. They were the third pair she'd gone through already. She hoped these would survive.

After pulling her hair back and applying some makeup, she headed to the control room. The Doctor had a panel behind the circular console open, and was messing about with bits of wire. Molly walked up to the light in the center – a blueish green now – and tapped it reassuringly. "Aww, is the mean man tinkering with you again?"

The Doctor turned to her with a dirty look. "How come you talk to the TARDIS so much nicer than you talk to me?"

Molly leaned against the console. "The TARDIS is my best friend."

"I'm your best friend."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Okay. You're my best friend." But when the Doctor turned back to his work, she turned to the light and mouthed 'no, he's not'.

Molly walked up to watch him work, and was immediately assigned to the duty of handing him tools again, which she thought was an awful idea, but at least she got to help contribute. Maybe by the time she went back to her universe, she'd have an idea of what the tools actually were.

Her universe. She'd stopped thinking of it as 'home' a while ago. It was just where she'd come from. But it sat there, lurking over her future. The longer she was with the Doctor, the more it felt like a threat.

Her heart sunk as she thought about it, and as she thought about the last month with him. Again, she couldn't help but indulge in that awful thought: how much longer did she have?

She couldn't live with the uncertainty anymore. It was time to ask the question. "Hey, Doctor."

"Hey, Molly."

She tried to think of a way to say this that didn't hurt. "So, a while back, River said…" But her courage failed her.

"River's always saying things," the Doctor replied.

A flash of the old conversation flitted through her mind. 'He's going to fall in love with you, you know.' She fought to keep from laughing at it now and having the Doctor ask what it was she was laughing at. "Tell me about it."

"Well, you see, she-"

"I didn't mean that literally."

He looked up for a moment. "Oh." And went back to work. "What did River say?"

"Well…" she cleared her throat, hoping it would make the knot in it disappear. It didn't work. "She said something about the scan. The one to try to find the way back to my universe. How it was taking a long time."

The Doctor stopped moving, but didn't look up. After a moment he said, "What about it?"

Molly folded her arms and turned to lean back against the console the Doctor was working on. "She seemed to think it was...strange…that it was taking so long. That something might be wrong with it. And it had only been going a week by then. It's been about a month now. Do you think something's wrong?"

He thought for a moment, but still didn't continue working. "Could be. I doubt it. Travel between universes is…complicated. All the TARDIS has to go on is whatever energy you may have had clinging to you immediately after you arrived."

"Oh." This wasn't something that had occurred to her. "So…there's a possibility I might not get back?" She didn't know if her heart raced because she was anxious about that, or excited.

"No, no. She'll figure it out eventually." He finally looked up at her, and set the tools aside. "There is…" He hesitated. "There's a lab we could go to. Star-Echo Lab, a space station in the Echo system. They study interdimensional travel. They could help you get back."

Now she realized it had definitely been excitement, because her heart sank at his words. "Oh," she said again. "We should…go there, I guess." The goal had been to send her back, hadn't it? The adventures were just to fill the time until then.

The Doctor nodded. "We should. They'll likely be able to get you back home. They have a machine like the one Rose used to cross universes. I'm not sure how they program it for a specific universe. I'd like to see how they do it." His voice held a note of excitement on the last sentence.

Back 'home'. It sounded like he had already stopped thinking of the TARDIS as her home. He was already starting to think of her as gone, in a way, wasn't he?

Molly turned so he wouldn't see her fighting a few tears back. She hadn't meant to start this. She'd just wanted to know how much time she had left. And now it seemed she only had minutes, maybe an hour if she was lucky. It felt like her heart was breaking. She'd thought there was still so much they were going to see and do together. She'd have more chances to get to know the TARDIS. To get closer to the Doctor.

But he would know better than she would when it was time for her to go. He'd known about this lab the whole time, and now he wanted to go there, rather than wait for the TARDIS. Apparently, he'd decided it was time, and she had to trust that.

The tears were fought back when she took a breath and turned back to him, a familiar false smile on her face. "Okay, then. Let's get me home."

"Yeah," the Doctor said, and he turned and began putting the console back in place. "Let's get you home."

The console was quickly put back together, too quickly for Molly's taste. She went to the wardrobe and grabbed a bag, then went to her room and put the few other souvenirs she had into it – the Tamagotchi, the slap bracelets, a few odds and ends from the World Market. Then she set the bag on the bed, and went to the wall, placed her palms on it, and leaned her forehead against it.

"Well, this is it," she whispered to the TARDIS. "I've had…just…the most wonderful time." Her throat was too tight to pretend she wasn't devastated to be leaving so soon. She was glad the Doctor couldn't hear her. "Thank you for taking us to all those amazing places. And for the studio. It really meant so much to me. You've been wonderful. I'm sorry to go." She took in a slow breath, which caught in her chest. "I'm glad I met you. It's been an honor, really." She stepped back, and put the bag over her shoulder. She looked around the room one last time. The room where she'd sat in bed and watched Sherlock with the Doctor. Where he'd burst in, excited because he'd made breakfast over the campfire. Where she'd learned the most important thing in all her life: she hadn't made her mother watch her run while begging for help. And she said goodbye.

She stopped by the studio before leaving, to say goodbye to it, too. Where she'd rediscovered herself, her talent, her vulnerability through her passion, her dance. The sweet gift the TARDIS had given her. And there, on a hanger, was the gift the Doctor had given her. She thought, for a moment, that she should leave it behind. It was future technology that made it glisten, it could be potentially dangerous somehow to take it to her world. But she couldn't bring herself to part with it. She folded the costume up as neatly as she was capable, and put it in the top of the bag before closing it. She wiped the tears off her face with the sleeve of her jacket, and left the room.

By the time she got back to the control room, the Doctor was ready to go. "Got everything you need?"

Molly nodded. "Yep." She'd managed to keep the emotion out of her voice. "It's okay that I bring the Giselle costume with me, right?"

"Of course. It's yours."

"I just wanted to make sure, since it's sort of…not like anything that could be made in my universe."

"Should be fine," the Doctor said, but he sounded distracted. "Time to go."

"Right," Molly almost whispered. She watched the Doctor input the controls, and held her breath, almost hoping the TARDIS would refuse to move.

Of course, she didn't, and they were landed before Molly released the breath. She turned towards the doors.

He was right. It was time.

"Star-Echo Lab?" she confirmed, trying to buy a little more time on the TARDIS.

"Yep," said the Doctor. He passed her as he went to open the doors, and she followed after him. "Should have a few researchers and assistants available. They might want to study you." He turned back. "Tell them no. It might…be painful."

Molly nodded. She tried to say 'got it', but couldn't get the words past the lump in her throat.

The Doctor took a deep breath. "Here we go." He swung open the doors and they both stepped outside – and froze.

They were met by three guns, and it took a moment for Molly to see the two men and one woman pointing them. Molly immediately raised her hands, quickly followed by the Doctor.

"You know, aiming a gun at someone is considered rude in some societies," he said.

So, Molly needed to try to save them. "No need to shoot!" she shouted. "Please don't shoot."

"What are you doing here?" the man with greying hair demanded gruffly.

The Doctor nodded his head towards Molly. "My friend here's from another universe. Just trying to see if you can get her home."

The man's gun wavered. The woman put hers away, then looked at her partners. "They're here for help involving our research. Why are you still aiming guns?" She had an accent that sounded African to Molly, and she was ashamed to admit to herself that she couldn't place it the way she'd be able to place a European accent.

"How did you get into the airlock?" asked the other man, who wore round glasses that made his eyes seem too big.

The Doctor used his thumb to point back at the TARDIS. "My ship."

"We didn't open the airlock."

"Didn't need to." The Doctor experimented with lowering his hands by bringing them down to the level of his chest. "Really. We're unarmed." He opened his coat to show he was telling the truth, and hesitantly, Molly did that same.

"Please don't shoot," she added, her voice small, the sound of the gunshots echoing in her mind. "I've been shot enough times."

"Who shot at you?" the older man asked, now sounding suspicious.

Oops. "A woman who had personal issues with me. I'm not a criminal or anything. She just didn't like me."

The woman looked to the man on her left, then right. "They don't seem very threatening to me."

"Not in the least bit," replied the Doctor. "Least threatening people in the universe."

Molly glanced over at the Doctor. "I mean, does he even look threatening?" Though she knew he absolutely could from experience, he got the hint and gave them his best puppy dog eyes.

The man with greying hair hesitated a moment, then lowered his gun. The other followed suit, and both Molly and the Doctor breathed a sigh of relief. "Fine," the older one said. "But I'll want Assistant Reid to search your ship."

The Doctor reached back and closed the door. "Classified, I'm afraid. May I reach into my coat to show you my credentials?" After a sharp nod, he reached in and pulled out the psychic paper. "I'm with the Astro-Parallel Consortium. They sent me to investigate the lab, as well as get Molly back where she belongs."

Where she belongs. She'd never felt like she'd belonged there. She was just starting to feel like she belonged here. But she needed to let go of those feelings. He was right. She wasn't supposed to be here. Here, she was an anomaly. She needed to go back.

"Fine," the older man sighed. "This is Assistant Research Scientist Beckett Reid, Associate Research Scientist Lesedi Phiri, and I'm Senior Research Scientist Hendrix Ozols. The rest of the team is back at the base, getting more supplies and requesting better funding. We're running the lab for now."

The Doctor nodded as he tucked the psychic paper away. "Good, good. As it should be. The Astro-Parallel Consortium wanted me to check in, see how you were running the place with the three of you. I'll want to tour your facilities first."

Hendrix turned to Beckett. "That'll be your job."

"I'm not a tour guide!" objected Beckett. "I'm here to do serious work. If he's from the Astro-Parallel Consortium he should be able to show himself around."

"Reid!" Lesedi objected. "This isn't how you treat someone who is part of our funding." She turned to the Doctor and Molly. "I'd be happy to show you around. We have a few very exciting projects going on now."

The Doctor pointed at Lesedi. "Excellent! I'm very excited to see what you've been doing with, ah, our money."

"And what are your names?" asked Hendrix. "For our records."

"I'm the Doctor, and this is Molly Quinn."

"Doctor what?"

"No, Doctor who," he corrected, and then he paused and frowned. "No, just the Doctor." He looked Hendrix up and down with an annoyed expression. "Weren't you listening?"

Hendrix looked like he was working up a good comeback when Lesedi took a few steps back towards the door. "Well then, the Doctor-"

"Ah, no, no no, sorry," the Doctor interrupted, as he rubbed his hands together. "You can just…you can just call me Doctor."

"No 'the' when you're just talking to him," Molly explained.

"O…kay," responded Lesedi uncertainly. "My apologies. Doctor, Miss Quinn, if you'll just follow me, I'll take you through some of our experiments and our collection before we head to the main lab."

"Brilliant," the Doctor replied with a smile.

"Assistant Reid and I will meet you at the lab," said Hendrix, his mood seemingly even worse than when he'd pointed a gun at them. "Associate Phiri, make sure you keep an eye on them until we get them registered."

"Yes, sir," replied Lesedi. She turned and the doors automatically opened. While Beckett and Hendrix went one way, Lesedi led them the other way. She turned back towards them. "We register everyone at the main lab, by name and fingerprint. After that we can keep track on the map where they are in the station. Usually it's for emergency evacuations via transporter, but our in-station transporter has been down a while. I've been trying to repair it, but I'm not a mechanic."

If the transporter wasn't working, it seemed to Molly, that meant that Hendrix was suspicious of them and didn't want them wandering around. She couldn't really blame him, though being already emotional, she'd hoped for a bit warmer of a reception.

"I can take a look at that for you," the Doctor was saying. "I'm fantastic with transporters."

Lesedi smiled at him gratefully. "That would be wonderful. It's a few more months before the others get back, and our mechanic went with them to get some replacement parts."

"How long have they been gone?" Molly asked.

"Around eight months, Miss Quinn. The base is a long way away, and our ship isn't very fast. They should be almost back by now."

"By the way," Molly said, "You can just call me Molly. 'Miss Quinn' is a little formal for me."

Lesedi smiled at her. "You can call me Lesedi, then. Most people do." They'd been walking down a pristine white and silver hallway that looked like any old building to Molly, save for a few silver double doors that looked a bit like elevator doors. They stopped in front of a set of them, and Lesedi scanned her badge by swiping it down what just looked like whiter wall. The doors slid open, revealing a room filled with strange odds and ends, under glass on tables. Molly followed her and the Doctor into the room, looking around. They seemed completely random. A large chunk of rock and crystal here, a Frisbee there. She saw candles, and a pink dress, and what looked like a faintly glowing blood red Bonsai tree.

Lesedi walked around the room, touching the top of the glass of a few items. "These are some things brought back from other universes that had strange signatures of some form or other. For example, this pen," she said, lifting the glass from off of it. Molly moved closer to get a good look. "Its molecules vibrate at a higher frequency then any pens we have here. There appears to be no difference in its functionality, but it makes the user dizzy after a few moments."

When the Doctor didn't make a comment, Molly turned to look at him, but he wasn't beside her as she expected. She took a few steps back the way they'd walked in, and saw him already messing around with something that had been under glass. "Seriously?"

The Doctor looked up from the plastic toy dinosaurs he'd already started playing with. "What?"

"Can you act your age for once?"

"No." The Doctor looked back down and continued his pretend fight between the T-Rex and the Stegosaurus.

"Why not?"

He looked at her indignantly. "Because I don't know how two-thousand-year-olds act, I'm the only one I've ever met!" He set the toys aside and stalked up to her. "Do you know how they act?"

Molly considered. "Okay, you make a fair point."

Lesedi took a step forward. "Sorry – what? Are you two thousand years old?"

"And some change. Probably," said the Doctor. He turned and pointed at the dinosaurs. "What's interesting about those?"

Molly gave Lesedi credit for her quick recovery. "They have a small radioactive charge."

The Doctor immediately made a face, and then wiped his hands off on Molly's jacket. "Ew! No!" she objected. "Don't make me radioactive!"

"It's really not enough to do much harm," Lesedi reassured her. She turned back to the Doctor. "So…you're not human?"

"Not a bit."

"You look human."

"Actually, you look Time Lord. We were around first."

Lesedi looked deep in thought for a moment. "So, it's possible these Time Lords were a distant ancestor of humanity?"

"Not really. We originated in a completely different galaxy than humanity did," said the Doctor. "But that was smart. That's good. I like smart people."

"Well, I have studied science for most of my life," said Lesedi. Molly wondered how long she'd studied. She didn't look much older than her. "Shall we move on?" She walked back to the dinosaurs and put the glass back over them.

"Yes!" said the Doctor, clapping his hands together. "Let's see what else you've been doing."

They left the room, and walked for a while before turning down another hall. Lesedi opened another door. Inside was completely dark until Lesedi touched the wall and a light turned on in the center. It shone over a platform, that was surrounded by three quickly spinning mirrors.

"We have a much smaller version of our machine that allows for passage between universes," Lesedi explained. "It can't let much in except air and light. We use the mirrors to study the way the light moves. We've realized light and air behave differently in some universes, but we can't understand why. Some light bends around the mirrors, some you can almost see a reflection of the air."

"Interesting," the Doctor said, moving forward. "I'd like to see this in action."

"It's controlled at the main lab," said Lesedi. "We couldn't fit the wires needed for the controls in here along with everything needed to bring in the light and air."

The Doctor nodded, but still moved around the circle of the platform and the mirrors, studying it for a moment. Molly thought it was interesting, too, but didn't know about science enough to really be fascinated. She looked over as Lesedi. "How long have you been on this station?"

"Oh, about three years now. Haven't left it yet," she said. "I don't know that I ever want to. I love the work, and I don't have any family left. This work is my family."

The Doctor turned to face her. "What got you interested in interdimensional travel?"

"My mom used to tell me stories when I was little, about people who claimed to have crossed universes. Everyone thought they were just mad, but I really wanted to believe them. My mom did, too." Lesedi's voice had a wistful nature to it. "I started in astrophysics, but then I heard that this lab was developing technology for travelling between universes, and I immediately switched specialties so I could come here."

"That couldn't have been easy," the Doctor said as they walked out.

"No, but it was worth it. I love it here."

"Even with…" Molly started and pointed back towards the airlock. "Uh. Them?"

Lesedi smiled. "Oh, Hendrix is alright, when you get past the rough exterior. He helped me through my initial homesickness. Beckett is always a right prick, though." She rolled her eyes. "Never got over being assigned to an assistant position. Never got over a woman being in a position over him, either."

Molly saw the Doctor make a face at the same time she did. By then they'd gotten to the end of the corridor, and Lesedi was getting ready to swipe them in.

"This is probably the most unique thing we've been looking into. I don't know anyone else who has one," she said. "Technically it's a bit outside our field, but we're wondering if it has capabilities people don't know about."

The Doctor looked excited. "Oh, that sounds like fun. What is it?"

Molly turned when she heard footsteps approaching, and saw Hendrix walking briskly towards them. "This one I had to help fund personally," he said. "Our other investors refused to pay for more than acquiring it. I had to come up with transport."

"You used your own money?" Molly asked. That was a level of dedication she was impressed with. Maybe he wasn't so bad.

"I did," he said. "Completely worth it. You'll see why."

The Doctor was rubbing his hands together again. "Well, let's have a look, then!"

Lesedi swiped her badge, and the doors opened. They were faced with a wall of equipment, with switches and blinking lights and displays Molly didn't understand, so she looked to the Doctor, to try to catch an explanation in his expression.

He seemed a little confused himself as they all stepped into the room. "What's all this for? It's monitoring something, but there doesn't seem to be any signs of activity. No movement, no energy, no life signs." He turned to Hendrix. "What is it?"

"Just around the corner," Hendrix replied, pointing at the end of the bank of computers. Molly followed the Doctor and Lesedi around the corner, and faced the back of the machines, and there it was.

Her mouth went dry, and she could have sworn her heart stopped for a moment. Still, a dry laugh escaped her, an unusual reaction to the terror she couldn't quite process.

This was what she'd dreaded most.

The Doctor stood looking in horror at the Weeping Angel. It was covered in chains, and had a spotlight on it. "Don't blink!" he shouted. "Don't look away!"

"It's fine," Hendrix assured them from behind. "It's dormant, or dead. It's sat in a warehouse for decades and never moved. It hasn't moved since we brought it here, either."

The Doctor didn't look away from the Angel. "I learned a long time ago that there's a difference between dormant, and patient."

Lesedi tried to move towards the Angel, but the Doctor grabbed her arm. She turned back to him. "It's really alright. My theory is that it died."

"It can't die," the Doctor said.

"Everything can die," replied Hendrix. "We brought it here for experiments, to see if it can send things to other universes as well as the past. We've also sent it to other universes that are slightly behind or ahead of us in time, and brought it back, and it still didn't move."

Molly felt her eyes going dry, but refused to blink. The Doctor looked at Lesedi for a moment. "Keep your eyes on it. Don't turn away."

"I really don't think-"

"I said don't turn away." Molly hadn't heard his voice this serious and demanding outside the show. He turned away from the Angel, and took a few sure steps towards Hendrix, until their faces weren't far apart. "Of course. You brought it here, locked it up, performed experiments on it, scanned and poked and prodded it. You wanted to see what would happen. Only humanity could be this stupid!"

"Hey!" Molly objected.

He pointed to her. "You don't count."

"Hey!"

Hendrix was even more offended. "Doctor, if you're going to make a fuss about our work, you can just kiss my-"

"We need to get out of here," the Doctor said. She saw him scan the room with the screwdriver out of the corner of her eye, and finally couldn't take it anymore and blinked. The Angel still stood as a statue. She chanced a look at the Doctor, who was pointing to various parts of the room where she saw blinking red lights. He looked at the results of his scan. "There are cameras. Where does the feed lead to?"

"The main lab," said Lesedi.

The Doctor put the screwdriver away, and took Molly's arm. "We need to get there. I want to keep an eye on it, but we need to get out of this room." He began leading Molly backwards, and then turned and rushed out the door. He turned back when the scientists didn't follow. "Come on, then! Now!"

Hendrix and Lesedi left the room finally, and the door closed behind them. Lesedi looked from Molly to the Doctor. "You don't understand, the Angel can't move. It-"

"Has been absorbing the time energy you used in your experiments. Whatever kept it from moving before, it surely can now," the Doctor said.

Lesedi looked uncertain, but Hendrix still looked stubborn. "You've only just got here. You have no idea what it's capable of."

The Doctor's voice was low and dangerous. "I know exactly what it's capable of."

A thought occurred to Molly, and she turned to the Doctor, and looked at the hard set of his face, the anger of his eyes. But she'd studied that face for years. She saw the sadness, too. He was face to face with the Angels, the creatures that had taken Amy and Rory from him. He'd seen his family killed by them.

"Let's get to the lab," Molly suggested weakly. Hendrix, fuming, led the way, and Lesedi followed him, with Molly and the Doctor behind. She took his hand, an attempt to comfort him some, but he didn't seem to notice. She'd hoped it would comfort her, too, but she still felt sick. "There's nothing more terrifying than Weeping Angels," she whispered.

"Oh, I'm sure there are a few things scarier," said the Doctor, but though he attempted a light-hearted tone, he failed. "Can't think of any right now. I'll get back to you."

The lab wasn't far from the corridor with the Angel. It was large, mostly white, with a few various empty platforms, and computer consoles in the style Molly was starting to think was required for any kind of space ship or station. She let her bag slip off her shoulder.

"Where's the feed lead to?" the Doctor demanded.

"Over here," said Lesedi, as she went to a computer with a large, dark monitor. When the Doctor moved to follow, Molly tried to let go of his hand so he could move freely. But he held on tighter. She followed him to stand beside Lesedi.

The monitor flashed on, and there seemed to be a hundred boxes of different cameras around the lab. "Oh, Gods," Lesedi gasped, and it took a long time before Molly found the right little box and saw what she saw.

Or didn't see.

Molly felt a chill. "The Angel's gone."