The Oncoming Storm ²

Flesh & Stone

"Up. Look up" the Doctor says, everyone struggles to their feet on an artificial surface, although the tunnel walls are the same.

"Are you okay?" River asks.

"What happened?" Amy asks.

"We jumped," River says.

"Jumped where?"

"Up. Up. Look up" I say.

"Where are we?" Amy asks.

"Exactly where we were," River says.

"No, we're not," Amy says.

"Move your feet," the Doctor says, Amy moves and he sonics a circular hatch in the floor, with six inset lights around it.

"Doctor, Alex, what am I looking at? Explain."

"Oh, come on, Amy, think. The ship crashed with the power still on, yeah? So, what else is still on?" I ask, we are standing upside down on the hull of the Byzantium "the artificial gravity. One good jump, and up we fell. Shot out the Grav globe to give us an updraft, and here we are."

"Seer, Doctor, the statues. They look more like Angels now."

"They're feeding on the radiation from the wreckage, draining all the power from the ship, restoring themselves. Within an hour, they'll be an army" the Doctor says, the circular hatch opens. A light goes bang "they're taking out the lights. Look at them. Look at the Angels. Into the ship, now. Quickly, all of you."

"How?" Amy asks the Doctor and I drop through the open hatch into a circular corridor. From Amy's point of view, we are standing on the side of a vertical tube.

"Doctor! Alex!"

"It's just a corridor. The gravity orientates to the floor. Now, in here, all of you. Don't take your eyes off the Angels. Move, move, move" I say.

"Ok, men. Go, go, go!" the Doctor works on a control panel, while I look around.

"The Angels. Presumably, they can jump up too?" the hatch closes.

"They're here, now. In the dark, we're finished" the Doctor says, a bulkhead further along the corridor starts to close.

"Run!"

"This whole place is a death trap" we don't make it.

"No, it's a time bomb. Well, it's a death trap and a time bomb. And now it's a dead end. Nobody panic. Oh, just me then. What's through here?" I ask.

"Secondary flight deck," River says.

"Ok. So, we've basically run up the inside of a chimney, yeah? So, what if the gravity fails?" Amy asks.

"I've thought about that," the Doctor says.

"And?"

"And we'll all plunge to our deaths. See? I've thought about it. The security protocols are still live. There's no way to override them. It's impossible" the Doctor says, River is working on some wires.

"How impossible?" River asks.

"Two minutes" I say looking at my watch, the outer hatch is open.

"The hull is breached and the power's failing" the lights go out. An arm is silhouetted against the open hatch.

"Sir, incoming."

"Doctor? Lights" Amy says the Angel is starting to enter. Another flicker and four are inside and the hatch is closed behind us.

"Clerics, keep watching them."

"And don't look at their eyes. Anywhere else. Not the eyes. I've isolated the lighting grid. They can't drain the power now" the Doctor says.