supernova (11th doctor)

Flesh and Stone (pt 1)

"Secondary flight deck," River responded, not taking her eyes off the exterior door the angels were trying to break in through.

Amy was breathing hard, trying her best not to panic. "Okay. So we've basically run up the inside of a chimney, yeah? So what if the gravity fails?"

"Let's not think about that," I tried.

The Doctor nodded, figuring Amy would keep pestering him for an answer. "I've thought about that."

"And?" She prodded.

"And we'll all plunge to our deaths. See, I've thought about it." He continued to try at the locked door, but nothing worked. "The security protocols are still live. There's no way to override them, it's impossible."

"How impossible?" River asked sternly, concentrating on some wires against the wall.

"Two minutes."

"Well, that's not completely impossible..." I tried. At least there was some time, but as soon as I spoke the words, the hum of the engine powered down, the way we came through re-opened, and the cavern above could be seen.

"The hull is breached and the power's failing," Father Octavian observed, and right on cue, the lights went off for just a second, but every second counted. When they turned on again, the arm of angel could be seen at the opening.

"Sir! Incoming!" A cleric warned us, as if it wasn't obvious.

The lights kept flickering, and none of us really knew what to do about it. Even the one person who might actually know seemed lost. "Doctor! Lights!" Amy panicked, while all the lights blacked out. Only a small blue hue filling the corridor from a few lights on the ground could be seen, but even then, we could barely see each other's faces in the darkness.

"River, Nova..." The Doctor said slowly, and I realized the whole team was staring at us while River was looking down, almost in regret.

"What?" I asked. They were all staring at us with slight awe and fear, and I had no idea why. When I asked for an explanation, I didn't know what I was expecting. But it definitely wasn't for the Doctor to cautiously step closer, and reach to me for a lock of my hair.

I looked to Amy with a slight glare that she didn't understand yet. Even if it... didn't happen yet, she was the first one to be so taken with my hair, and I still had no idea why, until the Doctor picked a few strands. I squinted at them and took them from him, and looked through all the strands in my hair, noticing that just a few of them were glowing faintly. I turned to look at River, hoping for an explanation, when I noticed that a few strands of her hair were glowing too. It was a subtle glow, so subtle it might not even be that strange, but of course—it was still a glow. With a few of River's curls faintly giving light, I noticed her swallow hard when I gave her a questioning look, and wondered again if she was really honest about being my best friend. 

I couldn't help but think that she was hiding something, something that had to do with me.

The lights came on again, and a group of angels were in the hall with us now, paused in a yelling position with arms reaching out to get us.

"Clerics, keep watching them," Octavian ordered his men.

"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."

"Good work, Doctor."

The Doctor turned around this time. "Yes. Good. Good in many ways, good you like it so far..."

"So far?" Amy questioned, with a hint of worry in her voice.

The Doctor opened a small hatch of wires on the wall opposite River and began working on them. "Well, there's only one way to open this door. I guess I'll need to route all the power in this section through the door control."