"This place is enormous, but it's deserted," Peyton gawks as she walks down a pathway with the Doctor and Nasreen over a sea of lava, fanning her face with her hand a little.
"Majority of the race are probably still asleep. We need to find Amy. Peyton, look for heat signature anomalies."
She does as she is told, pulling out her sonic pen, holding it in front of her, she scans around the cavern, spinning on the spot as she does.
"But Doctor, how can this all be here?" Nasreen says as the Doctor snatches the pen from Peyton's hands to inspect the readings, she scowls at him. "I mean, these plants!"
They reach the end of the suspended pathway and find themselves heading into another maze of caves, the Doctor hands Peyton back her sonic which she takes grumpily, shoving it in her pocket.
"Must be getting closer to the centre of the city," he says.
"You're sure this is the best way to enter?" Peyton asks, it really seems like he wants to get caught by lizard warriors.
"Front door approach! Definitely. Always the best way," he replies confidently.
'Hostile life forms detected, area seventeen.'
"Apart from the back-door approach, that's also good," he follows up his previous statement after hearing the alarms blare through the city. "Sometimes better."
Peyton and the Doctor turn to walk back the other way when the hiss of automated doors opening ahead of them causes their bodies to stiffen. They're surrounded.
"Doctor?" Nasreen calls as four Homo Reptilia armed with guns come through the doors. Peyton hears the footsteps of more approach from the other direction, closing the three of them in. The Doctor puts his hands in the air as a sign of surrender, Peyton doesn't know how much good it will do but she follows suit.
'Hostile life forms detected, area seventeen.'
"We're not hostile, we're not armed!" The Doctor declares, looking between the oncoming forces. "We're here in peace!" He grabs Nasreen's arm and pulls it up too. One Silurian lunges forward with a different style of gun than the rest of the approachers. A hiss of gas comes out of it and engulfs them like a cloud. Peyton starts to cough and brings a hand to her face. Her knees feel weak and she starts to fall. Peyton register that she's slowly losing consciousness and she stumbles to the floor. She feels a hand on her bicep. The Doctor. Pulling her to cushion her fall onto him.
• • •
"Argh," Peyton screams, writing against the board she is strapped to, the lasers scanning her are doing something to her body, she's not sure what it is but it's bloody painful.
A feminine-looking lizard says something to a surgeon one who looks unimpressed with her comment. Peyton opens her eyes and sees the Doctor writhing around as well. The lasers stop and she lays there panting, Peyton and the Doctor's eyes meet.
"I'm decontaminating now," the surgeon says, flipping some switches.
"Decontamination?" The Doctor whispers. "No, no, no!"
Peyton starts screaming again, kicking against the restraints, her body feels like it's being ripped apart piece by piece. She hears no screams from her left, however. Is Nasreen unaffected? Or worse, they killed her.
"It's alright, it won't harm you. I'm only neutralising all your ape bacteria."
"We're not apes! Look at the scans. Two hearts! Totally different! Totally not ape!" The Doctor screams. "Remove all human germs you remove half the things keeping me and Peyton alive!"
YOU ARE READING
The Time Lord's Apprentice
Fanfiction"But, you're impossible!" "Yeah, and the world is ending, I don't think now is the time." Peyton is an orphan, taken from her mother as an infant by the Unified Intelligence Taskforce. She is raised separately from other children because she is spec...
