Shadow of a wing (Doctor Who)

Submarine dome

A pair of black booted feet showed out from under a hexagonal console. It looked like a table, sticking out from the middle of the room, a green glowing tube with crystals inside hung above it. Actually the whole room was bathed in a slightly greenish glow. The walls were decorated with sharply angled shapes and lights, from which the color emitted. All of it gave off a slightly gloomy and, one could say, alien vibe.

"Great," a grumbling voice murmured.

Shortly after a blond head appeared from under the console, belonging to the man who had decided to call himself the Reaper. For now. He used to wear a different name, one he was rather attached to. But things had... changed. Time had passed. And right now it seemed more fitting to travel anonymously.

"That's a fine hopeless plight," he grumbled and threw a cable into a corner. "That stupid piece of trash wouldn't even work with a new cable. And with Gallifrey gone..." He grunted annoyed. "Seems like this will take a while longer than expected. I hope you don't mind a few... technical issues."

For a moment he stood still, head slightly tilted and listened into the silent air. After a while he sighed and shook his head.

"In case you hear me," he said, a slight hint of hope reverberating in his voice, "It means I can't wind time back and forth. And since your little... issue... distorts my coordinates... Well, it means I can find out where to go... but not exactly when." Again he listened for a few moments, before he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I can only jump, but finding the right time this way will take ages... probably makes more sense to track the signal to the next place and hope I get closer in time."

The Reaper turned around, flicked a few switches on the console and pulled a few levers, before the noises of the engines filled the room, followed by familiar landing sounds. For a moment he closed his eyes and just listened.

"I'm talking to thin air, right?" he almost whispered, then rammed his fist against the console. A moment later he stared at his scraped knuckles and abruptly turned around to leave the TARDIS. Travelling through all of time and space... it was a nice thing. But with lots of the tech malfunctioning, or not working at all, it wasn't that much help.

While opening the doors he grabbed his coat from a hook and stepped outside, getting greeted by a nightly and very dense forest. A pale crescent moon shone through the tree tops, illuminating the path ahead. The Reaper followed the way, listening to the sounds and having an eye on his surroundings.

But apart from some wild life there seemed to be no one around. It definitely was the wrong time again. The question, though, was, how wrong? It felt like the trace was old, but he needed confirmation, before jumping to the next spot.

Sometime later the path ended at a big lake, and if it hadn't been night, he would have missed the light, shimmering from below the surface. Something was down there. A glowing animal maybe? He kneeled down and stretched over the water, but couldn't get a closer look at it.

Somewhat intrigued he glided a hand into the water to see if it would harm him. But it was just normal water, not acidic and even drinkable. Thinking about it for a moment, he stood still. Then he decided to let his curiosity win, took off most of his clothes and shoes and jumped into the lake.

The glowing came right from its middle, but also from very deep below. Good thing he had a respiratory bypass. This would make diving a lot easier. A bit of time passed as he calmed down his breath and heartbeat, then he took some slow, deep breaths and descended below the surface.

There were lots of plants in the way and a few harmless fish. And then, after a patch of weed, the source of the light came in sight. It emerged from a glass dome, several feet in diameter, but altogether not that big.

And inside was... his eyes widened at the sight. There was an actual city inside! Tiny in comparison to himself, but quite modern looking. Skyscraper-like buildings rose almost to the glass above, tiny vehicles flew between them and on the ground there were countless tiny people running busily around.

They looked a bit like a mixture of humanoids and bugs. But why were they living at the bottom of this lake, instead of on the surface? Wouldn't that be a lot easier? Were they even aware of the fact, that something like that existed outside?

With a grin the Reaper tapped on the glass, letting sudden chaos spread among the population, when they glared up at the monstrosity, that he must be presenting to them. He wondered if the dome had a weak spot somewhere, before pulling out a longish device, that looked like an especially technical screwdriver.

A button-press later its tip suddenly emitted a laser beam that burned a tiny hole into the glass. Just enough to peak the panic below, but not letting the dome crack. A few drops leaked inside though, hitting the people below and probably drowning a few of them.

With a mean chuckle he watched, until he started to feel the rising urge for oxygen. Before he left, his gaze fell upon something right next to the dome. There, engraved into a fancy looking stone, was a symbol. One the Reaper knew all too well. One, that told him, that he indeed was too far into the future again.

So he pushed himself off the ground and shot back up to the surface, taking in some long and deep breaths of the nightly air, before he climbed back to the shore, picking up his clothes. No one was around, so there really was no need to put them on again and get them all wet.

After a last look to the glow in the lake he trudged back to the TARDIS, wondering where this journey might lead him next.