"But that's how the devil works" Danny replies.
"Or a good psychologist."
"Yeah, but how did it know about my father?" Ida says.
"Okay, but what makes his version of the truth any better than mine and his, hmm?" I ask pointing to myself and the Doctor "cos I'll tell you what I can see. Humans. Brilliant humans. Humans who travel all the way across space, flying in a tiny little rocket right into the orbit of a black hole, just for the sake of discovery. That's amazing! Do you hear me? Amazing, all of you. The Captain, his Officer, his elders, his juniors, his friends. All with one advantage. The Beast is alone. We are not. If we can use that to fight against him" I say, just as the cable of the capsule shears and falls into the shaft.
"The cable's snapped!" Ida shouts.
"Get out!" The Doctor, Ida and I get out of the capsule and throw ourselves to the ground as miles of steel cable falls next to us.
"How much air have we got?" I ask.
"Sixty minutes. Fifty-five. Well, we've got all this cable, we might as well use it. The drum's disconnected. We could adapt it, feed it through" Ida says.
"And then what?" The Doctor asks.
"Abseil into the pit."
"Abseil. Right."
"We're running out of air with no way back. It's the only thing we can do. Even if it's the last thing we ever achieve" Ida says.
"we'll get back. Rose is up there" the Doctor says.
"Well, maybe the key to that is finding out what's in the pit."
"Well, it's half of a good plan" I say.
"What's the other half?" Ida asks.
"Me and the Seer go down, not you" the Doctor says.
The ten miles of cable is now wrapped around a drum, with one end tied around the Doctor's waist while he holds onto my hand
"That should hold it. How's it going?" Ida asks.
"Fine. Should work. Doesn't feel like such a good idea now" the Doctor says as he steps onto the rim of the trapdoor
"Hmm, there it is again. That itch. Go down, go down, go down, go down, go down" I say.
"The urge to jump. Do you know where it comes from, that sensation? Genetic heritage. Ever since we were primates in the trees. It's our body's way of testing us. Calculating whether or not we can reach the next branch" Ida says.
"No, that's not it. That's too kind. It's not the urge to jump. It's deeper than that. It's the urge to fall!" The Doctor wraps his arms around my and we launch ourselves into the chasm.
"Doctor! Seer! Are you okay?"
"Not bad, thanks. The wall of the pit seems to be the same as the cavern, just not much of it. There's a crust about twenty feet down and then nothing. Just the pit. Okay, then. Lower us down."
"Well, here we go then!" Ida shouts.
"You get representations of the Horned Beast right across the universe, in the myths and legends of a million worlds. Earth, Draconia, Velconsadine, Daemos. The Kaled god of war. It's the same image, over and over again. Maybe that idea came from somewhere, bleeding through. The thought at the back of every sentient mind" the Doctor says after while of descending.
"Emanating from here?" Ida asks.
"Could be."
"But if this is the original, does that make it real? Does that make it the actual devil, though?"
The Satan pit
Start from the beginning
