Midnight ⋆ Doctor Who²

14. The Little Boxes

AURORA HAD SEEN WEIRD. Like, covered in huge alien whale puke weird. But this... She doesn't like this. It just makes her whole body itch. Like, she knows that something is very bad here, but she still has no idea why. It's smacked in her face, and her brain cannot compute it, it's radio silence up there.

But maybe that's just a feeling, because she always gets it. That feeling that everything is going to be bad, in some way. It's either the 'Aplans have two heads' syndrome, or anxiety. Most likely the latter.

Still, she's learned to identify anxiety and genuine instincts. Instincts are just time and space nudging you in the right direction.

Rory catches Idris as she falls. Aurora helps him set her against an old tire sotly. She makes sure her head doesn't roll back and forth and causes her a sore neck when she wakes up.

"Is that it?" Uncle asks. "She's dead now. So sad."

"No, she's still breathing," Rory tells him, frowning at him.

Aurora gives a weird look at Uncle, uneasy. "Nephew, take Idris somewhere she can not bite people," he asks.

She turns around to see who Uncle is talking to, and smiles from ear to ear as she recognizes an Ood. The Doctor does too.

From what she's heard, Oods are a pacifist species. She likes those, once in a while. "Oh, hello!"

"Oooh!" the Doctor hums excitedly, walking quickly to it.

Amy, on the other hand, jumps behind him in slight fear. "What is that?" Aurora has to agree that, at first sight, Oods aren't exactly... pretty.

"Oh, no, it's all right," the Doctor assures her. "It's an Ood."

"Oods are good," Aurora adds.

"Love an Ood," he chirps. "Hello, Ood." No answer. "Can't you talk?"

The Doctor and Aurora walk closer to the Ood with smiles on their faces. Aurora points the non-glowing globe in his hand. "Look."

"Oh, I see," he nods. "It's damaged. May I?"

The Ood nods, consenting. They start to fiddle with it, handing each other the globe back and forth. "It might just be on the wrong frequency," Aurora says.

"Nerds," Amy scoffs behind them.

"Nephew was broken when he came here," Auntie explains. "Why, he was half dead. House repaired him. House repaired all of us."

Aurora is about to ask who House is, but the Ood's globe glows neon green, and a deep voice rings from it.

"If you are receiving this message, please help me. Send a signal to the High Council of the Time Lords on Gallifrey. Tell them that I am still alive. I don't know where I am. I'm on some rock-like planet."

Behind the message is a lot of other voices trying to speak at the same time. They overlap, in a cacophony that brings shivers to her spine. Aurora listens with horror at the desperation in the voices. She looks at the Doctor's face, and realizes he's thinking the same things. These are Time Lords speaking. Dozens of Time Lords, maybe, all speaking at the same time, all begging for help.

"What was that ?" Rory asks, a bit afraid, and concerned at the look on his friends' faces. "Was that him?" Aurora wishes it was only the Ood.

"No, no," the Doctor answers quickly. "It's picking up something else. But that's, that's not possible. That's, that's..." He trails off, unable to go on.

Aurora immediately stops the Doctor from pacing by taking his big hands in her tiny ones. He needs to focus, or he's going to get sidetracked, and nothing good ever comes out of this. She searches his unfocused hazel eyes. "Doctor, breathe, please." But even she can't calm him down, not right now.