Earth Grazer || Doctor Who

XII. Apocalypse Party

The whole platform shook causing Ella to stumble and the Doctor grabbed her waist on instinct to steady her, pulled back to reality and no longer in his private world where he often escaped to. “That’s not supposed to happen,” he whispered.

Honored guests may be reassured that gravity pockets could cause slight turbulence, thanking you. The Blue skinned steward made a calm sounding broadcast to the whole of Platform One.

“I’m assuming that wasn’t gravity pockets?” Ella stepped out of the Doctor’s hold on her waist and they silently made their way back to the main observation gallery.

“You’re right, there’s no way that was a gravity pocket. I know gravity pockets.” The Doctor walked up to a panel and sonicked it with his screwdriver. Upon their entrance the representative of the Forest of Cheem, Jabe walked up to the pair of time travelers.

“What do you think, Jabe? Listened to the engines. They've pitched up about thirty Hertz. That dodgy or what?"

The tree woman shrugged confused, "it's the sound of metal. It doesn't make any sense to me."

"Where's the engine room?" Ella spoke up from her spot beside the Doctor.

"I don't know, but the maintenance duct is just behind our guest suite, I could show you,” Jabe only spoke to the Doctor before remembering Ella, “and your wife." The tree woman ended her words with a question.

"I'm not his wife." Ella interjected before the Doctor could say the same.

"Partner?"

" ... No." The Doctor hesitated.

"I'm only his plus one. Can you show us the maintenance duct or not?" Jabe nodded for them to follow her and the three left the main observation gallery.

They walked down the long corridors that weren't as confusing as the Tardis halls as Jabe and the Doctor traded stories back and forth. The tree woman also informed them that nothing could go wrong because the platform was the height of the Alpha Class, then, the Doctor made an unfortunate joke about the Titanic.

As the three continued down the maintenance duct Ella disappeared into her head, her mind stuck with her dying planet below. Beneath all the relief flooding her heart she felt a twinge of something else as she thought about her family and friends who must have been buried down there.

The group of three came upon a panel in the wall and the Doctor walked up to it, already reaching for his sonic screwdriver. Jabe told them that she was descended from the tropical rainforest and that's why she was here paying respect to the earth.

"What about your ancestry, Doctor?" The question caught Ella off guard as she returned to the conversation. "You could probably tell a story or two. Perhaps a man enjoys trouble when there's nothing else left."

Ella moved to the other side of the Doctor, stopping on his right side and intently studied his face. Anyone one else would have believed the mask he wore but Ella knew him better than he would like. She could see the different emotions rushing in his steel-like eyes, the grief, the sadness, the empty, the dark.

"I scanned you earlier. The metal machine had trouble identifying your species, it refused to admit your existence." So, that's what that flash was about, Ella thought that Jabe had just taken a picture of them. "But when it named you, I wouldn't believe it. Forgive me for intruding but it's remarkable that you're still alive. I also wanted to say how sorry I am."

Jabe reached up and touched his arm in sympathy, the Doctor blinked away his emotions and turned away from the tree woman, managing to get the door open from the panel.

Before he could fully wipe his face free of the emotions swirling inside him, Ella blocked his path. Jabe stepped into the engine room, sensing that the two wanted a moment alone.

Ella's heart broke at the sight of the unshed tears in his eyes, she stood on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck. It was a simple hug, but the Doctor let go for a couple of seconds, burying himself in the familiar scent of her hair.

Before the hug turned awkward the Doctor released Ella and his blank mask was back causing the human to silently huff in annoyance as she followed him into the engine room.

Calling the engine room, a room was an understatement, it was much more than that. It was bigger than Rose's entire estate building, there were three gigantic fans calmly rotating above a wide walkway.

The huge fans were being used to keep the platform from overheating due to the expanding sun outside. Ella glanced around the engine room and spotted a panel linked to the wall a little way to the left of the door.

"Look, Doctor! A panel, you love panels." The Doctor turned towards her and saw what she was talking about, quickly scuttling over to scan the panel. He pulled the top of the panel off and a metal creature that looked like a huge spider scurried out and up the wall.

"What hell is that?!" Ella exclaimed as she was never a fan of real spiders and the idea of a metal one freaked her out so much more.

"Is it part of the ... retro?" Jabe referred to when the Doctor fawned over the cooling system, saying it was old fashioned and how they probably called it retro.

"I don't think so. Hold on." The Doctor held up his sonic screwdriver and tried a couple of settings on it, the screwdriver letting out a few different sounding buzzes. Jabe must have gotten fed up with waiting because she lassoed it down and it landed in the Doctor’s hand.

“What does it do?” Ella wondered as the Doctor studied it.

“Sabotage.”

“Like the song?” Ella couldn’t help the small smile that spread across her face at one of her favorite songs.

Earth death in ten minutes. Earth death in ten minutes.

“And the temperatures about to rocket, come on.” The Doctor urged the girls out of the gigantic engine room and the group of three quickly made their way out of the maintenance duct and back towards the party at the end of the world.

It wasn’t a party that was waiting for them at the end of the corridor but rather a crispy steward; there were little assistants crowded outside of his office. Smoke was billowing from the locked door as the Doctor rushed forward to use his sonic screwdriver on the panel next to the office door to reactivate the sun filter.

Once it was confirmed that the metal spiders had infiltrated Platform One, the Doctor, Ella and Jabe went back to the main observation deck to inform the rest of the guests and figure out where the metal spiders came from.