The door had been broken down above then, the thick metal creating an earthquake like rattle above their heads and causing a ringing in their ears. It had come seconds after Mr Jefferson had replaced the grate and they had started to scuttle along the maintenance space on their hands and knees.
Zach's directions were clear but quiet and along with the sound of hands slapping metal and heaving breathing, it was hard to listen to his instruction alone. "Just go straight ahead. Keep going till I say so."
"Not your best angle, Danny." Rose quipped with a light smile.
"Oi, stop it." Danny shouted.
"I don't know, it could be worse." Toby spoke this time.
"Hey!" Sky frowned and had to hold herself back from giving him a swift kick in the face.
"Straight on until you find junction seven point one." Zach broke through their very weak and unneeded comic relief . "Keep breathing. I'm feeding you air. I've got you." They kept crawling and soon hit the closed hatch leading to 7.1.
"We're at seven point one, sir." Jefferson notified the captain.
"Okay, I've got you. I'm just aerating the next section." As they had to waited, Sky took the time to just focus on the Doctor's presence at the back of her mind for a moment. The feeling didn't calm her, it never did in situations of danger or panic. It was like holding hands. The warmth didn't help, not really, but it just made her feel like someone she knew was there, it made her feel like she wasn't alone in a tight box full of strangers.
'Theta?' She spoke, hoping for a reply even if it was brief. Little did she know that he was five miles down a pit.
'I'm here Lelia.' That was all she needed to hear. Placing her head back against the sheet of metal keeping her somewhat safe, she sighed deeply.
"Getting kind of cramped, sir. Can't you hurry up?" Danny requested from Zach.
"I'm working on half power, here." His voice came from the small device around both Danny and Jefferson's wrists.
"Stop complaining." Jefferson gasped, breathlessly.
"Mister Jefferson says stop complaining." Rose repeated to Danny.
"I heard."
"He heard."
"But the air's getting a bit thin." Toby almost whispered to the rest of the crew.
"He's complaining now." Rose rolled her eyes.
"I heard." Nodding, Jefferson watched down the vent for trouble.
"I'm just moving the air." Zach told them. "I've got to oxygenate the next section. Now, keep calm or it's going to feel worse." It already felt bad, how could it possibly feel worse?
Then a bang sounded, and they all felt worse..
"What was that?" Danny asked as the rest fell silent.
"Mister Jefferson, what was that?" Looking down the vent herself, Rose questioned the older man.
"What's that noise?" Toby asked for a third time.
"Captain, what was that?"
"The junction in Habitation Five's been opened. It must be the Ood." Zach told them, sending the crews heart rate beating that little bit faster. "They're in the tunnels!"
"Well, open the gate." Danny started to become impatient as the fear started to settle into him.
"I've got to get the air in!" The captain shouted, he was trying his best.
"Just open it, sir." Jefferson begged this time as they heard the banging getting closer.
"Where are they? Are they close?" Rose asked as she moved closer towards the unopened hatch.
"I don't know. I can't tell. I can't see them." Zach replied, frustrated as they heard him rapidly pressing buttons. "The computer doesn't register Ood as proper life forms."
"Whose idea was that?" Sky perked up with a frown, finally tuning to the others upon hearing that.
"Open the gate!" Danny screamed and finally the gate lifted open and they all hurried through. They sped through more tunnels, which at some points seemed never ending, making sure to follow Zach's directions strictly at the junctions. But still the rabid thundering of the Ood's movements
"The Ood, sir. can't you trap them? Cut off the air?" Jefferson suggested as they moved.
"Not without cutting off yours." The Captain shook his head, never taking his eyes from the blinking red dots on the hologram in front of him. "Danny, turn right. Go right! Go fast, Dan. They're going to catch up."
"I'll maintain defensive position." Sky looked behind her as she heard Mr Jefferson stop and her face fell.
"You can't stop!" She called out behind her, going to stop before Rose grabbed her arm and forced her forward. She was surprised by the girl's act, but didn't let it show, she was too busy deliberating on whether she should go back.
"Miss Sky, that's my job. You've got your task, now see to it." Sky turned and stopped once more for a second, just watching the man as he set himself up so he could fire easily.
"You heard what he said, now shift." Toby pushed her forward this time and pulled on her arm to get her to move. She did, hesitantly and slowly and then the moment gun fire ran out she seized up; like aged iron. It almost brought everything rushing back.
The gun fire, the sacrifice, the death.
"Eight point two. Open eight point two. Zach!" Danny was screaming into the communicator as they reached the next gate and even though Sky had followed several meters behind the others, she was forced to sit and wait until it opened for them. "Open eight point two!" He shouted again when there was no movement.
"I've got to aerate it."
"Open it now!" Danny started to punch the gate out of pure desperation as he was forced to continually listen to the gunfire.
"Danny, stop it. That's not helping." Sky frowned, her head rolling to the side.
"Zach, get it open!" Toby screamed after looking behind him.
"Jefferson, I've got to open eight point two by closing eight point one. You've got to get past the junction. Now move. That's an order, now move!" They heard the shots change in sound as Jefferson changed his gun and then ran out of ammunition completely. "I'm going to loose oxygen, Jefferson, I can't stop for your dramatics!"
"That's it! Come on." The gate opened and they all rushed through as they heard Jefferson now following behind them.
"Danny, turn left and head for nine point two. That's the last one." Zach continued to give directions while still watching where Jefferson was in the system. "Jefferson you've got to move faster. John, move!" The group stopped and they all looked back as they saw Jefferson approaching the gate 8.1.
"Mister Jefferson!" Sky yelled down the tunnel as she saw the gate starting to close. "Keep going!" But it was to late and the gate closed in front of the older man. "No." She found the sonic in the pocket of her jacket and quickly pointed it at the gate but nothing happened. She tried again, and again, and the. Changed the setting before trying a final time. "Why won't it open?"
"Deadlocked sealed." Danny whispered from behind her, his eyes watery as he stared at the gate himself. Jefferson had missed it by mere seconds, they could hear his movements behind the metal.
"Regret to inform, sir..." They then heard Jefferson through the communicator. "I was a bit slow. Not so fast, these days." They all knew what this meant, another death. An avoidable sacrifice.
"I can't open eight point one, John. Not without losing air for the others." Any hope that they had vanished. Sky zoned herself out as she was unable to carry on listening to the man's final words with the Captain and his fellow crew.
His last words, especially knowing they were his last, were too much. The feelings she'd been consumed with before turning herself into a human was slowly returning in small waves, lapping at the shore to her conscious.
"Report Officer John Maynard Jefferson PKD deceased with honours. 43 K two point one. " Zach reported moments later and silence followed. The stillness lasted for a few minutes, out of respect and because no one really knew what to say. It was all around her again, drowning her. The pain, the death, the fear.
"Zach, we're at the final junction, nine point two." Danny was the first to speak out of them in the tunnel. "And er, if my respects could be on record. He saved our lives." A few others nodded along in agreement, but that wasn't enough. There was a dead man and he had given his life to give them just a slight chance of getting out alive.
"Noted." Zach sighed through the comm. "Opening nine point two." They all got ready to crawl under the gate but when it was half way open, they realised they had company. The Ood were already waiting for them on the other side, starting to scramble under the gate.
"Lower nine point two!" Sky yelled out, jumping back into gear and raising the sonic screwdriver still hiding in her curled fist to bring the gate down quicker.
"Back! Back! Back!" Danny pushed the others back.
"We can't go back! The gang point's sealed off. We're stuck." Toby began to panic again but they still retreated, Sky catching up and joining them.
"Here." Sky looked up to see a grate above them which as uncovered, just like the hatch they had entered the tunnels through. "Come on! Up!" She hit the grate as hard as she could from below until it gave way and she stood, climbing out from the tunnel quickly before turning and helping Rose. Next was Danny but then Toby was taking his sweet time.
"Toby, get out of there!" Rose screamed and help him up as Sky looked around them. They had come up into a corridor....she hadn't a clue which one but at least it was empty.
"Help me! Oh, my God. Help me!" They replaced the grate after his cry of terror and Sky secured the it to give the possessed Ood another little puzzle to work on. Or at least those few Ood had some entertainment.
As Sky turned around, the wheel to one of the doors started to spin open and soon enough the door opened and Ood started to march in.
"Come on. We have to go!" Sky turned back to the group.
"It's this way." Danny shouted and ran to the only door free for them to escape through. Getting it open and sealing it behind them just in time. The group started to run faster and faster towards the Ood habitation area.
"Hurry it up!" They heard Zach through the communicator and ran faster. They could hear the bolts to his door getting broken, the bangs getting quicker, the looser the bolts became. They finally reached the Ood habitation and Danny, Rose and Toby surrounded the machine system while Sky took watch over the Ood below.
Basic 100. Such an elementary term for something so complex. Zero to one hundred. Empty to brain dead.
What were they hearing?
Sky had her own plague; curiosity when it came to the minds of others. A lewd intrigue which often caused more harm than good, at least it did in the past.
"Get it in!" Rose rushed, her head turning every few seconds to watch where the Ood were. "Transmit!"
"I'm trying, I'm trying! I'm getting at it." Danny searched his pockets for the computer chip, coming up lucky soon enough and sticking it into the reader with crossed fingers. They were pushing their luck, the Ood were approaching and Sky started to back up but stayed in front of the group. None of them were giving themselves up before her ever again.
"Danny, get that thing transmitting!" Rose pressured the young boy and grabbed Sky's upper arm to try and pull her back. But then suddenly, the reading fell from basic 100 to 0 and all of the Ood grabbed their heads, writhing in what could only be pain; but they emitted no noise before falling to the ground motionless.
"You did it! We did it!" They were all grins when they realised Danny had been successful but it wasn't over yet. As the rest of the group hugged, Sky stayed back from them and cast a sad look down at the Ood. It wasn't their fault, they hadn't turned, something had made them act that way however they'd been slaughtered because of it.
"Zach, we did it. The Ood are down." Rose smiled and then glanced at Sky as she spoke through the comm. "Now we've got to get the Doctor."
"I'm on my way." Zach replied.
"I guess this means more running eh?" Sky attempted to joke, pushing all of the bad thoughts to the back of her head. There was no time for that now and she had to concentrate. All of the group smiled lightly, nodding and less than a second later they took off back to where they had started at the drilling station.
As soon as they reached the familiar room, Rose ran to the machine she had been stood at before. "Doctor, are you there? Doctor, Ida, can you hear me?" Rose turned her attention back to the priority and called out for the Doctor through the comm but it was met with silence.
"The comms are still down. I can patch them through the central desk and boost the signal. Just give me a minute." Zach answered, in person once again finally as he too entered the drilling station.
'Lelia? I need you to listen.' Theta's voice sounded in her head so suddenly she looked to the comm before frowning. With no drills and no Ood and no gunfire, the silence made her second guess her sanity until the bond buzzed with energy.
It didn't sound good. So much so she almost didn't welcome it. She almost pushed him back out of her head.
'Theta? What's wrong?' She asked through her head, turning away from the others so they didn't see her shut her eyes as she concentrated on him.
'Nothing just...' He started to speak again but paused.'Well...'
'Theta.' She spoke with a warning, and it worked because he started talking.
'Let's just say I've been in better places.' He paused again, almost waiting for her to shout at him through their minds but she held back and waited for the Doctor to continue. 'But I'm fine, I just want you to listen.'
Did she have any other choice?
'Okay, I'm listening'
'It was just, if this ends in the worst way it can. I want to say I'm sorry.'
'You don't have to say sorry.' Her voice sounded as gentle as a whisper to him. Theta could sense the pain she was feeling, it had been coming through to him in waves as he was lowered further into the pit. Every time he thought of her, a way of emotion was thrown back at him, warming him to the point of being scalded sometimes.
'Yes. Yes I do. Because if it wasn't for me you wouldn't...' Be here? Is that what he wanted to say? To apologise for? He was sorry she wasn't still back on Earth, hidden, lost...sewing pretty little patterns into tablecloths.
Sky looked behind her for a second and saw Rose watching her as Zach messed on with the system. The girl could sense something was up but Sky wouldn't dare say anything.
'I'm sorry.' He couldn't find his words. A rare and ugly occurrence.
'I wouldn't be happy, I wasn't happy. I'd rather be here than back there.'
The same words had been spoken between the same two souls so long ago but they had never been more true. Even if it was a bold statement, especially seeing as they had only been reunited for a day. Or was it two?
Either way, the pause Theta allowed to hang between them couldn't have been a good thing.
'I still...' He then started suddenly, but stopped. He sounded torn and after tuning in more finely, Sky could feel how he was thinking. He was scared, maybe hopeful. But she understood what he was trying to say and a smile wove its way onto her lips slowly.
'I still too...' She nodded subconsciously as a tear gathered in the corner of her eye. Neither of them could finish saying what they really wanted to say. Both of them a little too scared that the other wouldn't want to hear it or that they wouldn't return it.
'I never forgot.' Theta whispered and that sole tear fell from her eye before she could help it.
Those words lit a fire inside her. Although the flame was small, she was determined they would both get out of there. But Sky could hear his voice slipping slightly and frowned. She knew he was planning something, something which had caused this conversation to start and he knew that she wouldn't ask. Like always, she would just wait and see what happened because she knew he wouldn't do anything without good reason.
'I'm not the sort of person you forget' Sky smiled finally, pushing back the negativity to focus on just them. She felt him laugh even if it was weak, she heard him grin in glee upon hearing his own old words being spoken back to him.
'I'm sorry Lelia'
'I'm sorry too' That was all she could think of to say as his presence dulled into a gentle hum in her mind and the voice stopped.
Sky took a few moments to compose herself, clearing the tears from her eyes and blocking all signs of her sadness and worry from the others. With a stern but empty expression, she turned back round to face the others as Zach stepped back from the machine and Rose started yelling back into the comm.
"Doctor, are you there?" She tried desperately. "Doctor, Ida, can you hear me?" There was only static as they all waited for a reply, Sky stepping forward to rejoin the group. Rose eyed her closely but all Sky did in reply was nod for her to keep on trying. "Are you there, Doctor?"
"He's gone." A broken up voice spoke through the intercom slowly and in that second Sky could almost feel all of the crews hearts drop, never mind Rose's. It was Ida speaking, and although the signal was poor they could here the devastation in her voice.
"What do you mean, he's gone?" Rose breathed,
"He fell into the pit. And I don't know how deep it is." Fell? That didn't sit right with Sky. The way he was talking, she knew he had been planning something. The Doctor hadn't fell, he had jumped. But he was still there. That gentle hum and that tingle which ran down her spine was still there, reminding her he was there. "Miles and miles and miles." Sky heard Ida explain.
"But what do you mean, he fell?" Rose whispered.
"I couldn't stop him." Ida explained. "He said your name." Rose's name...Why didn't he ask to talk to Rose through her? It was possible and she wouldn't have minded, but he hadn't even mentioned the girl.
"I'm sorry. Ida?" Zach spoke into the comm after taking it from Rose's hand gently. "There's no way of reaching you. No cable." Sky went over and put a hand to Rose's back gently. She seemed to be startled and jumped back before looking at Sky. The girl didn't smile however, she didn't do anything. "No back up. You're ten miles down. We can't get there." Sky was so desperate to tell Rose he was still alive, but she didn't know whether that would make things better or worse. There was still a chance they wouldn't get out of there alive or, if they did, that the doctor wouldn't be joining them. So instead she stayed quiet and returned to the back of the group.
"You should see this place, Zach. It's beautiful." Ida seemed to not respond to what Zach had just told her, but who would want to? "Well, I wanted to discover things, and here I am."
"We've got to abandon the base." Zach sighed. "I'm declaring this mission unsafe. All we can do is make sure no one ever comes here again."
"But we'll never find out what it was." Ida responded and it started to become clear by the hitching in her breaths, that she was running out of air.
"Well, maybe that's best." These were the last moments they'd get to talk to Ida and that Ida would get with anyone. It was clear that no one really knew what to say. Taking a deep breath after Ida agreed with Zach, the Captain took a deep breath. "Officer Scott-"
"It's all right. Just go. Good luck." Ida spoke quickly and none of them could have imagined how she was feeling. They were abandoning her, they had no choice but they had to face that that was what was happening. Plain and simple, in black and white, they were leaving her behind.
"And you." Zach put down the comm and the lines were closed. A moment of silence was taken in respect but they were running out of time and needed to get moving. "Danny, Toby, close down the feed links. Get the retrotropes online, then get to the rocket and strap yourselves in. We're leaving." Zach spoke out the very simple plan and then turned to walk away from the group to do his own prep.
"I'm not going." Rose spoke as Sky thought the exact same. If it was possible, she would've jumped and slid down that tunnel to get down to them.
"Rose, there's space for you." Zach turned to look at the young woman. "You too Sky." The older Time Lord could only nod in thanks.
"No, I'm going to wait for the Doctor. Just like he waited for me." She turned to the system and leant on it.
"I'm sorry, but he's dead." The Captain shrugged his shoulders, helpless.
"You don't know him." Rose cried out "'Cause he's not. I'm telling you, he's not. And even if he was, how could I leave him all on his own, all the way down there?" Sky opened her mouth to tell her he was still alive but closed it.
Sky needed to protect Rose at the minute and that meant getting her on that rocket. Telling her there as still hope would only make that ten times harder.
"No, I'm going to stay." Sky looked to Zach slowly to see him watching her, like he was silently asking permission. Then she looked to his hands and saw the small syringe ready, he was going to sedate her. She couldn't allow that...it broke so many rules on ethics she had preached about in previous lives, but then...without giving it a second thought, Sky nodded to Zach and looked away.
"Then I apologise for this." He spoke and stepped forward. "Danny, Toby? Make her secure." Both men trapped Rose and held her still.
"No, no. No! No! No! Sky!" Sky turned and looked at Rose, making eye contact just long enough to mouth to her that she was sorry. "Let me go! Get off me! I'm not leaving!" Zach injected the substance into Rose's neck and almost instantly the girl's form slumped over, passed out.
"I have lost too many people. I am not leaving you behind." Zach spoke to her unconscious form as he lifted Rose over his shoulder and started to carry her from the drilling station. "Let's get her on board." Sky followed the crew at the back of the group, guilt eating her up. They left the station and weaved through the corridors littered with Ood.
"Did that one just move?" Toby asked. Sky pushed through and saw the Ood spread out in front of them all starting to twitch, the red eyes returning.
"It's the telepathic field. It's reasserting itself." She spoke calmly, watching as each of the Ood started to twitch quicker. It was definitely returning and fast.
"Move it. Get to the rocket. Move!"