COSMOS
|S2 E8|
1/2
"That's a lie. I like everyone."
★————————————★
The Doctor eventually took Penny up on her offer about a month later, the TARDIS appearing out of nowhere in the middle of her apartment, waving around a ringing alarm clock. Bright eyes and wide smiles, Penny's cheery mood reflected in her colorful outfit, a checkered blue sweater instead of her usual pink, and pleated gray shorts. She was just glad she'd been wearing something nice when the Doctor suddenly appeared.
This time around, she didn't have to think, mind already firmly made, stepping through the blue doors without a moment of hesitation.
The air inside was different, older, but not in a way that left it stale and dusty. Something close to magic thrummed inside its panels as Penny took in the wondrous new dimension. "It's huge!"
The Doctor paused, raising his eyebrows. "...Anything else?"
"Oh, um...its lovely, I love what you've done with the...walls?" Penny quickly added, worried she'd offended him in some way.
"I'll take it I suppose." He sighed, Rose laughing at his disappointed face. "First trip, then? What do you want to see."
Penny hummed to herself, still gazing at the impressive interior. "I don't know, surprise me."
"A surprise it is then!"
★————————————★
Traveling through time and space was a lot smoother of a ride than Penny expected it to be, and louder too. The TARDIS wheezed and groaned as it landed, the room rattling as it made contact with solid ground once more.
"Is it supposed to sound like that?" Penny asked as they walked through the double door entrance.
"No, not really. I wonder what's wrong with her. She's sort of...queasy." The Doctor patted the doors of the ship in concern. "Indigestion. Like she didn't want to land."
"If you think there's gonna be trouble, we could always get back inside and go somewhere else." Rose said, though it didn't take long until she and the Doctor burst out into laughter at the notion.
Looking around the room they'd stumbled into, it was lined with crates and metal boxes, the already small space made even smaller.
"I think we've landed inside a cupboard. Here we go." He turned the large wheel on the door, it creaking open in response and an automatic voice coming from a speaker somewhere above them.
"Open door 15." It spoke, and sure enough a large number 15 was painted on the front of the door they'd just gone through. The new area was just as metallic as the storage room, though not as clean and futuristic as Penny would have expected. Sounds of rough winds came from somewhere far away, yet could still be heard loudly inside the metal walls.
"Some sort of base." The Doctor observed. "Moon base, sea bass, space bass. They build these things out like kits."
"Glad we're indoors. Sounds like a storm out there." Rose noticed.
The Doctor opened another door, the automatic voice announcing it once again. "Human design, you've got a thing about kits. This place was put together like a flat-pack wardrobe, only bigger and easier."
"Open door 17." The voice chimed as they stepped through another door. The room on the other side was large and circular, based of the tables and chairs it seemed to me more of a living area.
"Oh, it's a sanctuary base!" The Doctor realized. "Deep-space exploration. We've gone way out. And listen to that."
He paused, holding up a finger. A quiet humming noise was barely noticeable in the silence. "Underneath. Someone's drilling."
"What for?" Penny wondered.
"Who knows, could be a number of things, resources or exploratory or colonization." The Doctor listed off, head still tilted towards the floor.
"'Welcome to Hell.'" Rose spoke up, prompting surprised looks from the other two.
"Oh, it's not that bad."
"No, over there." Rose pointed out. Across the room the words were spray painted on the metal wall, beneath the English words was a series of symbols, completely indecipherable at least to Penny.
"Hold on." The Doctor ran up and crouched in front of the symbols. "What does that say?"
Upon closer inspection the symbols looked scratched out, sharp lines and sudden curves. "That's weird, it won't translate." The Doctor frowned.
"But I thought the TARDIS translated everything, writing as well." Rose crouched beside him. "I should see English."
"Exactly. If that's not work that means this writing is old. Very old. Impossibly old."
"But we're on a futuristic base." Penny pointed out. "Why would there be ancient writing on a relatively new base?"
"I don't know." The Doctor breathed out, before standing again. "We should find out who's in charge. We've gone beyond the reach of the TARDIS' knowledge. Not a good move."
He began cranking open the next door, speaking to them one his shoulder. "And if someone's looking for-"
The door swung open, revealing a group of bald headed aliens. In the place of where their mouths would be was a cluster of tentacles, tinged pink against the pale white of their skin. In their hands they held a sealed sphere, a tube running from it to somewhere beyond the tentacles.
"Right, hello. Sorry." The Doctor awkwardly spoke. "I was just saying, nice place."
The orbs in their hands simultaneously lit up, in time with the voice which came from them. "We must feed."
"You gotta what?"
"We must feed."
"Yeah, I think they mean us." Rose tugged on the other two's arms.
"We must feed." They chanted, over and over. More of the creatures emerged from doors on the other side of the room, blocking the three from retreating further.
"We must feed..." The one closest to them spoke, before rattling his sphere, tapping it a few times as if it were a faulty TV. "...you. If you are hungry."
"...Sorry?" The Doctor cautiously asked, lowering his sonic which he'd raised defensively.
"Electromagnetics have interfered with speech systems." The alien blinked at them. "Would you like some refreshment?"
'Open door 18.' Before they had a chance to respond, another door opened up, three humans emerging, dog tags hanging around their necks.
"What the hell?" The older man leading the small group said upon noticing the new arrivals.
"How did-" He pulled out a small communicator. "Captain, you're not gonna believe this. We've got people. Out of nowhere. I mean, real people. I mean...three living people just standing here right in front of me."
A voice came over the communicator with a scoff. "Don't be stupid, that's impossible."
"I suggest telling them that." The man spoke back.
"But you're a sort of space base." Rose frowned in confusion. "You must have visitors now and then. It can't be that impossible."
"Your telling me you don't know where you are?" The man balked in disbelief.
"No idea. More fun that way." The Doctor answered for them.
Another voice came over the rooms speakers, the humans tilting their head in attention. "Stand by, everyone. Buckle down. We have incoming and it's a big one. Quake 0.5 on its way."
The man in charge of the small group ran over to one of the doors, cranking it open in a hurry. "Through here. Now!"
They quickly filed through, down a hallway and into another circular room. More people stood inside, works stations and scanners set up within.
Upon noticing the new arrivals, their eyes widened in shock. "Oh my God, you meant it." The voice from the communicator spoke up, this time attached to a man's face.
"People. Look at that, real people!" A woman with wavy brown hair said in shock.
"Thats us. Hurray!" The Doctor grinned.
"Yeah, definitely real. My names Rose, Rose Tyler." She introduced herself before pointing to the other two. "And this is the Doctor and Penelope Brookes."
"I go by Penny." She gave a small wave to all of them.
"Come on, the oxygen must be offline." A younger man with longer hair spoke up. "We must be hallucinating."
He slowly reached out and poked Penny's shoulder, rocking her back on her heels. Though the poke wasn't terribly strong, instinctively she rubbed the spot as he turned back to the crew. "No, they're real."
"Come on! We're in the middle of an alert." The captain yelled. "Danny, strap up, the quakes coming in. Impact in 30 seconds."
"Sorry you three, whoever you are." He addressed them. "Just hold on. Tight."
"Hold on to what?" Rose questioned.
"Anything, I don't care, just hold on."
Penny grabbed onto one of the metal support beams of the ship, the other two taking similar positions as the captain spoke to one of the bald aliens. "Ood, are we fixed?"
"Your kindness in this emergency is much appreciated." Penny guessed that meant 'yes'.
"What's this planet called, anyway?" The Doctor wondered.
"Don't be stupid, it hasn't got a name." Another woman spoke up. "How could it have a name?" At their confused looks she continued. "You really don't know, do you?"
"Impact!" The captain shouted before she could explain, the entire ship violently shaking, over in a matter of moments.
"Oh, well that wasn't so ba-" The Doctor was nearly thrown to the side as the shaking suddenly resumed, more intense than before. Steam and sparks shot from the electronics before dying down once more.
"Okay, that's it." The captain called out. "Everyone all right? Speak to me, Ida?"
"Yeah, yeah." Ida, the woman who'd begun explaining the planet answered.
"Danny?"
"I'm fine." Responded the younger man who'd poked Penny's arm.
"Toby?"
"Yeah, fine."
"Scooti?"
"No damage!" Called the wavy haired woman.
"Jefferson?"
"Check!"
"We're fine, thanks, fine. Yeah don't worry about us." The Doctor sarcastically groaned.
"What was that?" Penny questioned.
"Surface caved in." The captain didn't answer. "I deflected it onto Storage 5 through 8. We've lost them completely. Toby, go and check the rocket link."
"That's not my department." Toby complained.
"Just do as I say, yeah?" The captain ordered.
Toby hesitated before doing as he was told, Ida beginning to speak as he left the room. "Oxygen holding. Internal gravity at 56.6. We should be okay."
"Never mind the earthquake, that's..." Rose listened to the rattling of the ceiling. "That's one hell of a storm. What is that, a hurricane?"
Scooti shook her head. "You need an atmosphere for a hurricane. There's no air out there. It's a complete vacuum."
"Then what's shaking the roof?"
Ida's eyes widened at the blonde. "You're not joking. You really don't know. Well, introductions. FYI, as they said in the olden days. I'm Ida Scott, Science Officer."
She pointed to each of the members of the crew as she introduced them. "Zachary Cross Flane, Acting Captain, sir. You've met Mr. Jefferson, he's Head of Security. Danny Bartock, Ethics Committee."
"Not as boring as it sounds." He interjected, grinning at the newcomers.
"And that man who just left, that was Toby Zed, Archeology. And this..." She walked over to the last to be introduced, putting her hands on her shoulders. "is Scooti Manista, Trainee Maintenance."
"And finally this..." She walked over to a side of the room, cranking a lever. "This is home."
"Brace yourselves." Zachary warned. "The sight of it sends some people mad."
The ceiling opened up, giant metal shutter pulling apart. Beyond the glass that lay behind them, was a swirling, fiery view of a black hole. It bathed the room in an orange light, it's center expanding and compressing all at once in and impossibly massive display.
"But that's...beautiful." Penny breathed out. "How are we not dead?"
"That's impossible." The Doctor stared at the void.
"I did warn you." Zachary monotonously said, the wonder of it having long worn off.
The Doctor shook his head in disbelief. "We're standing under a black hole."
"In orbit." Ida pointed out.
"We can't be."
"You can see for yourself." She told the man. "We're in orbit."
"But we can't be!" He insisted
"This lump of rock is suspended in perpetual geostationary orbit around that black hole, without falling in." Ida insisted. "Discuss."
"And that's bad, yeah?" Rose looked to the other two.
"Bad doesn't cover it. A black hole's a dead star. I collapses in on itself, in and in and in, until the matter's so dense and tight it starts to pull everything else in, too." The Doctor explained. "Nothing in the universe can escape it. Light, gravity, time, everything just gets pulled inside and crushed."
"So they can't be in orbit?" Rose understood. "We should be pulled right in."
"We should be dead." The Doctor agreed.
"And yet, here we are. Beyond the laws of physics." Ida spoke up again, a gleam of inspiration in her eyes. "Welcome onboard."
The roof creaked again, Rose turning to question the woman. "If there's no atmosphere out there the what's that?"
"Stars breaking up. Gas clouds. We have whole solar systems being ripped apart above our heads before falling into that thing."
"So a bit worse than a storm, yeah?"
"Just a bit."
"But that's incredible." Penny couldn't quite tear her eyes away from the view. "I mean, it's terribly deadly and a little horrifying but incredible."
"Not bad for a first trip, eh?" The Doctor nudged her.
"No, not bad at all."
★————————————★
Toby reentered the room, clearly in a sour mood. "Rocket link's fine."
Zachary nodded, before pulling up a hologram of the black hole. "That's the black hole, officially designated K37 Gem 5."
"In the scriptures of the Veltino, this planet is called Krio Tor, the bitter pill." Ida explained. "And the black hole is supposed to be a mighty demon who was tricked into devouring the planet only to spit it out because it was poison."
"The bitter pill." Rose repeated. "I like that."
"We are so far out." The Doctor examined the hologram. "Lost in the drifts of the universe. How did you even get here?"
"We flew in." The captain explained, changing the hologram to display the planet. "You see this planets generating a gravity field. We don't know how, we've no idea, but it's kept in constant balance against the black hole. And the field extends out there as a funnel, a distinct gravity funnel reaching out into clear space. That was our way in."
"You flew down that thing?" Rose grinned in wonder.
"Like a rollercoaster." Ida smiled back.
"By all rights, the ship should have been torn apart." Zachary continued. "We lost the captain, which is what put me in charge."
"And you're doing a good job." Ida quickly reassured.
"Yeah, well. Needs must."
"But if that gravity funnel closes, there's no way out." Danny pointed out.
"Oh, we have fun speculating about that." Scooti rolled her eyes.
"Oh, yeah. That's the word, 'fun'." Danny joked, lightly hitting her with the paper he held.
"But that field would take phenomenal amounts of power. I mean..." The Doctor creased his brow in utter confusion. "Not just big, but off the scale. Can I...?"
He gestured to the controller next to Ida, who quickly handed it over.
One of the Ood approached Rose and Penny, holding a two small cups, orb lighting up as it spoke. "Your refreshments."
"Oh, yeah, thanks." Rose took her drink. "Thank you. I'm sorry, what was your name?"
"We have no titles. We are as one." It kindly replied.
"Oh, that's seems lovely." Penny commented, taking the drink of her own. "Sorry, about assuming you were trying to eat us earlier."
The two stepped away, making their way over towards Scooti and Danny. "Sorry, what are they called?" Rose asked, pointing to the bald alien.
"Oh, come on." Danny smiled. "Where have you been living? Everyone's got one."
"Got one?" Penny questioned. "Are they sold?"
"Of course, they're the Ood." He answered.
"The Ood?" Rose repeated. At Danny's nod she considered the name again. "Well that's...Ood."
"Very Ood." He agreed. "But handy. They work the mineshaft. All the drilling and stuff. Supervision and maintenance. They're born for it. Basic slave race."
"You've got slaves?" Rose's eyes widened.
"Don't start." Scooti scoffed. "She's like one of that lot, they both are. Friends of the Ood."
"What's wrong with being friends with the Ood?" Penny questioned.
"And since when do humans need slaves?" Rose agreed.
"Well, the Ood offer themselves." Danny argued. "If you don't give them orders they just pine away and die."
"Seriously, you like being ordered about?" Rose asked one of the Ood.
"It is all we crave." It politely answered.
"Why is that then?"
"We have nothing else in life." It answered again, orb lighting up each time it spoke.
"Well, that can't be true, what about being as one and everything?" Penny insisted. "There's always something else."
Rose nodded, and went to speak again, but Penny didn't manage to catch it, distracted by the slightest presence of something tapping on the edges of her mind.
"There we go. Do you see?" The Doctor interrupted her thoughts, whatever it was disappearing in an instant. "To generate that gravity field and the funnel, you'd need a power source with an inverted self-extrapolating reflex of six to the power of six every six seconds."
"That's all the sixes." Rose noticed.
"And it's impossible." The Doctor added.
"Took us two years to work that out." Zachary said, impressed.
"I'm very good." The Time Lord gloated.
"But that's why we're here." Ida explained. "This power source is ten miles below, trough solid rock. Point 0. We're drilling down to try to find it."
"It's giving off readings of over 90 statts on the Blazen Scale." Zachary noted.
"It could revolutionize modern science." Ida spoke excitedly.
Mr. Jefferson took a different stance. "We could use it to fuel the empire."
"Or start a war." The Doctor added.
"It's buried beneath us. In the darkness waiting." Toby commented.
"What's your job, Chief dramatist?" Rose joked, earning a smile from the Doctor.
"Well, whatever it is down there it's not a natural phenomenon." Toby insisted. "This planet once supported life, aeons ago, before the human race had even learnt to walk."
"I saw that lettering written on the wall, did you do that?" The Doctor questioned the man.
He nodded. "I copied it from fragments we found unearthed by the drilling, but I can't translate it."
"'Welcome to Hell'." Penny quietly repeated.
"No, neither can I. And that's saying something." The Doctor frowned.
"And there was some form of civilization. They buried something." Toby revealed. "Now, it's reaching out. Calling us in."
"And you came." The Doctor grinned in delight at the mystery.
"How could we not?" Ida shared his wonder.
"So, when it comes right down to it, why did you come here? Why did you do that? Why?" The Doctor looked around the room. "I'll tell you why. Because it was there. Brilliant! Excuse me, Zach, was it?"
"That's me." The man replied.
"Just stand there 'cause I'm gonna hug you, that all right?"
"'Suppose so." The man shrugged.
"Here we go. Coming' in." He clasped his arms around the man's back joyfully. "Human beings. You are amazing."
He patted the man on the back, retreating back to where he was standing. "But apart from that, you're completely mad. You should pack your bags get back on that ship and fly for your lives."
"You can talk. How the hell did you get here?" Ida questioned them.
"Oh, I've got this...um this ship...it's hard to explain, it just sort of appears." He stumbled into an answer.
"We can show you, we parked down the corridor from...um...what's it called? Habitation Area 3?" Rose offered.
"Do you mean Storage 6?" Zachary asked.
"It was a bit of a cupboard, yeah." The Doctor agreed, before his agreement turned to worry. "Storage 6? But you said...you said storage 5 to 8."
He turned on his heel sprinting back the way they'd come, Rose and Penny following behind. Reaching the end of a hallway, the Doctor rattled at the door but it refused to budge.
"What is it, what's wrong?" Rose questioned. "Doctor the TARDIS is in there, what's happened?"
"The TARDIS is gone." He finally spoke. "The earthquake. This section collapsed."
"But it's got to be out there somewhere." Rose insisted as Penny glanced out the peephole, staring out at a deep, dark pit stretching down to whatever waited at the core of the planet. In the back of her mind Penny could almost hear it, calling out to them, whatever it was that waited at the bottom of that pit.
★————————————★
The crew refused to divert their drilling despite the Doctor's insistence, leaving them effectively stranded. For a fairly hopeless situation, Penny thought she was coping fairly well. The panic certainty hadn't set in yet, even as the base's automatic cycle turned to night.
"You should eat." The Doctor said. They were sitting around a table in the mess hall, the Time Lord closely inspecting the strange writing on the wall. Rose had gone to get food of her own from the Ood stationed in the kitchen.
"I could say the same to you." Penny deflected before sighing. "Honestly, I think anything I ate would come right back up."
"...I'm sorry. I am so sorry Penelope." He softly spoke.
"Don't tell me you're giving up. We haven't even tried anything yet." Penny refused to let her cheerful exterior crumble, it would take a lot more to do that.
The Doctor grinned at her determination. "Penelope Brookes. Maybe I ought to take a page or two out of your book."
She laughed before speaking again. "It's not my book. Not really. Someone else taught me that."
Before he could ask any more questions on the matter, the lights flickered in and out. "Zach, we got a problem?" Ida spoke into her communicator.
"No more than usual." He replied. "Got the Scarlet System burning up. Might be worth a look."
"You might want to see this." Ida flipped off her communicator, turning to the newcomers. "Moment in history"
She opened up the ceiling shutter, revealing the black hole above them once more. A pinkish red streak was being pulled towards it's gaping maw, cloudy and swirling. "That used to be the Scarlet System. Home to the Pallushi. A mighty civilization spanning a billion years disappearing forever. Their planets and suns consumed. Ladies and gentlemen, we have witnessed its passing."
Deep, guttural sadness filled Penny's chest, tears threatening to spill at the beautiful death. Just behind it, she felt it again, something just lightly brushing against her mind, slipping away as quick as she'd noticed it, like trying to hold onto a dream.
Ida went to close the shutters back up, but the Doctor stopped her with a gentle, "No, could you leave it open? Just for a bit. I won't go mad, I promise.".
"How would you know?" Ida countered, but did as he said. "Scooti, check the lock down. Jefferson, sign off the airlock seals for me."
As they all began to do their duties, Rose turned to the other two. "I've seen films and things, yeah? They say black holes are like gateways to another universe."
"Not that one." The Doctor shot down, "It just eats."
"A long way from home." She sighed.
The Doctor eyed her saddened face before pointing up at the galaxies above them. "Go that way, turn right, keep going for, erm...about 500 years and you'll reach the Earth."
"It's still there then? Even after all the disasters and predictions, the Earth is still there?" Penny asked, hopeful.
"You humans are so resilient, you figure out a way." He reassured. "Reaching out into the stars, crossing that great unknown, but still thinking of home."
Rose pulled out her phone, but sighed in disappointment. "No signal. That's the first time we've gone out of range. Mind you, even if I could...what would I tell her? Can you build another TARDIS?" She turned back to the Doctor anticipation of his answer clear in her face.
"They were grown, not built." He mourned the machine, despite Penny's insistence it wasn't necessarily gone. "And with my home planet gone, we're kind of stuck."
"Well, it could be worse. This lot said they'd give us a lift." Rose optimistically recalled.
"And then what?" The Doctor questioned.
"I don't know." She admitted. "Find a planet. Get a job. You live your life same as the rest of the universe."
"I'd have to settle down." He frowned. "Get a house or something. A proper house with...doors and things. Carpets. Me, living in a house! Now, that...that is terrifying."
At least his mood seemed to have lifted, Penny thought. Maybe soon she'd be able to bring up the problem that'd been tingling in the back of her mind. She saw the pink tinges of affection blossoming between the two, excusing herself to go find one of the others.
★————————————★
She found Danny first, the young man typing away on a computer. "Hey." She greeted as to not startle him.
"Oh, hey." He looked up with a smile. "Not with your friends?"
"Figured I at least try to meet someone new, make a few new friends. Especially if I'm going to be stuck here." She leaned against the metal railing, lines of Ood standing below.
He hummed in acknowledgment. "So they are just your...friends?"
"They are." She confirmed. "Why do you ask?"
She didn't get her answer as the Doctor appeared, sticking his head into the room with an excited, "Evenin'!".
"Only us." Rose followed him closely.
"The mysterious couple." He greeted. "How are you, then? Settling in?"
"Yeah, sorry, straight to business." The Doctor interrupted before they started any small talk. "The Ood, how do they communicate? I mean, with each other."
"Oh, just empaths." He shrugged. "There's a low level telepathic field connecting them. Not that that does them much good. They're basically a herd race, like cattle."
"This telepathic field, can it pick up messages?" The Doctor questioned.
"'Cause I was having dinner and one of the Oods said something...well, odd." Rose elaborated.
"Hmm. An odd Ood." Danny joked, glancing at Penny.
"And then I got something else on my...communicator thing." Rose continued, clearly speaking about her cellphone.
"Well, be fair. We've got whole star systems burning up around us, there's all sorts of stray transmissions. Probably nothing."
He dismissed, but the worried look on all their faces made it clear he hadn't done much to dissuade their worries. "Look, if there was something wrong, it would show. We monitor the telepathic field. It's the only way to look after them. They're so stupid. They don't even tell us when they're ill."
"Monitor the field, that's this thing." The Doctor gestured to the computer Danny had been typing on.
"Yeah." He nodded. "But like I said, it's low level telepathy. They only register Basic 5."
As he spoke the number on the screen jumped, increasing rapidly. "Well that's not Basic 5. 10. 20. They've gone up to Basic 30."
"But they can't." Danny insisted.
Penny, stared at the number, now settled on 30. "Well somethings making them."
"Doctor, the Ood." Rose warned.
The aliens had turned their heads up to look at the group, when before they had been sitting and looking straight forward.
"What does Basic 30 mean?" Asked Rose.
"Well, it means that they're shouting, screaming inside their heads." Danny explained still trying to make sense out of the computers readings.
"Or something is shouting at them." The Doctor countered.
"But where is it coming from? What is it saying?" Danny wondered aloud, tapping on the screen in confusion, turning to Rose. "What did it say to you?"
"Something about the Beast and the Pit." Rose shrugged.
"What about your communicator? What did that say?" He asked in desperation.
"He is awake."
"And you will worship him." The Ood replied, speaking as one.
"What the hell?" Danny gaped in disbelief.
"He is awake." The Doctor tried again.
"And you will worship him." Again the Ood chanted, not moving from their seats, but staring far more soullessly up at the four.
"Worship who?" The Doctor probed, but the Ood simply stared back. Who's talking to you? Who is it?"
"Maybe whatever it is stops them from answering?" Penny suggested, before a sinking feeling hit her, catching her off guard. Something terrible was happening, not where they stood, but somewhere else.
The base shook viciously, nearly knocking her over as the automatic voice came over the speakers.
"Emergency hull breach. Emergency hull breach."
A siren wailed through the air as Danny worriedly yelled into his communicator. "Which section? Which Section?"
"Everyone, evacuate 11 to 13. We've got a breach." The familiar voice of Zachary came over the speaker. "The Base is open. Repeat, the Base is open."
The four of them tore out of the room, funneling down the halls away from sections 11, 12, and 13. Mr. Jefferson pulled the last of them through the doorway, Toby, before shutting the door firmly, letting the automatic lock slide into place.
"Everyone all right?" The Doctor bounced around the room, scanning each of them and finding no visible injuries. "What happened? What was it?"
"Hull breach." Mr. Jefferson panted, catching his breath. "We were open to the elements. Another couple of minutes and we'd have been inspecting that black hole at close quarters."
Rose went to help up Toby, who'd fallen to his knees as the Doctor continued to question. "That wasn't a quake, what caused it?"
"We've lost sections 11 to 13. Everyone all right?" Zachary asked over the intercom.
"We've got everyone here except Scooti." Mr Jefferson quickly answered. He must've done a head count as they came through the door. "Scooti, report."
Nothing but silence on the other end.
"Scooti Manista, this is an order, report." He tried again.
"She's all right." Zach reassured. "I've picked up her biochip. She's in Habitation 3. better go and check if she's not responding. She might be unconscious. But how about that, eh? We survived."
"Habitation 3." Mr. Jefferson confirmed, leading the way. "Come on. I don't often say this, but I think we could all do with a drink. Come on."
The Doctor hesitated while the crew followed behind Mr. Jefferson, crouching down to the man who'd fallen, Toby. "What happened?"
"I don't know." He stuttered out. "I was working and then I can't remember. All that noise. The room was falling apart. There was no air."
"Come on, up you get." Rose lifted the man from the floor. "Come and have some Protein One."
★————————————★
As they entered Habitation 3 the rest of the crew were already there, looking around in confusion.
"There's no sign of her," Mr Jefferson announced in distress. "but the biochip says she's in this area."
"Scooti, please respond. If you can hear this, please respond." Ida begged.
"Zach, we've got problem. Scooti's still missing." Mr. Jefferson finally contacted the acting captain.
"But it says Habitation 3." Came Zach'sconfussed voice through the communicator.
"Yeah, well, that's where I am and I'm telling you, she's not here." Mr. Jefferson snapped.
"I've found her." The Doctor suddenly announced, full of solemnness.
They followed his gaze up to the open ceiling, the deceased body of Scooti floating in the void of space, slowly but surely drifting towards the black hole.
Penny gasped, hands cupping over her mouth in shock. Her heart broke for the poor girl, she'd barely even gotten to know her. Just how many more of them would end up like her before they'd solved whatever was happening?
"Sorry. I'm so sorry." The Doctor whispered, full of guilt and grief.
The rest of the crew stood in similar states of shock, Danny looked as if her was about to puke, but Mr. Jefferson was the one to finally speak. "Captain...report Officer Scootori Manista, PKD...deceased. 43K 2.1."
"She was 20." Ida shook her head in disbelief. "20 years old."
Having seen enough, the woman turned the lever, closing the metal shutters.
"For how should man die better, than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his father, and the temples of his gods?" Mr. Jefferson recited.
"What's that from?" Penny quietly asked.
"Horatius." He forlornly answered.
Suddenly, the constant rumbling from beneath them stopped, true silence overtaking the base for the first time since the time travelers' arrival.
"What was that?" Rose turned to the Doctor.
"The drill."
"We've stopped drilling." Ida stared forward, processed the intense news. "We've made it. Point 0."
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The base became a rush of movement as the crew scrambled to begin their decent to the source of the planets power. The Doctor somehow managed to volunteer himself to make the trip down to the bottom, traveling alongside Ida. Standing in a bright orange space suit he prepared himself to depart, leaving the two companions on their own.
"Don't die." Penny offered her goodbyes. "I was just starting to like you."
They stood in front of the mine shaft transport, the anticipation of whatever waited at the bottom of the decent sending a shiver down Penny's spine.
He tilted his head in question at her statement. "Really?"
She broke from her attempt at seriousness with a laugh. "That's a lie. I like everyone."
The Doctor silently held out his arms, which she promptly accepted hugging him tightly. "I'm serious though Doctor, don't die down there."
Pulling away, he looked her in the eyes before replying. "Come on, have a little faith, Penelope."
Smiling, she noticed Rose waiting off to the side, moving away so the two of them could have their own, hopefully not necessary, farewells. When they finally broke apart, Rose joined her standing off to the side, the other girl automatically wrapping her arms around her.
They stayed there as the capsule descended down towards the drill point, the rest of them forced to stand back and watch as they exited the protection of the oxygen field.
"Don't forget to breathe, Breathing is good." Rose spoke into a handheld communicator, the sound directly reaching the helmets of the two explorers.
"Rose, stay off the comm." Came Zachary's voice over the intercom.
"No chance." Came her reply.
Just as the capsule hit the drill point, the base briefly shook, a beep of an alarm warning them of some danger. "Doctor? Doctor are you all right?" Rose called back into the communicator.
"It's all right. We've made it." The Doctor confirmed. "Heading out of the capsule now."
The crew, as well as Rose and Penny, breathed a collective sigh of relief, the blonde speaking into the communicator once again. "What's it like down there?"
"It's hard to tell. Some sort of cave? Cavern? It's massive."
"Well, this should help." Ida's voice came over the comms, a grunt of exhortation and a gasp later, she spoke again. "Oh...that's beautiful."
"Rose...you can tell Toby we've found his civilization."
Rose did so, turning towards the man crouched on the floor. "Oi, Toby, sounds like you've got plenty of work."
"Good, good." The man shakily nodded, rubbing at the palms of his hands.
"Concentrate now, people. Keep on the mission." Zachary urged. "Ida, what about the power source."
"We're close." She confirmed. "Energy signature indicates north-northwest. Are you getting pictures up there."
"There's too much interference. We're in your hands."
"Well, we've come this far. There's no point in turning back." Ida's voice was determined.
"Oh, did you have to?" The Doctor complained. "No turning back? That's almost as bad as 'nothing can possibly go wrong' or 'This is the best Christmas Walfords's ever had'."
"Captain, sir." Danny's voice suddenly came over the comms. "There's something happening with the Ood."
"What are they doing?" Zachary sighed.
"They're staring at me. I've told them to stop, but they won't."
Penny glanced at the three Ood in the room with them, but they looked the same as they always did, idly staring straight ahead at the wall.
"Danny, your a big boy, I think you can handle being stared at."
"But the telepathic field, sir." The young man insisted. "It's at Basic 100. I've checked. There isn't any fault. It's definitely impossible."
"What's Basic 100?" Rose asked.
"They should be dead." Said Danny.
Mr. Jefferson stood up, but his calm demeanor hadn't shifted. "Basic 100 is brain death."
"But they're safe, they're not actually moving?" Zach asked, worry seeping into his tone.
"No, sir."
"Keep watching them." He ordered. "And you, Jefferson, keep a guard on the Ood."
"Officer at arms!" Mr. Jefferson called, one of the security members moving to pick up their gun in response.
"You can't fire a gun in here, what if you hit a wall?" Rose argued.
"What if you hit a person?" Penny agreed, not liking the idea of mixing panic with weapons.
"Firing Stock 15, only impacts upon organics." Mr. Jefferson picked up a weapon of his own. "And I can assure you, every member of my team has had extensive training."
"Keep watch. Guard them." He ordered the officer who'd gotten armed, motioning to the Ood in the room.
"Is everything all right up there?" The Doctor questioned.
The various comms hurried to reassure him, despite the evidence to the contrary.
"Well, we've found something." He announced. "Looks like metal, like some sort of seal. I've got the worst feeling the word might be 'trapdoor'. Not a good word 'trapdoor'. Never met a trapdoor I liked."
"The edge is covered with those symbols." Ida interrupted his ramblings.
"Do you think it opens?" Zachary questioned.
"That's what trapdoors tend to do."
"Trapdoor doesn't do it justice." Ida quickly added. "It's massive, Zach. About 30 feet in diameter."
"Trapdoor hardly feels like a word anymore." Penny murmured.
"Any way of opening it?" The captain's voice rattled through the comm.
"Don't know. I can't see any sort of mechanism." Ida relayed.
"I suppose that's the writing. It would tell us what to do." The Doctor suggested. "The letters that defy translation."
"Toby, did you get anywhere with decoding it?" Zachary pressed.
"Toby, they need to know. That lettering, does it make any sort of sense?" Rose asked the still hunched over man.
"I know what it says." He whispered.
Rose nodded. "Then tell them."
"Are you okay?" Penny questioned, worried for the man as clutched his head in his hands.
"When did you work that out?" Mr. Jefferson demanded.
"It doesn't matter, just tell them!" Rose urged.
Toby stood slowly, hands falling away from his face to reveal black symbols covering his skin. His lips were stained black and he glared at them with deep red eyes.
"These are the words of the Beast." The voice that came from him was not his own, deep and distorted. "And he has woken."
"Oh my God." Penny whispered, Mr. Jefferson pointing his gun at the affected man.
"He is the heart that beats in the darkness. He is the blood that will never cease." Whatever was inside Toby continued, an eerie smile forming on his lips as he continued to stare them down. "And now he will rise."
"Officer, you will stand down." Mr. Jefferson ordered. "Stand down now!"
The communicator fell from Rose's hand in shock as Toby ignored Mr. Jefferson's commands. Cocking his head towards the older man, the deep voice spoke again, taunting and horrible. "Mr. Jefferson, tell me, sir...did your wife ever forgive you?"
"...I don't know what you mean." The security officer insisted, but the slightest glint of wetness formed in his eyes. Vulnerability.
"Let me tell you a secret. She never did." Toby, no, it whispered.
Mr. Jefferson swallowed sharply. "Officer, you will stand down and be confined."
"Or what?" It challenged.
"Or under the strictures of Condition Red, I am authorized to shoot you." Mr. Jefferson aimed his gun at Toby's chest, ready to make good on his warning.
"But how many can you kill?" It taunted, eyes glowing brighter. With an inhuman roar, a number of symbols faded from Toby's skin, traveling as a black wisp through the air and into the Ood, their eyes glowing bright red. Through the radio, faint questions from Zachary and the Doctor could be heard, but none of them were yet graced with an answer.
Toby collapsed to the ground, skin clear, coughing. The Ood slowly turned to them, speaking as one. "We are the legion of the Beast. The legion shall be many and the legion shall be few."
"It's the Ood." Rose finally spoke into the comms, just as Mr.Jefferson went for his own. "I don't know what it is. It's like their possessed."
"Sir, we have contamination of the livestock. They won't listen to us."
The Ood continued their chanting under their words, slowly approaching, intent certainly not one of peace. "I have been imprisoned for eternity, but no more."
"Back up to the door!" Mr. Jefferson finally ordered. "Move, quickly!"
Penny pushed Rose to start moving first, but the base began to shake once more, opening the door proving far more difficult. Despite their desperate attempts pulling at the metal, the door remained firmly locked.
Penny pounded at the door as the Ood continued their relentless approach, their thoughts lost to whatever was controlling them. Whatever the crew was drilling for, they found it. And it just might get them all killed.
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A/N
The love this book has already received has been crazy! Thank you all so much!