Chapter Eighteen: The Not So Great Rescue
[City]
"This place is enormous and deserted." The Doctor said. "The majority of the race are probably still asleep. We need to find Emily. Looking for heat signature anomalies."
Nasreen shook her head in amazement. "But Doctor, how can all this be here? I mean, these plants."
"Must be getting closer to the centre of the city."
"You're sure this is the best way to enter" she asked him nervously.
"Front door approach. Definitely. Always the best way."
The alarms sounded and the Doctor looked at Nasreen sheepishly.
"Hostile life forms detected area seventeen."
"Apart from the back door approach. That's also good. Sometimes better." He rambled.
"Hostile life forms detected area seventeen."
"Doctor."
Warriors approach the duo from both sides, trapping them in.
"Hostile life forms detected area seventeen."
"We're not hostile." The Doctor said, raising his hands. "We're not armed. We're here in peace."
A warrior stepped forward and gassed them with its weapon, rendering them unconscious.
[Laboratory]
"Don't you come near me with that." Emily warned shakily.
She tried to get away from the approaching scientist. He briefly stopped made an audio note.
"From the clothing, the human female appears to be more resistant to the cold than the male."
"I dressed for Rio!"
"Leave her alone." Mo tried. "You've got me."
The scientist -Malohkeh- bent over Emily as she tried to get away, but couldn't because her wrists were clamped tight to the table. "Argh."
"Decontamination has detected an anomaly." The scientist documented. "Commencing secondary scan."
"Area Seventeen incursion. Species diagnostic requested. Area Seventeen incursion. Species diagnostic requested."
Malohkeh - the scientist - ran out with no moment of hesitation.
"Yeah. And stay out." Emily called.
She had somehow managed to sneak the restraints control from Malohkeh when he was about to dissect her. She freed herself, then started on Mo.
"Ah ah!" She celebrated when she got him unchained.
"How did you get that?" Mo asked, dumbstruck.
She winked at him. "I am majestically skilled in the art of picking lizard men's pockets. Come on, we better move before he gets back."
[Tunnel]
"That creature, do you think it was an alien?" Mo asked. "Any more of them, do you think? Do you think the Earth's been invaded?"
"Don't know. I don't think so, but I know someone who could have some answers. We need to get back to the surface and find him." They came across a door. "I wonder where this leads."
"Maybe it's a way out of here."
Emily pressed the button on the wall panel. A screen lights up, then the area behind the door. It was a stasis alcove, and Elliot was inside.
"Oh, my God, no."
"What is it?" She asked, concerned.
"It's my son. It's Elliot. What've they done to him? He's in there. We have to get him out. Elliot? Elliot, it's Dad." He placed his hand on the glass.
"Access denied. Unauthorised genetic imprint."
"Stop. Seriously, we can't get in."
"That's my boy in there." He said angrily.
"These screens, they're monitoring something. I think they're vital signs. Heartbeats, pulses. Why else would he be wired up? He's still alive." She told him, but he was still unconvinced.
She didn't want to do it, but knew there was no other way. Emily placed one hand on his shoulder and the other on top of his hand and focused intently, ignoring the bubbling guilt pooling in her stomach.
Calmness.
Reassurance.
Trust.
"Elliot is alive, Mo. He's fine."
Mo seemed to struggle for a few more moments before he eventually gave in. Emily removed her hands from their grip on him and once again ignored the acid guilt trying to invade her chest.
"All right." Mo said. "We find weapons, get that creature from the lab and force it to release Elliot, yeah?"
"Maybe we can forgo the weapons, but yeah. Trust me. We'll get him out."
"Then what?"
Emily felt a tug on her heart and swallowed thickly.
"We hope that the Doctor finds us, or we find him."
[Graveyard]
Ambrose was still holding Elliot's headphones.
"Ambrose." Amy tried.
"You lied. You told us you were the police."
"It was a misunderstanding."
"Who are you? You and the Doctor? Why is this happening to us? What did we ever do?
"The Doctor'll get your son back, I promise. In the meantime, we take turns guarding the creature." Rory told her.
"Oh, so that's it?" Ambrose demanded bitterly. "We just sit and wait."
"And then we exchange her for your family. I promise you, Ambrose, I trust the Doctor with my life. We stick to his plan. We keep that creature safe." Amy said firmly.
[Laboratory]
The Doctor stood in one of the glass coffins being scanned by the green light. It hurt him.
"Argh." He yelled through grit teeth.
A lot.
"How can they have escaped?" A Silurian soldier demanded. "This proves all prisoners should remain under military guard."
"I'm sure you'd prefer to be in charge of everything and everyone, Restac, but we rank the same." The scientist said somewhat bitterly. "Besides, one of them had a strange anomaly in their DNA and I want to run a secondary scan. Is there any word from Alaya?"
A short pause. "No."
"It's fine to show concern, you know. She's part of your gene-chain. I'm decontaminating now."
"Decontamination?" The Doctor asked. "No, no, no."
Somewhere in another part of the colony, a young women was brought to her knees from crippling pain while her companion dragged her out of the sight of passing soldiers, one hand over her mouth to prevent her screams of pain.
Back in the laboratory, the Doctor screamed. "No! Argh!"
"It's all right." Malohkeh reassured. "It won't harm you. I'm only neutralising all your ape bacteria."
"I'm not an ape. Look at the scans." He begged desperately. "Two hearts. Totally different. Totally not ape! Remove all human germs, you remove half the things keeping me alive."
Malohkeh hurried to turn off the decontamination machine and Restac started forward.
"No, complete the process." She ordered.
The Doctor ignored her and rolled his neck around. "Oh, that's much better, thanks. Not got any celery, have you? No. No, not really the climate. Tomatoes, though. You'd do a roaring trade in those. I'm the Doctor. Oh, and there's Nasreen. Good."
Nasreen woke in a dazed confusion, looking around the room without really taking anything in.
"Oh, a green man." She said calmly.
The Doctor chose ignore her comment.
"Hello. Who are you?" He asked the soldier.
"Restac, Military commander."
"Oh dear, really? There's always a military, isn't there?"
The scientist looked at him in offence.
"Your weapon was attacking the oxygen pockets above our city." He accused.
"Oxygen pockets, lovely. Ooo, but not so good with an impending drill. Now it makes sense."
"Where is the rest of your invasion force?" Restac demanded.
"Invasion force. Me and lovely Nasreen? No. We came for the humans you took. And to offer the safe return of Alaya. Oh wait, you and she, what is it, same genetic source? Of course you're worried, but don't be, she's safe."
"You claim to come in peace, but you hold one of us hostage."
"Wait, wait, we all want the same thing here."
"I don't negotiate with apes." She spat. "I'm going to send a clear message to those on the surface."
The Doctor had a bad feeling knew what that message was going to be.
"What's that?"
"Your execution."
He heaved an inaudible sigh.
"Yes."
[Cryo-chambers]
Emily was lying on the floor of the the cryo-chambers, breathing heavily, while Mo stared at her wide eyed and scared for her state of health.
"What the hell was that!?" He demanded in a whisper, paranoid that one of those creatures was nearby and would hear him.
He helped Emily sit up and she leaned against the wall, her body aching from the phantom torture.
"I think . . The Doctor's . . . Injured . . Or something." She panted, trying to get air into her winded lungs.
"Why? And what does that have to do with what just happened?"
She grimaced. "It's complicated."
Mo stared at her with wary eyes and leaned away from her slightly, gripping a rock he found tightly.
"You're not like one of those things are you."
Emily looked at him incredulously. "Do I look green and scaly to you?"
He shook his head, slightly ashamed of his rash judgement.
Emily rolled her eyes. "Didn't think so." She gazed around the room. "These chambers are all over the city."
She managed to stumble upright and light two of them up.
They contained Silurians.
Mo jumped back in sunrise,
"Urgh. Turn it off, quick." He then looked at them properly. "They're not moving."
Emily shrugged.
"Maybe they're asleep. Let's have another look." She said, already opening the chamber door.
Mo tried to pull her back.
"No, Emily, don't. Don't."
She ignored him and clambered inside the chamber.
"Emily, what are you doing? Get out of there."
"Some sort of suspended animation." She muttered, still ignoring him. Examining the floor, she came across the discs that the Silurians were standing on. "I wonder what these are?"
She frowned.
"The Doctor would know." Another tug on her heart. "The Doctor always knows."
There was a pause while Emily thought about her bold statement.
"Mostly always knows." She corrected.
"Hey, look." Mo called softly.
He pointed to above the two Silurians where there were tunnels heading straight up.
"Wait." Emily exclaimed. "I've got it. It's how they came up to the surface. Some sort of powered transport discs. It's our way out of here."
"Even better. Weapons. Come on, now we can fight back."
Mo took two of the Silurian disc weapons from the warriors, giving one to Emily as he backed out of the chamber. She looked at the weapon in distaste and switched off the lights.
"Which way now?"
"Door at the end."
"Are you sure?"
"Nope." She answered confidently.
[Army storage]
The door at the end lead to a balcony that overlooked a vast chamber, containing warriors as far as the eye can see.
"Wow." Mo breathed.
"Yeah." Emily agreed.
"We don't stand a chance."
Yet another tug.
"We have to find the Doctor."
[Gardens]
The Doctor and Nasreen were being lead somewhere under escort, Silurians all around them with Restac in front.
"These must be the only ones awake." The Doctor whispered to her. "The others must still be in hibernation."
"So, why did they go into hibernation in the first place?"
"Their astronomers predicted the planet heading to Earth on a crash course." He explained. "They built a life underground and put themselves to sleep for millennia in order to avert what they thought was the apocalypse, when in reality it was the moon coming into alignment with the Earth."
The reptilian scientist stared in fascination. "How can you know that?"
"Long time ago, I met another tribe of Homo Reptilia. Similar, but not identical."
"Others of our species have survived?" Restac demanded.
"The humans attacked them. They died. I'm sorry." The Doctor told her regretfully.
"A vermin race." She spat.
[Crypt]
Ambrose creeped into the Crypt where their 'prisoner' was.
"What's the cure?" She demanded.
"What?"
"I saw what you've done to my dad. What's the cure?"
Alaya laughed bitterly. "Why would I tell you?"
"Because if you don't, I'm going to have to use this on you."
She revealed a taser from behind her back, having kept a taser from her collection of weapons.
"Now you reveal yourselves."
"First you take my son, now you hurt my dad. I'm just protecting my family here, that's all. I don't want to use it. I want you to put things right." She said, trying to convinced herself more than the reptilian.
"Use it." Alaya hissed.
Ambrose blanched. "What?"
"Use it on me. But you're too afraid." Alaya taunted. "A woman who can't even protect her own child must be too weak to-"
Ambrose zapped her abruptly and she fell to her knees.
"I didn't want to do that. Are you all right?" She shook her head then demanded harshly. "Tell me, what's the cure for my dad?"
Alaya spat at her.
"He's vermin. He deserves a painful death."
"I am giving you a chance."
"I knew it would be you. The one with the most to lose. The weakest."
Ambrose used the taser again.
The Silurian screamed.
•|•
Having heard the screams, Rory and Mack come running in.
Alaya was still alive.
Barely.
"Ambrose, what have you done?" Mack demanded.
"She kept taunting me about Mo and Elliot and you."
"We have to be better than this."
"She wouldn't tell me anything. I thought sooner or later she'd give in. I would have done. I just, I just want my family back, Dad."
Rory examined the damage with sadness.
"I'm sorry. How do we help you? Tell us what to do." He said.
"I knew this would come. And soon the war."
"You're not dying. I'm not going to let you. Not today."
But he was too late.
Alaya was dead.
And they were suddenly on the brink of a war.
[Court]
In the Court Room there was a long table in the middle and ranks of benches pushed back along the walls.
"You're not authorised to do this." Malohkeh warned his fellow reptilian.
"I am authorised to protect the safety of our species while they sleep."
"Oh, lovely place." The Doctor commented, trying to relieve tension. "Very gleaming."
RESTAC: This is our court and our place of execution.
Suddenly, Emily and Mo rounded the corner and pointed their weapons at the Silurians. Albeit, Emily somewhat reluctantly.
"Let them go."
"Emily Pond." The Doctor said proudly. "There's a girl to rely on."
"You're covered both ways, so don't try anything clever." Mo warned.
"Mo." Nasreen called.
"Now let them go, or I shoot."
Emily winced slightly.
"I thought it was a no go on the shooting. Wasn't that clear?" She murmured lowly.
She didn't notice Restac move towards her.
"Hey, back away."
Too late.
A couple quick movements and with the blink of an eye, Restac had Emily disarmed with the weapon now pointed at her head.
"Don't you touch her!" The Doctor yelled.
"And you."
Mo reluctantly put his arms up and was disarmed.
Malohkeh interrupted. "All right, Restac, you've made your point."
"This is now a military tribunal. Go back to your laboratory, Malohkeh."
The two reptilians hiss at each other, with Malohkeh eventually backing down.
"This isn't the way."
Restac ignored him.
"Prepare them for execution."
"Hello Doctor." Emily smiled at the Doctor in slight embarrassment as she was shoved forward. "How's this for a rescue mission?"
The four are shacked to rings in a pair of columns, Emily paired with the Doctor.
"I'm glad you're okay."
He said, immensely relieved that she was safe.
Relatively safe.
"Me too." She said. "Well, I'm no expert, but I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say that these guys aren't exactly native."
The Doctor chuckled.
"Almost." He said. "Reptilia. They occupied the planet before humans. Now they want it back."
"After they've wiped out the human race." Nasreen continued.
"Right. The good 'ol take over the world thing. Lovely."
"Why are they waiting?" Nasreen asked. "What do you think they're going to do with us?"
[Crypt]
"I didn't know it would go like that, Dad."
"My little girl, what have you done?"
"What happens now?"
A singular computer screen in a box came to life in that very moment.
"Oh, my God."
"Who is the ape leader?"
"It's them. How are they doing that? How do they know that we're in here?"
Ambrose said rapidly as she hurried to covered Alaya's body with a tarpaulin.
"Who speaks for the apes?"
"Don't tell them what's happened." Mack warned in a whisper.
Rory nodded and stepped in front of the screen. "I speak for the humans. Some of us, anyway."
"Do you understand who we are?"
"Sort of. A bit." He shook his head. "Not really."
"We have ape hostages."
Amy peered from off screen and practically shoved Rory out of the way.
"Doctor! Emily!"
"Mo! Mo, are you okay?" Ambrose called.
"I'm fine, love. I've found Elliot. I'm bringing him home."
"Emily, we thought we'd lost you." Rory said,
Emily gave the engaged couple a cheeky smile. "What, 'cause I was sucked into the ground? Didn't realise you two were so clingy."
"Tony Mack!" Nasreen called.
"Having fun down there?"
"Not to interrupt, but just a quick reminder to stay calm." The Doctor said.
Having had enough with the pointless chattering, Restac took control.
"Show me Alaya. Show me, and release her immediately unharmed, or we kill your friends-"
[Court]
"-One by one." She threatened.
"No."
"Ambrose." Rory warned as he got moved off screen.
Again.
"Steady now, everyone." The Doctor said, trying to calm tensions.
Through the screen, the woman's father could be seen placing his hand on his daughters shoulder.
"Ambrose, stop it."
"Get off me, Dad." She shoved his hand off her. "We didn't start this."
"Let Rory deal with this, Ambrose, eh?" The Doctor told her.
[Crypt]
"We are not doing what you say any more." Ambrose hissed. "Now, give me back my family."
"No. Execute the girl."
As Restac ordered, one of the soldiers trained it's gun on Emily.
"No! No, wait!" Amy called.
"Doctor." Emily said calmly.
Though his face betrayed nothing, she could've felt his fear and panic from miles away. She knew he was running through millions of possibilities to help and that it takes time, but - while she was grateful - she didn't particularly feel like dying that day.
"She's not speaking for us." Rory told the cold blooded creatures..
"There no need for this."
"Listen, listen. Whatever you want, we'll do it." Amy pleaded.
"Aim." Restac ordered.
"Emily!"
"Doctor!"
"Don't do this!"
"No!" Amy screamed.
The two companions above the earth looked on in despair as the screen went black.
•|•
Sorry for the wait, I know it's been a while.
I decided to push this chapter out in celebration of reaching 500 votes on the story (thank you CassieDreemurr1 , Number 500 exactly) and of reaching 1.82k views (Thank you everyone).
Woo
Hope you enjoy both this and the next chapter.
Peace✌🏻