As I wake up and my vision clears I find that I'm face to face with one of the booths as I lie in a leather chair. I look around me to find four screen and two large buttons one reads Forget and the other Protest. As I look around a voice starts to speak to me. "Welcome to voting cubicle three thirty C. Please leave this installation as you would wish to find it." I tells me and I stand up looking down at the screens and buttons. My breathing speeds up feeling panic set in. "The United Kingdom recognises the right to know of all its citizens. A presentation concerning the history of Starship UK will begin shortly. Your identity is being verified on our electoral roll." I sit back down staring at the set of televisions in front of me. "Name: Mackenzie Elizabeth Pond." I look at the screens curiously as it reads my name. "Age: Unknown." I sit up confused but let it go as I assume it's because I died a long time ago. "Marital status: Unknown." I lean forward more a little excited by the knowledge if I get married, but I lean back letting out a sigh as it reads that it's unknown.
"You are here because you want to know the truth about this starship, and I am talking to you because you're entitled to know. When this presentation has finished, you will have a choice. You may either protest. or forget. If you choose to protest, understand this. If just one percent of the population of this ship do likewise, the programme will be discontinued with consequences for you all. If you choose to accept the situation, and we hope that you will, then press the Forget button. All the information I'm about to give you will be erased from your memory. You will continue to enjoy the safety and amenities of Starship UK, unburdened by the knowledge of what has been done to save you. Here then, is the truth about Starship UK, and the price that has been paid for the safety of the British people. May God have mercy on our souls. " A new voice says as a man appears on the screen and a chill goes up my back at what he says. Images flash on the screen and I soon find tears flooding onto my face as I slam my hand down on the forget button. I wipe my tears suddenly forgetting why I was crying, but I couldn't stop, I look to the screen to see that it said that there was a message waiting. It starts to play and I feel chills overwhelm me as I see me on the screen, my face streaked with tears.
"This isn't a trick. This is for real. You've got to find the Doctor and get him back to the Tardis. Don't let him investigate. Stop him. Do whatever you have to, just please, please get the Doctor off this ship!" I remain in the seat, curled up as the door opens and Amy rushes in.
"Kenz!" Amy hugs me. "What's wrong?" She asks, referring to the tears.
"Turn it off please." I whisper as the Doctor comes to the door. She does so and we both look to the Doctor as I wipe my tears from my face.
"Mackenzie, what have you done?" He asks me quietly, but I don't reply as I get up, looking back and forth between him and the screen, what upset me so much, and why did I choose to forget if it meant the Doctor would be in danger?
I was sat down in the chair, resting my head on my fist as the Doctor worked and Amy stood beside me. "Yeah, your basic memory wipe job. Must have erased about twenty minutes."
"But why would I choose to forget?" I ask.
"Because everyone does. Everyone chooses the Forget button. " Mandy says from the door.
"Did you?" The Doctor asks as he approaches the girl.
"I'm not eligible to vote yet. I'm twelve. Any time after you're sixteen, you're allowed to the see the film and make your choice. And then once every five years." Mandy tell him.
"And once every five years, everyone chooses to forget what they've learned. Democracy in action." The Doctor concludes, as he walks away back into the room. He faces me quickly crouching down. "Are you ok?" He asks. I nod not saying anything. He hesitates before turning to face the screens again."
"How do you not know about this? Are you Scottish too?" Mandy asks the Doctor.
"Oh, I'm way worse than Scottish. I can't even see the movie. Won't play for me."
"It played for me." I tell him.
"The difference being the computer doesn't accept me as human." He tells me.
"Why not? You look human." Amy comments.
"No, you look Time Lord. We came first." He says to her.
"So there are other Time Lords, yeah?" I ask. He hesitates again.
"No. There were, but there aren't. Just me now. Long story. There was a bad day. Bad stuff happened. And you know what? I'd love to forget it all, every last bit of it, but I don't. Not ever. Because this is what I do, every time, every day, every second. This. Hold tight. We're bringing down the government." He says as he slams his hand down onto protest. The door slams shut and the booth's face turns to a very angry looking man and then the floor begins to open. I stand up. "Say wheee!" But Amy just looks at him like he's crazy before screaming.
"Geronimo!" I yell as we all drop. As we fall I can still hear Amy screaming I laugh a little, it's like a water slide. As I land I hear an 'oomph' and I look to see I landed on top of the Doctor. "Ha ha!" I announce before starting to get up, that is until Amy's screams can be heard again, just before she lands the Doctor pulls me down onto him and rolls us over so that Amy doesn't land on us too. As I look to the Doctor who is still pressed against me, only this time on top I blush furiously, hoping that it just looks like it's from the red light emitting from the room. "Hi." I mutter.
"Geronimo?" He asks simply.
"It's fun to say." I say smiling. We stay like that a moment longer before Amy ruins it.
"Um, what are you two doing?"
"Not getting flattened by you." I say as the Doctor gets up lending me a hand. I take it and he pulls me up. The Doctor looks up the tube we came from and I groan finally realising the icky substance I was just lying in.
"Argh! High speed air cannon. Lousy way to travel." He turns away and uses his sonic to scan the area. I wipe the slime off of me in disgust and make a small grossed out noise when I smell the air.
"Where are we?" Amy asks as I pinch my nose.
"Six hundred feet down, twenty miles laterally, puts us at the heart of the ship. I'd say Lancashire. What's this then, a cave? Can't be a cave. Looks like a cave." The Doctor comments.
"It stinks."
"It most certainly does dear." He says, I look at him blushing slightly at what he called me, Amy stares at him surprised but he hastily adds on another word. "Pond... Dear Pond."
"Yeah right." Amy snickers to herself as I turn away and move around a bit, sloshing in the disgustingness that we're wading in.
"It's a rubbish dump, and it's minging!" Amy says flicking some of the stuff at me, I gasp as she does and instantly toss some back.
"Yes, but only food refuse. Organic, coming through feeder tubes from all over the ship."
"We're sitting in food waste?" I ask, suddenly standing up from my spot next to the Doctor, no longer wanting to be wading in food.
"The floor's all squidgy, like a water bed." Amy says patting the floor.
"Amy, how are you willing sit in food waste?" I ask her cringing at the thought of it.
"But feeding what, though?" The Doctor stands up as the sound of a roar fills the rubbish dump, he looks towards the source of the noise, a look of consideration on his face. I approach him and stand beside him as he looks to me and Amy. "Er, it's not a floor, it's a. So..."
"It's a what, Doctor?" I ask quietly, not wanting to hear his answer.
"The next word is kind of a scary word. You probably want to take a moment, get yourself in a calm place. Go omm."
"Omm." Amy and I say together glancing to each other a little confused.
"It's a... tongue." He says slowly. I think I just threw up a little in my mouth, whether it was from disgust or fear I'm not sure.
"A tongue?" Amy asks quietly.
"A tongue. A great big tongue." The Doctor replies calmly.
"I'm going to kill you once we get out of here." I say directly to the Doctor as I look straight into his eyes. He just smiles at me.
"This is a mouth. This whole place is a mouth? We're in a mouth?" Amy shouts at last. I take in a deep breath trying to calm myself, the Doctor pressed the protest button and now we're in a mouth, a gigantic mouth, oh my God. I turn around on the spot looking around, ignoring whatever the Doctor and Amy are talking about. I was expecting to start panicking but as I look around I start to think, there's a giant alien at the centre of this ship, but why. I suddenly catch sight of something as I turn and I stop, to see the massive jaws of this beast and I start to feel a little faint, once again remembering we're in a mouth. I stumble back a little, bumping into someone before losing strength in my legs. Someone supports me, keeping me upright.
"Mackenzie, are you ok, dear?" I don't pay attention to the little extra word at the end as another roar sounds as the ground – no, tongue – starts to shake. I fall over landing on top of the Doctor again and I feel myself come back to the right state of mind, the dizziness dispersing. "Too late. It's started."
"What has?" I ask quietly.
"Swallow reflex." He says curtly. He starts to sonic something as he keeps an arm around me to keep me steady.
"What are you doing?" Amy shouts over the noise.
"I'm vibrating the chemo-receptors." He tells her, we both stare at him in confusion.
"Chemo-what?" Amy and I shout together.
"The eject button." The Doctor says helping me to my feet.
"How does a mouth have an eject button?" Amy yells, I turn to the Doctor, gripping on to him for dear life as I face him and yell in his face.
""Think about it!" He replies.
"I'm going to kill you!" As I realise what he means and I turn around to see the wave of oncoming vomit. "Really, I'm going to murder you!"
"All in good time, dear." He chuckles before straightening his bow tie. "Right, then. This isn't going to be big on dignity. Geronimo!" He yells as he pulls my to his side, I shut my eyes tight as we food out of the mouth of the beast.
"There's nothing broken, there's no sign of concussion and yes, you are covered in sick." The Doctor says as I wake up. I see him standing at a doorway, scanning the locked exit.
"You're dead." I mutter to him as I get a scent of myself.
"Yes, you've mentioned that many times, baby Pond." The Doctor says turning around to smile at me as I start to get up.
"Where are we?" Amy asks getting up too.
"Overspill pipe, at a guess." The Doctor replies.
"God it stinks." I grumble.
"That's not the pipe." The Doctor says continuing to scan the door.
"I'm aware of that, dear." I mimic him, he either doesn't hear or ignores me, the latter being the more likely.
"Oh. Phew. Can we get out?" Amy asks smelling her clothes.
"One door, one door switch, one condition. We forget everything we saw. Look familiar?" He asks us as we look to see the forget button. I roll my eyes, sick of seeing it everywhere.
"That's the carrot. Ooo, here's the stick." He says walking down the pipe as the lights come on. I follow after him.
"There's a creature living in the heart of this ship. What's it doing there?" The smiling faces turn to frowning faces and I look to the Doctor, honestly a little worried. "No, that's not going to work on me, so come on. Big old beast below decks, and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. That how it works?" The frowning faces then turn to scowling and Amy and I glance at each other.
"Oh, stop it. I'm not leaving and I'm not forgetting, and what are you fellows going to do about it? Stick out your tongues, huh?" He taunts.
"Doctor?" I murmur getting a bad feeling about this, and as I do the booths open up as the scowling figures stand up and walk towards us. I stumble back grabbing the Doctor's hand to make sure he moves away too. Suddenly a woman in a cloak barges in-between us pushing us to the wall - where I continue to grip onto the Doctor, shoving my face into his shoulder as I feel my breathing become a little difficult to control - and she shoots the two figures. I calm down a little more as the Doctor places his hand on the back of my head, kissing the top of my head, but sticks his tongue out and pulls a disgusted face as he takes the vomit that I'm still covered in. I laugh a little as I look up to him before moving away towards the woman.
"Look who it is. You look a lot better without your mask on." The woman meets me half way and offers me her hand.
"You must be Mackenzie. Liz. Liz Ten." She says as I take her hand and shake it.
"It's just Kenzie." I inform her she nods as she takes her hand away shaking off the vomit.
"Yuck. Lovely hair, Kenzie. Shame about the sick. You know Mandy, yeah? She's very brave." She comment as she walks back to the door she came through as we see Mandy. The Doctor glances to Amy and I as we walk to Liz Ten and Mandy.
"You alright?" I ask Mandy.
"I'm fine." She comments simply.
"How did you find us?" The Doctor asks.
"Stuck my gizmo on you. Been listening in. Nice moves on the hurl escape. So, what's the big fella doing here?" Liz Ten tells him.
"You're over sixteen, you've voted. Whatever this is, you've chosen to forget about it." The Doctor replies.
"No. Never forgot, never voted, not technically a British subject." Liz Ten says to us as I furrow my eyebrows.
"Then who and what are you, and how do you know me?"
"You're a bit hard to miss, love. Mysterious stranger, M O consistent with higher alien intelligence, hair of an idiot. I've been brought up on the stories. My whole family was." Liz Ten responds to the Doctor as The Doctor looks to me wagging a finger at Liz Ten. I know I'm going to like this lady.
"Your family?" I ask. She's about to reply but we look behind us to see the figures starting to move.
"They're repairing. Doesn't take them long. Let's move." Liz Ten tells us turning around and heading out of the door. We follow quickly after as the Doctor puts his arm around my back ushering me forward.
I let go of the Doctor's hand as I approach Liz Ten and walk beside her. "So, your family?" I ask as we exit another room into one of the sub basements.
"Come on, love, you're smart, figure it out." Liz Ten tells me. I look at her strangely, what kind of a name is Liz Ten? I think randomly. Wait. Oh my God. She's not technically a British subject, but she's definitely human, her name's Liz Ten, Ten... She's the tenth.
"Tenth." I mutter and she smiles at me, walking ahead a little so I have to quicken my step to keep up. "Elizabeth the Tenth. This is wicked." I whisper the last bit.
"Told you, you were smart." She says. "The Doctor. Old drinking buddy of Henry Twelve. Tea and scones with Liz Two. Vicky was a bit on the fence about you, weren't she? Knighted and exiled you on the same day. And so much for the Virgin Queen, you bad, bad boy."
"Liz Ten." The Doctor concludes figuring it out.
"Took you a bit didn't it, love? Your girlfriend figured it out two minutes ago. But yeah; Liz Ten. Elizabeth the Tenth. And Down!" She yells. I don't react quickly as I look at the Queen shocked that she called me the Doctor's girlfriend. I stand beside her as she shoots at the repaired Smilers – which is what I figured out they were called.
"He's not my boyfriend." I whisper to her, as the others remain down as Liz Ten shoots.
"Oh you so are." She laughs back at me as the Smilers collapse to the floor; I feel my cheeks redden at the comment. She composes herself as she looks down at the three crouching people. "I'm the bloody Queen, mate. Basically, I rule."
"You are actually my new favourite person." I inform Liz Ten as the others stand up.
We enter through another door and I walk over to the grating as Liz Ten talks, I don't listen as I watch the tentacles smash against the grating. I stand in front of the grate and hold onto the bars looking at the tentacles sadly; this beast was not here by choice. I reach my hand through the bars, feeling the urge to touch one of them as it stood dormant, it felt almost like it was watching me. "I'm so sorry." I whisper out just as I'm about to touch it and as I do the Doctor yanks my hand away.
"What are you doing?" He whispers, I don't reply as I shake my head, trying to concentrate again.
"I saw one of these up top. There was a hole in the road, like it had burst through like a root." I tell them.
"Exactly like a root. It's all one creature, the same one we were inside, reaching out. It must be growing through the mechanisms of the entire ship." The Doctor says. I look to him as I think that he got the wrong idea of where I was going with that.
"What, like an infestation? Someone's helping it. Feeding it. Feeding my subjects to it. Come on. Got to keep moving." Liz Ten walks off angrily Mandy following. I remain at the bars looking ot to the tentacles sadly, can't help but feel that this beast is the victim here.
"Doctor?" Amy asks as the two of us remain side by side, staring at the tentacles.
"Oh, girls. We should never have come here." He says before following after Liz and Mandy and Amy follows after quickly. I can't help but rehear the words that I said on the recording, I glance at the tentacles one last time, fighting the urge to pet one, before I run after the others.
Liz Ten and I enter her room first, and I look around in awe at the room, it was beautiful. When I look to the floor, I see a load of glasses full of water placed on the floor in front of a mirror. "We look to be similar sizes, love, if you'd like to change your welcome to wear some of my clothes." Liz Ten offers. Mandy enters before I have a chance to reply.
"The Doctor and Amy will be in, in a moment, I think Amy wanted to talk to the Doctor." Mandy says and I see her sneak a look at me. I wonder what they're talking about.
"Are you sure that would be alright?" I ask Liz Ten, really hating the idea of continuing to wear my smelly clothes.
"Please." She says, gesturing to the large wardrobe beside her bed. "I'm I afraid to say that I don't have much casual-wear, they're all dresses really. The people who work directly for me don't seem to think I need much casual stuff." She tells me as I throw open the wardrobe door. I look through the beautiful gowns, awing over them but not really thinking it would be a good idea to go out wearing any. I look through until I find a sweet, backless, velvet, burgundy coloured skater dress, I took it out and look at it. "That would look lovely on you." Liz Ten comments. "There should be some black ankle boots at the bottom, you're very welcome to have them." She says.
"Liz, I honestly couldn't." I say starting to put it back. But she walks over to me and before I have a chance to put it back she pulls me towards the door to her ensuite and she opens it, blocking my way of getting out. I roll my eyes and enter the large ensuite as she shuts the door behind me.
"There's a good love. I'll give you the shoes when you come out." She tells me.
As I start to climb into the dress I hear the Doctor and Amy enter Liz's bedroom and I laugh as the Doctor attempts to shush Amy as she rants to him about something. I button the back of my dress and glance at myself in the mirror, finding that I rather like the dress as it accentuates my curves. I smile to myself before I look to my tangled but now dry hair. I pull it up into a messy bun, ignoring the stench. I look at my pile of wet soiled clothes frowning as I look at the pair of jeans that I loved so much. I'd have to leave them here, it would be annoying carrying them around everywhere and I doubt I'd ever feel comfortable wearing them again, knowing they were once covered in the sick of an alien beast. So I pick up the pile of clothes and place them in the clothes hamper before I exit the room, barefoot, fiddling with my necklace. As I walk into the room I feel a pair of eyes instantly turn to me and as I look p from my necklace I see the Doctor looking at me, not saying anything. "Ah, you're out, finally. Looks nice, it suits you. Here are the shoes and a cloak, otherwise your boyfriend won't stop staring." She whisper the last bit to me, as I playfully glare at her, she's fully aware he isn't my boyfriend so i don't respond to it as she continues. "Nothing's happened so don't worry, love, you haven't missed anything." I smile at her glad that she blocks my vision of the Doctor as I was starting to feel a little self conscious. I take the shoes from Liz and turn to sit on the edge of the bed as I put the black ankle boots on. Once the shoes are on I sit up on the bed next to Liz with my legs crossed as I put the cloak on around me.
"So why do you always wear it in public?" The Doctor asks, holding the mask up, I watch him as he purposely tries not to look at me. What did he and Amy talk about?
"Undercover's not easy when you're me. The autographs, the bunting." Liz tells the Doctor, I carry on watching him as he approaches the bed as he perches on the side of the bed she's sat on.
"Air-balanced porcelain. Stays on by itself, because it's perfectly sculpted to your face." The Doctor comments, Liz obviously already knew this.
"Yeah? So what?"
"Oh, Liz. So everything." The Doctor replies as he glances to me a partially worried look on his face. I look back to him my eyebrows furrowed before I hear Liz speak again.
"What are you doing? How dare you come in here?" She asks the four men who have now entered the room without permission.
"Ma'am, you have expressed interest in the interior workings of Starship UK. You will come with us now." We all approach the man who speaks, I approach last as I stand with Mandy just behind me, as she watches worriedly.
"Why would I do that?" Liz sasses back, I have a huge urge to high five her, but then the man's head starts to spin around, making the same noise the Smilers do and his head turns to show a Scowler.
"How can they be Smilers?" I ask a little fear in my voice, these guys were seriously creepy. The Doctor has a small smile on his face as I move to get a closer look at them.
"Half Smiler, half human." He says calmly.
"Whatever you creatures are, I am still your queen. On whose authority is this done?" Liz asks quietly, sounding rather dangerous.
"The highest authority, Ma'am." The Scowler/human says.
"I am the highest authority." Liz snaps.
"Yes, ma'am. You must go now, Ma'am." He replies in a robotic voice.
"Where?" I ask now standing in-between Liz and the Doctor. He turns to me.
"The Tower, Ma'am." He says to me. I look to Liz's fearful face and then to the Doctor who is watching me very quietly.