We enter into a dungeon like room and I look around as Amy asks: "Where are we?"
"The lowest point of Starship UK. The Dungeon. I glance to Amy as she looks at me, a little scared. I smile softly and take her hand as we look into one of the grates, seeing the tentacles again.
"Aims," I mutter softly, using the nickname I sometimes call her, but haven't in a while. "I don't think the people being fed to this beast are the only victims." I tell her quietly. She looks to me an agreeable look on her face.
"No. I don't either."
"Ma'am." An older man approaches us removing his. I stand up beside Liz as I notice she recognises the man.
"Hawthorne. So this is where you hid yourself away. I think you've got some explaining to do." She takes a large step forward so she's face to face with this so called Hawthorne.
"There's children down here. What's all that about?" The Doctor asks as he rubs to top of a child's head. I watch as they approach me, heading behind Amy and I, I stand open mouthed, why are they down here? I stand in the way of them so that they stop walking, they're acting like zombies. I crouch down in front of the one leading them. I look up into his eyes.
"Are you alright? Are any of you hurt?" I ask worriedly, the others are too into talking with Hawthorne.
"We're alright, ma'am." The little boy replies.
"Mackenzie, let the boy lead." The Doctor tells me, I look up to him, rolling my eyes as he smiles down at me. I look back to the boy as I take his hand.
"We're going to get you out of here ok? Then you can go home to your families." I tell the little boy.
"Thank you ma'am." The boy says, but there's no hope to his tone, I give him a watery smile as I stand up and move out of their way and I watch as they pass by. Amy grabs my hand giving it a comforting squeeze.
"Protesters and citizens of limited value are fed to the beast. For some reason, it won't eat the children." Hawthorne says. I gawk at the man, feeling a sudden flare of fury, I start to approach the man, but the Doctor grabs my arm so as to not let me physically attack the man.
"Are you meaning to tell me that you've tried to feed it children? You've actually sent children down those tubes into the mouth of a beast?" I shout angrily, feeling hot tears gather in my eyes, that is awful.
"Feeding any of my subjects to this beast is awful!" Liz joins in beside me. The Doctor pulls me to the side very quickly.
"We're going to get to the bottom of this, I promise, just don't attack the people who know what's going on until we understand, ok?" He asks. I nod angrily, but not angry at him, I dry my watery eyes before turning back and standing beside Liz again.
"You're the first adults it's spared. You're very lucky." Hawthorne continues once the Doctor joins us.
"Yeah, look at us. Torture chamber of the Tower of London. Lucky, lucky, lucky. Except it's not a torture chamber, is it? Well, except it is. Except it isn't. Depends on your angle." I look at the Doctor questioningly as he says this. Liz and I walk towards the barred off area in the centre of the room and look to see a giant brain below. I feel myself gasp as I back away from it, tears brimming again as I realise what's going on, or at least half of what's going on.
"What's that?" Liz asks, none of them noticing I had stumbled back and now had my back against the wall with my hand over my mouth to muffle the sudden sob I let out.
"Well, like I say, it depends on the angle. It's either the exposed pain centre of big fella's brain, being tortured relentlessly." The Doctor says as I he looks up to see me leaning against the wall, he looks to me sadly understanding why I was so upset.
"Or?" Liz asks.
"Or it's the gas pedal, the accelerator. Starship UK's go faster button." I say sourly from the wall as I gather my emotions up again and approach them.
"I don't understand." Liz says as I reach them.
"Don't you? Try to. Go on." He says rushing around to our side. "The spaceship that could never fly. No vibration on deck. This creature, this poor, trapped, terrified creature. It's not infesting you, it's not invading, it's what you have instead of an engine. And this place down here is where you hurt it, where you torture it, day after day, just to keep it moving. Tell you what. Normally, it's above the range of human hearing. This is the sound none of you wanted to hear." The Doctor says as he takes the grate off. I walk over to him as the tentacle comes out waving around doing no damage, just sitting dormant. He points his screwdriver at the tentacle and suddenly a terrified screaming can be heard.
"Oh my God!" I cry feeling so overwhelming depressed and bitter as I let out a loud sob as I approach the tentacle and I stroke it softly. "I'm so sorry." I repeat what I said earlier as tears streak my face.
"Stop it." Liz says looking much how I felt. The Doctor walks over to me and hugs me tightly, apologising to me quietly as I breathe deeply into his shoulder.
"You knew." He says quietly into my ear as we hear Liz talking with Hawthorne. "You knew it wasn't trying to attack us." I nod.
"I can't explain it, I just, I almost could feel its pain." I explain. "I could see it." I tell him. He rubs my back soothingly and I close my eyes as I hear Liz say:
"The creature will be released, now." The Doctor pulls away from me taking out Liz's mask, I look at him curiously as I wipe away tears, once again. "I said now! Is anyone listening to me?" She asks angrily.
"Liz. Your mask." The Doctor says beside me.
"What about my mask?" She questions. He chucks it to her and she catches it, looking at it.
"It's old. At least two hundred years old, I'd say." The Doctor tells her.
"Yeah? It's an antique. So?"
"Yeah, an antique made by craftsmen over two hundred years ago and perfectly sculpted to your face. They slowed your body clock, all right, but you're not fifty. Nearer three hundred. And it's been a long old reign." As the Doctor says this, I start putting two and two together, Liz is the highest authority, she made this happen.
"Nah, it's ten years. I've been on this throne ten years." She claims raising her voice a little.
"Ten years. And the same ten years, over and over again, always leading you here." I tell her coming up behind the Doctor. She looks to me and the Doctor walks away to a setup of computers and we follow and there on the surface in front of four screens are two buttons, forget and abdicate.
"What have you done?" Liz asks Hawthorne.
"Only what you have ordered. We work for you, Ma'am. The Winders, the Smilers, all of us." Hawthorne exclaims. I place my hand on Liz's shoulder squeezing it slightly, hoping it will comfort her, but she doesn't react, instead she watches as the screens come to life and she sits down.
"If you are watching this. If I am watching this, then I have found my way to the Tower Of London. The creature you are looking at is called a Star Whale. Once, there were millions of them. They lived in the depths of space and, according to legend, guided the early space travellers through the asteroid belts. This one, as far as we are aware, is the last of its kind. And what we have done to it breaks my heart. The Earth was burning. Our sun had turned on us and every other nation had fled to the skies. Our children screamed as the skies grew hotter. And then it came, like a miracle. The last of the Star Whales. We trapped it, we built our ship around it, and we rode on its back to safety. If you wish our voyage to continue, then you must press the Forget button. Be again the heart of this nation, untainted. If not, press the other button. Your reign will end, the Star Whale will be released, and our ship will disintegrate. I hope I keep the strength to make the right decision." Liz sits in silence as I turn to the Doctor.
"I voted for this. Why would I do that?" I ask him.
"Because you knew if we stayed here, I'd be faced with an impossible choice. Humanity or the alien. You took it upon yourself to save me from that. And that was wrong. You don't ever decide what I need to know." The quietness of his voice scares me a little and I feel the sadness set in, knowing I'd really messed up.
"Doctor, she can't even remember doing it." Amy defends me, turning into defensive sister as she sees that what he's saying is hurting me.
"She did it." He says to Amy before turning to me. "That's what counts."
"I'm... I'm sorry." I say quietly, willing myself not to cry, again.
"Oh, I don't care. When I'm done here, you're going home." He says turning away as he walks to the other side of the desk. I stay stood there, he's really angry about this. Liz stands up, pulling me into a hug.
"He'll come around." She tells me. How had I got so close with Queen Elizabeth the Tenth that she's actually hugging me, what did I do? She lets go walking towards Amy who had followed after the Doctor, still obviously in protective stance. I walk back to the wall and slide down in my head in my hands.
"Why? Because Kenzie made a mistake? One mistake? She can't even remember doing it. Doctor!"
"Yeah, I know. You're only human." He says coldly. I look up at him as he talks to her with that tone, and I see him glance at me momentarily before he looks back to what he's doing.
"What are you doing?" Liz asks.
"The worst thing I'll ever do. I'm going to pass a massive electrical charge through the Star Whale's brain. Should knock out all its higher functions, leave it a vegetable. The ship will still fly, but the whale won't feel it." The Doctor says quietly.
"That'll be like killing it." Amy says to him.
"Look, three options. One, I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship. Three, I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, because I won't be the Doctor anymore."
"There must be something we can do, some other way." I try to reason with him, he always finds another way.
"Nobody talk to me. Nobody human has anything to say to me today!" He shouts and I watch him lose his temper as he shouts at all three of us. I sink back down into my position hugging my knees tightly and wanting a bubble to form around me to block me out of everything.
Amy ad Mandy come to join me at some point as the Doctor works, and I sit now leaning against Amy as she strokes my hair softly, comforting me as she knows I still feel terrible. I feel helpless as I watch him running around turning knobs and flipping switches. It was almost like watching him fly the Tardis, only he had a depressed look on his face now. I look over to a door as it opens to see three children walk in, Mandy looks too and seems to recognise one and she approaches him and begins to talk to him, I start to sit up once I see the tentacle behind her flail as if it's going to attack her but it doesn't, it taps her on the shoulder. I stand up and approach it slowly as the two children stroke the tentacle, it cringes away once I'm stood behind them but I reach my hand out to touch it too and it comes back letting me stroke it. "You're just a big sweetheart, aren't you?" I ask as the three of us stroke it. "Oh my God." I state as I suddenly realise something. I start remembering different things people have said through the day and everything starts to make sense.
"Come on , use your eyes. Notice everything. Notice everything." I remember the Doctor telling Amy and I.
"Our children screamed. It came, like a miracle." Liz had said on the clip of her talking about the Star Whale.
"Just me now." The Doctor's the last of his kind.
"The last of its kind." The Star Whale's the last of its kind.
"Is this how it works, Doctor? You never interfere with other peoples or planets." Amy had asked the Doctor as they left me to find Mandy.
"Children screamed." The children were screaming as Earth was burning and then I remember how Amy finished the sentence.
"Unless it's children crying."
"It won't eat the children." Hawthorne had said, the Star Whale won't eat the children.
"Then it came, like a miracle. The last of the Star Whales."
"Oh my God!" I yell this time and Mandy and the boy, Timmy I think Mandy said his name was, look at me in surprise. "Doctor, stop!" I shout running up to Liz. "Do you trust me?" I ask her quietly. She hesitates a moment.
"Yes." She says. I smile a little before looking to the Doctor again as what I called to him caught his attention and he stopped working.
"Whatever you're doing, stop it now!" I shout at him but he doesn't so I announce what I'm doing. "Sorry, your majesty. I'm going to need a hand." I say to her dragging her to the abdicate button.
"What are you doing?" She asks, worriedy.
"You said you trust me, so trust me." I say as the Doctor start shouting.
"Mackenzie, no! No!" He yells running over to us as I look to Liz she nods hesitantly letting me slam her hand down on the abdicate button. There's a roar and the ground starts to shake. Amy comes up behind me.
"Kenz, why did you do that?" Amy asks.
"Mackenzie, what have you done?" The Doctor asks as the shaking stops and he stands up.
"Nothing at all." I tell him and they look at me confused. "Hawthorne, what do that stats say?" I ask waiting and hoping for the answer I'm expecting.
"We've increased speed." He says surprised everyone looks back to me.
"Yeah, well, you've stopped torturing the pilot. That's got to help." I tell them, Liz walks over to the hole that revealed the brain.
"It's still here. I don't understand." She says looking down at the brain. I look to the Doctor to see him watching me with an expression I couldn't read. I look back to Liz.
"The Star Whale didn't come like a miracle all those years ago. It volunteered. You didn't have to trap it or torture it. That was all just you. It came because it couldn't stand to watch your children cry. What if you were really old, and really kind and alone? Your whole race dead. No future. What couldn't you do then?" I turn to look at the Doctor again and he looks at me full of emotion, so many emotions. "If you were that old, and that kind, and the very last of your kind, you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry." I explain to them all. Amy wraps me in a hug.
"I'm so proud of you." She says, her voice muffled by my cloak. I look over to where the Doctor was stood expecting to find him there, but he was gone. I pull away from Amy and look at the spot sadly.
"Do you still think he's going to send me home?" I ask.
"No, but if he does, then he can forget about me coming, I'm sticking with my awesome sister who just saved a Star Whale." She says slinging an arm over my shoulder.
"He never wanted you to leave." Liz says from beside us and I look to her, confused. "That man, whether he wants to admit it or not, has feelings for you, so go and find him and tell him that you do too." Liz tells me, I blush as Amy laughs beside me. I smile at her one last time, before hugging her tightly. "Do come and visit me, love." She says. "It's been a while since I've had a close friend." I nod and pull away.
"I'll see if I can convince the Doctor to let us visit." I tell her before running off after him.
I slow down my pace as I search the rooms and corridors looking for the Doctor. Scenarios of what he's doing at the moment pop in and out of my mind, the worst being he's still really angry and has left without us, so as I speed walk through the market place and find the Tardis still there and smile in relief and I pop my head in to see if he's in there, he isn't. I huff out as I run off again in search for the Doctor. I walk along the Observation Deck and look over the Starship smiling as I look along the deck to find the Doctor standing watching the ship. I approach him and don't say anything as I stand beside him looking out. We stand for a good two minutes before he speaks, not looking to me at all.
"Mackenzie, you could have killed everyone on this ship." He says. I look to him sadly feeling a little less hopeful about him forgiving me.
"You could've killed a Star Whale." I tell him. He looks to me silently, and I look into his eyes, feeling a little more hopeful as he has the hint of a smile on his lips. He doesn't say anything for another minute as we just look into each other's eyes.
"And you saved it. I know, I know." He says eventually looking back out of the gigantic windows.
"Amazing though, don't you think? The Star Whale. All that pain and misery and loneliness, and it just made it kind." I say not turning to look out as I watch him listen to me, he turns to me again.
"But you couldn't have known how it would react."
"You couldn't... But I could, I've seen it before. Very old and very kind, and the very, very last." And I grab his hands making him face me. "Sound familiar?" He smiles as he pulls me into a hug and I bury my face into his shoulder as he buries his into my newly acquired cloak. "Hey." I say grinning.
"What?" He asks, muffled.
"Gotcha." I smile copying what he said earlier.
"Huh." He laughs. "Gotcha." He whisper as we both hold each other a little tighter.
"Right, sorry to ruin the moment, but I have a message from Her Majesty." The loud and annoying voice of my sister says from behind us. We pull apart as Amy hands the Doctor Liz's mask. "She says there will be no more secrets on Starship UK."
"Good. Let's go then." The Doctor says and he offers me his hand, which I take gladly as we walk back down to the Tardis.