by Doctor Who
All the ship's controls must have failed if a battery light was their only source of illumination. The lamp was dim, so it could've been in use for hours. Days possibly, though not much more than a week.
She called 3's name but got no reply.
She felt hungry. Thirsty too. That was weird - the suspension should have kept her full of vitamins, THE GLAMOUR CHASE
but she was tired, aching. Suspension sickness -
not everyone got it, but clearly fate wasn't going to be kind to her today. Oh well, easily cured with the right medicine. Hmm... She couldn't work out which chambers contained the medical staff.
This wasn't looking good. Nor, frankly, was the fact the ship was upturned. That was why she couldn't see into the chambers from so far down
- and 3's was apparently the only other open chamber.
128 sighed. If they were to have a chance of re-growing the ship to working order and getting away from wherever they had crashed, she needed everyone in tip-top condition. Not least herself.
She reached out to the wal -floor beneath her and created a small hole in it by absorption.
Darkness. A solid darkness. She risked putting her hand through and discovered that whatever was beyond the wall was cold and damp but not lethal. Maybe that was where the damp had come from that she'd felt inside her cryogenic chamber.
Either way, cold and damp was not going to be a friend to her crew.
She tried to think - who had been next to her?
25463? Yes. Good. He'd been on her left, and to her right had been a young engineer. 282389, she thought.
She took a leap, trying to get back to her open chamber, allowing herself to extend slightly, just enough to reach it without using up valuable 37
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energy. Normally, she wouldn't have thought twice about expanding but, in her current state, she'd lose cohesion if she expended too much energy.
She pulled herself up so she was hanging outwards from her chamber, feet inside it, and used her left arm to reach over to 25463's chamber, thumping the emergency manual-release coil. Sure enough, the chamber lid flipped up and she reached forward to stop her Tactical Officer dropping forward as she had.
She felt him breathe under her hand and waited patiently as he started to come round.
'We made it, then,' he said.
'Yeah, good to see you, too,' 128 smiled. 'Taciturn as ever. Good to know nothing changes.'
She filled him in - as much as she knew - while he slowly clambered down to the floor.
'We need to find one of the medical staff,' he said.
'107863 or 49 would be good. Or a nurse even. 9726
was prettiest.' He glanced around. 'Then I want my security team here. Once we have those essentials, we can try bringing the rest of the crew round with medics to help them and my security team ready to find out where we are.'
Before the Commander could answer, a voice made them turn.
'We're on a planet called Earth. Strictly speaking, we're under it.'
128 wanted to hug 3, but instead she just asked for a report.
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3 had awoken two days earlier. Much like 128, he'd felt the cold and damp but had chosen to gather information rather than wake the crew as his rank's protocol required. 'I couldn't remember which chamber 8's team were in, so it was a gamble,'
he added wryly.
'It was,' 25463 snapped. 'My Security Chief should have been your priority. If anything had happened to you —'
'Yeah, but it didn't. The Exalted is damaged but not irreparably, provided we have a full complement of crew.'
'Do we have spares?'
'Most of the Balls were damaged, but there's a limited number. A lot of our spares were used to protect us on descent, I reckon.'
'Any sign of Tahnn activity? Were we followed?'
3 shrugged. 'If we were, Commander, they're certainly not around here, or we'd be dead.'
'What's the indigenous population at?'
'Level 5, I reckon. I smell engine oil but nothing neutronic or atomic in the air. The primary life form is reasonably civilised, in that they don't appear to be eating one another, but I doubt they've seen non-local life before, so I'm not proposing we run out and shake hands with them.'
'We won't learn anything by skulking down here,' retorted 25463.
'Children,' snapped the Commander. 'Don't start.
25463, start getting the crew up. Who and when, I DOCTOR WHO
leave to you. 3, take me out there - I want to see an alien world.'
'Commander, I'm not sure—'
'Don't argue, Exec. I'm still the Commander.' She winked at him. 'This is fun.'
'This is dangerous.'
'That too.' 128 threw a look back at 25463, who was starting to track down his security team and a couple of nurses as planned. 'Let's go,' she told her second-in-command, 'before he gets any more miserable.'
'You could almost believe he wanted to fail and die,' 3 muttered.
'Don't say that,' 128 said taking his arm sharply.
'Don't ever say that about him or any of the Exalted crew. Because it's not true. We will survive this, and we will find a way home, no matter how long it takes.'
3 indicated that he accepted the criticism and extracted his arm. 'This way, Commander,' he said.
128 sighed to herself. Why did everyone have to make everything so difficult? It suddenly occurred to her exactly what it was she was about to do. It was both exciting and dangerous. She reached into her uniform and found the small homing beacon.
'Let's get some help,' she said to 3. 'Just in case.'
She activated the beacon.
After a few moments, they reached a hole that 3
had dug. The smell hit her before the bright daylight, but together they were almost overwhelming.
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'It's a whole new planet, 3,' she breathed. 'Look at it.'
The sky was blue and white and slightly yellow, the ground green and brown and black and... and there were buildings of non-conformed shapes and sizes in the distance.
'Flowers,' she said, reaching for a white and yellow plant, but 3 held her back.
'Commander, I've had no way to test anything.
Other than not actually suffocating and feeling the damp in the air - which means we can't stay long in our natural state, by the way - I've touched nothing.
We don't know what it can do.'
'We are explorers, 3. This is what we do.' She reached out and plucked the plant from the ground, hoping this wasn't the primary life form to which 3 had referred, otherwise her first action on this planet was murder. Then she remembered that 3
had said it was planet Earth, so the natives had to have communication.
As if reading her mind, 3 pointed to the buildings. 'Creatures, not too unlike ourselves, in shape and size, live over there. A couple of dozen, I reckon. There's no conformity to their clothing or anything.'
128 wanted to shriek with excitement, but even in front of 3 that wouldn't be de rigueur for a Commander. Especially a Commander that had just chastised her Exec Officer for being too flippant. She looked at the plant in her hand and let it melt into 41
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her palm, closing her eyes and focusing.
'Simple cell structure, mostly carbon, oxygen and water.' She opened her eyes and smiled again.
'Easy to replicate. Which means that - assuming it's like our planet - carbon, oxygen and water are the main ingredients of everything living here. We can infiltrate easily once we have a template of the natives.' She looked at 3. 'Fancy a mission?'
'How many of them do you want, Commander?'
'Just one for now. We don't want to scare them or hurt them. But we have to know if we can replicate them.'
'Why?'
'Because if we end up being here a few days, weeks or years, we will need to be out and about and, to do that, we need to look, speak and think like them
.' 128 smiled. 'I'll see you back here in thirty minutes.'
With a nod, 3 walked out into the bright day of this strange new planet. 128 watched his departing back with pride. He wouldn't let her down. He wouldn't let the crew down. He wouldn't let the Weave down.
She suddenly gasped in pain - damn suspension sickness was coming up fast. She needed to flow urgently, but to do that she'd need a nurse.
She was aware of someone at her side and relaxed. Nurse 66663.
'Commander,' said the young male nurse, '25463
wondered if you needed sickness suppressants?'
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The Commander nodded. 'You are a life saver 66663, thank you.'
The nurse pressed a small soft patch against the Commander's arm, and she immediately felt the soothing sensation through her fibres. 'Thank you, 66663. Tend to the others.'
As the nurse was about to head back beneath the ground, 128 caught his arm. 'Is everyone OK?' she asked.
The nurse paused just for a beat. 'Yes, Commander.'
128 sighed. 'The truth, nurse, please.' But she knew 25463 would have ordered him not to reveal it. 'It's all right, nurse, I'll ask him myself.'
She followed the nurse back, throwing one quick look behind her to the open air, but 3's form had already vanished amidst the new world's myriad secrets and promises.
Within moments, they had returned to the upturned ship and the suspended chambers. Only three were untouched, and one of those was being prised open by some of the security team.
The Commander was relieved to see 79 was there
- she liked the young geographer. And the artists 1419 and 2296 were around, too, holding hands just as lovingly as they had on the day the Commander had performed their wedding ceremony.
25463 was anxiously pacing, and he pul ed 128 to one side, more roughly than he probably intended.
She didn't reprimand him.
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'I'm concerned about those three,' he said nodding at the unopened chambers. 'It's been too long, and all the others opened with ease. Chief 8
believes that the chambers may have been damaged in the crash.'
128 did a quick scan. '174526, 207 and 542,' she said, blowing air from her cheeks.
There was a cry from 8, the Security Chief, and the lid of the casket was finally prised free. With a screech of fear and panic, the male occupant sat bolt upright and was stopped by Chief 8 from falling out. 'You're OK, you're OK,' he kept repeating to the older man calmly.
128 sighed in relief. The astrometrist, 207. One down, two to go.
A couple of 8's burly lads were desperately trying to get the next lid off, but it wouldn't budge. One of them, 19, produced a sidearm in his hand, gasping slightly from the strain. He was tired - probably only revived himself scant moments before, too soon to be growing armaments. But he wasn't thinking of his own health when someone else was in danger.
He carefully heated up the runners of the sliding mechanism, and eventually it came loose enough for his partner, 11, to haul the chamber's lid away.
There was no happy yell or coughing this time, and 128 could tell the occupant was dead before either man reacted.
'Grieve later,' snapped 8 urgently. 'Let's get the final one sorted.'
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One more blast from the gun - and another pyrrhic victory - later and the Commander found herself and her crew (minus EO 3) looking at two corpses at their feet. Both were frayed and unwoven beyond recognition, but their uniform badges IDed them: on the left was Chief Engineer 174526; on the right was junior science officer 542.
The Commander said a few words about 174526
and death in general, then allowed Nurse 9726 to speak about 542, her brother.
When it was over, the Commander kneeled down, placed both palms to the ship's floor-wall and concentrated. A second later, the remains of the two bodies were absorbed by the ship.
'We can't stay here,' 128 said. 'I propose taking a small party to the world outside and, once 3 has returned with a template, I suggest we integrate ourselves with the planet until we can find a way to repair and repower the ship. Myself, 8, 19, 30, 877, 107863 and 41200 will come with me. Tactical Officer 25463 is in charge with Security Chief 8 as deputy until either myself or Exec Officer 3 return.'
25463 was about to argue, but 128 threw him a look. 'I need you here, looking after my crew. If anything goes wrong, you are to stay awake as long as possible to reenergise yourselves then return to hibernation. But, of course, nothing will go wrong.'
She smiled at the crew. Her crew. The best. And they looked back, their faces a mixture of pride, determination, fear, anxiety, serenity and, in one 45
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case, downright pig-headedness. 'You are the best,'
she said to them, then turned to her sub-group.
'Let's go, team.'
As she started to fol ow them out, she took 25463's hand. 'Look after them. We'll be back in three days, tops.'
She walked away, without looking back, hoping that 3 would not be long and that he would soon join them on their venture into the unknown.
46
CHAPTER
4
Baaaaa
'What?'
Baaaaaaa
'I see. Rory?'
Baaaaa
'Nope. No, definitely not Rory. Although I can see some similarities. F'rinstance, you're standing there, gazing at me, assuming I know what's going on. And making strange noises that no one understands. But I'm pretty sure, despite all that, you're not Rory.'
'Ummmm, Doctor?'
'Ahhh, see, now that's Rory. But you see what I was getting at, yes?'
Baaaaaa
'Doctor?'
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'Quiet, Rory. I'm talking to a sheep.'
Baaaaa
'All right, strictly speaking, I'm talking at a sheep, but I'm pretty sure I'm getting through.' The Doctor sniffed. 'Blimey, Mr Sheep, you smell bad. No...
wait... nope, you're all right, I smell bad. Wow. That is bad. Sorry.'
Baaaa
'Absolutely.'
Rory's next call was tinged with desperation.
'Doctor...'
'What?'
'You've, ummm... well, you're in... ummm...'
'I'm in sheep dip, Rory, aren't I?'
'Yup.'
'Why am I in sheep dip, Rory? No, wait, it doesn't matter, I don't care. Because I reckon that whatever answer you give, I'm not gonna like it much. And neither of us will come out of any subsequent discussions on the subject particularly well, am I right?'
'No, Doctor.'
'Where's Amy? How come she's not in sheep dip?
She always knows how to deal with me in situations like this. Me. Sheep dip. Bad smells.'
Baaaa
'And you, frankly, Mr Sheep, aren't helping matters much.'
'Doctor!'
'What?'
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Rory sighed. Loudly. He did that a lot. 'Apart from the dip, and the sheep, and the rather steep hill you just fell down - and trust me you don't want to go into whatever it was you trod on that caused you to fall down—'
'Get on with it, Rory, I'm not getting drier or happier down here.'
'Well, anyway, there's a man up here, and I don't think he's too chuffed.'
'Is he a shepherd, by any chance? I mean, right now, a man whose passport lists "shepherd" as an occupation might be really useful.'
'He's got a shotgun. Aimed at me.'
'Try not to get shot, then, Rory. Can you manage that? Amy won't thank me if you get shot.'
'I won't thank you, either,' Rory countered.
'You'll be dead.'
'There is that,' Rory answered. 'And thanks for the vote of confidence. You're a bundle of fun today.'
Baaaa
The Doctor sighed. 'And you, my woolly friend, aren't exactly helping.'
With a big squelc
hing noise, the Doctor hauled himself out of the dip and promptly fell flat on his back. He looked up at the blue, cloudless sky above and sniffed. 'Overlooking the sheep-dip smell - which isn't so bad once you get used to it - I can smell a good cut-grass smell. Earth, England.'
Another sniff. 'Gotta be the east coast, low down.
We're in Norfolk, Rory. Suffolk at a push.' He smiled 49
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at the sheep. 'Don't get sheep on many other planets.
You are pretty much unique.'
He pushed himself up onto his elbows. 'It's quite nice down here, actually,' he called back up the hillock to where he thought Rory must be. 'You should take the time to look at the sky more often.
Smell the grass, taste English air on the tip of your tongue. Marvellous.'
'You're forgetting something, Doctor,' yelled Rory. 'Shotgun. Me. Danger?'
'If he was going to shoot you, Rory, he'd've done it by now. So it's an empty threat. A threat, yes, but pretty empty. English farmers are the ask-questions-first-shoot-later types.' The Doctor looked at his neighbour, the sheep. 'I think that's the right way around, anyway,' he said with a confidential wink.
Baaaa
'Yes, OK, you're right, I'd better get up there and get Rory out of whatever mess he's in this week.'
The Doctor was on his feet, straightening his bow tie and brushing those bits of sheep dip from his clothes that could be easily brushed off, pausing only to wipe his now mucky hands on the grass.
With a last look at the sheep and a nod of goodbye, he began climbing back up the hil ock he'd taken his tumble down.
The TARDIS had arrived just a few moments earlier, he remembered. He'd checked the atmosphere and walked out. 'Pretty sure I looked where I was going,' he muttered in a voice that 50
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implied he wasn't sure of that at all.
As the TARDIS came into view, door wide open, he realised his mistake - he had indeed walked straight out and down, because the door was on the edge of the top of the hill. 'Quite a tumble,' he said.
Then: 'I said I took quite a tumble,' he yelled towards where he had now worked out Rory definitely was. He and Amy had presumably been a bit more circumspect in leaving the ship. Wise, if dull.
