Please note that this continues on from a previous episode. Please click here to read the previous chapters.
Carter Alsop worked alone in his office, his desk illuminated by a single lamp leaning over his neatly ordered papers. He pored over scans and deep resonance images of the shapes in the ice block.
He discounted the animal shape entirely. It was far too modern to be of any use to the museum. However, the human figure was intriguing. Alsop was concerned that there was no way to tell what era the body was from, but in any case, a perfectly preserved body rescued from ice that had lain undisturbed for the best part of a century was bound to be a popular exhibit.
He turned his attention back to the sarcophagus shadow with a sigh. That was the real prize, he thought. He felt a moment's distress at the thought of having to give it up and not be able to display it. But, he reasoned, there was so much more where that came from!
His thoughts returned to his studies and he leaned in close to the desk, studying the images for any more clues he might have missed.
The curator's concentration was so intense – and the office around him so dark – that he had no awareness whatsoever of the figure moving behind him in the darkness, stealthily and carefully closing in on his position.
The first Carter Alsop knew of the intruder was the feel of a deathly-cold hand over his mouth, stifling his scream.
He realised, with a mix of excitement and terror, that the hand felt distinctly scaly: They'd come back!
Chapter Four – Cold Blooded
The lizard's eyes flicked open. It spat at The Doctor, Knute and Lim, “Get your hands off me you damn dirty apes!”Without warning, Knute delivered another powerful punch to the creature's face. There was a sickening crack and the creature slumped back on the floor, completely still.
“Why did you do that to her?” The Doctor demanded, outraged.
“It was hissing at me like some kind of snake!” Knute replied, confused.
Of course, thought The Doctor, he couldn't understand her.
The Doctor looked down upon the broken Lizard face. It was a Reptilia Sapiens. Commonly referred to by historians as Silurians. Sometimes incorrectly referred to as Homo Reptilia, which was a tasteless mistake to make – certainly in front of a Silurian. The lizards on this planet evolved into an intelligent and industrial people long before the monkeys started hitting each other with jawbones and many of them disliked any confusion of their kind with the apes.
Two intelligent species sharing a common cradle, the Doctor thought, remembering her history lessons. Whenever both species became aware of that fact it invariably led to trouble.
She was about to speak to Knute more when several figures appeared in the gallery archways on either side of them. In each archway stood a Silurian warrior, staring at them with deadly intent and aiming a nasty-looking rifle in their direction.
Next to one of the Silurian warriors stood to a tall, graceful Silurian female. Her armour was tinted a different shade to set her apart from the footsoldiers and she wore no combat visor.
She stepped forward and stopped short as she saw the dead warrior lying on the ground. She hissed at the group, “what have you done!?”
Knute's fists tightened again. The Doctor could see he was preparing to strike at these newcomers and spoke quickly and diplomatically before Knute could turn the situation into a bloodbath. “We're very sorry, brave warrior, it was a mistake!”
The Silurian leader raised a hand and the other warriors slightly lowered their weapons.
Knute saw this action and relented. His charge dissipated into merely a short threatening stagger toward the leader. The Silurian leader looked like they were waiting for a further reason to not resume the attack.
“You are Silurians, are you not?” The Doctor said, “what are you doing here?”
“You have killed one of our s-s-sisters-s-s!” The Silurian leader hissed back, “we are asking the questions! You will pay for your crimes.”
“We're really very sorry for that!” The Doctor insisted, “she came out of nowhere and took us by surprise.” She pleaded for peace, “is there any chance we can start over?”
“Liar!” the Silurian yelled, “we saw you chas-s-sing her as if she was prey.” The Silurian spat the word prey as if it was distasteful.
“She had killed a guard downstairs. We had no choice but to investigate,” The Doctor told her.
The Silurian's lip curled in distaste. She hissed, “That s-s-stinking ape had no business-s-s being on the surface of this planet at all! He deserved to die, as do all apes-s-s!”
“I think you are wrong, there,” said The Doctor, taking a risk to stand up to this warrior, “it is their planet now, their civilisation. You are the intruder, here, so let's talk it through. Where have you been, what are you doing here now?”
“Enough of this!” the Silurian retorted, “what have you done with the war hero? Where is Commander Valta?”
The Doctor hesitated for a moment, thinking. These soldiers were looking for another Silurianm then? But why would they have any better idea where this Silurian was any more than they did? A flash of inspiration occurred to The Doctor and she announced, “I can take you to him.”
“What are you doing, Doctor?” Lim implored, “Who is Commander Valta?”
The Doctor placed a reassuring hand on Lim's arm. “I think,” The Doctor told her, “I may have just figured out what the other shape in the ice might be.”
“Don't play games-s-s with us, puny ones-s-s,” the leader threatened. “You will return our glorious war leader to us, unharmed. If you are lying to us-s-s, be sure that we will kill you! ”
< >
Esther and Stephen were idling in the lab, waiting for the others to return. Esther leant against the wall, studying her fingernails, while Stephen made various efforts to study the Sarcophagus further. Occasionally he used the Geiger Counter to take further readings, but didn't come to any further conclusions.
Esther smiled slightly as she saw the Doctor's face reappear at the window in the door leading to the lab. She waved, secretly pleased at their return, even it all it promised was a relief from the monotony.
Her smile faded as she realised that The Doctor, Lim and Knute were stepping into the room with their hands raised in the air. They were pushed into the room at gun-point.
Following them in with an air of authority was a tall, slender woman in metal armour. Her face was … Esther thought she must be seeing things. Her face was green and scaly, like she had the complexion of a Komodo Dragon.
They all stood and stared at each other for a moment, an impasse.
Esther pointed at the lizard-woman. “Is she any relation to her?” she asked, indicating Lim, “she's weird as well.”
“No,” said The Doctor, firmly, “well done on freeing the sarcophagus from the ice though.”
Esther shrugged, “we don't know what we're doing with it though, we couldn't get it open.”
The Silurian leader gasped as she set her eyes upon the precious casket. She moved quickly over to it and caressed it, feeling its warmth. “Ah,” she exclaimed, “the res-s-sting-place of our glorious hero. This! This is the leader that will surely lead us to victory over the FILTHY apes.”
The Doctor muttered under her breath, “perhaps this wasn't such a good idea.”
The Leader clicked her fingers and a warrior pushed The Doctor forward, over to the sarcophagus. The warrior removed a triangular device from a pouch around its waist and handed it to the Leader.
The Leader's forked tongue darted out and licked at her lips as she took hold of the device and placed it into an etched triangular shape on the top of the Sarcophagus. The three corners of the device extended and spun, as if retracting bolts from the deep recesses of the casket, whirring and clicking.
“Well that's just cheating,” Esther said, frustrated at the amount of time they had spent trying to open the Sarcophagus. She folded her arms, crossly, “how were we supposed to know it needed a key?”
As the lock finished opening, The Leader impatiently tossed the lid of the casket aside and gazed in wonder upon the contents.
Steam billowed out of the casket, revealing the figure of a large Silurian male, dressed finely and laid in state in the Sarcophagus, military decorations upon his chest.
Everybody in the room held a deep breath, humans, lizards and aliens alike.
The eyes of the figure in the casket fluttered open and he smiled to be greeted by the familiar face of one of his own kind.
“You have found me and awoken me,” the Silurian's deep voice intoned, as he stepped out of the casket, “I thank you greatly, my friend.”
The Silurian Leader knelt down before him, “welcome, Supreme Commander Valta. I am Commander Kylen and I am your humble servant. We have awoken you so that you may lead our people to their rightful place and reclaim our planet from the apes.”
Supreme Commander Valta listened to this, then looked around at the room full of Silurians and their captives. A shadow fell across his face, “no, no, no, NO!” He shouted at Commander Kylen, “do none of you remember what I was trying to do? I wished to broker peace with the new civilisation that was growing on this planet. You can't undo all my work now!”
Suddenly The Doctor approached Supreme Commander Valta. “Hello,” she said, cheerily, offering a hand, “it's so nice to meet someone on the same page as us!”
“Silence!” yelled Commander Kylen and struck the Doctor across the face, knocking her to the floor, “you do not speak to our Supreme Hero!”
“Peace, Kylen!” Valta ordered, stepping between her and The Doctor. Valta offered The Doctor a hand to stand up. It was curious that Lim and The Doctor seemed to understand their language.
“How long have you been asleep?” Lim asked.
“I have no frame of reference,” Valta replied, “When I was put into this chamber of healing, we were trying to find a way to live peacefully alongside the new ape … sorry … hu-man settlements which were springing up all over, growing out from their cave-dwellings. I'm afraid I have no way of measuring how long I was asleep, but I feel as though it has been for a long time.”
“Well it seems that there has been a huge misunderstanding,” The Doctor announced. “And we can all be happy and get along?” she added, hopefully. Commander Kylen snarled.
“You don't understand, Kylen,” Valta said, seeing that the other soldiers were grumbling and not at all convinced by his words of peace, “we have to find a way to live peacefully with this new species!”
Esther, Stephen and Knute, of course, didn't following any of this, given their inability to speak the language of the lizards. Lim saw their bewildered faces amid this cacophony of hissing and took pity on them by calling out a running translation of what was being said. Lim didn't actually translate anything, of course, but the universal language adapter she had bought at the spaceport (patent pending; works on all spiral arm worlds and Northern and Southern Phirralax) allowed her to simply relay what she was hearing and the humans heard her speech as normal.
It wasn't enough to mollify Knute, whose head was racing with all of these events, the strange creatures and now being held prisoner. Impulsively, he spun around, swinging his fist wide in order to floor his captor with a single devastating Haymaker.
With her quick reflexes, Lim spotted Knute becoming tense and building power for a punch. Lim thought the negotiations seem to be moving in a positive direction and didn't want to see Knute exacerbate the situation. Mindless of the rifle pointed at her own back, Lim shot out her hand, stretching her arm out over several feet to try to snatch Knute's balled fist from out of the air.
She wasn't quick enough, however, and Knute's knuckles crashed against the Silurian's metal mask. The mask fractured into three pieces and clattered to the floor as the soldier staggered backward.
The Silurian who was guarding Lim raised her rifle and made to shoot Knute before he could attack any further.
The Doctor shouted out, “Stop! Don't shoot, please! He doesn't understand your language!”
Commander Kylen grudgingly echoed The Doctor with some roughly barked orders and the Silurian lowered its rifle. The other Silurian wiped away the remaining broken pieces of mask from her face and smashed the butt of her rifle between Knute's shoulder blades. He staggered forward.
While this distraction was going on, Esther was attempting to put her plan into action; she would take the leader hostage. She crept around the side of the sarcophagus, trying to sneak up on Commander Kylen. She was no match for the lizard's fine senses, however, and Commander Kylen's head snapped around to stare at Esther as she approached. Esther realised her plan had only been considered up to this point and she stumbled, staggered into Kylen and sending both of them toppling over.
It was clear the situation was descending into chaos. Valta appealed for peace, saying, “Stop this, all of you, please!”
Esther, too, decided to change tack and appeal for calm. Her cries fell upon deaf ears as, even if the Silurian warriors were in the mood to be talked out of their rage by an ape, they could not understand a word she was saying.
Lim's arm whipped out again. The Silurian guard watching her reacted with a start, seeing Lim's fist waver overhead. The guard braced for a thump. Instead, Lim's hand flew over to the cooling system control panel. She flicked all the switches she had remembered seeing the others use earlier.
A jet of freezing cold air blasted against Commander Kylen's shoulder. Kylen gave a howl of pain and fear, so extreme that Lim instantly realised: these creatures cannot survive in the cold!
Kylen's scream was the catalyst that prompted all the soldiers back into action. Knute's second punch fell short as the soldier took a balletic step backward and responded by lashing out its long, venomous tongue. Knute was lucky that the tongue strike did no harm other than a minor scratch which caused Knute to slap his hand to his neck. Had the prongs of the Silurian's tongue penetrated deep below the skin he would have been poisoned dreadfully and – most likely – fatally. Even with the unfamiliar facial structure of the Silurian, Knute could recognise the look of rage upon the guard's face.
The other soldiers began firing at will. A beam of deadly energy headed directly for Lim, who warped her body out of shape. The beam passed directly through the point where her torso had been and blasted into the wall behind her.
Another shot fizzed toward Esther, who dived out of the way and scrambled for cover next to Stephen behind the Sarcophagus. Sparks showered down around her shoulders as the beam crashed into the metal shutters behind her. She exchanged a look of terror with Stephen.
Kylen staggered around in pain while The Doctor called once again for calm. Commander Valta joined in, saying, “Listen everybody, we don't have to fight! We can work together to live in peace.”
At this combined effort, Kylen seem subdued, almost ready to be reasoned with, while one of the soldiers – the one keeping their gun trained on Lim – heard the appeal of the legendary Silurian hero and saw the subdued look on the face of her own Commander and allowed her gun barrel to waver away from Lim.
The other two soldiers, however, had become fixated with their prey. More laser beams flashed around Stephen's and Esther's heads as the Silurian tried to find an angle from which to hit them. Knute, meanwhile, ducked and weaved while the unmasked soldier tried again and again to strike him with her tongue-venom.
Lim saw what was going on and how Kylen had stepped out of her carefully aimed beam. Her elongated hand was still hovering over the controls and in desperation she tried again. “If you lower your weapons,” she yelled out, “I will switch off the cold!”
The Doctor screamed, “No!” as Kylen and Valta were both blanketed in a potentially fatal blast of freezing air. The Doctor could only imagine how many other Silurians were lurking in or beneath the Museum and if they learned of the death of their leader and their hero at the hands of those they assumed to be humans, then this night could be the start of a large-scale and bloody confrontation.
Lim's eyes widened and she managed to reset the blowers to aim only at Kylen. She was pushed aside as the Silurian soldier thundered past her and headed over to the control panel.
The Doctor almost lurched over to the controls to try and desperately regain control of the situation. The Silurian, assuming that the Doctor intended to increase her masters' suffering, thumped The Doctor aside and set upon the controls herself. The Earth technology was completely unfamiliar to her but she just about managed to turn the intensity of the machine down.
The Silurian felt a hand placed upon her trembling arm. She looked up and met the deep, calm eyes of the Doctor. “Please,” The Doctor appealed, calmly and quietly. “let me help.”
The Silurian stepped aside, stunned, as The Doctor stepped quickly in and deactivated the machine. Kylen and Valta lay on the floor, desperately choking for warm breath.
< >
Throughout all of the fighting, Stephen had simply been taking cover by the casket. His only part in the battle so far had been as cautious observer, merely taking enough of a risk to peer over the top.
Fighting was not really Stephen's oeuvre and he silently wondered at the events that had brought him into the middle of this pitched battle between man and … these incredible creatures.
The Doctor was still standing in the middle of the carnage, apparently avoiding being the target of any direct attack and shouting at the top of her voice for peace and sanity.
Stephen felt – he was not sure how misguidedly – that the resolution to this fracas could come from him and, perhaps, him alone.
He gripped the handle of his suitcase tightly. He closed his eyes and stood up, holding the suitcase out in front of him, hands shaking. He half expected, at any moment, to feel the burning pain of a laser bolt hitting him in the chest.
Eyes still held tightly shut, he yelled out, “Stop it everybody! I've got a bomb!”
Chapter Five – Humanity in the Balance
“I'm going to kill everybody if you don't STOP RIGHT NOW!” Stephen shouted. His voice unavoidably faltered and cracked as he spoke, making his threat sound more comedic than he had intended. He felt as though any moment everybody in the room was bound to see through his ruse, realising that the briefcase was simply a container for his Geiger counter. Still, it had convinced Esther enough to cause her to take a few steps back away from, just in case.
Lim duly translated the threat for the assembled Silurians. Kylen looked at the heavy object in Stephen's hand and barked an order for the other soldiers to halt.
Kylen dragged herself up onto her feet, refusing any offers of assistance. She stared at The Doctor, her murderous expression slightly diluted by surprise. “You were the one who deactivated the machine,” Kylen said in astonishment, “why would you behave like this toward your enemy?”
“Please,” Lim appealed, “we must find a way to work together in peace.”
“They started it,” Knute muttered and The Doctor shot him a warning look.
Valta stepped towards Kylen, “I am your Supreme Commander. If you will not listen to my arguments then perhaps you will respect my authority! Call your soldiers off.”
Kylen shrank, slightly. She gave a hand signal and the other Silurians lowered their weapons and made to step away. Stephen stepped back, trembling and lowered the briefcase. Knute managed to give the soldier a cheeky elbow in the stomach while standing up. He gave the solider an innocent smile.
“Kylen,” The Doctor began, “what exactly is it you want to achieve?”
Kylen hissed, “my people had a great and glorious-s-s empire on this-s-s planet, long before the apes sprawled out over it. We predicted the climactic changes which we knew we could not survive and we dug deep into the ground. When the ice age came, we became under-dwellers, until we developed the technology to sleep for centuries at a time. Every now and again we would wake to check on progress. To our horror we discovered that, while we slept, a new and greedy species was robbing this planet of its resources and poisoning the air and the seas. The apes dig deep into the ground for oil, damaging our technology and harming our people. Even now you see before you the Sarcophagus of one of our war heroes, stolen from the earth by you humans. I will not rest until I have seen every last ape eradicated from the surface of this planet!”
The Doctor sighed. “It's going to be a long day,” she said to herself. “Look,” she continued, beginning to lecture Kylen, “you need to calm down. You got your sarcophagus back. It's really not that bad. Wouldn't it be better just to leave these people alone? If their behaviour continues as you predict, maybe they won't last that long?” There was a mixed look in the Doctor's eyes – a recognition of the self-destructive nature of humanity, twinned with her hope that they could achieve so much more.
At this, Kylen shook her her, confused, “I don't even understand what you people are doing here. We had promises from the other bald ape that we could use this place as a base of operations!”
At this the companions all looked between each other, mouthing silent questions.
Lim broke away from translating for the others for a moment and said, “Who was that?”
Kylen shrugged, “the short, fat, red-faced ape.”
At that moment the secure door opened and Carter Alsop barrelled in, pushed into the room by yet another Silurian. “Bring him forward!” Kylen commanded.
Carter Alsop seemed terrified, but all of his concern drained away when he saw the state of the lab and the condition of the Sarcophagus. “What have you done!?” he shouted, furious, “You have opened the sarcophagus!”
“S-s-silence, foolish ape!” Commander Kylen hissed at him, “What has-s-s happened to your promise that we could use this museum as a base if we showed you ways to gain access to more and more artefacts-s-s?”
Alsop looked shame-faced under The Doctor's stare. “What exactly did you promise these Silurians?” she demanded.
“They … have a fascinating network of tunnels and digging machines,” Alsop explained, “While we spend most of our time simply trying to break through the surface, their people are able to extract Finds from underneath the ground and from much deeper than we could currently attempt. They have recovered all kinds of human artefacts that have simply fallen down into their tunnels over time! They have promised that I can exhibit them, here, if I can just provide them with some space at the museum for their – ummm – whatever it is they want to do.” The Doctor was still pinning him down with an intense stare. Alsop threw his hands in the air, “Well how important can their plans be in the face of the chance to see all that hidden history!?”
The Doctor turned to Kylen, as if to demonstrate a point for Carter Alsop's benefit. “And what is it that you want to do, Commander?” The Doctor asked the Silurian war leader.
“We require a base of operations on the surface to establish a beach-head,” she explained, rebelliously, “We will rally our troops and equipment and advance upon the stinking apes!”
The Doctor wheeled on her heels back to Alsop, “This doesn't seem like a very good plan, now, does it, Mr Curator?”
Alsop was defiant, “All I care about is that I could fill this museum with millions of previously unseen historical items. Whole eras of human development we never even knew existed!”
From out of the shadows, Esther stepped up to him. “But who would see them if we were all dead?” her quiet authority and conclusive argument stopped everybody in their tracks and a deadly silence fell upon the room.
The curator's face became ashen. He imagined a world in which he sat in the centre of the British Museum, surrounded by artefacts from a thousand lost ages – and not a single soul came to look upon them. As obsessive as Alsop was about hoarding artefacts, that obsession was tempered by his desire to show them off to the world at large.
“What have I done?” he whimpered, looking to The Doctor for an absolution that he did not find in her eyes. “Please,” he begged, “you must get these creatures out of here. I don't want them to drive people away from my beautiful museum!”
She offered him no comfort, “Pity you didn't think of that sooner.” He crumbled before her righteous fury.
“Where did they come from?” Stephen asked, after hearing Lim's translation.
“They will have underground entrances throughout the museum,” Valta explained.
Knute asked, “and why were they killing the guards?”
Kylen shot him a zealous look, “Tonight was the night for recovering our war hero from his tomb. We vowed to kill anyone who stood in our way!”
“Well now you have your Supreme Commander, what do you want from him?” The Doctor asked.
“He is to lead us to a glorious victory over the apes!” the look in Kylen's eyes was almost rapturous.
“And what do you think of that, Supreme Commander Valta?” The Doctor turned to the war hero.
Valta shook his head, sadly, “they don't understand. I was waiting for the day when we could find a way to live side by side with the humans and share the space.”
Kylen laughed at this “show me their capacity to s-s-share!” She pointed at Knute, “That big one with the broad shoulders keeps punching my people while the stretchy one with the long arm burns us-s-s with the cold. These apes don't seem to me as though they wish to share their planet!”
Lim protestest, “But that was just to get you to stop and lower your weapons! I am not a threatening person normally.”
Kylen smiled, wickedly, “And so what would we have to do to stop you from attacking our people? War is the only way!”
The argument went back and forth. It seemed as though neither side was prepared to give way or offer a compelling argument. As Valta watched, he saw the precious peace, that he once dreamed of, slipping further and further away, until he felt that this night could only end in all-out war between the humans and Silurians. And, whichever side won, they would be left to cobble together a new existence from fragments and survivors. Valta despaired for the future he could see developing.
< >
“I can't deny that the apes – sorry, humans – are poisoning the planet,” The Doctor continued, trying to find a way to break the impasse. “I agree with you on that, but there must be some way you can work on it together?”
“That is exactly what I've been trying to say!” Valta cried out, “This is a huge planet and the humans occupy a comparatively small part of it. The last time I travelled this planet I came across an area where very few humans lived, covered in sand. Each time I visited it I was sure it was growing dryer and larger. I'm sure there is a part of this planet which must surely be suitable for us to live.”
“Wait a minute!” Stephen spoke up, “are you saying you'd happily live in a desert?”
Valta nodded, “the conditions would be excellent for us.”
“Well there are number of deserts on this planet. Any one of them would be ideal for you. The Sahara desert would be perfect,” Stephen explained.
Kylen visibly salivated as Lim relayed Stephen's description of the Sahara desert, laying out the miles and miles of untempered desert with the hot sun baking its surface.
“Very well,” Kylen said, the look on her face suggesting that this row was far from over, “we will recover our dead and return to the depths. We will find our own way to this desert of which you speak. But as far as I am concerned this planet is still ours!”
“You don't want to hug it out then?” Esther suggested, her voice heavy with sarcasm.
Possibly Lim's translation didn't adequately relate the sarcasm back to the Silurian commander. Either way, she fixed Esther with a hard stare. “One day, apes-s-s,” she hissed, “we will be back and you had better be ready for our return!”
At this, Kylen and the other Silurians ran to the edges of the room and climbed deftly up the walls. One of the Soldiers pulled free a ventilation grille and the others skittered through, followed by the soldier herself who dexterously returned the panel behind her. The humans stared in amazement.
The Doctor turned to Supreme Commander Valta, “what will you do?”
Valta considered, sagely, “I will go with them. Hopefully I can convince them to settle the surface in peace, rather than as an invasion.”
“Good luck,” The Doctor said, smiling.
“And thank you,” Valta told her, “I doubt I'd have been able to talk them down on my own without your assistance.”
“That's what I'm here for,” The Doctor assured him. Valta disappeared up the wall and slipped into the ventilation.
The gathered companions still looked a bit stunned.
“So,” Esther asked, “what exactly just happened?”
The Doctor turned to smile at her, “we saved the world from a blood-thirsty invasion.” She added, as if by explanation, “because it's Saturday.”
Esther was about to open her mouth to speak when the secure door burst open again. The security guard – the one whom Knute had punched into unconsciousness earlier – burst into the room.
“Right!” he shouted, “hold it there, all of you!”
Carter Alsop turned to face him. The security guard seemed surprised to see him here with these intruders and stopped in his tracks. “Mr Alsop?” he asked, confused.
“It's okay, Doug,” Alsop reassured him, “the … umm … situation is under control.”
“What has happened sir?” The guard's eyes rested on Knute, “that man! He broke in and punched me!”
Alsop tried to calm him down. “Really, Doug, it's all fine now. There has been a terrible incident here tonight. Perhaps you and I should go and fetch the police?”
Doug the Security Guard held the door open for Carter Alsop. When the curator had stepped through, Doug turned back to The Doctor and the companions, eye-balling Knute. “And you lot,” he said, jabbing a finger in their collective direction, “had better wait here. We're not done with you.” He backed through the door and there was a double-clicking noise, as though the door was being firmly sealed.
“What do we do now?” Esther asked.
The Doctor exhaled and puffed out her cheeks in a universally recognised sign of “time to be off!”
“I think it's probably time we got going,” The Doctor said, “I'd rather not talk to the police. They take such a long time to get the point and they really aren't going to believe anything we tell them.”
Esther frowned, “yeah but where are we going to go, exactly?”
The Doctor walked gracefully over to the loading shutters and began to pull them upward. “Well, you could all come with me. I can take you anywhere in the universe,” The Doctor said as she walked out into the access road and started strolling away from the museum building.
Esther stared after her. “I'm sorry,” she said calling after The Doctor, “what did you just say...?”
Epilogue: Did I Mention That It Also Travels In Time?
“What have you got there?” Lim asked Knute as they walked along the chilly pre-dawn streets of London.
Knute smiled and hefted his tatty and damp hold-all up into view, “I found my bag in the ice. It contains all my clothes, Football pads and even a ball! Maybe I can change out of these … interesting clothes.”
“Probably a good idea,” agreed Stephen, noting that Knute's tiny “sexy genie outfit” had taken considerable wear and tear in their adventure, unable to bear the strain of supporting the Norwegian powerful frame.
There was a troubled look on Esther's face. The Doctor studied her expression for a moment.
“Is something wrong?” The Doctor asked her.
“Did you mean what you said to the Silurian?” Esther asked, “about us not having that long left?”
The Doctor tried to muster up a kind smile for her. “Humanity's future is rarely fixed,” she explained, “beyond nearly all other races in the universe, your people have a capacity to achieve anything you put your minds to.” She gave a sad little shrug, “But, at the moment you have set your hearts upon gobbling up every available resource before anybody else can use it or create an alternative; that behaviour pattern can only lead to complete destruction.”
Esther took all this in and considered it. Then, the young goth's faced filled with frowns of confusion. “You talk like you aren't one of us.”
The Doctor laughed and stopped. She had led the group to an antiquated Police Box, sitting under the drooping branches of a tree. Esther almost bumped into it, surprised. How could she not have noticed it sooner?
The Doctor opened a door in the front and gestured for them to enter. “If you take a look inside, you might understand me better.”
“You said we could go anywhere in the universe,” Stephen asked, “what did you mean?”
“Just that,” said The Doctor.
“But I only have two weeks' holiday,” Lim protested, “how will I get back to Elastica Fantastica before my visa runs out?”
“If you like,” The Doctor explained, “Once you're tired of travelling I can bring you right back to this very spot at this very moment.”
She took in all of their confused faces. “Oh, right!” The Doctor exclaimed, suddenly remembering, “did I mention that it also travels in time?”
“I'd want to see the future!” Esther blurted out, before being able to stop herself. She felt herself being under The Doctor's gaze. “Y'know,” she murmured, “to see how things work out for … people.”
Stephen chipped in, “well if we can go anywhere, I'd like to see another planet!”
“Hmm,” The Doctor considered, “humanity's future but on a different planet? I think I can arrange that.”
Esther suddenly gave the police box a suspicious stare; she wore a bitter frown, as if she was suddenly cross for being duped in some way. “Anyway, I hardly think we're all going to fit inside,” she argued, “Is this your idea of a student prank: How many strangers can you fit in an antique Police Box?”
The tall, elegantly-attired, alien stranger flashed her a knowing smile and said, “I think you'll find it surprisingly roomy.”
< >
Just as the sun was breaking over the London skyline, there was a soft white glow from beneath a tree as an alien lantern flickered into life.
The tree's branches swayed back and forth as though being gusted around by winds, yet the air was still and none of the other trees moved an inch.
The air was filled, momentarily, with a heaving, groaning sound; a sound made up from a mix of half-forgotten dreams and ice grinding against metal.
The old police box dimmed and faded into nothingness and soon the spot on the street where it had stood was empty.
< >
Thank you for reading. I hope you have enjoyed this adventure, based on the actions of a roleplaying group playing Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space by Cubicle 7.
The Doctor, Esther, Lim, Stephen and Knute will return in War and Peace(Haven).
The Doctor, Esther, Lim, Stephen and Knute will return in War and Peace(Haven).
Christopher J Jarvis, 15th October 2012
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