Prologue
Luz de Guía – about four hundred thousand light years from the nearest star system
“We’ve picked up something on B460,” said Zariyah, nearly breaking the frames of her glasses as she hurriedly pressed them onto her nose with her one free hand. Ali placed his hot caugovav on the Outer Trading pseudo-winter catalogue, rushing over to Zariyah’s desk, overwhelmed by the excitement of the first ship in what felt like months.
“Well?” Ali examined the screen, noticing on Zariyah’s desk that extra coaster he’d been looking for. Its edges were frayed from the many hot caugovavs, fizzy beverages and, just occasionally, glasses of Jaseringer champagne that had been inflicted on it for the past few years.
“I don’t know, I lost it the second after it flashed up.” Zariyah squinted – probably in need of some stronger lenses, though the nearest opticians were half a universe away – and tapped away at her keyboard, trying to pick up something. “The equipment’s working fine. No glitches. It must be a fault on their end…”
“Cloaking devices? Teleportation? This far out?” Ali frowned. “That would be a colossal drain on the engines, and what would be the point?”
“Speaking of drain on the engines, turn the receivers up nine.”
“But Deepika-“
“-will understand,” assured Zariyah. “But she needs her sleep. Just turn the receivers up now – just in case.”
Ali nodded, conceding that Zariyah was probably right.
“What sort of signal are we looking for?”
“Between ourselves?” Zariyah grinned honestly at Ali. “Not the slightest idea.”
“We’ve picked up something on B460,” said Zariyah, nearly breaking the frames of her glasses as she hurriedly pressed them onto her nose with her one free hand. Ali placed his hot caugovav on the Outer Trading pseudo-winter catalogue, rushing over to Zariyah’s desk, overwhelmed by the excitement of the first ship in what felt like months.
“Well?” Ali examined the screen, noticing on Zariyah’s desk that extra coaster he’d been looking for. Its edges were frayed from the many hot caugovavs, fizzy beverages and, just occasionally, glasses of Jaseringer champagne that had been inflicted on it for the past few years.
“I don’t know, I lost it the second after it flashed up.” Zariyah squinted – probably in need of some stronger lenses, though the nearest opticians were half a universe away – and tapped away at her keyboard, trying to pick up something. “The equipment’s working fine. No glitches. It must be a fault on their end…”
“Cloaking devices? Teleportation? This far out?” Ali frowned. “That would be a colossal drain on the engines, and what would be the point?”
“Speaking of drain on the engines, turn the receivers up nine.”
“But Deepika-“
“-will understand,” assured Zariyah. “But she needs her sleep. Just turn the receivers up now – just in case.”
Ali nodded, conceding that Zariyah was probably right.
“What sort of signal are we looking for?”
“Between ourselves?” Zariyah grinned honestly at Ali. “Not the slightest idea.”
It was a strange feeling – the presence of something new after becoming so acclimatised to one’s surroundings. There were never any new noises out here. It was always the same voices, the same selection of digital albums, the same receiver and transmitter beeps, the same footsteps on the same floor. These synths instruments were more alien to them than any passing ship. And then, they turned into something completely new and unexpected.
“Mum mum mum mah… um mum mum mah…”
Ali shivered. He had never heard anything like it before – and Deepika would certainly be awake by now. Strangely, that was a relief, akin to the waking of a mother to protect her child.
Zariyah stood up and walked forwards towards the window, deliberately putting herself in front of Ali.
“I wanna hold ‘em like they do in Texas, please.”
Ali’s eyes widened.
“Fold 'em, let 'em, hit me, raise it, baby, stay with me.”
“I think you should go and wake Deepika,” whispered Zariyah.
“I don’t think I’ll have to. This… thing, whatever it is, is transmitting across the entire lighthouse.”
As the verse finished, another female voice joined in. It was in tune, but still jarred oddly with the recording.
“Can’t read my, can’t read my, no he can’t read my, poker face-“
And another one, this one male: “Autumn, turn that racket off!”
The lighthouse then fell silent again. The receiver blipped, but Zariyah was too stunned to check it. Then, slowly, a new noise crept in. A wheezing, groaning sound, slow and mechanical. If a ship travelled at that speed, it would never make it between star systems. Yet here it was, coming from the air which now shimmered in front of them, blowing a breeze stronger than they had ever felt in their lives (the strongest being only the fiercest of air conditioning).
And a blue box.
“Mum mum mum mah… um mum mum mah…”
Ali shivered. He had never heard anything like it before – and Deepika would certainly be awake by now. Strangely, that was a relief, akin to the waking of a mother to protect her child.
Zariyah stood up and walked forwards towards the window, deliberately putting herself in front of Ali.
“I wanna hold ‘em like they do in Texas, please.”
Ali’s eyes widened.
“Fold 'em, let 'em, hit me, raise it, baby, stay with me.”
“I think you should go and wake Deepika,” whispered Zariyah.
“I don’t think I’ll have to. This… thing, whatever it is, is transmitting across the entire lighthouse.”
As the verse finished, another female voice joined in. It was in tune, but still jarred oddly with the recording.
“Can’t read my, can’t read my, no he can’t read my, poker face-“
And another one, this one male: “Autumn, turn that racket off!”
The lighthouse then fell silent again. The receiver blipped, but Zariyah was too stunned to check it. Then, slowly, a new noise crept in. A wheezing, groaning sound, slow and mechanical. If a ship travelled at that speed, it would never make it between star systems. Yet here it was, coming from the air which now shimmered in front of them, blowing a breeze stronger than they had ever felt in their lives (the strongest being only the fiercest of air conditioning).
And a blue box.
The Eighth Doctor Adventures
Series 2 - Episode 3
PASSING IN THE NIGHT
Written by Janine Rivers
“Tommy Lindsay, I give you space.”
The Doctor stepped out the box, beaming, as the two-man crew of the lighthouse stared on, open-mouthed.
“Whoa, what is this?” Tommy stepped out. After getting muddy back in Thrinacie, he had changed into a white print t-shirt and black hoodie. He had expected to shiver, noticing the brick walls, but this place, wherever it was, was perfectly heated. “No, hang on, let me.” He pulled a pen out of his pocket and dropped it on the floor. “Well the gravity’s normal, and brick walls, that’s probably unusual. So you said space but… maybe another planet? Somewhere in the future?”
“Good guess,” said the Doctor.
“But completely wrong.” Autumn stepped out the TARDIS, herself also in a dark hoodie, with a purple blouse underneath. The Doctor adjusted his jacket, feeling like the only to make an effort. He then remembered, of course, that Autumn still hadn’t been able to find the wardrobe in the reconfigured TARDIS. “We’re in space.”
“Really? How do you know?”
“Trust me…” Autumn scanned the room, ignoring the crew whose eyes followed her as she glided across it. “Years spent in solitary confinement. I know the feeling of orbit. Now look at this.” She pulled back the curtains to reveal a porthole. “Space. In the most literal sense of the word.”
Tommy followed her to the porthole. “It’s completely pitch-black. How far out are we?”
“Too far for this to be a spaceship. It’s not moving quickly enough; they’d spend their whole lives travelling.” Autumn looked back at the two crew members as if it was the first time she’d seen them. “And too far for it to be a space station, because what would be the point?”
The Doctor skimmed the pages of a heavy book. “Catch.” He threw it to Autumn who received it in a perfect catch.
“Catalogue.”
“Winter catalogue. Which tells us?”
Autumn considered. “Delivery, so we can’t be that far out. Except…” she ran through the pages just as the Doctor had, breathing in the scent of fresh paper. “Freshly-printed. They downloaded it and printed it. And it’s a traveller’s catalogue. They’re even further out than travellers. This isn’t just far out in space.”
The Doctor nodded: very good.
Autumn finished her analysis. “It’s the furthest out in space you can get.”
“Who the hell is this?”
A woman was stood at the door; tall, with dark hair, and in her early thirties. Her hair was a mess, and there was sleep-dust in her eyes. Just woken.
“We’ve…” started the male crew member.
“…barely spoken,” finished the Doctor. “I take it you’re in charge around here. Annoying things, lighthouses. Barely any visitors, so no name badges.”
“Lighthouse?” asked Tommy.
“Yes.” The Doctor turned to the woman. “Far out in space, the furthest reaches possible, leaving you dead central between star systems in case anyone chooses to wander. You send out a light, something to follow, like a star; you send out maps, digitally, and directions; and if necessary, if a ship does get this far, you take them in, am I right?”
The woman glared suspiciously. “A ship never gets this far.” Her expression softened, slightly. “But yes, you’re right. You were lost too?”
“No,” said the Doctor. “We were just going really quickly.”
“Deepika,” introduced the woman, gesturing to herself. “Captain Deepika, since this started off as an expedition. These are my other crew members.” She signalled to the man; small and with a warm and inviting countenance, polished teeth with a practised smile which could brighten anyone’s day. “Ali. And Zariyah.” On ‘Zariyah’, she moved her arm along slightly, indicating to the woman next to Ali, her hair tied back, a thin pair of glasses resting on her nose.
“My ship’s still repairing itself,” said the Doctor. “Do you mind if we stay for a drink? We won’t be long.”
“Certainly.” Deepika turned back the way she’d entered. “I’ll be in my room if you need me. You two,” she said as she walked off, presumably to Zariyah and Ali, “make them a drink or something.” A door slammed in the distance. The Doctor was taken aback.
“Nice boss, is she?”
“You have no idea how boring it gets out here.” Ali collected a couple of empty cups. “I’ll go and make drinks.”
“I’ll go with you,” declared Autumn, before anyone else could get the chance, and the two left together.
“You really need to talk quicker,” observed Tommy, noticing the Doctor’s frustration at always being the last to the mark.
“You know, no one’s ever told me that before.”
“This is all a bit surreal,” piped up Zariyah, the first thing she’d said since they arrived.
“I won’t be a minute.” The Doctor headed for the exit. “Just taking someone up on an offer…”
“Er, Doctor?” But by the time Tommy had called his name, the Doctor was gone. “Great.”
“Ali will be back with the drinks in a minute.” Zariyah sat down at her desk, pretending to watch something on the screen. She was feeling awkward already; patches of sweat were forming where she didn’t want them to. It had been a long time since a new social encounter. She looked for the words to welcome Tommy, without sounding like an idiot. She settled on two, but as she spoke them, they came out like some sort of military order. “Sit down.” She cursed herself.
***
“This way.”
Ali led Autumn up a winding metal staircase. There were portholes every few steps to stop the place feeling too claustrophobic, but when outside was complete darkness, that was only effective so far. Autumn realised the architectural configuration must be roughly the same as a sea-based lighthouse; tall, with the light shining from the top. But she had never seen one in space, not even when she made the long voyage from her home planet to Earth. Ali turned into a room; a kitchen, basic but kept immaculately clean. He put the kettle on and dumped the grains of something blue in the bottom of six cups.
“Six?”
“We leave one for Deepika. We never know whether she drinks it, but we don’t want to stop.”
“It sounds like you live in fear of your boss.”
“We don’t. We really don’t.”
Autumn sat on the worktop. Ali looked at her strangely, and Autumn immediately regretted it. Not something people do out here…
“So why did you come out here?” asked Autumn.
“Well, we wanted to save lives.”
“I mean, why specifically you? What made you want to do this job?”
“Like I said – to save lives. I felt like it was my duty. Do you know which empires you’re trapped between?”
“The Sixth Great and Bountiful Human Empire – and the Dalek Empire.” The words sent a shiver up Autumn’s spine. This was, she assured herself, thousands of years before her time. The Dalek Empire was smaller, weaker, and would be crushed and obliterated before the Dalek Space she knew. But far in the future, this region of space would be where the Dalek Parliament would sit – where the Doctor would, in a fury of Autumn’s own making, blow it up, and raise political tensions all across the universe.
Ali observed Autumn’s expression. “Now there’s someone who’s heard of the Daleks.”
“They kill you the second you cross over their boundary,” recalled Autumn. “So that’s why you came? To stop people crossing the line?”
Ali nodded. “Yes.” The kettle finished boiling, and he poured the drinks. Autumn watched the granules slowly vanish in the cup, and inhaled the fresh herbal scent. Ali seemed to barely notice. She wondered how many times he had been stood in this room, doing the same repetitive motion. Was he even living anymore? All that was left may have just been a set of responses.
***
The Doctor stepped out the box, beaming, as the two-man crew of the lighthouse stared on, open-mouthed.
“Whoa, what is this?” Tommy stepped out. After getting muddy back in Thrinacie, he had changed into a white print t-shirt and black hoodie. He had expected to shiver, noticing the brick walls, but this place, wherever it was, was perfectly heated. “No, hang on, let me.” He pulled a pen out of his pocket and dropped it on the floor. “Well the gravity’s normal, and brick walls, that’s probably unusual. So you said space but… maybe another planet? Somewhere in the future?”
“Good guess,” said the Doctor.
“But completely wrong.” Autumn stepped out the TARDIS, herself also in a dark hoodie, with a purple blouse underneath. The Doctor adjusted his jacket, feeling like the only to make an effort. He then remembered, of course, that Autumn still hadn’t been able to find the wardrobe in the reconfigured TARDIS. “We’re in space.”
“Really? How do you know?”
“Trust me…” Autumn scanned the room, ignoring the crew whose eyes followed her as she glided across it. “Years spent in solitary confinement. I know the feeling of orbit. Now look at this.” She pulled back the curtains to reveal a porthole. “Space. In the most literal sense of the word.”
Tommy followed her to the porthole. “It’s completely pitch-black. How far out are we?”
“Too far for this to be a spaceship. It’s not moving quickly enough; they’d spend their whole lives travelling.” Autumn looked back at the two crew members as if it was the first time she’d seen them. “And too far for it to be a space station, because what would be the point?”
The Doctor skimmed the pages of a heavy book. “Catch.” He threw it to Autumn who received it in a perfect catch.
“Catalogue.”
“Winter catalogue. Which tells us?”
Autumn considered. “Delivery, so we can’t be that far out. Except…” she ran through the pages just as the Doctor had, breathing in the scent of fresh paper. “Freshly-printed. They downloaded it and printed it. And it’s a traveller’s catalogue. They’re even further out than travellers. This isn’t just far out in space.”
The Doctor nodded: very good.
Autumn finished her analysis. “It’s the furthest out in space you can get.”
“Who the hell is this?”
A woman was stood at the door; tall, with dark hair, and in her early thirties. Her hair was a mess, and there was sleep-dust in her eyes. Just woken.
“We’ve…” started the male crew member.
“…barely spoken,” finished the Doctor. “I take it you’re in charge around here. Annoying things, lighthouses. Barely any visitors, so no name badges.”
“Lighthouse?” asked Tommy.
“Yes.” The Doctor turned to the woman. “Far out in space, the furthest reaches possible, leaving you dead central between star systems in case anyone chooses to wander. You send out a light, something to follow, like a star; you send out maps, digitally, and directions; and if necessary, if a ship does get this far, you take them in, am I right?”
The woman glared suspiciously. “A ship never gets this far.” Her expression softened, slightly. “But yes, you’re right. You were lost too?”
“No,” said the Doctor. “We were just going really quickly.”
“Deepika,” introduced the woman, gesturing to herself. “Captain Deepika, since this started off as an expedition. These are my other crew members.” She signalled to the man; small and with a warm and inviting countenance, polished teeth with a practised smile which could brighten anyone’s day. “Ali. And Zariyah.” On ‘Zariyah’, she moved her arm along slightly, indicating to the woman next to Ali, her hair tied back, a thin pair of glasses resting on her nose.
“My ship’s still repairing itself,” said the Doctor. “Do you mind if we stay for a drink? We won’t be long.”
“Certainly.” Deepika turned back the way she’d entered. “I’ll be in my room if you need me. You two,” she said as she walked off, presumably to Zariyah and Ali, “make them a drink or something.” A door slammed in the distance. The Doctor was taken aback.
“Nice boss, is she?”
“You have no idea how boring it gets out here.” Ali collected a couple of empty cups. “I’ll go and make drinks.”
“I’ll go with you,” declared Autumn, before anyone else could get the chance, and the two left together.
“You really need to talk quicker,” observed Tommy, noticing the Doctor’s frustration at always being the last to the mark.
“You know, no one’s ever told me that before.”
“This is all a bit surreal,” piped up Zariyah, the first thing she’d said since they arrived.
“I won’t be a minute.” The Doctor headed for the exit. “Just taking someone up on an offer…”
“Er, Doctor?” But by the time Tommy had called his name, the Doctor was gone. “Great.”
“Ali will be back with the drinks in a minute.” Zariyah sat down at her desk, pretending to watch something on the screen. She was feeling awkward already; patches of sweat were forming where she didn’t want them to. It had been a long time since a new social encounter. She looked for the words to welcome Tommy, without sounding like an idiot. She settled on two, but as she spoke them, they came out like some sort of military order. “Sit down.” She cursed herself.
***
“This way.”
Ali led Autumn up a winding metal staircase. There were portholes every few steps to stop the place feeling too claustrophobic, but when outside was complete darkness, that was only effective so far. Autumn realised the architectural configuration must be roughly the same as a sea-based lighthouse; tall, with the light shining from the top. But she had never seen one in space, not even when she made the long voyage from her home planet to Earth. Ali turned into a room; a kitchen, basic but kept immaculately clean. He put the kettle on and dumped the grains of something blue in the bottom of six cups.
“Six?”
“We leave one for Deepika. We never know whether she drinks it, but we don’t want to stop.”
“It sounds like you live in fear of your boss.”
“We don’t. We really don’t.”
Autumn sat on the worktop. Ali looked at her strangely, and Autumn immediately regretted it. Not something people do out here…
“So why did you come out here?” asked Autumn.
“Well, we wanted to save lives.”
“I mean, why specifically you? What made you want to do this job?”
“Like I said – to save lives. I felt like it was my duty. Do you know which empires you’re trapped between?”
“The Sixth Great and Bountiful Human Empire – and the Dalek Empire.” The words sent a shiver up Autumn’s spine. This was, she assured herself, thousands of years before her time. The Dalek Empire was smaller, weaker, and would be crushed and obliterated before the Dalek Space she knew. But far in the future, this region of space would be where the Dalek Parliament would sit – where the Doctor would, in a fury of Autumn’s own making, blow it up, and raise political tensions all across the universe.
Ali observed Autumn’s expression. “Now there’s someone who’s heard of the Daleks.”
“They kill you the second you cross over their boundary,” recalled Autumn. “So that’s why you came? To stop people crossing the line?”
Ali nodded. “Yes.” The kettle finished boiling, and he poured the drinks. Autumn watched the granules slowly vanish in the cup, and inhaled the fresh herbal scent. Ali seemed to barely notice. She wondered how many times he had been stood in this room, doing the same repetitive motion. Was he even living anymore? All that was left may have just been a set of responses.
***
Deepika sat on her bed, opening another pack of tissues. One had been exhausted: her tears seemed to make her sinuses worse, and she wondered if all anyone across the lighthouse could hear was her blowing her nose. She had become accustomed to crying silently, even to scheduling her outbursts. Never, she promised herself, in company.
“Bad time?”
She turned sharply to see the man stood at the door. The Doctor. She wondered how he had climbed the staircase so quietly, and how he had been able to find her room.
“I’m fine. What do you want?”
“To find out why you’re not fine.” The Doctor sat himself down next to her, which seemed to irk her. He tried to sound friendlier. “I’m going soon. You’ll never see me again. If you need to vent, I might be the last chance you get for a good few decades.”
Deepika avoided the Doctor, and looked at the mirror. Her hair was a mess. Her face was a mess. The man next to her was so perfectly-formed that he could have been a hologram.
“Why come all the way out here?” speculated the Doctor, and Deepika wondered if he was addressing her, or in fact himself. “Why isolate yourself like that?”
“I lost something.” Deepika corrected herself. “Someone.”
“Really?” the Doctor seemed surprised. “I can understand leaving home, but you lose someone and you run away. Half the galaxy if necessary. But you’re not running, you’re sitting still. Thinking about it.”
“My little girl,” said Deepika, as if the Doctor had never spoken. “Keli. Seven years old, she died in an accident. Stupid, pointless accident.” She spat the words. The Doctor sensed they had been spoken many times before. “I should have been there with her. I could have stopped it, or I could have just…”
“Don’t say it, Deepika.”
“I could have just died with her.” Deepika pulled a tissue out of the pack and wiped her eyes. The Doctor wasn’t quite sure what to say. He wished Robin Moon was here – she was always good at this, but he seemed to see less and less of her these days.
“You cut yourself off completely? Like a sort of… retreat?”
“Exactly. So if you came here to tell me to value my team members, sir, then don’t.”
“It’s the Doctor,” added the Doctor.
“Then, Doctor, don’t. I travelled with the two people I trust most in the world. It just happens that I can’t face talking to them.”
***
“So… er…”
Two minutes had passed. Tommy contemplated, in that time, whether he was an introvert or an extrovert. He had never really considered it – he enjoyed a party, or any social gathering; he always spoke openly, he never held back, and he never especially worried about speaking. But he was never the one to instigate conversation, just because someone else always did. He was never the one to break the silence, and even when he spoke, he was never the loudest. Is it possible to be somewhere in-between? He tried to cast his mind back to AS Level Psychology.
“Do you miss people out here?”
“Um…” Zariyah finished looking at the scanner, and turned to face Tommy, resting her hands on the side. She moved them a bit, feeling uncomfortable in any position, and favoured appearance over comfort each time. “Not really, I didn’t really have any friends. I don’t mean like that. I mean… I didn’t ever have any, I don’t tend to go out much. Didn’t. Obviously I don’t go out much here, because it’s space!” She laughed awkwardly. Tommy chuckled softly just to stop her feeling awkward. He noticed she had gone red.
“What made you want this job? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Well, I, uh, just liked the idea of working quite far out. I like to help people but I don’t really like to do it in front of them, if you know what I mean.”
“Yeah. I think so.” Tommy stood up and moved over to the window. There was nothing to look at, but it took the pressure off the poor woman for a minute. As he stared into the depths of space, he was startled by a scream, and turned to see Zariyah backed into the corner of the room.
“What is it?” Tommy rushed over. “What did you see?”
“I saw…” Zariyah stared at Tommy, too overcome with fear to even consider the weight of the social interaction. “I saw a ghost.”
***
“Did you see that too?”
“See what?” Deepika turned to the other side of the room, where the Doctor was now pacing about, scanning left, right and centre with his sonic screwdriver.
“Fast,” said the Doctor. “White-ish. Translucent. Humanoid, more or less. Long, dark mouth.”
“Are you seriously telling me that you saw a ghost?”
“No…” The Doctor crouched down and picked up a tea-light holder. He noticed it when he came in: glass, crafted methodically but with a small mistake on one of the curves. Probably picked up on a market. But it had been on the shelf. “They’re everything we think a ghost looks like because that’s the stories we’ve been brought up on. But they’re not ghosts.” The curve of a smile began to form. He couldn’t help enjoying himself. “Ghosts can’t damage the real world.”
***
“It’s okay.” Tommy sat Zariyah down and dashed into the TARDIS, grabbing the bottle of water he’d left on the side. He handed it to Zariyah and poked his head round the doorway to see if there was any sign of the Doctor yet. “Just drink some of that,” he said. “It’ll calm you. You’ve had a shock, that’s all.” Tommy looked at his watch. Slow, by what he knew of the Doctor. He would never articulate his panic in front of Zariyah, who already looked like she was going to go into meltdown. Where is he?
***
“We need to go.” The Doctor headed for the door.
“I’ll give you the candlelight thing,” said Deepika, following. She pushed her hair out of her eyes. “But ghosts, really? I don’t even know who you are. This could all be some social experiment.”
“Ah…” the Doctor laughed to himself.
“Something funny?”
“I was just thinking,” mused the Doctor. “All the alien invasions I’ve thwarted, all the mysteries I’ve solved, and none of them have ever been social experiments. Well, apart from that time Autumn decided to-“
***
“-dress up like a ghost just to scare us, but that’s not the sort of thing the Doctor does,” remarked Autumn, following Ali’s suggestion that the creature in front of them was a prank. “I don’t think I’ve ever had to fight an alien that turned out to be a prank. Well, apart from that time the Doctor thought it would be a good idea to-“
***
“-get back quickly, before anything else happens,” instructed the Doctor.
“Excuse me, I don’t take orders.”
“Then hold me at gunpoint and force me to advise you to get back quickly, before anything else happens.”
Deepika cracked a smile.
“Now, seriously,” advised the Doctor. “I’ve done this before. On no condition whatsoever-“
***
“-cross the room slowly and move past the creature.” Autumn stood back to see what would happen, still unsure how it would react to Ali’s presence. It was strange to watch: it shimmered in front of them, but the shimmer could have been either the flicker of a faerie or the glitch of a hologram. Equally, whilst they perceived it as having a humanoid shape, the arms or legs could just have been a reflection of the light, or a natural extension which could move inwards and outwards any second. They sensed it was transient, and with the capacity to change; any identity they put to it could be tossed aside in a second.
Ali passed the creature, feeling it move at the same rate as him; slowly, turning what they perceived to be a head – the lightest and highest part of the shape – in his direction, but not moving. He found himself enjoying this as if it were a drug, but anything that staved off boredom they hailed as a medicine, a cure to the one sickness that plagued them every day. Now on the other side, Ali gestured for Autumn to follow and she did, creeping gracefully past it. They bolted down the stairs, back towards the main control area.
***
“A ghost!” Autumn cried, bumping into the Doctor on the way into the room. “Like, an actual ghost!”
“I know!” The Doctor beamed excitedly and as he entered the room, Tommy stood up, preparing to deliver ostensibly unexpected news.
“We saw this thing, it was like-“
“-a ghost?”
“Yes, and… wait. You saw it too, didn’t you?”
The others nodded.
“Potential explanations. Go.” The Doctor pointed at each person in order.
“Er... a hologram,” said Zariyah.
“Some sort of transmission,” said Tommy.
“A creature without a form,” said Autumn, unnerving everyone in the room.
“Something from the Daleks,” said Ali, disconcerting the Doctor.
“A ghost,” said Deepika.
“Solutions,” continued the Doctor. “Go.”
“Turn off all our systems,” said Zariyah.”
“Block all transmissions,” said Tommy.
“Study it,” said Autumn.
“Get out,” said Ali, and his crew members nodded, conceding his point.
“Kill it,” uttered Deepika. The room fell silent.
“It can’t be an attempt to communicate.” The Doctor leant back on the TARDIS. “She’d translate anything and besides, anything reaching this base is deliberate. For a transmission to reach here it would have to aimed towards here. So we’re not meant to understand it. So it’s meant to scare us.” Ironically, it was the Doctor who was scaring most people at that precise moment. “Speaking of which.” The Doctor glanced to the Doctor, and the rest of the crew followed suit. The creature was stood there again, staring vacantly at them.
A vacant stare could mean two things. It could mean no plan at all – a dreamy state in which it may as well have been another object in the room, not even comprehending the existence of others. Or it could mean a plan it already knew – a plan it never had to think about or question. Kill.
“Autumn,” started the Doctor. “I trust you to have got the time it arrived?”
“Three-forty five,” said Autumn. “And twenty seconds.”
“Same for me.” Tommy raised his eyebrows. “We’ve put ourselves in sync,” murmured the Doctor. “It means it appeared at the same time. So unless it can travel in time, which seems unlikely…”
The creature drifted slowly into the room, and everyone took a step back. Moving away from the doorway, it revealed something else, behind it. Something confirming everyone’s worst fear.
“…there must be more than one of them.”
Ali gasped and searched the room for something he could use to attack, but realised it would probably pass straight through them.
“They’re here to kill us,” panted Deepika. “They’re going to kill us.”
Tommy, at the edge of the room, had noticed that Zariyah was still sat down, working at the controls.
“What are you doing?” he whispered.
“Something Deepika will make me pay for later.” She continued to type away.
The Doctor weighed up his options. The TARDIS was still recovering from the last two trips, and wouldn’t be able to fly. If he led them into the TARDIS and the creatures followed, they wouldn’t just have them; they would have the most advanced ship in the universe – not something he was prepared to surrender quite yet.
“I’m sorry I let you die,” breathed Deepika, choosing her last words perfectly. “I’m sorry I couldn’t accompany you through that journey. I’m sorry I abandoned you. I’m so sorry…”
“You didn’t abandon her,” said Ali, speaking to his boss for the first time as a human being, not a weapon to be feared. “You’ve never been closer than you are right now.” He held out his hand.
“I don’t love you, Ali.”
“You don’t have to love someone to hold their hand.”
Deepika took Ali’s hand and they stood together, backs straight, facing death as they never thought they would: in company.
And as they did, the shape in front of them blurred, and left the room like a wisp of smoke.
“Was that…” Ali stammered. “Was that us?”
“No.” Zariyah stood up at her station, proudly, but not casually; her voice shook with every new syllable. “It was me. I refreshed all our transmissions. Cancelled all our signals.”
“You mean…” Deepika raised her voice. “We’re not transmitting anything?”
“Those creatures were like ships,” explained Zariyah. “Except they liked the darkness out there – both signals use transmissions, and somehow they’re, I don’t know, vulnerable to them. They’d got caught up in them. They weren’t attacking us – they were scared.” She smiled. “We let them pass on. We set them free.”
“You set them free,” correct Tommy.
“Yes,” acknowledged Zariyah. “Yes I did.”
***
“Are you sure we can’t encourage you to stay?” asked Deepika as the Doctor prepared to step back into his ship.
“Are you sure I can’t encourage you to leave?” responded the Doctor.
Deepika smiled. “I’ve only just got started. I’ve been out here years but I only joined this team today. It’s time to move on. We all belong here.”
“You look after yourself,” said Tommy, embracing Zariyah in a hug. “Don’t get too lonely.”
“It’s okay. Lonely really isn’t as bad as it sounds. With severe social anxiety there’s nothing like a bit of alone time.”
“I’m sure there isn’t. But don’t let any of them boss you around.” Jestingly, Tommy made ‘I’m watching you’ signs at the other two members of the crew.
“Right you lot. If I can’t make you come with me, then do me proud.” The Doctor smiled. “I know you will. Helping lost ships, passing in the night… you’ve done it already.” He glanced at Deepika. “You just don’t realise.”
“Where are you off to now?” asked Ali.
“Oh, you know.” Autumn opened the door of the TARDIS, and the others looked in in awe. “A world without Daleks.”
The Doctor got the uneasy feeling she was wrong.
***
“Bad time?”
She turned sharply to see the man stood at the door. The Doctor. She wondered how he had climbed the staircase so quietly, and how he had been able to find her room.
“I’m fine. What do you want?”
“To find out why you’re not fine.” The Doctor sat himself down next to her, which seemed to irk her. He tried to sound friendlier. “I’m going soon. You’ll never see me again. If you need to vent, I might be the last chance you get for a good few decades.”
Deepika avoided the Doctor, and looked at the mirror. Her hair was a mess. Her face was a mess. The man next to her was so perfectly-formed that he could have been a hologram.
“Why come all the way out here?” speculated the Doctor, and Deepika wondered if he was addressing her, or in fact himself. “Why isolate yourself like that?”
“I lost something.” Deepika corrected herself. “Someone.”
“Really?” the Doctor seemed surprised. “I can understand leaving home, but you lose someone and you run away. Half the galaxy if necessary. But you’re not running, you’re sitting still. Thinking about it.”
“My little girl,” said Deepika, as if the Doctor had never spoken. “Keli. Seven years old, she died in an accident. Stupid, pointless accident.” She spat the words. The Doctor sensed they had been spoken many times before. “I should have been there with her. I could have stopped it, or I could have just…”
“Don’t say it, Deepika.”
“I could have just died with her.” Deepika pulled a tissue out of the pack and wiped her eyes. The Doctor wasn’t quite sure what to say. He wished Robin Moon was here – she was always good at this, but he seemed to see less and less of her these days.
“You cut yourself off completely? Like a sort of… retreat?”
“Exactly. So if you came here to tell me to value my team members, sir, then don’t.”
“It’s the Doctor,” added the Doctor.
“Then, Doctor, don’t. I travelled with the two people I trust most in the world. It just happens that I can’t face talking to them.”
***
“So… er…”
Two minutes had passed. Tommy contemplated, in that time, whether he was an introvert or an extrovert. He had never really considered it – he enjoyed a party, or any social gathering; he always spoke openly, he never held back, and he never especially worried about speaking. But he was never the one to instigate conversation, just because someone else always did. He was never the one to break the silence, and even when he spoke, he was never the loudest. Is it possible to be somewhere in-between? He tried to cast his mind back to AS Level Psychology.
“Do you miss people out here?”
“Um…” Zariyah finished looking at the scanner, and turned to face Tommy, resting her hands on the side. She moved them a bit, feeling uncomfortable in any position, and favoured appearance over comfort each time. “Not really, I didn’t really have any friends. I don’t mean like that. I mean… I didn’t ever have any, I don’t tend to go out much. Didn’t. Obviously I don’t go out much here, because it’s space!” She laughed awkwardly. Tommy chuckled softly just to stop her feeling awkward. He noticed she had gone red.
“What made you want this job? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“Well, I, uh, just liked the idea of working quite far out. I like to help people but I don’t really like to do it in front of them, if you know what I mean.”
“Yeah. I think so.” Tommy stood up and moved over to the window. There was nothing to look at, but it took the pressure off the poor woman for a minute. As he stared into the depths of space, he was startled by a scream, and turned to see Zariyah backed into the corner of the room.
“What is it?” Tommy rushed over. “What did you see?”
“I saw…” Zariyah stared at Tommy, too overcome with fear to even consider the weight of the social interaction. “I saw a ghost.”
***
“Did you see that too?”
“See what?” Deepika turned to the other side of the room, where the Doctor was now pacing about, scanning left, right and centre with his sonic screwdriver.
“Fast,” said the Doctor. “White-ish. Translucent. Humanoid, more or less. Long, dark mouth.”
“Are you seriously telling me that you saw a ghost?”
“No…” The Doctor crouched down and picked up a tea-light holder. He noticed it when he came in: glass, crafted methodically but with a small mistake on one of the curves. Probably picked up on a market. But it had been on the shelf. “They’re everything we think a ghost looks like because that’s the stories we’ve been brought up on. But they’re not ghosts.” The curve of a smile began to form. He couldn’t help enjoying himself. “Ghosts can’t damage the real world.”
***
“It’s okay.” Tommy sat Zariyah down and dashed into the TARDIS, grabbing the bottle of water he’d left on the side. He handed it to Zariyah and poked his head round the doorway to see if there was any sign of the Doctor yet. “Just drink some of that,” he said. “It’ll calm you. You’ve had a shock, that’s all.” Tommy looked at his watch. Slow, by what he knew of the Doctor. He would never articulate his panic in front of Zariyah, who already looked like she was going to go into meltdown. Where is he?
***
“We need to go.” The Doctor headed for the door.
“I’ll give you the candlelight thing,” said Deepika, following. She pushed her hair out of her eyes. “But ghosts, really? I don’t even know who you are. This could all be some social experiment.”
“Ah…” the Doctor laughed to himself.
“Something funny?”
“I was just thinking,” mused the Doctor. “All the alien invasions I’ve thwarted, all the mysteries I’ve solved, and none of them have ever been social experiments. Well, apart from that time Autumn decided to-“
***
“-dress up like a ghost just to scare us, but that’s not the sort of thing the Doctor does,” remarked Autumn, following Ali’s suggestion that the creature in front of them was a prank. “I don’t think I’ve ever had to fight an alien that turned out to be a prank. Well, apart from that time the Doctor thought it would be a good idea to-“
***
“-get back quickly, before anything else happens,” instructed the Doctor.
“Excuse me, I don’t take orders.”
“Then hold me at gunpoint and force me to advise you to get back quickly, before anything else happens.”
Deepika cracked a smile.
“Now, seriously,” advised the Doctor. “I’ve done this before. On no condition whatsoever-“
***
“-cross the room slowly and move past the creature.” Autumn stood back to see what would happen, still unsure how it would react to Ali’s presence. It was strange to watch: it shimmered in front of them, but the shimmer could have been either the flicker of a faerie or the glitch of a hologram. Equally, whilst they perceived it as having a humanoid shape, the arms or legs could just have been a reflection of the light, or a natural extension which could move inwards and outwards any second. They sensed it was transient, and with the capacity to change; any identity they put to it could be tossed aside in a second.
Ali passed the creature, feeling it move at the same rate as him; slowly, turning what they perceived to be a head – the lightest and highest part of the shape – in his direction, but not moving. He found himself enjoying this as if it were a drug, but anything that staved off boredom they hailed as a medicine, a cure to the one sickness that plagued them every day. Now on the other side, Ali gestured for Autumn to follow and she did, creeping gracefully past it. They bolted down the stairs, back towards the main control area.
***
“A ghost!” Autumn cried, bumping into the Doctor on the way into the room. “Like, an actual ghost!”
“I know!” The Doctor beamed excitedly and as he entered the room, Tommy stood up, preparing to deliver ostensibly unexpected news.
“We saw this thing, it was like-“
“-a ghost?”
“Yes, and… wait. You saw it too, didn’t you?”
The others nodded.
“Potential explanations. Go.” The Doctor pointed at each person in order.
“Er... a hologram,” said Zariyah.
“Some sort of transmission,” said Tommy.
“A creature without a form,” said Autumn, unnerving everyone in the room.
“Something from the Daleks,” said Ali, disconcerting the Doctor.
“A ghost,” said Deepika.
“Solutions,” continued the Doctor. “Go.”
“Turn off all our systems,” said Zariyah.”
“Block all transmissions,” said Tommy.
“Study it,” said Autumn.
“Get out,” said Ali, and his crew members nodded, conceding his point.
“Kill it,” uttered Deepika. The room fell silent.
“It can’t be an attempt to communicate.” The Doctor leant back on the TARDIS. “She’d translate anything and besides, anything reaching this base is deliberate. For a transmission to reach here it would have to aimed towards here. So we’re not meant to understand it. So it’s meant to scare us.” Ironically, it was the Doctor who was scaring most people at that precise moment. “Speaking of which.” The Doctor glanced to the Doctor, and the rest of the crew followed suit. The creature was stood there again, staring vacantly at them.
A vacant stare could mean two things. It could mean no plan at all – a dreamy state in which it may as well have been another object in the room, not even comprehending the existence of others. Or it could mean a plan it already knew – a plan it never had to think about or question. Kill.
“Autumn,” started the Doctor. “I trust you to have got the time it arrived?”
“Three-forty five,” said Autumn. “And twenty seconds.”
“Same for me.” Tommy raised his eyebrows. “We’ve put ourselves in sync,” murmured the Doctor. “It means it appeared at the same time. So unless it can travel in time, which seems unlikely…”
The creature drifted slowly into the room, and everyone took a step back. Moving away from the doorway, it revealed something else, behind it. Something confirming everyone’s worst fear.
“…there must be more than one of them.”
Ali gasped and searched the room for something he could use to attack, but realised it would probably pass straight through them.
“They’re here to kill us,” panted Deepika. “They’re going to kill us.”
Tommy, at the edge of the room, had noticed that Zariyah was still sat down, working at the controls.
“What are you doing?” he whispered.
“Something Deepika will make me pay for later.” She continued to type away.
The Doctor weighed up his options. The TARDIS was still recovering from the last two trips, and wouldn’t be able to fly. If he led them into the TARDIS and the creatures followed, they wouldn’t just have them; they would have the most advanced ship in the universe – not something he was prepared to surrender quite yet.
“I’m sorry I let you die,” breathed Deepika, choosing her last words perfectly. “I’m sorry I couldn’t accompany you through that journey. I’m sorry I abandoned you. I’m so sorry…”
“You didn’t abandon her,” said Ali, speaking to his boss for the first time as a human being, not a weapon to be feared. “You’ve never been closer than you are right now.” He held out his hand.
“I don’t love you, Ali.”
“You don’t have to love someone to hold their hand.”
Deepika took Ali’s hand and they stood together, backs straight, facing death as they never thought they would: in company.
And as they did, the shape in front of them blurred, and left the room like a wisp of smoke.
“Was that…” Ali stammered. “Was that us?”
“No.” Zariyah stood up at her station, proudly, but not casually; her voice shook with every new syllable. “It was me. I refreshed all our transmissions. Cancelled all our signals.”
“You mean…” Deepika raised her voice. “We’re not transmitting anything?”
“Those creatures were like ships,” explained Zariyah. “Except they liked the darkness out there – both signals use transmissions, and somehow they’re, I don’t know, vulnerable to them. They’d got caught up in them. They weren’t attacking us – they were scared.” She smiled. “We let them pass on. We set them free.”
“You set them free,” correct Tommy.
“Yes,” acknowledged Zariyah. “Yes I did.”
***
“Are you sure we can’t encourage you to stay?” asked Deepika as the Doctor prepared to step back into his ship.
“Are you sure I can’t encourage you to leave?” responded the Doctor.
Deepika smiled. “I’ve only just got started. I’ve been out here years but I only joined this team today. It’s time to move on. We all belong here.”
“You look after yourself,” said Tommy, embracing Zariyah in a hug. “Don’t get too lonely.”
“It’s okay. Lonely really isn’t as bad as it sounds. With severe social anxiety there’s nothing like a bit of alone time.”
“I’m sure there isn’t. But don’t let any of them boss you around.” Jestingly, Tommy made ‘I’m watching you’ signs at the other two members of the crew.
“Right you lot. If I can’t make you come with me, then do me proud.” The Doctor smiled. “I know you will. Helping lost ships, passing in the night… you’ve done it already.” He glanced at Deepika. “You just don’t realise.”
“Where are you off to now?” asked Ali.
“Oh, you know.” Autumn opened the door of the TARDIS, and the others looked in in awe. “A world without Daleks.”
The Doctor got the uneasy feeling she was wrong.
***
TARDIS Console Room
“What are you doing?” inquired Autumn.
The Doctor was stood around the console unit, concentrating on something, while Tommy took over Autumn’s job searching for the wardrobe. Lady Gaga sounded throughout the ship once again. The next destination, the Doctor had said, would be home: Tommy had family to see, and the Doctor, as he had described enigmatically, had a dinner party to go to.
“I’m just testing out the coding system they used in the base. Zariyah gave it to me.”
“On the code I gave you?”
The Doctor nodded. “Nothing. I’ve tried everything I know. Every recognised kind of code in the universe. It doesn’t match up to anything. The instructions contain self-contradictions. Any reasonable programmer would re-write it, but it won’t let you change a line. Everything simply refuses to run it. I’ve never seen anything like it…”
“Inexplicable,” remarked Autumn. “Impossible. Yet at once, perfect and unchangeable within its own rules.” The Doctor looked puzzled. “You have seen something like this before, Doctor,” Autumn clarified. “A perfect circle.”
“What are you doing?” inquired Autumn.
The Doctor was stood around the console unit, concentrating on something, while Tommy took over Autumn’s job searching for the wardrobe. Lady Gaga sounded throughout the ship once again. The next destination, the Doctor had said, would be home: Tommy had family to see, and the Doctor, as he had described enigmatically, had a dinner party to go to.
“I’m just testing out the coding system they used in the base. Zariyah gave it to me.”
“On the code I gave you?”
The Doctor nodded. “Nothing. I’ve tried everything I know. Every recognised kind of code in the universe. It doesn’t match up to anything. The instructions contain self-contradictions. Any reasonable programmer would re-write it, but it won’t let you change a line. Everything simply refuses to run it. I’ve never seen anything like it…”
“Inexplicable,” remarked Autumn. “Impossible. Yet at once, perfect and unchangeable within its own rules.” The Doctor looked puzzled. “You have seen something like this before, Doctor,” Autumn clarified. “A perfect circle.”
|
|
NEXT TIMEA Shop For Limbs
Back on Earth, the TARDIS trio each face their own challenges. Tommy, after catching up on what he missed, soon finds himself in a strange, even haunted Bed & Breakfast. Autumn is forced to undertake a horrific task which will stay with her for a long time. And, deadliest of all, the Doctor has a dinner party to go to... Episode List: 1. The Magic Box 2. Dinner With Nobody 3. Passing in the Night 4. A Shop For Limbs 5. Material Values 6. The Cloud Beneath The Sea 7. Wish You Were Here 8. A Castle Deep in the Woods 9. In Slumber Repose 10. A Perfect Circle 11. Under Ice 12. Waking the Witch 13. The Morning Fog |