THE NINTH DOCTOR ADVENTURES
KRAKATOA
WRITTEN BY AUDREY ARMSTRON G
Thick, billowing clouds of black smoke rose from the mountainside, dotted here and there with the tiny orange spark of an ember. The sky, though it was a clear day, was almost impossible to see - the smoke from the volcano had simply overpowered it. In some places, it was so thick it had blotted out all sunlight.
Of all the days in all of time and space to arrive on, of course it had to be the day that Krakatoa exploded.
Not that it was the Doctor’s fault, particularly; the “TARDIS” or whatever it was, had been out of control. The bombs had been falling on No Man’s Land as they tried to escape, and one had hit the TARDIS in the midst of materialisation.
Which, according to the Doctor, was a very bad thing that the TARDIS didn’t like. Why, exactly, the TARDIS didn’t like it, or why the Doctor seemed to speak of his ship as if it were alive, Hannah didn’t know, but it was obviously pretty serious, going by the fact Hannah had to crouch against the interior, roundel-patterned wall as the entire rest of the console room disintegrated into flames.
The Doctor was running around the controls like a maniac, desperately trying to steer the thing. A difficult endeavour, when half the console was on fire.
“Don’t worry!” he had shouted over the noise, “If I can just…”
He adjusted a lever, which required some strength, and the TARDIS began to calm down, the grinding noise faded and stopped with a jolt.
Hannah pulled herself up, dusting her coat and shoving a piece of broken wall.
“Is travelling in the TARDIS always this...explosive?”
“Not quite on this level, no…” said the Doctor, surveying the wreckage.
****
Aside from the gigantic clouds of smoke (an admittedly very obvious blight) the scenery was quite pretty. The island was lush with vegetation and animal life. Hannah stood beside the TARDIS, perched on the beach, standing before the jungle ahead of her.
But beautiful as it may have been, there was an ominous sense of doom lingering in the air. In a few short hours, all this would be gone. The island would sink into the sea, blown to bits by the force of Krakatoa’s eruption.
And here Hannah was, apparently about to witness it all happen. Not the sort of place she’d have chosen for her first time travel destination.
The Doctor was walking along the beach, looking out to sea.
“Nothing,” he muttered, “no ships. They’re all staying well back from the volcano!”
“Are we stuck then?” asked Hannah.
The Doctor noted a hint of fear in her voice. He turned, looking at her with a reassuring grin.
“The TARDIS can repair itself,” he said. “In fact, it’s probably doing that right now!”
The Doctor strode up the to the door and attempted to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. He smiled weakly.
“There we go, see? It won’t let me in. It’s already started the process of self-regeneration.”
He continued to beam wildly at Hannah, who maintained her look of doubt and concern.
“It might take a while,” said the Doctor, his grin faltering a little, “but we should be fine!”
Hannah didn’t respond, still very clearly unsure. Her gaze fell from the Doctor’s, and she turned to stare solemnly at the ground. The Doctor’s expression went grim. He leaned against the TARDIS and buried his face in his hands.
“I shouldn't have survived…” he muttered.
“Survived what?” asked Hannah, looking up.
The Doctor turned away. “Doesn’t matter.”
“We are stuck here, about to be killed by a volcano,” said Hannah sternly, hands placed firmly on her hips. “Whatever you say won’t even matter in the long run. Tell me. What shouldn't you have survived?”
The Doctor didn’t immediately answer. He stared up at the dark clouds of smoke coming from Krakatoa, lost in thought.
He closed his eyes, and the memories came back. Millions of deaths, unspeakable violence, and no survivors. All except him.
He opened his eyes again. It was Hannah’s turn to give him a reassuring glance, as she moved to his side.
“I fought,” said the Doctor simply.
“Fought where?” Hannah asked curiously. “A war?”
“Yes.”
“Which one?” she continued. “Is it one that I know of?”
The Doctor looked at her warily. “Does it matter? It's over now.”
“Of course it matters, if you're talking like that!” Hannah gasped. She was a nurse, it was her calling to try to understand and help people.
“No, it really doesn't.”
“Doctor…”
“I said no,” he snapped. “Do you understand that?”
Hannah’s mouth opened slightly in barely-concealed surprise. He looked furious, but she noticed that the anger wasn't directed at her. She didn't know if that comforted her, or made her feel patronised and ignored.
The Doctor looked away, his eyes downcast. Hannah gently sidled to his side, took his hand and grasped it tightly. He recoiled slightly at her touch, but did not let go.
“It’s funny really,” she said, “You don’t seem that much of a soldier to me, even in the short time we’ve known each other…”
“Oh, it wasn’t this face that fought,” the Doctor interjected, “But I don’t expect you to understand all that.”
“Well, I’m glad of that,” chuckled Hannah, “Because I think that’s the most confusing thing you’ve said so far, which is saying something.”
The Doctor chuckled too. “Yep! That’s me. I’m always confusing.”
Hannah laughed. “What’s the matter with me?” she asked rhetorically, “I’m stranded on a volcanic island about to erupt. I should be terrified, not laughing!”
“I think I tend to have that effect on people,” smiled the Doctor sheepishly.
“You really do.” Hannah moved her gaze from the Doctor to the volcano, which had increased the intensity of its eruption. The whole island seemed to shift beneath their feet as the mountain rumbled.
“I’d say it’s about five thirty in the afternoon, wouldn’t you?” asked the Doctor.
“I suppose.”
“We have twelve hours until the worst of the eruption.” The Doctor turned back to the TARDIS, trying the door to no avail. “If I remember correctly, Krakatoa first explodes at five thirty in the morning.”
“Will the TARDIS be fixed by then?” asked Hannah
The Doctor sighed. “Possibly,” he said, “It’s always repairing itself. The process can take anywhere from a couple seconds to...months, even. And this time the damage was pretty bad.”
He let this thought hang in the air, placing his hand gently to the police box door. He seemed to be listening to the vibrations.
“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” assured Hannah.
The island gave another uneasy rumble.
“I hope.”
****
“The climate’s really quite nice,” said Hannah, “I mean, aside from the volcano, of course…”
Hannah’s words echoed around the dark room. Barely anything inside could be seen, save for a couple strange-looking buttons and switches, lit with an eerie orange light, and a giant, bright screen (which despite the brightness, didn’t do much to light the room itself).
The image of Hannah Gray, slightly distorted and grainy, moved across the screen. A dark hand emerged from the blackness, twisting a dial.
The image moved. Now the screen showed the Doctor, who was following Hannah along the beach. The hand twisted another dial, zooming in.
The hand - or rather, the creature it belonged to - hissed.
“How is this possible!” it growled.
The creature turned another dial, moving the camera further. Now the screen showed the TARDIS. The creature zoomed the image in on it.
“Of course…” it said.
The hiss became something of a cackle.
****
“What are you doing?” asked the Doctor.
Hannah had perched herself on a rock, a piece of paper and a pencil in her hand.
“Drawing,” she said.
“Where did you get the paper?”
“From my coat.” Hannah showed the Doctor her jacket, which she had taken off and placed on the rock. “I always had some spare paper in it. I like drawing. It’s usually a bit crumpled, but it works.”
The Doctor made a noncommittal noise.
“How’s the TARDIS?” asked Hannah.
As if to punctuate the moment, Krakatoa rumbled again.
“Still fixing itself,” said the Doctor, “It won’t let me in yet.”
“I’m sure it will be fine,” said Hannah. She herself was struggling to maintain her own optimism. She thought of home, and wondered what her father was up to now - relatively speaking. Here, in 1883, she wouldn’t be born for another three years.
Hannah turned her attention back to her haphazard drawing of the Doctor. “What do you think?” she asked, passing him the paper.
The Doctor looked at it with confusion, feeling his ears and nose. “Is that really what I look like?” he said with distaste.
“More or less,” said Hannah., “I think I might add some of those trees over there…”
The Doctor walked away, back along the beach and towards the TARDIS. Hannah sighed, and merely resumed her drawing.
Krakatoa rumbled again, spewing more smoke and ashes. It made a change from the constant noise of war she usually had back in her time. Not a significant change, but a welcome one nonetheless.
She peered over at the Doctor, who was leaning against his TARDIS, staring blankly up into the smoke clouds. Hannah had to feel sorry for him, really. She knew the pain war inflicted on people, and she could see that pain every time she looked in his eyes.
The Doctor was not a soldier, but it was clear he was a man of war all the same. That alone told Hannah one thing - he could never, should never, be alone. He needed someone to help him.
Just then, behind her, Hannah thought she heard a faint hiss. She swung around.
A large, charred creature was crawling up the rock, reaching towards her with a blackened, burnt hand.
Hannah screamed.
****
“Hannah?”
The Doctor’s attention was brought back to reality, as Hannah’s scream echoed along the beach. He looked hopelessly around, running to the rock where she had been sitting, but she was nowhere to be found.
“Hannah!” called the Doctor in desperation. No answer.
The Doctor looked again at the rock. Perched on it, blowing slightly in the wind, was the drawing she’d made of him.
He glanced at it, picked it up, and quickly stuffed it in his pocket. He called her name one more time, a little louder, but there was still no answer.
“I should never have taken her,” said the Doctor to himself, “I should have left her back in 1915.”
He turned and, taking one glance back at the TARDIS, ran off into the undergrowth.
****
The creature had stifled Hannah’s scream, placing its hot, burnt hand over her mouth as it dragged her away. Hannah didn’t know where they were going, but briefly registered being pulled down below the surface.
Were they going into the volcano itself? Hannah couldn’t tell, but the temperatures were rising as they travelled down endless, stuffy corridors. The heat from the creature itself made Hannah feel drowsy. She was barely aware of anything going on, just that she was being led further and further down into something.
The creature suddenly stopped, approaching the wall beside them. A long, slender finger stroked the length of the rock. The wall slid away, and the creature shoved Hannah into the room.
She collapsed on the floor, exhausted. When she looked up, the wall was back in place. Whatever those creatures were, they had imprisoned her.
“Hello,” said a voice. “Who are you?”
Hannah looked up. Her vision was still a little fuzzy, but she could make out the shape of a person standing a little ways away. The voice sounded female.
“Hannah. I’m Hannah,” she said with some effort.
The woman’s hand extended outwards to help her up. Hannah gladly took it, pulling herself up. The woman led her to some kind of seat, and Hannah collapsed into it.
“The heat…” she muttered. “It’s unbearable…”
“I know,” said the woman, “It’s these creatures. They seem to thrive in it, especially so close to the volcano. I’m Adrianna by the way.”
Hannah shifted, trying to sit up. Adrianna was looking at her with some concern. She looked about Hannah’s age, with short, light brown hair, and wide blue eyes that looked at Hannah warmly.
Adrianna smiled. Hannah felt at ease.
“Why are you here?” asked Hannah. “And what is this place?”
“I don’t know,” said Adrianna, “It seems to be the heart of the volcano. All the walls and surfaces are solid rock. But if we’re in the volcano, it should all be melted - and we wouldn’t be able to survive.”
“Some sort of spaceship, then?” pondered Hannah.
“Spaceship?”
“For those creatures. They can’t be from Earth surely?”
Adrianna laughed. Hannah noted that she thought it was a rather pretty laugh.
“You’re not seriously suggesting they’re aliens?” giggled Adrianna.
“Well…” Hannah paused. “No, that’s silly,” she said meekly, “But - why are you here?”
“Oh, that’s easier,” said Adrianna, straightening up, “I don’t know what these creatures are doing, but they’re doing something very important - and we’re their slave labour.”
“We?”
“There’s a good dozen of us imprisoned here. We’re just kept in these cells -” She waved her hands around at the small cell - “and made to do whatever the creatures tell us to do, whenever they want.”
Hannah was horrified.
“Whenever they want? Even the middle of the night?”
“Especially then,” said Adrianna, “They seem to delight in making our lives miserable…”
“But,” Hannah was confused. “Why? What are they doing that requires slave labour?”
“I don’t know,” said Adrianna. “Mostly we’re just forced to haul large stones. I don’t know why. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t even a reason, to be honest - perhaps they just love torturing us.”
Hannah sat in silent reflection for a moment, her head bursting with questions.
“How long have you been here, then?” she said.
“That’s the thing,” sighed Adrianna, “I don’t know. It feels like it’s been forever.” She sat down beside Hannah, and continued.
“I can’t even remember how I got here either,” she said. “One day, I was at home in London, and the next I was here. Lying face down in some rock. And then those creatures came and put me in here.”
“There’s no escape,” Adrianna continued, “People have tried, but they’re always caught and returned. We just have to accept it.”
Hannah scoffed. “You can’t just let them torture you like that.”
Adrianna shrugged. “But what else could we do?”
“Fight,” said Hannah. “Stand up to them.”
“What’s the use? If we did that, we’d be killed, and believe me it’s happened. I used to have the same opinion as you, Hannah, but these creatures are stronger than us. It’s no use.”
Hannah slumped in her chair, sighing. “Well, you won’t have to be tortured by them for much longer.”
Adrianna looked curiously at Hannah. “Why’s that?”
“The volcano,” said Hannah sadly, “It’s erupting.”
The ground began to rumble on cue. Adrianna shot Hannah a worried glance.
“We have to get out somehow,” said Hannah urgently, “I have a friend, he can get us out of here...”
Just then, she remembered the Doctor.
“Oh no!”
“What?” Adrianna asked.
“The Doctor! I forgot about the Doctor!” Hannah hurried to the cell door.
“Who’s the Doctor?” exclaimed Adrianna. Hannah urgently tried to open the door, but it was no use. Of course, she thought. They’d have locked it somehow. These creatures wouldn’t be that thick.
“He’s my friend,” said Hannah, turning back to her cellmate. “He has a...machine, of sorts, it can get us off the island.”
“Like, a ship?” asked Adrianna.
“I suppose it’s something like that, yeah.” Hannah collapsed once again into the rocky seat. “When will those creatures come back and get us?”
“Who knows,” sighed Adrianna. “It could be any time.”
“Well, when they do - I think I might have a plan.”
In a quiet voice (just in case someone was listening in), Hannah told Adrianna what they were going to do.
****
The island rumbled, and the mountain spewed more and more smoke. Night had fallen, making the volcano embers shine in the dark.
There was no sign of Hannah. The Doctor had searched everywhere, but she seemed to have completely disappeared off the face of the island.
Stupid, stupid Doctor. The Time War was over, but he was still up to his old habits, picking up random people and taking them to the ends of the universe, only to die there. He should have kicked Hannah out of the TARDIS, never taken her to the Ice Warrior ship, and then maybe it would just be him dying alone on Krakatoa, died like he should have done in the war.
But that was his punishment for burning Gallifrey. Surviving.
He could still hear the screams of innocent people dying at the hands of the Daleks in his head. Hundreds, thousands, perhaps millions of children, all dying.
“What I did, I did without choice…” The voice of his past self echoed in this thoughts.
His past self? No, that man could not be the Doctor. He had broken the promise.
“Really?” said the voice, “And what makes you better than me? You seem pretty content to leave a young girl alone on Krakatoa!”
“Shut up,” said the Doctor, out loud. But there was nobody there. The voice was only in the Doctor’s head.
And the voice didn’t go away, either.
“You’re convinced that I was not the Doctor, because of what I did,” it said, “Yet here you are, about to leave someone to die.”
“I am not about to leave someone to die!” The Doctor said angrily, and out loud.
“Then why are you walking towards your TARDIS, exactly?”
The Doctor stopped, his hand on the door of his ship. The TARDIS seemed to have finished repairing itself. He could just leave now…
“Why are you still in my head?” he shouted angrily at thin air. “I’m not you anymore now.”
“I am here because I need to be,” said the previous Doctor’s voice, “You are content to consider myself to be not the Doctor, as I did during my time as you. And that is fair. But you mustn’t make my mistakes.”
“I’m not,” said the Doctor desperately.
“If you’re the Doctor,” the voice said, “Then you’d try your very best to save people. I see a man currently trying to run away. If you want to call yourself the Doctor again, Doctor - then save Hannah Gray.”
With that, the voice faded, and the Doctor was left standing beside his TARDIS seething in anger and despair. But the voice of his past self was right. And where he had failed to save people, the Doctor had to make sure he succeeded.
****
The bed Hannah was sleeping on was the most uncomfortable she’d ever slept on. This was in part because it was made of rock, but Hannah chose to try and ignore that fact. It didn’t work.
She didn’t really want to sleep, though. The Doctor was who-knows-where, and the volcano was poised to erupt. These thoughts, as well as her formulated, and possibly very stupid, plan of escape, clouded her mind.
Adrianna was lying opposite Hannah, apparently in a similar sleepless state. The light in the cell, uncharacteristically bright as opposed to the darkness in the rest of this place, had not been turned off either.
The Doctor would come to help, thought Hannah. He was a strange man, the Doctor, and Hannah still didn’t really know who he was, but he would never leave her to die on Krakatoa.
In the meantime, she decided to put her escape plan into action.
As if on cue, the cell door opened. Adrianna had said they always came at night, and sure enough, there was one of the creatures, standing at the door.
It was humanoid in appearance, with two arms, two legs, and a mouth, but that was as far as the similarities went. It looked like it was made of rock, all blackened and burnt and warped. Its body even gave off a light orange glow, looking almost like it was on fire. Hannah couldn’t tell if the creature had any eyes.
It motioned to Hannah and Adrianna to follow.
“Come,” it hissed. The two girls followed the creature out the cell door.
It led them through a series of dark, winding corridors. Hannah quickly lost track of where they had just been.
“It always seems to change,” muttered Adrianna to Hannah, “I think they’re deliberately making sure we can’t get out by confusing our direction.”
“Tell me about it,” muttered Hannah in return, as the creature pushed them down another hallway.
Finally, after what seemed like ages, the creature guiding them showed them a door, rather like the one that closed off their cell. The creature gently stroked the length of the door.
It opened. Hannah and Adrianna were pushed inside. “Wait here,” hissed the creature, as it slithered away, closing the door behind it.
“Well that’s polite,” mumbled Hannah.
“It’s about all you’ll be getting from them, frankly,” said a voice. Hannah turned to find the cell they were now in was already occupied with a dozen or so other people.
They were all looking at her curiously. The one that spoke stepped forward.
“I’m John,” he said, “You must be the new one.”
“Yeah, something like that,” said Hannah. She looked around at everyone else. “Sorry, but...why are we all here?”
“This is where they keep us,” said Adrianna, “Before they make us do work.”
“For how long?”
“Depends,” said John, and the others all sighed with agreement.
“Depends?’ asked Hannah.
“Could take hours, really. I think they just like making us stand around waiting.”
Hannah didn’t respond, instead casting her mind back to her plan of escape. Time to launch her idea into action.
“Okay,” she said, after much hesitation and silence, “I know you’ll probably think this is silly, but we have to get out…”
Her sentence was cut short by laughter from the man called John.
“What?”
“You’re thinking of escaping?” he chuckled. “Oh, everyone’s like that at first. But it never works. There is no escape - in case you’re forgetting, those corridors and hallways out there, they’re impossible to navigate!”
“No, you don’t understand!” said Hannah desperately, “The volcano, Krakatoa, the one we’re currently underneath, it’s about to explode!”
“Well then!” said John, “Then I guess we’ll all die. About time, really. I was getting sick of hauling those stones.”
“Can’t we at least try?”
“No! Because those creatures, whatever they are, they’ll catch you. Maybe they’ll let you live, but most likely they’ll kill you!”
“We’ll all die soon anyway!” snapped Hannah. She sighed in annoyance. “I have a friend, his name is the Doctor. He’ll help us escape, but I have to find him first. Please, just help me.”
John scoffed, but Adrianna looked at Hannah with concern. She crossed the room to her side. “I’ll help you,” she said.
“I will too,” said another girl.
The entire room, save for John, were in agreement. Under normal circumstances, they’d have been reluctant to help, for fear of losing their lives to the creatures. But if Hannah was telling the truth, a far worse fate awaited them.
And everyone, including Adrianna, abnormally felt reassured by the idea of a man called the Doctor. Hannah supposed that was really his effect on people. She herself had felt it too. It was strange, but in some ways, the Doctor was hope.
“You’re all going to die,” said John.
“Nice way to lighten the mood, John,” Adrianna chimed in.
“Come this way,” hissed a voice. The cell door had opened, and another of the creatures was looking at them all.
They followed without question. But Hannah muttered, to each of them, one by one, what they were going to do.
****
Now where had he last seen Hannah? Yes, by that rock where she was drawing. The Doctor still had it in the pocket of his leather jacket.
Dark though it was, he searched the entire surrounding area of the rock. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He was beginning to lose hope again.
Yet just then, the Doctor stepped on something...metal. He bent down, brushing sand off the ground, and revealing a sort of manhole cover. This had to be the entrance to something. Quickly, he unscrewed it with his sonic screwdriver, and clambered down into the hole.
It was unbearably hot, and unbearably dark. The Doctor surmised that whatever lived down here must need the heat and darkness to survive.
He felt the underground wall. It was hot to the touch, almost like a heated rock. The Doctor noted small vibrations in the wall.
This was a spaceship, clearly. Probably crashed a long time ago, burying itself in the ground beneath the volcanic mountain.
He continued on through the ship, desperate to find Hannah. Although he wasn’t sure, the Doctor had figured there must be about 3 hours until the first violent eruption. That didn’t give him very much time to rescue her.
The corridors were short and winding, obviously made to deliberately confuse the uninitiated. The Doctor was thankful for his impeccable sense of direction.
He passed a large, vibrating doorway. Steam had clouded the window. This peaked the Doctor’s attentions greatly - but first, he had to find Hannah.
****
Hannah had no explanation for why these creatures needed a workforce. All they were being made to do was lift and haul rocks.
These were different rocks, though. Hannah could tell, as she struggled to pull one along, that it was almost...machine-like. She surmised these were possibly a component of their spaceship.
Adrianna still didn’t quite believe that it was a spaceship herself. But she had to admit, it was a real possibility.
Hannah finally managed to deposit her stone in the designated area. They were all being piled up in a large, spacious cavern (a change from the cramped and confusing corridors.)
Adrianna leaned in close to Hannah, whispering so as not to let the creatures hear her. “When are we going to try and escape?”
“Soon,” Hannah whispered back. “Tell the others to start.”
Adrianna nodded. “And when they cause the distraction, I’m coming with you,” she said.
Hannah tried to object, but realized she’d make a scene. The creature overseeing them slithered closer.
“No talking!” it hissed loudly. Then it went away again.
Adrianna waited until it was out of earshot. “I know more about the place than you,” she said, “Plus, I want to help.”
“Fine,” said Hannah. “Go tell the others to start.”
Adrianna quietly made her way over to the group, dragging the mechanical stones bit by bit. She whispered in the ear of one middle-aged man, before quickly making her way to the back of the cavern.
Hannah slipped quietly out of sight of the creature guarding them, behind a stalagmite growing from the floor.
The middle-aged worked groaned loudly in pain, dropping to the floor and screaming. This was Hannah’s cue.
“What is going on?” asked the creature, sliding over to where the man was lying on the ground.
“He’s hurt!” yelled another of the workers, “Can’t you see?”
“He has expended his usefulness,” hissed the creature, “He shall be disposed of.”
“No!” said the man, “I’ll get better!”
Hannah ran quietly around the room, keeping to the wall. Adrianna fell back, meeting her at the cave’s wide entrance.
“Come on!” said Adrianna, grabbing her hand and pulling her along.
The man had already gotten back up and started work again. But the creature had noticed someone was missing. Two people, in fact.
“You merely caused a distraction!” it hissed, “You shall be punished for this!” The creature took a gasp of breath, preparing its kiss of death…
“Oh no,” said Hannah, “They’re going to kill him! I didn’t want that to happen…”
“There’s nothing we can do, Hannah,” said Adrianna, “Come on, let’s get out of here before they really sound the alarm!”
“You won’t make it!” yelled a voice. It was John. He was looking disapprovingly at them.
“John! What are you doing!” yelled Adrianna, “You’ll draw attention to us!”
“The prisoners have been found!” yelled one of the creatures. It scurried up to behind John, knocking him over.
“Kill them!” said one of the guards. Adrianna grabbed Hannah’s hand once more, dragging her along as the creature standing over John appeared to breath fire at him, John screaming in pain.
“I think I’ve just accidentally killed two people…” panted Hannah, running after Adrianna.
“I know,” said Adrianna sadly, “But we’ve got to keep moving, come on. If you want to find this Doctor of yours, we have to escape.”
Hannah and Adrianna ran as fast as they could through the dark, winding corridors. Gradually, they noticed that the walls were made more of metal than of rock.
“What is this doing here?” wondered Adrianna, pausing briefly to place her hand to the hot, silver surface.
“Never mind,” said Hannah, grabbing Adrianna’s hand this time, “Come on, we’ve got to find the Doctor.”
“Well, where would he be?”
They ducked around a corridor to avoid one of the creatures. It was sniffing around, looking for them. The alarm has been fully raised now, thought Hannah.
“I don’t know,” she said to Adrianna, “He might be still on the surface of the island...he might have left without me, even.”
Hannah shuddered at the thought. No, she said to herself, the Doctor wouldn’t do that.
“I’m not even sure there’s a way to the surface” said Adrianna, “Lots of people have tried, but these things make mazes to deliberately confuse!”
“Well, we’ve got to try,” said Hannah desperately. The creature had gone. Peering around the corner, Hannah moved carefully away from their hiding place, Adrianna following.
Then they ran, right around another corner, into -
Adrianna had to stifle a scream. Hannah swore she had jumped ten feet in the air. The Doctor looked startled too, but beamed at them with a goofy grin all the same.
“Hullo!” he chimed.
“Doctor,” said a startled Hannah, “Never, ever, do that again.”
“I’ll make a note of that,” said the Doctor, “Who’s your friend?”
“Adrianna,” said Adrianna shyly, still a bit out of breath.
“Nice to meet you Adrianna,” smiled the Doctor, “Now then, what’s been going on around here?”
Hannah launched into the story that her life had been for the last couple of hours. The Doctor listened with considerable interest.
“Nobody has any idea why they’re being made to do hard labour at all,” said Hannah, “But that doesn’t matter. We’ve got to get everyone out of here somehow, before Krakatoa explodes!”
“We’ve got about 2 hours, by my count,” said the Doctor, “Come on, I think I might have found something.”
The three of them ran quietly through the corridors, ducking out of sight once or twice to avoid being sighted by the strange creatures.
“They’re everywhere,” said Hannah.
“Looking for you two, no doubt,” said the Doctor, “Come on, it’s just around here.”
They turned, running down another long rocky corridor. They all were beginning to to look the same to Hannah, and she wondered if they were just going in circles.
“Here,” said the Doctor, stopping in front of a large metal door. It bore no features, or even a handle - just a small inset window clouded up with steam.
The Doctor placed his hand gently to the door. “As I thought,” he muttered, “This must be their heating system.”
“Heating system?” said Adrianna.
“This is a spaceship!” said the Doctor, turning and beaming airly at Adrianna, “And these aliens, whatever they are - they thrive in heat, as you can see.”
“It’s certainly much, much hotter right here,” said Hannah, nearly gasping for breath. The heat emanating from the door was almost unbearable. Hannah didn’t dare to think what is must be like inside.
The Doctor dug in his jacket pocket and found the sonic screwdriver, placing it lightly against the surface of the door, activating it at a low frequency. The tip buzzed red, and the door clicked open.
The Doctor pushed it wide, stepping into the dark and sweltering room. Hannah followed reluctantly, as did Adrianna.
Light was scarce inside, the only source being a large, glass centre column, which gave off harsh red light. It seemed to be vibrating violently.
“So this is their idea of heating?” asked Adrianna, wiping sweat from her forehead. “This is hotter than anything I’ve ever experienced.”
“I’ve had worse” said the Doctor, examining the vibrating cylinder, “Now, I don’t like the looks of this...”
He went to examine a corner of the room, and the small control panels that stood there, fiddling with the switches.
A graphic popped up on one of the tiny screens, showing the column descending into the volcano’s core.
“It’s a drill!” exclaimed the Doctor.
“A drill?” asked Hannah, “What’s it drilling for?”
The Doctor stepped towards the glowing, cylindrical drill, his hand poised and ready to touch it.
“Heat, I imagine,” said the Doctor, “These creatures, wherever they come from, must have chosen Krakatoa specifically for this reason. They’re using heat to power their spaceship and build up their energy resources. They’re going to try and take off!”
He removed his hand, returning to his examination of the other controls in the corner. “And it’s about an hour away from breaking the Earth’s crust,” he said.
“It should be about an hour until Krakatoa explodes, right?” asked Hannah, suddenly remembering. “We’ve got to get everyone out of here really soon!”
“I know, I know,” said the Doctor. He seemed far too interested in the drill controls for Hannah’s liking.
“Doctor, who cares how they get energy? We need to escape right now!”
“Just confirming a couple of suspicions for myself,” he muttered.
He picked up his screwdriver, scanning the controls. “I’ve been to Krakatoa before,” he said. “I’m probably up there now, in fact. It was only a brief visit. But I heard the most terrible scream…”
A loud shriek punctuated the Doctor’s sentence, as he, Hannah and Adrianna spun quickly around to see three or four creatures, glowing slightly orange and spitting fire, to emerge from the room’s darkest corners.
“Run!” yelled the Doctor, dashing for the door, but he stopped suddenly as another creature blocked their way.
The creature hissed. “Welcome, Doctor,” it said, “I am pleased to meet you.”
The Doctor looked confused. “How do you know who I am?”
“Do you not know who we are?” hissed the creature.
“I am confident we have never met in my life,” the Doctor said.
The creatures all laughed. It was an unnerving sound.
“We are the Kuypers,” the creature said, motioning to its companions that had trapped the Doctor, Hannah and Adrianna, “Does that name not sound familiar to you, Time Lord?”
The Doctor looked grave. “No,” he said, but he didn’t sound truthful.
The Kuyper smiled with blackened, rocky teeth. “Come with us,” it hissed.
“What if we refuse?” asked the Doctor.
The Kuyper, having turned to go, faced the Doctor again. “Then we will kill your companion!” it said, pointing a burnt finger at Hannah.
The Doctor shifted uncomfortably, looking from Hannah to the Kuyper. “We’ll go with you,” said Hannah quickly. Another of the “Kuypers” took her arms and the Doctor’s, forcing her out the door with Adrianna following, and into the corridor.
“Where are you taking us?” demanded the Doctor.
“To see our king!” hissed the creature.
****
The Doctor, Hannah, and Adrianna were shoved into a dark room, the Kuypers following closely behind and making sure they didn’t make a break for it.
“How much time have we got left, Doctor?” whispered Hannah.
“Half an hour,” said the Doctor back, his fear evident from the tone of his voice.
All was quiet in the room. Nobody could tell what was going on, but there were Kuypers moving within it, obvious from the orange glow their bodies gave off.
“So?” demanded the Doctor loudly “Where is this king of yours? I bet he’s rubbish.”
The Kuypers hissed furiously. “You dare to insult our glorious leader?”
“Well, he’s not my glorious leader, thank you very much, so I’ll insult him all I like!” The Doctor grinned. “Seriously though. Where is he?”
There was a rumble. Hannah thought for a moment that Krakatoa was already erupting. The ground beneath her feet seemed to shake, as there was a series of low, heavy...footsteps?
Hannah looked up, horrified. Towering above her was a Kuyper - a very, very large Kuyper, with the only difference of crown-shaped rock markings around its charred head.
“You are the Doctor my people speak of?” it boomed. The voice echoed around the room, vibrating so much Hannah was nearly knocked off her feet.
“Yes,” said the Doctor, stepping forward, “I am.”
The king laughed, and this time the force of his voice did knock Hannah over. She and the Doctor clung to the walls to stand up.
“You are a Time Lord?” asked the King.
“Yes!” said the Doctor, urgently, “But that doesn’t matter right now. What matters is that drill you have out there.”
“It is our source of energy,” boomed the king, “Without it, we wouldn’t be able to survive. Soon, we shall have enough heat energy to power our spaceship!”
“What about the slave labour,” asked Hannah boldly, “Why do you need them, anyway?”
“It was necessary to use humans in order to haul our energy units. Those rocks we made them haul - they are used to store heat. But they are far, far too heavy for us. This planet’s primitives are altogether much stronger. We used a simple spatial displacement mechanism to obtain the apes from all corners of this planet”
“You didn’t have to treat them so poorly!” fumed Hannah, a little more bravely. “Couldn’t you see they were suffering?”
“A couple primitives’ sufferings are no concern of ours,” said the king, to much hissed agreement from the smaller Kuypers.
“So you used slaves to help repair your spaceship,” said the Doctor, “And you’re drilling for energy to power it! All things considered, your majesty, a pretty resourceful plan. But it won’t work. That drill has doomed you all.”
“Oh,” said the king, with some amusement, “And why might that be?”
“When that drill reaches the Earth’s crust, it will unleash forces more powerful than you could ever imagine. More powerful than even yourselves. It could destroy this entire planet!”
“This planet is of no concern to us,” scoffed the king, “And once we penetrate the crust of this rock, we will have enough energy to finally power our ship into orbit!”
“But you won’t,” said the Doctor desperately, “We’re already buried far below the surface. This island, and this spaceship, will be long gone before you can even think of taking off!”
He stared at Hannah. “You see,” he said, “Krakatoa, up there, it’s fighting back! Ten minutes until it explodes, right? That’s ten minutes until the drill hits the Earth’s crust!”
He turned back to the rather burnt looking monarch. “You are the perpetrators of Krakatoa’s eruption! How about that!” He laughed to himself.
“But I can help you!” he said kindly, “You, these slaves you’ve gotten for yourselves,” he pointed at where Adrianna was standing, “I can bring everyone home!”
“Home!” hissed the royal Kuyper. “We have not got a home, Time Lord! And that is your fault.”
The Doctor’s expression changed to that of fear. Hannah tried to get a reaction from him, to explain what was going on, but he was frozen, staring at the large Kuyper.
And then, the drill hit the crust. A horrible, primordial scream rang out. The ground shook and swayed.
“Our planet burned, Doctor. It burned in the first days of the Time War. We were reduced to nomads, wandering about the universe,” the king bent down slowly to look at the Doctor more closely, “And all because of you, Time Lord!”
The Doctor still made no movement. “Doctor, come on!” said Hannah, “We need to go, we need to save the others!”
The ground was shaking even more.
“We saw your ship, Doctor. We knew we had a Time Lord amongst us again, so we lured you here with your companion as bait.” Hannah now froze herself, having heard herself mentioned.
“We planned to kill you!” laughed the king, “But now that we will all die, this is a better fate for you!”
With that, the Kuypers all laughed and hissed manically. It was a terrifying sound. Hannah resumed tugging at the Doctor’s leather sleeve.
“Come on,” she said gently, “We have to escape.”
She looked into his eyes, and he returned the glance. “Please, Doctor,” she said. He nodded slowly.
The cavern they were in began to collapse. The king of the Kuypers’ scream of laughter turned to pain as rock and dirt poured down on him. And something else was falling down too…
It was the TARDIS.
“Adrianna!” yelled Hannah, “Come on!”
The Doctor rushed towards the TARDIS door, as Hannah helped Adrianna onto her feet. She had been knocked over by the force of the earthquake.
“We have to go get everyone else!” she cried desperately. Hannah could barely hear her words over the increased rumbling.
“Come on,” said Hannah, turning away from the TARDIS and running straight back into the Kuyper spaceship. The walls were crumbling as she and Adrianna hurried as fast as they could to the prison cells, leaving behind the Doctor and the TARDIS.
They were crouched and huddled together, preparing for the worst. They had only seconds to spare, and yet, somehow, managed to lead them back safely to the Doctor.
“Come on, everyone into the TARDIS!” yelled the Doctor, standing at the door. Hannah, Adrianna, and all the other slaves rushed into the box, barely even taking any consideration to it being bigger on the inside. Adrianna, finally safe, collapsed into a chair and fainted. Hannah did nearly the same.
Finally, it was over.
The Doctor paused briefly before he closed the door, staring up at the volcano as it spewed fire and smoke violently.
He looked across the beach, and it was then he saw a man. The Doctor knew it was only a vision, really. But he looked remarkably real.
The man, grey and bearded, old and tired, wearing his battered leather jacket and frayed scarf, looked at the Doctor with weary eyes, that even in their tiredness seemed to smile at him. He nodded at the Doctor with approval.
The Doctor turned away, and slammed the TARDIS door shut. The vision was no longer there. A wheezing, groaning noise, unintelligible over everything else, indicated the TARDIS’ dematerialization.
And then Krakatoa exploded.
****
Adrianna woke up, suddenly, sitting up in her bed.
Bed?
Yes, bed. She was in her bed, at home, in London. This was her bedroom, in her parent’s home, still painted in a faded white colour. And she was sitting up in her bed, made up with fresh new sheets and blankets. Not only that, but she was wearing her nightclothes too.
Had it been all a dream? The Doctor, Hannah, Krakatoa, the Kuypers...had she merely just dreamed it all in her head?
The sun was shining brightly through her silk curtains. Blearily, she got out of bed and crossed the creaky wooden floor of her room to the window. Then there was a knock at her door.
“Adrianna!” came a voice. She recognized it as her mother’s.
A short, middle aged woman in Victorian dress opened the door and peered in. “Oh, good,” she said, when she looked at Adrianna standing by the window, “You’re up! You’ve been sleeping in far too late, young lady!”
“Sorry...mother,” said Adrianna, even though she still didn’t feel like she’d slept at all. It had to have been a dream, right? Adrianna sighed. It probably was. A shame, it had been terribly good.
A noise was coming from outside her window. A low, groaning, wheezing sound.
“Now what’s that then?” asked her mother, joining Adrianna at the window and looking out, “Is that the neighbours again? Lord knows what they get up to over there, I dread to think…”
She tottered away, down the hall, while Adrianna just looked out the window in awe. She could have sworn she’d seen a police box, just like the one the Doctor had, disappearing into thin air.
No, she had to just be imagining things. But her mother heard it too.
Adrianna sighed as her mother’s voice sounded from down the hallway, calling her to get dressed and ready for the day. She stood to go, but noticed something she hadn’t before, lying on her writing desk on a pile of paper.
It was a drawing, and in it was a man with short hair and a leather jacket, standing in front of what appeared to be an erupting volcano. Adrianna turned the paper over. There were only two words on it, written in pen.
From Hannah.
Adrianna smiled to herself, before her mother’s voice once again snapped her back to reality.
****
“So, that’s it then?” asked Hannah.
“What’s it?” replied the Doctor.
Hannah leaned on the new console. “The Kuypers, whatever they are. Are they all gone?”
“Possibly,” said the Doctor, “They caused their own destruction in any case. Drilling to the Earth’s crust...when will people learn…”
He didn’t look up from his place at the controls, too concentrated on them. He didn’t seem to notice Hannah at all.
But Hannah still had questions.
“Doctor...what was the Time War?” That got his attention. The Doctor looked up from the controls, gravely.
“It was nothing,” he muttered.
“Tell me,” said Hannah, “Please. What those Kuypers said - it made it seem like you did something...terrible. I’d like to know.”
“You don’t need to know.”
“Well, if I’m going to be travelling with you for a bit, I ought to, I think.”
“Who said you’re going to be travelling with me?” The Doctor shot Hannah a disapproving glance.
Hannah felt her heart sink. Of course, she thought, of course he doesn’t want me. It was an accident that she’d ever stepped onto the TARDIS anyway.
“You almost died,” said the Doctor, “It’s just too dangerous for you.”
“And what,” snapped Hannah, “It’s not dangerous back in 1915? I was in the middle of a war zone!”
“It was nothing compared to the Time War,” scowled the Doctor, “Nothing!”
The Doctor backed away from the console, face in his hands. “Every place in every time was burning,” he said, his voice wavering with clear emotion, “Your war was tiny compared to the Time War! And I ended it. I burned everything. My people, the Time Lords, my enemies, the Daleks. I burned it all, blew it all up, ended it, because otherwise it would have destroyed the universe.”
Hannah felt herself overcome with emotion. She moved closer to the Doctor’s side, grasping his hand reassuringly.
The Doctor continued. “I was a coward. I let everyone die. I did nothing to save anyone! Anyone at all!”
“You saved all those people on Krakatoa,” said Hannah softly. “Even though everything was terrifying and worthless for them, you gave them hope. When I was captured, hearing of you inspired them to try and stand up, escape, and be free. That has to count for something, right?”
The Doctor sighed deeply. “I’ve just stopped being the Doctor,” he said, “I’ve broken all my own promises.”
“You save people,” said Hannah, “I’ve only known you for a bit and even I can see that. And you didn’t manage to save people on one day. But that doesn’t mean you’re a failure, right? I mean, you even offered to take the Kuypers and find them a planet, even after all they’d done!”
“You really don’t understand,” said the Doctor, “It wasn’t just ‘one failure’. It was much bigger than that.”
“Well, yes,” said Hannah, “It is a bit of a bigger deal, blowing up everything. But you can still be the Doctor now, can’t you? Even after all that? You can...heal.”
The Doctor tried to crack a smile, looking at Hannah with far less intensity and anger as he had done before. The kindness had returned to his eyes, which were welling up a bit.
“Thank you,” he said quietly.
Hannah smiled softly back at him. “You’re welcome.”
The Doctor strode around the console, palm resting on a large lever. “Where to then?” he asked with one of his characteristically huge grins.
“Weren’t you just going to take me home?” Hannah asked.
“Well, I was,” said the Doctor, grinning more wildly now, “Still am, I suppose. But perhaps we could take...the scenic route?”
It was Hannah’s turn to grin madly. “Seriously?” she excitedly said.
“I’ve been alone for far too long,” said the Doctor, “It would be good to have someone around for a bit. Keep me in check, so to speak. I mean, if you’d rather not…”
Hannah shot down that suggestion rather quickly. “The scenic route sounds...fantastic,” he grinned.
The Doctor pulled the lever. “Welcome aboard then, Hannah Gray!”
Hannah happily watched her new favourite sight of the central TARDIS column pistoning up and down, the wheezing and groaning of the ship accompanying its flight through the vortex of time and space.
“Love the coral look by the way,” she said. “Though I think I prefered those round things.”
“I’m sure I have more somewhere around. I’ll have a look for them one day…”
Of all the days in all of time and space to arrive on, of course it had to be the day that Krakatoa exploded.
Not that it was the Doctor’s fault, particularly; the “TARDIS” or whatever it was, had been out of control. The bombs had been falling on No Man’s Land as they tried to escape, and one had hit the TARDIS in the midst of materialisation.
Which, according to the Doctor, was a very bad thing that the TARDIS didn’t like. Why, exactly, the TARDIS didn’t like it, or why the Doctor seemed to speak of his ship as if it were alive, Hannah didn’t know, but it was obviously pretty serious, going by the fact Hannah had to crouch against the interior, roundel-patterned wall as the entire rest of the console room disintegrated into flames.
The Doctor was running around the controls like a maniac, desperately trying to steer the thing. A difficult endeavour, when half the console was on fire.
“Don’t worry!” he had shouted over the noise, “If I can just…”
He adjusted a lever, which required some strength, and the TARDIS began to calm down, the grinding noise faded and stopped with a jolt.
Hannah pulled herself up, dusting her coat and shoving a piece of broken wall.
“Is travelling in the TARDIS always this...explosive?”
“Not quite on this level, no…” said the Doctor, surveying the wreckage.
****
Aside from the gigantic clouds of smoke (an admittedly very obvious blight) the scenery was quite pretty. The island was lush with vegetation and animal life. Hannah stood beside the TARDIS, perched on the beach, standing before the jungle ahead of her.
But beautiful as it may have been, there was an ominous sense of doom lingering in the air. In a few short hours, all this would be gone. The island would sink into the sea, blown to bits by the force of Krakatoa’s eruption.
And here Hannah was, apparently about to witness it all happen. Not the sort of place she’d have chosen for her first time travel destination.
The Doctor was walking along the beach, looking out to sea.
“Nothing,” he muttered, “no ships. They’re all staying well back from the volcano!”
“Are we stuck then?” asked Hannah.
The Doctor noted a hint of fear in her voice. He turned, looking at her with a reassuring grin.
“The TARDIS can repair itself,” he said. “In fact, it’s probably doing that right now!”
The Doctor strode up the to the door and attempted to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. He smiled weakly.
“There we go, see? It won’t let me in. It’s already started the process of self-regeneration.”
He continued to beam wildly at Hannah, who maintained her look of doubt and concern.
“It might take a while,” said the Doctor, his grin faltering a little, “but we should be fine!”
Hannah didn’t respond, still very clearly unsure. Her gaze fell from the Doctor’s, and she turned to stare solemnly at the ground. The Doctor’s expression went grim. He leaned against the TARDIS and buried his face in his hands.
“I shouldn't have survived…” he muttered.
“Survived what?” asked Hannah, looking up.
The Doctor turned away. “Doesn’t matter.”
“We are stuck here, about to be killed by a volcano,” said Hannah sternly, hands placed firmly on her hips. “Whatever you say won’t even matter in the long run. Tell me. What shouldn't you have survived?”
The Doctor didn’t immediately answer. He stared up at the dark clouds of smoke coming from Krakatoa, lost in thought.
He closed his eyes, and the memories came back. Millions of deaths, unspeakable violence, and no survivors. All except him.
He opened his eyes again. It was Hannah’s turn to give him a reassuring glance, as she moved to his side.
“I fought,” said the Doctor simply.
“Fought where?” Hannah asked curiously. “A war?”
“Yes.”
“Which one?” she continued. “Is it one that I know of?”
The Doctor looked at her warily. “Does it matter? It's over now.”
“Of course it matters, if you're talking like that!” Hannah gasped. She was a nurse, it was her calling to try to understand and help people.
“No, it really doesn't.”
“Doctor…”
“I said no,” he snapped. “Do you understand that?”
Hannah’s mouth opened slightly in barely-concealed surprise. He looked furious, but she noticed that the anger wasn't directed at her. She didn't know if that comforted her, or made her feel patronised and ignored.
The Doctor looked away, his eyes downcast. Hannah gently sidled to his side, took his hand and grasped it tightly. He recoiled slightly at her touch, but did not let go.
“It’s funny really,” she said, “You don’t seem that much of a soldier to me, even in the short time we’ve known each other…”
“Oh, it wasn’t this face that fought,” the Doctor interjected, “But I don’t expect you to understand all that.”
“Well, I’m glad of that,” chuckled Hannah, “Because I think that’s the most confusing thing you’ve said so far, which is saying something.”
The Doctor chuckled too. “Yep! That’s me. I’m always confusing.”
Hannah laughed. “What’s the matter with me?” she asked rhetorically, “I’m stranded on a volcanic island about to erupt. I should be terrified, not laughing!”
“I think I tend to have that effect on people,” smiled the Doctor sheepishly.
“You really do.” Hannah moved her gaze from the Doctor to the volcano, which had increased the intensity of its eruption. The whole island seemed to shift beneath their feet as the mountain rumbled.
“I’d say it’s about five thirty in the afternoon, wouldn’t you?” asked the Doctor.
“I suppose.”
“We have twelve hours until the worst of the eruption.” The Doctor turned back to the TARDIS, trying the door to no avail. “If I remember correctly, Krakatoa first explodes at five thirty in the morning.”
“Will the TARDIS be fixed by then?” asked Hannah
The Doctor sighed. “Possibly,” he said, “It’s always repairing itself. The process can take anywhere from a couple seconds to...months, even. And this time the damage was pretty bad.”
He let this thought hang in the air, placing his hand gently to the police box door. He seemed to be listening to the vibrations.
“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” assured Hannah.
The island gave another uneasy rumble.
“I hope.”
****
“The climate’s really quite nice,” said Hannah, “I mean, aside from the volcano, of course…”
Hannah’s words echoed around the dark room. Barely anything inside could be seen, save for a couple strange-looking buttons and switches, lit with an eerie orange light, and a giant, bright screen (which despite the brightness, didn’t do much to light the room itself).
The image of Hannah Gray, slightly distorted and grainy, moved across the screen. A dark hand emerged from the blackness, twisting a dial.
The image moved. Now the screen showed the Doctor, who was following Hannah along the beach. The hand twisted another dial, zooming in.
The hand - or rather, the creature it belonged to - hissed.
“How is this possible!” it growled.
The creature turned another dial, moving the camera further. Now the screen showed the TARDIS. The creature zoomed the image in on it.
“Of course…” it said.
The hiss became something of a cackle.
****
“What are you doing?” asked the Doctor.
Hannah had perched herself on a rock, a piece of paper and a pencil in her hand.
“Drawing,” she said.
“Where did you get the paper?”
“From my coat.” Hannah showed the Doctor her jacket, which she had taken off and placed on the rock. “I always had some spare paper in it. I like drawing. It’s usually a bit crumpled, but it works.”
The Doctor made a noncommittal noise.
“How’s the TARDIS?” asked Hannah.
As if to punctuate the moment, Krakatoa rumbled again.
“Still fixing itself,” said the Doctor, “It won’t let me in yet.”
“I’m sure it will be fine,” said Hannah. She herself was struggling to maintain her own optimism. She thought of home, and wondered what her father was up to now - relatively speaking. Here, in 1883, she wouldn’t be born for another three years.
Hannah turned her attention back to her haphazard drawing of the Doctor. “What do you think?” she asked, passing him the paper.
The Doctor looked at it with confusion, feeling his ears and nose. “Is that really what I look like?” he said with distaste.
“More or less,” said Hannah., “I think I might add some of those trees over there…”
The Doctor walked away, back along the beach and towards the TARDIS. Hannah sighed, and merely resumed her drawing.
Krakatoa rumbled again, spewing more smoke and ashes. It made a change from the constant noise of war she usually had back in her time. Not a significant change, but a welcome one nonetheless.
She peered over at the Doctor, who was leaning against his TARDIS, staring blankly up into the smoke clouds. Hannah had to feel sorry for him, really. She knew the pain war inflicted on people, and she could see that pain every time she looked in his eyes.
The Doctor was not a soldier, but it was clear he was a man of war all the same. That alone told Hannah one thing - he could never, should never, be alone. He needed someone to help him.
Just then, behind her, Hannah thought she heard a faint hiss. She swung around.
A large, charred creature was crawling up the rock, reaching towards her with a blackened, burnt hand.
Hannah screamed.
****
“Hannah?”
The Doctor’s attention was brought back to reality, as Hannah’s scream echoed along the beach. He looked hopelessly around, running to the rock where she had been sitting, but she was nowhere to be found.
“Hannah!” called the Doctor in desperation. No answer.
The Doctor looked again at the rock. Perched on it, blowing slightly in the wind, was the drawing she’d made of him.
He glanced at it, picked it up, and quickly stuffed it in his pocket. He called her name one more time, a little louder, but there was still no answer.
“I should never have taken her,” said the Doctor to himself, “I should have left her back in 1915.”
He turned and, taking one glance back at the TARDIS, ran off into the undergrowth.
****
The creature had stifled Hannah’s scream, placing its hot, burnt hand over her mouth as it dragged her away. Hannah didn’t know where they were going, but briefly registered being pulled down below the surface.
Were they going into the volcano itself? Hannah couldn’t tell, but the temperatures were rising as they travelled down endless, stuffy corridors. The heat from the creature itself made Hannah feel drowsy. She was barely aware of anything going on, just that she was being led further and further down into something.
The creature suddenly stopped, approaching the wall beside them. A long, slender finger stroked the length of the rock. The wall slid away, and the creature shoved Hannah into the room.
She collapsed on the floor, exhausted. When she looked up, the wall was back in place. Whatever those creatures were, they had imprisoned her.
“Hello,” said a voice. “Who are you?”
Hannah looked up. Her vision was still a little fuzzy, but she could make out the shape of a person standing a little ways away. The voice sounded female.
“Hannah. I’m Hannah,” she said with some effort.
The woman’s hand extended outwards to help her up. Hannah gladly took it, pulling herself up. The woman led her to some kind of seat, and Hannah collapsed into it.
“The heat…” she muttered. “It’s unbearable…”
“I know,” said the woman, “It’s these creatures. They seem to thrive in it, especially so close to the volcano. I’m Adrianna by the way.”
Hannah shifted, trying to sit up. Adrianna was looking at her with some concern. She looked about Hannah’s age, with short, light brown hair, and wide blue eyes that looked at Hannah warmly.
Adrianna smiled. Hannah felt at ease.
“Why are you here?” asked Hannah. “And what is this place?”
“I don’t know,” said Adrianna, “It seems to be the heart of the volcano. All the walls and surfaces are solid rock. But if we’re in the volcano, it should all be melted - and we wouldn’t be able to survive.”
“Some sort of spaceship, then?” pondered Hannah.
“Spaceship?”
“For those creatures. They can’t be from Earth surely?”
Adrianna laughed. Hannah noted that she thought it was a rather pretty laugh.
“You’re not seriously suggesting they’re aliens?” giggled Adrianna.
“Well…” Hannah paused. “No, that’s silly,” she said meekly, “But - why are you here?”
“Oh, that’s easier,” said Adrianna, straightening up, “I don’t know what these creatures are doing, but they’re doing something very important - and we’re their slave labour.”
“We?”
“There’s a good dozen of us imprisoned here. We’re just kept in these cells -” She waved her hands around at the small cell - “and made to do whatever the creatures tell us to do, whenever they want.”
Hannah was horrified.
“Whenever they want? Even the middle of the night?”
“Especially then,” said Adrianna, “They seem to delight in making our lives miserable…”
“But,” Hannah was confused. “Why? What are they doing that requires slave labour?”
“I don’t know,” said Adrianna. “Mostly we’re just forced to haul large stones. I don’t know why. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t even a reason, to be honest - perhaps they just love torturing us.”
Hannah sat in silent reflection for a moment, her head bursting with questions.
“How long have you been here, then?” she said.
“That’s the thing,” sighed Adrianna, “I don’t know. It feels like it’s been forever.” She sat down beside Hannah, and continued.
“I can’t even remember how I got here either,” she said. “One day, I was at home in London, and the next I was here. Lying face down in some rock. And then those creatures came and put me in here.”
“There’s no escape,” Adrianna continued, “People have tried, but they’re always caught and returned. We just have to accept it.”
Hannah scoffed. “You can’t just let them torture you like that.”
Adrianna shrugged. “But what else could we do?”
“Fight,” said Hannah. “Stand up to them.”
“What’s the use? If we did that, we’d be killed, and believe me it’s happened. I used to have the same opinion as you, Hannah, but these creatures are stronger than us. It’s no use.”
Hannah slumped in her chair, sighing. “Well, you won’t have to be tortured by them for much longer.”
Adrianna looked curiously at Hannah. “Why’s that?”
“The volcano,” said Hannah sadly, “It’s erupting.”
The ground began to rumble on cue. Adrianna shot Hannah a worried glance.
“We have to get out somehow,” said Hannah urgently, “I have a friend, he can get us out of here...”
Just then, she remembered the Doctor.
“Oh no!”
“What?” Adrianna asked.
“The Doctor! I forgot about the Doctor!” Hannah hurried to the cell door.
“Who’s the Doctor?” exclaimed Adrianna. Hannah urgently tried to open the door, but it was no use. Of course, she thought. They’d have locked it somehow. These creatures wouldn’t be that thick.
“He’s my friend,” said Hannah, turning back to her cellmate. “He has a...machine, of sorts, it can get us off the island.”
“Like, a ship?” asked Adrianna.
“I suppose it’s something like that, yeah.” Hannah collapsed once again into the rocky seat. “When will those creatures come back and get us?”
“Who knows,” sighed Adrianna. “It could be any time.”
“Well, when they do - I think I might have a plan.”
In a quiet voice (just in case someone was listening in), Hannah told Adrianna what they were going to do.
****
The island rumbled, and the mountain spewed more and more smoke. Night had fallen, making the volcano embers shine in the dark.
There was no sign of Hannah. The Doctor had searched everywhere, but she seemed to have completely disappeared off the face of the island.
Stupid, stupid Doctor. The Time War was over, but he was still up to his old habits, picking up random people and taking them to the ends of the universe, only to die there. He should have kicked Hannah out of the TARDIS, never taken her to the Ice Warrior ship, and then maybe it would just be him dying alone on Krakatoa, died like he should have done in the war.
But that was his punishment for burning Gallifrey. Surviving.
He could still hear the screams of innocent people dying at the hands of the Daleks in his head. Hundreds, thousands, perhaps millions of children, all dying.
“What I did, I did without choice…” The voice of his past self echoed in this thoughts.
His past self? No, that man could not be the Doctor. He had broken the promise.
“Really?” said the voice, “And what makes you better than me? You seem pretty content to leave a young girl alone on Krakatoa!”
“Shut up,” said the Doctor, out loud. But there was nobody there. The voice was only in the Doctor’s head.
And the voice didn’t go away, either.
“You’re convinced that I was not the Doctor, because of what I did,” it said, “Yet here you are, about to leave someone to die.”
“I am not about to leave someone to die!” The Doctor said angrily, and out loud.
“Then why are you walking towards your TARDIS, exactly?”
The Doctor stopped, his hand on the door of his ship. The TARDIS seemed to have finished repairing itself. He could just leave now…
“Why are you still in my head?” he shouted angrily at thin air. “I’m not you anymore now.”
“I am here because I need to be,” said the previous Doctor’s voice, “You are content to consider myself to be not the Doctor, as I did during my time as you. And that is fair. But you mustn’t make my mistakes.”
“I’m not,” said the Doctor desperately.
“If you’re the Doctor,” the voice said, “Then you’d try your very best to save people. I see a man currently trying to run away. If you want to call yourself the Doctor again, Doctor - then save Hannah Gray.”
With that, the voice faded, and the Doctor was left standing beside his TARDIS seething in anger and despair. But the voice of his past self was right. And where he had failed to save people, the Doctor had to make sure he succeeded.
****
The bed Hannah was sleeping on was the most uncomfortable she’d ever slept on. This was in part because it was made of rock, but Hannah chose to try and ignore that fact. It didn’t work.
She didn’t really want to sleep, though. The Doctor was who-knows-where, and the volcano was poised to erupt. These thoughts, as well as her formulated, and possibly very stupid, plan of escape, clouded her mind.
Adrianna was lying opposite Hannah, apparently in a similar sleepless state. The light in the cell, uncharacteristically bright as opposed to the darkness in the rest of this place, had not been turned off either.
The Doctor would come to help, thought Hannah. He was a strange man, the Doctor, and Hannah still didn’t really know who he was, but he would never leave her to die on Krakatoa.
In the meantime, she decided to put her escape plan into action.
As if on cue, the cell door opened. Adrianna had said they always came at night, and sure enough, there was one of the creatures, standing at the door.
It was humanoid in appearance, with two arms, two legs, and a mouth, but that was as far as the similarities went. It looked like it was made of rock, all blackened and burnt and warped. Its body even gave off a light orange glow, looking almost like it was on fire. Hannah couldn’t tell if the creature had any eyes.
It motioned to Hannah and Adrianna to follow.
“Come,” it hissed. The two girls followed the creature out the cell door.
It led them through a series of dark, winding corridors. Hannah quickly lost track of where they had just been.
“It always seems to change,” muttered Adrianna to Hannah, “I think they’re deliberately making sure we can’t get out by confusing our direction.”
“Tell me about it,” muttered Hannah in return, as the creature pushed them down another hallway.
Finally, after what seemed like ages, the creature guiding them showed them a door, rather like the one that closed off their cell. The creature gently stroked the length of the door.
It opened. Hannah and Adrianna were pushed inside. “Wait here,” hissed the creature, as it slithered away, closing the door behind it.
“Well that’s polite,” mumbled Hannah.
“It’s about all you’ll be getting from them, frankly,” said a voice. Hannah turned to find the cell they were now in was already occupied with a dozen or so other people.
They were all looking at her curiously. The one that spoke stepped forward.
“I’m John,” he said, “You must be the new one.”
“Yeah, something like that,” said Hannah. She looked around at everyone else. “Sorry, but...why are we all here?”
“This is where they keep us,” said Adrianna, “Before they make us do work.”
“For how long?”
“Depends,” said John, and the others all sighed with agreement.
“Depends?’ asked Hannah.
“Could take hours, really. I think they just like making us stand around waiting.”
Hannah didn’t respond, instead casting her mind back to her plan of escape. Time to launch her idea into action.
“Okay,” she said, after much hesitation and silence, “I know you’ll probably think this is silly, but we have to get out…”
Her sentence was cut short by laughter from the man called John.
“What?”
“You’re thinking of escaping?” he chuckled. “Oh, everyone’s like that at first. But it never works. There is no escape - in case you’re forgetting, those corridors and hallways out there, they’re impossible to navigate!”
“No, you don’t understand!” said Hannah desperately, “The volcano, Krakatoa, the one we’re currently underneath, it’s about to explode!”
“Well then!” said John, “Then I guess we’ll all die. About time, really. I was getting sick of hauling those stones.”
“Can’t we at least try?”
“No! Because those creatures, whatever they are, they’ll catch you. Maybe they’ll let you live, but most likely they’ll kill you!”
“We’ll all die soon anyway!” snapped Hannah. She sighed in annoyance. “I have a friend, his name is the Doctor. He’ll help us escape, but I have to find him first. Please, just help me.”
John scoffed, but Adrianna looked at Hannah with concern. She crossed the room to her side. “I’ll help you,” she said.
“I will too,” said another girl.
The entire room, save for John, were in agreement. Under normal circumstances, they’d have been reluctant to help, for fear of losing their lives to the creatures. But if Hannah was telling the truth, a far worse fate awaited them.
And everyone, including Adrianna, abnormally felt reassured by the idea of a man called the Doctor. Hannah supposed that was really his effect on people. She herself had felt it too. It was strange, but in some ways, the Doctor was hope.
“You’re all going to die,” said John.
“Nice way to lighten the mood, John,” Adrianna chimed in.
“Come this way,” hissed a voice. The cell door had opened, and another of the creatures was looking at them all.
They followed without question. But Hannah muttered, to each of them, one by one, what they were going to do.
****
Now where had he last seen Hannah? Yes, by that rock where she was drawing. The Doctor still had it in the pocket of his leather jacket.
Dark though it was, he searched the entire surrounding area of the rock. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He was beginning to lose hope again.
Yet just then, the Doctor stepped on something...metal. He bent down, brushing sand off the ground, and revealing a sort of manhole cover. This had to be the entrance to something. Quickly, he unscrewed it with his sonic screwdriver, and clambered down into the hole.
It was unbearably hot, and unbearably dark. The Doctor surmised that whatever lived down here must need the heat and darkness to survive.
He felt the underground wall. It was hot to the touch, almost like a heated rock. The Doctor noted small vibrations in the wall.
This was a spaceship, clearly. Probably crashed a long time ago, burying itself in the ground beneath the volcanic mountain.
He continued on through the ship, desperate to find Hannah. Although he wasn’t sure, the Doctor had figured there must be about 3 hours until the first violent eruption. That didn’t give him very much time to rescue her.
The corridors were short and winding, obviously made to deliberately confuse the uninitiated. The Doctor was thankful for his impeccable sense of direction.
He passed a large, vibrating doorway. Steam had clouded the window. This peaked the Doctor’s attentions greatly - but first, he had to find Hannah.
****
Hannah had no explanation for why these creatures needed a workforce. All they were being made to do was lift and haul rocks.
These were different rocks, though. Hannah could tell, as she struggled to pull one along, that it was almost...machine-like. She surmised these were possibly a component of their spaceship.
Adrianna still didn’t quite believe that it was a spaceship herself. But she had to admit, it was a real possibility.
Hannah finally managed to deposit her stone in the designated area. They were all being piled up in a large, spacious cavern (a change from the cramped and confusing corridors.)
Adrianna leaned in close to Hannah, whispering so as not to let the creatures hear her. “When are we going to try and escape?”
“Soon,” Hannah whispered back. “Tell the others to start.”
Adrianna nodded. “And when they cause the distraction, I’m coming with you,” she said.
Hannah tried to object, but realized she’d make a scene. The creature overseeing them slithered closer.
“No talking!” it hissed loudly. Then it went away again.
Adrianna waited until it was out of earshot. “I know more about the place than you,” she said, “Plus, I want to help.”
“Fine,” said Hannah. “Go tell the others to start.”
Adrianna quietly made her way over to the group, dragging the mechanical stones bit by bit. She whispered in the ear of one middle-aged man, before quickly making her way to the back of the cavern.
Hannah slipped quietly out of sight of the creature guarding them, behind a stalagmite growing from the floor.
The middle-aged worked groaned loudly in pain, dropping to the floor and screaming. This was Hannah’s cue.
“What is going on?” asked the creature, sliding over to where the man was lying on the ground.
“He’s hurt!” yelled another of the workers, “Can’t you see?”
“He has expended his usefulness,” hissed the creature, “He shall be disposed of.”
“No!” said the man, “I’ll get better!”
Hannah ran quietly around the room, keeping to the wall. Adrianna fell back, meeting her at the cave’s wide entrance.
“Come on!” said Adrianna, grabbing her hand and pulling her along.
The man had already gotten back up and started work again. But the creature had noticed someone was missing. Two people, in fact.
“You merely caused a distraction!” it hissed, “You shall be punished for this!” The creature took a gasp of breath, preparing its kiss of death…
“Oh no,” said Hannah, “They’re going to kill him! I didn’t want that to happen…”
“There’s nothing we can do, Hannah,” said Adrianna, “Come on, let’s get out of here before they really sound the alarm!”
“You won’t make it!” yelled a voice. It was John. He was looking disapprovingly at them.
“John! What are you doing!” yelled Adrianna, “You’ll draw attention to us!”
“The prisoners have been found!” yelled one of the creatures. It scurried up to behind John, knocking him over.
“Kill them!” said one of the guards. Adrianna grabbed Hannah’s hand once more, dragging her along as the creature standing over John appeared to breath fire at him, John screaming in pain.
“I think I’ve just accidentally killed two people…” panted Hannah, running after Adrianna.
“I know,” said Adrianna sadly, “But we’ve got to keep moving, come on. If you want to find this Doctor of yours, we have to escape.”
Hannah and Adrianna ran as fast as they could through the dark, winding corridors. Gradually, they noticed that the walls were made more of metal than of rock.
“What is this doing here?” wondered Adrianna, pausing briefly to place her hand to the hot, silver surface.
“Never mind,” said Hannah, grabbing Adrianna’s hand this time, “Come on, we’ve got to find the Doctor.”
“Well, where would he be?”
They ducked around a corridor to avoid one of the creatures. It was sniffing around, looking for them. The alarm has been fully raised now, thought Hannah.
“I don’t know,” she said to Adrianna, “He might be still on the surface of the island...he might have left without me, even.”
Hannah shuddered at the thought. No, she said to herself, the Doctor wouldn’t do that.
“I’m not even sure there’s a way to the surface” said Adrianna, “Lots of people have tried, but these things make mazes to deliberately confuse!”
“Well, we’ve got to try,” said Hannah desperately. The creature had gone. Peering around the corner, Hannah moved carefully away from their hiding place, Adrianna following.
Then they ran, right around another corner, into -
Adrianna had to stifle a scream. Hannah swore she had jumped ten feet in the air. The Doctor looked startled too, but beamed at them with a goofy grin all the same.
“Hullo!” he chimed.
“Doctor,” said a startled Hannah, “Never, ever, do that again.”
“I’ll make a note of that,” said the Doctor, “Who’s your friend?”
“Adrianna,” said Adrianna shyly, still a bit out of breath.
“Nice to meet you Adrianna,” smiled the Doctor, “Now then, what’s been going on around here?”
Hannah launched into the story that her life had been for the last couple of hours. The Doctor listened with considerable interest.
“Nobody has any idea why they’re being made to do hard labour at all,” said Hannah, “But that doesn’t matter. We’ve got to get everyone out of here somehow, before Krakatoa explodes!”
“We’ve got about 2 hours, by my count,” said the Doctor, “Come on, I think I might have found something.”
The three of them ran quietly through the corridors, ducking out of sight once or twice to avoid being sighted by the strange creatures.
“They’re everywhere,” said Hannah.
“Looking for you two, no doubt,” said the Doctor, “Come on, it’s just around here.”
They turned, running down another long rocky corridor. They all were beginning to to look the same to Hannah, and she wondered if they were just going in circles.
“Here,” said the Doctor, stopping in front of a large metal door. It bore no features, or even a handle - just a small inset window clouded up with steam.
The Doctor placed his hand gently to the door. “As I thought,” he muttered, “This must be their heating system.”
“Heating system?” said Adrianna.
“This is a spaceship!” said the Doctor, turning and beaming airly at Adrianna, “And these aliens, whatever they are - they thrive in heat, as you can see.”
“It’s certainly much, much hotter right here,” said Hannah, nearly gasping for breath. The heat emanating from the door was almost unbearable. Hannah didn’t dare to think what is must be like inside.
The Doctor dug in his jacket pocket and found the sonic screwdriver, placing it lightly against the surface of the door, activating it at a low frequency. The tip buzzed red, and the door clicked open.
The Doctor pushed it wide, stepping into the dark and sweltering room. Hannah followed reluctantly, as did Adrianna.
Light was scarce inside, the only source being a large, glass centre column, which gave off harsh red light. It seemed to be vibrating violently.
“So this is their idea of heating?” asked Adrianna, wiping sweat from her forehead. “This is hotter than anything I’ve ever experienced.”
“I’ve had worse” said the Doctor, examining the vibrating cylinder, “Now, I don’t like the looks of this...”
He went to examine a corner of the room, and the small control panels that stood there, fiddling with the switches.
A graphic popped up on one of the tiny screens, showing the column descending into the volcano’s core.
“It’s a drill!” exclaimed the Doctor.
“A drill?” asked Hannah, “What’s it drilling for?”
The Doctor stepped towards the glowing, cylindrical drill, his hand poised and ready to touch it.
“Heat, I imagine,” said the Doctor, “These creatures, wherever they come from, must have chosen Krakatoa specifically for this reason. They’re using heat to power their spaceship and build up their energy resources. They’re going to try and take off!”
He removed his hand, returning to his examination of the other controls in the corner. “And it’s about an hour away from breaking the Earth’s crust,” he said.
“It should be about an hour until Krakatoa explodes, right?” asked Hannah, suddenly remembering. “We’ve got to get everyone out of here really soon!”
“I know, I know,” said the Doctor. He seemed far too interested in the drill controls for Hannah’s liking.
“Doctor, who cares how they get energy? We need to escape right now!”
“Just confirming a couple of suspicions for myself,” he muttered.
He picked up his screwdriver, scanning the controls. “I’ve been to Krakatoa before,” he said. “I’m probably up there now, in fact. It was only a brief visit. But I heard the most terrible scream…”
A loud shriek punctuated the Doctor’s sentence, as he, Hannah and Adrianna spun quickly around to see three or four creatures, glowing slightly orange and spitting fire, to emerge from the room’s darkest corners.
“Run!” yelled the Doctor, dashing for the door, but he stopped suddenly as another creature blocked their way.
The creature hissed. “Welcome, Doctor,” it said, “I am pleased to meet you.”
The Doctor looked confused. “How do you know who I am?”
“Do you not know who we are?” hissed the creature.
“I am confident we have never met in my life,” the Doctor said.
The creatures all laughed. It was an unnerving sound.
“We are the Kuypers,” the creature said, motioning to its companions that had trapped the Doctor, Hannah and Adrianna, “Does that name not sound familiar to you, Time Lord?”
The Doctor looked grave. “No,” he said, but he didn’t sound truthful.
The Kuyper smiled with blackened, rocky teeth. “Come with us,” it hissed.
“What if we refuse?” asked the Doctor.
The Kuyper, having turned to go, faced the Doctor again. “Then we will kill your companion!” it said, pointing a burnt finger at Hannah.
The Doctor shifted uncomfortably, looking from Hannah to the Kuyper. “We’ll go with you,” said Hannah quickly. Another of the “Kuypers” took her arms and the Doctor’s, forcing her out the door with Adrianna following, and into the corridor.
“Where are you taking us?” demanded the Doctor.
“To see our king!” hissed the creature.
****
The Doctor, Hannah, and Adrianna were shoved into a dark room, the Kuypers following closely behind and making sure they didn’t make a break for it.
“How much time have we got left, Doctor?” whispered Hannah.
“Half an hour,” said the Doctor back, his fear evident from the tone of his voice.
All was quiet in the room. Nobody could tell what was going on, but there were Kuypers moving within it, obvious from the orange glow their bodies gave off.
“So?” demanded the Doctor loudly “Where is this king of yours? I bet he’s rubbish.”
The Kuypers hissed furiously. “You dare to insult our glorious leader?”
“Well, he’s not my glorious leader, thank you very much, so I’ll insult him all I like!” The Doctor grinned. “Seriously though. Where is he?”
There was a rumble. Hannah thought for a moment that Krakatoa was already erupting. The ground beneath her feet seemed to shake, as there was a series of low, heavy...footsteps?
Hannah looked up, horrified. Towering above her was a Kuyper - a very, very large Kuyper, with the only difference of crown-shaped rock markings around its charred head.
“You are the Doctor my people speak of?” it boomed. The voice echoed around the room, vibrating so much Hannah was nearly knocked off her feet.
“Yes,” said the Doctor, stepping forward, “I am.”
The king laughed, and this time the force of his voice did knock Hannah over. She and the Doctor clung to the walls to stand up.
“You are a Time Lord?” asked the King.
“Yes!” said the Doctor, urgently, “But that doesn’t matter right now. What matters is that drill you have out there.”
“It is our source of energy,” boomed the king, “Without it, we wouldn’t be able to survive. Soon, we shall have enough heat energy to power our spaceship!”
“What about the slave labour,” asked Hannah boldly, “Why do you need them, anyway?”
“It was necessary to use humans in order to haul our energy units. Those rocks we made them haul - they are used to store heat. But they are far, far too heavy for us. This planet’s primitives are altogether much stronger. We used a simple spatial displacement mechanism to obtain the apes from all corners of this planet”
“You didn’t have to treat them so poorly!” fumed Hannah, a little more bravely. “Couldn’t you see they were suffering?”
“A couple primitives’ sufferings are no concern of ours,” said the king, to much hissed agreement from the smaller Kuypers.
“So you used slaves to help repair your spaceship,” said the Doctor, “And you’re drilling for energy to power it! All things considered, your majesty, a pretty resourceful plan. But it won’t work. That drill has doomed you all.”
“Oh,” said the king, with some amusement, “And why might that be?”
“When that drill reaches the Earth’s crust, it will unleash forces more powerful than you could ever imagine. More powerful than even yourselves. It could destroy this entire planet!”
“This planet is of no concern to us,” scoffed the king, “And once we penetrate the crust of this rock, we will have enough energy to finally power our ship into orbit!”
“But you won’t,” said the Doctor desperately, “We’re already buried far below the surface. This island, and this spaceship, will be long gone before you can even think of taking off!”
He stared at Hannah. “You see,” he said, “Krakatoa, up there, it’s fighting back! Ten minutes until it explodes, right? That’s ten minutes until the drill hits the Earth’s crust!”
He turned back to the rather burnt looking monarch. “You are the perpetrators of Krakatoa’s eruption! How about that!” He laughed to himself.
“But I can help you!” he said kindly, “You, these slaves you’ve gotten for yourselves,” he pointed at where Adrianna was standing, “I can bring everyone home!”
“Home!” hissed the royal Kuyper. “We have not got a home, Time Lord! And that is your fault.”
The Doctor’s expression changed to that of fear. Hannah tried to get a reaction from him, to explain what was going on, but he was frozen, staring at the large Kuyper.
And then, the drill hit the crust. A horrible, primordial scream rang out. The ground shook and swayed.
“Our planet burned, Doctor. It burned in the first days of the Time War. We were reduced to nomads, wandering about the universe,” the king bent down slowly to look at the Doctor more closely, “And all because of you, Time Lord!”
The Doctor still made no movement. “Doctor, come on!” said Hannah, “We need to go, we need to save the others!”
The ground was shaking even more.
“We saw your ship, Doctor. We knew we had a Time Lord amongst us again, so we lured you here with your companion as bait.” Hannah now froze herself, having heard herself mentioned.
“We planned to kill you!” laughed the king, “But now that we will all die, this is a better fate for you!”
With that, the Kuypers all laughed and hissed manically. It was a terrifying sound. Hannah resumed tugging at the Doctor’s leather sleeve.
“Come on,” she said gently, “We have to escape.”
She looked into his eyes, and he returned the glance. “Please, Doctor,” she said. He nodded slowly.
The cavern they were in began to collapse. The king of the Kuypers’ scream of laughter turned to pain as rock and dirt poured down on him. And something else was falling down too…
It was the TARDIS.
“Adrianna!” yelled Hannah, “Come on!”
The Doctor rushed towards the TARDIS door, as Hannah helped Adrianna onto her feet. She had been knocked over by the force of the earthquake.
“We have to go get everyone else!” she cried desperately. Hannah could barely hear her words over the increased rumbling.
“Come on,” said Hannah, turning away from the TARDIS and running straight back into the Kuyper spaceship. The walls were crumbling as she and Adrianna hurried as fast as they could to the prison cells, leaving behind the Doctor and the TARDIS.
They were crouched and huddled together, preparing for the worst. They had only seconds to spare, and yet, somehow, managed to lead them back safely to the Doctor.
“Come on, everyone into the TARDIS!” yelled the Doctor, standing at the door. Hannah, Adrianna, and all the other slaves rushed into the box, barely even taking any consideration to it being bigger on the inside. Adrianna, finally safe, collapsed into a chair and fainted. Hannah did nearly the same.
Finally, it was over.
The Doctor paused briefly before he closed the door, staring up at the volcano as it spewed fire and smoke violently.
He looked across the beach, and it was then he saw a man. The Doctor knew it was only a vision, really. But he looked remarkably real.
The man, grey and bearded, old and tired, wearing his battered leather jacket and frayed scarf, looked at the Doctor with weary eyes, that even in their tiredness seemed to smile at him. He nodded at the Doctor with approval.
The Doctor turned away, and slammed the TARDIS door shut. The vision was no longer there. A wheezing, groaning noise, unintelligible over everything else, indicated the TARDIS’ dematerialization.
And then Krakatoa exploded.
****
Adrianna woke up, suddenly, sitting up in her bed.
Bed?
Yes, bed. She was in her bed, at home, in London. This was her bedroom, in her parent’s home, still painted in a faded white colour. And she was sitting up in her bed, made up with fresh new sheets and blankets. Not only that, but she was wearing her nightclothes too.
Had it been all a dream? The Doctor, Hannah, Krakatoa, the Kuypers...had she merely just dreamed it all in her head?
The sun was shining brightly through her silk curtains. Blearily, she got out of bed and crossed the creaky wooden floor of her room to the window. Then there was a knock at her door.
“Adrianna!” came a voice. She recognized it as her mother’s.
A short, middle aged woman in Victorian dress opened the door and peered in. “Oh, good,” she said, when she looked at Adrianna standing by the window, “You’re up! You’ve been sleeping in far too late, young lady!”
“Sorry...mother,” said Adrianna, even though she still didn’t feel like she’d slept at all. It had to have been a dream, right? Adrianna sighed. It probably was. A shame, it had been terribly good.
A noise was coming from outside her window. A low, groaning, wheezing sound.
“Now what’s that then?” asked her mother, joining Adrianna at the window and looking out, “Is that the neighbours again? Lord knows what they get up to over there, I dread to think…”
She tottered away, down the hall, while Adrianna just looked out the window in awe. She could have sworn she’d seen a police box, just like the one the Doctor had, disappearing into thin air.
No, she had to just be imagining things. But her mother heard it too.
Adrianna sighed as her mother’s voice sounded from down the hallway, calling her to get dressed and ready for the day. She stood to go, but noticed something she hadn’t before, lying on her writing desk on a pile of paper.
It was a drawing, and in it was a man with short hair and a leather jacket, standing in front of what appeared to be an erupting volcano. Adrianna turned the paper over. There were only two words on it, written in pen.
From Hannah.
Adrianna smiled to herself, before her mother’s voice once again snapped her back to reality.
****
“So, that’s it then?” asked Hannah.
“What’s it?” replied the Doctor.
Hannah leaned on the new console. “The Kuypers, whatever they are. Are they all gone?”
“Possibly,” said the Doctor, “They caused their own destruction in any case. Drilling to the Earth’s crust...when will people learn…”
He didn’t look up from his place at the controls, too concentrated on them. He didn’t seem to notice Hannah at all.
But Hannah still had questions.
“Doctor...what was the Time War?” That got his attention. The Doctor looked up from the controls, gravely.
“It was nothing,” he muttered.
“Tell me,” said Hannah, “Please. What those Kuypers said - it made it seem like you did something...terrible. I’d like to know.”
“You don’t need to know.”
“Well, if I’m going to be travelling with you for a bit, I ought to, I think.”
“Who said you’re going to be travelling with me?” The Doctor shot Hannah a disapproving glance.
Hannah felt her heart sink. Of course, she thought, of course he doesn’t want me. It was an accident that she’d ever stepped onto the TARDIS anyway.
“You almost died,” said the Doctor, “It’s just too dangerous for you.”
“And what,” snapped Hannah, “It’s not dangerous back in 1915? I was in the middle of a war zone!”
“It was nothing compared to the Time War,” scowled the Doctor, “Nothing!”
The Doctor backed away from the console, face in his hands. “Every place in every time was burning,” he said, his voice wavering with clear emotion, “Your war was tiny compared to the Time War! And I ended it. I burned everything. My people, the Time Lords, my enemies, the Daleks. I burned it all, blew it all up, ended it, because otherwise it would have destroyed the universe.”
Hannah felt herself overcome with emotion. She moved closer to the Doctor’s side, grasping his hand reassuringly.
The Doctor continued. “I was a coward. I let everyone die. I did nothing to save anyone! Anyone at all!”
“You saved all those people on Krakatoa,” said Hannah softly. “Even though everything was terrifying and worthless for them, you gave them hope. When I was captured, hearing of you inspired them to try and stand up, escape, and be free. That has to count for something, right?”
The Doctor sighed deeply. “I’ve just stopped being the Doctor,” he said, “I’ve broken all my own promises.”
“You save people,” said Hannah, “I’ve only known you for a bit and even I can see that. And you didn’t manage to save people on one day. But that doesn’t mean you’re a failure, right? I mean, you even offered to take the Kuypers and find them a planet, even after all they’d done!”
“You really don’t understand,” said the Doctor, “It wasn’t just ‘one failure’. It was much bigger than that.”
“Well, yes,” said Hannah, “It is a bit of a bigger deal, blowing up everything. But you can still be the Doctor now, can’t you? Even after all that? You can...heal.”
The Doctor tried to crack a smile, looking at Hannah with far less intensity and anger as he had done before. The kindness had returned to his eyes, which were welling up a bit.
“Thank you,” he said quietly.
Hannah smiled softly back at him. “You’re welcome.”
The Doctor strode around the console, palm resting on a large lever. “Where to then?” he asked with one of his characteristically huge grins.
“Weren’t you just going to take me home?” Hannah asked.
“Well, I was,” said the Doctor, grinning more wildly now, “Still am, I suppose. But perhaps we could take...the scenic route?”
It was Hannah’s turn to grin madly. “Seriously?” she excitedly said.
“I’ve been alone for far too long,” said the Doctor, “It would be good to have someone around for a bit. Keep me in check, so to speak. I mean, if you’d rather not…”
Hannah shot down that suggestion rather quickly. “The scenic route sounds...fantastic,” he grinned.
The Doctor pulled the lever. “Welcome aboard then, Hannah Gray!”
Hannah happily watched her new favourite sight of the central TARDIS column pistoning up and down, the wheezing and groaning of the ship accompanying its flight through the vortex of time and space.
“Love the coral look by the way,” she said. “Though I think I prefered those round things.”
“I’m sure I have more somewhere around. I’ll have a look for them one day…”
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