Planet of the Dead REVISED p.2
(Here's part 2, it was too long for one post, so I had to split it in half. Part 1 is here.)
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Still inside the alien ship's control room.
A gaseous nebula floats in the air, a hologram.
Doctor: "The Scorpion Nebula. We're just where you wanted, so far away." The scene changes to a beautiful green and blue globe. "The planet San Helios."
Christina: "That's us? We're on another world!"
Doctor: "We have been for quite a while."
Christina: "I know, but seeing it like that...."
Doctor: "It's good isn't it?"
Christina: "Wonderful."
The aliens click swiftly at them, explaining the images.
Doctor: (translating) "The Tritovores were going to trade with San Helios, a population of 100 billion. Plenty of waste matter for them to absorb."
Christina: "By waste matter, you mean..."
Doctor: "They feed off what others leave behind. It's perfectly natural, they are flies."
The hologram changes to a view of a beautiful alien city, lots of flying traffic, gorgeous buildings and lush gardens.
Doctor: "San Helios City."
Christina: "That's amazing. But, you've seen this sort of thing before, haven't you?"
Doctor: "Thousands of times."
Christina: "Where exactly are you a Lord of?"
Doctor: "Of Time. I'm from a race of people called Time Lords."
Christina: "You're an alien?"
Doctor: "Yeah."
Christina: "You look human."
Doctor: "You look Time Lord."
Christina: "Okay. So if that's San Helios, all we've got to do is find the city. They can help us."
Doctor: "I don't think it's that simple."
The aliens chatter at him excitedly, and change the view of the hologram. The city melts away into a view of the desert.
Doctor: "We're in the city, right now."
Christina: "But it's sand. That first image, the temples and things, what is that, ancient history?"
The aliens click at her, obviously answering.
Doctor: (translating) "The image was taken last year."
Christina: "It became a desert, in one year?"
The Doctor leans over and scoops up a handful of the ever present sand.
Doctor: "I said there was something in the sand." It trickles slowly through his fingers, grain by grain. "The city, the oceans, mountains, the wildlife, and a hundred billion people turned to sand. All those voices in Carmen's head, she's hearing them die." The sand drains away. "Something destroyed the whole of San Helios."
The cell phone rings, startling the Doctor out of his reflections. He answers.
Doctor: "Malcolm, tell me the bad news."
Malcolm: "Oh, you are clever. It is bad news. It's the wormhole, Doctor, it's getting bigger. We've gone way past 100 Bernhards, I haven't invented a name for that!"
Doctor: (his voice over the phone) "How did it get bigger by itself?"
Malcolm: "That's why I'm phoning. We don't know. We were hoping you did."
Captain Magumbo: "Doctor, we estimate the circumference of the wormhole is now 4 miles, heading upward. I've grounded all flights above London. We can't risk anyone else falling through."
Doctor: "Good work, both of you."
Captain Magumbo: "But, I have to know, does that wormhole constitute a danger to this planet?"
The Doctor's phone beeps.
Doctor: "Oops, call waiting, sorry, I've got to go."
Captain Magumbo: "Call waiting?"
Malcolm grins.
Doctor: (answering the call) "Yeah."
Nathan, on the bus, the others sitting around him.
Nathan: "Doctor, it's Nathan. We got those duckboard things down but..."
Angela: (distraught) "It's my fault."
Nathan: "No, it's not. Don't say that."
Doctor: (overhearing) "Why, what's happened?"
Nathan: "We kept on turning the engine, but we're out of petrol. Used all up. Even if we can get those wheels out, this bus is never gonna move."
Slowly, the Doctor hangs up the phone.
Christina: (warned by the look on his face) "What is it? What's wrong? Doctor, tell me, what did he say?"
An alarm goes off in the alien control room, they turn to look. The aliens are excited.
Doctor: "It's the probe, it's reached the storm."
The alien keeps clacking excitedly.
Christina: "What's he saying?"
Doctor: "It's not a storm."
__________
At the edge of the desert the probe flies into a massive front of flying alien creatures, stingrays, looping, flying, swirling over the desert sands. It transmits the image to the ship.
__________
Christina: "It's a swarm. Millions of them."
Doctor: "Billions."
They watch as the probe records the onrushing wave, billions of individual lifeforms, swooping past, until one swoops directly toward the camera, mouth open. And the signal cuts out.
Doctor: "We've lost the probe. I think it got eaten. Everything on this planet gets eaten."
Christina: "How far away is that swarm?"
Doctor: "About 200 miles, at that speed they'll be here in 40 minutes. Not much time."
The Fly aliens chatter agitatedly behind them.
Doctor: (answering) "No, no, no, they don't just want us. They want the wormhole."
Christina: "They're heading for Earth."
Doctor: "Show the analysis."
The Tritovore hits the controls and a holographic schematic of a stingray pops up, undulating in flight and rotating.
Doctor: (studying it) "Incredible. They swarm out of a wormhole, strip a planet bare, then move on to the next world and start their life cycle all over again."
Christina: "So, they make the wormholes?"
Doctor: "They must do."
Christina: "But how? They don't exactly look like technicians. And if the wormhole belongs to them, why are they hundreds of miles away?"
Doctor: (to the Tritovores) "Show the energy readings"
The Tritovore hit a switch, and a purple and jagged red aura appears around the image of the stingray.
Doctor: "I thought so."
Christina: "What?"
Doctor: "Each of those creatures is emitting a low level tachyon field. See? Not much, not enough to do anything on it's own. But the more they eat, the more they breed, until eventually you have millions of them, billions. Each one adding its energy to the whole, creating one huge tachyon field, until eventually they reach a critical mass. The tachyon field interacts with the planet's magnetic field and rips a hole in the fabric of reality. Probably wherever the planet's magnetic field is weakest."
Christina: "And the wormhole's getting bigger."
Doctor: "Because they're getting closer. The tachyon field is feeding the tear, ripping it wider."
Christina: "But how do they get through? That wormhole's a killer, we've seen it."
Doctor: "No, no, look, see the exoskeleton?"
Christina: "Metal?"
Doctor: "They've got bones of metal. They must eat metal and extrude it into the exoskeleton, So their energy field makes the wormhole, then their body makes it safe."
Christina."Those things are going to turn the entire Earth into a desert. So why are you smiling?"
Doctor: "Well, you've gotta admit, that's a beautiful design."
Christina: "You're mad."
Doctor: "So I've been told."
Christina: "The thing is, Doctor. You're missing the obvious."
Doctor: "Which is?"
Christina: "We came here through the wormhole, yes? But our Tritovore friends didn’t. They came here to trade with San Helios. So the question is, why did they crash?"
Doctor: "Good point." (turning to the Tritovores) "Like she said, why did you crash?"
__________
Tritovore engine room.
A Tritovore runs in, leading the Doctor and Christina.
Doctor: "Oh yes. Gravity well, look, goes all the way down to the engine." (to the Tritovore) "So what happened?"
The Tritovore clicks in answer.
Doctor: (translating) "He says the drive system stalled. Ten miles up they fell out of the sky." (to the Tritovore) "But what caused that?"
The alien shrugged.
Christina: "Which means, no idea."
Doctor: "Yeah. But, wait a minute, that's a crystal nucleus down there, yes?" Tritovore clicks an answer. "It looks like it survived the crash. If the crystal's intact... Oh yes! That's better than diesel."
Christina: "What? You can use the crystal to move the bus?"
Doctor: "I think so. The spaceship's a write off, but the 200's small enough."
Christina: "How does a crystal drive a bus?"
Doctor: "In a super clever, outer-spacey way. Just trust me." He brings up an image on the monitor. "There's the crystal, it's fallen to the bottom of the well. Have you got access shafts?" The Tritovore clicks an answer. "All frozen. Well, maybe I can open them. Christina, have you got a phone?"
Christina: "Of course." (she pulls out a bluetooth attachment out of her backpack and hands it to him.)
Doctor: (surprised) "Why didn't you tell me before?"
Christina: "You didn't ask."
Doctor: "Right." (he pulls out his phone) "What's your number?" (She took his phone and dials it in.) "Right," (he handed her headphone back) "You wear that. Keep an eye on the shaft. Tell me if anything happens." He runs out. Christina sits down on the lip of the well and puts on the bluetooth. She looks down into the shaft, and smiles.
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The Doctor and the Tritovore run back into the Tritovore control room.
Doctor: "If we can reroute the ventilation, we can use the heat outside to defrost the access hatches."
The Doctor tucks the phone between his ear and his shoulder.
Doctor: "Christina, if you see a panel opening in the shaft, let me know."
Christina: "Nothing yet." She starts buckling on her harness.
Doctor: (frantically cross circuiting systems) "Anything now?"
Christina: "Fraid not." She puts up her hair.
Doctor: "Any sign of movement?"
Christina: "Nope."
Doctor: "How's that?"
Christina: "Nothing." She hangs up her winch.
Doctor: "Any result?"
Christina: "Not a dickey-bird." She clips her lines to the winch, and to her harness. "So, let me get this right." She takes a small torch out of her backpack and tests it. "You need that crystal." She slips the torch in her belt and is ready. "Then consider it done."
Doctor: "Why? What do you mean?" He keeps examining the connector he is using. Suddenly he realizes something is wrong. "Christina?" She is a woman who could do anything, he's had companions like that before. "Christina!" He runs for the engine room.
She stands at the lip of the well, prepared to jump.
Christina: "The aristocracy survives for a reason." She looks over her shoulder as the Doctor bursts into the room. "We're ready for anything." She spreads her arms and falls.
Doctor: "No!"
The winch unreels and she flies down the shaft. The Doctor whips out the sonic screwdriver and sonics the winch.
Doctor: "Come on, come on, come on." The winch stops. "That's better."
Down below Christina jerks to a halt.
Christina: "I decide when I stop, thank you."
Doctor: "You were about to hit the security grid. Look."
A blue energy grid crackles just beneath her.
Christina: "Excellent. So what do I do?"
Doctor: "You come back up. I can do that."
Christina: "You wish. Now how do I deactivate this thing?"
Doctor: (resigned) "I'll do it from here. But go slowly." The Doctor works the Tritovore control panel and the grid disappears.
Christina: "Yes sir." She dives slowly downward.
Doctor: "Not much of a listener, are you? Lady Christina de Souza. Carrying a winch in her bag."
Christina: "No stranger than you, 'Time Lord'. I meant to ask, why Time Lord? That's a funny name for a race. How can you be a lord of Time?"
Doctor: "It's because my people developed time travel, eons ago." He started idly going through her backpack."You vacation in the Kalahari. I vacation in history," he finds the cup and pulls it out, "such as in the Court of King Athelstan in 924 A.D. It's funny though, I don't remember you being there. So what are you doing with this?"
Christina: "Excuse me. But a gentleman never goes through a lady's possessions."
The Tritovore asked the Doctor a question.
Doctor: "It's the Cup of Athelstan. It was given to the first king of Britain as a coronation gift from Howell, King of the Welch. It's been held in the International Gallery for 200 years. Which makes you, Lady Christina," he said, talking into his cell phone, "a thief."
Christina: "I like to think I liberated it."
Doctor: "Don't tell me you need the money."
Christina: "Daddy lost everything, invested his fortune in the Icelandic banks."
Doctor: "No, no, no, no, if you're short of cash you rob a bank. Stealing this, that's a lifestyle."
Christina: "I take it you disapprove."
Doctor: "Absolutely. Except, my time machine, I stole that from my own people."
Christina: "Good boy."
An alien, animal scream echoes up the well.
Christina: "What the blazes was that?"
Doctor: "We never did find out why the ship crashed. Christina, I think you should come back up."
Christina: "Too late, I can see it." Below her the crystal glows in its frame.
Doctor: (to the Tritovore) "Do you have an open vent system?" The Tritovore agreed. "I thought so."
Christina: (reaching the open well at the bottom) "What does that mean?"
Doctor: "It's like when birds fly into the engine of an aircraft."
Below, Christina hears a loud, aspirating hiss. And turns to look, still hanging upside down.
Christina: "One of the creatures."
Doctor: "Got caught in the vents, caused the crash. Christina get out!"
Christina: (watching it) "It's not moving. I think it's injured."
Doctor: "No, it's dormant because it's so cold down there."
Christina: "But it's not cold."
Doctor: (wiping his face in dismay) "That's what I was trying to do, open the ventilation to let in the heat. Get out. Now! Before it wakes up!"
Christina: (fumbling with the crystal) "But I've almost got it."
Doctor: "Don't waste time removing the crystal, just grab the whole plate thing."
Christina: (stretching) "Got it!"
The creature wakes up and the Doctor activates the winch at the same time. Christina rises, just as the stingray lunges after her. She rights herself in the harness, aiming upward, clutching the crystal plate to her chest. The monster flies up after her. The Doctor runs for the Tritovore controls.
Doctor: (watching on the monitor) "Come on, come on, come on. It's going to try to eat her!" Christina arrows up the shaft with the monster rocketing and rebounding below her. It gets too close, snapping at her leg. She kicks it in the nose, knocking it back just enough. The Doctor activates the security grid between them. The monster crashes into it, and is electrocuted. "Oh, she's good."
Christina pops up above the shaft. The Doctor grabs her.
Doctor: "That's it, that's it. I've got you." He helps her to the edge, where she hands the crystal assembly to the Tritovore. He clicks at her, the Doctor translates. "He's impressed."
They all ran back to the control room.
_______
In the control room.
Doctor: (to the Tritovore) "Commander, we should get going now. We need to get back to the 200, all of us."
The Tritovore glocked at him.
Doctor: "Oh, don't be so daft. A Captain can abandon his ship, if there's a bus standing by."
There was a sudden crash and a roar.
Christina: "What the hell was that? Is this place safe?" (realizing) "It's the creature, it's not dead."
The Tritovores start talking.
Doctor: "Maybe you didn't hit just one of them. If you hit a swarm ..."
Christina: "Do you mean, if there's more on board?"
Doctor: "This ship is build inside a metal sleeve. They can move through the infrastructure all around us. And those things wake up hungry. Commander, you've gotta come with us, right now!"
Christina: "Come back to Earth with us."
Doctor: "From there I can get you home. Come on!"
The Commander follows them, but his Second stays for a moment to grab something. There is an almighty crash and one of the swarm drops through the ceiling. Debris knocks the Second down, before he can recover the swarm creature eats him. The Commander advances in outrage, weapon raised.
Doctor: "No, don't!" The Doctor grabs him, and the Commander changes his mind. They all run, the cluttered corridors serving in their favor as they duck and dodge where the swarm creature can't get through.
They burst out into the desert, running as fast as they can. The swarm storms up over the horizon behind them. They have only minutes left. The sound of the swarm's tachyon emissions and flight sound like wind and thunder. The passengers on the bus jump up from their heat stupor.
Angela: "What sort of storm is that?"
The swarm seeths across the desert, as the Doctor, Christina, and the Tritovore run for safety.
Carmen: "Run, run, run, run, run!"
The fleeing party runs headlong down a dune, struggling to retain their feet as they run for their lives.
The Doctor's phone rings. He answers it.
Malcolm: (on Earth) "Doctor, I ..."
Doctor: (into phone) "Not now, Malcolm!" He hangs up.
Malcolm: (staring at the phone) "Fair dues." (to Captain Magumbo) "He's a busy man."
The Doctor's party crests the last dune and sprints for the bus.
Nathan: (with Barkley at the door.) "At last! Where have you been?" He stares at the Tritovore. "And what's that?"
Doctor: "He's a friend. Get inside, get strapped down."
The boys run back aboard. The Tritovore steps aboard and everyone gasps and flinches back as he finds a seat.
Outside, the Doctor examines the crystal assembly, disengaging the crystal.
Christina: "What does that crystal do?"
Doctor: "Oh nothing," he tosses it away. "We don't need the crystal."
Christina: "I risked my life for that!"
Doctor: "No, no, you risked your life for these." He takes apart the assembly. "The clamps." He runs around the bus, placing a clamp on each wheel. "One there. One there. One there. One there." They run into the bus and the Doctor takes over the driver's seat.
Christina: "What are the clamps for? Do they turn the wheels?"
Doctor: "Something like that. Have you got a hammer in that bag?" He startes rigging the center of the assembly to the steering wheel.
Christina: "Funnily enough." She hands him a hammer. He hands her the phone. "Press redial."
She dials and holds the phone to his ear.
Doctor: "Malcolm, it's me."
Malcolm: "I'm ready!"
Doctor: "For what?"
Malcolm: "I don't know, you tell me!"
Doctor: "I'm going to try to get back. But listen, there might be something following us. You need to find a way to close the wormhole."
Malcolm: "Would that be a compressed burst of counter oscillation feedback perchance?"
Doctor: "Oh, Malcolm, you're brilliant."
Malcolm: "Coming from you sir that means the world."
Captain Magumbo: "Doctor, what sort of something? That wormhole is now measuring 10 miles and growing. I need to know the exact nature of the threat."
Doctor: "Sorry, gotta go." He hangs up.
Captain Magumbo: (irritated) "All troops, mobilize and stand ready. Possible Code Red: Unknown."
Sergeant: (outside, receiving the order) "Understood." He mobilizes his troops around the tunnel. "Code Red! Repeat, Code Red! Positions!" Soldiers scramble to the ready.
__________
Back on the bus.
The Doctor finishes his modifications, but the control assembly fizzles out and refuses to work.
Doctor: (frustrated) "Ah! It's not compatible. They're designed for two different energy systems. I need something to fuse the two together."
Christina: "And how do you do that?"
Doctor: "I need something conductive, something malleable, something ductile, something ... Gold!
Christina: "Oh, no you don't"
Doctor: "Christina, what is it worth now?
Barkley: (running up) "Hey, hey, use this!" He offers his watch.
Doctor: "That's too much of an alloy. I need something purer. Christina." He stares her down, and she struggles, but eventually reaches down into her backpack and pulles out the Cup of Athelstan.
Christina: "It's over a thousand years old, worth eighteen million pounds, promise me you'll be careful."
Doctor: "I promise."
He takes the cup carefully, turns it upside down, and begins hammering a chunk out of it.
Christina: "I hate you."
_____________
Back on Earth, in the scientific van, Malcolm finishes his calculations.
Malcolm: "Done it. Transmit that, and the wormhole should close."
Captain Magumbo: "Then do it."
Malcolm: "After the Doctor's come through, obviously."
Captain Magumbo: "I'm sorry. Believe me. But that wormhole constitutes a major threat, and I have a duty to every man, woman, and child on this planet. It's got to be closed immediately."
Malcolm: (muttering) "No, no, no."
Captain Magumbo: "That's an order."
Malcolm: "No. We can't just abandon him! How many times has the Doctor saved our lives? I won't let you, ma'am. I simply won't."
She pulls a gun and aims it at his head.
Captain Magumbo: "Right now, soldier."
___________
Back on the bus, in the desert.
The Doctor finishes his repairs.
Doctor: "This is your driver speaking. Hold on tight."
Barkley: "Why? What's he doing?"
Christina: "Do as he says." She turns back to the Doctor, who's trying to start the engine. "What are you doing?"
Doctor: (encouraging the bus as it starts) "Come on! You can do it. One last trip."
The bus starts shaking, the sound of dynamos whirring, everyone is holding on tight.
The bus shifts, tilts, and lifts up into the air.
Barkley: "Woah! Look at that! Oh, you are so kidding me!"
The Doctor keeps lifting the bus, going higher and higher as the passengers freak out.
Nathan: "We're flying! It's flying!"
Lou: "He's flying the bus."
Angela: "It's a miracle."
The Tritovore chatters excitedly.
The Doctor lifts them up over the highest dunes
Christina: "What's happening? How are you doing this?"
Doctor: "Antigravity clamps. Didn't I say?"
Christina: "But, do we need to be going this high? The wormhole's down there."
Doctor: "Just gaining a little height to see if we can get a bearing on the swarm."
They rise over the last dune, and there's the swarm, immediately in front of them.
Carmen: "Doctor! They're coming!"
Doctor: "Right! Everybody hang on!"
The Doctor wheeles the bus, guns it, and swoops down through the wormhole just above the sands. The light dims, distortion kicks in, bright light. And the bus bursts out of the wormhole at the tunnel, swooping up and over the heads of the UNIT forces, clearing their line of fire. The soldiers and police watch in amazement.
Barkley: "It's nighttime."
Angela: "We're back home!"
Nathan: "He did it. He did it!"
They flew over night time London, the Doctor steering the bus in a lazy circle, heading back toward the tunnel, and UNIT.
The Sergeant, on the ground, runs toward the scientific van.
Sergeant: "Captain!" He pounds on the door. "Captain, they're back! It's the bus, ma'am, it's come back. And it's flying!"
Inside, Captain Magumbo lowers the gun she's holding on Malcolm. She turns and runs outside, scanning the sky, just in time to see three of the swarm burst through the wormhole.
Captain Magumbo: "Code Red! Fire at will!"
The soldiers open fire at the flying stingrays. The stingrays swoop and dive at them.
Sergeant: "Concentrate your fire!"
As the battle rages outside, the phone rings inside Malcolm's van.
Doctor: (on the phone) "Malcolm, close that wormhole."
Malcolm: "Yes sir." He sits down at his keyboard, much relieved, and presses F8. The circuits spark and burn. "No, no!" He grabs a fire extinguisher and pust out the fire, trying desperately to salvage something. The battle rages outside.
Doctor (yelling out of the phone on the desk) "Malcolm, I need that signal."
Malcolm picks up the phone.
Malcolm: "It's not working, the computer overloaded!
Doctor: "Malcolm, I need that signal. We've got billions of those things about to fly through."
Malcolm: "Well, what do I do?"
Doctor: "You'll have to do it on manual. Loop it back through the integrator and keep the signal ramping up."
Malcolm: "By how much?"
Doctor: (annoyed) "500 Bernhards. Do it! Now!"
Malcolm puts the signal through, it builds, screaming upward, the wormhole wavers and collapses.
Malcolm: "Yes!"
The other billion of the swarm just miss it as the wormhole closes on San Helios.
On Earth the UNIT troops keep fighting as the three of the swarm who got through continue to try to eat them. The soldiers fight with automatic gunfire, anti-aircraft guns, and the occasional rifle butt as the creatures get too close trying to take a bite.
Captain Magumbo: "Target at 9 o’clock!"
Anti-aircraft guns fire and take down two of the creatures.
Captain Magumbo: "I don't believe it. Guns that work!"
The last of the creatures flies higher, going after the bus which is circling the area.
Nathan: "Doctor, it's coming for us!"
The passengers all scream as it bears down on them. The Tritovore Commander clacks angrily and throws his useless gun at it. The monster eats it and keeps coming.
Doctor: "Oh, no you don't"
The Doctor spins the bus and kicks the monster with the back fender.
Captain Magumbo: "12 o'clock, take it out!"
All UNIT focuses on the beast, peppering it with shots. An anti-aircraft shell hits it and knocks it out of the sky.
Captain Magumbo: "Cease fire. Arms down."
Up on the bus everyone is clapping and crying with relief.
Christina: (to the Doctor) "Did I say I hated you? I was lying. Thank you." Then she flirts an eyebrow at him. "But you still owe me a gold cup."
The Doctor grins back at her and wheels the bus through a jaunty curve.
Doctor: "Ladies and Gentlemen, you have reached your final destination. Welcome home."
The Doctor rings the bus bell as the bus comes down. All the UNIT personnel stop work to stare as the big, red, double-decker bus comes in for a landing.
The Doctor lands the bus at the mouth of the tunnel, in the midst of UNIT's forces. He opens the doors and all the passengers laugh and cry with relief as they scramble to disembark.
The UNIT soldiers shake off their awe and scramble back to their jobs, securing the stingrays corpses, powering down weapons and surrounding the bus, herding the passengers to one side, getting down to the business of cleanup.
Sergeant: "Welcome back everyone. Step away from the bus, just to be safe. As fast as you can, thank you. As standard Procedure we need to screen you, and then you'll all be taken for debriefing."
The Doctor and the Tritovore are nearly the last off the bus.
The Doctor flashes his psychic paper credentials at the Sergeant. "Not me. I don't count." Rifles cock and come up as the soldiers see the alien behind the Doctor. "And neither does he!" The Doctor jumps in front of the alien. "He's with me. Come on." He leads the Tritovore commander away as Lady Christina protests behind him.
Christina: "Oh, but Doctor!"
Sergeant: (grabbing her arm) "This way, please." He escorts her off to the side with the others.
The Doctor walks up to Captain Magumbo, but before he can say anything Malcolm comes rushing out, grinning, and starts shaking his hand.
Doctor: "You must be Malcolm."
Malcolm: (grinning like a maniac) "I've always wanted to meet you, Doctor, and shake your hand." The Doctor looks down wryly to where Malcolm is still shaking his hand.
Doctor: "For what?" the Doctor asks, as the grinning scientific adviser fails to realize he's wringing the Time Lord's arm off.
Malcolm: "For still having a planet to live on, for a start." Malcolm grins like a star struck groupie.
Captain Magumbo: "To your station, Dr. Taylor."
Malcolm comes to with a start.
Malcolm: "Yes ma'am." He gave the Doctor's hand one final wring. "It's been an honor to work with you, Doctor."
Doctor: "And you too, Malcolm."
Malcolm wanders off back to his lab. He stops a passing soldier.
Malcolm: "I shook the Doctor's hand!" he boasts. The soldier looks at the starstruck advisor, then over at the Doctor and the silent alien who is standing behind him. He grins back at the grinning Doctor and goes on about his work.
Captain Magumbo: "Doctor, I salute you, whether you like it or not." She salutes, he grimaces. She grins and put her hand down. "Now, I assume we're safe from those things?"
Doctor: "They'll start again, generate a new doorway. It's not their fault, it's their natural lifecycle. And only a few were lost. The wormhole would have started to destabilize anyway, once enough had gone through, some would end up in deep space, or falling into suns. But enough could get through to be a problem. I'll set up a guard program, nudge the wormholes onto uninhabited planets."
He leans back against a car, looking at the line of passengers being examined.
Doctor: "Closer to home, see that these people are well taken care of. They helped save the world today, even if it was to save themselves."
Captain Magumbo: "I'll see what I can do. And, I've got something for you." She gestures, and two soldiers pull down a tarp, revealing the Tardis.
Doctor: (strides over to it, laughing) "Oh, ho, better than a bus any day, hello old girl."
Captain Magumbo: "We found it in the gardens at Buckingham Palace."
Doctor: "Oh, she doesn't mind."
Captain Magumbo: "What about him?" She nods to the Tritovore, who had silently followed along behind the Doctor, among all these humans.
Doctor: "He's not your problem." He addresses the Tritovore, "Commander," he unlocks the Tardis door and holds it open. "If you'll just step in here. It'll take me a few minutes to wrap up some loose ends, then I'll take you home." The alien steps gratefully into the Tardis, the Doctor shuts the door.
Captain Magumbo: "Now, I've got three dead alien stingrays to clear up. I don't suppose you fancy helping with the paperwork?"
Doctor: "Not a chance."
Captain Magumbo: (laughing) "Until we meet again, Doctor."
Doctor: (shaking her hand) "I hope so."
__________
Over in the passenger line, Angela is on the phone, Nathan beside her.
Angela: (into phone) "It's me, I'm back, Suzanne. I'm home." She laughs and turns to Nathan. "She didn't even know I was gone."
Christina: (a UNIT soldier in radiation gear, beeps over her with a Geiger counter) "That's quite enough of that!" She runs out of the line and over to the Doctor.
Detective: (seeing her) "She is not getting away this time."
Christina: (coming up to the Doctor at the Tardis) "So, is this your spaceship then? It doesn't look very spacey."
Doctor: "You'd be surprised."
Christina: "Right then. Off we go."
Doctor: "No."
Christina: "What?"
Doctor: "I said no."
Christina: "But I saved your life, and you saved mine."
Doctor: "So?"
Christina: "We're surrounded by police. I'll go to prison."
Doctor: "Yeah."
Christina: "But you were right, it's not about money. I only steal things for the adventure and today, with you, I want every day to be like this." He simply looked at her. "Why not?"
Doctor: "People have traveled with me and I've lost them. Never again."
The Detective arrives.
Detective: "Lady Christina de Souza, I have waited a long time to say this, I am arresting you on suspicion of theft. You do not have to say anything. Etc. Etc. Dennison, take her away." The police handcuff her and take her away, the Doctor watches, stony-faced.
All the other passengers watch, solemnly, as Christina is taken away, the police lead her to the last line of police cars, beyond the UNIT barricades.
Detective: "And I should arrest you as well, for aiding and abetting!" He points at the Doctor, and waves a hand at the other passengers. He stares mulishly at all the UNIT soldiers, who have gone silent, and obviously aren't about to let that happen. "Bah!" He waves an angry hand at them all and stalks off.
Everyone watches as the Detective supervises the loading of his prisoner into a squad car. The Doctor leans casually around the edge of the Tardis, and takes careful aim with the sonic screwdriver. With a quick buzz, Christina's handcuff's flick open as she is pushed into the squad car. With a surprised look, and a grin at the Doctor through the window, she scoots across the seat, and right out the other side of the car. Before the police know what is happening, she sprints across the remaining lanes of traffic, rolls over the edge of the embankment, and is gone. A group of policemen chase after her. All her fellow passengers laugh and cheer.
The Doctor smiles and pockets the sonic screwdriver, and gives the rude and fuming Detective an arch look. The Detective stomps off.
The Doctor turns around. Soldiers are escorting Lou and Carmen past, to a trailer for debriefing.
Carmen: "You take care now, Doctor."
Doctor: "You too, Carmen. Chops and gravy, lovely."
Carmen: (ominous) "No, you be careful, because your song is ending, sir."
Doctor: (serious) "What do you mean?"
Carmen: (prophesying, each word a lead weight) "It is returning. It is returning through the dark."
The Doctor stares.
Carmen: "And then, Doctor, oh, but then... He will knock four times."
Fade out.
Chapter End Notes:
Let me know what you think. Thanks.
______________
Still inside the alien ship's control room.
A gaseous nebula floats in the air, a hologram.
Doctor: "The Scorpion Nebula. We're just where you wanted, so far away." The scene changes to a beautiful green and blue globe. "The planet San Helios."
Christina: "That's us? We're on another world!"
Doctor: "We have been for quite a while."
Christina: "I know, but seeing it like that...."
Doctor: "It's good isn't it?"
Christina: "Wonderful."
The aliens click swiftly at them, explaining the images.
Doctor: (translating) "The Tritovores were going to trade with San Helios, a population of 100 billion. Plenty of waste matter for them to absorb."
Christina: "By waste matter, you mean..."
Doctor: "They feed off what others leave behind. It's perfectly natural, they are flies."
The hologram changes to a view of a beautiful alien city, lots of flying traffic, gorgeous buildings and lush gardens.
Doctor: "San Helios City."
Christina: "That's amazing. But, you've seen this sort of thing before, haven't you?"
Doctor: "Thousands of times."
Christina: "Where exactly are you a Lord of?"
Doctor: "Of Time. I'm from a race of people called Time Lords."
Christina: "You're an alien?"
Doctor: "Yeah."
Christina: "You look human."
Doctor: "You look Time Lord."
Christina: "Okay. So if that's San Helios, all we've got to do is find the city. They can help us."
Doctor: "I don't think it's that simple."
The aliens chatter at him excitedly, and change the view of the hologram. The city melts away into a view of the desert.
Doctor: "We're in the city, right now."
Christina: "But it's sand. That first image, the temples and things, what is that, ancient history?"
The aliens click at her, obviously answering.
Doctor: (translating) "The image was taken last year."
Christina: "It became a desert, in one year?"
The Doctor leans over and scoops up a handful of the ever present sand.
Doctor: "I said there was something in the sand." It trickles slowly through his fingers, grain by grain. "The city, the oceans, mountains, the wildlife, and a hundred billion people turned to sand. All those voices in Carmen's head, she's hearing them die." The sand drains away. "Something destroyed the whole of San Helios."
The cell phone rings, startling the Doctor out of his reflections. He answers.
Doctor: "Malcolm, tell me the bad news."
Malcolm: "Oh, you are clever. It is bad news. It's the wormhole, Doctor, it's getting bigger. We've gone way past 100 Bernhards, I haven't invented a name for that!"
Doctor: (his voice over the phone) "How did it get bigger by itself?"
Malcolm: "That's why I'm phoning. We don't know. We were hoping you did."
Captain Magumbo: "Doctor, we estimate the circumference of the wormhole is now 4 miles, heading upward. I've grounded all flights above London. We can't risk anyone else falling through."
Doctor: "Good work, both of you."
Captain Magumbo: "But, I have to know, does that wormhole constitute a danger to this planet?"
The Doctor's phone beeps.
Doctor: "Oops, call waiting, sorry, I've got to go."
Captain Magumbo: "Call waiting?"
Malcolm grins.
Doctor: (answering the call) "Yeah."
Nathan, on the bus, the others sitting around him.
Nathan: "Doctor, it's Nathan. We got those duckboard things down but..."
Angela: (distraught) "It's my fault."
Nathan: "No, it's not. Don't say that."
Doctor: (overhearing) "Why, what's happened?"
Nathan: "We kept on turning the engine, but we're out of petrol. Used all up. Even if we can get those wheels out, this bus is never gonna move."
Slowly, the Doctor hangs up the phone.
Christina: (warned by the look on his face) "What is it? What's wrong? Doctor, tell me, what did he say?"
An alarm goes off in the alien control room, they turn to look. The aliens are excited.
Doctor: "It's the probe, it's reached the storm."
The alien keeps clacking excitedly.
Christina: "What's he saying?"
Doctor: "It's not a storm."
__________
At the edge of the desert the probe flies into a massive front of flying alien creatures, stingrays, looping, flying, swirling over the desert sands. It transmits the image to the ship.
__________
Christina: "It's a swarm. Millions of them."
Doctor: "Billions."
They watch as the probe records the onrushing wave, billions of individual lifeforms, swooping past, until one swoops directly toward the camera, mouth open. And the signal cuts out.
Doctor: "We've lost the probe. I think it got eaten. Everything on this planet gets eaten."
Christina: "How far away is that swarm?"
Doctor: "About 200 miles, at that speed they'll be here in 40 minutes. Not much time."
The Fly aliens chatter agitatedly behind them.
Doctor: (answering) "No, no, no, they don't just want us. They want the wormhole."
Christina: "They're heading for Earth."
Doctor: "Show the analysis."
The Tritovore hits the controls and a holographic schematic of a stingray pops up, undulating in flight and rotating.
Doctor: (studying it) "Incredible. They swarm out of a wormhole, strip a planet bare, then move on to the next world and start their life cycle all over again."
Christina: "So, they make the wormholes?"
Doctor: "They must do."
Christina: "But how? They don't exactly look like technicians. And if the wormhole belongs to them, why are they hundreds of miles away?"
Doctor: (to the Tritovores) "Show the energy readings"
The Tritovore hit a switch, and a purple and jagged red aura appears around the image of the stingray.
Doctor: "I thought so."
Christina: "What?"
Doctor: "Each of those creatures is emitting a low level tachyon field. See? Not much, not enough to do anything on it's own. But the more they eat, the more they breed, until eventually you have millions of them, billions. Each one adding its energy to the whole, creating one huge tachyon field, until eventually they reach a critical mass. The tachyon field interacts with the planet's magnetic field and rips a hole in the fabric of reality. Probably wherever the planet's magnetic field is weakest."
Christina: "And the wormhole's getting bigger."
Doctor: "Because they're getting closer. The tachyon field is feeding the tear, ripping it wider."
Christina: "But how do they get through? That wormhole's a killer, we've seen it."
Doctor: "No, no, look, see the exoskeleton?"
Christina: "Metal?"
Doctor: "They've got bones of metal. They must eat metal and extrude it into the exoskeleton, So their energy field makes the wormhole, then their body makes it safe."
Christina."Those things are going to turn the entire Earth into a desert. So why are you smiling?"
Doctor: "Well, you've gotta admit, that's a beautiful design."
Christina: "You're mad."
Doctor: "So I've been told."
Christina: "The thing is, Doctor. You're missing the obvious."
Doctor: "Which is?"
Christina: "We came here through the wormhole, yes? But our Tritovore friends didn’t. They came here to trade with San Helios. So the question is, why did they crash?"
Doctor: "Good point." (turning to the Tritovores) "Like she said, why did you crash?"
__________
Tritovore engine room.
A Tritovore runs in, leading the Doctor and Christina.
Doctor: "Oh yes. Gravity well, look, goes all the way down to the engine." (to the Tritovore) "So what happened?"
The Tritovore clicks in answer.
Doctor: (translating) "He says the drive system stalled. Ten miles up they fell out of the sky." (to the Tritovore) "But what caused that?"
The alien shrugged.
Christina: "Which means, no idea."
Doctor: "Yeah. But, wait a minute, that's a crystal nucleus down there, yes?" Tritovore clicks an answer. "It looks like it survived the crash. If the crystal's intact... Oh yes! That's better than diesel."
Christina: "What? You can use the crystal to move the bus?"
Doctor: "I think so. The spaceship's a write off, but the 200's small enough."
Christina: "How does a crystal drive a bus?"
Doctor: "In a super clever, outer-spacey way. Just trust me." He brings up an image on the monitor. "There's the crystal, it's fallen to the bottom of the well. Have you got access shafts?" The Tritovore clicks an answer. "All frozen. Well, maybe I can open them. Christina, have you got a phone?"
Christina: "Of course." (she pulls out a bluetooth attachment out of her backpack and hands it to him.)
Doctor: (surprised) "Why didn't you tell me before?"
Christina: "You didn't ask."
Doctor: "Right." (he pulls out his phone) "What's your number?" (She took his phone and dials it in.) "Right," (he handed her headphone back) "You wear that. Keep an eye on the shaft. Tell me if anything happens." He runs out. Christina sits down on the lip of the well and puts on the bluetooth. She looks down into the shaft, and smiles.
____________
The Doctor and the Tritovore run back into the Tritovore control room.
Doctor: "If we can reroute the ventilation, we can use the heat outside to defrost the access hatches."
The Doctor tucks the phone between his ear and his shoulder.
Doctor: "Christina, if you see a panel opening in the shaft, let me know."
Christina: "Nothing yet." She starts buckling on her harness.
Doctor: (frantically cross circuiting systems) "Anything now?"
Christina: "Fraid not." She puts up her hair.
Doctor: "Any sign of movement?"
Christina: "Nope."
Doctor: "How's that?"
Christina: "Nothing." She hangs up her winch.
Doctor: "Any result?"
Christina: "Not a dickey-bird." She clips her lines to the winch, and to her harness. "So, let me get this right." She takes a small torch out of her backpack and tests it. "You need that crystal." She slips the torch in her belt and is ready. "Then consider it done."
Doctor: "Why? What do you mean?" He keeps examining the connector he is using. Suddenly he realizes something is wrong. "Christina?" She is a woman who could do anything, he's had companions like that before. "Christina!" He runs for the engine room.
She stands at the lip of the well, prepared to jump.
Christina: "The aristocracy survives for a reason." She looks over her shoulder as the Doctor bursts into the room. "We're ready for anything." She spreads her arms and falls.
Doctor: "No!"
The winch unreels and she flies down the shaft. The Doctor whips out the sonic screwdriver and sonics the winch.
Doctor: "Come on, come on, come on." The winch stops. "That's better."
Down below Christina jerks to a halt.
Christina: "I decide when I stop, thank you."
Doctor: "You were about to hit the security grid. Look."
A blue energy grid crackles just beneath her.
Christina: "Excellent. So what do I do?"
Doctor: "You come back up. I can do that."
Christina: "You wish. Now how do I deactivate this thing?"
Doctor: (resigned) "I'll do it from here. But go slowly." The Doctor works the Tritovore control panel and the grid disappears.
Christina: "Yes sir." She dives slowly downward.
Doctor: "Not much of a listener, are you? Lady Christina de Souza. Carrying a winch in her bag."
Christina: "No stranger than you, 'Time Lord'. I meant to ask, why Time Lord? That's a funny name for a race. How can you be a lord of Time?"
Doctor: "It's because my people developed time travel, eons ago." He started idly going through her backpack."You vacation in the Kalahari. I vacation in history," he finds the cup and pulls it out, "such as in the Court of King Athelstan in 924 A.D. It's funny though, I don't remember you being there. So what are you doing with this?"
Christina: "Excuse me. But a gentleman never goes through a lady's possessions."
The Tritovore asked the Doctor a question.
Doctor: "It's the Cup of Athelstan. It was given to the first king of Britain as a coronation gift from Howell, King of the Welch. It's been held in the International Gallery for 200 years. Which makes you, Lady Christina," he said, talking into his cell phone, "a thief."
Christina: "I like to think I liberated it."
Doctor: "Don't tell me you need the money."
Christina: "Daddy lost everything, invested his fortune in the Icelandic banks."
Doctor: "No, no, no, no, if you're short of cash you rob a bank. Stealing this, that's a lifestyle."
Christina: "I take it you disapprove."
Doctor: "Absolutely. Except, my time machine, I stole that from my own people."
Christina: "Good boy."
An alien, animal scream echoes up the well.
Christina: "What the blazes was that?"
Doctor: "We never did find out why the ship crashed. Christina, I think you should come back up."
Christina: "Too late, I can see it." Below her the crystal glows in its frame.
Doctor: (to the Tritovore) "Do you have an open vent system?" The Tritovore agreed. "I thought so."
Christina: (reaching the open well at the bottom) "What does that mean?"
Doctor: "It's like when birds fly into the engine of an aircraft."
Below, Christina hears a loud, aspirating hiss. And turns to look, still hanging upside down.
Christina: "One of the creatures."
Doctor: "Got caught in the vents, caused the crash. Christina get out!"
Christina: (watching it) "It's not moving. I think it's injured."
Doctor: "No, it's dormant because it's so cold down there."
Christina: "But it's not cold."
Doctor: (wiping his face in dismay) "That's what I was trying to do, open the ventilation to let in the heat. Get out. Now! Before it wakes up!"
Christina: (fumbling with the crystal) "But I've almost got it."
Doctor: "Don't waste time removing the crystal, just grab the whole plate thing."
Christina: (stretching) "Got it!"
The creature wakes up and the Doctor activates the winch at the same time. Christina rises, just as the stingray lunges after her. She rights herself in the harness, aiming upward, clutching the crystal plate to her chest. The monster flies up after her. The Doctor runs for the Tritovore controls.
Doctor: (watching on the monitor) "Come on, come on, come on. It's going to try to eat her!" Christina arrows up the shaft with the monster rocketing and rebounding below her. It gets too close, snapping at her leg. She kicks it in the nose, knocking it back just enough. The Doctor activates the security grid between them. The monster crashes into it, and is electrocuted. "Oh, she's good."
Christina pops up above the shaft. The Doctor grabs her.
Doctor: "That's it, that's it. I've got you." He helps her to the edge, where she hands the crystal assembly to the Tritovore. He clicks at her, the Doctor translates. "He's impressed."
They all ran back to the control room.
_______
In the control room.
Doctor: (to the Tritovore) "Commander, we should get going now. We need to get back to the 200, all of us."
The Tritovore glocked at him.
Doctor: "Oh, don't be so daft. A Captain can abandon his ship, if there's a bus standing by."
There was a sudden crash and a roar.
Christina: "What the hell was that? Is this place safe?" (realizing) "It's the creature, it's not dead."
The Tritovores start talking.
Doctor: "Maybe you didn't hit just one of them. If you hit a swarm ..."
Christina: "Do you mean, if there's more on board?"
Doctor: "This ship is build inside a metal sleeve. They can move through the infrastructure all around us. And those things wake up hungry. Commander, you've gotta come with us, right now!"
Christina: "Come back to Earth with us."
Doctor: "From there I can get you home. Come on!"
The Commander follows them, but his Second stays for a moment to grab something. There is an almighty crash and one of the swarm drops through the ceiling. Debris knocks the Second down, before he can recover the swarm creature eats him. The Commander advances in outrage, weapon raised.
Doctor: "No, don't!" The Doctor grabs him, and the Commander changes his mind. They all run, the cluttered corridors serving in their favor as they duck and dodge where the swarm creature can't get through.
They burst out into the desert, running as fast as they can. The swarm storms up over the horizon behind them. They have only minutes left. The sound of the swarm's tachyon emissions and flight sound like wind and thunder. The passengers on the bus jump up from their heat stupor.
Angela: "What sort of storm is that?"
The swarm seeths across the desert, as the Doctor, Christina, and the Tritovore run for safety.
Carmen: "Run, run, run, run, run!"
The fleeing party runs headlong down a dune, struggling to retain their feet as they run for their lives.
The Doctor's phone rings. He answers it.
Malcolm: (on Earth) "Doctor, I ..."
Doctor: (into phone) "Not now, Malcolm!" He hangs up.
Malcolm: (staring at the phone) "Fair dues." (to Captain Magumbo) "He's a busy man."
The Doctor's party crests the last dune and sprints for the bus.
Nathan: (with Barkley at the door.) "At last! Where have you been?" He stares at the Tritovore. "And what's that?"
Doctor: "He's a friend. Get inside, get strapped down."
The boys run back aboard. The Tritovore steps aboard and everyone gasps and flinches back as he finds a seat.
Outside, the Doctor examines the crystal assembly, disengaging the crystal.
Christina: "What does that crystal do?"
Doctor: "Oh nothing," he tosses it away. "We don't need the crystal."
Christina: "I risked my life for that!"
Doctor: "No, no, you risked your life for these." He takes apart the assembly. "The clamps." He runs around the bus, placing a clamp on each wheel. "One there. One there. One there. One there." They run into the bus and the Doctor takes over the driver's seat.
Christina: "What are the clamps for? Do they turn the wheels?"
Doctor: "Something like that. Have you got a hammer in that bag?" He startes rigging the center of the assembly to the steering wheel.
Christina: "Funnily enough." She hands him a hammer. He hands her the phone. "Press redial."
She dials and holds the phone to his ear.
Doctor: "Malcolm, it's me."
Malcolm: "I'm ready!"
Doctor: "For what?"
Malcolm: "I don't know, you tell me!"
Doctor: "I'm going to try to get back. But listen, there might be something following us. You need to find a way to close the wormhole."
Malcolm: "Would that be a compressed burst of counter oscillation feedback perchance?"
Doctor: "Oh, Malcolm, you're brilliant."
Malcolm: "Coming from you sir that means the world."
Captain Magumbo: "Doctor, what sort of something? That wormhole is now measuring 10 miles and growing. I need to know the exact nature of the threat."
Doctor: "Sorry, gotta go." He hangs up.
Captain Magumbo: (irritated) "All troops, mobilize and stand ready. Possible Code Red: Unknown."
Sergeant: (outside, receiving the order) "Understood." He mobilizes his troops around the tunnel. "Code Red! Repeat, Code Red! Positions!" Soldiers scramble to the ready.
__________
Back on the bus.
The Doctor finishes his modifications, but the control assembly fizzles out and refuses to work.
Doctor: (frustrated) "Ah! It's not compatible. They're designed for two different energy systems. I need something to fuse the two together."
Christina: "And how do you do that?"
Doctor: "I need something conductive, something malleable, something ductile, something ... Gold!
Christina: "Oh, no you don't"
Doctor: "Christina, what is it worth now?
Barkley: (running up) "Hey, hey, use this!" He offers his watch.
Doctor: "That's too much of an alloy. I need something purer. Christina." He stares her down, and she struggles, but eventually reaches down into her backpack and pulles out the Cup of Athelstan.
Christina: "It's over a thousand years old, worth eighteen million pounds, promise me you'll be careful."
Doctor: "I promise."
He takes the cup carefully, turns it upside down, and begins hammering a chunk out of it.
Christina: "I hate you."
_____________
Back on Earth, in the scientific van, Malcolm finishes his calculations.
Malcolm: "Done it. Transmit that, and the wormhole should close."
Captain Magumbo: "Then do it."
Malcolm: "After the Doctor's come through, obviously."
Captain Magumbo: "I'm sorry. Believe me. But that wormhole constitutes a major threat, and I have a duty to every man, woman, and child on this planet. It's got to be closed immediately."
Malcolm: (muttering) "No, no, no."
Captain Magumbo: "That's an order."
Malcolm: "No. We can't just abandon him! How many times has the Doctor saved our lives? I won't let you, ma'am. I simply won't."
She pulls a gun and aims it at his head.
Captain Magumbo: "Right now, soldier."
___________
Back on the bus, in the desert.
The Doctor finishes his repairs.
Doctor: "This is your driver speaking. Hold on tight."
Barkley: "Why? What's he doing?"
Christina: "Do as he says." She turns back to the Doctor, who's trying to start the engine. "What are you doing?"
Doctor: (encouraging the bus as it starts) "Come on! You can do it. One last trip."
The bus starts shaking, the sound of dynamos whirring, everyone is holding on tight.
The bus shifts, tilts, and lifts up into the air.
Barkley: "Woah! Look at that! Oh, you are so kidding me!"
The Doctor keeps lifting the bus, going higher and higher as the passengers freak out.
Nathan: "We're flying! It's flying!"
Lou: "He's flying the bus."
Angela: "It's a miracle."
The Tritovore chatters excitedly.
The Doctor lifts them up over the highest dunes
Christina: "What's happening? How are you doing this?"
Doctor: "Antigravity clamps. Didn't I say?"
Christina: "But, do we need to be going this high? The wormhole's down there."
Doctor: "Just gaining a little height to see if we can get a bearing on the swarm."
They rise over the last dune, and there's the swarm, immediately in front of them.
Carmen: "Doctor! They're coming!"
Doctor: "Right! Everybody hang on!"
The Doctor wheeles the bus, guns it, and swoops down through the wormhole just above the sands. The light dims, distortion kicks in, bright light. And the bus bursts out of the wormhole at the tunnel, swooping up and over the heads of the UNIT forces, clearing their line of fire. The soldiers and police watch in amazement.
Barkley: "It's nighttime."
Angela: "We're back home!"
Nathan: "He did it. He did it!"
They flew over night time London, the Doctor steering the bus in a lazy circle, heading back toward the tunnel, and UNIT.
The Sergeant, on the ground, runs toward the scientific van.
Sergeant: "Captain!" He pounds on the door. "Captain, they're back! It's the bus, ma'am, it's come back. And it's flying!"
Inside, Captain Magumbo lowers the gun she's holding on Malcolm. She turns and runs outside, scanning the sky, just in time to see three of the swarm burst through the wormhole.
Captain Magumbo: "Code Red! Fire at will!"
The soldiers open fire at the flying stingrays. The stingrays swoop and dive at them.
Sergeant: "Concentrate your fire!"
As the battle rages outside, the phone rings inside Malcolm's van.
Doctor: (on the phone) "Malcolm, close that wormhole."
Malcolm: "Yes sir." He sits down at his keyboard, much relieved, and presses F8. The circuits spark and burn. "No, no!" He grabs a fire extinguisher and pust out the fire, trying desperately to salvage something. The battle rages outside.
Doctor (yelling out of the phone on the desk) "Malcolm, I need that signal."
Malcolm picks up the phone.
Malcolm: "It's not working, the computer overloaded!
Doctor: "Malcolm, I need that signal. We've got billions of those things about to fly through."
Malcolm: "Well, what do I do?"
Doctor: "You'll have to do it on manual. Loop it back through the integrator and keep the signal ramping up."
Malcolm: "By how much?"
Doctor: (annoyed) "500 Bernhards. Do it! Now!"
Malcolm puts the signal through, it builds, screaming upward, the wormhole wavers and collapses.
Malcolm: "Yes!"
The other billion of the swarm just miss it as the wormhole closes on San Helios.
On Earth the UNIT troops keep fighting as the three of the swarm who got through continue to try to eat them. The soldiers fight with automatic gunfire, anti-aircraft guns, and the occasional rifle butt as the creatures get too close trying to take a bite.
Captain Magumbo: "Target at 9 o’clock!"
Anti-aircraft guns fire and take down two of the creatures.
Captain Magumbo: "I don't believe it. Guns that work!"
The last of the creatures flies higher, going after the bus which is circling the area.
Nathan: "Doctor, it's coming for us!"
The passengers all scream as it bears down on them. The Tritovore Commander clacks angrily and throws his useless gun at it. The monster eats it and keeps coming.
Doctor: "Oh, no you don't"
The Doctor spins the bus and kicks the monster with the back fender.
Captain Magumbo: "12 o'clock, take it out!"
All UNIT focuses on the beast, peppering it with shots. An anti-aircraft shell hits it and knocks it out of the sky.
Captain Magumbo: "Cease fire. Arms down."
Up on the bus everyone is clapping and crying with relief.
Christina: (to the Doctor) "Did I say I hated you? I was lying. Thank you." Then she flirts an eyebrow at him. "But you still owe me a gold cup."
The Doctor grins back at her and wheels the bus through a jaunty curve.
Doctor: "Ladies and Gentlemen, you have reached your final destination. Welcome home."
The Doctor rings the bus bell as the bus comes down. All the UNIT personnel stop work to stare as the big, red, double-decker bus comes in for a landing.
The Doctor lands the bus at the mouth of the tunnel, in the midst of UNIT's forces. He opens the doors and all the passengers laugh and cry with relief as they scramble to disembark.
The UNIT soldiers shake off their awe and scramble back to their jobs, securing the stingrays corpses, powering down weapons and surrounding the bus, herding the passengers to one side, getting down to the business of cleanup.
Sergeant: "Welcome back everyone. Step away from the bus, just to be safe. As fast as you can, thank you. As standard Procedure we need to screen you, and then you'll all be taken for debriefing."
The Doctor and the Tritovore are nearly the last off the bus.
The Doctor flashes his psychic paper credentials at the Sergeant. "Not me. I don't count." Rifles cock and come up as the soldiers see the alien behind the Doctor. "And neither does he!" The Doctor jumps in front of the alien. "He's with me. Come on." He leads the Tritovore commander away as Lady Christina protests behind him.
Christina: "Oh, but Doctor!"
Sergeant: (grabbing her arm) "This way, please." He escorts her off to the side with the others.
The Doctor walks up to Captain Magumbo, but before he can say anything Malcolm comes rushing out, grinning, and starts shaking his hand.
Doctor: "You must be Malcolm."
Malcolm: (grinning like a maniac) "I've always wanted to meet you, Doctor, and shake your hand." The Doctor looks down wryly to where Malcolm is still shaking his hand.
Doctor: "For what?" the Doctor asks, as the grinning scientific adviser fails to realize he's wringing the Time Lord's arm off.
Malcolm: "For still having a planet to live on, for a start." Malcolm grins like a star struck groupie.
Captain Magumbo: "To your station, Dr. Taylor."
Malcolm comes to with a start.
Malcolm: "Yes ma'am." He gave the Doctor's hand one final wring. "It's been an honor to work with you, Doctor."
Doctor: "And you too, Malcolm."
Malcolm wanders off back to his lab. He stops a passing soldier.
Malcolm: "I shook the Doctor's hand!" he boasts. The soldier looks at the starstruck advisor, then over at the Doctor and the silent alien who is standing behind him. He grins back at the grinning Doctor and goes on about his work.
Captain Magumbo: "Doctor, I salute you, whether you like it or not." She salutes, he grimaces. She grins and put her hand down. "Now, I assume we're safe from those things?"
Doctor: "They'll start again, generate a new doorway. It's not their fault, it's their natural lifecycle. And only a few were lost. The wormhole would have started to destabilize anyway, once enough had gone through, some would end up in deep space, or falling into suns. But enough could get through to be a problem. I'll set up a guard program, nudge the wormholes onto uninhabited planets."
He leans back against a car, looking at the line of passengers being examined.
Doctor: "Closer to home, see that these people are well taken care of. They helped save the world today, even if it was to save themselves."
Captain Magumbo: "I'll see what I can do. And, I've got something for you." She gestures, and two soldiers pull down a tarp, revealing the Tardis.
Doctor: (strides over to it, laughing) "Oh, ho, better than a bus any day, hello old girl."
Captain Magumbo: "We found it in the gardens at Buckingham Palace."
Doctor: "Oh, she doesn't mind."
Captain Magumbo: "What about him?" She nods to the Tritovore, who had silently followed along behind the Doctor, among all these humans.
Doctor: "He's not your problem." He addresses the Tritovore, "Commander," he unlocks the Tardis door and holds it open. "If you'll just step in here. It'll take me a few minutes to wrap up some loose ends, then I'll take you home." The alien steps gratefully into the Tardis, the Doctor shuts the door.
Captain Magumbo: "Now, I've got three dead alien stingrays to clear up. I don't suppose you fancy helping with the paperwork?"
Doctor: "Not a chance."
Captain Magumbo: (laughing) "Until we meet again, Doctor."
Doctor: (shaking her hand) "I hope so."
__________
Over in the passenger line, Angela is on the phone, Nathan beside her.
Angela: (into phone) "It's me, I'm back, Suzanne. I'm home." She laughs and turns to Nathan. "She didn't even know I was gone."
Christina: (a UNIT soldier in radiation gear, beeps over her with a Geiger counter) "That's quite enough of that!" She runs out of the line and over to the Doctor.
Detective: (seeing her) "She is not getting away this time."
Christina: (coming up to the Doctor at the Tardis) "So, is this your spaceship then? It doesn't look very spacey."
Doctor: "You'd be surprised."
Christina: "Right then. Off we go."
Doctor: "No."
Christina: "What?"
Doctor: "I said no."
Christina: "But I saved your life, and you saved mine."
Doctor: "So?"
Christina: "We're surrounded by police. I'll go to prison."
Doctor: "Yeah."
Christina: "But you were right, it's not about money. I only steal things for the adventure and today, with you, I want every day to be like this." He simply looked at her. "Why not?"
Doctor: "People have traveled with me and I've lost them. Never again."
The Detective arrives.
Detective: "Lady Christina de Souza, I have waited a long time to say this, I am arresting you on suspicion of theft. You do not have to say anything. Etc. Etc. Dennison, take her away." The police handcuff her and take her away, the Doctor watches, stony-faced.
All the other passengers watch, solemnly, as Christina is taken away, the police lead her to the last line of police cars, beyond the UNIT barricades.
Detective: "And I should arrest you as well, for aiding and abetting!" He points at the Doctor, and waves a hand at the other passengers. He stares mulishly at all the UNIT soldiers, who have gone silent, and obviously aren't about to let that happen. "Bah!" He waves an angry hand at them all and stalks off.
Everyone watches as the Detective supervises the loading of his prisoner into a squad car. The Doctor leans casually around the edge of the Tardis, and takes careful aim with the sonic screwdriver. With a quick buzz, Christina's handcuff's flick open as she is pushed into the squad car. With a surprised look, and a grin at the Doctor through the window, she scoots across the seat, and right out the other side of the car. Before the police know what is happening, she sprints across the remaining lanes of traffic, rolls over the edge of the embankment, and is gone. A group of policemen chase after her. All her fellow passengers laugh and cheer.
The Doctor smiles and pockets the sonic screwdriver, and gives the rude and fuming Detective an arch look. The Detective stomps off.
The Doctor turns around. Soldiers are escorting Lou and Carmen past, to a trailer for debriefing.
Carmen: "You take care now, Doctor."
Doctor: "You too, Carmen. Chops and gravy, lovely."
Carmen: (ominous) "No, you be careful, because your song is ending, sir."
Doctor: (serious) "What do you mean?"
Carmen: (prophesying, each word a lead weight) "It is returning. It is returning through the dark."
The Doctor stares.
Carmen: "And then, Doctor, oh, but then... He will knock four times."
Fade out.
Chapter End Notes:
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