Post by Fitz Kreiner on Feb 21, 2010 20:08:10 GMT
19
The Unforgiven III.
The Unforgiven III.
She couldn’t believe how black this blackness was. It was blacker and darker than anything she’d seen before. She’d thought it had been dark in the caves underneath Nottingham when she went on a tour and they’d turned the lights out, but compared to this, that was like a summer’s worth day of brightness. Then there was the noise. That two toned bass note of noise, rising and falling as it cycled through. The noise seemed to be coming from all around her and in her head.
“Who are you?”
The electronic voice seemed very loud, cutting through the background noise with ease and slicing through her head like an icy wind.
“Where am I?” she asked, paying no heed to the question.
“You will answer. Identify yourself.”
“My name’s Jess,” she replied looking about.
She couldn’t see a thing in the darkness. She didn’t even know whether there were walls or obstacles surrounding her. Blindly she groped her hands before her, taking small and tentative steps as she tried to get some bearing as to where she was. Her movements felt hugely sluggish, as though she was trying to move through treacle, yet she couldn’t feel any resistance to her movements. It was as thought she was moving in a dream and her body didn’t want to obey at the speed it should.
“Where am I? Who are you?” she shouted, turning round on the spot to locate the source of the voice.
“How did you arrive here?”
“Show yourself,” she shouted into the dark. “I won’t answer any questions until you show yourself!”
The background noise seemed to intensify after her outburst, causing her to throw her hands to her ears to try to block it out. A higher pitch came into the noise, piercing and resolute; it seemed to bore directly through her skull and into her brain.
“Stop it!” she pleaded, dropping to her knees. “Stop it please! Turn it off.”
“You will answer,” the voice commanded.
“Yes, anything, just please stop that,” she cried, curling up to try to block the sound off.
As suddenly as it appeared, the sound stopped, leaving an echo ringing around the black void and in her ears. The two toned back note resumed, its throbbing sound filling the silence.
“Stand,” the voice commanded.
Obediently, she obliged, getting painfully and slowly back to her feet, her motions sluggish and delayed. She could feel her eyes wide as she looked around, trying to pinpoint any light in the darkness, but to no avail. Blindly she put her hands out before her to try to steady herself.
“How did you get here?”
“I don’t even know where here is,” she replied. “Where am I? What is this place?”
“How did you get here?”
“Stop asking me that,” she cried out into the dark. “I told you I don’t know where I am.”
“How did you get here?” the voice continued to demand.
“I don’t know where here is!” she screamed, her voice hoarse with rage.
The voice stopped, leaving the void echoing with the two toned background noise. Its silence suddenly became eerie, having been such a prevalent presence in the void. It left her feeling alone and abandoned as the background noise even seemed to dim.
“What are you doing on the lunar surface?” the voice asked.
Now this one she could answer. Well, almost. “I don’t know,” she replied. “It was an accident I think. We just arrived. The Doctor said,” she paused. Should she talk of the Doctor?
“Who is ‘the Doctor?’”
Oops.
“Repeat; who is the Doctor?”
“A friend of mine,” she replied. “I travel with him.”
“And one other.”
She froze. She wasn’t even moving to begin with but the realisation that whoever was speaking to her knew more than she realised caused her blood to run cold.
“What about him?” she asked.
“Who is he?”
“Tom, he’s another friend,” she replied.
The black void seemed to shimmer about her. How she could tell this, she didn’t know, but it seemed to get foggy. Grey wisps started to float before her before two ghostly figures partially materialised within. It was as though they were taken directly from her mind; the images were ghostly, but she could easily identify them; the Doctor and Tom.
“Emotional response registers, you will identify the Doctor.”
This was it. She wasn’t going to answer any more. She’d already dropped the Doctor in it. Obstinately, she remained quiet. Within seconds the high pitched noise restarted, boring into her head, forcing her back to her knees.
“You will identify the Doctor,” the voice commanded, cutting through the noise.
“Ok,” she screamed, tears running down her face. “Ok, ok, just stop it, please.”
“Identify the Doctor.”
The noise again an echo in her head, she got to her feet. “It’s him,” she said, pointing through the dark at the image of the Doctor.
The image of Tom faded as though it were made of the mist it had appeared from leaving just the image of the Doctor.
“This is the Doctor?”
“Yes,” she said downbeat. They had forced her into submission surprisingly quickly. She felt ashamed at having given in so quickly, betraying her friends to goodness alone knew what fate.
“He knows our ways. Who is he?”
“I don’t know. A traveller, he comes from Gallifrey, he’s a Time Lord. That’s all I know, I swear!” she cried, fearful of another reprisal from an unsatisfactory answer.
Silence. Silence that seemed so conspicuous it was almost as loud as the noises before. Even the two toned background noise had gone. Whoever or whatever it was that had invaded her head had left her; left her in this black, lightless, soundless void. She had wondered what sensory deprivation felt like, was it anything like this? She didn’t know where she was or how long she’d been there. She didn’t even know if she were standing or sitting again.
“Hello?”
There was a new voice in the void. One she recognised. It called again and again. At first she was so shocked she couldn’t answer, and then it took her several seconds to finally find her voice.
“Tom?”
There was a pause before the voice shouted out again. “Hello, say something else. Where are you?”
“Tom, is that you? Hello?” she called again.
“Hello, I’m here.”
“Tom, help me,” she called out in fear.
She had started to remember what happened before she found herself here, what had caught her; the Cybermen. They had put her on some form of operating table and that’s all she remembered. They must be doing something to her. The thought of being converted terrified her, making her feel physically sick. Then she saw the source of the voice, a ghostly apparition of Tom in the darkness.
“Tom,” she cried. “Help me. Please. Where are you? Where are we?”
“Jess, what the hell?” the apparition started.
“Tom, help me please. They’ve got me. Please help me.”
As suddenly as it appeared, the apparition disappeared, leaving her alone in the void. A roaring sound seemed to fill her ears, like a strong wind. It was then she felt it gripping at her hair and her clothes. A small dot of light, like a pin prick, appeared in the dead centre of her vision. As the roaring and tugging got harder, the pin prick grew in size until the light enveloped her and the void disappeared around her.
It was soon back. Had she been out of the void long? It wasn’t quite the same this time. She could see, she could hear, but she couldn’t move or speak. She was walking through a corridor, following others. She was aware of them, but who they were wasn’t important. She had a task now. The voice was commanding her and she had to obey. To obey felt right.
She knew what she had to do, she had to help complete the task, the task was all important. If anyone tried to stop her, she had to stop them. She was determined to carry out the task. She saw one of those who would stop them brushed aside. Her leader was ruthless like that, but the man would have stood in their way, in the way of the task.
Obeying the instructions she was given, she settled down before a computer terminal and set about the task. She could see the screen, she could see the data. Her hands moved across the keys of their own will, even though she didn’t quite understand the data or what she was doing. She was being instructed to do the task, and that was what she was doing.
There was another who would stop them, of that she was aware, but her leader was dealing with them. This one was important she could tell. She was aware that they kept looking her way, but it was unimportant. She had the task to complete, and she would complete it. She knew that her leader would stop their interference, so she continued her work. It was long and monotonous, but she did it nonetheless.
She worked. For some time she worked. The rogue element returned as she worked, she saw him and was aware of him. Again he kept looking her way. She felt as though she should know him, as though he knew her. Her mind stayed on the task and those thoughts were soon gone. They were irrelevant. Her leader was throwing the element across the room, an attempt to extract information. This element had overcome the control. There was a link to her; her leader was approaching, asking for a key. She wasn’t aware that she had key, but obligingly she stood and removed a metal chain from her pocket. There was a pendant on the end and she handed it to her leader before returning to the task. It was almost completed, minutes to go.
It was done, the task completed. She now had nothing to do, her leader was communicating with the world below. She would soon get new tasks to do, new tasks to complete for her leader. She would obey. Why should she obey? What had she just done? She was suddenly aware of where she was, yet she couldn’t move. The blackness was clouding the edges of her vision and the roaring had returned to her ears. The centre of her vision was a blinding white light that got brighter as the roaring got louder, both sounds drilling into her head, into her consciousness.
Dropping to her knees and clutching her head, Jess screamed before the world became black and peaceful once more.
