Post by Fitz Kreiner on May 17, 2010 20:37:01 GMT
Day three, The Attack.
The rest of the day’s entertainment seemed to pass me by. My head was still buzzing from the Doctor’s words; ‘all hell will break loose’! He was expecting something, it was now a certainty. I knew it. I could see it in his face. I wanted desperately to ask him about it there and then, but I knew that in the middle of the ceremony wouldn’t be the place. I do have a sense of occasion, I like to think.
No, it was afterwards when we were back in our villa that we spoke about it at length; the Doctor, Tom and me. It was like a council of war in a way. Well, I say it was us; there were two cats with us, the same two who’d spent the most time in the villa. I’d nicknamed them Bertie and Bess.
Tom had said that he’d tried to find his way to the conference only to be told about the ceremony. He told me that he came down to the ceremony but could only get in to the back, which didn’t help him as he couldn’t see a thing, being smaller than the Anubians. I couldn’t help it, I laughed. The image it gave me was of Tom just jumping up and down behind Anubians in the crowd, not reaching their height with his jumps.
But still, there was that worry there, that worry that the Doctor had brought about by saying that things were going to happen. It was thrilling at the same time; things were likely to kick off, especially if this conference didn’t go well. There are times you crave the adventure after being with the Doctor for a while. I’ve spoken to Tom about it before, sometimes after some days when we haven’t landed, we’ve said that we’ve just wanted the TARDIS to drop us somewhere where we end up running down corridors and dodging monsters.
“The way I see it,” the Doctor said, “is that we’ve two options; the Anubians and the Drachnith hit it off like two old chums in a pub,” he paused again to drink his cup of tea.
“Or?” Tom asked. He’d showered and changed since we got back; he’d collected a change of clothes from the TARDIS and was now sat cross legged in a baggy poet style shirt and jeans, his hair loose.
“Or, something goes wrong and the Drachnith attack,” the Doctor said.
He said it so flatly and as a matter of fact, it didn’t even sound like a shock. It still gave me a twang of anxiety at the thought.
“You think the Drachnith are going to attack us?” I asked.
“Not us, the Anubians,” the Doctor replied. “We just happen to be in the same place as them.”
“Still us though, isn’t it?” I asked.
“If you want to look at it that way,” the Doctor replied taking another sip of tea. “But it’s not us they’re after.”
“For once,” Tom muttered. “So should we try to make sure this all goes without a hitch, I mean, all hell, not game for that one.”
“A slight over exaggeration on my part there,” the Doctor said. “But any attack on the scale the Drachnith could muster won’t be pretty. The Assemblage craft is the size of a small moon, and then there are the smaller ships they have at their disposal. I’m pretty sure there was a conflict between them and the Sontarans’ in about three thousand years time that cost them both dearly.”
“I’d rather not be in the middle of a war though,” I said. “I mean, the adventure is all pretty well, but I’m not a soldier.”
“I don’t expect you to be,” the Doctor said, fixing me with one of his stares, before turning it on Tom and adding; “either of you.”
“Yessir,” Tom said, saluting.
“I mean it,” the Doctor said. “No getting involved, well, as much as you can avoid,” he added with a sly smile. “In the mean time, I suggest we all get a good nights’ sleep, have a slap up breakfast and then see to this conference.”
And that was that. There was no arguing with that. When the Doctor ends a conversation, you know it, and you know that he’s got the last word. Besides, after the day, I was finding myself yawning nearly every couple of minutes, and I was looking forward to getting curled up in that really cosy bed.
You seem to forget that the days are shorter here, but somehow it was nice to be tucked up in bed again. Something about the day had worn me out, and you don’t always get time to have a rest and sleep when you’re off with the Doctor. Sometimes you can up and working through seventy two hours or more without sleep.
I was mulling this over in bed when there was a knock just outside my door. I said for whoever was out there to come in and several seconds later Tom walked through. I’d got a candle on in my room which gave a nice soft glow, and it seemed to catch in Tom’s eyes making them sparkle.
“Hey, what’s up?” I asked him. He never usually came into my room of a night; we normally ended up having long goodnight’s at each other’s doorways and spending even longer just chatting.
He gave a long sigh and walked over and laid himself down on my bed beside me. The candle light was really reflecting from his eyes now, they were like brilliant blue diamond’s; he’s got the most brilliant eyes I’ve ever seen.
“What was the ceremony like then?” he asked finally.
“You were there,” I said. “What’s the matter, couldn’t you jump up and see. Should have told the doggies to sit.”
He smiled thinly at my joke. “I meant; anything dodgy crack off on stage?”
“No, everyone seemed really friendly.” I stopped and thought back to what I’d seen, “well, Rameso kept trying to chat to the Drachnith Prime but the old fish face wasn’t having any of it.”
“And now the Doctor thinks that everything is going to kick off in the next day or so,” he said. It wasn’t as though he was telling me anything new, it was as though he was thinking aloud and using me as a sounding board. “Do you think he planned to arrive here, now?” he asked turning onto his side to face me.
“You never know with him, do you?” I asked back.
“Well, you’ve spent more time with him since we’ve been here. What do you think?” he asked.
“You know the Doctor,” I replied. “He plays his cards close to his chest. He’s not shown any signs that he aimed for us to be here, but he seems to know more about what’s going on than everyone. I think it was just one of those coincidental accidents that we always seem to get ourselves into.”
Tom just replied with a non-committal ‘Hmmm’ noise.
“What about you?” I asked. “What have you been up to?”
“Just had a think, had a few things on my mind,” he replied, almost sounding really distant.
“What’s up?” I asked. For some reason, Tom had been really open and it was comforting to know that he was confiding in me, after all, we’d grown really close the past few months.
“Just that whole moon incident put a lot of things into the front of my mind,” he said.
I got the feeling that was all I was going to get from him, but I had the feeling that it had something to do with the Cybermen. It’s a long story, but basically, when the Doctor and I met Tom, he thought he was human because of something the Time Lords had done to his mind, but the Cybermen tried to turn him into one of them, which opened up his memories slightly. He’s had a really strong bitterness towards both the Cybermen and Time Lords since, and we’d not long had another fight against the Cybermen on the moon.
Still, I had to press him. “Good or bad stuff?” I asked.
“A bit of both I guess,” Tom replied. “I’ve been having nightmares about them a lot recently the past few weeks. I dream that I’m stuck in a black void with them closing in around me.”
I didn’t really know what to say to him about that. He was opening up to me about the Cybermen, which is something he never has done in the past nine months, so I just kept quiet; if he wanted to talk he’d talk.
“What about the Doctor?” he asked after quite a long silence. I was almost dropping off to sleep and jerked awake quickly.
“What do you mean?” I asked. It was probably half mumbled through sleep but Tom understood.
“Well, you’ve been with him a lot; he seems more convinced now than he was when we arrived that something is going to kick off,” he said.
Tom had a point. Whether he’d been spotting things that I’d missed or something, he just seemed more and more convinced that something was going to happen as time went on. Maybe he knew about this conference, but didn’t know quite when or where it was and was trying to find out the details and the more he found out the more he realised that this is where something happened. Something that started a war, but he didn’t know quite what. I told Tom this, and how he kept disappearing and returning slightly more concerned, not that he was showing it to the Anubians, but he kept saying things to me that made me feel that he was expecting something.
“It’s a bloody good theory,” Tom said after thinking over what I’d said. “It’s not unlike him to land us somewhere like this, where he knows something could happen, but isn’t too clear on the details.”
Sorted. Both Tom and me seemed to have come to the same conclusion; the Doctor knew that something would happen, but the whys and how’s he didn’t know yet and he was trying to find out.
“I don’t think he’s doing it deliberately,” Tom said, breaking my train of thought. “I think it’s just one of those things; now we’re here, he might as well have his little nosey into it.”
“Maybe it’s them,” I said.
I meant the Time Lords, and I’m pretty sure Tom knew I meant them as well. It was them who’d steered us to my first meeting with the Cybermen when we met Tom, according to the Doctor, sometimes they control his TARDIS remotely or make him land somewhere they want him to do something. The only thing is, he’d made them promise not to do it again when we last met them. Tom remembered this and said so to me.
We both fell silent as we thought the events of the past two days through. Apart from the occasional noise from the Doctor downstairs, it was silent. Quiet and peaceful, and if things were going to kick off, I was going to enjoy the peace. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I didn’t realise I’d fallen asleep until I was awoke by the soft chirp of birds and the rays of the holographic sun, or whatever it was that light these streets, coming in through my window. I didn’t know whether the birds were real or not.
I looked over, Tom had gone, whether he’d gone the night before or got up before me, I’ve no idea. Instead, there was a black and white cat curled up on the bed, purring away in its sleep.
I got up and quickly dressed. I should really have gone back to the TARDIS at some point to get some clean clothes. Again, it’s rare that you get to do that; sometimes you can end up wearing the same clothes for several days with the Doctor. But that’s if you’re really stuck in something. Tom managed to do that yesterday while the Doctor and I were meeting the Drachnith with Rameso.
I walked downstairs and found Tom in the kitchen. He’d just finished brewing a pot of tea and seemed to be cooking something. I could smell it as soon as I reached the bottom of the stairs. He’d changed back into his normal ‘battle dress’ of black shirt and jeans. There was no sign of the Doctor. That didn’t surprise me in the slightest.
“Morning,” I said cheerfully as he turned round.
“Afternoon you mean,” he said turning back to whatever it was he was cooking.
I stuck my tongue out at him. “Yeah?” I asked.
“Well, nearly,” he said. “The Doctor’s already left for the first day of the conference. They should be breaking for lunch soon.”
I looked round at the sundial clock. The shadow was pointing straight up, meaning it was noon. I couldn’t believe I’d slept so long. I can normally get through on six hours or so, although sometimes it’s nice to have a lie in.
“I told him we’d pop along to the afternoon,” Tom continued. “I was going to pop and wake you in a few minutes actually, lunch is almost ready.”
Tom’s actually a pretty good cook. He’s cooked a lot since we’ve been travelling, and I guess some of the spices and foods you can get through travelling through time and space can help.
“What are we having?” I asked.
“Lightly sautéed Spoon-billed Ibis, with Carmarant root, Hop berry sauce and Carallis al dente,” he replied.
It meant nothing to me, but it sounded impressive. I took a seat at the breakfast bar thing, and rested my elbows on the counter and my chin in my hands watching Tom cook. He’s quite impressive in the kitchen, it seems like he can do three or four different things at once. He plonked the plate down in front of me, and it looked really good. Whatever Spoon-billed Ibis, Carmarant root and Carallis were, they looked good. And they tasted good too. The Ibis was tender and succulent. It tasted slightly like duck.
“Well then,” Tom said, getting to his feet after we’d finished eating. “Shall we get going?”
It took me by surprise. “Where?”
Tom looked at me as though I’d missed the obvious. He does this to me sometimes, says something as though he’s already had half the conversation in his head. Either that or I just completely miss what he’s been saying.
“To find the Doctor,” he said, as if I’d missed something. I guessed he’d had the conversation in his head again.
“You’re not going to do the washing up?” I asked noticing that he’d left the dishes in the stone sink. “’Cause if you’re going to suggest that I do it, I’ll wallop you one!”
“Well, now you mention it,” Tom said with a cheeky smile.
“Watch it, or I’ll throw that cat at you!” I laughed. He seemed a different person from last night.
“So, where to then, mister?” I asked, looping my arm round his as we headed out of the door.
“The conference, of course, Miss Marple,” Tom replied in an equally cheeky manner.
We walked to the disk lift which took us to a level I hadn’t been to before. The lift put us down on a large circular area, stone edging, then grass and then stone surrounding the lift. How it was suspended there in what could have been thin air, I had no idea. There were several of the force field like paths coming off the island, which is what it looked like. The whole room seemed like a large dome, there was a wide walkway surrounding it, on the outside.
“How do you know where we’re going?” I asked Tom. He seemed to know a surprising amount.
“The Doctor told me, this morning,” he said.
That seemed fair. I was still hugely anxious about walking on the paths, and carefully followed Tom, who was already striding across, the force field thing rippling under each footfall like he was walking on water.
We were halfway to the other side when it started. At first it was just a slight feeling in the pit of my stomach that I thought was the anxiety, but then I heard it grow. It was a low rumble, almost like thunder. Tom had heard it too and stopped and looked at me.
“Uh oh,” he said simply.
“What is it?” I asked. I got a sudden very bad feeling, as though someone or something had hit me in the stomach!
“Unless I’m very much mistaken, we’re under attack!” Tom said, the colour in his face draining.
The Doctor was right! The Drachnith, it had to be them. My suspicions were proved right when I looked back and saw a group of six Drachnith appear out of thin air in a silent ripple of light. It had to be a transmat beam or something like that. I looked back at Tom as there was another rumble, this time a lot louder and the lighting flickered.
“Come on,” Tom shouted.
He started to run along the pathway, and I followed. I was sure that I was going to catch him up. If the Drachnith were going to start shooting, then I sure as hell didn’t want to be out in the open on one of these paths. It was only when I saw the lighting flicker on another path that I realised why Tom was in such a hurry.
I nearly stumbled over my own feet when I saw it, in fact, I did. An Anubian was on one of the other paths when the lights that ran along the two tube things went out under its feet. The Anubian dropped like a stone through the path. My jaw, I’m sure, was hanging wide open as the alien dropped with a howl that sounded so much like a dog it actually hurt.
That’s when it hit me; if the lighting of the paths went out, the force fields gave way. I looked back at the Drachnith on the ‘island’. They had started along the path towards us, one of the lights was flickering. The leading Drachnith’s foot went through the path and it quickly pulled back. I was rooted to the spot as I watched; it leapt the gap with ease and continued striding towards me and Tom. Behind it, the other Drachnith were doing the same. I could now see other Drachnith as I looked around, some were on the other paths and island and some were on the wide path that ran around the edge of the large room.
“Jess, come on,” Tom shouted.
I looked back the way we were running. He was already on the walkway around the edge of the room. I took another glance back over my shoulder, the Drachnith were catching me up. I had no choice, I ran.
I’d nearly reached the edge of the path and Tom when the lighting of the path flickered off underneath me and I found myself falling.