Mondas Down (Chapter 3)

Chapter 3 (The Awakening)



1986




The old man watched the computer screen on board the Cyberman spaceship as the planet bubbled and smoked and broke into a million different pieces. Whole continents disintegrated and crumbled, the seas boiling. He couldn’t hear it from where he was, but he hoped the poor souls on the planet had a swift death. No matter what the Cybermen had done, he felt that not all of them were to blame.

But right now he was feeling very weak. He looked across to his companion, Polly, before drifting out of consciousness again.




Now




Fletcher continued to peer down into the container, studying the Cyberman figure that lay dormant inside. It frightened him. He’d heard stories of the Cybermen over the years. They’d appeared throughout various points in Human history, always bringing a wave of destruction with them, but he’d never expected to see one himself. They were almost like a legend to people back on Earth.

“So what happened to them?” asked Natalie.

“It looks like they put themselves into suspended animation,” said the Doctor, not meeting Natalie’s gaze, but looking grimly at the containers.

“They look…odd,” said Brax. “Not like the Cybermen we’ve seen in the pictures back on Earth.”

“These are different ones,” said the Doctor, allowing himself to relax a little more. “These are the originals. Cyber-Mondassians. Go back to your records - 1986. A planet moved into your solar system. Mondas. This is where these folks came from.”

Natalie nodded, remembering a little of her history. “Didn’t the planet break up?”

“It did. It absorbed too much power from Earth and exploded. The Cybermen left on Earth collapsed due to lack of power from their planet.” He put his hand on the container.

“But the Cybermen came back?”

“Offshoots of the originals, yes. Newer, more advanced ones with conquest being their only motivation. These were the original. Their means and methods were misguided, maybe, but they did what they did to try and stay alive. The Mondassians all died out.”

“Obviously not,” said Holly.

“Indeed. These are being kept alive by a separate power unit. Like a generator,” he said, examining a collection of wires that snaked from each pod to a single unit near to the centre of the room.

“Then we need to disconnect the stasis pods,” said Lilly bluntly.

“It’ll kill them,” said Fletcher. “Bit harsh isn’t it?”

“Well we can’t wake them up,” said Lilly.

“I won’t advocate murder,” said the Doctor, glaring at Lilly.

“Oh, come on, Doctor. You’ve told me about the Cybermen before. Nasty pieces of work.”

“Yes, the regular Cybermen. The every day Cybermen you see flying through space and causing misery and destruction. But these are not those Cybermen.”

“You said their methods were wrong,” said Holly.

“I said misguided. They were going to die and needed to survive. The need to survive can make everyone do misguided things.”

“Maybe we should just turn the ship around and leave this crate out here,” said Brax, his arms folded as he looked into the containers.

“I’m in agreement,” said Fletcher. “We shouldn’t have come here.”

“No,” said Natalie, “I think the Doctor’s right.”

“I beg your pardon, Flintlock?” said Fetcher, using her last name for the first time.

She suddenly remembered who was in charge. “I’m sorry, sir, but these people are in need.”

The Doctor held up his hands. “Woah there, everyone. I didn’t say we were going to help them. I just said that I wasn’t going to execute them.”

“Then what do you suggest we do, Doctor?” said Fletcher. “Because I need to get my crew back home, yet I have an obligation to make sure the Cyberman threat doesn’t have a chance of coming back to Earth.”

“That may be true, captain, but killing defenceless creatures-”

“Wait!” said Holly. “Can you hear that?”

The group stopped talking and fell silent. The Doctor’s eyes narrowed. Somewhere on the edge of their hearing, there was a humming sound, and it’s pitch was increasing.

“Where’s that coming from?” said Lilly, looking around for the source.

“From there,” said Holly, pointing at the generator that connected the containers via the cables.

The Doctor dropped to his knees and ran his sonic screwdriver over the generator. His face froze into a look of fear. “Something’s reactivated the stasis pods. They’re waking up.”

“What?!” spat Fletcher. “How? None of us have touched it.”

The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. “We must have triggered something when we came on board. Mondas was able to absorb power from Earth. Perhaps the ships work in the same way.”

There came a crackle over Fletcher’s communicator.

“Ange, what is it?”

Grant’s worried voice came over the comm system. “Captain, we’re experiencing power losses on the ship.”

“No, no, no,” said Fletcher. He looked at the Doctor. “Can you shut it down?”

“I’m trying,” said the Doctor, on his knees and checking the systems.

Fletcher turned to Roy and Brax. “You two get back to the Coronation. See what you can do over there.”

“Aye sir.”

“Any luck?” said Lilly, crouching beside the Doctor.

“No,” he said, frustration in his voice. “Even if I could disconnect these cables, they’re already starting to wake up.”

Holly looked down into one of the containers. The still, silent figure seemed to be still dormant and she felt her pulse slow slightly. And then she jumped when she saw the pale, Human hand begin to twitch it’s fingers, slowly at first, before closing and opening to a clench.

“Doctor,” said Holly, “I think you better look at this.”

The Doctor was over in a shot. Now both of the Cybermen’s hands were moving about and within the holes of the cloth-face dark eyes were staring out.

“Everybody out of here,” said the Doctor, edging away from the container. “We need to seal this ship up and get out.”

There came a huge thump from one of the other containers and Natalie let out a yelp, putting her hand to her mouth.

Fletcher was over to her, his hands on her shoulders as he guided her back. “Easy now, Nat.”

Another thump.

“I know I said I wanted adventure, but I didn’t expect to find this.”

Another few thumps.

Fletcher’s radio crackled again. “This is Commander Grant….the Coronation is dead in the water.”

Thump! Thump! Thump!

“Disconnect, Angie, disconnect!” said Fletcher as they backed up towards the TARDIS.

The thumping was coming from two containers now.

“We don’t have the power to disconnect.”

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

“Unlock the door!” yelled Lilly as the Doctor fumbled for the TARDIS key.

BANG!

The lids of the containers flew open, coming off their hinges and landing just a few centimetres away, shattering the glass fronts and landing in front of onlookers with a huge clang.

The Doctor stepped out in front of the group and urged them to stay back as he straightened his back and raised his head.

A hand emerged from within one of the containers and slowly the Cyberman struggled to sit up. It looked confused as it’s eyes looked all around the room and then locked onto the Doctor as he stood resolutely in front of it.

Then the other Cybermen emerged. One of it’s arms wasn’t working and swung beside it limply.

“Good morning,” said the Doctor, his face expressionless. “I trust you slept well.”

The first Cyberman simply looked at him, it’s mouth open, but with no sound coming out.

“Cat got your tongue?” said Lilly from back towards the TARDIS.

“Sush, Lilly,” said the Doctor.

The two figures remained in their sitting positions, watching the Doctor intently.

“Why don’t they speak?” asked Holly with a whisper.

“Maybe they can’t,” said Fletcher. “They’ve been stuck in those things for an entire century.”

“Maybe they’re waiting for the right moment to attack,” said Natalie ominously.

The Doctor took another pace towards the containers but froze in his tracks as one of the Cybermen leapt out of the container and then fell flat on it’s face.

Holly stifled a laugh. As horrible as they looked, that was possibly the most comical thing she’d ever seen. A scary, hodgepodge cybernetic man slipping and falling on it’s arse.

To Holly’s horror, the Doctor crouched down and offered a hand for the Cyberman to get up.

“Be careful,” warned Lilly.

The Cyberman looked at the Doctor’s hand with curiosity and then took it as the Doctor helped the seven-foot man to his feet.

It looked down at him, it’s eyes still transfixed on him.

“Do you know who you are?” said the Doctor.

The voice that came out of the figures mouth was not what Holly had expected. She had thought it would have some kind of robotic voice, but instead it was almost comical in a frightening sing-song type way. It’s mouth opened wide, it’s lips did not move, and the voice sing-song-ed out.

“My name is Saragon. This is Chartell.”

“Good to meet you Saragon. You too, Chartell.”

The other Cybermen, who was still sat in the container, nodded it’s head once in greeting.

“And you are?”

“I’m known as the Doctor.”

“Doctor. That name is familiar to my kind. You were at Snowcap Base during my peoples landing on your planet.”

“I was indeed.”

“But our records have you with a different face.”

The Doctor gave a wry smile. “I’ve aged a lot since then.”

“Your planet burned up. It was destroyed,” said Fletcher.

“Yes. Mondas absorbed too much power and burned up.”

“Then how are you alive?” asked Lilly. “Surely your entire race was reliant on Mondas’s power.”

The other Cyberman spoke. It had a higher-pitch voice. Almost feminine. “A group of us on the planet surface had become concerned for some time about what our leaders had intended to do and so we escaped the planet before it disintegrated.”

“You became concerned?” said the Doctor, his eyes narrowed.

“Not all of us agreed with the committee and their plans,” continued Saragon. “I and a group of scientists devised power sources that could be built into our own individual ships such as this.”

“When it became apparent that the plans of our leaders had failed, a number of us broke free and escaped the solar system.”

Lilly had a glint in her eyes as she turned to Holly. “Some of them must have become the Cybermen we all know and love. Is that the right word?”

Holly frowned as she realised she was talking to herself more than to her.

“Where did you intend to go? How many of you were there?” asked the Doctor.

“There were many ships,” continued Chartell. “Our ship was critically damaged and we had to put ourselves into these hibernation pods.”

“Whilst the others became the ruthless, cold Cybermen I’ve run into time and time again and that settled on Telos.”

“Cold and ruthless?” asked Saragon.

“It doesn’t matter,” said the Doctor.

“Wait,” said Chartell, finally clambering out of the container. “Telos was the name of one of the locations for settlement. The others were Remos and Phraxin.”

“I don’t understand,” said the Doctor. “What do you mean?”

“There were a few ships,” said Chartell. “And there were three locations. Three planets. Telos, Remos and Phraxin. Our ship was bound of Remos.”

Saragon nodded. “We were divided into three groups and tasked with settling on all three planets. Surviving.”

“We never made it,” said Chartell. “Our ship was one of the first to leave. There were nine of us in total onboard. We were caught in an explosion from Mondas and the ships vital systems shut down. We had no choice but to go into hibernation and hope for the best.”

“Hope?” said the Doctor, now sat on the edge of a container and swinging his legs backwards and forwards like a child. “Hope is a very Human emotion.”

“Where’re the rest of your crew then?” asked Holly, feeling brave enough to edge a little closer.

“Take a look around you,” said Lilly.

Holly hadn’t paid it much attention before, but now she looked she could see amongst the rubbish strewn around the room, melted silver suits and puddles of goo. She felt sick again.

“Rotten corpses,” said Lilly, to emphasise Holly’s feelings. “Cabbages.” She grinned at her.

There came the sound of footsteps followed by Grant and Brax brandishing two large plasma rifles. Both of them looked terrified as they aimed at the two Cybermen and fired.

“No!” said the Doctor, as the shots screamed just past the faces of the Cybermen.

“I don’t know who you are,” said Grant, glancing momentarily at the Doctor, “but these things are dangerous. They’ve drained our ships power.”

“By accident, Angie,” said Fletcher.

“What?” said Grant, frowning at her captain.

“Their ships are designed to drain power from foreign power sources,” said the Doctor.

“That is correct,” said Saragon. “It is not intended to be an act of aggression from us. We can help you to restore power to your craft.”

“Lower the gun, Angie,” said Fletcher. “You too, Brax.”

“I hope you’re right about this, sir,” said Angie.

“I am. Now do as I say. Obey my commands.”

Slowly the two officers lowered their guns. Holly felt herself relax a little.

“So what now?” said Lilly.

“I think a few more explanations are in order,” said the Doctor.

To be continued...

Mondas Down (Chapter 2)

Chapter 2 (The Tomb)

The toast popped up and Fletcher grabbed it before it fell to the floor. Again. He really needed to get the spring sorted out in that contraption. He quickly spread a little butter on the toast, took a bite and then started clambering into his spacesuit.

Grant walked in and glanced at the toast on the side. She picked it up, put it on a plate and wiped the crumbs on the side into the palm of her hand before brushing them into the small bin at the side.

“Do we really have time for toast?” said Grant, leaning against the counter.

“Gotta eat, Ange,” smiled Fletcher, taking another bite of the toast.

“You know Flintlock’s already at the airlock waiting to get out?”

“I thought we’d docked,” said Fletcher, finishing the bit of toast. “See, they can move quickly when they’re properly motivated.” He laughed.

Grant rolled her eyes. They had a good crew, but the trip had been a long one and by the end of the outward leg, after being cooped up in the ship for a whole month, they were rarely quick to do anything. Grant had to admit that getting off the ship and doing a little bit of investigating could be good for them.

“Everything secure?” said Fletcher as he grabbed his helmet.

“Yes,” said Grant, “but I don’t think you should be going across, sir.”

“And why not?” he said as they both stepped out into the narrow corridor that ran between the quarters.

“Because it could be dangerous.”

“Angie, I take on board your concerns,” he put his gloved-up hands on her shoulders, “but that ship is dead. The chances of anything being alive on it is minimal.”

Angie pursed her lips together and let out a sigh. “I suppose you’re right.”

He smiled. “You know I am.”

“Just be careful,” she said.

He gave her a mock salute as he walked to the bottom of the corridor and through the doors at the end.

When he reached the airlock Natalie, Roy and Brax were suited up and waiting beside the door. Natalie looked impatient and Fletcher had to smile at her.

“Everybody good?” he asked.

“Aye, sir,” said the three of them in unison.

“Docking wasn’t a problem,” said Natalie. “The chute fitted over like a shoe in a footprint.”

“Only just,” said Roy, looking through the window at the small, four feet docking chute that had connected to the outside of the ship. “Those doors are much bigger than ours.”

“We’re lucky they had an airlock,” said Brax, leaning against the wall as he pulled his gloves on.

Fletcher and the team entered the airlock and then crossed the chute to the derelicts door. Brax felt around the doorway but there was no sign of an opening. Just a tiny window that showed another door further inside.

“Now what?” said Natalie, clearly disappointed.

“Do we cut it open?” asked Brax. “I’ve got a perfect cutting torch back in the workshop.”

“Not yet,” said Fletcher. “Keep looking for a way in. I don’t want to damage the ship just in case there is someone, or something, inside.”




Inside was darkness. It was still and lifeless, but the sound of silence was broken with the sound of scraping of keys on piano strings heralding in the appearance of a large, blue box - the TARDIS.

A few seconds later the door opened. The Doctor was the first to step out, holding up a small torch and shining it around, the dust particles dancing in the beam of light. He was followed by Lilly, who marched out so quickly that she almost collided with the Doctor.

Lastly was Holly, who stood in the doorway and nervously placed her foot outside onto the metal-panelled floor. She felt wobbly and slightly dizzy and steadied herself by holding onto the doors. She could hardly believe this was happening to her. Thirty minutes ago she was on Earth in her own town, and now she was standing in an - albeit very dark - spaceship. It was madness. Insane! Fantastic!

“Everything okay?” asked the Doctor, twirling around to shine the torch in Holly’s face, reminding her of the first time they had met.

“Just getting adjusted to it,” said Holly.

“Don’t take all day,” said Lilly, hands stuffed deep in her pocket like she had seen this numerous times before.

“I won’t.” said Holly with a smile. She was determined to try and get on with this Lilly girl. “Was this what it was like on your first trip?”

Lilly flashed a rare smile. “I can’t remember my first trip. I woke up in a hospital bed.”

“Yes,” said the Doctor, shining the torch around the darkened room again, “Lilly was not well when I took her on board the TARDIS.”

Holly frowned. She didn’t want to push at it, but she wanted to get to know more about the Doctor and Lilly. They acted like they had been together for quite a long time, but the Doctor didn’t seem particularly phased by her rudeness. He must have become accustomed to it. She made a mental note to do more digging.

“So where are we?” asked Lilly.

“In a room,” said the Doctor. “A dark room.”

Lilly rolled her eyes. “I could have told you that.”

“It’s cold as well,” said Holly, wrapping her arms around herself and rubbing them to keep herself warm. “And it stinks.”

“Yes,” said the Doctor, tapping his nose. “Stinks of what though?”

“Rotten cabbages,” said Holly, remembering helping her granddad empty out the shed of his friend, Alfred, who had died. They found a ton of rotting vegetables in there and it had almost made Holly throw up.

“No,” said Lilly. “It smells of rotting corpses.”

“What?!” said Holly, suddenly feeling very, very sick.

“Rotting corpses don’t smell like that,” said the Doctor, trying to find a door.

“Not normal ones perhaps,” said Lilly. “Ones augmented with cybernetic components do.”

The Doctor turned and frowned.

Lilly knew she had their attention. “Something to do with the electricity running through their flesh. It taints the flesh.”

“Can we change the subject, please?” said Holly praying that they weren’t about to run into a bunch of dead bodies. Again.

“Aha!” said the Doctor. “A door!”

Holly and Lilly crossed over to the door. The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the centre of the door. He then ran the screwdriver over the edges of the doors and with a click it released and slid open.

“Progress,” said the Doctor with a smile.

They shone the torch inside. It was a small compartment with a tiny window set higher in the door.

“Looks like an airlock to me,” said Holly.

The Doctor looked despondent. “You’re right there, Holly.”

“Hey,” said Lilly, suddenly remembering, “what about that ship we saw outside? They may have docking capabilities.”

“So you think they may come in this way?” said Holly.

“Unless they have a matter transmitter then yeah.”

“Wait,” said the Doctor, putting his ear to the door. “I can hear voices.”




On the other side of the door Fletcher was growing impatient, Natalie even more so as Brax and Roy continued to check the door for any way in.

“I can’t see anything, captain,” said Brax. “The cutting torch is still an option,” he said with a hint in his voice.

Fletcher sighed, but nodded. “Go get it, Brax.”

“Wait!” said Roy, looking up at the tiny window. “There’s a light in there, look.”

The four of them glanced up and sure enough there was the occasional flash of light coming from the window.

“If I’m mistaken,” said Roy, “it looks like someone is in the airlock with a torch.”

The four of them looked at each other.

Natalie was about to say something when suddenly there was a click and the door slid open revealing a young, unshaven man in a grey coat holding a handheld metal cylinder with two young women either side of him.

For a moment the seven of them stared at each other in disbelief, and then the man broke into a smile. “Good morning, I’m the Doctor.”




The group had made their way into the darkened room of the spaceship. Brax had gone back to the Coronation and returned with floodlights which illuminated the room, although there wasn’t much to see other than the blue TARDIS standing in the corner. It was more like an entrance room beyond the airlock and there was another door leading out of it.

“So,” said Fletcher, sat down opposite the Doctor on the floor, “explain it to me again.”

“We’re travellers. We came here in this box.”

“Nope,” said Fletcher. “Still not getting it.”

“But you believe us?”

“Well either you’re space travellers who got here in a blue box, or this is your spaceship. I don’t actually know which one to believe.”

“It has got some kind of power running through it though,” said Natalie, her hand up against the box. “It’s humming with power.”

“And what’s your name, miss?” asked the Doctor.

“Flintlock. Natalie Flintlock.”

“Good to meet you, Natalie,” said the Doctor with a smile.

“Hands off the TARDIS,” said Lilly, glaring at her.

“Believe me,” said Holly, sitting down next to Fletcher, “I had difficulty believing in all of this myself. I’ve only just seen the ship actually, but it’s all true.”

“And you are?”

“Holly Dangerfield,” she extended her hand and shook his. “I come from the year-”

“A year ago,” said the Doctor, interrupting her quickly. He noticed Fletcher’s confused face. “That is, we’ve been travelling for a year.”

“That’s impossible,” said Brax. “We’re the first ship from Earth to get out this far.”

“As far as you’re aware,” said the Doctor. “We don’t work for a space agency.”

“Oh brilliant,” said Roy, crossing over to the inner door, “they’re independents. Always trying to steal NESP’s thunder.”

“Okay, that’s enough Roy.” Fletcher let out a sigh. “I guess I’m going to have to believe you for now, because, to be honest, we don’t have a lot of time and I need to get my crew home.”

“What are you doing checking out this old derelict then?” said Holly, looking around the darkened room.

“Curiosity more than anything,” said Natalie. “Just one little look before we head home.”

“Can you open this door with that thing, mate?” asked Brax.

The Doctor got to his feet. “Yes, it shouldn’t be a problem, but the real question is: do we want to open the door?”

“Why wouldn’t we want to?” asked Brax.

“We don’t know what’s on the other side,” said Holly, chipping in. “And Lilly says that it smells of cybernetic corpses.”

“And most cybernetic creatures are not the best company we could be keeping right now,” said the Doctor. “In fact, something about the design in here is very familiar.”

“I understand your concerns, Doctor, but I have a duty to at least find out a reason for why this old crate is drifting.”

“Fair enough,” said the Doctor, holding his hands up. “I suppose if there were anything alive right now then we’d have known about it.”

“So you’ll open the door?” asked Fletcher.

The Doctor smiled. “I’ll open the door.”

A few moments later and the door had been opened. The team moved the floodlights through the doorway and into the next chamber. It was a hexagonal shape with computer banks adoring the walls. Across on the far side were around 6 containers with a bubbled glass top.

The Doctor stood in the certain of the room, turning on the spot. Something about this was definitely feeling very familiar. Lilly mentioning cybernetics had only served to more or less confirm his fears.

“What are these?” asked Holly, crossing over to one of the containers and peering into the glass. She gasped and took a step back before peering in again like a curious child.

“What is it?” asked Natalie.

“Take a look for yourselves.”

The rest of the gang - excluding the Doctor - gathered around the containers to peer inside.

“It’s hardly possible,” said Fletcher.

“We should have left this alone,” said Lilly, shaking her head.

“Doctor,” said Holly, looking across at his worried face, “don’t you want to see?”

“I already know what’s in those containers. I thought I recognised the design of the ship.” The Doctor held out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it towards one of the computer banks. From the banks were cables leading to the base of each of the containers. “They’re still on low power.”

“What do you mean?” asked Brax, kneeling down to examine the cables.

The Doctor crossed over to the containers and peered inside, taking a deep sigh. Inside was a large, eight-foot figure cladded in a silver suit. On it’s chest was a huge, metallic box with various dials and vents. Down the silver suit were rods of metal and the figure had human hands. It was the head and face that was more frightening. Where the face was there was a grey cloth with holes for a mouth and eyes. Inside the holes were closed eyelids. The figure wore a metal helmet with a lamp on top and tubes running from where the ears would be to the lamp at the top.

“You recognise them?” asked Roy, looking from the Doctor to the figure.

“Unfortunately I do. They are Cybermen.”

To be continued...

Mondas Down (Chapter 1)

Chapter 1 (Box of Tricks)

Holly was sat on a cool, shiny white floor. Wherever she was it was bright and it took her eyes a moment to adjust from the daylight outside to the artificial light in the box. When she had dived through the unlocked doors she had expected to come crashing down on top of the Doctor and Lilly in the cramped, darkened space, but that wasn’t to be the case. She had actually travelled a few feet from the doors and landed hard on the ground.

“What in the name of all that is bloody holy….?” came the familiar Scottish females voice.

“What on Gallifrey…?” came the Doctor’s voice.

Holly blinked and looked around her as the room came into focus. The room was bright white and huge. It was dome-shaped and in the centre was a mushroom-like control panel with a glass cylinder rising from the centre to the roof, contained within were blue glowing rods. The domed walls were adorned with glowing blue circles and the air smelt of mint. In the far wall was a door leading to goodness knows where and on either side of the domed room were staircases leading downwards.

She turned to look behind her to check where she had actually come from and to her amazement could see the back of the police box doors.

Standing beside the control mushroom was the Doctor and Lilly. Lilly looked like she was about to throttle her, whereas the Doctor stood with one hand on his hips and the other hand scratching his head.

Holly panicked, got to her feet and ran to the police box doors. She tried them but they were locked. And then she staggered back. She could just see out of the windows. Beyond the doors wasn’t the old builders yard she had come from, but instead was a flying maelstrom of coloured clouds and light.

“I told you to lock the sodding doors,” said Lilly.

“Alright Lilly,” warned the Doctor.

Holly turned to face them. “What the hell…?”

“Welcome to the TARDIS,” said the Doctor. “Welcome to my time machine.”




2086




The SS Coronation had just passed Pluto and was heading out into deeper space. It had only taken them a month to get this far out from Earth using the new experimental stellar drives built for NESP - the New Earth Space Programme - and Captain Nicholas Fletcher, or Nick to his friends, was looking forward to getting back to his job at the space research facility in Utah.

His crew of six had set out with one goal - get to the edge of the solar system and come back. It was a two month mission and he was promised it would go smoothly and without a hitch. So far, so good…

Fletcher stood in the control centre of the ship, leaning over a round monitor table which showed a digital image of the solar system and their location in relation to the planets. He nodded and turned to face his team. His second in command was a woman called Angie Grant, a tall, blonde woman in her mid forties. She was strict and stern but she commanded the respect of them all. Chief engineer was a younger man in his late twenties called Harry Brax. He was wide-eyed, eager for new challengers and always covered head to toe in engine dirt. Fletcher wondered if he ever washed.

In charge of navigation was a dark-skinned woman called Natalie Flintlock. She had been eager to explore the edges of the solar system; to be one of the first women to do it. She dreamt of getting even further out there. The final two members of the team were a pair of bespectacled twins called Rick and Roy Hobbin. Rick was the ships doctor and Roy the scientist. They both kept themselves to themselves, but were amiable enough.

“Right folks,” said Fletcher, never one to adopt a strict code of conduct policy, “it’s been a long month getting out here, but we’ve finally done it. We’ve just passed Pluto. It’s time to turn back.”

There were a number of congratulations heard as well as some smiles.

“Silence please,” said Grant, bringing the rest of them to quiet again.

“Sir?” said Natalie Flintlock.

“Go ahead, Natalie,” said Fletcher.

“Can we not just stick around for a little bit? You know, explore a little further?”

“Whilst we’re here we should do,” piped up Roy.

“The purpose of the mission,” said Fletcher, “was to see if we could travel this out far. There’s nothing out here that’s not already been picked up by the probes over the last century.”

Roy and Natalie looked crestfallen, but Fletcher smiled. “I promise you all, the next ship that comes out here will have a recommendation from myself for you to be on board.”

“I’m quite happy to go home,” said Rick. “I miss my bed.”

There was a murmur of agreement around the room.

Grant stepped out in front of Fletcher, her hands behind her back. “Everyone to their stations. Let’s turn this crate around.”

Before anyone could follow the captains orders through, there was a rhythmic beep from the digital readout. Fletcher craned his neck to see what it was.

Grant frowned and tapped a few buttons on the screen.

“What is it?” asked Fletcher, crossing over to her.

“Strange. We’re picking up another ship out there.”

“All the way out here? That’s impossible. Are you sure it’s not a probe?”

Roy was at the screen now. “Definitely not a probe, Captain. This thing has engines.”

“It may have engines,” continued Grant, “but it’s drifting. The engines aren’t working.”

Natalie turned from her navigation panel, her dark eyes twinkling. She was trying to hide her excitement. “I think we should investigate, sir.”

Fletcher stroked his short beard and pursed his lips together. “We really need to get back. We only have enough fuel for this one journey.”

“Sir,” continued Natalie, “the ship always carries a small reserve bank of fuel just in case of emergencies.”

“That’s enough, Flintlock,” said Grant, trying to curb the navigators excitement before it become too overbearing. “That fuel reserve is, as you say, for emergencies.”

“No, it’s okay, Angie,” said Fletcher. He stared down at the readout. If there was a ship out there and it was drifting then the crew may definitely need help. But then again he’d heard stories of ships on the fringes of the solar system, scavenging aliens that tricked passers by into boarding their ships and then killing them. They were just stories though. No one had been out this far yet.

He sighed and looked from person to person. The Hobbin twins were too hard to read. They lived for their jobs, but they would do whatever their captain asked them to do. Natalie was a no-brainer. She wanted to be on that ship right now. Brax looked nonchalant. He never bothered with much other than his engines and Grant…well, Angie was loyal and trusting. She’d go with whatever he asked even if she didn’t entirely agree with it herself.

His mind was made up. If someone was in trouble then they had to help.

“Natalie,” he said to Flintlock, “let’s bring the ship alongside her, yeah?”

Natalie broke into a wide smile, turned and programmed in the controls.

Fletcher turned to the rest of the team. “I promise this won’t take long, and then we’ll head on home. Natalie, Brax and Roy suit up. You‘ll be coming across with me. Angie, stay on board the ship with Rick.

There was a chorus of, “Aye, sir,” as they moved off to get ready.

“Not long, eh, sir?” said Grant.

“We’ll be on our way before you know it, Angie,” smiled Fletcher.




Holly was sat on an beautiful carved wooden chair with a glass of cool, still water. She felt dizzy and sick, but the Doctor reassured her it was just her bodies way of adjusting to the dimensional changes. She had lost him at "adjusting".

Lilly was stood at the control panel, checking various readouts and carefully monitoring the controls whilst the Doctor was sat cross-legged on the floor in front of Holly, smiling at her.

Holly drained the last of the water.

“Better?” said the Doctor.

She nodded. She still felt off, but the effects were wearing off.

“Good,” said the Doctor. “Now, what are you doing on my ship?”

“Ship?” said Holly.

“I’ll explain in a bit, but first you need to answer my question. What are you doing on my ship?”

“I needed to know.”

“Know what?” said Lilly from the controls without turning around.

“Where you two came from. I knew there was something different about you.”

“Hear that, Lils, we’re different.”

“You knew more about those Kro’Tenk things than you should have done.”

“Well, that’s because I’m a little more involved with things that are not…normal.”

“This is a spaceship, isn’t it?” said Holly, looking around her and her eyes returning to the colours swirling beyond the doors.

“Yes, but as I said before it’s a time machine as well,” said the Doctor. “A spaceship and a time machine rolled into one.”

Holly blew out some air from her cheeks and shook her head. “I gotta focus here.”

“Is it so hard to believe?”

“Not really I suppose,” said Holly. “I mean a few days ago I was running from dead bodies and having visions of alternate worlds. A time machine is just another thing to file away in the weird box.”

The Doctor smiled. “From the sounds of it, you’ve always been willing to accept things that belong in the weird box.”

Holly couldn’t help but agree. All of her adventures and interests as a child and teenager proved that.

“I need you to keep quiet about it though. When I take you home-”

“What? Take me home?”

“You’ve gotta go,” said Lilly. “You have no right being here.”

“Okay, Lilly, there’s no need for that. Holly understands.”

Lilly turned to face the Doctor, her face screwed up in frustration. “She forces her way on here without a care for where she was going. She could have damaged the doors. She could have damaged the interior dimensions. You know take off and landing is the most dangerous moment.”

“Lilly,” he got to his feet, “I’ve been flying around in this old box for thousands of years-”

“Thousands!” exclaimed Holly. “How old are you?”

“All in good time, Holly,” said the Doctor. He turned back to Lilly. “I know everything there is to know about this box. I don’t need you to lecture me.”

“Not lecture, Doctor,” said Lilly, turning back to the controls, “but maybe you need someone to keep your mind focused on things. Remind you of what‘s important and what isn’t.”

The Doctor frowned and for the first time since she’d known these two, Holly thought the Doctor looked incredibly pissed off with his friend.

“I’m sorry,” said Holly. “Genuinely I am, but I couldn’t just let you leave. How was I supposed to go back to my old life knowing what was going to come in five months time?”

“You’re a Human,” said Lilly.

“And you’re not?” said Holly. “And what’s that meant to mean anyway?”

“What Lilly means,” said the Doctor, “is that you’re not used to experiencing the things you’ve experienced.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” said Holly, “but believe me, I’ve read up about these things. When we were kids Foxy and Roxy and me and the others had a club. We had a Den in the woods and we read up about aliens and ghosts and stuff.”

Lilly laughed. “This is real life.”

“Lilly,” said the Doctor again, through gritted teeth.

Holly got up off the stool, wobbled slightly - the Doctor grabbed her to support her - and then she crossed over to Lilly. “Do you have a problem with me? I haven‘t forgotten that you punched Roxy in the nose.”

“Now, now ladies,” said the Doctor.

“The Doctor and I have been quite happily travelling around the universe for quite a while now. We don’t need another kid to show the wonders of the universe too.”

“Another kid? I’m 23.”

“That’s enough,” said the Doctor. “Holly, I am not apposed to having you onboard, but I’m afraid mine and Lilly’s lives are a little bit too dangerous right now. Maybe when it’s all over you can come with us, but for now-”

The Doctor was cut off by a high-pitched beeping sound coming from the control console. Lilly flicked a few switches and a holographic screen materialised on the far side wall. It showed an advanced rocket manoeuvring into position beside a battered old chunky flying saucer-type vessel.

“Just outside the vortex,” said Lilly, checking the readings. “Do we check it out?”

The Doctor looked at Holly who was staring with wide eyes at the two spaceships.

“I’d like to see,” said Holly, trying to keep her excitement under control.

The Doctor turned back to Lilly. “Take us in to land.” He stroked his stubble. “Let’s be careful though. Something about that ship looks familiar.”

To be continued...

Story 2: Mondas Down

“No,” said Lilly. “It smells of rotting corpses.”
“Rotting corpses don’t smell like that,” said the Doctor, trying to find a door.
“Not normal ones perhaps,” said Lilly. “Ones augmented with cybernetic components do.”

2086

The SS Coronation, commanded by Captain Nicholas Fletcher, is leading an expedition to the edge of the solar system when they stumble upon a floating, damaged spaceship adrift in space.

After boarding the ship Fletcher comes face to face with the mysterious Doctor and his travelling companions, Holly and Lilly.

But that is not all that's on board the damaged ship - an old enemy is about to awaken, and the Doctor's preconception's about them is about to be tested...

This is the second in a series of adventures featuring James McAvoy as the New Doctor, Felicity Jones as Holly Dangerfield and Evanna Lynch as Lilly Galloway.

Resurrection: Looking Ahead

Afternoon all!

You may (or may not) have noticed that in the Story Index section we now have all of the stories in this series listed. Now, let me do a bit of explaining as to what is going on:

After thinking long and hard and I have had a major think, and rather than splitting "Resurrection" into series, or seasons, I will be going for one big long run. The entire of the series will, at present, comprise of 16 stories of varying lengths. These 16 stories will take a good year or two (or maybe even three) to write and tell. Life is about to get busy for me and it enables me to work in my own time and also to continue the series. There will be no finale's or anything like that anymore. Just one whole series running through 16 stories. If, in the meantime, anyone else wants to contribute then I would be very grateful.

The series will be tied up at the end of the 16 stories and will lead into....who knows where?

So here is a little bit of info and covers on what is to come.

Mondas Down

This story features the return of the Cyber-Mondassians, last seen in "The Tenth Planet" (1966). It will also feature the crew of the SS Coronation as they discover the drifting Mondassian ship containing two survivors.

Prisons in the Sky

The Rock - a dead world with rocky coastlines and stormy seas and prisons that house the galaxies deadliest criminals high up in the sky.

Holly and Lilly are imprisoned for trespassing on the planet whilst the Doctor teams up with a group of rogues to try and break them out. It will be a story focusing on the relationship between Holly and Lilly as Holly tries to dig further into the mysterious girls past.




Aliens Among Us

The Doctor gathers information that a group of aliens, disguised as Humans, are hiding in a small town in the 1990's. He, Holly and Lilly must live normal lives and attempt to bring the aliens out of hiding.

The Fires that Burned Blue

The Master returns with a new face and a new agenda as the Doctor realises that wheels that he accidentally set in motion way back are about to come back and haunt him. This will be a very important story in the ongoing narrative of the series and will feature the first shift in the story arc for all the characters as it delves into where Lilly has come from and what the Doctor did before we met him in "The Dead Shall Walk Again".




Clarence

A circus arrives in town and a clown is accused of murder, but is it all as straightforward as it seems? The Doctor, Holly and Lilly must delve deeper into Uncle Joe's Circus before Clarence - or someone - strikes again.







The Edwardian Way

The TARDIS lands in 1908 where the Doctor meets an old acquaintance, Holly falls in love and Lilly investigates a number of time experiments being conducted by the mysterious Professor Sydney Rook and his daughter, Annabella Rook.

This story is partially crossed over with a short story I am currently writing which features the 7th Doctor and Ace, called "The Ghost of Gallows Inn", although you won't have to read that to enjoy "The Edwardian Way". I will be making the 7th Doctor story available to read on here as an extended prelude.

Holly Dangerfield and the Book of Darkness

The TARDIS returns Holly home, five months after she boarded the TARDIS for the first time. The Kro'Tenk are coming and the walls between this dimension and the Dark World are collapsing.

On the other side Richard Hicks fights for his life and teams up with a familiar face.

A Beautiful Life

The TARDIS is joined by a new companion who is taken on his first trip on board the TARDIS to the beautiful world of Alestii where something rotten is in the planets core.








The Spires of Jacarthia

The next stage in the Masters plan is put in motion and one of the companions faces a difficult and life changing choice. This story will see the return of the Doctor's adopted brother, Reikon, along with Reikon's nephew, Caleb and wife Celestia. These characters featured in "Darkpaths", although new readers need not read those stories as the link to the previous story featuring them will be very slight.





UNIT: X

The mysterious Roger Stark - CEO of UNIT: X - makes his appearance known in dramatic fashion as the Doctor's life is put in danger by the new and dreaded UNIT team. And what does Roger have hidden in the basement of UNIT: X HQ?






Scouting for Aliens

The TARDIS is drawn to 400 acres of private woods in Leicestershire as a Scout group find themselves lost, alone and frightened. They are being pursued by tree-dwelling aliens intent on taking each and every one of them as prisoner.







The Haunting of Mrs Webster

Roger Stark asks the Doctor to help Joy Webster - a woman whose life is being torn apart by the ghost of an old woman.

This story is based on allegedly true events (obviously not the Doctor bit) that happened to a woman I knew in my childhood. 






Dr. Who and the Men in the Moon

The TARDIS crashes on the moon where the Doctor and his friends are attacked by Moon Men - deadly monsters made of Moon dust with sharp fangs. All is almost lost until an old Human scientist, calling himself Dr. Who, along with his companions, Ian, Barbara, Susan and Jenny rescues them and offers to fly them back to Earth...in their own time machine, TARDIS!





The King of Jacarthia

In the final part of the Master Trilogy, the Doctor must fight to take down the Master's world as everything falls down around him. Terrible choices have to be made as the Master seems almost unstoppable, and when all else seems lost, can the Doctor trust any of those close to him?

Aftershock

The ripples of what the Master has done reverberate throughout time and space as the Doctor and his friends race against time to put right everything that has gone wrong. For some there is no going back, for some life will never be the same again, and for some all that is left is death...

The Dead Shall Walk Again (Chapter 10)

Cheryl had woken up the kids and took them next door. Richard had said a teary goodbye to his family, promising (but somehow doubting his own words) that he would see them again in five months. Cheryl had begged Richard one last time, but he had argued that if he didn’t do anything about this here and now he would never forgive himself for what would happen to the world.

The Doctor had left and had returned 20 minutes later with the same headset he had used on Holly, some incense sticks and a device that looked like a kidney dialysis machine. The Doctor had hooked the rig up to the back of the TV and Richard had sat down on the sofa across the room, wondering what the future had in store for him.

“Are you okay?” said the Doctor as he slipped the headset onto Richard.

“Not really,” said Richard. He laughed nervously. “To be honest I’d rather be at work now on the fruit and veg stall. Me, preferring to be at work?” He laughed again. “Do you think this will work?”

The Doctor nodded. “It has to. I’ve contacted some friends of mine that work with these sort of things. When you’re in your coma they will come and take you away. They will care for you and look after you. I promise you that.”

Richard nodded. “My family as well?”

The Doctor smiled. “They will give your wife and children anything they need.”

“Okay,” said Richard as the Doctor moved away and lit a number of the incense sticks. “So how will this work exactly? Run through it again.”

The Doctor sat down next to him. “At the moment the signal breaking down the walls is transmitting in the other world. My being here has, in effect, thinned the walls meaning that the walls could break any moment. If they did it would be catastrophic. More catastrophic than events taking their normal course of action.”

“Okay, and how has you being here thinned the walls?”

“Because I’m a time traveller,” said the Doctor to Richard’s astonished face. “My time machine has become like a beacon for the signal. If I leave without dealing with the signal, it’ll pull the walls down anyway. What you will be is a focus. I will open your mind all the way to let your other self through. You in turn will cross over to his body. The signal will use your minds as the focus point, sort of like smashing a hole in a damn to let the water through, except with both of you in coma’s it will trap the focus signal, like a bubble trapped in a spirit level.”

“Okay, that makes some sort of sense. But then what happens in five months?”

“In five months the inevitable happens anyway and the Kro’Tenk come through, at which point I’ll be able to bring you out of the coma and I can properly fight them.”

Richard nodded. “So the world really does rest of my shoulders then? Me, a fruit and veg stall vender.” He laughed.

The Doctor patted him on the back. “The most ordinary people can sometimes do the most extraordinary things.” He got up. “Ready?”

Richard nodded. “Just don’t forget to wake me up, mate, yeah?”

The Doctor nodded. “See you in five months.”




Holly was at her granddads graveside, the flowers nearly dead, but the earth on top still looking as fresh as it had been the day it was covered over. She dropped to her knees and put her hand on the mud. She knew this was madness. All around she could see bodies climbing out of their graves and she summarised that all over town - the world even - there will people having visions and people blacking out. She knew she shouldn’t be here. Nothing about this made her certain her granddad was still alive. There was no reason why he should be. For all she knew he could have died many, many years ago in the dead world. Maybe when the first wave of the Kro’Tenk arrived, and even if he did rise from the dead he may not know who she was. In the other world Holly Dangerfield was obviously still alive and fighting, but if he had died years ago then he wouldn’t recognise her.

She looked at the mud. This was insane! She laughed. She shouldn’t be doing this. She was about to get up and go, when she saw the earth beneath her shift ever so slightly.

She gasped.




Richard was in a haze. He could see the images of carnage on the TV screen. The flames, the buildings turned to ruin, the death and destruction. It all seemed so familiar to him. He tried to fight against it, but then stopped himself and let himself relax. He had no choice. He had to do it for his family. He had to.

The Doctor shifted into focus and rubbed his arm to comfort him. He moved over to the dialysis-like machine and flicked a switch.

Richard felt a sharp pain run through his forehead and he stiffened on the sofa.

“Open your eyes,” he heard the Doctor say on the edge of his hearing.

Richard fought against the pain and opened his eyes wide just in time to see the carnage and death from the TV screen straight at him.

The world shimmered, he felt light headed. He was aware that he was no longer sitting down, but standing up, a pain in his left arm. The world around him was a massive dark blur with the occasional pinpoints of colour trying to break through. He held his left arm up to his face and gasped. His hand was gone and nothing but blood was pouring from his left wrist. It had been sliced clean through.

His head snapped up. The world was coming into focus. He was standing in a ruined old building with flames and smoke all around. He had arrived at the dead world, which meant the mind of the man he was occupying would be back in his body.

And then Richard became aware of something else in the ruined rubble. He focused and a figure was standing there. An eight-foot figure looming over him and holding a sword that was dripping with blood. His blood.

Richard screamed as the face of a lizard with a grimacing look came into focus. He was about to turn and run when the world went black.




Roxy and Lilly raced up to the graveside as Holly staggered to her feet. Holly was just about to turn and run when the earth in her granddads grave stopped moving. All around the corpses began to collapse to the ground like rag dolls. The ash figures began to disintegrate back into ash and everything went silent.

Holly turned to look at Roxy and Roxy opened her arms out. Holly ran to her and buried her head in her chest, sobbing uncontrollably.

Lilly breathed and sigh of relief and sat down on a bench nearby. She pulled out a bottle of water and took a sip and closed her eyes. The Doctor had done it.




The Doctor flicked the switch and a pulse was sent through the machine, locking Richard into a coma on this world and the dead world. The Richard that had come through hadn’t had time to say anything before the Doctor had activated the machine.

“Sweet dreams, Mr Hicks,” said the Doctor, laying a hand on his shoulder.

And then the Doctor went to his phone in his pocket, dialled a number and waited for an answer.

“Hello, Roger. It’s the Doctor. Remember that situation we were having in Huxley? Yes, I know it’s going on all over the world. Well, it should have stopped now. For at least five months anyway. I need you to come and collect Richard Hicks as agreed. Me? No, I’ve got to get out of here, but rest assured, Roger, that I’ll be back in five months time and your lot better be ready.”







Two Days Later




Holly opened her eyes and stared at the blank ceiling above. The curtains in her room were quite thin and let the sunlight through. She lay there for a good ten minutes contemplating the last few weeks and running it over and over in her head. She hadn’t told her family what had happened. They wouldn’t understand. Even Agatha wouldn’t have understood judging by her reaction to meeting the Doctor

She flung off her bed covers and got dressed. She made her way downstairs, was polite to the family as she ate her cornflakes and then headed off into town. There she met Roxy were the two of them quietly discussed what had happened. They had gone over it over and over again until they both reached the point where they felt they needed to stop, but if they spoke about anything else it would seem too boring.

Roxy and Holly were both sat in the shopping centres Costa Coffee when the Doctor and Lilly walked up to them. Holly almost spat her coffee out when she saw them.

“I just wanted to say thank you,” smiled the Doctor.

“What for?” said Holly.

“For helping us,” said the Doctor. “Okay, it may not be over yet, but the signal is being contained for now and Mr Hicks is in safe hands.”

“And we’ll be back in five months to deal with the next phase.”

“Jesus,” said Roxy. “I keep forgetting that it’s not all over.”

The Doctor smiled. “You’ll be fine, I promise.”

“Promise you’ll look in on us when you come back?” said Roxy, that mischievous look back in her eyes.

The Doctor pointed to Roxy as they headed away. “You especially, Roxanne.” He winked.

Roxy went red.

Holly watched them disappear out of the sliding doors and then drained her coffee.

“Where are you going?” said Roxy.

“Wait here for me. I want to see where they go for the next five months whilst we have to sit here getting bored.” She grabbed her coat and scarf and jogged over them.

When she emerged into the cold sunlight outside the shopping centre she saw the Doctor and Lilly disappear around the corner towards the train station. She followed them at a discreet pace until she saw them turn into a passage way.

She followed up to the passage and saw them walk into an old builders yard. She peeped around the wall and standing there under an overgrown tree was the same blue box she had seen outside the YMCA a few days ago.

The Doctor pulled out a key and unlocked the door.

“Another job well done, eh?” he said to Lilly.

She smiled. “I guess so. Glad to see the back of the place though.”

The Doctor shook his head, opened the door and the both went inside.

Holly frowned as the light began to blink on top of the box and a low sound came from somewhere within the box. She had to make a decision. Who were these two? Other than a few snippets here and there they hadn’t really told her anything. She felt like she was coming to the end of a book and some bugger had torn out the last page. She couldn’t let it end here. She knew there was a sequel coming in five months, but she needed to see the last few pages of this particular story.

With lightning speed she darted from her cover and ran for the blue box, launching herself at the door and crashing straight through and inside just as the box disappeared from the yard.




What Holly found inside the box, was not what she had expected.




The End

Next time: The TARDIS runs into a spaceship full of Human explorers...and an old enemy awaits. The Cyber-Mondassians (from "The Tenth Planet") return in "Mondas Down" coming soon!