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...