Chapter 1 (Grey Beaches and Stormy Skies)
I have no idea why I‘m writing this, but I’m hoping it might help me come to terms with what has happened. We’ve been here twelve hours and there’s certainly no way we’re getting out of here. Not any time soon anyway. All I can hope is that the Doctor’s out there somewhere trying to find a way out of this for us.
Lilly’s already busy making plans to escape, but I have absolutely no idea how we’re going to break out of this prison.
Sixteen Hours Ago
Holly hadn’t really had a chance to explore the TARDIS since arriving. After flinging herself through the doors she had been thrown into the events with the Coronation crew and the Cybermen and had barely had a chance to actually think about what was going on.
After they had made the terrifying spacewalk from the Coronation to the TARDIS (Holly had almost thrown up in her space helmet), the Doctor had set about programming the controls to take her home. Holly didn’t want to go home though. She had just started this wild adventure and she wasn’t ready for it to be over just yet.
She begged - almost on her hands and knees - for the Doctor to take her on one more trip. Eventually he caved in, but warned that he needed to spend a bit of time mending some of the TARDISes systems after it was cast adrift in space.
Lilly had, reluctantly, taken Holly through an array of corridors leading off from the control room to find her a room to relax in. Holly found it amusing how, as soon as Lilly had gotten back into her comfort zone - aka the TARDIS - she had returned to her frosty self with no hint whatsoever of the frightened girl she had had to comfort back on Remos.
Lilly opened the door to a small, dimly lit bedroom, turned a dimmer switch to brighten it up, made her excuses and headed back to the control room.
The room was basic. The same circular pattern that was in the control room adorned the walls of this room and a big, double-bed with white sheets sat in the corner next to a bedside table.
She laid down and smiled at the softness of the mattress. She wouldn’t be sleeping in here though, unfortunately. She wouldn’t be here long enough.
She sat back up and pulled open the draw in the bedside cabinet. She frowned. Inside was a small book with a cartoon cat on the cover.
She opened it up and inside were handwritten journal entries. It was a diary. She read the first one:
Dear Diary,
First day on board the TARDIS. I’m kind of excited really. I know Lilly doesn’t really want me here, but I’m not letting my sister do this without me, not after we found each other at last. This new Doctor seems nice enough and so far everything he has said has been the truth. I just hope Lilly can try and leave her past behind her.
I often wonder what life would have been like if she’d stayed with the rest of the family.
Well, that’s all for now. The Doctor’s just shouted me and we’re about to land. I wonder where this ship will take us first?
Holly looked up from the book.
Lilly has a brother or sister, she thought to herself. So where is he or she now?
“Dangerfield!” came Lilly’s voice from back up the corridor.
She slammed the book shut and flung it back into the draw, quickly closing it.
Lilly burst into the room. “Did you hear me shouting?”
“Yeah,” said Holly.
“Why didn’t you answer then?” said Lilly.
“I…was asleep.”
“You must be knackered,” said Lilly. “Anyway, no time for that. The Doctor needs to put us down to make the repairs so he thought this might be an opportunity for you to see another alien world.”
“Fantastic!” said Holly, making a mental note to return to the diary when she got back in.
“Don’t get too excited,” said Lilly, “it’s just some rocky world in the backside of nowhere.”
They headed for the control room where the time rotor in the centre of the console was coming to a rest and the engines stopped with a thud. The Doctor rubbed his hands together and smiled at Holly.
“So the TARDIS is damaged badly?” said Holly.
“Not exactly,” said the Doctor, “but the engines need to re-charge before we can take off again. She’s already repairing the surface damage by herself. Should only take about an hour. Self-recharging you see.”
“And we can go outside?” said Holly, looking at the doors.
“I don’t see why not,” said the Doctor. “Check the readings, Lilly.”
Lilly looked at the console. “Oxygen and Gravity are normal. Atmosphere is normal too. No spacesuits needed.”
“Thank god for that!” said Holly, eyeing up her crumpled suit on the floor beside the console.
The landscape wasn’t much to look at. The TARDIS had landed on the top of a cliff and all that could be seen as far as the eye could see was cold, grey water and rocky beaches. The one thing that did stand out, however, were four spires that reached up from far out in the sea and high into the sky.
“Rain,” said Lilly, glumly.
“What are they?” said Holly, nodding towards the spires.
“No idea,” said the Doctor. “Some ancient alien structure perhaps?”
“Can we go and look?” said Holly.
“I am not wading through water again,” said Lilly, remembering last time.
“True,” said Holly. “I don’t much fancy that either, but can we at least go down to the beach?”
“I don’t see why not,” said the Doctor. He gazed out towards the spires. “It all looks quiet. Just be careful on your way down. Those rocks look slippery.”
“What about you?” said Lilly.
“I’m going to have a look back this way,” he said, thumbing over his shoulder towards some scrubby grass with a few small, grey hills in the distance.
“Are you sure it’s safe?” said Holly as Lilly made her way towards the slippery path that led down to the beach.
“Holly, nothing is a sure thing,” said the Doctor. And then grinned. “But surely that’s the fun of it?”
Holly nodded and smiled and then followed Lilly towards the path.
The route down was more treacherous than they had initially thought. Although the pathway was quite a gentle decline, the rocks were slippery and the two women ended up nearly crouching to get down. But when they finally reached the bottom it was a different scenario. The beach was grey, wet sand - almost slush - and their feet sunk into the mush.
“Lovely,” said Lilly.
“We should have brought wellies,” said Holly, trying to scrape some sand off her trainers and onto a nearby rock.
“We can always go back up,” said Lilly, wearily looking back up at the cliff.
“Nah,” said Holly, trudging off across the beach, “let’s live life dangerously!”
“You’re getting brave,” said Lilly.
“When have I not been brave?” said Holly.
“You weren’t very brave when you were spacewalking. That helmet would have taken weeks to clean out, you know?!”
“Cheeky!” said Holly. “It was my first time, you know?”
“I know, I know. I’m kidding. You’re just an amateur.”
Holly saw the window of opportunity opening again. “How long have you been travelling with the Doctor?”
“A while now,” said Lilly, kicking a large, purple pebble out of her way.
“How long’s a while?”
“You like digging don’t you, Dangerfield?”
“I gotta try,” said Holly shrugging. “My parents used to take me to the beach when I was little, before Agatha came along. I used to love it. I used to roll my jeans up to my knees and wade into the water.”
“You don’t wanna wade into that lot,” said Lilly, nodding towards the grey water. “What a dump this place is.”
“Yeah,” said Holly. “There’s not much to see, is there?”
Back towards the cliff in a small, secluded cave, a number of eyes watched Holly and Lilly, unseen to them.
The Doctor hadn’t gotten very far but he was already bored. He was no closer to the grey hills, and the scrubland around him was as depressing as anything he had been depressed at before. He was about to give up and go back when he spotted something up ahead. Just a little off to the right was a small cluster of slab-like stones - and he was sure one of them had moved.
He checked his watch - thirty minutes and the TARDIS would be in working order again - and then made his way in the direction of the stones.
When he eventually got there it had started raining and he shivered, fastening up his coat and pushing his sodden hair out of his face. He crouched down over the slab that he was sure had moved and knocked on it.
Nothing.
He tried to lift it himself but it was too heavy. In fact it didn’t budge at all, which he found odd. Odd because even though it would be incredibly heavy, he should have been able to rock it at least. It was almost as though it was fixed down.
He got to his feet, tapped the stone with his foot, sighed, looked at the sky - it was teaming down with rain now - and then decided to head back to the TARDIS. Whatever was under the stone would have to wait until it had stopped raining.
He turned to go and when he was barely five metres away he heard a sound from behind him. He turned to look, but all he saw was something large and dark hitting him between his eyes before he blacked out.
Holly and Lilly were stood by the waters edge when the rain started coming down faster and harder. The two girls pulled their coats up to cover their hair. They were about to turn and go when a sound came from the vicinity of the spires.
It sounded like an alarm and was as loud as an air raid siren. A constant VOOT-VOOT.
“What the hell’s that?” said Lilly, looking for what the commotion was all about.
“Look over there!” said Holly, pointing towards the spires as a small flying object soon became a bigger object. The closer it got the more they realised that it was actually some kind of flying vehicle. It was a small, white pod with black stripes running down the sides and a flashing blue light on top.
“I think we better go,” said Holly, turning to leave.
“Don’t even think about it!” came a voice over a loudspeaker attached to the flying car.
“What have we done?” asked Lilly, sensing the menace in the voice.
The car descended and a man in black armour and brandishing a large, canon-like weapon aimed it at the two woman.
“What?” said Holly, her arms outstretched.
“You’re both under arrest.”
“Under arrest? For what?” said Lilly with an incredulous laugh.
“Under arrest for trespassing on the Rock.”
“This place?” said Lilly. “Oh crap, this is the Rock?”
“Have you heard of it before?” said Holly.
“Yep. Unfortunately so,” said Lilly with a grim face. “It’s a prison planet.”
To be continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment