Elsewhere (Chapter 10)

Chapter 10 (Through the Eye of the Needle)

“I want to see my family,” said Richard Hicks as he sat on the edge of the stretcher in his medical gown and slippers.

“You can’t at the moment,” said Faith, as sympathetically as possible.

“At least tell me they’re alright.”

“They’re fine,” said Faith. “Your wife was very concerned about you.”

“So where are they then?”

Faith scratched her head and bit her lip. She couldn’t tell him the truth. It wasn’t her place to tell him the truth. “They had to be evacuated from the town because of the Kro’Tenk.” She decided to change tack. “Do you remember anything from your time on the other side?”

“No,” said Richard, shaking his head. “Just ash and cloud and burning. I remember arriving in the other Richard’s body and then…I think I lost my hand,” he said, bring his hand up to his face and looking at it with curiosity. “But then everything went black.”

“Well we can only assume that your other self’s body was taken care of and kept safe otherwise you wouldn’t be here right now.”

“Where am I anyway? Where’s the Doctor?”

Faith looked around her. “It’s a medical facility on the outskirts of your town - well, actually it’s an old factory that my team have done up into a medical facility.”

“But you’re Australian.”

“Oh, jeez, does that mean I’m not allowed here?” said Faith sarcastically.

“No, of course not,” said Richard, smiling at her.

“I work for a group called UNIT: X. We deal with the unexplained. Aliens and all that stuff. We’ve been taking care of you.”

Richard scratched the back of his head. “A few months ago I’d had enough of working on that bloody market stall. Now I can’t wait to get back to it. To get back to Cheryl.”

“Yeah…” said Faith, distantly. “Look, maybe you should get some rest.”

“Look, Miss…?”

“Mrs. Mrs Crossland.”

“Look, Mrs Crossland-”

“Call me Faith though,” she said, holding up a finger.

“Look, Faith, I want to see the Doctor.”

“You can’t see him at the moment. He’s occupied elsewhere.”

“Occupied? With what?”

Faith exhaled. “He’s over in that other world trying to stop them from getting through.”

“What?!” said Richard. There was an explosion from somewhere in the distance. “It sounds as if they’ve already gotten through!”




Elsewhere…




“How do we know this plan hasn’t been tried in the dimension before this?” said Holly, as Ellie Hicks strapped her foot up with a bandage.

“Well, we don’t,” said Aldridge, who was sat at a table with his arms folded, “but we can only hope that it wasn’t. I think the advantage of them occupying each world for 20 years may work on our side.”

“How?”

“Because times change,” said Aldridge, sounding a little frustrated.

“What the Professor means,” said the other Holly from back towards the door, “is that twenty years ago the previous dimension probably didn’t have the twenty-five nuclear warheads under the surface of the Earth.”

“Exactly,” said Aldridge. “The Osterhagen Project.”

“The most despicable thing this planet has done so far,” said the Doctor with a frown. “Well, one of them.”

“So you detonate the nukes and it blows up the planet?” said Holly, a look of revulsion on her face.

“That’s about the size of it,” said Aldridge.

“Not wanting to be a doom merchant here,” said the Doctor, pacing around the table, “but why didn’t you do this before?”

Aldridge looked straight ahead, smiling. “There was always the hope. The hope that we’d find another way.”

Ellie finished bandaging up Holly’s ankle and got to her feet. “As we approached the twenty year mark we knew that we were running out of options. The Kro’Tenk will murder us all no matter what.”

The other Holly nodded and wiped her nose on her sleeve. “So we’ve gotta nuke them before they leave.”

The Doctor stopped pacing. “The Osterhagen stations though-”

“Have already been occupied for some time by our agents,” said Aldridge. “All that remains is for us to send the activation signal.”

“Supposing one of them doesn’t go through with it? What then?” asked Holly.

“The alternative is being killed by the Kro’Tenk,” said Ellie, slumping to the floor. “Plus each station has two people in them.”

“Just in case one chickens out,” said the Doctor, glumly.

“Just in case one chickens out,” confirmed Aldridge. “It’s not ideal, but it’s the only way.”

“Then why didn’t you do it before they opened up their portal?” said the Doctor, rounding on Aldridge. “You could have saved a lot of trouble the other side.”

“Because I needed you to come through.”

“What?”

Aldridge got up and walked into a corner of the basement where a collection of boxes and storage containers were kept. He picked up what looked like a cube wrapped in a dirty, old rag. He handed it to the Doctor and slowly removed the covering. Underneath was a small, metal cube with ornate and intricate markings all over it. Each side contained a circular design.

“What’s that?” asked Holly, peering at the cube.

“My TARDIS,” said Aldridge. “I knew you’d eventually come to try and fix this little problem. I had to wait until you were safely through.”

“Nekram said he destroyed your TARDIS,” said the Doctor.

“He thought he did,” grinned Aldridge.

“It’s a bit small,” said Holly. “How’d you get inside it?”

“It’s in siege mode,” said the Doctor, turning it over and over in his hands. “It’s kind of like the last desperate mode a TARDIS can take if it’s endangered. It’s takes quite a jolt of power to reactivate it.” He looked at Aldridge. “Forgive me, but why would I want your TARDIS?”

“Because of what’s inside it,” said Aldridge.

“Which is?”

The room shook. Brick dust trickled down on Holly’s nose and she sneezed.

“There’s no time,” said Aldridge. “We need to get you back to your TARDIS.”

“Wait,” said the Doctor, as Aldridge snatched the cube from him and wrapped it back up. “You can’t just expect me to take your TARDIS without an explanation. What’s inside it?”

The room shook again and a wooden beam came crashing down, narrowly missing Ellie.

“Ellie,” said Aldridge, pointing towards the young woman, “signal the operators at each Osterhagen station. Get them prepared.”

“Are we absolutely sure about this?” said the other Holly. Holly could sense the desperation - the fear - in her voice.

“There is no other way,” said Aldridge. Holly wasn’t sure, but she may have spotted a tear trickle down from his eye before he turned away and marched towards the staircase.

“Wait!” said the other Holly, “I’m coming with you.”

“You can’t come with us,” said the Doctor, looking back to her.

“Not to your world,” said the other Holly. “Just to…say goodbye.” She swallowed. “Please. I can’t die in here. I want to see my town one last time.”

Aldridge gave a simple nod of his head and then led them all upstairs.




When Faith and Richard reached the town centre they were blocked by UNIT soldiers. The town centre looked like a war zone, but most of the buildings were still intact.

Faith flashed her I.D. to one of the soldiers and he ushered them both through the cordon.

“Sentinel,” said Stark, rushing up to her from behind a Landrover. “What’s Hicks doing here?”

“He insisted,” said Faith. “Sorry, boss.”

“We’ll talk about this later,” said Stark, flashing her an angry glare. He turned to Hicks. “Please, Mr Hicks, you need to return to your hospital bed.”

“What the hell has happened here?” said Richard, completely ignoring Stark. He looked over towards four rows of burnt out market stalls. “Oh my god.”

“Richard, it’s fine,” said Faith, by his side again. “It’s just superficial damage. They’ll rebuild your town.”

“That’s if anyone can stop these things,” said Richard, nodding towards the sky as a rocket grenade flew over their heads and hit a nearby Kro’Tenk who fell to the floor and clattered down, twisted up with it’s burning bike.

“Double Zero has calculated a 48% chance that we will survive-”

“Shut it,” said Richard, pointing to Stark. “I want you to take me to my family now.”

“I can’t,” said Stark.

“Richard, please,” said Faith, putting her hands on his shoulders. “You need to come back with me. At least take shelter behind the safety line.”

“No,” said Richard, shrugging her away. “Where are my wife and kids?” He grabbed Stark by his lapels and pulled him towards him. Stark looked genuinely terrified. “Where is Cheryl?”

Stark held his breath and then swallowed. “They left town.”

“Why?” growled Richard.

“Because…” He looked at Faith who shook her head in disbelief that it’d come to this. “Because she thinks your dead.”

Richard frowned, staggered and dropped Stark, who backed away from him. “What?”

“Officially….you’re dead,” said Stark again.

The last thing he saw was Richard Hick’s fist flying towards his face.




The two Holly’s and the two Doctors had reached the top of the hill where the TARDIS was standing. The smoke had stopped billowing from inside it and it now stood silent and still. The journey up to the top had been pretty uneventful. Most of the Kro’Tenk were too busy coordinating their world-wide escape plans to bother with individuals now.

“I still can’t believe this,” said Holly as she turned back to the site of her town burning in the distance.

“You need to go now,” said Aldridge, handing the covered-up cube to the Doctor. “And keep this safe.”

“I will. I will,” said the Doctor, taking it from him. “Stop worrying.”

Aldridge took one more look at the cube, closed his eyes, kissed his hand and then placed the palm on the cube. “Farewell, old girl.”

“Listen-” started the Doctor.

Aldridge shook his head in frustration. “If you’re about to say that there has to be another way then please don’t, young man.”

“A man has to try,” said the Doctor, giving him a sad smile.

“Go back home. Save your world.” He extended his hand and the Doctor shook it. “I dropped the name Doctor because it soon became apparent that I couldn’t heal this world. This world didn’t need a Doctor any more.”

“I did something similar once, a long time ago,” said the Doctor, smiling sadly at the distant memory. “So where does the name Aldridge come from?”

“Someone I used to know,” he replied. He cleared his throat. “Now come on, you two. Chop-chop, eh?”

“Thank you, Doctor.”

Aldridge smiled.

The Doctor turned to both Holly’s who were both watching the burning town below. “Don’t be too long, eh?”

Holly turned to look at him, nodding silently and then turned back to her counterpart as the Doctor entered the TARDIS.

“You could come with us, you know?”

“Not my world,” said the other Holly.

“Neither is the Doctor’s world,” said Holly. “I mean all the planets and travelling and things, but it doesn’t mean that I can’t belong there.”

“You have a life back there. A life I have never had.”

“You could have a life too. A real, normal life.”

“I could never adjust to a normal life. Not now.” She turned to Holly. “When I was little I had a teddy bear. His name was-”

“Sir Current Eyes.”

The other Holly smiled and then laughed. “That’s right. Well when the world went to crap he was the only thing I could put my trust in. The only thing that I knew would never die. Would never leave me.”

Holly felt sad. She’d given her Sir Current Eyes away to the children’s hospice when she had grown out of teddy bears and childish things.

“Then one day Sir Current Eyes caught on fire and he was gone. Just like that. Became ash and cinder just like this place.” She shook her head. “The only thing I could rely on - put my faith in - was gone. And so was my faith.”

“I’m sorry,” said Holly, putting a hand on her shoulder.

A gentle hum had started up from the TARDIS and Holly noticed Aldridge sat, cross-legged on the hill gazing out to the unknown.

“You need to go,” said the other Holly. “Please.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’ll be happy knowing you’re out there living a life.”

Holly nodded. “I came here because I wanted to see my granddad, but I realise now that I don’t need to. He was your granddad, not mine. Mine passed away six months ago, but at least I got to share that magical time with him. He’s never coming back, is he?”

The other Holly shook her head.

And then Holly leaned in and gave her alternative self a tight hug.

“Do all that you can to be happy, Holly,” she said. “Fall in love. Save lives. Have fun. You never know when it might all end.”

“Holly!” came the Doctor’s voice from within the TARDIS.

Holly broke away from her other self and tearfully made her way back to the TARDIS. She took one more look at the lonely girl stood on the hill, gave Aldridge a sad, goodbye nod and then disappeared inside the box.

Aldridge turned and watched as the blue box shot up into the air and towards the swirling clouds until it was nothing but a blip against the green glowing portal.

When he was sure it was enough time he crossed over to Holly and put his arm around her and squeezed her tight. Then he put a walkie-talkie to his mouth and cleared his throat.

“Lethbridge-Stewart, when you’re ready, signal the operators at the stations. Activate the Osterhagen Project. Goodnight everyone. Goodnight, Alistair.”




Nekrum was standing over a monitor watching Azure coordinate a number of troops when he felt the ground rumble underneath him. He frowned as the vibrations grew heavier and heavier. Then a huge, quake caused him to fall over, landing hard on his armour-clad back.

There were panicked cries all around him and he looked up as the machine that was generating the dimension beam began to shake.

And then the ground opened up beneath them. There was a huge explosion from somewhere underneath him and the machine tipped and collapsed into the huge, gaping hole in the ground. The beam flickered and fluctuated and then winked out as the machine disappeared into the ground. The portal in the clouds closed up and Nekram shielded his eyes as more explosions erupted around him.

“No,” said Nekram. He got to his feet as buildings and ruins slowly crumbled and disappeared into the ever unstable ground. “Nekram to Azure come -”

But Nekram didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence. There was a flash of light and then….nothing.

From space the battered, devastated planet Earth cracked, collapsed in on itself and then disappeared in a flash of pure, white light.

A whole planet full of history, people and life winked out of existence to leave nothing but dust.

To be concluded....