sc ikaiju
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In an open field several people were spread out. A couple in military style uniforms walked extremely broken streets. Others were examining what looked like a building foundation but without the actual building present. Elsewhere a ginger haired male in a dark color jumpsuit was trying to comfort a similarly dressed dark haired woman while trying not to have a breakdown over what he was seeing as well. In the center of all of this was a blue police box. A panel opened inward and out came a dark haired man in grey trousers, a business blazer of the same color over a navy blue jumper. Closing the door behind him he put a grey trilby on his head as he quickly spotted the two young people. Leaning against the box his hearts went out to them. He knew the loss of ones homeworld all too well.
The blue box made a noise that made the man go, “Don’t worry, we’re not keeping them. At least not all of them.” he said while scanning the entire group. The box made another noise, “It’s not like we can just abandon Finn and Kendrix here, now can we?” The man looked at the box when it made a sound that was almost… rude. “You’d be worried about them before too long.”
“Doctor,” one of the military dressed ones said as he came up. The Doctor had to silently admit the man looked far more in place in those UNIT fatigues than he did in the robes he was wearing when he first encountered him.
“Sergeant Elias,” he said in greeting while tipping his hat slightly. “Such a lovely planet.”
“It is,” Elias said as he took position beside the Doctor. “I can see why people would have wanted to settle here.”
The Doctor grunted in agreement as he looked past where Finn and Kendrick currently were and to the horizon. “Sergeant,” he said while still looking out, “would you agree that trust, while hard to gain, is just as easily lost?”
Elias stiffened slightly, almost as if he was expecting this particular moment was coming. To be fair, given the short time they have known each other the man wouldn’t be where he is now if he was that much of a fool, he wouldn’t even be in UNIT. At least the UNIT the Doctor remembered. Still he seemed reluctant to even say, “Yes it is.”
They might as well get this out of the way. “Then please don’t break what trust we have when I ask why are you here?” He started to answer but the Doctor quickly cut him off. “Keep in mind that you told me you have a pick up transponder so I will have no issue gathering up Kendricx and Finn and leaving the lot of you here.”
“The stories said you were observant," Elias said.
“The men you said were here to offer their respects have been doing anything but.” He pointed out one person in particular who was paying more attention to the horizon than the rubble. In fact Kendrick and Finn were the only ones who looked like they were doing that. “I’ve been involved with UNIT and various other military groups to recognize a patrol pattern when I see it. Now granted I could put that down to habit, I have a few of my own in the various lives I’ve lived. But then there,” he trailed off and waved a hand at all the destruction.
“As an official explanation it is pretty weak,” Elias said as he looked around.
“I realized that as soon as I saw all of this. This colony was basically wiped off the face of the planet. The only proof there was anything here are the basements, foundations and what’s left of the roads. This wasn’t pirates, you would need several armadas to cause this much destruction and word not getting out while it’s happening.”
“And a pirate gathering of that size would be noticed,” Elias said. Then he told him, “Unofficially, they don’t know what happened, at first they assumed there was some sort of natural disaster or an explosion of some sort. Then an investigation team was sent in and reported this. I was told to try and see if anything was around that would explain what happened.”
The Doctor nodded, extremely glad Elias told him that. “I will wish you luck there Elias. If there was anything still intact that would explain what happened would be a miracle. And I don’t believe in miracles.”
“Don’t I know it,” Elias said. “Part of me is wondering if there’s some sort of secret chamber or something here. It’s a long shot and I’ll admit that is me grasping at straws.”
“That thought occurred to me as well,” the Doctor said “In fact I already did a brief scan, piggybacking off the usual scan the TARDIS does when it lands. I didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.”
“Well this is my problem now,” Elias told him. “So if you want to gather up Finn and Kendrick, go right ahead. Me and the boys are prepared to stay here for as long as necessary.”
“And not know what happened here?”, the Doctor said as he stood away from the TARDIS, hands in pockets. “How would I be able to sleep at night? Besides I’m not sure those two are ready just yet, come along Sergeant.” Elias looked on with a cocked eyebrow before eventually following the Doctor.
***
How could this have happened? This was the only thought that swam in Kendrix’s head as she sat there. Oh she was aware that her long time friend Finn was nearby, and deep down she knew he was hurting too. But this was her one goal for so long, to get home. And there was nothing left. How could this have happened? When she finally felt like she could say anything all she could manage was a pathetic, “It’s not fair.” Finn started immediately rubbing her shoulder.
“No it’s not,” she turned to find the Doctor standing there.
“Look Doctor,” Finn said stepping up to him, "Maybe now is not the best time.”
“Can you fix this?”, Kendrix practically pushed Finn out of the way to face him. “Can you use your time machine and fix this?” When he hesitated she practically exploded in his face, “You’re the almighty Time Lord, do something.”
“I can’t,” he softly said. Throwing up her arm she walked away but not very far. He continued, “Because if I fix it then it happens anyway.” She looked back at him.
Finn asked,” What do you mean it’ll happen anyway. You go back and stop this from happening then it doesn’t happen.”
“It’s not that simple,” the Doctor told him. To both of them he said. “I go back and stop this travesty, you'll still be on Skarold. Things won’t change there. But as soon as I bring you back here, everything is fine and dandy. There’s no reason for me to go back in time and stop anything.”
“Then this would happen all over again,” Finn said looking around,
Kendrix wouldn’t believe that, couldn't believe that. This man was a Time Lord, everybody knew they could control time as they saw fit. He had to fix this, he just had to.
“We would be stuck in a loop,” the Doctor went on. “Believe me, if I was here at the time I would have done everything in my power to make sure this doesn’t happen. But I wasn’t and going back and stopping this destruction isn’t going to change anything, not in the long run.”
“You could find out who did this,” Finn said. “Stop them from heading this way.”
“I could do that,” he admitted. “If I knew who they were. But chances are likely this,” he motioned at the area around them, “happens to somebody else.”
“You stopped Daleks,” Kendrix snapped. “Whover ever did…did this can’t be any worse.”
“No, they’re probably not. But Kendrix, I have changed timelines,” the Doctor told her, “On a small scale, relatively speaking. Just changing things on this scale,” he started shaking his head, “There will be ripple effects and repercussions I don’t think you understand. Everything could fall apart.”
“I don’t care,” she said walking away, “I just want my home back.”
“Hey!” Elias called out from the top of a hill, pointing behind him. “Doctor, you got to see this.” The Doctor hurried over. Finn was looking at her. She stormed past him after the Doctor. This was her home, she deserved to know what was happening.
“Kendrix,” Elias said, trying to get in her way, “maybe you shouldn’t.” She went right past him. “I…” She stopped in her tracks as soon as she reached the top. In front of all of them was a massive graveyard, stretching out as far as the eye could see.. A few yards in front of them the Doctor slowly turned around to look at them,
“This wasn’t here,” Finn said. Kendrix choked back a sob at the sight. “Maybe we should head back.”
“No,” she said firmly. Forcing her legs to move she went down the hill with Finn in tow. The Doctor waited for them to reach his location before continuing down toward the grave yard.
The Doctor, Elias, Finn and herself all ended up taking different rows. Nothing was talked about, nothing planned, it was just something that happened. Finn stopped at one point and dropped to a knee at one particular grave. “I knew this person, he always had snacks for us on the way to school.” Kendrix said nothing despite recognizing several names as she passed them, just crossing her arms in response to the chill she was suddenly feeling.
A few rows over she heard the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver and that made both of them look over at him. He was scanning a grave with it, soon looking over the results he was seeing. “Doctor?”, she started to ask but was afraid to say the question out loud.
“There’s a body,” he answered anyway. “This isn’t some fake prop. I was actually hoping that there was somebody sick enough to actually do it on this scale.”
“I don’t understand,” Elias said as he looked around. “The investigation team said nothing like this even existed. Why is this here?”
“A better question,” the Doctor said, kneeling by a random grave, “Is who did this? I can easily believe your investigation team burying everybody they found out of respect and not reporting it for the same reason. But there is not one unnamed grave that I can see, I can’t imagine your team being able to identify everyone.”
“It had to be somebody who lived here,” Kendrix said, hope starting to rise again. “There are survivors.”
“Hopefully,” Elias told her. “We were on Skarold for a long time.”
Finn spoke up, “It’s the only thing that makes any sort of sense. Who else is going to do this? The bastards who did this? They suddenly feel remorseful and decide to honor our dead?”
“You have to think logically Finn,” the Doctor told him. “Yes, somebody who lived here probably did this but what are they going to survive on?”
“There has to be something,” Kendrix shot back. “We know this planet better than either of you. We know what’s edible and what’s not. Planetary surveys are available to anybody. There are ways to survive here.”
“Unfortunately that record building doesn't exist anymore,” Elias pointed out.
“That doesn’t mean somebody hasn’t memorized it enough to know where any hiding spots are,” the Doctor said. “We should head back, make a base camp.”
“Good idea,” Elias said. “We can plan out what we do from there. Being the local experts,” somehow Elias said that without sounding condescending like most people would have, “hopefully you two can remember some possible hiding spots and we can go from there.”
“A plan it is then,” the Doctor said. They started off but then she grabbed onto the Doctor’s arm to stop him. “What is it?”
“I’m sorry,” she said, “I shouldn’t have said what I said.”
“There’s no need to apologize. I lost my home too. I know that pain all too well. Actually, I’d be worried if you weren’t lashing out. It’s all perfectly healthy.” She should have been happy, at least smiled at what he was saying but she couldn’t, not now. Wrapping an arm around her and Finn they followed Elias back up the hill.
***
In a darkened room in front of several monitors a lone humanoid sat watching. To any one he looked human enough but he wasn’t. Studying the screens intently a light flashing from one immediately caught his attention. “What do we have here?”, he asked while typing a command on the board in front of him. In less than a moment the image from that particular screen appeared on the monitor directly in front of him.
“Where did you come from?” On the screen were several individuals. Ones who should not be here. How a couple were dressed made him sit up straighter. Grabbing a head set he put the receiver to his ear while making sure the microphone was by his mouth. “This is station three. Reporting unknown people in sector delta.”
“Where did they come from?” Came the reply question, like he knew the answer. “There have been no reports of any ships in the area and we already scoured any subterranean cavern for any signs of life.”
“I’m aware of that but have at least five on my monitor at the moment. At least two look to be full military. Two could be based on the way they’re dressed, and the fifth just looks like an outsider. Almost civilian like.”
“If it’s some sort of military exercise than that one might be an observer. Keep an eye on them. I’ll relay the information to the commander.”
“Understood, I’ll report if there is any changes.” Putting down the headset he started turning fails and pushing buttons on the board. “Let’s see if we can figure out where you came from,” he said to himself. Figuring out the direction the group he spotted was going he sent the probe further along on that projected path. Soon enough he located some more in part of the ruins. There was no sign of a craft that he could see. Although he did spot some sort of strange box that wasn’t in the records from previous surveys that had been done. “Probably some sort of communication device. Better mark it for destruction after they’re dealt with.”
***
That night Elias had his men make camp out in the open, not like there were a lot of options for any sort of shelter. The Doctor offered his TARDIS but Elias had politely declined. As it was he had a couple of his men patrolling the premier as the rest took spots around a heat lantern. All except Kendrix who sat on a rock away from the rest and continued to look out at what was left of her home
Without excusing himself the Doctor left the group and walked over to her. Standing a close but still respectful distance away he waited for her to acknowledge his presence. After several moments she kept on looking out. “Mind if I join you?”, he asked. She just shrugged and moved over slightly.
Removing his hat as he sat next to her he looked out with her. Eventually she said, “There’s nothing here anymore. Everybody’s gone.”
“Nobody is ever truly gone,” he said, “not completely. I used to travel with a young woman named Victoria, lovely girl. She lost her family too. I told her something similar.”
“How did she handle it?”, Kendrix asked.
“She put up a brave front but she was hurting on the inside. I told her how I dealt with it, as far as missing my family. I told her they were sleeping, in the back of my mind. And they would wake up when I wanted to remember them.”
“Does it work?”
“Sometimes,” he admitted. “But sometimes, sometimes I just can’t.” Lowering his head he told her, “Some pain never goes away, it gets smaller, more manageable but it never leaves. I wish I knew that when I said that to Victoria. Some things have to be learned the hard way,” he sighed deeply.
“I lost everybody,” she said as the tears started to fall. “I don’t have anyone now.” The Doctor put an arm around her and held her close as she cried
After a few moments he started rubbing her arm, “Now, now. You haven’t lost everybody, you still have Finn over there. You have friends and people who are like family back on Skatold, if you want to go back there. You have family back on Earth.”
She sniffed a bit, “I never met them.” Searching his pockets with his free hand the Doctor found a handkerchief, at least he hoped that it was one, and he offered it to her. She took and wiped her eyes before handing it back.
“Doesn’t mean they don’t know about you,” he told her. “And I’m sure they would be more than delighted that you survived.”
“I don’t know,” she said after getting herself under control.
“You don’t have to make the decision right now. Think it over a bit before deciding one way or another. But do you want to know what? I’ve learned of at least one thing that helps ease that pain, a night with friends, laughing around a fire.” They both looked back at the others.
“That’s a heat lamp,” she said.
“Hmm,” he grunted. “It’s an electrical type of fire, still counts.” Despite herself she grinned and joined the Doctor as he headed back over to the others.
***
The next morning, The Doctor and Elias were studying a crude map that was drawn into the ground. Not that far off Kendrix and Finn were trying to remember what was where in order to help pinpoint those potential caverns. “I’m telling you,” Finn said pointing in a particular direction,” the administration building was right over there. I completely remember that mountain range being right behind it.”
“Finn,” she shot back, “the building was set up so the sun rose up from the east. To see that mountain range it would come up from the west. And the mountain range looks almost exactly the same as the one over there.”
Overhearing them Elias just sighed a bit while he commented, “I don’t suppose I can talk you into taking a trip back just to settle that disagreement?”
The Doctor chuckled at the thought, “Tempting, but if I’ve learned anything is you can go anywhere in this universe and ask a random number of locals directions to anywhere.”
“Let me guess,” Elias cut in, “You’ll get the same number of different answers.”
“You’ve experienced it I see,” the Doctor “A fascinating phenomenon, you would think there would be a more general description in a large metropolis. Then again there is memory and the shock of seeing your home annihilated.”
“I guess it would,” Elias agreed. He looked over when he noticed one of his men coming toward them. “What is it?”
This person didn’t say anything until he was standing with them. “We spotted some sort of drone in the sky, several of them. They’re all hovering around our location.” The Doctor stood up and stretched, an act to spot those very probes.
“I’m counting at least four,” he told Elias while continuing to look like he was stretching. “There might be more.”
“Understood,” Eias told both of them, obviously fighting the urge to look for himself. “Set up stations to keep an eye on them for now.”
“Yes sir,” the man said. “But shouldn’t we shoot one down, examine it to see who it belongs to.”
“I wouldn’t,” the Doctor said casually. “Currently whomever is controlling those drones doesn’t know we know about them. Shooting one down would change that.”
“And we can’t assume they’re friendly, and right now that’s the only advantage we have. Still it would be nice to know who’s spying on us.”
“There might be a way,” the Doctor said thinking it over, “but it’s going to be tricky.”
Kendrix and Finn came running over, “Doctor in the sky…!”
“We know,” Elias told them. “Don’t point at them. “You said you had an idea Doctor, What is it?”
“”Well Elias, you, me and Finn are going for a little stroll to the graveyard over there.”
“Wait, what about me?”, Kendrix cried out.
“You keep remembering where things were,” the Doctor told her. “The more details we have the better we can locate things. That is really important if we want to figure out what happened here. You,” he pointed toward the guard, “escort her around the area and mark down anything she can remember. Come along you two,” he said to Finn and Elias.
“Sir?”, the UNIT soldier said to Elias.
“You heard him,” was all he had to say before following the Doctor and Finn.
“Come along,” he said to Kendrix. “I think I saw what was left of a street sign this way.
“That will be helpful,” Kendrix told him as they went in the direction he indicated.
***
Passing over the top of the hill both Finn and Elias still stopped at the sight, neither able to comprehend the sheer size of the graveyard in front of them. Even seeing it a second time didn’t help. Finn was the first to notice that the Doctor, with hands firmly in his pants pockets, just kept on going. Shaking his head he jogged to catch up with the Time Lord. The other man barely acknowledged his presence as he continued walking. Finally Finn asked, “What are we doing out here?”
“Primarely,” he reached down to grab some grass and gently let it sprinkle from his fingers and watched them fall, “I’m hoping to perform a little experiment. But more importantly, I’m hoping to find out what you’re doing.”
“I’m surprised you care,” Finn said a little bitterly.
“Finn, I know the loss of one's home all too well,” the Doctor told him as they kept walking. “And I know the look of a brave front when I see one.”
“Somebody has to look out for Kendrix,” was all he could think to say, no matter how flimsy it sounded to him.
“And I would agree,” the Doctor said. “ but I get the feeling she wouldn’t, but we all handle grief differently. But even the one who’s trying to be the rock, well eventually even they are going to want a shoulder to cry on.”
“You lost your home?”, he asked. The Doctor simply nodded. “Do you hate the ones who did it?”
Here the Doctor stopped walking, almost look like he was smirking for a moment before facing him and saying. “Pretty much every day since it happened.”
“Do you think you’ll ever start to forgive them?”
“Interesting question,” the Doctor mused. “Can you forgive the ones who did something so heinous?” He looked around at the grave yard they were now in. “I’ll be honest, in the first few moments it doesn’t seem possible, especially in the face of it all. But that much hate, no matter how justified it feels at first, how right you want it to be in the end. That much hate, it will eat you away faster than any disease you can think of.”
“So you were able to forgive the ones who destroyed your word?”
“One,” the Doctor corrected him sadly, “One person destroyed my world. Forgiveness is not a fast process Finn. It’s slow and tedious, boy is it tedious, but letting go of that anger, it’s necessary sometimes.”
“How did you start?”, Finn asked him. “I mean letting go of the anger?”
“It started when I was finally able to look at my reflection in a mirror. I never did thank Rose for that,” he mused. Finn was confused by his answer but the Doctor said, “Now let Elias catch up so we can see if that little experiment shows some results.” They stood there and waited for the UNIT Sergeant to walk over to them. “What’s the word Sergeant? Hopefully a good one, it would be terrible if it wasn’t.”
“Just got word from the spotters,” he said. “One broke away and is following us.”
“Excellent,” the Doctor said, happily enough. “Don’t look up,” he said mainly to Finn when he started to do so. “Now comes the hard part.” Reaching into his coat he retrieved his sonic screwdriver. Twisting the dial on the bottom of the handle he asked, “Can you remove that earpiece without the probe seeing?” Before waiting for an answer he started walking off again, Finn and Elias taking a moment before realizing what he was doing.
Adjusting his collar a bit, a deft hand movement knocked the piece from his ear, “Done.”
“Doctor,” what’s going on?”, Finn asked. “This feels like you’re going to do something stupid.”
“Stupid?”, the Doctor looked at him in disbelief, “Stupid? It’s a calculated risk. Stupid, why I never…” He stopped messing with the dial and held the screwdriver properly and pressed down on the ring. The screwdriver made a high pitched electronic twill.
After a moment Elias’ ear piece started to spark causing him to try to get his head away, “Whoa!”
“Look!”, Finn said pointing as that probe following them started to wobble in the air before it crashed to the ground. “Now what? Huh?”, he went as the Doctor rushed past the both of them.
“Stand back!”, he called out when they started following him. He was twisting the dial again as he ran toward the pod. Once he was close enough he passed the screwdriver over it once before quickly backpeddling. Only when the probe started to take off again did he stop, then slowly took a few steps forward while holding up a hand to keep the two of them back. They all watched as the drone hovered there momentarily, looking in their direction before turning and flying off. Once it was out of sight the Doctor immediately checked his screwdriver. “Now I wish this wasn’t an older model, I could get the detailed results right now.”
“I thought the idea was to not let them know we knew we were being watched?”, Elias said after the two of them rushed over.
“Wait,” Finn went looking between the two of them, “we were doing what now?”
“No technology, no matter how advanced,” came his answer, “Is completely foolproof. There has to be the occasional malfunction.”
“Well that’s a given,” Finn agreed with that point of what he was saying. “But can we go back to what Elias was saying about not letting them know we were aware of those probes. That sounded pretty important.”
“And it is,” the Doctor agreed. “But that was in response to actively shooting one down. But, if one of those probes just happens to have a malfunction, then that’s just poor timing.”
“But it saw us looking at it,” Elias shot back.
“They saw three individuals curious about what fell from the sky, nothing more.” Almost silently he added, “Hopefully.”
“Whoever is behind those probes is going to react after they see we’ve seen it,” he pointed out.
“Imagine how bad their response would have been if we actively shot one down,” he countered. “Now we have a slim window while they figure out what to do with us. Let’s get back to camp, I need to study these readings in the TARDIS.”
“That’s a hell of a chance Doctor,” Elias told him.
“What’s life without a few chances?”, the Doctor asked as he led the way. “Boring that’s what it is.”
Before following the man Finn looked at Elias. “Those stories you mentioned, they say anything about that?”
“Yup,” was all the answer he got from Elias as he checked his communication gear. “Right now I’m hoping one of mine saw that probe crash and take back off. We’re going to have to increase our watch somehow.”
“If you need an extra set of eyes I volunteer" Fin told him. Elias just looked at him for a moment before following the Doctor. Finn looked in the direction the probe went. “Hey,” he said, finally moving, “do you think that probe returned directly to base? Nah,” he said to himself, “that would be stupid.”
***
“Commander,” a human-like person in some sort of military gear strode over to someone slightly older than him wearing dark clothes. He stood there a moment, waiting to be acknowledged. The wait wasn't long.
“What is it?”
“A new report from sector three. One of the probes went down while following the aliens that was spotted earlier.”
Taking the report the other person held out the commander started glancing over it. “What’s the status of the probe? Is it in their hands?”
“Our agent in sector three was able to get it going again. “Unfortunately we have images of the aliens looking at it right before it flew off.”
“A curious bunch,” the Commander mused before putting the report down. “Unfortunate for them. They will have to be dealt with now.”
“I’ll have the guards form an eradicating force immediately.”
“No,” the commander suddenly said.
“Sir?”, the other one went, feeling confused.
“That experiment we’ve been doing since we’ve been here. This feels like the perfect opportunity to test the results so far. Get a small sampling ready, make sure homing and retrieval restraints are fully applied. We can’t chance one getting away.”
“I’ll do it immediately,” came the response.
As he left the Commander picked up the report again. This time he studied it a little more closely. And this time he spotted something particular. Right before the probe went down it briefly recorded some sort of sonic signal. “Why wasn’t this flagged?”, he demanded but nobody was in the room with him to hear it. “We were told to look for something like sonic interference.” Pressing a button by his side he barked, “Get me the most recent reports from sector three. I mean everything!” Releasing the button before getting a response he looked back at the report in his hand. Heads were going to roll if this was who he thought it was.
***
The sun was starting to set as they set up for the night. While Elias was giving his patrol units some extra instructions, after getting a replacement earpiece for the one he unfortunately fried earlier, another was setting up some more of those heat lamps for the camp. Close by, sitting on what looked to be a bench, well it might have been a bench in a previous life, the Doctor again offered, “My TARDIS is right there. I don’t mind, really.”
The soldier just smiled as he continued working on the lamp. “Believe me sir,” the Doctor started to say something but the UNIT trooper quickly corrected himself, “Sorry, Doctor. But we all appreciate the offer, we really do. But most of our time is spent on the Leathbridge-Strewart. We don't get a lot of opportunities to sleep under the night sky.”
“You’re surrounded by the night sky all the time,” the Doctor told him. Then he looked up at the sky, with the setting sun a few points of twinkling light were starting to appear. “But I can understand the appeal, fresh air and all. But the offer still stands.”
“Unless the Sargent says otherwise I'm pretty sure it’ll stay standing.”
“Doctor,” Finn said coming up to him, “can I talk to you about something.”
“Of course, I’ll talk to anybody.”
Before Finn could really say anything else Kendrix and the trooper with her came walking over. “I’m starting to think you were right Finn,” she started. “ The admin building was in that direction.”
Elias soon joined them, “Guards are posted. They should be wearing their night vision goggles, so we shouldn’t get surprised once it gets dark.”
To the side Finn started to walk away. The Doctor stopped him, “Didn’t you want to talk about something?”
“It wasn’t important,” he quickly said.
“Seemed important enough to ask if we could talk. Come on, all friends here, no need to be embarrassed. Not unless you were planning on revealing you had a crush on somebody here.” He had said it with a smirk. Then the Doctor looked around at the group and quickly lost it. “I really need to learn how to stop talking, never really mastered it you know.”
“No, no,” Finn quickly told him and the group. “But in the graveyard over, you were making it sound like you were the one who destroyed your home world.” The others looked at each other before staring right at him.
Tilting his hat back a bit he looked up at the darkening sky for a bit before looking back at them. “That’s because I did. Well, that was what I thought at first at least.”
“Why would,” Elias started to say but couldn’t finish the question
“The time war,” the Doctor began. “In the beginning of it I tried to stay out of it, tried to help save who I could. But eventually I was forced to realize I couldn’t stay out of it, the Daleks and my people were destroying everything in order to win. At the time I was still naive enough to believe I could get them to change how they were doing things.”
“They didn’t listen to you?”, Kendrix asked him as more and more sat down with the group.
“A few did,” he said thinking back to that moment, removed his hat and turned it around in his hands. “And by few I barely mean a handful. The war changed them, as war tends to do. Not everybody mind you. But corruption might go up from the bottom, when it starts at the top it goes down a whole lot faster.”
“What happened?”, Kendrix looked afraid to ask.
“A full on dalek invasion of Gallifrey,” he said sadly. “They were going to end the war one way or another. Unfortunately the high council was going to do the same thing. Both sides were going to destroy all of time and space just to eliminate the other. I told myself no more.
“So in order to save all of existence I had to end the war. And to do that I had to eliminate both threats. There was this device, once activated it would destroy both the Daleks and my people,” he took a deep breath before adding, “and I used it, at least I thought, at the time.” He looked at the others, “tTme travel shenanigans. But at the time I was certain I destroyed my people and the Daleks. Then the Daleks came back.”
“That couldn’t have been a fun feeling,” the one working on the heat lamp spoke up.
“It was definitely a punch in the gut,” the Doctor admitted. ‘But I found out later that a couple versions of me were able to save Gallifrey, but just made it look like it was destroyed. I still thought I killed everyone, and things still played out like they were meant to.”
“I guess something like that isn’t possible here,” Kendrix said, dropping onto a nearby rock.
“It was a one in a trillion chance that it would have worked. Because the only other option was burning, and I had already seen that,” he added darkly. “But it was an option I had to take. Even then it took all the lives I had lived at that moment, plus one more with those attack eyebrows I had,” he chuckled although none of the others knew why. “But at the time it had taken thirteen of me to actually pull it off.”
“Always heard that was an unlucky number,” one of the troopers ended up saying. They all looked up to see pretty much the entire troop, as small as it was, standing around.
“I thought I told you to keep watch of the surroundings,” Elias said sternly.
“We think we spotted a craft of some sort land to our left a few clicks out,” he said. It’s just far enough away to not be able to make out. I didn't trust that our radios weren't being monitored. So I motioned for the rest to come in, at least look like we're getting some chow.”
“That was probably the right call,” Elias told him. “Might as well make it look good. Unless anybody has something ready to actually cook,” he gestured toward the lamp, “you better start breaking out the rations.’
“I have a supply of,” the Doctor started to say.
“No offence Doctor but the less they know of what we have the better at this point. Rations will do just fine.” The Doctor made a face, just remembering the taste from the previous night, but dropped the issue.
***
The ship that was spotted landed with it’s back loading ramp pointed in the direction of the camp they had discovered. Near the back of the blocky looking ship a person in black military-like gear watched the people in the camp through a pair of binoculars. He was too far away to make out any faces but he didn’t need to know what they looked like. They would know soon enough after this was over.
Another came down from a side ramp and asked, “what are they doing?”
Zooming in a bit he thought it looked like they were putting something to their mouths. Given the time of day he felt confident enough to utter his speculation out loud, “Looks like dinner.” Scanning around the area he soon said, “I see at least two guards patrolling the grounds.”
“The count we had was around eight people or so. We brought twelve of those things with us. Should be plenty to take care of them.”
“Some of them look armed,” he said lowering the binoculars. “They’ll put up a fight.”
“Let them,” said the other. “The Commander is just looking for test data at this point. Any survivors will be taken care of. Now come on, let's get back on board and let these things out and get out of here.”
“No argument here,” he said while following the other man up the side ramp. After retracting it he went to the rear cargo hold and pressed a button there. “It’ll be dark by the time these things make the camp anyway.”
The back of the craft opened as the rear loading ramp started to lower. Various growl and howls could be heard the more it lowered.
***
Night had fallen as the Doctor walked out of the TARDIS, closing the door behind him. Looking at the sonic screwdriver in his hand, he sighed and rejoined the others around the electric heater. Elias looked at him for a moment before saying, “Any luck identifying that drone?”
“Not really,” the Doctor said staring at the light from the lamp.
“You don’t recognize it or something?”, Finn asked.
The Doctor looked up and told him, “Just the opposite. I was able to recognize every electronic piece in that drone. Unfortunately that drones internals are so generic it could be from anywhere. And anywhere only narrows it down to, oh just the general galaxy.”
“Sounds like a rough one,” Kendrix commented.
“Looks like we have to start making some assumptions about our neighbors then,” Elias said.
“I don’t like making assumptions without facts,” the Doctor told him.
“I understand Doctor, but at this point we have to assume they’re hostile. Possibly even responsible for what happened here.”
“They could be just as wary about us?”, the Doctor countered. “But unfortunately your theory has some merit. Friendly neighbors would have introduced themselves by now instead of parking so far away. At least send a welcome basket or something.”
“Sargeant,” someone called out. “Sensors are picking up movement,”
“I had the men set up some sensors earlier in case our neighbors decided to pay us a visit, particularly if it was at night where we couldn’t see them coming.” Some kind of distant howl filled the air. All of them reacted to the sound.
“Does anybody know what direction that came from?”, Elias called out.
“It sounded like it was coming from that direction,” another called out. “Where we saw that ship land earlier.”
“What are the odds they’re related?”, another asked.
“Picking up hits now,” the man who reported the sensor hit earlier reported. “At least five incoming.”
“Kendrix, Finn!”, the Doctor called out. “What kind of native wildlife did you have around here?”
“Nothing that sounded like that,” Kendrix answered as the group circled up out of instinct, looking out.
“I was afraid you were going to say that,” he muttered. “When I give the word I want you two to head for the TARDIS, you’ll be safe inside.”
“What about you?”, Fin asked while his head kept swinging around looking for the danger.
“I can take care of myself,” the Doctor informed them. “Elias, I want to try to take one of the creatures alive.”
“For God sakes why?”
“Electronic pieces can be generic, animals can not. I can study it and narrow things down from anywhere in the galaxy to at least a system if not a planet. Then we can figure out who our neighbors are quicker.”
“You can do that just as easily with a corpse,” a soldier said.
“I said alive,” I said alive the Doctor pretty much ordered. His tone pretty much saying he wasn’t going to hear any sort of argument
Still hearing this from a non military person the soldier went, “Sergeant I protest.”
“Noted,” Elias told him. “But if you wanted a simple solution to everything you shouldn’t have joined UNIT. Are we good with some warning shoes to try and scare them off?
“I‘d rather capture one but that’s acceptable,” the Doctor conceded.
“Here they come!”
“Aim high!” Elias ordered. They all raised their aim slightly and fired above whatever was incoming’s head. There was a pause where nobody heard anything. Elias motioned to the man to his left, who nodded. In silence he switched on the light on his weapon and started swinging it around, slowly. During the sweep something flashed, like a couple of eyes, that shot forward as soon as it did.
“There!,” the man shouted and pulled the trigger at the same time there was a cry out in pain as four more things came at them from different directions. The UNIT soldiers didn’t have time to bring their weapons to bear at the rush and struggled to keep the attackers at arms length with their weapons being used as shields.
“Doctor,” Kendrix said at his side, “we got to do something.”
He had his screwdriver in his hand and was adjusting the dial, “Way ahead of you.” Getting the setting he wanted he held it over his head. “Sorry in advance for the pain,” he depressed the ring trigger and almost immediately Kendrix and Finn grabbed their ears as the Doctor winced in pain as it felt like a sonic pick going through his head. The Unit soldiers dropped their weapons as soon as their attackers clutched their heads and ran away. The Doctor kept it going for a few more seconds before finally letting go and the sound stopped. “Is everybody okay?”
“I’m surprised I’m not deaf,” Elias snapped. “Did anyone get a good look at what attacked us?”
Smacking the side of his head one of them replied,” Not really it happened so fast. All I saw for sure was teeth.”
“I think I winged the one,” the soldier who still had the light on said. “It might still be out there. I’m pretty sure I got it in a limb, it wasn't a kill shot.”
“Let’s find out,” the Doctor said,” you lead the way.” Elias, Kendrix, Finn and a couple of others joined the two of them. Soon they found the source of those eyes. It sat there, blood streaming down an arm, but still it growled and snapped at them.
“Holy,” somebody said.
“Doctor?”, Kendrix asked in confusion. Finn and Elias were both as confused as she was.
“Oh my,” the Doctor muttered. “I don’t mean to sound facetious but I might have narrowed down the species.” The face was filthy, and the figure was bald with grey hair around his head. But this vicious “creature” was most definitely human.
The blue box made a noise that made the man go, “Don’t worry, we’re not keeping them. At least not all of them.” he said while scanning the entire group. The box made another noise, “It’s not like we can just abandon Finn and Kendrix here, now can we?” The man looked at the box when it made a sound that was almost… rude. “You’d be worried about them before too long.”
“Doctor,” one of the military dressed ones said as he came up. The Doctor had to silently admit the man looked far more in place in those UNIT fatigues than he did in the robes he was wearing when he first encountered him.
“Sergeant Elias,” he said in greeting while tipping his hat slightly. “Such a lovely planet.”
“It is,” Elias said as he took position beside the Doctor. “I can see why people would have wanted to settle here.”
The Doctor grunted in agreement as he looked past where Finn and Kendrick currently were and to the horizon. “Sergeant,” he said while still looking out, “would you agree that trust, while hard to gain, is just as easily lost?”
Elias stiffened slightly, almost as if he was expecting this particular moment was coming. To be fair, given the short time they have known each other the man wouldn’t be where he is now if he was that much of a fool, he wouldn’t even be in UNIT. At least the UNIT the Doctor remembered. Still he seemed reluctant to even say, “Yes it is.”
They might as well get this out of the way. “Then please don’t break what trust we have when I ask why are you here?” He started to answer but the Doctor quickly cut him off. “Keep in mind that you told me you have a pick up transponder so I will have no issue gathering up Kendricx and Finn and leaving the lot of you here.”
“The stories said you were observant," Elias said.
“The men you said were here to offer their respects have been doing anything but.” He pointed out one person in particular who was paying more attention to the horizon than the rubble. In fact Kendrick and Finn were the only ones who looked like they were doing that. “I’ve been involved with UNIT and various other military groups to recognize a patrol pattern when I see it. Now granted I could put that down to habit, I have a few of my own in the various lives I’ve lived. But then there,” he trailed off and waved a hand at all the destruction.
“As an official explanation it is pretty weak,” Elias said as he looked around.
“I realized that as soon as I saw all of this. This colony was basically wiped off the face of the planet. The only proof there was anything here are the basements, foundations and what’s left of the roads. This wasn’t pirates, you would need several armadas to cause this much destruction and word not getting out while it’s happening.”
“And a pirate gathering of that size would be noticed,” Elias said. Then he told him, “Unofficially, they don’t know what happened, at first they assumed there was some sort of natural disaster or an explosion of some sort. Then an investigation team was sent in and reported this. I was told to try and see if anything was around that would explain what happened.”
The Doctor nodded, extremely glad Elias told him that. “I will wish you luck there Elias. If there was anything still intact that would explain what happened would be a miracle. And I don’t believe in miracles.”
“Don’t I know it,” Elias said. “Part of me is wondering if there’s some sort of secret chamber or something here. It’s a long shot and I’ll admit that is me grasping at straws.”
“That thought occurred to me as well,” the Doctor said “In fact I already did a brief scan, piggybacking off the usual scan the TARDIS does when it lands. I didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.”
“Well this is my problem now,” Elias told him. “So if you want to gather up Finn and Kendrick, go right ahead. Me and the boys are prepared to stay here for as long as necessary.”
“And not know what happened here?”, the Doctor said as he stood away from the TARDIS, hands in pockets. “How would I be able to sleep at night? Besides I’m not sure those two are ready just yet, come along Sergeant.” Elias looked on with a cocked eyebrow before eventually following the Doctor.
***
How could this have happened? This was the only thought that swam in Kendrix’s head as she sat there. Oh she was aware that her long time friend Finn was nearby, and deep down she knew he was hurting too. But this was her one goal for so long, to get home. And there was nothing left. How could this have happened? When she finally felt like she could say anything all she could manage was a pathetic, “It’s not fair.” Finn started immediately rubbing her shoulder.
“No it’s not,” she turned to find the Doctor standing there.
“Look Doctor,” Finn said stepping up to him, "Maybe now is not the best time.”
“Can you fix this?”, Kendrix practically pushed Finn out of the way to face him. “Can you use your time machine and fix this?” When he hesitated she practically exploded in his face, “You’re the almighty Time Lord, do something.”
“I can’t,” he softly said. Throwing up her arm she walked away but not very far. He continued, “Because if I fix it then it happens anyway.” She looked back at him.
Finn asked,” What do you mean it’ll happen anyway. You go back and stop this from happening then it doesn’t happen.”
“It’s not that simple,” the Doctor told him. To both of them he said. “I go back and stop this travesty, you'll still be on Skarold. Things won’t change there. But as soon as I bring you back here, everything is fine and dandy. There’s no reason for me to go back in time and stop anything.”
“Then this would happen all over again,” Finn said looking around,
Kendrix wouldn’t believe that, couldn't believe that. This man was a Time Lord, everybody knew they could control time as they saw fit. He had to fix this, he just had to.
“We would be stuck in a loop,” the Doctor went on. “Believe me, if I was here at the time I would have done everything in my power to make sure this doesn’t happen. But I wasn’t and going back and stopping this destruction isn’t going to change anything, not in the long run.”
“You could find out who did this,” Finn said. “Stop them from heading this way.”
“I could do that,” he admitted. “If I knew who they were. But chances are likely this,” he motioned at the area around them, “happens to somebody else.”
“You stopped Daleks,” Kendrix snapped. “Whover ever did…did this can’t be any worse.”
“No, they’re probably not. But Kendrix, I have changed timelines,” the Doctor told her, “On a small scale, relatively speaking. Just changing things on this scale,” he started shaking his head, “There will be ripple effects and repercussions I don’t think you understand. Everything could fall apart.”
“I don’t care,” she said walking away, “I just want my home back.”
“Hey!” Elias called out from the top of a hill, pointing behind him. “Doctor, you got to see this.” The Doctor hurried over. Finn was looking at her. She stormed past him after the Doctor. This was her home, she deserved to know what was happening.
“Kendrix,” Elias said, trying to get in her way, “maybe you shouldn’t.” She went right past him. “I…” She stopped in her tracks as soon as she reached the top. In front of all of them was a massive graveyard, stretching out as far as the eye could see.. A few yards in front of them the Doctor slowly turned around to look at them,
“This wasn’t here,” Finn said. Kendrix choked back a sob at the sight. “Maybe we should head back.”
“No,” she said firmly. Forcing her legs to move she went down the hill with Finn in tow. The Doctor waited for them to reach his location before continuing down toward the grave yard.
The Doctor, Elias, Finn and herself all ended up taking different rows. Nothing was talked about, nothing planned, it was just something that happened. Finn stopped at one point and dropped to a knee at one particular grave. “I knew this person, he always had snacks for us on the way to school.” Kendrix said nothing despite recognizing several names as she passed them, just crossing her arms in response to the chill she was suddenly feeling.
A few rows over she heard the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver and that made both of them look over at him. He was scanning a grave with it, soon looking over the results he was seeing. “Doctor?”, she started to ask but was afraid to say the question out loud.
“There’s a body,” he answered anyway. “This isn’t some fake prop. I was actually hoping that there was somebody sick enough to actually do it on this scale.”
“I don’t understand,” Elias said as he looked around. “The investigation team said nothing like this even existed. Why is this here?”
“A better question,” the Doctor said, kneeling by a random grave, “Is who did this? I can easily believe your investigation team burying everybody they found out of respect and not reporting it for the same reason. But there is not one unnamed grave that I can see, I can’t imagine your team being able to identify everyone.”
“It had to be somebody who lived here,” Kendrix said, hope starting to rise again. “There are survivors.”
“Hopefully,” Elias told her. “We were on Skarold for a long time.”
Finn spoke up, “It’s the only thing that makes any sort of sense. Who else is going to do this? The bastards who did this? They suddenly feel remorseful and decide to honor our dead?”
“You have to think logically Finn,” the Doctor told him. “Yes, somebody who lived here probably did this but what are they going to survive on?”
“There has to be something,” Kendrix shot back. “We know this planet better than either of you. We know what’s edible and what’s not. Planetary surveys are available to anybody. There are ways to survive here.”
“Unfortunately that record building doesn't exist anymore,” Elias pointed out.
“That doesn’t mean somebody hasn’t memorized it enough to know where any hiding spots are,” the Doctor said. “We should head back, make a base camp.”
“Good idea,” Elias said. “We can plan out what we do from there. Being the local experts,” somehow Elias said that without sounding condescending like most people would have, “hopefully you two can remember some possible hiding spots and we can go from there.”
“A plan it is then,” the Doctor said. They started off but then she grabbed onto the Doctor’s arm to stop him. “What is it?”
“I’m sorry,” she said, “I shouldn’t have said what I said.”
“There’s no need to apologize. I lost my home too. I know that pain all too well. Actually, I’d be worried if you weren’t lashing out. It’s all perfectly healthy.” She should have been happy, at least smiled at what he was saying but she couldn’t, not now. Wrapping an arm around her and Finn they followed Elias back up the hill.
***
In a darkened room in front of several monitors a lone humanoid sat watching. To any one he looked human enough but he wasn’t. Studying the screens intently a light flashing from one immediately caught his attention. “What do we have here?”, he asked while typing a command on the board in front of him. In less than a moment the image from that particular screen appeared on the monitor directly in front of him.
“Where did you come from?” On the screen were several individuals. Ones who should not be here. How a couple were dressed made him sit up straighter. Grabbing a head set he put the receiver to his ear while making sure the microphone was by his mouth. “This is station three. Reporting unknown people in sector delta.”
“Where did they come from?” Came the reply question, like he knew the answer. “There have been no reports of any ships in the area and we already scoured any subterranean cavern for any signs of life.”
“I’m aware of that but have at least five on my monitor at the moment. At least two look to be full military. Two could be based on the way they’re dressed, and the fifth just looks like an outsider. Almost civilian like.”
“If it’s some sort of military exercise than that one might be an observer. Keep an eye on them. I’ll relay the information to the commander.”
“Understood, I’ll report if there is any changes.” Putting down the headset he started turning fails and pushing buttons on the board. “Let’s see if we can figure out where you came from,” he said to himself. Figuring out the direction the group he spotted was going he sent the probe further along on that projected path. Soon enough he located some more in part of the ruins. There was no sign of a craft that he could see. Although he did spot some sort of strange box that wasn’t in the records from previous surveys that had been done. “Probably some sort of communication device. Better mark it for destruction after they’re dealt with.”
***
That night Elias had his men make camp out in the open, not like there were a lot of options for any sort of shelter. The Doctor offered his TARDIS but Elias had politely declined. As it was he had a couple of his men patrolling the premier as the rest took spots around a heat lantern. All except Kendrix who sat on a rock away from the rest and continued to look out at what was left of her home
Without excusing himself the Doctor left the group and walked over to her. Standing a close but still respectful distance away he waited for her to acknowledge his presence. After several moments she kept on looking out. “Mind if I join you?”, he asked. She just shrugged and moved over slightly.
Removing his hat as he sat next to her he looked out with her. Eventually she said, “There’s nothing here anymore. Everybody’s gone.”
“Nobody is ever truly gone,” he said, “not completely. I used to travel with a young woman named Victoria, lovely girl. She lost her family too. I told her something similar.”
“How did she handle it?”, Kendrix asked.
“She put up a brave front but she was hurting on the inside. I told her how I dealt with it, as far as missing my family. I told her they were sleeping, in the back of my mind. And they would wake up when I wanted to remember them.”
“Does it work?”
“Sometimes,” he admitted. “But sometimes, sometimes I just can’t.” Lowering his head he told her, “Some pain never goes away, it gets smaller, more manageable but it never leaves. I wish I knew that when I said that to Victoria. Some things have to be learned the hard way,” he sighed deeply.
“I lost everybody,” she said as the tears started to fall. “I don’t have anyone now.” The Doctor put an arm around her and held her close as she cried
After a few moments he started rubbing her arm, “Now, now. You haven’t lost everybody, you still have Finn over there. You have friends and people who are like family back on Skatold, if you want to go back there. You have family back on Earth.”
She sniffed a bit, “I never met them.” Searching his pockets with his free hand the Doctor found a handkerchief, at least he hoped that it was one, and he offered it to her. She took and wiped her eyes before handing it back.
“Doesn’t mean they don’t know about you,” he told her. “And I’m sure they would be more than delighted that you survived.”
“I don’t know,” she said after getting herself under control.
“You don’t have to make the decision right now. Think it over a bit before deciding one way or another. But do you want to know what? I’ve learned of at least one thing that helps ease that pain, a night with friends, laughing around a fire.” They both looked back at the others.
“That’s a heat lamp,” she said.
“Hmm,” he grunted. “It’s an electrical type of fire, still counts.” Despite herself she grinned and joined the Doctor as he headed back over to the others.
***
The next morning, The Doctor and Elias were studying a crude map that was drawn into the ground. Not that far off Kendrix and Finn were trying to remember what was where in order to help pinpoint those potential caverns. “I’m telling you,” Finn said pointing in a particular direction,” the administration building was right over there. I completely remember that mountain range being right behind it.”
“Finn,” she shot back, “the building was set up so the sun rose up from the east. To see that mountain range it would come up from the west. And the mountain range looks almost exactly the same as the one over there.”
Overhearing them Elias just sighed a bit while he commented, “I don’t suppose I can talk you into taking a trip back just to settle that disagreement?”
The Doctor chuckled at the thought, “Tempting, but if I’ve learned anything is you can go anywhere in this universe and ask a random number of locals directions to anywhere.”
“Let me guess,” Elias cut in, “You’ll get the same number of different answers.”
“You’ve experienced it I see,” the Doctor “A fascinating phenomenon, you would think there would be a more general description in a large metropolis. Then again there is memory and the shock of seeing your home annihilated.”
“I guess it would,” Elias agreed. He looked over when he noticed one of his men coming toward them. “What is it?”
This person didn’t say anything until he was standing with them. “We spotted some sort of drone in the sky, several of them. They’re all hovering around our location.” The Doctor stood up and stretched, an act to spot those very probes.
“I’m counting at least four,” he told Elias while continuing to look like he was stretching. “There might be more.”
“Understood,” Eias told both of them, obviously fighting the urge to look for himself. “Set up stations to keep an eye on them for now.”
“Yes sir,” the man said. “But shouldn’t we shoot one down, examine it to see who it belongs to.”
“I wouldn’t,” the Doctor said casually. “Currently whomever is controlling those drones doesn’t know we know about them. Shooting one down would change that.”
“And we can’t assume they’re friendly, and right now that’s the only advantage we have. Still it would be nice to know who’s spying on us.”
“There might be a way,” the Doctor said thinking it over, “but it’s going to be tricky.”
Kendrix and Finn came running over, “Doctor in the sky…!”
“We know,” Elias told them. “Don’t point at them. “You said you had an idea Doctor, What is it?”
“”Well Elias, you, me and Finn are going for a little stroll to the graveyard over there.”
“Wait, what about me?”, Kendrix cried out.
“You keep remembering where things were,” the Doctor told her. “The more details we have the better we can locate things. That is really important if we want to figure out what happened here. You,” he pointed toward the guard, “escort her around the area and mark down anything she can remember. Come along you two,” he said to Finn and Elias.
“Sir?”, the UNIT soldier said to Elias.
“You heard him,” was all he had to say before following the Doctor and Finn.
“Come along,” he said to Kendrix. “I think I saw what was left of a street sign this way.
“That will be helpful,” Kendrix told him as they went in the direction he indicated.
***
Passing over the top of the hill both Finn and Elias still stopped at the sight, neither able to comprehend the sheer size of the graveyard in front of them. Even seeing it a second time didn’t help. Finn was the first to notice that the Doctor, with hands firmly in his pants pockets, just kept on going. Shaking his head he jogged to catch up with the Time Lord. The other man barely acknowledged his presence as he continued walking. Finally Finn asked, “What are we doing out here?”
“Primarely,” he reached down to grab some grass and gently let it sprinkle from his fingers and watched them fall, “I’m hoping to perform a little experiment. But more importantly, I’m hoping to find out what you’re doing.”
“I’m surprised you care,” Finn said a little bitterly.
“Finn, I know the loss of one's home all too well,” the Doctor told him as they kept walking. “And I know the look of a brave front when I see one.”
“Somebody has to look out for Kendrix,” was all he could think to say, no matter how flimsy it sounded to him.
“And I would agree,” the Doctor said. “ but I get the feeling she wouldn’t, but we all handle grief differently. But even the one who’s trying to be the rock, well eventually even they are going to want a shoulder to cry on.”
“You lost your home?”, he asked. The Doctor simply nodded. “Do you hate the ones who did it?”
Here the Doctor stopped walking, almost look like he was smirking for a moment before facing him and saying. “Pretty much every day since it happened.”
“Do you think you’ll ever start to forgive them?”
“Interesting question,” the Doctor mused. “Can you forgive the ones who did something so heinous?” He looked around at the grave yard they were now in. “I’ll be honest, in the first few moments it doesn’t seem possible, especially in the face of it all. But that much hate, no matter how justified it feels at first, how right you want it to be in the end. That much hate, it will eat you away faster than any disease you can think of.”
“So you were able to forgive the ones who destroyed your word?”
“One,” the Doctor corrected him sadly, “One person destroyed my world. Forgiveness is not a fast process Finn. It’s slow and tedious, boy is it tedious, but letting go of that anger, it’s necessary sometimes.”
“How did you start?”, Finn asked him. “I mean letting go of the anger?”
“It started when I was finally able to look at my reflection in a mirror. I never did thank Rose for that,” he mused. Finn was confused by his answer but the Doctor said, “Now let Elias catch up so we can see if that little experiment shows some results.” They stood there and waited for the UNIT Sergeant to walk over to them. “What’s the word Sergeant? Hopefully a good one, it would be terrible if it wasn’t.”
“Just got word from the spotters,” he said. “One broke away and is following us.”
“Excellent,” the Doctor said, happily enough. “Don’t look up,” he said mainly to Finn when he started to do so. “Now comes the hard part.” Reaching into his coat he retrieved his sonic screwdriver. Twisting the dial on the bottom of the handle he asked, “Can you remove that earpiece without the probe seeing?” Before waiting for an answer he started walking off again, Finn and Elias taking a moment before realizing what he was doing.
Adjusting his collar a bit, a deft hand movement knocked the piece from his ear, “Done.”
“Doctor,” what’s going on?”, Finn asked. “This feels like you’re going to do something stupid.”
“Stupid?”, the Doctor looked at him in disbelief, “Stupid? It’s a calculated risk. Stupid, why I never…” He stopped messing with the dial and held the screwdriver properly and pressed down on the ring. The screwdriver made a high pitched electronic twill.
After a moment Elias’ ear piece started to spark causing him to try to get his head away, “Whoa!”
“Look!”, Finn said pointing as that probe following them started to wobble in the air before it crashed to the ground. “Now what? Huh?”, he went as the Doctor rushed past the both of them.
“Stand back!”, he called out when they started following him. He was twisting the dial again as he ran toward the pod. Once he was close enough he passed the screwdriver over it once before quickly backpeddling. Only when the probe started to take off again did he stop, then slowly took a few steps forward while holding up a hand to keep the two of them back. They all watched as the drone hovered there momentarily, looking in their direction before turning and flying off. Once it was out of sight the Doctor immediately checked his screwdriver. “Now I wish this wasn’t an older model, I could get the detailed results right now.”
“I thought the idea was to not let them know we knew we were being watched?”, Elias said after the two of them rushed over.
“Wait,” Finn went looking between the two of them, “we were doing what now?”
“No technology, no matter how advanced,” came his answer, “Is completely foolproof. There has to be the occasional malfunction.”
“Well that’s a given,” Finn agreed with that point of what he was saying. “But can we go back to what Elias was saying about not letting them know we were aware of those probes. That sounded pretty important.”
“And it is,” the Doctor agreed. “But that was in response to actively shooting one down. But, if one of those probes just happens to have a malfunction, then that’s just poor timing.”
“But it saw us looking at it,” Elias shot back.
“They saw three individuals curious about what fell from the sky, nothing more.” Almost silently he added, “Hopefully.”
“Whoever is behind those probes is going to react after they see we’ve seen it,” he pointed out.
“Imagine how bad their response would have been if we actively shot one down,” he countered. “Now we have a slim window while they figure out what to do with us. Let’s get back to camp, I need to study these readings in the TARDIS.”
“That’s a hell of a chance Doctor,” Elias told him.
“What’s life without a few chances?”, the Doctor asked as he led the way. “Boring that’s what it is.”
Before following the man Finn looked at Elias. “Those stories you mentioned, they say anything about that?”
“Yup,” was all the answer he got from Elias as he checked his communication gear. “Right now I’m hoping one of mine saw that probe crash and take back off. We’re going to have to increase our watch somehow.”
“If you need an extra set of eyes I volunteer" Fin told him. Elias just looked at him for a moment before following the Doctor. Finn looked in the direction the probe went. “Hey,” he said, finally moving, “do you think that probe returned directly to base? Nah,” he said to himself, “that would be stupid.”
***
“Commander,” a human-like person in some sort of military gear strode over to someone slightly older than him wearing dark clothes. He stood there a moment, waiting to be acknowledged. The wait wasn't long.
“What is it?”
“A new report from sector three. One of the probes went down while following the aliens that was spotted earlier.”
Taking the report the other person held out the commander started glancing over it. “What’s the status of the probe? Is it in their hands?”
“Our agent in sector three was able to get it going again. “Unfortunately we have images of the aliens looking at it right before it flew off.”
“A curious bunch,” the Commander mused before putting the report down. “Unfortunate for them. They will have to be dealt with now.”
“I’ll have the guards form an eradicating force immediately.”
“No,” the commander suddenly said.
“Sir?”, the other one went, feeling confused.
“That experiment we’ve been doing since we’ve been here. This feels like the perfect opportunity to test the results so far. Get a small sampling ready, make sure homing and retrieval restraints are fully applied. We can’t chance one getting away.”
“I’ll do it immediately,” came the response.
As he left the Commander picked up the report again. This time he studied it a little more closely. And this time he spotted something particular. Right before the probe went down it briefly recorded some sort of sonic signal. “Why wasn’t this flagged?”, he demanded but nobody was in the room with him to hear it. “We were told to look for something like sonic interference.” Pressing a button by his side he barked, “Get me the most recent reports from sector three. I mean everything!” Releasing the button before getting a response he looked back at the report in his hand. Heads were going to roll if this was who he thought it was.
***
The sun was starting to set as they set up for the night. While Elias was giving his patrol units some extra instructions, after getting a replacement earpiece for the one he unfortunately fried earlier, another was setting up some more of those heat lamps for the camp. Close by, sitting on what looked to be a bench, well it might have been a bench in a previous life, the Doctor again offered, “My TARDIS is right there. I don’t mind, really.”
The soldier just smiled as he continued working on the lamp. “Believe me sir,” the Doctor started to say something but the UNIT trooper quickly corrected himself, “Sorry, Doctor. But we all appreciate the offer, we really do. But most of our time is spent on the Leathbridge-Strewart. We don't get a lot of opportunities to sleep under the night sky.”
“You’re surrounded by the night sky all the time,” the Doctor told him. Then he looked up at the sky, with the setting sun a few points of twinkling light were starting to appear. “But I can understand the appeal, fresh air and all. But the offer still stands.”
“Unless the Sargent says otherwise I'm pretty sure it’ll stay standing.”
“Doctor,” Finn said coming up to him, “can I talk to you about something.”
“Of course, I’ll talk to anybody.”
Before Finn could really say anything else Kendrix and the trooper with her came walking over. “I’m starting to think you were right Finn,” she started. “ The admin building was in that direction.”
Elias soon joined them, “Guards are posted. They should be wearing their night vision goggles, so we shouldn’t get surprised once it gets dark.”
To the side Finn started to walk away. The Doctor stopped him, “Didn’t you want to talk about something?”
“It wasn’t important,” he quickly said.
“Seemed important enough to ask if we could talk. Come on, all friends here, no need to be embarrassed. Not unless you were planning on revealing you had a crush on somebody here.” He had said it with a smirk. Then the Doctor looked around at the group and quickly lost it. “I really need to learn how to stop talking, never really mastered it you know.”
“No, no,” Finn quickly told him and the group. “But in the graveyard over, you were making it sound like you were the one who destroyed your home world.” The others looked at each other before staring right at him.
Tilting his hat back a bit he looked up at the darkening sky for a bit before looking back at them. “That’s because I did. Well, that was what I thought at first at least.”
“Why would,” Elias started to say but couldn’t finish the question
“The time war,” the Doctor began. “In the beginning of it I tried to stay out of it, tried to help save who I could. But eventually I was forced to realize I couldn’t stay out of it, the Daleks and my people were destroying everything in order to win. At the time I was still naive enough to believe I could get them to change how they were doing things.”
“They didn’t listen to you?”, Kendrix asked him as more and more sat down with the group.
“A few did,” he said thinking back to that moment, removed his hat and turned it around in his hands. “And by few I barely mean a handful. The war changed them, as war tends to do. Not everybody mind you. But corruption might go up from the bottom, when it starts at the top it goes down a whole lot faster.”
“What happened?”, Kendrix looked afraid to ask.
“A full on dalek invasion of Gallifrey,” he said sadly. “They were going to end the war one way or another. Unfortunately the high council was going to do the same thing. Both sides were going to destroy all of time and space just to eliminate the other. I told myself no more.
“So in order to save all of existence I had to end the war. And to do that I had to eliminate both threats. There was this device, once activated it would destroy both the Daleks and my people,” he took a deep breath before adding, “and I used it, at least I thought, at the time.” He looked at the others, “tTme travel shenanigans. But at the time I was certain I destroyed my people and the Daleks. Then the Daleks came back.”
“That couldn’t have been a fun feeling,” the one working on the heat lamp spoke up.
“It was definitely a punch in the gut,” the Doctor admitted. ‘But I found out later that a couple versions of me were able to save Gallifrey, but just made it look like it was destroyed. I still thought I killed everyone, and things still played out like they were meant to.”
“I guess something like that isn’t possible here,” Kendrix said, dropping onto a nearby rock.
“It was a one in a trillion chance that it would have worked. Because the only other option was burning, and I had already seen that,” he added darkly. “But it was an option I had to take. Even then it took all the lives I had lived at that moment, plus one more with those attack eyebrows I had,” he chuckled although none of the others knew why. “But at the time it had taken thirteen of me to actually pull it off.”
“Always heard that was an unlucky number,” one of the troopers ended up saying. They all looked up to see pretty much the entire troop, as small as it was, standing around.
“I thought I told you to keep watch of the surroundings,” Elias said sternly.
“We think we spotted a craft of some sort land to our left a few clicks out,” he said. It’s just far enough away to not be able to make out. I didn't trust that our radios weren't being monitored. So I motioned for the rest to come in, at least look like we're getting some chow.”
“That was probably the right call,” Elias told him. “Might as well make it look good. Unless anybody has something ready to actually cook,” he gestured toward the lamp, “you better start breaking out the rations.’
“I have a supply of,” the Doctor started to say.
“No offence Doctor but the less they know of what we have the better at this point. Rations will do just fine.” The Doctor made a face, just remembering the taste from the previous night, but dropped the issue.
***
The ship that was spotted landed with it’s back loading ramp pointed in the direction of the camp they had discovered. Near the back of the blocky looking ship a person in black military-like gear watched the people in the camp through a pair of binoculars. He was too far away to make out any faces but he didn’t need to know what they looked like. They would know soon enough after this was over.
Another came down from a side ramp and asked, “what are they doing?”
Zooming in a bit he thought it looked like they were putting something to their mouths. Given the time of day he felt confident enough to utter his speculation out loud, “Looks like dinner.” Scanning around the area he soon said, “I see at least two guards patrolling the grounds.”
“The count we had was around eight people or so. We brought twelve of those things with us. Should be plenty to take care of them.”
“Some of them look armed,” he said lowering the binoculars. “They’ll put up a fight.”
“Let them,” said the other. “The Commander is just looking for test data at this point. Any survivors will be taken care of. Now come on, let's get back on board and let these things out and get out of here.”
“No argument here,” he said while following the other man up the side ramp. After retracting it he went to the rear cargo hold and pressed a button there. “It’ll be dark by the time these things make the camp anyway.”
The back of the craft opened as the rear loading ramp started to lower. Various growl and howls could be heard the more it lowered.
***
Night had fallen as the Doctor walked out of the TARDIS, closing the door behind him. Looking at the sonic screwdriver in his hand, he sighed and rejoined the others around the electric heater. Elias looked at him for a moment before saying, “Any luck identifying that drone?”
“Not really,” the Doctor said staring at the light from the lamp.
“You don’t recognize it or something?”, Finn asked.
The Doctor looked up and told him, “Just the opposite. I was able to recognize every electronic piece in that drone. Unfortunately that drones internals are so generic it could be from anywhere. And anywhere only narrows it down to, oh just the general galaxy.”
“Sounds like a rough one,” Kendrix commented.
“Looks like we have to start making some assumptions about our neighbors then,” Elias said.
“I don’t like making assumptions without facts,” the Doctor told him.
“I understand Doctor, but at this point we have to assume they’re hostile. Possibly even responsible for what happened here.”
“They could be just as wary about us?”, the Doctor countered. “But unfortunately your theory has some merit. Friendly neighbors would have introduced themselves by now instead of parking so far away. At least send a welcome basket or something.”
“Sargeant,” someone called out. “Sensors are picking up movement,”
“I had the men set up some sensors earlier in case our neighbors decided to pay us a visit, particularly if it was at night where we couldn’t see them coming.” Some kind of distant howl filled the air. All of them reacted to the sound.
“Does anybody know what direction that came from?”, Elias called out.
“It sounded like it was coming from that direction,” another called out. “Where we saw that ship land earlier.”
“What are the odds they’re related?”, another asked.
“Picking up hits now,” the man who reported the sensor hit earlier reported. “At least five incoming.”
“Kendrix, Finn!”, the Doctor called out. “What kind of native wildlife did you have around here?”
“Nothing that sounded like that,” Kendrix answered as the group circled up out of instinct, looking out.
“I was afraid you were going to say that,” he muttered. “When I give the word I want you two to head for the TARDIS, you’ll be safe inside.”
“What about you?”, Fin asked while his head kept swinging around looking for the danger.
“I can take care of myself,” the Doctor informed them. “Elias, I want to try to take one of the creatures alive.”
“For God sakes why?”
“Electronic pieces can be generic, animals can not. I can study it and narrow things down from anywhere in the galaxy to at least a system if not a planet. Then we can figure out who our neighbors are quicker.”
“You can do that just as easily with a corpse,” a soldier said.
“I said alive,” I said alive the Doctor pretty much ordered. His tone pretty much saying he wasn’t going to hear any sort of argument
Still hearing this from a non military person the soldier went, “Sergeant I protest.”
“Noted,” Elias told him. “But if you wanted a simple solution to everything you shouldn’t have joined UNIT. Are we good with some warning shoes to try and scare them off?
“I‘d rather capture one but that’s acceptable,” the Doctor conceded.
“Here they come!”
“Aim high!” Elias ordered. They all raised their aim slightly and fired above whatever was incoming’s head. There was a pause where nobody heard anything. Elias motioned to the man to his left, who nodded. In silence he switched on the light on his weapon and started swinging it around, slowly. During the sweep something flashed, like a couple of eyes, that shot forward as soon as it did.
“There!,” the man shouted and pulled the trigger at the same time there was a cry out in pain as four more things came at them from different directions. The UNIT soldiers didn’t have time to bring their weapons to bear at the rush and struggled to keep the attackers at arms length with their weapons being used as shields.
“Doctor,” Kendrix said at his side, “we got to do something.”
He had his screwdriver in his hand and was adjusting the dial, “Way ahead of you.” Getting the setting he wanted he held it over his head. “Sorry in advance for the pain,” he depressed the ring trigger and almost immediately Kendrix and Finn grabbed their ears as the Doctor winced in pain as it felt like a sonic pick going through his head. The Unit soldiers dropped their weapons as soon as their attackers clutched their heads and ran away. The Doctor kept it going for a few more seconds before finally letting go and the sound stopped. “Is everybody okay?”
“I’m surprised I’m not deaf,” Elias snapped. “Did anyone get a good look at what attacked us?”
Smacking the side of his head one of them replied,” Not really it happened so fast. All I saw for sure was teeth.”
“I think I winged the one,” the soldier who still had the light on said. “It might still be out there. I’m pretty sure I got it in a limb, it wasn't a kill shot.”
“Let’s find out,” the Doctor said,” you lead the way.” Elias, Kendrix, Finn and a couple of others joined the two of them. Soon they found the source of those eyes. It sat there, blood streaming down an arm, but still it growled and snapped at them.
“Holy,” somebody said.
“Doctor?”, Kendrix asked in confusion. Finn and Elias were both as confused as she was.
“Oh my,” the Doctor muttered. “I don’t mean to sound facetious but I might have narrowed down the species.” The face was filthy, and the figure was bald with grey hair around his head. But this vicious “creature” was most definitely human.
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