Thursday 7 January 2010

Doctor Who – Scavenger Hunt

Part 6 – Unlawful Disclosure

“What!?” the Doctor spluttered  NUP_102225_0175.JPG

“Breaking and entering into an official Shadow Council vessel is prohibited by Article 14 of the Shadow Proclamation, and as you here without convoy or paperwork I can only count this as an illegal breach of this ship’s sovereignty. I therefore have no choice but to imprison you on this ship until I can process your attendance at the next Shadow Proclamation checkpoint.”

“Ah, now, there’s a problem with that…” the Doctor said, stepping back. A number of the ship’s monstrous prisoner crew began to walk towards him, preparing to secure him for their master. “See, you tag all of your prisoners with those leg clamps to restrain their abilities and strengths” the horde continued to walk methodically up the tiered levels of the bridge towards them “and if I were you, I wouldn’t have given them all the same transmit frequency” and with that he dropped to the ground and jammed the blue end of his sonic into a port on the side of the Reeth’s tag and switched it on. Electricity shot through his body and all of the other aliens on the ship as the equipment failed momentarily.

“Run!” he cried, and they disappeared once again into the endless bowels of the ship.

For those few seconds, though they were being shocked, the prisoners were able to feel their own strength for the first time in years. The Judoon warrior, stripped of his armor and honour felt like he could lift ten tons, the reptilian Bloodfist could taste the chemicals in the air again and the Sontaran felt the need for war once more. The Reeth cycled through many different shapes during his few moments of despair until the power shut down and the Jailor rebooted the system.

“Find them!” he shouted. The prisoners had felt their primal selves again; they had seen a flash of the colour that the Shadow Proclamation had taken away from them for so long, and they liked it. But for now, they were back under the grey veil of the leg tags, and so they did what their master bid of them.

tunnels-antennaHalf an hour of searching for the junk room found the Doctor and Martha lost in the service tunnels. They stopped for a few moments while the Time Lord tried to get his bearings.

“Doctor, how are we going to get out of here?”

“I don’t know” he said, this was the last thing the young human wanted to hear “every tunnel looks like the last, we could be going in circles! There’s not even a hint for directions, I have absolutely no idea how they find their way around here!” he said, looking back and forth down the opposite directions of the narrow corridor.

From an access panel on the flat side of the wall crawled out the Bloodfist, his tongue slithering out of his mouth as he stood up “Stop!” he hissed

“Time to go!” the Doctor shouted as he burst a steam pipe and he leapt down the hallway with his companion in tow. At the end of the corridor they turned and bumped into the Judoon from the flight deck.

“Sho! Co! Flo! No! Tow!” he grunted

“Co! So! Mo! Ho! Juscapo-tow-tow!” the Doctor said deeply

“Doctor?” Martha was highly confused as to why the TARDIS hadn’t translated what the giant rhino was saying

“He can’t assimilate our language and this ship has a barrier which stops the use of unauthorised alien technology like the TARDIS’ translation circuit. I have to speak in hisjudoon native tongue. So! Ro! Tow! Co jo ron po no?”

The Judoon hesitated for a few seconds, looking around the corridoor and then conceded “Jo Jo topi-toe” 

“He’s going to help us escape!” the Doctor grinned, and they continued down the corridor towards the junk room, now lead by the enormous warrior who knew the way. Unfortunately, at the next intersection they were stopped by a host of the crew and the Bloodfist caught up behind them.

The Doctor admitted defeat quietly “They’ve won”

The two intruders and the traitorous Judoon were taken to a large prison cell which was shadowed at the edges but had a large roof window which was encapsulated by sunlight and left a large glowing circular area in the middle. The Doctor sat in this area with the ex-interstellar police officer and had a lengthy conversation of grunts and groans while Martha sat in the shadows and thought of her Mother back on Earth, her Earth, the home that didn’t exist yet. It was strange, she had called her Mum back after their hectic time on the doomed cargo ship, but her phone wasn’t answering anymore. In fact, it wasn’t even ringing, every time she dialed all she got was the Archangel answer phone. This time, sat in the shadows, had given the Earth girl even more time to think about her life and the path she had chosen. Watching two aliens discuss things in a language which just sounded like primal noises while she sat as a prisoner on a ship 12,000 years before she was born, how could she have ever imagined this? Then she smiled, because she knew it was beyond her imagination, which was why she loved the adventures so much. She got to her feet and joined her friends on the floor in the circle of light.

“What has he told you?”

“All is not as it seems on The Hybrid Locker, Martha” he said softly “the man who has imprisoned us here is called Critidan and he isn’t part of the Shadow Proclamation at all. He’s a renegade, just like the rest of the prisoners here. He was trusted with their transportation and then he disappeared; ditching his convoy ship and building this one, making every prisoner he had a slave for his own benefit, selling pieces of junk they find. He’s just like every other pirate, but he’s pretending to be something more”

On the other side of the ship Critidan stood proudly in front of the observation window on the bridge. Now they were in orbit and he stared at the beauty of primitive earth. A few hundred miles away an object floated into view; the prize he had been sent to find had finally arrived “Taan!” he snapped, the Sontaran warrior stood to attention “Bring the Doctor to me” he said softly, grinning with pride at the large wooden clock which began to tumble to the surface.

TO BE CONTINUED

No comments:

Post a Comment