Fic: Solid Skies, Chapter 6
Jul. 1st, 2009 07:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
veldeiaTitle: Solid Skies
Author: Veldeia
Series: Sequel to Hollow World
Fandom: Doctor Who
Warnings: WIP
Characters/Pairings: 10th Doctor, Martha Jones, OCs. Gen.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: If you've seen it on TV, it isn't mine.
Summary: After surviving one big cave, the Doctor, Martha and a caving team from the Sixties find themselves in even more trouble on a planet full of caves.
6. Maze City, Central Holding Facility
There was a local hazard team waiting for them right outside the lift. They'd set up a tent around the doors, and everyone, the guards included, had to go through scans, one with the suit on, another one when they'd taken it off. The suits were all gathered in a sealed container. The Khiandrian authorities were clearly taking no risks.
Once the Doctor was finally allowed out of the tent, he found out they were in the first natural Khiandrian cave passage they'd seen so far. It had the round cross-section of a petromite tunnel, but the walls were covered in vegetation: short, pale grass, small flowers of different colours, with all sorts of pale insects flying and crawling about, none of them petromites - and most dominantly, there was moss, which was glowing a soft green light. There were no artificial lights about.
"So, is this is where the green light thing comes from?" Martha asked, gazing at the surroundings.
"Yes. And that's also why our days are twenty hours long," Jess explained. "Lumimoss has a twenty hour cycle, ten hours of light, ten of darkness."
There was a pleasant, fresh scent in the air, like a forest after rain. Where the Doctor could see bare rock, it was glistening with moisture, and in the background, there was the sound of dripping water. Of course! There were two main types of biomes in these tunnels: wet and dry. The dry caves weren't that different from caves on many other planets, except for the petromites. These wet caves were the really special thing.
Grant and Joseph were practically bursting with excitement and enthusiasm. The Doctor grinned at them, feeling just about the same. He stepped closer to the plants and stuck his face amongst them to get a better look at all the unique cave flora and fauna.
"If only I still had my camera!" Joseph complained. "Of course, they would never believe any of this at home even if I had pictures..."
"It's marvellous, isn't it? Look at that." Khif pointed at a creature that looked like a giant butterfly made entirely of clear glass, her big bad guard act cast aside once again. "It's a crystalwing. A rare thing, as are places as wild as this. To think that the Brights simply don't care... But, pretty as it is, this is not a pleasure trip," she said, sounding almost apologetic. "Back in line, all of you. We've still got many tunnel's lengths to go."
All too soon, they climbed down a ladder, moving from the fascinating green tunnel to a passage with much less wildlife. It was easy to tell they'd entered an inhabited area. There were doors in the walls, people passing by, and lamps in the ceiling. The tunnels had countless forks, and many stairs and ladders. Khif led them two more levels down, taking them to a large chamber, where a tram was waiting for them.
"This is the First Level of the city," Jess told them. "That's where we have the transportation, and most of the official establishments."
Jess had said early on that the City of Lights was more Earth-like than any other place on the planet. As the tram took them through Maze City, it was easy to see why, and it was also obvious where the name of the city came from. It really was a maze, a vast network of tunnels bustling with people. There were countless doors and windows in the walls, and caverns with tables, like little street cafés, and even a market - and most of this lay under a ceiling so low that the Doctor could've almost reached it by stretching out his arms and leaping up.
Finally, after all the hours they'd spent travelling, they reached their destination. It was yet another door in the cave wall, a sturdy-looking metallic one, with two guards in front of it. They saluted Khif, and opened the door.
Inside, they found themselves in a room that reminded the Doctor of the lobby of a hotel, except for all the guards lounging about. Khif talked with a person sitting behind a desk, and soon, the local guards stepped forth to take over from her troops.
"Thank you," Khif said to her former prisoners, and saluted them. "You could've run away, you could've caused us a lot of trouble, but instead, you helped us. I'm going to tell that to the higher-ups. Tell them to take it into account. I hope they'll treat you decently here."
The Doctor returned her salute as they were ushered into a lift, away from the lobby.
They went a few levels up to a long corridor with rows of doors in both walls. Their room was behind one of those, a large space with half a dozen bunk beds, and a few tables and chairs.
"Rest, or sleep, or whatever the likes of you do. Your trial begins tomorrow," one of the guards told them, and began to close the door.
"Wait!" Jess shouted after him. "I'm allowed to make a call, aren't I?"
The guard stopped. "Hm, yes, you are. Didn't think you'd want to. Come with me."
"Do we get calls as well?" the Doctor asked.
"Who would you call, alien?" the guard answered him with another question, clearly surprised. "It's only intraplanetary calls. I didn't think you had an ambassador here."
"No, we don't. But do we get to make a call?"
"Well, yes, you do. You'll need to wait for your turn, though."
The guard and Jess left, and the humans and the Doctor went on to explore their room. It was quite nice - there was plenty of space, the beds were soft, and they even had their own bathroom, complete with a small stone pool.
"This feels more like a dorm at a youth hostel than a prison cell," Martha noted.
"And how come they let us keep all our belongings?" Brian wondered.
"That's probably because we're technically not prisoners yet," the Doctor said. "We haven't even been officially charged with anything. We're just waiting. Besides, unlike lifts, prisons aren't the same everywhere in the universe."
"Seen a few of them before, eh?" Grant said. "So, Houdini, how are we going to escape this one?"
"I'm not in a hurry, actually," the Doctor answered, plopping down on the nearest bed and placing the soles of his trainers against the bottom of the bed above it.
He had already toyed with the idea of trying to escape - he was fairly sure he could manage it, one way or the other - but he'd decided against it. They had wanted to see the planet, and that was what they'd been doing. They'd wanted to help Jess, and they'd get a shot at that as long as they stuck around. Now, he only needed to figure out whether he should do something about all the big problems the planet had. None of those felt like fixed points in time. Everything was in a state of flux, and they were smack in the middle of it. The political situation, which seemed to be veering awfully close to civil war, wouldn't be easy to change, even if he hadn't been reluctant to meddle with it. The Plague, on the other hand, was something he probably could and should tackle.
"So, who are you going to call when it's your turn?" Martha asked him.
"Someone who knows something about the Plague," he said, placing his hands behind his head.
Grant glared at him. "How's that going to help us?"
"It isn't, but I'm curious." The Doctor smirked at the disgruntled caver.
"Besides, if we can heal their Plague, I doubt they'll be all that quick to send us to their prison moon," Martha said.
"There's that, too!" the Doctor declared, his smile even wider.
Fifteen minutes later, Jess returned, looking happy for the first time since her reunion with T'ig. "I called my sister," she explained. "Quite a call it was, too! She's not talking to our parents, either, not much, because she's very much a Bright - and she's got a mate, and a child - and -"
The Doctor had to leave the room in the middle of her eager account, since the guard was getting impatient. He took the Doctor back to the First Level, and there to a small, spherical room, with a control panel in the wall and two benches opposite each other.
"You have one hundredth," the guard announced, and closed the door, leaving the Doctor alone. If a tenth was two hours, then a hundredth would be twelve minutes, the Doctor reasoned. Not a terribly long time.
He had absolutely no idea how the communications tech here worked, but the controls didn't look all that complicated. He poked at the biggest button. A hologram of a young Khiandrian man appeared on one of the benches. The Doctor sat down opposite it.
"Greetings. I am the Network AI of the Central Holding Facility," the hologram stated. "All calls will be monitored and recorded. Who do you wish to contact?"
"Someone who can tell me about the Plague," the Doctor tried. "A researcher. A doctor."
"Please specify," the AI said. "The Nest Town Parasitoid Crystallosis Research Program currently has twenty-five members of staff."
The Doctor grinned at the monster of a name. 'Nest Town Parasitoid Crystallosis' - no wonder the media had decided to call it something more groovy. "Give me the one in charge," he told the AI.
"The current Head of NTPCRP is Gaer, daughter of P'ar, of Central Maze City."
"I wish to contact her, then."
"Very well. Please wait," the AI said, and disappeared.
The Doctor had to wait a few minutes, which he spent running his hands along the walls, trying to figure out where the holoprojectors were, and how they worked. Then, the AI reappeared, stated "Connection established," and disappeared again.
The hologram of a Khiandrian woman emerged on the bench. She looked very efficient and clinical, wearing a long, grey, figure-hugging robe with lots of pockets, and no button of any colour. Her light grey hair was close-cropped, with a triangular fringe.
"I'm Gaer. Who am I talking to?" she said, looking around as if she couldn't see the Doctor at all.
The Doctor sat down, and the woman's gaze settled on him. So, the holotech was built into the benches! "Hello! I'm the Doctor," he greeted her.
"Who?"
"Just the Doctor."
"You're an alien! Wait, you're one of the aliens from the City of Lights, aren't you?"
"Yes. Anyway, I don't have a whole lot of time. I just thought I'd offer you my help. You see, I know a lot about plagues. And I really mean a lot. About all sorts of epidemics, pandemics and interplanetary and interspecies disease. You don't know where that Crystal Plague of yours came from, do you? I'm fairly sure I could tell you."
"Actually, we do have a few ideas," Gaer replied dismissively. "Honestly, I doubt you could tell us anything we don't already know."
"You'd be surprised! Although I must admit I don't know anything yet. This Plague turns people to crystal, right?"
"No, not quite. How exactly are you supposed to be able to help us, if you don't even have the basic facts right? Not to mention that you're in custody, awaiting trial, suspected of all sorts of illegal activities."
"Please, trust me, I really do know these things. You've been working on this plague for, what, half a year, and you still don't know how to cure it. I'd think you'd accept all the help you can get!"
"And you know what I think? I think you don't know a thing, you've just come up with a clever plan to escape your captivity. No, 'Doctor'. Call me again after your trial, and next time, please try to come up with more convincing credentials than your word."
The woman vanished, the AI taking her place. The Doctor glanced at it, and a thought occurred to him. "Hm. You're the Network AI. That means you're a part of the local Grid, or Internet, or Datasphere, something like that?" he said thoughtfully.
"I do not recognise the references, but yes, I am the Network AI."
"Could you tell me about the Plague?"
"Only limited functions are available to detainees."
"Well, if that's how it is..." the Doctor muttered, and gave the controls a quick sonic prod. "So, tell me about the Plague."
"I have one encyclopaedia entry, 19 scientific publications, 1876 news articles, 3421 public conversations, and -"
"Let's start with the encyclopaedia entry."
"The Plague. Official designation: Nest Town Parasitoid Crystallosis," the AI recited. "Dubbed the Crystal Plague and the Diamond Death by the media. An infectious disease most likely of extraplanetary origin, capable of rapid adaptation to changing hosts and environments. Method of transmission: direct contact. Incubation period: none. Mortality: one hundred percent. Death usually follows within one cycle of the initial -"
Of course, the guard had to choose that very moment to knock on the door and announce that the time was up. The Doctor cursed himself for having been so stupid - he should've realised to ask the AI right away! He could just hear it explain that the usual causes of death were hypoxia and hypothermia, of all things, before the guard knocked again, and opened the door. The Doctor had little choice but to tell the AI to stop, and to follow the guard back to their room.
"Could've gone better, but at least I learned a few new things," he told Martha and the others. "And the more I hear, the clearer it becomes that this definitely isn't your basic Black Death sort of plague. Instead of buboes and fever, it comes with crystals and hypothermia."
"Hypothermia?" Martha repeated, frowning. "That doesn't make much sense, does it? How does it work?"
"I don't know," the Doctor admitted. "I don't think I've ever heard of anything quite like it. But whatever the progress of the disease is like, with an instant onset and a hundred percent mortality, it definitely sounds like a very nasty piece of work."
7. The Halls of Justice
Author: Veldeia
Series: Sequel to Hollow World
Fandom: Doctor Who
Warnings: WIP
Characters/Pairings: 10th Doctor, Martha Jones, OCs. Gen.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: If you've seen it on TV, it isn't mine.
Summary: After surviving one big cave, the Doctor, Martha and a caving team from the Sixties find themselves in even more trouble on a planet full of caves.
6. Maze City, Central Holding Facility
There was a local hazard team waiting for them right outside the lift. They'd set up a tent around the doors, and everyone, the guards included, had to go through scans, one with the suit on, another one when they'd taken it off. The suits were all gathered in a sealed container. The Khiandrian authorities were clearly taking no risks.
Once the Doctor was finally allowed out of the tent, he found out they were in the first natural Khiandrian cave passage they'd seen so far. It had the round cross-section of a petromite tunnel, but the walls were covered in vegetation: short, pale grass, small flowers of different colours, with all sorts of pale insects flying and crawling about, none of them petromites - and most dominantly, there was moss, which was glowing a soft green light. There were no artificial lights about.
"So, is this is where the green light thing comes from?" Martha asked, gazing at the surroundings.
"Yes. And that's also why our days are twenty hours long," Jess explained. "Lumimoss has a twenty hour cycle, ten hours of light, ten of darkness."
There was a pleasant, fresh scent in the air, like a forest after rain. Where the Doctor could see bare rock, it was glistening with moisture, and in the background, there was the sound of dripping water. Of course! There were two main types of biomes in these tunnels: wet and dry. The dry caves weren't that different from caves on many other planets, except for the petromites. These wet caves were the really special thing.
Grant and Joseph were practically bursting with excitement and enthusiasm. The Doctor grinned at them, feeling just about the same. He stepped closer to the plants and stuck his face amongst them to get a better look at all the unique cave flora and fauna.
"If only I still had my camera!" Joseph complained. "Of course, they would never believe any of this at home even if I had pictures..."
"It's marvellous, isn't it? Look at that." Khif pointed at a creature that looked like a giant butterfly made entirely of clear glass, her big bad guard act cast aside once again. "It's a crystalwing. A rare thing, as are places as wild as this. To think that the Brights simply don't care... But, pretty as it is, this is not a pleasure trip," she said, sounding almost apologetic. "Back in line, all of you. We've still got many tunnel's lengths to go."
All too soon, they climbed down a ladder, moving from the fascinating green tunnel to a passage with much less wildlife. It was easy to tell they'd entered an inhabited area. There were doors in the walls, people passing by, and lamps in the ceiling. The tunnels had countless forks, and many stairs and ladders. Khif led them two more levels down, taking them to a large chamber, where a tram was waiting for them.
"This is the First Level of the city," Jess told them. "That's where we have the transportation, and most of the official establishments."
Jess had said early on that the City of Lights was more Earth-like than any other place on the planet. As the tram took them through Maze City, it was easy to see why, and it was also obvious where the name of the city came from. It really was a maze, a vast network of tunnels bustling with people. There were countless doors and windows in the walls, and caverns with tables, like little street cafés, and even a market - and most of this lay under a ceiling so low that the Doctor could've almost reached it by stretching out his arms and leaping up.
Finally, after all the hours they'd spent travelling, they reached their destination. It was yet another door in the cave wall, a sturdy-looking metallic one, with two guards in front of it. They saluted Khif, and opened the door.
Inside, they found themselves in a room that reminded the Doctor of the lobby of a hotel, except for all the guards lounging about. Khif talked with a person sitting behind a desk, and soon, the local guards stepped forth to take over from her troops.
"Thank you," Khif said to her former prisoners, and saluted them. "You could've run away, you could've caused us a lot of trouble, but instead, you helped us. I'm going to tell that to the higher-ups. Tell them to take it into account. I hope they'll treat you decently here."
The Doctor returned her salute as they were ushered into a lift, away from the lobby.
They went a few levels up to a long corridor with rows of doors in both walls. Their room was behind one of those, a large space with half a dozen bunk beds, and a few tables and chairs.
"Rest, or sleep, or whatever the likes of you do. Your trial begins tomorrow," one of the guards told them, and began to close the door.
"Wait!" Jess shouted after him. "I'm allowed to make a call, aren't I?"
The guard stopped. "Hm, yes, you are. Didn't think you'd want to. Come with me."
"Do we get calls as well?" the Doctor asked.
"Who would you call, alien?" the guard answered him with another question, clearly surprised. "It's only intraplanetary calls. I didn't think you had an ambassador here."
"No, we don't. But do we get to make a call?"
"Well, yes, you do. You'll need to wait for your turn, though."
The guard and Jess left, and the humans and the Doctor went on to explore their room. It was quite nice - there was plenty of space, the beds were soft, and they even had their own bathroom, complete with a small stone pool.
"This feels more like a dorm at a youth hostel than a prison cell," Martha noted.
"And how come they let us keep all our belongings?" Brian wondered.
"That's probably because we're technically not prisoners yet," the Doctor said. "We haven't even been officially charged with anything. We're just waiting. Besides, unlike lifts, prisons aren't the same everywhere in the universe."
"Seen a few of them before, eh?" Grant said. "So, Houdini, how are we going to escape this one?"
"I'm not in a hurry, actually," the Doctor answered, plopping down on the nearest bed and placing the soles of his trainers against the bottom of the bed above it.
He had already toyed with the idea of trying to escape - he was fairly sure he could manage it, one way or the other - but he'd decided against it. They had wanted to see the planet, and that was what they'd been doing. They'd wanted to help Jess, and they'd get a shot at that as long as they stuck around. Now, he only needed to figure out whether he should do something about all the big problems the planet had. None of those felt like fixed points in time. Everything was in a state of flux, and they were smack in the middle of it. The political situation, which seemed to be veering awfully close to civil war, wouldn't be easy to change, even if he hadn't been reluctant to meddle with it. The Plague, on the other hand, was something he probably could and should tackle.
"So, who are you going to call when it's your turn?" Martha asked him.
"Someone who knows something about the Plague," he said, placing his hands behind his head.
Grant glared at him. "How's that going to help us?"
"It isn't, but I'm curious." The Doctor smirked at the disgruntled caver.
"Besides, if we can heal their Plague, I doubt they'll be all that quick to send us to their prison moon," Martha said.
"There's that, too!" the Doctor declared, his smile even wider.
Fifteen minutes later, Jess returned, looking happy for the first time since her reunion with T'ig. "I called my sister," she explained. "Quite a call it was, too! She's not talking to our parents, either, not much, because she's very much a Bright - and she's got a mate, and a child - and -"
The Doctor had to leave the room in the middle of her eager account, since the guard was getting impatient. He took the Doctor back to the First Level, and there to a small, spherical room, with a control panel in the wall and two benches opposite each other.
"You have one hundredth," the guard announced, and closed the door, leaving the Doctor alone. If a tenth was two hours, then a hundredth would be twelve minutes, the Doctor reasoned. Not a terribly long time.
He had absolutely no idea how the communications tech here worked, but the controls didn't look all that complicated. He poked at the biggest button. A hologram of a young Khiandrian man appeared on one of the benches. The Doctor sat down opposite it.
"Greetings. I am the Network AI of the Central Holding Facility," the hologram stated. "All calls will be monitored and recorded. Who do you wish to contact?"
"Someone who can tell me about the Plague," the Doctor tried. "A researcher. A doctor."
"Please specify," the AI said. "The Nest Town Parasitoid Crystallosis Research Program currently has twenty-five members of staff."
The Doctor grinned at the monster of a name. 'Nest Town Parasitoid Crystallosis' - no wonder the media had decided to call it something more groovy. "Give me the one in charge," he told the AI.
"The current Head of NTPCRP is Gaer, daughter of P'ar, of Central Maze City."
"I wish to contact her, then."
"Very well. Please wait," the AI said, and disappeared.
The Doctor had to wait a few minutes, which he spent running his hands along the walls, trying to figure out where the holoprojectors were, and how they worked. Then, the AI reappeared, stated "Connection established," and disappeared again.
The hologram of a Khiandrian woman emerged on the bench. She looked very efficient and clinical, wearing a long, grey, figure-hugging robe with lots of pockets, and no button of any colour. Her light grey hair was close-cropped, with a triangular fringe.
"I'm Gaer. Who am I talking to?" she said, looking around as if she couldn't see the Doctor at all.
The Doctor sat down, and the woman's gaze settled on him. So, the holotech was built into the benches! "Hello! I'm the Doctor," he greeted her.
"Who?"
"Just the Doctor."
"You're an alien! Wait, you're one of the aliens from the City of Lights, aren't you?"
"Yes. Anyway, I don't have a whole lot of time. I just thought I'd offer you my help. You see, I know a lot about plagues. And I really mean a lot. About all sorts of epidemics, pandemics and interplanetary and interspecies disease. You don't know where that Crystal Plague of yours came from, do you? I'm fairly sure I could tell you."
"Actually, we do have a few ideas," Gaer replied dismissively. "Honestly, I doubt you could tell us anything we don't already know."
"You'd be surprised! Although I must admit I don't know anything yet. This Plague turns people to crystal, right?"
"No, not quite. How exactly are you supposed to be able to help us, if you don't even have the basic facts right? Not to mention that you're in custody, awaiting trial, suspected of all sorts of illegal activities."
"Please, trust me, I really do know these things. You've been working on this plague for, what, half a year, and you still don't know how to cure it. I'd think you'd accept all the help you can get!"
"And you know what I think? I think you don't know a thing, you've just come up with a clever plan to escape your captivity. No, 'Doctor'. Call me again after your trial, and next time, please try to come up with more convincing credentials than your word."
The woman vanished, the AI taking her place. The Doctor glanced at it, and a thought occurred to him. "Hm. You're the Network AI. That means you're a part of the local Grid, or Internet, or Datasphere, something like that?" he said thoughtfully.
"I do not recognise the references, but yes, I am the Network AI."
"Could you tell me about the Plague?"
"Only limited functions are available to detainees."
"Well, if that's how it is..." the Doctor muttered, and gave the controls a quick sonic prod. "So, tell me about the Plague."
"I have one encyclopaedia entry, 19 scientific publications, 1876 news articles, 3421 public conversations, and -"
"Let's start with the encyclopaedia entry."
"The Plague. Official designation: Nest Town Parasitoid Crystallosis," the AI recited. "Dubbed the Crystal Plague and the Diamond Death by the media. An infectious disease most likely of extraplanetary origin, capable of rapid adaptation to changing hosts and environments. Method of transmission: direct contact. Incubation period: none. Mortality: one hundred percent. Death usually follows within one cycle of the initial -"
Of course, the guard had to choose that very moment to knock on the door and announce that the time was up. The Doctor cursed himself for having been so stupid - he should've realised to ask the AI right away! He could just hear it explain that the usual causes of death were hypoxia and hypothermia, of all things, before the guard knocked again, and opened the door. The Doctor had little choice but to tell the AI to stop, and to follow the guard back to their room.
"Could've gone better, but at least I learned a few new things," he told Martha and the others. "And the more I hear, the clearer it becomes that this definitely isn't your basic Black Death sort of plague. Instead of buboes and fever, it comes with crystals and hypothermia."
"Hypothermia?" Martha repeated, frowning. "That doesn't make much sense, does it? How does it work?"
"I don't know," the Doctor admitted. "I don't think I've ever heard of anything quite like it. But whatever the progress of the disease is like, with an instant onset and a hundred percent mortality, it definitely sounds like a very nasty piece of work."
7. The Halls of Justice
