Happy-Fun Splorey Times

[fluffinasuit.livejournal.com]

The Doctor, true to form and quite negating his earlier plans to keep a low profile, had decided to explore the city on his own. Also true to form, he was gawking like a natural born tourist fresh off the farm.

Well, if guys fresh off the farm kept up running commentary under their breaths about every single culture they recognized. And if they recognized quite a few, had an apparent habit of internal monologue, and occasionally ran over to point a buzzing little blue stick at seemingly random objects.

He was completely fascinated.

He was also bound and determined to get to the bottom of all this mess and get his TARDIS back. Now.

Ooh, look at that!

Comments

[leather-bastard.livejournal.com]

Scorpius growls as he begins to run.

He hates running. It makes him... warm.

[cityship]

It was a second room, like this first, only this one had a strange sarcophagus inside, standing upright, not much taller than Jaime but frightening to look at and mechanical in nature. Little marks were scrawled on its surface. Marks that looked like air on an arm, like fire on another, like earth on a leg, like water on another leg.

Gears whirred and clicked. There was a strange array of tubing around it and lab tables and what was possibly alien research equipment nearby.

And marks on the floor. Green blood. Like things had dropped and been dragged away...

The sarcophagus's almond shaped eyes looked out at them, dim and dark holes of nothing.

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"Dead end!"

And they were following in the flashing dark, up the hallway.

[fluffinasuit.livejournal.com]

The Doctor raced over to the lab tables, looking for any clue as to what this was. Maybe he could find a way to use the things left there, or at least make sure they weren't harmful. "Come on! Come on, come on!"

[cityship]

Notes that he wouldn't understand, vials of blood, long since dried.

But one of things when he touched it, brought up a hologram, blurred and unrecognizable, vaguely humanoid in form, but the sound was still good.

He was speaking fast.

"He brought them in. We don't know how. Angels. Angels from the Earth mythos, made of stone, but it doesn't break, when it goes dark, they come. The Godseal is running, but we can't get through to try to reinforce the seals around the artifact. The light from his eyes is holding them at the door, but that will only last so long until it's exhausted. There's no contact from the rest of the ship--we haven't gotten the clear signal since they warned us we were under attack. There may not be anyone in the main ship left to help us. We're trying to figure out how to reach the window, but we have no rope, nothing."

His voice was choked. "We should've never thought we could control him. The Haunter of the Dark. But the war's gotten so desperate. If anyone ever finds this, please tell my mate M'rell'a that I'm sorry--"

A scream in the background. "The Godseal is shutting down! The Godseal is shutting down!"

"Restart the cycle! Override the safety protocols and restart the cycle! Restar--"

Screaming. Then it cut off.

The nearby computer said:

Project Godseal. Warmup cycle complete:

Start? Y / N

They were nearly at the door...

[leather-bastard.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Scorpius pants, hissing through his teeth. "Start!"

[cityship]

Are you sure? Y/ N

[fluffinasuit.livejournal.com]

"Yes! Y, yes!" His fingers were automatically adjusting his screwdriver, in case there were mechanical problems.

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"For the love of God, yes!" Jaime yelled at the same time.

[leather-bastard.livejournal.com]

"YES!" Scorpius demands at the same time as the others.

[cityship]

The gears started clicking, faster and faster, ratcheting up, building, and then there were whirring noises and a high-pitched whine...

Then JUST as the angels reached the doorway, the eyes in the sarcophagus opened, and light poured out of it, a bright, blue-tinged light. Piercing.

It cut through the dark, causing all the angels to stop right there in the doorway, as it looked at them.

The sight of any living thing, after all...

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"That only bought us some time. The alien guy said something about a window!" Jaime said, flying up--and aha! There it was! A black-paned window, that almost looked like the surrounded wall, very high up.

"Watch out for glass!"

Jaime blasted it out, and peeked outside--it was that same nasty sky outside, but it looked like the outside where they'd been.

He flew back down to grab them both.

[leather-bastard.livejournal.com]

Scorpius hisses, spittle flying from his lips. "We need to go now," he growls in a guttural voice.

[fluffinasuit.livejournal.com]

The Doctor continued to keep an eye on the angels, just in case. "Careful! But hurry!"

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

Both were grabbed with arms that could carry them both easily--he could lift up a whole truck, after all--and Jaime flew them all up to the window.

The last thing they heard below was a pounding noise from the sarcophagus. Pounding and a voice rumbling and screaming. It sounded like the temper tantrum of an angry god.

Jaime didn't stop just outside of the temple. He flew right into the entrance of the weird upside-downey place they left, and then through it, completely at the whims of the shifting gravitational forces within.

"Whoa! Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!"

It was something like a roller coaster ride. That ended with them shooting out the door of the building, into the city inside the ship, where Jaime--already partly out of control--had something of a little crash-landing, though not enough to really hurt any of them.

And there he lay on the floor of the ship, panting, and trying to get over the terror.

[leather-bastard.livejournal.com]

Scorpius's eyes begin to glaze over, and his breathing becomes extremely labored and ragged. He hisses in and out in staggered breathing.

"...coolant rods..." he hisses.

[fluffinasuit.livejournal.com]

The Doctor sprawled, panting for a moment before springing to his feet and moving to Scorpius.

"Need help?" He waggled his screwdriver. It had really been a surprising amount of time without him using it, after all.

[leather-bastard.livejournal.com]

He taps the lighted portion on the side of his head, and it... unscrews.

Revealing a gore-covered framework with a red glowing rod inside, virtually steaming as it emerges.

"...Coolant rod!" he hisses.

[fluffinasuit.livejournal.com]

The Doctor made a face. "Ah, yes. So I see." Carefully, he turned his beloved little tool to the correct setting.

"Not allergic to sonics, are you? No? This might resonate a bit." The Doctor thumbed the screwdriver on, pointing it at the framework and the rod inside. Soon, it should cool to appropriate levels. At least, he was pretty sure he got the right setting.

[leather-bastard.livejournal.com]

Slowly, the red rod stops steaming, and its color fades to a pale blue.

With a touch on the controls at the end, the frame screws back inward, taking the blue rod directly towards his brain.

He sighs contentedly for a moment.

"Aah. Thank you, Doctor. I'm glad to see that you can reset my coolant rods. Still, it would be prudent to make finding replacements a priority."

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

O_<

"Ewwwwwww."

It just blurted out. He couldn't help it.

[leather-bastard.livejournal.com]

"We do what we must... to survive," Scorpius replies simply.

[fluffinasuit.livejournal.com]

"Yes, I suppose we do," the Doctor agreed quietly. He stood, slipping his screwdriver into its pocket.

[cityship]

It's voice was far off. Faint. And fading.

Only the Doctor heard it, because he was the only one being spoken, too.

You know where to find me.

As if it had all been a game, them running for their lives.

If you ever desire the truth, your freedom, and your ship...you know where to find me.

And then silence again.

[el-escarabajo.livejournal.com]

"So what exactly did we learn here?" Jaime asked, as he unsuited. "Because I'm thinking we learned things, but my brain's still stuck on screaming incoherently in gibbering terror."