The Sontaran soldier was dressed in a grey/blue body armour suit topped with a metal-blue collar and a domed helmet that seemed to sit seamlessly on top of the collar piece. The helmet was blank except for two, large slits which allowed the wearer to look out of.
The Sontaran reached for a control with his three-fingered glove.
“This is Commander Stoxx of the 78th Sontaran battle fleet. We claim your facility in the name of the Sontaran Empire. Respond,” finished his gruff voice.
There was nothing.
Stoxx pressed the button again. “I repeat, this is Command Stoxx of the-”
“Yes,” came the Doctor’s voice over the comm. system, “I hear you.”
“Who am I addressing? The commander of the facility?”
“There is no commander,” came the female voice of Aleena. “There’s only me. And you can all get lost. This is my lighthouse, not yours.”
“Steady, Aleena,” said the Doctor. “But she’s right. This is not the property of the Sontaran Empire. I’d advise you to leave.”
“The technology on board that facility is priceless. We want it.”
“You and everybody else,” said the Doctor. “How did you traverse the nebula?”
“Sontaran guidance systems are far more advanced than anything else in this sector of space,” said Stoxx, a hint of pride in his voice. He straightened up in his seat. “You have one hour to vacate the facility.”
“What happens in an hour?” asked Aleena, worriedly.
“If you’re still there, you die. Sontar-Ha!”
The Doctor, Aleena, Danny and Caroline had returned to the lighthouse and Caroline was helping the Doctor to patch up the various cuts and bruises that Aleena had sustained from Paragrim.
The Doctor dabbed some ointment on one particularly nasty, purple bruise and Aleena winced.
“Sorry,” said the Doctor, stepping back. “There. That should do it. It’ll take a while for your wounds to heal, but it shouldn’t stop you doing anything.”
“Doctor,” said Danny, impatiently from the window, “we have forty minutes left until those Sontaran things come down to the planet.”
“The shields are up,” said the Doctor, pulling out a needle and thread and starting to stitch up a huge gash on Aleena’s shoulder.
“Nothing’s getting through those shields,” said Aleena confidently.
“I hope you’re right,” said Danny, gazing out across the top of the cliffs.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t have gotten there sooner,” said the Doctor, a strand of thread between his teeth.
“Ouch!” said Aleena as the Doctor pricked her skin.
“Sorry. Again,” said the Doctor, a little smile on his face.
“You weren’t to know,” said Aleena. “I’m lucky you arrived when you did.” Aleena’s eyes flicked to his. “Why did you come anyway? Not that I mind, of course, I just wasn’t expecting you.” she added quickly.
The Doctor took a deep breath. “I found a little clue to my on going problems.”
Aleena broke into a grin. “That’s fantastic news!”
“Not exactly,” said the Doctor. “His name - well, the name he’s given himself - is Matthew Cole. He’s a Watcher.”
Aleena frowned, not fully understanding.
“Sometime’s when a Time Lord regenerates, he needs a little push. The Watcher is an echo of my future self. When my regeneration failed, the Watcher was trapped in Manchester and he grew into a fully-formed humanoid.”
“Ah,” said Aleena, leaning to the left slightly so the Doctor could get to the cut a little better. “So where is he now?”
“In suspended animation inside the TARDIS. I can’t risk him being out and about.”
“And you want me to help to put you two back together again?”
“Hopefully,” said the Doctor, with hopeful eyes.
“We can certainly try,” said Aleena, as the Doctor finished stitching her up, “but our first problem is the Sontarans.”
“Hey,” called Danny from the window, “anyone know where Caroline’s gone?”
Caroline was sat beside the shield generator at the very top of the lighthouse. She had wandered up there absent mindedly and was now sat with an old notebook and a pencil. She tapped the pencil on the first page of the book and considered what to write.
William had given the notebook to her as a birthday present, but she hadn’t used it for anything. That was until now. She knew that William would never get the notepad back, but she thought that maybe writing to him would help her in her grieving process.
She pressed the pencil onto the page and began to write.
Dear Will,
It feels like a long time since we saw each other, but I know that it was only days ago. We’re in a different time now. On a moon in space as well. I don’t even know what year it is, but I know it’s a long way from the smoky factories of Thornsby. From my home.
She paused for a moment, thinking back to the old, brickwork buildings of her hometown, but instead of the familiar buildings from 2012, she saw the buildings she had grown accustomed to in 1901 and 1902. Such fantastic, innovative sites.
There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think about you. I wonder what you’re doing now. That sounds stupid - she laughed to herself - as I’m far beyond our time. You’ll be long gone.
I’m sat on the top of a space lighthouse. Can you believe it? A lighthouse in space. And it looks exactly like the kind back home as well.
Well, I suppose I better go back to Danny and the Doctor. I’m trying to make the most of things. I want to try and enjoy this life, but it’s so hard. I miss you so much.
All my love,
Caroline
Caroline closed the small notebook and slipped it into her jacket pocket as she heard footsteps coming up the steps. They were light and definitely not a man’s. And then the blue-skinned Aleena appeared in the shield generator room. She smiled at Caroline and sat down next to her.
“You alright?” asked Aleena.
“Did the boys send you?” asked Caroline.
Aleena nodded. “They did. They thought chatting with me might make you feel better. You know what men are like.”
Caroline smiled. “Yes, I know exactly what they’re like.”
Aleena smiled and looked at her. “You’re sad.”
“I know I’m sad,” said Caroline bluntly. “And I don’t know what to do to make myself feel happy again.”
Aleena looked up at the ceiling and thought about things. “You know, I used to get sad when I first left my home world.”
“Why?”
“Because I missed friends and family.”
“No,” said Caroline, “I meant why did you leave your home world?”
“Oh,” said Aleena, looking down with a distant smile on her face. “The usual. Disagreements in beliefs. Arguments with family members. Death.”
“Death?”
“Yeah,” said Aleena. “I don’t quite agree with death.”
Caroline was becoming more and more confused. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t like what happens after you die.”
Caroline laughed. “How can you know?”
Aleena looked at her and frowned. “Sometimes I forget what it’s like for other races. The Xanji - that’s my people - claim to know exactly what happens in the afterlife.”
“Seriously?” said Caroline, amazed at this revelation.
“Seriously,” confirmed Aleena. “Our afterlife is an actual confirmed reality with a God and a Non-God.”
“Non-God?”
“Your equivalent of the Devil. Satan. It’s all real and confirmed. Ireel the God and Deela the Devil.”
“Then why did you leave? It must be great knowing that you’re going to be alright when you die.”
“Nah,” said Aleena, brushing her hair from out of her face. “Where’s the mystery? I live life for the here and now. So I left. If you die off-world…well, no one quite knows what happens to you. And I find it a little hard to believe as well. I need more proof than what the council tell us is truth.”
“What do you do on your planet?”
“I was a doctor.”
Suddenly the entire lighthouse shook violently.
“What was that?” asked Caroline, jumping up.
Aleena sighed. “I reckon our short friends have decided that an hour was too long to wait.”
“Let’s go,” said Caroline, making a run for the stairs.
Aleena stopped her. “Just do me one favour, Caroline. Stay with him. Stay with the Doctor. I know you’re going through some tough times now, but what you have…the opportunity…it’s the best time of your life. Enjoy it.”
Caroline looked at her and nodded and then the two woman rushed back down the stairs.
In the radio room the Doctor and Danny where hunched over the console, the Doctor furiously flicking switches and checking readouts.
“What’s going on?” asked Aleena as she and Caroline bounded into the room.
“They’re firing some sort of specially designed missile.”
“Specially designed to do what?” asked a panicked Aleena.
“Well…blow the shields up.”
“What?” exclaimed Caroline. “What’s the point in having shields if someone can break through?”
“It depends on what weapons the enemy has,” said Aleena, apologetically.
“And the Sontarans are one of the biggest war races in the galaxy,” said the Doctor. “It may take them a while, but they’ll break through eventually. All you have to do is hit the shields and in the right spot and - pfftt - they’re gone!”
The lighthouse shook again.
“What do we do?” asked Danny.
“If the Sontarans break through, they’ll not bother taking us prisoner. They’ll let us fight them and then kill us.”
“Does the lighthouse have any defences?” asked Caroline.
“None at all,” said Aleena. “I’ve never had anyone show this much interest in it before.”
“Not until they found out what sort of equipment you have here,” said the Doctor.
“We need help,” said Caroline.
“We could call on Eyeglass,” suggested Danny. “I know they’re about as popular as Man Utd at the minute, but we might be able to come to some kind of agreement.”
“No,” said the Doctor, “we’ll deal with this ourselves. I’m not going for the ‘better the devil you know’ approach this time.”
“Doctor, we’re forgetting something,” said Aleena, urgently, “the Eyeglass ships are going to be here soon anyway. They got the coordinates remember?”
The Doctor put a hand to his forehead and closed his eyes. Two opposing factions. Both of them fighting for the same thing and impossible odds at stopping one of them, let alone two of them.
“Doctor,” came Caroline’s voice again. “What do we do?”
The lighthouse shook again and the Doctor composed himself in front of his friends. “We need to abandon this place.”
“No,” said Aleena, flatly. “Not a chance. No way. This is my home.”
“Then we need to destroy the equipment. The technology is too dangerous. Whilst I doubt the General and Eyeglass would use it to fight wars, the Sontarans are a different matter.”
“No,” said Aleena. “I can’t let you do that.”
The Doctor frowned and crossed over to her. “Why not?”
She flustered. “I can’t not watch you anymore.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I told you before. I love watching you on your adventures.”
The Doctor thought for a moment and then guided her away from Danny and Caroline. He put an arm around her and spoke softly. “Aleena, as much as I’m glad that ‘my adventures’ make you happy, it is still my life you’re spying on.”
“Not spying.”
“Maybe not with bad intentions, but it’s still spying.”
She looked deflated.
“Why don’t you come with us once this is all over? There’s room for you in the TARDIS as well. You can bring your medical equipment and we can work on the situation with Matthew from my own TARDIS.”
“I can’t do that,” she said, shaking her head.
“Why ever not? What’s keeping you isolated on your own?”
Aleena flustered again.
“Doctor,” came Caroline’s voice, “I couldn’t help but overhear.” She crossed over to the two of them whilst Danny listened on. “You’re scared, aren’t you?”
Aleena was trying to hold back her tears and nodded.
“Of what?” asked the Doctor.
“Of dying. You said that if you die off world then you don’t know what happens to you.”
“But you’re off world now,” said the Doctor.
“But I’m safe here. If I came travelling in the TARDIS I’d be in danger.”
“None of this makes sense. You left your planet because you didn’t like the idea that everyone knew what happened to themselves when they died, yes? That’s what you told me last time I was here.”
“That’s not exactly true,” said Aleena quietly. “I left because my people are too eager to die. When you get old they just allow you to die. If you have a disease they don’t try and fight it. They just let you die. All because they know that it’s going to be alright when you die. Imagine how that feels to me? A doctor! Unable to treat the sick and the dying.”
“And when you finally die…?”
“I want to die of old age. And I’ve got a direct link to send me back home so I’ll be fine. But I want to enjoy the life I have first before thinking of what I’m going to do when it’s all over. And I don’t even know if I believe it anyway.”
The lighthouse shook again and a crack appeared in the ceiling of the radio room.
“We still can’t let you keep that equipment. It’s far too dangerous.”
Then there came another, huge explosion and the entire sky lit up. The four of them rushed over to the window and looked out. Flashing across the sky were lines of electricity. Then there came another flash and the buzzing sound coming from the shield generator room stopped.
“So much for the shields,” said the Doctor, realising they had just been knocked out.
The communications console beeped again.
“This is Stoxx,” came the voice of the Sontaran. “Your shields are down. Prepare to be destroyed.”
“Can’t we get the shields up again?” asked Danny as the Doctor began checking readings.
The Doctor ran up the spiral staircase to the top of the lighthouse and checked the generator. It was blackened and charred and smoke billowed out of it. The Doctor frowned and made his way back downstairs.
“Well?” asked Danny.
“It’s fried. The blast-back from the shields must have blown it. We need to disable that technology now,” said the Doctor, looking directly at Aleena.
On board the command deck of the Haven, June Caster surveyed the scene on the holographic table. It showed the nebula, Equinox and the Sontaran spheres orbiting the planet.
“We’re coming into range,” said Otto, pointing at the planet.
“They’re Sontaran ships, aren’t they?” asked Redcar.
“Indeed they are,” said June. “It looks like they’re after the same thing that we are.” She turned to face all of her officers. “Patch me through on ship-wide communication.”
Peppers flicked a switch and June pulled a futuristic looking microphone down from a console suspended from the ceiling.
“This is Captain Caster. Ahead of us are a number of enemy ships. They are Sontarans. We all know from our training that Sontarans can be brutal. We take no prisoners. We blow those creatures out of the sky and then we go down to the planet and take the technology. The Sontarans have already taken down the shields so they’ve done part of the hard work for us. Now we have to complete this mission. For the good of the Human race!”
“For the good of the Human race!” repeated everyone on the command deck in unison.
Paragrim entered the command deck, a look of anger on his face. He stomped over to June and grabbed her arm, pulling her around.
Redcar went for his gun, but June motioned for him to back down.
“What can I do for you?” asked June calmly.
“I want my prisoners,” he said bluntly.
“They’ve gone. Your shuttle is in the hangar. Thank you for your work. You may leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere until I’ve finished my job.”
“Didn’t you hear the woman?” asked Otto. “She said you can leave. Be thankful we’re letting you go.”
Paragrim snarled and saliva dripped from his jagged teeth. “Nobody commands me.”
June looked at him with disdain. “We never should have dealt with you in the first place. Filthy piece of scum!”
Paragrim raised his fist and was about to hit the woman when the entire ship shook and lurched forward.
Jameson turned from her post beside the engineering station, her eyes full of worry.
“We’ve been hit.”
“By what?” asked June, getting to her feet and scrambling over to the dark-haired girl.
“By the Sontarans.”
“The cheeky, little freaks,” said June. “They’ve taken the first shot.”
“What do we do?” asked Redcar, getting up and checking out the image on the holographic table which now showed the Sontarans moving into attack formation, surrounding the Haven.
“Prepare for attack. Leave no survivors.”
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