Alice stared on in curiosity. These were her first real aliens. Well, apart from the Daleks, who were just like big killer tanks really. But these creatures…these were her first. She wanted to go down there and introduce herself; get to know them. But she was conflicted inside, and the Doctor, she felt sure, was feeling exactly the same way.
These aliens were going to die very soon.
“So…” said Alice slowly.
“All the records stated that this planet was lifeless.”
“Obviously not,” said Alice. “Obviously the records were wrong.”
“Or nobody decided to check.”
“Well what do we do?”
“There’s nothing much we can do.”
“We’ve got to warn them,” said Alice, frowning at him. “Give them a chance.”
“They’re primitive - you can tell. They won’t have access to technology, let alone a spaceship to help them escape.”
“Then you can take them away in the TARDIS.”
The Doctor shook his head. “I can’t interfere in what’s going to happen here.”
“But why not?” Alice turned to face him. “Surely you interfered when you saved me and Little Pebbleford from the Daleks.”
“That moment in time involved me,” said the Doctor. “I was always going to be there.”
“And we were always going to be here,” said Alice. She was determined to get a straighter answer out of this.
“Okay,” said the Doctor, “maybe I can save them. But then where does it stop? There must be planets all over the galaxy that have been terraformed, killing innocents on their surfaces. Do I go back and save all of them?”
Alice bit her bottom lip. What he said made sense, but surely this was different. They were here. They were right in the middle of this right now.
“I can’t sit and watch them die,” said Alice.
“Excuse me,” came a strange, small voice from just behind them.
Alice jumped and whirled around. At first she was shocked and let out a short, sharp yelp. And then another emotion overtook her. Standing in front of her, about 2 feet tall, was a small, grey creature, just like the aliens down below. Except this was much smaller. It’s big, black eyes gazed up at her. It’s skin was grey - a little like elephant skin - and it’s hands were clenching and unclenching nervously.
This was a child.
“Hello,” said the Doctor, a smile on his face. “What can we do for you?”
“I saw you from down below. I’m the only one who saw.”
Alice frowned. “He’s speaking English.”
“The TARDIS helps to translate alien languages into the listeners language,” said the Doctor with a dismissive wave of the hand. He continued to speak to the little alien. “I think you should go back to your family.”
“I wanted to go explore,” said the child, a strange, crooked smile appearing on it’s round, oval face. Alice was reminded of Zippy, the puppet from Rainbow.
“Why don’t you introduce us to your family?” said Alice.
The Doctor frowned at her darkly. “No, Alice. I think not.”
“Why not?” said Alice, although she already knew the answer to that.
“Because we need to leave.”
Alice got to her feet, grabbed the Doctor’s arm, and dragged him a little way from the child-alien.
“How can you leave now? He’s just a child.”
The Doctor sighed, stabbing his cane at the ground. “You don’t know what this is like…”
“I came with you to enjoy myself, not be depressed.”
“It’s not always enjoyment. It’s dangerous as well.”
Before Alice could say another word she felt something strike the back of her head. As she slowly drifted out of consciousness, she was aware of the Doctor also falling to the ground, and the sound of small, cries of victory coming from all around her.
And then nothing.
When the world finally blurred back into focus, she realised she was lying on the floor next to a small, crackling fire. She could feel the heat on her face. It felt nice after the coldness from outside.
She tried to move and then realised that her feet and hands were bound together.
And she had a headache.
“Doctor…” was all she could croak.
“Hello,” said the Doctor quietly.
She managed to twist herself around. The Doctor was tied up to an ancient pillar covered in carvings. There was a trickle of dried blood down the side of his face and he was wincing in pain.
“What’s going on?” she said.
“Silence creature!” came an alien-sounding voice from behind her.
She quickly whirled around and standing there was a slightly larger than the child version of the alien. It was brandishing a crudely made club and he was surrounded in a semi-circle, by similar aliens.
“Why did you hit me?” said Alice, putting two and two together.
“You have invaded our living home,” said the alien, slapping the club against the palm of his hand.
“We didn’t realise anybody lived here,” said the Doctor.
“Lies,” said the creature. “Lies. Lies. Lies.” It paused. “Lies.”
“What’s your name?” said Alice.
“Silence Other-Worlder!”
“I only asked,” said Alice, finding her first alien encounter a little more upsetting than she had hoped.
“My friend is simply trying to be friendly,” said the Doctor, a smile on his face. “There really was no need to knock us out and-”
“You carry a weapon,” growled the alien.
“A weapon…” The Doctor thought for a moment. “Oh, you mean my walking stick.” His eyes looked towards the walking stick that had been flung into a corner. “It’s an aid. Something to help me walk.”
“A weapon.”
“It’s not a weapon,” said the Doctor, trying to sound as unthreatening as possible. “It’s not a weapon at all.”
“A weapon.”
“No.”
“A weapon.”
“Please…”
“A weapon.”
“I’m dying,” he snapped. His voice echoed around the cavern and the aliens fell silent.
The Doctor looked at Alice. For a while they wondered who was going to be first to break the silence.
And then, to their surprise, the lead alien walked forward, his arm extended. It noticed that the Doctor’s hands were tied, pulled a knife from it’s ragged belt, cut the rope and then extended it’s arm again.
“My name is Rotox.”
The Doctor frowned and then slowly extended his arm. “I’m the Doctor, and this is Alice.”
Rotox looked to Alice and then crossed over to her. She panicked a little when the little alien went towards her with the knife, but sure enough he also cut the ropes binding her.
“It is agreeable to meet you,” said Rotox, nodding to the Doctor and then to Alice.
“Likewise. I think,” said Alice, rubbing the red marks where the rope had bound her wrists.
“We did not know you were dying,” he said, nodding towards the Doctor, “and that you were his carer,” said Rotox, nodding towards Alice.
“Oh, I’m not-”
“Yes, Alice is my carer!” said the Doctor quickly.
“But why-”
“Issenttiians have a code. All of those who are dying are to be absolved of their sins so they may be pure to travel to the Great Mountain.”
“The Great Mountain…” said Alice, slowly. “Like Heaven?”
“I know not your Other-World words,” said Rotox.
“Where you go when you die,” said Alice. “Well, supposedly.”
“Yes. That’s right,” said Rotox. He sat down on the dirt next to the Doctor and Alice and drew a mountain with his finger. “We live underneath the Mountain of Life.” He drew some crude stick-aliens at the base of the mountain. “When we pass on, we ascend the mountain to the peak and then cross through the Great Barrier of Issenttii.” He drew a line leading to a wavy line above the mountain.
The Doctor leaned in. “Beyond the atmosphere.”
“Above the Barrier is the Great Mountain where we will be united again.” He drew an upside down mountain, pointing downwards.
“Are there others like you all over the planet?” said Alice.
Rotox nodded. “Many tribes, all over, living underneath Mountains of Life.”
Alice sighed and looked at the Doctor, who was trying his hardest not to meet her gaze.
“Doctor, a word…” said Alice.
“Alice-”
But before the Doctor could say anymore, there came a great rumble from all around. Rocks fell from the cavern walls and the groups of Issenttiians ran for cover.
“The Mountain of Life is screaming!” yelled Rotox. “It is unhappy with the Other-Worlders.”
“I don’t think so,” said the Doctor, leaping to his feet. “Come on!”
Alice and Rotox ran after the Doctor as he grabbed his cane and walked as fast as he could up the narrow path that climbed the cavern and to the tunnel.
The rumbling continued and Alice had to shield herself, and Rotox, from a number of rocks that fell.
Eventually they reached the Doctor and the opening back out onto the arctic wasteland.
“No..” said the Doctor quietly.
Alice looked up. Descending from the skies were four, huge, robust spaceships. Their thrusters firing as each one of them slowly edged towards the surface.
“Monsters! Monsters from the sky!” cried Rotox.
“Even worse,” said the Doctor with a sad look on his face.
“The colony ships?” said Alice.
The Doctor nodded slowly. “The colony ships.”
On board the colony ship Centaur, of Colony Fleet Jericho, Commander James Atherton observed his crew as they all sat at their stations, guiding their large vessel onto the planet surface.
After a few moments there was a thud as the ship came to a land.
“Report,” said Atherton, his bearded face serious and focused.
“Hood, Enterprise and Excelis have touched down without any issue,” said a young, Japanese woman from a station towards the back of the bridge.
“Excellent,” said Atherton, his face breaking into a huge grin. He stood up and surveyed his crew. “Ladies and Gentlemen, we have arrived at Colony Jericho’s new home!”
The crew began whooping and cheering as Atherton went around each crew member, shaking their hands.
“Sir,” came the Japanese woman.
“Yes, Amaya.”
“Excelis wish to send their congratulations.”
“Put them on,” said Atherton, smiling and sitting back in his chair.
The sound of cheering came over the radio, and the crew of the Centaur joined in.
“Send our congratulations back, and to the other two and signal the other ships in orbit. Tell them that we’re beginning preliminary stages of terraforming, and will signal them when we’re ready for them to land.”
“Their feet will be getting itchy,” said a blonde haired man with bright blue eyes.
“It won’t be long now, Reed,” said Atherton. “We’ll soon get this place looking like a home.”
The Doctor, Alice and Rotox had returned to the cavern where the Doctor had tried to explain to the Issenttiians who the “monsters” were. Rotox hadn’t really understood. He had simply continued to say to the Doctor and Alice that they were monsters and had begged the Doctor for help.
The Doctor shook his head and stormed off as the Issenttians formulated an attack plan.
Alice followed him into the tunnel where she found him sat on a rock, his head in his hands.
“Doctor,” said Alice, sitting next to him and putting an arm around him, “you have to try and help them.”
The Doctor closed his eyes. “It’s not just about helping them. You heard what Rotox said, there are other tribes all over the planet. I can’t save them all.”
“But you can try and save the ones here.”
“And where does it stop? Where do they go?”
“They survive. They go to another world. Similar to this.”
“You don’t understand, Alice,” said the Doctor, with a groan.
“Then explain,” she said, a little more frustrated this time. “What’s wrong with taking a small group of aliens off the planet to make sure their species survives.”
“It’s their whole religion,” he said, getting up and wandering over to the tunnel wall, refusing to look back at her. “This planet is their whole culture and religion. The Great Mountain. The Mountain of Life. It will all be gone. They’ll have nothing.”
“They’ll have life. They’ll have hope.”
“But I won’t be able to save their world,” said the Doctor, rounding her.
“Then go out there and tell the colonists.”
“I can’t. I’ve already told you that this planet is important to the Earth Empire. If they don’t terraform this world, then the future will change drastically.”
“Doctor-”
“Alice,” he said, putting his hands on her shoulders and looking right into her deep, brown eyes, “we are at the tipping point here. The tipping point of two civilisations. The death of one and the birth of another. We cannot interfere. We have to let history take it’s natural cause.”
“And just let them die?”
“And just let them die.”
“No. Sorry. Not today,” said Alice, as she jammed her bobble hat onto her head and began heading towards the tunnel exit.
“What? Where are you going?”
“To change the future.” She turned to look at him. “I’m gonna convince those colonists to leave.”
Next Time: The Doctor and Alice travel to the Centaur. Coming Saturday 15th February 2014.
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