starmaiden | eleventh doctor

0.5

0.5 – Time of Angels

THIRD PERSON POV

"Where are we? What is this?" Amy queries as the last of the soldiers jump off the ladder. It appears to be a large cavern of sorts. A very large cavern, filled with very creepy statues.

"It's an Aplan Mortarium, sometimes called a Maze of the Dead." River answers, eyes grazing over every little detail.

"What's that?" Astraea steps forward, letting it all sink in from beside the Doctor.

"Well, if you happen to be a creature of stone," the Doctor kicks the gravity globe into the air, illuminating all the mausoleums and statuary. "The perfect hiding place."

"I guess is makes it a bit trickier." Octavian states the obvious. "A stone angel on the loose amongst stone statues. A lot harder than I'd prayed for."

"A needle in a haystack," River lights her torch, aiming it at all the statues.

"A needle that looks like hay. A hay-like needle of death. A hay-alike needle of death in a haystack of, er, statues. No, yours was fine," the Doctor rambles. Astraea struggles to hide her laugh at his behaviour. "Oi," he nudges her side jokingly, trying not to break and laugh as well.

"Right. Check every single statue in this chamber. You know what you're looking for. Complete visual inspection. One question. How do we fight it?" Octavian quizzes.

"We find it, and hope." The Doctor walks off, all but River and Octavian following, holding back to have their own conversation.

"He doesn't know yet, does he? Who and what you are." He demands to know. "Nor does she."

"It's too early in their time streams," River sighs.

"Well, make sure they don't work it out, or they're not going to help us."

"I won't let you down. Believe you me, I have no intention of going back to prison," she walks off, smug grin on her face. Octavian orders his soldiers to check the side chamber before following.

Astraea rubs her eye as they progress deeper into the maze. It felt rather irritated since the itch back in the drop ship. Never in her lifetime though, did she expect to feel and see stone dust falling as she scratched at it.

"You alright?" She hears River from behind.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Astraea's fake smile was believable enough to not draw attention.

"So, what's a maze of the dead?" Amy walks over, asking River.

"Oh, it's not as bad as it sounds. It's just a labyrinth with dead people buried in the walls." She pauses for a moment. "Okay, that was fairly bad. Right give me your arm," she reaches out, grabbing Amy's arm. "This won't hurt a bit."

"Ow!" Amy jumps after being injected.

"You too," she does the same to Astraea. "I lied, it's a viro-stabiliser. Stabilises your metabolism against radiation, drive burn, anything. You're going to need it when we get up to that ship."

"So what's he like? In the future, I mean. Because you know him in the future, don't you?" Amy gestures forward to the Doctor who struggles to work the portable computer-like device ahead of them.

"The Doctor? Well, the Doctor is the Doctor." River shrugs off the question.

"Oh. Well, that's very helpful. Mind if I write that down?" Amy sasses. Astraea notices the Doctor tilt his head slightly, trying to discreetly listen in to the conversation.

"Yes, we are," she smiles cheekily.

"Sorry, what?" He pretends to have not heard a thing.

"Talking about you."