Halfway Out Of The Dark || The Doctor

Dalek

The TARDIS materialised inside a vast darkened room. The Doctor stepped out, followed by Rose, then the Artist brought up the rear, having checked the scanner to determine their location. "So, what is it?" Rose asked, "What's wrong?"

"Dunno, some kinda signal drawing the TARDIS off-course." the Doctor replied.

"Where are we?" Rose asked, looking at their surroundings.

"We're on Earth, in Utah, North America." the Artist replied, "About a mile underground."

"And, when are we?" was Rose's next question.

"2012." the Time Lords answered together.

"God, that so close." Rose commented, "So I should be... 26."

The Doctor found a light switch and flicked it on. Lights flooded the room and the trio found themselves standing in a museum hall.

"Blimey! It's a great big museum." Rose said.

"An alien museum." the Doctor observed, "Someone's got a hobby. They must've spent a fortune on this." They began to walk through the hall, the Time Lords paying attention to the contents of the display cases. "Chunks of meteorite, moon dust." the Doctor noted, "That's the milometer from the Roswell spaceship."

Then Rose spotted something familiar. "That's a bit of Slitheen!" She went over to a case containing a Raxicoricofallapatorian's arm. "That's a Slitheen's arm, it's been stuffed." She read the plague below the case, which said that the arm was found in the wreckage of Downing Street in 2006.

Then the Artist spotted something else. "Doctor, look at this." she called.

The Doctor joined her at a case containing a silver robotic head. "Ah, look at you!" he breathed in recognition.

"What is it?" Rose asked as she joined them.

"An old friend of mine... well, enemy." the Doctor replied, "The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit. I'm getting old."

"Is that where the signal's coming from?" Rose questioned.

"Nah, it's stone dead." the Doctor replied, "The signal's alive. Something's reaching out. Calling for help." Without thinking, he began to reach out for the case.

"No, don't!" the Artist warned, "It might be..." But before she could finish, the Doctor's fingers touched the glass and alarms went off. "... alarmed." the Artist finished flatly.

A group of armed soldiers swarmed into the room and aimed assault rifles at the three time travellers. "If someone's collecting aliens, then that makes you two exhibits A an' B." Rose remarked to the Time Lords.

———————————————————————————

The trio were escorted through the establishment to an executive office, where a smartly dressed balding man with a moustache was sitting at a desk being shown an alien artefact by a young English man. "And this is the last." the Englishman said, "Paid $800,000 for it."

"What does it do?" the balding man asked, taking the object from him.

"Well, you see, the tubes on the side must be to channel something." the Englishman replied, "I think maybe fuel..."

"I really wouldn't 'old it that." the Doctor interrupted.

"Shut it!" an officious-looking ginger woman in a suit snapped.

The Doctor ignored her. "Really, though, that's wrong."

"Is it dangerous?" the Englishman asked worriedly.