supernova (11th doctor)

The Beast Below (pt 3) / Area 51 (pt 3)

The 10th Queen of England led Amy, the Doctor, and Mandy through another basement of the ship. "There's a high-speed Vator through there." She told them, though the Doctor walked straight up to the cage that seemed to be containing something living. They were the two stingers that Amy recognized from inside the tent earlier, banging at the walls. "Oh, yeah. There's these things. Any ideas?" The Queen asked him.

"Doctor, I saw one of these up top with Nova. There was a hole in the road, like it had burst through, like a root." Amy told the Doctor, looking at the tentacle-like arms closer.

The Doctor studied it. "Exactly like a root. It's all one creature-- the same one we were inside-- reaching out. It must be growing through the mechanisms of the entire ship."

"What, like an infestation?" Liz 10 asked. The Doctor nodded. "Someone's helping it, feeding it." She realized in anger, walking down the hall again. "Feeding my subjects to it! Come on. We've got to keep moving."

The Queen and Mandy stormed off, but the Doctor put his hands on the cage.

"Doctor?" Amy asked in concern.

He couldn't take his eyes of the creature. "Oh, Amy. We should never have come here."

888

The grey-haired man watched as the Doctor, the Queen, Amy, and Mandy ventured across his screen, and spoke into his microphone. "Winder division one. Ten has penetrated to the lower levels. Initiate the protocol."

888

The Doctor, now clean, walked around the glasses on the floor carefully, trying not to knock them over. "Why all the glasses?"

"To remind me every single day that my government is up to something, and it's my duty to find out what." Liz 10 responded from her bed.

The Doctor grabbed her mask and observed it closely. "A queen going undercover to investigate her own kingdom?"

The Queen leaned forward intensely. "Secrets are being kept from me. I don't have a choice. Ten years I've been at this-− my entire reign-− and you've achieved more in one afternoon."

Amy came out from the back, clean now also, and the Doctor began pacing. "How old were you when you came to the throne?"

"40. Why?"

Amy finished putting her hair up in a bun in the mirror in front of her and looked to the Queen. "What, you're 50 now? No way!" Amy moved to sit on the chaise at the foot of her bed with Mandy.

"Yeah, they slowed my body clock. Keeps me looking like the stamps."

The Doctor sat on the bed with her. "And you always wear this in public?"

"Undercover's not easy when you're me. The autographs, the bunting."

The Doctor looked closely at her face, and then back to the mask. "Air-balanced porcelain. Stays on by itself, cause it's perfectly sculpted to your face."

"Yeah, so what?" she asked defensively.

"Oh, Liz. So everything."

The door slammed open then, and a group of hooded men with gold amulets walked in that Amy recognized from before. The Doctor stood to face them, while the queen was outraged. "What are you doing? How dare you come in here!"

The main hooded man was completely calm as he responded. "Ma'am, you have expressed interest in the interior workings of Starship UK. You will come with us now."

Liz stood up now too. "Why would I do that?"

In response, the man rotated his head slowly, and on the back of his head was a smiler in its angriest state that seemed to be bolted to the back of his skull.