When they landed the TARDIS a few weeks later, the engines were making strange wheezing noises—stranger than the usual wheezing noises they made, that is.
"I don't know what's wrong though," the Doctor frowned as they stepped out into a storage room. "She's sort of queasy. Indigestion, like she didn't want to land."
"Oh, well if you think there's going to be trouble, we could always get back inside and go somewhere else," Rose suggested, smirking. They all looked at each other and burst out laughing.
"I think we've landed inside a cupboard," Alex pointed out, finding the door. "Here we go."
"Open door 15," a computer-generated voice stated.
"Some sort of base," the Doctor realised as they spilled out into a corridor. "Moon base, sea base, space base. They build these things out of kits."
"Close door 15."
Rose glanced up at the ceiling, wincing at the howling winds outside. "Glad we're indoors. "Sounds like a storm out there."
"Open door 16."
"It's human design," the Doctor explained to them. "You've got a thing about kits. This place was put together like a flat pack wardrobe, only bigger." He tilted his head. "And easier."
"Open door 17."
They entered a living area, complete with tables and chairs. On one wall was a huge printed '3'.
"Oh!" the Doctor exclaimed, grinning. "It's a sanctuary base!"
"Close door 17."
"Deep space exploration," he continued. "We've gone way out. And listen to that, underneath. Someone's drilling."
"Welcome to hell," Alex murmured.
The Doctor made a face. "Oh, it's not that bad."
She rolled her eyes. "No, muppet! I'm reading. Over there!" She pointed to the wall behind him, where the words were painted in black above some kind of vertical alien script.
That caught his attention. "Hold on... what does that say?" He headed over to take a closer look. "That's weird, it won't translate."
"But I thought the TARDIS translated everything," Rose frowned, "writing as well. We should see English."
"Exactly," the Doctor agreed. "If that's not working, then it means this writing is old. Very old. Impossibly old. We should find out who's in charge." He started to spin the wheel on another bulkhead door, all the while talking. "We've gone beyond the reach of the TARDIS' knowledge. Not a good move. And if someone's lucky enough—"
"Open door 19."
To say the creatures on the other side of the door were aliens was to contend for the understatement of the century. They were humanoid in shape, but all sense of similarity ended at the face. Where a human's nose and mouth would have been, these creatures had tentacles. And stranger still, there was a tube coming out from behind the tentacles to connect them to a plain sphere holstered on their identical uniforms.
"Oh," Alex said, trying not to seem too shocked. After all, maybe she looked that strange to them as well.
"Right," the Doctor said, his eyes wide. Apparently he wasn't especially well-acquainted with the species either. "Hello. Sorry, we were just saying, er... nice base."
The creatures tilted their heads in unison. "We must feed." Their spheres lit up as they spoke.
Rose stared. "You've gotta what?"
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Watch Us Run |1| The Ascension | A Doctor Who/MCU Fanfiction
Science Fiction✅ approx 185,000 words. It's March 2005, and Alex Tyler is barely recovering from recent trauma. Living with her mum and older sister, she has good friends, and she's doing what she loves at work. But sometimes, she thinks, there has to be somethin...
