The Doctor And I

Flesh and Stone - Beginning the Countdown

Bailee's POV-

"Up. Look up." The Doctor says, jumping to his feet before anyone else has any time to register what just happened. We all struggle to our feet, looking around. We're standing on an artificial surface, although the tunnel walls still look the same.

"Are you okay?" River asks, turning to face me.

"What happened?" I ask.

"We jumped." River replies simply.

"Jumped where?" Amy interjects.

"Up. Up. Look up." The Doctor repeats.

"Where are we?" I ask, looking around.

"Exactly where we were." River looks at me, but I still don't understand what just happened.

"No we're not." Amy says crossly, not understanding why everyone is insisting she's wrong, and I have to admit, I am feeing the same way.

"Move your feet." The Doctor looks at me, signalling me to step backwards. He sonicks a circular hatch in the floor, with six inset lights around it. Ohh, I think I understand now.

"Doctor, what am I looking at? Explain." Amy demands.

"Oh, come on, Amy, think. The ship crashed with the power still on, yeah? So what else is still on?" The Doctor points around us dramatically. "The artificial gravity. One good jump, and up we fell. Shot out the grav globe to give us an updraft, and here we are."

"Doctor, the statues. They look more like Angels now." Father Octavian interrupts us.

"They're feeding on the radiation from the wreckage, draining all the power from the ship, restoring themselves. Within an hour, they'll be an army." The Doctor states. The circular hatch opens, and somewhere inside a light goes bang. "They're taking out the lights. Look at them. Look at the Angels. Into the ship, now. Quickly, all of you."

"How?" I ask. The Doctor drops through the open hatch into a circular corridor. From my point of view, he is standing on the side of a vertical tube. "Doctor!"

"It's just a corridor. The gravity orientates to the floor." The Doctor reassures me. "Now, in here, all of you. Don't take your eyes off the Angels. Move, move, move."

We all jump down into the corridor, and Father Octavian stations his men around so we are not crept up on by an Angel. "Okay, men. Go, go, go!" The Doctor worked on a control panel as Father Octavian spoke to him. "The Angels. Presumably they can jump up too?" The hatch door bangs shut, making me jump.

"They're here, now. In the dark, we're finished." The Doctor informed us, as a bulkhead further along the corridor starts to close. "Run!" We all get up and sprint towards the bulkhead, a hairs breadth away from the door before it slams shut, trapping us inside.

"This whole place is a death trap." Father Octavian exclaims in frustration.

"No, it's a time bomb. Well, it's a death trap and a time bomb. And now it's a dead end. Nobody panic. Oh, just me then. What's through here?" The Doctor peers round a corner.

"Secondary flight deck." River says, without looking up from her gadget.

"Okay. so we've basically run up the inside of a chimney, yeah? So what if the gravity fails?" I ask, looking back at the way we came in.

"I've thought about that." The Doctor replies.

"And?" I press.

"And we'll all plunge to our deaths. See? I've thought about it. The security protocols are still live. There's no way to override them. It's impossible."

"How impossible?" River asks.

"Two minutes." The Doctor says, but is interrupted from saying anything further by Father Octavian calling towards us.

"The hull is breached and the power's failing."
Then the lights go out, and an arm is silhouetted against the open hatch.

"Sir, incoming." One of Father Octavian's men calls.

"Doctor? Lights." Amy says worriedly, as the lights flicker. The Angel is starting to enter, and then there's another flicker, and four Angels are inside and the hatch is closed behind them.

"Clerics, keep watching them." Father Octavian orders.

"And don't look at their eyes. Anywhere else. Not the eyes." The Doctor casts a worried glance in my direction before his eyes flicker back to the control panel he had been working on. "I've isolated the lighting grid. They can't drain the power now."

"Good work, Doctor." Father Octavian states.

"Yes. Good, good, good. Good in many ways. Good you like it so far." The Doctor says shiftily.

"So far?" I ask warily.

"Well, there's only one way to open this door. I guess I'll need to route all the power in this section through the door control." The Doctor continues cautiously.

"Good. Fine. Do it." Father Octavian commands. The Doctor looks unwilling to do it.

"Including the lights. All of them. I'll need to turn out the lights." Ah. That was the catch, there catch that could kill us all.

"How long for?" Father Octavian asks uncertainly.

"Fraction of a second. Maybe longer. Maybe quite a bit longer." The Doctor says.

"Maybe?" I ask.

"I'm guessing. We're being attacked by statues in a crashed ship. There isn't a manual for this." He snaps. I take a step back, caught off guard by the sudden loss of temper.

"Doctor, we lost the torches. We'll be in total darkness." Amy pleads, knowing she's got so much more at stake than just dying. She's marrying Rory tomorrow for goodness sake, and she can't break his heart by just disappearing!

"No other way." The Doctor replies gravely.

"Doctor Song, I've lost good Clerics today. You trust this man?" Father Octavian turns to River.

"I absolutely trust him." She reassures him.

"He's not some kind of madman, then?" Father Octavians statement sparks smirks from The Doctor, River and I, knowing that that is exactly what he is.

"I absolutely trust him." River repeats, avoiding the question.

"Excuse me." The Doctor looks mock offended.

Father Octavian walks over to River, and whispers in her ear, The Doctor and Amy out of earshot, and myself pretending to be also. "I'm taking your word, because you're the only one who can manage this guy. But that only works so long as he doesn't know who you are. You cost me any more men, and I might just tell him. Understood?"

"Understood." River nods.

"Okay, Doctor. We've got your back." Father Octavian turns back to The Doctor.

"Bless you. Bishop." He replies.

"Combat distance, ten feet. As soon as the lights go down, continuous fire. Full spread over the hostiles. Do not stop firing while the lights are out. Shot gun protocol. We don't have bullets to waste." Father Octavian commands his Clerics.

"Bailee, when the lights go down, the wheel should release. Spin it clockwise four turns." Then The Doctor and River look at me in confusion. "No, four. Four turns." It's my turn to look confused.

"Yeah, four. I heard you."

"Ready!" The Doctor shouts, as he plunges his sonic screwdriver into a control unit, and Father Octavian turns to his soldiers.

"On my count, then. God be with us all. Three, two, one, fire!" The lights go out, the Clerics start shooting at the approaching Angels, deafening us with the piercing gunshots.