Sleep No More Pt. 4

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"Dear Gods, what are we going to do?" Chopra asks.

"Get ship. Go home" 474 replies.

"We can't let those things off here. If they were to get out, to spread. It's like an infection. You don't understand, do you?"

"Sleepmen bad. Kill sleepmen."

"Yeah. That about sums it up. Chief Nagata, this is Chopra. May the Gods look favourably upon you. Chief Nagata, this is Chopra. May the. We'll head for the rescue ship. If we don't hear from them soon, I'm going to have to assume they're dead."

"Then what Chopra do?"

"I have no choice. I'll have to destroy this whole station."

*Cold store*

{Y/N} has donned her sonic sunglasses and is projecting an image on the wall of when she, the Doctor and Clara first came on board.

"What are you doing?" Nagata asks.

"I've hacked into your helmet cams" {Y/N} replies.

"What?"

"Reviewing the footage. There's something not right here."

"We don't have helmet cams."

"Why did it kill Rassmussen like that?"

"That's what they do, isn't it? Kill people?" Clara asks as {Y/N} removes her glasses.

"But that's a direct attack. That's not how they operate. Dust grows. Consumes the host" the Doctor says.

"They evolve. You said so yourself" Clara says.

"Maybe. There's something going on here. Something we're not getting."

"What now? We can't stay in here. We're going to freeze to death. And we can't go back out there because the Sandmen will get us" Clara says.

"Sandmen?" the Doctor asks.

"Yeah, it's a good name. It fits, like the song. Bom, bom, bom."

"No, you don't get to name things. I'm the Doctor. I do the naming."

"All right. Sorry."

"It's like the Silurians all over again."

"Ok, well, what would you prefer then? The Dustmen?"

"Sandmen. What did you just say?"

"When?" Nagata asks.

"One point eight three minutes ago."

"I said we don't have helmet cams" there's banging on the door followed by roaring. They hide amongst the hanging meat.

"{Y/N}, Doctor, that door isn't going to last much longer," Clara says.

"So, what do we do?" Nagata asks.

"We let them in," the Doctor says.

"What?"

"We let them in" {Y/N} says.

"Hmm. Clever, that. Clever strategy. If they'd stayed in there, they'd have frozen to death, so the Doctor and {Y/N} had to let the creatures in. That was their theory. Oh, I'm not dead. You've probably guessed that by now" as the creatures prowl the cold storage. The Doctor, {Y/N}, Clara and Nagata are hiding inside empty meat sacks. Suddenly, there's an explosion.

*Corridor*

"What happen?" 474 asks.

"Must be damage from when we fell out of orbit" Chopra says, there is a fire blocking the corridor in front of them "we have to go back" but there is at least one Sandman behind them "I don't know what to do. I can't save us."

"474 can."

"What?" 474 knocks Chopra out then picks him up and walks through the flames.

*Cold store*

The Doctor looks out of his sack then gestures, first covering his eyes then the shush sign.

"The Doctor worked it out. The creatures can't see" {Y/N} gestures to Clara who then gestures to Nagata. They tiptoe past the Sandmen then the Doctor accidentally kicks something, alerting them.

"Run! Engine room!" the Doctor shuts the Sandmen in the cold store.

*Corridor*

"What happened?" Chopra asks.

"474 help" 474 is badly injured. Chopra goes to her.

"What?"

"474 die soon."

"No, no, no. Don't, don't say that! You got us through. You can survive this" there are Sandmen cowering on the other side of the flames.

"Chopra go. Get ship. Chopra be safe. Chopra pretty" Chopra takes 474's hand, then she pushes him away. He leaves as the first Sandman braves the flames and walks through them. 474 picks up her rifle and runs towards them.

*Engine room*

"You said you felt like you were being watched, Clara" {Y/N} says.

"Paranoia, you said."

"Not this time" {Y/N} puts her sunglasses on a ledge and projects an image onto the wall.

"There is a feed. Wireless. These images are being stored by someone. Collated. Nagata, look at this footage. What's wrong with it? What's wrong with it?"

"Don't know" Nagata replies.

"Look, there's one very obvious thing about it. Do you see it yet? No? Ok, I'll tell you what's wrong. There's footage here of everyone. But what's missing in all of it? What can't you see anywhere? Not in the footage, not on this ship. Look. Really look. There are no cameras here. No CCTV. No helmet cams. So, how and why does this footage even exist? The dust has been watching us. Each little organic speck, just a tiny spy drifting through the air. The monsters have been with us all along. That's why the Sandmen are blind. Their visual receptors are being hijacked. But by whom, and why? And then, there's this" the Doctor says, the projected image is the now, the Doctor pointing over his shoulder at the image, showing him pointing over his shoulder at the image "that's you, Clara. That's you, looking at me."

"Me?"

"You went into the pod. The Morpheus process has begun" {Y/N} says.

"Er, well."

"There's nothing here from Chopra's point of view because he refuses to use Morpheus. But everybody else is here. Including you. You don't have a camera, Clara. But you will have by now, sleep in your eye."

"Ok, well, we'll fix this. You two will fix this."

"Yes. I'm sure it'll be fine. I'm sure you'll be fine" the Doctor says.

"Sure?"

"We will sort this, Clara. We'll sort you. We'll sort Nagata and everyone back on Triton. And then we will destroy Morpheus forever."

"Ok then. Let's get on with it. The power's been almost entirely out since we arrived, but we've still got emergency lighting. But the engines are still on."

"Well, there was that incident with the grav-shields, but. Ah" {Y/N} says.

"What, what, what, what, what?" Clara asks.

"The grav-shields didn't fail. They were deliberately powered down."

"By the Sandmen?" Nagata asks.

"Well, that's not their style, is it?" {Y/N} picks up two disconnected power couplings.

"It's like, it's like something's been kept here, near the engines, where it's hot. Like something's being kept alive" the Doctor says.

"Well, you said someone's watching, collating images."

"Yeah."

"Well, if it's not the Sandmen, then who is it?"

"I have an idea who. A very nasty idea" {Y/N} turns off her sunglasses and they leave.    

---

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