Episode 2: TimeSpan Part 3

Holly Black stood up and slipped around the corner. Steadying herself against the wall, Holly glared at the pretty blonde girl Conner was running towards. Georgia saw Holly as she was running, and frowned at how she seemed to be following Conner. Conner looked round, mid-run, and saw Holly. He gulped, knowing tensions would be high with the two girls. He looked back round at Georgia, but all he saw was her face, as they were right up close to each other. Slipping on the floor, Conner head butted Georgia, and both of them fell, not even reaching each other.

The Doctor and Kirsty leapt from the floor down onto a lower platform. The Werewolf dropped onto the same platform just as the Doctor and Kirsty leapt down to the next. Kirsty looked at the Doctor and he grinned at her as they leapt down on to the next platform. Here, the platforms abruptly ended and the Doctor pulled Kirsty into the corridor leading off the platform. With his Sonic Screwdriver he sealed the door to the corridor, trapping the Werewolf inside the platform room. Kirsty turned to the Doctor.

“Now what do we do?” she asked desperately.
“It’s trapped,” the Doctor pointed out.
“Yeah but have you seen the size of it? It’ll break through that door easily!” Kirsty exclaimed.
“Well then, we stop it!” the Doctor said, assuring her.
“We’ve got about a minute,” Kirsty said.
“Lucky I’ve got an idea then,” the Doctor grinned.

He jumped over to a computer terminal as Kirsty grinned back at him. Meanwhile, Georgia sat up off the floor, not saying anything. Holly tried not to smirk as Georgia and Conner sat on the floor in silence, rubbing their sore foreheads.

Guard Pokaski opened fire on the Abzorbaloff, but the bullets passed through him. Guard Blunt’s posh English face stared out from the Abzorbaloff’s shoulder. His expressions were formed in shock, with an almost comical mouth shaped ‘o’. Guard Kristoph turned and ran down the corridor, and Guard Pokaski followed him.

The Werewolf burst through the door, and it was trapped in a bright light the Doctor cast at it. Kirsty grinned up at the Werewolf, as the Doctor moved the bright light and forced the creature into a pod shape in the wall. The Doctor sealed the pod shut with the Sonic Screwdriver. Pressing a couple of buttons on a small pad, the bright light faded and the Werewolf was trapped.

“What happened?” Kirsty asked.
“I used moonlight – cos we’re in space, and forced the Werewolf into this pod. And the Werewolf is actually a lupine wavelength haemovariform, which means it operates with wavelengths, like TV signals. This means we can send it in a wavelength out into space!” the Doctor grinned at his own brilliance.
“Oh my God! You’re brilliant!” Kirsty grinned back.
“Oh yes!” the Doctor replied.

The Werewolf roared in its pod, trapped. Georgia, Conner and Holly walked down a corridor. Conner was hanging back with the Krillitanes, while Georgia and Holly stalked on ahead, glaring at each other.

“Best to stay out of it mate,” one Krillitane said.
“Yeah, never interfere with the women on something like this,” another said wisely.
“My wife nearly tore my ear off when we couldn’t decide whether to steal the furniture from the Greglons we ate. She said it was wrong, and I said our sofa hurts my backside when I sit down to watch the hopball. I noticed she took the women’s magazines though,” another Krillitane added.
“Yeah, thanks guys…” Conner said, straining to listen to what was being said.
“Watch out! The Human girls have their claws out!” the fourth Krillitane laughed.
“I never understood that,” the fifth Krillitane said “Humans don’t have claws. I thought it was handbags anyway. I’ve got a rather lovely one they could borrow.”
“Jerry lives with another man,” the Krillitane with the annoying wife whispered in Conner’s ear.

Some way up the corridor, Georgia and Holly linked arms.

“Let’s be friends,” Georgia said sarcastically.
“Best friends,” Holly replied numbly back.

With a flash of bright light, the Doctor slammed a lever down, and the Werewolf disappeared. Inside the pod machine, the Werewolf was converted to its true wavelength form, and shot off in to space. Sparks emitted from the console by the pod, and the Doctor wafted the smoke away. He pressed some buttons, before slapping down the lever again.

“What happened?” Kirsty asked.
“We didn’t get a clean download. The Werewolf fought back,” the Doctor said.
“But, it’s gone… It’s not coming back, right?” Kirsty asked nervously.
“No, but we didn’t convert it into full wavelength potential. The Werewolf will crash down on planet Earth, unprotected. It’s gonna die, and it’s my fault.”
“No it wasn’t,” Kirsty said. “It’s its own fault it fought back.”
“Wait!” the Doctor cried, slapping yet more buttons.
“What?” Kirsty asked, stepping back.
“Yes! Ha! Wait, no! Yes! If I up the scanner, we can track its progress… and I’m so thick! The Werewolf’s not stupid! He fought back on purpose!” the Doctor said.
“I’m an Earth girl, explain,” Kirsty said.
“It’s slipping back through time!” the Doctor said, hitting his forehead. “1940, 1770, 1630, 1540! It’s landed in Scotland, 1540! Now what happened to me then? I haven’t been to Scotland in 1540…”
“So what did happen?” Kirsty asked.
“Ha! I know exactly where the Werewolf went!” the Doctor replied, grinning slightly.
“Where?” Kirsty said, wishing he would just tell her.
“He went to the Glen of St Catherine, in Scotland, near the Torchwood Estate. I went there with Rose in 1879… We met Queen Victoria! Mental! And she got bitten by a Werewolf which triggered the royal family transforming every full moon to give each other a quick nip, and then we went to Galowen, where we saved the villagers from a Claptomight, and then we went – ”
“Doctor – calm down! Tell me where the Werewolf went!” Kirsty said, waving her hands around.
“We killed it with moonlight. Only a single cell survived when it crashed in 1540, so it wasn’t ready till about 1879, when we arrived there. It was us! Me and you! We’re the reason only a single cell survived! I sent myself the Werewolf to defeat! I thought it had come from when we stopped it at Torchwood House, but we sent it there!”
“So now what?” Kirsty asked.
“We shut this place down!” the Doctor cried, running off.

Kirsty grinned as the Doctor ran back to her.

“Ah ha!” the Doctor grinned.
“What?” Kirsty grinned back.
“The Sonic Pen!”
“What about it?” Kirsty asked.
“I’ve seen it before!” the Doctor said.
“Where? Are you gonna send it back like the Werewolf?”
“Yep. I’m gonna send it to the person who had it before! That way she’ll have it later! The Sonic Pen didn’t come from Miss Foster, it went to Miss Foster! Ha!”
“Do you think this is all a coincidence?” Kirsty asked.
“What do you mean?” the Doctor said, his smile faltering from his face.
“Well, the Werewolf, the Sonic Pen, all these things are from your timeline! We don’t know what this prison ship’s for! I never did anything bad. Maybe I’m gonna meet you!” Kirsty said. “Maybe it’s here that I’m supposed to meet you!”
“This is all getting too complicated for me,” said a voice from behind them.

The Doctor turned around to see Georgia stood with Holly, and Conner and the Krillitanes a bit further behind. The Doctor’s mouth formed a shocked expression when Conner walked out from behind Georgia. Conner ran for the Doctor and the Doctor ran for Conner. Georgia had a big smile on her face. In all his years of travelling, the Doctor had never been so glad to see his friend alive. Conner reached the Doctor and they hugged.

“You’re alive!” the Doctor said. “I must say, you are the most persistent companion I’ve ever travelled with.”
“Thank you, I try,” Conner grinned.
“But what happened?”
“I died… On the Spidership. My parents are dead… I ran out of oxygen,” Conner said, trying not to cry. “Doctor!”
“What?” the Doctor said.
“I saw the devil man again! Rack! He waved at me! Before I died!” Conner said.
“It’s ok. It’s gonna be ok,” the Doctor said reassuringly. “He won’t bother us again.”
“Why not? Did you kill him?” Conner said.
“No. I just wanted to stop you worrying,” the Doctor said.
“You can let go of me now Doctor,” Conner said.

Embarrassed, the Doctor quickly let go of Conner, and the two turned away from each other.

“Ni, nice to see you again Conner,” the Doctor said.
“You too,” Conner said. “But why are you here?”
“Us? We came to rescue someone,” the Doctor said.
“Me?!” Conner asked.
“Err, no. It’s someone I met before. He’s called Mr Copper. He sent me a distress signal but I checked – he’s already escaped,” the Doctor said.
“So what are we still doing here?” Conner asked, grinning.
“We’re shutting the place down,” the Doctor said.
“You keep saying that Doctor, but we aren’t doing anything!” Kirsty teased him.
“Oh yeah, this is Kirsty,” the Doctor said, pretending to sigh.
“And that’s Holly,” Conner said, pointing to Holly.
“Lovely,” the Doctor said, heading off down the corridor.

Several hours after Georgia and Ben had begun to shift the rubble, they had made fairly good progress. They had save two Guards lives, and had accidentally uncovered a prisoner, which escaped with a teleport. Georgia tried to shake off the worry she got every time they uncovered a dead body. What if the Doctor had died? What would she do? Ben had said the planet they were stranded on was destroyed, and Georgia certainly hadn’t seen anyone. She wondered what planet had been lost, and whether it was an important one.

“Ben, were you being honest when you told me what happened?” Georgia asked as they shifted a metal door.
“When?” Ben asked.
“When you said Mr Slade and Miss Braithwaite were killed, then the pilots died, then we crashed?”
“You mean Miss Swade and Mr Braithwaite,” Ben laughed. “And yes, I was telling the truth.”
“But when me and the Doctor arrived, someone had just released the prisoners. The Doctor trapped me in one of the lifts to protect me. I closed my eyes as it went down, and suddenly TimeSpan’s crashed, and I’m here,” Georgia said. “Are you telling me that Miss Slade and – whatever their names are – were killed, along with the pilots, in the short space of time when I travelled down the lift shaft in the lift?”
“You went in the lift?” Ben asked, raising an eyebrow.
“That’s right,” Georgia said. “So what happened? Why did you lie?”
“Believe me, I didn’t,” Ben said. “It’s the lift that’s playing tricks on you.”

To be continued…