Episode 6: Message Received Part 1

Bao couldn’t believe his luck when he was chosen to be a member of the SS Hurricane. His family in China was so proud of him. He was walking down one of its white coloured corridors when there was a jolt. The safe multi-national ship had stopped.

“Captain Fry, do you mind telling me what’s going on?” Bao said into his communicator.
“We aren’t sure,” a crackling voice answered.
“Great,” Bao said to himself as he continued walking down the corridor. He could hear another crackling sound. Bao quickened his pace as he walked down the corridor and stared as instead of solid metal he saw a large hole.
“Captain, there’s a hole in the wall,” Bao said into his communicator, staring into the dark through the hole. A crackle came back.
“Captain, are you receiving me?” Bao asked, “Captain, has the message been received?” Another crackle came back. Bao heard a stomping noise behind him. Bao froze on the spot.

“Who’s there?” Bao stuttered.
“Me, I’m coming,” an incredibly deep voice said.
“Who are you?” Bao asked.
“I’m coming,” the voice said louder. Bao dared not look round scared at what he might see. This creature had obviously smashed its way on board the ship.

“Captain, I fear something has got on board the ship, I fear this may be my last report,” Bao said, another crackle, and then a tearing noise filled the air, followed by a scream.

THE CREDITS

“What do you mean bad news?” Georgia asked as the TARDIS lurched. It was a minute ago when the Doctor had found the purple flashing sphere. Conner had heard a beeping noise and the Doctor had pulled up one of the floor panels and taken the sphere out.
“Very bad news actually,” the Doctor replied.

“How is a purple flashing sphere bad news?” Georgia asked.
“That sphere is a way of communicating between me and Regal,” the Doctor replied.
“Who’s Regal?”Georgia asked, “Another companion of yours?”
“No, he was just there, one of the few survivors of it,” the Doctor replied.
“What’s it?” Conner asked.
“A nightmarish creature,” the Doctor said, “I’m not sure whether there is only one of them or whether there is a whole species somewhere.”
“A whole species of what?” Conner asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” the Doctor said, “I can’t believe I’m saying this but this is going to be too dangerous even for you two to be involved.”
“What?” Georgia asked, “Don’t be silly! We’re coming with you.”
“I’m sorry not this time, you two are staying in the TARDIS,” the Doctor replied, “I just hope it hasn’t strayed too far.”
“What is it?” Georgia asked, as the TARDIS materialised in a large house, which was situated on one of the planet Yogragriss’s moons.

“Right, we’re here,” the Doctor said ignoring Georgia’s question, “I doubt it will have stayed around here, so I guess you can come out with me.”
“Oh you guess, do you?” Georgia asked in a lofty voice. The Doctor ignored her and opened the TARDIS doors to see an oldish man running towards the TARDIS. He stopped and panted.
“Regal, what’s going on?” the Doctor asked the man.
“Bad news I’m afraid,” Regal replied panting, “Is Martha with you?”
“No, this is Georgia and Conner by the way,” the Doctor answered. Georgia and Conner stepped out of the TARDIS and shook Regal’s hand.

“How do you two know each other?” Conner asked.
“Well...” the Doctor began to explain.

The TARDIS materialised on a large rocky surface. The Doctor stepped out of it, followed closely by a pretty, dark-skinned woman in a red jacket. The wind was very strong and cold on the planet and Martha Jones felt her teeth chattering.
“Why are we here?” Martha asked the Doctor.
“You wanted to go to a different planet,” the Doctor replied.
“I meant somewhere other than a dangerous planet,” Martha replied.
“It’s highly unlikely to find one of those,” the Doctor said, “Not with my TARDIS anyway.”
“Are you sure it’s safe to breath?” Martha asked.
“Pretty sure, look there are people over there,” the Doctor said pointing towards a group of lights. Minutes later the Doctor and Martha were sitting comfortably in the lounge of a small space base. The people on board were all human.

“I’m Regal, nice to meet you,” a young man said to Martha.
“Nice to meet you too,” Martha replied, “So what do you do?”
“I’m the mechanic/handyman around here,” Regal replied, “I built the security cells, which you were found by earlier.”
“The Doctor didn’t know where the main entrance was so...” Martha began to explain.
“You climbed in through a window,” Regal finished.
“Yeah, that’s right,” Martha said.

“Have you seen Finley?” Regal asked, looking around. Martha had seen a man called Finley earlier; he had found them near the cells. Martha looked around and realised the Doctor wasn’t there either.
“What about the Doctor?” Martha asked, “He was here a moment ago.” Suddenly an alarm went off and a tell brown-haired woman ran into the room.

“Mavis, what’s going on?” Regal asked.
“Something’s smashed its way onto the space base,” Mavis explained, “There’s a hole in the roof.” Martha ran off and headed down a corridor. She ran past a dark room, when she stopped suddenly. There was a drop off blood on the floor. Martha walked into the room and saw the remains of Finley and two other men who had worked aboard the space base. There was a roaring noise outside in the corridor and Martha ducked behind a cabinet to see a flash of something running past the room in the direction of the lounge. Suddenly, there was a shake and the door to the room slammed shut. Martha ran over to the door and tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge.

It was almost half an hour later when the door opened to reveal the Doctor. Martha smiled and hugged him.
“Where have you been?” Martha asked, “I heard that something was on board and I went off to find you, then I went into this room and saw these bodies. Then there was a shake and the door slammed. I was locked in this room with three dead bodies; do you know what that’s like?”
“I’m sorry Martha, but something terrible has happened,” the Doctor explained, “I’ve managed to contain the monster in one of the cells, using the sonic screwdriver. But it’s killed most of the crew. Finley and Mavis are dead.”
“What about Regal?” Martha asked.
“He’s okay, he managed to hide from the monster,” the Doctor replied, “Daferage helped, but she was killed.”
“That’s terrible Doctor,” Martha said, “What are you going to do with the monster?”
“At the moment, Regal is going to keep it in one of the cells,” the Doctor said, “He’s going to take care of it.”
“What was the monster?” Martha asked.
“This monster is one of the worst in the galaxy,” the Doctor explained, “It’s incredibly fast and it can survive in space. It kills using its claws.”

The Doctor and Martha headed back to the lounge where a bloody body lay on the floor. Regal stood up with the four other surviving crew members as the Doctor entered.
“The police are on their way,” Regal explained, “But if I’m supposed to look after this beast for you, what should I do?”
“Tell the Police that it’s on the Doctor’s orders,” the Doctor replied, “They should understand.”

“What if it escapes?” Regal asked, “You said it was very clever.”
“Wait a second,” the Doctor said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out two identical purple spheres.
“What’s that?” Martha asked.
“These are two sphere phones,” the Doctor explained handing one to Regal, “They are connected wherever they are in time and space. If you need to contact me press this button.” The Doctor pointed out a tiny button on the sphere.
“How will I know if it has worked?” Regal asked.
“It will begin to flash, my sphere will flash too,” the Doctor replied, “Anyway we’d better be going before the police arrive.”
“Goodbye,” Martha said.

“Oh and in case there are more of these monsters on the planet, move away,” the Doctor exited the base via another window and the Doctor and Martha ran back into the TARDIS. Regal watched as it faded away.


Back in the present Georgia was looking mutinous.
“Who’s Martha?” Georgia asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” the Doctor asked, “Regal has the monster escaped?”
“Does the monster have a name?” Conner asked.
“The monster has been designated a Rawrx by the unnamed creature association,” Regal explained, “And yes it has escaped.”

“But are we safe?” Georgia asked.
“The house has maximum security,” Regal explained.
“What about the cell?” the Doctor asked.
“That had maximum security too,” Regal replied, “Although the monster has been trying to get out of it for 20 years. As you can see Doctor, I am a lot older, yet you haven’t changed at all.”
“He’s like that,” Georgia said.

“Do you have any idea where it has gone?” the Doctor asked.
“Oh yes, I put a permanent tracker on it,” Regal explained, “It can never shake it off, unless it dies.”
“Doctor, weren’t you planning to put one of those on Rack?” Georgia asked.
“Yes, but he vanished,” the Doctor replied.
“You’ve met Rack too?” Regal asked.
“You’ve met Rack too?” Conner asked.
“Yes, he was around here a while ago,” Regal explained, “He turned up here looking for sanctuary but then a shining thing appeared and he vanished.”
“You don’t think he released the Rawrx?” Georgia asked.
“Possibly, but I didn’t see him here earlier today,” Regal replied.

“How long has the Rawrx been loose?” the Doctor said.
“An hour or so unfortunately, I couldn’t find the sphere,” Regal said. Regal walked into his lounge, it was large and similar to the one on the space base. Regal pressed a button by the light switch and all the lights turned off and a screen appeared. There was a flashing dot on it, it was moving across the screen.

“I’ll put it in satellite view,” Regal said and walked forward into the darkened room. He pressed a button on a small keyboard beneath the screen and the picture changed to a picture of space.
“The flashing dot is the Rawrx,” Regal explained.
“It’s heading towards that spaceship,” the Doctor said.
“It’s boarded that spaceship,” Georgia replied.

“What is that spaceship?” the Doctor asked.
“The SS Hurricane captained by Brandon Fry,” Regal explained, “They trade in all kinds of things, which unfortunately includes gold and bronze. They are a multi-national ship from the planet Earth.”
“Why unfortunately?” Georgia asked.
“I trade in bronze and gold, I made loads of money out of it,” Regal explained, “But now I’m loosing lots of it, they are putting me out of business.”

“Well we’d better be going unless Georgia and Conner want to stay and watch what happens, if that’s okay with you,” the Doctor said.
“Yes, it’s fine,” Regal said.
“No we’re going in the TARDIS,” Georgia said.
“What?!” Conner whispered to Georgia, “He won’t let us do anything.”
“How is he going to keep us in the TARDIS?” Georgia whispered back, as the Doctor got inside the TARDIS and said goodbye to the Doctor.
“Good thinking,” Conner said to Georgia.
“Bye you two,” Regal said as Conner and Georgia entered the TARDIS. The TARDIS dematerialised and then materialised on the SS Hurricane.

“Good I’ve arrived 5 minutes before that thing arrives,” the Doctor said.
“Can we come with you?” Georgia asked hopefully.
“No I’ve already said,” the Doctor answered.

“Doctor, 5 people survived that creature before, I mean there weren’t many people on that space base were there?” Georgia replied.
“There were 50 people in the space base actually and 45 of them died,” the Doctor said. Georgia fell silent, as the Doctor left the TARDIS.
“What should we do?” Conner asked.
“The Doctor might need our help,” Georgia said. There was a click and the TARDIS doors were locked from the outside.
“Come on lets unlock them,” Georgia said walking to the doors and trying to move the latch, but it would not move.
“NO DOCTOR!” Georgia shouted.
“What is it?” Conner said running to Georgia’s side.
“He’s locked us in, with no chance of getting out,” Georgia said, "We're stuck in here."

TO BE CONTINUED