Mini ep. 12: Spiralling

Korena wrapped the dressing gown around her, and sat in front of the fire. It was the year 2116, and, while the Doctor, Georgia and Conner hunted the Alps for a Yeti, Korena had chosen to relax at the Ski Lodge, and keep warm by the fire. Her phone rang, and she answered it.

“Oh, Doctor, hello,” she smiled. “How’s it going?”
“Pretty badly, actually,” the Doctor replied from atop a mountain. “The Sherpa left us, and Georgia and Conner nearly collapsed the wooden bridge by the temple. It’s only been here for two years!”
“It’s all those cheeps,” Korena laughed.
“Chips,” the Doctor corrected her. “We’ll be back soon, I hope you are straining yourself…”
“Not at all,” Korena said. “Bye!”

There was a clatter outside the Ski Lodge, but Korena ignored it. It was probably snow falling from the roof anyway. When she heard it again, she looked up.

“What the…?” she muttered.

There was a creaking on the roof, and Korena leapt backwards off of the sofa as dust drifted to the floor from above.

“There’s something on the roof!” she cried.

There was a second creak, and Korena ran for the door when she realised it was making its way to where she was stood. She grasped the door handle, but a shadow fell over the door frame. She gasped and backed away.

“Doctor?!” she shouted. “Stop messing about!”

There was a crash, and Korena saw a white-furred creature fall from the roof. With a scream, she ran to the window, and opened it. There was a crash, and a fully grown Yeti burst through the door. It looked around, and saw Korena’s feet slip out of the window. With a roar, it began its hunt.

“Come on, answer!” Korena muttered as she ran through the snow, phone in hand.
“Korena!” the Doctor cried from the other end. “I can’t talk, the temple has some unexpected traps! Conner, don’t press that…! Oh, too late. Listen, you’ll have to cope until we’re back. Sorry!”

And with that, he hung up. Korena huffed, and looked back at the Ski Lodge. The Yeti crashed through the window, and before she could react, it saw her and began to run. She looked to her right and saw, a few feet away, some sort of escape pod, tied to a wire. She dashed over to it, and opened the door, climbing inside. She slammed the door shut, and the pod began to move.

“Oh God!” she cried, looking out of the window at the snow below.

She looked around the pod. There were no controls, nothing. How was she meant to operate it? She read a sign next to the door: ‘Cable Car’.

“Like anyone even knows what one of those is,” Korena said grumpily.

The Cable Car was taking her up to the top of the mountain, where she’d hopefully find the Doctor and get to safety. But a banging noise interrupted that thought.

“Go away!” Korena yelled at the Yeti, who was on the roof trying to get into the Cable Car.

She screamed as one of the windows broke, and a hairy arm reached inside the Cable Car. Korena dived out of the way as it attempted to grab her, and smashed a second window in the process. Before the Yeti could attempt to grab her a second time, the Cable Car ground to a halt, and the hand withdrew quickly. Korena scrambled off the floor and peered out of the window.

“Oh, bugger.”

There was a crash and one of the Cable Car’s wires snapped. With a howl, the Yeti let go and was flung into the snow one thousand feet below. The Cable Car tipped to the left, and Korena grabbed a broken window before she could slide with it.

“Doctor!” she screamed.
“Korena?”

Korena gasped in relief as she heard the Doctor a few feet away, on a ridge. He held the Sonic Screwdriver in his teeth as he shimmied expertly along the wire and to the Cable Car. Reaching inside, he heaved Korena out of it. There was a second snap, and Korena fell, grabbing one of the broken wires and hanging a few feet below the breaking Cable Car.

“Doctor!” she growled.
“Sorry!” the Doctor said hastily. “I’m just climbing down.”

He grabbed a third cable, and slid down it, until he reached Korena. She climbed onto his back gratefully, and the two climbed up to the top of the wire. When they eventually made it onto the Cable Car’s wires snapped completely, sending the small metal box spiralling down, until it landed on the Yeti with a crunch.

“There goes our Yeti,” the Doctor sighed.
“You didn’t kill it, did you?” a voice said from behind him.

The Doctor looked round, and saw Georgia and Conner, covered in dust, grinning at Korena and him.

“Typical,” Georgia sighed. “Just when we were going to catch him.”
“He was chasing me, you lot couldn’t catch a cold,” Korena teased. “If anyone had a chance – it was me.”
“Yeah, well… Well…” Conner said. “At least I didn’t think Star Trek was a documentary!”

Korena faltered for a second.

“You mean it isn’t?” she wondered. “But the Doctor said…”
“Let’s go back to the warm TARDIS,” the Doctor said quickly.

With a collection of ‘ooh’ from the others, the Doctor quickly led them back to the warm, hoping no one would bring up the subject of Star Trek again. He gave himself a mental note for the next time he passed the TARDIS wardrobe – to hide the Star Trek uniform he’d hidden away behind the Chewbacca and A-Team outfits.

The End.