Season 27 Episode 1: Warriors Game Part 1

The Seventh Doctor era continues with the first part of four new stories, with one part released each Friday...

Warriors Game

Part 1

The Snowzone Base, Antarctica, 1990

As night descended on Antarctica, those inside of the base settled down, waiting for the morning to come and observing the activity outside. As always, the activity of the Ice caps was low, but there always had to be somebody there monitoring, even at night time. Shifts were switched up every few days, and in charge of monitoring the base tonight were Nathan King and Gina Mortimer.

Nathan was a trustworthy fellow who was one of the brightest talents working at the Snowzone base. He always influenced theorems and ideas that would make the base a better place, both to work and to be more efficient in serving its purpose. He was also one of the only workers who did not mind working at night time. He was a lovely man, and one of the nicest anybody could imagine meeting. He got on with every member of staff within the base. Well, everybody except one.

That one was Gina Mortimer, the woman he was working aside that month.

Gina was a troublemaker who only worked in the base due to her family connections to the owner, Jonathan Mortimer, who was her father. Since Jonathan’s disappearance, the dynamic between the workers began to collapse, and Gina became more and more mischievous in her nature, partly deluded by all the questions and theories that surrounded her fathers unknown whereabouts.

Gina often poked fun at Nathan, however, Nathan was too polite to fight back. He just sat there, waiting for the night to be done, and admiring the sights they witnessed outside their window. Gina also remarked rather frequently that there was no purpose in the Snowzone base, and they were doing all this for nothing, but Nathan was always there to dismiss that.

Jonathan set up the Snowzone base to monitor temperature levels and to ensure they did not reach dangerous levels. Or so he said. There were a few people he told there was another reason behind the establishment of the Snowzone base, but nobody ever knew what that reason was. And now that Jonathan was nowhere to be seen, it was apparent that nobody would ever find out.

Gina tapped her fingers on the table beside her, which began to grate on Nathan. She always did this. He never understood why she was so mean and irritating to him. He had never done anything to her. Not that he was aware of. She kept tapping her fingers, wishing to get a rise out of Nathan and make him snap, even though she knew it was unlikely this would happen. She knew it was impossible to make him snap. She knew he was too calm and mild mannered to do so.

The incessant tapping continued, testing Nathan’s patience with his associate more and more with every second. The tapping seemed to be in a rhythmic pattern with the ticking of the clock in the room, which proved all the more frustrating for Nathan. He was attempting to concentrate, reading the measurements on the various pieces of apparatus in front of him. But he could not concentrate. Not with all this distraction going on around him.

“Could you stop that please?” Nathan demanded. “I’m trying to concentrate.”

“Alright!” Gina responded, “I’m just bored, that’s all.”

“Then why don’t you leave? You don’t have to be here. You don’t have to work here. You hate it here. There’s no reason for you to stay.”

“I couldn’t let my father down like that. You know I couldn’t.”

Nathan sighed. “You’re not letting your father down. You don’t enjoy it here. He may come back one day but he probably will not. You are not letting him down in the slightest. You’re ruining his vision and maybe it would be in the best interest of all the members of staff and all those we are in charge of protecting for you to leave.”

Gina tutted. “That’s quite cheeky of you, Nathan. I have as much right to be here as you do, if not even more. If you’re not happy with me being here, then you can go.”

“This is my life's aspiration, Gina.”

“What is?” Gina chuckled, “Sitting around all day and night reading some measurements? Come on, this is hardly saving the world.”

“Of course it is, Gina! This is saving the world. We are doing a job that needs to be done.”

“How come? Nobody would lose if we stopped doing this?”

“We are protecting the world. We are measuring temperatures from across the world. We may be able to combat the inevitable rise of climate change that will occur. We will play an important role in securing the future of this planet, I assure you.”

“Climate change?” Gina questioned. “There’s no such thing.”

Nathan gave out a loud sigh. “Often I don’t know how you can be so naive. You cannot interact with somebody civilly, you cannot believe the key principles of science and you mess up all potential chances of success. This is important, Gina, and if you don’t understand that, it’s best that you don’t stay here.”

Suddenly an alarm signalled on one of the pieces of apparatus. Nathan flicked a series of switches in order to cease the alarms but they still rang, insistently and irritatingly.

“What’s going on?” Gina asked, “What does that alarm mean?”

“It means the base is under attack,” Nathan revealed, “Something has gotten in. It’s blown off the front door. I’m going down there. This base could be under-”

From out of nowhere the doors of the room blew off, knocking Nathan and Gina back towards the wall. Everything went black for a moment. Nathan picked his head up while Gina remained on the floor. All he could see in front of him was darkness. As his vision became clearer, he could see somebody in front of him. A silhouette. A female silhouette.

He lifted himself up from the floor and raised his hands. He was worried that the woman would kill him. She was armed, and potentially dangerous, and was fearful of why she had invaded the base.

“What do you want?” Nathan asked the woman. “Please, there’s no need for violence. We can reason with you. You can have whatever you want but there’s no need for anybody to get hurt here today.”

“I have no intention of hurting anybody,” Ace announced.

“What do you want here then?”

“I want the Doctor. I want to see the Doctor. I need to see the Doctor. It’s urgent. Somebody is about to do something to him and I need to do all I can to help him. If I don’t get there in time then everything he knows will be changed and his whole life will be destroyed.”

“We don’t have a Doctor here, it’s just the two of us. Well, only one of us that are conscious. May I ask your name?”

“I’m Ace,” The woman replied, “You haven’t seen a woman called Destari around here, have you? I need to find her and stop her before it’s too late.”

Gina leaped up from the floor and pressed a huge red buzzer. Ace grabbed her large gun and placed it against Gina’s head. She frowned, aware that the button that Gina pressed could have been back up, or security, or police.

“What did you just press?” Ace asked. “Did you just call for security?”

Gina nodded. “Of course I did. I don’t see why I shouldn’t. You’re an intruder and must be dealt with in an appropriate matter, so you will be instantaneously. I hope that’s alright with you. And if it isn’t, that’s rather tough, because they’re coming anyway.”

“Look, something dangerous is coming here and it could be about to destroy us all. For all I know the Doctor could already be under its spell, and it’s coming for you too, and for me. I’m the only one who knows what it is, and what it is capable of. You need to call off security this instant. It won’t get you anywhere.”

“I don’t care what garbage you are going to come up with, because you are intruding on private property, and you have no right to do so. No right whatsoever. Security are coming for you. You can run if you want. Or you can face the punishment.”

“Oh I will face it,” Ace sarcastically noted, “I’ll face it better than you could ever imagine.”

Three security guards streamed through the door and grabbed Ace. Ace used her gun and pushed it towards one of their groins, knocking them out in pain. Another of the Guards grabbed the gun and threw it out of the large window which separates the base from the outside world. Ace leaped up and kicked both of the standing guards in the face, before grabbing their weapons from them. Ace then held one of the guns she was holding towards Ginas face, and gave a meddlesome grin.

“Do not think you can mess with me,” Ace chillingly said, “You have no idea what I’m capable of. That was just the half of it. And if you dare try to get rid of me again, I will not hesitate to blow off your smug little head. Understand me.”

Nathan gave off a face of panic, just as Gina did, but somewhere deep inside, he was pleased. He saw this in a way as being a punishment to Gina for all she had done, not just to him but the other staff at the Snowzone base. Gina gulped, before nodding her head.

“I’m sorry,” Gina responded, “I didn’t think you’d do something like that.”

“Well don’t do it again,” Ace demanded, “Now then, I need the Doctor. He hasn’t been here has he? Because I thought he’d turn up around here. I just had an inkling.”

Nathan shook his head. “There is no sign of anybody other than me, Gina, and the Security guards that have just been disarmed. You’re good by the way.”

“I know I am,” Returned Ace, as she prepared to depart the room.

More alarms began to flood through the building as the window caused the extensive cold from outside to reach the interior of the base. Gina pressed a few buttons and pulled a few levers which managed to shield the windows from releasing too much air. They all breathed a sigh of relief for a moment. Ace just stood there, not speaking for a while. Nathan and Gina were unsure what to do. They had seen what she was capable of and they could not combat that, at least when she had a weapon. Ace began to wander around the base, leaving the two of them a chance to have a brief conversation.

“What do we do?” Asked a panicked Gina.

“Well we need to get her out of here,” Nathan replied, “I suggest disarming her first. She’s dangerous with a weapon as you saw and if she keeps said weapon then we will all die quite painful deaths. How do you think we should go about it?”

Gina sat herself down on a chair. “She’s too quick. We need to lure her into a false sense of security and then get her out of here. Maybe release the shields so she is sent flying out of the window in to the deep, dark and cold districts of Antarctica and flung so far she cannot survive when she least expects it.”

Ace turned around, making it evident to the others that she overheard the conversation they were both having. She slowly creeped towards Nathan and Gina, making every footstep as pronounced as the next. She then moved towards Gina, pushed her towards the ground, grabbed her and then placed her large, futuristic weapon over her head.

“You’re not going to get rid of me that easily,” Ace confirmed, “You’re not going to get rid of me at all until I find the Doctor.”

“Let her go,” Nathan demanded, “There’s no need to harm her. We told you before that we have not seen anybody called the Doctor. There are no Doctors here. Just me, you, Gina and the three Security Guards. Nobody else.”

This reminded Nathan that the Security Guards were still lying in pain and agony on the floor beside him. He moved towards them, helping each of them up and ushering them out, which led to Ace pointing her gun towards them. One of them ran towards the door. Ace shot at a button next to the door, slamming it in the face of the Guard. Ace smirked, pleased that she had gotten everything under control.

“I don’t want to put you in danger here,” Ace proclaimed.

“It doesn’t look like that!” Gina remarked. “Please let me go at once.”

“You were plotting to end my life. You’ve seen what I am capable of. I’m not a villain, but I can be if you test my patience. So then, can I trust you? I’ll let you live if you do the same courtesy for me.”

Gina nodded, fearful for her life. “Of course. You can live.”

Ace smirked. “Good, good. I’m sorry about doing this. It really wasn’t my preferred method of taking action but the Doctor needs my help and I had a feeling he’d turn up here. He has a habit of turning up in places like this.”

“Places like what?”, Nathan asked, having his curiosity piqued.

“Places where there’s danger,” Replied Ace. “There’s something out there. You haven’t seen it there but there is something. A warrior, buried within the Ice. And it’s coming for you. It’s coming for this world. It needs this base to destroy it.”

“An Ice Warrior?” Nathan replied, “We have history of them on the databanks. A race which has attempted to destroy the Snowzone base before, and failed repeatedly.”

“I don’t know what it is, but all I know is it’s coming for you and the Doctor won’t be able to stop it because there’s something standing in his way.”

Gina got up of the floor, now released from her restraints. Pleased with her freedom, she strutted through the main area of the base, still attempting to find a way to get rid of their intruder. Ace observed her intently as she searched through the base. She knew that Gina still had the intention of getting rid of her. She was also aware that Nathan was more sensible, and knew there was nothing he could do that could get rid of her.

“Who exactly are you anyway?” Nathan asked Ace.

“I’m Ace, and that’s all you need to know,” She replied, “And now we wait for the Doctor.”

And this was the moment when the Doctor arrived. The familiar wirings of the TARDIS engines flooded the main room of the Snowzone base. Ace grinned as that little dark blue box drifted into the room, materialising slowly and steadily. The machine stabilised. Nathan and Gina were in shock. This was like nothing they had seen before. A little head darted out of the machine. It was the Doctor.

“Doctor!” Ace exclaimed excitedly, with that beam of energy that she usually had being restored for a moment. “I knew you’d come here.”

The Doctor seemed confused. “Who are you? How do you know my name.”

Ace’s face turned from that of joy to that of anger. “What has she done to you? She’s made you forget me, hasn’t she? I’ll kill her.”

“I’m sorry, young lady, but I’ve never seen you before in my life. Not yet anyway.”

Gina intervened in this peculiar reunion, “You’re the Doctor? The one that Ace has been wanting to see? The one she’s wanted to be reunited with?”

“Yes!” Ace confirmed. “Me and the Professor are mates.”

The Doctor frowned. “Why do you want me? Who are you?”

“She intruded in our base,” Gina announced to the Doctor. “She broke into our base and held us captive. Please you’ve got to help us. She’s beyond the capabilities that we have. You need to stop her. She might kill us all.”

The Doctor stared into her for a moment. “Get out of here, before you start to regret it.”

“What has she done to you, Professor?”, Ace questioned, “What has that evil mongbreath done to you? Where is she?”

The Doctor called for somebody, “Destari, I think there’s somebody who wants to speak to you out here. I don’t think they’re a fan of you.”

A woman in her mid twenties, tall with dark hair, peeped her head through the door before coming out of the TARDIS and into the Snowzone base. Ace looked at her and gave her a glare filled with apparent anger and hatred.

Ace rushed up to her and punched the woman in the face. The Doctor pulled Ace backwards as the other woman showed a face of shock and appeared startled. Ace was angry, attempting to kick the woman but the Doctor was pulling her back so this proved impossible. She pushed the Doctor back and released herself from his restraints, moving towards her once again and beginning to attack her. From out of nowhere, Nathan fired a gun which hit Ace in the stomach, propelling her to the ground.

Destari appeared in shock, as did the Doctor. They seemed to have no idea who Ace was, or what she was so angry with them about.

Destari looked the most visibly confused. “I’m not sure what that was about. She just attacked me from out of nowhere. I don’t even know who she is.”

“You have no idea either?” Nathan asked. “She arrived at the base looking for you.”

The Doctor sighed. “I guess we best help her.”

“No, Doctor,” Gina said, pointing a gun towards the Doctor, “I’m sorry, but you’re not in charge here. I intend to find out what she wants, and I’m not letting her escape or survive until I know everything.”

The Doctor gave a deathly stare at Gina, “You don’t want to do that.”

“And why not? You’re not the ones in charge here. You haven’t even told us who the hell you are or what that box of yours you arrived in is.”

“It will do no good. Pain, suffering, fear. It doesn’t help anyone. It’ll just send you to hell.”

“She arrived in our base and attacked every single one of us in this room,” Gina replied, “I’m not going to just help her and let her go. She needs to be dealt with. I need to know who she is and what she wants. Don’t you two want to know what she wants with you?”

The Doctor responded with, “If somebody is in danger, I’ll never refuse, whoever they are, and right now this young lady needs my assistance to survive.”

“Go on then,” Gina commanded, still lingering over the trigger, “Help her.”

“You won’t kill me. You are not capable of doing something like that. Shoot me, and we’ll see how far it will get you.”

Gina hesitated, before placing the gun on the floor, “You’re right. I’m not.”

The Doctor grinned as she kneeled down and looked at Ace, attempting to figure out who she was and why he was not aware of who she was. He tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to instantly recover. She tried to leap up from the floor, but the Doctor pushed her down, still restraining her, aware of the potential risk she could cause.

“Tell me how you know me.” The Doctor demanded.

“I’m your companion.” Ace inferred. “We’ve travelled together for a long time.”

“My companion is Destari here. We’ve been travelling the cosmos for a long time now.”

“She’s implanted fake memories in your head,” Ace suggested. “I know what she is and I know what she can do. Destari is not who you think she is.”

“She’s my friend. I know everything about her.”

“She’s taken my place,” Ace announced, “I don’t know how she can do it but she has. She’s dangerous. She may act like she’s your friend, but she isn’t. She’s done this before to other people. She feeds off of it. She has abilities. You’ve been put under her spell.”

Destari sniggered as if to suggest how absurd this is. “You’re the one who apparently stormed into this base and held everybody inside captive. You’re the dangerous one.”

“Look, Doctor, you’ve fallen for her spell. I don’t know how she’s done it but she has and that’s all that matters. You need to remember the truth. You need to remember everything that we’ve been through. We need to stop her before she manages to overrule my memories and wipe myself from your entire timeline.”

“This is absurd!” Destari commented. “What is this nonsense?”

“It’s not nonsense, it’s the truth. Doctor, you need to listen to me. You are in imminent danger. It doesn’t feel like it but you are.”

“What proof do you have?” The Doctor questioned. “This is all lies, but you seem pretty intent on proving that this is the truth, so you must have some form of proof.”

“There’s no way to prove this. She’s wiped your memories, Doctor. She’s evil.”

Destari turned to the Doctor, looking upset. “Why is she saying all this, Doctor?”

“I don’t know, Destari,” The Doctor asked, “She’s trying to trick us.”

“No!” Ace exclaimed. “I am not trying to trick you. I am trying to help you. Please, Doctor, you need to get as far away from Destari as you can. She’s dangerous.”

The Doctor looked frustrated. “You can trick me all you like, but when you try to trick my friends in a way that is emotionally cruel, I cannot take that.”

Ace sighed. “Please, Doctor. It’s not just that. There’s something in the ice.”

The Doctor turned towards Gina and Nathan. “Is this true? Is there something in the ice?”

Nathan looked unsure. “That’s what Ace said. I’ll try to take a look outside and see whether there is something out there. She said there was some kind of Warrior buried within the Ice. Something that is coming to invade us.”

“This must be a distraction,” Destari proclaimed, “Try and get us out of the base while she stirs up trouble from within.”

One of the Security Guards piped up, “Maybe we should split up.”

“Good idea,” The Doctor commented, “Me and these two lovely crew members will go outside and search for whatever is said to be hidden in the Ice. Destari, you stay here with the others and keep an eye over our new friend.”

The Doctor, Gina and Destari departed the Snowzone base, leaving Ace alone with Destari and the security guards. Inside of the Snowzone base there was an awkward silence for a few moments. Nobody knew what to say. Destari gradually broke the silence, creeping up to Ace in the process and leaning down, placing them face to face.

“You don’t scare me, Destari,” Ace announced. “Whatever you are, I intend to let the Doctor know, and break whatever spell you are casting over him, you evil, alien witch. I will beat your brains out if I need to. I’ll do anything for the Professor.”

Destari grinned at her. “Oh would you indeed?” She asked. Now that the Doctor had gone, her personality suddenly changed. “The Doctor will never know. Not before it’s too late.”

Ace looked angry, but was under restraint by the three security guards, much more tightly than beforehand. “Why aren’t you doing anything about her? You heard her. She’s going to cause trouble. She’s here to cause trouble.”

“The security guards won’t listen to you, Ace,” Destari claimed, “They are working with me.”

Ace was visibly confused. “I don’t understand. How could they be?”

Destari grinned widely. “They’re my friends. I’m helping them out. And by the time they’ve done with you, you won’t be able to warn the Doctor of what is in store.”

“Oh I will,” Ace promised, “Whatever it takes. The Professor doesn’t remember what happened on Dimrock 9, but I do, because your influence couldn’t destroy my memories like it did for the Doctor. And I will tell him.”

“You saw him back there, he didn’t listen. He does not believe you. To you, you are a stranger. All the two of you have been through together has been erased from his memories. Permanently, can I add?”

Ace attempted to remove herself from the restraints of the men that were holding her, but it was no use. Even though she had managed to take all three of them down incredibly efficiently earlier on, she struggled to remove herself from their grasps. She could not move. She could not escape. Destari stepped back for a moment.

“My friends are being quite rude in not announcing themselves,” Continued Destari, as she placed her hands on one of the Guards shoulders. “Reveal yourselves.”

Suddenly, the men morphed into a different form entirely. Slowly, their bodies began to sink and decrease, changing the shape and size and form and type of every section of the body. The colour of skin began to change from pale to green. The three men slowly shifted their human features to that of Jellyfishes. Destari looked delighted as the beings took their full forms and removed her hand from what was previously one of the guards shoulders, but was now the head of this creature.

“These are the Rutans,” Destari proclaimed, “And they’re here to destroy the Earth.”

Meanwhile, the Doctor, Nathan and Gina departed the Snowzone Base, entering a much colder and less hospitable environment than that they had been used to. Nathan and Gina were equipped with the same wintery gear that they had been wearing inside, and therefore the cold did not matter as much to them as they were protected. But for the Doctor, he was just wearing his regular, everyday clothes. He shivered for a bit, but seemed to disguise the fact he was secretly freezing.

The three of them headed out into the snowy wilderness, searching to see whether Ace was telling the truth and if there was something buried in the ice after all. The Doctor searched around him but he could not see anything of the sort. Nathan ran ahead, hurrying into one of the caves buried within the landscape. The Doctor hurried after him, as did Gina eventually, but she appeared to be unenthusiastic and was worn out by the day that had just gone, especially since it was already night time.

The Doctor, Nathan and Gina crawled through the deepest and darkest nooks and crannies that Antarctica had to offer. They eventually reached a cave filled with ice and nothing more. Nathan knocked on the Ice for a while.

“It would help if we had our gear,” Gina remarked, “You’re not going to break down the Ice that easily, idiot.”

Nathan seemed frustrated by Gina’s constant mocking. “Please, Gina, do not test my patience. We’ve had a long night and I don’t particularly know why we’re out here looking in the first place.”

“You don’t have to be here,” responded the Doctor, “You must have come because you were intrigued.”

“What would we be intrigued about?” Asked Nathan.

“Whether that woman you met in the Base was right. Whether Ace is telling the truth.”

Gina looked shocked. “You don’t actually believe that Ace was telling the truth, do you? I mean, a nickname like Ace says it all. A narcissistic, self obsessed clown.”

“There’s no way to tell,” The Doctor replied, “Anything is possible.”

“Let me get this straight,” Nathan began, “Ace believes she is your friend and that the person you came here with wiped your memories of her. I don’t see how that is possible. You don’t mean to say your friend is potentially an alien.”

“I met her on Iceworld, a long time ago. She is from Earth really. It’s a long story. But from what I know, she’s not an alien, but I am.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Replied Gina.

“I’m not kidding you,” The Doctor commented, “But I will warn you that I have a habit of turning up in places where danger is about to break out. There’s potential Ace is right, and aliens are involved in some way here.”

“What sort of thing would an alien want with the Snowzone base?” Gina questioned.

Nathan sighed. “We’ve been through this a lot. Snowzone is one of the places responsible for controlling the atmosphere of the planet. If someone or something knew their way around the base enough, they could set the whole world on fire.”

The Doctor looked admirably at Nathan. “You seem like a smart one, Nathan. I can’t say I’d say the same for you, Gina.”

Gina groaned. “I get this a lot, trust me. At least I’m not a fool like Nathan.”

“I still don’t understand what I have done,” Nathan informed the Doctor, “She hates me for no reason whatsoever and there’s nothing I can do to stop her from hating me.”

Gina tutted. “I’ve got more than enough reason, Nathan.”

From out of nowhere the Ice began to erupt. It was evident that there was some movement from within. The ground shook, vibrating, causing the Doctor, Nathan and Gina to fall to the ground. They were pushed across the surface as a result. The three of them attempted to cling on to the rocky areas, aware that if they lost control of their movements they could fly to the sky due to the intensity of the atmosphere.

The Ice began to be broken apart. Something smashed through the Ice. A hand, breaking its way through the hard and dense material of the Ice. The Doctor looked on. He recognised what was coming through almost instantaneously. Something he had come across before. Something he knew could set the world alight in the way Nathan claimed anything could do.

The Ice smashed open and a figure emerged, followed by three others who had escaped from their glacial prison. The Doctor, Nathan and Gina struggled to grip onto the rocks, as the Creatures marched towards them, armed.

“What are they?” Gina asked, terrified at the prospect of what would happen next.

“They’re called the Sontarans,” The Doctor confirmed, as the Sontarans moved towards them. The Doctor’s fingers lost their grip from the surface one by one, as the Sontarans got closer and closer.

The Doctor, Nathan and Gina looked petrified, as what could potentially be the end of their lives dawned on them.

TO BE CONTINUED...