Series 1 Episode 9: A Night in Darkness

The Britannia was the greatest ship to ever sail the skies. It was made by humans in the early 22nd Century, and had been a roaring success ever since. Its creator, Harold Stank was now a millionaire due to the amount of people that used this mode of transport.

It was one regular Tuesday morning, and the Britannia was taking its usual course through the universe. The ship did not require a Captain-It could fly itself. The colonists on board who were heading to the planet Moros all strapped on their seatbelts and prepared for the ride ahead. Some of them had witnessed Stanks marvellous creation before, but for some of them it was new.

Just outside of the main boarding area lay a prison cell, where the Time Lord known as the Doctor had been imprisoned, alongside his companions Matt and Janet. They had been perceived as threats, prisoners if you like. The Doctor believed this was because of his ship, the TARDIS, or maybe the security on the prison ship was much more advanced than what he was used to. It was dark, but when the darkness vanished, the light made two other prisoners apparent.

“Who are you?” Asked a female prisoner. “What do you want here?”

The Doctor smiled. “Don’t worry we don’t mean any harm. I’m the Doctor, and these are my friends, Matt and Janet. What are your names?”

“I am Destari and this is my brother, Coloni. We wished to travel to Moros on this ship in order to warn everyone of the incoming invasion, but…”

“What invasion?” The Doctor interrupted.

Before Destari could answer, alarm bells surrounded the area. Sirens deafened the prisoners as the Guard outside hurried away into the main sector. The Doctor tried opening the locks of the cell but they were impossible to open. The Guard had confiscated his sonic screwdriver. He searched around.

Matt was worried. “What the hell is that?”

Janet grinned. “Alarm bells, Matt? Isn’t it obvious.”

“No, somethings wrong,” The Doctor said while observing the area once again. “Those alarm bells don’t sound like somethings right anyway. We need to get out of this cell.”

“Don’t you think we’ve tried?” Replied Coloni. “Me and my sister have been imprisoned in this cell for three days now. No ordinary man could open that door.

The Doctor smiled. “I’m not an ordinary man.”

The sirens continued to surround the area as the Doctor searched for something to unlock the door with. There was nothing. It seemed like unlocking the door would be an impossible task, but he was desperate to find out what was wrong. After all, him and distress had a rather distinct connection.

Destari sighed. “Let’s face it. We’re prisoners here. We’re scum to them. If somethings wrong, they don’t care whether we live or we die. They’ll just leave us here to rot.”

The Doctor looked at Destari. “You underestimate people, Destari.”

“Oh no, I don’t. I despise them.”

The group heard footsteps approaching from outside of the prison cell. It was the Guard that had hurried of beforehand. He grabbed a key from his pocket before beginning to unlock the door with it. It swung open but as it did so, his screams echoed through the room. The Guard had now been reduced to a skeleton. The key dropped to the floor. Shadows started to form in parts of the room.

“Oh no,” The Doctor groaned. “That’s not good.”

“What is it, Doctor?” Janet asked.

“Just stay away from the shadows. These things are called Vashta Narada. They feed on human flesh. They can only kill you if you are in the shadows, so be careful. Count the shadows. They are cleverer than us, so we have to act quickly.”

Matt sighed. “How the hell are we going to get out of this one?”

“We’ll find a way.”

Coloni looked down and noticed that he now had two shadows. The Doctor stepped forward while being wary of his own silhouette.

“Okay stay still, Coloni. I’ve faced these things before, and I know what they can do. Just please don’t move, because I’m going to put this bluntly: If you move then you die. So please for the mother of god stay where you are. And don’t speak. Any one movement could trigger it off.”

Coloni stayed perfectly still for a second, while Destari shifted towards the door.

“Doctor, what do we do?” Janet wandered.

“We leave him.”

“We can’t just leave him.”

“I’m sorry, Coloni, but you don’t stand a chance. At the moment, we do. If we stay here for much longer the Vashta Narada shall notice us and we’ll be dead too. Destari, could you please say your last words to your brother because we need to go.”

Destari sobbed. “I love you, brother. We may have had our hard times over the years, but I do love you. I will go to Moros and I shall warn them of the Invasion. Goodbye, Brother.”

Coloni stepped forward for a hug, momentarily forgetting about the shadow guarding his every move. When he did so, the creature crawled through him, reducing him to a skeleton. The Doctor, Janet, Matt and Destari hurried out of the prison cell. The Doctor picked up the key to the cell on the floor and locked the door, trapping the Vashta Narada inside.

The four of them eventually arrived inside of the main sector of the plane. They searched around for survivors, but there were none of them in sight. They also searched for shadows, but they could not see any of them. The Doctor checked his three friends were fine, and so they were. Suddenly, all light in the room vanished, replaced with sheer darkness.

“Be careful!” The Doctor shouted. He could no longer see the others due to the darkness that had surrounded the area. “It is so dark that we can no longer tell whether our shadows are occupied. Just stay perfectly still for a moment.”

The four of them remained in a motionless state. The darkness remained for a moment. There was a terrifying sense of impending doom. Within a while, the lights returned to the room, as the team breathed a sigh of relief.

“Panic over!” The Doctor grinned.

“Where are we going now?” Asked Matt. “Please say back to the TARDIS.”

“No, Matt-Why would we return to the TARDIS when there are people in danger! We need to stop the Vashta Narada.”

Destari searched around the area. “I think it’s too late for that. Everybody's dead.”

“How do we know that?” The Doctor answered. “There are no bodies.”

The Doctor noticed a door leading to another room. He walked towards it. When he entered, he noticed that the passengers were hiding inside. One of them slammed the door of the room shut after the four of them had entered.

“They are everywhere.” Announced one of the passengers. “This is the only place of safety.”

“Well, they’re obviously not everywhere then.” Destari remarked. “We need to get all of you out of here. We’ve got a small shuttle outside. It will only be able to carry a small quantity of passengers. I’d say about a third of you will be able to fit in.”

“What about the other third?” Asked Janet. She looked towards the Doctor. “Oh of course-the TARDIS!”

The Doctor opened the door, but noticed that there were shadows directly outside of it. He closed it straight away. Destari noticed a pile of weapons in the corner of the room which she grabbed and allocated to the Doctor, his friends and the other passengers.

“It’s not safe out there.” The Doctor said. “We’re not going to get out of that door without being torn to bits. Does anyone fancy being torn to bits today?”

Nobody answered. One of the colonists, holding a weapon allocated to them by Destari, hurried towards the door, opened it and was immediately ripped apart by the shadows. The Doctor closed it immediately, before looking back at the passengers.

“Some of you are scared. That passenger there was the definition of scared. Scared makes you do things that you wouldn’t normally: It makes you take rash actions, it makes you lose control of your emotions. That person there was the perfect example of losing control of your emotions. Some of you are probably wondering who the hell I am. I’m the Doctor, and I’m one of the prisoners taken captive on the Britannia today. I have been scared many times, but I have always managed to overcome it. I need you to overcome your fears too-all of you-and that may be hard but if you want to survive it’s what you are going to have to do. Fear is quite often a superpower, but not today. Today, fear is a weapon, and it’s a weapon the Vashta Narada are going to use against you. You’ve probably witnessed friends and family members die on board of the Britannia today, but you’ve got to make sure that you don’t join them. I’m probably the only one who has experience with the Vashta Narada here so do not follow your fears; Follow me.”

The passengers each held their weapons out in front of them. One of the passengers stepped forward. “Who put you in charge?”

The Doctor grinned. “The universe put me in charge.”

The Doctor slowly lifted the door handle and checked for shadows, but they had gone. He noticed the TARDIS in front of him. The Doctor, Janet, Matt and Destari led the prisoners towards it, each with their weapons in tow. The last passenger to depart the room closed the door they had just departed. Suddenly, a shadow drifted through the room. Some of the passengers began to shoot at it. It moved towards the passenger who had locked the door beforehand and ripped him to shreds. One by one, the passengers were torn inside out by the creatures. The Doctor and the survivors increased their speed. The Time Lord clicked his fingers as the doors of the TARDIS released themselves. The Doctor, Janet, Matt, Destari and five surviving passengers all entered as the doors closed behind them. They each gave a sigh of relief.

The Doctor smiled. “It’s okay now, everyone. You can breathe. It’s all going to be fine.”

The passengers looked around in a state of shock. Destari had a joyous expression on her face. Janet and Matt shifted towards the console, as the Doctor began to make another speech.

“Before you start, yes it is bigger on the inside than the outside. You don’t know how many people have said the exact same thing to me over the years. This is the way that me, Janet and Matt travel across the universe.”

Janet glared at the Doctor. “Stop. People have died today. You didn’t really do anything to save them. We should be mourning them, not beholding the glory that is the TARDIS.”

“He does that,” Matt replied. “Don’t you, Doctor? It’s like with Lydia. I mean, he didn’t even react properly to her loss. She may still be out there but that doesn’t matter. When people die, he just moves on.”

“That’s because I have to. I don’t have time to be mourning everyone. I have enough to do. This universe is a rather busy place, and I don’t have the time to save everyone. I may not be human, but I’m not a God. I can’t be everywhere and everywhen at every one time. I try the best I can and that’s all I do I’m afraid, Janet and Matt. I don’t want to, but I have to get used to the constant deaths, and if you two don’t then I’d advise you do not travel with me any longer. Let’s just be grateful that the nine of us are alive, eh?”

One of the passengers screamed as their body was reduced to a skeleton. The others backed away from the shadow that now drifted through the ship. One by one, the four survivors bodies were ripped apart and destroyed. Destari joined the Doctor, Janet and Matt by the console.

“How the hell did those things get in here, Doctor?” Destari asked.

“I don’t know. I tried my best to ensure they didn’t but it seems they’ve only got better since I last saw them. I’m so sorry all, but I think this is it.”

The shadows moved up towards the Doctor and his companions while they backed away. The Time Lord pressed a button on the console, materialising them and a small section of the machine elsewhere.

“Where are we?” Asked Matt.

“I managed to transport our section of the TARDIS-the part without the Nerada-elsewhere. We’re now in a completely different place in the ship. It’s a huge place.”

Janet and Matt looked around. They thought it was big enough beforehands, but now their minds had been completely blown. Destari had somehow become even more used to the impossible than them.

“So the Narada, they’re gone right?”

“They’re never going to be gone,” Replied the Doctor. “They just keep getting better and better at what they do. Before, they could only survive in deserted environments, but now it seems they can span wider destinations. Their capabilities have been blown out of proportion.”

Janet interrupted. “So we’re just going to leave them on board that colony ship.”

The Doctor typed in some coordinates on the ship. He then pressed another button which turned on the screen. He pulled a lever, making the Britannia visible on this said screen. One final button caused the Britannia to explode, alongside the Vashta Narada.

“Explosions are fun aren’t they? There will always be Vashta Narada, however there’s just a few less of them about now.” He looked towards Destari. “I’m sorry about the death of your brother. What has happened today must have been traumatising for you. You promised your brother that you would succeed in your mission to warn people of an alien invasion. It’s only fair I take you wherever you need.”

“Moros please, Doctor.” Replied Destari.

The Doctor pressed a number of buttons transporting them to Moros. Janet chuckled.

“What’s wrong Janet,” The Doctor asked.

“It just looks a bit ridiculous. You know, us wandering around the galaxy in half of the TARDIS. The Vashta Narada are still in the other section of the TARDIS. What do we do about that?”

“The Nerada cannot escape from the ship. The console is gone so there is no way for them to depart it. It shall drift into atmosphere, floating forever with them inside. In the meantime, we shall use this section of the TARDIS. Don’t worry, there’s a backup console room, but we just need to find it.”

The ship eventually materialised on Moros. Destari departed the machine. She looked at the Doctor and his friends in awe.

“You know what, Doctor? Today has been such a difficult day but in many ways it’s helped me move forward as a person. It’s taught me a few important lessons about what I am now and what I need to be. I’ve got to stop an alien invasion, after all.”

“This Alien Invasion-” The Doctor wandered. “Who exactly is invading?”

“The Tsuraxi.” Destari answered.

The Doctor grinned. He had arrived exactly where he needed.

Next Time: The Sector