The Eighth Doctor Adventures: The Sirens Are Coming Part One

On the planet Masas, everybody knew how long they were going to live.

The parents of every being on the planet determined their children's future, before their children were even born. In the moments before the birth of a child, the mother and the father would determine how long their child would live for. The more money they had to spare, the longer their child would live. Not all people had money. Not all parents had the opportunity to allow their children to have a lengthy life.

The Government did not care. The midwives did not care. As long as they got paid, they were fine. If they did not get paid anything, then the children would be terminated. That was the brutal reality of Masas and its people. 

Everybody on the planet, from the moment they are born, carried around a stopwatch in their pocket, which is compulsory to carry alongside all citizens at all times, which reads how many years, days, months, days, minutes, seconds, milliseconds, a person would have left to breathe. After that time, they would die. Death was no longer unpredictable. The people of Masas had found a way to control it. It was inevitable somebody would. 

The lucky ones were the members of the upper classes, who could afford to let their children live for hundreds, even thousands of years. Since this system was introduced over a thousand years ago, some members of society have managed to survive through all that time. All the wars, all the tragedy, all the torment. In many ways, they were not the lucky ones. They had to see everyone else and everything else rot and burn and die while they remained stationary, as guardians of the planet Earth-watching over all creation as it grew and built and suffered.

A few years ago, the President of Masas introduced a new policy to the system. The expiration date could be renewed, so that the children of this world could decide themselves how long they could live, as long as they had enough currency to do so. The President had made it very hard for people to get money quickly and efficiently. He wanted to increase the surplus population as much as he possibly could. People could not live longer easily. They had to work hard to live.

Across the galaxy, the Prime minister had sent various ships to pilot the cosmos, trying to introduce this system, which he deemed to be effective, to other worlds. One of the most successful was the Orbitoruim, one of the vastest and most impressive spacecrafts ever made. It was a marvel, both to look at and to look out of. The crew had travelled through the whole of known space. Every planet they could find, they tried to influence in some way. Only a few of them accepted the system, others mocked them for it.

The Commander of the crew, Captain Bennett Sorkayne, was an intelligent and diligent leader. He was worthy to control everybody on board. Indeed, he had been responsible for some of their deaths over the years as a result of a series of “incidents” as he referred to them as. He was admirable though. Very admirable, in fact. His crew were always afraid to question him, conscious of his dominant nature, however when they did he was always friendly and he was always reassuring.On this particular day, Sorkayne had gathered two other members of his crew towards the main control deck. These other two members were lead security guard, Jorpa Dwayne, a loyal and worthy servant, and one of Bennett’s former admirers, Alicia Clarke. They all gathered together, observing the controls. The ship was hurtling into the atmosphere, as it always did. It never stopped. Never.

This seemingly perfect set of travels were about to come to a close.

“Thankyou for coming here, both of you.” The Commander began, addressing both Jorpa and Alicia. “I just received a strange distress call. It’s in an alien language and I’m struggling to decode it. Alicia, I know communication is one of your areas of expertise.”

“Yes, indeed it is, Commander.” Alicia returned, saluting him briefly, before taking a look at the cryptic message. “I can’t say I’m aware of what language this is. I’ll try my best to translate it. I’m sure we can get the machines to translate.”

Alicia flicked on a series of buttons, causing certain areas of the control panel to flash up in differing colours. A loud whirring noise began to sound as the computer attempted to comprehend what this message was attempting to say. Eventually a translation appeared on the screen. Alicia was unsure of what it meant.

“It says that the sirens are coming.”

“I know, I’m not blind!” The Commander exclaimed. “But what are the sirens?”

Suddenly, the protective shield covering the empty, spatial exterior blasted open, and a hand clutched itself onto the edge of the ship. Jorpa hastily reached towards his weapon, moving closer towards the hand. The being which the hand belonged to crawled up the side of the ship. The Commander and Alicia, both desperately clinging onto the edge of the ship to try to ensure that they did not fling out into space.

And then the creature revealed itself. The creature that was crawling up from the ship. It was a long, intimidating creature, with a horrid, charred face, and burnt out, hollow eyes. Its hands appeared cruel and unforgiving. Its spine was detached and incomplete. Its legs were long and stretched out. Its nose was hardly visible. Its mouth began to move. 

“We are the sirens.” The Creature revealed.

The Creature pointed one of its fingers towards Alicia, and another towards Harrison. He then pointed towards the open window. Alicia and Harrison were flung out into the atmosphere. Jorpa was left in shock and fear as his friends were forced to their deaths.

“We will let you survive, Jorpa Dwayne, if you tell the others that the sirens are coming…”

Jorpa, fearful for his life, raced out of the room. He did not know whether he would really survive if he told the others what he was told by this creature. He was terrified. He was in shock at the loss of two of his closest friends who he had been travelling the universe with for many years now. He raced into the other room, where the other members of the crew were; Some of them sat, some of them stood. Jorpa was out of breath.

“The sirens are coming! The sirens are coming! The sirens are coming!”

The Sirens are Coming

Part 1

The TARDIS had landed at its next destination. Inside, the Doctor and Deborah were preparing to explore wherever they had landed. This was Deborah Armstrong’s first trip across time and space in this big blue box. Or so she thought. She was well prepared for all conditions, wearing a large fleece which she had selected from the wardrobe, on top of what she was already wearing, in order to keep warm if the conditions were cold outside. She did not know what to expect. She had only just been thrust into life alongside the Doctor, so anything could happen. Or at least that’s what she hoped. Her life had been miserable, even if she could not remember it. She needed something great to happen in her life.

The problem is, the day ahead was not exactly what everybody would consider great. Exciting, of course, but not great. Deborah was still excited. Well, more anxious than excited. She had only just met the Doctor, as far as she was aware, so she was nervous about travelling the cosmos with a complete stranger. And all the aliens, of course.

“Are you ready to be proven wrong?” The Doctor asked.

“I’m starting to think I have been already.” Deborah replied. “I’m not on one of those hidden camera shows, am I? If I am, then I’ve figured it out. Nobody ever does that.”

“What awaits out there, as I told you, will most likely not be an intergalactic paradise. We could be anywhere in the universe, and knowing my luck we’ve arrived in a warzone. Or in Henry the Eighth’s lair. I don’t know which one would be worse.”

“If you are telling me the truth and out there is some alien world or sometime in the eighteenth century, then I need you to promise me something. After today, we need to go into my past. We need to find my family. We need to figure out who I really am.”

The Doctor paused for a moment, trying to change the subject out of guilt. “Going into your past would not be easy. It would be quite dangerous, in fact. We’ll find out who you really are, and we’ll find your family and friends, and we’ll reunite you with your memories, but first of all, I think it’s about time you took a look outside.”

The Doctor slammed down a lever causing the doors of the TARDIS to swing open. He held out his hand, and Deborah quickly grabbed it. They raced out of the ship, ready for whatever adventure awaited them outside of those doors. When they left the ship, they were greeted with the crew of the Orbitoruim, pointing huge guns in their direction. The Doctor and Deborah both raised their hands in surrender.

“A welcome aboard would be nicer.” The Doctor remarked. “Honestly, you people aren’t the most welcoming of people. A handshake would do. But guns! Put them down.”

“Who are you?” One member of the crew asked. This member of the crew was deputy Captain Samuel Dayas. “And how did you get on board our ship?”

“I’m the Doctor, this is my new associate Deborah. We didn’t really intend to come aboard your ship. We didn’t really intend to go anywhere. I just flicked the randomizer button on my TARDIS and we landed right here.”

“They’re Time Lords.” Another member of the crew, Shorla Gordan responded. “That means they’re bad news. We’ve come across your kind before, Doctor.”

“I’m not as bad as most of them are.”

“We had quite the falling out with the President.” Samuel stated. “Romana, I think her name was. She was a nasty piece of work.”

“Ah, that doesn’t help me out. She’s one of the better ones.”

“Look, Doctor, we’ve had quite a bad day. Two of our crew have died. We’ve locked another up inside of the infirmary because he’s been driven mad as a result of their deaths. He keeps screaming that the sirens are coming. I have no idea what the sirens are, but he keeps saying those same three words, over and over and over again. If you are a Doctor, really, then maybe you could give him some medical help.”

“What a great first trip into time and space this is!” Deborah remarked sarcastically. “What killed these members of the crew? Or do you know?”

“Somehow the shield protecting them from the dangers of space got destroyed. They just got sucked out. I don’t know how Jorpa managed to survive. I’m glad he did, do not get me wrong, but I am mystified. Now we’ve lost two members of the crew and we don’t even know why. Anything could have happened. It could have been a suicide. It could have been a murder. It could have been an accident.”

“Or it could have been the sirens.” The Doctor replied.

“I beg your pardon!” Shorla responded, shocked by this statement.

“If your crew member, Jorpa or whatever he is called, keeps telling you that the Sirens are coming, maybe the Sirens did this as a warning to all of you. A warning to tell you that they were coming. And potentially they used Jorpa as the Communicator for said warning.”“What a brilliant vacation this is turning out to be!” Deborah remarked.Alongside Shorla and Samuel, there were three other members of the crew perched down on seats in this particular room. There was Alego Yvick, a technical genius who was too lazy to ever share his skills with the world. Hillaro Takov, a famous Masasian inventor who was responsible for the original design of the Orbitoruim. Finally, Lalo Best, a seemingly ordinary man selected purely because he was best friends with the Deputy Captain. These five were the only remaining members of the crew on the entire ship. 

Lalo interrupted. “I think before we try to work all of this out, and try to make sure that the rest of us manage to survive whatever killed our friends, we need to pay tribute to those we tragically lost today: Captain Bennett Sorkayne, and Alicia Clarke.”

Samuel nodded in response, causing the Doctor to sigh. “We shall never forget them. They were terrific people, and terrific contributions to our cause. We shall keep on going in their memory. They shall always be in our hearts.”

“I’m sorry about your friends, but I think we need to focus on those who are still alive!” The Doctor addressed. “I’d like to see your friend Jorpa. He may offer me some answers.”

Hillaro raised herself from her seat, escorting the Doctor and Deborah in the direction of another room, in which Jorpa was held. He was lying on a bed, but he was still awake. The Doctor kneeled down beside him, while Deborah and Hillaro both remained standing.

“It’s nice to meet you, Jorpa. My name’s the Doctor. I have some questions.”

“The sirens are coming! The sirens are coming! The sirens are coming!”

The Doctor’s head swivelled round to the direction of Deborah and Hillaro. “Could you leave the two of us alone, please? You too, Deborah.”

“Oh great so you’re just shipping me off on my first day!” Deborah cheekily responded.

Hillaro escorted Deborah out of the room, leaving the Doctor and Jorpa alone inside of the small, contained rooms. The doors had been closed securely from behind them. It appeared that nobody could get in, or out. It was obvious that the crew had placed Jorpa in there to permanently contain him. They must have considered him a threat, or an obstacle of some kind. Maybe they considered the Doctor and Deborah as the same.

“It’s okay, Jorpa. As I said, I’m a Doctor, and I’m here to give you the medical attention you probably need right now. I’m assuming you’re in distress from whatever you just saw. So tell me, Jorpa, what are the sirens?”

Jorpa paused. A frightened look dawned upon his face. His expression was stiff, terrified. “They’re going to come back. They’re going to kill everybody on board. Nobody’s safe!”

“Safe from what? What’s coming? What’s going to kill everybody on board?”Jorpa raced towards the doors in panic. He began to slam his hands on the walls, desperate to escape from the confined room he had been forced into. The Doctor tried to push Jorpa away from the door but he could not. Jorpa kicked the Doctor onto the bed which Jorpa was previously on. Jorpa attempted to open the door but it was too stiff to do so. The Doctor then moved towards the door to try to open it but he could not do the same.

“You’ve got to let me out of here!” Jorpa screeched. “The sirens are coming for me!”

The Doctor grabbed an item from his pocket. It was his sonic screwdriver, a weapon which he traditionally used for opening doors, however he could not. The lock on the door would not budge. He angrily slammed his hands on the wall.

“Deadlock seal.” The Doctor remarked. “They’ve locked us inside.”

Deborah and Hillaro had just departed the room. Deborah could hear the faint shoutings of the Doctor and Jorpa from the other room. She moved her ear closer to the wall, intently observing what was being said. Loud clattering were heard as the Doctor and Jorpa tried to call for help to be released from this cell.

“It sounds like they’re trapped in there.” Deborah alerted. “You need to let them out.”

Samuel rose from his seat. “Jorpa is too dangerous to be released from his cell.”

“What about the Doctor? You need to let him out right this instant!”

“The Doctor wanted to spend some time with Jorpa. Well, now he can spend all the time with Jorpa he wants. I’m sorry, Deborah, but you two are dangerous. You’re Time Lords. I’m afraid that we need to get rid of the both of you.”

“I’m not a Time Lord. I don’t even know what a Time Lord is.”

“Don’t try to lie to us. It’ll never work. Alego may be lazy, but he’s absolutely brilliant, and I demanded he ran a scan of you both. We were analyzing it while you were in the other room. It detected both of you as Time Lords. Time Lords are our enemies. Time Lords plan to destroy our mission. Therefore, we must destroy Time Lords.”

“Time Lords? What are Time Lords? Just give me an answer, please.”

“Your kind.”“My kind? My kind is human. I am a human being.”Alego interrupted. “I’ve seen this before. The Time Lords, they have this fob watch things. They can change their biology or something. I bet that’s what’s going on here.”

Deborah moved towards the machines, where there was an image of a male human anatomy, next to a female human anatomy. Everything was the same as human biology, apart from the inclusion of two hearts. Deborah looked into the images more deeply.“Who are they?” Deborah asked.“Isn’t that obvious?” Alego replied. “That’s you and the Doctor.”“That’s not me and the Doctor! I don’t have two hearts! I have one heart! I’m human.”

Deborah stepped back away from the machine, and away from the crew, in shock and disbelief. Samuel and Shorla both grabbed their weapons, aiming their guns towards Deborah. Deborah raised her hands in surrender whilst backing up against the wall.

“Doctor?” Deborah alerted, in an attempt for help. “I’m in a bit of trouble here.”“Can’t say I’m not in trouble either, Deborah!” The Doctor responded.

The Doctor was still marooned inside of a single space alongside Jorpa, a man who had become mentally deranged as a result of his encounter with the sirens. They continued to hammer their hands on the wall, but there was hardly any response. Only from Deborah, who was attempting to break the door down from the other side. She glared at the TARDIS, and decided to run towards it. The others shot at her with their weapons but she managed to get inside the ship and close the doors behind her in time.

Deborah was now inside the TARDIS. This had not been the greatest first impression of life in the Doctor. This was not what she expected the universe to be like. She placed her hands on the console, before taking a deep, prolonged breath. The noise of a pin drop, very slight but very noticeable, sounded in the distance. Deborah swung herself around but there was nothing there. Nothing had dropped. No pins were on the floor. She looked around the console room. On the floor, a pool of blood. She did not know where this blood had come from. It was not hers, she was sure of that. The Doctors, maybe? There was no way of telling. So many thoughts were flooding through her head.

Should she have really run away, or should she have made an effort to save the Doctor, due to the Doctor saving her life only half an hour earlier? Should she have made an effort to reason with the members of the crew? Should she have really gone off with the Doctor in the first place? And what did the DNA scan mean?

So many questions floating through her head, as well as the surprise of seeing outer space for the first time. She had no idea how to answer any of them. She had no idea what to do next. She had no idea whether she wanted to continue her travels, or to go home. She had no idea who she was, or who her family are. Nothing was clear to her. Nothing was apparent. Her life was one big mess.

There was another pin drop from a different direction from where the other one came. It was more sharp, causing a longer, richer noise than what had been heard before. It also seemed closer than the distant nature of the last sound. Deborah strolled around the ship, searching for the origins of this noise. There was no sign of where this noise came from. Not until the sound of another of the same noise, closer yet again.And there it was. Deborah turned around, and behind her was the Siren. The floating, devilish creature stood behind her, haunting her, circling around her. Deborah stood back in fear of what she had seen. She raised her hands.“We will tell you the truth about your past, Deborah Armstrong, if you help us.”

Inside of the locked room, the Doctor was still desperate to make the door open. It was no use though. After a while he just flung himself onto the bed behind him, exhausted from an incredibly long day. Every day was long and hard for him, but this day particularly so. He got up a few seconds later though, bouncing onto the floor, with Jorpa replacing him on the bed. They turned to look at each other. Jorpa growled at him.

“Please, Jorpa, I am here to help you, you know. I know you think I’m putting you in danger but believe me, me and my friend are probably the only people who aren’t. I want to get out there. I don’t know why, but the crew of this place want me dead.”

“Maybe it’s because you just turned up out of the blue trying to act all smart or clever.”

“Now now! I’m trying to help you here. It seems we’re trapped, so why don’t you tell me more about the Sirens. I need to know because I may be able to stop them.”

Jorpa’s face was stricken with fear, horror, devastation. “You’ll see them soon because they’ll be coming for you. I’ve never seen anything like it. We’ve travelled to many planets and civilisations across the galaxy, and yet what I saw I cannot comprehend. It was horrible. It had the capacity to kill my beloved members of crew, who I believe unlike the others would not have conspired against me in this situation, in a matter of mere seconds. I believe with all my might and will it was the devil.”

“You keep saying it’s coming for this ship? Why’s it coming?”

“It told me to say that. It said that if I told the other members of the crew that the sirens are coming, then it would let me live. I don’t know why. I don’t know why it’s coming. I don’t know if it’s going to kill everybody or do something else to them. One thing I do know is that it probably isn’t the only one. It kept saying we even though it was alone.”

“I have quite the skill with dealing with these sort of extraordinary creatures. The problem is, I’ll have quite a hard time trying to save the lives of those outside of that door when they won’t let me. I need to find a way out of here if we want to get out of this alive.”

There was a rattling noise. Jorpa pointed towards the wall. The solid surfaces of the partition transformed itself into a transparent mesh. A hand emerged from the now opaque wall. It was a Siren. It’s terrifying form revealed itself at once. The Doctor was in shock as he was approached by his opponent for the first time. He grabbed his sonic screwdriver, arming himself, despite being unsure of how his device would aid him in this circumstance.

“The sirens are here!” Jorpa screamed. “The sirens are here!”

“It’s okay, Jorpa, it’s okay.” The Doctor said, trying to reassure him. “Who am I kidding, it probably won’t be okay. I believe you are the Sirens.”“We are the Sirens. We shall let you out of this room, Doctor, if you kill Jorpa.”“I think you know full well that I’m not going to kill Jorpa. He’s an innocent man, as far as I’m aware. I’m not going to let him die here, especially not at my hands.”“We know you need to be released from this room in order to save the lives of your friend, Deborah Armstrong, and the rest of the crew. We are aware that if you do not get out, they will die. We must make you choose: Either Jorpa dies, or the others die.”

The Doctor moved closer towards the lone Siren, perched in the corner of the room. Jorpa was shaking, terrified at the creature stalking this cell. The Doctor questioned what to do. He had been faced with a huge ultimatum. He knew there was no way he could get out unless the crew released him, which was never going to happen. He also knew that there was probably more than one Siren, some of which targeting the other members of the crew. He needed to save them. He needed to ensure their safety. He needed to make a risk.

“I’m so sorry, Jorpa.” The Doctor said. “But I need to take risks.”

The Doctor pressed his screwdriver next to Jorpa’s heart, causing Jorpa to suffocate. Jorpa collapsed to the floor, quickly and relatively painlessly. The Doctor collapsed onto the bed, guilty over what he had done. The doors swung open. The Siren pressed on the Doctor’s head, causing the Time Lord to fall asleep.

“We told you we would open the door. We did not tell you we would let you go through.”

The Siren descended through the door. Outside, Shorla, Samuel, Hillaro, Alego and Lalo, all glared in shock and fright as the Siren moved towards them. Each one of them rapidly shot at the creature but it was no use. The being seemed to repel the bullets from its body. It appeared to be resistant to their guns somehow. Lalo slammed his hands onto a button behind him, opening up into the main control deck. He was overlooking a main flaw in his plan, though. The protective guard on the door was still exposed.

Samuel closed the door from behind him. Alego rapidly programmed in a series of buttons to try to close off the shield. After a few moments, they found themselves protected blissfully once again from the exposure of space which could have brought their deaths. 

Alego sighed. “I know we were programmed to go to the Lost Sun, but we need to change our course. We need to head back to Masas. We need to get back there now.”

“What are those things?” Shorla asked. “They’re horrific.”

Lalo had an answer. “I’m guessing, and it’s only a guess: What Jorpa was warning us about.”

From through the walls connecting the control room to the main sector of the ship, a hand began to emerge itself, shifting between reality. This hand reached its way into the room, before revealing its true form as a Siren. The Siren launched itself into the room. The members of the crew all aimed their weapons directly in front of the creature as a method of defense. Alego frantically pressed a series of buttons to try to land on Masas more immediately. These attempts did not work. “We know you are scared of us but we can offer you a deal. We suggest that you accept this deal. We will offer you it now. We will let you live if you kill the Doctor and Deborah.”

The Doctor’s head lifted from the bed he had been forced to. His head was light. He could not remember anything about what had happened to him. He could not remember the Sirens. He could not remember him murdering poor, innocent Jorpa. He could not remember anything. He could not even remember being forced asleep to lay on this bed. His movements felt restricted. The Doctor was struggling to move at all. His joints were all ceased up. He tried to hoist himself up from the bed using his hands but this was not successful. His head just collapsed back onto the bed.

All the efforts he made to try to get up failed miserably. He was just forced to wait there. And then everything came back to him, in chronological order. The fact that he was locked inside of the room by the crew. The fact that the Siren had manipulated him and forced him to rest. The fact that the Doctor had just been made to kill an innocent man to save the lives of people who had probably been killed anyway, and people who were trying to get rid of him.

Everything he had done was for nothing. On top of this, one of his last memories was that Deborah, his latest ally, had screamed out to him proclaiming that she was in danger. He could not let her die. Not now. His and Deborah’s relationship was a complicated one. He felt guilty enough for his lies and deceit that she was not even aware about, and he could not let her die. The problem was, he could not do anything about it either. He was just marooned there on that little bed, next to Jorpa’s dead body which was lying on the floor.

He looked over at Jorpa’s body, and frowned, disgusted at himself. He had never managed to kill anybody with a sonic screwdriver before. A static shot straight to the heart did the shot. Even then, he did not know that would kill the man. He had been lied to, manipulated, by this siren creature. In many ways though, the Doctor deserved it. After all, the Doctor had lied to and manipulated Deborah by not telling her the whole truth about everything. From what he was thinking, he may not ever get a chance to tell Deborah the truth about her family and her past, which of course he would have done anyway.

So many things were flashing through his mind. So many little questions. So many gripes and bugbears and concerns. So many problems, big and small, that he needed to take care of. The Doctor had failed today. The Doctor had been beaten. The Doctor had lost. That was something that never happened. He needed to claw it all back.

Footsteps came from outside. The door was still open from where the Siren had done so earlier on. Samuel, Shorla, Alego, Hillaro and Lalo burst into the room, heavily armed. They all surrounded the bed, cornering the Doctor, despite the fact he could not get up anyway.

Samuel looked down at Jorpa’s dead body on the floor, whilst aiming his weapon in the Doctor’s direction. “You killed him. You killed Jorpa. How could you do such a thing?”“Please! I can explain! Just put your guns down! Listen to me!”Shorla shook her head. “We are not going to listen to you, or to your little friend. You have been lying to us and deceiving us all this time. You came here to kill us. Your time lord masters sent you two down here to get rid of us and to get rid of the cause that they were so reluctant towards. Well we’re going to kill both of you before you can kill us.”“Why do you have such a vengeance against my kind? What did you do to them?”

Hillaro turned to the others, before stating, “He doesn’t know. He must not know. He must just be here to kill us all for the sake of it. Maybe he brought those things here too.”

“No! I didn’t bring the Sirens here. They manipulated me into killing Jorpa.”

“Of course they did! Of course they did!” Samuel responded sarcastically, surrounded by his heavily armed crewmates. “You may take us for fools, Doctor, but we are not. We have killed a Time Lord before. We will not hesitate to do so again.”

“I’m sorry?” The Doctor uttered. “You’ve-You’ve killed a Time Lord. How?”

Samuel chuckled. “We have our ways. The Time Lords responded negatively to our cause.”

The Doctor turned away, his face filled with dread, while the other members of the crew were laughing away. “This is the orbitoruim, isn’t it? No, it can’t be.”“You better believe it!” Shorla replied, in a jovial tone.

“I heard stories about you on Gallifrey as a child. I thought the Orbitoruim was a legend. The people of Masas, with a restriction of how long they had to live their lives from the start. They travelled the universe and tried to get other kinds to introduce a similar system. If they refused, they would kill the leader of that world. And this is the Orbitoruim. I’m on the Orbitoruim. And I reckon I’m in quite a deal of danger.”

Samuel smiled cockily. “I’m glad you killed Jorpa. At least that means we have an excuse to kill you. It’s more fun if you run. So go on, Doctor!”

The Doctor could not run. He was stationed. He was stuck on the bed. He could not move. The others moved their weapons closer towards him to warn him of his potential fate. Not even a Time Lord could escape this. The Doctor reached out his hand for help. Hillaro looked sad, as did Lalo, now the truth about their kind had been exposed. Hillaro grabbed the Doctor’s hand and helped him up.

“Thank You so much, Hillaro.” The Doctor said. “I’m so, so sorry.”

With that, the Doctor raced out of the room and into the main sector, whilst the others continued to shoot at him. The problem was the unthinkable had happened. The TARDIS was gone. It was just gone. Removed from its former station. The Doctor screamed quitely, unsure of what to do. The others darted out of the room, racing towards him. Hillaro and Lalo also reluctantly followed, afraid of what would happen if they did not. The Doctor’s attention turned towards an unmarked room opposite to where the TARDIS was parked beforehand. He raced into it. The others did not see him do so. They were confused as to his whereabouts, as the Doctor found the perfect hiding place.Alarms sounded from within the base. The five survivors turned around, looking at every corner to see what the cause of these noises may be. Samuel tried to get back inside the control deck, but the door would not budge. There was no hope of getting through. They were in danger, as made evident by the noises that were currently plaguing the ship, and the crews earbuds for that matter. 

Inside of the other room, the Doctor saw a glimmer of light amongst all of the darkness. There was an eye. It was only slightly noticeable but it was there. A hand reached out. Everything became lighter. The blackness transformed into vibrancy. And then the Siren made itself clear. And another. And another. There were three of them, backing the Doctor against the door which he had just walked through. He could hear the faint noise of the alarms sounding from outside. One of the Siren pointed their hand, outstretched, to the door, causing it to swing open. The members of the crew, noticing him, swung their weapons towards his direction and began to shoot. The Doctor managed to hide behind the door frame, dodging all the bullets that approached his direction. 

The Sirens emerged from the dark, empty room which they had been previously inside of. The Doctor decided to storm into the room. The others decided to point their weapons towards the Siren rather than the Doctor. After all, the creature they could not deal with was their priority for the time being. The Doctor would probably be the only one who would stand a chance of destroying it. Then, they would kill him. 

“We advise you to check your countdowns.” The Siren notified.

With that, all of the five members of the crew reached into their pockets, digging out a small stopwatch shaped object. On it, a series of numbers. Worryingly though, these numbers were labelled “150 seconds”. This was the countdown of how long they had to live. They all had 150 seconds left to live.

“That can’t be right!” Shorla exclaimed. “I have 38 years left. I checked this morning.”

“We managed to make some adjustments. We needed to ensure that you were warned of your approaching death. We made a deal with you-Kill the Doctor and Deborah and we will let you out alive. We see the Doctor standing right there, therefore you failed in your side of the negotiation. We shall have to end your lives now.”

Lalo desperately tried to open the door to the control panel. “We’re trapped! There’s no way out! We’re all going to die. I thought I had 24 years left!”

The Doctor frowned. “Let them live, Sirens! I know their morals are questionable, but you have to let them live! Please! Let them land this ship safely.”

“We made a deal with you already, Doctor.” The Siren revealed. “We will not make another.”The doors of the cockpit opened. A figure emerged. It was Deborah. The sirens around the ship began to intensify by the second. The panicked atmosphere continued to increase. The Doctor moved towards Deborah, worried.“I had to do it.” Deborah stated. “They told me what you had done.”

“We struck a deal with Deborah. We said that if she helped us kill everybody on board by planting a bomb, we would tell her the truth about her family.”

A dark expression filled the Doctor’s face. “I am so sorry, Deborah. I…”

“Don’t you dare.” Deborah responded. “You thought you’d be able to keep this secret for longer, didn’t you? You thought taking me away on trips across the cosmos would make you feel better about yourself. Well, half an hour into our travels and I figured it all out. Now, I don’t want to live. And I’m taking every one of you down with me.”

“Deborah…” The Doctor declared. “Please, you’ve got to deactivate the bomb you set.”

“It’s too late, Doctor. I made up my mind. My family are dead and it’s all because of you. My life ends today, Doctor, and so does yours. There’s nothing left to live for.”

The Doctor raced into the direction of the cockpit. The crew stood in shock, stationary. The ship was hurtling towards the direction of its next destination, Masas, at such a high speed that stopping appeared impossible. Everybody on board was too in shock by the thought of encroaching death to do anything about it. The Doctor, on the other hand, was intent to save everybody, even though they all wanted him dead. Three Sirens entered the cockpit after him. He grabbed his sonic screwdriver, attempting to rewire the commands of the bomb, but it was no use. Pressure reached the windows causing the protective glass to explode once again, causing the Doctor to be exposed to the other atmosphere. He accidentally let go of the sonic, which flew into space. The Sirens continued to drift into his direction. The Doctor turned around, hopeless and in shock. He looked at the bomb, which was about to detonate in a mere matter of 25 seconds. He raced back into the main room.

Deborah issued him one last message. “You know, Doctor, before we all die here today, I need you to know that you failed in everything that you tried to do to me. You failed. I bet you thought it would take longer than one trip for me to figure it all out somehow.”

The three Sirens faded away; their new whereabouts being unknown. The Doctor hurried back into the cockpit. He crawled onto the edge of the ship where the window had been broken into. All of the others, besides Deborah, raced into the cockpit after him.

“What are you doing, Doctor?” Hillaro asked.

“I need you to trust me. I think I have a way that we can all get out of here alive.”

And so the countdown ticked on. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5...Still ongoing...4, 3, 2, 1…

To be Continued...