Doctor Who: Molten Heart

by Una McCormack

  “Go on,” said Ryan.

  The Doctor pointed into the distance. “We’ll ask them to lend us one.”

  They all looked over to where she was pointing. Yaz had to squint, but – yes, they were definitely there, two figures running towards them, along the rocks.

  “Doctor,” she said, “are you sure about these two?”

  “Am I sure they’re friendly? Of course I’m sure! Everyone needs rope. If there’s hills and holes and people, and those people have arms, and sometimes even when they don’t, then there’s rope. And then there’s the people made of rope, and the ones made of yarn, or string… There was that macramé world I went to once, or was that a dream…? Macramé World doesn’t sound very likely when you say it out loud, does it? I’m sure I did, though… Anyway, there’s always rope! It’s practically a universal law. In fact, there’s so much rope out there,” the Doctor was in full flight now, “that there should be a name for it. How about Rope’s Law…? No! I know!” She clicked her fingers. “The Doctor’s Law. Yeah, I like that, that’s good, I won’t forget that—”

  “Doctor,” said Yaz, patiently, “I wasn’t talking about the rope. I was worrying about whether these people running towards us mean us well.”

  “Might just be me,” said Ryan, “but I think it’s something to do with the way they’re shouting at us and waving those big sticks above their heads.”

  “Can’t be sticks, Ryan, there are no trees.”

  “Rods, then,” said Ryan.

  “Truncheons,” said Yaz.

  “Things they’re gonna whack us with,” said Graham, “for which we do not yet have a name.”

  “Yeah, those are better,” said the Doctor.

  The two figures were close now. As they approached the friends, they slowed to a walk, coming to a halt five or six feet away. Yaz could see them properly, and it almost took her breath away. They were rock, or so it seemed; made from rock, but supple – moving, breathing, living… Their flesh – no, that wasn’t right, thought Yaz – their shells or carapaces were encrusted with bright stones and gems, not as decoration, but as part of what they were. The light refracted off them as they moved. One shimmered with pinks and reds, like rubies; the other was shades of blue, like sapphires. They had one thing in common: both of them, on their chests, had a single stone as an ornament – a green emerald.

  They looked at the friends; the friends looked back.

  “What on earth are they?” Graham whispered.

  “We’re not on Earth,” said the Doctor, with a sigh.

  “Oh my days,” said Ryan, with a nervous laugh. “They look like… rock goblins!”

  “They’re beautiful,” said Yasmin, softly.

  “They’re people,” said the Doctor. “And we can talk to people. Get to know them. Find out what makes them tick.” She clapped her hands together. “Right. Let me handle this. I’m great with aliens. Look how well I get on with you lot.” She waved over at them. “Hello! How are you? Have either of you by any chance got a rope?”

  One of them – the sapphire one – moved forwards. She – or he, or it, Yaz couldn’t say for sure and wouldn’t like to guess – lifted up the rod it was carrying. Close up, it looked like a long crystal wand. Yaz wondered if it fired anything; jewel-bullets or quartz-rays. She wasn’t keen on finding out.

  “Who are you?” said the sapphire-person.

  The Doctor waved. “Hello! I’m the Doctor. These are my mates. Friends. Fam.”

  The sapphire one pointed the wand at the steaming river. “Why did you create these?”

  “What?” said Ryan. “You think we smashed the ground open on purpose?”

  “We wouldn’t do that,” said Yaz. “We were nearly caught in it!”

  “I almost got boiled!” said Graham. “Steamed! Cooked! Alive! Me!”

  Sapphire looked at him coolly, then turned to talk to the ruby creature. They spoke softly, but with great urgency. The Doctor watched them carefully. “This is a disappointing start.” She turned to the others and gave them an embarrassed smile. “I hate saying this,” she said. “Such a cliché. Ashamed of myself, really. But you get a hunch about this kind of thing and so I think we should—”

  The walking rocks stopped talking and began to move closer, lifting up their sticks. Rods. Truncheons. Things they were going to whack with.

  “Run!”

  The friends started to run.

  Ash had known from the moment she saw the green stones glinting in the distance that trouble was on the way. The new arrivals were the Greenwatch, tasked to observe other members of the Great Family and report back to their leader, Emerald, of any unusual behaviour. Ash’s father had been plagued by them in the days leading up to his disappearance: it had seemed to Ash at one point that she couldn’t turn around without seeing an emerald nearby. And now she was caught in a dilemma: if she warned the strangers, it would bring attention to her presence here, up on the ridge, and then there would be questions about why she was there, what had brought her all this way from the City…

  Ash chose caution. She lay flat on the ground, watching anxiously as these strange new people pulled themselves away from the seething pool, and then in alarm as the Greenwatch approached them. She watched the foursome run, but they were on unfamiliar terrain, and it wasn’t long before the Greenwatch caught up with them. Soon enough they were being marched off across the rocky plain.

  Ash stood up. The night cycle was well underway; the only light came from the gently glowing stones in the rocks, and from the distant haze on the other side of the sphere of the world, far away and up above. She heard the soft chirrup of jet-flies, whispering to welcome the night and send bright dreams. The Greenwatch and their prisoners became greying figures in the distance, and soon could not be distinguished in the gloom. Ash did not worry. She was fairly certain she knew where they were heading, and that she could find her way there. What she had to do in the meantime was make sure that she was not seen.

  She walked slowly round the ridge, and came to the Small Steps. She slipped down these to come down onto the plain. This news, the news of these arrivals – this was significant. This was important. The Greenwatch would have instructions, and chief amongst these would be not to let this news out. They would certainly not want to risk taking the strangers through the walkways of the Diamond City. They would hold them somewhere, and go to get help and instructions.

  Ash sat down, her back against the sheer face of the rock. The night wore on. Soon she was invisible in the darkness. In the distance, the city-chimes rang, and then, later, rang again. Ash sat, and listened, and watched. At last, her patience was rewarded, and she saw a glint of green coming back through the darkness. She pressed back against the rock and did not move. The Greenwatch passed by with no idea that she was there. She waited until the chimes sounded the second portion. And then quietly, ever so quietly, she slipped off into the night.

  Yaz sighed and thumped the flat of her hand against the rock. Sapphire and Ruby, as the friends had decided to call them, had proven themselves able to move very quickly over the rock. They’d lifted up their wands and threatened to use them. The Doctor, deciding she didn’t want to find out what the creatures might do, had stopped them all from running on any further. After that they’d been marched a little way, out across a limestone plain. Everything was getting darker, and Yaz had started to worry, when suddenly they’d stopped, in the middle of nowhere.

  There’d been a hole in the ground, and their captors had made them jump down into it. Then Yaz watched in horror as they lifted a large flat stone over the top of the hole. It fell into place with a thud. There was a small hole in it, through which they could look out and watch the light fade.

  “Rope,” muttered the Doctor darkly, looking up at the hole. “I’m just saying. I’m going to have to make one of you rope monitor. I can’t think of everything…”

  Yaz sighed and looked round. There was room enough for the four of them, barely, and she was willing
to bet a small fortune that Graham snored. Actually, she was willing to put money on all three of the others snoring. Yaz didn’t snore, no matter what her sister said.

  The Doctor was now making herself comfortable. She sat down and rested her back against the wall. She flicked out her sonic, and took a reading. “From arrival to dungeon in…” She counted under her breath. “Just under an hour. Oh, that’s rubbish,” she said. “That’s miles off my personal best.”

  Ryan, pacing the tiny space, came to a halt by her. “You’re not very worried.”

  “Why worry?” said the Doctor. “Seen one dungeon, seen them all.”

  “Why worry?!” said Ryan. “We’ve been captured by walking talking rocks!”

  “I thought they looked more like jewels,” said Yaz softly. “They’re like nothing I’ve ever seen before…”

  “They’ve stuck us in here!” said Ryan. “Anyway, rocks, people – what difference does it make?”

  “It makes a lot of difference.” The Doctor was very serious now. “For one thing, we can talk to people – whatever they’re made of. Flesh, rock, or lace.”

  “Lace?” Graham laughed. “Really?”

  “Yeah, really!” The Doctor beamed. “Fourth moon of Galatiasaritius Minor. Maybe we’ll go there next. Just don’t ask for antimacassars. And, for another thing,” the Doctor turned back to Ryan, “these creatures probably have a good reason for being afraid of us. Because that’s all they are – afraid of us.” She smiled. “I know, I know, we’re gorgeous. But to them – well, who knows what kind of nightmare we are? I mean, we’re made of meat. Have you ever stopped to think about that?” She stopped, and thought, and shuddered. “Meat.”

  “All right,” said Ryan, with only the tiniest touch of the sulks. “I get the point.”

  “To be fair to you, though,” said the Doctor, patting his arm, “we haven’t tried to lock them up – and nor would we. Would we?”

  “No,” said Graham. “’Course not!”

  “Thank you,” said Ryan, with dignity. “That was my point.”

  “All right, gang,” said Yaz. “Can we get down to business? Cave. Stone. How do we get past that and up and out? What about your sonic screwdriver, Doctor?”

  “It’s not great on rocks,” the Doctor admitted. “Let me have a think.”

  They waited. Time passed. After a little while, they realised the Doctor had nodded off. “Oi,” said Ryan, tapping the Doctor’s leg with his toe, “we’re still locked in a dungeon.”

  “Hmm? Oh yeah. Sorry. It’s dark, though, isn’t it?”

  “It is dark,” said Ryan, patiently.

  “You get to my age, you don’t pass up the chance for a nap. That,” said the Doctor, “is the sum total of my wisdom.”

  “I can second that,” said Graham, with feeling.

  “Honestly, you two,” said Yaz. “Focus. Stay awake. Dungeon. Escape from. Thoughts. Ideas. Plans.”

  “We could dig our way out,” said Graham. “Like in that film… What was it? Your nan loved it, Ryan.”

  “The Shawshank Redemption,” said Ryan. “And it took him over twenty years.”

  “Ah,” said Graham. “Climb?”

  “I may have mentioned this already,” said the Doctor, “but none of you thought to bring any rope.”

  “There is that,” said Graham, peaceably. He looked like he was settling down for the night too.

  “No digging, no climbing, no sonicking – what are we going to do?” said Yaz.

  “Oh, don’t worry,” said the Doctor, cheerfully. “Something always comes up.” She looked up at the stone overhead and waved. “Hello! Who are you?”

  Yaz looked up too. A face was peering through the hole in the rock: a jet-black face with silvery flecks like mica. Yaz wondered again what the right word was for the skin of a living rock – crust, maybe? Travelling with the Doctor made you rethink everything, she thought, right down to the right words to use.

  “It’s OK,” the Doctor said. “We’re nice. Friendly. I’m the Doctor, by the way. What’s your name?”

  “I’m Ash,” said the alien. “Are you aliens?”

  A smile spread across the Doctor’s face. In the dark she shone, like diamonds. “They are,” she said. “I’m not. Do you have any rope?”

  “Of course,” said Ash. “Who goes out without rope?”

  “Oh, blimey,” said Graham. “We’ll never hear the last of that.”

  Three

  Once Ash had pulled the stone cover away from the hole, the rope did indeed come in handy. They came out one-by-one, lightest first, so that there were more of them to help pull out Graham and then Ryan at the end. Yaz rolled the rope up again, taking the chance to examine it as it ran through her hands. It was thinner than she expected, so thin that she might not have been happy to be pulled up on it had she been aware, but it was strong, very strong, and felt slightly sticky to touch. She wondered what it was made of. She hadn’t, as yet, seen any sort of plants or shrubs to use to make fibres. And now that she thought about it – what kind of wildlife was there here? With rocks for people, what could the animals be like? Rocks, but with teeth? She shuddered and decided not to mention this.

  The friends shook themselves off, checked for scrapes and bruises, and then turned to thank their saviour. She was slighter in build than the others they had already met, but still manifestly the same species. She gleamed jet black in the half-light, and when she moved, flecks of mica shimmered all over her body.

  “Hey,” said the Doctor, “thanks!”

  “You’re very welcome,” said Ash. She studied each of them one by one, with strange unblinking eyes, and then she shook her head. “I have so many questions—”

  “Me too,” said the Doctor. “Those pools that appear suddenly. They’re getting to be a problem, aren’t they?”

  “—but first,” said Ash, calmly, “I think we should get away from here. The Greenwatch will certainly be coming back, and they may well bring others.”

  “Oh yeah,” said the Doctor. “Probably wise. Greenwatch?”

  “The Eyes of Emerald,” Ash said.

  “Right,” said the Doctor.

  “Sounds a bit secret policey to me,” said Graham.

  “Yeah,” said the Doctor. “Ash – where should we go?”

  “I know a place,” Ash said. “Somewhere safe.”

  The friends conferred briefly. “Doc,” said Graham, “what about the TARDIS? Shouldn’t we check it’s all right?”

  “You’re keen to leave, aren’t you?” said Ryan.

  “In my defence, that liquid was very hot,” said Graham.

  “I think we should go with Ash,” said Yaz. “Something is happening, isn’t it, Doctor?”

  The Doctor nodded. “I’d like to find out more.”

  Ryan was up for it; Graham, with a sigh, fell in with the general plan. Ash, politely, said, “We should go now. They’ll be coming back as soon as they can.”

  “Lead on,” said the Doctor.

  Ash turned to go, and the friends followed. At first, she led them back the way they had been brought by the Greenwatch. As they walked, Yaz realised that the darkness was beginning to lift. Faint light was filtering through the rocks all round them.

  The Doctor quizzed Ash. “So these eruptions,” she said. “They’ve been happening a lot, haven’t they?”

  “They have,” said Ash. “They started years ago – very rare, at first, but they’ve become more and more frequent. The liquid – it’s horrible!” She shuddered. “It froths and boils, and it kills on touch! When it touches someone – it’s awful!”

  “I see,” said the Doctor. “Anything else?”

  “What do you mean?” said Ash.

  “There’ve been other changes too, haven’t there?” said the Doctor.

  Ash stared at her, dumbfounded. “How do you know that?” she asked. “It took my father years…”

  “Oh, I’m a good guesser,” said the Doctor. “No, that’s not right. I take care t
o look around, and then I try to work out what it might all mean. So – go on. Tell me what your father found out.”

  Ash hesitated. Yaz got the impression that she didn’t talk about all this very often.

  “What I’m about to say,” said Ash, “can get me in a lot of trouble.”

  “Trouble? From saying things?” The Doctor frowned. “Not sure I like the sound of that. Don’t worry, Ash – all I want is to understand what’s happening.”

  Yaz watched a struggle pass over Ash’s features. “You can trust us,” she said. “And the Doctor might be able to help.”

  Slowly, Ash nodded. “All right, but please, we must be careful. Things are getting cooler – I’ll show you when we get to where we’re going. And that means that the seas are shrinking.” Ash held out her hands in despair. “It’s been going on for years now, and we don’t know why. We all know it’s happening – even Emerald, however much she denies it. We just don’t understand why!”

  Ash sounded so frightened that Yaz’s heart went out to her. How scary this must be. Everything changing, and nobody knowing the cause.

  “Hang on,” said Ryan, “if all this has been going on ages, then those big rock-guys know it can’t be us who caused that pool.”

  “I don’t think they cared either way,” said Graham. “They’re afraid, and they want someone to blame. We’re different. We’ll do.”

  “There’s that,” said Ash, “and there are some other reasons too.”

  “Doctor,” said Yaz, slipping up alongside her, and keeping her voice very quiet, “you know what the liquid is, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” said the Doctor, softly. “I think so.”

  “So?”

  “Have a guess, Yaz,” said the Doctor.

  “Is this a good time for guessing games?”

  “It’s always a good time to come up with an idea and test it. Go on, Yaz. Tell me what you think.”

  Yaz thought. They were inside this world, however strange that might seem, but she knew what the surface was like. She’d seen it on the TARDIS scanners. There’d been pebbled beaches. Pebbled beaches, along shores. “It’s sea water, isn’t it?”