by Cour M.
Ten and Eight continued to offer her solace as she remained sad from her fragile state. They were all distracted when a bullhorn went off.
⌨
Through the tunnels of the labyrinth, the Doctors were being called forth.
“Doctors,” came Captain Gilmore’s voice from all around. “You are being summoned. Walk to the light.”
From the distance, they saw a pale blue light, indicating where the exit chute was.
With the werewolf following behind them, Eight and Ten made their way toward the light, traveling through the maze. Once they reached the light, Eight stepped into it.
“We have a creature down here who needs to come up with us,” he insisted. “A werewolf who’s gone mad from isolation.”
“The creature dwells down below. She will never come to the light.”
“But she must. She can even be tamed if allowed.”
“What use would there be for her if she was such?”
Eight and Ten looked at the werewolf, who was somber. In her eyes was comprehension, and a slight intelligence.
“She is not full animal any longer,” Ten hissed, “she will be suffering down here in the darkness.”
Eight walked forward and placed his hand on the werewolf’s cheek.
“We will come back,” he assured her. “I promise, we will come back. And we will save you.”
The werewolf growled again, but it ended in words.
“I am…” she voiced, “alone.”
“No, you are not,” Ten assured her. “We are here now.”
Ten and Eight stepped into the light.
“And we always come back.”
The light transported Eight and Ten out of the labyrinth and through the isolation chute.
Down below, the werewolf whimpered, saddened from being alone once again. The instincts of being an animal took over, her eyes turned pitch black, the human side of her became dormant once more and she roared out, enraged. Rushing through the labyrinth, she began to bash down walls and destroy falling archways, out of grief.
⌨
When taken above, they were placed in an interrogation room and were handcuffed. Standing before them was Captain Nellrix, and the shadow of Captain Gilmore loomed in the background.
“Captain Nellrix,” Ten sneered, “we meet again.”
“Amazing how your fortune has not improved, Doctor. Actually, the correct term should be Doctors, shouldn’t it? Two for the price of one.”
“Oh, don’t come here to gloat,” Eight inferred, “just come here to go away as quickly.”
“You will welcome my appearance here when you discovered my reasons for coming. The Mecrellas government is now willing to offer you a compromise. A shorter sentence for information. We are now entertaining the possibility that the Clockwork droids are possibly behind this war.”
“It took you long enough,” Ten remarked.
“You clearly don’t know them very well,” Eight corrected, “this is fast for them.”
“Cease talking, or I shall leave.”
“Sorry, mate.”
“We are willing to shorten your sentence from a life sentence to a five-year term, if you inform us of the problem. Draconis now has a heat barrier around it, and we know that it doesn’t belong to the planets that are waging war on us.”
“A heat barrier?” Ten repeated.
“Anything that tries to cross it is incinerated?” Eight clarified.
“Yes,” Captain Nellrix summed up, “nothing can get in or out of Draconis.”
“Then how did you escape?”
“I was visiting another Magna-City at the time of the heat barrier’s creation. I was outside of its limits.”
“And now everyone is a prisoner,” Eight noticed, “interesting.”
“If that’s the word that you wish to put to it, then you may allow yourself to be forever strange, Doctors. Yet, if this is the work of the Clockwork droids—”
“Which it is,” Ten confirmed.
“Then we need to know how to combat it. Will you help us? And before you are driven with feelings of hate, revenge, resentment, pride, stubbornness, or disgust—which are all traits that your many selves have possessed, then recall that on our planet are innocent people. Millions of innocent lives. If you dare call yourself the Doctor, then you will help.”
“If we dare call ourselves the Doctor,” Eight emphasized, “then we help not only out there, but also within these walls. We shall help you, as long as the Mecrellan government bans any more sacrificial killings of the prisoners to moon base monsters, as these prisons have so frequently done, just to decrease their surplus population.”
“And as for the beast below, the Terusian werewolf that is kept down in the labyrinth for sport,” Ten added, “let us visit and treat it when done. Once we convert it back to being human, she must be released.”
“I know nothing about this beast below,” Captain Nellrix replied, turning to Captain Gilmore, “what do they speak of?”
“Nonsense,” Captain Gilmore replied, “with one being pushed to isolation and the other one being insane enough to force his way down there, they must be suffering from madness. The dark vastness of the labyrinth is meant to have a mentally crippling effect. Give them time, Captain, and they shall be themselves again. Until that time, ignore any mention they may give of this strange beast.”
“Fair enough,” Captain Nellrix agreed, “besides, I didn’t come here for animal rights.”
“But that is our demand,” Eight continued, “send a squad down there and you shall hear the wolf. If you want our full participation, then agree. There is nothing ordinary about that labyrinth or the person trapped in it.”
“Indeed, Doctor,” Captain Nellrix emphasized, his eyes focusing on Ten, “for there’s no such thing as an ordinary human. Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty. It’s not the time that matters. It’s the person.”
⌨
When speaking those words, Captain Nellrix’s eyes changed colors and Ten comprehended.
“I shall let you all rest to decide what you will,” Captain Nellrix announced, and then he turned to Captain Gilmore, “And any sacrifices of prisoners to moon creatures shall cease while I am present. Understood?”
Captain Gilmore gave his traditional expression that was unreadable, but presented the methodical habits that he usually displayed.
“Understood,” he answered simply.
“Good. Now, I do not wish to get in the way while I am here. Lieutenant Crissian and my other unit shall sleep in our ship. Till tomorrow then, Doctors.”
“Till tomorrow,” Ten gave his farewell.
Captain Nellrix and his soldiers left. Captain Gilmore turned to Ten and Eight.
“You just couldn’t do it, could you? You just couldn’t die again.”
“We know,” Eight smiled, “we complicate everything.”
Both Doctors were taken to their cells, yet before they parted ways, Ten pretended to trip and fall into Eight. As the guards separated them, Ten whispered.
“They’re here.”
Both Doctors were then separated, placed in their rooms and awaited dinner.
At first his mind went back to the beast below.
Who would have thought that it had been a werewolf the whole time?
And that it was a woman.
The poor thing was trapped in the darkness, in a form that she never chose, but it chose her. His mind quickly went to ways to save her in the end. There wasn’t much time before she would lose all consciousness of her human self and just become an animal again. After all, in the horror of the darkness, what human would choose to remain one when there were so many fears to be felt? The animal would have no choice but to take over. Animals could always fight the horror of the dark.
He laid down and felt his spirits lighten when he shifted to another thought.
Martha and Satsuki were now here.
⌨
Captain Nellrix and
Lieutenant Crissian, followed by their soldiers, walked back to their spacecraft.
As they did so, Captain Nellrix looked out over the landscape and saw one of Jupiter’s moons in the sky.
‘And to think,’ Captain Nellrix thought to himself, ‘that there’s a TARDIS out there somewhere, hovering closer than they would know.’
They all boarded their ship and closed the ramp behind them.
“Shall I make contact?” Lieutenant Crissian asked.
“Yes, 4, you shall,” Captain Nellrix responded. They all went to the command room; the communications were activated and they saw the inside of the TARDIS. A figure entered the frame and sat down in front of them.
“It’s good to see you all safe,” Satsuki announced, “we got worried when you didn’t contact us when you said you would.”
“There were complications,” Captain Nellrix reported, “the Doctors were in isolation.”
Martha Jones entered the frame.
“And how are the Doctors?”
“Alive, but they appear to have almost gotten sacrificed to an Equinae, and made friends with a werewolf that is hidden below the prison.”
“That sounds like the Doctor. And how are you all feeling? You all are safe, right? And they don’t suspect you?”
“Since communications between Mecrellas and Jupiter 6 are down because of the heat barrier,” Lieutenant Crissian reported, “we have quite some time before they could even have reason to suspect us.”
“Howards,” Satsuki complimented, “you all are stars!”
On the spaceship, every single soldier changed shape and morphed into androids Howards 1,2,3,4,5, and 6.
“Thank you, but we know,” Howard 6 replied, who had been disguised as Captain Nellrix the entire time.
Chapter 12
The Protest
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The next day, Captain Gilmore was sitting in his room, listening to music as he read, but this time, the guard knew to wait.
Once the music ended, Captain Gilmore closed his book.
“Enter!” He boomed.
The security guard, Bernard Shaw, entered hastily.
“Sir, beg your pardon, and don’t mean to interrupt you, but outside of the prison, there is a commotion.”
“If it’s an alien attack,” Captain Gilmore replied lazily, “then need I remind you that this prison has a whole arsenal that can take on an invasion?”
“Sir, we recalled that perfectly, but we cannot use our weapons now.”
“Why not?”
“Because there is a mob out there. Sir, it’s a protest.”
Captain Gilmore opened one eye and then the other. This news had the unique reaction of surprising him.
“A protest?”
“Yes, sir.”
For the first time in years, Captain Gilmore stood up with haste. He walked past Bernard Shaw, who followed after him. They walked through the prison, arrived in Gilmore’s office. He walked to the wall and pulled back the curtains. There, in front of him, was a vast crowd in front of the prison that was clearly over two hundred people in number.
⌨
Banging drums and with picketing posters saying ‘Imprison the guilty, not the innocent!’, the throng was impressive.
In front of the crowd, Daphne appeared, raising a megaphone to her lips as she began to give her speech.
“Guards, wardens, prisoners, it’s time that you heard me! My name is Daphne, and we here are all people of the three planets!”
There was cheering behind her from the crowd.
“We have marched up and down Mecrellas, and we march now on you! For too long we allowed the games to commence. For too long we even found pleasure in it, and we suffered losses due to it. Call it the cosmos getting revenge if you will, but we have listened. We know the histories of these Penitentiaries. We know that this is a place of intolerance and deception, that imprisons the innocent while the guilty remain free! While the guilty are sitting in the Halls of Justice! Or they are the ones who run this place! Now your planet is at war! And we come to you! Release all your innocent! Release all your innocent!”
The crowd began to repeat the chant.
“Release all your innocent! Release all your innocent!”
“Imbeciles,” Captain Gilmore hissed.
⌨
In Ten’s cell, the door was opened by a guard and Lieutenant Crissian entered.
“Leave us,” the Lieutenant ordered the guard.
“Yes, sir.”
The guard left them alone and Ten’s voice lowered.
“How are you and your brothers?” Ten asked.
“The six of us are safe, Doctor. And it’s time that you are so as well. In a couple of minutes, it shall be time for you and your counterpart to go.”
“But how can we walk out of here?” Ten asked, “the guards will be suspicious if you try and take us out of here without any written confirmation from General Vander. And believe me, Captain Gilmore is methodical, Howard 1,2,3,4,5 or 6.”
“Howard 3.”
“Thank you, Howard 3. Captain Gilmore will know the General’s signature and could tell if it is forged.”
“There will be no forged signatures,” Howard 3 assured him, “no documentation. Because Doctor, neither of you are leaving on your own two feet.”
⌨
“Come in!” Captain Gilmore roared in his office while he was looking out at the protest.
The door opened and Howard 6, dressed as Captain Nellrix, entered, followed by Howard 1, dressed as another government official.
“The hour is late, Captain,” Captain Gilmore said, still looking at the crowd through the window, “so if you come to speak to me about negotiating with the Doctor, as you can see, there are more pressing matters at hand.”
“You are correct, the hour is late,” Howard 6 agreed, “and I don’t come about the Doctors. I come to tell you that we have abandoned all desire to negotiate with him.”
“Have you?” Captain Gilmore asked, turning to him, his eyes shrewd.
“Yes, we have. You may thank that crowd out there, because their presence here has obliged us to return to Mecrellas and inform all the Magna-cities that the protest is spreading.”
“You are afraid of a mob?”
“No. I am afraid of misinformation and what it can lead to. We are on the brink of war, already, yes. We’ve already had one galactic battle above Xirin, one of our main Magna-cities, and all it takes is one mistake for the next battle to occur faster. Are you not familiar with the way protests can end? In bloodshed and death. I wish to return to Mecrellas to bring proper crowd control guards, who have expert training on dealing with mobs. Eventually, your mail shuttles must leave, and what happens when the mob storms them, which they will? Are all your soldiers trained to not kill when being attacked? Believe me, Good Captain, if they ever open fire on the mob, it will be a shot heard around the galaxy. All it takes is one nervous guard, and I saw the guard who is stationed outside of your office. He looks new, and young. So, is he perfect?”
Captain Gilmore thought on this quickly.
“Very well, leave when you will.”
“I will, but I must ask for a favor. As, you know, there is a heat barrier around Draconis right now. We have a technician in Xirin who believes that Jupiter’s gas can dissolve it, if applied correctly. We need access to our capital city, because it’s been quarantined for too long. With your permission, may Lieutenant Crissian retrieve four crates of Jupiter gas, so that I can take it back to Mecrellas?”
“Very well,” Captain Gilmore replied hastily, annoyed. “Do it and be done with it.”
“The Halls of Justice thank you,” Howard 6 nodded. “In our absence, do your best to have your soldiers not fire on any of that mob. The repercussions will rock the foundations our society.”
“My soldiers are what they are. I will offer no assurances, excuses or apologies. Sir, I bid you good day.”
“I suppose that I shall have to
be content with that. Till the next time, Captain Gilmore.”
Howard 1 and 6 left.
Chapter 13
The Great Escape
Down below, in the manufacturing rooms of the penitentiary, Lieutenant Crissian—Howard 3—had the guards print out a mailing label for the four crates that he selected.
“Why do you wish for a mailing label for them, sir?” one of the prison guards asked.
“The Halls of Justice only accept packages that have the official mailing seal that the penitentiary gives,” Howard 3 informed them, “we like to do everything thoroughly.”
“Of course, sir.”
The mailing information was stamped on each crate that held a container of Jupiter Gas.
“Do you need us to carry it to your space shuttle?”
“No, there is no need for that. My unit are strong enough to lug each box with ease.”
Still disguised as government officials, Howards 2,3,4, and 5 picked up the crates and began to lug them to the elevator chute that would take them up to the main level of the penitentiary.
⌨
Once they reached the first floor, they carried the crates out of the prison, to the spacecraft and placed them safely in the cargo room.
When they arrived, Howard 6 and 1 were already there, waiting for them.
“Hail the TARDIS,” Howard 6 ordered Howard 4.
“Affirmative.”
Howard 4 signaled the TARDIS, and once more, Martha appeared on the screen.
“Howards? How are you?”
“We are all still safe,” Howard 6 reported. “And our cargo is safely stored below.”
“You promise?” Martha smiled, “really?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Great! Now get out of there before they realize what’s happened. Don’t worry, we’ll cause a distraction, so that by the time they figure it out, you shall all be at a safe distance away. Be safe, Howards.”