Doctor Who Fan Fiction ❯ DOCTOR WHO: APOUKALUPSIS (Revelations) ❯ JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE ( Chapter 3 )

Episode3

JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE

The Doctor and companions are forcibly brought to a planet designated RHOMBOCTAAR Sol-5 of the New Delta, where long-lasting superstitions, misnomers and bifurcation of cultures is soon going to bring about the extinction of the natives. Amidst all the chaos and trying to save the day, the Doctor gets on the trace of something disturbing.

Scene 1:

[Over the tunes of Rare Earth – I just want tot Celebrate, but with violins and hard drumming]

The group approaches a planet, shaped like a rhomboid.

Doctor: Welcome to the New Delta sector, designated after more than twenty planets were transported to the Medusa Cascade.

Daniel: So those were real proper planets? Planets stuck in the sky?

Doctor: It wasn’t your sky to begin with. Earth was moved too. People on those planetoids were just as confused as you all were.

Daniel: When you say people -

Doctor: I mean aliens. Why? What do you mean?

Daniel: I am a space-virgin Doctor. This is all new to me.

Layla: Why? Why would they move planets?

Doctor: The planetoids realigned themselves to form a continuity change engine. Which is a rare occurrence. It can be used to draw massive powers or even destroy whole universes.

Layla: What are those?

Doctor: I suppose town fair and grasslands.

Daniel: And in yellow!? Those are some big grasslands.

Doctor: They are celebrating the nature of living any way they can. This must be a very new planet.

Scene 2:

They arrive at an outpost. The Judooneese shuttle docks in. The group is led by an escort, inside the outpost.

Doctor: And here we are again. Shadow Proclamation, I suppose.

Architect: New Shadow Proclamation, Doctor.

Doctor: Architect. It is a pleasure to have met you.

Architect: The pleasure, if such triviality be permitted on the off-chance, would be mine as well. My predecessors tell me you are the stuff of legends.

Doctor: Do not believe everything you hear. I am just a man in a box.

Architect: Who has saved countless lives and will save countless more. Come along now Doctor. You have a new patient.

[At the observation deck]

Architect: Meet RHOMBOCTAAR Sol-5.

Scene 3:

The Doctor and companion/s visit a planet designated RHOMBOCTAAR Sol-5 or RHOMBOCTAAR Sol-5 of the New Delta by the Shadow Proclamation Interventions Department (SPI department), escorted by heavy Judoon Guards. SPI monitors webs of all possible outcomes that a planetary body could have or undergo since blooming out of its core, the events causing them or hindering them thereof, and the fate of its civilizations. Rhomboctaar is the 5th and last outer planet in this new and nascent system, shaped like a rhomboid. Continued hits by meteors on the peripheral crust have chipped away most of the spherical planetoid shape, thus leaving behind somewhat of a rhomboid. The equator is a hollow and deep path running throughout the planetoid, with almost two halves of a rhomboid acting as the upper and lower hemispheres - Rhomboct MINOR and MAJOR. 

The subsequent civilization has settled in within these hemispheres and have been culturally affected by its shape too.

Rhomboct Major or High Pole (North) is a high-urban society with heavy and affordable militaristic presence. The edges of the rocky rhomboid that have been chipped off due to meteor activities, making corner-like planetary turns, have been developed into lookout posts. The architects of High pole have made high and overlapping bridges out of natural resources, throughout the length of the equator, called the Central ring road.

Rhomboct Minor or Shadow Pole (South) is less advanced and highly opinionated or superstitious. Unlike the High pole, they have miles of barren land serving as chipped off planetary corners, which they think are the EDGE of the land, that they dare not travel or they might fall off. Having got hit by space-rocks so many times, the inter-planetary core has gotten substantially weaker, thus preventing proper rotation of the planet. Which is why most of Rhomboct Minor remains in shadows. It however revolves naturally around the core of a burning star.

Most of the populous are afraid to traverse the delving and beveled depths of equatorial canyons between the central ring road (equator) and the starting points of the rhomboid hemispheres, because dangerous beasts called Rhomboct Nomos roam those parts. Unknown to these nascent civilizations, resulting from wrong conjectures and comprehensions, these beasts get ferocious because they cannot stand the bare solar light on their skin and crave the shadow provided within the curves of the rhombo-spheres. SPI Time Webs estimates that this can lead to a possible future where these beasts get more frustrated overtime and within a few decades start attacking the populous to enter the rhombo-spheres. Within centuries the whole planet could be devoid of higher intelligence altogether, thus bringing about its end even sooner, which is why the Doctor is asked to help. In an ode to classic WHO, the episode could be informative as well as thrilling. The Doctor mentions resolving stuff like this with a certain family member in the past, but he thought his new life would begin with something more large or 'swanky', then hilariously recoils at such choice of words.

Scene 4 and continued

[Further along, after a few more scenes, the Doctor finds out something disturbing.]

They have arrived at what looks like a hunting ground. There are three to four carcasses of Rhomboct Nomos lying around. There is a big shadow cast by a revolving shade of the curves of the rhombo-spheres.

Doctor: Bloody sand! Gets everywhere.

[The Doctor gets down on his knees and sonics the carcass]

Doctor: You told me that the Rhomboct Nomos were the real problems.

Architect: Should we consider otherwise?

Doctor: You should. This wasn’t their own work.

Architect: But they are feral savages. It could be very possible that the-

Doctor: It isn’t.

Layla: Doctor. What is it?

Xylok: Layla Robbins. Priority alert. Biodegraded particles detected in the surrounding air.

Doctor: That. That is the problem.

Architect: What do you mean?

Doctor: The particulates are biological materials. Remains of the Rhomboct Nomos. Spoils of the hunt.

Daniel: Whose hunt?

Doctor: Piranhas of the air.

Xylok: [Beeps] Indexing and information available.

Doctor + Xylok: Vashta Nerada.

Architect: You cannot be serious!

Doctor: I very much am. Leave! Right now. All of you. Take your troops and go home. This is not your venture to undertake. It’s mine.

Layla: What are they? Piranhas of the air.

Doctor: The name should tell you all. Since the dawn and inception of civilized states of living, man has been baffled and accompanied by shadows. If there is a light, there is a shadow. Every civilization, of every planet, of every galaxy has an equivocal and similar tones of irrational fear of the dark. Except it’s not just the dark; it’s what moves within it. And the fear is very much warranted. The Vashta Nerada. Microscopic carnivorous beings. Live in swarms. Billions strong. They latch on to you mimicking your shadows. They cast shadows whenever they enter light. Light constricts their movement. On their own, under a light, they would be as normal as your boring old shadow. But if even for once, you see that you have two shadows, or you see a pillar with a detached shadow, just run!

Architect: But you are a Time Lord. Surely your kind has dealt with the Vashta Nerada before? No?

Doctor: They have. And they have failed. A group of Time Lords let loose a bunch of them on Synthesis Station in order to deplete enemy resources and manpower, specially Dalekanium. A negative strain called the Nerada Vashta, that could thrive in light proved to be fatal to them all.

Layla: Are they really that dangerous? 1B?

Xylok: Indexing available. Categorized as a semi-dormant sub-class species. Mildly dangerous at times.

Doctor: Do not believe every data available, 1B. They used to be harmless overall. Only feasting on smaller beings for their meat. Wherever there was meat, there was Vashta Nerada. But I have seen first hand what they can do. They can get as vindictive as they come. The herds were never your biggest concern, Architect. If anything can cause a mass extinction, it would be the Vashta Nerada. Your predictability algorithms got it wrong.

Architect: Time Webs.

Doctor: What?

Architect: They are called Time Webs.

Ro Yo do plo no 21-2B: [Language Assimilated] Architect?

Architect: What is it Rydon?

The Judoon has two shadows. One taller than the other.

Doctor: [gestures] Step back! Everybody, step back. Keep your eyes on your own shadows. Spin and swivel around to see if you have shadows more than the count of one. One more step and it could end you.

Architect: Doctor?

Doctor: Oh, you stupid Rhino!

Ro Yo do plo no 21-2B: [growls] Hmnn

Doctor: You had to stand in the shadow of the curve. I am so sorry. I am so very sorry. It’s- It’s not. There is nothing. There is literally nothing I can do. They can maneuver your Judooneese armor.

Ro Yo do plo no 21-2B: Hmmgghh. It is alright Doctor. I have served my time and purpose. If you save this planet, then I did my duty. I would go proud.

Doctor: It is never alright! Not for even once. There is no moral ambiguity or leeway to preservation of life. It’s not definite. It’s not sound. One life matters just as much as the many. There is no difference between the two.

Ro Yo do plo no 21-2B: It is my choice Doctor. This is how my time matters.

The Doctor sonics the ground. The silicate deposits shine bright. Forming a barrier between him and the shadows.

Doctor: Your time will always matter, Rydon. [Salutes in Judoon] You matter. And you will be remembered.

Rydon salutes back. The Doctor steps back and turns. He urges the others to run. They start running. Rydon tries to step back to distance himself from the party even more. But the swarm engulfs his lower torso. He raises his hand in desperation. Within seconds, a swarm reaches him from the behind, withering him away bit by bit. Flesh and red clusters of cells go splot. The rest of the major body-mass wither away into dust, like being eaten by an invisible being. When it is all over, a bloody and bony carcass of a rhino, with dumps of leftover tissue, gut and mucus falls flat-forward.

Layla: Oh my god!

Doctor: Don’t look Layla. Don’t.

They run to cover as much distance as they can. Mid-running, the Doctor sometimes turns an aims the sun. From the POV of a gaining mass of shadow, we see the Doctor has sonicked the intensity of light on them. As they reach the horizon, the Doctor stands on the ridge of a large and globulous dune, while the others pass him. He uses the sonic one last time. The mass of shadows see him afar now, like a mirage. But there is a lot of light shining where he was standing, shielding them from view. The swarm creeps deep into the depths of the shadows of the curve and disappears.

Daniel: He was a brave soldier. Giving his life for complete strangers.

Architect: He was.

Doctor: He was an unnecessary sacrifice. This was not a battle. He did not have to die.

Layla stops and pants.

Layla: Why are they doing this Doctor?

The Doctor ushers them to run and keep on with their momentum.

Doctor: I do not know. And I hate not knowing. There must be something driving them. They usually survive on roadkill.

As they run and approach near the base of the observation deck, the automated doors slide open and two fully-armed Judoons come out and stand guard. The group is relieved. However, light masses of swarm emerge from the side of the base, within their own shadows, and they suffer the same fate!

Daniel: Nooooo!

The automated doors are still open. The Doctor, while still running towards, aims his sonic at the fuel-crates near the gate and they explode! The swarm of shadows are repelled a bit and deflect from the light outside. They disappear.

The group makes it back safely inside.

We see a small mass of black movement has speedily crept in, latching on to the Doctor, just as he was entering last.

Once it enters inside, everything outside goes into overdrive. The other shadows start reacting, as if commencing an attack, from after the signal. Swarms of shadows start attacking a few Rhomboct Nomos, one after the other. The confused herds start butting and kicking in through village fences, causing chaos. Two of the Rhomboct Nomos are shot down by patrol guards. The villagers stare in shock at the dead animal. But before they be allowed any more time to react or respond, they see a shadowy swarm engulf the body and chew it out from below. Everybody panics and starts running for their life.

There are alarms blaring everywhere. Judoon voices can be heard from the announcement towers.

There are members barking orders at each other. The Architect is bent over her station.

Architect: All villagers[eyes the Doctor]. Most. Have been brought inside. The laser-grid we loaned the Rhomboct MINOR people are holding. For now.

Layla: What now? Doctor. What now?

He is keenly observing the monitor that shows the raging herds of Rhomboct Nomos, and a partial body visible.

Doctor: They are here. They are on the brink of completing it.

Architect: What do you mean they are ‘here’? Here inside?

Doctor: This was all coordinated.

Suddenly, they hear a blast. They see two Judoons running for their lives to enter the room. Through the glass pane, they can see that out in the corridor, the Judoons are struggling to keep up. One falls. The Doctor is holding on to the latch, deciding when to open. The other tries blasting in all directions. It tries to use the torch on his scanner, but his knocked down when a part of his armor is chipped away. It shines a light from his battle-blaster but to no avail. With utter desperation and his snout wide open, it gasps for breath as it takes it’s last step. It meets a similar fate like the others. The group gets back from the door. They can see swarms of shadow closing in. And seep in through the rims, covering almost the whole door.

They make a run for it. They turn left after a while. The Architect directs them to a long glass corridor with sufficient light. When they have almost made it halfway through, they see the Doctor standing still. He hasn’t even laid his first step in.

Layla: Doctor. What now? Run!

Doctor: I am sorry. I am so so sorry.

Layla: What are you saying?

Architect: Doctor?

Doctor: It was me. It was just me all along. I was the host.

He has two shadows.

Layla: NO! Doctor, No! You can’t

Daniel holds her back

Doctor: It’s alright. I would be dead if they wanted to. This strain can eat through everything. Not just flesh. Literally everything. I suppose they want to have a chat. Go. Just go to the atrium and seal everything in. I am late for a long overdue chat.

Layla: No!

Daniel: [guarding] Doctor, are you sure?

Doctor: I have a patient to see. Cancel all my other appointments would you.

He winks. Daniel nods in unison, silently. He takes everyone inside and the Architect then leads the way.

Doctor: Just you and me now. Stuffy the shadowy Slayer. Come on. Come on!

A lobotomized-like carcass of a Judoon, with some of its armor and lower extremities still on, drags itself towards the Doctor. There is an electrode jammed into its head. The mouth of the partial helmet is glowing, with the speaker-grill on.

The Doctor points his sonic at him and gets a reading.

Doctor: Hive-mind of the swarm of Vashta Nerada, I presume…More metabolism. More hunger. More viciousness to eat through everything, not just flesh. More free movement as a swarm. Not just a shadow anymore. Have you got work done off late?

The groups advances towards him

Doctor: Tsk, tsk, tsk. Not so fast. You want to talk. Well here I am. But we do it on neutral terms.

Swarm-Judoon: We have you cornered. Why should we bother with your terms Doctor? We have killed everyone and anyone we can. And we will kill more.

Doctor: Because You fear me [raises his hands in a dare]. I am alive, aren’t I? A walking-talking Doctor is all you need to press the wound. I am the storm, the vanquisher, the butcher, the warrior. And yet what you fear most is me. The ‘Doctor’. Bare hands and simple intent. I have already had to make tough decisions today. I have seen unwarranted loss of life. I had to make tough and very un-doctorly calls. I had to hold on to a latch to save the ones I care about, while I saw others been torn to shreds. You do not want a cross doctor now, do you? You have had your games and illusion of control. You know what to do.

The group watches him on in the monitor in the atrium, with great aniticipation.

The Vashta Nerada let go of him. He steps back into the corridor.

Swarm-Judoon: [growls shakily] Hmmnnnn

Doctor: [Straightens up] Talk. What do you want?

Swarm-Judoon: You Doctor. We want you.

Doctor: What makes me so special? Well, other than the obvious.

Swarm-Judoon: You are no mere vanquisher and warrior, Doctor. You are the pure harbinger of death. You have ended most of us.

Doctor: When? Ended how? I have never fought any of you that didn’t needed to b-

Swarm-Judoon: The Flux!

Doctor: Oh!

[In the Atrium]

Daniel: What’s the ‘flux’?

Architect: I’ll explain later.

Doctor: The Flux. How does that make me the enemy?

Swarm-Judoon: The Flux was created for you Doctor. So we have heard. Do you know what happens when a cosmic swarm eats another horde of swarm? Can you imagine how ungodly and raw the sight of that was? We lived through it, while most of us were devoured.

Doctor: Heard from whom?

Swarm-Judoon: The Division.

Doctor: No!

Swarm-Judoon: They saved a large group of us from our planet in the nick of time. All the others, that existed elsewhere, where gone.

Doctor: The Flux was created for me. Not by me. When the flux came, you and I probably ran side by side.

Swarm-Judoon: It does not matter Doctor.

Doctor: I tried all I could, to save. I ended it. But why? Why the Division?

Swarm-Judoon: You. They want you. They hired as to catch you by any means necessary.

Doctor: Catch me how? Feed into me or drag-me-along sort of catching me?

Swarm-Judoon: The Division wants you. By any means necessary. Like we said. And attacking the planet was the bait. It just so happens that it also has the resources to bring you in alive.

[In the Atrium]

Architect: The Farming suits!

Layla: The what?

Architect: Non-permeable farming suits with a pyrodoxine gel frame. It is a liquid metal suit, strong as any body armor. The villages of Rhomboct Minor were loaned some last year for the particle-hurricane. But they refused to be defiled by upper-Rhomboct culture anyways. Five died. And the suits are in storage. Here. In this base!

Daniel: We have to get it.

Layla: Yeah.

Architect: Yes we do. Follow me.

[Scene – Daniel and the Architect retrieve the suit from storage. The pathway to the storage is eerily lit with sparking bits of arc-lamps and emergency blue lighting. There are mutilated and half-dead bodies everywhere. On their way back, the duo are attacked by a small swarm of Vashta Nerada. Both of them have been knocked and tumbled down by falling debris. While the Architect frantically searches for something to defend with, Daniel finds and shines and arc light on the shadow, saving themselves. While the Architect barely manages to hold up the suit to shield themselves. The swarm retreats in its weakened state. And they recover and make a run for it.]

Doctor: I am begging you. There are innocent lives in here. Those that need not pay for what we did or choose to do. They are far from collateral or salvages of wars.

Swarm-Judoon: So were we Doctor. So were we.

A few more converted Judoons have joined him, from behind.

Swarm-Judoon: As you can see, our resolve and numbers are greater than yours.

[Atrium]

Architect: Let it never be said that the New Shadow Proclamation is incompetent.

[She is holding on to the suit]

Daniel: Nobody in any state of mind is gonna say that. However distraught. Shall we, Miss Robbins?

Layla: 1B, we need you…

Xylok: Layla Robbins.

Daniel: Scan this for us mate, will you? Check the...uh. What are we checking?

Architect: The permeability and structural integrity.

Daniel: The permeability and...you heard the rest. Well. Tell us if it’s profoundly good enough to seal in the Doctor.

Layla: You want to do it!? Whose side you pinning this on?

Daniel: Way I figure, this is a construction that those Nerada, swarm-thingies wanna use. Right? So if it’s strong enough to remain intact on their touch, maybe it is strong enough to trap a bit inside.

Xylok: Structural integrity at 98 percent.

Daniel: Well…?

Doctor: What did the Division tell you to convince that I was the cause? I was in as much trouble when the Flux hit. Up until that moment I did not even know what the Flux was.

Swarm-Judoon: They did not have to tell us much of anything. Just that you were involved. You might not be the sworn enemy of all the swarm-kinds. But we do know of your exploits, Doctor. We know exactly when and where you have faced us, What you did to us. It just took us a little longer than expected to catch up with your new faces.

Doctor: I only did what I had to. I had no other choice. Expelling and defeating you. Sending you to the bounds of your own planet. You caused all that. I had to resort to that only when you went to your extremes. Like you are now.

Swarm-Judoon: There is no use pleading Doctor.

Doctor: I am not pleading for me. This is a new face. I just got it yesterday if you can believe that. Well if you stick to hypersapce warping time differentials. A whole day! That’s it. Even I don’t fully know who I am inside. Not yet. I am not cruel or cowardly. But do I get angry? Do I even know the extent of my anger? I have absolutely no clue. So don’t force my stand on this. Don’t make me do anything that I do not have to.

Swarm-Judoon: Your requests are obsolete, time traveller. You hold no sway over us. We are no Daleks or a lone Cyberman that can be persuaded to side with you. That can be reprogrammed. We are everything. We are one. We are a swarm-kind. Not even one little strand of us can be begrudged against each other. Not the way we are towards you.

Doctor: And I am not asking! Your kind has killed people I have liked and preferred. Your actions have forced the hands of those I have loved. You have taken life relentlessly. When I faced you in the library, I understood your cause. Your pain. However misguided they were. But now. Now you have lost your way more than ever. You have taken the life of innocent beasts just to take me in. To get my attention? You have no idea what you have just started. You say you work with the Division. They must have an artificial psychic imprint on you, about me. Go search your mind. Go search all the essence of pure sentience and whatever senses your morality allows you. Go ask about the Doctor. Go deep in within your instincts, your battle jargon, your merriment anecdotes, your most vivid experiences from the hive. You think you may have heard my stories. You have no idea how my stories even begin. Don’t go looking for the butcher, the Valeyard, the Humanoid scum, the healer, the Storm or the Warrior. Look for the Doctor. Me. Right here. Look at what I have done and what I can do with the bare minimum I get. And think twice before you cast your shadow once more or latch onto someone else. Because right now, in this corridor, I am not just stuck with you. You are stuck with me. And you just brought me back my senses of worst judgment.

The speaker-grills glow red. As if reciprocating and deliberating something together. Two of them stutter back, and look at each other in consideration. The forerunner Swarm-Judoon glances.

Swarm-Judoon: You might be a force to reckon with, “Doctor”. But so are we.

A long cylinder of swarm-shadow is cast over the length of the corridor and advances inwards. So do the converted Judoons. The structure of the corridor starts to give away. Planks of the floor and overhead panels are ripped off. Everything in sight gets disintegrated slowly, and advances towards the Doctor. The Doctor makes a run for it. But instead of running towards the atrium, he shoots off straight.

The Architect checks the bulkhead door protecting them within the atrium.

The Doctor keeps running straight on, and turns left. He soncis an overhead speaker fitting and turns right again, and keeps running.

Doctor: Architect. What do you have for me?

Architect: Non-permeable farming suits. Will that do? We can trap a bit of them inside. Rescue team is on it’s way

Doctor: It seems too little too late for that now. Who is going to rescue the rescue? What else do we have?

Architect: Well, utility gloves along with it. In case you choose to wear the suit instead.

Doctor: Are you joking? I would look like a bulbous buffoon in those.

Architect: And about three...no, four! Four shock collars for subduing the herd.

Doctor: No, I’m not hurting anyone if I do not need to. There has been enough hurting today. And why do you even need those? Just give me the suit anyways. I am approaching the north ventilation tunneling.

Architect: There is a service panel on the floor level. But you have to watch your speed on that one. We collect garbage and scraps in automated buggies in the tunnel and take it to the surface. The tunnel is deep, to say the least.

Doctor: How deep?

Architect: Two whole miles.

Doctor: That should be right about the usual fun I have.

Up ahead, the Doctor sees two adolescent Judoons in white overalls and armor, led by an adult, running in the same direction. The Doctor hurries them up, and leads them away. These are younger Judoon recruits that have been brought in to help the local population.

Doctor: How will you deliver the suit?

Architect: We have a magna-lev shaft with a chute that leads to the tunnel. But be careful, Doctor. Once leaving the chute, all scraps get collected in a vacuum bubble. You would have mere seconds to overcome your transitive inertia, slip through the service panel and catch it. No breath though. You might find use of your weapon.

Doctor: It’s a sonic.

Architect: Sonic displacement guns are weapons. Like a squareness gun.

Doctor: Screwdriver?

Architect: What?

Doctor: It’s a sonic screwdriver.

Architect: Why?

Doctor: What why?

Architect: Who uses a screwdriver and thinks this could be a bit more sonic!?

Doctor: Oh, quit it. Would you! Stop bashing my life choices.

Daniel: No pressure then. You got this Doctor.

Doctor: [Pants] Thanks for believing me in my tantalizing, brutalizing near-death gig, Daniel. What are friends for if not to start believing in you when you jump to your death!

Judoon: Wo ho blo to sho wo kro lo lo sho yo plo tro sho do plo?

Doctor: I will figure something out. I always do. Atleast we can send you bunch up on the buggies.

[The Architect paces up a tower with the suit in hand, that leads to the magna-lev shaft.]

The group run as fast as they can. The Doctor sees the panel up ahead, about a hundred feet away. He stays behind and rushes the group of Judoons towards it.

But the swarm catches up with them. The Infected Judoons arrive.

Doctor: Go. Go! Go, Go!

At their signal, the swarm above the infected Judoons take a swift turn around the Doctor and advance towards the escaping group. The Doctor points his sonic at the group, creating an air-tunnel, slowing the advance of the swarm. He grabs his sonic with both his hands and grunts heavily. The effort of holding the wind tunnel in place brings him down to his knees. But in no vain. The swarm envelopes the group and Vashta Nerada chew them out whole!

Doctor: Nooooo!

Swarm – Judoon: Hope is contagious, Doctor. Hope which you provide inspires others to do foolish things. Follow you foolishly to the world’s ends, just to waste the transiency of the little life they have around you. Which is why to defeat the Doctor, you catch those that he chooses to heal through his selfist and risky deeds.

The swarm of Vashta Nerada turn back their attention towards the Doctor and advance towards him. The Doctor makes a quick wind tunneling, again. Before the swarm could touch him, he sprints off in a lengthily drawn out step. The Swarm-Judoon gets down on all fours and starts charging him. He doesn’t stop. He quickly gets to his knees and slips through the panel, missing the swarm by a bare inch. The Swarm-Judoon jumps in a second later, as well.

Doctor: Now!

Swarm-Judoon: Doccccttorrrr!

The Architect presses a big piston-switch. The Doctor slides down through the chute. The Architect also drops the suit vertically down another shaft, immediately.

The Doctor slows his slide down with one leg. He can see a light at the end of the chute. He abruptly stops his motion, and grabs hold of the rim of the chute with his left hand and points his sonic mid-air. The falling suit stops as it was just entering the vacuum bubble. The Doctor pulls it as close as he can, gradually getting at arm’s length.

Up behind, he can see the Swarm-Judoon approaching, with a big pile of filthy, shadowy mass behind. Teeming with a certain vibracoustic pattern. The Doctor gives a last desperate pull at the suit and grabs hold of something. He swivels his hip to the right, and suddenly catches hold of the Swarm-Judoon. Sticking something at the nape of its neck. He holds it along, suspending the Swarm-Judoon from the rim of the chute, facing down below! The Vashta Nerada has halted behind them.

Swarm-Judoon: What...what is this? What have you done to me?

Doctor: Shock collar with a little boost from my sonic.

Swarm-Judoon: A collar cannot hold me, you foolish Time Lord. Aagh!

The Doctor tugs at the collar suspended at his hand He grips his own left hand tighter on the chute rim, which is bleeding steadily. The Vashta Nerada vibrate intensely behind him.

Doctor: Pure Methaloid Carbon Steel choke wire. Sonic has made it vibrate at enough frequency to cut through metal. Way I see it, a hive of flesh-eating swarms cannot move without the construct and psychic linkage of the hive-mind.

The wire in the collar goes through an automated pulley, hooped inside it. The more the Swarm-Judoon wriggles, the more it tightens.

Swarm-Judoon: Aargh. Aagh! You cannot defeat me Doctor. It is known you would not waste a sentient life if you do not have to.

Doctor: Oh that is more true than you would ever know...[efforts] But what is life if not life – preserved? What use is sentience and sensory awareness if you are not aware of the pain you cause to others? The harm and foul you propagate. The vengeance you spittle. What use is a head if it is usurped beyond rights and utilizes the faculties of only feeding on others? What use am I as a Doctor in a field of blood – thirsty butchers? The Doctor has taken his leave now. There is no Doctor here. No healer. Not today. Today...you are stuck with me.

Swarm – Judoon: Aargh. Aagh! What will you do Doctor? [Efforts] Eergh! What can you do?

Doctor: More than you can spare to know...Tell me. Why is the Division on my tail again?

Swarm – Judoon: [Holds the collar with his hands as it tightens on inwards, his legs are vividly swinging in air] I do not know! [Efforts shakily] I do not care to…

Doctor: Tell me!

Meanwhile Daniel and Layla try to help with the rescue outside. The ordeal proves difficult. Members of Rhomboct Minor stay stubbornly misinformed about the truth and nature of what has happened. They do not believe in the intent of those conducting the rescue. They blame them for spreading some kind of virus within the Rhomboct Nomos, which has caused them to die. Daniel and Layla advance towards them to introduce their origins – telling them they are from the Milky Way, far off from a planet called Earth, or Sol-3 by galactic standards. They say they empathize with the hesitation they have, born out of things that they do not know as of yet. They too are afraid yet energetic and willing, all at the same time. They too are as surprised as one can be, at the events that have unfolded. But determining where the blame lies, despite everything, is foolish. It helps everybody calm down and they start gradual rescue and recovery.

Swarm – Judoon: Aaaahhh [hold and swings]. Behold! Aah...the true face of the Doctor. The ender of times if need be. Uugh!

Doctor: Oh, you have no idea what my true face is. I have had so many. Even I do not bother or pretend to find out anymore. All I do is save lives anymore. All those I can.

Swarm – Judoon: Uuugh! They...they say the Doctor of war has no weapon. They forget you are a weapon.

Doctor: Do not misjudge me by your standards, swarm. I am not reacting. I am responding. Those who have lived as long as I have, endured and lost as much as I have, get tempered and neutered down. We give up privileges of living when we have to because we live so much enhanced at other points. Do so much. Go through so much. Our whole life is a battle-stance, an ordeal far too great for you to imagine. And however hard I try, I cannot find myself at any other corner of the universe, but a battlefield. So no, I am not petty enough to react out. I am responding to your violence. But there is still chance. You are dangling with your life, opposing the only one who could possibly save you. The only one who would even like to. Even after all that you have done. Stop it! Not anymore.

Swarm – Judoon: [Efforts] Aahhh

Doctor: Come up. Save yourself. I promise you I won’t let go. Come up and stop your damage. Tell me why the Division is doing what it is doing

Swarm – Judoon: Never, Doctor. [Wiggles] Never.

Doctor: The magnetic clouds are affecting your biology. There is a vacuum bubble just above, and not a lot of way out or down this tunnel. There is no way for escape. Neither for you, or the magnetic distortions. You are feeling it, aren’t you? You are within another physical host and yet you are feeling it. Just stop it now! Stop it and come up…The magnetic distortion won’t let you leave this body.

Swarm: Judoon: Never. Never will we side with the likes of you, Doctor. [Efforts in pain] Never! You underestimate our resolve…

Doctor: And you know mine…? Don’t. Just don’t. I am willing to help you. Do right by you but only if you choose to do right here on. That is my resolve. I cannot hold on forever...[Stretches forward] Just. Just come up

Swarm – Judoon: We will rise again, even if we end here today. We will hunt and kill. And end everything you whole dear. Never will we side with you, Doctor.

Doctor: Don’t

Swarm – Judoon: Everyone, Doctor. Everyone.

[The inner components within the Swarm – Judoon wriggle a bit. At his beckoning, the rest of the Vashta Nerada behind the Doctor starts to advance backwards in a wave, through the length of the tube.]

Doctor: No! Stop it.

Swarm – Judoon: It’s too late Doctor. They follow only me. And I do not have the sentiment or resolve that would ever give up

Doctor: Clearly one of has to switch our resolve. Our banter is not going to keep you suspended forever. I dread to find out which.

[Outside]

The rescue continues when suddenly everybody sees long streaks of shadows creeping up fast along the buildings. Everybody panics and rushes at every direction possible. A few of them tumble over and fall down. Daniel helps a few of them. The Judoons are trying to calm them down.

But suddenly, everything goes silent. The swarm of shadows turn on each other and warp inside-out, mid-flight while advancing at a great speed. Instead of a shadow, the inactive Vashta Nerada have reverted back to their original swarm form, vandalized and turned inside-out. A translucent red shade had oozed out.

A little later-

The Doctor gets up the chute and straightens up. His hand is still bleeding. He looks down the ridge-like end of the uneven chute into the emptiness of the tunnel. There is a hint of unhinged malignancy in his eyes. Temperamental fury. And yet there is a sense of pity too. An insurmountable sorrow of what could have been done to prevent all this.

Doctor: No second chances.

He turns around and goes away.

Deep inside, on the floor of the tunnel, lies a severed Judoon head, with a red haze of semi-solidified remains of swarms oozing out. The body lies beside it.

The collar is covered in blood and swarm-seepage. The collar has evidently constricted the hoop tight enough through the pulley, to cut the head right off. There can be seen magnetic disturbance and flying iron fillings in the air, within a weak semi-circular cover of a bubble. The analog signals on the collar, slowly and gradually, blinks and goes blank.

P.S: When everybody recovers, The Doctor is a bit taken off guard by the 'Time Web'. The members high up in the SPI inform him that it is a very recent tool harnessed after the truth and psychic fields of Victoria, Trenzonier half-moon and Hidden belt of Alko have been going haywire and giving out vast emissions, affecting psychic and temporal fields around them, like the old days on fields of Jaacko and Acolyeia used to. Those who unwittingly pass through such fields are glitched out into several versions for a few seconds, within themselves. Each living the systematic progression of their own respective lives, and each equally perplexed at being able to see the others, passing through a similar range of frequency for a short version of time. The matter was resolved by taking away chunks of land with the emission outputs and local authorities declaring it was a naturally-occurring hallucinogenic component in the air. The PSI labs harnessed and replicated the method in such a way that the glitch was comprehensible, converting it into analog predictions of things occurring through time. The Doctor says that such technology of an open-ended window into time itself is wrong and cautions restraint into the transitive path of this venture. He says to take it form a Time Lord, nobody is ever an actual lord of time.

Also, a timely summoning of the Tardis, along with some new features, has previously saved everyone from the advancing swarms.