"We failed"
"Please just hold on"
"What for? To see another universe crash and burn just like ours? I'm finally free."
They were the only other two survivors of Exelicos' race known as the Mihia down in the caves. All of their team members had been devoured by the hideous blue monsters. They had no idea if Exelicos himself was even still alive. Mirash and Lehoris had been among the last twelve who launched a suicide attack on the blue creatures (who were known as the Deschikars) guarding the compacted star.
They had only a few basic weapons and were vastly outnumbered, but they hoped that they could perhaps destroy the control panel for the compacted star. Doing so would cause it to explode, destroying this planet and the Mihia's home universe. They didn't care however. Their universe was already a lost cause as far as they were concerned.
The Mihia hadn't even got near the panel however. One of the Deschikars had managed to trace the Mihia's through the cave without their knowledge, and had warned the other members of their attack.
It could have just dealt with the Mihia there and then, but it decided to have some fun with them, and let them walk into an ambush.
Only Mirash and Lehoris had managed to escape, and Lehoris had been mortally wounded. One of the Deschikars had rammed its claws straight through his guts, but Mirash had still managed to drag him to safety.
With his last breath, Lehoris begged Mirash to end his life..
"Please Mirash. I've loved you like a daughter. I don't want you to end up at the mercy of those abominations. There's no hope left. It's our only way out." He then let out a final scream of pain before collapsing. Tearfully Mirash obliged and put her friend out of his misery.
Mirash was now completely alone in the dark caves, filled with aliens that wanted her dead.
She had just three charges left in her gun, barely enough to kill one Deschikar. She put the gun to her head and for a few minutes contemplated following hers friends advice. She remembered the suffering her comrades had endured at the monsters hands, which almost made her pull the trigger, but fortunately Mirash pulled herself together. She had vowed to her people back home that as long as there was still breath in her, she would never stop fighting against the so called rulers. Though how she was going to honour that now, she had no idea.
"I think I've already shown you that I'm not one to be bargained with." The leader said to Dana, as it looked at Reosa with murderous intent.
"Well you're going to kill us anyway. This way I might as well take you lot down with me. Don't give me the crap of you'll go easy on us if we hand over the cure. I know for a fact you won't either way." Dana replied.
The leader knew he was beat for now and agreed to let Reosa join Dana.
"Okay good, tell your friend out there to let us get back to the vents. Once we're free we'll message you where I left the cure. Make any attempt to come after us, and I'll smash this to bits do you understand."
The leader couldn't bring himself to respond he was so angry, but the look he gave showed that he knew.
Dana and Reosa made their way out of the corridor, past the monsters and to the vents, with Dana making sure Reosa got up first.
The leader started to smash the room apart in anger. It was the first time anyone had gotten one over on him in his entire life. The reason for that was more because he had been used to dealing with terrorised and helpless slaves he could easily bully. Still he wasn't used to failure, and he took it out on his men.
On the lowest level the Doctor had finally managed to rig up his weapon.
"Right now you say we can reach the caves via the ventilation system." The Doctor asked.
"Yes, but I'm afraid once we're in the caves I don't know where we will go. As you can see those monsters disconnected the security to the caves. When I tried to sciphon off the power from the core, they disconnected them. I guess they didn't want me or anyone to see what they were doing."
"Well we will deal with that when we have too, right now we just have to get those creatures away from the core." The Doctor said.
The Doctor was able to control the generator next to the giant from here using a bit of extra knowledge he had gained from his last stay. The Doctor knew that some of the energy outputs were all connected, so all he had to do was sent a pulse from this room, to one of the lines to make it travel all the way to where he intended. If the line was near one of the broken down pieces of machinery, it would be enough to give the creature a large shock. He had to be very careful to adjust it in such a way where it would not explode so as not kill the giant. They needed him as a bargaining chip.
"Check the monitors, we need to make sure there's at least a safe route out of here" the Doctor said to Exelicos.
The Doctor waited for a few minutes until the giant, who was still throwing a tantrum like a spoiled brat got close enough to the large generator, after which the Time Lord released the power.
The giant was caught in the shock, but it didn't collapse. The Doctor was sure that would be enough to level the beast, but it still struggled to pull free.
"Incredible." The Doctor said. "How can he even still be standing!" The Doctor increased the power dramatically, but the monster still fought against it. If he increased the power anymore he might kill the monster, or drain the reactor completely.
Eventually the giant began to slump, but in a last futile attempt to break free it struck the reactor which created a mini explosion that knocked it flat out cold.
The reactor was completely broken however. The Doctor couldn't make it explode now. The giant was not dead, though the Doctor had no idea just how badly he had hurt it.
"We'll have to tell a little white lie" the Doctor said.
"Hello? This is the Doctor? Ah good it's on. Okay now listen to me, I've knocked your leader out with the power from one of the reactors. If you don't follow my instructions, I will make it explode and kill him.
The monsters all paused for a few minutes, before one of them on the the 5th floor, a large creature, with four arms, a hideous oval shaped face and a dark, spiked body responded to the Doctor.
This creature belonged to a race known as the Mylerax. They ranked second only to the giants. Neither the giants nor the Mylerax had been part of the first wave, as they were deemed too important. However they were the first to enter the Doctors universe of the second wave, with the giant being teleported in before the Mylerax.
"We do not believe you could have harmed our lord. You couldn't even stand against our lowliest servants" the creature laughed. "How could you have possibly harmed him?"
"I knocked him out on the 14th floor. Go send one of your lackeys down there if you don't believe me, though I warn you any tricks and I'll blow him to pieces."
The monster who spoke crawled all the way down to elevator shaft the 14th floor. When it saw its leader lying by the reactor, seemingly lifeless, it broke down into tears.
"How touching." The Doctor said sarcastically.
"I swear when I find you, you will suffer, I'll make sure." The creature shouted before the Doctor cut it off.
"You'll do nothing I don't want you too, unless you want all of your men to have pick up bits and pieces of your leader for the next few months." The Doctor taunted smugly.
"What do you want" the monster said extremely reluctantly.
"Simple for all of your men in the caves to cease the work they are doing on the generator."
"How do you know about that?"
"I worked it out. I know what you intend to do. Honestly I would have thought one universe was enough for you to terrorise. Greedy little abominations aren't you."
"All universes will fall before our might. As much as we may love our king, he is a necessary sacrifice."
The Doctor paused for a minute.
"Doctor what are we going to do." Exelicos began to panic.
"I think he's just bluffing. Thing is how do I show him I mean business? If only that giant hadn't smashed the reactor." The Doctor replied
The Doctor thought for a moment or two.
"Perhaps I can maybe send a slight energy pulse into the reactor from here. It won't be enough to cause an explosion, or even send a shock wave to the monster, but it might make him think I'm about to detonate. We'll just have to hope he hasn't figured it out. They are intelligent, but this equipment is new to them in some areas."
The Doctor spent a few more minutes adjusting the machine. The Mylerax started to think the Doctor was all talk and taunted the Time Lord.
"Just as I thought you're bluffing. There's no way our king could be destroyed by such miserable."
Suddenly a buzzing noise came from the reactor which was enough to silence the creature.
"Ah yes you were saying about how your king couldn't be felled by someone like me? He does have a size advantage I'll give you, but that doesn't matter when you have a nuclear reactor." The Doctor said smugly over the communicator.
The Mylerax still didn't back down completely and the Doctor was forced to keep powering the broken down machine. Fortunately the creature eventually relented and begged the Doctor to stop.
Just as well, the Time Lord thought. "I wouldn't have been able to bluff much longer."
"I'll order the men to retreat right away."
"Good chap" the Doctor replied mockingly. "I warn you if you make any attempt to go near the main reactor, my friend here will blow your commander away."
The Mylerax understood and contacted its servants in the caves. It was able to contact them telepathically. The Mylerax could not read the minds of other life forms normally, but they and the creatures who served them had been genetically engineered to receive each others thoughts. Exelicos and his team however had had extensive brain surgery to prevent the Mylerax from reading their thoughts.
"I swear we will find you, and you will pay for this indignity." The monster fumed.
"Yes well I'm not through yet. No harm is to come to two survivors from the rescue team and my friend. Two young women and a man."
The Mylerax hesitated, not sure how to tell the Doctor.
"I saw the three survivors, similar to you earlier on the monitors, just before you came in." Exelicos said.
"What happened to them" the Doctor said, terrified of the answer.
"The Deschikars, those blue monsters tore the male apart on the first floor. They took the two women down to a lower level. They managed to escape in the vents, but I haven't seen either of them since."
The Doctor paused for a few moments as he tried to take in that Dana may be dead.
"Where are the two women. Where did you take them." The Doctor said over the monitor. He tried to keep his cool, but his anger was evident.
"We don't know" The Mylerax said. "They tricked us and stole the last sample of the cure."
The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't think the monster was lying.
"Well it seems we outwitted you again. I don't see you conquering any more universes personally. You've become lazy and stagnated."
"We'll find your little friends and we'll make you watch as we tear her flesh, and crush their bones into dust.
The Doctor meanwhile ignored the aliens sadistic taunts and made preparations to leave.
"We'll keep in contact with this communicator. If I see any monsters in the caves, I'll tell you." Exelicos said to the Doctor.
"Until they know we can't do anything to hurt their leader." Exelicos continued.
"Well I didn't say it was a full proof plan, but I hope it can buy me enough time to get a good look at the reactor." The Doctor replied.
"What do you intend to do?"
"I'm hoping I can use the power from the reactor to create a force field around your universe to stop any more of those monsters from getting out. It's not an ideal solution. I don't like the idea of trapping your people in there with those things."
"My people were lost many millennia ago. What's important is to spare the worlds of this universe the same fate."
"Don't say that. The fact that you are still hear doing all you can to stop those abominations means they haven't won. They haven't crushed your people's will yet. I'm hoping that this force field will stop them for now, and when the next rescue team and more scientists arrive they can help your people."
"You want the creators to interfere again? They didn't exactly do a great job before."
"Agreed, they were reckless and cowardly. This time they'll have to take responsibility."
"What if they decide to just destroy our reality?"
"They won't. It's illegal in this part of the galaxy, and goes against all of their principles. They'll have to sort it out. I'll make sure."
"You're a very brave man Doctor."
"I'm only doing what anyone would do. Necessity is the mother of courage as well as invention. You need to stay here, not just to threaten them, but I'll need your help when readjusting the power. Also keep a look out for my friends."
"I'm not too upset at being made to wait here Doctor, but I'll do whatever I can to help you and others."
"Good man, now lets see about saving two, and possibly more universes shall we?"
Dana and Reosa had heard the Doctors ultimatum as they crawled through the vents.
"We have to get back to the caves." Dana said.
"Whatever reason the Doctor has to drive them away from down there, we have to help him."
"I agree, but how can we help him? We're unarmed, and the aliens will probably be waiting for us down there. We could end up being more of a burden than anything else." Reosa replied
"We still have the cure. If the Doctor is cornered we could use it as a bargaining chip."
Reosa thought for a few moments before agreeing.
"Okay, fine. They'll probably catch us wherever we go anyway"
"That's not a very hopeful attitude."
"Well you know seeing your team mates and son be ripped to pieces doesn't exactly fill you with optimism."
"You're right. I'm sorry. At least we can do all we can to make their killers pay."
"That I can get behind"
Dana and Reosa crawled back down the shaft to the lowest level in the caves. They tried not to make a sound so as not to alert the monsters. The two women hoped that the aliens efforts would largely be on the Doctor now.
They made it to a room in the caves, containing a generator, that was littered with corpses, though these were not the corpses of scientists. Instead they were of Exelicos people.
"I saw one of these creatures before." Dana said.
"When me and the Doctor first arrived in this godforsaken place, we came through the caves, and we saw an alien like this, that was dying, the poor thing. It didn't seem like the other aliens we've seen in the facility, though granted it was dying.
"Even dying, one of those blue monsters would try and rip your throat out" Reosa said with anger. "Sadly it doesn't seem to matter if these things were on our side or not." She continued.
"No I suppose not." Dana said with regret. "Come on we need to." Suddenly Dana froze as she noticed there was one of the blue monsters standing in the only way out, aside from back up the vent, blood dripping from its mouth.
"Now look. We have the only known cure to a virus that's currently killing all of your superiors above. Come one step closer and I'll drop it."
The monster didn't seem to believe her however and walked slowly towards the two ladies. Suddenly a hand came bursting through the floor and grabbed onto Dana's leg. It was one of the phasing monsters. Reosa was right. The aliens had been expecting them to follow the Doctor and had laid a trap for the two women.
Dana struggled to break free, whilst Reosa fetched for a large rock to use as a weapon. The blue creature however held Reosa's arm and bit into it. Reosa in desperation bit the monster back.
She didn't do much to hurt it, but the shock was enough to surprise the beast, allowing Reosa to pull her arm free and punch it right in the mouth. Again however her hit did little to hurt the monster either, but Reosa before it could retaliate. Reosa picked up a large pointed rock off the floor and hit the monster in the jaw breaking it. She then rammed the rock straight into the beasts chest and shoved it against a wall. The rock pierced its skin, but its muscles were so thick she wasn't able to make a deep cut.
The monster tried to push back, but Reosa kept hitting the monster in its broken jaw with her fist. Eventually when she realised that she didn't have the strength to impale the monster, she pulled the rock out of its chest and started to hit the monster across the face until it collapsed to the floor. Reosa continued to beat it until she smashed its skull in completely.
Two more blue monsters meanwhile emerged from down the caves and latched onto Dana by either arm. One of them tried to pull the cure out of Dana's hand, but as she struggled free, it fell to the ground and destroyed the last sample.
Both monsters dived to grab it, but they were too late. Dana also managed to pull her leg free from the phasing monster below.
The entire room began to shake. Rubble began to fall from the ceiling, and Dana was almost impaled by a large shard of rock, which she barely managed to dodge.
Both of the monsters lunged at Dana, desperate for revenge, but she picked up the shard that had almost impaled her and thrust it through one of the monsters chests when it jumped at her.
The shard was longer and stronger than the rock Reosa had used. Dana pushed the corpse of the first monster back into the second, sending it backwards into Reosa who struck the second monster from behind with her rock, knocking it out, after which she then smashed its skull in whilst it was on the floor.
The phasing monster soon emerged from the floor, roaring and hissing, but again the room started to shake. Rather than try and fight the creature, Dana and Reosa ran down the corridor.
"What the hell is causing that?" Reosa asked.
"It sounds like the giant? but I thought the Doctor said" Dana was interrupted by room shaking so badly that more rubble fell from the ceiling, and this time a large piece landed on Dana, trapping her.
"Just go, that thing is coming up behind us. You'll die if you stay." Dana insisted, but Reosa didn't listen to her. She tried to push the rubble off of Dana's leg, but it was no use. Still Dana helped to push, as she realised that she couldn't make Reosa leave otherwise.
As they both pushed harder and harder, Dana looked around to see the phasing monster standing at the other end of the corridor.
Suddenly more rubble came crashing down from the ceiling. Some of it landed on Reosa causing her to fall on top of Dana. As Reosa tried to get up, a massive hand came from above through the falling rubble.
Dana screamed and Reosa struggled to pull her free, but it was futile. The two women could see the giants eyes peering through the hole in the ceiling that the hand had come down through. At the same time Dana suddenly saw the phasing beasts feet right beside her head.
To Be Continued.