saros five page 2

Large metal girders towered above them as they continued their descent to the very foundations of the landing platform. There was very little light and both Sterne and Brent had produced their torches from their side packs to see the way ahead of them.

The beam from Sterne's torch scanned the area in front of him. He could see the pieces of twisted metal that had fallen from the platform and amongst this the light from his torch fell upon what they had been looking for.


A large silver elongated sphere lay practically buried before him. Mud splattered the surface which Sterne cautiously began to wipe off. The surface of the sphere was still hot, which he was made more aware of as rain cascaded down from the platform's surface above onto the sphere which gently sizzled and steamed.


‘Brent! Over here!’ shouted Sterne with excitement.


There was no reply.


Sterne, excitedly began to wipe all the mud away from the sphere's surface, anxiously looking for any markings that could possibly identify it. He called out for Brent again as he began to dig the earth away from around its base.


‘Brent! I've found it!’ Sterne shouted again. He took a closer look at its surface and noticed that a crack had appeared. He ran his finger along the crack as a light green liquid, almost translucent began to seep through.


It wasn't much longer before Sterne realised that Brent still hadn't answered him. He stood up and shone his torch in the direction that Brent had gone.


There was no sign of him.


He cautiously moved away from the sphere in the direction in which Brent had gone. Unknown to him the crack that had appeared on the sphere became wider and the green liquid now gushed out as the sound of air rushed in. The sound of the sphere cracking echoed around him, which made Sterne jump. He instinctively moved his torch from left to right and back again several times.


‘Brent?’ The beam of light from his torch scanned the ladder from which they had descended earlier and the surface of the planet above. The light caught something lying face down in the mud. Sterne gulped the air from his oxygen mask as his heart rate began to beat faster as he approached the figure. ‘Brent, is that you?’


As Sterne made his way across, something moved to the left of him. He stopped suddenly and shone the torch in the direction to see what it was. His heart beat faster still, so much so he could almost hear it. Panic was beginning to set in. With no answer from Brent and the eerie sounds of cracking echoing around him, he felt as though he wanted to run.


He looked upwards at the platform. Something was moving across its surface, scurrying. It couldn't be Brent, he wouldn't have been able to get there so quickly, thought Sterne, perhaps it was one of the other crew members. He couldn't shout to them as the oxygen mask prevented this and with the atmosphere being much thinner than that of Earth's it wasn't practical to remove it. With his breathing being much heavier he checked his side pack to ensure everything was okay. He looked up again at the platform. He glimpsed shadows moving across its surface.


Brent peered over the edge of the platform his foot slipped and Sterne instinctively grabbed him by his suit, preventing him from falling over the edge. ‘Look!’  cried Brent. He indicated below them. An eerie blue glow had caught his attention which was emitting from beneath the platform. Sterne removed a set of binoculars from one of his packs strapped to his side and through them he could see the blue emission clearly.


‘What can you see?’ asked Brent.


‘Not sure, whatever it is, it's either behind some rocks or buried beneath the surface.’ Sterne paused as he studied the view a little longer. ‘The glow appears to be more of a pulse. Like a heart beat?’ he suggested.


‘Here, let me take a look.’ Sterne handed Brent the binoculars. ‘yes, I see what you mean but wait, it's stopped!’ declared Brent.


Sterne snatched back the binoculars and quickly focusing he viewed the landscape beneath them. He scanned the area from left to right and back again, but could see nothing. ‘Whatever it was had gone.’ he said.


‘Come on, let's take a closer look!’ shouted Brent, who was already making his way down a ladder, down towards the surface of the planet beneath the platform.


Sterne replaced his binoculars in his side pack. Well, this is different from the usual routine, he thought and quickly followed Brent.


~~~

Sterne frantically began to run towards the ladder leading up to the platform, his thoughts were now on getting back to the safety of the base than the whereabouts of Brent. His bots were caked in mud and so running was virtually impossible, with each step he took his legs ached.

He suddenly slipped. His torch slipped from his hand and as it hit a rock protruding from the muddy ground the light went out. He felt around him in vain to retrieve it and came across the figure he had earlier caught site of, lying face down in the mud.


It was Brent.


‘Brent, Brent! Are you okay?’ Sterne's hands moved across Brent's body feeling for any signs of life. His hands fell upon Brent's mask. It had been removed and split virtually in two. ‘Oh my God!’ he gasped. With his mask removed Brent had very little chance of being alive. His hands frantically searched the muddy ground for his torch. Thankfully he found it. It didn't work straightaway so he hit it several times into the palm of his hand until it emitted a pale beam of light.


As he turned his body over, Sterne brought the beam of light directly onto Brent's face. The sight that greeted him made Sterne move back with a start. Bret's face had virtually been ripped away. What remained was virtually unrecognisable. Sterne dropped the torch and frantically crawled his way across the surface in the direction of the ladder. He desperately wanted to get away from this place, so much so that he lost his footing several times as he climbed the ladder.


Suddenly something touched his foot. He momentarily looked back and gave a yell filled with fear. Sterne couldn't see anything at all. He would have to run for it, he thought. Without a second thought, Sterne ran across the platform in the direction from which he and Brent had come. As he reached the edge of the platform he tripped and slipped across the mud towards the airlock. The mud felt cold between his fingers as he frantically scrambled and crawled towards the airlock door. He wanted to give up, his legs ached, his whole body ached but he had to get inside and to safety. Whatever it was that was out there, back there in the darkness, that had killed Brent, whatever it was wasn't going to get him, he thought.


He struggled to his feet and instinctively went to operate the control panel to the airlock but the door was already open. Sterne scrambled inside and hit a panel to close the door behind him. Air began to fill the chamber and he quickly removed his oxygen mask; sweat poured down his face as he slowly began to regain a more easier, natural intake of air, his heart still pumping hard.


Sterne leaned against the metallic door for support, he felt as thou he could sleep forever, but first things were first, he had to warn the others of the danger outside. He began to unbuckle his side packs and oxygen mask and let them fall to the floor. He turned top operate the inner airlock door to re-enter the base when what greeted him was quick and sudden.


A large, three clawed hand cut through the air striking him across the face, which sent him back across the airlock, hitting the other side. The force of hitting the wall winded him and he almost fell into unconsciousness. A roar echoed the chamber as the creature moved towards Sterne's helpless body and picked him up.


Its jaw opened wide, saliva dripped down from between its teeth. Sterne began to stir and frantically waved his arms about him trying to force the creature to drop him and with every successful blow he managed to achieve, but to no avail. The creature lunged at Sterne's throat and ripped it open with great ease. The last thought that ran through Sterne's mind was that of his family back home on Earth at which point his life ended.


Blood. The creature needed blood.


~~~

Ace held the crystal* up to the light. It was beautiful, she thought. She wasn't sure as to its purpose, if it had one, but the intricate pattern of electronics within its centre seemed to suggest that it did. The crystal intrigued her but she didn't want the Doctor to see or he too might take a fancy to it himself. So it was no surprise that she quickly put the crystal back into her jacket pocket as the Doctor entered the console room.

The Doctor was aware that Ace was up to something but he didn't immediately acknowledge the fact. He walked over to the console and ran his hands over the various dials and switches everything seemed to be in order, so what was Ace up to?


‘Well?’ he asked, not looking at her while she fumbled with her jacket.


‘Well what?’ she asked in return, moving over to the Doctor's side. The tone in her voice made it quite clear to the Doctor that she wasn't going to give him an easy time. He looked at her from the corner of his eye and moved around the console to the opposite side.


‘Ace!’ snapped the Doctor.


Ace jumped and suddenly began to explain things about the crystal and where she had discovered it*, but it suddenly became clear to Ace that the Doctor wasn't listening to her. She even went as far as removing the crystal from her pocket to show him when she realised that he was going on about the co-ordinates and quickly put it back.


‘What about the co-ordinates?’


‘Have you been messing around with the settings? We don't appear to be on our original course.’


‘No. You set the co-ordinates yourself when we came aboard.’ Ace moved around the console to take a look for herself. She wasn't diverse in the knowledge of resetting co-ordinates on a Type-40 nor any TARDIS and the Doctor knew it.



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