Fic - Doctor Who: Underground Part One

[charleygirl]

Title: Underground Part One
Author: charleygirl
Rating: PG
Type: Gen, action/adventure
Characters Involved/Pairing: The Eighth Doctor, Lucie Miller
Summary: A trip to Artus Prime goes rather awry, as the TARDIS lands somewhere completely unexpected...
Disclaimer: Everything barring any original characters belongs to the BBC/Big Finish Productions.

UNDERGROUND

 

PART ONE

 

It wasn’t the most hospitable of places: dank, dripping, cold and dark. Those who did visit shivered in their shorts and t-shirts, wishing that they’d stopped to consider the sweater and maybe picked up a sweater before they left the car. They stared around with awe, complained at all the steps they had to climb and how low they had to bend to avoid hitting their heads. But they were only visiting, after all, inside for maybe an hour before heading off to continue their holiday above ground in the sunshine, their subterranean adventure relegated to a few blurred snapshots and something tacky from the souvenir shop.

 

Jason didn’t really care what the tourists thought. He’d spent half his life underground, torch in hand in case the lighting failed, leading parties of them through the cave system, recounting tales of miners and ghosts with a fluency borne of experience. It was the tourists who brought in the money and paid his wages, but his favourite time of the day was first thing in the morning, venturing below alone to switch on the lights and check for floods and obstructions before the first tour at ten o’clock.

 

Taking a hard hat from the rack just in case, he unlocked the gate and headed carefully down the slippery steps to the old mine workings which made up a substantial part of the underground tunnels. His footsteps echoed boots glancing off the rock as he descended, torch beam bobbing ahead of him until he reached the junction box where the light switches were located. The old bakelite switch clicked home, and the passage was immediately illuminated. Others might have been wary of being in the caves alone, superstitious or afraid of the ghosts of miners killed in the shafts. Jason didn’t care about any of that, aware that only two men had died underground: one on a blasting accident, and another who drowned himself in a fit of melancholy over a woman. He’d neither seen nor heard them in all his years working in the caves, and certainly didn’t expect to come across them that morning, despite what he told his tour groups.

 

Where some of his colleagues found the silence oppressive, he regarded it as liberating. Whistling a jaunty tune, he headed further into the workings to check the water level. There had been heavy rain recently, and at one point the water had come as far as the foot of the steps that led to the surface.

 

It was when he turned on a bend, between the two biggest natural caverns, that he heard the noise. Startled, as nothing should have been making a noise so far underground, he stopped dead, listening. After a moment it came again, a kind of wheezing, groaning sound, fluctuating in volume and echoing from the rock.

 

For the first time in nearly twenty years below ground, Jason felt a twinge of apprehension in his stomach. Nothing down there should have been making a sound but him, so…

 

“What the hell is that?”

 

 

***

 

 

“Oh, brilliant. You’ve done it again!” Lucie Miller yelled over her shoulder as she peered into the darkness outside the TARDIS.

 

“Can you see where we are? The instruments aren’t able to pinpoint our position.”

 

“Well, it’s dark, dank, cold…” Lucie squinted into the blackness, trying to make out her surroundings. It was difficult when the only light came from the TARDIS itself, spilling out between the open doors and doing little to illuminate anything. She tentatively put a foot outside. “Feels like rock on the ground. It’s – eurgh!!”

 

“Can you define ‘eurgh’?” called the Doctor.

 

“That wasn’t a description – something just dripped on me ‘ead!” exclaimed Lucie in disgust, frantically wiping at her hair and hoping it was just water she could hear dripping around her. She turned to continue speaking to him through the vestibule that connected the doors to the console room, and nearly jumped in the air when she realised the Doctor had come up behind her without making a sound. “Christ! I wish you wouldn’t do that!”

 

“Sorry,” he said, sounding anything but. He stuck his head outside, and had a look round before withdrawing it. Nothing dripped on his head, Lucie noticed sulkily. “Hmm.”

 

“Well?” she asked. “The Imperial garden party on Artus Prime?”

 

The Doctor coughed. “It would appear not.”

 

“Disco on Drakkis IV?”

 

“No.”

 

“A cave?”

 

“Certainly looks that way.”

 

“Good,” said Lucie, “otherwise I would have said that their parties definitely need livening up.”

 

“I should say so. I’ve been to autopsies with more party atmosphere.” The Doctor rummaged in the pocket of his jacket, muttering irritably, “I wish you hadn’t made me wear this. All the useful stuff is in my other coat.”

 

“Doctor, you were not going to wear that ratty old velvet thing to a party,” Lucie told him firmly. “You needed a bit of poshing up, anyway. That suit’s Armani. And it’s dead sexy.”

 

“Dead what?” He sounded distracted. After a moment he gave a little cry of triumph and Lucie had to cover her eyes as a brilliant torch beam nearly blinded her.

 

“Dead sexy,” she repeated when she was able to see again, “but don’t get any ideas that I fancy you or anything. You’re really not my type.” The Doctor looked decidedly uncomfortable, and she grinned. “You’re embarrassed now, aren’t you?”

 

He coughed again, and ran a hand over his short hair. It had become something of a reflex action since he’d had it cut, almost as if he was reassuring himself that it was still there. “Certainly not,” he said, but Lucie could have sworn she saw him blush. The light swung away, over the rocky ceiling, and she could only make out the angular lines of his face and the open collar of his shirt. “Ah. Now we know what caused the scanner to malfunction.”

 

“We do? What, being underground makes the TARDIS pack up?”

 

The Doctor ignored her. “Lead,” he said, wiggling the torch for emphasis. Lucie could see tiny crystals winking in the light. “Lots of it, too. And it’s blocking any communication between the TARDIS and the outside world. She uses that communication to triangulate our position in time and space,” he explained patiently when Lucie just looked blankly at him. “If she can’t do that, she can’t tell where we are.”

 

“So that’s why the scanner was flashing up ‘NO DATA’?”

 

“Precisely.”

 

There was a pause, punctuated by the steady drip of water on rock. Lucie felt goose bumps start on her arms and legs – she’d dressed for a posh do, not a caving expedition. A chilly breeze was coming from somewhere, whistling round her ankles. “So,” she said eventually, more to break the silence than because she really wanted to know, “where’d the lead come from then?”

 

“Natural phenomena,” came the reply. “There’s quite a sizeable vein. I wonder why it’s not been mined out.”

 

Lucie shrugged. “Maybe no one could be bothered.”

“I find that hard to believe. Why would someone sit on such a supply of ready cash?”

 

“Dunno. Prefer to use Visa myself. D’you think we’ve landed in a mine, then?”

 

“It’s very possible.” He moved off, footsteps echoing on the rock. Lucie realised that if she wasn’t careful she was likely to get left alone in the dark. Pulling the TARDIS door shut, she hurried after him, trying not to slip on the wet floor.

 

“Oi, Doctor – wait for me!”

 

The rock was uneven. As she reached him her foot went out from under her – she would have gone arse over teacup had he not swiftly caught her arm.

 

“Thanks,” she said breathlessly as he righted her, “should’ve put on hiking boots, but they didn’t really go with this dress.”

 

“You’re cold,” was his response, and it wasn’t a question. Next minute he was shrugging out of his jacket, somehow holding onto the torch at the same time, and draped it around her shoulders. His white shirt glowed ethereally in the torchlight. “You should learn to dress more appropriately.”

 

“Says the man whose idea of fashion is two centuries out of date! I was dressed for a garden party, remember? It was you who landed us in a potholer’s paradise!” Lucie pointed out, glad of the heavy fabric of the jacket. She slipped her arms into the sleeves, her hands warmed by the dangling cuffs.

 

Hello?

 

“If you wore something that covered your - ” the Doctor began, but Lucie cut him off.

 

“Did you hear that?”

 

Can anyone hear me?

 

She could see him frowning in the beam of the torch. “Hear what?”

 

She listened, trying again to catch the sound she’d just picked up.

 

Hello?

 

“There it is again! There’s someone else down here!”

 

“In that case, they can tell us where we are. Come on!” The Doctor started off towards the voice. Lucie grabbed hold of the buckle on the back of his waistcoat, not wanting to be left behind.

 

“If anything big, green and scaly comes at us, you can talk to it first,” she told him, then yelped as a drip caught her on the head again.

 

 

***

 

Jason hadn’t heard the strange sound again.

 

He continued his usual check of the tunnels, reasoning that the noise, whatever it was, must have a rational explanation. As he considered what might have made the sound, he did briefly wonder whether the workings had flooded again, and that he could have been hearing rushing water, but when the shafts proved to be as dry as they ever got that idea went swiftly out of the window.

 

Perhaps an animal had fallen through one of the overgrown shaft entrances, up on the hillside, and had been calling for help. What animal would that be, then? He thought scornfully a moment later. How many elephants are there round here?

 

Could be the generator, he supposed, but then a quick radio call to Steve up on the surface confirmed that it had been running perfectly the night before. If there had been a problem it would have affected the lights, after all, and they were all fine.

 

It seemed it had no explanation. But Jason was determined that he would not give in to superstition and ascribe an other-worldly cause.

 

It was just then that he heard the voice.

 

 

***

 

“Admit it. You’ve got us lost down here, haven’t you?” Lucie asked after a rather long period of silence, during which the Doctor had led her down a series of twists and turns, the tunnels becoming progressively narrower the further they went.

 

“I have an excellent sense of direction,” came the defensive reply ahead of her.

 

“Maybe, but underground in the dark it doesn’t seem to be working that well.” Lucie shivered again, despite the Doctor’s jacket.

 

“These tunnels are man made, not a natural phenomenon. Therefore, logically we should reach the surface. Eventually.”

 

“Yeah, it was the ‘eventually’ bit that bothered me. Don’t fancy getting stuck down here for days. Might never be found.”

 

“Defeatist.”

 

Lucie stuck out her tongue at the Doctor’s back. “Just out of interest, you got any idea where the TARDIS is?”

 

There was a pause. Then the Doctor said, “Um. No, actually.”

 

“So we are lost!”

 

“Not necessarily. If we turn round and retrace our steps…” The torch beam skittered over the walls, all of which looked exactly the same to Lucie. She was getting thoroughly bored with rock now, and she had never found it that interesting in the first place. In fact, she wanted to be somewhere far away from rock. She wanted to get out of there. Now, preferably.

 

“Maybe if we ever find that person who was calling they might be able to show us the way out,” she said.

 

“Good point. Though don’t you find it odd that you’ve not heard them again? And that I couldn’t hear them at all? Even if we were walking away from them, sound carries in a place like this - ”

 

Hello?

 

“Looks like you spoke too soon,” said Lucie. “Can you hear it now?”

 

Can you hear me? I need your help!

 

“Yes. And I don’t think I like it much,” the Doctor replied. “There’s something…not right about it. I can’t…I can’t think what it is.” He sounded frustrated.

 

“It sounds as though they’re in trouble. They must be nearby.” Lucie leaned round him and swiped the torch from his grasp. “Hello?” she called, swinging the beam around, trying to get a fix on anything that wasn’t a million years old and dripping water. “We can hear you – where are you?”

 

Need…need help…

 

“We know – we want to help you! Where are you?” The light bounced from the far walls of the tunnel, throwing weird shadows around them. For a minute, Lucie thought she saw…something. It might have been a figure standing there, or it might just have been another twisted lump of rock.

 

“Lucie.” A cool hand covered hers, steadying the torch. She glanced round to see the Doctor’s face, half lit by the beam – his eyes were colourless in the harsh light, but he was looking down the tunnel. “I think you might have found them.”

 

 

***

 

Hello? Can anyone hear me?

 

Kids, thought Jason. It had to be kids. They must have got in the same way he’d always done as a lad – down the shaft up by the castle ruins. It was unsafe and fenced off, but that wouldn’t stop youngsters if they were hell bent on stupidly risking their lives. Must have been them making that noise, whatever it had been. He was annoyed at how relieved he felt to find a mundane explanation for it.

 

“Hello?” he shouted back. “Where are you? Are you hurt?”

 

Need help….need your help…

 

“OK, yeah, but I need to know where you are! Can you give me any idea?”

 

Lost…need help…

 

“Damn!” He tried the radio but got only a burst of static. The voice sounded as though it was coming from deeper into the old mine workings; beyond the point those in charge deemed it safe to take the public. Jason always abided by the health and safety rules, but he had been given the run of the place as a child, and knew all the tunnels and caves. In cases like this it was just as well he did. Turning his powerful torch on once more, he headed past the DANGER – NO ENTRY sign and into the narrow passage beyond. “Hold on – I’m coming…”

 

***

 

It definitely looked like a man, Lucie thought, as she stared at the rock formation in the light from the Doctor’s torch. The shadow it threw looked human enough, too, looming over them as it stretched across the ceiling. It could almost have been a piece of naïve art, primitively fashioned and left there as a statement about the origins of man or something else equally pretentiously pointless.

 

“What’s it doing here?” she asked after watching the Doctor examine the figure for some minutes.

 

“Hmm? Oh, I should think that the rocks have formed this shape naturally. The water drips from the ceiling and gradually calcifies, making all sorts of strange shapes,” he replied, using that tone that Lucie always mentally termed his ‘school teacher’ voice. “Surely you’ve heard of stalactites and stalagmites?”

 

“Yeah, of course. Had to do a school project on ‘em once. But that’s the weirdest stalactite I’ve ever seen! Aren’t they usually…well, pointy?”

 

“Usually, yes, but there’s a first time for everything, I suppose,” the Doctor mused, his shadow joining the rock man’s on the wall as he moved.

 

Lucie looked at the figure again. The shape had a very distinct outline, and outline that did very much give the impression of two arms, two legs growing out of the floor, and a head. It was hard to tell by torchlight, but the uneven surface of ‘head’ almost seemed to have crude features. For a moment it seemed that a pair of eyes was looking out at her. She shivered, and this time it was nothing to do with the cold.

 

“I don’t know,” she said. “It doesn’t look very natural to me.”

 

The Doctor smiled. “Nature has a great capacity for being strange, ugly and downright weird. That’s one of the things I like most about it: unpredictability.” He clapped the figure companionably on the shoulder. “Our friend here is an excellent example of that. All the way down here, away from outside influences, nature has managed to – nngh!!”

 

“Doctor!” Lucie leapt forwards as he suddenly convulsed, face screwed up in pain. The torch beam went wild, plunging across the ceiling and sending everything back into shadow. Lucie groped blindly, catching hold of the Doctor’s arm. He was still holding onto the statue. She pulled his hand away with an effort – it almost felt as though he didn’t want to let go. As she prised his fingers away from the rock he gave a cry and crumpled to the floor, hitting the hard surface with a heavy thud.

 

Lucie crouched down beside him, removing the torch from his slackened grasp. Adjusting the beam, she could make out his face, still now, the eyes closed. “Doctor? Doctor, say something.” There was no response. Quickly she put a hand in front of his mouth and was relieved to find that he was still breathing. He was out for the count, though, and didn’t react as she shook his shoulder none too gently. “Come on, Doctor, pack it in. You’re scaring the crap out of me,” she told him, adding in a warning tone, “Don’t make me have to slap you.”

 

Nothing. Not even a twitch.

 

Lucie swore. It echoed from the rocky walls and, pleased with the effect, she did it again, a bit louder. What the hell was she meant to do now? She couldn’t lift the Doctor, let alone carry him, and even if she could she had no idea where the TARDIS was. One wrong turn and she could be even more lost than she was already.

 

Hello?

 

“Oh, great. Not you again. Are you real or just some weird echo?”

 

Need help…

 

“Yeah, and so do I. Any chance of you helping me?”

 

…help…

 

“Thought not,” said Lucie. Whatever that voice was, it had to be coming from somewhere. She could just sit tight and wait for the Doctor to wake up, but with weird rock figures and even weirder disembodied voices she didn’t fancy hanging around for long. The place was seriously giving her the willies. “Right. If you can shout for help, so can I.”

 

Decision made, she cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled as loud as she could.

 

 

***

 

“Can you give me some idea where you are?”

 

Jason hadn’t heard the voice again for some minutes as he hurried down the winding passageway in the rock. The deeper he went, the less likely it would be for him to be able to radio for assistance should the young idiots have hurt themselves. He was well beyond the so-called ‘safe’ area here, and acting on his own initiative. If anything went wrong and it was discovered he hadn’t told anyone what he was doing, the caves could be sued like crazy despite the kids having illegally entered the workings.

 

“Hey! Can you still hear me?” he yelled. “Are you OK?”

 

…help…

 

Jason stepped up his pace.

 

 

***

 

 

“Hello? Is there anyone real out there? Can you hear me?”

 

Lucie’s voice bounced back to her once again. It felt as though she’d been shouting herself hoarse for hours now with no result. Maybe there really wasn’t anyone else down there, and that voice she’d heard was just some weird figment of her imagination. It hadn’t said anything for a while at any rate.

 

In the meantime, she was left alone with a Time Lord who might be dying for all she knew and a torch whose battery would eventually run down, maybe sooner than later. Then she’d be in the dark. Alone in the dark. With strange voices drifting around…

 

Lucie shook herself. “Get a grip, Miller,” she muttered, “You are not afraid of things that go bump in the dark. Got that?”

 

She glanced at the Doctor in the yellow torchlight – his face had a horrible waxy look to it, reminding her of something from Tussaud’s. He hadn’t moved in ages.

 

“Hang on, Doctor,” she said, even though it was doubtful he could hear her. “I’ll think of something. I’ll get us out of here…”

 

 

TBC