Chapter Six: Lizards and Things

"River Song: How could we not notice that? The Doctor: Low level perception filter, or maybe we're thick." ~Time of Angels

            In the Doctor’s 900+ years of living, never before had he been able to resist the sound of a distant scream. This time was no exception to the rule. More on instinct than anything else, he broke into a full-out sprint towards the sound of the noise; the exterior of the TARDIS. Before the Doctor could even reach the door, the screaming was cut off, like the source of the scream was snatched right then in there. Luckily for the Doctor, by the time the Doctor opened the door Rebecca was still there and suffered no visible wounds.

            “What’s the matter--” The Doctor started before Rebecca pointed a shaky hand down the ally-way. His gaze shifted to where she was pointing and saw something that only the Doctor could be responsible; an alien. Four aliens, to be exact. Four real, proper aliens. The sunlight glinted off of their scaly green skin as they searched throughout the ally-way. As they lifted boxes and looked in trashcans, they showed no sign of ever hearing Rebecca’s short lived scream.

            “They’re-they’re-but they’re lizards!” Rebecca stuttered out, her mind spinning from the sight that she was seeing. At least the Doctor could pass for a human, even if he did act more than a little odd. But these-- these were real, proper aliens.

            “Not lizards exactly,” The Doctor said, acting much different than he was just a minute ago. “They’re called homo reptilia, Silurans, if you will.”

            “Whatever they are, they don’t belong on Earth,” Rebecca said. “Where did they come from?”

            “Actually, technically they were here long before humans were, they just took a nice long nap under the Earth’s surface.” The Doctor said defensively, as if she were insulting his own race. “To them you’re the aliens.”

            Rebecca obviously hadn’t thought of this possibility. “Okay, so if they were sleeping under the Earth, what caused them to wake up? And why are they up here, on the surface?”

            The Doctor turned to face her, looking slightly amused at the situation. “That’s the question, now isn’t it? They’re not supposed to come up on the surface for another ten or so years… Well, there’s only one way to find out!” Cupping his hands over his mouth to amplify the sound, he started to yell. “Oi! Over here! There are some humans over here, if that’s what you’re looking for. We surrender!” The four lizard people looked over to see two humans in a dead end, and they strode right over. They pointed their guns at the Doctor and Rebecca, as if they actually were thinking of escaping. “We surrender!” The Doctor said once again.

            If possible, Rebecca’s expression grew even more frightful. Her voice was hushed and urgent. “Doctor, what the hell are you doing?”

            “Trust me, I know what I’m doing. Believe it or not I’ve handled tons of situations like this the same way, and nothing bad’s happened yet.” The four Silurans stood up rigidly and made their way over to the Doctor and Rebecca, each brandishing equally dangerous-looking guns.

            “Somehow that doesn’t really make me feel any better,” Rebecca muttered, taking a step back behind the Doctor.

            Before the Doctor could comfort her any further, the Silurans were right in front of them, lined up by height. The first and tallest one spoke in a deep baritone. “We don’t accept pleas of surrender. We have a strict mission to eliminate every stinking ape from the surface of this planet. Prepare to die.” They all prepared to shoot in perfect unison, better than any army on the surface of Earth.

            “Wait, wait, wait!” The Doctor said. The voice of the Time Lord stayed the hand of the Silurans. All four of them had a blank look spread across their face. “Don’t shoot us, not yet. We understand that you’re superior to us and have no reason to answer our questions, but I’m curious. What are you doing here? Why here, and not anywhere else?”

            This time the second one, a little shorter than the first one, answered. “We have come to eliminate every stinking ape from the surface of this planet.”

            “I got that already,” The Doctor said, a little impatient. “But why? Why are you doing this?”

            All four of them looked confused, as if they weren’t sure how to answer the question. They looked at each other, asking each other with their eyes if they could answer. Finally, the third one spoke. “We have come to eliminate every stinking ape from the surface of this planet.” It was at this moment that the third one made eye contact with Rebecca, its eyes staring right into hers. Suddenly all four of them were enveloped with a dark light, black as night and yet somehow it was still a light. It glowed brighter and brighter, or rather darker and darker, until she was forced to close her eyes.

            Seconds later she opened them again, seeing something completely bizarre in their place. They were little dome shaped robots, exactly like the ones from Star Wars that her dad made her watch when she was younger. The light was gone and the harsh sunlight reflected off of their metal body, leaving Rebecca to think that they weren’t a hoax, that they were real, genuine robots, exactly like the ones from Star Wars. She had the strangest feeling that the Silurans didn’t have the ability to transform into robots at will. And by the expression on the Doctor’s face, it was apparent that he didn’t know that anything was wrong.

            Then, as suddenly as they appeared, the robots were gone, replaced with the homo-reptilia. The Doctor was deep in conversation with one of them, his tone urgent, but her mind couldn’t focus on the words that were being shared. She was still trying to wrap her head around what just happened and whether she was going to share it with the Doctor. It wasn’t long before she decided that it was something that she couldn’t afford to keep from him. “Doctor?” She whispered frantically. When there was no answer, she spoke louder. “Doctor? I need to speak with you about something.”

            “Not now, Rebecca, I’m busy,” He told her without even looking at her. When he started talking again she pulled him into the TARDIS and slammed the door. “What did you do that for?” He demanded, trying to get past her to get to the door. She wouldn’t budge. “I need to get back out there! I was doing something very important, more important that you can even imagine.”

            “Listen to me! There’s something not right--” She tried to say, but he interrupted her.

            “I was trying to talk with them, trying to figure what they’re doing here,” the Doctor said. “I know there isn’t something right, and that’s what I’m trying to fix.”

            “You don’t understand!” Rebecca said, exasperated. “Have the homo- whatever they are actually answered any of your questions?”

            Despite the Doctor’s insistence that there was nothing out of the ordinary-- or at least, not more out of the ordinary that was normal for the Doctor-- he couldn’t help but admit to this. “Well, no, not really, but I was just getting there! If you hadn’t pulled me in here--“

            Rebecca didn’t even let him finish. “That’s because they can’t answer the questions! They’re not living, breathing creatures--they’re robots! I saw it with my own eyes.”

            “Now, that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard, even coming from a human. “Rebecca, I’ve seen them before. I know that this is a lot for you, and you won’t have to deal with any of this ever again after this. But trust me when I say that they’re not robots; they’re living and breathing creatures. They’re just creatures you’ve never seen before.”

            “They are robots, I’m sure of it! Why don’t you believe me?”

Like always when she got frustrated, Rebecca’s voice became higher pitched and the words sounded almost shrill. She took a deep breath to calm herself down and bring her voice back down to normal levels. “Didn’t you say that your sonic screwdriver can disable some technology? Well, why don’t you use it against the homo-reptilia? If they’re robots, they’ll short circuit or whatever robots do. If they’re not robots, than it won’t affect them at all. Either way, it’s a safe bet.”           

                “But then they’ll realize we have alien technology, and that’ll give us even more problems!” He exclaimed, apparently having lost his patience with Rebecca’s ‘lowly human brain’. “Rebecca, I know what you think you saw must have seen very real to you.” At this point she was shaking her head, knowing what he was trying to say. “But I’ve been doing this much longer than you have, and I am 100 percent positive that they’re homo-reptilia, not the robots you think they are. You know what, why don’t you stay in here while I take care of the Silurans? It’ll probably be safer….” He made no mention at the fact that he didn’t want her out with him, but that went without speaking.

            “No, I’m staying out there with you,” Rebecca said, quickly formulating a plan in her mind. “Someone has to be there to say ‘I told you so’ when you’re proven wrong.” She couldn’t help but notice the fact that he was so certain that they were not robots when in fact he had not seen any evidence to prove that they were real homo-reptilia. Rebecca attributed this to his pig-headed stubbornness.

                 The Doctor smiled suddenly, a small little smile that Rebecca could not quite interpret. "Whatever floats your boat, Princess," He said, then paused. "Another phrase to add to the list of 'Things I Will Never Say Again'. Anyway, can you let me through now?"

                Rebecca stepped away from the door, seeing no options other than to let the Doctor through. He gave her a look of great sympathy, just like someone would give a mentally unstable person in the hospital, only making her feel worse. The Doctor opened the door and took a step back outside, Rebecca right at his heels.

                As soon as he was out the door, the Doctor quickly began to apologize to the homo-reptilia that they left, completely ignoring the fact that they hadn’t moved a muscle while they were gone. Realizing that her time was running short, Rebecca's mind went into overdrive trying to finalize her plan to prove the Doctor wrong. Oh, and probably save the lives of quite a few people in Cardiff.

            Her eyes fell to on of the Doctor's pockets, where the unmistakable bulge of the sonic screwdriver sat. It's now or never, She told her self as she was debating whether to take it slow or fast. Leaving no time to doubt herself, Rebecca's hand reached into his pocket and grabbed it.The Doctor turned to face her, his mouth taking the shape of an ‘o’. Before he could understand what was going on enough to be able to do anything about it, she pushed the button and pointed it at the four lizard people.

            At first, nothing happened and Rebecca trembled with fear that she was wrong, and this could be the start of a war. But slowly, the lizard people started to twitch in a very robotic manner, making all sort of beeping and whirling sounds. It was at this point that the Doctor regained his mental clarity and realized what trick he had fallen for. Within seconds the four of the lizard people shrunk, their figures changing in proportion that would be gross to most people. Rebecca couldn't help but look away, while the true alien looked on with fascination, as he did with most things. When she looked back, instead of four homo-reptilians there were four robots that looked like massive beetles with bulky legs and thin antennae that resembled telephone towers, only on a much smaller scale.

            The two humanoid figures stood staring at the inactive robots, the man looking on with fascination, while the girl gazing with pure trepidation. They said nothing, the tension clouding the air almost like something real, making the space between them seem much farther apart than it actually was. Finally, breaking the fierce silence between them, the Doctor picked up a nearby stick and poked the nearest beetle. When it didn’t move, he repeated the process until he was sure that all four robots were safely deactivated with no chance of coming back to life on their own. He held out his hand to Rebecca and she automatically returned the screwdriver to him.

            Just when she was about to say something, the Doctor spoke without even looking at her. “I can’t believe that they could get past my defences. I mean, I’m a Time Lord for crying out loud! Getting fooled by a simple perception filter like any old human, it’s positively humiliating.” He then he shifted his gaze towards her. “Like most humans, I mean. Apparently you’re not like most humans.”

            Rebecca just nodded, knowing that’s what he expected her to do. Suddenly she didn’t want to tell him that she didn’t see the actual robots, just some stupid R2-D2s. He was giving a compliment in his Doctorish way, and she didn’t want to do anything that might diminish that. “Yeah, I suppose I’m not like most humans you’ve met.”

            He stood staring at the beetles a little more, something obviously troubling him. She was about to ask what was wrong when he suddenly perked up, a small smile on his face. “Let’s go hunt some robots! They’re bound to be some more where those came from, wrecking havoc in town. Maybe then we can figure up what they’re up to, other than exterminating the human race.” He turned around and started heading away from the TARDIS and towards the street.

Author's Note

"Whatever floats your boat, Princess," ~Just to annoy Liv. I know that it's a long chapter, but the next chapter will be a really short one to make up for it. And only one question this time.

1. Does this chapter make sense? And if not, what doesn't make sense about it?

Reviews please?

Reviews

[compositionc]

1. DALEKSDALEKSDALEKSDALEKSDALEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSSSSSS

[~goh~]

Holy...she totally saw DALEKS.
Makes sense, awesomeness, MOAR PLZ.

[DontBlink158]

Yeah this chapter makes sence. And i kinda liked the "Whatever floats your boat, Princess". I thought it was funny! Great job, cant wait to read more!!

[obvious pseudonym]

It made perfect and was really good I thought it was funny when she stole his screw driver.

[halflives]

HOW DID I FORGET TO REVIEW THIS ONE~
Great, love. Makes sense.