The 13th Doctor: Village of the Daleks (Lacey Knickers & OstrichFromJoust)

Lacey Knickers

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Joined
Aug 30, 2014
Location
Midwest USA
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The Year 2514
The Astral Queen, a stricken passenger liner en route to the Terra 12 colony


The ship is doomed, and the Doctor knows it; he's done all he can, buying time for the surviving passengers and crew to reach escape pods. Now it's time for him to reach the TARDIS and make his own escape. Quickly he scans the surrounding area and himself with his sonic screwdriver and confirms what he feared; the amount of radiation leaking from the damaged, about-to-blow Singularity Reactor is now far beyond safe levels. He feels dizzy as he stumbles his way through the deserted corridors to the cargo bay where the TARDIS had materialized two days ago.

Once aboard his ride, he realizes how bad his symptoms are. Knowing what is to come, he tries to set the TARDIS controls, but his vision is failing and his motor skills are deteriorating. It's all he can do to confirm he's set course for Earth; there's no telling exactly where or when he'll arrive. As he pulls the lever to dematerialize, he collapses to his knees, semi-conscious, as the regeneration process takes hold.

The Time And Relative Dimensions In Space craft hurtles through the continuum, carrying her old friend to safety as the stricken passenger ship explodes. The timeship materializes early, however, high in Earth's atmosphere, spinning and crashing towards the surface.


The Year 1898
Earth

In a sleepy village in Victorian England, night has fallen, but the quiet is broken as a strange blue box, spinning on its vertical axis, plummets from the sky. It skips off the top of a garden wall with a loud crash, coming to rest on the grounds of a large estate, somewhat upright but leaning against a large tree.

A door in the side of the box opens, and a dazed woman stumbles out. She is tall, but not tall enough to fill her clothes, which are obviously tailored for a man; white shirt and black waistcoat that hang loosely from her frame; black trousers with cuffs dragging on the ground, and boots much too large for her feet.

Her auburn hair cascades unkempt to her shoulders, and she constantly seems to be shoveling it off her face, adding to the impression of a manic, unstable person. Blue eyes with a hint of gray dart about trying to take in her surroundings. She appears to be in her thirties.

Whether it's the ill-fitting pants and boots or her general disorientation, she falls backwards, landing unceremoniously on her bum in a sitting position. Letting out a frustrated snarl, she pulls her boots off one at a time and tosses them away. Struggling back to her feet, she again stumbles, this time on her too-long pant legs. She plops back down and struggles out of the pants, standing again. Her shirt is long enough, barely, to serve as a dress, or would in certain more liberal times.

“Too small! Too small this time! Well, not too small, been smaller before...I think...” she says aloud, then hesitates.

“All this hair...voice much too high...” She tries to turn back to the blue box and nearly tumbles over again. “...center of gravity in a very odd place...No, it can't be...”

Her hands begin to grope portions of her body, as if giving herself a medical exam, finally settling on her breasts.

“Oh, dear! I really am a girl this time!”

She continues, touching her arms and legs, counting her fingers and toes. She passes her hands over her face.

“Inventory complete, everything here, arms, legs, hands, feet, fingers, toes, nose, eyes, ears, pancreas, liver, lungs, hearts...” She grabs handfuls of auburn locks that have again fallen in her face, “and HAIR! SO MUCH BLOODY HAIR!”

The last words are shouted, bringing the sound of dogs barking in nearby kennels.

"No! No! Not more noise, less noise! Good doggies, quiet doggies!"
 
"No, it was a delightful evening, William. I would love you see you again," the young woman said, dressed in an elegant red dress. She had shorter black hair with a small bow, The man she spoke to gave a grin, leaning in for a kiss. She smiled and turned, smoothly guiding them so he pecked her cheek and they lightly hugged. "Yes, another night," she said, patting him on the shoulder as she left and entered the large estate.

The Hodgkins family was a noble line a tad low on the charts when you looked at it all. Still, they held some power, and a seat of governance over the village and area here. It was a nice, quiet place, the village having some good farmland and rural charm. The Hodgkins family had a few children being taught and led to take over, lead the tradition and stick around here for life. It wasn't hard to guess not all of the young Hodgkins were thrilled to govern over a small village for the rest of their days. Amanda Hodgkins was the odd one out, the noble-woman that was more interested in science and things you couldn't explain yet than tax laws and land statutes. Twenty-six now, there was quite a stream of gentleman as her parents wanted her to marry and find a husband, because a woman was nothing without a man, of course.

Avoiding her parents as she hurried to her room, Amanda quickly changed to a more comfortable outfit to settle in for the night, her long black nightgown, continuing to get ready for bed. A violent sound makes her turn her head, hurrying to the window. "What is that?" she says to herself, brown eyes wide as she saw some sort of flying box flying to the ground, just having slammed into the wall of their garden. Suddenly it was quiet again. Not one to leave things alone, Amanda quickly rushed out, down the stairs and out to the garden.

Shivering a bit from the chill of the night air, she looked around for whatever had seemingly fallen from the sky. "I saw it, it couldn't have been nothing," the woman muttered to herself. Whatever it was wasn't trying to hide themselves very hard, as she heard a loud shout, and then the dogs in the kennels started to bark. It was a woman's shout, something about hair? Amanda hurried around the building and saw it, the strange thing from earlier. A large, blue box, big enough to fit one or two people inside. What appeared to be the woman who'd shouted was standing, trying to quiet them down. Was...was she nude? The dress she was wearing was so short, only barely going past her waist. "Boys! Quiet!" she called, approaching them and the woman. "Hey! Shush!" she said, the animals starting to quiet down, her time spent with them paying off. "So, I'm guessing you have an interesting story for why you're nearly naked and vandalizing our garden?" she said, looking to the woman with a light smile.
 
The strange woman spins towards the sound of Amanda's voice, nearly falling over from her all too slowly dissipating disorientation.

“Vandalising? Vandalising? I haven't vandalised anything! I crashed! There's a difference. And I am not nearly naked...all right, I am, but only because those blasted trousers were so long!”

She points to the pants she had been wearing, lying on the ground. There is a cylindrical object, like the handle of a tool, only made of a shiny metal, protruding from one of the pockets.

“Oh, I really shouldn't leave that lying about,” she says as she scoops the device up.

She takes a few steps closer to Amanda, looking as if she's trying to place her face; “Pretty human female, in her twenties, dark hair...Sarah Jane? No...Clara? Clara Jane?”
 
Amanda's eyes widened, head tilting a bit as her confusion simply rose. The woman was speaking so fast, seemed so flustered. "Crashed?" she said, looking around. What exactly did she crash? No carriage seemed to be around, what exactly did she crash, and into the top of their garden's wall? "Miss, unless you flew in here like a bird, I have to say I doubt you crashed something," she said, clear doubt hanging from her words. What a peculiar woman she seemed to be, Amanda watching as she snatched up something from her too-big pants. "I, why are your clothes too big?" she asked, also wondering why her clothes looked more like that of a man's, with the shirt and pants, not so much a dress or something. Thoughts moved from that as she got closer, staring at her face and concentrating. "Uh, no, Amanda. Amanda Hodgkins, what is your name?"
 
“Amanda! Lovely name, from the Latin, 'worthy of love'. Pleased to meet you, Amanda, I'm the Doctor. At least I think I'm still the Doctor. Can the Doctor be a woman?” She shrugs her shoulders. “I don't see why not. I'm the Doctor.”

The Doctor pauses abruptly, apparently listening to some sound in the distance. A moment later the dogs again begin to bark, though it's a more fearful bay this time. Peering into the darkness, the Doctor speaks softly, in a tone and cadence similar to a nursery rhyme, in spite of the ominous message:

Hard Dalek, Cold Dalek.
Little Can of Hate.
Evil Dalek, Angry Dalek,
Exterminate!​

“Amanda Hodgkins,” the stranger continues, “I know we've only just met. Nevertheless, I hope you will trust me when I say this to you:

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!”

And with that, the woman calling herself the Doctor grabs Amanda's wrist and pulls her at a dead run. At first she leads the way towards the Blue Box, but then two shapes emerge from the darkness, moving to block their way.

Amanda can see the forms better now; two machines, metal casings roughly cylindrical in shape, with three limb-like protrusions, one extending from the domed top and two from the midsection. They appear to be rolling on unseen wheels, but don't appear to be encountering any bumps on the uneven ground.

The Doctor's face becomes set in a grim visage at the sight of the machinelike intruders, and she pulls Amanda in the opposite direction, towards the main house. A grating voice, almost metallic, comes from one of the machines.

“HALT! YOU WILL COME WITH US! YOU WILL OBEY OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!”

“Damn them,” the Doctor mutters as she urges Amanda onward, “Damn them.”

As the machines continue their pursuit of the two women, tight beams of light emerge, first from one of the machines then from the other, along with a loud tonal sound like an extremely high whistle. When the beams hit objects, a tree and a gatepost, the targets burst into flame with a loud BOOM!
 
Amanda couldn't help but smile as the woman babbled on, such an interesting person. Certainly turned her day around to meet her. "Yes, I like my name as well. It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Doctor," she said, about to extend a hand and ask what brought a doctor to her place at night, when the woman's attention was suddenly taken by something else. The dogs started their barking again, though not one of warning and intimidation to halt an intruder. No, this was out of fear. She looked as the Doctor turned away, staring at something in the dark.

She looked to the woman's face as she spoke her name, sensing a sort of tension in her voice, and certainly getting the urgency as she shouted. "Run!?" she exclaimed, moving as her wrist was suddenly grabbed, trying to keep pace as the Doctor hurried away. "Why are we-" she asked, looking back and gasping as her eyes widened. The strange cylinder things, made of metal, were moving themselves and coming after them! They even spoke! "What on Earth are tho-Ahhh!" she said, shrieking out as the beams shot out from them. They dodged the blasts, explosions and flame shooting up as they hit around them.
 
The Doctor and Amanda keep running as silence falls; the blasts from the strnge weapons have ceased. The Doctor is the first to notice the quiet, and she slows down and turns.

The machines have stopped; they're motionless nearly 50 meters distant.

“They're not pursuing. And they've stopped shooting. Why? What aren't they coming for us?”

She lifts the device she'd retrieved from her trousers and waves it in the air in the general direction of the mechanical intruders. The end of the device and a small panel in the side light up and it emits a high pitched sound. The Doctor then gazes at the lighted panel for a moment as if reading something.

“Their power reserves are down to almost 27%! They can't follow us.”

That would seem to be good news, but the Doctor appears to be as worried as when they were being shot at.

“They're damaged somehow, like wounded animals. If they have a ship or facility here, it's damaged and failing them. And in order to make repairs, they will need an alternate source of power...”

She wheels on Amanda, inquiring urgently; “Have there been any strange occurrences prior to tonight? Damage to property, things stolen, people acting strangely or gone missing? Anything out of the ordinary?” She pauses, glancing down at her bare legs and feet. “Besides me?”
 
Amanda pants as they keep running, slowly coming to a stop as the two realize they are no longer being chased. She looked around, frightened, but mostly confused. "I, what were those things?" she shouts at the woman as she pulls that weird tool she'd picked up. It's a very curious thing, like a small torch it lets out light as she waved it around. The woman seemed to be entirely focused on that small thing, somehow able to get something from it, though to Amanda it just appeared to be emitting beeps and green light.

It was like she was speaking another language as the Doctor went on about power reserves and facilities. Amanda's eyes widen as the woman turns right around, staring at her and inquiring about any strange goings-on about the town. "I, I don't know," she said, thinking back from the past few weeks. "Wait, yes, there's something weird. Besides you, that is. Some people from the village have gone missing, my father and his men have been looking into it but haven't been able to find anything. You act like this happens to you a lot, you're not from here, are you?"
 
“No, I'm not from here. I'm not really from anywhere any more. I'm a traveller.” There is a touch of sadness in the Doctor's voice as she says this.

“Those creatures...yes, there is a living thing inside each of those machines..are called Daleks,” she explains, “and they are capable of only one emotion: hatred. They hate all creatures that walk in the free air on their own legs. They hate all life that is not Dalek.”

She stares at the motionless cylinders for a moment, then approaches them, keeping a careful eye on her device. Stopping about 15 meters away, she addresses them directly.

“Not much of a threat at the moment, are you? You know who I am, of course. You always know, somehow.”

The upper extension of one of the Daleks moves, seeming to examine the woman.

“DUAL CARDIAC MUSCLES; PULMONARY BYPASS SYSTEM; REGENERATIVE DNA. SHE IS A TIME LORD. SHE IS THE DOCTOR!”

“THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE. THE DOCTOR IS MALE,” its partner responds.

“Well, I was until this regeneration,” the woman interjects.

The two domes swivel, eye stalks regarding each other, then back the woman standing before them.

“YOU ARE THE DOCTOR! YOU ARE THE ENEMY OF THE DALEKS! YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!”

"Shut it!" the Doctor cuts them off, "I know how low your power levels are. You can't even charge your weapons. Go back to your hiding place and tell your commander, The Doctor is here! And I give you one chance; leave this planet if you can, because whatever you have planned, I will stop you!"

The Daleks turn and retreat the way they came, moving much more slowly than when they first appeared.

The Doctor turns back to Amanda; "Tell me more about these missing people. Where were they last seen?"

The Doctor's hyperactive mind still seems to jump quickly for one thing to another, but the danger seems to have focused her; she's far less disoriented than she was...but she's still not wearing pants!
 
Amanda couldn't help but frown as the Doctor spoke, wondering what had happened in her life to make her say that she no longer had a home. Though curious, those thoughts were quickly sent away as the woman described what exactly had been chasing them. "Wait, you're telling me those metal cans, they're living things?" She'd never seen anything like it before, strange metallic creatures, that supposedly had living beings inside of them. It was incredible, terrifying as it was. She moves to let the woman approach the creatures, following closely behind them. Clearly she's been in contact with them before, so hopefully she'd know how to handle them.

More confusion traced her face as they spoke, saying very weird stuff about this woman she'd met. Dual cardiac muscles? Regenerative DNA? Were they saying that she wasn't human? Was that even possible? To add to the surprise, they said that she was really a man, and the Doctor seemed to agree with them! Even though it seemed impossible, something about this rang true with her. So strong, so commanding, and they'd only just met. Amanda looked back to the Doctor as the Daleks slowly moved away from them. "Back in town, the men have been investigating and so they should know exactly where. Um," she said, looking down again before back up to her face. "Would you like to change before we go looking into the missing people? You're still not wearing pants, and I'd rather not go about town in my nightgown."
 
“Yes, of course, brilliant idea! Clothes...” She glances back towards the TARDIS. “I don't really have much that will fit any more. And nothing...appropriate.” She smiles cryptically. “I've never actually worn a dress. Unless a toga counts.”
 
Amanda nods. "Let's head back to my home then, if you don't have anything to wear. I'm sure we can find something for you," she said, nodding for the woman to follow her back to the large mansion. Her eyes were on the Doctor as they walked, looking her up and down, curious. "So, all of that with the Dalek things, is that true? You aren't human, and you regenerate?" she asked, eyes bright with her curiosity.
 
The Doctor strides along with Amanda, gaining a little more familiarity with body with each step. Don't think about walking; just walk, she silently reminds herself.

“So you heard all that?” she says in response to Amanda's question. “No, I'm not human. My people were called the Time Lords. Rather arrogant name, I suppose, but we learned more of the laws that govern Time than any other race. As for regeneration; indeed, for us, when one body nears death, we regenerate to a new one. Most of the time. Eventually, though, if we use up all our regenerations, we just...die.”

They reach the house, and the Doctor examines the architecture. “Old manor house, been in your family for...two hundred years, perhaps? That would make this the late 19th century?”
 
Amanda couldn't help but grin as the Doctor told her of her people, that she indeed was not a human, much as she looked it. She'd always wondered if there was more out there. So many people were sure they were all there was, that there was no possible way anything else could exist out there, that humans already knew everything there was to know about the universe. Amanda knew they were wrong every night when she looked up at the stars, there had to be something out there.

"So, your people are like constables of time? But, how can you enforce such laws...unless you have a way to travel in time?" she said, looking down as she thought, but back to the woman with a bright look in her eyes, wondering how she might answer that. They had ventured around the garden, getting close to her home now. The guards and men of the mansion grounds had been in a flurry after the great amount of noise earlier, looking all around for what caused the commotion. "This...may be hard to explain to my father," she said, realizing they would be coming back into the home, her in her nightgown, the Doctor half-naked.
 
"Actually, Time does a good job of enforcing its own laws. But to answer your next question; yes, I travel in time. And space."

The Doctor pauses for a moment after Amanda's warning regarding her father's reaction to her state of undress.

"My skirt caught fire in the blast, perhaps?"
 
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