Doctor Who episode 6: The Finale

“YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME DOCTOR. I WILL HAVE YOUR POWER” I could hear the tentacle writhing below, scraping its way up again and shuddered. The Doctor took my hand again and pulled me towards the door. Ben-Ged was shaking himself awake as we ran past, trying to find his gun. We ran through the door and the Doctor locked it. (read the first episode here)

*opening credit music* oooooooooweeeeeeeeeeeeeoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo 

“That should give us a bit of time!” The Doctor said, fishing a torch out of one of his many pockets.

“Why didn’t you use the torch on the way down?” I asked accusingly. “I don’t want to know how many rats I stepped on!”

The Doctor grinned at me as he started running down the tunnels, picking paths at random as we came to intersections, the torch’s light skittering as he ran. After a couple of minutes we came to a door set into the wall. It looked new and recently used. The Doctor looked at me.

‘Shall we give it a go?’

‘Please! I want out of these tunnels!’

The Doctor zapped the lock and pushed the door open slowly. We walked out onto a fire escape, with stairs leading up to street level; there was another door down to our right which the Doctor made for.

‘So not up and out to the safe outside world?’ I asked sarcastically.

The Doctor ignored me and pushed through the door back into the museum and we entered the Temple Courtyard. I remembered being here 2000 years ago, the first time that we met Apulia. Back then it was fantastic in its magnificence, flanked by pillars and statues. Now it was dark and damp from being underground for too long. The walkway beneath our feet rang out loudly as we moved along it. The Doctor paused opposite the head of Sulis Minerva, a remnant of the once sacred site not preserved in its glass case. I looked at it and the Doctor started monologue-ing to himself  

‘He, it, whatever Malum Sanatore is, controls everything in this building. Don’t touch anything. Especially the water. Remember when we were by the Great Bath? Did you get a strange urge to touch the water? He is attempting to control everyone who enters this site. Seeping their power away from them, with or without, their consent.’

I thought I saw something move out of the corner of my eye, but when I looked back to the statue nothing had changed. I had a bad feeling.

‘Doctor...’ I said.

‘I need to figure out what to do. How to stop this. He can’t have the Tardis. I’ve hidden it away, put the shields up as they would say. But if he gets me, he gets the tardis, and that can’t happen.’

‘Doctor!’

‘What?’

‘That head, just moved.’

The doctor turned to look at the bronze head of Minerva. And it turned to look at him.

‘Errr yes now that is not right.’

The floor shook and the room was filled with laughter.

‘YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME DOCTOR. YOU ARE IN MY DOMAIN.’

The glass surrounding the statue’s head cracked and shattered, the casing which appeared to be holding it up broke away and the head rose up on a mechanical body.

   ‘MY SERVANTS HAVE DONE ME PROUD. FITTING EXTRA DEFENSIVES IF THEY WERE EVER NEEDED.’

With a groan Minerva wrenched free from the ground and stepped towards us.

   ‘I think this is the time when you normally say run!’ I said grabbing the Doctor’s hand and pulling him away.

   ‘The technology is absolutely fascinating! In order to do that he has fused modern technology with his knowledge of alien craftsmanship.’

   ‘Yes, yes the killer robot is awesome now let’s please get away from it!’

As we ran away from the temple courtyard I heard the door to the tunnels smash open as Ben-Ged came out. Shots fired and we ducked as the walls around us were filled with bullet holes.

   ‘Where are we going?’ I said as we ducked into a corner to catch our breath.

   ‘The Sacred Spring. There must be something there!’

   ‘Isn’t that the other way though?!’

   ‘Yeah, but the museum is all linked up, sort of like a figure of eight, if we keep going back through the museum we can find some stairs down to the Great Bath and from there to the Sacred Spring.’

   ‘How do you know all this?!’

   ‘I have a good head for directions!’ The Doctor grinned. ‘Come on. Just a bit more running to do!’

We started running again, through the museum, past the Gorgon’s head and up the stairs towards the start of the museum.

   ‘This way’ The Doctor said pushing through a door concealed in a wall.

   ‘Wow the people who designed this place sure like secret wall doors!’ I said closing the door quietly behind me and followed the doctor down the metal staircase to the Great Bath.

   ‘Hopefully they won’t realise that we have back tracked…’ the Doctor said as he hurried to the sacred spring.

The Sacred Spring was dark, lit only by the emergency lights from the building around it, even so, you could still see the steam swirling over the surface. The heat coming from the surface was warming after the cold of the night.

There was a bang as the door to the back stairs was flung open and the sound of metal on metal rang out as Minerva started making her slow way down the stairs.

   ‘Damn. That didn’t work. Quick, climb over the top of the arch into the spring. But stay on the sides. Don’t touch the water itself.’

The Doctor helped me climb over the top of the wall and lower myself down onto the small ledge surrounding the spring. When I had edged myself down and over to the floor around the side the Doctor followed. He pushed me round the spring until we were hidden from sight in one of the alcoves. The floor was damp and covered in bird poo so slippery under foot. The Doctor motioned me to be quiet as he saw Minerva’s head appear over the top of the wall. There was a metallic grating sound as the head turned to look over the spring, but thanks to the angle of the archway we were hidden from sight. Minerva slowly moved back down again and continued on towards the exit of the museum, still searching for us.

   ‘What now?’ I mouthed.

   ‘We’ve escaped Minerva but I doubt Ben-Ged will be so easily fooled.’ The Doctor whispered. ‘We need to stop Malum but I can’t figure out how yet’ He hit himself in the forehead with the flat of his hand. ‘Come on think! How many plans have I foiled? How many times have I come up with solutions? Don’t fail now!’

   ‘Think it through.’ I said.’ What is Malum trying to do? Get power in order to get back to his home planet to take over and most likely enslave them as that is what most evil masterminds want to do. How is he doing that? By stealing their energy or ‘power’ from people by either drawing them into the water or absorbing them whole, through mind control. So, first off get rid of the water and then knock out the mind control..?’

The Doctor stopped and looked at me.

   ‘That isn’t a bad idea. Right! I remember Rosa saying there was an overflow system for the spring. We just need to get to that and drain it into the river. Once it is out of this site and away from Malum it should become harmless. I can’t touch the water though so not sure how to do that…’

   ‘I’ll do it.’

   ‘Are you sure? It’s pretty dangerous.’

   ‘Doctor being with you is pretty dangerous! And yes, you said yourself you can’t touch the water or all will be lost so it is up to me! I think I can see the over flow point anyway. You go back to the issue desk and figure out a way to stop that beacon.’

   ‘Sounds somewhat like a plan!’ The Doctor grinned. ‘Keep your head down, Ben-Ged is still about, once you’ve done it, don’t stick about and come find me in the reception hall.’

   ‘Will do.’

The Doctor gave me a long look before turning and making his way back over the top of the wall into the museum. I watched him go and then looked around me; I saw a long metal bar lying on the floor nearby, most probably left behind by the operations team earlier in the day. I went over and picked it up, not too heavy which was useful. I moved around the spring until I could see the dark shape of the gate in the water. I needed to shut the gate into the Great Bath and open the one to the overflow system. This was going to be easier said than done. I walked back around the spring till I was standing above the sluice gate to the Great Bath; I raised the metal bar above my head, shifted my footing slightly and then rammed the bar down. And missed. The bar hit the edge of the spring and bounced off jarring my hands.

   ‘Ahhh!!’ I dropped the bar and jumped up and down rubbing my arms to relieve the pain. ‘Right, retarded moment over. Try again.’

I repositioned myself and held the bar over the edge of the spring this time. Raised it once more and brought it down heavily onto the top of the gate. This time it hit on target and I felt it shift under the impact and was rewarded by a heavy grating sound as it moved and then fell into place, shutting the stream off.

   ‘Yes! Right now for the other gate.’ I got down onto my belly and shuffled to the edge of the floor, looking over the spring. The sluice gate to the overflow system was already open but not nearly open enough to drain the water quick enough. I lowered the bar into the water onto the top of the gate and began hitting it downwards in order to open it more. It wouldn’t budge. I tried again and again, getting more worried about the amount of noise I was making and hoping Ben-Ged wouldn’t turn up. I tried raising the bar up above my head to give some more weight behind the hits. As I brought it down I was caught off guard by a seagull flying overhead, breaking the silence with its raking call which made me jump and I dropped the bar into the spring and it sank noiselessly to the bottom, the steam swirled over the place where it had sank almost mocking me.

   ‘No!!’ I groaned. I looked up and tried to see if there was anything else I could use to open the gate. Nothing. I sat up and started to think, and then I heard the almost soundless noise of approaching boots on the steps behind me. Ben-Ged-Bentovin. I was in full view with nowhere to run, if he looked over the top of the spring I would be a goner. I looked around me desperately and then my gaze settled on the dark waters of the spring. I know the Doctor said not to touch the water but what choice do I have? If I stay here I will be shot by Ben-Ged, and fed to Malum. Game over, no second chances, no questions asked. But if I get into the spring I could kill two birds with one stone; hide from Ben-Ged and shift the gate open.

My mind made up I slipped into the dark waters. The heat of the waters took my breath away. I felt down with my feet until I could feel the gate directly underneath me. I took a deep breath and ducked under the surface of the water just as Ben-Ged’s head appeared above the wall of the spring. The heat of the water was over powering. I felt like I was in a cooking pot. The water slowly tugged at me as it flowed past me into the partially open gate. I lowered myself down, using the wall of the spring to steady myself, until I could feel the top of the gate. I pushed down with all my strength. It wouldn’t move. I kept pushing until I thought my lungs would burst. I needed to go back up for air. I couldn’t breathe. I had no way of knowing if Ben-Ged was still there, hopefully he had moved on, but right now I didn’t care, I needed air. I slowly worked my way back up to the surface of the spring, holding my face towards the top so it would only be my face that broke the surface. I gulped in mouthfuls of air, trying to keep my ragged breathing quiet. I risked a quick glance towards the arch of the spring, and there to my horror stood Ben-Ged smiling at me.

   ‘Hello.’ He said and raised his gun.

I took another deep breath and quickly re-submerged into the hot water. There was a muffled bang as Ben-Ged fired and I felt a bullet skid past me in the water and nick the top of my shoulder. I screamed, pain flooding through me, releasing precious air.  That was far, far too close. I positioned myself above the gate of the spring, crouching so my feet were on top of the gate and my arms were in the opening. I pushed, straining, feeling my strength slowly fading as I put everything into opening the gate, the wound on my shoulder burned. I looked up and saw a dark presence looming over the water. Ben-Ged had climbed over the spring wall and was stood above me, taking his time to line up the perfect shot. In my frustration I let out another cry, releasing more bubbles and giving away my position even more. Suddenly I felt a jolt beneath my feet; the gate gave way with a rust groan, and fell away from the wall. The water rushed through the new gap dragging me through it. I tried in vain to cling onto the wall and was pulled through into the dark swirling mass of water.

I woke, coughing and gasping to find myself half in a pool of fast flowing hot water. I got my breath back and looked around to find that I had gone through the overflow system but had, thankfully, been stopped from going down the drain and into the river by a large boulder blocking the water’s path. The water flowed around it regardless but I had been saved. My whole body ached as I moved, the wound on my shoulder had closed, (a saving act from Malum perhaps?) but my shirt was stained with blood. I picked myself up and climbed over the barrier back into the museum, watching my footing in case I slipped and ended up further down the drain. I ran back up the stairs, (how many times must I run around this museum tonight!?) and made it back to the reception hall.

   ‘Doctor?’ I whispered.

The Doctor’s head popped up over the top of the desk and he gestured me over.

   ‘What took you so long? What happened are you ok?’ He said, noticing the blood on my clothes.

   ‘I got into a bit of trouble with the spring and Ben-Ged… but I’m ok, the water did its trick.’

   ‘You went in the water? Why does no one listen to me!’ The Doctor started grumbling.

   ‘Ok, so enough of my failings, have you got anywhere with your part of the plan?’

I stepped up behind the desk as the Doctor popped back down again. He had ripped up part of the floor and had dragged wiring out from the floor and the audioguide boxes and was busy ‘sonicing’ them.

   ‘I have isolated the main beacon and have rigged this audioguide to stop it.’ He said, pointing to an audioguide which was covered in wires and plastic, all seemingly held together with a series of elastic bands.

   ‘Ok so that is the mind control issue. What are you going to do about the evil alien living under the city?’

   ‘That is an issue I have yet to get to.’ The Doctor said fiddling some more.

   ‘Err Doctor?’ I said

   ‘Yes?’

   ‘I think I just heard something…’

Simultaneously we both slowly raised our heads above the desk and saw not only Ben-Ged at the entrance, but also Minerva-Robot.

  ‘Fantastic!’ I said quickly hiding back behind the desk as they both started moving towards us. ‘You better knock that beacon out now!!’

  ‘Trying, trying!’ He said zapping the audioguide and changing settings. ‘Does Ben-Ged still have a gun?’ he asked me.

I snuck a quick look back over the top of the desk and jumped back down as an audioguide box exploded above our heads.

   ‘You know what? I am going to take that as a yes!’ I said ducking from flying plastic. ‘How long do you need?’

   ‘What?’

   ‘To get that working? How long do you need?’

   ‘Two minutes should do it.’

   ‘Ok, diversion central here we come!’ I said, diving to the right and scrabbling along the floor.

   ‘Be careful!’

   ‘Don’t worry, he’s already shot me once, he isn’t that good a shot!’ I laughed.

I looked around me for something to distract them with and settled on a box of audioguides. I ripped open the doors and started pulling the guides out of their sockets. I lobbed the first one over at random and heard it smash on the floor. The footsteps stopped. I sneaked a peak over the top of the desk and saw it had done the trick; both were looking away from the Doctor and towards me.

  ‘That’s right; you jumped up piece of metal! This way!’ I flung another audioguide and hit Minerva in the face with a clunk. The robot reeled but then started walking again. I threw another one at Ben-Ged but he ducked and it glanced off his shoulder, he fired his gun again and more audioguides exploded in a shower of plastic and purple string. I moved further back down the desk.

   ‘How’s that coming along Doctor?’

   ‘Just a little bit more time!’

   ‘Ahhh!!’ I jumped back over lobbing a stapler I found on the side. ‘Hurry up!’

Ben-Ged strode up to the desk raising his gun, aiming at me. And fired. It jammed. Ben-Ged growled and fired again. Still jammed. He threw it away and lunged over the desk; I jumped out of the way and clambered over the desk, knocking a till over in the process. Ben-Ged grabbed my foot and dragged me back down again.

   ‘Got it!’ The Doctor shouted. ‘And…. Stop!’ He said, pointing the audioguide at the World Heritage symbol. Ben-Ged froze, his hands towards my throat, he blinked, his lifeless eyes widening as Malum’s control over him was gone for the first time in ages. His arms lowered.

   ‘What the…?’

I looked at him and then punched him in the face. Taken by unawares he fell back unconscious into the desk.

   ‘What on earth did you do that for?’ The Doctor asked.

   ‘Big security guard with a gun who has no idea what is going on. I think he would be safer not being around to ask all the questions…’

The Doctor paused.

   ‘Good point.’ He said moving round the desk to where Minerva lay. Whilst being caught up by Ben-Ged I hadn’t realised what had happened to her. She lay just in the door way of the desk. Dangerously close to where the Doctor had been working. I got up and joined him looking down at it.

   ‘So that knocked out all Malum’s control of the site?’

There was a loud rumbling and the room shook.

   ‘DOCTOR! YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO GET AWAY WITH THIS! I STILL HAVE THE UPPER HAND!’

   ‘I’m going to say yes!’ The Doctor grinned at me.

   ‘Ok, so I ask again, now what?’

The Doctor was sat on his haunches and was thoughtfully poking the robot.

   ‘The audioguide blocks out the beacon but only in a limited area. He can’t control anything in the museum, but the tunnels will still be his. If we put Ben-Ged back down there it would be evil kill-y robot again.’

   ‘Ok, so let’s not do that then.’

   ‘But, if we use Minerva, re-program her, attach the beacon cancelation to her and march her back to her ‘master’ and…’

   ‘He’ll be stuck!’ I finished for him. ‘But what if he gets around it?’

   ‘I could wire up something…’ the Doctor said half-heartedly, running a hand through his scruffy hair. ‘But just because there is an alien living underneath it, doesn’t justify blowing this whole place up!’

   ‘Can’t you temper it? Not use quite so many audioguides…? I don’t know’ I shrugged. ‘But an audioguide bomb does sound cool!’ I grinned.

   ‘We’re talking about blowing up a world heritage site because of a killer alien! …and yeah it is pretty cool.’ He grinned back.

The Doctor ripped open the chest area of the robot, revealing a complicated jumble of wires and flashing lights. The Doctor grinned again.

   ‘Oh aren’t you pretty’ The Doctor purred. ‘Almost a shame to blow you up…’ He leant over and grabbed some wires and audio guides from the side. I slumped down on the floor next to him. ‘Are you alright?’

   ‘Yeah, just all this running and being shot at has made me pretty tired, and I have a bit of a headache.’

The Doctor looked over his shoulder at me, pausing in his work, concern showing on his face.

   ‘How long were you in the water for?’

   ‘I don’t know, I think I passed out when I went through the drain…’

   ‘The drain?! I’m surprised you made it out alive!’

   ‘All in a good days work!’ I smiled.

The Doctor went back to twiddling and fiddling and five minutes later he sat up and clapped his hands together. I had fallen asleep momentarily and jumped with the sudden noise.

   ‘Done! Pass me that audioguide’ He gestured over behind me.

   ‘yeah, umm yeah, ok’ I said, getting up and passing it to him, shaking my head to try to clear my head.

He took it and pressed some of the buttons and some lights in her chest cavity flashed in response.

   ‘Awesome! Right seeing how taking the whole robot there seemed a bit excessive I have managed to use her technology to boost the cancelation signal and also wire it up to blow when we press this button.’ He pointed to the ‘play’ button on the audioguide which he then passed to me. He bent back down and put his hands in amongst the wires and pulled them out of the casing. ‘One portable alien bomb. All we need to do is chuck this down into the well and then run.’ He said smiling.

  ‘ok, so we have the bomb, we have the control. What are we waiting for?’

   ‘Nothing, lets get going!’

Once again we started towards the entrance to the museum, I remembered back to the morning when I was excited about seeing the changes, now I was filled with a sense of dread along with excitement, of what will happen in the next half an hour. We made it back down into the tunnels, even without the threat of a mad-mind-controlled-alien/human/robot it was still ominous going back into the dark.

The Doctor led the way through the door, carrying the jumble of wires in front of him, he had given the audioguide to me which I carried around my neck for safe keeping.

   ‘Even if Malum has any more nasty things under his control down here, the beacon from Sulis should cancel it out long before they reach us.’

   ‘Reassuring!’

The floor rumbled and the walls shook.

   ‘DOCTOR YOU STILL THINK YOU CAN STOP ME. WHY? I HAVE BEEN HERE FOR MILLENNIUM, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN MAKE ME LEAVE?’

   ‘Malum?’ The Doctor shouted back. ‘You say you are all powerful so I am assuming you can hear me. ‘You may have been here for millennia but what gives you the right to kill these people? You are bored and tired of being stuck here, I get that. Normally I would offer you a lift away, anywhere you like, but you pose too great a risk for me and my ship. So I offer an alternative alternatum. Leave these people alone. Stop killing them, stop controlling them. Take what you need to power your ship and leave. If you have been here so long you must have taken enough to power part of your ship if not the whole craft. You can escape and that should be enough. If not I will stop you.’

   ‘HMMMM. SOUNDS TEMPTING DOCTOR. BUT ALSO BORING.’ Laughter filled the tunnels and the walls began to shake uncontrollably.

   ‘Come on’ The Doctor said to me, ‘Looks like we are having to stick to the original plan.’ He took the audioguide from around my neck and pressed a few buttons then gave it back to me. ‘Ok, bomb is primed.’ He shook his head. ‘Hopefully it will be enough and not too much.’

   ‘Will it kill him?’

   ‘No, from what I figure he and his ship is buried right down near the core of the earth, we need to throw this down the well and hopefully that will collapse the area he is in and also restrict his access to the spring, he will be trapped, but Bath will be safe again.’ He started along the tunnels again and it didn’t take us long to find the doorway into the room where Ben-Ged had taken us earlier.

   ‘Ready?’ He asked me.

   ‘Yep.’

   ‘Ok, on the count of three we burst in, I run in and get this down the well and you – ‘

   ‘Distraction central! I got it!’ I said cutting in.

The Doctor grinned.

   ‘One… two…. Three!’ The Doctor kicked the door open and the lock burst with a smash. He would have liked to say he ran in, but it was more falling in after the force used to open the door.

   ‘WELCOME BACK DOCTOR!’

Tentacles whipped up and out of the well and came speeding towards us. I ducked as one sped past my shoulder, and hit the floor with a thump. The Doctor had similarly dived out of the way, skidding along the floor until he came up against the wall on the other side of the room to me. He looked up to check I was alright and I nodded. Right diversion central! I checked the position of the tentacles and stood back up.

  ‘Hey Malum! You big tentacle alien. What are you? Some sort of Hentai reject?!’ I ducked as more tentacles rushed my way, leaving the Doctor open to run across the room.

  ‘WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?’

The Doctor was suddenly swept off his feet by a low swinging tentacle.

   ‘I WILL HAVE YOUR POWER DOCTOR.’

  ‘Not if I have anything to do about it! Catch!’ He threw the wire bomb towards me and I jumped up and caught it and started running towards the well. A sudden sharp pain filled my whole head stopping me dead in my tracks. I screamed and dropped the bomb, bringing my hands up to cradle my head.

   ‘Doctor!! Ahhhh Doctor, what is happening!’

Malum laughed. ‘YOU CAN’T EVEN KEEP THOSE CLOSE TO YOU SAFE. HOW DO YOU INTEND TO DO SO FOR AN ENTIRE PLANET?’

The Doctor tried to get up to get to me but a tentacle had grabbed his legs.

    ‘It’s because you went in the water. Somehow he is finding a way to get past the beacon and he is trying to control you. You have to fight it!’

   ‘I’m trying! It hurts so much’ I said through gritted teeth, sinking to the floor. I could see nothing but white due to the pain, which was increasing, becoming unbearable. It felt like there was a white hot grip on my brain, which was crushing it mercilessly. The Doctor’s voice was getting fainter as he shouted at me to fight through it. I had a sudden urge to stand up and walk forward. If I could only get up and move forward the pain would go. All thoughts and fears of Malum and the tentacles faded as I picked myself up and started walking forward. I thought I heard the Doctor shouting behind me but I didn’t care, the pain was fading into a dull blank space, my thoughts with it. I didn’t need to think, just keep walking and it will be ok. I moved forward, still blind but managing to keep my balance, each step forward brought eased the pain. I felt something come up against my legs, I thought it might have been a small wall. All I needed to do was climb over it and I would be ok, the pain would completely gone. I put my hands out and felt the top of the wall, I smiled, it wasn’t high at all. I picked up one leg in order to climb over, a gust of cold air from the floor came up and hit me in the face smelling of damp and dark. It was strangely soothing, just a little further and I would be ok, I knew it. My leg brushed the top of the wall, making my trouser leg damp and then there was a piercing scream inside my head, the soothing presence I had felt before was gone and all I could think was pain once more. I felt a pair of hands pulling me backwards, I struggled against them, if I just made it over the wall I would be ok! I heard someone shouting but couldn’t make out who or what they were saying. The screaming had stopped now but pain still filled my head. I was being dragged across the floor, the cold and damp seeping through my clothes was helping me to come back around. What was happening? My vision was slowly returning and I could make out someone bending over me.

   ‘Doctor? Is that you?’

   ‘You’re back!’ My vision was back fully now, but the pain in my head made keeping my eyes open difficult. ‘come on’ he said pulling me to my feet, ‘we need to get moving, we have one minute before this place blows!’

The Doctor started pulling me along, I felt weak and sick from the pain but the further we went the more it faded.

   ‘Wait, what happened? How’d you get the bomb in the well?’

   ‘Malum was controlling you, your time in the water meant he had a grip on you, and when we were next to him I underestimated his power. You nearly walked into the well.’

  ‘What? What happened? I don’t remember anything other than pain and the idea that it would go.’

  ‘I managed to get free by stabbing the tentacles with a piece of rock and then whacked up the controls, careless of me and it nearly resulted in you going over.’

We had reached the door to the fire exit, and the Doctor made for the stairs going up to the street.

   ‘This way now, we need to get as far away as possible, altering the controls may have altered the strength of the bomb.’

   ‘DOCTOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ Malum screamed.

   ‘Aaahhhh!’ I screamed, dropping to my knees as Malum’s full rage and anger filled my head.

  ‘come on! Keep with me!’ The Doctor shouted, basically carrying me up the stone stairs. We reached the double doors of the fire exit, the Doctor leant me against a wall as he pulled off the metal bar which secured the doors shut, pushed them open and then dragged me through and down the steps. We started running again but weren’t quick enough as a massive bang and explosion through us off our feet. Rubble and smoke filled the air. The screaming in my head abruptly stopped and blessed silence took its place. The Doctor was mouthing something to me and I realised that I couldn’t hear anything from the explosion. Sound slowly returned, car and house alarms were going off, dogs barking. The night was filled with noise and light, much different to how it had been when we were first brought to see Malum. We walked back around the building to see what damage had been caused and to the Doctor’s great relief the terrace around the Baths seemed mostly intact. A few of the Victorian statues had fallen off due to the blast though. The surrounding buildings on the other hand were not so lucky. It seems that Malum’s tunnel was situated underneath the surrounding shops and it was these that had taken the brunt force of the blast. A crater was all that was left of what used to have been Debenhams. We stood staring for a short while until the noise of fire engines and police started coming close.

   ‘Come on, we don’t want to be here.’ The Doctor said taking my hand. ‘How’s your head?’

   ‘Ok I think…’ I said putting a hand to my forehead. ‘He stopped, like I mean, I could hear him screaming and then it was silence. Did you kill him?’

   ‘No, I don’t think so, just trapped him. He won’t be able to control people here anymore. His access to the outside world has now been broken.’ He looked at me. ‘Come on, lets get you to the Tardis and I can look over you properly.’

   ‘They may not realise it, but the people of Bath are a lot safer now than they have been for a very long time.’ I said looking back on the museum as people came out to witness the destruction and we made our slow way back to the Tardis and on to more adventures.

Doctor Who 5: Malum Sanatore.

Read the story from the start here: Doctor Who and Bladdud

“Hey! What do you guys think you are doing?” The night-watchman yelled.

“Sh-”

“Run!” The Doctor yelled, grabbing my hand and pulling me from behind the issue desk. We ran into the corridor towards the terrace.

“Which way?! The museum is all locked up now?” I shouted.

“Uhh…” The Doctor was stumped, now of all times to become unsure of which way to go.

“Fire exit! Come on!” I pulled the doctor to the left and we ran to the door and pushed the bar to open it, “No, it’s locked! Who locks a fire escape?!” The night-watchman had rounded the corner and was gaining on us but the Doctor had pulled out his sonic screwdriver and zapped the lock so I almost fell over as the door opened. The Doctor ran out of the door and, once again, promptly collided with someone outside. The man threw the Doctor to the floor as I slammed the door shut.

“Hey!” I said jumping forward to pick the Doctor up.

“Stop right there Missy” The man said, producing a gun from his under his suit jacket.

I stepped back and put my hands up defensively.

“Doctor…?”

The man reached down and pulled the Doctor up by the scruff of his coat.

“You’ve become too interested in the wrong things, Doctor.”

“Oh yeah? I seem to do that a lot apparently. Anyway I don’t want to talk to you, I want to talk to your master. Who is controlling you?”

“Master?” I asked.

“Yeah, remember the mind control beacon? Listen to his voice, look at his eyes. Someone is controlling him. You don’t sound completely human old chap!”

It was the security guard from earlier who had escorted the young family from the Baths. His voice sounded dull and lifeless with a metallic rasp to it, and his eyes were also dull, of a man long held prisoner within himself.

“Who are you?” I asked nervously.

“Ben-Ged-Bentovin” the man replied. Then he  laughed, but without humour. “ Well he used to be. But humans are so weak, they give up without a fight!” he sneered.

“That’ because they aren’t used to having someone like you poking around in their heads.” The Doctor retorted.

“But you…” He inhaled deeply. “You smell different, you smell powerful. You have the essence of something very… tasty on you.”

“Tasty…?” I was starting to get worried now.

“He’s not going to eat us, don’t worry, he means the Tardis.” He stopped and looked at Ben-Ged. “Well am I right?” He demanded.

Ben-Ged smiled, revealing strangely pointy teeth, “I do not know its name but the box of light… come! My ‘Master’, as you call him, would prefer if he talked to you face-to-face.”

He prodded the Doctor in the small of his back with the gun to make him move.

“You may have a gun but there is two of us and only one of you, what if we don’t want to go with you? You can’t kill us because your master wants us alive.”

Ben-Ged clicked his tongue and the guide from earlier appeared from around the building to the left and a young woman appeared from the right. Both had lifeless scarred eyes and were grinning empty smiles showing sharp teeth, the street light glinted off of their Roman Bath name badges.

“I think that sentence should be added to the list with ‘what could go wrong’ or ‘this is going to be the best Christmas Walford’s ever had’” The Doctor sighed.

“Sorry” I mumbled as the guide moved in behind me.

“That’s ok, I had wondered where he had gotten too”

Ben-Ged gave the Doctor another push towards the woman and we set off, going around the side of the Baths. I had only just noticed how cold the night air was after the stuffy museum and started to shiver. The streets were empty, there was no noise from people or cars and even the birds seemed to be silent. Bath Abbey posed a menacing back drop to the small party as we moved away to finally meet this unknown Master. The Doctor gave me a quick grin, one that I hoped to be a ‘don’t-worry-I-know-exactly-what-I-am-doing’ smile and not a ‘I’m-completely-bluffing-but-isn’t-this-fun!’ smile. But for some reason I had my doubts. We went around the corner past the gift shop and I vaguely heard the Doctor muttering about how much he likes little shops and then we came to a stop by the Stall Street entrance. The entrance to the museum looked large and menacing in the star-less night.  The man pushed the Doctor forward and it was then that I noticed that the symbol from on top of the audio-guide box was also on the floor in front of the door.

“Stand there.” Ben-Ged said, pointing to the symbol.

I was pushed forward to join the Doctor and he had to catch me before I fell. The two guides stood behind us and Ben-ged moved in front of us.

“Ok, so what’s going on now?” I asked.

The ground beneath our feet shifted with a jolt, knocking us off balance and then slowly started descending.

“Ah clever! It is a lift with a perception filter, not that there is anyone around, but if there were we would be completely invisible to them. I had a friend who used one to get into his ‘secret base’. The Tardis uses the same technique to stay hidden.” The Doctor explained to me before a nudge from our guards silenced him.

We slowly descended underneath the street into a dark tunnel. It was obviously used frequently as it felt aired and free of dust. Ben-Ged pulled a torch out of his jacket and turned it on, you could hear the faint noise of movement as rats and mice scuttled away from the people invading their homes.

“This way” he said and moved forward. We walked for about 5 minutes, mostly in the dark as Ben-Ged was the only one with a torch and it only gave out a small weak beam of light which lit his path but did not allow much light to fall behind, so I often tripped over cables or soft lumps which I could only assume were dead rats. The floor was made of uneven Bath stone, which made walking difficult, and there were large sections of stone (from the monument I presumed) scattered around which I kept walking into. I had very bruised shins very quickly. Ben-Ged eventually stopped and turned to the tunnel side, pulling a small switch that was hidden behind some carefully arranged cables and a door slid open revealing a dark space beyond. He turned his lifeless eyes onto us.

“In.”

We were pushed forward into the darkness, Ben-Ged moving in behind to keep us moving. We stumbled along in the dark until a voice halted us.

“STOP” the voice rumbled through the air and tunnel floor, seeming to emanate from the ground itself.

“I have brought the ones you wished to meet Master”

“WELL DONE BEN-GED-BENTOVIN. YET AGAIN YOU NEVER FAIL TO SERVE ME. YOU SHALL BE REWARDED FOR YOUR SERVICE.”

There was a click and a rumble and sudden brightness filled the room. Momentarily blinded it was difficult to see where we had ended up. I staggered backwards into Ben-Ged, who pushed me forward again with the barrel of his gun, my hands shielding my eyes blinking. The Doctor put his hand on my arm. We were in a small room, the walls made of cut sandstone, dusty in age. Water had seeped into the room from both the ceiling and the floor, allowing mould to grow in the damp and dark environment. The room was empty apart from what appeared to be a stone well in the centre, and it was from here that the voice seemed to be coming from.

“Who are you and why do you bring us down here in this manner?” The Doctor demanded.

“I WANTED TO MEET YOU, DOCTOR. THAT IS WHAT YOU CALL YOURSELF, IS IT NOT?”

“Yes, I am the Doctor, but you haven’t answered my question. Who are you?”

“MY REAL NAME IS UNPRONOUNCABLE IN YOUR HUMAN TONGUE BUT MY FIRST SERVANTS CALLED ME ‘MALUM SANATORE’  AND I DEEMED IT PERMISSABLE.”

“Malum Sanatore… the evil healer? What is your true name? I might be able to understand it” The Doctor said.

Laughter filled the room and then a strange combination of clicks and throat gurgles filled the room.

“Maybe not then.” The Doctor admitted. “Malum Sanatore has a nice ring to it… you could be Mal-y for short! A lot less of a tounge twister than your servants name! How long have you been here for?”

“EONS. TO LONG FOR EVEN MY MEMORY TO COMPREHEND”

“How did you get here?”

“AN UNEXPECTED SOLAR STORM KNOCKED MY SHIP OFF OF COURSE AND I CRASHED HERE AND HAVE BECOME STUCK EVER SINCE. I REMAINED DORMANT FOR PERIODS OF TIME BUT THEN I DECIDED I HAD HAD ENOUGH OF THIS ROCK. I NEEDED ENERGY TO POWER MY SHIP IN ORDER TO ESCAPE, SO I DREW THE POWER TO ME. I BECAME A GOD! MY SHIP HAD CAUSED A CRACK WHICH WATER FLOODED THROUGH; I USED THIS TO MY ADVANTAGE. HUMANS ARE SO EASY TO MANIPULATE AND BEND TO YOUR WILL. A SMALL AMOUNT OF HEALING, A TASK EVEN A CHILD COULD DO, AND THEY COME RUSHING.”

“So you healed Bladdud then?” I asked.

“I CARE NOT FOR NAMES!” The voice shouted. “THE FIRST ONE CONSIDERED HIMSELF KING. HA. IT WAS NOT HIS DESIGN TO BUILD HERE BUT MINE. HE BROUGHT HIS PEOPLE TO ME AND I FED OFF OF THEIR ENERGY.” The voice paused. “I SENSED YOU BACK THEN DOCTOR, THAT FIRST DAY. AH THE POWER THAT YOU CARRY WITH YOU. I WOULD HAVE HAD YOU THEN BUT YOU SLIPPED MY GRASP.”

“But I thought it was you who pulled us forward?”  I asked.

“Not entirely,” the Doctor replied. “The Tardis was being drawn towards the power of this creature. But it has only just reached that point. You have obviously increased your efforts to gain power.”

“I GROW TIRESOME OF THIS PLACE. THE SECOND TIME I FELT YOUR POWER, WHEN MY FAME WAS AT IT’S HIEGHT, I ONLY HAD HALF THE POWER THAT I NEEDED. PEOPLE GAVE ME THEIR ENERGY FREELY IN OFFERINGS TO THEIR GODS BUT STILL IT WAS NOT ENOUGH. SO I BEGAN TO FEED OFF OF THEIR ENERGY THROUGH THE WATER ITSELF.”

“And then the Roman Empire collapsed, leaving you with no worshippers.”

“A SLIGHT HINDERANCE. BUT EASILY SOLVABLE WHEN THE AREA WAS REPOPULATED. HOW ELSE DO YOU THINK THE MONKS FOUND THE SPRING AND DECIDED TO BATHE HERE?” if the voice had a face I would swear that it was smirking now.

“So let me get this straight. You crash landed here and in order to leave you have been taking people’s energy to power your ship and in return you would heal them to keep people coming. I’m not going to lie, I fail to see the big issue here.”

“But it wasn’t enough. People stopped bathing here nearly 50 years ago, you aren’t even meant to touch the water at all now, so you had to come up with another way to feed your ship. All those missing people in Bath, the unsolved murders, the people in the river? They were you and your ‘slaves’. The staff often joke about the amount of wives and husbands who go missing when they visit the baths, usually just to be found spending too long in the museum. But how many of those tourists wind up here? In your lair? Dropped down to where you wait, hungry for power? What happened to that small boy?” The Doctor rounded on Ben-Ged-Bentovin now, angry and accusing. “Do you remember him? You escorted him ‘out of the building’ for ‘being dangerous’. Did he and his family actually make it out of the museum?”

“They were needed.” Ben-Ged said his voice free from emotion.

“DOCTOR YOU GET INCREASINGLY ANGRY YET WHAT CAN YOU DO? YOU LIKEWISE ARE HERE, IN MY ‘LAIR’ AS YOU CALL IT.”

“I can offer you a way out. I can help you escape from here and go home.”

“OH I WOULD HAVE LOVED THAT. ‘WOULD’ BEING THE CORRECT WORD. I HAVE FINALLY TASTED THE TRUE POWER THAT RISIDES ON YOU AND YOUR COMPANION AND I WANT IT. WITH THE POWER OF THE BOX OF LIGHT I CAN NOT ONLY RETURN TO MY HOME PLANET BUT ALSO RULE IT. I WAS BANISHED FOR BEING SMALL AND WEAK AND YOU CAN GRANT ME THE POWER TO RETURN!!!”

Scrapping and scratching noises were coming from the depths of the well, I turned round to see that the two museum staff members had moved forward from their positions flanking the door to come towards us. I backed away, towards the well.

“Doctor! Now would be a great time to come up with an ingenious plan to save us!”

“Thinking!!”

One of the guides, ‘Darren’ his name badge read, was quickly approaching the Doctor so he started backing away towards the wall, avoiding the well. The woman was headed towards me, a scary grin on her face, getting closer, pushing me towards the well. A large scrapping sound came from behind me and I turned to see a large tentacle come out of the well. It was black, dripping water and slime. I wanted to scream but found that I couldn’t. I just stared at it, my mouth wide. While my back was turned the woman grabbed me and started dragging me towards it.

“Doctor! Help!!”

“Wait! Don’t do this! I can help you!” He shouted, battling with the Darren, Ben-Ged closing in on him too.

The tentacle snaked out as if testing the air and then rushed straight towards me, wrapping itself tightly around my wrist. I pulled my arm back suddenly, hitting the woman in the face so she staggered back and dropped me, and managed to drag myself free across the floor. The tentacle recoiled slightly and then made a dash towards my leg and wrapped myself around my ankle and started pulling me across the floor towards the well and the darkness beyond. I clawed at the floor, trying to get a grip to hold onto but the flagstones were flush and I kept being pulled slowly closer. The Doctor was fighting Darren, desperately trying to get over to me, he feigned a punch and then used his foot to hook the man’s legs from under him. He fell with a heavy thump and the Doctor quickly jumped over him and ran towards Ben-Ged, flooring him with a single unexpected punch, and kicked the gun away. He rushed over to me, grabbing my hand.

“Don’t worry I’ve got you!”

“Get this off of me!”

The doctor fumbled in his pocket with one hand bringing out his sonic screwdriver and zapped at the tentacle around my leg. The voice from the well screamed and tightened its grip, and pulled me across the floor with a yank.

“Doctor! Stop helping it!”

“Sorry, sorry… wrong setting…” He twiddled with the controls.

“Doctor!” The tentacle had now pulled me half way up the wall of the well, dragging my leg into the cold and damp darkness. I grabbed hold of the edge of the top but could feel my strength fading.

The Doctor rushed forward and zapped the tentacle again. This time the tentacle recoiled with a sharp hiss and the doctor dragged me back over the top of the well and we fell into a pile and then quickly shuffled away from the well. The woman had picked herself up and was walking towards us hissing. The tentacle reared back up from the well and darted towards us at the same time that the woman did and collided with her. The tentacle grabbed her, and pulled. Dragging her kicking and screaming into the well. The screams faded and were replaced with gurgling as she entered the water with a splash.

“But, but she was one of it’s slaves….?” I gasped.

“It didn’t care who it has as long as it has someone. It isn’t going to wait for long though. It still wants the Tardis and the power it has.” The Doctor said standing up. “You ok?”

“Yeah.. I’ll… I’ll be alright” I said, levering myself up.

“YOU CANNOT ESCAPE ME DOCTOR. I WILL HAVE YOUR POWER” I could hear the tentacle writhing below, scraping its way up again and shuddered. The Doctor took my hand again and pulled me towards the door. Ben-Ged was shaking himself awake as we ran past, trying to find his gun. We ran through the door and the Doctor locked it.

Episode 4: The Doctor visits the Museum

We were running through the streets again, me clutching a towel around me as I'd had my clothes stolen while I was in the Bath, heading straight for the tardis.
"We're nearly there! Come on!" shouted the Doctor. He rounded the corner, narrowly avoided knocking over a street stall and then ran into the tardis, with a bang.
"Haha well done"' I said running up breathlessly beside him.
He pulled me inside. "This is no joking matter, whatever it is that is attempting to control the tardis is getting stronger and I still don't know what it is."
"Did you not find anything out at the spring then?"
"I found an essence of a power source, one that might have been there but not anymore...."
The tardis rumbled. "Here we go again".

In what seemed like 5 minutes to them but was actually 1,800 years or so later the tardis rematerialised.

"Woo that was a bumpy ride. So glad it's over!" I said, leaving the Tardis and feeling rather sick. "When are we now do you think?"
"August 2012." The Doctor said.
"That's an impressive guess. How'd you figure that out?"
"well the amount of noise and air pollution, the style of the clothes etc."
"Or you just saw the poster for the London Olympics?" I said nudging him.
"well, and that!"
"I wonder if the baths are still here or have been forgotten about" I said starting to walk down the streets.
"It wouldn't be surprising if they had been lost, it happens quite a lot."
"But the tardis was drawn here so wouldn't that mean the power was still here?"
"Potentially. But the power may be completely unconnected to the baths."
"Well we might be in luck... 'Cus I think they still know about the baths and they may have become a major tourist attraction...'
We had come out of a small crowded street onto an open courtyard filled with bustling people. To the left was a huge and impressive looking abbey, but more importantly straight ahead was a mock roman building with the words 'Roman Baths' proudly displayed above the door. People were milling about outside the door in what appeared to be very large and busy queue There were two men in suits and one woman in a blue shirt directing people in and towards the queue.

"Come on. Let's pay another visits"
As they approached the door the woman saw us and came forward.
"Can I help you guys? Are you looking to visit the museum?"
"Museum? I love museums" the Doctor said.
"Haha. It's always good to see someone enthusiastic about visiting! Are you buying a ticket or do you have discovery cards?"
The Doctor routed in his pocket for his psychic paper, pulling it out.
"Discovery cards!"
"Awesome, if you'd like to follow me I can take you straight through avoiding the queue' she beamed.
"So what do you have here then?"
"Well,"she said grabbing a leaflet as she passed and passing one to us, "We actually have quite a lot here. We have a rather large museum complex, which goes through the site and artifacts we found here. As well as how people would have lived and worshipped here. And then we have the actually roman level so you get to walk around the Great Bath, that's what we are famous for, which is still running, (we are the only working bath house in all of England) and the Sacred Spring/Kings Bath, and several other roman baths and rooms. You also get a free audio guide, and get to try the famous spa water if you fancy. Is there anything else you want to know?"
"Umm nope that sounds good!"
"Cool, well here we are' she said un-clipping the barrier. "If you head round the desk you can pick up your free audio guide. Enjoy your visit guys!"
"Thanks! Ooo please can we just go round the museum before investigating?" I asked.
"Yeah go on. I do like museums!' he smiled.
"Hey guys wpuld you like an audio guide?"
"Oh yes please!" I smiled.
"English? Help yourselves to ones along the desk. Press one and the green button to start."
"one and green. Got it" I said picking two up.
"What does that mean?" The doctor said pointing to a big circular symbol on top of the audio guide charging boxes.
"Oh that's the world heritage symbol." The man replied. "There is one on the street outside the exit too"
"Ok thanks!"

I headed through the entrance and to the window that over looked the Great Bath which was now below street level.
"Oh look at this! There is a cartoon of Apulia!" I said pointing to a sign next to me. "I think it is advertising the children's audio guide, I am so listening to that! one... one... one... right lets go!"

An hour or so of wondering through the museum and we walked through an automatic door and came out onto the Great Bath. The magnificent Roman structure, although half replaced by later additions, was still as impressive 2000 years later. The square Roman pillars had been replaced by Victorian adaptation which reached up to support a walkway around the top of the Great Bath which tourists were walking around. The fantastic arched ceiling that Sulinus and Bruceus had spent so long constructing was now gone, the Baths being open to the air, two large pieces of the stone roof were on display around the edge of the Bath. Due to the Bath now being open to the air, sunlight sparkled on the slowly rippling green water. The floor was still the original Roman floor, now 2000 years old, broken in places and incredibly worn down. Tourists milled around the edge of the Bath, taking photos, sitting on the steps and chatting, enjoying the rare amount of sunshine for an English summer. There were groups of children or teenagers pretending to push each other in and then running away giggling when the museum guides wondered over. To some it might seem to take away from the overall effect of the baths but to me it simply reminded me of how it looked when the Romans were using it; full of life and activity, everyone having fun and playing in the water.

   I smiled, "this is still a fantastic place despite only being half here."
   “Back to the main entrance, I want to have a closer look at that desk.”
   “The big box with the audio guides? I noticed you looking at that strangely.”
   “Yeah, I’ve picked up some strange signals from it but not sure what they are.” The Doctor said as he started walking down the dark corridor. “come on, let’s try not to attract too much attention this time!”
   “Mind control? That’s never good.” I said uneasily.

   "That it is." The Doctor smiled. "The Romans have a way of making a mark."
We wondered around the Bath and sat down by the edge of the Bath in the sun. The Doctor began to trail his hand in the water absentmindedly.
   "Doctor I wouldn't do that, the water doesn't look very clean."
   "Hi there guys!" A member of staff bounced up, "Just to let you know, the water is actually very dirty, so we advise people not to touch it."
   "Oh yes!" the Doctor said, as if snapping out of a dream.
   "I did say it was dirty" I said apologetically.
   "I'm sorry, I couldn't really help myself." The Doctor said.
   "Thats ok." The guide smiled. She was a young woman, with striking blonde hair which fell in tight curls around her face, spilling out of a ponytail. She had grey-blue eyes which lit up when she smiled. The name badge on her blue uniform shirt read 'Rosa', and I remembered the young Roman slave named Rosa who helped me in the spa. "Lots of people do touch it, seems like people just can't help but to touch it! But it is green, and open to the air so it is very dirty, so if you could make sure you wash your hands before you leave."
   "No problem! Man I can't take you anywhere!" I said nudging the Doctor and rooted around in his jacket pocket and pulling out a bottle of hand disinfectant.
He smiled and got up, stretching his legs out.
   "So I heard someone say there are guided tours...?" he asked.
   "Yep! The next one is in ten minutes and I'll be taking it." Rosa said.
   "Awesome! Shall we go on it?" The Doctor asked me.
   "Yeah sounds great!" I agreed.
   "HEY!" The shout ripped through the hum of tourists around the Bath, silencing all but the most stubborn of children. "How dare you get up there! Get down at once!" A male guide was shouting across the Bath at a small boy who had stood one of the pillar bases protruding into the Bath, but who was now cowering under the onslaught. The shouting guide quickly ran over to the offending child and man handled him back to the floor. The child's parents had since joined and were shouting back at the guide.
   "How dare you treat my child like this!" Screeched the mother.
   "Do you understand how dangerous that was?! How dare you leave your child unattended like that!"
The argument appeared to be getting more and more heated and the guide suddenly broke off, unclipping his radio from his belt.
   "Security! I need assistance down by the Great Bath immediately!"
A reply buzzed through the radio and the guide stood there looking smug. The family looked furious.
A minute later a large muscled man in a suit came down to the area. I recognised him as one of the men from the front of the museum dealing with the groups. He had a quick word with the guide and then addressed the family.
   "I am sorry but if you could follow me please."
The family started to protest.
   "I am sorry but can you please vacate the premises." The security guard started ushering the family to the exit with the angry guide following. A strange hush had descended around the baths. However people continued to enter the Bath who had missed the drama unfolding so the volume soon returned to normal as people continued on with their visit.
   "Well... thats a strange way to behave..." the Doctor said after a while.
   "Oh my gosh" Stuttered Rosa, "I am so sorry you had to see that! That has never happened before!"
   "Its ok, he was probably having a bad day. He looked almost possessed..." The Doctor mused.
   "Never mind about that" I said. "How about that tour Rosa?"

   “yes! Right then guys! I think it is time we started the tour, if you have any questions while we go feel free to ask at any point. Just a small bit of health and safety while we are going round the site please be careful of your footing, we are actually walking on the original 2000 year old paving slabs and they are quite slippy and uneven so please be careful. And also I know how appetising the green water looks but if you could please refrain from touching it that would be super; we do now have a fountain at the end of the museum where you can try the water for free! We are going to start up at the Sacred Spring with a little bit about the history of the site.”

***

   “So why are we coming back to the museum?”

   “Because they said they put the torches on at night and it is meant to be more impressive!”

   “Uh ha and that is the only reason we are coming back? Cool, I’ll hold you to that.”

The Doctor grinned, “Come on they are just about to shut the doors.”

   “Why do I always get a bad feeling when you hide stuff from me?” I sighed.

We re-entered the Baths, the Doctor flashing the ‘discovery cards’ as went in.

   “No audio-guides this time thanks, we came in this morning and just came back to view the torches!” The Doctor said as he rushed past the issue desk.

We walked briskly through the museum to get straight down to the Great Bath.

   “You were right” I said, as we walked out onto the Roman remains.

   “Hmmm?” The Doctor said, pulling his screwdriver out of his pocket.

   “That it is more atmospheric, the torches are a nice touch and it is much nicer without all the people and tourists. Oh and that angry guide!”

   “Yeah, that guide was a bit strange…” he muttered, starting to wave the screwdriver in an increasing arc.

   “What are you doing?”

   “Testing.”

   “Testing what?”

   “A theory.”

   “Fine if you won’t tell me I’ll stop asking” I said and wondered off to sit by the edge of the Great Bath. “It seems so weird…” I half murmured to myself. “Earlier today I was hanging out with Apulia in this very spot and now the place is in ruins and she has been dead for nearly 2000 years…”

The Doctor stopped what he was doing and came to sit by me, “You can’t think like that” he said, putting his arm around me. “We had a great time with Apulia and she may be dead now but this museum has brought her back to life and she is remembered not only by us but also by all these visitors who see the actors and listen to her on the audio guide. Now not many people can say that!”

   “That is true,” I smiled, “she would have loved to know that she is now helping to educate children! Just kinda makes you think that’s all…”

   “Well enough of that!" He said, giving me a squeeze. "Make yourself useful and go find us a suitable hiding spot, we’re staying out late!”

I looked over at him and saw his mad yet contagious grin. I grinned back.
   "Ok, I think I may have spied a cupboard earlier on that might be useful!"
   "Ahh such a useful companion!" The Doctor said getting back up and continuing his 'testing'.

It was eleven oclock at night. The museum was dark. All the tourists and staff had left. The only person around was the night watchman, sat in his office, drinking tea and watching the CCTV cameras. A cupboard door opened a crack, spilling light into the dark museum corridor.

   “You could have found a more spacious cupboard to hide in.” The Doctor grumbled, poking his head out. “My leg has gone dead!”

   “Hey, I didn’t get that much time to find somewhere! We had space to play cards, so I don’t know what you are complaining about.” I said extracting myself from the small space and stretching my legs with a groan. “Now! Where are we headed?”

We headed through a door and worked our way back up the museum, having only been here twice the Doctor seemed to have a good idea of where we were going which was useful as I felt completely lost. After a short time we had made it back onto the inner terrace, just behind the main entrance. The Doctor slowed and signalled me to stop. He nudged his head around the door and poked the screwdriver ahead of him. He pulled it back and studied the readings.

   “All clear. Come on!” He whispered and slipped round the door. I quickly followed, jogging slightly to keep up. We stepped up behind the desk. The glass top looking dull in the darkness. The boxes of audio guides glowed in the darkness with the charging lights showing red and green. It looked like some sort of square Christmas tree.

The Doctor started walking slowly around, waving his screwdriver from left to right and up and down. He stopped and studied the readings.

   “What have you found?”

   “There is a strong signal being received and then relayed from that symbol thing.” The Doctor said pointing.

   “The world heritage symbol?”

   “Yeah.” The doctor ‘sonic-ed’ it again. “Can’t find the source, but it appears to be some sort of mind control becon…”
   "Oh no" I groaned. "That's never good."

   “No…” The Doctor said, frowning. "But it explains why that guide was so odd in yelling at that child..."

“Hey! What do you guys think you are doing?” The night-watchman yelled.

“Sh-”

“Run!” The Doctor yelled.

To be Continued.

*oooooooooowwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeooooooooooooooodooooooooooooodadoooooooooodoooooooooodooooooooooodooooooooooodoooooooooodadooooooooooo*

Read the next instalment in Doctor Who and Malum Sanatore

When the Punks came to Party

So last night was my Brother's leaving party and the long awaiting Erectile DISfunction gig!

Not going to lie I was kind of nervous about playing after the first band, Mutant Zombie Foetus, as their drummer is actually a fantastic drummer, unlike me who hasn't played in ages and was never actually that good! Yet as my brother said it was just a  piss take anyway and the whole point was to have fun.

But surprisingly it actually went really really well! I cocked up a few of the beats and we ended some of the songs prematurely (ba dum tis!) but it was actually really good. And man I was so tired afterwards! I have never drummed so hard in my life! Considering we had never played together as a group, not all learned the same songs and practised only 6 times it went bloody amazingly!

After the success of the gig we all decided to go to the local pub. This doesn't sound like such a strange thing but I should explain. It was a Saturday night and on Saturdays the main pub turns into a sort of chav night club thing with a DJ and dance floor so a group of 10 metal heads turning up was a very strange sight indeed! We then proceeded to drink more and then crash the dance floor and had an amazing time! It was great!

The weirdest thing was how this morning I woke up thinking 'Oh no, what did I do last night?!' But I thought back and realised, I didn't smoke, I didn't make out with anyone, I didn't cry, I only spent a tenner and I was in bed by 1.30/2am. That's not that bad going! I am now in the process of clearing my hangover for work today. Should be entertaining!!

Episode 3: The Doctor in the Spa

Previously on Doctor Who: Doctor Who and the Stone Masons

The Doctor ran around the Tardis, fiddling with controls and tweaking things. The Tardis began to shake.
    "Something is forcing it to move, but the old girl is fighting back! What is going on?"
The Tardis rummbled and started to materialise as he was speaking.
    "No, no no!" He shouted, fighting with the controls. "Ah! There is no point!" He shouted, slamming his fists on the console. "I have no idea what is controlling her. Hopefully next time we land I can figure out what is going on."
The Doctor started pacing until the Tardis re-materialised again. "Right! Let's see where or when we are this time!" He sauntered out of the door and promptly ran into someone again.
    "Doctor!" I shouted, running towards him.
    "I'm alright, I'm alright... I really need to start checking before I just walk outside...." He said, picking himself up.
    "Doctor?" A voice asked from the floor.
    "Apulia?" The Doctor said, pulling her upright, no longer a small girl but a young woman. "We really need to stop meeting like this!"
Apulia was still as skinny as when they had first met her, just over an hour ago to them but obviously a lot longer for her, as she had now grown to the same height as the Doctor. She still wore a simple dress with a coloured sash around her waist which complimented her slender figure. Her hair was longer now, loose, hanging straight just below her shoulders, it had darkened slightly to a rick honey colour. A smile light up her beautiful face as she acknowledged who it was she had collided with.
    "Yes! Oh Doctor it has been a long time! I didn't think I would see you again" she smiled.
    "How long has it been exactly?" I asked, embracing her like an old friend.
Apulia thought for a moment, "probably 15 years now..."
    "Wow, well we did mean to come back sooner" I said, scowling at the Doctor.
    "Hey it's not my fault!" The Doctor said defensively.
    "So, anyway, what brings you back to Aqua Sulis?" asked Apulia.
    "Well I decided that we needed a proper visit" said the Doctor.
    "Your last visit was very short, and you didn't even get to see the Great Bath completed." Said Apulia almost scolding us.
    "That is true" I said, "howcome you are here Apulia? I thought you were just visiting last time we saw you?"
    "We were, but my mistress enjoyed it so much that she decided to move here and she often comes to the Baths everyday. I'm here so often now it feels like I work here!"
    "Well that might come in handy" The Doctor remarked, "I was thinking of sending my companion off to give this Great Bath a try!
    "Oh thank you Doctor!" I exclaimed.
    "Yeah, that would be really cool! I have the day off today so would love to show you around" Apulia smiled.
    "Brilliant!" The Doctor smiled back.
    "Will you be coming with us Doctor?" I asked.
    "Not this time, I have a few things I need to check out. I think I will have a look at this Holy Spring again. I'll catch up with you by the Great Bath though. Here" he routed around in his pocket and pulled out some coins. "Just in case you need to buy anything" He winked.
    "Thanks! Have a good time, see you later!"

We wondered through the streets chatting and approached the entrance to the Baths.
    "Apulia, what is it like being a slave here? Does your Mistress treat you well? That is if you don't mind me asking!" I added hastily.
    Apulia laughed, "No it is fine! Well I don't know any different really, like a lot of slaves I was born into it, so it is the only life I have ever know. My grandparents used to whisper at night what it was like to live free before they were brought into slavery, but my father always shouted at them as he didn't think it was good for me to hear such stories as I would never be able to experience it myself. But I was very young at the time and I don't really remember it."
    "Do you still live with your family?" I asked.
    "Oh no, I was bought by my Mistress when I was five and came to live with her. Started out as a kitchen slave but my Mistress' first personal slave caught a sickness and died, so I started to work for her personally.  It isn't a bad life, and she does treat me well, never beats me, unlike some I know. I was even allowed a small amount of schooling so now teach the other slave children the little that I know. I can count up to a century and also read and write a few things. Some of the ladies disapprove but it helps no end when serving my mistress and all her needs, and I love that I am helping some of the children when they have so little to look forward to in life, being born into slavery. But mostly I help her in the Baths, which is quite enjoyable."
    I smiled. "I am glad you are happy with your situation Apulia"
    She shrugged. "What else can I be? I can't change it, so I might as well big up the lot I have!"
    "So being a slave will you be allowed in to bathe with me?"
    She grinned. "Its fine, don't worry about it. Yeah, if you can pay to come in then you are welcome. Also if anyone gets difficult about it, we can always say that I am yours for the day" She nudged me laughing.
    "Oh I couldn't do that! But, you'll be happy to know that the Doctor has appeared to have given us enough money for the both of us!"
    "Brilliant! Come on, this way!"
Apulia led the way through a side door, "this is the apoditarium, this is where you undress to get ready for the spa treatment!"
    "Ah ok so it is basically a Roman changing room, I get ya! So, where do I put my stuff? Guessing you don't have any lockers?"
    "Well, it depends, if you can afford it you would give it to a slave to look after while you are in there, but seeing how I am going in with you I don't think that will quite work!" Apulia laughed. "So, instead you can either leave them in a basket or just put them in a corner somewhere."
    "Will it be safe? There are quite a few people around here."
    "Yeah should be fine!"
    "Right, ok then. Also, I've noticed you guys like to do things in the starkers! But unfortunately I don't think I will be doing that, good thing I packed my swimming stuff!"
    "Haha, well we swim without clothes too, but whatever makes you most comfortable! Are you ready yet?"
    "Yep, lead on!"
Apulia led the way through the door and up the steps into the adjoining room.
    "Now this is the tepidarium, this is where you would get all the treatments like massages and facials and things, but I want to show you the typical way we get clean here at the Baths. Rosa? Rosa, can you pass me that bottle?" She called to another slave standing by the wall. "This is Rosa, she is one of my good friends here at the Baths."
Another young slave woman came over to us, slightly older than Apulia and almost as skinny. She had her hair tied back in a tight bun to keep any lose strands away from her face, but a few had come loose and stuck to the perspiration on her forehead.
Rosa picked up a bottle and passed it to me. "Here, rub this all over you."
    "What is it?"
    "Just try it!"
I poured a small amount onto my hand and sniffed it.
    "Is this olive oil?!"
    "Yep!" Rosa grinned
    "Don't you guys know about soap?!"
    "Oh yes, but we don't really like it much, this is a much more interesting way to get clean." She beamed.
    "You Romans are weird!" I laughed, and began to rub the oil into my skin.
    "Would you like to add any flavourings to it? Perhaps some humus?"
    "Humus?"
    "No thanks Rosa, I think we will keep it simple! We use humus as an exfoliator." Apulia grinned.
    "Like I said... weird... Right! I am all oiled up and ready to go" I winked.
They headed up from the tepidarium into the next room.
    "This is the caldarium"
    "Woah! this room is boiling! and I thought the other room was hot! Phew!"
    "yeah it is pretty hot here, make sure you don't take off your sandals as you'll burn your feet!" Said Rosa,        "Apparently in another baths there was a murder and to check that the murderers had killed their man successfully they chucked his body on the floor in here, because if he was faking it he wouldn't have been able to stay on the floor because of the heat."
    "Rosa! You shouldn't say such terrible things! Anyway, that didn't happen here, it was in another bath house" Apulia said reassuringly.
    "Umm ok then! So what am I supposed to do in here then?"
    "Well as you can tell it is very hot in here, so what you do is just sit along the walls on these benches and just well..."
    "You sweat!" exclaimed Rosa. "You sweat and open your pores and all the dirt and grim from your skin comes out and sticks to the olive oil" She smiled.
    "Oh ok, so it is like a sauna, I get you. So how long do I have to stay in here for then?" I said sitting down on one of the benches.
    "Just for as long as you fancy. Some people can't take the heat so only stay for a bit, others are in here for ages. Some people have been known to stay in here so long they pass out from the heat but not that often!"
    "How is it kept so hot in here?"
    "That would be the hypocaust system, there is a furnace in the far alcove and it is stoked all the time, which heats the floor underneath."
    "Oh yeah, I remember being taught about that in school... you have piles of tiles under the floor right? Which creates space for the air to pass through. Very clever for a bunch of soap hating weirdos!" I laughed.
    "Yep, and the walls are hollow too so the walls are heated!"
    "Ooo yeah, that's cool" I said, feeling the wall temperature.
    "How are you doing? You are beginning to look at bit red?" Rosa asked.
    "Yeah, I think I might be all sweated out now, where to next?"
    "Back down into the tepidarium." Apulia said, leading the way.
    "Phew," I said, pausing to lean against one of the walls "its a lot cooler back here!"
    "Rosa, could you go get the stridgel for me please?"
    "What's a stridgel? And how come I don't really like the sound of that?!" I laughed
    "Haha, well it is this curved blade, and well you'll see for yourself. Here lie down on this table and I shall finish off this procedure!" she said leading me to a wooden table and gestured at me to sit down.
Rosa came over with a curved handled blade and gave it to Apulia who then approached me with it.
    "Woah, want to let me know what you are going to do with that first?"
    "Oh, don't worry! The blade is blunt so it won't be able to hurt you. Basically I just use this to scrape off all the oil and dirt from your skin." She picked up my arm and started to scrape it down. When the blade was covered in a reasonable amount of dirty olive oil she promptly flicked it in to a bucket underneath the table.
    "Eww that is gross!"
    "Really? You don't like it?" Rosa asked. "You can actually buy some of this oil for your face if you do"
    "As in the olive oil to start or the after product...?" I asked cautiously.
    "If you are famous, like a gladiator or something, we keep your oil residue and bottle it to sell to rich women for make up."
    "Eeeww, seriously?!"
    "Oh yes! My mistress uses some nearly every day!" Rosa said.
    "Hold still, I am nearly finished, last little bit to get off."
    "You are very good at doing that Apulia."
    "Well, I get a lot of practice here! Right, you are done!"
    "Oooh, I have to admit my skin does actually feel really nice!" I exclaimed, stroking my arm admiringly.
    "I'm glad!" Apulia said.
    "What are you guys doing now? Fancy a visit to the hair plucker next?"
    "Umm, I doubt I'd need two guesses figuring out what that entails, so I think I might give that one a miss this time..."
    "Haha, maybe next time Rosa! I think we will head to the swimming pool outside next, this way you can get the last little bits of oil off before you head to the great bath."
    "Excellent! Might give me a chance to cool down too!" I said, jumping off of the table.
    "Yes! follow me!"
We headed out of the tepidarium and into another room which was taken up with a small swimming pool. Other people were doing lengths or paddling. Shouting to each other and diving in, giving themselves a final quick wash.
    "Come on Apulia, last one in is a smelly Roman!" I shouted.
We both jumped in giggling, disturbing the other bathers and started splashing each other. After around five minutes of swimming  later Apulia called me over.
    "Fancy visiting the Great Bath now?"
    "yeah sure!" I said, pulling myself up and out of the pool. "Which way is it?"
    "This way" she answered, passing me a towel from a near by table.

We walked through another adjoining door and entered the Great Bath. The room was magnificent. The newly completed stone roof reached up possibly over two storeys high, and the columns used to support the weight flanked the bath which took up most of the room. Flares were attached by brackets onto the pillars but light also came in through giant windows high up in the walls. Steam swirled out of the hot waters and danced around the ceiling. Shouts and talking mingled with the sound of swimming and the occasional splashing. People were sat on the steps leading into the bath, their legs trailing in the slowly moving water, talking to their companions, as well as people who were slowly swimming in the middle. There were slaves milling around the edges of the bath, serving drinks and oysters, or handing towels to bathers as they left the bath.

    "Oh wow, this is fantastic!" I breathed.
    "Told you you would like it" Apulia smiled.
Shouting errupted from one of the alcoves, were people appeared to be playing some sort of dice game.
    "Hey thats not fair!"
    "I won fair and squarely!"
    "But it's impossible to win against me!"
    "No it isn't, because I know your secret." The Doctor winked at the irate bather. His hair was wet and slicked back and he had a towel wrapped around his waist.
    "What secret? I don't have a secret!" The bather sounded flustered now.
    "You are cheating."
   "How dare you!" The man shouted.
   "Look," the Doctor picked up the man's dice along with another one and threw them both into the air. They landed on the table, but the man's dice landed with a heavy thud. "Your dice is loaded." The crowd which had gathered around the scene gasped.
    "Hey, he's right!" A new comer exclaimed. "You owe me money!"
    "Yeah! Me too!" Someone else said pushing forward.
The Doctor pushed past the now increasingly angry crowd towards me, picking up an oyster from another table and swallowing it down in a gulp. He then threw the empty shell onto a pile against one of the far walls.
    "Whoops! I may have upset a few people there!"
    "Not like you to cause a scene is it Doctor?"
    "Oh shush, life is boring without drama! How was your day at the spa?"
    "Interesting to say the least! Might just stick to my tub and radox back at home!"
    "Have you tried the water here? It is lovely!" the Doctor said, taking off his towel to reveal hideously bright swimming shorts and stepping down the steps into the water.
    "Wow! Wherever did you get those shorts from?!"
    "What? What's wrong with them?" He said looking hurt.
    "Nothing! Nothing..." I said, slipping into the water next to him. "Wow this water is so nice! So what have you been up to today?"
    "Not much, just been investigating the Sacred Spring."
    "Did you find anything to explain why the Tardis is acting so strangely?"
    "Not really, though there are large spikes of energy, coming from the spring, but not directly, it is like it is here, but then not here at the same time. I am sure I'll figure it out at some point."
    "You better, I like Apulia, and Rosa, but I don't think I can cope with all that spa treatment again! And all this nakedness is making me feel slightly uncomfortable..."
The Doctor laughed, then stopped, pulling out the Tardis materialisation warning device.
    "Where on earth did you have that hidden? Actually never mind I don't want to know!"
    "Come on, get your clothes, we got to go again!" He said getting out of the Bath.
    "Go? But you've only just got here" Apulia said, looking sad.
    "We'll be back again soon, don't you worry Apulia" I said. "I've had such a great time! Thanks for showing me around!"
I went back into the apoditarium and looked for my clothes.
    "Come on! Are you ready yet?" The Doctor said, coming into the room doing up his shirt, water dripping from underneath his trouser legs.
    "Hmmm... I'm sure I left my clothes here..." I said, looking underneath benches and behind baskets.     "Ahhh!! Bloody Romans! Some one has nicked my clothes!!"

*oooooooooooweeeeeeeeeeeooooooooooooooodoooooooooooodadooooooooooooooooooweeeeeeeooooooooo*


Read the next instalment at Doctor Who visits the Museum