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Doctor Who Fanfic--Part 1

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The two stepped out of the vividly blue TARDIS and into a swirling snowdrift. "Well, not exactly a tropical paradise," the Doctor corrected himself, grinning, "but an interesting planet nonetheless."


Martha, shivering in the frigid air, pulled her jacket tighter about herself and icily replied, "How is this giant ice cube interesting? Besides the fact that there’re two suns, it's just a big frozen wastelan--oh..."


Turning to look in the direction of the Doctor’s pointed finger, she saw a pointed spire that seemed to pierce the bright sky. The spire was attached to a castle that looked as though it was made entirely of ice. The rest of the snowy landscape was bleak and dreary, but the tower’s majestic appearance more than made up for the lack of features. It sparkled in the suns’ light like a beacon, reflecting the orangey-pink rays of the double-dawn that fell gently onto its surface and were then cast onto a multitude of snowflakes.


Martha felt like she could stand there staring at the beautiful icy citadel for ages, when the Doctor said, “Let’s have a closer look, shall we? My good friends the Ziltonians built this. It’s my favourite one!”


As the pair set off against the chilling winds, Martha asked, “Are there more of these castle-things, then? And couldn’t you have parked a little closer?”


The Doctor grinned, and said, “To the first question, yes, lots more! The Ziltonians mastered water manipulation. It's almost an art to freeze things on this planet. To the second, no, not unless you would like to spend a few days in the dungeon answering questions for your interrogators. These people have invented a way to keep their fortress out of firing range of most ships. In case someone does manage to get in, I dunno, say, with a TARDIS, they have also figured out a backup plan that even the TARDIS can‘t escape. Believe me. I've tried.”


Rolling her eyes, Martha plodded through the deep snow. “You would think that people so advanced would at least have the courtesy to clear a path through this for visitors. Urgh.”


“Yeah, well, maybe they just didn’t feel like it today or something. Even though they have robots to do it for them... That is a little odd.”


They walked up to the great, etched doors. Martha sarcastically asked, "What's the password? Open sesame?"


The Doctor enthusiastically answered, "The planet's official name, of course. HD209458b!"


Nothing happened.


“Huh, maybe they aren’t home...” Martha suggested, almost hopefully. The Doctor said slowly, “No, something’s not right. Almost everything is automated here. Let’s try the side entrance.”


Stepping up to a staircase that led to a small door, he pulled out the sonic screwdriver and, smirking subtly, said, “Let’s try not to set off any alarms this time, please.”


She tried to think of a scathing reply when she looked up from the lock at him. More specifically, at a fairly large metallic critter next to his head that looked like someone had read about a spider and a digital camera a very long time ago, and tried to mix the two into a robot.


"Ummm... Doctor, don't-look-now-but-there's-a-big-metal-spider-camera-thing-right-next-to-your-head-and-it-doesn't-look-very-friendly!" He shouted, "What?!" and promptly turned around. He jumped backward, and then, after the spider did nothing, relaxed.


The spider-camera continued to do nothing. In fact, now that she looked more closely, Martha could see where ice build-up had frozen all of its joints. Good thing too, because it came across as a nasty metal guard spider.


Laughing slightly at the not-very-close encounter, they opened the door and stepped inside the grand palace. The high, vaulted ceiling of the Great Hall yawned high above the pair of near-frozen travellers, glistening orange in the double-dawn light. As they walked, ethereal echoes of their voices and footsteps bounced back from the alcoves of the fortress.


Martha, awed by the colourful display that was steadily fading into a dull, steely grey as the suns rose above the clouds, wasn't looking where she was going and stumbled over something. The Doctor helped her up, and she cast around for the object that had tripped her. It was smallish and round, and ivory coloured. Martha bent down, turned it around, and gasped in horror. It was a skull. She retracted her hand as if it had been touching a hot stove and asked shakily, “Who do you think that was?” Next to it lay the rest of the skeleton, clothed in a dusty but beautiful robe. Peering about, they could see more skeletons littered about the hall, and a mass of wall that had been torn from the rest.


Running his fingers through his wild hair, the Doctor was silent for a minute before responding quietly.


“She was Empress Freen.”


“You knew her, then?” Martha could tell that the Doctor was upset about his friend’s death.


“Briefly, yes, but. . .”


He trailed off, pondering, leaving Martha to ask, “But what?”


“But what could have caused damage like that?” He pointed to the chunk of icy building material on the floor, taking the thickly rimmed glasses out of his pocket and setting them on the bridge of his nose. “It’s slightly melted. In fact, that looks like a blast from a Ziltonian laser gun. Looks like there was a nasty fight in here.”


Martha, studying the remains, remarked, “Laser guns in an ice-castle. Not the best of plans.” The Doctor didn’t respond, deep in thought. In the silence, she noticed a strange sound emanating from an adjacent corridor. It was a high-pitched beeping. She pointed it out to the Doctor and beckoned him to follow her.


Beep. Beep. Beep.


</I>

The shrill noise grew louder as she approached the hall, and, rounding the corner, Martha spied a pile of metal and wires, partially buried under an avalanche of collapsed ceiling. As she grew closer and leaned down to inspect it, it sat up rather awkwardly without warning, startling both herself and the Doctor, who immediately pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and aimed it warily at the seemingly animated scrap heap. Looking more closely, they realized the scrap pile was actually a severely damaged robot. Suddenly, it spoke in a grating, metallic voice.


"Greetings. I am Drone No. 643. Programmer: Freen. Damage assessment: 48%; damage to lower limbs, midsection--midsection--mid--"


The Doctor frowned as the robot froze, and then slumped lifelessly back down onto the floor. He decided that they could at least find out more about it and their situation by hacking into the robot’s system with the sonic screwdriver. As he and Martha began to shift the rubble burying the robot, he thought about what it had said. If the robot was programmed by Freen, then it was probably her personal robot, which meant that it might be disconnected from the probable robot swarm. Most Ziltonian fortresses contained hundreds of robot drones that were controlled by a supercomputer. As this jumble of thoughts entered his head, another, rather pressing idea popped into being.


"Martha, if this castle's like most on this planet, there could be a whole swarm of robots. Ordinarily, that's not a problem. However, in cold regions, heaters and other environmental controls have to be installed in the room where the supercomputer is kept. Clearly, the ones in the other rooms have failed. Maybe..."


"...The ones where the supercomputer's kept have malfunctioned," Martha finished. They sat in silence for a while, Martha worried about a less-than-sane robot swarm, the Doctor happily absorbed in his tinkering. The screwdriver buzzed again. The robot gave a click and started making a loud whirring noise.


"Oops."


The robot sat up again and said," Greetings. I am Drone No. 643--"


"No, hang on, we've been through this already," interrupted the Doctor. "We really need to know where the supercomputer is kept, that is, if it's still functioning."


643 seemed to go twitchy for a second and after a few robotic tremors replied, "The primary processor's data banks are corrupted. New directives are as follows: Destroy all non-Ziltonian life forms."  

As the title states, a Doctor Who fanfiction. More to come eventually, but don't get your hose in a tangle over it.

ANY PERSON WHO LIKES THIS SORT OF THING SHOULD GO CHECK OUT :icondoctorwho-fc: RIGHT NOW. WE DESPERATELY NEED MEMBERS! (-:
© 2009 - 2024 ZaronianWarCaptain
Comments4
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DarthShmoogy's avatar
...
Alright, I am not a big fan of Doctor Who- among other things, he is constantly wide-eyed... but I like the premise. It vaguely reminds me of the Ice Queen Jadis' castle of Narnia.

More important, though, I like the way the story is leading somewhere and how this part concludes :) I wonder (as I am not an avid fan), are the Ziltonians your invention or one of the existing series?

The only criticism I have is the paragraph with the corrupted robot drones. It is not obvious there are swarms of a threat approaching before Martha and the Doctor hide. Even if we can't see what that threat is, we readers must know something is coming, aside from the shrill sound. There needs to be adequate anxiety about it conveyed there, as well.

Overall, good work. I will look for the next installment and pass this along to my fiance (an avid Dr. Who fan).