(AUTHOR'S NOTE) Well, I'm back! After some stressful exams, it feels good to finally update this. I think I'm getting a handle on precisely where the story is going, and how it's going to end, but of course to keep the twists and turns in the plot I have to surprise myself as I go along. Oh well, here's the next chapter. (END NOTE)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

"What?" Englehorn asked, hurrying after Peri as she jogged through the corridors.

"We have to find the Doctor," Peri said, "This sort of thing – alien activity – it's what he deals with. Wherever we've gone in the TARDIS, we've found similar things."

"So the Doctor will be able to sort this all out?" Englehorn demanded angrily, "Just get whatever's in Jimmy out and rescue Miss Darrow? Will he be able to resurrect my lost crew members as well?"

Peri stopped, and turned to glare at Englehorn, "What's going on here, we have no idea what consequences it could have, and we have no idea of how to stop it. Trust us, like you did when the Doctor showed you the TARDIS."

Englehorn looked at her for a moment, then nodded once.

"Come on then," Peri said, and turned to follow the tunnel.

"There are more things in heaven than Earth," Englehorn muttered, and followed her.

Ann ran through the trees, stumbling over tangled roots, branches whipping into her face. Breathing heavily in the humidity of the jungle, she staggered to a halt by a stream trickling down a small cliff. She shoved her hands into the flow, wiping the cool water onto her face.

She had worked out that, if she reached the coast of Skull Island and followed it in one direction, she'd eventually get back to the Venture. So that was what she was doing, despite not knowing how big the island was, or whether the Venture had waited for her. She had nothing better to do.

Refreshed, Ann hurried back into the forest. Then she stopped. She could here a high-pitched whistling noise, just on the edge of her hearing, and coming closer.

Ann began to run, away from the source of the noise, but it continued growing, getting steadily louder and louder until whatever it was would be right on top of her. The trees broke into a clearing – and then everything turned black.

The Xylok shuttle slowed to a hover, then retracted its teleport device, and turned to head back to the control tower.

The Doctor paused.

"What is it?" Hayes asked, raising his gun.

"Can you hear that?" the Doctor asked.

"Hear what?" Lumpy grunted, coughing.

Then they heard the whistling noise. Coming closer. It was the same as the noise they'd heard before, the noise of the ship that had abducted Jimmy and Peri. The noise rose, its source passing directly over their heads, towards the central mountain.

Hayes bolted, charging into the trees after the ship, grim determination etched into his face.

"Hayes!" the Doctor yelled, starting after him.

Not wanting to be left behind, the other sailors began to follow them, crashing through the undergrowth as if they were being chased again.

Hayes ran, ignoring the Doctor's calls to slow down. He had to find Jimmy, regardless of anything else. He had to get the boy to safety, to assuage the guilt within him. He kept running, worry and fear sending the adrenaline flooding into his system. He could hear the crashing behind him, the Doctor calling for him to slow down, Lumpy coughing, the swearing of the other sailors, but he ignored them. He had to find Jimmy.

Then the trees thinned, and Hayes almost crashed straight into a cliff.

He skidded to a halt, staring at the cliff above him. It was sheer, with very little in the way of hand and foot holds, stretching up to a large ledge. At the back of this ledge was another sheer cliff, rising up much further than the one below it. And they could just see, nestled on the ledge, the ship that had abducted Jimmy.

As sailors crashed out of the undergrowth behind him, Hayes ran to the cliff face, preparing to hook his hands into the crevices and climb, when he was grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground.

"You really should think before you run off like that," the Doctor said, as if telling off a small child, "You could have got lost, and who was it who instilled the value of 'safety in numbers' in us earlier?"

"I might have…" Hayes growled.

"Oh, come on," Lumpy said, "He's lost it!"

The Doctor shot him an angry glare, then spoke to Hayes, "What have I said before? We are going to find Jimmy, we are going to find Ann, and we're going to stop whatever is going on here. However, there is no need to move recklessly. If you do that, you'll only get into more trouble."

"Get off me…" Hayes snarled.

"Oh dear," the Doctor sighed.

Inside the control tower, Jimmy was lounging in a chair in a private chamber. Of course, it was Jimmy's body that was doing the lounging, but it was not under the control of Jimmy's mind. Rather, it was an ancient creature recently removed from cryogenic stasis.

The creature had a mate, or soon-to-be Queen, whose host had survived much longer than the young body of his current host. She was a master-planner in her own right, but he was the more formidable, the more feared. And now he was making plans.

His mate's host stood at a control panel, built by their slaves – the Xyloks – and watching an image of the Doctor standing on Hayes' chest.

"I have… memories," he said, "of the man on the ground. My host considers him a father, despite having no genetic connection. A father to replace the one who abused him."

"I will never understand humanoids," his mate remarked, examining the image.

Jimmy smiled. "It does not matter. This host has the gene we require, and we can use him as leverage over the Doctor. And I like his body."

"I can see why," she said, eyeing Jimmy's muscular torso.

"Has the human woman been taken to the lab?" he said, changing the subject.

"She has," his mate confirmed.

"Then let us lay our trap," he said, stood, and swept out of the chamber.

"Listen to reason, Hayes…" the Doctor said, "We need to stay together to find them…"

"Get off me!" Hayes roared, leaping to his feet, sending the Doctor sprawling. He charged at the cliff leading to the ledge where the shuttle had landed, and began climbing with renewed vigour.

Slowly, he moved out of their sight, climbing over the lip of the ledge, ignoring the Doctor's shouts.

"Well that's just fuckin' brilliant," Lumpy said.

Then Bruce Baxter stood up, "Look," he said, "Now he's gone, we gotta get back to the ship! Englehorn sails in nine hours!"

"Something is going on here," the Doctor said, "that is bigger than us. Something threatens all of space and time…"

"Hey, did you here me?" Bruce shouted, "We're gonna be stranded here! Miss Darrow was a great gal, no question. She was a wonderful person, it's a terrible loss, and we're all gonna miss her."

"What about Jimmy?" Jack said. The writer had been silent for most of their journey, focused on finding the woman he loved.

Bruce shrugged, "Just a screwed-up kid, another casualty."

"I always knew you were never the tough guy you played on screen," Jack spat. "I just never figured you for a coward."

"Hey, pal," Bruce snapped, "Wake up! Heroes don't look like me, not in the real world – in the real world they've got bad teeth, a bald spot and a beer gut. Be seeing ya."

Then he stalked off into the undergrowth.

"Anyone else?" Jack demanded.

Nobody moved.

"We all want to find Miss Darrow," Choy piped up, to murmurs of agreement.

Jack nodded, then turned to the Doctor, "What do you suggest we do?"

"Mad though it seems," the Doctor said, gazing up at the ledge in the cliff, "Hayes had a very good idea. The shuttle was probably heading for the control tower, which is where the prison cells, tracking and transmat systems are located."

"So we follow him?" Lumpy said.

"Yes."

"Well that's just fine and dandy."

As the sailors began to prepare for the climb, Jack came towards the Doctor, and spoke, "A word, please."

In the lab, Jimmy stood over Ann's unconscious body. In his hands, he held advanced surgical instruments, which were now splattered with blood. He hadn't put on a surgical gown, allowing the blood to spray across his bare chest, letting its coppery scent play across his nostrils. It brought back old memories of his conquests, of fighting on the front lines of interplanetary wars, of slaughtering enemy soldiers, of smelling their blood.

When he was done, he laid down the instruments and left the lab. Xylok slaves moved in to repair the damage Jimmy had done, then pump her with drugs to erase her recent memories before they placed her where the humans would find her.

He stood in the corridor, eyes closed, letting the memories of the blood play through his memory. He felt a mild tug of his host's mind screaming inside his head, but quelled it, and the screams of horror became screams of agony.

Then his mate arrived.

"We have intruders," she said.

Peri crept along the corridors, with Englehorn behind her.

"What are we going to do?" the German captain whispered, looking lost and out of his depth.

"This is obviously the alien's base," she whispered, "so they'll have tracking systems that'll let us find the Doctor, or maybe get your ship out of this cavern it's in."

"Aliens? Like immigrants?"

"No, space aliens."

"Space?"

Peri sighed. "You know the Earth's a planet orbiting a sun, well, all the stars are suns. Lots have worlds like this one, with intelligent inhabitants. Some have developed technology to pass between worlds and have gone empire-building."

"Like the British?"

"Yeah."

"And they want to conquer this world?"

"Maybe – there could be lots of reasons why they're here. They're a bit like humans in that respect."

"So we're just going?"

Peri sighed. "If it helps, think of it as a strategic withdrawl."

"And the Doctor has experience with this?" Englehorn asked.

"Yes," Peri sighed, "Look, could we have the questions later? I'm trying to think of a way to get out of here!"

Then a loud sound, rang out, an alarm of some sort, and Peri swore.

"Yes?" the Doctor asked when Jack had taken him aside.

"Do you actually want to rescue Ann and Jimmy?"

"Of course," the Doctor frowned, not sure what Jack was on about.

"Not just because Jimmy turned that old machine on? Because what with you going on about 'something bigger', it suggests you're here because you want to find out what's happening with the creatures, not to rescue Ann."

"You're mistaken," the Doctor said.

"Am I? All you seem to have done since we arrived is talk about how this place is scientifically impossible, about something big going on, something that could destroy the world or something."

" 'Destroy the world' is something of an understatement," the Doctor said.

Jack glared at him, as if his point had been proved. "You're like Denham," he said, "Only not as insane. Which is even more frightening."

"You've got it all wrong," the Doctor said levelly, "Our goals are the same. A malevolent force is working here, and it has Jimmy, no doubt using him for its own purposes. Ann, well, she…" he trailed off, realising that she was completely unconnected to what was occurring. There was no evidence that her abduction was connected to the nexus point.

"…is nothing to you?" Jack said, "Just an excuse to come out here and look at this new discovery. Then Jimmy was abducted, and you let Hayes run off to probably get killed." He shook his head. "And the worst thing is you seem to have a better idea than anyone of what to do. So we have no choice but to trust you."

"We will find Ann," the Doctor said, "and we'll find Jimmy. And we'll find Peri."

"Keep telling yourself that," Jack said, walking back to the main group without another word.

(AUTHOR'S NOTE) Review please – I need something to help me get through this bloody cold, and drag myself up to write the next chapter. (END NOTE)