Chapter Text
Chapter 1 – Species 48507-B
The sound of screeching woke Luke, causing him to gasp and his heart to race. He was frightened from his dream--dream? He didn't dream, Luke knew that, and yet Luke knew he had dreamed, his dream where… he couldn’t remember why he was frightened and the dream was fading from his mind so quickly. What had woken him up?
His thoughts though were distracted when in the dark of the room he began to make out the shape of a large white box which loomed over the foot of his bed. It was unlike anything he’d ever seen.
“K9, analyze,” he said, with his curiosity peaking as his fear subsided the longer he stared at the white box.
But only silence came from the corner where K9 usually kept himself at night.
Thinking he hadn’t spoken loud enough, repeated himself, and still only silence.
Luke was about to get out of bed and wake his mum when something moved in the shadows of his room, causing him to stop midway through lifting the covers. A small red light appeared, aimed at him and he heard the hum of what sounded like his mum’s sonic lipstick, but somewhat different. Luke was beginning to grow tired once again as a figure stepped out of the shadows, the cold indifferent stare of the figure’s eyes being the only thing he could see before his head once again hit his pillow and a giant claw emerged from the shadows over his body.
~*~*~
Rani was looking forward to another weekend investigating some mysterious circumstance with her mates and Sarah Jane. She had finished showering and was in the midst of multitasking drying her hair and getting dressed. She didn’t want to miss any opportunity this weekend had to provide for an adventure. After finishing with her hair, she slipped on the pair of jeans, coral t-shirt and jean jacket she had picked out for today. She was just in the midst of tying her trainers when she heard the doorbell ring. Curious, Rani craned her head to get a better view of the front door from her window, only to see Sarah Jane standing there speaking with her mum and looking rather worried. Mum’s voice then called up from downstairs.
“Rani, come down.”
Grabbing her brush, Rani hurried out of her room and down her steps, multi-tasking once again as she rushed down the stairs to the front door that opened just at its foot.
“Hello, Sarah Jane, is something the matter?” asked Rani
Instead of answering her question, Sarah Jane answered with a question of her own, “Has Luke been over to visit this morning?”
Rani shook her head, confused as to why Luke might. “I was just finishing getting ready to come over and see you both.”
“I didn’t see him outside this morning when I went to fetch the paper,” added Mum, concern beginning to cross her face as well. She then asked, “Did he come home last night?”
Sarah Jane nodded, “Yes, he went up to bed and that’s the last I saw of him.”
“He must have gone to Clyde’s then. I’ll bet if you call his mum you’ll find the cheeky bloke snuck out last night to play some new shooting video game with him,” offered Mum, though Rani knew Luke would never do such a thing, nor would they exclude her from the invitation if they had. At least Rani, thought that was so.
“Perhaps, but it’s not like Luke to just wander off without saying anything,” said Sarah Jane with a strained smile which did not reach her worried eyes.
“If you want I’ll come with you and see if he’s at Clyde’s,” said Rani as she finished the last stroke of her brush and pushed past her Mum to join Sarah Jane on her front porch.
“I thank you Rani, but I’m sure your mother’s right and there’s no reason for you to come if that’s so.”
“And what if he’s not?” asked Rani, and she gave Sarah Jane a meaningful look that did not go unnoticed by her mum.
“And how Rani dear, are you going to find him with a hair brush?” asked Mum the moment Rani had stepped foot outside. Rani looked down to see that she hadn’t put down the hair brush.
~*~*~
Clyde was trying to get the woman he was drawing just as he’d pictured her in his dream. She’d been tall and thin with long dark hair, an angular thin boned face, and an uninterested look. He didn’t know why he had to draw her, but something was compelling him to before the memory of the dream completely vanished from his thoughts. He hadn’t changed out of his pyjamas because he had to draw what he’d seen. A knock came from his door.
“I’m up Mum,” he called to the door without stopping his drawing.
The door opened, and irritated, Clyde looked up and repeated himself only to see Rani standing there.
“I think that’s the first time I’ve been called mum,” said Rani who then took a closer look and smirked. “Nice pyjamas.”
“Oi, I haven’t had time to change.”
“And why is that?”
Clyde looked at his unfinished drawing and sighed, there’d be no way he’d finish it now or even explain why he’d thought he’d need to draw the woman from his dream, it all was just fading from his mind now. Best get ready for the day. “Never mind.
“Is Luke here?” she asked as she looked about his room.
“Isn’t he at home?” asked Clyde as he walked over to his chest of drawers and pulled out whatever shirt was on top, figuring that’d be good enough.
“Sarah Jane came over to ask if I’d seen him. She’s downstairs talking with your mum, who still thinks you’re asleep by the way.”
“What’s Mr. Smith say?” asked Clyde as he opened another drawer and pulled out a pair of jeans.
“He isn’t responding to Sarah Jane. It’s like he isn’t there at all. And K9 won’t respond either.”
Clyde stopped just before he was about to pull open his underwear drawer and turned to look at Rani. They neither of them said anything, the lighthearted nature of the visit completely ebbing away in that instant.
“Well, get out and let me get dressed, and we’ll see what’s up at Bannerman Road.”
~*~*~
They were in the attic right in front of where Mr. Smith was supposed to be, but only a wall seemed to be there now. K9 was motionless there in front of the dormant xylox as well. Sarah Jane paced from side to side as Rani and Clyde sat on the steps.
“Who would want to take Luke?” asked Rani
“The Slitheen tried taking Luke before,” offered Clyde.
“Or it could be the Bane, they're the ones who made him in the first place,” added Sarah Jane.
“What would either of them want with him now though?” asked Rani.
Sarah Jane frowned, and continued to pace.
“It could be the Trickster… perhaps he found some way to remove him from time?” asked Clyde.
“We wouldn’t remember him if he did,” dismissed Sarah Jane, her pacing growing more frantic by the moment.
“Then who would? I mean all we have to go on is that Luke is missing and for some reason Mr. Smith and K9 aren’t working. That only narrows down the list to some alien who’d want to hurt either of you. And that… well, that could be any number of the aliens we’ve encountered,” said Rani.
Sarah Jane sighed, “You’re right. But before we continue any more guesses, we need more evidence. Going with what we have doesn’t say very much beyond someone is trying to hurt me by getting to Luke, or simply just hurt Luke.”
“Well, you said the last time you saw him was when he went to his room, perhaps there was something there that you overlooked?” suggested Clyde.
“There was nothing there beyond the usual clutter of his room.”
“Are you sure?” asked Rani.
The three were rushing out of the attic and down the steps in the next instance, only to find the somewhat messy room of a teenage boy once they opened the door. The bed was disturbed, clothes on the floor, and homework was strewn about his desk—finished already of course, Clyde noted. They were all about to leave the room, upset at having found nothing, when Rani pointed out that oddly enough at the foot of the bed, a square patch of carpet was visible, as though something had cleared away the clothes and stood there for a time. Sarah Jane rushed out of the room immediately only to return a few moments later with a tape measure, taking note of the dimensions of the square imprint that the clothes ringed. When she had done so, Sarah Jane gave out a little laugh and looked visibly relieved.
“What’s so funny?” asked Clyde.
Letting the tape snap back into its plastic container, Sarah Jane stood and said with a smile, “Just as I thought, it’s just the dimensions of an old police box.”
It took a second for Clyde and Rani to realize what Sarah Jane meant by that, and when they did, joined Sarah Jane in feeling relief from their own worry.
“Lucky bugger,” said Clyde.
“When do you think they’ll be back?” asked Rani
“With the Doctor? Who knows. Could be in an hour, several years, or already have happened in Aberdeen. You never know with that man. But I’ll tell you one thing, whenever they get back, I’m going to give them both a piece of my mind. Come on now, let’s go see if we can’t figure out what’s wrong with K9 and Mr. Smith.”
~*~*~
Luke awoke to find himself no longer in his bed but tied down to what looked to be a large white empty room on a hospital bed of some kind, with some kind of medical machine nearby. He tried moving his arms and legs, only to find them restrained. He tried calling for help only to find a gag in his mouth stifling his screams. He struggled for a time against his restraints, but they were too tight for him to even try slipping out of them. After he’d about given up fighting against them, Luke heard voices approaching the large white doors of the room.
“He is everything I promised, is he not? A perfect genetically designed human with plenty of latent telekinetic abilities to tap into, an excellent specimen for any sort of scientific analysis you wish to conduct,” said a voice which sounded somewhat familiar to Luke.
“He’s rather on the young side for my purposes, but he’ll do I suppose,” responded a woman’s voice as the door opened, and Luke’s eyes widened as he saw a Slitheen following what looked to be a human woman wearing a maroon lab coat over a grey pantsuit and red blouse.
“You’ll set Korst Gogg Thek free then?” blathered the Slitheen almost pitifully. As the Raxacoricofallapatorian entered the room, Luke noticed her claws were dull, and she moved with a noticeable limp.
“Yes, yes, you can have him back, as we agreed,” dismissed the tall woman as she pointed over towards a wall where a red light illuminated itself in the shape of a red button. The Slitheen moved over to it and with one claw pressed the button only for a door to appear and open next to it and another hospital bed to roll out of it, with a large mutilated green monster tied to it. The deformed creature vaguely resembled a Slitheen, but one which looked distorted in shape with oversized muscles in odd places, bulging veins, and a twisted mouth stuck in the position of utter pain. The only thing which kept Luke from thinking it was dead were the few milky tears which came from the oddly unblinking black eyes and streamed down the green skin of his face.
“What’s this? You’ve… you’ve mutilated him!”
“You asked for your son and you’ve got what remains of him. Your deal said he was to be returned alive, and he is, nothing was said of whether he was to be returned untouched or not.”
“Treacherous time lord, you’ll pay for crossing the Slitheen!” snarled the Slitheen, who bared her dull claws and showed her mouth of several missing teeth, but ready to strike nevertheless its handicaps.
“I’ve grown tired with all these petty vendettas. They pale in comparison to the great temporal struggle.“
The Slitheen, angered, leapt, but before she could land, the woman swiftly pulled out what looked like Luke to be a sonic lipstick—only larger—aimed it at the wall behind the Slitheen, where not a moment later a get of clear liquid shot out from the wall hitting the Slitheen squarely and filling the room with the acrid sour smell of vinegar. Luke tried to keep his eyes open so he could see what was happening without getting any vinegar in them, but the vinegar’s aroma was making it harder, causing his eyes to water.
The Slitheen wailed and screamed just before she exploded and nothing was left but a green slime all over the room, coating not just Luke but the Slitheen body next to him. Luke stared wide-eyed in terror of the woman who had so casually and so easily killed the Slitheen she had done business with and it was then Luke saw the woman’s eyes and the same cold unfeeling disdain before he’d passed out.
The woman recognized his fear and without missing a beat pulled out a device into which she pressed a button and spoke to as she overlooked the mangled Slitheen next to Luke, “Serum test on subject species 48506 deemed a failure. Cause, unexpected reaction to calculus found in the intestinal tract resulting in petrification.”
The woman then turned to Luke and coolly said, “Beginning serum test on subject species 48507-B.”
No one could hear Luke’s muffled screams, not his friends, not his mum, not anyone, he was truly trapped and alone, a test subject once again.