"Come in, come in" Resla shouted frantically through her communicator to no response. Her team had been searching this godforsaken place for close to two days now and had found nothing but a string of corpses, not just of the scientists they had come here to rescue, but of various different kinds of strange creatures. These beasts were unlike any known life forms in this part of the galaxy. Their bodies were also in contrast to the scientists, completely preserved. (The scientists bodies had been torn apart and mutilated.)

Still the team had found no answers so far. They had covered almost the entire facility, apart from one room on the lowest level, sealed by two 20 foot tall steel doors.

According to the notes from the scientists who had worked here, only a very few of the staff had any idea of what was in the room (though the team had only been able to hack a few files.)

Now however after eight hours of trying to hack their way through the door, the teams attention was suddenly diverted. Reksian, who was part of the group that was still trying to hack the main files in the upper area had sent out a distress warning to the entire platoon. He was only able to mumble out a few incoherent words however before the line cut off again.

Another voice soon came through Resla's communicator. It was a woman's this time, named Vele. "Please help us" the tinny voice screeched through a crackling line.

"It, it, it came crashing through a wall. It's gigantic. We managed to seal ourselves in here, but it's outside, please, we're on the 2nd floor. Help us!"

A crashing noise came through the communicator followed by blood curdling screams and the sound of gnashing, and stomping.

Almost as soon as the message had finished the doors to the secret area suddenly began to open. The others didn't care anymore, but Resla was so transfixed on the light shining from the room that she had to see what was in there. The others didn't have time to convince her and so they headed to the upper levels, without her. Resla had always been the inquisitive type. She had only joined the security team because she felt it would be the easiest way to see the wider universe.

It was extremely foolish of Resla to even think about venturing in there alone, but she couldn't help herself. When she entered the room, Resla saw that it was completely empty except for a large, floating, glowing ball in the centre. Suddenly what appeared to be a figure emerged from the ball. It looked completely different to the corpses of the aliens in the upper levels. Its body was bipedal and dark, whilst its skin looked both slimy and rock hard. It was also covered in jagged spikes at various parts, whilst its arms, of which there were four, were long, and thin. It had three beady little green eyes, each of which had four red, stripe like pupils. There were no other features on its flat oval shaped face. The top of the head meanwhile was covered in a tuft of grey, dirty, thinning hair, which ran down the back of its head, entire body and back legs.

The monster approached Resla who held her gun up in defence. It just stared back at her however. "I must be just as strange looking to it" she thought. "I hope he's as scared of me as I am of him."

The monster garbled something at Resla in a strange language, but she couldn't make it out. As she backed away ever so slowly, the creature lunged at its intended victim, its sickle like claws on its arms outstretched. It moved so fast, Resla couldn't make a shot in time. The alien batted the gun out of her hand and quick as a flash, it slashed her across the stomach. The wounds weren't deep but they stung so severely that Resla was brought to her knees.

The monster then wrapped its hands around Resla's entire head and began to squeeze hard. Resla had never felt a force like it, but she managed to grab the knife from her leg holster and stabbed it into the monsters arm.

The creature doubled back in pain and yanked the knife out of its arm. Its blood was thick, yellow and instantly dried rock hard when it hit the floor. It also stank so badly Resla nearly choked. Whilst the monster was groaning in pain, Resla grabbed her gun and emptied several rounds straight into the beasts chest. A normal shot would have been powerful enough to tear a hole in a human's chest. With the monster however several shots only created flesh wounds, but Resla kept on firing and eventually the beast crashed to the floor, completely lifeless.

Resla staggered to the door. She was still in agony from her wounds, which began to sizzle and boil and her legs gave way before she reached the doors. As she tried to hoist herself up a second time however, the sphere started to act up again.

It began to ripple, and expand. Bolts began to fire from it, strong enough to scorch the metal floor. Resla was worried the sphere would explode, but instead another creature identical to the first came through, and instantly went for Resla, but she brought it down with several more shots .

Using the last of her strength, Resla got to her feet and stumbled out the two doors, but once she had made it out, the sphere became more erratic and this time dozens of similar monsters came out of the sphere and descended on Resla who fired at the beasts. She managed to bring down a further three of the abominations, but it was hopeless as more and more came pouring out and cornered her against a wall.

Several million miles and years away in the vortex meanwhile. Dana was jolted from her peaceful slumber by the droning sound of the cloister bell. The journey's from planet to planet, or time to time in the TARDIS were completely unpredictable. Sometimes they could take hours, sometimes they could take weeks.

Dana didn't mind though. The TARDIS itself was like the best five star hotel she had ever stayed in. You could spend your life in there and never get bored. There was a massive library filled with books from all over the universe (though the Doctor seemed to have a particular fondness for earth literature. All his favourite things seemed to come from that planet.) There was also a swimming pool, tennis court, cinema, and most surprisingly of all, a giant garden, which contained some of the most beautiful flowers and plants gathered from all over the universe (and indeed many other universes.)

The view above the garden meanwhile was a simulation of the Hiestra galaxy which the Doctor considered to be the most awe inspiring sight he had ever seen (or rather he did in his 9th and current life. He often changed the view every regeneration.)

Dana loved going to the garden with a good book, and a good bottle of wine, both from the Doctors collection (his taste was impeccable) and having a nice quiet evening looking up at the stars. The Doctor in contrast however was never good at amusing himself over the course of the long journeys. Sometimes he would paint in the garden with Dana, and he enjoyed spending long hours talking with her over his collection. Still if the journey was any longer than a couple of days, the Doctor would get very impatient. He was never mean, but he could very short and grumpy.

How ironic that he'd spent all of this time gathering all of these wonderful pieces of art and literature yet he hardly ever looked at any of them. He probably had over the centuries mind you. Dana kept forgetting that the Doctor was over 1000 years old.

Dana enjoyed the adventure and discovery of her life with the Doctor too, but at times his enthusiasm could rattle her. Whenever they arrived somewhere new and she wasn't in the control room, he would rattle the cloister bell constantly until Dana arrived, and this time was no different.

"Honestly" he grumbled under his breath. "What takes her so long! We've been travelling for ages." (In reality it was only two days)

Dana came bursting into the console room more than a little angry. "You don't have to keep ringing that blasted bell. "

"Well you were so absorbed in that damn book of yours I didn't think anything could pull you from it!" The Doctor snapped back.

"I'm sorry Dana that was eh, a bit much." the Doctor said softly. Dana didn't feel upset. She knew his bark was worse than his bite.

"That's okay, just please only use that bell in emergencies like its supposed to." She replied.

"Well we're here now. Though where here is I don't know, but that's part of the appeal." He said as he opened the doors and ran out, barely able to contain his excitement. Dana quickly followed. She didn't know whether to admire his boldness or get frustrated at his recklessness.

Outside the TARDIS was nothing but a forest. The woods didn't look that much different to those on earth and the sky was pitch black. The Doctor searched his seemingly endless pockets for a torch. He pulled out various items from a packet of jelly babies, to a harmonica to what looked like a metal donut (which was actually a delicacy on the planet Mesjara) before finally finding a torch.

"I do hope there's intelligent life here. There's so little of it in the universe" the Doctor said as he pointed his torch through the dark cobweb like woods.

The Doctor marched on ahead, not even telling Dana to come with him as he trampled over the thick undergrowth. Dana was more eager to talk about her latest book. Described as the great romance novel of the 57th century. Dana had started reading it not so much because she enjoyed the story, but just because she was fascinated in looking at what passed for entertainment thousands of years in the future, and how much society had changed too. (Dana came from 20th century earth. She was born in the 1950s, but left earth in the 70s.)

The Doctor was only to happy to discuss the arts with Dana. Whilst exploration would always be his first love, he did have a huge appreciation for the arts too.

"I always keep meaning to take you to your planets future Dana. A lot of people, don't want to know what happens to their species, but you seem quite keen."

"I've always thought the most interesting periods to read about are the last ones I'd actually want to visit." Dana replied as she struggled through the dark and tangled woods.

"True" the Doctor replied. "There are a lot of historical figures from your past and future I admired greatly when I first read their work, and when I met them? Well that was a different story. A word to the wise don't ever have dinner with Plato. He eats like a pig!"

"Well I suppose they weren't renowned for having great manners back then."

"That's still no excuse. I've had meals with Uxeres, who have six mouths and eat their mothers that were more pleasant and polite. At least they knew how to use a napkin."

The Doctor was always obsessed with good form, which was rather ironic considering not only did his social skills leave a lot to be desired, but the Time Lord himself also looked very shambolic too.

He dressed in somewhat fancy clothes, consisting of an old pitch black frock coat from what looked like the late 19th century, a frilly shirt and some checked trousers.

His coat however was extremely battered and almost dirty looking, whist the shirt was messy and unkempt.

Meanwhile his thick dark hair was also extremely messy and all over the place. Dana even referred to him as a scruffy dandy when they first met. Dana herself meanwhile had a much more toned down look. Her hair was jet black, massive and curly, whilst she always tended to wear the same battered blue leather coat.

The two tended to stand out in most times and places they visited, but neither particularly cared, regardless of how much trouble it might get them into.

The two time travellers explored the strange alien woods for hours, finding no signs of intelligent life. That still didn't discourage the Time Lord however. He would search under every rock on the planet if he thought he could find a new insect no one had ever found before.

Dana had to stop for a minute she was so tired. The Doctor didn't even notice she had stopped until he was about ten feet away.

"Oh Dana you should just tell me if you wanted to rest you know, you don't want to get lost in these woods."

"Sorry Doctor. This planet doesn't look like it's up to much to me. Then again I'd probably say the same about earth if we landed in the middle of a desert. We should probably head back to the TARDIS, just to get a good bearing on where exactly we are. I mean we could be 1000 miles from any kind of civilisation. If there even is one. Doctor?"

Unfortunately the Time Lord wasn't paying attention to his companion. He had noticed what looked like a shinning light in the distance. He started to climb a tree to get a better look at it. As far as the Doctor could see it looked like some kind of vehicle, though quite unlike any he had ever seen before. Some of the trees below however appeared to be shaking and one even fell over. The Doctor also spotted what looked like a large mountain on the far side of the forest too.

"What is it Doctor?" Dana said in frustration. "Are there signs of life."

"I think so? It looks like a craft. Though whether it's from here I don't know. To think its occupants could be staring down at us thinking we live here."

The Doctor jumped down from the tree. Dana could see he looked a little worried. "I think it might have been fleeing from something. We need to tread carefully"

"Well that would be a first" Dana said jokingly. The two crept through the woods silently, trying to keep their heads down when suddenly they were both jolted by a loud screeching noise that came piercing through the black woods.

The two couldn't see anything however in the pitch black, but the Doctor could also hear very faintly the sound of something big coming their way.

"Stay here" he told Dana firmly whilst he climbed up a nearby tree. Almost as soon as he reached the top however he instantly dropped back down again with a look of absolute horror on his face.

"We need to get out of here. Now." The thumping sound suddenly became louder as did the screeching noise again. The Doctor and Dana ran through the woods, and as the Doctor looked back he could see what looked like an immense figure in the distance. The trees, the branches, and the darkness however made it difficult for him to get a good sight of what exactly was after them, and even the Doctors curiosity wouldn't make him stick around.

The Doctor and Dana ran as fast as they could, but the noise became louder and louder until eventually Dana had to push the Doctor out of the way of a falling tree.

When the Doctor looked up he could see the figure much more clearly, towering above the two petrified time travellers.

It stood about 80 feet tall. Its skin was bright green and hairless, whilst its body was long and slender. Each of its arms, which ended in three clawed hands were muscular yet very thin. Clearly the creature was still built for speed despite its massive size. It was bipedal, whilst its face was long. A lipless mouth was permanently locked into the shape of a permanent grin filled with four layers of teeth. Finally the monster also had three giant eyes at the very top of its long thin face, whilst a row of spikes ran down its back.

The beast lowered its body over the Doctor and Dana who huddled together in absolute terror. Suddenly however the spaceship came into view above the monsters head. It fired repeatedly on the brute, who then turned to face its new enemy. The giant fired electric beams from its hands back at the craft which narrowly missed it.

The ship continued to dodge the monsters reach, but its fire was also not doing any damage to the creature either. One stray blast from the ship soon caused part of the forest to catch fire which then spread.

The Doctor and Dana were forced to run in another direction to escape the blaze, but they soon come upon a dead end. They had arrived at the mountain. It was so large and the sky was so dark that they couldn't see what was at the top of it.

Still it looked like the only way ahead. Between the monster and the fire there was absolutely no way they could go back. "You ever rock climb as a little girl?" The Doctor asked Dana.

"Of course, but look at that size of that thing there's no way we can." Before Dana could even finish, the Doctor was already climbing. He stopped and looked down at her. "Well aren't you coming?" Dana let out a frustrated groan before joining him.

The two didn't look back, though they could hear the sounds of the forest burning, the monster screaming and trees being knocked over. It was even harder to climb in the dark, but they only had to climb a short distance before making it into a ledge which led into a cave. The Doctor was the first to make it and as he went to help Dana up he saw the vehicle crashing to the forest floor on fire. The monster had managed to land a lucky hit and now the crew had paid for it with their lives. The Doctor couldn't bare to look at the mass of flames on the forest floor that had once been a beautiful craft. He had no idea who the crew of this mysterious vessel were and now he never would, but whatever their nature they had saved he and Dana's lives.

The Time Lord hurried Dana into the cave as the jungle lit up around the mountain, with his torch allowing them to see where they were going in the cavernous, dark tunnel, albeit only barely.

The monster meanwhile made its way out of the flames and back into the deeper forest. It hadn't forgotten the Doctor and Dana. It was a lot more intelligent than the Time Lord had assumed, and the beast actually searched through the jungle for signs of the two strange creatures it had encountered. Eventually it stumbled upon the TARDIS. Not sure what to make of this strange blue box, the monster struck it with all its might. To its surprise however, nothing happened!

How can that even be possible the giant thought to itself? Nothing could withstand the pressure of its blows. The creature let out a scream in frustration and struck the irritating blue box again, twice as hard. Still nothing. The monster continued to pound on the TARDIS only for nothing to happen. The alien then picked the blue box up and tried to squeeze the TARDIS in its hands only to tire itself out, after which it threw the TARDIS on the floor and jumping up and down on it over and over again. Still the infuriating blue box was completely unscathed. Finally the monster picked up the TARDIS and threw the time machine over 100 feet across the forest. The giant was sure if there was anything hiding in the blue box, then it couldn't have survived that.

The two time travellers meanwhile walked very slowly and carefully through the tunnel to try and find a way out. They still tripped over various rocks however, as the Doctors torch didn't do much to light up the way ahead.

When they were deep into the cave however Dana tripped over something large. "These damn rocks" she blurted out in anger and frustration. As the Doctor helped her up he shone his light on what it was she tripped on and could see it wasn't a rock.

It was the remains of a person. He had been ripped in half. Only the upper body remained, whilst one arm looked as though it had been chewed off. The other arm was completely mangled meanwhile, whilst both the upper torso and face were covered in long, deep claw marks.

Dana wanted to be sick at the sight of the cadaver, whilst the Doctor stared at it intently.

"There are humanoid life forms on this planet, or there where. Interesting."

Dana looked at him in frustration. "Is that all you can say. I can barely look at it!"

"I don't enjoy looking at it either, but the discovery of possibly a new race, even posthumous is always of interest. There's nothing we can do for this poor soul, but whatever did this could still be around. I suggest we move as quickly and carefully as possible."

The Doctor and Dana moved very closely together, both constantly looking round. The Doctor managed to spot the corpse of what looked like a humanoid creature in the distance thanks to his torchlight. The creature had reddish skin and was quite small and slight in frame. The Doctor shone the light closely on its face. Its small pointed head appeared to have been smashed in with great force. He wanted to examine it further, but Dana didn't want to even look at it.

"It's dead Doctor. Why do you care."

"Now who is the callous one. For all you know this creature could have been a civilised, intelligent life form that met an unfortunate end. Either way I want to find out."

The Doctor headed towards the corpse, but as he went to examine it, its arm suddenly twitched. It was alive!

"It's okay, it's okay" the Doctor said as he tried to make the creature comfortable in its last moments. The creature tried to lift one of its arms towards the Doctor and neither he nor Dana were sure at first if it was trying to attack the Time Lord or not. Once she realised it wasn't a threat, Dana held its hand gently.

The alien choked and spluttered before finally breathing its last. Dana felt somewhat guilty at being so callous to the creature, but the Doctor told her not to worry. "I'm sorry Dana, I didn't mean to make you feel bad. To be fair we still don't know whether it would have been hostile or not if it was healthy" the Doctor said.

The Doctor shone his light deeper into the cavern and caught sight of a second creature deep in the distance. From what he could see it was a lot larger, though not as big as the one outside. It stood about nine feet tall and appeared to have a much thicker, blue hide. Its face was small and goblin like, with two horrible, little red eyes that shone through the darkness of the tunnel. It also appeared to be holding a large club that was covered in a thick blue substance, undoubtedly the previous creatures blood. This new monstrosity had not noticed the Doctor and Dana as it was too busy licking its latest victims blood from its club. The Time Lord told Dana to slowly back away, as he searched the caverns nearby with his light to see if they were safe.

Unfortunately however Dana stepped backwards into a hole and fell about fifteen feet below. As she fell her scream startled the monster, but the Doctor instantly followed her before it could get a sight of him in the darkness.

Both the Doctor and Dana fell into a small pit that was about 10 feet wide and at the left end was a relatively small hole, though still big enough for a person to fit through. The Doctor decided to investigate it, but not before making sure Dana was alright. He helped her to her feet.

"Sorry Doctor." She said.

"Well I can hardly throw stones in terms of stumbling into trouble. Besides it's my fault. I was only shinning the light ahead. There's no way we can climb up it's too steep, but there's a small hole I'm going to check. Please stay here."

Dana interrupted.

"I'll go with you Doctor, if you run into trouble you'll need help as always."

"Oh alright." He said with reluctance, "but please keep an eye if that thing decides to follow us down the hole."

The Doctor and Dana managed to squeeze through the hole, one after the other. The hole was about six foot high on the wall of another small room which was connected to three tunnels. The Doctor went ahead down the centre tunnel. He only got a few feet down it when suddenly a roaring sound came bellowing down the corridor. The Doctor and Dana could see a figure emerging from within the dark and both ran back the way they came.

Stolen story; please report.

Suddenly more roaring and screeching came from down the other two corridors as well. "We're cornered. Like rats in a trap." Dana said frantically.

The Doctor told Dana to get back into the cave they had fallen into. "Are you crazy? They'll corner us."

"There's a chance they might not have seen us, we have to take it."

The Doctor helped Dana get up through the hole and then she helped to pull the Doctor into it. They stared intently until a figure emerged from the first of the three tunnels. To the time travellers surprise it looked like an ordinary man.

He was wearing some kind of strange uniform and seemed to be badly hurt. He stumbled to the ground, struggling to get his breath back. The Doctor tried to crawl through the hole again to help him, but before he could he saw six hideous creatures who looked identical to the one on the upper tunnel that had been carrying the club, crawl down all three tunnels. The poor man was in such pain he didn't even notice the brutes as they surrounded him. Before the Doctor could do anything the monsters were on the soldier.

The Doctor crawled back in and stopped Dana from pointlessly jumping out.

"There's nothing we can do Dana. He's dead! If you go out there those things will kill both of us."

Dana looked away as the monsters started to devour their victims mangled corpse. The Doctor meanwhile continued to observe. He found the sight repulsive, but was curious about their feeding habits. The monsters didn't seem to be just simple beasts who were feeding to survive. They seemed to be performing some kind of ritual. They smeared the victims blood over their faces and started doing what looked like a strange dance over the corpse before tearing more bits and pieces of flesh off the body.

The Doctor and Dana were forced to remain in their cave for a couple of hours until the monsters had finished. Every second was torture. They weren't sure if the monsters knew they were hiding in here, or if one of the monsters from above would fall into their cave. At one point the Doctor thought he heard shots being fired above, but they soon died down.

After a few hours there was literally nothing left of the wounded man but a few blood stains, and the monsters walked back down the tunnel.

Still the Doctor and Dana waited for a short while before escaping through the hole. They went down the corridor the man had come down as the monsters had left up the other two.

They reached the end of the tunnel which led to a large room, where there was a gigantic, glowing, blue strip of what looked like pure energy, right down the middle. The Doctor threw a rock into the blue strip only for it to bounce off.

"There's a force field around it" the Doctor said as he investigated the new, strange anomaly. He saw behind the strip was a control panel, and beside that a grey door.

"I wonder who created this" The Doctor said as he stared at the shinning light intently.

"It can't have been those savages. They were just animals." Dana replied.

"No I wouldn't have thought so, but appearances can be deceiving. Just because a race is highly advanced, doesn't mean that it has to be peaceful sadly." The Doctor said with regret.

Suddenly growling noises came down from the other end of the tunnel. One of the blue monsters had followed them.

"Damn" The Doctor shouted in frustration. "I was wanting to get a good look at that control panel."

The Doctor and Dana rushed to the door that was electronically locked though the Time Lord used his sonic screwdriver to try and open it, whilst Dana stared back intently at the tunnel. Dana could see the shadow of a figure begin to emerge on the other side. The monster had obviously been stalking them for quite a while, waiting until it could corner them. It was a lot smarter than she thought, and a lot more cruel.

Finally Dana heard a clicking noise and turned to see the door swing open.

"Ah there we are" the Doctor said proudly. "Did you ever doubt me?"

"Well"

"Just get inside!"

The Doctor shut the door behind him and used his sonic screwdriver to lock it again. On the other side of the door was a stair case which seemed to go on and on at both ends. The Doctor instinctively ran up the stairs. He had no idea if that way was safer but he wanted to get to the top of the mountain as he figured that would be his best chance of figuring out what was happening on this strange planet.

The monster started pounding on the door, and it didn't take long to tear it down despite the fact that the door was solid steel (or a similar substance) and over four inches thick.

The Doctor and Dana had a good start on the monster however and were able to maintain it as they hurried frantically up the stairs. The two time travellers managed to reach the top where the Doctor again used his sonic screwdriver to try and open the door.

"Doctor, I don't mean to hurry you but."

"I'm trying Dana, I could do with less distractions," the Doctor said, visibly terrified as even he wasn't sure he would make it this time.

Still the Doctor managed to overcome his fear and open the door just as the monster had reached them, but when he tried to shut the door behind the monster struck at it, sending the Doctor flying about six feet on the other side. Outside was a foggy cliff edge. In the hours the Doctor and Dana had spent in the cave, it had become daylight outside, but the fog was so thick, Dana still couldn't see much ahead of her.

Dana ran to help the Doctor, but the monster caught up with her and grabbed Dana from behind by her arms. The beast started to pull on Dana's arms, and she honestly thought they were going to be pulled out of their sockets, the creature was so strong.

The Doctor however got to his feet and tried to pull the monster from Dana, but it made no difference. The creatures strength was virtually limitless. The creature got irritated however and batted the Doctor away, sending him flying another five feet backwards, closer to the edge of the cliff before turning its sole attention to him.

The Doctor got up, still dazed from the hit, but he couldn't give in now. The Time Lord was an excellent fighter. He was a master of so many different fields, as he had after all lived for 100s of years, and had a machine that could enable him to visit the greatest experts and masters of every subject and field. The Doctor was a world class fighter, physicist, biologist, marksman, fencer, technician, cook, decorator, and painter though he had still never learned to play tennis properly. It was on his to do list though.

In his long life the Doctor had taken on opponents much stronger and larger than he before, but this creature was several times stronger. He'd be lucky to even hurt it!

Still the Doctor tried. The brute swung at the Time Lord, but the Doctor managed to dodge it and delivered a punch with all his might into the beasts chest. The creature didn't even wince!

The Doctor had speed on his side and continued to dodge the monsters attacks whilst delivering more punches, as well as a few kicks. He even used Venusian Karate, but none of the Time Lords attacks did anything. Realizing he wasn't getting anywhere the Doctor ran past the beast to try and help Dana up. Dana was still lying on the floor in pain. Had the monster kept pulling for just a few moments more it would have ripped both her arms out of their sockets.

The Doctor tried to help her up, telling her to run. Even if he wasn't going to make it out he was determined she was.

The monster however placed its arm around the Doctors neck from behind. Frantically and repeatedly, the Doctor elbowed the beast in the stomach. Once again the Doctor didn't hurt the beast, but the constant flurry of punches was enough to momentarily knock the alien off its balance a little, allowing the Doctor to push its arm away from his throat. The Doctor then rammed into the monster. Using his entire body weight, the Doctor knocked it a few feet backwards towards the cliff edge. Unfortunately the monster however managed to regain its footing and overpowered the Doctor. It then delivered a flurry of punches to the Doctors face and chest. Even the Time Lord who had been in more than a few fights in his time had never been hit with such force.

The Doctor lay on the floor beaten, bloodied and too weak to even lift a finger. The monster then picked him up, lifting him over its head whilst roaring in triumph. The Doctor with his last ounce of strength, kicked at the monsters head, but it did little more than annoy it. The beast even managed to bite onto the Doctors foot when he tried to kick again and sank its fangs into it. The Doctor screamed and tried to pull his foot free, but the more he pulled, the more his foot was pulled into its mouth.

Fortunately before the creature could tear off his foot, Dana, having regained her strength grabbed one of the largest rocks she could and thumped the monster in the stomach. It still didn't hurt it that much, but it startled the brute enough to drop the Doctor on Dana. Dana gently pushed the Doctor off her and hit the beast in the face with her rock before it could strike at her and continued to hit it over and over again. She was so overcome with rage she just couldn't stop. She even managed to draw some blood from the monsters face, with Dana at first being too fast for it, but eventually the monster was able to regain its composure and reached out for her throat and started to lift her above the ground.

The Doctor however used this opportunity whilst it was distracted, to ram the monster with his entire body. Catching it off guard, the Doctor not only caused it to drop Dana, but also managed to send it tumbling a few feet backwards and off the edge of the cliff. The Doctor himself almost went with it, but Dana grabbed him in time. He couldn't see what lay at the bottom, or where the monster had fallen too as the fog concealed it, but they were up very high; possibly at the very top of the mountain.

The Doctor took a minute to get his breath back. He was so weak from the beating he felt like passing out.

"Why did you interrupt. I could have beaten him in a few minutes" the Doctor joked. "I'd have drowned him in my own blood."

The Doctor coughed whilst Dana got a good look at his wounds.

"You need to rest Doctor. You're in no fit state to go anywhere after that."

"Nonsense Dana, I've been through worse in my time. I just need a minute or two to catch my breath. Besides on this planet it looks like you can't afford to stay in one place too long."

After a minute or two the Doctor was back on his feet, though he still needed some help from Dana to walk at first. They could barely see anything ahead thanks to the fog and frequently stumbled over rocks, or possibly something else. After a few minutes the Doctor and Dana came across what looked like two gigantic steel doors. The Doctor got out his sonic screwdriver, but as he got closer he could see that the door was already, partially open. Its lock appeared to have been ripped off. The Doctor tried to pull the door open, but the doors were so thick he needed help.

Inside there was a long corridor lined with corpses of scientists and strange alien creatures. Some were similar to the two monsters they had seen in the cave, but others were unlike anything even the Doctor had seen before.

"I'm going to rate this as one of my least favourite planets we've visited" Dana said as she shook her head.

"Yes I don't think I'll be visiting here as often as your world." The Doctor replied.

They tip toed over the corpses and got further down the corridor. There were several doors on either side of the corridor, but they all led to small rooms that were similarly littered with corpses. The scientists bodies were all mangled beyond recognition whilst the creatures bodies were preserved which intrigued the Doctor.

The Doctor recognised a symbol on the nearest wall. He had to rack through his memory for a bit, but then it hit him.

"Of course, we're in the galactic research facility of Paskelia 5." The Doctor exclaimed.

"Where?"

"Ah yes I should explain. I have been here before. It was a while ago though. Probably several of your lifetimes. This facility was the ultimate symbol of peace in the Marisha Galaxy, a galaxy trillions of light years from yours. The Marisha Galaxy was wracked by a galactic war, which destroyed dozens of worlds. Eventually however, the last few surviving species called a truce. They then built this facility here, where the greatest minds from all of the races would work together for the good of the galaxy."

"You say you've been here before."

"Yes I was for a brief time a member of the team during the early days when they were helping worlds ravaged by the war. I didn't stay here long."

"Why am I not surprised" Dana said with a smile.

"Yes well you know me. To be honest the facility didn't even really need me. They made incredible breakthroughs. They built a war ravaged galaxy up to a great and unified power in less than a century." The Doctor started to trail off. He couldn't help but rattle through all of the great experiments he had been lucky enough to witness or be a part of.

"They made sure that no race in this part of the galaxy went hungry ever again through advancements in cloning. They were able to clone several hundred tons of meat from the single cell of an animal. It was genius. Enough meat for everyone, and no animals had to die in the process. They also found a way to strengthen the immune system of so many different species, you see"

"Eh thank you Doctor" Dana said before he could launch into a lecture that would have probably gone on for hours. "Whatever good these people were responsible for, clearly this place has sadly changed since you were last here."

"You're not saying you think they created these monsters? I've not been away that long that they would go from fixing the problems of the galaxy to creating those abominations."

"Well do you think they were invaders then? Here to gain access to the secrets of this place?"

"Possibly, but even then it doesn't seem likely. This place is guarded by the full force of this entire galaxy. No something else has happened here. I don't know what but I'm going to find out."

Dana suddenly started to feel faint and nearly fell to the floor, but the Doctor was able to catch her in time.

"Dana what's wrong?"

"I, I, I'm okay Doctor, I think I was just feeling a bit weak after everything that's happened. Thank you."

The Doctor gave her a concerned look, before Dana reassured him that she was fine again.

The Doctor and Dana searched through the corpse laden corridors, and explored each room they came across for another half hour or so finding nothing of interest. In each room were remains of experiments as well as the people who worked on them, both completely unrecognisable from what they once were.

Finally Dana stumbled upon what looked like a security room complete with monitors of the various floors. Most of the monitors were out however, but Dana could see on one of the screens, what looked like two people, a man and a woman, trapped in a small room. They were both wearing the same uniform as the unfortunate soul in the cave who had been torn apart by the blue creatures. The man was pointing a gun at the door, whilst the woman appeared to be frantically calling for help on a communicator.

Dana called to the Doctor who was inspecting the corpse of a strange looking creature in the hall.

"Look those people are in danger. They're on the second floor, we need to help them."

The Doctor however simply stared at the monitor for a few seconds longer.

"Doctor! Come on we have to do something!"

"Oh I quite agree, its just that what can we do to help them? Whatever's cornered them will probably tear us to pieces as soon as we get down there."

"Well we can't just leave them."

"No, no you're right, I'm just thinking about what will be waiting for us down there" he said in a concerned tone. The Doctor ran out into the corridor to a corpse wearing the same uniform as the people trapped on the second floor. Beside the corpse was a strange, rifle like weapon. The Doctor picked it up and checked to see if it was working.

"Ah good it still has power in it. Of course I'd rather not use this" he said with contempt. "Still if we have too, it's best to be prepared."

The Doctor and Dana made their way to the nearest lift, which despite the desolate state of the place, still had power in it and took them to the second floor. They then headed down the long corridor, with no signs of any creature. There were a few doors on either side and the Doctor and Dana briefly checked each room, but again they found nothing.

At the end of the corridor, they found two large steel doors with deep scratch and bite marks all over them.

As the Doctor examined the doors he felt a drop of slime fall on his shoulder. Both he and Dana slowly looked up, only to see two hideous creatures clinging to the roof above them.

These monsters again looked different to any of the others the Doctor and Dana had encountered so far. They were white and covered in thick, black, hairy spots all over their bodies. They had six tiny bright red eyes all gathered into a little cluster on their foreheads, and a long green hair that stuck up on the top of their heads. They also had three sets of teeth in each of their four mouths, one of which was on their face like a human, another in the chest, and two on the palms of their hands which both reached out for the Doctor and Dana. The back feet were nothing but long black, and flexible spikes that dug into the ceiling.

The Doctor pointed his weapon at the two monsters and told them to back down.

"We won't hurt you, if you don't hurt us, we just want to know what happened here." He said firmly.

The monsters appeared to laugh at the Doctors words before lunging at him and Dana.

With no choice the Doctor opened fire on the both of them, and even though it created a small wound on both beasts, it ultimately did nothing to hurt or slow either monster down.

The monster knocked the gun out of the Doctors hand and then placed its hands on both of his shoulders. It sunk the teeth on its hands through his clothes and flesh. The monster then attempted to thrust one of its hands into the Doctors throat, but the Time Lord in spite of the pain he was in. Held the beasts hand using both of his. He barely held it in place however, mere centimetres from his throat.

Dana ran for the gun, but the other monster grabbed Dana in a bear hug, and started to bite her back with the teeth in its chest.

The Doctor seeing Dana's plight, bit into the creature attacking him's arm. The monster was caught completely off guard and the Doctor was able to pull his shoulder free and punched the alien in the face, knocking it back slightly.

The Doctor then went for the other monster. Attacking it from behind, he pulled the monster off of Dana before it could do any serious damage, though the beast soon overpowered the Doctor. Dana however again grabbed the gun and fired several rounds into both monsters which were both attacking the Doctor. The Doctor then took the gun from Dana and pushed her behind him, whilst he started fiddling with the weapon.

"What are you doing". She asked

The two steel doors suddenly opened and the two survivors Dana had seen on the monitor emerged carrying similar weapons to the Doctor.

The monsters instantly turned their attention to the two newcomers, hissing and smiling with a sadistic, perverse delight.

The two survivors started shooting at the monsters, but their weapons didn't hurt the beasts any more than the Doctors had. Before the creatures could attack the two survivors, the Doctor jumped one of the monsters from behind.

He placed his rifle around its neck and pulled it back, before throwing it several feet down the corridor. The other monster turned to fight the Doctor, but with a quick bit of Venusian Akido he managed to flip the alien over his shoulder and into the other, knocking it back down.

The Doctor then hurried his companion and the two strangers into the room behind the two steel doors, before throwing his rifle into one of the monsters hands, confusing it for a few seconds, which was all he needed to use his sonic screwdriver to shut the two steel doors.

"Get back" the Doctor exclaimed just before a massive explosion on the other side of the steel doors knocked shook the room and even knocked the Doctor who ironically hadn't heeded his own warning off his feet.

Dana rushed to the Doctors aid, and managed to wake him in just a few seconds. When he awoke, the Doctor instantly jumped to his feet and admired his own handy work.

"Ah good it worked."

"What did?" Dana replied, completely puzzled.

"Simple, the gun wasn't enough to hurt those brutes on its own, so I tampered with its power source. I caused it to overload which created a mini explosion, though I had to be sure I could get us a safe distance of course." He paused for a few seconds. "I had no choice, you know that right. They would have killed us." The Time Lord said with regret.

Whilst the Doctor and Dana were distracted, the male survivor hit the Doctor on the back of the head with the butt of his gun, knocking the Time Lord to the floor.

The female survivor meanwhile searched outside. The doors had been affected by the blast so severely that all she had to do was tap them and they fell backwards. The charred remains of the monsters were scattered all down the hall.

"Odd way to say thank you". Dana sniped at the survivor.

"I don't know who the hell you both are. You're not researchers. As far as I'm concerned so how did you get into this top secret facility that few people even know exists!" The male survivor asked.

"Ah well, I am actually a former researcher here" the Doctor said confidently as he jumped up. "Though granted then I looked different. Completely different in fact. Actually I looked so different you wouldn't recognise me at all but I."

"SHUT UP" the male survivor shouted furiously as the female returned. "The blast took care of those creatures, though it won't be long before more of them come. We need to get off this planet right now." She said.

"How? We haven't been able to contact the ship all night. I think they've left us."

Thinking back to the ship he saw crash in the forest, the Doctor interrupted.

"You're doing your ship mates a disservice. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but."

"What are you saying?" the male survivor growled as he shoved his gun into the Doctors chest.

"The ship was destroyed. One of the creatures in the forest tore it apart." The Doctor said as gently as he possible could. The female survivor became visibly upset. Tears began to appear in her eyes, though she tried to cover it up. The male survivor turned to her for a second to see if she was okay, but a second was all the Doctor needed.

With lightening speed he kicked the gun out of the male survivors hands.

The male survivor tried to fight the Doctor, but the Doctor easily brought him down with a quick punch to the gut and then another to the jaw.

Dana meanwhile managed to overpower the female survivor and get her into an arm lock before she could attack the Doctor, whilst the Doctor picked up the gun he had kicked out of the male survivors hands and pointed it at both of them. Dana released the female survivor.

"I'm sorry about that, but neither of us are here to hurt you. It might sound unbelievable, but I did work here, possibly centuries ago. Still we're here by chance and whatever is going on, we want to help."

The survivors didn't believe either of them.

"You're just trying to trick us," the male survivor said back to the Doctor. "You're lying about the ship too. You're trying to break us, make us think there's no escape from your monsters."

"You moron" the Doctor said losing his patience. "Why did I just blow them up. I could shoot you now couldn't I? I am sorry about your ship mates. Believe me. They saved our lives, but I am not lying. I saw a ship get destroyed by one of those monsters. It was gigantic."

"You want information out of us, so you're trying to trick us, its not going to work". The male survivor protested.

The female however actually started to believe the Doctor.

"Come on Sleera" she said "He just saved our lives. Also look at how those creatures have attacked us. Not once have they wanted to know who we are, or where we came from. Why would they? We're defenceless against them. They laugh at our attempts to fight back. If he wanted to kill us, we'd be dead."

Sleera considered this for a while and then agreed, albeit extremely reluctantly with her.

"Thank you young lady." The Doctor said smugly to Sleera. May I ask your name?

She frowned. "I still don't trust you, but we don't have a choice"

"That's a good way of looking at it. Remember we can't trust you either." Dana said sharply.

"Well" the Doctor interrupted "whatever the case I'd like to know what you are doing here and if there is anything I can do to help."

The female survivor paused for a few minutes. She still wasn't sure if she could trust these two strangers, but after a short while she started talking.

"My name is Laragesh. I am part of a rescue mission that was sent to the centre of Paskelia 5 after it was cut off from the governments of the other worlds. The security force of this world was decimated and so we were sent in. There were over 700 of us on the mission. Now as far as I know we are the only two left."

Where did all of these creatures come from? What are they? The Doctor asked.

Laragesh continued, somewhat angry at the Doctors lack of concern for her team mates. "We don't know. Our first guess was that they must have been created here, but we searched through the labs and notes and didn't find anything to suggest the creation of these creatures. This facility as always seemed to be working towards the benefit of our galaxy, though there was one area."

"Yes?" The Doctor enquired.

"There was a room at the very bottom of the facility. There's no way any of us could get there however. It's swarming with hundreds of these monsters. I'd very much doubt that's where they're being made though. You couldn't cram two whole armies worth of hundreds of different types of monsters into one tiny little room.

"Well" the Doctor interrupted. "Just because something is small, doesn't mean it can't contain something immense on the inside."

Dana meanwhile was more interested in something else Laragesh had said.

"What do you mean" she said with concern. "two armies?"

"The first wave of monsters were killed before we got here. We don't know how, but it seems the last of the scientists to be slaughtered managed to find a weapon of some kind that killed them all instantly. Perhaps it was some kind of poison or something, but we didn't detect any toxins in the air. The second wave came whilst we were investigating the base."

The Doctor thought about this as he searched around the room for any clues. "I still say the secret lies in the lab at the bottom of this facility. We have to get there, monsters or no monsters. I don't think for one second that the fine people here would create these creatures to harm the galaxy, but well, sometimes science can be a gamble, lets just say that."

The Doctor picked up Laragesh's communicator that she had dropped in frustration earlier.

"Let me see" the Doctor said as he tinkered with the device.

"It's broken" Sleera said disparagingly. "One of those things batted it out of my hand. I managed to pick it up again, but it couldn't pick anything up. Or maybe there wasn't anything to pick up."

"Ah there" the Doctor exclaimed somewhat smugly. "Fixed it, the speaker had been disjointed but I managed to pop it back in place."

The Time Lord gave Sleera a smug look before adjusting the machine. There were a few more minutes of static before a voice came through.

"Hello, do you read me. Please someone, help us."

"Hello this is Sleera" he said as he snatched the communicator off of the Doctor, who turned to Dana and said "Well that's just rude as well as ungrateful."

"Please tell us where you are?" Sleera asked.

"We're on the 8th floor, we managed to get away from it, but be careful" the machine suddenly cut off.

"Well looks like we're headed to the 8th floor" the Doctor said with less bravado than before.

Sleera however hesitated for a moment. "I'm, I'm not sure" he said nervously.

"SLEERA" Laragesh said in disbelief.

"I'm not afraid, but I honestly don't see what we can do to help them. You saw what happened to our platoon. I think we need to get out of here."

"Where to?" the Doctor interrupted.

"I told you your ship was destroyed. You're only way off is my vessel, and the only chance you have of getting to it, is if there are as many of us as possible." The Time Lord continued.

"Who are you anyway? Why are we even listening to you, you're an intruder here." Sleera said angrily.

"Oh lets not go through that again, look I'm going to go and help you're friends down there, you can either join us, or stay up here alone and be easy to pick off.... Well?" The Doctor said.

Knowing there was no way he could convince Laragesh, and not wanting to be alone if any more of those monsters returned, Sleera reluctantly agreed and the four unwilling companions descended to the 8th floor.

The 8th floor was the largest yet. It was an immense lab containing huge machines, all of which had been broken. Surprisingly however there were far fewer corpses here. There was also a massive window at the end of the room which had been smashed open. Outside the forest the Doctor and Dana had arrived in could be seen. It appeared to be all there was outside the mountain. There were certainly no signs of other facilities.

The foursome searched the room for any signs of life and at the far side Doctor saw a small steel door that had been sealed shut. At the back of the room meanwhile was another door that appeared to be ripped off of its hinges.

The Doctor tried to open the steel door with his sonic screwdriver, whilst Laragesh, Dana and Sleera inspected the other room.

Suddenly the room began to shake. Dana who had been inspecting one of the corpses looked up into the Doctors room and saw the same giant monster that had pursued her and the Doctor in the forest earlier. It had climbed up the entire mountain to get to the facility!

The Doctor hadn't noticed it. He was too busy trying to crack the lock that he hadn't even taken much notice of the tremor.

The monster was fixated on the Doctor who was closer to it. Dana tried to shout to the Doctor, but it was too late. The monsters arm reached in, breaking through the glass in the process for the Time Lord. The Doctor fortunately managed to dodge it in time, but as he tried to run towards Dana, the beast knocked him to the floor. It then grabbed hold of his leg and started to slowly pull the Doctor towards it.

Dana ran to the Doctor and tried to pull him free but it was no use. She screamed at Sleera and Laragesh for help. The two ran back into the room and first tried shooting at the monster which accomplished nothing, and then tried to pull the Doctor free from its grip.

Sadly however their combined strength was no match for the beast. The Doctor could see a sadistic smile appear on the giants face. It knew there was nothing the Doctor could do to escape it and it was enjoying every second.

To be continued