Luna and the Doctor

by SubCinemaProductions

Chapter 2: The Web pt.2

Luna crept through the innermost bowels of the TARDIS, a small device in her ear. The Doctor had called it an earpeice, which seemed appropriate. It had a little microphone that extended to her mouth. With the speaker in her ear, he could give her instructions from... wherever he was. Luna didn't acctually know with him. He was supposed to stay in the console room, but, by the sound of it, he had made his way to the kitchen, food being a weakness of his. "Okay, *Slurpe* according to this *Crunch* yurn ne tuhn turn reft *gulp* right about here."

Varrious cables were dangling from the celing, and there was a faint smell of singed rubber in the air as Luna turned left down a new coridor. It was the same as the one before. It seemed almost depressing to see the interior of the TARDIS like this. The magical vessel had been with her through some tough times and seeing it in it's shotty condition almost disillusioned her.

She shook the feeling off and pushed forward. At the end of the hallway there was a door, which was not unlike the others in appearence except for one small detail. It was lightly, but noticebly covered in a silky material. "Doctor," Luna said, "I think I am getting close to their nest."

He sounded audibly surprized. "*Gulp* Yeah, you are. It says right here that you aren't more than twenty relative meters from it."

Luna became cunfused. "Relative meters?"

"M-hm. The TARDIS exists in multiple places simultaniously, so you are kinda right on top of it and about ninety kilometers away. Although, from your perspective, it's only about twenty meters. By the way, how did you know that you were there?"

"Well," she began, matter-of-fact-ly, "I've just found a door covered with"-she gave it a curious look- "web. I had assumed that since these things looked spider, they would make webs, but these are... stange and off-color."

"Luna, I don't know what those things are or even how they made this web that you're describing to me, so be careful. The scanner isn't penatrating the metal skin of... the spider. Let's just call them spiders, for the sake of ease. There's a small sample on the tail-ends of these that we disabled, but it will take some time to analyse, so move with caution."

She nodded and pushed forward through the door, careful not to touch the the silky strands. When she reached the other side, she gasped. The new hallway, much shorter than the last, emmited an erie, green glow. There were two doors on the left, a door on the right, and one at the end of the hall. Each of the doors were different, being that they appeared to be from different time periods. There was webbing everywhere; it was in the corners where the floor and celing met the walls. There were even more bundles of wires and exposed panels than before, and those too were covered in the webbing.

She gulped. It was creepy forn her seeing the TARDIS like this, even more so than before. Careful not to snag herself, Luna pressed forward. "Okay Doctor," she said timmidly, her voice ehoing down the many inner coridoors, "Where do I go now?"

There was a loud burst of static that came from the speaker in Luna's ear. "Just down the h- *ccchhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr* and trun left."

"Doctor!" she yeled, her voice echoing louder, "Are you okay?" She backed towards the door that she had just came from. "Can you hear me?!?!?!"There was a moment of silence aand Luna hed her breath. There was then a groaning sound coming from the other end.

"Owwww, not so loud Luna."

She smiled and exhaled. "I'm sorry," she breathed, "You were breaking up there for a second."

"Funny," he said, a little distortion in his voice, "you sounded perfectly clear to me. Something must be going on with my end."

"It looks like we'll be offline for awhile," Luna remarked grimly.

"It seems so." There was a pause. "Well, if that's the case and I can't restore the com, then I'll give you instructions."

Suddenly, there was a loud boom coming from the direction Luna needed to be headed. She swiveled her head in alarm. From the door at the end of the hall, which was finely carved wood with an ornate, golden knob, there rose a small pillar of smoke throug the keyhole. She stared at it, fearing what could've caused it. The pillar was increasing in speed and the smoke was accumalating on the celing. Soon, in a few minutes, the room woud be coated with the thin, whispy smoke.

"Okay," the Doctor began, unaware of what was going on, "Your first step will be to locate the nest. If these mechanical things lay eggs, they'll have to be the first ones to go. Don't feel bad about it, they are just robots. Once that's done, their queen should get pretty mad and chase after you. The important thing to remember is don't let her-" The door burst open and fell from its hinges to the floor.

On the other side was at least twenty of the spiders that she had fought before. Luna, panicked, darted her eyes around the room, in search of an escape. Desparate, she dove for the nearest door on the left, which appeared like an old shack door like the ones in that first village so long ago. It swung open and she fell inside. Luna quickly turned and shut it before those spiders could get in. Luckily, she had closed it in time. The spiders were banging on it from the other side, trying to get at her. Thanks to an old failsafe the Doctor must've installed, the door must not open for anything other than a living organism Luna figured.

She took a deep breath, glad that she was out of the way of those things. It was then she noticed a static sound coming from her earpiece. "Oh great," she mumbled to herself.

She waited a moment, hoping that the doctor would fix it soon, A minute passed. She turned it off, not wanting to hear it anymore.

She took a moment to survey the room she had just entered. She couldn't see much. It was a tall room; Luna couldn't even see the celing. It just faded into nothing. There was a soft, blue glow coming from the center of the room, which was the only light source. It came from a small obelysk in the center of the room; only the very tip of it was lit though, or rather, it was from the tip where the light came. There was some sort of small, blue sphere hovering above it. There was a console in front of Luna, just in front of the pillar as well.

She approached the console. It was only a small keyboard, one of those infernal contraptions that she didn't know how the Doctor operated. She gave another galnce around the room, somewhat disappointed. Suddenly, a soft voice emminated from the center of the room. "Help," it said, echoing around the walls, making it seem to Luna that it came from all around her. Her eyes darted around the room, frightened. The voice was so... terrifying. But it was gentle. It was just about as impossible as the Doctor. Her eyes fell on the keyboard. Maybe the voice wanted her to type the word "help"? Or, perhaps, it was a trick. Maybe it was those evil spiders playing on her mind. She shook her head. It was most likely the TARDIS offering it's help to her. But then again...

Against her better jugement, she carefully put a hoof to the keys.

H-E-L-P

There was a sudden rumbling, like an earthquake, comeing from beneath her hooves. She feared that she had made a mistake. The shaking grew worse and worse, making Luna fall to the ground. She covered her head with her hooves.

Then, just as quickly as it had started, the shaking stopped. Slowly, Luna opened her eyes. The room remained the same. She stood up and looked all around her. What had just happened?

From the other side of the room, another blue glow lit up a portion of the wall. It seemed to come from nowhere. A simple, metal door was illuminated by the unknown light. Luna walked over to it suspiciously. She eyed it carefully, making sure it wasn't a trick, and then put her hoof to it and pushed the metal door open. She stepped inside.

The new room was very much different than the last. It looked very much like an assembly line from one of the factory planets she had been to. In the middle of the room, with conveyer belts on either side, stood a pedastal, which displayed something odd.

Atop it was... well, it looked like it was supposed to be a dog. It was a small, metal box with it's bottom being longer than the top, and underneath the base were little wheels. It had a little tail coming out the back, and on the other end it had a head, which looked a little too big for it's body. For ears, it had little radar dishes, a little round-looking thing for a nose, and three red bars for eyes, with a small suction sup in the middle. Around the neck, seemingly out of place, was a plad dog-collar. Luna would've thought it might've been cute, if it were functioning. She sighed, is this the help the TARDIS was providing? In the light, she didn't see it at first, but on the side were red, futuristic characters that read "K-9".

Suddenly, the eyes of the machine lit up. It raised its head up and a robotic voice said, "Systems initializing." Its eyes flashed a few times and mechanical sounds could be heard. It turned it's head towards Luna. It's voice came up again. "Do you require assastance, mistress?"

~

"And, Luna, once we finish we can all go out for bagels."

Silence.

"Helo? Luna?"

More Silence.

"Uh-oh."

He turned to the monitor in the kitchen. There was a map of the TARDIS on it and he saw Luna's blinking life-sign. So she was okay. Still, he didn't like her silence, that meant noone to listen to him. If only K-9 were still around...

~

"So, you used to be an assistant of the Doctor's?"

"Afirmative."

"And now you've come back?"

"At your request, mistress. I've downloaded all of the data from the relative time since I've been away up until this moment into my data banks and I'm ready to fuction. You are Princess Lunaris Artemis Eclipse of the planet Equestria."

Luna lowered her brow. She hated when ponies used her full name. "Just call me Luna," she said flatly. She turned her head in the direction of the door. Those spiders were probably still out there. "Do have defence systems?" she asked, concerned.

"Affirmative, Mistress Luna," he squeaked, "But they greatly drain my batteries."

Luna hummed in thought. Either they stay in there and get nothing done, or they go out there with the potential to get killed. What would the Doctor do...

Without hesitation, she said, "Let's go, K-9. We've a job to do."

"Affirmative."

~

The Doctor was crawling through a service tuunel. There were many of these scattered about the TARDIS, and though he usually used them for fun and most times getting lost, he was now using them for a purpose. He was on his way to the section of the TARDIS where Luna was at. She didn't hear the rest of his instructions, so he needed to remove whatever it was that caused it.

... He was also lost.

His injured leg was stiff as he drug it along with him. Every little bumb impeded him.

He had gotten used to the four legs in the few years he had been in... he stoped. "I haven't given this universe a name yet? Hrm, perhaps George?" He hadn't noticed that the conduit that he was in was shaking beneath him.

He fell through to the floor beneath him, in doing so landed on top of one of the spiders he had seen earlier. They were clawing at a shack door, trying to enter. He didn' care though, he was too focused on naming the universe that he was in. The spiders, for there part, had noticed this new intruder, mumbling to himself in deep thought. One of them turned to another as if to say, "What are we going to do with him?"

The other turned back to his friend, as if to say, "I dunno."

"Aha!" The Doctor turned his head up and the spiders turned to him. "How about: the Equest-verse!" His eyes lit up as he looked about at the spiders. His face fell.

"Bollocks."

~

Luna and K-9 approached the shack door, his little wheels making a small whirring noise. She turned to the robot dog. "Do you read any life signs? Or better yet, any sign of those spiders?"

K-9 clicked for a second, then replied, "There is no present data that can suggest any form of detecting mothods. I cannot scan for them without a functioning refrence."

She sighed. "Well, keep me posted if you find anything." She lifted a hoof to the door hadle. "Are you ready?" she asked.

"Affirmative," he said, extending his nose, where Luna had learned that K-9 held his lazer.
Luna took a deep breath, and then she pushed the door open.

The hallway was empty, save for a single spider writhing on the ground. It looked as if though it had been crushed from above. Upon inspection of the room, something had fallen from above through on of the may conduits that layered the TARDIS. Cautiously, Luna approached the dammaged spider. It seemed to be only somewhat broken. Much of it's body and all but one of its legs were crushed, but its lights were still on and it was trying to limp away with it's one leg, even more desparately once Luna came close.

She turned to K-9. "Can you get any sort of readings from it now?"

The little mechanical dog wheeled up. There were more clicking and whirring sounds. After a moment, K-9 said, "Affirmative. There appears to be a damping field surrounding the creatures. I cannot see what is inside, but I can calibrate my sensors to detect the field."

"Do it," Luna commanded. She was begining to like K-9; he wasn't nearly as difficult to deal with as the Doctor was. She was about to set off for the door from which the group had come from earlier, but then she had a thought cross her mind. "K-9, is there anything special about the field?"

More of his scanning noises. "The field has similar properties to those used by Salarian agents to hide bio-signs."

Luna's eyes widened. "The Salarians? Last time we saw them, they tried to sabotage to TARDIS. What are their damping fields doing inside here?" Luna thought for a moment. "K-9, can you use your lazer to make an incision into these spiders?"

"Affirmative."

"Do it," she ordered.

There was a pause, and then K-9's nose extended and aimed itself at the spider. A small line of red light came from it and hit the spider right on the midsection. The beam slowly rotated in a circle, and eventually a peice, big enough to fit a hoof in, could be removed. The lazer retreated back to the robot dog.

Luna removed the piece, letting it hit the floor with a small pang. On the other side, there were thick windings of various power cables and wires, all of which were some dark shade of grey, matching the exterior of the hull.

Pushing these away, Luna dug deeper into the body of it. She made progress when she came across some sort of soft, slimey substance. She prodded it with her hoof, and in doing so caused the spider to... wince, almost as if it were in pain.

Luna pried more of the hull open with her magic. Shoving more cables out of the way, she gasped. Beneath all of the mechanisms and wires was a living being. Its flesh was a pale pink with little fur coming out of it, like the fuzz on a peach. It was shaped like the heart of a pony, but she could see more of it going off into the legs. She felt a great deal of sympathy and pity for this creature, being crushed in the way it was. There was no visible face, but she could tell that it was scared by the way it trembled.

"Oh my," she breathed.

~

Atop a wave of mechanical spiders sat the Doctor, defenceless to whatever kind of torture or interogation they might subject him to. He was also more than a little irritated.

"Hey! Watch where your going! I nearly hit my head on that last pipe!"

The place that they were going through was like the hallway that he had been captured in, only worse. Webbing coated every substance and the thick, green glow made it somewhat hard to breathe. They spared no time in making the TARDIS their home.

The group of spiders went through many twists and turns before coming to an antechamber, one that the Doctor hadn't recognized as a part of his TARDIS. "Hey," he said curriously, "This wasn't here bef-" Before he could finish his thought, the spiders dumped him on the ground. "Ow! Not nice guys, and I thought we were just getting along!"

The antechamber stood high, perhaps about fifteen meters tall, maybe twenty. The room, despite the rest of the TARDIS, was made of stone. It seemed almost ancient, the way the large wooden set of double doors seemed to give an ominous feeling of great and terrible grandness, almost as if some great and terrible grand thing grand thing lay beyond, like a king of sorts. On either end of the room, to the Doctor's left and right, were two machines. They hummed and sizzled in quiet function, their tall pillars of metal rising up and down. The Doctor noticed that one looked rather damaged, with a small line of smoke rising from it's back.

Two of the spiders which had carried the Doctor to the antechamber entered the room beyond. They only opened the door slightly, so the Doctor couldn't get a good view of the inside. There were a few moments of silence while he and his mechanical captors waited for the outcome of what would almost certainly, in the Doctor's mind, be a bad thing. The quiet was broken after a few minutes when the two spiders that had left the room had momentarily re-entered. They gave a signal to the others, who then started to poke and prod the Doctor, making him advance forward. He didn't like this treatment; they ordered him around too much. Begrudgingly, he followed them. The massive doors swung open at their approach, almost, it seemed, on their own.

This room, which he guessed, was the main chamber. There were four pillars racing high beyond the Doctor's sight. At the other end of the room, there stood an equally tall arch. At either end of the room were more of the machines that he had seen in the antechamber, humming as the metal rods rose up and down.

As his eyes grew used to the low-light, he saw what appeared to be little, slimey hearts with legs. They were in small groups; huddled together in apperant families. Though he could see no face, the Doctor could tell that they were looking at him. "Aaahhh, so their suits of armour, not robots. How was I not able to detect that?"

Another cursory look around the room indicated that it was a very busy place. Spiders, in their metal suits, raced around the room to the different family groups huddled around the room, carrying with them jars of green ooze. He watched one in particular bring it to one of the families, one of aout six spiders. It gave it to them, and as soon as they got it within their reach, they dumped it onto the floor and began to roll around in it.

"Hm, so that's how they eat. Interesting..."

Suddenly, there was a great rumbling in the room. All turned to the empty archway. The green glow that illuminated the room grew brighter around the archway, as if all of the light from the rest of the room was being sucked towards it. The light formed a wall, like a window in the archway. Through the wall of light, stepped one large spider leg. And then another. And another. Soon eight legs pulled through a body, much like the others and much larger.

At the appearence of the super-spider, all of the rest around the room began to hammar their legs to the floor, making a fast, steady beat. The beast rose to full hight, and a great voice of a woman came from it.

"Let the trial begin!"

Sighing, the Doctor shook his head from where he stood across the room. "It just isn't my day, is it?"

~

The intruder pulsed slowly. It levated towards a console. A small arm began to protrude from its seemless exterior. Systematicly, it began to program a flight course.

Author's Note:

I'm back! ... Again! ... Yeah. Let's-let's try this again, shall we?

New chapter next week. The exciting conclution to The Web! What will happen at the Doctor's trial? Why do the spiders have rare cloaking tech? How are they going to get rid of the intruder?

Comments

[SirDerpsalot]

Extra text, but great story.
" great and terrible grand thing grand thing lay beyond"

[Oromis4591]

Will this be continued? I really liked how things were going.

[Garlic ghost]

Please More !