![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eponymous_roseTitle: The Deepsky Atlas (8/?)
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
eponymous_rose
Word Count: 1567
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Adventure, Humour
Characters: Fourth Doctor, Harry Sullivan, Sarah Jane Smith
Summary: Bravery has nothing whatever to do with lack of fear: Sarah gets to the heart of the problem.
Part One: Circinus | Part Two: Caelum
Part Three: Eridanus | Part Four: Setus
Part Five: Dorado | Part Six: Leo
Part Seven: Libra
THE DEEPSKY ATLAS
CHAPTER EIGHT
While the situation was certainly not unprecedented - Sarah was tempted to add 'faces down multiocular monsters with aplomb, excellent typist' to her C.V. - she felt a stab of fear as the creature leaned down to regard them more carefully. It seemed very much as though it were trying to establish the logistics involved in swallowing three humanoids with minimum fuss.
This was precisely the sort of situation they'd managed to defuse so many times in the past. Having spent so long with the Doctor, she knew that things often had a way of working out anyway - and even if they didn't, it was difficult to regret much when one was in tiny, bite-sized pieces.
But still she stared at the creature, and shrank back a step as its eyes flickered back to meet hers. Her hand twitched, and she had to keep herself from reaching to her throbbing cheekbone, from showing any weakness.
"Oh," it said, and she realised that one of the eyes, the one she'd struck with the match, was winking. "The girl with the clever fire-sticks."
She wanted to look at the Doctor, or Harry, but it was impossible to break the multifaceted gaze.
"That rather hurt, you know," the creature said, and leaned forward. Its breath still smelled of blood, and she felt a shudder run through her.
"I imagine," the Doctor said brightly from somewhere to her right, "that my hitting you with a rock didn't much help, either."
The creature turned its attention to him, eyes narrowing, fur bristling. Now that the gaze was broken, Sarah turned her head and saw Harry step in front of the Doctor with a nervous grin. "And I- well, I suppose I wasn't there, but I might well have done you some- some serious harm." He folded his arms. "And I imagine it would have hurt rather a lot."
The creature cocked its head to one side, considering Harry. "You protect one another with your words," it said. "How very strange. I shall have to kill you one at a time, perhaps, to ascertain the extent of this loyalty."
Sarah felt her hands clench into fists, felt the strange fear subsiding. This, at least, was something she knew - people weren't supposed to get hurt for her, weren't supposed to-
Before she could consider further, she strode forward. "Listen, you-you great ugly thing," she said. Its attention snapped to her, and- and had its eye started winking again? She jammed a hand in her empty pocket. "I've got more of those firesticks," she said, "and I've every intention of jabbing one in each of your eyes."
"Sarah," Harry said, somewhere behind her, but she ignored him, took another step forward. The creature's eyes were on hers, now, and still it remained hunched in a tight posture, ready to pounce.
Then it relaxed, languid, and its fur rippled with the release of tension in its muscles. "You can't frighten me," it said, and its voice was devoid of defensiveness or denial or any expression other than a pervasive curiosity. "I nearly killed you and the larger one, earlier, and all it took was a couple of swipes. Your body is frail, and I suspect I'm rather faster than you. At the risk of abusing cliche, you'd be dead before you got your hand out of your pocket."
"Oh," said Sarah. "You really think so?" She squared her shoulders, felt sweat trickling between her shoulderblades, and wished the Doctor would speak up with some sort of brilliant plan. She didn't expect that brandishing the matches that very definitely weren't in her pocket would be terribly effective.
The creature suddenly lowered its head so it was nearer to eye-level with Sarah. "You're a ridiculous little creature, all reeking with fear, and still you stand before me. None of you have words that make any sense at all. It's extremely disconcerting."
Sarah heard footsteps, a rustle of cloth behind her, and knew that something must be happening, but she didn't dare look back - the monster's eyes were intent on her, and she thought there might be a chance that it hadn't yet noticed-
"I will kill you all, you know," said the creature, shifting its gaze over her shoulder. "The one-at-a-time suggestion was merely out of curiosity. I could just as easily take you all at once. I would not recommend moving."
"Well," the Doctor said, somewhere behind her, "who's moving?"
"We're certainly not moving," said Harry.
"But what you were saying - you don't have bravery where you come from?" Sarah said quickly, trying to shift its attention back to her.
The creature considered this. "We don't often commit suicide," it concluded. "It's quite counterintuitive. We're rather big on the survival instinct."
Sarah felt some of the tension go out of her shoulders - if the monster wanted to have a polite chat instead of killing her, who was she to argue? She remembered the first confrontation in the passages - then, too, it had seemed more interested in having a discussion with her than in taking her head off. "Are there many of you, then?"
For something twice her height and with so many assorted limbs in bizarre places, the beast could take on distinctly human expressions. Now its eyes shifted from side to side, and it gave something like a shrug. "Seemed to me there were, but maybe I was imagining it all. I can't remember."
"You've been here a long time, then," Sarah said, and suddenly she was starting to piece things together, beginning to form a kind of logic in the midst of all this confusion. The creature seemed almost pathetic, hanging on her every word. Its breathing, she realised, was even catching in its throat as it waited for her to speak again. But Caelum had said that he was alone in the lighthouse - obviously that wasn't the case, and after however many thousands of years, surely he'd have noticed a group of people and aliens wearing robes, and a giant monster in the catacombs.
She felt herself straighten as the ideas raced through her mind - perhaps they hadn't been visible until recently, perhaps they'd all been caught up in some sort of different- different time zones, and maybe they were all colliding-
A load of gobbledygook, really, but it seemed the sort of gobbledygook the Doctor would spout. Sarah straightened, and gave it a try. "Since the time distortion started?"
"Time-" The creature considered, then gave a good-natured snort. "You know, that makes sense, really."
Sarah grinned, and, without thinking, drew her hands from her pockets and crossed her arms. The monster didn't so much as blink, and shot a bone-plated arm at her.
She raised her hands and started to drop as soon as she realised her mistake, and the creature's limb caught her shoulder instead of her head, sending her spinning into the wall. Dazed, winded, she clutched at her arm and flung herself to the ground in anticipation of a second attack. Somewhere in the room - somewhere behind the monster? - Harry shouted her name.
Sarah glanced up; the creature was staring at her, and the limb it held over its head was about the size of a tree trunk, and it was ready to bring it down on top of her. She had a faint glimpse of Harry, behind the creature, making a dash towards her, and of the Doctor, holding him back with one arm, and she didn't want to close her eyes, not really, but she also didn't want to see what her own death looked like-
"You didn't-" The creature's voice was strange, and she looked up again, in spite of herself. It still had the limb over its head, and she suspected gravity might well be enough to finish her off. "You didn't even have any of the firesticks in your pocket," it said. "Your pockets are empty."
Sarah wanted to make a quip about bluffing, but she wasn't sure she could trust her voice; she was getting her breath back, but there were still little stabs of pain along her sides, and her arm had gone quite numb. "Yes," she gasped.
The creature lowered its arm partway. "What are you?" it said.
"They may be of assistance," said a new voice, and the creature whirled round. Sarah twisted to see past it; now Caelum was standing next to Harry and the Doctor, still covered in blood, his eyes dark and cold as ever. The monster considered Caelum distastefully, its fur rippling again as all its muscles tensed up.
"You," it said. "You smell of blood. I would have remembered meeting you."
"I have been here for millennia," Caelum said. "I have explored every inch of this lighthouse, carved my name on every stone. And I have never seen this place before."
The creature froze, stared from Caelum to the Doctor. Sarah stumbled to her feet, but the monster seemed to have forgotten all about her. "That's impossible," it said. "Only the members of the cult, only their sacrifices to me. There has never been anybody else."
"I believe," the Doctor said to the creature, with a benign smile, "that you and Caelum may have rather a lot in common."
Author:
eponymous_roseWord Count: 1567
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Adventure, Humour
Characters: Fourth Doctor, Harry Sullivan, Sarah Jane Smith
Summary: Bravery has nothing whatever to do with lack of fear: Sarah gets to the heart of the problem.
Part One: Circinus | Part Two: Caelum
Part Three: Eridanus | Part Four: Setus
Part Five: Dorado | Part Six: Leo
Part Seven: Libra
THE DEEPSKY ATLAS
CHAPTER EIGHT
While the situation was certainly not unprecedented - Sarah was tempted to add 'faces down multiocular monsters with aplomb, excellent typist' to her C.V. - she felt a stab of fear as the creature leaned down to regard them more carefully. It seemed very much as though it were trying to establish the logistics involved in swallowing three humanoids with minimum fuss.
This was precisely the sort of situation they'd managed to defuse so many times in the past. Having spent so long with the Doctor, she knew that things often had a way of working out anyway - and even if they didn't, it was difficult to regret much when one was in tiny, bite-sized pieces.
But still she stared at the creature, and shrank back a step as its eyes flickered back to meet hers. Her hand twitched, and she had to keep herself from reaching to her throbbing cheekbone, from showing any weakness.
"Oh," it said, and she realised that one of the eyes, the one she'd struck with the match, was winking. "The girl with the clever fire-sticks."
She wanted to look at the Doctor, or Harry, but it was impossible to break the multifaceted gaze.
"That rather hurt, you know," the creature said, and leaned forward. Its breath still smelled of blood, and she felt a shudder run through her.
"I imagine," the Doctor said brightly from somewhere to her right, "that my hitting you with a rock didn't much help, either."
The creature turned its attention to him, eyes narrowing, fur bristling. Now that the gaze was broken, Sarah turned her head and saw Harry step in front of the Doctor with a nervous grin. "And I- well, I suppose I wasn't there, but I might well have done you some- some serious harm." He folded his arms. "And I imagine it would have hurt rather a lot."
The creature cocked its head to one side, considering Harry. "You protect one another with your words," it said. "How very strange. I shall have to kill you one at a time, perhaps, to ascertain the extent of this loyalty."
Sarah felt her hands clench into fists, felt the strange fear subsiding. This, at least, was something she knew - people weren't supposed to get hurt for her, weren't supposed to-
Before she could consider further, she strode forward. "Listen, you-you great ugly thing," she said. Its attention snapped to her, and- and had its eye started winking again? She jammed a hand in her empty pocket. "I've got more of those firesticks," she said, "and I've every intention of jabbing one in each of your eyes."
"Sarah," Harry said, somewhere behind her, but she ignored him, took another step forward. The creature's eyes were on hers, now, and still it remained hunched in a tight posture, ready to pounce.
Then it relaxed, languid, and its fur rippled with the release of tension in its muscles. "You can't frighten me," it said, and its voice was devoid of defensiveness or denial or any expression other than a pervasive curiosity. "I nearly killed you and the larger one, earlier, and all it took was a couple of swipes. Your body is frail, and I suspect I'm rather faster than you. At the risk of abusing cliche, you'd be dead before you got your hand out of your pocket."
"Oh," said Sarah. "You really think so?" She squared her shoulders, felt sweat trickling between her shoulderblades, and wished the Doctor would speak up with some sort of brilliant plan. She didn't expect that brandishing the matches that very definitely weren't in her pocket would be terribly effective.
The creature suddenly lowered its head so it was nearer to eye-level with Sarah. "You're a ridiculous little creature, all reeking with fear, and still you stand before me. None of you have words that make any sense at all. It's extremely disconcerting."
Sarah heard footsteps, a rustle of cloth behind her, and knew that something must be happening, but she didn't dare look back - the monster's eyes were intent on her, and she thought there might be a chance that it hadn't yet noticed-
"I will kill you all, you know," said the creature, shifting its gaze over her shoulder. "The one-at-a-time suggestion was merely out of curiosity. I could just as easily take you all at once. I would not recommend moving."
"Well," the Doctor said, somewhere behind her, "who's moving?"
"We're certainly not moving," said Harry.
"But what you were saying - you don't have bravery where you come from?" Sarah said quickly, trying to shift its attention back to her.
The creature considered this. "We don't often commit suicide," it concluded. "It's quite counterintuitive. We're rather big on the survival instinct."
Sarah felt some of the tension go out of her shoulders - if the monster wanted to have a polite chat instead of killing her, who was she to argue? She remembered the first confrontation in the passages - then, too, it had seemed more interested in having a discussion with her than in taking her head off. "Are there many of you, then?"
For something twice her height and with so many assorted limbs in bizarre places, the beast could take on distinctly human expressions. Now its eyes shifted from side to side, and it gave something like a shrug. "Seemed to me there were, but maybe I was imagining it all. I can't remember."
"You've been here a long time, then," Sarah said, and suddenly she was starting to piece things together, beginning to form a kind of logic in the midst of all this confusion. The creature seemed almost pathetic, hanging on her every word. Its breathing, she realised, was even catching in its throat as it waited for her to speak again. But Caelum had said that he was alone in the lighthouse - obviously that wasn't the case, and after however many thousands of years, surely he'd have noticed a group of people and aliens wearing robes, and a giant monster in the catacombs.
She felt herself straighten as the ideas raced through her mind - perhaps they hadn't been visible until recently, perhaps they'd all been caught up in some sort of different- different time zones, and maybe they were all colliding-
A load of gobbledygook, really, but it seemed the sort of gobbledygook the Doctor would spout. Sarah straightened, and gave it a try. "Since the time distortion started?"
"Time-" The creature considered, then gave a good-natured snort. "You know, that makes sense, really."
Sarah grinned, and, without thinking, drew her hands from her pockets and crossed her arms. The monster didn't so much as blink, and shot a bone-plated arm at her.
She raised her hands and started to drop as soon as she realised her mistake, and the creature's limb caught her shoulder instead of her head, sending her spinning into the wall. Dazed, winded, she clutched at her arm and flung herself to the ground in anticipation of a second attack. Somewhere in the room - somewhere behind the monster? - Harry shouted her name.
Sarah glanced up; the creature was staring at her, and the limb it held over its head was about the size of a tree trunk, and it was ready to bring it down on top of her. She had a faint glimpse of Harry, behind the creature, making a dash towards her, and of the Doctor, holding him back with one arm, and she didn't want to close her eyes, not really, but she also didn't want to see what her own death looked like-
"You didn't-" The creature's voice was strange, and she looked up again, in spite of herself. It still had the limb over its head, and she suspected gravity might well be enough to finish her off. "You didn't even have any of the firesticks in your pocket," it said. "Your pockets are empty."
Sarah wanted to make a quip about bluffing, but she wasn't sure she could trust her voice; she was getting her breath back, but there were still little stabs of pain along her sides, and her arm had gone quite numb. "Yes," she gasped.
The creature lowered its arm partway. "What are you?" it said.
"They may be of assistance," said a new voice, and the creature whirled round. Sarah twisted to see past it; now Caelum was standing next to Harry and the Doctor, still covered in blood, his eyes dark and cold as ever. The monster considered Caelum distastefully, its fur rippling again as all its muscles tensed up.
"You," it said. "You smell of blood. I would have remembered meeting you."
"I have been here for millennia," Caelum said. "I have explored every inch of this lighthouse, carved my name on every stone. And I have never seen this place before."
The creature froze, stared from Caelum to the Doctor. Sarah stumbled to her feet, but the monster seemed to have forgotten all about her. "That's impossible," it said. "Only the members of the cult, only their sacrifices to me. There has never been anybody else."
"I believe," the Doctor said to the creature, with a benign smile, "that you and Caelum may have rather a lot in common."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-02-03 07:53 am (UTC)I love the very human way they're working together in this chapter against the creature, and Sarah's quick mind. And I'm curious as to what the creature and Caelum have in common!
no subject
Date: 2008-02-03 03:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-03 10:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-04 01:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-05 04:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-09 05:34 pm (UTC)We will definitely find that out - if not next chapter, in the chapter after. Mostly to keep me from having to write "the creature" all the time. ;)
I'm really glad you're enjoying the fic - once I've finished with my current WIP (which should be sometime tonight), there should be regular updates again!
Thanks as always for the comments!
no subject
Date: 2008-02-09 05:34 pm (UTC)Should be an update on Sunday or Monday - stay tuned!
no subject
Date: 2008-02-09 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-09 05:35 pm (UTC)Thanks for commenting!
no subject
Date: 2008-02-09 05:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-16 11:51 am (UTC)*missing this*
no subject
Date: 2008-02-17 08:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-17 10:36 pm (UTC)