Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 12:54:51 EDT
From: J
Subject: DOCTOR WHO, JEREMY AND JESSE  49

The Walls Have  Ears
On the scanner was a  gigantic rock. In space. Hanging there. Built into the
rock were a series of  interlocked, pale colored buildings. Jesse moved to the
wall the scanner was  built into. "It looks like a giant piece of shit, doesn'
t  it?"
The Doctor looked, "That,  my boys, is a mall."
"A space mall? That's so  cool,"  Jeremy moved closer to the  Doctor and put
his hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "Too cool. It...it  looks..."
"Built into the asteroid?"
"Yes."
Jesse asked, "That's where  we are going?"
"Yes, it seems someone  there may be in trouble."
Jeremy smiled, "Well, then  what're you waiting for. Materialize already."
The vantage point from the  Mall's many windows looked over at the TARDIS
which had materialized in space  first. It hung there for something to see.
Something which moved. Something  which was alive...NO! Why was it here? Why was it
coming here? Not  now....
On a top floor overlooking  a huge open drop to the first floor, near some
guard rails, the TARDIS slowly  began to appear. Scattering somethings made sure
they were not seen. It was  dark.
In the console room, the  Doctor nodded, "Okay, then, you all have your keys?"
  The boys  nodded.
"You know we do,"  Jesse held his key up.
"Now, it's time to decide  if you want to emerge from this place of safety."
  The Doctor nodded, "Out there  could be instant death...oh, K9 and I have
checked the air and gravity and all  that, and that's fine but you know what I
mean..."
"Groweling, grueling, or  even groveling monsters out to eat our flesh, our
very bones, our hides, our  seeds and prevent us from ever having existed?"
Jesse  asked.
"That's it exactly. You hit  it on the head exactly..."   The  Doctor smashed
his hand down on the hat stand, taking a hat from it, a wide  brimmed, Mafia
style hat. He grew all silent and mysterious. "I'm  serious..."
"In that hat? Hardly  likely..."  Jesse scoffed, "Come on  and stop the oh I'
m an alien routine..."   He walked past at the Doctor, to  the dimensional
gateway vestibule between console room and outer doors, "As long  as there are NO
dinosaurs this time...can't stand meeting them  again..."
The Doctor looked wide eyed  at Jeremy. Jeremy laughed. "Coming?"
"Not yet but maybe  later?"  Jeremy smiled back at  him.  He walked to the
doors,  "Doctor...Doc..tor...you know I love you?"
"Statement."
"Definitely. Just know  that. I may not always like some of what you do or
what we do but I love you...A  LOT."
"Ditto."
As they walked out, Jeremy  ahead of the Doctor, Jeremy asked, not turning
back, "Ever see the movie  GHOST?"
"No. Never had  time."
"That's next on our  agenda."
Outside, Jesse looked  around. "Tis a mall alright. But tis is not the season
to be  jolly..."
"Why? What's wrong?"  The Doctor pushed past  Jeremy.
"Take a look."
>From a wall and a corner,  something looked at them. From below, something
else watched.
They stood over the main  part of the mall and while there were glass windows
looking over the asteroid  and out further into space, shining stars, even a
glass top roof...looking at  closer suns and moons...there were no people. The
Mall seemed dark. There were  some  lights on but not to  illuminate the Mall in
any great manner.
"What year did you say this  was?"  Jeremy asked.
"116,037 AD."  The Doctor looked at a sign behind him  on one of the stores,
which had the chained linked barrier up as though the Mall  was open for
business. "Open for business? Yet...this sign. Reminds me of some  writing I saw
once."
"116,037 AD,"  Jeremy  whistled.
"We've been much further  out then that,"  Jesse  said.
"You mean in time."  Jeremy said, "How far are  we in the  universe?"
"Oh, far, far far away...so  far we're almost at the edge and might fall off,
Columbus."   He noticed how frightened their  faces became, serious and
scared.  He had to add, "No, only joking,"  turning to them. They were stiff faced,
still.  No perceptible change in their pale  reaction to his  fall of the end
of  the universe  joke.   "That WAS a joke, relax. Many  billions of lights
years away from Earth."    They relaxed a bit  more.
"This whole place sorta, I  dunno, unnerves me..."
"Me,  too..."
"Ahh, Both of you relax and  calm down, no need to be unnerved until the
horrible, flesh eating monsters show  up."    They weren't sure  he was making
another joke. He didn't say he was and he seemed  serious...again.  The Doctor
took out  his arm less glasses he had from France and put them on his nose. He
looked at the writing. "Tardis is translating...it looks  Morestran."
"Is that good or  bad?"
"Depends. Paranoid people  at times. Some of them like -- oh what was his
name?..."
Jeremy looked at Jesse and  they smiled. Jesse asked, "You gonna forget our
names like you did  his?"
"Oh it's right on the tip  of me tongue..."
"Lucky fellow,"  Jesse  joked.
"It was a great big long  name, what was it, sounded Polish..."
"So they're another Earth  colony?"  Jeremy  asked.
"Some people like to think  so. I...you know I've never quite found out. They
are humanoid...two arms, two legs,  flesh colored skin, some were black like
Africans...I imagine they are...and to have  built all this..."
"Yeah, if it is  Morestran,"   Jeremy moved down  the aisle.
"Well if it is, then where  are they all?"  Jesse stopped  leaning on the
black rails. "And isn't this pretty low tech for this  year?"
"It's meant to be looking  that way..."  The Doctor said, "A kind  of tribute
to old Earth malls. Actually, they built Space Academies and space schools
like this too,  into asteroids. I'm not sure they were out this far though..."

"We're really that far out  in space?"  Jesse  asked.
"Jeremy, don't stray,"  the Doctor called.  "Yes, we are. No known
trajectory went  this far out, even robotic satellites. This area of space was highly
unexplored  for ...well, for as long as I knew...it just didn't come up on
exploration...it IS a  big universe..."
"Then maybe they are not  Earthlings..."
"Well, when Sarah Jane  Smith and I met some of them on Zeta Major or was it
Minor. I always get my  majors and minors mixed up."
"Well, that can lead you to  getting into trouble for statutory rape!" Jesse
smiled, "Prefer Majors in the  area of UNIT, do you over minors under what 17?
"
"Not funny. Check some of  the stores out and find out what you make of  it
all, I'm going to catch our friend  before he gets into any trouble..."
"Oh, like you?"  Jesse  laughed.
"You..."  the Doctor pointed a finger at Jesse's  nose, "Are a bad boy. I
heard you making fun of  me..."
Jesse blushed.  "Oh...uhm..."
"Yeah. I  know."
"We were only  kidding."
"You leading him in the  joviality of it all."
"Yes...it wasn't his fault,  don't get mad at him or anything. If anything
you can kick me out, take me back  home and..."
"Who said anything about  doing that? It was funny. You are both good
impersonators..."  The Doctor moved off.
"You're not  mad?"
The Doctor was moving away  but called out loudly.  "Mad as a  hatter but not
as you. I could never get mad at you. And I could never kick you  or Jeremy
off as you put it. You are here to stay as long as you want. I love  you both."
"And I love you too."  Jesse called. It echoed down the mall.  It made him
feel special and foolish all at the same time.
Before he could leave, the  Doctor whirled, clicked his fingers and said, "
Vishinsky, that's his  name."
"That's not that  long."  Jesse said. In return, the  Doctor turned back
toward him, while still moving backwards, and put both hands  over his crotch to
cover it. "THAT is."  Jesse joked.
"See if you can find  anyone."
"Doctor, how'll I find my  way around?"
"Use the Mall Map thingie,  you know..."
The Doctor was gone and  didn't hear Jesse's last comment, "Those? They
never help..."   He puffed.
>From the first floor,  something looked on as the first bright one moved
away, then this darker one.  The other bright one was alone now...a green mass...
Jeremy found a larger even  more open area, off the marble walkway. It opened
to a large, vertical glass  elevator that went up and down the entire length
of the mall from top to bottom.  He looked up it and wondered why it had to go
up from the second floor, since  the second floor was all there was. He
puffed and tried to open it. He went in  and looked up, seeing a glass ceiling.
Above was a myriad of  bright planets, seemingly in a row and a  huge red sun. He
smiled. Rays seemed to greet him as he pushed up. The elevator  opened on a
ramp and he went out it. The ramp went down and then up to the  ceiling. Above
the mall. He reached the end of the ramp and saw a door.  Hesitating, he
pressed the button there. The button opened to a large dome  covering a vast many
acre spaceship park. Inside, as he roamed it, he noticed  ships of all shapes
and sizes. Some looked like school buses, family ships, one  or two person
carriers with missile shapes on the front, a huge red tubular  rocket nosed ship,
and there were several designs of  flying saucers. Jeremy clapped his hands
in delight and looked at them all. "It's  grand...but...but where are all the
people? And  aliens?"
In the Mall itself, Jesse  roamed the second story. He looked at all the
stores he wanted to go into. He  shrugged and decided to try for the store
security office. He found it at the  end of the Mall, which was not far from where
the          TARDIS was parked. "Hello? Anyone in here? Where are you all?"  He
didn't really expect an answer.  "Something terrible's happened here."   He
swallowed, "Doctor if I get  some kind of plague..."   He  moved to the doors
and half expected to find some growling, drooling fanged  monster with six
heads when he opened it. He flung it open and found a large  computerized office,
very modern and with the walls carpeted red. "Well, well,  well. This is more
like it."  He  moved over to a board. "Music?"    He thumbed through the
board. "I didn't study the boards for nothing..."   He thumbed a control lever
and  found selections on the screen. "Vortis. Village. Metan. Halotian. Old
Earth...that's what I want."  He put  on a selection.  "Oh this'll be  fun."
In the silence, Jeremy  looked up. He began to feel small amid the huge
spacecraft from other worlds.  And the quiet unnerved him. "Doctor?"    Suddenly,
music blared out  of speakers on the ceiling and side walls. Jeremy overcame
his initial shock of  that sound issuing out and smiled. "It...LA BAMBA..."
Jeremy began to shut his eyes and  sway to the sounds of La Bamba. He began to
dance.   "Ritchie Valenz, now that's  someone I wish I could convince the
Doctor to go back and save. February 3th,  1959...near Mason City,  Iowa, this one
goes out to the four  who died... "   Jeremy danced up  the side of the red ship
that seemed to be named Spindrift and then onto the  roof and across it to
land on the saucer shaped Jupiter craft. He then slid down  the side of that ship
to dance between the two, then moved onto the yellow manta  style craft.  The
music played  on.
Jesse looked, "What else  they got in here?"  He put on  Footloose. "Let it
crank!!!!"  Jesse  upped the volume.
"Oh man!"  Jeremy laughed, "My  favorite...!"
Jeremy danced to FOOTLOOSE,  even when the Doctor came in and was found to be
leaning against the door frame,  watching, smiling. Jeremy dance across a
giant space train. Then down it. He  came over to the Doctor and grabbed his
hands and danced with him, drawing him  out to the space park.
Jesse let it play. When it  ended he put on some lighter classical music and
lowered the  volume.
When it was over, the  Doctor laughed, "What's going on here?"
"I couldn't help it..."  Jeremy smiled, "It's the music. It's  been so long
since I danced to normal Earth music..."
"Ah ha."  The Doctor said, "you miss  it?"
"A bit."  Jeremy said, "I miss my family too. I  think it's time, after we
help these distress calls, that I go see  em..."
"I know how you feel,"  the Doctor said.  "We'll make some stops in your
present  to visit them..."
"Doctor, just what is your  present time? I mean what year are you from?"
"Me? Oh, difficult to  say,"  the Doctor still held  Jeremy's hands. "I was
born, ...oh jeepers, let's see, sign of the Crossed  Computers...time tot...oh
yeah, now I got it, been so long, in Earth year 1213 AD.  Gallifrean year 56 Old
Calendar. Gallifrey year 4756 New  Calendar."
"Wow,"  Jeremy said, "Wow. Didn't know that. But  what's your contemporary
time?"
"Again, hard to say with  the way I've been bouncing all over time and space
and in and out of it and in  and out of universes and dimensions and reality
and such...I would roughly  guess...somewhere around the year 3 thousand or
thereabouts, 3 thousand and five  hundred AD your Earth time."
"Welp, there's no one here,  Doctor."
"I see that,"  the Doctor said, "But it seems our love  Jesse has found some
kind of control room. Let's go see if we can find out  what's he found out."
Jeremy laughed,  "Okay..."
In the control office,  Jesse was marveling at the selections. "I wonder if
there's a log book of  incoming spacecraft and starships?"  He put the browser
to files. He clicked. He saw a few. "Enterprise?"   He heard a noise from
outside.  "There is someone?"  He ran outside,  "Hey? Hey are you there?"   He
was in the aisle again. He thought he  saw something going into a stylish
dress store. He looked back, wondering if he  should abandon this office so soon.
He puffed and decided to try to find whoever  it was that made the noise. "
Come on out, I won't hurt you."   He moved into the store. "Wow,  look at you
guys!"   He ran to  the racks, "Love the clothes here."  He picked up a white
and black bomber jacket made of leather. "Even  better than in TARDIS..."   He
put it back on the hanger and then picked up a pink shirt.  He heard another
noise and ran to the  back of the store. "Come on, I'm friendly. Look at me, I
'm gorgeous too. If  you're male or female, you have to admit that. I can't
possibly hurt a fly...or  any other insect at that..."   He  noticed he held the
pink shirt in his hand. Nervously toying with it in his  hands.  He listened.
The noises  sounded like shuffling and yet it also sounded like pitter patter
of rain but  moving sideways. "What the hell?"   Jesse moved to the wall
inside one of the dressing rooms toward  the back of the store. He put his ear to
the wall.
Behind it something moved.  He jumped. "Hello? Are you stuck back there?"
Something was moving. He put his ear  even flatter against the wall and thought
he heard some machinery as well this  time.  "Are you all right back  there?
Do you need to get out?"   He went to a mirror, a full length affair that was
embedded in the wall.  "Oh, I know now. You're one of those spy on me things?
Store security watching  for pick pockets and shoplifters who might put
shirts under their shirts and or  stuff their pants. I can assure you, there ain't
any room in these here pants of  mine...too much of a big pud for me to fit
anything in here..."  He put his hands down his own pants and  tried to move them
about but they were too tight and his dick was too big and  pressing against
the zipper area.
Something remained very  still.
Jesse listened, "Are you  sure you're not in trouble...?"   Jesse imagined
someone stuck behind the walls, in trouble. He ran out and  ran to the counter.
He ran behind the counter and found a razor. "Let's hope the  walls here are
as lamely built as the ones back on Earth in the present  day..."   He ran to
the wall and  put a razor to it. He began to work the wall section away.
Something  shivered.
Jesse cut a hole in the  wall. Then he kicked out the rest. He pulled bits
back and found he had made a  huge massive person sized hole. "Holy shit!"
Behind the wall was a huge tube, rows of  huge tubes, side by side. People were
in those tubes. They had their eyes shut.  There was smoke behind the tubes and
issuing forth from them and cascading all  around the tubes. He looked for a
button of some kind.
Jeremy and the Doctor came  out of the elevator. They were on the first
floor. They listened. Jeremy didn't  hear anything.  "What is  it?"
"Something?"  The Doctor said, "Not sure. Something  that seems familiar..."
"Doctor! Up here!"  Jesse called from over the rail. "Get up  here!"
"Stairs!"  The Doctor called out and Jeremy, for a  second, thought he had
seen a Dalek. Steps sometimes beat them out but the  upgrades could fly. The
pair raced up to Jesse who lead them, breathlessly,  toward the dress shop.
While Jesse had had his  back turned to call over the rails, something passed
behind him. Something huge,  green, and fast. He hadn't seen it.
"Look in there, people! I  think that's where all the people are."  Jesse
said.
"It's them alright,"  the Doctor said as he leaned bodily into  the hole
Jesse had made in the wall, "They look like they're in some kind of  suspended
animation state..."
"Why would they be?"  Jeremy asked.
"Pufft, could be any number  of reasons. It could be the staff went into cold
slumber on long voyages across  the stars...Morestra and Earth are both very,
very very very..."  He looked at his companions' annoyed  stares, "Very far far
far far away in a galaxy a long time  ago..."
"Shut up!"   They both  said.
"Are they alive?"  Jeremy  asked.
"Hard to tell until I open  one..."   The Doctor looked in  the dark walls. He
took out a small penlight from his jacket. He shined it down  the aisle. "I
can't tell from here but I take it that these tubes run the entire  mall. I
mean there must be thousands of people in here, all behind the walls...how  odd..."
"Do you think there's room  for the staff and customers?"  Jesse  leaned
over him.
"Yeah,"  the Doctor said and bent down further.  He looked at the bottom. "
There doesn't seem to be any  kind of control device in here...Jesse, do  me a
favor and go back to that office you found ...snoop around...see if you can  find
something that reads like a shut down switch or resuscitation unit...anything
that might open these."
"Okay!"  Jesse took  off.
"You want me to go with  him?"  Jeremy  asked.
"No. You I want to find  something to open the wall in the next dressing room
with. I want a wider look  at some of these tubes..."
"Like a sledge hammer or  something?"  Jeremy backed  out.
"Yeah if you can,"  the Doctor said, "Thanks."  He shone the light back in
on the tubes  and tried to see the faces of the people. The man in front of
him looked old.  Next to him was a little girl. Then a woman and a middle aged
man. He couldn't  see any more details on the faces. "What are you trying to
tell  me?"
Jeremy scouted a tool shop.  He found a sledge hammer and ran to the door to
a dressing room next to  the dressing room where Jesse had torn a  hole in the
wall.  He opened the  door...
Jesse ran to the office  door and found it shut. "That's strange...I thought I
left it open..."   he shrugged and opened  it...
Jeremy and Jesse, in two  different spots...found themselves startled by the
same exact  situation...
Piling out of  the doors they had just opened...was an  INSECT MONSTER! One
each!
It looked like an upright  wasp, walking on legs, four legs on top and a huge
bulb for a head and with huge  segmented and glowing yellow, insect eyes...a
stinger for a nose. Antenna waving,  jaws opening...  had the Doctor been
alongside either of them he would have identified this lurching-at-them monster
insect as the Wirrn!!!!
Jesse and Jeremy both  screamed as one! From two separate places!

To  be continued...