All of Space and Time

Chapter Eighteen: Tesla Storm

"We ain't got a few seconds Doc!" Graham called.

The door was rattling and I could hear the screeching behind it. I was scared, I had yet to see what these creatures even looked like apart from their human masks. The door burst open and there stood a large group of scorpion like creatures, their faces like skulls, eyes as red as blood. I rose my gun but paused. "They are just standing there." I called. "Menacingly..."

"What are they doing?" Yaz asked. "Why aren't they attacking?"

Two of them in human form walked from around the door and towards us. "Stay out of our lab!" Graham called using the death ray. Of course the only thing that happened was sparks. I shot a warning shot and they stopped. Glaring and hissing at me as another figure emerged behind them. I presumed that was the queen.

"This was not the plan." Edison called.

"Was this meant to be your fortress?" The Skithra queen called walking around the room. "And you, it's defenders? What was the plan? To shiver in the dark until we went away?" She called mockingly. Edison rose his gun and she shot a bolt of lightning out of her tail knocking it to the ground. "Oh you really are fragile creatures, aren't you? It's a miracle this world has spun on so long undisturbed. Now tell me, where is he?" No one spoke up, no one said a word. "No? Which of you would like the privilege of dying first?"

"Stop!" The Doctor called. "If you want Tesla, you have to go through me."

"Doctor!" The skithra queen called. "Do you really think I'd let you hide away down here, hatching your little plans?" The skithra queen vegan circling the Doctor, but the look in the Doctor's eyes... it was dark, and uncaring, it was... unfamiliar to me.

"If I'd known we were going to have a royal visit, I'd have put the kettle on." She called sarcastically. This was a side of the Doctor I've not seen in a very long time, a side I hoped I'd never see again.

"As queen, I grant myself the pleasure of killing you..." she paused in her pacing to hiss. "In person."

"What are you queen of, exactly?" The Doctor asked. "A stolen ship and second hand guns? A queen of shreds and patches. You're not a ruler, you're a parasite."

"What are you? So clever, stealing onto my ship, taking what I claim as mine. But where has it got you?" She hissed back. "No weapons. No armor. No escape."

I rose my gun and shot at her. But one of her subordinates jumped in front of the bullet. "What was that about no weapons?" She hissed and looked at me as I stood front and center to the group. I then squeezed the trigger and shot off another round. But this time I grazed her. She hissed and growled and shot a bolt of red lightning my way. I moved out of the way but one of the scorpion tails knocked the gun from my hand. He then pinned me to the ground with his skittery legs, and held his sharp pincer tail to my throat. Claws snapping as he screeched.

"There goes your last hope, a pathetic attempt." The skithra queen called. "Now you are truly without anything, just the desperate hope you might change my mind." I looked at the Doctor and she narrowed her eyes darkly at the tail on my throat before she turned her attention back to the queen.

"No. We are way past that." The Doctor all but snarled. "I gave you your chance."

"A chance to be like you?" The queen scoffed.

"A chance to evolve. But you were too stupid to take it." I squirmed and the skithra above me chittered and screeched pressing the knife like tail further into my neck drawing a little bit of blood. "When you die there will be nothing left behind. Just a trail of blood and other people's brilliance. No one will even know you existed." The skithra queen hissed loudly at the Doctor.