Doctor Who; Face Your Fears

Questions

Amy groaned, every muscle in her body hurt and her head was thumping.

“What happened?” She muttered to herself, trying to open her eyes, which seemed to be glued shut. The ground beneath her was hard and cold, making it very uncomfortable to lie on, but still Amy didn’t sit up. Instead she lay there frowning; searching the very depths of her memory for the reason of her pain, but nothing came to mind. She groaned again and rubbed her eyes, why did stuff like this always happen with The Doctor? Why couldn’t things ever be simple?

She opened her eyes, hoping that finding out where she was would jog a memory, but immediately snapped them shut again. Wherever she was seemed blindingly bright and doubled the throbbing pain in her head, still knowing she was going to have to sometime, she slowly opened one eye and then the other. It took a while for her sight to adjust, but after a lot of blinking and rubbing of her eyes, Amy became aware that she wasn’t outside, as she had assumed, but in a small white room. Something about it seemed familiar, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what. Amy stood and slowly turned in a circle, taking in the whole room, and noticed two buttons on one of the walls, quickly she walked over to them. As she got closer she noticed that each had small writing on; the bigger of the two was blue and had word ‘Information’ printed on in small white writing. The other, smaller, button was white and simply said ‘Exit’ in tall red letters. After giving it a moment of thought Amy slowly pressed the blue button and stood back, waiting for something to happen. Seconds later a hologram of, what looked like a normal human woman, appeared behind her in the center of the room, it had a fake smile plastered on its face and was wearing a uniform that reminded Amy of an air hostess’.

“Welcome!” She announced in a strong American accent, “We thank you for your services and are happy to answer any questions you have about your time here!” Its smile stayed fixed on its face as it looked expectantly at Amy.

“Umm, ok. Where am I?” It was the first question that had popped into Amy’s head and to her one of the most important.

“You are in Feeding Station 22b, room 5” The hologram simply replied.

“What’s a feeding station? Is it a spaceship, or are we on a planet?”

“Feeding Station 22b is situated on the planet Aratsti, the home planet to Aratstiens. Currently there are 147 Feeding Stations Aratsti, each able to hold 100 clients at a time!” The hologram continued to smile; it was beginning to get on Amy’s nerves.

“Ok… So what does a Feeding Station do?” She didn’t like the sound of it at all.

“Feeding Stations feed the Aratstiens.”

“Yes, but what does it feed them?”

“The Aratstiens feed on emotions.” The hologram smiled. Amy froze for a second contemplating what it had just said. How could something feed on emotions? Her mind flashed back to the hotel she had once visited with The Doctor, and the Minotaur that fed on faith. Could this species be a relation of it?

“How can they feed on my emotions?” Amy questioned it, snapping back into the present.

“We devise a situation that will ensure the best emotional reaction from each individual subject.”

“Is it real? The situation that you put them in, I mean.”

“You were never at risk; you were in a computer generated world that was made specifically for you out of thoughts in your own mind.”

“Why are you using past tense?” Amy questioned, but had a strong feeling that she already knew the answer.

“You have already provided your services.”