Doctor Who: Omicron 4

Scene 9 - Safety of duty

We open back with the exterior of Omicron 4, before we cut into the inside and see the AIOC computer logo. The Doctor and the Lieutenants join the Custodian and the Space Commander about their discovery made at the basin.

Doctor:

And I'm telling you, Custodian, that as long as this operation continues to exist, none of you on the moon are safe from the Xherkrans.

Custodian:

I am not going to give up everything I have ever dreamed and believed into a few alien fish. I will turn these overgrown smoked salmons into moon dust. Nothing is going to prevent the fulfilment of our program we have settled here for on the moon.

Doctor:

Custodian, the energy that is breeding the Xherkrans is growing. Eventually, it will swallow up Omicron 4 and take your democracy with you.

Custodian:

I am not denying the threat of these beings. They have already killed five of my men. What I am saying is that we cannot abandon our work that we have laid down for decades.

Lieutenant Mirari:

You seem to know a great deal about these Xherkrans, Doctor? Where did you find all this out about them?

Doctor:

Oh I know about them alright. As should any explorer who's been about as long as I have. The Xherkrans are beings of energy that produce monster-like creatures that drain the life essence out of whole life forms and planets. They have laid dormant for millennia. Their energy was conducted against them by the Eternals. At a point in time when man was primaeval. They have laid dormant where they could not feed off any other life forms and planets for good.

Lieutenant Zenfev:

Whoever put them down there, they were daft another to bury them at our moon then.

Doctor:

Earth is only a level five planet. A second rate world to a third rate star.

Alaric:

Earth? Says who?

Doctor:

Never mind. What matters now is the activity from your moon colonists has reawoken the Xherkrans. Laying buried deep within the crusts of your moon.

Custodian:

If traditional energy weapons can't stop them, you need to use your full authority as Space Commander to find a way to blast these Xherkrans to moon dust.

Alaric:

I can't go back to Earth with a story about an alien menace entombed within the crust of the moon.

Doctor:

Maybe it might be best to act as scientists than a bomb disposal squad. We could use the Xherkrans' power against themselves.

Lieutenant Garven:

We can't find a way of changing it into something else. We hardly know what it can do.

Custodian:

But we can't ignore this. The basin is only a forty minute drive away in the Lunar Carriage. Eventually, the Xherkrans will find their way here. And disrupt our Omicron stations.

Lieutenant Cassain:

Putting charges around the basin may help to disrupt the Xkerkrans. Destroying it will change the energy into something else. You'd hope.

Custodian:

I have a duty to every one of you here at Omicron 4 to keep you safe. We will stop this menace we've uncovered. And our new society will go forward. Proving that we can handle our own threats we encounter without the aid of Earth.

Alaric:

And I have a duty to every citizen on Earth to protect them from unknown cosmic threats.

Doctor:

You are quite right. Both of you. The last thing we need is for the Xherkrans to reach the moonbase. And then the Earth. You are dealing with enemies the likes of which mankind has never encountered before.

We then observe four Xherkrans floating along the lunar surface, heading along towards the direction of Omicron 4.

Lieutenant Cassain:

What was even more terrifying was that AIOC was unable to register the Xherkrans as life forms. This means that we will have no well of telling the extent of their progress.

Lieutenant Mirari:

Like if they were to advance on Omicron.

Doctor:

It's not impossible. They been freed now. They can strike anywhere they like. And let their harvest begin.

Alaric:

I am preparing for a full scale emergency from Earth's defences. They must not be allowed to reach Earth soil.

Custodian:

And I will organise an operation that will blow the Xherkrans off the face of the moon.

Doctor:

I still recommend you deal with this emergency with more reasoning, Custodian. Bombing the Xherkrans with high explosives is not the answer.

Custodian:

Then what is?

Doctor:

Every second pours more energy out from the basin of the moon. By blowing more of the moon up, it will open the gateway up further for the Xherkrans to escape.

Lieutenant Mirari:

Risky. But we may be able to trap them in again.

Lieutenant Zenfev:

What, like with a big plug hole?

Doctor:

We can devise a method of trapping the energy within the moon once again. With your assistance Omicron settlers, I will be able to stop the Xherkrans from reaching the Earth. And giving you all the hope you can for your people.

Custodian:

Very well. We will give you all the help you can. Work will start at once.

Doctor:

Excellent.

Lieutenant Mirari:

Well, in the meantime, we just have to hope that the Xherkrans keep out of our way. Right?