The humanoid guard at the gate stopped them. He had several wavy ridges on his forehead, and he had purple eyes. "Who are you guys?" The Doctor fished out his psychic paper. "Inspectors from the Bureau of Mining Standards. I'm the Doctor, and this is my assistant Clara." Clara gave a wave and a smile. "We just want to check to see if everything is in order." He said. The guard hesitated for a bit, then pushed a button on his communicator. After a brief burst of static, a voice said, "What is it?" The guard swallowed, then said, "Inspectors from the Bureau of Mining Standards. Some guy called the Doctor and a woman named Clara. They want to see if everything's ok." "Wha- ok, I'll be coming right over." "Acknowledged." The guard turned off his communicator with a burst of static.
"Take a seat. The quartermaster will be right over." The Doctor and Clara sat down.
After a few minutes, another humanoid walked down the main road inside the facility towards the gate. "I'm quartermaster Steve. I'm in charge of the ongoings at this facility. You can come in now." The gates slid apart with a clicking noise. As the three of them walked down the road, the Doctor was busy waving his sonic screwdriver around and examining the readings. Clara was content to just watch.
"Quite a lot of security for a mining outpost," The Doctor said. "Rocket harpoons mounted on the wall, armed guards with particle rifles and security cameras recording our every move in just about every EM wavelength." "Yes," Steve admitted, "But that's to keep the dragons away." "Dragons?" Clara enquired. "Ever since we've started digging for minerals they've been attacking us around the clock. Almost as if they don't want us here. We've tried to minimise the environmental impact of our activities, believe me, but they still don't stop. Our translators can't help us, so we can't communicate with them."
The Doctor mulled over the new information for a while. "Hmmm... Anyway, I'd like to see your extractors, processing plants, and finally waste disposal. Just making sure everything's in order." He said the last sentence after noticing the look on Steve's face. "Not that I'm saying everything isn't in order, but if it isn't, we can always fix it."
Eventually they came to a large, nondescript building, whose only distinguishing feature was the word "Extractor" in black paint above the entrance. They walked in.
In front of them was a really big hole. Above it was a large machine that appeared to be drilling the hole. Strange rumbling noises echoed up through the hole. Above the machine, massive quantities of rock tumbled on and off conveyor belts as they were sent to be processed. "That's the drill we're using. Unobtainium tipped. Strongest thing in the world. It could operate right down to the core of this planet, but then we'd have trouble keeping the hole open." The Docotr walked right up to the edge and peered inside. The first dozen metres or so of the sides were illuminated, and then the rest was jet black. "How far down does this go?" "It's around 5 kilometres deep at the moment. We're getting closer to a deposit which we supsect contains Jethrik and other precious metals, as suggested by preliminary scans." "Hmm... Interesting. Anyway, is there anyway I could get down there?" "No, there isn't." "Ah, well then, I suppose I'll just have to use the TARDIS. Come along now Clara." "But weren't you going to-" "Yes, but we'll do the inspecting later. I need to know what's down there." The Doctor and Clara exited.
The guard let them through. "Done with your inspection already?" "Not yet. I just need to grab something." The Doctor started running towards the TARDIS.
"Doctor? I think something's watching me." "Of course you're being watched Clara they have so many security cameras all over the place!" "Not that kind of watching... Doctor, why is the ground shaking?" "Ah yes, shaking ground. Shaking ground means... I don't know. But it probably isn't good." And suddenly the groudn opened up beneath Clara and she fell down.
The last thing she heard was the Doctor yelling out her name, then she hit her head on something and knocked herself out.
