Doctor Who: The Sunken Vessel

2. An icy plunge

    Amy stumbled back and Rory yelled in surprise. Dark, icy water was rushing through the open double doors with a roar and was already spreading through the room. The wave drove past Amy and welled up around her ankles; it was icy cold.

    “Arrghh ... arghh” The Doctor was on his back being dragged along by the flow. His tweed jacket soaked, he clutched for a hold on the floor. The torrent swept into the hat stand and sent it flying into Rory’s face. He dropped back with an “Ooph!” and a splash.

    Amy recovered from the shock and fought against the current to the side of the doors. She heaved at the closest door to no avail; the force was too powerful. Freezing water soaked her clothes and filled her face with spray, and its taste was salty and cold. She gasped as the chill reached into her bones.

    “Doctor what’s happening” she yelled as she staggered over to him.

    “I don’t know! I did set the co-ordinates to random!” He splashed and fought his way up. “This is kind of a new experience for me!” The flood was now pouring into the basin below the console. Sparks and flashes of electricity crackled like a firework display as the water invaded the wires at the base of the column.

   “Arhh – no!” The Doctor cried frantically, “She’ll short-circuit! Activate protocol – *glub* – “He reached for the steps but was pulled under again. Amy hauled him back up.

   “Activate protocol 29!” he called to the console. The monitor swung round to face him with the outline of a hand upon it. “Awww damn the scan!”

   “Doctor what happens? What happens if the TARDIS short-circuits?” Rory called from the side. He had backed up to the wall but his feet were being dragged away by the flow. The current was forcing the Doctor and Amy past the steps now. They grabbed onto the railings and clambered up the side.

    “The TARDIS is a very delicate piece of machinery within, a flood like this will cause her to malfunction and lose all basic systems! Protocol 29 should waterproof her, inside and out.” He vaulted on top of the railings ready to jump down to the dais. “We have to get to her before –Waaarghh!”

    The loudest electrical crack yet resonated through the room and suddenly the floor beneath Amy seemed to lose all hold upon her feet. In shock, she found herself falling, but falling sideways – towards the back wall of the room. The TARDIS seemed to have switched its gravity so the whole room was now vertical. Terror gripped her. A scream escaped and she flung out her arms, desperately trying to catch onto something. She heard a strangled yell over the noise of the waterfall as Rory and the Doctor fell too. Her trailing left hand found the edge of the stairs causing her to swing round and smack into the vertical glass floor of the dais. She heard a sharp ‘Clang!’ to her right just as a shower of ice-cold spray filled her face and eyes and her fingers slipped off the wet panels.

    “Roryyy!” She cried out in panic. She dropped 20 feet, splashing down hard on the back wall of the room. Rory crunched next to her on top of his arm. He let out a cry of pain on impact which was quickly stifled by the deluge of water which smothered them both. The downpour pummelled them into the floor and submerged them totally, muffling out all sounds and sights as it tossed and tumbled them across the back wall of the drowning ship.