𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝑻𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒔 ☆ The Glorious Series ｟ BOOK 1 ｠

The Rebel Flesh [Part 2]

Inside, Monastery, Flesh room, Day...

Near one end of the room was a vat on a raised platform. In front of it on the floor was an open tub the size of a person. You could hear liquid bubbling in the vat.

As everyone entered the room, the Doctor walked around to the opposite side of the vat and looked at the white liquid inside, Lexi following behind him.

"And there you are." The Doctor whispered.

"What?" Lexi asked.

"Meet the government's worst-kept secret -- the flesh." The woman informed. "It's fully programable matter. In fact, it's even learning to replicate itself at the cellular level."

"Right. Brilliant. Lost." Amy commented.

"Okay." The woman sighed. "Once a reading's been taken, we can manipulate it's molecular structure into anything, replicate a living organism, down to the hairs on its chinny-chin-chin. Even clothes, and everything's identical -- eyes, voice."

"Mind. Soul." The Doctor informed.

"Don't be fooled, Doctor." She told him. "It's acts like life, but it still needs to be controlled by us from those harnesses you saw."

"Wait, whoa-oa-oa, hold it. So...You're flesh now?" Rory questioned.

"I'm lying in a harness back in that chamber." She said. "We all are, except Jennifer, here. Don't be fooled. This thing? Just like operating a forklift truck."

"But you said it could grow." Lexi pointed out, not taking her eyes off the white liquid. "Only living things grow."

"Moss grows. It's no more than that." She told her. "This acid is so dangerous, we were losing a worker every week. So now, we mine the acid, using these doppelgängers, or 'gangers'. If these bodies get burnt or fall in the acid..."

"Then who the hell cares?" The man known as Ganger Buzzer asked. "Right, Jen?"

"Well, the nerve endings automatically cut off, like airbags being discharged, except we wake up and get a new ganger." Jennifer replied.

"It's weird." The man known as Ganger Jimmy commented. "But you get used to it."

"Jennifer, I want you in your ganger." The woman told her. "Get back to the harness."

Lexi tilted her head, reaching out and holding her hand about a foot above the liquid as the Doctor scanned it with the sonic.

"Hang on. What's he up to?" Ganger Buzzer asked. "What are you up to, pal?"

Lexi cringed a bit as she tried to pull her arm back to her side as the Doctor struggled to move his arm.

"Stop it!" Lexi panted, trying to pull her arm away, finally succeeding.

"Ahh!" The Doctor finally pulled his arm back, putting the sonic away. "Strange. It was like, for a moment there, it was scanning me."

"Yeah..." Lexi breathed. "I'm getting that, too..."

Curious, Lexi reached out her hand again as the Doctor did the same. Both of them touched the top of the liquid with their palms.

"Doctor." The woman warned.

"Lexi?" Amy tilted her head.

"Ahh." They duo'a hands shook, them not being able to pull away.

"Get back." The woman told them. "Leave it alone!"

"Ahh! Ah! Ah! Gah!" Lexi finally was able to pull her hand away.

"I understand." The Doctor whispered having been able to pull his hand away.