Touch The Sky: Doctor Who/Studio C [Book 3]

Planet of the Ood (Part 3)

The three travelers arrived at a door, the Doctor sonicking it open. "Oh, can you hear it?" he asked. "I didn't need the map, I should've listened."

Matt furrowed his brow. "What is it?"

"What do you mean, what is it?" Donna asked. "I can't hear a thing."

The Doctor shut the door behind them, sonicking the lock until it sparked.

"Hold on, does that mean we're locked in?" Donna asked.

"Listen," the Doctor said, ignoring her. "Listen, listen, listen, listen..."

"I am," Matt said under his breath, turning his head as the Doctor pulled out a flashlight and they made their way down a narrow staircase.

"Oh, my head," the Time Lord said.

"What is it?" Donna asked.

"Can't you hear it? The singing?" A cage stood in front of them and the Doctor flicked a lever on the wall, lighting up the room. Several Ood were hunched inside and they backed away as he approached.

"They look different to the others," Donna noted.

"That's because they're natural born Ood, unprocessed," the Doctor realized. "Before they're adapted to slavery. Unspoiled." He stepped closer, squatting down by the cage. "That's their song."

"I can't hear it," Donna said.

The Doctor fixed his gaze on Matt. "But you can?"

"Sort of," he admitted. "Just... the edge of it. It's kind of like... okay, this is going to sound ridiculous, but it's like... seeing something out of the corner of your eye? Except I'm hearing it out of the corner of my ear."

"You're right, that does sound ridiculous," Donna said.

The Doctor paused, puzzling that over for a moment, before turning back to Donna. "Do you want to hear it?"

"Yeah," she said quietly.

"It's the song of captivity," he warned.

"Let me hear it," she insisted.

"Face me," he told her softly, putting his hands to the side of her head and closing his eyes. "Open your mind, that's it. Hear it, Donna. Hear the music." She pulled away after a moment, eyes wide and mouth open. "Matt, do you...?"

"Yes," he said immediately. "It's driving me crazy, just hearing part of it." The Doctor had hardly touched him when the song burst, fully fledged, into his mind. A lament, undoubtedly—heartbreak and longing melancholy swirled together in a song that might have words in some language he couldn't understand, yet he couldn't imagine it would be any worse if he did.

It was Donna that interrupted, tears streaming down her face as she stared at the caged Ood. "Take it away."

"Sure?" the Doctor asked her softly.

She nodded. "I can't bear it." He put his hands to her head and it must have stopped, because she ducked her head. "I'm sorry," she choked out.

"It's okay," he assured her.

"But you can still hear it?" she asked. "Both of you?"

"All the time," the Doctor said, before looking back at Matt like he was the biggest puzzle he'd seen in his 900 years. "But you... you shouldn't be able to, not even a glimpse, a human from your time shouldn't have that sort of ability..."

"Guess I'm just special," Matt said, his voice cracking from the Ood's sorrow. "No, don't," he said as the Doctor reached for him. "Just part of it's worse."