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

The Doctor's Daughter (Part 4)

"Oh, that was close," Jenny said.

"No fun otherwise," the Doctor told her.

"It's not what I'd call a temple," Donna said, looking up at the rows upon rows of pipes and lights.

"Looks more like..." Matt started.

"Fusion drive transport," the Doctor said. "It's a spaceship."

"What, the original one? The one the first colonists arrived in?"

"Well, it could be, but the power cells would have run down after all that time," the Doctor said. "This one's still powered up and functioning. Come on." The dashed down a hallway and up a staircase, pausing as they spotted the spark of someone cutting their way through another door.

"It's the Hath," Jenny said. "That door's not going to last much longer. And if General Cobb gets through down there, war's gonna break out."

"Look look look look look," the Doctor said, darting over to a computer bank. "Ship's log. 'First wave of Human/Hath co-colonization of planet Messaline,'" he read.

"So it is the original ship," Matt said.

"What happened?" Donna asked.

"Phase one, construction," the Doctor said. "They used robot drones to build the city."

"But does it mention the war?"

He scrolled down. "Final entry. 'Mission commander dead,'" he said with a raise of his brows. "'Hath and humans have divided into factions.' That must be it. A power vacuum, the crew divided into two factions and turned on each other. Start using the progenation machines, suddenly you've got two armies fighting a never ending war."

"Two armies who are now both outside," Jenny pointed out.

Donna pulled out her notepad and pencil, stepping away. "Look at that," she said, a digital screen displaying 60120724. Except for the last two changing digits, it was the same as every plaque they'd found so far.

"It's like the numbers in the tunnels."

"No, no, no, no," Donna said. "But listen, I spent six months working as a temp in Hounslow Library, and I mastered the Dewey Decimal System in two days flat. I'm good with numbers. It's staring us in the face."

"What is?" Jenny asked.

"It's the date," Donna said. "Assuming the first two numbers are some big old space date, then you've got year, month, day. It's the other way 'round."

"Oh!" the Doctor exclaimed, smacking his forehead. "It's the New Byzantine Calendar!"

"The codes are completion dates for each section," Donna said. "They finish it, they stamp the date on. So the numbers aren't counting down, they're going out from here, day by day, as the city got build."

"Yes! Oh, good work, Donna."

"Yeah, but you're still not getting it. The first number I saw back there, was sixty twelve oh seven seventeen. Well, look at the date today."

"Oh seven twenty-four," the Doctor said. "No!"

"What does it mean?" Jenny asked.

"Seven days," Matt said.

"That's it," Donna said. "Seven days."

"Just seven days."

"What do you mean, seven days?"