The Doctor Of War ³

Kill The Moon pt.2

"Get in" the Doctor says pushing Courtney into the TARDIS.

"Why are you shutting her in? We don't need to stay, do we?" Clara asks.

"Eh?" the Doctor scratches the back of his neck.

"It's obvious, isn't it? The moon doesn't break up" Clara says.

"How do you know?"

"Because I've been in the future, and the moon is still there. I think. You know the moon is still there, right?"

"Maybe it isn't the moon. Maybe it's a hologram or a big painting, or a special effect. Maybe it's a completely different moon."

"But you two would know."

"We would?"

"If the moon fell to bits in 2049, somebody would've mentioned it. It would have come up in conversation. So, it doesn't break up. So, the world doesn't end. So, let's just get in the TARDIS and go."

"Clara, there are some moments in time that we simply can't see. Little eye-blinks. They don't look the same as other things. They're not clear. They're fuzzy, they're grey. Little moments in which big things are decided. And this is one of them. Just now, we can't tell what happens to the moon, because whatever happens to the moon hasn't been decided yet. And it's going to be decided here and now. Which very much sounds as though it's up to us" I say.

"Neither of you are going anywhere. I've lost my crew. We were the last astronauts. This is the last shuttle, these are the last nuclear bombs. We're the last chance for Earth, and you're staying to help me."

"Decision made," the Doctor says.

"Yeah" Clara adds, in the TARDIS, Courtney walks around with the phone, bored. She touches some controls, which burble and release a bit of steam, then she sits down.

*Time skip*

"What is killing the moon?" I ask.

"How can the moon die, though?" Clara asks.

"Everything does, sooner or later," the Doctor says.

"Can we save it?"

"Depends what's killing it" I say.

"There are the other three" we go down to the spacesuits in cobwebs near cracks in the crust of the moon's surface.

"Is it those germ things, then? Are they like cockroaches? Is it, is it an infestation?" Clara asks.

"Is it?"

"Well, we've only seen one of them. It would take an awful lot more to cause the moon to put on one point three billion tonnes" the Doctor says, a giant spider-germ comes out of its lair next to a spacesuit and jumps the Doctor.

"Argh!"

"Doctor!" Clara shouts, she tries the disinfectant spray.

"It's a vacuum. It won't work" they grab at its legs and get it off the Doctor's faceplate. It scuttles back into its lair.

"Well, that makes two" the Doctor mutters.

"Sunlight," Clara says.

"Sunlight?"

"If they're germs. My nan says it's the best disinfectant there is" Clara says.

"Shine your light down there," the Doctor says, there are lots of the red-kneed germs.

"Where have they come from?"
"Maybe they've been there all the time. It's warmish. They're multiplying, feeding, evolving" I say.

"Seer, Doctor, if the moon breaks up, it'll kill us all in about forty-five minutes."