The Doctor Of War ³

Dark Water pt.2

Danny is sitting at a desk with his head resting on his hand. It slips and he wakes. Somewhere a phone rings, and it sounds like a busy office outside. He looks around at a set of in-trays, pens in holders, and a name plate on the desk which says - Nethersphere After Death Department SEB. The company logo is a very large circle with a small one attached to it. The door opens.

"Has anyone offered you a coffee?" the man Danny could only guess was Seb asks.

"Um. Well, no" Danny replies.

"Could we have some coffee along here, please? The good kind. We've got a new one" Seb shuts the door and sits at his desk "five minutes, tops. Best to wait for the good coffee."

"Where am I?"

"Sometimes it's just the instant" Seb pulls a face.

"Where am I?"

"Well, big question. Try to take that one slowly. We have been trying to contact family members, but really there is so much admin..."

"I wasn't here, I was..."

"Yeah. That last thing that happened to you, that really happened, I'm afraid. But that's life. Well, not life, I suppose, but. There are some forms to fill in. Might help you relax. Well, they won't, but we do need them filled in. Right, important thing. Need to know. Are you being cremated? Sorry, it's a fairly urgent question."

"I don't know. I've never really thought of that."

"I'm going to put you down as a yes, that's pretty much the default these days. If people only knew."

"Only knew what?" Seb rolls his chair back to the door and shouts through the wall.

"We've got a burner in number twelve. Tell them to prep, please."

"Burner?" Seb rolls back to the desk.

"Yeah, it's fine, we'll come to that."

"But I don't understand where I am" Seb looks at the large pair of curtains covering one wall. Danny gets up and opens them, then gasps. He is looking out of a round window at a host of buildings which appear to be on the inside of a small sphere.

"Oh, look at that. You can see my house from here. Yeah, sorry, probably not helping."

"Where am I? Er."

"You sort of know, don't you? Most people kind of know, it's just hard to get traction on the concept."

"Where am I?"

"Ok. You're dead, and this is what's next."

"I'm not dead. How can I be dead?"

"Our sincere condolences."

"I'm standing right here."

"Yes, you are. Welcome to the Underworld. Otherwise known as the Nethersphere or the Promised Land. It's where you go when you die" Danny starts to hyperventilate "would you like to breathe into a bag?"

---

The TARDIS materialises.

"Where are we?" Clara asks.

"Nav-com's offline. We'll have to do this old school" I say.

"But this is where Danny is?"

"Almost certainly not. It's where there's a connection with Danny. According to the TARDIS, this is where it's most likely that your timeline will re-intersect with his. And that won't do."

"What won't?"

"You won't. Look at you. We need sceptical, clever, critical. We don't need money. It put years on your face. And what if people see us together? It looks like you've been melted" the Doctor says.