The Golden Snow (RE-WRITING)

Can I Stick With Pepper Pots??

I could hear humming - not the Tardis, but something else. Opening my eyes, I found myself in the middle of a hall, with lots of tunnels a little shorter than me leading off into who knows where. In front of me was a giant pepper pot with a blue light at the end of a stalk, one arm a plunger, the other a whisk-like object and there were two lights on its head – if it was even a head.

It was a funny looking thing, but that didn't stop the fear building up inside me. There were more of them, i realised as i got to my knees. Hundreds more, i was just in a small alcove with three of them, and a woman.

I couldn't tell whether she was a human or an alien, but she just appeared out of nowhere in a strange suit with holes everywhere. There were short white spikes of hair on the top of her head, and when i looked closer, holes in her skin like she'd been attached to a million wires.

"Oh, my masters," she said, staring at the pepper pots with a grin on her face, "You can kill me, for I have brought your destruction."

"No!" i exclaimed, as a blue light flew from the whisk-arm of the pepper pot beside me, hitting her in the chest. She crumpled to a heap on the floor, and was left there. The pepper pots just ignored her body, but all i could do was stare.

Around me the pepper pots spoke in robotic voices, some rather nasally, others deeper, but all of them sounded horrible. I paid little attention to what they were saying, still staring at the dead woman. Were they going to kill me too? Why were they even keeping me alive? And why did she call them 'Master'?

"Alert. Alert. We are detected!" another of the pepper pots announced, coming down one of the tunnels.

"It is the Doctor. He has located us. Open communications channel," the pepper pot who had killed the woman said, and i managed to draw my eyes from her to find out where the Doctor was.

"The female will stand. Stand!"

Slowly getting to my feet, I glanced at the pepper pots nervously, and then toward the hologram screen that popped up showing the Doctor, Jack, Rose, Lynda and two of the station workers. Oh god they weren't going to kill me in front of them were they?

"I will talk to the Doctor."

I looked between the pepper pots, not sure which had spoken, then guessed it had been the one directly in front of the screen since the little lights on his head had lit up.

"Oh, will you? That's nice. Hello!"

I gave a chuckle, glad he was so calm. That meant he had a plan, or at least, I hoped he did. 

"The Dalek stratagem nears completion. The fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene."

What the hell was a Dalek?

"Oh, really? Why's that, then?" The Doctor asked.

"We have your associate," all the pepper pots turned to me and i gave a nervous wave.

"Sorry," i said, "Better me than Rose, right?"

"No, that's not true!" Rose exclaimed.

"You will obey or she will be exterminated," a pepper pot interrupted.

"That's not good is it?" I sighed.

"No."

The Doctor didn't make it clear whether he was talking to the pepper pots or to me, but I hoped he was answering them.

"Explain yourself," the pepper pot demanded.

"I said no."

"What is the meaning of this negative?"