Waiting On A Rival

Chapter 19

My hands reached for my pocket, but the handcuffs restricted me. The Doctor wasn't having much luck either.

"Well, do something. You're the one with all the tricks," Donna insisted, "You must have met Houdini."

"Believe me. Houdini didn't want me out of handcuffs," I muttered.

He commented, "These are really good handcuffs."

"Oh well, I'm glad of that. I mean, at least we've got quality!" Three Ood entered. I stared them down and the song intensified. The Doctor started chanting, "Doctor, Donna, Celeste, friends" while Donna chanted, "The circle must be broken." The Ood looked at me strangely, as if waiting for orders.

When it was clear that chants weren't working, I tried, "Celeste, Doctor, Donna. Friends." They stared at me before agreeing, "Celeste. Doctor. Donna. Friends."

I smiled warmly and nodded. "Yes. That's us." The Ood released us and Doctor and Donna ran out. I remembered the Ood so I thanked them.

They were outside, turning around. The Doctor repeated, "I don't know where it is. I don't know where they've gone."

"What are we looking for?" She asked.

"It might be underground, like some sort of cave, or a cavern, or-" I started to suggest. A door opened. The explosion knocked us down and I landed on top of the Doctor. We smiled a bit. "We must stop meeting like this," I joked before turning to Donna, "All right?"

Donna nodded. Once all the smoke cleared, an Ood revealed himself. He introduced himself as Ood Sigma and led us to Warehouse 15.

The Doctor soniced the door controls. In the warehouse, we got an overhead view of a giant restricted brain. "The Ood Brain," I realized, "Now it all makes sense, That's the missing link. The third element, binding them together."

He continued, "Forebrain, hind brain, and this-the telepathic centre. It's a shared mind, connecting all the Ood in song." I nodded, the song getting louder.

Halpen noticed us, "Cargo. I can always go into cargo. I've got the rockets, I've got the sheds. Smaller business. Much more manageable, without livestock."

"He's mined the area," Dr Ryder warned.

"You're going to kill it?"

"They found that thing centuries ago beneath the Northern Glacier," he explained.

"Those pylons," the Doctor pointed out. The restriction pylons were shaped in a circle.

Donna noted, "In a circle. The circle must be broken."

"Damping the telepathic field," I explained, "Stopping the Ood from connecting for two hundred years."

Halpen turned to Ood Sigma, "And you, Ood Sigma, you brought them here. I expected better."

"My place is at your side, sir." I looked at him funnily.

"Still subservient. Good Ood."

"If that barrier thing's in place," Donna asked, "How come the Ood started breaking out?"

"Maybe it's taken centuries to adapt," I suggested, "The subconscious reaching out?" The Doctor nodded.

"But the process was too slow. It had to be accelerated," Ryder suddenly turned on Halpen, "You should never give me access to the controls, Mister Halpen. I lowered the barrier to its minimum. Friends Of The Ood, sir. It's taken me ten years to infiltrate the company, and I succeeded!"

Woah, and the plot thickened.

"Yes. Yes, you did." He threw Ryder over the catwalk railing and onto the giant brain, which absorbed him. Donna and I gasped. "You murdered him."