As she slipped back inside her power armor, Jocelyn stepped out of the TARDIS and into a room large enough to fit a whole suburban house. Looking around, this matched what she imagined what a CEO would have. Large, open space between a singular, futuristic door and a wooden desk carved so well and so perfectly it almost looked natural. And no executive office would ever be complete without an extravagant red carpet laid out beneath her feet. The holographic-looking glob of an alien planet on the desk was just the cherry on top.
She turned to her left toward a window that encased the entire wall before her. Out there, she saw a blue sun shimmering in the starry, black void that was outer space. The star vastly dwarfed over a smaller celestial body that was wreathed in an atmosphere that gave off a sickly, green-brown glow. She couldn't exactly tell what surrounded the planet, but it let out a beautiful gleam to it.
All this about outer space and being in a space station made her thought of Mothership Zeta and her crew. With that, her heart sank just a little. Last he heard of them was years ago, back when she traveled to the ruins of Chicago. She couldn't get a hold of them nor could she use the beacon at the Capital Wasteland to teleport her up to the ship. With everything that happened since Chicago, she could only assume the worst.
"If you're done gawking about, we could use you for a moment," Alex called out, snapping Jocelyn out of her thoughts.
She followed her gaze to the Doctor and the administrator standing in front of a giant, bodiless screen that happened to float. "What is it?"
"We have a bit of a problem," the Doctor stated, clasping his hands together.
"Clearly, that's understanding what I've said," Alex added. "Two problems, in fact."
"What's the first one, then?" she asked.
"Cybermen," the administrator answered while looking at her. "You said you wanted to know what they are, right?"
She nodded. The administrator turned to the screen and tapped on it as if it was solid, conjuring footage of a group of humanoids in silver armor, shooting beams from their light bulbs on top of their heads at men and women in a large lobby. Their faceplates were flat, only having beady circles for eyes and thick lines for mouths. A moment later, and one of them trained their 'eyes' on the camera. A light appeared on their head and the feed cut off. Only static remained before Alexander swiped the video off the screen.
This whole time, Jocelyn looked on in horror. Deep inside her was an urge screaming and whimpering at the back of the mind to turn away, not to watch it any further. But she won't. She had seen things far worse than this.
The Doctor turned to look at Jocelyn before she could say a word. "The Cybermen were once human, like you." He paced around, left to right. "Driven by survival, they augmented themselves with cybernetic implants to avoid death on their planet. Over time, they added in more and more cybernetics, stripping away all the organic parts that made them human. Then, they became obsessed with granting an ultimatum to the rest of the universe. Either you convert, or you die."
"Sounds like this is what the Brotherhood is afraid of. The endpoint of technological process without restraint, without consent," Jocelyn muttered. The more she thought about it, the more she focused on the mental image of a Cyberman, the more it looked… wrong in so many ways. "How many of these Cybermen are there?"
"Enough to be considered an army. Maybe an entire fleet," Alex replied. "If we don't stop them soon enough…"
Jocelyn looked at the administrator and uttered the words she never thought she would say in a long time, "Then we need to take care of them before people get killed."
"You're brave, I'll give you that. But here's another thing." He raised his hand and moved it to the right of him, bringing up an image of the planet to them. With a tap on the planet's image, it revealed a pulsing red dot near the equator, where a large cloud had formed. "There's an anomalous signal that's been agitating the Ania colonies for months."
"There are colonies of these creatures?" Jocelyn asked in surprise. "How did this signal agitate them?"
Alex waved his hand again, which an image of a massive, eight-legged, creature manifested, with crystal shards of all colors in place of scales, its underside rimmed with shards long enough to be a few inches above the ground. Inspecting it further, Jocelyn couldn't help but compare it to a dragon from fantasy books and fairy tales. If she could those tree-like limbs on its back wings.
"That's the Ania queen. Think of her colony like how a bee queen overlooks a bee colony," the Doctor explained. "What we found on your Earth were stragglers. The workers at RobCo have sealed them off in the basement. I can imagine, most of them went docile because they couldn't bear the reality without their queen. It would be like a child growing up without their parents' guidance. Feral, alone, afraid. Because if they weren't…"
He pointed at the screen, now showing a room with crystals growing over the metallic floor, walls, and ceiling.
"You're containing them. For what purpose?" Jocelyn asked again.
"To save them. Icarus is a research station. While the planet's impossible for colonization due to its sulfuric atmosphere and constant volcanic eruptions, its unique minerals make anyone willing to harvest the planet and exploit its inhabitants for a quick buck," Alex added. "But the Ania are dangerous. Some of Montreal's men were injured one time when one of the big ones broke out."
"Montreal?" An incredulous Time Lord asked. "That's a bit of a silly name, doesn't it?"
"Max Montreal. He's the Chief Head of Security. Bit of an arse, but that's his job," Alex answered. "Outside of his job, he's kind of cool. You'll get used to it."
The Doctor had his hand on his chin as he contemplated his answers. After a moment, he said, "Take me to the planet. We still need to find out what's wrong with the Ania hive queen."
"Can I come along, Doctor?" Jocelyn asked.
The Doctor shook his head. "I would love to have you come along, but no. I'm sorry. I have to do this the only way I know how."
"And what's that?"
"Talk some sense into it," he stated, shrugging. "Well, in a way. Trust me on this one, okay?" Despite the Doctor giving her a wink and a smile, she still wasn't quite so certain.
"What about you, then?" Alexander asked her.
Jocelyn looked at the administrator. "Then we need to take care of these… Cybermen before any more people get killed. I'll help with whatever I can."
"Okay," Alex acknowledged with a nod. "You'll rendezvous with OMI and Dr. Sami Yoko. They'll fill you in on the—"
"Wait. Stop. Stop right there." The Doctor pointed at the administrator. "What's OMI?"
"Omni Mutual Intelligence for short. They're mostly into linguistics and communication, but everything else? You'll be very grateful to them. We paid them for all that, by the way." Alex cleared his throat. "Then it's settled, I take it?"
Both the Wanderer and the Doctor confirmed their decision. "Yes," they said separately.
"Max and his team will provide you with backup, Doctor." Alex tapped on the right side of his head, pressing his fingers against an earpiece. "Max, get your team ready and set up an expedition. The Doctor will join you in a moment."
And with that, the administrator and the Doctor made their leave. Jocelyn's eyes followed the Doctor and Alex before looking back at the blue sun and the planet. She still tried to wrap around what she agreed to. It had been years since she was being all heroic, doing big things for everyone, saving lives and all that.
"I have a bad feeling bad about this," she said to no one in particular.
Planet: Ania
System: Icarus
Cluster: Rico
Type: Rock
Mass: .8 Earth Mass
Orbital Distance: 25 AU
Orbital Period: 12 Earth Years
Keplerian Ratio: 0.5-1.5, varying on time of year
Radius: 4,103.19 km (2549 miles)
Day Length: 8 Earth Hours
Atmosphere Pressure: 1 atm
Surface Temperature: 50 C°
Surface Gravity: 0.56 g
Satellites: n/a
The Doctor sat in the back of the shuttle, his body bracing against harness as he was sandwiched between two of Max's security team members. The shuttle itself was small, enough to fit a dozen people.
Save for him and Max Montreal, everybody's armor was the same: camo gray with padding all over their bodies and armed with blocky pulse rifles. The Doctor had his orange hazmat suit, or a spacesuit as he insisted to Clara one time.
One moment, Montreal, a broad-jawed, black-haired man in armor fancier than the others', was ready to make a speech. The next, alarms blared out as a sudden wham brought the shuttle out of course. Max flew off his feet with a surprised yelp, his hands maintaining a firm grip on the railing planted on the ceiling as the others rocked forward and collided with the harnesses.
A long, crystalized limb smashed through the front, crushing the pilot into nothingness before he could do anything. The limb retracted, showing three long, giant talons as it disappeared into the green mist.
"Ah hell, that's the queen!" he exclaimed with wide eyes through the glowing blue visor. "Better hope we make the landing!"
The shuttle landed on solid ground. Every piece that still hung on the shuttle broke off with each bounce before it came to a grinding halt. The Doctor looked up after swinging the harness up, finding Max checking on the others. With the front gone, a fourth of the team went missing. Everyone else was too injured to move.
Worse yet were cracks forming on the Doctor's faceplate and Max took notice. He gasped to breathe for air. "Let me get that fixed right now." The security chief went for a container nearby that read 'Repair gel'. Swinging it open, he grabbed a canister and sprayed the gel on the faceplate. Within seconds, the cracks had vanished.
The Doctor let out a gasp as he found himself able to breathe again. "Thank you."
"Just doing my job, Doctor."
A roar bellowed and echoed outside the wreckage of a shuttle, causing the very ground to shake. The Doctor went past Max and hopped down from the ship. He looked upward, finding the massive crystal creature raising its head to the sky, its jaw with its many, many teeth wide open.
The Doctor knew this problem was far larger than anyone could realize.
