DARK HOLIDAY
CHAPTER SIX
The young woman missed, because just then, Donna’s leg shot out and tripped her. The vase dropped with a heavy thud to the floor. The Doctor looked at Donna and gave her an affectionate and relieved grin. ”Thanks for that.” He said, before stepping back, away from the newlywed alien couple.
The Doctor gave Donna a concerned frown. “Are you alright?” He asked softly. Dona nodded sleepliy and yawned. “Yeah. I’m fine. They drugged us, didn’t they?” The Doctor nodded grimly and then his face grew somber. He faced two aliens and withdrew two darts and his sonic screwdriver from his pocket. They looked at him. “You can’t stop us, you don’t have any weapons.” The Doctor was silent for a moment, then he said with quiet menace, “Oh yes, I do. I have my mind, and I have this…” he held up the sonic screwdriver. “…and these.” He gestured to the darts. Holding the darts in one hand, he sonicked the tips. Then the Doctor looked at the pair. “Last chance. What do you say, hmm? You’ll never get another, not ever.” Though he said it softly, for some reason, his tone held more menace in it, than if he had shouted a command.
The woman shook her head, “You can do nothing. a couple of pub darts won’t even slow us down, you’re a dead man, Doctor. Get him…” With that command, the young man pulled a small laser pistol from his pocket, intent on killing the Doctor. The Doctor heard Donna call out his name, but without hesitation, he flung the two darts, one after the other, right at the hearts of the two aliens. First the young man, than the young woman, cried out, and then collasped to the floor.
Feeling Wobbly, Donna stood. Reaching behind him, not taking his eyes off the two bodies on the floor, the Doctor held Donna against him, to steady her. His eyes suddenly appeared old and sad. “Are they dead?” She asked. “Yeah.” He replied bitterly. Donna looked up at him inquiringly. “Who–or rather what, were they? And, what did you do to stop them?” He shrugged. “They were plasmavores–they’re a humanoid off-shoot of the vampriac genus family. They live on blood. That’s why they needed so much salt, their bodies use it up rather quickly. Fortunately though, unlike vampires, plasmavoores aren’t immortal, although they do have a slightly longer life span than you humans. They also have a higher reisitance to death than a normal human would. A regular pub dart through the heart, wouldn’t have been more to them, than a flea bite to a dog. But, they have one flaw.”
Donna looked at the bodies curiously. “What’s that, Doctor?” The Doctor held up his sonic screwdriver. “To a human, magnetic fields are relatively harmless–even to a plasmavore, the are-usaully, harmless. But, inside some of their internal organs–particularly their hears, plasmavores have a particularly rare mineral, a mineral much like one here on earth that you are probably quite familiar with.” He paused for effect and Donna looked at him askance. “So, come on, out with the rest of it, what’s so special about their hearts? The Doctor grinned. “They have trace amounts of a mineral which has much the same properties of gold.”
Donna looked at him disbelivingly. “Get out! You’re saying these..things, these plasma whats-its, actually have hearts of gold? No way!” The Doctor smiled, “Not actual gold Donna, but very close to it. And, with this,” he wiggled his sonic screwdriver, “I could change the electorstatic discharge in the metal of those darts, thereby raising the transient peak to errode that special mineral inside their bodies, which once it penetrates the chest, instantly weakens their heart muscle. Basically, I made their hearts more human. Dart to the heart would kill a human.” “And, so,” Donna internjected. ” the newlywed aliens are dead,” she paused and asked, “doesn’t that sort of make you some kind of cupid in reverse?” The Doctor only raised an eyebrow, frowned and sniffed.
Just then, there was a heavy knock upon the front door. Donna visibly jumped. “Who’s that?” The Doctor sighed with resignation. “That, would be the village constable.” She looked at him. “That’s not good, is it? How’re we going to explain being in here with two dead people with darts sticking out of their hearts?” Scratching his chin, the Doctor nodded, “Erm–yeah. That would be a bit awkward wouldn’t it? I mean, if there were a dart board in the room, we could always pretend to be blind, and say we were asked to play a little game of darts, and whoops officer, I was wondering why those two had suddenly grown so quiet.” Donna shook her head, “Noo-nice try, but somehow I don’t think even a village constable would buy that.” Sighing, the Doctor agreed, “Yeah, plasmavores are rather rubbish at darts.”
The Doctor and Donna were about to beat a hasty retreat through the kitchen, when they heard the kitchen doorknob rattling. “Hullo, Mrs. Williams, is everything alright?” A deep voice boomed out. “I hope you don’t mind my coming through the kitchen door, but your front door was locked, and I was worried about ya’.” The constable spied the pair and gave them a wary look “Who’re you?” The Doctor immediately put on his most friendly smile. “Hello! I’m the Doctor and this is Donna. Mrs. Williams invited us to tea. Lovely day, isn’t it?” The constable looked outside. It was overcast and starting to drizzle rain, with the promise of a heavier downpour later. “Aye, if you’re a sheep or a duck, I supose.” He rumbled wryly.
The policeman was a beefy fellow of middle years, his face florid from the bike ride. “I’d not be minding a spot of tea, myself. I’m a bit parched from riding out all the way from the village.” The Doctor looked at the policeman with some skeptiscism. The cottage was less than three miles from the village, hardly a marathon ride for anyone. No doubt the constable’s wife was a good cook, judging by the man’s stomach. “Right, yes, sorry.” The Doctor said hurriedly, “Did I forget to mention? Mrs. Williams and her husband just popped out for a bit of a ramble before teatime. We’d missed them, so we’d decided to just leave them a note and come back later.” He started to usher the constable out the door with. “So, why don’t I just jot down that you were here as well, and we can all come back tomorrow and have tea together, what da’ya say, ey?”
The constable eyed the Doctor suspiciously. “Who did you say you two were?” Donna came forward and put on a posh air, “I’m Dona Noble, of the Chiswick Nobles, I’m sure you’ve heard of us. No? Well, anyway, like the Doctor here was saying, we’ve only come ’round for a spot of tea, on our way to…” She realized just then, that she had no idea where in England she was. “To the Lake District.” The Doctor interjected, smiling. The policeman harrumphed. “I see, Mr. and Mrs. Noble—” “Oh, we’re not married!” The two them said, simultainiously. The policeman raised an eyebrow. “Oh, so you’re brother and sister, then?” Again, the two started to shake their heads, looked at each other, and shrugged. “Yeah, sure, why not? I’m the one with the brains, he’s just there to look pretty and scream a lot.” Donna said, earning herself an indignant but good-natured jab in the ribs from the Doctor.
The constable pulled out his notebook. “Well, I’d like to take some information from you, if you don’t mind, that is. We’ll just have a seat in the other room here, and you can give me your details while we wait for Mr. and Mrs. Williams to return.” Donna and the Doctor both looked panicky, when without further ado, the constable strode into the room where the two bodies were lying. “Coming?” he called out to them. “I’ll start a fire, and then we can all sit here and have a nice chat.” The pair gave each other puzzled looks–mainly because they’d left the bodies of the young aliens lying in front of the fire guard. Curious, they walked into the room–only to see that the two bodies had completely vanished! “Whoops.” The Doctor whispered to Donna, “Must have gotten the polarity wrong, somehow.” He grimmaced. “Bah–I’m telling you, Donna, you hit middle age, and it’s all downhill from there.”
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