THE MERMAID BRIDE

Chapter Four

"See, what'd I tell ya?" Amy said to her husband, "mop monsters."

"So, what is in the water then?" the Doctor said, ignoring Amy.

"Dunno, but I see a flash of light sometimes," the girl said, pointing.

They looked where she was pointing before the Doctor turned back to her.

"And who are you?" he asked her.

"I'm Tania."

"Tania, I'm the Doctor and this is Rose, River, Amy and Rory."

"What is that thing?" Tania said, pointing to the TARDIS. "There was this weird noise and you just appeared out of nowhere."

"Yes, we do that. That's my ship."

"Spaceship? Doesn't look like any spaceship I've ever seen," Tania said, frowning.

"Well, spaceships come in all shapes and sizes," the Doctor said. "I just happened to have one that's box shaped."

"So when did the kidnappings start?" River asked Tania.

"About three months ago," Tania said.

"And how many have been kidnapped?" Rory asked.

"Ten, I think. They try to keep all the bad news from us kids but I hear things. The elders of our town told us not to go near the ocean anymore."

"Then why are you here?" Rose said.

"Because I like the ocean. I like to watch the waves," Tania said.

"I do too," the Doctor said. "This flash of light, how big is it?"

"Not very big. It's hard to see unless you know what to look for. But it's there; I just saw another one five minutes ago."

The Doctor walked to the edge of the overhang and climbed up onto it. He walked over to Tania's side and scanned the ocean, looking for a flash of light. Tania was still sitting and was eye level with his swim trunks.

"What's the TARDIS?" she asked him.

The Doctor pointed to his ship.

"And you're the property of your ship?"

His companions laughed when the Doctor blushed deeply.

"It's…a…private joke," he muttered. "Anyway, whereabouts do you see this flash?"

Tania pointed and the Doctor folded his arms over his chest while he stared intently at the ocean. The others walked around to the end of the overhang and climbed up onto it. They walked over to the Doctor and stood with him, lending their eyes while Tania sat beside them and turned her attention back to the ocean. The Doctor noticed a black speck far in the distance and pointed to it while he asked Tania if she knew what it was.

"That's one of our fishing boats," Tania said. "They used to stay close to the shore but the seafood was running out here so they go further and further out now."

"Doctor!" Rose said, grabbing his arm. "I think I saw it, a little flash of light under the water there," she said, pointing off to the left of where the Doctor was looking.

"How big was it?" the Doctor said to her.

"Not big," Rose said, shaking her head. "If it's a transmat like I thought it was or a teleport, it must be teleporting mice because it's maybe a few centimeters in size. But it's not the sunlight."

"Are we going out to take a look?" Rory said to the Doctor.

The Doctor didn't answer him at first while he thought.

"Tania," he finally said. "When did your people start to go further afield in search of food?"

"A few months ago."

"Around the same time the kidnappings started?" the Doctor said.

Tania nodded.

"I have a theory then," the Doctor said to everyone. "I think when your people went out further in search of food, they may have invaded someone's turf and now the someones are getting revenge."

"Ocean dwelling aliens?" River said.

"Perhaps, there are species that live entirely in water. Perhaps these beings are territorial and didn't attack until Tania's people started going out further in search of food. I can't know that for sure until I find out what we're dealing with here. And that requires a change of equipment," he said, hopping off the overhang onto the sand. "Wait here, I'll be back in a mo."

He ran back to the TARDIS while the others sat down beside Tania."

"There's something living in the ocean that takes people?" Tania said to them.

Amy leaned up.

"We travel with the Doctor to different places and Rory and me met these alien fish creatures that lived in water, at least most of them did. So yes, it's possible that there's something that went spare when your people started fishing in a different place."

"We have to tell the elders then," Tania said. "They need to know what's happening."

"Perhaps we can split up then?" Rory said. "One group goes with the Doctor, one goes with Tania?"

"You want to help us?" Tania said.

"Yes, love. Because we try to help people wherever we can," River said gently. "Even if we're not related to anyone in the town, we still want to find out what's going on here and try to stop it."

"Maybe these things in the ocean can be reasoned with," Rose said. "If they're angry, maybe we can work something out between your people and theirs and stop the kidnappings."

"The elders still need to know," Tania said. "They can decide if they want to talk to these sea creatures or not."

"That's why some of us should go with you?" Rory said. "We can help with that and try to convince your people not to go out and attack these creatures before we find out if we can negotiate peace."

Tania nodded. She watched while the Doctor came back around the TARDIS holding a large ball of orange rubber, two plastic oars and several clear plastic tubes with little silver boxes attached to the end of them. He put the ball of rubber down on the ground and pulled a black ripcord. There was a hiss and suddenly the ball expanded out into a four person raft. He put the oars inside it and walked over to the overhang. He passed the tubes out to everyone.

"These are breathing tubes for underwater exploration," he explained. "There are nasal prongs similar to the ones found on nasal cannula in hospitals. You put the prongs in your nostrils and wrap the tube around your face and snap the free end into the box. When you breath out into it, the carbon dioxide will go around, go through the box and be converted into oxygen which you breathe back in. These will allow you to stay underwater indefinitely since you have a steady supply of oxygen."

"Doctor, Tania wants to go back to town and talk to the elders," Rory said. "We thought perhaps we should split up and half of us go with her and the other half go with you?"

"Good idea. Why don't you and Amy go with her? I'll take Rose and River. The raft can only hold four people anyway. Take the breathing tubes with you, just in case. Try to meet with us back here in a few hours so we can exchange findings."

"You want to go out there? What if you get kidnapped?" Tania said.

"That's a risk we have to take. We need to get to the bottom of this and we can't do it from shore," the Doctor said. "Don't worry; we handle this sort of thing all the time. Rory, Amy, good luck with the elders. Tania, please take them into town with you and look after them. Rose, River, let's go rafting, shall we?"

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