The waves tore apart as the bow of the Discovery ploughed through. The sea was choppy, yet her course was perfect and true. With every crash and spray of the sea, the eery glow of the weapons system would intensify. With every drop of the ship, the dangling algae and seaweed would thrash around and flop. If it wasn't for the fact that Discovery was an alien-controlled war vessel, some might say that it looked majestic. Some.
Ahead in its path, the coastguard had arrived. There was one primary naval ship along with two small patrollers. They formed a line with the big ship on the back line with the smaller ships covering both its sides from further ahead. They held their ground and their turrets started moving into position, targeting the Discovery.
Gently, the Discovery slowed to a halt and even lowered its anchors. The border to the Thames' channel was close now. England could be seen in the distance. Including these three vessels, the navy were getting to its last legs if you ignore the options of full-blown missiles or earth-based weapons like tanks and army machines of extremely high fire power.
You could sense the tension between the on-going standoff. The naval ships were twitching and both eager and nervous to fire upon the Discovery. The Discovery itself was like a great wall. Deadly but unalive. Confusion rose as the Discovery's remained unfazed or locked onto anything.
Suddenly, with a ferocious crash and explosive bang, the first patroller imploded. The shockwave knocked the primary ship around a little, but she held her ground well. The other patroller however was rocking at an alarming angle. The few small people that could be seen in the windows held onto whatever they could get a hold of and bore faces of pure panic.
It only took a maximum of thirty seconds before the suffering patroller imploded likes its companion ship. The turrets on the main ship didn't know where to aim or what to do. They watched the Discovery the whole time and it never aimed or fired a single weapon.
Finally, a sailor looked out through a window facing their far-back starboard side and he screamed.
'Sir! There's another one!'
The vessels commanding officer grew stern. She looked back on her fellow officer's radar and still nothing showed up. Ahead, she could see the Discovery finally aiming her weapons and the ship on their side was primed and ready to fire again.
'Send a message to command. All channels. A quick as possible, over and over. There are two invaders' she ordered as she stared down the barrels of the Discovery's weapons, almost daring to challenge them. Proving she's not afraid of death.
A few seconds passed and the inevitable happened. Both ships fired their weapons at the one ship and it was almost like destruction itself rained upon them. She never stood a
* * *
Back inside the control centre, Kate finally got back onto her slightly rested feet and came up with a plan of attack.
There was no way to achieve anything with her hands behind her back, so that was her first job. Getting those damn restraints off.
She hobbled back into the main room and stared at the heat ray guns on their racks. She saw the colour-changing plasma inside of the heat disks and second guessed the power of their rays. The last thing she wanted to do was take her own life trying to remove some metal, but unfortunately for her, her options were few.
She attempted to grab a hold of what looked like a spear from a very small rack by the stasis room doorway. It slid upward quite easily and was freed in moments from its holder. Kate then positioned it upright behind her whilst tightening her grip. If it dropped, picking up again would be extremely difficult and time wasting.
Without being able to see, she maneuvered herself back to the row of heat ray guns and tried to gently knock one down with the spearhead.
It proved more than strenuous. Not being able to see properly behind her, the height of the shelf, her body wanting to rest and give up rather than help her. No matter how much she tried, everything was becoming harder and harder the more she forced herself.
Happily, she was graced with a wonderful sound. The thudding drop of a ray gun on the floor. She'd done it.
Almost excited, Kate dropped the spear and forced herself to crouching stance. She made her attempt to pick the ray gun with her aching hands and succeeded.
She had no idea how it worked or the range or even the impact one shot had. At this point she didn't even care how wrong it could go, she just wanted this nightmare scenario to end and consequences be damned.
Using her fingers to feel the weapon, she worked out that there were multiple buttons above the trigger. With no other choices, she had to take a leap of faith. She pressed the biggest button in the middle and heard a hum emanate from the gun itself. Luckily, it hadn't fired. That was a good start.
She felt its vibration through her arms and even jumped as she felt the heat from the disk itself grow quite intense. She also noted the sonar-like buzzing sound.
Sonar? That's sonar. Don't they use sonar as a language, or maybe...
Inspiration struck. She guessed that the two other buttons on the sides were to control its intensity. All she had to do was turn it down and hope that it would be enough to break her restraints and keep herself from being badly injured, more than she already was.
She tried the button on the right. Scarily, the sonar started growing louder and the heat got hotter and hotter.
In a flash, she rapidly pressed the button on the left. In moments, the heat died down and the noise quietened.
'This is ridiculous' she commented aloud.
She took a deep breath in and moved the gun in her hands so she could fire it and aim at the restraint holding her hands together whilst also avoiding her body.
It was now or ever, no going back.
Her arms were already cramping, making it harder and harder to hold the gun in place. Her head was still pounding and burning hot with her mind started to fade under the pressure and panic. She had to be quick.
'Come on, Kate. Do it' she pep-talked.
She closed her eyes, sighed and finally pulled the trigger.
Her breathing became rapid, her arms became very hot and she felt them deadweight.
It worked. Her arms were free even though they had no strength to give. They flopped to her sides and stayed there, with the heat ray gun still clutched in her right hand.
The metal restraint clanged as it hit the floor. She'd perfectly hit the middle joining and burned right through it. If the guns settings were any higher, she would've lost a hand or maybe both.
Kate's eye repositioned to her left hand. She felt it burning and stinging. The ray had burnt it. Luckily, it wasn't as bad as she'd convinced herself it would be. Only first-degree burns.
After all of these years, that was somehow one of the worst things I've ever gone through. Who would have thought? Maybe sticking with the Doctor is the better choice.
Feeling freedom and living in the moment, Kate gave a smile with the dried mud cracking and falling away from her face.
Even though her pain was still excruciating, she forced herself to her feet and stretched her arms harshly, determined to beat the feeling of being broken and weak. She winced at her pain and even yelped as she moved her presumably sprained ankle.
Now I can see, use both my hands and stand on my own two feet, let's see what these creatures have been up to down here, wherever here is.
Slowly, but with confidence, Kate limped over to the centre panel in the control room. Even without knowledge of how to operate the panel, she could still read. The screen was covered in confidential documents regarding the genetic sequence testings on water which was conducted at the Naval Scientific Research Centre. This surprised her.
'Why is testing like this important to them? I wonder if the Huntress found this when she searched through the labs?' she thought aloud.
Amongst those documents were personal files and reports of a woman named Simone Weller. There was even mention of her assistant, Cassie Devonport as well as something called Project Monroe run by an Admiral Ironwood.
'Something tells me this doesn't just look like documents from a computer. These were taken from a computer, belonging to her'
Kate pointed at a picture of Weller. A gentle smile, long auburn hair, hazel eyes and pride in her work. She even wore her lab coat with her name in her ID picture.
With no apparent reason, Kate looked up with a puzzled expression engulfing her face. 'Since when did I start talking to myself this much?' she questioned.
Suddenly, there was a massive thud near the doorway to the darkness. Kate whisked her body around and pointed the heat ray gun in that direction. Not looking at what made the noise first, Kate remembered to turn the dial on the gun up.
When she finally looked forward, she couldn't believe what she saw. A woman. A blonde, broken woman on the ground covered in mud like herself. She considered helping her, but decided against it, knowing that this could all be a trick. It wouldn't be the first time an alien looking human had deceived her.
'Who are you?' she asked from a distance, testing the waters with this strange newcomer.
The woman lifted her head slowly and clearly painfully. Her cheeks were stained with streaks of tears as well as mud. It was hard to tell, but Kate managed to recognise her face.
'Cassie Devonport?' Kate questioned.
The woman hesitantly turned her head and observed the woman pointing an alien gun at her.
'I don't suppose your name is Kate? Please?' she blubbered in response, clearly terrified.
Kate sighed in relief and lowered her arm. 'Let me guess, you've met someone called the Huntress recently?'
'Yes. Yes, I have. Please help me...' she sobbed in response.
Kate couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor girl. She limped over to Cassie and used all of her strength to pull her to her feet, noticing her bound hands.
'Alright. I'm going to get these off of you and we're going to get to the bottom of all of this. Sound good?'
'Sounds wonderful' Cassie answered with a smile.
* * *
Back on the Salvations bridge, Gray was reading over the controls at the helm. Even though his sister did her best to teach him about how things worked, it was all from stories she told at home, not in front of the real thing.
As a child, Gray wanted to become a medic in the army or join his sister in her ambition to become a naval officer. She would let him join her as she studied and after she got accepted she promised to tell him all kinds of stories from her journeys.
Unfortunately for Gray, he made a promise to their father before he passed away that he would give up on joining the military and become a real doctor and help the people of the city who really needed his skills instead. He kept his promise but his sister kept his dream alive through her own success. Something he would never forget or stop appreciating until the day he dies.
So far, the basic controls made sense. How to get them to work for him whilst being automatically piloted by aliens however was not in his memory banks.
'How the hell am I suppose to stop this bloody thing?' she complained loudly with panic.
Will had just finished gathering together spare tools and pieces onto a belt for him to take down to the lower decks. He wasn't going to go into a weapons hub unprepared.
'Figure it out. That's what you were told to do. Besides, no one else even knows how to work it'
Gray looked back at Will with fear in his eyes. Will almost felt bad for him.
'But if I mess up, that's London. I'll be the cause of London becomin' rubble' he weakly replied.
Will walked to the exit whilst keeping his eyes on Gray. 'Then you have to do your best to stop it. Ignore the pressure, focus on why you're fighting. Good luck.'
With that, Will sprinted away. This left Gray alone with a room washed in red, a corpse that he hasn't even noticed yet and much responsibility on his shoulders. Turning from fear to fiery determination, Gray crouched down and removed the panel beneath the work station.
'If I know how to fix these, then I can reverse it and take them apart, stopping its navigation. Can't sail if they can't steer' he planned.
Meanwhile, Will hurried at full speed down the stairs and bolted along the corridors to where the missiles were according to the map on the bridge. Even though Gray needed to stop the ship, those missiles were just as important. One of those being fired would be nothing but devastating.
He had to get there in time. That was his one goal. He'd already let his own past take control of him and made a terrible decision, killing a poor woman being controlled by an alien against her will.
This had to be his redemption. If he messed up again his hopes of staying with the Huntress and experiencing these dangerous and high-paced adventures would be over just as they'd begun. The one thing he was absolutely sure of was that this was truly the life he wanted. High stakes, mystery, running and adventure beyond understandable comprehension.
His pace got faster and faster the more the thought about it. It excited him as well as frightened him. They had to survive this ordeal first. Earth had to survive.
It took a good five minutes to reach the weapons bay. All the rooms he passed on the way had their doorways opened and red ice covering the broken sections of the hull.
Huntress. She sure does know how to make an entrance, doesn't she. I've never met anyone like her and I probably never will again. I know I disappointed you but that's not what I want to do. I want to make you believe in me. If anything, believe in me.
Thankfully, he made it before the missiles launched. By the clock the Sea Devils installed on the wall, he still had UNKNOWN minutes.
'That's a lot of grateful time, isn't it?' Will questioned immediately.
Along the oddly adjusted corridor, the room was very much not a traditional naval bay. It was alienized. Red washed, alarms going. Consoles in alien sonar dialect. The missiles fitted in the centre of the corridor on show within a contained see-through tube. The room was warming up but not as warm as the glass-like material.
Will placed his hand over it, hoping to touch it. He recoiled as his hand started burning before impact.
'Nope! Can't do that!' he exclaimed.
Instead, he maneuvered his head so he could see above the missile head. Unfortunately, what he saw was an alien metal plating, not a launch door. The whole area inside was enclosed. He quickly changed his view to the base of the missile. It was clamped down to the bottom base of the launch pad.
'Dear god. It's gonna blow the ship to pieces. It's a suicide bomb.'