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It isn’t Lynx. He looks so much like - identical - Lynx, but he isn’t. It’s another Sontaran, this one a military leader of some sort – Field Major Styre. Sarah’s surprised – he looks so much like Lynx, and…and oh! Offensive value nill? How dare he.
And how dare he kill Roth! He’s a murderer, just like Lynx! Roth is dead, Sarah realises, looking back at the body. And Roth…oh, poor Roth. She cringes when the Sontaran comes closer, pushing her head to get a closer inspection…of something. What are Sontaran’s doing here? Furthermore, what experimentation is he talking about? Sontaran’s are a militaristic race, aren’t they?
She finds out soon enough as he marches her over to a remote section of the rocky outcrop. He orders her to sit and Sarah obeys, being in enough similar situations in the past to know that it’s best not to contradict. The Sontaran roughly grabs one arm to lock in a metal (and thankfully not rusted) chain, earning an annoyed glare from Sarah. It’s ignored as Styre pulls some odd oval-shaped device from a pocket and places it on the middle of her forehead.
She looks away, at the ground. Anywhere but at Styre, standing tall and arrogant (or at least what Sarah considers arrogant for a Sontaran) about her capture. If being separated from the Doctor and Harry is bad enough, this is even worse. She detests being held prisoner, and even more so, detests his lack of straightforward answering.
“When I ambushed the ship, there were nine survivors. I have already used up five of them, and I have been studying the free ranging patterns of the remaining four,” he explained. She still avoids his gaze. “It will be useless lying to me. I know you were not on that ship. Where do you come from? What is your planet of origin?
Sarah does look up at those questions as her mind races for an answer. She simply can’t tell him about the TARDIS, or the Doctor or Harry. She can’t tell him about time travelling or any of the sort! Finally, Sarah realises what she can tell him.
Looking down again to forge shame at answering, she replies: “Earth.”
It looks as if for a moment that he’s going to strike her. Styre doesn’t believe her, but Sarah Jane continues on – it’s true! She’s from Earth! Not this Earth, perhaps, but oh, for once, can’t the bad guy’s reports simply be wrong?
“You are nothing, you understand? You are a mistake and therefore be eliminated.”
Take deep breaths, she tells herself, trying to remain calm. The Sontaran sounds so strong in his beliefs and it scares Sarah. It scares her to be told she’s a mistake and nothing and more than that, it hurts to hear anyone say those words. She struggles against the chain, trying to pull it out of the rock face. But she’s not strong enough, and all her struggling gets her is more of a mess in the dirt.
After pressing some button on an odd little device, the Sontaran looks at her once more before leaving. She’s alone now and Sarah just has to escape. Someone has to find the Doctor and warn him about Styre. And Harry too! Harry’s never faced a Sontaran before. He has no idea just how dangerous they can be!
Above all the worries is the desire to stay alive. She can’t die, not like this and not this soon.S Sarah tugs on her chain again and again, desperately trying to pull the cuff out from the rock. Nothing works and for a few seconds, she begins to lose all hope. This is one she’s not going to get out of. She’s not going to return to Milliways and see that scarf, and she’s never going to be able to make notes on this adventure.
This is it. This is—
Her name?
“Harry!” Sarah Jane had never been so delighted to hear any familiar voice before. “Oh, Harry! Over here!”
Sure enough, it is Harry that comes jogging in to the outcrop. Of course it’s Harry, given the look of confusion he’s currently giving her. He could do something more than just stand there, doesn’t he realise that? Men. Really.
“Well, come on. Help me!” Sarah pulls at the chain again, shaking her arm violently. What will it take to get him to do something more than just stand there?
The question is answered quickly. Calling her old thing again (Harry!), he rushes over, only to be propelled backwards by…by some sort of force field. Flippin’ bullocks! It’s going to take a lot more to help her after all. Sarah sighs. Harry can run off all he wants to go get the controls to the thing, but no matter what, she’s still stuck.
She’s stuck and oh god, that isn’t. Oh god. Oh god, oh god, oh god. Her heart begins to race and for a moment, Sarah’s eyes are stuck on the creature beside her. It’s a hissing viper, very much like the one she saw in the London Zoo all those years ago with Aunt Livinia that had scared the living daylights out of her! And it’s right next to her now. Somehow, despite the lack of life on Earth, the snakes must have survived.
Sarah looks away quickly, trying so very hard not to move. When she looks back, she notices that it’s gone now. No, now she’s suddenly hundreds of feet in the air, looking down at the outcrop and feeling oh so dizzy. It’s so high up, and she’s never been particularly fond of heights and everything starts getting woozy.
That is until she feels something oozing up her legs. She dares herself to look down again and sees the bubbling quicksand work its way up her legs. But it does not smell like quicksand. No, instead she gets the faint smell of a decomposing bog, very much like the one she stumbled in to when she was three and on a hike with her father. It’s all too much for Sarah Jane, and finally, she screams.
There’s a voice now telling her that it’s in her mind and to fight it, but that voice seems so far away. The quicksand continues to slowly crawl its way upward and she struggles, trying so hard to get away. But she can’t and it keeps coming and then—
--then there’s something far worse. She sees a house on fire, her aunt’s house, and hears dying screams from within. She sees Harry being crushed by the Sontaran and then James being mortally wounded on some routine stakeout. Clorinda’s dead and so is the Brigadier and Sergeant Benton and John and Michelle and everyone. Finally, she sees the Doctor’s body as a Dalek rolls pass it.
That’s it. She’s alone. She’s all alone and she couldn’t help anyone and it’s too much. She can’t be this alone. It’s too, too much.
The world goes black.
When she finally does come to, it’s with a splitting headache and Harry kneeling down next to her. Sarah smiles and laughs in relief, throwing her arms around him in a big hug. “You’re alive,” she whispers gratefully. “Oh, it wasn’t real after all.”
He smiles back at her (if not once again confused at what it is she’s saying) and nods. “You’re going to be fine, old girl. The Doctor said you might be disoriented when you woke up, but the effects of that device – whatever it was – should wear off in an hour.”
That device, the one on her forehead, it’s gone now. She can only feel skin where it previously was, and it seems like everything, from the snake to all the deaths, was simply a dream. An absolutely horrid dream, but a dream just the same.
“What was that?”
“The Doctor said something about fear experiments. Speaking of the Doctor, we better get going, Sarah. He’s waiting for us.”
The Doctor! Sarah nods and carefully gets to her feet. Everything seems a little dizzy at first, but it all straightens out quickly enough. She grins at Harry and he sets off, Sarah following close behind.
Once the Doctor is in sight, Sarah Jane rushes ahead, running up to him with a bright smile. “Doctor!” It’s all she can say right now as she works on catching her breath. But the smile stays in place, and only grows when the Doctor smiles back at her.
“Ah, Sarah. Feeling better? No, don’t tell me. There’s no time.”
Everything’s back to normal again. The Sontarans are invading (it still doesn’t fully explain those dreadful experiments in Sarah’s opinion) and they have to stop them. Everything is absolutely back to normal! The Doctor has a plan, as always and—
Single combat? Sarah Jane can’t help the frightened look on her face. “Oh, you’re not going to let him kill you?”
He shakes his head and explains the rest of the plan. While he distracts Styre, Harry is supposed to sneak into his ship and steal a device. Meanwhile, she’ll rescue the other captives and get them to safety.
Except safety winds up being going after the duellists, where Veral sacrifices himself to save the Doctor from Styre. And then the Sontaran ship explodes, and somehow (according to the Doctor), Styre had the energy sucked out of him by his ship. The Sontarans aren’t going to invade Earth, after all. At least two of the crew members survived, but Sarah can’t help but feel horrible about all those – Roth and Veral especially – who didn’t.
Still, it’s time to go back to Nerva now and report everything they’ve just witnessed to the colonists. Once again, the universe is the way it’s supposed to be.
And how dare he kill Roth! He’s a murderer, just like Lynx! Roth is dead, Sarah realises, looking back at the body. And Roth…oh, poor Roth. She cringes when the Sontaran comes closer, pushing her head to get a closer inspection…of something. What are Sontaran’s doing here? Furthermore, what experimentation is he talking about? Sontaran’s are a militaristic race, aren’t they?
She finds out soon enough as he marches her over to a remote section of the rocky outcrop. He orders her to sit and Sarah obeys, being in enough similar situations in the past to know that it’s best not to contradict. The Sontaran roughly grabs one arm to lock in a metal (and thankfully not rusted) chain, earning an annoyed glare from Sarah. It’s ignored as Styre pulls some odd oval-shaped device from a pocket and places it on the middle of her forehead.
She looks away, at the ground. Anywhere but at Styre, standing tall and arrogant (or at least what Sarah considers arrogant for a Sontaran) about her capture. If being separated from the Doctor and Harry is bad enough, this is even worse. She detests being held prisoner, and even more so, detests his lack of straightforward answering.
“When I ambushed the ship, there were nine survivors. I have already used up five of them, and I have been studying the free ranging patterns of the remaining four,” he explained. She still avoids his gaze. “It will be useless lying to me. I know you were not on that ship. Where do you come from? What is your planet of origin?
Sarah does look up at those questions as her mind races for an answer. She simply can’t tell him about the TARDIS, or the Doctor or Harry. She can’t tell him about time travelling or any of the sort! Finally, Sarah realises what she can tell him.
Looking down again to forge shame at answering, she replies: “Earth.”
It looks as if for a moment that he’s going to strike her. Styre doesn’t believe her, but Sarah Jane continues on – it’s true! She’s from Earth! Not this Earth, perhaps, but oh, for once, can’t the bad guy’s reports simply be wrong?
“You are nothing, you understand? You are a mistake and therefore be eliminated.”
Take deep breaths, she tells herself, trying to remain calm. The Sontaran sounds so strong in his beliefs and it scares Sarah. It scares her to be told she’s a mistake and nothing and more than that, it hurts to hear anyone say those words. She struggles against the chain, trying to pull it out of the rock face. But she’s not strong enough, and all her struggling gets her is more of a mess in the dirt.
After pressing some button on an odd little device, the Sontaran looks at her once more before leaving. She’s alone now and Sarah just has to escape. Someone has to find the Doctor and warn him about Styre. And Harry too! Harry’s never faced a Sontaran before. He has no idea just how dangerous they can be!
Above all the worries is the desire to stay alive. She can’t die, not like this and not this soon.S Sarah tugs on her chain again and again, desperately trying to pull the cuff out from the rock. Nothing works and for a few seconds, she begins to lose all hope. This is one she’s not going to get out of. She’s not going to return to Milliways and see that scarf, and she’s never going to be able to make notes on this adventure.
This is it. This is—
Her name?
“Harry!” Sarah Jane had never been so delighted to hear any familiar voice before. “Oh, Harry! Over here!”
Sure enough, it is Harry that comes jogging in to the outcrop. Of course it’s Harry, given the look of confusion he’s currently giving her. He could do something more than just stand there, doesn’t he realise that? Men. Really.
“Well, come on. Help me!” Sarah pulls at the chain again, shaking her arm violently. What will it take to get him to do something more than just stand there?
The question is answered quickly. Calling her old thing again (Harry!), he rushes over, only to be propelled backwards by…by some sort of force field. Flippin’ bullocks! It’s going to take a lot more to help her after all. Sarah sighs. Harry can run off all he wants to go get the controls to the thing, but no matter what, she’s still stuck.
She’s stuck and oh god, that isn’t. Oh god. Oh god, oh god, oh god. Her heart begins to race and for a moment, Sarah’s eyes are stuck on the creature beside her. It’s a hissing viper, very much like the one she saw in the London Zoo all those years ago with Aunt Livinia that had scared the living daylights out of her! And it’s right next to her now. Somehow, despite the lack of life on Earth, the snakes must have survived.
Sarah looks away quickly, trying so very hard not to move. When she looks back, she notices that it’s gone now. No, now she’s suddenly hundreds of feet in the air, looking down at the outcrop and feeling oh so dizzy. It’s so high up, and she’s never been particularly fond of heights and everything starts getting woozy.
That is until she feels something oozing up her legs. She dares herself to look down again and sees the bubbling quicksand work its way up her legs. But it does not smell like quicksand. No, instead she gets the faint smell of a decomposing bog, very much like the one she stumbled in to when she was three and on a hike with her father. It’s all too much for Sarah Jane, and finally, she screams.
There’s a voice now telling her that it’s in her mind and to fight it, but that voice seems so far away. The quicksand continues to slowly crawl its way upward and she struggles, trying so hard to get away. But she can’t and it keeps coming and then—
--then there’s something far worse. She sees a house on fire, her aunt’s house, and hears dying screams from within. She sees Harry being crushed by the Sontaran and then James being mortally wounded on some routine stakeout. Clorinda’s dead and so is the Brigadier and Sergeant Benton and John and Michelle and everyone. Finally, she sees the Doctor’s body as a Dalek rolls pass it.
That’s it. She’s alone. She’s all alone and she couldn’t help anyone and it’s too much. She can’t be this alone. It’s too, too much.
The world goes black.
When she finally does come to, it’s with a splitting headache and Harry kneeling down next to her. Sarah smiles and laughs in relief, throwing her arms around him in a big hug. “You’re alive,” she whispers gratefully. “Oh, it wasn’t real after all.”
He smiles back at her (if not once again confused at what it is she’s saying) and nods. “You’re going to be fine, old girl. The Doctor said you might be disoriented when you woke up, but the effects of that device – whatever it was – should wear off in an hour.”
That device, the one on her forehead, it’s gone now. She can only feel skin where it previously was, and it seems like everything, from the snake to all the deaths, was simply a dream. An absolutely horrid dream, but a dream just the same.
“What was that?”
“The Doctor said something about fear experiments. Speaking of the Doctor, we better get going, Sarah. He’s waiting for us.”
The Doctor! Sarah nods and carefully gets to her feet. Everything seems a little dizzy at first, but it all straightens out quickly enough. She grins at Harry and he sets off, Sarah following close behind.
Once the Doctor is in sight, Sarah Jane rushes ahead, running up to him with a bright smile. “Doctor!” It’s all she can say right now as she works on catching her breath. But the smile stays in place, and only grows when the Doctor smiles back at her.
“Ah, Sarah. Feeling better? No, don’t tell me. There’s no time.”
Everything’s back to normal again. The Sontarans are invading (it still doesn’t fully explain those dreadful experiments in Sarah’s opinion) and they have to stop them. Everything is absolutely back to normal! The Doctor has a plan, as always and—
Single combat? Sarah Jane can’t help the frightened look on her face. “Oh, you’re not going to let him kill you?”
He shakes his head and explains the rest of the plan. While he distracts Styre, Harry is supposed to sneak into his ship and steal a device. Meanwhile, she’ll rescue the other captives and get them to safety.
Except safety winds up being going after the duellists, where Veral sacrifices himself to save the Doctor from Styre. And then the Sontaran ship explodes, and somehow (according to the Doctor), Styre had the energy sucked out of him by his ship. The Sontarans aren’t going to invade Earth, after all. At least two of the crew members survived, but Sarah can’t help but feel horrible about all those – Roth and Veral especially – who didn’t.
Still, it’s time to go back to Nerva now and report everything they’ve just witnessed to the colonists. Once again, the universe is the way it’s supposed to be.
