View source for Doctor Who: Prisoners of the Quarks

{{Storybox
|title=  Prisoners of the Quarks
|author= Matt Bjorkman
|creationdate= 10/24/15
|continuity= SSEU Earth 1337-A
|timeplacement= 26th Century
|synopsis= Arriving on an abandoned spaceship, The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe soon find themselves captured by a group of quarks. Imprisoned on a space station, the three time travelers make the acquaintance of the mysterious Thrash and his furry animal friend, Mongoosetiger. As the quark's plans begin to fall into place, the question is: can The Doctor and his friends trust their fellow prisoners or do they have guals of their own?
|rating= PG
|additionalnotes= Second story of the Doctor Who/Suburban Senshi crossover; Takes place between ''The Seeds of Death'' and ''The Space Pirates''. 
|}}


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<CENTER>'''Episode 1'''</CENTER>

In the darkness of space, a lone vessel floats silently. The lights which normally illuminate it are completely black, its engines stopped. For all intents and purposes, the spaceship is dead.

	Within the craft’s hold, a blue Police Box slowly materializes, the sound echoing through the silence. The doors open and The Doctor walks out, talking to his two companions, Jamie and Zoe and reassuring the young man that he has everything in hand and that he knows exactly where they have landed. Looking around for the first time, he goes silent, Jamie gleefully asking him if he is still sure of his last statement. Zoe complains she can’t see anything in the dark, so The Doctor tells Jamie to go and grab a torch from the console room, with the young man repeating what The Doctor said about knowing where they were going, much to the time traveler’s displeasure. Once Jamie returns, The Doctor is able to use the flashlight to get a better view of where they are. Zoe comments that it looks like some sort of cargo hold, probably from a spaceship. The Doctor agrees with Zoe and then realizes something else. He asks his companions if they notice anything strange about the room they’re in.  Jamie notes that it’s dark while Zoe realizes that there is no sounds, no vibrations. The Doctor confirms this, which means the ship is dead in space. 

	In a dark room, the three are unaware that they are being watched by shadowy figures on a monitor. The viewscreen shows Jamie complaining about the last time they came on board a dead spaceship with The Doctor asking his companion where his sense of adventure went. Jamie reminds The Doctor that he wasn’t there for half of that time but he does remember what happened. One of the figures turns to the other and then turns back to the monitor to continue watching.

	The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe slowly make their way into another room of the ship. Zoe comments on how advanced the technology looks, which The Doctor guesses places them in the 26th century. The Doctor thinks he can get some of the power back and asks Zoe to help him with one of the control banks. Jamie asks what he can do, The Doctor simply telling him to stand by to open one of the doors. Jamie is grateful at least to do something he knows he can accomplish. After a moment or two, Zoe says she thinks she has gotten the power working again and Jamie should be able to free the door. Jamie tries but just as he is about to manage, the power cuts out again. The Doctor moves over and starts to fiddle with the wires, something which bothers Zoe, since she’s sure she can do it herself. The Doctor tells Jamie to try again and this time, the door finally manages to open, only to have a dead body collapse face down onto the floor, much to the travelers’ shock and dismay.

	Outside, another spaceship slowly moves towards the floating vessel.

	The Doctor, Zoe and Jamie walk into the room, which is revealed to be some sort of control deck. The space is littered with bodies and when The Doctor looks over one of them, he confirms the suspciouin that they’re quite dead. He’s even more troubled by the fact that somehow the wounds on the crew seem eerily familiar but he can’t quite place it. Zoe thinks it would be best if they got out of there now and for once The Doctor agrees with her, deciding discretion is the better part of valor in this case, much to Jamie’s shock.  Just as they are about to leave, though, the ship suddenly shakes as if something had collided into it, knocking the three off their feet.

	In The darkened room, the figures see this on their monitor. After a moment or two, the monitor changes focus to the outside of the vessel, showing the newly arrived spaceship attaching a sort of link between the two. The monitor is then switched off and the figures slowly move away.

	The Doctor helps Zoe up, while Jamie asks what just happened. The Doctor isn’t sure, but before he can react, the door which leads back to where the TARDIS was shuts once again. Jamie rushes over and tries to pry it open but it’s no use, it simply won’t budge. Zoe realizes they have been trapped, which makes The Doctor wonder by who. As if to answer this question, one of the other doors opens slowly, revealing the three figures from the room before: Quarks! Zoe is shocked, wondering what they’re doing here, with The Doctor answering that he isn’t sure. One of the Quarks orders The Doctor and Zoe to follow it and not to make any sudden movements. Jamie slowly makes a move for one of the wrenches, having been behind the Quark’s line of sight for the entire time. The Doctor tries to signal Jamie not to attack, but Jamie simply tells him the “wee beasties” weren’t all that tough the first time they met them. With a cry of “Craig a toor!” Jamie tries to swing the tool at the robot, only to be sent flying back with a loud “CRACKLE”. The Doctor makes a move to help Jamie up, but the Quark orders him to stand still. Zoe tells the robot that they have to make sure Jamie is alright. The Doctor attempts to move a second time and with this, the robot lets the traveler by. Zoe asks if Jamie is alive and The Doctor confirms it, helping him to his feet. The Quark then orders the three to follow it and when Zoe protests, it makes a move with it’s gun arm towards her. The Doctor tells her they seem to have little choice and asks her to help him with Jamie, since he’s very heavy. The Quarks head out through the door they came in, The Doctor and his companions following behind.

	The other ship detaches itself from the floating dead vessel and starts to move away, leaving the spaceship far behind.

	Inside the spaceship, The Doctor, Zoe and Jamie are lead past a control room which is filled with Quarks manning the machinery, as well as seeing the TARDIS being loaded on board. The Doctor comments on how odd it is, which Zoe asks him to explain. The Doctor mentions how they’ve seen many of the robots on the ship, but no supervisors, no Dominators. Zoe realizes he’s right and what this means. The Doctor isn’t certain but that he doesn’t like it. 

As they’re forced down a metallic corridor, The Doctor realizes Jamie is slowly coming around. Jamie complains about his head and asks what hit him with Zoe telling the young scot that it seemed to be some sort of forcefield. Jamie says he doesn’t remember the Quarks ever having anything like that and The Doctor agrees, saying that it does seem like the technology demonstrated by the robots is far more advanced than before. The three are stopped in front of a large metal door, which the Quark opens then orders them inside. Jamie makes a move to attack the robot but The Doctor stops him as the machine trains it’s weapons on him. The three slowly make their way into the room, the door slamming shut behind them.
The Doctor admonishes Jamie on how much danger he was placing himself in in trying to attack the robot, with the scot arguing that he had to do something. Zoe tells them they’re wasting time arguing over it, something which The Doctor and Jamie reluctantly agree. Just as they turn to look around their new location, however, they’re stunned at the sight of a large hairy beast rising on it’s hind legs, it’s clawed arms reaching towards them!!

<CENTER>'''Episode 2'''</CENTER>

The Doctor admonishes Jamie on how much danger he was placing himself in in trying to attack the robot, with the scot arguing that he had to do something. Zoe tells them they’re wasting time arguing over it, something which The Doctor and Jamie reluctantly agree. Just as they turn to look around their new location, however, they’re stunned at the sight of a large hairy beast rising on its hind legs, its clawed arms reaching towards them!!

The Doctor protests as the large creature grabs the time traveler, hugging him tight and letting out a loud purr. After dropping the bewildered man, it does the same to Zoe, who shouts for Jamie to help her. Turning towards Jamie, the scot gets ready to defend himself when a voice tells the furry beast to stop. The travelers turn to look at the tall man with long black hair, a black eyepatch over one eye and dressed in very strange clothes. Almost immediately The Doctor seems to grow tense around their cellmate, who introduces himself as Thrash and the creature as Mongoosetiger or MGT for short. He tells them the creature is rather affectionate and meant no harm and asks MGT to apologize to the three, which it does most politely. Zoe asks how they ended up here and Thrash answers that he and his friend were ambushed by the Quarks and brought on board. They’ve been here for a couple hours now before The Doctor and his friends arrived. Jamie wonders what they’re doing simply standing here and talking about all this when they should be thinking of a way to get out of this situation.  Thrash says not to worry, as they won’t be in the cell for long. Just as The Doctor begins to question the other man what he means by that, the entire room suddenly shifts to the left as the ship seems to take a sharp turn.

In space, the vessel slowly approaches a large space station. The ship carefully docks with a section of the structure, joining alongside other similar ships. 

As Zoe and Jamie help The Doctor up, the door suddenly slides open, revealing a Quark who orders the five out of the room. MGT bounds happily out, something which puzzles Zoe who asks The Doctor why the creature seems so happy about all this. The Doctor feels that perhaps the animal doesn’t understand what’s happening then glances at Thrash, who simply quietly looks back at him. Another order brings The Doctor back to his senses and the rest of the occupants quietly leave the room, Jamie telling the Quark off when it orders him to keep moving. 

Walking through the control area once more, The Doctor suddenly trips over himself, grabbing onto one of the machines in the room before slipping onto the floor. As one of the Quarks approaches, its gun arms pointed towards the man, The Doctor comments on how clumsy he is and carefully gets back to his feet with the help of Jamie. MGT asks Thrash if the shaggy man is playing a game, something which Thrash comments that he’s unsure of. The three are lead out into a large corridor lined with various cells, each of them containing captives of numerous genders, races and species and each guarded by a Quark. The robot accompanying them then orders the group through a large pair of doors, which slides open to reveal an open courtyard area, where various prisoners seem to be mingling. Walking in, the group is finally left alone as the door shuts behind them.

The quark soon enters another room, where a group of quarks man various monitors, each of which seem to show seperate parts of the station. One of the cameras is trained on The Doctor, Thrash, Zoe, Jamie and MGT as they wander through the courtyard. The quark tells it’s fellow robot that The Doctor may be the one required to complete the work. The camera briefly trains on Thrash who is staring up at the video recorder.

The Doctor wanders the edge of the pen, glancing up every once in awhile at the cameras pensively before stopping down in a corner of the room. Jamie watches as Thrash and MGT wander off to another part of the room, before he comments on how he thinks the two of them are hiding something. The Doctor confirms that they defiantly aren’t telling the whole truth, something which confuses Zoe, who says that it almost sounds like The Doctor knows who Thrash is. The Doctor says nothing but digs in his pocket and pulls out a piece of machinery. Jamie wonders where he got that and Zoe suddenly recognizes it as part of the console from the quark spaceship. The Doctor admits that he is quite clumsy and pulls out a small screwdriver, beginning to take it apart. Jamie asks him what he’s up to and The Doctor tells him that the Quark’s force field is some sort of electromagnetic current and that he’s going to try and reverse said current in the hopes that it will, as Jamie interjects, crackle them. Zoe suddenly notices one of the prisoners signaling to her and when she tries to get The Doctor’s attention about it, he simply tells her that he’s far too busy at the moment working on the device to look away. Zoe, grimacing in frustration, goes over to talk to the man, while The Doctor tries to remember which wire it is he’s suppose to reconnect.

Thrash watches The Doctor work in the corner, before glancing back at the camera above him and telling MGT to wait here while he goes to do something. Zoe notices Thrash walk away then turns back to the man she was talking to.

The man, who was a pilot who had been taken by the quarks, tells Zoe not to trust Thrash and MGT. Not only has he lied about having been on that ship for a few hours, as he has seen them in the pen before but he also seems know something about the quarks which he isn’t telling anyone. When Zoe asks him what the quarks are doing here, the man tells her all he knows is everyday they take prisoners away and those people that are taken never come back.

The Doctor thinks he may have gotten it, though Jamie questions if that’s the truth given how it simply looks like a bundle of circuits and metal. The Doctor tells Jamie to have a little faith in his abilities, something Jamie slightly disagrees with. Their discussion is interrupted by Zoe who tells The Doctor she has some important information. Before she can talk, however, the doors open and a group of Quarks glide in, picking a few of the prisoners. Jamie tells The Doctor that he needs to use his invention but before he can do anything, Thrash steps out and points to The Doctor and Jamie. He tells the quarks that those are the two who are planning a break out, something which shocks the three travelers as the robots surround The Doctor and Jamie, weapons at the ready!


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[[Category:Matt Bjorkman]] [[Category:SSEU Stories]] [[Category:Doctor Who]] [[Category:The Suburban Senshi]]