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[dreamer_easy]

Third and final installment of drox's fic avec le Eighth Doctor, Benny, and Fitz. Also available! Part one and part two.

The hive has stopped moving now, except for the little teeth-rattling judder it gives every couple of minutes, as though it's snagged on something and trying to free itself.

The Doctor crouches on the hive floor, frowning, concentrating on things only he can see, or sense, or whatever. His pupils keep changing size, even though the light remains the same, which makes Fitz kind of queasy. 'So, uh, where-'

'Nowhere,' snaps the Doctor. 'That was a partial dematerialisation.'

Benny looks at Fitz. 'What we need is some outside awareness.'

'Some what?'

'A window to look out of.'

'No,' says the Doctor. He jumps up. 'There's nothing to look at. Nothing the human brain can get a grip on, anyway. Just the Vortex. We're stuck there.'

'How do we get back?' says Fitz.

'The only way out is through,' says the Doctor. 'We keep going. Find the centres.'

#

The first centre is long-abandoned and tumbling down. The second is full of blinding light. Fitz and Benny snap on dark goggles as the threesome take a peek around the corner.

They're in a room with walls that resemble Swiss cheese. There are tunnels in the walls and ceiling, even a couple in the floor. It makes Fitz think of a sea sponge. It smells like a health food shop.

There are a dozen of the enormous bees, clustered around a great mass of waxy stuff roughly in the middle of the chamber. It sticks up like a huge chunk of honeycomb, but shapeless. Embedded in it are two things: an angular chunk of milky-white substance, burning with light; and the biggest bee anyone's ever seen. It's so big it doesn't even look like a creature, more like a geological formation. It has no wings; its legs and parts of its body emerge from the solid comb at random intervals. Presumably it's just sat there and the other insects have built this stuff around it, locking it into place. Maybe it's dead. It doesn't move.

When the light flickers, the hive shudders. 'They built the hive around it, didn't they?' says Fitz. 'This whole place. But what is it?' whispers Fitz, mesmerised.

'Ask Benny,' murmurs the Doctor.

Benny says, 'It's the B-zero meson drive from an experimental timeship.'

Fitz turns to look at her. 'OK. How did you know that?'

The Doctor says, 'It's what she came here to find. It's worth a small fortune.'

Benny says, 'The Collection needed the funds.'

'I'm going to have to have a word with Braxiatel, aren't I?'

'It wasn't his idea. He wouldn't have approved. Any more than I knew you would.'

'So Anthill was just bullshit?' says Fitz sourly. 'You just made him up?'

'No, Anthill's real. I'm guessing he was the one who was experimenting with the meson drive. I'll bet he's here, somewhere - or he was.'

The Doctor startles the hell out of both of them by suddenly standing up and walking out into the chamber. His small form passes through the shadow of the mammoth bee. Benny and Fitz look at each other and dash out after him, clutching their goggles.

'Christ on a bike,' says Fitz. 'Lookit.'

He points up, straight up. There's a hole in the roof of the hive and it looks out onto nothing. No form, no depth - not even blackness.

'The Vortex,' says the Doctor.

'Why doesn't the air leak out?' whispers Fitz.

'Nowhere for it to leak to. That's not a vacuum. It's nothing.'

'Oh, holy cruk,' says Benny. She doesn't exactly fall down. She grabs at the waxy wall with a hand and slides down it until she's sitting with her back to it.

The Doctor hunches down in front of her, staring into her face. 'Benny! What's the matter?'

He pulls off her goggles. Fitz saw a blind musician take his dark glasses off once and it freaked him, a bit. Benny's eyes remind Fitz of that.

The Doctor says intently, 'Your name is Professor Bernice Surprise Summerfield. You were born on Beta Caprisis. You work for Irving Braxiatel on Dellah. You came to Podgorney's World looking for Professor Anthill.'

Benny laughs. Fitz takes a few steps back, freaked. 'Looking for Anthill?' she says, in what sounds like at least eight multi-tracked voices. ' I am Anthill.'

'Are you now,' says the Doctor softly. Fitz wishes the Time Lord wasn't quite so close to Benny/Anthill/whatever the fuck. He cringes as the Doctor reaches out and gently takes her wrist, looking for a pulse.

Benny-Anthill says, 'The collective intelligence of the hive. I've gathered so many bits and pieces of information, from so many minds, over so many years...'

'I wish she'd stop talking like a bloody Queen album,' says Fitz. He looks around nervously at the giant bees lurking in the chamber. They're alive, moving antennas and legs softly, but they're not taking any notice of the intruders. He takes a few steps towards them, hesitantly, and sees there are more of the honey-wells in the floor, like in the brood chamber. He steps up to the edge of one. In the light blasting out of the meson drive thing, he can see the fat grub twitching at the bottom.

A giant bee steps out of the shadows. Fitz freezes. The thing starts tapping him with its antennae. He swears he can smell pollen on its breath.

'Doctor,' he says, out of the corner of his mouth, not daring to move. 'Need some help here.' But the Doctor's busy fussing over Benny. Well, fine. Fitz unclips his oxygen tank - a smack in the face from that should give it something to think about. He raises the tank.

'Don't hurt it!' shouts Benny-Anthill. 'Please, don't hurt it. It's only an infant.'

'That what now?' says Fitz. 'If this is a child, then what are those things down in the honey?'

The Doctor bounds over to him. The bee switches its attention to the Time Lord, to Fitz's relief. 'Those aren't the larvae. Those are the adults.'

'You mean these bees go backwards? Uh, I mean, they start off as bees and end up as grubs?'

The Time Lord nodded. 'Don't be fooled, Fitz. Those 'grubs' are far more advanced than the bees. Far more intelligent.' He squats beside the pit of honey, peering at the dim white shape in the depths. 'They direct the others telepathically. Actually, it's not proper telepathy - just a very crude manipulation of electromagnetic fields. More like tin cans and string than a telephone.'

'That's what the drugs are for?'

'That's what the drugs are for.'

'Sheesh, if Benny needs cash, she should patent that.'

The Doctor strides back to his former companion, who lies against the wall like a doll that's been propped up for a tea party. 'Benny,' he says sharply. 'We've both been lured here by the Myriarchs. You were lured here by the promise of Anthill's knowledge. And I was lured here-'

'-by her,' says Fitz.

'That's right.' The Doctor raises his voice so it echoes around the hive chamber. 'I know what you want,' he calls, 'and it's impossible. You've been on a wild goose chase and you've dragged us all along with you. The B-zero meson drive doesn't work. Never did. The best it can manage is get you into a higher dimensional pickle like the one you're in right now.' He glances down at Benny. 'Let my friend go, and I'll get us all back to normal space.'

'You're just saying that,' says the choir-voice coming out of Benny.

'Look inside her mind,' says the Doctor. 'You're there already - might as well make use of the fact. Go on. I'll bet Benny thought it would be safe to flog the drive on the black market - it's not as though anyone would be able to travel through time with it.'

There's a long, nerve-wracking pause. Slowly, Benny-Anthill turns her head to look up at the enormous bee sitting in the centre of the chamber. For the first time in a century, it moves, opening its great black jaws.

'Oh, all right, then,' it says.

Comments

[kelemvor.livejournal.com]

Win, again!

[outsdr.livejournal.com]

That would be a fun audio book.

[lordshiva.livejournal.com]

Whee! I haven't read any fanfic for so long. Haven't been able to tolerate it for some reason (to do with angst and romance) and now whee!!!!! plotty goodness! Thanks for sharing.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Gen! Further proof of my fannish Y chromosome. >:)

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

"'I wish she'd stop talking like a bloody Queen album,'"

[SNORT] =:o}

[drox.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for this! *Loves*

I am particularly in awe of your second paragraph. It captures the Doctor's peculiar variety of alien-ness (alienosity? alienitude?) so well.

My brain's going to be imagining various endings/resolutions for this for a loooooong time now.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Hey, write the sequel, and let me know. :)