Scenes breakdown

Amy’s POV. Late afternoon. Amy Saraband breaks into the Jax Palace with a struggle, and is taken aback at what she sees. She sees heiroglyphics, two talismans- yin and yang? male and female? - near the “birthing” altar, and the “skylight” to the surface - though which they she can see the waxing moon.

She can hardly take it in, and decides to call Olivier (Amy imagines Olivier’s physical reactions to the find - cocking his head on one side quizzically like a dog, etc). But she gets through to Maximilian Gray, who has the communicator. This pocket communications link - which bleeps and blinks to show where he and the others are located. We learn here that Gray isn’t a welcome member of the expedition, but that they have him along because he brought her onto the Kursaal project - and he’s accompanied her on this dig for PR reasons.

Gray joins her, away from the others now - struggling through an awkward, high crack in the wall. Gray: “I’m trying for controlled confidence, but it’s coming across as just bossy.” (Something here when she first sees him about his dull grey eyes.) He puts away his comunicator, having traced her with it - she is partway up a wall. Gray explains that her colleagues want to pack up and go home for the night, especially as a storm is brewing (climate control not online yet). Hint here about the previous media murders - they’re worried about HALF.

One talisman is missing, and Gray takes the second with him. Amy has persuaded him to come to the site so as not to destroy it in his building work - he is not so convinced yet.

Amy is clearly scornful about the HALF threats. Besides, they are self-sufficient, and can communicate with each other via their comms devices which don’t rely on clear skies and satellite access and not being deep underground, because of some technobabble. And at the moment, Amy has stumbled across an amazing scene... They are taking it all in, when they hear terrible screams from outside as Olivier, Sharstone, and Jon are attacked by something. They go to investigate.

2. NEAR JAX PALACE, UNDERGROUND DIG

Amy’s POV - late afternoon. Amy is surprised to find Gray is armed. They find a couple of dead bodies, horribly wounded. Suddenly Amy is knocked aside, her arm broken. She is taken by surprise - the animal comes in from bright to dark, and its green eyes adjust faster than her human eyes. Gray struggles with the creature - he manages to wound it, and it scuttles off into the dark crack in the wall. Amy gets off an emergency message, then the pain renders her unconscious and she collapses.

Chapter 2

3. RESTAURANT IN MEGACITY

Waiter’s POV. Early evening. Kadijk is having a beef dinner, obviously unhappy about having been given a tie to wear in the restaurant - he is not in uniform. “Whack off its horns, wipe its arse, and stick it on a plate.” “Rare sir?” “Like a Sin City virgin.” He is also studying case notes: path lab reports about a murder suspect; drug-running infiltration of the new police force; the accidental deaths in suspicious circumstances earlier in the day of a media crew. He is interrupted by an (offworld) news report: it’s about the a Greenpeace-style direct action campaign against Gray Corp by HALF (Helping All Alien Lifeforms), which has successfully disrupted work all over the planet so that the project is running well behind. The latest attack is on a digging site for the new Aqua World. Some background on HALF: an ecological pressure group rumoured to be funded by a shadowy billionaire and led by the charismatic Bernard Cockaigne. And tomorrow, an exclusive report from our on-planet media crew. “They have a surprise coming.”

“We have a 24-hour service.” “I can’t wait that long.”

Kadijk is then interruted by his dumb sidekick Zaterday. (Flashback to Gray appointing him. “He couldn’t find his own backside if you let him use both hands.”) There’s been another attack, and this time Gray seems to be involved. His boss, who he warned about being involved in such madcap archaeology schemes and that mad xenobiologist.! They rush off.

4. ON THE WAY TO THE VEHICLE

Kadijk’s POV. Dark. He remembers Zaterday as the dullard that Gray forced on him. Zaterday chatters away, but Kadijk puts him straight. Amy had been brought in to the Kursaal project by Maximilian Gray, Chief Executive Officer of Gray Corporation. This is one of two ways that the wily Gray approached the HALF problem: in a PR scoop, he’s employing the famous xenobiologist Amy Saraband to research the Jax, and to devise ways of incorporating them into the finished Kursaal project - and he’s accompanied her on this dig for PR reasons too.

Secondly, however, Gray has beefed up his on-site Security Team, including Commander Paul Kadijk. Since his arrival, Kadijk has been having much more success halting the HALF activity, though he left his wife back on their home planet - “Go and marry bloody Gray, why don’t you. You see more of him than of me.” “And I’ve been blessed with a lot of new staff.” “Like me, sir,” says Zaterday. Kadijk grits his teeth.

Kadijk wants to link it to HALF (HALFwits). “I’ll have ‘em” etc.

5. POLICE VEHICLE EN ROUTE TO CRIME SCENE

Kadijk POV. Filthy weather, dark. Zaterday and Kadijk on the way. Other vehicles are on their way, but it seems the rest of the local force are away investigating a previous killing of the media crew. Kadijk can see the buildings behind him as they travel (establish the “official” area of the planet). In the middle distance, we can see Gray Corp HQ, with a section poking out at a jaunty angle - this is where Gray would usually be sat, surveying his planet taking shape.

Discussing the paperwork he’s been reading - gives it to Zaterday. “Tell Garrick we’ve receive the path lab report on the blood found at the scene of crime. Tell him we’ve got good news and bad news for him. The bad news is that it that the results show it’s Garrick’s blood on the victim and all round the murder scene. The good news? His cholesterol level is low.”

Zaterday is driving, because Kadijk has been drinking. (He hands over his car ident card to Zaterday. Doesn’t it have an isomorphic response built in, so that only Kadijk can use it? “You can’t believe everything you read in the sales literature,” says Kadijk. “I try to be open-minded,” says Zaterday. “Yeah, but not so much that your brain falls out.”

We get some insight into Kadijk’s background - the garrulous Zaterday can fill us in on the other media murder stuff. He tells Zaterday that he talks too much - sometimes you can learn a lot just by listening, allowing someone to fill the uncomfortable silence with their own words, volunteering information despite themselves.Kadijk is furious about the new report - how did the information get off-planet if the media crew were murdered? At least they’ve managed to hush up the deaths of the on-planet media crew so far - first reporting the news, and now making it - in a suspicious accident. Recently a number of small bombs have destroyed key Gray locations on the planet - the communications network, the spaceport, several gigantic earth movers. The only reason the crew didn’t get the report of their own deaths on air was that their local comms network had been sabotaged previously.

Chapter 3

6. UNDERGROUND CAVES

Sam’s POV. The Doctor and Sam are making their way through poorly-lit caves. They are hiding from the terrible storm that’s blown up. Sam isn’t impressed - they were supposed to come to the pleasure world, Kursaal, a kind of “Disneyland meets Babylon 5”. But the Tardis seems to have landed in a muddy field. The Doctor insists that they must have landed in a theme area, and reminds her about the archaeological vehicle they saw on the way in - besides, they’d get drenched going back to the Tardis through the storm, and they may as well take shelter here. Her Nike trainers are ruined.

Then they come across the first body (Bill). Sam: “Cripes!” (or “Gordon Christ!”) - explanation about her father’s views on language (she’s babbling to keep her mind off the death) and also explaining that it looks like an animal attack (her school project on sheep worrying - she rather upset her teacher and class with her detailed shots of animals attacked by dogs and feral animals,, but it’s a bit more distressing when it’s real life and real people). The Doctor’s reaction. They explore further, and just as they find Pat and John they hear security people arriving.

It’s Kadijk and Zaterday, who have arrived first. Kadijk’s furious - even if the police squads were elsewhere on the planet, surely the police surgeon could have got there in time, he had already finished at the media murders scene. Staffed by incompetents, this planet’s never going to be finished in time! They also overhear him complaining about being dragged away from his dinner - “steak in loganberry sauce”.

Where are Sam and Amy going to hide? They don’t want to be found with these dead bodies - they don’t have the right paperwork, and they can’t pretend to be tourists... they get around Kadijk and Zaterday, and are making their way out of the crime scene when they run straight into an arriving police squad.

Sam stopped, her Nike trainers scuffing the powdery soil underfoot. The Doctor would have carried on, but she tugged at the sleeve of his coat.”Er... Doctor...” He looking at her, and brushing her hand away with his fingers. So she nodded in the opposite direction, beyond him.

The Doctor turned, and then stared at the oncoming troopers. “Cripes!” he said.

Click here to see how Chapter 3 appeared in the published novel.

Chapter 4

7. (Still in) UNDERGROUND CAVES

Kadijk’s POV. The Doctor and Sam stride in ahead of the police squad, and the Doctor pretends to be the pathologist, Sam his “intern” assistant, and takes charge (using the info that Sam provided above!) - victims of savage attack by wild animals, etc as they go towards the bodies.

Doctor explains that Pathologist Pete has been trapped by the storm, so he’s been sent. They don’t appear to have any medical equipment. The Doctor is vague - doesn’t need them to diagnose a wild animal attack etc. etc. Kadijk: don’t seem to need to have examined them either? Clothes - not medical? Doctor says he was called away - isn’t that why Kadijk’s wearing a lounge suit? And isn’t that gravy down his tie - beef gravy? With maybe evidence of loganberry sauce? Zaterday gives away the name of the hospital, and the Doctor agrees.
Amy and Gray are found near to a strange portal. A paramedic team from the hospital arrives, and the Doctor gives a few meaningful medical comments to them.

Policeman asks if they shouldn’t track down the wild animal. No need, says Kadijk, the dig will be declared unsafe, and buried. Shouldn’t you try to capture it for study - it may be an indigenous species, says Sam, showing off her environmentalist credentials (Doctor shushes her). Kadijk gives her a funny look. Isn’t that what got the team killed in the first place? Now, they’re needed at the hospital to carry out the post mortem, and to get Amy and Gray to safety. Just as they are going, he asks the Doctor when he got the call to come to the dig. The Doctor distracts him, pointing at another spot on his shirt: “Is that pea soup?”

Kadijk asks one of the police about the pathologist. “We bumped into them on the way in. She called him “doctor”.” Kadijk puts in a call to the hospital - is there an intern program? There is lots of interference on the wrist device - reception because of the caves and the storm is terrible, and the comms satellite is rather fragile at the moment (not properly tested) so he has to record a message - “I’m sorry, I’m not here to take your call at the moment.”

Kadijk brushes at the stains on his shirt and tie as Zaterday looks on. “How could he tell that was roast beef and pea soup?” asks Zaterday. “Don’t you know the difference between the two?” says Kadijk sarcastically. “I mean, any fool can roast beef.”

8. OUTSIDE THE CAVES

Sam’s POV. Night, howling gale. The whole dig is being cordoned off. The Doctor and Sam are chaperoned into the waiting ambulance to the hospital morgue - unable to escape from the scene as they are shuffled into the ambulance by police escorts. (The Doctor explains to Sam he hates hospitals. “Midwife dropped you on your head as a baby,” says Sam, “that would explain a lot.” “Not exactly,” says the Doctor. “But I suppose you could call it a birth trauma.”)

From overheard conversations, we learn about Gray Corp being a multiplanetary company, and that this is Saturnia Regna in the Cronus system.

Their chaperones speculate on what could have caused the deaths. The Doctor won’t be drawn. The chaperones chat together - probably that monster Cockaigne, head of the ecological pressure group rumoured to be funded by a shadowy billionaire, which has run a Greenpeace-style direct action campaign against Gray Corp. He’s a monster - supposed to have murdered dozens with his bare hands. “Bear hands, more like - he’s a huge, gorilla like man...”

9. JOURNEY TO THE HOSPITAL

Sam’s POV, night. They travel on to the hospital, observing what’s happening outside - the planet has part-completed facilities all over it for transport, accommodation, residential, infrastructure, entertainment, and the usual paraphernalia of a theme park writ large. The construction work is also more radical than a Barratt Homes site: the diggers are the size of office buildings, the cranes are like rocket gantries, and the blasting equipment is on an H-bomb scale. Much of this is explained to Sam by one of the paramedics, because she’s “new” to the planet as an incoming intern.

As they drive through the cordon, the Doctor and Sam realise that the Tardis is the other side of it.

Chapter 5

10. HOSPITAL MORGUE

Sam’s POV. Middle of night. The Doctor and Sam are in the hospital morgue. They’ve been carrying out a post mortem on Olivier, Sharstone, and Jon.

Pathology labs: Chemistry/Toxicology, DNA analysis (Garrick’s blood match), Forearms/Tools, Hairs/fibres, Explosives, Photography, Polygraph, Latent fingerprints, Materials analysis, Biological analysis. Stereomicroscope.

Like the restaurant, this is a temporary facility for the current staff until the official stuff is opened up on the moon. “What are you a doctor of?” “Oh, lots of useful things.” (Compared by Sam with home economics, history, and Latin - her least favourite subjects). Latin usages: “dead language”. “For dead people.” “We can learn a lot from dead races,” says the Doctor. “You sound like Mr Phillips,” says Sam, “he’s got an answer for everything too. Time travelling must make ‘dead races’ a relative thing.” “Well, if we bump into any, you’ll be equipped to greet them,” says the Doctor. “I presume you’ve learned the vocative. Did you know that ‘alien’ comes from Latin - alius means ‘other’.” He paused thoughtfully. “ “I can greet their furniture too,” says Sam. “Mensa - table, oh table! The headmaster caught us talking to the school desks, and told us that education was wasted on today’s youth.” She used to think she was his blue-eyed girl, head prefect material. Well, I suppose he was right about the blue eyes bit. She fluttered them prettily at the Doctor.

All this punctuates the Doctor’s study of the corpses - comparing the media crew with the attack victims, he’s surprised that there is no rigor mortis - stiffness of joints caused by depletion of ATP in the tissues - in the latter. “Rigor mortis - The rigidity of death,” says Sam. “Who says education’s wasted on the youth of today?” Mind you, her schooldays seem a lifetime ago. ATP = adenosine triphosphate, a nucleotide found in the mitocondria of all plant and aminal cells, the major source of energy for cellular reactions, released during its conversion to ADP - adenosine diphosphate (liberation of energy used in performance of muscular work (perhaps Sam should have paid more attention during biology”. “Only during sex education, to watch James Watford’s ears going pink with embarrassment). The Doctor seems to know a lot about human biology. He’s just showing off his medical qualifications. When did he get a medical degree? Several lifetimes ago.

Learning from the Doctor in their trips in the Tardis? “See the universe, learn about alien cultures, learn another language - you couldn’t pay for this kind of education.” “Doctor, you’d need to guarantee full refunds if not satisfied. And travel insurance.”

The Doctor checks the levels of ATP with scanner equipment - they are actually abnormally high!(Of course, this is because it’s building for their conversion into werewolf Jax!) Sam: “I thought we were going to do the minimum possible, and then find a way back to the Tardis before we’re rumbled.” Doctor: “But this is baffling, I need to know more.” (Getting engrossed in a mystery.) He notices that the hair, which grows after death, has started sprouting on the face, there is distortion to the limbs, and the nails seem to be deforming.

Amy is shown in, accompanied by police guard. She has been brought (very unwillingly) to the morgue to identify the bodies of her colleagues. The Doctor is intrigued by the deaths, and wants to know more about how they happened. Amy says that it’s almost a shame that they died and Gray survived... they were the most alive people she’d ever known, while he was a cold fish... with an accountant’s mind, and cold accountant’s eyes. Sam remembers one of her dad’s accountant friends like that - his eyes matched his suit, calculator grey. Amy is baffled that there are only five bodies: Olivier, the first man killed in the attack, is not there. They check the gurneys - five were occupied, but now only four.

Doctor sends police guard away, significantly. Nurse Sam will accompany Amy until she leaves the building (hospital policy).

The Doctor wants to examine Amy, but she’s very keen to leave. She survived the attack on the dig team apart from her broken arm, which has been crudely repaired and is now in a setting sling (will be OK in two days - that’s how crude!). Doctor explains that the bodies are not decomposing, and there is something very wrong... he will go to check on Gray, insisting that Sam “stay with Amy” - he thinks there is something suspicious about the xenobiologist.
Amy decides to leave the hospital in a hurry, and Sam follows her.

11. HOSPITAL CORRIDOR

Sam’s POV. Night. Making conversation, Sam asks about the huge planetary works they saw - doesn’t the government have a say in all of this, controlling it? Amy is amazed: the whole planet, aturnian Regna, is in the Cronus system, and the Gray Corporation owns all of it. Gray Corp is a development conglomerate on a galactic scale, and in a series of massive building projects is turning the planet into Kursaal. Sam is horrified - aren’t people upset, or opposed to this? Amy looks at her in a new light.

On the way out, they see the real pathologist turn up and check in. Sam feels very awkward, and Amy realises this - Sam confesses to Amy that she’s not an intern at all, which doesn’t now surprise Amy, who suggests that they get away from the hospital together. Sam is torn - should she follow Amy, or warn the Doctor... she decides to follow Amy (remembering the Doctor’s advice).

The pathologist enters the hospital, and the Doctor’s cover story is about to be rumbled.

12. GRAY’S HOSPITAL ROOM

Kadijk’s POV - night. Doctor sees that Gray is being treated for wounds he sustained during the attack - they appear to be like Amy’s from being thrown aside by the attacking animal as it fled. Doctor finds out information from Kadijk about his recent successes against HALF. Lazy scroungers from the system worlds with nothing better to do than prevent the creation of millions of new jobs. “I’m not known for my tolerance, as my ex-wife will testify. In fact, as my ex-wife did testify. When I’m asked by the media team how many people are working in HALF, I say “about half of them”. Not that I get asked anything by the media team any more. The irony is, they might even have reported live on their own deaths, except that the satellite system was disrupted since HALF bombed the comms network. The Doctor points out this would have been a pretty dumb move by the HALF terrorists - cutting off their publicity - why would they do that? Kadijk’s motivation again: beating HALF, and now he’s closer than ever.

Gray has not come round since the attack, and vital signs are fading. The Doctor seems strangely interested in Gray’s case notes - something doesn’t smell right. Kadijk gets a call on the room communicator - Doctor Webber is waiting to see him in reception.

13. RECEPTION

Kadijk’s POV: night. Kadijk travels through the corridors, and when he sees a video screen playing he remembers to stop off briefly to pick up his video messages: the first is a reply to his question about the intern program - there isn’t one on Saturnia Regna. The second tells him that three of the five bodies have been stolen from the morgue - including Olivier and Sharstone. He dispatches a couple of people to find out what’s happening, and then tries to contact the Doctor on the same wrist communicator, but the thing cuts out suddenly.

At reception, he half notices that a nearby video screen has gone blank too. Kadijk is expecting to meet a medical doctor, but discovers that Webber is actually the real pathologist - he can smell the mortuary disinfectant on his skin, even thought he’s not been to work today. “Something doesn’t smell right,” he realises. The Doctor doesn’t smell like a pathologist! So if this is pathologist Webber, who is messing around in Gray’s room? I just called through to check you were on your way, explains Webber, and I explained who I was to your man there. He said he was the doctor in charge.

Kadijk hares all the way back to Gray’s room. Gray is still as he was, but despite the guard on the door, the Doctor has vanished. Where’s Sam? She was seen leaving the building with Amy Saraband. Kadijk thinks they must all be in it together - the Doctor, Sam, and Amy.

Gray wakes up, sitting bolt upright in bed suddenly. Something about his eyes being green and alive.

Chapter 6

14. AMY’S PRIVATE TRANSPORT

Sam’s POV: night. The storm has cleared up. Amy and Sam flee to one of the completed areas of Kursaal, a group of areas each a dozen acres across and themed on different cultures from the Cronus system: an ice world, a technological city block, a desert world full of nomadic dwellings, a sea world, etc. Amy steers carefully with her bad arm still healing. Their way is well lit by the full moon.

Where are they going? To Amy’s home base (but why isn’t this near to all the other accommodation near Gray HQ?). Sam wants to have a go, so Amy allows her to have a try (not too bad, reminds her of driving her dad’s beaten-up second-hand car). “They’re supposed to be idiot-proof,” says Amy. “Cheers,” says Sam, “very flattering.” “OK, crash-proof.” “Like the Titanic?” Amy looks baffled. Flying: five hours of boredom followed by five minutes of terror.

Later in the conversation, Amy seems to suggest that she may as well give up on the preservation, take the money, and allow Gray Corp to destroy the planet by redeveloping it. This offends Sam’s conservationist sentiments, and she argues with Amy - until she realises that Amy has been testing her beliefs.

The transport delivers them to a Wild West-style rancher town.

15. HALF HEADQUARTERS

Sam’s POV - night. A small, nervous, bearded man lets them into an underground service system, and through to a set of cramped officeds hidden in the Wild West town. Amy explains as they go that she too wants to preserve the true archaeological sites, not just document them before they are redeveloped, and certainly not to redevelop them as these fakes. Sam is increasingly respectful and unquestioning about Amy’s methods and motivations, and asks Amy why is working for Gray Corp - and isn’t she worried that the HALF terrorists will kill her in their violent attacks, as they have with the media crew? She would hate to meet Bernard Cockaigne, the monster who runs HALF. “You can’t believe everything you hear,” says the bearded man, Amy is not worried about being harmed by HALF. Why not? Because she and the rest of the dig team were secretly working for HALF. Welcome to our hideaway - and by the way, meet Bernard Cockaigne.

16. GRAY’S HOSPITAL ROOM

Kadijk’s POV - night. Kadijk is talking to Gray who is making a completely unexpected recovery. He lies there, awake but quiet, though he seems more alert when Kadijk flicks idly through some of Gray’s belongings in the beside cabinet - and finds two interesting items. One is the Jax talisman - which Kadijk doesn’t recognise as important, but Gray takes from him and clutches to his chest. The other is a communications device, which is still bleeping away. Kadijk puts it down. Gray is reluctant to explain too much about the archaeological dig, and seems strangely detached - studying his hands, looking around himself warily. He doesn’t ask anything about the others, and doesn’t seem interested when Kadijk explains some of this to him.

One of Kadijk’s men, Porlock, rushes in with an urgent message. Kadijk wants to know why he didn’t just call. Porlock explains that he couldn’t - HALF have just destroyed a ground transmitter station, and the explosive pulse has knocked out the whole area’s comms satellite - the datapulse outran the destruction of the explosion by a millisecond. Kadijk studies his wrist communicator - dead, no longer bleeping. Kadijk is furious, but realises that the comms device is still working because of some technobabble. He is about to hurl it across the room in a temper - no use for communicating with his men - when Porlock stops him..

17. HALF HEADQUARTERS

Sam’s POV - night. They go into the HQ. Cockaigne explains to Amy that they knocked out the comms satellite. It has blinded the HALF HQ, of course, but that’s not a problem since this whole quadrant of Saturnia Regna will now be in disarray. Amy explains something about the attack, and Cockaigne is saddened - he knew Sharstone very well, they had worked together for many years.

18. (still) HALF HEADQUARTERS

Sam’s POV - later in the night. Amy has been checking some HALF records with Sam, and is furious with what she’s found. She tells Sam that the financial backers are pressuring Gray Corp to complete ahead of schedule, but HALF are holding up the completion - Sam is curious as to why this information should be in the HALF records, but Amy is evasive, asking instead why Sam travels with the Doctor. Sam explains about her school teacher - “like him but didn’t like like him. A mentor.” Australian, exotic, different, not dishy, only eight years older than her - but that’s half a lifetime. (Mrs Chesterton was head teacher?) (Women exchanging troubles for troubles.)

Does she miss her family? A bit. Amy explains how hospitals remind her of her father. She had an accident when she was about Sam’s age, and was taken to hospital. She and her father rarely spoke of how they felt, they were just there. In hospital, she couldn’t find a way to explain or apologise. She knew that he wouldn’t go until she was settled, so pretended to go to sleep. She could feel her father sitting next to her on the bedclothes. Then she could hear him crying softly, kissed her on am unmarked part of her face, and left. (Sam sees Amy as vulnerable too.)

19. (still) HALF HEADQUARTERS

Sam’s POV - morning. The night goes by, and Sam gets some sleep. She worries about the Doctor, but knows she can’t go back to find him yet, since he’s asked her to stick with Amy - and she’s finding out so much! Early the next morning, she spends some time learning about the history of Saturnia Regna with Cockaigne, examining some of the artefacts that HALF have discovered. She checks out some of the HALF information - Cockaigne shows her how to use the equipment. (“I’m hopeless at computing. When I bought a mouse mat for my dad, I asked the guy in the shop if it was Macintosh or Windows.” (Blank look from Cockaigne.) She learns Saturnia Regna is also supposed to be the last part of the Cronus system inhabited by the Jax, a humanoid race which died out thousands of years ago. So the planet is considered to be a kind of “heritage site” by HALF (Helping All Life Forms