The Holdarnak Parallax: Lucie’S Song By
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The Holdarnak Parallax: Lucie’s Song by Nic Ford A story from David Jackson’s Eighth Doctor series, in which the Doctor is travelling with companion Lucie Miller. ‘Lucie’s Song’ follows on from the events of the Consequences story ‘The Holdarnak Spiral’ (http://bit.ly/thsprl) and has parallel stories in ‘Sophie’s Song’ (http://bit.ly/thp_s) and ‘Amy’s Song’ (http://bit.ly/thp_a). Characters (C) 2011 BBC This work is licensed under Story (C) 2011 Nic Ford the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://j.mp/cc-by or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. The Holdarnak Parallax: Lucie’s Song Nic Ford (C) 2011 1 INT. THE BALLOON OF AN AIRSHIP. DAY 1 We are inside the huge CIGAR-LIKE ENVELOPE of an AIRSHIP. The skin of the balloon is a light pastel blue, with daylight diffusing through, and is supported by steel ribs and girders that arch high overhead. Along the length of the balloon, smaller balloons - the BUOYANCY CELLS - rest, each holding a pocket of the lifting gas - hydrogen, according to warning labels posted around. These fill the lower half of the cigar. Between these smaller balloons run CAST IRON WALKWAYS: a main walkway running the length of the cigar, down its centre; minor walkways running orthogonally from this, to the sides of the envelope. CAST IRON STAIRCASES leave the central walkway, both ascending and descending. At the far end of the envelope, indistinct machinery - the ENGINES of the airship - can be made out. LUCIE MILLER stands, terrified, on the central walkway, towards the nose of the craft and facing back down to its tail. She takes a glance over her shoulder, through windows in the nose of the cigar. POV with Lucie, through the window: an endless ocean stretching for miles in all directions. Calm, and blessed with bright sunlight - the Indian Ocean on a good day. But nowhere to land in sight. We are flying across a water-world. She turns back, gripping the handrail for dear life and suffering from vertigo. She looks up, down, finding nowhere to run to, and nowhere to escape the terrible feeling that she is about to fall. Instead she chooses to look towards the tail, and the her companion... LUCIE Doctor, I’m not liking this at all! Ahead of her on the walkway, the DOCTOR - handsome, tall, hair of a romantic poet and dress-sense of a romantic poet who really likes cowboys - is poised like a coiled spring, half crouching and grinning from ear to ear. In his hand, he holds an epee. Facing him is... well, AN ELEPHANT. Standing upright on two legs, and sporting four arms, two of which hold fencing swords - but nonetheless an elephant. Thick-set. A light blue-grey skin, not dissimilar to the colour of the airship’s envelope. Head and ears relatively small, and the trunk definitely so: while obviously still prehensile, it barely reaches below the creature’s chin. It has what looks to be a deep dueling scar on its right cheek, pushing up behind a monocle that sits on its right eye, and continuing into the brow above it. (CONTINUED) 04 Apr 2011 11:06 Page 1 of 55 The Holdarnak Parallax: Lucie’s Song Nic Ford (C) 2011 CONTINUED: It is wearing what can only be described as Edwardian Teutonic finery. A blue tunic, with brass buttons and a high, red collar. A sash, and medals. White, tight-fitting trousers and high black-leather boots. And it is seething. This is... VOM STROM You will pay, Voctor! You will pay for your insolence! THE DOCTOR Now, now, vom Strom! I told you what would happen. There are certain things I don’t stand for. VOM STROM You? Who are you?! I do what I wish! I do not bow to peasants! My vassals are to do with as I will, for I... I am Baron Starkisz vom Strom, Warlord of the Thrandehar and Count Imperator of the Third Vabarisch Hegemony! THE DOCTOR I don’t care if you’re Kaiser Wilhelm on a pogo stick - people trafficking is people trafficking and I shan’t tolerate it. Right now, your erstwhile vassals are setting up home on a lovely new planet far beyond your reach. (BEAT) You know, one of your kind came to Earth once, did no end of good. You really are letting the side down. VOM STROM Enough, Voctor! The time for talking is over. Now, it is the time for dying! The Baron rushes the Doctor, epees pointing forward and down in a classic attack. The Doctor responds skilfully, parrying the blows from both swords with his own, and pushing the blades away. As the duel progresses, it becomes clear that both combatants are skilled swordsmen. Or swordsphants. The duel pushes back and forth along the walkway, with one moment the Doctor having the upper hand, the next the Baron. (CONTINUED) 04 Apr 2011 11:06 Page 2 of 55 The Holdarnak Parallax: Lucie’s Song Nic Ford (C) 2011 CONTINUED: However, it’s not long before the Baron - through the extra sword and sheer mass of attack - starts to gain. Slowly, the Doctor is pushed backwards - and as he retreats, so Lucie has to. She is pushed back, back, back... until finally there is nowhere further for her to go. She is backed up against the low railings which surround the walkway, close to the nose of the cigar. In desperation she turns - to find herself facing a clear pane of glass in the skin of the envelope. And through it she can see the familiar, vast expanse of water, the surface of the water-world. LUCIE Look, Doctor, I can’t go any further! It’s just sea, more sea, and a whole bunch of nothing else! Like Southport! Oh, stuffin’ heck! What we gonna do? THE DOCTOR (STILL ENGAGED IN THE DUEL) Don’t worry... Lucie! If my... calculations are correct... something... will come up... just about... And he lands a blow on the Baron’s side that causes him to reel back in pain, trumpeting. THE DOCTOR (CONT’D) ...now! Lucie turns back to the window, desperate for a way out of the mess. And all of a sudden... LUCIE Nope! Not a blummin’ thing! THE DOCTOR Really? Oh. How disappointing. Oh well... And he defends himself again as vom Strom rejoins the attack. Suddenly, a loud crack is heard. Lucie turns back to the window to see what is happening - and gasps at the sight. CUT TO: 04 Apr 2011 11:06 Page 3 of 55 The Holdarnak Parallax: Lucie’s Song Nic Ford (C) 2011 2 EXT. THE SURFACE OF THE WATER WORLD’S OCEAN. DAY 2 The AIRSHIP - huge, pastel-blue, languorous in its movements, with an elephant-motif painted on its flanks and huge propellers at its tail - is floating thirty or so metres above the surface of the water-world’s ocean, towards... In the middle distance there is a DISTURBANCE, RIPPLES in the AIR. Another crack - and jagged bolts of lightning shoot from the ripples. Suddenly the disturbance is rent in two: a vertical division, as if a gap between curtains made from newly-appeared storm clouds and lightning. A noise builds. Familiar, but deeper, more resonant - and somehow multiplied: like a thousand TARDISes arriving at once. One by one, SHOPS, WAREHOUSES AND BUILDINGS suddenly pop into existence, emerging through the division and scaling the sides of an invisible mountain that is apparently supporting them. Everything from north-African bazaar analogues to gaudy department stores festooned with neon signage. Within moments it has fully materialised: a Moorish Mont St Michel. And it is teeming with people, from a hundred different planets and species. POV moves up into the air, to get a better view. PAN over, above, around it, to see the full extent of the mountain city: steep sides covered in sandy domes and minarets; gardens and hanging trees dotted about; awnings and flags; on the summit, a lavish GOLDEN TEMPLE OR PALACE. To one side of the mountain-town there is a proper harbour and port, moored in which are a number of vessels: an ocean liner; a personal hovercraft or two; a Viking longship. Bi-planes buzz around the minarets, as does a lone, futuristic ion-drive sporty little number. The place is infused with the sound of a busy market, interspersed with drums and vuvuzelas - there’s a party in town. The airship is floating towards a pylon, obviously designed for mooring. As it approaches and gently nuzzles, cables and tubes shoot out from the pylon’s base, automagically connecting and securing the airship. CUT TO: 04 Apr 2011 11:06 Page 4 of 55 The Holdarnak Parallax: Lucie’s Song Nic Ford (C) 2011 3 INT. THE BALLOON OF AN AIRSHIP, CONTINUOUS. DAY 3 LUCIE, the DOCTOR and VOM STROM are just as we left them. Lucie is staring, boggle eyed, at the unfolding vision before her. LUCIE Well, bugger me! MAIN TITLES 4 INT. THE BALLOON OF AN AIRSHIP, CONTINUOUS. DAY 4 LUCIE and the DOCTOR are running down staircases, followed by an enraged VOM STROM. They are making headway - but even so, from time to time the Doctor is having to fend off vom Strom’s blows from above. They are conversing in shouts as they run. LUCIE Where are we trying to get to? THE DOCTOR Down! Just down! Out of this airship, and into that city! LUCIE Yeah, about that..