Space Station

The Doctor and Ruby emerged into a room that was small, dark, and damp. The fact it was warm didn't help much, because the damp made the heat even stickier than the atmosphere from 5 minutes ago when they saw dinosaurs.

"Oh. My. God," said Ruby. "I've just gone from watching dinosaurs walk by to a space station! This is a space station, right? Or..." She looked around. "Is it a space ship? Ooh, or a star ship? Please tell me it's not some underground storage room oh I so want it to be a star ship like on Star Trek!"

"Yeah, definitely in space." The Doctor lifted his leg into the air. "I know artificial mavity, and this is it. Though until I get a better look, I can't tell whether we're in a ship or a station. I hear power coursing through, but everyone needs that to survive in a cold dark vacuum."

"I'm in space? Oh my god I'm in space! Space! Real space, not some simulation at an amusement park! Can we find a window? I wanna see space. From space!"

"Well, there's a door over here, which'll probably open if I..." the Doctor reached to a control panel to the side, looked over to Ruby, and grinned as he said "push the button."

"Oh, you're going to be insufferable about that, aren't you."

"Oh, don't you know it, babes!"

The Doctor and Ruby turned to look through the door they had opened. It wasn't a very enticing sight. It was a long corridor, just as dark as the room they were in, but there seemed to be some sort of slime along the walls, green and dark and basically a very good substitution for a big sign that said "dangerous thing here, keep out".

"Doctor, what's in there?"

As Ruby turned to the Doctor, she noticed her frown of hesitation wasn't mirrored on his face. If anything, his smile had only gotten bigger.

"I've no idea," he said, shrugging off his coat and dropping it to the floor. "But let's find out!"

And without another word, the Doctor sprinted into the corridor, leaving Ruby behind. She quickly made up her mind that it'd be better to at least stick together than be left alone with whatever was making all this slime. After all, this is the man who helped her escape from the goblins! Surely, he knows what he's doing?

Ruby came to a fork in the road, but seemed to have lost the Doctor in the darkness. She looked left and right, but couldn't see anything. And all she could hear was a creepy creaking. At least there was no monster yet?

"Over here, Rubes!"

Ruby jumped at the sudden noise, pressing against the wall. It took her a few seconds before she realised it was just the Doctor, somewhere off to her left. She peeled away from the wall, but felt her jacket snag. After carefully pulling it off of a small exposed piece of metal, she jogged off in the direction of the voice and found the Doctor pointing that weird blue thing he had had on the goblin ship- what was it called, a psychic transcriber?- at a monitor in the wall.

"I'm having a little trouble getting into the system from down here, but if I can get in, I can find where we are."

Ruby began to feel very anxious. The Doctor wasn't trying to be quiet at all. It almost seemed like he wanted someone- or something- to come and find them. Ruby decided to stick to hushed tones.

"What about the monster?"

The Doctor whipped his head around to face her, a perfect picture of puzzlement on his perplexed face. "What monster? Did you see something out there?"

"No, just... all this slime everywhere. That can't have been made by something particularly pleasant!"

"Oh, no need to jump to conclusions. There's lots of things out in the universe, all shapes and sizes, this could be from a Hith as easy as a Gastropod!"

"But 'lots of things' includes monsters, right?"

"'Monster' is a matter of perspective! You look like a monster to a big juicy cow who you're going to suck dry for cheese and slaughter for beef. I always say that a monster is just a friend you haven't made."

"And how many friends have you made?"

"Lots."

"And how many were killed by mon-"

The conversation wasn't meant to last, as Ruby looked up and saw a perfect textbook definition of a monster sneaking up behind the Doctor. 8 feet tall, spindly limbs, dripping goo, and with sharp claws, all headed straight for them. The Doctor noticed Ruby's sudden concern and turned around. He turned back to Ruby, then looked down a thin shaft next to them.

"When I say 'run', run. RUN!"

The Doctor bolted down the shaft as the terrifying monster let out a roar, and Ruby, who had barely had time to process the Doctor's command, began haring after him. The monster began to follow them as they weaved through corridor after corridor, until eventually Ruby saw the Doctor tapping excitedly at a console. She jogged the last of the distance to catch up to him, but felt her jacket snag on the wall again. She stopped and began to pull at it, but the monster was fast approaching, barely 10 feet away and reaching its horrible, disgusting claws straight at her.

"LEAVE IT, RUBES!"

Ruby frowned, but shrugged off her jacket and ran through to the opening doorway the Doctor had been working on. The door slammed shut behind her and she looked at the Doctor.

"Friend you haven't met yet?"

The Doctor made a pouty face and responded "Maybe not this time, Rubes."

She stood there in the small room and looked around. "What now?"

"Once again," the Doctor reached his hand over to the wall behind Ruby and grinned, his momentary sadness seemingly vanishing. "Push the button."