Episode 3: Scream of the Sirens (Part Two)

The Cast arrive at the palace, where Queen Anne orders the guard tripled and sends a page to find the Capi of the Venetian Council of Ten, with whom she was sent to treat.

The singing continues outside, beautiful and terrible, as the army of sirens approaches. The Cast turns to the Artist, who appears at a loss; he doesn't know who or what these creatures are, and he doesn't know enough to know whether the bond between them and the little girls is permanent, semi-permanent (the creatures can be forced out but can't leave on their own) or temporary (creatures can bounce from one body to the next). When questioned if he doesn't have some kind of database on board his ship, he says, "I used to. I don't anymore." He refuses to elaborate on why that is.

He reasons that if he can get to the TARDIS (which he then explains is the name for his ship and stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space) he has equipment that could help them. The Cast asks if he can't call it by remote, and he explains TARDISes don't really work that way.

Even still, just as the Cast are prepared to make a suicide run through the army of horrific young girls, they hear the familiar revving sound of the TARDIS, and The Artist and several of the Cast suddenly notice a tall, slender Ming vase that wasn't in front of the fireplace a few minutes ago. The Artist says, "Or maybe I can call it to me," and runs to his ship. The rest of the Cast follow...and forget to lock the doors behind them.

Inside the TARDIS, Chuck formulates a theory that since spirits are theoretically supposed to exist on the electromagnetic spectrum, an EMP might harm them, in spirit form if not in corporeal. The Artist tosses him a spare sonic screwdriver and explains how to use it to generate a small, targeted EMP. Meanwhile, the Artist gathers up an armful of "psionic inhibitors" that look like cardboard party hats. The Cast thinks that if they had some kind of alien records database, they might be able to work something out. In response, the Artist takes Davan's PDA, puts a chip into it, and hands it back, saying, "There. I know you have secret friends in your time. Call them."

Davan looks at his PDA, which now reads, "Universal Roaming Activated," then switches to "Link established."

He looks up "Sirenas" and "Sirens" in his database, but comes up with little more than ancient myths.

Just then, from behind, the Cast hears a voice: "What witchcraft is this!?"

Queen Anne has followed them into the TARDIS.

Once again, they manage to tap into Anne's exceptional intellect and sense of reason, and prove to her that they're from another time (and in the Artist's case, another world) and not witches. She is understandably overcome by the revelation, but after sitting and processing it awhile, becomes her usual authoritative self once again. The Artist slaps party hats on everyone (Emilie has to be convinced to wear hers, because it makes her feel "cut off" when she puts it on) and they decide to head out to test Chuck's EMP theory.

At the window to the palace, they see the guards outside, mostly dead at the feet of the young girls, but with no visible wounds. A few "survivors" are in the midst of the deadly kiss of the Sirenas, and in moments, they, too, lay dead at the girls' feet. Chuck aims his sonic screwdriver at a girl through the window, and fires an EMP, to no effect. He then targets one of the non-corporeal blue spirits hovering above, and fires one. This seems to repulse the spirit slightly, but doesn't have the severe effect they'd hoped for.

The Artist leads the Cast to an upstairs window, where he throws it open and addresses the Sirenas, offering them sanctuary and a new world to call their own if they leave this one in peace. The Sirenas, in turn, demand his life and ship as vengeance for their race being destroyed in "his" war. The Artist retaliates that it wasn't "his" war, that the Daleks started it, and if the Time Lords hadn't fought back, things would be much worse.

Alas, the Sirenas are beyond reason at this point and blame the Daleks and the Time Lords for their destruction. They continue to insist that the Cast turn over Queen Anne and that the Artist be destroyed. Anne wants to know what they want with her so badly, and the Cast reasons that if they possess Anne of Brittany, that means they have an incredibly strong power base on Earth. From there, it looks very much like rudimentary empire building.

Finally, the conversation going nowhere, the Artist says, "Fine. You want a war? I'll give you a war," and slams the window shut, then turns to the Cast and says, "Come along, back to the TARDIS."

The Cast wants to know what's going on, Emilie in particular saying she's not willing to fight any war that she's not a part of, if she doesn't know what the cause or what's at stake. The Artist explains that the Sirenas are collateral casualties in a great war, but that regardless, what they are doing here is dead wrong, and they have to be stopped. On that, the Cast agree, and they sit down to figure out what they know about the Sirenas so far.

They reason that there are three possibilities for dealing with the Sirenas. First, since they are creatures of water, fire may harm them. Second, they could poison the waterways with some sort of biological toxin that'd destroy the physical bodies they inhabit. Finally, since the Sirenas use beautiful, harmonic music as a weapon, cacophonic sound might be a weapon against them. The Artist turns to Emilie, the punk singer, and asks her if she feels like making noise. At first she's insulted at the implication that her music is noise, but then takes it as a challenge and says she's sure she can create some dissonance that'll burst their ears. Don, as it turns out, has experience as a sound man, so using spare parts from the TARDIS, they begin to rig up a massive sound system.

While the Cast does this, Davan secretly looks up "Dalek" in his database. He comes back with cursory information on the Battle of Canary Wharf, then turns this information into a Google search that he can show James; it turns up a few grainy cell phone photos of Daleks and a poor quality CNN video on YouTube. He finds it strange at first that there's not more, but then realizes that there was a massive (and global) government cover-up for the battle, and much of what was broadcast has been suppressed.

As they lug the stuff upstairs, they notice that Anne is no longer with them. Chuck and Davan race off to find her, only to discover her being escorted out the door by two guards. She's not being forced; she's walking on her own, but she is, strangely, protesting that she shouldn't do this, she has to stop, why can't she stop*.

Davan and Chuck race to the rescue. The guards lock the door behind them, but Chuck figures out how to use his shiny new sonic screwdriver to solve that problem, and they emerge into a mass of horrific and angry little sirens. The two guards are being kissed (and dying); the queen is being kissed, and a blue light surrounds her and the girl kissing her. Davan and Chuck dive into the fray; Chuck is slashed twice by poisoned claws. Davan grabs a sword from a fallen guard, and the queen, and they make their way back into the house, where Chuck locks the door with his screwdriver and makes for the TARDIS and a medical kit he saw in there (thank you, Plot Twist Drama Point). He manages to mix up an anti-venom to quell the poison in his veins.

Meanwhile, on the roof, the sound system is ready to go, and the most horrific noise they've ever heard erupts from the speakers, combined with Emilie singing so badly, it takes talent to do so. And on the ground, the Sirenas shriek in pain. They attempt to sing a counter-song, but many of them begin to die.

The Artist, in an attempt to hit their non-corporeal forms as well as the possessed bodies, rushes back to the TARDIS with Chuck in tow, leaving only Don and Emilie on the roof, and begins tinkering with the controls. Then he stands and makes to press a large button he'd earlier told Davan never to press. Davan argues about the little girls, to which the Artist says he's fairly certain they're already dead....then pushes the button.

The TARDIS control panel explodes with a blinding flash of light and a wave of psychic energy erupts through the city, dissipating the Sirenas spirits. The (very) few surviving corporeal Sirens run for the waters, vanishing before the Cast can give chase.

The Artist mentions it'll probably take a good day or so to repair the TARDIS. Queen Anne bids the Cast farewell, and asks that Davan escort her back to her quarters, where she takes him as a consort for the evening.

The Artist, with James's help, affects repairs on the TARDIS, talking to it and apologizing for hurting it, the entire time. During a break in the action, he takes Emilie to his workshop and shows her an exquisitely done sculpture of her singing in front of a dying Drosmian. She asks him why the Sirenas hated him so much, and what the deal was with the war, and he simply responds, "Imagine a conflict so horrific that everyone and everything you ever knew is completely wiped from existence...and you're the only survivor."

When they emerge, Davan has returned and pulls the Artist aside to show him the CNN video and photos of the Daleks at Canary Wharf. The Artist is incredibly disturbed to see them, and moreso when he sees a Cyberman in the background. "There are two species in that video," he says, "That should be extinct. And if they're not, that's worse than you can imagine." He wants Davan to use his contacts to try and get more information.

That all being accomplished, the Artist turns to the Cast.

"Well," he says, "Where to, next? How about, say, the year 3,000, Earth time, to the fourth planet in the Alpha Centauri system? How does that sound?"

The Cast gives a collective groan, but it's half-hearted, as all of them can't resist the allure of actually seeing another planet.

And the TARDIS de-materializes for it's next adventure....

*What the cast never figured out is that while they'd put a psychic inhibitor on Anne, they didn't do anything to block the child--a little girl--growing in her belly.

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