Grey Matter (short story)

Grey Matter was the second short story published in Twelve Angels Weeping.

Summary
The Doctor discovers the Weeping Angels taking over the twelve human cities on the planet Gehanna as revenge against City Twelve's chief medical officer, Perinne.

Plot
The planet Gehanna is home to twelve human cities, each separate from each other, that are constantly upgrading themselves with purchased or scavenged alien technology. The chief medical officer of City Twelve, Perinne, has bought a Weeping Angel in order to discover how it quantum locks. Not understanding the true nature of what he possessed, he abused and tortured it, smashing away half of its face to see if there was any living flesh underneath. Unfortunately, Perinne is unaware that an image of an Angel becomes an Angel. Specialised Salus-masks are worn by everyone in the city, which record and display medical information, such as heartbeat, vitamin levels and other vital senses. Perinne's Angel infects his Salus Mask, and as chief medical officer, his mask is connected to the brains of everyone else on the planet. The Angels slowly turn everyone on the planet into more Angels, one city at a time, starting with City One. This process is perceived as a plague, and when only City Twelve is left, Perinne quarantines the Basilica of Wellness in an effort to keep out the plague. The Angels also create a storm of marble dust, which is their breath, as an expression of fury at Perinne for what he did to the first Angel. The Twelfth Doctor arrives in the middle of the quarantine, and after being cleansed and interrogated by Perinne, before revealing the truth of events and attempting to save Perinne, who has been left to last by the Angels. Perinne refuses to let loose the plague of the Angels on the rest of the universe, and sacrifices himself to allow the Doctor to escape in the TARDIS.

Characters

 * Twelfth Doctor
 * Perinne
 * Weeping Angels

Continuity
to be added