Outside Interference

Chapter 1

Muggle Britain, 1979

Captain Yates descended the stairs, and headed towards the archive rooms. He shivered slightly, as he walked. They liked to keep the temperature on the cooler side, probably to help preserve the paperwork. He checked the offices on the right, to find they were empty, so he checked the opposite office. It looked like it had been converted into a bunk-room. Makes sense, he thought. If some of us have to do some overnight research, there's somewhere to kip for a few minutes.

He opened the main archive's double doors, to see the main desk was empty. Maybe Gwen is further in, he thought, and stepped inside. Sitting at another desk was the pretty young redhead he had spotted in the mess hall. She had one earpiece to a set of headphones cupped to her ear, with her left hand, and was writing down some notes with her other hand. "I see they stuck you with transcription duty, miss," he commented.

"I've managed to put a dent in the backlog," she replied, pointing to several 'standard' archive boxes beside her chair. "You might want to assign a couple of guys from signals to check your VLF bandwidths." She handed him a notebook. "Someone else is using similar frequencies, and it has been causing the interference that was in the recordings I've listed here."

"I'll have someone look into it," said Yates. "Is Miss Waters in?"

"Gwen doesn't usually clock in until 08:15," she replied.

"It's 08:30," commented Yates, just as the door opened behind him.

"Good morning Captain Yates," greeted Miss Waters. "Mizuchi, were you up all night again?"

"...no..." came the guilty reply.

Miss Waters placed her hand on Mizuchi's shoulder. "Have a shower before the boys get back from PT." She lowered her voice. "Spread your wings a bit, before everyone clocks in for the day." Her voice returned to normal. "Get yourself something to eat. You're only seventeen. That's too young to substitute food and sleep for coffee."

"Gwen," Yates interrupted. "The Brigadier wants to see you in his office."

"Let him know I'll be right up," she replied.

===/===

Sergeant Benton was on 'Doctor Duty' again. It was his job to make sure their Chief Scientific Advisor ate regularly, as he had a tendency to get distracted with whatever his latest experiment happened to be. Luckily, this time around at least, Benton was able to convince him to come to the mess hall. As they walked in the door, they were both distracted by a colourful 'flower' in a sea of olive drab.

"Who is that?" the Doctor enquired.

"The new girl?" Benton asked. "Apparently she's helping clear the backlog in records and archives. She's only been here a few days."

"I think I'll go introduce myself to her," said the Doctor. "It isn't often I see someone here, who isn't a soldier." And something seems a bit off, that I need to investigate.

The Doctor looked at the girl, from across the mess hall. The redhead looked to be about 16 or 17, and was slightly taller and curvier than average. She was wearing a floor-length lilac dress, with a metallic purple and light blue cape or shawl draped over her shoulders. She also had an ornate set of hair ornaments, that looked like she had small horns on her head. She was also wearing a set of yellow-tinted bifocal glasses. Her food tray had enough on it to feed three people.

As he walked closer, she looked up at him. "Your bow-tie is crooked. Did you also pull an all-nighter?"

"May I?" the Doctor indicated towards the seat opposite her.

"Go ahead," she replied.

"Doctor John Smith," he introduced himself.

"Mizuchi O'Reilly," replied the girl. "I'm guessing you're the Chief Scientific Advisor the boys keep talking about."

"I'm guessing you'll be catching up on some sleep, after you've eaten," commented the Doctor.

"Why do you say that?" Mizuchi asked.

"You've just picked up your orange juice with your wing. I've never met a dragon before."

Mizuchi looked guiltily at her glass.

Captain Yates suddenly appeared beside the Doctor. "Miss O'Reilly, come with me. The Brigadier requests your presence." He noticed the glass. "Bloody hell."

"Oh well," sighed Mizuchi, placing her glass on the table. "I guess I'd better go see the boss."

She picked up the last rasher of bacon with her other wing, and followed Yates.

===/===

Earlier

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart looked at the two people standing in front of him. Warrant Officer O'Reilly ran the mechanics' workshop at the motor-pool, and Miss Waters worked in the records room.

"Where's the girl?" he asked.

"Girl, sir?" asked O'Reilly.

A flash of guilt showed, briefly, on Miss Waters' face.

The Brigadier looked towards Waters. "How long has she been here?"

"Three days sir," she replied. "I thought Geneva had sent her from our Tokyo branch, to help with the paperwork."

"Why would you think that, Miss Waters?"

"She does have the correct identification, sir."

The Brigadier pressed a button on his desk. "Captain Yates, could you find our 'Archives Assistant' and bring her to my office?"

"On my way, sir" said Yates, over the intercom.

A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door. "Enter." The Brigadier was mildly surprised to see a seventeen year old girl walk into his office. He was a bit more surprised to see the Doctor walk in behind her, and take a seat on the chair in the corner. "Doctor, I didn't know you were joining us."

"I'm just a fly on the wall, Alistair, just a fly on the wall," he replied.

"Warrant Officer O'Reilly, do you know this girl?" the Brigadier asked.

"I have seen her in the mess hall a few times, but I don't say that we've ever been introduced."

"Very well. You're dismissed. I apologise for the inconvenience." WO O'Reilly saluted, and exited the office.

So, you're this time stream's version of my great-uncle Seamus, Mizuchi thought. The Doctor raised an eyebrow.

The Brigadier faced Mizuchi again. "Now, young lady, show me that identification of yours."

Mizuchi unclipped her ID tag from her chest, and handed it across.

"Mm," mused the Brigadier. "Double-sided, for ease of identification between two different offices. UNIT Japan branch, and whatever this 'ICEP' is. It's a very convincing forgery."

"I assure you, sir, my identification is genuine."

"You would have me believe a 17 year old girl would be given an important position as the liaison between two government departments."

Mizuchi stifled a laugh. "It's not as important as you'd think," she replied. "All the position really entails is collecting correspondence from Oborozuka police station, on my way home from school, and handing it to whichever one of my parents happens to be home, dropping correspondence at the police station on the way to school, and occasionally posing for the cameras during media events."

"I don't understand. How can that position be so trivial?"

"Budget cuts. That, and a healthy dose of nepotism. Both of my parents are senior Officers in UNIT, and we've practically been family with my ICEP coordinator since I was ten."

"Have a look at her date of birth, Alistair," said the Doctor. "She's from UNIT, just not 'our' UNIT."

"Time travel. Hmmph! That explains why I haven't found reference to ICEP in my files," he commented. Looking back at Mizuchi, he asked, "what do these initials stand for?"

"Interspecies Cultural Exchange Program," replied Mizuchi. "When I was ten, the United Nations announced that 'mythical creatures' actually exist. You know, centaurs, harpies, and such like. ICEP was founded to consolidate all of the organisations that secretly protected them, and to help them adjust to modern society."

"A noble cause," stated the Doctor. "Learning about, and understanding our differences are the first steps to reducing conflicts. Greeting someone with the hand of friendship is always preferable."

"Much better than 'the chap with wings, five rounds rapid' most of them are greeted with," Mizuchi replied.

"I certainly know one or two people with that attitude," remarked the Doctor.

"Sometimes, those differences are not so different," replied Mizuchi. "Brigadier, please have a look at line seven of my ICEP identification."

"Oh, I see 'race' is included, but has a different definition. I suppose it's for medical reasons?" he commented.

"Pretty much," replied Mizuchi. "Yuki-onna are prone to overheating. Exothermic races can potentially die if they get too cold. Standard first aid procedures, such as CPR, don't work on some of us. Myself, for example"

The Brigadier suddenly did a double-take. "Doctor, did you know about this?"

"About her being a dragon?" he responded. "She gave that away by accident."

"Dragon?" commented Miss Waters. "I thought she was a mix of dragonewt and wyvern, because of the extra dexterity in her wings, and the blade on her tail."

"No, about her being a Timelord," the Brigadier drily replied.

"She's a what?" asked the Doctor.

"It says right here; 'species: Frost Dragon/Timelord hybrid'."

The Doctor took the ID card from his friend's hand, looked at it, then pulled a stethoscope from one of his many pockets. "May I?" he asked.

"Fine," replied Mizuchi. "If it will ease your curiosity."

"Great Jehosephat!" he exclaimed. "Two hearts!"++Which Gene-loom did you come from?++

++I didn't. I was born the old-fashioned way. My mother was too, by the way.++

The Brigadier noticed the look of surprise on the Doctor's face. "Doctor, do you mind not using telepathy? Some of us in the room would like to be part of the conversation. Miss Waters, I'm now officially placing you in charge of Miss O'Reilly. I'll talk to you later, Miss Waters, about how you know about ...demi-humans?... No more keeping secrets. Protecting Britain's citizens includes all of them, regardless of who they are."

"Sorry about the telepathy, Alistair," commented the Doctor. "Some old habits are hard to fall out of. I was surprised at her lineage, as the population is ...uh, regulated quite strictly on Gallifrey."

Mizuchi answered quickly. "About the 'Timelord' part of my heritage. They only included it on there, so paramedics know to listen for two hearts, and don't just grab the defibrillation gear."

There was a knock at the door, and Captain Yates entered, carrying Mizuchi's case. "Here's her luggage, sir. It only has clothes and a toiletry bag in it."

"Privacy on a military base sure is hard to come by," observed Mizuchi. "However, I did have it coming. Twist the latch buttons, so the raised dots are both at the six o'clock position, then open it again."

Yates followed her instructions. "Documents! How did you do that? It's like magic"

"Dimensional engineering. It just looks like magic. It's similar to how you build a TARDIS, but less complicated. I know you're going to look anyway, but turning the dots, so one is up and one is down, unlocks my UNIT or ICEP gear. The two dots together unlocks my first-aid kit. The dots away from each other unlocks my emergency camping equipment. The other possible combinations are just snacks and food. What? I'm a growing dragon."

"Speaking of documents." The Brigadier pulled an opened envelope from his desk. "The only reason I even found out you were here, was because this arrived in the mail-room." He held it up. The back had an old-fashioned wax seal, with a coat of arms embossed on it. On the front, was a very precise address:

Mizuchi Erika O'Reilly

The Spare Office in the Archives Department

United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, London Branch Headquarters

He showed the letter that was inside the envelope. "Apparently, you've been accepted to some boarding school called ...let's see here... 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry'. There is also an attached letter from the Ministry of Magic. I'll have to have a talk with the Prime Minister about not disclosing that little gem. You're supposed to provide records of your previous education."

"[Translation Unavailable] Not more [Translation Unavailable] school." groaned Mizuchi, gaining a dirty look off the Doctor.

"Where did you pick up that sort of language, young lady?" chided the Doctor.

"Starship repair workshops. Mum's owns a Mobile Dry Dock. It's amazing what you can learn, while travelling." she replied.

++You know very well you were swearing in Dalek. I ought to wash your mouth out with soap.++

"Anyway," Mizuchi continued. "I completed my education, including my education in magic, when I was fifteen. Five other dragons taught me all sorts of things. Plus, you can do your study practically anything online ...sorry, by correspondence... where I come from. You only need to attend a physical classroom for certain examinations, as everyone learns at a different rate. One of my best friends completed his Level 4 Wizardry qualifications before he started middle-school"

"Quite an achievement," commented the Doctor.

"I'll have to get some annotated copies of my certificates," said Mizuchi. "The originals are in my case. Anyone Level 4 and above is qualified to be an instructor for anyone at least two levels lower." A rainbow coloured magic circle appeared above her right palm. "Does it say how we send a reply?"

"Surprisingly, it doesn't. I'll find out, when I have my regular meeting with the Prime Minister this afternoon. Seeing as you've been transcribing tapes all night, I suggest you get a few hours sleep. You're coming with me, so he can't pretend he's never heard of one of his own Ministries."