Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of its characters.
Chapter 1: The Man
"Donna! Telephone call!" Donna looked up from her book and sighed, not wanting to get up and answer it. She had been on the phone all day, answering ads about various jobs and getting more frustrated as the day wore on.
"It better not be about a bloody 'free' vacation…." she grumbled, setting the book aside and stalking into the kitchen. Her mother stood there, holding the phone and looking rather smug. Giving her a 'get out' look, Donna grabbed the received and held it to her ear.
"Hello?"
"Miss Donna Noble, I presume?" the voice on the other end was male with a light British accent, although it was not immediately clear from which part of Britain he was from.
"Yeah. May I ask who's calling?"
"My name is Edward Toreno, and I represent Satellite Industries." the man replied politely, ignoring the sarcasm in her voice. Donna paused, momentarily confused. She had never sent an application to anyone by that name, nor even heard of the company he represented.
"Alright…" she replied slowly, still trying to figure out why he had called.
"An associate of mine who used to work at H.C. --- mentioned that you were a wonderful secretary, and suggested I give you a call."
"So you're offering me a job?"
"Yes, if you wish to work for us. And it won't be part-time either, we are willing to hire you for our full-time position."
"When can I start?" Donna asked, excited at the prospect of finally having steady work.
"Are you free tomorrow afternoon? I'll give you a tour around the building and explain the finer points of your contract."
"I'll be there!" Donna hung up after getting the address and his mobile number in case she needed to contact him, and walked back into the living room, feeling quite pleased with herself.
"Look at who now has an income! I just landed a full-time job!" She boasted, giving her mother a triumphant glare. She had been putting up with Sylvia Noble's complaints about her not having work for two months now, and the woman was happy to prove her wrong.
"Congratulations, sweetheart!" her grandfather said, giving her a happy grin. Her mother nodded approvingly, adding, "I'm happy that you finally found a good job, Donna." Donna nodded in thanks and settled back down in her favourite chair, picked up her book and flipped to where she had left off.
- - -
Donna adjusted the mirror and tucked a few strands of hair back into place, feeling the excitement bubbling up inside of her. This was her first real job in over four months, and she was going to try her best not to screw up. A prolonged illness had left her with a case of amnesia that left her unable to remember anything from the day of her wedding. Over a year of memories had vanished, just like that.
The odd thing was that her mother and grandfather refused to say what had happed prior to the illness, or even say what type of disease had caused the memory loss. Donna could only speculate that it had something to do with Lance, seeing as how he was no longer around. She sometimes had strange dreams about travelling among the stars, but the woman brushed them off as being a side-effect of the mystery illness. Space travel was impossible, right?
Donna snorted and shook her head at the mere idea of seeing alien worlds. This wasn't Star Trek, it was real life, and that kind of thing certainly didn't happen. Getting out of the car, she locked it and looked around.
She was standing in a small parking lot that was jammed between an old brick building that looked about to cave in and a gleaming steel and concrete office block that looked brand new. Donna eyed the new building with interest, noting the array of satellites and antenna on the roof.
"Ms. Noble?" the soft voice coming from her right made her gasp and spin in that direction. Standing there was a pale man in a business suit, a warm smile on his face. Once she had nodded in acknowledgement, the man extended his right hand. "Glad you could make it. I'm Edward Toreno, but please, just call me Ed."
Donna returned his smile and shook his hand, still examining him. To say that he was pale was an understatement. His skin was practically translucent, and his short hair, beard, and moustache was pure white. Even his eyes were a pale blue colour. In contrast to his colourless skin and hair, his suit was a deep navy blue, with a lighter blue shirt underneath, a sky blue tie and black shoes completing the outfit. Wondering if he was some sort of weird albino, Donna feel into step beside him.
"Then call me Donna. So, is that Satellite Industries?" she asked, pointing at the shiny building they were walking towards. "It is indeed." Ed replied with a proud smile. "Satellite Industries, or SI for short, produces the next generation of home electronics. Everything from toasters to televisions roll out of our six factories, which are located in the UK and are staffed by residents living near the factories.
"This building is the headquarters for SI, and is completely separate from Britain's electricity grid. See those large antenna?"
"Yeah."
"What do you think they are for?" Donna stared up at the large metal objects for a few moments, then admitted, "Well, I figured that they were receivers or something. Y'know, like the old aerials people used to use to get TV signals."
"You're partially correct." Ed replied, chuckling at the surprised look on her face. "They are receivers, but they aren't picking up TV signals. No, they are receiving signals from all of the electronic objects within 100 miles of here."
"What do you mean, 'all electronic objects'?"
"Computers, mobile phones, even lights that happen to be on. Anything that runs on electricity can be picked up by those antenna."
"And that gives you power how?"
"Everything that uses electricity as power emits a small cloud of unused or extra electrical particles around it. Ever since Edison's first light bulb lit up, this small cloud of extra electrical particles have surrounded all electrical objects. Even humans and other animals produce a small amount of extra electric particles, seeing as how our brains use a small amount of electricity to function.
"Before now, scientists had never investigated how to use these extra electric particles. There was no way to create a machine that would use 100% of the electricity given to make it run, so the extra particles were left where they were."
"But your company figured out how to use them."
"Exactly. Those antenna draw in the extra electrical particles, then convert them to energy which we use to power not only this building but also all of the factories." Ed fell silent as they entered the large lobby of the building and crossed to an elevator and stepped inside.
"That's…amazing. So since I produce a small amount of electricity, that means I'm giving you power, right?"
"Yep, everyone in this building is helping to keep the lights on, so to speak. Now, I can only take you up to the fourth floor for security reasons, but it'll give you a good idea of how much work you're going to have to do."
"Oh, don't worry about it, I'm the best temp in Chiswick! Hard work is my middle name!" Laughing, Ed lead the way out of the elevator and began to talk about the floor that they were currently on.