Author's notes: And so we've reached my least favorite story from series 1. But hey, I like a challenge.
Disclaimer: Sadly, a month's break and I still don't own Doctor Who.
The Long Game
Chapter 1: The Offices in Space:
This future had a look that was much closer to the future Rose had imagined. Weird space-age artworks lined the rooms.s well as monitor screens, dotted here and there. Even the colours and the furniture had s distinctly futuristic feel to them. It could almost have been some "home of tomorrow" exhibition were it not for the dirt, the marks where the walls needed repainting, rubbish that needed clearing and a hot stuffiness in the air that needed adjusting. Even in the future, nothing was ever perfect.
As the Doctor and Rose stepped out, they'd noticed a distinct lack of enthusiasm in their new companion, who was struggling to even make it to the door. This had given them an idea.
"It's the year 200,000." The Doctor muttered to her. "We're on a spaceship. No, wait, space station. Try that gate over there. Got that?" She nodded. "Now go."
Rose stuck her head back into the box. "Adam, come on out now."
Adam finally followed them out. His first response was to look around in bewilderment. "W-where are we?" He managed finally.
"Good question." Said Rose, trying her best to speak like the Doctor. "Judging by the architecture, I'd say about 200,000. You can feel that vibration so we must be on some sort of space station. Definitely a space station. Bit warm in here, they could turn the heating down. Tell you what, let's try that gate. Come on."
She pulled open an old fashioned lift gate and led the men through to a gallery, through one massive glass wall, they could see the Earth below. But it wasn't the quiet, green planet they'd just left, but a brilliant hub of activity. Below, they could see massive glass cities glittering in the sunlight as well as a million rockets taking off and landing, shuttling people and goods all around the world and beyond.
"This is..." She began, but faltered. "I'll let the Doctor describe it."
"The Great and Bountiful Human Empire." The Doctor said. "Planet Earth at its height. Covered in mega cities. Five moons. Population, 96 billion. The hub of a galactic domain, stretching over a million planets, a million species. With mankind right at the middle."
Adam promptly fainted.
"He's your boyfriend." Said the Doctor, without looking at the man.
"Not anymore." Said Rose.
A glass of water, a reassuring talk, and a quick swig of something out of the TARDIS's drinks cabinet later and Adam was notably calmer, though he still maintained a frightened composure as they moved through the station.
"Come on Adam, open your mind." Said the Doctor. "Fantastic period of history this, you're gonna love it. Human race at its most intelligent. Culture, art, politics. This era's got fine food, good manners..."
"Oy, watch where you're standing." Cried a man, shoving the Doctor out of the doorway he'd been standing in. He passed through, followed by several dozen more. Their lunch hour having just commenced.
Around the hall, a dozen metal flaps were opened up from the inside. The workers gathered at the new windows, where people in checked aprons were handing out a variety of meals in tin containers.
"Hello Simon." They heard the nearest server saying. "Don't tell me, kron burger with cheese? Coming right up." He turned to the next man. "And you'll be having kron burger with perjave?"
Rose peered over the glass counter, the interior looked more like the contents of a burger van than anything else, complete with greasy surfaces and suspicious-looking meats.
Further back in the queue, two men were getting in an argument over who got there first.
"You two, stop pushing. You can go to the back now." Said the server.
"Fine cuisine? Good manners?" Said Rose.
"My watch must be off." The Doctor muttered. He tapped the chronometer on his wrist, but it continued to display the same date. "No, still working. That's weird. But hey, judging a period's food from the kebab shops is like judging its literature from the fan fiction."
"Or your history's a bit out." Rose grinned.
"My history's perfect."
Rose just gave him an amused smirk.
Adam noticed something else. "They're all human. What about the millions of planets. The millions of species. Where are they?"
They looked around. Indeed, the entire crowd around them were human. Some of them wore slightly odd clothing combinations (though Rose was glad she hadn't seen any of the spandex suits from the old future comics.) Plus the hairstyles had gone through several transitions in the space of 198,000 years. But they still looked human.
"Good question. Actually, that is a good question." Said the Doctor.
Adam smiled, glad that he'd finally said something useful.
The Doctor decided to move on. "Adam, my old mate. You must be starving."
"No, I'm just a bit time sick."
"Well, let's get some grub in you." He put his arm round the man and led him to the counter. "You there, how much is a kron burger?"
"Two credits." Said the server. "Now join the que."
"Money." Said the Doctor. "Let's use a cash point."
He found a hole in the wall and waved his sonic over it. It promptly spat out a perspex bar, which he handed to Adam. "Here you go, pocket money. Don't spend it all at once."
Adam turned the bar over in his hands. "But how does it work?"
"Go and find out! Stop nagging me. The thing is. Time travel's like visiting France. You can't just read the guidebook. You've got to throw yourself in. Use the wrong verb. Get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers. Or is that just me? Stop asking questions and go and find out!" He waved his companions off towards the burger vans. "Off you go, your first date!"
"You're gonna get a smack, you are." Said Rose.
The Doctor just grinned. The moment they'd turned away. He took on a more serious attitude. He cast around the hall for the most authoritive person present. His eyes settled on a woman in a light business suit, with dreadlocks, who was talking to a woman in a flowery blouse. Their conversation had a very This is very important, we have to get it sorted out after lunch. sort of feel.
"Excuse me, this is gonna sound daft. But can you tell me where I am?" He asked her.
"Floor 139." Said the woman in the suit, gesturing to a massive sign on the wall. "Could they write it any bigger?"
"Floor 139 of what?"
She rolled her eyes. "Must've been one big party you had."
"You're on Satellite 5." Said the flowery girl, who was looking at him with a slightly gooey-eyed expression.
"And Satellite 5 is?"
"Oh come on!" Said the dreadlocked girl. "How could you get on board without knowing where you were?"
"Look at me, I'm stupid." The Doctor grinned.
"Hold on." Said flowery girl, seemingly struggling to remember some words. "Is this a test? Some kind of... management test kind of thing?"
"You're too clever for me." He smiled, waving the psychic paper at them.
"We were warned about it in basic training." Said flowery girl. All workers have to be versed in company promotion.
Dreadlocks woman brightened at this news. "Right. Fire away, ask me what you want to know. If it gets me to floor 500, I'll do anything."
"Why? What happens on floor 500." Said the Doctor.
She smiled, assuming this was part of the test. "The floors are made of gold. And you should know, Mr. management. Let me show you what we do."
She led the Doctor over to a display of TV screens. "24 hour news." She indicated to several screens in turn. "Sandstorms on the Venus archipelago. 200 dead. Glasgow water riots into their third day. Space lane 37 closed by sunspot activity. And over on the Bad Wolf channel, the Face of Boe had just announced he's pregnant."
"I get it. You broadcast the news." Said The Doctor.
"We are the news. We write it, package it and sell it. 600 channels, all coming out of Satellite 5. Broadcasting everywhere."
Up on floor 500, the editor sat back in his chair, idly brushing some frost off of his suit.
Glancing up at the security screens, he spotted something which didn't hold true. He stood up to address it, inwardly cursing the loss of a good afternoon practicing dramatic laughs.
"Something's wrong." He told the nearest operative. "Something fictional."
He pointed to the screen, where the journalists were talking to a man in leather. "Those people, wouldn't you think." The man gave no response. He hadn't said anything since the day he'd first taken this job. Not that it hindered the editor's fun. "Security check. Go deep."
Rose and Adam had found a stand resembling a Chinese take away. He'd ordered Heyes chow mein, simply because it was the most familiar sounding thing on the menu. He had no idea what animal the meat came from, except that it was purple. He was yet to take a bite.
Next to him, Rose was idly sipping from a straw cup. "You should try this." She said. "It's like one of those, whatdycallem? Slush puppies."
Adam sniffed the cup. "What flavour?"
Rose had another sip. "I think beef."
Adam winced. "It's like everything's gone. Everything I knew."
Rose could sympathise, she'd felt the same way when she first set off. "This helps." She pulled out her phone, which she'd installed a more sci-fiish cover on. "Who's back home, your mum and dad?"
"Er, yeah."
"Phone 'em up."
"But that's 198,000 years ago."
"Trust me on this."
He looked at the phone she'd handed him. "Is there a code for planet Earth?"
"Just dial." Rose was fast getting fed up with his inability to accept the world around him.
Adam sighed and dialled his home number. To his amazement, the answering machine came on. "Hello, we're not in right now, please leave a message."
"Er, hi Mum. Just phoning to say... I've gone travelling. I met these people and we went travelling for a bit. I'll see you when I get back." He rung off. "That is incredible!" Finally, a note of delight issued from the man.
Somewhere overhead, a bugle sounded and the lunchers all promptly stood up from their tables. Time to head back to work.
"Oy, Mutt and Geoff. Over here." Called the Doctor, standing with the two women, who'd introduced themselves as Cathaca and Suki.
Rose promptly moved over to him. Adam was held up briefly by a woman with ribbons in her hair. As he followed Rose, he realised that he still had her phone. He was about to point this out when a thought occurred to him and he discretely pocketed it.
"Security check completed." Said the computer. "No breaches."
"No. Something's wrong. I can taste it." Sighed the editor. He turned to the nearest operative. "Double check." He turned to the next. "Tipple check." The operatives gave no response and continued pressing buttons. That was the way he liked them. Obedient and efficient. They also maintained a constant, cold zombie-like expression. It meant that they were poor conversation, but the editor could talk for hours with them.
On the screen, the group were heading for a nearby door.
"Follow them." Said the editor.
The room the time travellers were led to was much cleaner than the rest of the ship, complete with immaculate white walls. In the centre, stood a raised platform, with what appeared to be a dentist's chair in the middle, with a very strange machine positioned above. Eight people were sat on cushions round the base.
"Ok everyone, please behave. We have a management inspection." Said Cathaca. She turned to the Doctor. "How would you like this, by the book?"
"I prefer to write from scratch." He replied.
"We'll proceed as normal then." She turned back to the others. "Ok ladies, gentlemen, multisex, undecided and robots. My name is Cathaca Santeene Zadade. And that's Cathaca with a C, in case you want to write to floor 500 praising me... And please do." She grinned, in a thin attempt to hide her keenness.
"Now everyone, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest and unbiased. That's company policy." She smiled at the Doctor again.
Suki put her hand up. "A-actualy, um, it's the law."
"Yes, thank you Suki." Cathaca said stiffly. "Now, let's proceed as normal. Don't show off for the guests." She stepped up to the platform and sat back in the chair. "Engage safety."
A series of beeps and whirs sounded as the machine sprang to life. The people round the edge each placed their hands on the palm print readers in front of them and closed their eyes. Cathaca snapped her fingers. A whir sounded from her forehead, followed by a panel irising open, pulling apart her skin along seams that they had never noticed earlier. A second later, a second panel opened up. This time through her skull, revealing a hole leading to her brain.
"And 3, 2," she said nonchalantly, "and spike."
A pulse of energy shot down from the device above her and connected with the hole in her head. She closed her eyes and went motionless. Around her, the rest of the team did the same.
The future technology and the lack of response from the locals made Adam slightly queezy. Looking to his left, he was glad to see that Rose wasn't feeling much better, though she was doing a much better job of going with things.
"Compressed packets of information." The Doctor explained. "Reports from every city and every country, neatly packaged and put inside her head. She becomes part of the system. Her brain is the computer."
"If all that's getting put inside her head, she must be a genius." Said Rose.
The Doctor shook his head. "She won't remember it. She couldn't or her head would explode. Her brain's the processor. Soon as it closes she forgets."
"What about these people, round the edge?" Rose pointed at Suki.
"They've all got tiny chips in their heads, connecting them to her. Transmitting 800 channels. Every single fact in the empire gets beamed out of this place... Now that's what I call power."
"Analysis confirmed." Said the computer. "Security breach."
"I knew it!" Declared the editor. "Someone in that room." He turned to one of the operatives, picking an icicle from the man's hair as he did so. "But who? Show me."
"Isolating breach."
The security screen panned over the room, passing over each person in turn. It briefly followed a blond haired girl as she circled the device.
"Come on." The editor moaned.
"You alright?" Rose asked. Adam had barely moved since the spike had activated.
"I can see her brain." He said simply.
"You'll get used to it." She reassured him, though she was beginning to doubt if he would.
"No, I'm ok." He said quickly. "This technology's amazing.
"This technology's wrong." Said the Doctor, with a serious voice.
"Trouble?" Said Rose.
"Oh yeah." The two of them smiled. Adam thought they must be nuts.
"Ha!" Declared the editor. "That's her, she's the liar!" The security screen zoomed in on the face of Suki.
A small zap and Suki yanked her hands away in shock. The machinery promptly powered down.
"Oh, come on Suki, I was only halfway! What was that for?" Cried Cathaca, as the front of her head closed up again.
"Sorry." She said sheepishly.
"Her information's been tampered with." The editor explained to the stupefied woman operating the system. There's a second layer of history underneath."
A series of growls and snarls came from above him, which he'd long learnt to interpret perfectly.
"Yes, I'm aware of that sir..." He nervously explained to his superior. "Her information was encrypted, so there's no way we could have found out sooner." He listened politely to their response. "I'm deeply sorry. Just sorting that out now."
"Get her up here." He told the operatives. "Now."
A big screen on the wall lit up and an automated voice announced, "Promotion..."
Most of the workers paid only mild attention, but Cathaca was on the edge of her seat. "Come on. This is it! Let it be me. Please say my name. Say my name."
"Promotion for... Suki Kare Mantrell." Said the voice. "Please proceed to floor 500."
"I don't believe it." She gasped. "Floor 500!"
"How did you manage that, I'm above you!" Said Cathaca, doing little to hide her frustration.
"I don't know, I just applied on the off chance. And they said yes!"
"What's Floor 500?" Said Rose.
"The walls are made of gold." Said the Doctor. "Apparently."
In less than half an hour, Suki had her bag packed and was stood outside the lift. "Cathaca, I'm going to miss you." She turned to the Doctor and threw her arms out. "Floor 500! Thank you."
"I never did anything." He said.
"You're my lucky charm." She smiled.
He shrugged. "Oh well, hug anyone once." And he did so.
Rose, meanwhile, had gone to talk to Adam, who was keeping his distance.
"You alright?"
"There's a hole in her head." He replied.
"Yeah, but she's closed it up now."
"It's not just that it's... It's everything. If I could just... Cool down a bit." He took a deep breath. "It might help if I just sat on the observation deck for a bit. Soak up some local colour. Pretend I'm a citizen of the year 200,000."
"Do you want me to join you?"
Adam tried to look as though he wanted her around. "No, it's fine. You stick with the Doctor." She barely batted an eyelid. "You'd rather be with him, wouldn't you? Yeah. It's going to take a better man than me to come between you two. Anyway... If you need me, I'll be on the deck."
"Right." Said Rose. "Here." She reached into her pocket. "Take the TARDIS key, just in case it gets a bit too much."
"Yeah, like it's not weird in there."
He turned to go. The moment he had his back to them, he grinned manically. They'd bought it. Now he just needed to find a computer terminal.
Suki looked at her watch. "Oh my gosh, I can't keep them waiting!" She grabbed her bag and hurried into the lift. "Say goodbye to Steve for me!" She waved as the doors shut. "Bye!"
"Good riddance." Muttered Cathaca.
"She's only going upstairs. You're talking like you'll never see her again." Said the Doctor.
"We won't. Once you go to floor 500, you never come back."
"Have you ever been up there?"
"Can't. You need a special key for the lifts and you only get it with promotion. No one ever gets to floor 500 except for the chosen few."
Suki paced the lifts with a sense of nervous excitement as she watched the numbers climb steadily higher. 300... 400... 450... 475... 490... 500.
Finally the doors opened up. But the scene she stepped out into wasn't a world made of gold. Instead, the whole place stank of decay and dereliction. Plus, it was so cold, snow was falling, in complete contrast to the hot stuffiness of the rest of the ship. Even greater in terms of contrast, was the silence. Down below, you were rarely more than 10 metres from somebody else, and there was a constant background hum of activity. Here, there was just utter deathly silence.
Behind her, she heard a slam as the lift doors closed. She rushed forward and tried to wrench them apart, but it was too late. No going back now.