DISCLAIMER: I do not own Doctor Who, but Alexia and the plot are mine.
Author's Note: Please REVIEW! xD Reviews = a happy author.
Chapter 2: Security Breach and a Little too Much Power
We get into the base with surprising ease. The Doctor has some kind of "psychic" paper that allows us to pass the guards without question. We say that I'm his prisoner, someone he found wandering around in the general area. Once we get past the guard we go though a doorway that opens to a flight of stairs. The guard closes the door behind us, leaving us in the dark.
"There's ten steps." I whisper.
At the bottom of the staircase, the doctor takes over, seemingly knowing where he is and where he's going. Panic begins to edge its way into my chest. If he knows where to go, then maybe he works here, which would mean that I'm in a great deal of trouble. But if that was so, then why did he let me keep the key to the hand cuffs in my back pocket, "In case anything goes wrong," he explained. Perhaps he is the traitor. Now is not the time to start that conversation, though.
We manage to get past more armed guards with the same ease as we did with the first. It takes a while of navigating through the dark corridors to find the room we're looking for. Along the way, I whistle a simple tune, one that allows others to know that someone else is in the hallway, a system created by the bunker when we first lost power so that we wouldn't slam into each other blindly. The tune I whistled was one that meant to stay out of the way as we passed. It could mean anything from holding a prisoner to carrying a barrel of toxic chemicals. The doctor doesn't ask me what I'm doing or why and I don't offer the information.
Finally, at long last, we reach the Planned Operations room, where all the most critical maps are. Among ordinary road maps there are also maps of the underground tunnels created for the civilians to take refuge in once their city was threatened. As far as I understood, the citizens we already evacuated from the major cities. With the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor unlocked my cuffs so that I could help him find the maps we needed.
Apparently, the access codes where changed because none of the ones I enter work. There is a five day cycle, a different code everyday, with five codes to choose from. After entering the fifth unsuccessful code, I know I have to figure something out and quick or else the base's security headquarters is going to be notified. Thankfully, the computer screen gives off enough light to illuminate a majority of the room.
I unzip my jacket, glancing over the equipment with speed, trying to determine the best blade for the job. There's a sudden intake of breath beside me; the Doctor, though he doesn't look surprised by this at all. What a strange man he is; like he knows everything yet is still affected by what he sees. I try to ignore him while I analyze the capabilities of each blade, which doesn't take long; I know them each by heart.
"Is all that really necessary?" The doctor asks with a look of disgust etched into his fine features.
"It's more of a hobby, more for intimidation than anything else. Just a collection." I say absentmindedly as I slide a narrow blade from its sheath.
I kneel down next to the control panel of the computer that wouldn't allow me into its database and use the dagger to cut through to the internal wires.
"Come on, hurry up!" the Doctor urges before I plunge into a vision.
I'm cutting the wires of the computer, trying to hack into the system. Suddenly, I hear footsteps approaching. They're too close. We don't have time to run! I look down at the wires in my hand. Blue and yellow. I took to long to choose, even though these are the right wires. My stalling alerted security about us! Emergency alarms start blaring.
"Alexia! We need to go!" the Doctor yells at me. Too late. Guards are at the door. One of them shoots-
The sharp, phantom pain snaps me out of my vision. I hear distant footsteps and my hearts (some strange mutation gave me two hearts, one on either side of my chest) start pounding. At least I know what wires I need.
"Blue and yellow! You need blue and yellow!" The doctor whispers, panic beginning to strain his voice.
I snatch the blue and yellow wires that match the ones in my vision. With the dagger, I cut, strip, and combine them. The computer beeps and I'm in. The footsteps in the hall fade away, going down another corridor and fading away.
"How did you know it was blue and yellow?" I ask the doctor. The way I'm kneeling blocks his view of the wires.
"I know a lot of things," he simply replies, his words echoing the ones I spoke earlier. "Tons of thing, in fact. But perhaps too many things, if that is at all possible" He began to ramble on to himself. This is something he does quite often, I notice.
I glance at him while the computer gathers all the information and maps that I requested. My belt is strapped around his waist, looking out of place on him. He holds out his arms awkwardly, trying not to touch the twin swords sheathed to either side of him. As he pointed out, it wouldn't make much sense for a prisoner to walk into a military base armed, so I, grudgingly, agreed to let him take my belt.
"Look at you, a nice little soldier." I tease him, trying my hardest not to laugh.
"I am many things, but I assure you that I am not a soldier. I hate fighting. Fighting leads to unnecessary death. I try to save lives, not destroy them." He gets defensive.
"Yeah, my grandpa thought the same way." Memories of my Papa threaten to flood my mind and I turn away from the Doctor so that he can't see the tears I'm battling to hold back. Thankfully, the computer beeps again, the maps scanned and ready to be retrieved, giving a good excuse to end the conversation. "All done." I say and walk over to him and remove the virtual map-reader from the belt, plug it in and download the new maps.
"A computer of this sort takes up an awfully large amount of energy." the Doctor says quietly, almost as if to himself, and again I don't if it's something meant for my ears.
"The bases have very little power. We had to route it all to the most essential machinery, sacrificing everything else, like the lighting and shower panels. We basically had to go back to the dark ages, heating water over fires and stumbling around in the dark. This computer is one of the most important. We had to keep it functional." I explain while the maps download.
"Yes, but this computer requires such a large amount of energy, enough to run a small town." He says and for some reason I feel like I have to defend the officials that made the choice to keep this computer online.
"They needed to keep this computer running! It not only holds maps, it alerts of any security breaches in the city tunnels, shows locations of the troops above ground, and helps to organize evacuations and shows the quickest routes to and from any given location." I'm barely able to keep my voice down. Something about his words got under my skin.
"No, that's not what I meant. Let's get that map downloaded and get out of here. We need to find a power plant. Something doesn't seem right." The computer beeps again once he's done talking. I grab the virtual map-reader and put it back in place on my belt. Now we have to find a way to get out of here.
"Here, put this on." I hand the doctor a pair of sunglasses from the belt and take another pair from the inside of my jacket.
"Sunglasses might not be much, but it's better than nothing." I say before leading the way out the door. The doctor grabs my hand but I pull away, only to have him grab it again. Fighting the urge to pull away again, I lead us though the dark hallway, whistling a tune for those who are on break.
The closer we get to the exit, the harder my hearts pound. Suddenly it occurs to me how foolish and dangerous this attempt was, but I force the thought away. The mission is almost complete. Somehow we managed to get this far without a hitch. Outside there is a different guard on duty. Perfect, just as planned. I knew the schedule shifts and was able to estimate the time accurately enough, by the position of the sun, so that we would enter and exit with a different guard.
"Report." The guard demands and the doctor shows him the psychic paper.
"I can't believe we did it!" I gush once we're far enough into the woods to not be seen. In the corner of my eye I catch the Doctor looking at me and turn to him. His chocolate eyes meet mine and I find myself smiling brightly at him. It's then that I realize our hands are still clasped together. I blush and pull my hand away.
"Yes, you were absolutely brilliant with those wires! I though we were going to be caught, but you did it. You pulled it off." I still feel his eyes on me but I don't turn to meet his gaze.
"What do we do now? It's at least a week's walk to the closest power plant."
"We go back the TARDIS... That is.. if we can find it." A look of total devastation floods across his face.
