CHAPTER 2
Lucy Preston sighed as she picked her phone up off the nightstand, but the sigh quickly turned into a huff when she saw the caller ID. Mason Industries. "What's so important that you have to call in the middle of the night?" she asked when she answered. "Something urgent has happened back at Mason Industries. You'll have to come see in person." Denise Christopher, an agent from Homeland Security, said on the other end. Lucy sighed again, already dragging herself out of bed. "I'll be there in a few."
When Lucy got to the main control room of Mason Industries, she saw that her other team members, Wyatt Logan and Rufus Carlin, had beaten her to it. They both nodded a welcome as the historian approached. "So, what's going on?" asked Lucy, sneaking a glance at the Time Machine 'Lifeboat' parked in the centre of the room. She joined the others, including Mason and Agent Christopher, around Jiya's computer. Connor Mason, head of Mason Industries, summed the situation up into three words: "The Mothership disappeared." "What?!" asked Lucy. "Yeah," agreed Rufus, the Lifeboat's pilot, "I know, right? It seems almost impossible." Jiya nodded in confirmation. "Like Mr. Mason said: We were running the scans, and we had an exact temporal location of the Mothership when suddenly" - the programmer gestured with her hands - "Poof! Gone! I've been running scans all night. They're nowhere in time or space... well, on earth anyway." "So, you're implying that somehow the time machine's gone and blasted off into space?" asked Wyatt, the team's support who was hired to kill Garcia Flynn on sight. "No, actually we're not implying that," said Rufus, "because the Mothership was designed to go through time, and only had the capabilities to go to spatial-temporal coordinates on earth." "Okay, so maybe it would be best to go check out the area where Flynn landed last," suggested Lucy, "and then from there we can find out where he went." "That's just what we were thinking." said Agent Christopher with a brief nod. "Okay then. Where and when are we going?" asked Wyatt.
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"Well, at least we didn't have to dress up to fit in another era," commented Lucy, stumbling out of the time machine after the trip. "Yeah, and I don't have to worry as much about my race," added Rufus, following Wyatt out of the Lifeboat and sealing the door behind them. It was true: they didn't have to go far. Flynn had last parked in a desert in Utah, in the year 2004. Which was a tactical advantage, Wyatt had said, because it was recent enough to have a good amount of tech, but not so recent that he could be ambushed. All that was to be seen besides an endless horizon of sand and sun, was a rust-colored warehouse that looked very abandoned. As the trio walked closer to the warehouse, Wyatt readied his gun, expecting trouble.
To their surprise, there were not that many guards standing around the place; In fact, when they got inside the warehouse, they found it to be completely empty. Wyatt quickly found a light switch and the lights flickered to life with an electronic buzz. One of the first things they noticed, though, was a burn spot near the middle of the floor. Wyatt walked over and felt the floor. "Still warm: this explosion or whatever happened not too long ago. Rufus, can you tell what caused the explosion?" "No," said Rufus, "What do I look like, a-" "Shush!" Wyatt cut in, silencing Rufus. Rufus opened his mouth to retort when suddenly he and Lucy heard the crunch of shoes on gravel, the sounds coming ever closer to the doorway. "Turn the lights off!" Hissed Wyatt, and Lucy ran to the switch. In a second, the trio was shrouded in darkness.
A column of light broke the darkness as a tall figure opened the door, then closed it. Lucy heard the safety release on Wyatt's gun and tensed. Suddenly, a small blue light was seen, followed by a brief buzzing noise, and the lights somehow flicked on to reveal the figure, who looked just as bewildered as the other time travelers. He had grey, somewhat curly hair and wore an unfamiliar band tee shirt under a hoodie and a dark blue coat. In his hand was a strange blue device that looked sort of like a pen. Wyatt raised his gun, which Lucy thought was not needed, and addressed the stranger. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" the stranger raised his hands and responded in a Scottish accent. "I'm the Doctor, and I'm here to help." "Really?" said Rufus suspiciously, "Then where'd you come from? We didn't hear a car... Or anything..." the Doctor chuckled, like the questions were a joke. "Well, it's a long story. I promise to tell you, though, if your friend lowers his gun. In my book, you've already lost the argument if you've got a gun." he gestured to Wyatt and Lucy nodded and convinced the soldier to put it away. "We can always use it later if we need," muttered Lucy, to get Wyatt to stop protesting. However, she doubted they would need it later. The historian thought the Doctor seemed familiar, but she couldn't place why.
As soon as the Doctor was sure that the trio was not going to shoot him up, he walked over and stuck out a hand. "Now's the time for PROPER introductions. I'm the Doctor, as I said earlier, but who are you three?" "I'm Lucy, and that's Wyatt and Rufus." the historian pointed to each of the others as she introduced them. "A pleasure to meet you. What are you doing here?" "We could ask you the same thing, Doctor," said Wyatt, "What are you doing here?" The Doctor pulled a black wallet out of his inside pocket and opened it, displaying an ID from the FBI. "I'm investigating," he said, "You lot seen anything strange around here?" Rufus chuckled. "Nice try, but that card's blank." Lucy and Wyatt looked at Rufus. "It says right here that he's from the FBI," said Lucy, cautiously. "No, no he's right," agreed the Doctor, stepping closer to the engineer. "The card is blank because it's really psychic paper. You have to have a really great mind to see past the psychic paper." Rufus leaned back slightly, Showing discomfort. "Well, um, okay... We were just, uh..." he searched for an answer and Lucy finished for him, much to his relief. "We were investigating as well. To find out what exploded here and see if it's A threat to the US." "Oh, well that's easy!" the Doctor put the psychic paper away and walked over to the blast area, whipping out the pen thing and using it to scan the black marks. "Well, whatever exploded here emitted vast amounts of temporal energy. There's still traces of it here, actually." he put the pen thing away and strode towards the door he came from. Rufus, Lucy, and Wyatt chased after him, Rufus asking questions all the way, like "How do you know about temporal energy?" and "Where are you really from?" . However, as soon as they got outside the building, the Doctor was nowhere to be seen. "That guy moves fast," Said Wyatt, looking around, when suddenly he spots something. "Hey, what's this?"
It was a tall blue box that sat a few feet away from the door they'd come out of, and it had a yellow light that shone merrily at the top and a large sign placed near the top that read "Police Public Call Box". Lucy, obviously recognizing it, walked up to it and ran her hand over the white sign on the left door. "This is a Police Box, from 1960's UK. It doesn't belong in this time or place so what's it doing here?" "Maybe its part of the warehouse?" suggested Wyatt, "Some odd collector left it here?" "Wait a minute." Rufus walked around the box, then put a hand on the side. "This box is alive... And not connected to any power source I can see. Look, it's not even flat against the warehouse." "Maybe we should check inside..." said Lucy, grasping the handle. Wyatt put his hand on her arm. "Are you sure?" Lucy nodded and pushed the door open.