"You're the welcome party, I assume?" The Doctor grinned, rubbing his hands together, before pointing at the automatic rifles aimed at him. "Not sure why you've brought those. We're not dangerous."
The soldiers exchanged glances, and lowered their weapons. The man Charlie took to be the squad leader clipped his pistol back into his belt.
"You wouldn't happen to have any tea and biscuits instead, would you?" queried the Doctor, hopefully. "No? Never mind then."
"Who's the boy?" the squad leader asked, throwing Charlie a suspicious glare.
Charlie almost buckled under the soldier's probing stare; he tried to open his mouth to respond. He was pretty sure he would have been standing there awkwardly for several minutes if the Doctor hadn't immediately responded:
"Charlie. He's my friend. Who are you?"
"Lieutenant Shah, sir," the squad leader introduced himself. He began a salute, but halted before his arm reached halfway. As if struck by a better idea, Shah lowered his hand again, and nodded curtly at the Doctor instead.
The Doctor seemed impressed by Shah's alternative salute, and nudged Charlie's arm.
"I think they're finally starting to pay attention," he said quietly.
"If you'll come with me, sir…?" Shah gestured towards the door. "I'm sure the professor will be pleased to see you."
"Of course," the Doctor replied cheerily, following the soldiers out of the room.
Charlie tagged close behind the Doctor, painfully aware of the alarms ringing in his ears.
The soldiers led them through a series of glass double doors, which hissed open automatically as they approached.
Charlie avoided the stares of a number of engineers and white-clad technicians as they were marched down the corridors.
The Moonbase seemed a hive of human activity. The base's personnel were very interested to notice the presence of the Doctor, and it was clear from a couple of stunned expressions, that some of them actually recognised him. Even a cleaner, mopping a gleaming white floor, gaped at him as they passed.
All the while, Lieutenant Shah received a sharp crackle of static on his radio, interspersed with a barrage of orders. Although it was difficult to make out any of the conversation over the deafening alarms, Charlie caught both his and the Doctor's names a couple of times.
"What?" Shah continued. "I said, you can turn the alarms off, it's the Doctor."
The Doctor prodded one of the other soldiers; a young man with a well-defined nose. He appeared to be only a few years older than Charlie.
"Is there a problem with the alarms?" the Doctor asked, his pained expression only lightly disguised with a polite smile.
"I'm not sure, sir," the squeaky-voiced private replied, "but the Moonbase's systems have been on the blink for a while, now.
"Hmm…" grunted the Doctor, releasing the soldier from his interrogative glare, and immediately plunging into deep thought.
Eventually, the alarms receded, and the base fell silent. Only the humming of machinery and the sound of the soldiers' stamping boots penetrated the air.
The corridors seemed as vast and confusing as a hospital, with minimal signage to match, but it wasn't long before they were ushered into the main command centre.
It was very similar to the first room they had entered, although much larger – and busier. It reminded Charlie of a starship bridge – like something out of Star Trek, especially with that upper level running along the back wall, which gave a clear view of the main screen.
An elderly woman, her greying hair tied up in a neat bun, stopped barking orders, and walked up to them, fixing them with a glower worthy of the Doctor. The rectangular spectacles perched on the end of her nose gave her a rather uninviting air, like a headmistress.
"Professor Lakowsky," Shah saluted.
The professor dismissed him, and addressed the Doctor.
"To what do we owe the pleasure?" Her voice was rather nasal. It gave the impression that she'd rather not be speaking with whomever she was speaking.
The Doctor frowned, and glanced at Charlie in confusion.
Charlie remained silent, a little intimidated by the military presence around him.
"I was answering the distress signal," the Doctor claimed, peering at the professor in earnest, perhaps examining her to see if she was lying.
"The distress signal?" she queried. "From here?"
The Doctor nodded enthusiastically.
"We've sent no such distress signal. Not on my orders, at any rate."
"Oh…" the Doctor mused, disappointed. "Well! It looks like I'm not really needed here, then."
The Doctor clapped Charlie heartily on the shoulder. Not expecting such a physical reaction, Charlie staggered forwards slightly.
"What do you say, Charlie? Shall we head somewhere more exciting?"
"Um…?"
"I am, of course, aware that you are a time traveller," the professor interjected. "Are you implying that we are in… imminent peril?"
The Doctor shrugged. "Who can say?"
"But then, the mere fact that you are here suggests we're in danger," the professor muttered acerbically.
The Doctor opened his mouth to object, but quickly realised that she might be onto something there. His face crinkled. Fair enough.
Professor Lakowsky cast a quick glance over the control room, as she mulled over the situation.
"The only problem we've had in the past few months has been a number of power outages."
"Really?" the Doctor mumbled. His tone was that of boredom, and he seemed only to be feigning politeness.
"I could be very much mistaken, but I doubt that it's too much cause for concern."
"You could be right," the Doctor concurred.
The main doors slid open, and a young woman burst into the command centre, a little short of breath. She looked as though she had been in the middle of an experiment of some kind – judging by the white lab coat and the clipboard she was still carrying – had dropped everything, and raced here.
"Was that a code nine alert?" she asked excitedly.
Professor Lakowsky folded her arms, perturbed by the scientist's impertinence.
"That is correct, Doctor Simmons."
Her gaze locked onto the Doctor, and her eyes widened in awe.
"Doctor!"
The Doctor frowned, and took a defensive step backward, unsure if he was about to be attacked or kissed.
She rushed up to him.
"I… know you, don't I?" he guessed.
"Yes, well, I hope so… I think it must have been a long time ago for you."
Simmons hugged her clipboard close to her chest, and looked at him expectantly, bobbing nervously up and down.
The Doctor inclined his head, as though observing her from a different angle would enlighten him.
Charlie stood alongside him, rather meekly. The Doctor was struggling to remember her face.
He felt a twinge of panic, as he came to the realisation that the Doctor had had many friends. He knew a lot of people. To the Doctor, Charlie was just another in a long line of travelling companions. Did the Doctor remember them all?
Judging by the Doctor's confused expression, it did not seem likely. If Charlie ever stopped travelling with him, would the Doctor forget about him as well?
Charlie took a deep breath, and diverted his gaze to the floor. Of course he would. He wasn't special.
"How long ago? What did I look like?" the Doctor's eyebrows furrowed tightly.
"Long, curly hair? English accent. Sort of… Edwardian clothes – quite handsome," she mumbled, a little nervously.
Charlie was a little taken aback by Simmons' response. Her description didn't sound plausible.
"Oh, him!" the Doctor realised.
Charlie was even more taken aback by the Doctor's exclamation. Why was he referring to himself in the third person? Did he have some kind of alternate personality, like David Bowie and Ziggy Stardust?
The Doctor closed his eyes, and a few seconds later, opened them, with an air of realisation.
"Emily?" he said, softly. "We ran, didn't we? Ran from the… uh…"
"The Salamanders," Simmons prompted.
"The Salamanders! Spitting lava everywhere, and trying to turn the UK into a giant volcano!"
Simmons grinned, and looked shyly down at her shoes. "I didn't think you'd remember."
Charlie's heart wrenched suddenly. Again, he felt like he was intruding.
Was that how the Doctor met everyone? Running for your life? And if it was, did the Doctor really remember, or was he just guessing? Would 'Charlie Drake' eventually become a name to which the Doctor couldn't quite match a face? Frankly, the thought terrified him. It terrified him that people could be forgotten so easily.
"Doctor Simmons, if you could fangirl somewhere else, that would be much appreciated," Professor Lakowsky muttered.
"Sorry, professor."
"Wait," Charlie asked her as the Doctor returned his attention to the professor's questions, "so, you're a doctor?"
"Yes. I have a PhD in biochemistry," Simmons explained.
"But you met him and… became a doctor?" Charlie gestured towards the Time Lord, who was examining a tablet the Professor had given him.
Simmons gaped at him for a moment. "I suppose so, yes. I've never really thought of it like that."
She shook her head, dismissing the subject. "Sorry, you must be his companion?"
Charlie nodded slowly. "Yeah, I'm Charlie."
He frowned. "His 'companion'?"
Simmons pursed her lips apologetically. "Sorry, I suppose 'companion' is a bit of an unusual term. But it's what we write in the files."
Charlie nodded, and looked up at the large world map on the main view screen. There was a large white swirl centred on the US, surrounded by a dozen blinking red lights.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"We appear to be tracking a hurricane that's heading across the Midwest states of America," Simmons informed him, after a quick glance at the map.
"Midwest?" interjected the Doctor "But that's over in the centre! Isn't that Kansas?" He paused, and raised his finger, thoughtfully. "Funny thing, actually-"
Professor Lakowsky rolled her eyes. "If I could hold your attention for more than thirty seconds…?"
"Sorry," the Doctor responded automatically, turning back to the tablet. "Where was I? Oh, yes – the maintenance reports."
Simmons smiled, amused by the Doctor's constantly wandering concentration.
"Hurricane?" Charlie asked. "Another one?"
Simmons frowned at him. "What do you mean?"
Charlie cocked his head towards the map. "Well, there was one in America, what, three months ago? I remember, 'cause…"
He stopped, as a revelation hit him like a train. They were in the past. Three months in the past.
The Doctor had lied about the date. He said they were in his future – not in the past. But why? Why had he lied?
Simmons noticed Charlie's distant expression.
"Are you okay?"
Charlie's attention snapped back to her, and he offered her a half-smile.
"Yeah, of course. It's just… uh… time travel – messes with your head," Charlie tapped his brow, and forced a chuckle.
Simmons nodded.
The Doctor passed the tablet back to Professor Lakowsky.
"Very interesting," the Doctor muttered.
"Well?" Lakowsky pressed him for his opinion.
"Random power failures, each in a different part of the Moonbase," the Doctor summarised, turning to Charlie.
"You know what's interesting?"
Charlie realised the Doctor had directed the question at him, and, crumbling under the pressure to answer, he glanced at Simmons.
"No?"
"Not one of the failures happened in the same place twice," the Doctor declared, examining him intently, presumably waiting for some sign that he'd jumped to the same conclusion. Needless to say, he hadn't.
"How is that interesting?" Charlie asked.
"Oh, come on!" the Doctor encouraged. "Think about it: if something breaks once, isn't it more likely to break again?"
Charlie nodded, despite not catching the Doctor's drift.
"I guess it depends if it's been fixed properly or not."
"Yes," the Doctor agreed, raising an accusative finger. "And that's where the other interesting thing comes into play: nothing was fixed."
"But then… how would the power come back on?" Charlie realised.
"How did the power come back on? In my experience, the lights don't fix themselves," the Doctor continued. "But in almost all of those reports, everything was in prime working order by the time the engineer got there."
"That is weird," Simmons muttered.
"Incredibly so!" the Doctor exclaimed. "I've never seen a power grid in perfect working condition."
"Hold on, you're saying that the power goes out, and then comes back on… a few minutes later, and everything's working better than it was before?" Charlie asked.
"Yes," the Doctor affirmed. "Mind you, there was one power cut that required one of your technicians to replace a fuse, which I imagine was a genuine power failure."
"And the rest?" enquired the professor.
"Not power failures at all," the Doctor conjectured.
"What are you suggesting?" the professor asked.
"Sabotage?" Simmons guessed.
"Quite possibly…" the Doctor mused, "But I'd like to take a closer look at one of the affected areas."
"You think this is the precursor to some kind of incursion?" the professor realised.
"Why not? It's happened before. And since," the Doctor suggested. "Ice Warriors. Cybermen. The moon's a perfect outpost for an assault on Earth."
"Not whilst we're here," Simmons stated.
"I shall put the base on yellow alert," the professor conceded.
"That'll certainly frighten them off," the Doctor muttered cynically.
The order rang out across the Moonbase, informing all personnel to be vigilant, and to immediately report any suspicious activity.
This was his first visit to a UNIT base, and Charlie had to admit that he was impressed by their efficiency. They didn't seem as careless and blundering as the Doctor had made them out to be.
"Professor!" called one of the operatives. He leapt up from his workstation, and rushed over.
"Yes?" The professor glowered over her spectacles at the young man.
"There's been another one. Power failure in sector seven."
"Have you sent an engineer?" Lakowsky asked.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good. Make sure they're accompanied by armed guards."
The operative nodded eagerly, and returned to his computer.
"I'm going down there," the Doctor stated.
He was looking at the Professor, but he wasn't asking for her permission.
"Where exactly is sector seven?"
"I can show you," Simmons spoke up.
"Brilliant."
The Doctor strode out of the command centre, Charlie following behind him. Like an obedient puppy, he thought acerbically.
"Doctor Simmons?" Professor Lakowsky called, as the scientist turned to leave.
"Yes, professor?"
"Keep an eye on him."
Simmons nodded, with a smile, and dashed out of the door after the Doctor.