Lieutenant Ben Krieg was the ship's supply and morale officer.
He was also the first one to see the stranger wandering around C deck without a visitor's badge.
"Aw, nuts," he muttered, quickly shoving his winnings from an illicit poker game deeper into his pockets. He hadn't realized that anyone else had come aboard. If they hadn't been alerted, this had to be some plan of the UEO's that only the people on the bridge knew about. Probably another one of their tests, trying to find out what the crew would do in a situation like this. He wondered what the stranger's role was—certainly not to take over the ship, or he'd have a gun and backup.
Krieg watched as the man stopped suddenly and peered at a seemingly inconsequential spot along the corridor. Very slowly, he withdrew his hands from his pockets and ran his fingers along the edge, just under the window that showed one of the passages the ship's resident dolphin, Darwin, could take through the ship. Krieg watched as the man stared at his fingertips, licked them, and repeated the sweeping gesture before dropping down to look at something on the side of the corridor, closer to the deck.
Krieg groaned. The man was an inspector. And he was, clearly, looking for every single thing that was remotely out of place—including specks of dust. That was the curious thing about dust—even when you expected not to have it, it was there to find. Judging by the inspector's expression, he had managed to find some. But as he licked his fingers again—Krieg wasn't about to question the man's methods; all the inspectors seemed absolutely crazy anyway, especially the last one, although he had been sent to check on their progress as a military vessel rather than general maintenance, as seemed to be this one's job—his expression turned to one of puzzlement.
Krieg knew he wouldn't be able to get past him without being noticed, and he needed to squirrel away his winnings before he ran into someone else, so he decided it would be less suspicious and likely more proper to greet seaQuest's latest inspector. He strode over to the man, making sure his posture was impeccable, and asked, "Sir, may I please see your visitor's badge?"
The man looked up, nodded, and rose to his feet, one hand digging into the breast pocket of his suit. He pulled out a slim black wallet and flipped it open.
It didn't, predictably, contain his visitor's badge. It contained his identification—one that made Krieg snap to attention. "Sir, sorry, sir. I was not informed, sir."
A trace of surprise crossed the man's features and he glanced at his identification himself. Shrugging, he pocketed it again and said, in a distinctly British voice, "As you were, Lieutenant. This is an informal visit. I'm off duty."
Krieg didn't question the obvious lie. It was never good to contradict the higher-ups. If that was his story, Krieg would go along with it. One would think they'd pick a better one, though—or at least give him a visitor's pass to display.
"Well," the UEO official continued, "not off duty, exactly. But I won't have any more of that standing at attention nonsense. I'm here for a very specific reason, and it would suit my purposes if you instead called me Dr. John Smith or, better yet, just the Doctor. It won't do to let others know of my…position in the UEO."
"Forgive me, sir," Krieg started, "but unless you want to be challenged by everyone you meet, you'll have to display a visitor's pass."
The Doctor, if that's what he wanted to be called, frowned. "Yes. Right. Suppose I should. Any idea where I can get one?"
"They didn't give you—?"
"My reasons for being here," the Doctor interrupted hastily, "are too important to entrust to every single person who would have to know about them for the necessary paperwork to go through." He looked at Krieg thoughtfully for a moment. "Lieutenant Benjamin Krieg," he began slowly, "I've heard a lot about you."
Krieg pasted a nervous smile on his face. "All good things, I hope."
"Well," the Doctor said instead, "I'm not exactly interested in the good things at the moment." Krieg gave a start of realization of the unspoken request, and the Doctor nodded. "Would it be too much trouble, do you think?"
"Sir, I can't compromise—"
"I'll put in a good word for you," the Doctor added.
Krieg's smile was genuine this time. "Well, in that case, come right along…."
"Quick work," the Doctor praised, looking at his visitor's pass.
"I aim to please, sir," Krieg answered.
The Doctor clipped the pass to his suit and glanced around the supply officer's quarters for a moment. Deciding to test the waters, he asked, "What sort of things has seaQuest run into lately?"
The question seemed to make Krieg nervous. The man's response—"Oh, I'm sure you've read all the reports, sir."—seemed to confirm that.
"I'm asking after the things that haven't made it into the reports," the Doctor answered, rubbing his fingertips together, feeling between them the last traces of the silicon crystals he'd picked up from the corridor. He was fairly certain that he knew what they were, and that would explain the destination of the transmission he'd caught and confirm its source. But it didn't tell him what that message contained or why it had been sent, and he wanted to know that, though he was beginning to have a good idea anyhow, at least in terms of what the message would have said.
He could hack into the ship's systems and trace the transmission to its point of origin and decode it from there, but it would be simpler if he knew where to look for it. The crystals weren't fresh, newly formed, but they weren't ages old, either. They wouldn't still be around if they were; they weren't the sort of thing that lasted too long, providing that they were what he was thinking. Whatever had happened had happened recently enough.
"We are sure to properly document everything, sir," Krieg continued. "If any little detail hasn't made it into the reports, it would simply be because it is inconsequential."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "There are those here who would deem some details inconsequential in the interest of keeping them from UEO command?"
The lieutenant realized his mistake and instantly backtracked. "Oh, no, sir. You misunderstand me. I just mean to say that we no longer find it necessary to bother you with unnecessary details."
"Really?"
Krieg swallowed. "Yes, sir. Of course, sir."
The Doctor closed his eyes. He'd had enough of that. Well, he'd had enough of it right off the start, actually. "Lieutenant," he said, "in the interest of discretion, I would ask that you refrain from addressing me as 'sir'. Doctor will do just fine, thank you." He opened his eyes. "Do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal, si—Doctor."
"Thank you." The Doctor was silent for a moment. Then he added, "My reasons for being here, Lieutenant Krieg, are not entirely clear, even to me. I can, however, assure you that I do not intend for any harm to come upon you or anyone else on board this ship. The best way to ensure that, however, comes by leaving me to my own devices. I would ask that you keep your silence, Lieutenant, about who I am. As far as you are concerned, I am merely a visiting doctor, intent on learning what I can of the science conducted on this great vessel."
"Of course, Doctor," Krieg said immediately. The Doctor breathed an inward sigh of relief; he'd thought, for a moment, that he'd been laying it on a bit too thick. "But I trust that you informed the captain of your purpose when you boarded?"
Oh. Right. "Captain Bridger," the Doctor replied carefully, "does not, unfortunately, have prior knowledge of my purposes here. I intend to inform him at the earliest possible moment."
Krieg looked surprised, quickly putting two and two together and realizing that the captain must not even know of the Doctor's visit. "But then how did you get on board?" Realizing the frankness of his outburst, he tried to temper it with, "If you don't mind my asking, Doctor."
A smile tugged at the Doctor's lips. "Oh, I just had to pull a favour or two. You'd be surprised by what I can accomplish. Now, if you don't mind, Lieutenant, I'd better get to it." And before the stunned supply officer could say anything else, the Doctor ducked out of the man's quarters and headed down the corridor.
He was trying to find the science lab. If nothing else, he could get his hands on some equipment and analyze the silicon crystals, just to be sure. There was nothing stopping him from just going back to the TARDIS, of course, but he was noticeable here, and if he had to sneak his way back there repeatedly, someone would suspect something and investigate. And he really didn't want that.
Besides, he wasn't entirely sure who Lieutenant Krieg had thought he was. Before he'd gotten the psychic paper out, that is. He could have triggered the alarm, setting the entire ship on alert, but he hadn't. Whatever incorrect assumption he'd been acting on, it had bought the Doctor some time. And since the supply officer had been good enough to dig him up a plausible visitor's pass, he ought to, theoretically, have fewer questions to answer.
He was just about to take the turn to what he thought was the main science lab when he caught sight of the dolphin watching him. Wanting to get a better look, the Doctor walked over to him, and the dolphin moved on, swimming a few feet ahead. The Doctor followed him, realizing as the dolphin moved forward again as he approached that he was being led somewhere. "I hope you know what you're doing," the Doctor muttered, plodding along obediently.
He lost track of the dolphin shortly thereafter, but managed to successfully follow the signs to the moon pool and was rewarded for his efforts when he spotted the dolphin waiting there for him. The room was empty, so the Doctor strode over to the end of the pool and reached out to stroke the dolphin.
"What's your name, eh?" the Doctor asked. He listened to the response, not caring that he was getting a bit wet, and answered, "I'm the Doctor." He paused, then asked, "Do you know why I'm here? Did you call me? Or, no, wait, better yet—the people aboard this ship encountered aliens, correct? And they sent them a message in response, one that you translated? When was that? And what did the aliens look like? Could you tell me? I think if I can figure that out, I might have a better idea of why I'm here." Another pause. "Could be wrong, of course. Have been before. But it'll still be a start even if I am."
The clicks and calls the Doctor received in response were disappointing. "No, I suppose not," he agreed. "Your species never did take to measuring time like humans." He fell silent for a while again, thinking as he stroked the dolphin. "Can you feel it?" he asked finally. "There's a sort of pressure, a tension, something. I can't pinpoint what it is, let alone where it's coming from."
The dolphin dove away from him, showering him with water. "Oi!" the Doctor protested. "That was uncalled for!" He shook his head, sending water droplets flying himself. "A simple 'mind your own business' would have sufficed, you know," he groused. But he wasn't really angry, and the dolphin knew it. Besides, he'd gotten what he deserved: a dousing for his lie—even if the dousing had come first. Being told to stay out of something wouldn't have sufficed—if anything, it would have made him more curious, and he'd've tried harder to figure it all out.
The dolphin swam back to him again, and the Doctor realized he'd misinterpreted the meaning. "Oh," he said, apologetic now. "Sorry. I should have realized. You would feel a lot of different pressures, wouldn't you? But I can't describe it any better. It…. It seems to surround me from all sides. Not bearing down, just…being there. Reminding me. I can push through it, but I can't break it, and I can't seem to find the centre of the source. It ought to get stronger at its origin and weaker at the edges, but this isn't like that. It's been steady wherever I've gone. Constant, but…slippery."
Another series of clicks and squeals, and the Doctor relented, stroking the dolphin again. "I imagine you'd see quite a lot of what's happening on this ship," the Doctor said quietly. "You'd spend most of your time observing, wouldn't you? And they wouldn't be inclined to notice you, not always. You've the gift of unobtrusiveness. People must underestimate you all the time."
"Not all the time," a voice countered.
The Doctor gave a squawk of surprise and twisted around. He hated it when people managed to sneak up on him. He never knew what they were up to. This latest intruder on his private conversation, though, didn't appear to be much of a threat on the surface. It was just a boy, probably sixteen, seventeen—no more than eighteen. But he looked quick and clever and stood with the arrogance of someone who knew that, and the Doctor knew enough not to underestimate him.
"Who are you?" the boy challenged.
The Doctor stood up. "I'm the Doctor," he replied simply, getting to his feet. "And you?"
The boy ignored him. "What are you doing here?"
The Doctor's mouth quirked into a smile as he gestured at his dampened suit. "I was just having a conversation with your dolphin," he replied. "He didn't take as kindly to some of the things I was saying as I might have hoped."
"How did you get here?" the boy continued.
The Doctor looked affronted. "You're asking me that?" he asked. "I could very well ask the same thing of you. You don't look old enough to qualify to be on this ship as either a military officer or a scientist, and if you are, you certainly aren't dressed for the part."
"I have more right to be here than you," the boy shot back angrily.
The Doctor opened his mouth to retaliate, to come back with a counter argument, when he suddenly remembered who the boy had to be. "Oh," he said, in a different voice than before. "You're Lucas, aren't you? Lucas Wolenczak."
The boy—Lucas—started. But he nodded and dropped his challenging demeanour, pointing to the Doctor's chest, where the visitor's badge was pinned. "Sorry," he said, though he didn't entirely sound it. "I didn't know." He didn't add what the Doctor knew he was thinking—that no one told him anything. "But you shouldn't be here anyway," Lucas continued. "This is a top secret project."
"I've a very high clearance," the Doctor answered. "Would you mind showing me?"
"I shouldn't, not without the captain's permission."
The Doctor nodded his agreement. "But there's no harm in my guessing, is there?" he asked. Without waiting for a response, he turned on his heels, examining the room around him more closely for the first time. When he'd finished one circuit, he stopped and looked at Lucas. "Interspecies communication," he declared. Grinning, he asked, "Am I right?"
Lucas was startled. "Uh, yes," he confirmed—but he sounded wary.
"Brilliant," the Doctor said. "Mind if we give it a try? Dolphin's not exactly my best language." He walked over to pluck the appropriate bit of equipment from its base.
To his credit, Lucas reacted more quickly than the Doctor had expected. He eased the communicator out of the Doctor's hands. "I'd better handle it," he said, by way of explanation. "I know what I'm doing."
The Doctor watched, interested, as the boy activated the technology he had, judging by the way he treated it, designed. "Darwin?" Lucas asked, testing the communicator.
A few clicks and squeals from the dolphin, which were translated into, "Lucas play?" and relayed over the speakers.
The Doctor was impressed, but before he could announce this, Lucas continued, "No, Darwin. Not right now. I'm just…. I'm, ah, wondering if you want to meet this man, Dr.—?" He glanced at the Doctor for the answer.
"Just the Doctor will do," the Doctor replied. He walked over to the edge of the moon pool and grinned at the dolphin. "Hello, Darwin."
Lucas looked at him for a moment. "Did you want to ask Darwin something?"
"Oh, I've asked him plenty of things already," the Doctor answered. "He just didn't see fit to answer most of my questions. Pity, that. I expect some of the answers he's just keeping to himself." He paused. "But, everyone's entitled to secrets, I suppose. Beggars can't be choosers." He thought for a moment, then reached for the communicator after all, saying, "On second thought, perhaps I ought to ask him something." Lucas relinquished the instrument, and the Doctor spoke into it, asking, "Darwin, have you felt anything change recently, like something's building up, like the calm before the storm?"
"Storm came," Darwin replied.
The Doctor frowned, not entirely happy with how much Darwin apparently knew about him. "That's not what I asked," he complained. "That pressure, that sense of foreboding, that feeling that something's wrong—have you felt that?"
Lucas tugged the communicator out of his hands again. "We're still developing the program," he explained. "It's self-educational, but it's not sophisticated enough to give you the answer you want. We haven't progressed that far."
The Doctor sighed. "You just don't know what I'm asking, or why I'm asking it," he muttered.
"No," Lucas agreed, "I don't. But I can tell you that you're not going to get an answer."
The Doctor pursed his lips. "Not directly, at any rate," he conceded. He looked back at Lucas. "Could you ask if Darwin knows where I should look first?"
"I'd suggest," Lucas said, turning the communicator off, "starting with the bridge. I don't know who you wandered away from, but the captain's not going to like having a civilian loose on his ship without supervision."
The Doctor frowned. "I didn't wander away from anyone," he protested, though he muttered most of that protest under his breath. Louder, he said, "I wasn't doing any harm."
"Not here, maybe," Lucas agreed, "but you might have elsewhere."
"But I didn't," the Doctor pointed out. He pulled at his visitor's pass. "Would I have gotten this if I intended trouble?"
Lucas frowned and looked at it more closely. "Wait a minute," he said slowly, in a tone that told the Doctor he'd been thick to draw attention to the pass in the first place. "That looks like something Ben forged! He's got the seal wrong. I told him before that he's got the wrong angle for the tines on the trident."
Not willing to let his feelings show on his face, the Doctor plucked the badge off and took a closer look at it himself. "Really?" he asked, sounding as surprised as he could. "You lot gave me a—" But he stopped suddenly, taking in the look on Lucas's face and realizing that the teenager would probably know the minute he started lying—or at least that he knew someone who would. And since lying wasn't his forte, he'd be better off not bothering trying, not over something so small. He could talk his way out of it, and they'd be more inclined to believe him later if he started by admitting that he wasn't, really, a legitimate visitor.
Well, he hoped so, at any rate.
Lucas didn't, as the Doctor had expected, drag him straight to the bridge. Perhaps the boy figured that, if he was a spy, taking him to the bridge would be showing him too many things he shouldn't be seeing. At any rate, they worked their way over to the port side of the C deck to a room labelled 'mammal engineering'—a room that, the Doctor quickly discovered, was Lucas's quarters.
He looked around in interest, noting that Lucas kept watching him. He wasn't entirely surprised to see Darwin turn up, watching them through the window over Lucas's bed. He suspected that Darwin knew more than he was telling—but whether he was keeping secrets on purpose or simply because he couldn't describe the answers the Doctor wanted, he couldn't tell.
Lucas was quick to call up the captain. "Lucas?" Bridger asked from his position on the bridge. "What is it?"
"We've got, um, an unauthorized visitor, Captain," Lucas said, pulling the Doctor into view.
"Hello!" the Doctor said, waving. "I'm the Doctor. Pleased to meet you. Well, I'll be more pleased when I meet you in person, but—"
"What is this?" Bridger asked, looking, for a moment, utterly perplexed. He looked at Lucas. "Is this some sort of joke, Lucas?"
"No, Captain," Lucas said. "He must've come on board—"
"Lucas, the last person to come on board was Dr. Westphalen, and that was over a week ago. No one would have been able to remain on seaQuest that long undetected even if he had come aboard then."
The Doctor, realizing that Bridger still doubted that he wasn't just some hologram or something that Lucas had managed to develop, inclined his head in acknowledgement. "No, I doubt someone would be able to do that," he agreed. "I would have liked to meet you on better terms, Captain Bridger. Do you mind if I have Lucas here take me up to the bridge? I'll explain myself then, if I must." The Doctor wasn't entirely sure what he planned to say, but it wouldn't do to have the captain immediately distrusting him. He had the distinct feeling that if he was to figure out what that strange feeling was, he'd need to be able to trust Bridger and have his trust in return.
Bridger's brow furrowed for a moment. "No," he said. "No, that's quite all right. I'll come to you. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Lucas." And before the Doctor could say anything else, the link went dead.
This wasn't, the Doctor had to admit, how he'd thought he'd be received. Well, how he'd hoped to be received, at any rate. He put on a smile anyway; it wasn't as if things couldn't have been worse. And he'd faced worse, many times. So there was really nothing to worry about. Comparatively.
Well, except for that feeling he couldn't pin down.
But he'd figure that out in time.
He always did.
Usually.
A/N: Just a quick thanks to Questfan, darkin520, and Jerikagoddess for reviewing; I always appreciate it!
