Chapter 4 – Engineered For Success
"Come on sonic, don't fail me now", the Doctor pleaded with the object in her hand. Caroline Caruthers' vital signs were fluctuating wildly and nothing she was doing was having much effect. Her cells were aging but not as rapidly as they had been a few minutes ago but the Time Lady wasn't sure if that was due to her input or a natural cause of whatever was attacking Caroline's body. Everyone else in the room could only watch and wait for any news.
Mitchell in particular was looking very concerned. He was standing very close to Vicenzo, occasionally nibbling on his nails, "We can't afford for this to get out", he whispered to his lead male actor, "if anyone finds out that Caroline Caruthers collapsed on my set, my career will be finished".
"Good to see you've got your priorities sorted", Clara snorted, surprising the film director. Clearly hadn't been speaking as quietly as he thought. The school teacher decided not to waste any more breath on the man and turned her attention to the elderly looking actress on the ground. Whatever this disease was, it was literally draining the youth and life away from her. "Shouldn't we call the Police or an Ambulance?" she said out loud.
Charlie sighed, "Emergency care is provided by medical droids but they only provide basic care". The actor glanced quickly at Caroline, "For something like this we'd need Mr Jankovic's permission to transport her off world".
"Droids", Jenny snorted, "no substitute for proper human health care".
"Everything on Columbia is controlled by droids", Betty added, "the only humans who work on the planet are those involved in the film industry". She fidgeted nervously on the spot, "Security is controlled by Mr Jankovic's personal security droids but there hasn't been a reported crime here for decades".
"The perfect place to commit a nearly perfect crime", the Doctor declared, switching off her sonic screwdriver, "no external signs of trauma, nothing foreign in her bloodstream and as far as I can tell, no witnesses either. There's only one thing that stops this from being the perfect crime".
"What's that?" Charlie asked.
The Doctor stood up and brushed some dust off her trousers, "Me", she said boldly, "I've isolated her genetic structure and stored it on my screwdriver". She placed her hands into her pockets before continuing, "my ship will be infinitely more powerful than the primitive devices you have access to. I'll have the cause of her mysterious ailment within a matter of hours". She looked down at the stricken Caroline and sighed deeply, "Try and keep her comfortable, there must be a bed in one of these warehouses".
The time travellers took their leave of the actors to return to the TARDIS. Charlie, Betty and Abby quickly went about the business of making Caroline as comfortable as she could be. Mitchell and Vicenzo also milled around the set but not with the same urgency as the others. After a few minutes Mitchell disappeared around the corner and quickly made a telephone. He gave Vicenzo a knowing look as the call continued.
About an hour later Clara was inside the TARDIS library, catching herself up with cinema history of the time. Alongside various anthologies were a number of contemporary articles from fansites. Most of the sites had a pretty conclusive filmography for Caroline. Some were quite dry, giving names and dates only and others went into a little more detail. A few were bordering on obsessive stalker territory that made Clara feel a little uneasy.
The first thing that struck Clara was the length of Caroline career so far, somewhere approaching fifty years. Clara found that a little unusual as the blonde actress looked no older than the school teacher. It could've been that people aged slower in this century or perhaps Caroline had resorted to more traditional methods of making herself look younger, "Plastic surgery has definitely improved after several hundred years", she snorted and moved onto the next site.
Clara found herself trawling through the website of a tabloid magazine known as the Columbia Enquirer. It was very similar to the trashy Earth magazines that Clara told everyone she didn't read. Pointless gossip and outlandish theories littered the pages and even though the brunette had no idea who anyone mentioned was, she found herself hanging on every word. Like her own time period, there was a lucrative market for celebrity gossip.
As Clara clicked own she came across a split picture, one half showed Caroline Caruthers and the other was of another blonde. The headline read 'Are Caroline Caruthers and Natalie Nikolson the same person?' Clara tiled her head and squinted at the picture, she had to admit there was a certain similarity to the pair. She brief skimmed the article, picking out the useful information from the banal tabloid rubbish. Natalie Nikolson was a famous movie star, similar in stature and fame as Caroline, around a hundred years ago. Like Caroline she had a career approaching fifty years until she announced her retirement from show business. About two years later Caroline was plucked by Emil Janvokic from obscurity to be his new star. Clara guessed that this Emil guy was Lazslo Jankovic's father.
Turning her attention to Natalie Nikolson, Clara scanned the database for images of the older actress. Similar to Caroline, Natalie had an aversion for aging. The school teacher would've found it hard to date either actress's films as they barely appeared to have aged over several decades. Clara bookmarked several pages, it might be nothing but the Time Lady's needed to know about this.
She carried on read for a few more minutes, taking in some further details about the people she met earlier in the day. Clara noted with interest that Betty Butterfield was the daughter of an engineer specialising in robotics. Like Abby she had found acceptance difficult amongst the natural snobbery on the planet before forging a successful career on comedic acting. There was another rumour site that seemed to suggest that Betty had been up for a role in a Caroline Caruthers film but that had never come to fruition. Another site insinuated that there was some kind of romantic relationship going on between Mitchell and Vicenzo. They had collaborated on a number of projects over the years which fuelled the rumours but both parties vehemently denied the allegations.
After downloading as much information as she could, Clara made it to the console room and found the Doctor and Jenny chatting animatedly around one of the scanners. They were talking about something technical and Clara only understood every other word that came out of their mouths. As she watched the scene Clara's heart sank, mother and daughter clearly shared the same interest in science and could probably talk for hours on the subject. They didn't need some human English teacher adding her opinion, mainly because Clara didn't understand enough of it to offer any kind of input. She already felt like a third wheel, this just hammered the point home.
The brunette felt a little awkward showing the alien women what she had obtained from some tabloid websites. Swallowing her doubts Clara fixed her best smile to her face and bounced over to the console, "Any luck?"
"Nothing", the Doctor's shoulders slumped in defeat, "we've established that it's attacking her DNA directly but what it is", she blew out a breath loudly, "we have absolutely no idea".
Clara frowned, it wasn't like the Doctor to come up empty handed. Now she really was feeling self conscious about showing the pair what she had found. Clara decided to approach this from another angle, "This might sound random but what's the human life expectancy in this century?"
"About hundred and something years", the older Time Lady sucked in a breath through her teeth, "course you lot do find a way to enhance your lifespan artificially but even then, you'd be lucky to reach a hundred and fifty".
"And aging rates, still the same as my time?" Clara added.
Sensing that the teacher had an idea, Jenny stated, "Something you want to share with the class?"
Clara swung one of the screens around and loaded up the images of the blonde haired actress, "A chronological, pictorial history of Caroline Caruthers", she waited as the Time Lady's flicked through the images, "notice anything strange".
"Yes someone has far too much time on their hands if they can put this site together", the Doctor commented, which earned her a firm slap on the arm from her daughter. She took another look, this time fully taking the dates onboard, "She barely ages a day, I really need to learn her secret".
"Says the two thousand year old alien who looks about thirty", Clara joked. The Doctor pulled a face and shrugged, conceding her companion's point, "I'm no expert but that can't be right".
The Doctor shook her head, "It isn't, even the most powerful anti aging techniques wouldn't have this kind of effect".
Jenny suddenly snapped her fingers, a thought flashing across her brain, "What if she was engineered that way, had her DNA altered so she literally wouldn't age?" Her mother looked a little sceptical, "I know it's a crazy theory but it's the best we've got so far".
"Could also explain this", Clara showed them the article from the Columbia Enquirer.
The Doctor examined the article closer, her expression changing from unconvinced, to confused before finally settling on totally expressionless. She took a couple of paces back and folded her arms across her chest, "Humans, always making connections no matter how ridiculous they are", she said with a small smile on her face. "Alright say this is true, what's the point? Why would someone engineer a near immortal to use them only as an actress?"
"And why would someone want them dead?" Clara threw that little thought out into the TARDIS.
The atmosphere in the TARDIS became a little downbeat, every avenue they explored was only throwing up more questions. The Doctor stood alone with her thoughts as Jenny and Clara worked away on the console. Could this be another attack by the same puppet masters that had been following her around for the last few weeks? It was certainly a hideously complex mystery, which was right up their street, "Found something", Clara suddenly declared. The two Time Lady's huddled around the screen, "Actually it's what I didn't find that could be important", she continued, "there's no entry of death for Natalie Nikolson and no record of Caroline Caruthers being born".
"A simple clerical error", Jenny suggested, "I mean things get a little rough for humans around this time-" her sentence was abruptly cut off by a firm shake of the Doctor's head, "oh right, probably shouldn't tell you that". Clara's interest was piqued but a loud buzzing noise from the scanner stopped her from speaking, "Or perhaps there's no record of death because Natalie and Caroline are the same person", Jenny added, almost disbelieving the words that came out of her mouth.
The Doctor snatched the screen away from her daughter, double checking her findings, "Synthetic DNA sequences, possibly over a hundred years old". The raven haired woman's attention suddenly fell on one sequence in particular, "Hello what's this", she pointed at the sequence.
"Loads of zeroes and ones", Clara began, "binary code?" the Doctor nodded, "what does it say?"
"This genome is the intellectual property of the Jankovic Corporation, any unauthorised use of this property is strictly prohibited", the Doctor translated. The older Time Lady shook her head in disappointment, "Just when I thought the human race had run out of ways to disappoint me".
"Alright so maybe someone found out about this and switched on her aging sequence again", Jenny suggested, "corporate sabotage gone wrong?"
"Probably more important question is, can be switch it back on again?" Clara asked, "reverse the damage caused to Caroline".
The Doctor shook her head, "It's too late, Caroline's cells are catching back up their true age. Turning the aging sequence back on would stop her aging but she would be stuck as an old woman". She looked towards the roof of the TARDIS and sighed, "There's not much we can do apart from catch the person that did this". The older Time Lady suddenly abandoned the console and ahead towards the door, a furious look etched on her face. Jenny and Clara had no choice but to follow in her wake.
The trio left the TARDIS and walked back towards the set where they left Caroline and the others. This had turned from a mission of mercy into a search for a culprit, "What I don't understand is how did they do it?" Clara said to Jenny, "like the Doctor said there was nothing abnormal about her scans".
"I don't know", Jenny replied, "maybe we'll find some clues when we get back to the film set".
Exiting the alley, the time travellers suddenly found their path blocked by a dozen heavily armoured droids. The robots easily towered over the three women and their dome shaped heads flashed red like a warning beacon. As their energy weapons charged up and took aim at the trio, the Doctor reluctantly raised her hands in surrender, "Looks like you've got us surrounded Mr Jankovic", she called out with a slightly bored tone, "perhaps you can call off your tin cans and we can talk like civilised people".
There was a brief pause before the droids parted and someone stepped through. It was a man with very tanned, almost unnaturally tanned, skin. He was a little shorter than average and his brown hair was perfectly quaffed, "You must be the one called the Doctor", Lazslo replied, "perhaps you can tell me what you're doing on my planet before I tell my enforcers to execute you and your friend".
"On what grounds", Jenny cried in response.
Lazslo Jankovic chuckled dryly, "Why the attempted murder of Caroline Caruthers of course". The time travellers shared nervous glances with either other, they could tell he wasn't bluffing. They were in a very tricky position.