Oswin stood in the bright summer sun and let the rays simply soak into her skin.

She and the soldier had climbed several flights of stairs, ultimately popping out into the heart of some large, unknown metropolis. An underground complex. Well, that had explained the lack of windows.

Another soldier was standing watch at the entrance. He'd given them an acknowledging nod as they'd passed.

She didn't stray too far from the entrance, content with just watching as throng after throng of people wandered by. They did seem to give her - or either soldier - much notice.

"Why aren't any of them paying attention to us?" Oswin asked. "You guys have guns. Rather big guns."

"That's the beauty of this place," her new companion said with a grin. "It's the Tower of London. They think we're just posted to keep the average tourist out. Little does anyone know there's an entire secret military complex right beneath their noses!"

He said all of this as though it explained everything. It didn't, really, but Oswin nodded all the same.

"My name's Ben by the way," he said, holding out his hand. "Ben Fischer."

She blinked at him before slowly taking it.

"Oswin."

"Oswin?" he repeated. "That's unique name for girl." He paused and then flushed slightly. "N-not that it's a bad unique."

She smiled at him as he continued on to ramble about other mindless things. He told her about the apartment complex where he grew up, apparently just half a mile away (whatever length a 'mile' was), his parents and their professions, his early hopes and dreams, his current ambitions… Oswin took it all in, feeling a semblance of normality for the first time in… well, she couldn't remember the last time she felt this normal. And that was in spite of the fact that she wasn't getting even half of the local planetary references he was making.

"What about you?" Ben suddenly asked.

"Huh? Oh…" Oswin bit her lip, thinking. He didn't seem to be aware of the fact that she wasn't from his planet, and it was probably for the best to keep it that way for now. "I'm the entertainment director… was the entertainment director of a… ship."

"A cruise ship?"

"Yeah, that."

"Ah, I would tried for sails director myself."

It was a terrible, terrible pun, but Oswin laughed anyway. Then her stomach growled.

"When's the last time you ate?" Ben asked.

"Umm…"

She remembered eating soufflés over and over again… or had she only been cooking them? They'd always come out burnt, so most of them had gone straight in the bin. A bin that'd never seemed to get full… She also hadn't eaten anything since she got her new ganger body.

Now that she thought of it, she wasn't exactly sure how her new metabolism worked. Would she have to eat more? Less? Would she have any new mysterious allergies?

"Come on," Ben said. "I'll buy you some chips."

Oswin's eyes widened in alarm. She glanced at the soldier still posted on duty behind them.

"Oh no," she said quickly. "A bit of sun was one thing, but I really can't wander off."

"It's honestly not that far," Ben insisted. He gestured vaguely to his left. "Just around the block. One minute walk. Tops."

Oswin pursed her lips. "I made a promise," she said. As if that wasn't enough to get her point across, she crossed her arms and widened her stance, rooting herself into the cobblestones. She was there to stay.

"Alright, alright. You're a much better person than me. That's for sure," Ben said with a sigh. "If you are hungry though, I wouldn't mind getting them for you. Wait here. You wouldn't be wandering off. Ryan can look after you if you're really worried."

Oswin was still a little unsure. She glanced at the other soldier again; she assumed he was the 'Ryan.' Even staying on the doorstep of the complex… it made her nervous. She had her bit of sunlight. She should've been getting back inside.

But at the same time, she was really hungry.

"One minute you said?"

"Well, for the walk there." Ben stuck his hands in his pockets. "Gotta walk back too. And then there's also the queue."

"Five minutes," Oswin said with a slight upwards quirk of her lips. She held out her hand with all five fingers outstretched for extra emphasis. "Five minutes and then I'm going back inside, chips or no chips."

Ben grinned. "Understood, ma'am," he said with a mock salute. And then he was off, his pace somewhere between a brisk walk and a run.


"Well, of course they wouldn't be able to get through if they assumed everything was being parsed in your basic binary! You. Move."

The nearest programmer yelped as the Doctor practically shoved her out of her chair. After several nanoseconds of getting acquainted with the computer's various open windows, the Doctor began to furiously type. An innocent query here… a slightly more malicious attack there…

It was child's play. He broke through the initial firewalls before his code had gotten long enough to require scroll bars.

"Is this really the best UNIT can do these days?" he snapped to the room at large.

"Doctor…" Kate said tersely.

It was slightly unfair he knew, given Earth's development and their familiarity with these kind of alien languages, but still. People's lives were at stake. The least they could've done was thrown some sort of creativity in the mix.

"I'm sorry, Oswin," he called out. "Next time I will consult you first."

He waited for her response. For a curt 'yes' of agreement. Or perhaps a flippant retort about how he'd dismissed her. Instead, he was met with silence. He swiveled around towards the corner he'd left her in.

Her chair was empty.

The Doctor's face drained of color as his hearts sunk with trepidation.