CHAPTER 7:
THE BIRD SMASHING THE CAGE
The girl was in the library, which they had to access via a catwalk along the outside of the statue. Benny didn't fancy a drop like that at all. Understandably. Hit the ground, or at least the ground on Monument Island even at this height, and they'd only need a mop and bucket for your remains. Drop all the way to the surface, though…
"How high up is this city, anyway?" Benny asked.
"Over 15 thousand feet," Booker said. "I dunno exactly how many, but the rocket had some voice coming from some speaker or other, and I heard it say 15,000 feet."
"Four and a half kilometres, roughly," Benny said, doing the mental math. She frowned. "Shouldn't we be getting altitude sickness at this height?"
"You and I, Benny, are used to thinner atmospheres on other worlds," the Doctor said. "In any case, it may be that the city has a weak atmospheric field that keeps it dense enough to prevent altitude sickness in any newcomers. Or maybe Booker is able to cope more with a thinner atmosphere."
"Hell if I know, Doc," Booker said. "Listen…that cabinet of yours…can it fit four people in it?"
"Six people, as the couple we rescued are still inside. And yes. Normally, I would wait until people enter it before they find out, but for you, I will spoil the surprise. It is bigger on the inside than the outside."
"…Of course it is," Booker muttered. "Holes in space and time, time travel, rockets, flying cities, a nutjob priest who can see the future, a pair of scientists who are actually weird ghosts, a woman who claims to be from six centuries from now, and an alien who looks like a man. I mean, compared to that, what the hell is a time-travelling cabinet that's bigger on the inside than the outside? Can it take us to New York?"
"To any world in the cosmos, and to any point in that world's existence. Sometimes, my accuracy has left something to be desired, but I promise you, I can bring the girl to where she needs to go."
Benny didn't fail to notice the Doctor's wording, and judging by the faintest narrowing of his eyes, neither did Booker. The Doctor then said, "If the money is what you're worried about, Booker, I have more than enough gold in the TARDIS to mean that your monetary debt can be erased."
"The Luteces said to take her back to New York," Booker said.
"True. But what did they say, exactly?"
"Bring us the girl. Wipe away the debt. That's what I was told when I first accepted this job. I can't remember whether it was the Luteces or not, but that's what I remember I was told."
The Doctor nodded, even as they got into an airlock leading into the library area. "I believe that the Luteces were talking about more than a fiscal debt. I think your past is catching up with you, Mr DeWitt. They said to bring the girl back to her father. Let's go and do that, shall we?"
They went into the statue once more, and found themselves near a cage lift. The three of them stepped onto it, only to have the long-disused device break. The Doctor and Benny fell almost instantly to the floor, while Booker clung to a railing, coming face to face with an understandably surprised Elizabeth.
"Uhhh…hello," Booker said, before he slipped and fell, Elizabeth screaming in fright.
She scurried down the stairs, throwing books at the intruders. The Doctor unfurled his umbrella (not giving a damn that it was bad luck) to shield Benny and Booker from the onslaught.
"It's okay!" the Doctor said. "We're not here to harm you! And those are some very nice books you're damaging by throwing at us!" He peered at the title of one of them. "The Principles of Quantum Mechanics by Rosalind Lutece," he noted. "Advanced reading for someone your age."
Elizabeth seemed caught between scowling in annoyance, and amazed at the trio of people present. Eventually, she asked, "Who are you?"
The Doctor doffed his hat. "I am the Doctor. This lovely lady is Professor Bernice Summerfield. And this gentleman is Booker DeWitt. We've come to get you out of here."
Elizabeth blinked, before stepping forward, reaching out and touching the Doctor's face. Then, Benny's, and then Booker's. "…You are real?" she asked.
"I'm real enough," Booker said. But before he could say anything more, a musical set of whistling sounds emanated from a nearby statue of Comstock.
Elizabeth's eyes widened. "He's coming. You've got to go, all of you."
"Who's coming?" Booker demanded.
"Her guard," the Doctor said.
"Yes, and you don't want to be here when he gets here," Elizabeth said. She then yelled at the hole where the lift used to be. "Just a moment, I'm getting dressed!"
"We can get you out of here," Booker said.
"There's no way out, believe me, I've tried."
The Doctor went over to an elaborate locked door, and pulled out his sonic screwdriver, only for Booker to clear his throat pointedly. "I was given this," he said, showing off a key, with pictures of a bird and a cage engraved on it.
Elizabeth snatched it, and opened the door. "So it is a way out," she murmured. She then turned to the others. Before she could say anything, however, a strange, high-pitched call rang out. "He's coming."
"Your guard?" Benny asked as the four of them began running out of the library. "Doctor, do you think it's like that Handyman thing we saw earlier?"
"No. Indubitably something much worse," the Doctor said as they ran along shaking catwalks. "Even so, it's something very large, very strong, and very angry!"
Suddenly, slashes appeared in the metal walls near the catwalk they were running along. "Run!" the Doctor yelled, albeit unnecessarily.
They made it back to the elevator, and Benny slammed her fist on the button. Elizabeth, meanwhile, had seen the observation windows nearby. "What is all this? They were watching me?" She turned to the three intruders, and said, "Why? Why did they put me in here? What am I? What am I?!"
Booker stepped forward, even as the elevator arrived. "You're the girl who's getting out of here."
Suddenly, the elevator was smashed away by a massive head. The Doctor stared. The creature, what little he could see of it, was vaguely avian, with a large red eye peering at them. It was definitely robotic, or perhaps even cybernetic. The skin of the beast seemed to be leather, though the head was definitely metal.
Thinking quickly, he said, "Stand back!" before pulling out a mirror on a chain. It was a long shot, but it might just work. Spinning it near the eyes, he began singing.
"Klokeda partha menin klatch,
Haroon, haroon, haroon,
Klokeda sheenah tierra natch,
Haroon, haroon, haroon.
Haroon, haroon, haroon,
Haroon, haroon, haroon.
Haroon, haroon, haroon,
Haroon, haroon, haroon(1)."
"What is he doing?" Booker hissed at Benny.
"I think that's a Venusian lullaby," Benny muttered. "I think he's used that to tame savage beasts before."
"It seems to be working," Elizabeth whispered. "But isn't that God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen? I have it in a book of Christmas carols."
"You'd be surprised at the level of coincidence in the universe," Benny replied.
Booker, while glad that the Doctor was managing to quieten the beast, kept his gun ready. He wasn't going to shoot until this creature made a move again, though. Instead, he asked Elizabeth, "This thing was your guard?"
"Yes. His name is Songbird."
"Songbird, huh?" Benny remarked. "It's a remarkable piece of technology. It might even be a cyborg. Part-flesh, part-machine, like the Handyman we saw at the fair."
Suddenly, Songbird began to thrash, and they heard a high-pitched, androgynous, even vaguely child-like voice scream, "No! Not code! Not code! Intruders! Stay away from her!"
Benny yelped, "What was that?"
The Doctor leapt back from the agitated Songbird. "The TARDIS' translation circuits have kicked in. Songbird! We're bringing the girl back to her father!"
"No! Interlopers! Destroy!"
"Songbird! It's me!" Elizabeth yelled. "Stop doing this!"
"No! Mine! You're mine! Go back to room!"
"Shut up," Booker said, raising his gun and firing at Songbird. With a cry of rage and pain, the creature fell out of sight, taking the terminally damaged elevator with it.
"How come I could hear Songbird speaking English?" Elizabeth asked. "I mean, I could understand him before, but I've never heard him speak English."
"Long story," Benny said. "But we've got to get out of here."
Elizabeth nodded. "He's tearing this place apart."
The quartet leapt across the elevator shaft to a staircase, where they began running up the stairs. "Be careful, Elizabeth!" Booker said as he escorted the girl.
"How do you know my name?" she asked.
"A very long story, and one we will gladly tell you once we're out of danger!" Benny said.
They soon found themselves at a door that led outside the statue. They ran up, even as the monstrous form of Songbird soared through the air. The Doctor managed to get a good look at the creature as it sped by. It was massive and bulky, and yet, still managed to fly, possibly through the same technology that the Luteces had developed for Columbia. It had arms and legs like a man, two massive, leathery wings, and a head that was vaguely avian, though it also looked like a respirator of some kind. "No! Mine!" it screamed.
"He's very possessive, isn't he?" the Doctor said.
"Like a jealous boyfriend(2), only he can fly!" Benny panted as they ran up the ramp. Only for the creature to slam into part of the statue, and send the quartet flying.
As they fell, Benny and Booker grabbed a hold of Elizabeth, while the Doctor grabbed onto Benny's hand. And just when Benny thought that they were in very deep shit…
…A most wonderful sound reached their ears.
Fading into existence, falling with them, was the TARDIS. The Doctor reached around with his free hand, pulled out the key, and opened the door. He clambered inside, pulling Benny, Booker, and Elizabeth inside.
Elizabeth stared at the interior of the cabinet that they had just entered. It was certainly much roomier on the inside…in much the same way that Songbird was a little possessive.
It was a vast, cathedral-like interior, panelled in dark wood and with bookshelves and drawers lining the walls. The middle of the room was dominated by a gigantic apparatus, control panels surrounding a glass column, within which blue crystals were evident(3).
A young white man and a young black woman were near the apparatus, staring at the newcomers. "What's going on?" the man asked.
"No time to explain!" the Doctor yelled, running to the console. He wrenched down a lever, causing the massive doors behind them to close. He then scampered around the console, flipping levers and pressing buttons. With the same unearthly roar that had heralded the cabinet's appearance, the blue crystals within the glass column began to mesh and unmesh.
The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief. "Right. We're away from Columbia." He then turned to the couple. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Doctor, that young woman is my old friend Professor Bernice Summerfield, that man with the gun is Booker DeWitt, and the girl is Elizabeth, sometimes known as the Lamb of Columbia."
Elizabeth was astonished and disturbed by the looks of surprise and awe on the mixed-race couple's faces. "So she's real?" the black woman asked.
"Indeed. And you are?" the Doctor asked.
"Melissa Sedgewick," the woman said. "Everyone calls me Missy."
"And I'm Eric Nation," the man said. "Doctor…thanks for saving us."
"Saving you? What did he save you from?" Elizabeth asked.
"From being killed merely for being married," Eric said, quietly and bitterly.
"I don't understand," Elizabeth said.
"Look, Elizabeth," Bernice said. "The people of Columbia reckon that different races shouldn't marry or have children."
Elizabeth scowled. "But why?"
"Xenophobia. Fear and hatred of difference," the Doctor said. "Doubtless Comstock was going to indoctrinate you with his views once he believed that you were ready."
"That's sick," Bernice muttered.
"That's not a problem anymore," Booker said. "Doc, can you take this thing to New York?"
"If I needed to, yes. But I need to run some tests," the Doctor said. "Booker, would you mind coming with me? Transdimensional travel seems to have had a bad effect on you."
Booker scowled, but allowed the Doctor to lead him away. Bernice then turned to the others. "I dunno about you, but I don't want to be dressed like this a moment longer, and I'm sure you two don't want to be dressed like that either." She meant the leather jacket and rough trousers (and nothing more) that Eric was wearing, and the rough, sackcloth dress Missy was wearing.
"But where can we get clothing?" Missy asked. "Does this place have a wardrobe?"
"In the same way that Comstock has a bit of an ego, yes," Bernice smiled. "Actually, I reckon you'll be spoiled for choice…"
Booker wasn't a truly patient man. Although he wasn't actually an impatient man by any means, he also didn't like the evasive attitude of the Doctor, as he led the former Pinkerton through the various corridors of his time machine.
A small part of him was gazing around in child-like wonder. The vast corridors of the TARDIS astonished that part of him. The interior had to be the size of a city, as far as he could tell. But the rest of him was wondering whether he should try hijacking the craft. He needed to get the girl back to New York.
"It won't work," the Doctor said quietly. "I know what you're thinking, Mr DeWitt. And no, I can't read minds, most of the time. I know you're thinking of forcing us to New York. But you can't use weapons in here. The Luteces reminded me to check the temporal grace circuits. They're in good repair. No gun, no psi-powers, and no Sky-Hook. Besides, you're not that sort of man."
"How do you know?" Booker said, scowling that his intentions had been read so easily.
"Because I like to think that I am a good reader of people. You are more than a little mercenary, and you are brutally pragmatic when it comes to taking lives…" Booker could hear the disgust dripping from the Doctor's voice. "…But when I saw how you reacted to Fink's idea of entertainment…I think you are a good man, Booker, or at least you're trying to be. Which is different to Comstock. He believes that he has licence to do what he wants without any need for repentance, because he is a virtuous man, now and forever."
"And what of you, Doc?" Booker asked as they finally entered a medical bay. "What Comstock said about me was real, but what about those things he mentioned? Skaro, Crinoth, the Vervoids…he said you committed genocide."
"He isn't far off the mark," the Doctor said, as he took the bottle of Elizabeth's blood he had taken from Monument Island, and put drips of it into a machine. "But all three cases…they were genocidal beings themselves. Crinoth was one of the settlements of the Nimon, a parasitic race that fed off the energy of living beings like locusts off crops. The Vervoids were genetically engineered plants who decided that all animals that predated on them should be killed. And the Daleks…xenophobic fanatics who will destroy or enslave any other being that isn't a Dalek. Not unlike Comstock's own values in many regards. I'm not proud of my actions there, and save for the Vervoids, not all the members of the species were wiped out."
"And the names? Sara Kingdom, Adric…"
"Companions who died while travelling with me, or helping me," the Doctor said sadly. "I try not to make a habit of letting them die, but…it has happened." He took out a cotton bud on a stick. "Excuse me, could you open your mouth?"
"Why?"
"Indulge me."
Booker frowned, before reluctantly allowing the man who swab the inside of his mouth. As the Doctor busied himself with his apparatus, Booker, despite his annoyance, was also curious. "What are you doing with that?"
"Being a former Pinkerton, you are familiar with fingerprints, aren't you?" the Doctor asked.
Booker nodded. "What does that have to do with my spit?"
"There is a type of fingerprint that exists within the cells of your body. DNA is a kind of complex chemical that determines, to many degrees, your skin, eye and hair colour, height, certain diseases, etcetera. This DNA fingerprint is unique to you. Only identical twins would have the same DNA. However, parents contribute half of their genetic material to their offspring. In other words, have samples from a parent and a child, and you can tell whether they are related. Hence the cells I swabbed from your cheek."
"I don't understand what you're getting at, Doctor. I thought you were here to fix whatever the Luteces did to me."
"This is part of the process. Because if my theory is correct, your job is over." The device the Doctor had been working on beeped, and he looked at a screen that displayed letters and numbers. "And it seems that my theory is correct."
"What do you mean?" Booker demanded. "Gimme a straight answer, dammit!"
"I'm about to. You don't need to deliver Elizabeth to her father, because you've already done so. You, Booker DeWitt, are her father. Elizabeth is none other than Anna. Elizabeth is your daughter."
CHAPTER 7 ANNOTATIONS:
And there we have it. Not only is Elizabeth freed in a much different manner than in canon, but Booker has found out that Elizabeth is his daughter. And with that, I have all but derailed the storyline of BioShock Infinite.
But don't think for one moment that because they're on the TARDIS, the story is over. In fact, it's just beginning…
BTW, given how the interracial couple is never given a name in the game (indeed, 'Interracial Couple' is the name of their page on the BioShock Wiki), I decided to make up some names. However, they are not accidental. I derived them from the rather archaic (and sometimes offensive) term for interracial marriage and breeding, miscegenation (hence Missy Sedgewick and Eric Nation). But my intention is not to offend. I find them rather sweet when you meet them later in the game, and I frankly wanted to get them away from the hellhole that is Columbia. Hence them being in the TARDIS.
1. Although the first line of this lullaby made its debut in Doctor Who: The Daemons (the Doctor shouted it at an animated gargoyle, pretending it was a magical spell: long story there), its first use as a means of calming down a gigantic guardian beast was in The Curse of Peladon, where the Third Doctor uses it, plus hypnosis, to tame Aggedor. As Elizabeth points out, the tune is that of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen. I deliberately left out references to the New Adventures novel Legacy, where Aggedor and his species are long-extinct, as I prefer the Big Finish continuity to the New Adventures, and only add stories that have been adapted by BF, or else are relevant.
2. Which was how the character of Songbird was conceived. As basically a jealous boyfriend.
3. I decided to have the massive control room as seen in the TV Movie.
