VIII. Belshazzar

PERIMETER -1 DEFENSES DISABLED

ANALYZE FAILURE...

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SONIC DEVICE IDENTIFIED

EVALUATE...

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BYPASS DEVISED

APPLY PATCH TO PERIMETER -1

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PATCH SUCCESSFUL

EXTRAPOLATE PATCH

UPDATE FACILITY 100%

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PATCH "deadlock" VERIFIED

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EVALUATE THREAT

THREAT LEVEL: SEMKA

EVALUATE PROBABILITY OF SKARSAK INCURSION...

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INSUFFICIENT DATA

DATA EXTRACTION REQUIRED

THREAT LEVEL SEMKA SUBROUTINE

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SECURITY SUBROUTINE COMMAND:

/CAPTURE

/NEUTRALIZE

/CONTAIN


"Oh, dear." The Doctor was on his hands and knees, hovering over a mine. A mine that would not seem to disarm.

"What?" River didn't look down at him, just kept scanning the horizon for threats. The sonic whizzed again, but there was no answering whine. She counted out the seconds - one - two - three. "No. Don't tell me - deadlocked?"

She heard the sonic snap open and whir again. "'Fraid so. Stay here, I can still scan." He gingerly picked a path back to a previously-disabled mine. "This one's still disarmed. That's a plus."

River unholstered her weapon - not that she could duel with a minefield, but the heft of the blaster in her hands was reassuring.

The Doctor picked his way around their immediate area, testing mines as he went. At last he stood and took in their predicament. "It's learning."

"Lovely. We could retrace our steps, back to the canyon wall, but where would that leave us?"

"Nowhere good," the Doctor agreed. He peered over her shoulder, his helmet clanking against hers, and tilted her scanner so that he could read the overhead map. "If we press on, well, that's not very good either."

River swept her gaze over the canyon, noting gun emplacements on the walls, and the expanse of minefield around them. "I can see why - whomever it is - didn't bother shooting at us down here. Much more efficient to let us blow ourselves up."

"Quite. The attacks so far have truly been a demonstration of efficiency - a carefully metered response, every step of the way. Parsimonious, even. Points in favor of your machine intelligence theory, Dr. Song."

"A proper villain would have lit up the canyon floor and be done with us," River agreed.

"Don't give it any ideas. So which way shall we turn?"

"I don't like paying for the same ground twice."

"And my TARDIS is over there."

River adjusted her scanner, trying for the highest resolution image she could obtain. The map appeared, its swath of red only half diminished. She squinted at the details. "Not sure I trust my life to this map," she said.

"Belt-and-braces, then." The Doctor carefully swept his sonic over the landscape, scanning. "Here we go, use my footsteps."

"Got it." She followed carefully behind him as he picked through the minefield. The space between explosives was barely enough to place her feet. More than once, she found herself balancing precariously between one step and the next.

"Something about this minefield," the Doctor said as he took a deliberate step.

"Yes?" River answered while placing her foot inside the print his boot had just made.

"We're in a riverbed, yes?"

"Yes, that's how most canyons in the universe are carved, dear."

"Why haven't the mines washed away?"

Before River could answer, a plasma bolt blasted across her field of vision, triggering the UV shield on her helmet, but still leaving an after-image. The shock threw off her balance, and she wobbled precariously, not daring to move her feet to stabilize herself. Another bolt shot to her other side, but it was dimmed by the helmet. Who the hell had designed these things to blind you when you desperately needed to see what was going on?

Then again, these weren't meant to be combat suits.

The Doctor wavered, caught midway between two awkward steps. River grabbed his arm, steadying him.

More bolts. River fired her gun in the general direction of the blasts, hoping for suppression fire at least. Exposed and unable to move, like insects on a pin, she and the Doctor stood, frozen, on the plain.

"Those are warning shots," the Doctor said, "we're being hemmed in."

Her vision stabilized, and she could see in the distance six dots against the backdrop of the rocks. No, they were shapes, moving quickly, shifting position, as if manipulated by an unseen juggler. "Doctor..."

As they closed in, River saw the dull sheen of metal. They were each about a metre tall, plated in a burnished copper, roughly the shape of a medieveal knight's helmet, complete with a T-shaped groove. The crossbar of the T stretched 360 degrees around the unit, and River guessed the main sensors were in the grooves. The metal was etched, and the sweeping designs were dotted with navigation or indicator lights, as if the builder was a frustrated jeweler.

They hovered, soundlessly, elegantly, and River was reminded of the antigrav unit in the winged bot they had found. They had to be Varian - the last vestiges of a great, enlightened empire.

Her scholarly thrill was considerably diminished by the high-powered plasma weapon held by an articulating arm at the bottom of each unit.

The formation shifted again, splitting into a flanking maneuver. Herded, trapped. River swallowed against a wave of claustrophobia. She took aim.

"River!" the Doctor shouted just as a sentry fired at the ground, maybe three meters ahead of them. The bolt struck a mine, triggering it. She felt the Doctor's arms around her waist as he held her steady against the shockwave; a tumble could be deadly. Dirt, rocks and debris rained down on them, blocking their vision. "This isn't a good place for a shootout. Follow me!"

He hopscotched back they way they had come. Another mine exploded next to them, and River managed to direct her fall onto a previously-disarmed mine. When she rose to her feet, another patrol of sentries was working its way across the field, blocking their escape.

"Drop your gun," the Doctor said evenly.


Everything within River balked at the command, but she couldn't dispute the Doctor's reasoning. Slowly, she placed the gun on the ground in front of her. One of the sentries darted forward, and fired. Her favorite blaster melted on the spot. River glared at it.

"Sorry," the Doctor patted her shoulder.

River shrugged. "What's Varian for 'we mean you no harm?"

The sentry bots circled around them, but they left open a narrow gap, facing the general direction of their desired destination. Beyond their captors, River could see the gun turrets on the canyon walls turning to track their movements. "I hope they disabled the mines," she said.

The Doctor stepped ahead, towards the gap in the circle. The toe of his boot struck a mine, and River exhaled in relief. "Excellent," the Doctor said, "this is shaping up to be a very convenient incarceration."

They made good progress towards the base, and River had to acknowledge that this was a lot easier than forcing their way in. Still, she harbored a long-standing hatred of feeling trapped, and had to fight the urge to bolt.

"Look," the Doctor said, and pointed ahead of them. The sentry gave a warning tone, and he waved his hands in apology.

River saw what had caught his attention: more robots, very similar, if not identical, to the sentries. Except instead of rifles, they were each fitted with a spider-like arm apparatus, and carried a mine. A column of fifteen robots filed by in procession, heading out to the main canyon.

"Mine farmers, tending their fields," the Doctor whispered.

"Like a hive," River said. From here, she could take in the layered defensive lines that surrounded the base: strafing guns, minefields, sentries. It had been carefully designed to decimate any assault - either ground-based or low-altitude.

They crunched along the riverbed-turned-minefield, and when they turned into the dead-end canyon spur, River gasped. The base was - as best as she could discern - wedged into the crevasse. The center of the base was visible from the outside, but it extended directly into the canyon walls, as if massive chunks of the rock were carved out to fit it in. The exposed surface was an arc, she guessed it was basically a saucer, probably 3 kilometres in diameter, at least. The top edge was camouflaged perfectly: from above, it looked like the canyon floor: sand and rocks carved by the river. But from below, it was a massive, crystalline structure, strangely beautiful in spite of its purpose. It stood on a network of elegant 10-metre tall stilts, presumably to allow the seasonal river to flow beneath it. The stilts weren't the only features visible on the underside. At the centre, or what must have been the centre, a heavy, wide pillar stood. It wasn't a weight-bearing pedestal, though, and River got the sense that the column extended deep below ground level.

Their guards led them beyond the structure's overhang - River could just barely make out windows along the leading edge. As they passed beneath the base, it blocked out the view of the sky, and River looked around for the front door.

The central pillar came into closer view, and its crystals pulsing different colors. Was it a sensor tower? Or natural energy collector?

"Energy collector," the Doctor helpfully answered her unspoken question. "At a guess, the supporting framework is buried throughout this side of the moon, pylons built into the moon itself, antenna structures poking out of rocks, hidden from view. Spanning dozens of kilometers, collecting energy from the plasma in the atmosphere. Or, hm."

"That would explain a lot," River said, "wait, what do you mean 'hm'?"

"Well, if the superstructure is used to collect and transmit energy, I wonder if it could work in the other direction."

"You mean like a big - "

River was cut off by the sentries closing ranks around them.

"Sorry, we were just having a chat," the Doctor said, "not like you lot are terribly engaging."

A low vibration shook their feet, and before them a crystal pedestal took shape as the illusion of rocks and sand melted away. The sentry robots hovered around them, ethereal and deadly.

"I think we're meant to stand on it," the Doctor's voice crackled in her ear.

"You think?" She stepped onto it, and the platform turned green. "Under other circumstances, I'd be ecstatic right now."

"It is gorgeous, isn't it?"

Before she could reply, the crystal beneath their feet turned purple, and a familiar tingle began in her toes and raced up her body.

"I hope the transmat still..." the Doctor began, as their surroundings dissolved around them. River closed her eyes, hoping, and then opened them. A new scene was just resolving around her, and her stomach lurched and she wobbled on her feet. "... Works," he finished his sentence. "Well done," he whispered.

"Oh, look, a cell. Feels just like home," River said. It was a three meter square chamber. The walls were made out of the same crystal as the outside of the base - leave it to the Varians to even decorate their holding cells. She reached out to touch one, and was immediately zapped with a low-voltage charge. "Not enough to kill someone," she commented conversationally, "but enough to get the point across." She clenched and unclenched her fist experimentally.

"I wonder if there's a door," the Doctor mused. "Always best to have cell with a door." He took readings along each wall, and stopped at a spot and sonicked it. "It's a door, but deadlocked. This could get complicated."

"It isn't already?" River paced along the back wall. "All right. Point in our favor: we aren't dead. Point in their favor: we're in a cell." She unclipped her scanner from her belt and took a few readings. "Oxygen level is stable, which means breathable air."

"That's a point in our favor. Fair is fair."

She laughed and unhooked her helmet. "So, a cell." She set the helmet at her feet and shook her hair free. "Different planet, same venue."

The Doctor chuckled with her and unlatched his own helmet.

But then, the crystalline walls and ceiling glowed, and a deep hum crescendoed and echoed off the walls. They both put their hands over their ears to block out the deafening sound. The frequency seemed to vibrate their very bones, and River felt as if she would either lose consciousness, or vomit.

After several bone-jarring, stomach-churning seconds, silence fell. River and the Doctor gasped, struggling to stay upright. Around them, they heard small popping noises, followed by the smell of ozone.

Once he recovered, the Doctor checked his comlink. It was dead. "Now that's just rude!"

River gazed at the now defunct scanner in her hand, then turned her attention to the Doctor's environmental suit. The readouts for oxygen and temperature control were blank. "EMP. It's what I would do."

"One-stop solution," the Doctor agreed. "I was wondering why they didn't take our toys away. We don't have a lot of room to maneuver, as of yet." He caught her eye and winked as he slid the sonic into his utility belt, and patted it. She got the message, and nodded. Shielded, then. Clever Doctor. Point in their favor.

"And I'm unarmed, unless you count my lipstick. Which I don't think will help us at present. I'm willing to give it a try, though." She winked in the general direction of the ceiling - assuming they were being monitored.

"A Varian AI that's had centuries to adapt," the Doctor said thoughtfully. "Could be lonely, you never know. But let's save that for a final option, eh?"

"I'll keep the lipstick handy, just in case." River paced the length of the cell. She'd learned quite a bit from her years of incarceration. Mostly that it was tedious. She was quite sure she would have run mad at Stormcage if she hadn't had her books and the Doctor dropping in on her every so often. "Any idea when our illustrious captor will decide to make an appearance?"

"Depends on who - or perhaps what - is happening," the Doctor said thoughtfully. "Um, hello?" he announced to the universe at large. "Perhaps we could have a chat?"

They were answered with a full minute of stony silence. The Doctor's face contorted into an expression of affronted indignance.

Then she saw it. First, a slight distortion high in the centre of the room, and then a shimmer. Recognizing it for what it was - more transmat activity - they both stepped back to avoid the materialization field. She heard a zap and a yelp as the Doctor accidentally backed into the wall. She winced in sympathy and he stuck his thumb in his mouth.

The shimmer resolved into a group of Varian nanobots. She recognized half a dozen like the miniature stylized skycrane they had found earlier - hovering in a hexagonal formation, and each clutching another robot. These second bots were spiky little ballls that glowed with amber light.

"Those are wee little transmat points," the Doctor said - his expression as enraptured as she imagined hers to be. "They're so... cute."

"Depends on what they're transmatting," River replied.

"Oh there you go, being all practical," he scoffed.

Another set of shapes resolved within the transmat bots' formation. This second wave of bots, a spindly set of four were styled like miniature helicopters. They floated up to the ceiling and attached themselves there, like bats. The outer shell of this design was studded with what River guessed to be sensor arrays. These were the eyes, then. A shiver ran up her spine. There was nowhere to hide.

The third wave was more foreboding: they were golfball-sized, but these bots had teeth. Each was little more than a flying set of buzzsaws.

The Doctor frowned. "Oh, I don't like the look of those at all."

River didn't, either. "This is new." She reached for her gun and cursed softly when her hand met empty air.

The blades started spinning - slowly at first. She immediately called to mind the strategically shredded equipment and supplies in the mine. Reinforced teeth, whirring at high speed, capable of tearing through alloy shielding like butter.

What could it do to flesh?

Undeterred, the Doctor clapped his hands together and said, "Ah! Hello, I'm the Doctor, and this is -"

The blades spun faster, the bots bobbed out of the transmat formation. A low whine filled the cell, increasing in pitch and volume as the blades picked up speed.

The bobbing stopped, and for a moment, frozen in time, River realized both what would happen, and the truth that there was absolutely nothing she could do to stop it.

River threw up her arm to shield her face as the buzzbots descended on them. It was instinctive more than effectual, and she braced for the pain, the blood, the ripping of flesh and bone.

The buzzing filled her ears, and the material of her suit tugged in all directions. She fell to her knees to escape the pressure on her back, the roaring sounds of the blades cutting through the oxygen pack and environmental stabilizers on the back of the suit.

Amazed at her continued existence, River opened her eyes and through the sparks saw the Doctor, much in the same position as herself. The buzzbots had surgically damaged his suit - tearing holes and cutting the survival tech out of the garment.

He shifted position quickly, pivoting onto his knee, to wield his sonic with his outstretched arm. One buzzbot backed away from his face, but not fast enough to avoid leaving a small cut on his cheek.

The bots drew back suddenly and returned to a formation, then levitated slowly up to join the rest of the swarm. One of the buzzbots lagged behind, then stopped completely, hovering in mid air. It bumped against the sonic curiously and the Doctor looked like he had a tiger by the tail. River caught his eye and then scooped up her helmet and captured the bot against the floor, like trapping a spider.

The rest of the swarm dematerialized from the cell, seemingly unaware that one of its fellows was missing.

River and the Doctor remained motionless, breathing heavily. Cold air found its way into the holes in her suit. The Doctor - sprawled on the floor, suit in tatters - still held the sonic. She heard the low whir, and desperately wished he had built the thing to run quieter. He pursed his lips and exhaled, then carefully changed the sonic's setting and gently laid it beside the helmet, its emerald light glowing dimly. He covered it with a patch of cloth ripped from his suit.

Sitting up, he looked over at her and shrugged, then mouthed, "It worked."

"What part of this situation are you referring to?" River said. Still a touch wobbly, she slid across the floor and wiped away the thin line of blood on his cheek. The cut was minor, but the sight of his blood always triggered her nurturing instincts. Usually shortly after it triggered her murderous instincts.

"That's our little secret," the Doctor replied in the multisyllabic tones of colloquial Gallilfreyan. She looked at him askance and his eyes darted up, indicating the surveillance they were certainly under. "I think I jammed its connection to the hive. It's in a holding pattern."

"Right then," she replied in the same language, "there's never been a translator built that could decipher Gallifreyan."

"That's two points in our favor." Switching back to their usual English, he continued, "Too bad those buzzy things didn't approve of our tailor."

"One point in their favor. The suits are useless: we've lost pressurization, oxygen, thermal control, communication."

"At least we still have our modesty." He inspected his shredded suit. "Well, mostly."

She ran her eyes up and down his body. "Pity, that."

Time slipped by, and they rested by sitting on the floor, back-to-back. He felt solid against her, and warm. While that would normally be a pleasant experience, it was still an incarceration. River itched to skip ahead in the narrative. "I wonder if good little prisoners get fed? Hey!" she shouted at the ceiling. "How about some water? A four course dinner?"

"Now, now, dear, be nice. After all, we haven't been summarily executed, yet."

"Don't go giving it ideas." She raised her voice, "Can we move this along? I'd like to get back to my regularly scheduled incarceration."

The cell remained quiet, save for their breathing. A long minute later, a deep, rich voice filled the room. It spoke in English, the accent thick and just short of incomprehensible. "Query," it said.

River felt the Doctor stiffen, then turn to look at her over his shoulder. It spoke another word, but the pronunciation was too poor to decipher.

The Doctor leapt to his feet. "Question. You have a question?"

Again, a pause. Then, in a slightly better accent: "Query. Question. Purpose. Intent."


"Query. Question. Purpose. Intent," their invisible captor said.

"Our purpose?" the Doctor said. "We're tourists. I'm the Doctor, by the way, and this is Doctor Song." He offered to shake hands with empty air, then with a look of chagrin, his hand fell to his side.

"Tourist... tourist... unknown."

"Travellers. Students of the universe."

"Correlating language. Both subjects designated Doctor. Explain."

"Doctor. A title. Well, my name, her title. What is your designation?"

"Designation and capability: classified. Facility Master Unit. This is an interrogation. Explain your presence."

The Doctor turned toward River and grinned. "Now we're getting somewhere! Fred - 'Facility Master Unit' sounds so formal, don't you think? Fred, who is the commander of this lovely... er..."

"We would like to speak to your commander," River cut in.

"Commander: unavailable. Facility Master Unit primary contact. Repeat: explain your presence."

"Unavailable? How? Is he in a meeting?" He leaned toward River. "You know how it is - all the bigwigs stuck in conference when something interesting finally happens." River's lips twitched upward. "Pull him out then. Stop the presses! Or can't you do that?"

"Subject obfuscation level 24394 snatch 5. Evaluate threat level; new threat level EYN. Reassessing."

Cute as he was, the Doctor was escalating the situation. "Diplomacy not going so well, is it?" River said in Gallifreyan. "We can't put its question off forever, but we can't exactly tell it the truth."

She paced the cell once, then turned on her heel and addressed their interrogator, "Computer, who do you think we are?"

"Unknown. Threat level evaluation demands this unit identify Skarsak agents. Subjects designated Doctor and Doctor are of unknown hostile origin. Probability of Skarsak incursion increasing."

"Skarsak?" River mouthed.

The Doctor stepped forward. "Oh, we're not invaders. We're not even Skarsak. Newsflash - the war's over. You won, congratulations. Time to pack it in, close up shop, throw a parade."

"Falsehood. Varian homeworld unresponsive. Strategic situation unknown. Prognosis: Skarsak victory. The prime directive of this unit is to defend this sector. Probability of Skarsak invasion now 76.8%. Identify means, method and metrics of Skarsak invasion."

"There is no invasion! The is one ship, two people. One ship, not an armada -"

"Doctor -" River grabbed his arm. She shook her head sharply.

"Oh," the Doctor said pensively.

"Yes, quite," she replied in Gallifreyan. "I don't think now is a good time to discuss the Erdani plague and the collapse of the Varian Protectorate, do you?"

The Doctor grimaced and switched back back to English. "It seems to me that we're at a bit of an impasse, Fred. Now I'm not a computer expert - well, yes I sort of am - but I'd guess your logic subroutines are going a bit circular. You need information, so you ask us questions. But then you disregard our answers because they're not logical. But what if - what if - we're telling you the truth? Isn't it logical to investigate that possibility? I mean, why ask questions otherwise?"

"Unknown language present. Parsing unsuccessful. Threat level elevated. New threat level: PEY. Sector defense scan initiated. Interview concluded."

The Doctor clapped his hands. "That went well."

"It's not exactly programmed for interrogation, is it?" River said in Gallifreyan.

"No," the Doctor replied in the same language, "the Varian crew would have done that, and they're long gone. Notice how it's learning English quickly, just by eavesdropping. We must be careful. Sector defense scan. Don't like the sound of that."

"Nor do I. Do you think this complex is more than an outpost for protecting the bertrillium? A strategic outpost, on the frontier of an empire at war..."

"A perfect place to put a great big gun. And the AI has only been worked up enough once in the past ten thousand years to fire it."

"At the approaching Frillan armada," River continued, "at extreme long-range. There are spacelanes all over this sector. Commercial, cruise liners, this is a major thoroughfare."

"Congratulations, Dr Song, your unerring instinct for trouble has lead you solve not just one mystery, but two. Almost as good as me." He reached up to straighten his bow-tie but had to settle on giving his torn environmental suit a readjustment.

"That's something to aspire to? At the risk of stating the obvious, we need to get out of here and shut this thing down."


STELLAR SCAN INITIATED...

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NO TARGETS WITHIN RANGE

EXTEND RANGE 10%

SCAN...

PROCESSING...

RUN SCAN SUBROUTINE

UPLOAD WHEN COMPLETE


River glanced at her helmet."It seems like our friend Fred doesn't know this little guy is missing. What happened?"

"I'm not entirely sure," the Doctor said. "I think I jammed its connection to the swarm and it defaulted to a holding pattern. As far as why Fred doesn't know his pet is missing, the swarms were built to be autonomous. That's the strength of the swarm: it operates independently when given a relatively simple instruction. Fred doesn't have to control each nanobot individually."

"There must be video feeds in here. It has to have seen something."

"What it saw was a lot of chaos. Since guile isn't exactly Fred's strong suit, it's safe to say he didn't notice our trick. But that's not the bigger question. The bigger question is how do we get out of here?"

"Well, I don't think I can kiss my way out. We can try the old standby: play sick and jump the guard when he comes to check.'"

"An oldie but a goodie," the Doctor agreed. He paced across the room and sat on his haunches next to River's helmet. He surreptitiously eyed his screwdriver, sitting on the floor, still emanating a low level sonic pulse. "Assuming Fred is willing to open the door for any reason."


OBSERVE SUBJECTS

PARSE NEW LANGUAGE...

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The Doctor picked up a torn CO2 scrubber and examined it. "If you can find an intact micro heater, maybe I can build a telurite micro welder." He was sqautting on the floor of the cell, in front of a growing pile of odds and ends River was salvaging from the remains of their ruined suits.

"I'm on it," she sidled up behind him, found a tear in the back of his suit, and ripped it wider. She felt around inside his suit, dislodging coolant tubes and sensor wires.

"Oh! That tickles!"

"Once again, right sentiment, wrong time," she murmured into his ear. She tossed each into the ever growing pile between them. Her hand hit a square of metal, no larger than the palm of her hand, located in the suit's right shoulder. "Ah, ha!" She pulled the heater free triumphantly.

The long-silent voice of Fred echoed in the small room: "Cease your activities."

"Oh, hullo Fred," the Doctor said cheerfully, "glad you stopped by. How are things with you?"

"Cease your activities."

"Come in and make us," River muttered under her breath. Aloud, she said: "Not a lot to do in here. No books, no InterStellar News. Just what kind of cell are you running?"

There was no response from Fred. After several minutes, the Doctor said, "How rude."


UNABLE TO PARSE LANGUAGE

EVALUATE THREAT

THREAT LEVEL REMAINS PEY

ASSESSING...

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FOCUS SHIFT

SUBJECT THREAT CAPABILITY LANGUAGE PARSE PRIORITY

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SEPARATE SUBJECTS TO REDUCE RISK

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SECURITY SYSTEM SUBROUTINE COMMAND:

/GET SENTRIES

/ISOLATE PRISONERS


"I wish I could use my screwdriver," the Doctor said as he tied cables into a wire harness.

River focused on the steady thump of her hammer as she flattened out the O-Ring on the Doctor's helmet.

Thump. Thump. Whirrrr.

She stopped her hammer. Whir? She glanced up at the Doctor, eyebrow raised in question. He shook his head. The sound came again, clearer this time. The whine of a finely tuned motor.

River tensed.

"Remember the stone," the Doctor whispered.

She took a deep breath, extended her senses, and suddenly, there was not one Doctor in front of her but many, each caught mid-motion. Many Doctors, and many Rivers, representing potential futures. She sought out the sharpest image:

iThe Doctor sprang to his feet and kicked her helmet over, releasing the buzzbot. At the same time, the cell door slid open, revealing a sentry floating in the entryway, another close behind. Using the sonic like a fishing rod, the Doctor flung the buzzbot at the first sentry. Metal blades whirring, it chewed through the sentry like paper, spewing sparks and white-hot bits of metal. The sentry stopped cold, in mid-air, and shuddered.

Before it fell to the ground, River darted forward and grabbed the gun attachment. As she did so, disruptor fire from the second sentry scored her side, charring her flesh. River screamed./i

No. Breathe in. Start again. Ah, that's what she needed to do.

She tightened her grip on her hammer. The door hissed open. Just as in her vision, the Doctor kicked the helmet aside and flung the buzzbot at the first sentry.

River rushed the damaged sentry, grabbed the barrel of its gun and used her momentum to swing it to face the hall. Her free hand flung the hammer at the second sentry, just as it brought its weapon to bear. The projectile hit the gun-arm and the shot went wide.

Four sentries remained. River used the first gun to fill the hall with weapon fire.

When she stopped, all six sentries lay crumpled on the floor.


ALERT!

PRISONER ESCAPE

EVALUATING...

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RISK UNACCEPTABLE

DIRECT TERMINATION AUTHORIZED

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NEW THREAT LEVEL: SADE

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BIO PROFILE EVALUATED

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SECURITY SUBROUTINE COMMAND:

/ISOLATE

/ELIMINATE LIFE SUPPORT

/SENTRY MATRIX 7 DEFENSIVE PATTERN

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MANUFACTURING PLANT COMMAND:

/SHIFT PRODUCTION TO SENTRY UNITS

/DEPLOY