Chapter Nine The Longest Game known in Time and Space
I fix the flower that I had put in my hair as the Doctor, Rose, and I (with Sivy on my shoulder, as he should be) stepped out.
"Look good?" I ask him and he nodded and I kissed his head.
"So, it's 200,000, it's a space ship...no wait a minute, space station, and uh...go and try that gate over there. Off you go." he tells Rose and pulls me over to him, wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his chin on my head.
"200,000?" Rose confirms, putting her hand on the door to open.
"I believe that's what the Time Lord said." I said and I can feel the Doctor grin at my remark. Rose giggles.
"Kay." She opens the TARDIS door and calls for Adam to come out. He steps out with his mouth hanging open.
"Oh my God." he says in an awestruck tone.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it." I said, giving what I hoped was a comforting smile but I was enjoying this scene too much too worry about it.
"Where are we?" he asks, looking around at everything with wide eyes. Rose nods at the question, as if she's gathering the information to tell him.
"Good question. Let's see. So, um...judging by the architecture, I'd say we're around the year 200,000," Adam nods and mumbles. The Doctor and I smile at her, "If you listen...engines. We're on some sort of space station. Yeah. Definitely a space station. It's a bit warm in here, they could turn the heating down...Tell you what-let's try that gate. Come on!" Rose leads Adam over to the gate and opens it up. The Doctor and I follow the two of them, our hands still connected. We enter a room that's looking over the Earth.
"Here we go! And this is..."she paused and looked down at the Earth. I bite back a grin as I notice how Adam has to hold onto the railings for support as he makes his way to Rose's side. "I'll let the Doctor describe it."
"The fourth great and bountiful human empire. And there it is. Planet Earth at its height. Covered with mega-cities, five moons-population 96 billion. The hub of a galactic domain, stretching across a million planets, a million species-with mankind right in the middle." I snort as Adam faints with a girlish sigh. None of us bother to turn around.
"He's your boyfriend." the Doctor and I remind her.
"Not anymore." Rose states with a sigh.
-DW-
The Doctor had his arms around my shoulders as we walked in front of Rose and Adam. Sivy played with my hair.
"You're gonna like this fantastic period of history. The human race at its most intelligent-culture, art, politics. This era has got fine food, good manners-"
"Our of the way!" a man rudely interrupts, pushing past the two of us. Everything suddenly springs to life. Food stools are set up all around and people bustle past us. I have to grab Sivy from jumping to the food.
"One at a time..." the chef at one of the food stools says. Stall keepers all around us are taking orders and everyone seems to be doing something to keep themselves busy. "Oi! You, mate! Stop pushing. Get back. I SAID, back." Rose examines the fast food behind the cases and turns to the two of us.
"Fine cuisine?" she asks with an eyebrow raised.
"My watch must be wrong," the Doctor said with a frown and checks it, "No, it's fine...weird."
"That's what comes of showing off. Your history's not as good as you thought it was." Rose teased. The Doctor raised his eyebrows at Rose's statement.
"My history's perfect."
"Well, obviously not..."Rose teased, smirking at the Doctor. Sivy tried to pry my fingers apart and attack the food. I tightened my intertwined fingers, keeping the hungry/greedy spider in.
"They're all human. What about the millions of planets? The millions of species? Where are they?" Adam questioned aloud, looking at the different humans bustling about. I frowned, that WAS a good question.
"Good question. Actually, that IS a good question." I said, untangling myself from the Doctor and looking around. The Doctor jovially placed an arm around Adam's shoulder.
"Adam, me' old mate, you must be starving." he says with a grin.
"No, I'm just a bit time sick."
"Nah, you just need a bit of grub," he says and goes to a cash point with the sonic screwdriver ready, "Have to use a cash point." We follow him, and he uses his sonic screwdriver to what looks like a futuristic bank and a credit card looking falls out. However, this one looked like a metal strip. He hands it to Adam.
"There you go-pocket money. Don't spend it all on sweets." the Doctor says and grabs my intertwined hands and pulls me along.
"How does it work?" Adam asked, examining the device bemusedly. I loosened my hands and Sivy broke through and crawled up to shoulder. The Doctor turned back.
"Go and find out! Stop nagging me! The thing is, Adam, time travel's like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guide book, you've got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers." Rose and I laugh and Adam just stares at the Doctor.
"Or is it just me? Stop asking questions, go on, do it!" The Doctor shoos them away. Adam turns and walks into the crowd and Rose makes to follow.
"Off you go then! Your first date." I said, giving Rose a grin.
"You're going to get a smack, you are." Rose warns, giving a smug grin back at me. When she's gone, the grin immediately disappears. I grab the Doctor's hand and we walk over to two women talking.
"Erm..this is gonna sound daft, but can you tell us where we are?" the Doctor asks. The black woman with dreadlocks indicates to a huge sign on the wall.
"Floor 139...could they write it any bigger?"
"Floor 139 of what?" I asked.
"Must've been a hell of a party." the black woman commented, crossing her arms.
"Oh, you're on Satellite Five." the other states, a white woman with short brown hair.
"What's Satellite Five?" the Doctor and I asked together.
"Come on, how could you get on without knowing where you are?"
"Look at us, we're stupid. Well, I more than her." the Doctor says pleasantly.
"Hang on, wait a minute-are you a test? Some sort of management test kind of thing?" the other asks, looking between the two of us. Sivy stands on his hind legs and crosses the front ones, making him look like an official.
"You've got us. Well done. You're too clever for us." He shows the girls the psychic paper. They straightened themselves up, showing us respect.
"We were warned about this in basic training. All workers have to be versed in company promotion." the brown-haired girl stated.
"Right. Fire away, ask your questions. If it gets me to Floor 500 I'll do anything." the girl with the dreadlocks says, flicking her hair back behind her shoulder.
"Why, what happens on Floor 500?" the Doctor asked, looking between the two girls.
"The walls are made of gold. And you two should know...Mr. and Mrs. Management. So...this is what we do." the black girl says, as if stating the oblivious. She walks away and leads them to the screens. The brown-haired girl smiled nervously at us.
"Latest news..sandstorms on the new Venus archipelago. Two hundred dead. Glasgow water riots into their third day...spacelane 37 closed by sunspot activity. And over on the Bad Wolf channel, the Face of Bo has just announced he's pregnant." I frowned, isn't the Face of Boe...a guy?
"I get it. You broadcast the news." the Doctor states with a nod, looking at all the different screens.
"We ARE the news. We're the journalists. We write it, package it, and sell it. 600 channels all coming out of Satellite Five, broadcasting everywhere. Nothing happens in the whole human empire without it going through us."
"All staff are reminded that the canteen area now has self cleaning tables. Thank you!" the loudspeaker says. An alarm sound and everyone starts to abandon the area. I turn around, looking at Rose and Adam, who were sitting down.
"Oi! Mutt and Jeff! Over here!" I called. Rose beams at us and gets up to joins us.
-DW-
The six of us went into a room with a bunch of other people. There was a chair in the middle of a raised octagonal platform in the middle of the room, around which the staff are sitting cross legged. In front of them are pads on which I assume they place their hands on. The Doctor, Rose, Adam, and I (Sivy still on my shoulder) stand leaning against some railings at the side of the room. The girl with the dreadlocks stood in the middle of the octagonal platform.
"Now. Everybody behave. We have a management inspection," she turns to the two of us, "How do you want it? By the book?"
"Oh, right from scratch, thanks." the Doctor answers. She turns away and the two of us smirk at each other.
"Ok, so-ladies, gentlemen, multisex, undecided or robot-my name is Cathica Santini Kadainy. That's Cathica with a 'C', in case you want to write to Floor 500 praising me, and please do…" the Doctor grins, giving a non-committal jerk of his head, "Now, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest, and be non-biased. That's company policy." She turns and smiles at the two of us. The Doctor and I give her a nod.
"Actually…it's the law." Cathica's friend interjected timidly and smiles shyly at the two of us. I frown at that.
"Yes, thank you, Suki. Okay, keep it calm…don't show off for the guests…here we go," she gets into the chair that was in the middle of the platform, "And engage safety.." The staff hold their hands out over their hand pads. Each of the eight walls light up as they do so. Sivy watches in amazement, which I can't really understand because I know something is wrong here. Cathica snaps her fingers and a door opens in her forehead, revealing her brain. I stick my tongue out in disgust. The staff place their hands down on the pads and close their eyes.
"And 3…2…and spike." From the machinery over her chair, a blue light spikes down into her brain, flowing into her.
"Compressed information, streaming into her. Reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they al get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Her brain IS the computer." The Doctor explains and Sivy jumps up and down, obviously excited about meeting someone else like him.
"I don't think he means someone like you, in fact…I'm not sure what's going on here is a good thing." I explained quietly and his shoulders slumped, showing how sad he was.
"If it all goes through her, she must be a genius." Rose comments and I shake my head.
"I don't think she remembers any of it. If she would I think her head would explode." I said walking around the room, circling the octagonal platform. Rose and the Doctor follow me.
"The brain's the processor. As soon as it closes, she forgets." He explained to Rose.
"So, what about all these people round the edge?" she asked, leaning close to one of them for a closer look.
"They've all go tiny little chips in their heads, connecting them to her and they transmit 600 channels. Every single fact in the empire beams out of this place." The Doctor says, finishing his circuit around the room and leans against the railing next to Adam. I stand behind one of the workers, crossing my arms and watching.
"Now, that's what I call power." Rose goes over next to Adam.
"You alright?" I hear her ask.
"I can see her brain."
"Do you want to get out?"
"No…no. This is technology, it's…it's amazing."
"This technology is wrong." The Doctor said and the three of us look at him.
"Trouble?" I question with a sly grin. He looks over at me, catching my eye.
"Oh yeah." There's a slight shuddering sound and Suki twitches. I slowly walk over to her. Suki gaps and lifts her hands off the pad. I back up and go back over to the Doctor. The other members of the staff are forced to lift their own hands too, and the lights in the walls turn off. The compressed information stops streaming into Cathica and the door in her head closes. Suki rubs her hands, breathing heavily.
"Come off it, Suki, I wasn't even halfway what was that for?" Cathica asks in an annoyed tone and stands up.
"Sorry, must've been a glitch…." A loudspeaker sounds over the room and a projection springs to life on the wall.
"Promotion." the loudspeaker says. Cathica folds her hands into a praying motion.
"This is it. Come on. God, make it me. Come on, say my name." The Doctor and I share a glance, I was concerned about Cathica's...eagerness, I guess, to get a promotion. Cathica shuts her eyes.
"Say my name, say my name..."she pleads and opens her eyes.
"Promotion for...Suki Macrae Cantrell." The words flash on the projection and Suki's mouth drops open. Cathica looks at her friend, well now probably her former friend, in jealously.
"Please proceed to Floor 500." Suki stands up and stares at the projection as if she cannot believe what she is seeing.
"I don't believe it...Floor 500..." Suki said in a awestruck tone.
"How the hell did you manage that? I'm above you!"
"I don't know, I just applied on the off-chance...and they've said yes!"
"That's so not fair, I've been applying to Floor 500 for three years!"
"What's Floor 500?" Rose asks the two of us. I frown.
"The walls are made of gold." We answer.
-DW-
The Doctor, Rose, Cathica, and I stand by the lift to say goodbye to Suki. Sivy was in my hands, seeing as he got bored with playing with my hair.
"Cathica, I'm gonna miss you! Floor 500," she turns to the two of us, "Thank you! Both of you!" The Doctor and I look at each other.
"But...we didn't do anything." I reminded her. She smiles warmly at the two of us.
"Well, you're my lucky charm!"
"All right! I'll hug anyone!" Suki giggles as the Doctor hugs her. I glance over at Cathica, who is stubbornly looking anywhere but at Suki. Rose leaves our group and goes over to Adam. Suki breaks the hug.
"Oh, my God, I've got to go, I can't keep them waiting," she picks up her bag and rushes over to the lift, which pings open and she steps inside, "I'm sorry! Say goodbye to Steve for me." I smile at her and the lift closes, Suki's last goodbye echoing. The Doctor, Rose, Sivy and I wave at her cheerily, however, Cathica looks away sourly.
"Good riddance."
"You're talking like you'll never see her again. She's only going upstairs." I noted, allowing Sivy to jump out of my hands and mess around on the floor.
"We won't. Once you go to Floor 500 you never come back." The Doctor looks at the closed lift doors, where Sivy is trying to pry them open. The Doctor's brow is furrowed, which means he's in deep thought about the current situation. Cathica starts walking through the canteen area and Rose and the Doctor start following her. I whistle for Sivy and he comes scurrying.
"Have you ever been up there?" the Doctor asked her.
"No. You need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with a promotion. No one gets to 500 except for the chosen few." She leads us to, what I think is, the same room where Suki got her promotion.
"Look, they only give us twenty minutes maintenance, can't you give it a rest?"
"But you've never been to another floor? Not even one floor down?" I question, settling myself into the chair on the platform. Sivy jumped up onto it and settled himself in my lap. Rose and the Doctor leaned on the back of it, the Doctor absentmindedly playing with my hair.
"I went to floor 16 when I first arrived, that's medical, that's when I got my head done, and then I-I came straight here. Satellite Five-you work, eat and sleep on the same floor. That's it, that's all," she eyes the Doctor and I, "You're not management, are you?"
"At last! She's clever!" I exclaim, throwing my hands up in the air. Cathica remained quiet for a moment.
"Yeah, well, whatever it is, don't involve me. I don't know anything."
"Don't you even ask?" the Doctor questioned, still playing with my hair.
"Well, why would I?"
"You're a journalist! Why's all the crew human?" I argued, crossing my legs and Sivy nudged my hand. I began stroking him.
"What's that got to do with anything?"
"There's no aliens on board. Why?" the Doctor asked, simplifying my question down for her.
"I don't know-no real reason, they're not banned or anything." I look around the room, not really happy with that answer.
"Then where are they?" I ask, crossing my arms.
"I suppose immigration's tightened up. It's had to, what, with all the threats." Cathica answers, almost looking stumped at my question.
"What threats?" Rose asked.
"I don't know...all of them. Usual stuff. And the price of space warp doubled so that kept the visitors away. Oh, and the government on Traffic Five's collapsed, so that lot stopped coming, you see..just...lots of little reasons, that's all." Cathica stammered out and I snorted.
"Adding up to one great big fact, and you didn't even notice. Tsk, tsk. Thought you lot weree the best." I scolded, shaking my head in a mock shame.
"Georige, I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it. We see everything."
"She and I can see better. This society's the wrong shape. Even the technology."
"It's cutting edge!" Cathica argued.
"It's backward! There's a great big door in your head! You should've chucked this out years ago!" the Doctor argued back.
"So, what do you think is going on?" Rose asked the two of us.
"It's not just this space station, it's the whole attitude. It's the way people think. The great and bountiful human empire's stunted. Something's holding it back." The Doctor's finger twirled a lock of hair around his finger and pulled my head back, making me look up at him. He and I shared a smile and I looked back at Cathica for an answer.
"And how would you know?"
"Trust me. Humanity's been set back about 90 years-when did Satellite Five start broadcasting?" the Doctor asked.
"91 years ago..." I smirk and raise my arms, hugging the Doctor as best as I could.
-DW-
"We're SO gonna get in trouble." Cathica says nervously. I stood next to the Doctor, Sivy on top of my head, as he's scanning the side of a door with his sonic screwdriver. Rose stood behind us and I can hear Cathica walk over to us.
"You're not allowed to touch the mainframe, you're gonna get told off." Cathica scolded and I rolled my eyes.
"Rose, tell her to button it." I command, looking back at the two of them.
"You can't just vandalize the place, someone's gonna notice!" Cathica whispers urgently. The two of us share a glance before we wrench the door open. The Doctor begins messing with the mainframe, giving me small tasks to do every once in awhile.
"This is nothing to do with me, I'm going back to work." I hear her begin to walk away.
"Go on then! See ya!" I call, looking back for a second before the Doctor pulls my attention back to the mainframe.
"I can't just leave you, can I!"
"If you wanna be useful, get 'em to turn the heating down. It's boiling. What's wrong with this place, can't they do something about it?" Rose questions and Sivy jumps off my head. I can hear his fan, which was built into his stomach, pop out and begin.
"Oh...I love your spider Georige."
"I don't know, we keep asking-something to do with the turbine."
"Something to do with the turbine." I mock and the Doctor snorts at my impression of the uptight Satellite Five worker.
"Well, I don't know!"
"Exactly! I give up on you, Cathica. Now, Rose and Georgie, look at the both of them," we both turn around and give Cathica a smile, "Rose and Georige are asking the right kind of questions."
"Oh, thank you." we both say and I turn back to helping the Doctor.
"Why is it so hot?" the Doctor questions.
"One minute you're worried about the Empire and the next it's the central heating!"
"Well, never underestimate plumbing. Plumbing's very important." I say and jump when the Doctor accidently snaps some wires. Cathica looks away, exasperated. After a few minutes, the Doctor had managed to hack into the mainframe. He turns the screen to Cathica and Sivy broke his fan down and it was sucked back into his stomach.
"Here we go-Satellite Five. Pipes and plumbing. Look at the layout." He grabs my hand and we move to stand behind Cathica so she can see. Cathica examines the screen.
"This is ridiculous. You've got access to the computer's core. You can look at the archive, the news, the stock exchange...and you're looking at pipes?" She turns to the two of us, bemused.
"But there's something wrong." the Doctor states and Sivy jumps over onto my shoulder. Cathica turns back to the screen.
"I suppose..."
"Why, what is it?" Rose questions.
"The ventilation system. Cooling ducts, ice filters, all working flat out...channeling massive amounts of heat DOWN." Cathica explains and looks upwards.
"All the way from the top." I said and Sivy looks up. He uses my hair to crawl on top of my head.
"Floor 500." Rose states.
"Something up there is generating tons and tons of heat." I added, fanning myself as I did so.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm missing out on a party. It's all going on upstair. Fancy a trip?" Rose asked, looking at the two of us. I smirked.
"You can't, you need a key." Oh Cathica, always the pessimistic.
"Keys are just codes, and I've got the codes right here," he lets go off my hand and taps a few keys, "Here we go-override 215.9" Sivy jumped off my head and onto the Doctor's shoulders. He crawled over to the screen and examines it, even though it looked like he was just looking at it he was absorbing the information into his hard drive.
"How come it giving you the code?" The Doctor, and Sivy, looked up at a security camera.
"Someone up there likes me." The lift doors open on Floor 139, and Rose, the Doctor, and I (I was holding Sivy because he kept pulling my hair when he was climbing onto my head) stepped into it. Cathica stops outside.
"Come on, come with us!" Rose calls.
"No way!" The Doctor and I wave goodbye. Sivy jumps up on his hind legs and waves along with us.
"Bye!" we called out.
"Well, don't mention my name. When you get in trouble, just don't involve me!" Cathica stalks off and I snorted.
"That's her gone. Adam's given up. Looks like it's just you, me and Rose," Sivy jumped up and down, "And Sivy." I smile shyly at him.
"Yeah." was all I said.
"Good." the Doctor said.
"Yep." I said and grin at him. He grins back and Rose nudges me and I smack her without looking at her. Sivy crawled up to my shoulder. The Doctor slots a card into the controls and grabs my hand as the doors close.
-DW-
The lift reaches Floor 500 and the doors open. We step out and I rub my arms for warmth.
"The walls are not made of gold. You should go back downstairs." the Doctor tells the two of us.
"Tough." I say and grab Rose's hand, striding forward together. The Doctor follows after a moment and drapes his leather jacket over my shoulders. Sivy crawls out and stands back on my shoulder. I give him a thankful smile and slide my arms in. We walked into a room where a man was standing, watching all of the screens in front of him.
"I started without you. This is fascinating. Satellite Five contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but YOU three...you don't exist!"He turns to face us, giving us a laugh. We stare straight back at him.
"Not a trace! No birth-no job-not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint?" Rose spots Suki sitting at one of the screens and rushes over immediately.
"Suki! Suki" Rose kneels next to her, but Suki doesn't respond. "Hello? Can you hear me? Suki? What've you done to her?"
"I think she's dead." I stated sadly, wrapping my arms around myself.
"She's working..."Rose said and looked at the other workers.
"They've all got chips in their head, and the chips keep going. Like puppets." Sivy crawled and wrapped himself around my neck, shaking quietly.
"Ohhh! You're full of information! But it's only fair we get information back, because apparently, you're no-one," He laughs and the Doctor nods, "It's so rare not to know something. Who are you?"
"It doesn't matter, 'cause we're off. Nice to meet you, " he grabs my hand and turns to Rose, "Come on." Four drones come and restrain us from leaving. Rose tries to get up but Suki's corpse grabs her arm.
"Tell me who you are!" the man demanded in a persistant tone.
"Since that information's keeping us alive, we're hardly gonna say, are we?" I commented and tried to jerk my arms from the grips of the corpses.
"Well, perhaps my Editor in Chief can convince you otherwise."
"So what're you then, just the Editor?" I ask sarcastically but he nods.
"And who's that?'' the Doctor asks, referring to the Editor's earlier question.
"It may interest you to know that this is NOT the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. In fact, it's not actually human at all. It's merely a place where humans happen to live." A creature speaks, causing Rose and I to jump, it's tone sounds angry.
"Yeah-sorry. It's a place where humans are allowed to live by kind permission of my client." He snaps his fingers and points upwards, where a huge slobbering lump of alien with a mouth full of sharp, snapping teeth just hung there.
"What is that?" Rose asks the Doctor nervously. My jaw drops and my eyes go wide.
"You mean, that thing's in charge of Satellite Five?" I question.
"That 'thing'-as you put it-is in charge of the human race," the Doctor looks at him in alarm, "For almost a hundred years, mankind had been shaped and guided, his knowledge and ambition strictly controlled by its broadcast news. Edited by my superior-your master-and humanities guiding light-the mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe," the Jagrafess roars, "I call him Max." The Doctor smiles sarcastically and nods, while I nervously chuckle and glance up at 'Max'. The corpses restrained the three of us with manacles, they had yet to see Sivy because the poor thing was still clutching onto the back of my neck.
"If we create a climate of fear...then it's easy to keep the borders closed. It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilize an economy..invent an enemy...change a vote..." the Editor began to explain before Rose interrupted.
"So, all the people on Earth are like, slaves."
"Well, now. There's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved?"
"Yes." the Doctor and I answered simultaneously.
"Oh. I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm going to get? 'Yes'?" The two of us repeated the same answer from before and the Editor laughs.
"You're no fun." he comments.
"Let me out of these manacles-you'll find out how much fun I am." the Doctor offered, holding them up for him to do so.
"Oh, he's tough, isn't he. But, come on. Isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it, just a little bit."
"You can't hide something on this scale. Somebody must've noticed." Rose commented, looking around.
"From time to time, someone yes. But the computer system allows me to see inside their brain...I can see the smallest doubt-and crush it," he grins, "And then they just carry on, living their life. Strutting about downstairs and all over the surface of the Earth like they're SO individual." The Doctor gently nudges my foot and I look up at him. He looks back down at his foot and I look at the direction his foot is pointing. I see Cathica sneak into the room and I keep quiet but I nudge back, showing that I understood.
"When of course, they're not. They're just cattle. In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed a thing."
"What about you? You're not a Jagra...uh...a"
"Jagrafess." I said.
"Jagrafess. You're not a Jagrafess. You're human."
"Yeah, well simply being human doesn't pay very well."
"But you couldn't have done this all on your own." Rose comments, looking over at the corpses controlling the computers. Maybe she saw Cathica too and was trying to buy her time.
"No! I represent a consortium of banks. Money prefers a long-term investment. Also, the Jagrafess needed a little hand to um...install himself."
"No wonder, a creature that size." I comment, glancing up at it.
"What's his life span?" the Doctor asks.
"Three thousand years."
"That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat. That's why Satellite Five's so hot. You pump it out of the creature, channel it downstairs-Jagrafess stays cool-stays alive. Satellite Five's one great big life support system."
"But THAT'S why you're so dangerous. Knowledge is power, but you remain unknown." He gives a small laugh and then clicks his fingers. I cried out as the manacles send an electric shock through me. The Doctor grimaces in pain.
"Leave them alone. I'm the Doctor, she's Georige Bond, she's Rose Tyler, we're nothing, we're just wandering." the Doctor begs. I bite my lips to try and conceal the pain that was growing.
"Tell me who you are!"
"I just said!"
"Yeah, but who do you work for? Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly-" he stops and then smiles. The Doctor looks at the Editor questioningly.
"Time Lord."
"What?" I question, not sure if I heard correctly.
"Oh, yes! The last of the Time Lords in his travelling machine. Oh, with his little human girl from long ago and how can we forget about the lonely goddess...also the last of her kind..." he touches my face gently but I jerk away roughly.
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"Time Travel."
"Someone's been telling you lies." I stated, glaring at the man.
"You master Adam Mitchell?" He snaps his fingers, and a projection of Adam, writhing with pain and shouting, the compressed information still flowing into him, appears in the air. My eyes go wide at the image.
"Oh, my God-his head!" Rose shouts in horror.
"What the hell's he done? What the hell's he gone and done?" the Doctor snapped.
"And through him, I know everything about you. Every piece of information in his head is now mine. And you have infinite knowledge, Doctor and Georige. The Human Empire is tiny compared to what you've seen in your T-A-R-D-I-S-TARDIS."
"You'll never get your hands on it. The Doctor would rather die than give the TARDIS up to a slimeball like you." I snapped.
"Die all you like. I don't need you. I've got the key." The key slowly floats from Adam's pocket and dangles in front of his face. The Doctor and I round on Rose.
"You and your boyfriends." we yell.
"Today, WE are the headlines. We can rewrite history. We could prevent mankind from ever developing."
"And no-one's gonna stop you. Because you've bred a human race that doesn't bother to ask questions. Gotta admit, it's a nice trick that you did, stupid little slaves, believing every lie. Give them a treat or pat them on the head if they don't question you. They'll just trot right into the slaughter house if they're told it's made of gold." I said, directing my speech at Cathica, who I hope was still listening. An alarm goes off.
"What's happening?" the Editor demands and a small smile begins to form on my face. The Doctor grins proudly down at me.
"Someone's disengaged the safety," he clicks his fingers-the projection shows Cathica, the compressed information flowing into her brain, "Who's that?!"
"It's Cathica!" Rose cries happily.
"And she's thinking. She using what she knows." I stated proudly.
"Terminate her access." the Editor commands Suki.
"Everything I told her about Satellite Five-the pipes-the filters-she's reversing it! Look at that," the icicles are beginning to melt, "It's getting hot."
"I said, terminate!" He frantically places his own hands over Suki's. "Burn her mind."
"Oh no you don't. You should've promoted me YEARS back." Cathica snaps. All the screens suddenly explode with sparks, and the Drones fall lifeless to the floor. Satellite Five shudders, and alarms go off. Rose and I's manacles come undone. The Editor tries to get the corpses to sit upright again.
"She's venting the heat up here. The Jagrafess needs to stay cool and now it's sitting on top of a volcano." The Doctor explains. The Jagrafess is roaring violently and the Doctor laughs in response. I start fumbeling through the Doctor's jacket pocket's, looking for the sonic screwdriver. I can feel poor Sivy shaking in terror at everything that was going on.
"Yes! Uh...I'm trying, sir but-I don't know how she did it, it's impossible. A member of staff with an idea-" The Jagrafess roars angrily and the Editor pushes Suki's body aside and tries to work the computer himself. The Jagrafess continued roaring and snapping his giant teeth at us menacingly.
"What do I do?" I exclaim.
"Flick the switch!" I do so and the sonic screwdriver buzzes. A small explosion goes off nearby, causing Rose and I to jump. I finally freed the Doctor.
"Oi, mate-wanna bank on a certainty? Massive heat in a massive body. Massive bang!" He frees himself just as lumps of flesh start falling off the Jagrafess. The Doctor grabs my hand and the three of us run for it.
"See you in the headlines!" I cry. The three of us run across Floor 500, the Doctor holding my hand and Sivy grasping tighter and tighter on my neck as we avoid the huge lumps of snow falling fromt the ceiling. We enter the room where Cathica is spiking the information into her head. The Doctor clicks his fingers and the door in Cathica's head closes. She looks up at the two of us and we smile back at her.
-DW-
Everyone is recovering from the commotion. The Doctor, Cathica and I (Sivy back on my shoulder now that it was much calmer) were sitting at a table in the canteen area and Rose is leaning on the bar behind them.
"We're just gonna go. I hate tidying up. Too many questions. You'll manage." the Doctor explains, drawing circles on the back of my hand. I still hadn't given back his jacket and he hadn't metioned it yet...I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty comfortable.
"You'll have to stay and explain it-no one's gonna believe me." Cathica begs.
"Oh, they might start believing a lot of things now. The Human Rae should accelerate. All back to normal." I said, giving her a smile.
"What about your friend?" she asks, looking behind us at what I assume was Adam. I glance back, my smile from earlier turning to a frown.
"He's not my friend." I notice that there's something menacing in the way he stands up and marches in Adam's direction. Rose and I share a glance before going after him.
"Now don't-" Rose warns but the Doctor ignores her. He advances on Adam.
"I'm all better now. Much better. I've got the key," he shows us the key, "Well, it's...I know. It all worked out for the best, didn't it?" Adam laughs nervously. The Doctor takes the key off him and grabs Adam. He unlocks the door of the TARDIS.
"You know, it's not actually my fault because YOU were in charge-" I shove Adam inside.
-DW-
The Doctor steers Adam out of the TARDIS, which has materialized in his living room. Rose and I follow them out, shutting the doors behind us.
"It's my house! I'm home! Oh, my God, I'm home!" The Doctor glares at him.
"Blimey. I thought you were going to chuck me out of an airlock."
"Is there something you want to tell me?" the Doctor asks, getting straight to the point...which I don't even know what the point is.
"No. Um...what do you mean?" The Doctor walks over to the telephone and picks it up.
"The archive of Satellite Five. One second of that message could've changed the world." Adam looks like a child that's been caught stealing an extra cookie. The Doctor puts the phone down and takes out his sonic screwdriver. Adam looks as though he wants to stop him but cannot think of anything to say. He merely points at him wordlessly while the Doctor blows up the telephone.
"That's it, then. See ya." He walks back to the TARDIS doors, grabbing my hand to walk in with him.
"How do you mean, 'see ya'?" Adam asked before we all walked in, leaving him behind.
"As in 'goodbye'." I said, looking at him.
"But...what about me? You can't just go, I've got my head-I've got a chip type two, my head opens."
"What, like this?" I question and click my fingers, opening Adam's head.
"Don't." he says angrily and clicks his fingers so it closes.
"Don't do what?" the Doctor questions and clicks his own fingers.
"Stop it!" Adam snaps and closes it again.
"All right now, Doctor, Georige, that's enough. Stop it." We back down. Adam thanks Rose, however, she clicks her own fingers.
"Oi!"
"Sorry, I couldn't resist." Rose sniggered. Adam closes it again.
"The whole of history could've changed because of you." I said.
"I just wanted to help." Adam defended and I snorted.
"You were helping yourself." I stated.
"And-I'm sorry. I've said I'm sorry, and I am, I really am-but you can't just leave me like this."
"Yes I can. 'Cos if you show your head to anyone, they'll dissect you in seconds. You'll have to live a very quiet life. Keep out of trouble. Be average. Unseen. Good luck." the Doctor says and opens the TARDIS door.
"But I wanna come with you!"
"I only take the best. I've got Georige and Rose." the two of us walk in when we hear the front door open.
-DW-
"Why am I so special Sivy? I'm nobody...just a sad little orphan who was given a great opportunity to see the universe. Why is the Doctor keeping something from me?" I ask my spider as I lay on my back, staring up at the ceiling. He sat on my stomach, rising up and down as I breathed.
"I...do...not...know mistress." A mechanical voice said and I slowly sat up, looking down at my faithful pet. I picked him up in my hands.
"Was...was that you?" I slowly question. Sivy stands on his hind legs proudly.
"Yes...it was me...the Doctor...has been...working on...creating a...voice for me. I was...finally able...to test it out...now." he explained and I smiled.
"Oh...that wonderful, brilliantly mad man." I smile, hugging Sivy tightly.