Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.
"Well, how are we going to get out?" I questioned.
The Doctor stood up and examined the fifteen-by-ten area that we were trapped in. "We'll use our resources."
"What resources do we have?" Harmony asked.
"Well, none at the moment." He answered, but walked to the other end of the room and tapped a small silver door in the center of the wall. "But, we do have this little box that could possibly hold the key to getting us out of here."
Harmony and I both smiled, and the Doctor attempted to pull the door off. After a few moments of pulling, he let go and breathed.
"So your screwdriver can't operate as a normal screwdriver? How convenient." Harmony muttered.
"Hey." He responded defensively. "My screwdriver is a lot better than a normal screwdriver."
Harmony rolled her eyes and walked over to the Doctor, lightly pushing him out of the way. She dug her fingernails in between the screws and the door, and eventually pulled them out slightly. She began to slowly unscrew them.
"Oi!" The Doctor complained. "I could've done that!"
"But you didn't." Harmony said, smirking.
The Doctor crossed his arms as Harmony finished unscrewing the screws, and finally opened the door. The Doctor began running his fingers over the various wires and switches, determining which one to configure or flip. He finally pulled two switches downward, one upward, and pulled out a wire. A moment later, the electric field surrounding us disappeared.
"Yes!" We all yelled simultaneously. We began running the other direction toward the stairs.
"Would he be out on the planet?" Harmony asked.
"Quite possibly." The Doctor said as we ran down the stairs to the main floor. As we stopped on the main floor to see where the prisoner had fled, we heard the doors open, and about twenty-five policeman ran inside.
"Intruders!" One of the ones in the back yelled.
The policeman standing in the front took out his badge and showed it to us. "You are trespassing on property of the Petrast Union,"
"A country on the planet Sto." The Doctor whispered.
"You will be arrested for your crimes." He said, walking up to us with handcuffs.
"Sorry, but that's not happening anytime soon." The Doctor said, running across the other end of the room as we quickly followed after him. Half of the policemen began to follow after us as well.
"What are we supposed to do?" I yelled to the Doctor as we entered a corridor.
"We have to get back to the TARDIS." He responded, halting at the end of the hallway where an elevator was positioned. He pressed his screwdriver against the button, and waved his hand anxiously at his side, aware that the policemen weren't too far behind us.
Finally, the doors opened, and we rushed inside, managing to get them shut just before the policemen reached us. The Doctor pressed one of the buttons on the panel and leaned against the wall.
"Once we get to the TARDIS, we can just leave." The Doctor said. "They'll take care of the prisoner."
I decided not to argue as the elevator doors opened, and the TARDIS waited ahead of us. We ran down the corridor past the prisoners and quickly entered the TARDIS. The Doctor ran to the console and began pressing buttons, holding Harmony's arm to prevent her from escaping.
He continued to change the controls, but we still remained stationary. He kept hitting buttons with a worried look on his face, but we didn't move. He knelt down and began examining the area beneath the console, and groaned loudly.
"What?" I asked.
"The fluid link is missing." He muttered loudly.
"Uh oh." Harmony said, crossing her arms.
"What is the fluid link?" I questioned.
"Basically," The Doctor started, getting up, "without it, we can't go anywhere."
"Great." I sighed.
"But it can't just disappear. Somebody would have needed to be in here." Harmony said.
"But how?" The Doctor asked, starting to look genuinely worried.
"Did you leave the door unlocked?"
"I don't remember! I didn't exactly suspect anybody to be walking around here."
"It must have been the prisoner, then."
"I guess we need to go back out there." I said.
"They'll arrest us. Even if we don't go back out there, they'll see the giant blue box in the middle of the room and take it back to their planet."
"There's still the perception filter. Maybe they won't notice the TARDIS." The Doctor said hopefully.
We heard footsteps outside of the door slowly approaching the TARDIS. "How did this get here?"
"I dunno. What should we do with it?"
"How am I supposed to know? Do you think the prisoners are inside?"
Someone pressed against the door, but couldn't get it open. He sighed. "It's locked."
"We should just report it to Restrav, then. He'll probably have it sent back to Petrast for investigation." He tapped on the outside. "Looks like something from Earth. It would certainly make a nice museum piece."
They began to walk away, and the Doctor leaned against the console. "Now would be a good time to search for the fluid link."
He slowly opened the door and checked to see if anybody was waiting outside. He motioned for us to follow him, and we exited the TARDIS.
"Alright, we should split up to search for the prisoner." The Doctor whispered. "Harmony can cover more ground quickly, but I need to trust that you won't go running off."
"I won't." She muttered.
"Alright, Harmony, you need to search the first three floors. Erin, you search the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors, and I will take the last four."
"Wait - what are we supposed to do if we find it?" I asked.
"Find one of us. More likely Harmony, then she can find me." He started to walk down the hall, and Harmony shut her eyes and disappeared.
"Wait!" I called to the Doctor. He spun around quickly and looked at me, waiting for me to speak.
"How exactly am I supposed to stop the prisoner if I find him?" I asked.
The Doctor hesitated, thinking. "You have a point. Hold on a moment." He ran to the TARDIS and unlocked it, running inside. After a moment of waiting, he came back outside, this time holding what appeared to be a small gun.
"Here you go." He handed to me. "A sonic blaster. Hopefully it will be of some assistance to you."
"What exactly does it do?" I asked.
"A lot of things. Mostly, it just makes square-shaped holes in the wall."
"Nice." I said, slightly disappointed. I looked back up at him. "You actually trust me with this?"
"It's not mine; it's a friend's. Just don't break it or anything important, and I'll be fine."
"Thanks." I said quietly.
He nodded, and started to walk toward the hallway. I looked at the elevator, where a silver 6 was printed next to it. I guess I'd better start investigating, I thought. I walked behind the TARDIS to a hallway behind the prison cells, and flicked through the settings on the blaster so it would operate as a light in the dark hallway. I held it next to my shoulder as I slowly walked through the dark hallway, passing various doors and signs. I decided to investigate each of the rooms individually; I walked to the first door on the left and used the sonic blaster to break the lock, and entered.
It was simply a custodial closet, with nothing more than a few brooms and mops occupying the space. I thought that it seemed pretty impractical to have a cleaning closet in a place you never plan to visit again. I shrugged as I searched through the room's contents, in hopes of finding the fluid link without crossing paths with the prisoner.
Of course, I did not find the link. I sighed as I stood back up and exited the room. I looked at the small chunk of the door that was no longer present due to the sonic blaster, and felt slightly guilty for leaving it that way. I shrugged it off and continued to the next room.
The next room I entered was more like a pantry, with large boxes of prepackaged foods lining the walls. In the back of the room was a large table with boxes of food piled on it, with an oblong tube leading out of the room to various parts of the prison. In front of the table was a small silver... robot. A robot?
I slowly approached the robot, holding the blaster up in defense. "Hello?" I called. It didn't respond. As I reached the table, I tapped the robot, and it fell over onto the table.
It appeared that the robot was used to prepare the food for the prisoners, for a plate with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich lay prepared beneath it. I wasn't convinced that it was completely inert, so I placed the sonic blaster to its back, and slowly pulled it up. To my shock, its metal chest had been ripped off, and several parts appeared to be missing.
So the prisoner had been in here. I shivered as I began searching between boxes for the possibility of the link. Once again, it wasn't anywhere in that room. I sighed as I walked out of the room and entered the one across the hall.
This room was another pantry, but it appeared that the robot was still working, as prepared meals shot up the tube. I slowly began to near the robot, holding the blaster in front of me. As I reached the table, it turned to me.
"Hello." It said in a monotonous tone. "How may I be of assistance?"
"Umm, has somebody been in here before me?" I asked.
"You are the first life form to enter this room for the past three years." It sighed. "This job is very lonely."
"I'm sorry." I said, patting its back. I soon realized that I was comforting a robot, and stopped. "Um, do you know what happened to the robot in the room over there?"
"012463?" It said, turning its head to me. "I have not spoken to any robot in this unit for the past three years."
"Well, umm, does anything indicate that somebody has been in there?"
The robot paused, then answered, "There are no cameras in that room, so I cannot be sure."
I sighed, realizing that this wasn't helping.
"But, I do have a link to his hard drive. I could see what events have occurred most recently."
"That would be helpful." I said gratefully.
The robot paused, again, then turned to the door. His eyes glowed white, and an image appeared in the middle of the air. It showed the robot working from its point of view, with it just repeatedly unwrapping sandwiches and placing them on plates, then sending them into the tube.
Suddenly, there was a noise. The robot turned around, and a tall figure stood at the door. He held up a gun, and began walking quickly to the robot. "Shut up and this will be quick." He said in a gruff voice. He grabbed the chest of the robot and ripped off the silver panel, holding it under his arm. He ripped a wire, and everything went black.
The robot turned off the screen, and blinked. "The life form registers as familiar. He is a prisoner."
"Yes, I know that." I said. "Do you have any weapons around here better than this?" I held up the blaster. "It only breaks locks and makes square holes."
"The unit does not hold weapons, for it is a prison, and the Petrast Union feels it is unnecessary to store them."
I scoffed. "Yet they put in a cleaning supply closet."
I looked at the robot. "How come you don't register me as an intruder?"
"You are not on the prisoner file, and it is impossible for anybody but the Petrast Union police force to enter this building. Though I am questioning your presence." It turned to me once more. "Are you an intruder?"
"Nope." I said. "Thank you for the assistance... what's your name?"
"012746." It said.
"That's not really a name." I said. "How about... Marvin?" I said, remembering a science fiction book I had read as a teenager.
"Marvin..." It trailed off, deep in thought.
I smiled. "Goodbye, Marvin."
I shut the door behind me as I continued down the hall. As I started to remove the lock on another door, a hand covered my mouth, while another arm wrapped around my chest. Before I could realize what was happening, I was being dragged to a different room.
Author's Note: I may not be able to update as often these coming weeks. I'm going to have a lot going on from now until the middle of March, but I will try to write as much as I can. Please review!