A note/hint - the subplots/character POV are not necessarily in sync.

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CHAPTER 10. Reverse Engineering: 12-13 October 2010

Now back in the hands of its original owner and someone who – relatively speaking – actually knew what they were doing, the TARDIS rematerialised in the storeroom that Amy had parked it in several hours beforehand. It reappeared between precisely the same shelves of boxes, less than five seconds after it had left. The Doctor skipped out of the time machine, followed by Amy, Rory, Heviniye and a very nervous Nadezhda. The Doctor had been absolutely insistent on his presence, pointing out that with all due respect to Heviniye's diplomatic skills, the ordinary folk sometimes did it best.

"So, we're here, and on time for once. What's the plan?"

"Amy, I do believe it's a bit rich for you to be teasing me about lateness right now," the Doctor chided her gently.

"Oh please. Twelve hours, not twelve years. Plus another two."

He sighed. "You're never going to let that go, are you?"

"Nope, not if I live to be a thousand. Which I might, so be warned. Anyway – got any ideas? We're here, back where I started, in a room full of boxes."

"Yeah, got a thing."

"Last time you said that I almost got a bit too friendly with a bunch of Weeping Angels that I couldn't even see," she pointed out.

"But we survived that, didn't we?"

"Barely. So what's the thing?"

"Clever thing. Still working on it, shush now."

Amy rolled her eyes and turned to Rory, who was picking through one of the many grey plastic boxes lining the ceiling-high shelves.

"You OK? Sorry about running off like that. You know how it is – star about to blow up, ten billion people about to die. I couldn't resist. It's in my blood, I guess." Rory faced her and smiled, briefly burying the doubts and misgivings about their relationship that had built up over the course over the last few days and weeks.

"Like I could have stopped you."

"And don't you forget it."

He laughed, but quickly adopted a more solemn expression.

"But seriously, Amy. I know what you are and I'm starting to get a feel for what that means, but that doesn't mean I won't worry about you."

She pouted. "You take all the fun out of life."

"I can't help it. Even Time Ladies need someone to watch over them every now and then."

Amy sighed. "All right. But don't think I won't be returning the favour. With interest," she replied demurely, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Corner check."

"Clear."

"Clear," came the response from behind.

"Move."

The group followed General Gordost around the corner, cat-lithe. Not a sound was made as they moved into the next corridor – so much so that they couldn't even hear their own individual movements above the gentle whirring of machinery that pervaded the starship. The intent and efficiency of their motions belied the crushing despair and sense of failure beginning to dwell heavily on each and every man – for they all knew they had failed. They would fail. There simply wasn't enough time to reach the command centre, let alone disable it somehow.

The story was the same for the Navigation team when Gordost checked in, now bereft of its leader and the critical advantage she had given them. The Weapons Control team had briefly still maintained hope that they would reach their target with time to spare, but the security presence around that area had suddenly increased – there was no hope for them now either. It was futile, simply futile.

But they were a highly disciplined, professional and fiercely proud lot. They would do their duty to the bitter end – and beyond.

The only fragment of a hope remaining, the last flicker of light at the roof of the bottomless abyss they found themselves in, was a young, fiery alien girl and her friends.

The five slipped out of the storeroom and into the corridor, the Doctor leading the way with Amy and Rory close behind, sonics at the ready. Heviniye followed cautiously with Nadezhda, struggling to walk straight due to nerves, bringing up the rear.

"Er, Doctor? Where are we going? Command centre?" Amy whispered.

"No, no, of course not."

"Then where? Navigation team? Kinda feel bad about leaving them behind, you know, they sort of need my help."

"No time."

Amy bit her lip. "I could go and help them while you lot move on. They really do need a hand," she suggested, recalling the incident in the hallway.

"Hey, you're not going anywhere on your own." Rory hissed.

Amy rolled her eyes. "I didn't say I was going alone, numpty. But I appreciate the concern." She smiled and squeezed her fiancée's hand.

"Amy, I said no. Too dangerous, and we don't have the time."

"But, Doctor-"

"Amelia, no."

As usual, the use of his native tongue cowed the Scottish girl, although she maintained a sulky, worried pout. The Doctor was immensely thankful for this, as it seemed to be the only thing that worked nowadays. He had a sneaking suspicion that even this last resort would eventually lose effectiveness, something he quickly filed in Things That Shouldn't Be Contemplated.

"Alright. So where are we going?"

"Not far away."

"Where?"

He sighed. "Always so demanding. Fine. This ship is huge, it must have a PA system somewhere to send messages. If we can find a local control station and hack into it, I'll have a little chat with this leader of Theirs."

Behind the Doctor, the other four met each other's eyes briefly. This... this is the plan? Heviniye was the first to speak up.

"Not to be rude, Doctor, but They are trying to commit planetary genocide. I don't know if a talking to will dissuade them."

"Nonsense. Anything can be solved by a good amount of talking with a dash of running around. Occasionally you might have to yell a bit, but that's what Amy's here for."

"Oi!"

"Kidding."

Heviniye pursed her lips. "Diplomacy is wonderful, Doctor, but sometimes a bit more force is necessary – diplomacy just doesn't cut it."

"Wrong. So wrong." the Doctor replied, a hint more forcefulness in his voice.

Heviniye sighed. "Well, you're the Time Lord. We have no choice but to trust you."

"Believe me, Heviniye, that means a lot to me. I will save your planet."

They continued on silently for a few more minutes, bypassing a guard along the way, before Nadezhda's concern about the apparent paucity of the plan overcame his nervousness.

"Er, Doctor, I don't wish to rain on the parade, so to speak, but I know a thing or to about Their technology. Their security systems, both software and hardware, are without peer in this galaxy."

"Nothing's impossible. Surely it can be reverse-engineered, and if you can reverse-engineer something, you can hack it."

"Well... yes, you can."

"Of course you can. I know you've done it yourself, for instance."

Nadezhda blanched. "How... how did you know that?"

"I've been around, mate. I can tell when a piece of technology doesn't belong in a shop."

"Yes... well... it was years ago, and it wasn't especially successful. I was only trying to see what secrets I could employ in my own devices, gain a competitive advantage."

The Doctor grinned and patted the shopkeeper on the back. "Well, that time you didn't have a sonic screwdriver. Two, in fact – although the other one is a rather ugly looking sonic phone." He added, ignoring the steel-melting glare Amy had given him. Nadezhda blanched as the implication of the Doctor's words hit home.

"Wait... you're – you want me to do it?"

"'Course. Who else?"

"Doctor, I'm just a-"

"A shopkeeper. I know. And soon you'll become the most famous shopkeeper in the history of Stroyet. Sounds good, eh?" Nadezhda didn't look at all convinced, and was busy mustering some – any – form of protest when Rory cut across him.

"Er, Doctor?"

"Yes, Rory?"

"So we find this PA system, and hack into it, and talk to them – and then what? They'll find out where we are, and then it'll be the five of us, unarmed, versus however many soldiers with guns they throw at us."

"Well, yes, if we stay there, we'll all be killed. Correct."

"And so...?" The Doctor's grin only widened.

Amy narrowed her eyes. "That's not all there is to this plan, is there? Come on, spit it out, you've got more up your sleeve." He remained silent, grinning from ear to ear. "Come on, Doctor. You can tell me at least."

"Ah, Pond." The Doctor's eyes glinted mischievously even in the dull shadows of the cleft in which they were hiding. "Where's the fun in that?"

"We've completed a thorough analysis of the recording. It's definitely not related to any tongue in our database – the syntax, grammar and pronunciation are all from a linguistic base that doesn't have any overlaps with any other language we've ever encountered."

"Is that all?" I've already worked this all out myself, the leader thought, anger growing within him at the disturbance. The operator gulped, seeing the fire growing in his eyes.

"I would hazard that this language is completely unique to one planet, possibly requiring some genetic ability to understand."

"And so?"

"I – I had a hunch that there was some separate signal, a - a translation signal," the operator stammered. "And I found something – a concurrent signal running at the same time."

"So whoever this was has some sort of advanced encryption technology?"

The operator shook his head so rapidly it seemed to blur. "No - no, sir. The FTL frequencies that this signal are in are usually discounted as quantum noise – they are way beyond the scope of any technology ever developed, by Us or anyone else. Physically, they - well, they shouldn't be usable."

"But someone has."

"It seems so. There's more," the operator added quickly, growing in confidence now that he wasn't in danger of being... punished. "I decided to expand the search, see if any of our sensors had picked up these signals. There were a few blips here and there all over the ship, slightly stronger than normal, but a while ago there was a huge spike in this frequency."

"Where from?"

"Too large. I've never seen a signal this intense, from any frequency. It almost broke all our sensors, even though it wasn't supposed to be looking for it. But I think it originated from somewhere on this ship. There was no associated FTL communication or anything else, just this one massive signal."

The leader pursed his lips, deep in thought. "Do you have any ideas for what this is?"

The operator shrugged. "I'm not sure. Some sort of super-advanced encryption? A special translation field? Telepathy?"

The leader remained silent for a moment, buried in his own contemplations, but after a few seconds his eyes suddenly widened and his head shot up. "Wait. What was the last one?"

"Telepathy? I would find that highly unlikely though."

"That's why you're not the leader," he snarled, brushing the young man aside as he strode down the glittering hallway connecting his personal observation deck to the rest of the flagship.

Two heads are better than one, the old saying went.

This was certainly true of Time Lords and sneaking around a massive starship undetected. It quickly became apparent that the Doctor was in fact exceedingly adept at stealth, spotting tiny clefts and little hiding spots from guards standing in particular locations that even Amy would never have dreamed of.

Why can't he be this careful all the time, she wondered. Less fun, I guess. For her part, she continued to delight in disabling guards in amusing and often painful manners – sometimes a bit more often than was strictly necessary, earning her a few disapproving glares and sharp rebukes from her Time Lord counterpart. She, of course, completely ignored him.

Three hours of sneaking and about a dozen very confused guards later, they reached their destination, a tiled white room with a grey computer console next to a large steel box on the opposite wall. As they entered, the Doctor thought he heard a small gasp and another jolt of fear emanate from his friend. He turned to her, concern on his brow.

"Amy, you alright?"

She smiled, recovering herself in a flash. "'Course. I'm fine. Always fine."

"Sure?"

Amy's eyes narrowed, in that all too familiar you might be a Time Lord, but you're not my mother, so shut up before I hit you sort of way, named so because she'd used those exact words to accompany that facial expression. And then she had actually hit him.

"Sure."

"Okay, okay, just checking," he muttered, judging that his curiosity was not worth another nasty bruise at this point in time. "Alright. Nadezhda," he said, sonic-locking the door. He grabbed the phone out of Amy's surprised hand, shoving both it and his own screwdriver into the shopkeeper's palms. "Let's get working."

Nadezhda looked at the two strange devices in his hand. "Er... Doctor? How do I use these?"

"Keypad controls the frequencies. Think you'll find the combinations from 5102 to 5304 particularly useful," the Doctor replied from the steel box, his hands already busy at work with the jumble of wires within.

"And the other one? The green one?"

"Psychic interface. Just point and think – it's much more efficient," he added, having already seen that there were no loose objects lying around the room that could have been used as a missile by a certain offended redhead.

Nadezhda swallowed. "Doctor, are you absolutely sure I should be doing this? Not you?"

"I don't have any expertise with this stuff – you would be far quicker. Trust me, Nadezhda, you'll do fine. In fact, you'll do amazing. No, actually, after this, I'll get Heviniye here to make a medal for you. Call it the 'Saved Ten Billion People' award."

Nadezhda had to chuckle at that. "If you say so." He took a deep breath, used the screwdriver to expose the inner workings of the computer console and set to work. "Let's go and save ourselves a planet."

It took him less than ten minutes to reach the command centre – a personal record (not that anyone was measuring). He stepped inside, leaning over the railing on his own special balcony above the darkened, reddish room, filled with blinking small electronic lights.

"I need to activate the PA system. Right now."

"It will be done, leader," an operator below him replied, turning to a screen and expertly running his hands over the keyboard. However, rather than tell the leader the PA was ready for use, he leaned forward and frowned. "Wait... who...?"

"What? What?"

"Someone... someone seems to have hacked into our network and taken control of it. That shouldn't be possible..." he trailed off, staring astonished at the screen.

"Find the hacker. Now!" He screamed at no one in particular. No fewer than five different people – not all in security related jobs – bowed, muttered hasty acknowledgements, and shot out of the room. Their footsteps had not yet faded when a disembodied, booming voice resonated from the speakers embedded in the ceiling.

"Well, hello there. I'm the Doctor. Fancy a little chat?"

Something tells me the Doctor isn't about to invite our robed friend over for playtime, wouldn't you agree?