"I don't care about how long it'll take to redo it. It's a Protocol 9. That means leave!" Adam slammed the phone shut. People could be so difficult sometimes. Protocol 9 meant everyone evacuated. No exceptions. Well, except him and Danika, though technically he was supposed to leave as well. Not that he was going to. He'd been waiting 10 years for this day. The day the Doctor came back. The day he finally got to say he was sorry. The day he could finally show the Doctor that'd he'd changed. He wasn't the selfish little git he used to be. Today was the day he could finally prove himself worthy and make up for his past mistakes.
The phone rang. Oops. He'd forgotten that he'd had Col. Brighton on the other line. He flipped the phone open. "Sorry Sir, I -" He began apologizing but the Colonel cut him off.
"Save it Mr. Mitchell. Fill me in on the situation."
"An alarm of some sort."
"I heard." The Colonel interrupted again. Adam gritted his teeth. He hated talking to Col. Brighton.
"Right, yes, well I've initiated Protocol 9."
"As you should. Yet I see you're calling from your office."
"I'm staying here sir. I'll help Danika with the switch to Base Mode."
"I am sure Lt. Smith can handle such a simple task herself. You are to evacuate with the rest of the civilians."
"But…" He knew he had to tell the Colonel the truth but he hesitated. Col Brighton wouldn't like the fact that the Doctor was here. The two hadn't been on the best of terms after their last confrontation and he was certain the Colonel would bring it up constantly. Which wasn't good when the Doctor here hadn't met the Colonel yet. "It's a Code Blue, sir." He said finally. The sharp inhale over the line told him that he'd been right. Adam heard Col. Brighton mutter something to someone at his end that he couldn't make out.
"We'll be there in 10 minutes."
There was a click and the line went dead. 10 minutes? They'd been in London. How were they going to get here in 10 minutes? Maybe they had some sort of alien tech that could do superfast travel. Wouldn't surprise him. He just wished they'd release the tech to the public once in a while. He had to travel to London all the time for meetings and a gadget that could get him there in 10 minutes rather than the 6 hour train ride would be fantastic.
;;;;
"Are you coming up, Doctor?" Danika was standing at the faux-Tardis' console. He still hadn't recovered from the shock of seeing a Tardis here. He should have guessed, but, still… It bothered him. This whole place bothered him. There was something… off about it. He shook it off and bounced up the stairs to join Danika. She was pushing buttons on a strange hexagonal keyboard. He noted the hexagonal monitor above it. Then the hexagonal shape of the console itself. He looked around the room. The six-sided shape was everywhere. The shape of the beams, the lights in the walls, the doorway at the top of the stairs, even the room itself. All were hexagons.
"What's with the hexagon theme?" he asked.
"Not sure. Set design isn't my area." Danika muttered. She stopped typing and the lights in the warehouse went out. The room fell into blackness and the Doctor forced back the feeling of panic that always came with darkness. He opened his mouth to ask Danika about the lights but was cut short by the flicking on of green emergency lights. The faux-Tardis was cast in an eerie green glow that reminded him of when House had gotten ahold of his own. He pushed back that memory before any more from that day came forward.
"Did you do that?" He waved a hand around at the lights.
"Yeah, sorry about that. Should have warned you. It's part of the process of switching to Base Mode."
"Which is?..."
"This isn't just a television studio, Doctor." Danika smirked slightly. "It's also a fully functioning UNIT Base. All the alien tech that the show uses, yeah, we actually implement some of it into the mainframe. Like this one piece of Dalek tech." She flipped a switch and a holo-screen appeared in front of the far wall. "Salvaged after Canary Warf. Bit old school, but it revolutionized telly when we finally made it public."
The Doctor was only half listening. His mind was stuck on the words 'Canary Warf.' It seemed he couldn't take a step in this place without running across a bad memory. He stared at the screen, which was showing various radars and maps. A blip showed their current location, somewhere in the Scottish highlands. There were various other blips around the world; Geneva, London, New York. UNIT Bases if he had to guess.
"Anything headed our way?" Both Danika and the Doctor jumped at Adam's voice. They hadn't heard him approach.
"Not that I see." Danika said. "Well, besides the Colonel in the Valiant II." She pointed to a tiny blue blip that the Doctor had missed. It was moving straight towards them.
"Oh, so that's how he's getting here so fast."
"What's his E.T.A.?"
"Ten minutes. Though that was a couple minutes ago and Colonel Big-britches is probably going to try and make it in half that. 'I don't care what the top speed is. Go faster!'" Adam imitated a rough, snapping voice that caused Danika to laugh.
"I don't think that'll be fast enough." The Doctor pointed to a bright red blip that had appeared on the screen. At the speed it was moving it would be on top of them in less than five minutes. "We've got company."
Danika and Adam both paled slightly. But that could just have been the strange lighting playing tricks on his eyes. "I guess that alarm was louder than I thought." Adam whispered. "What do we do?"
"Well – " The Doctor started.
"We activate the proximity alarm and alert the Colonel as to the Code Blue." Danika interrupted. He looked over at her and saw her flip another switch on the steel and glass console. The green lights grew brighter and a low siren started up. It reminded him of the old air raid sirens. A red 'Proximity Alert' warning flashed on the holo-screen. She reached for the phone at her hip.
"Don't bother." Adam stopped her. "I already told him about the Code Blue."
"And his orders?"
"The only orders that ever accompany a Code Blue."
The Doctor stared back and forth at them. What was a Code Blue? It had to have happened a while ago for Adam to have already told the Colonel. It clicked in his mind. Of course. It was him. "And what are those orders?" He asked snidely. "To babysit me?"
"How do you know – " Danika scrunched her eyebrows in a way that was so like her father that the Doctor almost burst out laughing.
"It's the Doctor. Of course he knows." Adam explained. "And yes, basically."
"Right then." The Doctor grinned so wide his face hurt. He had a plan in mind, and for once, it was going to be fun. "Guess I'd better give you some work to do." He darted down the stairs and out of the faux-Tardis. He heard the two behind him groan and chase after him.