Bazoolium in hand and washing gathered, Rose stepped out of the TARDIS doors onto the playground of the Powell Estate.
The Doctor followed her shortly thereafter. He'd put his hand in his coat pocket, but as they walked towards Bucknall House, he reached over to take her hand. It simply didn't feel right, walking next to her, without their hands linked together.
They made their way up the stairs, chatting lightly about everything and nothing at all, until they made it to Jackie's floor. Rose opened the door and stepped inside, the Doctor following.
Jackie was working in the kitchen, trying to prepare lunch, counting down the minutes until the next ghost shift. She'd really enjoyed having her father back in her life. It was nice, having someone to talk to, especially since she hadn't heard from Rose in quite some time. Two whole months! What were her daughter and that alien doing now, she wondered?
"Mum, it's us! We're back!" Rose called, and the Doctor closed the door behind her.
The moment she heard Rose's voice, Jackie ran out of the kitchen. She was delighted to see her daughter in the foyer. "Oh, I don't know why you bother with that phone. You never use it!" she scolded, with a smile.
Rose grinned and held out her arms in invitation. "Shut up. Come here!"
Jackie launched into her arms and they made happy noises.
The Doctor tried to slip past them undetected. He was happy to see the Tyler women reunited, but he never knew what to expect from Jackie. Sometimes she was warm, sometimes she was cold.
Before he knew it, a hand grabbed hold of his jacket lapel and swung him around, and to his disgust, Jackie landed a few kisses on his lips. He protested to no avail.
Doctor unhanded, Jackie made her way back to Rose.
Rose shed her rucksack and passed it to her mother. "I've got loads of washing for you. And I got you this." She proudly held up the object. "It's from the market on this asteroid bazaar. It's made of, erm," she paused, tapping the bridge of her nose to help her remember. She turned to the Doctor asked, "What's it called?"
"Bazoolium," he piped in, and then returned to leafing through various magazines on the dining table.
She turned back to Jackie, who waited patiently for Rose to finish. "Bazoolium. When it's cold, yeah, it means it's gonna rain. When it's hot, it's gonna be sunny. You can use it to tell the weather."
"I've got a surprise for you and all," Jackie replied.
Rose nonchalantly tapped the weather trinket against her hand. "Oh, I get her bazoolium, she doesn't even say thanks." Figures that her mum wouldn't be fazed by it.
Jackie eagerly continued. "Guess who's coming to visit? You're just in time. He'll be here at ten past. Who do you think it is?"
"I don't know," Rose replied.
"Oh, go on, guess."
"No, I hate guessing. Just tell me."
"It's your grandad, Grandad Prentice."
"He's on his way any minute. Right. Cup of tea." She rushed back to the kitchen.
"She's gone mad," Rose said, hearing the approaching footsteps of the Doctor behind her.
"Tell me something new," he replied, a hint of amusement in his voice.
"Grandad Prentice, that's her dad. But he died, like, ten years ago."
The Doctor's face turned from curious to concerned. This was not Jackie Tyler's brand of madness. Somebody mucking about with timelines? Ghosts that aren't really ghosts? Could be any number of things.
"Oh my god, she's lost it." Rose walked into the kitchen ahead of him, and he cautiously leaned on the doorframe behind her.
"Mum?" She worried the Bazoolium in her hands. "What you just said about Granddad…"
Jackie turned away from the counter. "Any second now," she insisted.
"But he passed away. His heart gave out. Do you remember that?"
Jackie nodded. "Of course I do."
Oh, this was not good.
"Then how can he come back?" Rose asked.
"Why don't you ask him yourself?" She lifted her watch to check the time. "Ten past. Here he comes." She turned towards the wall.
A translucent, gray figure walked through the wall of the kitchen and stood next to Jackie.
This was really not good.
The Doctor stood next to Rose.
"Here we are, then. Dad, say hello to Rose. Hasn't she grown?" Jackie beamed at them and put her hands on her hips.
The figure never responded.
This was really, really not good.
"Erm, Jackie, are you the only one that's been visited like this?" the Doctor inquired.
"No, they're all over. You can go out and have a look. Seems like everyone's got one."
The Doctor turned tail and ran with Rose following. They headed down the steps and out to the middle of the estate. "They're everywhere," he observed.
Children played, people milled around, but none of them were terrified.
Rose pointed and yelled, "Doctor, look out!"
He turned just in time to see the figure walking towards him before it passed through his body. The feeling wasn't painful, but it wasn't pleasant, either.
Jackie finally joined them. "You haven't got long. Midday shift only lasts a couple of minutes. They're about to fade."
"What do you mean, 'shift'? Since when did ghosts have shifts? Since when did shifts have ghosts? What's going on?" he demanded, a bit perturbed.
"Oh, he's not happy when I know more than him, is he?" Jackie said, a bit smug.
"No one's running or screaming or freaking out," he posed, ignoring her statement.
"Why should we?" Jackie looked at her watch again. "Here we go. Twelve minutes past." She smiled.
The Doctor looked around suspiciously, and they all headed back to the flat.
Once inside, the Doctor turned on the telly. News, talk shows, adverts, and daytime soaps all featured the ghost phenomenon. He rubbed his eyes at the absurdity of it all. "It's all over the world." He muted the telly and turned to Jackie. "When did it start?"
"Well, first of all, Peggy heard this noise in the cellar, so she goes down—"
He didn't have time for this. "No, I mean worldwide."
"Oh! That was about two months ago. Just happened. Woke up one morning and there they all were. Ghosts everywhere. We all ran around screaming and that. Whole planet was panicking. No sign of you, thank you very much."
Two months ago. That was when the Doctor and Rose had visited Jackie last, when they had the run-in with Elton and the Absorbaloff. Shortly after that, they'd visited the London Olympics, and the Doctor had his premonition about Rose...blimey, he'd been a bit preoccupied for a while, hadn't he? He and Rose shared the briefest of glances.
"Then it sort of sank in," Jackie continued, and she looked up at Rose. "Took us time to realize that we're lucky."
"What makes you think it's Granddad?" Rose asked.
"It just feels like him. There's that smell, those old cigarettes. Can't you smell it?"
"I wish I could, Mum, but I can't," Rose answered gently. She hated letting her mother down.
"Well, you've got to make an effort. You've got to want it, sweetheart."
"And the more you want it, the stronger it gets?" the Doctor asked.
"Sort of, yeah."
He rubbed the back of his head. "Like a psychic link. 'Course you want your old dad to be alive, but you're wishing him into existence. The ghosts are using that to pull themselves in."
"You're spoiling it," Jackie said, not making an effort to hide her hurt.
He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Jackie, but there's no smell. There's no cigarettes. Just a memory." He didn't want to hurt Jackie, but she needed to know the truth.
"But if they're not ghosts, what are they, then?" Rose asked.
The Doctor looked away in thought.
"Yeah, but they're human," Jackie argued. "You can see them. They look human."
"She's got a point. I mean, they're all sort of blurred, but they're definitely people," Rose offered.
"Maybe not. They're pressing themselves into the surface of the world, but a footprint doesn't look like a boot." He sprang up and headed out the door for the TARDIS.
What he didn't tell them was that he thought they were pressing in from another universe onto the surface of the world, like the parallel one they'd been in. This was definitely not good. He needed to test his theory.
Jackie stared off into space. "I can't believe him. I've been talking to my father for almost two whole months, and he doesn't show up to stop any of this."
Rose touched her arm. "I'm sorry, Mum, but he means well."
"I wanted something special for myself, like you, and now I don't have anything." She swiped a tear from her cheek. "I'm going to make some tea. Cuppa?"
Rose nodded. "Ta." She watched her mother walk to the kitchen and followed her slowly. She felt terrible for doing this to her.
She glanced at the paper on the table. She read the headline: Ghost elected as MP for Leeds. "Mum, scratch that tea. We need to head to the TARDIS, find out what the Doctor's planning to do."
"Let me turn off the kettle," Jackie called from the stove.
Rose smiled. "You might just get your adventure yet."
"Yeah, yeah," Jackie waved her off as she stepped into the living room. "I don't need all this running around, you know. It's dangerous. I still worry about you."
"We're fine, Mum. I'm fine. Nothing's happened to me yet. The Doctor's always kept me safe." She grabbed the paper when her mother joined her, and they headed down to the park. She saw a few copper-colored cones on the grass.
When she entered the TARDIS, she could see one of the panels of grating had been pulled up and the Doctor working beneath the console. "According to the paper, they've elected a ghost as MP for Leeds. Now, don't tell me you're going to sit back and do nothing." She tossed the paper onto the console.
He hopped up out of grating, holding some sort of device and a pack on his back. "Who you gonna call?"
"Ghostbusters!" she shouted and laughed.
He kicked his feet in a dance. "I ain't 'fraid of no ghosts," he imitated the theme song, and walked towards the doors.
Once outside, the Doctor set a third cone on the ground and eyed its position in relation to the others. He moved with urgency. "When's the next shift?"
"Quarter to," Jackie replied. "But don't go causing trouble. What's that lot do?"
"Triangulates their point of origin," he replied. He picked up the cone again and attached some wires to it.
"I don't suppose it's the Gelth," Rose offered.
"Nah, they were just coming through one little rift. This lot are transposing themselves over the whole planet. Like tracing paper." He scurried around the cones, checking to see if they were in the alignment of a perfect isosceles triangle, and attached more wires.
Jackie grew more annoyed with him by the minute. "You're always doing this. Reducing it to science. Why can't it just be real? But just think of it, though. All the people we've lost, our families coming back home. Don't you think it's beautiful?"
Rose knew that was a sore spot for him. She worried their discussion might become a bit more forceful. Jackie didn't understand that the Doctor was a scientist at heart, and he wasn't bound by 21st Century Earth ideals.
He paused from his work. "I think it's horrific."
Jackie was taken aback. How could someone be so cold?
"Rose, give us a hand!" He picked up the coil of wire and started unwinding it as he ran into the TARDIS, and Rose followed him. She felt bad for her mother, wished she could help her mum understand, but she and the Doctor had a job to do.
Jackie was even more annoyed. Why wasn't Rose agreeing with her? She knew that Rose and the Doctor had a relationship, and Rose would be more likely to take up his side, but she felt a little slighted. She followed the two into the TARDIS and closed the door behind her.
How much had the Doctor rubbed off on her daughter? What had he been teaching her all this time? Would Rose eventually become just as cold as him? She stood by the doors and watched the pair.
The Doctor rushed about the console, plugging the end of the wire into a jack. He pointed at the monitor and Rose watched intently. "Soon as the cones activate, if that line goes into the red, press that button there. If it doesn't stop," he pulled out that device he uses occasionally, "hold it against the port, eight seconds and stop."
Jackie didn't understand a word he just said, but Rose did, apparently.
"15B, eight seconds," she repeated, taking the sonic from him.
"If it goes into the blue, activate the deep scan on the left." He pointed across the console.
"Hang on a minute, I know." She pointed to some button or other and looked at the Doctor for confirmation. "It's that one?"
"Mmm, close," he replied.
Rose selected another button. "That one?"
"Mmm, now you've just killed us." He smiled.
Rose giggled.
Oh, sure, the end of the world might be coming, but they had time to flirt.
Rose took a minute to think this time. "Er, that one?"
"Yeah!" he shouted in triumph. He turned to Jackie. "Now, how long have we got, two minutes to go?"
So he had known she was there. How nice of him to finally acknowledge her.
She looked at her watch. "Yeah."
"Thanks!" He ran past her out the doors to tend to the contraption he'd set up in the grass.
Jackie approached her daughter and watched her.
"What's the line doing?" the Doctor called from outside.
"It's alright. It's holding!" Rose shouted.
"You even look like him," Jackie said.
"How do you mean?" Rose asked. "I suppose I do, yeah."
Jackie heard the smile in her voice, but she wasn't amused. "You've changed so much."
"For the better," Rose replied, a bit testy.
"I suppose," Jackie mirrored her words.
Rose wheeled around. "Mum, I used to work in a shop."
As if that makes someone's life less meaningful, Jackie thought. "I've worked in shops. What's wrong with that?"
Rose turned to watch the monitor. "No, I didn't mean that," she said softly.
"I know what you meant. What happens when I'm gone?"
Rose looked a little hurt. "Don't talk like that."
Her daughter was just swanning around the universe, not giving any thought to those left behind anymore. Just like the Doctor. She was happy with him, Jackie understood, but she also knows how many days she crosses off on calendars before she gets a call or visit. "No, but really. When I'm dead and buried, you won't have any reason to come back home. What happens then?"
"I don't know," she replied.
Rose hadn't given any thought to this at all. She was only 20. She'd seen so much, grown so much, but she was still so young. She'd been disillusioned by her life with the Doctor.
"Do you think you'll ever settle down?"
"The Doctor never will, so I can't." She looked at her mum. "I'll just keep on traveling."
If anybody knew that life wasn't all sunshine and starbursts, it was Jackie. She hadn't counted on Pete dying so young, but it'd happened without warning. She was just like Rose when she was younger, all naive, thinking that life would be happy forever. Sure, she and Pete didn't get along, and they'd been going through a rough patch when he passed, but she loved him.
She had a feeling Rose was going to learn the hard way that things wouldn't stay perfect forever like she wanted. Not that she wished for anything to happen, but she would be there for her daughter when it did. Rose would be crushed. She'd have to learn how to pick up a normal life again.
Jackie could see how her travels had affected her. She'd agreed with what Jackie saw as the Doctor's bleak outlook on life, or, at the least, hadn't disagreed with him.
"And you'll keep on changing. And in forty years' time, there'll be this woman, this strange woman, walking through the marketplace on some planet a billion miles from Earth. But she's not Rose Tyler. Not anymore. She's not even human."
"Here we go!" the Doctor interrupted.
Rose wouldn't listen anymore, his voice having her full attention, so Jackie gave up.
"Scanner's working! It says Delta one six!"
Jackie sighed. She walked to a ledge near the door and climbed up a step ladder to sit on it.
Outside the TARDIS, the Doctor watched his contraption with anticipation. "Come on then, you beauty!" he crowed and moved his feet excitedly.
The cones crackled with electricity as a ghost materialized.
He slid on his 3D glasses to see if his parallel universe theory was correct. If so, the ghost would be surrounded by Void particles. And...it was. This was really, really not good. That meant there was another gap in between universes, and he'd have to close it.
He messed with a few settings on the electric current controller. Time to poke the ghost.
The ghost moved about in discomfort.
He chuckled. "Look at that! Don't like that much, do you?" He clenched his teeth. "Who are you? Where are you coming from?"
The ghost thrashed out at him.
"Whoa! That's more like it. Not so friendly now, are you?"
The ghost dissipated.
He set about collecting the cones and ran back into the TARDIS. He stored the equipment underneath the grating near the console and threw his coat over the coral strut near the door. "I said so. Those ghosts are being forced into existence from one specific point, and I can track down the source. Allons-y!" The Doctor threw a lever, and the TARDIS lurched. He and Rose fell back onto the jump seat.
Once the TARDIS was stable, he bounded around the console, pressing buttons and turning dials. He grinned like a maniac. "I like that. 'Allons-y.' I should say 'allons-y' more often. Allons-y. 'Look sharp, Rose Tyler. Allons-y.' And then, it would be really brilliant if I met someone called Alonso, because then I could say, 'Allons-y, Alonso,' every time." He stopped in front of Rose. She hadn't said anything at all. "You're staring at me."
She motioned with her eyes to the side of the console room. "My mum's still on board," she whispered.
The Doctor looked up in horror to see Jackie sitting on a ledge near the door, complete with a scowl.
"If we end up on Mars, I'm gonna kill you," she threatened.
He believed it, too.
Jackie hopped down from the ledge and walked towards the console. "Where we going then?"
"Not sure," the Doctor replied. He flipped a switch to turn on the outside scanner once the TARDIS began to materialize.
The trio watched as armed soldiers assume their positions in front of the doors. A commanding officer barked out orders.
"Oh, well, there goes the advantage of surprise." He stood back with his arms crossed. "Still, cuts to the chase." He rubbed the back of his head. "Stay in here, look after Jackie." He didn't want Rose (or Jackie, for that matter) in the middle of any of that. Humans tended to be trigger happy.
Rose raised her hackles at that. She and the Doctor were a team. They were supposed to stick together. It was unusual for them to be separated on a mission, but this seemed to be a bit more high stakes than their usual fare. If the Doctor was going to put himself in a dangerous position, she wasn't about to let him do it alone. "I'm not looking after my mum."
"Well, you brought her."
"I was kidnapped!" Jackie objected.
Oh, we are not doing this 'pet' discussion again, Rose thought. She ran around him and blocked the door. "Doctor, they've got guns."
He raised his eyebrows. Of course, she was being difficult. "And I haven't." He rested his hands on her waist and swung her away from the door.
Rose rolled her eyes. She hated when he made decisions for her. Hadn't they just dealt with this a few weeks ago? Hadn't she told him not to do this?
"Which makes me the better person, don't you think? They can shoot me dead, but the moral high ground is mine." He ignored the look of disappointment and worry on her face, knowing how much she hated when he did these sorts of things. He'd be able to fix that when this mess was sorted. For now, his priority was keeping her safe. And Jackie really would kill him if something happened to Rose. Not to mention how Rose would feel if something happened to Jackie. He didn't even want to venture down that path. Really, he told himself, he was acting in all of their best interests, and he would explain that to her later, after he'd sorted this all out.
He opened the doors and stepped outside to the sound of cocking guns. He left the door slightly ajar, enough for the women inside to listen, hoping to appease Rose at least a little. He raised his hands in the air, a gesture of good faith.
To his surprise, a blond woman in a tailored black skirt suit appeared and applauded. "Oh! Oh, how marvelous!"
The soldiers lowered their guns and clapped as well.
The Doctor lowered his hands, and said, hesitantly, "Erm, thanks. Nice to meet you. I'm the Doctor."
"Oh, I should say. Hooray!" She clapped again.
The soldiers behind her stood and also clapped.
He nervously chuckled and looked around at them. "You've heard of me, then."
"Well, of course we have. And I have to say, if it wasn't for you, none of us would be here. The Doctor and the TARDIS!" She lifted her hands in astonishment at the machine and applauded again.
The Doctor chuckled again and motioned for them to stop. "And...and...and you are?"
"Oh, plenty of time for that," she smiled. "But according to the records, you're not one for traveling alone. The Doctor and his companion. That's the pattern, isn't it, right?"
He stared at the woman, left brow raised, trying to decide whether he could trust her or not.
"There's no point in hiding anything, not from us. So where is she?"
He didn't really have a choice, did he?
Should he reveal Rose? No, they'd probably seize the TARDIS, and that would leave Jackie vulnerable to their mercy, whoever they were. Rose was brilliant. She could hold her own, and she could investigate by herself. Jackie it is, then. Rose would have insisted on it anyway.
All at once, he flashed a smile. Play the fool for now. Earn their trust. Ask questions later. "Yes! Sorry, good point." He reached into the TARDIS behind him and felt a face. They'd been eavesdropping, just as he suspected, and that face definitely didn't belong to Rose. "She's just a bit shy, that's all." He tugged on Jackie's arm and closed the door. "But here she is, Rose Tyler!"
He prayed to Rassilon that she would trust him enough not to blow their cover. Even if she did, he'd recover. So he tested her. "Hmm, she's not the best I've ever had. Bit too blond. Not too steady on her pins. Lot of that." He opened and closed his fingers to indicate too much talking. "And just last week, she stared into the heart of the Time Vortex and aged fifty-seven years, but she'll do."
Jackie looked at him incredulously. "I'm forty!"
"Deluded. Bless. I'll have to trade her in. Do you need anyone? She's very good at tea." He scrunched up his nose. "Well, I say very good. I mean not bad. Well, I say not bad." He grinned. "Anyway, lead on! Allons-y!"
The woman turned and directed the soldiers away.
"But not too fast," the Doctor continued. "Her ankle's going." He followed the woman.
"I'll show you where my ankle's going," Jackie spat behind him.
He sighed in relief, quite impressed that Jackie had played along with his ruse. As much as he disliked being around her, and wasn't even a dislike so much as it was that she'd practically become his mother-in-law, it was evident from where Rose had received her wits. Pete and Jackie Tyler had very good genes.
Just inside the TARDIS doors, Rose heard everyone leaving, so she ran to the monitor. She knew the Doctor was up to something. He pulled Jackie out on purpose, probably to protect her, and because he needed Rose to do some investigating on her own. That sort of made up for earlier, she supposed, his actions reminding her that he very much trusted her.
The Doctor and Jackie followed the woman down a corridor.
"It was only a matter of time until you found us," she said, "and at last you've made it. I'd like to welcome you, Doctor." She opened a set of double doors. "Welcome to Torchwood."
The Doctor looked around at the warehouse space, large enough to house a good-sized spacecraft, among other things. "That's a Jathaa Sunglider." His gut churned. This was just like landing in Henry van Statten's museum all over again.
"Came down to Earth off the Shetland Islands ten years ago."
"What, did it crash?"
"No, we shot it down. It violated our airspace, then we stripped it bare. The weapon that destroyed the Sycorax on Christmas Day? That was us."
He looked at the woman, brows furrowed in disgust.
Jackie's expression read mortified. Even she knew this was wrong. This was worse than van Statten. Henry had no idea what he was doing, but Torchwood did.
"The Torchwood Institute has a motto. 'If it's alien, it's ours,'" she said. "Anything that comes from the sky, we strip it down and we use it, for the good of the British Empire."
"For the good of the what?" Jackie asked.
"The British Empire."
Oh, way worse than van Statten. The government was endorsing this?
"There isn't a British Empire," Jackie objected.
"Not yet," the woman answered smugly.
A soldier brought over a sort of gun.
The Doctor knew exactly what it was. He wouldn't be able to play the fool for long if this kept up.
"Now, if you wouldn't mind, do you recognize this, Doctor?" She took the gun in hand.
"That's a particle gun."
"Good, isn't it? Took us eight years to get it to work."
"It's the 21st Century. You can't have particle guns." His voice was measured.
"We must defend our border against the alien." She handed the gun back to the soldier. "Thank you, Sebastian, isn't it?"
"Yes, ma'am," he replied.
"Thank you, Sebastian." She smiled at the Doctor and Jackie. "I think it's very important to know everyone by name. Torchwood is a very modern organization. People skills, that's what it's all about these days. I'm a people person."
Jackie rolled her eyes.
"Have you got anyone called Alonso?" the Doctor asked. Anything to relieve a bit of the growing tension inside. Rose would've appreciated the question, if only she were with him.
Had Torchwood taken the TARDIS yet, he wondered? How was she getting on? Had she found anything? He missed her. The sooner he could sort these people, the sooner they could swan off in the TARDIS again, and they could drop Jackie at the flat, and...he really wanted to be able to make this up to Rose. Yeah, thinking about Rose right now was good. Anything to give him incentive to get out of this place sooner. Anything to distract him from his growing anger. After all, he couldn't blow up on them yet. He still needed to get information out of them about Torchwood, this woman, how they were involved with the ghosts that weren't really ghosts.
The woman knit her brows in confusion. "I don't think so. Is that important?"
"I suppose not. What was your name?"
"Yvonne. Yvonne Hartman."
He nodded. She trusted him at least a little, then. He walked over to an open crate to examine its contents. He picked up a gear-shaped object with a handle. Looked massive, but it was light as a feather.
"Ah, yes," Yvonne acknowledged. "Now, we're rather fond of these. The Magnaclamp. Found in a spaceship buried at the base of Mount Snowdon. Attach this to an object and it cancels the mass. I could use it to lift two tonnes of weight with a single hand. That's an imperial tonne, by the way. Torchwood refuses to go metric."
The Doctor tossed it back into the crate and brushed his hands together to wipe away the metaphorical filth. He stalked off to examine more of their confiscated technology.
"I could do with that to carry the shopping," Jackie added.
"All these devices are for Torchwood's benefit, not the general public's," Yvonne said, condescendingly.
Jackie scrunched her nose. How rude! She may not be posh, but she wasn't stupid, and she certainly didn't appreciate the patronizing.
She began to see the Doctor in a different light. She was still annoyed with him, of course, but he wasn't as cold as she'd pegged him earlier. They may give each other a hard time, but he was never outrightly disrespectful. At least he had a moral code, even if it didn't match hers, point-for-point.
She'd encountered a few monsters in her time with him. The Autons, Slitheen, the Sycorax, the Waterhive, every strange creature that Rose had described on her adventures. None of them compared to this organization, though. These people were the real monsters.
"So what about these ghosts?" the Doctor finally asked.
"Ah, yes, the ghosts. They're what you might call a side effect."
"Of what?" He still wore the look of aloofness and cooperation.
"All in good time, Doctor. There is an itinerary, trust me."
His gut turned again. He was owned by nobody, least of all this organization of scavengers. If they thought they could control him, they had another think coming.
Well, owned by nobody, except Rose.
Right on cue, a transporter rolled in with the TARDIS on the bed.
"Oi! Where are you taking that?" Jackie demanded.
He watched it like a hawk for a sign of Rose. The TARDIS assured him she was safe.
"If it's alien, it's ours," Yvonne repeated, noting his gaze on the ship.
Bad move. "You'll never get inside it."
Yvonne smirked. "Et cetera."
Apparently she'd heard that before. What had Torchwood done with other occupants of other ships? If they had shot down the Jathaa sunglider, what happened to the Jathaans? He shuddered.
He glanced at the TARDIS again, hoping to make some sort of contact with Rose.
The doors opened slightly and she peered out at him.
The Doctor nodded to her, telling her to be safe, but to do what she knew to do.
Rose noticed the tightness of his lips and his furrowed brows. He was angry about something. She managed to take a peek at the other contents of the warehouse, what she reckoned by the Doctor's countenance was alien technology they weren't supposed to have. Whomever these people were, they must have been misusing it. And since he'd already been in the warehouse, she needed to investigate elsewhere. She began to formulate plan.
The Doctor and Jackie followed Yvonne through the same set of double doors they'd walked through earlier and down another corridor.
"All those times I've been on Earth, I've never heard of you," he said, a hint of a question in his voice.
"Well, of course not," Yvonne replied. "You're the enemy. You're actually named in the Torchwood Foundation Charter of 1879 as an enemy of the crown."
"1879? That was called Torchwood, that house in Scotland."
"That's right. Where you encountered Queen Victoria and the werewolf."
"I think he makes half of it up," Jackie interjected.
The Doctor tugged on his ear. Apparently, Rose hadn't shared with her about that encounter. He felt a twinge of guilt.
He'd sensed a brewing conflict between the two women in the park, and he felt he was part of the reason for it. It was about more than just a disagreement a with Jackie about sentimentality over loved ones who've died.
Rose was generally mindful about keeping up with Jackie, but he also knew he'd selfishly kept her all to himself for the last two months. This was even after the Elton incident when Rose had expressed concern for Jackie's feelings about being left behind. He'd completely tossed those thoughts out the window the moment he had that premonition at the Olympics.
Time was irrelevant when one traveled on the TARDIS, but it was not for Jackie. The Doctor knew how it felt to lose his mother, to know that he'd never be able to see her again. Jackie would age faster than Rose would notice, and he didn't want Rose to regret missing time with her.
He'd never considered those left behind when he traveled with someone, but his time with Rose, and Jackie's slap so long ago, had opened his eyes. Well, it was easy to forget those left behind when he'd done that so easily with his own people, left them and never looked back unless it was necessary. It wasn't so easy to do when one's people weren't available to leave behind anymore.
He wanted nothing more than to have this mess sorted so he could talk this over with Rose, maybe figure out a better way for them to keep in touch. Certainly wouldn't hurt his standing in Jackie's eyes, either.
Yvonne pulled him back to the conversation at hand. "Her Majesty created the Torchwood Institute with the express intention of keeping Britain great, and fighting the alien horde."
"But if I'm the enemy, does that mean I'm a prisoner?" he asked.
The group rounded a corner and approached a large, secure door.
"Oh, yes. But we'll make you perfectly comfortable. And there is so much you can teach us." Yvonne scanned her badge and the door opened. "Starting with this." She indicated they walk in the room.
I'd like to teach you how not to murder aliens and steal their technology, the Doctor thought, but all disdain was quickly forgotten as he noticed the giant, bronze Sphere floating in the air. His gut twisted. A Void ship. No, this was definitely not good. So much for sorting this mess anytime soon.
"Now, what do you make of that?" Yvonne asked.
The Doctor stared at it.
Pieces of the puzzle started coming together.
It had broken through the Void, shattering the wall of the universe. It would explain why he and Rose and Mickey been pulled through the Void into the parallel world. And that means the ghosts were imposing themselves from the parallel dimension. He had a nagging suspicion who those beings might be if they were from the other universe.
He needed to repair the cracks in the walls of both universes, but how to do that? He'd have to investigate further. What was the connection between Torchwood and the ghosts? How was Torchwood controlling the appearance of the ghosts?
A man, somebody name Rajesh, tried to introduce himself, but all he heard was gibberish in the face of this monstrosity.
"Yeah," was all he said in response.
"What is that thing?" Jackie asked.
"We've got no idea," Yvonne replied.
"What's wrong with it?"
The Doctor drew a small amount of comfort from Jackie's questions. Rose asked questions like that.
All he wanted to do was run straight out of there with Rose and Jackie and get as far away as possible. Rose wouldn't let him, though. Not until this was all solved. She was good like that.
"What makes you think there's something wrong with it?" Rajesh asked.
"I don't know. It just feels weird."
The Doctor crossed to the platform and mounted the steps. He stopped underneath the Sphere and stared at it.
"The Sphere has that effect on everyone," Yvonne said. "Makes you want to run and hide. Like it's forbidden."
"We tried analyzing it using every device imaginable," Rajesh added. "But according to our instruments, the Sphere doesn't exist. It weighs nothing. It doesn't age. No heat, no radiation, and has no atomic mass."
The Doctor slipped on his 3D glasses. Void particles. This was a nightmare.
"But I can see it," Jackie asked, thinking that she understood Rajesh.
"Fascinating, isn't it? It upsets people because it gives off nothing. It is absent," he explained.
Clearly, the Doctor noticed something they all hadn't, Yvonne deduced. He looked idiotic in those paper glasses, but he knew something. She'd seen his worried expression when he saw the Sphere a moment ago. "Well, Doctor?"
"This is a Void Ship," he said, flatly.
"And what is that?" she asked.
He turned and took off the glasses. "Well, it's impossible, for starters. I always thought it was just a theory, but it's a vessel designed to exist outside time and space, traveling through the Void." The Doctor sat on the steps and folded his hands.
"And what's the Void?" Rajesh asked.
"The space between dimensions. There's all sorts of realities around us, different dimensions, billions of parallel universes all stacked up against each other. The Void is the space in between, containing absolutely nothing. Imagine that. Nothing. No light, no dark, no up, no down, no life, no time. Without end. My people called it the Void. The Eternals call it the Howling. But some people call it Hell."
Yvonne shivered.
Rajesh inquired further. "But someone built the Sphere. What for? Why go there?"
"To explore? To escape? You could sit inside that thing and eternity would pass you by. The Big Bang, end of the Universe, start of the next, wouldn't even touch the sides. You'd exist outside the whole of creation."
Yvonne shook off her premonition. She was too prideful for feelings like that. She'd eat her hat before she let something alien intimidate her. "You see? We were right. There is something inside it."
"Oh, yes," the Doctor cautioned.
Yvonne's smile dissipated.
"So how do we get in there?" Rajesh asked.
"We don't," he said, emphatically. He stood and pointed at the ship. "We send that thing back into hell! How did it get here in the first place?"
Yvonne crossed her arms. "Well, that's how it all started. The Sphere came through into this world, and the ghosts followed in its wake."
"Show me," he demanded and stormed off.
Yvonne and the rest followed.
The Doctor turned left into the corridor. "No, Doctor," he heard. He rolled his eyes. Hard to be brooding and dramatic to make a point when one turns the wrong way. He stormed off in the other direction anyway.
Meanwhile, in the TARDIS, Rose started to formulate a plan. She needed a disguise. If you're going to walk around anywhere, look like you belong. That's what the Doctor would tell her. She wouldn't viably be able to get a badge...but who needed one when she had the Doctor's psychic paper? She picked up his coat from the coral strut and dug through his pockets. "Psychic paper, psychic paper," she muttered to herself. Could be anywhere in these transdimensional pockets.
She rummaged around various objects. She felt something metal, and round, with a chain attached to it...handcuffs? She pulled her hand out of the pocket.
Handcuffs...she had an idea in a flash. Something not entirely pure. She could use handcuffs later (a more comfortable pair, of course), after all this was over, when she could get the Doctor all to herself again.
But for now, she had a job to do. She needed the psychic paper. She dug a little deeper this time, and finally found the small, leather packet. She pulled it out and fiddled with it in her hands, but she couldn't stop thinking about the Doctor and handcuffs. She smiled and bit her lip.
The TARDIS stopped shifting, which brought her back to reality. She waited a few moments for any nearby soldiers to leave, and then she ventured to take a look outside. She was in a corner of the warehouse she had briefly seen earlier through the doors. Nobody was around, so she started in one direction. She stopped when she heard voices and backed up to the TARDIS. Deciding to try the other direction, she was pleasantly surprised to see a white lab coat on a nearby table. She quickly grabbed the coat and snuck behind the TARDIS again.
White coat on, she wandered around the warehouse. She saw a man in another white coat walking towards the double doors on the side of the warehouse. She checked to make sure nobody else was following her and exited the room.
"This is the Lever Room, Doctor," Yvonne motioned as they rounded the corner to enter the long space. "Rose, you can stay in my office. This information I'm about to share with the Doctor is classified." She exited her office towards the white wall.
Jackie rolled her eyes again.
The Doctor shrugged at Jackie in apology, eyes on the floor.
"Go on." Jackie waved him off.
The Doctor caught up with Yvonne.
"The Sphere came through here," she said, referring to the wall. "A hole in the world."
The Doctor reached out to touch the wall.
"Not active at the moment, but when we fire particle engines at that exact spot, the breach opens up."
No wonder they needed to get the particle guns working. He turned to Yvonne. "How did you even find it?"
"We were getting warning signs for years, a radar black spot. So we built this place, Torchwood Tower. The breach was six hundred feet above sea level. It was on the only way to reach it."
Years. The Doctor had been gone from Earth for so long, fighting the war. If only he had been here sooner, he might have been able to stop this. He slid on the 3D glasses again to see a wall covered in Void particles.
"You built a skyscraper just to reach a spatial disturbance? How much money have you got?"
Yvonne smirked. "Enough." She turned and walked to her office.
Jackie heard the telltale click click of Yvonne's heels as she pieced together their location in London. "Hold on a minute. We're in Canary Wharf. Must be. This building, it's Canary Wharf."
"Well, that is the public name for it. But to those in the know, it's Torchwood," Yvonne replied.
The Doctor's voice cut in, and she wheeled around to listen.
"So, you find the breach, probe it, the Sphere comes through six hundred feet above London, bam. It leaves a hole in the fabric of reality. And that hole, you think, 'Oh, shall we leave it alone? Shall we back off? Shall we play it safe?' Nah, you think, 'Let's make it bigger!'" he mocked. Humans were a marvelous race, but they could also be so stupid sometimes.
"It's a massive source of energy," Yvonne reasoned. "If we can harness that power, we need never depend on the Middle East again. Britain will become truly independent. Look, you can see for yourself. Next ghost shift's in two minutes." She walked past the Doctor towards the computers.
"Cancel it," he demanded calmly.
"I don't think so."
"I'm warning you, cancel it," he demanded again, not so calmly.
She turned towards him. "Oh, exactly as the legends would have it. The Doctor, lording it over us. Assuming alien authority over the rights of man."
"Let me show you." He pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and walked behind the glass in her office. "Sphere comes through." He activated the sonic at an 'O' in TORCHWOOD, the resonance creating a spider crack that slowly expanded through the whole pane. "But when it made the hole, it cracked the world around it. The entire surface of this dimension splintered. And that's how the ghosts get through. That's how they get everywhere. They're bleeding through the fault lines. Walking from their world, across the Void, and into yours, with the human race hoping and wishing and helping them along. But too many ghosts, and—" He lightly tapped the glass, which shattered out of the frame.
Yvonne wouldn't budge. "Well, in that case we'll have to be more careful." She directed her staff to continue. "Positions! Ghost shift in one minute."
The Doctor stormed out of her office. "Miss Hartman, I am asking you, please don't do it."
She turned to face him. "We have done this a thousand times."
The Doctor threw his hands out, eyes wide, and he shouted, "Then stop at a thousand!"
"We're in control of the ghosts. The levers can open the breach, but equally they can close it."
He stared at her intensely for a moment. He couldn't reason with her, so he'd have to bluff. His demeanor changed in an instant. "Okay," he said simply, and turned to grab a chair from her office.
"Sorry?" she asked, confused.
"Never mind. As you were."
"What, is that it?"
"No, fair enough. Said my bit. Don't mind me." He sat in the office chair and turned to one of the staff. "Any chance of a cup of tea?"
"Ghost shift in twenty seconds," Adeola announced.
"Mmm, can't wait to see it," the Doctor said, fury hiding behind the crazy eyes and smile of a madman.
"You can't stop us, Doctor," she challenged, trying a bluff of her own.
"No, absolutely not." He looked at Jackie. "Pull up a chair, Rose. Come and watch the fireworks."
Jackie placed her arm on his shoulder and glanced between the Doctor and Yvonne.
"Ghost Shift in ten seconds." Adeola continued the countdown.
Yvonne stared at the Doctor.
He waggled his eyebrows.
"Nine, eight, seven."
She felt her resolve crumble under the Doctor's stare.
"Six, five, four, three, two—"
She gave up. "Stop the shift. I said stop."
The Doctor's manic face melted in relief. "Thank you," he breathed.
"I suppose it makes sense to get as much intelligence as possible. But the program will recommence, as soon as you've explained everything."
"I'm glad to be of help."
"And someone clear up this glass. They did warn me, Doctor. They said you like to make a mess." Yvonne walked into her office.
The Doctor swiveled in his chair to look at Jackie.
She looked at him. Jackie hardly ever got to see him work. She was actually quite impressed. Perhaps it wasn't entirely bad that Rose took after him.
Rose followed the mysterious man in the coat around a corner.
He glanced back at her and sped down the corridor.
Rose couldn't see his features, but he didn't seem to want to stop her, so she continued to follow him. She wouldn't give any hint that she wasn't supposed to be there. She couldn't risk the safety of her mother or the Doctor.
She ran when she saw him round another corner, but slowed when she heard a beep and a heavy door sliding open. She peeked around the corner as she caught the back of him walking into the room. The door closed. She approached the scanner and kissed the psychic paper for good luck. Clever her, it worked, and the door slid open again.
She cautiously walked into the large, cold room. All the metal on the walls left no room for a feeling of welcome. And something felt off the minute she walked in.
Her eyes roamed the room until they landed on the Sphere. A chill ran up her spine and she couldn't seem to look away.
"Can I help you?" Rajesh asked.
"I was just—" She pointed at the Sphere. She still couldn't take her eyes off of it.
"Try not to look. It does that to everyone. What do you want?"
"Sorry, um…" She tried to regain a sense of normalcy. "They sent me from personnel. They said some man had been taken prisoner, some sort of Doctor? I'm just checking the lines of communication. Did they tell you anything?" She rubbed her cheek, hoping her act was convincing enough.
"Can I see your authorization?" he asked.
"Sure," she said, with some uncertainty. She handed the psychic paper to him.
He glanced at the paper. "Well, that's lucky. You see, everyone at Torchwood has at least a basic level of psychic training. This paper is blank, and you're a fake." He touched his earpiece. "Seal the room. Call security."
Rose looked around for a way out as she heard the door locks activate. Her adrenaline kicked in.
Rajesh glanced behind him. "Samuel, can you check the door locks? She just walked right in."
The man at the controls turned around with a smile on his face. "Doing it now, sir."
Rose fought every instinct to react when she realized who it was.
Mickey gave her a thumbs up.
"Well, if you'd like to take a seat," Rajesh said.
Yvonne stared at diagrams of the Sphere on her computer. "So these ghosts, whatever they are, did they build the Sphere?"
"Must have. Aimed it at this dimension like a cannon ball," the Doctor replied.
She glanced at him. Specifically, his shoes, propped up on her desk. How could this man, this alien, strike fear in the heart of his enemies and be so childish at the same time?
Her computer beeped as she received a video call. It was from Rajesh. She touched her earpiece to accept the transmission.
"Yvonne? I think you should see this. We've got a visitor. We don't know who she is, but funnily enough, she arrived at the same time as the Doctor."
The Doctor curled his lip. Rose'd been found out.
Yvonne turned her laptop so the Doctor could see. "She one of yours?"
Rose didn't react, waiting for the Doctor's cue.
He shook his head. "Never seen her before in my life."
Yvonne lightly smiled. "Good. Then we can have her shot." Her turn to bluff.
The Doctor took a deep breath. "Oh, all right then. It was worth a try." He nodded in her direction. "That's, that's Rose Tyler."
"Sorry. Hello." She waved at the Doctor. She looked around for Jackie.
The Doctor waved back.
"Well, if that's Rose Tyler, who's she?" Yvonne asked, her eyes motioning to Jackie.
"I'm her mother," Jackie replied.
"Oh, you travel with her mother?" Yvonne raised her eyebrows.
"He kidnapped me," she protested.
His expression twisted in embarrassment. "Please, when Torchwood comes to write my complete history, don't tell people I traveled through time and space with her mother."
Yvonne laughed, but stopped when she heard a clunk.
"Charming." He may have earned some of his graces back in her eyes, but Jackie could've slapped him right then.
"I've got a reputation to uphold," he whined.
The Doctor hadn't known what that clunk was, but Yvonne did. She rose from her chair and poked her head out of her office. "Excuse me? Everyone? I thought I said stop the ghost shift. Who started the program?"
None of the computer technicians responded. The levers started moving of their own accord.
"I ordered you to stop! Who's doing that?"
No response.
Yvonne moved closer to the technicians. "Right, step away from the monitors, everyone."
The Doctor and Jackie stood in the office doorway. He noticed the technicians were the only employees who had two earpiece attachments. Now there was no doubt in his mind who was behind the ghosts.
Yvonne continued her efforts to no avail. "Gareth, Addy, stop what you're doing, right now. Matt, step away from your desk. That's an order! Stop the levers!"
Two scientists attended to the levers, trying to pull them back to the off position, but couldn't overpower them.
The Doctor walked over to Adeola and snapped his fingers in her face."What's she doing?"
Yvonne rushed over to help. "Addy, step away from the desk. Listen to me. Step away from the desk."
"She can't hear you," he said, voice low with dread. He watched the commands fly on the screen. "They're overriding the system. We're going into ghost shift."
In the Sphere Lab, Rajesh's computer alerted him of another ghost shift. "Yvonne, I thought you said the next ghost shift was cancelled. What's going on? Yvonne?" He heard no reply.
They heard a loud bang and the room shuddered.
Rajesh looked up at the Sphere. "It can't be." He moved out from behind his desk and ran to it.
Rose and Mickey followed.
"It's active!" he shouted.
The Sphere shuddered again.
The Doctor stood behind Adeola. "It's the earpiece. It's controlling them. I've seen this before." He pulled his sonic out of his pocket and paused. "Sorry. I'm so sorry." He activated the sonic, and the three technicians screamed and collapsed over their desks. They didn't move again.
Yvonne looked at the three. "What happened? What did you just do?"
"They're dead," the Doctor said and started working on the computer, trying to override the commands.
"You killed them," Jackie said.
"Oh, someone else did that long before I got here."
"But you killed them!" she shouted.
"Jackie, I haven't got time for this," he snapped.
"What are those ear pieces?" Yvonne asked, still shocked.
"Don't," he commanded.
"But they're standard comms devices. How does it control them?"
"Trust me, leave them alone." He touched Yvonne's shoulder as he dashed to another computer.
"But what are they?" She tugged on Adeola's earpiece and regretted it immediately as brain matter followed. "Oh, God! It goes inside their brain!" She almost vomited as she dropped it.
"What about the ghost shift?" He looked up from a computer at the growing white light.
"Ninety percent there and still running. Can't you stop it?" She watched him work over his shoulder.
His jaw clenched. "They're still controlling it. They've hijacked the system."
"Who's they?"
"It might be a remote transmitter but it's got to be close by." He pulled out his sonic and scanned the area for a signal. "I can trace it. Jackie, stay here!" he ordered and took off with Yvonne in tow.
"Keep those levers down. Keep them offline," Yvonne managed to get out before she left the room.
They missed the still-running video call from Rajesh. A thermal diagram of the Sphere glowed red and orange and yellow.
The wall began to ripple. Jackie squinted at the light, terrified.
Rajesh panicked. "We've got a problem down here. Yvonne, can you hear me? Yvonne, for God's sake. The Sphere is active! The readings are going wild! It's got weight, it's got mass, an electromagnetic field. It exists!"
The Sphere continued to shudder.
They heard a different thud.
"The door's sealed. Automatic quarantine. We can't get out!" he called.
Mickey grabbed Rose's hand. "It's all right, babe. We've beaten them before, we can beat them again. That's why I'm here. The fight goes on."
"The fight against what?" she asked.
"What do you think?" He squeezed her hand tighter to help balance them as the room shook.
The Doctor continued to follow the sonic down a corridor.
Yvonne stopped two passing soldiers. "You two. You come with us," she ordered, and they turned about face.
The Doctor stopped in the doorway of a room. Plastic hung from the ceiling. "What's down here?"
"I don't know. I think it's building work. It's just renovations," she replied, her voice low.
"You should go back," he cautioned.
"Think again," she countered.
He pulled back the plastic sheets and followed the sonic.
When the sonic indicated that he had arrived, he stopped and looked at the blue light.
"What is it? What's down here?"
"Earpieces, ear pods. This world's colliding with another, and I think I know which one."
He saw the outlines of familiar figures assume their positions behind the plastic. The metal clank of their footsteps was haunting. Broad shoulders, cold faces, square headpieces. Images he'd seen in nightmares of past experiences.
"What are they?" Yvonne asked.
"They came through first. The advance guard."
The figures ran a hand down the plastic and stepped through the tears.
"Cybermen!"
The soldiers fired rounds from their guns, but the Doctor knew that would accomplish nothing.
"We had them beaten, but then they escaped. The Cybermen just vanished. They found a way through to this world, but so did we," Mickey explained.
Rose stared. "The Doctor said that was impossible."
"Yeah, it's not the first time he's been wrong."
"What's inside that Sphere?"
"No one knows. Cyber Leader, Cyber King, Emperor of the Cybermen. Whatever it is, he's dead meat."
"It's good to see you." Rose beamed at him, proud through the pounding of her heart. This wasn't the same scared Mickey she used to know. He seemed older.
"Yeah. It's good to see you too." He smiled, feeling warm from her affirmation.
The Cybermen escorted Yvonne and the Doctor into the Lever Room.
"Get away from the machines. Do what they say. Don't fight them!" he warned the staff.
The Cybermen poised their weapons at the ready.
"Don't shoot!" the Doctor shouted, but they fired anyway, killing all the scientists in the room.
"What are they?" Jackie asked, panicked.
The Cyber Leader turned to her. "We are the Cybermen." He turned towards the levers again. "The ghost shift will be increased to one hundred percent."
The levers shifted upright.
ONLINE, the computer signaled.
The Doctor squinted against the light. "Here come the ghosts."
The shadowy figures materialized.
Rajesh worked at the computer furiously. "Can anyone hear me? Come on, I need help down here! I need—"
The sound of scraping metal cut him off. The Sphere shuddered again.
Mickey removed his coat and earpiece. "Here we go," he said, bracing himself for the Cybermen.
The Sphere started to open.
"But these Cybermen, what've they got to do with the ghosts?" Jackie asked.
"Don't you ever listen? 'A footprint doesn't look like a boot,'" he responded curtly, as if the answer were obvious.
"Achieving full transfer," called a Cyberman.
"They're Cybermen. All of the ghosts are Cybermen. Millions of them, right across the world." The Doctor could only imagine what horrors they were achieving around Earth.
"They're invading the whole planet," Yvonne said.
"It's not an invasion. It's too late for that. It's a victory," the Doctor replied, his voice low.
SPHERE ACTIVATED. SPHERE ACTIVATED. SPHERE ACTIVATED. SPHERE ACTIVATED, the computer called out.
Rose was down there. And he couldn't get to her.
The storm he feared, the storm he felt coming, was no longer approaching. The storm was here.
"I know what's in there, and I'm ready for them. I've got just the thing." Mickey ran over to the Sphere platform and pulled out a huge gun he'd stored underneath it. He resumed his position near his companions and aimed it at the opening Sphere. "This is going to blast them to Hell."
"Samuel, what are you doing?" Rajesh asked.
"The name's Mickey. Mickey Smith. Defending the Earth." He cocked the gun.
"But I don't understand. The Cybermen don't have the technology to build a Void Ship. That's way beyond you. How did you create that Sphere?" the Doctor demanded of the Cyber Leader.
"The Sphere is not ours," it replied in its signature flat, grating tone.
His intensity melted into fear. "What?"
The Cyber Leader continued. "The Sphere broke down the barriers between worlds. We only followed. Its origin is unknown."
"Then what's inside it?" he asked, his mind running through an infinite number of possibilities.
"Rose is down there," Jackie pointed out, panicked.
"You think I don't already know that?" he shouted.
"That's not Cybermen," Mickey said.
Four Daleks descended from the Sphere.
"Oh, my god," was all Rose could say.
"LOCATION, EARTH. LIFE FORMS DETECTED. EXTERMINATE!" the black Dalek commanded.
"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" the other three echoed.