A/N: This story is almost finished. Two more chapters to go, I think. And, I was wondering, would anyone want to see a story in comic form? I was thinking of doing one, but if no one wnts to read it, there is really no point. It'll go up on DeviantArt if it ever does get done. Anyway, tell me what you think.
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. But I do now own a new pen, so now, I can write more stories for y'all.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: COMPUTER SKILLS
When she walked back into the control room, Brittany made sure to keep away from Sergeant Jake. She felt like she would be pushing her luck if she talked to him again. He was starting to mistrust her ruse, and she really had no desire to be revealed just yet. At least she had one ally in this place. Ben had followed her inside, offering to keep her company. Brittany decided that having a friend in this place was a good idea, and on the way to the control room, she had learnt a bit more about him.
Ben Mitchells was an unwilling conscript, dragged off the streets, given a weapon, and expected to fight. There was nothing he could do; if he refused to follow orders, he could be thrown into a cell and have his rations reduced. Good men had died down in those cells, as an example to the others. On General Miller's orders, too.
From what she had heard, Brittany had decided that Miller wasn't a very nice individual. Killing innocent conscripts just to set an example was butchery, but it seemed that nobody had done anything about it. If she wasn't so busy trying to keep up the ruse of Captain Harvey, she would have gone and given the General a good talking to.
Instead, she was sitting in the corner of the control room, watching colourful displays spin across wall-length screens. It was all a bit much, really. Compared to this, a party with the mafia seemed much preferable.
She was still brooding in the corner when the largest attack of the night came. The whole base shook from the impact, sending Brittany, and many other people, tumbling to the floor. Yellow-white sparks showered over her, while a fire broke out somewhere to her right. Above the crashes and squealing of metal, she could make out Jake's voice, barking out orders. "-eached, get to defence stations everyone. Sky Riders inbound from North 45, so get to it, go!"
She was aware that Ben was trying to say something, so she focused her still confused senses on him.
"Brittany? Are you alright? Need any help?"
"Nah," she replied, dragging herself back to her feet. "I'm fine, don't worry about me."
Jake tapped her on the shoulder. "Captain Harvey, could you and Private Mitchell stay here?"
Brittany shrugged and glanced around at the deserted room. "Yeah," she said, slightly confused by it all. "Fine by me."
The sergeant nodded, and handed her a fire extinguisher. "Do yourself a favour," he said on his way out of the door, "and put out that fire."
Brittany scowled as the door swung shut, and sprayed thick yellow foam over the spluttering flames. "The cheek," she muttered, discarding the empty metal canister, "the bloody cheek. Where'd they all go?"
For an unwilling soldier, Ben loaded his gun like an expert. "The base has been breached. Sky Riders are inside Tiger Base Three."
Brittany frowned at the empty room. "But where did everyone go?" she repeated. "This is the control room, isn't it?"
"This is the communications room," Ben corrected, waving a hand at their surroundings. "If there's a real emergency, Sampson heads down to the war room. That's where Miller normally is," he added, watching Brittany pull the sonic screwdriver out of her pocket. "Even Jake tries to avoid the General."
"I don't blame him," Brittany admitted, choosing at random a computer terminal to desecrate. After a few bursts from the screwdriver, the metal cover came off and she threw it to the floor.
Ben watched curiously as she began to fiddle with the electronics inside the terminal's casing. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"Trying to get into the system," she answered, pulling some wires out and discarding them over her shoulder, "but I'm not sure what I'm doing. The Doctor taught me a bit of electronics but, to be honest, I was too busy sleeping to listen."
"This Doctor," Ben said, pressing the computer's 'on' switch, "who is he?"
Brittany chuckled, both at the question and her own ineptitude. "Now, if I told you that, I'd have to kill you. And he would probably kill me for killing you, but never mind that."
A log-in screen appeared on the computer, and Brittany frowned at it. Once again, Ben helped her out by typing in a login code. The screen went blank, then prompted her to scan her ID. Ben was already reaching for his, but Brittany pulled out the psychic paper and ran it across a glowing scanner.
"You know, I never asked," she said as she tucked the leather wallet away. "Are you all nocturnal, I mean, with the Sky Riders coming only at night and all?"
Ben shook his head as he reached for the keyboard. "We take alternate shifts. Just luck of the –"
The lights flickered and went out, plunging the communications room into darkness, apart from the eerie blue glow coming from the computer monitors. After a few seconds, the lights came back on, along with the hum of heretofore unnoticed ventilation systems.
"Okay," Brittany breathed almost silently, "what was that?"
Ben was already tapping out commands on the keyboard. "Power outage, corridor five, section D, sub-station 2. Power is re-routing through a different channel."
The screen changed to show a slightly scratchy image of a hallway. "I can't see anything strange," Brittany stated, peering at the screen, "I – hold on, what's that?"
Something had moved into frame, a something that looked strangely familiar. It was a heavily armoured figure, perhaps seven or eight foot tall, clad in some kind of blue metal armour made up of various segmented plates. Then, it looked straight at the camera, brought its weapon to bear, and fired.
The image cut out.
"Okay," Brittany repeated, "what in the nine hells was that?"
"A Sky Rider." Ben readied his weapon. "And it's coming this way."