Chapter - Inside the Matrix

The Doctor opened his eyes to find himself on Gallifrey. There was a time when he would have loved to run through the fields and enjoy the scents and sounds of home, but all he could find now we're memories of war and bloodshed.

"Since I know we're inside a computer, I'm guessing this is all virtual. What planet is it depicting, dad?" Jamie asked, startling him from his melancholy thoughts.

"Gallifrey," he croaked, then cleared his throat, as if he hadn't been affected by the sight.

"Oh. Sorry. You alright?" he asked, realizing why his father seemed upset. It was odd, not quite feeling his telepathic signature from the direction that he appeared to be, but from right next to him. They were sitting side by side in reality, and the difference was disconcerting.

"I'm always alright," the Doctor replied, earning an eye roll from Jamie, but they didn't say anymore about it.

They looked around for any sign of the problem, but couldn't see anything, so the Doctor chose a direction and started walking towards the mountains in the distance.

"The whole place is a complex virtual reality, so it could appear to be anything really. Hard to say what we're looking for in here, but I'm hoping it will be fairly obvious when we find it."

"And when we do, just how to we correct it?" Jamie wondered.

"That will depend on what it is, I suppose. You would think that after thousands of years, they'd find a way to write some sort of software to clean up this thing, but there always seems to be something wrong," the Doctor grumbled as they walked.

"What's that?" Jamie asked, pointing to what appeared to be some kind of swarm of silver insects. It was hovering near one of the silver leafed trees, but several others nearby seemed to have been nearly devoured.

"Those would appear to be our computer bugs," he replied, considering their options.

At their approach, the swarm moved away from the tree and hovered as if debating what to do about the intruders. The two time lords paused, hoping they weren't about to become the next thing on the menu.

"Have you got a plan yet? Do we run? Can you talk down a swarm of bugs?" Jamie asked nervously.

"I don't think we could outrun them if we tried, so I'm sincerely hoping that we can communicate with them somehow," he told him as the mass of insects moved rapidly towards them.

The swarm surrounded them quickly, hovering in a circle, but never staying still.

"Right, yes, hello. I'm the Doctor. That's Jamie. And you seem to be doing quite a lot of damage around here," he called optimistically.

"It is our purpose. You are not part of the network to be destroyed. Leave now," a unified, mechanical voice thundered from all around them.

"Your purpose? May I ask, what is the origin of your programming?" he questioned.

"We were created by the Time Lords to destroy the path web from within. This is where we are, we will destroy this network, then find another."

"Path web? Isn't that what connects the Daleks to each other?" James asked.

"Yeah. This was created as a weapon to be used in the war. But they never set it loose. Looks like the AI got bored," the Doctor reasoned. "Listen, this is not the path web. This is a new Time Lord Matrix construct. Would you mind not tearing it to shreds?"

"It is our purpose to destroy this network. Leave now," the voice demanded and the swarm flew back to the group of trees it had been devouring.

"On to plan B. Do we have a plan B?" James questioned.

"I don't think we can reason with it. We'll have to find some way to contain it and remove it. Easier said than done of course because it isn't really just a swarm of bugs, that's just what it looks like right now," the Doctor told him.

"So we need some kind of containment for it, then maybe we can find a way to lure it where we want? We can't chase it. This is all programming in here, yeah? Can we program something ourselves?" James suggested.

"Right. Yes. Like I said, it's all virtual, so we just need to sort of mentally construct the programming that we want. You work on a program that will reconstruct the matrix from the damage it's inflicting and I'll program something to contain and destroy it once it comes to stop the repairs," the Doctor instructed and seemed to pull a computer interface out of thin air in front of him.

James nodded and mimicked what his father had done to gain access. The programming was complicated, but he caught on quickly to what was originally there and what the bugs were doing to dismantle it. Since his work was the bait as well as the fix, he made sure that what his program did was very obvious to the invading AI.

"Mine's all set, dad. Should I start it running or do you need more time?" James asked.

"Go ahead. This'll only take a tick," he replied, still typing blindingly fast on the virtual keyboard in front of him.

James shrugged and pressed the button to begin his repair protocols. Little repair drones appeared and began to spray a reddish liquid all over the virtual trees that had been destroyed, causing them to regrow back into their original forms before their eyes. There was a bright sparkling effect as it happened, which James intended to catch the attention of the bugs and bring them back towards them. As it happened, the AI noticed very quickly and was headed their way in less than a minute.

"Umm, dad," James said, nudging the Doctor's shoulder.

"Almost there," he replied.

"They're coming awfully fast," he warned.

"Right," he sighed and started typing even faster.

The swarm surrounded the tree that was currently being repaired, the drones, and the two Time Lords. James edged closer to his father, nudging him worriedly as the bugs closed in on them.

"Can they hurt us in here, dad?"

"Yes."

"Right, so any revisions to the plan given that we're surrounded?" James asked.

"Yeah, send your things over that way so the bugs will chase them and get away from us," the Doctor told him.

James typed in a quick command and the repair drones zipped away to another tree, through the wall of bugs that were trying to stop them. The entire swarm went after them, leaving James and the Doctor out in the open. The Doctor added a couple more commands before tapping the large red button that would capture the bugs.

A sphere of fire suddenly engulfed the entire swarm as well as James' repair drones. It hovered in the air, the bugs banging against the inner wall and fizzling out as if flying into a bug zapper.

"Really, dad? A firewall?" James groaned.

The Doctor merely smiled proudly at his construct. Rose would like it, he was sure. He set the firewall to disable the entire program, then it would remain in the Matrix to search out any other rogue elements and contain them as well to prevent future problems.

"Can we get out of here now? So we can make sure the rest of the Time Lords know how to keep this stuff running?" James asked.

"Yup. Although I really don't want to rush back just so that they can make us participate in their political nonsense. And you might want to restart your repair program before we leave too."

The Doctor opened his eyes to meet the worried gaze of his wife. She was wringing her hands and he could feel her unease over their bond very clearly.

"What's the matter?" he wondered.

"What's the matter? It's been hours! God, I was so worried about the two of you!" Rose cried, throwing herself into his arms as he removed the device from his head and stood to stretch his legs.

James stood up as well, greeted by his wife and daughter. "It didn't feel that long," he protested.

"Oh it was long enough," River sighed, equally relieved that they were alright.

"Thank you, Doctor," Romana told him. "Once again, you've saved us."

"Of course. But this just happened, it wasn't why you called us here to begin with. So, what did you really want?" he questioned.

"I think we should have a little chat," Rose interjected before Romana could make her request. They needed to make some decisions before getting embroiled back in Time Lord politics. If they couldn't even settle on their own morality, they couldn't guide anyone else through theirs.