Colonel Mace was about to go into a morning conference call with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart who had wanted an update on the autopsy. He was preparing to tell him that there had been a delay and that the autopsy was only being started proper that morning. He was sure that when he found out that the delay was due to the Doctor turning up injured and needing emergency treatment from Doctor Jones that the Brigadier would be understandable if not necessarily happy.
He knew he would have to ensure that the Brigadier was content that the autopsy was being carried out by Dr Wilson now rather than Dr Jones as he had requested, but again he was sure that would be fine under the circumstances. He had been thinking about it a lot overnight as well and he had decided that he would grant the Doctor his old level of security clearance again so he and Dr Jones could both consult providing the medic believed him well enough. Even if the Doctor had an arrogant disregard of authority he was a resource they should use providing it would not be detrimental to his recovery.
Private Loren provided him with a mug of coffee to take into the conference call, but they paused when a security alarm sounded. When it was confirmed as a security concern in the medical centre the Colonel's first thought was that their injured guest had attempted to breech the security protocols and access something he was not yet permitted to and had triggered the alert. If not the Doctor then he had learned that Captain Jack from Torchwood had remained overnight and perhaps he had done the same.
He started to head over as the alert continued to sound. The conference call would have to wait. He was heading there with the intention of dressing them both down with a strict warning to behave and respect the protocols on the base of leave. He hoped they would pay heed and not call his bluff, but he was fairly good at bluffing. He had to be.
On route to the medical unit he received reports that it was not a breach of security but that there had been a general alarm triggered in the autopsy lab. There were sketchy but rather panicked reports coming in about blood and dead medics in there. As he travelled to the medical unit in an open top jeep he mobilised a unit of base soldiers, put a call out to the base armoury to ensure there were weapons available for issue along with ammunition. He advised that the muster point would be just outside the pathology corridor in clinic three and that he wanted Doctor Jones to meet him there to liaise with the full roll call for the medical centre both of those working and any patients and visitors that were on site.
He got out the jeep and walked into the medical unit and to the muster point that he was planning. It looked like there was chaos going on and no one had taken charge and there was no sign of Doctor Jones. "Clear this area of non-essential staff," Colonel Mace instructed when he arrived and there were medics, nurses, soldier patients all trying to figure out what to do with regards the alert. The only person that seemed to be doing something sensible was Private Coates who was taking the names of everyone leaving in case they had not logged out.
"Where is Doctor Jones?" Colonel Mace needed her as a sensible point of contact and a medical liaison.
"She has been in the East Wing, Sir, if she was in there at the time of the alert then the security lock down would have sealed her in," Anita advised.
"And has anyone contacted Dr Jones and confirmed that she is caught in the East Wing and that she is secure and safe?" Colonel Mace checked. Anita looked doubtful for a moment. "Then please, go and do so and report back to me in person." Anita nodded and hurried off to do that. "Now, I believe the alarm was triggered in the autopsy lab," Colonel Mace confirmed as his unit of soldiers were starting to gather properly in line for a briefing. "Has anyone been through to observe and check the state of play in the lab?"
"Not yet, Sir," Private Coates came over with his clip board. "We were told to muster here and not to proceed into pathology without further instruction. I have attempted to raise them on the phone but there has been no answer. There is a second security door into the labs that will be sealed. I was in there yesterday to speak to Doctor Jones and she was in full protective gear, Sir. We are unsure if we are going to be able to enter."
"Understood," Colonel Mace nodded. "We will hold here, however, I want two volunteers to attend pathology for an update and to clear any non-essential personnel from the area if any remain."
"I will go, Sir," Private Coates volunteered.
"Very good."
"Me too, Sir," Private Tony Selby agreed. He was a couple of years older than Private Coates but they were friends and they lived in the same barrack hall. They could both go down and check.
"Off you go, stay on radio silence unless there an emergency broadcast is required. I want you to get a visual of events in the autopsy lab. View it from the West access point where you will be less likely to be witnessed from within. I want you to clear out all personnel from all the rooms on this spur. We all know that the medics and science teams may not respond to security alerts, so, let's get them out and beyond the hold just in case," Colonel Mace instructed. When he had reports of possible fatalities he did not want to take further chances.
"This isn't a drill, is it Ethan?" Tony asked as quietly as he jogged with his friend toward the entrance of the pathology department of the makeshift hospital wing. All the labs were fully equipped but until a couple of months ago they were the maintenance stores so there were still some strange signage up on the walls to do with fork lift safety that didn't really fit with the other signs about using fume hoods, goggles, and COSHH sheets.
"I don't this so," Ethan confirmed. "I think this is the real thing."
"Shit."
"Yeah, we'll be okay though. We've trained for this now. We just run it like it is a drill and it will be fine," Ethan assured his friend. "You check the rooms on the left, I will do the rooms on the right. There are double doors down at the end of the corridor so we won't go beyond them. When we get there we will decide how to gain access to the autopsy labs." Ethan instructed and Tony nodded happy that his younger friend had an idea on what to do. Tony had to admit that he was feeling a little bit panicky knowing that it wasn't a drill. It had never not been a drill before.
Ethan entered the firs lab on the way down the corridor. There were three scientists working in there that had not responded to the alarm at all. He supposed that because it was security alert they did not think it applied to them. "Excuse me, Sirs, the security alert is not a drill. You need to calmly stop what you are doing and leave the pathology unit through the North exit. Colonel Mace is waiting at a muster point in clinic three please report to him to keep a clear role, but you must evacuate this area immediately," Ethan instructed with a calm authority that belied his age and inexperience. He was immediately obeyed and the scientists headed towards the muster point beyond the hold that Colonel Mace was maintaining.
Tony went into a staff room and found one of the doctors was in there making a coffee. "You need to get out of here now. It's not a drill," he advised the middle aged medic. The medic was making a coffee before he went back out on external duties so he was reluctant just to leave.
"I don't think so, kid. Just give me ten and I'll be going off site anyway."
"I'm being serious. Colonel Mace has said you all have to leave and report to him on the way out. Come on, man, it's not a drill?" Tony sounded like he was pleading. Ethan was three doors down and had another five people leaving the corridor and he was worried about what was holding Tony up. He went back and checked.
"Doctor Wiener, I'm sorry to disturb your break, however there has been an incident and we are required to clear this entire corridor of personnel to ensure the safety and security of the staff and medical centre. If you could make your way calmly to Clinic 3 and report in for roll call then it will expedite the resolution to the incident. There are other coffee making facilities available, but we cannot move forward without your cooperation and there is a concern that lives are being endangered," Ethan stated boldly. Dr Wiener nodded and left. Tony just looked at Ethan wondering why he had listened to him.
"Come on, we need to keep moving," Ethan insisted. He was in control and he was gaining confidence as they cleared all the rooms along the corridor up to the double doors. Beyond the doors that were floor to ceiling Perspex there was a medical lab, a research library, and the autopsy lab. Ethan also knew that you could pass through the changing area for the autopsy lab and that led into a separate corridor that rejoined the main medical wing so you could access from medical rather than only from pathology. It was the way through brought dead bodies in. If you turned left off that corridor you ended up in the morgue and then you could get out the other side of that straight into medical beyond the hold. He needed to make sure that was all secured and sealed as well or the hold that the Colonel had placed on at the entrance to pathology was not sound.
"Right, we're clear of all non-military personnel," Private Coates lowered his voice as he stood at the double doors but close to the wall so not easily visible beyond the framework on the other side. All the doors had full panels of safety glass in them to ensure when passing through the double hinged doors that no one travelling the opposite direction unwittingly received a door in the face, but it made a stealthy approach difficult.
"What do we do now?" Tony wondered why on Earth he had volunteered to come down the corridor with Ethan and whether he could now change his mind without seeming like a coward. The way his hands were shaking he was a coward.
"Have you been beyond this door before?" Ethan asked.
"No, I'm not on baby-sitting duties," Tony pulled a face at Ethan.
"It is just as well I am isn't it? Because I have worked out all feasible routes through the medical wing, so, I now lead," he stated boldly. He knew he'd get no argument from Tony. "And, I've met the Doctor and I've talked to him. I don't care if you lot think it's baby-sitting he's cool and when he's feeling better he'll be cooler," Ethan advised.
"Fair point."
"The corridor beyond this door opens into a hub. There is a final lab and a research library on the right and then it backs onto the observation area into the autopsy lab. On the left there is a changing facility that has two exits. You can move beyond that into the morgue and back into the medical bay. I need to make sure that is secured so that if there is an alien incursion that if it were to get beyond the security seal that it will move toward the hold and not bypass it and move toward medical and the East Wing," Ethan advised.
"The morgue? Do we have to go in there?" Tony checked.
"No, I will go that way and ensure the doors are secured. You go the other way and into the lab and library are clear and then we will both bear round to the left to the observation area. You need to keep down," Ethan instructed as he hunkered down. "The autopsy lab has viewing panels right around it. They are waist height so from this point forward and while in view of the autopsy lab you stay down and quiet." Ethan ducked down onto his hands and knees and indicated for Tony to do the same. When he pushed the door open a little he saw straight away that there was blood on the inside of the autopsy room window. Ethan drew his side arm out and checked it was loaded and the safety was off and Tony did the same.
"Keep down and quiet now, the autopsy lab is security glass so it won't be able to get through it, but we don't want it to see and hear us if we can avoid it," Ethan reminded his older colleague. "Oh, and the glass is bullet proof so don't waste your ammo if you do see it. Knowing you're luck the bullet will bounce off and hit you in the foot." Ethan grinned at Tony who had spent several times in the other side of the medical wing already if not on baby-sitting duties being baby-sitted. "As long as the lab remains sealed it is secure," Ethan assured himself as much as Tony as he took a deep breath. "Are you ready?"
"I guess," Tony nodded and swallowed an involuntary shiver back down. "If you smell something weird it's probably just me shitting my pants," Tony whispered. "Do they really think the medics are dead?"
"It looks that way. We can't go in if the alien is there. Even if they are alive we can't take the risk of releasing the alien. We just observe and then report back," Ethan insisted. He pushed the door open wider and slid through remaining down and out of general view from the autopsy room ahead. Tony followed. They moved quickly and silently, Ethan directed Tony with a sharp point of his fingers and Tony went to the right into the lab and library. Once in there he could stand back up and he made sure that there were no personnel still in there. If there were then he'd have to get them to crawl back out and then leg it back down to the hold. There was no one there.
Ethan remained on his knees as he moved past the autopsy lab and into the changing area where he had stood and communicated with Doctor Jones about the Code 9 only the previous morning. It seemed like a lifetime ago now. He hoped that what he was doing and the control he was taking would meet with the Doctor's approval. He didn't want to let the Doctor down and he didn't want to let that alien thing out if it was a risk to the Time Lord while he was injured. Once he was past the changing area he could stand back up because he was out of view from the autopsy room. He went into the morgue. He'd never been in there before but he had studied the plans for medical when Colonel Mace had assigned him there that morning. He knew every exit and entry point and every route through in case he had to get the Doctor out of there for any reason. He didn't know what he expected of a morgue, but it was just like any other room and not as scary as he imagined. There was a wall of metal doors all around two foot square and he guessed that was where the bodies were. There was one like that in the autopsy room as well. He didn't know if there were any bodies in the morgue at the moment, they'd not lost anyone for a while.
At the back of the morgue there was a heavy steel door. It had a push bar on the morgue side and a combination lock on the other side. No one on the other side would move through because of the hold. He put a pin through the push-bar that meant that it could not be activated and the door was secure. Only someone with the combination code could get through it now and the alien would not have that. He thought that maybe he should ask Doctor Jones what it was in case they did have to get through that way, but for now the alien would not be able to pass back the other way easily, so he had done his job. He went to the other side of the morgue and he pulled the door shut and then locked it, before getting back on his knees and sliding around back to where Tony was waiting for him having secured the lab and the library.
"We're the only ones down here," Tony whispered and Ethan nodded his understanding. It felt like they were the only ones down there as well. They felt totally isolated on the wrong side of a hold with the task of determining if a dead alien had come back to life and killed two medics. Ethan had heard someone talking about a bloodbath. He pointed in the direction that he and Tony had to take and then crawled in the lead.
"Everything is secure," Ethan whispered repeating to himself what he knew and hoping that it put Tony at ease. He could hear his friend breathing, he was sure that his own breathing wasn't exactly calm and quiet, but Tony was definitely scared. "The observation point is just by the North wall." He edged forward.
When they got to the viewing area they knelt up to peer in over the ledge. Unlike the rest of the autopsy lab where there was plate glass the viewing area was a one way glass so that they could look in without being easily seen. It was not usually used for stealthy observation, but so that autopsies could be observed for clinical reasons without the observation being intrusive to the medic carrying out the autopsy. There was nothing worse than working and being able to see the person watching over the shoulder, especially when it was often a group of junior medics or young soldiers who were liable to faint and be incredibly off putting.
Ethan's heart as hammering in his head and he was sure he was as scared as Tony was, but they had to report back to Colonel Mace. As he peered in Ethan felt sick. There was blood splattered all over the room. There was some on the window and there was some down on the ground close to the viewing area. Right down at the wall where they were Ethan could see Walt. He was dead. His throat was gone and his stomach was ripped open and his guts were stretched right across the lab.
"Oh my God?" Tony ducked back down away and vomited. He scrambled back and knocked a trolley that tipped. It jolted and hit the concrete floor loudly. Ethan saw a movement in the room. It was the alien. It was still in here! It t was standing at the back of the room, but it looked like it was doing something the other way, but then it moved toward the noise Tony had made without turning around.
"It can't get out," Ethan assured Tony as he watched the alien moving. It moved in quite a jerky fashion. It was heading toward them. It came right up to the glass. Ethan's breath clouded the glass that was mirrored from the other side. The alien would be seeing itself and not them.
"Fuck!" Tony panicked when they got a close up view of the alien standing in front of them. He couldn't stand it. He didn't know how Ethan could be just kneeling there looking at it and holding his breath like that. Tony dived down to the ground crying out in fear.
"It can't get through the glass. It's not going to get through, calm down, it is trapped in there." Ethan went to Tony and helped him back up, but Tony was panicking so hard he was going to throw up again. He lurched away from Ethan and beyond the area where the glass was mirrored. The alien tracked their movements. Ethan knew they had been spotted now, but it still couldn't get out. They needed to report back to Colonel Mace what they knew. Both Luke Wilson and Walt Hindon had been killed and the alien was most definitely alive and trapped in the autopsy lab.
"Come on, we should go," Ethan instructed no longer having to keep his voice down as he knew their stealthy observation had been thwarted. He didn't blame Tony for being scared. He was too. They had all been trained, but they had all been given a long talk by Colonel Mace about the way different people would react when they first came in contact with a hostile in a crisis situation. "There is no shame in being afraid. You need to choose your fear to work for you," Ethan told Tony repeating what Colonel Mace had told them.
"Arrgh!" Tony shrieked when the alien threw itself at the glass around the autopsy room. Testing it and bouncing back off it.
"It's bullet proof glass! It's not going to get through! Calm down!" Ethan grabbed Tony who was panicking so hard he could hardly breathe and was throwing up again. He was going to end up breathing in his own sick he was hyperventilating so much. Ethan crouched down to Tony but he watched what the alien was doing. It had stopped banging against the glass but was just standing in front of it. It must have realised that it couldn't get through it.
It stepped back from the glass and then rammed it. The whole section of wall flexed and shook but it was not going to break. "Get up," Ethan instructed.
"It's coming."
"It is not. It is not going to get out the lab. Now come on. We need to report to Colonel Mace urgently. If you do not get up then I will leave you here to perform my duties, so come on," Ethan instructed.
"I can't! They're dead! They're really dead? And that thing! It was looking straight at me!"
"What is it doing?" Ethan asked when he glanced back up at the autopsy security door. The alien was still standing by it, but it had raised its arm up and the three long fingers at the end of it seemed to come together into a single spike. The glass was bullet proof and unbreakable, but as the alien slammed the point of his fingers into the glass it spidered. "Fuck?" Ethan watched mesmerised as it did it again and the tip of its fingers came through the glass.
"Tony! Get up!" Ethan insisted. "Now!" He got us gun ready as the alien managed to get its fingers far enough through the security glass to grab hold of it and pull at it. That should have been impossible. They had demonstrated the security glass by standing on one side and people shooting at them! How could it be using its bare hands to get through? "We need to go! Now!" Ethan dragged Tony up and was running. They got through the double doors and Ethan paused to throw the lock and then used the butt of his gun to knock the lever off.
They heard glass breaking behind them. It was almost out of the autopsy lab. As Ethan ran along the pathology lab corridor, dragging Tony with him, he saw the remnants of the old use of the building. The labs on either side used to be maintenance stores and warehouses. There were massive steel shutters in place to divide the long corridor into fire zones in the case of fire. They should all be wired into the fire alarm system, and, he bet that maintenance hadn't shut them down. As they passed the last shutter Ethan slammed his first against a fire alarm break glass. The suppression system was primed and as the klaxon sounded it seemed deafening in the corridor but all the metal shutters all came down. If bullet proof glass was not going to stop the alien then he guessed that the steel shutters would not either, but there were four of them for it to get through. It had to buy them some time. Didn't it?
Colonel Mace was waiting at the end of the corridor with two units of soldiers ready to deal with what needed to be dealt with. He did not react when he heard the fire alarm. It could be a fault, it could be a fire, it could be the alien, it could be something else. It would need to be investigated.
Tony was the first person past the hold. As soon as he got into the muster point and what was deemed to be their initial safe area he collapsed to his knees and threw up again. He was breathing so harshly it sounded like he was sobbing and heaving and gagging all at the same time.
"Nurse, tend to him," Colonel Mace instructed. Anita went to guide him up from the floor. It served to remind the Colonel just how young the soldiers around him were and how many of them had not seen any action beyond the drills they had worked on constantly. It did not matter how realistic a drill was made to be, as soon as it was learned that it was a drill there was less urgency. Ethan Coates was the youngest of the soldiers on base. He was pale and short of breath but he stood to attention in front of him waiting to report.
"Sir!" Coates saluted him.
"Your report, Private," Colonel Mace nodded informally.
"Dr Wilson and Walt Hinden are deceased, Sir. They have been attacked in the autopsy lab. The alien is not dead, Sir, and, it has begun to break through the security glass."
"It is breaking out?"
"Yes, Sir. With its bare hands, Sir. It broke through the glass, Sir. It may be out by now and in pursuit. I activated the fire alarm in order to activate the old maintenance shutters and slow it down, Sir, but I do not believe they will stop it." Coates explained.
"It was you who set the alarm off?"
"Yes, Sir, I hit a break glass to activate the shutters. There is no fire. I believed at the time it was the right thing to do in order to slow the alien down as it is in pursuit," Coates insisted. "Now I realise the shutters block our view of the corridor."
"You did well, Private. Good thinking," Mace assured him.
"Colonel!" A solider on point at the hold waved him over. Down the corridor they heard the hollow thud of something very heavy banging into the first of the metal shutters like a deep powerful gong. It was out.
"Get Captain Price to ensure access to CCTV and pipe it down here. I want to know exactly what that thing is doing. Feed it into the clinic 3 system. This is our muster point. It does not get past that hold! Corporal Lane, take point standing I want to know who is in and out of this building in a live roll." Colonel Mace instructed and various soldiers ran off to do or arrange what he wanted. He had a whole unit of 12 soldiers positioned just inside the corridor fifteen feet from the last metal shutter. They were armed with automatic weapons and side arms.
Captain Harman was their unit leader and he was briefed as required. "It is now confirmed that the alien subject has killed two civilian medics. It has breached security lock down at the autopsy lab and by the sounds of it is working its way through the maintenance shutters. You are to invite the alien to desist and take it into custody. It is under no circumstance to move beyond the hold. If it insists on attempting to do so then you are to dissuade it from that course of action with lethal force if required."
"Understood, Sir!" Captain Harman saluted the Colonel and then hurried to take position back with his twelve person unit.
"Colonel!" Private Jarvis got his attention from within Clinic 3 and the muster point. If Captain Price had got the CCTV up and running for him already she was working well beyond her usual efficiency. "I have got Doctor Jones on direct com-link, Sir. She says she needs to talk to you immediately. Says they think they know what the alien is."
"Very good," Colonel Mace stated. He knew that Captain Harman would take care of the hold. He was an experienced field officer of several years and had commanded this unit since it was first put together. They trusted him and he trusted the Captain to make good choices. "Do not allow that creature past the hold!" Colonel Mace barked a reminder just so that he knew that the orders were clear.
"Sir!" A chorus of affirmation from anxious soldiers waiting to engage reached his ears as he ducked into the office that was quickly becoming their centre of operations in the clinic where Martha should have been seeing patients. "Clear the room." Colonel Mace didn't want everyone to listen into his conversation with the medic. He would give relevant points to them if it assisted them in containing the incursion, but he was not going to frighten them if that was what was coming. "Doctor Jones? Your report if you may," Colonel Mace picked up the phone that had been given to him. He guessed it was a direct com-link, but he would have to speak to Private Jarvis about calling a phone a phone when it was just simply a phone. A mobile one at that.
"I'm not Martha."
"Doctor," Colonel Mace acknowledged. "I believed you to have been placed on formal medical leave?"
"That was before people started dying in your autopsy lab," the Doctor countered.
"Quite. I was advised that you may know what it is that has killed the medics?"
"I am not 100% certain. I have only seen some shaky video footage. Martha has described the subject to me. Captain Jack is attempting to gain further footage from the autopsy lab, but the organism is not showing with any visual clarity. This however, further supports my current theory, as the organism is characterised not by the information that it presents to sensors but the lack of it and the presence of a sensor ghost rather than an object for view. From what I have seen and from what has been described my Martha I believe you have got hold of what is commonly called a Harlequin Ghost."
"I don't recall a file on them?"
"No, you won't," the Doctor commented. "I believe this would be the first encountered by the human race. Like I said, I am not 100%, but I am quite sure that is what you are attempting to deal with here, and, unfortunately that is not good news. It really is very bad news and forget any additional suitcases of bad, this time we are going for whole shipping container loads o bad, and bigger than your average shipping container too, I'm talking about Ood operations sized shipping…"
"Doctor," Martha put her hand on his shoulder. "You're rambling. Just tell Colonel Mace what he needs to know."
"Yes, Sorry," the Doctor accepted the interruption. He was surprised the Colonel had not told him to shut up. "I am on medications," he offered as he tried to get his focus back onto the Harlequin Ghost and back away from the Ood Sphere and Donna, and oh… Donna? The Doctor-Donna, and oh my God? Wilfred? Wilfred was standing right beside him and there was a Harlequin Ghost in the building. Didn't they know what that meant? Of course they didn't know what that meant. He was the one supposed to be telling them what that meant, and with a Harlequin Ghost and their pathetic security doors they were not going to stop it and… the cowboys?
Of all the blood times for them to get a horse out? And they were riding for real. It was a full proper stallion and when balanced with the Harlequin Ghost and Donna and Wilfred and a drugged clouding of focus? It was his leg reminding him just why he was in UNIT. He was not working for them. He was not their scientific advisor, he was not the hero who was going to save the day, he was the fallen, injured, cripple who'd not even be able to stand up in the face of certain death!
"Easy, and relax, breathe through your nose," Martha took the phone back off the Doctor. She had seen him do it. His mind had wandered and he'd been thinking about something he didn't want to think about. Probably about an alien he had described as being death walking around the building. He'd tensed and tried to move and that had triggered the pain off in his leg again that caused him to grimace and to gasp. Wilf and Sarah Jane moved in to help try to calm him down as Jack continued to work on the computer interface to try and get more information than was permitted. Their security was fairly easy to breech from Torchwood, but attempting to get through their internal firewalls while there was a security breech was near impossible.
"Doctor? We do have limited time here." Colonel Mace was trying to be patient, but there was plenty of hollow banging on metal down the corridor and he knew that the alien was soon going to be facing the unit of young soldiers. If the Time Lord could give him any pertinent information then he had to. At least he'd not just screamed at him not to engage with it.
"Apologies, Sir, the Doctor is momentarily unavailable due to the nerve pain he is experiencing," Martha advised. "I have discussed the nature of the Harlequin Ghost and while it is not confirmed, I believe the Doctor is fairly certain and the room for an error is minimal. According to the Doctor the Harlequin Ghost is an organism that was designed and created in a different galaxy by a highly superior warrior race."
"That does not sound promising."
"No, Sir, it is not. The Harlequin Ghost is a living weapon. It is genetically engineered and biologically designed to invade and to kill. It is impervious to most weapons; certainly any that are currently available on Earth. The scales covering the body of the Harlequin are impervious to projectile weapon's fire. However, in discussion with the Doctor I advised him that there subject has a head wound and that a scale is in fact broken and missing. He believes that if you were able to shoot the creature directly in the wound that you may be able to slow it down. He does not know if it will kill it. It does not have a brain in the same sense as normal structures. Each of the scales is filled with sensor cells that enable it to interpret the environment in a 360 degree circle. It does not see as we do. It will be able to see you even if you are not in plain line of sight as it will detect body heat and biological electrical impulses. The Doctor says that it is telepathic and that when attacking it is known to send a broadcast flare of shrill telepathic sound to disrupt and disturb its enemy. It has been designed as a weapon and the perfect killing machine. It is not detectable on contemporary scans and not susceptible to contemporary weapons. The Doctor says that all it will do is kill."
"So, how do we stop it?" the Colonel did not want to hear all of that from Martha. He wanted a nice and easy stand down, not a killing machine from across the galaxy. He was hoping that perhaps it was a bit disorientated and perturbed about waking from some kind of head injury in the middle of its own autopsy. That it had acted out in self-defence and now they would all be very sorry about the confusion, not that they had an organic weapon that they couldn't shoot behind their defences and in the heart of their base.
"The Doctor said to shoot it in the head wound and you might be able to slow it down. It is not designed to actually be stopped. It does not have pain receptors in it's biological design. It will not stop and retreat if it is hurt. It will only stop if it is put down. Hit it enough times in the head wound and it might do it. The Doctor says that they only have a short life span of up to around five Earth days. Whole pods of them are delivered onto a planet for invasion and they go off killing the inhabitants. Then in five days or so they all die and the following invasion force goes down and clears up the dead."
"Something stopped it," the Colonel stated. "Something stopped it because it was in that crash and you believed it to be dead."
"I was obviously mistaken. I am sorry, Sir, I don't know how I could make such a mistake and I have nothing else to tell you on that matter at the moment. I believed it to be deceased. There were no outward signs of life. Hopefully once it has been contained and it is deceased we will be able to determine how I could be so mistaken, but in the meantime I do not know," Martha advised gravely.
"Can the Doctor answer that?" the Colonel checked.
"Unfortunately the Doctor has passed out due to the pain in his leg injury, Sir," Martha commented. "I will attempt to seek further information once he has regained consciousness."
"He has passed out?"
"Yes, Sir, unfortunately he is finding it hard to relax during current conditions and when he does not relax the pain becomes too severe for his systems to handle. I am sure that he will do what he can to provide assistance in the intervening periods, however, he remains seriously injured."
"Understood." Colonel Mace wanted to say not to utilise the Doctor's expertise at all, but he doubted that they were going to get through without it, and, he doubted the Doctor would accept that. "What is your status down there?" Colonel Mace asked knowing that they were not far from the seat of action when action came as it seemed it must.
"Captain Jack is attempting to gain access to CCTV and additional footage from the autopsy room but is having difficulty accessing the systems."
"Have Captain Price provide full access to the East Wing," Colonel Mace advised someone off screen.
"Thank you, Sir," Martha acknowledged knowing that it would not sit too well with the Colonel to be releasing full access to Torchwood. "We have a maintenance issue with the security door at the entrance to the East Wing. It is not responding to my override codes and control are unable to override remotely without shutting all security systems off. I have currently got a maintenance operative attempting to isolate the security block on this door so I can leave and tend to any wounded should they arrive," Martha commented. "I have three civilians currently on site in the East Wing, Sir, including Captain Jack Harkness of Torchwood as you know. I believe under the circumstances that he might be given clearance to assist?"
"Kit him out," Colonel Mace agreed. "And, as soon as the door is opened I want the other civilians escorted off base."
"Yes, Sir," Martha agreed already knowing that as going to be harder said than done.
"What evacuation plans do you have for all current patients?"
"The Doctor is our only current inpatient, Sir. Morning clinics were due to start, however, all patients have been required to leave. It should only be the Doctor on site, Sir."
"And the Doctor can be moved if necessary?"
"His leg injury remains unstable within the split cast, but, if it became necessary, then yes," Martha confirmed. She looked to where the Doctor was moaning wordlessly as he was starting to come back round with Sarah Jane and Wilfred in kindly attendance at his bedside. "It is only his leg at risk. He could be moved urgently if we had to," Martha assured the Colonel. She did not want to think about the pain it might cause him and the additional damage to his leg that could occur if they lost the reductions again, but, if they had to drag him out the way in a hurry then they would be able to. If they had to evacuate through the rear of the East Wing then they would have to drag him as that entrance had steps and his bed would not get down them. The East Wing was the furthest point in the medical wing anyway, it was hardly likely to get to them and reach their position, was it?