The Terrible Zodin
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The Doctor lifted the radio to his mouth and pressed the button. "So have you taken out the transmitter yet, Doctor?"
"Well, not, exactly." Came the voice from the other side. "Jamie and I have run into…complications."
"Och! Complications! They're bloody, eight foot tall, lizard-rabbits!" shouted another voice on the far side.
"Right…" The Doctor looked to the computer in front of him. "She's breaking into the third node. I don't know how long Zoe and I can hold her off. She's blowing through our codes like their wet tissues."
"This is nearly impossible, Doctor." Zoe said looking up at him. She frowned and furrowed her eyebrows. "These are defense algorithms the Wheel used to protect against transmission hijackers. Nothing on at this point in Earth history should be able to break them."
"Oh crumbs…" Shouted the Doctor's voice over the radio. "Oh my giddy aunt…those blasted flesh drones have gotten in! I think we're out, Jamie, run!"
The radio went silent. Zoe looked up at him a look of worry flashed over her face.
"Doctor…what if…" Zoe started.
"No, don't worry about that keep your mind on the task at hand." The Doctor said putting his hand on her shoulder. He turned around and looked at the other person in the room. "Brigadier! How are things looking out there?"
"Those kangaroo things are just milling about." The aging soldier said as he peered out of the crack in the door. "Don't seem too interested in us right now."
"Good…" The Doctor turned to another computer terminal. A velveteen green coat was lying next to the terminal. He dropped himself into the seat in front of it. "So the Terrible Zodin's become an outstanding hacker. And here I thought she only could do some reasonably impressive sword-swallowing! You know the last time I saw her I got an autograph from her…"
"Doctor, she's into the third node, every time I put up a new firewall she breaks through it! I know she's not from Earth but no one is that good!" Zoe said in frustration. "She's knocking them down almost faster than I can put them up!"
"Keep with it, Zoe! If she gets into UNIT central command she'll have access to every confidential file, every security pass, and every nuclear weapon at UNIT's disposal!" The Doctor said as he turned to his own terminal and started to lay code. "I'll construct a logic trap, should slow her down."
"Doctor, if she gets a hold of the shadow archives…" The Brigadier started.
"She's not going to!" The Doctor said quickly as he tapped away at the computer in front of him. "That should hold her for a bit." He said confidently as he jumped up from his chair and rushed over to the Brigadier. "I wonder…"
The Doctor then stepped out of the computer lab.
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"Ah, Doctor…" The rasping female voice said. It came from the base of a large transmitter pointed towards the communication networks of Earth. The voice came from a set of speakers attached to a monitor. The glowing screen depicted a woman in a dress. "I figured it was you."
"Yes, well, there aren't many people that have seen your handy work personally." The short man said as he walked forward. Two, large, scaly-kangaroos held the other lad that was with the Doctor. The Doctor sloughed off his fur coat and straightened the lapels of his over-sized black jacket. "Though I must admit to being surprised. The last time I saw you, you had talons or claws or something."
"Ah yes, that body was grand." The woman on the screen reminisced, and then she glared at the small hobo. "But then you came! You incited rebellion against me! They overthrew me! Put me on trial! Tried to execute me!"
"I had heard. I see it didn't take though." The Doctor replied disappointedly.
"Fortunately I had planned ahead, and had my consciousness uploaded to the Hermethican data cloud." The woman on the screen said with a smile. "When they stripped me of my corporeal form I transmitted myself into the coldness of deep space towards the one planet I knew would result in me getting my vengeance!"
"See, Jamie, another bodiless intelligence. Only this one isn't as great." The Doctor said chuckling to himself. He turned back to the screen. "But look at you dear. You've seen better days." The Doctor walked forward. "Oh dear, you're nothing but a Betamax player attached to a TV…We're a bit of forgotten technology aren't we?"
"Yes, my transmission was interrupted by a wormhole; I arrived on this world 57 years ago. I nearly regained my once proud form when a skinny little slip of nothing ensnared me in this magnetic tape deck!" The woman growled. "The fool discarded me in the street….but I survived. Slowly I've been reconstituting my power. With Mr. Hargraeve's help I was able to secure some flesh drones, and set up a small, silent empire in Las Vegas."
"Not so silent, I found you after all." The Doctor's hand started to reach for the inside of his jacket.
"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!" the woman roared. The Doctor stopped. The woman on screen motioned for the Doctor to step back. "Attempt to interrupt me, and I will harm your companion."
"Of course." The Doctor said quietly, looking back at Jamie.
"I will soon have the UNIT archives, Doctor, I will transmit myself into the Earth's global satellite network and from there I will feed on all those faces glued to screens across the planet and reconstitute myself." The woman said with glee. "And with this planet's resources firmly in my hands I will return to Hermethica and punish my persecutors!"
"We'll see, Zodin, we'll see." The Doctor said quietly.
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"OK, as plans go, that admittedly wasn't the best." The Doctor shouted as he ran.
"There was a plan!?" The Brigadier shouted as he jogged slowly behind the Doctor.
He stopped periodically and turned, pointing his revolver at the oncoming kangaroo monsters. He fired a few rounds, and a couple of the beasts fell. At least this time, this threat wasn't immune to bullets. The Doctor grabbed him and pulled him into a broom closet, slamming the door behind him, and bracing a clutch of brooms and mops against it.
"The Terrible Zodin is directly controlling the flesh drones." The Doctor said between gasps of breath. "Meaning if we forced her to chase us that it should slow down her processing speed, which could help slow down her cracking into UNIT control." The Doctor grabbed his radio. "Zoe…any better?"
"I'm afraid not, Doctor." Zoe's voice replied over the radio. "She's still blowing through my firewalls."
"That can't be right…" The Doctor whispered narrowing his eyes. He looked to the Brigadier. "How many drones?"
"I can't be sure, more than a dozen, I think." The old man said breathing heavily. He reached up and clutched his chest. "I'm not made out for this kind of stuff anymore, Doctor…I'm more of a consultant than a field agent these days…"
The Doctor slapped the Brigadier's shoulder. "I wouldn't have anyone else watching my back."
"Doctor, I can't stop her, she's getting into the central control's external partitions…if I can't stop her and my Doctor and Jamie can't shut down the transmitter…" Zoe said, the fret coming clearly over the radio.
"I know, Zoe, I know." The Doctor said, frowning. "The drones have control of all the main control rooms. Even if we stopped her getting control of the UNIT archives…she'd be positioned to attack any number of unsuspecting data bases and sow chaos across the world. If she uses that transmitter to get access to the orbital satellite network…"
"She could bring world commerce to a halt, potentially disrupt defense systems…Doctor, she could start World War Three!" The Brigadier said, looking at his young, old friend. "What are we going to do?"
"I have no idea…we'd need something that could take out the entire city's power grid…" The Doctor said, biting his lip. "But first we'd have to get out of this broom closet!" He lifted the radio to his lips. "Zoe, is there any way you could shut down the power in the city?"
"And keep setting up electronic defenses!?" Zoe asked exasperated.
The Doctor put his palm to his forehead. For the first time in a long time, he wasn't sure he could win. He growled softly to himself.
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"It was a valiant try, Doctor." The woman on the screen said with a smile. "I very nearly was concerned when I found out you and your companions were on the case. I almost held off on my assault of UNIT, but in the end it was too easy. I'm already firmly into UNIT central command. All I need to do now, is upload myself and command this transmitter to send me to the satellite network…and then I will be everywhere!"
"You can stop this, Zodin!" The Doctor said feverously. "I could build you a new body!"
"Why should I trust you, Doctor? I'm on the cusp of building my own body." The woman laughed as the screen started to fizzle. "Ah, there it is. Total control of UNIT archives and command protocols. I would love to have said it was nice seeing you again, Doctor, but I'm afraid that would be lying…" The woman looked to the kangaroos holding Jamie. "Whilst Momma is busy taking over the global communication networks and creating her new body, would you be so kind as to kill the Doctor and his co-conspirator…" The creatures growled and Jamie yelped as their claws dug into his shoulders. The woman smiled and nodded. "That's my dears…"
"Don't do this!" The Doctor shouted as he reached into his jacket and pulled his sonic screwdriver out and pointed it at the monitor. The woman however was gone. The screen was dark, the Betamax player stopped humming and went silent. He could see the trail of sparks as the conscious of the Terrible Zodin shot through a DSL cable down into San Francisco's UNIT HQ office. A large scaly kangaroo leapt in front of him and growled. The Doctor shrunk back as the creature gnashed its teeth. "Oh crumbs…"
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In a far off part of San Francisco, a young woman was practicing a recipe that she found in her mother's cookbook. She was completely unaware of the actions going on the other side of town. She just wanted to bake a soufflé, and watch a movie, and brew some tea on an electric stovetop, and then the air conditioner jolted to life.
The woman cursed gently under her breath as the emergency lights came on in her apartment and the small alert klaxon started from all of her smoke detectors. The digital clock on her microwave went dark and the hum of her refrigerator ended.
Little did she know that Clarene Oswaltsen overloading her circuit breaker had, at that precise moment, caused a cascade in the power grid, which swept across the city of San Francisco. The entire town went black, including a certain pseudo-clandestine paramilitary international intelligence taskforce.
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"When was the last time you updated the electricity in this building?" The Doctor asked as he looked into the darkness.
"It's been on the backburner for a while." The Brigadier admittedly despondently. "Afraid it wasn't high on Geneva's priority list, what with the Moon Base and everything."
The Doctor reached for the broom closet door. "So you have no generators?"
"No, surprisingly, they are still on the docket. This San Francisco office is a new venture." The Brigadier said. He grasped the Doctor's hand. "What about those creatures?"
"Yes, it has gotten quiet all of a sudden." The Doctor said as he opened the closet door. The creatures were lying on the ground, breathing but not much else. He laughed loudly. "I can't believe it…"
"Can't believe what?" The Brigadier asked watching as the Doctor walked around the flesh drones.
"This may be the first time that incompetent government bureaucracy has saved the whole world!" the Doctor laughed as he started to walk back to the computer lab.
"What do you mean!?" the Brigadier said jogging after the Doctor.
"The Zodin's whole plan was to infiltrate UNIT HQ electronically, use the command codes to take of the data network!" The Doctor explained. "Imagine if there was a major power outage, with no emergency backup power?"
"All that work would be undone…" The Brigadier said catching up to the Doctor.
"Exactly! Best case we stopped her in her tracks, we can find her and…"
"Doctor, this is the Doctor." Came a voice over the radio.
"Yes, Doctor, this is the Doctor, copy!" The Doctor said into his radio. "Whatever you did up there, it worked!"
"Us!? We didn't do anything…" The voice said over the radio. "The Terrible Zodin just uploaded her entire consciousness into UNIT's command network…and then…pow!"
"Are you telling me…?" The Doctor stopped, and looked back at the creatures. "Of course…the Zodin was controlling the creatures directly…" He stared at the creatures and then back to the radio. "Then when the outage came…if she was in UNIT's computer network then…"
The power flickered back on.
"Doctor," Zoe's head popped out of a door leading to the computer lab. "The servers are coming up from a hard reset. I'm afraid we've lost all the firewalls I put up…we're defenseless!"
"What? Huh?" The Doctor blinked and the pulled himself together. "No, that's fine Zoe…we won't need any more firewalls, I'm afraid. The Terrible Zodin is, no more. She got zapped in that power outage, lost with the firewalls I suspect, deleted in the hard reset."
"Don't sound disappointed, Doctor!" The Brigadier said, slapping the Doctor's back. "You've done it again! Saved the world!"
"No…this wasn't me, either one of me…no…" He narrowed his eyes remembering that incident with the Krillitane. He pulled himself free of the Brigadier and started to run.
"Doctor!" Zoe shouted running after him.
She ran after him, ran across the street from the inconspicuous UNIT building, to a small beach side park where the TARDIS was standing. He was fumbling with the key, and as he pushed into the TARDIS she slipped in behind him.
The door closed behind her and she stopped as the Doctor bounded up the dais to the console. It was huge inside. Admittedly she had been prepared for it being 'bigger on the inside' but this was far beyond anything she was suspecting, it was a literal cathedral whose ceilings disappeared into forever. The Doctor was grabbing onto a moveable monitor and glaring at it. He flipped switches and turned dials and spun small rotors. The crystals in the middle of the console started to move and Zoe felt the tremble of the engines and heard the sound.
"DOCTOR WAIT!" Zoe shouted.
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"Where's, Zoe?" The Doctor asked as he ate a sandwich, sitting in the commissary with Jamie. The Brigadier's personal nurse was dressing his wounds.
"I don't know she ran off with yourself." The Brigadier said as he rested in a chair next to the Doctor. "It seemed important."
"It's a pity…" The Doctor said reflectively, as he finished his sandwich. "The Terrible Zodin was maybe one of my best enemies. A pity to know that she's gone. You know she could do the most amazing sword-swallowing trick. Oh, Jamie do hold still, you're getting Iodine everywhere!"
"It burns, Doctor!" Jamie grumbled as the nurse finished taping down the last bandage.
"That should do it." The nurse said with a frown at the mess.
"Thank you, Arlene." The Brigadier said waving her off. He turned to the Doctor. "So what now?"
"Oh, you never know with this sort of thing." The Doctor said as he brushed crumbs from his jacket. "But I suspect we should get ready to go. Come along, Jamie."
"But what about Zoe, Doctor?" Jamie asked as he put his black shirt back on.
"Oh she'll be along soon enough, I'm sure." The Doctor said rubbing his chin. "I have to get the pre-flight checks started and make sure the fluid links are stable…may as well get started, come along, I'll need your help reading the meters." He turned to the Brigadier. "Allistair, as always it was a pleasure, hope next time I see you it won't be…so trying."
"Goodbye, Doctor, one of these times you're just going to have to visit. No need for an alien invasion." The Brigadier stood up and shook the Doctor's hand. He turned to Jamie. "And you keep him safe, he does get into some of the most frightfully insane predicaments."
"Ah, you donna know the half of it!" Jamie said, nodding and crossing his arms over his chest whilst looking at the Doctor.
"Oh, come along, Jamie; let's get started before something else turns up!" The Doctor said with a bluster and walked towards the commissary exit.
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"What were you expecting?" the woman said looking at the man and the young lady next to him.
"Older man…gruff looking, wearing a leather jacket, ammunition belt slung around his shoulder…" The Doctor said, lifting his hand up to his shoulder. "This high-ish."
"Nope, no man, just me." The woman said, looking forlorn at the prospect. She had a cute face, and dark hair, and deep brown eyes. She wore a yellow sweater and a short tartan skirt over black leggings.
"So, in the end, the end of the world was stopped by…" Zoe started.
"An over wrought circuit…" the Doctor said taking a deep breath and frowning. He looked at the woman standing at the threshold of the apartment door. "Strange…you saved the world with a soufflé, amazing." The Doctor turned to Zoe, "Well come along, Zoe, I've got to get you back to your Doctor."
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Zoe took a step out of the TARDIS. She still didn't believe him when he said they'd be right back where they had left. She knew perfectly well how untrustworthy TARDIS travel was. She looked out at the beach side park. Across the green was another TARDIS, well the same TARDIS, her TARDIS with her Doctor and Jamie.
"I told you it would be fine." The Doctor said leaning against the frame of his TARDIS. His arms crossed over his chest.
"I'm glad you finally found out how to fly it." Zoe said with a smile.
"I always knew!" the Doctor said with an indignant frown. He then smiled. "I just chose to take the scenic path."
"Well, I suppose I should get going." Zoe said, waving to the Doctor. She looked back towards her Doctor's TARDIS. "Those two would get in terrible trouble if I weren't around, you know…"
"Yes, I do." The Doctor said with a smile.
"Oh, yes, of course you do…" Zoe said with a laugh and turned and strode towards the other TARDIS.
That's when she heard the sound. It was a squeal and then a shifting sandy sound a raspy, hissing sound. She watched as her Doctor's TARDIS vibrated. Then there was a loud 'pop' and the TARDIS was gone.
She stopped and looked back to the other Doctor. His mouth was open, his eyes wide.
"What…am I…" Zoe flustered quietly.
The Doctor laughed slightly to himself. "Of course…this is when that happened!"
"How can you laugh!?" Zoe shouted.
"Don't worry…I know where they are going." The Doctor said walking up to her. He hugged her shoulders. "Come along, I'll take you there, won't be a minute for you, I'm sure. Plus…you don't want to get involved with that adventure…one word, cannibals."
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AN: I know, this is a horrible dosage of personal self-indulgence on my part! Fun for audiences of all ages…hopefully (also some questionable assertions and continuity! HA! Purest form of Doctor Who!).