Chapter 25 - Ghost in the Machine

Adie was adjusting the relays, which, since the automatic winches had gone dwn, required a lot more physical effort than it once had. She'd put the repair of the winches on her to do list, but it was a long way down on a list that was growing all the time. She rested the spanner across her shoulder with a sigh. It looked as though she'd gotten it fixed just in time.

"Router System Active," the computer informed her.

"What?" It had been a century since she had heard that alert.

She frowned up at one of the subsystem monitors and peered closely at it. One of the remote router hubs was active.

"What..." she began, just as the Trans Mat beam swept her up.

"...the hell?" she said, looking around. She was a bit woozy and disoriented from the beam, but she could tell that she was in a lab of some sort. It was filled with shelving and workstations,. There was a floor covered in copper plating, each square etched with a filigree pattern, while the ceiling had been painted a soft green. A stained glass chandelier was hanging from the ceiling and along the back wall was an opaque green glass wall with seams, like it was designed to open up.

In front of her was a workstation with holographic computer interface and a surface cluttered with notepads,a tray with sandwiches and cookies, tea cups, and crystal data chips. Sitting at the computer was him. He looked different now, lean, with spiky blond hair and crystalline blue eyes. He had a wide mouth and a pointed chin, and high cheekbones, but his energy was unmistakable to her.

His expression was glassy-eyed, his brow was furrowed in concentration and there was a child tucked under the crook of his arm, staring at Adie in shock and the sound of her Song was the first touch of another Time Lord mind that she had felt in so long that it was nearly overwhelming. She had huge green eyes, a mop of short, curly blonde hair and a sharp angular face.

Adie turned her attention back to the bastard who was sitting there, jacked into the router. He was alive.

Which was impossible, because he was dead and tucked away securely. It occurred to her that the corpse she'd been guarding for so long could have been a ruse, something to keep her complacent and docile for all this time. In fact, that had to be the answer, because he was regenerated and right in front of her. Fury sparked in her, burning bright and cold.

"Who are you?" the child whispered and Adie bit off her anger for the sake of the child. Whoever she was, she was just another of his pawns. She had to get the child away from that monster.

"My name is Adie. What's your name?" she asked, keeping her voice gentle and calm, even though inside she was seething.

"Freeyalandria," she answered. "But everyone just calls me Freeya." the little girl responded uncertainly.

"That's a pretty name. What are you doing here? It seems like a strange place for a girl of your age." She was babbling a bit, trying to figure out a way to get the child to safety without alarming her.

"Why? I always help Koschei in the workshop," Freeya asked, looking confused. She looked so innocent and Adie wanted to keep her that way.

"Oh, you do?" she said, stalling for time. "Well… I came to… talk to him. About grown up stuff, I am afraid. Do you have a safe place you can go?"

"I am safe here and now is a bad time to talk to him. He has to help Masha, she's sick," she replied, looking unhappy. Her answer made Adie's rage grow. She was such a sweet little girl. She deserved better than what was in store for her.

"That is what I have to talk to him about, sweetie. You don't have any other place you can go?" She asked again, starting to feel a bit desperate. Soon he'd realize she was here and then any chance to end all of it would be gone.

"But, I was helping!" the child frowned at her, crossing her arms and looking annoyed. "I'm a really good helper, Koschei says so!" she protested.

"I know you are," Adie soothed, wondering exactly what sort of 'help' that psycho was using her for. "Maybe you could bring him coffee?" she said. "I bet you are big enough to prepare coffee all by yourself."

"I can do that," the little girl said reluctantly. "Would you like some as well?" she asked politely.

"How lovely of you to ask! But no, I won't need any." Adie said, knowing that neither of them would ever drink coffee again, or anything else, for that matter.

The child nodded and left the room, pausing to look back at Adie.

"Be kind to him, he's really shy," Freeya informed her with a slight frown.

Once she was sure the child was well clear of the door, she turned to look at the man in the chair and her face was black with rage.

This could not go on. Would Freeya be standing here someday, much older and much sadder, wondering how to end the cycle for the next ten-year-old girl? No. This had to end, had to end today. She looked at his energy, saw the patterns she'd watched for so long and knew that this was him, this was the one who had made her life and all those other lives such misery.

"You bloody bastard," she breathed, "This cycle ends now. You are not doing this to any more children." She wouldn't be here to see it, but that was all right.

She swung the spanner as if it had been a cricket bat, connecting solidly with his temple. Because he was a Time Lord, the blow didn't actually knock him unconscious. It did, however, drag him right back into his body, disconnecting everything that he had been doing. He was forced out of the system, and a lump the size of a teacup began to swell up.

The collar around her neck clicked. She didn't need to check why.

"Ten," she said in a voice of flat rage, and swung the spanner again. It barely missed him, smashing the monitor instead, causing it to burst into sparks. Having missed, she was already swinging back around for another attack.

Pain erupted in Koschei's head. He was knocked sideways in Susan's chair and his vision was spangled with lights. Knocked fully back to his own body, he looked up to see a girl who looked identical to Masha in every way swinging a spanner at his head. No, he realized, not identical. This girl had hazel eyes and her skin was pale and untinted with Masha's greenish tones.

Koschei nearly faltered as something else registered with him. He could hear her, as her notes burst into full bloom in the Song. She was a Time Lord, one who had been so heavily shielded, prior to this moment, that none of them had had any idea of her existence. A Time Lord whose energies were so faint and so drained that she hardly registered; but a Time Lord, nonetheless. A Time Lord who was trying her damndest to kill him.

He dropped out of his chair and dived away from her, confused as hell, but far too familiar with that look in her eye.

"Bloody hell! What are you doing?" he looked around frantically. "Freeya?" he glared at her. "What did you do to her? If you've hurt her, I'll tear you apart!" he shouted.

"Nine." The spanner missed by millimetres, smashing a tray of medical tools off of a desk nearby and scattering them across the floor. "I sent her to safety," she spat. "The last thing I will ever do. I'm going to end this!" She had him scrambling, perfectly ready to beat him to death with the spanner. If she killed him with it, she just had to kill him again before he could regenerate and it would all be over for him. He had no doubt she'd do it as well.

She swung and sent the tea tray flying, cookies and hot liquid flying away in a spray.

He spun on his heel, kicking out and knocking her hand aside and then dived and rolled away from her. He had to get this crazy woman out of this lab and away from the tanks of babies that lined the wall behind the psychic shielding curtain.

There were two doors to Susan's lab and the nutter with the spanner was blocking one. The hallway was his best move, the other door went to the cleanroom and that was a dead end.

"Eight," she murmured, almost to herself, she swung, he dodged, and the spanner bruised his shoulder. If he hadn't of dodged, it would have caved in his skull.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" he shouted and kicked out again, lashing her with his boot, kicking her straight through the doorway she was blocking and sending her crashing into the wall of the hallway. "Stop this!" It was a hard hit, but she shook it off.

"No. We are ending this, once and for all," she growled, and charged him. "Seven." He grabbed her arm and used her own momentum as leverage, tossing her into the opposite wall.

"You're mad! Why the bloody hell are you doing this?" he shouted, confused by the whole encounter and with a rising fear for Freeya. Where was she? What had happened while he'd been half-unconscious?

"Six. For reasons you are incapable of understanding." She charged him again, but this time she was ready for him; he went to flip her, but she used her leg to sweep his out from under him first, falling backwards, using her weight to throw him over her, and they crashed through the opposite door and into a storage room.

"Try me, you barmy cow!" he shouted back. "I'm very clever!" he rolled and tried to pin her, but she wriggled free, kicking at him as she escaped. "Ow!" he shouted as her heel hit his shin.

"Five. You're not clever," the spanner missed splitting his skull by millimeters, forcing him to roll further into the storage room. At least they were away from the babies. "You're sad. I pity you."

"I'm sad? You're the one attacking a total stranger with a spanner!" he shot back and ducked her next blow, striking her hard in the stomach and then dancing away. "Now, can we stop this and have a civilized discussion?" He could have killed her with the follow up move, but Susan would have not appreciated it one bit.

"Four... no, three," she gasped, having lost a beat for a moment trying to catch her breath. "Do you think I am an idiot? That just because you have a new face and a new body that I wouldn't know who you were? I'm a Time Lord! Did you forget? Or did you just think I was stupid?" She swung at him again, connecting solidly for once, making his entire arm numb with the ferociousness of the hit.

"You've got the wrong bloke, lady! I have no bloody clue who the hell you are and I don't know what the Rani did to you, but I was just trying to help Masha!" he shouted, dodging the next blow and starting to get worried that he might actually have to choke her out to stop her.

"Two. You don't try to help anyone, but yourself, and you don't fool me!"

"You're bonkers! What did I ever do to you? I've never even met you before!" he shouted and shook out his arm, flexing the fingers and trying to figure out a way to stop her without hurting her too badly.

"One." She charged him again, ready for his move. It was apparent, too late, that she hadn't been trying to hit him; she had been trying to grab him. Now she had him, and they tumbled to the floor together. It was an insane move, no self-defence at all, no point to it, nowhere to go. "Still keeping up the cover? The claim that you have forgotten? Here, let me remind you."

She looked into his eyes. Her eyes were a clear hazel and while there was anger in them, he could also see a terrible sadness.

"Goodbye," she whispered to him, almost in his ear.

This close, he could hear the collar click.

The actinic light and the smell of ozone were his only warning as she was engulfed in a flash of electricity. It was like being struck by lightning, the smell of burning hair and flesh, the agonizing pain as his nerve endings sparked and his hearts jolted. Whatever she had unleashed on him, it was meant to be nothing more or less than a fatal voltage.

Susan's head jerked up and she stared off into space for a moment.

"Shay!" she cried and looked around frantically, like she was trying to go in several directions at once.

"What's wrong?" Masha asked her.

"He's being attacked!" she said. "I have to get to him! Koschei!" she cried out, the telempathic link between them snapping her to her feet. "We have to get back, right now!" Her mind was filling up and even as she fought for control, she was crippled by her own desperate desire to save her husband. On any other day, for any other reason, even her own survival, she could fight off the overwhelming might of the Arkytior, but here, where both their wills intersected, she was lost even before the battle began.

She had just enough presence of mind to grab Masha's hand and drag her back into her own body, holding on to her still, as the power inside of her moved them both straight to wherever her husband was. The golden light started flowing out of her, her eyes glowing with the same golden light. It crackled around her, lifting the hair on her head and sending it whipping around her face.

She popped into the room, Masha's hand still held in hers, and turned those eyes on the woman who was trying to kill Koschei. The woman still had the spanner in her hand. She was trying to regain her feet, to smash the dazed man before he could struggle to his own.

The Arkytior turned and looked at the girl. She saw the light and energy of the creature, saw the places where she had been touched by the hand of the Enemy and saw her as a tool of that ancient nemesis.

"Cease or be destroyed!" she commanded and pointed at her.

Masha had no idea what was going on but had more than enough experience with Trouble to see it coming. Coming, hell, it was already here and covered with gold glitter.

"No, no, no!" She darted across the room, unarmed. Then she stretched out her arms to make herself as big as possible and stood there, putting herself between them, trying to keep both Koschei and Adie behind her.

Koschei shook his head, trying desperately to clear it. He looked up and saw Masha standing between him and Susan as she glowed golden.

"Shit!" he breathed out and shoved Masha hard, throwing her aside, just as a suspiciously Masha-shaped hole in the wall appeared behind her.

Meanwhile, Adie, in spite of her best efforts, was losing the fight to remain standing… or conscious, for that matter. She staggered to the floor, tried to get up, and then passed out.

"Susan! No!" Koschei shouted and ran to her, throwing his arms around her. "Don't! You'll kill Masha!" he cried. "I'm fine, love, look, all bits still attached," he babbled. "Please love, come on back, I'm fine!" he reached out to her and caressed her face. "My hearts, my love, please, you don't want to hurt anyone, I know that."

Slowly, her face turned to look at him and the golden light started to fade.

"Shay?" she murmured and he nodded.

"Come on, Susan, come back to me," he murmured. "Come home, love." The last of the light faded and Susan crumpled in his embrace. He sank to the floor, cradling her against him, face tender as he kissed her brow. "You'll be okay, love, everything is okay."

Masha went over and examined the now-unconscious Adie. On the collar that Adie wore, a red light started to blink. After a minute or so it blinked again. Then again.

"Um... Koschei?' He didn't reply at once, so she added, "I am sorry to break up the intimate moment… do you want to try disarming this, or would you rather get to a safe distance, and have me try?"

"What?" he looked up at Masha, still dazed from everything that had happened and then frowned at the blinking light. "Bugger." He got up and carrying Susan walked over to Masha. "Take her to safety, I'll take care of the bomb," he told her and handed his wife to her.

"Hm. What sort of distance do you think would constitute 'safety'?"

"The hallway will be fine, I'm going to quarantine the room," he informed her and then shoved her out the door and locked it behind her. "Right," he grimaced and turned to the barmy cow who'd made his whole day a living hell. "Let's deal with the next bloody rain cloud!" he snarled.

The collar continued to blink at rapidly-shortening intervals. He had a sudden feeling of things sliding down the razor blade of life and into a bucket of knives.

"Oh bloody hell! This day makes no bloody sense!" He dropped down beside her and examined the collar. "What the hell is this thing?" he asked her, but she was still unconscious, which was damned inconvenient, really. He needed answers.

He whipped out his screwdriver and scanned it. It had secondary functions, but the main problem was the amount of explosive power packed into this little gadget. Once it went up he had better be a long, long away from it.

"Now, this is a bloody bomb," he sighed out, his voice far calmer than it had any right to be. The countdown timer was picking up speed. He was cutting this very close; so close that disarming might not be possible; the best course of action might be to get it off and let it blow. There was no time to be subtle. It would blow her head off, if it was left around her neck, and there would be no recovering from that. Out came the tools. Without time to be clever, he would have to cut the thing off and hope there were no traps in it.

"Damn it all!" he snarled, re-tuned the laser, and with a quick motion he sliced it open. He grabbed and twisted, yanking it from her neck, then dropped it to the ground. He grabbed the girl up in his arms and ran out of the room. He slammed the door behind them, slamming the Isolation Ward protocol panel and sealing the room.

He dropped down against the opposite wall, cradling her in his lap, checking her pulse, and turning her head to make sure he hadn't hurt her when he'd gotten the collar off. For the first time, he could get a good look at her face. She bore an eerie resemblance to Masha. She was a bit thinner, but not by much, and the texture and colour of the hair was the same, as were the long black lashes.

"Can this day get any more bizarre?" he shouted at the ceiling.

Masha, as instructed, had set Susan gently down in one of the beds across the hallway; but she had moved the rack with the jars of babies there too. They had been located right on the other side of the wall, and that definitely placed them in the radius that Koschei had deemed "not safe." The rack was on wheels so that it could be easily moved if needed, and she hadn't wanted to risk them, in case the bomb blew while she was across the hallway.

"Koshei? I put the babies with Susan in the safe zone. Are you sure it is far enough away? It seems awfully close, if it is a big bomb."

"A lovely, but entirely unnecessary thought. That room has been removed from these space time coordinates and placed into the Vortex," he called back. "I am in a lot of bloody pain!" he groaned. "This day has utterly blown!" he added.

In a moment she was at his side, with a first-aid kit in her hands; they were studded around the walls at various points, and she had simply pulled one off and brought it with her. "Here… let me see…" She began spritzing the major pain points with the topical anaesthetic spray. "I put Susan in one of the hospital beds and made her comfortable. She seemed like she was OK… I think she is just sleeping..."

"Which is where you should be!" Masha swivelled around to see Jake standing in the doorway. "One minute you were there and the next minute you were gone, how the hell did you get over here? What happened to Susan? What happened to Koschei? Who is that? Are you all right?"

"Um," she looked a little startled, "I don't know, I'm not sure, there was a fight, I don't know, and yes."

He dropped down beside them both, his eyes searching Masha's face. "I'm okay," she told him. "I'm hard to kill, remember?"

Jake put his arms around her and hugged her, hard. "You're sure?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

After that, Jake was all business, picking up the intruder and carrying her across the hall, and Masha beamed at Koschei and helped him to his feet. "Are you all right?" she prompted him, looking at him worriedly.

"A strange crazy woman with a spanner tried to take my head off, I got electrocuted, my wife nearly destroyed half the galaxy, there was a bomb, and my head hurts. I also have no idea where Freeya is and I am just about ready to collapse," Koschei told her with a slightly glazed look. "This is probably going to rank up in the top ten of the Worst Days Ever, actually."

"Well, it is all Dar's fault, so the next time you see him, punch him in the nose. Let me see this, no, let me see…" She had spritzed everything she could find. "Here, we'll get you into the bed next to Susan… do you have any idea where Freeya is?" She paused. "For that matter, who is Freeya?"

"She's an eleven year old genius, my workshop assistant, and I don't know where she went. She's about half your height, blond and green eyed, with a really amazing structure to her energy matrix, really full of light and kinda swirly," he muttered and then winced. "Concussion, that's why I'm babbling," he explained suddenly, looking up at her. "Just figured it out."

"Don't worry, I've dealt with concussions before," she soothed him. "Of course, this is new," she pulled the tissue regenerator and read the directions on the side. "Point at wound and press green button. Okay, sounds easy enough, hold still ... " She pointed the regenerator at the lump and depressed the button, as instructed.

He hissed in relief and sighed out. "Right, that's much better, thank you," he told her. "Now, I have to find Freeya, make sure that she's okay, then I need to fall down for a while. I used way too much energy doing all that," he told her, waving vaguely at the wrecked lab behind them. "I may actually need an hour or two of sleep."

"You need to fall down now, I can look for Freeya. Here, give me this," she pointed the tissue regenerator at the next sore spot.

"Gentle with her though, okay? She lost her entire family in the War, she's gone through a lot, so tell her I fell or something. Don't scare her, okay?" he asked, looking up at her anxiously. "She needs a lot of care and I have to keep her safe," he murmured and then slowly slid down the wall, falling asleep even before he was finished collapsing.