"Try this, it's called Zaffic." Rose said, holding out the drink to Adam as she went to sit next to him. "It's sorta like a Slush Puppy."
"What flavor?" he asked, hesitant.
She took a sip. "It's sort of beef."
"Oh, my god." Adam moaned. They both laughed, but Adam's was much shorter lived. "It's like everything is gone. Home, family… Everything." He said, dejected.
"But it's not." Rose reassured him, she was not gonna give him her cell phone this time. No way to call home, no message to send, no reason to get a bloody door in his head. Simple. "We're thousands of years in the future, yeah? But the Doctor has a time machine. We can go back to a minute after we left and no one but us would know the difference."
"Yeah, I suppose." He said, gloomy and unconvinced.
"Here, lemmie show you." Rose said, thinking quick and pulling out her phone. "The Doctor gave it a bit of a top-up. C'mon, listen in." The dial tone was still going as Adam skootched closer to listen.
"Rose? Bilmey, been a while since I heard from you. Y'know, you could call your mother every blue moon, let'er know you're alive." Her mum scolded. Adam looked stunned.
"Yeah, I'm sorry. The TARDIS is a bit wonky. For me, its only been a few days since our last call. Promise."
"Been a whole month on my end. Blimey, been worried sick. So, tell me, when you comin' home for a visit? I'd like to know a day this time, you two are always so vague about that."
"Oh, you know how it is, mum. The Doctor hardly gets it right when we do set a date." Rose looked over at Adam, who was staring at her phone with a look of disbelief. "Oh, mum, tha' reminds me, wot's the date?"
"July, the 19th I believe. Yeah, 19th."
"And the year?" Rose said, trying to prove it to Adam.
"2006, wot other bloody year were you phonin'?" Her mum joked.
Suddenly, a horn started going off and everyone around them started packing up.
"Oi, Mutt and Jeff! Over 'ere!" the Doctor called to them.
"Gotta go, mum. Love ya." Rose said into the phone and hung up. "See? Nothing's lost, promise." She said kindly to Adam, hoping that would be enough to get him back on track. He kept staring at her phone, amazed, as she tucked it into her jacket pocket.
"Adam, Rose, this is Suki and Cathica. Suki, Cathica, this is Adam and Rose."
"You're management as well?" Suki asked, her voice a bit vague. She was much smarter than she was letting on, Rose could tell. Suki was hiding something. If the Doctor and Torchwood taught her anything, it was infiltration. This girl was quite good at it, but not good enough to fool Rose.
"Yeah, just on a bit of a break. Showin' the new guy the ropes." Rose replied with ease, patting a very confused Adam on the back. "But, ready to get back to work." Rose turned to the Doctor for instruction.
"Right, then. To finish off our test, we'd like to see the process." The Doctor said to the journalist.
"That would be to the news room then. I take you there." Cathica said, schmoozing it up to the Doctor.
They were taken to a sterile looking circular room. A group of people took up places around a low table, each sitting on a cushion in front of silver mounds with handprints in them. At the center was a chair. It looked a bit like what you sit in at the dentist, Rose thought. The Doctor stood with Adam and her, leaning on some rails near the door.
"Now, everybody, behave. We have a management inspection." Cathica warned the group, then turned to the Doctor. "How do you want it? By the book?" she asked him.
"Oh, right from scratch, thanks." the Doctor told her. He and Rose smirked at each other as she turned away.
"Okay, so, ladies, gentlemen, multisex, undecided, or robot, my name is Cathica Santini Khadeni. That's Cathica with a C," she turned to the Doctor, "in case you wanna write to Floor 500, praising me, and please do. Now, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest, and beyond bias. That's company policy." Cathica turned again to the Doctor, flashing a bright smile. She was really laying it on thick for that promotion.
"Actually, um, it's the law." Came Suki's timid voice.
"Yes, thank you, Suki." Cathica deadpanned. "Okay, keep it calm. Don't show off for the guests. Here we go. Engage safety."
Cathica laid down in the chair, looking up at the devise overhead. Everyone around the table hovered their hands above the silver handprints. The lights all around the room came on with a hum. Cathica then clicked her fingers and the door in her head zipped open. Rose couldn't help but notice the way Adam leaned forward in fascination. Around the table, person after person placed their hands in position.
"And three… two… and spike!" Cathica said, and down shot a blue light connecting to the opening to her brain.
"Compressed information, streaming into her." The Doctor said, almost thinking out loud. "Reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Her brain is the computer."
"Would she actually remember any of it?" Rose asked him.
"Nah, it's too much," the Doctor said, circling around the table with Rose close behind. "The brain's the processor. As soon as it closes, she forgets."
"So, what about all these people round the edge?" she asked, kneeling down to peer at one of them.
"They've all got tiny little chips in their head, connecting them to her, and they transmit 600 channels. Every single fact in the empire beams out of this place." He leaned against the rails again, having done a complete circuit of the room, and watched them. "Now, that's what I call power."
"You alright?" Rose asked Adam.
"I can see her brain." He replied simply.
"Yeah, I know. It's weird, right?" She said, hoping to deter him from the operation at least a little.
"No, no. This technology, it's… it's amazing." He said, completely in awe.
"This technology's wrong." The Doctor said.
"Trouble?" Rose asked, maybe a bit too much joy in her voice for that question.
"Oh, yeah." The Doctor replied, just as enthusiastic.
Adam looked between the two of them incredulously. Oh, this he found weird, Rose thought, but not the door in some woman's forehead. Out of the corner of her eye, Rose saw Suki flinch, like something was bothering her. With a zap and a gasp, Suki pulled her hands away from the controls like she'd been burned. All the lights went out and the beam zipped back from the device.
"Come off it, Suki," Cathica complained, getting up. "I wasn't even halfway. What was that for?"
"Sorry," she said, cradling her hands, "it must've been a glitch."
Cathica turned to them, probably ready to grovel and throw Suki under the bus if it meant better chances for her, when a projection suddenly lit up the far wall.
"Promotion." Said the automated woman's voice.
Rose and the Doctor shared a glance as Cathica begged for it to be her.
"Promotion for Suki Macrae Cantrell." The voice said. Suki stared, open mouthed, as her name flashed on the projection. Cathica looked ready to kill. "Please proceed to Floor 500."
"I don't believe it, Floor 500." Suki said in awe.
"How the hell did you manage that?" Cathica asked angrily. "I'm above you!"
"I don't know, I just applied on the off-chance." Suki said, still staring at the screen. "And they've said yes!"
"That's so not fair." Cathica spat. "I've been applying to Floor 500 for three years!"
"Floor 500." Rose murmured, looking at the Doctor.
"Where the walls are made of gold." He answered her unasked question.