INT. STORAGE SILO – MASTIFF'S COMPOUND
The Doctor awakens buried up to his chest in pale yellow wheat grain. He tries to move, but can't. Around him, also buried up to their chests are Teezu's bodyguards, the transport pilot, and Lagyot, who is unconscious.
DOCTOR
This, I was not expecting.
PILOT
Doctor, you're awake. Can you move your arms?
The Doctor's face contorts and reddens as he tries to move. After a few seconds, he gives up.
DOCTOR
I think... I think I'm handcuffed again... and shackled to the floor.
BODYGUARD 1
Us, too.
DOCTOR
Lagyot, what about you? Lagyot?
PILOT
He hasn't moved.
DOCTOR
LAGYOOOOOOOOOOOOOT! LAGYOT! LAGYOT! LAGYOT!
His voice echoes. The pilot and two bodyguards cringe.
BODYGUARD 2
Will you stop that?! It's bad enough we're buried alive. I don't want to go deaf.
PILOT
You don't think he's dead, do you? Can anyone see if he's breathing?
The Doctor clears his throat, then spits on Lagyot's face. The other three men are stunned.
BODYGUARD 1
Did-did-did you just spit on him?
BODYGUARD 2
That's disgusting!
DOCTOR
Well, we have to know if he's dead. If I had a bucket of water, I'd pour it over his head. But I don't have any water... or a bucket... or any means by which to accomplish the aforementioned task.
The Doctor spits on Lagyot again. After a second, the other men reluctantly join in. Lagyot stirs. His eyes open when he realizes what's happening to him.
LAGYOT
Wha- what the crim are you people doing? Stop spitting on me!
DOCTOR
Oh, Lagyot, thank goodness. We thought you were dead.
BODYGUARD 1
He made us do it.
LAGYOT
Where are we?
Lagyot looks around.
LAGYOT
Where's Prince Teezu?
A loudspeaker clicks on.
MINISTER MASTIFF (V.O.)
He's safe.
The five buried men look up to where a light flickers on, revealing a rectangular-shaped window in the silo about ten feet above them. Through the glass can be seen Minister Mastiff and Gerund standing in front of a computer console. Mastiff has one hand wrapped around a conspicuous lever which is currently in the up position.
LAGYOT
You're never going to get away with this, Mastiff.
MINISTER MASTIFF (V.O.)
On the contrary, Lagyot, you're the one who isn't getting away with it. What do you think of your handiwork? I thought you'd appreciate the opportunity to appraise your work before the end.
DOCTOR
What's he talking about?
MINISTER MASTIFF (V.O.)
The wheat, Doctor. Notice its pale coloring, rough texture, and rancid smell.
DOCTOR
Is that what that is? I thought someone passed wind.
GERUND (V.O.)
It is the blight.
DOCTOR
Come again?
MINISTER MASTIFF (V.O.)
The sickness that has devastated our crops and spread like the most virulent of plagues. Did you think we would not find out it was artificial?
LAGYOT
I have no idea what you're talking about.
Mastiff pulls the lever down. At once, grain pours down from the ceiling. The buried men scream for their lives until Mastiff lifts the lever back up. By that point, though, the level of the grain has risen up to their shoulders.
DOCTOR
(to Lagyot)
Why didn't you tell me there was something wrong with your wheat crop?
LAGYOT
It didn't seem relevant to the case.
DOCTOR
Think it seems relevant now?
MINISTER MASTIFF (V.O.)
We have proof that Yooli-
LAGYOT
King Yooli.
MINISTER MASTIFF (V.O.)
… entered into a secret contract with Jenu to import their grain and sell it wholesale.
LAGYOT
We had no choice. Your production has been so low, we had to offset the losses with imports from Jenu to meet our obligations to our customers.
DOCTOR
That's why Vinny sold me bad loaf.
MINISTER MASTIFF (V.O.)
Any natural blight would have ended after we purged the affected land. There are at least ten fail-safes to prevent this kind of widespread and continuous infection. Do you deny that Yooli-
LAGYOT
For the last time, Mastiff...
MINISTER MASTIFF (V.O.)
That King Yooli plans to use his Jenu contracts to further squeeze every last drop out of us he can?
LAGYOT
Vehemently.
MINISTER MASTIFF (V.O.)
Then, there is no plan for him to cut our wages by as much as forty percent over the next three full seasons?
LAGYOT
The Jenu contract is a costly one. We can't continue at the current rates. The profit margin simply no longer supports it.
Mastiff pulls the lever. The men scream again.
LAGYOT
This won't get you anywhere!
MINISTER MASTIFF (V.O.)
It'll make me feel better.
The grain level rises to their necks.
DOCTOR
Wait! Stop! I can cure the blight!
Mastiff and Gerund share a glance. Mastiff lifts the lever.
MINISTER MASTIFF (V.O.)
What did you say?
DOCTOR
In my travels, I've aided countless farmland cultures facing similar catastrophic losses due to contamination or disease. For instance, the Blarks of Griffinolia and their pitted feeli root, the Yak fungus on Triptid, or the shrinking duckradishes on Venshenwoo.
ROSE (V.O.)
You made up those names.
DOCTOR (V.O.)
Every last one.
Gerund turns to his father.
GERUND (V.O.)
He's lying to save his life.
DOCTOR
No, I'm offering you a way out of this without having to commit murder to prove a point that doesn't solve your problem. Lagyot is not going to break, even if he does know something. You know that. You're not getting an admission of guilt out of him. But, you're a good man, Minister, I can see it. You're trying to fight the good fight, for the welfare of all the men, women, and families, the good people that you represent. Do right by them now. Please, Minister, I am a Time Lord, and I believe I can help you. Let me try.
Mastiff considers his options.
DOCTOR
You can always murder us later.
Mastiff takes his hand off of the lever and instead hits a switch that opens a door in the side of the silo. The piled high grain spills out the open door, giving the trapped men a little more breathing room. They all exhale, relieved.
MINISTER MASTIFF (V.O.)
I'll get my men to dig you out.
The Doctor nods his appreciation.
INT. LAB – MASTIFF'S COMPOUND
MICROSCOPIC POV: Under a microscope, we see a wheat cross-section, which appears to the untrained eye as round bundles of ordered but varying size. Most are a light blue color, but others appear purple to almost black.
The Doctor switches out the sample from under the microscope for another. The entire lab is white, sterile, and he wears a clean suit over his clothes. Over that, his ankles are bound together by a chain. He contrasts what he sees under the microscope with the record displayed on a tablet he holds in his hand.
Wearing a clean suit, Akaela enters the lab from the Doctor's left. She carries with her several samples on a silver tray.
AKAELA
I brought the samples you asked for, Doctor; irrigation system water, rain water, soil, pesticide, fungicide, northern root, southern root, assorted leaves, and husks.
She places the tray down next to him.
DOCTOR
Thank you, Akaela.
AKAELA
Have you found anything?
He squints as he peers through the microscope.
DOCTOR
Yes. I've discovered that small things look much bigger when you look at them through a microscope.
AKAELA
Doctor, my father's men have orders to kill you if you can't find a cure.
Akaela motions to a thick plastic observation window on the Doctor's right, where two of Mastiff's men stand at attention with rifles at their side.
AKAELA
I pray you're not wasting my time.
DOCTOR
It's such an interesting expression, isn't it? "Wasting my time," as if time was a commodity that you yourself possess. The truth is, you don't own time. None of us do. It exists independent of our lives, and it cannot be wasted. I cannot throw it in the trash or spend it, like money, on frivolous things. What you truly refer to is a portion of your own existence, which I acknowledge is itself measured in time, and limited, but is not time itself.
AKAELA
Thank you for the lecture. Perhaps now you could educate me as to how no one has yet killed you simply for being pretentious?
DOCTOR
You may not have noticed, but I'm actually very handsome.
AKAELA
I'll take your word for it.
DOCTOR
Am I not regal enough for you?
He looks up from the microscope.
AKAELA
Not purple enough.
He smiles and continues working.
DOCTOR
If I may ask, where is the Prince being held?
AKAELA
In a safe location.
DOCTOR
How do I know that's true? I agreed to help under the condition that the Prince and the rest of us go free should I find a cure for your blight. I don't even know if Prince Teezu is alive.
AKAELA
My father would never harm Tee. He's trying to make a point, not start a civil war.
DOCTOR
And how do you know "Tee"?
AKAELA
Tee, my brother, and I all went to school together growing up. We had the same tutor.
DOCTOR
Childhood sweethearts, perhaps?
Akaela looks away.
DOCTOR
I saw the way you looked at him when we arrived. There's history there.
AKAELA
What you saw was relief, Doctor. I was relieved to see that my cherished friend was okay.
DOCTOR
And your brother? Do Gerund and Teezu get along?
AKAELA
All of us were in shock when we heard about the assassination attempt, and all of us were relieved when we found out Tee was okay. Now, if you're done interrogating me, I'd like to-
DOCTOR
The permeability of the organelle membranes has changed. It has compromised the plant's ability to both absorb nutrients and dispose of waste, which explains the necrosis. But there's no evidence of fungal, bacterial, or viral infection.
AKAELA
We believe it's a genetic abnormality, one passed down from generation to generation, only it doesn't make any sense. If that were the case, it should be simple enough to eradicate the affected crop and its progeny, but the blight continues to spread.
DOCTOR
Certain genetic abnormalities can be the result of exposure to radiation.
AKAELA
None of these samples read as radioactive. Besides, except in extreme cases, we try and keep a predominantly natural growing environment. There are no sources of harmful radiation on Hipto.
DOCTOR
There are on Jenu.
Akaela considers the implications.
EXT. WHEAT FIELD - HIPTO - DAY
In the middle of an enormous field of wheat crops, the Doctor scans the crops, soil, and air using the sonic screwdriver. He reads the results.
DOCTOR
Absolutely no sign of abnormal radioactivity. Anywhere. I'm wrong? Wait a minute, that doesn't make any sense. I can't be wrong.
He turns around to where Mastiff, Akaela, and a few of Mastiff's men stand nearby the hovercraft used to transport them all to the field.
DOCTOR
And you're one hundred percent sure that no Jenu ships have violated your territory recently?
MINISTER MASTIFF
As sure as we can be. We have constant surveillance of the area through the use of low-orbiting satellites and ground-level radar, as well as random aerial patrol sweeps.
DOCTOR
But you don't exactly have an armada at your disposal.
MINISTER MASTIFF
We're farmers. We have three vessels, plus my personal shuttle. We leave planetary security to Yooli.
DOCTOR
King Yooli.
MINISTER MASTIFF
I get quite enough of that from Lagyot, Doctor. I've known Yooli since we were both sucking our thumbs. We were the best of friends, once. Back when loyalty meant something. I'll call him whatever I want.
DOCTOR
I'm going to want to see your air traffic logs over all the areas where infected crops were discovered just prior to their discovery.
Mastiff nods.
MINISTER MASTIFF
I'll have my son make those records available to you.
INT. COMMAND CENTER - MASTIFF'S COMPOUND
Around the size of a school classroom, the command center is more function than form, with men crammed in at various stations like officers on a Navy submarine. Towards the back, in front of a vertical three-dimensional holo-map, the Doctor pours over the air traffic logs supplied to him by Gerund, who watches him closely along with Minister Mastiff and Akaela.
DOCTOR
There are a lot of gaps in these patrols.
GERUND
I keep asking for more ships, more men, more security. We need more eyes in the fields.
MINISTER MASTIFF
Security has never been a problem under Yooli's reign, or his family's.
GERUND
And who protects us from Yooli?
MINISTER MASTIFF
There's only so many times and ways I can admit to being wrong, Gerund.
Mastiff storms off. The Doctor appears surprised.
DOCTOR
Someone want to fill me in on your father's beef with King Yooli?
AKAELA
Dad and King Yooli were best friends when they were younger. Sometime after Dad was elected head of the labor union, they had a falling out. No one's really sure what it was about and he won't talk about it.
DOCTOR
Sitting on opposite sides of the negotiation table can fray any friendship.
GERUND
So can realizing that the person you care about only really cares about money and himself. King Yooli is a tyrant and a thief, who puts his greed above the needs of his people.
AKAELA
If you ask me, Dad just takes things too personally.
GERUND
You wouldn't feel that way if you were the one who had been betrayed. You're always making excuses for them, for the whole family. Don't you see what this is doing to our father?
AKAELA
You think I don't care about him because I choose to see the best in people?
The Doctor steps in between the feuding siblings.
DOCTOR
Whoa-whoa. Hi. Let's not lose sight of the goal. All right? We're trying to figure out how someone could have slipped passed the aerial patrols.
GERUND
Like you said, there are many gaps.
DOCTOR
Yes, there are, but if it was the Jenu, we're talking about a potential act of war. That's a big risk to leave something like that up to the chance that they wouldn't be detected. They must have known where the aerial patrols would be and when.
GERUND
That's impossible. The patrol courses are randomly generated just prior to the start of each shift. I don't even know where they're going until I hand out the assignments to my men.
The Doctor thinks.
DOCTOR
Let's assume I'm right, because I'm the Doctor and I'm always right. Someone is poisoning your crops by exposing them to a radioactive substance, something with a very short half-life, so it leaves no trace radioactivity.
GERUND
How can we just take your word for it that something's there when we have no evidence to support that conclusion?
DOCTOR
I have a really great story about some blue paint. I'll tell it to you sometime. Now, whoever's doing it, they're not just out there walking around the fields with a big chunk of glowing rock, rubbing it on all the leaves. They would need some way to contain it, a delivery system, and a mode of transport.
AKAELA
A ship would have been detected by satellite, or radar.
GERUND
Not necessarily. Not if they came in a stealth ship.
DOCTOR
Is there any chance these records could have been tampered with?
GERUND
Someone would have to have access to the satellite grid, security clearance, and the technical know-how to forge a new record without leaving a digital fingerprint.
DOCTOR
And where could something like that be accomplished?
GERUND
Main security, where the logs are kept.
DOCTOR
Then, we have two possibilities; either the logs have been tampered with, in which case the person who tampered with them is here, or they came in a stealth ship, and the person who gave them the aerial patrol assignments is here. Either way, there is one inescapable conclusion to be drawn... you have a mole on your hands.
Gerund crosses his arms. Akaela looks concerned.
-To be Continued...-
