"But why are we breaking into this military base, Doctor?" Cariolo asked. "I don't understand."
"Based on what you and your sister have told me," the Doctor replied, "I think someone is doing this to scare people. They're trying to generate a panic, make everyone think this is the apocalypse and the world is ending."
"Someone in this base?" Imula guessed.
The Doctor just shrugged.
"But this is the apocalypse!" Cariolo insisted. "It must be some kind of supernatural judgment on us. I mean… the sky is red! The oceans and rivers are on fire!"
"Basic chemistry," the Doctor explained. "It's not hard, if you know what chemicals you need to mix together. The fire in the water can easily create a red sky."
"And the earthquakes?" asked Cariolo.
"Seismology," the Doctor replied. "Lots of things can make the ground shake. Doesn't always have to be plate tectonics." He gestured at the whole mess, around them. "I'm certain someone's setting this all up. The whole disaster's man-made."
"Even the shadow monster?" Imalu asked.
"Ah." The Doctor cringed. "No — that one, I suspect, is another matter, entirely. A matter I really should speak to my friend about."
Cariolo frowned. "Why? Does your friend deal with lots of shadow monsters?"
"That's precisely what I want to ask her," said the Doctor. He shushed the two children, then began creeping through the base, interested. "Hm. Now, what do they have, here? Something ready for launch, it seems."
He pointed at a missile, waiting on the launch pad.
"They're going to launch a missile, here?" Cariolo asked. "Can they do that?"
"Apparently, they think they can," said the Doctor. "Interesting. I wonder what they use to generate the blast? Something that needs a much smaller blast zone than I'm used to."
He smiled at the two children.
Gestured for them to follow him.
"Come along, you two," he said. "Let's check it out, for ourselves."
"But we'll get caught!" Imula insisted.
"Haven't so far," the Doctor replied. Although… come to think of it… that was a little worrying, in and of itself. Why weren't people running over to them, guns blazing, telling them to freeze and come quietly?
Definitely, something bad was going on, here.
"Cariolo!" Imula called back, noticing him lingering behind to stare at something, nearby. "Come on!"
He spun around, noticed the others up ahead of him, and started racing after them. "Coming!"
"Halt!" shouted a commander, pointing a gun at the Doctor and his two companions. "What are you civilians doing here?"
It was the first person who'd stopped them, since they'd arrived on the base.
They must be extremely understaffed.
"Well, my friends and I were just…" the Doctor began.
"Imula!" shouted Cariolo.
The two kids rushed the Commander, knocking him over before he'd had a chance to realize what was going on. The gun clattered out of his hands, and onto the ground.
"Grab his gun!" shouted Cariolo.
Imula did so. "Got it!" She jumped to her feet, and pointed it at the Commander. "Do what we say, or die!"
The Doctor grabbed the gun out of Imula's hands. "I'll take that." He quickly removed the ammunition, rendered the gun useless, then tossed it over a shoulder. Turning to Cariolo, added — a little sternly, "That was an absurdly dangerous thing to do."
"Oh, come on! He was going to shoot you!" said Cariolo. He gestured at himself and his sister. "He wouldn't have shot us. We're just kids."
"Yeah," said Imula.
The Doctor stared at Imula and Cariolo. There was something wrong about these two. Perhaps it was the way that Cariolo had so casually referred to himself as a kid — which, the Doctor had learned from Susan back when she'd been in her teenage years, teenagers never did. Or perhaps it was the little girl, the way she started off so scared that she could barely move, and now… she was launching herself at well-armed army personnel. Or maybe it was the way that, despite her age, she seemed so familiar with guns that she could aim one, perfectly.
"There's something wrong about all of this," the Doctor said. But the more he thought about it, the fuzzier his mind seemed to get.
"What's wrong, Doctor?" Imula asked.
The Doctor opened his mouth to answer… but words escaped him. He struggled to catch his last train of thought… but it was gone before he could.
"I don't know," the Doctor answered. He gestured at Cariolo. "Let the Commander go."
Cariolo hesitated, but did so.
The Commander looked at the Doctor and the others, his face completely blank. Then, in a monotone, informed them, "It is time. I have to go."
"What's time?" the Doctor asked. He grabbed the Commander by the sleeve. "Commander? What's time? Where do you have to go?"
"It is time," said the Commander. "I have to go."
"What's wrong with him?" asked Imula.
"Some sort of hypnotic trance," said the Doctor. He reached into his pocket. "I'll see if I can break…"
Cariolo's face went blank. "It is time," he said, also in a monotone. "I have to go."
"Cariolo!" Imula cried.
The Doctor let the Commander go, and ran to Cariolo. "Not you, too. What happened to you?" He fished a pocket watch out of his jacket pocket. "Cariolo, listen to me. I've got a nice, shiny pocket watch, here. See the nice, shiny pocket watch?"
Cariolo's eyes followed the watch, dully.
As the Doctor began to swing it, back and forth.
"Yes, just like that, follow the watch," the Doctor said. The boy's eyes drifted back and forth, along with the watch. "Whatever's gotten inside your mind, Cariolo, I want you to find it. Locate it. And yank it out. Your thoughts are your own. Your will is your own."
Cariolo blinked.
Then blinked again.
"Doctor?" Cariolo put a hand up to his head. "What…?"
"Seems there's a powerful psychic influence around here," the Doctor said. He frowned. Feeling for the thing that had slipped out of his thoughts, such a short time ago. "Something that managed to take over Cariolo. Something that managed to take over that Commander. And something… that's even managed to seep into my mind, somewhat. Which isn't easy."
"Why?" asked Cariolo. "What's so special about you?"
The Doctor looked at Cariolo and Imula, a little harder. Then decided… it may be better not to answer that question.
"Doctor," Imula said, looking around herself. "Where did the Commander go?"
The Doctor looked around.
Sure enough, the Commander was no longer there.
"You don't think he's going to launch that missile, do you?" Cariolo asked. "You know. Wipe us all out?"
"I don't know — but I think it's high time we checked!" The Doctor surged forwards. "Right, then. Which way do you think he would have…?"
"There!" shouted Imula, pointing. "I see him!"
Sure enough, the Commander was now running down the corridors, sprinting towards someplace, urgently.
"We have to catch up to him!" Cariolo cried.
"Oh, we will," the Doctor said, grinning. "We will."
The good thing, Seo reflected, about having General Halwather on her side was that he could call into Agrebz base, before she even arrived. Which meant, the moment Seo set foot on Agrebz base, everyone there already knew who she was, and was expecting her.
"We've scoured the base, top to bottom, Ma'am," said Lieutenant Pruto, saluting her. "We found the breach where the intruders must have entered, but no intruders."
"Then you didn't scour the base — you just think you did," said Seo. She pointed at the launchpad. "And that missile. What the hell do you think you're doing with that?"
"Orders, ma'am," said Pruto. "Prime Minister Walmo instructed…"
Seo wanted to scream. "When will people ever learn?" She threw her arms open. "The Prime Minister's dead. The Chief Engineer is dead. They're all dead, Lieutenant Pruto. An imposter has been giving out all of the orders, worldwide, for a while, now — and none of you have figured it out, yet."
"It was the Prime Minister's voice," Pruto said.
Seo, in aggravation, parroted back the phrase, "It was the Prime Minister's voice," but exactly matched Pruto's voice, as she did. Even getting his bass tone spot-on.
Pruto stared at her, in disbelief.
"Voices can be faked, Lieutenant," said Seo. "A good enough actor and mimic can fool anyone. And trust me, the one we're dealing with is very good. She can imitate men, woman, children — doesn't matter. All easy. And with just a touch of perception filter left in her physiology… you wouldn't even think to double check her identity or question her orders."
Pruto was just trying to take this all in.
"That's who you're dealing with," said Seo. She pointed at the missile on the launch pad. "The chemical compound in that missile will combine with the red gas in the air, and the magma emissions elsewhere on the planet, to permanently poison the atmosphere. No one will survive this day, Pruto! And I know, because…!"
She stopped.
She couldn't say the next part. She could still remember coming back here, afterwards. Tracking this planet down, again, coming in with a gas mask, and searching for survivors.
No one.
Not one single person had been left alive, on this entire planet.
"Get that missile disarmed and off the launch pad, now," Seo commanded. "Or every last person on this planet will die."
Something about her tone convinced Pruto.
He gave the command.
But before anyone could carry it out, bulkheads sealed around them, and a countdown to launch began.
"We located the intruders, Lieutenant," said a private, nearby them, after receiving a brief report over the radio. "Launch control room. They killed everyone else. Sealed themselves inside."
Seo started hacking into the bulkhead controls. "Then that's where I'm headed."