Chapter 36 - The Sleepers Awaken
Susan removed the tubes and wires carefully from Adie's veins. She had scanned the purplish goo and found that it was a mix of anesthesia and stasis chemicals. It slowed the heart and rendered the person unconscious. It also deadened them to all external stimuli, so merely shaking them wouldn't wake them at all, nor would cold, heat, or anything else rouse them.
She had never seen this exact mix before and certainly she'd never seen a method for sleep inducement over long periods that didn't also include cryo-freeze or an actual stasis field. The whole setup was brilliant, but also only viable in the short term. The sleepers were being fed, while tubes took care of waste, but they weren't being turned over, or cared for in any other way.
There was something quite callous about the whole thing. Left like this, the people attached to the devices would either die from the overstimulation of their brains, or from the morbidity of their limbs. A bedsore would be fatal for any of them. Susan was finding herself getting quite angry at the Sontarans for this casual cruelty.
It took a while for the chemicals to clear out of Adie and Gaige's systems and Susan was prepping herself to go into Adie's mind to wake her, when she saw Adie's vital signs began to rise and stabilize on their own, as though she'd just been waiting for Susan to unhook her from the system.
She could feel Adie's mind pulling out of whatever dream state she'd been in and breathed out in relief. Adie was slowly rousing on her own now and Susan relaxed, glad that she wouldn't have to go in. Adie had had enough people tromping around in her brain, after all.
She was also glad because she was getting tired and Rose was in more danger than Adie was. Her EEG was even and calm, but her body was being stressed by the coma. She turned to cast a worried eye over her grandfather's wife and then hesitated, still concerned for Adie and Gaige. She explained her findings to Koschei, who nodded.
"You go get Rose and I'll watch over Adie and Gaige until you get back," Koschei promised. "I can go in and get them, if anything goes wrong," he reminded her and Susan nodded, but still hesitated.
"I'll be guarding them as well," Moira pointed out and she felt herself relaxing. Moira was more than a match for the Sontarans, all on her own. Susan smiled at that thought and went to go stand next to Rose.
She had work to do.
Susan dropped into Rose's mind and found herself standing just behind her. They were in a TARDIS' control room and it took her a moment to realize that it was Grandfather's original TARDIS, but with a desktop she'd never seen before.
"Rose?" she called and her step-grandmother turned to look at her in surprise.
"Susan?" Rose was staring at her in an odd manner and Susan nodded. "You're in the wrong time."
"You're unconscious, Rose. You were killed in the dream by the Vashta Narada and your brain sent you somewhere safe," Susan explained and then watched as Rose's face went through several expressions, as she fought to grasp what Susan was saying.
"Oh... I thought...," she began, turning in place to look around at the TARDIS. "I thought I was... somewhere else."
"You thought you were back in the Prime Universe," Susan filled in.
"Don't tell the Doctor, all right? He might think...," she trailed off again, looking agonized.
"I worry about him too, you know," Susan replied in a soft voice. "I worry about him being alone. I worry about him thinking that he's the last one left. I worry that, without us, he might ... well... that things might go badly for him."
"Yes," she agreed and then Rose paced to the console, stroking it with loving fingers. "The last time I saw him, he was in so much pain. He tried to hide it, of course, but I could see it. I knew that it was killing him to leave me again, but that it was also killing him to think about being with me, watching me grow old, and having to see me die."
"It's horrible," Susan admitted. "I had to stand by, helpless, as David aged and died and it was one of the most painful things that I have ever experienced. To love someone that much and to be unable to save them. It hurts." She paused, gathering her thoughts. "Even so, Rose, people marry the terminally ill, or lose people in accidents, to death, or disease. If you had been born a Time Lord, there still might have been a chance that you could have died anyway."
"He'd lost too much, Susan," Rose protested. "I know what you're saying, but he had gone through so much, suffered so much, he just couldn't face it. It might have been cowardice, but it also might have been self-protection, to keep himself from falling even further into darkness."
Susan closed her eyes against the pain of that. Rose had a point and she knew it. Grandfather had lost so much and now he was heading towards his final regenerations. The Valeyard loomed in his possible future and he had to know that better than anyone. Whatever he was doing to try to keep that future from happening was critical to everyone's survival and she could hardly blame him for it.
"I think that you are an extraordinary person, Rose Tyler," Susan murmured, eyes burning. "I am so very grateful that Grandfather had that time with you and that this Grandfather has you beside him."
Rose flushed and looked down, uncomfortable with the praise.
"Right, so, I'm dreaming?" she asked, changing the subject. "Then I ought to wake up, eh?"
"Yes, they're waiting for us."
Adie opened her eyes, her surroundings swimming in her vision, and blinked hard.
It took several moments for her brain to catch up with her eyes. This wasn't the Gallery. There were no falling stars. This was a… hallway? Yes, rather dusty and somewhat dim. The air smelled sort of stale, the way that air sometimes smelled in closed rooms. Metal beams arched overhead and the walls were lined with pipes and vents. Steam rose from a floor vent nearby. There were plastic crates piled everywhere and racks of tools hanging on a wall farther down the hallway.
Party disassembled cleaning bots were scattered around as well and everything looked dingy and worn.
"Morning," Koschei's voice called softly.
"Mmmm… Koschei? Did you come here too?" Her eyes seemed almost sore. She rubbed them sleepily, then tried to sit up and discovered, with a mild surge of alarm, that she was on a trolley. She hadn't expected to be on such a narrow surface and nearly overbalanced.
"Slow, lass!" Moira soothed, putting a hand out to steady her.
"Easy, now, Adie, you've been asleep a long while," Koschei told her. "Ah, Gaige is waking up now, too. Good."
"Gaige?" She looked to her left. The sight of Gaige on a trolley was genuinely alarming and she swung her legs over at once. "Gaige!" Moira was right beside her, a strong arm supporting her as she tried to rise and keeping her from falling.
"He's fine! Adie! It's okay," Koschei assured her. "We got sucked into a dream world when we left the TARDIS, which I still want an explanation for, by the way, but we're waking up now."
"I've been dreaming," mused Adie. "How do we know we are awake now, though?"
"Because Tomoko used her reset to shock herself awake," Koschei explained. "I could give you the maths, if you like, but it's really quite a reliable test." He gave her a lopsided smile.
"Tomoko's as clever as a sack o' weasels," Moira agreed, her voice proud, as she slipped an arm around Adie to steady her. Adie leaned over and gently shook Gaige.
"I'm up, Mum, I swear," Gaige murmured, turning restlessly on the trolley.
Adie smiled, even though she wasn't quite as steady as she liked, even with Moira's support. Her body was protesting every movement, informing her that she was stiff, sore, and rather hungry.
Moira hold on as she leaned down and gave Gaige a gentle kiss, tenderly brushing a stray strand of hair away from his eyes.
"Wakey, wakey, sleepyhead!"
"Hey, beautiful," he replied, blinking sleepy gray eyes at her, lips curling into a lazy smile. "Did I oversleep for something?"
"Yes, for a Sontaran invasion of the Library Planet," Koschei explained and Gaige's drowsy demeanor vanished instantly.
"Sontarans!" Adie turned to Koschei with some alarm. "Is everyone all right? Susan? Guinn? The Doctor? Rose, Tomoko, and Dar?" Moira snorted at her outburst, but Koschei just smiled.
"Slowly! I will tell you everything, if you let me get a word in," Koschei teased. "The entire population of the planet appears to have been put to sleep. They are in a dreamworld of some sort. Tomoko and Dar went off to start dealing with the Sontarans, Guinn is waking the Doctor, and Susan is waking Rose."
"Has woken Rose," Susan's voice inserted itself into the conversation.
"Bloody hell, worst hangover of my life," Rose groaned.
Adie looked thoughtful.
"In a dreamworld, or supporting one?" she asked him curiously.
"Beg pardon?" Koschei asked, looking confused.
"You said we walked into a dreamworld," Adie said. "It just seems like, either we have an outside influence, such as machinery, creating a dreamworld, in which all participants are dreaming; or, the participants are creating the world itself."
"I don't know," Susan commented. "I missed that course at the Academy, or possibly that lesson in the Tower."
"Me too," Gaige admitted.
"Dinnae be lookin' a' me!" Moira protested. "I've no understandin' o' such things."
"I can think of several devices that could be used, like the Matrix systems," Koschei mused, "But, I don't know for sure how it was done."
"Don't you think it might be worth checking out?" Adie looked at him in some surprise.
"Well, obviously, if we had a clue as to where to begin looking," he replied. "It's not like I can see a sign that says "This way to the answer". If it's a machine, I suppose we can start checking schematics of the planet, but if it's a group gestalt thing, I am not sure how to find that out, because very few of the minds around us are native telepaths, which makes it much harder to sift through the interference."
"All the patrons are attached to machinery, like we were? Is that right? Is any of it meant for… virtual reality creation?" Adie asked him with a frown.
"Well, it's mostly life support, but some of the machinery is very advanced. More advanced than I would expect from Sontarans, even 51st century Sontarans. I don't see anything that is screaming out "Virtual Reality Dream Sharing Device", but I can't rule it out until I've taken it apart," Koschei explained.
"Don't sound so eager," Susan teased.
"Well, I suppose that we could run some tests," Koschei mused, eyeing the devices with interest.
"Well, that's him busy for the next twelve hours," Rose quipped and Susan nodded.
"Aye," Moira agreed, her tone full of disgust. Adie nodded, biting her lip thoughtfully,and looked around the room.
"How can I help?" she asked the others.
"Well, you can start by helping Moira and Gaige turn this bit of hallway into a proper fortress. Dar and Tomoko are likely to get very popular out there and we want to discourage any hangers on," Koschei suggested.
"With Dar, that can get tricky," Gaige chuckled. "People just love to shoot at him."
"I suppose he is a big target," Adie agreed.
"I do have a wee bit of experience in building forts," Moira said, her eyes roaming over the various bits and bobs around them. "Can I be settin' any traps?" she asked hopefully.
"Only if they are non-lethal," Susan insisted and Moira looked visibly disappointed.
"If ye be wantin' it tha' way," she sighed and Adie giggled.
"Come on, you two, let's grab all the pillows and the bedsheets, and we'll make a fort," she told them with a wink.
"Hm, perhaps something between pillow fort and lethal death trap," Gaige suggested and kissed her quickly, before moving off to start shifting crates and boxes into position with Moira.
"By the way, how would they find this place? Where are we, exactly?" Adie asked, wondering about what she had missed while she'd been asleep.
"Service tunnel underneath the floors of the Library," Koschei explained. "As to how they would find us, well, heat sensors would work just fine for that. Hopefully, Charlotte is working on that right now, but since we are the only people awake and moving around, besides the Sontarans themselves, we do stand out a bit."
"Right, so, up to our arses in alligators," Gaige grumbled. "As per usual."
"As per usual," Susan agreed and kissed her husband.
"Ach, such wee beasties as that lot are no match for we lot," Moira retorted, sounding less than impressed by the idea of an army about to descend on them.
"I don't know, it sounds like fun to me!" Rose enthused and Koschei rolled his eyes.
"You are so perfect for him," he teased and Rose grinned broadly, tongue in teeth.
"Yeah, I know," she replied in a smug tone and then they all went to work building a fortress from crates.
Tomoko rubbed her eyes, looking annoyed.
/I'm going to have to jack in to pull this off properly,/ she grumbled. /How do you feel about guard duty?/
/Part of the job description under "Husband",/ he replied.
Tomoko nodded, plugged in the hardware, and dived.
Jacking in really was like diving. Her surroundings darkened and then brightened, displaying shapes and colors and lines. She was not intimately familiar with Sontaran-specific technology, but the basic principles of all computing systems tended to be the same.
In this mode of consciousness, she moved not by walking, but by swimming. Others might sense it as walking, flying, or running, but for Tomoko it was like being immersed in an ocean of data and so,Tomoko swam. Boxes floated around her in the semi-darkness, connected by long, glowing lines. Among the boxes were spiky shapes, like mines, that she recognized as protective programs, designed to stop hackers like herself from mucking about. They could be quite deadly, if not handled cautiously.
She was startled by the sophistication of the programs. The Master's work had been elegant. This was brutally spare, but extremely efficient and far more advanced than she had expected of the Sontarans. Nothing she had read about them led her to believe them capable of such work, yet the proof was before her. It was puzzling.
Cautiously, she swam, eeling past the defensive programs and slipping into the inner workings of the programs. She stealthily began opening boxes and then closing them again, pulling shapes out of one place, and putting them back in others.
In the real world she was yanking the programming directives from various weapons, but in her mind's eye, everything was represented in abstract images. She'd forgotten how much she loved the simplicity and straightforward nature of hacking and she hated Rassilon even more for the subtle taint he'd given it.
He'd taken the joy right out of everything she'd always loved best.
The Doctor turned and looked at Guinn and the Moment in surprise. He was sitting on the floor of his room back at home, Jenny and Jamie on his lap, and he looked happy and content.
"Time to wake up already?" he asked and Guinn nodded.
"I'm afraid so, we have a lot to do."
"Oh, very well," the Doctor sighed, while his children protested and clung to him. "I'll be home soon, little loves, and then we can play for real."
The children nodded, quickly fading from view, and the Doctor rose and brushed off his trousers.
"Shall we go?" Guinn asked and the Doctor turned to look at the Moment with a pensive expression.
"Yes, let's," he agreed and Guinn opened his eyes.
The hallway wasn't meant for storage, exactly, but it looked like the staff must have gotten into the habit of putting things in it; the sorts of things that otherwise they didn't know what to do with. This included boxes filled with random objects, and even bits of furniture. There was a couch with two missing cushions, several carts whose autopilot feature made them drive around in wobbly circles, half a dozen tool boxes overflowing with bits and bobs, and even a stout nano-assembler, scarred by the maintenance bots' usage, but still quite sturdy. It was very heavy; even with Gaige and Moira helping, Adie had some trouble moving it. It did, however, make for a good barrier.
Adie helped stack in good spirits; but she found herself reflecting as she did so. She felt different somehow, as if a light bulb had turned itself on, inside her head. It was a difficult thing to classify exactly, but it was there. The feeling of being filled with light was unfocused, but unmistakable.
"Princess?"
She looked up. As he reached up to put a box in place, Gaige was gazing at her in mild concern.
"Are you all right?"
"Huh?" The question caught her by surprise, and brought a sudden swooping awareness of herself beyond the new feeling of illumination after a long darkness. All at once she realized that she was constantly pushing her hair out of her eyes. By habit she reached up to catch it back in it's ribbon, only to discover that it was gone; it was just long enough to get in her eyes, barely reaching to the nape of her neck. Reaching for her hair brought another surprise; her forearm was covered in new pink skin, obviously just recently healed, though she didn't remember being injured.
"Someone cut my hair while I was sleeping!"
Gaige nodded slowly, his eyes worried.
"Your hair is burnt," he informed her with a solemn face, as he stacked another box.
"Oh," she mused. "I dreamed of the Arkytior. I suppose that's why."
Gaige had been about to push a cart in place, but stopped, watching her carefully. Moira ignored them both, continuing to work as though they hadn't spoken or paused.
"You did?" he asked and his face had gone still. Adie realized she had worried him and hastily backpedalled.
"No, it's all right," she reassured him. "I'm really all right. I'm… better, in fact." She rubbed her newly-short hair awkwardly, stammering to a halt. She was certain that something had happened, and equally certain that she was much the better for it; but she didn't seem to be able to locate the proper words to try and explain the new phenomenon.
"But you dreamed of the Arkytior?" Gaige prompted. He did look somewhat mollified, but that didn't mean he looked at all happy at that moment.
"Well, yes… not exactly… I mean sort of. I had a Vision really, where I figured out a lot of things that I hadn't realized before."
"That sounds promising," he replied in a gentle tone, still watching her with a concerned gaze.
"Yes," the Doctor agreed, stepping around to peer at her. "Tell me about this Vision of yours. I think it might be rather important."