The Tyler Factor
By Lumendea
Chapter Fifty-Three: Mystery of Orginx: Stakeout
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of the spinoff material and I gain no income off of this story, just the satisfaction of playing with the characters.
…
"So is this how you usually do things?" Mickey asked in far too calm a voice as he drove them through the London traffic in his new blue sedan. "Pick up some little random thing and start following it?"
"Yeah, that is usually how these things start," Rose agreed with a shrug in the passenger seat before she looked into the back seat where Rani and Clyde were riding with K-9 between them. "Anything else K-9?"
"No signals detected," K-9 replied calmly.
"And Spock hasn't picked up anything either," Clyde added as he looked away from his mobile. "Do you really think there was a signal?"
"Clyde if there are aliens being kept there as slaves then they probably only had the once chance to call for help before someone found them," Rani told him firmly before shaking her head. "It's just horrible to think about. Slavery." She shuddered with a distressed look. "How could anyone do that to any other sentient thing?"
"Well I'm afraid that it still happens between humans too," Mickey said sadly. "All over the world in fact, sometimes they even find hidden domestic slaves in first world countries. It's illegal but there are those who just don't care."
"And if humans will do it to each other then there are definitely those that will do it to aliens," Rose finished with a sad look before nibbling on her lip. She turned to look at Rani again, "Okay the usual rules apply: if I tell you to do something you do it. The alien black market lot that I've encountered thus far have been brutal and not afraid to hurt other humans. I'm not expecting any to be here, but Orginx will probably fight to protect their secrets."
"If you're so worried why did you bring us along?" Clyde asked.
"Cause I know you well enough to know that if I told you to stay at Bannerman Road you wouldn't," Rose informed him with a sharp look. "And the sad thing is that a pair of teenagers trying to sneak into the factory of the new must have computer probably won't trigger any alarms. Mickey and I… well if they can look him up then they'll find that he's military of sorts."
"I still think I should alert Benton," Mickey said uneasily.
"Look he told you to keep an eye on me didn't he?" Rose demanded, arching an eyebrow at Mickey. He flinched slightly and looked uncomfortable. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Well, I'm going to check this out and if you want to keep watching over me then I guess you're coming with me," Rose informed him with a smirk.
"So you've known that I was on assignment," Mickey muttered. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"You're my friend and if Benton thinks he's clever having you be the UNIT member keeping an eye on me then I consider myself to be doing well." Rose shrugged and added, "I mean he could assign someone I'm not friendly with or someone really annoying."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Mickey grumbled with a look towards Rose. "He just worries, you've got a thicker file than most career members of UNIT and your boyfriend…." Mickey shook his head and muttered, "I still can't believe that I've never actually met him."
"Wrong place, wrong time Mickey. That's all."
"Shareen and Sharon have met him."
"You make it sound like the Doctor pops around for tea regularly," Rose remarked. "He doesn't and I'll remind you not to let my Mum overhear you talking like that."
Mickey chuckled almost evilly and got a dark look in return. He coughed slightly and fixed his eyes ahead on the road.
"So what is the plan?" Clyde asked from the backseat a few moments later. "We can't get in like Sarah Jane and the others did and there's got to be guards."
"We're going to start with getting close and seeing what K-9 can pick up," Rose told them. "They will hopefully give us a better idea of what we're dealing with."
"I still say we should call Benton," Mickey argued.
"Look, Mickey, I get that, but right now we don't know what is going on and if it is some kind of slavery then Orginx has hostages that they can use against us in a standoff." Rose shook her head stubbornly. "I'd like to have some idea of what is going on before we call in the armed soldiers."
"You've been a bit off ever since you shot Thane," Mickey told her in a low voice. "You know you didn't do anything wrong right, Rose?"
"You shot someone?" Rani asked from the back seat. "Really?"
"What was that like?" Clyde demanded with wide eyes that made both Rose and Mickey flinch.
"I didn't like it, but yes I shot Thane to keep him from launching a bunch of nuclear weapons," Rose admitted with a grimace. "And no Clyde, it wasn't cool or anything like that."
"Sorry," Clyde said gently. "But you've killed aliens before right, you cut off Apep's head and everything."
"A gun… it was just different," Rose explained with a sigh. "My sword, well I have to get close and fight. A gun just, it's too easy I suppose and I mean that in a bad way. I'm not even sure why it bothers me so much, it just does. It might be the Doctor's influence wearing off on me."
"Sarah Jane doesn't like guns either," Rani offered and Rose chucked.
"I know she doesn't, good thing too since she's never had training to use one. The only thing worse than a loaded gun is it being in the hands of someone with no training of how to use it as safely as possible."
"You do know that I'm armed right now," Mickey told Rose softly. "Full disclosure."
"Yeah, I figured you were," Rose sighed before giving Mickey a small smile. "Don't worry Mickey, I'm not going to start shouting at UNIT for carrying guns. I've been saved by your lot enough to appreciate that sometimes, well they're a necessary evil. I'm just not completely comfortable with them."
"Fair enough and hopefully I won't need my sidearm today."
Rose didn't say anything to that, she knew that she didn't need to. Glancing back she saw Clyde and Rani exchange a look over K-9's head and wondered if she had Mickey let them out now if they'd stay put. Probably not, she wouldn't have, Rose conceded mentally before turning her attention to the robot dog and was still scanning with a soft hum.
"Anything new K-9?" Rose asked as the Orginx building came into view.
It was a huge metal and glass building with an artistic sloping roofline that straightened out near the back of the building where the large glass windows began to vanish and the building began a metallic fortress. Pleasant and welcoming on the front business end, but closed off back in the manufacturing area. Rose smirked, yeah that didn't make her think they were on to something at all.
"Detecting alien technology," K-9 said suddenly with shifting ears.
"What sort?" Clyde asked first, shifting excitedly in the back of the car.
Mickey pulled them over and parked on the edge of the side street. They looked over at the building through the tall fence. At the front was a small car park and what looked like an entrance to an underground car park. Rose thought she could see Sarah's Jane car near the main doors. There were only a few cars and Rose found herself wondering once again who all worked at this company.
"Cannot determine the type of alien technology," K-9 replied after a few more moments of whirling ears. "Electric impulses detected are beyond current human technology."
"Couldn't that just be their new advanced system?" Rani asked with a curious frown.
"Invalid technology for the current date," K-9 retorted. "Should not yet exist on Earth."
"Don't forget Rani that this K-9 was built by and programmed by a Time Lord," Rose remarked with a pleased smile. "He knows his history." Rose nodded towards the building, "Well there is something in there that shouldn't be."
"So what are we going to do?" Clyde asked eagerly. "Break in somehow?"
"No, not yet. First, we're going to wait and have K-9 keep scanning through this so-called practice launch to see if we get more information then we'll see if Sarah Jane, Luke or Johnny noticed anything."
"You mean we're just gonna wait here?" Clyde asked with a whine in his voice.
"Think of it as a stake out," Mickey told the younger boy with a chuckle.
"Rose's stories have never included this," Rani said with a soft huff.
"Usually things aren't this calm," Rose agreed with a small nod. "But we're going to just wait for now."
"With the reporters and families in there won't security be focused on them," Clyde pointed out helpfully.
Rose paused to consider the thought and pulled out her phone. Behind her K-9's ears whirled and he beeped loudly.
"Signal detected: help us, held as slaves," K-9 announced before he stopped. "Signal lost, but alien technology detection spiked during transmission."
"Oh come on Rose!" Rani cheered leaning forward eagerly. "That's confirmation right there."
"Hold on, hold on," Rose sighed as she looked back at her phone. "First things first. We've got people on the inside, let's see what we can find out from them."
….
Sarah Jane glanced over at Johnny and Luke who were much more interested than she was. The large auditorium was comfortable and had good lighting in both the audience and up on the stage so she couldn't complain about that. The problem was that frankly, Rani had been right, this wasn't her sort of story. She was an investigative journalist for goodness sake. Last month she'd been on a trip to do interviews on modern slavery in fishing fleets, something she hadn't shared much about with the kids. And now here she was with some corporate suits trying to tell her how wonderful their new computer was.
She'd only taken the offer due to thinking that her boys might enjoy it and judging from their faces she'd been right. However, she noted as she looked again the enthusiasm seemed to wane at the lack of technical details. The other journalists around her all beaming widely and frantically taking notes while oohing and awing over the small devices in front of them.
Sarah Jane had to admit that the tablet design was interesting. Imagine doing all your work from what was basically a screen, but she already missed the keyboard. And it was strange that there hadn't at least been rumours about the Orginx tablet. Something was just… not quite right here and she couldn't put her finger on. In her pocket, her phone vibrated just the tiniest bit. She'd meant to turn it off to be professional but had forgotten. As smoothly and carefully as she could, Sarah Jane pulled out her mobile as the floor opened to questions.
Luke had a list ready to go and Sarah Jane smiled as a stream of technobabble spilt out of her son's mouth. Shifting the phone around she hid it half under the armrest so she could look at the message. It was from Rose and simply read: Alien distress signal and alien technology inside Orginx. We're outside.
If a smile took over Sarah Jane's face and she had a burst of giddy energy that made it hard for her to sit still then she'd never tell. Instead, she carefully slipped the phone over to Luke. Her son read it and she was certain that his eyes brightened a bit. Then he slipped it over to Johnny. Her husband glanced her way, raising an eyebrow at her smile before handing the phone back to Luke and focusing on the presentation. Unlike Sarah Jane and Luke, he actually managed a weak laugh at one of the prepared jokes.
Thankfully things were wrapped up quickly and Mister Worthington beamed out at the small group of journalists and guests. Sarah Jane narrowed her eyes at him thoughtfully, wondering just what was going through his head. He looked smug and assured as another of the journalists named Howard Bates became to rave about the tablet in his hands. Sarah Jane motioned for her family to hold back as the others streamed out of the room, stopping and shaking their host's hand as they went. Sarah Jane made a show of capping her pen and slipping her notebook into her pocket all while smiling broadly at her family.
"Thank you for coming, Ms Smith," Worthington said with a smile as they stepped up to say goodbye. "Although I understand you got married not long ago."
"I did, but I kept Smith as my professional name," Sarah Jane said politely as Luke caught her eye. "This is my son Luke, thank you for approving him as a visitor."
"But of course," Worthington replied with a widening smile as he turned to Luke. "To be honest it is your generation that I'm counting on to make this product a real success. So glad you could make it, my boy."
"Thank you for allowing me to come," Luke said pleasantly with a wide smile. "It was all very informative."
"Well you're welcome young man," Worthington chuckled. "I hope the technical information wasn't too boring."
"It wasn't, except," Luke said calmly as he looked at Mister Worthington with an even gaze. "Your techs got it all wrong, there is no way that the circuitry could work like that. Not without an internal heating system and there isn't one." Luke held up the device with a small smirk. "And there isn't any external cooling sources so how does this work then?"
"Young man surely you can understand that we just can't-"
"Any repairs have to be done by you lot," Luke continued calmly as if the man hadn't spoken at all. In fact, Luke carefully began to tug open the cover of the tablet in order to expose the internal motherboard system. "If anyone opens the tablet then the warranty is void. What's inside that you know another tech can't fix?"
"Our technology is a major advancement."
"Too much of an advancement," Johnny observed as he took the tablet from Luke and turned it over in his hands. "Don't get me wrong, there are elements of state of the art tech that is being worked on in Silicon Valley in here, but this here," Johnny said as he pointed to a small glowing blue box in the centre of the system. "This is… something else and this," he added pointing at a strange looking set of tiny cables that were glowing slightly. "This isn't like anything that anyone is developing."
"It's alien isn't it," Sarah Jane added watching Worthington's face.
Worthington's smile fell away and his face began very tight. His eyes shifted between the three of them and he grit his teeth. Behind them, Sarah Jane heard the doors slam shut. A moment later a pair of the large security guards stepped up behind them.
"Hey!" Luke protested as one of them grabbed his phone and smashed it on the floor.
"What are you doing?" Sarah Jane demanded as her phone was grabbed and then Johnny's.
"This is worrying," Worthington remarked with a frown. "We clearly need to figure out a better way of protecting our secrets." He gestured at them and sighed, "Lock them up downstairs. I need to meet with the board and we'll decide what to do with them."
"Maybe we should have left first," Luke grumbled to his mother as they were drug out another door and hustled down a flight of steps.
"Probably," Sarah Jane agreed. "But I've never really been the sort to delay confronting a problem."
"Isn't that the truth," Johnny muttered as they were shoved into a small room and the door was locked behind them. "But I love you anyway," Johnny added quickly when Sarah Jane gave him a stern look.
