"No, no, no, no, no. Not just alien, but like, proper alien. All stinking, and wet, and disgusting. And more to the point, it wanted to kill us!" Mickey exclaimed to Rose over the phone.
"I could've died!" a female voice was heard.
"Is she all right, though?" Rose asked as she paced the room, "Don't put her on, just tell me."
The Doctor snatched Rose's phone from her and put it up to his ear, "Is that Ricky? Don't talk, just shut up and go to your computer," he told the other man.
"It's Mickey, and why should I?" Mickey asked.
The Doctor grimaced slightly, "Mickey the Idiot, I might choke before I finish this sentence, but, er, I need you."
There was typing on the other end of the phone before Mickey spoke up, "It says password."
The Doctor didn't catch what he had said, however, as he plugged the mobile into the conference phone speaker.
"Say again," the Doctor told him.
"It's asking for a password," Mickey told them.
"Buffalo. Two F's, one L," the Doctor supplied.
Aries glanced at the Doctor, rather surprised that that was his password.
"So, what's the website?" the woman, who Aries was guessing was Rose's mother, asked Mickey.
"All the secret information known to mankind. See, they've known about aliens for years. They just kept us in the dark."
"Is that Mickey Smith?" Aries cut off whatever the Doctor was going to say. She approached the table and leant against it. She knew Mickey Smith, of course, but hearing that he had hacked into UNIT before brought up another Mickey that she had come across in a small file that had been left with her and she couldn't help but realise it could be the same man.
"Yeah, who's asking?" Mickey questioned, "And it's asking for the password again."
"Just repeat it every time," Aries said, gaining a curious look from the Doctor, "And my name is Aries Prince."
There was a loud clatter on the other end before being followed by a breathless Mickey, "Sorry, but did you just say Aries Prince. As in UNIT-"
"Mickey, I need you to focus and listen to what I'm about to tell you," Aries cut in.
"Sorry, Sir. I mean, Ma'am," Mickey stuttered.
Aries lip twitched at the title mistake. It was quite a common occurrence that people assumed she was a male. It was the reason she had chosen the name. "Mickey, I need Mrs Tyler to gather as much vinegar as she can find. There s a high possibility that your call is being traced and you need to be prepared if the Slitheen returns."
"Jackie, I need you to get as much vinegar you can find," Mickey told Jackie without even questioning the absurdity of the request.
"What for?" Jackie asked.
"Just do it, okay," Mickey snapped.
There was the sound of the phone being handed back over to Mickey as Jackie walked towards the kitchen, muttering as she went.
Rose looked to Aries and scoffed, "What the hell is vinegar going to do. They're eight feet tall. What are you going to do, get them to make a salad?"
Aries didn't look up from the phone as she replied, "The Slitheen are from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorius. Their gas exchange smells like calcium decay which would tell anyone who knew what they were talking about that they were made up of living calcium. When that is compromised by a compression field, acetic acid would," her hands formed into fists as she closed her eyes, knowing that what she was about to do was essentially murder, "When calcium comes into contact with vinegar, it dissolves. In effect, hitting a Slitheen with enough vinegar would kill them."
The Doctor made his way around the table and to Aries side. He rested a hand on her shoulder and causing her to look at him. "It's the right thing to do," he murmured, "If the Slitheen does attack them, it's self defence to use it. If they didn't, it would kill them."
Aries looked back down at the table, "It's still a life," she muttered bitterly.
The Doctor squeezed her shoulder gently, "It is," he agreed softly.
Harriet and Indra watched the exchange in sad understanding. While neither had taken a life themselves, be it in self defence of otherwise, but they could comprehend what it would feel like to order ones death.
Rose watched on with a scowl, rather having enough of the red head. She was a Scientific Advisor, not some wannabe Doctor. "How do you know that it'll work?" she asked, causing the Doctor to look at her with a frown. It only caused Rose to grow angry, however. "How does she know what they are? How does she know anything about them? And why are you letting her order around my mother and Mickey. You're the alien expert here, not her. She's just a Scientific Advisor."
"Rose," Mickey warned over the phone, having heard the whole conversation.
Rose glared at the phone, "What! You're actually going to listen to her? You don't even know her!"
The Doctor let go of Aries shoulder and turned fully to his companion, "I may be an alien expert, Rose Tyler, but you seem to be forgetting that it was Aries who knew what we were up against. It was Aries who told me what they were," he said angrily as he took a step towards his companion, "It was also Aries who saved your life from those aliens. She has done nothing but help us ever since we got here and all you've done is disrespect her and insult her and I won't stand for it any longer."
Rose took a step back from the Doctor, rather startled by his sudden anger. She looked to Harriet and Indra, only to find them frowning at her. She looked back to the Doctor but quickly adverted her gaze when he was still looking at her angrily.
"Big Ben," Aries voice cut through the tension as her mind tried to work out what they were doing here. She also wanted to try and change the topic and get it away from herself, "Why did the Slitheen go and hit Big Ben?"
The Doctor took a deep breath and let it out slowly before turning away from his companion and back to Aries. He was rather confused by his Nesdra's change in topic, but it was a very good question.
Harriet looked between the Doctor and Aries, settling on the former as she replied, "You said to gather the experts, to kill them."
The Doctor rolled his eyes as the rest of his anger left him. "That lot would've gathered for a weather balloon. You don't need to crash land in the middle of London," he told the MP.
Aries straightened, her face one of concentration, "The Slitheen are hiding, but then they put the entire planet on Red alert," she muttered in confusion.
"What would they do that for?" Rose asked, barely gaining the others attention.
"Oh, listen to her," Jackie's voice spoke through the phone as she took it back off Mickey, "And I've got the vinegar, though I'm not sure as to why," she added, having not heard the argument.
"At least I'm trying," Rose stated, choosing to ignore the part about the vinegar. She still didn't believe that it would do anything to a Slitheen, but she also didn't want the Doctor to get angry at her again.
"Well, I've got a question, if you don't mind," Jackie said, "Since that man walked into our lives, I've been attacked in the streets. I've had creatures from the pits of hell in my own living room, and my daughter disappear off the face of the Earth."
"I told you what happened," Rose cut in.
"I'm talking to him," Jackie replied, "'Cos I've seen this life of yours, Doctor. And maybe you get off on it, and maybe ou think it's clever and smart, but you tell me. Just answer me this. Is my daughter safe?"
The Doctor leant against the table, his hands placed on top of it as he stared at the phone.
"I'm fine," Rose said.
"Is she safe?" Jackie continued to ask, "Will she always be safe? Can you promise me that?"
The Doctor looked up from the table and towards Rose. He couldn't promise her mother that she'd always be safe. He knew better than anyone how dangerous the universe was and what could happen with his companions who travelled with him. His gaze then flickered to Aries, only to find her watching him with a sad look of understanding. He didn't know how much she knew about him, but he was rather glad that she did understand what his life seemed to hold.
"Well, what's the answer?" Jackie asked.
Mickey took the phone back off Jackie, "We're in," he told them.
The Doctor seemed to snap out of his thoughts as he quickly straightened, "Now then, on the left at the top, there's a tab, an icon. Little concentric circles. Click on that," he told Mickey.
After a moment, there was a sound coming through the speaker of the phone. "What is it?" Mickey asked.
"The Slitheen have got a spaceship in the North Sea and it's transmitting that signal. Now hush, let me work out what it's say," the Doctor said as he tried to listen to it.
"He'll have to answer me one day," Jackie huffed.
"Hush!" Mickey told her.
"It's some sort of message," the Doctor muttered.
"What's it say?" Rose asked.
"Don't know. It's on a loop, keeps repeating," the Doctor explained.
There was the sound of the doorbell ringing through the phone.
"Hush!" the Doctor said, but looked up when he noticed Aries move towards him.
"That's not me," Mickey said, "Go see who that is," he told Jackie.
"Mickey, don't open the door," Aries cut in, "Take the vinegar and head to the kitchen. It's three in the morning and there's only one person I can think of who would be ringing a doorbell at this time."
The Doctor glanced at Aries, only to notice that she was focused on the phone, her head tilted slightly to the side as she listened to what was happening. He couldn't help but stare at her, finding that up close, she looked quite beautiful when she concentrated.
"Jackie, we need to get to the kitchen," Mickey ordered.
"The kitchen?" Jackie asked in confusion.
"Just move it," Mickey said, "And don't drop the vinegar."
The group around the table listened as Mickey and Jackie moved to the kitchen.
"Now what?" Mickey asked as there was the sound of a door breaking and Jackie screamed.
Aries winced slightly before speaking, "As soon as it enters the kitchen, throw the vinegar at him."
"What if it's in its suit?" Rose asked, still unsure as to what vinegar would do to a Slitheen.
Aries turned her head to Rose with a levelled look, "They're a species that enjoy a hunt. I can tell you right now that they prefer their natural state to hunt in. Less restriction and more freedom to move."
There was the sound of the Slitheen entering the kitchen and Jackie screamed again.
"Hey, ugly!" Mickey shouted, "Take this," he said as he threw the vinegar over the Slitheen.
The group heard the sound of a large fart before the sound of an explosion, causing them all to let out a collective sigh of relief.
Aries seemed to relax slightly, but she collapsed into the chair behind her, drawing the Doctor's attention. "Are you okay?" he asked her quietly.
Aries ran a hand through her hair as she glanced at the Doctor, "I will be," she sighed.
The Doctor offered her a small, understanding smile. He couldn't help but know what she was going through, and it actually lightened his hearts at the knowledge that however much of a solider Aries was at times, she still valued a life. It was something he rarely saw anymore.
"Hannibal," Indra commented, earning looks of confusion from everyone.
"Hannibal?" Rose questioned. It was an odd thing to say.
Aries snorted as she realised what Indra was saying. "Hannibal crossed the Alps by dissolving boulders with vinegar," she explained.
"Is that how you knew what to do?" Harriet asked. She had been rather startled by how much the red head actually knew.
Aries shook her head as she straightened in the seat, "No," she said as a small smile appeared on her face, "My father was...Well, he was a master when it came to chemistry and taught me everything he could," she explained as her smile turned sad and she looked away, her fingers fiddling with the crystal that lay around her neck.
"Was?" Rose asked.
The Doctor shot Rose a glare when he noticed Aries flinch at the word.
The Doctor grabbed a chair and moved to next to Aries. As he sat down, he noticed she was rolling a small crystal that looked like a tear between her fingers. He also noticed a second chain around her neck, but what ever was on it was hidden by her shirt.
"How did you know what they were?" he asked her quietly, wanting to satisfy his curiosity as well as get her mind off whatever seemed to bothering her.
It worked as she dropped the crystal and looked to the Doctor with a raised eyebrow. Her lip twitched upwards slightly at the memory of him doing the same thing during the Blitz. "I read about them," she offered.
The Doctor raised his own eyebrow, "And where did you read this?" he asked, rather curious as to how she got the book, "It's the 21st century and humans no next to nothing on aliens."
Aries managed a small smile, "Someone left me some books a while ago," she replied.
Before the Doctor could ask anymore, they were interrupted.
"Listen to this," Mickey said before another voice came through the phone.
Aries stood up with a frown as she listened to Green.
"Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads and they've found massive weapons of destruction capable of being deployed within forty-five seconds," Green said.
"What?" the Doctor said as he stood up as well.
"Our technicians can baffle the alien probes, but not for long. We are facing extinction, unless we strike first. The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mother ship. I beg of the United Nations, pass an Emergency Resolution. Give us the access codes. A nuclear strike at the heart of the beast is our only chance of survival because from this moment on, it is my solemn duty to inform you that planet Earth is at war."
"He's making it up. There's no weapons up there, there's no threat. He just invented it," the Doctor said as he paced.
Aries watched him with furrowed brows, "It doesn't make any sense," she muttered.
"Do you think they'll believe him?" Harriet questioned.
"They did last time," Indra spoke up as he watched Aries as she continued to think.
"That's why the Slitheen went for a spectacle. They wanted the whole world panicking, because you lot, you get scared, you lash out," the Doctor continued to pace before he stopped, realising that Aries was once again thinking. He wouldn't admit it, but he found that he could watch her all day as she thought. The way her lips tugged downwards slightly, her eyebrows furrowed just a little and the way she seemed as thought she could read your very soul as she looked at you. There was just something about it and he couldn't help but stare.
"They release the defence codes and the Slitheen go nuclear," Aries muttered before her eyes widened and she rushed over to the conference phone, "Mickey, I need you to do something for me."
The Doctor looked at Aries, rather unsure as to what she was doing.
"What do you need?" Mickey said after a moment.
"I need you to access the personnel files of all UNIT employees and anyone liaising with them," she explained.
"What do you need that for?" the Doctor asked rather confused as he stepped towards the table.
Aries looked to him as she explained, "We may not have any alien experts that can help us right now, but we do have someone who works for the Ministry of Defence."
The Doctor's eyes widened as he realised what she was doing. "Commander Aspen," he breathed as he quickly made his way to her side and looked to the phone. "Mickey, you need to locate a Ministry of Defence Commander by the name of Nick Aspen. He should be under as a liaison officer."
"Okay, Commander Nick Aspen," Mickey said as he typed away, "It's asking for a another password. The buffalo one isn't working and I've only got two more tries before it kicks me out," he informed them.
Aries looked to the Doctor, "You don't happen to have another password up your sleeve, do you?" she asked, rather hoping he did. She had one of course, but it could compromise her identity and she wasn't to sure how the Doctor would take the knowledge of who she was.
The Doctor shook his head, "No. I've only ever used that one."
Aries frowned as she looked back to the phone, trying to figure out what password Kate would have used. She tried to figure out anything that the woman held close as well as what held some significance to her. She furrowed her brows, remembering the conversation she had with the woman earlier that day. "Try Greyhound," she told Mickey.
There was some typing on the other end before Mickey sighed, "Incorrect," he told them.
Aries frowned and glanced at Indra who nodded to her. She bit on her bottom lip for a moment before releasing it and sighed.
"We only have one more chance," the Doctor said, noticing how troubled she looked.
Aries glanced at him before looking back to the phone, "Canidae, spelt C, A, N, I, D, A, E," she told Mickey.
"You sure, because this is our last chance," Mickey said, even though he had already put the password in.
"I'm sure, Mickey," Aries said.
"Here goes nothing," he said before hitting the enter button. There was silence for a moment before he spoke again, "We're in," he said as he started typing again.
"How did you know?" the Doctor asked Aries, rather surprised that she had known the password.
Aries glanced at him, "I was told that in an emergency, that password would allow me to access the UNIT database and send a distress signal back to my commanding officer," she explained. It wasn't a full lie, since it did send access the UNIT database, but it wouldn't send a distress signal to anyone.
"Found him," Mickey stated.
Aries turned back to the phone, "I need his contact number," Aries explained, "Send it to Rose's phone and I'll call you back," she said before she hung up on Mickey.