"What happened?" Rose asked Suki, noticing Cathica glaring at the woman.
Before Suki could respond, a projection sprung to life on one of the walls.
'Promotion,' a tannoy announced, and Aries noted the change in Cathica the moment the projection had appeared.
"This is it," the woman stated, her fingers crossed as she stared at the projection, "Come on. God, make it me. Come on, say my name."
Aries shared a glance with the Doctor and Rose, the latter ignoring it before they looked back to Cathica. The red head was a little concerned about the other woman, and it seemed that even the Doctor was concerned for her.
"...say my name," Cathica continued to plead, squeezing her eyes shut, "Say my name..."
'Promotion for...,' Cathica opened her eyes, 'Suki Macrae Cantrell.'
The words flash in the projection and Suki's mouth dropped open in surprise. Cathica, however, looked completely gutted.
'Please proceed to Floor 500.'
"I don't believe it..." Suki breathed, awestruck as she stared at the projection, "...Floor 500..."
"What's so speci-" Aries begun, only to be cut off by Cathica as the woman turned on Suki.
"How the hell did you manage that?" Cathica snapped, unbelieving that she hadn't been chosen, "I'm above you!"
"I don't know," Suki shrugged, "I just applied on the off-chance...and they said yes!"
"That's so not fair," Cathica bemoaned, "I've been applying to Floor 500 for three years!"
"Er, what's so special about Floor 500?" Aries asked the Doctor and Rose quietly as she continued to look between Cathica and Suki, the feeling she had been getting since they started looking around earlier just growing by the second.
"The walls are made of gold," Rose replied in a way that had the Doctor frowning at her, though she didn't notice as she walked away to congratulate Suki.
"Why would the walls be made of gold?" the red head asked, turning to the Doctor.
"Don't know," he shrugged, unsure himself.
The pair looked back to Suki and the others as they congratulated the woman in her promotion. Aries couldn't help but notice how Cathica was glaring at the woman, however, and it caused her eyebrows to furrow.
The Editor entered the spike room on Floor 500, a smirk on his face as he approached the spike chair.
"Was that so hard?" he asked the man in the chair. When he didn't get a response, he just shook his head, "You can fight us all you want, but sooner or later you will give up your secrets."
The man closed his eyes and turned his head away from the Editor, who scowled at the action.
"So be it," the Editor snapped before leaving the room.
He approached one of the workers at the computers.
"Direct all information through the spike room," he ordered, "Every titbit of information, every last drop. I want him to scream!"
There was a roar from above the Editor, though for the first time the man ignored it as he watched the monitor as the worker started to do as he said.
It took a moment before the Editor stepped back, a dark grin on his face as a scream came from the spike room.
"Lets see how resistant you will be now," he muttered to himself.
"Cathica, I'm gonna miss you!" Suki said as she, Cathica, Aries, Rose and the Doctor stood near the lift that led to Floor 500.
Cathica didn't even glance at the woman, pointedly not even glancing in Suki's direction.
"Floor 500..." Suki continued, almost like she couldn't believe that this was actually happening. She turned to the Doctor and Rose, "Thank you!" she told them.
"Bit, we didn't do anything," Rose told her, a little confused as to why she was being thanked.
"Well, you're both my lucky charms!" Suki said before hugging the blonde.
Aries watched on, still feeling uneasy about what was happening. It didn't seem right in her eyes and something was telling her that something had gone wrong.
Suki getting a promotion after supposedly 'glitching' during her last job just raised so many red flags in Aries' mind.
A part of her was telling her that she was just too suspicious about everything, having lived the first thirty odd years of her life in a state of continuously watching over her shoulder, having to second guess anyone's intentions.
But another part, a much larger part was telling Aries that her unease had been present long before Suki had gotten promoted. That there was something much larger happening here.
"Aries?" the Doctor's thoughts cut through her musing and she blinked, only to realise everyone was looking at her, waiting.
"Oh, eh, sorry?" she rubbed the back of her neck before holding out the other to Suki, "Congratulations on your promotion, Suki," she told the other woman.
Suki shook her head before pulling the red head into a hug, causing Aries to stiffen and inhale sharply when she felt as though her whole body had been submerged in ice-cold water.
"Oh, my God," Suki giggled as she pulled away from Aries, not noticing the red heads expression in her excitement, "I've got to go, I can't keep them waiting," she continued and picked up her bag, "I'm sorry!" the lift pinged and the doors slid open and she stepped inside.
"Say goodbye to Steve for me," was the last thing they heard as the lift doors closed and Aries let out a shaking breath, trying not to shiver at the cold feeling that still ghosted across her skin.
"Good riddance," Cathica huffed, causing the Doctor and Rose to glance at her. Aries was still staring at the lift doors.
"You're talking like you'll never see her again," the Doctor remarked, eyeing Cathica curiously, "She's only gone upstairs."
"We won't," Cathica replied, her tone uncaring, "Once you go to Floor 500, you never come back."
The Doctor looked to the closed lift doors, his eyebrows knitting together before he noticed Aries was also watching the lift and he frowned.
Suki shifted nervously inside the lift as it headed up to Floor 500.
By the time the lift finally reached Floor 500, she had resorted to pacing as her nerves grew.
The doors opened and she looked out beyond the doors, only to see that Floor 500 was covered in frost and snow, the snow gently falling from the ceiling.
Picking up her bag, Suki stepped out of the lift, her eyes wide as she looked around nervously.
The doors behind her slid shut and she turned to them in alarm and threw herself against them, realising that there was something seriously wrong, but her effort was for naught.
Giving up on the doors, Suki rummaged through her bag and produced a torch before walking cautiously further into Floor 500, holding her torch out in front of her.
There is a small sound from one of the side rooms and she edged into it slowly, unsure what she would find.
The Doctor, Rose and a silent Aries followed Cathica back to the canteen area after Suki had left, the red head glancing behind them with a troubled expression.
"Have you ever been up there?" the Doctor asked Cathica.
"No," Cathica admitted, still sour over Suki's promotion, "You need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with promotion. No one gets to 500 except for the chosen few."
Suki shone her torch around, finding herself in a spike room much similar to the one where she worked.
A gasp left her lips, her hand flying to cover them when her eyes landed on a man laying on the jump seat, afraid she had alerted him to her presence, but the man didn't move, his eyes closed.
She moved her torch around, finding that there were eight others sitting around the edge of the platform, but found that unlike the man, these people were covered in a layer of frost.
She edged up closer to the man, wondering what was going on and almost shrieked when his eyes snapped open and looked at her.
You should leave, a voice in her head sounded and Suki spun around, trying to find the source, only to jump when the voice sounded again, Now!
She wasted no time in doing just that as the lights in the room started to flicker to life, rushing out of the room without a backwards glance.
The moment she entered the corridor outside the spike room, a shift of light fell across the floor and Suki swallowed heavily as she glanced around, and after finding no other indication of what she should do, she followed it.
The light led to Floor 500's main control room and Suki suddenly found herself facing the Editor.
There were more of the frost-covered workers she had seen in the spike room, each one sat before a computer as they worked away, almost like zombies.
"Who are you?" she asked as she approached the man, turning her torch off and put it back in her bag.
"I'm the Editor," the man replied with a wave.
"What's happening?" Suki questioned, forcing her voice to waver as she continued, "There's...bodies out there, what's going on?"
"Well, while we're asking questions," the Editor replied, not answering her, "Would you please confirm your name."
He snapped his fingers and a projection of Suki appeared between them, a recording of the time she had applied to work on Satellite Five.
"My name is Suki Macrae Cantrell. I was born 1-9-9'8-9 in the Independent Republic of Morocco," the projection said.
"Liar," the Editor cut in, causing Suki to look at him, a flicker of defiance igniting in her gaze.
"Hobbies include reading and archaeology. I'm not an expert or anything, I just like digging."
"Liar!" the Editor snapped his fingers again and the recording is forwarded to a different point.
"I want to work for Satellite Five because my sister can't afford university," the projected Suki continued, causing the Editor to shake his head and the real Suki to look between him and the recording, "And the pay scheme is really good..."
"Liar!" the Editor shouted and the defiance that had flickered to life in Suki's eyes just continued to grow. "Let's look at the facts, shall we?" he asked the woman before snapping his fingers.
The projection changed, showing Suki now in a trench wearing army attire as she fired a gun, shouting to her comrades.
"Ah, hidden behind a genetic graft," the Editor stated, wondering what other facts the man in the spike room could find or knew. He looked to the real Suki as he continued, getting his thoughts back on track, "But that's still you. Eva San Julienne. Last surviving member of the Freedom Fifteen! Hmm, self declared anarchist, is that right?" he questioned.
Suki suddenly pulled a gun from her bag and pointed it at the Editor. The nervousness and hesitancy in her voice disappeared as it became harsher...colder.
"Who controls Satellite Five?" she demanded.
The Editor raised his hands slowly, a shocked expression on his face before he suddenly burst into laughter, lowering his hands.
"There's the truth!" he exclaimed, finally knowing he could provide his Master's with something fruitful in regards to the unknown male. He just had to get rid of this ant before he could figure out what other secrets were being hidden on Satellite Five.
"The Freedom Foundation has been monitoring Satellite Five's transmissions. We have absolute proof that the facts are being manipulated. You're lying to the people," Suki accused, not phased by the Editor's outburst.
"Ooh, I love it. Say it again," the Editor replied with a grin.
"This whole system is corrupt," she stepped towards the man, her gun ready, "Who do you represent?" she demanded again.
"I'm merely a humble slave," the Editor told her, although his grin remained, "I answer to the Editor in Chief."
"Well, who is he? Where is he?" Suki demanded, her gaze flickering around the room, trying to locate who the Editor was talking about.
"He's overseeing everything. Literally everything," the Editor told her, which only caused her eyes to narrow when they fell back onto him, "If you don't mind, I'm going to have to refer this upwards."
He clicked his fingers and pointed upwards, just as the roaring voice started again and Suki immediately pointed her gun to the ceiling.
"What is that?" she asked, the tremble in her voice as real as the tremble in her hands.
"Your boss," the Editor replied with a smirk, "This has always been your boss. Since the day you were born."
Suki ineffectively unloaded her weapon onto the creature above her, but it just bore down on her.
Inside Floor 500's spike room, the man sighed as he closed his eyes, hearing Suki's screams.
Back on Floor 139, Cathica entered the spike room, followed by the trio of time travellers.
"Look, they only give us twenty minutes maintenance, can't you give it a rest?" the woman asked, getting fed up with the questions.
"But you've never been to another floor? Not even one floor down?" the Doctor continued to question as he settled himself down comfortably in the chair on the platform, tensing slightly when Rose rested against the back of it.
He glanced at Aries, finding her rather quiet with a thoughtful expression on her face. One he had seen before and knew she was just as interested as the happenings on the satellite as he was.
"I went to Floor 16 when I first arrived," Cathica explained, causing the Doctor to look back to her, "That's medical. That's where I got my head done, and then I, I came straight here. Satellite Five, you work, eat and sleep on the same floor. That's it, that's all...You're not management, are you?" she asked, eyeing the trio suspiciously.
"At last! She's clever!" the Doctor exclaimed, causing Aries to jump in surprise, having been lost in thought and he gave her an apologetic look.
"Yeah, well, whatever it is, don't involve me," Cathica told them, shaking her head, "I don't know anything."
"Don't you even ask?" Aries questioned, her eyebrows creasing in confusion.
This was a news satellite, and unless it was done differently in the future, journalists were the most annoying, in-your-face people that never seemed to stop asking questions, always digging for something interesting and tasty to print.
"Well, why would I?" Cathica replied, frowning.
"You're a journalist!" Aries stated in confusion, "Questioning things should be the first thing you'd do."
"Why's all the crew human?" the Doctor asked when Cathica just stared dumbly at Aries. His Nesdra did provide a valid point, but it seemed that the other woman just wasn't seeing it.
"What's that got to do with anything?" Cathica turned to the Time Lord, growing increasingly confused and irritated by their questions.
"There's no aliens on board. Why?" he asked.
"I don't know – no real reason, they're not banned or anything," Cathica explained.
"Then where are they?" Rose asked as she looked around the room.
Cathica seemed stumped by that. "I supposed immigration's tightened up," she surmised, "It had to, what, with all the threats."
"What threats?" Aries asked, taking the words straight from the Doctor's mouth.
"I don't know..." Cathica replied, looking a little lost, "All of them. Usual stuff. And the price of space warp doubled, so that kept the visitors away..."
The three time travellers watched her intently, causing Cathica to shift uncomfortably.
"Oh, and the government on Traffic Five's collapsed, so that lot stopped coming, you see...just...lots of little reasons, that's all."
"Adding up to one great big fact, and you didn't even notice," the Doctor stated.
"Doctor, I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it. We see everything," Cathica told him.
"I can see better," the Doctor was quick to reply, "The society's the wrong shape. Even the technology."
"It's cutting edge!" Cathica argued.
"It's wrong, backwards," Aries spoke up, and the Doctor nodded in agreement.
"There's a great big door in your head," he added, "You should've chucked this out years ago."
"So, what do you think is going on?" Rose asked the Time Lord, who frowned.
"It's not just this space station, it's the whole attitude," he explained, "It's the way people think. The great and bountiful human empire stunted. Something's holding it back."
"And how would you know?" Cathica asked a little sharply, affronted.
"Trust me. Humanity's been set back about ninety years," the Doctor replied.
"When did Satellite Five start broadcasting?" Aries questioned, coming to finally stand beside the chair the Doctor was sitting in.
Cathica hesitated before replying, realising that they may be onto something. "Ninety-one years ago..."
The Doctor nodded at her and she looked away with a troubled, but thoughtful expression.
"We're so gonna get into trouble," Cathica said, looking around to make sure no one was watching as the Doctor scanned the side of a door with his sonic. "You're not allowed to touch the mainframe, you're gonna get told off," the woman continued as she stepped up closer to the trio.
"Rose, tell her to button it," the Time Lord grumbled as he continued with what he was doing.
He could have asked Aries, but the red head had seemed distracted since Suki had left and he couldn't help but wonder what was going through her mind.
"You can't just vandalise the place, someone's gonna notice!" Cathica hissed in a harsh whisper, just as the Doctor wrenched the door open.
Up on Floor 500, the Editor was watching the preceding's with a frown.
"I don't understand! We did a full security scan," he stated, rather confused as to what he was seeing, "That man was there when we found Suki Macrae Cantrell. There were no indications about him. And yet here he is..."
He lent forwards, leaning over the frosted form of Suki, who was now hard at work at a terminal.
"Clearly acting out of the parameters," he continued before looking back to the screen that showed the Doctor as he messed around with the mainframe, "Fascinating."
The Editor jumped when the beast above him roared at him and was quick to respond.
"Yes, sir. Absolutely. At once."
He moved down the line of frosted workers, speaking to each one in turn.
"Check him. Double check him. Triple check him. Quadruple!"
The beast rumbled again and the Editor paused before a smirk appeared on his face.
"Of course," he said, leaving the room.
Aries frowned as she watched the Doctor trying to work his way through the wires of Satellite Five's mainframe.
She had no idea what had happened earlier when Suki had hugged her and couldn't help but ponder on what it could mean.
As much as the red head thought the place to a bit a stuffy, there was no reason for Suki's touch to have felt like ice and wondered what it meant.
Something was telling her that what she had felt was important...vital even, but she just couldn't work out why.
"This has nothing to do with me," Cathica spoke up and the red head glanced at her. "I'm going back to work," she added before walking away.
"Go on then! See you!" the Doctor replied, not even looking up from what he was doing, though his words caused Cathica to stop.
"I can't just leave you, can I?" the woman stated.
"If you wanna be useful," Rose said, turning to the woman, "Get 'em to turn the heating down. It's boiling," she fanned herself as if to drive the point home and Aries' eyebrows knitted together.
"What's wrong with this place, can't they do something about it?" Rose continued to question.
"I don't know, we keep asking," Cathica replied, "Something to do with the turbine."
The Doctor repeated her words mockingly, "Something to do with the turbine," which only earned him a look from Aries before she finally spoke up.
"I don't think it's the turbine," she said, only to earn confused looks from the others. "I...I'm not sure, but I think it's something else."
"What else could it be?" Rose asked while Cathica just looked between them in disbelief.
"One minute you're worried about the Empire, and the next it's central heating!" she cut in before Aries could say anything.
"Well, never underestimate plumbing. Plumbing's very important," the Time Lord remarked, just before he accidently snapped a bunch of wires, causing Cathica to look away exasperated.
"Who is he?!" the Editor demanded as the man in the spike chair writhed and jerked. The blue stream of energy tried to rip information from him, though to no avail.
There was a projection of Aries, the Doctor, Rose and Cathica showing in the room and the Editor was getting beyond frustrated with the mans continued defiance.
He had never had trouble before getting information from anyone before, but for some reason, the man seemed resistant to anything he did.
Before he could question the man again, the computer spoke up.
'Security scan complete.'
"Well, who is he?" the Editor questioned, a bit impatient.
'He is no-one,' the computer informed him and he laughed, not comprehending what it meant.
"What does that mean?" the Editor asked, now ignoring the man in the spike chair as he turned his complete focus on the computer.
'He is no-one,' the computer repeated.
The Editor frowned, "What, you mean he has a fake ID?" he asked, trying to understand what the computer was saying.
'He has no identification,' the computer stated.
"But everyone's registered. We have a census for the entire Empire," he remarked, now becoming baffled.
'He is no-one.'
"What, he doesn't exist? Not anywhere?"
'He is no-one.'
The Editor was now beyond baffled. He was utterly confused. "What about the red head and the blonde?" he questioned.
There was a delay before the computer spoke up again, 'They are no-one.'
"Both of them?!" the Editor exclaimed, incredulous. He looked back to the man and shut down the stream of energy with a click of his fingers before he grinned, "Well! We all know what happens to non-entities. They get promoted."
The Editor then left the room to get one of the zombie workers to bring the unknown trio up to Floor 500.
The Doctor had managed to hack into Satellite Five's successfully and turned the screen so Cathica could see it, as well as an ever curious Aries.
"Here we go, Satellite Five. Pipes and plumbing," he said as he moved to stand behind them so they could see the monitor, "Look at the layout," he instructed.
Both women examined the screen, though Aries's expression immediately turned troubled at what she was seeing.
"This is ridiculous," Cathica remarked, rather bemused, "You've got access to the computer's core. You can look at the archive, the news, the stock exchange...and you're looking at pipes?"
"But there's something wrong," Aries told her, causing the woman to study the schematics a bit closer.
"I suppose..." Cathica trailed of, seeing what the Doctor and Aries had seen.
"Why, what is it?" Rose questioned, unsure what they were talking about.
"The ventilation system," Cathica begun to explain, "Cooling ducts, ice filters, all working flat out...channelling massive amounts of heat down." She looked upwards.
"All the way from the top," Aries muttered as she too looked upwards.
"Floor 500," Rose added.
The Time Lord nodded, "Something up there is generating tonnes and tonnes of heat," he confirmed.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm missing out on a party," Rose said with a grin, causing Aries to look at her with a frown, "It's all going on upstairs. Fancy a trip?"
"I don't think that's a good idea," Aries informed the blonde, wondering two things.
The first being that Rose must be completely mental to think walking into a place unknown without the foggiest of what could be going on was such a good idea. It reminded her of how the blonde had acted about floating through a German air-raid while wearing a Union Jack shirt, brushing if off like it had been nothing.
And the second thing Aries wondered was if what she had felt from Suki had anything to do with Floor 500 and why it seemed to be siphoning heat down to the floors below it.
"And anyway, you can't," Cathica added, "You need a key."
"Keys are just codes, and I have the codes right here," the Doctor remarked as he tapped a few keys on the monitor. He grinned a moment later, "Here we go, override 215.9."
Aries frowned at the Time Lord, unsure if going upstairs was a good idea. She wanted to try and find out more about what was going on before she even thought of heading upstairs.
"How come it's given you the code?" Cathica asked in disbelief, having spent years trying to get a promotion to Floor 500, only to have these three people given it without a fuss.
The Doctor looked up to a security camera. "Someone up there likes me," he said.
Up on Floor 500, the Editor laughed to himself as he watched the group whom were unaware of what lay instore for them.