"Now then," The doctor responded though his voice sounded a bit off than last time. "on the left at the top, there's a tab, an icon. Little concentric circles. Click on that."

"What is it?"

"The Slitheen have got a spaceship in the North Sea and it's transmitting that signal." The doctor answered Mickey immediately. "Now hush, let me work out what it's saying." She saw that he was concentrating. "It's some sort of message."

"What's it say?" Rose questioned quietly, biting her lower lip sympathetically. She wished there was something she could do to help.

"Don't know. It's on a loop, keeps repeating." The doctor explained. "Hush." The doctor ordered Mickey when he heard the doorbell rang. "It's beaming out into space, who's it for?"

"It's him!" Rose heard her mother's voice shrieked at the other end of the line. "It's the thing, it's the Slipeen!"

"They've found us." Mickey panicked.

"Mickey, I need that signal." The Doctor said undeterred.

"How can't they get the signal, if they're dead," Rose told him. "Get out! Mum," She then heard rustling on the phone. "Just get out! Get out!"

"We can't. It's by the front door." Mickey's panicked voice replied. "Oh, my God, it's unmasking. It's going to kill us."

"There's got to be some way of stopping them!" Harriet said, panicking as she looked over to the doctor. "You're supposed to be the expert, think of something!"

"I'm trying." The doctor snapped, though he winced, looking thoroughly ashamed of himself.

Her heart leapt at the uncharacteristic severity she detected in his tone.

"I'll take it on, Jackie. You just run. Don't look back." She heard Mickey say to her mum.

"Doctor," Rose spoke as she looked at the doctor intently. "That's my mother."

"Right," The Doctor clapped his hands together. "If we're going to find their weakness, we need to find out where they're from. Which planet." He said as he looked at everyone in the room. "So, judging by their basic shape, that narrows it down to five thousand planets within travelling distance. What else do we know about them? Information!"

"They're green." Rose said.

"Yep, narrows it down."

"Good sense of smell." Rose continued attempting to think of every little detail while worrying about her mother and Mickey.

"Narrows it down."

"They can smell adrenalin." She added.

"Narrows it down."

"The pig technology." Indra said after clearing his throat.

"Narrows it down."

"The spaceship in the Thames, you said slipstream engine?" Rose scoured her mind.

"Narrows it down."

"It's getting in!" Rose tried to go through her memory faster, when she heard Mickey.

"They hunt like it's a ritual." Rose said, hoping that they were close.

"Narrows it down."

"Wait a minute." Harriet started. "Did you notice? When they fart, if you'll pardon the word," she explained with disgust. "It doesn't just smell like a fart, if you'll pardon the word," She waved her hand dismissively "it's something else. What is it? It's more like, er"

"Bad breath!" Rose said excitedly.

"That's it!" Harriet exclaimed, nodding enthusiastically.

"Calcium decay!" The doctor laughed. "Now, that narrows it down!"

Her heart had begun to pound in anticipation. "We're getting there, Mum!"

"Too late!" Mickey shouted.

"Calcium phosphate. Organic calcium. Living calcium. Creatures made out of living calcium." The doctor's eyebrows drew together in a frown. "What else? What else? Hyphenated surname. " He questioned. "Yes! That narrows it down to one planet. Raxacoricofallapatorius!"

"Oh, yeah, great. We could write 'em a letter." Mickey sarcastically.

"Get into the kitchen!" The doctor bit out.

"My God, it's going to rip us apart!" Her mum's panicked voice came through the phone.

"Calcium, weakened by the compression field." The Doctor spoke in his authoritative voice. "Acetic acid. Vinegar!"

"Just like Hannibal." The Doctor said excitement. "Mickey, have you got any vinegar?"

"How should I know?" Mickey replied.

The doctor rolled his eyes. "It's your kitchen."

"Cupboard by the sink, middle shelf." Rose informed them.

Suddenly, shifting could be heard from the other end.

"Oh, give it here. What do you need?" Her mum asked.

"Anything with vinegar!" Doctor told her.

"Gherkins. Yeah, pickled onions. Pickled eggs." Her mother listened in joy.

"And you kiss this man?" The doctor questioned, and again Rose felt it pull at heartstrings. She could say anything until she spoke with Mickey first.

But to do that, they need to stay alive. They heard a crash and the slitheen scream before silence.

Rose didn't know what to think until they heard a sound bag.

"Mum," Rose called worriedly. "Mickey."

Again there was nothing but silence for a moment.

"We're okay." Mickey finally replied.

"Thank you Hannibal." Rose cheered.

"Yes thank you Hannibal." Harriet cheered alongside. "Who crossed the Alps by dissolving boulders with vinegar."

They all toast the moment with a glass of port from the decanter.

"Listen to this," Mickey's voice said over the phone.

Every single one of them leaned on the table, where they heard the TV.

"Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads," The false Prime Minister was saying, "and they have found massive weapons of destruction, capable of being deployed within 45 seconds."

The Doctor grimaced. "What?"

"Our technicians can...baffle...the alien probes," The false Prime Minister resumed. "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 the United Nations – pass an emergency resolution. Give us the access codes! A nuclear strike at the heart of the ship is our only chance of survival. Because…from this moment on…it is my solemn duty to inform you…planet Earth is at war."

"He's making it up," The Doctor responded, pushing off the table clearly annoyed. "There's no weapons up there, there's no threat. He just invented it."

"Do you think they'll believe him?" Harriet asked.

"They did last time," Rose muttered.

"That's why the Slitheen went for spectacle," the Doctor said, nodding. "They want the whole world panicking, because you lot, you get scared, you lash out."

Rose groaned. "They release the defence codes."

"And the Slitheen go nuclear," He said gravely.

"But why?" cried Harriet.

The Doctor moved near the door and pressed the button near the door again, opening the metal shudders and facing the Slitheen lingering outside.

"You get the codes, release the missiles," He said quietly, Rose could see that his temper is was close to the surface. "But not into space because there's nothing there. You attack every other country on Earth, they retaliate, fight back. World War Three – whole planet gets nuked."

"And we can sit through it in our spaceship waiting in the Thames," Margaret declared as she came forward, back in her skin suit. "Not crashed. Just parked. They'll be two minutes away."

"But you'll destroy the planet, this beautiful place," Harriet said. "What for? What do you gain?"

"Profit," the Doctor stated, eyes still practised on Margaret. "That's what the signal is beaming into space - an advert."

"The sale of the century. We reduce the Earth to molten slag, then sell it. Piece by piece," she said, smirking. "Radioactive chucks capable of powering every cut-price star liner and budget cargo ship. There's a recession out there, Doctor. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel."

"At the cost of 5 billion lives," the Doctor regarded.

"Bargain," she replied.

"Then I give you the choice," he told her. "Leave this planet or I'll stop you."

"What? You?" Margaret replied, laughing along with the rest of the Slitheen. "Trapped in your box?"

"Yes," He answered, eyes blazing. "Me."

He then closed the metal shutter on her, and Rose shivered.

000

"All right, Doctor." Her mother spoke suddenly. "I'm not saying I trust you, but there must be something you can do."

"If we could ferment the port, we could make acetic acid." Harriet suggested.

"Mickey, any luck?" Rose asked.

"There's loads of emergency numbers," Mickey told them. "They're all on voicemail."

"Voicemail dooms us all." Harriet said.

"You can say that again," Rose muttered. "If only we could get out."

"There's a way out." The doctor answered solemnly, but Rose didn't answer.

"How." Indra

"There's always been a way out." Rose watched as he looked at her intently. "And for that to happen, I can't guarantee your daughter will be safe."

"Don't you dare." Rose could hear tears in her mother's voice as she spoke. "Whatever it is, don't you dare."

"That's the thing." The doctor started. "If I don't dare, everyone dies."

"Do it." Rose ordered.

"You don't even know what it is. You'd just let me?" The doctor sought as if she was insane.

"Of course."

"Doctor. Please. She's my daughter..." Jackie began only to be cut off by the doctor.

"She's not just anything," he said. "But this is my life, Jackie," he continued sounding angrier. "It's not fun, it's not smart, it's just standing up and making a decision because nobody else will."

When she heard her mother beginning to talk again Rose interrupted.

"Mum no, this is more important than my life," Rose stated as she looked at the phone. "I trust him completely." She then looked at the doctor. "Then what're you waiting for?"

"I could save the world but lose you." He sounded conflicted, but she knew he wouldn't lose her at least not today.

"Except it's not your decision, Doctor. It's mine." Harriet stated, taking charge of things, which Rose was glad about at this moment in time.

"And who the hell are you?" An outraged Jackie demanded.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North." Harriet introduced. "The only elected representative in this room, chosen by the people for the people." she never swayed, not once. "And on behalf of the people, I command you. Do it."

"What about you Indra?" The doctor asked.

"Do it." was all his reply.

"How do we get out?" Rose inquired smiling.

"We don't. We stay here." The doctor replied again not really meeting her eyes. "Use the buffalo password. It overrides everything Mickey."

"We're in." Mickey announced. "Here it is. HMS Taurean, Trafalgar Class submarine, ten miles off the coast of Plymouth."

"Right," The doctor started, then looked around the room. "we need to select a missile."

"We can't go nuclear," Mickey said. "We don't have the defence codes."

"We don't need it. All we need's an ordinary missile." The doctor told him. "What's the first category?

"Sub Harpoon, UGM-A4A."

"That's the one. Select." The doctor then looked at Rose as he spoke. "You ready for this?"

"Yeah."

"Mickey the idiot, the world is in your hands." The doctor then straightened up. "Fire."

"How solid are these?" Harriet asked, pointing to the walls.

"Not solid enough." The doctor stated. "Built for short-range attack, nothing this big."

"We aren't going to die here," Rose informed them as she moved over to the cupboard. "It's like what they say about earthquakes. You can survive them by standing under a door frame." She peered around the cupboards before shifting back to them "Now, this cupboard's small so it's strong. Come and help me. Come on."

Harriet was the first to move, then Indra.

However, the doctor just stood there for a moment and looked gobsmacked.

"It's on the radar," Mickey told them. "Counter defence five five six."

"Stop them intercepting it." The Doctor told him, taking the phone from the speaker connection and walked toward the cupboard.

"I'm doing it now."

"Good boy."

"Five five six neutralised." Mickey told the doctor.

As they scrambled into the cupboard the doctor pulled Rose next to him, with Harriet sitting on his other side along with Indra.

Without thinking Rose automatically wrapped her arms around the doctor's arm and held tight.

"Here we go." Harriet said as she looked up to the ceiling. "Nice knowing all of you."

"Same to you." Indra told her.

"Hannibal!" Harriet cried just before they felt the exploded around them.

The room shook before spinning end over end, tumbling them around inside. It was only at the end, Rose had finally noticed the doctor had changed their position and was laying over her protecting her.

When the doctor was sure they were safe, he moved to get up pulling her along with him, he then pushed open the door.

"Oh, my God. Are you all right?" A soldier asked, as he ran to them.

"Harriet Jones. MP, Flydale North." Harriet introduced before continuing. "I want you to contact the UN immediately. Tell the ambassadors the crisis is over. They can step down. Go on, tell the news."

"Yes, ma'am," He replied, hurrying away.

"Someone's got a hell of a job sorting this lot out," She spoke sadly as she looked at the destruction. "Oh, Lord! We haven't even got a Prime Minister!"

"Maybe you should have a go." The doctor suggested.

"Me? Huh." Harriet said in disbelief. "I'm only a back-bencher."

"I'd vote for you." Rose added.

"So would I" Indra stated.

"Now, don't be silly." She scolded. "Look, I'd better go and see if I can help. Hang on! Indra I might need your help." Harriet then made her way down the pile of rubble, with Indra. "We're safe! The Earth is safe!"

"I thought I knew the name." The doctor said suddenly. "Harriet Jones, future Prime Minister. Elected for three successive terms. The architect of Britain's Golden Age."

Rose knew what was going to happen next when they saw her next time, but Rose still had hope.