A/N: I've edited chapters 1-5 if you'd like to go back, but it's not necessary because the changes are that big.
A/N 2: I've decided to simple up date all the chapter's I've written so there are another fifteen chapters to come. I'll upload them as I edit them, but the editing is being done by me and so there might be things I miss. One of the biggest things I have issues with is none necessary Prov changes. some of the prov changes I've done are with a change of paragraph because i want to give someone else's perspective a show. if a prov change happens in the middle of a paragraph, that probably wasn't planned.
Chapter Seven: The Long Game
"Oh my god, it's bigger on the inside." Adam breathed in amazement as he looked around the control room of the TARDIS.
The Doctor rolled his eyes as he set the ship into flight in the vortex. They had spent more time in Van Statten's museum being chased by the Dalek then he would have liked, and Rose was starting to look warn although she was giggling in amusement at Adam's astonishment. He knew the signs that one of his companions were beginning to get tired following an adventure. He hoped that after a couple of trips Rose would start building up a bit of stamina so that he didn't have to wait so long in the vortex – although he was sure that the conversations, he was beginning to have with Annamae would distract him during the wait time to some degree.
"Rose, why don't you go show Adam where he can freshen up and get some sleep. It's been a long day." I suggested, wanting to speak with the Doctor alone and recognising that Rose was also starting to be worn thin following her emotional day. Rose nodded her acceptance, took Adams' arm and led him into the TARDIS.
The Doctor was stood leaning against the console, staring at the screen with a dark face. The pain was still too raw for him, I realised. It had been barely a year since he had killed his people in an attempt to stop a war, and the proof that a Dalek survived was a big blow. Because if one Dalek survived, then maybe more did, which meant he killed his people for no reason. Recognising that if the Doctor stayed on his current line of thought that he wouldn't get out of it I approached him and touched his arm.
"Doctor, could you teach me about other races. I would like to know more about them, just encase I offend someone. And I would like to learn their language without the help of the TARDIS translation circuit. I feel like I'm cheating when I hear other alien races talking in English." I smiled sheepishly at him.
"You sure? There are a lot of alien races." The Doctor warned as we began to wonder through the TARDIS and towards the library his mind temporarily off the line of thought he had been following.
"I'm sure. I'll start with the aliens you encounter the most often, and the aliens we have already encountered." I decided.
"Alright." The Doctor smiled happily. His companions always found joy in the universe, but they rarely wanted to actually learn about the other planets and cultures they visited. And none of them had ever asked to learn to speak the alien dialect without the translation matrix. Annamae was proving herself again and again as being different. As being brilliant.
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Because the TARDIS existed outside of normal time and space, she was capable of changing the time in each room. It was because of this, that the Doctor and Annamae could spend nearly twenty-one hours discussing Gelth history and culture (a lot of the information pulled from the Doctor's library since this wasn't a culture that the Doctor knew a lot about) before degrading into the Doctor's stories about different places he had seen with his previous companions while they ate some food and drank tea. Rose however, had only experienced eight hours before emerging from her room with Adam in search of the kitchen.
After Rose and Adam had eaten, they headed to the console room where they found the Doctor and Annamae discussing the merits of coconut milk in comparison with animal milk.
"Good morning." Rose interrupted the conversation cheerfully.
"Good morning Rose, Adam." I greeted, while the Doctor nodded his head.
"Ready to set off then?" the Doctor asked as he started pulling leavers and pressing buttons.
"Where are we going?" Adam asked in confusion.
"Oh, you'll see." The Doctor smiled as the rotor started up and I grabbed the railing. Adam and Rose weren't as quick to secure themselves and were thrown about. I grabbed Rose and pulled her to her feet, while Adam grabbed a piece of railing to stop himself being thrown about too much.
Finally, the TARDIS came to a stop. The Doctor left the TARDIS quickly, with me following behind him. Rose stopped a moment to make sure Adam was alright but also followed us out into their new adventure. They landed in what appeared to be a space ship, the hum of the engine vibrating under them. They were surrounded by metal, someone had attempted to bring warmth to the room by painting the walls red, but with the heat circulating through the place, it just made it look tacky.
"So, it's the year two hundred thousand, and it's a spaceship. No, wait a minute, space station, and er, go and try that gate over there. Off you go." The Doctor said waving to a door at the other side of the room as he leaned against the TARDIS.
"Two hundred thousand?" Rose checked with a smile.
"Two hundred thousand." The Doctor agreed with a nod.
"Right." Rose said excitedly as she opened the TARDIS doors. "Adam? Out you come."
"Oh, my God." Adam breathed as he stepped out of the TARDIS. He said that a lot, I noted absently. Every time he was surprised or horrified by something, he always said those three words.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it." Rose comforted him, trying to sound like a seasoned traveller despite this being only her second trip.
"Where are we?" Adam asked looking around the room in awe.
"Good question. Let's see. So, er, judging by the architecture, I'd say we're around the year two hundred thousand. If you listen…" Rose said holding her hand up, trying to sound smart and informed. It was a trick she used to use too get boyfriends until she started dating Mickey. I didn't like the fact that Rose was stringing Mickey along when he had been kind enough to let her go adventuring. I was starting think that we needed to have a talk about being faithful.
"Yeah." Adam nodded realising that he could hear something.
"Engines. We're on some sort of space station. Yeah, definitely a space station. It's a bit warm in here. They could turn the heating down." Rose said, taking off her pink jacket to tie it around her waist. "Tell you what - let's try that gate. Come on!"
The gate led to a massive viewing window that looked down on the earth, but there was something wrong with it. The land mass was almost completely hidden by brown clouds and the water looked almost green. It was nothing like the future earth we had seen blown up, this earth looked sick.
"Here we go! And this is... I'll let the Doctor describe it." Rose said, staring in awe at the sight before her. This was the first time she was seeing Earth from space.
"The Fourth great and bountiful Human Empire. And there it is, planet Earth at its height. Covered with mega-cities, five moons, population ninety-six billion. The hub of a galactic domain stretching across a million planets, a million species, with mankind right in the middle." The Doctor said proudly.
There was a thud behind them as Adam fainted. Rose and the Doctor didn't even turn around, while I looked back briefly to make sure he hadn't done any damage before looping my arm through the Doctors.
"He's your boyfriend." The Doctor said to Rose.
"Not anymore." She muttered embarrassed for Adam, not even Mickey was this pathetic.
When Adam came too, the Doctor led them through to a large open space that seemed to be the centre of the station. "Come on, Adam. Open your mind. You're going to like this. Fantastic period of history. The human race at its most intelligent. Culture, art, politics. This era has got fine food, good manners." The Doctor had one arm wrapped around Adam's shoulders while the other was gesturing at the room around them.
With impeccable and ironic timing, a man shoved passed the Doctor then. "Out of the way!" he said rudely as he went.
As though this one man was the signal for the rest, the room was suddenly brisling with people, shouting to and throw, the opening of food vending stations who were also shouting so as to be heard by their customers.
"Thank you very much indeed. Somebody there? That's great. What do you want, love? All right, keep moving. I'll be with you lot in a minute. Here you are. One at a time. What now, what was it? Kronkburger with cheese, kronkburger with potatoes. Do you want a drink? Oi, you, mate. Stop pushing. Get back. I said, back." The vender closest to them was shouting trying to keep order among the group trying to order their lunch.
"Fine cuisine?" Rose questioned with a raised eyebrow as her nose wrinkled in disgust at the smell.
"My watch must be wrong." The Doctor said checking said watch but it was still giving him the same readings. "No, it's fine. That's weird."
"That's what comes of showing off. Your history isn't as good as you thought it was." Rose teased hypocritically, but I was looking around at all the humans suspiciously. The earth looked polluted. The Doctor said that the earth was the centre of a trade route, but there had been no ships flying to or from the planet. And now they were stood in a large space station, surrounded by nothing but humans.
"My history's perfect." The Doctor responded, catching my eye and exchanging a silent message. Something was wrong. He had also caught the same things I had and, with his vast knowledge of history (and future, depending on the perspective), he was noticing more than I was.
"Well, obviously not." Rose said, dismissing the tension we were both radiating.
"They're all human. What about the millions of planets, the millions of species? Where are they?" Adam asked, voicing one of the things I had noticed.
"Good question. Actually, that is a good question. Adam, me old mate, you must be starving." The Doctor said, throwing one arm around Adam's shoulders, trying to get rid of him so he could go and investigate unhindered.
"No, I'm just a bit time sick." Adam responded trying to offer a weak joke to get the Doctor to release him.
"No, you just need a bit of grub. Oi, mate - how much is a kronkburger?" the Doctor called to the closest vender.
"Two credits twenty, sweetheart. Now join the queue." The chief responded annoyed.
"Money. We need money." The Doctor patted down his pockets before moving away from the group of people. "Let's use a cashpoint."
The Doctor spotted a cash point that looked almost identical to the ones from Earth in the year 2000 and ran his screw driver over it. I wasn't sure what he did, but a plastic card was produced from the machine. The Doctor handed these 'credits' (that seemed to be the most commonly used term for money in the future) to Adam.
"There you go, pocket money. Don't spend it all on sweets." The Doctor said cheerfully.
"How does it work?" Adam asked, turning the credit over in his hands while I rolled my eyes. Didn't the kid have a sense of adventure?
"Go and find out. Stop nagging me." The Doctor said, equally as frustrated with all the pointless questions when he had a mystery to go and solve. "The thing is, Adam, time travel's like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guide book; you've got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers. Or is that just me? Stop asking questions, go and do it." Adam left, and Rose went to follow but was stopped by the Doctor's teasing words as he continued fooling Rose and Adam into thinking nothing was wrong. "Off you go, then. Your first date."
"You're going to get a smack, you are." Rose warned as she went to catch up with Adam. The Doctor rolled his eyes, turning serious as he spotted a pair of smartly dressed young women.
"Shall we?" the Doctor asked me, offering his arm.
"Indeed." I responded, looping my hand through the crook of his elbow as we approached the pair.
"Er, this is going to sound daft, but can you tell me where I am?" The Doctor asked the two women, causing them to stop and stare at him in shock.
"Floor One Three Nine. Could they write it any bigger?" the women with a darker skin tone said, motioning to the large numbers on the wall.
"Floor one three nine of what?" The Doctor questioned.
"Must've been a hell of a party." The pale women said, looking between the two of us.
"You're on Satellite Five." The first women said, crossing her arms.
"What's Satellite Five?" The Doctor asked confused.
"Come on, how could you get on board without knowing where you are?"
"Look at me. I'm stupid." The Doctor responded, smiling at the women while I stayed silent, happy to just watch the Doctor do his thing.
"Hold on, wait a minute. Are you a test? Some sort of management test kind of thing?" the second women said suspiciously.
"You've got us. Well done. You're too clever for me." The Doctor said, pulling the psychic paper from his pocket to show the two women now that he had a plausible cover story the two would believe.
"We were warned about this in basic training. All workers have to be versed in company promotion." The women said to her companion who nodded her understanding. It was like someone flicked a switch because the first women's posture went from arrogant and dismissive to helpful and understanding.
"Right, fire away, ask your questions. If it gets me to Floor five hundred, I'll do anything." The dark-skinned women said ashough this floor five hundred was a great reward. The Doctor must have picked up on her tone as well because he questioned what she meant.
"Why, what happens on Floor five hundred?"
"The walls are made of gold. And you should know, Mister Management. So, this is what we do." She moved over to a wall monitor which was showing various news titles. "Latest news, sandstorms on the new Venus archipelago. Two hundred dead. Glasgow water riots into their third day. Space lane seventy-seven closed by sunspot activity. And over on the Bad Wolf channel, the Face of Bo has just announced he's pregnant."
I raised an eyebrow at the last one. I had met the Face of Bo during our first trip, I wasn't entirely sure how he could be pregnant considering he was literally just a face. Unless, there was a time where he had an actual body but as he got older, his body changed. It would make sense if that was the case, since he had said I would meet him again when he looked different. But the picture showed the same figure I had met, so perhaps there was more to it that I didn't really need (or want) to know.
"I get it. You broadcast the news." The Doctor nodded his understanding.
"We are the news." The women corrected in a self-important tone. "We're the journalists. We write it, package it and sell it. Six hundred channels all coming out of Satellite Five, broadcasting everywhere. Nothing happens in the whole human empire without it going though us."
"We could show you, if you like? The lunch shift is about to end?" the second women offered hesitantly.
"That would be great, thanks." The Doctor accepted just as an alarm sounded and everyone started leaving.
"Oi! Mutt and Jeff! Over here!" the Doctor shouted to Rose and Adam who were sat at a table, drinking something.
The two women led them into a room which had an octagonal desk around a central chair which was hooked to everything with wires. There was a railing around the outside, where the Doctor, Rose, Adam and I stood. The dark-skinned woman was stood by the chair, while the other took her place with the seven other people around the desk.
"Now everybody, behave; we have a management inspection. How do you want it, by the book?" she asked, turning to the Doctor.
"Right from scratch, thanks." The Doctor agreed.
"Okay. So, ladies, gentlemen, multi-sex, undecided or robot- my name is Cathica Santini Khadeni. That's Cathica with a C, in case you want to write to Floor five hundred praising me, and please do. Now, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest, and beyond bias. That's company policy." The women – Cathica said.
"Actually, it's the law." The other one interrupted quietly.
"Yes, thank you, Suki. Okay, keep it calm. Don't show off for the guests. Here we go." Cathica settled back into her chair while Suki bowed her head to hide her sadness at her friend's hypocrisy in regards to her.
"And engage safety" Cathica said as the eight people around the table held their hands over the palm print in front of them. A light started to come on around the room as Cathica clicked her fingers. I flinched back in horror as a portal opened in her forehead, revealing her brain and the Doctor's grip on my arm tightened slightly in support. The eight placed their hands on the palm print in front of them.
"And three, two, and spike." Cathica said, breathing deeply as a beam of light shined into her brain.
"Compressed information, streaming into her. Reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Her brain is the computer." The Doctor explained, walking around the room with me besides him so he could get a look at everything.
"If it all goes through her, she must be a genius." Rose breathed in shock.
"Nah, she wouldn't remember any of it. There's too much. Her head would blow up. The brain's the processor. As soon as it closes, she forgets." The Doctor explained.
"So, what about all these people round the edge?" Rose asked, crouching next to Suki.
"They've all got tiny little chips in their head, connecting them to her and they transmit six hundred channels. Every single fact in the Empire beams out of this place. Now that's what I call power." He said, almost praising-ly but there was something dark in his tone as well. He didn't agree with what was happening here.
"Doctor, if they're being fed the information as opposed to investigating themselves, it means someone is controlling all the information that reaches Earth." I said quietly to the Doctor so the others didn't hear. This news process was starting to sound suspiciously like how the Ministry (and the Minister in particular) used the Daily Prophet to control the wizarding world through the information they were given and the way that information was written. However, this way seemed to be far more effective.
"You're right," the Doctor agreed, frowning at Cathica and trying to fit together the information they had.
"You all right?" Rose asked Adam who was staring at Cathica.
"I can see her brain." Adam muttered.
"Do you want to get out?" Rose asked, motioning to the door.
"No. No, this technology, it's amazing."
"This technology's wrong." The Doctor disagreed darkly.
"Trouble?" Rose asked excitedly.
"Of course." I agreed before the Doctor could.
Suki pulled her hand away from her hand pad as though she had received an electric shock. The other seven raised their hands and the information beam shut down as Cathica's portal closed.
"Come off it, Suki. I wasn't even halfway. What was that for?" Cathica demanded as she looked to the women who was still holding her hand.
"Sorry. It must've been a glitch." Suki muttered.
"Oh." Cathica deflated.
The back wall lit up as a voice sounded through the room "promotion."
"Come on. This is it. Come on. Oh God, make it me. Come on, say my name, say my name, say my name." Cathica prayed desperately.
I looked at her confused, what was so great about floor five hundred that this woman would so desperately want to be promoted?
"Promotion for Suki Macrae Cantrell. Please proceed to Floor five hundred." The voice announced as Suki's picture appeared on the wall.
"I don't believe it. Floor five hundred." Suki said in disbelief.
"How the hell did you manage that? I'm above you." Cathica demanded to know.
"I don't know. I just applied on the off chance and they've said yes." Suki responded, smiling happily.
"That's so not fair. I've been applying to Floor five hundred for three years." Cathica said, shaking her head in disgust as she left the room.
"What's Floor five hundred?" Rose asked the Doctor quietly.
"The walls are made of gold." The Doctor replied back darkly, watching the human interaction. He had noticed the same thing as Annamae, humans weren't normally this desperate to get promoted.
"Cathica, I'm going to miss you." Suki was saying to her friend, who was stood with her arms crossed by the lift. She then turned to the Doctor. "Floor five hundred, thank you."
"I didn't do anything." The Doctor responded.
"Well, you're my lucky charm." Suki responded.
"All right. I'll hug anyone." The Doctor agreed.
"He really will." I agreed, releasing his arm.
"All staff are reminded that the sixteen forty break session has been shortened by ten minutes. Thank you." Was announced over the speakers as the Doctor released Suki and offered me his arm again. I smiled slightly, it was starting to become our normal position, I realised.
"Oh, my God, I've got to go. I can't keep them waiting. I'm sorry. Say goodbye to Steve for me. Bye!" Suki said finally entering the lift which closed behind her
"Good riddance." Cathica muttered, shaking her head.
"You're talking like you'll never see her again. She's only going upstairs." I frowned at the women.
"We won't. Once you go to Floor five hundred you never come back." Cathica responded. The Doctor and I shared a look as we walked back through the cafeteria. If no one ever comes back then how do they know the walls are made of gold?
"Have you ever been up there?" the Doctor asked, trying to get as much information as they could before following Suki to floor 500.
"I can't. You need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with promotion. No one gets to five hundred except for the chosen few." Cathica responded, almost bitterly. "Look, they only give us twenty minutes maintenance. Can't you give it a rest?" Cathica asked frustrated as we followed her into the newsroom they had been in before. All the other employees had left, most likely relaxing during their short break.
"But you've never been to another floor? Not even one floor down?" The Doctor asked, hopping onto the broadcast chair while I leaned on it next to him with my arms' crossed. Why hadn't anyone questioned what was going on? They were journalist for heavens sack, normally you can't get them to stop asking questions.
"I went to floor sixteen when I first arrived. That's medical. That's when I got my head done, and then 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 finished suspiciously.
"At last." I shook my head. We hadn't exactly been pulling a very convincing act with the questions we had been asking.
"She's clever." The Doctor agreed with a slight sarcastic cheer in his voice.
"Yeah, well, whatever it is, don't involve me. I don't know anything." Cathica turned away, as though that would stop us from talking to her.
"Haven't you ever asked?" I asked her curiously.
"Well, why would I?" Cathica responded confused.
"You're a journalist." The Doctor pointed out. "Why's all the crew human?"
"What's that got to do with anything?"
"There's no aliens on board. Why?" the Doctor asked again, getting frustrated especially as I suddenly flinched. I hadn't expected to be notified of a death, but I was suddenly being informed that Suki had been killed. I looked at the Doctor worried. He didn't understand, but he in turn grew concerned since he knew what ever had affected me would be in response to the situation that they were in.
"I don't know. No real reason. They're not banned or anything." Cathica responded, missing our silent exchange.
"Then, where are they?" The Doctor persisted.
"I suppose immigrations tightened up. It's had to, what with all the threats."
"What threats?" I questioned, taking over from the Doctor since Cathica was growing frustrated with him.
"I don't know, all of them." she waved her arms in a general all-inclusive way. "Usual stuff. The price of space warp doubled so that kept the visitors away. Oh, and the government on Chavic 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 frowned. The human raise wasn't normally this stupid as to ignore so many little things adding up to the big picture. Someone was suppressing their questioning spirit.
"Doctor, I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it. We see everything." Cathica responded patronisingly.
"I can see better," The Doctor said seriously, crossing his arms as he stared the women down. "This society's the wrong shape, even the technology."
"It's cutting edge." Cathica said affronted.
"It's backwards. There's a great big door in your head. You should've chucked this out years ago." The Doctor said back.
"So, what do you think's going on?" Rose asked, speaking up for the first time since she had returned from seeing to Adam who had disappeared.
"It's not just this space station, it's the whole attitude. It's the way people think. The great and bountiful Human Empire's stunted. Something's holding it back." The Doctor explained.
"And how would you know?" Cathica asked suspiciously.
"Trust me, humanity's been set back about ninety years." The Doctor waved her off, not willing to take the time to explain how he knew that. "When did Satellite Five start broadcasting?"
"Ninety-one years ago." Cathica responded reluctantly.
"There's no such thing as a coincidence." I muttered.
The Doctor jumped off the chair and went in search of an access panel that was out of the way so that they didn't get spotted by any of the workers. When he found one that was suitable, he used the sonic screwdriver to open the doors.
"We are so going to get in trouble. You're not allowed to touch the mainframe. You're going to get told off." Cathica said, hovering worriedly beside us.
"We're not really concerned about getting in trouble." I responded, looking over the Doctor's shoulder at the screen as he started fiddling with wires. The technology was a bit more advanced than what I was used to, but I recognised some of the things it was showing me as I tapped at the screen, looking through the information the Doctor was making available.
"You can't just vandalise the place. Someone's going to notice!" Cathica said angrily as the Doctor started making a mess of the wiring. "This is nothing to do with me. I'm going back to work." Cathica turned to walk away.
"Go on, then. See you!" the Doctor called at her back as he twisted some wires together.
"I can't just leave you, can I?!" Cathica turned around and marched back to us.
"If you want to be useful, get them to turn the heating down. It's boiling. What's wrong with this place? Can't they do something about it?" Rose complained.
"I don't know. We keep asking. Something to do with the turbine." Cathica shook her head, dismissing it as unimportant.
"Something to do with the turbine." The Doctor mocked.
"Well, I don't know!"
"Exactly. I give up on you, Cathica. Now, Rose. Look at Rose. Rose is asking the right kind of question." The Doctor waved at the blond.
"Oh, thank you." Rose smiled pleased at being complemented by the Doctor.
"Why is it so hot?" The Doctor said as I stepped aside slightly to allow him to bring up a plan of the satellite and then overlaying the ventilation system.
"One minutes you're worried about the Empire and the next it's the central heating!"
"Never underestimate plumbing. Plumbing's very important." The Doctor said frowning at the screen.
"That's not good." I muttered, noticing how the red lines indicating heat were being channelled down from the top floor which was blue indicating cold. What looked like the energy readings were off the charts as well.
"This is ridiculous. You've got access to the computer's core. You can look at the archives, the news, the stock exchange and you're looking at pipes?" Cathica asked frustrated as The Doctor turned the screen so the others could see.
"But there's something wrong." The Doctor pointed out, trying to get her thinking. Get her noticing things.
"I suppose." Cathica muttered as she actually looked at the screen.
"Why, what is it?" Rose asked, looking at the screen but not understanding what it was showing her.
"The ventilation system. Cooling ducts, ice filters, all working flat out channelling massive amounts of heat down." Cathica responded.
"All the way from the top." The Doctor agreed with a pleased nod.
"Floor five hundred." Rose realised.
"Something's generating a lot of heat, something that needs to be kept cool." I added.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm missing out on a party. It's all going on upstairs. Fancy a trip?" Rose asked, looking at the Doctor with a smile.
"You can't. You need a key." Cathica told them immediately.
"Keys are just codes, and I've got the codes right here." The Doctor hit a few things on the screen and a code appeared. "Here we go. Override two one five point nine."
"How come it's given you the code?" Cathica asked suspiciously. It had taken him nearly ten minutes to bring up the plumbing schematics but it had taken him less than one to get the lift code which was heavily guarded.
"Someone up there likes me." the Doctor said, looking to the security camera that was overlooking their position.
"Or, someone really doesn't like you." I responded quietly as we headed to the lift.
"Oh, you know me." the Doctor smirked back.
"They're generally the same thing." I agreed.
"Come on. Come with us." Rose asked Cathica while they all waited in the lift.
"No way." Cathica said, stepping back away from the lift.
"Bye!" The Doctor waved as he released the hold button on the lift.
"Well, don't mention my name. When you get in trouble, just don't involve me." Cathica said adamantly as she walked away.
"That's her gone. Adam's given up. Looks like it's just you two and me." The Doctor said with a smile.
"Yeah." Rose agreed with a smile.
"Going up." I said, pressing button 500.
When the doors opened at the top the Doctor looked around hesitantly. "The walls are not made of gold. You should go back downstairs." The Doctor looked to Rose, concerned about her. She hadn't proved herself capable of looking after herself in a dangerous situation and he would rather not needlessly endanger Annamae's sister. He was trying to be better about the safety of those who travelled with him.
"Tough." Rose said marching into the ice-covered floor. After a bit of wondering they came across a set of metal stairs that led to what appeared to be a control deck.
"I started without you." A very pale man said, looking at the monitors in front of him. "This is fascinating. Satellite Five contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but you three, you don't exist. Not a trace. No birth, no job, not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint?"
"Suki. Suki! Hello?" Rose darted forward to where Suki's corpse was working at one of the screens. There were other corpses there as well, most likely people who had done something this man disagreed with. "Can you hear me? Suki? What have you done to her?"
"She's dead." I answered sadly instead of waiting for the pale man to speak.
"She's working." Rose looked back at us horrified.
"They've all got chips in their head, and the chips keep going, like puppets." The Doctor explained.
"Oh! You're full of information. But it's only fair we get some information back, because apparently, you're no one. It's so rare not to know something. Who are you?" the man demanded through his politician's smile.
"It doesn't matter, because we're off. Nice to meet you. Come on." The Doctor turned to leave, but Suki grabbed Rose and four zombie's came to secure the Doctor and me. This was the second time since meeting the Doctor that they were dealing with animated corpses – I really hoped that it wouldn't become a common occurrence since it sent my senses haywire.
"Tell me who you are." The man demanded.
"Since that information's keeping us alive, I'm hardly going to say, am I." The Doctor said, struggling with the zombies holding them as they got some weird handcuff things that stopped the three off us from moving.
"Well, perhaps my Editor in Chief can convince you otherwise." The man said, smiling away.
"And who's that?" the Doctor asked.
"It may interest you to know that this is not the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. In fact, it's not actually human at all. It's merely a place where humans happen to live." The man said, but was interrupted by snarling. Hesitantly, I looked around the room before looking up, and staring horrified at the ceiling. "Yeah. Yeah, sorry. It's a place where humans are allowed to live by kind permission of my client." Clicking his fingers, he pointed up.
"What is that?" Rose asked, looking at the teeth of the blob of a beast above them.
"You mean that thing's in charge of Satellite Five?" The Doctor demanded, looking back at the human. I also tore my eyes from the ceiling to look at him.
"That thing, as you put it, is in charge of the human race. For almost a hundred years, mankind has been shaped and guided, its knowledge and ambition strictly controlled by broadcast news, edited by my superior, your master, and humanity's guiding light, the mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. I call him Max." The man smiled at us serenely.
"That's nice." I said sarcastically.
"Create a climate of fear and it's easy to keep the borders closed. It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilise an economy, invent an enemy, and change a vote." The man continued to explain how he had enslaved the human race. The stereotypical villain gloating about his superiority. I thought I had given that up with Voldemort.
"So, all the people on Earth are like slaves." Rose spat in disgust.
"Well, now, there's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved?"
"Yes." The Doctor and I answered bluntly.
"Oh. I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm going to get? Yes?"
"Yes." We answered together again, not in the mood to deal with this. This man had changed the entirety of human history, set it back decades.
"You're no fun." The man pouted.
"Let me out of these manacles. You'll find out how much fun I am." The Doctor said, violently wrenching his hands forward.
"Oh, he's tough, isn't he? But, come on. Isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it, just a little bit." The man said, holding his fingers up to show a small gap between them.
"How did you hide an operation on this scale?" I asked, "Galactic Empire, earth at the centre. Someone would have noticed the change."
"From time to time, someone notices, but the computer chip system allows me to see inside their brains. I can see the smallest doubt and crush it. Then they just carry on, living their life, strutting about downstairs and all over the surface of the Earth like they're so individual, when of course, they're not. They're just cattle. In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed a thing."
As the man was talking the Doctor and I noticed Cathica moving in the shadows behind the editor.
"Why do you follow the Jagrafess's orders? You're human, you've helped suppress your own race, why?" I demanded to know while the Doctor thought up a plan to get them out of this situation and stop the bad guy.
"Yeah, well, simply being human doesn't pay very well." The man said, shrugging his shoulders.
"But you couldn't have done this all on your own." Rose said, not understanding how all this could have been done for greed.
"No. I represent a consortium of banks. Money prefers a long-term investment. Also, the Jagrafess needed a little hand to install himself."
"No wonder, a creature that size. What's his life span?" the Doctor asked, finally having come up with a way of ending the segregation of the human race.
"Three thousand years."
"That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat. That's why Satellite Five's so hot. You pump it out of the creature, channel it downstairs. Jagrafess stays cool, it stays alive. Satellite Five is one great big life support system." The Doctor spat, looking to Cathica and not the man, trying to get through to her without alerting anyone else to her presence.
"But that's why you're so dangerous. Knowledge is power, but you remain unknown. Who are you?" the man snapped his fingers and electricity started flowing through our hand cuffs. I gritted my teeth against the pain while Rose cried out.
"Leave them alone. I'm the Doctor, they're Anna and Rose Tyler. We're nothing, we're just wandering." The Doctor shouted, hoping to stop the electricity from flowing through the manacles. The man must have noticed the way that the Doctor was focus mostly on me, because the electricity stopped flowing through Rose's manacles but the electricity through my own increased.
"Tell me who you are!" The man shouted, demanding to know.
"I just said!" the Doctor shouted back, panic flowing through him as Annamae's eyes closed and she tensed against the pain. She may have an advanced healing system, but she was still human with a human heart. Too much electricity and her heart could give out.
"ANNA! Stop it!" Rose shouted, trying to pull herself free of her restraints to help.
"Yes, but who do you work for? Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly …" he stopped abruptly as the Jagrafress growled. The electricity through my manacles stopped and I sagged slightly against the restraints.
"Time Lord." the man announced.
"What?" The Doctor asked shocked.
"Oh, yes. The last of the Time Lords in his travelling machine. Oh, with his little human girls from long ago."
"You don't know what you're talking about." The Doctor said, concerned. How the hell had he gotten that information?
"Time travel." the man said smugly.
"Someone's been telling you lies." The Doctor gritted out.
"Young master Adam Mitchell?" the man said pointing to a screen which showed Adam in a broadcasting chair and with a door in his head.
"Oh, my God. His head!" Rose breathed in horror, while I started tugging at my restraints. The electricity seemed to have weakened them, since the manacles moved against my resistance. However, the tremors through my body from the electricity was weakening my muscle's slightly making it harder to exploit this weakness. Fortunately, the aftershocks weren't as bad as the tremors from the cruciartus curse, even if this body hadn't experienced that pain – the mind and soul still remembered.
"What the hell's he done? What the hell's he gone and done? They're reading his mind. He's telling them everything." The Doctor shouted, struggling futilely against his restraints.
"And through him, I know everything about you. Every piece of information in his head is now mine. And you have infinite knowledge, Doctor. The Human Empire is tiny compared to what you've seen in your T… A… R… D… I… S... TARDIS."
"Well, you'll never get your hands on it. I'll die first." The Doctor spat out.
"Die all you like. I don't need you. I've got the key." He pointed back to the screen where my TARDIS key rose from Adam's pocket.
"ROSE!" I shouted frustrated. I had given her that key before we left earth so she could go and talk with the Doctor. I hadn't thought to get it back from her, and now I was regretting that.
"You and your boyfriends!" the Doctor agreed, equally as annoyed. He was starting to regret allowing the kid along. He'd had teenagers on board his TARDIS before who had shown a little more common sense then Rose Tyler had presently. All of his companions made mistakes, they were still human after all, but none had made as many errors as Rose in such a short space of time – touching a potentially hostile alien and giving the Tardis key to someone they barely knew were both proving to be extremely deadly decisions. Hopefully, with a little bit of time, Rose was start showing the true colours that he could see hiding behind this exterior that seemed to have been cultivated in the year she didn't have her sister there to guide her (because he very much doubted that these thoughtless actions would have occurred in the time that Annamae was directly associated with the girl for a long period of time).
"Today, we are the headlines. We can rewrite history. We could prevent mankind from ever developing."
"And no one's going to stop you because you've bred a human race that doesn't bother to ask questions. Stupid little slaves, believing every lie. They'll just trot right into the slaughter house if they're told it's made of gold." The Doctor said, taking a direct jab at Cathica who straightened up with determination and left their line of sight.
"What's happening?" The man said only a few moments later, looking around as an alert sounded. On the screen, the stream of information stopped leaving Adam and the key fell to the floor.
"Someone's disengaged the safety. Who's that?" the man demanded as another screen came up, showing Cathica in a rundown editor's chair. She was still on floor five hundred.
"It's Cathica." Rose breathed in shock.
"And she's thinking. She's using what she knows." The Doctor said smiling proudly, just as I managed to pull the manacles off. Moving to the Doctor, I dug in his inside pocket until I grabbed the sonic screwdriver.
"Terminate her access." The man ordered the corpses, ignoring me since Cathica was the greater threat.
"Everything I told her about Satellite Five. The pipes, the filters, she's reversing it. Look at that." The Doctor looked around at the melting ice, as I turned the sonic screwdriver on. I really hoped I had it on the right setting, because I very much doubted that I had time to fiddle with it.
"I said, terminate. Burn out her mind." The man said, placing his hand over Suki's but it was too late. The console exploded and the dead operators collapsed. The Doctor's manacles opened and I moved over to Rose to free her as well.
"She's venting the heat up here. The Jagrafess needs to stay cool and now it's sitting on top of a volcano." The Doctor said smiling, as he looked around the room.
"Yes, I'm trying, sir, but I don't know how she did it." the man said, looking hesitantly up at the ceiling were the Jagrafess was thrashing and growling. "It's impossible. A member of staff with an idea."
"Oi, mate, want to bank on a certainty? Massive heat in a massive body, massive bang. See you in the headlines!" the Doctor said, grabbing mine and Rose's hands and running from the room to get Cathica and retreat to the lower halls where it was safer.
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"We're just going to go. I hate tidying up. Too many questions. You'll manage." The Doctor told Cathica who was sat on one of the tables. The people of satellite five were going around helping the injured, and they had contacted Earth, letting them know what had happened. They were sending the army to take statements and deal with the mess that had been caused.
"You'll have to stay and explain it. No one's going to believe me." Cathica said panicking.
"Oh, they might start believing a lot of things now. The human race should accelerate. All back to normal." The Doctor smiled, pleased.
"What about your friend?" Cathica asked, looking to Adam who was stood hesitantly by the TARDIS.
"He's not my friend." The Doctor said darkly, marching towards Adam. I didn't say anything, simply following him. Adam had endangered their lives, attempted to change the cause of human history and had acted in a manner which was inherently selfish. Although Rose was also at fault for this incident, it was no more than the Doctor was for allowing the boy to come along – Rose thought she was being kind by giving Adam the key so he could hide out in the safety of the TARDIs.
"Now, don't…" Rose said hesitantly, but the Doctor ignored her.
"I'm all right now. Much better. And I've got the key. Look, it's… It all worked out for the best, didn't it? You know, it's not actually my fault, because you were in charge." The Doctor handed me the key and pushed Adam inside the TARDIS.
Once everyone was inside, I closed the door and leaned against it. The Doctor wasn't going to harm Adam, but he was furious with what the kid had nearly done. He had given him a second chance, and he had gone and blown it.
It took the Doctor only a minute to fly the TARDIS to its destination. I opened the door and allowed the Doctor to push Adam out.
"It's my house. I'm home! Oh, my God, I'm home! Blimey. I thought you were going to chuck me out of an airlock." Adam said, laughing hesitantly.
"Is there something else you want to tell me?" The Doctor asked, leaning back against the TARDIS. Rose had entered the living room we had landed in, while I stayed in the TARDIS doorway with my arms crossed.
"No. What do you mean?" Adam asked shiftily. The Doctor raised an eyebrow and pointed his sonic screwdriver at the answering machine, making it blow up.
"The archive of Satellite Five. One second of that message could've changed the world." The Doctor shook his head and turned to enter the TARDIS. "That's it, then. See you."
"How do you mean, see you?" Adam asked, looking desperately at the Doctor.
"As in goodbye." The Doctor said.
"But what about me? You can't just go. I've got my head. I've got a chip type two. My head opens." Adam waved at his forehead.
"What, like this?" the Doctor asked innocently, clicking his fingers.
"Don't." Adam snapped, clicking his fingers to close the door.
"Don't do what?" the Doctor responded, clicking his fingers again.
"Stop it!"
"All right now, Doctor, that's enough. Stop it." Rose intervened before the Doctor could open the door again.
"Thank you." Adam sighed.
Rose responded by clicking her fingers.
"Oi!" Adam said indignantly.
"Sorry, I couldn't resist." Rose giggled.
"The whole of history could have changed because of you." The Doctor accused, explaining why he was so angry to the ignorant boy.
"I just wanted to help." Adam responded.
"You were helping yourself." I corrected.
"And I'm sorry. I've said I'm sorry, and I am, I really am, but you can't just leave me like this."
"Yes, I can; 'cause if you show that head to anyone, they'll dissect you in seconds. You'll have to live a very quiet life. Keep out of trouble. Be average, unseen. Good luck." The Doctor responded.
"But I want to come with you." Adam whined.
"I only take the best. I've got Annamae and Rose." The Doctor responded, entering the TARDIS with me. Rose waited a moment longer before entering the TARDIS with them and the Doctor left.