~revised~
Chapter XXIV
Mira
"Ms Rhodan, to the basement please," the Doctor said to her and pointed at the buttons after they had entered the lift. She turned her head to him and met Rose's glance whilst doing so. The other woman looked equally sceptically. "The sixties have gotten a bit to your head, hm?" she said to him, but pressed the button for the basement anyway.
"As long as he is not expecting us to bring him tea...," Rose said.
"Why would I do that?" the Doctor asked and finally let go of them both. Mira watched him. She couldn't say if he was being serious or if it had just been a rhetorical question.
"What do you think is going on here?" She asked as the lift went down. She was still a bit beside herself, although the new problems at hand made it a bit better. Something she could focus on at least.
"Don't know. Could be anything," the Doctor said and eyed her thoughtfully. If he would just stop that, she thought for the umpteenth time.
"Anyway, I highly doubt that they'll get their control room back together again within two days, even if they get their energy problems fixed," she replied as the doors opened. In front of her was a long corridor, dimly lit by safety lights at the walls. The floor was naked concrete, same for the walls. It was warmer than she would have expected it down here.
"But they did launch the rocket on the 16th," Rose said as she and the Doctor left the lift behind her. "I remember it. So it already happened, didn't it? I mean, if they do it later, I would remember that instead of the 16th?"
"Well, if time was linear, you would be right," the Doctor answered. "But it isn't. Time can be rewritten, and so can your memories."
"My memories would change?"
"Yes. Slowly, but they would. It's not static just because it's in your past, Rose. It's a bit like some wibbily wobbly, timey wimey sort of thingy," he explained and pulled out his Sonic.
"Timey wimey? Really?" Mira turned to face him. "From you of all people I would have expected a bit more of a scientific explanation."
"Do you have one?" Rose asked her, obviously not quite satisfied herself.
Mira looked at her. Rose still hadn't given up, she just changed her tactics. Nevertheless, playing nice was way better than being openly aggressive. "No, that's why I would've loved to hear his. I can only say that it sounds plausible that our memories could change. The past isn't fixed, as I had always guessed, even before we had proven it in my universe . There are these paradox-things, like what will happen if you go back in time to do something which would change your present, giving you no reason to go back. Well, I guess you have similar things here, haven't you? Or what would happen if you kill your ancestors."
"Could you actually do that?"
"I guess so. At least once."
"But how? You would have never been born."
"Well, you have, at least this one time to go back. Maybe you just enter another time-stream by killing your ancestor. Or, more likely, you just cease to exist. Besides, there is no strict principle of cause and effect when it comes to time. Plus, I don't think it's that easy to kill some of your ancestors. Or do anything else like that which would cause a massive change. I think that events in time equal energy. And if you want to change an event, you need to put in energy, or effort, call it whatever you like. More than there's stored in it. Probably a bit like momentum and inertia? So I believe that time isn't that easy to change as some may think. Some events can't be changed at all, because the amount of energy you need would be so great that probably the universe itself would just implode. But as said, that's merely personal belief, I don't have any hard prove for that." She peered over to the Doctor, who glanced at her with a strange look in his dark, alien eyes, and continued, "Most likely I'm just embarrassing myself with my tiny little human brain right now."
"Tiny little human brain? Did he say that?" Rose asked as she followed Mira´s eyes.
"Yes, he did."
"Yeah, he really likes to insult other species," Rose chuckled.
"Oi! That was just stating facts. Not insulting," the Doctor said and looked from Rose to Mira and back before he started scanning with his Sonic.
Mira took a closer look herself now. Beneath the ceiling were water pipes and power lines, all quite neat. She could hear the dribbling sound of water in the plastic pipes and a distant, low frequent vibration of some heavy generator or something like that. They walked past several doors, the Doctor pointing the Sonic at them and even opening a few. There were mostly storage rooms behind them. They had walked for almost five minutes and Mira wasn't quite sure if they were still below the Control Center. The corridor had made some turns, but they could also be under some of the other buildings by now, though she would have bet her money on the Control Center.
"Don't you think it's weird that no-one is down here? I mean, the whole building is crawling with people trying to fix the electrics, but down here there's literally no-one," she finally noticed. It was true. It was, besides the noises of the installations, absolutely quiet down here. The air was strange, too warm and humid for a basement. It was supposed to be either warm and dry, or cold and damp. But not sticky like that. And it was getting worse.
"Maybe they've ruled out everything down here?" the Doctor answered, sounding not quite convinced.
"But that's where normally all the electric installations go into the buil-" Before she could finish the sentence, something caught her attention. At first she thought someone had whispered into her ear, but immediately after that she could feel the pressure on her mind. Something trying to enter it, taking control over it.
"Do you feel that?" she asked the Doctor and went a few steps further into the corridor. The feeling got stronger, although it was still easy for her to fight it. A nice change that her psychic abilities were obviously working against something after having no effect on the TARDIS.
"What?"
She looked at him. He didn't seem to be affected, but he should feel it, shouldn't he?
"This presence. It's alien and it's trying to influence me. Don't know by now what it wants, but..." She turned around because she couldn't hear Rose's steps anymore. The Doctor followed her glance, and they could see Rose standing in the corridor, just at the same spot where she had felt the presence first. Rose was staring into space with empty eyes, frozen to the spot.
"Rose?" Mira asked quietly.
The Doctor walked over to her quickly, but didn't touch her. Instead he just tried to catch her look.
"Rose?" he asked now himself in a gentle tone. Mira walked back to him. Rose clearly was completely under the influence of whatever was further down the corridor. Mira lifted her arm and was about to grab Roses upper arm to try to shake her out of it, but the Doctor intercepted and shook his head.
"Let's find out what this is about." He took Rose by the shoulders, moved her around and went a few steps back to where they came from. Suddenly there was life again in Rose's eyes and she turned to the Doctor with a smile on her face. "So, are we done down here now?"
"Don't know," the Doctor said and observed her. "Did we find anything?"
"No."
"Sure?"
"Yes. We looked everywhere, all's fine."
Mira and the Doctor looked at each other, making Rose ask in confusion, "Why? What's going on?"
"Rose, well... There's obviously something," Mira said to her, "That can influence people. Humans at least."
"How do you know?"
"You've just been influenced," the Doctor told her. "Now you wait here for... say, about ten minutes. If we haven't returned by then, go up and... Well, get help would be a bit difficult I'm afraid. Mira, you'll wait here with her."
"No I won't."
"Yes you will."
"No. It doesn't influence me, so I won't wait here. End of topic. You can wait if you want." Actually, it would be better if one of them would stay here, but on the other hand, he would run into the same trap or danger if he would follow her after ten minutes. Or she would, if she was following him, whoever was about to stay behind and wait. Obviously, ordinary humans couldn't get closer. Meaning they had to be careful. The Doctor stared at her for a moment, before walking away into the corridor. "Fine! But I did warn you!" he said. She hurried to follow him. They walked another fifty yards, the pressure against her mind constantly growing stronger, but it was still weak enough for her to handle. She didn't even need to actually concentrate on it, her brain was almost doing it on its own. After walking around a corner they stood in front of a white metal door, just as the fire protection doors in basements looked at this time.
The Doctor tried the handle, but it was locked. No hindrance for his Sonic, and seconds later the door was open.
"What?" she said, because he had suddenly stopped right in the middle of the door frame, blocking it almost completely.
"A plantation..."
"What?!" She could see that it was brighter in the room behind the door than in the corridor, but that was basically it.
"I said that's a..."
"Got that. Would you just move?" she poked him with her finger in the back. He took a slow step into the room after he gave it a last sweep with his Sonic, and finally she could see for herself.
"Oh hell. And there I thought they were only growing marijuana in their basements at this time..."
"Yeah. Seems they confused psychoactive plants with psychic plants, hm?" he said. Mira looked around. If she had first thought it were several plants, now she could see it was basically one. It seemed to grow right through the floor, arm-thick roots growing through cracks in it. The plant itself had huge, heart-shaped, leathery looking leaves of a dark green. It grew all the way up to the ceiling, some of its branches vanishing through cracks in the wall. The air in here was even more hot and humid, thanks to a lot of floodlights and leaks in the water pipes. It was a wonder that there hadn't be a short circuit with all that water, she thought. Some of the branches even wrenched around the power lines itself, seemingly being attached directly to them.
"Seems we found the source for all their problems," the Doctor said quietly.
"You still don't feel anything?" she asked.
"A bit maybe now, but it seems to go more for humans," he said and went closer to the gigantic plant.
"Stop!" she yelled, but it was too late. He touched one of its leaves before Mira could hold him back. Was he somehow into electric shocks? Fortunately, nothing happened. "Don't you see it's attached to the power lines? And with all the water here..."
"Yeah, saw it."
Suddenly a rattling through the whole bush-like thing, as if it was shaking its leaves under the touch. But besides that, nothing else happened. Maybe the psychic presence brushed a bit harder against her mind.
"Does it say something?" the Doctor asked, still examining the plant.
"Not really. Doesn't seem to be an actual telepath, more some sort of hypnosis." But maybe if she would let this thing finally get into her mind, they would get some answers...
Doctor
"That's a shame," he said as he observed the plant further, gently tugging on one of the leaves. He could almost feel some resistance from the branch itself as if pulling the other way. Of course he didn't pluck it. The whole plant had wired itself into the power supply system and also got heat and light from the floodlights. Most likely it had manipulated the humans here somehow to bring these things here. How long had it been here? Where did it come from? And, most of all, what did it want? If anything at all...
"Maybe we can get one of the workers in here, if the plant is able to manipulate them, maybe it can communicate through them...," he said and turned around to Mira.
"Oh, no need for that," she whispered, her eyes closed.
"Mira? What are you doing? No, no, no! Stop it!" He rushed over to her, took her by the shoulders and as he was about to shake her out of it, her eyes shot open again. He immediately let go of her and took a step back. Her pupils were so wide now that her eye colour had changed to black. He hadn't seen something like that on Rose earlier in the corridor, she had looked rather normal, only a bit absent.
"What have you done to her? Leave her! Now!"
"Why? This one is different... It invited me. I'm not leaving," she said quietly and looked down at herself. "It is old. Not as old as I am, but so much older than the others."
"What!? Come on, you're not growing here for over fifteen-hundred years!"
"No," she said and walked slowly around him. She even moved a bit different now, he noticed, in a sneaky and hesitant way. "You also are different. No decent leaves though as well," she added as she had stopped behind his back and suddenly ruffled with one hand through his hair.
"Oi!" he spun around, covered his head with his hands and smoothed his hair. "That's hair! And it's decent! Leave it. And leave her!"
"No. Who are you? You didn't grow here."
"I'm a Timelord."
"Aaaaah," she said, observing him, her head tilted to the side. "There are rumours about your kind, almost as old as the universe."
He jumped backwards as she went for his hair again, holding out one arm to keep her out of reach. "Would you mind stopping that?" he whined.
"You started pulling on my leaves! Besides, it feels... funny. The connection with the others wasn't strong enough to feel them touching something."
"What do you know about the universe?" he asked, carefully keeping some distance between him and her as she was pacing through the room.
"A lot. Passed on through generations. We all now what our ancestors knew. Every generation adds to it. Just like I will." She pointed at the plant and then gently thouched one of the leaves that was hanging from a branch on the ceiling.
"What do you want here? Where do you come from?"
"Oh, so many questions this one has."
"And you will answer them!"
"What if I don't?"
"Well, plants are pretty much immobile, aren't they? You're no exception!"
"You're threatening me?"
He looked at the plant as he heard a sliding noise. Some of the roots were slowly creeping in his direction. Emphasis on slowly. Very slowly.
"That's all you can do? Maybe you will get me, say, in the next hour? If I don't move."
"I have many ways of defending myself. And you don't forget that I still have her. She's quite attached to you. I wonder if this feeling is mutual." Suddenly her arm shot up and he instinctively closed his eyes in expectation of the slap that certainly was about to follow. It didn't happen, instead he felt her softly stroking over his left sideburn with her fingertips. He instantly opened his eyes again, only to see that it was still the plant making her do that. He took her hand in his hands and moved her arm away from his face. "Just tell me what you want. Maybe I can help you," he said and let go of her.
"I don't need help. My plan is almost complete. All I need is their little spaceship to spread my children over their world."
"Well, then maybe you should plug yourself out of their power supply to begin with. You're delaying the start."
"You're lying!"
"No. Look into her mind if you don't trust me!"
She remained silent for a moment, glancing into space, her eyes still almost black in the bright light.
"It's true. I will consider it. My time has almost come anyway."
"Well then, now leave her!"
"No. This one is rather useful. Different than the others. All these senses..."
"Leave her. Now!" he yelled and stepped right in front of her, looking directly into her eyes.
"No, I...," she started to answer, but then her eyes rolled up and her eyelids flickered. She took a step forward to find her balance again and he quickly grabbed her arms to support her. But there was no need for that, not even a second later she was standing safely on her feet and looked at him, her eyes back to normal again.
"You alright?" he asked, still holding her.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered, freeing herself from his grip and then turning her head to the plant.
"Why did she let go of you?"
"It. Or he and she. It's both, monoecious is the correct botanical term, I think. And it didn't. I kicked it out, because I now know everything I wanted to."
"Yeah, good for you that you could kick it out again," he said, almost angry now. "And there I thought Rose is risk-friendly!"
"Oh come on. I know what I'm doing. I now how strong I am and I can sense its strength. Do you really think it's the first time I'm doing something like this?"
"What, sharing your mind and body with the consciousness of a plant?"
"Well... Actually.. I guess it's the first time with a plant," she said and scratched her head thoughtfully. "But communicating with someone like that indeed happens rather frequently. Mutant-Corps, remember? That's my job. Besides, you would have done just the same, wouldn't you? Your loss that it's most likely to weak to get into your mind."
He looked at her as he recalled what the plant had just told him. What had it meant with she was attached to him? Quite attached?
"So, I guess the plant knows now everything about us as well?"
"Um.. No. Had it all under control. Well, at least the important things. I had to tell it something, otherwise it would have gotten suspicious."
"Under control? Well, if you say so... You could have stopped it from ruffling my hair!" He wasn't sure if he could trust her with this, even though, after everything he had seen from her so far, she would tell him if there was anything important. Anything regarding the problems with the launch of Apollo 11.
"What? Did it do that? Sorry. I had to find out a few things, the mind of a plant is quite interesting." She grinned at him. "Let's get out of here," she added and headed for the door. He followed her, and soon later they were standing in the corridor with Rose again.
"What did you find?" she asked him.
"A plant."
"A plant?"
"Yeah, big one. Intelligent, psychic, alien plant," he said.
"Let's get a bit further away from it," Mira urged. "There's something more."
There wasn't much more left to do for them here, so they headed back to the lift. As they had made half of the way, Mira continued. "It wants to blow up the rocket."
"What!? I thought it needs it for its children!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah. That's the plan, I saw it in its mind. Its seeds are in some state of hibernation or something like that. It needs heat, a lot of it, to wake them up. When the rocket is high enough, it will explode and spread them into the atmosphere, so they will rain down slowly. Call me paranoid, but it almost looks like an invasion to me."
"But how?" Rose asked.
"It has influenced some of the technicians. Obviously some are more susceptible and it lasts even if their out of its reach. It got them to prepare the rocket somehow. Unfortunately, I couldn't see exactly what they have done. I doubt the plant actually knows it. We have to stop it. And not just because of the damage it will do to the ecosystem. With its way to influence and possess people, it can get the whole planet under control, with everyone serving it."
"Wonder how it got here in the first place," he said, shoving his hand through his hair.
"Sorry, I concentrated on its plans, no time to figure that out."
"Well," he said as they had reached the lift. "I don't think telling them that they're growing an alien plant in their cellar would be wise. Would only wreak havoc. Besides, no matter what it's about to do, and if it's hostile or not, it doesn't deserve to be brought to some laboratory for dissection. First priority is to find out what they have done to the rocket and fix it."
bored411, 10th Squad 3rd Seat: Thanks for reviewing :-)
