Jasmine sipped cautiously at her unidentifiable drink. The food, essentially a tasteless lump of grey dough, she left alone. Her new friend Captain Kerrigan ("call me Sam") had claimed it was avocado flavour, but never having seen an avocado she was unable to judge this.
They were alone at a table in the corner of a deserted cafeteria just along the corridor from the lab, its large round windows giving access to what passed in this godforsaken place for a view. It was the same windswept expanse of brown dust Jasmine had seen before.
"I know, I know," said Kerrigan with an apologetic grin. "It's not pretty. But when they've been hemmed up inside a lab all day, crouching over some unidentifiable little scientific gizmo, they're grateful for any glimpse of sunlight." He shook his head. "Me, I'm glad I'm just a soldier."
Jasmine smiled back. His self-deprecating manner was a novelty to her. The few men she had known in her life had all tried to give the impression of being enormously knowledgeable and self-confident.
"You must have drawn the short straw to get sent here."
"Oh, yes," he admitted ruefully. "But it's only a two year posting, and if Strole pulls it off like he says he can it'll be promotions all round. I guess I'll look back on this and laugh when I'm in my comfy office back on Earth."
"What is it Strole says he can do?"
He raised his eyebrows.
"Woah. I'm the one who's supposed to be pumping you for information."
"What?"
"Ah." He frowned. "Now that came out a little more sinister than I intended. Okay, cards on the table, Strole doesn't really trust anyone so he tipped me the wink to go and chat to you. Guess he's hoping I'll find out something about this Doctor character before he spends the entire research budget hiring him." He looked anxious, almost flinching back as if afraid of what her reaction might be. "I was sort of hoping we might get that part out of the way early on and then I could just treat you to lunch."
Jasmine gave him a frosty look, mostly because she was trying to suppress the laughter bubbling up inside her at the young officer's tightly wound tension while he awaited her response.
"You might as well not have bothered," she said. "I don't know anything about the Doctor, I only met him the day before yesterday. He's a scientist, he travels around exploring, and I think he knows more or less everything."
"He certainly seems to know his stuff. They've been messing about with that gravity nil field thing, whatever he called it, for three weeks now. Nobody had a clue what it was for."
"So perhaps Mr Strole can't pull it off after all? Whatever it is."
He drew breath to reply, then grinned.
"Oh, you're doing it again. Still, I suppose I owe you one in return. Mr Strole found this place. There's this great treasure trove of abandoned alien technology. Years ahead of us. Centuries, probably. If the scientists can figure out how it works then it could change our whole way of life. That's why there are ships coming in every day with new staff, new equipment. There's nearly a thousand people working here now."
"And still no results?"
He waved this away.
"Strole will get it done. He has a few more tricks up his sleeve yet, believe me. But let's call it quits now and talk about something else. My problem is, all the women here are scientists. Try talking to them and they always end up bringing the conversation back to quantum mechanics."
"Quantum..." This was a phrase new to Jasmine. "... what?"
Kerrigan's look of yearning made him look on the verge of tears.
"You don't know how I've dreamt of hearing a girl say that." He leaned forward across the table. "Tell me, you and the Doctor... I mean, in the lab before, he didn't seem very..."
He cast about for the right word. Jasmine helped him out.
"Nice?"
"That's it."
Jasmine looked away, out through the window.
"No." Not for the first time, she felt a pang of regret for the kindly old gentleman the Doctor had been. "He's changed."
"So..."
"But he helped me," Jasmine spoke up, too quickly. "When we first met, he helped me."
"Are you going to follow him around for the rest of your life because of that?"
She looked round sharply and Kerrigan, fearing he had overreached himself, sat back apologetically. But she sighed.
"Things were confusing. He asked me to go with him. I couldn't think what else to do."
His brow furrowed in thought for a moment, and he began to speak carefully:
"Well..."
There was a hiss of sliding doors as the Doctor strode into the room.
"There you are," he said briskly. "Now... oh." Seemingly it was only at this point that he noticed Kerrigan. He didn't look particularly pleased to see him. "I see you're here too."
"Er, yes." Kerrigan fidgeted in the awkward silence that followed like a boy caught in the gaze of a schoolmaster. "Perhaps... Perhaps I'd better be getting on." He stood, then reached out to touch Jasmine lightly on the hand. "See you later, Jasmine."
Jasmine watched him go. The Doctor did likewise, standing with arms folded and turning his head to follow his progress even as the young man had to pass within a foot of him to get to the door.
"What was he up to?" he asked, the moment Kerrigan was gone. Jasmine looked up innocently.
"Your new employer, Mr Strole, wanted him to ask me who you were."
"Did he now?" The Doctor walked over to sit opposite her in Kerrigan's vacated seat. "I'm starting to think my employer, as you call him, is slightly brighter than he looks."
"What's going on, Doctor? Why are you offering to work for these people? You're not really going to stay here and help them with these alien machines are you?"
"Hardly. Very unhealthy for any civilisation to gain access to new technologies without having to work for them. They end up with all kinds of new powers they haven't learned to control. Fortunately these artefacts they've found are far beyond anything Earth can come up with at this point. They'll never figure them out."
"Well, in that case, surely there's no problem? We can just slip off back to the Tardis and leave."
"Yes. Or rather, no."
"Oh."
"You see there's more to this than just digging up alien machinery out of the sand. Strole's up to something."
"How do you know?"
"I've met a lot of people in my time who were up to something, Jasmine. After a while you get to know the look."
"Hm." Jasmine digested this. "So you're going to pretend to be working for him while you find out what it is he's up to."
The Doctor's face cleared, momentarily giving him the look of a teacher pleased with a promising pupil.
"Spot on." He stood. "And now I'm supposed to go and chat to some of his top people about the direction their research should be taking. I'll give them a few little snippets. This is what we'll refer to as the trust-gaining phase of the operation."
"Can I help?" she called after him as he made for the exit.
"Possibly." He turned and kept backing away as the door slid open behind him. "Keep your eyes open. Talk to people. Smile. As long as we don't know what we're looking for everything's worth checking."
The door hissed shut and Jasmine was left alone. Talk to people, he'd said. With a thousand to choose from that shouldn't be too difficult, but where to start? She gazed thoughtfully out of the window and saw something that made her sit up straight.
Strole. And a group of guards. They were clustered round one of the black metal six wheeled vehicles she had seen trundling round the streets, but this one was outside the base, parked so its nose pointed out into the wilderness beyond.
Jasmine thought quickly. Two men were still loading cases of equipment aboard, and from the way Strole and the others were standing around it didn't look as if they were expecting to get started in the next few seconds. She had time. She jumped up and sprinted from the room.
When Strole's vehicle got under way a couple of minutes later it was carrying an extra passenger. The Doctor had been right, Jasmine reflected as she clung to the back. These "trainers" did have their uses.
They were alone at a table in the corner of a deserted cafeteria just along the corridor from the lab, its large round windows giving access to what passed in this godforsaken place for a view. It was the same windswept expanse of brown dust Jasmine had seen before.
"I know, I know," said Kerrigan with an apologetic grin. "It's not pretty. But when they've been hemmed up inside a lab all day, crouching over some unidentifiable little scientific gizmo, they're grateful for any glimpse of sunlight." He shook his head. "Me, I'm glad I'm just a soldier."
Jasmine smiled back. His self-deprecating manner was a novelty to her. The few men she had known in her life had all tried to give the impression of being enormously knowledgeable and self-confident.
"You must have drawn the short straw to get sent here."
"Oh, yes," he admitted ruefully. "But it's only a two year posting, and if Strole pulls it off like he says he can it'll be promotions all round. I guess I'll look back on this and laugh when I'm in my comfy office back on Earth."
"What is it Strole says he can do?"
He raised his eyebrows.
"Woah. I'm the one who's supposed to be pumping you for information."
"What?"
"Ah." He frowned. "Now that came out a little more sinister than I intended. Okay, cards on the table, Strole doesn't really trust anyone so he tipped me the wink to go and chat to you. Guess he's hoping I'll find out something about this Doctor character before he spends the entire research budget hiring him." He looked anxious, almost flinching back as if afraid of what her reaction might be. "I was sort of hoping we might get that part out of the way early on and then I could just treat you to lunch."
Jasmine gave him a frosty look, mostly because she was trying to suppress the laughter bubbling up inside her at the young officer's tightly wound tension while he awaited her response.
"You might as well not have bothered," she said. "I don't know anything about the Doctor, I only met him the day before yesterday. He's a scientist, he travels around exploring, and I think he knows more or less everything."
"He certainly seems to know his stuff. They've been messing about with that gravity nil field thing, whatever he called it, for three weeks now. Nobody had a clue what it was for."
"So perhaps Mr Strole can't pull it off after all? Whatever it is."
He drew breath to reply, then grinned.
"Oh, you're doing it again. Still, I suppose I owe you one in return. Mr Strole found this place. There's this great treasure trove of abandoned alien technology. Years ahead of us. Centuries, probably. If the scientists can figure out how it works then it could change our whole way of life. That's why there are ships coming in every day with new staff, new equipment. There's nearly a thousand people working here now."
"And still no results?"
He waved this away.
"Strole will get it done. He has a few more tricks up his sleeve yet, believe me. But let's call it quits now and talk about something else. My problem is, all the women here are scientists. Try talking to them and they always end up bringing the conversation back to quantum mechanics."
"Quantum..." This was a phrase new to Jasmine. "... what?"
Kerrigan's look of yearning made him look on the verge of tears.
"You don't know how I've dreamt of hearing a girl say that." He leaned forward across the table. "Tell me, you and the Doctor... I mean, in the lab before, he didn't seem very..."
He cast about for the right word. Jasmine helped him out.
"Nice?"
"That's it."
Jasmine looked away, out through the window.
"No." Not for the first time, she felt a pang of regret for the kindly old gentleman the Doctor had been. "He's changed."
"So..."
"But he helped me," Jasmine spoke up, too quickly. "When we first met, he helped me."
"Are you going to follow him around for the rest of your life because of that?"
She looked round sharply and Kerrigan, fearing he had overreached himself, sat back apologetically. But she sighed.
"Things were confusing. He asked me to go with him. I couldn't think what else to do."
His brow furrowed in thought for a moment, and he began to speak carefully:
"Well..."
There was a hiss of sliding doors as the Doctor strode into the room.
"There you are," he said briskly. "Now... oh." Seemingly it was only at this point that he noticed Kerrigan. He didn't look particularly pleased to see him. "I see you're here too."
"Er, yes." Kerrigan fidgeted in the awkward silence that followed like a boy caught in the gaze of a schoolmaster. "Perhaps... Perhaps I'd better be getting on." He stood, then reached out to touch Jasmine lightly on the hand. "See you later, Jasmine."
Jasmine watched him go. The Doctor did likewise, standing with arms folded and turning his head to follow his progress even as the young man had to pass within a foot of him to get to the door.
"What was he up to?" he asked, the moment Kerrigan was gone. Jasmine looked up innocently.
"Your new employer, Mr Strole, wanted him to ask me who you were."
"Did he now?" The Doctor walked over to sit opposite her in Kerrigan's vacated seat. "I'm starting to think my employer, as you call him, is slightly brighter than he looks."
"What's going on, Doctor? Why are you offering to work for these people? You're not really going to stay here and help them with these alien machines are you?"
"Hardly. Very unhealthy for any civilisation to gain access to new technologies without having to work for them. They end up with all kinds of new powers they haven't learned to control. Fortunately these artefacts they've found are far beyond anything Earth can come up with at this point. They'll never figure them out."
"Well, in that case, surely there's no problem? We can just slip off back to the Tardis and leave."
"Yes. Or rather, no."
"Oh."
"You see there's more to this than just digging up alien machinery out of the sand. Strole's up to something."
"How do you know?"
"I've met a lot of people in my time who were up to something, Jasmine. After a while you get to know the look."
"Hm." Jasmine digested this. "So you're going to pretend to be working for him while you find out what it is he's up to."
The Doctor's face cleared, momentarily giving him the look of a teacher pleased with a promising pupil.
"Spot on." He stood. "And now I'm supposed to go and chat to some of his top people about the direction their research should be taking. I'll give them a few little snippets. This is what we'll refer to as the trust-gaining phase of the operation."
"Can I help?" she called after him as he made for the exit.
"Possibly." He turned and kept backing away as the door slid open behind him. "Keep your eyes open. Talk to people. Smile. As long as we don't know what we're looking for everything's worth checking."
The door hissed shut and Jasmine was left alone. Talk to people, he'd said. With a thousand to choose from that shouldn't be too difficult, but where to start? She gazed thoughtfully out of the window and saw something that made her sit up straight.
Strole. And a group of guards. They were clustered round one of the black metal six wheeled vehicles she had seen trundling round the streets, but this one was outside the base, parked so its nose pointed out into the wilderness beyond.
Jasmine thought quickly. Two men were still loading cases of equipment aboard, and from the way Strole and the others were standing around it didn't look as if they were expecting to get started in the next few seconds. She had time. She jumped up and sprinted from the room.
When Strole's vehicle got under way a couple of minutes later it was carrying an extra passenger. The Doctor had been right, Jasmine reflected as she clung to the back. These "trainers" did have their uses.