Doctor Who: Dictatormocracy

Chapter Four

The news was a welcome relief for the Doctor and his two companions. Now they knew where the TARDIS was, they could leave Extas and all its troubles behind. Persuading Rob to help in retrieving the TARDIS from the hands of the local security would be easy. He was certainly up to the job after releasing them from jail. The Doctor went off to find Rob.

When he returned, Sami and Alice were eager to know how much longer they would have to stay in the Hotel.

'When are we leaving to get the TARDIS?' asked Sami

'Tonight' replied the Doctor 'and then as soon as we are near enough we shall get inside and leave. The sooner we depart, the better it is for us; for this governance and for them'

It was Jack Kelly's turn to make a speech in Shuton's square that evening. The hall was buzzing with excitement. Mr Kelly was to arrive at the Hotel in the early afternoon ready for his address. Rob was working hard on providing a counter claim to the Caliprebun's affair allegations. This was a difficult job that required a trawl through the virtual archive system in order to make his claim more believable. The Doctor's experiences would have been a much better story to release, but he had not finished his questioning and it was too soon to include it – especially as they were going to get the final piece in the puzzle in order to make it effective later on. The time for the retrieval had to be after Kelly's speech and the dark night brought its own possibilities for retrieval. He got back to his work; where to look next for some dirt to dish?

It was going to be a near impossible task to retrieve the voice recording from Rob Byron's desk. He had been sat there for hours. The longer that she; Cordineezer put this off, the more time that Rob had to use the evidence. She needed to create a distraction to draw him away from his work if she was going to be successful. Election victory would depend on her.

That evening a heavily guarded man with a dishevelled face walked into the hotel and was greeted by all. Rob left his desk in the hall to meet the Comradetic party's presidential candidate Jack Kelly. Standing somewhat suspiciously near the rear entrance to the hall was Cordineezer, although Rob didn't take much notice of her as he went upstairs to get the Doctor and his friends ready to meet Mr Kelly.

He found the three of them in the Doctor's room sitting patiently.

'Jack Kelly's here in the Hotel' said Rob enthusiastically 'I'd like you to meet him'

'Meet him we shall' said the Doctor 'Have you a time in mind for the retrieval?'

'Yes. We'll leave it until about an hour after Mr Kelly has made his speech. The security up in the ETTDC is quite lax at night'

The Doctor, Sami and Alice followed Rob into the Hotel's dining hall satisfied that tonight the ordeal would be over. When they reached the dining hall, they could just make out Kelly engulfed by the surrounding party members. This was the man that they were deceiving in order to get their liberty, but that didn't worry the Doctor for this man was likely to be just as devious if not more so than the current President.

Two hours later, things were on the move. Kelly was driven by his miniature army of security personnel to the town square, ready for his address. The party members were gathered around a large telescreen set up in the dining hall. The tables had been cleared to the sides and the chairs arranged in rows facing the telescreen. The Doctor, Sami and Alice sat at the very back, not wanting to get involved in the speech. They watched as Jack Kelly walked up to the stand. The hall erupted with cheering and applause as did the town square it would seem. Kelly began his speech.

'Over the last two days, vicious lies have been spread about my relationship with my wife by the despicable Caliprebun party. They have insisted that I have been having an affair. There is no basis in truth for this lie. My wife and I love each other dearly. To prove this, I present you my wife' he said

Mrs Kelly appeared from the shadows and stood beside Jack; a face smile across her face.

'Let my enlighten you as to the marital status of our current president. He is on his third marriage. The first one twenty six years ago lasted for a mere eight months. For six of those eight months he was seeing a woman who would later become his second wife. They married four months after a successful divorce. That marriage lasted for a year and a half. They filed for divorce. He has only recently married for a third time. He preaches about truth and the sanctity of marriage, but he himself does not practise it' he continued.

Watching via the telescreen; shaking his head was the Doctor.

'You see Alice they are all the same' he said sadly.

'Yes. I can see clearly what you meant now' replied Alice 'These people have been brainwashed. None have any policies at all. They only use rhetoric and lies'

'I can't see a difference from our government and this one' said Sami puzzled as to Alice's strong feelings about the subject.

'That's because there isn't one' replied the Doctor 'They are both great visions of democracy falling into a petty slinging match'

Now that the speech had finished, Cordineezer could slip away unnoticed whilst the others basked in their glory. She went into the hall; checking that the coast was clear before heading over to Rob's desk. She realised how lucky she was that the experiences of the three traitors had not been mentioned in that speech. Now was her chance to prevent it getting out into the open. It was not easy trying to locate the voice recorder as it was well hidden in a drawer. She carefully retrieved it and placed it into her pocket before leaving the room.

She had been blessed with luck because no-one knew that she spent so much time in a padded laundry room. She turned on her communicator.

'Mole to burrow' she said.

'Burrow here' replied Darien 'What do you have to report?'

'I have in my possession the recording of the traitor informing Robert Byron of his story' replied Cordineezer

'Good work. I was worried that they would include it in tonight's speech Cordineezer'

'So was I. It seems that they had not had time to act on it'

'The trap has been set. When will they be arriving?'

'It won't be too long. Rob is an impatient man. Good luck'

Cordineezer turned off the communicator and pulled the voice recorder from her pocket. She removed the memory device inside and stamped on it before inserting a blank one in its place. The evidence had been disposed of.

They were growing a little impatient with Rob, who was relaxing and having fun with the other campaign members. They wanted to get into the TARDIS and get away from Extas. Rob turned round and saw them standing there looking lost. He remembered that he had a job to do and walked over to them.

'Sorry about that' he said 'Don't get a lot of excitement in this job'

'That's quite all right Rob' replied the Doctor

Rob returned to his desk to pick up his camera and his voice recorder to document further evidence. He found his camera very easily, and he discovered with joy that his voice recorder was exactly where he had placed it in the drawer.

'All ready then?' he said cheerfully upon his return to the dining hall.

The Doctor, Sami, Alice and Rob went into the underground transport storage to find a suitable travel pod for the task in hand. The importance of the operation required Rob to get one that had not yet been used in Extas so that the local security wouldn't suspect them. However they were all two-seaters and were useless. He did manage to find one that had only had one use, which would with luck not arouse any suspicions.

They got into the travel pod and began their journey to the high security extra terrestrial terrorist detention centre. Unknown to them, someone was observing their movement.

Cordineezer smiled as she pulled out her communicator. She disposed with the formalities of using codenames.

'They are on their way' she said simply

'Good. We are ready for them. You have done well Cordineezer. Victory is ours'

She turned off the communicator and placed it back in her bag and made her way back to the Dining Hall ready to say goodbye to Jack Kelly as he left the hotel.

The streets were eerily silent and dark as they got nearer and nearer to their destination.

'How much further?' asked Sami impatiently

'Not too far. I can't take a direct route as that increases our chances of being spotted' replied Rob

'I presume that you have got some inside help ready?' asked the Doctor curiously

'Yes, I have. One good thing about these guards is that they are so easily bribed. It's the low pay you see. It's barely enough for them to live on so we take advantage of that' replied Rob.

When they arrived at the large gates, Rob was the first to get out. He walked over to the guard in the office and paid him the bribe money. The operation was carefully planned and they had been given a cover story to give them protection.

The others then got out of the travel pod, donned their badges and followed Rob and the guard into the courtyard. The Doctor could see the inmates trying desperately to get out of the sealed cells. They were crying out to be released. The species that were being locked up were those found on the planets of Enarch and Sermanistran – two of the outermost planets of the system. 'The Manistors are one of the most peace loving races in the universe' thought the Doctor 'Why are they being held here?'

Soon thoughts became words as the Doctor cried out angrily:

'Why are the Manistors being imprisoned here? They do not fight. They are one of the most peace loving races in the universe!'

'They are vicious and deadly terrorists' replied Rob scornfully 'They plot and kill. Hundreds of people have lost their lives to their trechery!'

Sami and Alice picked up on the Doctor's discontent at that moment. The Manistors resembled beaked Monkeys in a way. They looked fairly harmless apart from the deafening screeching that filled the air.

The Doctor couldn't stand it. He walked over to the giant cell they were being kept in and started a telepathic conversation with one of them. The Manistors had been killed by the humans, who wanted control of their planet Enarch. The ones in captivity in the centre were those who had managed to escape the slaughter. In short the people of the Satellite Acolytes were xenophobic and wanted control of all Acolytes instead of sharing it with the other races.

The Doctor vowed that he would get them out of the giant cell and free them. Surely they would want that? After all, this behaviour was no better then that of the Daleks.

'Come on Doctor! We need to get a move on!' said Rob

'Sorry' replied the Doctor 'First things first of course'

The guard showed them to the storage building and left them so that he could get back to the office. They began the search in the largest room of the giant building. They moved large crates and various other large items, but the TARDIS was not to be found in there. They moved onto an adjoining room again with no success.

'Oh where can it be!' said Alice impatiently

'There are still five more rooms left' replied the Doctor. 'It could be in any one of them'

So they moved on through each of the other five rooms. Each was carefully searched with no success. The TARDIS was not there.

'Is there anywhere else that they could have put it?' asked Sami

'Not that I know of' replied Rob 'It's got to be here somewhere'

The Doctor knew what had happened. They were caught in a trap. They needed to get out of the centre as soon as possible before escape was impossible.

'It's a trap!' he said simply to the others 'The TARDIS isn't here. We've been brought here'

'Oh no!' said Alice 'What can we do?'

'Get out of here!' replied the Doctor

They walked back into the main room. As they did the other doors magnetically locked. The stalker from earlier and several local security officers walked in through the main doors.

'How nice to see you again' he said evilly 'This time you will not escape. This time there is nowhere to go. Take them!'

END OF EPISODE FOUR