"Good morning, Doctor," a male, thick American accent greeted the Doctor as he was pushed into an office.
"Good morning," the Doctor grinned.
"You shouldn't be so casual with me," the American warned. "I administrate Melbourne on behalf of the Almighty American government."
"That's nice," the Doctor said. "I topple evil dictatorships on behalf of the Time Lords. And justice."
"There are no dictatorships on Earth," the American announced triumphantly. "We wiped them out in 2007."
"Along with most of the populations, I presume."
"Small sacrifices, Doctor. Small sacrifices must be made for the greater good." The Doctor began to wonder if the American were brainwashed himself, but he then realised that the man actually believed what he was saying. Well, good luck to you, the Doctor thought. I don't.
"So what brings you to sunny Australia?" the American man smiled slightly. "Was it to stir trouble?"
The Doctor pretended to be shocked by the accusation. "What, me? Would I stir trouble?"
"I do not know, Doctor. You do not appear to exist."
"Oh. Well, that explains it, then," the Doctor decided aloud. "I don't suppose I would exist in this time. I haven't been here before."
The American man raised an eyebrow. "You can travel through time?" he asked sceptically. The Doctor grinned.
"Everyone can travel through time," the Doctor told him. "It's just that not many people on this planet have the right equipment, and even if they did, they wouldn't know how to use it."
"You're a lunatic," the American told the Doctor.
"Really?" the Doctor asked with interest. "I always preferred the term genius."
The American located what appeared to be a walkie-talkie, and he started to talk into it. "Take the Doctor to re-education," he snapped sharply, for all intents and purposes unaware that the Doctor could understand every word. Given that he'd just seen what had happened to Sarah in re-education an hour ago, what he did should have been expected.
"No!" the Doctor cried, finding an umbrella and smashing it over the American man's head. Despite the fact that it was an umbrella, the American man was knocked out cold. Maybe the Time Lord was particularly strong. The American soldiers, of course, decided to burst into the office at that time and take the Doctor away.
The Doctor came to in a large, cube-shaped room. He found himself strapped to one of those chairs that can spin around. Childish as it was, the Doctor decided to spin around on it.
Every wall was exactly the same. White, with a blue panel covering most of the wall. The ceiling was also white, and the carpet the same shade of blue as on the panels. He suppose one of the four walls must have a hidden door of some kind, or else be a door, but he couldn't for the life of him – in fact, for the thirteen lives of him – tell which. He also wondered how this strange hollow cube constituted a re-education. Maybe he needed a new dictionary.
At that instant, a low buzzing filled the room. It was so low, that at first the Doctor didn't notice it, until it became louder. Just as the buzzing started to get annoying, the large blue panels started to flash slowly. The Doctor realised he didn't need a new dictionary after all. This room was going to try and hypnotise him into believing in the American Empire and all that gobbledegook!
The Doctor resisted the urge to laugh. Him? The room was going to try and hypnotise him? He was a Time Lord. He could resist any human device. Well, most human devices. Well, not many human devices, actually, but he could certainly resist this one. Though, he did think he'd better put his wonderful acting skills to the test and pretend he was brainwashed. Otherwise, those Americans might make him spend the whole day there, something which would not only be exceedingly irritating but rather bad for his chances of saving Atlanta's life. If Atlanta was right, of course, which he feared she was because she was the one who actually lived in the time, not him, and therefore it was far more likely that she knew more about the time than him.
Suddenly, the blinking lights started to fade, followed soon after by the buzzing noise. Behind him, he heard the wall open. Swinging his chair around, he saw a solitary American soldier stepping away from what appeared to be a huge gateway to a waiting room. So that's which wall it was, he thought with satisfaction. Naturally the soldier was armed, but he, for once, did not seem intent on waving his gun around like a lunatic.
"Are you okay, sir?" he asked politely.
Remembering he was supposed to have been brainwashed, the Doctor let his head loll around. "I feel groggy," he said in a distinctly slurred voice.
"Don't worry, sir. That's a natural reaction." The soldier set to work removing the binding steel over the Doctor's wrists.
"Thank you," the Doctor muttered indistinctly, standing up shakily. The he decided to try something clever. "Where's that girl?" he asked, confusedly.
"Girl, sir?"
"What's her name... short, brown hair, blue eyes... not much older than a teenager, if at all."
The soldier nodded knowingly. "She has been taken for termination," he answered politely. "She was a threat to the Empire."
"Where's the termination chamber?" the Doctor asked, struggling to remember to keep up the slurred voice and shaky standing. Maybe he wasn't such a brilliant actor.
"First floor underground, up near the north east," the soldier replied briskly. "D'you need a lie-down, sir?"
"No no no, I'll be fine." On that note, the Doctor began to run away quickly to save Atlanta.
