CHAPTER 11

LANGUAGE SPECIALIST

Mel looked up to see the Doctor standing in the doorway, an enormous grin on his face. "Doctor! Where have you been?" she exclaimed, running over and hugging him.

"Where haven't I been?" the Time Lord replied airily, somewhat surprised by the emotional greeting. He leaned down, looking into his companion's face. "Are you alright?"

"I am now."

The Lieutenant was trying to figure out when he had lost control of the situation as he took in the extraordinary person in the long multicolored coat who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. "Who the devil are you?" he asked, the words popping out of his mouth before he realized he had spoken them.

The Doctor gave him a dark look. "Ah, the military. Always so courteous. I'm the language specialist that I believe you've been expecting." To Mel, he said quietly, "I made the mistake of asking UNIT if anything unusual had occurred in the last week. The next thing I know I'm being packed off as a language consultant."

"Don't give me that long-suffering attitude," his companion chided. "You love a good mystery. I'll even bet you volunteered."

With an impish grin, the Time Lord confessed, "I did, actually. Especially after seeing your name on a report." He looked up to see the Lieutenant blocking his way into the room, his hand out. "May I see your identification, please, sir?"

Before Mel could explain that the Doctor never carried identification, the Time Lord had produced an impressive set of UNIT paperwork. "That should contain more than enough red tape to satisfy every government agency on this planet. Now do get out of my way, there's a good—" Cutting himself off, he scowled at the soldier, taking a good look at him for the first time. "Don't I know you?"

"I don't think so…" The Lieutenant's voice trailed off, his eyes growing wide when he opened the identification papers. He looked up sharply, astonishment written clearly over his open face. "Strewth, Doctor. You've done it again."

By this time the Time Lord was grinning from ear to ear. "Mr. Benton!" he said happily, quickly correcting himself, "Lieutenant Benton. They told me you'd returned to UNIT."

With an embarrassed smile, Benton said, "Yes, well, civilian life and I didn't fit too well." He handed back the Time Lord's paperwork and accepted his handshake before hurriedly taking his leave.

Dr. Miller gave Mel a mystified look to which she responded with a shrug. In her short time with the Doctor, she had learned not to be surprised by any of his acquaintances at any point in time or on any particular planet.

As in General Collier's office, the Doctor's personality instantly dominated the room. He crossed to the physician, introduced himself, and shook his hand. "I'm going to need all the medical data on this patient," he stated firmly. "Do you think you can arrange that for me?"

"Did you arrange that too?" K'ell'k asked sarcastically. He received a questioning look in reply. "That Lieutenant? The Doctor knows him too."

l'X'el gave him a knowing smile. "You don't believe that was a handy twist of fate?" he asked innocently, knowing full well that it truly had been a coincidence.

"You're playing with too many variables, Lix. Coincidence is one thing, but soon this will look like open manipulation."

Within six hours of his arrival the Doctor had received all the Visitor's medical records and had read through them twice. After his initial read through he had put a stop to what he called, "the appalling overabundance of tranquilizing drugs" that were being administered. He could not determine if the shattered alien's caregivers were trying to keep him calm to allow his body to heal, or keep him helpless until they could figure out what to do with him.

The Doctor was seated at the nurse's station, several papers spread out before him. He had been alternately reading the file, watching the monitors, and racking his brain trying to remember where he had seen similar bio-chemical readings. He was in the process of re-reading the lab reports when Dr. Miller reappeared.

"An interesting case, huh, Doctor?" Miller observed.

"Not the word I would've chosen," the Doctor replied without looking up. "Fascinating body chemistry. I'm sure I've seen it somewhere before."

"I suppose you folks in UNIT see this sort of thing all the time," Miller remarked longingly.

"Some of us more than others," the Time Lord replied vaguely as he looked up. "He's definitely not human, that's certain. What I find extraordinary is that he's responding so well to your treatments. I'd've expected all sorts of problems by now."

"We have Ms Bush to thank for that," Miller informed. "Apparently the Visitor informed her at the crash site that we should treat him…well, normally. He also mentioned there were three others with him, but those we found weren't like him."

"The same race, you mean?"

Miller nodded. "The only, er, pieces that were recovered were human."

"Really?" The Doctor tried to sound surprised, but already suspected this having recognized the wreckage of the ship as being human in design. "Is that conclusive?"

"Very. There were three different sets of DNA. All human males." Pausing, Miller added, "Something odd, though. While the lab was testing the…remains, they sort of, disintegrated."

"Disintegrated?"

"Just…crumbled away to dust. I've never heard of anything like it. Well, not in fresh tissue, that is."

"As though time were catching up to them," the Doctor muttered thoughtfully, a faraway look in his eyes.

"I suppose so. The lab has no idea what caused it."

A scowl creased the Time Lord's face as he took in this piece of information. He had every idea what had caused it but was uncertain as to its significance. "I take it back, Dr. Miller. That is interesting. Thank you."