Sitting around, trying to entertain themselves since they've been stuck in the cell for a few hours, Theodore and Lila found that they've exhausted everything under the sun, and now they're reduced to sitting across from each other.
For sure, Theodore contemplated opening a rift and escaping with Lila more than once, but was talked out of it by his inner thoughts and Al, reminding him how doing that risked troubles with future encounters and anyone posing as the Doctor thereafter.
Still, at least they'd get somewhere.
"You know, detention came quicker than this," Lila denounced how long it's taking them getting anywhere with UNIT.
When she got in trouble, the principles didn't sit on their hands with her in their offices, they'd pick up the phone, that was that.
At least the chairs are more comfortable than the cot of sadness she's sitting on.
Across from her, Theodore shrugs as he says to her, "Red tape makes everything a nuance, Lee."
Even then, his father had to wait long before someone eventually came for him wanting answers.
Though, Theodore hoped UNIT would evolve beyond that, because he can't take waiting, anymore, and that's saying something.
Thankfully, UNIT hadn't forgotten basic military rules, they've gotten their lunches and their bathroom breaks, treated fairly despite their situation, and now they're waiting for dinner.
"If they don't say something to us by tomorrow, does that mean we have the right to leave?" Lila asked if the saying's true for UNIT, if they don't send someone to explain to them why they've been imprisoned by morning, they're allowed to leave without issue, causing a snort from Theodore before he giggled at the thought.
Shaking his head, Theodore tells her, no, it doesn't work like that, if it did, his father would've left multiple times the moment it gotten to that point.
No, if they tried, they'd be shot on the spot or thrown into maximum prison.
Escape through a rift, they'll come down harder than Kane if they catch them, again, worse, whoever comes after may not be capable of escaping like Theodore.
That included the psychic paper, despite it's usefulness in most situations, it wouldn't work with theirs, considering the circumstances.
Hence Al's suggestion, they stay in one place, see where it takes them, and see if Theodore's ploy comes to fruition.
"For all you know, Ringo could've pocketed it and used it to get unlimited beer," Lila pointed out that Theodore's ploy at luring the aptly nicknamed 'Ringo' easily backfired if he pocketed the psychic paper and goes crazy with the limitless potential.
Shaking his head, his wild hair bobbing, Theodore responds he's certain of his ploy working, it's too enticing for someone like 'Ringo' to simply use it for his own gain, especially what Al said about the affected soldiers.
Given the details scarce and soldiers like 'Ringo' couldn't learn more than what their superiors tell them, the fact that 'Ringo' knows the affected soldiers, he'll naturally want answers, and that's their ticket out of here.
"Assuming he doesn't break it," Lila reminded Theodore the fickle nature of their psychic papers.
A corporal trying to pass off as a captain, surely would've shorted it within seconds, and while Theodore agreed with her, he believed that 'Ringo' won't use the psychic paper for nefarious purposes.
"The human nature, Lee, he'll be too concerned about figuring out what's going on with his colleagues than finagling beer from the pub," Theodore asserted that 'Ringo' won't lose sight of what's important to him.
He'll come here expecting answers and that's when they'll work out the details on escaping their cell, since he knows the schedule better than them, Theodore suspects 'Ringo' already worked out a way to reach them without suspicion from his superiors.
With no other option, the two waited patiently, passing the time, and heard the familiar sound of the cart wheels rattling as someone pushed a cart towards the cell, already, they smelled food.
Theodore pushed himself up from his cot, looking through the bars, as Lila didn't bother moving from her spot.
Walking up to the bars, Theodore smells their dinner, nothing fancy or putrid, well-rounded, just enough to get them through the night.
His large hands in his pockets, Theodore waited, and he saw a silhouette of someone standing behind the cart, before catching sight of movement from another silhouette.
Lila stirred from her spot as she sees the silhouettes moving and pushed herself off the cot, standing beside Theodore, as she heard the man that caught her earlier in the day, say to Theodore, "Who are you?"
Blinking, Theodore shrugs as he responds, "Does it matter?"
He heard back, "No one except the strange and derange would fool around a substation."
Fair point.
Theodore calculated his odds before explaining, "I'm the Doctor."
He heard the woman who caught him retort, "I doubt you're even authorized to touch a fingernail."
Well, he never said he was a medical doctor.
From hearing them, Theodore sees the two don't know who the Doctor was and their significance, must not met anyone with the title in their lives much less have someone tell them, but there was a faint glimmer in the man's eyes.
"And I doubt it takes two people to deliver dinner," Lila pointed out that prior, only one person came and delivered their lunches, and since they're not violent or other, there wasn't a need for more than one person.
Holding it up, the man goes, "You don't need a blank ID holder, unless you're doing something you shouldn't."
He's got Lila's psychic paper, as Theodore said he would, didn't look like he was fooling around with it.
Theodore then responds with, "Since you're here, I suspect you're looking for answers, am I wrong?"
He sees the man bashfully look away for a minute, before looking back at him, saying, "A bit coincidental that you showed up days after the incident, innit?"
Shrugging, Theodore says he comes when he precisely means to, before asking, "Have you learnt more what happened?"
Frowning, the woman beside him answered instead with a listless, "No. No one's telling us anything and no one can see them except the doctors and the nurses. I don't think they've told their families, either."
Sharing a look with Lila, Theodore turns back to the woman, now beside the man, and asks them, "Did anything like that happen before?"
Shaking their heads, the two told him that it never happened in their years working in UNIT, the area the incident happened in has been used for military drills for years, never a situation like this happened until, now.
"Leading up to it, did anything happen prior to the incident, a rainstorm, something odd?" Theodore continued asking them what happened before the incident, anything that's easily overlooked.
Cogs turning in their heads, the two thought about Theodore's question, before the woman goes, "Remember the meteor shower?"
The man had a dreamy look on his face as he responds with, "How could I forget?"
Lightly jabbing him with her finger as her face illuminated with red cheeks, the woman turned towards Theodore and says, "Didn't know it was supposed to happen, even the science branch didn't know, and they're days' early with their reports."
An unscheduled meteor shower, who knew?
"Did a meteorite hit the area?" Lila asks her and the woman pondered her question before answering, "We thought they all burnt up, nobody told us of any meteorites touching down, and we didn't hear or see anything."
Furrowing his brow as he hears this, Theodore pulled his large hands out of his stitched pockets, pressing them together as he tapped both index fingers against his chin, pondering.
"What's going on, here?" Theodore heard the man ask him before he tells him that he isn't sure, but if they get them out, he'll help get answers.
He sees doubt in the woman before the man convinced her and she handed him the keys.
"Ah, suppose we should introduce ourselves," the man blinks before introducing himself as Jamie while he unlocked the cell.
The woman introduced herself after as she watched Theodore and Lila leave their cell, "Roslyn, but most know me as Ròs."
She silently gestured towards Jamie as the culprit for her nickname.
Freed from their cell, Theodore and Lila followed Jamie and Ròs as they led them away, Jamie leaving the cart behind for the next watchman.
As he's following them, Theodore heard back from Al, confirming that the science department knew of the meteor shower, but Al found something unusual in the report, no one put down if any meteorite made it to Earth, which intrigued Theodore.
"Did they forget in the excitement?" Theodore asked if it's possible, but Al told him that the science department's sensitive radar easily picked up on a stray meteor past Mars, they would've known instantly if meteorites found their way to Earth, from where Theodore's standing to New Zealand.
Al went far as looking through public records from different sources and in ones where meteorites landed somewhere on Earth, the proper fields have been written in, there he found something even more interesting.
"No one's talking about a meteor shower," Al revealed to Theodore that despite him looking, no one reported on the meteor shower that happened, only UNIT's science department.
Baffled, Theodore let out, "Localized meteor showers?'
Unable to shrug, Al tells him that it's what he found out, no one in the surrounding area or a different country even had a news report of a meteor shower.
"How's that possible?" Theodore found it outrageous that not even the afternoon news didn't make a spectacle about a meteor shower, but that's what Al said.
When asked, Al replied that if UNIT can pick him out of dead air, they'll know if an unidentified aircraft landed north of the base, especially if it's trying to be cunning masquerading as a meteorite.
Which, Al's sure it wasn't some sort of ploy.
Somehow, a meteorite made its spot in the exact area where the UNIT soldiers do their drills, and like Al said, it isn't methane gas that affected them.
"Keep me posted, Al," Theodore instructed Al.
Just before he disappeared from Theodore's mind, Al says, "Aye-aye, captain!"