Transportation

Featuring the Eighth Doctor and Asla

Janina Townsend sat at her desk, wondering what was going on with her laptop. She had been employed as Roger Hobbs's secretary and since then she had earned a lot of money. Her mother had always told her that she should pursue her dreams and Janina had taken that advice on for life.
"What the hell?" she exclaimed, as the screen of her laptop turned black and then showed the words "UPGRADE IN PROGRESS" in large silver letters. Her laptop had never acted like this before and so, because she was extremely terrified, she headed to her boss's office.

Roger Hobb was sat at his desk, peacefully working away. He had no meetings today and nobody needed him to do anything. However he wasn't expecting his secretary to suddenly burst in.
"Sir, I've got a problem." Janina announced, showing him her screen. He stared in astonishment at it and tapped the keys in a certain combination. No luck.
"I think something's got in to the system." Roger assumed, his voice full of dread, "We need to create a solution to this now."
"You already have one." came the voice of a youngish warrior from behind them. The stranger stepped out of the shadows and examined the screen which showed the ominous message. He frowned, knowing what had happened.
"Who the devil are you?" Roger exclaimed, wondering how a complete stranger had entered his office and had started scanning one of his computers with a tube of metal.
"I'm the Doctor and you have the mind of a Cyberman embedded within your computer systems." the Doctor explained, examining his sonic screwdriver with a frown.
"What's a Cyberman?" Janina asked.
"A human in metal cybernetic armour with no emotion at all. All the Cybermen ever want is for everything in the universe to be like them, no matter what the cost. Now, I need to find Asla. Perhaps she's got to grips with your technology."
He dashed out of the room, having failed to explain to Roger and Janina what he had just said.

Asla had been working in the EcoGo research lab for seven days and the Doctor had not checked up on her at all. He had told her to see if there were any pieces of technology directly related to the Cybermen because the Cyber Lord may have been nearby and may have introduced anachronistic technology to the 21st Century.
"Asla, I think I may have found something." said a familiar voice from the laboratory door: the Doctor had returned. He was carrying someone's laptop in one hand and his sonic screwdriver in the other.
"What did you find?" she enquired, hiding her anger about how he hadn't seen her in a week.
"This laptop contains the mind of a Cyberman and it's slowly entering the computer networks. Do you know what this company specialises in?"
"New and effective ways of transport. They've even got a prototype teleport somewhere in here."
"A teleport? Really?"
"Yeah. Also, I thought Cybermen have human minds."
"Well, they have a Cybermind: a computer brain which converts human brains into Cyberman brains. Part of that presumably found its way into this laptop."
Asla then realised where the part of the Cybermind had come from.
"The Cyber Lord must have left part of it behind here." she said, thinking about it very hard, "He must have inserted part of it via a computer onboard his TARDIS."
"Exactly."

Roger and Janina burst in and interrupted the Doctor and Asla's conversation. Roger had a fierce look on his face and clearly knew that Asla was not an employee of EcoGo, unlike her earlier claims. Presumably some magic identity had been forged, as he knew that the wallet claiming that she was a junior trainee was some sort of lie.
"Doctor, what the hell are you doing with Janina's laptop?!" Roger screamed, utterly baffled as to why a complete stranger had stolen his secretary's laptop, "First you babble all about Cybermen and alien invasions and now you're examining my secretary's laptop. For all I know, you could be those people from VOR trying to get in on the transport game."
The Doctor sighed, knowing that a speech had to be given.
"Roger Hobbs, the only economical thing I have to care about is the fact that if I don't stop this, your entire company will go bust as there will be nobody left alive to run it. I'm the Doctor, a Time Lord and I don't care about ecological transport." he said, blocking Asla and standing directly in front of Roger, "If you want to know what I want to do, then I am trying to keep you alive. I can't do that if you're here, yelling at me."
Roger shared a satisfied look with Janina and sighed.
"Alright then. Janina can help you if you need anything." Roger said, walking back to his office.

The Doctor and Asla's efforts were now focused on the Cybermind, which had been fully downloaded onto Janina's laptop. A face had appeared on the laptop and it was a face that they recognised instantly.
"The Cyber Lord." Asla murmured, shocked to see his face again.
"Doctor, Asla, how interesting to see you again." the Cyber Lord remarked, his electronic voice sounding through the laptop's speakers, "Although I am not the Cyber Lord."
"What do you mean?" the Doctor wondered, scanning the Cyber Lord's face with his sonic screwdriver.
"The Cyber Lord duplicated his mind and inserted it here." the Cyber Lord's image explained, "I am now integrated with the EcoGo network and I can access any piece of equipment within this building."
A large metal cylinder nearby began to bleep wildly and that was when they noticed that there was still somebody inside, locked in. The Doctor ran over to the cylinder and zapped his sonic screwdriver at it but it didn't work.
"Janina, what's this?" he called to Janina, who was standing dumbly nearby, "And is there a way of unlocking the door on it?"
"It's a prototype bodyswap machine." Janina answered, "We recovered it from the wreck of a spaceship that crashed in a nearby lake four years ago. I think the emergency deadlocks have been activated on it."
"Who's the guy in the machine?" Asla asked, referring to the young man with long brown hair and a pair of black glasses on his face who was hammering at the glass window of the cylinder.
"Marshall Newton. He planned to test the machine out with Roger in the afternoon." Janina replied, as Marshall's eyelids closed. There was silence for the next few seconds and then Marshall jerked back into life. The door to the capsule swung open and he emerged from it, examining his hands and touching his face.
"I am organic." he remarked, "The experiment worked."
"Marshall, what happened?" the Doctor asked politely, blocking his way, "Are you still in there?"
"Doctor, Marshall is now trapped within the computer system as I used to be. This is the very beginning of my plan. I shall be the first of Cyber-agents, manipulating the human race so that the Cybermen win." Marshall declared triumphantly.

Suddenly, the sprinklers in the ceiling, used if fires would ever break out, activated and droplets of water fell on the group. However, it was only when the Doctor's coat was burnt by the droplets when he worked out what had happened.
"Asla, Janina, run!" he yelled, rushing out of the laboratory with his two friends. He sonicked the doors behind him after they had all left, locking Marshall in.

After explaining what had happened with Marshall's mind to Roger, the Doctor, Asla and Janina made their way back to the TARDIS. Janina didn't expect that the Doctor and Asla owned a police box but there was a lot about those two that she didn't expect. When they reached the tall blue box, the Doctor explained that the Cyber Lord's duplicate mind had switched places with Marshall's mind, leaving Marshall's mind within the computer systems of EcoGo. He then expained that Marshall presumably activated the water sprinklers but replaced the water with acid, to burn the Cyber Lord to death.
"So what'll happen with all the tech? And Marshall?" Janina wondered.
"Marshall may be able to become the first human ever to live within a computer. Or maybe you could store him inside a virtual reality." the Doctor suggested, "Come on, Asla. We'd better be going."
He entered the TARDIS and left the door open for Asla.
"It was nice to meet you but we've got work to do. There's a war on between the Doctor's people and these mutant warriors called the Daleks. The Cybermen crashed into that war and we need to take care of the fallout from that collision, which is something we're not doing well at at the moment." Asla explained, waving goodbye, "Hopefully you'll live a good life."
"You too." Janina said, watching Asla enter the TARDIS and shut the door behind her. Soon, the TARDIS wheezed and howled away and Janina walked back to the office, amazed by what she had just seen.

THE END