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The Age of Paradox 2.5: Miracle Day
As Amy sat alongside Gwen in the back seat of Officer Davidson's police car, she wondered what it said about the current mess that they had more problems overcoming bureaucracy than they did dealing with alien monsters. Getting into the country on fake passports had been straightforward enough with Rex and Jack's connections supporting the new identities, and she actually liked 'Sarah Grant' as an alias, but she'd only had a brief chat with Gwen's husband after he picked them up, and had barely had time to properly meet Gwen's daughter before the older Mrs Cooper was showing her and Gwen the plans she'd managed to find for the overflow camp that Gwen's father had been taken to.
Rhys had been convinced to stay behind to keep an eye on the baby while Amy and Gwen got a lift to the camp by a cop named Andy who was apparently Gwen's former police partner, but Amy felt uncomfortable the moment Andy's car paused outside the camp. The basic brick structures gave the impression that this had been an old barn or aircraft hanger of some sort before the current state of affairs (Amy hadn't actually looked to find out what this area had been before the current crisis), but the people gathered around a man standing on something didn't give a good impression of just how organised this place was, and those large blue doors felt foreboding no matter how Amy tried to tell herself they were 'necessary'.
Looking at all the people gathered outside the camp calling out for a chance to see their loved ones, she was suddenly struck by the notion that this was the worst things had been since the Miracle, and so far there still hadn't been any sign that any problems were being caused by anything more than a human reaction to the situation. If this whole 'make humanity immortal' thing was an alien plot, the aliens involved were taking their time getting down to business…
"Bloody hellfire," Andy said as he got out to join the two women.
"What's the size of this place?" Gwen asked.
"God knows," Andy said. "They've got patients coming in from Bristol, too. Hospitals are closing across the southwest because MRSA is going crazy. Add to that the increase in geriatrics and maternity, the NHS is gonna go bust by the end of the week."
"How many camps nationwide?" Amy put in.
"Thirty-five so far," the man replied, looking curiously at her.
"Which leaves the question of how PhiCorp were that prepared that fast."
"PhiCorp?" Andy's curiosity shifted to surprise.
"You said yourself that the NHS is going bust just trying to cope with medicine right now; do you honestly think they've got the resources to spare for this?" Amy observed.
"She's right," Gwen nodded. "This is all PhiCorp, and when private businesses take over health care under any circumstances, that's just the start of the problems."
"Right…" Andy nodded uncertainly. "Well… let's do this, shall we?"
The next few minutes were just chaos as Gwen tried to get to the front of the crowd of people gathered around the building, going so far as to get in the face of the man in the suit who seemed to be responsible for complaints. Amy had to hold out an arm to keep Andy back while Gwen took point, but when Gwen shook her head and stormed off in another direction, it was clear that she hadn't received the answer she was looking for.
"Well," Amy shrugged as she glanced at Andy. "At least she's getting somewhere, right?"
"…How do you know Gwen again?" Andy asked uncertainly as they walked briskly after the dark-haired Welsh woman.
"I'm basically the assistant to the guy who trained Gwen's boss," Amy grinned (she appreciated that Jack had picked up most of his skills pre-Doctor, but she was sure neither of them would mind the stripped-down explanation).
"…Jack," Andy looked at Amy incredulously as they reached the admin office. "You're the assistant to the guy who trained Captain Jack Harkness? How does that even work?"
"Like Jack, he's unconventional," Amy smiled at the thought of the Doctor, before they reached the admin area and Amy shifted to a more serious expression. If Gwen was going to convince anyone to let her dad out of this place, it would probably be best if she didn't look like she was enjoying this situation. Following Gwen into another part of the camp, Amy and Andy found themselves in a large stone building that put Amy in mind of one of those corrugated huts from the Second World War, with a set of numbered kiosks that reminded her of passport control at an airport.
"Excuse me," Gwen said, walking past a man in a surgical mask standing at a gate before heading up to a man in camouflage fatigues. "Excuse me, Lieutenant, this won't take long; I need to move a patient, it's urgent-"
"Then you really need to speak to one of the care workers over there," the man said. "They can tell you how to process your claim."
"Claim?" Amy repeated, moving up to stand beside Gwen. "We're not here to sort an insurance issue for a car; we're here for her father-"
"With police authority-" Andy put in.
"We are not under the control of the Welsh police, Sergeant."
"Look, his name is Geriant Wyn Cooper," Gwen cut the lieutenant off with an exasperated tone. "He's had a heart attack but he was recovering…"
"So he sounds like he'd be Category Two, which means he'll be perfectly safe in here, if you'd care to read the definitions-"
"Definitions?" Amy repeated, as Gwen took the offered folder. "We just want to get a man out of a clearly overcrowded facility when he was signed up because of a mistake-"
"This isn't bloody martial law!" Gwen cut in, glaring at the PhiCorp logo on the back of the offered papers. "My father is a taxpayer and a law-abiding citizen who's entitled to go home, and I'm not moving until I take him; have you got that?"
"Yes, that's perfectly clear," the man said. "And I hope it's also clear why I'm now having you arrested."
"OK," Amy cut in, grabbing Gwen and putting a hand over her mouth before the older woman could say anything else. "We'll… just be going, shall we?"
"I'm not-!" Gwen protested.
"Given time, we will have this facility open and happy, and running like clockwork with access for all, but right now we have cholera and dysentery and swine flu, and every single patient needs immediate definition under the three categories, so it's a lockdown," the lieutenant said bluntly. "No one is allowed in and no one is allowed out. When the situation changes we'll let you know. Thank you."
Gwen glared in exasperation at the lieutenant, but Amy liked to think her firm hand on Gwen's arm helped encourage her to turn around and give up the confrontation rather than try and continue it.
"Bloody categories," Gwen growled as they returned to Andy's police car. "All the things I fought with Torchwood and what stops me? Red tape."
"So we'll work it out," Amy glanced back at the camp. "I mean, I broke into the compounds of both sides of an alien war when they were both basically dealing with a thousand years of conflict; how hard can it be to get into a health camp that was set up a few days ago?"
"Alien war?" Andy asked.
"We'll talk about that later," Amy waved her hand at him before she turned to Gwen. "OK, you're the one more familiar with our available resources right now; what's the plan?"
The Doctor liked to think he was maintaining the impression of being relatively in control of the situation, but he still felt as though he was dealing with something completely outside of his own experience. He was vaguely reminded of his fragmentary memories of the way his third persona had felt during that mess when he was on Dust before Compassion had helped him erase those events from his timeline, as though he was in a situation that he wasn't prepared to face. If the TARDIS always took him where he needed to go, it was as though coming back into the universe after their trip through those parallel universes had led to him crashing down into the middle of a situation he was just unprepared to actually face, scrambling to adjust to a situation that he was never meant to deal with…
He appreciated that they were actually making some kind of progress in tracking whoever was behind this, but he still felt as though he was busy trying to catch up with a plan that he didn't immediately understand. He had been dealing with this situation for the better part of a week and so far he wasn't even sure if he was dealing with a human conspiracy, an alien invasion, or some twisted combination of the two.
No TARDIS, no clue who we're fighting, and not even a fixed base of operations; we can't just keep renting flats or squatting until we find what we're up against…
His current concern about Amy just made it even harder for him to relax. He appreciated that she'd made a valid point that she wasn't contributing anything to their efforts at the moment, and Gwen could certainly use the help with something this dangerously personal, but this was essentially the furthest he'd been apart from her since they started travelling together. He'd been concerned about the young woman from Leadworth when she'd been trapped in the TARDIS's body after House took control, but he'd still had hope that she could handle herself until he got there when he was actively trying to get back to her. Right now, he had to rely on Gwen and Amy's own skills to protect them while he dealt with the situation at this end, and just hope that Amy could handle herself in that situation…
On the upside, the group were already making some progress in their continued investigation of the stolen PhiCorp hard drives. The files omitted a few details about the camps, as though whoever had put these files together had kept some details offline just in case of a situation like this, but there were still a few points of interest that Esther was working on cracking. On a more personal note, Rex had reported that the doctor he'd been talking with had decided to join them full-time, which she attributed to the recent news of the creation of the 'Categories of Life' as part of the new 'Overflow Camp' system. The exact nature of the categories hadn't been released yet, but as far as the Doctor was concerned, anything that tried to define life in such a way was bad news even if it had started out with good intentions.
For the moment, with Rex's doctor contact on her way, the Doctor had taken the opportunity to join Jack and Esther in having a brief rest in the sun on the beach. Natalie was having a walk further along the beach, keeping her phone available just in case she was needed on short notice, but the Doctor appreciated that she wanted to enjoy the beach without having to worry about her dad's opinion of her.
It was strange; he'd come this far not thinking about what he may have missed out on by not being a father, particularly when his time with Susan was confusing at best even without his vague memories of the Other to take into account, but now he had Natalie actively eager for him to be her father, and as for Amy…
The more time he spent with Amelia Pond, the more he found himself wondering what she was to him. He had spent time training her to prepare for her decision to travel with him, and Amy clearly 'suffered' from a lack of parental figures considering her aunt's inadequacies, but there was still something about her that made it hard for the Doctor to just 'pigeon-hole' her like that. Maybe it was just hard for him to adjust to having a companion again after everything he'd been through with the Faction, coupled with the obvious difference in his relationship with Amy and the way things had been when he'd been travelling with Jack, but something about Amy…
"Do you think I'm useless?"
The words drew the Doctor out of his reflection as he turned to look at Esther and Jack, standing close to him on the beach.
"No," Jack smiled reassuringly at Esther. "I think you're new to all this."
"Yeah, but I'm CIA."
"And I'm UNIT's scientific advisor while Jack was the head of Torchwood and a former member of an agency that hasn't been created for a few centuries yet," the Doctor grinned reassuringly at Esther. "No matter our qualifications, we're all improvising in situations on this scale, Esther; I certainly never really knew what I was doing with my life until… well, I think it would have to be Dido, and that was after getting into dangerous situations for the better part of a year."
"Dido?" Jack looked at the Doctor in surprise. "What could happen there that made you start really getting out there?"
"Someone had killed most of the local population to cover up a crime that he had committed after his ship crashed," the Doctor explained. "It wasn't the first place I helped, but it was the first time I'd chosen to help; on most of my previous trips I just got caught up in the local situation because someone or something stopped me from just getting back into the old girl and leaving, but Dido… I realised that there was a problem and I stayed to deal with it when I could have just left if I really wanted to."
"Huh," Esther looked at the Doctor with a thoughtful smile. "So that's what got you started on this whole… saving planets business?"
"It's what got me doing it for more reasons than just wanting to get back to my ship and leave, anyway," the Doctor conceded as he returned Esther's thoughtful smile. "So you believe me?"
"Let's say that I'm willing to… well, you don't strike me as the kind of nut who'd make up that kind of thing," Esther explained. "You're eccentric, certainly, but you're not that kind of crazy… and how did we get onto this?"
"I think we were discussing how we all have to just play it by ear when we're in these kind of situations," Jack smiled. "That's the big secret, Esther; at times like this we all defer to the one who speaks loudest, but at heart everyone just ends up wishing that their mother was here to take over."
"Unless you're the kind of person who had to deal with everything because you never really had a 'mother'…" the Doctor mused.
"You never had a mother?" Esther looked at the Doctor in surprise.
"…Cultural thing; whole family took responsibility for raising the tots and… well, individual parenting wasn't really the 'done' thing," the Doctor said, surprising even himself for giving away that much. Looking back, he supposed that Innocet could arguably be considered as having taken a maternal role when he was growing up, but he hadn't truly understood the significance of her role in his life when he lived at Lungbarrow and hadn't had the time to really express himself when they'd last spoken.
"Sounds rough," Esther said sympathetically. "I lost my mom back in 2003… what about you?"
"I don't know," Jack said, looking wistfully ahead of himself. "Long ago and so far away…"
A phone call drew them out of their contemplation, Jack staring at the screen with a wistful shrug before he turned back to his friends.
"Rex," he said. "Let's get moving."
As Esther followed Jack, the Doctor shot off a quick text message to Natalie before he joined his new colleagues (he couldn't call them 'companions' when none of them were travelling in the TARDIS right now), returning to the streets in time to see a taxi driving off. Rex was standing alongside the woman they'd previously glimpsed at the airport when they'd first arrived in America, now wearing a blue-and-white patterned dress.
"Vera, this is Jack Harkness," Rex said, indicating the captain.
"We keep meeting," Jack smiled at Vera as he shook her hand. "It's like destiny."
"And I'm the Doctor," the Doctor smiled as he shook the woman's hand. "I believe we spoke on the phone a few days ago?"
"Yeah, I believe we did," Doctor Juarez said, smiling uncertainly at the Time Lord. "And you also knocked me out and stole my car?"
"And got it sent back to you afterwards," the Doctor pointed out with a slight huff. "I believe I apologised at the time; I just didn't have another option to get away."
"…OK, I'll let you have that one," the doctor shook her head before she looked curiously at the Doctor. "So… who are you, anyway? Judging from our first talk, I take it you're not a medical doctor, but-"
"My credentials and experience are long and complicated; just know that I'm experienced with strange situations and I'm here to help."
"…That's the best you're likely to get from the guy," Rex shook his head. "Anyway, this is Esther; you met her earlier when I got hurt."
"Doctor Juarez," Esther smiled. "Hello again."
"You can call me Vera," the older woman assured her before looking around at the group. "I was lucky to get a flight. Everyone's coming to LA for this event tonight, the Miracle Rally. The plane was full and the AC was bust. I could use a shower."
"We're a bit short of room," Jack apologised.
"There are a lot of us here," Natalie added as she walked up with a smile. "Natalie Kriener; consider me the security specialist."
"You?" Vera looked over the young blonde woman in surprise.
"I'm stronger than I look," Natalie answered. "Let's just get to the room and work out our next move; we can sort out where we're putting everyone later."
"Good call," Jack nodded. Introductions sorted, the group headed into the building and up the stairs to their newest apartment base.
"Sorry about the clutter; we're still sorting through everything we've got so far," the Doctor smiled apologetically at Doctor Juarez as he opened the door and indicated where K9 was currently perched on a seat with a cable connecting his head to the modem. "In the meantime, K9's running a few searches until we're ready to take action. K9, this is Doctor Vera Juarez; she'll be joining the team."
"Affirmative," K9 said as he turned his head slightly to look more directly at the doctor. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Juarez."
"That thing talks?" Vera looked at the robot dog in surprise.
"Affirmative," K9 responded. "I can also listen and respond."
"He does that a lot," the Doctor grinned between the doctor and the robot dog. "Anyway, we need a little time to sort things out here, so for the moment-"
"I'll… just dump my stuff over here," Vera said, heading off to the section of the flat that had already been marked out as Rex's room. As the CIA agent followed after Vera in as nonchalant a manner as was possible for him to pull off under the circumstances, the Doctor exchanged glances with Esther, Natalie and Jack.
"Give them an hour?" Natalie asked at last.
"Might as well," Jack observed as he indicated the surrounding boxes. "We still need a bit of time to set everything up here anyway."