Disclaimer: I don't in any way own the series Doctor Who . Those are the sole property of the BBC.
Return to Satellite 5 AU: "Bad Wolf", "The Parting of the Ways" and "Born Again".
note: Not been betad'.
Chapter Seven: Wolf Moon Rising
The eye with the rotating galaxy behind seemed to pulse with menace. The female voice of the Big Brother house resounded throughout the area that the Doctor, Strood and Lynda sat. "The house rules were broken by the Doctor."
The three listened intently from their position on the sofa. The Doctor was on the edge of the sofa cushion eager to hear what should be the rendering of him getting the boot. It would be noticed that they needed to evict him otherwise it would invalidate the game, but on the other side whoever it was that had brought him there wouldn't kill him. Well that was unless that was the point. The Doctor however didn't think it was though.
"You left the Big Brother House no choice you are being evicted." The computerized voice gave off the inflection of glee at the pronouncement.
The Doctor was equally elated at the words. He jumped up from the sofa, a manic smile on his face, with an arm raised in triumph.
The Big Brother computer continued in its enthusiastic cheer. "Make you farewells in ten seconds, or we'll get you."
The Doctor without any hesitation ran for the door that would either kill him or ultimately prove that the game was rigged since he'd showed up. "That's it. Come on let's get this show on the road."
Lynda was right behind the leather clad man, in an obvious state of distress. "Doctor, what are you doin'? Have you gone barkin'? Dying isn't going to solve anything!"
The brown haired Strood was unimpressed by the proceedings. From his position sitting on the back of the sofa he afford up his thoughts. "He's a mole. I just knew it. They dropped him in here to liven things up!"
The Doctor barely waited for the white door slide completely open before rushing in. Now it was the Doctor who was surrounded by narrow white room. At the end was another door which was obviously sealed as none of the other contestants had been able to escape.
The computer was unaware of the fact that the Doctor was already in the narrow corridor where the disintegrator was. "The Doctor, depart the Big Brother house hold."
Strood turned his attention back to the screen to watch. He couldn't believe what an idiot the other man was. The blue eyed man really thought that he wouldn't be killed just like the rest. The shagging haired man shook his head in incredulity.
Lynda stayed not wanting to leave the Doctor to his fate. The door slide closed she anxiously watched until she couldn't see the leather clad man. Sighing in misery as it sealed shut, she quickly returned to the sofa and so as to watch TV.
The Doctor couldn't help the impatient; he was done with the whole Big Brother game show. He needed to be out looking for his friends. It also seemed to help with the sick he'd been feeling since he'd arrived. "What's the hold up? You goin' to disintegrate me or what?!" He looked up at the disintegrator and he jumped little expectantly. "Come on."
Lynda bit nervously into her thumb nail as she watched in dumbfound disbelief. "He really is starkers. He's totally gone starkers he has."
Up on the five hundredth floor, the two tech's watched with confusion, at the Doctor's, off the wall antics. The blue eyed man was looking right at the camera; the tin sound of his voice came over the male tech's earpiece. "What's the hold up? Disintegrate me!"
The Hindi woman had rushed back to the brown haired man when he looked a little panicked. She'd only just managed to quell a minor drama at the 'What Not to Wear' section. The techs had been hysterically, apparently a man had been able to smuggle a small laser gun onto the station and after beheading the robot hostess's he escaped out into the unused portions of the Game Station. She had to reassure the flamboyant tech's that security would find the delinquent contestant. "Bloody hell, I'm very sure, I didn't tell you to kill him! You were only supposed to watch him."
The male tech took the chiding in his stride as he continued to watch the spectacle on his screen. "Well it's not like I deliberately set him up. He's the one that zapped the main camera. That's an automatic expulsion."
In the white corridor, the Doctor stood with his arms folded, he rocked back on his heels and falling back. He grinned foolishly looking up at the disintegrator, waiting for the inevitable failure of the games programming.
"The Doctor being evicted in five… four… three… two… one…" The female computer voice trailed off.
Lynda shut her eyes and covered them with trembling hands. The whine of the power shutting off was the first clue that nothing happened. There wasn't the normal feel of the air being energized by the disintegrator beam.
"Ha! Haha!" The Doctor gave out a hearty laugh.
Lynda opened her eyes peeking around her fingers in surprise. On the screen the Doctor was still standing there. There wasn't any smoke or a pile of ash.
The Doctor couldn't help reveling in the fact that those who were running the Game Station didn't want to kill him. "Whoever you are that brought me here, I knew it wasn't just to try and kill me. If you'd want that it would have been easier to just transmat me into a volcano or a cenote!"
The female looked at the man with bewilderment. "Um… Did you do that?"
"That wasn't me!" said the brown haired man in equal amount of disbelieve.
On the monitor, the Doctor looked right into the camera. "Somebody out there wants me alive..."
The male tech ignored the blue eyed man on the screen as he tapped out on his keyboard. "Somehow the game was overridden."
"Let's see, I'm a genius, me. So it stands to reason that the door at this end wouldn't be a secure. It's not like anybody would normally make it out being of disintegrated." The Doctor continued to talk as he examined the door, he looked back up giving the camera mocking grin. "Everyone following? This is the part where I escape!"
The Doctor couldn't believe how simple the mechanism really was compared to the ones inside the Big Brother House. He pointed the sonic screwdriver which whirred and the blue tip brightened, the lock clicked open and the door swung open. The Doctor looked over as the door behind him also opened. Lynda's head popped out her eyes were wide as she absorbed the further proof that the mad man was still alive.
The Doctor looked at the woman, in her own way actually reminded him of his assistant Jo Grant, who had been his companion while in his third incarnation. "Why don't you come with?"
Lynda was unsure what to do, she looked back at Strood. He was kneeling on the sofa and couldn't believe that the blonde woman was even thinking about leaving the house. "It's against the rules. It not allowed!"
"Lynda, think about it you have a fifty-fifty chance if you stay. Come with me and I can promise you'll make out of here alive." The Doctor reached out to her with one calloused hand.
Lynda bit her lip nervously looking at the Doctor's out stretched hand. "I… I don't… I can't..." She stuttered.
The Doctor looked at the blonde haired woman in sympathy, "Lynda, you really are cute. But in this world you live in do you think being cute, will get you the votes?"
Lynda still stared at the Doctor for a moment he was still waiting. The blonde quickly realized that the man was right, with only mild in-trepidation she grab that hand. It was like touching a live wire as he pulled her the rest of the way through the corridor and they went out the next door to freedom.
After going through the door, they find themselves on Floor 56 of Satellite Five. The Doctor looked around the large dark area that held supplies for the game rooms, and the feel of the atmosphere changed as his time senses finally gave him the answers that had been obscured in the Big Brother House. "Wait minute… This isn't the first time I've been here. This is… I'm on Satellite Five!"
The Doctor and Lynda walked down the exterior of the game rooms until the blue eyed spotted a door that didn't appear to apart of the shows still broadcasting. He opened the door to the room with just the right setting from his sonic screwdriver. They stepped through into small computer room. Lynda just stood watching as the Doctor scanned the equipment with his sonic screwdriver which whirred each time he passed it over another section.
"So I wonder were the guards are? I mean you'd expect a big business such as Satellite Five would be crawling with them. Though it's a nice change not to have a gun pointed at me face." The Doctor rambled as tried to ease the alarm that began to spread at each new difference in the timeline. He left the room not paying Lynda any attention as he tested the closed off walls sections and the blue glowing hand scanner and the other nearby doors with his sonic screwdriver.
"What are you on about, nobody's called this place Satellite Five in forever not for like a hundred years. It's just the Game Station." Lynda gazed at the Doctor in amazement still not used to his strange ways as she followed him.
The Doctor looked down to check his watch. "Hmm… Exactly hundred years, two zero-zero, one zero-zero. I had been here before on floor one hundred thirty-nine. At that time it had been broadcasting news channels. They'd had some trouble at the top, nothing too bad. Simple really… me and Rose helped them out… and were home in time for tea and biscuits."
"Right… you did that hundred years ago?" Lynda smiled incredulously not yet convinced that the man she put her trust in wasn't just completely mad.
The Doctor went on to another of the touch-sensitive pads trying to open the door; it gave no response even with a bit of prodding with the sonic. The lock remained it was starting to frustrate the Doctor.
Lynda looked at the Doctor and hesitantly spoke, "You're saying that you were on the Game Station back a hundred years ago?"
The Doctor had moved on again checking the edges around another door with his sonic screwdriver causing it light in the blue light and the sound gave that same pleasant whirring sound. Grinning, the Doctor absently answered. "Oh, yeah!"
"Oh… well you're looking great actually…" Lynda realized that the Doctor wasn't joking.
The Doctor turned finally giving the young woman his attention. "I moisturize."
The Doctor looked back down at his sonic screwdriver with a perplexed expression on his face. "These readings are funny. This place is brimming with all kinds of energy. It's practical bursting with it. That's very odd. This is going way past the needs of regular transmissions. Now, why would anyone need that power for?" The dark haired man quickly went on to another door.
"I dunno. It's just that since that one time when that one Big Brother Five hundred and four had walked. I think we're the only other contestants to ever leave without you know." Lynda made a gesture with her hand miming the zapping of the disintegrator.
The Doctor listened but continued in his search of the area around them. "My two friends they'd gotten transmated with me. Do you have any idea where in this station they would be?" That uneasy feeling was still nagging at him, he wasn't so worried about Jack but Rose she was just a little too jeopardy-friendly.
"There's like a hundred different games. I have no idea where they could be." The blonde woman wrung her hands at how she wasn't being much help to the Doctor.
That caught the Doctor's full attention it wasn't as many as the news channels had been but still a hundred different games. Meaning hundreds if not more human-beings killed. "So what types of games are there?"
Lynda stood thinking about the Doctor's question. "Well, 'Big Brother' is on ten floors. There's a different House behind each of those doors. And well, there is a lot shows all kinds really. The station goes non-stop. There's um... 'Call My Bluff'... with real guns... 'Countdown', where you've got thirty seconds to stop the bomb going off... 'Ground Force', which is a nasty one... you get turned into compost. Erm... 'Wipeout', speaks for itself... um. And 'Stars In Their Eyes'. Literally, stars in their eyes. If you don't sing, you get blinded… oh! The one nobody want's to get put into is 'The Weakest Link'."
The blue eyed man stared at Lynda in horrified wonder. "Cute little Lynda don't tell you watch this stuff?"
"Oh come on everyone does. How is it that you've never seen them?" The blonde pigtailed woman shrugged.
"That's easy I never paid for a license." The Doctor said nonchalantly.
Lynda looked at the dark haired man in shock. "Oh, my Lord! Doctor, you get put to death for that!"
The Doctor smirked and held up his sonic screwdriver. "We'll see about that."
"Who are you, Doctor? I just don't understand the things you keep talking about. They just don't make sense." Lynda once again worried her lip between her teeth as she gazed at the Doctor in puzzlement.
"Doesn't matter." The Doctor walked away trying to avoid the young woman's concern. He scanned the next door in an effort to block the feelings that would get in the away.
Lynda followed right behind him and got into his space. "It matters to me... I've just trusted you. I literally put my life in your hands."
The Doctor felt a wave of what humans called deja-vu, he had the same conversation once upon a time with Rose on Platform One, continued to examine the lock. "I'm just a wandering traveler; I don't stay in one place long. Believe it or not, all I'm after is a quiet life."
Lynda took in what the leather clad man said. "So... if… when we get out of here, you're gonna wander off again? Without looking back?"
"Yep. Just as fast as I can." The Doctor said unaware of the woman looking at him with sad blue eyes.
"Um… is there any room for me to come with ya?" Lynda asked tentatively. She smiled at him winningly, waiting and hoping for the Doctor's answer.
He looked back at the blonde woman and properly scrutinized her time lines. "Well I suppose you could."
The blue eyed woman smiled brightly at his answer. "You won't have to worry I'm good about not get in the way."
"Lynda with a Y, you getting in the way isn't a problem. There enough room for everyone." The Doctor smiled as the idea of the cute woman could perhaps distract Captain Jack, but did he really want to do that to the poor innocent blonde woman.
Lynda smiled giddily at the Doctor. She couldn't help thinking that he was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
"The thing is we have to get out of here first." The Doctor said briskly getting back using his sonic screwdriver to scan the area. "And do you know how we're going to do that?" He continued to explain as if Lynda had responded. "You have to know your enemy. So who's really controlling the satellite now?"
"Wait a minute..." Lynda ran to the opposite end of the room, she reach up and pulled down a lever. On the wall huge letters light up 'Bad Wolf Corporation' were clear displayed. "They are our Lords and Masters."
The Doctor stared up at the logo in astonishment and bafflement. His apprehension grew inexorably.
TBC…