Chapter three – Rose's guide to the 62th century

A young man in a little cell was waking up. He had a terrible headache, and he wanted to know why. He tried to think about the previous day's events, but he didn't remember drinking anything that could've caused this, so he ruled out the possibility of a hangover. Then he remembered the ship, the aliens and the guns. He slowly realized, that he was in a cell, and the blonde next to him wasn' his girlfriend, but his partner, Rose. She was still out, so he began to examine the place. On the ceiling was some kind of lamp that lit the cell with red lights, and it was very annoying. The walls were metal, and instead of a door, there was a force field. By the looks of it, it shocked the prisoners when they touched it, so he didn't want to try it. When he carefully inched closer to it, he could see the corridor and other cells. But what suprised him was the fact, that the other cells were also occupied, there were several other prisoners, all humanoid. When he looked closer, he realized, that they weren't humanoids, they were in fact humans, probably abducted, like Rose and him. After that he tried to figure out how the field worked, but he had no success. He stopped searching when he heard movement behind his back; Rose was waking up.

„Ouch," she moaned „this was the last time I drank that stuff," she said to noone.

„Good morning Sleeping Beauty."

„Ben? What are you doing in my flat?"

„Nothing, open your eyes," he instructed.

Rose did so, and she froze then said „It wasn't a dream, was it?"

„Nope, we're really in a dirty cell on an unidentified ship," he quipped.

„You really know how to cheer up a girl."

„But look at the bright side. We have company. There are about two hundred other people on this level, if i counted right."

„What race?"

„Humans," answered Ben, but was cut off, before he could continue.

„No, you're wrong. They're not humans, they're freaks. So are you," said a voice that sounded familiar, but neither of them could place it because of the buzz of the force field. They heard footsteps, and a man walked in a front of them. He was rather tall, and was wearing black clothes, with a mark on the sleeve of his coat. It was a red snake curled around a gray sword.

„What do you want from us? If you want to bargain with the goverments, you will be disappointed. They don't make deals with terrorists," spoke up Rose, but the man just laughed, and said,

„We don't want anything, just to destroy the monsters like you. They will be grateful," he said, and then walked away, leaving a couple of guards behind. They could tell, he was not the one who spoke first.

„Bastard. What did he mean? Why would we be monsters? Ben?" she turned to her partner, only to find him staring at the spot the man was standing not long ago. She called his name another two times, and when he didn't react, she slapped his arm. That did it.

„What the hell was that for?" he asked, rather annoyed.

„I was calling your name for a while, and you didn't react. You were just staring. What's the matter?"

„I know who these guys are," he said, and when Rose urged him to countinue, he did „Usually they're called the Brotherhood, 'cause nobody knows their real name. They travel through time and space to kill or enslave everybody, who is not up to their standards. That usually means the half-bloods and humans with genetic mutation. You know, the kind of changes that can be the cause of the evolution. They kill them unless their change can be used. Then they use them for breeding. The non-used survivors are branded as freaks. The aliens, that shot us must've been slaves. Maybe dekrons. Anyway, the ultimate goal of our lovely friends is to create a superior human race, without weaknesses; they want a Great Human Empire to rule the galaxy."

„We should introduce them to the boss. They'd love each other with their obsession to create an empire."

„Yeah. Anyway they're like some kind of intergalactic breeding stock. They believe, that all races are inferior to the humans. Idiots."

„Like death eaters?" at Ben's blank stare, she explained „you know, Harry Potter?" he still didn't react "Live a little."

„You want to give me lessons on 'living'? Miss I-haven't-been-on-a-holiday-for-eight-years?"

„We're getting off-topic. How come you know so much about these guys?"

„Where I was born, they were pretty much accepted by the majority of the population. The leaders didn't dare to side with them, but they looked away. Because of that, the Brotherhood often did jobs for the goverment. Assassination and other stuff."

„Where the hell were you born?"

„Arden, Thygrae system."

„Where?!"

„Don't look so suprised. You always knew I'm not entirely human."

„I know, but I always imagined, that you were born on Earth, in this time frame. When were you born?"

„In 6147. The day is the 3rd of October by the Earth calendars."

„One day we'll sit down, and you'll tell me everything about your life, including the juicy details," she echoed the statement he made earlier that day.

„Yeah, right," he played along. Then with a frustrated sigh, he moved back to the edge of the cell, and said, „I can't understand one thing. What're you doing here? Ok, you're not from this universe, but you're not alien, are you? Altough it would probably explain things, I doubt that Jackie is alien. Pete is surely human, I do his monthly check-ups."

„Of course I'm human. Maybe they picked up the voidstuff on me, or the other thing with the time vortex."

„Probably. But if they're searching for half-bloods and evolved humans, that means, that the majority of the others are alien descendants. Boy, if we get out of here, we'll have a lot of paperwork to do. There are at least 200 of them, and it's just this floor," complained the man.

„As I said, you really know how to make my day better. Anyway we really should get out of here. I don't fancy dying."

„Have any plan? They took away my stuff. No gun, no laser, nothing."

„They took those from me too. But they left this. They didn't notice it," said Rose, pulling an object out of her left pocket.

„How the hell did they miss that? And anyway what is it?" asked Ben, not recognising the silvery object.

„It's, my friend, is a sonic screwdriver. It was a birthday present. After telling stories to Violet, he got the guys in the physic department to make this. And for our captors missing it, my pocket is bigger on the inside," she joked, "Handy little trick, isn't it?" And with that, she set a setting, and began to work on the field. After a couple of seconds, the field dissolved and they were free. „Should we free the others now, or come back later?" she asked.

„Let's come back later. Two is less noticable than 200. If we are fast enough, we can find a computer and figure out how to beam the back to Earth before they notice that we escaped," answered Ben.

They slipped out of their cell without anyone to notice, and began their search. They didn't have to walk long before they came across a room full of computers. Nobody was in the room, most likely because the system was automatic. On the monitors red symbols were flashing, but Rose didn't understood any of it. That fact bothered her, because even in the parallel universe, her connection with the TARDIS allowed her to understand all languages in the universe, except gallifreyan, and by the looks of it, this. She looked at Ben, but it seemed, he didn't have the same problem. He frowned every now and then, while reading the texts.

Finally Rose asked, „Okay, future boy, what do you make out of it? Can you control the transporter from here?"

„Yeah, give me a minute," he said, and then began to type on the keyboard with incredible speed. A couple of minutes later he stopped and turned to Rose. „We have a little problem. I can get the others out, but then we're stuck. The beam is not big enough to cover us too, and i if i don't shut it down, they can just transport them back."

„Are you sure?"

„Yes," he sighed" I say we get them out, then we improvise. We can try to find the emergency transporter, or some other escape route. And we can always hope, that the others down there think out something. What do you say?"

„Let's do it."

„Okay," he said, then hit the button. There was no sound for a minute, but then several angry shouts erupted. There was a sound of an alarm, then they heard the guards coming closer to them.

After the first group of guards passed them on their way to the cells, Rose slipped her hand in Ben's, and said one word.

„Run!"