A/N: I do not own anything relating to Doctor Who. I only own the ideas of my OC. I'm back (sort of) and trying to update about once a week. This episode and the next one is proving hard for me to write. I apologize if anything sounds off. I'm trying to keep going. I love hearing what you think. Please leave a review. :-) I hope you enjoy.
Previously: "That's so not fair. I've been applying to Floor five hundred for three years." She snapped and crossed her arms over her chest.
"What's Floor five hundred?" Rose asked the Doctor. He was still watching everything in the room.
"They say the walls are made of gold." I explained. She quirked an eyebrow in confusion. I just shrugged in response. Everyone started filing out of the room. Suki ran off to get her bags.
Suki, Rose, Cathica, the Doctor, and I were standing around in front of a lift door. Adam was sitting at a table behind us slightly. He seemed a little off. He was glancing around the room, his eyes still a bit wide with shock. It was slightly worrisome but I figured if the Doctor wasn't concerned about Adam's distance and silence, then I shouldn't be either.
"Cathica, I'm going to miss you." Suki smiled at Cathica who didn't say anything in return. She only gave a blank stare. Suki turned to the Doctor. "Floor five hundred, thank you." She beamed excitedly, practically bouncing in place.
"I didn't do anything." He explained. She looked at me.
"Not me either." I smiled.
"Well, you're my lucky charms." She giggled, holding out her arms toward the Doctor.
"All right. I'll hug anyone." He chuckled and they hugged. Rose had moved away from us to talk to Adam. They were speaking quietly so I couldn't hear them. Suki came over and enveloped me in a hug as well. I was shocked for a moment but hugged her back as well. A feeling of cold overwhelmed me but she let go with a smile. Rose had walked back over to stand next to me.
"Where's Adam?" I asked quietly, looking over at her.
"Acclimatizing on the observation deck." She said softly, shifting slightly. She was uncomfortable and I didn't know what to do to for her. I frowned and turned back to Suki who was talking with the Doctor and Cathica.
"Oh, my God, I've got to go." She picked up her bags. "I can't keep them waiting." She ran into the lift. "I'm sorry. Say goodbye to Steve for me. Bye!" She called out with a wave as the doors to the lift closed. The Doctor, Rose and I waved back.
"Good riddance." Cathica said as she crossed her arms once again. I turned to look at her. She still looked thoroughly upset. She was almost glaring at the lift as it ascended. She had so desperately wanted the promotion and she blamed Suki for her not getting it. I had never seen someone so upset over a promotion.
"You're talking like you'll never see her again. She's only going upstairs." The Doctor offered. She looked at him as though he had suggested the sun went round the Earth.
"We won't. Once you go to Floor Five Hundred you never come back." She explained and started walking away. I stared after her for a minute, letting her words sink in. The Doctor had started following her so Rose grabbed my arm and pulled me along.
"Right. That's lovely. This is going on the list of things to never say, ever. Along with unsinkable, nothing could go wrong, what's the worst that could happen-" I started rambling. The Doctor looked back at me so I stopped. "What? It's not like anything good ever comes after saying something like that." I explained. It was true. Every time someone uttered one of those stupid phrases, things got out of hand.
"Point taken." He turned back to Cathica as we continued walking. "Have you ever been up there?"
"I can't. You need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with promotion. No one gets to Floor Five Hundred except for the chosen few. Look, they only give us twenty minutes maintenance. Can't you just give it a rest?" Cathica groaned, once again crossing her arms. We had moved back into the room where she had been broadcasting from. Her 'ignore everything unless it directly involves me' attitude was grating on my nerves a bit.
"But you've never been to another floor? Not even one floor down?" The Doctor questioned after he sat in the broadcasting chair. Rose stood on one side of him while Cathica stood on the other. I stayed back a bit and leaned on the railing behind Rose.
"I went to floor sixteen when I first arrived." She shook her head.
"What's on floor sixteen?" I asked. She glanced at me for a second.
"That's medical." She explained then turned her attention back to the Doctor. "That's when I got my head done, and then I came straight here. Satellite Five, you work, eat, and sleep on the same floor."
"Seriously? You don't even get to visit others for holiday or something?" She didn't answer me. She only shook her head in response. I couldn't understand why you would agree to a position where you could never see anyone who didn't live in the same area as you. It didn't settle well with me. It didn't sound like a job, it sounded like a prison. "All these floors and you never see any of the others?" I added. The Doctor looked at me and smiled. He seemed to approve of my questioning. He looked back to Cathica when she began speaking.
"That's it. That's all there is." She said with a frown. She looked between us three. "You're not management, are you?" She asked carefully, finally realizing how strange our questions were. I was surprised it had taken her that long. I thought we had been fairly obvious. Perhaps people were just more gullible than I had thought.
"Nope." I smirked at her. It wasn't that I was happy she was upset. I was happy that she had finally started noticing the inconsistencies.
"At last. She's clever." The Doctor teased her. I chuckled. Rose turned and looked at me.
"Really?" She asked.
"What?" I was confused. I hadn't done anything other than laugh.
"No, 'stop being rude' comment?" I shook my head. She seemed surprised that I hadn't corrected his attitude toward Cathica. This woman was very quickly getting on my bad side. I honestly didn't mind the fact that the Doctor was being sarcastic. It was actually becoming slightly amusing. "Are you feeling alright?" She teased. I rolled my eyes at her and she giggled.
"Well, whatever it is you're doing, don't involve me. I don't know anything." Cathica huffed. Rose and I turned our attention back to her and the Doctor.
"Don't you even ask?" He asked her.
"Why would I?" I couldn't understand why she wouldn't. Maybe I was just a curious person, or maybe people had just stopped caring enough to question things.
"You're a journalist. Isn't that what you're supposed to do, question everything, figure out the truth in things?" I asked. She didn't answer me so the Doctor continued his questioning.
"Why's all the crew human?"
"What's that got to do with anything?" She truly was oblivious. It was quite sad.
"There's no aliens on board. Why?" He pushed.
"I don't know. No real reason. They're not banned or anything." She was beginning to get a bit uneasy with our questions. I decided to keep pushing her.
"Then where are they?" I pushed off from the railing and made my way closer to them. Cathica quickly looked from me to the Doctor. She was more apt to answer him. It was rather annoying.
"I suppose immigration's tightened up. It's had to, what with all the threats." She shrugged it off.
"What threats?" The Doctor continued.
"I don't know. All of them. Usual stuff. And the price of space warp doubled so that keeps the visitors away." She was slowly beginning to panic. "Oh, and the government of Chavic Five's collapsed, so that lot stopped coming. You see? Just lots of little reasons, that's all." She looked like she was trying to convince not only us that it was nothing, but also trying to reassure herself that there was nothing to worry about. It's much easier to ignore problems than fixing them or even convincing others that there is a problem.
"It's all adding up to one great big fact, and you didn't even notice." He frowned.
"Doctor, I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it. We see everything." She said firmly.
"Another phrase to add to my list." I grumbled. Rose raised an eyebrow at me but I just shook my head. The Doctor and Cathica didn't seem to have heard my mutterings. They continued to go back and forth.
"I can see better. This society's the wrong shape, even the technology." He mused darkly.
"It's cutting edge." She quipped indignantly.
"It's backwards. There's a great big door in your head. You should have chucked this out years ago." He refuted. She touched her forehead instinctively. She frowned at us. Rose decided to finally speak up.
"So, what do you think is going on?" She asked the Doctor. He looked over at us.
"It's not just this space station, it's the whole attitude. It's the way people think. The great and bountiful Human Empire's stunted. Something's holding it back." His frown deepened as he spoke. There was something truly troubling him and it worried me even more than before.
"And how would you know?" Cathica snapped. The Doctor quickly looked over at her.
"Trust me. Humanity's been set back about ninety years." He paused for a moment before he seemed to realize something. "When did Satellite Five start broadcasting?" Cathica thought for a moment before responding nervously.
"Ninety one years ago." Her voice was much quieter than before. Even though she didn't seem to believe him at first, she seemed to be changing her mind ever so slightly. The Doctor jumped up from the chair and started walking out of the room.
"Where are we going?" Rose questioned as we walked. Cathica followed us, however reluctantly.
"I need to find out something." The Doctor responded cryptically as we walked through the break area and off to the far side of the room. There was a set of double doors that he walked up to and began to run his sonic screwdriver along the seam.
"Mainframe?" I questioned. He simply nodded and continued trying to get the doors open.
"We are so going to get in trouble. You're not allowed to touch the mainframe. You're going to get told off." Cathica pouted, looking around to see if anyone was watching us. I was glancing around the room as well, keeping an eye out. No one seemed to be paying us any attention. The Doctor groaned at her constant complaining.
"Rose, tell her to button it." He huffed and continued working. Rose looked at me, once again surprised that I hadn't told him off. I shrugged.
"You can't just vandalize the place. Someone's going to notice!" Cathica continued complaining. The doors to the mainframe finally opened. The Doctor started scanning the system with his sonic and messed with several wires. Cathica was pacing around us. It was putting me off. I could feel the beginning of a headache. I popped my neck to ease some of the tension and turned to her.
"Look around us. No one has noticed. Not a single person is looking at us. If we were going to get in trouble, don't you think someone would have said something by now?" She didn't answer me. "Exactly, now would you kindly shut up." I turned back to watch what the Doctor was doing.
"I think you've been around him too much." Rose told me, pointing to the Doctor. It confused me. "You're being rude." I didn't bother saying anything. I simply huffed at her and rolled my eyes. Cathica stopped pacing and had moved to the other side of the Doctor.
"This has nothing to do with me. I'm going back to work." It sounded like she was trying to get us to tell her to stay with us. The Doctor and I shared a quick glance before looking over at her.
"Go on, then." He told her then quickly returned to the mainframe.
"See you!" I added. Rose tried stifling a laugh from behind me. I narrowed my eyes at her. She just shook her head in response.
"I can't just leave you, can I!" Cathica was being overly dramatic. Before I could do anything to get myself in trouble, Rose started speaking.
"If you want to be useful, get them to turn the heating down. It's boiling. What's wrong with this place? Can't they do something about it?" She was sounding just as annoyed as me now. I smirked at her and she just wrinkled her nose at me.
"I don't know. We keep asking. Something to do with the turbine." Cathica was getting a bit snippy with her responses the more we started questioning things.
"Something to do with the turbine." The Doctor grumbled. He shook his head and started scanning more of the wires. I straightened up and turned to Cathica.
"How long has it been this warm? Have you ever seen someone doing maintenance? Or is this another one of those things where you stop questioning it once they've given you a half-assed answer?" I snapped. All three turned to look at me. I ignored Rose and the Doctor, focusing my attention on Cathica. She looked slightly afraid of me. "Well?" I asked.
"Well, I don't know!" She threw her arms up in defeat. The Doctor turned back to look at Cathica. I was grateful. I wasn't sure if he was mad at me or just confused at my attitude change like Rose was. Either way, I didn't want to see the look he had been giving me. Rose had been disappointed in me before so I knew I could easily work to get her to forgive me. The Doctor was a bit harder to figure out. I relaxed a bit when he started talking to Cathica.
"Exactly. I give up on you, Cathica. Now, Rose and Phoenix. Look at them. They're asking the right kind of questions." He gave us a quick smile. It threw me off a little bit.
"Really?" I questioned.
"Yes." He nodded.
"Oh, thank you." Rose smiled. I chuckled at her. She seemed to be just as shocked as me.
"Why is it so hot?" He asked Cathica.
"One minute you're worried about the Empire and the next it's the central hating!" She whined.
"Well, never underestimate plumbing. Plumbing's very important." He mused as he pulled out a small monitor from the wires. "Here we go. Satellite Five, pipes and plumbing. Look at the layout." He pulled up the satellites schematics. Cathica walked over and looked at the monitor.
"This is ridiculous. You've got access to the computer's core. You can look at the archive, the news, the stock exchange and you're looking at pipes?" She asked incredulously, looking back at the Doctor who had moved to stand a bit behind her.
"But there's something wrong." He said carefully, almost as if encouraging her to look more carefully at what was in front of her. He was being much more rational with her now. I wasn't sure if I could have been that civil with her. It was proving difficult for me to simply hold my tongue when I got annoyed with her.
"I suppose." She shrugged and turned to look at the monitor again. She continued to look over it. Her eyebrows furrowed as she slowly started realizing what she was seeing.
"Why, what is it?" Rose asked nervously, trying to make sense of the image on the screen. I was trying to understand what Cathica was seeing but I had never really understood plumbing. Cathica turned to look at Rose.
"The ventilation system. Cooling ducts, ice filters, all working flat out channeling massive amounts of heat down." She finished nervously. She turned to look at the Doctor, her eyes were wide with worry. She was slowly seeing the truth for herself.
"All the way from the top." The Doctor nodded his head.
"Floor Five Hundred?" I suggested.
"Something up there is generating tons and tons of heat." He agreed.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm missing out on a party. It's all going on upstairs." Rose fake pouted. I smiled when she looked at me.
"Fancy a trip?" I asked. Her smile matched my own.
"Might be dangerous." She teased.
"It always is with him." I gestured to the Doctor who was watching us with a small smile. "Besides, we'll end up there eventually. Why not go while we're willing?" I suggested, knowing that we would end up there somehow or another. If that was where things were happening, the Doctor was guaranteed to end up there. It was a pattern that I quickly picked up on through our few travels so far.
"You can't. You need a key." Cathica interrupted our light banter.
"Not really stopped us so far." I muttered, remembering the pain in my shoulder from breaking down the door to get to Rose in 1869. I subconsciously moved to rub my shoulder. The Doctor squeezed my other shoulder as he moved past me and up to the monitor.
"Keys are just codes, and I've got the codes right here." He offered as numbers started appearing on the screen. They appeared one by one. "Here we go. Override two one five point nine." The numbers continued until the full code was revealed, 215.9976/31. Cathica looked from the monitor to the Doctor, a look of shock on her face.
"How come it's given you the code?" She sneered slightly as she asked this. I began to glare at her. Her attitude had finally gotten to be too much for me. The only thing that stopped me from saying something I might regret, was Rose putting a hand on my shoulder. I glanced over at her. Her eyes held a disapproving look and she shook her head. I huffed and looked at the Doctor who looked up slightly. I searched for what he was looking at and saw a security camera.
"Someone up there likes me." He said solemnly. I frowned at this.
"Aww, and I thought they enjoyed my snarky attitude." I pretended to be saddened by this, crossing my arms and huffing once again. The Doctor chuckled slightly which eased the tension building in my neck slightly. When he was uneasy, I became even more on edge and tense. Rose rolled her eyes at my little show. Cathica looked a bit confused.
"No one enjoys your snarky attitude, we just deal with it." Rose teased me with a smirk. I narrowed my eyes, wrinkled my nose, and stuck my tongue out at her. We started walking toward the lifts.
"I don't know, I don't mind it." The Doctor grinned. "Much better than when she lets into me for being rude." I smiled at Rose triumphantly.
"See someone likes..." My smile faded as I realized what all the Doctor had said. I spun to look at him. "Hey! I'm not that bad! Am I?" I knew my lectures were annoying but I didn't know how annoying. I was slightly worried that they were a bit too much. The Doctor must have seen the hint of worry in my eyes. He put his hand on my shoulder reassuringly as we came to a stop in front of the lifts.
"Don't worry. Admittedly, sometimes I do need to be reminded of my rudeness." He chuckled softly before turning to the panel in front of the lift. As he put in the code from the monitor, a feeling of dread washed over me. The doors opened and the Doctor walked in. Rose grabbed my and and pulled me in as well, seeing as I was staring blankly before me not moving. She turned back to Cathica who was just watching us.
"Come on. Come with us." Rose waived her to follow us onto the lift. She stayed rooted to the spot watching us.
"No way." She shook her head nervously.
"Bye!" The Doctor said with a smile and a wave. I shook my head at him.
"Well, don't mention my name. When you get in trouble, just don't involve me." Cathica said nervously before running off. The doors to the lift closed leaving just me, the Doctor, and Rose. I stood between the two of them. Rose had let go of my hand and I had occupied myself with trying to pop my already popped knuckles. I tried not to visibly jump when the Doctor spoke up.
"That's her gone. Adam's given up. Looks like it's just the three of us." From the corner of my eye I could see that he looked at us both with a smile. I tried to smile as well but even I could tell it looked forced.
"Yeah." Rose agreed.
"Good. Now, Phoenix, what's wrong?" I turned to look at the Doctor when he asked this.
"What do you mean?" I asked quickly.
"Ever since we got to the lift, you've been silent. You went from snarky to silent in a matter of seconds." He explained.
"And now that I think of it, you only ever really snarky when you're nervous. And now you're trying to pop your knuckles." Rose added. I looked down at my hands and clasped them together. I looked up to see both Rose and the Doctor looking at me.
"I just have a bad feeling. It's hard to explain." I muttered. There was no real way for me to explain the feeling. It had been building since we landed on Satellite Five. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it but still the feeling kept growing. Before either had a chance to question me any more about it, the doors to the lift opened revealing Floor Five Hundred. It was rather dark and freezing cold. Ice and frost clung to everything in sight. There wasn't another person in sight and no sign that people had been there other than a faint set of footprints on the frost covered floor. I assumed they were from Suki. We stepped out of the elevator and looked around the room.
"The walls are not made of gold. You two should go back downstairs." The Doctor suggested, taking everything in.
"Tough." Rose pipped up as she shivered.
"Yeah. Nice try. We're not leaving you up here alone. Who knows what kind of trouble you would get yourself in." I echoed Rose's thoughts. She and I linked arms and started walking off the way that the footprints went. Rose didn't seem to notice them so I was leading her. The Doctor followed after us.
"You get a bad feeling but you're willing to walk aimlessly up here?" The Doctor scoffed. He wasn't trying to be mean, at least I didn't think so. I'd like to believe he was simply trying to get Rose and I out of possible danger. He was awfully protective and sometimes that meant he would say whatever it took to get us away from the possible danger.
"I'm not wandering aimlessly. There's a rather fresh set of footprints on the ground. I'm assuming they're Suki's. Even if we don't figure anything out, maybe we can at least find her." I offered, gesturing to the path on the floor that I was following. The Doctor shrugged and took up the lead.
We quickly followed the path. It led to a strange observation type room. There was a row of computers with people sitting in front of them, though they didn't seem to respond to the movement of us entering the room. They were all terribly pale and looked like they had frost forming on them as well. In front of the computers was a wall of screens showing various things. There was a man standing behind the row of people. He had pale skin, white hair, and shockingly blue eyes. He chuckled when he looked at us.
"I started without you. This is fascinating. Satellite Five contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire." He was gesturing to the different things on the screens. Rose and I began to look at the people at the computers. I tried waving my hand in front of one of the people but they didn't react at all. The man continued talking. "Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but you three, you don't exist. Not a trace. No birth, no job, not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint?" He sounded excited almost. I frowned at him. Just then, I looked over and saw Suki at the furthest computer. Rose noticed her as well and ran over. I quickly followed. We went to either side of her.
"Suki. Suki! Hello? Can you hear me? Suki?" Rose called to her. When she went to touch Suki's arm she recoiled from the cold.
"Suki?" I asked quietly. I waved my hand in front of her but she didn't even blink. Her eyes were frozen to the screen in front of her. "What in the hell have you done to her and the others?" I demanded, rounding on the pale man.
"I think she's dead." The Doctor offered softly. My fury at the pale man grew when I realized the Doctor was right. Suki didn't have a pulse.
"But how? She's still working." Rose mused.
"They've all got chips in their head, and the chips keep going, like puppets." The Doctor explained as Rose and I stood up from being crouched next to Suki. The man was looking at the Doctor. He smiled as the Doctor explained things to us.
"Oh! You're full of information. But it's only fair we get some information back, because apparently, you're no one. It's so rare not to know something. Who are you?" The pale man asked.
"It doesn't matter, because we're off. Nice to meet you." He looked to Rose and I "Come on." Though he was trying to hide it, I could hear the slight worry in his voice. He turned to walk away when two of the frozen workers grabbed him and held him still. Rose and I moved to run over to him but Suki grabbed each of our arms. Her grip was strong and tight. No amount of shaking or prying would get her to let go of us. I looked over to the Doctor. The man was standing in front of him as he was still being held.
"Tell me who you are." The man's voice was calm and even.
"Since that information's keeping us alive, I'm hardly going to say, am I." The Doctor scoffed at him. The man frowned. I continued trying to pry Suki's hand from my arm. She wasn't budging.
"Well, perhaps my Editor in Chief can convince you otherwise."
"And who's that?"
"It may interest you to know that this is not the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. In fact, it's not actually human at all. It's merely a place where humans happen to live." There was a growling and snarling from above. The man continued talking. "Yeah. Yeah, sorry. It's a place where humans are allowed to live by kind permission of my client." The man pointed above him. We all looked up to see a giant blob hanging from the ceiling. It was slick and fleshy. It had a large mouth filled with dozens of long, sharp teeth. It growled and snapped its jaw at us.
"What the hell is that?" Rose and I cried out at the same time. The pale man seemed to ignore us and instead focused solely on the Doctor.
"You mean that thing's in charge of Satellite Five?" The Doctor questioned.
"That thing, as you put it, is in charge of the human race. For almost a hundred years, mankind has been shaped and guided, his knowledge and ambition strictly controlled by it's broadcast news, edited by my superior, your master, and humanity's guiding light, the mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. I call him Max." The man beamed. "Now, let's get you three more comfortable, shall we?" He snapped his fingers. The men holding the Doctor brought him over to a structure that had wires and tubes coming off it. A third man came up and put his wrists into a set of manacles. He struggled but they eventually got him secured. When he was secured, they came and got Rose, locking her up as well. She put up a small fight but gave in eventually. When they came for me, I started thrashing around. My protectiveness of Rose had kicked in and I didn't care so much about my own safety. I had to get her and the Doctor free. While thrashing around, I was actually able to kick the legs out from under the third guy. Sadly he quickly got back on his feet. After a few minutes of struggling, they secured me on the other side of Rose. The man walked in front of me. "You're a feisty one aren't you?" He was just far enough away that I couldn't reach him with my legs.
"Come a little closer and I'll show you feisty." I growled at him. He chuckled and walked over in front of the Doctor. The strange anger from Platform One had returned. There was no emotions other than anger.
"Are you alright?" Rose asked softly. I didn't want to, but I eventually looked at her. She looked truly worried.
"I'm fine Rose. Don't worry about me." I tried to reassure her but I didn't really know what to say to calm her worries. I hadn't really spoken with her about the strange anger from Platform One and I wasn't sure how to explain it. Even if I did, it would only worry her more. I looked over to see the man talking with the Doctor.
"Create a climate of fear and it's easy to keep the borders closed. It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilize an economy, invent an enemy, change a vote." He was explaining how everything worked.
"So all the people on Earth are like, slaves." Rose was beginning to get angry as well. Like usual with her, it started off with a slow annoyance and quickly grew.
"Well, now, there's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved?" The man pondered with a smile.
"Yes." The Doctor and I said at the same time.
"Oh. I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm going to get? Yes?" The man looked between the two of us, frowning.
"Yes."
"You're no fun." The man practically huffed.
"Let me out of these manacles. You'll find out how much fun I am." The Doctor grumbled at him.
"Oh, he's tough, isn't he. But, come on. Isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it, just a little bit." He looked at us as if he was hoping we would agree with him. I was flexing my hands slightly, trying to release some of the tension.
"You can't hide something on this scale. Somebody must have noticed." Rose spoke up finally.
"From time to time, someone, yes, but the computer chip system allows me to see inside their brains. I can see the smallest doubt and crush it." The man explained, closing his fist as if he was actually crushing something.
"Oh that's lovely. No free will. Walking, talking, breathing puppets." I fumed at the man. He looked at me with a smile.
"Not quite puppets. I crush the doubt then they just carry on, living the life, strutting about downstairs and all over the surface of the Earth like they're so individual, when of course, they're not. They're just cattle. In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed a thing." While he was talking I looked over and saw a reflection on a piece of metal. Cathica was there, trying to remain unnoticed. Rose must have noticed her as well.
"What about you? You're not a . . . Jagrabelly." She started talking, keeping the man looking at us.
"Jagrafess." The Doctor corrected her. She looked at him.
"What?" She asked.
"It's Jagrafess, Rose dear." I explained. She nodded in understanding and turned back to the man.
"Right, Jagrafess. You're not a Jagrafess. You're human."
"Yeah, well, simply being human doesn't pay very well." He replied angrily.
"There's no way you couldn't have done all of this all on your own." I tried to keep him talking. One thing that I had learned, people love to brag. More importantly, people who think they have pulled off something big, like a heist or crime or taking over, like to brag. They explain their plan or give away information since they think they've already won. The man started chuckling.
"No. I represent a consortium of banks. Money prefers a long-term investment. Also, the Jagrafess needed a little hand to install himself." He explained.
"No wonder, a creature that size. What's his life span?" The Doctor asked him.
"Three thousand years."
"That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat. That's why Satellite Five's so hot. You pump it out of the creature, channel it downstairs. Jagrafess stays cool, it stays alive. Satellite Five is one great big life support system." I kept carefully stealing glances over to Cathica's reflection. She was looking up at the Jagrafess nervously.
"But that's why you're so dangerous. Knowledge is power, but you remain unknown. Who are you?" He snapped his fingers. Suddenly power went surging through the manacles shocking us. Rose and the Doctor cried out in pain. Something in me changed. I refused to make any sound. My vision went black as the shock continued.
"We know you've seen something. Just agree to help us and this can stop." A man called from the shadows around a young woman. Long brown hair hung limply over her pale shoulders. She was on her knees, her arms held up by chains from the ceiling. She stared silently at the floor in front of her. She remained silent, not responding to the man's voice in any way. "As you wish." He said darkly. Electricity flowed from the chains into the young woman. Her body tensed up but she refused to make a sound. She couldn't give that to them. That's what they wanted. Instead she closed her eyes and willed herself to let go of the pain.
The pain stopped and I blinked a couple times to clear my vision. I was still on Satellite Five, chained up with Rose and the Doctor. They were both looking at the man in front of us. He was smirking as we caught our breaths. I could feel my nails digging into my palms from clenching my fists so hard. From the corner of my eye, I saw the Doctor look at Rose and I to make sure we were alright. I refused to look away from the man who quirked an eyebrow at my intense stare.
"Leave them alone. I'm the Doctor, they're Phoenix and Rose Tyler. We're nothing, we're just wandering." The Doctor tried to explain. Fear laced his voice.
"Tell me who you are!" The man bounced as he demanded more information.
"He just said! He's the Doctor, I'm Phoenix, and she's Rose Tyler. Want us to wear name tags? Would that make it easier?" I growled at him. He began to walk toward us.
"But who do you work for? Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly-" He stopped when the Jagrafess began to growl above him. "Time Lord." He beamed.
"What?" The Doctor sounded truly shocked. I frowned and looked over to him. I hated seeing him so worried.
"Oh, yes. The last of the Time Lords in his traveling machine. Oh, and with his little human girls from long ago." The man moved to caress Rose's face. She quickly turned her head away from him. That was the last straw. I used my arms to hold my body up and sent a leg into his side. He grunted and moved back a couple feet. He chuckled darkly and looked at me. "Feisty."
"Try something like that again. I fucking dare you. Touch her again and see what I'll do." I growled at him, shaking the manacles trying to slip my hands out. He chuckled at my feeble attempt to get free.
"Nix. I'm fine." Rose whispered to me, trying to calm me. I refused to look at her. "Nix look at me." Finally I glanced at her. Her forehead was creased with worry. I frowned and stopped struggling. She seemed to relax a little.
"Phoenix, always protecting her sister Rose." The man teased.
"You don't know what you're talking about." The Doctor tried to take the man's attention from me and Rose. The man looked at him with a smile.
"Time travel." He beamed.
"Someone's been telling you lies." The Doctor tried.
"Young master Adam Mitchell?" He asked, snapping his fingers. A holographic monitor appeared. Adam was sitting in the broadcasting chair that Cathica had been in earlier. He had the small door in his forehead and information was streaming into, as well as out of, his head.
"Oh, my God. His head!" Rose exclaimed.
"You bloody idiot. What have you done?" I groaned. I remembered the gut feeling that he was bad news from when we were in Van Statten's museum. For some reason, I had decided to ignore that feeling. Then earlier in the day when he decided to 'acclimatize' I ignored the worry as well. Second guessing my own intuition was proving to be a very bad and dangerous decision.
"What the hell's he done? What the hell's he gone and done? They're reading his mind. He's telling them everything." The Doctor explained. He sounded terrified at what Adam knew and what this man in front of him now knew.
"And through him, I know everything about you. Every piece of information in his head is now mine. And you have infinite knowledge, Doctor. The Human Empire is tiny compared to what you've seen in you S. Tardis." The man explained with a smirk.
"Well, you'll never get your hands on it. I'll die first." The Doctor threatened.
"Die all you like. I don't need you. I've got the key." The holographic monitor showed a Tardis key floating out of Adam's pocket. I looked over to Rose who looked guilty.
"You didn't." I tried. She looked at me apologetically.
"I just figured this was all too much for him and that he'd be more comfortable in the Tardis." She tried. I groaned and hit the back of my head on the structure behind us. Of course the one guy she decided to bring along with us was an idiot. She had horrible taste in men. The only one that wasn't completely awful had been Mickey.
"You and your boyfriends!" The Doctor snapped at her.
"Oi! Watch it. You let him come. You could have just as easily told him no." I barked at him. Rose already felt bad enough. He didn't need to go making her feel even worse. He groaned and rolled his eyes at me. I shook my head and looked at the man in front of us as he began to speak.
"Today, we are the headlines. We can rewrite history. We could prevent mankind from ever developing." He looked so excited. He wasn't even thinking of the repercussions. The stupidity and ignorance of some people amazed me.
"And no one's going to stop you because you've bred a human race that doesn't bother to ask questions. Stupid little slaves, believing every lie. They'll just trot right into the slaughter house if they're told it's made of gold." As the Doctor spoke, I saw him looking over to Cathica's reflection. I had almost forgotten she was standing there. The Jagrafess began to growl and snarl at us and Cathica went back the way she came. A couple moments later an alarm began to go off. The man went to look at the screens in front of the dead workers.
"What's happening?" He asked the workers. The Jagrafess snarled even louder and more frantically. "Someone's disengaged the safety." He snapped his fingers and another holographic monitor appeared showing Cathica in a different broadcasting chair. "Who's that?" He demanded. Cathica had information streaming out of her head. I smiled at this.
"It's Cathica." Rose breathed.
"And she's thinking. She's using what she knows." The Doctor said excitedly.
"Guess she's not as daft as we thought." I chuckled.
"Terminate her access." The man growled at Suki's corpse.
"Everything I told her about Satellite Five. The pipes, the filters, she's reversing it." He was beaming with excitement. I looked around the room.
"Look at that." I nodded my head to some icicles off to the side. They had begun to melt rather rapidly. Water was beginning to flow down the walls from the ice melting.
"It's getting hot." The Doctor agreed.
"I said, terminate. Burn out her mind." The man ordered frantically. He put his hand over Suki's to try and help the process. The monitors around the room began to spark and explode, screens went black. With one last explosion, the operators collapsed. Even more alarms began to blare. There were more sparks and the manacles holding rose and I unclasped slightly. Hers opened fully but mine were open just enough to work my wrists free.
"She's venting the heat up here. The Jagrafess needs to stay cool and now it's sitting on top of a volcano." The Doctor looked up at the Jagrafess. It began to snarl and thrash around. I couldn't tell if it was from fear or pain. The man began to address the beast above him.
"Yes, I'm trying, sir, but I don't know how she did it. It's impossible. A member of staff with an idea." He went back to the main console to try and do something. I walked in front of the Doctor. His manacles were still closed.
"Which pocket?" I asked. He gave a raised eyebrow. "Sonic."
"Front, your left." He said simply. I pulled out the sonic and pointed it at his manacles. I turned something and pressed the button on it. The tip lit up and it started buzzing. I ran it over both manacles. They both unlocked and Rose helped me finish pulling them apart. "Oi, mate, want to bank on a certainty? Massive heat in a massive body, massive bang. See you in the headlines!" I grabbed Rose's hand and pulled her out of the room, the Doctor followed us. They went toward the lift.
"Cathica!" I called out. The Doctor changed directions and we went of to a side room. Cathica was still in the broadcasting chair with her eyes closed. The Doctor snapped his fingers and the portal on her forehead closed. I helped her stand and we made our way back to the lift.
Once down on floor 139, we found somewhere to sit near the Tardis. People were walking around either helping others who had been injured or cleaning up the mess from the satellite shaking so bad from the Jagrafess blowing up. Cathica and the Doctor were sitting while Rose and I stood behind the Doctor.
"We're just going to go. I hate tidying up. Too many questions. You'll manage." He explained to Cathica.
"You'll have to stay and explain it. No one's going to believe me." She tried nervously.
"Oh, they might start believing a lot of things now. The human race should accelerate. All back to normal." He reassured her.
"What about your friend?" She asked looking over to Adam who was standing in front of the Tardis, looking her over.
"He's not my friend." The Doctor fumed as he stood. I went to follow him when Rose tried to stop us.
"Now, don't-" She pleaded. I got around her and the Doctor and stormed off to Adam.
"I'm all right now. Much better. And I've got the key. Look, it's. It all worked out for the best, didn't it? You know, it's not actually my fault, because you were in charge." He pointed to the Doctor. I walked up to him and his eyes widened. I paused for a moment before I slapped him. His head snapped to the side from the impact. His hands quickly went to hold his reddening cheek. "You slapped me!" He cried in shock.
"You're lucky that's all I did. Rose and the Doctor could have been hurt by your stupidity." I snapped at him before opening the Tardis door and walking in. The Doctor grabbed him by the back of his neck and guided him in. Rose followed quietly. I pointed to the jump seat and Adam took the seat quietly. Rose and I helped the Doctor quickly pilot the Tardis. When we stopped, the Doctor pulled Adam up from his seat and guided him out the door.
"It's my house. I'm home! Oh, my God, I'm home!" Adam chuckled. He turned and looked at me and the Doctor. "Blimey. I thought you were going to chuck me out of an airlock."
"Thank Rose and the Doctor for that one." I growled at him.
"Is there something else you want to tell me?" The Doctor demanded.
"No. What do you mean?" Adam straightened up as he spoke, trying to hide something. The Doctor walked over to where the answering machine was.
"The archive of Satellite Five. One second of that message could've changed the world." He said as he picked up the answering machine. Adam tried to find the words to explain himself but nothing would come out. The Doctor pulled out his sonic and messed with the machine. It sparked a few times before it exploded. Rose and Adam flinched at the explosion. "That's it, then. See you." He made his way back to where Rose and I were standing, leaning on the Tardis.
"How do you mean, see you?" Adam questioned.
"As in goodbye." The Doctor explained.
"But what about me? You can't just go. I've got my head. I've got a chip type two. My head opens."
"What, like this?" The Doctor snapped his fingers and the small portal opened on Adam's forehead. I smiled at this.
"Don't." Adam snapped his fingers to close it.
"Don't do what?" Again the Doctor opened the portal.
"Stop it!" Adam closed it again.
"Stop what?" I asked as I snapped my fingers. He snapped his to close it and frowned at me. I smirked back.
"All right now, guys, that's enough. Stop it." Rose reprimanded us.
"Thank you." Adam thanked her. She turned back to him and snapped her fingers.
"Oi!" He whined.
"Sorry, I couldn't resist." Rose giggled. Adam closed it once again.
"The whole of history could have changed because of you." The Doctor lectured him.
"I just wanted to help." Adam tried to defend himself.
"Who were you trying to help? That recording only benefited you. You were trying to help yourself. Don't act as though you had pure intentions." I snapped at him. "And to make it worse, your decisions affected more than just you. You could have gotten people hurt, or worse." I wasn't really concerned about myself, but something could have happened to Rose or the Doctor.
"And I'm sorry. I've said I'm sorry, and I am, I really am, but you can't just leave me like this." He pleaded. I snorted at this.
"Yes I can. 'Cause if you show that head to anyone, they'll dissect you in seconds. You'll have to live a very quiet life. Keep out of trouble. Be average, unseen. Good luck." The Doctor turned and opened the door to the Tardis.
"But I want to come with you." Adam begged. The Doctor stopped and turned to face him. He looked at Rose then me before shaking his head.
"I only take the best. I've got Rose and Phoenix." He walked into the Tardis and I followed. I could hear a woman's voice calling out. I sat on the jump seat as the Doctor went to the console. He looked at me and I gave him a nod. We didn't need a repeat of the 'are you alright' conversation so the head nod was our silent compromise. Rose came in a moment later and the Doctor set us in flight. When we were safe in the vortex, Rose decided to break the silence.
"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't know he would do something like that." She was looking at the floor while she apologized. I walked over and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.
"It's not your fault. He's his own person. He made his decisions without your help." I assured her. She looked at me with a grateful smile. The Doctor moved around the console to face us.
"Phoenix is right. You didn't control him. And I was the one that let him on board in the first place. Though giving him your key was irresponsible. I gave it to you, not him." He was being surprisingly reasonable and not rude like I had expected.
"I won't do it again. I promise." She said carefully.
"You better not." He gave her a nod and walked off. I turned to face her better.
"Are you alright?" I questioned gently. She hugged me tightly.
"Why do I choose idiots?" She wasn't crying but I could feel how upset she was. I rubbed her back softly as she hugged me.
"You're a sweet girl. Jerks and idiots are attracted to kind people like you because you don't make an instant judgment. There's nothing wrong with you, you just need to be careful with who you trust." She let go of me and gave me a small smile.
"How are you so good with advice like this? You've only dated Matt and that didn't go that well."
"Not sure. I've always been told I have an old soul. I've also been called a fountain of useless information. Maybe not all my random knowledge is useless." I joked. She giggled and shook her head at me. She tried to cover a yawn which made me yawn in return. "We should get some rest." I suggested. She nodded her head in agreement. We started walking toward our rooms when I saw the Doctor in a room with the door open. I peaked in. He looked over at me.
"Everything alright?" He asked.
"Yeah. We're going to bed. See you in the morning. Try to get some rest." He nodded and we walked off. I gave Rose a hug before she went into her room and I went into mine. I took a hot shower to relax my still somewhat tense muscles before putting on some sleep clothes and crawling into bed. The lights turned off and I watched the stars until I drifted off to sleep.