A/N: Happy 4th of July everyone! For my American readers, I hope you had a chance to get some good BBQ, and enjoy some fireworks (that is, if you don't live in a state that was threatening to burn itself to the ground if even the tiniest spark was applied to it.
For my English readers... hm. I don't know what to say. I guess the 4th of July isn't a big holiday over there. In fact I'd understand if you all are still a little bit miffed about it.
Either way, bonus chapter. Good news, right? This'll be a short trip; the Doctor should make it back to the theater and Quinn next chapter.
"Alright," the Doctor said. "We're going to stage a prison break."
"Just the three of us?" Josh asked. He, the Doctor, and Henry had gathered around a table backstage.
"Yup," the Doctor replied. "Just us. No weapons, no offensive force. Just a quick thing. In and out, smooth and easy."
"Okay, fine," Howard said, not too keen on shooting up the place himself. "The first thing we have to do is find out where they're being held. Nobody knows where the King's prisoners are held. It's a national secret."
"We'll figure it out," the Doctor said. "Process of elimination. Has anyone ever come back from the prison?"
"Never," Howard said.
"No, wait," Josh jumped in. "There was that one old guy, remember? About nine years back, they realized they'd wrongly imprisoned that guy when the real killer gave a deathbed confession."
"Right, yeah!"
"Did he say anything? Anything at all that might help?"
"I really don't remember much," Josh said. "I was just a kid..."
"There's gotta be something."
"I remember he said... he said he never thought he'd hear clearly again. He was so happy to be free, and when they asked what he was looking forward to most, he said... just listening. Just hearing the sounds of everyday life clearly again, not drowned out by his solitude."
"That doesn't tell us anything," Josh said, annoyed. "Just that he was in prison, and we knew that."
"What about transports?" the Doctor asked. "Does anyone ever see any transports leaving, heading for the hills or the sea or anything?"
"No, why?"
"A prison's not self sustaining. They need supplies from somewhere. And your old man... he didn't say he was looking forward to hearing sounds again. He was looking forward to hearing them clearly. Why would he make that distinction?" The Doctor paced back and forth a few times, finger tapping his chin excitedly, deep in thought. "Underground!" he said suddenly. "If you're deep enough underground there'd be a change in pressure. It'd be like having swimmer's ear constantly. And where would a government that doesn't want people to get away put its dissenters?" He held out his arms, inviting them to answer, but the two men just looked at each other, confused. "Smack dab in the middle of civilization!" the Doctor said. "What's the most central location in the whole place?"
"The Greenhouse of his Majesty King Archer the 3rd," Howard said. "It's an arboretum smack dab in the middle of the city."
"Then that's where we start. We just have to get into the TARDIS. Speaking of which, shouldn't it be on stage?"
They all looked up from the planning table to discover that the stage hands had discovered the same error. The TARDIS sat behind the false back wall of the set, window panels glowing in the darkness. It hadn't been put back with the couch and bar when they redressed the set.
The actors were rolling with the punches, thankfully, but there was very little they could do apart from improvise a response. Fortunately, it seemed to be plausible enough for the audience to believe.
"This works out for us," the Doctor said. "You two get inside, and I'll join you."
"How are you going to get in and take off without anyone noticing?"
"I'm not," the Doctor said. "In fact I'll have failed if they don't."
"Won't they stop you from leaving?"
"I'd like to see them try. What's the next scene?"
"A meeting with my 'wife' and the leaders of the resistance," Howard said.
"Perfect."
The headquarters set was just about the most elaborate of them all. Robert wanted it that way, and the set designers had done a pretty good job of making his vision a reality. Monitors blinked and complicated equipment everywhere gave it an appearance of being a mad scientist's lair. The purpose of any particular piece didn't seem readily apparent, but that served their purposes well enough. He'd insisted that he wanted his resistance leaders to appear busy in every scene. In fact they were instructed to look away from their equipment only rarely, to give the appearance that they were so engrossed in the process that they couldn't even take a moment to look away.
The set took a few minutes to be re-dressed, and the actors who were about to go on were waiting in the wings while gentle music played over the darkened stage being done up as a highly technical headquarters.
"Well done out there," the Doctor said as Quinn came off stage with Callie and Lana. "I knew you could do it!" And the thing was, the way he positively beamed at her, she could tell he meant it.
"Thanks," she said. "Did it really help, do you think?"
"Everything helps," he said sincerely. "Maybe it solves the problem, maybe it doesn't, but it definitely helps. I promise."
"Good."
Callie and Howard were talking a short distance away, whispering. Howard was probably filling her in on the plan the Doctor had hatched. She reached out and hugged him tightly, and Quinn caught the words "be careful," coming from her lips.
"They make quite the pair," she said, smiling.
"Yeah," the Doctor agreed. "Great chemistry between them. They put on a good show."
She shook her head. "Typical guy," she said. "You don't get it, do you?"
"What?" he asked, sending her into a fit of laughter.
"What is it? What?"
"He's so totally into her!" she said. "Not the character, them! He's smitten."
"No! No, he's not!"
"Really? You don't see the way he follows her around like a lost puppy? Agrees with everything she says?"
"Well..."
"Well what?"
"Well, that doesn't necessarily mean that..."
"Please. I know what I'm talking about."
"Oh?"
"Let's see," she said. "Theater people in a love triangle. Yeah. Where would I know anything about that from?" she asked him sarcastically.
"That explains it, I suppose," he said.
"Explains what?"
"Why he's so eager to go with me. It's not about his family at all. It's about hers."
"That's kinda sweet, though."
"Yeah. I suppose."
"So what did you find?"
"Not much to go on, really, but we'll start at the arboretum. Which reminds me, here, take this," he said, giving her a small flat disc. "Short range subspace communicator," he said. "Check in with me whenever you can. If things start to go wrong around here, let me know."
"I will," she promised."
"Good. And, there's one more thing you can do."
"What is it?"
"A little sleight of hand."
He whispered a few words in her ear, and she smiled deviously. "I think I can handle that," she said.
Howard and Josh had assembled next to the Police Box, and the stage hands were ready to wheel it out on stage. "Just you be careful," Josh was saying to Steve. "I don't want to get jostled around into Hackett's ribcage in there."
"Oh, I don't think that'll be a problem," the Doctor said, unlocking the door. "Now come on, in you go. Don't touch anything."
"Let Hackett squeeze in first," Josh said. "He'll probably fill out a lot of it by himself."
"I think you'll both be fine," the Doctor said, and he let Howard in first, motioning for him to be silent.
"Whatever," Josh said. "I don't know how the hell you think you're going to get in here too." He stepped into the TARDIS. "What the actual-"
The Doctor shut the door behind them and locked it again before telling Steve to go ahead and put it in place on stage.
The four resistance team members stood next to him, waiting to take their places on stage. "Robert says we're to go with whatever you say out there,"
Charlotte said. "Are you just acting?"
"No," he said.
"So you really think you can help us?" Ramond asked. "Because we've heard that before."
"I'm sorry?"
"There was someone else, and he promised that..."
Robert gave a shrill whistle and waved his arms. They were needed on stage.
"Sorry, got to to," Ryan said, ushering the group along.
"No, no, wait! Who else has been here?" the Doctor asked frantically. "Who else promised you change? It could be..." but they'd already walked off towards the stage. "..important," he said defeatedly. Oh well. He'd find out soon enough, one way or the other.
The resistance set was finally in place. The TARDIS stood alone in a corner, looking out of place against the shiny, sleek, white metal of the set it was residing in. If only they knew the treasure trove of technology inside, Quinn thought, they'd never second guess the wooden box's potential. She leaned against the wall backstage, watching the Doctor at work. Whether it was a play or not didn't matter; she was enjoying seeing him doing what he did best.
"Any progress, Bishop?" Charlotte asked from her position at the center of the control room. The three men sat at stations surrounding her, eyes fixed on the readings their instruments were giving them.
"None. The mainframes have been at it for months now. Still no closer."
"Just keep it up," Charlotte said. "How's the power regulator holding out Owen?"
"Not bad, Pat,"
"Good. Just keep the capacitor levels above seventy percent."
"Yes ma'am," he said with a wry smile.
"Garrett, any progress with the... new equipment?"
"None," he said, looking at the TARDIS, then back to a handheld of some kind. "I'm not getting a thing from it. No EM, no spectrographic spikes, nothing. It may as well not be here."
"I might be able to help with that," the Doctor said, striding onto the stage. "I hear you've impounded something of mine. I'd like to have it back."
"It's you!" Charlotte said. "How did you get in here?"
"Oh, I'm good with doors," the Doctor said. "I like the security, though," he said, looking around at the room and never at her directly. "The fractal differential to get through that last door... that was brilliant!" he said. "Who came up with that one? Was it after an all night bender? Seems like the sort of thing you'd do after a good bender. Fractals are always more fun with double vision."
"We heard about your entrance last night," she replied, not really caring what he was rambling on about. "You got our leader imprisoned.
"
"Better than killed," the Doctor replied.
"Arguable," Charlotte said. She hadn't moved from her spot, arms crossed in front of her chest, as she stared the Doctor down. "If he talks, he'll lead them right to us, and we'll never finish our work."
"Speaking of your work," the Doctor said, "what're you up to down here in the Batcave? Looks complicated.
"
"You wouldn't understand," she said.
"Oh, come on, try me."
She sighed. "We're getting out of here, one way or another. The government wants to stop us, so we had to move our operation underground, but we'll still see it through."
"What kind of operation?"
"None of your concern."
"I'm trying to help you, Patsy," the Doctor said. "But I can't do that if you won't give me a little consideration in return."
"How do you expect to help us?"
"I haven't worked that out yet," he said honestly. "But that doesn't mean I'm not going to try. Now," he said, putting on his glasses and looking at the monitors. "What are you up to."
She sighed. "It's a two part process," she said. "Part 1 is already complete, and has been for some time. That's the escape part. We've got a way out."
"Good. Always good to have an exit strategy."
"Yes. But in this case, we've got nowhere to go. Which is where Part 2 comes in."
"And Part 2 involves computing power," the Doctor said. "Lots of it by the looks of things. How'd you get access to this kind of technology?"
"We have a few generous benefactors," she said.
"You'd have to." He peered at the Joey Bishop character's screen. "That's a huge amount of data you're pushing through every second. But your processors are only running at forty percent efficiency. Why's that?"
"If we want to stay under the radar and not bring the army right to our doorstep, we need to regulate our power consumption. We run the whole facility off of a series of capacitors. If we draw too much live power from the grid, we'd be caught, so we store up as much as we can in the reserves and then power everything off of those."
"This is very impressive," the Doctor said.
"Thank you." Charlotte said, her voice hard and strong, as if he had somehow insulted her with the compliment.
"No," he said, "I mean it. Really." He glanced off stage, his face and unreadable mask, but Quinn sensed something was up. She wouldn't get the chance to talk about it with him now, but she made a mental note to ask when he got back... as if there was even a chance that he wouldn't be running his mouth about it at a hundred miles an hour.
"I admire what you're doing, really," the Doctor said. "but there's still people in prisoned, who don't have a way out. Like your leader. Friends, family, mothers, brothers, sisters... what about them?"
"We'll try something," she said. "I don't know what. But that doesn't mean we're not going to try," she said, smiling as she turned his phrase back on him.
"Good," he said, eyes twinkling.
"Keep doing what you do. It's important. Don't let anyone stand in your way. In the meantime, I'll do something to help."
"What's that?"
"I'm going to see someone about the state of things around here," the Doctor said. He looked out into the audience again. "'This is the last chance,' I'll say. 'One last chance to change your mind, and end this. If you let these people go I'll walk away. I won't say another word. If not... I'll tear the whole thing down myself before the sun rises.'" It was silent on the set. "Er, that's what I'll say when I get there," he said. "Will there be a response, I wonder?"
Out in the house, Telbok Sanders had stepped under an emergency light, so he could be seen through the glare of the stage lights, and simply shook his head.
"Right. I'll be off then."
He unlocked the TARDIS, and said to Ryan, "What to see how it really works? Have a look." Ryan peered into the open doors of the TARDIS, and his mouth fell open in genuine shock. "How is that..."
The audience chuckled as he reached a tentative hand into the console room, checking to see if it was an illusion.
"See you in two shakes," the Doctor said, stepping passed him into the Police Box. "Not actually of course but... soon."
The TARDIS disappearing got an even bigger cheer from the audience. Now they were looking closely, but they still couldn't figure out how this was done, for obvious reasons.
David, Avery, and Adam, the three Anchors playing the soldiers, had come up behind Quinn as the TARDIS vanished, their mouths also falling open - they hadn't seen it appear with their own eyes earlier, leaving them completely stunned.
"Where is he going?" Avery asked, still slack jawed.
Quinn smirked, turned around, and told them exactly what the Doctor had whispered in her ear.