A/N: This adventure is from the BBC New Adventures book, Apollo 23, by Justin Richards. Lines of dialogue and description have been copied out just as they are in the book for authenticity's sake, but I took liberties with some descriptive parts and 'he said, she said' parts. I do not own Apollo 23 by Justin Richards.
A cloud of gray dust kicked up from the main motor of the Lunar Module's descent stage. The wide pads settled into the lunar landscape. The dust floated gently down to the ground and everything was still again.
The hatchway opened. A figure in a red spacesuit clambered down the ladder. It bounced experimentally on its feet in the dusty surface. It mimed licking its finger through the spherical helmet and holding it up to check the non-existent wind. "This way, I think," the Doctor said, though he knew no one could hear him.
He blew upwards from the side of his mouth in an effort to detach a loose clump of hair that had flopped into his eyes. Maybe he needed of those balaclava-like things that Garrett and Reeve and the others had worn under their helmets. Or maybe he could just stand on his head. He bounced again in the low gravity. Maybe not.
The Doctor glanced back at the LEM as he walked away from it. There was a dark gash down one side of it. The Doctor had done his best to patch the hole, for neatness as much as anything. In their full spacesuits, he and Ashton had pumped the air out of the Command Module before the Doctor had entered the LEM for the descent. The Doctor looked up, wondering if he'd catch a glimpse of Ashton going overhead. But the orbit would take a while yet. As soon as he was back on the right side of the moon, Ashton would report to Houston and Hibiscus. Now, the Doctor was on his own.
Reaching the top of a shallow rise, the Doctor saw Base Diana lying in its shallow crater, almost exactly where he had expected to find it. He made no attempt to stay hidden – they knew he was coming. He strode down the incline towards the base, stuffing his hands absentmindedly into pockets his spacesuit didn't have.
Whether they were waiting for him or not, the main airlock was a bit obvious. There must be another way in. The Doctor walked slowly around the base, expecting any moment to see white-spacesuited figures coming after him. But he saw no one. Not until he spotted Amy.
He caught sight of her hair first, a splash of color against the white and gray. She was watching from a round porthole. The Doctor waved and she waved back, then pointed to one side, the way she wanted him to go. The Doctor gave a clumsy thumbs-up hampered by his bulky glove, and followed her directions. Sure enough, a short way along was a small airlock. He pressed the access panel, and the door slowly swung open. The Doctor kept his helmet on, even though he could hear the air rushing in. Best to be careful. He might need to step outside again in a hurry.
But when the inner door opened, there was only Amy. She hugged him, struggling to get her arms around the large spacesuit. The Doctor removed his helmet and finally brushed the hair back from his eyes.
"Been itching to do that for ages," he told her. "So what have you been up to, Pond – having fun?"
"We have to get away from here," Amy said without preamble. "They'll have seen you, or detected the airlock opening or something. We can't trust anyone, not anymore. Jackson's accelerated the process. You know about the process?"
"Whoa, slow down!" The Doctor stripped off his spacesuit and adjusted his bowtie. He grabbed his jacket from a nearby shelf and straightened it before putting it on. "Yes, I know about Jackson's process. And I'm fine thanks, pleased to see you too. Met some people, mended their rocket, fought off an alien assassin and here I am."
"Good for you." She didn't sound impressed. "Come on, they've been after me for hours."
"Hold on." The Doctor looked around curiously. "Where's Alex?"
"They got her," Amy calmly informed him. "Something went wrong though. She's in a coma."
The Doctor stiffened. No. No, no, no, no. Alex could not be in a coma. She just couldn't! When he found the aliens responsible for that. . . Then, something clicked. Why was Amy acting so calm about this? She and Alex were best friends; she should be hysterical right now, dragging him to see her before he even asked. In fact, Amy probably wouldn't have left Alex's side if she had any say in it.
Something's wrong, the Doctor thought. He decided to test Amy. "Well good," he said. "Troublesome girl just slows us down anyway. Thinks she's so bloody clever just because she went to Octavian." He felt horrible for saying these things, but he knew Alex would understand.
Amy nodded, apparently accepting this, and led the way through the base. Before long, they reached the cafeteria. Amy glanced inside, then stepped back to let the Doctor see. The place was a mess, broken crockery strewn across the floor. Star-shaped patterns of dust and fragments where plates and bowls had broken apart.
"You'd think they'd have cleared it up," Amy commented.
"What happened?"
"Riot. Alex and I let the prisoners out. I got away from the bad guys in the confusion while the prisoners went on the rampage. Alex didn't."
The Doctor crouched down to examine the remains of a plate. "They were throwing stuff," Amy explained, seeing him notice this. "But the soldiers rounded them up. Plates and cups against guns – no contest really."
The Doctor straightened up, dusting his hands down his lapels. "And you? What – you ran and hid?"
"Of course. I've been hiding for days. What else could I do?"
The Doctor nodded. He looked into her eyes and smiled sadly. "What else could you do?" he agreed.
"So, what's the plan? How do we stop the Talerians now you're back?"
"Talerians?" the Doctor repeated.
"That's what they call themselves. I overheard."
"Interesting." The Doctor drummed his fingers together. "Yes, that makes sense. Um, plan, yes, right. Well, we need to get to a transmitter. The radio we spoke on when I was stuck on Earth, that'll do."
"Then what?"
The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver. "Then I can adjust the frequency, boost the signal, and send a jamming wave so no more Talerians can come through. Dealing with the ones already here will be easy enough. They'll be trapped so we can blow up the base and kill the lot of them." He paused, waiting to see if Amy reacted. But she said nothing. "So they'll all die horribly, and serve them right," he added. "Okay?"
"Fine. Sounds good to me." Amy turned to go.
"I was afraid it might," the Doctor murmured as he followed her down the corridor.
He soon recognized the section they were in, and was pleased if slightly surprised that they were close to the Communications Room. "I sort of assumed the main computer systems would be somewhere near here," the Doctor said. "Makes sense to keep them together."
"The processors, maybe," Amy said. "But not the data storage. That's all oxygenated hydrogen molecules. The spin of the electrons equates to the binary ones and zeroes. It's very cheap and highly efficient. Or so they tell me."
"But a bit fragile and rather bulky," the Doctor added. "I suppose water hasn't been an issue till now though, so it makes sense. Cutting-edge stuff for this day and age. I didn't realize you were an expert."
Amy paused in mid-step. "Captain Reeve was telling me about it."
"I see, I see," the Doctor said casually, like it wasn't really important. In the same tone, he went on, "You're not really taking me to the Communications Room, are you?"
"No," Amy said at once. She stopped. "Ah. No. . ." She frowned. "I had a better idea."
"Thought so. I could tell. Written all over your face. I could see it in your eyes." The Doctor had his sonic screwdriver out again. "Your expressionless face. Your cold, gray eyes that are usually so bright and intelligent. So caring, but you didn't even blink when I said I'd kill the aliens and not even try to save the people they've mind-wiped. You also didn't care about Alex. The Amy I know would've slapped the hell out of me for talking about Alex the way I did and would've stayed by her side as much as she could and beg me to help her. And then there's the crockery in the canteen."
"What?" Amy was still, face blank as the Doctor shone his screwdriver in her eyes.
"It hadn't been thrown at anyone. You can tell by the pattern it made when it broke. Those plates were dropped. Your Talerian masters like to put on a bit of a show, do they?"
Her voice was completely level. "I don't know what you mean."
"If that's true, it's only because you've not been programmed with the information. But you're up to date on the local data storage, so that must be important. A race that can download itself into people's brains must be conscientious enough to keep back-ups after all." The Doctor stepped closer, adjusting the settings on the sonic screwdriver. "Now then, where are you, Amy? Are you still in there somewhere? They must be using some sort of alpha-wave inhibitor to suppress the host personality. . ."
From behind him, the Doctor heard the sound of someone clapping. Amy's eyes closed and her head tilted forwards, as if she was falling asleep. The Doctor turned slowly round.
Professor Jackson and Captain Reeve were standing behind him. Reeve was holding a gun. Hurrying to join them was Major Carlisle, her face as blank and expressionless as Amy's had been.
"Shame." The Doctor pocketed his screwdriver. "Thought I'd have more time than that."
"Time to carry out your ridiculous plan to jam our signals?" Jackson sneered.
"Oh, that wasn't my plan," the Doctor told him. "Made that up for Amy when I saw she was under the influence." He grinned widely. "I've got a different ridiculous plan to defeat you."
"Well, whatever it is, it's over," Reeve snapped.
"And what about Amy – is she over?"
"Her program came to an end when we arrived," Jackson said. "The Blank can follow a simple set of instructions, then afterwards it is again simply . . . Blank."
The Doctor took a step forwards, but Reeve jabbed his gun in warning. "If you've hurt her. . ."
Jackson laughed. "Empty threats, Doctor. You know, the hardest part was programming in enough information so that she could cope with any questions you might have – about us, Base Diana, anything. But when it comes down to it, you're not so impressive after all. We needn't have bothered."
"But then I wouldn't know that you're really Talerians."
"Which probably means nothing to you," Reeve dismissed.
The Doctor shrugged. "What about Alex, then? Is she really in a coma or was that something you lot made up for my benefit?"
There was a small silence, during which the Doctor noticed that Jackson, Reeve, and Carlisle all looked slightly baffled. Whatever had happened to Alex, it wasn't something they had expected.
"She practically begged to be processed first," Jackson said. The Doctor mentally swore. Alex and her bloody selflessness. "We got her in the chair pretty easy. Didn't even struggle. Miss Pond was screaming at her, telling her to shut up and stop it. It got so bad, Reeve had to knock her out. Just seconds after the process began, Miss Locke began screaming uncontrollably. I shut off the equipment but . . . she had already fallen unconscious. I examined her. She's in a coma. She wouldn't respond to any attempts to wake her up."
The Doctor felt his stomach tighten. Alex's mind must have gone all DEFCON when Jackson tried to implant a Talerian in her mind. With no easy way to get it out, Alex's mind must have shut down. "And where is she now?"
"There wasn't any need to monitor her. Everything else in her body is functioning normally. Heartbeat's stable, she's still breathing, it's just her mind. You'll see her soon. We put her in a cell in case she wakes up any time soon."
The Doctor nodded. "So Alex is in a coma. Got it. So where is Amy? What have you done with her mind, her essence, her personality?"
"We've wiped it," Jackson said simply. "It's gone. Forever. And soon, your mind will follow. The next transmission is due in an hour. You will be blanked, and then imprinted with a new personality, with one of us."
"What a surprise. But that still gives me an hour. An hour for you to tell me all about who you are, what you're up to, why you've decided to invade Earth. An hour for a chat and cup of tea – what do you say?"
"I say, an hour for you to ponder your fate and see what your meddling has done to your friends. An hour in a cell in the prison hub while I prepare the Process Chamber." Jackson smiled, but the expression did not reach his cold, gray eyes. "This time, Doctor, there really is no escape."
~Living the Life of Ally~
The gun jabbed painfully in the Doctor's ribs.
"I'm going to enjoy locking you up to await your fate," Captain Reeve said. "Just as I enjoyed locking up your friends."
"I'm sure," the Doctor said dryly.
Jackson was already striding off down the corridor. "I'll need some help," he called back.
"You go," Major Carlisle told Reeve, unholstering her own pistol. Her mouth twisted into a vicious smile. "I'll deal with these two. My turn to have fun."
Reeve stared back at her for a moment. Then he nodded. "I'll see you again soon, Doctor. And I shall watch every moment of the process with interest."
"Bye then," the Doctor told him, not in the least bit worried. "See you later."
Reeve's face showed a flicker of amusement at the Doctor's apparent indifference. Then he turned on his heel and marched off down the corridor after Jackson.
Carlisle turned back to the Doctor and Amy. Her gun was aimed unerringly at the Doctor.
"Funny how some life forms can be so clever and yet miss the obvious," the Doctor mused. "Mind you, humans are the same."
"What do you mean?" Carlisle demanded.
The Doctor leaned towards her. He tapped the side of his nose conspiratorially. "I mean, that your eyes are the wrong color. They're chocolate brown, and if you're really a Talerian, they should be gray like Jackson's and Reeve's. And Amy's."
Major Carlisle's smile was more genuine now. She glanced over her shoulder, checking that Jackson and Reeve had gone. "Perhaps they're color blind. They did actually process me, so they have an excuse."
"What went wrong?"
Carlisle shrugged. "Power failure at a critical point, I think. It's all a bit muzzy, to be honest. I can sort of hear one of them, like it's trapped in my head. So I've got some clues as to how to play along. But I'm hoping you can fill in the blanks."
"That's what I'm here for." The Doctor took Amy's lifeless hand, feeling for her faint pulse. "Literally to fill in the Blanks with their own personalities again."
"I tried to help her and Alex," Carlisle explained as the Doctor inspected Amy's eyes. "I gave Amy a chance to grab my gun, but I think she was too scared. Alex figured out that I hadn't been processed. I saw the realization in her eyes and she nudged Amy to try and get her to take it." Carlisle smiled. "She's very bright, that girl."
The Doctor nodded, trying to control the worry he felt about Alex. "She is," he agreed solemnly. "What happened next?"
"I helped them let the prisoners out."
"Was there really a riot?" the Doctor wondered. "Amy said that was how she escaped. Except of course, she didn't."
Carlisle shook her head. "The prisoners are in no state to cause trouble. A distraction, no more. She and Alex could have made a run for it, but they. . . Well, I guess they were just shocked. They seemed to want to help them. Alex jumped into action, trying to help one prisoner."
The Doctor sighed sadly. Alex and her selflessness was going to be the death of him. "That sounds like Amy and Alex."
"Reeve got them. They tried to blank Alex out but . . . well, you know what happened. They managed to blank Amy out, or whatever, and here we are. Is there anything you can do for them? For anybody here? I don't know Jackson, not really, but Jim Reeve was a good man."
"Let's hope he still is," the Doctor said. "And that we can find where they've stored him."
"Stored him? What do you mean?"
"I mean they kept a back-up copy of his personality. At least, I'm hoping they did."
All the time they had been talking, the Doctor had been examining Amy – checking her pulse, her eyes, looking for any sign of self-will or consciousness. There was nothing.
"So what's the plan?" Carlisle asked.
"Amy asked me that." The Doctor turned and looked into the Major's eyes. "Double bluff? No, I don't think so." Suddenly, he reached out and grabbed her hand, including the gun. But he wasn't trying to get the gun from her; he shook her hand, gun and all. "Welcome to the team. And the team plan is to get to the main computer facility right after I see Alex and examine her. You know where that is?"
Carlisle nodded, still startled by the Doctor's sudden handshake. "What do we do with your other friend?"
"She can come with us." The Doctor waved his sonic screwdriver. "Quick bit of optical stimulation and she'll respond to simple verbal instructions. I hope."
"Quick bit of what?"
"I'm go ing to shine a light in her eyes."
~Living the Life of Ally~
They didn't run into anyone on the way to the cells, which was a little strange in the Doctor's opinion, but he figured Jackson had called for all hands on deck in another part of the base.
Alex had been left in a cell right next to the door. The Doctor peeked in the round porthole as Carslile swiped a card through the door lock. The glass was distorted, allowing him to only get a blurry image of someone inside. The second the door was open, the Doctor rushed in.
Alex was lying on a steel bench, her eyes closed and her hands clasped together like she was lying in a coffin. The Doctor knelt down next to her and hurriedly scanned the sonic over her. "Oh, Ally," he breathed, looking at the results. "What did they do to you?"
"What's wrong?" Carlisle asked from her place by the door. Her gun was out by her side, ready to ward off anyone that happened to come along.
The Doctor didn't answer right away. Instead, he peeled one of Alex's eyes open. A burst of hazel stared back at him, but a second later, a tiny speck of gray appeared, followed by a few more specks. The Doctor watched as Alex's eyes battled for a dominance of color. The hazel would overpower the gray, but the gray would always reappear a few seconds later, trying to take over. He sighed and closed her eye.
"She's in a coma alright," the Doctor finally confirmed. "But the weird thing is, her brain is still active. It's keeping her body systems operating and it's doing something else." He brushed Alex's hair away from her forehead. "I need to go inside her mind and see what's going on."
"You're going to do what?" Carlisle started, but the Doctor didn't hear her as he pressed his forehead to Alex's and entered her mind.
To his surprise, the Doctor found himself in the TARDIS library. He looked around at the towering shelves full of jewel-toned books, the numerous leather club chairs and couches, and then at the fireplace. He actually had to blink twice to fully absorb the hospital bed sitting by it.
He made his way over to see Alex in the hospital bed, a blanket over her legs. An IV was attached to her and she was staring wistfully at the fire. She looked up when she heard him coming. "Doctor!" she cried gleefully. She scooted over a little and patted the spot next to her. "Come sit."
The Doctor smiled at her, glad to see her. "I like this," he said as he sat down next to her on the hospital bed, swinging his legs up. "Better than that hallway I saw last time."
"I think I'm here to feel safe," Alex admitted. "I feel safe in the TARDIS and the library is my favorite place in it."
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" the Doctor teased. Alex giggled and he smiled. He had missed hearing that giggling. "Now. . ." He reached over and lightly wacked her on the back of the head.
"Ow!" Alex cried, giving him a look. "What was that for?!"
"For throwing yourself at the Talerians," the Doctor said, giving her a stern look. "You knew your mind would go haywire on them."
"It was to save Amy!" Alex cried. "I figured they'd try to . . . experiment and it would delay their plans a little."
The Doctor's expression darkened. "Never do that again, Alexandria," he warned. "I don't like seeing you in such pain, let alone hearing about you screaming uncontrollably." His expression softened to one of pleading and he leaned closer to Alex, to where their foreheads were touching. "Please, Ally."
"Okay," Alex agreed softly. "I won't offer my mind up again. I promise."
"Thank you." He then became aware of how close he and Alex were, almost to where their lips were touching. He could kiss her if he wanted to. Granted, it wasn't her physical body, but it would probably still be the same.
Alex was also aware of this. She nervously bit her lip and she saw the Doctor's eyes darken, but not in anger. This was in want, and need, and passion. Alex wanted to run her tongue over his lower lip, even though she knew he wasn't physically here. She wanted to grab his tweed jacket and kiss him senseless, try to pour out the worry and nerves she had felt ever since he first went out on the moon and replace them with happiness and passion and love.
But she couldn't, for two reasons. One, he wasn't physically here. It was only his mind. And two, there was an impending alien invasion happening right outside the safe confines of her mind. Ever so reluctantly, she pulled back and the Doctor, once he noticed, followed suit.
"So," the Doctor coughed, "did a Talerian get inside your head?"
Alex nodded. "Yep. Over there." She nodded across the room and the Doctor was once again surprised.
In one corner of the library was a large steel box that appeared to be bolted to the floor. The Doctor watched in amazement as something inside thrashed around, banging against the walls, but unable to cause any damage. After a moment, it went silent. "Is that—"
"Yes," Alex confirmed.
"How?"
"I'm not sure. All I know is that when Jackson started the process, I felt something crawling around in my mind. A second later, those bombs started attacking and then . . . I was in here and that was over there." The box banged again but soon silenced. "It's been doing that for a while now. It won't get out though. That box is pretty strong."
"How do you know that?"
Alex shrugged. "It's kinda like it's programmed in my head. I can't really explain it."
"Well, if the Talerian is trapped, why are you still in a coma?"
"I think my mind is reluctant to let me out because that thing will still be in here. It wants me to be in total control, no unwelcome visitors allowed."
"Speaking of unwelcome visitors," the Doctor said, throwing an arm around Alex's shoulders to pull her closer. "Why hasn't your mind thrown me out yet?"
Alex smiled a little. "I guess it's finally recognizing that you're not a threat."
"Good."
The two were silent for a little while and Alex rested her head on the Doctor's shoulder. He played with her hair a little, wrapping various locks around his finger and letting them drop, watching the slight curls he'd formed. After a while, Alex murmured, "You had better go and stop the aliens. You're no use staying in here."
"I don't want to leave you," the Doctor admitted.
"I seriously doubt Jackson is going to do anything. Not until I'm awake, that is. Oh, I meant to ask, how's Amy?"
The Doctor cringed a little and hesitated before answering. "They blanked her out. The Talerians turned her into a Blank."
"Really?" She looked calm, but the Doctor knew that she was actually very upset, a fact confirmed when the fire in the fireplace died.
"Ally, it's okay." He pulled her closer to him and kissed the top of her head.
"Can you restore her?" Alex wondered. "Tell me you can."
"I think so," the Doctor said slowly. He didn't want to give her or himself any false hope. "They should keep back-ups."
"If you find hers, you better look for mine as well."
The Doctor frowned. "What do you mean? You're in a coma because the Talerian entered your mind and your brain doesn't want two people to be in the same body."
Alex cocked her head. "Not necessarily, now that I think about it." She turned around and lifted her pillow before pulling out a partially completed puzzle. "I found this when I first arrived. It didn't make a ton of sense to me, but I think I get it now."
The Doctor studied the puzzle as Alex straightened the pillow back to its original position. The puzzle was of Alex herself, dressed as she was, set against a TARDIS blue background. Every part of the puzzle was complete except for the area around one of Alex's eyes.
"I think some of my personality was taken," Alex said, leaning over to tap the puzzle a little.
"There's no other puzzle pieces?" the Doctor asked, looking around.
"Not that I've seen. Jackson got a little of my personality. That could be another reason I'm in a coma. My mind refuses to release me until I'm full again."
The Doctor let out a long sigh. The only way to get Alex out of her coma was to find her backup – assuming there even was one – and give it to her. Hopefully, the Talerian in her head would be forced to vacate if this happened.
"You'd better go," Alex urged him, taking the puzzle back and sitting it on her lap. "I'll be fine. You better stay safe though."
The Doctor smirked at her. "I make no promises, Ally." He leaned over and kissed her forehead before retracting out of her mind.
He found himself in the cell again, Alex lying still beneath him, and Major Carlisle staring at him. "What were you doing?" she cried. "You were dead still for five minutes!"
"Five minutes? Felt a lot longer." The Doctor stood up, but not before planting a quick kiss on Alex's forehead. "Right! Let's go, Major!" He then raced out the door.
Major Carlisle took a quick look at Alex, wondering just who she was to the Doctor. Then, she let out a determined sigh, closed the cell door, and ran after the Doctor.
~Living the Life of Ally~
Access to the computer facility was on the other side of the base. But with the Doctor and Amy accompanied by Major Carlisle, there was a chance they could make it without being challenged. If they were, Carlisle had her gun – either to bluff she was taking her prisoners to the hub, or for defense.
"There are only a few of the guys left who haven't been processed," Carlisle explained. "A lot of the others don't even know they've been blanked. They're programmed to act as normal until they're ordered otherwise. Means we have no idea who we can trust. But I guess that bears out your theory they're keeping the original personalities on file somewhere. Somehow."
"I guess it does," the Doctor agreed. "They'd need to reload the original personality data temporarily, with an instruction to blank it out or override it when necessary."
He stopped at a junction of two corridors. Behind him, Amy kept walking, silent and blank-faced, and cannoned into the back of him. "Yeah, right, when I said to follow me, I kind of meant 'and stop when I stop' sort of thing, right?" She didn't answer, but stood waiting for the Doctor and Carlisle to move on.
"She's very literal-minded," Carlisle observed.
"Not usually." The Doctor sighed. "Someone is going to be in so much trouble for this," he said quietly. "Right – onwards!"
They passed a couple of soldiers, who acknowledged Major Carlisle, but didn't seem concerned or worried by the fact she was with the Doctor and Amy. Carlisle kept her gun out of sight, but ready in case she needed it.
Gradually, as they moved along, the base seemed less utilized. There was dust on the floor, and the lighting was at a lower level. "No one comes here much," Carlisle explained. "Just for maintenance. Like the quantum displacement equipment, the computer facility is in the basement, built into the bedrock under the crater. For good reason."
"Oh? What reason is that, then?" the Doctor asked.
Before she could reply, a white-coated man stepped out of a side corridor just in front of them. He stared in surprise at the Doctor and Amy, then looked enquiringly at Carlisle. "What are you doing here? Professor Jackson's put this whole area off limits, except for his personal assistants."
"I know that, Gregman!" Carlisle snapped. Her hand edged towards her gun.
But Gregman was quicker. He pulled a pistol from his pocket and aimed it at the Doctor. "I shall have to report this. You'd better have a very good reason for being here. The Doctor is meant to be in a cell awaiting his turn in the Process Chamber. I know, because Professor Jackson sent me to connect a back-up unit ready for the transfer."
"Ah, so you do keep back-ups," the Doctor nodded. "That's good to know. It means we're heading the right way."
"Not any longer." Gregman jabbed the gun towards Carlisle. "Keep your sidearm holstered, Major," he warned.
Carlisle raised her hands to show she had no intention of going for her gun. As she did so, a figure pushed past her. She assumed it was the Doctor, but it wasn't. It was Amy.
Blank-faced, she walked slowly towards Gregman. He frowned, watching her. "You can stop now," he told her. "Your programming is at an end. Just blank out. Stop!"
But she kept walking, past Gregman and on down the corridor. Confused, the scientist turned, tracking her with the gun. "I said stop! Stop, or I'll—"
His words became a grunt of surprise and pain as the butt of Carlisle's gun thumped into the back of his head. Gregman collapsed to the floor, and Carlisle stood over the unconscious man, gun aimed.
"Just leave him," the Doctor ordered, striding past.
"But—"
"If you shoot him, we can never return the real Gregman's mind to his body," the Doctor pointed out. "Now stop dithering, and come on." He turned down the side corridor from which Gregman had come. "This way, Amy!"
"She'd stopped," Carlisle said as she followed the Doctor. "She'd stopped, like you told her to when we did. Then she started walking again and distracted Gregman. Was that deliberate? Can she have done it on purpose, do you think?" They both paused, waiting for Amy to catch up with them. She shuffled along like a sleepwalker, eyes wide and staring, unseeing.
"Possibly," the Doctor figured. "If they don't completely remove the original personality, then perhaps something's still in there somewhere. Deep down, waiting for something to latch on to. Desperate to reassert itself. An instinct, a spark in the darkness. A little touch of Amy in the night."
They reached a security door. Carlisle keyed in her code and the door swung open. "At least they haven't recoded it," she remarked.
The Doctor aimed his sonic screwdriver at the keypad. "No, but I have. Reset it to the factory settings, they'll never guess. The code is now 1234."
Beyond the door, a metal stairway descended into darkness. From below they could hear a constant drip-drip of water. It was like descending into a cave system. The metal walls of the base soon gave way to dark rock, glistening with condensation.
"Vacuum-sealed to save having to clad the whole place in airtight panels," the Doctor said.
He started down the stairs, his feet echoing on the steps. Carlisle followed, with Amy close behind. The door swung shut with an ominous clang, leaving them in near darkness.
"It's like descending into the depths of hell itself," the Doctor commented.
"Oh, and you'd know what that's like, would you?" Carlisle retorted. Her voice was strained and nervous as she followed the Doctor.
He paused to look back up at her. His face was shadowed and grave. "Do I really need to answer that?"
Carlisle shivered. There was something in the way he said it that told her she didn't want to know about some of the places he had been. And hell could very well be one of them. With Amy close behind her, she followed the Doctor down into the depths below Base Diana.
~Living the Life of Ally~
A glimmer of light from far below was their only illumination. It grew slowly but steadily as the Doctor, Carlisle, and Amy made their way down the stairs. They seemed to descend forever, into the depths of the moon. The walls glistened and sweated.
"They must pump the water through using the quantum displacement system," the Doctor guessed.
"No, it was here already," Carlisle revealed.
"Really?"
"A huge underground lake. You may have heard that NASA found minute quantities of water on the moon. No one was meant to know anything at all about it, but news got out."
"You mean there was a leak?" The Doctor grinned but Carlisle didn't seem to appreciate the joke. The Doctor cleared his throat and went on. "So there's actually quite a bit of water here. That's a surprise. Isn't it?" He looked confused for a moment, then his face cleared. "Yes, must be. Just checking."
"Base Diana was positioned right on top of the water. Seemed stupid not to make use of the natural resources."
The Doctor ran his finger down the damp rock wall, then licked it. "Sustenance, hygiene, and computer storage with data held in the H2O molecules. What more does anyone need?"
At the bottom of the steps, they found themselves in a vast underground cavern. Banks of computer equipment stretched off into the distance. Fluorescent light strips cast puddles of stark light between the aisles of machinery. Huge metal pipes were visible at the far end of the cavern, bringing in water from the reservoir. Transparent tubes ran between the banks of equipment, carrying water and the data held within its molecules, around the systems. The Doctor could see tiny bubbles of air being carried along, indicating the end of one parcel of data and the start of another.
He clapped his hands together, delighted and impressed, and hurried over to a console. "Most of this is storage," he explained. "Data streaming – literally. Great stuff!" Oh, Ally, you would love this.
The screen lit up and the Doctor rattled away at a keyboard. He displayed a schematic of the reservoir and water system. It showed where the water was purified and then held in various tanks to service the drinking supply and bathrooms as well as the data storage.
"The water is electrolyzed here, before being pumped into the computer systems as needed," the Doctor said, pointing to a point on the plan where water entered the cavern. "Light would be a quicker medium, but they were after efficiency and durability rather than speed, plus the water cools the systems as well. Brilliant! Conventional systems with hard drives and flash memory for the day-to-day tasks, and everything offloaded and backed-up to the hydrogen dioxide for the longer term."
"So how does that help?" Carlisle wondered.
"We've got Amy's physical body." The Doctor turned and nodded at his expressionless friend standing silent and immobile beside them. "Now we need to find her brain. She shouldn't be just a pretty face, you know. Alex either."
"Goes without saying," Carlisle told him.
"What's this?" The Doctor was pointing to another tank. "It's connected into the reservoir system, but there's a flow valve keeping it isolated."
"Looks like the inert gas for the fire suppression systems. Worst case scenario – if we run out of the gas before the fire's out, then the valve opens and it draws in water. Not ideal, given we're so dependent on electrical stuff."
"But could be the only option, the last resort." The Doctor nodded. "Makes sense. Whoever designed this place used belts and braces all round."
"Is that how you got back here?" Carlisle asked.
"I suppose so. Big braces though. Enormous. Right. . ." He turned his attention back to the display screen and started opening files of indexes and data listings. "Let's find Amy and Alex. . ."
It didn't take the Doctor long to find what he was looking for. "I'll say this for them, they're efficient."
He showed Carlisle the screen, which displayed a list of the personnel of Base Diana. Against almost all of them was a catalogue number. At the bottom of the list was: Amy Pond – E-19-K3 and Alex Locke – H-22-A2. Below that were several other names, listed as 'Pending'. At the bottom of this pending list was 'Doctor'.
"What's it mean?" Carlisle asked.
"It means we've found them. You're on the list too, look." He pointed to Carlisle's name.
"Doesn't mean I'm a bad person."
"All the others are. Potentially anyway. Until we get this sorted."
The Doctor walked slowly along one of the aisles. Carlisle and Amy followed, Carlisle watching with interest, Amy expressionless.
The storage was rather like metal filing cabinets. Each aisle was labelled with a letter, and each cabinet within each aisle was numbered. The individual drawers bore letters, marked in black by a simple steel handle.
"This is aisle E, so I guess we're looking for storage cabinet 19," Carlisle guessed
"Drawer K." The Doctor ran his finger down the front of Cabinet 19 until it met the K. He tapped the letter. "Moment of truth. Who lives here, do you think?"
The Doctor pulled out the shallow drawer. Inside, the space was lined with dark foam padding. Nestling in numbered compartments cut into the foam were ten glass phials filled with colorless liquid. A wire connected the stopper of each phial into a junction box at the back of the drawer. Very carefully, the Doctor lifted phial 3 clear of the padding. The wire trailed from a small clip attached to the top of the stopper. Inside the phial, another wire hung down into the liquid. The Doctor unclipped the wire from the top and lifted the phial up to the light. He gave it a gentle shake, bubbles rising to the surface.
"Is that it?" Carlisle asked in a whisper. She pointed at Amy. "Is that . . . her?"
The Doctor stared intently at the colorless liquid. "Amy in a bottle," he breathed. "Pond water." He laughed. "Yes, I like that. Pond water. Now, time to get Ally!"
The Doctor dove down to aisle H and then to storage cabinet 22. He quickly pulled out A, the top drawer, and peered inside. Alex's phial was the second one inside, though, unlike Amy's, hers didn't have that much liquid in it. There only appeared to be about an inch of liquid inside.
"Oh, Ally, you were right," the Doctor murmured.
Carlisle squinted at the phial. "They didn't get very much of her."
"Alex is very strong. Jackson's process machine is nothing for her brain." The Doctor pocketed Alex's phial, not wanting it to get out of his sight. "Only problem is, now that I've found you and Alex, we need to get you all back to the Process Chamber and see if we can download the real you into your brain."
From above and behind them came the sound of something heavy slamming into metal.
"The door?" Carlisle guessed.
"The door," the Doctor agreed. "They've found us."
"Gregman must have woken up. Getting to the Process Chamber might be trickier than you thought."
"No problem. We'll take the back way." The Doctor clicked his tongue. "Er, is there a back way?"
"No."
"Any way at all, back or otherwise? Emergency exit? Fire escape? Cat flap?"
Carlisle was shaking her head. "There's only one exit, Doctor. We're stuck down here." The sound of the banging was getting louder and more insistent. "And that door won't keep them out for long."
A/N: And we're back to the cliffhanger endings! I'm so evil. :} What will happen?!
Notes on reviews. . .
zcool1 - Glad to hear you love the story! It means a lot! :)
SopherGopherroxursox - She'll meet BOTH! In the story I'm planning, Alex travels back in time to work out a time discrepancy and meets a lot of the Doctor's companions, both new series and classic series. And she'll meet Jack and the Torchwood team in this story. :) Yeah, an adventure with her and the new series companions would be awesome! :) Yeah, I always refer to her as 'Alex'. I think the name 'Ally' is just reserved for the Doctor. :) Glad you liked her own 'Oncoming Storm' moment! :)
SopherGopher'sAwesomeSister - Schindler's List is a movie that takes place during the Holocaust in WWII. If you've ever seen photos from the concentration camps then...you'll understand why I chose to describe the prisoners in respect to that movie. :( We found out what happened to Amy and Alex here. :( But hope is not lost! :) Yeah, I like Carlisle and when I read the book the first time, I never saw the part with Garret coming. :) Glad you like this adventure! And I answered your sister's question in the post above this one. :)
TheGirlWhoWaited - Yep, the Doctor made it! With Garret gone, there wasn't anymore danger...not until he got to the moon, at least. :) Glad you loved Alex's 'Doctor' moment! Those two really rub off on the other, don't they? :)
Gwilwillith - Thank you! And the Doctor came, so not all is lost! :)
ElysiumPhoenix - Glad you loved Alex's 'Doctor' moment! You're right, those two really affect each-other. :) *squeals* I have broken the barrier! *squeals again* Lol, this story is so long! :)
ShadowTeir - Glad you loved Alex's 'Doctor' moment and that you like realistic stories! Relationships aren't easy, and the Doctor and Alex's won't be an exception... :)
Doctor - Thank you! :)
Timey-Wimey Somn-Like Lass - We got another mega cliffhanger here. :) Glad you loved Alex's 'Doctor' moment. Yeah, we really do need a name for that! Any suggestions? I can't think of anything at the moment. :) Yep, Amy thinks outside the box, doesn't she? :) I'm so glad to hear that! Dropping an OC into the mix isn't as easy as it looks, especially with the original character interactions. :) Glad you agree with me about the title. They really should've been a bit more inventive with that title. :) I love Rose too, she's tied for my favorite companion along with Amy and Rory. I don't think Alex would be majorly jealous of her, since she knows how the Doctor/Rose relationship works out. Knowing Alex's track-record with selflessness, she'd probably end up feeling sorry for them. Lol, Alex IS pretty sweet, isn't she? :) *applauds the reader's violin playing* Thank you! And don't worry, I never get tired of hearing that! :)
