Notes: Angst alert in this chapter as Alistair gets posted abroad.

The Doctor and Rose go back to DSTL in their TARDIS, and just like the old days they get into trouble.

They finally see who is responsible for the pathogen. Thanks to for the list of Dr Who aliens who fit the bill.

wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_universe_creatures_and_ali ens_%280-9%29_%26_%28A-G%29#Canisian

Chapter 8

General Chatfield was back at his desk in his office reading through duty rosters for the next week. There was a knock at the door.

"Come in." The door opened and Professor Jenkins walked in.

"You wanted to see me again General?" he asked, this was twice in as many days.

"Ah yes Professor, thank you for coming to see me before you leave. Please have a seat." He indicated the same chair as before. "I just wanted to discuss our visitors this morning."

"Oh yes, Dr. Smith and his lovely wife. It was a real honour to meet them you know. Did you know they were awarded the George Cross?"

"Yes, yes. Very commendable. Now, during their visit, did you show them all of your work?"

"Well, yes, of course. Dr. Smith is an advisor to the Government; he has the highest security clearance."

"Yes, I know. I double checked as soon as I got back to my office. Now, as this is a military facility and you are a civilian, I will need you to provide a full report on the visit. What they saw, what they asked, that sort of thing."

"Yes of course General. Is there anything wrong?"

"No not at all Professor, just routine. You know what the Ministry is like for reports." Chatfield leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers.

"Did they ask you for your opinion on the samples that were brought in from Torchwood?" he asked after some thought.

"Yes they did. That was the main reason for their visit I believe."

"Mmm. And what is your opinion Professor?"

"I haven't formed one yet. From what Dr. Smith was telling me, he believes the pathogen is quite unique and has some remarkable properties. We are treating it as a Category A Priority Pathogen, work will be slow I'm afraid."

"Yes of course, following protocol. Thank you Professor. If you could let me have your report sometime tomorrow that would be very helpful."

"Of course General. If that's all then, I'll be off," Jenkins said as he stood to leave.

Chatfield smiled at him. "Yes, that's everything Professor. See you tomorrow."

Jenkins walked to the door and opened it, casting the General a suspicious look before leaving.

13 years previously

The convoy of military vehicles rattled its way along the dusty winding mountain pass like an arthritic snake. This region had only recently been liberated by the allied forces, and they needed to get men on the ground and establish a forward base of operations.

Private McKenzie was driving the M.E.W.T, the mobile electronic warfare team vehicle, a high tech satellite and telecommunications station that would keep all troops in the field, air support and HQ linked together for coordinated action.

By his side were Lance Corporal Samantha Gardner and Lieutenant Colonel Nigel Carruthers, for whom this would be his last tour of duty in the field. Forward communications was always the riskiest mission, and Alistair had always managed to blag the easier, base HQ assignments.

This time however, his newly promoted girlfriend had been given the assignment, and well…. He couldn't just sit there in HQ wondering what she was up to, he had to be at her side, working as a team.

He was the Communication Systems Engineer, responsible for setting up the equipment and keeping it working, and she the Communication Systems Operator who kept everyone up to date with the latest intelligence and orders.

Carruthers was there as senior officer to make sure everything went smoothly and offer advice from his wealth of experience. He had been on these missions before and knew what it was like for the 'rookies' on their first outing.

The first of the vehicles started to descend into the valley ahead, when the radio came to life.

"All units, this is convoy command. We are now entering the 'badlands'. Repeat we are now entering the 'badlands'." A Westland WAH-64 Apache Longbow attack airship flew over them and headed down into the valley looking for insurgent snipers.

It was about 30 minutes later when Alistair looked into the gates of hell. An improvised explosive device took out the lead vehicle. They all flinched at the sudden, deafening sound, and then looked on in horror as debris fell from the sky. He felt his breakfast coming back up his gullet as he saw an arm bounce off the vehicle in front and hit the windscreen.

Carruthers was the first to respond and gave them orders. "Out your side McKenzie. Let's get between the cliff and the truck."

Alistair opened the door and dropped down onto the dirt track. He wanted to help Sam down. It was strange, even in this completely uncivilised and barbaric situation, he wanted to act like a gentleman.

Sam ignored him and jumped down, quickly followed by Carruthers, who ran to the back of the M.E.W.T and opened the door. The rattle of automatic weapons could be heard from all around them and across the valley.

Using the armoured door as shield he held it open for the other two to climb in. Once inside they started flicking switches to power up the unit.

"They must be hiding in small caves to hide their heat signatures from the choppers," Carruthers told them. "We have to get word to HQ about the ambush."

"They're not stupid," Alistair said. "They waited until we were deep in the valley so that we would have to wait for satellite reassignment. We're deaf and dumb at the moment."

"Hopefully the airship has managed to relay a message," Sam said. At which point, a surface to air missile streaked from across the valley and caused the airship to explode in a ball of flame.

"Oh dear God!" Sam exclaimed.

The convoy was returning fire to the cliffs across the valley with their own rocket launchers.

"We have to get an uplink so that we can coordinate the counter strike," Carruthers announced.

"Sir. Let me take the T.L.K. I can climb up through the rocks. When I'm high enough I should be able to acquire the satellite and relay the feed to you here," Alistair suggested. The theatre liaison kit, was a rapid deployment mobile liaison office with worldwide secure broadband satcom connectivity. It was used as a theatre and reach-back communications networking system.

"I don't know McKenzie, it's too risky."

"No riskier than sitting here like a target at the bomb range Sir."

"It's a hell of a climb soldier. Do you think you can do it?" The vehicle shuddered from a nearby explosion.

"I'd be lying if I said I was looking forward to it Sir, but people shooting at me has always been a hell of an incentive to get a move on."

"Alright, make the attempt." He turned to Sam. "Gardner, get on the radio and request covering fire. And Alistair…. Good luck."

"Thank you Sir," he said as he shouldered the T.L.K. He looked at Sam, who had a look of concern on her face. "Hey, it'll be Okay. Just be ready for my uplink signal." He reached up and held her cheek in his hand.

"Permission to break protocol Sir," he said to Carruthers with a grin.

"Erm, I suppose so under the circumstances."

Alistair leaned forwards and kissed her passionately on the lips. She could feel he was trembling from the adrenalin that was now pumping around his body.

"Stay safe," she whispered. Without another word he leapt out of the back of the vehicle and disappeared.

"Ah. Dorothy told me about you two," he said with a smile. "Jolly good too."

Alistair was no hero. He was under no illusions about that. He'd been in scary situations before, when he used to be someone else in another life. And here he was again, in another scary situation.

He scrambled up the sloping ground using rocks and scrub as cover until he came to a gulley. He was able to run up the gulley with the sound of a gunfight echoing around him. The gulley eventually became shallow and turned into a dried up watercourse that ran above the road. When he looked back he could just see the tail end of the convoy.

As he moved around a large rock, his heart froze along with the passage of time. He was face to face with a man with weathered skin, tangled beard and missing teeth. He wore a turban and tattered fatigues which had a pungent odour of someone who had been living out here for a long time without access to a bar of soap.

They just stood there, staring at each other. Neither one sure as to what would happen next. 'Now what?' Alistair thought to himself, when the question was answered. The insurgent started to turn his sniper rifle in his direction.

Alistair had his SA80 assault rifle hanging on the shoulder strap. It was a simple case of reaching the trigger and pulling it before the cumbersome sniper rifle could point at him. There were a half dozen tapping noises as the rifle spit out its deadly ammunition, and the man fell backwards.

Alistair continued his run up the side of the valley until his combat computer told him he was high enough to make the uplink. He found a safe location behind a rock and opened up the T.L.K. He took out the self seeking dish mount and put it on top of the rock.

The dish moved in erratic spirals until it acquired the satellite and his panel went green. He opened up a channel to the M.E.W.T.

"Mike Charlie Zero Two, calling Mike Charlie Zero One. Do you copy? Over."

He was overjoyed when Sam's voice came back over the link. "Roger that Mike Charlie Zero Two. I have your signal five by five, clean and green. Over."

He collapsed back against the rock, sweat pouring off him. He had just run up the side of a mountain with 50 pounds of kit on his back…. and killed a man. He wondered if he had any family, and how they would cope without him. Would they even find out that he was dead?

He was listening to Sam's voice as she relayed information back to HQ and map coordinates for missile strikes. He felt pride swelling in his chest, that his girlfriend was instrumental in saving the convoy. All he'd done was run away up the mountain.

The first Alistair knew that something was terribly wrong is when Sam's voice suddenly stopped coming from the T.L.K. He naturally assumed that there was an equipment failure, and technically, I suppose you could say there was.

The severity of the failure became apparent seconds later when the blast wave hit and blew the dish off the rock.

The horror of the failure, that caused the contents of his stomach to spew over the dry and dusty ground, was when pieces of his commanding officer and his girlfriend started raining down around him like hailstones from the very depths of hell.


A large, grey metal storage cabinet slowly appeared against the far wall of Professor Jenkins's laboratory at Porton Down. It made a sound like the universe had a bad case of emphysema, wheezing and groaning itself into existence.

Unusually for a storage cabinet, the doors opened inwards and two occupants stepped out into the dark room.

"Oh you clever girl!" John cooed quietly at their TARDIS, as he stroked the metal cabinet. "See Rose? That's what a chameleon circuit is supposed to do," he said as he closed the doors.

"It does blend right in doesn't it."

"Too right, and if you open the doors outwards…." He opened the cabinet doors to reveal…. A cabinet full of spare laboratory equipment. "Only the TARDIS key will allow the doors to be opened inwards."

"That's brilliant. I'm sensing that she's rather pleased with herself."

"Quite right too. Now let's see if we can find where they are producing this zombie pathogen. There must be another lab hidden somewhere nearby."

"What, like a secret lab, in a secret lab, in a secret base?" Rose asked with her tongue-in-teeth smile.

"Oh I like that. A secret, secret, secret lab. Imagine if it was on New Earth?"

"John. Let's not go there. We haven't got time," Rose told him, imagining all the 'news' and 'secrets' he would try and get into the title.

They'd had a good look around earlier in the day, but that had been somewhat guided by Professor Jenkins. Now they wanted to look at the things they hadn't been shown.

"John, let's try this door at the back," Rose whispered as she tried the handle. It was locked. John took out his sonic and unlocked the door, quietly pushing it open and putting his head through the gap. He then pushed it wider and they both stepped in.

"A storeroom," Rose said as John scanned with his sonic. There were shelves with all sorts of scientific equipment on them, as well as boxes of test tubes, flasks and all the other consumables needed in a laboratory.

John followed the sonic to a metal cabinet that was not unlike the TARDIS's disguise. When John opened it, a small light came on similar to a refrigerator, which showed that the cabinet was empty, not even any shelves in it.

"That's odd don't you think? All these shelves full of equipment, and an empty cabinet?" John asked.

He stepped inside and turned to face Rose with a grin. "Care to join me?"

Rose stepped into the cabinet beside him and he closed the doors. "Hey! This isn't the time for any shenanigans in the storeroom," She told him jokingly.

"Oh I don't know? This might be exactly the time." He pointed the sonic at the floor and pressed the button. The doors of the cabinet started to rise in front of them, as the floor started to descend.

"A secret elevator! That's clever," Rose said.

The floor stopped descending and they just stood there in silence, listening for any sign of movement outside. John nodded to the top pocket of her uniform where she kept her scanner, picking up his telepathic reasoning that his sonic made a noise and her Torchwood scanner didn't.

She adjusted the range of the scan to account for the thin steel door and did a proximity sweep of the area outside the cabinet. According to the readings, it was a corridor and it was all clear. Rose nodded to John to open the door, which he did and popped his head outside. The corridor was empty. He stepped out of the cabinet elevator and Rose followed.

It was a dimly lit white corridor with panels, pipes and conduits, just the kind of thing you would expect in a run-of-the-mill star ship. Rose paused for a moment at that thought. Until a certain man grabbed her hand and said run, a star ship and its corridor would have been anything but run-of-the-mill.

At staggered intervals along the corridor were doors with round windows at head height. They went to the first door and John quickly looked through the window and then pulled back. In that brief instant he had taken in the whole room, and it was empty.

On the corridor wall was a hand sized panel which was obviously a biometric lock. John adjusted the sonic screwdriver and ran the blue beam over his right hand. He adjusted it again and ran it over the panel, placing his palm on the panel when he'd finished.

The door lock 'clunked' followed by a 'hiss', and then slowly swung inwards. They stepped inside and Rose saw that they were in a high tech laboratory with dim emergency lighting. It looked like a star ship laboratory off one of those sci-fi shows that John found so amusing.

"Wow!" Rose whispered. "This is SO Spock." She had first used that term in 1940's London, when she wanted high tech space ships like Jack had, with scanners, lasers and stuff. All the Doctor had was a temperamental wooden box and a novelty fountain pen that whistled.

"This is definitely off-world tech," John said quietly as he scanned with his 'novelty pen'. "Gene manipulators, molecular deconstructor, atom compilers. What the hell is this stuff doing under a laboratory in one of the most sensitive military establishments?"

"Well it would be out of the way of pryin' eyes," Rose suggested. "With all the military discipline and security, no one's gonna be pokin' around."

Suddenly there was a 'clunk' and a 'hiss' as the door was being opened. Rose instinctively dropped to the floor behind a workbench, with her stunner instinctively in her hand. She saw John's legs by the side of her and reached up with one hand to grab the front of his uniform and pull him down.

They heard someone step into the room and walk towards them. Rose frantically motioned for John to crawl to the end of the workbench and go around the corner. They quietly scrambled across the floor and just made it around the corner, as someone in a white lab coat walked past and stopped at a piece of equipment.

They could hear beeping noises as buttons were pressed, and a click as a hatch was opened and closed. Then there was a whirring sound as the equipment worked. Curiosity was getting the better of Rose. She wanted to see what was going on, but didn't want to get spotted.

John saw her rummaging in one of her top pockets, pull out her makeup compact case and open it up. 'Hell of a time to check your lipstick' he thought, and then chastised himself for questioning his brilliant wife. She carefully positioned the mirror so that it would peep around the corner. John moved his head against hers so that he could see as well.

'This person will be late for the party', Rose thought as she looked in the mirror. It appeared that the technician was wearing a metallic red wig. There was something about the face as well. Although she could only see the face from the side, she could swear that the eyes were glowing red.

John held her hand and gently pulled it away from the edge. Rose looked at him and saw the worried look on his face. She had learned along time ago that when the Doctor was worried, everyone else should be scared.

The machine stopped whirring, and the hatch opened and closed. The technician walked away and they heard the door 'clunk' and 'hiss'. They both carefully stood up, making sure the room was empty. Rose holstered her stun gun.

"John? What's with the worried face? You recognised that technician, didn't you?"

"Yes, from the old universe. And if they're the same as back there, we're in trouble. We'll need some evidence that this place exists so that we can call for a raid. Would you take some images with your scanner before we go?"

"Yeah, sure." She started snapping pictures of all the alien equipment. When she'd finished, she looked a bit puzzled.

"I can't upload the images to the Torchwood server."

"There must be something blocking the signal down here. Come on, let's get back topside and get out of here."

They went back to the door and looked along the corridor as far as they could through the window. John activated the door and it 'clunked' and 'hissed' open. They looked both ways and quickly stepped into the corridor, heading back to the elevator, when they heard the now familiar 'clunk' and 'hiss' from the far end of the corridor.

Without looking back they ran as quietly as they could to the cabinet doors and hurriedly climbed inside. As John closed the doors, they could see one of the red headed technicians stepping into the corridor.

"Do you think they saw us?" Rose asked.

"I don't think so. It looked like they were going further down the corridor."

John operated the sonic and the elevator started to ascend up to the storeroom. Once again, Rose scanned for any heat signatures in the room and found none. John poked his head out and looked around the room.

"All clear," he announced and they headed for the door to the lab. They stepped into the lab and headed for the TARDIS. John was about to put the key in the lock when they heard a metallic click behind them.

"If I'm not mistaken," Rose said. "That's the sound of two SA80 assault rifles bein' cocked ready to fire."

"DON'T MOVE" a voice said behind them.

"When we get home Rose, we need to talk about this fascination you've developed with firearms," John said.

"HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEADS. ON YOUR KNEES. NOW!" the voice commanded.

"We're Torchwood agents," Rose started to explain. "We…."

"SILENCE!" A handcuff was secured around one wrist and her arm was roughly forced behind her. A hand grabbed her other wrist and pulled it down into the other handcuff. She looked over and saw that the same was happening to John.

"There's no need to be so rough," John said. "I'm sure we can sort all of this out without having to resort to violence."

They were dragged to their feet and turned to look at their captors. They were two army privates, obviously on guard duty that night.

"You'll have chance to explain it all to the General. Now move." They were marched and pushed out of the lab and across base to the Guard House, where they were made to stand in front of a reception desk. The duty sergeant looked at them with raised eyebrows.

"Who've we got here then?" he asked one of the privates.

"Intruders Sir. We found them in the biological research lab." He replied as he started to relieve them of their equipment.

"Really? Black uniforms, weapons, high tech espionage equipment. It looks like you've caught a couple of terrorists here lads, well done," the sergeant said.

"Terrorists?" John exclaimed in horror. "We're not terrorists. We're Torchwood agents. Listen we have to get word to Director Tyler quickly. There's an alien lab under the base, and it's producing a pathogen that's turning people into zombies."

Rose looked at him with a resigned look on her face. "Do you realise how crazy that sounds? And I know it's true."

The soldiers burst out laughing and the sergeant turned to John. "Name?"

"Dr. John Smith. Scientific advisor to the President," he said, hoping his title would pull some weight.

The sergeant rolled his eyes as he wrote it down in the custody book. "John Smith. Not very original." He turned to Rose. "And you?"

"Rose Marion Smith."

"Well, that's a bit more imaginative. I was expectin' Jane or somethin'."

"My maiden name was Tyler. I'm Pete Tyler's daughter." The sergeant looked at her blankly. "Y'know, the Vitex heiress."

They all started laughing again. "You must have seen us in the magazines," she said, for once happy to have been the target of the paparazzi's attention.

"Nope, sorry Love. Cells one and two lads until the General gets here."

"No, you don't understand!" John told them as they dragged them away. "Everyone on Earth is in danger. All seven billion of us."