INT. INTERROGATION ROOM – TONADES PRECINCT
Rose stares across the table at Kale.
ROSE
You have to let me go.
KALE
Were you not listening?
ROSE
You don't understand. I can save them.
KALE
Save who?
ROSE
Your people. All of them. The Doctor and I can save them.
He eyes her with skepticism.
KALE
And how would you do that?
ROSE
The Doctor's a Time Lord.
KALE
What does that mean to me?
ROSE
We have a time machine.
KALE
A time machine?
ROSE
I'm from the past, from a time before any of what you just said happened. I was there at Earth's declaration. I was there when they stole the world ender from the Cybermen.
KALE
You expect me to believe you're a time traveler?
ROSE
Why do you think he calls himself a "Time Lord"?
KALE
To perpetuate the myth and superstitions that surrounds his people. Time travel isn't real science.
ROSE
It is. I can prove it. We came here in a timeship. It's called the Tardis.
KALE
And where is this Tardis?
ROSE
It's hidden.
KALE
I see.
ROSE
Yes, and you won't be able to find it or get inside without me. Most of it is in another dimension. I don't really know how it works, but there's only one way in, through the cockpit, and there's only two people in the universe who can open the door.
KALE
You and the Doctor?
ROSE
That's right.
Kale thinks.
INT. SURVEILLANCE ROOM – SECURITY OFFICE – ZIRA CLINIC
We see various monitors mounted on the wall of the cramped office. Each monitor's screen is split into four different angles, each one displaying another section of the clinic. The images cycle through to other sections of the clinic every ten seconds or so.
In front of the monitors sits a pair of bulldog security officers wearing red uniforms. One of them is BUPKIS, the clinic's chief watchdog. Lieutenant Valor stands over him.
VALOR
The patient in question is "the Doctor".
Bupkis gives him a look.
VALOR
That's his name. His name is "the Doctor". Just look it up. I need to know what time he checked in.
BUPKIS
I'm not sure I'm supposed to be doing this.
Valor shows Bupkis his credentials; a holo-badge.
VALOR
You see this, chief? This says you do whatever I say. Now, when did he check in?
Bupkis enters the information at his computer and reads the output.
BUPKIS
This says the Doctor was checked in at the main reception area at seventeen and twenty-three.
Valor points to one of the larger monitors.
VALOR
Okay, pull up the security video from that section using that timestamp.
Bupkis enters the information. On the monitor, we see a recording of Rose checking the Doctor in from earlier.
VALOR
All right, now, I want you to back it up. Follow them. I need to know where they entered the hospital, if they used mass transit or one of the parking structures.
The video reverses and tracks Rose and the Doctor back to the elevator.
VALOR
Which elevator is that?
BUPKIS
Elevator C3-west.
VALOR
This says they got off the elevator at seventeen and eighteen. Do you keep logs on which floors the elevators visit?
BUPKIS
Yes.
VALOR
Excellent. Cross-reference that timestamp with the route log. I want to know where they got on.
Bupkis collaborates with his colleague to pull up the correct route log. He reads it.
BUPKIS
Okay. The stop before reception was... floor sixteen.
Bupkis punches in the information and pulls up the video from floor sixteen on the monitor. We see the elevator doors open. A MOOSE JANITOR exits. The Doctor, Rose, and feline worker are visible inside the elevator.
VALOR
Okay, they didn't get off there. Back it up again.
BUPKIS
The next previous stop was floor twenty.
The video shows the moose janitor boarding the elevator.
VALOR
They were already on. Back it up again.
BUPKIS
(shakes head)
The next floor the elevator visited was floor forty-two. We don't have video on that floor. There's a big reconstruction project going on up there. Power is intermittent. Surveillance systems are disabled.
VALOR
Could they have gotten on before that?
BUPKIS
I don't think so. That was the first stop car C3W had made in... twelve minutes.
Valor stares at the paused image of Rose and the Doctor.
VALOR
(to himself)
What better way to sneak inside than to come in where there are no cameras?
Valor pats Bupkis on the back.
VALOR
Good boy. You've been very helpful.
Valor leaves. When he's out of the room, Bupkis snorts.
BUPKIS
Jerk.
INT. HALLWAY – LEVEL THIRTEEN – ZIRA CLINIC
Outside the Doctor's room, nurse Bormi wheels her cart up to the door. She prepares a hypodermic injector by loading a glass vile into the cartridge compartment.
LEEGRALL
What are you doing?
Bormi jumps, startled. Leegrall hovers over her.
BORMI
I'm just... Dr. Heeya prescribed an anti-biotic. I need to administer it.
LEEGRALL
Let me see that.
Leegrall snatches the injector out of her hand and turns his back to her while pretending to investigate it. She tries to reach around him to grab it back.
BORMI
You can't do that.
LEEGRALL
How do I know this is what you say it is?
Leegrall holds the injector behind his back. As he talks to her, he switches out the glass vile with the one from the injector given to him by Valor to poison the Doctor. He pockets the other vile.
BORMI
What else would it be?
LEEGRALL
How do I know you're not faking his symptoms so you can keep him here and delay his release?
He shows her the injector.
LEEGRALL
How do I know this isn't being used to deceive us?
BORMI
We would never do that.
She grabs the injector from him and leans forward, being sure to look around to see if anyone is watching.
BORMI
(whispers)
And I certainly wouldn't.
Leegrall eyes her, then moves away from the door.
She places the injector on her cart and opens the door.
INT. SECURED HOSPITAL ROOM – ZIRA CLINIC
The Doctor looks up as nurse Bormi approaches with her cart. She scans his forehead.
BORMI
You have no fever, sir.
DOCTOR
Listen to me, you have to let me go.
BORMI
I do not have the authority to do that... or the desire.
She grabs the injector from her cart.
BORMI
This is an anti-biotic prescribed by Dr. Heeya to protect against possible infection. Do I have your permission?
DOCTOR
You can't possibly believe the lies perpetuated by the Tonades. You are in the medical field. You must have gone to school to get your nursing license.
BORMI
Four years.
DOCTOR
Then, you know there is absolutely no biological evidence to support the theory that every member of an entire species can be predisposed to committing acts of evil.
BORMI
Evil is a morally ambiguous social construction, defined differently by everyone.
DOCTOR
Precisely!
BORMI
But there is evidence to suggest someone can be predisposed toward violence.
DOCTOR
An individual can, but not an entire race, not one that's reached a certain evolutionary step in their development.
Bormi rolls her eyes.
INT. FLOOR 42 – ZIRA CLINIC
The elevator doors open and Lieutenant Valor steps out. He holds a scanning device in his hand and follows the signal off the elevator.
Feline painters and carpenters busy on the renovation project look up from what they're doing to observe Valor. The FELINE FOREMAN approaches.
FELINE FOREMAN
Can I help you?
VALOR
Earlier this morning, a man and woman were up here. Did you see where they came from?
FELINE FOREMAN
A couple of my guys saw them come in over there.
The foreman points. Valor takes a step in that direction.
FELINE FOREMAN
Just like I told the other cop.
Valor stops, turns.
VALOR
Other cop? Someone else has been up here?
FELINE FOREMAN
Yeah, maybe ten or twenty minutes ago. He didn't have the same uniform as you. His was blue, but he had a badge. Said he was a cop. I didn't see him leave.
Valor eyes the place where the foreman pointed. He pulls out his knife and starts walking towards...
EXT. RENOVATION SITE - SOLUDEN CITY – DAY
With the sun setting over the city in the background, Valor approaches the hover-dome cockpit of the Tardis. The scanner in Valor's hand glows bright green. He eyes the hover-dome with suspicion.
VALOR
Well, now. What the hell are you?
He puts the scanner away and feels around the dome to try and open it.
INT. INTERROGATION ROOM – TONADES PRECINCT
Kale watches Rose.
KALE
Let's say that I believe you, that the myth of the Time Lords is true, and your Doctor is one, and that you have a time machine. You are a human. If I were to let you go, it's more likely you would use it to aid your own people, in an attempt to restore the Human Empire to its former glory.
ROSE
In the time that I come from, humans aren't like that. I don't know why they became all evil and Darth Vader-y, but if I've learned anything from traveling with the Doctor, it's that the tiniest little change can mean all the difference.
He shakes his head. Desperate to get through to him, she tries another tactic.
ROSE
Look at you. You hate my people because we destroyed your planet, but you're trying to do the same thing. You told me yourself, you want to know where I come from so you can go kill everybody. How does that make you any better?
In one simultaneous motion, Kale screams, stands, and throws the table against the wall. It shatters and the pieces of it melt back into the floor.
KALE
I am not better!
He charges her, grabs her by the neck and pushes her up against the wall.
KALE
I watched the ashes of my wife's charred corpse blow away in the wind when our colony was attacked by a human extermination squad. I abandoned my post in order to save her, but I was too late. And ever since that moment, I have seen her face crumble away every night when I sleep, when I dream, and in the morning when I wake up, and I know that I am not better. I am worse. I exist with hatred towards a people capable of things I can barely comprehend; a people I can never touch, and never hurt enough to the point where they will understand what they did to me!
As she struggles against his grip, her face turns red. He leans forward and growls when he talks.
KALE
I am not better. I am made like you and I hate myself for it, but I will die before I let your people commit one additional sin, be it genocide or petty thievery. I will ignore not one single transgression.
ROSE
(choking)
I can't help you if you kill me.
KALE
Maybe I don't want your help. Maybe I just want you to die.
His hand tightens around her throat.
INT. SECURED HOSPITAL ROOM – ZIRA CLINIC
Bormi holds the hypodermic injector at her side as the Doctor continues their debate. Not very receptive to his argument, she shakes her head in disgust.
BORMI
I am a nurse because I value life above all else. I became a nurse because I wanted to help people.
DOCTOR
That's why I'm the Doctor.
BORMI
So, I don't understand how you can defend what the humans did.
DOCTOR
I'm not defending what they did, but wars are run by governments, a select few powerful people capable of exerting their influence over others. History may be effective at casting generalities on entire groups of people, but it is impotent when it comes to defining individuals.
BORMI
The complacency of a population and willingness to go along with whatever their leaders say does not absolve them of responsibility. If anything, it makes them more culpable.
DOCTOR
But consider, in medicine, any one medication can save one person's life, but administer it to someone else, and it could kill them. Everyone is different. Rose Taylor and I have committed no crime against you. We have never hurt you.
BORMI
And you never will.
She shows him the injector.
BORMI
Now, do I have your permission to treat you?
Exasperated, the Doctor leans back. He nods and mentally prepares to take his medicine.
INT. HALLWAY – LEVEL THIRTEEN – ZIRA CLINIC
Leegrall watches through the window as Bormi prepares to inject the Doctor with the poison.
EXT. RENOVATION SITE - SOLUDEN CITY – DAY
Valor uses his knife along a seam to try and pry open the dome, but to no avail. He slams his fist on the exterior and looks around. Off to the side, he sees a cinder block. He walks over and picks it up over his head, preparing to use it to smash open the dome.
Suddenly, a noise. A hatch on the dome rises and slides open, revealing a SHADOWY FIGURE shrouded in yellow light. Valor sees the person and his eyes widen.
VALOR
You?! But you're...
The figure raises their hand and fires a Turoksa Annihilator at Valor. Instead of vaporizing him, it hits him square in the chest and sends the Tonades mercenary's body flying backwards, through the wall of the building.
INT. FLOOR 42 – ZIRA CLINIC
The felines scatter as the momentum of the blast carries Valor's body through the wall. He crashes through their workstations and finally slides to a stop at the other end of the construction site.
As the dust begins to settle, felines approach the hole in the wall with caution. They peer through the smoke as a man appears. Before we see his face, we see the Turoksa Annihilator in his hand. He wears brown jeans and a leather jacket over a collared shirt.
He is...
… the Doctor!
END CREDITS ROLL
- End Episode 6 - Serial, To be Continued...-
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