Previously on Doctor Who: "Well it's about time!" snapped the Doctor uncharacteristically sharply and all eyes landed on him.
"Is this how you treat all staff with a higher rank than you?" he continued and Slimy and Oily looked a little taken a back.
"Excuse me Sir? You were caught trespassing on private proper-"
"Trespassing?" the Doctor said indignantly, cutting of Oily and rummaging through his pockets, looking affronted, with Martha behind him following his lead and trying to look as irritated as possible (which wasn't very difficult). Finally the Doctor pulled out a small card and held it up to the four men facing them.
"Dr. Smith, Chief Inspection officer of the North Star Science and Weaponry Department." Read out Oily before handing the card to Slimy.
"This is Miss Jones my partner and I have to say that you are not off to a flying start. North Star is responsible for all scientific and weaponry development this side of the Western Alliance. We would hate to have to shut you down for this incident."
Everyone was silent for a moment, before Slimy nodded and passed the Doctor back the card with a small smile.
"My apologies Sir. We had no news of any inspections, my men only acted on protocol." he said in a sickly sweet voice.
"Just Doctor thank you enough of the Sir. Well it wouldn't be a surprise inspection without the element of surprise would it? Oh and I'll be having my device back please." This last part was aimed at the black man holding the gun who glowered and tossed over the screwdriver that he had taken from the Doctor earlier on.
"Thank you. Now," and here he turned to the older man in the coat, where he could now see a name tag "Dr Snyden" then to Mr Oily "Mr Delacourt, shall we begin?"
The six of them, Snyden and Delacourt, the two guards and finally followed by Martha and the Doctor, walked down a cold grey corridor. Making sure that the other men could not hear them Martha leaned in and whispered to the Doctor
"Why did we come here? Why not use the psychic paper to get us out of here?" she hissed. The Doctor looked at her with an expression she rarely saw on his face. Uncertainty. And if she new one thing it was that the uncertainty was covering fear and anger. Because the Doctor hated dangerous uncertainty.
"There's something wrong here Martha. Very wrong, I need - I have to know what's going on. Trust me?" he said in a grave tone, though the two word question sounded almost pleading. Martha couldn't help but smile
"Always."
"Right then. Allon-sy!" said the Doctor once again turned into an over excited puppy, with a huge grin as he sped up to walk behind Delacourt and Snyden.
"So, Sir- sorry Doctor, we have 118 staff who have access to the site, 100 of which are Commander Amos's security team, they work in 6 hour shifts in 5 teams, three on three off at any time. Our research, development and experimentation team, is 18 not including myself or Dr Syden here, and we along with Amos are the only ones with access to the labs. Aside form our main research lab we have seven testing rooms, 15 other labs with various purposes, a residential block for the security team and one for the research staff. Myself, Snyden and Amos all have our private offices and quarters in the west wing and the lower levels are mostly basements, storage and chemical holding. Any questions so far?" Delacourt said as they walked flicking an imaginary speck of dust from his oily black suite.
"Just one, what exactly is it you do here?" asked the Doctor as they walked past a room, with a steady trickle of steam running form it. This stopped Delacourt in his tracks as he turned and looked at the Doctor with an unnervingly steely gaze as did everyone but Martha, who just tried to not look worried.
"I thought you were a Chief Inspector? Surely you were briefed on our operations here?" he said coldly, and Martha didn't miss the tightening of Amos's hand on his gun.
"We weren't given any information other than your business name and location. This is a blind inspection for us, it stops us from having any preconceived biases or judgements that could uh effect the outcome of the inspection. So I'll ask again, what is it exactly that you are doing here?" the Doctor said as smoothly as anything. Seemingly pacified Delacourt, crooked one long finger and said simply
"Follow me Doctor."
"Welcome to Project Cordelia." Said Dr Snyden as they entered another room, with six people in white lab coats all holding clipboards and standing facing what looked like a giant window looking onto another section of room.
"And I take it she is Cordelia?" asked the Doctor pointing through the giant window at the scene before them, a grim expression falling over his face.
"Yes. That is our Cordelia." said Delacourt in a voice which made Martha squirm and the Doctor fume as they looked back through the window.
On the other side of the glass, sat cross legged on the floor was a girl. She was small but not young, Martha guessed late teens or early twenties. She must have once had beautiful tanned skin, maybe of Hispanic or Latino descent, but she seemed to have paled out, like the colour of her skin had been washed out and faded probably from sun light deficiency or something, if the dark circles under her eyes were any indication. Her eyes were a peculiar colour, they were a kind of grey that seemed to be every shifting between a misty silver and an almost black. She wore a grey sweatshirt that was a little too big, the sleeves hung over her hands, and under that she wore tracksuit bottoms in a darker shade of grey and a pair of not very sturdy looking pair of canvas plimsolls. The room around her looked like it was a nursery school, scattered with colourful plastic shapes and puzzle pieces and a few tattered stuffed animals here and there. On the left side of the room was a small table with a chair behind it, but the bottom of the chair legs looked odd.
"I-is that bolted to the floor?" asked Martha, speaking for the first time since they had left the holding cell. Dr Snyden puffed up proudly and nodded.
"Yes. Er I designed the room myself. The Chair and table are made from A synthetic material we created here, strong enough to maintain human weight obviously but practically weightless and soft to the touch and both are secured to the floor with 12 inch thick steel cords. The walls and floor are padded, and the one way window is bullet proof and strong enough to hold back a small Tsunami if needed."
"But why? What's with all the- what is that?!" Martha's question suddenly faded into a demand as Cordelia moved her hands up to fiddle with the strands of the long jet black hair which fell in shaggy waves down to her mid back. As she raised her hands, something silver began glinting in the light.
"Why is she in cuffs?" cried Martha, as she felt the Doctor lay a hand on her shoulder as he moved past her and walked right up to the window as Dr Snyden answered Martha's first question whilst managing to avoid the why.
"The er, restraints are made from Delactanium Steel Miss Jones."
At this the Doctor spoke, not turning back to face the others
"Delactanium Steel? That's one of the strongest and rarest metals on the terraformed planets. Now I would ask where you got it but I reckon the better question is why?" he said looking at Cordelia through the window, noticing all the little ticks and twitches of her hands and body as she sat there.
"Easier to show you." said Delacourt with unnerving excitement in his eyes, as he pressed an intercom button on the wall and spoke into it.
"You may begin now."
Second chapter done!
Promise to up the drama a bit next time.
Goodbye Sweeties
Geronimo xx