Previously on Doctor Who:
It was like it all happened in slow motion for the Doctor.
Inside the room, Moors finger pressed down on the button, and at once Cordelia collapsed to the ground. Somewhere behind him he heard Martha say dimly
"Oh my god!"
As Cordelia curled up into a ball on the ground her hands pressed so tight over her ears that her finger had gone white. She rolled from one side to the another and as she did so, the Doctor could see her face screwed up in what must have been unimaginable agony, jaw clenched, eye squeezed shut. The guards in the room did not even bat an eye lid at what was happening, only pulled out a set of ear protectors each, each set made of a similar looking material to the chair and table. Moors looked up in the direction of the room he couldn't see and Snyden spoke again
"Ok, take it up."
Moors nodded and now he used a small slider on the side of the silver tube. He pushed the small ridged slider and it slid all the way to the top of the tube.
And then she screamed.
The girl curled up on the floor opened her mouth and let out a piercing scream. A few of the scientists in the same room as the Doctor and Martha involuntarily flinched as the scream began but quickly composed themselves.
"Don't worry" said Delacourt to the Doctor, not looking way from the scene before him "We can hear her, we aren't effected by her in hear."
"Your not effected?" said Martha incredulously.
"No we aren't. The first time we introduced the noise, the scream she emitted ruptured the ear drums of four guards. She deafened them all. Permanently. Buuuuttt, with some small developments we were able to isolate the frequency so that it not only emits our noise but it suppresses her noise, we can here her without deafening ourselves at the same time." he said and Martha was angered and amazed to see that he was actually smiling proudly.
"Then why do they need the ear protectors?" asked the Doctor coldly and Delacourt actually chuckled without mirth.
"Because whilst she can't hurt them, she still screams like a bloody banshee."
Finally after what seemed like hours Cordelia stopped screaming. She lay on the floor, dazed and only just conscious her eyes wide and staring up at the ceiling. The bright lights of the room reflected of her eyes in tiny spots.
"See how the eyes reflect the light in little dots like that, not the whole eye? We nearly called her Astra because of the eyes. Astra. Derived from the Greek Aster, it means star. Our little starry eyed girl. But Cordelia seemed more appropriate. Want to know why?"
"Got a feeling you're going to tell us." muttered Martha darkly.
"Cordelia. Quite literally 'the jewel of the sea'. She was found floating in a life boat as a baby, three miles off of the Dead Zone of the North Atlantic. So when she fell into our hands, Cordelia seemed quite fitting." said Snyden pompously as though it was the biggest stroke of genius on the planet.
As he spoke, the two guards who did not have their weapons drawn, marched over and each took an arm, hoisting Cordelia off of the floor and beginning to carry the barely conscious girl from the room.
"Where are they taking her?" asked the Doctor curiously and as Snyden began to speak Delacourt cut him off
"Back to her living qua-"
"back to secure holding until she is in a safe state once again." Delacourt interjected and the Doctor raised his eyebrows slightly. "Pulling her out of Withdrawal can be, well risky at times, not just for her but for us."
"You keep banging on about this 'withdrawal' but you haven't actually said what it is?!" queried the Doctor and this time it was Delacourt who provided the information
"It's what we call it when she lock down externally. She withdraws into herself, shuts off her mind from the rest of her body."
"She ignores you then?" said the Doctor with an innocent smile.
"Not quite sir. She can still see and hear us her brain just doesn't process it, its like a self-protection method."
"N-n-not that she needs protection from us Doctor. We believe it actually happens when she is tired, so she can rest." said Snyden hastily, trying to make it sound absurd that Cordelia would need to protect herself from them.
"But we have to break her out of it or she won't function. We have to pull her out of Withdrawal. Whatever it takes." said Delacourt determinedly.
As Snyden continued speaking to Martha and the Doctor, the security teams leader, Commander Amos, re-entered the room. Silently he jerked his head at Delacourt, motioning for him to come over. The slimy man in a suit silently walked over and the two bent their heads, as Amos launched into quiet and rapid speech, and Delacourt's eyes narrowed.
"A-and that, that silver thing it what breaks her out of it? Like breaks a trance or something?" asked Marta and Snyden nodded eagerly.
"It admits a signal. A noise that erm, applies erm 'pressure' to break her our of Withdrawal." he confirmed, but Martha still looked one part confused two parts angry.
"If it's a noise how come we can't hear it?" she asked but even as Dr Snyden opened his mouth to speak once again, they all froze at the obvious sound of a gun being cocked. All froze, that is except the Doctor, who merely rolled his eyes and sighed in a sing song voice
"oh here we go again with the guns"
Martha, Snyden and The Doctor all turned round. Amos and three off his men all had their guns drawn, all were aiming at the Doctor and Martha and all looked seriously angry.
"that's quite enough questions now Doctor." sneered Delacourt taking a step forwards "Dr Snyden I suggest you move away now. Miss Jones and the good Doctor here are not inspectors. In fact, our intelligence says that Martha Jones died 15 years ago and as far you Doctor? You don't appear to exist. Now I'm not sure why you're really here or who you really are and to be quite frank it is not my concern."
"Brilliant, so we'll just be going then!" smiled the Doctor.
"I said it is not my concern. It is however, Commander Amos's concern. Commander?"
"Yes sir?"
Delacourt cracked a very disturbing smile
"Whatever it takes."
Oh no they've been discovered!
Well that was always going to happen!
Poor Cordelia, what on earth is that silver thing? And Martha's right why cant they hear it too?
All will be revealed soon Sweeties.
Geronimo xx