"Doctor." She shouted again at the armored plastic. It had sealed shut, the surface smooth and undisturbed. Even the glow in the depths had dispersed.
She let her confusion boil into anger and pulled both bokken from her back. With smooth, parallel, angry motions she smashed the dense wood into the placid aquarium walls. The blows echoed and bounced around the confined space. She brought the swords down again.
"Doctor!" she shouted.
The hatch opened ahead.
"What is all this commotion about?" The hoarse voice sounded tired. And angry. And lots of things.
Ace turned and jabbed the bokken forward in the probing o gasumi position. "Who's there?" she asked.
He was young in appearance, but tired. A leather jacket and dirty trousers. The face was wrinkled and not improved by a poor attempt to shave. His eyebrow indicated a slight interest in the weapons.
Ace wondered who he could be. Maybe a maintenance guy with nothing else to do? Or a wrecker looking for scrap and tradeable salvage. Maybe he had been a prisoner and was returning for souvenirs? Or revenge.
"Who were you calling for?" he asked. "I could hear it thru the hatch, which is quite an achievement." He looked down at the battered window, the surface already returning to its previous undisturbed state. "The lights didn't get him did they?" He paused to think. "Very odd."
"I asked who you were." She felt desperate. This new arrival could be a help in finding the Doctor. Or he could be a time-wasting fool.
He rolled his eyes. Her approach seemed to tire him. "I've been called a lot of things, senpai. A joker, a slave, a doctor, a knave. At this time in my life I prefer 'warrior'."
She stood straight and pushed the bokken back into place on her back. "I can't just call you Warrior. That would be stupid." She looked down at the floor and took a deep breath. "But whatever you're called, you have to help me find my friend."
He nodded and beckoned her thru. "There's a control room thru here. I'll show you what I think has happened to him." He pointed to the plastic glass at floor level. The dancing glow had returned. "Best to avoid touching that for now."
She slowly approached the hatch taking a quick glance at what lay ahead. Some kind of circular meeting place was beyond.
The Warrior stooped to look back thru the hatch. "What is your friend's name then?" He blinked as if listening to a tall tale, attending benignly to a childish story.
Ace did not like his patronizing attitude. "The Doctor," she said as she left the corridor. The control room looked quite like it could be the destination they had pointed at on schematics in the Tardis earlier.
"What kind of a name is that?" he replied with a little indignity. "You said Warrior was stupid. Doctor is just as bad."
She had not really thought about it in a long time. "Well, it's a title really. He won't tell me his real name. But everyone knows the Doctor. He fixes things. Makes things better."
The Warrior rolled his eyes. "Do you run his fan club? Well, I fight things." He paused to breath carefully. His nostrils flared briefly. "Goodness knows if it makes anything better. But that makes me a warrior. End of story."
The walls of the hub were overlain with maps and schematics. Aside from small variations in temperature and pressure, very little seemed to be happening. "And what do you fight?" she asked. She tried to sound disinterested, but it seemed so obvious what his answer would be.
"Hmm." He thought carefully. "Probably nothing at all. I'm fighting history. Maybe inevitability."
"Turning back time?" she mused aloud. "Now where's the Doctor?"
He lifted a heavy hand to the flow of energy on the longest schematic. "Probably scattered for now. Until it wakes up." He fell silent briefly. "You know you shouldn't cross those sticks." He tapped her shoulder and she twisted her top half as if to look at the bokken. "If you hang them side by side the shui is better. Particularly if you actually intend to hurt someone with them."
Ace never blushed, but her cheeks felt hot. "They're swords and I've hurt plenty of people with them."
He looked sad. "You seem pleased."
She pressed her lips firmly together and let her shoulders relax. There was nothing to say. "Why is it offline? I thought it would be switched on all the time."
He pressed his palms onto the panel beside him, as if holding himself steady. "Switched on? Like a computer. I thought you knew what we're dealing with here."
Her shoulders tightened again. Perhaps smashing up a few things would make her feel better after all. "The Doctor called it a 'brain'; an electronic 'brain'. Made up of components from captive Daleks."
The Warrior nodded. "Yes. Some mechanical components, of course. But the real genius of the Daleks is in their tissue, their very cells." His gaze turned directly to her, daring her to make the last connection.
"It's a real brain?" She glanced at the schematic. "But that thing must be a couple of metres high. What could possibly have a brain that big?"
The Warrior rubbed his nose. "It's a confection of bits and pieces, Ace. Scraps scoured from old Dalek casings, tissues cultured into layers and layers of processing ability. All lumped together in a fermenting tank of nutrients. Not dead, not conscious. But seething in that Dalek way and crackling with ideas."
She felt a cold twitch in her chest. "Who ran this place? Weren't the Daleks prisoners of war?"
He raised his eyebrows. "I like that, senpai. Get the facts right, then you get the motives right. Me? I've no idea who these mad creatures were. All I know is: they had prisoners and they let my people do what they wanted."
"Shit," said Ace. "I just realized who you are."