Child of Earth
By Lumendea
Chapter Eight: Black Archives: Best Plan We've Got
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of the spinoff material and I gain no income off of this story, just the satisfaction of playing with the characters.
AN: This is going to be a shorter episode due to the length of the season opener so only one more chapter left. Just a quickly little adventure and it has already changed from what I originally planned. They seem to have a knack for doing that.
….
Rose tried to keep a neutral expression and ignore the flood of memories that the woman's face prompted. She and Doctor Shaw had never met in this life and this was not the woman that she'd met in Snowden while Apep's forces attacked. That woman had been killed in the first wave of attacks. She just had to remember the difference.
"So you're Rose Tyler?" Doctor Shaw asked in the same sharply refined accent that Rose remembered from her other life. "It is a great pleasure to finally meet you."
"You as well Doctor Shaw," Rose agreed as she stretched out her hand.
The older woman shook her hand all the while examining her rather critically. Rose wondered what she saw and hoped that she wasn't showing too much recognition on her face. Benton was glancing between them carefully as if he was nervous about what was going to happen.
"I understand that you are… a future companion to the Doctor," Doctor Shaw remarked carefully. "You have quite the reputation. Several of my colleagues at the moon station had heard very interesting things about you."
"That's one way to put it," Benton chimed in quickly. "I'm sorry Thorn, Doctor Shaw but if you ladies could focus on the problem at hand-"
"Of course Brigadier," Shaw replied with a quick nod. "Come along Tyler," she ordered as she turned and strode across the room to one of the terminals.
Rose glanced at Benton who merely shrugged at her with an odd smile tugging at his lips. Shaking her head, Rose followed Doctor Shaw across the room. The technicians who were watching over the computers looked their way before Shaw sat down in one of the chairs. Looking over her shoulder, Rose scanned over the technology with a small smirk.
It was a bit old school in appearance, large and bulky systems with lots of carefully labelled buttons. The screens were the most modern part of them and as Shaw tapped one of them to bring up some information, Rose smirked at the blend of state of the art and classic 70s that seemed to be going on here.
"So what brought you back to Earth Doctor Shaw?" Rose questioned conversationally as she looked out of the window to check on the archive again.
"Retirement as strange as it seems," Shaw answered with a chuckle. "Years of space living has taken quite a toll on me. Even on the moon with the benefit of the alien technology we've reverse engineered over the years, there is a limit to what we can do against radiation." Shaw hit a few of the larger buttons and through the window, Rose saw a new section suddenly light up as the low lights high above the shelves became much brighter. "Have you been into space Miss Tyler?"
"Call me Rose," she corrected quickly with a smile. "Or Thorn if you feel you must."
"Then please call me Liz," the older woman returned with a soft smile.
"And to answer your question, yes a couple of times. Usually in the TARDIS, but not always. Thankfully it's always been on highly advanced ships."
The computer system beeped and the screen in front of Shaw flashed red for a moment. A layout appeared on the screen that Liz quickly tapped on. Rose remained quiet and watched the screen display a readout of electrical levels and radiation. She frowned, there were electrical spikes occurring in three different places by the looks of the screen and the radiation levels were climbing. It wasn't dangerous yet, but not good.
"Any thoughts?" Rose asked. "Is it possible that when… whoever broke it that they left something to do this on purpose?"
"It's possible I suppose," Liz agreed with a frown. "The environment has certainly become unstable. Your theory that they may have introduced something could be right."
Liz had a serious look on her face as she began tapping at the screen once again. Rose could see the outlines of the shelf and tiny labels, but Liz quickly hit a few more buttons and the picture changed. Now it was similar to an infrared camera feed with different area lighting up.
"Certain items are beginning to turn on, but we have no idea what effect they will have on each other," Liz sighed. "Ignorance is our greatest enemy here."
"And there is no way to shut things down from up here?" Rose questioned seriously as she examined the screen. "Any sort of neutralising agent?"
"No, there have been experiments with a general neutralizer, but nothing that works across the board," Liz replied with a shake of her head. "There were plans to install special safety systems into the new vault when that was still a plan."
"Okay you said that there was no general neutralising agent, but what have you got?"
"There are two experimental neutralizers, but neither works with everything," Liz explained quickly. "And we can't deploy at a distance. The items have to be submerged in the agent."
"And we aren't supposed to go down there," Rose grumbled as she stood up and looked out the window. What appeared to be a tiny lightning storm was forming in one of the aisles and she released a long slow breath. "Great."
"Basically," Liz agreed with a small nod and a tiny smirk. "I dare say that Benton is being a little too optimistic about this."
"Okay new thought," Rose offered as she licked her lips. "How much of the neutralizer do we have? Maybe we could pump it through a hose system. Spray one area, rush in and deactivate the nearby devices, retreat and do the next area."
"A bit crude…" Liz answered thoughtfully. "But it might work, especially if she spray us in the protective suits down as well." The older woman took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes for a moment, looking very tired suddenly. "The problem still is how to shut down some of this unfamiliar technology."
"Well I can't make any promises, but I do have a sonic pen," Rose told her as she pulled out her pen and tossed it in the air before catching it with a smile. "It might do the job. I can't promise any of it will be useable at the end, though."
"Sonic pen?" Liz repeated curiously as she eyed the object in Rose's hand. "Did… did he make that for you?"
"No," Rose chuckled as she examined the pen with a fond smile. "I don't know the whole story, but he got it from a defeated enemy. Some sort of alien nanny on Earth."
"Alien nanny?"
"Like I said, I don't know the whole story," Rose informed her. "I'm under the impression it happens in the future so there are timelines in play."
"I'm beginning to see that what they say about you is true," Liz remarked before she turned back to the screen with a small smile.
Suddenly the screen in front of Liz flashed drawing both of their attentions. Black shapes moved across the camera, blocking out the flux of other colours for a moment. Rose leaned forward with Liz as she replayed the three seconds of footage, but sure enough, something was moving across the screen. With tightly pressed lips, Liz hit another button and drew the camera back to reveal three figures moving through the shelves and around the racks quickly and carefully. They were distinctly humanoid shapes.
"They're still here," Liz gasped in alarm as she turned in her chair. "Brigadier! Sir, you need to see this."
Benton moved over to them in a flash and looked down at the screen with hardening features. Now that Liz had found them, it was easy to keep track of them as they moved through the hot zone. However, within moments, they had shifted out of the active zone and into an unaffected area. Their thermal image vanished.
"They must be wearing clothing that neutralises their heat signatures."
"There isn't anything that can do that to this level," Benton argued before sighing. "At least not man made."
"So not our people," Rose confirmed with a frown of her own.
"No, definitely not," Benton agreed. "Bloody hell," he grumbled before shaking his head and looking out of the windows as if he could glimpse them in the aisles.
But the intruders were staying out of sight and the small observation post couldn't see far enough into the massive space that seemed to stretch forever to give them a clear view. For a moment no one said anything until Rose sighed.
"Well, that's not good, but we still have to deal with the potential chain reaction of these activations."
"Surely it isn't dangerous if they are still here," Liz argued only to get a stern look from both Rose and Benton.
"Depending on who they are, and I'm leaning towards Eclipsed Sun, they may not care. Plenty of organisations who steal alien tech and would be willing to take on UNIT aren't the sort to be concerned about the safety of their men. There is no guarantee that this is harmless. Hell, this might be a suicide mission to damage UNIT."
"Eclipsed Sun," Liz repeated carefully, looking between Rose and Benton. "Sir?'
"You don't need to know Doctor Shaw," Benton replied calmly. "Tyler is right, we have to focus on protecting Earth from danger. Whatever plan you've got to deal with these activations we have to move forward, enemy forces present or not." He glanced out into the storage area once more. "Any chance that you can just oversee the operation from here?"
"I don't think that is the best way to proceed," Liz informed him with a frown. "One it might be difficult to maintain communications around the neutralizer. Two I'm not sure that a soldier would be able to use Miss Tyler's sonic pen properly."
"I was afraid you'd say something like that," Benton muttered before looking at Rose.
"She's right," Rose replied with a shrug. "And if you have to try to communicate what to do when there is only a two-second window it just doesn't work."
"Alright, then I'll send men in with you to keep you safe so you can focus on shutting everything down," Benton promised Liz quickly. "But we can't delay any further."
Rose nodded her understanding even as her stomach tightened uncomfortably in anticipation of the danger and her mind began supplying a summary of everything that could go wrong. After a moment of hesitation, Liz sighed and nodded her understanding to Benton. He nodded to them both and shifted his posture.
"What do you need?"
It didn't take long for Benton to issue the orders for the neutralizer to be made ready. Liz and Rose were escorted out of the small observatory down the stairs to what looked to be a staging room. It was sealed off from the main area, but an ominous metal door on the far side of it with special access panels and another set of guards made it obvious of where they were. Frowning, Rose again wondered how the intruders had even gotten in.
"Miss Tyler," one of the staff called to her as he wheeled in a large barrel. "Doctor Shaw."
"Excellent," Liz said with a nod as another barrel was wheeled in behind this one. "Well better suit up."
Before Rose could say anything, Liz walked over to a large cabinet and back the heavy plastic door to reveal a row of bluish protective suits with white accents. They were bulky and Rose could already tell that size might just be an issue. None the less, she moved over to join Liz and accepted one of the heavy suits. With some help she pulled the protective gear on over her own clothes, making a point of setting the sonic pen to the side and tying up the rest of her hair. She wasn't sure how long it took, but her whole body felt heavy and weighed down once she had everything but the helmet on.
"Stylish," Rose observed sarcastically as Liz kept a hand on her shoulder while a soldier helped her into the large boots.
"Or not," Liz countered, "But since we don't know what we're getting into it's for the best. These suits are designed to stand up against chemical spills, radiation and electrical shocks. They're more advanced than anything currently on the civilian market."
When they were suited up minus their helmets with four soldiers in the same heavy gear, Rose retrieved the sonic pen and frowned at how awkward it was in the gloves. Liz moved over to the barrels and inspected the labels on them before nodding to the soldiers who opened the first barrel. Looking down into the barrel, Rose curled up her nose at the sight of the odd green goo inside of her suit. A terrible sour smell rolled out of the barrel and hit her squarely in the gut. Benton wrinkled up his own nose and the pair of soldiers in the protective suits didn't look impressed.
"Is it acidic?" Rose asked once she could speak again.
"No," Benton answered with a shake of his head. "It's a complex chemical blend, but is completely neutral."
"Hence its use as a general neutralizer," Liz observed before she sighed. "I suspect that the other mixture smells just as bad?"
"Worse," Benton replied. "Now ladies are you sure about this? Apparently, the mix has only been used in small amounts before. We can't really promise that it will help." He paused and looked at Rose. "And are you sure that the sonic pen will work?"
Rose froze and looked down at the neutralizer. In theory, as long as she kept the sonic pen out of the stuff they should be fine, but….
"You aren't," Liz sighed. "Lovely, but this is still our best plan. We can always try to turn things off manually."
"But we're back to not knowing what half of the things in here are," Benton groaned, rubbing at his own eyes. "That's it, I'm going to contact Geneva. We just can't pull this off with a good margin for safety without-"
Before he could even finish the thought a familiar grinding sound began to echo around the room. A laugh escaped Rose and she tugged a stray strand of hair back behind her ear as the wind picked up. One of the soldiers slammed the lid back on the barrel as the smell began to intensify, but Rose barely noticed as she watched the bright blue outline of the TARDIS appear only a few feet away.