It didn't surprise Paul one bit that this simple visit turned on its head, he'd been prepared since he was contacted by Doctor Ivo, now here he was, stuck in a hidden factory somewhere in Doctor Ivo's complex.
He can't reach Taylor with his telepathy, it doesn't appear that she was unconscious or injured in some fashion, he would've had a numbing sensation in his mind if that were the case.
Should it been a worst-case scenario, well, Paul would instantly know, his chest would feel like it's contorting, he would be out of breath, his two hearts beating erratically, his mind swirling, believe him, he would know if something serious happened to Taylor.
Unable to reach out to her, Paul's on his own.
His Sonic Screwdriver doesn't seem to work, something sort of inhibitor's keeping the crystal from energizing.
No telepathy or his handy Sonic Screwdriver didn't deter Paul, he was taught by the best and his extended family.
Going around the factory, Paul's angel eyes see the machinery, it looked like a product line, for what he couldn't determine.
Going by the wear on the gears and the conveyer belts, it'd appear that the machinery was used extensively, but then saw little use, no noticeable wear that would cause the factory to cease functions.
The smell of the heavy metals and different liquids strong in the air, made it difficult for Paul to breathe, as there wasn't much fresh air in the factory, and seeing how there were no workers, he wasn't intended to be down there.
Couldn't be helped, it's in his nature to poke around where he doesn't belong, after all, he was looking for Doctor Ivo, whom has some explaining to do, considering nothing in his dossier suggested him having a factory of this caliber.
Whether Doctor Ivo's inventions accidentally killed him or not, Paul hadn't been able to determine, but given the panicked nature of Doctor Ivo's brief com-link, well, he isn't expecting a good outcome from this.
Plenty of experience, trust him.
The green hue of the factory cast the perturbed Paul in a sickly colour, he couldn't see clearly because of it, but not for the lack of trying.
A good thing it wasn't terribly cramped, else his clothes risked getting caught on something, and Paul rather not know what a lathe looked on the inside.
He's already cautiously moved away from two large ones, capable of turning him into nothing but a red stain within seconds had he been caught in them, a good thing the factory wasn't in operation, but that didn't ease his fears.
Whatever Doctor Ivo was doing in his factory, it involved tearing down things to repurpose them into something, he can tell that Doctor Ivo was keen on ensuring nothing went to waste in his endeavours.
It didn't make Paul feel any better, seeing the machinery used to breakdown everything from spacecraft parts to even something small like a quantum computer.
Doctor Ivo made this factory with the intent that no one was supposed to be here expect the machinery, nothing else.
Whatever the factory produced was sent into some sort of holding area, which Paul was keen on getting into, out of his need to satiate his curiosity.
Also, in hopes of finding a way out of here and getting back to the main area, where hopefully he can communicate with Taylor once again.
If he doesn't find Doctor Ivo first or get eaten by one of the machines.
They might be offline currently, but this wasn't Paul's first adventure, anything can and has happened before, the last thing he wanted was to inexplicably being torn apart by the metallic claws.
He doubted Doctor Ivo had protocols in place in the event someone had come down here, either with malicious intent or by mistake.
Awfully sloppy for someone as prestigious as Doctor Ivo, if not curious.
He'd have to know that not having the standard protocols in place would result in massive fines that risked the committee calling him into question.
They're not fond of lawsuits like those on Earth.
And because it's illegal for Doctor Ivo for failing his duties.
Seeing everything that had been reduced to material for Doctor Ivo's own uses, nothing struck as odd to Paul, everything looked harmless, anything radioactive has been removed, and the material had already been sequestered pending their decontamination due to their proximation to radioactive material.
Now, why would a prestigious doctor willingly forgo safety measures in his hidden factory in his complex, where all he's been doing has been tearing down and repurposing things that would normally be junked?
Sounds like an awful question in a test, if Paul can be truthful, and it only driven him to searching for answers as to why Doctor Ivo been keen on hiding what he was doing in his complex.
He was in no real trouble prior to Paul and Taylor arriving, no one in the committee had any problems with him, nothing terrible to say about him, but of course, Paul knows better.
Finding a conveyer belt that led the completed projects to the holding area, Paul followed the belt towards the end where he found the conveyer door closed, with no way of manually opening it.
Doctor Ivo never came down here, it'd seem, else there'd be numerous ways for him to escape to safety if anything happened.
Feeling the conveyor door, Paul's hands slipped down to the bottom yellow and black stripped conveyor door feeling for a gap.
There's a bit of a gap, Paul can feel it, and he's able to get a decent grip underneath.
Taking a deep breath, Paul used his strength to slowly pull up the conveyer door.
It's heavier than it looked, but Paul can manage pushing it upright as he tried latching it at the top.
Once it got to a certain threshold, Paul heard a click, and the conveyer door stayed upright.
Running a hand through his wavy chestnut hair, freshly cut, Paul crept underneath, going through the darkened tunnel.
Working in the mindset that Doctor Ivo never gave thought about safety in his factory, Paul was careful about sudden drops, anything that would result in his untimely demise.
The conveyer belt remains straight for the most part, no sudden drops.
Coming towards the end of the near twelve-meter conveyer belt line, Paul sees another closed conveyer door.
Effortlessly, he opened it with a firm grip, raising it upright until it latched above.
Quickly, Paul crept underneath into a spacious room where a crane rested above the end of the conveyer belt.
Nothing's online, so Paul wasn't worried about being yanked into the air by the large mechanical claw.
The drop was steep from the top of the conveyer belt, but Paul managed, upon reaching the ground with a light thud, he began moving through the spacious room with curiosity in his angel eyes.
He could tell from the gouges in the steel flooring that several heavy things were placed in a neat row.
Same similar size and weight, don't know what for sure, but the recent gouges were almost a few hours.
Looking up, Paul sees another crane adjacent of him that hung over another conveyer belt.
Furrowing his brow, Paul guessed that he came through the processing portion of the factory where Doctor Ivo broke everything down, now he's entering the manufacturing portion.
Given how much of a death trap it was getting through the previous factory, Paul didn't even want to think how dangerous the manufacturing portion was, given how Doctor Ivo seemed blasé about safety.
Same as before, Paul made his way through without much issue, upon arriving out of the conveyer line, he found himself in the manufacturing portion, filled with more machinery, an uncomfortable warmth coming from them that came from them becoming active not too long ago.
Seeing the different machinery, Paul followed the order in which the material's placed on the starting conveyer belt, going through the line into different boxed machinery, no sort of screens or anything that showed what was going on during the process when the factory was operating.
Doctor Ivo ran a tight ship, there's offshoot conveyer belts ready to steal away the rejected objects, likely to be ripped apart, reused yet again.
Mindful of his steps, Paul walked through the quiet factory, following the process, until he stopped at an offshoot of one of the processes, something was laying on the belt that got his attention.
Half-completed, didn't even get a power source, it was rejected because there was a defect with the controls.
The power turned off so the process of sending it back to the first part of the factory was halted, it allowed Paul an opportunity.
Large, taller than him, bulky, it didn't appear much because of how it looked, but as he moved around to get a better look, his mouth dropped.
It was heavily misshapen because of the processes, but it was still intact enough for Paul to recongise it.
This machine had the doom of a Dalek, the eye stock gone, flatten, repurposed, everything ripped out of it to be used elsewhere.
Given they've encountered both the flesh bearing Daleks and the robotic variants that took life of their own, Paul wasn't sure which Dalek this one was that was pulverized and torn to pieces, but he couldn't help but admit wishing it was the robotic variant, not the flesh bearing kind.
Harkening back to the brief com-link, Paul questioned Doctor Ivo's reasoning for contacting him, the fact that the TARDIS hadn't picked up on the Dalek remnants.
It wasn't the first time he and Taylor encountered someone who bit off more than they could chew, but also someone who wanted to trap and attempt murdering them.
Having not seen any traps, nothing that attempted killing him, the strange mental blocking technologies aside, given that Doctor Ivo was in a cutthroat industry where information thefts were rampant, Paul can forgive him in some regard trying to protect his projects.
With the advent of technology, stealing from each other's become quite contrived.
Of course, Paul didn't get this far in his strange career believing this wholeheartedly, but there were still some truths.
