Let's cha cha slide over to the acknowledgements and we can continue on our way.
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And now, back to the story,
The Sandminer was filled with robots. Seeing as Marion was far less confident in her ability to remember who (or what) was dangerous and what was not than she was before she had realized she had forgotten a murderers identity until it was too late; she felt that it was best to assume that any robot that wasn't D84 was interested in inducting Marion and her friends into the corpse corps. As such, Marion, D84, and the Doctor moved carefully around and through the tan and brown corridors.
Marion could hear the sound of Leela screaming which, assuming that she could remember THIS right...(Side Note: Real funny how she could remember minor timing details but not that the man she had felt concern for was the murderer she had feared he might be killed by). Marion grabbed the Doctor by the back of his coat and pulled him backwards and behind a wall. She pointed and two robots walked past. The Doctor looked at Marion, nodding towards the corridor and asking if it was safe to continue along it. Marion shrugged but moved into the main hall anyway. She looked down either end of the hall and couldn't hear.
She gave the Doctor a thumbs up and he moved slowly behind her. They walked further down the hall until she heard the Doctor cry out. Marion spun around to face him quickly, trying to see what was wrong. Recent events led Marion to finally understand what it meant to be only 95% sure. If you were confident about something, there was a 1/20 chance that you were wrong.
Fortunately, this was one of those 19/20 times.
"I heard a cry," said the robot that had startled the Doctor.
"That was me," the Doctor said in a low, semi embarrassed tone. The Doctor took a deep breath and moved from the wall that he had been leaning against.
"I heard a cry," D84 said again.
"That was me!" the Doctor growled out again.
"Maybe," said Marion, "but it also might be Leela. I told her to keep an eye on Poul to keep him from leaving, but it's not impossible that he still managed to give her the slip and shut her in the crew room," Marion paused for a second, "The noise still might have been you though Doc."
The Doctor poked her in the side.
"Oi!" she said, jerking away from him.
The way to the room in the blueprints wasn't too bad. They just went along the hall until they came across a stairwell that took them to a lower level.
The Doctor moved to put his hand against the door's support pillars as if to look for the room in question, but aborted the motion because he saw the entrance. It looked like any other door on the Sandminer. It was gray, slid, and had a pin pad next to it.
Marion put her fingers on the bottom row of the keypad and pushed. The door made a series of clicking noises and then slid open. The room wasn't as well decorated as other rooms in the facility, but that's to be expected, it was a hidden workshop. It's not like Dask was an interior designer on the side. The only things in the room were the three of them and the dark brown metal machine that turned the robots into murder machines.
"Yes, this is the place," the Doctor said, examining the room.
"How do you know?" asked D84.
"About this?" the Doctor asked, "Well, it's a reasonable assumption."
"Why"
"Because," Marion said, "The room is full of machinery and out of the way. It's a great place to do something involving mechanics and crime,"
"You wouldn't do something like this standing around out in the open would you?" After speaking, the Doctor grabbed ahold of something he took off the mind editing machine.
"Do you know what that is?" he asked D84?
"It is a Laserson probe. It can punch a fist-sized hole in six-inch armour plate or take the crystals from a snowflake one by one."
"Yes that's right, a handyman should never be without one," the Doctor brushed his fingers against the business end of the probe.
"It's been used. Perhaps we're too late," he looked up from the probe, "Somehow we've got to warn the others."
D84 held up something from his hand, "This is a communicator. It can function on either robot or human command circuits. Would you like to use it? I cannot speak."
Marion held out her hand for it.
"I've got this,"
The communication was about the size of a stage mic and worked the same way. Marion twisted the top so that it was in the "On" positioning and held it to her mouth.
"Toos? Hello Pilot Toos?"
"Who is it?"
"It's Inspector Henson. I've figured out who the killer is: a robot. Someone has managed to reprogram them."
"More Robots? I thought you said you had dismantled the one that was faulty?"
Marion sighed, "I did, and I did. But there are more than one. All but one robot has been compromised. I will send someone to get you. If you can lock your door, do it. If not, please barricade it with whatever furniture is in the room you are currently in,"
Marion heard the sound of movement.
"I think there's a robot outside of my room," Toos said, in a terrified whisper.
"Stay calm, lock the door electronically, and barricade it. I'm sending D84. He's one of the only robots on this Sandminer that hasn't been reprogrammed for murder. He'll guard the door until I can get there. Under no circumstances are you to open that door. Do you understand me?" Marion put special emphasis on that last bit.
"Yes, Inspector," there was a pause, "please hurry,"
Marion put the communicator down. "D84, please go retrieve Pilot Toos,"
D84 nodded and left the room. Marion walked towards one of the Laserson probes and looked it over. It seemed like something that would be useful in the future. She considered placing one of them in her bag. And then she did so. What were they going to do about it? Arrest her?
As she did that, she heard the sound of footsteps and turned to see Commander Uvanov in the doorway, minus the hat.
"What are you going in this room?" he asked.
He didn't sound furious and that's probably because he wasn't under the assumption that the two of them had framed him for murder.
"Oh, this and that. Investigations, that sort of thing. What are YOU doing here?"
"I followed you down here. What is this I keep hearing about the robots murdering the crew?"
"Uh..." Marion was about to answer, when she saw the robot coming down, moving into place behind him from the left side.
"Ah. I'd come over here, if I were you. Slowly," the Doctor said.
Uvanov turned around and jumped back. The robot held a red marker and one hand and the shadow cast by the door frame made it look like it had black pits for eyes.
"Now either it followed you," the Doctor pointed to Unavov, "or else it homed in on this," he pointed at the machinery, "It depends which of us is going to be killed first. That is, you or me,"
The Doctor and Unavov continued to step back. Marion, who had been on the other side of the room, attempted to get between the Robot and the two men but by the time she was close enough, there was no way to squeeze in.
The robot approached them; its eyes filled with the red static that was present in all the turned robots.
As the robot drew closer, Marion felt a feeling of dread and anxiety as if the robot had been marching towards her instead. It started in her chest and spread throughout her body like when you wash your hair and then, turn the water to cold you that you can make sure you get all the soap out. The warmth is slowly but surely replaced by the cool feeling of the water and you can feel it on your scalp as it happened.
"Kill the Doctor," the robot repeated over and over again "Kill the Doctor. Kill the Doctor."
The robot backed its target in a corner and the feeling of anxiety steadily increased. Marion froze as it placed it's hands around the Doctor's throat and lifted him up. The Doctor tried uselessly to claw at the metal hands holding him. Her vision spun slightly as she began to feel dizzy.
Then, Marion felt something in her body, urging her to, for the love of God, DO SOMETHING.
And so, she did.
Anxiety's a type of fear and after all, fight is just as common a reaction as flight.
She took a single step closer to the robot and the dizzy feeling faded some, although the anxious feeling in her chest seemed to remain.
There was no scream of rage. There was no loud exclamation of "GET AWAY FROM HIM,".
There was only a woman with anger in her eyes, shakiness in her hands, and the sound of footsteps.
Uvanov ran to retrieve one of the probes but Marion, seeing as she already held one in her bag, was able to move to the Doctor's aid much quicker; much, much quicker. She retrieved the probe from inside of her bag and pressed the button on its side. Another two steps and with her last one, she used her momentum to jump up and jab the probe into the head of the robot.
"KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL,"
The robot still didn't stop saying its mantra.
The gravity from her descent allowed her to dig the probe in deeper. The probe went to the hilt and then, left a dent in the head of the robot. Her feet touched the ground and she continued to jab her arm downward. For a moment, her arms burned as she struggled to pull but the pain faded as quickly as it had come. Marion pulled downward, the metal offered little resistance as the probe sunk deeper. Marion grabbed the fingers of the weakened robot and peeled them away from her friend's neck. She shoved the robot across the room, making it fall to the ground.
Marion began to breathe heavily more out of reflex than her feeling out of breath. The last of that anxious feeling in her chest faded away. She hadn't realized that her hands were shaking until they weren't any longer.
She turned around to face the Doctor. He put a hand on her shoulder to support himself and rubbed his throat.
She didn't blame him. She knew how much getting strangled sucked from personal experience.
"You're okay?" she asked. The Doctor nodded and leaned forward slightly in a way that made Marion have to support most of his weight as he caught his breath. As he leaned on her, she heard the sound of something begin to hum in his chest and afterward his breaths became less shallow and a lot more regular.
'Must be his respiratory bypass. It certainly took its sweet time kicking in.,' she thought.
Marion saw something out of the corner of her eye. The robot had gotten up.
"Uvanov!" she helped the Doctor stand up straighter, "Try to finish it. But watch out. It might try swinging at you."
As she said that, the power went out and the robot stopped moving.
"The probe stopped," the Doctor looked at Uvanov, "Can you do it?" he asked, seeing as Uvanov was much closer than the two of them to the robot.
Uvanov held the probe that he had retrieved earlier and moved towards the robot. However, just as he was about to jab it into the robot, it swatted at him, making him fall to the ground.
Luckily, the robot was zeroing in on the Doctor and ignoring the fallen Commander. The robot was moving slowly. Marion and the Doctor waited until it had gotten closer to them and then they ran around it. The Doctor stopped to pick up Uvanov. Marion stopped as well to make sure that the robot didn't get too close while he was doing so.
Once the commander was securely the Doctor's arms, he moved carefully down the corridor with Marion moving along with him, looking behind them in case V4 was able to get to them sooner than he was supposed to. It wasn't that difficult to know when that particular bot was nearby seeing as he wouldn't stop repeating "Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill." over and over and over again.
Eventually, they came across an intersection in the hall. To their left SV7, to their right, V5 and based on the monotone voice Marion could hear coming up behind them, V4 was right behind them well.
"Don't just stand there, Seven," the Doctor said nodding his head towards the silver robot with the blue static in his eyes. "Give me-"
"Don't bother," Marion said, cutting him off.
The static in SV7's eyes turned red and the robot turned to V4. "Kill them,"
The Doctor quickly moved towards a wall and set down Uvanov. He still looked a bit unsteady, so Marion put his arm over his shoulder.
"Just how fast are these robots?" the Doctor asked.
"They can outrun a human. They never tire." the man responded out of breath.
"But," said Marion, knowing what the Doctor was really asking, "they aren't very nimble."
"I hope you're right Marion."
The Doctor ran forward leaving Marion to hold up Unavov. He slammed his hat on top of V5 head with it leaning forward slightly to cover the robot's eyes and put his scarf on top of the thing to weigh the hat down. He then backed away from the robot and ran back towards them. The Doctor put Unavov's arm over his shoulder, Marion had Unavov lean on her and the three of them quickly left while V4 was busy attacking V5, V5 was busy being attacked by V4, and SV7 was busy trying to get the two of them to quit it.
As they took advantage of the distraction and moved down the hall, Marion heard SV7 call for V6 to get there immediately which made Marion sigh in relief.
'Good so Toos is okay.'
The three of them made their way into the control room. There, they found that there was nothing in the room except for a pair of robots that were frozen in place. Unavov, who had recovered on the way, tapped the hand of the robot to find them immobile.
"Oh good. Somebody's had the sense to hit the robot deactivator switch. Probably Dask. As Chief Fixer he has second-line authority on it." the man said.
"Of course. There had to be one. I should have thought of that before." the Doctor responded looking away from the panels and switches on the wall.
"You mean you didn't know?" Uvanov said incredulously "I thought that's why we came here!"
Before the Doctor could say anything, Leela, Toos, and Zilda rushed into the room.
"DOCTOR! MARION!" Leela's voice rang throughout the room. In rushed Leela with Zilda and Toos following close behind her.
"Inspector, you were right!" Toos said, moving towards him before being intercepted by Unavov with a hug. "V6 tried to kill me. The only reason he didn't was that he was ordered to go elsewhere. We're in danger!"
"Not anymore. We're quite safe now," Unavov said in the happy and cheerful tone that must've been the inspiration for the phrase, "Ignorance is Bliss"
"Safe. Safe?" the Doctor said, looking up in bafflement.
"Well, we'll have to send up a satellite distress beacon to get back to base, but there's no trouble."
"Uvanov, you remind me very strongly of a lady called Marie Antoinette. There's a robot revolution going on out there and you say we've got no problems."
The man shook his head, "Doctor, every single robot has been switched off. There's not one of them working."
"I'm going to have to contradict you there," Marion said with a sigh. She held up three fingers in a countdown motion.
Three...Two...One…
When only her pointer finger was up, she pointed towards the door to reveal D84 carrying Poul in his arms.
The robot carried the man to a black leather bench with the place where you would put one's head tilted slightly upwards. The poor man was clearly out of it, but still conscious judging from how he moved an arm above his head once set down.
Uvanov looked at the scene in confusion.
"I don't understand," he exclaimed.
"Simple. There are three types of robots on this sandminer. The deactivated ones," Marion gestured to the statuesque figures, "D84," Marion gestured to the figure in question, "And the robots who've had their programs rewired by Taren Capel and want to kill us," Marion paused her explanation to look at Toos, "Please close the door,"
"But how was he able to reprogram them?" Uvanov asked.
"I can't say for sure, but I imagine that he shifted the priorities of the three laws and made 'obey orders' higher on the priority list than, 'do not harm humans',"
"Why didn't what he did affect D84?"
"Because Poul and D84 were undercover agents from the Company investigating a threat."
D84 turned to look at Poul who was shifting around on the couch as if he was having a nightmare while fully awake.
"Poul is damaged. I do not understand what has happened to him. This may be because I am not human." D84 said. D84 sounded saddened by this.
If one were to ask Marion later how she would go about describing D84's emotional displays, she might liken it to a Lacroix. She could tell that there was something there, and could figure out what it was based mostly on available context clues, but it was incredibly faint. Still, if you gave her a Lemon Lacroix and a bottle of sparkling water, she's still be able to tell you which was which and if you gave her a Raspberry Lacroix and the Lemon one again, she's still be able to taste the difference.
"And you know this because you three were also sent by the company right?" Toos asked.
"Riiiight," Marion said. She had originally planned to come clean at some point, but felt like the way things were currently going, honesty would complicate things. Was lying okay if the lie didn't hurt anyone and it made it easier to keep people safe? Maybe.
"Do you know what's wrong with Poul, Uvanov?" the Doctor asked.
"Robophobia,"
"That's right. The Loid call it Grimwade Syndrome."
"I have seen it, Doctor, once before," Unvanov moved to put a hand on Poul's forehead. Poul had opened his eyes and was trembling. "My very first command. A young kid just ran outside the mine. I tried to save him, but I couldn't. I'll never, ever, forget the look on his face."
"That was my brother!" Zilda said in realization.
"Your father had it all hushed up. He was afraid his son would be thought a coward," Uvanov turned to the Doctor and Marion "But robophobia is a mental thing, right?"
"Oh, yes, yes, it is," the Doctor said sarcastically, "until one gets its hands around your neck."
"And even if it was just a mental thing, it doesn't make it any less serious. The brain's an organ just as important and prone to issues as any other organ in the body. You wouldn't discount a kidney condition, and you shouldn't discount a brain one," Marion said seriously.
If Marion remembered correctly, (and that was a big if) Poul was going to spend the rest of his life panicking at the sight of anything robotic and, eventually, this fear was going to lead to him getting someone else killed. Poul seemed like a decent enough person, and Marion didn't think he deserved that.
"I mean it!" she said holding out a hand in the direction of the man in question, "You best make sure that this man gets some kind of therapy after this. Otherwise, he might hurt himself and others,"
"I don't suppose there are any weapons on this..."
Before the Doctor could finish this statement a high pitched chime filled the room. It sounded different then the noise that normally went off along with the PA and Marion was at least 85% sure that it sounded grating on purpose.
"This is SV7. We know you are all on the Control deck. You have five minutes to surrender. If you do not come out you will be destroyed." said the voice.
"And if we give ourselves up we'll be destroyed anyway, is that what you're saying, 7?" Uvanov yelled into his communication band.
"Humans feel pain. Our Controller orders that you will die slowly if you do not surrender. You have, I repeat, five minutes."
"Five minutes. And the anti-blast doors will hold another ten." the Doctor paused, realizing something, "Anti-blast."
"Do you carry blasting powder aboard this mine?" the Doctor asked.
"Yes," said Zilda, "The ship's got six Z-9 electron packs"
"What," the Doctor said, looking around the room "in here?"
Toos pointed upwards, "Up there in the locker,"
The Doctor looked up to where Toos was pointing, "They might work, Uvanov. If you could pass a positive charge through the metal plate, you'd be able to magnetise them and have anti-robot bombs."
"That would work," said Zilda, "But you would need to get close enough to the source or it wouldn't mean anything"
"That's fine," said Marion, "we'll handle that," Marion and the Doctor headed towards the door.
"Where are you two going," Toos asked.
"The robot mortuary. Toos, lock this door after us and don't let anyone in, is that clear?" said the Doctor
"Understood,"
As they said this, the Doctor walked towards the exit door.
The Doctor called Leela and D84 over to them. Before they left, the Doctor turned and said ina serious tone:
"Remember, Toos. If we don't come back, you'll have to find some other way of warning the outside world,"
"Also," said Marion, "Don't let anyone into this room ESPECIALLY if that person is Dask,"
Before Toos could respond to that, Marion, Leela, D84, and the Doctor were already making their way down the hall.
Robots marched past and the group crouched down behind the wall that acted as a guardrail. Marion was uncertain of the reason that the company chose to use solid walls instead of a simple handrail, but if she ever met the designer who was the source of that particular architectural choice, she'd buy them a drink. They watched the robots march past, thankful that they had all been programmed and there wasn't a risk of them looking to the right and spotting the group.
"Ten robots," the Doctor observed in that low voice that he tended to do instead of whispering.
"That's what I counted," Leela observed.
"I think Capel has already gone to where he was going" Marion mused, answering the question she knew that the Doctor was about to pose.
Seeing all the the robots that weren't D84 were on their way to attempt to break into the control room to murder the surviving members of the Sandminer, the four of them were able to make their way to the security storage area with relative ease. Against the wall and bound by metallic straps was a robot with a head so dented that wires were exposed and bloody hands.
The Doctor looked at it for a moment, then turned to D84.
"D84, do you know the storage bay where Chub kept his equipment?"
"Yes" the said D84
"There are some canisters of gas there. Fetch me one, please, as fast as you can."
"That will be a pleasure."
"Thank you!" Marion called after him.
Marion couldn't be sure, but she figured that D84 had been sent away as much so he could grab the helium as so he wouldn't have to look at one of his brethren with a caved-in skull nor would he have to watch as the Doctor took said skull and explored its wires like a weird forensic science major who had taken up the role for the exact reason that Marion hadn't.
Leela crouched down and examined the robot's hand.
"Look at his hand," she exclaimed, "That's blood."
"Yes, Borg's at a guess. He was strong enough to put up a struggle."
'Sheesh. How do I keep forgetting about the man. Did I ever even hear him speak?'
"Well If Poul saw that…" Leela trailed off.
"Yes. That's likely what caused him to break down."
The Doctor grabbed the head of the robot and began to examine it.
"What's Robophobia,"
"Well Leela," Marion decided to explain it since the Doctor was busy examining the head,
"Remember when I said that they looked human enough to be familiar, but not so human that they're creepy? Well, not everyone has the same uncanny valley threshold as I do. You see," Marion began to move her hands as she spoke, "Humans like to look at things that look exactly like us, but we also really like things that look nothing like us. However, there's a certain point where things look too much like us for them to appeal to us in the nonhuman way, but too little like us to seem familiar and it instead makes us anxious. That's what we call the uncanny valley, Now, Robots, their faces are fine. But their bodies? They move smoothly like a person, but they don't emote or give off any real body language. For people who are perceptive to body language, the sight of something that looks human but isn't giving off any signals is frightening,"
"It's rather like being surrounded by walking, talking, dead men." The Doctor had removed the tape from the robots and was now taking the head apart with same precision and nonchalance a bored middle-schooler would take apart a retractable pen.
"That's what Poul said," said Leela.
The Doctor continued to take the head apart and he also broke open the communicator.
"Yes. It undermines a certain type of personality, causes identity crisis, paranoia, sometimes even personality disintegration,"
"It's tragic really," said Marion.
"Robophobia. At least, that's Grimwade's theory. Hold this."
The Doctor handed the half of the head that he wasn't looking through to Leela.
"What are you doing?" Leela asked.
"I'm going to try and patch this communicator into Dask's private command circuit."
"Yes. Taren Capel. If I can discover where he modified this. Do you have to talk so much? Marion rarely asks this many questions."
"Sorry," Leela said annoyed.
Marion poked the Doctor in the side, "Don't be rude. It's good that Leela asks questions. The only reason I don't ask them is because of the 'Omega Timeline'," Marion added air quotes when she said that.
After about a minute or so, the Doctor managed to combine the communicator with the half of the robot head that wasn't being held by Leela.
"There, that should do it." the Doctor said, holding up his creation.
"So Dask turned off all the friendly mechanical men," Leela said.
"Precisely, his plan was to modify and activate them later after everyone else is dead."
"Today the mine, tomorrow the world. Right now he must be a happy little maniac."
Marion heard footsteps and she got up and turned to see D84 return to the room.
"Is that what you wanted?" he asked, holding up a white canister.
"Yes. Well done, D84. Now you're going to have to stay here." the Doctor said quickly.
"I cannot do that," said the robot. It made Marion wonder if perhaps the third law of robots ought to be moved to second priority instead of where it currently was.
"D84, The Doctor has a plan that could make your head explode. I don't mean that in the exaggerated way. This could kill you,"
"I am not important." D84 droned.
"What?" the Doctor said, "I think you're very important."
"My duty is to the Company,"
Marion's eyes twitched. How could-. She remembered the auto-drive, "Not true, you are very important. So important in fact, that I want you to put this on your…" she waved a hand, "Well, not skin. Uh...whatever part of your frame isn't just clothes and press the button. Maybe don't put it on your head though."
She held the drive out.
"It'll make a continuous secure backup of your files. If the worst does happen, and your brain does go," she closed her hands into fists by her head and opened them to mimic an explosion, "I'll be able to use this to save you and upload you into..."
Marion paused.
"I don't know. A new robot body. If they figure out how to put AI into flesh...I don't know. But I'll keep trying until you find a new body that you like. If this goes wrong I mean and your head explodes,"
D84 looked at her and took the drive from her hand. He rolled up a sleeve and placed the drive on a metallic arm. A small light on it blinked repeatedly for a bit before remaining stable. The light around his eyes flashed yellow for a moment, but it was just that, a moment.
"Thank you," he said, "But, I must remind that I am- "
Marion interrupted him, "Yeah yeah, 'You're not human nor are you technically alive'," Marion said attempting to copy D84's cadence when he spoke, "But, I don't know. Humans are really good at looking at other things and saying 'that's right there, is shaped like a friend' maybe you aren't a person, maybe you are just lines of code that are good at mimicking one but if that's the case then you mimic one well enough that if there's way to keep your head from exploding...," she sighed, "Just keep the drive on you just in case. At minimum, it can be used to send information about your findings to the company. Okay?"
D84 didn't speak, he just nodded.
"Still," said the Doctor, "Just because you have that drive now doesn't mean that you shouldn't be careful."
"I will"
"Good. Come on."
The Doctor left the security storage and the rest of the group followed close behind.
Next Chapter: To Save A Friend
D84: *Exists*
Marion: Cool.
Marion: I will break the hands of fate if they turn against you.
I've got extensive knowledge of canon Time Lord biology and even more headcanons. Time Lords have more weird shit going on with them than having two hearts and being able to regenerate you know. I very much enjoy the idea of Time Lords' similarity to humans being only skin deep. Also, I'm going with the assumption that the only difference between Time Lords and whatever species the Doctor is is that the Doctor's species could regenerate.
Anyway, the point of this tangent is that I headcanon that if a Timelord's respiratory bypass kicks in and you were to put your ear to their chest, it sounds a bit like the fan on a computer that's running a game on too high a graphics setting.
Sidenote, were any of you going to tell me that for the last few chapters I've been accidentally referring to Uvanov as Unova! As in, the Pokemon Region? I fixed it, but still. If you catch something like that, please let me know.
Side note, the thing about Poul's fear leading him to have PTSD to the point where he gets someone else killed by accident? It happened in the book "Corpse Marker," *gestures to Poul on the couch* SOMEONE GET THIS MAN SOME THERAPY!