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And now, onto the story
The three of them crawled under trains and over tracks.
"Do you think that they're searching for us?"
A loud siren began to wail.
"You know what Jamie, I think they just might,"
"Quiet now, Marion,"
"It's not like they'd be able to hear me over the sirens Doctor," Marion said, crawling out from under the train and looking left and right for the guards. Seeing no one, she beckoned for the two of them to come out.
The Doctor looked around as well, and then he moved towards an open railcar and climbed in. Marion and Jamie followed after him. Jamie climbed into the car first, and then he pulled Marion up with him.
"Thanks,"
Jamie grabbed a hold of the car's sliding door and slid it shut.
The boxcar was maybe 40 feet long, 15 feet wide, and 15 feet tall. When Jamie closed the door, it was hard to see anything. The back part of the boxcar was filled with those coffin-sized crates that Zoe and Isobel had been stuffed into; stacked floor to ceiling. One of those crates was on the floor in such a way that Marion had suspected that someone had still been in the process of stacking it when they had been called away. (Probably to look for them)
"Hey! Do you think that this is the train that Zoe and Isobel came on?"
Marion looked around. "I don't...see Zoe's boa sticking out. But, I don't think that'd hurt to look around for a bit would it?"
Marion crouched down and looked at the large crate at their feet. Marion, the Doctor, and Jamie crouched down and lifted the lid. It opened with a "click" to reveal nothing but a bunch of fabric.
That was odd, Marion was pretty sure that there was SOMETHING else in there. But she couldn't for the life of her remember what.
"Oh no, these are full," Jamie complained.
"Well, not quite but-,"
They heard Packer's voice loudly from outside the train car. Yet another thing Marion had forgotten.
"I want all these trains searched from top to bottom! Move!"
"Hide!" the Doctor whispered sharply, "Quickly, hide!"
Marion was going to have to do herself a favor and get herself a nice notebook. Not the one she used to rip out and leave notes for people though. It was going to be a good one. Thick. With proper binding and a pretty design on the cover. Constellations. Maybe a lock? Yeah, definitely a lock. And she was going to separate it out and write down everything she knew in its proper section and everything she was able to remember too.
Maybe then she'd wouldn't be forgetting so much important shit.
In the meantime, Marion needed somewhere to hide quickly. The hiding place didn't need to be perfect. Packer and his goons were only going to give the area a quick once-over and leave. Marion just needed to be out of sight when they did that.
One of the shelves caught her eye. It was slightly ajar from the wall and there looked like there was just enough space for her to squeeze behind as long as she sucked in a bit. With nowhere else to go and Jamie already climbing into the crate thing, Marion did just that. Marion got herself fully behind the shelf just as the train car slid open.
"You two, search this one!"
Packer and the rest of the security guards couldn't have looked through for more than a minute. That made some sense Marion supposed. There were a whole lot of train cars to look through. They couldn't be thorough for every single one of them, right?
Marion held her breath and didn't move. A few more moments and the door slid shut once again.
Marion waited for a second silently and then slid out. Jamie quickly climbed out of his crate and the Doctor emerged from wherever he had hidden. He quickly moved to the door of the car and opened it just a tad.
"Jamie, Marion," he whispered with a tilt of his head calling the two of them over to him.
"Doctor, I think," Jamie said lowering the lid of the crate carefully.
"Shush!"
"But Doctor!"
"Jamie," Marion whispered quickly, "What you have to say is very, very important to me, don't get me wrong. But, there are guards right outside this car at the moment so I think we should save this conversation for later you know?"
"But-"
"Keep your voice down,"
Jamie put his hands on the Doctor's shoulders and glanced back towards the crate.
"That thing in there, it moved. In the crate, there's something alive in there,"
"Alive? Jamie," Jamie let go of the Doctor. The Doctor looked at the crate for a moment before saying, "The darkness plays funny tricks with the imagination,"
"Marion, you believe me, don't you? Something in there moved I tell you!"
"I believe you, Jamie," Marion replied. "There's definitely something in that crate,"
"All right, let's have a closer lo-,"
"You two! Over here! Get those two girls over the Main Administration Building! Move!"
"They must be talking about-"
"Zoe and Isobel,"
"We'll follow after them in a few moments," the Doctor stated. And, after the security guards had gotten a safe distance away, they did just that.
The crate in the train car had been temporarily forgotten in favor of this new lead.
The three of them followed a good distance behind Packer and Friends until eventually, they got to a point where if they wanted to go any further, they might as well loudly declare their location for how exposed they would end up being.
"Take them inside. Central block, tenth floor," Packer ordered his men.
Marion shifted a bit so that she was further hidden back. She retrieved her notebook and made a quick note on the off chance that she forgot later.
"Central Block, Floor 10," Marion then did a quick doodle of an arrow pointed at the number 10 that said "Fairly confident that this is the 11th floor,"
Marion put the notebook back into her back. A noise caught her attention. The sound of a helicopter. She could see it quite easily. It was dark and stood out sharply against the cloudy white sky.
"Could be the Brigadier's lot!" Jamie exclaimed, "Call them up for help!"
"No, no, not yet," the Doctor shook his head, "We've got to rescue the girls first. Marion, you wrote down where he said the girls were right?"
"Yup. Central block, tenth floor,"
"Yes, yes, well let's go then shall we?"
Marion carefully glanced around the corner silently.
"The coast is clear. Shall we go?"
The three of them moved silently through the compound all the while the security alarm continued to ring.
'Honestly,' Marion thought, 'They already know that we're on the loose and they've failed to find us. They might as well just shut off the alarm at this point for Christ's sake,'
They moved carefully so as to avoid any confrontations with the guards. That was the last thing they needed.
After a bit more sneaking around, they came across a tall building that reminded Marion less of an office building and more of a large apartment building. Perhaps that's what it was. The man from earlier said that people tended to come in and not come out. Maybe this building was used as a dormitory for employees or something?
"What's that?" Jamie asked.
"I should think that's the central block, wouldn't you?"
"Pretty sure it is," Marion said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. "Now, we just have to get inside, grab our friends. Maybe do a bit of light vandalism when we're done. You know, if we have time and the mood strikes us,"
"Marion now is not the time for joking around. We need to find Zoe and Isobel! How do we find out which room they're in? And when we have how do we get them out?"
"Stop looking for problems, Jamie," the Doctor admonished, "Let's get along up there, shall we?"
As they moved the noisy alarm finally stopped and was replaced with something else. Vaughn's voice.
"Doctor. If you can hear me, listen," the three of them stopped moving, "You have ten minutes, Doctor. Ten minutes to relinquish your freedom. At the end of that time, your young friend Zoe will pay the consequences of your foolish and totally pointless opposition. Ten minutes, Doctor, ten minutes,"
Vaugh's voice stopped talking but, on the plus side, it wasn't replaced by the blaring headache-inducing noise. Marion said as such.
"But Marion!" Jamie exclaimed, "There's not much time,"
"Pfft," Marion waved her hand dismissively, "ten minutes is plenty of time. I've written B+ essays in 10 minutes,"
"There's just about time enough to effect a simple rescue operation. Come along,"
"Simple!" Jamie said in disbelief.
"Yup! Simple!"
Marion knew that the two girls would be visible in the windows of the room that she was in. That was simple. What she didn't know was which room that was. The three of them walked carefully around the building, checking the windows on the higher floors for the windows for the two girls. Unfortunately, they were nowhere to be seen. Marion sighed.
"Well," she said, "I suppose that we could always climb up to the roof and go down from there. There's the fire escape. C'mon,"
Marion lept up and grabbed the ladder. She pulled it down to the ground and climbed up. The two men followed behind her.
Marion was able to climb a bit quicker than Jamie and the Doctor could, but this was mostly because while the two of them weren't exactly exhausted, they still felt a little tired from all the climbing they had done earlier.
Marion, on the other hand, felt like she hadn't climbed at all today. Her shins didn't sting from how many times she'd knocked them into one of the lower bars as she climbed, her hands didn't sting from gripping the rungs, and her feet didn't hurt from the thin bars pressing against the soles of her boots.
Marion of course failed to notice all of this. As far as she knew, the Doctor and Jamie just got tired quickly.
Marion made it a decent way to the top when she heard someone calling her name.
"MARION!"
"DOCTOR!"
"JAMIE"
Marion whipped her head around, trying to find the source of the noise. Ah, there it was. About a floor or two up from where Marion was, was a large floor to ceiling window. Through it, Marion could see two figures in the window.
"WE'RE UP HERE!" Zoe called out.
Marion took one hand off the ladder rung and put a finger to her lips.
"It's them, look!" Jamie said, pointing at the window.
"Good. As long they don't give the game away too soon,"
The Doctor gestured for the two girls to keep quiet and move away from the window.
After a moment, the two of them backed away.
"Marion," the Doctor said quickly, "contact the Brigadier. Let UNIT know what's going on here,"
"On it Doctor,"
Marion looped an arm around one of the side poles of the ladder to keep herself secure and from falling over.
If she fell because she wasn't holding herself up properly, the radio could break and that would be a big uh-oh.
Marion tapped the button on the side and waited for a moment.
"UNIT to Operations. Over,"
"This is Marion Henson. Please connect me to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart! Over,"
There was a brief moment of silence as Marion was connected to UNIT HQ.
"Yes, Ms. Henson, come in,"
"Hello, Brigadier," Marion said cheerfully, "How quickly can you get a helicopter to our location do you think?"
"Why? Are you in trouble?"
"No. But we might be soon. That helicopter that's been flying around is from your lot right?"
"Right,"
"And it's got a rope ladder?"
"I believe so. Where are you,"
"Central Block. It's the main building on the…,"
Marion covered the receiver with her hand for a moment.
"Doctor? What side of the compound are we at?"
"The north side," the Doctor called up to her.
"Got it," Marion uncovered the receiver, "the north side. It's the main building on the north side. We'll be on the roof. It's one of the taller buildings around. That should keep you safe from cover fire. Jamie, the Doctor, and I will meet you on the roof. Have you got all that? Do I need to repeat anything?"
"No, No, I've got that. Over and out,"
The receiver clicked off on the Brigadier's end. Marion turned her's off and placed it back into her bag. She unhooked her arm from around the ladder and turned looked down at Jamie and the Doctor.
"Someone from UNIT will be here soon with a helicopter. I said that we'd meet them on the roof. They'll be here soon we had best be quick,"
Marion saw Jamie and the Doctor begin climbing and so she climbed as well so as to not hold them up.
As they climbed, the whirring sound of the approaching helicopter grew louder and louder until it was pretty much all that she could hear. When Marion finally reached the top rung, she pulled herself up to the roof and helped the Doctor and Jamie as well when they were close enough.
When all three of them were on the roof, the piolet lowered the helicopter down and down until it was hovering about 30 or so feet above the three of them. After a few moments, a rope ladder was dropped to them.
Marion caught it and pulled it down.
"You're not going to leave the lassies by themselves are you?" Jamie said shouting slightly to be heard over the turning blades and twisting blades.
"No, no, of course not. Help me to get this over the side there," the Doctor replied.
Together, they pulled the ladder so that it was hanging over the side and over the window to the room where Zoe and Isobel were being kept.
"Well, down you go Marion,"
'What,'
The confusion on Marion's face must've been more visible that Marion had thought.
"I supposed Jamie could do it, I suppose,"
"Eh?"
If Marion said no, and Jamie fell or something, it'd be her fault. She'd antagonized Vaughn a bit more than what had happened in canon, and they might not hesitate to...Marion didn't know. Something.
So Marion shook her head.
"No, no, no, no," she said, reaching to grab the strap of her purse. "I've got it. Just keep on the lookout in case they start firing at guns. It wouldn't do for Isobel or Zoe to get shot. Hold this for me," Marion held out her bag. "I think I want my weight to be a bit more balanced for this,"
With that, Marion grabbed a hold of the rope ladder and began to climb down the side of the building.
"Wish me luck!"
The siren went back on.
"Well, that's just super,"
Climbing down a ladder, Marion quickly learned, was a whole lot easier when the ladder in question was stiff and didn't move. The whirling blades of the helicopter and the downdraft they caused also made things difficult.
'C'mon,' Marion thought to herself, 'Just move carefully. Watch your step, don't look down, keep calm,'
One rung after the other, Marion slowly lowered herself down the ladder. At one point, the wind picked up and Marion gripped the ropes until Marion didn't fear that she was at risk of falling off and costing them precious time.
Thankfully, Marion made it to the correct window without any real issue.
"Hey look, it's Marion!" Marion could hear Zoe say, although it was muffled partially through the window.
Isobel and Zoe went to barricade the door while Marion slid the window open. Marion was confused as to why it was so easy to open the window from the outside. But then again, this was just about fourteen yards up. They probably thought that no one would be dumb enough to try an open a window that high from the outside.
Jokes on them.
Marion climbed up a little bit higher and scooted to the side of the ladder so that only her right arm and leg were actually on the ladder. She took a deep breath and stuck her left leg through the open window.
"Marion! Be careful,"
"I'm always careful, Zoe….And don't give me that look!"
Once her leg was mostly through the window, she grabbed the windowsill with her left arm, and then she pulled herself inside safety. Once both her feet were fully planted inside of the building and there wasn't a risk of her biting concrete, she reached back through the window and grabbed the rope ladder. She pulled through the window and held it out and steady.
"Climb on. I'll hold it in place for you two until you're far enough up, then I'll join you,"
"Oh! You don't think we're going up that, do you?" Isobel took a step back.
"Well, I know you don't want to stay here as a hostage, so unless you've got a secret elevator to the roof in here I'm afraid you're going to have to. If it makes you feel better, climbing down is a whole lot worse than climbing up, now, up you go!"
Marion held the ladder steady so that Zoe could climb the ladder and then Isobel. Once the two of them were high enough that their climbing wasn't making the ladder sway too much, moved to join the ladder, but then noticed the camera on the wall. Marion looked at it for a moment, and then at a chair that had been placed in the room. She stepped away from the window.
'It's not like they don't already know we're here. But still, I might as well,'
Marion held the chair by its, leg, winked at the camera's glassy eye, and then slung it around as hard as she could. The camera fell to the side, remaining on the wall only because of the wires connecting it. The blinking red light of the camera went black and Marion pumped her fist.
Camera destroyed for no real reason other than the fact that she'd felt like it, Marion joined Isobel and Zoe on the ladder.
Marion climbed pretty steadily. The distance between Zoe was already at the roof and Isobel wasn't too far behind. That was okay. Marion could climb fast enough to be in the roof in a blink. And besides, this way, Marion didn't have to worry about her climbing making the ladder sway and making the other two climbers nervous.
Speaking of things that make people nervous:
"Guards, follow me! There she is! Fire!"
the sound of gunfire
Marion couldn't exactly dodge or duck behind anything from her place on a rope ladder on the side of a building. The best thing that she could do in this situation was to go as fast as she could and hope for the best.
Climbing up a rope ladder took a lot less time than climbing down one is something that Marion was quickly noticing. That was definitely a plus. In only about a quarter of a minute, Marion was high enough to be able to pull herself over the ledge and onto a roof.
Marion felt something hit her leg. Marion brushed it off. She didn't know what it was.
'It can't be a bullet. I think I'd know if I got shot ri-HOLY FUCK!'
Marion's train of thought was cut off when she reached one leg over the side of the roof and put her weight on the other.
"Ow, fuck!"
"Marion?"
Marion let out a shaky breath.
"I'm fine," she said through gritted teeth trying her best to keep her weight more on her right leg than her left leg.
It hurt a lot less than Marion had thought it would, but it still hurt a hell of a lot. It felt like some asshole had poured a glob of hot glue on the back of her leg. In fact, it was exactly like hot glue. The pain was hot and wet, but, was also slowly but surely lessening. It still hurt like a bitch though, and she felt something on the back of her leg.
'I'm fine, I'm fine. Doctor, could you give me my bag back?"
"Marion, what's' wrong?"
"Don't worry about it. I'll be fine,"
"Oh, thank goodness that's over," Isobel exclaimed.
"We've still gotta get on the helicopter and leave," Marion reminded.
"Oh, no,"
"Oh yes,"
The hot glue sensation was continuing to lessen and lessen but it still hurt to put too much weight on it.
Zoe climbed up first, then Isobel, and then the Doctor followed closely behind the two of them.
Marion found out quickly that while the pain in her leg had lessened, it was not a smart idea to climb using it, so she let the Doctor climb up first in hopes that by the time it did, the pain would lessen further.
At least the question of "did all non-lethal injuries take a bit to heal or was it just spinal ones" was finally answered.
By the time Isobel had safely gotten into the helicopter, the gunfire sounded a lot closer. The Doctor climbed in next.
Marion experimentally put a bit more weight on her leg. It still hurt but nowhere near as much as before. She ended up having to pull herself up, put her good leg on the rung, and then pull herself up a rung again and again and again until she was safely in the helicopter. The Doctor pulled her inside and Marion pivoted herself on her non-injured leg and took a seat in the helicopter.
She felt the back of her leg where the shot had hit and felt something: a hole in the back of her pants leg and something smooth and raised against her skin. She touched it and hissed. She took her hand away and looked at it. Something had felt warm and wet but, despite what Marion had expected, there was no blood on her fingertips.
'That's odd,'
Jamie still wasn't on the helicopter.
"Come on, Jamie. Hurry up!"
Jamie was in fact, still on the ground.
"Jamie!" said Marion holding onto one of the helicopter seats to brace herself and leaning out the window on her good leg. "You need to come on!"
Jamie didn't move, he just stared at something to his left.
Marion wished that she could've been able to shove the doorstop under the door to the roof to make it that much harder to open,.
And then she thought about how she might've had that kind of time if she hadn't wasted precious seconds breaking that stupid
'I probably wouldn't have gotten shot in the leg either,' she thought with a groan.
Jamie made it up about a third of the ladder before the Doctor realized that there was likely no way Jamie was going to be able to make it up there without the guards either climbing the ropes themselves or worse, Jamie getting shot.
"Get us out of here!" the Doctor ordered the pilot. "HOLD ON JAMIE!" he called down to the man currently holding onto the ladder for dear life.
Jamie slowly began to ascend the ladder as the soldiers continued to fire at them. Marion kept a lookout and monitored the man's progress.
The pilot had the tough job of trying to maneuver away from the gunmen and keep Jamie from getting shot while at the same time trying to keep Jamie from falling to his death due to the funky and unstable movements of the craft. Marion knew this, which is why she wasn't too angry at him when a jerky maneuver the pilot was forced to make caused Jamie to lose his grip right before he reached the inside of the helicopter.
Marion quickly grabbed a hold of the young man's wrist and tugged him safely into the helicopter.
The sensation of doing so felt odd.
It was like she was playing tug of war. On one side was gravity and on the other side was just her and gravity was winning. Then right before her muscle started to burn and ache, the person who was SUPPOSED to be on her side and not lounging on the bleachers finally realized where they were supposed to be and joined her at the rope and suddenly, pulling Jamie into the helicopter was just as easy as anything.
Like all games of Tug-of-War, once you started to win, you've already won. Period.
Marion stepped got back to her feet, pulling Jamie with her, and in the process, she leaned hard on her leg.
It didn't hurt anymore and whatever that smooth thing that was in her leg was, it had slid down her pants leg and onto the ground of the helicopter. Marion picked it up before scooting to the side and giving Jamie some room.
'Is that a…,'
"Marion!" Isobel exclaimed, "Is that a bullet?"
"Uh…," Marion looked down and shifted her pants leg so that she could see the back of her leg. There was a hole on the back of her leg with blood around its edges. Oddly, there wasn't any blood on her skin itself. She looked down at that, and then at the bullet in her hand. "So, that explains that then..."
"Doctor! Marion's bleeding!" Zoe shouted, "I think she got shot!"
"Marion?"
"I'm fine! I'm fine!" Marion waved her hands quickly, "It doesn't even hurt anymore,"
The radio speaker at the front of the helicopter started making the fuzzy white noise of a radio that's on but the person on the other end has yet to start saying anything.
"Jimmy! What's happening, Jimmy? Do you want ground support?"
"Hello, sir. No, mission accomplished. On our way back now,"
"Splendid. No casualties?"
"No sir. Although Ms. Henson was shot in the leg,"
"I'm fine!" Marion said loudly. She didn't know if the Brigadier could hear her, but still. She was FINE.
"Not to worry. We'll see to her leg once she gets to the infirmary,"
"I AM FINE!" Marion said again.
"We'll be there shortly. Over and out," the connection ended.
"I'm serious," Marion insisted. "I'm fine! I heal super quickly. Shouldn't you know this by now!"
"How did you get shot?" the Doctor asked. He looked concerned despite the fact that as far as Marion was concerned, he should've known that there was no real reason for him to be concerned.
"They got me in the back of the leg while I was climbing the rope ladder on my way up. It's kinda my own fault when you think about it,"
"What do you mean by that?"
"So, remember when I said that part of our rescue plan was to commit a little vandalism if the mood strikes us?" Marion put a hand on the back of her neck, looking sheepish. "Weeeell, I decided to take a few seconds to break the camera. If I hadn't done that I probably would've gotten off unscathed,"
"What are you talking about?" Isobel sounded utterly confused which was pretty fair. Marion was saying some admittedly wild stuff.
"I heal inhumanly fast for some reason. Still not sure why, but it's pretty useful for things like this so you aren't going to hear me complain. Getting shot felt like a glob of hot glue to the back of the leg and nothing more,"
'Tore a hole in my pants leg though. Shame, these pants are rather comfortable. I can mend it maybe. And, the stain isn't anything some peroxide can't fix right?'
"Anyway, the weird thing is that there's blood on my pants but none on my leg," Marion mused.
"It went back in,"
"P-Pardon!"
Marion had no idea what the Doctor was talking about there.
"When you bleed. As long as it doesn't get on anything else, your blood flows back into you,"
"What! That's so weird!" Marion said with a shiver. Then she thought for a moment. "Although, I suppose that does explain what happened in the cathedral,"
"What cathedral?"
'Shoot' That was technically a spoiler wasn't it? Marion quickly looked for an excuse.
"We're almost at UNIT base and the cathedral incident is kind of a long story. How about you ask me when we get back at the TARDIS alright? Alright,"
When the helicopter landed, Marion all but threw herself out and onto the tarmac.
Sergeant Benton went out to meet them. If he was a Sergeant. Marion was pretty confident that he was one. Or maybe that wasn't until later. Yes, that was definitely later. Unless…
The (soon-to-be) Sergeant escorted the five of them into Airplane where UNIT had made their headquarters.
"You were lucky," the Brigadier said instead of a greeting, "Dead Lucky,"
"And a good afternoon to you too Sir,"
"They said that it would be a simple rescue operation," Jamie glared at the Doctor and Marion. "Simple," he scoffed. The Doctor wandered off to examine something off to the side.
"I'd say it was pretty simple," Marion said with a shrug. "We did the mission and no one got shot! A-!"
"But Marion!"
"Fine, B+ then. But it's not like my getting shot mattered anything," Marion received nothing but concerned stares. She groaned loudly and put her foot on the chair and rolled up her pants leg. "See! I'm fine. Not even a bruise. I'm not a horse. You don't need to take me out back or anything. Geez. I think we should focus less on my leg which isn't in danger, and more on Isobel's uncle, who is!"
"As soon we return to base, I'm going to raise hell and get some action for Mr. Walkins and Marion, even if you swear that you're fine, you're going to medical just so they can get your leg checked out. I've already called them,"
"There's not even any-," Marion said under her breath. "Nevermind. Why do I even bother,"
"You think they'll listen to you now?" Jamie asked the Brigadier.
"No one, not even Tobias Vaughn, can go as far as trying to shoot down one of my helicopters,"
"Yeah, it was a pretty dumb move,"
"Oh," said Isobel, "I wished I had my camera. I could have got a fortune with those pictures,"
'I technically could've gotten a picture of it with my phone.' Marion thought, 'But, on the other hand, it's not like they've got a printer or any other way to get them off my phone so it's a moot point,'
"Yes, it was a pity," Marion jumped. She had forgotten that the man who had piloted the helicopter was still standing behind them. "That would have clinched it as far as the Ministry are concerned, sir,"
Jamie finally noticed that the Doctor wasn't still standing next to them and was in fact looking at some flashing lights that probably were giving off some kind of reading.
"Doctor? Hey, Doctor, what's the matter?"
"Hmm? Jamie, that object on the other side of the moon..."
"Other side of the-?" the Brigadier said in confusion.
"The moon. The TARDIS travels in space, remember," Marion said sitting down in a nearby chair backward and her arms on the top of the backrest and her chin on her arms.
"Yes. The TARDIS went wrong, you see, and we had a sort of, well what, Doctor? A forced landing?"
"I had to turn on the HADS Zoe,"
"Yeah. Marion turned on the HADS and so when they fired the missile at us, we ended up here!"
"Who fired the missile at you?"
"Well, whoever it was who was on that spaceship on the other side of the moon," Zoe said as if it was obvious.
"Spaceships? On the other side of the Moon?"
And then there was that deep space radio transmitter. I wonder..."
"Look, sir," said Jimmy, "I know this may sound ridiculous, but could those reported sightings of UFOs have anything to do with this?"
"UFOs? What's that?"
"Unidentified Flying Objects Jamie. It's simple. If it flies and you've no clue what it does, then it's a UFO,"
"Like a flying saucer!" Isobel said.
"Yeah. Like a flying saucer,"
Jimmy shook his head, "But these weren't saucers. All of the sightings were quite clear on that,"
"Could you show us any photos of these that you have?" Marion asked.
"We've got several in the files. Shall I get them?"
"If you would be so kind,"
"Right," Jimmy left to retrieve the photos with a quick nod of the head.
"Unidentified Flying Objects," the Doctor said under his breath.
"I'm sure that we can make them into identified Flying Objects Doc,"
Jimmy came back with a thick manilla envelope full of glossy photographs. They all depicted different scenes from all over the world from the United States, to Egypt to England. The one thing that they all held in common was that they featured odd white spots in their skies.
The group looked over them.
"Mean anything to you?" the Brigadier.
The Doctor made a considering noise.
"Possibly. How long ago were these objects first sighted?"
"Reports have been drifting in for well over a year now. We sent up fighter planes to investigate, but nothing ever came of it,"
"The odd thing about these sightings is that they usually seem to disappear somewhere over southeast England," Jimmy added.
"That's interesting," Marion murmured. "Very, very interesting,"
"But isn't that where all those factories and laboratories of Vaughn's are?"
"That's right Isobel,"
"That's why I brought it up," Jimmy said with a nod.
"Jamie, when you were hiding in that crate, you say something moved?"
"Aye Doctor, it was wrapped up in that gauze stuff,"
"Did you recognize it at all?"
"No," Jamie shook his head.
"Doctor, what do you think it is?" Zoe asked.
"I don't know. We've got to find out and quickly. Marion, do you know?"
Marion began scratching at her head. "I think I might...but I'm not...you should check it out for yourself. It's not anything dangero- I mean, it's not directly dangero- you can check it out safely I mean. The thing itself but you still should be careful?" Marion thought that over in her head, "Yeah, we should investigate, and it's not necessarily dangerous itself, but we've gotta be careful,"
"What do you mean?" Zoe asked.
"Well, obviously," the Doctor picked up one of the photos, "they bring these things, whatever they are, up from the factory in the country to the London premises. That's where we're going to find the answer,"
"You mean go back to Vaughn's place?" Jamie said in disbelief.
"I don't think that's wise, Doctor. You've been lucky so far,"
"Aye, if you think I'm going back inside there-,"
"Jamie, we have to find what is inside these crates. Brigadier, have you got a map? Including the London premises,"
"Yes, yes, I think so," the Brigadier called out to someone working near a cabinet, "Sergeant Walters!"
"Sir!"
"May we have map number eight please?"
"Yes, sir!"
"I'll get it, sir," said Jimmy. He retrieved it from Walters and handed it to him.
"Thank you. Here we are," He unfolded the map, placed it on the table, and pointed to points of interest, "Now this, this is the whole area in detail. London offices, warehouse area, and surrounding buildings,"
"Oh yes, I see,"
"But Doctor," Jamie brought up, "you can't go back the same way again. They'll be waiting for us this time,"
"Very good point," Marion agreed.
"Anything I can do to help?" the Brigadier asked.
"Brigadier, you don't, by any chance, know where I can find a canoe?"
"Why yes. We do have a couple, why do you ask?"
The Doctor pointed to a waterway leading into the main area. "What if we took this waterway? They never would suspect we'd do a thing like that,"
"Ah," Jamie said, "I don't know about that,"
"Jamie, it'll be fine. But if you really, really don't want to come, the Doctor and I can go while you stay here,"
"I'm afraid I can't allow that," the Brigadier suddenly said.
Marion blanched, "What are you talking about,"
"Regardless of what you think I do believe that you should go get checked your leg checked over. Look at the blood,"
The statement was directed towards Marion, but she could feel the people behind her glancing at her leg.
"Wha- I'm fine! I don't need to be checked over. Seriously," Marion said with a groan.
"Now Marion," the Doctor said, tapping her on the shoulder. Jamie and I won't be taking that long. And while we're checking the crate, you can get your leg checked over and by the time Jamie and I return, everything will be all sorted!"
If looks could kill, the Doctor would have curly white hair and be almost a foot taller.
'I'll remember this,' she thought.
But instead of saying that, she sighed again.
"Fiiiine. I don't think three people would fit in a canoe anyway. But!" she crossed her arms, "When they say 'you're fine' to me, you WILL get a nice round of 'I told you so's. And that's that on that. Hmph,'"
Next Chapter: Investigative Underground Photography
Marion, upon getting shot: Well, if it isn't my old friend, the consequences of my own actions