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Thanks to the following for following: SorryProfessor, wolfsliver438, GingerFury.
Shame that you started to follow this story once college started up. Updates are going to be slower than they were when this story started back in March.
While the Doctor and Jamie were canoeing in the canal, Marion was sitting in a small room with her coat off, her sweater sleeve pushed up to her shoulder, and a blood pressure cuff around her upper arm.
"I don't get it," she complained to the medic, "I got shot in the leg. I healed fast, you saw my leg and no wound. Why do you need to check my blood pressure? I'm healthy,"
Well, there had been the random dizzy spells and nausea, but that wasn't something that she intended to bring up. She wanted to leave the med bay as soon as possible and bringing that up wasn't the way to do it.
The medic she had been brought to was working out of a room roughly the size of an accessibility bathroom stall. There was a small cot pushed against the wall, a tall file cabinet, a desk, a couple of backless rolling chairs, a set of drawers with medical stuff inside of it, that kind of thing.
The medic herself was a tall woman with her blonde hair pinned up in a professional-looking bun, brown eyes, and a buttoned white coat.
"It's standard procedure," the woman (she didn't have a name tag) replied, sounding like she was tired of having to repeat herself (although Marion didn't know if this was her being tired of Marion or just tired in general). She squeezed the pump thing a couple more times and then examined where the needle was pointing.
"One-twenty over eighty," the medic removed the cuff and Marion pushed her sleeve down and shrugged her coat back on.
"Is that good, bad…,"
"It's average. Exactly average," the woman said something under her breath about how she would've expected it to be much, much higher.
"Well, then. It seems that I was right all along. Leg's fine, blood flowing like it's supposed to,"
Marion stood up and stretched. "Sorry to waste your time Dr-,"
"Reeves,"
"Dr. Reeves," Marion nodded, "Thank you very much for checking me over. Do I have to get some kind of note from you, or am I good?"
"No," Dr. Reeves shook her head.
"Well, thank you anyway,"
With that, Marion opened the door out of the room. Benton was standing right behind it waiting for her.
"The Brigadier told me to escort you back to control once you were done with Doctor Reeves,"
"That was nice of him. This plane isn't too big, but knowing me, I'd still get a bit lost," Marion said with a small laugh.
"Oh, I'm sure it's not as bad as all that. So, what did Dr. Reeves say?"
"Same thing as I did. The leg's fine," Marion shook the leg in question. "Didn't even leave a mark," Marion unconsciously adjusted her turtleneck to better cover her neck.
"I figured that. After what happened in the underground, if you say your leg is fine, then I believe you. Frankly, I expected you to make a bigger issue about the Doctor going off without you,"
This wasn't the first time someone had mentioned that it was odd that she was so willing to let the Doctor go off on his own. Martha had said something similar.
What was that about?
"What happened in the- nevermind," Marion held up a hand at Benton opening his mouth, "I don't know what happened with the yetis. It's happened for you sure, but not for me. So don't tell me. I already have had most of the future spoiled for me. I want to keep that last little bit a surprise, you know?"
"I think I understand that well enough," There was something in the man's tone.
"Oh dear," Marion said, "Did I say something in the underground? I'm sorry,"
Benton let out an exhale that might've been a laugh. "You could say that,"
"Oh dear," finally, they came to a door and Marion could hear Isobel talking behind it. "Well, this is my stop. It was nice talking to you,"
She nodded her head sharply and walked through the door.
"It's not my day, is it?" Isobel bemoaned.
"Hey I'm back," Marion said, waving a hand. Moments after she walked into the room, Jamie and the Doctor followed close after her.
The people who had been sitting down shot to their feet.
"Doctor, any luck? What did you find out?" Zoe asked.
"Some old friends of ours are here, Zoe," Jamie replied.
"Who?"
"The Cybermen,"
"Yes, I'm afraid it's true, Zoe," the Doctor said wringing his hands.
"That's what you suspected, wasn't it?"
"What on Earth are Cybermen?" Isobel asked, sitting on one of the tables.
"They're from another world," the Doctor said sharply, "Inhuman killers,"
"You mean they're from space, or something," Jimmy said sounding baffled.
"Yes" "Yes" "Yup,"
"And that spaceship we saw on the other side of the Moon," Marion could practically see the gears turning in Zoe's head, " was obviously their craft,"
"What are they? Little green men? "
"Ha! No!" Marion said. It wasn't a laugh, "They were human once, Isobel or at least something fairly close. But they traded their emotions and feelings for metal and hollowness. They're ruthless and feel and fear nothing. And they think that the way they are is the peak of evolution and won't be satisfied until everything in the universe is either dead or just like them,"
The room was silent.
"You can't be serious?"
"We've met Cybermen before and seen what they can do," Zoe said with a nod.
"Where exactly are they and how many?" Jimmy said, reminding them that he was a military man and dealing with this stuff was his job.
"At Vaughn's headquarters in London," Jamie replied.
"Oh, there's hundreds of them, possibly thousands,"
"So Vaughn's helping them," Zoe said in confusion.
"Zoe, it wouldn't be the first time some idiot teamed up with aliens to take over the world in hopes of gaining power or knowledge or something. And it won't be the last either,"
'Sometimes, it's the same idiot trying to get his ex to notice him,' Marion thought, thinking about the Master.
"That deep-space radio transmitter is obviously being used by the Cybermen spaceships to home in on," the Doctor said rubbing his chin.
"So that's what those UFOs were," Jimmy said in realization, "But there have been hundreds of those sightings,"
"Hundreds of Cyberships,"
"Aye, they must have quite an army by now," Jamie nodded. "The thing is, where are they hiding them all?"
"Vaughn's got quite a big compound. Can't be that hard to hide them. All those buildings plus who knows what he's got buried underground,"
"Maybe Marion, maybe. Captain, where's the Brigadier,"
"At the Ministry of Defence. I better get on to him immediately and tell him what you've discovered,"
'And I probably tell him what Dr. Reeves said so he doesn't make a fuss,' Marion thought.
"No, no, Captain," the Doctor got up from his chair and moved closer to Jimmy. Jamie followed close behind him. "The people who went into Vaughn's headquarters were different when they came out, weren't they?"
"Yes,"
"Do you think they're being controlled, Doctor?" Zoe asked.
"Controlled?"
"Yes, the Cybermen have means of controlling people's minds. They appear to be almost normal but they're not, they're controlled,"
"Who is the Brigadier is immediately answerable to?" the Doctor said in the tone of someone asking a question that they are sure they know the answer to and know that said answer is less than ideal.
"Major-General Rutlidge,"
"And," Marion said pressing her palms together, "I don't suppose that the Major-General is say, Phil Rutlidge or something and not say, Billy Rutlidge, the man who was formerly willing to investigate Vaughn visited his factory, and then suddenly changed his mind?"
Jimmy was silent.
"Worth a shot,"
"Walters," Jimmy said.
"Yes sir!"
"Try to contact Major-General Rutlidge,"
"Yes sir!"
Walters nodded sharply and dialed a number into a nearby phone. He put the receiver to his ear.
"Yes? Yes Hello. Yes, this is Sergeant Walters from UNIT HQ. Yes. I'm attempting to contact Major-General Rutlidge. It's very important,"
There were a few moments of silence.
"Where is Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. He was supposed to talk with him earlier today. Yes. I see. Are you sure Miss? I see. Right. Thanks," He hung up the phone. "Sir!"
"Got him?" Jimmy asked. Everyone could tell from Walter's face that he wasn't successful.
"No sir, General Rutlidge's secretary said he left some time ago,"
"I see," he said with a sigh, "What about the Brigadier,"
"Apparently he wasn't there long, sir. He must be on his way back now,"
"Right," Jimmy said with a resigned nod, "Doctor, it seems we're too late. The Brigadier's already been in to see Rutlidge,"
"Oh dear,"
"So Vaughn knows for certain that UNIT is investigating him then?" Marion shrugged "So what, I think the helicopter escape gave that away,"
"Ah, but Marion. We have reason to believe that the Brigadier's superior is working for Vaughn,"
Marion slumped her shoulders, "You're right. That does make things a bit trickier. Not impossible though, not impossible!"
"Of course," said Jimmy, "The question is now, where exactly do we stand with Rutlidge?"
"And an even bigger one is what can we do to make it harder for the Major-General to order y'all to drop the investigation,"
"Perhaps if we could just show them some proof of cybermen, well, they'd have to believe us? Wouldn't they?" Zoe brought up.
"I certainly hope so," the Brigadier said as he walked into the room.
"Ah, hello Brigadier. I assume the meeting didn't go the way that you hoped,"
"I'm afraid not Ms. Henson. Rutlidge refused to do any kind of investigation without more concrete proof. He says that since we were technically trespassing in a secure area, Vaughn ordering his men to shoot us at isn't enough to warrant an investigation into International Electromatics,"
"Come take a look at this,"
The Doctor called to the group of them. He had gotten ahold of a map labeled drainage system and it had given him an idea.
"There are plenty of canals like the ones that Jamie and I took to Vaughns, and if a city wants to have something like that, and also avoid getting flooded when it rains, there needs to be some way to get rid of water when it overflows correct? It seems to me that that would be an excellent place to hide an army" He pointed to one of the many tunnels. "You see, a network of tunnels underneath London,"
"Yes. And look," the Doctor said, tracing one of the lines with his finger, "There's a main flood relief sewer running right underneath the warehouse,"
"Yes, but if there's water in the sewers, wouldn't that affect them?" the Brigadier asked.
"Not unless Londoners are rich enough for there to be gold dust in your water supply," Marion replied, "Cybermen are allergic to that. It messes with their air filters or something? I don't know. It hurts them. I'm certain of that,"
"Besides, many of these tunnels are dry and only flood during heavy rainfall,"
"What do we do," Isobel asked sarcastically, "pray for a cloudburst?"
The Brigadier gave her the side-eye. "Miss Watkins, this could be very serious,"
"I'm sorry, but, well, it's a pretty fantastic story to swallow,"
"Yes, but so was the attack from the Yeti, but nevertheless it happened," The Brigadier sounded frustrated.
"With all due respect sir, she's right. No one believed in the Yetis until they saw them. If you go to Central Command with this story, they'll think you're mad,"
'You'd think that they would remember the time the underground was full of death foam and yetis and everyone had to evacuate, but you'd be wrong I guess,'
"I just think it's kind of wild that they set up UNIT as an agency to deal with weird stuff, but then when you come at them with the weird stuff that you find, they're like 'Oh dear. That's a bit too weird for me to believe,'" Marion said that last part in an exaggerated high pitched noise. Then she sighed. "Ridiculous. It just makes things so complicated,"
"You both have a point," The Brigadier said, sounding resigned, "Of course, what we really need is some sort of evidence, some proof, something they couldn't brush off as 'too weird',"
"It might be better at the moment to find out what form this attack's going to take," the Doctor said. It was clear he was thinking hard about something. You two!"
"What?" "Yeah?"
"Have you still got the transistor radios that Vaughn gave you?"
"Aye here," "Sure, it's in my coat,"
Marion reached into the pocket on the right side of her coat and retrieved the small device from it. Jamie and Marion held their radios out to the Doctor. The Doctor took them and opened the back of one. He saw something there that caught his eye, and so he opened the other to find the same.
"Brigadier, have you any IE equipment here?"
"Er," the Brigadier seemed to think about it for a moment, and upon realizing that he didn't know, he asked the Captain. "Jimmy, have we?"
"Yes, we have, sir. A computer and various radio and radar components,"
"May I see them, please?" the Doctor said quickly.
"Certainty. Jimmy, would you?"
The Doctor stood up and followed Jimmy to the small half walled up area where communications were done.
The Doctor was going through every single bit of machinery and the rest of them were left in the main part of the control room to talk.
"Now you really believe that these Cybermen things are down in the sewers," Isobel said leaning back in her chair.
"Seems to make sense," the Brigadier replied.
"But you can't do anything about it without proof or evidence,"
"Central Command would think I was mad,"
"Although..." Marion said mostly to herself, "You'd think that after the yeti incident they'd at least give you the benefit of the doubt. UNIT's job IS to investigate,"
"Well, the answer's simple, surely," Isobel said, "Go and get some proof,"
"And how do I prove that in the sewers of London there are creatures from outer space waiting to attack us. Go and get one?"
"You wouldn't stand a chance against them, Isobel," Zoe warned.
"The thing about Cybermen. Is that if one manages to get a hold of you, them killing you outright is the best-case scenario," Marion scratched her head. "Sorry, that got a bit dark there,"
"Well, you wouldn't have to go anywhere near them. Photograph them," Isobel said standing up to face the Brigadier directly.
"That's not a bad idea," the man paused, "Now, wait a minute, it'd be pitch dark down in those tunnels,"
"You could use an infrared film, a twenty-five filter on a thirty-five mil camera with a telephoto lens, and why, you could take frame after frame without getting anywhere near them," Isobel had claimed to know a lot about photography earlier, and she had clearly not been exaggerating her knowledge.
"Is that all gibberish or do you really know what you're talking about?"
"Of course I know,"
"Photography is like, her whole thing Brigadier. She knows what she's talking about,"
"If you're right-,"
"And she most certainly is," Marion interrupted.
"It could well be the sort of proof I need to get some action,"
"Well, all I need is my cameras from the house and then I'm all set,"
"Right, let's head over there,"
"Now, wait a minute, This is hardly a job for you," the Brigadier cut them off.
"Why ever not?"
"Well, you're a young woman, this is a job for a man,"
"Well, of all the bigoted, anti-feminist, cretinous remarks!"
'Yikes,' Marion thought. Marion had almost forgotten at the Brigadier was younger, and had yet to fully understand the simple universal fact that without women throwing themselves into danger, basically nothing in this universe got done.
"Oh, you, you, you man!"
Marion personally, might've said something more colorful than "man", but to each their own. Such as "dipshit" or "dumbfuck".
"I'll get in touch with my photographic unit and get them onto it,"
The Brigadier left.
"Oh, that stupid bigoted idiotic-"
"You know," Marion said under her breath, "The irony here is that in a few decades, that idiot's daughter is going to be the head of UNIT,"
"Aye, well, he's right, you know,"
"Jamie McCrimmon," Zoe said in outrage.
"Jamie," Marion said in a tone as sickly sweet cheap cotton candy, "I know that bad takes like that are a side effect of when you grew up, but next time you're climbing up something, lose your grip and are about to fall to your death, I'll keep what you've said in mind,"
"Well, he is!"
"Just because you're a man you think that you're superior, do you?"
"Now, I didn't say that," Jamie smiled in the way that men sometimes do when they say something profoundly stupid, "Of course, it's true,"
"Yeah, yeah," Marion said crossing her arms, "Call me when you rip the arm of a homicidal robot that tries to strangle you to death,"
She pulled down the collar of her turtleneck showing the hand like marks.
"Aye, but that's different!"
Marion crossed her arms and shifted her weight. "Oh? How so? Do tell, enlighten me, "
"You don't count Marion. You're a lot stronger than most women. You're as strong as a man in fact!"
Jamie spoke in that special tone people use when they say boneheaded things that they likely legitimately think are compliments.
"...," Marion stared at Jamie in silence and then glanced at Zoe and Isobel. The three of them shared the same "get a load of this dude" an expression that always appears when two or more women are in the vicinity of a man saying something stupid.
"Right..." Zoe said, "Isobel, Marion, are you coming?"
"What a splendid idea,"
"Oh, I thought you'd never ask!"
The three of them began walking away and towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Jamie asked.
"Do you think we should let him come with us?" Zoe asked as if they couldn't hear him talking.
"Oh," Isobel tilted her head, "I don't know. Men aren't much good in situations like this. What do you think,"
"Ah, I don't know," Marion was already taking her notebook out of her bag and was writing a quick note to the Doctor letting him know where they were going to be. "I think it's up to y'all,"
"Gone to London to take a few pictures. If you have to come, DO NOT send any Privates into the sewer with us and be SUPER careful." she accompanied the drawing with a tiny doodle of her face giving a wink, folded it in half, and wrote "Doctor" on the outside of it.
"Just a moment," Jamie asked, "Where are you going?"
"London. Coming?"
"London? Now we shouldn't do anything without the Doctor!"
"It's fine, I've left him a note," Marion waved around the sheet of paper and folded it in half. She scrawled a fancy M on the front of it, with her Sonic Pen so that there was no chance that it'd be missed.
"And It's not like the Doctor is going to do something that gets himself in danger between now and when we leave," Marion and the rest of the girls were almost out the door.
"Are you coming?" she called, leaning back?
Jamie looked back at the Doctor, and then to the three of them and then ran after them.
When they were almost out of the airplane base, Jimmy stopped them.
"Oh, where are you four off to?" he asked.
"London!" Isobel said, "We're picking something important for the Brigadier,"
"Yeah, the Doctor is busy, so it's just us,"
"Ah," Jimmy said, "I see. Ask Sergeant Benton if he'll to take you there then,"
"Yes!" said Zoe, "We will! Thank you!"
It took very little convincing to get Benton to give them a ride to Isobel's house to grab her camera equipment and then to take them to a manhole. And, Thanks to Zoe's picture-perfect memory, they knew exactly which manhole cover they were needing to go to. That helped. It was a lot easier to get people to ask fewer questions about why they were taking you somewhere if you knew precisely where that place was.
The jeep finally came to a complete stop and Jamie once more tried to convince the girls to stay back.
"I'm just saying that we should at least let the Doctor know first,"
"And I'm saying that I left a note. It's fine! You can handle yourself boyo,"
"Scared, Jamie?" Zoe taunted.
"No. I mean, I don't even know what we're going to do,"
"No I dOn'T eVeN kNoW wHaT wE'rE gOiNg To Do," Marion mocked. "We're just taking a few photos. Jeez, you'd think that we were about to do heart surgery,"
"So, come on then," Isobel climbed out of the passenger seat and the other women followed her out the car.
"Och. Women," Jamie groaned.
"I heard that!" Marion called back.
"Now ladies, and Jamie, right now, what we want to do, is keep on moving to where we're trying to go and to the sewers, because right about now, the Brig is going to radio Benton, and we don't want to be here when that happens,"
"Now do you know that," Isobel asks?
"Same way that I know a lot of things," Marion said, answering absolutely nothing. "Is this the right cover Zoe?" Marion asked, pointing to a manhole cover right at her feet.
"Oh! You know that that's not an answer Marion!" Isobel said, stomping her foot.
"Oh, I'm well aware. That's the point dear," Marion crouched down and pulled the manhole cover aside leading into the sewer and set it down. "Well, down you go. You first Jamie!"
"Me? But, er. Och," Jamie sighed climbed down the ladder. Zoe climbed down after him.
"Right, come on, Isobel, you too Marion,"
"Shush!" Jamie shushed her.
"Lower your camera down to me," Zoe whisper shouted up to her,.Isobel sat down with her legs hanging down into the hole and handing the camera down to her.
"Hey, you!"
Marion and Isobel's head whipped around to see a skinny looking man with a fun mustache and one of those tall hats that Marion was pretty confident weren't a thing in England in the year that she had come from. But then again, she didn't know enough about England to be able to say one way or another.
Actually, she might need to know more about Britain because if the way things were shaking up, she'd be spending more time in space and in Britain that she would be spending back home in America.
"What do you think you're doing going down there for, you young idiots!"
"Isobel, hop down, and be careful. I'll handle this,"
Isobel nodded and climbed down into the sewer just before the officer came up to them.
Marion had a simple task. Either convince the man to not climb down into the sewers, or fail and know that her failure was the reason that someone died. Well, no, that wasn't fair. Her options were to either make things better or make things the same. That was a little bit less pressure.
"Hello officer," Marion said with a nod. She pulled her psychic paper out of her pocket and held it at the ready. "Is there an issue?"
"The sewers are dangerous for children. Call your friends back up here or else I'll have to call in and get them out myself,"
'Children!' Marion thought. 'I mean, I know I'm a bit baby faced but a child!
"That won't be necessary officer," Marion flashed up the psychic paper.
"You're safety inspectors?"
'What again?' Marion looked at the ID. There it was.
"Yes. We're checking to make sure that the tunnels down there are structurally sound. Wouldn't want rain lapping away at the foundations and making the roads collapse now would me?"
"I suppose not,"
Marion glanced behind the officer and saw Benton pulling up in the Jeep.
"Yes, yes, it'd be awful," Marion said quickly. She tucked the psychic paper back into her coat pocket and began climbing down into the sewers. "Look, I've got a lot of measurements to take and places to check. I don't want to take too long or else the boss'll get pissed. You know how it is. Goodbye now!"
Marion let go of the last couple of rungs and landed in the sewers on her feet. Her ankles burned a bit in protest but she was able to walk it off quite easily.
"Let's go," Marion said to the rest of the gang. "Benton's right up there. Come on. This way,"
The four of them walked deeper into the tunnels with Marion and Jamie walking in the front and Zoe and Isobel taking up the rear.
The sewers were just big enough for them to not feel claustrophobic. The walls were curved over and around them as if they were in a large concrete tube with a flat grey brick path. It was lit only by short strips of fluorescent light on the walls just in the middle of the laws. The lights were there, but there were dark spots between lights where nothing could be seen and Marion stepped carefully in these areas lest she trip over a stray brick and eat concrete.
They weren't walking for long when Zoe stopped and raised a hand.
"Shush. look. I think that there's something further down the tunnel,"
"Oh," said Isobel. She began to adjust the camera around her neck and prepared to snap the photos,"
"I think that we better get back," Jamie said, ushering them backward, "Come on,"
"Jamie, don't be a spoilsport," Marion said. Jamie flinched away as she poked him in the side, "You can't run away AND take photos with a mid-20th century camera. If we run, we'll have wasted everyone's time,"
There was the sound of heavy footsteps and metal mesh brushing against metal in the distance.
"Oh Jamie, look! I was right!"
A shadow grew larger and larger on the wall of the sewer.
"Fantastic," Isobel crouched down and held the camera to her eye.
"Come on, back," Jamie warned. He was holding his hand to the side of his leg that Marion was pretty sure he kept his knife on. Marion wasn't sure why. She wasn't sure what a simple knife would be able to do against a Cyberman, but then again, if there had been an official Doctor Who Monster Manual complete with stats and weaknesses of each creature, she had neither read nor heard about it.
Isobel continued to snap photos of the approaching Cyberman.
"Come on, you're just risking our necks," Jamie urged gesturing for Isobel to step back.
"Isobel, as much as I hate to admit it," Marion said, grabbing ahold of Isobel's shoulder, "we really should get movin',"
"Just a couple more..."
"There isn't time!" Jamie picked up Isobel from off the floor and started to tug her away,
"Come on! Out,"
They ran back the way they came through the tunnel.
Marion listened carefully as she ran alongside them for the sound of someone dying. She didn't think that their footsteps could possible be loud enough to drown that kind of noise out.
Once again, it seems impersonating civil servants saved lives!
On the other hand…
"Hey, we need to be really careful about now," Marion said. "I, I think I hear something up ahead,"
"What?" Jamie asked.
"Cybermen. They might be between us and our way out,"
"Then we had better hurry then," Jamie picked up the pace and the rest of their group joined him.
"I see something!" Zoe said.
There, standing a little way in front of them was a pair of Cyberman. They had their backs turned to the four of them, which was a good thing, but with the wailing of the other Cyberman behind them, it was anyone's guess how long that was going to last.
"Right, come on," Jamie tried to tug Zoe in the opposite direction but she stood still.
"Jamie, No!"
"What?"
"There's Cybermen in both directions!"
"Then what are we to do!" Jamie fired back.
"Just stay calm, and against the wall. The shouty Cyberman that Isobel took a snap of is acting pretty erratic yeah, all we need to do is stay against the wall and stay quiet. It'll run past us,"
"What kind of plan is that?"
"One that'll work!" Marion said hoping that she sounded more confident than she felt, "and, if that goes wrong, I'll try to distract them while y'all run. Sound good?"
"It sounds reckless,"
"Well, that's not a no,"
"But!"
"Stop moving!"
Next Chapter: Notes Are Left For A Reason You Know
Marion: Brigadier, your views on women are so backward! Seriously, what is this, the nineteen si-
Marion: …
Marion: Okay, your attitude tracks, but you still should know better. Asshole.