Thanks to the following for following: WorldJumper0123, Mr. Jay black, danbear, fr0z3nph03n1x, nika14, Manigacian
Thanks to the following and favoriting: grapejuice101, avengingweeb, GinryuFox, OMsRandomWriter,
Anyway, you know the Time Lord Victorious? Like, the new multimedia thing that's going on? Yeah, any references to that are going to be accidental. I don't know or care much about it.
They shoved back, pressing themselves against the wall. Like Marion had predicted, the cyberman paid them no mind. It was as if they weren't there at all.
Which was good because if the Cybermen had attacked them, it would've been kind of embarrassing.
"He ignored us," Zoe said in shock.
"It's out of control. It's sort of wild,"
They walked back the way they came further away from the cyberman to get a bit of distance just in case it turned around and came after them. It was Jamie's idea.
"I told you, Jamie," Marion put her hands on her hips, "Do you really think that I would say something like 'stay put and don't move' when there's a shrieking monster barreling towards us unless I was 100% sure that it'd be fine? Because I wouldn't,"
Marion was aware that some of her actions might have been seen as reckless to an outside observer. But it really wasn't. The only reason that she didn't attempt to take Isobel and Zoe out of climbing down here is that she knew that they were going to be okay. If she hadn't. If Isobel had been killed or something, she would've sided with Jamie (at least on whether or not they should climb down here. Not on his 18th-century views on women), or told Benton the truth about where they were going point blank so that he'd stop them.
She would've literally blown up the sewer system before she'd willingly bring them to their deaths. If the universe had a problem with that, it could sic reapers on her.
They heard a voice calling in the distance. " I don't know. Come on, let's try this way. ISOBEL, where are you? Jamie? This is Captain Turner! Where are you?"
That sounded like Jimmy. Was Turner his last name?
"Now," she said, "let's go"
"That's him. Somebody's coming. I told you," Isobel said, excitedly.
"No wait," Jamie whispered sharply, "No, wait. There are Cybermen between us, remember,"
"What are we going to do? We just can't wait here. Some more might come along."
"Not to mention, they might not know that the Cybermen are even here!" Marion whispered, "They could be in danger!"
"Are you down there?" Turner called out to them.
"Look, at least let him know we're here," Isobel reasoned.
"Aye," Jamie replied sarcastically, "and the other Cybermen too,"
Marion looked at the three of them and then down the tunnel. Making up her mind was easy.
"You three stay here," she called over her shoulder.
"What?"
"I'm going to go warn them. You stay put until I call you over okay,"
"But Marion. That's dangerous,"
Marion turned around to face Jamie, walking backward as she did.
"Maybe for you Jamie. I'll only be away for like, 5-10 minutes! I'll be fine," Marion waved his concern off.
With that said, Marion turned back around and raced down the tunnel following the sound of the shouting cyberman. It didn't notice her presence, and it turned down another tunnel. Marion could hear the men speaking up ahead and through a different tunnel.
"Someones coming," she heard a voice say.
That voice was coming from straight ahead and not from the tunnel that she was already heading down. Not the one the deranged cyberman had gone down. She continued sprinting towards the sound of the UNIT men.
"Who? Is it one of them?" another voice said.
She finally was close enough to be able to see them properly.
"It's me, it's me," Marion said, slowing down.
There were four men in the tunnel. Marion had hoped that there would be three but, seeing as she didn't quite remember what the face of the Private who fled and got shot was. Maybe they read her "No Privates" note and took her word for it.
People kept mentioning the events of the Web of Fear as if she had done something interesting. She hoped that whatever it was was something that made her credible enough for them to take the seemingly random things she had said as what they were. Warnings.
"Jamie, Zoe, and Isobel are still in the tunnel but-,"
"Then why aren't they here,"
"I'm trying to explain! I ran ahead to warn you. There's Cybermen on both sides of the tunnel. The one that came from where I did, he went down a different tunnel than I did. You can hear that wailing noise right? He walked right past us. Somethin' is wrong with him so he didn't pay us any mind but that doesn't mean it'll always do that. Also there's another two deeper that way and those might actually cause some harm. So, if we're going to do something, we need to do it quick before-"
"Do Not Move!"
"That happens,"
Marion felt that she was going to have to take all variations of "quick before x happens out of her vocabulary,"
It never seemed to go well.
The Cyberman's voice sounded like if someone spoke through a desk fan, autotuned it, and then ran it through a syth.
"Sergeant," Jimmy-no wait, Captain Turner said, "grenades,"
"Do Not resist. You Will Obey Instructions,"
"What do you want us to do?" Turner called out to them, likely trying to distract the Cybermen from the grenade.
"You Will Come With Us. Obey,"
Walters placed the grenade in Turner's hand. "Ready sir,"
The wheezing noise was back. The crazed Cyberman flailed through the tunnel. That answered where that tunnel he had ducked into went. The main two cyberman who cornered them looked at each other for a moment and then looked behind them at the source of the noise.
The noise was very loud and the low ceiling made it echo throughout the entire tunnel. It seemed that a derangeded member of their kind was a significantly more pressing concern to them than less than half a dozen humans. They attempted to restrain him.
"Now!"
Turner and Walters pulled the pins out of their grenades and hurled the explosives at the distracted Cybermen.
"Get down!" Turner ordered.
'
The five of them dropped to the ground and covered their heads with their hands.
There was a loud, booming, popping noise, and then a few seconds later, there was another. They looked up. Two of the cybermen were on the ground and didn't seem to be moving, but the other one was on his feet. Albeit, shakily. He held onto the wall for support and moved like he'd been dragged to the roller skating rink by his friends and, unfortunately, did not know how to skate.
But all movement is bad movement when the thing that's moving was SUPPOSED to have just taken a pair of grenades to the face.
"And again, Sergeant," Walters said, gesturing for a grenade.
"Grenade, quick! Come on, Perkins, Come on,"
'Wait, Perkins? Dammit,'
Perkins, who was a Private, a rank that Marion had SPECIFICALLY written in her note not to bring along. Was it that hard to just NOT bring a Private? There had to be other people on staff. But no. Then again, it's possible they didn't notice the note. They were in a bit of a hurry once they found out, and they hadn't needed a note in the Omega timeline to know what was up.
It was possible that they just hadn't seen the note. If that was the case, then Perkin's being here was her fault for not being as clear.
Perkins suddenly shot up and Marion prepared to leap up as well to grab him.
"It's too late, Sergeant. I'm getting out!" he began to run.
"Get back here!" Marion shouted, getting to her feet and racing after.
"Come back you two!"
Marion chased after Perkins. Part of the goal was to catch him, but the other part of it was to be between him and the cybermen. She was able to do both. She lunged at him and at the same time she felt something hit her. And she felt herself falling as her vision went black.
'Hey, at least this is probably not going to leave a mark,' she thought.
Had she been anyone else, she would've been dead before she hit the floor.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tok.
How does one go about describing the sensation of getting shot by a cyberman? Short answer? Excruciating! Long answer? Imagine you live in a large old house. It's been in your family for as long as anyone can remember perhaps even longer. It's a nice house and you live there alone only ever leaving the house to get food to eat.
In this house are huge bay windows with window seats resting in them, these are mostly for guests. At just the right time of day, the sun shines through the windows and warms the seats creating the perfect rest spot for a snake or a cat or some other animal that craves those warm spots.
It felt a bit like how that warm sunlight patch might feel.
Did I forget to mention that in this metaphor, you are a vampire?
Because in this metaphor, you are a vampire.
Basically, it burned. A lot.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock
The ticking hadn't stopped and Marion wondered at what point she was going to be alone in a room with an analog clock that was just tick tick tick ticking like normal and have a panic attack about it.
Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick
The way the ticking stopped and started compared to all the other noises was jarring. One moment, she could hear the reversed clock, the next moment, gunfire. And it sounded like the gunfire had been going off for a while, but she just had been unable to hear it.
It was kind of like she and everyone else spent all of their time tunned into a certain radio channel. When she d- when she got injured enough that if she were anyone else she'd die she started tuning into somewhere else. Somewhere where there was no noise but ticking. And, you could only listen to one frequency at a time. She had changed the channel back to the "real" world and all that was playing was gunfire.
Marion realized that her eyes were closed and blearily opened them. The grey brick was directly in front of her face. She had fallen against the wall. A shadow loomed over her as if someone was standing there and she felt something on her wrist and them something on her neck, and then on her wrist again. Then something began shaking her.
"Hnnn?" she groaned.
She didn't feel tired. Or like she had gotten shot. It wasn't like she was still in pain or anything. She felt fine. But something in her just was very slow to move. It was kind of like trying to get up from school when your room is cold and the covers are warm only, without the environment that you are hesitant to leave being comfortable.
"Marion!" a voice suddenly called, "She's alive!"
Oh. The thing that was shaking her was Benton. He must've been checking her pulse.
"Of course I am. It takes a bit more than that to keep me down," Marion joked, "Also, uh, could you move, Sergeant? You're kind of hovering over me and I can't get up,"
The shadow she could see against the wall moved. Marion rolled over onto her back and was helped to her feet by Benton and Jimmy.
"Corporal," Benton said.
"What?" Marion asked.
"I'm a Corporal, not a Sergeant,"
"Eh," Marion waved her hand, "Give it a couple of years," she changed the subject, "Where's Perkins,"
"He ran down the tunnel,"
"Which one,"
Benton pointed to the one Marion had come from.
"Ah of course,"
Marion cupped her hands around her mouth and called down.
"JAMIE, ISOBEL, ZOE! IS PERKINS WITH YOU!"
"YES, I THINK SO," Zoe's voice called back.
"GREAT!" she called, "BRING HIM,"
"Get to the ladder as quickly as you can," Turner ordered.
"The Cyberman is down for now, but he's going to get up eventually. So do hurry,"
There was the sound of quick and frantic footsteps and then the group ran forward.
"Come on, hurry it up. Come on, Sergeant, keep those men moving,"
Isobel was at the head of the runners. She ran up to Turner and practically crashed into him.
"Oh thank goodness,"
"Come on, get out of here, and keep out of the way. Now up that ladder. Get moving!"
Zoe climbed up the ladder and out of the sewers and Isobel quickly followed behind her.
"Jamie," Turner asked, "are there any more behind you?"
"No," Jamie shook his head.
"Are you sure that that Cyberman thing is down," Perkins asked. Turner glared at him.
"Shut up and get up the ladder Perkins. You're lucky Marion isn't dead. Climb up there. You and I are going to have to talk with the Brig. Now, get up. Benton, Walters. You go as well,"
Perkins climbed up the ladder followed by the other two men.
Jamie went to climb up the ladder as well, but was stopped. "Jamie, keep a good look out. I think one of those Cybermen is still alive,"
Marion quickly shook her head as hard as she could.
"No, no, I'll keep watch. Jamie, Turner, you too climb,"
"But Marion,"
She shook her head once again, "You're wasting time. I'll be fine and literally right behind you. Now shut up and climb,"
Turner climbed up the ladder, but Jamie didn't.
"Jamie, what are you waiting for,"
"You to climb up first of course,"
"Jamie..," Marion said.
"Marion..." Jamie said in the same tone.
Jamie was being stubborn and Marion had a feeling he wasn't going to be changing his mind. And considering how he'd only just made it out of the sewers in the Omega timeline...it was best that she got up there as quickly as possible so that he'd also climb up as quickly as possible. Now was not the time to argue.
"Ugh," she said, "Fine."
Marion quickly scaled the ladder and she could hear Jamie right behind her and, if Marion remembered right, a Cyberman right behind them both. When she was close to the manhole cover, Turner's hand reached out and pulled her out of the sewer. Marion quickly scrambled away from it so that Jamie could get out as well. Once Jamie was close enough to the top of the ladder to be within grabbing distance, Marion and Benton grabbed him and attempted to help him up.
"My leg!" Jamie suddenly cried.
The cyberman had grabbed hold of Jamie's ankle and was holding him in place. Jamie moved so that everything above his knee was above the sewer by sitting down on the street, but the Cyberman continued to hold on. He was stuck.
While Turner tried to pry the Cyberman's hand off of Jamie's leg. Marion rummaged through her purse trying to find the pry bar so that she could wack the Cyberman with it. It was way, way at the bottom, under and tangled in the coil of rope that she, in hindsight, should've coiled back up. Marion frantically tried to untangle it while Turner called Sergeant Walters over to them since he was closest to the jeep that had the guns.
Jamie on the other hand, got a look in his eye like he just remembered something. He grabbed his knife from the holster on his leg.
"Jamie, I don't think that's going to-,"
He stabbed at the Cyberman's chest piece and it sparked. The Cyberman let go of Jamie's leg. Jamie pulled his leg out of reach of the Cybermen and it fell back into the sewers.
"Huh," Marion said aloud.
That didn't make sense. It-that was just a normal knife.
"Benton," Turner shouted back, "Grenade!"
"Coming, sir!"
"Quick, man!"
"Hurry," added Walters.
Seconds later, Benton came up behind them. He tossed the grenade and it fell into the sewers with a dull "Clink" before exploding and causing smoke to billow out of the manhole.
"I just don't believe it, sir," said Walters, "All them grenades and he still came out of it,"
"I'll be honest," Marion said, "I still haven't gotten over how Jamie's knife did anything. It's just a-,"
Marion got a proper look at the knife. "Jamie is that knife...gold plated? Where did you get a gold plated knife,"
Jamie stood up fully and put the knife back into the strap where he kept it. "The Associate. She just walked up to me and asked me for one of my knives and told me she'd give it right back. And, then when she did it looked like this. She said to use it the next time we came face to face with Cybermen and that it'd come in handy,"
"Huh," Marion said aloud again.
So she thought, she'd have to acquire enough gold to make a knife...and then learn how to forge a blade? That sounded, wait, no, she didn't have to do that. Jamie had said that she'd taken an existing knife, right? So, all she really needed to do was to get a hold of a small amount of gold, a fish tank, a couple of jumper cables, and a battery.
That sounded pretty doable.
"Well, that's...neat," Marion said finally.
"Come on, let's get out of here," Turner said finally.
"Yes, let's,"
They took two cars away from the sewers. Benton and Perkins, and the rest of them were in one car heading back towards the airplane base while the rest of them were taken to 18 St. James.
"I see you've just invited yourselves in then," Isobel said upon seeing that the door to the house was already unlocked. She didn't sound legitimately upset so Marion figured that it was fine.
Isobel got a look on her face, and then walked to another room followed by Jamie and Zoe. Marion's best guess was that she was going to her blackroom to develop her photos. In Marion's experience, developing photos in a dark room didn't take too long.
Then again, her experience had involved a pinhole camera made of what had probably been a large can of beans with its pinhole covered by a fridge magnet and a sheet of photo paper inside.
And also, all her photos had turned out like garbage.
So maybe she didn't know for sure how long blackroom photography took, come to think of it.
'Now, where is the…,'
"Ah, Ms. Henson," the Brigadier said from behind Marion.
She jumped.
"Geeze, warn someone before you come sneak up behind someone like that!"
"My apologies. The Doctor said he wanted to see you in Traver's laboratory. I was just heading there now,"
"Oh, sure,"
Marion followed the Brigadier to a room off to the side and opened the door for her. Marion gave him a thankful nod and walked through into the lab.
It was maybe slightly bigger than the lab that Professor Watkins was being forced to work in at International Electromatics. Most of the stuff in the room was scattered along the walls where the door wasn't. There were metal shelves covered with electrical and scientific equipment and a set of small locking cubbies built into the right wall.
The Doctor himself was sat at a desk on the opposite side of the room from the door. It was pretty clear that the Watkins frequently worked at this table seeing as it was covered in junk in that only a desk owned by someone who doesn't think it's worth it to put stuff away that they'll just need to take out again in another few minutes. The Doctor had clearly moved some things aside to make space for the microscope.
The Doctor turned away from said microscope and towards the people who had walked in.
"Hey Doc," Marion said in greeting as she walked into the Lab rather than follow after Isobel. She pulled an unoccupied chair away from the table and sat backward on it. She rested her arms on the top of the back of the chair and rested her chin in her palms. "Have you figured anything out yet?" The question was mostly for the sake of politeness. Even if Marion hadn't known the answer for sure, the Doctor's facial expression was not the expression of a man who'd recently figured out something he'd been trying to figure out.
"No, not yet," he said with a sigh, "There's an alien logic in these circuits," he gestured to the microscope, "but I haven't been able to work it out yet. I don't suppose that you know?
"Sorry!" she shook her head, "And it's not because it's a 'spoiler' or anything," she made air quotes on the word "spoiler", "I genuinely do not know. I have a wide understanding of many, many, many things. But things related to complicated electrical engineering and circuitry?" Marion knocked on the side of her head, "No thoughts, head empty. If I did ever know it, I forgot. Sorry,"
"So we're no further ahead," the Brigadier summed up.
"No, not yet," the Doctor went back to looking into the microscope.
The Brigadier walked across the room and sat down on a cleared section of the desk.
"Miss Watkins is developing her photographs. I'm taking a full report to Geneva and UNIT Central Command,"
The Doctor looked back up from the microscope and tilted his head towards the Brigadier.
"And how long will that take?"
"Depends. I leave in the morning. If I can get the report to the Council tomorrow we should get some action within two or three days,"
"But that might be too late!" the Doctor cried.
"That's bureaucracy for you," Marion chimed in, "Sure, you get funding, but you need permissions for everything, and it's all gotta go through a ton of red tape. It's just a bit…," Marion a "so-so" motion with her hand. "But I'm sure that you're doing your best. It's not your fault the system's like that,"
The door to the lab opened to reveal Isobel with Jamie and Zoe in tow. She was holding what Marion assumed were the prints she had taken with the unbridled confidence of a student turning in a history test from the time period they spent most of their teens hyper fixating on.
"Here we are. Some beauties," she slapped them down on the bit of desk space next to the Brigadier.
Marion got up from her chair to look at them along with everyone else.
"Yes…," the Brigadier said slowly.
"What's the matter?"
"Nothing. They're very good," he paused, as if trying to think of a nice way to say something not so nice, "I don't want to hurt your professional pride, Miss Watkins, but they do look a little like fakes,"
"Fakes?"
"The photos are a bit blurry," Marion said, "Of course, it doesn't help much that Cybermen look like they were put together with a material budget of like, ten bucks,"
'Wait,' Marion thought, 'Is that worth a lot? It's the 60's so…,'
"Yes, I see what you mean," Zoe agreed.
"Oh, charming. I don't know why I bothered," Isobel got up to walk away in a huff. Marion stopped her.
"Wait a tick dearie," Marion said, "The goal here wasn't to convince Geneva with a few photographs,"
The Doctor by now had gone back to looking into the microscope.
"It wasn't?" the Brigadier asked.
"It wasn't?" Isobel asked.
Marion shook her head. "Nope, I mean, it'd be nice if it worked, but that wasn't the goal here. The goal here was to get the Brigadier here a bit of…," she twisted her wrist around in thought, "credibility? Suspension of belief? Something like that?"
"How do you mean?"
"Well, let's say the Brigadier shows these photos to the folks in charge yeah? They don't believe him. They think that they're fake! So," Marion clapped her hands, "We submit those photos and And they think that the Brigadier is mistaken at first,"
"Ms. Henson, I'm not sure that I see how this will raise my credibility with my superiors,"
"Simple, at first they won't believe you, but THEN the Cybermen attack and you go from the man that no one believed to the only one who knew the truth. That way, the next time some weird extraterrestrial nonsense comes down with the intent to cause problems on purpose and you try to explain what's going on before they tell you 'No, you're wrong' they'll think to themselves, 'Now, do we really want another Cyberman fiasco?' And the answer to that will be an emphatic "'No, absolutely not! What do you need us to do Lethbridge-Stewart!'"
"Aye, I see," Jamie said, "If they don't believe the Brigadier now, they'll have to believe him in the future! Cuz they'll know they've been wrong before right!"
"Precisely,"
"But suppose that doesn't work," the Brigadier brought up, "Suppose they just think the photos and the Cyberman attack are both equally fake? What then? The people I'm trying to convince are a little more skeptical. They might very well admit to their mistake this time, and then not believe me next time,"
"That's annoying,"
"Yes, of course," the Doctor said suddenly. He looked back through the microscope, messing with the knobs on the side to allow him to see more clearly.
"What?"
"What?"
"It could be, it just could be," the Doctor said under his breath.
"I think he's had a breakthrough," Marion stage whispered to Jamie.
The Doctor hadn't said much to anyone after that. Marion sat near him for a bit. He made a noise acknowledging that he knew that she was there, but after that, he mostly just mumbled to himself. He clearly knew what he was looking for, but had no idea where to find it. Every now and then, he would find something he was looking for and would hum slightly. He looked away from the microscope and jot something down on a sheet of paper.
Marion got up and looked over the Doctor's shoulder to see what he was writing.
'Jesus,'
Either the Doctor was writing in another language his handwriting was atrocious, or both.
Turner had brought in a large radio received and was sitting by it in case a call came in from UNIT's main base of operations. Every now and then, he'd send a brief report letting them know that yes, the Doctor was still working but no, he hadn't figured anything of importance out yet.
Jamie had sat down in a stuffed chair in the corner of the lab and gone out like a light. It made sense of course that he'd be tired. First the Dominators, then the Land of Fiction, and then this. And all within the same day more or less. It'd be weird if he hadn't been a little tired.
As for Marion, she figured that she'd be fine and didn't need a nap. She'd gotten a good couple of hours in at Tombstone. And then the incident at Isen VI hadn't lasted for too long. She figured as long as she went to sleep after this adventure, and wasn't dragged away, there wouldn't be much of an issue.
Marion decided quickly that there wasn't much that she could do to help the Doctor in this case, and so she moved to a chair near the corner that gave her a good view of the entirety of the room and took out a pencil, an eraser, and her notebook and began to sketch.
Marion liked to sketch rooms that she was in when there was nothing else to do. Ordinarily, she would've gone on her phone but she didn't think that just, whipping out a smartphone in what she assumed was either 1968 or 1972. Normally, when she had this kind of time she'd pull her phone out and read-.
Marion stopped her sketch of the room and blinked slowly in realization. A good portion of her phone storage was dedicated to epub files of Classic Who novelizations and EU novels. She'd need to delete them right? Ah, but they could certainly be useful right? Then again, if someone got ahold of those then it'd be very, very bad. Marion made a mental note to change her phone password to something more long and complicated. And put the epubs in a password-protected folder. And then maybe come up with a coded language to use to make quick notes indecipherable notes about events in the very really likely event that she forgot about something crucial.
Anyway, there wasn't much that she could do about any of it right then, so she shrugged and went back to sketching.
The room was the ideal kind to sketch. It wasn't a large room which was definitely one thing in its favor. Another thing was that the shelves on the wall really helped with making the guiding perspective lines look alright. Marion spent a while doing that. She underestimated the time that it would take for the Doctor to find everything that he was looking for and get all the data that he needed and what Marion had absolutely intended to just be a quick sketch was rapidly spiraling into a proper greyscale drawing that was making Marion wish she had a blending stump or at least a tissue because she could only smooth out things for so long before her fingertips were completely black and useless for blending some of the lighter things the way she wanted.
Marion was experimented with using her graphite-colored fingertips to give the walls the light grey color that fit them the best when Isobel walked into the room carrying a tray with four mugs sitting atop it.
Turner looked up from the radio and smiled at Isobel as she walked past.
Isobel smiled back at him and put one of the mugs next to the Doctor's workspace.
"Tea, Doctor?"
The Doctor had stopped looking through the microscope a while ago and was instead hurriedly writing something down on a sheet of paper.
"Oh, thank you," the Doctor said quickly as if he had just realized that Isobel had entered the room and it had caught him off guard. He then went back to scribbling equations as if he hadn't been interrupted.
"Tea Marion?" Isobel asked.
"Yes of course. Please!" Marion set down her sketchbook and took one of the mugs. She took a sip. The tea was warm and sweet.
"Thank you!" she said cheerfully.
She went back to drawing and attempting to improve the shading on the area around the desk, particularly, the figure that represented the Doctor.
"Jamie," Isobel shook Jamie lightly and he didn't stir she shook him again, "Jamie, tea,"
This time, the young man made a slight noise but remained sleeping.
"Ah, let him sleep. Isobel," Marion said looking up from her sketchbook once more. "He's had a very, very long day and this whole cyberman business has only been like, a fourth of it. I wouldn't be shocked if Zoe was taking a nap out as well. Just put the tea down by him where he won't knock the mug over and when he wakes up, he can drink it,"
Isobel nodded and placed the mug off to the side.
Turner triggered the radio receiver again.
"Captain Turner calling UNIT Control. Captain Turner calling UNIT Control. How do you read me, over?"
"UNIT Control. Loud and clear, sir. Over,"
"Relay all important messages and reports direct through to here, Sergeant. Over,"
"Wilco. Over,"
"Good. Over and out. Thanks,"
Turner turned the radio back to standby mode and Isobel handed him a mug.
"You aren't still mad are you?" she asked.
"About what?"
"For being such a twit and going down those sewers. No one got hurt thank goodness but they very well might've,"
"Yes, well, it's all right. You weren't to know what you were really letting yourself in for. Perkins made a run for it and he might've been killed if Marion hadn't run after him and gotten in the way of the Cyberman's attack,"
Marion stopped drawing, feeling the burning sensation of someone with their eyes on her.
"Marion! You didn't tell me you got hurt,"
"That's because I didn't. Yeah, I got hit, but it only hurt for like a second," she explained, "and then I blacked out. Don't worry about it. But!"
Marion realized that she needed to make it VERY clear that her surviving was solely because of whatever force was refusing to let her die and that running in the way of a Cyberman was a fucking stupid idea.
"If I had been anyone else, I would've died. I CAN NOT stress enough how absolutely dead anyone who wasn't me would've been,"
"And how do you know that for sure," Isobel asked.
"Pardon?"
"How do you tell the difference between something that knocks you out and something that…," the woman trailed off.
Marion started fidgeting with her hair. "Mostly the ticking," she said finally, "I start to hear a ticking noise and then everything goes dark and it's dark and kind of echoey for a bit. It's not-it's not scary even though it's like I'm awake but asleep at the same time like I'm dreaming about being asleep you know? Then I hear the clock again and then I start to hear other sounds and then I wake up. That only happens when I get up to something potentially fatal," Marion clapped her hands, "But uh, I'm fine. Better me than Perkins or anyone else right? A shot from the Cyberman would've 100% killed you. No joke. One minute, you're fine, the next minute, you're a corpse,"
Isobel sat down and if her face was any indication, Marion's attempt to cheer Isobel up with the knowledge that nothing bad happened had the unintended side effect of reminding her of all the bad things that COULD'VE happened.
"Why, I would have got us all killed. I just didn't realize. I mean, those Cybermen things. I've just been listening to Zoe telling the Brigadier all about them for his report, and between that and what Marion just said, and they really do sound as murderous as they look,"
"You know, we dropped five grenades right on top of them and one of them still came out of it. I'd hate to have to fight a whole army of them,"
"If I thought that we were all going to our deaths I would've done everything possible to stop you," Marion replied. "Although," she muses, "It's quite a shame that you guys didn't see my note. I wrote that you shouldn't bring any Privates. If he hadn't been there, I would've had to take the shot for him," she shrugged, "No harm done, I'll put it in a more obvious pla-,"
She stopped upon seeing the look on Turner's face. "What's that look for,"
"Was that a folded note with an orange 'M' on the front?"
Marion blinked slowly. "Yes...what about it. Wait, don't tell me. You read the note?"
"Yes,"
"And, despite that, you still..." Marion inhaled heavily through her nose, "Ok, you know what? I told you not to bring a Private, you did, but that's fine. No one got hurt and I can't expect y'all to take me word for it all the time especially when I don't offer an explanation and especially when you've only met me like, twice. That's fair. But still, in the future you should-,"
"NO NO NO NO NO!" the Doctor stood up suddenly from the desk, crumbled what he'd been working on, and threw it to the ground.
The commotion was enough to wake Jamie up. Or maybe it was the fact that it was specifically the Doctor.
"What's the matter, Doctor?" he yawned, "Would someone mind telling me what's going on?"
"Don't worry, Jamie," Turner said quickly, "Finish your tea and go back to sleep,"
"I'll wake you up if something important happens hon. You won't miss anything,"
The radio made that faint static-y noise that it always made half-a-second before anyone spoke and Sergeant Walter's voice spoke through it.
"UNIT Control to CO. UNIT Control to CO. Over,"
"Captain Turner here, Sergeant. Stand by. Isobel, will you get the Brigadier for me?"
"Oh, sure," she quickly ran out of the room to retrieve him.
"Brigadier's on his way now, Sergeant. What's the flap? Over,"
"What's the flap?" Marion mouthed. Was that a thing that people during this time said? Weird.
"Report from Red sector one," by now, Isobel had returned with the Brigadier in tow, "sir, at twenty-thirty hours,"
'8:30 PM? It, it doesn't seem that late,' Marion glanced out the window. The sun was still out. 'Ohhh. Wait. England is a bit further up north, isn't it? If it's late spring or early summer...that tracks,'
The weather outside hadn't felt like summer to her, but, then again, England was a lot cooler than where she'd come from, so who knew? Maybe the weather made sense for the time of year.
"Hold on a sec," Turner looked towards the door, saw that the Brigadier was there, and nodded.
"Right, the Brigadier's listening now. Go ahead, Sergeant."
"Benton on routine observation reports two guards and another man leaving with the Professor. He's on their tail now, sir. Over."
"Hold on, Sergeant," Turner unpressed the talk button and turned to the Brigadier, "Look, sir, we could intercept and release the Professor,"
"Well, officially we-"
"Oh do!" Isobel begged, "Please, do!"
The Doctor took a break from bemoaning his lack of success with deciphering the circuits and joined into the conversation. "Brigadier, if you could rescue him, he might be able to help us with our problem,"
"And," Marion added, "If hypothetically, you did go to save the Professor, you'd do it successfully. Like, there's a solid 99.99999 chance. Like, this is a risk, but it's not a risk-risk," Marion paused, "Does that make sense?"
The Brigadier gave her a look that said "No. Absolutely not. Not a single sentence you've made that contained more than eight words has made any kind of sense. Why are you like this?"
But instead of saying that out loud, he said, "All right. Your shindig Jimmy,"
Turner smiled brightly. "Sergeant, tell Benton to stay with them. I'm on my way now. I'll contact him en route. Over,"
"Wilco. Over,"
Turner smiled and hung up the radio.
"Now Jimmy," the Brigadier said seriously, "despite what Miss Henson might've said, don't take any chances. Vaughn's lot know we mean business so they won't be playing games,"
"No, sir, neither will I," Captain Turner stood up, "I'll take the full assault platoon with me,"
"Right,"
Turner pressed the side button on the radio again. "Sergeant, alert the full assault platoon. I'll relay instructions on route. Have you got that, over?"
"Yes, sir. Over,"
"Good. Over and out,"
Turner still had a confident smile on his face as he made his way out. Isobel grabbed his arm as he left.
"Good luck," she said.
"Thanks,"
Marion gave a thumbs up.
"Yes, good luck, Jimmy,"
"Sir," Turner said with a nod and then he walked out the door.
"I think Mister Vaughn is going to have quite a scrap on his hands," the Brigadier said as he left.
"Marion?" Isobel asked "How are you so sure that they're going to win,'
Marion scrunched her nose. "So imagine that there's this book. And it's your favorite book. You've it read dozens of times right?"
Isobel nodded.
"And, the book is old enough to have like, different editions. And the editions all are just a little bit different from each other. Not a lot different mind you, but like, there's like, maybe an extra illustration or the dialogue is the same but different,"
"Yes, I think I follow,"
"Ok so imagine that something happens to your copy and a friend gets you another but it's a different edition. And, you're getting to a suspenseful bit of the story. But not suspenseful because even though things are a little bit different, you've already read the story, so you know how it ends so you're not as scared about the kids going into the spooky house with the ghost because you know it'll end up alright. Does that make sense?"
"I, think so,"
"Good,"
Marion then realized that she had all but confessed that from her point of view, they were all fictional and that wasn't really something she wanted to say ESPECIALLY in earshot of a Doctor who had just gone through the whole "Land of Fiction" fiasco. So, she took a deep breath and tried to do the thing the Doctor did when he didn't know how to explain something and didn't want to bother explaining it properly.
"I mean, that's nowhere near accurate, but it's kinda close? A little bit? Well, not at all, but I think you get the idea right? Right?"
Marion laughed nervously.
"You know what, I'm going to go back to sketching. Cool, cool!"
Marion was beginning to see the benefit of just saying random nonsense as an explanation for her knowledge. That way, if she came as close to slipping up as she had just now, she'd be able to hide it. The best place to hide a tree is in a forest right?
Was that an expression that people used? Probably.
Marion sat down back where she had been sitting and began doodling in her sketchbook, not really drawing much of anything because drawing using any kind of reference might've required that she make eye contact with anyone and that was something that she simply was not willing to do.
Marion had covered one page entirely in little swirls and random shapes and another mostly in little doodles of the Doctor, Isobel, and the Brigadier when the radio went off again. This time, it was Turner's voice instead of Walters.
"UNIT Control to CO. UNIT Control to CO. Over"
Marion perked up and the Brigadier picked up the radio.
"Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart here. Come in Captain,"
"Yes. We've just retrieved Professor Watkins. Over,"
"I see. Did you have any trouble? Over,"
"Not a bit. They didn't see us coming. We're on our way back now,"
"Ah, very good. Is there anything you need to report,"
"No sir,"
"I see. Well, return as soon as you can,"
"Wilco. Over,"
Turner returned with Professor Watkins about five or so minutes later.
"UNCLE!" Isobel shouted as soon as the man walked through the door to the lab. She hugged the man so tight he seemed almost in danger of falling over. She took a step back, still smiling brightly.
"I'm just so glad that you're okay!" she finally said.
She poured him a glass of water which he took and downed half of at once.
"I'm glad that you're okay too Isobel," Professor Watkins responded, "I was so worried,"
"Not to interrupt," the Doctor suddenly said, interrupting, "I was wondering if you could tell me what these circuits are for. Do you know what they do? Can you tell me,"
Watkins walked away from his niece and to what the Doctor was looking over.
"I'm sorry. I can't tell you," he said, sounding legitimately sorrowful that he couldn't help.
"You've no idea what these micro-monolithic circuits are for," the Doctor said, sounding dejected.
He sounded upset enough about this, that Marion would've told the Doctor if she could remember what they were. She had a vague idea of what they were for mind you and probably could've told him. But it's not like he could do anything about it unless he also knew how they did what they did. So, her information was more or less useless to him.
"No," Watkins shook his head.
"Oh, my word," The Doctor said with the same stressed sigh that Marion herself said when she had spent several hours working on a project only to realize it was going nowhere near where she needed and she was going to have to scrap it all. Of course, in her case, such a sigh was normally prefaced by something a little bit more colorful than "Oh, my word,".
"I couldn't understand why Vaughn wanted the modifications to the machine,"
"You say he's going to mass produce these machines?"
"Yes,"
"Why should he want a weapon like that if he's got the Cybermen to fight for him?" the Brigadier asked.
"This isn't going to be the last time that the Earth has to deal with a threat from someone teaming up with some aliens to take over the world. But, unlike a lot of those people, he knows that when these aliens say 'We will conquer the whole word' they mean him too. So he's putting together some insurance. Some people aren't dumb enough to just trust a bunch of world conquerors at face value,"
'And one of them is dumb enough to fall for that trick over and over and over and over again,'.
Marion wondered how long she'd be traveling before she could meet the Master. She also wondered which one she'd meet first. She hoped it was Missy. Or Delgado. Or pretty much anyone but Simms.
Knowing her luck, it was going to be Simms, wasn't it?
"But how would a simple circuit be enough to take out Cybermen. Unless,"
"Unless…,"
"Professor! You say that you developed this machine to produce excessively powerful emotional pulses,"
That didn't sound right, but Marion didn't know enough about electrical and computer engineering to dispute it. And anyway, this wasn't her universe, so even if it was impossible where she was from it wouldn't matter here.
"Yes, that's true," Watkins said with a nod.
"W-Well, that's it! Vaughn is going to use it as a weapon against the Cybermen once he has no further use for them," the Doctor said, raising his voice as he spoke.
"Pretty smart of him actually,"
"What," the Brigadier said in confusion, "the Professor's machine?"
"Yes. Emotion is alien to the Cybermen's nervous system. It'll destroy it. The micro-monolithic circuits. They're emotional circuits!" the Doctor got up from his chair and Marion got the feeling that he was talking more to himself than anyone else. "No wonder they weren't logical. Now, why didn't I think of this before? Now, let's see," He went back to examining the circuit through the microscope but with more vigor.
"Now what's he up to?" Jamie asked. He had been awoken by the commotion.
"I've no idea," Zoe said honestly.
Watkins suddenly got a look as if he'd just remembered something crucial. "Doctor. Doctor," he said walking over to the man at the microscope.
The Brigadier saw this as an opportunity to take his leave. He told Captain Turner to inform him if there were any changes to let him know. With that, he left to return to the headquarters on the plane.
Jamie on the other hand got to a nearby table and put his head down with every intention of going right back to sleep.
"Oh. Oh well, if anything exciting happens, wake me up, will you? I was in the middle of a lovely dream," he said and was basically out like a light.
"Honestly, Jamie," Zoe admonished, "Cybermen underneath London and all you can think about is your sleep,"
"He's had a long day," Marion reminded, "Better to take a nap now, then to pass out from exhaustion when the Cybermen attack. You should probably be taking a nap too. What are you? Like, 12?"
Zoe crossed her arms, "I took a nap earlier. AND I'm 15. Not 12. Why aren't you taking a nap then,"
"Because from my point of view, I just got up a little bit ago. I'm still pretty wide awake!"
This was a little bit of a lie, but Zoe had no way of knowing that.
"Anyway," Marion continued, "whether you nap or not. I'll wake up Jamie when important things start happening. So, you might as well wink out for a few minutes if you want,"
With that, Marion pulled the discarded blanket over Jamie and sat back down at her seat. There still was some tea in her mug, so she slowly sipped on that. It was getting a little bit cold, but it was still drinkable and tasted alright.
A little bit after Marion finished her drink and started trying to come up with a simple yet hard to crack code to write her important notes in when the Doctor suddenly shouted. Marion jumped a bit in her seat. He started quickly writing something on a chalkboard and explaining what he'd found to Walkins, Isobel, and Zoe.
She went to Jamie and shook him lightly.
"Jamie, Jamie, wake up now. Time to get up bro,"
"Och," Jamie groaned, "there's no peace. What is it?"
"The Doctor figured something out. Come on,"
Jamie sighed, tossed the blanket off, and got out of the chair. Marion moved aside to give him some space.
"...let's hope it isn't," The Doctor noticed that Jamie was there, "Oh, how do you do, Jamie? Now then, here is the Earth. And here is the Moon," he pointed to two circles he had drawn one significantly larger than the other. He then pointed to a bunch of dots he'd drawn surrounding the larger circle representing the Earth. "And these are the communication satellites circling the Earth. And here," he pointed to a small dash he'd drawn next to the "moon", "is the Cybermen's spaceship, the invasion spaceship, the one that we saw. Right, now if I'm right, I think that this will come to this side of the Moon and boost signals to the Earth,"
"The signals will activate these circuits," Walkins reasoned.
"Precisely,"
"But you still haven't told us what that will do!"
"Zoe, do you remember how the Cyberman can take over people but they still look normal on the outside?" Marion asked.
"The micro-monolithic circuits are artificial nervous systems," the Doctor explained, "Once activated they will produce the Cyber-hypnotic force that controls human beings,"
"But," Turner said with slowly growing horror, "there are hundreds, thousands of these circuits in IE equipment all over the world,"
"And that's precisely why this is super bad and super serious,"
"So everybody will come under their control!" Isobel sounded confused much in the same way someone would be if they received a call informing them that their house was on fire.
"Yes," Zoe replied "the Cybermen will take over everybody,"
As far as Marion knew, the Doctor would be relatively fine in theory seeing as his brain was a lot more complicated than a human brain. But, on the other hand, Marion had seen too much to have any real faith in the Doctor's mental shields.
"Well, isn't there anything we can do?" Turner asked.
"Yes, there is a way to block the signals, isn't there, Zoe," the Doctor asked, pulling Zoe aside.
The girl thought for a moment, "The depolariser! Worn at the back of the neck, it will jam the Cyber-control waves,"
"And this Zoe," Marion said pointing to her, "Is why you are a very, very, important part of the team,"
"Yes," the Doctor agreed. "Have you any neuristors here, Professor?"
"Well, a few, I think…,"
"Zoe, I want you to show the Professor what to do. The invasion could come at any moment," he then turned to Marion.
"Marion, do you know how to break down machinery. I believe we might be able to find neuristors in some of these IE radios,"
"What? Oh yeah, absolutely,"
Marion wasn't great at assembling electrical things without an explicit guide to go off of if she didn't have some kind of guide to go off of. But taking apart pieces that were already assembled? That was easy.
The Doctor handed Marion one of the radios and she got to work disassembling it. Then she stopped.
"Hey, Doc?"
"Yes, Marion?"
"What, uh, does a neuristor look like?"
(Next Chapter: Really? Twice in One Day?)
Marion: *Accidentally nearly gives away that she's from a world where they're all fictional*
Marion: Haha just kidding. *Avoids eye contact*
This chapter is already like, over 8k so I'm just going to leave it here.
I'd like to thank Nikki Pond for adding me to "Best and Brightest of OC Companions". I've noticed a HUGE uptick in followers and favorites and it happened around then :D. So, follow and favorite if you haven't already, and drop a review if you feel so inclined.