"Why can't I go out first?" Danielle groaned in annoyance, hoping from one side to another, "I want to see somewhere new! You two got to go out first last time!"
The Doctor just shot her amused look. He loved the enthusiasm of his friends that travelled with him, and having someone show it so openly was very refreshing and very contagious.
"Because we have to check we are in the right place," the Doctor lied, following Rose's wishes. She wanted to impress Adam, but she didn't want him to know that she didn't really know anything just yet. He was just going to give her a quick briefing so she could show off, just like he liked to do.
Danielle didn't look too impressed by his answer, so he sighed. "Next time you can go first, no matter where we are, how about that?"
"Fine," Danielle grumbled. "Next time."
Rose shot the Doctor a grateful look and they headed out together. Danielle and Adam stood together a bit awkwardly as they waited for their cue to leave. Danielle shuffled impatiently from one foot to the other whilst Adam just looked a bit queasy.
"Do you really think there's something out there?" He asked her. "Something… alien?"
"I hope so," Danielle retorted, "I was promised somewhere alien last time and I ended up in Utah," she realised that could have sounded like a slight towards him, so she shot him a smile. "At least we found you there, eh?"
All she got was another queasy smile in return, then the door opened. "Adam? Danielle? Out you come," Rose called in and Danielle didn't waste any time. She pushed in front of the Adam even though he wasn't trying to get out of the TARDIS quickly at all, dashing out of the door and pausing to look around. The room was made up of different types of metals but just looked incredibly industrial. Weirdly shaped bollards were lined up in front of them, obviously to control the footfall that may appear. She turned and saw a giant '5' on the wall on what looked like a sheet of giant bubble wrap. The floor they were on, maybe?
It didn't look particularly amazing, but at the same time Danielle couldn't help but be completely amazed by it. There was some sort of miniature building in the middle of the room with lights on its roof, but it looked closed so she wasn't expecting anymore to suddenly appear.
"Oh, my God," Adam whispered behind her and she nodded.
"This is so cool," she agreed. "Where are we?"
Rose shared a look with the Doctor, a smirk on her face. She could impress both of them. Danielle had always been smarter than here at school, but now she was the one with all the knowledge. "Good question," she replied. "Let's see. So, er, judging by the architecture, I'd say we're around the year two hundred thousand. If you listen," she paused and Adam did just that.
"Yeah?"
Rose nodded to herself like she had heard something. "Engines. We're on some sort of space station. Yeah, definitely a space station," she then frowned, looking around and playing with the collar of her jacket. "It's a bit warm in here. They could turn the heating down."
She pretended to catch sight of a gate on the other side, like she hadn't noticed it beforehand. "Tell you what - let's try that gate. Come on!" She patted Adam on the arm on the way past and he followed dutifully, stunned by the information that was thrown at him. The Doctor grinned, pleased that Rose was having a good time and slowly followed as well. He then paused, turning to look at Danielle, who hadn't moved.
"Danielle?" He asked and she looked at him. He sent her a reassuring smile at the stunned look on her face. "Are you coming?"
She nodded, but couldn't tear her eyes off the room in much the same way she had struggled to not look at the TARDIS console room. "Two hundred thousand," she breathed before returning her gaze to the Time Lord. She grinned, like nothing could make her happier. "Really?"
He nodded, her happiness infectious. "Really," he promised her. "Come on, this way is even better."
She practically ran to his side and they walked through the gate. There was a set of metal stairs that Adam and Rose had already climbed up. Ever the gentleman, and eager to see how she would react to the view outside the space station, the Doctor motioned for Danielle to go up first.
He wasn't disappointed. While Adam stood behind the Doctor and Rose, gaping like a fish, Danielle quickly stepped forward to press her hands up against the giant window. Outside was space, actual space, and they were hovering over a, quick obviously, overpopulated planet. Clouds moved across the surface that was covered in buildings that were barely hidden by them at all.
"Your girlfriend seems eager," Rose teased lowly and the Doctor shot her look.
"Your boyfriend looks a bit lost," he retorted and Rose looked a little disappointed as she looked up at Adam and saw that he was right. Maybe it was just shock, she could understand that. Once he found out where they were, he'd be better.
"And this is…" Rose started, quickly realising she actually had no idea where they were. She motioned to the Doctor. "I'll let the Doctor describe it."
"The Fourth great and bountiful Human Empire." The Doctor declared, happily taking over from her, "And there it is, planet Earth at its height. Covered with mega-cities, five moons, population ninety-six billion. The hub of a galactic domain stretching across a million planets, a million species, with mankind right in the middle."
Danielle shook her head slightly in disbelief at his words. "This is so cool," she repeated, pressed up against the window like she wanted to get through. "This is so, so cool."
Adam, on the other hand, dropped to the floor in a dead faint behind them. "My girlfriend seems to be handling it a lot better than your boyfriend," the Doctor taunted.
Rose shook her head, not even bothering to look back at the other man. "Not my boyfriend anymore." She declared.
~0~0~0~
The metal room they had landed in turned out to be a food court, with the little hut-like structure Danielle had spotted earlier being where the food was sold from. One moment it was empty, and the next a rush of humans came in looking for food for their lunches. The queues were unorderly and the people were rude; just like a normal day in London, Danielle surmised.
Unfortunately, Adam also noticed the people. And the fact that they were all just people, or human in any case. Danielle hadn't really noticed it, but once it was pointed out she couldn't see past it. The Doctor also seemed rather troubled by it. The year two hundred thousand and it was obvious the entire room had been Earth born. It was a bit disappointing, actually, to not see another species. Perhaps she should suggest it later, after all his existence alone said that there had to be more.
The Doctor, very suddenly, turned from being concerned about the lack of diversity and decided to send Adam off for some food. He did look a bit ill, but probably not from hunger. He led them over to a cash point, holding what Danielle had learnt was a sonic screwdriver up to its screen. A moment later a metal stick fell out and he handed it to Adam.
"There you go, pocket money. Don't spend it all on sweets." He told the other man. Adam looked over the little device, his confusion written on his face. The Doctor paid him no mind, though, heading off to investigate the little hitch in history. He was sure it was nothing, maybe it was coincidence that only the humans were hungry at this very moment. But, it was better to be safe than sorry.
"How does it work?" Adam called after him, annoying the Time Lord slightly. He turned back in his step to look at the trio.
"Go and find out." Was his advice, "Stop nagging me. The thing is, Adam, time travel's like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guide book; you've got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers. Or is that just me? Stop asking questions, go and do it." Adam nodded, taking the challenge and walking off to try and get something to eat. Rose hesitated, walking after him before glancing at the Doctor. He shot her a cheeky grin. "Off you go, then. Your first date."
She rolled her eyes, pointing at him as she walked away. "You're going to get a smack, you are." She warned before disappearing after Adam. The Doctor's face dropped from its jovial grin to show the concern he held for the time era they'd land in.
"Oh, that's a serious face," Danielle commented and his eyes dropped in surprise to see her stood next to him.
"What are you still doing here?" he asked. "Go on, go exploring."
Danielle snorted. "What? And be the third wheel on their 'date'?" She shook her head. "No thanks, I want to know what made you pull that face."
"What face?" he asked and she mimicked it, her lips pulling into an exaggerated frown. "I did not pull that face!" he protested indignantly.
"Oh, you so did. You're worried about the fast food and the lack of aliens, aren't you?"
He nodded. "Something's not right," he admitted. "I just want to check its nothing serious
"And how do we do that?"
The Doctor quickly looked around before spotting two women heading in their direction. One was in a suit, while the other was in smart but more casual wear. They would do just nicely.
Danielle struggled to keep up with his long steps even over the short distance. "Er, this is going to sound daft, but can you tell me where we are?" he asked them politely.
The two women shared a slightly bewildered look before the one in the suit pointed behind her. "Floor One Three Nine. Could they write it any bigger?" she replied and two time travellers looked up to see the large numbers.
"What does the five mean, then?" Danielle asked, pointing back to where they'd parked. She had assumed that was the floor, after all.
"Must've been a hell of a party," the woman in the suit commented and Danielle shrugged.
"Only way to party, right?" She replied and the Doctor nodded.
The woman in the blouse smiled at them both. "You're on Satellite Five," she replied. "That's what the big five means." Danielle smiled back at her, deciding that she liked her a whole lot more than the other woman.
"What's Satellite Five?" the Doctor asked, keeping the conversation on track.
"Come on, how could you get on board without knowing where you are?" the woman in the suit asked, obviously coming to the end of her tolerance for the conversation. The Doctor paid her no mind, motioning between him and his new friend.
"Look at us, we're stupid," he replied with a giant grin on his face.
"Hold on, wait a minute," the woman in the blouse said, looking at her friend then back at the pair. "Are you a test? Some sort of management test kind of thing?"
Danielle frowned as the Doctor nodded, reaching into his pocket and pulled out a black wallet. "You've got us. Well done. You're too clever for us," he held it up for them to see and Danielle dipped her head around to see what it said. Right there was an ID for him, stating his managerial position. "Well, for me anyway."
"We were warned about this in basic training. All workers have to be versed in company promotion," the woman in the blouse told her friend, who straightened ready for the task.
"Right, fire away," she told the two managers. "Ask your questions. If it gets me to Floor five hundred, I'll do anything."
"Why, what happens on Floor five hundred?" the Doctor asked.
"The walls are made of gold," she replied like it was common knowledge. She then smiled at him, suddenly all flirts now that he was someone of interest to her. "And you should know, Mister Management. So, this is what we do," she walked off to the side, obviously going to show off her knowledge, whereas the other woman stayed by their side, waiting to follow on. Danielle shot her a smile, which she returned.
"What's your name, sweetie?" she asked the woman.
"Suki," she replied. "Suki Cantrell."
"Nice to meet you, Suki," Danielle replied. "I'm Danielle, or Danni."
The Doctor frowned to himself. It was nice that she was finding out their name; not only was in friendly in general and something he tended to forget, but it would make finding her a lot easier should he need to again. However, she'd never stated her name as 'Danni' before, only Danielle. Did she prefer that? He should ask, shouldn't he? After all, he'd heard Rose calling her the same back in Van Statten's base.
The other woman had lead them over to a wall of screens, each displaying something different. "Latest news," she explained. "Sandstorms on the new Venus archipelago. Two hundred dead. Glasgow water riots into their third day. Space lane seventy-seven closed by sunspot activity. And over on the Bad Wolf channel, the Face of Bo has just announced he's pregnant."
"I get it. You broadcast the news," the Doctor commented, like he was expecting more from them. Danielle couldn't agree, after all she had only described what was on four of the screens, there were many more displaying other pieces of news.
The woman scoffed slightly. "We are the news," she corrected. "We're the journalists. We write it, package it and sell it. Six hundred channels."
"What about the competition?" Danielle asked, taking up the position the Doctor had put her in quite nicely. "Surely you have competitors?"
The woman in the suit let out a little chuckle. "Oh, you mean News 3400? They barely lasted three months. We are the news, there is no one else."
Both the Doctor and Danielle frowned, "What about monopolies?" Danielle pressed. The woman glanced at the Doctor. This whole line of questioning seemed a bit wrong, but they were told to question the news, not the management. But, luckily for her, the claxon signalling the end of break sounded and she didn't need to answer it at all.
~0~0~0~
Being part of the 'management' team meant that they were given access to one of the information sharing session with Suki and her superior, who turned out to be called Cathica, a fact she only wanted to share now there was a chance that she was going to be promoted. The Doctor and his friend had brought two more people with them to watch her work. She'd show them, she was the best at what she did, and she deserved to be promoted to Floor five hundred.
Once she was in position, in the large chair in the middle of a circle of people, she shot them a little smirk as if to highlight the fact that she was good. Danielle stood in front of the Doctor on a raised platform around the machine they were going to use, Rose on one side and Adam on the other. The room was incredibly white and sterile, not much else to look at except the setup in front of them. It was obviously designed for one purpose and one purpose only.
"Engage safety," Cathica stated as she relaxed into the chair. The machine started humming and the small group of journalists all held their hands out over metal plates in front of them, ready for their next instruction. The walls suddenly sprung to life, one panel after another glowing with a light behind them, most likely powering the machine up.
It was all just a little… a little weird, wasn't it? Danielle couldn't quite pinpoint what was making her feel so uncomfortable, but she could tell she wasn't the only one feeling that way. Adam seemed to have calmed down slightly, but both Rose and the Doctor didn't look too pleased with the show in front of them.
Cathica lifted her hand up, clicking her fingers and Danielle grimaced. Her forehead opened up, four small panels making a circular hole on her head, her brain clearly visible through it. No one else batted an eyelid, but Adam's mouth dropped in shock as she and Rose leant forward, trying to get a better look.
The journalists all lowered their hands onto the plates in front of them. "And three, two… and spike!" Cathica ordered. From above a blue stream of light burst from a device hanging from the ceiling, straight into her brain.
"What is that?" Danielle breathed, horrified because it all just seemed so wrong.
"Compressed information," the Doctor replied. "Streaming into her. Reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Her brain is the computer."
Rose turned to him. "If it all goes through her; she must be a genius."
"Surely she'd be overwhelmed, though?" Danielle countered. "All that information all at once," she turned from the sight before her to look at Rose. "Remember Mrs Johnson in Biology? Just spewing out facts until the bell rang?" Rose nodded, because she did remember the class, and didn't remember much from it at all. "It's an awful way to learn anything."
The Doctor nodded, once again a little smug that his chosen companion was doing a lot better than the pretty boy Rose had chosen to bring along. It also helped that Danielle was right, "There's too much, her head would blow up," he left them on the platform, walking around the circle of people slowly. "As soon as it closes, she forgets."
Rose and Danielle slowly followed, both captivated by the concept of what was happening around them, as well as wanting to learn more. Adam, however, stayed on the platform, gawping at the new technology he was seeing.
"So, what about all these people 'round the edge?" Rose asked.
"They've all got tiny little chips in their head, connecting them to her and they transmit six hundred channels. Every single fact in the Empire beams out of this place," he made a full circle around them, leaning on the railing of the raised platform to get a better look at Cathica, even though he knew exactly what was going on. "That's what I call power."
"Hang on, so it's not their information she's gathering?" Danielle asked, motioning to the people in front of them with a little wave of her hand. "I thought they were journalists, but they're being feed the information?" the Doctor nodded. "So there's no research? No fact-checking? 'Open, honest and beyond bias', but only as much as the people giving the facts want to be? Six hundred channels, all the news, and it's all from the brain of one man?"
She wasn't shouting, and her posture didn't suggest she was angry at all. But both the Doctor and Rose could see she was getting rather worked up over the idea of someone being in control of the news, and the Doctor had to agree with her. If both Rose and Danielle could see something was wrong, both of whom had no knowledge of the time period they were in, then it just solidified his thoughts that something troubling was going on behind the scenes.
"And that's bad, yeah?" Rose asked in reply and Danielle nodded.
"Stories are knowledge," she explained. "Even early in our history, knowledge was grown from what people told each other. You found something out, told your mates, who told their mates and it went on. Multiple sources are how it grows, how we learn new things, how knowledge spreads across the world and we invent and grow as a species. The media is just a scaled up version of you and your mates around a fire, grunting about how the cave down the road had a thing called a wheel. If one person is controlling all of that from up high, then they can tell you about the fire, but not the wheel. One person controlling the flow of knowledge is how knowledge and growth is repressed."
Even Adam tore his gaze away from the open forehead of Cathica to stare at her in surprise at her impassioned rant. She flushed slightly, shrugging. "I go to university," she offered as an excuse. "Knowledge is free range there. No one appreciates being told what to learn."
Rose couldn't help but be slightly annoyed that Adam wasn't turning out to be half as interested in the new experience as Danielle was. Not that she was annoyed that the other woman had joined them, but Adam was rather cute and smart, she thought she might have actually maybe found someone she could… well, she had been gone a year, and her and Mickey weren't going anywhere now.
But she took a glance at the other human to see him back to staring at the information spike. He looked amazed, and a little bit sick at the sight and she walked back up the platform to his side. She might be disappointed, but she wasn't mean. "You alright?"
He pointed over at the woman. "I can see her brain."
She smiled softly, placing a hand on his arm to try and reassure him. "Do you want to get out?"
He shook his head, an energy about him she was rather happy to see. "No, no. This technology, it's amazing."
Danielle, who had somehow made her way back to the Doctor's side without Rose realising, tilted her head so she could look at him. "You're not serious?" She asked incredulously. "You can see her brain! That's such bad design!" She turned back to look at the chair. "I could climb on that platform right now and jab a pen right into her brain and no one could do anything because they're all too busy transferring data to be able to notice anything outside of it! It's not amazing, it's… it's…"
"Wrong," the Doctor finished for her as she struggled to find the correct word to describe it. "This technology is wrong."
Rose couldn't help it. A smile broke out on her face as she leant closer to the Time Lord. This was more like it. "Trouble?" She asked offhandedly. The Doctor tilted her head, a matching grin of his own.
"Oh, yeah." He replied just as a small sparking sound came from the machine in front of them. Suki pulled her hands away like she had been burnt and the data stream died.
Cathica shot the other woman a bit of a glare through the headache that came with being unceremoniously chucked out from a spike. "Come off it, Suki. I wasn't even halfway, what was that for?"
Suki continued to rub her injured hand. "Sorry, must have been a glitch," she offered as Cathica got off her chair.
"Glitching whilst connected to someone's brain? Still not buying into this 'awesome' technology," Danielle grumbled.
The Doctor looked down at her, slightly amused despite the situation they were in. "This has really struck a chord with you, hasn't it?"
"I had higher hopes for the future," She admitted. "But we're all still being lied to," she tilted her head up. "Now what?"
"Promotion," a female robotic voice declared and one wall turned into a screen, ready to display the lucky winner of the prize Cathica seemed so desperate to win.
"Well, that," the Doctor replied as Suki's name appeared on the screen, much to everyone's surprise.
~0~0~0~
Suki hugged the Doctor tightly, still not quite believing her luck. She'd only applied on the off chance, and she'd actually got it. One more step on her quest for all the information.
"Come on, you too," she giggled, pulling Danielle in for a hug as well. The girl tensed up in surprise at the sudden show of intimacy, giving her a gingerly pat on the back before she moved away.
"I'm sure it's because of your own merit," she replied awkwardly. She was never one for hugging people she'd just met. Friends and family were fine, but she'd never quite understood people's need to touch each other after first meeting.
Adam wasn't part of the celebration, and that meant that Rose wasn't either. Danielle was still a bit confused over why Adam seemed to be taking it all so badly, after all he'd been working with alien tech for a while before they'd shown up, but then again some people reacted to different situations differently. She couldn't blame him for feeling out of his depth, she just didn't understand it.
She was more concerned about why they were all acting like Suki was never coming back. It was very rare that a promotion meant that you were leaving forever. Even in her time, everyone was just a phone call away from those who wanted to contact them.
She still found it very odd as Suki scrambled for her bag. "Oh, my God, I've got to go," she exclaimed. "I can't keep them waiting!" she rushed to the elevator to take her to the mystical floor. "I'm sorry!" She turned to face them as Rose appeared next to Danielle. "Say goodbye to Steve for me!" Suki called out as if she had almost forgot. "Bye!"
And then she was gone, leaving Danielle with a thoughtful frown on her face and Cathica with crossed arms and an annoyed look. "Good riddance," the journalist mumbled, crossing her arms to show just how jealous she actually was.
"You're talking like you'll never see her again. She's only going upstairs," the Doctor pointed out.
"We won't," Cathica replied, looking vaguely surprised at his assumption. "Once you go to Floor five hundred you never come back,"
With that, Cathica turned from the lift and yet another lost opportunity, and started heading back through the food hall. The Doctor, Rose and Danielle followed behind her.
"What's wrong with you?" Rose asked the other woman, who looked just as displeased at what was happening as the Doctor did, "I've just had to deal with one-time sick person, don't tell me you're not the same."
"I just don't understand," Danielle replied. "Why would you go up? Why even apply? Why go somewhere to never be seen again?"
"You heard the Doctor; the walls are made of gold," Rose reminded her.
"And?" Danielle countered. "That doesn't actually mean anything, does it? It's… it's like when your parents tell you 'if you don't clean your room Father Christmas won't bring you any presents'. But you didn't always clean your room, and he brought them anyway because what parent purposefully doesn't get their kids presents for Christmas? It's a fake incentive. Golden walls don't actually mean anything, but people are jumping through hoops for them."
The Doctor turned to Cathica, completely agreeing with Danielle even if he might have worded it differently. "Have you ever been up there?" he asked their guide.
"I can't. You need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with promotion. No one gets to five hundred except for the chosen few," she grumbled. She didn't really care what any of them thought, they obviously didn't take their job as seriously as she did and that's why there were also not from Floor five hundred. If someone like Suki, who was a mediocre journalist at best, could get a promotion, hers must be just around the corner, surely? She was bloody good at her job.
Speaking of her job, she had a glitch to file a report on, and it didn't look like her little entourage were going to leave her alone. So she headed back to the Info room, still determined to do her best and get noticed.
The Doctor quickly made himself at home, jumping on the chair in the middle of the room and reclining on it like it was his own. Rose stood by his head, ready and waiting to find out what they were going to do next. Danielle nudged his legs over, propping herself on the seat in front of him. She still felt slightly more comfortable with the Doctor than she did Rose, despite the fact that she'd known Rose almost her whole life. Maybe that was the issue; too much history of indifference between the two made it very hard to break through it and start again. They got on well enough, but they still would need a little time to become good friends. Her and the Doctor only had that to start from.
"Look, they only give us twenty minutes' maintenance. Can't you give it a rest?" Cathica asked them, mainly the Doctor, as she tried to start her report on the glitch.
"But you've never been to another floor? Not even one floor down?" the Doctor questioned. People were disappearing, and no one seemed to care. In fact, as Danielle had pointed out, no one seemed to be investigating anything they're not told to. It was like all of the curiosity had been lost, and that was very strange for humans. They thrived on new experiences, new knowledge. Even just ordinary humans, like Adam, who might not be able to handle such a shock to their system would still try and work things out. These humans had lost their need for discovery, and he needed to find out why.
"I went to floor sixteen when I first arrived. That's medical," she explained. "That's when I got my head done, and then I came straight here. Satellite Five, you work, eat and sleep on the same floor. That's it, that's all," she bent down, examining one of the hand terminals when it occurred to her that anyone who knew anything about the satellite would know all this. "You're not management, are you?"
"At last. She's clever," the Doctor replied with a teasing tone.
"Yeah, well, whatever it is, don't involve me. I don't know anything," Cathica told all three of them, trying to wash away the blame and the unnerved feeling she got everything anyone went to Floor five hundred.
"Don't you even ask?" The Doctor pressed.
"Well, why would I?"
"You're a journalist!" he explained, like it was obvious. "Why's all the crew human?"
"What's that got to do with anything?" Cathica replied, almost defensive.
"There's no aliens on board. Why?" he pressed again, trying to get her to see the bigger picture.
"I don't know. No real reason," she replied with a shrug. "They're not banned or anything."
Danielle frowned. "What? So you're telling us that Satellite 5, the biggest and only news corporation, who has the monopoly on the news itself, hasn't had one alien apply for a job?" she challenged. "No Martian wanting to be a sports anchor? No… no…" she waved her hand in the air as she tried to think up one of the very limited alien species she'd actually heard of, if only in passing. "No Slitheen who's applied to be a janitor?"
The Doctor grinned, leaning back in the chair and letting the red head interrogate the very unwilling journalist. He knew better than to get in the way of a redhead. "I suppose immigration's tightened up. It's had to, what with all the threats," Cathica almost stuttered out.
"What threats?" Danielle retorted. "You showed us the news before. All we got were some riots and some giant head suddenly becoming a parent. Terror is normally number one on all channels, so why haven't we seen any evidence of it?"
Rose bent down, close to the Doctor's ear. "She's good," she murmured and the Doctor nodded smugly.
"And your boyfriend is off having a sit down," he retorted and Rose nodded, completely agreeing with his slight distain. And she'd had such high hopes…
"It's just the usual stuff," Cathica defended. "Not everything is needed to be broadcast all the time, not everything affects our viewer base. It's just a lot of little things, that's all."
None of which were any reason to have zero species diversity on the satellite, and by the way she went back to busying herself with her work, Cathica knew that as well. "Adding up to one great big fact, and you didn't even notice," the Doctor pointed out.
Cathica sighed, giving up on getting any work done. "Doctor, I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it. We see everything."
"I can see better," he replied simply. "This society's the wrong shape, even the technology."
"It's cutting edge!" She defended.
"You have a hole in your head," Danielle retorted slowly, like she didn't understand that anyone ever thought that it had been a good idea. It wasn't the best set up, Cathica had to admit, but it worked and as far as Satellite 5 was concerned, there was nothing better.
"You should've chucked this out years ago," the Doctor said.
"So, what do you think's going on?" Rose asked, getting straight to the point.
"It's not just this space station, it's the whole attitude," The Doctor explained. "It's the way people think. The great and bountiful Human Empire's stunted. Something's holding it back."
"And how would you know?" Cathica challenged, the first proper question she'd asked in their presence.
"Trust me, humanity's been set back about ninety years," he promised. "When did Satellite Five start broadcasting?"
Cathica saw them all staring at her, expecting an answer and she realised that they really didn't know anything about the satellite. Which mean that the Doctor had pulled the figure out of thin air, and that actually worried her for a moment. "Ninety-one years ago."
The Doctor nodded slowly, like he wasn't surprised at all. Rose and Danielle shared a look, knowing that it didn't mean anything good. "So, what else happened ninety-one years ago?" Danielle asked quietly.
"Another good question," the Doctor told her, hopping up off the chair. He grinned at his two companions. "Let's go find out."
~0~0~0~
Hey, look, I'm almost regular with these updates! I hope you liked this chapter too!
I've had a lot of questions about Echoes on my Tumblr, I just wanted to invite anyone else who has a question to nip over and ask on there as well! I'm having a lot of fun answering them, and you don't need an account to ask them, you just won't get a notification when I answer :)
But, for now, reviews!
bwburke94 - It is rather difficult, but I think I'm doing alright so far XD
Rox Malone - Well, we can only wait and see ;)
Guest - Why thank you :D
PopstarJ01 - Why thank you! The Doctor won, partly because he was better, partly because Danielle let him because it'd make him like her more. Thirdly, I'd send you some but I can't stand banana bread XD xxx
babynora1983 - Thanks, sweetie!
AmeliaPond1997 - She's going to be similar to Clara, yes, but with her own Danni-Girl spin on it :)
serenitysaiyan - Well, I'm taking a bit of a liberty with what counts as an 'encounter', but yes, pretty much :D Danielle is quite the baker, that won't always be the way XD xxx
bored411 - Thanks, sweetie! Hope you liked this one too!
firestar92603 - Thanks sweetie! Yep, she's going to be like Clara, but in her own way :)