Martha stood with her lab coat ready to examine a worker, trying to understand why they didn't take sick days. Every time she asked a question his response was always, "I'm here to work." When she listened to his heartbeat it was abnormally fast. But he did answer that he worked 24 hours a day. He never made any unnecessary movements. Didn't even blink, which was very necessary if he was human. Martha left to go find Colonel Mace.
As she strided down the walkway a soldier asked for her. She tried to brush them off, in a rush to relay her findings.
"Just one question. Do you have security clearance level one?" He asked.
"Yes, I do. Why?"
"Colonel Mace wants to see you."
"Oh, good, 'cause I want to see him. Where is he?"
"Come with us." Martha turned and followed the two soldiers.
They continued for a while, further and further from the base of operations where she expected the Colonel to be. "What's he doing down here?"
"He asked to see you."
"Why? Has he found something?" One soldier opened a door to a room with a strong green light. Martha saw a tub with bubbling green fluid that definitely looked like alien tech. Her body went rigid with fear before she tried to run out of the room. The soldiers blocked the door. She screamed as they dragged her to the pool of green goo.
Meanwhile, Ross pulled the Jeep into a turn and stopped. Donna and the Doctor got out.
"I'll walk the rest of the way. I'll see you back at the factory, yeah?" she clarified.
The Doctor hopped back into the vehicle. "Bye."
"And you be careful," Donna yelled as they drove away.
Ross and the Doctor sat in silence for a moment.
"It's nice to finally be meeting you, Doctor."
"Oh, heard of me, have you?"
"I've heard loads about you from my girl, Angela."
"Angela?" The Doctor looked at Ross with his brows furrowed.
"Angela Harkness."
The Doctor's eyes widened with understanding. "Ohh, yes." He nodded. "But, I thought she was in Cardiff."
"No, no. She moved to London. Martha got her working for UNIT. Contract work."
"What for?" His brows lowered. Having Angel in the field could change her. Distort her. The news worried him.
"Sometime's to advise on psychic issues. Usually it's to quietly subdue an enemy. If she doesn't want you to see her, you won't," Ross said with a proud smirk.
"Yes, I know what you mean," he agreed somberly. The jeep was in view of a large building, and the navigation indicated they were nearing their destination. "So, what this place all about?"
"UNIT's been watching the Rattigan Academy for ages. It's all a bit Hitler Youth. Exercise at dawn and classes and special diets."
"Turn left," commanded the satellite navigation.
"Ross, one question. If UNIT think that ATMOS is dodgy..."
"How come we've got it in the jeeps? Tell me about it. They're fitted as standard on all government vehicles. We can't get rid of them till we can prove there's something wrong." He was interrupted by the Sat Nav telling him to turn right. "Drives me around the bend."
"Oh, nice one."
"I timed that perfectly."
"Yeah. Yeah, you did," the Doctor said with a light chuckle.
"This is your final destination."
The Jeep pulled into a drive beside a large stone house. Teenagers in red track suits ran across the immaculate lawn. The sulking teen standing alone in casual clothing fit the description of Luke Rattigan.
"Is it PE? Wouldn't mind a kick around. I've got my daps on," the Doctor yelled cheerily to the boy.
"I suppose you're the Doctor," Luke said with a serious tone before approaching them.
"Hello."
"You're Commanding Officer phoned ahead."
"Oh, I haven't got a Commanding Officer. Have you?" The Doctor asked, but the boy remained silent. "Oh, this is Ross. Say hello, Ross."
"Good afternoon, sir."
"Let's have a look, then. I can smell genius… in a good way." As soon as the Doctor entered a room full of scientific experiments, a contraption combusted in the corner. "Oh… now!" He put on his brainy specs. "That's clever, look. A single-molecule fabric. How thin is that? You could pack a tent in a thimble. Ooh! Gravity simulators. Terraforming, biospheres, nano-tech steel construction. Huh! This is brilliant. Do you know, with equipment like this you could, ooh, I don't know, move to another planet or something?"
"If only that was possible," Luke said with a nervous look down.
"If only that were possible," the Doctor corrected. Luke looked up at the Doctor with contempt. "Conditional clause."
"I think you'd better come with me." Luke led Ross and the Doctor through the mansion, separating them from the students working on their projects. "You're smarter than the usual UNIT grunts. I'll give you that."
"He called you a grunt. Don't call Ross a grunt. He's nice. We like Ross. Look at this place." The Doctor started snooping around.
"What exactly do you want?"
"I was just thinking, what a responsible 18 year old. Inventing zero-carbon cars. Saving the world," the Doctor complimented the young man as he fondled random objects around the large room.
"It takes a man with vision."
"Hmm! Blinkered vision. 'Cause ATMOS means more people driving. More cars, more petrol. End result, the oil's going to run out faster than ever. The ATMOS system could make things worse."
"Yeah. Well, see, that's a tautology. You can't say Atmos system because it stands for Atmospheric Omission System. So you're saying Atmospheric Omission System System. Do you see, Mr. Conditional Clause?"
The Doctor looked down at the petulant lad. "It's been a long time since anyone said no to you, isn't it?"
"I'm still right though."
"Not easy, is it? Being clever?" The Doctor stepped closer to him. "You look at the world and you connect things, random thing, and think, why can't anyone else see it? The rest of the world is so slow."
"Yeah."
"You're on your own."
"I know."
The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out an ATMOS device as he stepped away. "But not with this! 'Cause there's no way you invented this single-handedly. Might be Earth technology, but that's like finding a mobile phone in the Middle Ages. No. No. I'll tell you what it's like." He tossed the device to Ross standing to his side. He turned, heading for a large cube in the corner of the room with a circular hole in its side. The interior was illuminated with a magenta light. "It's like finding this in the middle of someone's front room, albeit a very big front room."
"Why, what is it?" Ross asked.
"Nah! This looks like a thing, doesn't it? People don't question things. You say, "It's a thing."
"Leave it alone," Luke commanded.
"Me, I make these connections, and this, to me, looks like a teleport pod," he said just before touching a pad and teleporting out of sight.
"We have an intruder!" Shouted a short armored alien. The Doctor stood towering over a room full of them.
"How did he get in? Intruder window? Buh-bye!" He pressed the pad and ran, reappearing in Luke's front room. "Ross, get out! Luke, you'd better come with me." He stood by Luke and raised his sonic toward the teleport pad, shorting it out just after an armored dwarf followed him. Ross ran to the Doctor's side with his handgun raised towards the threat. "Sontaran! That's your name, isn't it? You're a Sontaran. How did I know that, eh? Fascinating, isn't it?" The Doctor put away his sonic screwdriver. "Isn't that worth keeping me alive?"
"I order you to surrender in the name of the United Intelligence Task Force," Ross cut in. He attempted firing the gun.
"That's not going to work," the Doctor grumbled to Ross. "Cordolaine signal, am I right? Copper excitations stopping the bullets."
"How do you know so much?"
"Well…"
"Who is he?" The Sontaran demanded from Luke.
"He didn't give his name."
"Now this isn't typical Sontaran behavior, is it? Hiding. Using teenagers? Stopping bullets? A Sontaran should face bullets with dignity. Shame on you."
"You dishonour me, sir."
"Yeah? Then show yourself."
"I will look into my enemy's eyes." The armoured alien uncovered it's dome-like helmet. A large brown head with large eyes and mouth stared at the three men in the room.
"Oh, my God," Ross said, unflinching.
"And your name?" The Doctor asked.
"General Staal, of the 10th Sontaran Fleet. Staal the Undefeated."
"Oh, that's not a very good nickname. What if you do get defeated? Staal the not-so-quite-undefeated anymore, but never mind?"
Ross chuckled at the Doctor's jab. "He looks like a potato, a baked potato, a talking baked potato."
"Now, Ross, don't be rude. You look like a pink weasel to him." He continued jabbering as he picked up a racket and ball from the floor. "The Sontarans are the finest soldiers in the galaxy. Dedicated to a life of warfare. A clone race. Grown in batches of millions with only one weakness."
"Sontarans have no weakness!"
"No. It's a good weakness."
"Thought you were meant to be clever. Only an idiot would provoke him," Luke scolded the Doctor.
"No, but the Sontarans are fed by a Probic Vent in the back of their neck. That's their weak spot, which means they always have to face their enemies in battle. Isn't that brilliant? They can never turn their backs," the Doctor explained to Ross with a wide grin.
"We stare into the face of death!"
"Yeah? Well, stare at this." The Doctor whacked the ball. It ricocheted from behind the Sontaran. The flex pipe of the probic vent was knocked from its port. The Doctor and Ross flew the coup. Ross sped the Jeep away with Doctor in tow.
"Is someone going to tell me what the hell is going on?" Martha shouted whilst strapped down with a metal contraption around her head. Her neck strained to see an alien walk towards her. "Okay. So, listen. You're not the first aliens I've met. Just tell me who you are."
"Commander Skorr of the 10th Sontaran Battle Fleet, known as Skorr, the Blood Bringer."
"What have you done to those two?" Referring to the two UNIT guys standing dutifully behind him.
"Simple hypnotic control, as with the factory drones. But with you, we need something more complex." The alien hit some controls at the base of the bubbling green pool. A hand shot up out of the fluid.
"What is that?"
"Soon, that will be you." Martha couldn't them to infiltrate UNIT. She yanked and tugged with her arms and feet. "It is inadvisable to struggle. The female has a weak thorax."
"But what are you doing?"
"Completing mental transfer. The clone needs full memory access."
"Clone?" A hand lifted from the green pool again. The alien was right. It was her hand. The rest of her clone sat up out of the green fluid soon after. "No, you can't." She and her clone shared a look. "That's not…"
"You will sleep, girl. Sleep and keep the memories alive. Memories we can use in battle," Commander Skorr instructed.
"Greyhound 40 to Trap One. Repeat. Can you hear me? Over," the Doctor asked through the Jeep's radio. Nothing came back but static.
"Why is it not working?"
"Must be the Sontarans. If they can trace that, they can isolate the ATMOS."
"Turn left," commanded the ATMOS.
"Try going right," the Doctor suggested.
"It said left," Ross corrected.
"I know, so go right."
Ross gave the wheel a turn to the right but it wouldn't budge. "I've got no control. It's driving itself. It won't stop. The doors are locked." Panic began setting in.
The Doctor tried to sonic the device in the dash of the Jeep. He growled. "It's deadlocked. I can't stop it. Let me…"
"Turn left."
"The sat nav's just a box. It's wired into the whole car."
The tires squealed as the Jeep turned sharply. "We're heading for the river," said Ross. He continued to fight against the self-driving wheel.
"ATMOS, are you programmed to contradict my orders?" The Doctor yelled at the car.
"Confirmed."
"Anything I say, you'll ignore it?"
"Confirmed."
"Then drive into the river. I order you to drive me into the river. Do it. Drive into the river." The Jeep stopped suddenly just before falling into the river. The Doctor and Ross jumped out and ran.
"Turn right. Left."
"Get down!" Ross did as instructed. The two men lay on the ground.
"Left, right, left, right…" The female voice repeated, eventually distorting until it sparked and a small puff of smoke plumed up from the dash.
"Oh, is that it?" The Doctor looked after the ATMOS's underwhelming self-destruction.
Commander Skorr flipped a switch on Martha's headgear as she lay asleep in a metal frame. He then approached the clone to give his commands.
"Ready and waiting to advance the great Sontaran cause, sir," Not-Martha reported with a smile while donning Martha's white lab coat.
"Then go to work." Not-Martha turned and headed to take Martha's place.
Angela's mobile finally vibrated against the table of the little café she frequented often. Ross jokingly referred to it as her lion's den where she'd lie in wait for her next prey. Before she could even say hello, Ross's voice was shouting through the little speaker of the earpiece.
"Angela. Angela. You've got to come. There's aliens. The Doctor's here. Not the friendly kind."
"Woah, woah. Slow down. Text me address where I should report to. We don't need any more sensitive info said over the phone."
"Angela?"
"Yes Ross?"
"I love you."
"I love you, too. Are you okay?"
"Surprisingly okay for just nearly getting drowned by a car. Don't get in one."
"Got it. Bye. Be careful."
"You too."