Post by Fitz Kreiner on Aug 23, 2010 14:10:40 GMT
A Dangerous Mission.
The midnight streets heading towards Norfolk were almost deserted as Bessie sped along the roads from London, back towards Colesham. The rain had lifted, yet the temperature had seemed to plummet since night had fallen and the wind whipping through as Jess drove through the night made it seem even colder. Inside Bessie, Jess had buttoned her coat up and wrapped a scarf around her neck for warmth. Tom, however, didn’t seem bothered by the cold.
“Are you sure about this?” Tom asked.
“Still as sure as I was the last hundred times you asked,” Jess replied. “We go in, find out what we can, get that bloke out if we can and then we’re done.”
“Hmm,” Tom mused. “And it was the fifth time, not the hundred and first.”
“Are all Time Lords this pedantic?” Jess replied with a smile. “I got us back to London alright.”
“With a few detours around some of the more charming parts at the dead of night,” Tom said.
“I don’t know what you’re moaning about; we got there and you had three cups of tea. That’s a result for you isn’t it?” Jess said with a grin.
“And three Red Bulls?” Tom asked raising an eyebrow as he looked across at Jess.
“I need to stay alert,” she replied with a smile. “You wouldn’t want me falling asleep at the wheel would you?”
“Fair point,” Tom replied.
“That is a point, actually,” Jess said shooting a look over to Tom. “Can you actually drive?”
“I dunno,” he replied. “Never tried it. How hard can it be?”
“Well, I’ve seen the way you’ve handled the TARDIS,” Jess laughed. “I’d rather the Doctor fly her in his sleep.”
“Hey,” Tom protested. “He’s got about a millenniums more practice than me.”
“Well, good thing for you he’s not here to hear you say that then.”
“And a good thing you’re not going to tell him that as well,” Tom said, shooting a jokey warning glance towards Jess.
“I dunno,” she replied with a smirk. “How much is it worth?”
“You not getting attacked by me?” Tom laughed.
Jess laughed as the car drove on into the night and into the Norfolk countryside.
*
Captain William Morris yawned and leant back on the rickety office chair, making a mental note to try and get a budget allowance to re-kit the mobile HQ. This chair had probably been in UNIT since its founding and the comfort levels were lower than the temperature in the mobile HQ.
It was now nearing two in the morning and he was still awake and on duty, Sergeant Lovatt and Corporal Loding had retired to the commandeered B&B in Sherringham for a brief rest before returning for seven in the morning. In the mean time, a young new Corporal called Brendan Andrews had been seconded to UNIT and had arrived at the mobile HQ for the night duties.
Morris had laughed inwardly at Andrews’ bemusement at the Doctors activities. Morris himself had been slightly bemused by them at first, as he bustled around the HQ, jumping over the desks before diving underneath another and pulling wiring down and rewiring panels and computer terminals, the shrill hum of his sonic screwdriver filling the trailer.
The alien creature had been locked into the small office; otherwise Morris would have been in there now, reading through the confidential reports and wondering what Bailey would say if he were here now. That thought didn’t bother him so much, he knew that Bailey was fairly easy going in regards to UNIT matters. It was Sir Daniel Ashfield and James Duncan who bothered him more. Their new regulations and reforms had caused Morris nothing but headaches.
The thought of them caused a frown to creep across his face, so he swiftly buried the thought with another glance through the Perspex window of the office at the unconscious creature within. The Doctor had said that as far as he could tell the creature was unconscious and stable, although Morris sometimes had his doubts when he glanced at the unmoving alien. Its comrades had retreated into the ship, taking with them the two wounded aliens. Having read the reports from earlier alien encounters, and remembering the Autons, Morris was glad that bullets seemed to have an effect on these creatures.
Morris’s glance fell on the private who was stood by the office door. He felt a brief pang of guilt that he couldn’t remember the soldier’s name. He was one of the new recruits who had been assigned to his platoon in the last two weeks, and this young man had only arrived a couple of days ago. Morris could tell by the look on the lads face that he was uneasy about guarding an alien. He made a mental note to get to know the names of his men quicker.
“How’s that looking, Will?”
The Doctor’s voice brought Morris down to Earth with a clatter. He had a sudden feeling of falling before he suddenly realised that he was on the verge of falling asleep.
“Sorry, what?” he asked.
“Has the green light on that instrument panel come on yet?” the Doctor asked, his curly haired head popping up from under the desk in front of him. He had taken his black velvet coat off and it was draped over another chair. His shirt sleeves were rolled up and he had a small dab of dirt on the end of his nose.
“What green light?” Morris asked, bemused.
“Oh Will,” the Doctor sighed. “Have you fallen asleep up there; the green light on the communications panel?”
“Sorry, I’m not with you,” Morris said again, stifling a yawn.
“The modifications to the communications system,” the Doctor said. “The green light should indicate whether the modifications have taken hold.”
“Erm,” Morris muttered as he sat forward and looked at the keyboards before him. His vision was slightly blurred through fatigue.
With another sigh, the Doctor stood up and vaulted over the desk, landing nimbly on the seat beside Morris and pulling himself closer to the desk. He breathed a sigh of disappointment to find that none of the lights on the keyboards were illuminated. Grabbing the mouse, the Doctor pulled a monitor out of its screen saver and started typing a complex code of letters and numbers into the dos system which was running.
“What are you doing?” Morris asked.
“I’ve already told you,” the Doctor replied, still staring at the stream of data as his hands moved across the keys in a blur.
“Well, can you tell me again?” Morris asked, trying to remember whether the Doctor had indeed told him what he was doing.
“I’m realigning your visual communications systems, which I might add is no mean feat considering the rather antiquated webcam you’ve got up there, to be more suited to the communicative needs of our friends out there,” the Doctor said.
“Ok,” Morris said yawning again. “I can just about follow that; why?”
The Doctor paused what he was doing and looked across at Morris. “Our friends there are somewhat insectoid in nature, and insects don’t communicate as you or I do. They often have no need for auditory communication and so it’s mostly done via visual or olfactory methods.”
“Olfactory, that’s smell isn’t it?” Morris said.
“Yes, well done, Will,” the Doctor smiled. “However, I’m not an insect and I somehow doubt that I can transmit smells through a visual communication link. That’s why I’ve spent the last few hours re-wiring most of this HQ. Sorry about that by the way.”
Morris yawned again. “That’s alright,” he said. “And it’s been more than a few hours.”
The Doctor paused and looked at Morris as though he’d just been stung and then grabbed his pocket watch and looked at it. “Oh fiddlesticks,” he said before looking round. “Jess and Tom must be beside themselves. Where are they?”
“Back at the B&B I suppose,” Morris ventured.
“I thought the town had been evacuated?” the Doctor asked.
“Sherringham,” Morris said.
“Oh, don’t say you’ve kicked a load of holiday makers out of their hotel,” the Doctor said, a sad look crossing his face.
“Doctor,” Morris said, a smile spreading on his lips. “It’s October, the B&B’s are pretty much all empty around here.”
“Oh yes,” the Doctor smiled. “Well, I’d love to sit around chatting all night, but the quicker I get this sorted,” the Doctor said showing Morris his sonic screwdriver.
“The sooner we can pack up and go home, I know,” Morris said with a smile as he sat back in the uncomfortable office chair and watched the Doctor work.
*
“Ok, I’m only gonna ask this once more, but are you really sure about this?” Tom asked as he stepped into the trousers of the TARDIS pressure suit in the beams of Bessie’s headlight.
“What did I tell you about asking me that?” Jess’s voice came from inside the car. “Looking good by the way.”
“If you start singing that stripper song, you’re going to get a wet leaf round the head,” Tom warned with a wink.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Jess said, emerging from Bessie, carrying the helmet of her suit under her arm.
“Fine, fine,” Tom said with a smile, before a frown crossed his face. “How are we going to get in the ship though?”
Jess smiled and pulled a silver tool out of a pouch on the trousers of the pressure suit. “The Doctors’ spare sonic screwdriver,” she said with a smile. “I picked it out of his tool box while you were getting the suits and your second cup of tea.”
“Well aren’t you the clever one?” Tom smiled as he finished fastening his suit. “But have you thought about what we’re going to do if we find any information that may be useful?”
“Erm, pen and paper?” Jess shrugged. “I’m sure that the Doctor has one in Bessie somewhere.”
“Or, there’s this,” Tom said, withdrawing a flat silver device from a pouch in his trousers.
“And that is?” Jess asked.
“A Draconian Data Pad,” Tom winked. “I did my own equipment gathering while you were rooting through the Doctors’ toolkit.”
“Instead, you rooted through something else of his,” Jess smiled as Tom slipped the Data Pad back into his pocket. “So, helmet me up, boy,” she said, gently throwing the helmet to her suit to Tom.
“All set?” Tom asked through the headset communicator after he’d finished attaching Jess’s helmet.
“Yep,” she replied. “Now, turn around, and I’ll do you.”
“Ooh err, missus,” Tom laughed as he handed his helmet to Jess.
“That should do it,” Jess replied, fastening the life support lines to the base of the now hermetically sealed suit.
“Right, let’s get this over with,” Tom said, making off towards the ship.
“What’s the matter?” Jess asked, catching him up. “You scared of doing this?”
“No,” Tom replied slowly, “just not too sure that we’re doing the right thing. You heard what the Doctor said; they could think we’re declaring war on them.”
“They’ve kidnapped someone and are probably going to cut them up!” Jess replied. “That’s declaring war in my book. And if we can help them, then we should. It’s never stopped you before.”
“Hmm,” Tom mused.
“And besides,” Jess added. “You’ve got your Draconian Data Whatsit, so we can try and find something important out too.”
“I don’t know why I ever let you talk me into half of these things,” Tom replied.
“Because you’re a gentleman and wouldn’t let a lady go off and do them alone,” Jess replied, gently nudging Tom with her elbow.
*
“Sir, I’m picking up some motion on infra-red,” Corporal Andrews reported, sitting forward in his chair.
Morris was instantly alert and sitting forward, snapped out of the half asleep state he had been in. “What sort of motion?” he asked pulling across a keypad and keying himself into the cameras on his terminal.
“I’m not sure sir,” Andrews replied. “I saw something briefly.”
“The aliens?” Morris asked. “Which camera, Corporal, come on man.”
“Erm, camera one, the one near the woods,” Andrews replied.
“Doctor, what do you think?” Morris asked.
When there was no reply, he looked around to find that the Time Lord was nowhere in sight. Looking back forwards, he saw that Andrews had turned round and was offering a shrug in reply. He was about to reply when a movement at the entrance to the trailer caught his eye. Turning to look, he saw the Doctor walk through the plastic flaps, a polystyrene cup in his hand and a grimace on his face.
“You know, Will,” he said, “I think your chaps have got worse at making tea. Honestly, what is wrong with a nice Darjeeling as opposed to this? Tea shouldn’t be made with hot water and powder.”
“Never mind the tea,” Morris said. “We’ve spotted something out there, what do you make of it?”
“What is it?” the Doctor asked, putting the cup down and grabbing the seat next to Morris.
“Not sure yet, Andrews saw some motion on infra-red, in the copse,” Morris replied.
“Infra-red?” the Doctor mused as he grabbed the keyboard. “I take it I can control the camera’s from here?”
Morris looked over to Andrews who nodded. “Yes,” he replied.
“Right,” the Doctor grinned and flexed his fingers as though he were a concert pianist about to start a particularly difficult concerto. “By the way, do you happen to know where Jess and Tom are?” he added as he started tapping away at the keys. “Only, Bessie is parked outside.”
“Well, didn’t you park it there?” Morris asked.
“No, no,” the Doctor replied, still staring at the monitor as his hands moved over the keys. “I sent them off to do something in her and they returned, then they drove off in it, to Sherringham you said, and now she’s back out there.”
“Well, maybe they went in a jeep with Lovatt or Loding,” Morris shrugged. “I’ve not seen them.”
“No,” the Doctor replied, stopping what he was doing and looking at Morris. “The engine was warm, so she’s recently been driven here.”
“Well, where is there to go other than in here?” Morris asked.
The Doctor paused and his eyes widened slightly. “No, surely they wouldn’t,” he muttered turning back to the monitor.
“They wouldn’t what?” Morris asked.
“They’re rather headstrong, the pair of them,” the Doctor replied. “And Jess has a very strong belief in what’s right and what’s wrong. It wouldn’t take much for her to oppose to an alien dissection, even less for her to oppose to an alien dissecting a human being.”
“I wish you’d stop beating about the bush, Doctor,” Morris replied.
The Doctor paused and turned to Morris. “Bessie is here, Jess and Tom aren’t, you’ve spotted some motion out towards the ship, we have a strong belief that the aliens are holding someone from Colesham in there,” the Doctor paused as he turned the monitor more towards Morris.
Looking down, Morris could see the night vision image filling the screen. The camera had been zoomed in towards the hatch in the side of the ship. On the screen, Morris could see two human figures making their way towards it.
“They’ve taken it on themselves to organise a rescue mission,” the Doctor replied. “They’re walking straight into the lion’s den.”
Morris looked at the Doctor. His face had become very serious, his sad blue eyes shining out of his face. “Well, what are we waiting for?” he asked getting to his feet. “We’ve got to get out there and stop them?”
“There’s no point,” the Doctor replied softly. “We’d never get to them in time.”
Morris blinked. He couldn’t believe that the Doctor would just give up like that. He turned to Andrews. “Andrews, call up the men we’ve got on patrol, we’re going to have to go on a rescue mission,” he said before turning back to the Doctor. “And when we’ve got those kids back, you’re going to have to tell them to stay out of the way.”
“That won’t work, Will,” the Doctor said, turning away and wheeling his chair over to a computer with the innards on show. “I can only hope I can get this lash up sorted and communicate with the commander of that ship and persuade him that they mean no harm.”