by Doctor Who
'I tried to help her’ Carlis le s aid as the Doctor inspected Amy's eyes. I gave her a chance to grab my gun, but I think she was too scared. Then I helped her let the prisoners out.'
'Was there really a riot?' the Doctor wondered. 'Amy said that was how she escaped. Except of course she didn't.'
Carlisle shook her head. 'The prisoners are in no 178
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state to cause trouble. A distraction, no more. She could have made a run for it, but she... Well, I guess she was just shocked.
She seemed to want to help them.'
'That sounds like Amy.'
'Reeve got her. They blanked her out, or whatever, and here we are. Is there anything you can do for her? For any of them?
I don't know Jackson, not really, but Jim Reeve was a good man.'
'Let's hope he still is,' the Doctor said. 'And that we can find where they've stored him.'
'Stored him? What do you mean?'
'I mean they kept a back-up copy of his personality. At least, I'm hoping they did.'
All the time they had been talking, the Doctor had been examining Amy - checking her pulse, her eyes, looking for any sign of self-will or consciousness. There was nothing.
'So what's the plan?' Carlisle said.
'Amy asked me that.' The Doctor turned and looked into the Major's eyes. 'Double bluff? No, I don't think so.' Suddenly, he reached out and grabbed her hand, including the gun. But he wasn't trying to get the gun from her, he shook her hand -
gun and all. 'Welcome to the team. And the team plan is to get to the main computer facility. You know where that is?'
Carlisle nodded, still startled by the Doctor's sudden handshake. 'What do we do with your friend?'
'She can come with us.' The Doctor waved his sonic screwdriver. 'Quick bit of optical stimulation and she'll respond to simple verbal instructions. I hope.'
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'Quick bit of what?'
'I'm going to shine a light in her eyes.'
Access to the computer facility was on the other side of the base. But with the Doctor and Amy accompanied by Major Carlisle, there was a chance they could make it without being challenged. If they were, Carlisle had her gun - either to bluff she was taking her prisoners to the hub, or for defence.
'There are only a few of the guys left who haven't been processed,' Carlisle explained. 'A lot of the others don't even know they've been blanked. They're programmed to act as normal until they're ordered otherwise. Means we have no idea who we can trust. But I guess that bears out your theory they're keeping the original personalities on file somewhere.
Somehow.'
I guess it does’ the Doctor agreed. They'd need to reload the original personality data temporarily, with an instruction to blank it out or override it when necessary.'
He stopped at a junction of two corridors. Behind him, Amy kept walking, silent and blank-faced, and cannoned into the back of him.
'Yeah, right, when I said to follow me I kind of meant
"and stop when I stop" sort of thing, right?'
She didn't answer, but stood waiting for the Doctor and Carlisle to move on.
'She's very literal-minded’ Carlisle said.
'Not usually.' The Doctor sighed. ' Someone is going to be in so much trouble for this,' he said quietly. 'Right - onwards!'
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They passed a couple of soldiers, who acknowledged Major Carlisle, but didn't seem concerned or worried by the fact she was with the Doctor and Amy. Carlisle kept her gun out of sight, but ready in case she needed it.
Gradually, as they moved along, the base seemed less utilised. There was dust on the floor, and the lighting was at a lower level.
'No one comes here much,' Carlis le explained. 'Just for maintenance. Like the quantum displacement equipment, the computer facility is in the basement, built into the bedrock under the crater. For good reason.'
'Oh? What reason is that, then?' the Doctor asked her.
Before she could reply, a white-coated man stepped out of a side corridor just in front of them. He stared in surprise at the Doctor and Amy, then looked enquiringly at Carlisle.
'What are you doing here? Professor J ackson's put this whole area off limits, except for his personal assistants.'
'I know that, Gregman’ Carlisle snapped. Her hand edged towards her gun.
But Gregman was quicker. He pulled a pistol from his pocket and aimed it at the Doctor. 'I shall have to report this. You'd better have a very good reason for being here.
The Doctor is meant to be in a cell awaiting his turn in the Process Chamber. I know, because Professor Jackson sent me to connect a backup unit ready for the transfer.'
'Ah, so you do keep back-ups,' the Doctor said.
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"That's good to know. It means we're heading the right way.'
'Not any longer.' Gregman jabbed the gun towards Carlis le. 'Keep your sidearm holstered, Major’ he warned.
Carlisle raised her hands to show she had no intention of going for her gun. As she did so, a figure pushed past her.
She assumed it was the Doctor, but it wasn't. It was Amy.
Blank-faced, she walked slowly towards Gregman. He frowned, watching her. ' You can stop now,' he said. 'Your programming is at an end. Just blank out. Stop.'
But she kept walking, past Gregman and on down the corridor. Confused, the scientist turned, tracking her with the gun.
'I said stop! Stop, or I'll— '
His words became a grunt of surprise and pain as the butt of Carlis le's gun thumped into the back of his head.
Gregman collapsed to the floor, and Carlisle stood over the unconscious man, gun aimed.
'Just leave him’ the Doctor said, striding past.
'But-'
'If you shoot him, we can never return the real Gregman's mind to his body’ the Doctor pointed out. 'Now stop dithering, and come on.'
He turned down the s ide corridor from which Gregman had come. 'This way, Amy.'
'She'd stopped’ Carlisle said as she followed the Doctor.
'She'd stopped, like you told her to when we did. Then she started walking again and distract ed Gregman. Was that deliberate? Can she have done it
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on purpose, do you think?'
They both paused, waiting for Amy to catch up with them. She shuffled along like a sleepwalker, eyes wide and staring - unseeing.
'Possibly’ the Doctor said. 'If they don't completely remove the original personality, then perhaps something's still in there somewhere. Deep down, waiting for something to latch on to. Desperate to reassert itself. An instinct, a spark in the darkness. A little touch of Amy in the night.'
They reached a security door. Carlisle keyed in her code and the door swung open.
'At least they haven't receded it.'
The Doctor aimed his sonic screwdriver at the keypad.
'No, but I have. Reset it to the factory settings, they'll never guess. The code is now 1234.'
Beyond the door, a metal stairway descended into darkness. From below they could hear a constant drip-drip of water. It was like descending into a cave system - the metal walls of the base soon gave way to dark rock, glistening with condensation.
'Vacuum-sealed to save having to clad the whole place in airtight panels,' the Doctor said.
He started down the stairs, his feet echoing on the steps.
Carlisle followed, with Amy close behind. The door swung shut with an ominous clang, leaving them in near darkness.
'It's like descending into the depths of hell itself,' the Doctor said.
'Oh and you'd know what that's like, would you?' Carlisle retorted. Her voice was strained and nervous and she followed the Doctor.
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He paused to look back up at her. His face was shadowed and grave. 'Do I really need to answer that?'
/> Carlisle shivered. There was something in the way he said it that told her she didn't want to know about some of the places he had been. And hell could very well be one of them.
With Amy close behind her, she followed the Doctor down into the depths below Base Diana.
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A glimmer of light from far below was their only illumination.
It grew slowly but steadily as the Doctor, Carlisle and Amy made their way down the stairs. They seemed to descend for ever, into the depths of the moon. The walls glistened and sweated.
'They must pump the water through using the quantum displacement system’ the Doctor said.
'No, it was here already’ Carlisle told him.
'Really?'
'A huge underground lake. You may have heard that NASA found minute quantities of water on the moon. No one was meant to know anything at all about it, but news got out.'
'You mean there was a leak?' The Doctor grinned. Carlisle didn't seem to appreciate the joke. The Doctor cleared his throat and went on: 'So there's actually quite a bit of water here. That's a surprise. Isn't it?' He looked confused for a moment, then his face cleared.
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'Yes, must be. Just checking.'
'Base Diana was positioned right on top of the water.
Seemed stupid not to make use of the natural resources.'
The Doctor ran his finger down the damp rock wall, then licked it. 'Sustenance, hygiene, and computer storage with data held in the H20 molecules. What more does anyone need?'
At the bottom of the steps, they found themselves in a vast underground cavern. Banks of computer equipment stretched off into the distance. Fluorescent light strips cast puddles of stark light between the aisles of machinery. Huge metal pipes were visible at the far end of the cavern, bringing in water from the reservoir. Transparent tubes ran between the banks of equipment, carrying water - and the data it held within its molecules, round the systems. Carlisle could see tiny bubbles of air being carried along, indicating the end of one parcel of data and the start of another.
The Doctor clapped his hands together, delighted and impressed, and hurried over to a console.
'Most of this is storage,' he explained. 'Data streaming -
literally. Great stuff!'
The screen lit up and the Doctor rattled away at a keyboard. He displayed a schematic of the reservoir and water system. It showed where the water was purified and then held in various tanks to service the drinking supply and bathrooms as well as the data storage.
'The water is electrolysed here, before being pumped into the computer systems as needed’ the
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Doctor said, pointing to a point on the plan where water entered the cavern. 'Light would be a quicker medium, but they were after efficiency and durability rather than speed, plus the water cools the systems as well. Brilliant.
Conventional systems with hard drives and flash memory for the day-to-day tasks, and everything offloaded and backed-up to the hydrogen dioxide for the longer term.'
'So how does that help?' Carlisle wondered.
'We've got Amy's physical body.' The Doctor turned and nodded at his expressionless friend standing silent and immobile beside them. 'Now we need to find her brain. She shouldn't be just a pretty face, you know.'
'Goes without saying,' Carlisle told him.
'What's this?' The Doctor was pointing to another tank.
'It's connected into the reservoir system, but there's a flow valve keeping it isolated.'
'Looks like the inert gas for the fire suppression systems.
Worst-case scenario - if we run out of the gas before the fire's out, then the valve opens and it draws in water. Not ideal, given we're so dependent on electrical stuff.'
'But could be the only option, the last resort.' The Doctor nodded. 'Makes sense. Whoever designed this place used belts and braces all round.'
'Is that how you got back here?' Carlisle asked.
'I suppose so. Big braces though. Enormous. Right...' He turned his attention back to the display screen and started opening files of indexes and data listings. 'Let's find Amy...'
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For the briefest of moments, he thought he was Lars Gregman. Then the Talerian consciousness flowed back into the emptiness of Gregman's mind and he remembered everything.
Gregman sat up. There was pain in his head. Not the pain of the process when he had been transferred into this body. It was reassuringly robust, but it could be damaged. He reached his hand behind his head and felt the lump where Carlisle had struck him down.
Carlis le. For some reason she was helping the Doctor.
The girl, Amy, was a Blank - no use to them. Perhaps even a weapon against them if she could be reprogrammed...
Struggling to his feet, Gregman looked round. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious, but he was surprised and pleased to find his gun was lying a short distance away. He knew where the Doctor and Carlisle were headed - he could deal with them himself. It would impress Jackson.
Except that when he tapped in the code for the door down to the computer facility, it didn't work. The door remained locked. But even this was a good thing, he decided.
It meant they were definitely down there. There was nothing the Doctor or Major Carlisle could do to stop the Talerian plan now. Soon the main invas ion force would come through, and the only person they feared might be able to stop them was trapped in the cavern under the base.
Gregman hurried to tell Jackson and the others the good news.
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It didn't take the Doctor long to find what he was looking for.
'I'll say this for them, they're efficient.'
He showed Carlisle the screen, which displayed a list of the personnel of Base Diana. Against almost all of them was a catalogue number. At the bottom of the list was: Am y P o n d - E - 1 9 - K 3
Below that were several other names, listed as Tending'.
At the bottom of this pending list was 'Doctor'.
'What's it mean?' Major Carlisle asked.
'It means we've found her. You're on the list too, look.' He pointed to Carlisle's name.
'Doesn't mean I'm a bad person.'
'All the others are. Potentially, anyway. Until we get this sorted.'
The Doctor walked slowly along one of the aisles. Carlisle and Amy followed - Carlisle watching with interest, Amy expressionless.
The storage was rather like metal filing cabinets. Each aisle was labelled with a letter, and each cabinet within each aisle was numbered. The individual drawers bore letters, marked in black by a simple steel handle.
This is aisle E, so I guess we're looking for storage cabinet 1 9 ,' Carlisle said.
'Drawer K.' The Doctor ran his finger down the front of Cabinet 19 until it met the K. He tapped the letter. 'Moment of truth. Who lives here, do you think?'
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The Doctor pulled out the shallow drawer. Inside the space was lined with dark foam padding. Nestling in numbered compartments cut into the foam were ten glass phials filled with colourless liquid. A wire connected the stopper of each phial into a junction box at the back of the drawer.
Very carefully, the Doctor lifted phial 3 clear of the padding. The wire trailed from a small clip attached to the top of the stopper. Inside the phial another wire hung down into the liquid. The Doctor unclipped the wire from the top and lifted the phial up to the light. He gave it a gentle shake, bubbles rising to the surface.
'Is that it?' Carlisle asked in a whisper. She pointed at Amy.' Is that... her?'
The Doctor stared intently at the colourless liquid. 'Amy in a bottle,' he breathed. 'Pond water.' He laughed. 'Yes, I like that. Pond water.' His smile faded. 'Only problem is, now I've found you, we need to get you both back to the Process Chamber and see if we can download
the real you into your brain.'
From above and behind them came the sound of something heavy slamming into metal.
"The door?' Carlisle said.
'The door,' the Doctor agreed. 'They've found us.'
'Gregman must have woken up. Getting to the Process Chamber might be trickier than you thought.'
'No problem. We'll take the back way.' The Doctor clicked his tongue. 'Er, is there a back way?'
'No.'
'Any way at all, back or otherwise? Emergency 190
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exit? Fire escape? Cat flap?'
Carlisle was shaking her head. 'There's only one exit, Doctor. We're stuck down here.' The sound of the banging was getting louder and more insistent. 'And that door won't keep them out for long.'
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The sound of the door crashing open was unmistakable. The Doctor spun round on the spot, slapping his forehead repeatedly with the heel of his hand.
'Think think think’ he told himself. 'Ah!' He stopped his rapid revolutions. 'They don't know we're down here.'
'Yes they do’ Carlisle said. 'Gregman knew we were heading this way.'
'And the door was locked and sabotaged. But they don't know, not for sure. They just think they do.'
Carlisle nodded slowly. 'Makes sense. But they'll be down those stairs in a minute, and then they'll know they know.'
The Doctor leaned forward. 'No they won't. Because I've got a plan.'
'Quick plan?'
They could hear feet on the metal stairway.
'Very quick.'
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'So - what do we do?'
'We keep Amy safe.' The Doctor pushed the phial of liquid that was Amy's personality and memories into his top pocket and patted it gently.
'Is that it?' Carlisle asked.
'No no no. The clever bit is...'
'Yes?'
'... We hide.'
Carlis le stared at him. 'Is that it? The great plan? We hide?!’