Chapter Nine: The Long Game

As promised, Alex came into the console room about an hour later, eating a slice of toast. Rose hugged her immediately. "You're okay!"

Alex hugged her back, trying to avoid getting blonde hair on her toast. "Yeah, 'course I am," she said, trying not to let on how scared she really had been. "Where are we going?"

"Who knows?" the Doctor said, grinning as he threw the dematerialisation lever.

"We'd better just check it's safe out there," Rose lied, nudging Alex gently. "You wait here a minute, Adam." The three of them left him in the TARDIS, stepping out onto what looked like a spaceship.

"So it's two hundred thousand, and it's a spaceship," the Doctor said, before frowning. "No, wait a minute, space station, and, er, go and try that gate over there. Off you go."

"Show off," Alex muttered, and he stole a bite of her toast. "Oi!"

"Two hundred thousand?" Rose checked, not wanting to make a fool of herself.

He nodded, speaking through his mouthful. "Two hundred thousand."

"Right." She opened the TARDIS door. "Adam? Out you come."

Adam walked outside, his eyes widening when he realised they really had moved. "Oh my God."

"Don't worry," Alex told him. "You get used to it."

"Where are we?" he asked.

"Good question," Rose smiled. "Let's see. So, er, judging by the architecture, I'd say we're around the year two hundred thousand. If you listen..."

Adam did so. "Yeah?"

"Engines," she said. "We're on some sort of space station. Yeah, definitely a space station."

Alex wrinkled her nose. "Wherever we are, it's a bit hot. They could do with turning the heating down." She stuffed her button up into her toolbelt, deciding to stick with just her tank top.

"Tell you what, let's try that gate," Rose decided. "Come on!" She led the others through a metal gate to find a massive observation window, through which they could see the planet below. "Here we go. This is..."

"Beautiful," Alex finished, eyes wide. There was something about seeing a planet surrounded by the magnificent darkness of space that she was really starting to love.

"I'll let the Doctor describe it," Rose said, covering up the fact she had no idea what she was doing.

"The Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire," he said. "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."

Behind them, Adam fainted.

Alex snorted. "He's so your boyfriend."

Rose sighed. "Not anymore."

***

Once Adam had recovered, the four of them began to explore the space station. They found a large open area, where the number 139 was mounted on the wall in huge letters.

"Come on, Adam," the Doctor was saying. "Open your mind. You're going to like this. Fantastic period of history. The human race at its most intelligent. Culture, art, politics. This era has got fine food, good manners—" A man elbowed past him, and the place came to life with people bustling around, opening up food stalls and serving customers.

Rose glanced at what one of them was eating, wrinkling her nose. "Fine cuisine?"

The Doctor frowned. "My watch must be wrong. No, it's fine. That's weird."

Alex smirked. "That's what comes of showing off. Your history's not as good as you thought it was."

"Oi! My history's perfect!" he assured her.

"Well, obviously not," she teased, raising her eyebrows.

"They're all human," Adam noticed. "What about the millions of planets, the millions of species? Where are they?"

"Good question," Rose smiled.

"Actually, that is a good question," the Doctor agreed, clapping the man on the shoulder. "Adam, me old mate, you must be starving."

Adam shook his head. "No, I'm just a bit time-sick actually."

"Nah, you just need a bit of grub." The Doctor caught the eye of one of the chefs. "Oi, mate, how much is a kronkburger?"

"Two credits twenty, sweetheart," the chef answered. "Now join the queue."

"Money," the Doctor realised. "We need money."

Alex waved him over to where she'd found what looked like an ATM. "Cashpoint."

"There we go, pocket money." The Doctor soniced the cashpoint, producing a thin plastic stick. He handed it to Adam. "Don't spend it all on sweets."

Adam blinked. "But how does it work?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Go and find out," he told him. "Stop nagging me."

"The thing is, Adam," Alex said, "time travel is like visiting Paris, yeah? You can't just read the guidebook, you've got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers."

Rose made a face. "Actually, I think that's just you."

"Stop asking questions, just go and do it," the Doctor said, ushering Adam away. Once the man was out of earshot, he smirked at Rose. "Off you go, then. Your first date."

"And yours," Rose returned. Alex made a face at her, and she skipped after Adam, grinning.

"Well," the Doctor said, once she'd gone, "so long as you don't expect any flowers."

Alex blushed. "Shut up!"

He grinned, offering her his arm, and she took it. "Come on, let's find out where we are." They walked over to a pair of smartly dressed young women. "Er, this is going to sound daft, but can you tell us where we are?"

The darker-haired woman blinked. "Could they write it any bigger?" She pointed to the numbers on the wall.

"Yeah, yeah, but Floor One Three Nine of what?" Alex asked.

The same woman raised her eyebrows. "Must've been a hell of a party."

Alex smiled, going with it. "Honestly? Not a clue. Last thing I remember, someone was bringing out the shots."

The other woman took pity on them. "You're on Satellite Five."

The Doctor nodded. "And what's Satellite Five?"

The brunette scowled. "Come on, how could you get on board without knowing where you are?"

"Well, look at us," Alex said, shrugging. "We're stupid."

"Hold on, wait a minute." The blonde shared a look with her colleague. "Are you a test? Some kind of management test kind of thing?"

"Ah, you've got us," the Doctor lied, showing them his psychic paper. "Well done. You're too clever for us."

"We were warned about this in basic training," the blonde remembered. "All workers have to be versed in company promotion."

"Right, well, I'm Cathica," the brunette said. "Fire away, ask your questions. If it gets me to Floor Five Hundred, I'll do anything."

"Why?" Alex asked curiously. "What happens on Floor Five Hundred?"

"The walls are made of gold," Cathica replied. "And you should know, Miss Management."

"I'm Suki," the other woman butted in. "If you'd follow us..."

They all walked over to a selection of TV screens on the wall. "So this is what we do," Cathica said. "Latest news. Sandstorms on the new Venus archipelago. Two hundred dead. Glasgow water riots into their third day. Spacelane seventy-seven closed by sunspot activity. And over on the Bad Wolf channel, the Face of Boe has just announced he's pregnant."

The Doctor nodded. "I get it. You broadcast the news."

"We are the news," Cathica corrected, "We're the journalists. We write it, package it and sell it. Six hundred channels, all coming out of Satellite Five, broadcasting everywhere. Nothing happens in the whole human empire without it going through us."

Alex raised her eyebrows, impressed. "We couldn't see it in action, could we? I mean, so we can report back to management."

Suki shrugged. "I don't see why not." She and Cathica led the way.

The Doctor spotted Rose and Adam sitting at a table not far away. "Oi! Mutt and Jeff! Over here!" The pair hurried over, Adam sliding Rose's phone into his pocket.

***

The newsroom was strange to say the least, but that was only to be expected in the year 200,000. Eight people sat cross-legged in front of a low, octagonal desk. In front of each of them were handprints, and in the middle was what looked like a dentist's chair. The four time travellers stood behind some railings in the corner, watching.

"Now, everybody behave," Cathica instructed. "We have a management inspection. How do you want it, by the book?"

The Doctor nodded. "Right from scratch, thanks."

"Okay. So, ladies, gentlemen, multi-sec, undecided, or robot, my name is Cathica Santini Khadeni. That's Cathica with a C, in case you want to write to Floor Five Hundred praising me, and please do." Cathica shot them a smile, and Alex returned it insincerely. "Now, please feel free to ask questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest and beyond bias. That's company policy."

"Actually," Suki interrupted, "it's the law."

Cathica sighed, her expression a thinly veiled mask of annoyance. "Yes, thank you, Suki." She settled into the central chair. "Okay, keep it calm. Don't show off for the guests. Here we go, and engage safety." The workers around the outside laid their hands over the prints, and lights came on around the room. Cathica snapped her fingers, opening a small portal in her forehead, revealing her brain. "And three, two, and spike." A beam of bright white energy lanced down from the ceiling, down into Cathica's brain.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Compressed information, 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."

"If it all goes through her, she must be a genius," Rose said.

"She probably doesn't remember any of it," Alex reasoned, eyeing the workers curiously. "There'd be too much information, she'd never cope."

The Doctor nodded. "As soon as her head closes, she forgets."

"What about all these people around the edge?" Alex asked him.

"They have tiny little chips in their head," he explained, "connecting them to her, transmitting six hundred channels. Every single fact in the Empire beams out of this place. Now that's what I call power."

"You all right?" Rose asked, seeing Adam's look of repulsion.

"I can see her brain," he said, eyes wide.

Rose smiled sympathetically, remembering her first time in the future. "Do you want to get out?"

He shook his head, making an effort to smile. "No. No, this technology... it's amazing."

"This technology's wrong," the Doctor corrected.

Alex smiled. "Trouble?"

He grinned. "Oh yeah."

Suddenly, Suki flinched away from the desk, rubbing at her hands as if she'd had an electric shock. The other seven lifted their hands too, and the information beam stopped. Cathica closed her portal, scowling. "Come off it, Suki, I wasn't even halfway. What was that for?"

Suki frowned, staring down at her hands. "Sorry. It must have been a glitch."

"Oh." Cathica didn't look impressed.

One of the walls lit up, flashing with the word 'promotion'. A tannoy repeated the word, and everyone turned to look.

"Come on," Cathica pleaded. "This is it, come on. Oh, God, make it me, come on, say my name, say my name, say my name."

"Promotion for Suki Macrae Cantrell." Cathica froze. "Please proceed to Floor Five Hundred."

Suki gasped, a slow smile spreading across her face. "I don't believe it. Floor Five Hundred!"

"How the hell did you manage that?" Cathica demanded, looking put out. "I'm above you."

"I don't know," Suki admitted. "I just applied on the off chance and they've said yes!"

"That's so not fair," Cathica complained. "I've been applying to Floor Five Hundred for three years."

Rose frowned. "What's Floor Five Hundred?"

"The walls are made of gold," the Doctor said, narrowing his eyes at the promotion screen.

***

"Cathica, I'm going to miss you," Suki cried, standing by the lifts. She turned to the Doctor and Alex. "Floor Five Hundred, thank you!"

Alex blinked. "We didn't do anything."

Suki shrugged, smiling. "Well, you're my lucky charms."

The Doctor grinned. "All right, I'll hug anyone." He hugged Suki, then Alex followed suit.

"Oh my God!" Suki pulled back, frantic. "I've got to go! I can't keep them waiting. I'm sorry. Say goodbye to Steve for me." She hurried into the lift. "Bye!"

"Good riddance," Cathica snorted, as soon as the doors closed.

The Doctor frowned. "You're talking like you'll never see her again. She's only going upstairs." Rose came back to them, having given Adam her key in case he freaked out again.

"We won't," Cathica told them. "Once you go to Floor Five Hundred, you never come back."

"Hasn't anyone ever been? Even maintenance?" Alex asked, her brow furrowing.

Cathica shook her head. "You can't. You need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with promotion. No one gets to Floor Five Hundred except for the chosen few." She rolled her eyes as they went back into the newsroom. "Look, they only give us twenty minutes maintenance. Can't you give it a rest?"

"But you've never been to another floor?" the Doctor checked. "Not even one floor down?"

"Well, I went to Floor Sixteen when I first arrived," she told him. "That's medical. 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 hesitated, eyeing their unusual clothes. "You're not management, are you?"

Rose smiled. "We've got a winner!"

"At last," the Doctor rolled his eyes. "She's clever."

Cathica bit her lip. "Yeah, well, whatever it is, don't involve me. I don't know anything."

Alex frowned. "Don't you even ask?"

"Well, why would I?"

"Because you're a journalist?" she suggested, raising her eyebrows. "I mean, how come all the crew are human?"

"What's that got to do with anything?" Cathica asked, exasperated.

"There's no aliens on board," Alex pointed out. "Why?"

Cathica shrugged. "I don't know. No real reason. They're not banned or anything."

"Then where are they?" Rose asked.

"I suppose immigration's tightened up," Cathica said. "It's had to, what with all the threats."

The Doctor's brow creased. "What threats?"

Cathica blinked. "I don't know. All of them. Usual stuff. And the price of space warp doubled, so that kept the visitors away. Oh, and the government on Chavic Five's collapsed, so that lot stopped coming, you see. Just lots of little reasons, that's all."

Rose narrowed her eyes. "Lots of little reasons adding up to one great big fact, and you didn't even notice, did you?"

"I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it," Cathica said, rolling her eyes. "We see everything."

"I can see better," the Doctor countered. "This society's the wrong shape, even the technology."

"It's cutting edge!" Cathica protested.

"It's backwards," Alex told her bluntly. "You've got a big door in your head, and all the newsrooms require nine people to work! This should have been chucked out years ago."

"So, what do you think's going on?" Rose asked, glancing at the Doctor.

He shook his head. "It's not just this space station, it's the whole attitude. It's the way people think. The Great and Bountiful Human Empire is stunted. Something's holding it back."

"And how would you know?" Cathica sneered.

"Trust me, humanity's been set back about ninety years." He turned to her. "When did Satellite Five start broadcasting?"

Cathica blinked. "Ninety-one years ago."

***

A few minutes later, the Doctor had found a maintenance cupboard. He soniced the lock, pulling the doors open, and Cathica groaned. "We are so going to get in trouble. You're not allowed to touch the mainframe. You're going to get told off."

"Rose, tell her to button it," the Doctor said shortly, concentrating on the mainframe.

"You can't just vandalise the place," Cathica stressed. "Someone's going to notice!"

The Doctor ignored her, grinning as Alex started to poke about in the wiring. "Now this is more like it," she smiled.

Cathica sighed. "This is nothing to do with me. I'm going back to work." She turned to walk away.

"Go on, then," the Doctor called over his shoulder. "See you!"

She stopped, turning back. "I can't just leave you, can I?"

"Look, if you want to be useful, get them to turn the heating down," Rose told her. "It's boiling. What's wrong with this place? Can't they do something about it?"

"I don't know," Cathica said. "We keep asking. Something to do with the turbine."

Alex rolled her eyes. "Something to do with the turbine!"

Cathica shot her a look. "Well, I don't know!"

"Exactly," the Doctor said. "I give up on you, Cathica. Now, Rose. Look at Rose. Rose is asking the right kind of question."

"Oh, thank you," Rose preened.

"Why is it so hot?" Alex asked. Even in a tank top, she was uncomfortably warm.

Cathica stared. "One minute you're worried about the Empire, the next it's the central heating."

"Never underestimate plumbing," the Doctor warned her. "Plumbing's very important." She soniced a monitor, bringing up the station schematics. "Here we go. Satellite Five, pipes and plumbing. Look at the layout."

"This is ridiculous," Cathica said. "You've got access to the computer's core. You can look at the archive, the news, the stock exchange, and you're looking at pipes?!"

"But there's something wrong," he pointed out.

Cathica looked closer. "Well, I suppose..."

"Why, what is it?" Rose asked.

"The ventilation system," Alex replaced, pointing to it on the diagram. "Cooling ducts, ice filters, everything. It's all working flat out, channelling massive amounts of heat down, all the way from the top."

"Floor Five Hundred," Rose realised.

The Doctor nodded. "Something up there is generating tons and tons of heat."

Alex shrugged. "Well, I don't know about you lot, but I reckon we're missing out on a party. It's all going on upstairs. Fancy a trip?"

"You can't," Cathica pointed out. "You need a key."

The Doctor was one step ahead of her, sonicing the monitor. "Keys are just codes, and I've got the codes right here. Here we go. Override two one five point nine."

Cathica blinked. "How come it's given you the code."

"Someone up there must like me." He shrugged.

"Well, someone has to," Alex teased, following him into the lift.

"Come on," Rose urged. "Come with us."

"No way!"

The Doctor didn't care. "Bye!"

Cathica frowned. "Well, don't mention my name. When you get in trouble, just don't involve me." The lift doors closed between them.

"Well, that's her gone, and Adam's given up," the Doctor said. "Looks like it's just us."

"Yeah," Rose grinned.

He put his arms around their shoulders. "Good."

Alex smiled. "Yeah."

***

They stepped out of the lift on Floor Five Hundred to find the whole place was covered in ice. "Funny looking gold," Rose commented, raising her eyebrows.

The Doctor narrowed his eyes. "You two should go back downstairs."

"Tough," Alex told him, heading further away from the lift. As he followed, Rose saw the hint of a smile at the corner of his lips.

Together, they made their way past a few polythene sheets to see a white-haired man looking right at him. Behind him was a desk where several frost-covered corpses were manning computers. To Alex's surprise, the man was actually wearing a name tag that read 'The Editor'. It was a nice change from running from people whose names she didn't know.

"I started without you," the Editor said unapologetically, gesturing to the computers. "This is fascinating. Satellite Five contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but you three, you don't exist. Not a trace. No birth, no job, not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint?"

They ignored him. Rose gasped, rushing over to a familiar corpse. "Suki! Suki! Hello? Can you hear me, Suki?" She turned back to glare at the Editor. "What have you done to her?"

"I think she's dead," the Doctor told her gently.

Rose blinked, pulling her hands back. "But she's working though."

Alex shook her head. "They've all got those chips in their head and the chips must keep going. They're like puppets."

"Oh, you're full of information!" the Editor exclaimed, looking impressed. "But it's only fair we get some information back, because apparently, you're no one. It's so rare not to know something. Who are you?"

"It doesn't matter because we're off," the Doctor told him. "Nice to meet you. Come on." All three of them were grabbed by corpses before they could move.

"Tell me who you are," the Editor ordered.

The Doctor scoffed. "Since that information's keeping us alive, I'm hardly going to say, am I?"

The Editor shrugged. "Well, perhaps my Editor-in-Chief can convince you otherwise."

"And who's he when he's at home?" Alex asked, trying to worm her way out of her captor's grip.

"It may interest you to know that this is not the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire," the Editor told them, making the Doctor frown. "In fact, it's not actually human at all. It's merely a place where humans happen to live."

There was a threatening growl from above, and Alex's gaze shot upwards. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "What the...?"

The Editor winced, apparently understanding meaning in the snarl. "Yeah, yeah, sorry. It's a place where humans are allowed to live by kind permission of my client." He pointed to the ceiling.

The Doctor and Rose looked up, seeing what Alex already had: a huge globule of purple flesh with sharp, gnashing teeth. "What is that?" Rose gaped.

"You mean that thing's in charge of Satellite Five?!" the Doctor said, incredulous.

"That thing, as you put it, is in charge of the human race," the Editor corrected. "For almost a hundred years, mankind has been shaped and guided, his knowledge and ambition strictly controlled by its broadcast news, edited by my superior, your master, and humanity's guiding light, the might Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe." He nodded to himself. "I call him Max."

The creature snarled and writhed, and the TARDIS trio protested as the corpses locked their wrists in manacles next to each other. "Oi!"

"Create a climate of fear and it's easy to keep the borders closed," the Editor explained. "It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilise an economy, invent an enemy, change a vote."

"So all the people on Earth are like slaves?" Rose realised, disgusted.

The Editor raised his eyebrows. "Well, now, there's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved?"

"Yes," the Doctor replied bluntly.

"Oh." The Editor pouted. "I was hoping for a philosophical debate. Is that all I'm going to get? Yes?"

"Yes."

"You're no fun."

The Doctor narrowed his eyes. "Let me out of these manacles, you'll find out how much fun I am."

"Oh, he's tough, isn't he?" the Editor smirked. "But come on, isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it, just a little bit."

"You can't hide something on this scale," Alex reasoned. "Somebody must have noticed."

"Well, from time to time, someone, yes," the Editor admitted. "But the computer chip system allows me to see inside their brains. I can see the smallest doubt and crush it. Then they just carry on living their life, strutting about downstairs and all over the surface of the Earth like they're so individual when, of course, they're not. They're just cattle." He smiled. "In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed anything."

"What about you, though?" Rose said, glimpsing Cathica out of the corner of her eye. "You're not a Jagrafess. You're human."

He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, simply being human doesn't pay very well."

"But you couldn't have done all this on your own," Alex pointed out. "No way."

"No," the Editor conceded. "I represent a consortium of banks. Money prefers a long-term investment." He lowered his voice conspiratorially. "Also, the Jagrafess needed a little hand to install himself."

"No wonder, a creature that size," the Doctor said, looking up at it. "What's his life span?"

"Three thousand years," the Editor replied.

"That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat," the Doctor thought out loud, knowing Cathica was listening nearby. "That's why Satellite Five's so hot. You pump it out of the creature, channel it downstairs. Jagrafess stays cool, it stays alive. Satellite Five is one great big life support system."

"But that's why you're so dangerous," the Editor exclaimed. "Knowledge is power, but you remain unknown. Who are you?" He snapped his fingers and electricity surged through Alex's manacles, making her gasp for breath.

"Leave her alone!" the Doctor ordered, eyes wide. "I'm the Doctor, she's Alex Tyler, and that's her sister Rose. We're nothing. We're just wandering."

"Tell me who you are!" the Editor demanded.

"I just said!"

"Yes, but who do you work for?" the Editor questioned. "Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly—?" He cut himself off, eyes widening. "Time Lord."

The Doctor stared. "What?"

"Oh, yes," the Editor grinned. "The last of the Time Lords in his travelling machine. Oh, with his little human girls from long ago."

"I don't know what you're talking about," the Doctor said, trying to break free of the manacles.

"Time travel," the Editor added.

"Someone's been telling you lies," Rose tried.

"Young master Adam Mitchell?" the Editor suggested. He called up a hologram of Adam sitting in the newsroom on Floor One Three Nine, a portal open in his forehead.

"Oh my God," Alex breathed, eyes wide. "His head!"

"What the hell's he done?" the Doctor asked beside her. "What the hell's he gone and done? They're reading his mind. He's telling them everything!"

"And through him, I know everything about you," the Editor said, smirking. "Every piece of information in his head is now mine. And you have infinite knowledge, Doctor. The Human Empire is tiny compared to what you've seen in your TARDIS."

"Well, you'll never get your hands on it," the Doctor glared. "I'll die first."

The Editor shrugged. "Die all you like. I don't need you. I've got the key." The TARDIS key floated out of Adam's pocket.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Oh, you and your boyfriends!" Rose shot him a look.

"Today, we are the headlines," the Editor continued. "We can rewrite history. We could prevent mankind from ever developing."

"And no one's going to stop you," Alex realised, "because you've bred a human race that doesn't bother to ask questions. Stupid little slaves believing every lie. They'll just trot into the slaughterhouse if they're told it's made of gold."

Lights started to flash on the console as the Editor's work started to unravel. "What's happening?" he asked one of his corpses. "Someone's disengaged the safety! Who's that?" He called up a hologram, revealing Cathica in the computer seat.

"It's Cathica!" Rose grinned.

"And she's thinking," Alex beamed. "She's using what she knows. everything we told her about Satellite Five. The pipes, the filters, she's reversing it." The ice started to melt. "Look at that, it's getting hot."

"Terminate her access," the Editor ordered. "I said, terminate. Burn out her mind!" The computers exploded, and the dead operators collapsed on the floor. Rose managed to slip out of her manacles.

"She's venting the heat up here," the Doctor explained. "The Jagrafess needs to stay cool and now it's sitting on top of a volcano."

The Editor glanced up at the roaring creature. "Yes, I'm trying, sir, but I don't know how she did it. It's impossible. A member of staff with an idea." He took Suki's seat, working at the console.

Rose grabbed the sonic screwdriver from the Doctor's pocket. "What do I do?"

"Flick the switch," he told her, and she buzzed the sonic, releasing him and Alex. "Oi, mate, want to bank on a certainty? Massive heat in a massive body equals massive bang. See you in the headlines." He grabbed Alex's hand and the three of them ran from the room, just as the Jagrafess exploded.

***

"We're just going to go," the Doctor said later, once they'd retrieved Adam. "I hate tidying up. Too many questions. You'll manage."

"But you'll have to stay and explain it," Cathica protested. "No one's going to believe me."

He smiled. "Oh, they might start believing a lot of things now. The human race should accelerate, all back to normal."

"What about your friend?" she asked, and the Doctor's expression darkened.

"He's not my friend." He stalked over to Adam, shoving him into the TARDIS ahead of him and Rose.

"Thanks for everything," Alex said, hugging Cathica. "Keep thinking, yeah?"

"I will," Cathica promised. Alex turned and ran into the TARDIS. As soon as the doors closed behind her, the blue box faded away.

***

The TARDIS materialised in Adam's home on Earth, back in 2012.

"It's my home," he realised, stepping out. "I'm home! Oh my God, I'm home. Blimey, I thought you were going to chuck me out of an airlock."

Alex tilted her head, her expression deadly serious. "It's early."

"Is there something else you want to tell me?" the Doctor asked pointedly.

"No," Adam said quickly. "What do you mean?"

"Phone." The Doctor held his hand out expectantly, and Adam sighed, handing over Rose's phone. Rose glared at him as the Doctor gave it back to her. He then walked over to the answering machine. "The archive of Satellite Five? One second of that message could've changed the world." He soniced the machine, which exploded. "That's it, then. See you."

Adam stared. "How do you mean, see you?"

"As in goodbye," Rose told him.

"But what about me?" he protested. "You can't just go. I've got my head. I've got a chip type two. My head opens!"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "What, like this?" He snapped his fingers.

Adam closed the portal. "Don't."

"Don't do what?" Alex asked innocently, opening it again.

"Stop it!" He closed it.

"Alright now, guys, that's enough," Rose decided. "Stop it."

"Thank you," Adam sighed. Rose snapped her fingers, and he glared. "Oi!"

"Sorry," she apologised insincerely. "Couldn't resist."

"The whole of history could have changed because of you," the Doctor told him.

Adam shrugged. "I just wanted to help."

"You were helping yourself," Alex corrected.

"And I'm sorry," Adam tried. "I've said I'm sorry, and I am, I really am, but you can't just leave me like this."

"Yes, I can," the Doctor said. "'Cause if you show that head to anyone, they'll dissect you in seconds. You'll have to live a very quiet life. Keep out of trouble. Be average, unseen. Good luck." They turned to leave, Alex and Rose heading into the TARDIS first.

"But I want to come with you," Adam pleaded.

The Doctor fixed him with a cold look. "I only take the best. I've got the girls."

"The best?" Adam echoed, disbelieving. "What, like Alex? Too stupid to dodge a bullet? Yeah, I bet she's really great."

"She is, actually," the Doctor told him. "And you'd know that, if you weren't too busy thinking about yourself all the time. I've seen her save so many lives without a second thought, no matter what the risk. You'd rather save yourself. Goodbye." He walked into the TARDIS without another word. As the blue box dematerialised, Adam's mother entered the house. He couldn't even hear what she was saying, so horrified at what he'd just lost. Until she raised her hand.

And clicked her fingers.

And screamed. 

~~~