Guidance Systemsby Pouncer |
| The TARDIS door opened to reveal drab concrete walls and exposed overhead pipes. “Well, well,” the Doctor mused, looking around. “What have we here?” Rose sniffed and detected the scent of mold. “Yes, what do we have here?” No where she wanted to be, that was certain. “I don’t know,” said the Doctor. “Let’s go find out.” And off he trotted, overcoat swirling around his ankles. Rose sighed and followed. The tunnel stretched in front of them, lights fizzing and going dim in a way that seemed designed for menace. Rose had learned to hate tunnels of late. The Doctor slammed to a halt, his attention caught by writing on the walls. “Ah,” he said, and reached for his glasses. Rose peered closer – the dim light made it difficult to read, but those were English letters. It looked like some kind of code. “What does it say, Doctor?” Before he could answer, a voice cried out, “Hands up!” Rose turned and saw men in uniform pointing guns at her. “Not again,” she groaned, raising her hands into the air. The Doctor talked to Rose in a low voice while they waited for the base commander to appear. “This is Ellsworth Air Force Base, in South Dakota, and the year is probably 1962 if what I heard from the guards is accurate.” “What did you hear from the guards?” Rose asked. He never went into details unless she prodded him, and she hadn’t been able to put anything they’d said into context. Plus, she’d been distracted by the hated feel of handcuffs around her wrists. “Oh, just something about Cuba and foreign agents and missiles,” the Doctor replied airily. “Missiles?” Her shoulders were beginning to ache from the way her hands were bound behind her back. “Well, you see, the Minuteman missile just became operational – this was its first base. And the Cubans just received medium-range missiles from the Soviet Union, and—“ The guard was looking at them with narrow eyes, and the Doctor’s voice became a whisper, “—this may not be the best time to have a foreign accent and be found in a military installation.” “Of course not.” Rose slumped deeper into her chair, then groaned at the pull of the handcuffs. Three hours later, they were on their way back to the TARDIS. It had taken some fast talking and more than one appearance of the psychic paper for the Doctor to convince Colonel Baker that they were associated with the British embassy and here to offer support. And the Doctor had known just what to do to repair the odd console with its blinking lights and huge buttons and levers. He’d bopped around, poking and fiddling and exclaiming in delight while Rose flirted with Sergeant Miller, a sweet-faced boy with a drawl so thick she could barely understand him. “What did that console do, anyway?” Rose asked as they walked through a steadily more-deserted tunnel. It all looked like something out of Star Trek to her. “Targeted missiles,” the Doctor said. “Did you know that the Minuteman was one of the first places a small-scale integrated circuit was used?” “A what circuit?” He always said things that confused her. She never knew whether to be proud or offended that he didn’t explain unless she asked. “Grandfather of the microprocessor and the computer chip that lets you call your mum from anywhere.” He looked around the barren hallways. “From this place, the information age will rise. The internet is a far better use for the technology anyway, don’t you think?” “Why doesn’t my phone get a ‘net connection?” Rose asked, suddenly curious. She could have been checking the sales at Top Shop all this time and he’d never told her? The Doctor paused to unlock the TARDIS, and Rose thought his face looked shifty. “It’s much more difficult to connect to all that data.” He opened the door and disappeared inside. “So where do you want to go next?” he asked, an obvious attempt at distraction. “Surprise me,” Rose said, deciding to let him get away with it, just this once. She could always ask more questions about what her phone could do later. |
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Notes: For Akira. Return to The Carousel |