Specters

[Archetype2]

Tess watched them, keeping silent the whole time as they boarded the elevator and headed up. Chris said something, something in a way she didn't understand and this rather irritated the girl. She liked to know things, to know what was going on and this was one of those times where she had no idea at all. Emerald eyes fixated onto the other girl, the one everyone kept referring to as Kenzi as she too watched everything, responding in her own ways.
---------------

Kenzi stood there, blue eyes locked onto Chris as he spoke in that strange language. She frowned. "Time Lord? you just said Time Lord." she repeated curiously and as a statement at the same time. She remembered briefly, something from long ago. Remember the horrible frightening tales which weren't supposed to scare her but did, the empty world with the one women who always said she was special, the women so much taller then herself...she was small, why so small? "Eva..." she muttered as she recalled the tales of the magnificent race known as the Time Lords. "Eva told me once...." she whispered, cutting herself off. They didn't need to know about Eva, no...they didn't need to know at all.

Eva was her secret, the thing she held onto to remember what she so desperately loved. Space, stories of time lords and Daleks and Eva's people before they'd died, those things Kenzi would ask that Eva would not tell, the questions and answers, and the questions which held no answers of their own.

[The First Doctor]

"Time Lord? you just said Time Lord." she repeated curiously and as a statement at the same time.

Chris laughed. "That I did, yes." He looked at her curiously. "Who are you, I wonder?" He shook his head. "No, that's the wrong question. The question should be, what do those words mean to you?"

"Eva..." she muttered as she recalled the tales of the magnificent race known as the Time Lords. "Eva told me once...."

He listened intently, but nothing else was forthcoming.

The elevator dinged, an oddly mundane sound. "Ah," Jim broke in, feeling oddly like he was intruding. "First floor. Motor pools and the main road out of base."

[Sarah Jane]

She collected her wards, claimed the car, standing an extra 10 minutes out on the Tarmac as she waited for them to fill it with three portable lunches and plenty of water. She left the girls to their own devices and told them to leave her alone for a moment. She was on high alert now.

"Jim. From one human to another. Tell me the car is safe, tell me the food is safe. And take the bug off the car, please. You know I'm not plotting against your little girl, or anyone else you care for. Here is my card. Call me any time. I really don't want to talk about anything else right now."

Finally it was time to go. The few minutes had passed like hours for her in her worry. She packed the girls in the car and took off down the road.

"Okay, listen up. You can say anything later, but I need to collect my thoughts." She was driving like a computer in her focus with none of her usual jaunt. "That place is rotten from the inside, that is enough for this fact finding mission. I had hoped for more, but it would be too easy to make us disappear at this point if things went badly. We are too few. Christopher Mesler is a Time Lord, one of the most powerful creatures in the Universe, and I think he's more crazy than most of them. If this story spreads slowly, they'll be able to wipe it out. I need this to go world wide with a splash, without alerting UNIT or ARC, or anyone who would start a war between the US and the UK.

So here is what happens next. Lutessa, I told you about Burning Man. Well, we're headed there now. It's, oh, 45 minutes from here. You're cousin, Izzy Smith is waiting for you there. He has everything you need to assemble a huge TARDIS in the Desert. This thing is going on Youtube. I have quite a few followers on a little website that Mr.Smith runs for me rather anonymously, and believe I can make the image viral in minutes. I happen to know that the rest of the Universe keeps an eye on the biggest party on Earth. We should be pretty far spread pretty quickly. I'm hoping to draw in all the Doctor's friends, and perhaps the Doctor himself. I'm hoping also to scare of the Doctor's enemies using it like a scare crow. I need you to boss this job Lutessa. I need it to happen. I have to leave. There is someone I have to talk to.

The most important thing I need you to do is spread the word, Tess. I'll tell you how to tell them in a way that it will stick. If we fail here, Tess, the human race fails as well, I fear. But we'll go slowly, loosing our humanity in such small increments that by the time we catch on, it will be too late. We need to make lasting stories. Stories that are passed down from one generation to the next in the darkness to come. They will be like a beacon home.

Last but not least, Kenzi, what do you need. What do you want? How can I help you?"

[The First Doctor]

"Jim. From one human to another. Tell me the car is safe, tell me the food is safe. And take the bug off the car, please. You know I'm not plotting against your little girl, or anyone else you care for. Here is my card. Call me any time. I really don't want to talk about anything else right now."

"The car is safe, I promise. So's the food," he smiled his stiff, faint smile. "Well, as safe as the mess hall manages here anyway." A short laugh. "That's a joke, just to be sure."

He looked the car over, watching and listening for telltale electromagnetic radiations. "The only bug on the car is the GPS locator, and that's required on all vehicles from this base."

He accepted her card, and nodded as he tucked it into the thigh pocket of his BDUs. "I will. Drive safe, you hear, and give me a call when you want someone to pick up the car."

Waving, Chris and Jim watched as Sarah and the two girls drove away.

"I keep forgetting what this place must look like to civilians," Jim said.

"You're too close to it," Chris answered. And then his face hardened. "Now," he said, "I want to have a little talk with your base commander. About that little girl."

[Archetype2]

Both girls stared behind them as the car drove away. Kenzi's eyes locked onto the base longer then Lutessa's were. She frowned as Tess looked back and both listened to Sarah Jane speak, hurriedly and straight to the point. A look crossed Tess face which Kenzi caught rather easily, obviously not something Sarah Jane normally did, was she humorous most of the time? Kenzi didn't know but that didn't matter.

Tess was to build a TARDIS and a video was going on Youtube. "I have an account I can upload it to as well." Kenzi pointed out, an attempt to be helpful. "I love, how chill army guys are with searches and lack of metal detectors." she said with a large grin plastered on her face. Hand slipping into the small pocket of the little amount of clothing she had on, removing a strange watch with a black studded wrist band; a vortex manipulator.

[Sarah Jane]

In the dark in the night in the desert with two teenage girls in the back, it was a long road to Black Rock City. She learned much of what Tess had thought of Majestic 12. What she had learned and not learned from Kinzy required much thought, but she figured come what may, Lutessa was enough of a match for her at this point and would do the right thing. She was rather glad to have both of them on board, though she wished so badly she could do something more to protect them with what was to come.

((The story of the goings on at Majestic 12 will continue on this thread. To follow Sarah Jane Smith, Lutessa Smith, and Kinzy, take this link to Black Rock City, where you can be part of the story too!


whoniverse-rp.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=guest&action=display&thread=5381 ))

[The First Doctor]

Christopher Mesler stormed through the base commander's office. Past the security guards, who gave way at the expression of icy rage on his face and at the sight of Captain Hayes behind him.

"Chris," the Captain was saying, "this isn't the way..."

"He lied to me," Christopher snarled, a white-knuckled grip on his cane. "I was told that young woman was a volunteer."

"I'm sure there's-" Jim began.

Christopher stopped and spun in place. "Volunteers don't run for their lives, Jim." His voice was hard and cold and dangerous as metallic hydrogen. "Volunteers don't have strap bruises and track marks like junkies."

"I thought she was a volunteer too," Jim reminded him.

Christopher's eyes met the cyborg's and, for a moment, the cyborg seemed more human. Then he smiled. "I know, Jim."

He spun and shoved the door to General Armstrong's office open, ignoring the orderly's protests of "Hey! You can't do that!"

"Sit down, soldier," Jim ordered. Then he boosted his hearing, concerned that he'd have to intervene in a fight between his friend and his commanding officer.

Raised voices were heard from with in the office. Jim could pick them out clearly. Could hear the icy rage in Christopher's voice, with its odd timbre and unusual accent. Could hear the smug satisfaction as General Armstrong informed him that final research decisions were made by the base commander, not by a civilian scientific adviser no matter how important.

Could hear the flat menace in Christopher's final words: "Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus, General."

Christopher slammed the door as he left the General's office. Jim started to speak.

"Wait here, Jim," Christopher said.

"Chris, you need to calm down," Jim answered.

Christopher stopped and looked at him. "I will. I'm just going to go and clear my head. Just wait here, would you? I want to be alone for a few minutes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'll be right back."

---

Ten minutes later...

Captain Hayes was sitting in the waiting room outside General Wilson's office, talking to the orderly, when Christopher returned. His mood had improved substantially, to the point that he was almost smiling.

"Hey, Chris?"

"Jim," he nodded in reply. "Give me a few minutes - I've got to talk to the General, and then I'll be ready to go."

"Sure," Captain Hayes replied. "Mandy's just about got everything ready."

Christopher entered General Wilson's office. Out of curiosity, Jim boosted his hearing. Christopher was cool and pleasant, expressing his concerns about the treatment of Kenzi - something that he knew Chris had been concerned about. That was why Chris had asked him to meet here when they left the motor pool, after all. He wanted another witness, after all.

General Wilson's voice was a pleasant contralto, as she expressed horror and disgust at what had happened, and promised a full investigation.

Christopher was smiling as he left the General's office. "Ready?" he asked.

"Does the General need to see me?"

"Not right now," Christopher assured him. "She'll probably want a deposition from you later."

They left the offices and then the building in companionable silence, broken only when Christopher stopped by a trash can. Jim watched curiously as he tossed what looked like a regulation name tag i- bearing the last name "Wilson" in the trash, and heard him say "Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus, General."

"What's that mean?"

"Huh?"

"It sounded like you said something in latin."

"Oh, that. It's from Virgil. It means 'But meanwhile it flees: time flees irretrievably'."