Specters

[Archetype2]

She turned around with Sarah Jane, felt herself get pulled into the women to block her from seeing whatever was on the screen. She'd caught a glimps of it just before she'd been turned around. She closed her eyes as instructed and waited while Sarah Jane watched whatever it was Lutessa wasn't supposed to be watching.

Sarah Jane then told Mr. Smith to call some people, there were twelve of them and they were for some reason considered to be majestic. What was so majestic about twelve people? She wanted to ask about them but would save that for later. Listening into the conversation Sarah Jane was instructing Mr. Smith, apparently he had modes of vical tone depending on the situation? That was something new.

She listened as Sarah Jane explained that she had to go to America and asked if Lutessa would go with her. Of course she would, Sarah Jane had asked her and she'd promised not a week before to do as she was asked and told. Plus, she was going to get to go somewhere completely new to her. "Ok." she responded simply before her attention went back to Mr. Smith's screen, which now had the pretty bright colours on it again.

"Oprah had content she shouldn't show." she commented n reference to what she was not allowed to see.

[The First Doctor]

"Mr.Smith, I'll take that report in printout form. No graphics. Just a laundry list with name tags, so to speak."

"Of course, Sarah Jane." Making the requested adjustments was the work of a picosecond or two, and then the laserjet began to spew sheets of paper.

"Ahh! And turn off the telly. Tevo this show for me Mr.Smith."

The show winked out, replaced by a screen saver that randomly shuffled through pictures of nature. Soft music played, an instrumental version of "Veterans of the Psychic Wars". He watched with one small component of his CPU as Sarah and Lutessa talked, allowing the rest to continue trawling for data on Christopher Mesler and anything code-named BLUEBOX LONELY GOD.

It bothered him more than he cared to admit that he couldn't find anything on either subject.

"Mr.Smith, ring up the Majestic-12 in the USA. Nothing clandestine, call through the front desk, and tell them to put someone of authority on who knows who I am, even if they have to take the look me up and study. Give them our Skype number and ask them to contact me that way as soon as possible. Give them Secretary Voice Number One, snootiness factor two. Put it on hush until the Skype comes in, then hold until I tell you to open the line."

"Certainly."

He pulled certain resources from data mining the internet. A signal bounced off a communications satellite into the US phone network and hurtled along the east coast trunk line from New York to Baltimore to Washington, DC and then through into Quantico. A phone rang once, twice, three times....

"Office of Extraterrestrial Intelligence. How may I direct your call?"

"Good evening, madam," Mr. Smith said, using accents captured from Christopher Lee and tones borrowed from Sir Patrick Stewart. "I represent Sarah Jane Smith."

As he spoke, he infiltrated the public communications server and began examining the directory files.

"Yes. And?" the human in the conversation asked.

"She wishes to speak with Dr. Marvin Sambur."

Voice stress analysis indicated that the receptionist was unlikely to connect them. He accessed the e-mail systems, composed a message, and sent it.

"Doctor Sambur is..."

"Never mind," Mr. Smith interrupted. "You've been a great deal of help." He terminated the call.

As he did, the data searches signaled for his attention.

"Sarah Jane?" he said. "I have communicated your request to the Director of Majestic-12, and anticipate a call shortly. There is something else I feel you should see, though. I believe I have located an image of Christopher Mesler."

[Sarah Jane]

"Okay." The girl said simply, stunning her.

"Thanks." She answered, just as plainly, though she found herself deeply, privately thankful. Apprehension rose in Sarah Jane as well, though, for Lutessa hadn't even taken a moment to think before she answered. That was something they needed to work on. Even more disconcerting to Sarah Jane was that she herself had just chosen to take her young ward with her right into danger.

"Sarah Jane?" Chimed in Mr.Smith. "I have communicated your request to the Director of Majestic-12, and anticipate a call shortly. There is something else I feel you should see, though. I believe I have located an image of Christopher Mesler."

"Thank you Mr.Smith. Lets have a look at our Christopher Mesler." She requested, ignoring the image as it came up, for Lutessa made a sudden declaration from beside her.

"Oprah had content she shouldn't show."

Sarah Jane turned and regarded the girl a moment. Already she was seeing changes in her over the past ten days that she had known the youth. It was fascinating to watch the Archetype Mark Two become Lutessa. She was coming out of her shell a little. Sarah Jane was smiling at the her for having made such a firm statement. Nicely bold.

"Lutessa, what made you come to that conclusion?" Sarah Jane was even more interested in the girl's process than her hypothesis.

Mr.Smith had brought up the picture, she could see from the side of her gaze, but Sarah would look in a moment. Humans first. And frankly, Lutessa's intellectual journey was a far more pleasant puzzle for Sarah Jane than the gruesome report waiting for her in Mr.Smith's bin.

[Archetype2]

She blinked at Sarah Jane for a moment as she watched and listened to the thank you the women had given her for agreeing to accompany her to America. That was what she had requested was it not? so since it had been requested she was supposed to say yes, or was she confusing *Request* with *Tell*? It wouldn't have been much a stretch considering the first time she'd answered one of Mrs. Wormwood orders like it was a question...that had turned out not-so-well. She shuddered for a second as a chill went down her spine just thinking about the evil women.

Mr. Smith had interrupted her thoughts, saying he had acquired the image of this Mr. Masters person. She didn't look, wasn't fully interested in who this man was..not yet at least.

She'd said her thoughts on Oprah's show content which had spurred a question from Sarah Jane. Why did she come to the conclusion she had and what had made it so. That was easy: "You said not to look, so it must not be something people should see...or something that Oprah should have," she replied looking at Sarah Jane. "Am I wrong?" she asked, her head cocked to the side in question.

[Sarah Jane]

Those ancient, innocent eyes looked at her with such trust. The girl was as burdensome and as comforting to Sarah Jane a heavy, warm jacket. Was Lutessa the two year old she actually was, the fifteen year old she appeared to be, or the ancient spirit that seemed to live behind those eyes sometimes? The girl had experienced too much of the ugly side of living before she'd found Luke.

"It's not that you're wrong, Lutessa, it's just that you don't have enough information to understand the complexity of the question. Something humans have learned about ourselves is that our brains are different when we are children than when we are adults.

A child's brain is malleable. Tessa, your brain is malleable, and you will be the one who will shape and form it. You can be anybody you want to be. One of the advantages you have over other people is that you will be cognoscente of your choices in a way a baby could never be. Though, everyone chooses, really, it just takes longer for those of us who started out as babies. Childhood experiences help define the adult by, in part, shaping the developing brain.

When I look back at my childhood, I realize that every time I brushed with the sickness of an over-sophisticated society, it left a lasting impression on the very shape of me. Sometimes it has lead to a weakness in me, and I struggle to overcome. That's life.

Adult brains are more resilient. They more readily recover from misfortune. They have to. There are advantages and disadvantages both to malleability and resilience.

So . . . "

She took the girl's hands in her own, realizing she'd been slipping into something like a medical report. She still found herself afraid to truly befriend this girl beyond just mentoring her. However, she felt a wave of emotion warm her as she tried to talk about how she felt. Entirely willing or not, she was starting to really care about her.

"I just want to spare you from anything that might make you weaker instead of stronger, and all I can do is make my best guesses. If Oprah says her content isn't for malleable minds, then I'll take her advice.

You caught me out, Tessa. I said what I said because, resilient mind or not, I didn't want to see what ever Oprah was warning about. Though I think I needed to. Maybe all the adults watching needed to."

Now she let go of one of Lutessa's hands, and put two fingertips to the girl's lips.
"Sleep on it. Look up the words if you don't know them. We can talk about it later. We have work to do."

She released the girl, flashing a smile at her, then crossed her arms and turned to look straight at the picture of Christopher Mesler that had been flirting with her out of the corner of her eye all this time.

[The First Doctor]

Mr. Smith occupied the long minutes of waiting by checking and rechecking his analysis. And by monitoring the local electromagnetic spectrum (Is that a transmat locator signal every time Luxor and Olympus Mons are in alignment? Interesting...) And by reviewing some of the enhancements he planned to integrate at next opportunity (This Archangel Network that Prime Minister Saxon designed. Fascinating data architecture.).

After all. Minutes were going to pass. He wouldn't just waste them.

Finally, Sarah's eyes turned back to the main monitor. He gave the data equivalent of a smile, and multiple images began to populate the screen. Some were grainy stills from security cameras, others were enlarged images from television programs, and still others were simple photographs.

"These are all images of individuals involved in DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics and Proto-2 programs."

Blue boxes were digitally drawn around faces, with lines leading to names and scrolling biographies.

"I have been able to identify every single individual in each image, with a single exception."

Red boxes drew themselves around a figure in each picture. The rest of the image was erased, and the image enlarged. Many were blurred, or grainy, or showed only a part of the face as the figure had moved.

"Biometric analysis indicates that, in each picture, the unidentified individual is the same person."

In a dramatic - and wholly unnecessary - move, the images were pulled together to create a single image. The man revealed was caucasian, with auburn hair and eyes left in greyscale. He was smiling a crooked smile.

"I compute a 98.337% probability that this is the face of Christopher Mesler."

[The Bookkeeper]

A bad day. That's what this was. A bad day. The 'Bookkeeper' could only think of one thing. This day was terrible!

As he entered the British pub, stomping his mud ridden cowboy boots, and wiping off his blue circle-within-circle design Jumpsuit, quite dirty.

He went to the bar, looking at the list of drinks... Hm... The Backbreaker. The Eggknocker. The Guzzle Guzzler. The Special Suzltzer Special. The last one sounded quite appealing. I'll take one of those, he thought, pointing at the Special Sulzter Special. Oops, 'The Bookkeeper' thought embarrassingly. Years of reading had made him un-accustomed to talking freely.

"I'll have a... Special Suzltzer Special." He said, to nobody in paticular. He waited for the mechanical arm to serve him. There was none.

That's odd.


"Lookey here mates! This 'er man thinks 'e can survive the Special Suzlter!" A gruff looking bartender, with a bald head and a Rugby T-Shirt on yelled. "Here ya' go!" He pushed a glass the size of a fishbowl at the oddly dressed Bookkeeper. Moonshine XXX. was the marking on the bottle the bartender poured into the fishbowl.

"You know. I better go." 'The Bookkeeper' said, moving to a chair close to the communications window. Standing infront of it, he said, clearly. "Reminder. Do not order Sulzter." The communications window did not change. It kept on showing a Cyberman. No, not a Cyberman. A human, that had parts of a Cyberman.

"Get out of the way you freak!" Several people shouted. This is a public console! Don't demean me. But, nonethless, The Bookkeeper took a seat on a vacant chair. There was plump woman feasting on chicken wings beside him, but he paid no attention. He stared at the screen. What's this all about...

He looked at the Vortex Manipulator on his wrist. Still there, safe and sound.

Maybe he is suppose to find out more. How... He caught the word "USA" and decided, he would start his search there.

((If you guys don't want me to post in here, I will edit this out. Dont want to intrude.))

[Arian Cadence]

Arian clapped his hands once and gave a hearty cheer. "Ha-HA! Done at last, done at last!" He looked over at the only thing around he could be talking to, a cat who was sitting outside the window. It wasn't his, it was his neighbor's, but this was so exciting that he just had to tell someone, and it's not like Pixxy (odd name for a cat) would tell a soul. He grinned down at the tiny device he'd cobbled together from various alien technology he'd scavenged. He'd used nearly all of it, and the result ended up being about the size of a quarter. Being massively proud of himself, he picked it up and jogged over to the window.

"You see this, Pix? This here thing can detect any technology that's out of the current human range of knowledge. I think. Well, of course it can. Probably." Pixxy did not look amused. Arian rolled his eyes. Peer critics. "Don't give me that look, it's perfectly functional! I mean, SURE it can only pick things up within a range of oh, say, 2 kilometers, but that's useful, right?" Pixxy twitched her tail. Still not amused. "What, what is it?"

After several seconds of silence, Arian straightened up and hit his forehead with the heel of his hand, leaving it there for a few moments to punish himself. "Output. It...has no way to output anything. Right...um, surely I could fit a screen in there, or maybe a little flashing LED light to tell me when I'm close? Or, ooh, maybe it can beep, like a pager! Or..." He looked up at the cat, as if a brilliant idea had just struck him. Then he realized that his audience was 30 feet away, staring up at some birds nested in a tree. "...Ah. Right." He sighed slightly, mourning the loss of his temporary confidant. He sat down in a wheeled computer chair and crossed his legs, looking over at the TV.

Then he blinked some more. Then he grinned. Then he frowned. Then he grinned again. Then the full implication of the news report settled in. "There's...Alien technology in that! There's GOT to be! That's wonderful! It's here, it's really here! And...and..." His grin faded to a look of despair. "And the AMERICANS have it!"

Pacing back and forth, Arian plotted. Surely he could catch a plane over there! But...wait, what would he do then? College student from England takes an impromptu plane trip to America...Where in America would he even go? What state? New York? Washington D.C? California? This plan was quickly falling ap-

Sccht

Arian stopped in his tracks. He looked out the window. Pixxy was still licking her lips and thinking about a canary dinner, quite silently. The noise had come from this room anyway...

Scccccht

He whipped his head around, and his eyes fell on his desk, upon which he'd been tinkering with the currently useless contraption.

Scccht, sccht

Or...not so useless. Arian grinned. The little device was sliding across the table at varying intervals all on its' own. "Well, then, little guy...you're trying to get to some sort of crazy technology, aren't you...?"

A few minutes later, Arian was out on the road, holding the little...er...stuff-detector in his hand. Every once in a while, he felt it lurch slightly, trying to move in a particular direction. That wouldn't be a problem normally, but half the time it was trying to pull him right past a large line of buildings. "Oh, stop it, you! I have to go around...no, no, we can't go THROUGH walls..."

On and on the twisty path led, more than once ending in a dead end and a brick wall, and several false alarms where he nearly knocked on the wrong door. Finally, he came up to one road that the device wanted to go down. He followed it. It was pulling him forward, forward, forward, back. He stopped, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He knew that when he turned around, he'd have found the house in which resided some sort of amazing technology. The detector was going crazy in his hand. He spun and, opening his eyes, saw a tall, red-brick building, flanked by a raised shrubbery over a brick wall. This...was absolutely brilliant. Quickly, he looked at and memorized the street he was on, and the address that was on the door. 13 Bannerman Road.

His heart all aflutter with anticipation, and his little contraption trying to pull itself out of his pocket, he walked up to the door and knocked on it.

(Whew! Sorry that one was so long, but I had some catching up to do! For those not fully versed in Who-lore, I'm at SJS's house =P)

[Archetype2]

She looked at Sarah Jane as they spoke, or she spoke. The older women went back to her researched, looking at the picture of the Mr. Masters person. That was not that interesting but still, she looked as well, memorizing his face as she did. Turning around, she picked up the tea cups and went downstairs to the kitchen.

Moving over to the sink, she placed the cups in there and began to run the water, she'd clean them now so it wouldn't have to be done later. Hearing a knock at the door, she turned off the water and dried her hands. Moving toward it to see who was on the other side. Perhaps it was the rat man from before, she knew his name but had mentally began to call him The Rat man, due to the introduction of the posibility of there being rats in the house.

She could handle this one, she'd handled the first one nicely in the beginning in her opinion. Opening the door she looked at the figure before her, a college student apparently. Something moved in his pocket and it caught her eyes, as observant as she was. "Hello, I feel I must tell you there is something moving in your pocket." she said, jumping right to what needed to be said. "Is it alive?" she asked him, "Because things that move are alive normally." She finished.

A thought struck her and she mentally kicked herself for not realizing it. "I'm doing this wrong." she admitted before clearing her throat and re-trying. "Hello, how may I help you today?" she asked, wondering if she sounded like she was some kind of store worker or not. She'd watched bits of TV here or there, some things about store clerks and receptionists and that sounded very receptionist like to her..

[Arian Cadence]

Arian wasn't sure whether to beam or to frown when the young girl opened the door. He went with beaming, just to keep up appearances though. For some reason, he half expected a straight out alien to open the door. Big, green head, googly eyes, the works. And he got a little girl. Well...maybe she was different in some way? A clone, or something? Pft...clone...

"Ah! Um...yes, hello! I'm Arian Cadence, and I'm here to...um...er..." He looked around and realized he hadn't really planned this far ahead. "Um..." He glanced down at his pocket. The thing was nearly ready to tear through the khaki pants. "I'm...glad you asked about this! It's a...er...detector, thing. It picks up...possible...electrical...shorts. Very dangerous, highly technical stuff. Could start a fire. If I could just look around a bit, I could probably find it for you. I'm not much on fixing them myself, but if I found it I could save you a bundle on an electrician! Those guys charge by the hour, and you could have him in and out in 20 minutes if he knew right where to go!" Arian had no idea how electricians worked.

"So...yes!" He reached into his pocked and pulled out the small, flat circle of metal, holding it tightly. Once a bit of air hit it, it apparently sense freedom or something, so it lurched inward, and his arm flew up with it, nearly hitting the poor girl, but missing by a bit. Still, he lost his balance and stumbled through the door, trying to keep as tight a grip on the thing as possible. It wasn't enough, however, and it slipped through his fingers and flew towards a spot on the ceiling with a light *Tak*, attaching itself and sticking like glue. One familiar with all the facets of the house might notice that it stuck directly below the point where, in the attic above, Mr. Smith stood. "Well...that must be one MOTHER of a short..."

[Sarah Jane]

Christopher Mesler; monster, be he volunteer or victim.

His name showed up again and again after 2009 in files from the Unites States Defense Department, the Majestic 12, and DARPA. 2009. After the "Year of Ghosts" invasion, which just happened to be the last time she laid eyes on a Cyberman. She shivered a little to recall it.

The only other intelligence Mr.Smith could scry up about Mesler was that any additional information on Mesler could only be accessed from an inaccessible computer. It was also stonewalled behind a Top Secret classification. A tap on the keyboard revealed the code word that would get her in if she ever could get her hands on that network-free computer. Mr. Smith was saying something to her, but she didn't hear him. All she could do was read the password before her.

MAJESTIC BLUEBOX LONELY GOD

The letters gleamed back at her large on the screen, and she stood there with her mouth open, mind unusually blank for a moment until Mr. Smith repeated his words. Well, at least they'd be easy to remember.

"Sarah Jane, I said, 'There is an Alien/Human hybrid in the house.' "

"What?" She asked breathlessly.

"It is a half human, half Cygni entity. The Cygni are a peacefully race, and have a certain psychic abilities." Mr. Smith explained.

By the time he was done, Sarah Jane was shutting the door behind her and running down the stairs. She took both flights at high speed to burst into the living room.

First her eyes found Lutessa, there at the door. She seemed fine. There was a young man as well, human at first glance. Early twenties perhaps with brown curly hair, jeans, and a couple of nice clean shirts on. More interesting was his behavior as whatever it was that he was holding seemed to jerk and yearn in his grasp, tugging him a little way into her house. At the end of his struggle, it escaped to stick to her ceiling.

"Well...that must be one MOTHER of a short..." he was saying, sounding dumbfounded. Sounding pretty normal, really.

"Hey!" Sarah Jane said quite firmly from where she stood at the bottom of the stairs.

She strode in, her eyes flicking to Lutessa's, and reaching out a low hand to her, giving a waggle of her fingers, and subtly inviting the girl to come to her.

"I don't recall ordering up an electrician." Her eyes flickered to his shoes, and she gave him a bit of a wry smile. "And your shoes are conductive. Care to explain yourself, young man?" She asked this politely enough, but her tone invited no foolishness.

[Arian Cadence]

Arian frowned at the ceiling. Was this thing on the fritz? But then, why had it led him here specifically? There had to be something about that spot on the ceiling. Or something above it. Or something. He sighed a little as he realized his other problem: He had no idea how to get it down. And then someone else called.

"I don't recall ordering up an electrician. And your shoes are conductive. Care to explain yourself, young man?"

"Who, me? An electrician? Oh goodness no, I'm no good with all that technical hardware wiring stuff. I'm just a guy they hired to go out and find shorts so that the electrician can come and repair it. It's sort of a...advertising thing. We go out and find the shorts that people don't know they have, and they use our services! Now, if you'll excuse me, I need my..." He reached up and hopped up, managing to clutch the thing and pull it down just enough to get his fingers under (or rather, above) it. He came down to the floor, pulling the device after him with some difficulty, trying to force it back in his pocket.

"This little thing is top of the line stuff. Finds shorts and gets attracted right to them. It uses..er...electro-magnetic...super-charged..." He finally managed to force the thing back in his pocket, holding it there with his hand and taking a deep breath. "...technology. See? Absolutely nothing to-" Before he could finish his sentence, he felt the device tremble in his hand, then force it's way out, hand and all, and stick itself again to the ceiling, with his fingers between it and its target. "Yaaah!" He paused and looked at the older of the pair in the room, his hand stuck to the ceiling and his toes barely pressed on the ground.

"You're...not buying this at all, are you?"

[Archetype2]

She didn't flinch as his strange device caused him to almost hit her in the face, it wasn't frightening, just interesting. The boy stumbled into the house, being dragged by his small item. It wriggled free from his hand and stuck to the ceiling.

This made her laugh as Sarah Jane came into the room and was rather...interested. This caught her attention briefly before her eyes shifted back to the devise above them. Reaching her hand up, she tried to touch it, maybe it would go to her? She was made by aliens and the devise didn't seem like a normal human thing, looked kind of like a watch battery.

She stayed though, in her place staring at the circular metal thing stuck above her head on the ceiling. "He's not an electrician." she said softly in a very distracted voice, "he's something else...I like him," she commented, still looking up at the metal formally flying thing. "Is it alive Arian?" she asked turning her attention back to him, He didn't seem like a threat, if he were he would have attacked her already: But he'd hesitated during their talk mere minutes ago.

She looked at Arian as he retrieved his little floating thing and smiled. "I like it, its unique....not normal." she stated in a kind of happy tone.

He asked if they were buying his story and this made her shake her head. "Nope, not really." she stated matter-of-factly. "Good try though." she complimented. Best one I've heard yet, and I met a Rat Guy....who wasn't a Rat Guy, he was a very confusing person at first, tried to trick me too." she stated. "why does everyone I meet at doorways try to trick me?" she asked no one in particular, getting slightly off topic and thinking out loud.

She kept her eyes on Arian, she did like him, he was clever and she liked that.

[Sarah Jane]

Lutessa's delight was contagious and Sarah Jane laughed along with her at the young man's antics.

"He's not an electrician, and that thing isn't a short detector. He is a Human Alien hybrid, the Alien part being Cygni. That race is psychic . His device is Alien technology."

She flashed a smile at the girl.
"No, I don't think he's like the 'Rat Man' Tessa. He is something else."
Sarah Jane looked back to the man, her face more stern.

"So start explaining."

[The First Doctor]

Meanwhile, back in The Fox and Anchor....

The bartender set the fishbowl of rum and vodka in front of the Bookkeeper. "Here ya go," he said. "If you can drink the whole thing in one go, and you're still conscious afterwards, it's on the house. And you get the t-shirt."

He leaned back, a lopsided smile on his face. "'Course, I dunno how a scrawny thing like you'll manage. But there you go."

The momentary excitement produced by the cyborg soldier had passed. Now, all eyes were on the Bookkeeper and the fishbowl.