Specters

[The First Doctor]

(OOC: If Archetype2 doesn't post by Wednesday, I'll move things along.)

[Archetype2]

She blinked and turned from the ship like object quickly, surprised she had been spoken to. He was curious about what she’d said? What had she said exactly...wait...NO! Not cool, she’d thought the whole dimension thing right? In her head not out loud for all to hear..hadn’t she? Looking over at Sarah Jane she cocked her head to the side curiously then thought about it some more before answering as vaguely as she could manage.

“Dimensions can change...nothing is normally bigger inside then out, separate a houses rooms with walls its still confined within the parameters of hte surrounding foundations....same should apply to a ship.” She explained, turning back to Jim.

She shouldn’t have said that...the dimension thing...it wouldn’t make sense to normal people for her to know that sort of thing. “There would have to be something special done to the ship to cause the length and width of the insides to exceed that of their physical barrier.” The girl explained.

“Someone killed a president?” she asked curiously turning toward Sarah Jane to look at her. Moving forward toward the ship a little more Tess began to speak again. “If this opened around the same time he died....Where did the president come from, what origins?” she asked, whirling around causing some of her hair to fall from where it had been done up..just some of it though.

OOC: Sorry guys, at my friends, don’t have internet at home right now but I will this week.

[Sarah Jane]

For Jim, she had a complex shrug to tell him she was indeed keeping her cards a little close to her chest for the moment.

Such a clever, clever girl Lutessa was. She found herself smiling grandly, being terribly fond of clever people. Each time Lutessa's eyes looked for hers, she is nodding encouragement for this line of questioning. The TARDIS she would explain to her daughter later to the best of her own abilities. The line of questioning about the President was quite perfectly provocative. She wondered if anyone had asked it before. She looked to Jim then, curious of how what he will say. Sarah Jane is looking quite smug.

[The First Doctor]

“Dimensions can change...nothing is normally bigger inside then out, separate a houses rooms with walls its still confined within the parameters of hte surrounding foundations....same should apply to a ship.” She explained, turning back to Jim.

Jim stared at the teenage girl. "That's... uhm... wow. I almost understood that." He shook his head, laughing at himself. "My degree did not prepare me for any of this, let me tell you."

“Someone killed a president? If this opened around the same time he died....Where did the president come from, what origins?”

His voice turned a little more serious as he answered the question. "About six months ago - I'm surprised you hadn't heard. It was your late Prime Minister. Harold Saxon, I think? He was working for aliens, it tuned out, and they killed the President live on national TV. And then your Prime Minister's wife gunned him down."

He thought about her question. "The President was from Texas, and we're pretty sure he had nothing to do with the Sphere." A shrug. "Maybe it was related to the Prime Minister's death, although we haven't been able to get any information to confirm that."

He stared down at the Sphere again, disturbed as always by the fact that it seemed to have no infrared signature beyond what it reflected. "You know, Ms. Smith," he said, "Please don't think I'm pushing, but we could probably get your daughter an internship here. If she's," he shook his head and looked at Lutessa. "Excuse me, I shouldn't be talking about you like you aren't here. I always hated it when adults did it to me. I should say, if you're interested, and if your mother agrees."

He turned, and motioned for them to follow as he headed for the door. "No pressure, I mean it."

---

They were walking down more hospital-style tiled corridors. "A lot of this really is just office space," Jim was saying. "I'll take you through some of them if you want, but you don't get a whole lot of bang for your buck there."

He stopped in front of a heavy steel door, covered with warning signs. There were no guards in front of the door, just a speaker with a button. Jim pushed it. "Captain James Hayes, with two guests. They're cleared by Doctor Sambur."

There was silence for a minute, and then the speaker crackled to life. "Confirmed. Opening the door, now."

Jim stepped out of the way as the door slowly began to swing open. The area inside resembled a maximum security prison block.

"Officially, this is the Extraterrestrial Intelligence Containment Zone. Unofficially, it's been nicknamed the 'creep zoo' and the 'space place'. It's where we keep nonhumans that are too dangerous to allow to go free, but that we won't or can't just kill for one reason or another."

Stepping into the entry hall, he took off his uniform jacket and (a trifle self-consciously) rolled the latex skin up over his left forearm. Bright chrome and dull plastic glinted in the neon lights, revealing servos and actuators. Quickly, recovered a metal bracer from an armored drawer, and clamped it into place over the arm. Then he pulled the jacket back on.

"Regulations," he said, sounding embarrassed. "I'll also have to ask the both of you to leave any weapons, and any tools that could be used as weapons, in one of these drawers. We'll pick them back up on the way out."

[Archetype2]

(I'm making a time lord, maybe we can stick her in the Spalce Place? that would be interesting. I'll PM you guys about it later)

She followed, as they moved away from the sphere. Thinking about this intern word, it meant...work there but not fully, she'd have to look it up for more details or ask. Wait, if you added the letters ET to Intern, you'd get Internet..the worlds search engine. That fact was rather funny in itself..but in all seriousness!

The halls were filled with doors, doors and more doors..so many doors. All office space, so did htat mean they had a large amount of paper work to do? Soon, they reached another room called, by some a space place. A small smile spread onto the redheads face as she heard this, it sounded like a wonderful area! Apparently not though for it held within its confines alien criminals or those listed as to dangerous to be allowed to leave.

"How do you know if they are causing harm of free will, what if what they do is normal communication or action to those of the particular species?" she asked, slight mix of anger and annoyance in her voice. "You may only be interperating it as a threat when it isn't one." she finished, anger still rising...this wwas new, anger such a strange thing, it made her feel odd and clouded her thoughts. "What if they came on by accident and just wanted to leave and by traping them here that has been prevented? If they did get free then they may seek revenge where as had htey been allowed to carry on, they would have left had what I just preposed been the case." she finished quickly and turned around for a moment.

"Isolation is not good for anyone...alien or not." she stated very knowingly. Tess of all peo-ple knew what it was like to be different, to be kept away from humans for one purpose, to be told hte same thing over and over and held in a dark place when her task was not implimented...one spasific Bane-witch made sure of that.

[Sarah Jane]

Jim was good with kids. This was clear, and no surprise after seeing how much his daughter adored him. Sarah Jane almost reached out to stop Lutessa as she neared the entrance to the unknown TARDIS. She stopped herself remembering not to hover.

"Jim, if I thought that thing would do you any harm, I'd brief you on it. As it is, trust me, you are like monkeys with cell phones here, or someone who can't read so they use their dictionary to hold up their wobbly table."

The farther they went into the complex, the more horrified and amazed she was about just how much money had gone into this place. Trust the USA to make a beautiful tool, and then not use it correctly. Sarah Jane had no weapons, and she was curious to see whether Lutessa had, in her estimation, armed herself.

The corridor of Aliens gave her chill bumps, but what Lutessa said warmed her right back up. The more she knew about her, the more she was glad she'd decided to attach the girl to her.

Once again, all she had for Jim was a smug expression and a little tilt of her head that said, 'yeah, what she said'.

[The First Doctor]

"Jim," Sarah said as they left the Sphere behind, "if I thought that thing would do you any harm, I'd brief you on it. As it is, trust me, you are like monkeys with cell phones here, or someone who can't read so they use their dictionary to hold up their wobbly table."

"Oh thanks," Jim said. "You've just cost me ten bucks."

A pause.

"We've got an office pool going about the Sphere, betting on what kind of scientific advances we'll see first if we ever start to figure that thing out."

Another pause.

"I put ten bucks down on 'we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age', so 'monkeys with cellphones' is a lot better than where I thought we were."

Another pause.

"Woulda been a little over $300, though. If I'd been right."

---

Inside the entry way, Jim listened to Lutessa's questions.

"How do you know if they are causing harm of free will, what if what they do is normal communication or action to those of the particular species?" she asked, slight mix of anger and annoyance in her voice. "You may only be interperating it as a threat when it isn't one." she finished, anger still rising...this wwas new, anger such a strange thing, it made her feel odd and clouded her thoughts. "What if they came on by accident and just wanted to leave and by traping them here that has been prevented? If they did get free then they may seek revenge where as had htey been allowed to carry on, they would have left had what I just preposed been the case." she finished quickly and turned around for a moment.

"Those are good questions," he said, opening the inner door. "And I'd love to be able to assure you that we've considered all of that, worked out a simple solution, and were only holding the genuine monsters. Unfortunately, life's not that simple."

He walked towards the first cell. "For example," he said, "there's this thing."

"This thing" was a twisted travesty of a human form. It was pale and gaunt, with spidery fingers and features that looked like a wax statue that had been allowed to melt. It hissed and snarled at them, crouching near the back of its cell.

"Vampire, near as we can tell," Jim explained. "Paralyzes people, drinks blood, doesn't die." He shrugged. "We've tried, several times. It - he - doesn't respond to any languages we've attempted to use with it, and it doesn't speak. It killed a half-dozen people in some rich moron's private alien zoo and museum in Utah - we had to cremate the bodies just to be safe. - and it tries to kill again any chance it gets."

He turned to look at the two women. "It may be here by accident. It may be scared and hungry and only wanting to phone home. But it also eats people, and kills like a wolverine, and it won't die. So we err on the side of humanity, in a case like this."

Leading them further into the "creep zoo", it became obvious that the facility was designed to theoretically hold far more prisoners than it currently occupied the cells. One room held a huge, vaguely man-shaped, bat-winged and octopus-headed and seemingly made out of spinach and agar gel. Another contained a quiescent metal sphere, welded into a form-fitting titanium cage that was anchored to the floor and walls and ceiling by heavy chains. A third contained three beings resembling the popular imagination of the "Greys".

"Harpo, Chico, and Groucho," Jim said. "We brought their craft down in Nebraska." Jim gave them hard looks, and they returned his expression blankly. "They were doing hybridization experiments. Abducting women and extracting ova and genetic material, and trying to manufacture... hell, I don't know what they were trying to manufacture, exactly. Half-human, half-Reticulans, for some reason or another."

He stared at them a little longer. "It it was up to me, I'd have done them on site. But the State Department is using them as bargaining chips, so they sit here and stink of cardboard."

The final cell he led them to was... different. It had a solid door, with a slot on the floor to pass a food tray through, and a small window about five feet off the ground. It was marked with a number of warning signs. "I wonder what they've got in here?" he asked out loud. "Hang on."

Trotting up to the door, he looked through the small window. With a snarl of inarticulate fury, he brought his right arm back and punched through the glass. "Come here!" he yelled, "Come on over here!"

Suddenly, as his arm fully blocked his view into the cell, his mood changed. He stared at his right arm curiously, then looked over at Sarah and Lutessa with some concern. "What..? What am I doing?"

Stenciled on the door, next to the window, were two warnings: "Caution. Contents are classified Top Secret GREEN EYES." and "Silence inside."

[Sarah Jane]

Sarah felt sick and wanted out. The truths and horrors of what Jim knew of the inmates made her feel both nauseated and sadly pleased that they were locked up. However, she could almost start with this soldier the same arguments that she had with Captain Jack. Jim's explanations cut her equally deep with it's truth as the Captain's had. You couldn't expect everyone to be a Saint, though. But the didn't have to be idiots about it, which was the first thing she thought as Jim freaked out most unexpectedly.

As Jim seemed to go mad, she automatically gave Lutessa a hard push away on her slim shoulder, both to get the girl farther away from him and to propel herself at the man whose torment had hit him like a lightening strike.

Almost instantly, it was over, and Jim was retrieving his arm from the now broken portal. She is right there, taking his arm in her hands to see if he has damaged it, in part out of worry for him, in part out of curiosity. Except for his confusion, his badly tracking eyes did not seem wild; did not seem full of rage as they had an instant before almost as though it had never happened. It was clear he was astounded and confused. Her voice is tight and angry, though not at Jim, and not when she inquires as to his well being, examining his arm even as she attempts to draw him farther away from a cell of #$%&# Silence.

"Like babes in the woods. Jim does this hurt?"

She makes a low signal at Tess to stay clear for a moment.

[The First Doctor]

"Like babes in the woods. Jim does this hurt?"

Jim looked at his hand and forearm. It looked horrible - skin hanging in tatters, all the more gruesome for the complete lack of blood, with dull titanium and plastic glinting in the fluorescent lights.

"No," he said, clenching his fist a few times. It whirred gently, and a few flecks of glass crunched and fell away. "It's just embarrassing."

He shook his head, irritably. "GREEN EYES. I should have paid more attention to the warning signs, before looking in. Nobody ever remembers them, so everyone that's cleared for the containment facility is required to memorize the entire file."

He sounds angry at himself. "They provoke murderous aggression in us." He's reciting from memory, now. "Somehow, for some reason, they embedded a psychic command in the Apollo 11 moon landing footage, ordering us to kill them all. According to the file, they say that someone called 'the Doctor' - a name we've classified under MAJESTIC BLUEBOX LONELYGOD - is responsible."

He shakes his head, confused. "The file says that we're actually trying to preserve GREEN EYES, because they've been rendered nearly extinct by that command. The two the file says currently we have on site, are held here for their own protection."

Shaking the last of the broken glass out of his hand, he looks at Sarah. "The file indicates that you worked with this 'Doctor'. Any idea why he'd want to make us commit genocide for him?"

[Sarah Jane]

"It's not your fault. They could have put up a curtain, eh?" she said in response to his clear embarrassment.

This place gave her the shudders hard. Jim's rendered arm right under her nose wasn't helping. She looked up at Jim, sparks in her eyes for his foolishness. For the foolishness of the the USA military. For the judgment in Jim's voice.

"He asked it of the Human race because we were going to loose. It was the only defense." She had not spoken to the Doctor of it, but having seen what went on from the outside, and she still ached for him, for that terrible choice he'd had to make. "He doesn't ask for help very often, Jim." It wasn't as though Sarah Jane could get Jim to go anywhere involuntarily, but she began to lead him, reaching for Tess as well, toward the far door.

"Jim, I want away from these cells right now. Is this the way out. Tess! Don't look back." She said sharply, knowing how curious the girl was.

[The First Doctor]

"It's not your fault. They could have put up a curtain, eh?" she said in response to his clear embarrassment.

"Probably not a bad idea, actually," he agreed. "One last chance to look at the warnings, try to remember the files, and brace for impact. So to speak."

He looked down at the ruined artificial skin of his right arm. His rebuilt face didn't show it very well, but his demeanor projected disgust. "Hell," he muttered. "Three seconds with the GREEN EYES, and I look like the goddamned Terminator." Abruptly, he pulled the exposed arm from Sarah's grip and jammed it in his coat pocket, no longer wanting to look at the whirring, gleaming thing.

And then he noticed the spark in her eyes, the anger his question about the mysterious 'Doctor' had provoked. "He asked it of the Human race because we were going to loose. It was the only defense."

"The only defense?" he echoed, unable to bite back his response. "I've heard that before. That's what this country said, about a hundred and fifty years ago, when they were rounding my people up and herding them onto the reservations..." His voice was bitter.

"He doesn't ask for help very often, Jim."

He started to say something else, then bit it off. "I'm sorry," he said, hesitantly, "It's just... well..." He stopped. "No. I took a cheap shot. I don't know the circumstances, and you don't deserve what I just said."

He looked away for a moment, then looked back. "I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?" He started to offer her his hand, hesitated, and then awkwardly extended his camouflaged left hand.

It wasn't as though Sarah Jane could get Jim to go anywhere involuntarily, but she began to lead him, reaching for Tess as well, toward the far door. "Jim, I want away from these cells right now. Is this the way out. Tess! Don't look back." She said sharply, knowing how curious the girl was.

Jim allowed himself to be led. "Sure thing," he said, "And there's only one way out, so you're going the right direction."

He made the two pause in the "foyer", while he unlocked the clamp from his left arm and returned it to the case. Then, self-consciously, he stripped the tattered remains of the false flesh away from his right hand and forearm, and pulled a leather glove over it. "Michael Jackson," he said with a laugh, flexing the gloved hand. "But it beats Arnold Schwarzenegger any day."

Following the two women out, Jim made sure the door closed behind them. "Right," he said, "Let's find something a little less... intense, shall we? The last two of our deep, dark secrets are Chris' lab and the SPECTERS facility." He made that stiff grimace that passed for a smile. "Your choice."

[Sarah Jane]

"I want to see the rest." She says without hesitation. "But I want Lutessa to be elsewhere. I want her escorted some where that there is something interesting to read, and cookies. Vending machines. Somewhere safe. Alright? Kid, don't wander off. I'll be there in a while.".

"Jim. You don't have to pretend that it's funny because you're embarrassed. Be afraid instead for the lack of wisdom in this place." Now she got in front of him and took him by the shirt. "You have to understand about the Silence. Humans were going to loose. One hundred percent certain. The Doctor gave us the only protection he could." She released him and stepped back. She'd had a few bad moments when they were all brainwashed into killing the Silence. Sarah had been very good at it, and in their midst at the time. The Doctor's choice had been a bit of a sore point with her, and she'd had to defend her old friend even to herself.

[The First Doctor]

"I want to see the rest." She says without hesitation. "But I want Lutessa to be elsewhere. I want her escorted some where that there is something interesting to read, and cookies. Vending machines. Somewhere safe. Alright? Kid, don't wander off. I'll be there in a while."

He thought for a second. "We've got a rec hall upstairs. It's got vending machines. A TV and some video games as well. Oh, and the small camp library. The building is secure, so it's just about as safe as you can get on base."

"Or.." he said thoughtfully, then addressed Lutessa as well. "The other option would be for me to call my wife, and have her pick you up. My house doesn't have any vending machines, but Mandy would love to have you over and Jasmine...?" He made the rictus of a grin that served as a smile. "Well, she'll talk your ears off. But the furniture's more comfortable. It's up to the two of you, though."

"Jim. You don't have to pretend that it's funny because you're embarrassed. Be afraid instead for the lack of wisdom in this place." Now she got in front of him and took him by the shirt. "You have to understand about the Silence. Humans were going to loose. One hundred percent certain. The Doctor gave us the only protection he could." She released him and stepped back.

Her tone of voice was defensive, probably more than she realized, and he could see her agitation in the surge of heat that accompanied increased blood flow. Jim decided to hold his tongue. "Would you mind filling the Director in on that, when you meet with him? It sounds useful, and it could change our official policy towards them."

He looked around. "Anyway," he said, clearly trying to change the subject, "Whether Lutessa wants to hang out in the rec room or over at my place, we'll need to head upstairs. Closest elevator's this way." Gesturing for the two women to follow, he turned and headed away from the containment area.

[Sarah Jane]

"You could use some changes in policy about the Silence. And the Doctor. And how you gather information. Somehow I just assumed the USA was tracking our intelligence as closely as we can track yours."

"Your home is a kind offer, Jim, but this is the only part of the tour I want her to miss. I just want her somewhere in a non lab space because Lutessa-" And she grinned at her now, eyes a spark, for she knew the girl knew exactly what incident she was referring to, "has a tendency to dismantle things when she is curious. Better the candy slots than the containment shields, eh?" She looked to Lutessa's escort. Don't take her far, just where you go to sit down on your short break, please, we'll be back soon enough." She gave the girl's hand a squeeze.

Twenty years ago, she might not have been able to follow Jim to the next house of horrors. Now she strode beside him, taking deep long breaths and girding herself for what else the Majestic 12 had to share. She cleared her throat before she could speak, her voice just a touch stained, though an edge of humor to it.

"Jim, could you try not to do anything foolish this time, please? I am unarmed, and I have round trip tickets I'd rather not see go to waste."

[The First Doctor]

"You could use some changes in policy about the Silence. And the Doctor. And how you gather information. Somehow I just assumed the USA was tracking our intelligence as closely as we can track yours."

"We don't really have a policy about the Doctor, beyond a general sort of 'don't upset him' stance," Jim answered. "Other than unconfirmed reports that he was involved in the collapse of both the Jones and Saxon administrations in the United Kingdom, everything we know about him predates 1980."

His voice took on a tone of exaggerated seriousness. "And I am afraid I can neither confirm nor deny, Ms. Smith, whether we are in the business of tracking the intelligence and activities of the United Kingdom."

"Your home is a kind offer, Jim, but this is the only part of the tour I want her to miss. I just want her somewhere in a non lab space because Lutessa-" And she grinned at her now, eyes a spark, for she knew the girl knew exactly what incident she was referring to, "has a tendency to dismantle things when she is curious. Better the candy slots than the containment shields, eh?" She looked to Lutessa's escort. Don't take her far, just where you go to sit down on your short break, please, we'll be back soon enough." She gave the girl's hand a squeeze.

"Ah, I see." He shrugged. "Well, all we have left is Chris' lab and the SPECTERS facilities. Both are chock full of things to dismantle, though, so maybe we should swing by the rec room. Then we can hit our training and medical facilities, go bug Chris for a cup of coffee - he's always got coffee - and then pick your daughter back up and take you over to see Director Sanbur."

Stopping at an elevator door, he ran a keycard through the reader. A moment later, the doors opened to a soft binging sound.

She cleared her throat before she could speak, her voice just a touch stained, though an edge of humor to it. "Jim, could you try not to do anything foolish this time, please? I am unarmed, and I have round trip tickets I'd rather not see go to waste."

He stiffened slightly and looked away, unwilling to let her see his expression. "I'll... all right," he said, the words catching in his throat. He rubbed his gloved hand before jamming it back in his pocket again, then pushed a button marked "G".