The Most Toys Remix

[empirical_data]

Who: Data | The Fifth Doctor | Peri Brown
What: Data meets the ancestor of the curator from "Dalek", a Mr. Kevin van Statten, who wants both Data and the TARDIS for his collection and will stop at nothing to possess them.
When: After their adventure in San Francisco.
Warnings and Notes: Related to stuff in infinitychamber, and a redo of the TNG episode The Most

Comments

[empirical_data]

"Looking for its mate, actually. I left it in my coat pocket." The gentle tug at his arm though was enough to finally draw him away from the crates, because he knew her to be right. The more quickly they got this over with, the more quickly they could return, and Data could help finish the matter twice as fast.

Victoria waited for them to nearly catch up, but was getting concerned. After all, if she didn't separate them fully from the TARDIS, it would be on her head and now she had that android to worry about. It probably wasn't even the right one again, though this time the resemblance was more than striking. She moved on in an effort to guide them, before they could discuss and reconsider too much.

The room with the pumps was ridiculously expansive, made to handle the entire underground facility, with enormous turbines that led to tunnels to the outside- none of which were apparently active at the moment. Even the lights were dimly flickering.

As Data caught up to the Doctor, he started to put a hand to the small of his back, to draw some sort of strange comfort from his presence. Instead, he reconsidered. He'd displeased him so much when they encountered the Fendahleen, he didn't wish to associate affection with deflection (though at that moment, the security drawn from said affection would be far favorable to what he was feeling). So he let his hand drop and decided to turn his attention to making sure Peri was close by.

[5th_doctor]

"...and your coat's back at the TARDIS. Oh." She kept her hand on Data's arm for awhile, gaining strength from his presence, as the Doctor was otherwise occupied with the woman and her 'friend'.

The Doctor tilted his head up to take in the size of the room, which gave some suggestion of how large the facility had to be. "First thing's first," he said, eyes never leaving the rows of turbines stilled from some unknown reason. "Show me what powers this place, if you don't mind? Time to put a bit of deductive reasoning to work. We must check and make sure that there's still energy to make those turbines spin."

Peri watched as Data nearly touched the Doctor at his back, then there was that hesitance, that second-guessing. Maybe it wasn't the right time, but she would've welcomed a hug right now.

The Doctor probably would think it annoying and unhelpful. Peri edged close to Data anyway. Not being truly technically minded, she'd have little to do to help with repairs. So, ideally, she'd have been the one most likely to stay in the TARDIS.

[empirical_data]

When she roamed close enough, she did get a squeeze around the shoulders.

"It's over this way." She wasn't guiding him to the actual power outlet though. This was their back-up. Something that they wouldn't mind losing. She opened the door to the way of that engine, with every intention of trapping him in there when she could. Knowing her employer would finish the job as soon as he could.

"Mr. Data, is it? Is that what they were calling you?"

Data turned away from where the Doctor had been led, out of their immediate sight. Though the appearance of the man was very similar to that of another man that he knew. As was the way that he held his energy weapon.

A guard snatched Peri with a heavy gloved hand around her mouth before she could make a sound, and Van Stattan fired, leaving Data to fall stiffly to the floor.

[5th_doctor]

He entered the power room, but halted after taking a few hesitant steps. The conduits, the ducting, even the design of the place didn't mesh with what he'd expected was powering the air systems of such a large facility.

"Why did you bring me here?" His tone and demeanor turned cautious. "It's quite obvious that this area isn't the main power source." He swiveled, staring down the hallway where he'd expected Data and Peri to come through. They didn't.

"My friends. What have you done with them?" He stood at the entrance to the room, readying to run if necessary.

[empirical_data]

"I-" she started, but then the door slammed shut on her as well.

"Kevin!" she shouted, running and smacking her hands against the metal loudly. "What are you doing?!"

"Face it, Victoria, you're getting too old to be a suitable representative. I'll need someone more comely in the future. But, you'll suffice to do me this one last favor." After all, she'd led the Doctor so nicely into his trap, why not be there with him when he were to die. That was assuming, of course, that the Doctor was susceptible to the same gasses most bipeds were.

Victoria scrambled to the back of the engine room, looking horrified as she pried and pulled a panel off the wall that lead to some of the piping.

~*~*~

Mr. Van Stattan turned to his guards, who were in the process of hefting Data up to physically carry off, one of them restraining Peri. "Make sure she doesn't get away, we'll need her to make the android behave when he recovers." If he recovered. Most of them didn't. But the right one would. The one he was looking for would.

[5th_doctor]

After convincing himself that the main entrance to the room was now shut (through thorough examination of the seams along the door), the Doctor switched his attention to Victoria and her panicked attempt to get at the pipes behind the wall. He peered over her shoulder, studying the ducting. And judging by her reaction to being sealed in the room, they'd been suddenly dropped into a great deal of danger.

"Not the most altruistic of benefactors, your employer," he said, sounding about as concerned as he'd be about being caught in a downpour without an umbrella: inconvenienced, but still darkly amused. "Where do these lead?" He pointed at the ducts.

Meanwhile, Peri was trying her damnedest to break free of the guard, who'd taken to wrapping a gag around her mouth. She wriggled her body like she was a landed fish. The guard was strong, though, far stronger than she was, and she only ended up exhausting herself further. Eyes widening at Data's prone body, she could only hope that he'd be okay.

[empirical_data]

"To the air ducts. He's going to fill this chamber with noxious gas and then superheat it to get rid of our bodies..." Said with the experience of a woman who had to participate in the practice far too often, and she was considerably more panicked than the Doctor. "I thought at least he would let me retire."

But obviously she'd been smart enough to look at some ways out, just in case he wouldn't.

~*~*~

One of the guards flipped Data onto his stomach, placing a device on the back of his neck which seemed to stick there like a sort of magnet. The short, less than fit collector seemed giddy with his new acquisition, biting his knuckle as he watched the guards prep the android.

"Take the girl with him. Put them in the display room. The nice one with the tank and the couch. I want to be sure they'll live lavishly." So long as he got what he wanted, that is. With a snap of his fingers and a grand gesture that could easily be described as 'flamboyant' he had his workers heft them up and start to carry them where indicated.

[5th_doctor]

"Most definitely not in the running for Employer of the Year," he said, patting down the pockets of his coat resignedly. "Now where did I...?"

His pockets, though ample and deep, were not infinitely so. He'd probably removed his rebreathing device at some point in the past, which he didn't quite remember.

Ah, well.

He did find his glasses however, and he slipped them on for a better look at the cramped space behind the panel. "So we can either override the command to release the poison, or find a way into the crawlspaces to protect us when the gas is released."

And it was never the easiest solution. "Do you know where the gas will be released? The location of the spigots? We may be able to ride out the initial release if we're far enough away..."

--

Peri thought it bizarre how immobile Data was. Aware that he was an artificial being and could be turned off, she still couldn't shake the feeling off that Data had died and the guards were lugging around a corpse. She couldn't hope to send any sort of message to the Doctor, but as she struggled more, the communicator fell out of her pocket and bounced into some dark corner of the hallway.

[empirical_data]

"Up there..." She motioned to the top of the room, far out of her reach anyway. But she moved aside so that he could have a better go at the passageway. After all, she'd gotten them into the mess, and he was the legendary Doctor. He stood a good chance of getting them out of there.

~*~*~

It was admittedly a nice room they were lugged to. A falsely nice room, where everything looked sterile and too clean. A museum for "homey" artifacts. A strange stylized looking couch that seemed constructed out of huge versions of those packing bubbles against the wall. An enormous salt tank with tentacled creatures beyond the glass (which seemed like they were intelligent, and watched the guards as they entered with as much interest as any person that led a dull, reclusive life would).

There were paintings, cases, displays, a nice little kitchen area to prepare food for whatever was being kept in one of the live tanks, and they placed Data on his back on the floor, and settled Peri on the couch.

"Ungag her," Van Stattan ordered his guard. It was important that Peri should know the gravity of her situation, and what it was that he expected of her.

[5th_doctor]

He lifted his gaze briefly, calculating the amount of time required for the gas to envelop the chamber completely.

Not enough time for him to break through the locks holding the main entrance shut. Therefore they had to flee into the ducts.

"In," he urged her, taking off his coat. "I may be able to stopper the gas's progress into the duct by stuffing my coat into the opening once we're inside, but we've very little time so it would be best if we enter as soon as possible. Please?"

--

As soon as her mouth was unfettered she scrambled towards Data, but her way was blocked by the guards. Turning to the small man who appeared to be in charge (and by the looks of it, he probably had huge amounts of money to his name cos he did not appear like a charismatic leader by any means), she asked, "I-is he gonna be okay?"

She didn't care about what was surrounding her. To her, it all looked fake, like one of those model homes real estate agents showed people around that were supposed to give you some idea of how a real home would look like. Only...they never looked lived in at all.

[empirical_data]

She did so without argument, as it was the only plan of escape that she had. So she crawled ahead, trying to remember which ways led to the turbines and which ways led to the surface. If she made it to the surface, she might actually be able to contact the authorities (or at least that was her plan).

If they didn't complain about the parasitic humans.

~*~*~

"If he's one of the Children of Soong, he should be. They actually 'heal' to some degree. It's fascinating really. Only the thing is, no one has a positive identifying image of one of the Children of Soong. There was just a description left for me in my family records."

He stooped beside of Data's body, but not daring get close enough to touch. "Eyes as gold as money. Just like they said..." He bit his knuckle, grinning behind his hand. "Between this and the box, the box, I just don't know what to think. It's finally happened. I have everything. Well... almost everything. I'll need him to be obedient."

He gave a pointed look to Peri. "I can't really just keep you on as collateral. It's too expensive, and since I'm about to be less one secretary and you'll be less one Doctor, I have a job that you're going to warm up to."

Not a proposition, a decision he'd already made. And not time to think it over, something she would eventually accept and do.

[5th_doctor]

Attempting to cram a tall frame into a small air duct was a chore best left to contortionists. Luckily, the Doctor had met a few. He swung himself into the crawlspace, stuffing his coat behind him to hopefully fend off the worst of the poison. Hopefully, he'd be able to recover it at a later date.

Preferably after the celery had turned back to a normal green rather than the brilliant purple it was now.

"Keep going! We've not much time! That room is air-tight, correct? There wouldn't be any leeching of the gas if we saunter into an adjacent area?"

--

Peri thought she was going to be sick. The way the man fawned over Data like he was some sort of priceless treasure was disgusting. She managed to keep down what little food she still had in her stomach from the reception in San Francisco for Mark Twain (which seemed ages ago now).

"What? What d'you mean? What's happened to the Doctor?"

[empirical_data]

She crawled ahead. "The turbines should pull it the opposite way, through the cleaning filters." She had to think for a moment, before squirming to turn herself and push herself through to another pipe, having to thing about what direction that the air was coming from.

"We should be safe, I hope," that last bit plaintively added, as she tugged herself deeper down a pipe toward one of the large air silos that lead up to the surface.

~*~*~

"That room that he was led into. It gasses and superheats its victims. There's no way out. I couldn't give him the chance to interfere. That was in my family's records too. Take care of the Doctor before he gets in the way. And... now I have his ship, and somehow I have this android." He chuckled, no giggled in twisted delight. "This is the most amazing thing to ever happen to me... I have to go get him some clothes..."

He motioned to the guards to come with him. "Come on. Let's leave them to get adjusted to their surroundings. They'll be here for quite a while."

[5th_doctor]

He had to kick at the sides of the duct in order to maneuver himself around the cramped space. Following the woman was a necessity, as he had little idea of the layout of the place, and she did.

"And what of my friends? Data and Peri. You may go wherever you like but at the very least, do show me where they've been taken?"

--

"NO!" She lunged for Van Statten, ready to slap that smile straight off his face, but the guards held her back. "You think a little thing like poison gas is gonna stop him?" she said finally. "You just did the most dangerous thing in the universe, Mister. You kidnapped his friends. He's not gonna stop until he rescues us, and he's willing to take down this entire facility to do it! Hey, come back here! I was talking..." Her voice went weak. "I was...talking..."

She glanced morosely at the creatures swimming about the tank, suddenly realizing that this was more than a regular room; it was a display case. Sort of like a caged environment in a zoo.

Oh, God. The man collected stuff. And now he's got Data, the most advanced android Peri had ever encountered, and it sounded like he was gonna go after the TARDIS as well. She sighed and settled on the couch. "Oh, Data. What're we gonna do?" Not that he was gonna answer, poor guy.

[empirical_data]

"I don't have any idea..." she said honestly, sliding out into the open area. "I presume he'll lock them in an observation room. I spent three years in one... I have no idea where they're at, actually." She could see far above, a slowly turning fan. It seemed like it would take years to get up there, to that upper maintenance deck. An all day ride on the lift.

"It'll be difficult to get to them. Especially them. More than any of his other possessions. He's been waiting for your ship and that android. I don't think he expected them to come at the same time, but both he's been waiting for..."

~*~*~

"The gas, maybe not. The incineration? Has to..." And he smuggly walked out on her. She'd break. They always broke, eventually.

At least those creatures seemed sympathetic, one of them placing a tentacled, suction-cupped arm against the glass and flickering colors at her. But it turned away, focusing on the android.

Which sat up, almost abruptly. And he patted his clothes, rubbed at the back of his neck where they'd attached that... whatever it was... and then looked at Peri. "Peri, are you unharmed?"

[5th_doctor]

"Ah, I was afraid you'd say that. Considering the circumstances, I think you've every right to turn in your resignation and go in search of a better job."

He scrutinized the fan slowing spinning above them. Too far. There had to be another way.

"What else can you tell me about him? Why does he know about my android friend? And my ship? I've not heard his name before, and yet he's been expecting us?"

--

"Data!" She rushed to his side, embracing him in her arms, her grip fierce and protective. "Oh, God, I thought they'd turned you off forever. I...I mean you weren't moving at all and I was sure that...well, I'm okay. Just a little sick to my stomach is all." And she didn't dare mention the reason why. "They separated us and the Doctor. That man, the one that owns this place? He said he was gonna get rid of the Doctor and of that woman we were with and...and...Data can you break us out of this place?"