The Scourge of UNIT
Who_Daily Link: < a href="http://persiflage-1.livejournal.com/421701.html">The Scourge of UNIT by < lj user=persiflage_1> (Characters: Eighth Doctor, Liz Shaw, Martha Jones, The Brigadier, UNIT | Rating: G | Spoilers: DW: S3; SJA: 2.11 & 2.12)
Title: The Scourge of UNIT
Author: Persiflage_1
Characters/Pairings: Eighth Doctor, Liz Shaw, Martha Jones, The Brigadier, UNIT
Rating: G
Spoilers: DW: S3; SJA: 2.11 & 2.12
Summary: On their way back from 25th century France, Liz and the Doctor find themselves in early 21st century London instead of mid-20th century Cambridge.
Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine!
Author Notes: Written for the dw_straybunnies Prompt of the Month for March; lost_spook requested The Brigadier in other eras, or other eras with the Brigadier, and specifically mentioned the Eighth Doctor. Since I'd been wanting to write a sequel to Memory (and lost the one I originally started writing owing to a laptop crash), I decided to combine the two!
Timeframe-wise, this story is a tag fic for the Brig's appearance in SJA, and is set after Martha's S4 encounters with the Doctor and Donna, and her stint at Torchwood during S2. From Eight's PoV it's set not long after he parts company with Charley.
Beta-readers: catholicphoton and padawanpooh
~~~~~~
"This isn't the courtyard by my lab," Liz informed the Doctor, stepping through the TARDIS doorway and gazing around in bafflement at the bare grey corridor in which the ship had landed.
He stepped out after her, then turned and locked the door, grinning unrepentantly when she gave him a look that clearly expressed her dismay that they weren't going to step back into the TARDIS and leave right away.
"No, it's not," he agreed. "Still, never mind, plenty of time to get back there." He offered her his arm. "Let's explore, shall we?"
Liz rolled her eyes. "You just can't help yourself, can you Doctor?" she asked, ignoring his arm and setting off along the corridor.
Unseen, he smirked in amusement at her spirited independence, before following in her wake.
"Where are we, anyway?" she asked as he caught up with her.
"Earth, I think," he said, sniffing like an animal scenting the wind. "England, unless I'm very much mistaken."
A moment later they heard raised voices and the clomp of boots, and they exchanged a brief look (Liz's exasperated, the Doctor's rueful) before a squad of soldiers came around the corner, all of them armed. They clattered to a halt, looking surprised and very tense.
"Stop right there!" shouted a female voice; the speaker moved to the front of the group of soldiers. "Hands in the air."
Liz and the Doctor exchanged startled glances as they noticed the woman's cap badge indicated she was a member of UNIT.
"Hands in the air," repeated the woman in an exasperated tone.
"Hello, I'm - ," the Doctor began, stepping forward.
Every single gun was raised and pointed in their direction, and Liz raised her hands, not wanting to provoke the soldiers. The Doctor gave her a sidelong look, then copied her gesture, his introduction unfinished.
"How did you get in here?" she demanded. "This base is on total lock-down."
The Doctor opened his mouth to answer, but she cut him off impatiently. "No, never mind. Higgs, Johnson, take them along to the cells. We don't have time to deal with them right now." She looked them up and down, and Liz saw her lip curl in disdain. "They won't be any trouble."
Liz opened her mouth to offer an angry retort, but the Doctor clasped her wrist and shook his head slightly, warning her to keep quiet for the moment. She gave him a questioning look, wondering why he wasn't dealing with this UNIT captain in his usual highhanded manner.
Turning to the rest of the squad, the Captain ordered them to follow her, and led the rest of the soldiers away in the direction from which Liz and the Doctor had come.
He meekly allowed one of the two Privates to lead them away and the other Private moved behind them as Liz followed the Time Lord, fuming. She was beginning to regret letting the Doctor talk her into taking a trip with him; as good as the dinner had been at the 25th century French restaurant, she couldn't help longing for her own Cambridge flat, and a quiet evening with a journal to read, something restful playing on the gramophone, and a glass of red wine.
"Why's the base on lock-down?" the Doctor asked the soldier who was leading the way.
"That's classified," answered the Private expressionlessly. "If Captain Price had wanted you to know, she would have told you."
"You know, she could have let us explain who we are and what we're doing here," Liz said testily.
"It's none of my business," answered the soldier.
"No, you just follow orders, don't you, like a good little soldier boy?"
"Liz!" hissed the Doctor. "Not now."
She glared at him, then at the soldiers as they were ushered into a cell together in the detention area.
The Doctor glanced around the room, noting the small barred window high up in the wall, and the two neatly made beds.
"Why did you let them lock us up?" asked Liz grumpily, slumping down onto one of the beds.
"Because there's obviously some sort of crisis going on, if they've got the base locked down, and I didn't want to be shot out of hand."
She scowled up at him as he stood with his thumbs hooked into his waistcoat pockets. "Anyone would think you like being locked up," she said accusingly.
He gave her a mischievous smile. "Given I can usually leave any time I like, why would I mind?"
She made a snorting noise and folded her arms over her chest. The Doctor stepped across to the bed and sat down beside her.
"What's wrong?" he asked, a slightly cajoling note in his voice.
"I don't want to be here," she answered, "isn't that obvious?"
"Yes, but I don't know why."
"I don't like being locked up." Her tone was sharp and angry, but he didn't recoil from her, instead he slid an arm around her shoulders and hugged her.
"It's okay, Liz," he said softly. "No matter what's going on, UNIT aren't going to harm us."
He felt the tension in her shoulders lessen and squeezed her a little more tightly in reassurance. A moment later the cell door was unlocked and opened, revealing Captain Price, and the same two Privates who'd escorted them here.
"The General wants to see you," she informed them, gesturing sharply for them to follow her.
"That was quick," murmured the Doctor in Liz's ear as they got to their feet.
"Thank goodness."
He was pleased to see a familiar spark in her eyes as he glanced at her before leading the way out of the cell.
"Lay on, McDuff," he said, with an ironic half bow to the Captain, who merely scowled at him. He tried to make conversation with Price, but she appeared to have taken a dislike to the Doctor, because she ignored him entirely.
They arrived at a door labelled 'Colonel Mace', and Liz exchanged a puzzled look with the Doctor; surely the Captain had said 'General', not 'Colonel'? Before either one could speak, Price opened the door and gestured for them to precede her.
"The intruders, sir," announced Price, saluting smartly.
The Doctor gave Liz a cheery smile, then stepped across the threshold. They both stopped and stared in astonishment when the officer looked around from a low-voiced conversation with a dark-skinned young woman; they recognised him simultaneously.
"Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart!" exclaimed the Doctor, delightedly, hurrying over to lean across the desk with his hand outstretched.
"Hello Doctor, Miss Shaw, sorry, Dr Shaw," he corrected himself, shaking the Time Lord's hand, then offering his own to Liz.
"Alistair?" she said, not quite believing it. When he did he get so distinguished looking, she wondered, and if he was as old as he appeared, why hadn't he retired yet?
"Actually, it's General Sir Alistair, these days," he told the Doctor, but there was a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. "But you can call me Alistair. I don't usually insist on the 'General' or the 'Sir'." He gestured to the two chairs on the far side of his desk. "Sit down, why don't you?"
The Doctor looked at the young woman seated beside Alistair, who promptly said, "This is Martha Jones."
The Doctor seemed to accept this as sufficient explanation or introduction, and immediately asked Alistair about the lock-down that was in effect.
"Unfortunately we found out a few hours ago that we'd been infiltrated," Alistair told them. "By a race called the Bane, who are huge, seven-legged, one-eyed cephalopods in their natural state, but they use image translators to make themselves appear entirely human." He scowled, then rubbed a hand over his eyes, and Liz realised he looked far more tired than she'd noticed when they had first come in.
He explained about Mrs Wormwood, the Sontaran Kaagh, and the intelligence of Horath, and that they'd found out about the infiltration almost by accident. "We know that one of them was pretending to be a Major, Kilburne was his name, but we don't know who else may not be who they seem. We're rounding up everyone and going to do full blood tests to check they're human, but that takes time with so many personnel."
"Can I help?" the Doctor asked.
"Could you use the TARDIS to check for aliens in the building?" asked Martha.
The Doctor and Liz exchanged a surprised look. At first glance Liz had taken the young woman to be Alistair's aide-de-camp, she had a self-effacing manner that allowed her to blend into the background as if she wasn't there. But when Liz looked her way now, the expression in her eyes changed Liz's mind: whoever this young woman was, it seemed that she knew the Doctor, though not, apparently, this particular version of him. Then she happened to glance Liz's way, and her expression instantly became a smooth mask of courteous attentiveness, and Liz immediately found herself intrigued. She wondered how this Martha Jones, who was actually quite striking when you paid attention to her, managed to make herself seem practically invisible so that one forgot she was even in the same room. Liz found herself wanting to talk to her, to learn more about her, and to find out how she could pull off such a trick.
"You know about the TARDIS?" the Doctor asked her.
"Captain Price reported finding a tall blue Police Box in a corridor, shortly after she reported the presence of two intruders," Alistair said. "It didn't take much effort to work out who we had in our detention cells, though I must admit Dr Shaw's presence was more of a surprise."
He smiled at Liz, and she smiled back, wondering at the same time how far into her future they'd come; she hadn't seen Alistair during the decade since she'd left UNIT, despite annual invitations to the Christmas party and the summer picnic; she hadn't been able to face going back, and now she wished she had as she felt chilled by the fact that he was so obviously much older than herself: it made him seem horribly vulnerable. She was used to thinking of Alistair as competent, strong, and at the peak of his career.
"Liz?" The Doctor's soft voice broke in on her reverie, and she saw that they were all looking at her in some concern. She felt herself colouring.
"Sorry," she apologised.
The Doctor's expression was full of understanding, as if he knew what thoughts had been going through her mind. "I was just saying that I would go and run some scans in the TARDIS, to see if there are any more Bane present. Do you want to come with me?"
"Isn't there anything useful I could be doing?" she asked, looking from him to Alistair.
"You could give me a hand," suggested Martha, and Liz agreed instantly, without even waiting to discover what Martha was going to do; she was too eager to find out more about the young woman to mind even passing test tubes, not that she thought she'd be doing that.
"Very well," agreed the Doctor. "Shall we, Alistair?"
He nodded and levered himself up from his chair with the aid of a cane with a silver figure on the handle, and Liz felt her heart clench a little at this further sign of Alistair's vulnerability.
She and Martha followed the two men out into the corridor, but Martha turned right instead of left, leading Liz in the opposite direction to where the TARDIS had been left.
"I got the impression that you've met the Doctor before," she said as Martha opened a door marked 'Infirmary' and led the way inside.
"Not this one," she answered, heading down a short corridor and into a laboratory.
"Oh?"
Martha opened the second door and gestured for Liz to go first. "I travelled with a different Doctor," she told Liz. "If I remember the files correctly, that's the Doctor's eighth body. I know the tenth."
"Oh. What year is this?"
"2008," answered Martha. "When are you from?"
Liz realised that this explained why Alistair was looking so much older. "My current time is the 1980s. I first met the Doctor in the 70s when - "
"He was exiled to Earth," finished Martha, smiling a little. "So you are that Liz Shaw. I thought you must be."
"'That Liz Shaw'?" she echoed wonderingly.
"I've read all the files on the Doctor," Martha explained. "Once they gave me a high enough security clearance, I worked my way through everything." She glanced at Liz. "I was curious."
Liz laughed briefly. "I can understand that," she said. "What's your Doctor like?"
"Tall, skinny and geeky," Martha answered, smirking. "This one is prettier, I think. More Byronic, at any rate."
Liz laughed again. "Yes, he is, isn't he?" Her expression sobered. "Why hasn't Alistair retired?"
"He has," Martha answered, "but every now and again, they insist on 'wheeling him out' as he puts it. A few years ago they made him Scientific Adviser since the Doctor wasn't available, but he quickly resigned from that post. Doris does her best to keep him out of it, poor thing, but one woman is no match for UNIT's senior staff when they've a bee in their collective bonnet." She sighed. "They keep sending him off to Peru for them, despite my best efforts. At his age, and with his health issues, it's not fair to keep sending him half way around the world. It's a wonder he doesn't just emigrate without leaving a forwarding address."
"Health issues?" asked Liz, alarmed.
Martha looked faintly embarrassed. "I shouldn't have said anything," she said. "It's not my place, and he is a patient of mine."
"Oh." Liz swallowed down a sense of anxiety. "What do you want me to do?" she asked, as much to distract herself as anything else.
"Could you give me a hand with these blood counts?" she asked. "I know it's a bit beneath you, given your skills, but it would speed things up while the Doctor's doing whatever jiggery-pokery he's doing."
Liz snorted with laughter. "Jiggery-pokery? It often is, isn't it?"
Martha grinned at her. "Don't tell him I said that, though, or he might get upset."
"All right then." She helped Martha carry several test tubes of blood over to the automated analyser. "This is smaller than the ones I've seen," Liz observed.
"That's miniaturisation for you," Martha answered absently, her attention more focused on putting the test tubes into the device than on Liz. Then she glanced up and smiled. "Welcome to the 21st century."
Liz shook her head, mildly amazed, then went to fetch some more test tubes, while Martha set the machine's controls.
* * * * * *
"It's good to see you're still wearing the same face as the last time I saw you, Doctor."
The Time Lord lifted an enquiring eyebrow as he unlocked the TARDIS door. "When was that?"
"In Malebolgia - that business with Dashwood, his Institute and the Hell Fire Club."
The Doctor smiled. "That was the last time I saw you, too, Brigadier, I'm sorry, General."
The old soldier smiled. "Alistair is fine from an old friend like you, Doctor." He watched as the Time Lord busied himself at the TARDIS console. "You've redecorated this place since I was last in here."
"Oh yes, the old girl likes to change things around every now and again," he answered, without looking up.
"I must say, I was surprised to see Dr Shaw with you, instead of Miss Pollard." Alistair didn't miss the way the Doctor's movements momentarily froze at the mention of his previous travelling companion.
"She decided it was time to settle down at last," he said lightly.
"I'm relieved to hear she's safe," answered Alistair. "She struck me as an intelligent and spirited young woman."
"Oh, she's that all right," agreed the Time Lord, his tone brighter now.
"So now Dr Shaw is travelling with you?"
"Only temporarily." The Doctor looked up from his task. "We bumped into each other in Cambridge, and I talked Liz into going for dinner at a lovely restaurant I know in 25th century France, so we could catch up." He smiled ruefully. "I was supposed to take her straight back to Cambridge, but we - got diverted."
"It's a wonder she didn't box your ears for you," Alistair observed, his eyes bright with amusement.
The Time Lord laughed softly. "She still might! What about you, though? I've never known you have an assistant before. Is that in deference to your advancing years or your rank?"
"You mean Dr Jones? She's not my assistant. She's a senior Medical Officer."
"Senior?" queried the Doctor. "She's much too young, surely?"
"In chronological terms, perhaps, but not in terms of field experience. She spent time travelling with one of your future selves - not that I've met the fellow. Had a rather harrowing time of it, unfortunately, and decided to come back and finish her studies. You - well, her Doctor, recommended her to UNIT, and they took her on. She's been with us for about a year now."
The Time Lord winced. "Having a 'harrowing time' doesn’t sound like much fun. It's a wonder she's talking to me."
"It wasn't you," Alistair pointed out. "Anyway she once told me that while she wouldn't want to repeat the experiences, she doesn't regret travelling with you - I don't think you can ask for more than that, in the circumstances."
The Doctor gave him a considering look. "Do you know what Martha went through?"
Alistair nodded. "I do. It's in Martha's personnel file, highly classified of course, but anyway she's talked to me about it."
The Time Lord opened his mouth, then closed it again, shook his head and turned his attention back to the TARDIS scanners. "Have you got any aliens in custody?" he asked after a moment.
"None," answered Alistair. "Why, have you found more of them?"
"I've found four signals that aren't human. No, hang on - " He broke off, scowling at the scanner. "There are three other definite non-humans in the building, and one that seems to be masked somehow - as if it's not fully alien or fully human." He straightened up and gave his old friend a concerned look. "What's a human-alien hybrid doing working for UNIT?"
"I wasn't aware that one was," answered Alistair, "but then again, I'm not here all the time." He scowled briefly. "They just call me in every now and again when there's trouble."
The Doctor rubbed a hand over his face. "I think I had better rig up a portable scanner so we can track these people down more quickly." He straightened up. "Could you come and give me a hand? It will be quicker if I've got someone to hold things or pass me things."
Alistair smirked. "And tell you how brilliant you are?"
The Doctor uttered a short, sharp laugh, recalling what the Brigadier had told him after Liz had resigned from UNIT. "Yes, if you like," he answered, eyes alight with amusement. "Come on, old friend."
Alistair followed the Doctor across the control room of the TARDIS and into a maze of corridors; he freely admitted to himself that he was curious to see more of the Doctor's remarkable ship.
* * * * * *
Leaving the analyser to work, Martha and Liz had the next group of UNIT personnel brought to the Infirmary where they and two nurses began taking more blood samples. As there were several hundred people at the base, it would take a minimum of a couple of hours to run a complete blood count for every single person, but they could at least run the tests through the analyser in batches.
"Why are we doing this if the Doctor's scanning for aliens?" asked Liz, about half an hour later.
"Because I want full blood counts for every single person on record, in case something like this ever crops up again. This way, if anyone is suspected, for example of being infected or possessed by an alien, we've got something to check their Complete Blood Counts against." Martha straightened up from loading the latest batch of test tubes into the machine and rubbed the small of her back. "Coffee?"
Liz nodded, and Martha led the way into an office that adjoined the lab. "Take a seat," she said, gesturing at a pair of comfortable-looking armchairs in one corner.
"Thanks." Liz, however, wandered over to look at the full bookcase against one wall, curious to learn more about this young woman.
"Milk and sugar?" asked Martha, busy with the coffee maker.
"Just milk, please. You seem to have a wide range of interests," she observed, still looking at the titles ranged on the shelves: there were all the medical books which Liz would have expected, but there were also books on quantum physics, astronomy, particle physics, ethnography and social anthropology. There are also a number of Lonely Planet guides, Liz observed, and the ones for Japan, New York, and Geneva looked particularly well-used.
"Blame the Doctor," Martha said, holding out a plain blue mug full of coffee. "Well, it's not entirely down to him, but my experiences with him definitely broadened my interests, and working for UNIT's given me even more areas of interest."
She moved away from the bookcase to sit in one of the armchairs, and Liz joined her. "What was it like, travelling in the TARDIS?"
"Exhilarating, terrifying, amazing, intense." Martha pulled a face. "It's not easy to describe to someone else. There were some brilliant times, which I never wanted to end, and some that couldn't end quickly enough."
Liz wanted to ask more, but realised she didn't want to appear too intrusive. Martha seemed to know what she was thinking, however, because after a couple of mouthfuls of coffee she spoke again.
"One of the most amazing things was meeting Shakespeare in person," she said. "Also, we got stuck in 1969 for a few weeks without the TARDIS, which might not sound like fun, but I'd only ever heard about the Swinging Sixties before." Liz smiled, seeing Martha's reminiscent grin. "But the worst thing - and you can't mention this to the Doctor, ever - was when some madman turned the TARDIS into a paradox machine and tried to destroy the Earth. He captured the Doctor and a friend of ours called Jack Harkness, and my family as well, and - " She broke off, dropping her eyes to her coffee mug.
"You don't have to tell me, if you'd rather not," Liz said quietly, reaching over to clasp Martha's wrist for a moment.
She looked up again. "I don't think I should," she said. "You might accidentally let something slip to the Doctor, and that would be a really bad thing."
Liz nodded her understanding. "All right."
"I'd be interested to hear about your work, though," Martha prompted.
Liz smiled, then began telling Martha all about her latest research project. She was impressed by Martha's questions - for someone who'd trained as a medical doctor, she seemed to have a good grasp of physics.
After about twenty minutes she put down her empty coffee mug on the table. "I should think that analyser's finished by now, hasn't it?"
Martha set down her own mug. "Almost certainly," she agreed, getting to her feet.
Half an hour later, as they were in the process of taking more blood samples in the Infirmary, the Doctor and Alistair came through the doors, the Time Lord carrying a Heath-Robinson sort of gadget which was beeping rapidly.
"No one move," ordered Alistair in a parade-ground voice, startling everyone.
"There are at least two other non-humans in this room," announced the Doctor, not lifting his eyes from the dials on the gadget. At his words, one of the sergeants bolted for the doors, but Alistair expertly stuck his cane between the man's legs, tripping him up. He then pressed the tip of his cane to the back of the sergeant's neck.
"I said, no one move," he repeated sternly.
Liz was quite startled by Alistair's actions; somehow she hadn't expected this older man to respond so quickly.
"Duffy, Jackson, pick him up and take him to the detention cells," Martha ordered, waving two of the other Sergeants over to the downed man.
They obeyed and hauled their erstwhile colleague up from the floor, then led him out, each man tightly gripping his upper arm to ensure he couldn't make a second bolt for freedom.
The Doctor's gadget continued to beep, but it was considerably quieter now that Sergeant Pearce had been removed.
"Who's the other non-human?" asked Alistair, staring around the room at the watching personnel.
"I'm not sure," answered the Time Lord, "the signal's not very strong. It must be the human-alien hybrid, I mentioned."
"A what?" asked Liz worriedly. She glanced at Martha, who was looking puzzled.
Everyone watched as the Doctor began to move around the room, methodically scanning each individual in turn. He reached the spot where Martha and Liz were standing and was beginning to turn away, looking baffled, when his gadget began to beep more loudly again. He turned back, staring in startlement at the two women.
"Dr Jones," he said, pointing the device right at her, the beeps running together into one continuous tone, "you don't appear to be entirely human."
She sat down abruptly, looking startled. "Oh," she said faintly.
"Preposterous!" exclaimed Alistair, striding across the room to join them. "Doctor, your machine must be malfunctioning."
"It's not," he responded. "Dr Jones, could you come with me to the TARDIS please?"
"What are you going to do to her?" demanded Liz, shocked. She was remembering her earlier observation of Martha, how she'd seemed to blend into the background, and wondering uncomfortably if that was a non-human trait after all.
"I'm going to run some scans in the TARDIS' medical lab, which has far more advanced equipment than anything here" he answered, his tone a trifle impatient. "I want to ascertain the exact genetic make-up of Dr Jones."
"I'm coming with you," said Alistair immediately.
"So am I," responded Liz.
The Doctor looked from one to the other, and blew out his breath heavily. "I'm not going to hurt Dr Jones," he said, his tone more impatient now. "But come if you want to."
He looked down at Martha, who got to her feet without prompting, and followed the Time Lord out of the Infirmary; Liz noticed that she didn't meet anyone's eyes, but her head was held high. Liz exchanged a worried look with her old friend, then they followed the Doctor; Alistair paused in the doorway to tell the remaining personnel that all the Bane infiltrators had been located and put in detention, and ordering them to return to their duties.
"This base remains on lock-down," he said. "And I'll remind you that that means we are still incommunicado."
The four made their way to the TARDIS in silence, and the Doctor led the way through the corridors to the medical lab.
"Would you mind hopping up here please?" the Time Lord asked, patting an examination bed.
Martha bent to remove her boots, then sat on the bed. "Do you want me to lie down?"
"Yes please."
Liz and Alistair watched from the doorway as the Doctor began tapping on a control pad alongside the exam bed. Liz slipped her hand into Alistair's and squeezed his fingers gently, aware that he seemed to be very fond of Martha. She felt him return the pressure of her fingers, but his eyes were fixed firmly on what was happening across the room.
A pale green light washed slowly over Martha's body, travelling from head to foot, and they both guessed that the TARDIS was scanning her. The Doctor made a thoughtful noise, bending closer over the screen on the control pad, before straightening up again.
"Thank you," he said courteously. "You can sit up."
"Well, what's the news Doctor?" asked Alistair.
He rubbed a hand over his face, before answering. "I'm assuming, Dr Jones, that you don't have any Time Lords in your family?"
"No," she answered.
"And you're not pregnant," he observed, making it a statement not a question.
"Certainly not," she answered, her tone sharper now.
"And yet you have Time Lord DNA mixed in with your human DNA," the Doctor said. "Do you have any idea how rare that is?"
Martha shrugged. "No idea," she said. "But I have an idea how it got there."
"Really?" asked Liz, involuntarily.
"The first day I met the Doctor he carried out a genetic transfer - he wanted to confuse some Judoon who were chasing us through the hospital where I was working and he was pretending to be a patient." She looked from Liz and Alistair's amazed expressions to the Doctor's more puzzled face. "Some time after that, the Doctor and I got trapped inside a sonic microfield manipulation device and it was switched on. I'm assuming the two things in combination have somehow affected my DNA, given what it did to the DNA of the machine's creator."
"Yes, yes!" exclaimed the Doctor excitedly. "The sonic microfield manipulation device would have used hypersonic soundwaves to create a state of resonance which destabilised your cell structure. And a metegenic program could then have hacked into your genome, manipulating the coding in the protein strands and combining them with the Time Lord DNA."
Martha was looking thoughtful, Liz noticed. "What is it?" she asked.
"Well, I've just remembered that we had a spate of apparently random murders that weren't so random after all - people who'd been involved in clinical trials for a company called Pharm, that's with a 'Ph' as in pharmacological, were being killed to hide the evidence of the Pharm's illegal use of aliens to make their wonder drug, Reset." She glanced at their expressions, Alistair's grim, Liz's shocked, and the Doctor's appalled. "Reset does just what the name suggests, it resets the human body to perfect health, like resetting the hard drive on a computer to factory defaults. But if it's given to a healthy subject who happens to have some Time Lord DNA mixed in with their own, I'm guessing that odd things will happen to the subject's DNA?"
The Doctor gaped at her. "Are you saying you were given this Reset drug?"
Martha nodded. "UNIT was investigating the deaths because the victims' medical records were being systematically wiped out at the same time as the murders were carried out - it was just too suspicious to be mere coincidence. Anyway, I liased with Torchwood, in Cardiff, and posed as a student who wanted to earn some extra cash by participating in a medical trial for Reset." Her expression grew rueful. "Unfortunately, Copley, the head of Pharm, caught me snooping and worked out that I was with Torchwood, so he administered the drug without my consent, having discovered that my lymphatic system was, in his word, 'funky', owing to my travels in the TARDIS."
"Ah, yes, the artron energy exposure does tend to have a very mild effect on human beings," agreed the Doctor.
"What?" asked Liz, startled.
"Not now." He waved away her question, his attention still on Martha. "Do you have any data on this Reset drug?"
She nodded. "It's all in the UNIT intel database."
"Good, good. I'll need access to it, and then I'll have a better idea of what the changes to your DNA mean to you."
"Doctor, what do you mean?" asked Alistair worriedly.
"Well, for example, Dr Jones may have limited regenerative powers, which - "
"Regeneration?" interrupted Alistair, startled.
"I doubt Martha will find herself waking up in a new body," the Doctor answered, his tone betraying his impatience at the interruption. "It's more likely that she'll find her immune system is better at fighting off infections, or that she heals must faster from injuries, or both. I won't know until I've done some more detailed tests and analysis, and looked at the data on the Reset drug." He gave Martha an expectant look.
"I presume the TARDIS can access the UNIT computer network?" Martha asked.
"Of course."
She looked at Alistair, who was still standing near the door, Liz next to him. "Do I have your permission to give the Doctor access to the UNIT intelligence database, Sir?" she asked, her tone formal.
"You do," agreed Alistair.
She nodded, and Liz thought she looked both nervous and intrigued, which Liz could understand. She wasn't sure if she'd be more nervous or more intrigued were she in Martha's shoes; as a scientist, it was a fascinating idea, but as an individual, the thought of having Time Lord DNA mixed with her own, and its possible side effects, was rather more nerve-wracking.
The Doctor led the way out of the medical lab and back to the control room, where he and Martha set up a wireless connection between the TARDIS' computer and UNIT.
"I'd better go and deal with those Bane we found," Alistair said, sounding more weary now.
"What will you do with them?" asked Liz curiously.
"We found their ship, out near the Black Archive," Alistair answered. "I'm hoping that now they know we know they're here, they'll leave without much fuss."
"I'll come and talk to them," the Doctor said. "It'll give me something to do for a few minutes while the old girl downloads the data I need."
The two men walked out together, and Liz moved to Martha's side next to the console. "Are you okay?" she asked quietly.
Martha ran a hand over her face. "Yeah," she said. "It seems his bedside manner is never good." Her tone was rueful but she gave Liz a smile, albeit a shaky one, before continuing. "I won't say it's not a bit of a shock, but it's not as if any of those things happened to me without my being aware. I meant to ask the Doctor - my Doctor - about it when I saw him recently, but in all the hoo-ha with the Sontarans and everything, I just forgot."
"Have you been injured since you were given the Reset?"
She shook her head. "I actually don't go out in the field that often - despite all the field experience I gained when I was travelling in the TARDIS - and if I do, I'm usually safely at the back, with the rest of the medical staff. Although - " She broke off, looking thoughtful.
"Although?" prompted Liz.
"Well, I was just thinking, I don't recall having even a cold since I was given the Reset - and just about everyone gets a cold at least once a year, that's part of the reason why it's called the common cold."
"Maybe that's a side-effect of the Time Lord DNA, then?" Liz suggested. "It's boosted your immune system and stopped you from getting sick."
"Seems like it," Martha answered, biting her bottom lip absent-mindedly.
Just then the Doctor came back into the TARDIS, looking rather pleased with himself. "That's them dealt with," he said in satisfaction. "Liz, would you mind going to give the Brig-, I mean Alistair, a hand while I run these tests, please?"
Liz glanced at Martha, who smiled. "If you're with him, he'll be less likely to try to overdo it," she said. "And I know he'd be glad of a chance to talk with you."
Liz nodded, then went out, and the Doctor began reading through the data the TARDIS had downloaded.
"I was just telling Liz that I don't remember having a cold since I was given the Reset," Martha observed as he straightened up again.
"No, you wouldn't have done," he answered. He smiled and gestured to the ship's interior. "Shall we?"
Martha nodded and followed him back to the medical lab again.
"Now, unfortunately, I can't do any really interesting tests on you to prove the specific impact of the Time Lord DNA on you, at least, not without hurting you."
Her eyebrows rose. "I'm glad to hear you're not proposing to shoot or otherwise injure me," she commented dryly.
He gave her a self-mocking smile. "I'm under strict instructions from Alistair to look after you," he said as she sat up on the examination bed again. "You've made a big impression on him, you know. The only other people I know who've ever made that kind of impression on him were Liz and Sarah Jane."
"I'm flattered to be in such good company," she said.
"You know Sarah Jane?" he asked.
"Yes, UNIT helps her out occasionally when she asks for our assistance. I think that Alistair wishes she'd ask more often, but you know Sarah Jane - she's a very independent person."
The Doctor nodded. "She always has been."
She sat patiently while he took a blood sample, and a small lock of her hair in order to run various tests on her DNA. Eventually, he straightened up and looked at her, his blue eyes thoughtful.
"This is a bit of a personal question," he began. "But I'd appreciate an honest answer. Are you in a relationship at the moment?"
Martha blinked, then looked down at her bare left hand. "Not any more," she answered quietly.
"I'm sorry," he said softly, sensing it was a sensitive issue. "I asked because I'm concerned about possible complications if you were to become pregnant. However, it's not an issue at the moment, so we'll worry about crossing that bridge when we come to it."
"All right."
He noticed that she wouldn't meet his eyes, and he moved to sit beside her on the exam bed. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked quietly.
"To you?" she asked, startled.
He frowned. "You sound surprised."
"Well, yes," she agreed. "You, I mean the Doctor I know, he's not big on talking about personal relationships."
His frown deepened. "Well, I suppose it's true that certain of my incarnations have been less forthcoming on such matters. But I'm willing to listen, if you want to talk. But we don't need to stay here - we can go and have a cup of tea in the kitchen, or take a walk in the Arboretum, wherever you think you'll be comfortable."
"The thing is, though, that if I'm to explain how my last relationship ended, I'd need to explain how it started, and to do that I'd need to tell you about my time with your future self." She pulled a face. "I don't think that would be a good idea, somehow, do you?"
He gave her a rueful smile. "Probably not, no," he agreed. "Very well, then." He put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer, and after a moment she leant against him.
"Alistair said that you'd had a harrowing time of it when you were with me," he said quietly. "I'm very sorry about that."
"It's not your fault," she said. "And it wasn't all entirely his fault, either. I mean, I know what was behind a lot of his behaviour towards me, and I can forgive him for a lot of it. In many ways I came into his life at the wrong time."
He kissed her temple. "I'd like to make it up to you, if you'd let me," he said.
Martha straightened up and looked at him warily. "How?"
"Come with me for a little while," he said. "I'm not sure if Liz is going to stay with me, or insist on going back to Cambridge, but either way, I'd enjoy your company."
"Wouldn't that be a bit dangerous?" she asked. "Or horribly paradoxical?"
He smirked a little. He could see she was interested, for all she was trying to hide it. "It would only be paradoxical if I didn't know you'd travelled with a later incarnation of me. And travelling with me always entails some danger, but you travelling with me now isn't any more dangerous than if we'd never met before."
"I think I'd better speak to Colonel Mace and Sir Alistair before I make a decision," Martha said.
"Oh yes, where is Colonel Mace? We met you and Alistair in his office, but there was no sign of him."
"He's been at the Black Archive," she answered. "Major Kilburne was stationed there, so Colonel Mace has been overseeing matters there."
"Do you know for a fact there are no Bane out there?"
She nodded. "I checked everyone there before we came back here to begin the blood tests."
"Shall we go and find Alistair, then, and see what he says?"
Martha gave him a smile and slid down off the bed, and they in search of Alistair and Liz. They found the two friends in Colonel Mace's office, deep in conversation.
"Hello Alistair, Liz," the Doctor said cheerfully. "I've asked Martha to travel with me for a bit, what do you think?"
Liz could tell he was expecting a positive response - experience didn't seem to have taught him that other people were quite capable of thwarting his plans. "Since Martha already knows what TARDIS travel's like, at least she'll be prepared," she answered, smirking a little at the surprised look this earned her from the Time Lord.
"If it's what Martha wants," Alistair said, "I'm sure UNIT can manage without her for a time."
"I'd better talk to Colonel Mace," she said, "since he's my immediate superior."
Alistair nodded. "That would be best."
"I'll go and use the phone in my office." She went out.
"What about you, Liz?" asked the Doctor. "Are you going to come with us, or do you still want me to take you back to Cambridge?"
"I think I'd prefer to go back to Cambridge," she answered. "I've got a lot of research work waiting to be completed."
To her relief, he didn't ask her if she was sure, he just nodded, his expression a little disappointed.
Before the conversation could falter into an uncomfortable silence, Martha came back into the room. She glanced from Alistair to the Doctor, her expression neutral. "Colonel Mace has agreed I can take some leave, if I wish to go with you," she told the Time Lord.
"And do you?" he asked, his tone unmistakably hopeful to Liz's ears.
"Yes." She smiled shyly, and the Doctor immediately stood up and hugged her, startling an 'Oof' out of her.
"Thank you." He grinned at her.
"I can't help being curious," she admitted.
"I'll do my best to keep it from being a harrowing experience," he promised. "Right, Sir Alistair, we'd better be off."
"Very well, Doctor." He got to his feet, and followed the Time Lord back to the TARDIS, Liz and Martha walking ahead of the two men.
"Make sure you look after Dr Jones," Alistair said. "I will be very disappointed in you otherwise."
The Doctor gave him a salute, but his eyes were full of laughter. "I'll do my very best, sir."
Alistair shook his head, then stood by as the Time Lord unlocked the door of his ship.
"Don't let UNIT's top brass run you ragged in my absence," Martha said, looking up into his face.
"I'll do my best, Dr Jones. And don't let the Doctor make you run after him too much, eh?"
She laughed. "I'll do my best, Sir Alistair," she promised. She held out a hand but he shook his head and pulled her into a quick hug.
"Come back safe and sound, please," he said softly.
Martha nodded, then stepped into the TARDIS, leaving Liz to make her own farewell.
"Well, Dr Shaw, it's been very nice to see you again. I wish you well in all your work."
"Thank you." Liz hesitated a bare moment, then hugged him. "Take good care of yourself, please."
"You too." He looked surprised when Liz kissed him briefly on the cheek, but merely smiled in response as she stepped into the ship as well.
The TARDIS groaned and ground its engines in its customary fashion, then dematerialised.
"Travel safely," Alistair said quietly to the empty corridor, before turning and making his way back to the Colonel's office. He looked forward to hearing about Martha's travels when she returned.
Title: The Scourge of UNIT
Author: Persiflage_1
Characters/Pairings: Eighth Doctor, Liz Shaw, Martha Jones, The Brigadier, UNIT
Rating: G
Spoilers: DW: S3; SJA: 2.11 & 2.12
Summary: On their way back from 25th century France, Liz and the Doctor find themselves in early 21st century London instead of mid-20th century Cambridge.
Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine!
Author Notes: Written for the dw_straybunnies Prompt of the Month for March; lost_spook requested The Brigadier in other eras, or other eras with the Brigadier, and specifically mentioned the Eighth Doctor. Since I'd been wanting to write a sequel to Memory (and lost the one I originally started writing owing to a laptop crash), I decided to combine the two!
Timeframe-wise, this story is a tag fic for the Brig's appearance in SJA, and is set after Martha's S4 encounters with the Doctor and Donna, and her stint at Torchwood during S2. From Eight's PoV it's set not long after he parts company with Charley.
Beta-readers: catholicphoton and padawanpooh
~~~~~~
"This isn't the courtyard by my lab," Liz informed the Doctor, stepping through the TARDIS doorway and gazing around in bafflement at the bare grey corridor in which the ship had landed.
He stepped out after her, then turned and locked the door, grinning unrepentantly when she gave him a look that clearly expressed her dismay that they weren't going to step back into the TARDIS and leave right away.
"No, it's not," he agreed. "Still, never mind, plenty of time to get back there." He offered her his arm. "Let's explore, shall we?"
Liz rolled her eyes. "You just can't help yourself, can you Doctor?" she asked, ignoring his arm and setting off along the corridor.
Unseen, he smirked in amusement at her spirited independence, before following in her wake.
"Where are we, anyway?" she asked as he caught up with her.
"Earth, I think," he said, sniffing like an animal scenting the wind. "England, unless I'm very much mistaken."
A moment later they heard raised voices and the clomp of boots, and they exchanged a brief look (Liz's exasperated, the Doctor's rueful) before a squad of soldiers came around the corner, all of them armed. They clattered to a halt, looking surprised and very tense.
"Stop right there!" shouted a female voice; the speaker moved to the front of the group of soldiers. "Hands in the air."
Liz and the Doctor exchanged startled glances as they noticed the woman's cap badge indicated she was a member of UNIT.
"Hands in the air," repeated the woman in an exasperated tone.
"Hello, I'm - ," the Doctor began, stepping forward.
Every single gun was raised and pointed in their direction, and Liz raised her hands, not wanting to provoke the soldiers. The Doctor gave her a sidelong look, then copied her gesture, his introduction unfinished.
"How did you get in here?" she demanded. "This base is on total lock-down."
The Doctor opened his mouth to answer, but she cut him off impatiently. "No, never mind. Higgs, Johnson, take them along to the cells. We don't have time to deal with them right now." She looked them up and down, and Liz saw her lip curl in disdain. "They won't be any trouble."
Liz opened her mouth to offer an angry retort, but the Doctor clasped her wrist and shook his head slightly, warning her to keep quiet for the moment. She gave him a questioning look, wondering why he wasn't dealing with this UNIT captain in his usual highhanded manner.
Turning to the rest of the squad, the Captain ordered them to follow her, and led the rest of the soldiers away in the direction from which Liz and the Doctor had come.
He meekly allowed one of the two Privates to lead them away and the other Private moved behind them as Liz followed the Time Lord, fuming. She was beginning to regret letting the Doctor talk her into taking a trip with him; as good as the dinner had been at the 25th century French restaurant, she couldn't help longing for her own Cambridge flat, and a quiet evening with a journal to read, something restful playing on the gramophone, and a glass of red wine.
"Why's the base on lock-down?" the Doctor asked the soldier who was leading the way.
"That's classified," answered the Private expressionlessly. "If Captain Price had wanted you to know, she would have told you."
"You know, she could have let us explain who we are and what we're doing here," Liz said testily.
"It's none of my business," answered the soldier.
"No, you just follow orders, don't you, like a good little soldier boy?"
"Liz!" hissed the Doctor. "Not now."
She glared at him, then at the soldiers as they were ushered into a cell together in the detention area.
The Doctor glanced around the room, noting the small barred window high up in the wall, and the two neatly made beds.
"Why did you let them lock us up?" asked Liz grumpily, slumping down onto one of the beds.
"Because there's obviously some sort of crisis going on, if they've got the base locked down, and I didn't want to be shot out of hand."
She scowled up at him as he stood with his thumbs hooked into his waistcoat pockets. "Anyone would think you like being locked up," she said accusingly.
He gave her a mischievous smile. "Given I can usually leave any time I like, why would I mind?"
She made a snorting noise and folded her arms over her chest. The Doctor stepped across to the bed and sat down beside her.
"What's wrong?" he asked, a slightly cajoling note in his voice.
"I don't want to be here," she answered, "isn't that obvious?"
"Yes, but I don't know why."
"I don't like being locked up." Her tone was sharp and angry, but he didn't recoil from her, instead he slid an arm around her shoulders and hugged her.
"It's okay, Liz," he said softly. "No matter what's going on, UNIT aren't going to harm us."
He felt the tension in her shoulders lessen and squeezed her a little more tightly in reassurance. A moment later the cell door was unlocked and opened, revealing Captain Price, and the same two Privates who'd escorted them here.
"The General wants to see you," she informed them, gesturing sharply for them to follow her.
"That was quick," murmured the Doctor in Liz's ear as they got to their feet.
"Thank goodness."
He was pleased to see a familiar spark in her eyes as he glanced at her before leading the way out of the cell.
"Lay on, McDuff," he said, with an ironic half bow to the Captain, who merely scowled at him. He tried to make conversation with Price, but she appeared to have taken a dislike to the Doctor, because she ignored him entirely.
They arrived at a door labelled 'Colonel Mace', and Liz exchanged a puzzled look with the Doctor; surely the Captain had said 'General', not 'Colonel'? Before either one could speak, Price opened the door and gestured for them to precede her.
"The intruders, sir," announced Price, saluting smartly.
The Doctor gave Liz a cheery smile, then stepped across the threshold. They both stopped and stared in astonishment when the officer looked around from a low-voiced conversation with a dark-skinned young woman; they recognised him simultaneously.
"Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart!" exclaimed the Doctor, delightedly, hurrying over to lean across the desk with his hand outstretched.
"Hello Doctor, Miss Shaw, sorry, Dr Shaw," he corrected himself, shaking the Time Lord's hand, then offering his own to Liz.
"Alistair?" she said, not quite believing it. When he did he get so distinguished looking, she wondered, and if he was as old as he appeared, why hadn't he retired yet?
"Actually, it's General Sir Alistair, these days," he told the Doctor, but there was a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. "But you can call me Alistair. I don't usually insist on the 'General' or the 'Sir'." He gestured to the two chairs on the far side of his desk. "Sit down, why don't you?"
The Doctor looked at the young woman seated beside Alistair, who promptly said, "This is Martha Jones."
The Doctor seemed to accept this as sufficient explanation or introduction, and immediately asked Alistair about the lock-down that was in effect.
"Unfortunately we found out a few hours ago that we'd been infiltrated," Alistair told them. "By a race called the Bane, who are huge, seven-legged, one-eyed cephalopods in their natural state, but they use image translators to make themselves appear entirely human." He scowled, then rubbed a hand over his eyes, and Liz realised he looked far more tired than she'd noticed when they had first come in.
He explained about Mrs Wormwood, the Sontaran Kaagh, and the intelligence of Horath, and that they'd found out about the infiltration almost by accident. "We know that one of them was pretending to be a Major, Kilburne was his name, but we don't know who else may not be who they seem. We're rounding up everyone and going to do full blood tests to check they're human, but that takes time with so many personnel."
"Can I help?" the Doctor asked.
"Could you use the TARDIS to check for aliens in the building?" asked Martha.
The Doctor and Liz exchanged a surprised look. At first glance Liz had taken the young woman to be Alistair's aide-de-camp, she had a self-effacing manner that allowed her to blend into the background as if she wasn't there. But when Liz looked her way now, the expression in her eyes changed Liz's mind: whoever this young woman was, it seemed that she knew the Doctor, though not, apparently, this particular version of him. Then she happened to glance Liz's way, and her expression instantly became a smooth mask of courteous attentiveness, and Liz immediately found herself intrigued. She wondered how this Martha Jones, who was actually quite striking when you paid attention to her, managed to make herself seem practically invisible so that one forgot she was even in the same room. Liz found herself wanting to talk to her, to learn more about her, and to find out how she could pull off such a trick.
"You know about the TARDIS?" the Doctor asked her.
"Captain Price reported finding a tall blue Police Box in a corridor, shortly after she reported the presence of two intruders," Alistair said. "It didn't take much effort to work out who we had in our detention cells, though I must admit Dr Shaw's presence was more of a surprise."
He smiled at Liz, and she smiled back, wondering at the same time how far into her future they'd come; she hadn't seen Alistair during the decade since she'd left UNIT, despite annual invitations to the Christmas party and the summer picnic; she hadn't been able to face going back, and now she wished she had as she felt chilled by the fact that he was so obviously much older than herself: it made him seem horribly vulnerable. She was used to thinking of Alistair as competent, strong, and at the peak of his career.
"Liz?" The Doctor's soft voice broke in on her reverie, and she saw that they were all looking at her in some concern. She felt herself colouring.
"Sorry," she apologised.
The Doctor's expression was full of understanding, as if he knew what thoughts had been going through her mind. "I was just saying that I would go and run some scans in the TARDIS, to see if there are any more Bane present. Do you want to come with me?"
"Isn't there anything useful I could be doing?" she asked, looking from him to Alistair.
"You could give me a hand," suggested Martha, and Liz agreed instantly, without even waiting to discover what Martha was going to do; she was too eager to find out more about the young woman to mind even passing test tubes, not that she thought she'd be doing that.
"Very well," agreed the Doctor. "Shall we, Alistair?"
He nodded and levered himself up from his chair with the aid of a cane with a silver figure on the handle, and Liz felt her heart clench a little at this further sign of Alistair's vulnerability.
She and Martha followed the two men out into the corridor, but Martha turned right instead of left, leading Liz in the opposite direction to where the TARDIS had been left.
"I got the impression that you've met the Doctor before," she said as Martha opened a door marked 'Infirmary' and led the way inside.
"Not this one," she answered, heading down a short corridor and into a laboratory.
"Oh?"
Martha opened the second door and gestured for Liz to go first. "I travelled with a different Doctor," she told Liz. "If I remember the files correctly, that's the Doctor's eighth body. I know the tenth."
"Oh. What year is this?"
"2008," answered Martha. "When are you from?"
Liz realised that this explained why Alistair was looking so much older. "My current time is the 1980s. I first met the Doctor in the 70s when - "
"He was exiled to Earth," finished Martha, smiling a little. "So you are that Liz Shaw. I thought you must be."
"'That Liz Shaw'?" she echoed wonderingly.
"I've read all the files on the Doctor," Martha explained. "Once they gave me a high enough security clearance, I worked my way through everything." She glanced at Liz. "I was curious."
Liz laughed briefly. "I can understand that," she said. "What's your Doctor like?"
"Tall, skinny and geeky," Martha answered, smirking. "This one is prettier, I think. More Byronic, at any rate."
Liz laughed again. "Yes, he is, isn't he?" Her expression sobered. "Why hasn't Alistair retired?"
"He has," Martha answered, "but every now and again, they insist on 'wheeling him out' as he puts it. A few years ago they made him Scientific Adviser since the Doctor wasn't available, but he quickly resigned from that post. Doris does her best to keep him out of it, poor thing, but one woman is no match for UNIT's senior staff when they've a bee in their collective bonnet." She sighed. "They keep sending him off to Peru for them, despite my best efforts. At his age, and with his health issues, it's not fair to keep sending him half way around the world. It's a wonder he doesn't just emigrate without leaving a forwarding address."
"Health issues?" asked Liz, alarmed.
Martha looked faintly embarrassed. "I shouldn't have said anything," she said. "It's not my place, and he is a patient of mine."
"Oh." Liz swallowed down a sense of anxiety. "What do you want me to do?" she asked, as much to distract herself as anything else.
"Could you give me a hand with these blood counts?" she asked. "I know it's a bit beneath you, given your skills, but it would speed things up while the Doctor's doing whatever jiggery-pokery he's doing."
Liz snorted with laughter. "Jiggery-pokery? It often is, isn't it?"
Martha grinned at her. "Don't tell him I said that, though, or he might get upset."
"All right then." She helped Martha carry several test tubes of blood over to the automated analyser. "This is smaller than the ones I've seen," Liz observed.
"That's miniaturisation for you," Martha answered absently, her attention more focused on putting the test tubes into the device than on Liz. Then she glanced up and smiled. "Welcome to the 21st century."
Liz shook her head, mildly amazed, then went to fetch some more test tubes, while Martha set the machine's controls.
* * * * * *
"It's good to see you're still wearing the same face as the last time I saw you, Doctor."
The Time Lord lifted an enquiring eyebrow as he unlocked the TARDIS door. "When was that?"
"In Malebolgia - that business with Dashwood, his Institute and the Hell Fire Club."
The Doctor smiled. "That was the last time I saw you, too, Brigadier, I'm sorry, General."
The old soldier smiled. "Alistair is fine from an old friend like you, Doctor." He watched as the Time Lord busied himself at the TARDIS console. "You've redecorated this place since I was last in here."
"Oh yes, the old girl likes to change things around every now and again," he answered, without looking up.
"I must say, I was surprised to see Dr Shaw with you, instead of Miss Pollard." Alistair didn't miss the way the Doctor's movements momentarily froze at the mention of his previous travelling companion.
"She decided it was time to settle down at last," he said lightly.
"I'm relieved to hear she's safe," answered Alistair. "She struck me as an intelligent and spirited young woman."
"Oh, she's that all right," agreed the Time Lord, his tone brighter now.
"So now Dr Shaw is travelling with you?"
"Only temporarily." The Doctor looked up from his task. "We bumped into each other in Cambridge, and I talked Liz into going for dinner at a lovely restaurant I know in 25th century France, so we could catch up." He smiled ruefully. "I was supposed to take her straight back to Cambridge, but we - got diverted."
"It's a wonder she didn't box your ears for you," Alistair observed, his eyes bright with amusement.
The Time Lord laughed softly. "She still might! What about you, though? I've never known you have an assistant before. Is that in deference to your advancing years or your rank?"
"You mean Dr Jones? She's not my assistant. She's a senior Medical Officer."
"Senior?" queried the Doctor. "She's much too young, surely?"
"In chronological terms, perhaps, but not in terms of field experience. She spent time travelling with one of your future selves - not that I've met the fellow. Had a rather harrowing time of it, unfortunately, and decided to come back and finish her studies. You - well, her Doctor, recommended her to UNIT, and they took her on. She's been with us for about a year now."
The Time Lord winced. "Having a 'harrowing time' doesn’t sound like much fun. It's a wonder she's talking to me."
"It wasn't you," Alistair pointed out. "Anyway she once told me that while she wouldn't want to repeat the experiences, she doesn't regret travelling with you - I don't think you can ask for more than that, in the circumstances."
The Doctor gave him a considering look. "Do you know what Martha went through?"
Alistair nodded. "I do. It's in Martha's personnel file, highly classified of course, but anyway she's talked to me about it."
The Time Lord opened his mouth, then closed it again, shook his head and turned his attention back to the TARDIS scanners. "Have you got any aliens in custody?" he asked after a moment.
"None," answered Alistair. "Why, have you found more of them?"
"I've found four signals that aren't human. No, hang on - " He broke off, scowling at the scanner. "There are three other definite non-humans in the building, and one that seems to be masked somehow - as if it's not fully alien or fully human." He straightened up and gave his old friend a concerned look. "What's a human-alien hybrid doing working for UNIT?"
"I wasn't aware that one was," answered Alistair, "but then again, I'm not here all the time." He scowled briefly. "They just call me in every now and again when there's trouble."
The Doctor rubbed a hand over his face. "I think I had better rig up a portable scanner so we can track these people down more quickly." He straightened up. "Could you come and give me a hand? It will be quicker if I've got someone to hold things or pass me things."
Alistair smirked. "And tell you how brilliant you are?"
The Doctor uttered a short, sharp laugh, recalling what the Brigadier had told him after Liz had resigned from UNIT. "Yes, if you like," he answered, eyes alight with amusement. "Come on, old friend."
Alistair followed the Doctor across the control room of the TARDIS and into a maze of corridors; he freely admitted to himself that he was curious to see more of the Doctor's remarkable ship.
* * * * * *
Leaving the analyser to work, Martha and Liz had the next group of UNIT personnel brought to the Infirmary where they and two nurses began taking more blood samples. As there were several hundred people at the base, it would take a minimum of a couple of hours to run a complete blood count for every single person, but they could at least run the tests through the analyser in batches.
"Why are we doing this if the Doctor's scanning for aliens?" asked Liz, about half an hour later.
"Because I want full blood counts for every single person on record, in case something like this ever crops up again. This way, if anyone is suspected, for example of being infected or possessed by an alien, we've got something to check their Complete Blood Counts against." Martha straightened up from loading the latest batch of test tubes into the machine and rubbed the small of her back. "Coffee?"
Liz nodded, and Martha led the way into an office that adjoined the lab. "Take a seat," she said, gesturing at a pair of comfortable-looking armchairs in one corner.
"Thanks." Liz, however, wandered over to look at the full bookcase against one wall, curious to learn more about this young woman.
"Milk and sugar?" asked Martha, busy with the coffee maker.
"Just milk, please. You seem to have a wide range of interests," she observed, still looking at the titles ranged on the shelves: there were all the medical books which Liz would have expected, but there were also books on quantum physics, astronomy, particle physics, ethnography and social anthropology. There are also a number of Lonely Planet guides, Liz observed, and the ones for Japan, New York, and Geneva looked particularly well-used.
"Blame the Doctor," Martha said, holding out a plain blue mug full of coffee. "Well, it's not entirely down to him, but my experiences with him definitely broadened my interests, and working for UNIT's given me even more areas of interest."
She moved away from the bookcase to sit in one of the armchairs, and Liz joined her. "What was it like, travelling in the TARDIS?"
"Exhilarating, terrifying, amazing, intense." Martha pulled a face. "It's not easy to describe to someone else. There were some brilliant times, which I never wanted to end, and some that couldn't end quickly enough."
Liz wanted to ask more, but realised she didn't want to appear too intrusive. Martha seemed to know what she was thinking, however, because after a couple of mouthfuls of coffee she spoke again.
"One of the most amazing things was meeting Shakespeare in person," she said. "Also, we got stuck in 1969 for a few weeks without the TARDIS, which might not sound like fun, but I'd only ever heard about the Swinging Sixties before." Liz smiled, seeing Martha's reminiscent grin. "But the worst thing - and you can't mention this to the Doctor, ever - was when some madman turned the TARDIS into a paradox machine and tried to destroy the Earth. He captured the Doctor and a friend of ours called Jack Harkness, and my family as well, and - " She broke off, dropping her eyes to her coffee mug.
"You don't have to tell me, if you'd rather not," Liz said quietly, reaching over to clasp Martha's wrist for a moment.
She looked up again. "I don't think I should," she said. "You might accidentally let something slip to the Doctor, and that would be a really bad thing."
Liz nodded her understanding. "All right."
"I'd be interested to hear about your work, though," Martha prompted.
Liz smiled, then began telling Martha all about her latest research project. She was impressed by Martha's questions - for someone who'd trained as a medical doctor, she seemed to have a good grasp of physics.
After about twenty minutes she put down her empty coffee mug on the table. "I should think that analyser's finished by now, hasn't it?"
Martha set down her own mug. "Almost certainly," she agreed, getting to her feet.
Half an hour later, as they were in the process of taking more blood samples in the Infirmary, the Doctor and Alistair came through the doors, the Time Lord carrying a Heath-Robinson sort of gadget which was beeping rapidly.
"No one move," ordered Alistair in a parade-ground voice, startling everyone.
"There are at least two other non-humans in this room," announced the Doctor, not lifting his eyes from the dials on the gadget. At his words, one of the sergeants bolted for the doors, but Alistair expertly stuck his cane between the man's legs, tripping him up. He then pressed the tip of his cane to the back of the sergeant's neck.
"I said, no one move," he repeated sternly.
Liz was quite startled by Alistair's actions; somehow she hadn't expected this older man to respond so quickly.
"Duffy, Jackson, pick him up and take him to the detention cells," Martha ordered, waving two of the other Sergeants over to the downed man.
They obeyed and hauled their erstwhile colleague up from the floor, then led him out, each man tightly gripping his upper arm to ensure he couldn't make a second bolt for freedom.
The Doctor's gadget continued to beep, but it was considerably quieter now that Sergeant Pearce had been removed.
"Who's the other non-human?" asked Alistair, staring around the room at the watching personnel.
"I'm not sure," answered the Time Lord, "the signal's not very strong. It must be the human-alien hybrid, I mentioned."
"A what?" asked Liz worriedly. She glanced at Martha, who was looking puzzled.
Everyone watched as the Doctor began to move around the room, methodically scanning each individual in turn. He reached the spot where Martha and Liz were standing and was beginning to turn away, looking baffled, when his gadget began to beep more loudly again. He turned back, staring in startlement at the two women.
"Dr Jones," he said, pointing the device right at her, the beeps running together into one continuous tone, "you don't appear to be entirely human."
She sat down abruptly, looking startled. "Oh," she said faintly.
"Preposterous!" exclaimed Alistair, striding across the room to join them. "Doctor, your machine must be malfunctioning."
"It's not," he responded. "Dr Jones, could you come with me to the TARDIS please?"
"What are you going to do to her?" demanded Liz, shocked. She was remembering her earlier observation of Martha, how she'd seemed to blend into the background, and wondering uncomfortably if that was a non-human trait after all.
"I'm going to run some scans in the TARDIS' medical lab, which has far more advanced equipment than anything here" he answered, his tone a trifle impatient. "I want to ascertain the exact genetic make-up of Dr Jones."
"I'm coming with you," said Alistair immediately.
"So am I," responded Liz.
The Doctor looked from one to the other, and blew out his breath heavily. "I'm not going to hurt Dr Jones," he said, his tone more impatient now. "But come if you want to."
He looked down at Martha, who got to her feet without prompting, and followed the Time Lord out of the Infirmary; Liz noticed that she didn't meet anyone's eyes, but her head was held high. Liz exchanged a worried look with her old friend, then they followed the Doctor; Alistair paused in the doorway to tell the remaining personnel that all the Bane infiltrators had been located and put in detention, and ordering them to return to their duties.
"This base remains on lock-down," he said. "And I'll remind you that that means we are still incommunicado."
The four made their way to the TARDIS in silence, and the Doctor led the way through the corridors to the medical lab.
"Would you mind hopping up here please?" the Time Lord asked, patting an examination bed.
Martha bent to remove her boots, then sat on the bed. "Do you want me to lie down?"
"Yes please."
Liz and Alistair watched from the doorway as the Doctor began tapping on a control pad alongside the exam bed. Liz slipped her hand into Alistair's and squeezed his fingers gently, aware that he seemed to be very fond of Martha. She felt him return the pressure of her fingers, but his eyes were fixed firmly on what was happening across the room.
A pale green light washed slowly over Martha's body, travelling from head to foot, and they both guessed that the TARDIS was scanning her. The Doctor made a thoughtful noise, bending closer over the screen on the control pad, before straightening up again.
"Thank you," he said courteously. "You can sit up."
"Well, what's the news Doctor?" asked Alistair.
He rubbed a hand over his face, before answering. "I'm assuming, Dr Jones, that you don't have any Time Lords in your family?"
"No," she answered.
"And you're not pregnant," he observed, making it a statement not a question.
"Certainly not," she answered, her tone sharper now.
"And yet you have Time Lord DNA mixed in with your human DNA," the Doctor said. "Do you have any idea how rare that is?"
Martha shrugged. "No idea," she said. "But I have an idea how it got there."
"Really?" asked Liz, involuntarily.
"The first day I met the Doctor he carried out a genetic transfer - he wanted to confuse some Judoon who were chasing us through the hospital where I was working and he was pretending to be a patient." She looked from Liz and Alistair's amazed expressions to the Doctor's more puzzled face. "Some time after that, the Doctor and I got trapped inside a sonic microfield manipulation device and it was switched on. I'm assuming the two things in combination have somehow affected my DNA, given what it did to the DNA of the machine's creator."
"Yes, yes!" exclaimed the Doctor excitedly. "The sonic microfield manipulation device would have used hypersonic soundwaves to create a state of resonance which destabilised your cell structure. And a metegenic program could then have hacked into your genome, manipulating the coding in the protein strands and combining them with the Time Lord DNA."
Martha was looking thoughtful, Liz noticed. "What is it?" she asked.
"Well, I've just remembered that we had a spate of apparently random murders that weren't so random after all - people who'd been involved in clinical trials for a company called Pharm, that's with a 'Ph' as in pharmacological, were being killed to hide the evidence of the Pharm's illegal use of aliens to make their wonder drug, Reset." She glanced at their expressions, Alistair's grim, Liz's shocked, and the Doctor's appalled. "Reset does just what the name suggests, it resets the human body to perfect health, like resetting the hard drive on a computer to factory defaults. But if it's given to a healthy subject who happens to have some Time Lord DNA mixed in with their own, I'm guessing that odd things will happen to the subject's DNA?"
The Doctor gaped at her. "Are you saying you were given this Reset drug?"
Martha nodded. "UNIT was investigating the deaths because the victims' medical records were being systematically wiped out at the same time as the murders were carried out - it was just too suspicious to be mere coincidence. Anyway, I liased with Torchwood, in Cardiff, and posed as a student who wanted to earn some extra cash by participating in a medical trial for Reset." Her expression grew rueful. "Unfortunately, Copley, the head of Pharm, caught me snooping and worked out that I was with Torchwood, so he administered the drug without my consent, having discovered that my lymphatic system was, in his word, 'funky', owing to my travels in the TARDIS."
"Ah, yes, the artron energy exposure does tend to have a very mild effect on human beings," agreed the Doctor.
"What?" asked Liz, startled.
"Not now." He waved away her question, his attention still on Martha. "Do you have any data on this Reset drug?"
She nodded. "It's all in the UNIT intel database."
"Good, good. I'll need access to it, and then I'll have a better idea of what the changes to your DNA mean to you."
"Doctor, what do you mean?" asked Alistair worriedly.
"Well, for example, Dr Jones may have limited regenerative powers, which - "
"Regeneration?" interrupted Alistair, startled.
"I doubt Martha will find herself waking up in a new body," the Doctor answered, his tone betraying his impatience at the interruption. "It's more likely that she'll find her immune system is better at fighting off infections, or that she heals must faster from injuries, or both. I won't know until I've done some more detailed tests and analysis, and looked at the data on the Reset drug." He gave Martha an expectant look.
"I presume the TARDIS can access the UNIT computer network?" Martha asked.
"Of course."
She looked at Alistair, who was still standing near the door, Liz next to him. "Do I have your permission to give the Doctor access to the UNIT intelligence database, Sir?" she asked, her tone formal.
"You do," agreed Alistair.
She nodded, and Liz thought she looked both nervous and intrigued, which Liz could understand. She wasn't sure if she'd be more nervous or more intrigued were she in Martha's shoes; as a scientist, it was a fascinating idea, but as an individual, the thought of having Time Lord DNA mixed with her own, and its possible side effects, was rather more nerve-wracking.
The Doctor led the way out of the medical lab and back to the control room, where he and Martha set up a wireless connection between the TARDIS' computer and UNIT.
"I'd better go and deal with those Bane we found," Alistair said, sounding more weary now.
"What will you do with them?" asked Liz curiously.
"We found their ship, out near the Black Archive," Alistair answered. "I'm hoping that now they know we know they're here, they'll leave without much fuss."
"I'll come and talk to them," the Doctor said. "It'll give me something to do for a few minutes while the old girl downloads the data I need."
The two men walked out together, and Liz moved to Martha's side next to the console. "Are you okay?" she asked quietly.
Martha ran a hand over her face. "Yeah," she said. "It seems his bedside manner is never good." Her tone was rueful but she gave Liz a smile, albeit a shaky one, before continuing. "I won't say it's not a bit of a shock, but it's not as if any of those things happened to me without my being aware. I meant to ask the Doctor - my Doctor - about it when I saw him recently, but in all the hoo-ha with the Sontarans and everything, I just forgot."
"Have you been injured since you were given the Reset?"
She shook her head. "I actually don't go out in the field that often - despite all the field experience I gained when I was travelling in the TARDIS - and if I do, I'm usually safely at the back, with the rest of the medical staff. Although - " She broke off, looking thoughtful.
"Although?" prompted Liz.
"Well, I was just thinking, I don't recall having even a cold since I was given the Reset - and just about everyone gets a cold at least once a year, that's part of the reason why it's called the common cold."
"Maybe that's a side-effect of the Time Lord DNA, then?" Liz suggested. "It's boosted your immune system and stopped you from getting sick."
"Seems like it," Martha answered, biting her bottom lip absent-mindedly.
Just then the Doctor came back into the TARDIS, looking rather pleased with himself. "That's them dealt with," he said in satisfaction. "Liz, would you mind going to give the Brig-, I mean Alistair, a hand while I run these tests, please?"
Liz glanced at Martha, who smiled. "If you're with him, he'll be less likely to try to overdo it," she said. "And I know he'd be glad of a chance to talk with you."
Liz nodded, then went out, and the Doctor began reading through the data the TARDIS had downloaded.
"I was just telling Liz that I don't remember having a cold since I was given the Reset," Martha observed as he straightened up again.
"No, you wouldn't have done," he answered. He smiled and gestured to the ship's interior. "Shall we?"
Martha nodded and followed him back to the medical lab again.
"Now, unfortunately, I can't do any really interesting tests on you to prove the specific impact of the Time Lord DNA on you, at least, not without hurting you."
Her eyebrows rose. "I'm glad to hear you're not proposing to shoot or otherwise injure me," she commented dryly.
He gave her a self-mocking smile. "I'm under strict instructions from Alistair to look after you," he said as she sat up on the examination bed again. "You've made a big impression on him, you know. The only other people I know who've ever made that kind of impression on him were Liz and Sarah Jane."
"I'm flattered to be in such good company," she said.
"You know Sarah Jane?" he asked.
"Yes, UNIT helps her out occasionally when she asks for our assistance. I think that Alistair wishes she'd ask more often, but you know Sarah Jane - she's a very independent person."
The Doctor nodded. "She always has been."
She sat patiently while he took a blood sample, and a small lock of her hair in order to run various tests on her DNA. Eventually, he straightened up and looked at her, his blue eyes thoughtful.
"This is a bit of a personal question," he began. "But I'd appreciate an honest answer. Are you in a relationship at the moment?"
Martha blinked, then looked down at her bare left hand. "Not any more," she answered quietly.
"I'm sorry," he said softly, sensing it was a sensitive issue. "I asked because I'm concerned about possible complications if you were to become pregnant. However, it's not an issue at the moment, so we'll worry about crossing that bridge when we come to it."
"All right."
He noticed that she wouldn't meet his eyes, and he moved to sit beside her on the exam bed. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked quietly.
"To you?" she asked, startled.
He frowned. "You sound surprised."
"Well, yes," she agreed. "You, I mean the Doctor I know, he's not big on talking about personal relationships."
His frown deepened. "Well, I suppose it's true that certain of my incarnations have been less forthcoming on such matters. But I'm willing to listen, if you want to talk. But we don't need to stay here - we can go and have a cup of tea in the kitchen, or take a walk in the Arboretum, wherever you think you'll be comfortable."
"The thing is, though, that if I'm to explain how my last relationship ended, I'd need to explain how it started, and to do that I'd need to tell you about my time with your future self." She pulled a face. "I don't think that would be a good idea, somehow, do you?"
He gave her a rueful smile. "Probably not, no," he agreed. "Very well, then." He put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer, and after a moment she leant against him.
"Alistair said that you'd had a harrowing time of it when you were with me," he said quietly. "I'm very sorry about that."
"It's not your fault," she said. "And it wasn't all entirely his fault, either. I mean, I know what was behind a lot of his behaviour towards me, and I can forgive him for a lot of it. In many ways I came into his life at the wrong time."
He kissed her temple. "I'd like to make it up to you, if you'd let me," he said.
Martha straightened up and looked at him warily. "How?"
"Come with me for a little while," he said. "I'm not sure if Liz is going to stay with me, or insist on going back to Cambridge, but either way, I'd enjoy your company."
"Wouldn't that be a bit dangerous?" she asked. "Or horribly paradoxical?"
He smirked a little. He could see she was interested, for all she was trying to hide it. "It would only be paradoxical if I didn't know you'd travelled with a later incarnation of me. And travelling with me always entails some danger, but you travelling with me now isn't any more dangerous than if we'd never met before."
"I think I'd better speak to Colonel Mace and Sir Alistair before I make a decision," Martha said.
"Oh yes, where is Colonel Mace? We met you and Alistair in his office, but there was no sign of him."
"He's been at the Black Archive," she answered. "Major Kilburne was stationed there, so Colonel Mace has been overseeing matters there."
"Do you know for a fact there are no Bane out there?"
She nodded. "I checked everyone there before we came back here to begin the blood tests."
"Shall we go and find Alistair, then, and see what he says?"
Martha gave him a smile and slid down off the bed, and they in search of Alistair and Liz. They found the two friends in Colonel Mace's office, deep in conversation.
"Hello Alistair, Liz," the Doctor said cheerfully. "I've asked Martha to travel with me for a bit, what do you think?"
Liz could tell he was expecting a positive response - experience didn't seem to have taught him that other people were quite capable of thwarting his plans. "Since Martha already knows what TARDIS travel's like, at least she'll be prepared," she answered, smirking a little at the surprised look this earned her from the Time Lord.
"If it's what Martha wants," Alistair said, "I'm sure UNIT can manage without her for a time."
"I'd better talk to Colonel Mace," she said, "since he's my immediate superior."
Alistair nodded. "That would be best."
"I'll go and use the phone in my office." She went out.
"What about you, Liz?" asked the Doctor. "Are you going to come with us, or do you still want me to take you back to Cambridge?"
"I think I'd prefer to go back to Cambridge," she answered. "I've got a lot of research work waiting to be completed."
To her relief, he didn't ask her if she was sure, he just nodded, his expression a little disappointed.
Before the conversation could falter into an uncomfortable silence, Martha came back into the room. She glanced from Alistair to the Doctor, her expression neutral. "Colonel Mace has agreed I can take some leave, if I wish to go with you," she told the Time Lord.
"And do you?" he asked, his tone unmistakably hopeful to Liz's ears.
"Yes." She smiled shyly, and the Doctor immediately stood up and hugged her, startling an 'Oof' out of her.
"Thank you." He grinned at her.
"I can't help being curious," she admitted.
"I'll do my best to keep it from being a harrowing experience," he promised. "Right, Sir Alistair, we'd better be off."
"Very well, Doctor." He got to his feet, and followed the Time Lord back to the TARDIS, Liz and Martha walking ahead of the two men.
"Make sure you look after Dr Jones," Alistair said. "I will be very disappointed in you otherwise."
The Doctor gave him a salute, but his eyes were full of laughter. "I'll do my very best, sir."
Alistair shook his head, then stood by as the Time Lord unlocked the door of his ship.
"Don't let UNIT's top brass run you ragged in my absence," Martha said, looking up into his face.
"I'll do my best, Dr Jones. And don't let the Doctor make you run after him too much, eh?"
She laughed. "I'll do my best, Sir Alistair," she promised. She held out a hand but he shook his head and pulled her into a quick hug.
"Come back safe and sound, please," he said softly.
Martha nodded, then stepped into the TARDIS, leaving Liz to make her own farewell.
"Well, Dr Shaw, it's been very nice to see you again. I wish you well in all your work."
"Thank you." Liz hesitated a bare moment, then hugged him. "Take good care of yourself, please."
"You too." He looked surprised when Liz kissed him briefly on the cheek, but merely smiled in response as she stepped into the ship as well.
The TARDIS groaned and ground its engines in its customary fashion, then dematerialised.
"Travel safely," Alistair said quietly to the empty corridor, before turning and making his way back to the Colonel's office. He looked forward to hearing about Martha's travels when she returned.