The Doctor's Son

19 - Army of Ghosts

Dorian had finally met his father, he had danced with his mother in the Palace of Versailles, he had watched as his father had saved a room full of French aristocrats from clockwork robots from the 51st century. And then he was ready to go back home.

He had called The Doctor on his mobile from a street corner in Paris, and a moment later the TARDIS had appeared beside him.

Now, back in his UNIT uniform, Dorian was outside the Tower of London having just been dropped off by The Doctor. He had a bunch of missed calls from Malcolm and Kate on his mobile, but Dorian had decided to wait until he was back on Earth before he checked them.

'You have thirty-three new messages,' the voicemail told him. Dorian wondered what could possibly be that important. The Doctor assured him that he had only been gone for two hours. But then again, the TARDIS was notoriously unreliable when it came to both dates and locations.

'First new message; message from Malcolm Taylor: "Hey Dorian, I'm back from the meeting at Torchwood. You were right about that Yvonne Hartman, she's a nasty piece of work..."' Dorian went through all the messages, getting more and more worried as he listened.

The last message was also from Malcolm. It seemed that Dorian had been gone not two hours, but two months.

'Commander Smith?' a voice asked. Dorian put his phone down and found Private Jenkins staring at him from the compound of UNIT HQ. 'It is you! Where have you been? You've been missing for two months sir!'

'Yeah, sorry about that,' Dorian shrugged. 'I lost track of time.'

Jenkins stared at him. 'I'm not even going to ask. The Colonel will want to see you immediately, sir. She wants everyone inside during Ghost Shift.'

'During what?' Dorian asked as he was escorted inside by Jenkins.

'Where were you over the past two months?' Jenkins sighed. 'Everyone knows about the ten past ten Ghost Shift these days.'

Dorian shrugged. 'Not me.'

'Well you'll see soon enough sir,' Jenkins assured him. 'There's one that stands right by the gate and a few around the offices, but Colonel Chaudry keeps an armed guard on them during Ghost Shift because she doesn't trust them.'

'What exactly are these "ghosts"?' Dorian wondered aloud. 'And since when do they have shifts?'

'They're just that sir,' Jenkins replied. 'Ghosts. As in the souls of dead people, come back to Earth.'

'What, and everyone's just fine with that?'

'It has been two months. Everyone freaked out at first, but now I think we're all used to them.' Jenkins stood to the side to let Dorian through to Colonel Chaudry's office. 'Here you are sir, I'd best get back down. Good to see you in one piece sir.'

Dorian waved goodbye to Jenkins and stepped into the waiting area before Chaudry's office. Her secretary, William, stared at Dorian for a minute before calling through to the Colonel.

The Colonel had been unusually brisk with Dorian, demanding to know where he had been. She didn't pry into Dorian's time with the Doctor, in fact, she seemed particularly preoccupied, glancing up at the clock on the wall every few seconds.

'You'd better hurry down to your department,' Chaudry had said, dismissing Dorian after a few minutes. 'I'm sure they're anxious to see you, and you'll want to see the Ghost Shift yourself.'

Before Dorian could ask once more what this "Ghost Shift" was, Chaudry had picked up the phone on her desk and was already tapping a number in. 'You're dismissed, Smith.'