Doctor Who: Out of Time

Chapter 6: Judge and Jury

Lieutenant Sylver stood apparently by his lonesome in what appeared to be a control room. The room's interior was not cuboid, but cylindrical. In the centre of the room, a column of monitors showing an array of numbers and CCTV footage reached up to the ceiling. The floor was comprised of many panels, under which wires led from the column to the data banks and servers for many of the planet's systems which were positioned around the circumference of the room. Like the rest of the BSDCC's interior, this room was white. It was built to house this computer and protect it at all costs.

This was the Bellus Central Mainframe.

"Objective complete." Sylver's words carried less emotion when talking to the BCM, as he had nothing to hide from it.

A single response command appeared on the largest of the monitors protruding from the column.

>APPREHEND SURVIVORS

The Lieutenant was confused; as far as he was aware there had been no survivors. Up until now, he hadn't failed his creator, this was a new feeling. An emotion, perhaps? He knew he had them but he disliked using them, they caused irrationality and sudden, unpredictable events. His creator was omniscient on this world; it had been built that way. The BCM had eyes everywhere and ears everywhere else. Where it couldn't see or hear it sent in the BSD. Sylver was getting agitated. "Where are they?"

>DARK SIDE

>APPREHEND SURVIVORS

"That's not very specific..." He opened up his comm link. "Get patrols out onto the dark side; we have survivors from the last raid."

A voice responded through the link. "Yes, Sir!"

>UNIDENTIFED MAN AND BOX

>REPORT STATUS

Sylver nodded, it was testing if he knew what was happening. "They're on their way. An armed escort is fetching the man, and the box should arrive soon afterwards." He looked up at one of the many CCTV monitors; it showed a looped recording of a blue box appearing and a man getting out and walking down an alley. The very thought did not compute within Sylver's own sub-routines. The Lieutenant was a product of his creator, but his processing power and knowledge were only a fraction of the BCM's. Sylver's had been limited by the reserved data storage needed for motor and speech functions. However, his abilities far surpassed any Human's.

>DANGER ALERT ONE

Sylver was suddenly impressed by this unidentified man's ability to make the BCM state the command for the highest security alert. If the BCM had emotions, he thought, would it be feeling apprehensive? Scared? Or cautious? Had his creator met this man before?

The doors to the control room began to open slowly; the room was built like a vault, and was by far the safest and most dangerous room on Bellus VI. Lieutenant Sylver turned to observe the new arrival, as he was nudged forwards into the room. One of the guards came towards Sylver, saluted, and handed him a small, semi-cylindrical, blue and silver device. The guard then turned and left, and the doors began to close once again. Sylver looked up at the man they had brought in. It was definitely the same man that was on the looped recording, and what he was wearing was suspiciously different from the current trend of clothing currently passing through the malls. He definitely wasn't a resident or frequent visitor to Bellus VI. He also seemed completely captivated by his surroundings. Sylver smirked at this, only he and a few guards and scientists had seen the BCM in person, and the last outsider to step foot in this room spent the rest of his life in one of the BSDCC's isolation suites. Sylver made a mental note to have someone check, and clean out, said suite. "So, outsider." Sylver began. "Who are you?"

The outsider looked flabbergasted that Sylver could actually speak. "Me? Oh don't worry about little old me. Used to littler mind you, but never been older." He grinned.

Sylver was uninterested in his confidence of speech. "I'll ask again; who are you?"

His grinned faded and he stood up straight, flattening out the crinkles in his blue velvet coat, under which a white shirt hid behind a navy blue waistcoat. His chequered trousers were something to be alarmed about. "I'm the Doctor. Just passing through; as I said, you needn't give me this much attention."

>DOCTOR

>ALERT

>SEND TO ISOLATION SUITE

>ALERT

Sylver was impressed; his master did have the capacity to fear after all.

"Surely that isn't necessary." Said the Doctor; noticing the commands appearing on the black screen. "I'm of no harm to anyone. Really, I'm not."

"Apparently my creator disagrees."

"Who is your creator?"

"That is. The BCM – Bellus Central Mainframe."

The Doctor's eyes widened, his mind racing to remember. "That Bellus?"

Suddenly, red lights began flashing on the walls and an alarm began to sound.

>ALERT

>SEND TO ISOLATION SUITE

>ALERT

"It's getting impatient now." Sighed the Lieutenant. He shrugged. "Who knew?"

The Doctor quickly understood what was going on. The BCM was the enemy he had defeated on Bellus IV six regenerations ago. But it remembered him. Sylver was clearly a new breed of robot that this rogue AI had developed – who knew how many of this planet's space police were also robots. No matter how many, they were far more advanced than they had been last time. They easily passed as Human. They had emotions. "What, no fair trial?" He was trying desperately not to appear frightened. Last time he encountered this AI, he had stood alone on the remains of Bellus IV, a war ridden planet. He had left being the sole survivor, and wondering if there could have been another way.

"The BCM is Judge and Jury. Its command is Law. To defy it would mean either death or deactivation. In the case of deactivation, however, you can always recover. Albeit with less memories and self-awareness." Sylver looked at his wrist, on which he had a small screen displaying a multitude of different sets of information. "I'd say you have about less than a minute."

"Until what?"

"Deactivation." Sylver smirked, he did so love when their eyes widened with fear.