Halfway Out Of The Dark || The Doctor

The Long Game

"Working fine." she replied, "My history must be wrong."

"No, you were spot on." the Doctor told her. He knew human history like the back of his hand and he knew that the Artist was right about 200,000 being the time of the Fourth Great & Bountiful Human Empire, so there was something wrong with this place.

"They're all human." Adam commented, looking at the people milling about, "What about the millions of planets? The millions of species? Where are they?"

"Good question." the Artist frowned, "Very good question."

The Doctor nodded his agreement then jovially put his arm around Adam's shoulder; "Adam, me ol' mate, you must be starving."

"No, I'm just a bit time sick." Adam groaned.

"Nah, yer just need a bit of grub." the Doctor said, and turned to the chef. "Oi, mate, how much is a kronk burger?"

"Two credits twenty, sweetheart." the chef answered, "Now join the queue."

"Money. We need money." the Doctor decided, "Let's use a cash point." He went over to a cash point on the wall and flashed his sonic screwdriver at it. A thin metal strip fell out of the machine and the Doctor picked it up. "There yer go, pocket money." he said, handing it to Adam, "Don't spend it all on sweets."

"How does it work?" Adam asked, looking at the metal strip bemusedly.

"Go an' find out! Stop nagging me!" an exasperated Doctor replied, "Thing is, Adam, time travel's like visiting Paris. Yer can't just read the guide book. You've gotta throw yerself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers. Or is that just me?" he shrugged, then shooed Adam away. "Stop asking questions, go on, do it!" Adam turned and walked into the crowd. Rose made to follow him. "Off yer go." the Doctor said to her, "Yer first date."

"You're gonna get a smack, you are." Rose scoffed and went off after Adam.

The Time Lords watched their friend go, then their expressions turned serious. "So, if the date's right and our history's right, then maybe it's this place that's wrong." the Artist mused.

"I think it is." the Doctor replied thoughtfully, "Fancy doing a bit of sleuthing, Miss Marple?"

"Why not, Monsieur Poirot?" the Artist replied with spirit.

Just then, they noticed two women walking past them chatting. One was a black woman in a smart suit, while the other was Caucasian and wearing a flowery blouse. "Erm... this is gonna sound daft." the Doctor said to them, "But can yer tell us where we are?"

"Floor 139." the black woman replied dryly, pointing to a huge sign on the wall. "Could they write it any bigger?"

"Floor 139 of what?" the Artist asked.

"Must've been a hell of a party." the black woman remarked.

"Oh, you're on Satellite Five." the Caucasian woman said.

"What's Satellite Five?" the Doctor questioned.

"Come on, how could you get onboard without knowing where you are?" the black woman scoffed.

"Hang on, wait a minute, are you two a test?" the Caucasian woman asked, looking between the two Time Lords, "Some sort of management test thing?"

"You got us." the Artist said, producing a wallet of psychic paper and showing it to the two women, "Very clever of you."

"We were warned about this in basic training." the Caucasian women said to her partner, "All workers have to be versed in company promotion."

"Right..." the black woman said, turning to the Time Lords, "Fire away, ask your questions. If it gets me to floor 500, I'll do anything."