Halfway Out Of The Dark || The Doctor

The Long Game

"Why, what happens on floor 500?" the Doctor asked.

"The walls are made of gold." the black woman replied, sounding as if it was obvious, "And you two should know, Mr & Mrs Management. So, this is what we do..." She led them to the wall-mounted screens. "Latest news, sandstorms on the New Venus archipelago, 200 dead. Glasgow water riots in their third day, spacelane 37 closed by sunspot activity. And over on the Bad Wolf channel, the Face of Boe has just announced he's pregnant."

"I get it. You broadcast the news." the Doctor nodded.

"We are the news." the black woman replied proudly, "We're the journalists. We write it, package it and sell it."

Little did they know that a camera was watching them from above.

———————————————————————————

Meanwhile, Adam was sitting at a table when Rose came over. "Try this." she encouraged, offering him a paper cup, "It's called 'Zaphic'. It's nice. It's like, um, a slush puppy."

"What flavour?" Adam asked.

Rose took another sip. "Um, sort of beef." she answered.

"Oh, my God." Adam shook his head, culture shock setting in. "It's like everything's gone. Home, family, everything."

Rose looked at him concernedly then took her phone out of her pocket. "This helps." she told Adam, "The Doctor gave it a bit of a top-up. Who's back home, ya mom and dad?"

"Yeah."

Rose offered him the phone; "Phone 'em up."

"But that's 198,000 years ago." Adam protested.

"Honestly, try it. Go on." Rose encouraged.

Adam took the phone. "Is there a code for Planet Earth?"

"Just dial."

Adam did so and soon heard his mother's voice on an answering machine; "Please leave a message. Bye!"

"It's on!" Adam stared, then heard the tone. "Hi. It's.. it's me." he began, "I've sort of gone... travelling. I met these people... and we've gone travelling together. But, um... I'm fine... and I'll call you later. Love you. Bye." He hung up gleefully. "That is just..." He was cut off by an alarm sounding and everyone in the canteen began to leave, but the two time travellers stayed where they were, unsure what to do.

As the crowd thinned, they saw the Time Lords talking to their new friends. "Rose, Adam, over here." the Artist called to them.

Rose immediately got up and joined them. Adam paused for a moment, holding Rose's phone. Then he seemed to come to a decision and pocketed the phone and went off to join the others.

———————————————————————————

The two women led the time travellers to a white-walled room with a chair in the middle of a raised octagonal platform with hand-pads around the perimeter. The Caucasian women sat cross-legged at one of these, while several other people did the same at the others. The Doctor, the Artist, Rose and Adam stood leaning against some railings at the side of the room, while the black woman stood in the middle of the octagonal platform. "Now. Everybody behave." she addressed the room, "We have a management inspection." She turned to the Time Lords. "How do you two want it? By the book?"

"Oh, right from scratch, thanks." the Doctor replied

The woman turned back to her colleagues. "Okay, so, ladies, gentlemen, multisex, undecided or robot, my name is Cathica Santini Khadeni. That's Cathica with a 'C', in case you want to write to floor 500 praising me, and please do. Now, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest and be unbiased. That's company policy."