The woman leads us down a doorway after taking us away from the TARDIS. "It was only a matter of time until you found us. And at last, you've made it. I'd like to welcome you, Doctor, Protector." she tells us before pushing open a doorway into a huge factory floor, full of alien artefacts and scientists working on them. "Welcome... to Torchwood."
"That's a Jathar Sunglider." the Doctor says as we stare at the Sunglider hanging from the ceiling. "Came down to Earth off the Shetland Islands ten years ago." she tells us.
"What, did it crash?" I ask her, slightly shocked.
"No, we shot it down. It violated our airspace. Then we stripped it bare. The weapon that destroyed the Sycorax, on Christmas Day? That was us! Now if you'd like to come with me." she tells us as the Doctor and I look at her in shock that she could do this but we follow on after her anyways. "The Torchwood Institute has a motto: If it's alien, it's ours. Anything that comes from the sky, we strip it down, and we use it. For the good of the British Empire."
"For the good of the what?" Jackie asks.
"The British Empire." the woman says as if it's obvious.
"There isn't a British Empire." Jackie tells her.
"Not yet. Ah, excuse me..." the woman says before taking a gun away from a soldier. "Now, if you wouldn't mind... do you recognise this, Doctor, Protector?" she asks.
"That's a particle gun." I tell her.
"Good, isn't it?" she asks as Jackie tries to touch it but the woman wrenches it from her grasp and ignores the interruption. "Took us eight years to get it to work..."
"It's the twenty-first century. You can't have particle guns." the Doctor tells her.
"We must defend our borders against the alien." the woman says before handing the particle guns back to the waiting soldier. "Thank you... Sebastian, isn't it?" the woman asks, slightly unsure of herself. "Yes, Ma'am." the soldier says.
"Thank you, Sebastian." the woman says before turning to look at me, the Doctor and Jackie again. "I think it's very important to know everyone by name. Torchwood is a very modern organisation. People skills. That's what it's all about these days." she says, smiling smugly. "I'm a people person." she says, causing Jackie to roll her eyes.
"Have you got anyone called Allonzo?" the Doctor asks, making me shake my head at his.
"No, I don't think so. Is that important?" the woman asks.
"I suppose not." I tell her. "What was your name?" I ask.
"Yvonne. Yvonne Hartman." she tells us before the Doctor, and I begin looking at other artefacts. The Doctor pulls a large device out from a box. "Ah, yes. Now, we're rather fond of these. The Magnaclamp. Found in a spaceship buried at the base of Mount Snowdon. Attach this to an object and it cancels the mass. I could use it to lift two tonnes of weight with a single hand. That's an imperial ton, by the way. Torchwood refuses to go metric." Yvonne tells us before the Doctor throws the Magnaclamp back in the box and brushes his hands together. "I could do with that to carry the shopping." Jackie says rather as a joke as the Doctor and I walk away again. "All these devices are for Torchwood's benefit. Not the general public's." Yvonne says, patronisingly. This causes Jackie to pull a face as I look through a magnifying glass. "So, what about these ghosts?" I ask.
"Ah, yes, the ghosts. They're er... what you might call a side effect." Yvonne says.
"Of what?" I ask her.
"All in good time, Doctor and Protector. There is an itinerary, trust me." Yvonne tells us. Just then, the TARDIS is being driven in on the back of a truck. "Oi! Where're you taking that?" Jackie asks.
"If it's alien, it's ours." Yvonne says.
"You'll never get inside." the Doctor tells her.
"Hm! Et cetera." she says before walking away causing me to follow her.
"You are aware that nothing can get through those doors. You can try if you want, but you will fail. Just like others before you." I tell her.
"Well, the difference between us and them, is that they didn't have all the technology that we have now." Yvonne tells me but I scoff.
"I'm sorry, you're highness." I scoff. "Cybermen, Daleks, humans, robots, Ice Warriors, Autons and many, many more people have tried to get through those doors and some are more superior than you and yet they have failed so I believe what I'm trying to say is... stay. away. from. my. ship otherwise I will shoot you and although my husband won't allow it, I don't care." I tell her.
**********
"All those times we've been on Earth, we've never heard of you." the Doctor says as the four of us walk down a corridor, flanked by armed soldiers. "But of course not. You're the enemy. You're actually named in the Torchwood Foundation Charter of 1879 as an enemy of the Crown." Yvonne tells us.
"1879... that was called Torchwood, that house in Scotland." I think, remembering the house. "That's right. Where you encountered Queen Victoria and the werewolf." Yvonne says.
"I think he makes half of it up." Jackie says.
"Mum, not the time." I tell her, turning my head to her before turning back to Yvonne and grabbing onto the Doctor's hand. "Her Majesty created Torchwood Institute with the express intention of keeping Britain great. And fighting the alien horde." Yvonne says.
"But if we're the enemy, does that mean that we're a prisoner?" the Doctor asks, referring to him and me. "Oh, yes." Yvonne says. "But we'll make you perfectly comfortable. And there is so much you can teach us. Starting with this."
Yvonne brings us into a laboratory where a giant sphere floats in place. "Now, what do you make of that?" she asks us.
"You must be the Doctor and the Protector. Rajesh Singh. It's an honour, sir." Rajesh says, holding out his hand for us but we're too immersed by the sphere to notice his hand. "Yeah," the Doctor says vaguely.
"What is that thing?" Jackie asks.
"We got no idea." Yvonne says.
"But what's wrong with it?" Jackie asks.
"What makes you think there's something wrong with it?" Rajesh asks Jackie.
"I dunno... just feels weird." Jackie says. The Doctor and I move forwards, and up the steps leading up to the sphere. "Well, the sphere has that effect on everyone. Makes you wanna run and hide. Like it's forbidden." Yvonne tells Jackie.
"We tried analysing it using every device imaginable." Rajesh says as the Doctor puts on his 3D specs, looking up at the sphere with them. "What's with the glasses?" I ask him.
"See for yourself." the Doctor says before handing me another pair of the 3D glasses and I put them on. I begin seeing lots of speckles around the sphere. "Void stuff." I mutter, only loud enough for the Doctor to hear.
"Well, Doctor?" Yvonne asks. "Protector?" she asks after a moment.
"This is a Void Ship." the Doctor says.
"And what is that?" Yvonne asks.
"Well, it's impossible for starters." I begin, the both of us turning around and facing Yvonne along with taking the 3D glasses off. "We always thought it was just a theory, but... it's a vessel designed to exist outside time and space. Travelling through the Void." I explain before the both of us sit down on the steps, Yvonne and Rajesh crowding us. "And what's the Void?" Rajesh asks confused.
"The space between dimensions. There's all sort of realities around us, different dimensions, billions of parallel universes all stacked up against each other. The Void is the space in-between. Containing absolutely nothing. Imagine that, nothing. No light, no dark, no up, no down. No life. No time. Without end. My people called it the Void, the Eternals call it the Howling. But some people call it Hell." the Doctor explains.
"But someone built the sphere, What for? Why go there?" Rajesh asks.
"To explore. To escape. You could sit inside that thing and eternity would pass you by. The Big Bang... the end of the universe, the start of the next, wouldn't even touch the sides. You'd exist outside the whole of creation." I explain to them.
"You see, we were right. There is something inside it." Yvonne says smugly before we turn to look at her. "Oh yes." we tell her but she's caught off by the tone of our voice.
"So, how do we get in there?" Rajesh asks.
"We don't!" I snap at Rajesh. "We send that thing back into Hell."
"How did it get here in the first place?" the Doctor asks.
"Well, that's how it all started. The sphere came through into this world, and the ghosts followed in its wake." Yvonne says.
"Show me." the Doctor says before getting up and striding off.
"I'm gonna stay here and try figure out either what's in it or, how to get it back to where it came from." I tell them before they walk out. "No, Doctor." Yvonne says, causing the Doctor to go the other way down the corridor.
**********
After a while, I'm at one of the computers, trying to do some configuring when the door opens back up causing me to turn my head and see Rose walking in. "Can I help you?" Rajesh asks, approaching her.
"I was just..." Rose says, not looking away from the sphere.
"Try not to look. It does that to everyone. What do you want?" Rajesh tells her.
"Sorry. Um... they sent me from personnel. They said some man had been taken, prisoner. Some sort of Doctor? I'm just... checking the lines of communication, did they tell you anything?" Rose asks making me snicker slightly.
"Can I see your authorisation?" Rajesh asks her, making Rose take out the Doctor's psychic paper before handing it to her and I begin laughing. "... Sure." she tells him and he checks it. "That's lucky." Rajesh says making Rose smile. "You see, everyone at Torchwood has at least a basic level of psychic training."
Saying this, causes Rose's smile to fade. "This paper is blank. And you're a fake." Rajesh says before taking the comm and speaking into it. "Seal the room. Call security."
The doors close. "Samuel? Can you check the door locks? She just walked right in." Rajesh tells the person who is working with him. "Doing it now, sir." Samuel says, turning around, but as soon as I see him, I let out a sob but I quickly cover my mouth with my hand as Mickey smiles at me. "Well. If you'd like to take a seat." Rajesh tells Rose before she nods, seemingly lost for words.
**********
"Yvonne? I think you should see this. We've got a visitor. We don't know who she is, but funnily enough, she arrived at the same time as the Doctor." Rajesh tells Yvonne, through the computer. "She one of yours?" Yvonne says through the laptop.
"Never seen her before in my life." the Doctor says through the laptop before Rajesh turns to me. "Not a clue." I tell him.
"Good! Then we can have her shot." Yvonne says through the laptop.
"Oh, all right then, it'll be worth a try, especially with my wife in there. That's... that's Rose Tyler." the Doctor says.
"Sorry." Rose apologises before waving at Yvonne. "Hello!"
"Well, if that's Rose Tyler, who's she?" Yvonne asks, confused.
"I'm her mother." Jackie says as I make my way over to them.
"Oh, you two travel with her mother?" Yvonne asks us.
"He kidnapped me." Jackie says.
"Please, when Torchwood comes to write our complete history, don't tell people we travelled through time and space with her mother..." the Doctor says causing Jackie to make a face and roll her eyes. "Charming." Jackie says.
"We've got a reputation to uphold!" I tell her. Suddenly, a noise begins in the background on the other side of the computer, making us confused before I turn back to what I was doing before Rajesh called Yvonne. "Yvonne, I thought you said the next Ghost Shift was cancelled." Rajesh says into the comm. "What's going on? Yvonne?"
The whole chamber suddenly shudders making Rose dart over to me. "I can't be." Rajesh says before the four of us hurry over to the sphere, which is causing the shuddering. Another crash comes from within the sphere. "It's active!"
"We've got a problem down here. Yvonne, can you hear me?" Rajesh asks before the sphere starts vibrating violently. "Yvonne, for God's sake, the sphere is active! The readings are going wild! It's got weight, it's got mass, an electromagnetic field, it exists!" Rajesh exclaims before jumping and turning around to a crash coming from behind him, the door closing. "The door's sealed. Automatic quarantine, we can't get out!"
He rushes off causing me, Rose and Mickey to be left staring up at the sphere. "It's all right, babe. We beat them before, we can beat them again. That's why I'm here. The fight goes on." Mickey says as the sphere continues to vibrate.
"The fight against what?" Rose asks confused.
"What d'you think?" Mickey asks as the three of us stumble as two violent crashes emit from the sphere, shaking the chamber once more.
More crashes emit from the sphere. "We had them beaten, but then they escaped. The Cybermen just vanished." Mickey says as another crash comes from it. "They found a way through to this world, but, so did we."
"The Doctor said that was impossible." Rose says staring at him.
"Yeah, well it's not the first time he's been wrong." Mickey says.
"Well, I can't argue with that." I tell them, making Rose laugh slightly.
"What's inside that sphere?" Rose asks before there's another crash.
"No one knows. Cyber Leader, Cyber King, Emperor of the Cybermen... whatever it is..." Mickey says, grinning. "He's dead meat."
"It's good to see you." Rose says, smiling and nudging him.
"Yeah. It's good to see you too." Mickey says, smiling at Rose before smiling at me. "You too."
Light continues to spill from the sphere, crashing and shaking also continuing. "I know what's in there. And I'm ready for them. I've got just the thing." Mickey says before retrieving a weapon that is hiding under a counter and then positions himself in front of the sphere. "This is gonna blast them back to Hell." Mickey says.
"Samuel, what are you doing?" Rajesh asks, shocked.
"The name's Mickey. Mickey Smith. Defending the Earth." Mickey tells him before cocking his gun as the sphere parts further, causing me to pull out my guns and cocking them.
**********
The sphere fully opens and the top part of a familiar-looking alien emerges from the sphere. "That's not Cybermen..." Mickey says, thrown. Four Daleks glide smoothly from the sphere. "Oh my God." Rose mutters.
"Location: Earth. Life forms detected. Exterminate!" one of the Daleks screams. Mickey and I aim our guns at them, me being even more cautious about everything. Rose stares at them in wide-eyed fear. "Exterminate! Exterminate! EXTERMINATE!"
To be continued...