Jack places both his and dad's ID cards on the two Slitheen. "Deadly to humans, maybe." Dad remarks, watching electricity surround the two creatures.
Jack turns and runs out of the room with dad following behind him. They get to reception to see security guards standing. "Oi! If you want aliens, you've got them. They're inside Downing Street." Dad tells them. "Come on!" They turn and lead them back into the conference room.
*****
I rush out of the room and down the corridor with Rose and Harriet.
"No, wait!" Harriet shouts as we stop. "They're still in there! The emergency protocols. We need them!"
I roll my eyes and run back into the room, only to see Margaret as the Slitheen still. I turn and run back into the corridor, grabbing Harriet and Rose's hand on the way.
*****
Dad and Jack run into the conference room with the security guards behind them, only to see the general and Joseph back in the human bodies.
"Where have you been? I called for help." Joseph calls. "I sounded the alarm. There was this lightening, this kind of...er...electricity, and they all collapsed."
"I think they're all dead." A soldier remarks, checking for a pulse on one of the professionals.
"That's what I'm saying. He did it!" He points at my dad, completely ignoring Jack. "That man there."
"I think you will find the Prime Minister is an alien in disguise." Dad remarks, but the security guard just looks at him. "That's never going to work, is it?"
"No." Jack shakes his head.
"Fair enough." Dad sighs and runs out of the room with him, and down the hall.
*****
Rose slams every door behind her, Harriet, and I until we get to a room, seeing it is locked. "Damn it." I mutter. "I need to build a sonic screwdriver."
I let go of Rose and Harriet's hand, backing up and kick the door open with all my strength just as the lift door opens to reveal my dad and Jack.
Margaret turns to them, and Jack winks at me.
I blush and pull Rose and Harriet into the room. "Hide." I order them, running over to the couch and crouch down whilst Rose hides behind the curtains, and Harriet hides behind the screen.
"Oh, such fun." Margaret enters the room. "Little Human children, where are you? Sweet little humeykins...come to me! Let me kiss you better, kiss you with my big, green lips!"
I hear more footsteps. "My brothers." Margaret greets.
I poke my head out from the side of the couch to see two more of her kind. The General and Joseph. "Happy hunting?" One of them asks her.
"It's wonderful. The more you prolong it, the more they stink."
"Sweat and fear." The other one says.
"I can smell an old girl. Stale bird and brittle bones."
"A strong, fearless woman. Not a single weak bone in her body." Margaret growls.
"And a ripe youngster, all hormones and adrenalin. Fresh enough to bend before she snaps!"
I get up just as Margaret tries to move the curtain where Rose is. "Take me, not them!" I glare at them. "I'm the only one here who isn't human."
Dad and Jack crashes into the room with fire extinguishers in their hands, blasting the three aliens. "Out!" Jack shouts. "With us!"
I grab Rose and rush over to dad and Jack.
Harriet comes over to us.
"Captain Jack Harkness." He looks at her. "And who are you?"
"Harriet Jones." She introduces herself. "MP for Flydale North."
"Nice to meet you, Harriet Jones."
"Likewise."
"Stop it!" Dad rolls his eyes, blasting the extinguisher once more. "We need to get to the Cabinet room!"
"The Emergency Protocols are in there!" Harriet explains. "They give instructions on aliens!"
"Harriet Jones, I like you." Dad beams at her.
"Me too." I agree, running out the room with Jack, the rest following us.
*****
We get to the Cabinet room just as the Slitheen catch up to us.
Dad grabs a bottle of alcohol, spinning to face them with the sonic screwdriver aimed at it. "One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol. Whoof! We all go up. So, back off!"
The Slitheen hesitates, looking at the bottle.
I grin and move next to my dad with Jack behind me, his eyes narrowing at the Slitheen. "Question time." I smirk dangerously. "Who exactly are the Slitheen?"
"They're aliens." Harriet answers.
"Yes." Dad says sarcastically. "We got that, thanks."
"Who are you both, if not human?" One of the brothers asks.
"Who's not human?" Harriet frowns.
"They're not human." Rose nods at me and my dad. "And I don't think Jack is as well."
"Can we have a bit of hush?" Jack asks.
"Sorry."
"So, what's the plan?" He turns to the Slitheen.
"But the Doctor has a Northern accent." Harriet whispers to Rose.
"Lots of planets have a North." I remark, turning to look at them. "Now can we have quiet please?" I turn back to the Slitheen. "You've got a spaceship hidden in the North Sea."
"It's transmitting a signal." Dad continues. "You've murdered your way up to the top of government, what for? Invasion?"
"Why would we invade this God forsaken rock?" Another Slitheen scoffs.
"Then something brought the Slitheen race here, what is it?"
"Slitheen isn't a race." Jack wraps his arms around my waist. "It's their surname."
Dad looks at us, then back at them. "So they're family?"
"Family business." One of the brothers correct.
"Then you're out to make a profit." He frowns.
I nod my head. "I recognize one of them. Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasameer Day Slitheen." I look at the Slitheen on the left. "You don't recognize me, do you?"
"Should we?" Margaret laughs.
"You don't remember who helped to stop you from trying to kill my mum back in that house? I was only a few months old, but I was a very smart baby and got K9 to shoot one of you." I smirk.
The Slitheen take a step back. "You're a fearless one. Not a single bone in your body is weak."
Jack chuckles. "Taught her well." He kisses my cheek, brushing his lips across my ear. "I have your guns in my pocket. Specially my middle pocket." He whispers with a slight growl.
I blush deeply and nudge him. "Not now, handsome." I mutter, feeling him chuckle.
"Ah, excuse me." Another Slitheen tilts its head. "Your device would do what? Triplicate the flammability?"
"Is that what I said?" Dad frowns.
"You're making it up!" Another Slitheen accuses.
"Ah, well." He signs. "Nice try! Harriet, have a drink." He tries to pass it over. "I think you're gonna need it."
"You pass it to the left first." She tells him.
"Sorry." Dad hands it over to Rose.
"Thanks." She smiles.
"Now, we can end this hunt with a slaughter." The Slitheen on the right growls.
"Fascinating History, Downing Street." Jack looks around. "Two thousand years ago, this was a marsh land."
"1730, it was occupied by a Mr. Chicken. He was a nice man from what I've read up about him." I continue. "1796, this was the Cabinet room. If the Cabinet's in session and in danger, these are about the 4 most safest walls in the whole of Great Britain. End of lesson."
Dad presses a button by the door, and metal shutters come down over every opening. "Installed in 1991." He smirks. "Three inches of steel lining every single wall. They'll never get in."
"And how do we get out?" Rose asks us.
I look at my dad and Jack, a small laugh escaping past my lips. "Ah!" They frown.
*****
"What was his name?" Dad asks Harriet as him and Jack drag another man out of the storeroom.
"Which one." She glances at the Prime Minister and the man from before.
"This one, the secretary or whatever he was called." Jack tells her.
"I don't know." She frowns. "I talked to him. I brought him a cup of coffee. I never asked his name."
I walk over to the man with a sad smile on my face. "I'm so sorry."
"Right, what have we got?" Dad asks, walking over to the table. "Any terminals? Anything?"
"No." Rose shakes her head. "This place is antique. What I don't get is, when they killed the Prime Minister, why didn't they use him as a disguise?"
"He's too slim." I answer, walking over to the table and sit on the edge. "They need to sit inside big humans."
"But the Slitheen are about eight feet. "She argues lightly. "How do they fit inside?"
"The device around their necks helps to shrink them down so they can fit inside the body." I explain. "That's why there is always loads of gas. It's a big exchange."
"Compression field." Dad nods.
"Wish I had a compression field." Rose remarks. "I could fit a size smaller."
"Me too." I nod my head, looking down at my body. "Maybe two..."
Jack storms over and grips my face with his hand then turns my head to look at him, only to see the look he usually only has on him when he's being the boss. "You are beautiful the way you are. You do not need to lose weight at all, so do not let me hear you say anything like that again, or else there'll be punishment, Kitten."
My eyes widen as I feel my legs shaking with excitement. "Yes, sir." I whisper.
"Excuse me, people are dead, this is not the time for making jokes." Harriet scolds us.
"Sorry." Rose mutters.
"When you travel with my dad and work with Jack, you get used to this stuff when you're around them all the time." I add on, getting out of Jack's grip and look at her.
"Well, that's a strange friendship." She comments.
"Harriet Jones." Dad grins at her. "I've heard that name before...Harriet Jones. You're not famous for anything, are you?"
She laughs. "Hardly."
"Rings a bell, Harriet Jones." He mutters in thought.
"Lifelong backbencher, I'm afraid. And a fat lot of use I'm being right now." She places the protocols on the table, and we all walk over. "The protocols are redundant, they list the people who can help and they'll all dead downstairs."
"Hasn't it got defence codes? Every protocol should come with defence codes, or at least a way to solve these types of problems. Can't we just launch a nuclear bomb at 'em?" I ask.
Harriet stares at me in shock. "You're a very violent young woman."
"I'm serious, we could!" I defend my actions.
"Well, there's nothing like that in here. Nuclear strikes do need a release code, yes, but it's kept secret by the United Nations."
Dad looks straight at Harriet. "Say that again."
"What, about the codes?" She asks, narrowing her eyes with confusion.
"Anything. All of it." I tell her quickly.
"Well...the British Isles can't gain access to atomic weapons without a special resolution from the UN." She informs us.
"Like that's ever stopped them." Rose rolls her eyes.
"Exactly, given our past record." Harriet nods. "And I voted against that, thank you very much. The codes have been taken out of the government's hands and given to the UN." She looks at my dad. "Is it important?"
He nods. "Everything's important."
"What would the Slitheen want? Most beings who come to Earth always want something?" I remark. "It's not an invasion. They are just one family and that means they are out to make money. And that means they want to use something, and it's on this Earth. Some kind of asset."
"Like what, gold?" Harriet guesses. "Oil? Water?"
"You're very good at this." Jack tells her.
"Thank you."
"Harriet Jones...why do I know that name?" The Doctor wonders.
Rose's phone beeps, and she takes it out her pocket. "Oh, that's me."
"But we're sealed off." Harriet frowns. "How did you get a signal?"
I nod at my dad. "He zapped all three of our phones. Now we can take calls and messages anywhere we go."
"Then you can use the phone for help! You must have contacts!"
"Dead downstairs, yeah." Dad remarks.
"It's Mickey." Rose shows me her phone.
"Oh, tell your stupid boyfriend we're busy."
"Actually, Mickey isn't stupid." I defend him, showing dad the photo of the Slitheen.
*****
"No, no, no, no." Mickey argues lightly after calling him for the 3rd time from my phone and finally get through to him. "Not just alien, but like, proper alien. All stinking and wet and disgusting! And more to the point, it wanted to kill us!"
"I could've died." Mum shouts.
"Is she alright, though?" Rose asks. "Don't put her on, just tell us."
Dad walks over and takes the phone off the table. "Is that Ricky?" He asks. "Don't talk, just shut up and go to your computer."
"It's Mickey." He says with annoyance. "And why should I?"
"Mickey, we need you." Jack speaks up. "My team isn't answering, and Angel has told me a lot about you. I know she thinks of you as her brother. Now do it for Angel and Rose, help us."
"What do you need me to do?"
I take the phone off dad and walk over to the speaker, connecting it quickly. "I need you to go on the UNIT website, hack in."
"It says password." He speaks up after a few seconds.
"Buffalo." Dad replies. "2 Fs, 1 L."
"So, what's the website?" Mum asks.
"It's all the secret information known to mankind." Mickey answers. "See, Torchwood and UNIT have known about aliens for years, they just keep us in the dark."
"Mickey, you were born in the dark." I tease him.
He groans playfully. "Oi, watch it, sister."
I smile brightly. "Every time it asks you for the password, repeat it."
"Big Ben, why did the Slitheen hit Big Ben?" Dad wonders.
"You said to gather the experts." Harriet reminds. "To kill them."
I shake my head in disagreement. "That lot would've gathered for a weather balloon. You don't need to crash land in the middle of London."
"The Slitheen are hiding." Rose continues. "And then they put the entire planet on red alert. Why would they do that?"
"Oh, listen to them." Mum scoffs.
"At least we're trying." She glares at my phone.
"Well, I've got a question if you don't mind. Because since that man walked into our lives, I've been attacked in the streets. I have had creatures from the pits of hell in my own living room, and my daughters disappeared off the face of the Earth."
"We were travelling with my dad." I defend. "And we're gonna carry on travelling with him. I have the right to know my own dad after 18 years of not seeing him. Just like, I want to know my biological mum so I can tell her the event of the night I was kidnapped out of my bedroom as a baby and left outside on your doorstep."
"I'm taking to him!" Mum argues. "'Cos I've seen this life of yours, Doctor. And maybe you get off on it. And maybe you think it's all clever and smart but answer me this. Are my daughters safe?"
"We're in safe hands, mum." Rose reassures her. "I'm not leaving my other family."
"Are they safe?" Mum continues. "Will they always be safe? Can you promise me that? Well, what's the answer?"
"Yes." Jack agrees. "They will be safe. The Doctor and I will always protect them, Jackie. If it gets really bad, I'll send them back to you, I promise."
"We're in." Mickey interrupts.
"Right then." Dad walks back over to the phone. "On the left, there's a tab, an icon, little concentric circles, click on it."
"What is it?" He asks.
"The Slitheen have got a spaceship in the North Sea and it's transmitting that signal, now please hush, let me work out what it's saying."
"He'll have to answer me one day." Mum mutters.
"Hush." Mickey tells her.
"It's the same sort of message." Jack mutters.
"What's it saying?" Rose asks.
"Don't know. It's on a loop." I answer, listening to it as well.
"Keeps repeating." Dad adds on.
We all hear a doorbell in the background. "Hush."
"That's not me." Mickey defends. "Go and see who that is." He commands mum.
"It's 3 o'clock in the morning." She complains.
"Well go and tell them that."
"It's beaming out into space." I frown. "Who's it for?"
"It's them!" Mum shouts. "It's that thing, it's the Slitheen!"
"They've found us." Mickey mutters.
"Mickey." Dad interrupts. "I need that signal."
"Never mind the signal!" Rose cries. "Mum just get out! Get out!"
"We can't!" Mickey shouts. "It's by the front door!"
"There's got to be some way of stopping them!" Harriet shouts, looking at us. "You three are supposed to be the experts. Think of something!"
I start pacing up and down. "We need to think their weakness, we need to find where they're from." I turn to Jack. "You've dealt with these before, where are they from?"
"There is one person we've dealt with in my past, your future." He explains. "She came from Raxacoricofallapatorius."
"You handsome man!" I cheer, running into his arms. "I bloody love you!"
He chuckles, wrapping his arms around my waist. "And I love you."
I turn towards the phone. "Mickey, go into the kitchen! You're gonna need anything with vinegar."
"Calcium, weakened by the compression field. Acetic acid....vinegar!" Dad beams at us.
"Just like Hannibal!" Harriet realizes.
"Just like Hannibal." He confirms.
"Mickey, you in the kitchen yet?" Rose asks him.
"Yes, but I don't think I have anything with vinegar."
"Cupboard by the sink, middle shelf." I tell him.
Suddenly, we hear an explosion in the kitchen. "Hannibal?" Rose asks.
"Crossed the Alps by dissolving boulders with vinegar." Harriet answers.
Oh." She nods, filling up glasses with alcohol. "Well, there you go." She lifts up the glass of brandy. "Phew!"
I laugh and lift up my glass. "I promise that we'll get out of here...alive."
*****
"Listen to this." Mickey tells us, placing the phone near the TV.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Nations of the World, Human Kind." We hear the brother of Margaret greet. "The greatest experts in extra-terrestrial events came here tonight. They gathered in the common cause. But the news I bring you now is grave indeed. The experts are dead. Murdered, right in front of me by alien hands. Peoples of the Earth, heed my words. These visitors do not come in peace. Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads, and they have found massive weapons of destruction, capable of being deployed within 45 seconds."
"What?" Dad frowns.
"Our technicians can baffle the alien probes. But not for long. We are facing extinction. Unless...we strike first. The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mother ship. I beg the United Nations, pass an emergency resolution. Give us the access codes! A nuclear strike at the heart of the ship is our only chance of survival. Because from this moment on, it is my solemn duty to inform you...planet Earth is at war."
"He's making it up." I glare at the phone. "There is no weapons up there. There's no threat. He's just invented that."
"Do you think they'll believe him?" Harriet asks with concern on her face.
"They did last time." Jack points out.
"That's why the Slitheen went for spectacle." Dad realizes. "They want the whole world panicking because you lot, you get scared, you lash out."
"They release the defence codes." Rose's eyes widen.
"And the Slitheen go nuclear." I add on, my voice coming out cold.
"But why?" Harriet shakes her head.
I get up out of the chair and storm over to the door, slamming my hand on the button to reveal Margaret, in her body suit. "You get the codes, release the missiles. But not into space because there's nothing there. You attack every other country on Earth, they retaliate, fight back. World War Three, the whole planet gets nuked."
"And we can sit through it in our spaceship waiting in the Thames. Not crashed. Just parked. They'll be two minutes away." She smirks.
"But you'll destroy this planet. This beautiful planet." Jack shakes his head. "What for?"
"Profit." Dad sighs. "That's what the signal is beaming into space, an advert."
"Sale of the country." Margaret nods. "We reduce the Earth to molten slag, then sell it. Piece by piece. Radioactive chunks capable of powering every cut-price star liner and budget cargo ship. There's a recession out there, Doctor. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel."
"At the cost of 5 billion lives." I spit at her.
"Bargain."
"Then I give you the choice, leave this planet or we'll stop you!" Dad glares at her.
She starts laughing. "What? You? Trapped in your box?"
"No." I shake my head, a dark look in my eyes. "Us."
Margaret freezes, and Jack closes the shutters.
*****
I get up off the chair and walk over to the phone. "All right, Doctor." Mum says through it. "I'm not saying that I trust you, but there must be something you can do."
"If we ferment the port." Harriet mutters. "We could make ascetic acid."
"Mickey, any luck?" Rose calls.
"There's loads of emergency calls." He replies. "They're all on voicemail."
"Voicemail dooms us all." Harriet sighs.
"If we could just get out of here." Rose mutters.
"There is a way out." I speak up, looking at my dad and Jack. "There's always been a way out."
"Then why don't we use it?" Rose asks.
Jack sighs and walks over to us from the wall with dad. "Because we can't guarantee we'll be safe."
"Don't you dare!" Mum shouts. "Whatever it is, don't you dare."
"But that's the thing." I look at the phone. "If we don't dare, everyone dies."
"Do it." Rose tells us.
Dad looks at her. "You don't even know what it is, you'd just let us?"
"Yeah. You three are family to me."
"Please, Doctor." Mum begs. "Please! They're my daughters, Rose is just a kid as well!"
"Don't you think we know that?" I ask her with a sharp tone. "Because this is our life, mum. Sometimes it isn't fun, it's not always smart, it's just standing up and making a decision because nobody else will."
"Then what are you three waiting for?" Rose asks us, a small smile on her face.
Dad sighs and walks over to her, placing his hand against her cheek whilst keeping eye contact. "I could save the world but lose you three."
Rose smiles and places her hand against his, not once breaking the eye contact. "You won't ever lose us, Doctor."
"Except it's not your decision." Harriet calls. "It's mine.
"And who the hell are you?" Mum snaps.
"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North. The only elected representative in this room, chosen by the people, for the people, and on behalf of the people, I command you, do it!"
"How do we get out?" Rose asks.
Dad beams and pulls out a briefcase that holds the Emergency Protocols and opens it. "We don't." He shakes his head. "We stay here."
"Mickey, use the buffalo password." I inform him. "It overrides everything."
"Get into the Navy." Dad continues. "Look for any vessels nearby."
"What're you doing?" Mum asks Mickey.
"Hacking into the Royal Navy." He breathes out. "We're in. Here it is, HMS. Taurean, Trafalar Class Submarine, 10 miles off the coast of Plymouth..."
"Right, we need to select a missile." Jack tells him.
"We can't go nuclear." Mickey groans. "We don't have the defence codes."
I beam at the phone. "Mickey, we don't need defence codes. All we need is an ordinary missile. What's the first category?"
"Sub Haffoon, UGMA4A." He replies.
"That's the one. Select it." Dad nods.
"Ready for this?" He asks us.
"Yes." I answer.
"Mickey the idiot. The world is in your hands. Fire!" Dad breathes out.
I run over to the storeroom. "This storeroom is small meaning that it is very solid and strong. We can survive the missile and make it out alive. Now, help me empty this!"
Rose and Harriet rush over with Jack.
"It's on the radar. Counter missile 556!" Mickey warns us.
"Stop them intercepting it!" Dad orders.
"Doing it now, boss." He starts clicking away at the keyboard.
"Good boy!"
"556 neutralized." Mickey tells us just as my dad throws me back my phone. I catch it and rush us all into the storeroom, closing the door behind us.
"Nice knowing you all." Harriet says, her voice coming out as nervous as we all place our hands into each other's. "Hannibal!" She shouts.
The missile hits, and the storeroom rolls and shakes till we finally come to a stop.
Dad kicks the door open, and we all get out, looking around us at the wreckage. "Made in Britain." Harriet says with pride.
A police officer runs over to us. "Are you alright?" He asks us in shock.
Harriet shows him her ID. "Harriet Jones. MP, Flydale North. I want you to contact UN immediately, tell the ambassadors the crisis is over, and they can step down. Go on, tell the news!"
"Yes ma'am." He climbs down and rushes off.
"Someone's got one hell of a job sorting this lot out. We haven't got a Prime Minister!" She tells us, looking around at all the officers and security guards.
"Well, maybe you should have a go." Dad suggests.
"Me?" She laughs. "I'm only a backbencher."
I shrug with a grin on my face. "We'd vote for you."
"Now, don't be silly."
"I'd also vote for you." Jack smiles.
"Look, I'd better go and see if I can help!" She climbs over all the rubble and over to all the people.
We start walking away. "Harriet Jones." Dad beams. "Future Prime Minister. Elected for three successive terms, the architect of Britain's Golden Age!"
*****
I walk out of the shower to see Jack lying on our double bed, looking me up and down with lust in his eyes. I notice his clothes are off but sadly his underwear is still on.
Jack looks at me with a smirk. "Like something you see, Kitten?"
I blush and walk over with the towel still wrapped around me. "Yes, I do." I admit, climbing onto the bed.
Suddenly, He chuckles with a playful smile on his face, and pulls me on top of him.
I burst into giggles and lean down to capture my lips on his.
"I love you." I mutter against them.
"I love you too." He smiles and starts undoing my towel.
Author's Note:
Rose admitted to her mum that Angel, the Doctor, and Jack are her second family. And what's this, Rose and the Doctor had a little moment before Harriet interrupted them.
Now onto the next chapter, Dalek. Will Adam be allowed to join them in the Tardis, or not?