"Cathica, I'm going to miss you", Suki hugged Cathica on her way to the lift and when she stood in front of it turned to the travellers, "Floor five hundred. Thank you."
They smiled kindly, happy for the sweet woman, but still slightly confused, "We didn't do anything."
"Well, you're my lucky charm", she opened her arms for a hug.
"All right. I'll hug anyone", the Doctor happily hugged her.
"Wouldn't say no to that", Winnie grinned and hugged her, too, "Good luck on the new job."
"Thanks", the lift dinged to show her that she needed to go, "Oh my god, I've got to go. I can't keep them waiting. I'm sorry. Say goodbye to Steve for me. Bye!"
The lift closed with Suki inside and Cathica immediately turned away, "Good riddance."
Winnie and the Doctor walked after her, "You're talking like you'll never see her again. She's only going upstairs."
"We won't", Cathica kept walking, "Once you go to Floor five hundred you never come back."
The travellers looked at each other confused, then the Doctor asked, "Have you ever been up there?"
"I can't. You need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with a promotion. No one gets to five hundred except for the chosen few", she tiredly sat down for lunch, "Look, they only give us twenty minutes maintenance. Can't you give it a rest?"
They sat down opposite her, "But you've never been to another floor? Not even one floor down?"
"I went to floor sixteen when I first arrived. That's medical. That's when I got my head and then I came straight here. Satellite Five, you work, eat and sleep on the same floor. That's it, that's all", she shrugged.
"That's sad", Winnie said and then she and Cathica stared at each other.
Realisation dawned on her and she pursed her lips, "You're not management, are you?"
"At last. She's clever", the Doctor beamed.
"Yeah, well, whatever it is, don't involve me. I don't know anything."
"Don't you even ask?"
"Well, why would I?"
The other two both tilted their heads. With a raised brow Winnie said, "That's your job. You're a journalist."
Before Cathica could protest, the Doctor asked, "Why's all the crew human?"
"What's that got to do with anything?", she was more irritated than before, if that was even possible.
"There's no aliens on board. Why?"
"I don't know", she shrugged but she seemed to be thinking about it now, "No real reason. They're not banned or anything."
"Then where are they?"
"I suppose immigration's tightened up. It's had to, what with all the threats."
"Threats?", Winnie tilted her head in the other direction, "What threats?"
"I don't know all of them. Usual stuff", Cathica crossed her arms and shrugged, "And the price of space warp doubled so that kept visitors away. Oh, and the government on Chavic Five's collapsed, so that lot stopped coming, you see. Just lots of little reasons, that's all."
"Adding up to one great big fact and you didn't even notice", the Doctor stepped almost uncomfortably close to her.
"Doctor, I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it. We see everything."
"I can see better. Even Winnie can see better-"
"Oi."
"The society's the wrong shape, even the technology."
"It's cutting edge", Cathica protested.
"It's backwards. There's a great big door in your head. You should've chucked it out years ago."
"So they're being held back", Winnie concluded, "But why?"
"It's not just this space station, it's the whole attitude. It's the way people think. The great and bountiful Human Empire's stunted. Something's holding it back."
"And how would you know?", Cathica was back to her defensive posture.
"Trust me, humanity's been set back about ninety years. When did Satellite Five start broadcasting?"
Cathica blinked, stunned, "Ninety one years ago."
The Doctor winked, grabbed Winnie's hand and pulled her back towards the lift where he started sonicking the doors next to it where the wiring must have been. Cathica followed scoldingly.
"We are so going to get in trouble. You're not allowed to touch the mainframe. You're going to get told off."
The Doctor saw Rose join them out of the corner of his eye, "Rose, tell her to button it."
Before Rose could question this, Cathica continued, "You can't just vandalise the place! Someone's going to notice!"
But the doors opened anyway and the Doctor started to make a mess of the cables and wires inside.
"This is nothing to do with me. I'm going back to work", but Cathica just crossed her arms and stayed.
"Go on, then. See you", the Doctor said without looking back.
"I can't just leave you, can I", she flailed her arms exasperatedly.
"Well, if you're going to stay it's got to do with you", Winnie shrugged, "But if you want work, you can turn down the heat. It's boiling. Can't they do something about it?"
"I don't know", Cathica appeared more amicable suddenly, "We keep asking. Something to do with the turbine."
"Something to do with the turbine", the Doctor repeated almost mockingly.
"Well, I don't know!"
"Exactly", he got up and turned to her to really drill the lesson in, "I give up on you, Cathica. Now, Winifred. Look at Winifred. Winifred is asking the right kind of question."
Winnie raised her brows at him, "Thank you?"
"Why is it so hot?"
"One minute you're worried about the Empire and the next it's the central heating", Cathica rolled her eyes.
"Well, never underestimate plumbing. Plumbing's very important", he took a monitor with schematics on it out of the wiring cabinet, "Here we go. Satellite Five, pipes and plumbing. Look at the layout."
"This is ridiculous", Cathica told him, "You've got access to the computer's core. You can look at the archive, the news, the stock exchange and you're looking at pipes?"
"But there's something wrong."
"I suppose."
"Why, what is it?", Rose asked.
"The ventilation system. Cooling ducts, ice filters, all working flat out channeling massive amounts of heat down."
"All the way from the top", the Doctor concluded.
"Floor five hundred", Rose noted.
"Something up there is generating tons and tons of heat."
"Well, I don't know about you but I feel like I'm missing out on a party. It's all going on upstairs. Fancy a trip?", Rose grinned.
"You can't. You need a key."
"Keys are just codes, and I've got the codes right here", the Doctor messed with the monitor, "Here we go. Override two one five point nine."
The monitor showed the code and Cathica looked over his shoulder in shock as the lift opened, "How come it's given you the code?"
"Someone up there likes me."
"Or not", Winnie raised a brow, "And they want you up there to kill you."
"Possibly", he shrugged and entered the lift. The sisters smiled and joined him.
"Come on. Come with us", Rose suggested.
"No way", Cathica crossed her arms.
"Bye!"
"Well, don't mention my name. When you get in trouble, just don't involve me", Cathica turned on her heel and left.
"That's her gone. Adam's given up. Looks like it's just us three", the Doctor smiled at the two.
"Yeah." - Rose.
"Yup." - Winnie.
"Good." - The Doctor.
"Yep." - Rose.
"Uh-huh." - Winnie.
The lift let them out on floor five hundred, frozen and looking like an abandoned construction site. Winnie shivered, "So this is where all the cold went."
"The walls are not made of gold, you two should go back downstairs", the Doctor said.
"Tough", Rose crossed her arms and raised a brow in protest.
They kept wandering around, finding a console like the newsroom where withered corpses sat in every position. The sisters grimaced and got closer to one another. After a short wander they found a frozen little room with several 'journalists' frozen and dead, their hands on the prints, working, and a man in a dark suit, with pale skin and light blonde hair.
"I started without you. This is fascinating. Satellite Five contains every piece of information within the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Birth certificates, shopping habits, bank statements, but you three, you don't exist. Not a trace. No birth, no job, not the slightest kiss. How can you walk through the world and not leave a single footprint?"
While her sister and the Doctor stared at the man, Rose saw Suki sitting among the staff and ran to her, "Suki. Suki! Hello? Can you hear me? Suki?", she turned to the man, "What have you done to her?"
The Doctor pulled her back, "I think she's dead."
"She's working", Rose breathed out.
"They've all got chips in their head, and the chips keep going, like puppets."
Rose stumbled into Winnie's arms as the sisters gasped. The Doctor looked at the staff in pity.
"Oh! You're full of information", the man grinned, "But it's only fair we get some information back, because apparently, you're no one. It's so rare not to know something. Who are you?"
"It doesn't matter, because we're off", he put his hands on the sisters' arms to pull them away, "Nice to meet you. Come on."
Suki grabbed Winnie's arm, some other woman took Rose's and the Doctor was pulled away from them by two other ice-zombies.
"Lovely", Winnie rolled her eyes, "Now there's zombies again!"
"Tell me who you are", the man demanded.
"Since that information's keeping us alive, I'm hardly going to say, am I?", the Doctor challenged him.
"Well, perhaps my Editor in Chief can convince you otherwise", he had an evil grin on his face.
"And who's that?"
"It may interest you to know that this is not the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. In fact, it's not actually human at all. It's merely a place where humans happen to live."
There was a growl and a snarl coming from the direction the man gestured to, happily.
"Yeah. Yeah, sorry. It's a place where humans are allowed to live by kind permission of my client."
Upon his repeated happy waving towards something behind them on the ceiling, the trio turned their heads and frowned in a mixture of worry and disgust. It was a pink lump on the ceiling with only a mouth with sharp teeth protruding from it.
"What is that?", Rose asked.
"You mean that thing's in charge of Satellite Five?", the Doctor grimaced.
"But, how?", Winnie shook her head a bit, "It's just- It's just a blob on the ceilings."
The blob growled at her.
"That thing, as you put it", the man rolled his eyes, "Is in charge of the human race. For almost a hundred years, mankind has been shaped and guided, his knowledge and ambition strictly controlled by its broadcast news, edited by my superior, your master, and humanity's guiding light, the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. I call him Max."
"Why?", Winnie squinted at him, then flinched as the zombies were now putting them in manacles.
"Create a climate of fear and it's easy-"
"No, no", Winnie interrupted him, "Why call him Max? I thought that's where he's from. Maxarodenfoe. You wouldn't call me Lon or Eng or, I don't know, Ear. That's stupid."
The sounds that escaped both Max and the man could have only been understood as annoyance. So after a sharp breath the man continued on his rant, "As I said, In a climate of fear it's easy to keep borders closed. It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast repeated often enough can destabilise an economy, invent an enemy, change a vote."
"So all the people on Earth are, like, slaves."
"Well, now, there's an interesting point. Is a slave a slave if he doesn't know he's enslaved?"
"Yes", the Doctor and Winnie chorused immediately.
"Oh. I was hoping for a philosophical debate", his face fell, "Is that all I'm going to get? Yes?"
"Yes."
"You're no fun."
"Let me out of these manacles. You'll find out how much fun I am", the Doctor growled.
"Oh, he's tough, isn't he", he wiggled his white brows at Winnie, "But come on. Isn't it a great system? You've got to admire it, just a little bit."
"You can't hide something on this scale", Rose furrowed her brows, "Somebody must have noticed."
"From time to time, someone, yes, but the computer chip allows me to see inside their brains. I can see the smallest doubt and crush it", he made a fitting hand gesture, "Then they just carry on, living the life, strutting about downstairs and all over the surface of the Earth like they're so individual, when of course, they're not. They're just cattle. In that respect, the Jagrafess hasn't changed a thing."
"But, like, why?", Winnie contorted her face to overplay her surprise over seeing Cathica rush past behind him, "What do you get out of betraying your own species?"
"Yeah, what about you?", Rose tilted her head with a grimace, "You're not a- Jagra- belly."
"Jagrafess", the Doctor corrected her.
"Jagrafess", she repeated, "You're not a Jagrafess. You're human."
"Yeah, well, simply being human doesn't pay very well", he shrugged.
"It's the year two hundred thousand and you're selling every single human other than you for money? To a blob on the ceiling?", Winnie's statement made Max growl angrily again, "Shut up."
"But you couldn't have done this all on your own", Rose quickly interfered.
"No, I represent a consortium of banks", the man, too, seemed to have decided not to further investigate Winnie, "Money prefers a long-term investment. Also, the Jagrafess needed a little hand to install himself:"
"No wonder, a creature that size", the Doctor raised a brow, "What's his life span?"
"Three thousand years."
"Oh, so he'll just replace you some day and then you'll have slaved your life away for it", Winnie grimaced mockingly.
The man pursed his lips but the Doctor had a small smile on his face at Winnie's comment, however, he was determined to finish this, "That's one hell of a metabolism generating all that heat. That's why Satellite Five's so hot. You pump it out of the creature, channel it downstairs. Jagreafess stays cool, it stays alive. Satellite Five is one great big life support system."
The man now narrowed his eyes, "But that's why you're so dangerous. Knowledge is power, but you remain unknown. Who are you?"
The trio remained silent so he shrugged and snapped his fingers so energy flowed through the manacles, giving the trio electric shocks and leaving them writhing in pain.
"Leave them alone", the Doctor surrendered, "I'm the Doctor, they're Winifred and Rose Tyler. We're nothing, we're just wandering."
"Tell me who you are!"
"I just said!"
"Yes but who do you work for? Who sent you? Who knows about us? Who exactly-", he suddenly had a look of realisation, the electrification stopped and Max growled, "Time Lord."