THE SONTARAN STRATAGEM
edited as of June 18th, 2020
Standing at the console, Donna pilots the TARDIS as the Doctor watches her from behind. Beaming, Donna glances at the Doctor- who was itching to fly it on his own and has already had to stop himself from doing so in the last thirty seconds. Just two spaces to Donna's left, Charlotte, whose hair was in two braids, does the same.
"Char, pull that lever down quarter-way," he tells her.
Once pulling the said lever a quarter-way down, Charlotte glances over at him. "I'm 'bout to steal the TARDIS," she said with a laugh.
"Yeah, no you aren't." With Charlotte's focus deterred, the TARDIS enters some turbulence. The Doctor quickly went up to the console, twisting around a switch and thus ending the turbulence. Pointing a finger at her, he adds, "Focus," before taking a step back.
A few seconds later, as the TARDIS continues flying with only the Doctor onlooking, Donna grins. "I can't believe I'm doing this!" She says. In response, Charlotte shook her head.
"No, neither can I," replied the Doctor, who watches them like a hawk as they worked around. "Oh, careful!" He immediately goes over to Donna, hitting the console with the hammer. Moving aside, swimming the hammer above his shoulder, he focuses on the scanner- watching it closely. "Left hand down, Donna, left hand down!"
Donna brings down a control on her left and the TARDIS sharply turns and causes the three of them to lose their balance for a second. Holding down onto the console, Charlotte quickly regained her footing when the TARDIS' lurching.
"Getting a bit too close to the 1980s!" he exclaims.
"What am I gonna do?" questioned Donna, "Put a dent in 'em?"
"Well, someone did." The Doctor's sentence trails off as a mobile phone rings.
Charlotte looks around for the said ring. "Is that mine? Or yours?"
"Mine." The Doctor moves past Donna to another part of the console, pulling out from a compartment a mobile phone.
"You've got a mobile?" says Donna, who looked at him with the phone as if it were a joke. "Since when?"
"It's not mine," he tells her before lifting the phone to his ear and answering, "Hello."
---
Just a few minutes later the TARDIS materializes in an alleyway where Martha Jones has been waiting for the familiar grinding noise, becoming ecstatic when the blue box finally settles. Out of the three inside, the Doctor was the first to poke his head out of the doors, looking back before seeing Martha and immediately greeting her with a hug.
"No way," a flustered Charlotte said under her breath as she approaches the two, her eyes dead set on Martha, who she has yet to meet. "I mean- whatever. Martha Jones!" Nervously, Charlotte reaches out and shakes her hand. "Charlotte Mary Bolton. Hi."
Martha raised an eyebrow at her. "I know that. Wait, is this your first time meeting me?"
"Yeah, is that obvious?"
"A bit." All of their, including Martha's, heads turn to the TARDIS as the door closes and Donna steps out. "Right," says Martha. "Should have known. Didn't take you long to replace me then."
"Now, don't start fighting." The Doctor waves Donna over. "Martha, Donna. Donna, Martha. Please don't fight, can't bear fighting."
Charlotte lightly elbowed his side. "They aren't going to fight, stupid."
"I've heard all about you," Donna says to Martha as she shakes her hand. "They talk about you all the time."
Martha glances at them. "I dread to think."
"No, no, no. They say nice things," Donna tells her. "Good things. It's an honor really. Honestly."
She rose an eyebrow, looking over to the Doctor, who scratches behind his ear. "What'd they tell you?"
"Forget that," says Donna, catching sight of Martha's engagement ring. "Who's the lucky man?"
"What man?" Questioned the Doctor. "Lucky what?"
"She's engaged, you prawn," responded Donna, rolling her eyes at him as Martha shows off her ring.
Charlotte grinned, looking over at Martha. "Well, who is it?"
"Tom. That Tom Milligan. He's in pediatrics. Working out in Africa right now." She looks between the three. "And yes, I know. I've got a doctor who disappears off to distant places. Tell me about it."
"Is he skinny?" Donna immediately asked.
"No, he's sort of..." Martha waves her hands around as she tried to find the right word. "Strong."
"Oo la la," says Charlotte, wiggling her eyebrows to her. However, Martha's nose scrunched up.
Donna points her thumb over at the Doctor. "He is too skinny for words! You give him a hug, you get a paper cut!"
Looking up to the sky, the Doctor sighs. "Oh, I'd rather you were fighting."
"Oh, c'mon," said Charlotte as she nudges his side. "Don't let your ego break so easily."
A walkie-talkie placed on Martha's hip turns on- a voice speaking from it. "Speaking of which..." Her jaw clenches as her mannerisms seemed to change from their friend to a leader when she took the walkie-talkie off its holster and commands the person on the other end, "This is Dr. Jones. Operation Blue Sky is go, go, go. I repeat, this is a go!"
The three left the alleyway on Martha's heel, following her out to stand by as large, loaded trucks and vans drove past and UNIT soldiers entered the facility with their guns on hand. "All workers lay down your tools and surrender!" Charlotte hears someone order the worker (all dressed in blue jumpsuits) over the loudspeakers.
"Greyhound Six to Trap One," Martha orders on the walkie-talkie as she began speed-walking, closely followed by the rest. "B Section, go, go, go! Search the ground floor, grid pattern Delta!"
As she stops for a second, the Doctor looks at her with his eyebrows scrunched. "What are you searching for?"
"Illegal aliens." Her eyebrows push together in frustration when she hit the walkie-talkie. A second later, voices were heard again and she runs off while shouting orders.
"Is that what you did to her?" Donna questions him as they watched she sprinted into action. "Turn her into a soldier?"
Arms crossed, Charlotte wondered the same. And, of course, she knew the answer. And, of course, it twisted her stomach to admit how back-to-back life-ending situations caused her to change. To survive, she had to change from the woman drifting along in life, not sure where she wanted it to go anymore, to the one she aspired to be; Charlotte has to become someone willing to do whatever it takes for the good.
Once upon a time, Charlotte Bolton was going to be a lawyer. But, in her last few years of University, she only just passed her classes. No law school accepted her, and for a year she did long-distance with Ian while lodging with a friend. Her hope diminished of any school letting her in and her eyes fixed away from that path.
And there's Ian, in a foreign place she's never been. A place she could explore and perhaps fix a few things with him. That's what she did. Leaving England, she crossed the pond and got a job and new friends. Those ties with Ian were fixed (Jessie was still believed to be a friend) and, even with him working late, her hope for a bright future brightened beyond the sun.
She worked to help, even if she could've been replaced in a snap. A lawyer, Shoe store cashier, and a companion of the Doctor all have one thing in common; they help no matter how small. And right now, watching the soldiers rush past them, Charlotte knew her willingness to put herself in danger for good didn't begin when she met the Doctor, it only grew.
Not long after the ruckus diminishes, Martha rejoins their group, where they stood in the same spot on the sidewalk.
The Doctor nods down to her badge. "And you're qualified now? You're a proper doctor."
"UNIT rushed it through given my experience in the field," Martha answers as she began leading them to a trailer. "Here we go. We're establishing a field base on site. They're dying to meet you." She grins back as they neared the trailer.
"Wish I could say the same," the Doctor mumbles.
The trailer has a set of stairs leading up to the inside- which, once Charlotte passed through the entrance area, was met with rows of people sat in front of computers with larger screens hung above them.
Standing in full uniform in front of the control panel, a man listens to Martha as she says, "Operation Blue Sky complete, sir. Thanks for letting me take the lead." She looks over to the Doctor when he steps up beside Charlotte and motioned between him and the man in uniform. "And, this is the Doctor. Doctor, Colonel Mace."
Mace immediately stood at attention, saluting to the Doctor. "Sir!"
However, the Doctor nearly scowled at the site. "Oh, don't salute," he insisted.
"Well, it's an honor, sir!" Mace persists. "I've read all the files on you and, technically speaking, you're still on staff. You never resigned."
Charlotte shakes her head, taking a step towards Mace. "Wait, you said you read all the files on him, yeah?"
"Yes."
"Well, where's my salute then?" She questions to the visible confusion of Mace. "Charlotte Mary Bolton. Has to be something about me in there, am I right Colonel Mace?"
Mace immediately went from as if he insulted a celebrity to full attention. "Yes, ma'am."
"Good... You can stop saluting, now."
Donna looks over at the Doctor. "Wait, did he say you worked for them?"
"Yeah, long time ago." He stands on his toes to glance at what everyone was doing on the computers. "Back in the '70s. Or was it the '80s? But it was all a bit more homespun back then."
"Times have changed, sir."
"Yeah, that's enough of the 'sir.'"
"Come on now Doctor, you've seen it," Martha began as she led them to stand closer to the computers. "You've been on board the Valiant and you will too, Charlotte. We've got massive funding from the United Nations. All in the name of home word security."
Mace nods to her. "A modern UNIT for the modern world."
"What, and that means arresting ordinary factory workers?" Donna questions the Colonel. "In the streets, in broad daylight? It's more like Guantanamo Bay out there. Donna, by the way. Donna Noble, since you didn't ask. I'll have a salute."
Mace looks over to the Doctor, who sat down in a spare desk chair at the row of computers. The Doctor rose his eyebrows at him and Mace turns in full attention to Donna. "Ma'am."
"Thank you."
With his chin in his palm, the Doctor says, "Tell me. What's going on in that factory?"
And Mace filled them in: "Yesterday 52 people died in identical circumstances, right across the world, in eleven different time-zones." As he continued, the large screen lit up with the places he mentions. "5 am in the UK, 6 am in France, 8 am in Moscow, 1 pm in China."
"You mean they died simultaneously."
"Exactly," Mace replied to him. "52 deaths at the exact same moment, worldwide."
"How did they die?"
From memory, Charlotte responds, "Just in their cars."
Nodding to her, Martha adds, "They were poisoned. I checked the biopsies, no toxins. Whatever it is, left the system immediately."
The Doctor looks up at the screen. "What have the cars got in common?"
"Completely different makes," answers Martha. "They're all fitted with ATMOS. And that is the ATMOS factory."
Glancing over to her, the Doctor asks, "What's ATMOS?"
Donna chuckled at him. "Oh, come on. Even I know that. Everyone's got ATMOS!"
Just a minute later, the group walks down a corridor that looks on over a large factory area where the workers stand with hands on their heads as the UNIT soldiers shout orders. Martha, who leads them down, responds to the Doctor's question on ATMOS, "Stands for Atmospheric Omission System," she says. "Fit ATMOS in your car, reduces CO2 emissions to zero."
"Zero?! No carbon, not at all?"
"Oh, yes," Donna told him. "Sat-nav and 20 quid in shopping vouchers if you introduce a friend. Bargain!" A group of workers is lead past them and Charlotte glances as they walk past.
Colonel Mace stops them beside the railing. "And this is where they make it, Doctor," he tells the man as he leaned over the railing. "Shipping worldwide. Seventeen factories across the globe, but this is the central depot, sending ATMOS to every country on Earth."
"And you think ATMOS is alien?" He asked.
"It's our job to investigate that possibility." Mace stood up straight and directed them forward. "Doctor?" With the Colonel and Martha leading them, they walked past more UNIT soldiers ordering the workers, and were lead to an office placed just outside of the chaos, but could still hear the footsteps of the workers as they were marched out.
"And here it is, laid bare," Colonel Mace said to them as they glance around the office area. "ATMOS threaded through any and every make of car."
As he replies, the Doctor slid on his glasses as he looks over some objects. "You must've checked it, before it went on sale."
Martha nods. "We did, but found nothing," she replies. "That's why I thought we needed an expert."
"Really?" Says the Doctor. "Who'd you get?" Everyone kept quiet, raising their eyebrows as he turns over to them once noticing the silence. "Oh, right!" He exclaimed when it came to him. "Me! Yes, good!"
With a shake of her head, Martha left alongside Mace, and Donna and Charlotte moved to group up beside the Doctor. "Okay, so why would aliens be so keen on cleaning out atmosphere?" Donna questions him as he held up an object eye-level.
"Very good question..."
"Maybe they want to help," mused Donna. "Get rid of pollution and stuff."
Shrugging as an answer to her, Charlotte asks, "Doctor, how many cars are on Earth?"
"It's 2009, so..." His nose scrunched up. "800 million? Just about."
"Well, imagine if you could control all of them." She replied, easily catching his attention. "800 million weapons."
---
Just minutes later, after Martha and Mace returned to the office, Donna slipped past with Charlotte following her example and left to the personnel department. While Charlotte flips through a large binder consisting of the workers' personal information (birthdays, addresses, phone numbers, etc.) as she sat down in a rolling chair, Donna looks through a cabinet of other binders.
"Have you ever had a real job?" Donna asked her.
"Well, yeah," she answers, repeatedly flipping through the pages, becoming bored. "I had a few. At my first one, at this restaurant, if you could call it that, I was fired for never showing up."
"Seriously?" From how Donna cracked a smile, it was clear she didn't believe her. "You?"
Charlotte glances up from her binder. "Yeah... Took me a while to get used to actually trying. Up to a few years ago, actually. Still, sick days."
Still, at the cupboard of binders, Donna repeats under her breath, "sick days?" Just as her eyes caught the binder that was supposed to hold all records of the workers' sick days.
Just after reconvening, the two quickly made their way back to the office, both holding a binder as they reentered. "Oi, you lot!" said the redhead right when they regrouped, catching the attention of Martha and the Doctor, who stand together, and caused Mace to return from where he chatted with other UNIT commanders.
"All your storm troopers and your sonics... You're rubbish! Should've come with us."
"Why?" Replied the Doctor. "Where've you been?"
"Personnel," she answers. "That's where the weird stuff's happening, in the paperwork. 'Cause I spent years working as a temp, I can find my way around an office blindfold, and the first thing I noticed is an empty file." She held the said binder in front of her.
"Well, the second thing," Charlotte corrected under her breath, only to receive a sharp look from her.
The Doctor, however, didn't even mention it. "Why, what's inside it?" He questioned. "Or what's not inside it?"
"Sick days. There aren't any." She answers while opening up the binder- which is as empty as when ATMOS bought it. "Hundreds of people working here and no one's sick. Not one hangover, man flu, sneaky little shopping, nothing. Not ever! They don't get ill."
"That can't be right," replied Mace, whose eyebrows scrunched up in confusion.
"And then there's this." Charlotte sets her binder on the desk, opening it to the first of hundreds of pieces of paper- each supposed to contain the workers' information, but all consisting of just their names and addresses. "Not even contact information, phone number, birthday." She flipped to the next person and the third. "Almost nothing about them."
Mace looks over the binder for himself looking up when Donna says to him, "You've been checking out the building, should've been checking out the workforce."
"I can see why they like you," Martha tells her.
While Donna hums in response, Charlotte looks over at her with a thin smile. "You're alright."
"Super temp!" said Donna.
The Colonel turns over to Martha. "Doctor Jones, set up a medical post, start examining the workers. I'll get them sent through."
Martha leaves with Donna not far behind and the Doctor and Charlotte follow Colonel Mace down a corridor. "So, Colonel Mace, where'd ATMOS come from?" She asks him.
"Luke Rattigan himself," the Colonel answered as if he was a household name.
Looking over to him with, the Doctor's eyes narrowed. "And 'himself' would be?"
A moment later, the three surround a computer as a photo of Luke Rattigan- a young man with brown hair- renders in. "Child genius. Invented the Fountain Six search engine when he was 12 years old," Mace fills them in. "Millionaire overnight. Now runs the Rattigan Academy. A private school, educating students, handpicked from all over the world."
"A hothouse for geniuses, wouldn't mind going there." Puzzledly, Colonel Mace looks over at him, to which he responds, "I get lonely."
Charlotte and the Doctor walk side-by-side while Mace leads them into an area of the factory occupied by UNIT jeeps, soldiers, and more lines of the workers' being led off.
"You are not coming with me!" Insisted the Doctor towards Mace. "I want to talk to this Luke Rattigan, not point a gun at him."
"It's ten miles outside London. How are you going to get there?"
"Well, then get me a jeep!"
"According to the records, you travel by TARDIS."
Sighing, Charlotte held back an eye-roll. "You have to be kidding me. Do you think we'd want to bring the TARDIS to the front lines? I mean, seriously."
"I see," says Mace. "So you do have weapons, but choose to keep them hidden. Jenkins!"
As another soldier joins them, Charlotte looked over to the Doctor, knocking her head and glancing at the back of Mace- indicating how hollow she knew his head had to have been when saying that. However, her head turns ahead when Jenkins, a man around her age, joins them.
"Sir!"
"You will accompany the Doctor and Miss Bolton and take orders from them."
Scrunching his nose up the Doctor says, "Yeah, I don't do orders."
Charlotte nudged his side. "Lighten up."
"Any sign of trouble, get Jenkins to declare a Code Red. And good luck, ma'am-" he salutes, and Charlotte gave a cocky smile, "sir." Mace salutes to the Doctor, too, much to his displeasure.
"I said no salutes," he groaned, rolling his head back.
In response, Charlotte turns serious, looking to Mace in no laughing matter. "Colonel Mace, this is a direct order from me-" the man stood up straight while the Doctor rolled his eyes- "No matter what the Doctor says, always salute him and me. And always call him 'sir.'"
As he was told, Mace saluted her. "Yes, ma'am."
"Oh, I give up."
Mace leaves and Charlotte focused on him. "This is just the beginning. Next, they'll be bowing."
"I dread the day."
Charlotte pushed his shoulder as she replies, "I don't." Donna rejoined them and Charlotte decided to stand alongside the UNIT soldier. "Jenkins, right?" She asked him.
Jenkins immediately goes from a slouch to a salute. "Yes, ma'am. Ross Jenkins."
Grinning from the title, Charlotte waved a hand in between them, which told him he could relax. "Did Mace send out that order I gave him?"
"Yes," answered Jenkins. "He just sent out the order to us through the radios." He taps on his earpiece.
"Well, that's cool."
"They're brand new," he told her. "Just got these earpieces a week ago."
She rose her eyebrows, nodding her head along. "Cool," responded Charlotte, however, she wasn't interested and was trying to be nice.
Ross looks down at his watch. "We should be going soon." He glances over at where Donna and the Doctor stand chatting away. "Ready when you are, sir!" Jenkins called over to him while Charlotte climbed into the Jeep's bench-like front seat.
Just a moment later, with Ross behind the wheel and to Charlotte's left, the Doctor to her right and Donna beside the door, they were off and began driving away from the factory.
"Broken moon of what?" Donna asks him, referring to their previous conversation.
He sighed. "I know, know."
--
A minute later the Jeep stops at the side of the road, at the beginning of a neighborhood with people walking about in the streets. As this was her neighborhood, Donna jumps out of the Jeep.
"See you later!" Charlotte hollered back to her as she began closing the door.
"And you be careful!" She responded just before the Jeep began pulling away, leaving her to drive further down the road and to the Rattigan Academy.
_______
Next up: The Sontaran Strategem Part Two (Charlotte Versus the Sontarans Part Two)
GIF FROM miistborn ON TUMBLR
A/N: WHY WAS IT SO HARD FOR ME TO WRITE THIS! Feel like this chapter was a bit bland but whatever. Shorter than usual too.