THE CHOSEN CURSE
Chapter 8 "I can understand now why you hate guns so much, Doctor." Donna said quietly, trying not to stare too hard at the bodies of their former companions. "I had no idea the sergeant had gone 'round the bend like that. Maybe if I'd paid more attention to him, I would've noticed." "It's not your fault, Donna." The Doctor said softly, putting his arm around her. "It's nobody's fault. I think the sergeant had been mentally wounded, well before we came along." "Oh my God!" Donna said abruptly, pulling away and giving the Doctor a horrified look. "I've just realized. Ringstaff never told you where to find that computer room." "Yes, Donna. I do know that. I was there, remember?" The Doctor said. "Oh. Yeah. Sorry." She apologized. "Don't be." He said, pulling his sonic screwdriver out of his jacket pocket. "I need to have you around if I ever get senile. Blimey! You're like a walking a Sticky Note." "Look, Doctor. I know that technically, we could just get in the TARDIS and leave." Donna said anxiously. We aren't though, are we? We're not gonna' leave people on two separate planets to die? I mean, it's not like Pompeii all over again? One of your 'fixed points in history?' Please tell me it isn't?" The Doctor had slipped on his eyeglasses, and was adjusting some settings on his sonic. He held it up in the air. "No, Donna. It isn't." He told her. "We're staying." "But...how are we gonna' get there in time, if we don't even know where this missile computer thing is?" She asked. "Ladies and gents and Donna Nobles." The Doctor said to her in his best infomercial pitchman's patter. "You'll notice this handy-dandy little device I have in here my hand. Good for all sorts of purposes; unlocking doors, checking for concussion, reversing the polarity of a neutron flow, speeding up the cooking time of your Sunday roast, and..." He resumed speaking normally, "finding a massive military computer which controls a mob of missiles." The Doctor pressed down on the sonic screwdriver. Nothing happened. It didn't even make hardly any noise. Donna, who was stood watching him with her arms akimbo, raised an eyebrow. He frowned, glared at the sonic and gave it a big shake. Then the Doctor walked around in a circle, pointing it in all directions. Suddenly, as he turned to face up the hallway, the device began to give off a sharply pitched warbling noise. The Doctor's eyes lit up. Taking off his glasses and pocketing them, he gave Donna an 'I told you so' grin, and they were off, Running up the long, curving corridor, running as if the lives of billions of people they didn't even know, depended on them. Twice, they had to stop. Breath heaving, Donna could only watch, while the Doctor punched in a security code to get them through some doors. At last they came to a heavy gray metal door marked, 'KEEP OUT! Security Clearance One Staff Only Beyond This Point. DANGER!' "Security clearance one. That's me." The Doctor said to Donna, punching in the security code, and pushing open the door. All of the sudden, a very loud alarm began to hoot, echoing up and down the hallway. Red lights began flashing. "Erm—or maybe not." The Doctor admitted to Donna, who rolled her eyes at him. Shutting the door, the Doctor sonicked it. Many miles away, deep inside the Imperial House, in a posh office paneled with dark wood and filled with antique furniture and historical mementos, Emperor Yenhir was seated behind his desk. He'd changed out of his war-tattered robes, and now was wearing his casual 'commoners' attire; casual black shirt under a dark green cardigan jumper, black jeans and old brown slippers. He was leaning back in his chair, smoking a pipe, with his feet propped up on the desk, staring up at the ceiling. There was a half-full glass of purple tinted liquor in his hand. The emperor lifted his glass in silent salute to the green, black and gold fringed flag of Torsaaga, which was hanging l imply on a pole in a corner of his office An intercom on his desk buzzed. "Emperor Yenhir, sir? Your Imperial Majesty? Are you alright in there?" A young man's trembling voice asked. The voice was that of an intern. He'd noticed how the emperor had come waltzing in from the shuttle-pad on the roof, alone except for a handful of his imperial guardsmen. When the young man asked if his emperor's aides were coming, Yenhir only snorted. "Son, today your emperor woke up and realized, that the only good aide, is a dead one." He had said to the young man Yenhir called out to the guard outside his office door. The man opened it and stuck his head inside. "Sir?" The guardsman inquired "Kill that stupid little intern for me, would you? There's a good chap." Yenhir told him. "As you wish my emperor!" The man said, saluting crisply. He shut the door. A few moments later, there was the sound of the young man pleading for his life. This was followed the sound of a laser pistol, which was then followed by the faintly heard thud. "Might as well get this over with." Yenhir said, removing his feet from the desk. Sitting up in his chair, the emperor put out his pipe and took one last sip of his drink. He reached down opened a drawer in his desk, taking out a miniature computer terminal and putting on the desk in front of him "Eh—what was my password?" He muttered. The Doctor and Donna were inside a small room filled with computer equipment. Donna looked around at the confusing array of terminals and banks of instruments full of flashing multi-coloured lights. "Oh great!" Donna rolled her eyes. "How are we supposed to know which computer houses the missile deactivation thing?" Suddenly, the door burst open. A tall, distinguished looking man in a simpler version of Ringstaff's uniform came through, gun drawn. He was alone. The man looked pale and nervous. "I'm General Tifffan." The man said, holstering his gun. "I'm in charge of this base. And I hope to gods you two are here to stop those missiles from being launched. The emperor's completely lost it this time. And I don't care if they shoot me for saying so." "I'm going to try." The Doctor nodded. "Why can't you stop it yourself?" "I only took over here a week ago. I was wounded at the Battle of Vom. After I recovered, the military put me in charge of running this base. Bureaucrats." Tiffan shrugged. "They still haven't bothered to send me the deactivation codes." "Have you got the passwords, at least?" The Doctor asked hopefully. "Yes. Thank the gods for that." The general said. "Yet, I'm afraid you'll only get one try, once you find the correct file. Without the proper deactivation code, the whole system automatically bans the entry of any other codes for twelve hours. The missiles can still be launched , but...there'll be no way to stop them." "What idiot thought that up?" Donna blurted out. "Shhh—Not now, Donna." The Doctor said brusquely. Then asked the general, "What idiot thought that up?" "Emperor Yenhir, I believe." General Tiffan answered. "Squirrel Nutking has been busy." The Doctor sighed, rolling his eyes. "We're running out of time. I think I may be able to hack into the emperor's files and find the codes. Knowing the passwords will help. What's the first password?" General Tiffan leaned over and whispered into the Doctor's ear. The Doctor's eyes widened in surprise. "Really?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "Is there anything else I can do? The general said. "OK, yeah." The Doctor said, slipping on his eyeglasses. "I need you to show me which one of these computer terminals handles missle deactivation." All was quiet back in the Imperial House. The dead bodies shot by the guardsmen made sure of that. "That impure mob of mutts on Dacana thought they could beat me. Yeah? We'll see who is beaten, you stinking pack of begabonds" The emperor muttered manically. He was bent over a sofa in his office, lifting up the cushions,, frantically grabbing up coins, lint balls and scraps of paper. The man would look at the scraps of paper, frown in disappointment, then throw them on the floor . "I know I wrote that password down somewhere!" He said crossly. Back on the missile base, the Doctor was sitting in a chair, furiously air-typing at a three-dimensional virtual keyboard, hovering just above his lap. Strangely, the monitor screen was not unlike a twenty-first century Earth plasma screen. The Doctor's first try merely netted the code for a computer game, involving ancient Torsaagan soldiers fighting each other on a battlefield. The next few tries were even more discouraging. A few files containing pictures of his holidays on his space yacht. And one file marked "Top Secret" turned out to be the emperor's bank balance. Another file was recipes, and yet another was filled with illegal music downloads. "These files have got more layers than a royal wedding cake." The Doctor grumbled. "Blimey! This is taking way too long." He paused for a second, running his fingers through his hair, staring ruefully at the screen. "You can do it, Doctor." Donna told him."You've saved other planets, you'll save these." "Time is running out, Donna." The Doctor replied, shaking his head sadly. "I can't sit here and play games with these passwords. I've got to find that file. Now." "I've know!" Donna said encouragingly, "Think of it as a computer game. And you're playing against the world's biggest idiot." The Doctor turned around, about to give her an irascible reply. He closed his mouth, keeping himself from saying something he'd regret, later. Then, he paused. The Doctor thought about what she'd said, and gave her a huge smile. "Oh, Donna Noble." He said, with a twinkle in his eye. "I'd kiss you. If I didn't think you'd slap me into the middle of next week for doing it." "I Hope I didn't do some weird alien thing? Like ask you out on a date?" Donna asked, not sure where the Doctor was headed now. "No. But you did just give me an idea." The Doctor said, flexing his fingers. "Let the games begin!" Donna and the general watched, as the Doctor began typing again. As he typed, he explained. "It's that one file. The game! Why didn't I realize that?" The Doctor said, his voice charged with energy, as he continued to type. Donna noticed that he was playing the game, almost without looking. One formation of soldiers fell after another, as the Doctor worked his way through the various battles of the game. "When I entered the first password, the one that you thought most likely to be the right one, General, this is the first file the computer brought up." He said, "The emperor has hidden the codes inside the game! You have to get to the end and win. If I'm correct...and I almost always am. Well...some of the time...Anyway, after you win the game, the computer will route the information to the 'off' switch to the missiles. Then all I'll have to do, is hit the 'enter' key. And, bob's yer uncle, missile launch nixed." In the emperor's private office, he was going through some magazines he'd hidden behind the sofa. Holding them by the spine, he shook them, looking to see if anything fell out. Finally, a slip of paper did. It had been used to mark the page for the Miss Spring centre-fold. Emperor Yenhir stooped over to retrieve it. It was a candy wrapper, with a series of letters and numbers written on the back, and one word: 'rosebud'. Yenhir looked at it, and a wide grin spread over his face. His plans must go forward, no matter what. "Yes!" He said triumphantly, punching the air. "Got it!" The emperor went to toss the magazine on the sofa. He paused, looked at the beautiful, scantily clad woman on the cover, and took it with him back over to the desk He sat there, smugly staring at the miniature screen of his computer. Looking at the slip of paper, Yenhir typed in the password. Then, he punched in a series of letters and numbers that were on the slip of paper. These were the codes which would put through a series of automatic cheats in the game, enabling him to get to the end in less than than a minute. 'GAME OVER.' appeared on the screen. The screen went black. Words in yellow letters appeared. 'Missile Launch Confirmation. To confirm press enter.' The emperor's finger hung over 'enter'. "Goodbye Dacana!" Yenhir gloated, as he pressed the key. "Got it! The file with the deactivation codes." The Doctor exclaimed excitedly. On the video monitor came the words. 'GAME OVER.' Immediately, the screen turned blue and some words in red began to scroll across. 'Missile Launch Deactivation. To deactivate press enter.' The Doctor's finger hovered over the 'enter' key. "Here goes..." he muttered. Yenhir got up and poured himself another drink. He stared out the window into the early light of the Torsaaga dawn, and sighed with contentment. Without warning, there was a commotion outside his door. The sound of a scuffle. As an annoyed emperor turned to order someone shot, the door to his office burst wide open. General Tiffan came through, flanked by army soldiers. Other soldiers held the imperial guardsmen prisoner in the background. "You're too late, general." Yenhir said. "Dacana is gone. It's history." "Sorry sir. But the missile launch was scuttled. Both Dacana and Torsaaga are safe." Said the man, adding, "Maybe at this moment, safer than they've been in years. Take him away, men." "But...but...you can't do that, you traitor!" Yenhir shouted as two soldiers took by the arms and lead him away. "I'm your emperor! I'll have you all executed for this!" "You'll have no one shot anymore, mister. You're off to prison. And, an interplanetary war crimes inquiry." The General said. Tiffan turned to look in the hallway behind him. At the blue police box standing there. "Thank you, Doctor..." the man said. But it was too late. The general squinted his eyes against the wind that suddenly gusted through the hall, as the TARDIS groaned and wheezed and dematerialized. In the control room, the Doctor was busy puttering about the console. "There we go! All fixed and ready to rock and roll. Aren't you old girl? " The Doctor was grinning happily and giving the console an affectionate pat. "Who's a good little TARDIS then?" He schmoozed it. "Would you two like some time alone?" She asked, laughing and shaking her head. "Donna," the Doctor asked, his hands flitting over the console, then pulling down a lever, "have you ever been to an American tractor pulling contest?" The End
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