I huffed out a breath of relief. The guards that I was just hiding from hadn’t given the small, dark corner I was hiding in a second glance. And, almost robotic-like, turned ‘round the corner and marched down that hallway and out of site.
Oh yeah, you must be wanting to ask me, Mark, what the heck is going on? Well, I’ll tell you. Today was the day I planned to sneak into the a very secret, very remote building and steal the vortex manipulator. Aka, a time travel device.. It was alien technology, but these guys weren’t torchwood. It was the semi-distant future (depends on what scale), so traveling in time wasn’t just some far-off dream. It was the real stuff.
The thing is, not many people knew about it. But I did. And I spent a lot of time on my own studying the maps of this building, the placement of the security guards, and such. And today happened to be the day. Not that I was too excited, or anything. Today I was not a happy camper.
I quickly dashed down the corridor in the same direction the security guards went, but when I say dashing, I mean going at a snails’ pace. You see, this place is rigged. Highly. Not only are their pressure sensitive traps, because hey, that’s the easy part. They have alien technology.
I had to get my hands this very expensive material just to lower my body temperature so it makes it almost invisible to anything heat-seeking. Ya know, missiles, cameras, others. I shuddered at the thought, but I tried to stay as still as possible, making sure that it was all clear. Oh yeah, and I had to take out anything that might see me. So I had to temporarily shut down any electronical devices within a ten-meter radius. Temporarily, so that they think it’s just a bug in the system, nothing to worry about. Yes, I am aware of how much I am underestimating these people. But I won’t be here for long, so it should be enough.
While I walked down the hallway quietly, looking like I was hopping, and then my heart leaped. I was almost there. But doubt filled my mind. What if they caught me? What is the punishment for a 19-year-old young man stealing such a device? Surely very bad. But hey, I had to take this risk.
This vortex manipulator that I was stealing happened to be mine. But at the same time, not. I had found it long ago, and I was only just beginning to work it. Someone with any less brains probably wouldn’t know what to make of it. But to a lot of people, I happened to be a genius. And they took it from me, so technically I wasn’t stealing, right?!?! But enough about that. Reaching the door, I silently held out my modern version of a skeleton key in front of the scanner. Holding my breath, I waited for a few seconds while it processed. Then I heard a click. I was in. This was it. It slid open with no sound, and I smiled, impressed. It was a pretty awesome door.
That smile soon turned into a frown.
Something I hadn’t thought of.
The guards were back.
And that totally sucked.
And at the same time I happened to set off some alarms. The guards were readily holding guns., pointing them at my head, though I was standing about 10 feet away.
“Oy, who are you, boy?” the first one asked. The other one had the same question in her eyes. Ugh, psychic paper won’t help me now. I’ll try my best before I go down, though.
“I’m maintenance. Just got here yesterday. Haven’t been shown around much, but… is this restricted, sirs?” I asked calmly, but still trying to look confused and lost. They seemed to be buying it. God, I was really lucky. Their guns lowered, and the woman looked at me sharply, her auburn hair pulled back in such a way that even made her look even fiercer. Gosh, and I thought people here were supposed to be nice and friendly. You know, say ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ and things like that. *cough*sarcasm*cough* How do I know these things, you may want to know? Well, let’s just say, I know a guy.
“Highly restricted.” She said, having an American accent. “In fact, you should go, now. We are supposed to be patrolling this area of the building.” She said. “And stay away from the alarms, they tend to go off like, you know, if you go near them.”
I mentally rolled my eyes, and laughed hysterically in my head. My, that was a lot of sarcasm there. I always thought guards were the more serious-type. Was it just me? Thank my lucky stars, I happened to be right next to what I needed. They hadn’t noticed that the duration of this conversation, the object was slipped into my back pocket, thankfully as big as a wrist-watch.
“We’ll escort you out.” The man said, his voice deep in low to match his look. I laughed louder in my head, almost to the point where I was afraid they might hear it. They weren’t going to look to see that the object they were supposed to check up on, was gone. I mean, surely I, a new maintenance boy would report to them if I found out it was missing? And If I didn’t, it must be still there, right?
And another thing that was fortunate. Somehow the clothing I wore happened to not be suspicious. Who knows? Maybe they all wore this stuff.
Thinking ahead, I thought about what were to happen next. They would probably take me to another room that they thought I was supposed to be in. Then, turn around and pick up where they left off. So I had to get the Vortex Manipulator working fast. Because they will quickly realize that it’s missing, and I needed to get the heck out of here. The other problem was that I won’t have enough time to set the coordinates, so I’ll be transported to the nearest and most powerful signal. Hopefully my luck will last this long.
We turned the corner of the hallway that I had walked (hopped, snuck, whatever) through, I heard the high-tech communicator on the girls ear buzz, and I soon learned that someone was reporting to her the status of the security. I picked up snippets of it.
“seems something happened….” “went out for a few minutes, probably a bug….” “Can’t be sure….just in case…. Go check.”
These last words had me alert. They were going to check the area where I had the cameras shut down. For all I knew, they could smell my scent, or something. Then suddenly they pushed me into a room.
“Stay here” the girl barked, and the two ran off to see what was causing the bug. My breath came out quickly, and I took out the wristwatch that wasn’t a wristwatch, and began to work at it. Don’t ask me to explain exactly what I did, because not even I know. The process felt like it took hours, but I’m guessing took only about a minute or two. The pounding of the guard’s footsteps was echoed out the hall. I furiously hit the buttons, trying to get it to work.
“Ah HA!” I accidentally exclaimed, and then the two guards bolted over to where I was, and saw the Vortex Manipulator in my hands.
“HEY!” The dude yelled, and shot out a couple of times. The first shot glanced my side (ouch), but the rest didn’t have time to reach me, I was already gone. I ended up in what seemed like another world. You see, this wasn’t the only reason the day was so important. Today was the day I met the doctor.
__________________________________
As I appeared in a flash of light, I immediately collapsed. God, that hurts, with the gash along my side, it was hard not to just pass out on the spot. I hoisted myself up on a railing that happened to be there. My eyes widened as I took it in. This must be a ship! A mighty fine one, too, I thought with admiration. In the middle was what looked like very complex controls, levers and buttons and anything imaginable.
“Wow, out of all the places I end up here.” I said to myself, and looked around, looked at the large walls and other rooms. But what really surprised me was the door. I was still leaning on the railing, and so I just peered closer. They were double doors, with square windows you couldn’t really see out of. There was a small lock, and it was wooden. A wooden door on a space ship? Whoever owns this must be mad! It looked as if it was from the 20th century, but I couldn’t tell exactly what from. Then it shook and I could see the lock turning.
I turned my head to the side in curiosity, not very aware of the possibilities of who it could be. But it opened, and in stepped a man that looked only a few years older then I. At the same time, he looked old, like he’d been through something but tried not to show it. What he was wearing was indescribable to me, but looked like it came from the same time period as the door. His hair was light brown, which seemed opposite to my ginger hair.
Glancing back out the door for a second, I could tell someone followed him. Then he seemed to notice me. But, unexpectedly, he didn’t look surprised at all, he looked more like he already knew I was going to be here. “How’d you get on my TARDIS?” he asked, again not surprised.
“I just… hooked it on to the nearest time-traveling source. Probably got a little uppity, I only had minutes to punch in the coordinates-“ the man cut in my asking, “coordinates into what?”
I didn’t know how, but I could tell that he didn’t work for them, so I held out my wrist to show him the small device.
“It’s a vortex manipulator.” I said. “Thought of the name myself.” I boasted, and he eyed it thoughtfully.
“Yeah, it’s had a history that I know of.” He said thoughtfully, and I raised one eye-brow. “How? I haven’t shown any-“ I cut off as he jumped up as though he forgot something, which he announced. “I forgot! What’s your name?” the man asked. “Mark.” I said. “Oh, hullo. I’m the Doctor.” He said, and I looked at him, expecting him to say something more, but he didn’t.
“Just-“ he cut me off again. “Yes, just the doctor.” The Doctor grinned, like he was satisfied that I was about to ask something of his name.
“Nice to meet you, Doctor.” I said truthfully. He stared up at my head. “You’re ginger. What a surprise. That’s a recurring theme now. At least one ginger on board, and it’s never me.” He said, amused, like it was an inside joke. It must be, because I didn’t have a clue what he was on about.
“Nice to meet you, Doctor.” I said truthfully. He stared up at my head. “You’re ginger. What a surprise. That’s a recurring theme now. At least one ginger on board, and it’s never me.” He said, amused, like it was an inside joke. It must be, because I didn’t have a clue what he was on about.
Then there was a movement at the door, that followed the shuffling outside that I didn’t seem to notice because I was too busy having a conversation with this “Doctor.”
A girl’s head popped out, looking at the place in wonder, and she stepped in, with disbelief shadowing her gaze, and before I could ask her what was so perplexing, she walked right out, then in again. Then I realized that she had on 21st century clothing, good thing I knew my history. But the 21st century didn’t have spaceships like these, nor did the time I was from. The TARDIS, as the doctor called it, looked very complex… it seemed to give me this feeling…. It already made me curious about the Doctor. I only just had met him and he seemed so…. Different. In a way I couldn’t describe. While the girl was examining the outside of the TARDIS, I decided to have a look myself, my hand already not covering the gash on my side, it was all fixed up by the nanogenes I had stored before the doctor came in.
“One can only imagine what forces are holding something so big in something so small.” I said with wonder. And oh, I imagined alright.
“It would be… hard to explain.” The Doctor said, answering the question that I had phrased into that of a sentence. I was about to say, Oh, I could handle it, when the girl walked in again.
“It’s bigger on the inside.” She said, and like that one guard, had an American accent. The Doctor laughed softly, and I laughed with him. I almost dashed over to her, grinning.
“Yeah, I said that too. “ I said simply, held out my hand, and introduced myself. “Hi, I’m Mark.” Something very simple of me to say. She shook it.
“Hi, Mark. I’m Friday. Now what in the hell is going on?” she asked. I thought this over for a second.
“My guess is that you should ask him.” I said, gesturing with the doctor.
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