If one looked at a bacterium attacking the contents of a Petri dish at an enhanced speed, on a fast-played video recording, for instance, then one would see something similar to the attack of the planet Kowalas. In a matter of days, anyone and everyone on the planet had been taken over by the new army. Of course, no one compared this attack and takeover to that of a bacterium attacking a Petri dish for two distinct reasons. One, no one on Kowalas had heard of that particular biology tool by that name; they were usually referred to as growth dishes. Two, no one really survived the takeover in such a way that would allow them to enjoy the speculation that this sort of comparison usually springs from. In fact, no one who was attacked and taken over even realised they were being attacked or, after the fact, that they had been taken over.
On this planet, mostly ignorant of what had happened to it, there lay an empty and derelict town. When Kowalas had been a thriving and cognisant planet, this town had been called Academia, named for the fact the largest library and university on Kowalas resided there. It definitely resided; things such as libraries and universities reside more than they exist. Academia library had fallen into disrepair like the rest of Kowalas, but fortunately a vast majority of its architecture was marble, and would remain standing for the better part of a few millennia.
On one of the upstairs corridors overlooking a large and rather monastic indoor courtyard, there was a strange wheezing, groaning sound. A tall blue box appeared from nowhere, nowhere being a fascinatingly accurate description of the space-time vortex. Out of this curious blue box came three persons: a Cyberman called but not named Kroton, a human girl called but not named Ace, and a Timelord called but not named the Doctor. They had just come from the future of the planet Earth, having dropping off the passengers and crew of the luxury ship King Henry VIII, whom they had rescued from a collision course with the sun; an event engineered by the Chronite Sabet, who had gone to a lot of trouble trying to become God. Needless to say, he failed.
The Doctor took a long look around the library. It reminded him slightly of the musty passages and cloisters of his home on Gallifrey, which does not come into this tale. He took in one last breath of nostalgia, and then turned toward his companions. "So, what do we do now? Find the local population? Immerse ourselves in local culture? Blow up the local government building?"
Ace's eyes lit up. "Yeah, that last one sounds fun!"
The Doctor sighed. "We need to work on that violent streak of yours. Kroton?"
"No preference, Doctor, especially since I have no clue where you landed us."
"Then we shall look around, and find out exactly where I have landed us. With a place like this-" He gave a neighbouring marble pillar a resounding whack "-there's bound to be a good life."
"Then why aren't they here?" asked Ace. "Do gargantuan buildings usually get abandoned by those living the good life?"
"Hmm," said the Doctor. "Interesting point. There's bound to be a simple explanation. Perhaps they're moving the books to another branch."
"Books?" said Kroton. "This is a library?"
"Of course. Didn't you read the sign?" The Doctor pointed across the plaza beneath them to a large and inscrutable sign. "'Academia Library University.' Slightly strange; usually the library is built for the university, not the other way around."
An expected amount of time later, the three had made it outside, and the Doctor got a good look of the exterior of the structure. "That is big," he said. "And a very distinctive style of architecture, distinctive enough to identify a planet for me."
"Ah," said Ace. "What is it?"
"I don't know."
"What?!"
"It's distinctive enough, I just don't know this particular distinction. You don't expect me to know everything, do you?"
Ace began grumbling to herself about omniscience when something happened.
Out of the sky fell three extraordinary objects. At about shoulder height, they stopped and hovered, and Ace could get a good look. They looked very much like large robotic dragonflies, with a wingspan of about shoulder width. They were shiny; a kaleidoscope of colours seemed to dance across the surfaces. Just as she was getting a good look at them, each of the three opened their mouths, and light flooded out, covering them. Ace blinked, and held up a hand to block some of the light. "Professor?" she called out.
A soft voice came from the direction of the dragonflies. "Report three. Human. Unknown. Unknown. Acquiring unknowns."
The light disappeared, and Ace looked around. The first thing she noticed when the afterimages had faded away was that she was alone. The three dragonflies, the Doctor, and Kroton were gone.
Ace didn't know what to do for a moment. She had no clue where they were, or who the people were, or how they would react to her or someone like her. She was completely at a loss. Finally, she decided to continue down the road leading from the library that they had started down.
She walked a long way.
***
"Two new specimens?"
"Yes, sir. Came out of nowhere. The warning satellites didn't see them come in for some reason, but the scouters found them not long after the surveillance satellites picked them up."
"Very good. What can you tell me about these two?"
"The first is a cybernetic creature of some sort. We're still running tests on his survival capabilities, but he seems to have a good many facilities to draw from. He's immune to any weapon that we can see, but that seems to be more from his machine nature and not his organic; useless to us."
"And the other?"
"Completely organic, but the most alien creature that we've seen so far."
"It is humanoid, isn't it?"
"Yes . . . on the surface, at least. Preliminary tests show a phenomenally different biologic and nervous structure. It is extremely advanced to any we've seen yet, and its potential for survival is as high as the cyborg. There is only the correlation problem."
"Hmm? Yes, we can't have it too different, can we? Very well, continue testing, and keep me informed on any new data."
***
The first sign of life that Ace found actually found her first. A squad of soldiers came out of nowhere, surrounding her on the road. "State your identification, classification, and explanation for being outside of a compound," said the leader, pointing a rather large gun at her.
Ace surveyed the goon coolly. There were sixteen of them; they were all in peak physical condition and armed fairly liberally, if uniformly. She decided a fight would be useless, but an argument more worthwhile.
"Correction," she said. "State your identification, classification, and explanation for being outside of a compound."
The leader was taken aback by this. "Why should I?"
"Because I probably out-classify you. Come on, spit it out: identification, classification, and explanation."
The leader relented. "I am John 54789, classification patrol level three. I am on patrol looking for unauthorised soldiers outside the compound." He looked at Ace in an odd, analytical way. "Who are you? And your classification?"
"Your classification is not high enough for that information. Take me to you superior."
"Our first priority is to patrol for unauthorised soldiers outside the compound. We will escort you when our patrol time is over."
"Correction," said Ace, pleased with the way this was turning out. "You will take me to you superior, and he might even reprimand you for delaying this action."
John 54789 withdrew with three of his men, obviously higher ranked than the bulk of the squad, and consulted briefly. They returned after a few minutes. "Please come this way-" He broke off. "What shall I identify you as?"
"Just call ... identify me as Ace."
***
They arrived at the city an hour later. The sun was setting. John checked his patrol in with the gate guards, and had his three subordinates - they being patrol level two - take them to the barracks while he led Ace to another building.
"Are we going to see a patrol level four?" she asked.
John looked at her oddly again. "There is no patrol level four. I report to a military police level two."
Ace laughed cheaply. "Just a little joke," she said weakly. He seemed very sure that she would know the hierarchy back and forth. There were too many risks in what she was doing, but she needed more information still. The journey to the city had revealed a little information. Ace had questioned John on the particular matter of his patrol, and used the information to build a slightly larger picture of what they did. John's patrol - Exterior Patrol 65J - had found fifteen unauthorised personnel in the past year. They were taken to Prison Camp 65. That was about all Ace could learn without being obvious.
They took the elevator to floor three of the City 6 Military Police Building, and went into the Exterior Patrols office. John went to the secretary.
"Please inform MP2 Gordon that I have someone to see him."
The secretary obliged, and within a minute Ace and John were inside MP2 Gordon 78130's office. Ace turned to John. "You are dismissed."
He left meekly, and Gordon took a long look at her. "Your very sure of yourself. State your identification, classification, and explanation for seeing me."
Ace could immediately tell that Gordon wouldn't be as gullible as John was. "My name is Ace. I have no classification, and I want some information on some friends of mine."
"You have no classification?" Gordon frowned. "Why was the P3 obeying your every whim?"
"He was led to believe I was of a higher classification."
"That being?"
"High enough he didn't have to know what it was."
Gordon started laughing. "Very well, then. Tell me what you want to know. I might not answer, mind you."
***
The prisoner began kicking the door again. He kicked it every day, realising the whole time that the door would not open, but it gave him purpose and a reason to cling to the little hope he had left. It was a completely useless act; his kicks rarely landed on the bars in a good enough way to do any damage, and all damage was minimal; the door would see a supernova before that kind of punishment did any good. A new idea floated across the prisoner's brain. A new idea came every day as well, but being different did not make it less futile each day, whatever it was.
He began to throw himself bodily at the wall. He would land on it with a distinct and resounding thud.
"Would you stop that?" came a voice from around the corner. "It's getting tedious."
This was a tactic that had not occurred to the prisoner. Communication with others! Pure genius. "Hello?" he said carefully. "Is anyone there?"
"Yes," said the other voice again. "I'm glad you stopped, but please try not to make anymore noise for the next few minutes, I'm trying to concentrate here."
The prisoner remained silent for seven minutes before anything else happened. There was a soft click, a loud whine from an un-oiled door being opened, then the soft sounds of footsteps approaching. A man came into view, and the prisoner was astonished. He was a tall man, with curly hair, a long coat, and a long polychromatic scarf.
"Hello," said the man. "Were you the man making all of the noise?"
"Yes," said the prisoner. "Who are you?"
"I'm the Doctor," said the man, holding a device up to the lock on the prisoner's door. "I know the combinations to look for now, so this should only take a minute this time." The devise hummed softly, and the lock clicked open. "What was your name again?"
"I have no name," said the prisoner. "I'm just a blank man. That's all they would tell me."
He certainly looked blank to the Doctor. He bore no expression, his eyes were lifeless and unintelligent, and the Doctor would have passed the prisoner over as non-cognizant if he hadn't actually seen him speak.
"Everyone needs a name," said the Doctor cheerfully. "How about my giving you one?"
"Alright," said the prisoner.
"How about 'David'?" asked the Doctor. "Family of mine - well, married into the family."
David nodded, and the Doctor looked around. "Maybe you can tell me what's happening here."
David looked at him blankly.
***
"Well," said Gordon, "you certainly are more intelligent than most people we find. I will have to tell my superiors about your method so they can prevent it from happening again. I think you had better go to a prison camp until you can get altered."
Ace went slightly pale. "Altered?"
"That's right," Gordon said. "You know nothing about this world. I had forgotten for a moment. We are the beginnings of the largest and most versatile military in the universe. Every species in the universe have various strengths and abilities that are inherited genetically. We capture these species, like your two friends, and identify the genetic strands and associated thought processes that make them superior. Then we meld them into one master DNA."
"So you have different models of soldiers? During various stages of capture?"
"Different models, yes. But not because of the timings of captures. The DNA in my body, and that of every soldier here on Kowalas, is a sort of broadcast receiver. Whenever the master DNA is updated, everyone on the planet inherits it. That's why everyone here is perfectly capable of taking on nearly anything in the universe. Your DNA will be altered to receive the master DNA with everyone else."
It was a stunning concept. Ace tried to think back and recall all of the various species she and the Doctor had met, how powerful they were in their own ways. If all of the power was combined-
"Wait," she said. "What about the Doctor? Is his DNA going to become part of this master strand as well?"
"Yes, if the Science Department judges that he has appropriate strengths and abilities."
He could regenerate. He could live for centuries. He had some unknown power over time itself. This was bad. Ace needed to escape. Her hand slipped into her satchel and slowly removed a small canister of Nitro 9. She had no clue what time delay this canister was set to, but it was a risk that needed to be taken. Ace activated the canister and dropped it below the desk and stood.
"I'll be going now?" she asked. Gordon was the only one who knew the truth about her. She'd have to make sure he died in the blast. She was slightly sick at the thought of murder, but it seemed necessary.
"Yes," said Gordon. He walked to the door and opened it for her. "Debra, call an escort for this prisoner to Prison Camp 65." He walked back to his desk, and Ace went outside.
Debra had a gun on her desk. "Please don't try anything," she said. "An MP1 should be here in a moment."
That would give very little leeway depending on when the MP1 got here and the Nitro 9 exploded-
The Nitro 9 exploded, and Ace ran out of the room.
***
"The cyborg is being removed from his trance."
"Have you ordered his extermination?"
"Yes, sir. His DNA was useless, but with your permission, I'd like to keep the body to examine the possible benefits of non-genetic enhancement-"
"Are you out of your mind?"
"Sir?"
"The very purpose of this planet is to become superior in every aspect possible. If we rely on non-organic methods to achieve this, we will always risk the chance of a mechanical failure."
"I see, sir. Sorry, sir."
"Now, what of the other?"
"His genetic structures are most difficult to translate. It may not be for a few years until we are completely finished with analysis and application. His thought process monitoring is not progressing quickly, either."
"As long as we get results. Remember, our invasion is not scheduled for another twenty-five years. You have my permission to take your time."
***
"So he's useless, eh?" George didn't think he looked useless. Very powerful and impressive was more like it.
"That's right," said Allen. "We don't even get to test him anymore."
"So are we supposed to wake him up and absorb him?"
"I guess. What was he most reactive to? That ought to wake him up."
"Let's see," said George, looking through his notes. "Element 79."
"What? Are you serious?"
"Yep. Do you know how to make a serum of Element 79?"
"I'd just mix the dust with water and inject it?"
"Where? This guy is solid metal on the outside!"
Allen shrugged. "Maybe that breathing unit on his chest. We ought to be able to get something in there."
"Alright then." George opened a cupboard. "Where do we keep the Element 79?"
***
The city was not meant to be seen by non-military personnel. In this spirit, there were clear signs pointing to everywhere. Ace quickly found the Genetic Observation and Processing Centre. There were no elevators here, and she got up the fountain staircase to level seven before anyone stopped her for lack of security. Unfortunately, the first security guard caught her in one of her bad moods, and she simply attacked him with a move that would drop a man twice his size after two hits.
Five hits later, she had a problem. He wasn't going down. And as she was being beaten into an unconscious state, Ace realised the full implication of having the genetic strengths of God knows how many species. Then she blacked out and had a rather pleasant dream concerning her, a shotgun, and some Teletubbies.
***
"Sir, the one that was found with the latest of the two specimens, but not taken to this building has been found."
"Where?"
"This building."
"How resourceful. Have him taken-"
"Her, sir."
"Have her taken to my Questioning Room immediately."
"She's unconscious, sir."
"Have her taken to my Questioning Room immediately after she wakes up."
"Yes, sir."
***
ONLINE.
DATA RECEPTION: POSITIVE.
WEAPON SYSTEMS: POSITIVE.
ARTIFICIAL/BIOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE: POSITIVE.
ARTIFICIAL LIFE STATUS: DANGER - GOLD DETECTED.
BIOLOGICAL LIFE STATUS: FAILING.
END STATUS CHECK.
MAINTAINING ONLINE STATUS.
This was not good. Kroton knew it from the moment he had woken up. He couldn't breathe. There were two scientists injecting what his status check had read as Gold into his chest unit.
"Stop . . ."
"Look, Allen, it's talking."
"Gold . . . toxic . . . clear systems . . ."
"Toxic? Dammit, George, it doesn't just react to 79, 79 kills it."
"Oh no, what do we do?"
"Call Dr. Vesnow?"
"Fine plan, George."
Kroton simultaneously and internally activated his biological stasis and his anti-Gold protection, but he had a rather terminal feeling it was too late for either.
Bye, Doctor. Bye, Ace. Bye, Leader.
Hello, Shallia.
***
The compound was filled with primitive traps and mindlessly shooting guards. The Doctor wouldn't have minded normally, but David had no clue how to deal with these things, and rather than let the Doctor help him, David preferred just to walk straight toward most of them. The Doctor had to spend more time getting David out of trouble at first, but now . . .
"You're learning," said the Doctor. "You aren't falling for the same things anymore."
"Thank you," said David. "I feel less blank."
"Do you really? Can you tell me how long you've been around yet?"
"Ten, maybe twelve hours."
"About as long as I've been awake. Hmm." They continued toward what the Doctor believed to be the centre of the whole compound. "Do you know what this reminds me of, David?"
"No, Doctor."
"A D&D scenario I once played. I taught the DM a few things about the game that time. Who was it, that time? Oh yes, of course, it was the Master, ironically enough. First time he got called that. Pity he dropped the Dungeon bit."
"I'm sorry, Doctor, I have no clue what you mean."
The Doctor stopped. "Really? I've been explaining an awful lot to you. And you still want to know more?"
"Yes, Doctor."
The Doctor turned on his heel and started walking again. "Maybe later. Why don't we get out first before I tell you more about anything?"
***
Ace blinked into consciousness. "Hello?"
"Hello."
She realised that she had been sleeping with her head on the table. There was a man sitting across from her. He was different from everyone else she had seen on the planet. His face was old, but not lined, and his eyes were still young, but not youthful. "Who are you?"
"I am Dr Vesnow. I run this little planet."
"How entrepreneurial of you."
"Your wit would astound me, but I have more to do at this moment than sitting around exchanging jests with you. Tell me what you're doing here."
"I'm looking for some friends of mine. The Doctor, and a Cyberman."
"I know who they are, Ace. I even know who you are. We have absorbed a lot from your friends. We know that you have no genetic traits for us; the human has long ago been added. But your personal knowledge is fascinating to me, even if it's useless to the project on a whole."
Ace wondered if she could pull the same explosion trick she had with Gordon, but she was pre-empted. A soldier walked in. "Sir?"
"Yes?"
"The Cyborg is dying."
"What?" Vesnow leapt up. "I ordered no more tests, but I was still going to keep him. Why is he dying?"
"Apparently he was given an injection of Element 79 and-"
"79? Don't those fools know that Cybermen can't take gold?"
"Cybermen? Gold? What are you-?"
"Never mind, take me there. No, guard her instead." Vesnow pointed a finger at Ace and left.
Ace had learned from the security guard she attacked. She knew how much these genetically enhanced soldiers could take. She also knew how much a table could take. Before the soldier really had time to react, she had ripped off a table leg and begun beating him with it.
Five hits later, she was out the door.
***
Vesnow rushed into the lab. "How is he?"
"We predict human and machine shut down in five minutes, sir," said Allen.
"Right," said Vesnow. He opened a cabinet and unlocked the box inside. "Here is a compound that should be able to eat away the Gold."
"The what?" asked George.
"The Element 79, and also be a replacement to what was damaged." Vesnow filled a large syringe with a silvery looking metal, and pumped it into Kroton's chest unit.
"Nothing's happening!" said George.
"Give me a minute to concentrate," snapped Vesnow.
***
Following Vesnow had been easy. Getting into the room that he - and, supposedly, Kroton - were in was harder. The door locked automatically, and the walls in this place were tough. Lucky me, thought Ace, that I am an explosives expert. She sifted through her satchel and found, to her slight dismay, a crowbar.
"Why didn't I remember that earlier?" she mumbled, but she then pulled out the remainder of her Nitro 9. To break in this time would require a simultaneous explosion from all of them. She began to set them up along the door, with a two-minute timer.
***
"You know," said the Doctor, walking briskly and setting off at least three small traps of various sorts, which he left to David to repair before they did any damage, "I'm not that thirsty. I don't think I'll need another drink for another month or so. If I did drink something else, I'd probably faint."
"What do you mean?" asked David.
"There you go asking questions again," said the Doctor as they turned a corner. There was a drinks machine, with a full credit still inside. "Oh good," he said delightedly. He selected a Mountain Dew from the machine.
"Don't drink that," said David. "You said you'd faint!"
"I said faint, but I meant feint," said the Doctor. "Someone compensated for what I believed a weakness to be."
"What do you mean?"
"I forced myself to believe that lot about the drinks and fainting as a test. I built up an idea of what is going on here. You don't really exist." The Doctor took a long pull out the Dew bottle.
"What?!"
"Sorry, that must be a bit of a shock, but you don't. This whole place doesn't. My mind has been dancing around the truth for a long time so that I wouldn't realise it. If I did, whoever has been playing on my weaknesses would do something very bad." He cocked an ear down the corridor. "Like that, I suspect."
"What is it?"
"Sorry, David. No time to talk. You can have this, though." The Doctor passed him the bottle. "Enjoy. Now, how do I get out of this? Oh, yes." He raised his voice to a dramatic crescendo.
"I DENY THIS REALITY!"
David would have been in shock when he saw the Doctor fade away, but from down the corridor came a herd of elephants. He would have been trampled if reality itself, including him, hadn't begun to fade.
***
The explosion had made the door basically non-existent. Ace could kick what was left down. She forced her way inside, waving away the smoke. The blast had not only taken down the door and wall, it had destroyed most of the room itself.
"Kroton?" she called out.
"I'm here," came the Cyberman's emotionless voice. "Explosions I can survive without problems. I can't say the same for Vesnow, George, and Allen. Pity about Vesnow; he saved my life, I think."
"They're all dead?"
"Yes."
"Four in the last two hours. I have the feeling this is going to be one of those days."
"It certainly was for me," said the Doctor coming up behind them.
"Professor!" said Ace happily. "Where the hell did you guys go anyway?"
"Let's walk and talk," said the Doctor. "I have the feeling this is when I go to meet whoever's in charge here."
"I've already killed him," said Ace.
"Oh dear," said the Doctor. "Well, let's go to wherever he used to live. There's still something not right about this place."
They started off, talking the whole way. It all fell into place when Ace revealed what had been learned from Gordon and Vesnow about the nature of the planet. "David was just representative of what they learned of my mind's workings, which is not much. I tend to talk nonsense most of the time, and that would be no help to people trying to unlock the usefulness of my DNA. Now we have something to do. Destroy this master DNA, and its transmitter, if that is indeed something separate."
"What about everyone on this planet, Doctor?" asked Kroton. "If they lose their DNA, what will happen to them?"
"One of three things. They keep the superior DNA. Or their new receptor DNA was just a modification or corruption of their original, and they'll just revert to what they used to be. Or their bodies will collapse and cease to function."
"Cheery thought," said Ace.
"Not really," said the Doctor. "We'll have to find the TARDIS through all that mess. Now, this should be the way to the master DNA centre."
***
"So what corrupted their DNA in the first place?" asked Kroton.
They were on their way back to the Academia Library University. The Doctor had found the DNA matrix on a computer bank, and re-formatted the whole system, including the tools for analysing the DNA and applying it to a master strand. The transmitter had to be dismantled by hand, much to Ace's dismay. She regretted having used all of her Nitro 9 to get Kroton out of the lab; even the transmitter would have been fun to blow up. Then they had just left. There was no one really in charge anymore, and no one genetically superior.
"Probably some benign virus designed to do just that," said the Doctor. "Designed to alter the DNA, and then move on from the host to as many as possible. It would have died out after the whole planet was corrupted, which is why you would have had to have been manually altered, Ace. Interesting virus. Made by our good friend Vesnow, no doubt. I didn't think anyone on this planet would have had that kind of ingenuity."
"So you know what planet we're on?" asked Ace.
"Of course," said the Doctor. "Look up. See those constellations? They will tell me every time. This is Kowalas. I always wondered what had really happened to this planet."
"What do you mean?" said Kroton.
"Whole cities deserted and civilisation basically gone, then massive amounts of death across the whole planet a few years later. That's what I was taught in school, at least. I have to wonder if it was the soldiers that caused the death, or the virus, somehow . . . or me."
"What?" said Ace, slightly disconcerted.
"Well," said the Doctor. "It's only a theory that these people will revert to their original DNA soon. Just a theory. Or a hope."
