kalleah | The Hidden Well, Chapter Eighteen

Pairing: Ten/Rose
Rating: PG
Betas:

sensiblecat

Previous Chapters

In this chapter: The Doctor and Connor have a breakthrough at last, and the saboteurs make another move.

--

Emelia Trabane bent over her desk, looking at the words and symbols on her display without comprehension. She blinked, tried to clear her mind, and focused again on the reports before her. She could manage a sentence, maybe two or three, before her mind snapped back to the events of the last few hours.

She had given in to the inevitability of the Doctor's return to her flat. Connor needed him for the analysis, for them to determine who could be behind the sabotage on the project. She was pragmatic enough to accept that and emotional enough to be deeply enraged at it. All in all, she and Connor had decided that it would be prudent for her to be elsewhere for the time being. She certainly had enough work to catch up on to keep her busy.

Connor was safe. The boys were safe. She had stopped in at the nursery before going to her office. While this was a good bit out of her way, she didn't care – it was worth it to see them both busy under Brandon's careful tutelage. He had looked concerned, but she hadn't given him a chance to ask any awkward questions. Did the entire project have to know her personal business, anyway?

Well, since she made it her business to know everyone else's, she supposed turnabout was fair play, no matter how much it rankled.

Frances was the worst. She had dropped by Emelia's office to offer cloying sympathy over "a difficult night." Frances' seemingly kind words insinuated that Connor might have, in fact, been occupied with activities of the extramarital variety.

Emelia didn't recall exactly what she had said to the other woman. Probably several fairly unkind things. She never questioned Connor's fidelity; he was a loyal man in all areas of his life and she trusted him absolutely. Certainly Frances' backhanded courtesy did not make her doubt him. She did, however, stridently object to having idle gossip about her marriage flying around the project.

As Frances Wittener was now painfully aware.

…

Across the parsecs, an encrypted communication line engaged and once again, distorted, hushed voices conspired in the darkness between solar systems.

"The fire destroyed the section, but the Doctor was unharmed," reported the first voice.

There were several seconds of silence and then the second voice responded with frustration and contempt. "You little fool. All you've done now is made them suspicious and vigilant, and for no good end."

"I'll handle it –" began the first voice.

The second voice cut in mercilessly. "You're damn right. If you don't, I'll find someone who will."

"Of course. You have so many potential candidates."

"Sarcasm is inappropriate for someone in your position. Don't make me angry. I'm the only one who can get you out of the mess you're in now." Another pause. "The company is sending an envoy."

"What? You said they were otherwise occupied –"

"Apparently not occupied enough. The envoy will be there in two days. In that time, I expect you to have dealt with the problem at hand. Neutralize Trabane and deal with this Doctor. If we can have the project's top leadership scrambling, they'll look like fools when the envoy arrives. This whole mess is still salvageable if you can follow a few basic orders. Do you think you can handle that?"

"Certainly." The first voice bristled with insult.

"Excellent. First, we need to strike very carefully …"

The second voice spelled out its plan for Arisbe Project, and the first voice listened in silence. In the end, they agreed, and the connection was severed, leaving their communication drifting in the soundless vacuum of space.

…

"Look at this entry from yesterday," said Connor, frowning at the display. "Can you cross-reference that with previous access?"

The Doctor nodded. "Who uses encrypted long-range transmissions?"

Rose, sitting on the floor next to Jonah, watched them with a rising sense of anticipation. The light from the glowing display, reflected toward her by the Doctor's glasses, changed colours as the two men stared intently into it.

"Normally, just the senior management – David Gammut, Lisa Condrake, Emelia, and me," Connor answered, "and then only when we're reporting sensitive information back to the company. If someone on the project wanted to make a secure call out, it would cost them a pretty penny but they could do it." He shook his head, narrowing his eyes. "Actually, they'd need to associate the call with a billing account, because the project wouldn't cover the expense."

"No billing account noted," mused the Doctor, adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose. "Oh ho. Look here, Connor." He pointed at a notation next to the transmission time and date. "It wasn't transmitted from the lab."

"How –" Connor's brow furrowed. "Wait. Would that pattern be consistent with a portable communication unit set to relay through the main controls?"

"Exactly," said the Doctor. He patted the device and grinned triumphantly. "I think we've got our first decent lead. Now, on to the matter of decrypting these communications …"

"Can't." Connor was emphatic. "All of the secure transmissions use Ugolin encryption. We'd need all four physical keys plus the bio-data."

"Easy peasy." The Doctor winked. "Who needs keys and bio-data when we have a TARDIS? And me, of course."

Connor raised his eyebrows with a stark look of disbelief. "Travelling through time, I can buy. But Ugolin encryption? It can't be beaten."

"Funny thing is, I once taught a seminar on how to break it – handy, that. Of course, the seminar won't happen for, oh, a hundred and sixty seven years. Not that it matters." He managed to look impish rather than smug, Rose thought, but only just.

"Damn." The faintest hint of admiration returned to Connor's voice. He came back to himself with a start. "I am not going back into that ship," he said flatly.

"No need." The Doctor stood up and began pulling on his coat. "I'll run all the calculations and pop back over here with the decrypted communications."

Rose also stood, intending to join him, but she felt an anxious touch against her mind and looked over to see Jonah watching her. Watching her, not just staring into the distance. She knelt back down and smiled at him. "I'm just going to go back to our flat for a few minutes," she told him, trying to convey calm and steadiness of purpose in her voice and demeanour.

His mind vibrated with the negative, as clear a request as if he'd said "don't go" out loud. She looked over her shoulder at the Doctor helplessly.

"It's all right," he said. "I'm not going to be gone for long, and Jonah needs you right now." His face assumed a stern expression, belied somewhat by the twinkle in his eyes, and he waved a finger first at Jonah, and then at Ian. "She's still my girl," he said warningly.

…

Rose paced after the Doctor left. The last time someone had stood in this flat and said that they were not going to be gone for long, it had ended in disaster. She pushed her worry aside as best as she could and tried to keep her thoughts positive.

She kept looking out the window, but she reasonably couldn't expect him to be there and back so quickly, and he had to run some calculations when he arrived. Maybe he would move the TARDIS closer? She hoped he would have the sense not to park in the Trabanes' front room.

Jonah had stopped playing with his blocks and was watching her again, and she felt another thrill that he was aware of his surroundings. She felt a quick tug at her hand and looked down to find Ian looking up at her.

"Can you read us a story?" he asked, looking up at her through dark lashes. Oh yes, he'll be a lady killer, she thought.

"Of course she can," Connor corrected him from across the room, eyes still fixed on the display. "Ask if she would."

Ian pulled a face at his father, which fortunately for him Connor didn't see, and turned back to Rose. "Would you read us a story?" He waited for a split second and added, as an afterthought, "Please?"

"I'd love to," she told him. "Want to pick something out?" He scampered off down the hallway and just as quickly reappeared.

"Here," he said, pushing a worn volume into her hand. "Mum says this one is old."

She choked up a little when she saw what he had brought her. The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. "I know it," she said. "Good choice." This book had given her comfort, and also some pain, during her time in the other universe, walled away from the Doctor.

She settled down on the couch, with Ian piling on next to her and Jonah on the floor before her, and opened the book to the beginning. The familiar words and drawings made her smile.

"Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book," she began, showing both boys the drawing of the boa constrictor swallowing a small gray animal, probably a rodent of some kind.

Ian's eyes sparkled with the morbid glee of the very young. "Boa constrictors swallow things whole," he said, obviously relishing the image. "I saw one once, in a zoo on Tethys Seven. It was as big as a carrier ship!"

"Ian," said his father, chuckling, "it was a Tethyn green snake, and it wasn't even as big as I am."

"He has no imagination," confided Ian in a whisper, and Rose tried not to giggle.

"Grown-ups never do," she whispered back.

Ian nodded sagely. "I'm glad you're not a grown-up," he told her, and scooted closer to her on the couch.

…

A pair of hands pulled back the electrical panel and scrabbled with a tangle of brightly coloured wires. Removing red, twisting, connecting to green and then blue. The smell of ozone filled the room, followed by a blue, glittering spark beneath the knot.

…

The light in the Trabanes' flat flickered and brightened, then cut out completely. Ian squealed in delight. Connor stood up, his face illuminated from below by the eerie green light of the display he'd been reading, and peered out the window.

"What's going on?" asked Rose.

"Mass power outage of some kind," said Connor, distracted. "The backup generators should have come on board immediately." He tapped out a code on the comm panel and held down the main button. "Main lab, this is Connor," he said. "Report status."

They waited for a moment, but no response came from the comm. Connor's eyes met Rose's and he said, very casually, "The comm system is also down."

Her eyes shifted over to Ian, who was bounding around the room like a puppy. Jonah sat quietly, unaffected by the sudden darkness either in excitement or fear.

"Kitchen?" she said, equally casual.

They put their heads close together in the other room. "The comm system doesn't go down for no reason," said Connor. "It's a triple redundant system. The odds of all three having an issue at the same time?" He shook his head. In the fading light of early evening filtering in from outside, Rose could see the worry lined on his face. "The power grid is robust. Not to say it couldn't fail, but it's exceedingly unlikely."

"What do we do?" she asked.

"Everyone on the project has instructions in the event of a disaster. Section J, near where the carrier ship landed, is set up as an emergency shelter. We're all to regroup there."

"So," she said, feeling a jolt of fear shoot through her body, "we can guess that someone intentionally shut down the comms and the power grid and now knows everyone in the project will go to the shelter?"

"We have to go," said Connor. "With the power grid down, the tethers for the atmospheric shell are in jeopardy. They automatically adjust to internal and external pressure to keep the shell in place. Without the backup systems kicking in, there's a possibility that the shell could fail."

He didn't have to spell out for her that the shell was holding in their breathable atmosphere. Her chest tightened and it took an effort to keep her breathing level and even. She had to stay calm. Jonah would be able to sense her fear, and if he became unduly upset – well, she wasn't sure how that would affect both of them, but it couldn't be good.

"We need to find the Doctor. The TARDIS is even safer than an emergency shelter," she said, feeling relief flood through her at the idea. Even if the shell failed, they would be safe there.

"No." Connor's single word shattered Rose's plan. "I am not taking the boys there. Besides, Emelia will go to Section J with the rest of the Operations team, and she'll be frantic if we're not there."

"But –" Rose began.

The rugged lines on his face deepened in resolve. "No," he repeated, even more firmly. "We're going to the emergency shelter. Once we're there, I'll see what I can do about getting the power restored."

There was no sense in arguing with him about it. Rose thought quickly. She could get to the Doctor and they could move the TARDIS to Section J, or he would work out some other plan. She hated to leave Connor and the boys, but she hoped it would be only temporarily. In any case, she didn't see much of a choice.

"I'm going to find the Doctor," she told him. "We'll meet you there."

"Boys," said Connor, walking back into the front room with Rose close on his heels, "since the power's out, we need to go over to Section J for a while until it comes back on." He maintained the same casual, light tone and ruffled Ian's hair playfully.

Ian bounced up and down, clearly delighted. For him, this was a grand adventure.

Jonah was perfectly still. Rose knelt beside him and took his hand in hers. "Jonah," she prompted. He didn't react. "You and Ian and your dad are going to go to the shelter. I'm going to find the Doctor and meet you there. All right?"

He trembled, or so she thought, but he hadn't actually moved. The connection between them sharpened and, she sensed a building, bulging pressure around him. To her astonishment, his fingers suddenly tightened around hers.

"Rose?" she heard Connor ask, and his voice sounded odd, like her ears were packed with cotton.

Jonah's mind seemed to clutch at her, more powerfully than he could have with his single hand in hers. She heard and saw and felt the rising pressure again, but this time, she had a moment of clarity. Beyond the tenuous barrier were the clamouring, anxious minds of the project, threatening to break through and wash over him in a tidal wave.

Was this the protection that the Doctor had laboured to build for Jonah? She couldn't be sure, but she could feel that beyond Jonah's barely suppressed panic was the belief that she was helping to keep the other minds at bay. He was desperate for her not to leave him.

Her eyes prickled with tears. She wouldn't, couldn't. "I'll go with you to the shelter," she told Connor, trying to distance herself enough from Jonah to focus on the tangible world around her, but still gripping his hand firmly in hers.

Outside, other people were coming out of their habitation. Rose, Connor, and the two boys fell in step with the crowd heading toward Section J.