Doctor Who: Panic Moon Ch. 10

Her speed had dropped to a snail's pace, but she was still going. She would never stop, not now.

'What do you suppose she was thinking, when she died?'

'Kana!' The new voice made her jump in her seat, a wet, teary squeak leaving her throat.

'S-sander?!' She sobbed.

'Yeah, it's me! Don't listen to that digital asshole, he's just trying to fuck with you!'

'Oh, Hackett! You came back!' Marduk squealed joyously. 'That's fantastic!'

'Yeah, fucker? You want me, come and fuckin' get me!'

'Oh my,' The hologram crowed. 'You are rather close by, aren't you? Don't you worry, Hackett, I'll be right there.'

As the hologram winked out, Sander's last words flowed out from the speakers, 'Kana! Keep working!'

Kanaria froze, momentarily, at the reminder. She swallowed, thickly, and wiped her eyes on her sleeve, mouth twisting into a bitter frown. In the moment, with the memories of that day assailing her, it was hard to think of anything else but now... Kanaria wasn't an angry person by nature, but Marduk really got on her nerves. A new wave of determination flooded her.

'Right,' She said to herself, resolved.

*********************

'Sander! So nice of you to come!' The A.I's hologram blinked into existence hovering over the Eternity Engine's central dais, arms spread wide. 'I was waiting!'

Sander stood at the far end of the hanging metal walkway, cast in the light of a thousand blinking machines. Across the way stood the Engine, his objective. Whatever else happened, he needed to shut that shit down. Both understood that talking would be irrelevant; Sander would be trying to get to the Engine so he could influence any operational decisions Marduk tried to make, and conversely Marduk would be trying to hit him with a scanner beam before he did so. Of course, merely because something was irrelevant didn't Marduk at all cared. He liked to taunt.

'You know, it's good that you did come out of hiding,' The program grinned. 'I mean, I've got your friends locked down, so I guess I could sort of ransom them off and then blow you all to shit, but you've really saved me the trouble. That's downright decent of you, Hackett.'

'Yeah, whatever,' Sander muttered indistinctly, taking a step forward. A blue spotlight suddenly burst to life, illuminating the space directly in front of him. Sander stopped, stared icily at the hologram. Fucking scanner beams...

'You gonna make a move, Hackett? Yeah, I see what you're doing.'

'I really doubt that, Mac,' Sander growled, glaring. He had heard what it had been doing to Kana, and even though he had no idea what significance the damned program's words had, upsetting Kanaria was crossing all kinds of lines. Even if he hadn't been trying to kill them, Marduk had made himself a number of enemies with that little idea.

'I totally do,' The orange image snapped. 'You're trying to get to the Eternity Engine and shut it down completely before I tag you. And that's rude, human! I'm not doing this out of any personal grudge, it's my job. The reason I was created. I exist to kill you. All this trying to stop me, all this resisting, thing, that you're doing? That's the same as killing me, you know. If you do shut down the Engine, then I'll just have to find some new thing to murder you with. I won't exactly stop. So let me ask: is killing you going to take all day?'

'Probably!' Sander shouted, stepping forward into the beam and, as quickly as he could, with a hop and a step, clearing it to reach the other side. He broke into a run, flinging himself down the walkway at a dead sprint in an attempt to reach the Engine before...

Before he was painted with a countless number of scanning beams, blasting out from every available surface.

'Oh, come the fuck on, Hackett! Access granted!' Marduk crowed as the light surrounded its target. 'You know every surface in this place can watch anyone that enters this room! You built it that way! What did you think you were going to accomplish, coming here?'

'Nothing much, on my own,' Sander conceded. 'But... I'm not really on my own, am I?'

'What?'

'Yeah see, I've got you pegged, genius,' Sander smirked. 'You're a smart A.I, but you're still limited. You've gotta focus your attention in one place, same as anyone else. And when you're focusing on me, you can't do anything to distract Kanaria from her work.'

'... I'm gonna go ahead and warm up the explosion, now...' Marduk said, voice going quiet and more than a little frantic.

'Actually, this was the same plan we had in place for if Jericho ever went rampant and we had to deal with him,' Sander continued, as the Eternity Engine began to shudder and ramp up in power. 'I'd act as distraction, Kanaria would use that time to delete him. And I'd say a few minutes alone without whatever it was you were doing to her would be plenty of time to isolate you and, well... See for yourself.'

'Hey asshole!' Kanaria's voice boomed from the speakers, a hologram of her own blooming into brilliant, pink-lit life behind Marduk's. 'Look who's back!'

'Hit it, Kana!' Sander whooped.

'Hitting it, Sander!' She looked positively radiant like this, floating high off the ground with her eyes burning angrily as she glared at the A.I. Her jaw was clenched, but she opened it to snap, 'Marduk, you do not get to talk about my mother that way!'

Beside them, the Engine continued to ramp up, higher and higher, a low, droning buzz filling the room as the machine built to critical mass. In moments that thing would be spewing radiation, without a human hand to guide it; an unrestrained temporal manipulator like the Engine was essentially nothing more than a giant time bomb, in every sense of the phrase. Sander was more than a little worried about that.

But then the walls began to rumble in an altogether dramatic fashion, and all concerns about the Engine fell away.

It started as a low, sonorous rumble that filled the room, thudding in time with a dim azure glow that suffused the room from the gaps in the individual components of the Engine that comprised the walls. The twofold sensory assault grew in intensity over the course of several seconds, reaching blinding and deafening levels, before stopping suddenly, blue light burning away in a central point.

When the drama had ceased, all that was left was a single point of light, floating above the Eternity Engine. Below it, the machine rumbled and crackled, building ever closer to that critical point where it would become deadly. Sander felt the hairs on his arms stand on end, and yet his gaze was drawn to the light. As he, and the two holograms watched, the roughly circular glow began to shift and morph, first becoming a rough outline of a person, before filling itself in with details. Sander grinned, pride swelling in his chest; he made Marduk's hologram look like a joke.

'Hello!' The cobalt-glowing newcomer spoke, voice soft and cultured. 'I am Jericho. Did you miss me?'

'Oh, stop it!' Marduk yelled, fists clenched. 'Just let me kill you, already!'

'I will not allow that, you gnat,' Jericho growled, turning baleful eyes towards his orange counterpart. 'You are done.'

Desperately, Marduk flung a pointed finger down at the Engine, 'Wait! You people need me! The Engine's going critical, I can fix that!'

'I've already fixed it,' Jericho boomed. 'And you are not coming back.'

'Oh, goddamn it!' The hostile A.I's final words faded into oblivion as the hologram snapped off. Slowly, the Engine began to wind back down to neutral, light fading and motion slowing until the entire rig fell silent and still, mere metal once again. Sander almost breathed a sigh of relief, but there were still a few matters jostling for his concern, and he knew better that to assume that a good thing happening meant it would be a permanent state of affairs.

'Jerry, do you have him?' Kanaria asked, voice strong and clear through the speakers, but carrying a hint of frantic concern.

'I have him trapped behind a firewall,' Jericho acknowledged. 'He is trying to escape, but he will not succeed. He is not that smart.'

Modes of speech and modes of address were fixed, coded into the strictures and behavior protocols that bound Jericho; Sander knew what his A.I sounded like, but now something was different. That voice, usually so chilled and clipped, vibrated with emotion and newfound power. There was only one thing that could have done that to him, and it didn't make Sander feel any better, especially when the blue hologram turned its gaze toward him. His heart beat faster when the A.I spoke.

'Now then, Sander...'

To be continued...