The Engineer was still elbow-deep in the console when the twenty minutes were almost up.
Several panels were taken off from the side, exposing a bunch of wires that were so tangled up the Engineer was wondering whether it came this way or if he's looking at the Doctor's last handiwork.
He was thinking about asking it, but when he glanced toward his direction and saw him pacing around he decided not to.
If Rose was present she might not have noticed this, but to the Engineer it was clear as day how impatient the Time Lord was. He was meticulously checking the same data for the third time now, his hands kept flicking levers that didn't even control the monitor.
Evidently, he really didn't like waiting.
The Engineer decided not to comment, or ask him about the mess in front of him, instead, did the small adjustments that were most important and put the panel back on.
As he finished bolting it back, a loud sound came in from the outside. TARDISes are very well insulated from outside elements, so either something big was approaching to make this loud of a noise or the TARDIS was purposefully letting outside noise in.
Before he could dwell longer on this thought, the Doctor exchanged glances with him and a look of interest and seriousness replaced his impatient expression.
He practically bolted to the doors and opened them just enough to stick his head out.
He didn't say anything, so the Engineer stepped up behind him and peeked over his shoulder through the small gap.
Military vehicles. Several of them in fact. Parked across the inner courtyard, basically lining up and closing on the TARDIS from both sides, while a black sedan parked in the middle followed by a couple more military vehicles behind it.
UNIT.
The Doctor glanced back at the Engineer and as if a silent agreement was made with that glance, the Doctor turned back and the duo watched them, waiting for the other party to explain what's going on.
A group of soldiers was already on the move, they marched up to the blue box, flanking another officer looking one—clearly the one in charge—from all three of his sides.
„Doctor," the officer said without greeting, or maybe saying the other person's name is the greeting in the military. „We've been tracking your vessel. Your expertise is required at Downing Street immediately."
„Expertise, required?" he asked the officer back.
„Emergency scientific consultation."
The Doctor considered it for a second. I knew he was thinking about how he was going there anyway, so an escort party like this is just convenient.
He put his signature wide grin on and said „Yeah, all right."
The officer getting the answer he hoped for relaxed ever so slightly, evident by his jaw loosening up a little and turned to the Engineer.
„Who's this?"
The Doctor didn't even turn back, he just said „He's with me," and didn't continue addressing the question.
Not that he needed to, as this alone was enough to satisfy the officer, he nodded once and moved on, already issuing orders to the soldiers around him.
The Doctor stepped out, while the Engineer turned back inside and placed his hand on the pillar and wordlessly said his temporary goodbye, promising to continue the work once he's free again.
The TARDIS hummed back and the Engineer followed after the Doctor.
***
Once outside, the officer turned back to us, telling us that the black sedan will be our transportation, but the Doctor interrupted him mid sentence.
„We need Rose," he told the Engineer, turning toward him, disregarding the officer's slightly annoyed look for cutting him off.
„Yes," the Engineer answered, but before the Doctor could turn toward the stairwell he stopped him.
„Wait," the Engineer put his hand on the Doctor's shoulder. „Let me handle this."
A second silence.
„Why?"
„Because," the Engineer continued. „In case you haven't noticed Jackie and Mickey aren't exactly... like you right now."
The Doctor made a face that said the Engineer brought up a good point and was considering it.
„So out of the two of us, I'm less likely to get a pot thrown at my head."
„Fair."
„I'll bring her down."
The Doctor nodded once, said „Go on, then." and turned toward the officer, who was now starting to get really flustered for not being able to convey the instructions he was about to give.
***
The Engineer climbed the stairs alone and stopped before Jackie's flat.
He knocked once and stepped back one, away from the door.
After a few seconds he could hear hurried steps coming from the apartment.
The door opened halfway, and from the gap Jackie Tyler peeked from behind the door.
Her expression shifted a little when she saw it was the Engineer, and her body became considerably relaxed, although not fully.
But definitely a lot less hostile.
„Steve—" she said automatically, but then realizing the mistake, she bit her word, and corrected herself without saying it out loud. At least that's how the Engineer interpreted it anyway.
„Hi," the Engineer greeted. „We don't have time to explain everything."
„Oh yeah, what's new." Jackie muttered, and the Engineer smiled a little chuckling under his nose as a response.
„There's a situation," he continued. „And Rose's help is needed, she needs to come as well."
Jackie crossed her arms.
„Does she?"
„She is a bigger help than you think. Jackie, I'm asking, not assuming."
This made a difference as Jackie then looked at him properly now. Not like he looked at the Doctor the previous times. She still saw Steven in the Engineer.
Their relationship in those two years was like between a surrogate mother and son, and that worked in the Engineer's favour.
„I still don't like this, and I strongly disapprove." she said, but her tone was her typical banter tone.
„I know."
„I was young once too, you know. It's not like I don't understand you lot," she said„But things like this always end badly."
„Sometimes," the Engineer pointed out. „Not always."
She hesitated a little more, then:
„You look after her. You hear me? You," she emphasized the 'you' part. „Not that rude man, you."
„Yeah," he promised immediately. „I will."
Jackie held his gaze for a second longer, then she turned back around and shouted Rose's name.
But as it turns out, Rose was not only listening in on the conversation alongside Mickey, she already had her jacket on and was jumping in her shoes, so really Jackie just shouted in her face directly.
But even that didn't wash the childish grin off her face, hugged her mum and walked past her.„I'm ready," she said excitedly.
Of course she was, the Engineer thought and glanced past Jackie and looked at Mickey.
He was no longer standing in the corridor. He didn't even ask to come as he didn't want to, instead he walked back in the living room, looking out the window, down the courtyard.
He was watching the UNIT vehicles and called to the Engineer.
„What's going on?"
„Something big," the Engineer said. „Stay reachable. Stay close to home. We might need your help from the outside."
„Mine?" Mickey asked bewildered, but the Engineer shrugged, and only regarded his question with a 'You never know' and a 'Just in case.'
Mickey reluctantly nodded to that and said 'Yeah...' under his breath.
Rose was really impatient and was already pacing outside, if the Engineer wanted to stay for even a second longer she might even leave him behind.
„Come on," she said.
The Engineer nodded them goodbye, and then left together with Rose, while Jackie watched them go from the doorway.
***
The UNIT vehicle was a Jaguar XJ8. The Engineer was mulling inside how as Steven he was always watching out when one of them was passing on the street, but now he really didn't care that much about any of Earth's automobiles. It was loud and barely efficient. Gallifreyan emergency transport didn't rattle like this.
While he was deep in thought about his new Time Lord perspective of things, Rose was gazing out the window, looking at London moving past outside, exchanging looks and sharing a big grin with the Doctor every so often.
'Well, at least the 'kids' were having their fun.' the Engineer thought.
But the fun was eventually over and the Doctor switched to a serious look.
„Someone staged this," the Doctor repeated for the third time this day.
„Yeah," the Engineer answered.
„But why fake first contact especially?" Rose asked.
„Doesn't matter for now," the Doctor continued. „The important thing is it was deliberate."
„And an inside job at that," the Engineer added.
The Doctor glanced at Rose as she wasn't present when they discussed this in the TARDIS.„Most likely."
Rose looked between them.
„So we're basically walking into the lion's den?"
The Doctor returned to his wide smile. „We'll know when we get there."
„Yep, same," the Engineer said, not even trying to explain it to Rose who had her expression frozen on her face.
That was the conversation.
***
They arrived at Downing Street number 10.
Once they stepped out of the car, the Engineer immediately started assessing.
Not the building itself, that didn't matter at all.
The people on the other hand.
Movement patterns. Security positioning. Who was giving orders to whom.
It was essentially controlled chaos out here.
Everyone looked busy.
He was watching the faces of everyone.
Some were scared. Some focused. Some just looked like they were waiting for something to happen and then deal with the situation as they come.
Well, that approach was at least amusing to watch.
He didn't have further time to observe as they were escorted inside.
Security checkpoints right after the entrance. Scanners set up on the sides. Personnel rushing up and down the place in defined paths.
The trio was escorted to a line that already had the rest of the 'experts' present, being processed.
'Efficient' the Engineer thought.
ID checks, quick scans. Standard procedures.
After that, each person was issued small tags without any explanation.
Each tag had names printed on them, after somebody asked about them, the person giving it to them only said „Authorization tracking. Wear these."
The Engineer took his. Turned it once. Then again.
'They are a bit thick, and heavy just for a plastic card with a name on them.'
He could feel it, something was off about them. He could sense electromagnetic waves around the tags. They were not only broadcasting information, but were receiving them as well.Examining it closer the tags weren't just transmitting location, but were doing full profiles.
Heartbeat. Temperature. Biological signature.
Interesting.
He leaned slightly toward the Doctor.
„These are not simple," he said quietly.
The Doctor looked at him, then took his own tag in his hand. He carefully reached into his inner pocket and pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver and ran a quick scan on it.
„...Yeah," he said. „Well, that's not standard."
After saying that he realized the Engineer could tell that without any scanning device. He turned to him baffled and asked:
„You felt that?"
„Hm, yeah?"
A second of silence.
The Doctor not only needed a tool to know what the tags did, he didn't even know about it without warning and this guy just felt it?
The Engineer just shrugged and didn't comment on it.
Instead he took it away from the Doctor's and even took Rose's from her hand.
The Engineer made quick work of them, he took out a small plier from his toolbelt and did a small precise clip on each of the casings, and gave them back before Rose could protest.
Not enough to kill the signal completely. Just enough to stop it doing anything useful. To the system getting the data, they still worked just fine.
Rose frowned when she got it back.
„Your tag was faulty," the Engineer gave a knowing wink.
Rose blinked at him, she knew that's not the full picture but knew better than to ask right now.
***
They were moved into a waiting area along with the other experts. Nobody had the opportunity to even ask what's going on.
This is when a woman found the trio.
„Excuse me," she said. „Are you with UNIT?"
„No," the Doctor said deadpan.
„Good," she said immediately, a sort of dry satisfaction on her face. „Then maybe you'll listen."
The Engineer and Rose watched her intently.
„Harriet Jones," she introduced herself. „Flydale North."
„Yes," the Doctor said. „I know who you are."
That threw her off for half a second. But she continued.
She laid out what she knew, who was in charge, who said what and who was avoiding answering questions.
She's been watching, collecting ever since the ship crashed into the river.
She was probably the only other person here who was actively doing investigation other than the trio.
The Engineer and the Doctor came to the same conclusion at the same time.
She was useful. Very useful.
The Engineer stepped closer.
„Can I see your notes?"
She hesitated a little, but after thinking it over she still handed it over.He read them through. Fast. Not just skimming it through, his Time Lord brain processed whole pages in mere seconds.
Of course, he already knew what was going on. But he couldn't just act on it. He couldn't use his previous life's knowledge without giving a reasonable explanation and not just saying 'Hey, I'm a transmigrator, actually and this is basically a TV show, haha.'
But with Harriet's full dossier, he now had an excellent excuse.
So he kept reading.
***
After he finished, he closed the folder and kept scanning the room with his senses.He locked onto three targets, whose signals were different than the rest.
He focused on them.
Biological mismatch. Mass distribution off. Heat signatures wrong. Typical signs of a compression field.
He knew the why, but couldn't just say that.
He pulled the Doctor aside, but Rose and Harriet were also close enough to hear what he was whispering.
„Three people in this building aren't human," he said.
The Doctor after what happened with the tags didn't even question it.
„Where?"
„Just outside this room," the Engineer said. „Grouped right before the door. All of them have the same signal pattern."
„Disguised?"
„Yeah," the Engineer said. „Compression field. They're probably bigger than your standard human size."
Rose carefully stared at the closed door.
Harriet took back her notes when she heard the word 'disguise' and was already cross-referencing.
„Who's been where," she muttered. „Who insisted on access..."
The Engineer added:
„They needed everyone here for a reason."
He tapped his tag.
„These things were collecting data. Ours is offline, but theirs?"
The Engineer nodded to the other people, and also asked Harriet to slip her tag to him silently, and disabled hers as well.
The Doctor looked at him, the implications settled. He was already thinking.Three non-human entities. Together in this building. In positions of access.Now they just needed to know who.
And what they wanted.
***
***
***
A/N: I've learned my lesson, so I won't make any promises about future updates. But as you can see, I'm finally back! I haven't been doing nothing over the last three months though; I've been working hard and trying my best to improve my abysmal prose. I also changed the way I approach drafting and writing chapters completely, and I think the result speaks for itself. Please let me know if you think it's an improvement or if you preferred the old version. Personally, I'm confident that this new approach is better.