just_the_doctor | [Otherways] Arrival at Palasia Four

"As much as I don't want to speak ill of friends," he says as they leave the park grounds and exit onto a wide walkway, "quite a few of my previous Companions have been... less than helpful at times."

The sky abruptly stops as they leave, and it becomes apparent that they are inside a massive domed structure enclosing the entire city.

"This is wrong. This is very, very wrong."

Padme follows him inside and blinks before tilting her head back and looking up.

"Well, first time for everything I suppose."

Then she looks at the Doctor. "Well, darling Doctor, I'm not them."

"No, you're not, Padme. And I'm happy to have you along."

He looks up and down the walkway.

"We need to find a library or archive or something."

"Hmm..."

She walks in front of him and takes his hand before leading him away from where they'd just entered and finds a door and opens it. Well... they'd get to find out what the room was.

The sign over the desk is in a strange curling language unfamiliar to the Doctor (and likely to Padme as well), but thanks to the TARDIS, it's understandable as saying 'Archival Room'.

The Doctor looks at Padme. "You're a little scary."

Padme raises a brow at that. Because that's the first time she's heard him say something like that.

"Why do you say that?"

He drapes an arm over her shoulders. "Oh, I mean it in the most affectionate way possible. I just mean, you picked this door seemingly completely at random, and it was the right one. That Force of yours is some powerful stuff."

She gives a slight laugh and cants her head slightly looking up at him a bit. "Well, let's not just stand around. Let's find out what we need to shall we?"

The Doctor addresses the lady behind the desk. "Hello there. We're trying to find some... historical records, I suppose. Anything you have that might have to do with what happened to the environment outside."

She looks up at him pleasantly enough. "All such records are restricted, sir. I'll need your authorization code," she says in a tone that strongly suggests she doesn't believe he has one.

"Of course you will. Padme, love, give this nice young lady our authorization code."

Padme is trying not to laugh at how the Doctor put that. Really, she is. Because it just sounds funny...

She simply waves her hand in the woman's plain view and puts a Force command to her words. "You've seen our authorization code and will allow us access to the restricted material."

The woman behind the desk simply looks at them. "I've seen your authorization code." Then she gives them both a smile. "You now have access to the restricted material." The woman gets up momentarily to guide them to the restricted material before going back to her seat and leaving the two be.

The Doctor just watches in silence, shaking his head.

"Incredible," he says to her in hushed tones as the librarian leaves them in the restricted room.

"Well... my good Doctor, if it gets the job done then it gets the job done." She states simply.

"Force commands normally work on the weak minded though. So if someone's mind were stronger, say like Obi-Wan's, then I wouldn't of been able to do that."

He chuckles. "You have to teach me that sometime."

For now, though, the Doctor sits at the small computer terminal in the room and starts his search. It turns up three likely archive disks.

"I need 27-Delta, 13-Beta, and 61-Gamma," he calls out.

"I doubt its something I'd be able to teach you, Doctor. Only Force users can use it."

Then she goes through the archives finding the three disks that are needed and sits them down beside of him.

"Figures. Guess that means I just have to keep you around, then."

He loads one of the archival disks and starts scanning through the information contained.

"There's got to be an explanation," he mumbles to himself.

She gives a slight laugh at that.

"I doubt Obi-Wan would let you keep me."

He looks sideways at her. "You're here now... who says I have to give you back?" he teases.

Oh... that just... well, yep, that definitely wasn't something that she'd expected. Although, oddly enough he did have a point. Because he was the way to getting back. Not that technically... right then. Focus on what was at hand not what the Doctor had said.

The Doctor winks playfully at her brief confusion and returns his attention to the archives.

His expression darkens, however, as he goes through the three disks, and by the time he pops the third one out of the reader, his face is positively ashen.

"What'd you find, Doctor?"

"They... they've killed half their planet. The Northern hemisphere is still lush and green and alive, but the Southern, where we are, is just... dead. It's parroted about that it was a slight shift in the planet's orbit that caused massive ecological devastation, but they did it. They didn't understand it and they just unleashed it. Destroyed everything."

His eyes go wide suddenly. "Oh, no."

The Doctor grabs Padme's wrist as he jumps up from the seat, already running. "We've got to get back to the TARDIS!"

And OW. Well, not really but still. She so was not used to her wrist being grabbed. But she doesn't question what the hell is going on. She'll question that when they're safely back on the TARDIS. Because... yeah, somehow it's starting to look a whole lot more safer in there than out here.

He runs flat out back through the park, dragging Padme behind him and ignoring the shouts of the guards for them to slow down. He grabs the TARDIS key from his pocket and jams it into the lock in a single movement.

And nothing happens. The key won't turn.

"It's too late," he says softly, slamming a fist on the door. He spins around and falls back against the TARDIS, sliding down to a sit, his eyes fixed on the key in his hand.

And this is where she's even more confused than anyone could possibly imagine. Really she is.

"Okay, explain to me what in the hell just happened?"

The Doctor looks up at her with haunted eyes.

"Nanobots. The scientists were experimenting with nanobots. Microscopic robots that can be programmed to perform tasks that would otherwise be impossible. One of the applications they were experimenting with was disposal of hazardous chemicals. Because the nanobots were created from a material impervious to virtually every known substance, they could be programmed to break down the chemicals on a molecular level, changing them into harmless substances like nitrogen, oxygen, water... They were even able to build more of themselves with the component molecules.

"But something went wrong. And they didn't stop. They stopped being able to recognize the substance they were neutralizing from any other substance. And so they set about to neutralize everything. Metal, wood, glass, plastic, even flesh. They started breaking down everything in accordance with their programming. And they kept building more and more nanobots with the same faulty instructions.

"The only thing they didn't seem to destroy was each other. By the time the scientists figured this out, three million people had been killed and over a third of the planet was reduced to that... wasteland that we saw. The only solution they came up with was to fool the nanobots into seeing everything as one of them. All the buildings, the tools, the machinery -- everything had to be built with a certain percentage of the particular metal the nanobots were made from. Plants and trees, the water supply, even the people are all inoculated with it as well.

"Everything on this planet, everything that you see, has it inside them, protecting them from the nanobots."

He looks away from her, then.

"Everything but us."

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