Through the Universe [2]

II. Rise of the Cybermen

Rose, the Doctor and I walk down the street and Rose and I have our phones out. "Mickey's mum just couldn't cope. His dad hung around for a while, but then he just sorts of wandered off. He was brought up by his gran." I begin to explain.

"She was such a great woman. God, she used to slap him!" Rose laughs along with me before we suddenly stop. "And then she died. She tripped and fell down the stairs. It's about five years ago, now. We were still in school, Galaxy nearly finished college."

"I never knew." the Doctor sighs.

"Well, you never asked." Rose snaps.

"You never said!" the Doctor snaps back.

"That's Mickey. I s'pose I... we just... take him for granted. Do you think she's still alive, his gran?" I ask the Doctor.

"Could be. Like I said, parallel world, gingerbread house. We need to get out of here as fast as we can." the Doctor says before a short alarm sound and everyone around us suddenly freezes. The three of us look around us, looking confused. "What're they all doing?" Rose asks.

"They've stopped..." I sigh. All of the earpieces that everyone is wearing starts to flash and beep quietly. The Doctor walks over to one man, stops and squints at his earpiece. "It's the earpieces... like Bluetooth attachments, but everyone's connected." the Doctor explains. Suddenly, both mine and Rose's phone beep and we take them out of our pockets and look at them. "It's on our phone. It's automatic, look. It's downloading. Is this what they're all getting?" I ask the Doctor. The Doctor comes back over to us and peers over my shoulder, putting his glasses on. I scroll through the 'Daily Downloads'. "News... international news... sport... weather..." I continue.

"They get it direct. Downloaded right into their heads." the Doctor tells us.

"TV schedules... lottery numbers..." I continue.

"Everyone shares the same information." the Doctor says. He takes my phone from me and begins to read it. "Daily download published by Cybus Industries."

The download scrolls to joke and everyone around us chuckles, and then go on their merry way. The Doctor, Rose and I stare, completely nonplussed as the crowd carries on as though nothing has happened. "You lot, you're obsessed. You'd do anything for the latest upgrade."

"Oi... not our lot. Different world, remember..." Rose points out to the Doctor, slapping his arm slightly whilst I laugh.

"It's not so far off your world. This place is only parallel." the Doctor retorts towards Rose as he presses a few buttons on my phone. "Oh, look at that. Cybus Industries owns just about every company in Britain, including Vitex. Mr Pete Tyler's very well connected."

Rose doesn't reply whilst I hang off his arm. Rose looks up at him innocently smiling before doing her puppy-dog-eyes. "Oh, okay. I give up." the Doctor sighs, passing my phone back to me. "Let's go and see him."