Last Lady Of Time

The long game part two

"Oi! Mutt and Jeff! Over here!" The Doctor shouts at Rose and Adam. Ky lightly smacks his arm even though she chuckled at his comment.

The trio plus Adam follow the two women into a room. Seven people are seated at an octagonal desk around a central chair with wires coming out of it. The Doctor, Rose, Ky and Adam stand to one side, observing.
"Now, everybody behave. We have a management inspection. How do you want it, by the book?" The woman from before asks.
"Right from scratch, thanks." The Doctor answers.
"Okay. So, ladies, gentlemen, multi-sex, undecided or robot,- my name is Cathica Santini Khadeni. That's Cathica with a C, in case you want to write to Floor five hundred praising me, and please do. Now, please feel free to ask any questions. The process of news gathering must be open, honest, and beyond bias. That's company policy." The First Lady said, who the group now know as Cathica.
"Actually, it's the law." The other woman says.
"Yes, thank you, Suki. Okay, keep it calm. Don't show off for the guests. Here we go." Cathica says as she settles into the central chair.
"And engage safety."
The seven hold their hands over palm print on the table in front of them. Lights start to come on around the room. Cathica clicks her fingers and a portal opens in her forehead. The seven put their hands into the palm prints. "And three, two, and spike." Cathica says as a beam of light shines into her portal.
"Compressed information, streaming into her. Reports from every city, every country, every planet, and they all get packaged inside her head. She becomes part of the software. Her brain is the computer." The Doctor the group.
"If it all goes through her, she must be a genius." Rose thinks out loud.
"Nah, she wouldn't remember any of it. There's too much. Her head'd blow up. The brain's the processor. As soon as it closes, she forgets." Kyraiah tells her friend whilst still look at the people in the room.
"So, what about all these people round the edge?" Rose asks the pair in front of her.
"They've all got tiny little chips in their head, connecting them to her and they transmit six hundred channels. Every single fact in the Empire beams out of this place. Now that's what I call power." The Doctor says seeing as Ky is staring at the group in front of her with a slight frown on her face. The Doctor nudges her and she looks up to him. He has a look on his face that she understands and give him one of her own telling him she agrees with what he's thinking.

"You all right?" Rose asks Adam seeing the strange look on his face. Adam looks at her with an indecipherable look on his face. "I can see her brain."
"Do you want to get out?" Rose asks him.
"No. No, this technology, it's amazing." He says with a smile on his face.
"This technology's wrong. " the Doctor says frowning slightly.
"Trouble?" Rose asks both Timelords, also seeing a similar look on the redheads face.
"Oh, yeah." They both reply.

Suki pulls her hands away as if she has just received an electric shock. The other six lift their hands and the information beam shuts down. Cathica's portal closes.
"Come off it, Suki. I wasn't even halfway. What was that for?" Cathica snaps.
"Sorry. It must've been a glitch." Suki apologetically replies.
"Oh."
"Promotion." A voice says over the tannoy as a wall lights up with the word.
"Come on. This is it. Come on. Oh God, make it me. Come on, say my name, say my name, say my name." Cathica wishfully says.
"Promotion for Suki Macrae Cantrell. Please proceed to Floor five hundred. "
"I don't believe it. Floor five hundred." Suki cheers.
"How the hell did you manage that? I'm above you." Cathica asks annoyed at the woman.
"I don't know. I just applied on the off chance and they've said yes." Suki politely responds.
"That's so not fair. I've been applying to Floor five hundred for three years." The woman whines at the supposedly lucky Suki.

"What's Floor five hundred?" Rose asks the duo in front, know at least one of them would have her answer.
"The walls are made of gold." Ky grimly replies, getting a rather bad feeling about floor 500.

The group of six head out to the life to see off Suki. "Cathica, I'm going to miss you. Floor five hundred, thank you." She says looking at the Doctor and Ky
"We didn't do anything." The Doctor says pointing between them.
"Well, you're my lucky charms."
"All right. I'll hug anyone." The Doctor says embracing Suki. "Me too. Love a good hug me." Ky tells her as she gives Suki a quick hug and squeezes her slightly.

"Oh, my God, I've got to go. I can't keep them waiting. I'm sorry. Say goodbye to Steve for me. Bye!" Suki says as the lift door closes.
"Good riddance."
"You're talking like you'll never see her again. She's only going upstairs." The Doctor says looking a Cathica weirdly.
"We won't. Once you go to Floor five hundred you never come back." Cathica says as they walk back through the cafeteria.
"Have you ever been up there?" Kyraiah asks.
"I can't. You need a key for the lift, and you only get a key with promotion. No one gets to five hundred except for the chosen few."

After they arrive back in the newsroom, Cathica turns to them. "Look, they only give us twenty minutes maintenance. Can't you give it a rest?"
"But you've never been to another floor? Not even one floor down?" Ky asks as The Doctor sits in the broadcast chair. She walks over sitting on the floor legs crossed by the end of the chair.
"I went to floor sixteen when I first arrived. That's medical. That's when I got my head done, and then I came straight here. Satellite Five, you work, eat and sleep on the same floor. That's it, that's all. You're not management, are you."
"At last. She's clever." The Doctor taunts her.
"Yeah, well, whatever it is, don't involve me. I don't know anything." Cathica pathetically states.
"Don't you even ask?" Ky asks her.
"Well, why would I?"
"You're a journalist. Why's all the crew human?" The doctor asks her
"What's that got to do with anything?" She asks not seeing the point.
"There's no aliens on board. Why?" The Doctor presses again.
"I don't know. No real reason. They're not banned or anything."
"Then where are they?" The two Timelords ask her.
"I suppose immigration's tightened up. It's had to, what with all the threats." She tries to defend herself for not questioning it.
"What threats?" They ask together again.
"I don't know all of them. Usual stuff. And the price of space warp doubled so that kept the visitors away. Oh, and the government on Chavic Five's collapsed, so that lot stopped coming, you see. Just lots of little reasons, that's all."
"Adding up to one great big fact, and you didn't even notice." The Doctor points out.
"Doctor, I think if there was any kind of conspiracy, Satellite Five would have seen it. We see everything." Cathica tries to reason with the three in the room.
"I can see better. This society's the wrong shape, even the technology." The Doctor says as at the same time Kyraiah says, " I doubt it, some things stopping you from seeing the big picture."
"It's cutting edge. And what big picture."
"It's backwards. There's a great big door in your head. You should've chucked this out years ago." The Doctor says then looks at the young Timelady by his feet for to explain what she meant. "Something out there is showing you what they want you to see. Like looking through narrowed eyes. You only see a small part of the big picture. You're missing everything else."
"So, what do you think's going on?" Rose asked her friends
"It's not just this space station, it's the whole attitude. It's the way people think. The great and bountiful Human Empire's stunted. Something's holding it back." The Doctor explained.
"And how would you know?" Cathica asked.
"Trust me, humanity's been set back about ninety years. When did Satellite Five start broadcasting?" The Doctor said.
"Ninety one years ago." Cathica says gulping realising they may be telling the truth.