Waiting On A Rival

Chapter 21

'Jenkins', first name Cole(shocker), drove us to Donna's street. She insisted, "I'll walk the rest of the way. I'll see you back at the factory, yeah?" We waved and the jeep started up again. She called after us, "And you be careful!"

"UNIT's been watching Rattigan Academy for ages. It's all a bit Hitler Youth," he explained on the way, "Exercise at dawn and classes and special diets." I looked closely at him. Jenkins was another perfect image of my Cole/Collin.

The ATMOS in the car directed, "Turn left."

"Cole, one question," I asked casually, "If UNIT think that ATMOS is dodgy-"

"How come we've got it in the jeeps?" Cole finished, smiling a bit, "Yeah, tell me about it. They're fitted as standard on all government vehicles. We can't get rid of them till we can prove there's something wrong." I nodded in understanding.

The device said, "This is you final destination." We stopped in front of the academy. A young man, who I assumed was Rattigan, stood in front while his pupils ran around the building.

The Doctor smiled cheerfully. "Is it PE? We wouldn't mind a kick around, I've got my daps on."

"I suppose you're the Doctor and Celeste?" He looked at us deeply.

"Hello," I greeted confusedly. How did he know?"

"Your commanding officer phoned ahead." Luke explained.

"Ah, but we haven't got a commanding officer. Have you?" The Doctor replied "Oh, this is Cole. Say hello, Cole." He tipped his head a bit. "Let's have a look, then. I can smell genius!" He cheered. Luke looked at us with a weird expression.

I reassured, "In a good way." He led us to the laboratory where the Doctor had his own little nerdgasm. "Oh, now, that's clever. Look. Single molecule fabric, how thin is that?! You could pack a tent in a thimble." He walked to something else. "Ooo! Gravity simulators! Terraforming, biospheres, nano-tech steel construction. This is brilliant!"

I asked casually, "Do you know, with equipment like this you could, ooo, I don't know, move to another planet or something?"

"If only that was possible." Luke grinned a wry smile. I nodded in agreement. "If only that were possible. Conditional clause."

"I think you'd better come with me." Luke led us to a recreation area with a swimming pool, but the Doctor and I specifically noticed the transmat in the corner.

"You're smarter than the usual UNIT grunts, I'll give you that," he admitted.

"He called you a grunt," the Doctor repeated, "Don't call Cole a grunt. He's nice. We like Cole. Look at this place."

He accused, "What exactly do you want?"

"We were just thinking," I said, "What a responsible eighteen year old. Inventing zero carbon cars? Saving the world."

"Takes a man with vision."

"Mmm, blinkered vision. Because ATMOS means more people driving. More cars, more petrol," the Doctor gestured to me.

"End result, the oil's going to run out faster than ever. The ATMOS system could make things worse," I finished.

"Yeah. Well, you see, that's a tautology. You can't say ATMOS system because it stands for Atmospheric Emissions System," he corrected me in a sassy tone, "So you're just saying Atmospheric Emissions System system. Do you see, Miss Conditional Clause?" I glared at him.

The Doctor remarked, "It's been a long time since anyone said no to you, isn't it?"

"I'm still right, though."