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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2016 13:10:38 GMT -5
Stubbornly, the doors persisted in remaining closed and the Doctor locked the door mechanism from the console just in case. "Jonah, please! If you go out there and run into the fray you will die. Or possibly revert to core programming, in which your personality interface could malfunction."
"This has nothing to do with any of that! I'm not tricking you," he said, softening his voice. "You were tricked, yes, but not by me. By your creator and father. He did it out of love, I would like to think, not malice but it must be hard to hear all the same." He sighed. The poor boy might have protocols embedded in him that would never allow him to discover or hold onto the truth of his existence. If that were the case, it was going to be a difficult situation. "I'm here because I wanted to save your planet from a Dalek attack. Everywhere I was met with resistance until they showed up in force to try to steal your technology and enslave or destroy you. There are still colonists down on that world that need our help, Jonah! I need to get them here, into the whale. Where they can be safe. Will you help me?"
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Post by Jonah Caine on Oct 1, 2016 0:11:32 GMT -5
"This has nothing to do with any of that! I'm not tricking you," he said, softening his voice. "You were tricked, yes, but not by me. By your creator and father. He did it out of love, I would like to think, not malice but it must be hard to hear all the same."
Jonah stood with his back pressed tightly against the doors, shivering all over. His head was pounding. Unbeknown to him, his positronic brain was routing and re-routing his logical subroutines, refusing to allow him to accept the truth the War Doctor was offering him.
“Shut up!” he screamed, his hands coming up to claw at his head, unable to bear the dissonant clamour inside his brain. “Just SHUT UP! Stop saying that! I'm human, I tell you! I'm Jonah Caine. I'M HUMAN!!!!”
"I'm here because I wanted to save your planet from a Dalek attack. Everywhere I was met with resistance until they showed up in force to try to steal your technology and enslave or destroy you. There are still colonists down on that world that need our help, Jonah! I need to get them here, into the whale. Where they can be safe. Will you help me?"
Jonah. I am Jonah. And I am inside a Star Whale... He could feel the closed doors at his back, the meshed floor beneath his feet. These were real, these were facts, solid and inescapable. Everything else seemed to be running through his fingers like water. He hardly even knew who he was any more.
Haggard, his face turned towards the War Doctor. Malachi was still down there somewhere. The war against the Daleks was still raging. People were still dying. Those, too, were facts.
“What do you want me to do?” he asked, his tone defeated and dull.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2016 15:20:34 GMT -5
He looked pained. How many times had he heard something like this? Had he, in fact been partially responsible for something like this? He walked over towards him, one hand out to take his hands down from his head before he tore at his synthetic hair. Or perhaps it was real protein strands, programmed to grow - but at any rate, what lay beneath was a positronic neural net, behind casing. He felt for him - he could not help what he was or what he had been programmed to think. In fact, had been disallowed the truth. But ignorance was not a luxury they could afford. Some accord would have to be struck, and soon so the could save the others.
"Yes," he affirmed. "You are Jonah. Ingenium or not, you are Jonah."
"Help me gather the others up into the TARDIS - they might listen to you, as the son of Malachai. Someone they know. And try to find your father, see if we can save him from himself."
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Post by Jonah Caine on Oct 4, 2016 17:09:17 GMT -5
Jonah felt the Warrior's gnarled hands closing on his with surprising strength, drawing them down from his face, away from his head. The old man's touch was gentle but very firm. He stared wildly into the faded brown eyes. They were alert, and very, very intelligent. Try as he might, Jonah could see no sign of madness or confusion there. Just deep sorrow and compassion.
"Yes," he affirmed. "You are Jonah. Ingenium or not, you are Jonah."
The boy had no way of knowing it at this point in his history, but that sentence, spoken in that raspy voice, was one that would stay with him for the rest of his life. Whenever, in the future, he looked back to his encounter with the War Doctor, this was the moment he would remember most.
Ingenium or not... you are Jonah.
“What do you want me to do?” he asked, his tone defeated and dull.
"Help me gather the others up into the TARDIS - they might listen to you, as the son of Malachai. Someone they know. And try to find your father, see if we can save him from himself."
He could still refuse. The ball was in his court. He wanted to curl up here on the floor, in a tiny ball, and try to shut it all out. He wanted to ignore the old man, pretend he wasn't there, make believe he was back in his luxury tower apartment and that none of this had happened. But those were the selfish actions of a child, and wouldn't change anything. When at last he rose from his sulk, everything he had ever loved would be gone.
Whatever else he was, the Warrior had a ship. And right now, a ship was what Jonah's people needed.
“All right,” he replied, his tone still stiff and hostile. “I'll do it. For them. Not because I believe a single word you say, old man.”
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Post by Deleted on Oct 11, 2016 11:46:34 GMT -5
There had been a worrying long hesitation - but in the end, altruism seemed to bring him around. "You don't have to believe me, but if you don't believe your own eyes and ears then we're going to be in for more trouble. Now, let's see what the old girl can do about all this, shall we?" he said, giving the boy a look as he turned back to the console. He continued speaking, almost to himself or the ship as much as Jonah. "The trick of course is finding Malachai and not being destroyed by anyone down there on the surface. We'll be counting on you, Jonah - as much as you don't believe me, something tells me that the Ingenium are core-hardwritten not to harm you or or others of their own kind. Either by preference or arrogance, or genocidal tendencies like the Daleks...we've got to get down there to Malachai and the others. A safe space to land...and then we'll bring as many people in here as we can."
"Now, where is that..." he said, ducking below the console. He pulled up a grate, rifled through numberous bits and bobs and pulled up something. "Aha!" He stood up and pushed aside a slat in the console and hooked it up, waving the sonic screwdriver over the connection, presumably to check it was functioning. "Tribophysical waveform macro kinetic extrapolator should give us an area boost around the TARDIS , keep us safe under the sheilds while I disable the HADS system - don't want the TARDIS to teleport away while we're evacuating, that would be awkward."
He made a few more adjustments to the controls and the ship's interior began to shift. A door appeared where there wasn't one before, off to the side of the main exit/entry they'd arrived by, just at the whim of a few clicked instructions. He pointed at the new door. "They should be safe in that room for the time being while we gather up the others. Ready?" he asked, turning over his shoulder to look at him. "This might get a bit bumpy, hang on!" With that, he gave a triumphant pull of a lever, starting the time rotor into motion. He had a few tricks up his sleeve and one that he used when piloting into an unknown area was to program the TARDIS for a series of minute hops. It wasn't the easiest thing to do, short-hops were notoriously tetchy but it was better than settling into an area only to be bombarded.
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Post by Jonah Caine on Nov 11, 2016 22:39:21 GMT -5
"You don't have to believe me, but if you don't believe your own eyes and ears then we're going to be in for more trouble. Now, let's see what the old girl can do about all this, shall we?" he said, giving the boy a look as he turned back to the console.
"I may be just a kid, but I've lived long enough to know how easy it is to fool someone's eyes and ears, if you really want to,” Jonah retorted in a surly tone. “That's what Galatea Inc is all about. I also know how many enemies my father has, and how many people would love to bring him down. So just in case you're thinking of using me to do it, you'd better think again.” He paused, his own eyes resting on the console, taking in the battered panels and the threadbare, jury-rigged controls. “So, can you get us back down there or not?”
[The Warrior] continued speaking, almost to himself or the ship as much as Jonah. "The trick of course is finding Malachai and not being destroyed by anyone down there on the surface. We'll be counting on you, Jonah - as much as you don't believe me, something tells me that the Ingenium are core-hardwritten not to harm you or or others of their own kind. Either by preference or arrogance, or genocidal tendencies like the Daleks...we've got to get down there to Malachai and the others. A safe space to land...and then we'll bring as many people in here as we can."
“I told you. The tunnels,” Jonah reminded him reluctantly. “Directly beneath the Praesidium. The odds are, the members of 'Humans First' will already be gathering the survivors there. That's the sort of thing Sebastian would do. He's got a bit of a hero complex.”
There was a twitch of something in the boy's voice – jealousy, perhaps? Resentment, of the way Sebastian's people followed him, not because they had to, but because the rebel leader's charisma made them want to? It was one thing to be a Caine, and to have people deferring to you because they had no choice, because if they didn't Malachi would make their lives not worth living. It was quite another to be able to inspire loyalty simply through strength of personality alone. And if there was one thing Sebastian had in spades, Jonah thought sourly, it was strength of personality.
"Now, where is that..." [the Warrior] said, ducking below the console. He pulled up a grate, rifled through numberous bits and bobs and pulled up something. "Aha!" He stood up and pushed aside a slat in the console and hooked it up, waving the sonic screwdriver over the connection, presumably to check it was functioning. "Tribophysical waveform macro kinetic extrapolator should give us an area boost around the TARDIS , keep us safe under the sheilds while I disable the HADS system - don't want the TARDIS to teleport away while we're evacuating, that would be awkward."
“If you say so,” Jonah shrugged, shifting his feet impatiently. “But can we please get on with it? I really need to find my Dad.”
He made a few more adjustments to the controls and the ship's interior began to shift. A door appeared where there wasn't one before, off to the side of the main exit/entry they'd arrived by, just at the whim of a few clicked instructions. He pointed at the new door. "They should be safe in that room for the time being while we gather up the others. Ready?" he asked, turning over his shoulder to look at him.
"Yeah, let's do it.”
"This might get a bit bumpy, hang on!" With that, he gave a triumphant pull of a lever, starting the time rotor into motion. He had a few tricks up his sleeve and one that he used when piloting into an unknown area was to program the TARDIS for a series of minute hops. It wasn't the easiest thing to do, short-hops were notoriously tetchy but it was better than settling into an area only to be bombarded.
Jonah clutched on to the nearest railing, his fingers white-knuckled with the strain, as the ship bucked and lurched all around him. He couldn't help wondering if they would make it to the tunnels in one piece. And even if they did, what on Copernicus he could possibly say that would convince Sebastian that they had come to help.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2016 17:49:57 GMT -5
"Skepticism is good, to a point. But after that it's an obstruction, paranoia and pig-headedness. I'm going to tell you the same thing I told your father and hope that you listen better than he did. I am not your enemy, I am not here to bring your father down, I'm trying to prevent your world from being exterminated. The Daleks are my enemy and they are quite willing to take down anyone who stands in their way." He huffed and drew up a lever. "Yes, I can get us back down. Getting us back down without anyone noticing is a bit more tricky...just a moment."
"Ah yes forgive an old man...I'm going to scan for a good place to get us in under there...since it saw some heavy damage. Sebastian?"
"I'm working as fast as I can. No use throwing us down there only to be shot down straight away."
He gave a nod to Jonah and pulled the dematerialisation lever, the ship shuddering from its relative safety within the Star Whale and straight back into the the vortex. From there, he set a tight course for Copernicus again but this time aimed to materialise below the surface, directly into the hive of tunnels beneath the Praesidium. It seemed simple enough but it was essentially a bit of flying blind. The scans had only shown so much and there had been much activity in the way due to the fighting and the destruction of the area. But he thought he'd seen a large hollow place and had decided that was the best bet to avoid lodging themselves into the planet's strata upon arrival.
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Post by Jonah Caine on Dec 26, 2016 19:32:07 GMT -5
“This is Sebastian,” Jonah said tersely, responding to the Renegade's question. He fiddled briefly with the expensive watch on his wrist, before producing a life-size hologram of a young man with wavy dark hair, dressed in tattered combat fatigues. The image had a slightly grainy texture, as if it had been clipped from a news-vid, or maybe a digital 'wanted' poster. “Sebastian Grove, human, 28 years old, leader of 'Humans First', the anarchist group who want to wipe out the Ingenium utterly on Copernicus.”
Jonah stared at the flickering image, his expression dark and brooding, as though he couldn't quite decide whether he admired Sebastian or hated him. “The story goes that he once had a twin sister. They were inseparable, spent all their time together. He loved her more than anything. Then, one day, twelve years ago, there was an accident. They were in a park. One of the tree limbs had become rotten, it was a windy day. It fell on her and crushed her skull. He ran to her, screaming – and that was when he discovered that she had a CPU instead of a brain. His real sister had died shortly after birth, and his parents had replaced her with an Ingenium. Sebastian had never been told. After that...” Jonah shrugged expressively. “After that, he hated the Ingenium with a passion. It was as if he blamed them for the loss of his sister, because he'd been tricked, because she'd never been what he thought she was. He began stirring up trouble wherever he could. Gathering together other people who thought the same, other people who feared the eventual impact the Ingenium could have on society, those who were terrified of the future extinction of the human race on Copernicus.”
The boy flicked the switch on his watch and the hologram winked out again, fizzling into thin air. “And there were a lot of them. From every walk of life, the high and the low, people flocked to his cause, despite everything my father did to stamp them out. At first, he wasn't worried. He said it was just an inconsequential blip, and would soon peter out. He sent out assassins, over and over again, to kill Sebastian – but none were ever successful. And 'Humans First' just grew stronger and stronger. Sebastian is extremely charismatic and his arguments are very persuasive.”
Jonah looked down at his shoes in shame, his eyes not meeting the Renegade's. “I should know. I met him once. I was angry with my father, and I started to attend the secret meetings of one of the 'Humans First' groups at the university. They blindfolded me and took me to an underground meeting with Sebastian himself. He tried to talk me into signing their pledge. Everything he said made complete sense. I came so close to agreeing. But then I looked into his face and I realised... he didn't want me. He didn't want Jonah. All he wanted was Malachi Caine's son.” The boy's voice was hard and bitter as he remembered. “I was nothing to him except a feather in his cap. A bargaining chip, a piece of ammunition against my father. So in the end, I refused.”Biting his lip, Jonah shook his head. “I still don't know whether I did the right thing. Sebastian says the Ingenium are nothing but a lie, nothing but sick copies, designed to deceive. My father says that Sebastian had sixteen happy years with his sister that he wouldn't have had without the program, and that he should be grateful. I don't know what to believe. I suppose now... now, that the Daleks have destroyed everything... it doesn't matter any more.”He gave a nod to Jonah and pulled the dematerialisation lever, the ship shuddering from its relative safety within the Star Whale and straight back into the the vortex. From there, he set a tight course for Copernicus again but this time aimed to materialise below the surface, directly into the hive of tunnels beneath the Praesidium. It seemed simple enough but it was essentially a bit of flying blind. The scans had only shown so much and there had been much activity in the way due to the fighting and the destruction of the area. But he thought he'd seen a large hollow place and had decided that was the best bet to avoid lodging themselves into the planet's strata upon arrival.
There was a slight bump, and the crystal column in the centre of the console sank down gracefully and sat motionless. Jonah relaxed his grip on the railing, and sent an inquiring glance towards the Renegade. “We've arrived? Can you check where we are, exactly, from in here? And who's out there? We need to be careful – Sebastian's people can be a bit trigger-happy, when it comes to strangers.”At this point, Jonah thought wryly, they were just as likely to be killed by Humans First, as they were to be slaughtered by the Daleks or the Ingenium.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2017 14:30:18 GMT -5
The Renegade gave a nonfluent sound, half -grumble, half-interested and leaned closer to inspect the vid. "And yet these might be the survivors, having been hidden already," he mused.
"That is quite tragic. I can see it from both angles, not wishing to disrupt the boy's love or life but in the end, it's a deception none the less. Perhaps he did blame them, or her, or needed something to point the gulf of his loss at...when the Ingenium were created as a sort of coping mechanism, I don't think that it was considered how far the need for healing would be, how deep the sense of betrayal might feel to those who were kept in the dark over it."
"Well, not to put too fine a point on it but the man has an argument. I am not saying what he has done with his feelings or his main argument is correct, of course. But as we can see above, there is as much danger in knowing as in not knowing. Much of these types of experiences are all down to timing. Instead of discourse, he created a warband."
"I know that feeling, Jonah and it's not a good one. No one wants to be a figurehead for someone else's war. Well, I don't fault you for wondering what they had to say. I am glad to see that they didn't harm you though...that does speak of some kind of humanity left. And we shall need that."
"The Ingenium in and of themselves are not a lie. You are real. However, in trying to cover up the pain of the past, those like your father pretend that it never happened. This only causes later, greater pain. He was deprived mourning and now he's angry. Because anger is easier to digest than pain and fear is as easy to use for a cause as love...if he had been told at some point, then none of that may have come to pass."
"Yes, of course. Assuming there is not something to shield the area that my TARDIS cannot compensate for," he said. He reached over and flipped a switch. There was a crackle and the rectangular viewer mounted near the column powered itself up, showing them a 180 degree view of the immediate exterior of the TARDIS.
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Post by Jonah Caine on Jan 27, 2017 3:42:27 GMT -5
"The Ingenium in and of themselves are not a lie. You are real. However, in trying to cover up the pain of the past, those like your father pretend that it never happened. This only causes later, greater pain. He was deprived mourning and now he's angry. Because anger is easier to digest than pain and fear is as easy to use for a cause as love...if he had been told at some point, then none of that may have come to pass."
You are real...
The words stung like acid. Jonah still could not accept them, still couldn't make sense of the claim that everything he'd ever known had been a fabrication. At least Sebastian knew who to blame. He could focus his rage and his pain and his loss, make a space inside his head to deal with it all, by telling himself he was doing something to change the world. If the Warrior was right, who should Jonah blame? It wasn't his sister who had died. It was his own sense of self. Should he blame the humans who he had always believed to be his people, and who had created the Ingenium in the first place? Or should he blame the Ingenium, as Sebastian had, for perpetuating the lie – and in the process damn himself, since he was one of them? What was he now, neither one nor the other?
It was true that anger was easier to digest than pain. That was a lesson Jonah was learning the hard way. There was only one man, in his mind, who was responsible for all that had been done. Only one man who could answer all his questions and who deserved to bear the brunt of his hurt and incomprehension.
Malachi Caine, the man he had called father all his life.
Jonah's young mouth set in a grim line, as the Warrior scanned the exterior of the ship. No matter what happened, he had to find Malachi. He had to discover the truth.
"Yes, of course. Assuming there is not something to shield the area that my TARDIS cannot compensate for," he said. He reached over and flipped a switch. There was a crackle and the rectangular viewer mounted near the column powered itself up, showing them a 180 degree view of the immediate exterior of the TARDIS.
The screen showed they had landed in a narrow, low-roofed tunnel, lit by flickering orange torches, slotted into brackets on the walls. The dim glow revealed around a dozen men, dressed in ragged khaki, standing in a half circle, their laser rifles raised to their shoulders and aimed squarely at the TARDIS. With them was the dark-haired man Jonah had shown the Warrior earlier in hologram form.
“Something tells me Sebastian knows we're here,” the boy said dryly. He turned his head back towards his companion. “You'd better let me go first. Hopefully they'll at least stop to ask questions, before they shoot at a Caine.”
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2017 23:32:46 GMT -5
"About the welcome I was expecting," he groused. The Warrior gazed at the gathered crowd with a complete lack of surprise, though he felt a touch of disappointment. "Rifles," he scoffed. "Rifles of that make," he shook his head. "If they shoot at my TARDIS with those, they might hurt themselves." He shook his head and stood back from the scanner. "Come, we'd best go."
He glanced back towards the scanner and to Jonah. "Very well, but just for safety sake let's try opening the door with us to the sides of them first, shall we?" he suggested. Then as he took a step towards the door controls, he paused and asked him, "Do they use white flags here by any chance as signs for peace?"
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Post by Jonah Caine on Feb 12, 2017 16:34:14 GMT -5
It wasn't an easy thing, walking out the door to face a barrage of guns, knowing that he could easily be shot instantly and without question. Nevertheless, for his father's sake, for the sake of all Copernicus, Jonah made himself do it.
As the Warrior had suggested, they waited for a few minutes when the doors first opened, sheltering to either side, just in case the potentially trigger-happy rebels decided to spray the interior of the ship with bullets. However, it seemed that Jonah had underestimated the discipline within Sebastian's ranks, because nothing happened, except for a rich, strong, vibrant voice, raised in challenge.
“We have you surrounded. Come out, with your hands in the air, where we can see them.”
Privately, Jonah thought the demand was a little ridiculous. After all, for all Sebastian knew, there could be an army of Daleks in here, and Daleks didn't even have hands. Pulling a wry face at the Warrior, he squared his shoulders, and led the way out into the cavern.
At least a dozen weapons snapped around, zoning menacingly in on his head. He could feel sweat breaking out on the palms of his hands and trickling down his back; his heart thumped uncomfortably, loud enough, it seemed to him, for even Sebastian to hear.
Somewhere in the back of his head, the small insistent voice of doubt was nagging at him – See how human you are! You feel fear. You react physically to it. How is it possible that you could be an Ingenium? Surely the old man is mad! Yet, even as he had the thought, another one followed, like a dash of cold water. My father is a genius. If anyone could replicate human life so perfectly, it would be him. Especially when he was designing his own son.
Sebastian took a step forward, his dark eyes hard and assessing, and his vibrant voice rang out again. “That's far enough. Come no further.”
Not daring to disobey, Jonah stopped, his hands raised high. Typical of Sebastian, he reflected bitterly. Even his voice was heroic. He was the absolute personification of a dashing rebel leader.
“Well, well, well, Jonah Caine.” The words had a mordant, mocking ring to them, at least to Jonah's ears. “I never thought we'd meet again. What brings you here, rich boy? Seeking shelter, I suppose, while our world gets torn apart above our heads.”
Sebastian's dark gaze flickered past the boy, a faint sneer on his handsome face, as he took in the War Doctor and the battered old TARDIS.
“Who's the old man?”
Since the Dust Fall, little by little, the Copernican society had become one where the young were idolized and the old were belittled and discarded. To Jonah and Sebastian, who had both been brought up within that social paradigm, openly treating a man of the Warrior's age with an attitude of patronising disregard was normal. But for the first time, Jonah felt a twinge of shame. Whatever else the Warrior was, he wasn't worthy of contempt. He'd saved Jonah's life. And despite his wild talk of Jonah himself being an Ingenium, in the short time they'd known each other, he'd somehow managed to foster a kernel of respect inside the boy.
“This is the Warrior,” he responded curtly. “He came from the stars, to try to warn us about the Daleks.”
“The Warrior, huh?” Again, Sebastian looked the War Doctor up and down, this time with some amusement. “Maybe once, a long time ago. And what's this blue cabinet you arrived in? His battleship?”
Some of the other men snickered at their leader's joke, their guns still steadily trained on the two newcomers. Puzzled, Jonah turned around. What blue cabinet? What the hell was Sebastian talking about? Sure enough, behind him, he saw what looked like a tall wooden box with a light on top. It looked rather faded and shabby, and was around nine feet in height, with a width and depth of no more than three and a half feet. The word 'police' was emblazoned across the top. Jonah's jaw dropped and he glanced across at the Warrior in bewilderment. The control room he'd just been standing in had been huge. And even though he hadn't gone anywhere else in the ship, he'd received the impression that there was a lot more of it, beyond the interior doors. How could all that space fit inside a narrow box that looked like it would barely contain the two of them, standing side by side? Was it some kind of trick?
“I'll ask you one more time, Caine,” Sebastian continued, in a tone that had lost any amusement and was now becoming dangerously impatient. “What are you and the old man doing here? And I'm warning you, I'd better like the answer.”
Jonah swung back to face the rebel leader. He'd had an entire speech planned out inside his head, a fine flourish of rhetoric that he'd hoped would impress Sebastian and win him over to their cause. But he was rattled now and the whole thing had flown right out of his head. Nothing in his life was what it appeared to be, even the Warrior's ship, and the shock of it all was beginning to take its toll.
“I just want to find my Dad,” he said miserably, suddenly uncaring if Sebastian saw him as a stupid kid. “That's all.”
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2017 22:13:47 GMT -5
The Warrior caught Jonah's look and returned something like it. Then he said to their would-be audience outside, "Yes, yes we can see that," he replied, sounding almost as if he were indulging them. Still, he put his hands over his head. "I'd say take me to your leader but he's done us the honor of arriving himself so that spares us the question." He appeared to be completely unfazed by the posturing around him, the guns bristling, the aggression and the shows of bravado.
"Oh good, I was hoping you wouldn't be the type to hide behind a wall of your men." He was watching Sebastian's reactions, no doubt he would find the whole situation off-putting. But he didn't expect derision based on his age. Well, it seemed humanity could find ways to surprise him even after all these years. If they only knew how old he was!
"Not everything is as it seems to be on the outside, you know," he said to Jonah, as the boy looked astonished at the fact his ship looked much like a cabinet now. "After all, it's what inside that counts and what you do with that capacity..." Then he looked at Sebastian and took a step forward, ignoring the threats. "He's right, you know, I'm the Warrior. Right now, that is who I am. Not in the past. I've come to help you fight off the Dalek attack, try to spare people their lives if I can. Those above us didn't heed my warning and now many of them have died. You might wish to consider that before you, too dismiss us out of hand. You should listen to what he has to say, even if you won't listen to me."
Perhaps it was best this way. A simple, understandable appeal. Straightforward even if it would not be overtly palatable to a rebel leader. But if Sebastian wanted to waste their time gloating, then everyone would pay the cost. He hoped that he was not so foolish as to throw away more lives.
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Post by Jonah Caine on Mar 3, 2017 17:28:03 GMT -5
Then he looked at Sebastian and took a step forward, ignoring the threats. "He's right, you know, I'm the Warrior. Right now, that is who I am. Not in the past. I've come to help you fight off the Dalek attack, try to spare people their lives if I can.
"You?” Sebastian scoffed. “What could you possibly do? Have you even seen those creatures up there? It's an army of killing machines. Pure death. There's no mercy in them. This isn't a war for an old man. Or for children.” At this last comment, his eyes flicked disdainfully over to Jonah. “The best thing you can do is to wait down here until it's all over.”
“Those above us didn't heed my warning and now many of them have died. You might wish to consider that before you, too dismiss us out of hand. You should listen to what he has to say, even if you won't listen to me."
“And what exactly does he have to say?... I'll ask you one more time, Caine,” Sebastian continued, in a tone that had lost any amusement and was now becoming dangerously impatient. “What are you and the old man doing here? And I'm warning you, I'd better like the answer.”
Jonah swung back to face the rebel leader. He'd had an entire speech planned out inside his head, a fine flourish of rhetoric that he'd hoped would impress Sebastian and win him over to their cause. But he was rattled now and the whole thing had flown right out of his head. Nothing in his life was what it appeared to be, even the Warrior's ship, and the shock of it all was beginning to take its toll.
“I just want to find my Dad,” he said miserably, suddenly uncaring if Sebastian saw him as a stupid kid. “That's all.”
For a fleeting moment, Sebastian's face softened, as if the appeal in Jonah's words had found one of the rare grains of compassion still left inside him. But then his expression tightened again. “I don't know where he is. The Ingenium are still fighting. The reports I've been receiving indicate that they're slowly gaining the upper hand, but that's still unconfirmed. My men and I have been sending out scouting parties, to gather as many of the scattered human survivors as we can, and hiding them down here.”
Striding forward, Sebastian circled the TARDIS, looking it up and down, surveying it with extreme skepticism. “This is truly your ship, old man? You use it to travel across the stars?”
Halting in front of the battered blue doors, he fixed the War Doctor with a piercing glare. “Show me.”
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2017 23:39:08 GMT -5
"Yes, me," he said firmly and gruffly. "I have indeed seen those creatures up there. Many, many times. Too many times. I have battled them and fought them for many, many years. Several of your lifetimes. And...there is no mercy in them. That is true. All they know how to do is hate and destroy that which is different than they are. But you are wrong about this war. It is a war for old men and women, not one for children to endure. Not for your planet to be ravaged again...not if I can help it. And I can, believe it or not. An old man like I...not you are right to think I am not great. But others can be destined for greatness, that I can ensure."
"I see. Well, perhaps if I can coordinate with them, we might be able to get that done safer."
"Yes, that's right."
"As you wish," he said and went over towards the doors, waving his hand to Jonas. "Come, let's give him a tour, shall we?" He put an old fashioned key into the lock and the doors parted for him, showing the austere interior, far larger than seemingly possible, to those directly in front of them. The Renegade stepped to one side and brought out an arm into the ship, as if showing Sebastian inside.
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