first_in_time | Copy Cat

Copy Cat

The taxi pulled up outside a rather tall and grand looking hotel. Barbara stepped out to stare upwards. There were tall buildings in London but there was something about being in a different city which made the buildings unique and fascinating. Despite how tired she felt after such a long flight, she could almost go for a walk to see some more but there would be time for that later.

A finely dressed man dashed toward the from where he had been standing next tot he doors. "Shall I take your luggage?" he asked Ian and Barbara once the cabbie, or taxi driver, had hauled it out of the boot.

"Yes, thank you," Barbara replied. She reached out. For Ian's hand and offered him a smile before they walked into the hotel lobby together.

Once they had signed in at what appeared to be a marble desk, taken the lift up to near the very top, and stepped into their room, Barbara turned to thank the man for bringing their luggage. She gave him a small tip, since she didn't have a lot of money on her, and shut the door behind him.

"Would you look at this!" she said to Ian, gesturing to the entire room. "You must be valuable to have the board so generously pay for you to stay here!"

Barbara trotted over to the window to look out, passing a bottle of champagne and a note which wished them both a happy first anniversary.

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"Invade Earth?" she asked, panting slightly, "why is it always Earth?"

"And their planet too, it sounds like." He nodded in the direction of the green men. "But we're not going to know about other planets' invasions from here."

He turned back to the green man army. "How can we help? And is there somewhere we can get Barbara some clothes?" That would do for a start anyway.

"Your local knowledge will be invaluable," the green man replied.

One of the green men studied them both carefully. "There is what you call 'clothing' in the stage two room. It's where the clones go to be cleaned and prepped for their mission. We need to go there ourselves and hack into the mainframe. Come with us."

"But we must hurry!" another insisted, already halfway out.

They walked Ian and Barbara back toward the entrance Ian had originally entered through, but took a sharp left before heading out completely. Old odds were being re-filled, and a short line of naked clones were being dressed by robots. On the other side of the room, other clones were standing in a queue, waiting for further instructions.

A green man appeared by Ian's side with a bundle of clothes. "You should find what you require here, but be quick! We don't know how much time we have."

Several of them were swarming over the computers, hacking into lines of code and text, only briefly pausing once the alarm had been st off.

Ian took the clothes, so Barbara could pick out what she wanted from them. Now wasn't the time for him to be picky about the amount of green goo on his shirt or jacket.

The man who'd brought them the clothes stayed where he was, so Ian asked him, "What do you need us to do?"

"We are recalling the clones," he replied. "But the agents will stop them. They all look the same to us, but perhaps you'll be able to tell them apart."

Barbara simply wanted to sleep for a week but she knew that there were people relying on her, not to mention the little green aliens. And Ian. Ah would gush about him later, she was sure but for the moment, Barbara struggled to step into a pair of trousers. She had to face the wall and keep one hand on Ian to stop herself from toppling over. Eventually she got there, although the buttons were a little difficult.

"We can't stop them on our own," Barbara said breathlessly once her shirt was on. For the moment, all she had the energy to do was hold it closed with a hand as she leaned against Ian. "We need to know just where they're coming from and what resources are at our disposal."

Ian gave Barbara a worried look. "Maybe you'd be better off staying here," he said, while he buttoned her shirt. "You don't look like you have the energy to go running around after aliens." All he wanted to do at the moment was to cling onto her, but it was more important to stop the invasion. They'd have plenty of time to rest together afterwards.

"We can lock down the room once the others are in here, too," one of he others said, pushing a chair close behind Barbara and forcing her to sit.

Barbra hated herself. She wanted to be helpful not useless practically as weak as a kitten. She didn't even have the energy to protest, and just sat.

She took a deep breath and asked with a slight wheeze: "there's nothing I can do from here?"

Ian put a hand on her shoulder.

"You can direct," one of them said. He came over and passed her what looked like a walkie talkie with a screen. "We think these are clones." He pointed to the screen, which had red dots, moving about on it. But there was no layout, just the dots and a scale at one end, so you could tell how far away they were, but nothing more. "You can tell us how to get to them."

Barbara moved the device about in her hands, looking over it for anthying obvious about how it worked, and accidentally pressed a button which opened up her end for talking. It screeched.

"Wait until we're out of the room," he said.

"Yes, sorry. How will I know what to say if there isn't a map?"

"Just let us know if we're getting close to one of them. We'll be green on that."

Pods had stopped coming in now that the others had taken over the computers. But the doors did slide open again to allow a secondary party to enter with the other original copies. Some were walking, most were being dragged. Move of them were strong enough to do it on their own.

One of the men offered Ian a gun, but he shook his head. "I'll blend in better without it." They relented, but gave him an earpiece.

It looked like these aliens, whoever they were, were on top of the situation. Since they'd had previous experience, Ian was happy to leave it to them.

He was still holding the earpiece when the men started moving out. Ian hesitated for a moment by Barbara. "Will you be all right?"

"They're locking the doors. I'll be fine," she smiled a little. "But kiss me anyway. It might be the strength I need."

He smiled and leaned down to kiss her. "I'll be back soon," although that wasn't something he could really promise.

In her mind, Barbara pretended that Ian was a only going to fetch some milk or ice cream. It was easier than facing the prospect that he might not be back.

"You will."

"Human! Our schedule has been pushed forward because of your inability to think things through. I suggest you move!" one of the others shouted from the door.

Ian was sorely tempted to complain that it wasn't his fault, but he didn't want to get on their bad side, when they were his only way of stopping this invasion. "I'm coming," he said irritably. Then added, "I hope you know what you're doing," under his breath.

They took off at a jog, back out into the main corridor. Rather than turning down and heading back toward Earth, they headed for the bridge and stopped just outside another wide, thick door.

"There are several clones quite close to you now. Only about a yard or so away," Barbara's voice crackled into everyone's ear pieces.

A man pointed at Ian: "you, headin there and provide a distraction. We'll sneak in and form the position. Get them looking the other way then cover yourself once we open fire. Got that?"

"Right." He was pretty sure that just walking in would be enough of a distraction, so he opened the door and went in, head held high.

No one looked at him at first, they were too busy manning controls. Ian went up to one at the other side of the room and pulled him out of his chair.

"Hey!" the man protested and jostled with Ian, causing the rest of the room to look up to see what was going on.

The little green men snuck in and disappeared into the shadows, taking their positions with such silence that it seemd as though they were floating.

One the of the on-lookers grabbed at Ian as he moved past, attempting to trap his arms behind his back while another took a swing at his head.

Ian fought back, knowing that all he had to do was to keep fighting. So although he twisted and kicked out, he only wounded and gave his attackers another chance to get at him. Another two clones came over to help and between the four of them they had Ian pinned.

At which point everyone was looking at them and the little green men took the opportunity to start shooting. Ian wasn't exactly in a position to take cover - all he could do was struggle in his captors' grasp.

Three of the four clones were hit and, as the green men advanced, other clones dashed about, trying to find weapons. One which looked very much like the scientist in charge of the conference Ian was attending, started firing a very large gun at he offending party. Three of the green men exploded before they knew what was happening.

Ian had a brief worry that the whole conference was a cover and it was all being run by clones, but there wasn't time to dwell on it with a firefight going on. Since he didn't have a weapon no one was taking any notice of him any more, so he ran and tackled the scientist, bringing him down and preventing any more green men from being hit.

A few green men rushed over and shot him. As Ian stood up, one of the green men said, "We told you to stay out of the way."

"You're welcome," he said sarcastically and left them confused as he found a chair to hide behind.

"There are more approaching from the direction you just came. About two hundred yards. They're closing in fast," Barbara puffed over the speaker.

"Positions!" shouted man nearest Ian. He must have been in charge.

The little green men scurried back into hiding places just as the doors burst open. More clones. They rode scooter-like things and jumped off them as they entered. Rather than crashing into walls, the scooters simply stopped.

The clones moved slowly, cautiously, fanning out to cover more ground as though they knew something was in the room with them.

"Got one!" a Barbara clone cried out and pounced on Ian behind the chair. She was unusually strong, far stronger than the real Barbara could ever be.

Other clones, identical to those which worked in the hotel, stood back to jeer.

"Weren't you the one who pulled her original out of the copier?"

"Events turn quickly, don't they my friend?"

"We're getting close to busting through that door and when we do..."

The three laughed.

At least he could be sure this clone wasn't Barbara. But as he struggled in her grip he shivered. "Barbara!" he called out through the earpiece. "The clones are coming to find you."

Another of the clones stepped forward to hold on to him. Knowing he was going nowhere, he stopped struggling to conserve his energy. The green men were doing well against the clones, but how many more clones were there? Even if the green men beat this lot, there could be more on their way.

"Barbara, get out of here." He wanted her off this ship and safe. Or safer than being on the ship at any rate.

"Ian? What's going on? We can't get out - the door is locked!" said the Barbara in his ear.

The Barbara in front of him put on a look exactly like Barbara's when they laid next to one another, exausted and happy. "It's no use, Ian Chesterton," she purred, "we're-"

She was cut off by a blast that ripped her apart, spreading her around the room.

"Good distraction," said one of the men once they had Ian free.

Ian said nothing for a moment, staring wide-eyed at the place the clone of Barbara had been. It had gone past disconcerting to downright creepy. "Make sure it stays locked," he said to Barbara, hoping she couldn't hear the way his voice shook.

"The room is ours," he heard one of the green men say. When Ian looked around he could see there were no more clones here - unless they were hiding, but Barbara could tell them that. One of the green men locked the door.

"We push forward," another of the men said, "but we'll have to use more stealth." He pointedly broke off to glare at Ian. "Should we be detected, it'll be over for all of us and the others will win. I don't think I need to express how cataclysmic that will be."

The green men nodded in agreement and left their fallen brothers to move forward and enter the next stage of their assault.

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