first_in_time | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

first_in_time

"I think he has defected," the woman said to the man and looked up at him curiously, "we could ignore him and-"

"Don't be stupid! We'd loose our heads! Then we'd be sent back without a body for a full trial for treason. No thank you. This might not be my own body but things like head chopping still hurts. We'll have to dump him and then come back for the dead one."

The man and woman advanced on Ian as though he were a troublesome child rather than an original copy that had managed to sneak on board their ship.

"I've always wondered," said the woman, "what happens when a copy is dumped?"

"They burn and their charred pieces released into some poor planet's atmosphere."

From:

splendid_roman

Ian stepped back, looking scared. He was worried about what was going to happen to him. "I won't cause you any trouble," he protested, doing his best impression of a naughty child. "I'll come along quietly." He put his arms out in surrender.

It meant that pair weren't expecting anything from him as they advanced. He let them get close, then aimed a punch at the man and a kick at the woman - telling himself that these weren't their bodies and he wasn't hitting a woman, just someone who looked like a woman.

While they recovered, he applied the nerve pinch to the woman, leaving himself only the man to face. And he did, just dodging his punch to get in one to the stomach. While he was doubled over, Ian nerve pinched him too.

He didn't know how much time he had before someone missed them. Or security noticed they had an intruder. He ran back to Barbara's pod and looked round it for an off switch. There wasn't anything obvious, so he started pulling tubes.

From:

first_in_time

From where each tube had been connected, there was a nasty looking red spot. Three had appeared before she woke up and panicked. Her limbs flailed, pulling at the tubes still attached. She gasped and coughed and looked down at Ian with wide eyes.

"Ian! What's going on?!"

When the last tube had been removed, her legs gave out. She felt terribly weak. She looked down at her arms. The last thing she could remember was being in the hotel room. She had...found a man there...and there's been a gun...oh, her head hurt! Her arms hurt to, and her legs and-oh!

Barbara sluggishly raised her arms to cover herself. "Where are we? Why...where are my clothes?"

"Oi! What are you doing?!" an unfamiliar voice called out.

From:

splendid_roman

"It's all right." Ian quickly pulled off his jacket and put it round her and then put his arm around her waist, helping to hold her up and cover her with his body.

"We're leaving," he said, looking up and then blinking. The man who had called out was the same one he'd just knocked out. Except that man was also still lying on the floor unconscious.

The man looked down at the unconscious duo and then up at Ian and Barbara. "You won't get far."

From:

first_in_time

The man was about to reply when he froze for a moment. A look of anguish spread over his face before he crumpled onto the floor.

"Well done," said another voice, "you've ruined everything."

From out of the shadows stepped a short, green alien. He was so thin that even his torso was smaller than the width of Barbara's arm. He carried a weapon, almost the same size as his entire body, in a holster attached to his back.

"Leave them alone. You've done the same in a similar circumstance," another said as it stepped out of the shadows. "Cut them some slack."

More of the little, green men appeared, the same weapons carried in the same way. It was a small army by the time they'd all come out. Barbara pressed herself to Ian more firmly as they walked toward the pair.

From:

splendid_roman

Ian looked at the green men and stayed where he was, his arm tightening protectively around Barbara. There wasn't much he could do against all those aliens with all those guns, but he wasn't going to let them know it.

"Good," he said to them. "I planned to ruin everything. You're not going to take over the world and you're not going to clone any more of my wife."

"You misunderstand," one of the men said. "We want the same thing as you do."

From:

first_in_time

"We've been fighting these people since they attacked our planet. We had no idea just how far spread they are but each battle brings us one step closer."

Barbara clutched at Ian's shirt, wiping more of the good off on him. It was the best she could do. She looked up at Ian a little, wondering if he knew what was going on.

From:

splendid_roman

Ian relaxed a little. "Your help would be much appreciated," he said, smiling at them. "It sounds like they have 350 clones, but I don't know how far they've got." Or how many people they'd cloned.

"We'll find out," one of the green men promised. He turned to face his troops, waved at them and a few at the back peeled off and went back to the corridor.

"They're going to invade," Ian told Barbara, now the immediate danger was past and he could focus on her. "They're using clones, but I don't know what their plan is."

From:

first_in_time

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

From:

splendid_roman

"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.

From:

first_in_time

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.

From:

splendid_roman

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."

From:

first_in_time

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."

From:

splendid_roman

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.

From:

first_in_time

"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?"

From:

splendid_roman

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."

From:

first_in_time

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.

From:

splendid_roman

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?"

From:

first_in_time

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

From:

splendid_roman

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

From:

first_in_time

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.

From:

splendid_roman

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.

From:

first_in_time

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?"

From:

splendid_roman

"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.

From:

first_in_time

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.