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[He has supposed since coming here that, since this is an alien planet, he'll have to be honest with his name (or lack thereof) in public. Hell, if any of these people go back to his neck of the woods when the ship's fixed all he has to do is send out a team and have a nice new memory written down for them. Everybody else should be in the clear.

So a little bit more honest of a public introduction than most civilians get. Though he doesn't look as official as he'd like, he's wearing an old overcoat and a high collared shirt that he's scavenged. But his expression is stony and earnest and makes up where the lack of suit detracts.]

If I've not spoken with you, my name is Agent K. I'm a protection officer from Earth. Right now, I need a technician, if we've got one, to help me have a look at one of these.

[He holds up the collar that came from Charles.]

I got a few ideas on how it might work but I'm not 100%. I also want to make sure this three person business is the most reliable way to get one off.

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[Narvin, in contrast, looks both bothered *and* scared. He tries to hide the fear behind irritation, but the fact is he has no idea how to survive without civilization and he's been here for days. If he weren't a Time Lord, he'd be in far worse shape by now. And even as a Time Lord his body could only manage for so long without regular food, shelter, clean water.]

Other than the obvious: it's alien, it's barely functional. No, I've found nothing of value. Not who made it or why. Or how to fix it.

[Narvin tries to look for a clean spot to sit down with the collar and eventually gives up and sits on the ground. He's going to want to burn these clothes once he gets out of here. He takes the collar and starts to examine it.]

Damn.

[Simple enough a statement. He just figures that Narvin is a little misplaced future human trying to get out of here, same as everyone else. Of course he's going to look a little bit scared.]

See, there's a lot of variety on that ship. So I got two theories. One, these collars are made to set anybody that wears one to a certain level. Doesn't matter if it's specialized to you or not. Which means that, in the past, they might have actually had people with these sort of talents walking around. Either engineered bioweapons or other races they were competing against. They certainly didn't just pull them out of their ass just for us.

[That's idea one.]

I also want to know how much it's like the ship circuitry.

[See if it's stolen tech they never should have had.] ...How long have you been here? I've not seen you around.

[Narvin pokes and prods it, even licks it then promptly spits in disgust afterwards.]

It's not like anything I've seen on the ship. Not so far at any rate, but the ship is enormous and I haven't exactly combed it prow to stern. It's plastic, not metal. But highly durable plastic.

Assuming this ship once had an alien crew, the collars might have been created to combat them. This looks like a basic model, but it appears to be designed to allow for...additions to be made to it. Considering its purpose, probably not pleasant ones.

[He hands the collar back to Kay.]

I've been here a few days. Mostly taking shelter in the ship, although I've ventured out for food and water a few times. [Once.]

Hng. [He grunts as he takes it back. Weird. He turns it over in his hands.]

Not all that great of a place to stay, considering the likelihood of attach. You'd do better to divide up your time. [He looks at one of the sides and considers how he had to press it simultaneously with the others to remove it.

Why three people? To make sure the person has friends? Or is it something that they weren't supposed to know- only three soldiers could remove it when you proved you weren't a threat, and someone managed to pay attention whenever they did once.

Once he's done theorizing.] But on this model, the only thing it does is set people at a baseline? It doesn't monitor?

Edited 2012-03-14 00:15 (UTC)

Who's to say the natives will stay friendly? [Narvin is suspicious of everything. He's a little suspicious of Agent K, although he seems like a professional at least. So if Agent K kills him, there will at least be a rational reason for it and not simply panic or fear.]

This one doesn't have any monitoring equipment. It wouldn't be difficult for them to add some, however.

They're not, Tiger.

[He doesn't look up. He just says it bluntly, before putting the collar inside his coat. He winces with the motion; his arm still hurts and has a bullet wound in it. But it's bandaged and healing fine.]

We brought hell down on 'em, just by being here. We didn't intend to. Didn't ask for it. But if you got your home bombed out just because someone happened to show up, you'd probably end up feeling the same way. Those sorts of situations get particular people kicked off my world. [Earth as he knew it.]

But I don't see much reason for them letting up unless they completely rob us of our ticket out of here.

[A part of Narvin's mind observes the wince and files the information away.]

And what if they decide that the best way to protect themselves is to kill us all and hand our bodies over to the authorities? If the ship isn't safe and the settlement isn't safe...?

[His rising fear isn't feigned, not even slightly. He may have a deal with the authorities, but having been on the other side of these sorts of deals before he knows full well that the lowly agents-for-hire were expendable. They would show no concern for his life. The ship isn't safe, the town isn't safe, and he doesn't know how to survive in the wilderness. The thought of surviving everything he had just to die on an alien planet was almost enough to make him cry. Fortunately for his dignity, he was too well trained for that. He swallowed down the lump in his throat and the frightened flutter in his chest.]

Well, bugger all.

Been through worse. [He says it honestly, and unwaveringly without a hint of fear. He has a bit of a bonus in that his perception of fear isn't quite what it is for other people.]

Just be ready to move. Don't let yourself get weak. Have a good shelter in mind- seems like the library has made it a long time without much disaster.

[He's talking to the guy like he's a poor technician out of his element, not another agent.]

[Since he's trying to pass as just a technician and not an agent, this is convenient. He only wishes the "out of his element" part were also just part of his cover and not a very real feeling of being completely lost at sea. Pride makes him tamp down his fear.]

I've been through worse, as well. And survived. [Not without allies. Not without regenerations. He shoves those thoughts away.]

I'll live through this.

The library. Where is it?

It's called the Vault of Knowledge. It's in the Old City. [He nods out to the sad, sad place.] With the way you're dressed I don't think anybody'd think you were from the ship. It's part of why I went ahead and decided to just wear what I could find locally that was decent.

...That and the bloodstains.

Mostly fitting in, though. That was more important. [Bloodstains didn't help with that either.]

[Narvin looks to the ruined city. It reminds him uncomfortably of the bombed out monuments during the civil war. When Agent K mentions his clothes, he runs a hand self-consciously over his dusty tunic. He agreed that fitting in was important, but he wished that didn't mean looking so rough and uncivilized.]

You were injured during the first assault. [It's not really a question, and Narvin looks to Kay's arm remembering the movement that had provoked a wince.] And I don't imagine there's a state-of-the-art hospital anywhere around here. Nor does the alien ship appear to have been thoughtful enough to provide us with a doctor.

There's a hospital, but they had a lot of injured people. I don't know how state of the art it is- hear it's actually got plumbing which makes it a hell of a lot better than some of the other places down there. But eh. I've had worse.

[Still smarts, though. He thinks he'll end up finding some alcohol to help it along, and not to drink.]

How state of the art are you used to?

[Narvin hesitates. It was technically against Celestial Intervention Agency policy to discuss advanced technology with less-advanced species. But these were fairly exceptional circumstances, and at this point it wasn't as if Agent K were unfamiliar with advanced tech. He'd come out of an alien pod to a land with a domed city and fought off authorities with ability-dampening collars.

He'd already implied that he was from the far future, and he'd rather keep his lies simple by making them partially true.]

Nanobots. Tissue regeneration. Significantly higher standards than mere plumbing, although I suppose that's a start.

Used to dermal regenerators but they're not common in our time. There was a guy saying early on that a guy with a ship called the Doctor might show up eventually. Seemed pretty confident that he would. If this ship doesn't work, I'm more than happy to hitchhike. But the only person I've seen show up doesn't have temporal capabilities and her ship's busted.

[Sadly, he's unaware.]

The Doctor? [Narvin's voice rises two octaves.] Someone here knows the Doctor?

[If the Doctor does show up, he could commandeer his TARDIS, take all these people back to their right time and place (after a bit of mindwiping to make sure they didn't go back with knowledge of technology beyond their time) and find a way back to Gallifrey. This is now labelled Contingency Plan D in his mind. Distantly, he also takes note of the other, crashed ship mentioned.]

Yeah.

[Kay stares. This might be some good news.]

Know much about him?

[Narvin has to be careful how he answers this.]

I know a little. [A massive file in the CIA archive's worth.]

He's an alien with a time machine who has saved Earth a few times. Despite laws against that sort of thing. [Narvin is compelled to add.]

Oh, so you've got the laws that state that a rogue aliens can't make displays of power on Earth because they attract attention from interstellar adversaries or the ones that specify unlicensed time travel devices can't be used on Earth.

[Because, if Narvin is human and from a vague future, these laws might still exist. He knows hardly anything about the Doctor, but when he does he may be able to put more things together later.]

[Narvin just stares open-mouthed for a moment. He wasn't expecting the human to be quite so on top of such things. Agent K isn't as standard 20th/21st century as he first appeared.]

Well...ah...both. [By his time, Earth had just signed the Temporal Powers charter restricting unlicensed time travel. And didn't permit aliens on their planet without a visa.] Although attracting attention from interstellar adversaries isn't so much a concern as vigilantism and espionage.

The vigilantism isn't ever appreciated, but that can be taken care of pretty quickly. Eventually what it comes down to, in my experience anyway, is somebody has to come and dramatically prove they're the biggest bad because they're so and so's longtime enemy or they want to make themselves so and so's longtime enemy and that's worth messing up a dozen treaties over a personal grudge.

[He will not admit that he has personal grudges that he'd be willing to do that for.]

Precisely. If these renegades, even--no, especially the "well-meaning" ones, could simply keep to their home planet, follow the laws and obey the treaties, there would be significantly less chaos in the universe.

[He's a technician with political opinions.]

[Kay's brows raise slightly. Just slightly, as he can tell he stepped on a verbal landmine.]

Well, I don't mind 'em being on Earth. I protect the immigrants as much as I protect the natives. But it would make it a hell of a lot easier if they didn't get someone's home in trouble out of pride and pointed ignorance.

Some immigrants and visitors are acceptable. [Narvin tolerates Leela. Even misses her right now. She'd certainly be useful here.] So long as they're good citizens, obey the laws, and don't overrun the place.

Most of them do. [Kay says honestly.] But the ones that don't just tend to be loud as hell about it.

Hmm. [Narvin's still not sure he trusts aliens on his planet. Some exceptions permitted. He switches to information gathering.]

Where are you from? Earth from the sounds of it, and earlier in its history. But you don't seem at all distressed by... [He gestures around them to encompass the whole situation. Strange planet, alien ship, rough living, attacks from the dome.]

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