The Time of Change

Mysteries Rise Like Dirt on a Concrete Floor

"Hear that?" asks the Doctor once we stride through the doors. His voice bounces off the concrete walls of the large building even though he's actually being rather quiet. My previous impression of this being an old warehouse is confirmed at the sight of dilapidated machinery pushed into corners. I shake my head in response to his question, and he continues, "There's a drill in start-up mode. Afterwaves of a recent seismological shift and blue grass..." He pulls a small clump of the substance from his pocket, earning a grossed-out face from me. Now he takes a small bite out of one of the blades of the grass.

"Oh, please," I sigh. "Have you always been this disgusting?"

"No, that's recent," he quips distractedly. Walking quickly, he goes straight up to a thick metal door at the other end of the room. He pushes on it without a shadow of hesitation. "What's in here? Oh... Hello."

I hear a woman's irritable voice answer, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

The Doctor steps aside to let me stand comfortably to his left, and through the now-open doors, I see two people in the middle of a gigantic stone room. This room as well is home to big machines, but these appear to be in use, each laden with far more buttons than I can count. Unsynchronized beeping fills the air. What looks like a radar makes the most noise. The two people—a middle-aged caramel-skinned woman and an older white man—stand in front of this contraption. The woman's hair is black as midnight. They're both staring at us like we've just caught fire.

"Ministry of Drills, Earth, and Science," the Doctor says in a rush, walking up to them. "New Ministry, quite big. Just merged. It's a lot of responsibility on your shoulders. Don't like to talk about it..." He attempts to peer around the woman at the radar. "What are you doing?" he inquires nosily.

"None of your business," she snaps.

With a gentle touch, the Doctor carefully pushes past her and stares at the screen for a few moments. He traces his finger along the little blips on it. "Where are you getting these readings from?" he asks, unable to mask his interest.

"Under the soil," she tells him. She has an odd accent, somewhere between Punjabi and British. It's distinctive, and I immediately like it.

The man beside her whips around to flip a switch on a big control panel, and says in a fairly Cockney dialect, "The drill's up and running again. Now if you people could tell us who you are—"

"Annie," I produce, pointing to myself. Then I gesture at my husband, who has gone over to a pile of dirt on the floor. "The Doctor. We're not staying. Are we, Doctor?"

"Why's there a big patch of earth in the middle of your floor?" he asks, ignoring me completely. "She's Annalise, by the way. Not 'Annie.'" I glare at the back of his head. As he shifts in his crouching position, I suddenly remember Hunter, and I glance around, wondering why he's been so quiet. I backtrack through the threshold into the first room, and it's just as empty as we left it. My heart stutters against my will. Didn't he follow us inside? I can't remember hearing him behind us. There's nowhere for him to just wander off, seeing as this is a totally foreign place. Plus, he wouldn't just leave without saying where he was going. Hunter's hardheaded, but he isn't stupid.

I go back through the door and open my mouth to ask the Doctor about Hunter's disappearance, but the dark-haired woman interrupts me before I have the chance.

"We don't know. It just appeared overnight."

The Doctor stands, brushing off his pant legs. He looks perturbed. "Good. Right. You all need to get out of here very fast."

The woman crosses her arms stubbornly. "Why?" she asks.

His eyebrows pull together. "What's your name?"