The elevator door opened with a hiss and the guard led us out into a hallway. It was very similar to the one that the TARDIS landed in, but this one had soldiers standing at the wall every ten feet. Guarding the weapon, I supposed.
We neared a large door, and Miss Watkins and Dr. Lugnar showed their ID cards to the patroller. The Doctor grinned and flashed his psychic paper. We were let in, and I looked around the room.
The walls were white, and it looked a bit like an X-ray room, with buttons and reading screens, light beeping noises, and a large computer buzzed slightly in the corner. It was a moment before I looked through the wide window into another room, and when I did, I couldn’t believe what I saw.
“Oh…” the Doctor said, flipping his glasses on and gazing out the window.
And standing there, walking around the room with a slight smile on her face, was a girl. She was wearing a plain white hospital dress, and seemed to be looking at the walls with deep interest. But the most striking thing about her was her skin- it was gold. Golden skin with dark freckles, gold hair, and bright blue eyes. She couldn’t have been more than nine years old.
“That’s…” I said. “That’s the weapon?”
“Yes,” Dr. Lugnar replied. “And we’re working on making more. She’s just the prototype. A paradigm.”
“It’s a computer?” I walked closer to the glass and peered in.
“Well, technically speaking, no. Her brain was developed to work like a computer server. She can tap into computer network waves in her head.”
“Lugnar’s Experimental Individuals,” stated Miss Watkins proudly.
“Stupid name for a robot…” the Doctor muttered.
“Oh, but it’s not a robot,” Dr. Lugnar said. “It’s a living person, grown right here at Lugnar Industries. She’s a super-genius child, and can be used as a soldier to defend the Milky Way.”
“You’re using a child as a soldier?” asked the Doctor, his mood changing rapidly to serious.
“No, no, she’s not done yet,” Andrea Watkins said. “She should be done in a few more years.”
“She’d still be a kid,” I interjected. “That’s not right. You’re growing her to die.”
“But that’s the thing.” Dr. Lugnar turned to the big computer and the screen lit up, displaying a picture of her brain. “She’s to smart to die. She’ll hack into the enemy’s computer mainframe, bomb dispatcher, or spaceship machinery unit, and find a way to destroy it. She doesn’t even have to be on the frontline, just close enough to receive the waves.”
The Doctor sat down on the table and leaned back on his hands. “You’re brilliant, Dr. Lugnar. But you’re wrong.”
Lugnar eyed him, a slight glare on his face. “Don’t you want to meet her? See what she thinks about this?”
“Love to.”
Andrea Watkins nodded, and punched in a code on the wall. It opened up, and the Doctor and I walked in.
“Oooh, psychic glass!” he exclaimed looking around at the walls. “You can see whatever you want to see in here.”
I looked at the small girl standing in the corner of the room, staring intently at the walls. “Hello.” I said.
The girl turned around and looked at me. “Hello.”
“I’m Lisa, and this is the Doctor.” I glanced over to the lanky man in a suit and Converse who was examining the walls.
“Hello, Lisa. Hello, Doctor.”
“Ah, hi, then,” he said, turning on his heel to face us.
“What’s your name?” I asked, crouching down in front of her.
“I am the prototype. The paradigm,” was the gold girl’s response.
“Lugnar’s Experimental Individuals… Lexi. You like that? I’ll call you Lexi.”
“Lexi?” The Doctor glanced at me. “Where’d you get that from?”
“Lugnar’s Experimental Individuals. It’s an acronym.”
“Lexi…” the girl said. “I like it. Lugnar and Andrea never gave me a name. Thank you, Lisa, for the name.”
I smiled. “You’re welcome, Lexi.”
“So,” said the Doctor. “Lexi, how old are you?”
“Eight Earth-years, four Earth-months, and seventeen Earth-days.”
“Right… have you ever been to school?”
“I do not need to go to school. There is nothing for me to learn there. I am a genius.” Her big, innocent blue eyes gazed up at him. She wasn’t bragging, you could tell, just stating fact.
“Well don’t you have friends?” I asked. “Do you get lonely?”
Lexi stood quiet for a minute, looking at the wall. “Yes. I am lonely. But I have Lugnar and Andrea to keep me company. Andrea plays games with me.”
“What kind of games?” asked the Doctor.
“Question games,” Lexi stated, a smile creeping across her face. “Here, I’ll show you.” She took his hand and dragged him over to a small cot in the corner of the room. He glanced over his shoulder at me, raising his eyebrows.
“This is how you play: Ask me a question,” commanded Lexi, plopping down on her cot. “Any question at all.”
“What is the nineteenth number of pi in its decimal form?” asked the Doctor.
I was about to tell him off for asking such a hard question, but Lexi promptly answered.
“Eight.”
“What year was the internet invented?”
“In the early nineteen-fifties, but it was destroyed later on, then was reintroduced in nineteen-eighty-nine having been improved by Microsoft.”
“Why are raspberry flavored slushies blue?” I interjected.
Lexi laughed, and told me that it was because it would have been too confusing to make a red raspberry slushie when the cherry kind was also red.
“So you travel through time and space to ask a super-genius eight-year-old why raspberry slushies are blue?” the Doctor asked me, grinning incredulously.
“Suppose so,” I answered, and turned my attention back to Lexi. “Is that all you ever do? Play the ‘question game’?”
“No, I like to read. And the walls change every day, and Lugnar comes in sometimes to talk to me about what I’m feeling or thinking.” Her legs dangled over the small bed. “Sometimes—’’ She stopped speaking abruptly, her eyes growing wide.
“What?” I asked, putting my hand on her arm. “What is it?”
Suddenly, an alarm went off, screeching over our heads and making me jump.
The Doctor grabbed Lexi by the wrist and towed her over to the door. “Come on.”
Dr. Lugnar and Miss Watkins were hastily packing up some things from the observation room.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Invasion,” Lugnar replied, hastily stuffing a pile of papers into a bag.
“Oh, God, not again…” I said.
“We have to get out,” yelled the Doctor over the loudening siren. “I think I can figure out who—’’
Just then, iron plates closed over the door and observing window.
“It’s the automatic lockdown,” sighed Miss Watkins. “We’ll never get out in time.”
“Not unless you’re with him.” I indicated the Doctor, who had already begun to tap into the code lock with his sonic screwdriver.
“What is happening?” Lexi asked.
“Lexi,” I said, putting my hands on her thin shoulders, “you know lots of things, right? You know about aliens. That’s what happening. They’re attacking.”
“This will be a perfect time to test out the girl!” Dr. Lugnar stated, yanking her away from me.
“Test me?” Lexi looked confused. “For what?”
“What you were made to do. Defend our galaxy.”
“Now,” the Doctor said, turning from the door to us. “While I’m around, there’s not going to be any killing. You created Lexi as a weapon and—’’
“I’m… I’m a weapon…?”
Everyone was silent. Lexi’s blue eyes filled with tears.
“I know weapons,” she said, her voice growing fierce. “Bombs and guns used to kill millions- billions- of people. Things of great destruction only created to maim. I will not allow myself to become one.”
“But that’s what you were developed for,” Dr. Lugnar said. “To defend our galaxy against things with worse weapons, all aimed at us. Do you not wish to protect your planet from a greater evil?”
“I know of many wars,” Lexi went on. “Some have failed, so many people died for nothing. Some have succeeded. But either way, the weapons that were used killed, took lives. I. Will. Not.”
For a moment, the only sound we could hear was the incessant ringing of the alarm.
"Oh!" the Doctor shouted, hitting his hand to his forehead and walking over the Lexi. "Your mind is like a computer- you can just... hop onto the computer waves being distributed by alien ships nearby. It was originally designed--" He bent down in front of her and started scanning her with his sonic screwdriver-- "so that you could do some serious damage to the computer's mainframe, but..."
Lexi blinked as the Doctor placed his fingers on either side of her head. "What are you doing?"
"Lexi, Little Lexi Lou. Hm, very alliterative name, don’t you think? Could you just take a peek at the computer waves for me? Through your brain, I'll be able to identify what aliens are--"
"No!" Dr. Lugnar pushed passed me. "She's not perfected yet! Trying to hack the computer's mainframe could destroy her brain."
"I should be able to sheild her from harm," the Doctor reassured him before turning his attention back to Lexi. "Just... close your eyes... won't hurt a bit."
"How...?" Miss Watkins stared at him.
The Doctor closed his eyes for a minute or so, and then jumped up, sending Lexi teetering backwards.
"Of course!" he yelled. "Judoon! They somehow got wind that Earth was creating a new weapon which violates something in the Shadow Proclamation and came here to sort it out!!" He scratched his head. "But! I know what we're dealing with now, and--" He pulled his sonic screwdriver from one of the many pockets in his coat and strode to the door-- "we can get out."
"But you were just over there trying to door a minute ago," stated Miss Watkins.
The Doctor looked exasperatedly at her. "I had to let the sonicness sink into the wires to bypass the system so it could unlock the door which takes a few minutes- not everything happens as quickly as you want it to even with a sonic screwdriver," he said all in one breath.
"Is he always like this...?" Andrea asked me quietly as the Doctor opened the door.
"Dunno," I answered, following him out the door. "Just met him."
