“being ‘technology in existence.’ Technology that is not yet in existence, however, has abilities that are beyond your understanding and experience.”
“What are you talking about?” she said. She still seemed amused.
“I am referring to the mobile emitter that gives me form. The datachip that Soleta is carrying was simply to distract you. You assumed—correctly—that we were here to dispose of you, and we knew you would be looking for the means that we intended to employ. The now-deactivated chip on Soleta’s person was meant as a decoy.”
“Mobile emitter?” Morgan was no longer smiling.
“Yes. And there is virtually no information on it in the Federation databases, which is why it is essentially invisible to you. The mobile emitter from the twenty-ninth century enables me to function. The mechanics of the emitter have yet to be deciphered or understood by modern science. Thus it is beyond your understanding or ability to control. A year from now, perhaps, once it is more thoroughly studied. But not today.”
“That is… absurd,” said Morgan, and she was starting to sound uncertain. “There is no way that—”
He interrupted her as if she hadn’t even been speaking. “The virus you needed to worry about wasn’t the one in Soleta’s datachip. It was the one that I downloaded into the emitter. The one that was automatically uploaded from me into you—more specifically, into the transporter’s pattern buffer when you brought us over. It has already wormed its way into your core programming, and requires a simple phrase, spoken by me, to activate it. And that phrase is,” said the Doctor, and there was great sadness in his eyes, “‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.’”
iii.
Robin Lefler watched, helpless, as the being with her mother’s eyes went wide with shock. All the arrogance, all the confidence that she had been tossing around began to dissipate. “No… no…” She clutched at her chest, and then at her head, and she staggered. And as she staggered the lights began to flicker. “No, you can’t… you have to undo this.”
“It’s too late,” said the Doctor. “I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”
“Robin!” Morgan turned to her daughter, or to the woman that she remembered as being her daughter. “Do something. Say something. Talk them out of this…”
Slowly Robin shook her head. She felt a clamping sensation in her chest. It wasn’t a heart attack. Instead she felt like her heart was breaking. “It’s done.”
“It can’t be done. There… there’s so much to do yet,” and she was talking faster and faster. The ship shuddered, and for a moment the lights went out completely before fighting their way back on again. “So many things to do. So many things I was going to show you…”
Soleta had dropped into the ops station as if she belonged there. “Systems failures being reported from all over the ship!” she called out.
“I…” Morgan stumbled forward, reaching for Robin’s hand, but she missed. She grabbed at a railing, snagging it by mere happenstance, and Robin realized that Morgan was no longer seeing anything. Her eyes looked glassy and empty. “I wasn’t really going to destroy the ship. Just everyone on it. And then you and Cwansi and I… we were going to leave this galaxy behind. I… I was going to make modifications to the engines… take us at speeds you never… that you couldn’t imagine… the whole universe was going to be our playground… I… I took you to a playground when you were little… a real one… not the… not the hologram kind. Real, with fresh air and… and… what was it called… green…?”
“Grass?”
“Yes! That’s it.” Morgan shook her head furiously, trying to clear her thoughts. “I can still smell it. Can you…?”
“I can, yes,” Robin said, and she was trying not to choke on the words. “I can’t walk past a freshly mowed lawn without remembering it.”
“There’s so much I need to do. So much lost time to make up for…”
Morgan sank to her knees, and Robin knew it wasn’t really her, knew that at best it was a computer program gone mad, and at worst… if it was her… if it really was her mother… she had become distorted and twisted into something so far away from herself that she wouldn’t have wanted to live like this.
You don’t know that. You don’t. Not for sure. You’ll never know for sure. Soleta came to you on Bravo Station, while the Trident was being refitted, and she told you what she needed from you, and you agreed to it