Title: Where's the Escape Key?
Author: Shen
Character/Relationships: Rose Tyler, Tenth Doctor
Rating: PG
Summary: Being the subject of an experiment isn't always as fun as it seems at first.
Author's Note: Written for Round One, Challenge Two of "Whoverse LAS" (that's Last Author Standing). Prompt is at the end of the fic.
Where's the Escape Key?
"-ose? ...you alright?"
Rose groaned, resentful of the Doctor's voice as it penetrated her sleep. When she tried to snuggle further into her pillow, however, all her cheek found was cold metal.
"Bwah?" She sat up swiftly, then winced at the twinge in her temples. One would think she'd eventually learn how to best recover from forced unconsciousness, but no, she always jarred her abused brain right upon waking and worsened the inevitable headache.
Rubbing the crown of her head, she asked, "Whassamatter? Where are we now?" As the cogs began turning again, she remembered being picked up by what turned out to be some kind of scientific institute belonging to a "superior" species. The time travelers actually had little ID bracelets on, presumably to help the scientists keep track of their subjects.
"Well... look," answered the Doctor, at an unusual loss for words. And look she did.
Buttons. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of buttons. Different sizes and shapes and colors, but all depress-able buttons, coating the four walls of their small cell. The ceiling just brushed the Doctor's wild fringe, and the floorspace was about one and a half metres squared.
"Well... what do we do?" As Rose spoke, she glanced at his hands, which were actually twitching with anticipation. She had a feeling she knew the answer.
"We know this is an experiment we've blundered into. It can't be too dangerous in here; not many species like to kill sentients for science in this time period. So we just have to figure out the puzzle."
"'Not many?'"
"Not these, at least; trust me!" He beamed at her, and she let his confidence bring reassurance. He wouldn't look so giddy if he was at all worried.
"So... time for lots of button pressing?"
He almost squealed, "Yep!"
...
"Well, pressing them all didn't work. How about just doing the red ones?"
...
"That's not the pattern. They make a little sound when we hit them; do we have to play a song?"
...
"That note's wrong, Doctor. 'S supposed to go up after 'a-ring.'"
"And I keep telling you, this isn't 'Ring A-Ring o' Roses;' it's their national anthem!"
...
"In this block of square buttons, the yellow ones almost spell a word in grenkovlian-" he broke to yawn, "-script. It says, 'tyranny.' Or possibly, 'yolk,' as in egg yolk."
"I could go for some eggs..."
...
"Rose... Rose, I don't think repeatedly beating your forehead against that section of buttons is going to get us out."
"It might" - kch - "eventually knock me out, though. That" - kch - "would be preferable to looking at these" - kch - "awful buttons for a while."
"Hm... Do you think this is an experiment in motivation and futility? Like the classic Earth study, where a lever either gives a rat food, doesn't give a rat food, or intermittently gives it? And then they turn off the levers and see how long the rats keep pressing them? We seem to be in the middle group." Sigh. Well, Rose figured, at least as far as alien abductions went, this did beat gray men with ominous probes.
END
Prompt: Here.