Chang Lee lunged desperately for the rope, as the rickety suspension bridge gave way beneath him. He caught it with one flailing hand, and swung over the abyss where the bridge had been.
On the other side two UNIT soldiers were waiting for him, weapons raised. They would expect him to try to kick the weapons away, so he didn't. Instead he aimed to land between them. Surprised, they hesitated ... and he stretched his arms out, catching each one in the neck as he came down for a landing. Choking and gasping, they fell back.
Gasping for breath, the grabbed the semiautomatic from one of the soldiers and ran on. Not far away there was a hill, if he could only reach it ...
Then a tank came over the hill, aiming for him. He dived flat, and rolled towards it, the last direction anyone would expect him to go. A burst of some sticky green substance flew harmlessly over his head as the tank fired.
He charged forward and leaped on to the tank, clambering up its side. He yanked open the top hatch, and fired three times into the interior; blue goop splattered everywhere. The tank coasted to a stop. He got off, and continued running.
He came down the other side of the hill, where a strange alien waited; an orange-skinned, four eyed blobby monstrosity. He fired twice, but as is the usual with such situations, it was immune to his weapon. So he kept running towards it, and at the last possible moment, leaped.
Its tentacles gripped only air where his legs had been a moment before. As he flipped over it, he grabbed two eyestalks. The thing squealed in pain as his momentum caused it to fall. He let go of it as he hit the ground, and rolled forward. Then he picked himself up and began running again, before the thing could recover.
He was almost to the safety of the trees when a UNIT helicopter dropped out of the sky. The whup whup whup of its blades was deafening, and as it dropped closer, the winds it was generating began to buffet him.
Lee no longer had the gun -- he had dropped it while grappling with the alien. So, with some difficulty, he leaped for one of the chopper's leg struts. As he clambered on, it shot into the air again, and began desperately gyrating to throw him off. He clung tight as it performed a loop de loop in the air. He began to feel sick. Then the 'copter leveled out, and one of the doors opened.
A soldier pointed a revolver in his face. "It's all over son!" he shouted. "You ran us a good race, but you're finished!"
"I'm not your son," Lee said, and grabbed the revolver, and struggled with the soldier for it. A shot went harmlessly wide, yellow paint splattering the ground far below. Lee lunged upwards, and the two of them fell back into the chopper.
The helicopter was a four-seater, but there was only the soldier and the pilot. Lee struggled with the soldier for the weapon in the back. The soldier was well trained, but Lee had been raised on the streets. He wrested the gun from the man's grip and shot him at point blank range. The soldier slumped as yellow paint splattered his uniform.
Lee pointed the gun at the back of the pilot's head. "Take me to the treeline," he shouted.
The helicopter landed at the treeline, where another UNIT soldier waited. Lee jumped out and raised his weapon, but the soldier only clicked a button on the stopwatch he held.
"Four minutes," the soldier said. "That's excellent."
"Thank you, sir," Lee replied, handing over the gun. The "dead" soldier got out of the chopper, frowning at the yellow stain on his uniform. The pilot got out too, looking at Lee with admiration.
"Nobody's ever commandeered the chopper before," the pilot said, admiringly.
"Is that what he did?" came a new voice. They turned to see another solider, with the alien costume over one shoulder, approaching. "I wondered what all the fancy flying was about."
"Let's get back to base," said the pilot. "General Kramer will be
pleased."
Much later, Brigadier-General Adrienne Kramer, commander of the US branch of UNIT, watched Chang Lee from behind a one-way window. Lee was on a firing range that any policeman would have been comfortable with ... except for the shapes of the target silhouettes, which were of a variety of alien species.
"Why didn't you bring this boy to our attention yourself?" she asked. "Why did we hear of him through our civilian connection with the SFPD?"
Behind her, the Doctor sighed. "You know that perfectly well. His manipulation by the Master was very traumatic. He was killed, literally. I wanted to spare him more pain, not bring him into my world. Otherwise I would have asked him to come with me. Grace, too."
"He was already in your world, Doctor," Kramer pointed out. "Once somebody interacts with you, their lives are never the same."
The Doctor nodded grimly. "That's one of the reasons I'm here now."
Kramer turned and raised an eyebrow at him. "Meaning?"
"Meaning, I want to make sure he fully understands what he's getting himself into."
"Like I did with Sam, during the Vampire incident?"
The Doctor nodded. "Precisely."
Chang Lee was tired. It had been a long day already, but General Kramer wanted to see him. So he sighed, cast a longing look at his bunk, and went to her office.
Kramer wasn't there, but the Doctor was. The Doctor he had met in San Francisco, who had saved him from the Master. Not just his life; this Doctor had saved his soul.
"Doctor! It's great to see you again!" Lee wasn't sure whether to shake his hand or salute, so he merely stood there, grinning, feeling foolish.
The Doctor had his legs up on Kraemer's desk, leaning back in her swivel chair. He smiled placidly at Lee, but his eyes had an intense, searching look.
"It's good to see you too, Lee. Sit down."
Lee sat, and the Doctor watched him. Lee's hair was cut to a military buzz, and he was wearing a UNIT uniform, but the face was the same one from the days in San Francisco. His first self had seen him as a nice young policeman, his Seventh self had been too busy panicking to remember him. The Eighth Doctor, for his part, saw Lee as a young man at a crossroads. He was, for once, deliberately not using his ability to look into the timelines; he wanted Lee to decide his future for himself. But before he could, Lee had to know more than he did now.
"General Kramer's been very pleased with your progress," the Doctor said, "And so am I. Your tough childhood and your police training put you in good stead for UNIT."
"Did they tell you about the Police counselor who looked like you?" Lee asked.
The Doctor nodded. "I've met him. It was an ... interesting experience."
Lee laughed. "I'll bet!"
The Doctor smiled. "You seem happy, Lee."
"I am, Doctor, I am. You showed me a larger world, and now I'm finally part of it."
The Doctor's smile faded. Abruptly, he took his legs off the desk and sat up straight, and looked Lee square in the eye.
"But are you sure this is what you wanted, Lee?"
Lee raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, Doctor?"
"Are you sure that things might not have been better if I'd never come into your life in the first place?"
Lee snorted. "Oh come on, Doctor. I'd still be living on the street. That is, until the Master destroyed the Universe."
The Doctor nodded, and all traces of humor were gone from his expression now. "The Master, yes. Why did you help him?"
Lee was puzzled and uncomfortable. "You know the answer to that. He tricked me."
"And bribed you with a rather large quantity of my gold dust."
"Which you allowed me to keep," Lee pointed out, unsure of where his conversation was going.
"Yes," the Doctor nodded. "But I want you to think, Lee. To analyze why you agreed to help the Master, to think it over seriously. He wasn't exactly nice to you at first, so you've told me."
Lee thought back. No, the Master had not been nice at first, not nice at all. Rather threatening, in fact. His original promise had only been to let Lee live.
"No ..." Lee agreed thoughtfully, "First I was afraid of him."
"And did the gold suddenly make you think he was a good guy?"
Lee shrugged. "I thought he was desperate."
"Oh, he was," The Doctor agreed, "But that is not what I asked."
"I thought, he was desperate to survive, and so he would do what it took. I thought even a good man would be like that, under those circumstances. And remember, I was a street kid at the time, running with the gangs. I didn't have the best picture of right and wrong. You helped give me that picture, Doctor."
The Doctor nodded, and smiled faintly. "I know Lee, I know. I'm not needling you like this for no reason. There's a point you haven't seen yet."
Lee frowned. "What point?"
The Doctor leaned forward, his voice became low and urgent. "Evil is a potential in all of us, Lee. And if we don't think, if we let assumptions guide us, we can fall. The Master is a good example."
Lee blinked. "The Master?"
"Once he was good. He was a friend. He did good in the Universe, as I do. But then one day something happened he didn't foresee, and it drove him over the edge. Because of his assumptions."
For a long minute, there was silence. Lee closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "And you're afraid it could happen to me?"
"It can happen to anyone, Lee. I've seen a possible future version of myself where it did happen."
"What?" Lee gasped.
The Doctor nodded grimly. "Oh yes. The memory still makes me shiver." For just a moment, the Doctor could almost see the Valeyard looming behind Lee, with his black Gallifreyan robes and burning eyes.
"I understand...but I don't understand what it has to do with my joining UNIT."
"UNIT is part of my world, Lee. The stakes are higher here, and the chances of falling are that much greater too. You *must* be aware of this. So far you have performed well in UNIT's tests. But those are tests of physical ability, and of intelligence. They are not, however, tests of wisdom."
"You can't test that," Lee protested.
The Doctor smiled. "Well, actually you can, but I understand what you mean. The military doesn't have a wisdom test. Which is why we're having this talk. And there is another reason ..."
"What?"
"In the near future," said the Doctor, lowering his voice further, "UNIT will have a successor organization, UNISYC, who will be less benevolent. I will need eyes in ears in that organization, Lee."
Chang Lee sucked in air, and let it out. "You can count on me Doctor."
The Doctor smiled. "Thank you, Lee. Remember also, what I said about evil. That was the more important thing."
Lee nodded, his face somber. "I will, Doctor, I will."
They shook hands.