The button was pressed...
Amy Pond awoke, not with a start, but gently, as if awakening from a long nap. For a minute, she was groggy as the curtain of sleep fell away and the comfortable warmth around her cradled her still addled mind. It wasn't long, however, before she realized that something was terribly wrong.
The room was unfamiliar. In her travels with the Doctor, Amy had become accustomed to unfamiliar rooms, but the fact that she had not exited the TARDIS to get to this one was cause for concern. And since neither the Doctor nor Rory was anywhere to be seen, the concerns just kept piling up.
She was also bound. As her head wheeled wildly, fiery red hair flailing, she saw that she was shackled to a large cross-shaped device. Her legs were together, bound in the same solid metal ring, and her arms were splayed wide, contained in two sturdy manacles. The whole set up was suspended three feet off the ground.
She was facing a window, the thick glass displaying a panoply of stars winking gently against the cold void of space. The left corner of the window was playing host to a white planetary mass, just barely visible if Amy craned her head through its limited range of movement.
'She's awake, sir,' came a voice from beyond Amy's sight. It was female, and ice tinkled on every syllable.
'Excellent, Mara. It's good to see the system works,' Came a second, male voice. 'It cost enough, anyway.
'The connection is stable, sir,' Came yet a third voice, another girl. 'We are ready.'
'Shimizu, you're a genius.'
'What's going on here?' Amy called out, trying to keep her fear out of her voice.
'Talking already?' Said the male voice. 'That's ahead of schedule. Rotate her.'
There was the click of a switch being pressed, and Amy found the motors that suspended her prison whirring to life. She turned, her captors eventually visible to her.
At either side of the large, steel-grey room, the pair of women worked at computer consoles, the purpose of which Amy could only guess at. One was a tall, attractive blonde with ice-blue eyes that glanced contemptuously at Amy, when they deigned to look her way at all. She was wearing a black button-down shirt and pants that were just tight enough to accentuate her dancer's curves and contrasted beautifully with her pale skin.
The other was a tiny Japanese woman with constantly moving dark eyes and a pair of dark red lips that were twisted into a wry smile. Everything about her expression belied a sense of vague amusement at the scene that was playing out around her. She was wearing a much more colorful outfit; a pink t-shirt with a happy cartoon banana on it and jeans so tight they must have been painted onto her graceful, well-muscled legs.
But it was the man between them that demanded Amy's attention.
He was seated in a futuristic looking chair and glared up at the bound Amy with a combination of anticipation and intense coldness that sent a chill down her spine. He slouched low in his seat, but if he were to stand tall he would have been almost six-feet of wiry muscle and unbearably hip clothing. His short black hair was spiked in an impossibly complicated hairstyle, and he split into a wide grin as Amy watched him.
'Hello, Miss Pond. So nice that we could finally meet in person.' He said in a voice that was altogether too friendly. 'I am Sander Hackett, but please, call me Sander.'
'Why am I here?' Amy asked, again straining to sound relaxed. 'Where is this place? Where's the Doctor?'
'So many questions...' Sander shook his head. 'Well, you're here to help me fulfill a certain endeavor that has been taking up much of my time for the past thirteen years. As to where we are... We're currently on an asteroid in orbit around Carcer, the moon of the planet Vesperia. The year is 3375, by the way. I gather it can be very confusing, traveling through time. And yes, I did pluck you from the TARDIS.'
'How do you know all this? And... could you let me down?' Amy added, hopefully. Panic was rising through her, but she couldn't become a slave to it. This Sander guy said he needed her help; maybe he could be receptive to requests.
'Oh, I couldn't do that,' Sander laughed. 'Not yet, anyway. You're very important to me, Miss Pond. Amy, I suppose. We'll be seeing a lot of each other, now that I think about it. You see, Amy, you're here to help me get my revenge on the Doctor.'
'Oh, hell,' Amy murmured. This didn't sound good...
'He will find me, you know.' She said aloud. 'He always does.'
'I love it when you talk. Your accent is simply charming,' Sander smiled. 'And no, the Doctor will not be coming to your rescue. I took you from the TARDIS with a little temporal displacement device that myself and my assistants here have been working on for some time. Completely untraceable, you know. I made sure. And do you see that camera over there?' Sander pointed to a lens jutting from one of the walls. 'That's transmitting straight to the TARDIS. With a delay, of course, so that we can edit any footage that may compromise our location. After all, it wouldn't be revenge unless he saw it.'
'Why are you doing this?' Amy said. Her wrists were beginning to go numb. There was very little below her to support her weight, and she was taking an uncomfortable portion of it on her wrists and shoulders.
Sander's eyes grew dark, and his face twisted under the weight of a new animosity. He stalked from his chair over to the prostrate Amy, running his hand down the side of her face. She jerked away from his touch.
'I'll tell you. You have a right to know why this is happening to you, especially later. To know that this is his fault.'
Sander turned his back to Amy, and gestured to the blonde, 'Mara!' he exclaimed. Mara tapped in a number of commands. A segment of the floor in front of Amy drew back, and light poured out, arranging itself into a holographic display. The words "Hackett Industries" floated before Amy in large, black font.
'I used to rule Vesperia, the planet below us. The government of Earth funds the initial colonization of worlds like it, but they hand off the infrastructure of them to private organizations. I was the CEO of Hackett Industries, still am, I suppose, for what good it does me, and Vesperia was given to my company to run as we saw fit. Hackett Industries was a military contractor; we made combat robots and army drones. With that kind of firepower at my disposal, there was no force on the whole planet that could refuse my will. Vesperia was mine, its cities were mine, everything was mine.'