Rose reached the control room to see The
Doctor darting around, feverishly checking readings in different sections
of the hexagonal console. He looked worried and just a little ANGRY.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"We're being pulled by something."
"Pulled? What could PULL the TARDIS?" She giggled suddenly.
"A boy TARDIS?"
The Doctor looked at her and laughed despite himself.
"Nice idea. But I'm afraid not. The TARDIS is as alone in the universe
as I am." Then he turned to the console again and punched buttons
that set the viewscreen to 360%. They were in the outer solar system,
being pulled along by some kind of traction that was slowly bringing them
towards a large vessel whose cargo bay was a dark mouth about to envelope
them. The Doctor tried to dematerialise the TARDIS, but something seemed
to be blocking it.
"This isn't happening," The Doctor protested. "No way anyone
in this sector of the galaxy has tractor technology that can inhibit MY
TARDIS."
"Umm… It kind of looks like they do." Rose watched in
fascinated horror as they were pulled into the huge craft. She held The
Doctor's arm and he turned and held her.
"I never promised you a quiet life," he said. "Looks like
we're getting stuck into another scary adventure already, though."
"And we haven't even left the solar system."
He knew she was scared. But she didn't complain. She didn't cry. She was
fantastic.
And he knew that when he left the safety of the TARDIS to try to find
out what was going on, she was going to come with him, if only because
he had no way of stopping her.
They were in some kind of hangar bay, surrounded by assorted craft which,
by the casual way they were 'parked', he suspected had been dragged in
against their will the same way as the TARDIS had.
There was an eerie silence, the only sound was the distant
hum of the drive engines. There was a smell of death in the air that overwhelmed
his superior senses, leaving him nauseated and filled with a sense of
foreboding and a fear that gripped his hearts icily.
You should stay in the TARDIS," he told Rose. "This
place… is bad."
"We've been through this," she said. "This is not Lois
and Clarke. I don't wait at home while Superman saves the day and comes
home for his tea."
"No, and I'm not superman," The Doctor said. He did have a few
things in common with the fictional superhero. But he had some limitations.
He wasn't immortal and he couldn't fly.
And more than three armed guards were more than his superhuman skills
at unarmed combat could deal with. Especially when they had more than
three arms!
He knew almost every racial or species type in the universe and these
creatures shouldn't even have been possible. There was a humanoid shape
there somewhere, but the bulbous head had a single compound eye and a
mouth that seemed all venomous fangs. They had eight limbs. Two obviously
legs, six double jointed and ending in claws and two that were just foot
long pincers. The torso and legs looked as if clad in leather, but he
suspected that it was some kind of exo-skin. As they were taken prisoner
he was repulsed by the stench of rotting flesh on their breath and reflected
that they were almost certainly not vegetarians.
In front of the commander of the creatures he decided to call Arachnoids
for want of a better word, he did his best to act the haughty and superior
species that he was - no mean feat while he was a prisoner of creatures
who could kill with a single blow and who, nevertheless, had blast guns
pointed at them.
"You have committed an act of space piracy against
the Rialox Code and the Treaty of Umoxz. I demand that you release me
and my companion and return my ship to me." His demand earned him
a blow across the face with a closed pincer. If it had been open, his
face would have been torn off. That was just a warning.
"You demand nothing. Your ship is our salvage. You… will be
our food in the fullness of time." A subordinate sidled up to the
commander and spoke in hushed tones. The Commander turned to The Doctor.
"Your machine cannot be opened."
"No, it wouldn't," The Doctor replied. "There's a very
good reason. IT'S MINE!" To his satisfaction the creatures nearest
to him backed off momentarily when he snarled those last words. Not quite
far enough, though. He was at their mercy, and he wasn't even sure they
had any.
"How does it open? We mean to use its superior technology."
The Doctor would have replied with "Over my dead body," but
they might have taken that as an invitation. He settled for "NEVER!"
"You will tell me," the leader said. "Kill the female…"
he snarled.
"NO!" The Doctor stood in front of Rose, in the face of the
weapons pointed at her, banking on them still wanting to keep him alive.
The commander indicated to the guards to lower their weapons.
"So, your weakness is what they call 'love'?"
"Love is not a weakness," The Doctor said. He held Rose with
one arm as he reached out with the other and with a flick of his wrist
left the nearest creature screaming in a huddle on the floor while he
brandished the blast gun. "LOVE is the BETTER part of me," he
shouted. "And I am sick and tired of evil creatures like you testing
me. How often has some piece of space trash used a friend of mine as a
bargaining chip, threatening their lives to manipulate me? Well it won't
work. Rose knows I would die for her. And SHE would die for me. And she
knows I would then pursue her murderer to the edge of the universe and
see it turned to atoms before I would rest. Love is not my weakness. It
is my greatest strength." And he kissed Rose very quickly on the
lips before pushing her to the ground and firing the blast gun. He WAS
a pacifist. The number of times he had fired a weapon could be counted
on one hand. But seeing these evil creatures blasted apart was strangely
satisfying.
But there were too many of them. They seemed to pour through
the walls and kept on coming. For every one he blasted there were two
more. His very flesh recoiled as they drew nearer and he knew the death
creatures like these might inflict would not be one he could regenerate
from. He felt a pincer close around his throat, capable of decapitating
him and reflected that it was a quick way to go at least. But the leader
hissed a warning.
“Keep them alive. We still need the secret from that
one. Put them in the web. When his mate is dying he will tell us. And
if not, they will both make good eating when their bodies have ripened.”
He felt himself being lifted in half a dozen pincer-arms and carried away.
He glimpsed Rose being taken the same way and though she was bravely silent
he FELT her screaming inside her head. He reached out mentally to her,
and was surprised when he made contact. Perhaps her heightened emotional
state let him in where he couldn't when she was calm. He told her not
to worry, that she knew she never had to worry when The Doctor was there.
She stopped screaming long enough to call him a liar. "You're scared
too," her mental voice responded. "I can feel you." And
he had to concede she was right.
He wasn't sure what he thought the "web" was going to be, but
his wildest nightmares would not have conjured its horror before he saw
it with his own eyes. It was a huge web, roughly dome shaped, made of
metal. Inside the dome, all around, victims of the Arachnoids hung in
the web just as flies are in an ordinary web, except flies are not clamped
on with iron manacles at the wrist and ankles. It was cruelly done. In
950 years he had learnt to roll with the punches and not mind small physical
hurts, but there was something so malicious about the way this was done.
And to add insult to injury Rose was fixed to the web right beside him,
barely an inch between his fingertips and hers. But the manacles were
so tight he could not reach that extra inch to touch her as he desperately
wanted to do. He could hear her already struggling as his captors completed
their task and left the web to the agonised moans of the victims upon
it.
“Rose,” he called out. “You have to
make the effort to breathe. Push up against the web and breathe.”
She did so. “Keep doing it. Don’t give up.” He knew
only too well how a contraption like this killed. It wasn’t by exposure
or by hunger or thirst - though those would come in time - but by suffocation.
The Human body – even his own non-Human body - could only breathe
if it could raise the diaphragm and press the used air out of its lungs
and take a new breath. Hanging like that they had to make a conscious
effort to push the diaphragm up. When standing on the ground it happened
automatically. The effort became too much even for the most determined
to live after a while. It was a tried and trusted old way of killing people.
Two thousand years ago on Earth the Romans perfected it, calling it crucifixion
after the contraptions they hung their victims on.
Not for the first time, Chrístõ de Lœngbærrow
wondered grimly if his name was more than a coincidence. But he, at least,
had an advantage over the Human victims around them. He was aware of many
other bodies trapped on the web. Some had already succumbed, others were
still struggling. He at least didn't HAVE to breathe as often. He could
put his energy into surviving. Although if Rose died he had only one reason
TO live - to keep his promise to her and hunt her murderers to the edge
of the universe and make them pay.
They would both die if he didn't do SOMETHING. But these creatures knew
how to fasten manacles. He was trapped. Painfully trapped. Even HIS muscles
were starting to protest. Rose was hurting badly. He hated being unable
to ease the pain for her. If he could have touched her, he could have
put her into a slow meditation and she would not have felt the torture.
But he couldn't influence her body with his mind. There needed to be physical
contact.
His mind was free, even though his body was locked down. He searched the
room with it, finding out just how many people were alive, how many dead.
There were too many dead. Hundreds. But there were hundreds alive, too,
and many of them were military of some kind, he realised. If they COULD
be freed they had a fighting chance.
He let his mind reach beyond the 'web'. He sought out his TARDIS. It was
impervious to telepathy from all other sources, but it knew him. It almost
lovingly took him in. He felt more than ever before that the TARDIS was
female. It seemed to caress his psyche in a feminine way, reassuring him
of its love and loyalty. But he couldn't bring it to him without being
able to reach the key that was in his pocket, and his remote telekinetic
skills were not good enough to pilot the TARDIS. The best he could manage,
and it was a great mental effort to do it, was force down the button that
he had installed a year or so back that sent a transporter signal to Jack
Harkness, summoning him to the TARDIS. He also managed to turn on the
hologram of himself to talk to him.
"What the hell?" Jack swore as he turned and
saw the hologram.
"Jack," The Doctor made his hologram say, with difficulty. "I'm
in big trouble. Bigger than you can handle maybe. Turn on the viewscreen
and tell me what you can see."
"What the…" Jack looked and went pale as he saw the Arachnoids
outside the TARDIS. "There's about fifty ugly things with too many
arms out there."
"I'm trapped by them. So is Rose. We're dead meat - literally - in
a few hours unless you can help. But Jack, you're outnumbered already.
I know. If you can't help… if you want to hit that button and go
back where you were… I won't hold it against you."
"You think I could just walk off and leave you? You don't know me
as well as you think. But I need weapons. And I REALLY need some back
up."
“You’ll find weapons second door on the right
past the kitchen,” he said, hoping his symbiotic relationship with
the TARDIS WOULD extend to something so out of character for both of them
as an armoury! He was telling the TARDIS with every ounce of his mental
strength that he WANTED such a thing. Backup, though, was difficult. Jack
was one of the few people he knew who had militaristic tendencies. Well,
him and Ace, maybe, or some of the U.N.I.T. chaps…. Right now, any
one of them would be a welcome friend.
"Doctor," Jack said. "What's THAT?" Jack was pointing
to the panel where the recall button was. The button was glowing red and
buzzing insistently.
"Press it," The Doctor said. Whatever it was, the TARDIS knew
what it was doing. But he was becoming very weary and he couldn't hold
the hologram open much longer. "Jack, we need you," he said
before he had to break the connection or fry his own brain.
Jack felt strangely lonely when he saw the hologram collapse, but not
for long. When he pressed the red button he was aware of startled voices
coming closer and a crowd of people were suddenly there. Of them all,
the only one he recognised was Lieutenant-Colonel Simon Grey of the ADF.
He grasped him by the hand and told him he was glad to see him.
"Well, I'm pleased to see you, too, Jack. But what's going on?"
"Long story," Jack said. He turned and looked
at the puzzled faces around him. "Ok!" He called for attention
from them. "Look, I don't know who all you people are, and you don't
know me, but I'm guessing you've all been pulled here because the TARDIS
knows you, and because YOU all know The Doctor from somewhere or some
time." The different clothes around the room were a clue to different
time zones. "He's in trouble and he needs us all. So I'm not even
going to ask if you're in on this. He must have saved you all at some
point. I know what he did for you, Simon. And you definitely owe him one.
So, anyway, I'm told there's an armoury down here. We all need to lock
and load." He went down the corridor and everyone followed. He opened
the door that he knew was not there the last time he was on board the
TARDIS and there WAS, indeed, an armoury.
Everyone seemed to know what to do. Even the two women.
One, a very capable looking woman in her 40s with a pony tail and leather
jacket was strapping a grenade belt on and practically hugging two P-90s.
The other was an oriental girl whom the TARDIS seemed to have provided
with two lethal looking swords which she strapped to her back before fixing
on a set of wrist held throwing stars. The two soldiers in what looked
like 1980s British army fatigues with U.N.I.T. cap badges had little trouble
with the modern weapons. The young man in civilian clothes but with a
distinct mark of a soldier about his bearing that even Jack recognised
didn't even hesitate before selecting his own weapons of choice. They
were a strange army, but they were an army that could kick ass, he thought.
He loaded two pistols and pocketed them and grabbed two p-90s and magazines
for them.
As he turned he saw an elderly man in Brigadier's uniform. Although he
was military, he was way too old for this mission. Maybe the TARDIS got
him out of the wrong part of his timeline. "Who are you, sir?"
he asked.
"Brigadier Alasdair Lethbridge-Stewart, at your service," the
man said with a soft Scots accent. "At the Doctor's service any time."
"All due respect, sir, I think we'll put you on communications
here in the TARDIS. I don't think The Doctor really meant for you to be
here. The Brigadier assented to that. He tried to tell the two women the
same and nearly got his head sliced off when the oriental girl swung her
sword at him. "Ok, ok, women's lib… I get it." The look
given to him by the other woman was nearly as deadly.
"Excuse me?" The young ex-soldier stood next to the oriental
girl. "I am not sure why WE are here. WE don't know anyone called
the Doctor. And although we DO know what a TARDIS is, this…"
"This doesn't look like Chrístõ's TARDIS," the
girl said.
"Chrístõ?" Jack frowned. "Yeah, that was
his name before…. You guys must be from way back. The Doctor…
tall, handsome guy, eyes you would die for, devastating smile, leather
jacket…"
"That sounds like Chrístõ," the girl said. "He
rescued me from slavery in 1845."
"THAT sounds like the Doctor. He does that sort of thing. But…
Come on, he's dying out there and we have a bunch of giant bugs between
us and him." Jack hesitated for one moment. "Simon, I think
you're the senior combat officer here…"
"I think the Doctor is the only man any of us take
our orders from," Simon answered. But he accepted Jack's offer of
the command of their 'army'. He looked around him. He went to where the
Brigadier was looking at the viewscreen and whistled at the sight he saw.
"Our main problem is the TARDIS door. It's a bottleneck. No more
than two of us can get out at once. Jack… You…" He pointed
to the ex-soldier.
"Sammie Thomlinson, formerly Lieutenant, SAS," he said, coming
forward.
"Special Forces - just what I need. You two guys are advance guard."
He nodded to the two U.N.I.T. men. "You two get ready with the door.
And have a couple of grenades ready."
It worked perfectly. Captain Mike Yates and RSM John Benton
took up positions either side of the door while the former SAS Lieutenant
Sammie Thomlinson and Captain Jack Harkness whose regiment or army nobody
had ever determined, stood with guns ready on the walkway to the door.
As the doors opened they began firing and Yates and Benton tossed two
grenades out. By the time the smoke cleared they had a lot less enemy
to worry about, and by then Jack and Sammie had moved out and were in
defensive positions either side of the door, firing at everything that
moved while Yates and Benton came out and moved forward, fanning out,
adding their firepower to the battle. Simon and the English woman who
told him her name was Ace flanked the Chinese girl, Bo, whose weapons
would not come into their own until they had close quarter fighting to
do. In that formation, they cleared their way to the end of the bay where
the TARDIS had been impounded by these 'spider people?' Simon had seen
enough by now not to be surprised, but he was repulsed by them.
"Have you any idea where the Doctor is?" Simon
asked Jack as they emerged into a corridor with himself and Jack flanking
Bo up front. Yates and Benton flanked Ace in the middle rank and Sammie,
in the rear, kept a close watch behind and above their heads.
"This way." Jack looked at his wrist held life-signs detector
and saw The Doctor's DNA imprint among a jumble of Human ones, all distressingly
at a low ebb. He knew The Doctor was alive from that, and also from the
faint telepathic awareness of him. The Doctor had connected with him psychically
before, and he knew the feeling, the sharp touch of silver in his brain.
The feeling he had now was more like lead. The Doctor was trying to reach
him but he was tired and hurting and couldn't connect fully. "Come
on. He needs us." The whole troop picked up a faster pace, though
without losing any of their vigilance against the enemy. Rounding a corner
Jack blinked as two throwing stars whizzed by his head and sliced into
the necks of two Arachnoids before he was on it himself, dispatching three
of the monsters while Simon took out four his side and their flanking
guard did for the rest. Bo retrieved the stars nonchalantly.
It was not an especially long journey, but twice more they came under
attack. The things moved fast and an empty corridor could soon become
screaming death. At one point they found themselves cut off from front
and behind and they fought back to back, Jack, Simon and Ace one way,
Benton, Yates and Sammie the other, with Bo between them, her swords at
the ready. If anyone thought she was surplus to requirements they didn't
see the decapitated, sliced and diced Arachnoid bodies that piled around
her. Dropping from the roof was a bad idea when quick death at the end
of a skilfully handled and very sharp sword awaited them.
"Nice work," Jack said to her when they finally ran out of enemy
and regrouped.
"That's my girl," Sammie said, and Jack recognised that he was
stepping into another man's territory and retreated with a comradely wink.
At last, the corridor widened out into a huge, dimly lit cargo bay where
they found the 'Web'. For a moment they all stared at the monstrous thing
but Simon organised them. He set Yates and Benton on guard at the only
entrance and everyone else to getting people down from the web.
"Get them ALL down," he ordered. "Alive or dead. Clear
this filthy thing."
Jack was already on the case. He had spotted The Doctor
and sprang into action. He climbed the frame quickly and with his combat
knife began to unfasten the cruel bonds. He looked anxiously at The Doctor
as he freed his legs. He was just hanging on to consciousness, but as
Jack worked he seemed to rally. Once he had an arm free he reached into
his pocket for his sonic screwdriver and told Jack to see to Rose. He
quickly freed his other arm and climbed over to where Jack had Rose's
arms free. He held her upright while Jack freed her legs. She fell limply
into his arms and he was worried as he climbed down the framework with
her. Jack was already off finding others who were alive.
He knelt by Rose and felt her pulse. It was very weak
and he couldn't see her breathing. He bent over her andvered her mouth
with his, performing mouth to mouth resuscitation. The irony of it burnt
in his hearts. He had so often wanted to kiss her properly and the nearest
he came to it was to save her life.
Jack climbed the web towards one figure that was very clearly alive. He
had found too many already that weren't. It was a woman, or at least he
thought so. The close cropped hair and slender body in tight military
grey body suit defined the word androgynous. Jack freed her quickly. She
asked him if he had a weapon. In any other situation his reply would have
been much more innuendo laden, but he quietly handed her a P-90 and magazine
clip and moved on looking for more victims.
The Doctor felt Rose breathee for herself at last but
she was still unconscious and he couldn't wake her. He looked around and
saw that the others had things in hand. Some of those who had been freed
already and were fit to fight had been given the spare weapons the rescue
party brought and were taking up defensive positions around the edge of
the web while others continued to free the living and pass the dead down
to lie in a sad but dignified line. He wasn't especially needed. He could
give his time to her without feeling guilty.
As he held her in his arms he felt somebody tap him on the back and he
looked into the pretty oriental eyes of a girl who came from so far in
his past it took him a moment to remember her name, though when he did
he felt guilty at having forgotten her so easily. She gave him a small
glass bottle with a coloured liquid inside and told him to give it to
Rose.
"Precious, Beautiful Bo," he said, remembering her. "Thank
you," And he kissed her cheek gently. Then she ran off to climb the
web skilfully to near the top and release people from their bonds with
a slice of her sword that went through the metal but stopped short of
slicing through flesh. He looked at the liquid. He remembered from deep
in his memory that Bo, as well as being deadly with edged weapons when
danger threatened, practised the much gentler art of Chinese medicine.
Whatever it was, he was sure it would help. He lifted Rose's head and
put the bottle to her mouth, letting a few drops trickle in. She had only
slipped into unconsciousness a few minutes before the rescue party arrived,
but even a few minutes without oxygen could harm the Human brain. He was
more than relieved when she opened her eyes and looked up at him.
"You're still you," she said cryptically. "I am glad."
He hugged her close to him for a long time, but there were things to do
yet. He stood up with her and looked around. The job was almost done.
He stepped towards the sad line of dead. He noticed that many were wearing
a military uniform and recognised it as the 22nd Space Corps, the 25th
century intergalactic special forces.
"We lost hundreds," a woman's voice said, and he turned to see
the androgynous Space Corps Major.
"We've saved as many as we could," The Doctor told her. At that
moment, though, they all heard the high pitched sound of the Arachnoids
approaching. Their escape must have been heard by now. The Major ordered
those of her people who were armed to assume defensive positions. But
there were too few of them for an effective stand. The Doctor put his
hand in his pocket and found the TARDIS key. He wasn't sure it was going
to work, but he pressed it anyway. To his relief he heard the sound of
it materialising. The remnants of the Space Corps were surprised and alarmed,
but the rescuers were all seasoned TARDIS travellers and viewed it with
the same relief The Doctor did. He opened the door and stepped inside
with Rose then looked back. "Anyone who wants to live, in HERE, now,
he said. The Major looked momentarily at the strange blue box and wondered
how they could get in there, but something about The Doctor made her trust
him. She called to her people to fall back through the blue door.
The Doctor turned and saw the Brigadier at the console and was surprised.
"I thought of you," he said. "But only briefly. Sorry to
drag you in."
"Just like old times, Doctor," the Brigadier said with a smile.
"That's a new look for you," he added. The Doctor he remembered
he hadn't seen the Brigadier since two lives back.
"It's an old look, too," he said as he saw Bo come in, holding
hands with Sammie. "Long time," he said to them. Sammie smiled.
"It is you, isn't it," he said.
"It's me," he told them, and that settled that. Of course they
were confused. They knew him when he was a student on a field trip to
learn about Human culture. Long before he lost his real name and became
known as The Doctor. Even he tended to count his life as a space wanderer
from the time he left Gallifrey with Susan. He'd almost forgotten his
earliest adventures.
Most of the others didn't know him by that face, either. Ace did, of course.
It wasn't so long since he had seen her, in Ireland. She came straight
up to him and hugged him and Rose, who was still strangely quiet, clinging
to his arm. Yates and Benton knew him at once when he spoke to them. Simon
grinned at him and commented that, at least this time, he didn't need
any spare part surgery.
Jack was the last of the party to come inside, walking with the Space Corps Major. Her troops were following. The Doctor nodded to Jack and
told him he had done well. Then he told the troops who were pouring in
to spread out along the TARDIS walls and keep still for a while. They
looked at their Major who confirmed his order.
"You're in charge here?" she asked. "This is your vessel?"
She looked around it and seemed about to comment but decided against it.
She identified herself to him as Major Hellina Artura of the 22nd Space Corps.
"Yes," he said. "This is my TARDIS. And I can get everyone
away to safety once you have your people on board."
"That won't be necessary. All we need is weapons, if you have them,
and we'll retake our ship."
"It's YOUR ship?" The Doctor asked.
"Yes. Those THINGS came on board in a craft we found floating in
space. We thought it was dead but as soon as we opened the airlocks they
boarded us. At least 300 of our company were killed in the fight. Those
of us who survived were put on the web…. To be kept as meat. You
saw how many died there." She looked around as the last of her company
came aboard and Benton and Yates closed the door. Hugging the walls of
the TARDIS they seemed a large crowd, but she guessed maybe 90 were left
out of 750. The Doctor noticed her blink back tears that betrayed her
otherwise hard-bitten military guise. "But we're not going to lose
our ship. If you can't help us we'll go back out there and fight with
our bare hands if we have to."
"Doctor," Jack said, coming up behind her. "We
have to help her."
"We don't HAVE to do anything, Jack," he said. "We're NOT
military." Hellina looked mutinous for a moment. "But we WILL.
Because it's the right thing to do." And he told Jack to take the
Captain and her men to the armoury. When they were gone he looked at Rose.
She still looked dazed and he was worried about her. He brought her to
where the Brigadier was looking at the console, monitoring the Arachnoid
activity outside. "Brigadier, I need you to look after Rose for me.
She's already had too much adventure for one day." And he put her
hand in the Brigadier's and stepped away. She looked at him and her face
froze.
"You're going back out there?"
"I have to. I can't let others die while I stay here where it's safe."
"You're not a fighter," she told him.
"I am when there's no choice." He had been a warrior of his
people in the Time War. He had fought ruthlessly - as ruthlessly as the
enemy, the Daleks. He COULD fight if he had to. Sometimes he HAD to.
"Then don't leave me here. Let me go with you."
"No," he insisted. "We're going out there
to fight or die. Maybe both. I've already nearly lost you once today because
you wouldn't leave my side. Let me keep you safe this time."
"I could use your help, my dear," the Brigadier said. "The
TARDIS grabbed me so fast I don't have my reading glasses and this screen
is a bit of a blur. How many of these creatures do you think there are
out there?" The Doctor smiled. He was lying. He had perfectly good
vision, but he made her feel useful. Jack was at his side again handing
him a microphone headset and a P-90. Jack was surprised at the way he
took it and expertly slotted in the magazine. For somebody who claimed
not to be a soldier, he did it quite well.
The Doctor went to the TARDIS drive controls, opposite the navigation
and fine tuned it for something he had not tried very often but which
the TARDIS COULD do if necessary. He looked at the life signs monitor
the Brigadier and Rose were studying and saw the Arachnoids were swarming
around and up and over the web, just waiting for them to emerge from the
TARDIS. As Simon observed earlier, the door was a bottleneck and the first
to step out would be immediately grabbed.
"Defence positions," he ordered and this time
everyone moved first time without reference to the Major. The Space Corps
made ready with weapons pointing out and upwards from their circle around
the edge of the TARDIS. The Doctor went back to the console and flicked
a switch then hurried to stand beside Jack in the smaller inner circle
that his own volunteers made up. He had set the TARDIS to move twenty
yards to the left, which would take it into an empty corridor beyond the
web, but leaving everyone who wasn't actually physically touching the
console exactly where they were. "OPEN FIRE!" The Doctor yelled
as it dematerialised and they were back in the web. Around him the 22nd
Space Corps and the Doctor's own volunteers opened fire on the Arachnoids.
Surprise attack had a new meaning. One moment there was nobody, the next
a small army came out of thin air and began blasting away. Arachnoids
fell inside and outside the "web" until Major Artura gave the
CEASE FIRE order and with the eerie ping of the last cartridges hitting
the floor, the battlefield fell silent. The Doctor listened on his head
set as the Brigadier told him all the Arachnoid life signs had ceased.
"But you've got another batch heading your way. Corridor, twelve
o'clock…" Major Artura took the cue at that and ordered her
troops up the corridor, heading straight for the Arachnoid second wave.
The battle was brief, and the Arachnoids came off the worst. They pushed
on towards the bridge.
Pockets of Arachnoid resistance blocked their way almost at every step.
They fought hard. They didn't have it all their way. Some of Artura's
troops fell. But all of the Arachnoids were killed as they pressed their
advance.
The Doctor's rearguard had a fight of it when a small
contingent appeared from a side corridor very nearly taking them by surprise.
Ace took the first two. Bo, with two swords flashing as she leapt into
the air, dispatched three at once. Jack, Simon, Sammie, Yates, Benton
and the Doctor all took out their share. The Doctor felt a strange satisfaction
again in seeing a compound eye explode as he pumped bullets into the creature's
head. At the back of his mind he knew he was wrong to feel that way, but
for the moment he didn't care.
Rose looked with dismay at the life signs monitor. There
still seemed more of the enemy than the 'good guys'. And The Doctor was
too much mixed up in the thick of it.
"What is he doing?" Rose asked. "He's NOT a soldier. I
don't want him to be a soldier. Why is he doing this?"
"Because they NEED every able bodied man," the
Brigadier said. "He knows he can't stand by and let others face the
danger."
"He keeps on saying he's a pacifist."
"Yes, but that's just a word. And he knows very well that it's a
meaningless word when your back is against the wall. He'll be all right.
I've known him for decades. He's been up against WORSE than this."
"You knew him before he changed?" Rose asked.
"Several times," the Brigadier said. "I witnessed it once.
Disturbing. Though at my age, I must say, I envy him."
"I just want him safe."
The radio link crackled. "Rose, stop complaining and tell us how
many of these things are ahead of us." The sound of his voice cheered
her as she read the life-signs monitor.
"There's about 150 of them," she told him. "But they're
ALL on the bridge. If you make it through there, it's all over."
"Ok." The Doctor said. "Rose, put the kettle on. I'll want
a cuppa when I'm done."
"Make your own cuppa," she said. "You want to be a soldier,
you make your own brews." She heard him laugh and then he cut the
connection. She wished he hadn't. But if he was going to die, did she
want to HEAR it?
So the bridge was the last stand. Major Artura turned to
The Doctor as they considered their last moves. "I think you ought
to be in charge," she said. "I don't know why it is, but I think
you rank a lot higher than I do, even without a uniform."
The Doctor wasn't sure he wanted to command an army, but he accepted the
responsibility. She had given him an idea of the layout ahead and he quickly
relayed to all of the troops, through the headsets, what he wanted them
to do. Slowly they moved forward to where the corridor opened out onto
a balcony above the circular bridge. The 22nd Space Corp and The Doctor's
volunteers silently spread right around the balcony. The Doctor stood
at the top of the wide stairway down to the Bridge. Bo and Ace flanked
him. He still had his gun, but he held it down, the safety catch on.
"You have committed an act of space piracy against
the Rialox Code and the Treaty of Umoxz," he shouted, getting the
attention of the Arachnoid commander. "I demand that you surrender
to the proper authority - which would be ME!"
The commander looked at him and let out a howl of rage. Four Arachnoids
flew towards him. He did not flinch from his position. He did not have
to. Before they were within pincer reach two had been dispatched with
throwing stars through their eyes and the other two taken out by Ace and
her P-90.
"OPEN FIRE!" The Doctor yelled again and the 22nd Space Corps
and volunteers stood up from their hiding positions and laid down precise
but heavy and sustained fire intended to take out as many of the Arachnoids
as possible without damaging the bridge of their own ship.
Again they didn't have it all their own way. Some of the 22nd fell as
the Arachnoids returned fire. But the surprise attack from their elevated
position worked in their favour. The Doctor and his two unlikely warriors
held the only escape route. He flicked off the safety catch from his weapon
as he stood his ground and fired at all comers. Ace glanced at him once
as she stood shoulder to shoulder with him and kept firing. Bo was a blur
as she launched the deadly throwing stars nearly as fast as they could
fire.
The Arachnoid commander screamed his anger as he came through the firefight
towards The Doctor. He was hit several times but he kept coming. The Doctor
fired at point blank range into the creature's head and even when it was
clearly dead he kept on firing until he heard Jack's voice in his ear
and a strong arm on his shoulder.
"You can stop now," he said. "It's over." The Doctor
looked slowly around at him. He dropped the gun as the red haze of rage
cleared from his vision.
"It's over," Jack said again as they heard Artura's shout of
'cease fire' and the order to secure the bridge. Artura's troops poured
down the steps past him and 'mopped up' - pumping what was left of their
ammunition into any wounded Arachnoids they found. The Doctor felt no
sympathy for them. They were monsters.
The 22nd Space Corps had their ship back. Hellina Artura
stood in the TARDIS console room and thanked The Doctor for his help.
Jack stood next to her and there was a look being passed between the two
of them that The Doctor recognised.
"I'm sticking around here a while," Jack told him. "Hellina
and I…"
"Well, I'll miss you," The Doctor said.
"But it would never have worked between us, Doctor," Jack ribbed
him. "You're a one-woman-man, remember. And… heck, maybe I
can be, too." Then he hugged The Doctor and Rose and the two of them
left together.
The Doctor turned to look at the rest of his temporary crew. It was going
to be a tall order getting them all back to where they were supposed to
be. He told them to give him dates and places and he'd do his best. Meanwhile…
"Ace, have you put your gun back in the armoury yet?" he asked.
She said yes, but there was something about her answer that made him think
she was lying. He nodded at Sammie, who opened her coat and extracted
the P-90 from inside. The Doctor sighed and took it from him. He was over
his own impulse to fire projectile weapons. He thought a sort of madness
had come over him for a while. Certainly he had killed the Arachnoid commander
with more than minimum force. He felt slightly ashamed of the way he had
found satisfaction in the carnage. The least he could do was get rid of
the TARDIS's contribution to the affair.
He took the gun and strode away down the corridor. He opened the armoury
door and dropped the P-90 on a rack inside. Then he closed the door again
and closed his eyes and concentrated on TARDIS space. He opened the door
again and smiled triumphantly as he looked at the dojo he used to use
in his younger, fitter days. He'd find a use for it again, he promised
himself.
He walked back to the control room. Ace was looking mutinous but when
he kissed her on the cheek and called her his favourite juvenile delinquent
she laughed and forgave him. When he brought her home to Cumbria she hugged
him fondly and called him professor, as she always did. Sammie and Bo
were his next pair to take care of. They were still a little puzzled by
him. He was not surprised. It was nearly 750 years since he had seen them
and eight lifetimes ago. When he returned them to the early 21st century
Bo kissed him sweetly as she used to do - as he remembered with a blush
and a hope that Rose would not be difficult about it. Benton, Yates and
the Brigadier, he left together in the late 1980s, the Brigadier promising
to sort out with the respective commanders where the two men had been.
Simon was dropped off in San Francisco in 2008.
And at last it was just him and Rose. He turned around and saw she was
not in the console room. THAT in itself was odd. He checked the TARDIS's
lifesign monitor to be sure she was on board before putting it into temporal
orbit.
He found her sitting alone in the ballroom where they had been having
such a good time before the Arachnoids had taken them. He knew by the
melancholy music that was playing that she was not happy.
"I'm sorry for neglecting you." He picked her up from her seat
and took her onto the dance floor. He danced slowly with her, pressing
her close. "There's no need to be jealous of anyone, you know. Ace,
Bo, neither of them mean as much to me as you do. And they've gone now.
It's just me and you."
"I'm not bothered about that," she answered. "It's…
I was so afraid for you. When you were out there, fighting. I was so frightened.
I don't want to lose you."
"I don't want you to lose me, either," he said. "But sometimes…
I'm sorry I left you out. But this was a WAR. It had to be those of us
with combat training. I know you're a brave woman. I love you for it.
But you aren't a combatant."
"Neither are you."
"I do what I have to do. And yes, it is a corny line. But it's true."
"You could have been killed," she protested. "And I would
not be there."
"I could be killed any time, anywhere, whether you're there or not.
Come on, there is something more to this, isn't there."
"I've been having weird dreams," she admitted.
"I even had the dream when we were trapped on the web. It's always
the same… I dream that almost nothing of the past two years has
happened… Because you DIED not long after we first met Jack. I mean…
you didn't DIE as such… You became somebody else. The… the
you I love…YOU died, and even though the other guy said he had the
same feelings for me, it was too weird to be looking at him… and
not you."
"Sounds like you've picked up traces from another time-line,"
he guessed. "After all, we got tossed about through a couple of them
a while back. It's no wonder you're seeing glimpses of the alternatives.
Yes, there's a likelihood that in some other time-line I've got myself
into so much trouble that a regeneration was the only option. But Rose,
whatever face I have… there is no time-line in which I don't love
you."
"That wasn't the problem," she said. "It felt… as
if I didn't love you. Or I wasn't sure if I could. Loving him… felt
like I was betraying you."
"Rose," The Doctor sighed. "Understand this much about
regeneration - the face may change - the whole body may change. But the
hearts and the head are the same. And you would not be betraying me. I
will still be there." And he kissed her on the lips. He didn't often
kiss her that way. Usually it was on the cheek or forehead. But he thought
she needed to feel a real kiss for once. "If we come to that in THIS
reality, be sure of that much."
But even as he said it, he dearly hoped he never would
have to face that. Because he knew, hearts and head notwithstanding, every
regeneration had worked a mental change upon him as well as a physical
one, and his tastes in clothes, music, food, all of that changed - that
was why he hadn't listened to Bob Dylan for nearly seven centuries. He
wasn't sure if feelings such as he had for Rose might be changed. He didn't
want to open a new pair of eyes and look at her and not feel the same.
That would be WORSE than her not loving him as much. He dearly hoped he
could go on loving her with this same body, same face, same mind for a
long time yet. All the same he hoped his alternate time line self who
had not been so lucky got his act together and realised that she was the
best thing that ever happened to him.
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