14
CUSTODIANS
I've had a lot of companions over the centuries - brave ones, cowardly ones, human, alien, male and female of all ages - but I'd rarely had one as utterly hostile to me as the girl with flame red hair.
Maybe companion was the wrong word for Damia she was in a category all her own, yes she travelled with me but not voluntarily and she'd made it very plain how low her opinion was of me.
We'd arrived back at the place where we first met, where she'd arrested me even fired at me and then cuffed me – a sort of inter galactic customs bureau – remote, bleak and rather featureless only we had materialised inside it rather than on the forecourt and Damia was itching to place me back under arrest. I was itching to discover just what was really going on because she hadn't told me the truth about this place or my arrest or her own status; she was in short not what she seemed.
Opening the tardis doors I waved her out ahead of me but she wasn't having that, for some reason she didn't trust me; after you said her penetrating gaze. Emerging into a rather bland grey room populated by low swivel chairs and filing cabinets I looked around for something of interest but my gaze was just drawn back to the girl with flame red hair dressed in a tight fitting black cat suit.
"What now," I enquired. Slinking over to a small box on top of one of the cabinets she peeled it open to reveal one of those big red buttons you get on tacky game shows, you know the sort of thing Ant and Dec used to do before they were ritually murdered by the good-taste society.
"When I press this Doctor my employers will arrive on this asteroid to collect you," Damia sounded proud of herself and indeed she had taken on some of the camp quality of a game show hostess.
"Who are they Damia, isn't it time you put me out of my misery and gave them an identity these employers of yours, species, planet, inside leg measurement," I offered her a smile.
"You'll find out soon enough," she said with clipped confidence.
"Go on then press your red button, not for digital viewers I take it."
Regarding me with her usual contempt, maybe a notch or two higher she tossed that luxuriant red hair – scarlet or maybe maroon.
"I'm not going to miss your snide sense of humour one little bit."
"How about travelling through time and space," I reposted thinking of our many adventures together, "Saving people, making a difference, combating evil will you miss that or do you prefer living in this dreary back water a study in grey?"
Shaking her attractive head she replied, "Our time together has been diverting I will admit that."
Diverting, what kind of a word was that, reading a book was diverting, listening to recorded music was diverting what I did was several degrees of magnitude above that. I had saved her life and she had even saved me (by accident) on one occasion, we had fought together, solved problems, travelled to the edges of sanity.
"I had thought you'd have gained more insight than that," I said.
"Insight," she tossed the word back at me like it offended her, "You have dragged me hither and thither, back and forth through time, all the time squirming and wriggling your way out of this moment, trying to distract me, to change my mind but it hasn't worked; I look upon you now in the same way as I did when we first met as a criminal, a malcontent, an aimless drifter."
Aimless me, what a cheek?
"All right so you call your employers and they cart me off to…somewhere or other, what then, what happens to you tell me that, some kind of reward or payment, a pat on the back a medal, a job promotion?"
Damia lost some of her smug superiority just an ounce of it, "That is none of your business Doctor."
"But it is, isn't it you've made it my business by bringing me here; our fates are intertwined, linked together."
"Not for much longer," she pressed the button. There was no music, no flashing lights, no fireworks not even a bleep it was all a bit flat a non-event.
"Is that it," I asked?
"They'll be here very soon," she assured me closing the box and moving away from the cabinet to a desk from which she produced a gun, Damia liked guns she always carried one.
"Far to come have they," I asked strolling around the room, "Do I have time to explore this place or am I under room-arrest?"
Looking as though she didn't care one way or the other she nodded at the door like I could go where I liked except the tardis of course, so opening the door I moved along a short passage to another room; it was almost identical to the one I'd left except there was a bunk bed in one corner and on a small table were some personal feminine articles – lipstick, blusher, eye liner, some small jewellery and other nick knacks. Was this where Damia slept and applied her make-up, it was pretty Spartan in fact it reminded me of…
"What are you doing in here," Having followed me she swept into the room like a gust of air and stood between me and the bunk bed, hands on hips and chin up in her defiant posture her challenging stance?
"You indicated I could go anywhere."
"Not in here," she said, "This is off-limits."
"Why will I learn something interesting about you in here, are there revelations about the real Damia?"
During our time together a few hints had come to the surface the odd personal quirk I knew her a bit better than I had before and she wasn't as cool or unfeeling as she liked to think, there were chinks in that perfectly polished armour.
"There's nothing to discover," she told me.
"Oh I wouldn't say that I've learned a couple of interesting things already, this Spartan room for example do you know what it reminds me of more than anything – a cell, a prison cell; I mean look at that bunk bed it's classic prison issue and so are those sheets and then there's the drab colour scheme what woman would choose to sleep surrounded by so much sickly grey?"
She shoved me back just a slight push but she did it so well that I stumbled slightly; Damia was stronger than she looked an expert in unarmed combat.
"You don't know anything Doctor."
"I know that isn't your make-up, the colours and tones are all wrong you don't wear that stuff it's too soft too girlie and you're a hard woman aren't you Damia?"
Eyes flashing she raised her gun to warn me off but I palmed it aside, she wasn't going to kill me; I was wanted alive by her employers that had been made abundantly clear they were coming to collect a live specimen not a cadaver.
"This is a prison isn't it Damia, it's nothing to do with customs at all and neither are you; people are held here I think you were held here, you and someone else another woman perhaps."
She tried the poker face she'd used on me before but it didn't work this time, I could see through it see the pain and shock behind it, the despair, traces of the real Damia or the person she had been before she was called that.
"These employers of yours these aliens, do you work for them voluntarily or are you being coerced by them; my guess is the latter that you've been forced to do their bidding in return for…a reduced sentence perhaps or some other soft option?"
"You don't know what you're talking about Doctor, all this based on a bunk and some cosmetics, you're reaching as usual making things up and trying to muddy the waters."
"Then correct me, put me in the picture," I offered but she blanked me, stone-faced me, gave me the cold dismissive look 'you get no more', the problem was it didn't work anymore I wasn't buying it.
"If you won't be forthcoming then I'll have to use my own judgement and imagination," turning I walked out of the room and made my way to another this was softer, more colourful, a place to relax in it even had a wall mounted TV the first I'd seen in ages plus there was a drinks machine and drawn to this I rummaged in my pocket for some change.
"What does this take terran, draconian, terrileptil?"
Pushing past me Damia inserted a silver card, "What do you want?"
"Apart from the truth you mean – a soft drink, how about ginger beer?"
Buttons were pressed and a fizzy concoction emerged that I sniffed without enthusiasm, it wasn't ginger beer but I took an exploratory sip.
"Thank you by the way, I owe you."
"Yes you do," the reply was sharp edged.
"So who was the other woman held here a friend or a relative?"
The lighting around us flickered and I heard this tremble go through the entire building making walls, pipes and cabinets rattle. I felt this pull inside my back teeth that told me an anti-gravity engine was being deployed, a big one; it seemed we had company.
Looking around Damia holstered her gun and sighed, seeming if anything relieved.
"This is them I take it, gone into geostationary orbit I'd say; why not tell me who they are now," I said.
"Hardly any need Doctor," and she slumped into one of the soft chairs, legs crossed and body unpeeling its layers of tension, "It's over."
"Is it," I queried, "For which of us?"
"No more word games Doctor, you'll soon be out of my hands this is the end of our association."
I waited for something to happen when it didn't I took out my sonic and pointed it at the ceiling, the tip glowed first blue then a softer green, green meant scan mode, information gathering but I wasn't getting much through the thick led and concrete walls. Big ship very big, rather too big for one prisoner in my view, powerful engines, pan galactic and temporal readings as if the ship travelled through…
"Will they come and collect me or am I supposed to walk outside with my hands up and scarf off?"
Not looking as though she really care Damia yawned, "Do what you like," she said. "They're here now so my job is done."
"You still want paying presumably, I mean you are a mercenary aren't you; not a customs agent?"
"All right Doctor I'm a mercenary so what."
"Reluctant or voluntary," I asked?
"Successful," she replied, "Drink your pop it's the last you'll be getting for a long time."
Instead I handed the pop to her and walked back into the corridor, my stroll took me back to the bunk bed and this time I examined properly moving back the sheet and lifting the pillow, what I wanted was underneath the pillow a small note and a faded photograph – female, the note was a plea for help and it supplied a name, one that wasn't Damia. Picking the two items up I put them in a pocket before examining the cosmetics, I was sure something would be concealed inside them and it was, the lipstick providing me with what I needed.
Flickering again the lights went off for a moment, when they came back their colouration was redder, darker, more defuse it was also cooler by several degrees and there was a build up of potential like a teleport system might make.
I studied my sonic to find the source of the energy and headed towards it, were the alien's teleporting in or preparing to teleport me out and what about Damia, were they just going to leave her here alone – that seemed unlikely?
Damia was stood in the corridor sans ginger beer; she was looking away from me with her head cocked on one side, at first I couldn't make out what she was doing so I moved closer and that's when I saw the holographic image, pale and ghostly, it was the girl in the faded photograph – young, brunette, pageboy hair, blue eyes. Damia was speaking to her softly saying things I couldn't catch and the girl was replying only the sound was so dim you couldn't perceive words.
I aimed my sonic at the hologram acquiring data, the girl was on the ship above she was still alive but hooked up to some kind of complex machinery.
Tensing Damia turned to glare at me, "Take him now," she said, "Take him for god sake he's what you wanted isn't he, his tardis is here to."
I assumed she was talking to the aliens she served so zealously but nothing happened and nobody took me anywhere so I said,
"Who is Ana, your fellow prisoner here?"
Eyes blazing with mixed emotions Damia reached out to touch the hologram and it was a curiously tender thing, "My sister," she gasped voice almost breaking with emotion.
"Your sister," I echoed, "Why is she on the ship above, a hostage perhaps?"
I knew I was right her expression told me, Ana was their guarantee that Damia would do as instructed.
"It's her or you," said Damia bitterly, "I don't care what they do to you so long as my baby sister is safe."
Understandable, "What if there was a way to rescue Ana," I suggested?
"There isn't."
"Oh come on Damia you've been with me long enough…"
Interrupting fiercely she yelled at me, "They'd destroy her," the conviction was impressive, "Like they did to our parents."
I must admit I was shocked who wouldn't be, "They killed your parents?"
"In front of us as an example, it was when they took us from our ship."
I couldn't imagine how horrific it would be to witness the execution of your parents, "How old were you," I asked?
"What does it matter," she snarled?
"Adult or child," I muttered softly wondering how long Damia had been in the clutch of these creatures.
"Ana is all I have left I won't do anything to risk her life."
"Nor will I am Damia I promise you," I moved up to the hologram, "Is there a way to reach the alien ship from here?" I didn't want to risk the tardis if I didn't have, it might be under surveillance anyway?
"Teleport," she responded, "But they'll know the instant you use it."
Maybe and maybe not, "Come with me."
"I can't," rolling up a sleeve she turned her arm over to reveal a patch like a bruise and at the centre of it was a hard bump, an implant of some kind perhaps a bio-chip. I ran my sonic over the thing; it was deeply embedded and highly sensitive.
"They know everything I do every move and there's a self-destruct built in so they can kill me any time they like."
Altering the sonic vibration I began to work on the chip, "Try to keep still."
"You won't get it out," she said.
"I can do anything Damia surely you've learned that by now."
Her flesh began to bulge and ripple alarmingly, the whole arm pulsating in an extraordinary way then it swelled like a balloon, giving a cry of pain she sank to her knees, "You're killing me."
I wouldn't do that, "Try to stay calm," I upped the power, "Tricky little customer," I offered a smile, "Relax I've done this….well at least twice."
"Its agony Doctor," said through gritted teeth, face a mask of perspiration.
"Not much longer I promise."
"My arm is on fire," she cried.
"It's resisting," I said as my sonic began to shriek and her arm convulsed like a vast pink slug, "Soon be out," I said, "Here we…."
Blood spotted my face and shirt and sleeve, the arm seemed to burst before me and gore went everywhere, with a scream Damia fell on her back leaking vast amounts of red. I changed my sonic to tissue repair mode before she died of shock or blood loss, her torn arm began to close to knit to regenerate.
"You're going to be fine I promise: you're not going to die like this Damia."
Shivering and trembling she clutched her arm and glared at me but the wound was getting smaller and drier as her arm returned to normal, the gash closing and sealing.
"Bastard," she spat at me and tried to kick my shins.
"Now, now there's no need to thank me."
"Thank you," she raged, "You almost blew my arm off."
A slight exaggeration, "There not so much as a scar," I said, "How does it feel?"
Getting up she examined the limb but it was perfectly intact, slim and smooth with full dexterity, even so she threw me an evil look.
I risked turning away from her to scan the wall, blood splashes were everywhere but only one of them contained what I needed, I used a rag to wipe the metal nut out of which extended jagged spidery legs. Nasty thing wrapped around artery, nerve and bone with a volatile explosive core.
I placed it in a plastic bag nicked from some hospital or other, "Will Ana have one of these inside of her," I asked?
"I don't know they only put it in me when I agreed to collect you."
That I thought was a massive relief, I didn't fancy another exploding woman, "Teleport next, lead on," I said, "Please."
The blazing eyes threatened a terrible vengeance but Damia resisted the urge to kick me saying it wasn't far.
It wasn't either, a most unremarkable looking thing just a plain white plink with a column each side of it, the drabness belied a great cunning and sophistication, built in alarms and defensive systems. I sonic'd three of them off quite quickly but the fourth was more problematic I had to open a panel and ferret around inside.
"The custodians will know my chip has been removed, they'll be sending a team to check out why."
Damia was probably right about that, "Custodians," I repeated, "Can't say I know the name."
"Lucky you," Damia had a dry wit at times.
"What are they like," I asked, "Appearance wise I mean?"
She looked away from me still holding her arm even though it was perfectly fine, "They may have killed Ana."
"I don't think so she's too useful to them alive," I was guessing they'd keep the girl safe until they had me once they did the future for Ana and Damia was uncertain.
"You could go back to your tardis and make a run for it now," my companion remarked?
"You'd shoot me before I got three paces; in any case I'm not going to leave you or Ana to the mercy of these aliens."
Spinning around she looked at me hard trying to figure me out, no doubt wondering why I was helping someone who'd lied and deceived me?
There - the teleport defences were off-line we could use it without it blowing up, "We're good to go," I said seeing tears glisten in Damia's eyes and she wasn't the weepy emotional type I can tell you. I decided against an attempted hug, the touchy feely approach wasn't her style either. "We rescue Ana then get the two of you away from here."
"Simple as that is it, the good Doctor to the rescue once again," said with such cynicism?
"No it's not likely to be simple," I admitted.
"I could still shoot you," she said.
"Yes I know you could," I half expected her to take out the gun.
"I still might," she said, "If it looks as though Ana's life is at risk, I'd save her and not you."
"Sisterly love," I remarked.
"Don't make fun of me time lord."
I held up my hands not intending to try.
It wasn't what I expected the place we materialised in, oh yes I'd expected it to be dark, shadowy and functional they came as no surprise but what did was the dampness, the oily moisture everywhere, the sheen of slime on everything. Gunk hung in bead son the walls and ceiling, my shoes slurped through the stuff, it ran and pooled on all the terminals, cried down view screens and dripped off corners and columns.
"No sign of house keeping," I remarked or the custodians themselves which was odd in some kind of control centre.
"It's always like this," Damia wasn't surprised but then she was familiar with our hosts.
"Damp, oily and slimy," I said with distaste?
"The custodians don't do dry," she answered.
"Good grief we're wading through a lake of the stuff," I said wondering why the circuits didn't short out, "It looks oily but it isn't actually oil, not crude oil," I ran my sonic over some, "There's an organic residue that's most unusual, DNA clusters firing in a way I haven't seen before."
"We should hurry," Damia was thinking of her sister as she splashed through the gunk but I had other considerations.
"Wait," I said, "This slime is undergoing some kind of change."
In no mood to wait Damia speared me with a glance, "Ana will be in the bio-genics lab it isn't far."
"Something's wrong," I threw back just as a massive blob of oil reared up in front of me like an outsized teardrop, rippling and bubbling the dark magma began to take on a most definite shape acquiring height, width and dimensions.
"What is this," I whispered as my sonic played over it, "DNA resequencing, protein strands forming, I'm reading sinew, cartilage and muscle," before me the blob became less blob-like and more humanoid in shape with distinct arms, legs and a torso. The slime wasn't just slime it was a protein soup and out of it a custodian was creating a body, these aliens had two forms dormant and active, whilst dormant they were oil but that could change very rapidly as it was now.
I splashed over to Damia as two further blobs of oily magma formed and began to formulate distinct humanoid bodies.
"Ana," I said and nodding she led the way clearly having a good idea where her sister was being kept, looking back I saw a forth blob expand and acquire a body, it was totally black, tar black, as dark as a sky with no stars or a mineshaft sealed by rocks. Yet even in the dark I could the skin ripple and convulse, thicken and solidify.
The face was a blank; no features at all not even eyes! No eyes…this troubled me for some reason, didn't mean blindness, could this race be blind or did they sense in another way like bats or Spielsnapes?
My shoes and socks were soon wet through as were my trousers up to the knee and the extra weight began to slow me down, oddly it didn't inconvenience my companion but then she was a lot younger and fitter as she often told me.
"How much further," I asked?
"Around the next corner," but so was something else another custodian and this one was bigger than the others, better formed; it did have a face of sorts a gash that could have been a mouth, a mound that may have been a nose but still no eyes.
"It's stood in our path," Damia took out her gun and put it to the top setting. Palming the thing down I moved forwards doing another sonic scan.
"It's still in metamorphosis," I said and risked getting closer a lot closer. Damia gave a gasp of alarm as I slid right up to the custodian, fascinated by it and by its dormancy its lack of movement.
"Where are they from do you know," I asked amazed by how quickly they went from oil to solid, "No heart beat," I said, "No respiration and no obvious brain activity."
"Doctor – this isn't a biology field trip," Damia risked a step forwards.
"I'm not detecting blood or lymph but there anatomical structures, organs or glands."
Impatiently she slid past the custodian to the door beyond, working its damp sticky key pad; she must have known the code because the slimy black door slid inwards to reveal…dryness, a dry lab, white surfaces, no oil, proper lighting and a different cleaner smell.
Ana lay at a 45 degree angle in a half-tube, pinioned by ankle, wrist and neck, wires going into various parts of her body. Not reacting to us at all she lay there eyes half-open, mouth open but silent.
Giving a gasp of sisterly delight Damia ran over to hug the girl until I told her not to, "Don't touch anything."
I closed and locked the lab door before joining her, the single eyeless sentry still hadn't moved, "Why no oil in here," I ruminated out loud, "Why is it so dry so normal," I scanned the contraption that held Ana, "It's keeping her in a superficial coma through small doses of Optaprin," I went over to the IV lead and with the sonic removed it very carefully from a vein, sealing the vein at the same time.
"She should start to come around soon but before she does," I turned to Damia my face full of questions.
"I don't know much more about them than you," she answered a little too hastily, "I think they come from a planet called Asperis or asterus, something like that; they didn't go into a lot of detail."
I'd never heard of such a planet, "Where did they collect you and Ana then?"
"They abducted us in mid-flight."
"You mean they attacked your ship, disabled it and boarded?"
She nodded so I asked, "Why did they kill your parents?"
"As an example, because they could."
"What right away or later," I enquired?
Damia's look was barely tolerant, "I'm not going into gruesome detail Doctor."
No I realised and turned back to the comatose girl, she was short and dark with a round face and blue eyes not like her sister at all.
"I know what you're thinking," Damia hovered, "We're half-sisters."
"She doesn't have an implant that's one good thing," I said having checked arms and legs for tell tale signs.
"Oh dear no more bloody mutilation," the sneer was biting.
"But she'll be groggy for a while, it'll slow us down reaching the teleport," that was assuming we could use it at all, "Is there another teleport system on board?"
Damia shrugged – how would she know, "It's a big ship, maybe."
Maybe wasn't good enough so I circled the lab finding the technology here not only drier but out of synch with what I'd seen so far, it wasn't the same as the terminals and controls in the wet section.
Finding a computer interface I booted it up and scanned what I could find, "Your parents ship was it called the Pegasus, was it from earth colony V two five," I asked?
Damia's expression told me the answer to both questions instantly, "How did you know that?"
"Because we're stood inside it or part of it, this lab is made up of cannibalised parts of that ship," I brought up a family shot, a younger Damia a younger Ana and two middle-aged people, a grey bearded academic man and a lean featured shrewish woman with Damia's imperious expression.
I heard her gasp and wipe her eyes, "That was taken soon after I graduated," she said.
"From where," I asked?
"The academy on V two five, I studied security and became a fighter pilot."
"You mean as well as being a customs agent and crack shot - bit of an over achiever are we," I said?
She gave me her arch look which said, you can talk time lord.
"Why would the custodians keep part of our ship," she said?
"Maybe they keep part of everything they attack, some races have a hording instinct," this explanation didn't satisfy me though it didn't feel entirely accurate.
"Damia, the custodians don't seem to have eyes."
"No they don't."
"Then how did they fit you with that implant, you need eyesight for that and good eyesight?"
She frowned, "I was given a general anaesthetic, I didn't witness the procedure; maybe they used robotics."
"But how could a blind race build a machine that can see, and how would it be familiar with human anatomy, that implant was a highly sophisticated job welded to nerves and arteries?"
She turned away from me bewildered, "I don't know I never gave it much thought."
"I did," said a voice behind us, Ana was off the table - she wasn't groggy at all and she held a gun, one just like Damia's but it was her expression and attitude that worried me the most; she wasn't acting like a frightened prisoner or hostage.
"Sis," Damia cried but I held her back, Sis was all wrong.
"You fitted the implant," I murmured, "To your own sister."
"Yes I did," Ana's smile had that wild, uncaring indifference typical of those who have abandoned any hint of conscience.
"No," Damia denied, "No you wouldn't, it doesn't make any sense."
But to me it was starting to - a nasty, warped, manipulative kind of sense.
"She's working with the custodians," I said.
"No Doctor you're wrong this time," Damia looked ready to lash out.
"Am I," This query was aimed at the girl with the gun, "How did the custodians find your family ship, how did they penetrate its shielding, why couldn't your father find his personal weapon – like you he was a crack shot wasn't he but for some reason he wasn't given a chance to defend himself or his wife?"
Gaze drifting from me to her sister Damia began to make the kind of connections her brain had denied or ignored for too long, pale and frightened she begged her sister silently to deny my accusations but Ana didn't even try, she didn't have to anymore.
"Clever Doctor," she told me and it seemed a genuine compliment.
"He's wrong he has to be, not our parents Ana; how could you?"
Damia took a step, a jerk of the gun halted her, "Sorry Damia but I'm afraid it's true all of it, yes I assisted the raid and I've been assisting the custodians ever since."
Looking quite sick Damia actually tottered back until I caught her, then she shrugged me off with typical belligerence refusing even then to play the role of the victim. I'd seen some betrayals in my time some nasty set ups but few hit me quite as personally as this sibling rivalry.
Ana had not only shafted her sister but her parents, conspiring in their murder and now this.
I said, "It was your idea to use Damia to bait me wasn't it, the custodians wanted a time lord and a tardis, Damia was perfect – an expert in unarmed combat, a pilot, a crack shot who better to play the bolshie customs officer?"
"And she played it so well," Ana smiled the cruellest of smiles, "But then I knew she would – clever, talented, daddy's favourite, always top of the class, little miss perfect," the contempt dripped like poisonous honey.
"Envy," I whispered.
"Yes I was jealous of her, who wouldn't be, I was the second-rate half-sister, plain, small, average. That's what dad even called me once…average, have you any idea how much that hurt. I hated him and I hated you Damia, I felt no qualms in using you to get the Doctor nor will I feel any in killing you which I'm going to by the way."
Something was creeping under the room door a pool of dark viscous matter, an oil excretion in the centre of it a bubble began to form swelling to a large oval teardrop, the first stage of solidification; we had a visitor.
Distracted by my gaze Ana took her eye off Damia for a second, that was all it took, a kick sent the gun flying and the two sisters were then locked in a fierce wrestling match. To my surprise Ana threw Damia judo-style, but before she could run for the weapon her ankle was grabbed and she was pulled down to more close quarter fighting at which both women were extremely adept I noticed, same teacher maybe.
Whilst they were busy I occupied myself with the custodian rapidly forming feet away, what made liquid turn to a solid – coldness, well the temperature hadn't altered on the ship at all, some kind of chemical reaction, my sonic wasn't detecting any, telekinesis – no I didn't think so.
What about sound some sort of sonic vibration that excited the molecules of these creatures?
I aimed my sonic at the swelling mass and went up the frequencies trying to find a key or note, an octave that would arrest the change. I had no success so I went downwards lower and lower; nothing and the alien was almost fully formed.
Another flip and another range of notes, combinations, arias of sound.
Throwing her sister off Damia landed a karate chop to the throat and the fight was over, she grabbed the gun and swung it down at the prone form with both fists for a kill-shot.
No said my gaze don't do it, she was blazing with vengeful intent, almost rigid with the desire to kill; then the custodian uttered a weird glooping, squelching sound and dissolved back into a pond of oil with a series of agonized ripples.
I'd found it the correct sound, checking I locked it in, "Yes," I cried in triumph, "I can liquefy them."
Relaxing Damia stepped away from her sister features tight with rage, "I'd have done anything to save her anything, kill you, I'd have destroyed an entire world and all the time she was…she betrayed me, betrayed our parents," the gun swung back, I palmed it aside.
"Murder isn't a solution," I panted.
"I've seen you kill Doctor, you're not innocent."
No I wasn't innocent I hadn't been for a long time, "Never someone helpless," I said.
"Ana deserves to die after what she did."
Maybe I thought after all she hadn't killed my parents, "Our priority is to get out of here, killing Ana won't help us achieve that, then an idea occurred and I squatted over the girl to check her pockets finding a key card.
"What is this," I muttered, "Not the door maybe another way out of here another teleport system?"
"You think the oil-heads would let us use it, the ship will be in lock-down mode," Damia pointed out?
"Oil-heads," I repeated with alarm?
Then the pool on the floor began to bubble and swell, this time two humanoid outlines began to gestate.
"Look for another way out of here," I said as I melted the aliens back to their dormant state.
"Over here," moving a cabinet aside Damia revealed a small service hatch one of those doors just big enough to squeeze through if you jack knifed your body, dipped your head and sucked in your tummy; in short one of my specialities.
I sonic'd it open and peered through, no custodians and not much oil on the downside there wasn't much light either so I couldn't see where the passage led, on the other hand it was better than staying in the lab.
Moving ahead of me in full stealth mode Damia reminded me of a commando on a recon mission, which of course she was in a way. Content to let her lead I brought up the rear scanning the key card and still trying to figure out what it fitted into, why would Ana have it; to save her own skin most likely but how?
"Pity you karate chopped her she might have told us something useful," I said, on the other hand Ana might have lied or stone walled, she clearly hated her sister totally.
"Why did the custodians want me did they ever drop any hints or was it any old time lord," I asked?
"Its technology they're hungry for," Damia muttered after checking another corner, we were once more splashing through gunk, it would take ages to get the feel and smell of it off my flesh.
"An acquisitive species," I murmured.
"Tech thieves," Damia snorted.
Not just any old tech either they were moving up the food chain if they were after my tardis.
"How much oil do you think we've trudged through since we got here," I asked?
Looking down she wrinkled her nose, "dunno gallons of the muck."
"Yes but not all of it has formulated into custodian bodies, I wonder why?"
"Does it matter," she dismissed?
Yes it did or at least it did to me because it meant not all of the oil contained the active protein strains to formulate a solid body.
"You think too much," Damia told me not unkindly; from her the remark was almost pleasant.
Then the card gave a bleep it changed colour from cream to light green. Swinging left I found myself facing a blank wall, a depressingly featureless void. I sonic'd it and behind the wall was a room, a room with no obvious way in not if you had a solid body anyway.
"We need to cut through this bulkhead, there's a room beyond maybe a teleport chamber."
Damia thumped the wall and it made a suitably hollow sound so she set to work with her blaster making it emit a thin cutting beam. While she was doing that I moved on ahead just slightly nosing around as curious as ever.
Beyond a narrow door was a balcony and below this stretched a massive and I mean huge vat of oil it was like a lake being meters across and had to contain gallons of the gunk all of it moving slightly heaving and rippling almost…yes breathing in a way.
"Doctor," the cry drew me back to Damia whose gun was off, the wall only half cut, three custodians stood around her and beyond them was a fourth figure rubbing her bruised and obviously sore throat.
I hoisted my sonic and the aliens each took a step back knowing its danger but instead of liquefying them on the spot I said, "Let's talk," I smiled, "What is it you want from me," I asked," I mean why send Damia to fetch me in particular?"
One of the dark tar black faces split right the way across to form a jagged maw with tiny tears of oil dripping from the top lip and from deep within this came a gurgling hiss like water under pressure.
"Salvation," spluttered the gargling throaty voice, on balance it wasn't what I'd expected to hear.
"Salvation," I echoed as a question?
"Kill them," Ana snarled.
"No don't kill us, talk to us," I countered, "What do you want saving from, given that I'm not some spiritual guru who offers weekend retreats, how can I save you?"
The gurgling liquid voice came again unpleasant on my eyes, "we crave," it said, "Form, stability."
Sonic them said Damia's eyes then I can shoot the bitch behind them like I should have done before, but I chose a different approach.
"How can you acquire that," I asked, "Given the diminishing protein chains in your oil?"
It was Ana who answered this stepping forward boldly to announce, "The custodians want to travel back in time to their home world to replenish their supply of nutrient ore, they can only do that with your help."
"Why do they need to travel in time," I enquired?
"The planet no longer exists," said Ana.
"Why not," it seemed a perfect innocuous question to me but one of the aliens rasped.
"Extinction," then added, "Natural causes."
"Well you would say that wouldn't you, how do I know it wasn't destroyed in some ghastly war?"
Ana snapped, "You'll have to trust us."
Big problem with that I didn't trust them or her, "Here's an idea," I beamed, "Why don't I go back in time to this planet and collect a supply of nutrient ore for you; it would be so much quicker."
"Unacceptable," gurgled one of the custodians.
"Well moving a big hulk like this through the vortex would require a lot of power; it might not even work for an old tardis like mine."
Ana said, "We're willing to take the risk."
"I'm sure you are," I said archly, "The thing is…I'm not, even if I could do it and I'm not sure I can, but if I could how would this affect the population of the planet living in the past?"
"Not in the least," Ana declared, "We don't want all of the ore just some of it."
"That's what you tell me but how can I trust you, how do I know you won't ravage your own past?"
"Because Doctor to harm the past is to distort the present."
Yes exactly I thought and that was another good reason not to help them, "I'm not sure."
Ana took aim at her sister to try and convince me, "Help us or Damia will die," she said earning a look of loathing from her sister who said.
"Yes this is more your style isn't it, threats and terrorism?"
Much as I agreed with this view I couldn't just let Ana pull the trigger, she looked more than keen to do it.
"I need access to the tardis," I said.
"Fine," Ana beamed, "Damia stays here."
"No you're done with the whole hostage thing, Damia comes with me or it's no deal."
Ana looked on the verge of refusing when a custodian slurped, "One of us will come to, and her," he pointed at Ana.
"I don't want her aboard my tardis," nor any of them either I thought but my options were rather limited.
"Tough," said Ana, "If Damia goes I go that's how it works."
So that's how I ended up back aboard my ship with two sisters and a monster made of slime, hardly ideal I think you'll agree but these things happen to time travellers who stick their noses in where they aren't wanted.
Ana asked me what I was going to do so I told her as I fussed around the console twisting this and that, my mind spinning through possible options.
"I need to extend the tardis force field around the custodian ship to affect any kind of transposition effect."
She looked around, "With this level of technology it should be easy."
It was but I didn't want her to know that, Damia glared at her sullenly then marched over to where I was busy wasting time.
"You can't do this," she muttered, my look told her I didn't intend to if I could help it.
"What did you say sister," Ana was as sharp as a tack?
"I told him not to help you," Damia's reply was typically candid.
"He has to," said the younger woman, "Or you die."
"Bitch," Damia hissed her whole body twitching with the desire to lash out violently, I'd seen her in such a state of readiness before and was reminded of another companion one dressed in a loin cloth.
"What's wrong Dam, not used to being on the losing side," it was a pure mockery and toxic as cyanide, "No longer daddy's perfect little girl?"
"Get over yourself Ana he loved you just as much as me, more in some cases."
Not remotely impressed by these words the dark haired girl jabbed her gun at Damia's mid section, "I was always in your shadow always second best."
As the women argued and the custodian was distracted I flipped open a small panel and turned a key, nobody noticed a row of lights illuminate on terminal six.
"All right," I cut into the sibling rivalry which was becoming increasingly bitter and fractious.
"Begin," rasped the alien, "Take us through time."
They wanted to go back a thousand years, a small hop in the tardis but for such a huge craft it was a major undertaking especially with a highly reluctant pilot at the helm.
I hit demat the control that plunged my craft into the vortex beyond time and space, that swirling storm of colours and energies, eddies and currents.
Rocking and groaning the tardis pulsed and shook, its lighting altered from bright yellow to a sickly greenish shadow and the console uttered a shriek like a beast in pain.
"We're in transit," I said.
"What's wrong," Ana shoved her sister aside to get a clear line of fire at me, "What is that sound?"
"Strain," I replied, "The tardis isn't a tugboat," I offered a reassuring shrug but she wasn't buying it.
"He's deceiving us, he's lying I can sense it."
"Shoot Damia," grunted the alien creature and before I could stop her Ana spun around and fired.
Reflex saved Damia, skill and experience; she'd been shot at before and knew what to do. Spinning away she moved behind the custodian and the beam struck him instead, having little effect.
Slotting my sonic into a hole on the console I thumbed it on and a buzz of low frequency oscillations filled the air.
Slurping and bubbling the alien creature began to liquefy turning into a pool of gunk on the tardis floor, the only problem was it exposed Damia to her sister's wrath or at least it did until I cocooned Ana in a field of energy, a localised teleport funnel.
Pivoting around she tried to fire through it but this didn't work and the last sound from her was a snarl of fury just before she vanished.
"Where is she," Damia joined me vaulting over the pool of oil?
"The custodian ship," I said.
"Which is where exactly?"
"In the vortex."
"You mean it's still attached to us," she shook her head?
Not for much longer I mused severing the field connection so that the giant craft spiralled out of the vortex moving forwards not backwards in time.
"I've sent them back to your customs station."
"Oh thanks," she said sourly.
"Well it was theirs not yours, still if you'd rather join them."
Her hand came to rest on top of mine, no thanks said her look I'm done with pretending to be a customs agent.
"Looks like I'm stuck with you Doctor," not sounding thrilled by this outcome she shook her head at me, "A mad man who flies around in a huge box."
Not the most flattering testimonial, "I can drop you off wherever you like Damia," I said trying not to sound too optimistic, "But there's one condition," I nodded at a cupboard door, "Mop and bucket," I said.
"What about them," but her gaze flew to the oil slick on the floor and with a glint in her eye she turned back to me.
"You've got to be kidding…"