"Arg," the Doctor moaned and clenched his eyes shut again. The room was brightly lit, as if the point were to blind him. His head ached and throbbed where he had been rendered unconscious. It hadn't been long, only nineteen minutes. Not much could have happened. But he remembered the Tardis, Clara, Raksha and Ereid. His eyes flew back open and he tried to leap to his feet. His back hit a low ceiling and he fell back to his knees. He looked around. He was in a wire grated cage. It wasn't tall enough for him to stand up, nor long enough for him to stretch out. He had to sit there on his hands and knees like animal.
He reached for the Sonic, only to discover it was gone along with his coat and shoes. They'd had taken his his bow tie and suspenders as well. His wrist watch was replaced with sensitive skin. The Doctor inspected his arm and winced when he applied pressure to the under side half way to his elbow. A small bump and entry wound, confirmed his suspicions. He'd been tagged and tracked. Not only would he have to escape, but find a way to deactivate it. It would be easy with his screwdriver. But if he couldn't find it...The Doctor really didn't want to explore the option of cutting it out himself. He put the thought out of his mind, he had to escape first.
His mind promptly reminded him of Clara and he tried to shake the idea that she was... And the Tardis. They had his Tardis, in his Tardis. The Doctor immediately sought out his connection with his ship. He just hoped that she was alright, both of them.
"NO!"
Clara opened here eyes. Whatever had hit her had hurt and knocked her over. But the Doctor's screams were enough to bring her back. She winced at the pain in her side and looked up at the Doctor as he crumpled to the floor. The console room was covered in grappling hooks. She couldn't get to him and there was a large alien with four small glowing eyes and her head spun with indecision. The Doctor was compromised, the Tardis was compromised, she was compromised. She couldn't carry the Doctor, not with her side burning in near agony. The large alien picked up the Doctor's limp form, knocking the Sonic out of his hand. He didn't notice Clara, but Clara could see badger pirates crowding the front of the Tardis. She couldn't fight them. She made a choice. She grabbed the Sonic and raced into the depths of the Tardis.
"Tardis! Interface! Emergency! Help!" Clara screamed as she limped down the corridor. A door appeared on her left and she went in. "Oh, thank God, sickbay!" She turned back to the door, "Can you lock it, don't let them in. Please!"
"Tardis Interface Enabled."
Clara jumped and winced. She turned around and faced herself. Well the Tardis Interface that took on her own appearance. "Don't do that. You scared me. Why can't you look like the Doctor or something?"
The Tardis Interface just stared back unblinkingly at Clara, "You have a minor laceration to your lower abdominal on the left side. No organ damage. You must clean the wound before knitting the skin together. Then you must secure it with a bandage."
Clara winced as she sat down the Sonic and pulled her jumper up from her left side. "You call that minor?" It was a nasty gash that stung like hell. Clara felt dizzy from just looking at it.
"It is not a fatal injury as long as you take immediate action. You are losing blood. Clean the wound, use the tissue knitter to repair the skin."
"The what?"
"Step one, clean the wound." The Tardis Interface waited.
Clara stood up and went to the sink. She used a rag to wipe away the blood. The Tardis Interface indicated other solutions to spray over the wound as well. Clara gritted her teeth as it stung. After cleaning it, it still continued to ooze blood. The Tardis Interface however then pointed her towards the tissue knitter, an alien tool that Clara had never seen before.
"I don't know how to use that."
"Take it into your hands like Earth's primitive craft tool known as a hot glue gun. Press the nozzle to one side of the wound, pull the trigger and drag it to the other end."
"Primitive, thanks," Clara grumbled, but she obeyed and when she was done the gash had completely disappeared.
"Next, secure a bandage over the wound."
"What wound, I'm all better!" Clara threw her arms up in the air, but immediately doubled over as her side complained with a sharp agony.
"The top tissue layer has been knitted together to prevent bleeding and infection. It will take twenty-three hours for the wound to completely heal."
"Thanks for the slow update."
"The Tardis has been breached."
"Oh great, more slow updates."
"Number one priority has been completed."
"Which is?"
"You."
"What?"
"The Doctor has been compromised and the Tardis has been breached. You have received an injury and cannot help until medical attention reached you."
"Are you saying what I think your saying?" Clara asked with a small smile.
"The doors cannot be closed. The Tardis is breached."
"And the Doctor is compromised, are you asking me for help?"
"The Tardis is breached," the Tardis Interface repeated in Clara's own voice.
"Are you afraid?" Clara asked.
The Tardis Interface turned to a monitor on the wall and a screen of the Tardis Control room came into view. It was swarmed with badger pirates. Sparks were flying as they attacked the console and pulled parts of it away. Others swarmed down the corridors. Another screen came up that showed the corridors changing so that the badger pirates never made it to any doors.
"That's brilliant, I mean the moving the rooms, that's brilliant, sorry about the console, we'll get it sorted."
"This tactic will fail."
"No, I mean I'm sure once we get the Doctor back he'll be able to fix it."
The Tardis Interface stared at Clara and then pointed back to the screen. Clara followed her gaze and saw the pirates detonating a bomb. The sickbay room shook and the explosion seemed to wound the Tardis. Clara looked back at the Interface in horror.
"I can change the rooms and heal the corridors. But it takes energy that is very quickly draining," the Tardis Interface explained.
"Okay, let's think this through. There has to be a way to stop them."
"The Tardis has been breached."
"Yes, I got that part. But what if we could get your doors closed?"
"I could prevent further intrusion," the Tardis Interface answered.
"Okay, so that's our goal, close the doors!"
"The badger pirates search for you."
"Of course they are. Okay, lets think...can you get me to the control room without them noticing? We could use a perception filter."
"Badger pirates are genetically designed to see the fractals in the light that bends-"
"Okay stop, you don't have to explain it like that. Just say it doesn't work on badger pirates."
The Tardis Interface stared back.
"Go on say it."
"Perception filters do not work on Badger Pirates."
"Very good."
"Is this the correct time to give social interaction advice?" the Tardis asked.
"Probably not, but it makes me feel better. So perception filter won't work, can you transport me up to the control room?"
Another explosion shook the sickbay and the Tardis Interface flickered before returning back to HD quality. Clara looked quickly up at a third and four screen as more Badger Pirates planted bombs to the rearranging corridor.
"Okay, you're right, that tactic isn't working. They will just keep damaging you until you run out of energy and we need as much energy as you can muster. Why not let them into the rooms?"
The Tardis Interface just stared back.
"Okay I know it doesn't sound like a good idea, but if you let them into the rooms, they'll stop hurting you. You can hide away any personal affects of yours...or the Doctor's, right? And remember, they're after me."
"They will find you."
"Yes, or a decoy me." Clara smiled as she pointed to the Tardis Interface. "They'll stop hurting you, for a little while, at least. Let them chase you, they'll think you are me. I can get out there. We can do a Luke Skywalker. You can easily cut one of the shorter ones of from the others. I'll knock 'im out and take his clothes. That will work just as well as a perception filter. I'll get to the control room and close the doors. What do you think?"
"I cannot comply, I am an eleventh dimensional matrix folded into a mechanical-"
"Stop, stop. Just stop. Will my plan work?"
The Tardis Interface stared for a moment and then disappeared. Clara looked around frantically until she saw up on the screen the Interface reappear in the hallway. She led them on a wild goose chase through the swimming pool.
"If you can hear me, you're awesome," Clara told the ceiling of the Tardis sickbay. "But you could have told me, 'yes'!" Clara grabbed the Sonic and a portable monitor screen. So she could keep an eye on where the Tardis Interface led the pirates.
Clara stumbled through a closet and quickly found herself in her room. She looked at her map reference as she tried to pick out which badger pirate outfit she'd be able to fit into. Before she could pick one her bedroom door opened. An alien in a black jumpsuit, matching gloves and large elongated helmet barged in.
"I wasn't ready!" Clara yelled at the Tardis. Her bedroom door seemed to close from its own accord. The Badger Pirate advanced on Clara and she quickly turned back to her closet. A neat trick she learned ages ago. Her closet was connected to the entire Tardis Wardrobe. Clara assumed that it would be absolutely cluttered, knowing the Doctor, but a fair amount of it had been organized. There was a very heavy plaque on the wall with a picture of a ginger haired woman. It read "Organized by Donna Noble."
Clara stumbled over a pile of fur coats as the badger pirate shot his weapon at her. The Tardis rocked as somewhere another explosion detonated. The plaque fell from the wall and landed in front of Clara. She grabbed it and squashed herself behind a curtain of long dresses. The badger pirate found it just as difficult to climb over the discarded coats as did Clara. He looked into the twisting aisle of the wardrobe. He slowly walked forward and passed Clara, giving her enough time to jump out from the long dresses. Clara used all of her strength as she swung the plaque against the back of the badger pirate's head. The badger pirate fell forward in a heap.
Clara put the plaque back up on the wall, "Thank you, Donna, for your help."
"NO!" the Doctor screamed as he beat against his cage. His head pounded with the Cloister Bell. She was in agony, they were hurting his Tardis, tearing her apart. "Please, Stop! Leave her alone!" But no one listened to him and his hands bled from beating against the rough wire grating.