Ace:
When Sarah Jane caught her arm and started upwards Ace threw the other blaster down grabbing a hold of Sarah Janes forearm and smiled "Gotcha" to make sure there was no chance she would drop her. Using the momentum behind Sarah Janes jump she fell backwards onto the floor pulling Sarah Jane up onto the floor.
Once she was sure they where both not gonna fall she reached into her bag and grabbed two cans of Nitro-9, pulled the tabs and stuck her head over the hatchway "Here choke on this" she chucked the cans in then moved over shielding Sarah Jane some as they exploded. When she was sure nothing was gonna come crashing in on top of them she offered her hand smiling "Names Ace."
Sarah Jane Smith:
She screamed as she was threaded through the rails at a good clip. The woman's arm held, and she shot up to the upper level. The woman fell back neatly, heedlessly, apparently to the hard metal to vault Sarah Jane all the way up before the creatures could snatch at her rapidly disappearing legs. It was fine arc that did not bang her on the metal all around, landing her instead like a good penny toss.
Her rescuer was armed to the teeth. Sarah Jane didn't know if she should be terribly thankful, or angry. Who needed all that? She found out when the woman loosed two canisters down the well at the approaching creatures. She was frankly shocked, and would have looked right over the edge in some effort to make it un-happen, when Ace got between her and the explosion she hadn't quite believed in until it shook them.
For a moment, she could only look back and forth from the woman soldier to the smoking hole and the couple of slabs of still sparking meat that lay on the deck near them. Then she realized the young woman, her own age perhaps, had said something, was holding out her hand. Was giving her a grin like a happy Kansas farm girl. Irascible and lovely. Sarah Jane ran her mental audio recording back, Ace.
"Sarah Jane Smith." She said, a little breathless, blinking twice. "There is another one somewhere." She put her hand in Ace's web to web in a good grip, her face cracking a little with gratitude. "Do you have a ship?"
Ace:
Ace shook Sarah Janes hand and smiled "Nice to meet you Sarah Jane." dropping her hand she looked over the hatch "Then we should put as much distance between us and them." she looked back at Sarah Jane when she asked her if she had a ship "oh...umm not such."
Pulling up her sleeve, showing Sarah Jane the hopper "Just this little thing...It's a very primitive form of space/time travel. But...ya do what ya can." she looked at it and groaned some "You have got to be kidding me." she took the hopper off and turned it over, taking the back off "...Circuits fired. Typical."
Sticking the hopper in one of her pockets, now she felt like an idiot "well...at least your not here alone. I take it there's no escape ships left on this thing are there."
Alec:
The cans exploded...
...the smoke cleared...
...And then there was the glow. They were angry now. They made an ugly sound at Ace, a toss up of a hiss, a screech, a screech, and a human laugh.
-wait-
What? A human laugh? Why would the creature make that kind of- oh. The human came through the smoke. First visible were his black boots, then his gloved hand, which came next, then...
"Welcome, Sarah Jane, Ace," said the blonde, golden-eyed Timelord, "To my menagerie. You will find that there are many more creatures than just these on the Leviticus."
His laugh had dissipated. His inominous, casual, at-the-movies chortle wasn't there.
"Have you ever an advent calendar? Every day, you open another flap, revealing a new part. Difference is, here, every hour, another monster is let loose."
Alec smiled.
"This is a Sontaran ship. Find the weapons."
He turned, walking away.
"Good luck. You'll need it."
Sarah Jane Smith:
An inhuman laugh came from within the billow of dispersing smoke. No. Not inhuman, for it sounded as if it could have come from a human throat, but it could never have come from a human mind.
Sweet stars, she knew that laugh. Every hair on her body was suddenly standing up at right angles to her skin.
The Dark Lord.
He came, tall and pale, striding out of the miasma of smoke as if it had birthed him. Sarah fell fully back in her shock. Her mouth fell open, for face had gone numb with fear in an instant, and it seemed as if there wasn't any air. It was difficult for her to move, to breath, for she is caught frozen in primal reaction : prey under the eye of predator.
His words could not have been less welcome, nor the vivid, bloody images they provoked within her. She and this poor soldier woman were going to die, and it was not going to be pretty. Sarah Jane found herself clutching at Ace's flap jacket.
The leather clad blade of a man gave is parting shot and turned to go. It was time for a witty remark, but non such came to her mind or her lips that moment. She was afraid of Alec Harrison in a way these energy beasts did not provoke in her.
He was smarter than her. That was the scary part. That and all the times he'd tried to kill her.
Ace:
Ace turned around and watched as the tall man stepped from the smoke. When he spoke she narrowed her eyes at him listening. She wouldn't go as far as to say the guy scared her but he did make her uneasy, and that annoyed the crap outta her and she'd be damned if she'd let him see that.
She looked down at Sarah Jane as she grabbed a hold of her jacket, she could see that the woman was scared and had a feeling that was the exact reaction this guy wanted, which in her mind made him no more then a big bully...a bully with the ability to kill them of course but a bully none the less.
Staring at the guys back as he walked away from them "Chicken..." before he could respond "Yup you heard right...this is all one big game to you isn't it? Do you not have anything better to do with your time then scaring people in some sick game?" she gently put her hand on Sarah Janes bicep, trying to convey to her everything was going to be ok and steer her away from the current room "Come on I still gotta get you outta here."
Alec:
Ace.
He'd read about her when studying the Doctor.
"Oh! The emotional cripple. Almost forgot about you."
Alec turned, as if actually listening, or caring what she said.
"Chicken..." he didn't attempt to respond, "Yup you heard right...this is all one big game to you isn't it? Do you not have anything better to do with your time then scaring people in some sick game?"
He chuckled again.
"Aren't you a doll?" he said, in the same tone with which one would speak to a child. "Well, I see you don't know much about how me and Sarah Jane...relate."
His head flipped through their pasts experiences like a book. Sarah would've been dead by now- no doubt. He could always outsmart her personally. It was whoever tagged along that somehow got him.
"I refer to a menagerie and an advent calendar, but this is no game. This..."
His lips curled back, his smile becoming cruel.
"Now this is payback."
Sarah Jane Smith:
Sarah Jane was startled to realize that the Dark Lord knew Ace somehow. Or perhaps he knew just enough about her to hurt her with his words. There was nothing like cruelty to get Sarah Jane back on her feet. She surged up, feeling as though she is standing on stilts, for she is still shocked by the Dark Lord's presence.
"Leave her alone!" She thundered, or tried to, but it came out a horse whisper as she glared at him, standing side by side and arm in arm with Ace, afraid the soldier girl will try to take on the Dark Lord, and probably die. And to make certain she herself didn't wind up on her backside in her shock. Her growing anger was taking the ice from her limbs and replacing it almost painfully with lava, however.
As he left them, she wanted to shout again. She wanted Alec Harrison to hear her. She wanted to tell him that he didn't really want to do this. That he didn't have to do this if he didn't want to. Even if he liked it now, she knew he'd regret it later. She could not shout, however, her breath this moment stolen by her fear.
"Come on, I still have to get you out of here." Ace said, most miraculously, and Sarah Jane found she could breath again. Her face burst into a hopeful smile as she gulped in welcome air.
"Aren't you clever, Ace!" She clapped the woman on the back. "Lets go!"
She could not quite explain, even to herself, how every desperately she did not wish to open the next door in this Advent calendar from Hell.
There was something deep and wide in Ace's eyes that made her wonder if this diminutive woman soldier had too traveled through time, but she did not want to slow their journey out of here by asking her about it right now.
Ace:
"Oh! The emotional cripple. Almost forgot about you." Now that...that did stir an emotion in Ace, even after all these years that knife still twinged slightly as if the words where brand new, when ever someone called her that.
Ace started to move towards the man, her emotions momentarily over taking her common sense "You little..." but stopped when she heard Sarah Jane speak up. Tiny but fierce, just like she'd figured she'd be.
Ace turned to leave when the Sarah Jane said to go moving her hand slowly to make sure she still had her blasters in her pocket there was no way she wanted to be completely unarmed in this advent calendar death trap.
When she felt they where far enough out of ear shot she couldn't help but ask "Ok two questions..." she stopped for a second to check down a hallway to make sure it was clear "One...do you have any idea how you got here, and two who was tall dark and ugly back there? You two seem to have some history."
Sarah Jane Smith:
Ace was just a little younger than herself, but she was a strapping little farm girl of a woman. As the Dark Lord's words stung her, the Ace surged forward a little, and Sarah Jane realized clearly she couldn't out muscle her by long shot. Luckily, they did not have to wrestle it out. Ace took Sarah Jane's wish to hold her back for the deed. Or did not notice and contained herself. At any rate, in that last glance before Ace lead the way off, she could see hard fine lines of pain in the tender flesh beside her eyes.
They jogged lightly through the ship, Sarah Jane feeling great relief that she was no longer being chased, most certainly after the last few hours of desperate evasion. A ways off, they stopped, Ace questioning her.
"Sarah Jane Smith, Acquisitions and Public relations on the B class trader The Eyes of Zeus." She introduced herself. The last few hours had been so exciting, she had to dig to remember back, though it only took a breath and a frown. "I was planet side on Kiplinger in the Saini system, then-" she shrugged "Ambush from behind, something over my mouth, and then I was here."
She looked around, face suspicious as if just remembering to keep an eye out. In a heartbeat, she was looking back the way they came. Back to where she'd seen Alec.
"That is a fellow who likes to call himself the Dark Lord when he's in a bad mood. Gallifreyan. Time Lord. Crazy as a ship board rat, and probably the most brilliant creature you'll ever meet." She swallowed hard, put her eyes back on Ace's, and steadied her heart for a moment until the tight fear that pulls at her soft mouth becomes instead a wry smile. She also watched Ace carefully to see if she would react to the time reference like a time traveler or not. There was just something about her. "I'm on his actual 'better off tormented and killed list'. Long story. Something I haven't even done yet."
"My question is, Ace, how does he know you?"
Alec:
"So she can talk!" he said to Sarah Jane.
He checked his watch. Almost time.
Almost as soon as he was gone, he was back. Not physically- he couldn't exactly be here for this. But in their heads. It could only be described as a "Timelord thing." Telekinesis was a good second guess.
It's getting late, it's getting dark,
The numeral twelve, the clock does mark.
Be prepared, for the worst to come,
Revenge is not for the stomaches of some.
Leviticus, this ship is called,
Watch out or you will be mauled.
The clock strikes twelve, so be prepared,
Your life signs just might be impaired.
His voice suggested in through their very minds. A large, arachnid alien had just been released, and was coming straight for them...
Ace:
"ok...as I see it we have two options we either, find some place to hold up and I can work on this hopper or we can find the weapons and fight our way out." She was game for either.
"That is a fellow who likes to call himself the Dark Lord when he's in a bad mood. Gallifreyan. Time Lord. Crazy as a ship board rat, and probably the most brilliant creature you'll ever meet." Ace couldn't help but laugh a little "Aren't all Timelords... completely insane, genius and terrifying when they're in a bad mood." she shrugged "But...they're good people...mostly"
"I dunno he's probably met me I just haven't met him...yet?" Ace shrugged "I dunno I quit trying to keep my terms straight years ago." Ace stopped in her tracks when she heard the voice in her head "ok...did you hear that or have I finally lost my mind?" she looked up the way at the arachnid alien coming at them "ok completely sane, Run!" she started to back track while trying to get her blaster out of her pocket.