The small, battered shuttle's engines sputtered and struggled to keep the vessel airborne as it circled the spaceship. It was huge, futuristic, a stark contrast to the tiny ship hobbling next to it.
Inside, the Doctor watched Clara as she slept tiredly in his arms. The excitement of their near-death takeoff had taken it's toll- her already severely depleted reserves of energy drained once more- and once they had safely dropped off the passengers and the unconscious pilot she had fallen asleep where they were sat. James was currently piloting the ship (apparently docking was one of the things that he could do), and the Doctor had nothing to do but hold Clara close in his lap as she snoozed and fiddle idly with her hair. She was wearing it down, but slightly curled, the subtle kinks flicking out in tiny arches over her shoulders. Her face had filled out again, but he could still see the shape of some of her bones through her thin dark blue jumper. He knew that she had chosen that jumper from the shop because it was a bit too large, because it hid the obvious signs of undereating that could all too easily have been mistaken for anorexia by a passing stranger. Clara hated stares from strangers; hated unwanted, almost judging attention from people she barely knew. It reminded her of the attention she got when her mum had died, the whispers and the looks that had followed her wherever she went. The Doctor checked her pulse and her temperature, a habit he was finding it hard to break out of, before shifting out of their seat and making his way into the cockpit. Inside, James was having a hard time communicating with a Judoon over the comm system.
"Bo! Sco! No! Fo!" The Judoon commander shouted. James yelled something back hopelessly in English, waving at the Doctor frantically to sit down. He did, taking out the sonic and blasting the microphone on front of him with a short burst of energy. He listened to the transmission again, having to concentrate more than he usually would on the alien language due to the TARDIS's absence. She was obviously doing her best to maintain contact with him and Clara to help them find her, but it was only a matter of time before Fenric flew her to a place out of reach of even his mind. He dreaded the day that he wouldn't be able to speak English anymore, when he could no longer decipher what Clara was saying. It would drive him mad.
"Hello the Judoon!" He spoke into the receiver, hoping that the TARDIS would translate for him, "This is the Doctor. Permission to dock?"
There were several seconds of silence and annoyed grunts from the Judoon's end of the line as they debated between themselves. The Doctor twisted in his seat to check on Clara, yet another habit he was failing to break. The intercom let off a sharp burst of static, causing him to wince and Clara to stir in her chair, blinking confusedly at him. He gave her a thumbs up and waited for her to return it before snapping the microphone up to his lips once more, scolding the Judoon for waking up his companion. They didn't sound too cut up about it, the commander snorting impatiently at him down the line.
"The girl is irrelevant. You may land and present yourselves for inspection." The line went dead. The Doctor mouthed sorry, love to Clara, who was more than a bit disgruntled at the way the Judoon had spoken about her.
"They're Rhinos," he told her apologetically when she joined him in the cockpit, "they have trouble understanding relationships."
Clara's eyes went so wide they nearly bulged. "Rhinos? Actual Rhinos, in space?"
"Yep. They protect the universe and everyone in it. When it suits them, anyway." He patted her head fondly. "Where's the hat?" He asked, crestfallen.
"The captain took it back when we dropped him off, remember?" She tapped her fingers on the arm of his chair to a silent tune. "So they're, like, police? Space police? Scotland Yard in space."
He laughed. "Yes, if you like. Although with talking rhinos and spaceships. Never really understood why Scotland Yard's called Scotland Yard, though, when it's in London." He frowned, perplexed.
Clara shrugged. "They're Scottish; who knows."
The Doctor bobbed his head to one side in agreement. "Still should've kept the hat. Hats are cool." He muttered. Clara offered him a half-smile and leaned against his chair, folding her arms.
"You wish," she teased. The Doctor grumbled something under his breath, making a grab for her waist to pull her down with him. She dodged out of his way, laughing.
The comms fizzed with static again until the Judoon's gravelly voice rumbled through the cockpit once more, relaying docking instructions that the Doctor translated for James. He guided the shuttle under the belly of the ship and up into the yawning hole entrance to the docks, the darkness swallowing them up as they passed underneath. The dock door slid up with a clunk behind them.
James piloted blind until lights shunted on around them, illuminating the massive space they were in. Judoon spaceships were docked above and below them, the cylindrical black ships coating the walls and attached to terminals by short glass tubes. There were millions of them packed tightly together, two thirds of the Shadow Proclamation's total military strength contained under one roof. Their shuttle was pathetic in comparison, the small green ship as insignificant as an ant next to the monsters kept there.
A dock lit up and James flew the shuttle towards it, wincing when the docking tubes roughly collided with it's side. Green paint flaked off and floated into the middle of the bay, leaving a circle of naked metal and a small dent in the ship's side. The air pressure in the airlock and the tube stabilised with a loud hiss and the lights shut off, plunging them in darkness. The Doctor leaped up from his chair, the emerald glow of the sonic illuminating his face like a horror film. He fumbled for Clara's hand in the dark, barely able to see more than a few centremetres in any directions.
"What's going on?" Clara questioned. The Doctor waved the sonic at her, the disc of light shining in her eyes and throwing her sharp cheekbones into shadows. She pointedly moved his wrist so the sonic was jabbed in a different direction that wasn't her.
"They're scanning the ship for weapons. Shouldn't take long; standard procedure. They'll let us out soon."
They waited, silent, apart from the occasional shuffle as James felt his way to them careful not to trip on any wires. Clara shivered- the temperature had dropped significantly since the shuttle had shut down. Puffs of white appeared whenever they breathed.
"Any minute now..." The Doctor whispered, and let out a whoop when the lights turned back on and the general hum of the ship resumed. Clara let out a grateful sigh as the heating turned back on and hot air blew through the vents on the floor, little clouds of steam rising as hot air met cold.
The airlock depressurised and the round door swung upwards slowly, the locks releasing smoothly as it was manipulated from the other side. Turning off the sonic, the Doctor led Clara over to the door, keeping her marginally behind him not out of spite, but out of fear that the Judoon would realise that she was not of this time and lock him up for kidnapping defenseless humans.
Not that she was defenseless, but still. He didn't want to risk it.
A helmeted Judoon marched down the tube to them, stomping heavily and breathing loudly. Clara craned her head for a better look, wondering how the Judoon were rhinos when they appeared so human. The Judoon stomped to a stop in front of them, scanning them with a hand held device from it's belt before standing to attention and thumping it's fist on it's chest, saluting them. The Doctor returned the salute.
"The Doctor and the human female shall follow me," the Judoon grunted, banging his chest at Clara before turning around and starting the way he came. Clara was surprised that the glass could support all the Judoon's weight without cracking.
She and the Doctor began to walk after it. James stood on the threshold of the tube, confused.
"Hey, what about me?" He called after them, "what do I do?"
The Judoon stopped, turned around. It reached up and undid the clasps around the base of his helmet and pulled it off in one swift twist of his hands. Clara's eyes widened. Underneath the helmet was a rhino's head; rough, tough skin, small ears, two short fat horns and tiny eyes that squinted at them all above the long snout and slitted nostrils. Where the teeth of a herbivore should be instead was the teeth of an omnivore, distinctly human and out of place in the rhino's mouth.
James gasped in shock and stumbled backwards, tumbling back into the passenger quarter of the shuttle.
"The male is not needed," the Judoon rasped, "he is expendable. Eject him."
James turned to the Doctor, terrified. "What's he saying? Doctor, what does he mean?" The Time Lord didn't answer, feeling sick to his stomach. He wanted to help James, but if he did he would be interfering with galactic law, putting Clara at risk and sentencing himself to a long term in prison. He looked at James sadly.
"Doctor!" The co-pilot cried, throwing himself against the airlock door as it closed and locked him in, air compressing as he was sealed into the shuttle. He punched the thick glass porthole in the door wildly.
"James!" Shouted Clara, starting to run to the airlock door controls on their side, but the Doctor grabbed her arms and held her back.
"There's nothing we can do," he told her, the words tasting vile in his mouth.
"What are you talking about! Of course there's something we can do, there has to be something!" She struggled in his grasp. The Doctor wrapped his arms around her waist, hugging her tightly to him. He hated to restrict her like that; to use his physical strength against her, but he really had no choice if they were both to survive.
A glass barrier slammed down between them and the shuttle, keeping the air in and evening out the pressure in both compartments. As the couple watched. the magnetic clamps holding the shuttle to the Shadow Proclamation's ship disengaged and the little ship was sent spinning into the night.