CHAPTER 3

"Argh! Why won't you work?" Martha yelled at the sonic screwdriver and tapped it against her palm a couple times. With a Perception Filter secured from the TARDIS and hung on her neck, she decided to try to get all of the cages open, but the panel on the wall was unresponsive. She turned around and faced the darkness, speaking to the captured Toshvee. "I'm so, so sorry, but I'll have to come back for you. I promise I'll get you all out of here. If your cages unlock, I want ALL of you to get into the blue box in the middle of the room as fast as possible. Do NOT touch anything. Just wait in there. And yes, you'll all fit. Trust me." She heard several begin to cry. "I'll get you out of here, I promise!" Martha nearly started to cry as well.

"Miss Martha Jones," Votarsh spoke toward her, "Thank you."

"I'll see you soon." She nodded into the darkness, took a deep breath, and felt her way to the door and sonic'd it open. Peeking around and seeing it was clear, she worked her way down the dimly lit corridor.

"Control Room, Control Room…" she thought to herself, "I need a map of the ship…" and she spotted what looked like a monitor and made her way to it. She whispered to the sonic screwdriver, "don't fail me, now," and pointed it at the screen. It flashed hundreds of images at her within seconds. "Slow down! I'm NOT the Doctor!" she whispered at the screwdriver again, changing a few settings. Finally, the screen brought up a map, and showed her the Control Room, "How do I stop the engines?" she asked both the screen and the screwdriver. They showed her the engine system and the fuel-dumping and emergency shutdown protocol codes. "Where is the Doctor?" They brought up a room labeled "New Prisoner Processing," then another room labeled "Somatic Implant Research Facility."

"Somatic Implant? What are they bloody doing to you?" She suddenly heard several soldiers stomping toward her, and hid behind a bulkhead. They passed her, oblivious to her presence.

Besides the single group of soldiers in the corridor, the ship had been empty and her journey through the stony, cold passageways uneventful. She rounded a corner, one of the last few before reaching the Control Room. Her heart stopped as she heard a terrifying sound. It was The Doctor. Screaming, in agony. She rushed toward his screams, running down a few more passageways, until she found herself in front of a door with a face-sized, murky window. The screams were coming from that room. She bit her lip as her eyes welled with tears. Standing on her tiptoes, she glanced inside.

"Oh, Doctor, what are they doing?" she whispered to herself. Inside, she could just make out what looked like an operating room, with two Jal'ka'Rakh attending the Doctor, whose entire body and head were tightly strapped facedown on an operating table. His jacket was gone and his shirt was torn badly. Blood was oozing from the back of his neck. His screams had stopped, and her once exuberant Doctor became limp and lifeless. Her stomach churned and her heart pounded, and she couldn't keep looking. From feeling sick to feeling enraged with hate, she mustered all her strength to walk away and continue to the Control Room. "I'm coming back for you, Doctor. I promise you."

She found the Control Room door and sonic'd it open and peeked inside. Not a single Jal'ka'Rakh in sight. Running toward what she could only guess was the main control console, she pointed the screwdriver at it, pressed a red button, and said "begin emergency fuel dump, authorization code 8-5-J-Zero-B."

An alarm sounded, and a growling female voice announced to the room, "emergency fuel dump in progress."

Martha breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, phase two," she thought to herself, and found a glowing white button. Speaking to the computer, she fed it the authorization code for an emergency power shutdown, and pressed the button. The female voice spoke again, "emergency power shutdown in progress. Warning, navigation and prison lock systems compromised."

"Yes!" Martha cried, and kissed the sonic screwdriver. "We did it, Doctor!" Her heart sank once more as she remembered the gruesome scene in the laboratory. "Doctor, just hold on." She found a communications monitor and connected to the prison. "Votarsh, and all Toshvee, if you can hear me, your cells should be unlocked, please get into my ship, the blue box, you'll be safe there. The Doctor, our… pilot, has been taken captive and I am going to find him. I will meet with you as soon as I can."

Martha glanced around the room, looking for some kind of weapon. "Nothing, of course." She did find a metal rod, took it in her hands, and with all of her strength she bashed the main control console until it sparked and sputtered. "Warning," the female voice growled, "all systems compromised, projected engine core overload in 7 minutes. Evacuate now. Warning."

"Whoopsie!" Martha joked to herself.