Disclaimer: In addition to the DW and AVP stuff, I just want to disclaim the Hitchhiker's GTTG reference as well. It's Douglas Adams', not mine. And I may drop in a few references to other sci-fi TV shows/books etc. throughout this story,

Chapter Four – Exit Strategy

The Doctor couldn't help but get a little excited once she'd said that. "Really?" he asked with a grin. "The Revenant? As in the first ever commercial ship to be equipped with warp drive nine?"

Tevo nodded, seeming rather pleased with herself. "The very same. And we commandeered it with only a star system cruiser."

A look of elucidation spread across the Doctor's face. "So this is what happened to it!" he suddenly burst out. "I always wanted to know that. It's not quite as cool as the Heart of Gold being stolen by the President of the Galaxy, but at least everyone knew what happened to that one. This one's always been a bit of a mystery; nobody ever quite worked out where it went. So it was you lot was it? You could have made history with that, if anyone ever found out it was you."

She looked at him as if he was crazy. "Right…Doctor, I have no idea what you're talking about, but you said you could get us out of here so how do we do that?"

He stopped his rambling and focussed on immediate situation again. "Ah, yes. Well, we'll need to find a way off this ship, and I got a bit lost on my way in so I'll need you to direct me."

Tevo gave him a worried look. "Get off this ship? But those things are outside."

"Well, so's my ship," he replied.

She chewed her lip thoughtfully for a moment. "How did you get in here without them attacking you?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea, but I was walking through the forest for at least forty minutes and I didn't so much as see one."

Tevo frowned for a moment as if that made no sense to her, but then nodded, seeming to have reached a conclusion. "Alright, then let's go."

Ellis butted in. "Wait, what? We spent all that effort getting the shields back up and you're just going to walk back out there?"

Adrick nodded in agreement. "It's crazy! We won't last five minutes."

Tevo turned to glare at them. "Well, what other choice do we have? The fuel cell's already damaged and it's a power drain running the shields constantly at max – I doubt it's going to last a day. Would you rather wait for the power to run out or make our move now?"

They were both silent for a moment, but then nodded grimly. "Good," Tevo said, turning back to the Doctor. "How far away's your ship?"

"If you run fast enough we'll get there in twenty minutes," he answered.

She grinned. "Trust me, we're fast runners. Right, we'll need weapons to fend them off. Adrick, do you have a spare p-sec you can give the Doctor?"

Adrick glared at her.

She glared right back. "He's our only chance of getting out of here. Do you really want to him to go out there unarmed?"

Reluctantly, Adrick took a p-sec pistol out of a holster on his left hip and held it out towards the Doctor, but the Doctor shook his head. "No, I don't want a gun."

Again, Tevo gave him a look as if she thought he was crazy. "Don't feel bad about killing these things, Doctor. If you're not ruthless you'll be dead."

He still resolutely refused to take the weapon. "Whatever you intend to do with it, if you have a gun you can use it on anything. I'd rather not take that risk."

Tevo just shook her head incredulously, but Ellis grinned. "Don't worry, Doctor, no need to kill them yourself. I can do that for you," he said, brandishing the flamethrower.

The Doctor gave a disapproving frown at the pirate's enthusiasm for violence, but realised Tevo was right: they were going to have to be ruthless if they wanted to get out of here alive. "Alright," he said. "Now which way's the exit?"

"Down here," Tevo said, turning to lead them along the corridor past the corpse of the xenomorph. "And let's hope we don't come across any more of those things on the way."

Adrick looked at the carcass warily as he passed it, grimacing at the way in which it seemed to be slowly sinking into the floor as the pool of blood surrounding it slowly melted the metal away. "What are these creatures anyway?"

"God knows…" Tevo began, but to the three pirates' surprise the Doctor answered.

"Xenomorphs."

Ellis looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Well," said the Doctor, "They don't have a name for themselves as a species, but humans call them xenomorphs."

The three of them looked at him. "How do you know that?" Adrick asked.

The Doctor shrugged. "I know a lot of stuff."

Tevo thought to question him on what he knew. "And what's exactly is a xenomorph?"

"Probably one of the nastiest creatures in the universe," the Doctor replied, "Very difficult to kill, as you may have worked out; vicious temperament; acid for blood; really horrifying methods of reproduction – and I mean really horrifying – double sets of jaws…"

He was continuing to list all the unpleasant aspects of the xenomorph species, but Tevo muttered something under her breath. "If a rescue team does get here they'd better bring a nuclear launcher, so we can blow these things to hell…"

The Doctor stopped listing things and shot her a disapproving glance. "No, you can't do that."

She rounded on him and gave him an incredulous look. "What do mean we can't? You've just been telling me all about how they're probably the nastiest creature in the universe and now you're saying we mustn't nuke them? What kind of logic do you operate on?"

He met her ferocious glare with a look that was equally intense. "They're not exactly pleasant, I know, but this is their planet and they were here first. Until you came along they'd probably never even encountered humans before and they weren't hurting anybody. They just happen to be top of the food chain on this planet, like you are on Earth or whatever colony you're from. They aren't intelligent creatures waging war on you; they're just following their instincts, and I know it might seem pretty horrific to you but the way they're behaving is completely natural. I'll help get you out of here alive but you can't come back and nuke the planet just because you found it unpleasant or scary."

She looked completely exasperated. "Why not? What if they find a way off this planet?"

Even though he could understand where she was coming from, he couldn't condone the eradication of an entire species which hadn't chosen to declare war on anybody. "They can't do that unless some other intelligent species comes along and…"

Their argument was interrupted by the sound of Adrick's worried voice. "Er, Captain? Doctor? I think there's something else we may need to be worrying about right now…"