Operation Improv

The Doctor, Mikan, and Hotaru retraced their steps, though the Doctor did not remember much of having gone this way before, being unconscious as he had been. They came to the snowy drop from the floor above and the Doctor showed the girls ladders on both sides that they had not noticed before.

"I'm not sure where it is that we're going," Rory said in a low voice as they walked, "but it should be near the back of the ship somewhere."

"Will we run into any of those...men?" Prez asked. "The blue ones?"

"The Icites? It's very possible," Rory confirmed. He peered around into a passage, making sure that it was clear before darting past it and the three boys behind him scurried past after him.

Climbing the ladders on either side of the snowy area, the Doctor, Hotaru, and Mikan retraced further their steps for a short distance further before the Doctor stopped them.

"We should take a different route, one that is less frequented," spoke he quietly.

"Do you know your way around Icite ships?" Mikan whispered.

"Not in the slightest," the Doctor answered before slipping into a room on one side.

Hotaru and Mikan exchanged a look and then trailed him.

"How did you start traveling with the Doctor?" Prez asked, his voice low, as were all of their voices when they spoke.

Rory didn't reply for a minute. He briefly sent a glance down one passage before whipping his head around to the one opposite; seeing nothing, he kept walking. "My wife met him when she was little. She told me about him, but I didn't believe her. Then one day...he came back. And he saved the world."

Luca and Natsume followed them in silence, listening but not offering their own opinions.

"Does he save the world often?" Prez asked.

Rory smiled and seemed to laugh inaudibly to himself. "Yes, he does."

The sounds of footsteps met their ears and as one they froze.

"In here!" Rory hissed, dragging Prez by the sleeve in through a side door.

Luca and Natsume flitted inside after them like shadows and all four hugged the wall by the door. A few seconds later an Icite stalked by with his swaying gait. After the blue man had passed, Natsume peered out into the hall and looked both up it and down before leaving the safety of the side room and leading the rest back to their purposeful path toward the ship's rear.

"Yes...here we are." The Doctor waltzed into the control room, having in the moment before scanned it for blue men.

The space was bigger than the room they had first appeared in, though not nearly as big as the one in which they had all been introduced to Jack. In the middle of it was an island of computer panels, the controls of which were on the outside; a slightly smaller island atop that island contained output screens, some showing parts of the ship or numerical readout and some blank.

The Doctor glanced back. "I don't suppose either of you two girls can work an Icite computer system?"

"Hotaru is very good with mechanical things," Mikan told him.

"Well then," said he, "Hotaru-chan. Would you like to have at it?"

Hotaru kept herself composed, but Mikan could see the interest in her eyes as she went forward to look over the controls. She occasionally pushed a button or flipped a switch; sometimes she flipped it immediately back and sometimes she left it altered.

"Time is running out," said the Doctor. "Soon the ice meteor will be close enough and Jack will come here to divert its path." He paused before adding, "No pressure."

Hotaru ignored him.

"I think this is it," Rory whispered.

"The rear of the ship?" Prez asked. "What makes you think so?"

Rory pointed to an indented circle set into the wall. He reached forward and pushed it, at which it fell back noiselessly to reveal a tiny room with silent consoles at the other end. "An escape pod," said he to Prez.

"I saw one of those earlier," Luca said. "It was filled with dark blue packs."

"They're probably using it as a temporary storage or something," Rory replied with a shrug. "Who knows what they do or why they do it?"

"Where would the tractor beam be?" Prez asked, looking around.

"I think I got a glance of a schematic of the ship before they caught me the first time," Rory responded, himself looking around. "I think there's a room that might contain it...under this one."

They all looked at the floor, wondering how to get down to the floor below.

"Here," Natsume spoke the single word and they all looked to where he stood by a bluish support pillar. A hole beside it revealed itself to be a pit containing snow almost identical to the one which they had used before.

They all went to the pit and one at a time dropped in.

"What is that noise?" Mikan asked with widened eyes. It sounded like a large mechanical cricket.

The sound stopped.

"What, this?" The Doctor held up something long and fairly thin, a combination of light brown, grey, a bit of black, and a bit of green on one end. The Doctor did something and the sound started again, the green on one end of the tool in his hand lighting up.

Mikan nodded in confirmation, staring raptly at it.

"This is my sonic screwdriver!" he exclaimed, spinning 'round in a circle. Then he turned back to the computer and started using the device again.

"What does it do?" Mikan questioned.

"Lots of things!" said the Doctor without turning or stopping whatever he was doing.

"Stop, Doctor!" the command came from behind and Mikan spun to see Jack Frost standing with his height, hand on the sword at his side. On either side two other, taller Icites stood with their own ranged weapons leveled, one at Mikan and one at the Doctor.

"Ah, Jack," the Doctor declared. "Fancy meeting you here!"

"Isn't it?" Jack sneered. "You have become something of a nuisance here."

"You flatter me," spoke the Doctor without removing his gaze from Jack.

"Yes," Jack said thoughtfully, mostly to himself. "It seems you have somehow broken out of my ice cell. Not a feat to be taken lightly." He took two steps forward, focusing none on Mikan although she was close enough to strike him if she had so wanted. "I could freeze you in a block of ice and put you in my trophy room with the other animals I have hunted and caught." He raised his free hand. "I, Jack Frost, have caught the famed Doctor! He is still alive but he is helpless and in my possession. Fortunately for you," he continued, "such a thing requires some preparation, especially for warm-blooded races such as yourself. Therefore, I will replace you back in my ice cell with the bar that is now fixed, and I will place a guard over you with orders to shoot you if you try anything foolish." Jack cocked an eyebrow.

"That sounds reasonable," the Doctor agreed.

"I don't care about what you think is 'reasonable'!" roared the Icite pirate, his blue dreadlocks shaking. He turned to one of the other Icites. "Take them!" he ordered.

Rory held a wire with both hands. "Cut it here," he told Natsume.

Natsume reached a hand into the internals of the machinery and put his fingers around the wire between Rory's two hands. Flame leaped from Natsume's fingers and Rory's own hands instinctively slipped farther down the wire away from the boy, but he could not feel the heat from the flame in the cold climate on The Door Nipper, Jack's ship.

After a short while the wire fell apart where Natsume had burned through and both he and Rory relinquished their holds on it.

"Good," stated Rory. "I don't know very much about tractor beams, but hopefully I know enough about mechanics to sabotage one."

"Uh-oh!" Prez exclaimed softly.

Luca said, "Natsume," and the way he said it caused his friend to jerk his head up, dark locks of hair thrown to sides.

Rory also looked up.

A blue man came into sight, looking right at them and holding his gun leveled. "Hold it!" He jerked with the weapon. "Move away from that." They complied and the Icite moved toward the tractor beam as another Icite came into view, he also holding his weapon at ready. The first Icite looked into the exposed internals of the tractor beam while Rory and Prez cringed, but a second later he pulled the piece over the opening, covering the inner workings of the large device.

"Come on," ordered the other Icite, who was closer to the pit which they had used in jumping down from above. "Let's go. I think Jack will be very happy to see you two."

"Or not," added the first Icite, and they both laughed; their laughter sounded like dozens of icicles cracking.

Rory reluctantly followed their order, glancing over his shoulder to see Prez shuffling along behind his flowing cape. He didn't see Natsume and Luca, and so turned to look over his other shoulder. Wait. "You two"?

"You won't escape from our watch," the Icite behind told him. "You may as well stop looking for a way to try."

"It would only end painfully for you," the one in front added in agreement.

Rory stopped looking for fear that they would realize two were still missing. He caught Prez's eye and the latter caught the look in Rory's; glancing quickly around, Prez realized what Rory had already seen and the boy furrowed his blond eyebrows behind his glasses. Rory responded with a slight shrug and they kept walking.