Wabana
by ErtheChilde


'Your faith is something I prize very highly.'


SEVEN

'Pirates,' Rose repeated, like she hadn't heard him properly. 'What does that have to do with the storm?'

'Everything,' the Doctor answered, watching the rolling black mists move further inland. 'That cloud up there? It's a manufactured ion cloud – distributes inhibitors into the atmosphere in order to confuse satellite positioning technologies and disrupt any communications signals to and from the resort.'

'So no one can send out a distress signal or get to us,' Martin piped up.

The Doctor shot him an impressed sideways glance. 'Exactly. Then they set off a bunch of remote-triggered force-field projectors at different points around their target – in this case, this resort – and make it physically inaccessible.'

'Completely cutting us off,' Rose said, catching on, eyes fixed warily on the horizon. 'But doesn't that make it so they can't come in here either? Cos I don't see a ship.'

'You will, in a minute,' the Doctor said. 'Pirate ships from this era are usually equipped with short-range teleports big enough to move their entire ship. Follows a dedicated signal that allows them to teleport straight inside the area they've already cordoned off so they can rape, pillage and plunder to their hearts content while the authorities sit helplessly by. Then they teleport out before anyone can stop them, to wherever they originally came from.'

'But isn't…' Rose made a face. 'I dunno how to say it, but you know how with a mobile, if you go far enough underground or away from the network, you can't make a call? Isn't there only so many places they could teleport too?'

'Yeah, but it'd still be a big radius,' Martin explained. 'And Dad says the coast guard isn't big enough to police everything. Something about budget cuts.'

'Always comes down to money,' the Doctor rolled his eyes.

'So how do they keep this kind of thing from happening?' Rose wanted to know.

'The usual – develop technology to prevent these incursions – of course, then the pirates come up with something better, and the entire cycle begins anew.'

'So there's basically nothing to stop them?'

'Dad says that this place has a system in place to find out if there's an attack coming,' Martin explained. 'It's one of the things he wanted to upgrade once he's bought it – anyway, it detects the ionic change in the atmosphere a full ten minutes before the pirates get here. That way they can call the coast guard and get the guests to safety bunkers.'

'So why isn't that happening now?'

The Doctor tensed and looked away from the horizon, noticing for the first time that there were no security forces on the beach. No one had arrived to shepherd people off sand and there was no indication that any kind of defenses or shields had been put up around the resort. A few people were watching the cloud in the distance, but no one seemed inclined to go inside.

'For whatever reason, the early warning system isn't working,' he decided. 'Even if it went of now, everything's delayed. Priority would be to save the guests, so they won't even begin to mount defenses until that's started. And it hasn't.'

'Sounds like our kind of job,' Rose pointed out with a grin, her eyes gleaming at the prospect of an incoming adventure.

'Someone needs to stay and look out for Martin,' he remarked absently, hoping against hope she might volunteer for that.

'Hey! I can help! I'm not just some stupid kid, you know!' the kid remarked indignantly. I helped you find your girlfriend, didn't I?'

The Doctor opened his mouth to offer a sharp retort, but Rose cut him off. 'Nah, you're brilliant, Martin. Which is why we need your help here. Cos it's like the Doctor said, right? There's a ship gonna be there and no one on the beach knows yet.'

A sound like thunder rolled in the distance, and the Doctor mentally estimated the time before the actual ship might appear. They had perhaps a minute or two.

'You need to go back inside the hotel – get as many people off the beach to follow you that you can.'

'Go find your Dad,' the Doctor added. 'Get everyone into the bunkers. Save as many people as you can.'

'What about you two?'

Rose laughed at that. 'We'll sort it. It's kind of what we do every day. Should've known any vacation with himself would end up being just another day saving the world.'

The Doctor winced at that.

Although Martin hesitated another second, he saw that other people were beginning to take note of the ion cloud and nodded to himself. 'Okay, I'll do my best! Good luck!'

And he ran off to the people nearest, animatedly telling them what was going on and pointing them in the direction of the resort. They made horrified faces, and soon were staggering up to the hotel area, while the boy hurried on to the next group.

The Doctor's focus returned to the horizon, wrinkling his nose at the smell of ions in the air.

Fantastic, he thought darkly. Looming adventure or not, he wasn't keen on pirates. They harmed too many people for the sake of their own pursuits for him to have any respect for them, and pirates on Wabana…Well, they were a particular breed of savage, and known to take lewd assaults to the extreme. The idea of something like that happening to Rose…

He trembled at the black feeling that gave him, the idea that even he couldn't think of what he might do in response to that.

On the other hand, Rose had survived so much before and proven herself more than capable of dealing with the basest of human – and alien – nature.

The Doctor shot her a sideways glance. 'I take it birthdays on earth aren't usually this prone to life-threatening pirate attacks?'

'Yeah, not so much.'

'Ah.' He shifted uncomfortably and forced out the words that were still difficult for him to say, especially when he truly meant them. 'I'm sorry.'

'What are you talking about?' Rose was giving him a look as though he had suddenly sprouted two heads. 'This is the best birthday ever! Fruity drinks, pirates – and I knocked out an egotistical prat…This is so much better than the year we got kicked out of that club for being underage and Shareen got arrested for accidentally knocking out the bouncer!'

Warmth flooded the Doctor again and he beamed at her. 'Yeah?'

''Definitely.'

There was a sudden explosion, the sound having nothing to do with thunder this time, so much as the plasma cannon of the ship that had just materialized.

A three-masted solar schooner solidified into view, hovering above the water. Black and mauve colours had been hoisted, and instead of sails hanging from its masts, it had thick flaps that stretched wide like batwings that he knew were meant to harness solar light. With the ion cloud obscuring the sky, it couldn't rely on those, but the Doctor could see an exhaust port at the stern which suggested it was run at least with a partial mechanical engine when it neared land.

Beachgoers around them screamed in fright and terror, and suddenly the beach was filled with fleeing people.

'Come on!' the Doctor ordered, grabbing Rose's hand and leading her toward a small building at the opposite end of the beach that resembled a boat house.

'Plan?' Rose prompted as they ran.

'We've got to get to the ship before it makes it close enough to the beach for a boarding party,' he explained. 'Once they set foot on land, all hell will break loose around here – well, more than it has already!'

'How're we gonna do that?'

'Probably a water speeder around her or something we can use.'

They made it to the boat house, and the Doctor brought his sonic out again, smacking it a few times in an effort to make the sand shift enough that he might get a bit of use out of it. No time to return to the TARDIS to fix it just yet.

'Won't they see us coming and – I dunno – shoot us?' Rose asked uncertainly, keeping her eyes on the ship as long as she could before they entered the little building. It didn't take long to find an older model hover scooter.

'We'll skirt the inner boundaries of the force-field. They won't be monitoring the insides so much as the outside for any sign of the coast guard – that, and we'll have these,' he told her, reaching out and brushing Rose's TARDIS key where it hung on its chain. 'Told you about perception filters, didn't I? Just need to have a bit of a chat with the TARDIS about extending her filter to your key and we'll be set. Lucky us, she's close enough that I can and – damn!'

He glared at the sonic, annoyed that it really was useless to him after all. He'd have to do this manually, then.

'Definitely inputting a sand-proofing feature,' he muttered to himself as stowed the sonic again and opened up the engine of the scooter. He began to pull out wires and twist dials, re-connecting and re-attaching as needed.'

'Are you hotwiring it?' Rose asked.

'Sort of – resort property, so it's locked. Also, for safety reasons, these only go a certain speed Just need to by-pass the speed limiter – hah! – and just tweak this to muffle the engine a bit – like so – and…give the man a medal!' He snapped the hatch closed again and slung his leg over the seat. 'Gotta meet an alien about a force-field. You game?'

'Absolutely,' Rose insisted as she settled in behind him and wrapped her arms snugly around his waist. He very studiously ignored the pleasant twitch of his abdominal muscles at her touch. 'You sure it's not gonna blow up with us on it?'

'Rose Tyler, don't you trust me?' he demanded, feigning offense and inordinately interested in her answer.

He could hear the grin in her voice as she answered, 'Always'.

The Doctor smiled and gunned the motor. 'Right – keep your head down and your hands and arms in! And whatever you do, don't throw up on me!'


I have put up a poll on my profile for anyone who wants to have some input in where Rose and the Doctor will end up in the next story I begin (I'm in the process of writing the first chapters to three new fics, and you can decide which one gets put up first!). Check it out! And, as always, thanks for taking the time to read!