Wabana
by ErtheChilde

'Your faith is something I prize very highly.'

TEN

This is definitely not good, Rose thought desperately.

Of all things she had expected to happen when she was dragged up on deck, being mistaken for the heiress she was pretending to be hadn't been one of them. Considering the other, worse scenarios working their way through her imagination, though, she figured she might be able to pretend long enough to –

To keep myself alive, she thought quickly, almost belatedly remembering the possibility of telepaths and resolutely not looking over at where the captain had been standing before.

If they thought she was this heiress person, they would probably keep her alive longer.

Have to keep up the act, she thought as she eyed some of the dodgier looking aliens – there was one that had wicked looking spikes everywhere, and another with hooked claws instead of hands – and her mouth opened to instinctively yell for help.

Some part of her still managed to stop her, though. Instinct might be telling her to call for the Doctor, but her brain forcibly reminded her that he hadn't finished whatever he had come up here to do yet. If the pirates weren't stopped, they might decide to take out their frustration at her deception on the people at the resort – people like Martin or Taa and his friends, who might have been tossers but didn't deserve being attacked and possibly killed by pirates hoping to make a quick haul.

'Oh, er, you caught me…yeah…' she tried to laugh unconcernedly. 'So, that's me. Thought meeting pirates would be fun, and it totally has been, so…' She cleared her throat. 'If you'd be so kind as to just drop me off on the beach…?'

The captain laughed harshly.

'You really think it works that way? Must've been a recluse for a while, little girl. The galaxy doesn't work that way.' She tightened her grip on Rose's neck, forcing her to choke for air, and then released her roughly. 'We came here to do a job, and you're key to that, aren't you?'

'Yeah, but – I left all my, er, money back at the resort,' Rose managed as she found herself back in the clutches of the two brutes that had brought her up on deck. 'Could give you everything I have myself if you bring me back –'

'Mr Fletkbir, send out a wave,' the captain ordered the man at the wheel of the ship, and Rose saw the Doctor duck out of sight again as the pirate turned to do as ordered. 'Get the Mr Lampyra on the Com. Tell him we've found something that belongs to him.'

Rose winced.

'Um, yeah, that probably won't do any good – see, we're on the outs, not talking – probably wouldn't mind me getting kidnapped, really,' she babbled nervously. 'Something about learning lessons and all that.'

The captain eyed her with dire promise. 'For your sake, you'd better hope he's in a forgiving mood.'

Rose shivered, trying to think up something else to say – some other way to stalling before they discovered the lie, but there was already an echoing tonal sound across the ship.

Of bloody course, she's got us on speaker, she thought in annoyance.

The man at the helm had come down, brandishing a tablet-like device which he passed to the captain. She pressed a button, and a holographic display began to rotate in the air in front of them.

There were a few more seconds of the tonal ring, before the holograph suddenly solidified into a human shape – only about one eighth the size. The holograph looked like an older gentlemen with a handlebar moustache and an honest to god monocle.

'What's this? Who the devil are you?' he demanded imperiously. 'How did you get access to this Com line?'

'Stow the questions, Mr Lampyra,' the captain snapped. 'We've got your daughter here, and if you want her returned all in one piece, you're gonna haul out your cheque screen.'

'What?' the man demanded.

'Are you deaf, old man? We've got your daughter!'

'There must be some sort of mistake –'

There was a shuffling sound, and then suddenly the holograph image changed to a young woman dressed head-to-toe in some kind of burnoose and sun-glasses – which she whipped off so that she could glare out at them.

'Whoever you are, you've been duped,' the snooty voice echoed over the intercom. 'As you can see, I'm perfectly safe. I haven't even left on my holiday yet – and I definitely won't be coming there now! Goodbye!'

The transmission ended.

There was a ringing silence throughout the ship.

Well, that's that, Rose thought, feeling sick. It's too bad, I liked living. Living was nice.

It seemed she'd finally by-passed the terror and started with the hysterical sarcasm. Was this how the Doctor always felt?

'Mr Creedy, Mr Miktoprott,' the captain said, voice a deadly calm as she addressed the crew holding on to Rose. 'Before we keelhaul this lying, vandalising stowaway, feel free to share her amongst the crew.'

'No!' Rose gasped.

'It's only fair, considering we passed up other opportunities just to get to you,' the captain sneered. 'And by Mortius, we'll get our use out of you before stripping this place to its bones.' She addressed the crew. 'No survivors!'

A shout went up and Rose began struggling again earnest, a futile fight against the much larger pirates holding her and now was definitely the time to panic and she started to scream for the Doctor when –

BOOM!

There was an explosion from somewhere behind the ship, and there was a lull in the shouting as captain and crew turned their attention toward where smoke and some flame were licking up into the sky.

It seemed that was all the time the Doctor needed to suddenly leap out from where he had been hiding, tossing a handful of wires and detritus into the face of one of Rose's captors, who loosened his grip enough for her to move.

She stomped down hard on his instep, causing him to howl and let go, and then the Doctor had yanked her away from them.

'Time to go!' he shouted, pulling her along through the now recovering crew. The alien pirates tried to go after them, but the Doctor led her in a ducking, dodging retreat to the other side of the ship.

'Go where?' she demanded, but was cut off when there was a crackling noise and then the sudden sense of the ion cloud barrier fading away. The sound of hover engines became louder, interspersed with sirens, causing many of the pirates to start to make a run for it.

It looked like the Doctor had managed to deal with the force-field relay.

'Pirate vessel SS Rapier – we have you surrounded!' a computerized voice blared.

'To arms!' the captain yelled above the din, and the sound of blaster-fire and canons started up. 'If a one of you thinks about abandoning ship, I'll have your guts for garters, to the last man!'

The Doctor's hand tightened around Rose's.

'Run!' he ordered, grabbing her hand and hauling her to the edge of the ship.

'Don't you mean jump?!' she shouted as they vaulted overboard, plummeting into the warm waters below.

Sound disappeared as they submerged, but when they broke the surface it all came rushing back. The alarms and horns blared from the coast guard ships that were headed for the schooner. At the back of the ship, the remnants of the hover scooter were burning merrily.

'How'd you do that?' Rose gasped, spitting out seawater.

'Managed to get the sonic working for a minute,' the Doctor replied. 'Though…after this bit, it's gonna be a bit water-damaged.'

'You think?'

'Still your best birthday ever?' he countered as Rose treaded water.

With the engine disabled and the hover scooter's wreckage having blown a sizeable hole into the hull, the pirates wouldn't be going anywhere any time soon.

Despite feeling a bit waterlogged, she grinned back. 'Definitely.'

'Fantastic.'