Notes: Hoping to finish up this little story arc soon. I'll be skipping a bit after this as I hate retelling stories where I'm not changing much. It's part of what's held me up on this one (didn't feel like I changed enough, but there are some important things happening in announcing stuff and whatnot).

The Doctor considered the information that his wife had given him as he approached the small craft they'd been led to. There was soft piano music playing, but the ship was in sloppy disrepair.

"Love what you've done to the place down here," the Doctor commented to the person who was presumably in charge and hiding out.

"Let him in. Open the gate," a man's voice called out.

The Doctor walked through the now open gate, only to have it slam shut behind him, blocking the others from following. "It's fine. It's fine," he assured them calmly. The last thing he needed was for River to start firing her blaster around while he was gathering information.

"He's not interested in you," one of the robots said tauntingly.

"Look, you need to learn some manners," Rory argued with it.

"No, you need to learn some manners," the robot replied.

River rolled her eyes as the two continued to argue over which of them was being rude.

The Doctor came upon an elderly man, lying on a medical bed. He was hooked up to several scanning devices and obviously not getting any better for it.

"Fantasia in F minor for four hands," the Doctor commented as he admired the music playing.

"You know it," the man sneered.

"Know it? Say hello to hands three and four. Schubert kept tickling me to try to put me off. Franz the hands. Oh, that takes me back. Well, this is cosy," the Doctor told him, taking in as much information about the ship and its pilot as he could from his surroundings.

"It's fate you came," the man said with a pained smile.

"Is it? I'm the Doctor."

"Yes, I know. I'm Solomon," he replied.

A bright beam of light flashed over the Doctor from head to toe in some sort of scan. He knew that there was nothing innocent about it, since he was apparently dealing with a pirate who had done something terrible to the Silurians who should be on the ship. "What's that?"

"System malfunction. Ignore it," Solomon responded dismissively.

"What happened to you?" the Doctor questioned as he took in the man's injuries.

"I was attacked. Three raptors. They cornered me. The robots rescued me but it was nearly too late."

"Ah yes, the robots. They're unusual," the Doctor said with a backward glance to where he could hear River and Rory arguing with them.

"I got them cheap from a concession on Alyria Seven. The robots did as best they could with my legs, but you can help me so much more," Solomon replied.

"Oh. A doctor doctor. I see. Let's have a look," the Doctor said as he looked more closely at the injuries and the scanning equipment that was monitoring him.

"They chewed through part of the bone in my legs," he sighed, falling back on the bed and staring at the ceiling.

"Yes. Very nasty," the Doctor agreed.

"But you can repair them?" he asked hopefully. This situation might give the Doctor a chance to bargain with the man a bit.

"If you tell me how you came by so many dinosaurs," the Doctor responded, making it clear that this wasn't a social call or mission of mercy.

"Injure the oldest one," Solomon shouted to the robots.

"What?" the Doctor gasped and ran back to the gate to check on them.

One of the robots proceeded to shoot Brian in the shoulder. He cried out and collapsed back against the wall as he clutched at the wound protectively. Rory crouched beside him to make sure he was alright, his nursing instincts taking over. River glared at the machine angrily, but didn't dare take out her blaster and put them in even more danger.

"Dad! Dad! It's all right, Dad. It's okay," Rory told him as he moved his shirt out of the way to check on him.

"I don't respond well to violence, Solomon," the Doctor responded angrily.

"And I don't like questions, Doctor. You boarded without my permission. Now, fix me, or the next bolt will be fatal," Solomon insisted and the Doctor began to do what he could to keep the man alive, if not particularly mobile. He took his time and relayed what was happening to his wife while he worked.

"When this is over, I will personally see both of you dismantled and melted down for scrap metal," River growled at the robots.

"Oh, I'm so scared," the robot replied mockingly. "Actually, I might be. A little bit of oil just came out."

"Now, stay still. It's just a burn, it's nothing serious," Rory said as he took a small medical kit from his pocket.

"What's that?" Brian asked, looking at the futuristic supplies curiously.

"You carry a trowel, I carry a med-pack. It's all about the pockets in our family. This is an ice patch. It cools the skin," Rory told him.

"Never seen one of those," Brian commented, sighing a bit as the cold patch was placed over the burn on his shoulder.

"I pick up cool stuff wherever we go. For some people it's cars and hardware, for me it is nursing supplies. Now, painkiller. This won't hurt," Rory answered and proceeded to jab a small syringe into his arm, prompting a shout from the older man. "I lied. It won't hurt from now on, though. All right, you're done."

"Did mum ever tell you that I did just that to her once before you started travelling on the TARDIS?" River asked, remembering their little adventure beneath the Byzantium.

"Afraid not. I'll have to ask her about it, unless the amount of danger she was in would leave me better off not knowing, that is," Rory replied.

"Thanks," Brian said to his son as he put his shirt back in place.

"It's all right. You get to see my awesome nursing skills in action for once," Rory said with a smile.

On the ship, the Doctor was still working on repairing as much of Solomon's injuries as possible. He wasn't a surgeon by any means, but he had acquired a few doctorates over the centuries. The Doctor didn't really want the man back in peak condition anyway, if he had to stop him from hurting his family while they were here.

"How did you get on board, Doctor?" Solomon questioned, distracting him from his thoughts about the current situation.

"Oh, I never talk about myself with a gun pointed at me. Let's talk about you. Your cosy little craft embedded in a vast old ship," he responded. He still hadn't learned what had happened to the Silurians or what the man's plans were for the dinosaurs and the larger ship.

"You're very observant," Solomon commented warily.

"I'm a Sagittarius, probably," the Doctor replied.

"I'm transporting it to the Roxborne Peninsula."

"A commerce colony. You're a trader," the Doctor realized. That meant that this man was looking for money, and wouldn't care who he stepped on along the way. That made their job much more dangerous. Foolish scientists and explorers could be reasoned with, but greed was far more powerful a motivator than logic.

"I search out opportunities for profit across nine galaxies," he boasted.

"Ah, the purple light. That's what it was. An IV system, identifying value. The database of everything across space and time allocated a market value. Argos for the universe. You were trying to find out how much I'm worth," the Doctor guessed.

"Would you like to know?" Solomon asked as he clicked a few keys. The computer displayed, 'No Identification Found.' The man frowned and grumbled, "You don't exist. It's never done that."

"That's me. Worthless," the Doctor said with a smirk. Just the way he liked it. "Unlike these creatures you have on board. Very valuable, given they're extinct. Done. Sit up, very slowly."

The elderly man pushed himself up from where he had been lying and tested his limbs warily.

"The pain in my legs is gone. I can move them. Thank you, Doctor," he said honestly.

"What did you do to the Silurians?" the Doctor asked, getting straight to the point, now that he'd completed the demands of his captor.

"We ejected them. The robots woke them from cryosleep a handful at a time and jettisoned them from the airlocks. We must have left a trail of dust and bone," Solomon admitted.

"Because you wanted the dinosaurs," the Doctor sighed, disgusted at the flippant way the man dismissed his own murder of so many innocent people. He continued relaying what he was learning about the man to Rose, hoping that between them, they could come up with a plan to keep everyone safe.

"Their ship crossed my path. I sent out a distress signal, they let me board, and when I saw the cargo things became more complex."

"Piracy and then genocide," the Doctor accused, disgust clear in his tone.

"Very emotive words, Doctor."

"Oh, I'm a very emotive man," he replied, hoping Solomon hadn't learned the nature of the relationships he had to the people he brought with him. This seemed like the type of man that would press any advantage.

"The lizards wouldn't negotiate. I made them a generous offer," Solomon countered, as if the fact that he had tried to negotiate would excuse his crimes.

"The creatures on board this ship are not objects to be sold or traded."

"I feel like you're judging me."

"You said Roxborne Peninsula, so why are you heading to Earth? You're on the wrong course," the Doctor wondered. Solomon's face fell as if a crucial weakness had just been revealed. "Oh, you don't know how. Brilliant. You couldn't change the pre-programmed course without instructions. The ship defaulted, returned home. Oh dear. The Silurians outwitted you even after you'd massacred them, so now you're a prisoner on the ship you hijacked." The Doctor smirked at the way karma worked sometimes.

"Not now you're here. You're going to help me go wherever I want to go, Doctor," Solomon countered confidently.

"Little bit of news, Solomon. You're being targeted by missiles. Get off this ship while you still can," the Doctor warned, hoping that his day might be that easy, but doubting it would ever happen.

"You think I believe that? You just want them for yourself. You won't profit from me, Doctor," he responded.

"Don't ever judge me by your standards," the Doctor snarled, sonicking the gate controls as he moved to exit the ship abruptly. "Well, don't just stand there, you three," he called to Rory, River and Brian. They hurried to follow him as he addressed the robots, "Hey, he wants to see you."

"Dad, up!" Rory whispered as he and River helped Brian back onto his feet. The Doctor seemed to be making a bit of an escape and it was best not to be left behind.

There was some protesting from the group as the Doctor insisted on making their escape from the robots riding on the triceratops they'd met earlier. It was no small feat for River to jump onto it while pregnant, but she was never one to back down from a challenge.

"If my water breaks from all this running around, Doctor, you'll be the one answering to James for it!" River shouted at him.

"You'll be just fine, River, made of tougher stuff than that. Go, Tricy. Run like the wind!" the Doctor demanded of the immobile dinosaur.

The robots were firing their lasers past them with the accuracy of a blind storm trooper, but they needed to get going before the stupid things caught up with them. "Quick, how do you start a Triceratops?"

River and Rory both rolled their eyes, but Brian pulled one of his golf balls from his pocket and tossed it ahead of them down the hallway, calling, "Tricy, fetch!"

They managed to lose the lumbering robots in the chase, but had to fall off of the dinosaur rather ungracefully when they wanted to dismount. Rory managed to cushion his daughter's fall somewhat for the sake of the baby and everyone seemed to be alright for the moment.

"Good. That worked. Okay. Er, where are we now?" the Doctor wondered as he dashed to the nearest computer interface. He immediately managed to set up a connection with the others to converse on the current situation.

"Hello, love. Managed to escape the villain of the day?" Rose greeted him with a smile.

"Of course. We rode on a dinosaur!" he beamed.

"Dad!" Jamie gasped over his mother's shoulder.

"Yes, yes. Your wife and baby are just fine, Jamie. Promise. Now, current situation for you lot?" the Doctor asked, dismissing his son's concerns for the moment. He knew that he should be more considerate of River's pregnancy, but a little bumping around would be of no consequence if they were all blown from the sky by missiles.

"We were contacted by Indira, from Earth. I did my best, Doctor, but the ship is too close and they've started the missile program. We've only got about half an hour," Rose informed him.

"I'm sure you tried, my love. There's only so much we can do and don't we always work better with a time limit?" the Doctor replied, sending his understanding through their link. "We'll work on meeting back up with you. Stay together, stay safe."

#######################

"Now, these are what we need. Dinosaur protection," Riddell announced as he pulled several rifles out of a cabinet nearby.

"No weapons," Amy chastised, earning a smile from Rose and James.

Riddell rolled his eyes as he handed the box that had been next to them over to Amy. She opened it to reveal tranquilizer that when with the guns.

"Anaesthetic? These are stun guns. You're almost clever," Amy conceded.

"Enough to make a dinosaur take a nap. Even the Doctor couldn't object to that," Riddell insisted.

"Just don't get too trigger happy with those, if you please. Too much tranquilizer can be harmful and not all of the dinosaurs are dangerous," Rose interrupted.

"The Doctor's goddess has spoken," Nefertiti acknowledged.

#########################

The Doctor and River searched through the computer systems for any way to get the ship to stop, turn around, put up shields, or defend itself somehow. Unfortunately, they weren't being particularly successful.

"What ship doesn't have weapons?" Rory questioned.

"Ah, they're an ancient species, Rory. Still full of hope," the Doctor responded proudly, but still disappointed with their situation.

"What about the control deck? You said we should go to the control deck next," Brian suggested when he could see that they were running out of ideas.

"It's too late. It won't make any difference," the Doctor growled in frustration.

"You are NOT giving up now, Doctor. We have too much to live for to just stop. Now THINK!" River shouted.

Their argument was interrupted by a bright flash of light as Solomon and his robots teleported nearby. The pirate was leaning heavily on large, metal crutches as he sneered at them.

"You were telling the truth, Doctor. Earth has launched missiles. This vessel is too clumsy to outrun them, but I have my own ship."

"You won't get your precious cargo on board, though. Just be you and your metal tantrum machines," the Doctor countered. He wanted to save the dinosaurs, but he might have to be satisfied with the fact that this man wouldn't get his prize and just run everyone back into the TARDIS.

"We do not have tantrums!" one of the robots pouted angrily.

"Shut up!" he snapped at the robot before readdressing the Doctor, "You're right, Doctor. I can't keep the dinosaurs and live myself. But I had the IV system scan the entire ship, and it found a couple of items even more valuable. Utterly unique. And I want them."

"I don't know what you're talking about," the Doctor responded, knowing that this was likely a catastrophic development.

"First, Earth Queen Nefertiti of Egypt. But even better, a legend throughout the entire universe, the Bad Wolf," Solomon announced, evil glee shining in his eyes. "Give them to me, and I'll let the rest of you live."

"No," the Doctor replied immediately with the oncoming storm swirling ferociously in his eyes.

"You think I won't punish those who get in my way, whatever they're worth?" Solomon threatened and motioned for the robots to kill the nearby Triceratops they had ridden earlier.

The Doctor ran to the creature's side and stroked it gently, sending soothing telepathic waves to ease its pain as it passed away

"Bring them to me, or the robots will make their way through your corpses. Bring them now," Solomon demanded again.

"No."

There was a flash of light as the rest of his family and friends appeared. Riddell had his gun pointed straight at Solomon and for once, Rose and Nefertiti seemed to be in agreement as they glared at him.

"What are you doing? You were safer where you were," the Doctor argued.

"I demanded to be brought here," Nefertiti informed him.

"And there is no way in hell that I am letting him harm one more creature on this ship," Rose added.

"No, no, no, no, no way," the Doctor argued.

"It isn't your choice, Doctor, it's ours," Nefertiti replied, still glaring daggers at Solomon.

"What do you think you're doing?" he questioned Rose telepathically.

"Buying you some time. This is how we do things, love. You know that," she replied.

"I don't know what to do. It has nothing to do with time, there isn't a solution. I need to get everyone back to the TARDIS before this whole ship goes up," he pleaded with her.

"There's always a solution. Find it," she insisted and marched over to where Solomon was standing along with Nefertiti.

"Listen to me. If you go with him, I can't guarantee your safety," the Doctor said aloud, for the Egyptian Queen's benefit.

"You saved my people. I am in your debt," she answered.

"No. No debts. You don't owe me anything," the Doctor insisted.

"Then I do it on my own."

"No! Take them and I shoot you," Riddell shouted as he raised his rifle against the pirate.

"Put it down, Riddell. We know what we're doing. Neither of us is some damsel that needs rescuing," Rose told him.

"Do it, boy," Solomon growled.

The Doctor nodded to him and he lowered the gun.

"My bounty increases. And what an extraordinary bounty you are," Solomon boasted as he stroked Nefertiti's face. His audacity earned him a slap from her.

"Never touch me."

"I like my possessions to have spirit. It means I can have fun breaking them," he added as he looked into Rose's eyes appraisingly. "And I will break you in with immense pleasure. Thank you, Doctor."

"Are you sure you can handle a wolf?" Rose questioned and her eyes flashed with golden light for a moment.

Solomon flinched, unsure of what to make of it, but confidently called, "Computer, take us back to my ship."

In another flash of light, the women had disappeared with Solomon and the robots.