Segment 11 is where all the loose ends will be tied up.

Chapter 10: A Deadly Deception

High in the skies above the snowy plains of Volag-Noc, Baltazar looked down and spotted Martha and Gurney watching him approached and his glowing eyes narrowed. "The final data-chip, at last! Now my heart's desire will finally be mine!"

"Not likely, mate!" Gurney pushed past Martha and raised his laser pistol.

"Gurney, no!" Martha cried.

But it was too late. Gurney fired a blast which hit Caw right in the chest and with a squawk of pain, the robotic raptor wheeled out of the sky and crashed by the edge of the forest.

"Caw!" Martha took off toward the plume of smoke.

With a smile, Gurney turned and ran towards the rocket bay but as he spotted the ships, Baltazar caught up to him. "Oh, no you don't."

Gurney spun round and his eyes narrowed. "You…"

"Now, now, Constantine, let's not be too hasty," the pirate tutted. "Just hand over the data-chip and you can go free."

Gurney raised his pistol up. "Over my dead body!"

"Very well, then." Baltazar raised his robotic arm, switched on his laser blaster and fired…

Martha ran through the frosted trees until she spotted the sprawled form of the robotic bird. "Caw, can you hear me?"

Slowly, Caw raised his head and stared at her with half-closed eyes. "Miss Martha… is that you?"

"Yes, Caw." Martha knelt down next to Caw and petted his metal head. "Now tell what's going on."

Caw turned his head away sadly. "Sorry, Miss Martha… Caw's been a… dirty birdie. This whole quest was… all Baltazar's planning."

Martha nodded grimly. "So you were working with him all the time, weren't you? You sent him on this hunt for the data-chips on his orders."

"I'm sorry. It's the gold, see." Caw gave a deep rasping sigh. "Baltazar promised me… all the gold I could eat…"

"Oh, Caw…" Martha stood up and spotted smoke coming out of his chest. "Can you get up? We have to stop Baltazar."

Caw struggled to get up but he just slumped back into the snow. "I'm sorry. Gurney… He got me right in the fusion chamber… I'm done for, now…"

"Don't say that! There must be something I can do."

"There's not."

Martha turned at that voice to find the Doctor standing by the edge of the trees, the blizzard whipping his coat about like a cape. "Doctor," she called out, tears in her eyes. "We have to help him. We have to do something, please."

But the Time Lord simply bowed his head. "I told you before, Caw runs on gold fusion. Once his reactor's burned out, that's it." He turned to Caw and smiled glumly. "I'm so sorry, Caw."

The metallic bird simply nodded his head. "Va… va… vooooommm…" Then he closed his eyes and his body powered down.

"Caw?" Martha shook the bird's head but got no reaction. "Oh, Caw…"

The Doctor stepped forward and placed his arm around her shoulders but then a voice called out to them. "Good afternoon, Doctor. We have some unfinished business."

The Doctor and Martha whirled round to see Baltazar standing some distance away, his robotic arm pointed at them and Gurney's data-chip in his other hand. "Don't try anything clever, or I'll take off your friend's head. Now, take me to your ship."

With an angry scowl, the Doctor and Martha set off back to the TARDIS, Baltazar following behind them.

"You know, I always figured you were behind this," the Doctor remarked. "All this talk about having a copy made, when in fact, it's impossible to recreate technology from the Dark Times."

"Yes, I admit that that was sloppy thinking," Baltazar agreed. "But I knew you wouldn't allow me to get my hands on the Infinite, only now you're actually helping me achieve that aim."

Soon they reached the TARDIS and the Doctor reluctantly opened it. Baltazar took a moment to examine the inside. "So the legends are true, this ship is bigger on the inside than the outside. Get in!" He shoved the Doctor and Martha inside then pointed his arm at them. "Turn around, hands in the air!"

"So how'd you find us?" the Doctor demanded as he and Martha obeyed. "It's very tricky to track a TARDIS, you know."

"Normally, you'd be right," Baltazar replied. "But I had some insider information. Tell me, have you met Squawk?"

"Squawk?" the Doctor asked. "Who on Earth is-"

"Doctor, my brooch is moving!" Martha cried out.

The Doctor spun round and saw that Martha was right. The tiny blue-eyed bird on her chest was flapping its little wings then it took off from the pin and flew towards Baltazar. "Oh no…"

"This little guy is Caw's son." Baltazar held out his finger and the little bird perched on it. "Baby Pheros-birds are born fifty times smaller than the adult, you see, so all I did was stick him on a pin and let Caw give it to you. And this little accessory has helped me track you every step of the way." He then turned towards the door and held out his hand. "Fly away, little birdie."

With a tiny high-pitched "Squawk!" the miniature bird flew out of the TARDIS and into the snowy plains.

"Very clever," the Doctor sneered. "Turning Caw's child… into an accessory to murder!"

"But surely that's you, Doctor?" Baltazar replied. "After all, you needed a little bit of help collecting the data-chips."

"Wait a minute," Martha gasped. "It was you who killed Kaliko and Mergrass?"

"Guilty," Baltazar replied. "I knew my poor old cellmates, who told me all about the Infinite, would never willing give you theirs. So as well as tracking you, I was making sure that they wouldn't get too far."

"So Kaliko…?"

"I managed to catch her escape pod as it landed by your ship. Naturally she was surprised to see me and tried to shoot me." Baltazar pointed to a scorch mark on his jumper. "But her headgear was no match for my little weapon."

The Doctor nodded grimly. "And what of Mergrass?"

"I caught up with him just as he'd finished loading his craft. One shot to his water tanks, and that amphibious fool dried up like a raisin." Baltazar then tossed the last data-chip at the Doctor's feet. "And that one is Gurney's. He put up quite a fight, but well, you can tell who won this round. Pick it up."

With a scowl, the Doctor bent down and plucked the chip up from the floor. "So this is why you needed me, isn't it? You knew only my TARDIS can track each data-chip from planet to planet."

Baltazar gave a sinister nod. "For all its discomforts, Volag-Noc had a surprisingly large library. There's even a book on your once noble race, Doctor. When I read all about your amazing ship, I knew that only you would have something that could read data-chips older than recorded history itself. And now that you have all the chips, you can find the Infinite for me. Off you go."

With a helpless glance at Martha, the Doctor turned towards his console…

Out in the growing blizzard, Squawk struggled against the wind. He'd been stuck in that position on Martha's chest for so long he was feeling quite stiff and was grateful for this chance to spread his wings. Anyway, he'd filled his end of the bargain with Baltazar so now he could be with his father again.

After a while, he came across a large metallic form lying still in the snow. Carefully he perched on it to rest his wings then he suddenly realized that he was sitting on a large bronze bird. He stepped towards the bird's head for a closer look… and then he knew who this bird was; it was his father.

He pecked at Caw's closed eye and scratched at his beak. Then he saw the smoke billowing out of his chest and he knew he was too late.

Then he threw back his head and gave a loud plaintive cry of despair…

Carefully the Doctor plugged in the data-chip next to the others and as he did, the scanner screen faded to static and the ceiling lit up with a bright green light.

Martha gasped as she saw the light forming into a great whirlpool of stars and planets, and the Doctor put on his glasses to examine them closely. "That's the Hesperus Galaxy."

"Correct," Baltazar replied. "Next."

The Doctor twiddled some dials on the console and the image zoomed in on a cluster of planets. "Hmmm, that would be… the Ceres System."

"It's a map!" Martha breathed.

"And it's telling us the location of the Infinite," Baltazar confirmed. "Keep going."

The Doctor spun the dials and the image changed to show a planet next to a clump of asteroids, one of which was flashing brightly. "I spy with my little eye… Asteroid 7-5-7-4… B, was it? Oh yeah, definitely B."

"Excellent," Baltazar crowed. "Set the controls, Doctor. We're going there."

"The TARDIS isn't a taxi!"

"Set the controls or Miss Martha gets skewered!" Baltazar raised his claw at Martha's face and she gasped in fright.

The Doctor took off his glasses and reached a hand for the switch but then he pulled it back and turned to the pirate with a desperate face. "Look, Baltazar, the Infinite… It's a myth, a legend, and that's all it'll ever be. But even if it does exist, even if it's at those coordinates on the map, even if it contains a fraction of the power everyone claims it has, it will consume you, destroy you!"

"No," Baltazar purred wickedly. "It'll give me my heart's desire, Doctor, and nothing you can say will ever make me change my mind, not when I'm so close. So set the controls, NOW!"

Martha pleaded silently to the Doctor but the Time Lord simply bowed his head and set the coordinates into his computer.

"So that's the course laid in?" Baltazar asked.

"Yes," the Doctor replied.

"And all I have to do is pull that lever?"

"Well, more or less."

Baltazar then raised his robotic arm at him. "Then it seems I don't need you anymore, do I?"

"Oh, um…" The Doctor took a step back. "Uh oh…"

"No!" Martha gasped, running forward but Baltazar held her back as he powered his blaster. "DOCTOR!"

Then Baltazar fired and the Doctor gave a painful cry as the blast hit him in the chest then everything went black…