Just before nightfall, H'Tarle sent his reconnaissance team to work. Dressed in shielded uniforms, the team took to the trees that surrounded NaV0's compound to scan the buildings and grounds for heat signatures, weapons, and the interior shields. The results streamed to the on-site supervisor sitting onboard a cloaked hover transport a mile away. Supervisor Needril chortled when he discovered that one of Regulus IV's most wanted fugitives had just joined the party. Perhaps, the Continuum wanted him as a touch of local flavor? Needril didn't really care, because the bum was going to jail, along with the rest of NaV0's guests. He smiled as he forwarded the intel to his boss, knowing the man would be ecstatic.
As he watched the scans, Needril provided his boss with a running commentary on the activities, and whereabouts of their chief target. Fortunately, she was staying with the main group in the mansion. He hoped the pattern continued. It would make it easier to prevent losing her in the mêlée that would occur when the raid hit. Shortly after dusk, a few late party arrivals showed up. Their arrival added a new concern: lack of manpower. Earlier reports gave the number of guests at thirty-five, but Needril estimated the number had risen to at least forty-two. Combined with the thirty guards who patrolling inside the mansion and the compound grounds. put his forty officers at a two to one disadvantage. Still, every Borel justice officer, including supervisors and his surveillance team, would take part in this venture. The key to success lay in the officers determination to end the Continuum.
If they were successful, this first big stake-out and the raid would boost these young officers' confidence. A lot rode on the success of this raid, including the force's standing in legal circles. He and H'Tarle had trained them well and so far, despite their inexperience, he was proud of them. The team dutifully logged every new arrival and mapped every possible escape route. They committed details of the generator and shields to memory and were ready to take down their target. Their excitement did lead to an ongoing commentary that made Needril chuckle.
Their inside mole reported the dozen prisoners were in a heavily shielded bunker. Bio-scans verified their presence, but the bunker had few outside guards, and only standard shielding. The discrepancy confused the officers. The man was right on everything else, so this error made no sense. Needril sent word back to H'Tarle requesting deeper scans. He wanted to know why the mole's report was so different from current reality. He didn't want one of his young officers, or the prisoners, killed because someone made a mistake gathering intelligence. Thirty minutes and three deep scans later, they had an answer.
Ever the master planner, NaV0 had created a near perfect trap for anyone trying to raid her compound. Heavy shielding installed around the perimeter gave the impression that she was afraid of the outside world. Minimal shielding installed around the prisoner's building encouraged anyone raiding the compound to head for the easiest target, which was an elaborate trap. They would be dead before they entered: a laser web would cut intruders apart and trigger a bomb that would collapse the bunker. She had a second laser wired into the tunnel. For the next two hours, Needril nervously waited for his boss to find a way around the traps.
An hour before the scheduled raid, the mole's latest update brought further bad news. He couldn't get the new shielding codes, and he'd lost track of the girl thought to be the Princess. He worried that, after finding a servant naked and crying in the hall, one of the slime-ball guests had grabbed her. This thing was rapidly turning into a nightmare.
At least, Needril thought, there's no moon.
Reguluns' superb night vision made pitch-black night perfect for watching the guards. As the hours passed, inexperience began showing with an increase in the amount of chatter in his earwig. He threatened a few with midnight patrols for a month if they failed to stay focused on their jobs. As he watched the guards shift their posts, he sent a prayer to the Gods that nothing went wrong. The change in positions required a revised plan of attack . Just as he forwarded his new plan and asked about the codes, new activity in the compound caught his eye.
"Boss, are you watching the guy in grid sixteen? He just came out of the prisoner's building headed for the east wall," one of the officers reported.
"I got him." Needril watched the live feed with growing interest as t he young human maintained a leisurely pace until he was twenty feet from the perimeter shields, when he suddenly sprinted for the edge of the compound. Making their first arrest really couldn't be as easy as this - could it? Needril clapped his hands together as he watched the unaware young guard run into the shadows, deactivate a section of the force field, and push his way through. Needril tapped the console comm button. They might just pull this raid off yet.
"Heegla?"
"Yes, Sir?"
"Take two men and grab this guy. He's coming out ten degrees east of your position. Do not make any noise. We don't need this to fush'ta before we start. Get that guy up here. Let's find out why he's going for an evening stroll when his buddies are getting ready to party."
o0o
Needril leaned against the console with his arms crossed waiting for Heegla to escort their new prisoner to his ship. He wasn't sure what to expect from the young man, but five minutes after he defected, the pale, scared guard stood in front of him looking confused and lost.
"Who are you?" Needril kept his tone strictly authoritative.
"Mikel Vnoth, sir." he said nervously. A sheen of perspiration covered his upper lip. Having his hands cuffed behind his back didn't stop his anxious fidgeting.
If he was reading this human right, Needril guessed he'd suffered an emotional shock. "So, Mikel Vnoth, why did you go for a little stroll? I mean, your boss is having a pretty good party. Don't you benefit if things go well?"
"Because I..." revulsion filled his voice, "look ... I just needed to make some money to send to my family. I figured; watch a few people, keep my eye on the Mistress' property - how hard could that be? I didn't think I'd have to stand by and watch people torture other people." His voice grew louder, more frantic as he spoke. "I can't do it any more. There isn't enough money on this planet to watch that."
Needril arched one feathered eyebrow in worry as he straightened. "Who's being tortured?" he said with a forced calm that he didn't feel.
"I don't know what his name is, but my boss beat him half to death. They sent me to that cell four times and each time ...," he swallowed. "I tried to help him - - I did," he answered defensively.
"What place? You mean the building you walked away from?"
Mikel nodded.
"You're in a lot of trouble, Mikel. Your boss is going to jail; everyone that works for or with her, is going to jail. Do you want to go to jail, Mikel?" Needril smiled with the implied threat.
The young guard gave Needril a surprised look, as if jail hadn't occurred to him. "Not particularly, sir," he squeaked.
"Good, I don't think you would do well there. If you want to stay out; tell me about that building."
Mikel shivered, his eyes glazed over in memory. "It's a bunch of cells. I thought it was an old jail, but today they put thirteen people in there, calling them merchandise. I was going to quit after today. When she hired me, I didn't know she was a slaver. Then, they turned that guy over to these... I mean, he was defenceless and they - did things. I just - not any more." He turned even more pale than before.
"Is he alive?" Needril forced himself to stay detached.
"He was when I left, but I don't think he'll last long. I swear, I didn't know stuff like that would happen." His remorse filled voice trembled.
"Like what? What did they do?"
"They hurt him, you know," he glanced at Needril's groin as he hesitated, "hurt ... him." The young man looked at his feet, unwilling to say more.
Needril straightened as he realised what the boy was talking about. If the humans found out - - he shook the thought away and kept his tone even. "Tell me about the security."
"They wired a laser web to the main door and inside the tunnel. If that fails, the Mistress gave orders tonight to blow the building - with the prisoners inside."
"I wouldn't suppose you know the security codes?" Needril asked the young man who nodded. He couldn't believe their luck.
"Boss? Guess what I've got?" he crowed to H'Tarle a moment later.
o0o
The sight of his boss' command vehicle arriving on site, filled Needril with relief. A moment later, the man strode, and assumed command. Needril gladly handed over the young guard's interrogation, leaving his boss alone to grill the young man for close to twenty minutes. Needril paced outside the command vehicle wondering what questions he'd failed to asked. H'Tarle finally came out looking tight-lipped and overly detached. The change in his demeanour worried Needril, and made the other supervisors nervous leaving them to wonder what else had gone wrong.
"Heegla, get over here." H'Tarle yelled at the young supervisor as he motioned the humans to join them. "This is Captain Harkness and his team. Our mole now has the web codes. Take the humans and hit that building as soon as the shields drop. I want NaV0's so-called prisoners protected at all costs. As soon as they're secured, get them to the medics. Captain," he swallowed, "it seems that your Doctor is hurt. According to the guard who defected, he's in need of immediate medical attention. You gave your supplies to the medics, right?"
"I did, yeah." Rory answered.
"How hurt?" Jack asked quietly as River and Amy paled.
"I'm not sure: the kid says that a prisoner who matches the Doctor's description is his boss' favourite whipping boy. They've tortured him for his entire stay in that hell hole. I'm not sure what else they've done." He hated the lie, but it was the best course of action at the moment. They would find out soon enough.
H'Tarle flashed reassuring smile at River. "We'll get him out, Curly Tops," he told her gently. "We're getting them all out," he said firmly before turning to Needril.
"Everybody - positions," he ordered into comm link.
o0o
The officers drew their weapons and waited for word that the perimeter shields were down. At precisely the ninth hour, the EM pulse took out the shield generator, followed a second later by confirmation in H'Tarle's earwig that the inside mole had taken out the inside shields and disabled the laser webs. He let out a breath and snarled into his com link, "Now, move -now!"
The officers swept across the compound. Startled guards dispersed across the grounds fighting to protect the mansion. Weapons fire and stun grenades shattered the peaceful night. The same guards that, only moments before, watched the party through windows, now fought to protect their boss. They were no match for H'Tarle's better trained officers. Aerial squads swooped down from transports and snatched the guards missed by the ground forces. Less than ten guards reached the mansion to defend the Mistress."
The instant the shields fell, Heegla and Jack led their squad across the compound to the prisoners ' outbuilding. Keeping low to avoid stray weapons fire, they battled the guards standing between them and their target. Three fell while the rest tried to for more protected positions only to find themselves snatched from above. Four of Heegla's men covered the group as they reached the massive wooden doors of the prisoner's building. Jack and Rory stood their weapons drawn waiting for Amy to complete the necessary scans.
She looked up at Jack and the Regulun commander with a huge grin on her face. "The shields are down, and we've got multiple bio-signs. One is moving through the tunnel, coming this way; a second one is moving to the south end of the hall. I'm picking up stationary bio-signatures. I know it's the prisoners; the numbers are right." Her smile broadened. "The last bio-sign is all the way at the south-west corner of the building," Amy whispered. Her heart pounded with excitement. "I'm picking up a double heartbeat," She giggled with relief. "He's alive. Rory - he's alive," she said almost disbelieving her own eyes.
"So, we have two moving targets and fourteen stationary targets, right?" Heegla asked.
Amy nodded, "right."
"We need to stop the two that are moving," Heegla snarled, "they can still blow this place with a detonator!"
Weapons fire and confused voices echoed through the night as the squad took their positions along each side of the door. Four men with a battering ram slammed into the heavy-wooden double doors. One blow took off the right door at its hinges. Heegla tossed stun grenade through the opening knocking the guard running in from the tunnel off his feet. As he collapsed, a detonator rolled out of his hand. He scrambled to retrieve it only to have a rifle butt smack into his head. The team moved further into the hallway, securing terrified prisoners as they went.
So, far, Jack thought, this thing is going like clockwork.
And then he saw her. Her terror plainly written on her young face, she stared at them in disbelief. He felt her mind scream to someone else.
Don't run, he whispered mentally.
But she did.
"Don't run - - please," he yelled as she headed for the far end of the hall.
o0o
A flash bang echoed in the hallway, followed by screams from prisoners cowering in their cells. K'Nar's terror tore through the Doctor's mind. Sheer willpower mixed with adrenaline forced him up to move. Her screams mixed with those of the other prisoners rocked him to his core. He couldn't comprehend why someone would bomb the building. The need to save her forced him up on legs that felt like rubber. He had to get to her; to protect her. He tried to scream her name, but couldn't make his voice work.
I'm coming, just get to the door, he screamed to her mind.
Someone is attacking, Lord. Bad people are coming. Go now, I will find you.
Her fear flooded him. No, not without you . Run to me, K'Nar: run now. He screamed through their link.
"Run!" he finally managed to bellow the single word as adrenaline flooded his battered body. He clawed his way to the door, and using the frame for support, reached to grasp her fingers managing to pull her small hand tightly in his. His victory lasted a millisecond before a second grenade clattered down the hallway They stared first at each other, and then at the thing in disbelief. The concussive force tore her from him as the wave threw them both to the floor. The agony caused by the fall did not compare to the pain of her horrified expression or hearing his own voice scream her name. Still clutching the strap, his fall activated the manipulator filling the room with crackling electricity of the opening vortex. The force field formed, and helpless to avoid the inevitable, swallowed him.
o0o
K'Nar's screamed as she felt him tear from her mind. She felt frozen to the spot where she fell. A human woman ran past as strange hands yanked her to feet. She could hear the woman scream profanities as the hands spun her around to face them. There were so many faces; their emotions slammed against her just as hard as the wave. The woman came back out of his cell screaming her rage.
But K'Nar found her voice and screamed back, "You can't hurt him, and neither can the Mistress!" Her own surge of adrenaline fed her will to fight back. Her little fists pummelled a man as she kicked at the swarming bodies.
"He's safe," she kept screaming at them, "He's safe from the monsters, and he is safe from you! No one can ever hurt him again.",
The woman kicked the wall. What did you do ?" the red-headed woman's face contorted in utter rage. "What did you do ?"
"Amy, calm down," a man pulled the irate woman away from the K'Nar, "she's just a kid."
Another man pulled K'Nar around to him. "What's your name ?" His voice was calmer, but he was as irate as the woman. His blue coat swirled around him as he moved. All the angry faces blurred into each other as she yanked her arm away.
"You can't hurt him now," K'Nar snarled back at the mob surrounding her. "You can kill me if you want, but my Lord is safe !" Her terror enveloped her to her very soul, but she would never tell these humans where he went. She would protect him even now.
A curly-haired woman yelled: "everybody back away from her!"
Then she felt the man in the long coat touch her mind. You're a telepath? she whispered back suddenly confused.
Yes, he whispered. Listen, little one, just calm down and listen.
No one here can break through my shields. How? she whispered back. She felt him chuckle at her and felt herself beginning to calm.
I'm not from around here. I need you to stay calm and listen. We're going to use words now, so this lot doesn't feel left out. Okay?
She just nodded.
"We don't want to hurt him ; we came to get him out of here," the man said.
K'Nar stared at the strangers who'd stepped back from her. Their fury rolled into her head. Despite his reassurances tickling her mind, she couldn't breathe. The terror of the last few weeks and months came crashing in. This wasn't happening; none of this was happening. She shook uncontrollably.
Once more, she'd failed her Lord.
Weeks - months of fear threatened to drown her. She couldn't feel the strangers' confusion or concern. She couldn't feel anything except the hole left by his sudden departure. K'Nar turned, unsure of what to do. Her thirteen year old brain couldn't absorb the events. She tried to enter his cell; to at least be close to his scent, but couldn't make her legs work. He was gone - without her. She was totally alone. The realisation sent her to her knees in despair. She rocked back and forth keening in grief.
In a heartbeat, the two women knelt beside her. "Sweetheart, it's alright, you'll be alright," the red-headed woman tried to calm her.
"Are you Princess K'Nar Llew of Vshak?" a birdman asked quietly. She finally nodded numbly.
"Your Highness, we were looking for you. My name is Heegla and I am a Justice officer. We came to get you out of here; to take you home. You're safe now."
All K'Nar could do was stare numbly at the telepath in front of her. She'd shut his voice out of her head.
"Not yet," he intervened, "Princess, my name is Jack," he forced himself to speak as gently as if this was Steven, "we came to take him home. I know you're scared, but I promise; we won't let anyone hurt you. Our scanners aren't picking him up. Where is he?"
She ignored his question. "The other humans. They hurt him so much. They did things to him. They did horrible things," K'Nar's words came out in a torrent. "I forgot the key. It was in the control room. I went to get it, so I could take this off." She held her wrist up to show the band locked on her wrist. Every emotion she'd kept buried for weeks came rushing to the surface. " I couldn't go, unless I could transform. I had to look like him. I forgot it. " She couldn't stop shaking.
"Honey," Jack repeated slowly. "Where did he go?"
"He went home," she answered, her voice quivered.
"K'Nar, what do you mean - he went home ?" The older woman looked at her, "honey, we want to help."
K'Nar felt the woman trying to stay calm and took a deep breath to force herself to do the same. She desperately wanted her mother, and nearly collapsed into the woman when she felt arms wrap around her in a hug. Slowly, her sobs gave way to quiet tears.
"Sweetie, My name is River, please ; we need you calm down and tell us what happened? Where did you send him? Please, he's our friend, our very best friend. We have come a long way to get him. Please, honey," she begged, "help us. "
K'Nar pulled away. She knew that name. He called for that name. It dawned on her who these strangers were. Their faces were happy and smiling inside his blue box. "You're River? You're the faces. I've messed it all up." She sobbed again.
"Honey, my name is Amy." The angry red-head tried to sound nice. "You have to calm down and tell us what you did. Did he tell you about us?"
"I saw you in his mind. He said his friends would come. " She pulled back, "but you didn't, " she sobbed angrily. "No one came. Why didn't you come?"
"Oh, Honey," River stroked her head.
"We had to get out, so I took a vortex manipulator from a guest, and he programmed it to take us to his home. "
"He doesn't have a home except - " The second spoke, only to have Heegla interrupt him.
"Captain Harkness, Mr Williams ?" Heegla stood at the door of the control room.
Jack's head jerked around at his name. He had almost forgotten the officers still in the hallway.
"NeRa, " Heegla ordered the officer with the princess, "take the ladies and the Princess to the house. Get a medic for her. Captain, the Inspector is on his way here. Can you and Mr Williams please come here - now ?" The man was insistent.
"We're not leaving," both Amy and River protested.
"Go, both of you, please." Rory kissed his wife on the temple and glanced toward K'Nar, "get her out of here."
"He wanted you to take him home," K'Nar mumbled more to herself than to these strangers.
"Oh God," Amy swallowed her rage.
"Come on, Amy," River swallowed her own tears. "Let's get her upstairs." The two women helped the sobbing girl stand up, and followed the officers to the tunnel.
o0o
Jack and Rory joined the officer in the control room. " I couldn't let them see this, " the officer said quietly, " it's almost too much for me, and believe me, I have seen a lot. "
A bank of video screens filled the room; all but three turned off. Those screens showed the two rooms of torture and the Doctor's now empty cell.
The officer moved his mike down. "H'Tarle's in the tunnel, " he told them quietly. " They videoed everything. " The officer handed Jack a stack of vid chips. "There are hours and hours of this. Maybe they wanted to memorialise what they did for eternity. It's no wonder the girl ran from us. She probably thought we were coming to do the same. "
The officer turned the cameras off, hit replay on the vid screen, and watched the last chip in the player. They watched as a guard took Doctor from his cell and delivered him to the last room on the right. They saw the terror on his bruised face as he backed up against a wall. Silence filled the control room as the events in that room played out on the monitor. When the tall Chief Inspector walked in, he found the men watching the replay with horror.
"It's the Valiant all over again," Jack muttered to himself; pushing away the memory. Neither of the men seemed to notice the comment.
"Bloody Hell. " Rory sat down hard in a chair, and then without a word, he stood back up, found a bin and emptied his stomach.
Jack laid his own shaking hand on Rory's shoulder, and pulled him to his feet. " Come on kid, we need to find the Doc. " Before he walked out, he looked at H'Tarle. "Did you know?"
"The kid only said they turned him over to some real low-lifes. He couldn't get the words out, but yeah, I figured it out. I'm sorry Captain. If you'd known, you would have been reckless. I couldn't take a chance."
Jack nodded. "Don't ever tell River or Amy you knew. They might get..."
"Testy!" Rory spoke up. "How am I supposed to tell Amy this?"
"Let's go kid," Jack pulled him out.
H'Tarle turned back and glared at the screen as he growled at Heegla. " Find that trash. Make sure they're upstairs. Check every single cupboard, cubbyhole, and nook. Check under the beds. Match faces to this vid. I want those three, and I don't care how we get them, or -" he glared at his officer; his guttural voice dripped with rage, "what shape they are in when they hit my cells."
o0o
A/N Fu'shta Regulun for things going south or wonky