Chapter 12 - Smoking Section
Tomoko crawled back into the airlock and let it cycle. She tried to remove the helmet, but it wouldn't budge, and she sighed. This would be the fourth suit she was going to have to cut herself out of because the joints had welded together. She struggled with her sonic a bit until she could get the helmet off of her head, then pulled it off, and dropped it on the floor, where it lay smoking.
When the airlock cycled open, she saw Dar standing on the other side, face expressionless, as he took the burning suit from her and handed her a new one. She had debated about letting him out of the cell, but she needed the help and the fireflies kept him in line.
"You're smoking," he commented dryly.
"Warp field is hell on the suits," Tomoko agreed. "Good thing we have so many… it's going pretty well though. Few more suits, I think."
"I'll get more from the supply locker," he told her and then paused. "Do try not to die, will you?" he suggested and then headed back to the suit locker.
"Not dying has always been part of the plan," Tomoko snarked, then began cutting off the gloves so she could get out of the suit.
Dar came back with three more suits and dumped them on the floor, before he reached for the gloves, helping her pull them off.
"Turn around," he told her.
"I shouldn't, but fine," she turned around, as all of the Fireflies turned to face him, watching carefully. It was weird, both parts of her brain trusted Dar. She knew he was a spy and really dangerous, but she couldn't make herself think of him as a threat and she didn't know why.
He said nothing, just began peeling her out of the suit, careful not to hurt her. Having him standing that close behind her was causing her hearts to flutter and that was also really weird. Why was she having this really strong reaction to him all of a sudden?
"Thanks," she said, rolling her shoulders to ease the tension, but also as something to do to buy herself a little time to think.
"Sure thing, kid," he replied.
"I've got all the arrays pulled," she began struggling into the next suit. All of them were rather large on her, but it couldn't be helped. "Now it is just a matter of wiring in the replacements."
"Right," he agreed and stepped forward to help her into it. Part of her realized that she ought to refuse his help, her confusion around him was cause for concern, but the second thoughts were leaning into the warmth of his energy with something suspiciously like a purr.
"Once I've got us out of warp, I will check in with Rassilon, see where we are going… thanks." The last word came out softly and she turned to see that weathered face, with eyes that gave nothing away, and she was split in two about what to think.
"Just be careful, all right?" he grumbled, shaking his head.
"Always am," she pulled on the gloves, trying to maintain cheerful banter and not let on about how much he disturbed her. "How is Freeya?"
"Scared to death," he admitted.
"I bet. I'm really not sure how to handle an eleven year old. I haven't been able to think of a way to make it less scary-looking. It was a big firefight."
"That's not why she's scared, kid," he sighed.
"No? What is she scared of? Me, I suppose?"
"No, kid, not you, at least not directly. She's scared of what Rassilon is going to do next. He's murdered her friend and has Guinn, who she cares about. She's scared that he's going to kill us all," he explained in a patient tone.
"Mmm. Poor kid. It's only right and proper to die for Rassilon, if he requires it, of course, but at eleven I don't know if she is old enough to realize it… back in a few," she put the helmet on, secured the straps, and gave him a thumbs-up, before heading back into the airlock.
Behind her, he watched her go, his eyes opaque, but his hearts sinking. He had hoped that she might be starting to come back to him, but she seemed instead to be drifting deeper under Rassilon's spell.
The worst part was that he was no longer sure if he'd even be able to kill her, when the time came.
Cursing his luck and thinking furiously, Dar desperately tried to come up with a plan. One that didn't include him having to murder his bondmate.
"Well, anything?" Diana asked impatiently, as the Time Lords all wandered around doing inexplicable things.
"Not yet," Taydin replied.
"We need, like, one of those whistles you can't hear with the human ear," she grumbled.
"Hang on, what's that?" Koschei asked, pointing to the faintest of traces on the monitor.
"Ion trail?" the Doctor asked and they all frowned at the screens.
"Looks a bit like a breadcrumb to me," Rose decided and the Doctor nodded slowly.
"It's worth a try," he agreed and they looked at each other and then began running around the console, setting the Elysium in motion and following the faint trail across the stars.
Tomoko was seated in the Captain's chair of the Valour, when the buzzer sounded. Freeya was monitoring Engineering, looking absurdly young and small in the large black faux leather chair. Dar was manning the weapons station, several large fireflies watching him carefully, for any sign of rebellion.
Guinn looked over from Navigation and his face was filled with concern.
"We're here," he told them all.
In front of them was a swirling vortex; a wormhole. Repairs or not, the Valour was not designed to go through wormholes, nor was she in in any shape to be attempting it for the first time, and Tomoko knew it well.
"Okay," she said. "ere we go. Don't worry, we'll be all right," she told Freeya with what she hoped was a confident smile.
The girl looked back at her dubiously and Tomoko couldn't blame her for that
The ship groaned and heaved beneath them. The screens were filled with static and the speakers blared with random noise. Swarms of bugs flew frantically here and there, trying to put out fires and make repairs on the fly, but things were breaking faster than they were able to fix them. The alarms were twisting out into a screeching that was making his teeth ache... they were hitting transition.
"Obviously a new definition of 'all right' that I wasn't previously aware of!" Dar snarked.
After a couple of minutes of sparks, there was an enormous tearing sensation, and then they were free-falling through an atmosphere. They were tumbling out of control, with minimal power. Tomoko staggered to her feet, clinging to the chairs and consoles to keep herself upright.
"Freeya, do you know how to do a damage report?" She was pointing at systems that needed repair and the Manifold were flowing out like water, rushing to the places that she indicated and getting to work on them, picking the information they needed from out her brain as well as from the computer systems themselves.
"Uh, I think so," the eleven year old replied, typing madly into the computer, trying hard not to panic as the ship plummeted into the gravity well.
Tomoko's voice was very calm considering their current situation.
"Basically, you need to find out what is broken. Then you prioritize the most important item first, and tell me what needs to be fixed."
"The engines not actually working seems really high priority to me!" Freeya shouted over the din.
"Me too," Dar agreed, through gritted teeth.
"That's okay, the beetles should be able to handle the mass of the ship, what else is broken?"
"I think it would be shorter to say what works," Freeya admitted. "We still have environmental and some of the navigation computers are still functional."
"Dar, try to get us down in one piece. Freeya, we will need to start planning what repairs we will do first once we land. Guinn, the landing may be bumpy and the straps are really big for Freeya, would you make sure she is strapped in properly?"
Guinn went over to Freeya and knelt beside her.
"Deep breaths, Freeya," he told her and gave her a pat on her shoulder, "It's going to be okay. These ships are very well designed." He began tightening the straps, making certain that she was webbed in securely.
"Okay, Guinn," she told him and tried to smile. He ruffled her hair, kissed her cheek, and went back to his station, strapping himself firmly into place. He looked at Dar, who gave him a small smile.
"You weren't there for it, but we've been in tougher places than this, Koschei and I," Dar assured him and Guinn smiled wryly.
"Then I am rather glad that I missed that," he replied in a dry tone, which made Dar snort a laugh, much to Freeya's startlement.
A shudder ran through the frame of the ship. Outside, the Manifold were latching onto anything and everything, trying to slow their descent. Tomoko was mumbling madly to herself, not seeming to be worried about the small explosions erupting from panels and bulkheads. She hit the intercom.
"Lord Rassilon, we will be landing in approximately four minutes. It may be rough, so I suggest you strap yourself in."
"Thank you, Tomoko, I have already done so," he replied, sounding perfectly calm.
Tomoko snapped the intercom off again.
"Found some nice soft sand for us." she snarked as the hull screamed underneath them from the strain.
"I have always found sand to be highly abrasive, any mud around?" Guinn asked, as they were rattled around in the ship.
"Water seems to be hard to come by on the surface, this is a desert world, three suns. Which we did miss, in all fairness." The ship gave a huge bump as it hit the atmosphere more solidly, then abruptly fell like a stone before being caught again. "Wormhole didn't do us any good, but Guinn'll set us down," she said without a thought that he might not.
"We missed all three suns? How fantastic!" Dar grumbled. "Well done Guinn, you missed three really huge stellar objects!"
"Hey, we are actually hitting the planet, as opposed to say, the moon!" Guinn snapped back. "We're crashing somewhere with an atmosphere, at least."
"We're not crashing! We're falling with style," snarked Tomoko, and then the screens were filling with solid browns and golds.
"Whatever you want to call it, kid!" Dar shouted back. "Hold on!"
The first impact nearly, but not quite, broke the ship in half. It bounced off the surface like a skipped stone, leaving an enormous crater in its wake, as it shot back into the air; a few miles later, it made another crater; after a much lower and shorter hop, it made a third, and then half a mile farther, it formed a fourth and final crater as it ploughed itself into the earth.
When Tomoko came to, she discovered that the straps in the chair had kept her in it, even after such a rough landing. The room had a lot of smoke, and she coughed.
"Everyone all right? Dar? Freeya? Guinn?"
The ship had splintered apart and the bridge was now open to the bright hot suns above them and Tomoko saw that both Dar and Guinn were gone, their stations having ripped free at some point during the crash. Nearby, Freeya lay in her webbing, several of the Manifold tenderly caring for her. Blood was pooling around her arm, where it lay at an unnatural angle on the engineering panels. She was unconscious, but Tomoko could see the faint rise and fall of her chest as she breathed.
"Freeya…" Tomoko struggled with the straps until she managed to get out of her chair, and then staggered over. "Ouch, poor kid," she rummaged for her first-aid kit. She had reset broken arms many times and splinted it professionally.
"Tomoko," Rassilon's voice called out. "Are you injured?"
He staggered into the room, looking shaken, but otherwise unharmed.
"I'm not, but Freeya broke her arm… are you all right?"
"Quite well," he assured her. He looked down at the little girl with a considering air. "Is she still useful to us?"
"Absolutely." Tomoko finished splinting the arm and a number of the wasps came, spinning a cast for it. "She still holds the same position in Koschei's hearts and frankly I am going to need the extra hands for damage analysis, even if they are small ones."
"Very well," he replied, as if it didn't really matter one way or the other. "Then see to her injuries and get her healed up quickly. We have a lot of work to do." He looked around at the shattered ship and grimaced a bit. "A lot more than I would prefer. My schedule has to be reworked now, and I don't like that. Still, you did well getting us down."
Tomoko nodded, feeling pleased that she had earned his praise.
"The Manifold will dig us a burrow, see if we can't make ourselves look a bit less obvious. Dar and Guinn were both thrown free. I don't hold much for their chances." She turned away to check on some of the broken equipment.
There was something about that statement that made it seem as if all of the light had gone out of the world. Rassilon was here, should anything else be necessary? The dichotomy of her thoughts seemed to shrink to nothingness. She was surprised to find her cheeks wet. When she scrubbed them, all that came away was water. Why?
"I'll see about finding some goggles, the sand gets in your eyes."
"Not to worry, the Manifold are very creative, the Rani did some of her best work on them," he assured her with a pat on her arm. "They will have protected them during the crash." He looked thoughtful. "I can still feel their minds, so they are alive."
Now that she thought about it, Tomoko realized that she could sense them as well. Two Songs twined through the greater melody of their race, close, but muffled a bit.
"If anyone could do it, the Manifold could… It's a shame about the retrovirus, this is all we have," she mused, admiring a cricket as it carefully cleaned its antennae.
"I'm sure that with Guinn in our care, Susan could be persuaded to undo all of that," Rassilon mused. "Still, we must deal with what is possible now. This is what we have for resources. How far are we from the cave system?" he asked.
"By Manifold? We're several days travel out, even flying."
"Hm. Well, we need to gather our strength first. We have injured to be tended to. It would be impractical to go there now. Let's concentrate on seeing how much of the ship can be repaired, or at least salvaged, eh?"
"I'll get Freeya set up in Medi-bay and do a survey personally."
"That would be best, yes," Rassilon agreed and smiled genially at her. "We work well together."
"Thank you," she smiled at him, picked Freeya up in her arms, and headed down the hallway.
Rassilon stood for a bit, surveying the damage, clucked his tongue, and then returned to his own project. He had a top secret archive to read through, after all.
In the city of Farrulah, the chief Astronomer to the court of the Sultan, made his way quickly to the barracks, his feet, once clad in poor sandals, now bedecked in jewelled slippers.
"Hamman Frey, to see Lt. Randarian, please," he told the gate guard, who bowed to him and ushered him through with flattering haste and deference. He came here to visit Gaige often enough that his arrival would raise no alarms, he hoped, but he wasn't certain that the fireball that crossed the heavens had been sufficiently distant to have been unobserved by the citizens of the city.
"Lord Hamman Frey, Chief Astronomer, to see you, Sir," the guard informed Gaige, knocking on the door frame.
"Always welcome, of course, most revered scholar," Gaige replied, pulling open the door to let Hamman into his rooms, bowing politely to him as he did so.
"Most kind," Hamman replied with a slight twinkle in his eye.
Once the door was shut, he turned to look at Gaige with worried eyes.
"What is wrong?" the gray-eyed Scout asked.
"A fireball in the south, about a days ride by car, or three by camel and horse," Hamman replied and Gaige's eyes went opaque instantly.
"A fireball? Why tell me, rather than say... the Sultan?"
"Because you know about those cup watchers he has in his court!" Hamman spat out and Gaige nodded.
"Yes, the Diviners do seem to have a great deal of influence right now," Gaige admitted with a thoughtful expression. "You're afraid they will decide it's an omen and send us back to war or something else equally foolish."
"Precisely! Science is having a hard time fighting brilliant lights in the sky and the stars coming back from wherever they went. There is far too much 'magic' and nonsense going on just now," Hamman complained.
"It will pass, it always does," Gaige replied. "Still, I see the immediate problem."
"I was going to request that the Sultan send your regiment south to look for minerals suitable to make into lenses for the telescopes," Hamman informed him and Gaige bowed.
"I am always ready to go and do my Sultan's bidding," he replied and Hamman relaxed and nodded.
The elderly astronomer left the guard's barracks in far better humour than when he arrived.
When consciousness returned to him, Dar was in a soft place, some sort of cushioning supporting his aching frame. It was cool and dark and quiet. He sighed out, thinking about a girl he'd known years ago, then his mind snapped back into focus.
Tomoko.
He still had to find a way to extract her. He looked down at his chest and breathed out, she was still alive, that was good.
When he opened his eyes, he was surrounded by bugs. He was laying on a soft bundle of spun silk. More silk had been woven around his bicep, where he knew he had a deep cut; but it didn't hurt and the bandage wasn't bloody.
Upon seeing him open his eyes, a small swarm swooped down the hall.
"About time," mumbled a familiar voice. Guinn was sitting nearby, his head wrapped in a silky gauze, but he appeared to be fine otherwise. His gaze was sharp enough when his eyes were fixed on Dar.
"Hello Guinn, so good to see you. Did you really miss me so much, to go to all this trouble? Getting captured by Rassilon, just for me? I'm touched, but, what would your wife say?" He chuckled, sitting up and patting one of the bugs gently. "Thanks, buddy."
"Are you kidding? She doesn't know about this! When I get home, I'm going to be Arkytior- chow," he grumbled. "And chaste for the rest of my life, no doubt," he added with his best sucking-lemon face. "But never mind about all of that, we need to get back to Freeya and Tomoko." His voice was urgent.
Dar chuckled and shook his head.
"Oh please, you have that girl wrapped around your thumb, she worships the ground you walk on! You'll get cried on and scolded, and then she'll make you cookies, you lucky bastard." Dar dismissed his concerns with an airy wave. After all, he'd been confidante of both Susan and Koschei for centuries now.
"Whereas you are in a bit of a bind," Guinn sighed and pointed to his chest.
"Story of my life," Dar grumbled. "I'm always swimming through shark infested waters, trailing chum after me."
"Be nice, that's my daughter you're talking about," Guinn pointed out and Dar made a face.
"Oh thank you, that makes everything so much better," Dar retorted, his expression growing even more bitter, as he let the whole situation marinate in his mind.
