(AN: One thing I love about Star Wars fics, and what prompted Rebellion, was all the cut content I could restore. You're about to see some of that content in this story, only now we've got timey-wimey and all of that fun stuff as well :D)
Attack in the Night
"Lieutenant!" Feor Drex announced.
Rose Tyler turned about at the inquiry. She had left shortly after seeing what had happened in the hangar bay, since it was all together too hard to believe. Luke was on his way to the infirmary, and she needed some alone time. She just couldn't believe that the Doctor was back: it was what she had long-wished for, and yet now she could not believe it.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, I mean 'sir'," Drex apologized. "I shouldn't have raised my voice. You outrank me, after all."
"It's alright, private," she said replied with an absent-minded tone. "What is it you want?"
"General Rieekan has requested your presence at Commander Skywalker's debriefing," Drex reported.
"Oh, right, I'll be there in a minute." she said.
Wrapping her cold-suit's jacket about herself, Rose made her way through the tunnels to the command center. When she arrived, she found several others standing about, among them were General Rieekan, General Kenobi, Captain Solo, Commander Skywalker and the Princess. And he was there as well.
"Hello, Rose," the Doctor said with a smile.
"General?" Rose asked, turning to Rieekan. "Why am I here? This is more of a senior officer's meeting, eh?"
"On the contrary," General Rieekan replied. "You're our senior expert on this man." He gestured to the Doctor.
"Bu-But," she stammered. "But I don't know if he's actually the Doctor. I mean..."
"His presence is still the same as it was when we first met in the Jundland Wastes," Obi-wan stated.
"Yeah, listen to ol' Ben, he's got a point," the Doctor said. "I'm the same man, just with a different face."
"I just..." Rose continued. "It's difficult to say. I thought you were dead! I mean, the last time I saw you, you were struck down by Darth Vader, and then the Death Star was destroyed! I mean, how did you escape that?"
"All in good time," the Doctor said. "Meanwhile, as I am the senior senior member here..." He turned to General Rieekan. "Sorry, general, I'm a Timelord, I outrank everyone." He turned back to the others. "Now, Luke, what exactly happened out there?"
"I was finishing my scouting rounds when I was attacked," he replied. "Some kind of big snow creature with horns and huge hands."
"Either a Yuzzem or a Wampa," the Doctor suggested.
"Sounds like the Abominable Snowman," Rose added.
"Who knows, maybe the Yeti's a Wampa that got lost," the Doctor replied. "There's a black market trade for 'em."
"Do you think it might come back?" Rieekan asked.
"I don't know," Luke replied. "I used the Force to escape, and the creature's arm was cut off. It might find its way back here."
"Even if it doesn't," Han added. "I don't think it would be wise to ignore this. Where there's one, there's more of 'em."
"You're right, Solo," Rieekan stated. "We'll increase our security, to make sure we don't have another incident like this. Dismissed."
One by one they started to leave, and while they were leaving, Rose made her way to the strange, thin man with the spiky brown hair and big brown eyes that, even though she knew were not those of the Doctor she had grown to know and love, were just as mesmerizing and unavoidable. Once they met up, they began walking leisurely down the hallways of snow.
"Rose Tyler," the Doctor said with a smile as she approached. "It's been too long."
"Yeah, it has," she replied, with arms crossed.
"I owe you an apology," he said, his smile fading. "There was something I had to do, but I should have thought about you. Thirteen years is too long a time..."
"Wait a minute, thirteen years?" Rose laughed. "You were only gone for three."
"Yeah, maybe for you," the Doctor replied, scratching the back of his neck. "For me, it was longer, a lot longer, more like thirteen years."
"What were you doing for thirteen years?"
"Tracking the Master," the Doctor said. "Something happened in the past, well, in the future, but it's the past because it's in the past of this galaxy. But it's the future because we haven't done those events yet, so technically it's both past and future at the same time. Anyway, long story short, I thought the Master died during the Time War, but apparently he survived."
"Who is the Master?"
"A renegade Timelord," the Doctor replied grimly. "The worst ever. Somehow he managed to go back in time and manipulate events to where he became the head honcho of the Empire: Darth Vader."
"That's what you were doing for thirteen years?" Rose asked.
"Yeah," he nonchalantly replied. "It's already happened, so it's all in the past. It's alright telling you and all." He suddenly became much more jovial. "But the important thing is that I'm back and I've got a brand new face. What do you think?"
"You look...younger."
"Yeah?" the Doctor replied.
"Yeah, and your hair's nice."
"Covers the open car-door ears I had before," the Doctor began rambling. "But I'm not ginger. I wanna be ginger, you know? I've been white-haired, dark-haired, blond-haired, brown-haired, but not ginger. So, Lieutenant..."
"You heard?"
"I'm surprised you didn't go farther," the Doctor said. "You deserve it."
"I didn't really wanna leave the lines," Rose replied. "But I guess that's not really an option now."
"Look, I'm sorry," the Doctor apologized again.
"For what?"
"This isn't what I wanted for you," he shook his head. "To become a weapon, hard and remorseless. Three years of war, that's not the life I wanted for you. I promise you, Rose, the first chance I get, we're going back to Earth."
"Yeah," Suddenly, Rose remembered something which was at the back of her mind for a while, but which had been almost forgotten over what had happened since then. "Wait, what about the TARDIS?"
"It's in good hands," the Doctor replied. "Right now, though, something's about to happen."
"What?"
"It's not one for the history books, though," the Doctor shook his head. "The Rebellion's not exactly innocent. It's a war, after all, and there's atrocities on both sides. This one sees the captivity of some of the local creatures."
"The Wampas, right?"
"Yeah. The astromech droids' 'language'..." He waved his hands about. "...is similar to the female Wampa's mating call. It's gonna drive them out of the snow and into the base. They get imprisoned: not one of the best moments of the history of the Rebellion."
"Well, can't we do something?"
"Well, not exactly. You see..."
Suddenly, the cave wall exploded and a roar like a cross between an elephant and a sea lion was heard. The Doctor held his arms across Rose as a giant wooly creature appeared, with horns and huge, reptilian claws on its hands. Slowly it rose towards them, hands outstretched, bellowing menacingly.
"Doctor, do something!" screamed Rose.
The Doctor reached into his pocket and drew out his sonic screwdriver. A light flashed and a whistling sound echoed farther down the hallway. The giant snow creature turned its massive, horned head, then crashed into the snowy wall of the tunnel, disappearing.
"That should buy us some time," the Doctor said. "Now to the others, allon-sy!"
"Wait, what?"
"It's French, means 'let's go.'" the Doctor translated.
"But what did you do to it?"
"Nothing, just sent him the other way, come on now!" he set off running down the tunnel, with a perplexed Rose following on behind. By now, however, the alarms were blaring throughout the halls. Every so often, a tunnel would bulge or the radios would be filled with the roar of one of the creatures and the last, dying screams of some poor Rebel sentry. While they were running, Rose took her blaster pistol out of the holster on her hip, and readied it for whatever might attack them.
"Does that have a stun setting?" the Doctor asked.
"Yeah," Rose said. "Why are you asking?"
"We're gonna need it," he replied. "And a comlink. Do you have a comlink?"
"Left it in my quarters," she stated. "This way."
They ran through the halls of snow, all the while watching the suspicious bulges in the ice, fearing what it would mean on the other side.
"What are they doing?" Rose asked, her blaster pistol aimed at the walls.
"They're swimming through the snow," the Doctor replied. "There's so much, they swim through it as though it were water."
On they went, around a corner and down another hall. From one end, they could hear one of the snow monsters bursting through the snow and attacking a group of soldiers. There was a cry and blaster fire, and Rose suddenly ran down the tunnel, blaster raised. When she reached there, however, it was too late. Two soldiers stood there, cowering in fright, and the snow was covered in blood. A hole had been torn in the side of the tunnel wall and a cold wind was blowing in through the opening.
"Report!" Rose ordered.
"I don't know what happened, ma'am," the soldier said. "The three of us were just walking through here, heading towards Zone 11, when the wall caved in. Lehman was carried off. We tried shooting at it, but it didn't seem to stop it."
"What was that thing?" the other soldier asked.
"A Wampa," the Doctor replied. "Predatory snow-creature, indigenous to this planet. Their hide is very thick, it would take more than a simple blaster to take one of them down."
"Then how do we fight them, Doctor?" the first soldier asked.
"It's not just here, is it?" the other one added. "I've heard the radio, it's all over the base. They're tearing through the tunnels, attacking at random!"
"These aren't random attacks, soldier," the Doctor said, looking at one end of the tunnel. There, buried half-way into the snow-wall was an R2 unit.
"Comlink, I need a comlink!" ordered the Doctor.
Rose found Lehman's com, lying in the red snow, wiped it off on her knee, then gave it to the Doctor. He pointed his sonic screwdriver at it, then lifted the mouth-piece up to his lips.
"Commander Skywalker, come in," he ordered. "Luke, are you there?"
"Doctor?" the young commander's voice sounded on the other end. "Can't talk right now, we're kind of busy here."
"It's alright, get C-3PO on the com," the Doctor ordered. "Right now."
There was silence, and then the mechanical voice of the protocol droid.
"Hello, Doctor!" the droid said. "It's very good to hear that you have return..."
"Alright, just shut and listen to me!" exclaimed the Doctor. "The snow creatures, they're attracted the noises made by astromech droids. They think it's a mating call from the females of their species."
"Why, Doctor!"
"Listen, there's no time. Find Major Derlin and inform him of this. Maybe you can find a way to control their movements, get them out of the base."
"Yes, sir. Right away, sir." The Doctor tossed the comlink aside, then pocketed his sonic screwdriver.
It was over in a matter of minutes. The attacks ceased first, and then it was reported that four of the beasts had been stunned: the rest had scattered. Once the alarms went off, the Doctor went in search of Major Derlin. He found him along a corridor between the hangar and the command center. Droids, soldiers and load-lifting machines were dragging the huge beasts into a separate room.
"What the hell is going on?" the Doctor asked.
"General's orders," Derlin replied. "We're keeping a few of these in the base for study."
"They need to be released immediately!" the Doctor insisted.
"General Rieekan believes we can learn how to prevent another such attack by having a few of them with us to analyze," the major said. "If you have a problem with it, take it up with the general."
They went about their business, while the Doctor looked on grimly at one of the huge Wampas being dragged into the corridor. At his side was Rose, watching as well with an unreadable expression.
"This isn't right," the Doctor said.
(AN: Happy Thanksgiving! Here's a treat for you! One thing I'm thankful for, aside from Doctor Who, the original trilogy of Star Wars, Wookieepedia and TARDIS wiki, are your reviews. Keep 'em coming!)
(There is the long-cut Wampa attack, and the set-up for another cut scene from the Battle of Hoth. I considered having the Doctor convince General Rieekan to release the Wampas, since that would allow for...well, you'll see. And yes, Rose got a rank. I thought lieutenant would do, since that rank can still go into battle, and that's what she's been wanting to do since she believed the Doctor was dead. [lol, all the Rebels would be saying it as I would, while Rose, the Doctor and the Imperials would call it 'left-tennant'])