Sabb-Landon Xavier 1, The Second Encounter

Ian returned to the ward with the items requested by the Doctor, and set them down on a table he'd set up. True, Ian wasn't a doctor, but he was a scientist. Maybe he could help a little.

He relayed this thought to the Doctor, who merely scoffed. "Oh no, my dear boy, no. I don't think so. Now kindly get out of the way!"

"Fine." Ian said grudgingly. The Doctor pushed past him and addressed a small team of medics, for want of a better word. They were clueless about how to effectively treat these stings.

"Now you just listen to me," he barked to the medics (ugly and deformed like all the soldiers on this desolate waste of a planet), "these men will die unless we treat them effectively right now. Now, I am going to prepare a little solution of my own, something which I think should do the trick. I shall then leave it for you to administer, is that clear?"

The medics grunted sheepishly. Clearly they were conscious of how useless their help had been. Ian wondered how many of the soldiers had died already due to their ineptitude.

"You may leave us," the Doctor continued, "I shall be done presently."

The medics grunted again and shuffled out. At once, the Doctor set to work, mixing together all the items Ian had brought with a precision that Ian wouldn't have expected of him - he was usually so doddery.

"Doctor...this planet doesn't make sense to me."

"Oh?" The Doctor replied, not looking up from his work. "Why not, my boy?"

"A war...with bees? Have you ever seen anything like it?"

"My dear boy, those bees are quite obviously the foot soldiers! The war isn't with them, it's with whatever force controls them."

Ian stared at him. "The Queen? The Queen Bee?"

"No, no...poor Mr. Gorat mentioned there were lots of Queen Bees...I suspect they are the generals, to coin a phrase. The ruler, I suspect, is some higher intelligence...capable of controlling and commanding vast swarms of insects. Absolutely fascinating!"

"Yes," Ian agreed, "and absolutely deadly."

"Yes, well there I rather fear you are correct..."

"And Doctor..." Ian said slowly, "I can't help but worry that we're working for the losing side. How can you fight against such a power?"

The two men stared at each other uncomfortably...

/

"So how long were you at base camp in total?" Clara asked.

"About four hours," Ian said. "The Doctor was amazing - whatever he made, it worked wonders. All the patients got better. He was a genius."

"He is that." Lady Me agreed.

"Yes," Ian agreed. "So anyway, after we were done-"

"No, just hold on a sec, Ian," Clara interrupted, "sorry to stop you. But I think we need to know what happened to Barbara and Susan in those four hours. I know you weren't there, but-"

"She told me," Ian said, a note of fury suddenly appearing in his voice, "Barbara told me what he did."

"What who did?" Clara pressed. As if they all didn't know.

"The King of the Citadel." Ian replied. "The man in the white gown..."

Susan and Barbara laid down contently on the soft beds of their chamber (in the citadel's royal palace, no less) each of them with a pleasant lunch inside them. It had looked and tasted a little like beef, though Barbara was fairly sure it wasn't beef. Nice though.

"Oh, I hope the others won't be long," Barbara sighed, stretching out. "I'd hate for them to miss out on this."

"Yes," Susan agreed, "though knowing grandfather, he won't want to stay long."

"Hmm." Barbara shut her eyes. "I wonder why they're letting us stay here..."

"Well if grandfather can cure all those poor soldiers, I suppose this is their way of thanking us." Susan said merrily, popping a grape into her mouth from the bedside table.

Barbara opened her mouth to reply, but before she could there was a knock on the grand wooden door. Susan leapt to her feet and raced across the wide room to answer. A stewart walked in. He was old - his charred, pockmarked skin hung loosely from his face, and Susan guessed that these people aged differently to humans (and indeed Gallifreyans). She hadn't seen anybody old or wrinkled, with grey hair. Grandfather would certainly feel out of place, she thought with a smile. But their skin sort of...loosened as they got older. Horrible.

"F'give t' intrusion." the servant slurred. His voice was that of an old man - gravelly and deep. He had no teeth. His voice was very hard to understand. "Good news f' ya."

"Is my grandfather here? And Ian?" Susan asked excitedly. But the old man shook his head.

"Na. Better. King wants t' see ya friend." The old man pointed at Barbara.

Barbara sat up in alarm. "The King?" she repeated incredulously.

"Aye. About ya friend who's helpin' the soldiers. Comin'?"

Barbara glanced at Susan. "What? Just me?" She asked.

The old man nodded. He was particularly short, and rather fat. He wore a butlers suit which was bulging at the stomach.

"What about Susan?"

"She's ta stay." He grunted. "No young'uns permitted in't presence of the King."

"Right..." Barbara turned to her friend, "sorry Susan."

"That's all right," Susan smiled. "Truth be told, I'll enjoy the peace and quiet."

"Oh, will you now?" Barbara said, laughing. "Well you enjoy your solitude."

"Come on then!" The man barked impatiently. Susan and Barbara raised their eyebrows.

"I'll see you later," Barbara said, leaving Susan and following the old man out of the room.

"You know what, though?" Ian said sadly. "We'd have been there in time...we'd have been there in time to stop Barbara getting hurt. We were probably on our way to the citadel when she was asked to meet the King."

"What happened, love?" Jo asked.

"We were intercepted." Ian replied. "We only just made it out alive."

The Doctor and Ian sat together in the hovercraft as it glided smoothly over the sand. When I say hovercraft, don't go confusing it with those clever contraptions on Earth. This thing literally hovered, a few inches above the sand. It was just as well - nothing with wheels would be able to travel over the sand dunes. As such, the journey was incredibly smooth. One thing the vehicle did not have, however, was air conditioning.

Ian mopped his sweaty forehead for the hundredth time in twenty minutes. The scorching interior of the hovercraft was really getting to him, yet the Doctor hadn't loosened a scrap of clothing. Despite that, he didn't particularly appear to be sweating - a little flushed, but that was all.

"Aren't you hot?" Ian exclaimed.

"No, no, I'm quite all right my boy." the Doctor replied. He was looking quite pleased with himself, and Ian didn't blame him - all of the patients in that hideous camp ward were recovering now, thanks to the ointment he'd developed for them. Not bad for a doctor not of medicine.

Despite the unpleasantness of the journey, they were both excited. The Commander had radioed ahead and told the King of the Citadel the news - a group of people had crashed landed onto the planet in a little blue ship, one of them a doctor. And that doctor, a white haired old man, had cured everyone. The King had invited them for a banquet that evening, where they would be guests of honour. Although they were still pretty keen to get out of here, that didn't sound like something to be missed. The King promised that he'd tell Barbara and Susan the news personally.

"I have to say," Ian said, shutting his eyes, trying to ignore the sweltering heat of the hovercraft, "this is all moving rather quickly, isn't it?"

"Well, I uh...as it happens my boy, I agree with you. One minute, prisoners of war. The next, guests of honour at a royal banquet! Quite the turnaround, eh?"

The two men chuckled, shaking each other by the hand.

They stopped chuckling when they heard the noise overhead. Buzzing. Ian looked up and saw a thick black cloud approaching them from overhead. His stomach turned to lead. It was another swarm.

"Commander!" Ian exclaimed, poking his head into the front cabin, in which the commander was driving, "it's them. They've found us."

"Yeah, thanks for letting me know." the Commander barked sarcastically. "I rather gathered that for myself. Just shut up and strap in, yeah? We're going for a little fly."

Ian hurriedly belted in, the Doctor following his lead. Just in time - less than a second after they had they heard that satisfying click of the belt clipping in, the whole craft rose into the air. Vertically. Ian and the Doctor cried out as they suddenly found themselves sitting sideways, held tightly and rather painfully to the seats by their belts.

Finally, they straightened out. Ian glanced back out of the window and felt his already tense stomach turn - they were about a hundred meters in the air, the sand far, far below them.

The Doctor gripped his hand. "Courage, dear boy," to Ian's astonishment, the old man appeared to be rather enjoying this. Ian's stomach was churning violently, and he feared he would bring up his lunch. Chancing another look out of the window didn't help - they were level with the swarm now. Bees were circling around outside. One of them landed on the hovercraft, but no sooner had it touched down, it went zooming off back into the air, zig-zagging uncontrollably. Insecticide was smeared on the hull. They couldn't land on it, and couldn't get in.

But they could swarm. The Doctor glanced through to the Commander's cabin and was horrified to see the bees swarming a few feet in front of the window. The Commander was flying blind, the bees delibaratley making it impossible for him to see. They were in a rickety old box, a hundred meters above the ground, with no idea where they were flying.

"Hold tight, fellas." the Commander grunted. He was fumbling with the controls.

"Just what do you think you you doing?" the Doctor exclaimed, "kindly focus on driving!"

"Shut it, pops," he grunted, grinning and pressing one final button. Music blared out through some speakers in the corner of his cockpit. It was like no music Ian or the Doctor had ever heard. It was loud, electronic and incoherent. In years to come, they would both recognize the music as "heavy metal." Not that either of them ever got the taste for it. And this was loud. Earsplittingly loud. So loud, in fact, that the Thirtieth Doctor herself would have been been able to just about hear a low humming noise.

But the First Doctor and Ian could hear perfectly well. They clutched their ears. "Turn it off!" Ian bellowed, but nobody heard him. The Commander grinned like a madman, and engaged the guns attached to the front of the hovercraft. He couldn't fight without some good old fashioned Earth music to get him in the mood. He fired his weapons, jets of lethal bug-spray soaking the bees in front of the vehicle. This stuff wasn't as high a concentration as that which was smeared on the hull. That was too thick, it wouldn't fire very far. It needed to be diluted in order to work in the guns, but that made it less effective. Nonetheless, that isn't to say it was ineffective. Some of the bees, exposed to the highest doses, went haywire. A few of them simply lost the ability to fly and plummeted. Some, however, carried on. They were all around the hovercraft now, millions of them. They'd effectively formed a twister around it, and neither the Commander and his passengers could see past it.

They swayed and flew forwards, the Commander firing randomly at the insects in front - but the guns only fired forwards, and the bees were getting wise to that. The swarm moved a little to the sides, forced to give the Commander a tunnel vision ahead. But it wasn't much help. He couldn't see down, all he could see was a narrow strip of sky. He fired his weapons again in a futile gesture, hoping a jet might catch the odd bee. The hovercraft was fast, and full of fuel. The bees were living creatures, which would tire sooner or later...surely if he could just keep flying, he could outrun them?

And so he might of. But no sooner had he got his hopes up, something appeared up ahead, blocking out the little tunnel of sky that he could see. A large shape fell across the blue sky.

"Oh no..." the Commander said helplessly. Ian and the Doctor peered through and their mouths fell open when they saw that he was looking at. It was a bee. A bee the size of a small lorry. It's body was covered in thick tufts of black and yellow fur, and two blank, empty eyes stared at the little hovercraft. It's stinger was as long as an oar, the wickedly sharp tip dripping with poison.

They could only watch in horror as the thing curled up, thrusting it's stinger forwards like a huge spear...

Barbara walked into the throne room with her head bowed - that was tradition here, for everyone to enter the throne room looking down at the floor. She was a trifle anxious. There were maids flanking her as she approached the empty throne (a towering stone seat with patterned cushioning) and was finally allowed to look up. The King wasn't there. It was tradition on this planet that nobody comes to see the King - instead, the King comes to see them. He always enters the room last.

A trumpet sounded, and Barbara ensured that her head remained resolutely down. She felt a man bustle past her and take his place on the throne. Finally, after making himself comfortable, he spoke the words Barbara had been told to listen out for, "At ease."

Barbara heard the rustle of the maids relaxing around her, and finally looked up. Good - her neck was starting to ache. She surveyed the King with interest. Her first thought was that he was a human! She'd been expecting another of the deformed humanoid creatures, but this man was smooth, handsome and young. Younger than she expected. Much younger. Late twenties? Early thirties maybe? It was hard to tell. He wore a white and beige robe. His head was clean shaved. He sported a little goatee. It was Tomasz Wrench.

"Welcome," he said in a voice that was anything but, "to my city. It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"Oh yes," Barbara agreed, "thank you for making us so comfortable here."

"Quite, quite," Tomasz said, smiling coldly at Barbara. "My name, Barbara Wright, is King Thomas 1st of Sabb-Landon Xavier 1."

"I see," Barbara smiled. She was uneasy - his demeanor was making her uneasy.

"Your friends are on their way now." The Other said. "The Doctor saved everyone. Quite literally. Everyone. The ability to treat the bee stings is a breakthrough of an unprecedented level. It could turn the tide of the war."

Barbara nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, your Majesty. He's a very wonderful man. I'm sure you'll like him very much, when you meet him."

"That may not be entirely possible. I've received some rather upsetting news. The hovercraft's come under attack somewhere between base camp and the city. Bees. Lots of them, including a Queen."

"Oh no!" Barbara exclaimed. "Are they all right?"

"No." the King said, "the bees have orders to kill them."

"But can't you do something?" Barbara cried.

Tomasz laughed. "I could call off the attack. I did, after all, order it personally."

Barbara heard him, but didn't register it at once.

"You ordered it?" She said finally, staring at him in disbelief. "But you can't have!"

"I can promise you that I did," Tomasz replied.

"But you can't!" Barbara repeated, cold fear flooding her. "I thought the bees were the enemy...how can you have ordered them to attack the Doctor?"

"I control them. This sham of a war amuses me."

Barbara stared at the maids flanking her. All of them looked as shocked as she, their contorted faces staring incredulously at their king. Their confusion didn't last long. The King reached into his pocket and pulled out a small gun. With four perfect shots, he murdered them. Each one of them exploded into dust around Barbara.

"No witnesses." He said.

Barbara screamed, and charged for the door to the throne room. It was locked, of course. Barbara scrabbled with the handle, but it wouldn't budge. She screamed for help, but nobody heard. She turned around slowly and burst into tears - the King was standing up, walking slowly towards her. He tossed his gun to the side and grabbed Barbara roughly around the waist, clamping her mouth shut.

"The Doctor will almost certainly die out there..." he hissed into Barbara's ear, "the bees never lose...but I'm no fool. There's a first time for everything. And should he make it here, you, Barbara Wright, are going to do me a very big favour. Listening?"

Barbara nodded desparatley.

"If he does make it here, I would really appreciate it...if you would kill him for me. And I think you will. I know you will..."

Tomasz turned Barbara around to face him, his dark, ancient eyes boring into her own. "You will do what I tell you..." he insisted.

And Barbara listened. She had no choice - the Other was a superb hypnotist.

The giant bee zoomed towards the hovercraft, the other bees scattering as it approached - it would be messy. Ian saw at once that the stinger would pass through the metal hull quite easily. The pesticide didn't work on a creature this size.

With a sickening crunch, the bee struck home. It's sting passed through the exterior, through into the Commander's cabin, and into the empty passenger seat. The Commander screamed and whacked it uselessly - it was hard as stone. With a hideous ripping noise, the bee removed the stinger from the seat, from the vehicle altogether. It had punctured a huge hole in the hovercraft, and at this altitude that was a big problem. Ian suddenly found it hard to breathe, as air rushed out through the open hole. Ian took deep, gasping breaths but it wasn't enough.

The creature hadn't finished with them there, however. It charged again, and this time it's aim was horribly true. The stinger penetrated the driver's side window, disintegrating it in a second. The massive great needle slammed into the Commander, and the driver's cabin was splattered with blood. The Commander was mush, dead before he knew what had happened. His music was still playing. That upset Ian at the time, and now, looking back on this adventure for the first time in a long time, it upset him still.

This time, the Bee withdrew again and then tried to enter headfirst - it was going to eat Ian and the Doctor alive! The Doctor drove his stick into one of it's blank eyes, and with a screech it reeled backwards - big mistake. Once the bee was no longer supporting the weight of the vehicle, it spun violently out of control, it's pilot as dead as mutton and it's controls shot to pieces. The little bees backed away from the berserk metal box, not wanting to get hit. The Queen Bee, however, struck again.

"I'm sorry, my boy." The Doctor said helplessly, staring in horror at the huge orange-black face of the gargantuan insect as it tried to claw it's way into the back cabin of the hovercraft. "I rather fear that we've come to the end."

"Yes," Ian said, taking the Doctor's hand, "but not without a fight."

The Doctor chuckled. "Well put, dear boy!" He slammed the point of his walking stick into the bee's other eye. Harder than before. The creature was properly hurt this time, drawing back and whining in pain.

But again, that left them unsupported in mid-air. The hovercraft tumbled uncontrollably through the air, and the two friends were thrown backwards onto some sort of supply cupboard at the back of the cabin, which burst open, all manner of items raining down on their heads.

Then came the third strike. The bee used it's stinger again this time, not willing to risk another injury to it's eyes. It was angry now. It rammed it's sting into the wrecked vehicle through the window.

Then it died.

The hovercraft was a wreck. A small fire had started in the engine when the bee administered it's first attack. It had burned dimly, no real danger. But then, on the bee's third and worst strike, it had ruptured the oil well in the engine. The oil had spilled out. Spilled onto the little fire. The explosion that resulted shattered what was left of the hovercraft in a fiery blaze. The big bumblebee was fried in an instant. The explosion sent pieces of metal flying everywhere, in all directions. Metal smeared with insecticide. Several thousand of the little bees were coated in it. They died horribly. Those that remained flew away in an instant. They had no reason to stay - the target had been totally destroyed. It was a real pity the Queen Bee went up with it, but it was mission accomplished.

You can picture the Other's dismay, therefore, when Ian and the Doctor transmitted directly into the citadel shortly afterwards.

Jack whistled. "Quite the escape eh, grampster?"

Ian glared at him. "Yes. Quite the escape. We truly thought...well, you can imagine what we thought."

"I bet he was furious," Lady Me laughed, "the Other, I mean - when you two turned up unharmed after that."

"Oh, he was." Ian said. "Utterly furious."

"And he'd prepared for that, hadn't he?" Clara said slowly. "He'd hypnotized Barbara to kill you."

"Well...the Doctor, yes. And she nearly did it at that. See, we were taken straight to her and Susan in their chamber, when"

all of a sudden, Barbara went quiet as they walked into the room. She stared into space, a distressed look on her face.

"Barbara!" Ian exclaimed, as Susan finally released him from a strangling hug. "Aren't you pleased to see us? It was a narrow thing, you know!"

"Yes..." Barbara said quietly, not looking at Ian. "Yes, I know..."

What happened next seemed to go in slow motion. Ian saw Barbara reach into her pocket, and slowly bring something out...a gun. A revolver! What? Where did she get that? And why, oh why, was she now pointing it at the Doctor? It all happened so slowly. Ian saw it all unfold, but he couldn't move...he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Susan gasped and clutched her face. Barbara was staring at the Doctor now, the revolver pointed at his chest. He stared at her, clutching his lapels. He spoke to her sternly. "Now, Miss. Wright. Put that down. Put it down at once."

Barbara didn't reply. Her eyes were blank and lifeless. Her hand shook slightly. Ian walked slowly towards her, but after the first step, she rounded the gun on him. He held his hands up and didn't come any closer.

"Barbara, I do not take kindly to threats." the Doctor warned, moving towards Barbara himself. Susan whimpered as Barbara's grip on the gun tightened. "Whatever's going on here, you need to put that down at once."

"I..." Barbara began. Then, she clutched her head and screamed in agony. She collapsed to the floor.

"Barbara!" Ian yelled, "Barbara, what is it?"

"My head..." she whimpered, the gun dropping limply from her hand. Susan kicked it away across the room.

The Doctor towered over Ian and Barbara - although he was a small man, in that moment Ian was genuinely frightened. A power came off of the old man, a power so strong that it sent a shiver down his spine. That was one of the first times he really understood what a powerful creature the doddery old man was - how much more he was than just a human being. He and Susan belonged to a race far beyond anything they would ever comprehend.

"Now pull yourself together, young lady. What is this nonsense? Why did you try to shoot me? Eh?" His voice was stern, but not unkind.

"H...he made me," Barbara said, crying in agony as she clutched her head. Blood was pouring from her nose.

"Good gracious me! We must get her back to the Tardis," the Doctor exclaimed, grabbing Barbara's arm, and lifting her up with Ian.

"It's all right, I've got her," Ian said. "Where's the Tardis?"

"Down the corridor," Susan said at once, "follow me."

They left, Barbara in Ian's arms. "What's happening to her, Doctor?" Ian cried.

"She will die unless we can get her to the Tardis. We can stabilize her there, now hurry up! She's been exposed to a particularly brutal form of hypnosis, and it will kill her if she isn't treated at once."

They found the Tardis parked in some sort of loading bay. The Doctor opened the doors and ushered everyone in. He was just about to follow, when he noticed the bald man in the white robes.

The Doctor shivered. Another Time Lord! He knew it the moment he saw him...Time Lords always do.

The Other chuckled. "A charmed life if ever there was one, Doctor."

The Doctor frowned. "Oh, so you know who I am, eh?"

The Other nodded. "We've met. You realize now, I intend to kill you myself."

"Oh?" the Doctor said, as the Other pulled a small gun from his cloak. Oh dear...he could try and rush into the Tardis, but he got the impression that he'd be shot down if he so much as moved...

It was Ian who saved him. He'd watched the Other approach on the scanner, and he'd seen him pull the gun on the Doctor. The Doctor didn't have a gun on board - that wasn't his way at all. Ian was a clever man. Somehow, he knew this man was responsible for what happened to Barbara...and that made him angry. He charged like a raging bull at the Other, otherwise known as King Thomas, with such speed that even a man with the Other's remarkable sleight of hand couldn't bring the gun up in time. Ian delivered a flying rugby tackle to the man in the cloak. Wrench screamed and clutched his stomach. He'd been shot in his stomach, not so long ago. Back on Yaed, in an encounter which took place hundreds of years into the Doctor's future. The Doctor and Ian took their chance - they clambered into the blue box and took off. The Other howled in fury as the metallic throbbing filled the air and the blue box faded out of existence. He'd got away! He'd got away! How?

As Ian finished his story, Clara once again turned the little disc off, smiling gently. Jamie clapped. For a moment, it was just him. They Jack joined in. So did Amy, and Jo. Soon, the whole room was applauding Ian, who sat there smiling sheepishly, turning a little red.

"Good on ya, pal." Mickey said, shaking his hand.

"Was Barbara all right?" Lady Me asked.

"Fine, yes." Ian said bitterly. "Eventually. Tell me again - when do we stop this man?"

"Soon." Clara promised. "But remember, it's not Tomasz Wrench anymore. Well okay, it is, but he's regenerated since then. Thomasina is worse. Much, much worse."

"How do you know all this?" Jack asked incredulously.

Clara shrugged. "I have my sources. Now, on that note, Captain. Harkness - your up. If your happy to go for it?"

Jack pretended to consider it. "Ah, go on then," he said finally, grinning, "as it's you."

Ian vacated his seat for Jack, but Jack declined. "I'm good to stand, pal. You stay where you are." He had a newfound respect for Ian Chesterton, after hearing all of that.

"Right." Clara said. "So...we don't really know for sure what the Other was doing on that planet. Or do we? We now know that he established himself as a monarch. We know he created a civil war - the people against the bees. But why? Well, what I think is this - he was building something. It was all set up as a cover."

"Oh, aye? Like what?" Jamie said.

"A Tardis." Clara said simply. "He was growing a Tardis, somewhere in that citadel. We know that, because the next time he appeared was when he crash landed on Earth in 1980. Him, and a handful of his horrible subjects. Jack - This is where you come in."

Jack nodded. Clara held the disc to his face, and turned the light on. Jack's expression changed, as the memories came flooding back in an instant...

Without further ado, and with none of his usual dramatic flair, Captain. Jack Harkness began reciting his part of the story...

Note: I know this one's taken slightly longer to upload, took quite a while to write. Sorry :/ I'll aim to get back to releasing a chapter a day after this. Hope everyone is still liking it!