A/N: I know my Gallifreyan gets a bit of attention (good attention!) and some people would like to know how I operate, and that's sort of been playing on my mind. So I finally got my arse in gear and sorted out my Gallifreyan dictionary (yes, it exists :P). I've always been reluctant to put it anywhere because of course it's not entirely comprehensive and inevitably there are words missing which I haven't need yet. But I think it's got enough flesh now. You know, I would post it somewhere, but I have no idea where, lol! Oh well. Back to whump.
Chapter 21 - Glass Half-Empty, Car Park Half-Full
The Doctor had been expecting to suffer a few more bruises from the Chief on account of the escape, but the fat important Kryxian hadn't even looked in on the Doctor. Anyone else but the Doctor would insist that was a good thing, but through the Doctor's extensive experience of being held captive, he knew that the longer the captor stayed away, the more angrier they'd be when they finally reached their prisoner. Sooner rather than later, was the captive's motto.
Still, he'd had plenty of time to think about things.
The rather sad thing was he'd already been in this situation far too many times to count. The most memorable was the time he'd gone to Paxilo 14 many, many years ago, helped with their Chak infestation and been given the title of the King's Protector. He'd nearly been back at the TARDIS when a surprise gang of rebels had attacked him, tied him up and dragged him behind them across the unforgiving Paxilo Desert, back to a small cave on the outskirts of the King's city. There he'd been chained, ridiculed and tortured with a variety of intriguing methods as the rebels demanded a payoff from the King to free him.
The King hadn't obliged of course, because although the King appreciated what the Doctor had done he barely knew him, and the Doctor's life simply wasn't worth the amount. Which, on reflection, was fair enough, but that didn't mean the Doctor hadn't been annoyed.
But the rebels, seemingly unable to take no for an answer, persisted. They had made their methods even more brutal - utilising possibly just about everything in the Scout's Guide to Good Torture (or whatever these people used) before he'd finally managed to make a friend who'd helped him escape, on legs with multiple fractures and severed tendons. Needless to say, he hadn't left the TARDIS for a while. He hadn't been able to with the physical wounds.
Fortunately (though really, all things considered; unfortunately) during the War he'd undergone compulsory interrogation resistance training. Capture by the Daleks almost certainly meant torture, and all soldiers went through the training to resist it so secrets weren't spilled. Not that the Daleks' torture was anywhere near as bad as Time Lord torture. They really were very skilled in it.
So, as a result, the Doctor wasn't that worried. Whatever the Chief had planned for him it couldn't hold a candle to Paxilo, though the Doctor would prefer that the Chief was a little less irate when he did it. It made for a nicer torture session all round.
But the difference was that on Paxilo he'd managed to make a friend. Unlike here, he'd kept his speech and he'd used it the way he knew best. He'd sweet talked that Paxilolian for six months - yes, a while, but he'd done it. He'd converted him, just through the power of his words.
Now he didn't have any. He was even less fluent in Kryxian than he was in English at the moment. Not to mention the fact that without the TARDIS in close proximity, the rate of his brain healing had been drastically slowed again. Since Donna had left with the TARDIS he'd fainted three times, and he could do nothing about it.
He could only pray the Chief didn't attack his head. He wasn't sure he'd recover from that without regeneration. And he hadn't even started on the imminent destruction of Earth yet, but there were only so many crises he could handle at one time.
Though there was the very distinct possibility that the Chief had already attacked.
But he was trying not to think about that.
Positivity! Optimism!
Exactly. That's what he needed to feel right now. Glass half-empty. Car park half-full. Or was that the other way around?
So he sat in his room, chained to the wall, and thought positive things.
The door opened, jolting the Doctor back from a mostly useless sleep to meet the figure of the Chief looming over him.
He looked incredibly angry.
"Tarcha-latar," the Chief hissed, throwing forward his arm. Some Kryxian guards grabbed the Doctor, hauling him to his feet. Then they were off, moving through the corridors following the Chief. The care they had used before concerning his leg was gone, but that didn't exactly shock him.
They took him to the bridge again, depositing him where they'd left him before. The privacy shield came up, and once again it was just him and the Chief.
"Krashak!" the Chief shouted, looking incredibly angry.
The Doctor didn't answer. There was no point. He wouldn't understand.
The Chief said a few more things, to which the Doctor didn't reply. The Chief clearly became extremely agitated that he wasn't answering, going back to his chair and assuming control of his monitor - the one he'd used to target the Earth before - facing away from the Doctor. Though this time, the Doctor knew he would fire those missiles.
But the Doctor had been thinking, to the point he now had a ludicrous plan formed in his head. So as the Chief now busied himself with the controls, the Doctor was eyeing up the console. Through the clear material he could see the circuits, and it didn't take long to identify the right wire. The wire that would send the signal from the Chief's monitor to the missile docks. It could solve the small Earth-missile-target-bang-dead-humans problem in one second flat. If he crosswired the entire thing, it would short circuit and completely burn out the entire section. Replacement would cost too much. It would take years to fix.
And he wouldn't get another chance.
The Chief was preoccupied with the monitor, so the Doctor quickly but quietly edged towards the console. His hands were still chained but there was enough movement for him to pull out his sonic from his pocket, all the while keeping an eye on the Chief, who hadn't noticed, just assuming his prisoner was still on the floor.
He reached the base of the console, and quickly realised that the sound of his sonic would alert the Chief…
"Cha-gor f'skar!" a voice suddenly boomed from overhead. The launch was counting down. There was no time to waste. He buzzed the panel, which abruptly fell off with a clang. The Chief noticed, and was already on his feet. The Doctor ignored him, grabbing the wires inside the console and cross wiring them. Immediately electric coursed through the wires and there was a small explosion as the Doctor launched himself back, right into the waiting arms of the Chief.
No. Run.
He fought with everything he had, managing to worm his way out of the Chief's grip and up, taking one stride in the beginning of running before his broken leg surged with blinding agony…
He blacked out before he hit the floor.
The TARDIS had landed right inside UNIT's London HQ. The moment Donna had stepped out the disappointment in the UNIT member's faces, though they tried to cover it, was apparent.
Donna didn't get annoyed, she couldn't blame them. Of course, they'd been expecting the Doctor, not a temp from Chiswick.
Still, she didn't really care.
"I want to talk to Colonel Mace!" she demanded.
One of the UNIT soldiers stepped forward out of the group. "He's…"
"If the next word out of your mouth is 'busy' I'm gonna derank you, soldier!" Donna warned, despite having no idea whether that was actually within her power. She just enjoyed saying the sentence too much. "Get him right now if you don't wanna wake up on a planet that doesn't exist tomorrow!"
Despite the contradictory statement that frankly made very little sense, the UNIT soldier nodded and picked up his radio, just as Klax-lox stepped out the TARDIS behind her. Almost immediately the soldiers took aim.
Donna boldly stepped in front of Klax-lox. "He's a friend, don't shoot."
They didn't shoot, but neither did they lower their weapons. Donna quickly decided that was probably going to be the best she'd get.
"What are you doing?" Klax-lox asked, slightly nervously.
"Gonna talk to head guy," she told him. "We need to figure out how we can get back to your ship and get the Doctor. Oh!" she realised, looking at him. "Your teleport!"
Klax-lox shook his head. Donna's heart sank. "They would've severed my connection the moment they knew it was me."
Donna sighed. "Right, we'll figure something out. Jack'll know." She paused, and thought about that for a moment. "... He's gotta know," she finished weakly.
Jack had had an interesting few days. After his initial surrender to the Army they had completely ignored his warnings about the inevitable destruction of Earth. He had been kept away from Stein as the army completely took over the Loch. However, after they had comprehensively searched the building for the Doctor and not found him, they finally seemed to have started considering the idea that he in fact, wasn't there.
Then Stein had appeared, absolutely furious and assuming Jack had somehow got him out. But before the irate army doctor could do anything UNIT suddenly arrived, had dismantled the army movement and freed Jack within the space of about five hours.
Jack had been about to get angry at them for neglecting the Loch, but as it turned out Donna had appeared in London and they were desperate to get him back to see her. So he had to leave Martha, Harrison and the others and head back to London.
Five hours later he was sat in a small UNIT meeting room around a table with Colonel Mace, a few UNIT personnel, Donna and an alien - the one they had captured and he had personally tortured for information.
There was no room for mercy here. He didn't trust it.
"... So they chained him up," Donna was explaining slowly and clearly to everyone. "But the Doctor found out I… well, he found something out and he got angry, he tricked us. Klax-lox got me out, took me back to the TARDIS and the Doctor activated the emergency program to bring us back here. I couldn't stop it. We've gotta go back and save him."
Jack was eyeing the alien who'd been sat there, still and silent. "I don't understand why that's here," he grated, jerking a finger at the alien.
The alien flinched a little, but Donna quickly defended it. "He's with us," she explained. "He helped me escape."
"But not the Doctor?" Jack wondered vaguely, ensuring his hand was near enough to his gun holster for a quick draw.
"I couldn't get them both out," the alien muttered weakly.
"Forget that, it's done, we need to get back to the ship," Donna interrupted smoothly before an argument could erupt. "We need to save him."
"But we have no means of reaching space safely and quickly," Mace pointed out. "We simply cannot reach the ship."
"No, there has to be a way!" Donna stressed.
"I'm sorry, Ms Noble," the Colonel said, his voice laden with sorrow. "But we just cannot reach him."
Suddenly Donna was angry. A burning, deep anger that just seemed to erupt from inside her. "I don't care!" She snapped. "We've gotta find a way, there has to be a way!"
She looked at them all. Everybody looked so resigned and apologetic. Even Jack.
"No, no, don't you dare," Donna spat, looking at him with real hatred. "Don't you give up on him!"
Jack opened his mouth to reply, but clearly couldn't find anything to say as he closed his mouth again.
"We can't just abandon him!" she cried, tears in her eyes. "He's up there all alone, Jack, Colonel, he's gonna get tortured or something, he can't defend himself, he can't even speak for himself…"
There was a long, long silence.
Jack glared at the alien for a moment, before leaning forward on the table. "It's possible. I think."
Donna's eyes light up like a 100 watt bulb. "You can?"
Jack pulled a face. "There might be a trip system in the Tardis, I won't know 'til I look. I'm not guaranteeing anything but if it's there, we'll use it." He turned to Mace as Donna beamed, enthused. "Colonel, we're gonna need a few soldiers."
He nodded. "Understood. Harkness, if you can get to the ship I will assign you soldiers."
"What about the army?" Jack asked.
"We will deal with them," Mace told him. "The army have been trying to better us for years. They are yet to make a dent."
The group reached the TARDIS with a platoon of soldiers in tow. Jack signalled for the soldiers to wait.
"Right," Jack said loudly, addressing the crowd. "Assuming this works, when we land, we'll split into two groups. One will find the bridge and take control, the other will find the Doctor and get him to safety. If he needs any urgent medical attention, which is very possible, bring him back to the Tardis before treatment. The number one priority is his safety. As for the aliens, if you are confronted, shoot to kill."
Jack, Donna and Klax-lox stepped into the TARDIS. It was in abject darkness, powered down, as per the instructions of the emergency program. When Jack closed the door, Donna could barely see her own hand in front of her face.
Jack flicked on a torch, carving a path of bright light through the interior. He went straight to the console, checking it thoroughly.
"Jack," Klax-lox suddenly said from next to Donna. "Please don't tell them to shoot to kill."
"Why not?" Jack asked tersely.
"That's my race, you can't," Klax-lox almost whispered. "Please don't kill my people."
"We've got no time for resistant aliens," Jack spat. "They move or die."
"Jack," Donna interrupted quickly, feeling quite shocked at Jack's callousness. "He's the prince. If the Chief dies he gets power."
"Oh, so that's why it helped," Jack said maliciously. "I was wondering."
Donna could barely see his face in the abject blackness, but she could imagine it perfectly well. "Jack, he-"
"In case you don't remember it tried to kill the Doctor twice," Jack pointed out. "And now it's happy for us to kill its leader just so it can get power."
"It's not like that!" Klax-lox protested.
Donna opened her mouth, but suddenly Jack shouted, enthused. "Got it!"
She immediately forgot what she was going to say. "The trip system? It's here!?" she asked quickly.
He nodded in the torchlight. "Years ago when I was his companion he let me mess a bit with the Tardis," Jack told her. "When I was messing I installed a 'return trip' button, and I forgot to tell him. He might've found it and deactivated it though. If it works, it should take us right back to the alien ship."
"Brilliant," Donna breathed.
He just grinned, and pointed at a small black button. "This one," he muttered. "God I hope it works."
Donna nodded, letting in the UNIT soldiers. Soon the TARDIS was crowded, and they waited expectantly for Jack to press the magic button.
"Ready?" he asked. Donna nodded. Jack hit the button, and the column began to pulse as the TARDIS lights burst into action, accompanied with the ever-familiar vworping noise of the TARDIS going into flight.