xxxxxChapter 25 The Plans
"What did they do to her?" Mal asked softly, sadly.
"They removed part of her brain," the Master answered. There were sighs and hushed oh-my-gods from just about every woman in the room. "And they did many experiments on testing her muscle reflexes, which involved a lot of needles. Plus there were non-stop hours and even days of physical and psychic training that would drive anyone mad. It was like they were trying to make her into the perfect soldier or even an assassin."
The Master actually looked a bit impressed, which irritated the Doctor to no end. I'll reprimand him later, the Doctor thought to himself.
"Yeah, she'll rip you in half, if you're not careful." Mal nodded. "And don't get close to her when she has a knife in her hand either- and by 'don't get close' I mean run away and hide."
"You said they removed part of her brain. Which part?" Simon asked.
"The amygdala," the Master told him, reluctantly taking up the duty of explaining everything, as the Doctor was a bit distracted at the moment. Simon sighed, looking profoundly sad. "They removed her basic emotions, the part that decides right and wrong. They replaced it with an implant that produces the chemicals that support her extreme emotions; like rage and depression. Which explains a lot about her behavior upon meeting the Doctor."
The Doctor was still holding River, rubbing her back with one hand and resting his cheek on the top of her head.
"Why is that?" Mal asked.
"Emotionally, she's a child and just like everyone else who needs help and meets the Doctor," the Master sighed. "They see him as the answer to their problems. I've always wondered why that is?" The Master got a pondering look. "You humans always cling to him in times of need, which this little girl is doing quite literally because of her mental state." He nodded at River. "Can't you apes take care of yourselves for once?"
"Master," the Doctor said in a warning tone, glaring up at him.
"It's a valid question," the Master argued. "Why do you always have to protect these mongrels?"
"Mongrels?" Wash asked, going unheard again.
"Because someone needs to do it, and I can and I want to," the Doctor told him. "And I need them to need me to do it, I suppose." The Doctor smiled and chuckled a little. "They could probably take care of themselves well enough, even if a lot of their history would be completely different, if I hadn't stepped in. They don't call humans 'The Great Survivors' for nothing."
Jack and the Doctor's other friends all grinned brightly. Even Wash, Zoe and Kaylee gave a small grin, grabbed by the same need as every other human the Doctor meets. They feel safer around him and a fond love for him grows within them, without them even noticing it until he's gone from their lives.
The Master shook his head. "But why the humans, Doctor? Why do you risk your life over and over again to save the human race, but risk even more to destroy the Time Lords?"
The Doctor's gaze flew up to glare at the Master. "We are not having this discussion right now."
"Fine, we'll talk more about it later," the Master growled. "But don't think you'll be able to-"
Mal cut the Master off. "You find out where they might be holding this John character?" Mal asked, getting the conversation back on track.
"Yes," the Doctor informed. He let go of River and she leg go of him, until he turned around again to face the table; then she grabbed his arm again. "In fact, I'm almost certain that he will be there."
"Really?" Rose asked eagerly, still looking a bit sad.
"Yes." The Doctor gave Rose a smile. "Have you got a map of this system?" he asked Mal.
"Yeah. Wash?" Mal turned to his pilot. Wash nodded and ran to the cockpit. He came back moments later with a piece of folded yellow paper. He unfolded it onto the table to reveal a computer screen like map of the White Star solar system. Tosh wandered over to look at it, Gwen shook her head at Toshiko's fascination with technology.
"It was a space station." The Doctor stood and peered at the map; River was kind enough to let go of his arm and held his hand instead. "Don't know what it's called, though." Jack and the others stood and huddled around the map as well.
"Greenleaf," River muttered. "It floats around Greenleaf."
"Greenleaf?" the Doctor asked Mal.
"Here." Mal pointed to a planet on the Rim. "This is Greenleaf." He glanced at River. "And I think I know what space station you're talking about." He pointed to another small dot that was floating around Greenleaf and another smaller planet. "Ezra. I really don't want to have to go there but you gotta do what you gotta do."
"Why don't you want to go there?" the Doctor asked curiously.
"Niska?" Jayne asked, looking up and paying attention now. "I ain't going anywhere near that bastard again! I don't wanna and you can't make me!"
"I don't want to either," Wash said to Jayne. "But this is a life and death situation and we have no choice if we want to help them to rescue their friend. I hate to say it, but if you were stuck there, we would go save your sorry ass and I know you'd save ours, even if you didn't want to. You weren't even the one Niska tortured! What are you so afraid of?"
"I saw what he did to you and Mal, that's enough!" Jayne yelled back at Wash. "And that poor guy he had hanging upside down in his closet. Said it was his nephew, Gorram it! Imagine what he does to people who ain't his family!"
"I don't need to imagine!" Wash shouted back.
"Bizui!" Mal yelled at them. They both shut up and looked a little ashamed. Mal glared at his crew mates, then looked to the Doctor. "Obviously, we've had a few bad experiences with the guy who runs the business side of that particular space station. He's not a nice guy, I'll tell you that! Really knows how to torture people and he enjoys it too."
"Bet he doesn't have anything on you," Jack remarked snidely to the Master.
The Master snickered. "Oh, no one has anything on me! Are you kidding?" the Master said, smiling and chuckling. The Doctor rolled his eyes. The Master addressed Mal, his notorious smirk gracing his features. "How about I show this Niska guy what it really means to torture someone? A taste of his own medicine, would you like that?"
"You can do whatever the hell you want, as long as it ain't to my crew!" Mal deadpanned; he didn't like the Master at all. The Master laughed, the Doctor just shook his head. "Now we only saw a small portion of that space station, just the way from the dock to Niska's office and to the room he likes to torture people in," Mal continued. "Took out quite a few of his men in the process of escaping but I'm sure he's replaced them by now and I can tell you none of them people there will hesitate to kill you, if you ain't supposed to be there. And you definitely do not want to get caught. Niska's always going on about meeting your true self and some Works of...what was it?" Mal turned to Wash. Wash shrugged.
"The Works of Xiang Yu," Shepherd Book supplied, walking over to the table after having finished making dinner.
Suddenly, the Master spluttered and burst out laughing. He was laughing so hard that he ended up on his knees next to the Doctor, his face buried in his arms on the table, laughing raucously. The Doctor slapped a hand to his own face, stifling a chuckle.
"What's his problem?" Mal asked.
"What's so funny about stories of torture?" Book asked, a little affronted.
"Even after almost three thousand years!" the Master said to the Doctor through his guffaws. The Doctor just shook his head, suppressing a smile of his own and failing.
"Did we miss something?" Mal asked.
"The Master," the Doctor started, then hesitated a moment before continuing. "The Master wasXiang Yu."
"I wrote the Works of Xiang Yu!" the Master shouted, still laughing his ass off.
"You're kidding?" Jack asked, also affronted.
"Nope," the Doctor said, popping the "P". The Master continued to laugh, Jack and the others who knew the Master were looking at him like he was something disgusting.
The Master slowly recovered from the joke of one of his lifetimes, everyone watching him with mixed emotions. He stood back up and dusted himself off, clearing his throat. "'A taste of his own medicine' indeed! More like a taste of mine!" The Master straightened his tie. "Oh, that was hilarious!"
"You were the inspiration for that maniac's torture fetish?" Mal asked incredulously, getting a bit angry.
"It's not like I inspired him on purpose," the Master snickered. "I only wrote those scrolls for fun! How was I to know that you humans would cling to their words for thousands of years?"
Mal was so angry, his lips vanished in a tight scowl. He clenched his fists and took a deep breath. The Doctor was watching him, worried that he might decide to throw the Master out into open space. In which case, the Doctor would chuck the Master into the TARDIS and lock him in.
Mal carefully reigned in his temper, he was still extremely angry at the Master's revelation and if he didn't like him at all before, he hates him now. The only thing stopping him from throwing the Master off of his ship, was the fact that these people were paying customers and he was supposedly one of the only two members of his species left in the universe. He was an endangered species so to speak and Mal didn't want to be responsible for helping to wipe them out, no matter how much of an asshole he was. He also looked like a human, which made it difficult for Mal to just chuck him off into space purely for the sake of killing someone he hates. "Anyway," Mal finally managed, crackling his knuckles. "Your friend is in this space station, we just need to get in, grab him and get out."
"Easier said than done," Zoe said.
"Whatever needs to be done," Jack told them. "There's plenty of us who can go in and fight, especially me since I can't die."
"Wait, what?" Wash asked. Again, he went unheard.
"Gwen, Owen, Ianto and Tosh are all trained for combat," Jack continued. "If the Master would be kind enough to help, he could probably take down that whole station by himself, if he wanted to."
All eyes turned to Master, who then shrugged. "Then it's a good thing I want to, isn't it Freak?"
"You want to help save John?" Rose asked, hopeful.
"Of course not," the Master told her, smiling. "I just want to kill something and I don't think the Doctor would be entirely opposed to my killing someone who loves to torture people as much as I do." The Doctor glared at him, the Master smiled back at him.
"Excuse me," Shepherd Book said to Jack. "But did I hear you correctly when you said that you can't die?"
"Didn't you hear River call him 'The Immortal Man'?" Mal asked the Shepherd.
"I did," Shepherd Book said, nodding.
"Well, she meant it," Mal said.
"Watched him come back to life right in front of me at the saloon, Preacher," Zoe told Book.
"You can't be serious?" Wash asked his wife.
"I am!" Zoe assured him.
"Need a demonstration?" Captain John piped up, asking Jack.
"Yeah, would you mind?" Jack asked him.
"Not at all!" Captain John pulled his gun out and shot Jack in the head, making an awful mess.
"Ta ma de!" Mal and crew flinched, completely unprepared for gunfire. The Doctor flinched and grimaced, then sighed at his friend's stupidity as Jack dropped dead to the floor. Mal, Jayne and Zoe reached for their guns. Captain John blew the smoke away from the barrel of his pistol, smirked and put it back in it's holster.
"What the hell is going on?" Kaylee and Inara ran into the room after having heard the gunshot. They saw Jack dead on the floor and Kaylee made a sad noise. "What happened?" Kaylee asked.
"We're killing people in the kitchen now, Mal?" Inara said flatly.
"Hey, I didn't do it!" Mal defended.
"No, that was me!" Captain John smiled and waved at the two girls.
Jack woke up, sucking in a loud breath. Kaylee screamed and Inara's chin dropped. Shepherd Book gasped and stumbled backwards a few steps.
"Wuh de tyen, ah!" Wash yelled and jumped back. Jayne tried to leave but Mal grabbed his shirt sleeve and yanked him back to where he was.
Jack sat up. "Ow!" He cringed and held his head. He stood up, wiped the blood from his head and looked at Captain John. "Your guns loaded with hollow-points?" he asked incredulously.
"Yep!" Captain John smiled.
"I hate hollow-points! They always give me a headache afterwards!" Jack grumped. Captain John snickered, he'd wanted to test Jack's immortality in many ways. Now he could scratch hollow-point bullets and head shots off the list, next he was thinking of using explosive rounds later.
"Are you morons done playing around now?" the Master asked, giving them a look like they just proved that they were the stupid apes that he knew them to be. Jack cleared his throat and stood up straight, looking a bit ashamed.
"Anyway, back to business" the Doctor said, rolling his eyes. He then looked to Mal, "Do you have an approximate idea of how many men there will be in this space station?"
"Least a hundred." Mal shrugged. "Should have more than enough bullets for that, we let Jayne, Zoe and I do most of the shooting." The Doctor sighed and most of his friends had an apologetic expression when they looked at him. "Something wrong?" Mal asked.
"The Doctor hates violence in general, the use of guns above all else." Jack sighed.
"I won't beg it of you," the Doctor said, looking at Mal. "But I will ask of you to please not shoot or fatally wound anyone, if you don't need to."
"Fair enough," Mal agreed. Zoe nodded her agreement, Jayne whined a little.
"Thank you." The Doctor smiled.
The Master scoffed. "Self-righteous bastard," he mumbled. The Doctor rolled his eyes again.
"You shut your mouth!" Rose exploded, standing and glaring at the Master. "There's never a good excuse to kill anyone, even if you have no other choice!" The Master chuckled at the funny little human. The Doctor and Jack were a bit startled by Rose's outburst, as were Mickey and Martha. Mal and his crew were a bit taken aback and the gunslingers seemed a little ashamed of themselves, even Jayne.
"It's okay, Rose," Mickey said, putting his hand on her shoulder. "He's just being an ass, you don't need to get worked up over it."
Rose pouted for a moment. "I don't want to be pregnant anymore!" Rose wrapped her arms around Mickey and hugged him tight, she cried into his shoulder. "I get all weepy and emotional over everything! It's driving me mad!" she shouted and sobbed into his shoulder. Mickey idly rubbed her back and made shushing noises. "I want my husband back!" And she sunk to the floor and dissolved into a sobbing sniffling wreck.
Inara went over to Rose, kneeled next to her, and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Why don't you and I go have some tea?" she asked Rose. "I have some wonderful blends back in my shuttle. Plus, it'll give you a chance to relax while the others make plans to rescue your beloved."
Rose sniffed and looked at Inara. "But I want to help," Rose replied sadly. "I want to go save him. I have to!"
"But wouldn't he be upset if you or your child were hurt while trying to save him?" Inara asked. "I can tell your friends are plenty capable of fighting this battle for you and I know Mal will do everything in his power to make sure you get your husband back, even if it kills him." Inara glanced at Mal. "Let's go have that tea. All this talk about killing and saving people will only cause you and your baby more distress."
"Okay," Rose said meekly and sniffled. She and Inara stood and Inara put her arm around Rose's shoulders. They started toward the door, but a few steps from it Rose turned and ran to the Doctor. She hugged him really tight. "You will get him back for me, won't you?"
"Yes, I will." The Doctor gently held Rose close to him. "You even need to ask?"
"Thank you," Rose sniffled. "For everything."
"You deserve the universe, Rose Tyler. You earned it all, no need to say thank you for anything," the Doctor said to her.
Mal and crew were a bit touched by what the Doctor said, even if they didn't fully understand why he said it. Jack and his team felt their hearts swell but the Master had the biggest, meanest scowl imaginable as he watched the scene before him. Rose pulled away from the Doctor and smiled at him. He smiled back and then she turned and went with Inara out of the galley.
Mal was thinking that he should probably thank Inara later for always trying to make his life easier when trouble comes along. The rest of the time they bickered back and forth like a married couple.
The Doctor turned back to the room at large and smiled. "Right then! Back to work!" Everyone took that cue to get there minds back on track.
"Right!" Mal said, coming out of his reverie. "So, I think it would be best if we did something similar to how you got Serenity in there last time," Mal said to Wash. Wash nodded.
"How was that?" the Doctor asked.
"Took dead aim, fired the attitude thrusters just outside of radar range. Then powered her down completely, except for air and comms. Blasted out static on all frequencies and just coasted in." Wash explained. "We came up as less than a radar blip to them, they didn't even notice us until we'd docked and stormed the entrance."
"All to save my sorry ass!" Mal smiled.
"Oh, that's brilliant!" the Doctor said, impressed. "Outside of radar range, that's over six thousand miles away!" He chuckled and clapped his hands. Wash bowed comically a couple of times, like he was bowing to each side of a large audience.
"Well, that was clever!" Captain John piped up.
"Yeah, it was." Jack nodded and clapped with the Doctor. The Master tilted his head in a vague agreement. Everyone else didn't really understand.
"God, I love humans!" the Doctor proclaimed. Everyone smiled and laughed, except the Master who just shook his head and rolled his eyes.
Inara opened the door to her shuttle and ushered Rose inside.
"Wow," Rose said, looking around. "It's beautiful! It's like we've slipped out of a space ship and into a dream castle." Rose smiled and looked around some more, taking in the sight of all the colorful silk tapestries, the big luxurious bed and all the beautiful possessions and trinkets that Inara had all over; transforming the drab metal inside of a space shuttle to a spacious hotel suite. Rose sat down on a cushy bench, while Inara went about making tea.
"What kind of tea would you like?" Inara asked. "I have Jasmine, Oolong, Chamomile, some special blends, or I have your everyday Earl Gray if you'd prefer?"
"Whatever you'd recommend for nerves," Rose said, smiling but looking awfully tired and rubbing her neck with one hand.
"I have a good special blend for that," Inara stated, nodding and smiling. "And it's all natural and safe for your current condition." She turned her attention to her hot plate and kettle, she prepared the teapot and teacups while waiting for the water to boil. "Do you like cream or sugar?"
"Just one sugar, please." Rose smiled at Inara.
"So, the Doctor is an alien," Inara said after a few minutes, pouring the boiling water into the teapot. She but a tea cozy over the pot to let it steep.
Rose gave a small laugh. "Yeah, he is. Usually, he seems almost human but there are times when he is so obviously an alien that it's actually scary. Though, that might be because those times are always when he's angry."
"Does he get angry often?" Inara asked, pouring the tea and handing a cup to Rose.
"No," Rose said, shaking her head. "He's almost always happy and smiling." Rose frowned. "Though, there are times you catch him unawares and you can see his grief, when his face shows his age. And I've learned more since I got married to John. The Doctor is never truly happy, he's lived so long and his life has been so full of heartache that he has to force himself to smile. He does it just to keep us from worrying about him, to keep us happy. He always puts himself last." Rose's eyes filled with tears again. "I've been happy with John, learning more and more about him and the Doctor and the Time Lords and the whole universe. I haven't seen the Doctor in years, now I see him again and I know more about him... when he smiles, it makes me want to cry. It used to make me want to smile too." Rose took a sip of tea before she could start sobbing. It was good tea, kind of bold and flowery with a hint of spices. Inara makes her tea very well.
"He sounds like a very complex man," Inara said, smiling. Then she had a pondering look. "Would he still be called a 'man', if he isn't a human?"
Rose laughed. "He is part human and yeah, we still call him a 'man'. It's easier that way, less complicated."
Inara smiled. "So, your husband is related to the Doctor?" she asked.
"You could say that. It's hard to explain, I guess you could say that he's the Doctor's human clone," Rose told her. "They look alike, exactly the same face."
"A clone?" Inara asked. "How did that happen? Did the Doctor just decide one day to grow a copy of himself in a lab or did someone else do it?"
Rose laughed again. "No, it's not like that! That's the part that's hard to explain, even I don't know how it really happened. He grew out of the Doctor's severed hand, all on its own with a little help from a friend who accidentally put more energy into it or something." Inara looked confused and maybe a little grossed out. Rose giggled. "I told you it was hard to explain!"
"The Doctor's severed hand?" Inara asked, smiling a little. "You don't mean his actual hand? I thought he had both of them?"
"Yeah, he lost his hand in a swordfight and then grew another one." Rose smiled.
"He can regrow his limbs?" Inara was a bit surprised and looked it.
Rose giggled again, starting to feel much better. "Only if it's after-... if the conditions are right," Rose simplified.
"He sounds like a lizard, regrowing its tail in the sun," Inara muttered and giggled. Rose burst out laughing. Inara had succeeded in making Rose calm down and feel better.
John on the other hand, didn't feel better. In fact, he felt terrified. He'd been taken to a space ship, an Alliance Cruiser they'd said. He was dragged from the shuttle and escorted to a tiny room, an interrogation room. He was promptly chained to a chair again, where he waited for about two minutes before a strange woman walked in.
TBC
Chinese Translations:
Gorram - Firefly slang for "God damn"
Bizui! - Shut up!
Ta ma de! - Dammit!
Wuh de tyen, ah! - Dear God in heaven!