Chapter Twenty Eight
The Doctor narrowed his eyes when he came to the first cell and started at the Kajoran captive. The lizard was on his feet staring back at him with his cold yellow eyes. Both men regarded the other coolly.
"You may think you have won, human, but you are wrong," he hissed.
"I wouldn't talk if I were you, seeing as how you're trapped inside my ship," the Doctor sneered.
The Kajoran snorted.
"I am but one and I give my life willingly to the Kajoran cause."
"What cause? What are you doing here? Surely it's not just to enslave humans and smelt gold. You can get gold on any number of uninhabited planets. So why come here?"
The Kajoran smirked.
"If you think I'm gonna tell you, mammal, you're stupider than I thought," he said. "I am loyal to the Kajorans and I will willingly die before I tell you anything."
The Doctor sighed.
"Great, now we have to do this the hard way. I was willing to give you a chance and just tell me what I want to know without resorting to coercion but if you want to be difficult I can resort to unpleasant methods to get the truth from you."
The Kajoran chuckled.
"For the glory of the Kajoran Empire!" he yelled.
The Doctor's eyes widened when he bit down hard and a black gas started seeping out of his mouth.
"NO!" he said as the Kajoran collapsed and went into convulsions before dying.
His hearts stopped when he heard the others yell out the same thing. He ran to them but every one of them had activated the suicide gas and they were all thrashing about in their cells.
"No! No, no, no!" the Doctor moaned.
He let out a frustrated yell and stamped his foot. He had searched the captives but he didn't see anything in their mouths. He figured the gas pill or bomb or whatever it had been was inserted into their gum lines where it couldn't be seen. He leaned back against the wall sighing angrily as he stared at the seven corpses in front of him.
"Damn them. These lizards aren't just bonkers, they're suicidal as well. Just like the one that tried to blow us up, this mission is apparently so important that they'll just give their lives up without a second thought."
He let out a curse as he slammed his hands against the wall. He asked the TARDIS to dispose of the bodies. There was a flash of light and they were gone. The Doctor shook his head and went to find Rose and the others.
They were still in the console room but Gabrielle was with them. She walked up to him when he entered.
"I gave the people all the food and drinks," she said proudly.
He smiled and put his hand on her head.
"You are such a help to me, Gabrielle, I'm grateful that you did that for me."
"Do you want me to do anything else?"
His eyes sparkled.
"Well, if you could look after everyone while we go to the next mine and free everyone, I'd appreciate that," he said.
She nodded.
"The TARDIS will help you do it because all of us are gonna have our hands full for a bit."
"I can do it. I used to babysit my little brother and sister when my mom and dad went out to eat."
"Did you now? My, my, you are a responsible young lady. I need someone like you to keep everyone in line in my ship, especially Jack here. He's a handful with all the feeding and burping."
"Jack chuckled and walked over to her.
"Yeah, I need my diaper changed constantly and I won't eat my carrots, I'm a fussy brat."
They all grinned when Gabrielle giggled. The Doctor wondered how long it had been since she had laughed and been at peace like this. He was so thankful he had been able to free her and the others and get them back to the safety of his TARDIS. He looked around at his friends.
"Is everyone ready to go to the next mine now?" he asked.
They nodded. He looked at Gabrielle.
"Are you ready?"
"I'm ready when you are, Doctor."
He smiled.
"Good. Just sit here and watch while I pilot the TARDIS on to the next destination. Good job the Kajorans back in London supplied us with a number of locations since the others died on us."
Rose sighed.
"Doctor, I'm sorry you couldn't get any information from them," she said.
He shrugged.
"After the one tried to blow us up with him I shoulda guessed the others would be no different," he said, powering up the TARDIS. "It just shows how willing they are to protect their operations here on Earth. There's more to it though. I'm sure of it. I'm sure this invasion is part of a wider, greater plan and this time we are gonna make damn sure the lizard captives are incapable of killing themselves because I want the truth."
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The Doctor and his friends paused behind a huge snowdrift. The entrance to the mine was about twenty feet away and as before two guards was posted at the entrance. The Doctor looked back at Ben and Billy who were dressed in the other guards' outfits. He nodded to them and they got up and hurried towards the guards.
"Emergency!" Ben said running up to them. "Come quickly!"
The guards looked at them.
"What is it?" the one on the left said.
"We need help. Humans are escaping!" Billy replied.
The guards looked at each other and followed them. They led them back to the snowdrift and ducked down. They ran around it and stopped short when they saw the Doctor, Rose and Jack.
"Hi! We're the escaped humans. Nighty-night now!"
They grunted when he and Jack leapt up and decked them in the face, knocking them out. Everyone stepped back when Simone handed him a gas capsule and he stepped on it. He turned on his respiratory bypass system and stepped back with them. Once the gas dissipated, he nodded to Simone who took her place besides the guards.
"Let's go," the Doctor said to his friends.
They took off their snow gear, ran out from behind the snow drift and headed towards the entrance. The Doctor peeked inside and noticed the interior was empty. He nodded at Jack and Rose and they went inside while Ben and Billy took their positions beside the entrance. They hurried to the lift and went down. Just like before, no Kajorans were around it and they quickly ducked into the shadows once it stopped. They peeked around a corner and noticed that the humans were all working while the guards and mind slaves moved among them whipping and urging them on.
"So what do we do?" Jack whispered.
"Try to get back down into the mine shafts like before. Rally the humans down there and start the tidal wave coming up into the caves, only this time I'm gonna talk to them beforehand so we don't get a complete bloodbath in their wake."
"So act like we did before?" Rose whispered to him.
He nodded.
"Yes, act like one of the workers and keep to the shadows. Hopefully, it'll be like the last time and we'll get down the shafts without arousing suspicions."
He looked at them and asked if they were ready. When they nodded, the three of them stepped out into the open. They adopted the blank looks of the captives and slowly moved among them. As they slowly moved towards the furnace room they were unaware that a couple of Kajorans had spotted them and were shadowing them.
They entered the furnace room and turned their heads away from the same horrifying scene of men sweating to death in front of the fire.
"This way," the Doctor whispered as he pointed to an opening off to the right.
Suddenly, they heard Rose yell and he and Jack spun around. Their hearts caught in their throats when they saw the Kajorans had a hold of Rose and were preparing to plunge her head first into the fire.
"No!" the Doctor said.
"Surrender or the rebel will be burned alive!" one of them said.
The Doctor and Jack glanced at each other and put up their hands. The two Kajoran chuckled.
"We knew you were coming. You left one of the foremen alive in the other mine and he alerted the rest of us."
The Doctor cursed under his breath.
"Restrain them!"
The Doctor and Jack felt two mind slaves come up from behind, grab their arms and force them behind their backs. One of the Kajoran grabbed a hold of Rose's arm while the other stepped towards the Doctor and Jack.
"Let them go. Take me, I'm the one who's responsible for the uprising," the Doctor said desperately.
The Kajoran chuckled.
"And let the rebel Rose Tyler escape? We've wanted her for quite some time now and of course we are grateful to you for returning our escaped slave here."
"I warn you, harming them would be a very bad idea," the Doctor snarled.
The Kajoran seized his face and got in close.
"And I'm warning you, resist us and cause us trouble and we'll make your enslavement more painful than it already will be. You are not in control here anymore, mammal, we are and you will do as we say or suffer the consequences."
The Doctor glanced at Rose and saw the fear in her eyes. His hearts sank when he knew she was remembering the dream and this time he couldn't promise her for sure that it wouldn't come true.
He glanced over with the others when Ben and Billy were brought in and thrown to the floor in front of them.
"We found the other two, Suissstra," the Kajoran guard said.
"Excellent, Prystrak, now we have all the rebels in our clutches."
The Doctor breathed a silent sigh of relief that Simone had gotten away and they hadn't thought to look for her. Suissstra pointed to him.
"This one is the leader. He will be questioned. In the meantime, these four shall be detained in separate cells on the ship until the commander determines what shall be done with them."
Prystrak and the other one saluted him. They grabbed Ben and Billy while the mind slaves took hold of Rose and Jack and pushed them along. Rose looked back at the Doctor and he gave her a brave smile when he saw the anguish on her face.
"I'll see you later," he mouthed to her.
"Doctor," Rose said before the mind slave forced her to look the other way.
The Doctor watched with silent worry while his friends were forced back towards the mine's entrance. He grunted when Suissstra grabbed his face and forced him to look at him. He got in close and stared at him while his forked tongue darted in and out, smelling him.
"You are different from other humans, I can tell," he said. "Perhaps we can use you."
The Doctor snorted.
"Guess again, scaly," he said.
He grunted when the Kajoran squeezed his face.
"If I were you, I wouldn't talk back, I could very easily shatter your jaw with just my hand," he said.
"What's the difference since you're gonna torture me anyway?" the Doctor grunted.
"Ah, but if you cooperate with us, we'll go easy on you, little mammal. Now…we're going to go into a room and there you will answer any and all questions I will ask, truthfully, or both you and your friends will suffer dearly."
The Kajoran nodded at the mind slave holding him. He let go of one arm and a Kajoran guard grabbed the other. The Doctor glanced at the lizard and saw the triumphant smile on his face before he was herded away to be interrogated.
