Chapter Thirty Five

When everyone got the dog back into the med bay, Alan ran a scan and shook his head.

"It's a good thing we go to her in time. She has numerous cracked ribs and internal bleeding. The poor thing was nearly ready to snuff it. But no worries, I'll use my rejuvenator on her and she'll be right as rain again."

He took out his rejuvenator and began to heal the dog while John stroked her head. The dog looked up at him with bleary eyes and gently licked his hand whenever he brought it near her muzzle. She was medium sized with reddish colored short fur, a long graceful neck and a triangular head with pointed triangular ears. Her belly and paws and snout were white with a narrow white streak from the snout up to her forehead and her tail was fluffy and was bent back in a curly cue on the right side of her body. While they were doing that, Nelak looked up some information on basenjis on a computer near the back of the med bay.

"Hmm, according to this, basenjis don't really bark, they yodel," Nelak said, looking at them.

"Really?" Alan said. "Fancy that, John, you found a doggie with talent."

"Yeah, apart from the yodels and some howls, the dogs are silent," Nelak said, looking at them.

"That'll be useful if you need to take him somewhere," Alan said while he healed her with the rejuvenator.

With each passing second, they could see the dog regaining strength and becoming more active. Sokanon came up beside John and pet her head.

"What are you gonna call her?" she asked him.

"Don't know yet. I'm thinking."

He smiled when the dog lapped his hand again.

"I don't know why anyone would wanna hurt her, she's beautiful," Namid said as she came up beside John.

"Because some people are sadistic bastards who don't care about others," Mingxia said.

"Yeah, isn't that how some serial killers get their start, by abusing animals like this?" Awinita asked.

"I wonder how he'd like it if someone did the same to him," Rosie said while she and Rose stood nearby. "Why anyone would wanna hurt a little treasure like this is beyond me."

John's eyes widened.

"That's it. I'll call her Te'vanos," he said.

"What does that mean?" Christopher said.

"It's Gallifreyan for Beloved Treasure," John said.

"Aw, I like that. Te'vanos," Namid said, stroking the dog's belly.

Alan finished with the rejuvenator and very gently picked Te'vanos up in his arms. He took him over to a larger machine that would heal her bones and the rest of her body. The machine was similar to a large tube like room that was made of glass and had a metal floor. Alan opened a door in the side and laid Te'vanos down gently on the floor. Te'vanos looked at him with a quizzical look on her face and Alan smiled and scratched behind her ear.

"Don't worry, Girl, we'll fix those bones of yours and you'll be up and yodeling in no time," he said.

He closed the door and punched some commands into the keypad beside it. The room was suddenly filled with a pulsating bright light and Alan stepped back to wait until Te'vanos was fully healed. He glanced at John who was texting someone.

"Who you texting?" he asked John.

"The Doctor. Letting him know what happened," John muttered as he kept his eyes on the screen.

Alan rubbed his ear while he thought for a moment.

"You know, I think we should go back to Bellagios and get some more hot dogs to go, so we can have them for later. You wanna come with me and get a couple sacks full of them?"

"Sure, sounds great. I need a walk to calm myself down after all this," John said.

"I'll come with you then," Nelak said.

"Okay, I think that's all we'll need," Alan said. "The rest of you wait in here and look after Te'vanos and make sure she's okay."

He glanced over when John's mobile rang. He answered it and spoke to the Doctor as he motioned for Alan and Nelak to follow him. The three men kissed their wives before they headed out of the med bay towards the console room.

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The TARDIS powered down and Amato got up from the jump seat and stretched his body. He smiled at Frobisher who was playing with a little pink ball that his TARDIS had provided for him. He walked over, bent down and stroked his back, smiling as Frobisher purred and meowed.

"I'll be back soon, little mate, you keep playing and being cute," he said to him.

He stood back up.

"TARDIS, keep an eye on him for me."

The TARDIS grunted a yes and nudged his mind.

"Right, let's see where we landed up," Amato said as he headed to the door.

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He found himself on an unfamiliar planet in the heart of a city that was mainly constructed of glass and steel. The skyscrapers jutted up towards the sky, catching the light of the twin suns above with their glass sides. The buildings all had domed tops and Amato noticed a few of them opened to allow small spacecraft to land on landing pads inside them. The city was incredibly clean as was the sky, no pollution anywhere that he could see. Numerous humans and aliens were out, walking the pavements and going to and fro to wherever they needed to be. Amato began looking around for a newsagent of some kind in order to try to find out exactly where he was. After making inquiries of passerby, he was directed to a large skyscraper three down from his position. He entered the glass double doors into a wide lobby with pink marble floors and an enormous fountain in the center of it that had a spray of water that went up thirty feet in the air surrounded on all sides by small ten foot fountains. Near the back was a receptionist who sat at a black wood desk. He asked her and was directed to go down a narrow corridor directly to her right. He entered it and walked through it to a larger back room where he saw storefronts on all sides of him. There was a restaurant, clothing store, shoe store, grocery store and the newsagents was off to his right. He entered the store and looked around until he found a newspaper. He found one in a gold rack beside a larger metal rack that was filled with magazines and glanced at it.

CORTO GAZETTE

"Corto? Never heard of it if that's the name of the city," Amato muttered.

He pulled his credit stick out of his pocket and read the headline while he walked up to the man behind the counter.

WIDOWED QUEEN TO VISIT CORTO.

He stopped short several feet from the cash register when he saw the photo underneath the headline of the widowed queen.

"No, it can't be," Amato said.

He read the article beside the photo.

Her Royal Highness, Perpugilliam Brown of Thoros Alpha will visit the city of Corto today in a show of goodwill between our planet and hers. The widow of His Royal Highness, King Yrcanos of Thoros Alpha will speak in the plaza of Orto Park this afternoon at 0300 hours, Corto standard time.

Amato stared at the photo. Peri had been photographed from the shoulders up. He noticed she looked the same as when he last saw her. She was wearing black clothes and a heavy black veil covered the back of her head. Amato's hearts wrenched when he saw the sad look on her face while she stared directly at the camera. He swallowed hard and touched her face with his fingertips.

"Peri," he whispered. "My Peri."

"Hey, buddy!"

Amato jerked his head up and saw the human man was giving him an annoyed look.

"I don't run a library, buy it or put it back!" he said.

Amato glared at him. Folding the paper up, he walked up to the counter with his credit stick.

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John, Alan and Nelak walked back towards Bellagio while John spoke with the Doctor on his mobile. By now, the Doctor had informed him that Tara, Jenny, Emi, Angel, Elizabeth and Tia had dropped by to see him and he, Rain and all of the children also wanted hot dogs.

"Blimey, our hands are gonna be full," Alan said when he heard that.

"You're killing us, Brother. These hot dogs are two foot long," John said to the Doctor as he walked.

"Well, you shouldn't have mentioned where you were going then," the Doctor said. "I happen to like Bellagio and we can always have the hot dogs for later. In the meantime, my children and Alan's children are over here discussing Tenny's appearance today. I'm waiting for them to tell me that he's better than I am so I can throttle them all for lying."

John smiled when he heard the women laughing in the background.

"Are my youngest behaving themselves?" the Doctor asked.

"Yup, good as gold, they and the other women are looking after Te'vanos right now. I think I might get her a hot dog as well since she's been a good patient through all this."

"Making a dog eat a dog? You sadistic git, making your dog into a cannibal!" the Doctor said while John chuckled.

"I know, I'm evil sometimes," John replied.

"I'll have to have a dekko at your new pet. I admit I'm not familiar with basinjis. I've heard of the breed but never saw one up close."

"She's very beautiful, you'll love her."

"Good. And I'm sure Anne and Elizabeth will love her as well. They're right here beside us, resting. When you come back, bring her over and we'll gather all the dogs together and take them to the obedience school so they can be ready to travel the stars with us if necessary."

"Will do. We're almost to Bellagio now and…"

He shut up and jerked his head around when he heard a woman's shrill scream behind him. He, Alan and Nelak turned and saw a woman pointing at a half naked Caucasian man who was running down the pavement towards him.

"Brother, what's going on?" the Doctor said.

"Um…a man wearing only a loincloth is running through the city," John said as Alan and Nelak ran to intercept him.

"Whoa, wait!" Alan said as he and Nelak took hold of the man's arm.

"No, let me go, I have to get away from them!" the man said, staring at them with wild eyes.

"Alan, look," Nelak said, pointing to old and fresh whip marks on the man's back.

Alan and Nelak shared a glance while John came up beside Alan and told the Doctor what was going on.

"Whoa, wait," Alan said when the man struggled to get out of their grasp. "Wait, we're friends. We can help! Calm down, alright?"

"I gotta get away, I can't go back! I'll be her slave again!" the man rambled.

"Who? Who enslaved you?" Nelak said.

They grunted and John staggered back when the man finally broke free and pushed John out of the way before running away. Besides the whip marks, they could see numerous bruises and cuts on his body and his long brown hair was unwashed and matted with dirt and leaves. John kept talking to the Doctor while they watched two policemen dressed in black trousers and jackets grab the terrified man and try to calm him down. Three more policemen and a policewoman ran up as the three men stood and watched. By now, a small crowd had gathered around to watch the half naked man struggle to get free.

"NO, LET ME GO! I DON'T WANNA GO BACK! SHE'LL TURN ME INTO A MINDLESS SLAVE AGAIN! LET ME GO!"

"Fez, ring headquarters and tell the psych ward to send someone to get him," the policemen on the right side of the man said to one of them standing nearby.

The man saluted and pulled out a communicator while the man continued to struggle and scream out about not going back and begging for help.

"SHE MAKES US INTO THE LIVING DEAD!" the man was bellowing as one of the policemen prepared a handkerchief filled with chloroform. "I WAS DEAD! MY FAMILY THINKS I'M DEAD BUT I WASN'T DEAD. I'M ALIVE! CAN'T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT? YOU HAVE TO CONTACT MY FAMILY AND TELL THEM I'M NOT DEAD! I'M…"

Before the man could say his name, the policeman put the handkerchief over his mouth and nose. The man struggled and then slowly his body slowed down until he finally went to sleep.

"Okay, move along," the policewoman said as the others carried the unconscious man into a nearby building. "Go about your business, everyone. Get a move on!"

John, who still had the mobile to his ear, glanced at Alan and Nelak.

"Think we should investigate?" he asked them.

"I think we should," Nelak said. "I wanna know what he meant about being dead but now he's alive."

"And I wanna know who enslaved him," Alan said.

"Just be careful, you lot," the Doctor said over the phone. "And ring me if you need my help."

"We will," John said. "I'll update you as soon as I can. Talk to you later."

He ended the call and put the mobile back in his pocket.

"Perhaps, we should inform the others what we're doing and let them come and get the food while we try to talk to this bloke," John said to them. "The children can stay with Te'vanos while we're doing this. I just wanna ask him a few questions. If this woman is holding any others prisoner and enslaving them, I wanna know about it."

Alan and Nelak nodded. They headed towards the building the police used while Alan telepathically told the women back at the TARDIS what they were doing.

Meanwhile, across the street, the Rani, Giggli and Lox were watching them in the shadows of an alley. All three were dressed from head to toe in black outfits that resembled Karate gi. Tucked in their belts were black hoods with eyeholes in them. The Rani narrowed her eyes as she watched the three men head towards the building the police were occupying.

"So the Doctor and his little clone are trying to find out what's going on, are they?" the Rani said. "Well, perhaps I can satisfy their curiosity and give them a firsthand look at what it's like to become a zombie slave and work for me for the rest of their lives."

"What do we do, Rani?" Giggli chittered.

"We'll go across the street when they go inside the building, wait till they come back out and then we'll use the powder on them," the Rani said.