Chapter Forty Five
"Orlof, I might have guessed you were up to no good," Peri said as Amato shielded her with his body, "I always had a feeling you weren't a nice guy."
"Well, too bad you never acted on those feelings, Highness, and had me dismissed when you had the chance. It's too late now, I take orders from King Scipio and he wants you to…shall we say…take a very long holiday from public life."
"Over my dead body," Amato growled.
"Yes, that can be arranged as well. After all, I was ordered to poison her husband with cyanide so I have no trouble killing you."
He smirked at the shocked look on Peri's face.
"You are such a simpleton, your Highness; you know nothing of the politics of Thoros Alpha or the history of our planet. That fool married you because he loved you when he could have married a real princess and cemented alliances with one of the planets around us. You were nothing but a toy to him, a novelty, and now you're going to become a decorative object for our new king's delight."
"What do you mean?" Amato said.
Orlof gave him a haughty look.
"I wasn't talking to you, commoner," he said before turning his attention back to Peri. "Now, your Highness, if you'd be good enough to come with me and come peacefully, I'll spare your friend from the torments of the torture chamber."
Suddenly without warning, Peri rushed Orlof and kicked him hard in the gut.
"I'll show you torture, Fat Ass!" Peri said.
Amato ran towards the other three men while Peri punched Orlof in the face and he staggered backwards. Peri watched, impressed, as Amato used his Venusian Aikido skills to quickly subdue all of them. By that time, Orlof had recovered and after seeing what Amato had done to his friends, ran off before Amato could do the same to him.
"Just you wait, Highness, I'll get my revenge on you and your friend and you'll both be sorry!" he yelled as he ran off.
Amato heard the police sirens and grabbed Peri's hand.
"Come on, I need to go. I have to meet up with my family and I don't have time to explain what happened to the police."
"Gee, just like old times, eh?" Peri said.
Amato grinned at that. Peri took his hand and the two of them ran towards the TARDIS as fast as they could go.
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The Doctor frantically tried to think up any excuse to prevent his brothers from being autopsied while the men tried to shoo him and his family out of the morgue.
"I have work to do here," the man said to the Doctor.
"We don't want an autopsy performed on them. We don't believe in doing that," the Doctor said, thinking fast. "It's against our religion."
"Yeah? Well, sorry mate, your religion doesn't mean squat here. The law states that anyone who dies a sudden death must have an autopsy to determine the exact cause. Falsifying death certificates and having wrong information on them can get you arrested."
"I understand that but…"
Just then, the burly morgue attendant walked in.
"Darce, don't perform the autopsy. They might have plague," he said.
The Doctor breathed a soft sigh of relief when Darce and the two other men nodded and began wheeling the cart away. But his suspicions arose when he thought about what the man just said. Suddenly he began to wonder if the morgue attendant was in on the kidnappings, especially if not performing the autopsy could land you in jail. He telepathically told everyone else his suspicions while he adopted a casual demeanor.
"Thank you, it's against our religion to cut open the body," the Doctor said.
"Yeah, whatever, are you gonna be here all day?" the attendant said.
"Well, since you won't release the bodies to us, we sorta have to stay here while our family comes to pay their last respects," the Doctor said. "Are we allowed to at least hold a funeral for them before you put them in the ground?"
"Yes, yes, of course, but it must be done this afternoon. Our religion commands that the body be buried as soon as possible."
The Doctor and everyone else suspicions were raised a bit more but they said nothing. The Doctor nodded.
"Fine, just allow a few more family members to get here before we do that. In the meantime, can we be alone with them?"
"Whatever," the attendant said, rolling his eyes before he went out of the room.
Once he was gone, the Doctor and everyone else glanced at each other.
"I think you're right, I think he's in on it," Jack said softly as everyone came closer to each other. "It just seems suspicious that the bodies need to be autopsied by law and the attendant is the one who forbids it."
"Yeah, whatever his motives I'm glad he prevented them from doing that," the Doctor said. "We just have to hope Sarah gets here soon so we can get on with the fake funeral."
"I don't understand," Dory said. "Why are you letting him do this if you think he's behind all this. Why not capture him now?"
"Because we need them to show us where the others are at," the Doctor said to her. "Rani apparently has at least twenty to thirty more slaves and we need to make sure they're freed along with our family members. Not to mention the Rani needs to be brought to justice again."
"How long do you think we have to wait before the miraculous resurrection?" Jack said.
"Not sure but I don't think very long," the Doctor said softly. "I think that's why they need to hold the funeral this afternoon. When I looked into Benjamin's mind, I noticed they pulled him out of the grave at night."
"But if he's alive," Dory said. "Won't he suffocate when they bury him?"
"I don't think so. Like I said, our family members are in a type of suspended animation. I recognize something similar since I've entered deep trance at times when my body was severely injured but not fatally. My heart rate slowed down to almost nil and I'm guessing that their heart is still beating but probably only once per hour and whatever that powder was, it's masking their brain functions so they appear dead when tested. If I'm correct and I usually am, there will be enough air inside their coffins for them to survive, especially if they only take a breath once per hour."
"Wait though," Mingxia said. "I have a thought. If they were attacked them I'm guessing the Rani was nearby and recognized them. What if they don't dig them back up, what if they just bury them and leave them there to kill them?"
"You're right. But if that's the case, Rose and I will be at the graveyard and get them out if no one comes. I just hope they do come and get them, otherwise we'll have to split up and go in different directions in order to find the house."
Love, Sarah Jane, Luke, Rani and Clyde are here, Rain thought to them. I'm bringing them back now.
Good, the Doctor thought back.
Several minutes later, the doors opened and Rain came in followed by Sarah Jane, her son and their friends.
"Oh God!" Sarah Jane said when she saw the bodies.
"No, wait, Sarah, it's fine," the Doctor said, taking hold of her arms.
Sarah Jane gave him a confused look and he gathered them all in a huddle and explained what was going on. Sarah Jane was elated when they learned they were alive but she was worried when he explained their plans to her.
"Are you sure you won't be endangering their lives by allowing them to be buried?" Sarah Jane whispered.
"I think they'll pull them back out before their air runs out but if not, Rose and I will get them out if they just mean to leave them there to suffocate," the Doctor said.
"What happens then?" Clyde said.
"Once we find the house, we'll send for all for you and together we'll help free them and everyone else from the Rani."
He smiled at Rani.
"The bad Rani, obviously," he said as everyone snickered and Rani rolled her eyes and smiled.
"I used to love my name until I found out I shared it with a maniac," Rani replied.
Sarah Jane looked around the room.
"What about Amato?" she said to the Doctor. "Where's he?"
"He's on his way, I hope. He was in another universe but I rang him and he's coming back here."
Just then, his mobile phone vibrated. He took it out and looked at it.
"Speak of the devil," he said, hitting the talk button. "Amato? Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm on my way now. I have a lock on your TARDIS. Had a bit of trouble in the other universe. I found Peri."
The Doctor's eyebrows rose.
"Oh really?"
"Yeah and she's with me. She was married to King Yrcanos…"
"So that was the truth," the Doctor said.
"Yeah, but he was poisoned about a month ago and she had come to speak to the people of the city of Corto and was attacked. I saved her and she took me to dinner in gratitude and I finally revealed myself to her. She and I used to have a relationship and I think we're gonna try to have one again."
"Good. I'm glad, my Brother. You need a woman in your life besides Namid."
"Yeah. She's alright. We escaped her advisor. He was the one who killed Yrcanos on behalf of the new ruler. But I wanna go back after all this is sorted out to sort him and Scipio, the ruler, out."
"Well then count me in when all this is finished here," the Doctor said. "As for our family members, we found out they're not dead."
"What?"
"I'll explain when you get here. I'll have someone meet you at my TARDIS."
"I'll do it," Jack said.
"I'll go with him," Ianto added.
"Jack and Ianto will meet you at the TARDIS and bring you here."
"Okay, we should be there in a trice then."
"We'll see you when you get here, Brother."
He hung up and Jack and Ianto quickly hurried out the door while the Doctor gathered everyone else together in the huddle and told them what Amato told him.
