Chapter 43 - Wrack and Ruin
Gardener made a gesture and another Eternal popped into existence.
Rose studied Wrack in interest. She was a mean-faced harridan, with clothes that looked like they belonged on a pirate, and she swaggered.
This was a shock to Rose, because it was the closest thing to emotion she'd seen from an Eternal.
"Gardener," Wrack spat out and Rose wondered if an Eternal could go insane.
"Wrack, you are unbalanced," Swan informed the other Eternal, echoing Rose's thoughts on the matter, but Wrack ignored her and turned instead towards the Doctor.
"You!" she growled, pointing a finger at him and the Doctor nodded.
"It's been just ages, Wrack, how have you been?" he piffled, looking uncommonly dotty and Rose realized that he was nervous. "You're looking well, that frock certainly suits you!"
"Enough," Gardener said quite calmly, but Wrack flinched and got a look on her face as though she'd been hit a blow. "You are unbalanced and must now face the Grace for your transgressions."
If anything, Wrack looked exultant at the thought and Rose recalled that Gardener had said that Wrack wanted to die. Maybe this was her chance?
"I'm ready," she replied and all three of them vanished with a pop.
Alarms began to blare, lights began to flash, and the whole library erupted into pandemonium, as everything that had been previously ignoring their presence simultaneously became aware of the fact that two unauthorized persons were in the Central Hub without permission.
"So, those are the Eternals," Rose mused aloud.
"Yup. they appear, muck everything up, then leave us 'ephemerals' to clean up the mess," the Doctor grumbled.
"Transdimensional yobs, how charming," Rose sighed. "Right, let's see what's in the coffin before the Sontarans show up and crash the party."
.
Captain Jame Sullidan woke to the sounds of alarms wailing in his ears. This was not an unusual occurrence for him, so he took little note of it. However, the attractive ginger leaning over him, was something out of the ordinary.
"Ah, you're awake," she murmured.
"I was having quite a dream, I think," he replied and wondered why his voice felt so strange in his throat.
"You've been asleep for quite some time, Captain," the ginger informed him.
"Did I miss anything?" he asked, starting to realize that this waking was not normal at all.
"Oh, just a Sontaran invasion of the Library Planet," she replied and Captain Sullidan woke up all the rest of the way.
"Captain Jame Sullidan, Shadow Proclamation," he introduced.
"Dr. Susan Campbell, Gallifreyan Time Lord," she replied with a dimpled smile and he snapped his mouth shut on the exclamation he was about to make.
This wasn't the Susan that he knew, that was for certain. Which explained how she'd known him the first time they'd met. Time travel certainly made things confusing.
"Time Lords," he grumbled, but smiled at her. "Nice to meet you."
He swung his legs off of the trolley and looked around. The room was one of the reading nooks and it was surrounded by high shelves filled with books from floor to ceiling. Picture windows displayed a view of the planet, towers rising in the sun and threads of smoke showing where some sort of fighting was going on.
"Nice to meet you, as well. Shall I tell you what's happening?" Susan asked him and he nodded.
"Yes, a briefing would be damn useful."
"Let's wake the rest of your team and we can brief each other," she suggested and he nodded, still shocked a bit at the curvy ginger body.
She glanced at him and he forced the smile back onto his face. It was hard though, because she looked so sad compared to the mischievous, sprite-like woman he knew. It was very disorienting. He wondered where her husbands were. Usually they were never far from her, but he knew that displaying his knowledge of her future would not be wise.
"Sounds good, Dr," he finally answered and then snapped his mind back to the problem at hand, as the sounds of a gunfight became clearly audible.
Things were obviously rather serious here.
.
"What are you doing?" Charlotte's voice in his ear made the Doctor turn and smile at the holographic projection of the little girl.
"Oh! Hello Charlotte! We've got to get this open, to rescue, or possibly to arrest the person inside of it. Don't suppose you could do that?" he asked and she shrugged at him.
"It's not part of my systems," she admitted. "I could send a few drones...?"
"No, save those for rescuing people," he disagreed, shaking his head.
"Tomoko wants to know what your status is," Charlotte prompted and the Doctor blinked and then grinned again.
"Right! Of course! Tell her the coast is now clear, all Eternals dealt with, and we're only dealing with a minor infestation problem now!" he informed her and Charlotte blinked at him and then giggled.
"An infestation of potatoes!" she chortled and then vanished and the Doctor stared at the now empty space, wondering what sort of impact they'd all had on the child and if it was something good, or something that he'd have to deal with, later down the line.
"Well! Are you going to help me with this thing or not?" Rose demanded suddenly and the rather Jackie-like tone spurred him into action.
"Yes, dear!" he called back and her sudden chuckle made him smile again.
The rest of the universe might unravel around him, but Rose was still there and he knew that that made everything all right.
.
"Madame Valkyrie, a message has arrived from the surface, from Tomoko," the pixie officer informed her and Diana leaned forward in the armchair in sudden excitement.
"What's it say?" Diana asked, as all of her sisters craned forwards to hear as well.
"That it is now safe to go down to the planet," came the reply from the tiny woman, who was eyeing them all with alarm.
"About time!" Diana grumbled and then she stood up and threw her pack over her shoulder. Her impatient sisters copied her motions. Jake rose more slowly, with a look of tolerant amusement on his face.
"She better have left me some invaders to punch, or we are so not speaking! Come on, Jake," she called over her shoulder, as she stormed from the room.
"Yes, dear," Jake soothed, his own pack in place as he followed her out. He knew he sounded a bit like Pete Tyler just then and the thought made him smile.
"Our own forces are due to arrive shortly as well. You could wait for them!" Maddie called after them, but the Mashas just waved and continued onwards. There were Mashas down there on the surface and they were off to rejoin their sisters.
Moments later, a half-dozen shuttles launched themselves into the space between the moon and Library Planet, heading for the surface.
.
The Doctor sighed as the next set of alarms started blaring.
"Is it something we said?" Rose asked with a smile and the Doctor grinned down at her.
"Nope, I think its just what we're doing," he retorted, as they pushed on the lid of the sarcophagus again.
"I don't suppose there's an easier way to do this?" Rose grunted as they shoved. Even with two Time Lords' worth of strength, the lid was solid and really heavy. Basalt, he'd thought, when he'd first seen it, but it was obviously denser than that.
"If you think of something, tell me," he retorted and his wife grimaced and shook her head, too breathless to reply to him. He was regretting spurning Charlotte's offer of the bots, but he knew that the sleeping people needed them more just then.
There was a grinding noise and slowly the lid began to inch forward, a small gap slowly widening as they struggled.
"Tell me.. it's not ... a mummy," Rose panted and the Doctor simply smiled.
"No, not to worry...," he gasped out and then the lid shifted far enough that the tipping point was achieved and gravity could take over. It fell off the other side with a loud crash and they peered down at what lay inside the sarcophagus.
The Doctor was not impressed.
The Mashas' landing was surprisingly clear, at least for the flight; Tomoko and Dar had knocked out most of the portable air-defense weaponry in the chosen area. The shuttles all set down in a large flat field, designated for parking, but empty of vehicles, as it was partially under construction.
The tricky part had been maneuvering through the towering structures of the Library, dodging aerial bridges and avoiding the areas where the Sontarans had set up bases. The blue and white streaked sky was clear as they were coming down, but Jake noted cloud formations off to the East.
"Is there weather control here?" he asked Diana, who shrugged her ignorance. "We need to find out, because that could be used to our advantage."
She nodded her agreement as she stepped off the craft, clattering down the ramp, with the rest of the Mashas following her. They split up instantly, making sure that the area was still clear, moving like the highly trained team that they were, to secure the area.
Tomoko, Dar, Moira, and the eight missing Mashas were walking on the slightly springy surface towards them. Tomoko was frowning, while Dar looked slightly bored by the whole thing, as though planetary invasions were so five centuries ago.
"Tell me you left us some bad guys!" Diana demanded and Tomoko snorted, then hugged her briefly in greeting.
"Lots and lots and lots of bad guys," she promised, as the other Mashas all greeted each other, all of them relieved that everyone was safe, sound, and reunited. They still were alert, eyes scanning for danger, but the area seemed peaceful at the moment.
"What about the Doctor and all of them?" Jake asked Tomoko.
"Everyone is fine. Koschei and Guinn are working with the computers, while the Doctor and Rose are working on something in the Core, figuring out a way to stop all of this, while Susan is with Adie and Gaige, reviving more people," she assured them all and Diana noted that Neveah looked both disgruntled and pleased at the same time, which she thought was a neat trick.
"So, let me give you a briefing on the plan and how far we've gotten on it," she told them.
"Sounds good, where to?" Jake asked, looking around at the Library in dismay. "This is going to be a pain to clear," he grumbled.
"Tell me about it," Tomoko agreed and waved at them all to follow her.
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Susan had all the police officers on their feet and was noting how they all startled at the sound of her name and eyed her rather oddly. Well, the Tellurian couldn't help but eye her oddly, he was an aquatic being with rather bulbous eyes.
Still, she was finding it rather interesting. There was obviously something going on that she wasn't being told about.
Susan really hated not knowing things.
.
The Mashas and Jake gathered inside the nearest building, as Tomoko laid out holographic maps of the area and explained about the bots, the traps, and the plan to keep the Sontarans as far away from the civilians as possible.
"I'm glad that you're making sure the civilians are safe," Jake murmured. "There are kids here."
Diana looked at him sharply. She knew full well how much children in danger bothered Jake. He still had nightmares about all the kids he wasn't able to save during the Cyberman invasion.
"Of course we're being careful," Zoi assured him. "We'd never endanger innocent people."
"I know that," Jake replied. "I'm just not sure that the Sontarans will feel the same way."
"Which is why the plan is to segregate them from the civilians," Tomoko reminded him.
"We're on it," Diana assured her. "Not our first time, remember?" She grinned at Tomoko, recalling all the times they had gone on raids together and Tomoko nodded, her own smile growing as she too reminisced.
"I know you'll do great," Tomoko replied and Dar just glanced idly around.
"Our fall back point is here," he told them. "We've marked the safe routes through the booby-trapped areas on your maps. Drive them into them, or lure them into them, I don't care. Just keep them away from the sleeping people. The Shadow Proclamation's forces should get here soon, we just need to keep the civilians safe until they do, got it?"
"Got it," Diana agreed.
"Just like the Loops," Jake murmured.
"Exactly," Tomoko agreed.
"I think we're about to have company," Dar rumbled, his deep voice calm and unruffled. "Everyone into the ventilation shafts, go!"
Like ghosts, the Mashas raced from the room, scattering silently before the Sontarans had gotten even five feet closer. Some raced up the bookshelves and vanished into the vents above and other darted away to other openings farther down the adjoining hall.
Diana smiled as she scurried along a vent, enjoying the view as she moved along behind Jake. The Library had rats in the wainscoting and they were ready to bell the cats.
.
Tomoko was peering down through a vent, Dar right beside her. They were watching a group of Sontaran radio techs as they monitored their equipment.
"That's the Sontarans' jamming equipment, there, there, and there," he indicated several points on the map of the Library. "Comms to the Shadow Proclamation will stay down, until we can take those points." He then indicated the soldiers below. "These fellows are the ones maintaining that equipment.
"Noted," Tomoko replied, sending the data to Charlotte.
"I'll get my bots right on that!" Charlotte enthused, obviously having the time of her digital life. Tomoko wasn't feeling anywhere near as calm. There were a lot of Sontarans and they only had so many Mashas to herd them with.
"Can you turn off the alarms while you're at it?" Tomoko asked. The noise was getting on her nerves.
"No problem," Charlotte agreed and the noise stopped immediately.
"Thank you," she told the little girl and then turned to her bondmate. "Dar, listen: we need to get the fleet involved, wasn't there supposed to be a rapid response team?"
"Susan has them," Dar answered, his eyes still moving as he plotted the tactics the enemy was using. "Lure them through Atraxi Lit!" he whispered to Neveah's group. "The floor on the other side is rigged to go."
"Good." She turned and waved. "Evie!"
Evie came running over. Charlotte was a secret, the Doctor had made that clear to her, so Tomoko edited her conversation accordingly. She wasn't sure if it was even okay to tell her sisters, so she held back.
"Evie, comms to space are down until I can deactivate these jamming points. Get to Susan. She should be waking up a Rapid Response Team. Find out who is in charge of it, give them this tablet, and have them keep in contact with any incoming SP forces. We should have comms back up by the time you get there," Tomoko instructed. Evie grabbed the tablet with an impish smile and sprinted away.
.
"Susan! Susan!" Evie called out.
Susan's ginger hair was easy to spot, even though she was surrounded by a bunch of black-garbed aliens who were carving a path through a group of Sontarans.
The battle was in full force here and Evie couldn't see an easier or faster route to Susan than to just plow through the soldiers between them. She charged in, stunner rifle in one hand, braced against her body, while she kicked the first, stunned the second, and vaulted over the third. With those down, she expected to face the other three that were behind that grouping. To her surprise, however, they were all down before she could strike them.
Standing with a rifle slung over his shoulder, the tallest of the black garbed figures, a dark-skinned alien with silvery eyes, flashed her a smile and she returned it shyly. The others were busy strip-tying the unconscious Sontarans. There was a cat-like woman with brown fur and long white whiskers and Evie tried not to stare, or to give into the urge to pet her pointed ears.
"Hello Evie," Susan called out to her. "This is the Shadow Proclamation Rapid Response Team."
"Hello, Susan, can I ask which of them is in charge?" All of the members of the rapid response team wore the same black uniform, and she wasn't certain of the different ranks by the markings.
A black-garbed human male stepped forwards. He was built more on Jake's lines than on Dar's, with that whippet like quality that promised speed and agility in his fighting style. He had black hair that was nearly shaved to the scalp, penetrating dark eyes and chiselled features. He looked like a recruiting poster, down to the spit and polish of his uniform.
"Captain Jame Sullidan, Madame Valkyrie," he answered simply, his voice calm and even. Evie spotted the double stars on his collar and made a mental note.
"I'm Evie," she replied, smiling up at him, and handed the tablet over. "Tomoko wants you to see this report. She says you need to coordinate with the incoming SP ships. We're going to knock out the portable jammers that the Sontarans brought, so you need to call them as soon as we've got those things knocked out, okay?"she asked and he nodded briskly.
With a smile at the handsome officer, she darted off again, battling her way back to Tomoko.
