Chapter 44 - Murphy's Demon

Captain Sullidan looked bemusedly at the dark-haired Valkyrie, as she waved brightly and then departed to fling herself back into the firefight. She seemed so cheerful, yet she was so tiny. She was about the same height as the Sontarans whom she fought so relentlessly, even though she was far more delicately built.

He'd heard stories about the Shadow Proclamation's Special Operations Team, the Shadow Valkyries, of course, but this was the first time he'd actually met one. Watching her fight her way through to them had been quite impressive and he wished he could have about a dozen of her to fill out the ranks of his team.

He activated the tablet and the holo-screen lit. A few lines of code zipped by and then a cartoonish face, that he had never seen before, was peering at him from a point in the air. Short-cropped black hair, brown eyes, a pointed chin, and tanned skin, with no body seemingly beneath it, she was staring at him in a measuring way that he found disconcerting.

"Message for Captain Jame Sullidan," the face said crisply. "Are you Captain Sullidan?"

"Yes, ma'am," he replied, instinctively recognizing someone used to being in charge of things.

"Access restricted," the AI scowled at him. It was surprising how much expression was present in her face. "Identity confirmation required. Place your hand upon the screen for verification," the image instructed him.

He put his hand gingerly on the screen, not certain if he was going to get zapped by it or not, but hoping for the best.

"Don't worry, Captain, that's Tomoko Construct, she's a very polite AI and she has strict protocols against harming allies," Susan assured him. He relaxed, but only marginally. After all, he had no idea what the AI's definition of 'ally' was.

"Commencing access, Shadow Proclamation Officer Identity Database… access obtained. Commencing analysis…. analysis complete. Identification confirmed: Jaime Sullidan, Captain, Shadow Proclamation Rapid Response Unit. Clearance… granted." Sullidan raised an eyebrow, deciding not to ask just how the AI had managed access to the supposedly secure SP databases. He suspected that he really didn't want to know.

The image disappeared, to be replaced by a series of folder icons.

"This report contains reconnaissance data on enemy strength and weaknesses, numbers and distribution, as well as partial missing persons lists," the AI continued and he eyed it with interest.

"Show me the report," Sullidan responded crisply, and the screen filled up with images. It wasn't the happiest sight he'd ever seen, but it wasn't the worst either.

"The Masha Collective has been trapping groups of Sontaran soldiers in various rooms. All maintenance bots are currently under control of Tomoko Prime and are presently at seventy-seven percent strength. All rooms containing sedated Sontaran forces are marked in blue. Duration of sedation estimated at seventeen hours, nine minutes on average."

"I see it," he replied absently, not sure what the "Masha Collective" was, but too busy processing the data provided. "Right," he said finally and pulled back his sleeve to reveal the wrist control he was wearing.

"Oh! Is that a Vortex Manipulator?" Susan asked and he blinked at her in confusion.

"No Doctor, it's a command link-up," he replied and tapped in his codes. "Captain Jaime Sullidan, calling in."

The excited voices that greeted him were welcome, but not as welcome as the assurances of relief and reinforcements that were already on their way.

"Now, Doctor, let's get you away from the combat zone," he told Susan and braced himself for the argument he knew was coming.


In another situation, it would have been nice to walk along with Gaige.

They had fallen behind the Mashas, but not so far behind that they were out of earshot. They saw nothing more dangerous than sealed up corridors, behind which they knew there were Sontarans dozing.

The sounds of fighting reached them and Gaige halted her.

"What?" Adie asked in surprise.

"I'm a trained soldier, but you aren't, Princess," he pointed out. "I would rather that we skip trials by fire just now."

"Sounds..." she trailed off as her eyes were caught. She halted suddenly, the conversation forgotten as she stared.

The library was lavishly furnished, all marble and hard woods, with the most amazing architectural features, and seating areas with plush furniture and gorgeous decor. She had been enjoying looking around and soaking it all in. There were lush plants placed in shafts of sunlight, or hanging from wrought iron iron curls above their heads, windows with incredible views and end tables with carved legs, sculptures and of course, painting everywhere.

This room had a huge mural on one wall. It was slightly damaged, scraped by some careless trolley pusher, but it was compelling all the same. The artist had used a narrow range of color to produce a very evocative landscape, and Adie found herself drawn into it, like she could step in and be swallowed up by it.

It was an alien landscape in deep browns and purples, under a velvet sky strewn with stars like glittering diamonds, an enormous ringed planet taking up fully half of a horizon that was studded with flat-topped mesas and sagebrush. It made her think of all the hours she had spent in the Master's TARDIS, her TARDIS now, telling stories about all the grand and glorious adventures across the stars that the two of them could have one day. That planet in the mural was the sort of place she had always wanted to go to, with a beautiful desert landscape just like that.

It was also a bit like a cooler version of Azari Bal and she thought of how much Gaige missed that world, even as relieved as he was to have been rescued. They ought to go there for their honeymoon. Now that she had a TARDIS of her own, she could go anywhere she wanted to.

The mural lay flat against the wall, unlike the paintings of Gallifrey, and that sudden thought made her think suddenly of all the art that must have been lost in the War, art that she would have liked to have seen and studied. There must have been paintings, sculptures, and all sorts of fascinating things. She was sorry that she would never get to enjoy any of it.

Immediately on the heels of that realization was a wave of guilt at having such frivolous thoughts. The tragedy of the War had been the loss of its people, not the loss of paints and frames.

"Susan told me that the Lady Professor saved most of the art in an Infinity Ark. It was dropped off on the alternate Gallifrey for us. Pete wants to build a museum someday, but right now there is so much infrastructure to build first that it's low on the priority list," Gaige told her, picking up on her thoughts.

Adie was startled and then blushed.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have even thought of that. I'm ashamed of myself."

"Why? Art is food for the soul, even as a sandwich is food for the body. All those centuries of artists and creators striving to make beauty should be respected and admired. It's our duty to preserve what beauty the universe has to offer, to create more beauty, and to protect it wherever we find it. That's part of Time Lord culture and history, the preservation of the past and the love of beauty. Even when we didn't interfere, we still preserved art and literature."

Adie took his hand.

"You are good for me," she said and her voice was as warm as her hearts felt in that moment.

"We're good for each other," he told her softly and kissed her, her hand held tightly in his own. "Come on, the Mashas are getting a bit far ahead of us."

"Can't have that," she said, hastening her steps as Gaige chuckled in reply.


"That's him?" Rose asked, sounding just as unimpressed as the Doctor felt. "He looks like a homeless geek!"

The figure lying in the sarcophagus did certainly look like his clothes and person had seen better days. He wasn't thin so much as emaciated, his cheekbones protruding from his sunken face like rocks after the tide had retreated.

"Yes, well, I doubt that Wrack grabbed him for his looks," the Doctor retorted. He scrambled over the sharply cut stone lip and dropped into the black stone box beside the comatose man. The features were human, but the faded silvery coat wasn't cut in a style that had ever been fashionable on Earth.

"What is he wearing?" Rose asked as she landed beside him.

"Rescapia Seven," he answered absently and looked for the camouflaged pockets that were all the rage on that world.

"Gesundheit," Rose replied and he looked up at her in surprise to see her amused expression.

"Sorry, it's one of the Earth colony worlds. Remember the Great and Bountiful Human Empire?" he asked and she nodded. "This is a native of one of their worlds; Rescapia Seven."

"Got it. He's human though, I can see that. Which, I must say, is really weird," she told him and he chuckled.

"Humans do have a distinctive energy signature, it's true. Though not always," he replied and finally found the pocket. He pulled out ID discs and various bits of currency with interest. "Hm, it looks like several of the races and empires from our universe are here in this one."

"Doctor, focus!" Rose laughed. "Who's this bloke?" She jabbed a thumb at the comatose man beside them and he read off the information on the ID disc.

"Marshus Dipthwait, which explains everything. If my parents had named me Marshus I would have gone all evil space villain too!" he exclaimed.

"Dipthwait couldn't have helped either," Rose agreed with a look of pity on her face. "I bet the other kids called him Marshy Dipwick, or something equally awful."

"I bet they did," the Doctor agreed feelingly, recalling all too clearly the nicknames he'd earned throughout the years. "Well, we need to get him to Susan for revival. Let's find a trolley."

The alarms ceased abruptly and he breathed out in relief.

"Much better!" Rose sighed happily and they climbed out of the coffin box to find transport for the comatose Mr. Dipthwait.


"Captain, I am a ..." she began.

"Battlefield doctor, yes, that's lovely," he cut her off with a grimace. It wasn't as though he hadn't heard the speech before, after all. Hadn't listened to it then, either.

"If you already know that, why are you hustling me off to safety?" she asked with a frown and a gleam in her eyes that boded ill for him at a later date. Or possibly an earlier one. Certain events were taking on greater significance now.

"Because I want your patients to survive treatment," he retorted and put a hand under her elbow. She could have broken free easily, he well knew, but sighed and went along with it.

Susan had wondered why Captain Sullidan and his team had kept looking at her in that strange way and now she knew.

They'd met her already.

They must know a future version of her. That was comforting, because this was the 51st century and she was hoping it meant that she'd managed to survive all that time. Not that anything was ever certain, since time could pretzel on you without the slightest provocation.

"Captain, my grandfather and his wife will soon be joining us. He won't look like the version you know, though," she told him, testing her theory, and he gave her a darkling look that confirmed it for her.

"Yes, Dr. Campbell," he replied with a slightly sour tone.

"Something the matter, Captain?" she asked.

"It would be nice if you lot would make sense, you know, maybe once every century or so," he replied and she spotted a twinkle in his eye that told her he was probably quite used to it all. Which was an interesting bit of data.

"I'll see what I can do," she replied in a fake demure tone that made him bark a laugh.

The cat officer flicked an ear at them both.

"Captain, people approaching," she called out.

"Thanks Jyeri, that will be the Doctor and Rose Tyler, early versions thereof," he replied and Jyeri groaned.

"Again?" she asked and Susan nearly laughed aloud at her tone.

"Fraid so, Constable," he answered with a repressive tone and her ears drooped as she moved faster down the hallway.

"She ought to be used to it by now," the Telluride muttered and Susan observed the thin, blue skinned humanoid with interest. He was young for his race, probably about forty or so Terran years, with the webbed fingers and nictitating membranes on his eyes that were typical of his semi-aquatic race.

"Do tell," Susan prompted and he rolled his fish-like eyes at her.

"Oh no! You told us dozens of times not to contaminate timestreams!" he insisted and she grinned.

"Dozens of times, eh?" she replied and he snapped his mouth shut.

"Stop that, Susan," Captain Sullidan scolded her and she grinned even more broadly.

This was going to be fun.


Tomoko had set up a base of operations in the bot repair bay. Charlotte was using the cleaning bots to harry the Sontarans in small ways. The overuse of floor wax was proving particularly effective. Between the sudden cold blasts of AC, the spikes of temperature from the heating vents, the lifts that never came, the lift doors that opened suddenly onto nothing, the way the floors would drop out from under them, and a myriad of other dangerous inconveniences, the Sontarans were getting rapidly frazzled.

"We've got about three hundred trapped and sleeping now," Charlotte whispered in her ear. "So only another two hundred to go."

"Good," Tomoko replied with a sense of satisfaction. Their small team was doing a much better job than she'd thought they could have. Of course, it helped that the planet was on their side. "How did the trap doors work out?"

"Well, we got two broken limbs, but they landed hard enough that I barely had to pump any gas in before they were all out," the little girl told her with a cheerful air and Tomoko was hard-pressed not to laugh. "Plus, when you got the jamming undone, Dr. Moon was able to interface with me again! I think we can do some real damage now," she chortled and Tomoko could almost see her rubbing her hands together in glee.

So far they had managed to keep the enemy running in circles, unable to put together a cohesive strategy, while they trapped them in eight to ten person groupings, but she knew that wouldn't last forever, especially as the size of their 'losses' became apparent to them. Already crews of Sontarans were trying to cut their way through the walls to get to their trapped brethren.

"Tomoko! Tomoko!" called Charlotte in her earpiece, pulling her mind away from her musings. The little girl sounded really worried.

"What is it, Charlotte?" she asked in a soothing tone.

"Look out! The Sontarans are setting a bomb!" she cried and images started to stream across the lens of her glasses.

At first the images were a jumbled mess, Sontarans were moving around back and forth, occasionally blocking the floating camera lens' view. Then she saw what Charlotte was talking about and began to curse. She had known they'd get organized sooner or later, but she'd really hoped for later.

Four Sontarans in heavy gear were setting a polymer grid down and placing a large metal tube on top of it near the outside wall of one of the towers that the Mashas had taken.

"Team Seven! Fire down below, twelve o'clock! Get back! Get back!" she shouted over the radio.

"I see it!" This was from Marie, who was ensconced on a ledge far above the action. From her viewscreen, Tomoko could see that she was already swinging the sniper rifle around, pointed at the four Sontarans.

With a thrill of horror Tomoko realized what that meant.

"Marie-"

But she heard the faint FFFT noise over her earpieces. It was too late.

"Take cover!" was the last order she had time to give.


The Doctor came around the corner, pushing the trolley with Dipthwait on it, and the little twitches on the comatose man's monitors were encouraging and curious, but the sight of black uniforms made him sigh.

"What?" Rose asked, looking up from the trolley's occupant.

"Shadow Proclamation RRT, next best thing to having your own personal jackbooted thugs about," he grumbled.

"Now, Doctor, they're a lot like UNIT and we like UNIT, right?" she replied and he could tell from her tone of voice that she was humouring him. He rolled his eyes at her and continued towards Susan.

"Grandfather! Tiza Rose!" Susan called, looking happy and relieved to see them and Rose frowned repressively at her step-Granddaughter.

"Hello Susan, I see you found some people with big guns to boss about," the Doctor snarked at the officers.

"Grandfather, this is Captain Sullidan, so be nice," Susan announced, her tone filled with warnings, as she walked up with the police officers, her medical scanner already out and at the ready.

He was about to make a snarky comment in reply, when the world went away rather abruptly.