Callum felt guilty the moment he had left Peter and Lorna behind.
But the instruction had been clear, at the first sign of trouble he had been told to turn around and run away. The appearance of the two ice warriors had not made the task too difficult and he had simply assumed that the recycling girl had been right behind him in fleeing too. The Doctor's friend might have been insane enough to risk getting up close and personal with those monstrous creatures, but Callum wasn't prepared to jeopardise all he and his mother had worked for today.
Besides, what could he do to help?
The ice warriors had only ever existed as a bedtime story, and the wars were so long ago now that they might as well be a myth. Coming up against them in the flesh was something that simply shouldn't be happening, especially not on an easy heist job like this one was supposed to have been.
However, none of that changed that fact that Callum had abandoned his two temporary allies.
Maybe he should go back and see what was going on? At least if the ice warriors had killed them then he could see the bodies for himself and would be able to let the Doctor know that his friend wasn't going to be coming back. He could say that Peter died bravely, even if he had not actually seen the man's last few moments. It was a shame about Lorna too, he was sort of starting to like the recycling girl. She wasn't afraid like he was right now, and Callum could have done with not being alone right now.
"Oh, where are you ma?" He whispered. "How do I find the docking bay?"
He hadn't been paying the slightest bit of attention where he was going, and now he was even more lost than before.
It was almost impossible to believe that Coldstar owned so many of these colossal satellites. Operated with barely a soul aboard them, it had almost been too easy to rob the multi-billion credit corporation over the past few years. Callum had often wondered why other space pirates didn't take advantage of the lax security and bountiful cargo.
Then again, Brona Volta and Volta's Pearl had a fearsome reputation. It was one Callum knew he was going to have to uphold one day.
"Alert! All personnel, immediate evacuation!"
A series of blaring alarms almost drowned out the automated announcement. But this topped with the sudden shift in Coldstar's direction confirmed that Callum was right to be worrying about more pressing concerns than what might have happened to Peter and Lorna. The ship should have been keeping itself in steady orbit, and the wreckers wouldn't have caused any damage to create such a malfunction… At least not without his or his ma's explicit instructions. But given that the vessel was now moving could only mean that whatever the ice warriors wanted, it was much bigger than stealing some caviar.
Setting off at a run, Callum just hoped he would be lucky enough to find his way without anything else going wrong.
That actually only took less than five minutes, and it seemed as though whatever force granted such good fortune seemed to be on his side today. Turning a corner, he saw the Doctor, Rose and his ma stood at the other end of the corridor. All three were gathered around a large maintenance panel, the covering for which was propped up against the wall right next to the head of the management robot which had been blown up.
Brona allowed herself a large sigh relief upon seeing her son.
"Callum!" She gasped. "Where the devil had you been?"
Ordinarily, she wouldn't have allowed herself to sound too worried. This was especially the case whilst out on a job, and Callum had understood this since he'd been a small child. No one was ever going to fear him as they did her if he was always going to be living in the great Brona Volta's shadow. He had to prove that he could handle himself even on the most dangerous of raids.
But he accepted the hug from his mother nevertheless.
"I'm fine, ma. Just got a little lost."
Glancing over her shoulder, Callum saw that the Doctor was frowning at him quite seriously.
"Where's Peter and Lorna?" He questioned. "They were with you. Where are they?"
Opening up his mouth to answer him, Callum suddenly didn't know what to say. Were they even dead, or had they been taken prisoners by the ice warriors? Maybe, just maybe they had managed to escape and were already trying to find their way back to the group. They could have even made it to the docking bay and had climbed aboard Volta's Pearl.
"I… We got separated. Lost them in the smoke when I took a wrong turn. They could have doubled back to reception as soon as that ice warrior went away."
It wasn't a complete lie.
The Doctor didn't fail to notice that the young space pirate wouldn't quite look him in the eye, but his growing suspicion that Callum's story wasn't one that should be entirely believed would do them all no good. If he had managed to find his way back to them without attracting the ice warrior's attention, then something more than getting lost had prevented Peter from doing the same.
"We need to find them both." He said. "Lord Hasskar won't be happy about the interruption and we've got to stop this ship before it destroys Enyo."
"You said Peter and Lorna could have gone back to reception?" Rose asked. "Do you know the way from here?"
Callum nodded back.
"Aye, I think I do." He replied. "Yes, I can go back and search for them."
He saw his ma's eyebrow lift up in response to the offer he had just made, but she said nothing against it.
But even though he had surprised himself bu making such an offer, Callum wouldn't have allowed his mind to be changed. He should never have left them behind, and he could have at least told the Doctor the truth when he had asked for it. But now Callum knew that he could at least make amends for it, and he would be able to say that he had tried his best when all this was over and done with.
"I'll go with you," Rose told him. "The Doctor can sort the ship out whilst we find Peter and Lorna."
Callum wished he had her confidence and was glad that he wouldn't have to navigate the maze of corridors alone this time.
"Thank you." He said sincerely. "We should meet up at Volta's Pearl afterwards."
The Doctor nodded in agreement of the plan only because he trusted Rose and that there wasn't enough time to search for Peter and Lorna and prevent Coldstar from destroying Enyo. The ice warriors were hellbent on destruction and devastation on a mass scale, and nothing was going to dissuade them from their crusade of vengeance.
"Okay, but be careful." He cautioned. "Head straight for the docking bay as soon as you find them."
Rose smiled sweetly at him as she and Callum turned away and headed back up the corridor in the direction of reception. Watching her disappear around the corner, the Doctor's lingering thoughts were interrupted as Brona coughed quite loudly and deliberately in order to return his attention back to the task in hand.
"So, you were saying something about stopping this moon from crashing in Enyo?" She said with a slight chuckle. "How about we crack on with it?"
Lorna felt the moment Coldstar left its preprogrammed orbit as the very floor beneath her shuddered and vibrated from the effort. This was followed by her stomach dropping a little bit as the degree of tilt suddenly increased by a few degrees before the automated gravity kicked in. At least that function was still working, otherwise they might have all ended up upside down whilst being tossed around like rag dolls.
The movement of the ship hadn't been enough to wake Peter up.
He had fallen unconsciousness soon after being tied up again the reception desk, and Lorna could see that he was in a bad way. His jacket might have been disguising the severity of his wound, but the sweat coating his forehead and the stench of burnt skin were not good signs. But she didn't try and rouse him or beg the ice warriors for help.
The two bulking aliens had no reason whatsoever for keeping them alive.
Commander Slaan was stood at the ruined reception desk, manipulating and operating the control panels in order to steer Coldstar whilst Lord Hasskar oversaw the operation. His glee was mounting with every passing moment, causing his hissing breath to shorten in the satisfaction of his plan for revenge being seen through to its devastating conclusion.
"Orbit deteriorating." He declared. "We are on course!"
"On course?" Lorna squeaked. "On course for what?"
The question had spilt out from her lips before she knew she had even asked it. But she simply had to know, what were these creatures about to do? Why were they so angry at the humans, and what were they possibly hoping to achieve by taking control of a gigantic food storage ship?
Bert was dead.
The moment that Peter had been shot, Lorna had finally given into the conclusion that her supervisor had not survived the inspection of their recycling vessel. Had he been taken prisoner as they had then Bert would have been brought in and tied up with them. His absence and lack of mentioning was enough proof that they had not been so merciful in deciding to spare him.
"Coldstar will hit the planet below," Slaan answered. "Within the hour."
"Hit... No, you can't!"
"Vengeance is ours." Lord Hasskar hissed. "A fist of ice plunged into the heart of the human world."
"Why are you doing this!?" Lorna pleaded. "There are… Ah!"
Lord Hasskar had shot her with his sonic blaster and the pain of it surged through her entire body. This was it, she was going to die and all because she had simply been here to collect the recycling. There was no one was down on Enyo to miss her, and Lorna was glad of this for the first time in her life. They would be dead within the hour anyway when the colossal mass of Coldstar entered the upper atmosphere and broke up in millions of flaming meteorites that would destroy her home.
The first gasp of air which filled her lungs as the burning sensation faded away was amazing.
It took Lorna a moment to understand that the blaster had been set to stun. But her relief was short-lived as Lord Hasskar's sneering hiss of satisfaction soon reminded her that being kept alive was only going to be a temporary situation. Her life was only going to last as long as the integrity of the ship would.
"You are not a warrior." Lord Hasskar told her. "So I offer you mercy, human. You die on impact along with millions of your kind. You souls will enter the next world together."
"Please, you don't have to do this." She begged. "All those people… They're innocent."
Snarling in frustration at her continued attempts to dissuade him from destroying the planet they were now hurtling towards, Lord Hasskar glared across at Commander Slaan. His second-in-command paused in his work and waiting obediently for an order to be given to him.
"Gag her," Hasskar demanded. "One more sound and they both die now."
There was a small couch in the corner of the room where the few visitors could sit and wait for their request to be processed. It was covered in a threadbare brown fabric that had seen too many years and bottoms sitting on it. Slaan tore it apart in seconds with his blaster and soon returned to Lorna with a strip of the material in his pincer hand. Forcing her jaw open, he shoved it between her teeth before tying the ends of it together around the back of her head.
Letting out only a few small whimpers, Lorna fell silent.
She couldn't let Peter die just because she couldn't keep her mouth shut. Besides, there was nothing else that could be said to change what was about to happen. The ice warriors were not going to be swayed into sparing Enyo, and the Coldstar was already starting to fall. They and the millions of lives below were all going to die.
"Alert! All personnel, immediate evacuation!"
Only one alarm was fastened to the roof of reception, but the small light in the corner of the room dutifully began to flash bright red the moment the sirens and automated alert sounded over the tannoy system as it warned everyone that something was not right aboard Coldstar.
The angry reaction shown by Lord Hasskar told Lorna that this had not been caused by the vessel's new course of direction.
"What is happening?" He demanded to know. "We are accelerating away from the planet."
"Coolant is venting from the lower decks," Slaan reported. "This is not our doing."
"They are igniting!" Lord Hasskar growled. "Propelling us from orbit. These controls are not responding!"
In pure frustration of his plans being derailed, the ice warrior stormed over to the reception desk and slammed down his fists onto the control panel. Destroying several of the now-defunct buttons and switches, it was clear that Coldstar could no longer be controlled from here. Something many floors below had disrupted the ice warriors destructive course and was now ensuring that the ship overshot Enyo and missed the planet entirely.
Bleep! Bleep!
"We interrupt your regular programs for a word from our sponsor."
The blaring alarms faded away as the Doctor's voice was projected loud and clear throughout the ship. His cheery tone could have easily belonged to a broadcaster, and only served to heighten Lord Hasskar's rage to boiling point as the ice warrior identified the tire culprit to the hijacking of his hijacked vessel.
"That's the Doctor's voice…. Ah!"
Lorna hadn't seen Peter wake up.
The pain of his injury registered with him almost immediately. It took several deep breaths and a few choice words, but he managed to push it aside for the moment and concentrate instead on the voice that was continued to taunt the two ice warriors as the Time Lord boasted about how their plan was now lying in tatters.
"Hello Hasskar, this is the Doctor!" The Time Lord introduced. "Your so-called objective one is now useless. I've overridden the reception control centre, now it's just a big room with some nice furniture."
Though he was unable to sit himself up as his shoulder burnt with every time movement he tried to make, Peter suddenly felt quite victorious. It didn't matter that he and Lorna were still being held hostage, even if they could be killed at any moment. What was important now was that the Doctor had a plan of his very own.
The ice warriors didn't know what trouble was in store for them.