Curristan walked around the console, monitoring the instruments deep in thought. He had let Jadena sleep which was giving him time to himself to think. He had thought that his flashbacks from the Time War had been over, but still they were frustratingly there.

'I know this incarnation is relatively new...but I hoped that I had more mental fortitude than this...'

He sighed in resignation, pressing a few more switches. Shaking his head he looked up to see Jadena walking in, dressed in a new outfit of a red shirt and brown trousers with brown boots.

"Ah, Jadena I see that you found the wardrobe. I like your new outfit choice."

A grin split Jadena's face. "Thank you, there is a lot of choice there so I could have an outfit every day and still have many left."

"That is very true. Been keeping the TARDIS in the vortex for a while so you could rest."

The TARDIS slightly shook which brought Curristan's attention back to the console. Pressing a couple of buttons he immediately brought a sense of calm back, at which Jadena shook her head.

"Does that happen a lot these bouts of shaking?"

"Well it can, but as you can see it's easily corrected."

Looking over at the main console he found that the TARDIS was now picking up a signal from a nearby system that it had materialised close to. Typing at the keyboard Curristan realised it was a beacon of some kind. He also could see that the planet was in a similar state to Earth.

Quickly bringing up the time-space coordinates, he could see he was now thirty thousand and fifty-three with the planet was called Laotia. Deciding to check it out he set the TARDIS to materialise within a mile of the beacon's origin.

Turning to Jadena, Curristan laid out the situation. "Well, we are now on the planet Laotia and a mile from the beacon's location. We will have a quick look and lend assistance if we need to. Stick close to me."

"Okay Curristan. Let's hope we can do some good."

As they exited the TARDIS, they could see that they were in a field that was not too far from a settlement. Curristan and Jadena were immediately aware of a smoke trail that seemed to be coming close to that settlement.

"Let's go see what's happening there, Jadena stay close."

After several minutes of walking, they approached the source of the smoke. Curristan on seeing what was causing it, stopped in surprise.

"Oh dear looks like a Kasprasian ship...what the hell is it that doing here...stay here a second and hide over there while I see what's in it."

Slowly approaching it, he waved his sonic screwdriver to make sure that the countermeasures that protected the vessel were deactivated. Finding it safe, he slipped in and began to search around.

"Hmmm, it seems like the crew died on impact, though there seemed to be two crew seats empty..."

Making his way back out, he felt that something didn't feel right at all.

"Hey there Jadena looks like there are two aliens here that shouldn't be here..."

"Oh great...we need to make sure that we find them don't we?"

"Definitely, the Kasprasians are humanoids and quite a warlike race. The survivors of this crash will be searching for a way to get off this planet, but they will kill everyone they find as they won't want to be discovered. They are currently at war in this time with the Laratians which is a massive war and isn't even in this galactic sector."

"Curristan...are you sure that we can deal with them?"

"I definitely think so but we will need to be careful. Kasprasian weaponry is very nasty and on the right setting will vaporise you. A strong enough blast would even force me to regenerate and I really am enjoying this body at the moment."

Jadena nodded in understanding. "I know I will be safe with you Curristan."

"Thank you for your vote of confidence. I promise to do my best to keep you safe."

As they walked further into the settlement, they realised that the entire area was deserted...it was as though everyone has just vanished leaving everything behind. The atmosphere was eerie and to the both of them very foreboding.

Curristan's eyes were everywhere as he continued to look out for any hint of where the Kasprasians were hiding. He didn't doubt that if they knew he and Jadena were there they would attempt to kill them.

Suddenly a laser blast flashed past them forcing Curristan and Jadena to drop to the ground. Luckily for them, their fall had now obscured them from view preventing another shot from being aimed at them.

Curristan groaned in annoyance. "Damn that was close. It looked like the shot came from our right and I am glad we managed to fall into some decent cover..."

Jadena huffed "You are glad? That couldn't have been any closer!"

"I know but there is no need for hysterics..."

Rolling her eyes Jadena moved into a more comfortable position as Curristan peaked over the fence to see if he could see any movement.

After a quick scan, Curristan noticed that there was a disturbance in the nearby treeline which seemed to signal where the shot had been fired. It was obvious that the Kasprasian had moved, so he wasn't going to risk his life going somewhere they weren't.

"Looks like they are gone from where they fired from, but that means they are now hidden in a new position. I hoped that we wouldn't have to do this but we need to get back the Kasprasian vessel and set a trap by bringing them back to it and then somehow disabling or if need be killing them..."

Jadena turned at the last remark. "Do we really have to kill them? Could we...reason with them or something?"

Curristan furrowed his brow. "Yes we can try, but I am not sure they will be willing to talk based on the fact they just shot at us. We need to do something as any native that may come through here will be murdered just for passing through by the Kasprasians. We have the local population to consider over two murderous Kasprasians."

"I understand, lets get going before we are trapped ourselves."

They moved off slowly and quietly, managing to make their way back out of the settlement safely. As they approached the vessel Curristan stopped and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. Using it to scan the wreckage, he found that the systems were offline but an intruder countermeasures system was still online. Resetting it he pointed it at the vessel and after several seconds there was an audible chirp. Satisfied he began to approach, Jadena following cautiously behind.

Finding the hatch Curristan found that the emergency beacon was still active, which he immediately switched off. They did not need any more Kasprasian vessels arriving. Reaching in, he found a rifle that he knew could be of some use. It was similar to a human assault rifle but instead used power packs.

As he turned back, he noticed movement behind Jadena. "GET DOWN!"

As Jadena jumped to the ground, he fired...