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Chapter 40 - Beshi
The Doctor popped into his office at Torchwood. Summus, Jack, Lewis, Aemilius, and Jake were there already. Right after he popped in, Lance appeared.
Summus nodded his head. "Alright. The building is on lock down. We need a team on the 8th floor. Something is shooting at people there."
Jake smacked Jack in the chest. "We've got that."
Summus pointed at the Doctor. "And you have the alien in the corn field?"
The Doctor smiled. "Yep! Lewis is with me. Don't shoot anyone on our side, Jake."
Jake rolled his eyes, "Fucking hell."
Jack nodded, "Give them hell, boys!"
They popped away.
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The Doctor and Lewis appeared in the middle of a cornfield in the middle of America. It was night and the stars shown overhead. Lewis looked around and shrugged his shoulders.
'Where is everyone?' Lewis asked him in his head.
'Not sure.' The Doctor said.
"Hello?" The Doctor called.
"Hey!" A man called back.
They all three walked to met one another. When the Doctor saw the man, he was relieved. "Frank! What's the problem?"
"John. I got a message on this thing Lam Relle gave me. It beeped until I got out here. I was waiting on him to come because I thought it meant he needed more tobacco. But, something over there landed. I don't think it's him."
"Take us to it, Frank." The Doctor asked him.
Frank nodded his head and quietly led them over to the ship.
Once they got there, The Doctor motioned to Frank to stay where he was. Lewis walked with the Doctor up to the ship.
'The door is open. Is this a Beshi ship?' Lewis asked the Doctor.
'Let's hope not. Oh, that's not what I need tonight.' The Doctor told Lewis.
The Doctor yelled something in a strange language. A tall, six legged creature with four arms and a long tail walked down the gangway.
The Doctor groaned as he saw them. 'Shit. Beshi's. Tell Summus he's on his own. This won't end well. I'll try to keep us from getting killed.'
Lewis nodded his head. 'I appreciate that.'
The Doctor held his hands out to his sides and spoke to the creature. The creature glared at The Doctor and spoke back to him.
The Doctor looked the creature up and down and ran his hand through his hair in surprise. He looked around the cornfield as if he was looking for something.
"He's looking for someone else." The Doctor told Lewis.
'The man you spoke to?' Lewis suggested.
"Another Beshi. It ran off. He thinks we kidnapped it." The Doctor explained.
Lewis closed his eyes and shook his head.
The Doctor was speaking to the Beshi again. The Beshi grew angry and charged them. Lewis jumped in front of the Doctor and the Doctor quickly put his arm in front of Lewis. "No. Stay calm. This will only be worse if we fight. We're his prisoners, until he finds the missing Beshi."
Lewis groaned.
The Doctor put his hands on his head as he and Lewis were lead into the ship by the creature. He took them down a long, rusty hallway. The ship appeared to be old and oils leaked down the walls in places. He opened a door of a small empty room and pushed them both inside. The door shut behind them and they heard the unmistakable sound of it locking.
The Doctor sat on the floor, looked at his watch and sighed. "Well, I hope Summus is having better luck than us. This ship has a blanket electric pulse to it. It's fried both of our watches and our phones by now. I'm sure of it."
Lewis sat down on the floor and leaned against a clean place the wall. "Well. Shit."
Then The Doctor and Lewis felt the engines cut on and the sensation that the ship was taking off.
Lewis put his head in his hand and sighed. "Well. That's it then. Back to Beshi's homeworld. They got their man, and now they have us, too. Typical Beshi. Dishonorable lot of scum. Have you told Rose?"
The Doctor shook his head. "Nah. I'm not going to bother her with this. She's sleeping. So is Genie and Sam."
"Sam?" Lewis asked.
The Doctor smiled. "We're going to call our son, Sam. I don't know his exact name yet. But, that's what we've decided."
Lewis smiled. "Most appropriate. Sam would very proud."
The Doctor nodded his head and sighed. "Leaving the atmosphere. On our way out of the solar system." He stood up and took his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. He opened a panel in the wall and handed it back to Lewis. "Here, hold this a bit."
Lewis took it and watched the Doctor work on some wires in the wall. "So, I spoke to Rose about inviting Arla to help us care for the children. She was excited about it. She likes Arla."
Lewis shook his head and held out his hand. "We're going to talk about this now?"
He looked back at him and nodded his head. "Why not? What else are we doing?"
Lewis rubbed his face.
"Trust me, Lewis." The Doctor smiled as he went back to work. "Anyway. Have you decided how you are going to approach Summus about this?"
Lewis shook his head. "I figured I would wait until after he hands back over the security job to Jake, then I'd ask to speak to him. Just ask him."
The Doctor nodded his head. "Arla doesn't know?"
"No. She has no idea. I'm not sure who I'm more nervous about asking. Her or Summus."
The Doctor smiled, "I remember when I asked Rose. I was terrified. I figured she felt the same way, but I wasn't completely sure. I thought I was dying back then, well, I was dying. So, at least I would be out of my misery soon if she said no."
"I remember those days. Rose wouldn't have told you no. We had bets on when you would finally ask her. Sam won." Lewis teased him.
The Doctor looked back at Lewis and rolled his eyes. "Whatever entertains you, man."
Lewis ran his hand through his hair. "Arla and I have already had the hard talks. She knows I'm a Quauhtin. She knows about the Prime Guard. She knows all of that. We used the Universal Translator to make certain she understood. Summus will not be happy I told her all of that. He might toss me out just on that."
The Doctor shook his head. "I can keep you around."
"I do appreciate it, but no you couldn't. It wouldn't be allowed by Summus. He's the one in charge on that, not you."
"Would it help if I talked to him with you? Have you thought about that?"
Lewis thought, "He's going to do whatever he's going to do. Whether you are there or not."
The Doctor looked back at Lewis and shook his head. "See, I don't think he would do that. I can't speak for him, but Summus just doesn't seem like that. Other men in the guard have families."
"Yeah, but not living with them. Ugh. I don't want to live apart. I don't want to be apart."
The Doctor smiled, "She's worth all of this? Leaving the guard just to be with her?"
Lewis smiled and nodded his head. "Absolutely. She's amazing. She's a good cook, too! She loved cooking for the family. She asked if she could do it more often."
"Oh, I would absolutely love that!" The Doctor said as he continued to work in the wall of the ship.
The Doctor heard Summus in his head. 'Jack says it is a Dalek loose in Torchwood. Instructions?'
The Doctor looked shocked. 'A Dalek? Kill it. Destroy it. Do not let it escape!'
"How in the hell did a Dalek get into Torchwood? Unless?"
'Someone check on Malcolm and make sure he hasn't opened the Void again.' The Doctor instructed as he went back to work on the wires in the wall.
"Malcolm better not be messing with the damn Void again. I'll kick that man's ass." The Doctor said.
Lewis laughed, "I've met Malcolm. Skinny bloke. You kicking his ass wouldn't take much more than a thump on the nose."
The Doctor laughed.
Lewis crossed his arms. "Are you going to tell Rose you have been working out with all of us? Sparring?"
The Doctor answered, absentmindedly. "If it comes up. She wouldn't believe me if I told her now."
"Why not?"
"That's just not the me that she knows. Now, she is a scary woman. Do not spar with her! Ever! She has broken my hand and torn muscles in my shoulder. Damn. She is …. Dangerous."
Lewis laughed. "She is. She beat Mickey's ass many times. We always teased him about it. We really shouldn't have because none of us would fight her."
"See, I forget you knew her before I came here. What was she like?" The Doctor asked as he stood and ran his hand up inside the wall to pull something down.
"Rose was a total bad ass. Still is. You softened her, tremendously. She would walk into a room with all of us there on sparring day at Torchwood, beat all of our asses and walk away like it was nothing. I totally think you got off easy just having a broken hand and a torn muscles in your shoulder. She is a deadly weapon. Not even counting that weird thing we're not supposed to talk about."
"Huh. I didn't know you knew about that."
"Yeah, Summus has alerted the entire guard about it. It's not a matter that's discussed."
"Yeah, Rose and I don't discuss it either. I try to, and she shuts down. It's given her some amazing gifts, but even those she's too frightened of them to really explore them. She is telepathic. You know that. She's also telekinetic. She messes around with that a bit, but really doesn't do it a lot. She also heals extremely fast. You know, I think she's already fully recovered from having Sam? Just before we got called out tonight. She….. well, nevermind."
Lewis laughed and held out his hand. "Yes. Please. Nevermind. Don't want to know about that."
The Doctor laughed, "Says the man who shagged someone for over a month without speaking to her. Tell me, is it still as good now that you can talk to her?"
Lewis smiled as he blushed, "Oh, for sure!"
The Doctor laughed as twisted two wires together and Lewis handed him back the panel. The Doctor put the panel back on the wall, and used his sonic screwdriver to reattach it.
After he put his screwdriver back in his pocket, he rubbed his hands together. "Okay. Ready to go?"
Lewis looked surprised. "Sure! What's the plan?"
"My ship should be close-by. Hang on." The Doctor held his finger up. Lewis heard the Doctor in his head, 'Exton. I've got an odd request. Can you go to the transporter room and read me some numbers?'
Exton agreed and within moments was back in The Doctor's head giving him a series of numbers. The Doctor smiled as he took off his necklace and shot it with his screwdriver. "Fantastic! I hate using this because it makes me sick. It uses the vortex instead of just a point to point jump like our watches do, but I can carry up to five with it."
"What? Your necklace?" Lewis asked.
"Yep! How do you think I've lived this long, Lewis? Always have an escape plan."
The ship's engines stopped running and the ship slowed to a crawl. The Doctor grabbed Lewis' forearm and he pressed the necklace between his fingers. They disappeared and with a loud pop, reappeared in the transporter room of the Doctor's ship. Exton stood there in amazement. "Doctor! Lewis!"
The Doctor pointed at Exton. "Raise the shields immediately!" Lewis followed the Doctor as he ran down the hallway to the main control room. He ran into the room and saw Pete and Gobbo standing there in front of the main window, watching the ship that just came out of hyperspeed in front of them.
Gobbo looked surprised to see them run in. Pete put his hands on his hips and smiled. "I knew this had you written all over it."
The Doctor pressed a few buttons, and the image of the Beshi filled the screen. The Doctor smiled, "Well, hello there! Sorry, I turned off the engines, but I'll explain my demands shortly. And as long as you agree, you can keep your ship and crew in one piece. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
The Beshi growled at him, "Who are you to make such demands of a Beshi?"
"I'm The Doctor. And I'm not surprised you haven't heard of me. Not many have here. But, I do know you have a cargo hold full of prisoners you are transporting back to your homeworld now. I'm giving you this one chance to transport them all to the space port just to the other side of that planet below and leave, or I'm going to allow my crew to open fire at your dead ship. If you notice, your shields have been compromised."
The Beshi turned to his crew and screamed at them. They all grew into a huge argument. The Doctor sighed and put his hands on his hips.
Pete walked over to him and shook his hand. "Good to see you, son! Why can I understand them? Do they speak English?"
The Doctor shook his head, "Nah. The Universal Translator is working. Oh, how I've missed this!"
The Doctor nodded at Lewis. He fired a shot that went across the top of the Beshi ship, barely missing it. The Beshi stopped arguing and looked back at the screen. The Doctor smiled, "Do I have you attention then? Release them, or the next one won't miss."
The Beshi turned and yelled to the crew. "Release them! Release them!"
The Doctor smiled and nodded his head. "Good choice. Find another way to make a living. I have your ship codes now and I have no problem selling them to anyone that I hear has been kidnapped by a Beshi. Keep that in mind."
The Beshi growled at him and turned off the transmission.
The Doctor turned to Pete and laughed. "Ahhh… thank you, Exton. Gobbo. Pete. Wow! So, this is my ship, huh?"
Pete laughed, "Yeah, this is her! Any idea what you are going to call it?"
The Doctor looked around as he walked around the control room. There were nine different stations for various people. He shook his head. "I'm having to come up with so many names right now. I've not named my sailboat. My island. My ship. My son! Geez!"
Pete laughed. "Maybe I need to buy you a baby name book. Sounds like you could use one."
The Doctor laughed. He looked back at Gobbo and Lewis. "Guys. Keep an eye on this. I have no doubt they will do what we told them to, but we also need to check for people from Earth before we leave the space port."
Lewis nodded, "How do we know they won't just pick them right back up?"
The Doctor rubbed his beard as he walked over to a station and typed in something. "Don't worry about that. I've got that handled. Lewis, I'll have Rose tell Arla what's happened. We'll be home tomorrow afternoon….well, unless we open up these engines a bit. How much time is on these engines, Gobbo?"
Gobbo clicked a few buttons, "22 days."
"Phhh…. Forget that. We'll see this through. After we check for humans, we'll get back underway. We can open up these engines to a 5 or 6. We should be home before Rose wakes up. Fantastic! Pete, you can surprise Tony with a spaceship! He's going to be excited!"
Pete chuckled. "Ha! I'm not sure what he will think."
The Doctor looked around, "Where is Jackie?"
Pete smiled, "Sleeping, in our suite. Come on, I'll show you around while they tend to this."
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Pete and The Doctor walked out of the control room and down the hallway. The walls were brushed silver metal with a blue floor. The Doctor stopped and looked around. "Wow. I love this! Thank you for going to get her for me, Pete!"
Pete smiled, "Oh, I was happy to do it. Exton did the majority of the talking when we went to get her. I figured he knew what he was doing. I just stood there and nodded."
The Doctor laughed and patted Pete on the shoulder. "Yeah, that was probably best. How many suites did we end up with?"
"Fifteen. Are you sure she's smaller than Summus' ship? She seems bigger to me." Pete asked.
The Doctor rubbed his face and smiled. "She is smaller. By 14 mm."
Pete stopped walking and looked at him. "Are you serious? All of this time you kept telling me she was smaller." Pete tossed his hands up and shook his head.
"Well, she is!" The Doctor pointed out.
Pete led him down the hallway and opened a door. They walked into a huge suite. "I imagine this one is yours. It was the largest. Three bedrooms and two baths."
The Doctor was busy looking around. The entire wall of the sitting room was nothing but windows that went floor to ceiling. Three large sofas sat together in the room and a table sat to the side of them. One bedroom had a large bed with a red duvet and then to the other side of the room were two bedrooms with smaller beds. "This is perfect. Rose will love it." He said.
Pete sat down on the sofa. "How is Rose? Ready to have a baby, yet?"
The Doctor smiled, "Rose had the baby. Four days ago."
"What?! You didn't think to call and –"
"Rose called Jackie tonight. It was just a bit before I had to leave and deal with this Beshi madness." The Doctor sat down on the sofa and propped his arm up on the back.
Pete still looked stunned. "Four days. Wow. Why did you guys wait to tell us?"
"Honestly, we wanted to make sure he was alright. He grew so fast, Rose was worried he would continue growing at that rate. He won't. He is growing at a normal pace now. He's fine. He's beautiful."
"Do you have a picture of him?"
The Doctor shook his head. "No. My damn phone and my watch got fried on the Beshi ship. Rose sent one to Jackie, though."
Pete smiled proudly, "Wow. He's here. And he's alright."
The Doctor nodded, "Yes. Five months of hell. But he seems completely fine."
"And Rose is alright?" Pete asked.
He smiled. "She's fine. Has a bit of the baby blues. But, that's normal. For as hard and scary of a pregnancy as it was, everything went smoothly."
"Did you go to a hospital?" Pete asked.
"Nah. We hadn't really planned on that, but he came so fast anyway. I delivered him at home."
Pete patted the sofa's arm and smiled. "Wow! Have you named him?"
"No. Well. We know we want to call him Sam. After Sam, of course. But we're not sure what his name will actually be. Rose is working on it. She's putting a lot of pressure on herself to make it perfect. She sees all of this as her only chance to do it."
Pete sighed, "Poor girl. Being told you can't have anymore children as you are carrying one. That has to be hard. She's so young. She can't put all of her focus on that. You guys have Genie, too. You could always adopt more children."
"Yeah, she's not really up for that conversation. She's really not up to a lot of conversations that we really need to have at the moment."
"Like what?" Pete asked him.
"There's no reason that the baby should have lived. None at all. I can only guess it was because Rose wanted it so much. The Bad Wolf entity inside of her protected him. I say she can't have anymore children, but honestly, she's going to do what she wants to do. I don't think medicine has anything to do with this. But, she won't discuss it with me. It is a closed subject."
Pete looked surprised. "Well, you can't deny a mother's love to her child. I know we had talked about that possibility. You're sure then?"
He nodded his head as he bit his lip. "Pretty damn sure. Sam is here because of the Bad Wolf."
"Why won't she talk about it?"
The Doctor sighed, "Rose doesn't want to talk about it because it frightens her. She knows what happened when she turned into the Bad Wolf. People just faded away. She brought me back to life. There's an immense power there that would scare anyone to know they had some measure of control over. Rose has such a kind, thoughtful heart that she can't imagine herself hurting anyone. If she can come to terms with the fact that she did, it might be better. But, as she sees it, they are two separate people. And we don't talk about the other one."
Pete nodded his head. "Makes sense. Maybe in time, she'll accept it. Do you think the baby will have any abilities like she does because of this?
"One big reason I rushed to get the ship was so I could find out. The medical bay here is far better equipped than anything on Earth, or on Summus' ship. I paid a lot of attention to that part when I ordered everything. There are things about Genie that I would like to know as well, but I won't put her through the tests with the equipment on Earth. Even if I scan Sam now, it could be too early to really even know everything. Same with Genie. Sam is really small. Smaller than your average human child. He has a bit of growing to do. But, I could get more answers here, than I can on Earth. I'm certain of it."
Pete nodded his head. "Well, I know you will do what you need to. I guess I'll just tell you to love her. Love her through it."
"Yep. That's all I can do." He agreed as he held up his finger and said, "Sorry, Summus."
He listened to Summus as Pete watched him. Then he ran his hand through his hair.
"Alright. Well, that went … well…could have been worse." The Doctor told Pete.
Pete chuckled. "What's up?"
"Dalek loose in Torchwood. No one knows where he came from. Very strange. A Dalek doesn't just appear. There's more to that than anyone is telling. Jake was shot and is in the hospital wing. It's not serious. Three agents were killed, eight more injured. The Dalek has been neutralized."
"Jack and Jake are back! When did they return?"
"Tonight. Just hours ago. And yes. I put them right back to work. I need Summus in a good mood and he hates being Head of Security."
"Why?" Pete asked.
"Mmm….. let me tell you that later. I'm not sure I need to talk about it, yet." The Doctor told Pete.
Pete nodded. "Fair enough."
The Doctor held up his hand, "Sorry, Exton."
He stood up and motioned for Pete to join him. They walked back down the hallway to the transporter room. They walked in to find five humans standing with Exton. One old man, three women and one little boy no older than seven.
Exton told them, "These were the only humans transported down. There are no more signs of prisoners on the Beshi ship. There were 43 in total."
The Doctor knelt down to the boy. "Hello. My name is John. Are you hurt?"
The little boy shook his head. "No, sir."
"What's your name?"
The little boy shook his head.
The Doctor nodded. "It's alright. No one is going to hurt you. We're going to take you all back home."
The old man stepped up to The Doctor. "Is this a space ship? Are we in space?"
The Doctor smiled and nodded his head. "Yes. You all look familiar."
The little boy pointed at him. "You are John, that helped Daddy."
"You are Frank's family!" The Doctor realized. "Oh, wow! Frank helped us find you!"
The women all looked at one another and smiled.
Pete smiled at them. "Don't worry. We'll be home in a few hours. Why don't you all come and get more comfortable in a room. You are safe."
Pete took them all to a suite while the Doctor turned to Lewis. "Oh, this makes me angry. Why did he take these people?"
"Maybe to sell them? Does someone have a price on humans now?" Lewis asked.
"I don't know. We better go ask a Beshi while we have them here." The Doctor growled.
They walked back into the control room. The Doctor put his hands on his hips and the Beshi appeared on the screen.
The Doctor said, "So, we found five people from Earth in those prisoners. Care to tell me where you were taking them?"
"I don't owe you any explanation." The Beshi said.
"Oh, I think you do. There was a child in that lot! Where the hell were you taking them? Who is buying humans now?"
The Beshi laughed, "The same people who buy everyone else."
Pete walked into the room.
"Buying people from Earth is not allowed. I won't tolerate it!"
"Who are you to even make such a demand?" The Beshi asked.
"I'm the Doctor, and you can explain yourself to the Atraxi. They are here now to pick you up."
Fear came over the Beshi's face. "What? You tricked us! You said we would be free to go."
The Doctor shook his head, "Nah, I don't remember saying that. Remember this for if you get out. Earth is under my protection and this will not be tolerated!"
The Doctor yelled, "Kill transmission."
Pete looked surprised at the Doctor as he walked by him. "Feeling alright, son?"
"No, this shit just pisses me off." He complained as he walked out of the room.
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