Thanks to MrDrP for his review and for beta reading this chapter! The Kerb!am Man will be delivering your fez any day now!
Thanks to everyone for reading!
I.
Kim awoke in darkness.
As her eyes adjusted to her surroundings, her mind was bombarded by a tangle of thoughts and images, both disturbing and wonderful. As she recognized the glow from the living room television's digital clock, she heard the unmistakable rumble of Ron's snore from just a few feet away.
What a crazy dream.
She replayed what she could remember of the Doctor, the endless staircase, the Yeti, Zoe, Jamie, a possessed Mr. Paisley, and the strange blue box. Although food had rarely impacted her dreams in the past, Kim thought that it might be best if her mom avoided buying the same brand of frozen pizza again.
Kim sat up in alarm. She and Ron were sleeping in the same room! This was the one thing her father insisted could not happen if Ron stayed over. As much as she hated to do it, she'd need to wake him and rustle him up to her room. Already walking on her knees across the couch toward him, she happened to notice the pattern on her blanket. It was her Pandaroo baby blanket. For years, it had been kept with other old nursery items in the laundry room. The only way she'd have it is if one of her parents had covered her with it.
A quick glance at the television's clock confirmed that it was much too early for her mom to have come home from work.
Dad?
She lay back down and smiled. Her father would have woken them if he had been angry.
Unfortunately, even with this good news, drowsiness eluded her. There was an annoying question that she couldn't answer. When exactly did they fall asleep? She didn't remember watching the movie. Had she zonked out after rereading the DVD case over and over? If so, why hadn't Ron woken her when he returned from her room? He most def wanted to see the movie. But even beyond these questions there was something keeping her from sleep. She tossed and turned for what felt like a very long time.
Pandaroo.
It was so obvious. Heck, the reason for her insomnia was even printed on the blanket she had twisted about herself. She untangled from the blanket, grabbed the flashlight from the coffee table, and headed upstairs to retrieve her favorite Cuddle Buddie. She knew her way around her darkened home well enough that she didn't really need the flashlight, but it had been in easy reach.
Waitaminute. Why was it on the coffee table? Shouldn't it be in mom's drawer?
A chill suddenly enveloped her. As she reached the second-floor landing, she found she was nervously rubbing down the goosebumps on her arms and legs. From her spot on the landing, she could see the black square of space at the top of her ladder. Her mouth went dry. She looked at her feet and slowly, cautiously counted the steps until she reached the base of the ladder.
She considered turning on the flashlight but decided against it. With difficulty, she swallowed and then looked up.
The familiar shadows caused by the nightlight were there. She felt so foolish but wanted to laugh at the same time. Sighing, she began climbing the first rungs.
She froze. Noises were coming from her room.
A familiar sounding voice muttered unintelligibly. Snoring. And then there was … music.
With automatic movement, Kim again began climbing the ladder. She paused at the top, considered turning on the flashlight, but finally put it in her shorts' pocket.
She listened to the unfamiliar song for a minute or two, took a deep breath, and then peered over the edge into her room.
II.
Michelle couldn't comprehend most of what was going on in her apartment. However, she understood what needed to be done.
She ran to the bathroom, grabbed one of the thicker old bedsheets stored in the rack over the washing machine, and raced back to Kim's room. Once there, she carefully, respectfully draped it over the body of the stranger who lay slumped near the doorway. Although not raised in a religious home, her grandmother, a nurse from Mozambique, had taught her some Bahá'í prayers when she was a teenager. Michelle muttered what lines she could recall from the prayer for the dead.
When Ron had first tumbled into Kim's room, he had been confronted by a Lorwardian insignia that was larger than him. It quickly disappeared and was replaced by a gaping hole where his best friend girlfriend's wall used to be. In the seconds following the ship's departure, Ron realized something inside him had broken. He remained motionless for several moments, fearing that any movement he made would increase the damage.
Finally, he turned his head and stared intently at the overcast sky. If he could only force the clouds to part, maybe he could find her among the tangles of stars. After a while, his head dropped. Even if he could clear the sky, he knew from experience that stars couldn't be made out against the lights of the city. He looked down at the street and noted absently that it seemed like a normal Monday night, no one seemed particularly excited or upset.
He then carelessly scanned the floor by the edge; among the debris from the wall, his eyes fell upon the occasional knickknack or picture that Kim had kept on her desk. He noticed drops of water were pooling upon a picture Karin had taken of them outside Julian a year or so ago. After a minute he realized it had begun to rain again. As his shirt began to get wet, Ron shivered. Still, he did not move.
Wade was frantically searching the rubble around Kim's desk. It had been flat against the wall originally, but the explosion had pushed it into the middle of the room. Surprisingly, it hadn't been too badly damaged, but Kim's laptop was missing. Shifting through piles of debris on his hands and knees, Wade grew more agitated by the minute. He was just about to give up when he decided to check the desk's drawers.
"Yes!" The laptop was in the second drawer. He quickly cleared a space on top of the desk, haphazardly placed the laptop in that space, and fired it up.
"Maybe we should call the police?" Michelle asked softly. Honestly, she was surprised that officers hadn't already arrived. Her question went unanswered, but in the silence a more distressing thought occurred to her.
We need to call Kim's parents.
She was about to go look for her phone when some movement in Kim's bed attracted her attention.
"Come on, come on," Wade muttered as he feverishly typed. He was trying to interface with Global Justice's servers, but he couldn't remember the fourteenth character in their twenty-seven-character encryption code number. It was a mnemonic that he used practically every day of his life, and it was eluding him at the worst time. He sighed and tried another combination. When it, too, failed, he slammed his fist so hard on the desk that the laptop jumped.
Ron was by his side almost immediately. "Okay, dude?"
"Not five minutes ago," Wade began and stopped. He then looked up at his friend, his eyes pooling. "I told her that no matter what … we'd have her back."
Ron tried to find the right words but discovered he could only grip his friend's shoulder in reply.
"Oh my God," Michelle gasped. "There's someone in Kim's bed."
"What?" Ron said turning around.
Michelle stared at the young woman. There was a nasty burn mark on her shoulder, but she was breathing. Michelle gave the ceiling a confused glance; it was relatively unscathed, so the woman couldn't have fallen from the floor above.
Where did she come from? Who is she?
Although she certainly didn't recognize the woman's extremely long pink hair, there was something vaguely familiar about her face.
"What?" Ron repeated, stepping around some debris to reach the bed.
"Ron, it's Karin. Karin Maaka," Michelle announced. She reached down and gently touched the woman's forehead.
At that moment Ron saw who was in the bed. "Michelle! Don't!" he cried.
The woman's crimson eyes sprang open, and she violently swung her injured arm at Michelle. Although Michelle dodged the blow, she fell painfully to the floor.
"Get your hands away from me, human!" Elda roared. She pounced on Michelle, and before the startled young woman could even scream, Elda had griped her face with her right hand.
"Elda! Stop!" Ron yelled.
A diaphanous gold mist enveloped Michelle's head, and her eyes swiftly closed.
Wade had watched this scene play out in horrified silence. He only snapped from his daze when he realized that the bloody gaze of the pink-haired woman was now focused on him.
She sprang at him, and before Ron could reach them, she had Wade pinned against the desk, his face caged in her long-nailed grip. He only managed one word before the vampire's memory wipe consumed him, too. "Ron?"
"Stop it, Elda! Stop it!" Ron screamed.
She released Wade, and his unconscious body slumped to the floor.
Ron and Elda exchanged venomous stares. Each knew the other's power, and neither was backing down. The standoff was finally broken by the unmistakable sound of a pistol being cocked.
Sitting upright and no longer draped by the sheet, Captain Jack Harkness was pointing his weapon at Elda. "Ron, can you please explain to me what the hell is going on?"
III.
What is keeping them so long?!
Although the tears that she had cried for Elda and then for Jack were still beading on her cheeks, that was a residual effect of the tractor beam in which she was still contained. Of the swirl of emotions that currently raged within Kim, anger was the most prominent.
When she had been abducted on graduation night, she had been placed in hand and foot restraints almost immediately. Tonight, Kim had been in the ship for most of an hour, and she was still floating in the beam within a grimy holding room no bigger than the freight elevator at Middleton Memorial. In all that time, she hadn't seen or even heard a Lorwardian. Of course, she knew that being neglected by her alien abductors wasn't really something to complain about. However, being angry felt better than being sad or frightened.
After a few more minutes, the wall to Kim's right slid open, and a Lorwardian stepped into the room. She was initially taken aback because his skin was blue rather than green. He was also shorter and stockier than Warhok. However, his facial features and body markings were very similar to those of the two Lorwardians she had faced in the past. Looking her over with a displeased expression, he refused to look her in the eye.
"You won't win," she stated matter-of-factly.
He didn't react just continued to give her a visual inspection.
"I'm going to escape. You can count on it."
He scratched his elbow and then walked behind her.
"Ron will stop you," she said defiantly.
His hand was suddenly on her right shoulder, and she found herself immediately spun one-hundred-and-eighty degrees. His grip was strong, but he hadn't hurt her. Although he had turned her to face him, he still refused to meet her gaze. She was about to inform him of what she was going to do once she got free when he ripped the Kimmuncator from her wrist. He dropped it to the floor and smashed it to pieces with his boot. The action had been filled with such sudden violence that Kim didn't initially know how to react.
"You'll regret that," she managed finally.
The Lorwardian snapped his fingers and panels shot from the wall and formed hand and foot restraints that swiftly bound her. He snapped his fingers again, and the tractor beam clicked off. He turned without a word, and the floating restraints pulled her after him.
It didn't take long for Kim to realize that the ship was a much different model than the one Warhok and Warmonga had commanded. The corridor she traversed seemed cramped, the walls had the same old, dingy look as the holding room, and there were no windows that she could see. Shortly, they arrived at what appeared to be a dead end. She watched as the Lorwardian again snapped his fingers, and the wall slid up, revealing a command deck. This room, at least, seemed reminiscent of the previous ship. Although less than half the size of Warhok and Warmonga's deck, the instruments, at least, looked new. She immediately began to scan its consoles for the single switch that would shut off the ship's power, but she couldn't find anything that looked like it. Then she remembered that switch had not been on the command deck.
The wall slid shut behind her so suddenly that she jumped. The Lorwardian took no notice of her reaction and made his way to what she assumed was the pilot's chair. It was starting to unnerve her that he had yet to say anything. However, she suspected nothing she could say would elicit a response.
Seated, he began adjusting controls on the panels immediately in front of him. Kim felt the ship move sharply to starboard and, for a brief instant, the moon was visible in the large viewing screen at the front of the room. Its appearance was jarring for Kim; the screen had been so uniformly black that she had assumed it had been deactivated. She could make out the stars now though. She glimpsed a constellation she thought she recognized, suggesting that the ship was still positioned over the northern hemisphere. Although a part of her was relieved the ship wasn't aimed at Earth, signaling another conquest attempt, the fact it was pointed toward the stars gave her a sinking feeling she tried to ignore. When the ship ceased moving, the constellation Orion was clearly visible in the center of the screen. A rumble started to build throughout the ship, followed by a roar from somewhere behind them, and then the viewscreen went completely white.
Kim didn't know how much time had passed before she realized she was trembling violently. Although the current sitch did frighten her, she didn't believe she was so scared she'd be shaking that much. Then she noticed that the Lorwardian was also shaking visibly. And, soon after that, she comprehended that the room, and, likely, the entire ship, was shaking. Suddenly, there was a prism-like glow floating an inch or so above everything, the viewscreen flashed red, and the shuttering increased.
"FRACKLE!" the Lorwardian abruptly yelled and smashed his fist repeatedly against the armrest of his pilot's chair.
Kim cried out in alarm. Not only had his yell and violent action startled her, she had immediately intuited that these were not merely expressions of rage, they contained fear as well.
Just as swiftly as the crisis had begun, it ceased. The ship was completely still, the rainbow haze vanished, and the viewscreen displayed a starfield. The only sound Kim could hear for the first few moments was the beating of her heart in her ears. After getting herself somewhat under control, she realized that the Lorwardian was trembling, and she could clearly hear his relieved sighs.
I so don't want to know what almost just happened.
There was a beeping sound, and the Lorwardian angrily pressed a blinking yellow dial on his left. The starfield was replaced by the head and shoulders of a female Lorwardian. With red skin and green markings, she was almost an inverse Warmonga, complexion-wise. However, her eyes were blue instead of yellow, and her hair, like every Lorwardian Kim had ever encountered, was myrtle in color. The woman glanced at Kim and smiled broadly. However, her pleasure was immediately interrupted by an angry tirade from the pilot. Although Kim couldn't understand a single word, she suspected the barrage of abuse he was hurling had something to do with the last few moments of their flight. The female Lorwardian could barely get a word in the conversation. Kim caught a single word being used in the 'discussion' repeatedly: "Mentors." Finally, the pilot exhausted his anger and after few more cool and terse verbal exchanges, he pressed the yellow dial and the woman was replaced by stars.
They were stars Kim didn't recognize. She had never considered herself an expert in astronomy, but she knew the stars in the viewscreen were ones she had never seen before. The sinking feeling she had fought to ignore at the beginning of the journey had remained, if below the surface, with her the entire time. And now it threatened to leak out of her eyes.
The ship turned to port, and a planet swallowed most of the screen. The color of inflamed rust, most of its surface appeared to be a fractured wasteland cut up by scar-like mountain ranges. However, after a few moments, Kim realized this was an illusion—what she had first thought was desert was in reality gigantic, slowly swirling cloud formations. The most striking feature was a particularly large cloud of incandescent green that bisected the globe diagonally. Kim was immediately reminded of Jupiter's giant storm cloud.
She closed her eyes and tried to swallow. So dry, her throat felt jagged.
How am I ever going to get home?
"Observe, War Criminal," her abductor spoke.
Kim's eyes sprang open. It wasn't because he was finally talking to her or that he was speaking English or that he had addressed her as a 'war criminal' that shocked her the most. For the first time, his gaze was meeting hers.
"The eye of Lorwardia is upon you," he pronounced.
No. Their home world.
"No one within three hundred light years can help you," he continued. "Prepare. Justice is nigh."
A second later, he added with a cruel smile, "Permission to weep is granted."
IV.
"Jack …?" Ron began.
"Answer my question, Ron," Jack interrupted, not taking his eyes or his aim from Elda.
"But you were dead," Ron protested. "Michelle couldn't find a pulse, you—" and here he glanced at the location of Jack's injury, "had a big hole in your chest …"
"It happens," Jack gave a disinterested shrug. "Who is this person?" he demanded.
"As if this night couldn't get worse," Elda muttered, "a human who doesn't stay dead."
"Who is she!" Jack yelled.
"She's a friend," Ron answered.
"Don't flatter yourself, human," Elda seethed.
"Ok, ok, she's a relative of a friend."
"Ok, yeah," Jack nodded. "I thought she looked familiar. That girl from Julian last night. Let me guess, this is the evil twin sister?"
"Grandmother, actually."
"What?" Jack turned his head in Ron's direction.
Swiftly, Elda seized the gun from Jack and tossed it into a back corner of the room. She grabbed his face, and, within seconds, the gold mist enveloped it. However, before Ron could even protest, both he and Elda noticed that Jack's eyes had not closed. Then they heard the cocking of a pistol.
Jack had shoved a small gun into Elda's belly. He then forcibly shook his head out of her grasp. "As if I only carry one gun," he chuckled humorlessly. "What was that all about, Ron? The same thing she did to Kim's roommate and Mr. Load?"
"Yeah," Ron sighed, "it's a magical-memory-wipe thing she can do."
"Shut up, human!" Elda threatened.
"You're going to have to trust him, Elda," Ron said, exasperated. "You just saw that it doesn't work on him, and you already know you can't kill him."
"It won't hurt to try," she muttered.
"Stop it!" Ron slammed his fist on Kim's desk. Jack and Elda, at least for an instant, turned their attentions to him. "We're wasting valuable time. We need to save Kim!"
"You think he can help?" Elda asked with a hint of derision. Yet only a hint.
"I don't know," Ron admitted. "Can you?" he said turning to Jack.
Noticing the slight decrease in animus coming from his would-be attacker, Jack said in a calmer voice, "I may have some contacts that could help."
"That person with the Doctor's phone number?" Ron asked.
"I already told you," Jack said, shaking his head, "that number hasn't worked in years. Why are you stuck on—?"
"Because Kim and I met him before."
"What?" Jack said, lowering his weapon slightly.
Ron was so relieved that Elda hadn't used this opportunity to attack Jack again, that the Captain had to repeat his question.
"Yeah, we met him back when we were twelve."
"And how long did you plan on keeping that a secret?" Jack said, his mood bordering on full tweak.
"We didn't realize it until last night when you mentioned him," Ron explained. "We always assumed it was a dream."
"And you two often have the same exact dream?" Jack asked sotto voice.
"It happens," Ron gave a disinterested shrug.
"Who cares?" Elda yelled. "How can this Doctor human even help?"
"The Doctor's not human," Jack said, his patience straining, "he's an alien."
"He is?" Ron asked with a start.
"So, he's another one of those green idiots?" Elda balked. "What good is that!"
Before Jack could reply, the trio heard someone clearing their throat. Turning in the direction of the sound, they discovered a conscious Wade Load staring at them, his back against Kim's desk. "Did I? Did I miss something?"
Before Elda could make a move, Ron gripped her left hand and hissed under his breath, "No! We need him." He then approached his friend and gently laid a hand on his shoulder. "Quite a bit, Wade," Ron said, "how far back should I go?"
"Well, uh, I'm not sure," Wade rubbed his head. "Where's Kim?"
"Oh, man," Ron sighed and then shot Elda a heated look. "The Lorwardians got her, Wade. They blasted a hole in her room and tractor beamed her out."
"What?!" Wade cried. Over the next few seconds, he seemed to sink into the floor. "I just told her that we'd have her back."
"We do, Wade, we do," Ron said gripping his friend's shoulders firmly. "We're getting her back, but we need your help."
Wade wiped his eyes and then nodded to Ron. "Okay, let's do this. I'll need Kim's laptop."
"Right here on her desk, buddy," Ron said helping his friend to stand.
Jack took this opportunity to stand as well. "Captain Jack Harkness," Jack said, giving Wade a brief but firm handshake, "good to finally meet you, Mr. Load."
"Ah, yeah, good to meet you," Wade replied still somewhat dazed. When his eyes fell on the open space that had once been Kim's wall he started. "Wow! They blew the entire wall away. You'd think we'd be hearing sirens by now."
"My familiars know to set up a boundary any time I get attacked," Elda said impatiently. "Can we get going? Those idiots are getting further and further away!"
"'Familiars?'" Wade and Jack asked.
"Never mind," Ron said hurriedly. "Wade, trust me, this'll all make sense … at some point."
Jack took a step toward Elda. "'Boundary'? Do you mean like a perception filter?"
She took a step away from him, her only answer a glare.
"She already has the Global Justice server interface up?" Wade said in surprise. "Th-that's strange." He shrugged, "But helpful." He began feverishly typing. "Okay, we're in. Let's see what we can find out."
"Jack," Ron said to the older man who was clearly impressed with the ease in which Wade had hacked one of the world's top intelligence agencies. "What about that contact?"
"Of course," Jack said. He swiftly took an old school cell phone from his coat and dialed. A moment later he said, "Doctor Jones?"
"Hey, Jack," a very concerned Martha Jones replied from her clandestine Torchwood location. "How did the hand-off go?"
"They got her," Jack replied.
"Oh my God! How?"
"They were using some low-rent cloaking tech, but that doesn't matter right now. Do you still have the Doctor's number?"
"Of course," she sighed. "But it hasn't worked for years, you know that."
"Try it."
"Sure." Martha took out her personal cell and attempted the call.
"GJ doesn't seem to know too much," Wade grumbled. "They picked up a strong but brief power signature a few minutes ago in the exosphere above Tokyo, but then nothing."
"What can that mean?" Ron asked.
"It could mean a number of things. None of them good," Wade said with a shake of his head.
"My contact's number still doesn't work," Jack announced.
"Oh, man." Crestfallen, Ron hadn't realized how much he had been counting on this thin chance until he learned it wouldn't work.
"Is this a terrestrial call?" Wade asked.
"Probably not," Jack said. "Although the Doctor is on Earth a lot, he spends most of his time off world."
"Again, why are we looking for help from one of those green idiots?" Elda suddenly roared.
"He isn't Lorwardian," Jack explained through gritted teeth.
Observing Elda's incandescent glare-as-retort, Wade whispered to Ron, "I never pictured Karin being so abrasive."
"Dude, it's been a rough night on everyone," Ron said hastily. "What were you saying about the call?"
"Terrestrial calls rely on our satellites," Wade explained. "However, if the call is extra-terrestrial in nature, it must be relying on some other source to complete."
"A signal coming from the Tardis, I would guess," Jack said. "Which may explain why it worked at one point and doesn't now. The Doctor doesn't always keep the tightest ship."
"But what if it was something else," Wade said, furrowing his brow. "Something that might be blocking the signal. Preventing it from leaving Earth in the first place."
"Okay, I see where you're going," Jack nodded approvingly. "Martha hasn't been able to call him for about two and a half years. What has happened in that time frame?"
"The Lorwardians?" Ron suggested.
"The invasion was three years ago," Jack said, shaking his head.
"Yes, it was," Wade said, "but Global Justice started covertly using Lorwardian tech two and a half years ago."
"Right," Jack said, very much liking where the conversation was going. "So, what Lorwardian tech might be strong enough to block the signal? It would need to be firing or 'on' all day and night to consistently block it."
"Waitaminute," Ron said, "how is Torchwood able to monitor Lorwardian chit-chat?"
"Well, … actually," Jack began hesitantly and then suddenly broke into a broad smile. "You're a genius, Ron! We pirate it from GJ's super classified long-range dish that's been active for the last two and a half years!"
"That does seem to fit," Wade smiled.
Jack gave Ron a hug that lifted him off his feet. "I knew your pretty boy looks couldn't have been the only reason Kim fell for you!" When he put Ron back down, though, his smile faded.
"What's wrong?" Ron asked.
"Well, if this hunch is correct," Jack explained, "we need to somehow break into Area 52 without being detected and then somehow shut down the dish."
Wade was only half-listening as he feverishly typed on Kim's laptop.
"Just getting a team together could take weeks, a month," Jack continued.
"Try it now," Wade said simply
"What?" Jack asked.
"The dish is down. Try making the call again," Wade explained.
"Seriously?" Jack asked.
"Call!" Wade and Ron yelled in union.
"Call! You undead freak!" Elda bellowed.
"Ok, ok!" Jacked yelled back. He redialed Martha. "Could you try it again, Dr. Jones?"
"If you think it will help," Martha replied hopelessly. Sighing, she dialed the number on her personal phone. Within seconds, she switched back to her other device, "Oh my God, Jack! It's ringing, it's ringing!"
"It's ringing guys," Jack announced happily to cheers from Ron and Wade and the ghost of a smile from Elda.
However, two time zones away, Martha's heart was still in her throat. The call was going through, but no one had answered yet. By the tenth ring, her spirits started to fade. But on the thirteenth ring, a woman's voice with a strong accent answered. "Ha-ha, I almost forgot where I had this. Tardis speaking how can we help?"
"Can I speak to the Doctor?" Martha asked excitedly.
"Martha? Martha Jones?" the woman replied happily. "It's been ages, how are you?"
"I-I'm fine," Martha stammered. Her mind raced as she tried to determine who this woman could be. She obviously recognized Martha's voice, so she knew her personally. However, as far as Martha was aware, the most recent woman to travel with the Doctor was Donna Noble. Although Donna did have a distinctive accent, it was not a Northern one. "May I speak with the Doctor?" she asked again.
V.
"So, what's up?" Yasmin 'Yaz' Kahn asked eagerly.
"We're going to Tokyo 2010," the Doctor said as she approached the Tardis console. "An old friend of mine was abducted by the Lorwardians."
"Who's that?"
"That's a long, unpleasant story," the Doctor said with a frown. "They're a race—"
"No, no," Yaz interrupted. "The friend."
"Oh, Kim Possible. Nice American girl. Smart. Very, very athletic," the Doctor explained as she began to work the controls. "Had braces the last time I saw her." She paused. "That was over sixteen hundred years ago." She then brightened, "Her smile must be wonderful by now." She went back to prepping the Tardis for its flight. "We need to stop at her apartment first and pick up another old friend, Ron. Oh—he has an unlikely last name, too."
"Yeah, Stoppable," Yaz said. "Actually, he's her husband."
"Really?" the Doctor said looking up. She half-whispered with a smile, "Well, you were right, Zoe." And then she made a face, "Hold on, how did you know that?"
"Uh, because they're world famous." Yaz said, raising an eyebrow.
"What?"
"They've been saving the world on a regular basis since I was little girl," Yaz explained. "Kim was one of the reasons I joined the Force." She paused. "How do you not know that?"
"I-I don't know. I can't know everything, Yaz." The Doctor frowned. "What really has me puzzled is what the Lorwardians would want with her."
Yaz gave the Doctor a look.
"What now?"
"She stopped the Lorwardian Invasion in 2007."
"What?! The Lorwardians invaded Earth in 2007!"
"For maybe twelve hours, but yeah. How do you not know that?!"
"The early 21st century was a hectic time for me," the Doctor said rather lamely.
"Wait a minute. If they abducted her over ten years ago," Yaz said with the beginnings of a smile, "why don't I remember hearing about it?"
"Don't know," the Doctor replied, mirroring her smile, "maybe we're part of the reason."
She spun the hourglass on the console's main panel, and they were off.
VI.
In direct, pointed spite of the 'permission' she had been 'granted,' Kim's eyes remained free from tears for the next hour. And, actually, nothing occurred in that time period that was emotionally upsetting. Once the devastating reality that she was light years from Earth had been accepted, everything else was so much window dressing.
The ship had entered the atmosphere through the center of the green storm. The pilot seemed preoccupied with making their flight's trajectory hug the edge of the dark 'iris' at the center of the cloud. The color of the clouds grew less incandescent the closer they got to the planet's surface. After a bumpy twenty minute flight, the green clouds faded entirely, and the sky turned to rust.
The burnt orange field was revealed to be clouds or mist, and the viewscreen displayed a large onyx-colored sea. At the far edge of this sea, Kim made out a jumble of plateaus of varying heights. These rock formations appeared to be their destination. During their approach, she was able to take note of many details about the planet. The color of the land was slightly darker than the umber tint of its sky. The land seemed bereft of any vegetation or animal life. She also didn't see any Lorwardians traversing the difficult terrain. The sky was another matter. There were dozens of Lorwardians of various hues flying above the sea on a myriad of vehicles. Several resembled the craft she had flown during her escape from the Lorwardian warship during graduation. She also noticed many that looked like the type of glider Warmonga had used to pursue her at that time. Most of the vehicles, however, were completely new to her. One unifying detail about these flying Lorwardians that slightly unnerved Kim was that they were all wearing helmets equipped with what appeared to be breathing apparati.
Is the air even breathable?
As they drew closer to the plateaus, Kim realized that they were really clusters of columns very close to each other. Immediately, this put Kim in mind of the Giant's Causeway that she and Ron had briefly visited following a mission in Northern Ireland the previous year. She also detected some glints of jade embedded on the 'walls' of several of the columns. After a minute, she thought she saw some of the pieces of jade vanish and others appear at random points in the same column or on those nearby. Initially, she assumed this was an illusion caused by her rapidly changing perspective. And then she realized the truth.
They're lights! A-Are those buildings?
The ship's speed decreased as it neared what Kim now realized was a large city. To the right of this metropolis, there was a large, perfectly circular body of water. Next to it was what appeared to be a stadium or coliseum although she couldn't be sure because it was enshrouded by some opaque covering. The ship swerved to starboard; the pilot aiming them for the center of the 'lake.'
Under the same circumstances with any other pilot, Kim would have asked what he thought he was doing. However, she knew the futility of doing that now. Besides, this pilot had earlier taken such relish in pronouncing her impending fate that she was certain he knew exactly what he was doing.
As they got closer, Kim realized it wasn't a lake at all. It was more of a 'bubble.' Composed of some sort of dark liquid, it didn't appear solid. Right before reaching the 'bubble's' surface, the ship decelerated to the point where it almost felt like it was floating. There was a brief shudder when they made impact, but then they were floating again.
Rows of dozens of landing pads filled the viewscreen. The pilot began pressing numerous glowing buttons on the consoles nearest to him. The viewscreen went black, and the deck's overhead lights dimmed. The pilot stood and stretched.
I guess we've landed.
Suddenly, the ship shook violently. The pilot muttered and gave the console a violent slam with his fist. Then everything was still.
Ok, I guess now we've landed.
Without meeting her gaze, the Lorwardian approached her. He was getting so close that Kim thought he was going to walk into her. Right before they collided, he reached out and gave her a slight shove.
"Hey!" she snapped as she floated backward. She stopped just short of the wall.
He gave her protest no notice and pressed a button on the wall. With a hiss, a panel opened in the floor. Bright light flooded the deck as the panel/gangplank slowly lowered to the landing pad below. The Lorwardian brushed rudely passed her and proceeded to exit the ship. The restraints dragged her down behind him.
After her eyes adjusted to the bright glare, Kim gave the large hover port a quick once-over. Hundreds of Lorwardians, identically dressed in burgundy-colored 'scrubs' for lack of a better word, were bustling around at dissimilar tasks. As she and her captor progressed across the 'tarmac,' she noticed workers inspecting undercarriages of ships, unloading undefinable objects from ships, loading unrecognizable objects into other ships, etc. And then there were those who were transporting objects that she did recognize. Weaponry Kim had known all-too-well during her graduation. So far, no one seemed to have noticed her.
Then she heard a gasp from somewhere behind her.
Ok. Here we go.
The gasps multiplied and then dissolved into a general muttering. And then the Lorwardians in front of her started to turn around. Their reactions followed the same gasp/mutter pattern; however, she could see these Lorwardians' reactions. Looks of shock were quickly replaced by those of unbridled hatred. A couple of the larger Lorwardians even approached her. Although her 'host' did nothing to dissuade them, none of these threatened her with violence, thankfully. However, there was no question about their wish to do so. Kim decided that a blank impassive face was the wisest reaction under the circumstances.
And then there were the few Lorwardians who seemed legitimately frightened of her. There weren't many of these, but every time her eyes connected with theirs, it made her feel … odd.
They finally exited the hover port and entered a short corridor with a cathedral-like ceiling. The other end of which led to an open boulevard … of a kind. Broadly speaking, it seemed laid out similarly to those she had known in Paris. However, the differences were significant. Instead of being framed by an open sky, for example, this boulevard had a dirty, beige domed ceiling. In addition, it was not edged with trees. In fact, Kim couldn't see vegetation of any kind.
The restraints pulled her along past dozens of Lorwardians who were dressed much more casually and variously than those at the port. Most glared heatedly at her, but no one approached her. To keep herself calm and her mind occupied, she started to internally keep as thorough a record as possible of her observations of this alien city-almost as if she were prepping a seminar paper or preparing for an exam. By the time her abductor/pilot/host brought her to their apparent destination—a set of ginormous doors composed of rust-streaked stone, Kim was fairly satisfied with her prospects for getting a decent grade on any such final.
When they opened, the doors produced a hideous grating that swept her academic fantasy from her mind as if it had never been. Beyond them lay a cavernous room about half the size of St. Peter's in Rome. At the far end of this room was a very tall, black platform. Two rows of equally black pillars ran parallel to each other from this platform back to the entrance where Kim floated. It looked, at first glance, like a courtroom. A courtroom inside of a cave.
This so does not bode well.
As Kim floated into the room, she made several immediate discoveries. Her blue Lorwardian 'pal' had vanished, and she was being led, instead, by two very large green Lorwardians holding long spears who flanked her on either side. In addition, both sides of this cave-like chamber were filled with rows and rows of long metal booths. And these were filled with seated Lorwardians. Unlike those she had encountered so far on the planet, these displayed no reaction to her presence. They were eerily silent.
Looking up, Kim realized that the reason the chamber seemed so cave-like was because it was a cave. The proof was its stalactite-dotted ceiling.
Once she reached the mid-way point of the chamber, the heads of two green Lorwardians appeared at opposite ends of the tall platform. Even from this distance, Kim could see that their expressions were ferociously unfriendly. Suddenly everyone in the room stood.
That's a bench. And this is a trail.
When she noticed there was no jury box, she replaced this thought with a gloomier one.
Or a tribunal.
She then noticed that a third Lorwardian face had appeared at the bench's center. This Lorwardian's skin was blue, but a faded blue. Furthermore, unlike every other inhabitant of the planet she had seen so far, his hair was pale green rather than myrtle. He wore an expression of weariness.
Her movement ceased when she about twenty feet from the imposing dais. Her two guards gave curt bows to her 'judges' and then swiftly retreated to the columns on either side of her. For a long moment, nothing happened, and Kim began to wonder if she was expected to say something. That seemed unlikely.
She heard a click, and the lights on her restraints turned from green to red. Immediately, they both divided into two, so that each of her hands and feet was individual bound. They rose her higher in the air and, simultaneously, separated so that her body was positioned in an 'X' shape. It had happened quickly, but not violently. She was uncomfortable, but not in pain.
As she adjusted herself to her new position, she noticed a peculiar design on the floor beneath her. It was a metal spiral curve winding into a tight center. What made it peculiar was that it was made of dozens of segments, each with a serrated or jagged protrusion.
"The ceremony of Atonement commences," announced the Lorwardian on the bench's far left.
The shock that she could understand him was overshadowed by the dread his words' implication generated.
"Custodian," the Lorwardian on the far right spoke, "Thorgoggle whip. Twenty strikes."
Fairly certain about what was going to happen next, Kim tried to modulate her breathing and to clear her mind.
Out of the corner of her left eye, she saw the shape of a very large Lorwardian step toward her. Reflexively, she turned her head toward him and watched as he knelt and picked up something from the floor.
A crackling sound drew her attention beneath her feet. The spiral floor pattern came alive with blue static discharges and then unraveled quickly until it disappeared to her left. What Kim had taken for a decoration was actually the curved tail of the whip that was about to be used on her. She suppressed an urge to vomit. She discovered that she was hyperventilating. She futilely tried to regain control of her breathing, closed her eyes tight, and tried to think of Ron.
A skirl severed the air.
The pain was like nothing Kim could have ever imagined. It was so intense that she was nauseous. Tears were streaming from her eyes and when she screamed, her lungs felt like they were full of razor blades. Pain blossomed in her mind and covered her thoughts like a fog. The only images that could pierce the fog were those of her parents.
Mommy! Daddy!
She was sobbing so hard that her body shook. And every time her body shook, the pain got worse, and she would sob again.
After the pain faded enough to be almost bearable. Kim reluctantly opened her eyes. Below her bellybutton there was a small tear in the fabric of her mission shirt. Although relieved, she couldn't reconcile this minimal damage with the pain that was still radiating over her entire body.
"What?!" cried an outraged voice above her. "The War Criminal has only had one strike!"
Kim gagged. She had only received a single blow.
"This child will not survive twenty," replied a higher-toned, calmer voice.
"Does a War Criminal deserve mercy?" yelled a heated third voice.
"Justice will still be executed," the higher-toned voice stated. "I ask only for consideration."
"Consideration?" balked the first voice. "On what grounds?"
"Despite the slanderous manner the War Criminal chose to color it, she did defeat two of our fiercest marauders," the higher-toned voice maintained.
The gulf of silence that followed this statement was only broken by Kim's ragged breathing.
"Such a triumph," the higher-toned voice stated, "deserves … something."
A very long moment later, the first voice said with a note of reluctance, "Custodian, you may be excused."
Kim heard a click and her arms and legs were slowly brought back together, and she was lowered to her former elevation.
"Justice will be executed when the Eye reaches the Monument," the third voice said without inflection.
Kim looked up at the bench and tried to blink her still-tearing eyes clear.
"Remove the War Criminal," said the faded blue Lorwardian in his higher-toned voice.
Kim's restraints switched back to green and the four merged back into two.
The restraints turned her slowly around, and she was again flanked by the guards. As they began their exit, the heretofore silent assembly broke into raucous chanting.
"For the Pride of Lorwardia! For the Pride of Lorwardia! For the Pride of Lorwardia! For the Pride of Lorwardia!"
They had not progressed far when the edge of her arm restraint got too close to the rip in her shirt. Kim was unprepared for the resulting surge of pain; she vomited. Some of the sick splashed on the front of her pants above the ankles, the rest landed on the chamber floor. She heaved as a long cord of drool descend from her chin to her foot restraints. The guards kept her moving.
The chanting never abated.
Once she was sure there would be no more, Kim bravely raised her head to face all of those who hated her.
Indeed, most of the chanting faces were inflamed with anger, disgust, or a mixture of the two. Yet, here and there Kim did pick out the rare face that was not chanting. The odd face whose eyes were not altogether unkind.
Searching for such faces among the angry mob, Kim distracted herself from her suffering. Or at least enough to maintain her sanity.
Her cell had no bunk or facilities. No lights, and the walls were completely black. The stale air smelled like death.
Freed from the restraints, she lay on her back and stretched out in such a way that nothing would touch her injury. Severe pain was still a companion, but it was isolated solely to the area around her bellybutton. The rest of her body was slowly returning to normal.
For a very long time she tried to remain perfectly still and to think of nothing. To allow herself to be swallowed by the darkness.
But, finally, thankfully, she got tired of doing that.
Slowly, carefully, she felt around until she found her right cargo pocket. Reaching inside, she discovered, as she had expected, the somewhat congealed remains of a stick of butter. She rested her hand in it. It reminded her of Rufus.
Gingerly, she found her left cargo pocket. Once inside, she wrapped her fingers tightly around the Doctor's recorder. Not because of the Doctor, but because of Wade.
And then, purposefully and with the utmost care, she selected a memory of Ron for her mind to orbit. She chose the complex look in his eyes whenever she surprised him with a kiss. A shifting mosaic of shock, silliness, and sensuality. And she looped her entire memory catalog of these pre-kiss moments. From the Moodulator incident Junior year to her grocery ambush of that afternoon.
They weren't much, these tokens and moments of lost time. However, she drew from them as much light and strength as she could. Such magic as they contained would be sorely needed once she escaped.
To be continued ...
