BREAK IN THE WEATHER

(Chapter one of a Doctor Who submission that never was.
Tash and Lane are mine, like most of the characters in the chapter, other then that characters and Doctor who belongs to the BBC)

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The Universe was a happy thing when it wanted to be, it was contented with it's self, having plenty to do and see.

But in a small dark section of itself a rumbling had started, the universe didn't like the feeling of this rumbling, it was worried. Then the rumbling got louder and started to become a sharp pain, it didn't react well to this pain and in the confusion of continuing strength the pain was getting the universe started to scream. Scream like it had never screamed before.

"In the grand scheme of things to come, this story means a lot to certain people."

***

The rain had stopped when Lane woke up, it had been raining non -stop for the last two months, so it was strange, not to mention at odds with what she knew about this hell her life had become, so she sat up and took notice.

From what Lane could remember the non-stop rain had something to do with the ozone layer of the planet.
But that wasn't what she was thinking of at that moment.
When ever it stopped raining outside, the purple sky brought back memory's of Lane's childhood, Happy memory's of a time before she knew the meaning of Scum.

Before she met Scum.
Before she let it wine and dine her.
Before she decided to marry Scum.
Long before the Scum hit her every night when it returned from work.
Long, long before she struck back, and wound up in prison, for defending herself against the Scum.

" I wonder how long it will last ?" a voice came from the otherside of the cell.
Who knew ?.
"Reckon we're goin' out today?" came the voice again.
Lane turned .

"Tash, you know the exercise yard sunk two years ago, so they won't be letting us go out their." Lane grunted, stretching her legs as she stood up.

Before Lane could shake the cobwebs from her head, the deep peal of the prison bell sounded outside..

"EVERYONE OUT" yelled the screw walking passed opening the door to their cell.

Both Tash and Lane wandered out of their cell, to be met by the smell of the grit that they knew as the prison
On Tripantt in the prison's it wasn't unusual to see both male and female prisoner's lock in the same area's.
Many of the inmates where there for major crimes, like Lane was.
Other's were there awaiting trial or awaiting the punishment sentenced to them by the courts.

While Lane and Tash were lining up out side their cell waiting for the morning cell check, a small group was forming over the other side of the room.

"FIGHT" someone yelled.

At that moment the whole room when mad, people yelling , the screws came running to break up the two fighting and to control the forming crowd.

"Well Tash who's it now?" Lane yelled to be heard over the noise.
Tash was looking over to the crowd, she could see better then Lane, because she was tall enough to see over everyone without having to leave the line.

Tash craned her neck to see. "It's just Shacca belting someone up I've never seen before. Must be new."

In prison, Lane found out from Tash, it wasn't unusual for the women to fight with the men.
And from what Lane had seen in her time in there, the women were much more meaner and harder then the men.
When the male inmates were put in this section of the gaol, they where told which of the female in-mates to watch out for, and Tash was one of them.

The reason was clear when they first got a look at her, Tash was 6ft,10 and built like a brick-wall. What may people didn't know but Lane found out was, Tash had a heart of gold and wouldn't fight anyone unless she had too.

Watching the two inmates fight was rather funny Lane thought to her self, neither of them were great fighters, it was more comical then dangerous.
Most of the punches that were being thrown, Lane found many people having a chuckle to themselves, most of all was Tash.

Whilst Tash and Lane were not exactly friends, they had looked out for each other for the time they had been in gaol. When she first incarcerated, Tash took grim, perhaps perverse, notice of how small Lane seemed and decided to make lane her little project.

So, from then on, anyone who wanted to deal with Lane dealt with Tash as well. Consequently, no one went anywhere near the two of them. This would, of course, all change - it was all about to get much, much worse. The fight continued.......

****

The universe had been watching this part of it-self , it had found the pain it was experiencing had started here.
Most of the time the universe could stop anything that was happening to it but blowing up the odd planet, or making a sun go nova, just make something happen, to jolt whoever it was that had started the discomfort and make then stop.
but this time nothing the universe could think of, would stop the pain, so all that was left to do was scream.

****

It had been hours since the fight had broken out, at first it was just Shacca and the new inmate, but steadily more and more fights had broken out.
Few were just pushing and some punches thrown, but one fight that started out small, turned in to a very deadly one when Tash somehow got involved. "she's over there with her little friend" the first one yelled to the other two.

Three males decided that with the screws out of the way they would have a go at Tash, looking around they found her in the corner with Lane just watching the fights and having a hard time hearing each other talk.
"Move Now" was the last thing that Lane heard as she was flung though the air .

Something's wrong ,
why cant I move,
where's Tash
ouch
what the hell's happened,

"she's coming round," it was a females voice, lane couldn't place it.

What happened, why am I here.
Oh shut up will ya, it's a good thing your in here, if your friend hadn't thrown you in my cell, you'd be suffering more than a headache.
Your friend is as far as I know spending some quality time with herself in solitary confinement, and she's likely to be there for a very long time no thanks to those three idiots that attacked her in the first place.

Where are they now?

Oh I wouldn't worry about 'em coming after you, brick wall took care of them, the only place you'll find 'em now is in the morgue.

Somewhere else in the same prison, a man was being shown to the Governors office, a small dark man that didn't have much presence, to look at him but he was a very important person that you didn't want to meet if you wanted to live a long life.
His mission was to find information for one of the inmates, as he got closer this quite but deadly man overheard some of the guards discussing the latest upraise of the inmates.

"Did you see how 34523f hit those three guys in one swing, that woman's an amazing fighter."
"Yer ! wasn't it a great sight, never seen anything like that in all the time I've been here."
"Isn't 34523f one of the female's on the male prisoners warning list"

the little man started to run through the information he had on the subject of the visit, the little hand held screen blinked to life with the newly found information.

* Subject : female
Species: Frenaxican
Age: 120 (Imperial standard years)
More of the information that was given meant nothing to him, but glancing down to the reason for imprisonment,
* Sentence : life -For Murdering 20 Males .

This information seemed to unsettle him for a second and then it passed when the voice of the Governor broke the silence.
"Come in Mr--" squeaked Governor Martens.
The Governor didn't know what to say to this man, very visit the stranger had made to the prison , it had scared Governor Martens out of his wits, for some reason , the less the man had said in there meetings the less relaxed The Governor felt.

"I feel more safe with ten of my most dangerous prisoners than I do with this man" The Governor whispered to his securtary as she walked out of the room. 'So what can I help you with this time'
"I want to speak with one of your inmates" handing over the request form.
"And I would like- no- expect your complete co-operation Governor Martens"

"SMEG"

'What am I going to do now'
' I don't care but first get the hell out of my cell before the screws see ya , I don't want anymore trouble from them, I've had enough for this month'.
Half crawling, half stumbling, Lane made her way back up the big metal stairs to the top floor . Stopping for a second when reaching the top of the stairs, lane turned her head slightly to see the rest of the main hall,
small fights where still in full force, and from what she could see, the screws where having a hard time restraining some of the bigger inmate.

Thwack!.

A male inmate hits the floor like an oversized rag doll.
He gets up to give a return blow(now that was smart),and is zapped from behind with a stun gun by one of the female guards, and hits the floor again , this time with no chance of getting up.
Chuckling to herself while watching, lane started to slowly pull herself up the railing of the stairs, having got most of her balance back she stumbled through the cell door.

'God I feel like crud warmed up.' As she laid down on her bunk, with every muscle aching, a small thumping could be heard against the window, at first lane didn't really notice but as it got harder she did.

It had started to rain again.....
Written By Megan Rogers 1998