Doctor Who: Infection
Chapter 42 - Insurrection
Disclaimer - I don't own nothing or nobody you know/recognize. Doctor Who is intellectual property of the BBC, afaik.
Characters: Gleeson!Doctor, River, OCs
"Brace for impact!" the elder man yelled. The others in the control room gripped their seats tight as the ship rocked hard.
"Damage reports!" Commander Blake demanded. "What hit us?"
"Sub-etheric wave anomaly," Sam replied. "There also seems to be a breach in the hold?"
"Between the shields and self-sealing hull, we should be okay?" his father replied. "Are you okay, boy?"
"I'm fine!" he shot back, glancing to another screen. "Transit pods are showing- Life support failing! Resuscitation procedures are activating!"
Blake grimaced. "How many?"
"Looks like a cascade failure, across the board?"
Blake shook his head and flipped his comm. "Toby, I need you down in transit. Our passengers are waking up early," he ordered. No answer. "Toby?"
Mel piped up. "There seems to have been a malfunction in the Matrix Nest?" she informed them, casting a worried glance to her husband. "That's where Toby was working?"
Blake tried his comm again. "Brown, please respond! Come in Brown!"
Static.
"I'm going down there," Sam decided, rising from his console. A hand on his shoulder stopped him.
"No. I'm already suited up. I'll go."
He glanced up to the blonde in the purple armor. "I'm in charge of security. You're just the-"
"Don't even finish that thought, mister," she warned.
"She's right, Sam. You three stay here and secure the bridge. I'll back her up," Blake decided.
"Hey now, this is my retirement fund!" the old man protested. "You blow us up, I'm going to be very cross with you lot!"
"Shut up, you old pirate," Blake griped, grabbing his staser rifle and following the armored woman out. "Just lock the door behind us!"
In the halls, the power fluctuated. The pair made it to a lift and punched in the lower deck to the Nest. After no less than three power outages and restarts, they finally made it to their destination. The doors opened to chaos.
"Ray! What's going on down here?" Blake demanded.
"We don't know! There are doubles of everyone running around!" Raoul Estevez informed his commander. "We can't tell who is really who, right now, and the usual confusion has erupted into physical fights."
Gunfire erupted near them. The pair took cover behind their armored companion and her protective force field.
"Cease fire!" Blake yelled. "Cease fire!"
"Blake?" came a loud, deep voice.
"Brown? Is that you?"
"I'm the only one not seeing double," came the reply from the other room.
"Who's shooting?"
"Goon squad!"
"Cripes!" Blake muttered under his breath, glancing to Estevez. "I knew it was a mistake letting Yamamoto bring his personal hit squad along."
"Yakuza-san pay beaucoup bucks," Estevez reminded him.
Blake gave his man a dark look. "And what of the other passengers?"
"They're all stuck in cold storage," he sneered.
"Not for long," Blake informed him to the other man's surprise. "Whatever hit us is waking them up."
"That's just what we need now."
Their conversation was interrupted by another squad of Yamamoto's armed guards. They shouted something in Archaic Japanese that was lost on the others save one.
"They demand the return of their liege lord Yamamoto," she informed Blake.
"We don't bloody well have him, do we?"
"Actually," Ray spoke up, "he had scheduled time in the Nest to 'run an experiment' he claimed."
More shouts in the man's old language, this time from inside the room containing the Fleshling Nest. Then two forms appeared in the doorway. Both were Shiro Yamamoto. The main difference being one had obviously been on the losing side of a fight, his eye already swollen. He was tying a strip of cloth over it as he stood there. The other kept his distance from his twin.
The so-called Goon Squad immediately began yelling at the pair. They pointed their weapons at both of them.
"They demand to know the reason for the trickery," she translated. "Which one is their Yamamoto?"
Blake sighed and called Brown. "Do you have any idea which man is real and which one is Flesh?" he asked.
"Sorry, boss, I got knocked out for a minute. They were both arguing when I came to," he explained. "They aren't the only ones. Lindsay and Dana are also doing the mirror dance in here."
"Any chance they could help us figure out which is which?"
"I could tell the Dana's apart," Ray offered, smirking.
"That explains what you were doing down here already," Blake chided. He turned back to the comm, "what about Lindsay? What was she doing?"
"She was out with Yamahama...moto?" came the reply.
Blake turned to his armored compatriot. "Any chance of calling a truce to sort things out?"
She stepped out towards the armored men, hands up to show no weapons. She said something in a language he did not understand, but both Shiros and their troops understood.
After a tense minute, and both Shiros nodding to the confused squad leader, the Goon Squad relaxed their weapons.
"Excellent, now I just need a DNA scanner?" she asked. "Anyone? No? right then." she stepped back to the doorway. "Toby? Is there a DNA scanner in there?"
Toby looked around at a cupboard full of equipment. "Here," the Lindsays said in unison, both moving to grab one device, only to stop and glare at the other. They decided to let Toby take it for himself, pointing it out. He took it and handed it off to the armored woman.
She examined it a moment, then motioned for the squad leader to step forward, speaking in his language for a moment. The injured Shiro stepped forward. "This shouldn't take but a second," she said, holding the device over his wound.
The scanner beeped and she showed it to the squad leader, speaking again in his language. The other Shiro stepped forward as his man pulled a blade. Drawing it over his master's hand, she then held the scanner over the wound. A tense moment before the scanner beeped again.
"Same results?" she reported, showing the scanner to the squad leader, who shook his head, said something, then shouted an order. The squad took up their arms once more.
"What are they saying?" Blake demanded, sensing the answer.
"Sabotage," she replied, motioning for the guards to stay their hands. "Ladies, could you come out here, please?"
The two pairs of women joined her out in the main passage.
"Was anyone else in the Matrix Nest with you?" she asked, repeating the question in the Archaic Japanese, as well as their answers.
"No, no one else but those three Nests," she translated from Lindsay, then held out her hand for the DNA scanner, making a show of scanning both pairs of women, only to see their results were identical, as well.
The squad leader shouted at her again.
"There is no trickery!" she countered, trying to remain calm against the accusations. Finally she exclaimed, "Lift your visor and see for yourself!"
Almost as one, the assembled squad did as she requested. They all bore the same face: Shiro Yamamoto.
The undamaged Shiro turned on the command crew. "This is mutiny."
"Oh. Oh dear," she muttered, taking a half step back.
"Run!" Blake shouted as they Goon Squad charged. Everyone scattered. Her armor's force field protected most of the crew from the squad firing at them, but one of the Danas was hit, splattering her twin as she fell. Blake paused to grab her, but shouted in pain before urging the other to keep running.
No one dared look back until they had found safety. Had they, they would have seen Shiro order one of the guards to stop where Dana and Blake had been injured. He willingly sliced at his hand and let his blood fall onto the other droplets. It shimmered white, then began growing. In barely a minute, two fully clothed people emerged from the combined mess: Frederick Blake and Dana Friday, identical to the pair they had copied, save for their recent injuries.
Tobey found himself in a storage hold with the remaining Dana, Lindsay, and the injured Shiro. The others had taken a different path to hopeful safety. They nearly ran into a large blue box with a light on top.
"What is it?" the blonde asked.
"Don't know Linds, never seen it before?" Toby replied, slipping his hammer from his tool belt. He tapped the box a few times, listening to hear if it was hollow or not. "Something's in there, some machine?" he informed them.
"It shouldn't be here," Shiro said. "I don't recall seeing it on any manifest I approved."
"Bomb? A trap of some sort?" Dana offered before glancing back the way they had come. "We can't stay here. They're coming."
The door swung open. "Trap? Trap?" the burly ginger huffed. "Don't call the old girl a trap!"
"You are staring," it finally said, surprising him. The voice was mechanically regulated, so he was unable to tell if it was male or female, if there was someone inside.
He blinked at the accusation, realizing he had been lost in his thoughts for a moment. "Apologies. I was trying to determine if you were human. Or not."
Blake nodded. "Show him."
The being reached up and grabbed it's head. A series of pressurized clamps released and the armor helmet was lifted off. She shook out her hair and smiled.
"Hello, Sweetie."
"River. I should have known." He couldn't help but grin.
"You know each other?" Blake asked. "Why am I not surprised, considering your discussions with the captain?"
"eh? I thought you said you were ship's commander?"
"I am, but I'm not the captain," he replied. "Neither is Yamamoto. He merely chartered this ship for his Goon Squad," he explained. "He's not even the main charter. We've got colonists on board. They were in stasis, but whatever hit the ship damaged something and they're waking up. We don't have near enough supplies to last until we reach their destination, and that's not even taking into account the trouble with this mutiny."
"So who is your captain?" the Doctor inquired.
Blake held up his comm. "Sam, this is Frederick. Put your dad on the line."
"Hold on a sec," came a gruff voice, then some fumbling.
"This is the Cap'n, what's the situation down there, Freddie, my boy?"
The Doctor cocked his head, listening.
"Yamamoto tricked us, he's staging a mutiny, and he's using Gangers to do it. Some of my crew have been cloned. We don't know about the status of the colonists, yet," he reported. "Our new friend, however, seems to know some new stowaways. I do not think he's dangerous."
"Wot'zis name, then?"
"River called him 'sweetie', but I heard Toby call him a 'doctor'?"
"Eh? Doctor? Doctor who?"
Another voice chirped up on the other end. "You don't think?"
"Don't be silly, luv," he laughed.
"I know those voices," the Doctor said. He grabbed Blake's wrist. "Who is this?"
"Who'zis? Who're you?" the captain demanded. "What sort of doctor are you?"
"Glitz?" he asked in astonishment. "Sabalom Glitz!?"
It was her voice that replied. "Doctor!? It is you! I knew it!" she laughed.
"Mel? Melanie Bush?" he asked, flabbergasted. He looked to River.
"Care for some carrot juice, sweetie?" she laughed.
"Oh Blimey, this is all I need right now!" he said, unable to believe his luck at encountering these two after all these years. "And that's enough from you, Mels," he warned.
"What did I do?" came the voice over the comm.
"Not you, Melanie- oh, never mind!" he sighed, glaring at his truant spouse. "What do we need to do to contain the Flesh mutineers?" he asked.
"Keep them out of the transit hold, that's where our colonists are," Blake informed him. "We need to contain them somewhere where they won't cause any trouble."
"Can't we just airlock the lot of them?" Toby asked.
"No!" the Doctor yelled. "The Flesh may not be entirely human, but they are still living beings," he explained.
"Surely, even a dangerous batch need to be sterilized before they infect-?" Blake began before the Doctor turned on him.
"No killing! Am I understood?" he glanced from Blake to the rest of the man's crew. He spied Estevez leaning against a wall in the back, scowling. "That goes double for you!" he threatened.
"So we face a similar situation as the Vervoids?" Mel's voice came over the comm. "Is there anything you know of that can affect Gangers?"
"These aren't plants, Mel, these are living, albeit synthetic, beings," he explained.
"So what's the plan?" River asked, sidling up to him.
"Mel, where exactly are you and who is with you?" he asked.
Glitz answered. "We're on the command deck. Just the three of us, me, Mel, and our boy Sam."
The Time Lord did a doubletake at this latest news, looking to River for confirmation. She nodded. He cringed, wondering what the child of those two personalities would be like.
"How secure are you in there? Can anyone get in?"
"Triple thick poly-titanium doors. No one's getting in here without our say so," he answered. "Same goes for the transit hold with all the colonists. Nothing short of a supernova is getting through."
"Uh, dad?" Sam spoke up. "Transit hold has just been unsealed." His screen began flashing red and klaxons began sounding deep inside the ship. "You had to jinx it, didn't you?"
"I didn't jinx anything, boy!" he shot back. "Get us a video feed!"
Sam had it pulled up before he finished asking. "Doctor, can you patch into our cameras?" Mel asked.
"Already on it," River replied. A moment later, and she turned the console screen to where the Doctor could see it.
"Blake, what am I looking at here?" he asked, motioning the ship's commander over.
"External cams on the transit hold and-" His eyes widened. Everyone who could see the screen turned at once to Estevez. "Ray?"
Raoul Estevez looked up from biting his fingernails. "What?" Blake pulled his staser on the man. Akasha leapt down to hold him steady with her blade. He spit our another nail.
"You have a double unlocking the transit hold, that's what," Blake said as casually as he could. His finger itched on the trigger.
"Oh, that?" he shrugged and began biting another nail.
Blake held his gun inches from the man's face. "Stop that, right now."
"Make me. Ptui."
Blake pulled the trigger. He expected Ray Estevez' head to explode in a shower of red. Nothing happened. His shock registered on his face and Ray tried to take advantage of it had Akasha's blade not pressed against his throat, forcing him to stand still.
"I said no weapons," the Doctor intoned behind him as he and River continued working the controls. She kept glancing to a scanner as she did so.
"I think I've got all the nails he spit?" she informed her partner. "I backed the internal feed up to when he came in, threw a quick scan on the area and anything that wasn't there at least a day before has been teleported outside. He is currently in a force field, so you may put your sword down any time, Akasha."
The onna-bugeisha glanced to her sensei, who nodded. She made a show of returning her katana to it's hilt just to scare him.
"Everything okay down there?" Glitz asked.
"Yes, Sabalom, but it seems we found another possible infected among your crew?" River replied. "Ray is in the TARDIS with us, as well as busy unlocking your hold. Do you have anything down there to stop him?"
The couple on the bridge looked to their son. "euJos."
"What's a yew-Joss?"
"Who's a euJos, Doctor," Glitz replied, adding "It's certainly not me, what with all the carrot juice she's forced down me gullet!" he laughed.
The Time Lord cringed, visions of orange liquid and stationary bikes gave him a quick shiver of horror. He looked back to the monitor feed.
Someone in orange armor similar to River's purple suit stepped out of the shadows, his visor a tight V-shape. Without sound, they could only guess what was being said as the other Ray turned at the intruder and obviously began laughing.
"River, can you patch us through?" the Doctor asked.
"I'm already trying," she said. "Sam, do you have audio down there? Sam?"
Mel answered, her voice flat and slightly angry. "He's busy suiting up, sweetie. He wants to go down and fight beside euJos." She glanced over to see Sabalom helping their son suit up in a green and black armor.
"Make sure suit defenses are on maximum power," she warned.
"Got it!" Sam replied, then turned to his father. "If I don't make it back-?"
The elder Glitz scoffed. "You're not dying today, me boy."
Mel came down off the control dais for one last hug. "The Doctor finds a way. He always finds a way. Remember that." She kissed him on the cheek.
He turned to his father. "Remember what I told you, boy: Never give a sucker an even break," he laughed, then gave his son a hug and kiss on the lips.
Sam pushed his way free of his father's grip, kicking the man's metal leg in return. "I told you to knock that off," he scolded before smirking and fitting his helmet.
Sabalom checked the helmet was tight and Sam gave him a thumb's up before checking the short range transmat was zeroed in on euJos. One last glance to his parents, who held hands as he vanished in front of them. They scrambled back to the control dais to observe the monitor. Sabalom flipped the full comm on the two armors.
"Y0u sh0uld n0t bee d0wn heerre," euJos repeated to the Estevez double. His voice always sounded strange, as if he were gargling.
"You're in my way, you dimwitted oaf!" Ray accused, drawing a pistol. The armor protected euJos, but at short range, it still knocked him off balance.
euJos stumbled forward, attempting a tackle, but Ray was quicker and sidestepped him, knocking the other to the ground. He aimed at the weak point in the flexible nape of the suit.
"Try picking on someone your own size!"
Ray felt someone grab his shoulder and saw a flash of green before he went flying back with a broken nose.
Sam reached down to help his partner up, then glanced over to see Ray was already on his feet, laughing. He wiped blood away from his nose, and flicked it at the floor. The floor sizzled as it burned.
"Oh. flood," came over the comms.
"Sam, what is it? What's wrong?" his mother exclaimed.
"Ray's not human!" he reported. "Looks like acid blood?"
The Doctor and River looked at each other in astonishment. This was a new development. Across the room, their Ray began laughing.
"What's so funny, hotshot?" Blake demanded.
"I told you. Yakuza-san pay beaucoup bucks," he chuckled. The next second, he punched himself in the mouth. A trickle of blood on his lips. He clicked his teeth hard once, twice-
Raoul Estevez disappeared from inside the TARDIS.
"Where did he go?" Blake asked, spinning back to the Doctor and River.
"Teleported," she replied.
"Where?"
She cast a nervous glance across to her husband. "Outside." He gave her a disproving look, but a suicide bomber among the small crowd in the TARDIS was forgivable, this once.
They felt a tremor.
"What was that?" came several voices.
"Ray," she said as calmly as she could as she and the Doctor began working the controls faster.
"How big did you say your transit hold was?" he asked.
"I've already done the calculations, expanded what areas I could and exported any unnecessary rooms," she told him.
"Unnecessary to whom?" he shot back, still typing as fast as he could. "Exported?"
"We'll discuss it later!" she shouted as the center column roared to life. "Sam! euJos! You two better hit recall on your teleports, because you do not want to be standing next to that Ray if he blows, too!" she ordered.
She cast a quick glance to the monitor, only to see euJos charge the man, sending him flying once more. She saw movement on the edge of the screen. "You've got company down there!"
"I see them!" Sam yelled back, pulling his rifle and blasting as many Shiros as he could. "euJos! Stay on me!"
"Glitz! Are you sure the colonists are clean? No Gangers among them?" the Doctor asked his old friend. "Mel?"
"As far as we know," he replied. "This ship only had a small vat to use for external maintenance. Five, tops. The rest of those had to be Yamamoto's crew already."
"You better be right about that, I don't want to infect any other possible planets!" he warned, knowing full well Glitz only cared about money. He could only hope Mel had changed him for the better over the years.
The Doctor caught a glance at the screen as whoever was in the orange armor picked up Estevez like a rag doll and threw him at a large group of riot geared yakuza, knocking down at least thirty. He raised an impressed eyebrow at the...man-?
"Is that armor strength enhanced?" he asked River.
"Jealous?" she teased, having caught the stunt. "Boys, teleport out, now!"
Neither disappeared. Sam seemed to pull euJos close, tapped his partner's wrist device several times, then tried his own before they were swarmed. He hugged euJos to him and finally disappeared in a flash of light.
"Melanie! Sabalom! Do you have them?" the Doctor asked, still typing furiously at the console.
"No! They didn't show up here!" she shouted. A Booming came over the comm.
"Mel, what was that?" he asked. "Mel?" He glanced to River. "It's now or never," he said.
"On it!" she replied, throwing the main switch.
"Do we have them all?" he asked over the console.
"Looks like?" River replied. "Mel, can you confirm? Did we get everybody?"
"Sensors are showing transit hold is empty," she informed them, panic in her voice. Another boom.
"Hold on, we're picking you up in just a moment," the Doctor informed his former companion. "River, you have the coordinates?"
"Putting them in now, sweetie."
Another explosion rocked the vessel outside.
"What was that?" the Doctor asked. "Mel? Glitz? Are you alright?" No answer. "Mel? Glitz?"
"Materializing on the command deck, now," River reported.
Several sensors went off on the console.
"No atmosphere? What is going on?" the Doctor questioned the instruments. "We were just talking to them?"
"Patching through to ship security cameras," she told him, pulling up the feed on one monitor as he flipped to the TARDIS exterior monitor.
He panned over the wreckage. The security door had been blown inward, the front screens had taken heavy damage. There was no sign of the couple.
"Melanie? Sabalom?" he whispered, touching the screen.
River had rewound to the first booming they heard. The camera showed the doors bowed in, the couple taking cover. Then the room exploded, chunks of door flying everywhere, including the front screens. The couple never had a chance.
"Lock onto any biomass outside the ship!" he ordered. "There's still a chance!"
River looked up. "I already checked." He glanced up, noting the weary tone in her voice. "I'm sorry." she pushed her monitor around so he could see.
Blake spoke up. "What? What happened to them?"
The Doctor slowly turned to the small crowd. "I-I'm truly sorry, everyone. They deserved better than this."
Expressions of sorrow passed amongst the crew. Toby pulled off his knit cap as a sign of respect, even as Lindsay turned to hug him. Blake gripped the railing tight. "Can you still recover their bodies? If only f-for a p-proper-?"
"Yes, of course," River said quietly, adjusting the controls.
"What about Sam and euJos?" Toby asked. "Can we still save them?"
The Doctor opened his comm. "Sam? Yew-Joss? Can you hear me? Please respond."
Static.
"What's the range on their teleports?" he asked.
"Short range, they should still be on the ship," Blake informed him.
"Any idea where?"
Blake shook his head, then looked to Toby. "Automatic recall would send them to command deck or maintenance."
"What if auto-recall was broken? The orange suit seemed to be having problems?"
"That would explain Sam grabbing euJos," Toby answered. "That would mean his was broken, so a double-port would have even less range."
"River, can you use your suit to locate them?" Blake asked.
"No, but the TARDIS can," she replied, pulling a wire from her wrist guard and attaching it to the console.
"Attention intruders!" Shiro's voice came over the comms. "I know you can hear us. We have your ship's captain."
Confused looks between those in the TARDIS. "I left the ship comms open," the Doctor realized.
"Turn over the colonists and command codes for the ship or I execute your captain," Yamamoto ordered.
The Doctor glanced to River. "We have Captain Glitz and his wife. Who do you have?" she asked.
"No, I have Captain Glitz and his first mate," he replied.
The console in front of River beeped. She flipped a switch to the monitor. "Oh no."
"River? What's wrong?" the Doctor asked.
"He's speaking the truth." She turned her screen so the others could see. Her armor had linked to the nearest security camera to Sam's armor. Shiro Yamamoto stood in front of a comm panel. Behind him, two armored figures on their knees, arms behind their backs, surrounded by a large number of Yakuza clones. Two of them held swords over the heads of the captives. "I located our missing boys," she said.
"Let them go!" Blake ordered. "I am next in command and I order you to free them!"
River pressed the collar on her armor. "Sam, can you hear me? Give me a visual sign."
On the screen, the green armor cocked his head at his partner, then shook his head.
"Yes or no, Sam, can you hear me?" she asked again.
The green helmet shook no. He wasn't hearing them, but he could hear his partner.
"What do you want?" Blake demanded over the comm.
"One of your men is willing to sacrifice himself for the other's release," Yamamoto explained. "I want the colonists and the command codes or I will kill them both. You have thirty seconds."
"No! Don't hurt them!" Blake yelled. He glanced to River, then his crew.
River flipped a switch, muting the comm. "We have the colonists. Give them the codes to the ship. We can save them that way."
Blake nodded, she turned the comms back on. "I need assurances those two have not been harmed," he countered.
"Those armors have resisted our efforts to open them, so far," Shiro admitted. "Of course, we tried to be gentle. If you do not release the codes and colonists, we shall not be so gentle in our next attempt."
The orange armor sat up. "Mee. D0 mee," it begged.
The green one yelled a muffled "No!", shoving himself into his partner, knocking them off balance. The Yakuza grabbed them both, forcing them back to their original positions.
River hit her collar comm again. "Sam, we need you to stay calm. Can you do that?" No response. She shook her head. "I don't think his comm is working, or he's just not hearing me?
The Doctor glared at Blake. "If you have those codes-?"
"Don't hurt them!" Blake yelled into the comm. "I-I can't give you the full codes," he informed Yamamoto. "I don't have them all. It was a security measure between myself and Captain Glitz! Neither of us could know the full code to keep us reliant and honest with each other!" he explained. "No one else has the full code!"
"It's a good thing I have the Captain Glitz right here, then," Shiro countered. "Give me the other half and-"
"You have the wrong man, Yamamoto. You just blew Captain Glitz into space, killing him," Blake informed the other man. He tried not to see Sam's reaction, but the Yakuza were suddenly forcing him down on the floor and they could all see him struggling against them. "I'm sorry, Sam. Both your parents are gone."
Yamamoto strode to the prone man, crouched and knocked on his helmet. "Tell me, Glitz, do you know your father's secrets or does your line end today?"
The crew in the TARDIS waited patiently. Yamamoto stood and turned back to the comm panel. The expression on his face told them Sam's answer. "You will present yourself to me and give me the codes now. Or your friends die."
Blake looked to the Doctor. "I need my staser back. I can save them."
The Time Lord frowned. "I've already landed the TARDIS right next to them." He flipped a switch on the console. "You only get one chance. Tell those two to run for the door." He then glanced up to the overhead walkway. "You stay put," he warned Akasha.
Blake was confused, but nodded. He marched down to the TARDIS door, River following in her armor, he stopped only to throw a nod back to Toby and Lindsay.
"He's coming out," the Doctor told Yamamoto. River nodded and pressed a button on her armor, she shimmered from view, nearly invisible.
To the group outside, a door opened out of thin air and one occupant stepped out, arms raised. "I only have my gun in case you get too antsy," he informed the other man, slowly relaxing his grip to let it hang from it's strap over his back. They could see Toby push the door shut, but left it open a crack, standing guard behind it.
"Move slowly," Yamamoto ordered, holding out a PADD. "Enter your codes here."
Blake nodded and looked to his two crew. "Are you two okay?" They nodded. "I'm sorry, Sam, this is the only way." Sam responded with a gesture Blake couldn't see as he was roughly pulled back up on his knees.
Behind him, River slowly raised her arms, aiming for the other two armors. None of the Yakuza were looking in her direction, and she preferred it that way.
Blake entered as much of his code as he could. "This is all I can give you. I hope it's enough." He handed the PADD back.
Yamamoto looked over the code. "What of the rest?"
"I'm sorry. I told you Captain Glitz did not share the full code with me. No one else had it, not even Sam, there. Did you?"
The green helmet shook, a muffled voice inside. The orange one replied "N0."
"I hope you realize that there was also only one command bridge?" he asked. "If you destroyed that, then this code and this ship are worthless."
Yamamoto smiled. "We already have another ship en route. I knew if we didn't succeed in taking it over now, we would at least claim it for salvage, which would also include the colonists. So I have had another ship tailing us for quite some time. Just in case."
"Why are you so interested in those people?" he pressed. "What are they to you?"
Shiro shrugged. "Slave labor. Same as you will be."
"W-what?"
"I was paid a not insubstantial sum to commandeer this vehicle and bring the owners to my employer. They offered all the contents as part of the payment," he explained. "That included the rest of the crew as well as any passengers on board to do as I will."
"Who? Who would do such a thing?" Blake demanded.
"Someone who pays very well to keep their identity hidden from such as you," he gloated, then shouted at his men. "Execute them!"
"No!" Blake screamed, turning back to the pair. Shiro seemed shocked that the others understood him, as he had shouted his order in his native tongue, which they had not understood before.
Two wires shot out from near the door he had just exited, clamps attaching to the armors, pulling them forward. "Pull me in!" River shouted as one of the swordsmen brought his blade down faster than she expected. The other swordsman had been knocked off balance by the man he stood over being pulled into him.
"NO!" came several shouts at once, as the orange helmet clattered away from it's body, even as it reached for it's green compatriot, shoving him forward.
"Get to the door!" Blake shouted, pulling his staser up and opening fire on the Yakuza. Most were caught off guard, not having expected much resistance. It proved to be a fatal mistake.
Toby had reached out and grabbed River, pulling her in and the two armored bodies dragging behind as she rewound the cables on her arms. The green one was kicking at the floor, shoving himself forward. Blake gave them cover fire until he saw the armors disappear inside. One quick glance back to the orange helmet and he jumped inside himself. The doors slammed shut, and the console groaned to life as the crew went to check on the two rescuees. What sounded like rocks hitting the doors faded into nothing.
The orange armor lay still, a clear-pink liquid seeping out from the headless torso. The green one pushed the others away as he tried to remove his helmet after his hands were freed.
When he finally did, he tossed it aside and cradled the other suit in his arms. "No! No, no-no-no," he sobbed, ignoring the others' concerns about his safety and well being.
Blake knelt by him. "Sam, I'm sorry."
The Doctor came down to assess the situation. From what he could tell of the man in the green armor, his hair color was inherited from his mother, although styled in a flattop similar to his father's previous compatriot, Dibber. He also bore a handlebar mustache, unlike his father's full beard. "Mr. Glitz? I'm the Doctor. I-I knew your parents. In fact-"
"Shut up."
"Excuse me?"
"You don't get to talk to me today," he said and moved to stand, shoving away the Doctor's proffered hand. He tried to pick up the orange armor, but it proved too heavy for him. Toby came to his assist. "I need someplace quiet, dark, and damp."
"Not the best time, sweetie," River chided the Time Lord, then turned to Sam. "The pool. I can adjust the settings however you like." He nodded and they followed her out of the control room.
"Well, that was rude!" the Time Lord griped as he returned to his console.
"Leave him be," Blake cautioned, leaning against the rail. "He's just lost everything."
The Doctor started to say something, but held his tongue, finally offering. "I would have liked to catch up with them. I always lose track of the good ones."
A/N: I know I usually do castings, but I'll leave it vague for now. I do have another easter egg in this.
1.28.16
