Episode 05: TheDiamond that Wouldn't Stay Stolen Part II
It hurt.
The blinding pain, slicing straight through him, burning his chest so that the sting raced outwards, grasping his entire body in a grip that twisted and knocked the air from his lungs. The sound of the weapon fire exploding in his eardrums, deafening. Horrid.
I don't…
And the ground was ripped up from beneath his feet, and somewhere people were yelling and screaming, and he felt the long waves of golden curls as they were pulled backwards in the air, as his body tumbled over the precipice and fell…
Not like this…
The last thing the Earl of Gloria thought, as his body struck the hard surface of the water and the explosion of the splash and sudden curtain of fluid smothered him, blocking off light and air, the thick wet feeling of his own blood sickeningly swimming out around him, his limbs weak and uselessly flailing under their own accord, was…that he could not possibly allow the adventures of Eroica to end on such a sad and horrific note.
And…
Where was Klaus?
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
An hour later, Rose Tyler sat in the TARDIS, wrapped in a thick blanket that had appeared from somewhere, in a chair across from a closed door, behind which the Doctor was treating Dorian. But how much could the Earl be treated, after being shot in the chest and falling three-stories into ice-cold water?
She shut her eyes. She didn't want to think about it.
Her teeth chattered and she pulled the blanket tighter around herself. She was freezing and she had been freezing since the Doctor had pulled her from the frigid pool. Honestly, she really could not remember much of what had happened after that, it was all jumbled bits of chaos—their not-so-heroic escape.
She pulled her knees up to her chest.
Across from her, the Major was standing, then pacing, then leaning against the TARDIS' wall lighting a cigarette. His eyes that were clouded and dark. His face was white and thin, tightly drawn, a deep grief shielded behind a stony expressionless mask.
She knew she ought to say something. Something comforting. Something reassuring. But how could she? What could she say? She had seen…Rose swallowed and hugged herself tightly.
There had been so much blood. In the water. Falling in crimson beads in a thick trail on the floor when they dragged him out. And the Earl's flesh had been, in stark contrast, grey, ashen. It had not looked at all right.
"He…he was protecting me," she said softly, the words sounding strange, forced from her tightened throat. "He said I was too young to…shouldn't be…and they—those things—were just everywhere…I…I'm so sorry."
The Major did not appear to hear her. He inhaled the poison of his cigarette deeply, staring ahead at nothing with darkened eyes. Just for that moment, Rose thought he was the most miserable person she had ever seen. She buried her face in her knees.
The metal door of the operating room slid open.
"Well that took a bit of work," the Doctor said, stepping out to greet them.
The Major regarded him with a blank expression. Utterly, absolutely, completely. Blank.
Rose stared at the Major, then the Doctor. "Will the Earl be….?" she swallowed the lump that had been building in her throat, almost afraid of the answer.
"Lord Gloria will be fine," the Doctor announced. "In fact, he'll be superb! And all it took was an hour of operations using the most advanced medical technology in the whole of the universe. Fancy that."
Rose stared up at him in amazement, though she could not quite believe what she was hearing. "But…Doctor…he—he was…shot…he fell…"
"Hey, who's the Doctor here, hmm? I said Lord Gloria will be fine and he'll be fine! Really, you don't travel through time and space seeking adventure wherever you can find it for nine-hundred odd years without learning a thing or two about treating bullet wounds. Or laser wounds. Or… Anyways, Lord Gloria is resting now. I doubt it will be too long before he wakes up. In the mean time, I fancy a bite to eat. Coming?"
She stared at him for a moment. "But shouldn't someone be here? I mean when he…" she broke off, glancing at the Major. Iron Klaus had returned to staring resolutely at the wall, though the tight set of his angular jaw and clenched fists were somehow an improvement over the pallid misery she had witnessed minutes earlier.
He seemed in no hurry to leave.
Quietly, she stood and followed the Doctor. He placed a hand on her shoulder gently and she looked up at him in surprise. He had a distant look in his eyes.
"That was no joke, back there," he told her quietly, once they had left the hallway and gone deeper into one of the TARDIS' many rooms. "Eroica almost died. It was close, even for me to repair the damage. And I'm bloody brilliant! Very close."
"Do you think he'll be okay, then?" she asked quietly.
The Doctor looked at her for a moment, then smiled. "And here I thought you couldn't stand him, Rose Tyler!"
"Come on, that doesn't mean I want him to die!" she protested. She could feel her lower lip trembling, and once again her entire body seemed to shake as a vapid chill washed over her. He must have seen the pain in her eyes, because his expression once again turned sober and he rubbed her shoulders gently.
"Are you still cold, Rose?" He asked. She could not respond, her throat seemed closed off and choked. She was cold.
It was not the first time she had been frightened, travelling with the Doctor.
It was not the first time she had almost been killed, although plummeting three stories into a frigid pond was not something she would ever want to experience again.
And even if the Earl had died, it would not have been the first time, since travelling with the Doctor, that she witnessed the death of someone she had befriended—even tentatively befriended.
But somehow it was harder, and made harder by the knowledge that the thief had almost died in the act of protecting her.
She felt the tremor run through her again, and this time the warmth of the Doctor's arms as they wrapped tightly around her shoulders and drew her into a close embrace. She felt her heart catch in her chest at the sudden warmth of being held next to him, and the feel of his two hearts beating in unison through the warm leather jacket. "Doctor—"
"I know, but I told you, he'll be okay. Lord Gloria is a survivor, Rose." The Doctor paused for a minute. And then seemed to take her shocked stillness as a sign that she had recovered, for he released her from his arms immediately and stepped back a few paces before continuing. "He's strong, stronger than most of you primitive apes," he said the last part half-jokingly now, the familiar twinkle returning to his eyes. "Like you, Rose."
"No," she said, blinking her misting eyes. She drew a hand to her face and quickly pushed away a dampness she had not realized was there. "Don't compare me to the Earl. Please. Ever."
"What?" he asked, looking at her incredulously. "You're still mad at the bloke, then?"
"No, it's not that. It's just…"
"Just what? What is it, Rose? What's been bothering you lately?"
"Nothing!" she said, unable to help sniffling a little, which wasn't going to help and she hated herself for it.
"Don't tell me nothing's been bothering you! Do you think I can't tell that you've been—well you haven't been like yourself!" the Doctor told her, nearly shouting.
"What? How do you know? What do you mean 'like myself?'" she demanded.
"Oh come on, Rose, don't give me that! You're usually compassionate, caring, and lately—it's like what you asked ME in Van Statten's museum, Rose—what the hell are you changing into!"
She just stared at him for a moment, her large brown eyes wide and startled. She could not think or move with the cold lump that had settled, twisting and gnawing inside of her chest. And when she finally did unfreeze her limbs enough to move, she turned. And she ran.
It seemed like the only thing she could do. Her trembling legs threatened to buckle out from under her with every movement, and she fought back the cry that was pressing at the inside of her throat, choking her. She could hear him chasing after her, and hurled herself through the nearest doorway, slamming it shut behind her.
Outside, she could hear the Doctor bang on the metal uselessly, and finally what sounded like him falling forwards and allowing his head to smack loudly against the doorframe. "Rose, listen. I'm SORRY. I shouldn't have yelled at you. I just—"
"No, Doctor," she said quietly, taking a deep breath, she pushed the blonde locks of hair away from her damp face and opened the door. A pretty picture I must make, she thought bitterly, all teary-eyed and dishevelled with a face red from crying. It was by force of will alone that she was able to speak the next two words: "You're right."
His eyebrows shot up in surprise. "I—I'm right? Well that's a bit of good news. What about?"
"I've been acting like a stubborn, spoiled little brat," she sighed deeply, the sound wavering and thin and almost like crying in itself. She hated herself for it. For being so weak. But it hurt so badly, she didn't know how to say what she knew had to be said, without crying. It felt like ripping out a piece of her own heart. But she took another steadying breath. It had to be said. She had to say it:
"I know my time with you is over and I should stop—stop clinging to you like a stubborn child. I—I should just accept that you've found your new companions and it's time for me to make my exit, and you to fight your new adventures and I just want you to know that I can—that I under—that I understand that—"
"Rose…" he said slowly, staring at her with a confused and horrified expression, which she only saw when he grabbed her shoulders roughly and forced her to look at him. "What are you talking about?"
"I—I can handle it, you know. I know I'm just another companion to you, and we've had our bit of fun and now it's time for you to—to move on and leave me back in my ordinary life where you found me, in ordinary London with my ordinary mum and my ordinary boyfriend—"
"Rose, you're not—"
"Come on Doctor, you've told me about the companions you've had in the past," she said, furiously driving back her tears and smearing them away roughly with her wrists. "None of them lasted very long, did they? And I—I wouldn't have traded it for the world, you know," she stopped suddenly, and stared up at him, into the eyes that were older and more weary and shadowed then the rest of the face, into the eyes of her closest friend and the man she had—yes, she had—fallen to love. "You do know that right?" she whispered. "As much as it hurts now, I wouldn't have missed it for the world, not one second of it. All of the things you've shown me. Worlds I never imagined. Situations that challenged my old beliefs. Everything…"
"Rose, what in God's name are you going on about?" the Doctor demanded, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her a bit roughly. "Are you dying? No, wait, I'm the Doctor, I'd know if you were dying—you're NOT dying—so what are you—?"
"I—I understand, Doctor! It's not your fault. I know you never meant to hurt me. Before, I guess, you could get away with having a companion like me,"
"What are you talking about? What do you mean 'like you?'"
"But now things are really bad, another Time Lord and everything and—I don't know, maybe the whole universe is at stake because of it—and—and you need companions that can help you fight him, don't you? A Major—a NATO officer, and a world famous thief—they probably know all sorts of things that can help you—and you knew it was coming to this, didn't you? So that's why you made the K-9 MarkIV, to send with me when you dump me back at home, to take care of me, like you did with your other companions—what were their names? Leela and R—Roma-something-or-other and that S-S-Sarah Jane you told me about—and—and—"
"Rose, STOP IT!" the Doctor shouted suddenly, "You are NOT being—being 'replaced' by Major Eberbach and Lord Gloria! They could NEVER replace you! And I NEVER leave my companions, Rose—THEY leave ME. I built the K-9 unit to see if I could even do it and because I missed the mutt! Besides, you don't need K-9 to take care of you, you're perfectly capable of doing that on your own, as I'm sure the Nestene Consciousness would agree."
"Doctor—"
"They could never replace you, Rose! NO ONE could replace YOU!" without thinking, he grasped her tightly and pulled her close, crushing her against him as his arms wound tightly around her back and she was pressed against his chest. "You're special, Rose…" he murmured into her hair.
Her breath was caught in her chest and she was sure that her heart had stopped beating. Time and space seemed to lurch and freeze simultaneously all around them. The entire universe had become only the crushing warmth of his body all around her, firm and fiercely protective, as though he was afraid she would disappear, just vanish straight out of the TARDIS. She could feel the cool tingle of the tears dropping softly to her cheeks, and the Doctor had her pinned against him, so she could do nothing to wipe them away, so she buried her face in his jacket, and let them fall.
"But…I haven't got anything to offer you, have I?" she asked slowly, reluctantly pulling out of their embrace so that she could meet his gaze steadily. "I mean you're a Time Lord, and then there's the Major and the Thief and what am I supposed to be? The Cashier? I worked in a department store—well, until you blew it up, anyways. And it's not like I'm a GENIUS like Adam. I—I live in an apartment with my mum! I never even finished my A levels, heck I hated school!"
"In case you haven't noticed, Rose, genius-boy Adam is no longer with us," the Doctor said, rolling his eyes. "And as for the rest, you're being utterly ridiculous. How could you even think—? You've saved my life, remember? More times than I'd care to admit."
"Doctor…" she could feel herself beginning to smile, despite herself.
"And that's not it, no, you…" he sighed deeply, looking away for a moment, his eyes deep and staring into a void of space. "Do you remember what else happened in Van Statten's museum, Rose? With the…the Dalek?"
She shuddered a little at the memory. She wasn't likely to forget the experience. A creature built—designed—bred—whatever they had done to it—for only one purpose, to obey orders and to kill—exterminate all other life. A creature that she had unwittingly freed from captivity and a killer that had somehow been changed by her, and finally…exterminated itself. Under her command.
"How could I forget?" she asked quietly.
"At the time I was blinded by anger—by hatred. All I could think of was that the creature had to die, deserved to die, would kill all of us if it did not die. But you—you, Rose, you felt compassion for it. You felt…something…for that twisted horrible mutation. You saw some impossible shred of life within all of that ugliness. And you saw me for what I almost…"
"It's not your fault, Doctor." She whispered, reaching up and brushing his face gently with her fingertips. "They—after what the Daleks did to your planet, to your people…."
He shook his head. "I was just thinking, Rose. You looked the most beautiful, right then."
He turned and left.
She stared after him with widened eyes. The Doctor hadn't just said what she thought he'd said.
Had he?
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
It was altogether too bright. That was the first thought Dorian became aware of as his senses slowly returned to him and the heavy blanket of darkness was lifted from his eyes. The blinding light. It was giving him a headache. He tried to move his arm and block it out, but his limbs felt like sacks of cement and a dull aching fire was smouldering painfully in his chest, just under his left shoulder. He tried to speak, but his throat felt closed and tight and the only sound that he could force through his lips was a weak sort of groan.
The light truly was unbearable, but the most he could do was shift his head slightly and grimace. He didn't like the thought of him grimacing. It wasn't very attractive.
But the offending light was flicked off, and somewhere, hazily, through his groggy senses, Dorian thought he heard a very familiar voice grumble "Idiot."
When he heard that voice, he knew that he could allow his body to fall back into a restful sleep.
The second time he awoke, was better. The pain had receded from his chest and turned to a sort of dull ache, and although still heavy and slightly dizzy, his head was considerably clearer. He blinked his eyes several times at the white walls embedded with their strange protruding spheres before he remembered where he was, when he was (it sort of seemed an issue now) and what had happened.
His heart quickened slightly at the vivid memory of the towering monstrous hulks looming around him and that girl, and he couldn't quite help but shiver at the memory of their gunshots, loud and ringing in his ears, and all of them aiming squarely for him…
He sighed. And leaned back a little further into the pillows. He was obviously alive, so they had obviously gotten out. Fretting over it would hardly do him any good now.
The quiet scratching flicker of a lighter nearly made him jump out of his skin. He was so sure he had been alone. Blame it on post-operation wooziness, the thief told himself, turning slowly, his heart racing.
The next sight nearly made his heart stop. Again.
He really couldn't take much more of this.
But it was the Major sitting there by his bedside, K-9 resting there by his feet. For a moment, all Eroica would do was stare. There was something almost…domestic about the picture they made there. And it was so…remarkable, to see the Iron Major there, sitting there…waiting for him? Watching out for him? Dorian felt his pulse quicken again. Surely, he could be forgiven for staring this time.
He sighed wistfully, watching Klaus smoke. The silence lengthened.
"Darling, are you alright?"
"You alright?"
Both spoken at the same time. Wide blue eyes met green, for only the briefest of moments, before the Major threw his hands up in a disgusted snarl. "Me? I'm not the one that was—you idiot! Mein Gott, can't you even get it through your empty English skull that YOU are the one who was injured! It serves you right for not paying attention to what you were doing! God knows, you think of nothing but your STUPID, PERVERTED—"
And it went on as such.
Dorian, as accustomed as he was to hearing the Major's enraged roar, found himself wincing a little as his still cloudy mind was assaulted by loud German profanities. K-9's ears twisted around several times, and the robot slid back aways from the Major's chair.
"You know, love. If I didn't know better I could swear you were actually worried about me!" he had to shout it out to be heard over the Major's continuing rant, and when he did, Klaus halted so suddenly that the silence actually rang with the last lingering notes of their raised voices.
The Major stood so quickly it was really more of a lunge, looming over the Earl with a glare that might have killed a weaker man, or at the very least reduced him to a whimpering puddle of fear under those murderous and frosted military-green orbs. Eroica, of course, merely gazed back, finding his darling's outrage to be a bit of a turn-on. Even when the Major leaned forwards, gripping the metal railing of the hospital-styled bedpost in a massive iron grip until his knuckles whitened, and his breath came out hot against Eroica's flesh.
Alright, especially, then.
"I love you," he sighed dreamily, before he even realized he had said it. Stupid Dorian, very stupid. Not the thing to say when Klaus is already this angry. Now you're in for it.
He really expected Iron Klaus to punch him and was just about to remind the Major that he had already suffered one near-mortal wound that day, when to his utter amazement, Klaus merely relaxed his grip on the bed's railing with a haggard sort of sigh, and fell back into his chair beside Dorian's bed, pulling another cigarette from the pocket of his military jacket as he did so.
"You confuse me," the Major sighed.
Dorian blinked. "So, what else is new?"
A small silence stretched between them, in which the Major smoked, the Earl stared at the ceiling, and the robot dog went back to its place between the two, it's head lowered slightly and its red eyes dimmed.
"I really do mean it you know," he said quietly, watching the smoke from the Major's cigarette float up in tangling wisps across the ceiling. "I really do love you, Major."
"No," Klaus said firmly. "You don't."
Dorian propped himself up onto his elbow to look at the Major, an incredulous expression on his face. "YES, I do."
The Major let out an angry sigh, as though irritated. "NO, you DON'T."
"And since WHEN do you get to tell me MY feelings, Major?" Dorian shot back angrily ."EXCUSE me, but I DO love you, even if you can be utterly—"
"NO, you don't!" Klaus snapped. "It's all some twisted delusion in that perverted brain of yours influenced by all of that idiotic romantic nonsense you enjoy so much and your own inability to discern fantasy from reality!"
"Is that what you think!"
"Yes!"
"So, you're saying it's all in my head!" Dorian shouted. "I think I know my own bloody emotions, Major! What do I feel then, if it's not love? What's made me chase you all around the world for the past ten years, risking life and limb against the KGB? Would you care to tell me, because I'd really like to know!"
"How the hell should I know? Your perverse infatuation coupled with a chemical imbalance in the brain? Maybe we should ask the damn Doctor!"
Dorian stared at Klaus. The Earl was, for once, too angry, even to speak. He felt his heart pounding painfully in his chest and gripped the bed sheets until his knuckles whitened, finally falling back and pointedly not looking at Klaus.
So he was taken by complete surprise, when the low voice asked a bit unsteadily. "Are you in pain?"
"'the hell do you care?" Dorian responded, much more bitterly then he would have under normal circumstances, but his chest was starting to sting with a sort of sharp burning pain and truth be told, he was still smarting from the Major's last remark.
"Pouting like an insolent child isn't going to help anything!" Klaus thundered. "Tell me what's wrong this instant!"
Only my Major could make concern sound threatening, Dorian thought, closing his eyes. "I'm fine."
Another moment of silence past before Klaus, proving that lightning can strike twice, once again initiated conversation. "It was not my intention to begin fighting with you now, Lord Gloria. You are still under NATO's protection, and…with the recent events that have transpired…"
"I assure you, Major, NATO is in no danger of losing my services. At least, not because of what happened on that space station," Eroica replied.
Even with his eyes closed, Dorian could feel the Major's frown. "Not everyone in your position would say the same. It was a very…traumatic incident, I am sure. Especially for a civilian."
Dorian frowned, opened his eyes and sat back more comfortably against the pillows to watch Klaus. He brushed some of the cigarette smoke away with his hand as he leaned back on the pillows and regarded the Major. "You didn't actually expect me to turn into a frail and weepy little thing over a scratch like that, did you? Really now, Major. Why honestly, I—well, I'm…made of tougher stuff than that!"
It was the strangest thing, really, to watch Klaus' head fall forwards ever-so slightly, the long raven-black hair falling to mask his expression, but judging by the slight shivering of the shoulders, there could be no mistake. The Major—Klaus—his Klaus, was actually laughing. There was something inexplicably unsettling about that.
"Are you laughing at me?" Dorian asked finally, his eyebrows creasing just a little as his lips formed almost-a pout. "Kl—Major?"
When Klaus raised his head, his expression had returned to its mask of sobriety, and he met Dorian's gaze for one lingering moment, in which the thief was genuinely puzzled, before rising to his feet. "No," the Major said quietly. "It's true." In the next moment, the officer leaned forwards, and Dorian felt the faintest brush of lips against his cheek.
He was too stunned to say or do anything at all, as the Major straightened and turned for the door. Blue eyes wide, Dorian finally managed to reach a slightly shaking hand to ghost over the still-tingling flesh.
"Klaus didn't just do what I think he just did, did he?" he whispered.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"So it's agreed then?" the Doctor asked. "We'll overtake Ristead's cargo ship, which is transporting the Solar Crystal diamond, when it leaves port. Fantastic. Should be a piece of cake, right?"
K-9's computer data banks whirred for a moment, and the small round ears rotated around. "Cake. A baked food native to Earth, comprised of flour, liquid and eggs. Coefficient of relevance to mission objective: zero percent."
The Doctor shot the robot a withering gaze. "Now I remember why I didn't build a Mark VI earlier."
Klaus brought a hand to his temples as though he was dizzy and groaned silently. Dorian laughed delightedly and Rose bit back a smile. When the two met each other's gaze they instantly froze and turned away.
The four had spent the better part of three hours trying to decide how to go about stealing the Meren's Solar Crystal. Thanks to the Doctor's medical technology, which was either from the distant future, or completely alien, or both, Dorian's near-mortal wound had mostly healed in the course of forty-eight hours, and when the five met in the TARDIS' main control centre, Rose was looking much happier and more energetic as well.
Although she still wasted no time in beginning an argument with Lord Gloria. This time, about his choice of profession.
"Honestly, England has a proud history of handsome outlaws! Just look at Robin Hood."
Rose rolled her eyes. "Oh please! You're so full of yourself! Like you're really that good-looking!"
The Earl sniffed a little in disdain. "Surely you jest, child. You're just jealous because all the cute bellboys on that Luinway resort were making eyes at me."
"Jealous? They weren't even human! And you have some nerve claiming to be like Robin Hood."
"I steal from the rich, don't I?"
"And give to yourself!"
"Putting me half-way there," came the decisive response.
Rose placed her hands on her hips observing the thief steadily, "How can you even pretend to justify robbing people of their national and cultural heritage? I remember reading about you in history class—"
Ouch, Eroica winced. Just watching their faces, you could tell that remark made him feel old. Never mind that Rose did come from nearly three decades into the Earl's future.
Rose continued on, she was back to her confident, opinionated self, the Doctor mused. "—you stole an entire wing from the National Gallery of London, didn't you?"
"For your information I returned those paintings! And for FREE, too. My poor little accountant cried his eyes out for WEEKS after that fiasco. All I kept was one little Bronzini I fancied. And I gave them a bloody good forgery to hang up in it's place!"
"That! That's terrible—"
The Doctor felt his forehead creasing into a frown and he turned back to the TARDIS' control panel, hurriedly finding something to tinker around with. It had been a long time since he had an entire group of companions traveling with him, and to hear the walls of his ship reverberate with the raised voices of an argument…or maybe it was to hear Rose in one of her arguments with someone other than himself…it was more than a little odd. Odd and slightly uncomfortable. He didn't do 'domestic,' after all, as the granddaughter he had left in London so many decades, and nine incarnations, earlier would surely agree.
That Rose, he thought again, shaking his head slightly as he bent over the control panels with his Sonic Screwdriver and listened to her arguing. She could get so emotional over things. And so vocal. Like when that strange psychic-girl had died, granted it had been sad, but…or at the end of the world when she just had to start a fight with the last living human…And then she had gotten angry at him because the TARDIS could read her mind! It was only trying to help for Pete's sake!
He had never had a companion quite like her before. Which meant that he had been right, the Doctor decided. She was special. With a quiet sigh, the Doctor raised his head a little at the momentary silence that had descended upon the TARDIS.
It didn't last.
"I, at least, appreciate the beauty of art. The people I rob would keep the beauty of a Renoir locked away in some stuffy old vault, or hide a priceless Ming vase in the depths of a closet like an old coat!"
"I sincerely doubt anyone keeps a Ming vase packed in their closet," Rose replied, rolling her eyes.
"I'm surprised you even know what one is," the Earl replied stuffily. "You don't exactly strike me as the 'cultured' type, Miss Tyler."
She looked at him in a way that made the Doctor inwardly cringe and be thankful that he wasn't, for once, the recipient. "Oh is that so? Well at least I would never wear purple faux pearls and those ungodly bracelets!"
"How dare you! These pearls were a birthday present from the Duchess of Gloucester! And besides, you should be the last person on Earth to complain about anyone's fashion sense, Miss Bright-Pink Sweater!"
"Excuse me! WHAT exactly is wrong with my sweater?"
The Doctor bent back over the control panel. There was always something that needed fixing.
He hazarded a wayward glance to the figure of the German Major who was leaning against one of the twisting support columns, rather determinedly smoking his dozenth or so cigarette. "They sound like children squabbling over…whatever idiotic things children squabble over," the Major said, apparently to thin air. Evidently he didn't 'do domestic,' either.
"Right then," the Doctor muttered, pulling one of the control panel's many levers with a firm yank.
Instantly,the TARDIS' lurched violently, sending Rose and the Earl both sprawling ungracefully to the floor. The Major smirked. K-9 skidded a bit on the uneven floor. The Doctor clapped his hands together with a wide grin plastered on hisface. "Alright then, kids, let's get this show on the road!"
Stepping out of the TARDIS revealed the interior of what was presumably one of Ristead's cargo shuttles. The walls, ceiling and floor were made of the same annoyingly shiny metallic substance that had filled the orbital space station, only everything was on a smaller scale, so that the narrow hallway they stumbled out into, with its low ceiling and close-walls, made the Doctor secretly thankful none of them suffered from claustrophobia. Although, they might by the time their adventure was over.
This time, they brought K-9 with them. His dog was equipped with a blaster, after all. The little metal dog whirred along at their feet, it's red eyes flashing, it skidded to a sudden halt just before a sharp corner. "Master, my sensors detect life-forms,"
"Organic?"
"Negative."
"Spartens," the Doctor nodded grimly.
"Howdo we deal with them?" Eroica asked. Then the thief paused for a moment, obviously considering something. "K-9, can you detect the location of the Meren's Solar Crystal in the shuttle?"
"Yes, Master. It is at the opposite end of this hallway,"
"You were leading us the wrong way, Doctor," Rose chided. He grinned sheepishly as the dog continued:
"Past the engine room, held in storage. There is one entrance to the room, and it is guarded by…" the mechanical dog's little ears whirred around and it made a slight chirping noise, it's databanks busily processing data from its scanners. "Two armed Sparten guards."
"It's a good thing I made those improvements to the Mark IV unit," the Doctor nodded sagaciously. "I amaze even myself sometimes."
"Oh yes, because you're just so smart, aren't you?" Rose laughed, playfully punching his arm.
The Doctor frowned just a little. That hadn't been a joke!
Major Eberbach's forehead creased into a serious frown as he studied them. "You should have planned for this beforehand."
"What and take all of the surprise out of life?" the Doctor asked, looking quite abashed.
The Major rolled his eyes and seemed to be taking pains to control his anger."Nevertheless," the German continued, his voice rather acidic in tone. "I suppose you haven't forgotten that the Screwdriver of yours has the ability to disrupt electrical circuits—"
"It does?"
"YOU'RE the one who explained it to US!" the Major roared.
"Fantastic!" the Doctor enthused. "Carry on,"
"If those…things…are robotic—" the Major gritted, looking ready to put his fist through someone.
"Cyborgs, actually, part organic life form melded with machine, but I think I follow you…I'll distract them and try to do what I can with the Sonic Screwdriver. Eroica can, in the meantime, use the Screwdriver I gave him to open the door to the storage room."
"I'll take K-9 and look out in case more of the Spartens start to head this way," Rose offered.
He stared at her for a moment. He just found himself caught in…the harsh electric lights from the ship's walls seemed to soften into a halo around her shining blonde hair, the long wisps fell so softly over her face. Her lips red, slightly parted, her eyes so large, so soft and innocent. She was…not like his companions from the past. She was a survivor, a fighter, vocal and determined and opinionated and strong, but she was also so…young. So human. So mortal.
"Wh—what…?" she asked, looking at him with a mixture of embarrassment and concern, smiling at him a bit nervously. "Doctor…?"
"I'll go," Major Eberbach interrupted their voiceless conversation with an impatient shake of his head. "'s not a job for a civilian." He drew his .44 magnum from his shoulder holster and loaded it.
"You know that isn't going to do any goo—" the Doctor trailed off. The Major really was good at those imposing death-glares.
"I'll go with you," Rose said, looking a little put off by the whole 'civilian' comment. "I'm not just going to run around screaming and fainting, you know."
The Major's annoyance in this was clear, but it happened that the team was separated once again.
The Doctor and Eroica ventured back down the hallway, while the Major, Rose and the dog remained at the opposite end, only a few feet from where they had hidden the blue phone box.
Eroica sighed a little, twisting one of the ornate golden bracelets that adorned his wrists, standing out in sharp contrast to the sleek black catsuit he wore. The pearls Rose had mentioned earlier were looped loosely around his broad and surprisingly muscular shoulders, the Doctor hadn't even noticed them earlier, he thought, because the thief's flamboyant personality simply outdid whatever eccentric things he wore. Besides, it wasn't as though it bothered the Doctor, after all the worlds and ages and people (and people-like creatures) he had seen it would take a lot more than a homosexual human to make him bat an eye. And besides, in the past he had paraded around in his fair share of clothing articles falling into the 'eccentric' category.
"So you do this all the time then," the thief asked after a moment. "Travel around, find adventure…"
"Yep," he grinned. "Fantastic, isn't it?"
This earned him a dazzling hundred-watt smile. "Marvellous, darling. I just wish I'd brought a change of clothes," the Earl said wistfully, gesturing to where the fabric of the black suit had been torn by bullets, although the flesh beneath was hidden behind the white of gauze and bandages.
"Oh don't worry, we've got plenty of clothes on the TARDIS. Costumes for almost every world and era," he explained.
"Fantastic," Dorian echoed.
"Isn't it though?" the Doctor grinned as they approached a small doorway at the end of the hall. "Get ready now…"
Instantly, two of the enormous towering Sparten warriors appeared, each towering above the Earl and the Doctor, who were neither of them men of small stature, and each with repulsively bulging muscles that made their limbs seem disproportionate, hideously corded and inhuman. Masks covered whatever faces they might have had once, when they had been whatever they had been before Ristead had turned them into his weapons of destruction.
"Go for the door," the Doctor whispered, pulling out his Sonic Screwdriver. Turning to the Spartens, he instantly painted a wide grin on his face and sought to distract them. "Hello, old chaps. Don't mind me, just passing through…" he flashed the Sonic Screwdriver around as the machines advanced on him, and they faltered slightly, stumbling and making a low guttural noise that might have been a sign of pain. "Eroica!"
"It's open!" the thief declared, as the door slid open.
"Fantastic!" he tried to dodge past the stumbling androids, but one large meaty fist gripped his shoulder in a painfully bone-crunching grasp and he felt himself dragged backwards even as Eroica slipped through the doorway and disappeared.
"Fantastic," he muttered, putting on a bright smile for his captors, who probably couldn't see it anyways.
"Doctor!" a very familiar voice cried.
"Rose, stay back!" he shouted, knowing she would never listen to him, and felt a surge of panic at the thought of her charging headstrong into the two gargantuan killers, when a pair of gunshots rang clearly throughout the ship's hull.
The magnum's rounds could do nothing to injure the android warriors, but they could distract them, the Doctor realized, as the brute clenching his trade-mark leather jacket abruptly released him in order to charge at Iron Klaus.
Quickly adjusting the frequency of the Sonic Screwdriver, the Doctor pointed it at the creature's legs and it crashed to the shuttle's hull with a reverberating bang.
"We have to get out of here!" Rose cried. "There's a million more of these guys coming!"
"Get back to the TARDIS, Rose!"
"Not without you!" she shouted.
He looked at her in one moment of unguarded panic. What if he couldn't save her? She was only nineteen… "Damn it, Rose! This—"
"Um, excuse me," a voice said just over his shoulder. "But why don't we all just get back to the TARDIS?" and the Doctor turned to see Eroica standing there, looking a bit smug, a magnificent diamond-like rock the size of a coffee-pot nestled in the crook of his arms.
The next moment, they were all running like mad down that same narrow corridor. "Where's the mutt?" the Doctor called as the explosions of laser and bullet fire striking the metal walls and floor behind them burst in their ears.
"He's trying to hold the rest back!" Rose called. "Away from the TARDIS!"
"If those cyborgs touch my time-ship—!"
He came to a sudden halt as they rounded the final corner. The TARDIS was safely wedged into a sort of closet, the small robot dog not five feet from its blue wooden doors, and a crowd of Spartens closing in around it.
"Your dog doesn't have much of a chance," the Major muttered. Somehow the man had already gotten a cigarette between his lips. The Doctor briefly wondered how any one could possibly run for his life through an alien space craft while dodging gun fire, shooting at cyborg warriors, defending his mates and simultaneously smoke a cigarette. Oh well, he always had been good at choosing his companions.
As they watched, so far undetected by the Spartens, K-9's eyes shone red and a blaster gun sprang from a compartment in his back and fired a thick red laser at the nearest Sparten. The creature fell backwards, a smouldering hole gaping in its chest.
"Now!" Major Eberbach thundered, pushing them forwards, straight through the mess of regrouping Spartens, stumbling over K-9, who swivelled around so quickly the Doctor nearly tripped over him, and right through the front doors of the TARDIS.
The instant they were inside, the Doctor leapt to the control centre and pulled the lever, flicking a handful of random switches. He didn't so much care where the TARDIS decided to take them, so long as it wasn't anywhere near Ristead. On second thought, he set the coordinates for Luinway and leant back. Oddly enough he was feeling a little tired from all the excitement. I must be getting old…well…nine hundred…
Sitting perched on one of the control desks across from him was Eroica, who was gleefully examining the Solar Crystal. "It's beautiful…" the thief breathed appreciatively, running a finger down the glittering cuts that shone with a radiating golden glow. "It's a shame those aliens need it to live," he sighed, clearly reluctant to hand it over to the Doctor.
"Trust me, there are much more interesting things in the universe than an old rock," he smirked, taking the diamond and tossing it in the air haphazardly. "For example…"
But he was interrupted by a loud and decidedly negative alarm that shrilled through ought he air of the TARDIS. "What is it, Doctor?" Rose asked. "She's never made a noise like this before."
"I don't know," he frowned, tossing the crystal-thing to the Major and leaning over the control centre. "Something's jamming the TARDIS' signal…we're being pulled off course."
"What? How?" she asked, wiping a strand of long blonde hair back from her face and joining him.
"Beats me, this…" he tried flicking some switches. No luck.
The TARDIS came to a lurching, shuddering halt, the walls groaning. He shuddered. This was not right.
"Where are we?" Dorian asked, looking towards the door.
"Don't know," he replied uneasily.
"When are we?" Rose asked, also peering tentatively at those wooden doors, which could lead to any time or place in the history of the universe.
"Don't know…" he breathed, gently rapping his knuckles along a couple of the many monitors and dials, all of which had gone completely blank. "Come on, old girl…"
"Should we go out and see…?" the Earl asked, one thin golden eyebrow piquing slightly. He exchanged a glance with the Major, who merely frowned deeply.
"Well, we won't find out anything sitting here!" Rose decided finally, heading towards the door.
"Rose!" he exclaimed, before he caught himself.
"What?" she asked, looking back at him.
He shook his head. "I'm coming with you."
A moment later, all five of them—the Doctor, Rose, Eroica, Major Eberbach, and K-9—stood outside the blue police box, in a strangely desolate and alien landscape. Smouldering ruins of buildings, decadent and crumbling into twisted heaps of rubble loomed around them, casting deep black shadows against the dead night air. Smoke and mist curled about the ground at their feet, sending familiar tingles down his spine.
It did not feel like a good place.
In the far distance rang a faint rattling sound that might have been military gunfire. The smell of burning and smoke and something rank…the vile smell of decay…choked the humid air.
"We're in a war-zone," the Major said matter-of-factly.
But he was not wrong.
In the shadows, creatures moved, groaning in pain. The Earl moved closer to one shifting form as their eyes adjusted to the gloom, reaching out a hand tentatively. "Do you need…"
The creature let out a hiss of pain and screeching, tore away from the Earl, bolting out into the dim light so that they could see it's filthy torn rags, and its uneven struggling gate as it's grotesquely deformed legs buckled beneath it. The Earl gasped, the Major, seemingly on instinct, drew his gun.
He thought he knew where they were. It was so familiar. The air, the rank smell of decay.
Oh, God no.
"NO!" the Doctor cried suddenly, his face twisting around in a look of complete terror. "No, it can't be! It's not possible!" the terror bolted and shuddered straight through him, so he couldn't move or warn the others. "Run, get back! All of you!"
"What is it?" Eroica asked, blue eyes wide with alarm at the Doctor's panic.
"We shouldn't be here! It shouldn't be possible!" he couldn't think straight, couldn't get the words out, he felt his two hearts both racing and pounding in knots in his chest, staggering, overwhelmed with the sense of terror and dread. "We can't…we shouldn't…it shouldn't be possible…" he had to tell them, had to warn them. "GET BACK! BACK IN THE TARDIS, RIGHT NOW!"
"Doctor…" Rose whispered. Yes, she knew, he thought, she had seen him this upset once before…and now her eyes were growing wide with comprehension and the ensuing terror… "Oh my God, it can't be…"
They turned back to the TARDIS. But it was gone.
He felt the horrible coldness spreading over both hearts, his blood racing and curdling like ice-water in his veins. He shuddered, and turned back to them, unable to speak.
"What is it?" Eroica repeated, a little more nervously this time, looking from Rose to the Doctor.
"They'll kill us all!" he muttered. He couldn't, couldn't say it. Felt his limbs shaking, God when was the last time he'd been this terrified of anything?
And then, from the shadowy pits of darkness at the far corners of the rubble came the unmistakable, blood curdling shrill cry: "Intruders! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
To be Continued in Episode 06: The Discordance of the Daleks