CHAPTER 36

WHAT IS THAT?

The petrified Grant was dragged from the floor by Tommie and roughly thrust into the corner beside the connecting doorway. At the same time two others dragged the Doctor, feet first, into the next room where his long coat was pulled off and dumped in a heap. There was a heavy chain set in a track in the ceiling that at one time had been used to move heavy equipment. It became obvious to the watching Grant that it had since been modified for other purposes.

Delaney went to a control panel, moving the chain along the track until it was positioned over the stunned Time Lord's prostrate form. Instead of a hook, the chain ended in a metal bar that had leather bindings attached to it. The Doctor's wrists were secured in the restraints and then the chain was ratcheted up, pulling him from the floor. His ankles were strapped into the leather bindings that were secured to rings set into the floor. While this was going on, a bucket of water was retrieved from the decontamination room and placed at the Time Lord's feet.

Satisfied that at least one of his prisoners was completely helpless, Buckley exchanged an evil look with Delaney before throwing a cupful of water into the Doctor's face to rouse him.

The Doctor returned to consciousness with a groan. He slowly opened his eyes, groaning inwardly when he found himself suspended from the ceiling, his hands and feet in shackles. He struggled to his feet, giving Buckley an unfocused look. "I thought you said you believed us," he said quietly.

"You must think I'm an idiot," the officer snarled, slapping him across the face with the back of his hand and opening a gash with the ring on his finger. "Now, here's the drill. You answer our questions; you stay alive. Simple." Turning on his heel, he ordered, "See to it, Delaney."

Grant did not see what happened next as Buckley was suddenly dragging him out of the corner and over to the opposite side of the doorway. He realized he had serious problems of his own when he was slammed forcefully back against the wall.

The Gres-Fa-Raayn officer had sized up his prisoners, and in the tradition of bullies all over the galaxy, had chose the weaker of the two to push around himself. He proceeded to fire a series of questions at the boy. Who was he working for? How had he found them? And so on.

Grant could answer none of these questions and said so, only to be rewarded for his honesty with a savage slap across the face that brought the taste of blood to his mouth and a cry of pain from his lips.

Delaney had taken charge of the Doctor's "questioning." As with Grant, the men on either side of him struck him whenever his interrogator received a reply he did not like. They began with their fists, adding the odd kick to his legs to knock him off his feet. After a few minutes the beating progressed from fists to sticks.

In the next room a similar progression of violence was happening. Buckley was looking down at Grant, who was on his hands and knees gasping for breath, having received a savage blow to the stomach. The boy continued to repeat that he did not know anything, only to be rewarded with a brutal kick in the side. He yelped in pain, curling into a ball and throwing up his hands to protect himself.

Tommie chuckled at the look of consternation on Buckley's face, which only angered his commanding officer further. Buckley pulled out a large knife and got down before the terrified youth, who cowered back against the wall as the blade moved closer to his already bleeding face. "Now, you're going answer my questions, very nicely," he hissed threateningly. "And if I get an answer I don't like, I'm going to cut something. You got that?"

Grant's eyes widened as the blade sliced a button from his shirtsleeve. He nodded, too terrified to speak. Unfortunately, as before none of his answers pleased his tormentor, who happily started to slice up his clothing.

"Oh yeah," Buckley informed cruelly as another button fell to the floor. "When I run out of clothes, I'm moving on to body parts."

Groggy and uncertain what was going on, Jason finally realized a small amount of light was coming through the door and went to investigate. The horrific scene that met his eyes made him stop short on the threshold of the reactor's outer chamber. He saw the Doctor suspended from a chain in the ceiling, his feet shackled to the floor. One man was standing with his arms folded watching as two others mercilessly beat him.

"Alright, boys," Delaney said suddenly, holding up a hand for the others to stop. Jason watched in silence as the man stepped forward and threw another cupful of water into the Doctor's face. He then took a fistful of his sweat and blood-soaked hair, jerking his head up and looking into his unfocused eyes. "We won't be gettin' anymore outta him," he snorted, thrusting his semi-conscious prisoner's head back against his chest.

The watching Jason breathed a sigh of relief as Delaney crossed to the controls, thinking he was going to lower the Doctor to the floor. Instead the chain was ratcheted up even further, pulling the Time Lord completely off of the floor until the chains securing his ankles were pulled taut and a cry of pain was pulled from his lips. A cruel smile came to Delaney's face. "Nuttin' left to do now but finish him off, eh boys?" he said, waving a hand in the air. This was said with such sadistic delight that it sickened and enraged the watching Alterran.

As Delaney reached for the controls, one of the others said, "Put it on manual, Delaney. That machine takes all the fun out of it."

The man who had spoken inserted a rod into a winch and ratcheted the chain upward slightly, pulling another cry of pain from the helpless Time Lord. To his horror, Jason realized the three were going to continue drawing the chain towards the ceiling until the Doctor's extremities were pulled out of joint and his back was broken. One man stood tapping a stick in the palm of his hand and the Alterran came to the sickening conclusion that once the current torture was finished, the next step was to break every bone in his friend's body.

Stealing himself against the reaction he knew was to come, Jason absorbed a massive amount of radiation in a single gulp, his body glowing brightly in response. Thus prepared, he let out an angry howl, instantly gaining the men's attention and ending the lethal interrogation. "What the hell is that!" came an alarmed cry, a stick striking the floor with a clatter at the same time. Delaney drew his weapon and fired. To his horror the energy weapon had no effect on the creature that was slowly advancing on him. Backing away in terror he practically fell over the others to escape.

Buckley had also given up on the questioning, moving on to simply terrorizing Grant. After slicing up all of his prisoner's clothes, the officer had pushed him to the floor and was now sitting on his chest, pinning one of his arms to the floor with his knee. Tommie was holding the struggling Grant's other arm by the wrist and had pinned it to the floor while Buckley contemplated which of his fingers to cut off. He had chosen to leave the boy's eyeglasses intact, thus allowing him to clearly see as his extremities were removed.

"What the hell's the matter with you?" Buckley demanded as the others came pelting into the room. "Can't a man run a proper interrogation around here?"

"Th…th…there's…there's…" one stammered, pointing at the far door.

"There's a…a…creature in there!" Delaney exploded. "It came at us, all glowin' like!" Waving his gun, he added, "This didn't even slow it down."

From his position on the floor, Buckley could not see through the door. When nothing followed the men out, he cocked an ear toward the door, hearing no sounds of a "creature" coming from the next room. "So? Where is it?" he asked in annoyance.

Tommie leaned back, being in a better position to see through the door. All he saw was an empty room, the shackles that had bound the Doctor swinging free. Turning back to Buckley, he gasped, "There's nobody in there! And I mean nobody. The room's empty!"

A few seconds before Tommie had looked through the opening, Jason had vanished behind the heavily plated door. He had removed his semi-conscious friend from the restraints and taken him to the relative safety of the reactor's outer chamber where he could examine his injuries. Notwithstanding the gashes on his face and torso, the Doctor was bleeding internally and had several cracked ribs, one of which had punctured a lung that was on the point of collapse.

Jason loosened his friend's shirt and cravat, placing him on his side to make it easier for him to breathe, which was already sounding very labored. "Come on, Doctor," the Healer whispered encouragingly, "let's get that Time Lord physiology of yours working for you." Within a minute, and to his own surprise, he managed to partially trigger the Doctor's respiratory by-pass system, shutting down the punctured lung. He then stimulated his system to stop the bleeding, sealing off various wounds as well as triggering an evacuation of the blood that had been filling the damaged lung. When he could do no more, Jason covered his unconscious friend with his previously abandoned coat. Thus satisfied the Doctor was out of immediate danger, the Alterran turned his attention to Grant, whose screams of terror had abruptly gone silent.

Already annoyed at having been interrupted in his torture of Grant, Buckley was about to let loose with a string of obscenities when Jason appeared in the doorway, still glowing brightly. Instantly forgetting about his prisoner, Buckley scrambled to his feet, dropping his knife in his haste, and missing stabbing Grant by centimetres.

"Don't just stand there, shoot it!" the officer screamed, tripping over his own feet and almost falling over as he backed away. He gave Delaney a shove in the Alterran's direction, using him as a shield at the same time.

Jason's original intention had been to simply frighten the men away. Then he saw Buckley, knife in hand, climbing off of Grant. The boy was bruised, bleeding from several cuts on his face and stripped down to his underwear. Beside him his clothes lay in a heap, slashed to ribbons. Jason stopped dead when he saw this, his crystalline eyes blazing.

Grant shrank back upon seeing what he could only assumed was the monster that had attacked the others. He let loose an almighty scream of absolute terror that he did not think he was capable of. He attempted to make himself as small as possible, scuttling back and pressing himself against the wall. Across the room, the mercenaries were scrambling for their weapons.

The Alterran's shock turned into anger and then, compounded with what he had seen happening to the Doctor, it transformed itself into outrage and his volatile temper erupted in full fury. He gave a howl of unbridled rage, causing the mercenaries to fire in panic, missing more times than not. Jason put himself between Grant and the armed men, shielding the unprotected youth from several wild shots.

"Concentrate your fire!" Buckley ordered as he continued to back towards the door.

The combined energy bolts had no effect and the panicked men finally lost their nerve and fled, practically falling over one another to escape. The Alterran charged at them as they made for the door, inwardly enjoying their panic. How do you like it? he thought with uncharacteristic delight, picking up a chuck of discarded equipment and heaving it after them.

"Lock the door! Lock the door!" Buckley screamed as the last man tumbled across the threshold, pieces of metal and plastic flying out after him.

"Percy's still in there!" Tommie yelled as the door was slammed shut.

"Good luck to him," Buckley snorted as he and the others turned tail and fled.

Although terrified of the men who had just deserted him, Grant was completely petrified of the enormous creature across the room. He closed his eyes and waited for it to attack him, only to jump when it threw another box at the closed door, the contents flying in all directions. With a start Grant realized that the creature had either forgotten all about him, or (he hoped) had not even noticed he was there. It seemed more intent on smashing equipment against the door where the men had escaped, the growling noise it was making reminding him vaguely of someone shouting in rage. The last thing he wanted was for that rage to be turned on him.

As quietly as he could, Grant slid sideways toward the open connecting door, his first thought being to find out what had happened to the Doctor. The creature would have had to pass him in order to enter the room and Tommie had already stated that he had not seen him when he looked through the door. Grant moved as quickly as he dared, not taking his eyes from the rampaging creature and using his fingers to feel for the opening. As soon as he felt the doorjamb with his fingertips, he glanced quickly sideways and slipped through, closing the door as quietly as possible behind him.