Chapter 2: Gambits

"Where have we landed?" Mickey asked.

"Probably somewhere dangerous and exciting. I am guessing, we're gonna go meet the enemy right," Rose replied with an ease and experience that made him proud.

"Right you are," he said and headed for the door doing his best to look official. He opened the door and stepped outside with the feeling of Rose and Mickey clear behind him.

There was a series of noises which he recognized even before he lifted his eyes as being the charging noises of sonic disintegrators a common weapon in the 51st century. He looked up and saw several people dressed in the uniforms of the Time Agency. This was bad on a celestial scale. It made sense though. Humans sometimes that species was just so bloody annoying. Of course they had to have their war with the Chtonians they'd always had one. But with his race gone removed from time by the Time War they had escalated that war to encompass even time it seemed. The first Human-Chton war had been a long affair in the 52nd century. Now it seemed the Time Agency had decided to further human interests by taking it into time.

"Hold it right there," a familiar voice said. He looked up. Oh, time travel was sometimes such a mess. Rose and Mickey would be confused. A younger Jack Harkness, Captain and Agent of the Time Agency walked up next to the group of well-armed human time agents.

"Jack," Rose said in surprise then fell silent. She was getting smarter about the time travelling. Mickey looked surprised but didn't say anything. They had never explained Jack's absence, but then Mickey hadn't asked.

"Identify yourselves," Jack asked clearly in command and seemed grimmer than he had ever seen the human.

"I'm the Doctor, this is Rose Tyler and that is Mickey Smith," he replied.

"Pleased to meet ya," Rose added and probably gave them one of her winning smiles.

"You've accessed a restricted Time Agency facility with your ship. You're under arrest under Article #5 of the Time Agency Code and the rules in general," Jack said and motioned for them to raise their hands.

"But you can't. We were following," Rose said, but Jack was already walking away. Rose ran forward obviously trying to reason with him.

He winced at what would come. There was a sharp stinging feeling and things went black as the air filled with the sound of the Humans' under mounted neural projectors firing. He had hoped to avoid getting shot at for now.

"Oh my bloody head," he moaned first thing. He felt like pointing that out as his eyes blinked again and again to catch a glimpse of the room around him. He saw the Doctor sitting looking at what looked suspiciously like a cell door. Rose was nowhere in sight.

"Where is Rose?" He asked hoping to get a reaction from the Doctor this time.

"I don't know. And they haven't separated us because of gender, in this age it is not considered an important difference. They might be interrogating her," the Doctor explained.

"What do we do now? Wait for someone to come pick us up?" he asked.

"Of course not, we're going to get out of here, get Rose and then we're going to stop this war," the Doctor said drawing out his sonic screwdriver, which as it wasn't a weapon the Time Agency had left the alien with.

The Doctor put the screwdriver as he called the device against the top of the door and the thing glowed blue for a while. He stopped adjusted it and repeated the exercise. It seemed that the alien wasn't exactly having an easy time with what ever the lock was. He looked around trying to ignore his headache.

"My god my head is bursting," she thought then realized she was unable to move her hands or feet. She immediately panicked and thrashed against the bonds before she could even see clearly.

"Lie still," the voice of Jack told her. It sounded less playful than she had ever heard it. He had been lost in their battle against the Daleks. This was probably a younger Jack from before she had met him over the battle torn skies of London. It was weird to think about, because he hadn't recognized her then.

"Who are you really?" he asked as she blinked her eyes clear and saw the uniform clad sharp looking Jack standing above her.

"The Doctor told you, I'm Rose Tyler. I'm a human, a time traveller," she said hoping that it wasn't somehow illegal to time travel if you were not a Time Agent.

"Don't tell me any lies, you're not human. I had your DNA tested. It is close to human but it's not human," he said.

"I am human I tell you. I swear. Born and raised in London," she protested. She guessed they were just misunderstanding the difference between her and them because of her being from earlier in Earth's history.

"Sure, now tell me, who are you working for?" he commanded touching her arm. She hated feeling unable to brush him off.

"No one, I am just a wanderer," she protested.

"We know where your ship came from? Did the Chtonians think we wouldn't attack any neo-human traitors?" he said. This so didn't sound like her Captain Jack. His eyes looked haunted. She had never seen him like this.

"I am not a mercenary or a traitor whats-ya-call-it for that matter. I don't have anything to do with your war or any other war for that matter," she replied angrily. Here they were trying to stop a horrendous war and suddenly she was strapped to a table being questioned by someone she considered a friend until a few months ago when he had supposedly died.

He looked at her for a moment then grinned, "Never mind then. I guess I'll have to find out another way." Jack walked away.

She lifted her head slightly ignoring the headache and nausea. The padded shackles were locked with high-tech automatic locks. The bed she was on was rather comfortable. However the head fixation gear lying unlocked next to her immediately made her more uncomfortable. She tried tearing at the shackles... but they wouldn't budge. She thrashed again looking around the otherwise bare white walled room. Wait a minute she thought where was the door. "Hey anybody, Jack, anyone!" she yelled. Her voice echoed around the room.

He walked away from the teleporter and went over to ask a glance over the shoulder of Nelly one of his fellow agents and very good looking girl. "So how is the sweet thing doing?"

"She started whimpering immediately after you left," Nelly replied.

"The alien in holding seems to be trying to get out with some sort of device," Frank another nice person said from his console.

"Let him, that door is only there to make them think there is a door and another way out of the cell," he replied.

"Group two has just reported in. Captain Barnard is shocked. He can't seem to get the door open no matter how ancient the vehicle looks. He is pretty sure however from the scans that it is highly advanced and never seen before technology," Frank continued.

"Honey," he said and put a hand on Frank's shoulders. "Tell Barnard not to bother. We can't spend all our time on the intruders. We can deal with them, he can just go ahead and take out the next target on the list."

"Yup," Frank said and padded his hand. He nodded and headed over to M'Chelk, who was observing the female through the observation viewscreen.

"M'Chelk," he said to the Brownish mouthless alien.

I hear you Jack Harkness, M'Chelk replied telepathically. The H'Fahni were a highly psionic race allied with the Time Agency.

"Why did you want this one out of the entire group brought in for questioning," he asked.

The alien had telepathic defences and the man knew very little of value except that he stems from the 21st century as far as my surface scan could determine. This one however is a bit more interesting, many languages have passed through its brain already and someone has blocked out a huge part of its memories, M'Chelk explained.

"Errhm, I am pretty sure it's a she, but alright. Can you remove the block and read those memories? They followed the insertion team in here, I want to know if the Chtonians have gotten wise and gotten more powerful time travelling devices. None of us have any idea about that ship they used to get here," he explained.

I will deep scan the female first and try to see if I can remove the memory block. It looks like it is possible. Fortunately the information wasn't erased then I wouldn't be able to recover it, M'Chelk replied and activated the teleporter to end up inside the interrogation room.

He watched with grim determination as the girl struggled against getting her head strapped down and the gag that would keep her from choking on her tongue. He hated interrogations, they always made him feel queasy. But this was absolutely required. That ship had come in here, inside a fortress outside of time a place that the Agency believed unreachable. That was impossible for all their known enemies. Command would want to know everything about their prisoners. He turned and headed away as the crying girl inside started thrashing from the torturous process of having her mind forced open. He felt horrible on her behalf.

"Something is wrong," the Doctor said after having tried unsuccessfully to open the door for nearly half an hour.

"You think. I am locked in a cell, we have no idea where Rose is and your little glow rod can't help either," he said.

"Ah hello Mickey the idiot. First of all this is a sonic screwdriver not a rod... Now quiet please I am trying to think," the Doctor fired back. The doctor spent time looking at the door then turned around and studied their cell.

"Clever really very clever, occupational therapy, distraction and for most people impossible to escape," the Doctor said and fiddled with his sonic screwdriver then raised it in the air and disappeared in a white glinting flash.

"Oi," he yelled and looked around in confusion. A moment passed then an alarm started blearing in the cell.

"Where did he go," Nelly yelled and looked over at Frank who was quickly calling up the transmat logs. He ran in from dictating his latest mission report.

"What happened?" he asked.

"The alien figured out that the door was non-functional and next I looked he had somehow remotely activated the transmat. He is out somewhere on the base," Nelly explained.

"Frank, get him on sensors. The scan from their capture indicated a binary vascular system, that ought to be unusual enough for you to find him," he ordered and took the strap off his sonic disintegrator holster.

He went over and looked into the interrogation room, where M'Chelk was still working. He pressed the communication stud on his bracelet and addressed his friend. "M'Chelk, watch out for any sudden transmat activity, we have a prisoner loose on the base... Any progress," he asked as the girl seemed to convulse like an epileptic.

I will and yes there is great progress. This one is not trained to resist mental interrogation. The group she is a part of seems to be a collective of travellers and meddlers based out of the 21st Century Earth using the alien with them and his timeship for transport. They seem to have confronted many dangers and Jack... It seems they've met an older you, who helped them. They were also recently on Eridani IV, I believe they intend to meddle in the conflict according to the patterns seen in this one's memories. A full and exhaustive report can be filled out later, however I can tell you that this one possesses a key which allows her access to their ship their TARDIS... And Jack this ship is transdimensional and its owner claims to be one of the Time Lords the only survivor, M'Chelk explained.

"And the memory block," he asked feeling familiar exhilaration at discovering the unknown, while hearing Frank yelling, "I found him," in the background.

I will now make my first attempt on it. It seems to be there to prevent anyone even this female from seeing how the self-proclaimed Time Lord defeated the last of the Daleks, M'Chelk explained.

"Go ahead," he said and turned back towards Frank wondering how and why a 21st century human group dealt with the Daleks, which made even him shudder even if they had disappeared. However things were getting interesting, Time Lords, transdimensional ships and Daleks, they were dealing with the stuff of legend all of a sudden.

"I found him, he is tinkering with some panel in level 3, subsection 42," Frank explained as he leaned in.

"Shut off the power to that area quick," he commanded as he realized what system was in that section.

But before Frank could do anything, Nelly yelled, "we lost the other one."

"Forget about it," he skidded away ran up to a panel and pulled it off. His eyes had to dash around trying to find the right wire then he just fast drew his disintegrator and removed the entire computer brain of the transmat just as it was preparing for another transport.

Mickey was complaining next to him, but he was tuning him out. He was trying to get the transmat of this place to move all the Time Agents into his cell not really caring how high they would stack. He adjusted his screwdriver mentally and was ready to move them, when the transmat circuit went dead. "Clever, very clever Jack," he said.

"Oi I'm talking to you," Mickey said.

"Listen Mickey don't make me regret bringing you along. Listen we've got too leave, they're bound to come looking for us soon... Damn Rose has a TARDIS key," he said and walked off hoping the Londoner would follow him but close to no longer caring.

"Where are we going," Mickey asked.

"We're going to find some way to free Rose, but first I need to visit the TARDIS and reset the security until we get Rose back," he explained.

"Visit the TARDIS! Visit the TARDIS! We're in a place filled with people with guns that can knock us unconscious within a second," Mickey complained.

"Never mind those it's the disintegrators you should worry about," he commented with a grin. Mickey was unnerved already, it couldn't get much worse anyway. Mickey stopped in his tracks. "Keep up or you'll see those weapons in action," he called out while continuing to adjust his sonic screwdriver and make it shut off the internal sensors around them.

"Frank get them back on sensors, where are they going?" he yelled when there was a strange bump. He turned around and looked at the viewscreen for the interrogation room. M'Chelk was in there still with the human girl. The large alien was bumping his head against the walls. Almost in a panic he activated the communicator. "M'Chelk what is going on? Can I help you? What is wrong?" he yelled but his friend just shook his head before pounding it against the wall again hard enough to draw blood. He couldn't enter the room without blowing away the viewscreen. He just managed to draw his gun again before there was a blinding pain in his head. Frank and Nelly's voices joined his in a chorus of screams as he was psychically attacked.

He had no idea how long he lay there filled with pain before it abruptly cut off. He barely got back off the floor and stared into the interrogation room. M'Chelk, a good friend and fellow agent, lay on the floor apparently without his head which was shattered around the room in small gobs. "What the hell happened?" he mumbled and tried to get back up. He felt rather wobbly as he saw M'Chelk's body was holding its gun in its hand. He stared at the crying girl. Was it something she had done, was it what ever had been hidden behind that memory block or was it another trick performed by the escaped prisoners.

"I'll find out about M'Chelk, you guys find the prisoners and get the rest of the team to capture them. And be careful they are to be taken seriously," he said before disintegrating the viewscreen and stepping into the room with the whimpering girl. He flicked the switch on his gun, turned and reintegrated the wall.

"Please Jack, stop it, I am telling the truth stop it from hurting me," the girl was crying in a tone that nearly broke his heart, but looking at good gentle M'Chelk who had committed suicide from reading this girl's thoughts he put his pity out of mind and replaced it with determination.

"What happened to him? What did you do?" he nearly yelled and pressed his gun against the chin of the struggling girl, but she was too distraught to even speak to him. He noticed that she seemed to be both pale and clammy. There was a beep from his communicator.

"Yes," he said.

"Jack, the alien has been at it again. The computer has been infiltrated, they don't show on sensors any more," Frank's voice asked. Next to him the girl thrashed against her restraints again.

He thought for a moment, "Right tell Chris and Ross to hide near their ship where ever they can get off a good shot from. When they show up and they will its their only resource stun them and if they resists set the sonics to bone breaking."

"Roger," Frank replied and his voice cut off.

"Why are you doing this... We just wanted to stop your war, you're damaging the timeline. You shouldn't meddle with time," the girl choked out slowly stopping her crying.

"Aha, so you're not just travellers are you? What makes you think you have the right to do this to meddle? We represent the Time Agency, we're preventing a disaster by doing this. If we don't destroy the Chtonians in that sector of space then they'll enter into a war against mankind. It'll cost billions of lives and could even mean the end of the Time Agency. We can't let that happen," he said, but wondered if he meant it. They were killing millions if not billions themselves.

"You're no better right now," the girl said in a pained voice then passed out.

He looked at her again then said out into the room, "Computer confirm health condition of the prisoner."

A white light shone across the girl's body then the machine's voice said, "The prisoner is suffering from several non-hazardous nervous system disruptions caused by severe telepathic interrogation. Warning prisoner's DNA doesn't not match DNA identified at capture."

"Huh," he said and looked at the girl again.

"Computer explain DNA mismatch," he asked already prepared for an unhelpful answer.

"Unable to comply," it immediately said. Before he could ask more the alarms all went off then died along with the lights. He turned and disintegrated the wall find the room beyond equally dark.