Chapter 2: Dire Straits

She decided she had to at least try to find someone to communicate with. The TARDIS translated using telepathy and several other races were telepathic as well. That meant if any of the visitors were telepathic then she might be able to get them to understand and help her. She got up from the seats next to the console and wandered outside. She locked the door, when there was a humming noise just next to her head and something metallic pressed against her skull.

She swallowed a yelp of surprise as she realized someone was pressing a gun against her head. There was another noise of a strange bass tone voice spouting off some gobbeldy gook that she had no idea what meant. The gun was pressed against her head again as if to increase the threat. "Listen, mate, I can't understand ya," she stammered forth. There was more garbled noise then the gun slid around staying against her head as a figure walked to stand behind her. Rough armoured gauntlets with six fingers grabbed her hands and forced them behind her back. Cold metallic cuffs were slapped around her hands and more words were said to her, but she had no idea what to do and the gun pretty much ruled out any resistance she could've mustered. Then when she could resist a blindfold was added. She tried turning her head out of the way to dodge it somehow, but it was too late her world turned dark.

The gun moved to her back. It and a hand prodded and pushed her away from the TARDIS and deep into the busy cavernous hangar bay she guessed. She was shocked that no one seemed to be speaking out to help her, but she felt almost betrayed when she heard that several aliens passed closed by talking in their unintelligible tongue but seemingly not bothered by her situation. "Oi, you guys do something. I have done anything," she yelled but of course they didn't understand her. There was another angry command from behind her and she was pushed forward even harder than before.

They walked for a while before they reached their destination. The still unseen figure behind her poked and prodded her until she stumbled up a set of stairs. She was getting a bit desperate. The alien forced her inside something that sounded like it was really small, removed her cuffs and there was a heavy metallic click. She whirled about, while tearing off the blindfold. Suddenly very much aware of the lack of space she found herself in an armoured 1.5 square meters cell. She could neither see nor hear her captor. She screamed and yelled for a while. Hammered her hands against the cold door, but couldn't make it budge. She dared not contemplate why or where she was taken, but she had to do something.

Nothing came to mind. The Doctor often got by talking away his problems and she had often found it helped trying to relate somehow if sometimes her sarcasm got in her own way. She tried talking then yelling again. But as the sound echoed around her cell and she realized she could neither hear the alien or even the ship they were in as it took off and rapidly headed into space, she knew that she was well and truly screwed. Finally she broke down in tears.

He awoke from the synaptic stun grenade and probably some sort of drugs from the taste in his mouth to find himself locked in shackles and bound to a chair. He was in a middle sized star ship obviously using some sort of slipstream drive if he judged the sounds and energies he was sensing correctly. What was worse it was clearly active and that meant he was probably a good distance from Rose and the TARDIS. He had two problems, he needed to get away from the bounty hunters and then get back to her. While he trusted her to be able to handle herself on her own, he also knew that with him so far away she'd be unable to understand the aliens around her and without him around he had no idea if the Balhoon corporation would keep subsidizing their rooms, food or their hangar space. And she was unable to pilot the TARDIS without him, so he couldn't expect her to come for him.

He tried to feel out his shackles and noted he was lacking his coat, which also meant the only tool he had left was his psychic paper still in his back pocket, while his sonic screwdriver was somewhere back with Rose and his TARDIS. He looked around. He was locked to a stair that sat in a large room, a cargo bay he guessed, that had been emptied. There was a single door off to his right probably leading deeper into the ship that to him looked like it was some sort of converted 4th Human Empire medium warship, which meant heavy shield and a nice load of weapons, but also and that was more important a type of vehicle that he could both fly and understand the technology behind.

The bounty hunters had mentioned something of a legal problem though and that was making him reconsider his escape plans a bit more carefully. The Nave had apparently condemned him in his absence. Which was usually not something he cared much about except that the Nave did represent the definite collective of almost 50 percent of the intergalactic community of this age and it was the half that could actually be considered neither a threat to all life nor uncivilized. There were several time travelling races amongst them even a few races that the Time Lords had considered formidable. He didn't want a sentence from the Nave hanging over his head or incidents like the one he had just had would reoccur frequently.

What he did wonder about was why he was wanted. He had never in the timeline discovered a hint of this before unless of course it was this incarnation, which meant he may be wanted for something he would do later rather than now... Yes that was likely unless the other option was in play. Maybe some of his enemies, of which he had many, had arranged him to be brought up on false charges. Still his chances of fighting either option would be substantially improved if he wasn't executed upon arrival, which meant he needed to do something more than just sitting in a chair. He wondered how good his new body was a whistling. His last one had been horrible at it.

She had cried for a while and then with her stomach growling and her throat dry she had fallen asleep in the tiny metal cube that was her prison. A massive bang and rattle woke her up. She was being moved. Her cell shook and she was rattled about for a while then there was a hum and it felt like she was being moved steadily sideways like on a conveyor. The idea of a box on a conveyor inspired her. She threw herself against the side of the box trying to topple it. Her cell didn't even twitch. She tried again, but got no results. The box rattled and seemed to swing freely again then was set down with a bang that even reached into her confinement.

She banged against the door which to her shock freely swung open. Someone spoke in a deeply bass tone but in a language she didn't understand. The words, "Rose Tyler," appeared in the sentence. She took a few steps outside and looked around. Another sentence was spat out sounding quite angry but still not understandable to her. She turned and saw a figure, a human figure with pale white irises and a skeletal robotic arm. He sneered at her and said something again with her name in it.

"I can't understand ya," she replied. He stopped and sneered. He took out a device and pressed a button on it and put it on a table.

"Can you understand me now Rose," he asked still in his angry voice.

"Yeah... Do I know you?" she had to ask. He paused and his expression changed from anger to confusion for a while. He studied her intensely.

"Yes and no, I have met you before that is in your future my past. I knew you were a time traveller, but I had hoped," he said and started pacing.

She looked around. The box she had been captured in stood in a room with a glass wall overlooking yet another gigantic hangar. There was a bank of holographicly projected pictures over several computer terminals along with a bigger door leading into the hangar and a smaller one leading somewhere else. She wondered if she had any way of getting out of the room without the man, who was creeping her out, noticing.

"Ah, Rose don't even think of trying to trick me. I know you. You're thinking about trying to escape. So typical. By the way did you like what I did to your friend or what my friend did to that peace conference quite the diversion yes? Your friend was quite easy to frame there are so many who fear or even hate him. The Doctor a time travelling legend much like yourself. For almost 500 years I have waited for any sign of you. There have been sightings of course, but then finally I get my chance and it is the wrong you," he advanced towards her.

She of course backed away heading towards the larger set of doors trying to make it look as coincidental as possible. "Listen I don't know what you're going on about, but I guess if you've seen me in the past and it is my future that means you should just let me go or we'd cause a paradox," she suggested.

"Actually that gives me the chance to satisfy a bit of scientific curiosity. Find out how you work, how you think and finally then I will test the old theory if the universe will act to stop me from killing you to prevent a paradox," he said.

"No way," she exclaimed and turned dashing for what she hoped was the button to open the door. Nothing happened.

"Oh, Rose, that only works on me once, of course I disabled the door before I let you out. This place is wrapped in every known form of shielding against time and space phasing devices. There is no way to escape me," he explained, his voice coming from inches behind her. She swivelled around.

He was standing right in front of her. He reached out with his mechanical hand and ran the ice cold device along her chin down towards her neck. She flinched away, but too late. A tiny needle sprouted from one of his fingers and entered her neck. A few moments later she blinked and fell unconscious.

He stopped whistling. His lips hurt but the results were apparent. The small drone meant to repair minor damage to the ship had appeared out of its waiting place and according to his commands through the whistle undone his bonds. He looked as it rolled back into its hiding place. He headed up to the door and looked it over. It was off and probably set to alert the crew if it was opened. "Too easy," he said with a smile.

A few painful panel prying moments later, bit of cable fiddling and he was free. He careful walked through the corridors looking for advantages. Normally he would've dashed to the cockpit and tried talking his way out of the situation using both wit and quick thinking to solve his problems, however this required more of an advantage than that. So when he reached the corridor where he had to choose which way to go he headed for the place he could benefit the most from... the engine room.

They looked at the stars outside as they slowly changed and moved. They were on the right course heading for the Nave. They would arrive in a few hours. He leaned back and enjoyed his beer, when there was an intense white flash. He barely managed to lean forward and try to yell for the computer before he too was enveloped in the transmat beam and found himself in a very crammed lifepod with his friend and partner. "What is happening," his friend demanded in his moist voice shaped by his tentacle mouth. But before he could decide between answering and trying to open the small door back into their ship the face of their prisoner appeared outside the glass window in the door. The brown haired time lord gave them a friendly wave and pressed a button. A heavy lid rapidly shut into place and their new home ploughed away from their ship rapidly dropping out of warp, while their precious ship disappeared. He could only groan. They had lost.

He read his warrant and the attached information. He was a bit relieved to find that things weren't as clear cut as the bounty hunters had claimed. Yes, he had been tried in his absence but in a small court which was run by an alliance of races he had no regard or real fear off. And it was old, which meant that any time travellers would've long appeared on his sensors or wouldn't succeed. Now because he had lodged a complaint against the unfair hearing and the bias of the court the bounty was still on notice, but that was a small matter to rectify.

He spent half an hour writing up his complaint and sending it then well as modifying the warp drive to send out a signal which would summon the TARDIS. As it faded in and reported that Rose had left it nearly a day ago after locking it, he dashed inside and began fiddling with the TARDIS controls setting them to get him back to the conference and Rose hopefully still safe and sound.

The torturous examination had gone on for hours. He had electroshocked her, he had poked her with needles, drugged her and taken samples from her body and yet. Somehow she knew, what was coming, was going to hurt more as her captor rolled out a strange device which seemed to end up in a metal spider with meter long legs ending in thin needles. Of course after getting beamed with X-rays, measured, poked and prodded with several needles she was already hurting, but somehow she couldn't get upset. It was like a great calm had settled in her mind like she knew she would get through it all. She suspected her subconscious was telling her that she already knew she would live on to met this guy again in the future which would be his past.

"Now my dear I know you're uncomfortable, but I really want to take a look inside that fantastic little head of yours. I promise this will be excruciatingly painful," he said as the frightening device rolled into place. Her calm to her surprise increased and she felt even more detached almost as if she was watching from a tunnel that lead up towards her eyes. She felt anticipation grow as the man whistling to himself installed the device on the steel bed she was locked motionless to.

Then without warning it hit. White hot undefinable pain coursed through her head. She thrashed and thrashed but was too restrained to dislodge herself or the probe. It seemed to go on forever. Then suddenly something weakened over a month earlier by a snooping psionic broke and as the computer banks hooked into to the mind probe fried themselves one by one, as the mind probe in her head exploded away from her, the worst of it all was happening in her mind. She saw not for a moment, not in a glimpse but in a seemingly unending flow and with unending width the totality of all existence almost unending in both directions. Far too much for a human mind or any mind for that matter. Then it started looping playing again and again in her mind.

So while all around her a space station which she had not known about before then lost control and grew chaotic her human mind was once again confronted with the knowledge, all the knowledge of all of time and space. She had known she would regain it back then not so long ago. She had secretly prepared for this time making sure she would be able to focus to act. For a moment her focus on the forgotten past gave her enough strength to see something clearly. Her rescue of her doctor, the ecstasy and pain of the Time Vortex coursing through her. The power of the Bad Wolf so aptly named so destructively used as it blew through the Daleks, so benign as she woke Jack from the dead. Life but a quirk of matter to her then but not now.

Then death approaching her mind burning not only from the power but from the knowledge. Madness nipping at her heels, she remembered the Doctor as he rose and took the power from her, secretly amazed that she had lived so far. The disappointment and the hundreds of tiny time line preparations as she relinquished the vortex to him. His unflinching gaze as he used the power of the Time Lords and the Vortex to heal time, to heal her, to seal the knowledge of her deed of all things away and then banish any wish to repeat it from her mind. She saw him breathe the near infinite power back into heart of the TARDIS before grabbing her and carrying her to rest in ship. For a moment he had wondered if he had done enough if his sacrifice was enough to prevent her death then he had gotten on with dying himself.

The scene faded. She was aware of wandering freely inside the tumbling space station. Somehow able to avoid all the flying objects and able to predict her fleeing opponents every move. But was it now, was it later, what would happen later if it had not changed. Time and Space was fluid not stone mallable changeable and seemingly filled with purpose. Things would change. She would change. Everything would change. Each moment even her knowledge changed. Madness was nipping at her heels again and soon she could become a vegetable but she knew of a way to avoid it. And through all those thoughts she somehow still managed to let a part of her, the body maybe, follow reality's immediate plan for her.

"You'll tell me where he took her. You'll give me that mercenary's last course or you'll discover why even the Dalek's feared me," he cursed over the communicator to the Grand House Hangar people. After hours of careful talking and questioning he had learned that the security force, the other guests, no one had even cared enough to pick up the hurt Rose after the bomb and that she after awakening had been snatched away by a Gorderian, a sort of four-armed lizard.

As the Gorderians were allies of the Balhoon corporation who basically ran the Grand Houses and the conference, no one had protested when it had claimed some sort of official purpose behind Rose's apprehension. And even worse now they insisted that there was no way they would give him the Gorderian's flight plan, because he had no official permission. Normally he would've dashed back outside, gone up to a panel and used his sonic screwdriver to fix things, however Rose seemed to have kept it on her, when she had gone out.

He suddenly had an idea and whipped out his psychic paper, mentally focusing on it showing his identification as a Nave Peace Officer usually the ones sent out to capture the really really dangerous criminals. "Listen I didn't want to say anything over the communicator, but I have run out of time. The Gorderian Mercenary you let slip in and out of your jurisdiction was not a good ally for the Balhoon corporation. I am afraid that you'll have to answer to the Nave about it. I will report in immediately that you're unwilling to help a deputized peace officer for the Nave and therefore must be considered his accomplishes as well as liable for all his heinous crimes. The Court battles alone would cost googolplexes of Nave credits not to mention the damages and... "

Finally the security officer interrupted him with a white colour spreading over his blue skin, "I am sorry, we weren't informed. Of course the Balhoon corporation will offer all due aide. Now the mercenary in question is Sshhhaarck'Tur, he occasionally comes here by way of Yol's Dominion. But you should be careful going there, Domitor Yol and his people are very dangerous and I know he doesn't consider the Nave welcome in his sector of space. But that is hardly news to you," the security officer explained.

He shook his head, "of course it isn't. Thank you for your help, I will be off immediately to rescue the hostage and bring that horrible creature to justice," he said as pompously as possible and cut the com-link. Yol's Dominion was not a good place. Malk Yol was a dangerous human scientist, pirate and dictator not much better than Davros. He was fixated on immortality rather than dominion though. Yol was dangerous in the time period just after the end of the 4th great and human empire until about a thousand years later when he got it into his head that he could freely plunder the space lanes of the very war-like Xali, who repaid him the favour by sending their Black Fleet in. Hundreds of ships each armed with matter disruptors that ignored the shields and armour of Yol's ships. A couple of weeks battle later and Yol himself got turned into his component atoms. But that day was still hundreds of years away and without either the extrapolator or a good idea where exactly Rose had gone he had to be a bit careful in his search.