Chapter Twelve: The Eagle
A voice thundered behind her. "Woman!"
Rose recognised the voice. But...it wasn't...it couldn't be possible. She lifted her eyes.
The enormous Thal sank to one knee before her. He was older now. His blonde mane was grizzled with grey. But he was still very clearly in the prime of life; and his muscles were, if anything, more massive than when she'd seen him last. "Woman," he said again. "I am in your service."
Rose's mouth worked for a moment or two before she could actually get any words out. She had absolutely no idea how he was here; but it didn't matter. She pointed frantically, then finally managed to shriek, "C-CABINET! OPEN IT! OPEN THE CABINET!"
The Thal lumbered forward. He bypassed the latch entirely, simply seizing the door by its frame and ripping it off. Rose rushed to the Doctor's side. She lifted him out of the cabinet and lowered him to the floor, the low gravity making his body quite light. She grabbed his shoulders and shook him, trying to wake him. She slapped his cheeks; his skin was pale and cold. "I won't give up on you, Doctor," she said, her eyes gleaming hard and bright. "I am not going to lose you."
Rose pinched the Doctor's nostrils shut with one hand; and put her other hand under his neck, lifting it slightly so that his mouth opened. She took a deep breath, sealed her lips around his, and slowly blew air into his lungs. Then she pulled away and allowed him to exhale. She leaned forward to give him another breath; but just then he gasped. His eyes blinked open.
"Hello Rose," he murmured.
"Doctor! Are you all right?"
He struggled to sit up. Rose put an arm around him, steadying him. "I'll confess I've felt better." He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them several times. "Vision's still a bit dodgy. For instance, that large fellow over there looks like the one we met on Skaro, but it must be an hallucination."
Nearly weeping, Rose laughed. "No, he's real. He pulled the door off, he saved your life."
"Really?" The Doctor craned his neck around, taking in the twisted remains of his cabinet. He turned to the Thal. "Thank you, I'm much obliged. I'm the Doctor, by the way. I never did get your name."
"Hera-kleos," the Thal replied.
"Hera-kleos." The Doctor chuckled weakly. "Hera-kleos. How appropriate. Tell me, Hera-kleos, how did you get to Shada?"
"Time Lords once watched Kaled and Thal. Now we watch you." The Thal folded his arms.
"You watch us? How do you--"
"We should get out of here," Rose interrupted. "Can you walk? I'm worried about Professor Chronotis, I sent him to go get some tools a long time ago, and he hasn't come back."
"Chronotis? Is he here, too? Probably just forgot what he was supposed to be looking for. As for walking--" He stood, without much difficulty. "Low gravity. Marvelous--"
He swayed slightly; Rose steadied him. Arm-in-arm they walked towards the lift, each step propelling them into the air. Hera-kleos followed close behind.
"I'm so glad you're safe," said Rose. "I thought I was going to lose you. I...I've already lost one Doctor…"
"To lose one Doctor may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose two looks like carelessness," he quipped. "Anyway, I was never in any real danger. My respiratory bypass system comes in handy, now and again."
"Respiratory bypass?"
"I can go without oxygen for extended periods of time."
Rose considered this for a moment. "Were you…awake?"
"Yes, but unable to move, unfortunately. The aftereffects of the cryogenic freezing--"
"So you heard me."
"Er…" he said, glancing away. "I heard you pounding on the door. I imagined you were…annoyed at me for falling asleep again."
Rose slid her hand down the Doctor's arm and laced her fingers through his. "Doctor, I--"
"Beware. This is the prison planet Shada. Unauthorised entry is punishable by matter dispersion."
Rose looked up in horror. Mounted above the lift entrance was something that looked suspiciously like it might be a matter disperser. It swiveled, pointing directly at them. Hera-kleos threw his arms around Rose and the Doctor and leapt behind a row of cabinets. The disperser fired off a series of energy beams, just missing them. The beams glanced harmlessly off the cabinets.
"Set for living flesh," observed the Doctor. "Designed to kill escapees, but not prisoners."
"Then we can use these as a shield." The Thal pointed to a cabinet. He started to rip the door off.
"No, you can't do that," said the Doctor. "If you open a cabinet prior to reanimation, you'll kill the person inside."
Hera-kleos didn't answer; he was looking intently into the cabinet. Then he ripped the whole thing entirely from its scaffolding. Holding it up to deflect the beams, the Thal was able to approach near enough that he could simply reach up from below and crush the matter disperser with his fingers.
They crowded into the small lift. It was an especially tight fit, as Hera-kleos was still holding the cabinet; its power supply must have been self-contained, as the life-sign indicators were still flashing green. As they ascended, Rose caught sight of the prisoner's face: to her surprise, she realised it was the woman she had almost reanimated earlier. The lift stopped. The Doctor pressed his fingers against the wall, and an entrance appeared. They stepped outside--immediately they found themselves surrounded by guards, staser blasters pointed at their heads.
"Doctor, we've got to stop meeting like this," chortled the little rat-faced man. He stood at the obelisk, which was again glowing mauve. Chronotis was nearby, held by another guard. "I'm surprised you survived the matter dispersers, but it's all for naught." His small, dark eyes twitched and shone. "Prisoners caught trying to escape from Shada may be executed on sight. Guards..."
"Why do you want to kill me? Why?" asked the Doctor, desperately. "What vendetta drives you? You send me here to rot away forever, without benefit of a trial, and now you're positively itching to see me die. At least tell me the reason!"
"You are an enemy of Gallifrey!" Chancellor Nequamlupus' voice rang out, high and strained. "You flout law, you flout order. You do things your own way, and always have done. For centuries the Time Lords have put up with your outrages, made exceptions for you, given you special dispensation." Flecks of white foam appeared at the corners of his mouth. "I say enough. Your ideas are dangerous, and they are spreading. We must make an example of you, and demonstrate that no one is above the law! That is why you must be executed, you and your accomplices."
"What? No!" cried the Doctor. "You can't do that, it's monstrous, they were only trying to help, and Rose is just a--"
"You will all be executed, starting with the greatest traitor of all." He jerked his head in the direction of Chronotis.
"You're going to kill him?" said the Doctor, aghast. "You're going to kill the Lord President of Gallifrey?"
"Even the Lord President is not above the law. Guard!"
The guard lifted his blaster; then hesitated. "Chancellor, I mean no disrespect, but--the Doctor's right, this is the Lord President. Shouldn't we take him back to Gallifrey?"
Nequamlupus' eyes flashed. "You are an instrument of the State, you are here to do my bidding, not to think or make suggestions. DO IT!"
The guard swallowed hard. Beads of perspiration formed on his brow. He raised his blaster again. Chronotis smiled at him. "It's perfectly all right, dear boy. Do as the Chancellor says. When you go to sleep tonight, you can tell yourself that you were simply following orders."
The guard looked from Chronotis to Nequamlupus and back again. The blaster trembled in his grip; and then he put it down. "I'm not doing it. It's not right. We'll take him back to Gallifrey. We'll take them all back to Gallifrey." He glanced about at the other guards, who nodded.
"Insubordination!" screeched Nequamlupus. "You'll be court-martialed for this!" He snatched the guard's blaster out of his hands. He pointed it at Chronotis; but as he'd never held a gun before, he fumbled slightly with the controls.
"Now," hissed the Doctor. In a quick movement that likely took the last of his energy, the Doctor disarmed his guard; while Rose, understanding his signal, twisted out of her guard's grip. At that moment, Hera-kleos, seeing his opportunity, strode forwards. Swinging his mighty arm, he swatted Nequamlupus aside. Had they been on Earth or Skaro, Nequamlupus would have flown fifteen feet into the air and then crashed to the ground. But because they were on the planetoid Shada, with less than a tenth of Earth's gravitational pull, the Chancellor flew into the air and kept going. Up, up, up he went, until he hit the atmospheric force field. There was a small flash of light. Then he crashed through, careening off into deep space.
