So sorry for the wait. Hope this one leaves ya thinking a bit about whats to come. Sometimes when writing a chapter all these new ideas come to mind and you realise you'll never forgive yourself if you don't use them in your story. That is what happend to me, and why this one took so long. Don't know when the next chapter will be up, I hope it'll be soon. And thank you Leila-Rose-Bell for all the kind reviews. Really appreciate them.

Eva did not care for the situation she had been placed in. She did not care for it one bit.

She was not use to feeling uncertain about things. She liked being in control, and this was one of those few times when she wasn't. And she had the Doctor to thank for it.

A part of her just wanted to forget about going to the bridge, go back to guarding the professor and Rora, and deal with the Doctor right now. She would have to fight this urge, of course, for the very good reason that her way of dealing with problems often resulted in some one ending up bruised, broken, bleeding, or unconscious.

She couldn't help it. Something about the Doctor just frustrated her. The way he was so sure of himself, his sarcasm, his arrogance, the way he talked down to her. She was use to talking down to men, but not use to having men talk down to her. She had always thought herself to have the ability to be able to intimidate any man. But not this one. Now she had been challenged, and she didn't like it.

Still. She thought. He is kinda cute.

She looked at the screen on the lift's control panel. A small blip appeared, indicating that they were nearly at the bridge. She turned to the Doctor "Listen. Just because I've agreed to this, doesn't mean I trust you. Just keep quiet and let me do the talking."

The Doctor responded to her with a two finger salute "whatever you say."

The lift doors opened and they walked onto the bridge. Most of the ships crew seemed to be working. One of them stood up from his post and approached the Doctor and Eva.

"What are you doing here, Eva?" the crewman asked. He then looked at the Doctor. "The bridge is off limits to civilians."

"I tried to tell him that." Eva told the crewman. "But he insisted on coming any way."

The Doctor started walking around the bridge like a curious child, eyeing various controls and technological devices. The rest of the crew watched him, probably wondering what he was doing on the bridge in the first place. "That's true" the Doctor told the crewman. "Not her fault. She did everything she could to try and stop me."

Eva, for a moment, almost felt like thanking the Doctor for saying this. Until…

"Although, in all honesty. She could have done more to prevent me from coming here."

Well, so much for thanking him!

"There's something the captain has to know." Eva told the crewman. "Where is he?"

"He's in his quarters, right now." said the first mate.

The Doctor stepped over to a nearby console and activated the intercom.

"What are you doing?" Eva asked him.

"Oh nothing" he said. "Just patching us through to the captain's quarters."

"What?"

The Doctor spoke into a microphone on the console "Captain, you're needed on the bridge."

"What is it?" a tired old male voice said through the intercom.

"Very serious sir," the Doctor continued, despite Eva's non verbal protests, and negative hand gestures. "We have a 'code black' in progress."

"CODE BLACK?" the voice yelled.

"Yes sir."

"I'll be right up." And the transmission ended.

"How do you know what code black means?" Eva asked the Doctor.

"I don't" he replied. "I just made it up." He crossed his arms and rested his feet on the console. Eva just stared at him, wondering how he could have done such a reckless thing and be so calm about it.

After a few more minutes of waiting followed by a brief game of eye spy that the Doctor started to play, which Eva refused to participate in, the captain arrived. He rushed in, his short military hair uncombed, his face unshaven and his uniform looking scruffy and untucked.

"Captain on the bridge." the crewman announced, and the entire crew stood to attention. The Doctor stayed seated.

"Never mind that." said the captain, adjusting the collar on his uniform. Without acknowledging either Eva or the Doctor, he began to bark orders at his crew. "Raise shields to maximum."

"Captain, if I may just have a moment of your time?" said the Doctor, standing up from his chair.

"Not now, sonny." the captain barked, keeping his back turned to the Doctor. "I'm busy."

The Doctor stepped back and turned to Eva. "Sonny?" he asked.

"He's a little eccentric." she said.

"Oh." said the Doctor. He didn't seem to be the least bit surprised.

"Excuse me, captain." said Eva, trying to get the old man's attention. But it was like trying to talk to a brick wall. The captain didn't seem to be paying any attention to her.

"I want all medics on standby." he ordered one of the crewmen.

"Captain." said Eva again.

"Man the torpedos."

Eva's face went red; she couldn't take it any longer. "CAPTAIN!" she yelled.

The captain jumped at the sound of Eva's voice. "Who? How? What? Where?"

"That just leaves 'why?' and 'when?'" the Doctor added.

"Oh Eva," said the captain, finally noticing her. "What are you doing here?"

"There's no code black, sir" Eva assured him.

"But it was called in." said the captain, confused.

"Actually that was me" said the Doctor, stepping out from behind Eva.

"What do you mean by this, sir?" said the captain angrily. "Faking emergency codes like this, it's highly irregular, you know."

"Well, I was trying to get your attention." the Doctor explained.

"And?"

"I succeeded."

"I'm afraid I don't understand." said the captain.

"It's in your best interest to listen to me, Captain" said the Doctor. "I know about this ship being in sector five and that you haven't been able to speed up because of it."

"Look," said the captain, holding up a finger "If this is another dam inspection by the union."

This gave the Doctor an idea. He reached into his pocket, about to pull out the psychic paper, until Eva shot him a look that seemed to say: don't you dare. He frowned, knowing he'd have to persuade the captain some other way. "Well to cut a long and interesting and eventful story short; I'm the Doctor."

The Captain showed no sign that he was impressed by this. "Clearly you've been misinformed, sir. We don't need a Doctor; we need a mechanic to help with this problem."

The Doctor smiled confidently. "Oh I'm a man of many talents." he said. "Show me the engine room, maybe I can help."

"He suspects sabotage might be the reason for the ships sudden decrease in speed." said Eva, interrupting.

"Well that's impossible" the captain told them. "We've had no one down in the engine room since our departure."

"How can you be sure?" said the Doctor.

The captain considered this for a moment. He looked at Eva "go with him, Eva." he ordered. "See if you can find out what's wrong."

The Doctor offered his arm to Eva "shall we?"

Eva frowned. She didn't know wether to take his arm or break it. In the end, she chose to do neither, and walked past him, back into the lift. The Doctor soon followed.

……………………………………………………………………

The lecture Rora's father gave her was something she wasn't unaccustomed to getting every now and then. In the past whenever she had been caught out for misbehaving, she would usually be confined to her room for a period of 5 to 10 minutes, in order to give her father the time he needed to rehearse and go over in his mind what he was going to say to her. She changed back into her normal cloths, and waited for her father to summon her, which surprisingly didn't take as long as she thought it would.

Sitting on the couch in the main living area of their suite, Rora made her best effort not to fall asleep as her father reprimanded her. He mostly went into things like responsibility, and how some one Rora's age should know better by now.

Just like any lecture her father usually gave her, it was boring and a waste of her time. Rora at one point, contemplated the idea of asking her father if he wouldn't mind giving her the same lecture before she went to bed tonight, so she wouldn't require the aid of a sleeping pill to help her get to sleep.

"Do I make myself clear?" her father finally finished.

Rora took the awkward silence that followed after the lecture, as her cue to finally say something back. "Look, all I did was go to the beach, it's not like I went off the ship or something. I don't know why you're so worried. And while we're on the subject, do you think it might be possible to get Eva off my back?"

Her father frowned. "How many times must I ask you to call her 'Mother'?"

"She's not my mother." Rora snapped.

"Really?" said her father. "Well, a certain DNA test might disagree with you there, Miss Denial!"

"Doesn't mean anything." said Rora. "It's not like she's ever around that much."

"Which is exactly why I decided for us to come here in the first place." said her father.

Rora said nothing to this. Crossing her arms and looking away from her father.

Her father sighed. "I had hoped that staying here with her would some how bring the two of you closer together. Sadly, I was mistaken."

Still, Rora didn't answer him.

"I'm not gonna be around forever, Rora, you know that. You could learn a lot from your mother. She's a very strong, capable, woman. It's what attracted me to her in the first place, what made me fall in love with her."

Rora looked back at him "Then how come you guys never got married?" she asked.

"Your mother has always been a career woman, Rora, you know that." he told her. "And well, with my work, it just didn't seem the best thing at the time. I know she can be a bit bossy. But it's only because she cares about you."

"She's got a funny way of showing it." Rora scoffed.

"Now look" said her father, adopting a sterner tone. "We may be stuck in this sector for a very long time, Rora. So might I suggest that you just try to make the best of it?" His tone softened a bit "And at least make an effort to try and get along with your mother, for my sake."

He was right, Rora thought. Being mad was not going to help her situation. At the moment a compromise would have to suffice. "Okay Dad." she said, trying to smile.

He returned her smile with his own. "That's my girl."

……………………………………………………………………

"Look, I've told you already." said Eva, following the Doctor, as they walked across the engine room together. "We've had maintenance down here already. More to the point, I still don't think you should be here. You haven't even told me who you are."

"I told you," he said. "I'm the Doctor."

"Yeah, but Doctor Who?"

"Just, the Doctor." he answered.

Eva looked confused. "What, no first name or last name, just Doctor?"

"Yep."

She raised an eyebrow. "It sure is a funny thing to call yourself."

"I'm a funny person, Eva" he said smiling.

"You're certainly different from the usual yuppies we get onboard here." Eva replied.

The Doctor thought for a moment then smiled again. "Gee thanks, don't know if that's a compliment or an insult, but I'm still flattered. What about you?" he asked.

"What do you mean what about me?" she said, not understanding the question.

"What's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?"

Eva couldn't help but roll her eyes at him. "Oh please," she said. "What a cliché. Besides" she added. "I'm not that nice."

"Oh I don't know" said the Doctor, not believing her. "The way you were with Professor Roan's daughter. I kinda sensed something there."

"It's my job to protect her and her father." said Eva.

"No, it's more then that," said the Doctor. "It' not just about duty. You care about her."

"I have every right to care about her." Eva retorted. "She's my daughter."

For a moment neither of them spoke. The Doctor, clearly shocked by what Eva had said. And Eva, wondering why she had said it.

"Your daughter?" said the Doctor in disbelief. That was the last thing he was expecting her to say. "Sorry, I didn't know."

"It's okay." said Eva. "We're not really that close. We try to see each other every few years, but work just seems to get in the way. She calls me by my first name I think just to spite me."

"How old is she?" the Doctor asked.

"Nineteen."

The Doctor winced "Awe, that's a dangerous age."

Eva smiled "Tell me about it."

They stopped talking, again, both feeling uncomfortable how open they had just been to each other.

"So," said the Doctor, breaking the silence "You and Professor Roan?"

Eva shrugged "Once, in a different life time. What about you?" she asked. "Do you have any kids?"

The Doctor froze, another painful memory coming back to him. "Once." he simply answered.

"Did they call you Doctor, or Dad?"

They stopped. The Doctor held up a finger signalling Eva to be quiet. "Do you here that?" he whispered.

"Hear what?"

"That."

With neither of them speaking now, it was easier to listen for what the Doctor had heard. The soft sounds of gears, and mechanical legs moving, nearby. They tiptoed over to where the sound was coming from, trying not to give themselves away.

Turning a corner, they found a small spider like robot, with four legs and a red eye piece in its centre, clinging on to the wall. It spotted them and attempted to retreat.

"Oh no you don't." said the Doctor, grabbing the robot and using his sonic screwdriver to disable it. The robot went dead, its red eye piece no longer lit.

"Look up there." the Doctor pointed to three more spiders on the ceiling.

Eva drew her gun and fired, shooting them, her aim so quick and precise that she didn't miss one. What was left of them fell onto the hard engine room floor in flames.

"Couldn't of done it better myself." said the Doctor, the only remaining spider still in his hand.

"What are they?" said Eva, looking at the strange metallic creature.

"Spider Bots" said the Doctor. He examined it with his screwdriver. "Little robotic saboteurs. I ran into a couple of these once on another ship." He tossed it away. "Question is how did it get onboard?"

He started to walk along the stone wall of the engine room, scanning it for anything unusual. "Eva, where exactly is the cargo bay located on this ship?" he asked.

"Right next to the engine room, on the other side of the wall." said Eva.

"Well that explains it." he said, pointing to an air duct on the upper part of the wall. The metal grating that would usually be in its place had been burned away. "They were in the cargo bay and they got in here using the ventilation system."

"Why?" said Eva, puzzled.

"Obviously they were programmed to become active when the ship reached this sector." said the Doctor, blankly. "They've been in the cargo bay all this time, waiting. Just waiting for the right time, to strike, to make this ship more vulnerable, and to keep it here in sector five, for as long as possible."

"But why slow the ship down?" said Eva, thinking out loud. "Why not just shut everything down entirely?"

"Good question." agreed the Doctor. "Gimme an answer and I'll be a happier man."

He leaned against the wall, trying to think what their next move should be. He allowed himself at least one small smile to appear on his face. He was well on his way to completing the tasks he had set for himself. He'd discovered the problem. Now all he had to do was find the solution, if there was one.

"Doctor." he heard Eva call. He turned back to see that she had picked the Spider Bot he had thrown, back up. "There's some kind of symbol on this thing" she said, handing it back to him.

The Doctor wiped some of the dust off the bot and tried to make out what the symbol was, but his vision suddenly became blurred. He put on his glasses and with the assistance of the thick lenses the symbol instantly came into focus.

He could see it, but he didn't believe it. He had seen that symbol before. It was a symbol that was well known through out the ages. Something that species all over the universe had come to fear, because of what it represented.

It was the symbol known as, The Jolly Roger.

But that can only mean.

And at last, the Doctor realised.

Oh no, not good.

TO BE CONTINUED