Oh boy, I really need to pick up my pace in writing don't I? Well, again, if not once a week it'll be every 2 weeks or so. Getting more work than I bargained for honestly but that's life innit? Thanks again to all my beta readers, advising me on my story and the works of others here that inspired me as well. Especially those who read and support my work. (ovo)b

All kinds of disclaimers (-v-)

The Doctor lost his grip on the Tardis as soon as it landed and fell backwards onto the cold, mossy ground. He was shaking. Maybe not all over, but his hands, his breath... He could feel his hearts shuddering in his chest. The cool soil between his fingers crumbled as they balled into tight fists, the events of the last few minutes catching up to him.

It had happened again. Again. How many of his companions had this happened to in his lifetime? Just this incarnation alone and he didn't think all of his incarnations together had enough fingers to count them all.

"No... No. She's not going on that list. She's probably safer there than out here anyway."

Out here. Now that he'd stopped long enough to collect himself he realized he had no idea where he actually was. It wasn't the city anymore, that much was obvious. He was in a forest but for all he knew he could be on the other side of the planet from Caligo. The Doctor practically spun around, taking everything in which wasn't much more than towering trees, tons of semi alien looking plants and a few birds flitting about the canopy here and there.

"Well it looks like Cal was right about this planet." He took out his sonic screwdriver and waved it around the area a few times. Not another indication of technology for miles. "At least I'll be able to tell when I'm heading in the right direction…" He thought about running a few tests on things that caught his eye but he knew he didn't have that kind of time. Maybe once he got Caligo back, they could go on safari and do all of that later on? "But before I can go and rescue her, I need to see what's gotten into you." He patted the side of the Tardis before pulling out his key and heading inside. Of course, the Doctor already had a feeling that all the pounding on her hull had put the old girl in a poor mood and the blast from that tall brute's rifle was the straw that broke the camel's back, but having an immediate objective to focus on made him feel a little more in control…

"Lieutenant."

"No." The Doctor quickly turned to find one of Caligo's drones crawling out from under the consul and pointed at it with a certain sternness. "You go right back to sleep, you understand me? I don't want you poking around my ship."

"Damage to external support module 011 detected. No repairs have been initiated." The steel blue drone continued to hover there despite his command to deactivate. It gave the Doctor the feeling that it was staring at him, perhaps almost as if it expected him to produce the lieutenant out of thin air. The report of sensing damage to her, however – most likely in her prosthetic. It better have been in her prosthetic – made him a little more than worried. "How bad is the damage?"

"Minimal. Minute fractures in support module 011. Immediate repairs unnecessary." The drone suddenly emitted a soft whirring sound and the circular green light on its faceplate flashed a few times. "Lieutenant. Damage to finger joint bearing 02 was detected. No repairs have been initiated."

His eyes widened as more unrepaired damage was reported by the drone on nearly regular intervals and the parts starting to sound more and more important. Joints? Motors? He nearly shuddered to think of what it was they were doing that would cause that but he already knew what was most likely happening: they were disassembling it. "I take back what I said about her being safer in the city." First things first though. He had to get the Tardis running properly again if he was going to play cavalry man. "You there." He jabbed a finger in the drone's direction again. "How are you tracking her?"

The drone turned to him and the light on its faceplate flashed again. "All Draugr units have a spinal implant on the C2 to C5 vertebrae connected to a sparce cybernetic nerve marker network. Signals from the lieutenant's cyber network are relayed back into this unit via signals transmitting between paired Draugr implants."

"How accurately can you track her?"

"Tracking range can cover up to a 200-kilometer radius and can provide accuracy up to three meters of the lieutenant. Statistics such as damage reports accessible while both units are active on the same network so long as they remain on the same planet with minimal disturbance from magnetic fields."

That was one hell of a range and while it struck him as a little odd, it was probably exactly what he needed right now. "Alright. Notify me as soon as the ship ges within twenty meters of her. Got it?"

"Affirmative."

The floating bot reminded him a little of K-9, if not for the fact that it couldn't resemble an animal if it tried and its voice was just a little too human in his opinion. "I should check in on Sarah Jane sometime now that I think about it," he mumbled absent mindedly.

"Damage to shoulder bearing module detected. Refrain from further movement."

He knew that it was good to keep track of her but the last report definitely made him edgy. Wasn't her prosthetic attached at her shoulder? "Oi. You there." He snapped his fingers and pointed in the direction of the steel blue bot floating at the other side of the room, watching him… What did Caligo call this one again? "Stop the chattering for five minutes please. I can't concentrate with all…. That."

"Affirmative."

The Doctor swore he detected a hint of agitation, but he could have words with it later. He was busy with the Tardis being more resistant than he would like to going back to that blasted city. "Come on now… What's gotten into you? We can't just up and leave her there. There's nothing here, right? Or else you'd be the first to know about it."

"Interference detected. The lieutenant's signal is weakening."

Or not. He checked and double checked all of the ship's sensors over and over again, but there was no sign of a change in their surroundings or even anything so much as a rat (or something of that size) scurrying by. He didn't like the idea that Caligo's drone was picking up something that the Tardis couldn't, but then again the Tardis didn't seem to be reacting to very much. "You have some of the most sophisticated sensors in the galaxy so what is this floating, oversized soda can picking up that you aren't…?" Staring long and hard at the screen didn't produce answers like he sometimes wished it did. If the Tardis wasn't picking anything up, why would she be refusing to respond to him? "Come on… Talk to me. Please?"

"The lieutenant's signal has been lost. Interference is limiting the functionality of this unit's sensors. Interference level steadily increasing. Suggested that the ship and its occupants be relocated to a safer area."

"If the Tardis thought we were in any danger the ship would've moved itself by now like it did earlier," he grumbled. There was only one way he'd find out just what was going on, which meant he had to go out into the woods and find the source of the interference. With no help. Or Tardis. "Right. Not a problem. After all, I amthe Doctor… Oi. You stay put, got that?" He pointed accusingly at the floating drone again. "And don't touch anything! Nothing but the floor when you…sit down and crawl back under the consul… Something."

The drone did little more than stare at him – he thought it was staring, anyway – as he left.

So much for being chatty he thought. In the back of his mind he knew none of it was the robot's fault, and Caligo would most likely tell him so at that. "Worry about it later, Doctor," he muttered to himself tiredly before throwing the doors wide open.

A long gelatinous looking tendril glowing brightly floated by and paused at the doorway. It didn't move toward but it didn't move away either, as if it were aware of his presence and the fact that the Tardis doors were now open.

If it had a face, he might think it was a little wary of him right now… "And right now I need to be worrying about what's on the other end of this." Slowly, he inched closer to the door and the tendril quickly floated away, maintaining an adamant distance of about five feet from him. It's worried about what I'm going to do… That was an odd realization in his mind, simply for the fact that this thing was probably massive compared to him and his ship. It obviously had an advantage or two over him at the moment… The Doctor carefully inched out into the open forest once again and followed the tendril up to what looked like a large, iridescent jellyfish hovering like a balloon just over the Tardis. Offhandedly, he guessed it was roughly the size of an elephant on Earth. A giant glowing, floating elephant, he thought suddenly just before letting out a laugh.

In between heartbeats, several identical tendrils surrounded him like a cage, as if the creature was ready to scoop him up, shock him, and shove the Time Lord into wherever or whatever its gaping maw was.

"No no no no no! I'm not laughing at you, promise," he yelled, holding his hands up defensively. Palms up, hoping that it could somehow detect that he didn't have anything in them. Hopefully it would understand that he didn't mean it any harm… The Doctor let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding when his glowing prison suddenly bowed outward like a balloon, swaying minutely around him.

A smaller tendril wafted over his chest, the tip hovering over each of his hearts for a moment before moving up to the coat pocket that hid his sonic screwdriver.

The Doctor's eyes followed and his mouth formed a small 'oh'. "It's a screwdriver," he murmured, slowly reaching into his pocket and pulling out the device for it to 'see'. The wire thin tendril looked as if it wanted to take it from him to inspect it for itself, but quickly decided against it. "See? Nothing harmful, I promise. I don't really like guns and things that explode in my face either you know…Oi! Where are you going?" He called as the creature slowly began to float up and away from him. His arms flailed a little in an attempt to get the strange creature's attention again, just brushing one of the many glowing tentacles that hung freely from the rest of its body. Suddenly, he felt as if the pressure in his ears had shifted dramatically and the sounds of the world around him cut out to a blaring silence, save for a faint, high pitched hum. The sensation that flooded his body was indescribable, paralyzing and yet absolutely energizing. It spread like wildfire through his body, making his nerves tingle to the point of numbness. The vision of the forest around him slowly began to blur, each and every cell of his body vibrating from the intensity of the sheer number of sensations that had suddenly assaulted him in a moment before leaving him with nothing. A little voice in the back of his mind briefly questioned why this wasn't hurting him as it probably should've been, but the thought was lost as quickly as it had come. For once, his mind wasn't racing the speed of light to the finish line. No worrying about beating the clock, the laws of time and space, the Tardis making strange noises… Nothing. He could honestly lose himself in this feeling, he thought…

Lieutenant. Critical damage to cervical vertebrae sections three through five detected.

Lieutenant! The word flashed through his mind with the intensity of a thousand blaring fire alarms, reminding him of the reason why he had come out here in the first place.

Please seek medical attention from the nearest…

He had to get the Tardis working.

Doctor!

To find lieutenant Valgus.

Mustering every ounce of willpower in his being, he wrenched himself from the all-encompassing nirvana, reaching and clawing for the realm known as reality. I have to find Caligo! His mind screamed. The next thing the Doctor knew, he was laying in the dirt with that annoying drone hovering too far within his personal space for comfort and the giant glowing jellyfish floating high above them. It was little more than a dot in the darkening sky. "It looks like a star from here," he murmured softly, wondering what the hell had happened and just how long he had been out for.

The drone hummed softly as it performed a very basic full body scan before backing away from him slowly. "No life threatening injuries detected," it practically announced as if it had any hand in the status of his wellbeing.

"Oi. Don't go about randomly scanning people. That's rude." He knew that because he often got similar reactions himself but he certainly wasn't about to tell it that…

"You were unconscious for nearly two point five hours. The lieutenant would have been displeased if I had not taken measures to ensure your safety." The drone responded to him dryly, following him slowly back to the Tardis. As mobile as it was, the drone still nearly bowled straight into the Time Lord when he suddenly stopped in his tracks and spun around to eye it.

"You said the lieutenant should seek medical attention?"

"Affirmative. The lieutenant has suffered damage to a critical structure in her body. Any level of damage to this structure should be assessed by a medical professional."

The Doctor felt his hearts begin to pound again when he heard the report. "How long ago," he asked, his jaw clenching. What were they doing to her? Those humans seemed so nice to her. They thought that he was the one who was a threat to her…

"Forty seven minutes and eight seconds ago sir. No further damage has been detected but this unit cannot maintain signal connection to the lieutenant for much longer. Sir, this report also indicates that Lieutenant Valgus has not received medical attention."

"Get back in the Tardis," he ordered the tech drone. He knew he needed a plan. He really could've used a plan. Something clever and well thought out that would definitely work. Oh yes, the Doctor definitely could've used one of those… "In a perfect world…" The second he got back inside, the Tardis was fully functional again and he threw the switch, sending them back to the city, however far away that was. He'd park on top of a building this time, just to be safe and how often do they expect someone to sneak in from the roof?

He threw the leaver down and back not a moment later before charging toward the door, throwing it wide open without a second thought. He'd parked himself on the roof of a building alright. A high one at that and the door facing the very edge. "I reallyought to watch where I park," he groaned to no one in particular and took a moment to turn the ship in the right direction. "Alright, do your thing. Find the lieutenant."

The machine hummed as if they'd finally had a job they could both agree on doing and carefully made its way out onto the roof of the building to begin its search. In the meantime, the Doctor made sure to turn the Tardis in the proper direction. It had only taken him a minute or so, but he hesitated to see what that thing was up to. He didn't have a reason (not that he thought he really needed one) but the drone struck him as creepy. Resistant to him and his will, perhaps even to Caligo. Machines weren't often rebellious against their creators unless they were sentient and this one didn't seem to be one such machine, at least not in the traditional sense… This was only his second direct interaction with it however, and he could always be over thinking things like he tends to. "You're doing it right now," he scolded to no one but himself and lunged out the door. "Have you found anything?"

"The lieutenant is within thirty meters of our current location, but her signal is very weak. This may be due to the denseness of the building walls or other such factors, most likely the injuries she has sustained."

"Are you getting any updates on that?"

"Condition is still stable. Vital readings cause this unit to assume she is not in a combat or life threatening situation."

"That's a bit of good news then. Let's go and get her back, shall we?"

The drone followed closely, the hum of its engines slightly more audible now. "Doctor, I suggest we begin our search here."

"That's exactly what we're doing. You focus on keeping a…sensor out for her, I'll focus on actually looking through the building."

"My sensors encompass more functions than simply mere sight." If nothing else, the drone sounded a little offended.

The Time Lord whirled around on his heel and poked it right in its sensor. "The lieutenant plays by my rules on my ship when she's with me, right? I'm sure that means you do too so I don't want any more lip from you. We're going to get her back one way or another and she'll be perfectly fine when we do so let's stop wasting time butting heads and get a move on. We clear?"

The sound of the drone's engine flared up a little at that moment and he thought perhaps it was about to argue with him. He was spending too much time with the Tardis maybe, but he wasn't about to back down from this argument. He held the drone's 'stare' for a moment longer before a burst of static emitted from it. It distorted and seemed to focus in on certain frequencies. He swore he heard a murmur of human conversation and pulled out his screwdriver. "Hold on that frequency right there. Lemme give you a hand…" The drone didn't protest and obliged as the Doctor went to work on clearing up the static.

"He didn't do anything. I'm simply like this. I was merely attempting to placate your aggressive behavior."

"Cal? Is that you in there? Are you alright?"

"Does in fact look to be a prosthetic, Don. Pretty well made."

"The next words out of your mouth had better be a damn good explanation. I'm tired of games."

The hair on the back of the Doctor's neck bristled when he heard that voice, the voice belonging to the brunet they'd encountered hammering on the door of the Tardis. He didn't need to be an alien genius to know that the man was angry and clearly didn't think Caligo was some helpless girl anymore. "C'mon Cal. Just hold him off a bit longer 'til we get there…!"

"Protocol prevents the lieutenant from taking any forceful action against non-military personnel unless struck first in a serious manner," the drone reported back at a noticeably lower volume.

"What, so he's gotta shoot her first," the Doctor asked, nearly outraged at the idea. "Nothing like that's happening on my watch." He was lucky, he supposed, that the door to the roof was easy to open and led into a respectably lit staircase that wound down through the building's many floors.

"The lieutenant's signal has become more stable. Continue in the downward direction ten meters."

The Doctor let out a triumphant laugh as he charged down the stairs. "Right building on the first try. Not bad, eh?" It didn't take him more than five minutes at a near full sprint to make it down to the appropriate floor and without much thought as to what might be on the other side, the Doctor burst in through the door. One could hear a pin drop the moment the door swung back into the adjacent wall and at least fifteen other individuals stared up at him despite the various activities they were otherwise engaged in. "Oh boy…"

"Hey, weren't you that guy with the weird blue box thing from earlier," one of the occupants – the rude one from their first encounter if the Doctor remembered correctly – asked.

"Me? A big blue box? How would I possibly get that thing around," he laughed nervously. The Doctor leaned back toward the drone. "Left or right?"

"Left. There is no other door."

"Yeah, well, if you're so smart you better be able to keep up too." The Doctor bolted for the door before anyone else could get up from their seats and start after them, somehow finding the time to sonic every single door along the way open just to make sure he didn't miss Caligo along the way of trying to stay alive. "Of course it would be the last door!" The Doctor flung the door open and stumbled in, nearly locking Caligo's drone out when he shut it again. They would definitely need to go on more runs or else he was sure he'd be completely out of shape by the end of the day.

Caligo, along with the man presumed to be Don, looked up from the table as the Doctor and the drone stumbled into the room. "Wilhelm? Doctor?"

"Whoever let you in is fired!" Don barked.

Both the drone and the Doctor were by her side in the blink of an eye, the latter grasping her shoulders and giving her a quick once over to make sure that she was in one piece. "Cal! You're in one piece! Thank goodness. How's your arm? Your neck? What's all this about damaged support modules and joints?"

"I'm not sure I follow, Doctor."

The brunet, Don, leaned against the table with a partial frown on his face. "What kinda blokes do you think we are? Of course the lady's just fine!"

The Doctor stared at the two, apparently looking as daft as he felt at the moment, and came to two possible conclusions; the first was that he had completely misinterpreted every single physical, vocal and social queue up until this very moment but that possibility was dismissed not a second after it came to mind. The second was that Caligo's little drone, Wilhelm, had fabricated all of the status reports and possibly even the dialogue he'd heard earlier. The latter made him shoot the bloody machine a nasty look. "Cal, you and I need to have a talk about your little bot over there. I'm pretty sure he tried to pull one over on me."

"This unit is tasked with assuring the safety of the lieutenant. There was no guarantee that the Doctor intended on returning for the lieutenant when her presence was not detected upon entering the-"

"Do you really think I was just about to leave her thousands of lightyears away from her home," the Doctor barked, obviously offended by the notion.

Caligo waved her hand between the pair as if it would make them stop their bickering and for the most part it had worked. "Doctor, I apologize. Wilhelm is my responsibility and his parameters did in fact spur him to go to such lengths to ensure my safe return. He doesn't know very much about you and that was why he didn't trust that you would come back to get me without motivation. I hope he didn't attempt to threaten you…"

"And I hope he wasn't doing any kind of bad talking about me!" Don pushed off from the table and strode over to the drone to give it a good flick in the sensor with a rather large finger. "Okay so maybe we got a little carried away during the arm wrestling match but that was an accident. And you," he half growled, turning toward the Doctor again, "Are very lucky the little miss here is very good with a wrench and I mean very good." Don laughed and pat the lieutenant on the shoulder probably a little harder than he intended, jarring her enough to bump her forehead against the Doctor's chin. "Got the safety on my rifle working right again and that's important y'know? On the one-in-a-million off chance the kids got to it I sure wouldn't want it clicking off now would I? Would love to keep a smart gal around but she keeps on telling me she needs to be getting back to her work and all that! Folks must love you back home, eh?"

The Doctor gave a very halfhearted chuckle in response, not missing the way Caligo barely reacted at all to the compliment, and let go of her shoulders finally. "Well we best be off now. Don't much want to overstay our welcome and all." The Doctor scooted them toward the door and opened it, letting the mob of hunters from earlier nearly drop to the floor in the absence of its support. "Watch your step there, Cal." He made sure that Caligo was close behind him this time as they made their way back up to the roof where the Tardis was waiting when he suddenly stopped and turned on her. "Sorry, just realized something. Awfully funny how that works on off days like this don't you think?"

"You're getting off subject. What is it that you realized?"

"Right, sorry. I just realized that your shields are supposed to protect the Tardis from solar flares, right? That's basically a ton of electromagnetic energy right there and a little bit of interference from some alien creature shut it down." The Doctor knew the look on his companion's face. She was still trying to catch up to what exactly he was trying to point out to her. Either that or she certainly didn't believe him. "Your shields didn't work."

"They didn't work," she echoed quietly. Caligo frowned as they entered the Tardis and almost immediately began to pace. Wilhelm hovered just to the side of her, quiet and motionless but still active.

"You go off and brag about what a great engineer you are on Earth and your inventions don't even work? Blimey, should I be worried about anything else," he teased as he strolled over to the consul. Even as he sent the ship spiraling into the time vortex he noticed that Caligo was still pacing circles around the consul room relentlessly. Her eyes were closed but she never once bumped into anything or trip over herself and still didn't look the least bit pleased despite the turn of the events for the day. "What is it that humans say about science? Ninety-nine percent failure, one percent success. Pretty true. You don't really know something's right unless you've gotten it wrong I suppose."

Wilhelm let out a shrill sound like radio static and suddenly Caligo was on the move. Grabbing what looked to be a wrench off the jump seat and a few other things from her tool belt, she slid herself under the consul next to him.

"Oi, what're you doing down there? Don't mess with the Tardis. She definitely won't like that." Never mind the Tardis not liking it, he didn't quite like the idea of her playing around with his ship like some sort of science fair project.

"My shields didn't work," she said, "and that means I failed to do my job. That is unacceptable and I intend to rectify this."

The Tardis whirred softly, barely a spark coming from the underside of the consul as Caligo went to work on it and the Doctor couldn't help but stare up at the ceiling as if he were being ganged up on. "Over nine hundred years together and you let a stranger go mucking about down there quicker than me?"

"She did last time," Caligo muttered, placing the pair of goggles initially clipped to her belt over her eyes. "Communication makes the work much easier Doctor. Being a talker I thought that would've come naturally to you but then again there are others whom I would say are talkers and yet nothing relevant ever comes out of their mouths."

"That's just rude."

"I had a feeling it would be, if only a little. Regardless Doctor. I guarantee the problem will be fixed, although I wouldn't recommend testing the exact threshold of the shield's abilities in a dangerous situation. I'm just going to reroute this here…"

The Doctor watched as Caligo kept on working, probably talking more to the Tardis than anything else and how a brief shower of sparks traveled across the glinting metal of her left hand. That strange, clever hand. Well, if she was clever then both her hands must be clever but right now it's only that hand that's on his mind. How did it get there? What caused it to be there? Why did she pick a shield? The shield. "So how long do you think you'll take exactly lieutenant?"

"Was there someplace you needed to be very soon Doctor?"

"Well no. Not really. I mean this is a time machine after all so I can be anywhere I want, when I want. But I thought it would be nice," he half mumbled, taking off his coat and hanging it over the railing before going to join her in tinkering with the Tardis, "only fair, actually, that I take you out to dinner. Or lunch. Whatever meal of the day you want to say thank you for saving my alien behind from that big, dumb hunting robot today."

"That's a generous offer but rather unnecessary Doctor. I don't do things simply to gain something from it. Now I see what the problem was…"

"Still. Hold those wires out of the way, I'll get it for you." He made sure to put his glasses on before getting to work, helping her reattach the appropriate circuits and wires. "Bet you could use a break from the big bad city."

"Cities are more within my element as you well know." After today, however, Caligo couldn't help but notice an odd…feeling that came with interacting with so many people for such a prolonged period of time. Cities were fine. She liked technology, but perhaps she needed a break from people. "However, I wouldn't be opposed to a quiet area to…relax, as you say." She caught sight of the upward curve of the corners of his lips and almost instantly kicked herself mentally for making this minute compromise with him. "Focus on the task at hand first though."

"Of course. Besides, another set of hands makes the work go faster and the sooner you're done working the sooner you get to play, right?"

"Focus, Doctor."