Chapter 5: Pints and Plots
Notes: Not knowing of any good Ace lines off the top of my head, I borrowed a quote from Gillian Taylor's Four of a Kind. Another excellent read. I've also just sortof realized how bad I am at coming up with chapter names...
Ooo---oOo---ooO
Jack was the first of the group to recover from the shock, but then, he hadn't been entirely surprised to see an old acquaintance of his in the dirty little pub. His attentions focused on the woman sitting across his table, and he flashed one of his patented Jack-Harkness grins, scooting his chair a bit closer and leaning forward to take her hand. "Captain Jack Harkness, ma'am, a pleasure I'm sure." He drawled brightly. The woman returned it in her own seductive fashion.
"Vala Mal'Doran, and I'm sure it is."
The Doctor made a disapproving noise in the back of his throat.
"Ja-ack," he admonished. "Flirt later! Glitz, don't say you can't recognize an old mate." His brown eyes twinkled with mischievousness. "You might have to think a minute." Glitz shifted uncomfortably.
"No can do sir. Him I recognize, unfortunately," and he jerked a thumb at Jack, who had torn his eyes off of Vala at the mention of his person, and given Glitz his best I'm-not-finished-with-you-yet glare. "But your face eludes me. I think you've got me mistaken for someone else."
"Oh Glitz, I'm hurt." The Doctor frowned good-naturedly. "Sabalom Glitz. Former owner of the Nosferatu, which was destroyed as it fled Kane's massive starship, nicknamed Iceworld, later renamed the Nosferatu II after Kane decided to spend life as a puddle."
"And how on Earth could you know that?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow, before realization dawned. "Wait, no, don't tell me. You were there."
"I owe Glitz. Or is it he who owes me? Either way there's debts to be had." He grinned brilliantly. "I believe I once told you…the difference is purely perceptual."
Glitz's confused and nervous expression blossomed into shock. "Percep-it couldn't be…Doctor?" He exclaimed, gawping at the lanky individual in disbelief. The Doctor beamed with delight.
"Got it in one! How've yah been, Glitz?"
"I hate to throw a spanner in the works here, but we had business to finish?" Vala interrupted, somewhat putout.
"Yes, right, sorry. We're interrupting. Go right on ahead." The Doctor waved a hand and propped his chin on his arms, folded across the back of his chair and watching Glitz expectantly.
The thief frowned. Dodgy deals never passed the Doctor's watchful eye, and it was in the tubes already. He sighed and looked to Vala. "Miss Mal'Doran, please excuse me. 36 tesri a crate is fine enough. My partner will be waiting with the cargo on the Star-Striker."
The leather-clad woman smiled in satisfaction and nodded, draining the last of her drink and clunking the glass back onto the table. "Pleasure doing business with you, mister Glitz. And you…" She glanced back at Jack, and grinned dangerously, before pulling her coat off the back of her chair and sauntering out of the Cantiana. Jack let out a low whistle and made to follow her, but the Doctor reached out and grabbed his sleeve, pulling him back into a chair and giving him a no-chance-in-the-universe look. Disgruntled, he slid his chair over to Glitz's table.
"Now, where were we?" He questioned, giving Glitz the evil eye.
"You've regenerated again, I see." Glitz remarked faintly as he edged away from Jack, glancing over the Doctor's new body. "An improvement on the last one, though I see you didn't loose some of your accent."
The Doctor ran his hand through his hair a bit sheepishly. "Ah, well, technically speaking, this is my tenth persona. I'm afraid it's been a long time since our last meeting." He smiled, tilting his head thoughtfully. "Two, no, three regenerations ahead. Seven, eight…yes, three." He nodded in confirmation. Jack blinked.
"Wait, so you've done that regenerating thing before? I thought it was just the one time."
"A Time Lord can regenerate twelve times, Jack. Thirteen lives in all." The Doctor informed him mildly. "Glitz knew me back when I was, how did Ace once put it…? Short, Scottish, and infuriating." He grinned abashedly. Glitz chortled.
"I knew you the life before that one too, Doctor. That outfit could've blinded the whole of the Andromeda galaxy." He guffawed loudly. Jack grinned with mirth.
"Is this the eyesore that's stuffed in the back of the wardrobe with the patchwork and the cat-pin on-?"
"Yes, well, let's not dwell too much on that." The Doctor interrupted hurriedly, looked rather embarrassed and rubbing his neck. "What's this about the Star-Striker, Glitz? What happened to Iceworld?"
Jack filed a mental note alongside the ginger beer remark to press the Doctor on that embarrassing information back at the TARDIS, and got up to order a few more drinks round the table as Glitz explained the ship's fate. It seemed the Nosferatu II had been engaged in a minor illicit assignment when the Time Agents had decided to drop in for a visit. Not having the credits to pay off the fines, they took his ship and stranded him in the year 3090, six years ago. He'd picked up the Star-Striker not long after, but wouldn't say how. Jack suspected it wasn't a legal operation, and said so.
Glitz told him to shove it.
They swapped stories of a few lucrative deals that ended in amusing situations, and even the parts transfer, prior to the loss of Glitz's first prize ship, which had landed Jack in the incident with the Denabi llama-creature. Jack turned rather sore towards the end of that story and called Glitz a slimy git for swanning off in the Nosferatu and leaving him out there instead of coming back to untie him.
This led into an argument between the two conmen over the incident of exploding navigation circuits, which the Doctor had to mediate before it could turn into a barroom brawl. They coincided to let Glitz pick up the tab as punishment. As Glitz waved the bartender for another round of drinks, the Doctor found himself again glancing in a worried manner towards the door. It had been an hour and a half since Martha was supposed to meet them there, and there was still no sign of the young student.
Ooo---oOo---ooO
Martha's back was starting to ache; crouched behind the stack of boxes that was her only sanctuary from the eyes of the two men not fifteen meters away, she was rather hesitant to get up and make her presence known to the self-incriminated murderers. Well, plotters looking to become murderers. She winced as her legs protested against the shift she made to get more comfortable, and peered out through the small gap.
Wait a tick…where'd they get to?
Martha frowned, rolling from her crouch in the dirt to a more correctable position on hand and knee, and leaned forward to see if it would shed more visibility on the shipyard. The thug and his scrawny little friend had vanished, and she gained nothing from the motion but a twinge in her muscles. Perhaps they had well and truly gone. Martha breathed a sigh of relief, and uncoiled slowly, standing up and stretching her back.
A thick, meaty hand clapped itself roughly over her mouth as another yanked her back by the arm, muffling her startled yelp, and she was crushed into a wall of L'tral-shaped muscle and bulk, held fast despite her vain struggling.
"Oi, looks like we've got us a little slinking cat about," crowed K'ran delightedly, smiling an oily, sickening grin. "An' you know what they say about cats and curiosity, dontcha?"
Martha caught a flash of grimy beige cloth as it covered her mouth and nose, and despite her squirming, there was nothing she could do to escape. She could detect roughshod chloroform and engine grease invading her senses. As her world faded from coherency, a fleeting response crossed her mind.
Yeah…the cat gets her goose cooked.
The medical student groaned softly as she succumbed to the odorous mixture, and her eyes rolled back in her head, body falling limp in L'tral's arms. The bracelet in her hand fell unhampered to the blackened dirt.
Ooo---oOo---ooO
"So this bloke T'jeraio, he's powered up the sonic drive on the engines, and the whole room's shaking to bits. And the Doctor's just standing there like it's the most natural thing in the world, while Martha's knocked off her feet like she had one too many at the local pub, and this tin of engine oil falls off the shelf and completely coats her favorite jacket. I thought she was going to knock his block off; she looked downright murderous, even when he said it'd wash out!"
Glitz and Jack roared with laughter, but the absence of a third laugh was noticeable. Jack cast a glance to the Time Lord beside him. The Doctor wasn't paying attention. His eyes were trained worriedly on the Cantiana's doors.
Glitz tilted his head slightly, wondering what was on the Time Lord's mind. It was somewhat unsettling to have the normally talkative man so quiet. After a moment's thought he came up with the perfect distraction.
"Y'know we've been talking for hours and I have yet to hear you ask about Miss Bush." He remarked casually, taking a sip of his drink. That got the Doctor's attention. He snapped his head around, eyes wide as he absorbed the words.
"Mel! Blimey, I can't believe I forgot to ask. How'd she fare being your shipmate for a time?" He smiled, considerably brightened. "I suppose you dropped her off on Earth down the line. You did say you were headed that way."
Glitz adapted a smug grin that reminded Jack of the Cheshire cat from Alice and Wonderland. "Well, I tried to drop her off, but you know Mel." He sighed. "She simply refused to go back to Peese Pottage. Said the slow path wasn't hers anymore. Asked me to take her somewhere else." His eyes were twinkling with mirth as the Doctor slumped back in his chair, looking a little dazed and confused.
"So where'd she head off to?" He asked faintly.
"Did I say anything about her actually leaving?" Glitz's grin got bigger. "Best damn co-pilot I ever had."
And the three of them jumped as the Cantiana doors slammed open.