A/N: Don't really have any notes to offer. Just thanks for reviewing my work. Story will probably be over in about three to four chapters or so, give or take. Standard disclaimers apply. I own nothing. Only char and race I own is Tash and the Mala'shra.

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Chapter Seventeen: Cultural Misunderstandings

The Doctor looked around the tent, as they waited for Captain Shay. The Doctor glanced over star charts of various planets and all of them were close to Pannath. Something odd was going on here. Captain Shay entered. The Doctor could not tell if he had any hair at all. His braid was covered in jewels and various adornments. "Oy that must be heavy, how'd ya walk without out…oh I don't know becoming top heavy?"

Sarah Jane snorted lightly with laughter. Tash was the only one that wasn't laughing.

Captain Shay snorted, "These adornments and jewels were awarded to me by her majesty the Empress, Kai. Long may her reign be."

"Oh yea, wouldn't want to insult the grand Empress of the Kasi, long may her reign be, just as long as you're not a slave."

Shay glared at the Doctor, "My people have every right to expand their reign over lesser species, what right do you have to say otherwise?"

"Oh I don't know. I am useless. I don't have any rights at all, isn't that right, Sarah Jane."

Sarah smiled lightly, "Yes, Doctor. You are pretty useless."

The Doctor then said, "Tell me Captain Shay, why all these maps? Has the Empress commanded something big? Oh I don't know a war fleet."

Shay chuckled, "Of course not, Doctor. These maps are just for colonization purposes."

"Colonization by war, you mean. I know your people, Captain Shay. Your colonization practices mean taking someone else's home and making it yours. Except Pannath, this planet has been abandoned for a long time. Its natives left it when the rains stopped falling, but this planet isn't dead. It's just a fixer-upper. But it's got a nice location. Lots of neighbors, and lots of room to grow, isn't that right? The Kasi never heard the idea that good fences make good neighbors, have you?"

Shay smiled, "Doctor, I almost think you don't like the idea. See the Kasi have to expand and…"

"Your Empire is dying. You're trying to hold on to the past but every time you conquer one segment of the universe, another piece of your Empire breaks away. You're stagnating. How much time do you have left, Captain Shay? A year, maybe ten, perhaps a hundred, or if you're really lucky maybe a thousand."

"How do you know this?"

"I am old, Captain Shay. I have seen lots of Empires crumble to dust. I have seen my own people's government crumble to dust."

"Who are you?"

"I already told you, I am the Doctor, Captain Shay."

"Doctor…..what kind of name is that?"

"An old name…Captain Shay. From a people as old as time itself. They are dead, but their voices live on….they live on in me. And I am telling you, what are you holding onto? The past is dead. Your Empire is crumbling bit by bit, day by day. Let them go….Captain Shay. Let the Mala'shra go. You brought them here so you terra-form this planet as a staging area for war, but what's the point? In the end the Kasi Empire, will die. You want to save your race from that, go home, go home Captain Shay. Preserve what you have left of your old Empire and remain there. Otherwise…"

The Doctor picked up a hand full of sand from the ground and he blew it away, "Yet another fallen civilization."

"Heresy….you offend the great Kasi Empire. You will die this day."

The Doctor sighed, why was it when he told the truth, nobody could accept it? He then grinned and held up Tash's hand, "Do you really want to do that? I am holding back the storm. I let go of her hand….and well….it's going to get nasty. This is the oldest member of the Mala'shrian race. She's been around the block. She's not as docile as the rest of her race; you see Tash was forged from war, unlike her offspring. You really want me to let go of her hand?"

He grinned at Tash, "Tash you have anything to say, to this guy?" He let go of one of her fingers.

Tash glared at Captain Shay, "My people are not slaves, and we are an honorable race. If you would have asked my people for help, in the first place rather than taking them away by force, then we would have helped you. But you prove how vile a race you really are. I demand that you let my people go. I am Ta'sheeka Nirata, mother and the oldest member of my race."

Captain Shay laughed, "You are nothing but a child, a brat. Why should I listen to the words of a child?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes; Shay had thrown the biggest insult that he could of at Tash. He had called her a child. It was at the height of cultural rudeness to call an older Mala'shra a child. Even though biologically they were, that didn't mean there minds were. "Oy he's asking for it, isn't he Tash?"

Shay called out for his guard to bind up the Doctor, Sarah Jane, and Tash. The Doctor smirked lightly, "You better not separate me and Tash. I am the only thing keeping her from…."

The guards came in and they tore Tash's hand away from the Doctor's.

The Doctor grinned, "Now you're in trouble."

They laughed, "How is yanking her hand away from yours trouble?"

"Oooh I'd look behind ya, you really should look behind ya."

A bunch of creeping vines from a grove nearby had snaked its way in. The vines or rather the plants that were winding themselves around the guards and Captain Shay had been planted earlier, by Tash's brood, to provide shelter and shade to the Kasi. Now these very plants had become their very enemy. Tash had a malevolent look on her face. The vines curled itself around the guards and Shay's feet. They hadn't even noticed. And suddenly the vine tossed them about. The vines curled around them and wound and coiled about them. Tash was about to squeeze the life out of them when the Doctor said,"Tash….don't." The vines tightened. "Tash, listen to me….if you do this, you'll never forgive yourself."

Sarah Jane cringed at the scene; she never liked it when people died, but she couldn't blame Tash wanting to kill them.

Tash glared angrily at the Doctor. "They stole my children, made slaves out of them…."

"But do they deserve to die, Tash?"

Tash paused in her attempts to squeeze the life out of the Kasi, "I…I don't know."

The Doctor put his hand on Tash's shoulder, "Didn't you say that your race was civilized and enlightened? How is killing them going to prove that?"

Tash's shoulders slumped; the plants stopped suddenly.

The Doctor sighed and then hugged Tash lightly. "Come on let's get your children and get out of here, provided that we don't run into any more Kasi."

"Do not worry Doctor. As soon as we gather up all my children. The Kasi won't be too much of a threat."