IDChapter29

Jack came to with a gasp. He staggered to his feet and looked about wildly. Koschei and Isana were gone without a trace. Just then he heard the quiet footsteps of someone stealthfully approaching. He quickly grabbed a heavy wrench lying nearby and ducked behind a corner, visions of Koschei coming back to finish him off filling his mind. The footsteps stopped, then he was sure he heard them turn towards his corner. He silently counted off the time it would take the person to reach his corner, then he leaped out with the wrench raised above his head ready to strike.

"JACK!"

He froze, the wrench suspended inches above Rose's head.

"Jon sent me back to see what was keeping you and Isana. What happened? Where is she?"

As Rose asked the question she saw his expression suddenly go bleak. "She's gone, Koschei took her. He killed me and made her watch me die. I never told her I'm immortal. She thinks I'm dead." Urgently he grabbed Rose. "We have to find her! God only knows what he'll do to her now that he thinks I'm dead!"

"Jack, there's nobody here, I looked, they're gone. We need to get back to Voyager and get the refugees out of here."

"Good, maybe we can see them leaving from Voyager!" Jack turned and ran for the ship, Rose hot on his heels. When they made it there and boarded, they were breathless. Jon made them sit down in the cabin away from the other passengers. Jack explained what had happened in a jumble of words, ending with, "We have to get in the air quickly, we might be able to catch them yet!"

Jon calmly began the engine starting sequence. "Calm down Captain, we'll be on our way as soon as we can. I'll be back in just a moment, I have to make sure everyone's strapped in while the engines are coming online." Jon left and Jack and Rose dutifully strapped the children and themselves in. Jon was back shortly and placed his hand on Jack's shoulder.

"Jack, I'm so sorry. I'm so very, very sorry." Jack started to open his mouth the ask why when he felt the hypo injection in his neck. He had just enough time to give Jon a look of thunderous rage and betrayal before he passed out.

"What did you do?" Rose asked, shocked.

"I gave him a powerful sedative. It should keep him knocked out until we get where we're going." At Rose's look he explained, "They are long gone, Rose. Koschei clearly planned this. He waited for the security fields to go down and went in and got what he wanted. Now that he has what he wanted, we are fair game. We have to get out of here, now, we can't waste time looking for Isana. I'm sorry, but I'm going to do what is best for everyone. Hopefully we can rescue Isana later. I won't abandon her, but we have 15 other people who are depending upon us. Once we get them safe, we can make a plan to rescue her."

Rose nodded. "I understand. I hope Jack does, too."

"He will, Rose. He's a leader, he knows how it is to be responsible for others. It will be difficult to swallow, but he will," here Jon sighed heavily, "...eventually."

Jon ramped up the thrusters and Voyager lifted off. He pointed her nose due south and engaged the engines and they roared away. Once they were well south, instead of descending towards their destination, Jon kept going around to the other side of the planet and then northward. He then descended into a mountain range near the equator. He circled carefully, then exclaimed "A-HAH!" Carefully he maneuvered Voyager into a narrow canyon and into the middle of a copse of trees. Setting Voyager's perception filter to reflect her surroundings, he shut the engines down.

"Here we are," he observed. "where hopefully we'll spend the next few years growing a TARDIS and creating a new society of Time Lords."

"Not our original choice of location - I assume that's to prevent Koschei from being able to get our location from Isana?" Rose asked.

"Yep. I had a couple of back-up spots in mind. This one is furthest away from our first-choice spot. Now, why don't we let the Captain sleep some more while we get everyone disembarked and set up camp in the caves?"

"I'm not looking forward to him waking up," Rose said dryly.

"Neither am I."

Everyone was given a task to do. The caves were a short walk away, and before dark all the supplies smuggled out from the Underground Railroad were stacked neatly in them. Cots and sleeping bags were arranged in an orderly fashion, a watch rotation was set at the mouth of the main cave, and a cold but satisfying meal was had.

Suddenly a bright flash was seen near the ship. "Stay here everyone, children, you get in the back of the main cave, Rose, you're with me!" Jon ordered.

"I have a pretty good idea what that was," Rose murmured as the crept up to Voyager.

"Yep," was all Jon said. Sure enough, when they got to where Voyager sat, there was no one about. They boarded her and Jack was gone. They both knew where he went, back in time and back to the tunnels to see where Koschei went with Isana.

"I just pray he doesn't do anything stupid," Rose worried.

"He won't. He took a perception filter with him, he'll be alright." Jon said, with perhaps a bit more conviction than he really felt. "C'mon, Rose, I have something to show you."

They traipsed back to the main cave, and Jon took her clear to the back of it. Noting that both children were asleep together in a cot, he held his finger to his lips and motioned Rose to follow him. Turning on a torch, he found a small opening and crawled into it. Rose did likewise, glad she wasn't claustrophobic. They went along for some way before Rose noticed that it was growing lighter ahead. They scrambled out of the small tunnel and into an enormous chamber lit by fluorescent mineral deposits. Rose looked about in wonder, speechless. The colours were amazing! She looked at Jon and he had the same expression of pride he always did when he introduced her to somethig new and wonderful. She grinned at him, showing the tip of her tongue in the way he adored, and they hugged.

"Gotcha!" He smiled into her hair, enjoying her fragrance for the first time in what felt like years.

"Got me!" She agreed, snuggling into him and forgetting about the rest of the universe for a few precious moments. "How did you know this was here?"

"I didn't really, but it had all the right geological indicators, so I knew there was a pretty good chance of it." He kissed her firmly so she couldn't ask another question, and let one hand drift down around her bum and pull her close as his tongue teased her. She kissed him back with ardor, wondering absently how long it had been since they'd...

"Not since we left Earth," he whispered, and his lips left hers and started tracing the line of her throat as his hand started lifting her shirt. "What if somebody comes looking for us?" she whispered anxiously, not wanting to stop but a little paniced nonetheless. Jon grinned wickedly. "Let them," he said conspiratorily as one hand found a breast and cupped it, "We have to grab these opportunities when we can." The other hand slipped into her pants and found her. She sighed gratefully and gave in, starting to unbutton his shirt. Before long they were undressed and Jon spied a small ledge and led her over to it. They made love in a frenzy, unleashing all the pent-up passion they had bottled up over the weeks. When they were spent, they laid together panting.

"I suppose we should get back," Rose sighed.

"Nope, not yet." Jon was still in her, and had no intention of going anywhere just yet. He began to move slowly, deliberately, and artfully. Rose chuckled deep in her throat and relaxed to enjoy the ride. They took their time, and what seemed like hours later Jon said, "OK, now we do have to get going." They got dressed and returned along the small tunnel to hear their names being called when they got back to the cave. They quickly assured everyone that they had just been exploring, if anyone noticed how flushed and happy they looked, they had the grace not to mention it. Except one.

"So," an infuriated voice came from the front of the cave, "Isana is missing, the 'Time Lords' don't have 'time' to go looking for her, but they do have time to go..." here Jack paused dramatically, " 'exploring'! That is apparently what it's called now, huh?"

"Actually, we were playing Doctor." Jon deadpanned, hoping that colloquialism had no direct translation in this culture. "But what else could we do, you went off and left without telling anyone where you went, Captain. It's not like we could have helped, being left behind. So we went looking about." He shrugged. "So, come back to our cots and tell us what you found."

Jack knew better than to argue, he needed them and he knew it. So he bit his lip and follwed them to the back of the cage, where they quietly (since the children were sleeping nearby) discussed a plan.

"Koschei had a ship with a small group of Judoon waiting outside in case anyone followed him." Jack admitted. "There was nothing we could have done. They boarded the ship and took off. I have a friend in Traffic Control, she told me the ship was headed back to the Shadow Proclamation. Isana will be brainwashed," he concluded bitterly. "She'll be re-programmed, and she won't be Isana anymore. We have to help her!"

"We will." Jon promised. "But we can't cross our own timeline to do it. We'll have to come up with another way. I think our first stop needs to be the Krillitane Esteemed Father to collect our reward. I also have another matter to discuss with him. If we can form an alliance with the Krillitanes (never, ever thought I'd hear myself say that), we'll have a discreet source of weapons, technology, and some protection. Then we can covertly find out where Isana is and rescue her, yeah?"

Jack nodded. "Yeah."