The two of them slunk along the dark corridors of the ship together, careful to keep an eye out for any more Stigs that were lurking about. Eventually, they came back into the room that was extremely hot and the Doctor quickly took care of a few Enforcers that were abusing a couple bear men.
They came to stand before the strange lava pods before they bent down to examine them. The Doctor immediately set to work scanning them with his sonic while Sam simply stood off to the side, not entirely sure of what to do. She sat down on one of the strong pods before she folded her arms across her chest, keeping watch for any other Stigs around.
However, as she let her eyes wander around the room, she came to find that there was something on the side of one of the pods. Sliding from the top of one, she came to stand beside the pod that she saw the markings on. Part of it was covered up by more hardened stone from the lava and Sam immediately looked around for something to remove the rock.
Smiling when she found a pick ax off to the side, she immediately picked it up and adjusted to the weight in her palm. Bringing it back behind her head, she quickly swung down at the stone, parts of it being chipped away in the process. This had to continue on for awhile, seeing as how tough it was to break stones.
Finding that her work was eventually sufficient enough, she bend down and brushed the stones away before blowing the dust off the smooth silver pod that lay underneath. She narrowed her eyes slightly as she tried to make out the blocky lettering, the TARDIS easily translating the words before her.
"UNS Faraday." She read out loud as she brushed her hand across the dark letters.
"What did you just say?" Sam turned back around to find that the Doctor had stopped sonicing the pods and instead had his eyes focused intently on her form.
"I said the-"
"UNS Faraday." They said in unison, the man nodding his head the entire time. He thought he had heard her correctly. He put his sonic back in his jacket pocket before taking the jacket off all together, seeing as how the room was very hot.
Sam noticed the slightly upset look on his face as he mulled his thoughts over. "Is something wrong?" She asked him after a moment of letting him brew.
"Undoubtedly..." He paused for a moment, sighing through his nose. "The UNS Faraday was one of the most famous transport ships in the entire Universe, known for its high level security and remarkable punctuality. Never a late delivery. It is also known that the Faraday had also been the ship that had never been robbed..."
"And?" She asked after he finished talking and they were standing in an uncomfortable silence.
"And the Faraday hasn't been seen for over 3 months." Sam paused for a moment, taking time to properly process the information.
"So, you're saying that this ship just dropped off the radar?" She asked and the Doctor only gave her a look. She knew that she had guessed correctly. So, this ship had just disappeared. If that wasn't odd, Sam didn't know what was.
"So, why were the pods here on this ship, completely covered in stone made from the Sun's lava?" The Doctor mused, running his hands along the length of his sweaty face. Sam just began to fan herself, also finding the heat in the room to be almost unbearable. Yet, as she stared at the Faraday's pod, she could only frown before something else was pulling at the back of her mind.
Walking over, she picked up the pick ax and again and walked to a different pod before she began to chop away at one of the sides. After beating nearly the entire stone, she eventually found the label and when she did, she cleared the stone away from the pod so that she could read the script on the side.
"EFS Leviathan." She read out loud before heading to another stone and pounding away at the others to reveal their labels. "EAS Valentina. UNES Valetta. NSS Daring. HMS Sea of Marma..." She read out loud and the Doctor could only frown at this realization. "These ships... They were transport ships, weren't they?" The Doctor could only nod his head, his mind reeling with this revelation.
Sam then began to put the pieces together and looked down the steel walkway to find a group of bear men who were working. Leaving the pods behind, Sam then walked down the walkway towards the men.
The men all stopped to stare at her, seeing as how they had only been sitting around, seeing as how the Doctor had disabled their Enforcer.
"Hello..." She greeted them as she came to stand in their small group. "Do any of you know know where those big stones came from?" They all looked at Sam like she was completely crazy as she spoke to them. "The diamonds?" She tried to gesturing to show what she meant as the stones and she pointed back at the pods.
One of them slowly pointed over the edge at the lava far below and Sam could only deadpan in frustration.
"Is there more big... rocks?" She gestured to the surrounding area before she pointed back at the empty pods. "More?" She continued to gesture and in doing so, she nearly smacked the Doctor in the face with her wild flailing.
"Stop it, Jo. You look like an imbecile." He warned her before stepping up to one of the bear men and sonicing his throat.
"Why aren't they talking back?" The Doctor looked at the readings on his sonic before looking off thoughtfully.
"No voice boxes. You need a voice box to talk and they don't have one."
"Why not?"
"They're sixty percent bear! Looks like they got all the human parts, save the voice box." The Doctor handed his sonic to Sam before he reached for his jacket that he had brought with him. Reaching into one of the pockets, he revealed one of the large diamonds that had been in one of the pods. He beamed at it before handing it to Sam who could only gaze at the diamond with pure awe. It was so large that she had to hold it in both palms and then the Doctor cleared his throat.
"More?" He asked as he pointed to the stone in her palms as he spoke to the men before them. The one that had answered before pointed at a door at the end of the walkway they were on. "Thank you so much." The Doctor reached out and took a hold of Sam's hand, pulling her along towards the hall.
Sonicing the door open, they walked through a series of hallways before they arrived at a rather large and immaculate door. Off to the sides of the door lay two dragon statues that just served as a decoration. The Doctor rang his hands together before he reached into his jacket and pulled out his sonic, immediately setting to work on the door.
Sam once again just sat back and watched him work before she decided to look at the dragon statues, running her fingers over the fine details. After a few minutes had passed, the Doctor growled in anger when he found that the door would not open with his sonic. The frustrated man leaned back against the door as he thought up a plan to get inside.
It was only this time that Sam noticed a something wrong with the dragon she was gazing at. The tip of its tail was twisted one way while the other statue's tail was twisted the other way. Twisting the tail the other way, she heard a loud click before the door behind the Doctor clicked open and with a yelp, the an fell inside.
Smirking to herself, Sam stepped over the form of the Doctor as he lay sprawled out on the ground. She continued to walk through the strange room until she stopped upon seeing the sight before her.
"That was not very nice-" The Doctor was dusting himself off when he came around the corner but when his eyes fell upon what lay before him, he also grew quiet. The two of them simply stared around in awe at the vast quantity of gold and precious stones that lay scattered in heaps around the room.
"H-How...?" Sam muttered as they continued to gaze around in pure wonderment.
"Someone has quite the collection." The Doctor murmured as he stepped off the platform they were standing on to walk between the mountainous piles of gold, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds.
Sam reached down and picked up one of the sapphire stones around her feet before holding it up in the light of the room.
"Are these real?" She asked and the Doctor gazed around the room before picking up a golden crown from a pile before licking it. He grimaced and made a face before nodding slightly, placing the crown upon his head.
"All of them. The vastest collection of gold and jewels in the galaxy. All in one little spaceship." And as she continued to stare at the sapphire, she then realized something. It was almost like a bad light bulb going off in her head and she then hoped that she shouldn't have thought about that. Something very, very bad was going on.
She then turned and looked at the Doctor and his brow furrowed upon seeing the terrified look in her eyes.
"Have you figured it out yet?" She asked him and he could only shake his head, not seeing what she was apparently seeing. He then turned away from her, searching for that one small thing that he had missed, that one little piece of the puzzle. And yet, he was still lost.
"The pods with all the transport ship names? All this treasure lying about? The Faraday going missing when it was the greatest transport ship to sail the Universe?" She grabbed her loose hair that was hanging down from underneath her helmet. The Doctor just shook his head, still not getting it. "Who steals from ships and loves treasure?" The Doctor just looked at her again, his mouth falling open before he shut it, his jaw clenching. Sam rolled her eyes. "WE'RE ON A BLOODY PIRATE SHIP!"
The Time Lord paused for a moment, thinking things through completely, nodding the entire time. "Blimey, we're on a space pirate ship!" He beamed like a child and Sam could only roll her eyes again. "Love me some pirates! But... the real question is, where are the rest of the ships and why didn't anyone report thievery?"
Both him and Sam grew quiet as they thought about everything that had happened and they processed all the information laid out before them.
"Because the ships were crashed into the Sun." The said in unison, coming to the same conclusion as one another.
"And the second question is, what kind of spacey-wacey pirates are we dealing with?" He asked again.
"Spacey-wacey?"
"Indeed. Spacey-wacey pirates are the worst kind." Sam couldn't help but smile and shake her head.
"So... you want to find out?" She asked him and the man could only pause in his thought process for a moment, looking at the female beside him. Already, she looked so different from when he had met up with her in his eleventh form.
Her hazel eyes sparkled with pure joy, loving the adventure that he had taken her on. She was actually smiling again, despite the dark part that she was enduring during her life time. She actually had a friend again. Someone that she could share joy with. Someone who actually cared about her.
And she was loving every minute of it.
"Do you even have to ask?" He nearly whispered, pure joy over coming him at her enthusiasm.
"To the throne room?"
"Not quite yet. I want to find out more about our friends on this ship..." The two began to exit the treasure room when Sam suddenly caught sight of something off to the side.
It was an odd black object that looked like it was a strap of leather, save for the fact that it had a strange jewel in the center that seemed to change color every few moments.
Walking over to it, she picked it up and examined it, turning it over in her palm before simply putting it back on the floor where she found it and leaving the treasure room. Quickly rejoining the Doctor, they walked back down the same hallway as before. However, as they rounded the corner, a hand shot around the corner and snagged Samantha around the neck.
A Stig stepped into view from behind the corner and the Doctor reached inside his jacket to pull out his sonic. All thought, it was not in its pocket.
The Enforcer raised Sam off the ground, his gloved hand tight around her throat.
"Ah!" The Doctor suddenly cried when he found that he could do nothing but watch and panic. And then he remembered it was in the treasure room. "Wait here, Jo!" He panted before racing back down the hallway.
Sam was struggling to breath as the white robot increased its grip upon her throat.
"D-DOCTOR!" She chocked out, her own hands grasping tightly to the Stig's hand. Having a nagging feeling of what she could do to save herself, Sam's hand gripped onto its arm even more tightly. Releasing electricity from the normally dormant current in her body, the Enforcer seemed to stall for a moment before it dropped her.
Coughing and sputtering, she landed hard on the ground and her hands flew to her neck as she struggled to regain her breathing.
However, the Stig eventually refreshed his systems and she watched as he began to walk back towards her, his entire form still sparking with excess electricity. Also straightening up, she prepared herself for the fight that was about to ensue, having not fought for a real enemy for a long time.
He lunged for her but she ducked underneath his hands. He then took the long black whip off his belt and cracked it in the air. Both of them sized each other up, the two of them slowly circling each other. The Enforcer suddenly swung his whip and Sam raised her air to protect herself.
The whip wrapped around her arm and she winced when he began to pull on her. Digging her feet into the ground, she then decided to turn the tables and pulled the Stig towards her. It stumbled forward slightly and Sam took her opportunity. Circling behind, she put her hands on his back and let loose a strong electrical charge that caused the Enforcer to shut down entirely, his systems stalling out until he was no longer a threat.
"I'M COMING, SAMMY JO!" The Doctor's voice echoed down the hall as he fiddled with his sonic after he had found it on the floor in the treasure room. He brandished it as he came around the corner and was surprised to find that the Stig had its head drooped down and Sam was bent over, her hands rubbing her sore throat.
"Thanks for all the help, Doctor..." She replied sarcastically before sticking her foot out and knocking the Enforcer over and it fell to the floor.
The Time Lord immediately dropped down to the floor and began to sonic up underneath the helmet, finding that the Enforcer was just another robot which caused him to find some degree of relief.
"I need to get the helmet off..." He muttered to himself before sitting up, just in time for Sam to swing a metal pipe down on the robots neck, having found the weapon in the corner. The Doctor flinched and let out a yell as the helmet tumbled away from the rest of the body, revealing the jumbled mess of wires that lay up inside the helmet. He just sat there a moment before turning to look at Sam.
"Why did you do that?" He squeaked as he looked from the woman to the robot.
"You said you wanted the helmet off so I got it off..." She murmured, shouldering the pipe and plastering a smug smirk on her face.
The alien only opened his mouth to retort but found that she had been correct in her actions, so he only closed his mouth before huffing through his nose. Picking up the helmet, the two then cautiously raced back to the TARDIS so that they could hook it up and examine the files hidden inside in hopes of gaining more information.
Hooking it up to the time machine, they peered at the screen before them, looking at all the files that the Stig's helmet contained.
"The Leviathan. The Sea of Marma. The Valentina. The Faraday. They're all here..." Sam voiced both their thoughts as they continued to scroll down the list presented before them.
"But that still doesn't answer my question..." The Doctor said as he ran a hand through his hair, his mind going a million miles a second. "What kind of pirates are we dealing with?"
Yeah, I updated again. Because I'm awesome and I really like this story.
Did anyone else watch the 50th anniversary last weekend? It was so awesome. My mind literally exploded. I broke into a friend's house to use their computer because I was away from home at the time.
Sure, it was a typical and confusing Who episode but it all made sense in the end and I'm pretty sure my mind exploded.
Anyway, yeah. I love Doctor Who.
Reviews are still appreciated. I have only gotten one and you have to realize that Who is not easy to writ. Everything is so confusing.
Love,
Blue