Katie bounced uncomfortably in the truck bed. She could have gone in the cab, but she refused to leave TARDIS alone. Not that TARDIS needed protecting, but she was Katie's only chance to find the Doctor, and Katie wasn't about to let TARDIS out of her sight.

To his credit, and her annoyance, the man who had first approached her had insisted on sitting in the back with her. Katie had taken this opportunity to quiz the man about what was happening.

"Who are you fighting and why?"

"It isn't exactly a war, mam. There have been a few clashes, but nothing outright. We trade threats mostly, and try to see what the other side is up too, and if possible we stop it."

Katie raised an eyebrow. "You needed the Doctor to run reconnaissance?"

"No." The man shifted to a different sitting position and gave a small sigh. "Let me start from the beginning. A little more than five years ago, our sensors started to pick up something odd in our smallest moon. We investigated as much as possible from the ground, and determined from the readings that there was something radioactive at the moon's core. At the time, the Ranngour and we were still on good terms, so we worked together to send up an exploratory craft with two members from each country. Turns out the entire core of that moon is made up of a radioactive material 27 times more powerful than plutonium. The question immediately came up of how to pull it out, and what to do with it if we did."

"And that was where the schism occurred," Katie interjected.

The man nodded. "Precisely. The Iuhins saw a power source, while the Ranngour saw weapons that could devastate planets. Of course, that's only a generalization. Many people on both sides agreed with the other side, but by then the borders were closed, and the race was on. We have to find a way to safely extract, transport, and store the new element before the other side could."

Katie smiled lightly. "A Cold War and a space race. What fun."

"Cold War?"

Katie waved a hand dismissively. "Ancient Earth history. Two superpowers threatening each other, no one trusting anyone, spies flying hither and yon. I went there once. Word of advice; if you land in Russia during the Cold War, do not speak with a Southern accent. They will have you behind bars faster than you can say, 'What happened?' Made for my ninth prison break. Well, Doctor had to spring me, but I still got out."

The man blinked, unsure of what to make of that information. Katie smiled at his confusion and asked another question.

"That's the general picture, but what's the specific problem you're having?"

"That's hard to say," the man started. "When this war began, we were certain we had the advantage. The Ranngour may have superiority in arms, but we Iuhins have always been the scientists." He paused.

"But…" Katie prodded.

"But then everything started vanishing. The scientists, the supplies, what weapons we had, all gone. Sometimes we saw people, probably the Ranngour, making off with the machines, but how they got in and took them so easily is a mystery we haven't found an answer to yet. We were forced into open warfare, in which the Ranngour have the advantage."

"And now you're at the end of your rope."

"Not only are we out of options, resources, and moral, but now the Ranngour has all they need to finish this, and we have no way to get the supplies back."

Katie clicked her teeth, pondering. Nothing to fight with, impending doom if they fail, impossible odds. Sounds like a normal day.

"Julius Robertson."

Katie looked at the man. "Pardon?"

"My name. Julius Robertson. I figured you should know."

"Gotcha."

The truck hit a bump. Julius looked over the edge. "We're here. It's our main stronghold, and one of the last. Though when I say stronghold, I use the word loosely."

Katie sat up, looking around her. It had a WWII flavor to it, but was futuristic at the same time, with actual walls and buildings. Several hills surrounded the area, with moss covered boulders dotting them.

"I'm assuming everyone is either dead, captured, or MIA," Katie said, commenting on the disturbing lack of people. Julius nodded.

Katie held back a sigh. She had bitten off an awful lot agreeing to help. The Iuhins really did need a miracle, a legend. They needed the Doctor, not his tag-a-long companion and a damaged Type-40.

Well, I said I'd give it a shot, so here goes. I do this all the time with the Doctor, I just get to fly solo on this trip. That's it, my first solo mission. Just look at it that way, and do what you usually do.

The truck pulled to a stop outside the largest building, which was still only the size of a small apartment and seemed about half as sturdy. Julius jumped out over the truck side then turned back to Katie as though to help her out. She ignored him and jumped out in the same fashion.

"Park her in an out of the way spot," she called to the driver. "Don't need the Ranngour noticing her if they happen along."

"Mam, if you would follow me."

"Please stop maming me," Katie said as she turned back to Julius. "Makes me feel old."

Julius' mouth twitched at the corner. "Just training mam."

Julius opened the door to the building and Katie stepped inside. Two people, an older man and a younger woman, stood around a large table that took up most of the single room. On it was the typical map with small painted figurines designating who was where. Katie winced.

"Please tell me we aren't the yellow," she whispered to Julius.

"We are," the man said gruffly. "Brigadier, who is this? We sent you out to get bring back a miraculous man and a blue box. Did he change that much, or were you that desperate to prove the stories to be true?"

Katie could tell that the man didn't put much, if any, faith in whatever stories these people had of the Doctor. She couldn't really blame him. War wasn't really the place for legends and fables. Still, Julius had obviously put a lot on the line to implement his plan. She couldn't let him get torn down that way.

"The Doctor's MIA at the moment," she said. "The blue box is being parked right now, if you'd care for a tour once I've patched her up. Rough entry and all."

The man narrowed his eyes. "A female and a Southerner?"

"You have something against females?" the woman asked, raising an eyebrow at the man. Katie got the feeling that she was at the top of the command chain, and had to fight to stay there. Katie instantly decided she liked her.

"No, but she's a child," the man said. He lifted his chin at Katie. "What are you, twenty at best? Nothing over nineteen."

"I'm fifteen, but thanks for the compliment," Katie drawled, thickening her accent as much as she could. "But regardless of my age, where you think or don't think I come from, you aren't in any kind of position to be turning down help, whoever may be offering it."

The woman's face showed nothing, but her eyes seemed to regard Katie with an expression almost beginning to hint at respect. Katie knew that she had at least started well with the right person.

"Come in. Tell us more about where you're from." The words were less of a request and more of an order. Katie stepped forward towards the table as the woman looked at Julius. "Brigadier, I'll want your report later. Continue on your duties."

"Mam," he said, giving a smart salute before ducking out the door. Katie had to admire the way the woman had just stripped her of any kind of backup. Now it was just her.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Trouble," Katie said, using the same name as she had used earlier. No need to create discrepancies so soon. "I've traveled with the Doctor for the past ten months. How do I address you?"

"Mam or General will suffice."

Katie shook her head lightly. "I'm not much of one for titles without a name behind it."

"And yet you travel with a man simply known as 'the Doctor'?" the older man asked.

"Not to be rude—thought frankly that's my best talent—it is his name, not just a title. Even if it were just a title, he has a lot backing it."

The woman simply blinked. "General Xaira Strnad," she said, pronouncing her first name 'Zarah' and her second one 'STIR-naad'. She nodded towards the man. "Lieutenant General Glendon Taylor. How did you get here?"

"The Doctor was giving me a history lesson when something hit us while we were still in the vortex. TARDIS was thrown out of the vortex while flipping end over end. The Doctor and I tried to bring her under control, but as we did so he was thrown out over a planet someplace. I managed to finish stabilizing TARDIS and land her. I haven't run a damage check yet. As soon as I stepped out, Brigadier Julius called to me from a hilltop. We chatted, I agreed to pitch in and I was brought back."

"Then you've lost the Doctor. How convenient for Robertson," Glendon said in a biting manner. Katie looked at him coolly.

"Not really very convenient for any of us, Taylor. Julius filled me in on what's going on, and to put it simply you are in over your heads."

Glendon looked like he wanted to say something, but Xaira stopped him.

"Your assessment is correct, Trouble. The only reason we allowed the Brigadier to use what little we have to signal a story is because it's all we have left. Another mind and pair of hands won't do us any harm." She waved a hand at Katie, motioning her to look at the table. Katie hissed through her teeth. It really was a disgusting situation. A few scattered clumps of yellow markers looked lost in the sea of blue ones. A ragged red line on the map marked the boundary between North and South.

"Julius mentioned that you're in this mess because of early raids by ninjas."

"Ninjas?"

Katie waved her hand in frustration at herself. "An ancient type of warrior known for being unseen. Where did these take place?"

"Pick a place on the map," Glendon said, gesturing with his hand. "For the first six months, things ran perfectly compared to now. Then scientists and machinery went missing left and right, some of them right in the middle of a base. No warning, no signs of forced entry, no outright attacks. It just vanished."

"Huh," Katie said quietly. She gently clicked her teeth as she looked harder at the map. The blue was fairly well spread out, but one large building marker sitting almost on the border intrigued her.

"Is that their H.Q.? Seems a little risky to place it so close to you."

"No, their base is farther in," Glendon said, pointing. "That's just their closest stronghold, and there's no way in under any account. Only one gate, two checkpoints to get through it. The walls are fifteen feet high with razor wire at the top, soldiers with laser rifles patrolling at regular intervals."

"So something big must be inside," she mused. "But why so close? Has to be out of necessity. But what's the necessity?" She looked at Xaira. "When did it go up?"

"They set themselves up there soon after they captured the land, about a year into the war."

"Talk about a rush," Katie said. "How close could you get me?"

"We've sent in people who've trained longer than you've been alive," Glendon mocked. "You expect to just saunter in?"

"Of course not," Katie said offhandedly. "I'd need to see whatever you've got on the place first. Every machine, no matter how well kept, always has one gear slightly off. This one is no different."

"You're rather young."

Katie glanced up at Xaira. "I'm also here to help. If you lose me you're no worse off than before. When I get out, you'll have a clearer idea of what's up with that spot. You don't put something so important so close to the enemy, however weak they are."

"We know this, Trouble," Glendon said, his voice clearly stating that he felt her name was appropriate. Xaira gave him a glance.

"What makes you think you could do anything?"

Katie gave her a small smile. "You ever heard of Winston Churchill?"

"The name sounds vaguely familiar."

"He was a brilliant man that lived, oh, nearly 6000 years ago on earth. Led an empire through a World War. He had a lot of great quotes. One of these, and I'm paraphrasing here, was, 'the first thing you need is audacity.' And I am good at audacity."

"You'll go whatever I may say, won't you?"

"Yep."

Xaira smiled. "Then I'll see what I can do to help. I'll have the information brought to your—how did you call it?—TARDIS. Go make whatever repairs you need in the meantime."

*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*