The two of them stood side by side on the bridge, staring into unfolding space. She loved the TARDIS, but the captain's ship, all black and streamlined, just seemed so much cooler in that Star Trek way.
"He's after me." Donna confessed quietly. She looked down at the vortex manipulator still strapped to her wrist. The captain had registered the manipulator briefly before dismissing it, and Donna had to remind herself that she was currently in an era where time/space travel devices were as commonplace as iPods. "I have his memories, so I knew that he would just wipe my mind like an Etch-A-Sketch instead of trying to... Because it's not natural. It shouldn't be done."
He arched an eyebrow. "Therefore it's wrong to prolong your misery." There was a bitterness to his voice. "Time Lords. Always knowing what's better for everyone else."
She peered at him sideways. "Seriously, mate, ease up on the bitter."
He gave her a shadow of a grin. "But I do it so well."
"I know you have an ulterior motive for having me here."
"And you are using me to keep yourself out of the clutches of your Time Lord while preventing your mind from collapsing, so I would say we're even."
"Touché." Until she figured out his little Jedi mind trick, she wasn't going anywhere. Donna stared out into the star system. "Is there a cure? Some sort of space pill I can take three times a day? I'm not really a meditation person."
An eyebrow rose as he wordlessly said really? No shit.
"No."
Her eyes closed, shoulders slumping. She heard the captain sigh.
"Not that I know of." He amended himself grudgingly. "By the end of the War, regeneration energy was being used en mass to sustain entire armies. We still lost."
Donna looked at him, his handsome, brooding profile. "There must have been someone who survived."
He shrugged. "By the time the Gates of Elysium fell, I was already a prisoner of war."
Donna bit her lip. Open mouth, insert foot. "So we both agree that we're using each other."
That damn eyebrow went up again and she felt like kicking him.
"It feels weird that I know all this stuff about you, but I don't know your name."
He was silent for a long moment. Donna was starting to think that he wasn't going to answer and her lip curled, wondering whether he was more like the Doctor than he first appeared. There was going to be no way in hell she was going to keep calling him captain.
"Skytreader. My name is Loki Skytreader."
There was silence. Donna just stared at him.
"What? Really? Your name is Loki?"
His brow furrowed. "What's wrong with Loki?"
The next moment she doubled over in silent laughter as he stared at her as if she had lost her mind.
"What?"
"It's just... your name is Loki."
He was looking genuinely confused, and maybe a little annoyed by her reaction. "It's a common boy's name on Elysium."
"It's... we kind of... have a deity on Earth called Loki. A god."
"He wishes."
It was Lily, followed by the other boys. She looked at Loki. "You need to suit up."
"Suit up? What are you all doing?" It was then that Donna realised that she never got to ask the most important question. Who were these people?
Lily gave Loki a look. "You haven't told her yet?" Her tone was reproachful.
"Tell me what?" Donna looked between them, and then back beyond the bridge. Her eyes widened when she realised that they were orbiting a planet.
And in a ring around the planet were hundreds and hundreds of ships.
The Doctor's awareness lurched uncomfortably in her brain.
"Cybermen." Donna breathed. "Cybermen!" She whirled. "Who are you people?"
Lily threw Loki a rebuking look and he stared stonily back at her.
The little doctor tilted his head to the side. "We are here because we have a job to complete."
"What?" She snapped back around to face the captain. "What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" She demanded. "They'll kill you. They'll kill all of us!"
"No they won't." The captain said. Loki took her hand and placed it on his chest over his heart. Donna froze for a moment before registering lean muscle underneath her hand (yum) and something else. Something hard and unyielding.
Metal.
He was cyber.
"Those ships are scouters." He said, like that made a difference. "They are given their orders and they obey unthinkingly. I am able to slip past them without rousing attention, provided I am quick."
Her hand was still resting against his chest. Realising it, Donna jerked her hand back.
"Quick doing what?" She demanded.
Loki looked over to Zaphod, and a wordless message passed between them.
"Noble, would you care to assist me for a moment?"
The little doctor was so polite that she could hardly refuse.
Donna just gave Loki one last cutting glare. "Sure. Why not?"
She followed the little doctor through the bowels of the ship, with a feeling that the captain had effectively brushed her off.
"Am I missing something? This ship seems way too big for just the four of you."
"Correct." Zaphod said. "This ship once flew for the Elysium Resistance." He patted one of the chrome-patched panels fondly. "We took her back when we escaped."
"'We'? Don't tell me you fought in the Time War too."
He shot her a boyish smile. "I am much older than I look."
Who isn't?
Her eyes narrowed. "How much older?"
He gave her that annoyingly superior smile.
"All in good time, my girl."
Donna gritted her teeth. He was cute and all in that eight year old way, but if he called her girl one more time she was going to stomp him.
Zaphod led her into a massive laboratory. Two massive lab benches curved around the space, littered with various scientific devices that Donna had entirely no idea what they were for. As she walked around the benches, she noticed that there were small footprints in the light layer of dust.
As her brows rose, Zaphod used the grooves cut into the edge to clamber up onto the bench, closer to Donna's height. With an indistinct flick of his wrist, a holographic viewer sprang to life in the centre of the lab between the two massive benches.
Donna stared as the letters rearranged themselves into a form she could read.
"It's a computer." Her eyes narrowed. "D'you get wifi out here?"
The doctor gave her an amused look. Donna reached out to touch the display. The computer registered her movements, but her hand passed right through the holographic images.
"Slow." Zaphod said. "Gentle."
Donna snorted. Yeah. She didn't do slow. Or gentle. After a moment of playing, she realised that the doctor was watching her, brow creased in thought. Her eyes narrowed, but she kept her gaze forward.
"So, the captain sent me here to distract me with shiny things, I presume?"
The doctor didn't bite. He sat on the edge of the bench, linking his hands in his lap. "I like to think of us as retrieval specialists."
She looked at him, eyebrow raised.
"A wide variety of clientele contact the captain to have him... arrange a service."
"What service?" Suspicions were beginning to form in Donna's mind. Zaphod just looked at her with those calm eyes. "You're thieves."
The doctor's face tightened.
"There are few career paths open for veterans of the Time War." He said coldly. "You must understand, the War was not a popular conflict."
"There are popular conflicts?"
He threw her a stern look. "Soldiers were thrown into a war that was not their own, and their own people resented and rejected them for their involvement in something that politics had forced them into."
"Like Vietnam." Donna said softly. All along had she thought of the Time War as the Time Lords vs the Daleks. She had never stopped to consider those stuck in the middle, the collateral damage. She sat down heavily on one of the tall stools, opposite Zaphod.
"I walked into the middle of your job, didn't I?"
"Yes."
"At the prison?"
"Yes."
Donna skewered him with her gaze. "Hey, it seems I've lumped myself in with you lot, so the least you can do is stop holding out on me."
He gave her an amused look. "We needed the key, if you will. To find the location of the Jewel of Verdai."
The name had a note of familiarity to it, but Donna deliberately didn't delve into her Time Lord memories for fear of worsening the Metacrisis Effect.
"Our contact in the prison was there when the Cybermen stole the Jewel. However, he was heavily guarded at all times, which required infiltration."
Well, that explained a bit.
"Why didn't you get your contact out too?"
Zaphod snorted. "He wished to remain."
"What?"
"In the prison, he is a king. Outside, he is simply another gun runner."
"Oh." Well, what else are you supposed to say to that?
"We are to return the Jewel to the rightful place in the galaxy." He continued.
"And be generously compensated for it, of course."
"Of course."
"Why you?"
The doctor cocked his head to the side.
"Not to sound arrogant, but we are the best."
"Yeah. That's not arrogant at all."
"Long before the war, the captain had a reputation as ingenious and cunning. That has followed him into his... career change."
He eyed her unblinkingly, and Donna squirmed, beginning to feel uncomfortable. "So the plan is to sneak in under the Cybermen's guard and steal back this... Jewel."
"Yes." Well, at least he wasn't a big talker.
"And how did... Captain Loki... get all... cyber?"
Zaphod's expression closed off, and Donna knew at once that the boy knew more than he was willing to say. "That is not my story to tell." He said sternly. "Perhaps in time the tale will be revealed to you."
Okay, now this is an awkward silence.
Donna and Zaphod sat there staring at each other before the solid metal doors slid open, and Roger the tech lizard stomped in. He looked scornfully at both of them before commandeering the massive computer.
"Lilith is at the helm." With the lack of inflection in his voice, he could have been addressing a chair. "The Captain is going down now."
Several different monitors sprang to life, maps, blueprints, Loki's vitals, and a live feed that must have been emanating from somewhere on the Captain's person.
Roger smiled, or as much as a lizard could smile.
"Let's begin."