Yet again i've caught up with what's written on my laptop. Oh well! Happy New Years Eve folks! I'm updating before work so if something is a little hit and miss - grammar wise - let me know and i'll come back and correct it! =D

On a plus side, i've only got to work today, got tomorrow off, got to work next week end, then have a month off. Woohoo! Holiday! xD

Thank you for alerts/fav'ing/reviews! n_n

43

"Oh dear," The Doctor ran around the ship. Phil stood on the outside and watched as he jumped out from the doorway.

"Not good news?"

"No, it's a prisoner ship. I'm guessing these things were the prisoners, and those robots were the guards." The Doctor paused. "All the energy has been drained from it, unless..." He trailed off and jumped back into the ship. Phil raised an eyebrow as he popped back up clutching random wires. "Unless emergency protocol kicked in."

"Emergency protocol?"

"They are the prisoners, but those aren't the guards. If something bad happens the power reroutes to them and they power up."

"Who are the guards then?"

"Phil look around you, they're not violent are they? They all look so placid."

"But...given half the chance wouldn't they turn violent?"

"Well," The Doctor dropped the wires and sat in the doorway. Swinging his legs he looked down at her, the ship had crashed nose first and the doorway was at a slight diagonal angle. "I don't think they have it in them, literally."

"So...who was driving?"

"Autopilot. There wasn't a pilot, there weren't any living people on the ship. This thing was programmed to take them lot back to where ever."

"So the only question left is, how did it crash?"

"Well I'm no genius but I figure they ran into trouble." The Doctor jumped down carefully and straightened his jacket out. Phil shook her head slowly, "What?"

"Nothing nothing, you're just finding more ways to boost your ego." Phil nodded and then looked up at him. "What sort of trouble?"

"I don't know, an asteroid belt?"

"Why do you pinpoint that in particular?"

The Doctor put a hand on her shoulder and led her around the other side of the ship. Running up the length of the ship were holes varying in sizes. "Oh."

"Yes, so I'm guessing they ran into trouble in an asteroid belt much like the one between Mars and Jupiter-"

"Wait! Mars?"

"No Phil these guys have nothing to do with the Ice Warriors, they can be many things but I don't think they would enslave a whole species." The Doctor said, his words calming her down instantly. "But then again, there are minor planets in that asteroid belt."

"You think they came or were going to one of those minor planets?" Phil asked quietly, The Doctor stood in thought for a few more seconds before looking down at her and nodding slowly. "But then, those robots?"

"They won't stop trying to get in here. If their job is to round these guys up, once they do that then their out of work. Unless they issue an emergency signal..."

"What does that mean Doctor?"

"It means that whoever sent this ship would come and get them. But look at this thing! It's practically fully apart! Whoever the owner was, they clearly have forgotten about it or else they'd have come and collected it a long time ago."

"But it's from the future but...in the past..."

"Time travelling gets mighty confusing Phil, different worlds different time lines. I don't think there's an easy way of me explaining it to you. But where ever this came from, it clearly came from a high technology society. But as I said, it's almost fallen apart."

"Is it past repairing?"

"You thinking of repairing it and letting them fly off? I would agree with you if they'd crashed like five minutes ago. But look around you Phil! These creatures have clearly been here for many many many many years, what's the point of uprooting their happiness?"

"That's a lot of manys." Phil shook her head and walked back around the ship, The Doctor followed after her. "So what do we do?"

"Leave."

"Just like that? We leave?"

"Well yeah, I'm not one for destroying happiness, but we may need to sort out that robot problem." The Doctor scratched his head in thought. "We just need to find the right signal which will short circuit them is all."

"Oh Doctor you make it sound all so simple!"

Being crouched behind some rocks Phil crossed her arms. The two had come up with the plan on getting the signal, only that plan involved needing to actually get their hands on a robot. "This isn't fair," muttered Phil as she looked over the rocks. She was acting as bait, out of all things to do this wasn't on the list. The Doctor was lurking somewhere, she just wasn't sure where.

"Right, well this won't do will it? I'm just sitting here...being a sitting duck doesn't bode well with me." Phil stood up and trotted down the tunnel. The robot which was trying to earlier get in had gone away, this just meant that exiting that little safe haven was easier than expected.

Waving the torch around Phil frowned, they were everywhere. Literally those robots were everywhere. They were embedded in the walls, they were laying on the floor. Phil mentally groaned, worst case scenario she was going to get cornered.

Then The Doctor will be forced to do some heroics and save her, Phil shrugged and slowed her pace down. Holding the torch steady she looked around, there was nothing that The Doctor liked more than being a hero. She could see that, saving someone gave him great happiness. Hearing a rusty squeak she slowly turned, gulping and backing off Phil lifted the torch up to shine it at the robots faces. If only they had faces, there were five in total, five of them and one of her.

"Hello," she waved and jumped away from one robot which went to grab her. "Your invading my personal space." Phil said and ran past that one and past the other four. "Don't go down there!" She exclaimed as The Doctor ran towards her.

"Why don't you listen to me?" Phil asked while leaning against her knees to get her breath back. She yelped when one of her arms got clutched onto and she was suddenly being dragged back down the tunnel.

"Maybe we should go the other way huh?" The Doctor said while still pulling her along, Phil looked over her shoulder just as a bright spark shot out from the floor. It looked like lightening, the bright white light lashed out and up at the cave ceiling. Getting pulled behind some rocks Phil rubbed her eyes. "You looked at it didn't you? Phil I never knew you were a moth to the flames."

"But it's so shiny!" She said jokingly, he shook his head and peered back over. The Doctor walked quickly in the direction of where the bright light was. Rubbing her eyes again Phil soon jumped up and ran after him. "What was that?"

"It was a disruptor."

"How and when did you get that?"

"I didn't, they did." The Doctor explained while nodding back to the safe haven. Crouching down to the nearest robot he reached out and touched the bandages which were tightly wrapped all around it.

"Are they dead?"

"No," The Doctor looked up at the other robots laying around thanks to the disruptor. "They're all still fully functioning just unconscious. How strange, a unconscious robot. Seems weird saying that," The Doctor said thoughtfully while managing to tear a piece of bandage and remove it.

"So those little critters had the disruptor? Which meant you stole it!"

"It didn't steal, I'm not a thief Phil. I merely borrowed without them knowing." The Doctor corrected her and took out the screwdriver. Flashing it over a small hatch he smiled when it clicked and he was able to get access in.

"So that means..."

"Yes while you were out here being bait I was in there getting the disruptor, I managed to tweak it slightly. Usually disruptors only slow something down for a few minutes. If I hadn't tweaked it these things would be back up by now. But I worked my magic and knocked them out, how brilliant is that?" The Doctor grinned so happy with his words. Phil crouched beside him and looked at him seriously. "What's with that look?"

"I thought that you were out here somewhere. That gave me courage to run around to wake the robots up." Phil crossed her arms on her knees, The Doctor looked at her and then down at the open hatch.

"Phil I've found that if I say something for you to do, and that I'm nearby, you tend to do that without question. Yet if I tell you I'm elsewhere when I've given or told you to do something you tend to not listen. And you say my reverse psychology needs working on! For shame on you." The Doctor laughed rather childishly and pulled at some of the cables in the robot. He scanned over them and looked at Phil who was glaring at him. "What?"

"That's mean! What if something actually happened to me?"

"Then I'd be sad, but I had all faith in you that you would be fine. You'd get annoyed at me if I kept you from having your little moments of braveness." The Doctor paused, "You're very brave."

"Alright alright! No need to embarrass me and my braveness, I get the idea."

"Good! Great even, you know what else is great? This! Look at this!" The Doctor said excitedly while wriggling his fingers in the hatch and grasping at more wires. "Oh this is so brilliant that brilliant isn't enough of a word for it."

"What about...super?"

"No brilliant will do fine. Do you know why it's brilliant?" The Doctor asked, Phil shook her head. "Because it is basically unstoppable! An unstoppable robot that's just to brilliant!"

"Unstoppable?"

"Well it's stopped now but it won't take long," The Doctor nodded and continued to scan the inside of the robot. He was trying to find the main core, he had found circuit work but not the main circuits he needed.

"The brain."

"Robots don't have brains Phil."

"No I mean...it's like a main computer for us. So wouldn't the robots main computer or whatever be in its head?" Phil questioned, The Doctor sat with a thoughtful look on his face before nodding and pinching her cheeks.

"You're so clever! What would I do without you pointing out the obvious and distracting me from my fun?"

"You're practically doing an autopsy on a robot." Phil paused, "I don't think the robot would thank you for pulling half of it out onto a cave floor."