Chapter 4

Marla was led to a featureless room, and stood nervously while she waited for something to happen. She took the time to examine the metal orb that had suddenly taken control of her life. It was the size of a basketball, and reminded her of the 'Death Star' from Star Wars, being constructed of a number of grey, silver, and black panels. It had a row of small LED's around its middle, one of which was flashing erratically, as though it was connected to some computer network.

"Congratulations on your selection as a pets-assistant, we hope you will be very happy with your new owners," the orb said. "To facilitate this, I will be teaching you basic etiquette, and the verbal commands you will need to know to please your owners." This introduction was accompanied by a holographic, animated cartoon, presumably for species that did not have the ability to use language.

The metal orb displayed a holographic options menu in the air. "If at any time you require assistance, touch me and I will display a menu of available options for you to choose from. If you are ready, we will begin. Sit," the orb said, followed by an alien word, "bett," and an animated holographic cartoon of someone sitting down, which led Marla to believe that 'bett' was 'sit' in her owner's language.

Marla looked around, and could see no chair, stool, or bench in the featureless room. 'Where am I supposed to sit?' she thought to herself.

"Sit, bett," the orb repeated, and her collar gave her a small spark of static electricity as a gentle encouragement to obey the command. She immediately sat down on the floor with her arms wrapped around her knees; she didn't want a repeat of her earlier, shocking experience.

"Good girl," the orb said encouragingly. "You have earned a reward; cup your hands below me to receive that reward." A cartoon hologram showed how she should assume the 'begging' position. 'What do you mean 'good girl?' she thought to herself, 'I'm thirty two and a grown woman, you condescending bitch.'

However, a reward sounded a lot better than a punishment, so she copied the cartoon, and a jelly bean sweet dropped into her hands. She looked at it suspiciously, holding it between her finger and thumb, before sniffing it. It smelt of strawberries and cream, so she popped it in her mouth and chewed. The flavour exploded in her mouth, and it was delicious.

"Stand," the orb commanded, again followed by the alien version, "ayet," and a cartoon, and so she stood up. "Good girl, you have earned a reward." She fancied another one of those sweets, so put her hands under the orb to receive another one.

"Lie down, banth ro," and she lay on the floor, getting another sweet. This wasn't so bad, apart from being naked, and being treated like an imbecile, she could survive this until she was rescued.

"Stand, ayet." Marla stood up again, wondering if this was some sort of bizarre, alien callisthenics. "Walk to heel, mehlie na tral," the orb said, and started to move around the room, keeping to the wall as it moved. "Try to keep me at your shoulder with the leash dangling loosely."

Marla walked around the room, with the orb at her shoulder. "Good girl, stop, ketch."

'Ah, I was right, ketch means stop', Marla thought with a smile.

"You have earned a reward."

There were more basic commands, such as kneel, where she had to sit on her heels, and a 'bad girl' posture, which the cartoon hologram showed that she had to assume a foetal position with her arms covering her head. Later that morning, she was surprised when a hole appeared in the wall and a plastic ball popped out, and she had to fetch, catch, and throw it, as well as learning to wait before picking it up.

She started to wonder about toilet facilities as her bladder started to call for her attention. She remembered seeing that green lizard lady peeing in a hole in her cage when she arrived yesterday, and wondered if that was it, just a hole.

She gently stroked the orb, and an options menu appeared in the air in front of her. There was a list of all the commands she had learnt so far, presumably so that she could go over any she wasn't sure of. Another option said 'medical emergency', which she hadn't thought about before, but it was reassuring to know that she could summon medical assistance if needed. At the bottom of the list was 'toilet'.

She pressed the 'toilet' option. "Walk to heel, mehlie na tral," and a hole appeared in the wall for her to walk through. A few steps down the corridor, another hole opened onto a small cubicle, with a hole in the floor. 'Okay', she thought, she'd been to India; she'd peed down a hole before.

"Toilet, krapp," the orb said. Marla nearly laughed out loud. 'You have got to be kiddin' me', she thought with a smile. She squatted over the hole and emptied her bladder, and then looked around for some toilet paper, only to find that there wasn't any. Before she could touch the orb and see if there was an option for it, a jet of warm water squirted her under parts, followed by a jet of warm air.

'You guys have thought of everything, haven't you?'

"Stand, ayet, walk to heel, mehlie na tral." She was led back to the training room for more of the same.

Console Room, TARDIS.

Torchwood Special Operations Standby Room.

John was preparing the TARDIS for a journey into the near past, using the timestamp from the satellite feed. On board were Julia, her field partner Jake Simmonds, and Gwen, just in case there was any unpleasantness.

He closed his eyes and reached out with his thoughts. ["Rose? Can you talk?"]

["It's not allowed here,"] she said with a mental smirk. ["Yeah, I can talk; I'm learnin' how to use a washin' machine."]

["Really?"]

["Yeah, talk about teachin' yer granny to suck eggs. Watcha want, have you got a lead?"]

It was John's turn to smirk. ["I thought they supplied those with the orbs."]

["Ha-ha, that's a leash."]

["I just wanted you to know that I think I've found the ship that kidnapped Martha…."]

["Marla,"] she corrected.

["Yeah, her as well. I've got to go back two days to follow the ship and intercept it after it's dropped her off, which means I'll be out of your time line for a while. Can you foresee any impending emergency where you will need me to jump in and rescue you?"]

["I don't think so; it seems to be a normal day of training on the use of domestic appliances, so go get 'em tiger, grrrr."]

[Okay Sweetheart, I'll check in with you as soon as I get back. I love you."]

[Love you too, bye."]

John sighed as he closed the connection, he didn't like leaving Rose without an escape route, but if they were going to find these low life's and put them out of business, then he had to. He opened his eyes and saw the three of them looking at him expectantly.

"I was just telling Rose that we'd be gone for a while, just in case she got worried when she couldn't contact me." He activated the materialise/dematerialise function, and gradually increased the space-time throttle which caused the time rotor to start pumping up and down, taking them into the Vortex.

The TARDIS materialised in a geostationary orbit, one hundred miles above the North American continent, and eighteen hours in the past. He immediately started to scan the Bright Angel Canyon with everything the TARDIS could throw at it, to locate the cloaked ship on the surface.

"So, what's the plan Doc?" Jake asked, as John studied the view screen.

"Well, we have to let Dr. Jones be kidnapped and dropped off at the kennels, because that's already happened, but after that, we can intercept them and find out who they're working for."

"And then we get Rose and Jack back?" Gwen asked, almost as a statement.

John longed to have his wife back, he longed for his children to have their mother back, however….

"Eventually, yes, but the people doing the kidnapping may not be the same people running the kennels. Don't forget, I've found at least three different types of ship, there may be more."

The three agents looked glum at the thought of their friends and colleagues being stuck in those kennels and having to endure that degrading treatment.

"Well, let's take these scumbags out of the picture and take it from there," Jake said. "Y'never know, we might get lucky."

"Ah, here we go then," John said, jumping into action. "We've got air turbulence coming out of the canyon and heading into the upper atmosphere. If I can just slave the TARDIS to the object creating the turbulence…." His brow furrowed in concentration, and then a big smile broke across his face as the time rotor started to pump up and down.

"Hah, gotcha! I don't need to see you to be able to follow you," he said as he flicked a lever as he spun around. "Damn I'm good…, cup of tea anyone?"

The TARDIS followed the invisible ship out of the solar system, before it engaged its warp engines, and dragged the TARDIS into hyperspace, a poor man's version of the Void, which only warped space, not time as well.

One hour and twenty two minutes, and a few cups of tea later, they dropped out of warp and approached a star system with a number of planets, mostly gas giants with ring systems around them.

"Let's get a fix on some of these stars then," John said, and started cross referencing known pulsars, quasars, and first magnitude stars. "Ooh, we're a long way from home, the other side of the galaxy, not visible from Earth. According to the TARDIS star charts, this is the Thood-Crow system."

"Is that a problem?" Julia asked, slightly nervous about being so far from home.

"Nah, we're still in our galaxy, that's like living in Aberdeen and visiting Portsmouth, you'd still be in the same country."

"Er, Aberdeen's in Scotland," Gwen pointed out.

"Is it? Oh..., no wonder Sarah Jane was so put out…. Ah, we're heading for that Mars sized moon orbiting the second gas giant from the star."

The cloaked ship went into a geostationary orbit around the moon, and John quickly scanned the surface, it was very 'Spock', and Rose would have been proud. He found the kennels training facility, which appeared to be the only building on the level one moon. There were no civilisations, no cities, no towns, just unspoilt wilderness.

"Ah-ha, teleport beam, that'll be Martha being dropped off. We'll let them fly through the system a bit, and then snare them with a gravity well." He looked at the image of the facility on the screen, and yearned for Rose who was SO close, and yet SO far.

"Who's Martha?" Jake asked.

"Long story, remind me to tell you when this is all over. Okay, time to go."

As they did in the solar system, they followed the ship as it moved away from the star and prepared to engage the warp engines.

"Power levels rising in the warp coils, time to pour some water on their fire." He pulled down a lever, and the pitch of the time rotor changed as the TARDIS surrounded the cloaked ship with a massive gravity field.

John chuckled to himself as he looked at the screen. "Their ship now weighs as much as a large moon; it'll take the energy of a moderate sized star to move that ship."

"How do you do that?" Julia asked, moving beside him to look at the screen.

"The TARDIS effectively has a black hole as a power source, she can do anything."

"What?!" Jake said in alarm. "Ya never told us that before, y'mean we're sat on top of a black hole?"

"No, of course not," John said with a smile. "Sitting inside a black hole would be more accurate."

His three friends visibly paled, and he grinned at them. "Safest place in this universe in here, the trouble starts when you open those doors and step outside," he said with a far away look in his eyes, remembering all the times he and Rose had walked or run into trouble through those doors. They still looked unsure though. "Look, would I bring my wife, my son, and my daughter in here if it wasn't safe?"

The three agents looked at each other with raised eyebrows and nodded, he'd got a point.

John walked around to the communications panel and flicked a switch. "Hello unidentified cloak vessel, I'm Doctor John Smith, Senior Special Operations Field Agent from the Torchwood Institute on the planet Earth. Remember that planet? Bluish green planet, clever little apes running around, a bit excitable…, and paranoid, tend to fly off the handle a bit, but on the whole, a nice lot," he rambled on, waggling his eyebrows at his smiling colleagues.

"Can I help you?" a puzzled voice asked from the speaker.

"Oh hello," John said cheerily. "I'm placing you under arrest on suspicion of kidnapping, trafficking of sentient life forms for financial gain, and violation of their statutory rights under article fifty two of the Shadow Proclamation. You have the right to remain silent, and anything you say will be recorded and may be used in evidence. It may harm your defence if you do not mention now, something that you later rely on at your trial."

"Bloody hell!" the now alarmed voice came back from the speaker.