Part Two
Guard the door, Ren had said. It was a sight easier said than done when Harry hadn't a clue how the blasted weapon she'd given him actually worked.
He brandished it at the giant lobster in the doorway anyway, hoping it might scare the creature off, and shouted, "Get away from there! Stay back!"
Much to his surprise, even as he spoke, the creature was already yelping out a fearful, "Intruder, intruder!" and they stared at one another in an impasse of mutual shock and confusion.
In the distance, Harry saw Ren turn around and head back, alerted by their shouts – and then all thought of the lobster creature before him left his head entirely, because he'd spotted a flicker of movement behind her.
"Oh, I say." He shoved the creature out of the way to dash forward, shouting a warning. "Ren! Watch out!"
She heard and dropped just in time, the lightning blast of some kind of laser weapon forking through the spot where she'd been standing just a second earlier…but now she was down and couldn't recover in time, and the sniper had her in his sights.
Too late to worry about how this gun might or might not work. Harry pointed what he hoped was its nose in the direction of the sniper and squeezed what he hoped was the trigger.
The shot missed, of course – unfamiliar weapon over too great a distance, and all that – but the sniper had to dive to avoid it anyway, and that gave Ren time to recover.
She shot the sniper herself, ruthlessly efficient, and came sprinting back to the air car, shouting. "Get aboard, Dilly! Where's Brunnal?"
Harry blinked. The lobster creature was one of her missing associates?
"There's an alien, what is it?" it squeaked, gesticulating in Harry's direction – every bit as unnerved by him, apparently, as he was by it.
"Never mind, get aboard! Go!" Ren bundled them both back into the air car and sealed the door. "Brunnal, Dilly – where is he?"
The giant lobster flailed. "Gone, taken – payload and cargo, too."
"The idiot," Ren seethed, charging toward the cockpit. "We're getting out of here. Hold tight!"
dwdwdwdwdw
"Robbed? The store is being robbed? We've walked into the middle of a robbery?" Sarah exclaimed in disbelief. "I don't believe it – no wait, yes I do. Of course I do. Just our rotten luck!"
"Timing is everything." The Doctor cautiously peered around the corner to see what was going on out there, his powerful frame filling the archway as he raised his voice to make himself heard above the noise of the disturbance out in the store. "And ours has been appalling today, wouldn't you agree, Sarah – but I don't believe a robbery is what's happening here. Listen." He whirled around to face the alien executive, who jumped at the intensity of his sudden focus on her. "What's your name?"
The executive blinked a strange, sideways blink, so surprised that she answered the question without thinking. "Valina. What do you mean, not a robbery?"
"I mean just what I say I mean and I thought my meaning was plain." There was an impatient edge to the Doctor's voice. "Which way are the checkouts?"
Looking dazed, Valina pointed, and then rallied to demand, "Are you part of it? A diversion? It won't work!"
"You're not thinking, Valina," said the Doctor. "Checkouts this way, disturbance that. Does this establishment deal in hard currency?"
"Of course not! Cash payment is outmoded and inefficient."
"Then payment is fully automated, exactly, and I'm sure there must be far easier ways of stealing goods, so why would any self-respecting robber waste their time here?" He offered his most charming smile. "Which means this must be something else entirely, and I think we should find out what – don't you?"
Valina stared, eyes widening. "A protest," she gasped. "But here? This is a high-end establishment!"
"What do you mean, protest – what kind of protest?" Sarah pushed alongside the Doctor in that narrow archway and poked her head out under his arm to take a quick peek.
It was a bit far to make out many details, but there seemed to be quite a crowd gathering, away near to a larger opening that must be a way in and out of the store: a messy, disorganised mass of seething discontent. She could hear shouted slogans of some kind, and also heckling and jeering – angry protestors versus hard-hearted and indifferent customers and staff? No one seemed to be actively threatening anyone, so perhaps that burst of weapons fire had been about attracting attention only…but Sarah had been a journalist long enough to know how easily a so-called peaceful protest could escalate.
"Dissident residents, of course, from the slum districts – the protests have been all over the news channels, haven't you seen them?" Valina looked from Sarah to the Doctor and back again, perplexed. "But this is the business sector, off-world trade, nothing to do with them – this can't happen here!"
The Doctor offered her a sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry, Valina, but I rather think you'll find that it can. Why do the residents protest?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Well, they're going to a lot of trouble, exposing themselves to considerable risk – they must have a grievance of some kind."
Sarah saw where this was going and her heart sank. "We're supposed to be looking for Harry, Doctor."
She felt guilty even as she said it, because something was wrong here and every investigative, journalistic instinct she possessed was pricking up, demanding to know more…but how could she care about any of that, until they knew what had happened to Harry – and yet how could they not prioritise the bigger picture?
She read similar conflict on the Doctor's face as he glanced back at the computer terminals and then out into the store again. "Those protestors out there are armed, Sarah, someone could get hurt – and besides, they're blocking our exit."
"The militia will already be on their way," Valina helpfully interjected, a rather more severe note entering her voice as she added, "Customers are not advised to approach the protestors – let the militia handle it."
"Militia? Armed militia for a civil disturbance?" The Doctor's eyes just about popped right out of his head. "No wonder the protestors carry arms. This could turn into a bloodbath."
"They often do." Valina sounded scared. "But always in the outlying districts, in the slums, never here – we have customers, off-world traders. What's going to happen?"
Sarah looked at the Doctor's face and knew exactly what he wanted to do: go out there and intercede, try to talk the protestors down before it was too late, try to talk the militia down, before the situation could escalate…but they were supposed to be looking for Harry, and where earlier, immediately after the fall, she'd been tormented by visions of him splattered all over the ground two miles below, now she found herself picturing him clinging onto a ledge somewhere, waiting to be rescued – couldn't shake the nagging fear that every moment they delayed increased the chances of him losing his grip and falling again.
They simply had to look at the bigger picture here, she told herself. This could turn ugly at any moment. Besides, there were two of them.
"You should go," she told the Doctor, quickly, before she could change her mind. "Talk to them, see what you can do. I can finish up here."
His face lit up. "That's the spirit, Sarah. Valina can show you what to do."
Flashing a grin that wasn't the slightest bit reassuring, he took off into the store at a run, and as he disappeared from sight Sarah felt a chill of panic run down her spine because they'd already lost Harry and the Doctor had said it himself, this could turn into a bloodbath – and over what? They didn't even know.
"Hey, and be careful," she shouted after him, wanting to go with him, to help, to not let him out of her sight…but also knowing that they needed to finish this, to find Harry – and the TARDIS.
"What does he think he's going to do?" Valina wondered. "Is he mad?"
Now that was a can of worms Sarah had no intention of opening. She turned to face the woman, grimly setting her resolve, because whatever might be happening out there in the store, whatever danger the Doctor was walking into, they had a job to do right here and the quicker the better.
"Valina. Can you show me how these computer things work?"
Valina blinked that strange, sideways blink of hers, more confused than ever. "There are armed protestors out there, uproar, the militia on their way…and you're concerned about registering your complaint, claiming back credit?"
"The protestors are out there, not back here, and the Doctor's dealing with them, which means we have time and this is important," Sarah insisted. "Our friend fell off the top of the re-fuelling station next door, and I need you to show me how I can find out what happened to him. The Doctor mentioned a link to the central mainframe – how do I access it?"
Valina stared at her. "How can anyone fall off a re-fuelling station?"
Sarah sighed. "It's easier than you might think."
dwdwdwdwdw
Dilly the giant lobster stared in dismay at the damage to the cockpit area. "What under the suns of high heaven happened here?"
"The Earth man happened," said Ren, and Dilly turned curious eyes upon Harry, head tilting to look him up and down while a myriad of tiny antennae wafted and wiggled in his direction as if sniffing him out.
"What kind of creature is that?"
He might very well ask the same question himself, he thought, shuffling awkwardly – he couldn't even tell if Dilly was male or female, and then wondered if the distinction was even relevant to such a creature.
"Have you never seen an Earth person before?" Ren's grumble was accompanied by an expressive eye roll. "Dilly, what happened back there?"
The intensity of Dilly's fascinated stare made Harry squirm – especially when the creature sidled closer to poke at him with an oversized claw. "Earth man," it repeated in prim, precise tones. "Is it supposed to look like that? What did you do to our shuttle, Earth man?"
This 'Earth man' business was beyond a joke now. Harry decided that enough was enough. "Harry," he corrected, in the firmest tone he could muster. "My name is Harry. And, er, it was an accident, really."
"He dropped out of the sky and into our lives," Ren impatiently explained. "Talk to me, Dilly. What happened back there?"
A shudder ran through Dilly's bulky, chitinous frame. "Ambush – they were waiting for us, they knew the deal was going down. They knew when, they knew where. Someone squealed, they must've…"
"Who?" demanded Ren. "Who attacked you? Think, Dilly. Calm down and think."
Dilly quailed. "It was the Shad!"
Ren cursed, at length. "Shad! But the Shad don't operate here."
"They do now."
"Since when?"
"I don't know. They were there, they knew, they were waiting!"
"And they took Brunnal?" Ren cursed again, as agitated as Harry had seen her yet.
He looked from one to the other, confused. "Er…I'm not sure I entirely understand."
"Of course you don't, you've not understood a thing since I've known you," Ren grumbled, and he might have been offended if he hadn't known perfectly well it was true. "The Shad are trouble, understand that. How did you escape, Dilly?"
"I ran, of course," said Dilly, as if it should be obvious. "I hid – I knew they'd left a man. I lost track of him. I was hiding, waiting for you, you were late. Just look at this mess!"
Chitinous claws and delicate antennae began to examine the damaged control console, far more dextrous than Harry could ever have imagined.
"Sat-com is down," said Ren. "Scanners, too – it was as much as I could do to get her in the air again. Can you repair it? To track Brunnal?"
"Of course I can repair it." A note of scornful pride came into the giant lobster's voice. "Just be quiet and keep flying, I'm working."
Ren made scoffing sound of exasperation and then cast an appraising glance at Harry. "Dilly's right. You can't be seen like that – go back there, wash, change, while you have the chance. Go."
The unexpected command took Harry completely by surprise. He glanced down at a suit that had been pristine when he put it on, now torn in a dozen places and stiff with dried blood.
Perhaps Ren had a point.
He went through to the living area and looked around, pulling off his goggles as the door closed behind him, cutting off the ferocity of the wind whipping through the broken windshield. Wash and change, she'd said, which meant there were facilities and clothes and they couldn't be that hard to find, surely.
A murmur of low voices from the cockpit told him that Ren and Dilly were taking the opportunity for a private conversation, but he couldn't make out any words through the closed door, and focused instead on exploring the cupboards. His search failed to turn up anything enlightening about their rather shady-seeming business dealings, but he did manage to locate a small wardrobe compartment, and was delighted to have not had to ask. Some of the clothes were very odd, certainly not intended for a humanoid shape, but there were a number of flight suits not unlike the one Ren had on, and he rifled through for one that looked to be about the right size, pulled it out and turned to look for a wash stand of some kind.
Further exploration revealed what appeared to be a tiny bathroom. The first thing Harry saw when he opened the door was his own reflection in a mirror opposite: blood matted in his hair, clothes torn and stained…yet not a trace remained of any actual injury, not so much as a twinge, and he marvelled again at the technology that had healed him so completely.
He turned on what appeared to be a tap and nothing happened.
It had been that sort of day all round, really.
"Can't even turn on a tap, eh, Sullivan," he muttered to himself, frowning at it, because a tap was a tap, surely, even in a futuristic society like this. How hard could it be?
He tried waving a hand under the nozzle and felt a strange tingle, pulled his hand back and then marvelled all over again because it was suddenly clean – even the dried blood crusted under his fingernails had gone.
So this tap didn't offer water, but something else that did the same job? Well, it wasn't the strangest thing he'd encountered since meeting the Doctor.
"Right-oh, then," he remarked aloud and set about cleaning up as best he could…an awkward business involving quite complex contortions to get various bits of his body beneath that invisible stream to wash all the blood off. It was a good job Sarah wasn't here to see it, or she'd never stop laughing…
But a moment later he knew he'd let Sarah laugh at him as much as she pleased, if it meant she were here, safe and sound – her and the Doctor. And he wished again that he knew what had become of them.
dwdwdwdwdw
"I could lose my job!" Valina protested. "These terminals are for customer support only, they aren't authorised for full access to the mainframe."
"But the Doctor said there was a link," Sarah insisted. "If you show me how, you won't have to do it yourself, you won't get into trouble."
"We're not supposed to override the protocols, I could lose my job!" Valina looked distraught just at the thought of it.
"I could lose my friends," Sarah fiercely countered. "And my home. Please – no one will know, not with everything else going on. Just listen to it out there."
She was trying hard, herself, to shut her ears to the noise from out in the store, because it sounded as if the militia might have arrived and that was alarming, the situation out there on a real knife-edge, but she had a job to do and she couldn't focus on it if she was worrying about the Doctor.
He was good at this. He'd be fine, and so would everyone else.
Valina hesitated, fidgeting nervously, and Sarah's patience suddenly snapped. "Look, my friend had a terrible accident, and all I want is to find out what happened to him – I don't understand why no one will let me, why no one will help!"
It was all linked somehow, she was certain of it now: the dissidents, the protests, the militia, the utter unhelpfulness of the place, the close-minded disinterest they seemed to encounter at every turn – something rotten at the core of this civilised-seeming world that appeared not to have as much as a spark of compassion anywhere.
Until now, anyway. Valina suddenly made up her mind and caught at Sarah's hand, almost breathless with her own daring. "Come with me, quickly, before we're seen."
She used the ID pass hooked onto her belt to open the staff only door and ushered Sarah through into the area beyond, where the sound of near riot from out in the store was muted but still audible. A giant slug-like creature promptly came rushing at them, squealing like a stuck pig. "Have you seen what's happening out there? Have you seen what's happening? Here! What is the world coming to?"
It rushed off again, still squealing, and Valina started breathing again. "If he reports that I brought you back here…"
"You're really afraid," Sarah realised. "I mean, I like my job well enough, but…would they really fire you, just for helping me search for my friend after an accident?"
Valina's eyes were wide and scared. "This area is strictly off limits to all customers."
"Oh, but surely –"
"Breach of regulation is not tolerated, on any account. Everyone has a place, a purpose, and must hold to that." Valina pushed her into a small office, locked the door and activated a computer terminal. "Without that purpose you're nothing – one of them."
"The dissidents, you mean?" Sarah tried to understand.
"You really don't know?"
"Just arrived – why don't you tell me?"
"This is the business sector, off-world trade – what am I looking for here?"
"Oh, er – accident reports, has anything been seen falling near to the re-fuelling station, or…I don't know…recovered from the ground beneath it? We're looking for two things: our friend and our vehicle. It looks like a big blue box."
Valina tapped in the search. "I was saying, this is the business sector – off-world trade, tourism – to be employed here is to be secure. This is a strictly regulated zone; deviation from standard protocol is prohibited, for the comfort and safety of all. I don't know how they managed to get weapons up here…"
Sarah thought perhaps she could see where this was leading. "What about the rest of the people – the ones who don't work in the business sector?"
"Not so fortunate," was all Valina would say. "And I have no wish to join them. There is not much little information here. Traffic reports, complaints about erratic flight patterns – oh, this may be it." She squinted myopically at the screen. "Reports of two minor collisions and collection of debris from ground level –"
"What kind of debris?" That garage attendant's comments about 'organic debris' were suddenly ringing in Sarah's ears again and she held her breath, biting at her lip and steeling herself for the worst while Valina studied the screen.
"A big blue box, you said? Yes, this is it – collected and removed to waste depot, I can give directions. Undamaged, it appears." She sounded surprised. "I thought you said it fell from the top of the re-fuelling station?"
"The TARDIS, that's the TARDIS." Sarah started breathing again. "What about Harry – our friend? He was standing just next to it when the platform gave way – is there anything…?"
Valina shook her head, frowning at the screen as she tapped away at it the keypad. "There are no reports listed – nothing organic recovered at ground level, only two minor collisions and both relate to the box, no clinical admissions, no sightings reported – not a trace. I don't know where your friend is, I'm sorry."
"But that's a good thing, surely." Sarah felt as if an enormous weight had been lifted off her chest, as if she were breathing properly for the first time in what felt like hours. "I mean, he can't have just disappeared, so if he didn't reach the ground then he's still out there, somewhere – alive."
dwdwdwdwdw
The borrowed flight suit was rather more form-fitting than Harry was used to, but he had to admit that he felt a whole lot better just for having been able to freshen up a little.
He'd also made a decision.
"Back already," Ren grumped with a sardonic little snort as he returned to the cockpit, but he ignored her grumbling in favour of getting down to business.
"Why don't you tell me about these, er…Shad, I think you said?"
She narrowed her eyes, suspicious. "Why?"
He thought about the Doctor and Sarah, then, impossibly far away as they seemed. He'd have liked nothing better than to leave these troublesome alien beings to their own devices and see about getting back to his friends, but the situation was what it was. And, as Ren was so fond of reminding him, he did owe that debt.
"Look, we've already agreed that I'm not going anywhere until this is over," he pointed out, settling into a seat alongside her at the helm. "So I may as well lend a hand, since I'm here, and it'll be a sight easier if I understand what's going on. So why not tell me?"
"The Shad are pirates!" Dilly's shrill, squeaky voice piped up and the giant lobster appeared from beneath a console. "They're pirates – moving in on our patch!"
"Pirates?" Harry wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, exactly, but it certainly wasn't that.
"And now they have Brunnal – our cargo too – our contacts are dead…"
"The sat-com, Dilly," said Ren in a tone that brooked no refusal, and Dilly made a low, rumbling sound almost like a growl, disappearing beneath the console again.
"It's coming – I'm nearly there!"
"Then finish it so we can find Brunnal. Resolving this business so we can all get out of here is more important than satisfying the Earth man's curiosity," Ren snapped, and that was another point.
"Yes, what is your business, exactly?" Harry wanted to know, undeterred by the fierce glare she turned upon him since it was fairly clear by now that her bark was worse than her bite and it seemed the sort of thing he ought to know, really, if he was to remain with them – not that he had a great deal of say in that matter. "Look, you might as well tell me. There's not a lot else to do, is there, until the repairs are complete."
There was a pause, and then Ren looked him in the eye and said, "We are traders," in such a flat, bland tone that it was clear she wasn't telling the whole truth.
"Traders?"
"Yes." She'd turned away again, staring fixedly out at the traffic ahead. "We procure necessary goods for those unable to acquire them by any other means."
Her tone was defiant, almost daring him to take issue with this statement. Harry thought about it for a moment, thought about her reluctance to report their accident or seek official help of any kind, her caginess where this ill-fated business deal was concerned, that deadly shoot-out back at the rendezvous she'd missed, the so-called Shad pirates…
"There! Sat-com is up, running and receiving."
Dilly's triumphant declaration was accompanied by a flurry of movement as the giant lobster pushed out from beneath the console to poke at the controls on the panel above, while Ren eagerly turned to do likewise, allowing whatever kind of automatic pilot this vessel ran, freshly repaired, to take over the helm. Forcing Harry to lean back out of the way as they reached across him from either side, they slapped one another's appendages aside as they worked, each getting in the other's way in their eagerness, and a small screen lit up with an array of electronic text and images, scrolling in every direction.
"Junk, junk, automated message – what's that, a fine? What did you do?" Dilly shrilled.
"Erratic flying," Ren read off the screen with a huff of disgust. "The Earth man had just crashed into me, navigation was offline; of course my flight pattern was erratic! So this vehicle is now on the official radar, just what we need. I hate this world. We'll find Brunnal, Dilly, and that's it. We're never doing business here again."
"Brunnal won't agree," said Dilly, still tapping busily away at the console. "This is a lucrative market. He won't let the Shad take it without a fight."
"Then let us hope we can locate and retrieve him alive and intact to make that argument," Ren snapped as Harry's suspicions crystallised into a rather unpleasant certainty. Goods for those unable to acquire them by any other means, she'd said, and it was all far too shady to be legitimate.
"Smugglers," he breathed. "You're smugglers; that's your business."
Ren's indignant glare blazed into him. "Does that concern you?"
He wasn't about to back down, no matter how annoyed she was that he'd put two and two together. "Well, it does rather. Look, I don't know what the situation is on this world, but if you're taking advantage of the people here –"
"We always offer a fair price!" Dilly insisted, while Ren coldly added, "The people of this world have certain needs, which cannot be met through official channels."
"What kind of needs?" Harry wanted to know, deeply suspicious of what he'd so inadvertently become mixed up in. "What sort of goods do you supply?"
"Whatever is needed, and unlike you we don't ask questions," Ren snapped. "We supply a need to pay our way. So who are you and what is your business, that you should criticise mine?"
"I'm a naval officer and a doctor," he proudly told her. "My job is to defend my people and to heal the sick and injured, not take advantage of them."
"I take advantage of no one but the fools who govern this world and others like it, driving their people into the dirt," Ren almost spat, and then scornfully added, "Healing? Why would a person be needed for that when a healing unit would suffice?"
A high-pitched, insistent bleeping from the console interrupted and both Ren and Dilly leapt back to the controls, their urgency telling its own story.
"We have a trace – Brunnal's sub-dermal."
"Where?"
Dilly's dextrous claws and antenna delicately manipulated the controls. "I'm getting a fix…there it is!" The creature's voice was shriller than ever with the excitement of this success. "Got him! Coordinates coming through."
"Got them." Tapping out a rapid sequence on the navigation control panel, Ren let out a deep sigh that was pure relief. "He's alive, then, and on-world still."
"But with the Shad." Dilly's relief was tempered by fear now that the first wave of exhilaration had passed, that sharp, scratchy voice quavering more than a little. "What do we do?"
Ren's face settled into an expression of implacable determination. "We go and get him, what else is there? So what of it, Earth man?" She swivelled in her seat to fix fierce eyes upon Harry once more. "You disapprove of our dealings so much – must we waste time dropping you off at the first landing point we see and leave you there to find your own way? Or are you with us? Can we rely on your support?"
Harry hadn't expected to be given a choice and the suddenness of the question was almost breathtaking, bringing with it the welcome prospect of finally breaking free of these alien beings and their dodgy dealings and starting the search for the Doctor and Sarah at last…somehow. The TARDIS had fallen from such a tremendous height – he simply had to find out what had happened to them, if they were all right.
But how?
Both Ren and Dilly had their eyes – and possibly various other sensory appendages – fixed on him, waiting for his decision. Dilly was visibly agitated, claws clicking and antenna twitching, while Ren remained steely and impassive…but he knew her well enough now, after spending the last few hours together in fairly intense circumstances, to read anxiety in her eyes and tension in her upright bearing.
What little he knew about their illicit business dealings was anathema to him. He couldn't envisage any way in which such an enterprise wouldn't involve taking advantage of the needy, or any way in which such illegal trade could possibly be justified…and yet. They'd been good to him when they really needn't have, if they truly were such rogues, and their concern for their friend struck a chord, anxious as he was for his own. Something deep in his gut wanted to trust them, even though all logic and sense demanded otherwise – and one thing he'd certainly learned on these travels with the Doctor was to trust his instincts.
"I owe you a debt," he slowly reminded Ren, but she shook her head.
"The debt is paid. Your warning at the yard saved my life." There was an odd look about her now, equal parts wary and suspicious and worried, and the honesty of this statement disarmed him completely.
"This is a rescue mission," he said, and realised as he said it that there wasn't actually a decision to be made, because it was as simple as that: smugger or not, a man's life was in danger, and it simply wasn't in him to ignore that. "If I can help, then I will."
"Good, then we can go, quickly! Well done, Earth man!" Dilly chittered, with a funny little hop of agitated excitement that made Harry smile in spite of it all.
Ren's posture remained stiff and her expression impassive, but he saw relief in her eyes, slight but real. She may not think that much of him, but in an emergency it was all hands to the pump, after all. "I'm sure we can find something for you to do," was all she said.
"But then I really must find my own friends," he quickly added. "They could be in danger too."
Dilly's head tilted. "What friends?"
Ren nodded. "It is agreed. You will help us retrieve Brunnal and we will help you locate your people."
"What people?" Dilly looked back and fore between them, perplexed.
"Later, Dilly," dismissed Ren, pulling at the steering control. "Let's go."
dwdwdwdwdw
Clutching the print-out Valina had given her and buoyed by hope for the first time since the ground had disappeared from beneath her feet, Sarah rushed back out into the store to re-join the Doctor…just in time to see one of the protestors hurling something at the armed militia confronting them – and the soldiers opening fire in retaliation.
Her heart skipped a beat. The Doctor was in the middle of all that, somewhere.
"No!"
She began to run, to plunge herself into the melee in search of him, when a strong hand caught hold of her arm and yanked her behind a stack of shelves nearby. For a moment she almost believed it was him…but it was Valina.
"What are you doing, do you want to die?" the alien woman hissed.
"The Doctor's out there." Sarah's fear lent ferocity to her voice. "I don't know where he is, I can't see him –"
She broke off, because she could hear him now, that powerful voice booming out through the shouts and screams and gunshots. "Stop this! Stop this! This is madness!"
"That's the Doctor! He's still out there." She poked her head around the shelf unit to see what was happening, only for Valina to pull her back again.
"There is nothing you can do."
Sarah shook her off. "No, I have to do something. Let me see."
The shooting, at least, was over already and what she saw as she peered around the edge of the shelves was a scene of bloody chaos, the forecourt near to the entrance strewn with bodies, while those few protestors still standing were being rounded up by fierce, implacable soldiers, helmeted and anonymous and heavily armed.
There was that icy fist again, clutching mercilessly at her heart. So many dead and he'd been right there, in the thick of it.
"Oh, Doctor, where are you?" she murmured, and she didn't even care if it was safe, pushed out of this refuge anyway, because she had to find him, that was all that mattered.
"Wait." Again Valina caught at her arm, and she might have argued some more, pulled away and gone charging on over there into the fray, except that she could see him now, alive and on his feet and being arrested, and a wave of relief washed over her.
He'd seen her, too, and caught her eye, his shaggy curls dancing as he shook his head; it was only the slightest of movements but enough – a warning for her not to intervene.
Sarah had never been one for following orders and wanted, with every fibre of her being, to pay him no heed, to carry on over there and get arrested right alongside him, because at least they'd be together…but she knew he was right. She'd be able to achieve far more free than captive – in theory, at least.
So she watched as he was taken away with the other prisoners and tried to tell herself that it would be fine. She could find out where they were taking him and go after them, rescue him if he hadn't talked his way free already, and then they'd find Harry together and then they'd find the TARDIS together and it would be over, they could leave this stupid, hostile world and never come back.
Right?
She turned to Valina and found her staring at the carnage with the shocked, horrified expression of one who'd never witnessed violent death up close until now.
"They shouldn't have done it," the alien woman whispered, wide eyed, as relief teams began flooding into the store to clear away the corpses and round up witnesses, frightened staff and customers slowly trickling out of their hiding places. "Why did they do it? They must have known how it would end."
"Perhaps they did," Sarah told her, watching warily as stern-looking officials headed their way. "Perhaps they thought it was worth it."
"Worth this?" protested Valina in tones of deep distress, but then the militia were upon them and she rallied, every inch the snooty executive once more as she railed at them for allowing such a thing to happen here, in this high end establishment, disturbing and upsetting the customers.
And the staff, she didn't need to add.
The militia wanted witness statements. With the Doctor already well and truly off the premises and out of sight, Sarah surrendered herself to the process on the theory that she might learn something from it, such as where he had been taken, and opted not to identify herself as his friend on the principle that it might defeat the object of not getting herself arrested with him in the first place. Yes, she'd been in the store when the protest broke out, no, she hadn't really seen anything – "I'd gone to customer services, you see, in that alcove back there, and then I hid until it was over" – and if there was a slightly sticky moment or two when they wondered what a human was doing in this citadel, it was nothing she couldn't handle. If there was one thing any investigative journalist worth her salt learned early on in her career, it was how to bluff her way out of being caught someplace she shouldn't be. It was a skill that had come in handy many times, even before she met the Doctor.
It was all worthless in the end, though, because she couldn't find out anything at all about where he had been taken. And it wasn't as if she had any way of getting there, even if she had, stuck way up here in this immense skyscraper, high above the ground.
Sarah had had to make shift for herself on more alien worlds than she could count, but she couldn't remember when she'd ever felt quite so alone.
"Are you all right?" It was Valina, come back to check up on her, and that unexpected gesture of concern from someone she'd initially thought so cold touched her deeply.
Sarah sighed. "Not really. Harry's disappeared into thin air, the Doctor's been arrested – and I'm stuck here at the local cash and carry –"
"This store does not accept cash," Valina pedantically corrected.
"…on a world I don't even know the name of," Sarah glumly finished, and Valina stared at her in surprise.
"How can you not know where you are?"
"I've been a bit busy falling off tall towers to ask! I just…if I knew where the Doctor was taken, perhaps I might find a way to get there, but…oh, where would I even begin?"
Valina studied her for a moment, her expression confused but concerned. "This world is called Skyrn," she said at length in a carefully neutral tone. "It was bio-formed for the support and maintenance of types two through six life-forms a little over fifty standard cycles ago, established as an outpost for trade and tourism. And there are few enough places where a political prisoner might be processed – it would not be hard to determine where those arrested here were taken."
It was a statement of fact rather than an offer of help, but nonetheless Sarah seized upon it for the hope that it promised. "Can you show me?"
"You should not interfere," Valina cautioned, and she looked deeply shaken still, beneath her surface veneer of cool composure. "The penalties for such affray will be severe."
"But the Doctor wasn't part of it, you know that," Sarah argued. "He went out there to help. He was trying to save lives –"
"And he failed." It was a harsh statement of truth and it hit Sarah like a slap to the face.
"We can't always win," she unhappily admitted. "But at least he was willing to try, which is more than anyone else did. So now I have to help him."
Valina hadn't wanted to help before, but her conscience had won out in the end. Now again she visibly wrestled with herself. "You are very fond of your friends," she said at last.
"Yes," Sarah quietly replied. "I am. Harry's almost like a brother," and there was another stab of pain at the thought of what might have happened to him. "And the Doctor is…" She didn't know how to even begin to explain what the Doctor was to her, could only stupidly say, "Well, he's the Doctor."
"The store is now closed," said Valina. "All customers and staff are dismissed for the day – there is damage to be repaired –"
"Blood to mop up," Sarah pointedly added.
"But there may be some little time before the doors are locked. We will see what information we can find."
dwdwdwdwdw
"There. That's the one," said Ren as she brought the shuttle in low and slow past a complex that, to Harry's human eyes, resembled nothing so much as those government buildings that had been thrown up in England during the 1950s and '60s: a squat concrete block, no more than three stories high – tiny, by the standards of the sky-rises he'd seen earlier. This was a different part of the citadel entirely.
The missing Brunnal, it seemed, was somewhere inside this particular building, held captive. As the shuttle ascended to land on a flat roof a little further on, Ren offered her assessment: "Abandoned factory or office unit, perhaps – slums like this are full of them – could be worse."
"It could be a lot better, for my money," Dilly glumly countered.
Not feeling that he had a great deal to add to the discussion, stranger to this world that he was, Harry kept quiet and listened as they debated the point.
"There's no sign of external fortification," said Ren. "They've not been here long, then – a temporary hideout, perhaps."
"Or it could be just one of many."
"Or that," she conceded.
"And there'll be guards in there, security measures," Dilly pointed out.
"No doubt."
"You know they will expect for us to come for him."
"They'd be fools if they don't at least anticipate that we might."
"Then what do we do? We need a plan."
Harry stood to peer out through the broken windshield again, across to where the building in question stood. "Well, a plan of the layout in there would be a good start," he offered, in an effort to contribute, and both aliens turned to look at him as if they'd forgotten he was there.
"The Earth man makes a good point," Ren conceded. "So let us see: is that scanner-rig of yours up to it, Dilly?"
Dilly chittered, and Harry couldn't tell if the creature was frightened or indignant, but, "Check central records also, there may be blueprints filed," was the only response, rather sniffily said, and Ren nodded.
A short spell of rapid work later and they had a complete floor-plan, the original blueprints somehow pulled from the citadel authority and augmented by Dilly's scanning device, displayed as a holographic image. Harry was impressed.
"There are security monitors," and Dilly pointed them out. "Thermal imaging shows lifeforms at these locations – and Brunnal's sub-dermal places him here."
"Always supposing he is still attached to it," Ren dourly remarked, and Dilly chittered nervously again.
"We need support for this, back up – we are outnumbered, outgunned."
"There's back up?" It came as a surprise to Harry that this might actually be an option.
"No, there's no time," said Ren, ignoring him completely. "The others are three systems away. No, we must move now – or never."
Another anxious, fretful chitter. "This should have been a milk run, Ren: supplies for the rebels and away."
"Yes, and if we'd known the Shad had moved in we'd have planned the run differently, but we must deal with the situation that is," Ren snapped, as Harry's ears pricked up.
"What rebels?" he asked, curious to know how this snippet of information tied in with what he already knew, but Ren ignored him again, staring intently at the patterns of the floor plan – the static symbols of the security devices and shifting images of the lifeforms moving about in there.
"They have Brunnal," she slowly said. "And they've seen you, Dilly. They can trace that link back to me; one glimpse of either one of us would trigger an alert. But the Earth man is an unknown, with no such affiliation…"
And then both Ren and Dilly were regarding Harry with appraising eyes – and various other sensory appendages, Dilly's antennae wiggling and claws clicking – and he began to feel apprehensive once more.
"Er, yes?"
"I have an idea," said Ren, and she began to outline her plan.
It was a crazy plan.
dwdwdwdwdw
"I will take you as far as the vehicle bay near the detention centre," Valina said as she hurried Sarah out of the store. "But no further, I cannot be seen helping you further than that."
"Of course – I'm grateful, thank you," said Sarah, scurrying to keep up with the pace the other woman was setting. Truth be told, the offer of a lift was more than she'd dared hope for.
"I've my family group to think of," Valina fiercely continued, swiping her ID card through a reader to open a door out into what appeared to be a staff car park – or vehicle bay, or whatever they were called. "There are children – and too few incomes already. We cannot afford to lose mine. This is my vehicle here."
Sarah clambered aboard and distracted herself from worrying about her missing menfolk on the journey to the detention centre by asking questions about Valina's people and their family group structure, fascinated despite her other concerns by this insight into an alien race and culture, in which an entire extended family pulled together as a single economic unit. To Sarah, who'd only ever had Aunt Lavinia to call her own, it sounded incredible. They were not native to this world, she learned – no one was, this society was a melting pot of different alien races, all attracted by the potential the outpost had seemed to offer.
"How long ago did your family come here?" she asked.
"Oh, a good many cycles now. It was our fresh start – security and opportunity. Or so we thought, but…"
"But the reality didn't quite live up to the dream?"
"I suppose we should have known," Valina said with a sigh.
"If it seems too good to be true…" Sarah softly replied, gazing through the window at the spectacular aerial view.
"For some the economy functions as intended," Valina immediately defended. "There are many who prosper here, with great comfort and wealth."
"But not enough," said Sarah. "We've seen that today, with the protest – those people must be desperate, surely, to go to such lengths."
Valina's face darkened. "They are fools. What do they hope to achieve?"
"I don't know," Sarah admitted, and she wished now that she'd been able to talk to some of the protestors, or at least that she'd listened more carefully to the slogans and demands they'd been shouting – at least then she might have some idea of what they were trying to achieve. "But I do know that when you are caught at the wrong end of an oppressive or unjust system, sometimes fighting back is the only option – it's might be hard, but sometimes it's the only hope for a better future."
"If you die fighting there is no future," said Valina. "So who benefits? No one. Better for all to mind their own business and be grateful for what they have. The system cannot be fought. It is pointless."
"Then why are you helping me?"
Valina did not reply and for a moment there was silence. "We are here," she quietly said at last, manoeuvring the air car into another large vehicle bay to park up in the darkest, emptiest corner available, quiet and unobtrusive. "This is where I leave you – wait, be sure no one sees you leaving this vehicle."
"Still afraid someone might think you're endorsing sedition if you're seen helping me?" But that was unfair, Sarah told herself, and she softened her tone to add, "Well, thank you for bringing me this far, anyway, I am grateful. I don't know how I'd have got here otherwise." She hesitated, looking around trying to plan her next move. "Um…so how do I get to the detention centre from here?"
"Wait, keep quiet – get down, hide!" Valina was suddenly on alert, ducking down to hide as another vehicle zoomed into their dark, quiet corner and Sarah followed suit. Best not to take any chances, not now she'd come this far.
It sounded as if a whole group of people were getting out of the other vehicle. They were being quiet, though, and furtive. Crouched low beneath the control console of Valina's vehicle, the scent of engine oil and grease filling her nose and something sharp digging uncomfortably into her back, head bent at an awkward sideways angle, Sarah strained her ears trying to make out words from the muttered conversation she could hear. Valina's vehicle had been noticed and she felt the other woman clutch reflexively at her as someone stepped closer for a quick glance through the window before moving away again, satisfied that the vehicle was unoccupied – they hadn't been seen.
When a furiously whispered argument broke out just at the edge of hearing, Sarah could stand it no longer and raised her head to take a peek at the group of around half a dozen people – aliens, two or three distinct species – standing around the other vehicle looking fierce and determined…yet also strangely unsure of themselves. She heard the words 'detention centre' and 'allies', 'militia' and 'guards', a flurry of debate about weapons, specifically the lack thereof, and realised with a sudden shock who and what these people were.
"It's more of the rebels – they're trying to get their people out!"
In her surprise she forgot to whisper, or perhaps it was simply that some of those aliens had particularly acute hearing, because the next thing she knew the jig was up, they were surrounded, Valina was hissing at her in furious dismay, and those alien rebels were calling for them to exit their vehicle quietly.
Sarah could have kicked herself – and was quite certain that Valina would happily do it for her!
"What are you doing, spying on us?" shouted one of the rebels the moment they were out of their vehicle, this one squat and grey-skinned, young-looking, almost dancing with agitation.
"What did you hear? Why were you hiding there? What do you know?" demanded another, this one almost a double of that reptilian giraffe Sarah had met up on the re-fuelling station, all four eyes glowering, and then they were all babbling at once and she was angry all of a sudden.
"We were hiding because we didn't know who you were," she snapped, loudly enough to cut across their chatter, aware that Valina was trying to hide behind her, still reluctant to be seen and identified with or by such people. "And it looks as if we were right to take care – what do you think you're doing?"
With the tables thus turned on them, the aliens fell silent, shooting worried glances at one another. "Who are you?" the reptilian giraffe asked. "What do you want?"
"You're protestors, aren't you?" Sarah pushed, and the giraffe creature snorted.
"We are the People's Resistance," he declared, rather more grandly than Sarah felt was entirely called for…but then he caught the eye of some of the others and his head dropped, suddenly sombre. "Well, part of it – what's left of it."
"But we aren't alone. There are other groups out there and more join our cause all the time. We won't let them beat us – and we won't let them hold us!" insisted the grey-skinned one, defiant.
"You've come here to get your friends out of the detention centre," Sarah guessed. "But how? You must know that a direct assault would be suicide, surely."
"I thought you said it was worth it," Valina sourly muttered behind her back and she swung around to face the other woman, shaking her head.
"No, not worth this – there has to be another way."
"Why do you care?" one of the rebels sullenly asked, a female, bright-eyed and petite – the same species as that grey-skinned young firebrand.
"I care because my friend is in there, too, he was arrested with your allies," said Sarah, knowing that an edge of desperation had tinged her voice now and not caring, because there'd been one bloodbath already today because of these rebels and perhaps Valina was right, maybe they were fools and not worth the trouble they caused.
The aliens looked at one another, more suspicious than ever. "Arrested at the store? Why?"
"He got involved in something that didn't concern him." Valina glared at Sarah as she spoke, but Sarah wasn't having that, not any longer.
"Whatever's going on is everyone's concern, surely," she argued. Valina shook her head.
"No. No, it is not my concern – I cannot afford for it to be my concern. All I wish is to keep a roof over my family's heads and food on the table –"
The hot-headed young grey snorted in derision as his female compatriot angrily burst out, "That's all any of us want. Freedom, equality, subsistence – is that so much to ask?"
"You brought your troubles to my store, and how does that help you?" Valina fumed. "How does dying there further your cause?"
It was a low blow and Sarah could see that Valina regretted it at once as the sorry group of would-be rebels reacted – the protestors killed at the store earlier had been their allies, their friends. The little grey female recovered first.
"Your store?" she snorted in disgust. "Essential supplies priced as luxuries for off-worlders – and you work there. Good for you. But can you afford to buy the goods you sell? What do you go without for the supplements that keep you alive? You know what would happen if you spoke out – do you believe that's fair?"
"That's enough," Sarah cut in before the argument could spiral out of control. "Arguing isn't going to help any of us. Look, we all want the same thing here, don't we – to get our friends out of the detention centre safely." Valina was shaking her head, and Sarah knew she regretted ever offering that ride here in the first place, but the others couldn't deny it. "What was your plan?"
"What was your plan?" the squat grey hothead immediately countered, and Sarah had no idea how to reply because she couldn't honestly say that she'd had a plan. She hadn't thought any further ahead than getting here.
"Look, do you have any weapons at all?" she asked, trying to get a better feel for the situation, and wasn't sure how to interpret the looks they cast at one another, read anguish and regret and anger in those alien expressions.
"We should – we'd sent people to get them, new stock from off-world, it was needed. They must be made to take us seriously, they must," one of them said, a being with enormous ears and a snout of a nose, face and hands covered with sleek brown fur that Sarah longed to touch. "We should have been there, at the store – but our supplier let us down." Despair was written all over that furry face.
"They were attacked, driven away and our comrades killed," said another, the same species but a little taller, its fur longer and elaborately braided. "And they were the last who would deal with us. The Shad have seen to that, they've cut off every supply."
"Oh, it doesn't really matter anyway," Sarah quickly said, before they could elaborate any further on these details that she didn't entirely understand and didn't think were relevant. "Even if you did, what I said before is true – a direct assault on the detention centre would be suicide, and that won't help your cause at all."
"Then what do you suggest?" demanded that angry young grey.
"Subterfuge," said Sarah, in the most determined tone she could muster. If they wanted to get their people out, it was the only thing that would work, she was sure of it, and then before anyone could ask her to elaborate – which she was equally sure she couldn't, because she hadn't had time to think this through – a deep, blessedly familiar voice boomed out behind her.
"That's an excellent suggestion, Sarah. What are you talking about?"
Sarah span around, eyes wide and mouth dropping open with disbelief, because there he was: scarf trailing, battered hat pressed down tight over that mess of unruly curls, toothy grin plastered all over his face, with yet another alien being lurking just behind him. It was the Doctor!
dwdwdwdwdw
"You are certain you understand, Earth man?" Ren turned sceptical eyes upon Harry, who told himself not to take the implied mistrust personally. They both knew he'd been out of his element since landing here and she had a lot riding on this mission – potentially the life of her comrade.
Oddly enough, though, with a clearly defined mission to carry out, he was at last starting to feel as if his feet were on solid ground once more – and not just because they were now parked up at ground level, just around the corner from their target. He was to be the decoy, Ren had decided, and, although the role left him feeling uncomfortably exposed, his job was relatively simple – even if it did involve walking right into the lion's den, so to speak.
So he said, "Of course. It's not that difficult," and made an effort to sound confident. "Go to the front door, ring the bell and ask for directions or some such – keep the blighters distracted while you two slip in round the back and disable the whatsit."
"In essence, if not substance," said Ren with an eye-roll that could only be described as sardonic. "Wait two minutes for us to reach the service door at the rear, then go. Once we're inside, Dilly will work to access the security feed, so you must be in place by then. The timing must be exactly right."
"Well, that's why I've got this, isn't it?" He raised his arm to show her the strap around his wrist, having been persuaded to exchange his own trusty old wristwatch, which had survived his fall almost intact, for a rather more high tech device that did much the same job and a lot more besides.
Dilly chittered and plucked at his sleeve with an oversized claw, antennae waggling as the creature's odd little face creased in the equivalent of a smile. "Luck be with you, Earth man."
Ren lifted an eyebrow as she reached for the door control. "Luck be with us all," she grunted, and they were off.
Harry followed them out, sealed the door, and looked around at what he could see of his surroundings in the fading evening light: a shabby and sparsely populated area that was the image of urban decay, complete with peeling paint, crumbling walls and cracked street surfaces growing weeds. Like the warehouse they'd visited earlier, and in stark contrast to the vast sky-rises he'd first seen on this world, the streets and buildings here looked so normal and unassuming that this could almost have been Earth.
Almost.
It felt good to be out of the confines of the shuttle after being cooped up in there for so long.
He waited for the allotted two minutes to give the others time to reach their destination and trip the locks, leaning against the side of the shuttle trying to look nonchalant while checking the display on that high-tech wrist piece every few seconds until the time was right to set his own part of this little scheme in motion. Dilly, he'd been told, once inside the building, would be able to remotely access all the security camera systems in there, using equipment that was illegal on fourteen worlds, apparently; Harry hadn't asked how they'd smuggled it onto this world, he suspected it was one of those things he was better off not knowing. He understood very little of the technical jargon the creature had spouted at him by way of explanation, but hazily grasped the idea that an older image from those camera feeds could be 'looped' so that intruders could sneak in and move around without being seen, because stealth was the order of the day. It sounded jolly useful, he had to admit, and, as the only face unknown to the Shad, Harry's job was to create a diversion so that no one was looking at the security monitors at the moment Dilly tripped the system to set up the loop.
Well, he had rather liked the idea of working for the security services when the transfer to UNIT first came up, he reminded himself, and this was undercover work, of a sort…albeit just about as far removed as could be imagined from anything he'd ever anticipated, back when he first accepted that transfer.
It had to be done. They were here to save a life.
He checked the display on his new wrist-piece for the umpteenth time – the two minutes was up. Time to go.
The front entrance of the building was just around the corner, no more than a few hundred yards away, manned by heavy, thickset individuals with skin like rhino hide and prominent fangs rather like the mythical vampire, oddly webbed hands and beady little eyes that glowed disturbingly red. There were three of them, one sat at a desk alongside a bank of screens, clearly on duty, while the other two appeared to just be hanging around with nothing better to do. They were all heavily armed.
Harry was nervous, so it wasn't hard to play at being lost and frightened, a tourist who'd wandered astray in an unfamiliar place. Really speaking, it wasn't even a lie. The guards were extremely suspicious of this stranger at their door and didn't care in the slightest about his supposed predicament, but they were also suitably distracted from those screens at the crucial moment, so that was a success that he decided he could be pleased about later. He tried to keep them occupied for as long as he could, because he had another part to play, in case anything went wrong – which of course it did, because that was how this entire day had played out. All too soon alarms began to blare and the sound of gunfire rang out from deep within the building, Harry's heart sank like a lead balloon, and there was nothing else for it but to switch to Plan B and then run.
As one of the guards turned to run deeper into the building to investigate and the others turned on Harry, angry and suspicious, he slid a hand into a pocket to activate the other device he'd been given for just this eventuality, quickly pulling it out and throwing it to the ground. It was called a flash bomb, he'd been told, and would both fry all the electrics in the building and temporarily blind anyone within a certain radius of the blast – "so do make sure that your own eyes are closed, Earth man, or you too will be incapacitated," Dilly had fussily instructed, and Harry did just that, even though it went sorely against the grain to close his eyes when armed enemies were advancing toward him at speed.
Even with his eyes firmly closed the flash of light was blindingly brilliant and the percussion of the blast knocked him off his feet, while the shouts of the shocked guards and the spark-hiss of the electrics shorting out rang in his ears, smoke slowly filling the air. He struggled upright again at once, because there was no time to lose, not even a moment to pause and catch his breath; the guards might be blinded but they were still armed.
With spots dancing in front of his eyes, the afterimage of that brilliant burst of light, Harry staggered toward the exit and away – ducking as he heard shots fired behind him, at least one of the incapacitated guards having enough wit still to fire blindly in his general direction. One or two of those shots came uncomfortably close, singeing his hair and sleeve as he ran, out of the building and away. He sprinted the distance back to Ren's shuttle without stopping, hoping against hope that the others had also made it out safely, because he couldn't even begin to imagine what to do if they hadn't.
They weren't there.
Harry hit the button to open the doors and dashed inside for an almost frantic look around, just to be sure of what he already knew.
They weren't here yet. Maybe they never would be, and then what would he do? He'd never get them out of there alone, but he could hardly just leave them, yet he had to consider the Doctor and Sarah as well – he was starting to feel as if he'd never manage to find them.
He waited in the doorway, fidgeting and worrying, expecting armed and angry aliens to come after him at any moment and starting at every sound. This wasn't a heavily populated area, but there were people – creatures – around, and he wondered that they weren't taking more interest, gloomily suspected that perhaps this was the kind of place where everyone knew to mind their own business or else.
At last he heard footsteps, running footsteps, and then there they were, at full pelt and exchanging weapons fire over their shoulders with Shad guards hot on their heels: Dilly scuttling faster than he'd thought the creature capable of and Ren struggling to support a third person who must be Brunnal, stocky and dark and staggering slightly, limping along.
They'd reached the shuttle, shots flying in every direction, when Dilly suddenly gasped and staggered as a shot glanced off that shiny carapace. Ren cried out in alarm, swinging around to catch at her friend even as another shot found its mark. Caught square in the soft underbelly beneath the outer shell, Dilly dropped like a stone.