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Press Ganged into Service.

Disorientated from the painful regeneration, reminding himself that the first regeneration of a Time Lord was the most painful, Theta walked away from the place where he'd fallen off the carriage - he didn't know which direction he was going, but if he could find a town or another city, he might find passage back to London and back to the TARDIS. Along the way to wherever he was going, he came across some water, and he taken a drink to restore his strength, and he'd seen his reflection. His face looked a bit weathered, but he'd get used to it in time. But he had no idea what he should do next, because if what Annar had said to him during that telepathic conference before his death, before regeneration could set in, was true, then he'd get no welcome back on Gallifrey.

Exile.

Even in his current state, Theta could remember all too well how many times he'd caused problems for the High Council when he'd been arrested for murder, but it hadn't been a murder since he had managed to declare his innocence, but the incident had embarrassed the High Council because they had lost a lot of face. The High Council of the Time Lords liked their subjects to believe they were all seeing, wise, noble and benevolent, and every decision that they made was done with extreme care and deliberation, but when the Time Lords had believed he had murdered Anzor even if the slimy bastard had deserved it, only to discover that Anzor wasn't just still alive but had planned to create a conspiracy.

With every step he took, he thought about the Time Lords and what they'd just done. If he was really exiled from Gallifrey, that meant that Annar had planned on just dumping him on the planet since he was ordered to do that, but he was surprised Annar had even told him about it, and it made him wonder if the other Time Lord had been sincere.

Theta mused on the two choices he had. He could contact the Time Lords with the hypercube he carried on his person, and they'd either send a rescue unit to recover him and the TARDIS, or they would simply ignore him to whatever fate awaited him on Earth. As Theta kept walking, pushing past the post regenerative problems in his body to focus on the journey - he cursed his lack of knowledge about Earth, wished he could find some sign of civilisation even if the humans were so primitive at this point of their history - he could feel the haze around his brain which resulted from the regeneration fading, and all that time he thought about the hypercube pieces inside his pocket.

It would be so simple and easy to contact and summon the Time Lords to take him away from this century where he could plan his actual escape from Gallifrey so he'd be better prepared. All he would need to do was sit down, concentrate on the hypercube, program it with his memories of the last 24 hours and use a simple telepathic pulse to send it Gallifrey.

No, he thought to himself after a while, realising that Annar was telling the truth about the Time Lords exiling him to Earth, using the latest TARDIS to entice him into leaving, and then he'd be abandoned on this planet for however long the Time Lords could get over their embarrassment even though the blame lay with Anzor's father for raising the bastard in the first place.

Theta had planned on going renegade, now he was except in one sense, he didn't have a TARDIS at the time being. He worried about the TARDIS as well since the Time Lords could very easily snatch it back to Gallifrey, but they hadn't cared about what had happened to the TARDIS taking the Rani to wherever they'd planned to send her; it was an open secret that the Rani had managed to hijack her TARDIS after that business with the giant mice, and he hoped the same was true of him. He didn't want to spend the rest of his lives on this stinking planet, unable to flee, unable to see the rest of the universe.

It took hours, but eventually the young Time Lord found a sign that said PLYMOUTH, 5 MILES. Theta sighed, unsure if his boots could take that distance after he'd walked miles already, but he set off regardless. It was dark by the time Theta arrived in the town, and he was instantly take aback by the fresh salty air of the sea. He could hear muffled and raucous laughter coming from the inns and taverns that littered the town like the craters on a moon.

Theta watched more people on those animals backs trotting through the town, and he wondered how he could return to the TARDIS - there was no chance of him going back to London on foot if he could help it, besides he had no idea which direction to take. He looked at the inns longingly. He was tired and hungry and thirsty - he was suffering an energy deficit from the regeneration, but as he let his eyes study the town streets he came to the conclusion he'd need to find some sort of work in order to pay for passage to London. And he would also need to know which direction London was in, but he would need to do it carefully. He looked old enough by human standards to be aware of that kind of knowledge, but Theta knew he could always telepathically read their minds.

Theta went inside one of the inns, got himself some beer and something to eat, and when the woman slammed his food down in front of him Theta had to hide the sneer he was holding back, but he tucked into his meal of coarse bread, cheese and a piece of dried meat. He made sure to sit down in a corner of the place, and he could see that the people who ran it were more hygienic than the one he and Annar had dined in before the attack, but he didn't care. As he ate and drank slowly, he thought about his plans, and decided that this was a good a place as any to getting enough money to head back to London, and back to the TARDIS. He had no doubt he'd find some work, there was bound to be something, and while many Time Lords would balk about working in a degrading job on a primitive world that hadn't split the atom of even developed the theory of relativity yet he didn't because he knew he had no other option. Theta was realistic enough to know that, but he cursed in his mind with each bite he took of his cheese - he didn't like the taste or the texture of the food, but he knew he had no choice since it had the right nutrients, the meat might have been drier than a bucket of sand, and the bread could've been leather for how easy it was to chew, but washed down with the beer made it all bearable to him.

Theta was just polishing his meal off and preparing to ask one of the humans if they knew anyone who needed someone to work for them when he heard someone call out fearfully, "A PRESS GANG, A PRESS GANG!"

It was a young woman who was sitting to to a man her age, and she was looking out of the window in wide eyed terror. Theta followed her gaze, but he couldn't see anything or anyone, all the time wondering what a press gang was.

All of the men got up to run fearfully away, Theta stood up as well, wondering if it was some kind of bizarre hunting ritual where men where killed off for a cultural reason, but also because he didn't want to look foolish by standing still. But it was too late, the door burst open and a crowd of black jacketed men with black hats with white brims rushed in, all of them armed with clubs and swords. They grabbed the protesting men in the inn, raising their weapons threateningly at anyone who tried to resist , and seeing that Theta didn't bother; he'd just regenerated, and he was still within the first few hours of his regeneration, but the walk had been a long one. He was too tired to fight, and besides he didn't know what was going on. They were followed by two men who were dressed differently, smarter than the others with white frilled shirts and waistcoats topped by navy blue jackets and black tricorn hats.

One of these two men smiled. Theta disliked him immediately, seeing the sadistic pleasure on his face as he looked around the suddenly silenced inn.

"A fine haul," he commented to the other man.

"Indeed, sir," the other man said.

The first man, the sadistic one, looked around the crowded inn - Theta had questions on his mind, but even he knew better than to tempt fate by asking stupid questions at a time like this. He had no idea what all this was about, but he knew the others were afraid. He could see it in their eyes, the way they struggled against the men who'd come with the two men in what looked like uniforms…..they knew what was going on, that made sense - this was their planet, they knew their way around, he was a stranger here.

The man with the sadistic air smirked. "My name is Lieutenant Simpson, I am the first officer of the HMS Raven. You are now members of the crew, congratulations."

"No," the young woman cried, and she ran towards the officer, and she grabbed hold of his jacket. "Please, not my husband. I'm pregnant, he can't leave me-"

SLAP!

"No, Elsie!" Her husband called, struggling to reach his wife but he was held back.

Simpson loomed over the woman. "I don't care if your pregnant or not, woman," he hissed. "Your husband is now an able seaman. He will be at sea on a ship, my ship, and if your lucky he'll come back with his limbs intact."

Leaving the woman called Elsie, Simpson gestured towards the men who'd come with him. "Bring all the men we've caught," he said as if nothing had happened, "and lets go."

Simpson and the other uniformed officer left the inn, so they didn't hear one of the men whisper to Elsie and her husband, "We'll try to keep him alive, but with that bastard Simpson around, who knows what will happen?"

Herded with the men caught in the inn, Theta stayed silent as they were taken to the dock and sat in a boat. There were other boats surrounded by screaming children and women who were crying for their fathers, cousins, brothers, etc., but they were hopeless as they were taken to five different ships that were close to the harbour. The boat Theta and his group were in were heading for the second ship, and while Theta had questions he wanted answered, he felt it was a good idea to remain silent still.

He looked around the array of faces - it might have been dark still, but he could still see the faces of the men who no less than 20 minutes ago had been drinking, singing and laughing. Now they were looking resigned, and that scared Theta. What made it worse was he had no idea what was happening, why it was happening, and what was going to come. He had managed to work out that from Simpson when he'd announced to everyone in the inn they were members of the crew of his ship, but it was clearly a forcible recruitment mission and once you were in or in the officer's sights, that was it. Simpson hadn't been moved by the young woman called Elsie when she'd pleaded for her husband to be freed before it even started. Theta hadn't liked that cruel remark about her husband returning home with his limbs intact, that didn't make things easier for them.

Climbing up the side of the ship, Theta and the others were met by two men holding what looked like clubs. "Come on," one of them barked.

"Line up on deck," the other ordered.

After seeing Simpson hurry off towards the back of the ship through a door, Theta did as he was told, and he was quickly shoved between Elsie's husband and another man, who looked at him as though he was going to be sick, or die. When all of the men caught from the inn were lined up, Simpson came back with another man, this man was dressed in a more simple uniform of his own, and he held a large book and a pencil. Simpson surveyed the line up with a sneer, then he turned to the younger man next to him.

"Take down the names of all these men, Mr Waters, I want their names for the records of the ship," Simpson ordered.

The younger man reached up and pinched his black hat with his hand. "Aye, sir," he replied.

Simpson went on, "Then get them below decks. They'll help the hands in the morning when we set sail."

"Aye, aye, sir."

Waters walked down the line, and Theta thought up a name quickly. He might not have been on Earth long, but he had been exposed to quite a few names, so he decided to borrow one. "Name?" Waters asked the man two men away from Theta. The young Time Lord already learnt the names of several of the men caught with him at the inn. Elsie's husband was called Frost, and the man next to him was called Vance.

When Waters came to him, Theta was prepared. "Name?" Waters asked.

"John Clegg," Theta replied.

He had found the two names separately, John he'd overheard and found that he'd liked, and the second name, Clegg, inscribed on a shop.

Waters nodded, wrote down the details in the pages of his book, and then moved on. "Name?" he repeated.

"George Wilkinson," the man next to Theta said, now looking stronger, "going to take us down the channel, sonny?"

Waters reacted with incredible speed even Theta had problems tracking him. In less than a minute, Wilkinson was on the floor clutching his face after Waters had smacked him with what looked like a weak club. "One more word from you, Wilkinson, and I'll make sure you get twelve dozen lashes," he threatened. He lowered the club and then Theta could see it wasn't made of wood or even metal, it was made of rope.

Wilkinson whimpered, but he picked himself up.

It turned out later that Wilkinson wasn't the only person on the ship to give Water's problems. There was another man further down, and out of the corner of Theta's eye he could see him step out of line before Waters even reached him. "Sir-," the man next to this man tried to stop him, but the idiot pulled away, "I didn't sign up for the navy, I'm a lawyer for-"

The weedy looking man collapsed to the deck of the ship as two other men shoved him down, and then they started whipping him with those clubs of rope that Waters had. Waters observed for a minute before he ordered the two men to back off, and then he went back to what he was doing. By the time the young human had finished taking names, the man claiming to be a lawyer was still on the deck whimpering from the beating. Personally, Theta thought him kind of pathetic but wise in just keeping still.

"We don't care if you're a priest," Waters said down to him, the young man not even bothering to offer the man a hand so he could stand on his two feet again. "You're now a member of this crew, which means you eat when we tell you, live where we tell you, and work when you're told to work. If you don't do your duty, then you will be finding your time on board unpleasant. Don't try our patience again, now your name?"

The man whimpered. "James May."

Waters made a note. When the human was finished, Waters didn't bother saying anything to the line of men. "Take them below," he ordered another man.

Theta followed the others down into the depths of the ship, and he could feel in his hearts that things were going to become worse. Simpson and this Waters were sadistic, and so were some of the crew, who presumably had been taken like the others but had fallen into the culture of the ship. What did that say about them? What happened, did they suddenly give up all hope and decided that this life was better than what could await them ashore? Theta had no idea, but he knew he would soon find out.

He had no idea what was going to happen to him, but he knew a few things. One, he was on a ship with sadists, and he would need to learn how to keep his head down and keep quiet while learning all he could just to survive. Two, he had no idea how long he was going to be away from England, and when he might have the opportunity to return to the TARDIS and get away from the planet. While Simpson might have said to Frost's wife her husband could return years into the future with his limbs intact, Theta had no idea if the arrogant human was being truthful or not. Simpson had a rather arrogant, bigoted mind - it was very hard to telepathically read people like that. Third, he had to make sure he began thinking of himself as John Clegg rather than Theta Sigma. He also couldn't let anyone touch his chest, feel the second heart in his chest. The humans were a violent culture in this period of their existence and while they were not directing plasma or laser based weaponry, they were still dangerous. He would need to keep his head down and do his best to keep quiet while finding a way to escape.

Fourth, he had no idea if Annar was telling him the truth about the Time Lord's decision to exile him. He would need to find out if that was true or not. Theta had a hypercube, or at least the sides of one in his pocket, and he would need to make sure he kept them on him at all times. The sides of the cube would mean nothing to the humans, who wouldn't recognise components of a piece of technology their current science had no understanding of at the moment.

Theta was pointed towards his hammock, and he then spent the next twenty minutes along with everybody else the press gang had caught, struggling to get on. When the young Time Lord finally wrestled himself onto the swinging canvas bed, he snuggled into what was meant to be the covers. Time Lords didn't need as much sleep as humans, but Theta decided to try his best to get some rest. He was still pretty exhausted after his regeneration, and while the walk to Plymouth had been good to exercise his body after the renewal, it had exhausted him. The stress after he'd arrived had not helped matters either.

Theta closed his eyes, hoping that the next day would bring better things, but something in his hearts told him that he shouldn't get his hopes up.

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