Pest Control

888

"It is the only way." Captain Suvari said as he looked at the map.

"Then it is suicide!" One of the other ship commanders said, standing up, he was tall, gray hair, with shocks of white along the sides. "We cannot get that close to the inner temporum of Gallifrey! They will undoubtedly shoot us down!"

"Currently the war has shifted far off into the Florentine Spiral; most of Gallifrey's military resources are there." Captain Suvari said. "Our supplies are running out, the refugees are getting restless, we must transect this slipstream. The rest of subspace in this area is shattered by the war."

"The convoy will never go for it, we should turn around." A third commander said; this one shorter, his hair browner. "Plus, look at the dimensional contours, that stream isn't going to hold all, it'd take a miracle to get the whole convoy through."

"Yes, or an ace pilot." Captain Suvari said, as he looked down at the woman sitting next to him. She was light skinned with auburn hair. "Cass will lead us through the slipstream, she's more than capable."

The other commanders looked at each and then incredulously at the woman sitting at the table. Their eyes then turned to Suvari. The tall commander spoke for them. "You will leave our fate in the hands of a human girl, Suvari?"

"I have seen Cass fly a ship twice this size through a slipstream under torsional sheer. I've seen her out fly Sontaran fighters, and Rutan ghost-gliders during the Battle of Svents. If any of us can get us through this then she will." Suvari said sternly, leaning against the table staring at the others.

The men grumbled and rumbled for a few more minutes before finally, begrudgingly, accepting the plan. After they left Captain Suvari sat down and looked at Cass.

"You know they aren't wrong." Cass said, looking up at the map on the screen. "That slipstream's core stability is below 4.6 Torgons, three gunships, and four transport vessels are going to put an awful strain on its dimensional stability." The woman then looked at Suvari, her eyes belied the other issue with the plan the issue she wasn't going to bring up. "Do you really think it will work?"

"We have no choice, Cass." Suvari said as he folded his hands together and steepled his fingers. "We can't go back, there's nothing to go back to. We can't stay here, food reserves are already falling below daily calorie requirements, and we can't circle around. We have no choice but through, Time Lords or Daleks, be damned." Captain Suvari sat back. "We make for the slipstream in four hours, go rest."

Cass nodded quietly and stood up and left the ready room.

888

"Now, all vessels, slave your thruster controls and command computers to the Ilbinsk's and we will take it from there." Captain Suvari announced over the inter-ship communications. He flipped a button and sighed quietly. "With any luck in eight hours will be on the other side of this thing and heading to the refugee camp on Barcelona."

"Yes, sir," Cass said as she looked down at her computer controls. Little green lights were blinking on showing as each ship came under her direct control. "Ortu, Vegros, Normak, and Telgru are up and linked. Just waiting for Malchi and Veranks."

"Hear that, Tomori?" Captain Suvari looked back at a young man standing behind at a console. "Get Malchi and Veranks up." The young man announced they were up. He turned back to Cass. "Cass, start preflight calculations, and prepare the slipstream drive for jump." The captain then pushed a small button on near his chair. "This is the Ilbinsk to the rest of the convoy, we are preparing for slipstream. All ships, we are running cold, and quiet, cut power to all non-essential grid functions, calibrate primary shields to be as high and tight as you can get them, the less displacement we create the less likely we'll have to deal with the authorities."

"All ships are in compliance." Tomori announced a few minutes later. "All vessels reporting as ready for slipstream."

Captain Suvari nodded quietly, and turned his gaze to Cass. "Well, then, if you'll do the honors Cass, we will go underway."

"Aye, Captain." Cass said as she drew her hand up to the flight controls. There was a minor shift of perspective and then they were shooting through the subspace slipstream.

888

"Sir…" Tomori said, his voice belying concern that was playing over his callow face. "I have a contact on approach."

Captain Suvari furrowed his bushy gray eyebrows. "Can you ID it?"

"Yes…" Tomori said quietly. "It's a bowship, sir. Heading directly for us, currently on track it will emerge in front of us in…three…two…"

There was a flash from the front of the ship as the massive vessel popped into existence. It was unimaginably massive. It was miles long, with huge bracing fins that outstretched for miles.

"GREAT GALSOON!" Suvari shouted in shock as the ship nearly materialized on top of them. "CASS EVA—"

"On it!" Cass shouted as she whipped the gunship hard to the starboard the rest of the convoy screaming as their vessels were yanked in tow like a bunch of toy boats on an invisible rope.

"In coming transmission…" Tomori reported as Suvari straightened himself in the chair.

"Alien vessels…" The voice was smooth and slimy and smug, a Time Lord voice. Suvari sneered reflexively as the voice echoed along the intercoms of the ship. "This is the Rassilonian Bowship Grayvin, I am General Tannis. You are in flagrant transgression of Rassilonian edict 33457. Your ships will shut down their drive systems, they will lower their defenses and they will come to and be escorted to the nearest impoundment yard. Your crew and supplies will be confiscated and taken to the Time Lord prison camp on Kasterborous the Fibster, where you will work until such time as martial edicts are no longer in effect."

"I apologize for our transgression but we are shuttling refugees from Rasallia." Captain Suvari said, as meekly and politely as possible. "We are low on supplies and unfortunately the subspace environments are not such that we could access any other slipstreams to one of the neutral areas…"

"That is irrelevant." General Tannis's voice sparked sharply. "The laws are in place for a reason, you were fully informed when you got within twelve hundred parsecs of the inner temporum. You should have made appropriate preparations then."

"We're a refugee convoy; we are hardly a threat to Gallifrey or any other holdings by the Time Lords." Captain Suvari pleaded. "Any attempts to provision for the longer routes would've attracted the attention of pirates…or worse."

"Do you know what that sound is?" General Tannis asked.

"What?" Captain Suvari furrowed in eyebrows, looking to Cass who shrugged her shoulders.

"That sounds like your problem, not mine." General Tannis said. "Your ships will follow our instructions or we will be forced to subdue you. Do not communicate again other than to transmit your command codes to our vessel and inform us of your preparation to be escorted to the impoundment yard."

There was a loud click over the intercom. It was a completely unnecessary click but the message it conveyed was very clear. Captain Suvari slouched back in his chair and looked at his crew.

"We can't go to a prison camp…" Tomori said almost whingingly. "I've heard about the conditions of those places…barely enough atmosphere to live on, even less food. Plus the Time Lords regularly let epidemics sweep through the prisons to keep the population manageable."

"We hardly have much choice…" Captain Suvari said, looking at the screen filled with the titan of the vessel in front of them. "Three, old, rusted up Third Zone gunships against a Gallifreyan Bowship…we don't stand a chance."

"We don't have to win, sir." Cass said, looking to Captain Suvari. "We only have to keep them busy long enough to get the cargo ships off. A few seconds maybe…we're nearly on the edge of the exclusion zone…we just passed Karn the next bit of slipstream jumps us clearly out of the exclusion zone."

"Even so, not one of these ships could do it." Captain Suvari said, narrowing his eyes.

"I think…I think I could do it…" Cass said, encouragingly, she furrowed her eyebrows, "but it's going to be close."

Captain Suvari frowned and then nodded.

888

"General, the Third Zone ships are breaking formation!" A young lieutenant reported to Tannis.

The General watched on the screen as the vessels broke from their line pattern into a scattered assortment of vessels. His hair was greasy and slightly curly but cut high and tight such that it gave the impression of an enormous forehead and a slight cap of hair on top.

"What is the status of their power systems, lieutenant?" Tannis queried quietly, knowing the answer.

"All vessels are running at full burn, sir." The lieutenant reported. The lieutenant then swept his hand over the holo-display in front of him. "The lead ship is arming its forward weapons array. Her defense grid has come on line, looks like she wants to fight…"

"I see…" General Tannis shook his head. He intwined his fingers in front of him, and sighed, with a bored expression. "Target the cargo ships…obliterate them…"

"Sir? They aren't the ones…."

"They are the reason for this belligerence, and I haven't time for it…destroy the cargo ships." Tannis replied, sitting back in his chair. "Launch full-spread dimensional charges."

"But sir that'll destroy the slipstream…"

"I know, lieutenant, that's the point." Tannis said tersely, he turned to the lieutenant. "Now, if you would be so kind…target the cargo ships."

The lieutenant gulped, and nodded.

888

"What the hell are they doing!?" Captain Suvari shouted as the dimensional charges shook the ship. "They'll rip the slipstream apart!"

"We just lost…" Tomori stopped short of finishing his sentence.

"What, Tomori, what did we lose!" Suvari shouted, spinning to the young lad.

"All four cargo ships have been destroyed…" Tomori said, his hand shaking slightly as it hovered over the report. "All hands lost. Sir, they targeted the cargo vessels."

"The mad bastards…" Captain Suvari said as turned and looked at the screen and the massive bowship hovering lazily in front of them. "They'd really kill civilians…."

"Third Zone vessel…" General Tannis's voice came languidly over the intercom. "I did warn you not to disobey." The general sighed a bored sigh. "I suspect you are enraged now."

"You're damned right I'm enraged…"

"Yes, yes, how dare I, kill innocent civilians, just refugees…etc etc etc…?" Tannis's voice cut Suvari's off. "Look at it this way, Captain, those refugees would simply be sucking down more atmosphere at the prison camp…eating more food…if anything I've done you a favor. It's all a matter of perspective." The bowship did a slow and lazy turn, its forward sections, pointing itself directly at Suvari on the view screen. "Now, before you do anything foolish, allow me to extend again the offer for you to drop your shields, disengage your weapons and be escorted to the impound yard."

"You can take that offer and…"

"Now, Captain, Captain, we've already done this." Tannis's voice started again. "You've already seen that your belligerence can't get you anywhere…now, don't make me do this. I mean, morally, I don't care one way or another, but the paperwork, you see, is such a hassle and I quite frankly am not that kind of man to sit behind desks signing affidavits and reviewing sensor logs, never mind reinventorying the weapon stocks, I mean do I sound like that kind of man to you? Does 'hey lads let's go recount those N-forms and black holes' or 'hey Gluvius do you remember how many of those disorderly noncombatants we killed yesterday?' sound like something I'd say? No, no, no, sir, I'm afraid I'm the kind of person who will sweep the lot of you under the rug, your lives will simply disappear into the night never to be remembered, not even by me."

Cass looked back at Captain Suvari. His face was screwed up into a deadly sneer. His eyebrows pinched so close together that they may have actually created a warp field if he'd been so inclined. He clutched the arms of his chair, and then something broke. His sharp gray eyes fell on Cass.

"Do it…" He said quietly.

"But sir, the cargo ships…"

"There're still us. Get us out of here, Cass." Captain Suvari said, as he sat back. "I'll be damned if I'm going to live the rest of my life on some flea-bitten prison asteroid in the middle of Gallifreyan territory…"

"Aligning the slip-drives." Cass said, swallowing hard. "Those charges have warped the stream, sir…I'll have to calibrate the rest of it manually…"

"Of course…" Captain Suvari said.

"Teleports are primed…" Cass said, she looked to the captain. "You took me in when I had no one, sir. You taught me how to fly these things. You let me see the stars." She swallowed hard and blinked. "It's been an honor, sir."

"Yes, it has been, but we ride this out together, one last time." The captain said quietly.

"No…sir, I can't let you…" She said as she pushed the button.

"What are you…" The question faded into the sparkles of light as the captain along with the rest of the crew teleported.

Cass turned and looked at the bowship in front of her. "So, you think you're tough, but can you keep up with me?"

She pressed a button. Two of the gunships shot off in opposite directions, leaving her alone to face the massive vessel in front of. The gunships rockets burned, and the old ship flung itself forward, aiming for a small region of space just off the bowship's sixes. The bowships had a blind spot in its weapons array where the old iron bolt launchers used to be. If she was very good she could thread that needle and get into a pocket of clear subspace created in the backwash of the charge detonations and hit the warp to shunt her out of range. Her escape would hinge on the Time Lords' arrogance.

The monitors were swirling as she charged for the small pocket of clear space. Only a few more seconds, only a few more…The ship jolted. Klaxons screamed in all directions as the ship tumbled. Cass was dizzy as the whole of the inside of the vessel spun around. She fought the controls. The lateral thrusters were destroyed; a warp coil was going critical. The other warp coil was functional but only just, but that was all she needed. She hit the button, didn't look where she was going, and the whole of the vessel erupted around her as it jumped to warp.

888

"They're getting away!" the lieutenant said. "We hit the last gunship as it tried to rush us but it's made a warp jump. Shall I finish it off?"

"Let it go…" Tannis said with a bored sigh. "It's drive systems are overloading and the vessel is heading towards Karn…both facts mean that the ship will crash in the near future and in its state whoever is on it will die."

"The other ships though, sir?"

"Launch the Battle-TARDISes…the poor things haven't been out on a run in a while…" Tannis said dismissively. "Tell them that they don't have to bring the ships back alive that should make them happy." Tannis leaned back in his chair. "So, then to the next bit of pest control then…?"