Youth is Wasted on the Young p.19

May 06, 2011 12:38



"Tracer!" the Doctor yelled.

Everyone jumped. The chopper was running on stealth mode. They had avoided two Wirrn patrols already and everyone was quiet and on edge.

"I'm getting a tracking signal!" the Doctor exclaimed - his fingers flew over the tracker board in his lap.

"Amy?" Rory said hopefully, leaning forward in his seat.

"No, the board is identifying it as Stanley's," the Doctor said. "It just started up."

"Stanley?" Tildaith asked from his position beside the cockpit.

"The tracking technician who was kidnapped with Amy and Captain Schwillic. This is his board," the Doctor held it up to demonstrate.

"What are the coordinates?" Tildaith asked.

The Doctor read them off, "178 miles south, half a grid east."

Tildaith leaned over and checked the flight computer. "That puts it right at the hive."

"I know," the Doctor said.

-----

"There! There. Right there!" the Doctor said, pointing. "Put us down here," he ordered.

Tildaith nodded to his officer. "Set us down, pilot."

Rory and the Doctor were already unbuckled and standing at the door.

The pilot set them down on the sloping hillside. The Doctor unlatched the door and slid it open. Tildaith grabbed his arm. "Just a minute, Doctor."

The Doctor looked down in surprise at that child-size, businesslike hand on his sleeve.

"Scan for Wirrn," Tildaith ordered, turning to his tech expert. "Passive scan only."

They were parked on the sloping, grassy dome of the Wirrn hive. The tech ran her scans. "Nothing up here at the moment, sir."

Tildaith nodded. "Pilot, extend the field."

Rory watched impatiently through the chopper doorway. He couldn't see the stealth shield, but he could see it receding farther away, everything outside the shield was shifted slightly to one side, he saw the effect ripple out like a wave.

"Okay, Doctor, go to it." Tildaith released the Time Lord's arm and the Doctor bolted out of the craft. He ran in a crouch, the wind from the chopper's blades whipping at the grass and his clothes, Rory right behind him.

Tildaith and his Marines deployed around the chopper, within the stealth shield, the chopper turrets swiveled to scan the sky.

----------

The hillside was unusually smooth, an artificial domelike shape covered with a thin layer of golden grass which blended with the sea of wheat all around them.

Large holes pocked the shallow dome at irregular intervals. The sky was a clear blue, innocent. But Rory kept an eye on it nervously, looking for Wirrn.

The Doctor ran to a specific hole on the hillside, fell to his knees and peered inside. "Amy!"

Amy's weary, dirty face and hay-filled hair turned up to him. "What took you so long!?"

The Doctor grinned to hear her in such fine fettle. "Time is objective, Amy. We were already virtually here when we picked up Stanley's tracer."

"Well don't hang about, get us out of here!"

Rory raced up to look down the shaft, joyous at the sound of Amy's voice. He paled at the sight of Amy and Stanley braced between the walls with nothing under them but hundreds of feet of empty air. He stepped back from the edge.

"Rory, grab my waistband," the Doctor said. Rory took a firm hold on him and braced his legs on either side of the Doctor's, the Doctor laid down and stretched his arms down into the hole.

As long as the Doctor's arms were, they weren't long enough to reach Amy.

He hitched himself farther out over the lip. He stretched his bony fingers down, arm wavering, she reached up, trying to grab his hand. The shadow of his windswept head fell on her face, but it was just too far, less than half a foot, but impossible.

Schwillic abruptly scuttled up her arm, wrapped a leg around her wrist and reached up and wrapped a leg around the Doctor's wrist. The Doctor grunted and pulled back.

"Pull Rory!" he yelled.

"No, Schwillic!" Amy protested. "I'm too heavy for you." She could feel herself start to slide up, losing her purchase. Schwillic's body stretched, she could feel his quiet keen as muscles strained to the breaking point. "No!" She yanked back, trying to break his hold. He tightened his leg painfully around her wrist, but lost his hold on the Doctor.

She pried his leg loose. "Doctor, take him!" She tossed Schwillic up before the tripod could protest.

The Doctor lunged forward and caught the alien awkwardly in both hands, but then couldn't get a hand free to push himself up.

"Schwillic, climb up my arm," he said.

Schwillic clamped all three prehensile legs around the Doctor's arm and clambered up -- over the Time Lord's shoulder and down his back. The tripod turned at the top and stared back down the hole.

"You should have let me help!" he vibrated down to Amy who was braced again between the walls, using her arms as well as her legs. She stared up at him mutinously.

"Not if it's going to rip you in half," she sniped back.

"Well do something," Stanley yelled from beneath her. "I'm not getting any younger down here!"

----------

Tildaith stood on guard behind the Doctor and Rory as they rescued their friends. He had his pistol out, scanning the sky, another kevlar-clad trooper beside him.

“Sir!” the trooper yelled, and gestured with his rifle.

Tildaith turned to the head of the hill where the guard was pointing. A Wirrn flew up out of the entrance to the hive, a mere two acres away from them. It hovered on the air, wings beating invisibly fast, slowly turning, antennae twitching, looking for something.

"Doctor," Tildaith said, "We've got company."

----------

The Doctor lifted at the waist and glanced at the hovering Wirrn, then stretched back down to Amy. He leaned in as far as he dared. Rory holding onto his waistband.

"Come on, Amy. Reach!" The Doctor grunted as the rim cut into his stomach.

Amy stretched up as far as she could. Desperate, she braced one arm on the wall behind her and pushed away, stretching up for the Doctor's hand.

She lost purchase, her feet slipped and she fell a few inches, before slamming her back back against the wall. Hyperventilating.

"AMY!" Stanley yelled from below her.

"I'm all right," she called down, wedging herself frantically between the walls. She wiggled herself back into position.

"Amy! Don't move!" The Doctor backed up onto his knees and whipped off his bow tie. It was a pre-tied one, with the bow attached to the front of the neckband, he tied the clip ends together into a knot and dangled the loop down the shaft, bowtie first.

"Grab hold!" he yelled.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Amy's voice echoed up the shaft. Rory -- holding onto the Doctor's waistband -- grinned in relief to hear it.

A few seconds later the Doctor pulled Amy out of the shaft like pulling a fish from a barrel. Amy stumbled over the edge and immediately clung to Rory, hugging him fervently. He crushed her close, burying his face in her hair.

"Not to alarm you, Doctor," Tildaith said from behind them. "But there are more of them."

The Marines stood stock still within the chopper's stealth field. Their weapons at the ready, each child-sized soldier trained on the giant hovering wasps. Machine guns raised, quivering with tension.

The wasp was joined by another, and another, emerging upward from the hive. Their antenna twitched, they turned, searching.

"Quick," Amy said in a feverish whisper, turning to the Doctor. "Stanley's still down there, he was below me."

The Doctor dropped down and dangled the bowtie down the shaft. Stanley had crabwalked his way up as high as he could, but he still couldn't get as high as Amy. The bowtie was far too short.

The soldiers were getting jumpy. The Wirrn had stopped searching and all three had turned toward the cloaked chopper, antenna twitching, obviously sensing something.

"Hold your fire!" Tildaith yelled. "Only fire if they penetrate the stealth shield!"

Hammers were cocked back, sounding like a field of particularly lethal crickets. But the soldiers held their ground.

"Stay there, Stanley," the Doctor called down the well to the boy.

"I'm not going anywhere," the teenager said with weary humor.

The Doctor sat back on his knees and stuffed his bowtie in his pants pocket. He unclipped his suspenders and dangled them down the light well. They flopped against the wall, still too short.

He sat up again. "Rory, give me your belt," The Doctor tied the top of his braces in a knot, slipped Rory's belt through the loop and back through its buckle, adding its length. He dangled it down belt first to the boy, Stanley grabbed hold.

Amy, peering down the well, couldn't resist. "What was that about somebody needing a leash?" Amy called down.

Stanley glared up at her. "Shut up."

-----

"Can those things detect electromagnetic fields?" Tildaith asked the Doctor quietly from behind Rory, his gun trained on the hovering Wirrn. The Doctor grunted on his stomach as he hauled Stanley up. "Very probably," he said.

"Definitely," Stanley said as he cleared the hole.

"Then we've got a problem," Tildaith said. "The stealth shield is electromagnetic."

"Yeah, I sort of figured that," the Doctor said as he jumped to his feet.

"Why didn't you mention it before?" Tildaith demanded.

"Well," the Doctor said. "They can't see us."

"What good does that do if they can sense us?" Tildaith demanded.

"Well, it got you moving. Let's not hang about though, shall we?" He turned and took one look at the trio of wasps.

"If they can't detect your chopper they may be detecting my tracer," Stanley said, worriedly.

"In that case," the Doctor said. "Run!" He sprinted for the chopper.

The wasps dove.

----------

"Withdraw!" Tildaith bellowed.

Everyone pelted for the chopper with no deference to rank or privilege. Childsized Marines piled in from both sides, Stanley scrambled in, carrying Schwillic, Rory and Amy right behind.

The Doctor and Tildaith turned to slam the doors. A Wirrn foreleg scrabbled in the gap, the Doctor kicked it. The Wirrn screamed and jerked back. "Go, go! Immediate liftoff!" Tildaith ordered. They slammed the hatch.

The chopper lifted off and spun on its axis, tilting as it drove forward. The hull shuddered as a heavy insect body rammed against it.

"Weapons, sir?" one of the gunners asked from his seat in one of the bulbous turrets.

"Not yet, but keep them ready. Pilot, give us some distance. Everyone get strapped in!" Tildaith ordered over the sound of the chopper blades.

Amy saw several of the Fayanoran Marines jerking their straps tight. She was sitting on Rory's lap in the limited space. She reached across the narrow aisle and snapped the Doctor’s buckles around him as he fumbled. She was cinched in tight with Rory.

"Jet mode.' Tildaith said to his pilot.

Amy saw the distortion field of the cloak disappear around them. The Wirrn were gaining.

The shimmery field formed into a vertical ring around the chopper, top to bottom. It formed into a cone pointing aft.

"Hold on!" the Doctor yelled, bracing his arms against the ceiling.

With a roar the chopper leapt forward like a rocket.

Rory was pushed forward in his backwards seat, half bent over Amy.

He looked up at the Doctor who was grinning in mad delight.

Rory looked through the window to see the Wirrn diminishing into specks behind them.

"These people are good!" he yelled.

-----

They quickly outpaced the Wirrn, and once they were past the range of Wirrn patrols they dropped back to normal flight. Jet configuration apparently took a lot of energy.

Amy breathed a sigh of relief and dropped her head on Rory's shoulder. He was only too happy to hold her tight.

She looked across the aisle to find the Doctor sitting there, hair bristling in every direction, his braces dangling out of one pocket, casually putting on his bow tie.

She glared at his tie. "I can't believe you did that!" she said, in disgust.

He patted his bowtie with satisfaction. "I keep telling you, Amy. Bowties are cool!"

Amy groaned and rolled her eyes. She looked down her body, draped over Rory's lap. She held out her legs. Her hose were in tatters, flecked with hay and caked with dirt. She grimaced, just imagining what the rest of her looked like. Stanley, farther down the bench row of Marines, looked like a refugee from a dump. One of the Marines, apparently a medic, was unpeeling the sock from his arm.

She looked down at the impromptu bandage on her own arm. "Amy!" Rory said in concern, seeing the filthy dressing. He immediately grabbed her arm and gingerly rolled the sock down and off. He carefully peeled the sock pad away. It was crusty at the edges, and she started bleeding again slightly as it came free, revealing the quarter-sized raw divot. Rory growled slightly under his breath. He leaned sideways to accept the medical kit one of the Marines passed to him.

The Doctor saw the bleeding hole and took her arm in his from across the aisle very gently, "Oh, Amy..." he leaned forward and gently kissed her arm beside the wound. His lips were soft. Amy's fingers curled. The dark eyes that he lifted to hers were devastated.

Amy gritted her jaw. "I. Don't. Like. Bugs!" she declared fiercely. Anything to wipe that look off his face. "Squash them!" Give him something to do, that was the ticket.

"Oh, I intend to," the Doctor said. He leaned back and crossed his arms, studying her.

"It'll be all right, Amy," Rory said, as he rummaged in the medkit. He ripped open a sterile swab and started cleaning her arm. "I've been studying the equipment in the Tardis sickbay, we can fix you right up. There won't even be a scar, I promise." He matter-of-factly fussed over her arm. Cleaning the wound, applying antiseptic, and bandaging it neatly, so intent on making her better that he was oblivious to everything else. He was so furious and determined and cute that all she could do was lean forward and kiss his cheek.

The Doctor watched them with a smile.

"What about me?" Stanley said, waving his newly bandaged arm at them.

"Yes, you too," the Doctor said. He grinned down the aisle at the freckle-faced boy. Schwillic was strapped into the bench beside him, the straps cutting oddly across his pudgy, pink body.

"You got any food in there?" Amy asked Rory, staring down at the medikit he was packing up. "I'm starving."

Down the aisle, Stanley rummaged in his pants pocket and pulled out a power bar, he tossed it to her. She caught the crushed bar and stared down at it in consternation.

She looked up at him. "You had this the whole time?"

He shrugged, shame-faced. "I forgot."

That seemed to break the ice. All the Marines relaxed and started chatting. Somebody broke out a cache of power bars and started passing them around.

"So," the Doctor said, clapping his hands together. "What did you learn?" He turned to Amy.

Between bites of her crumbled power bar, and interruptions from Stanley, Amy explained what they'd discovered. The smoke bomb factory, the communications satellite, the converted, Gandhi...

"So, it's the Swarm Leader who is behind it all," the Doctor said.

"Yes," Amy said. "He's the biggest Wirrn we saw, and really old, some sort of Methuselah. That's why they all listen to him. He was apparently born from a soldier on a battlefield. He plans to turn Feyanora into a breeding colony, use the humans for livestock, and call the rest of the Wirrn here," Amy concluded.

All the Feyanorans seemed to have lost their appetite, they sat very still, listening.

"He means war," Colonel Tildaith said.

Rory turned to look at him at that guttural announcement. The Colonel was standing with his arms crossed, looking lethal. Rory had never seen such a grim look on a 12 year old face before. But then, this was his world they were talking about.

"Oh, it won't come to that, Colonel," the Doctor said with inappropriate cheerfulness.

"I've got a plan."

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter 
Previous post Next post
Up