The Worldship p.5
The Doctor could hear muffled pounding.
"Klayisha won't move. And there's nothing in here to stand on, much less pile up. How we going to reach the ceiling?" Jor asked. The ceiling in the room below was a good 15 feet high. Well beyond arm's reach.
"Hold on." The Doctor whipped his sonic screwdriver out and used it to cut the metal bar off of one of the metal storage racks. "About time this was good for something," he muttered under his breath as he worked. He pulled out his spool of fishing line and gave the end to Ashtroth. "Here. Tie this around that box over there." He began pulling handfuls of line off the reel.
While Ashtroth was busy with the box the Doctor grabbed a large can off the shelf and cut off the top of the can, dumped out the vegetables inside, cut off the bottom and tied his end of the fishing line securely around the middle of the cylinder.
He laid the metal bar across the hole and laid the fishing line across the center of it.
"Here." The box with the line tied to it floated over to the Doctor. The Doctor nodded down the hole and Ashtroth lowered the box down into the room below.
"I'm coming down," the Doctor called.
He stuck his foot into the can cylinder and lowered himself down into the hole. The box rose as a counterweight and lowered the Doctor gently to the floor. "Shadia." The Doctor waved her over to him. "You first." He helped her get her foot into the can over his then removed his foot and watched her start rising toward the ceiling.
The door was still being battered, it sounded as if they'd found something to use as a ram. The Doctor ran over to the teary faced woman who looked like Shadia, she sat listlessly in a chair by a cradle. He helped her up by the shoulders. "Here, Jor. Take her." Jor ushered her over to where the can was lowering back into the room.
The Doctor turned to the crib.
At first glance it appeared empty, until the Doctor saw the wrinkled sheet shift slightly. And saw the faint, colorful shadow on the back wall of a chubby baby kicking its feet in the air.
The Doctor pulled the corners of the sheet up from under the mattress and wrapped them around the invisible baby. When he turned Jor was just lifting up off the floor. And the door was beginning to bulge.
"Hurry!" Shadia gestured frantically. Jor heaved himself out of the hole and kicked himself free of the can.
Quickly, hand over hand, Shadia lowered the can back down to the Doctor. Just as the Doctor thrust his foot into the can, the door crashed open and the guards rushed in.
"Shoot him!" ordered an authoritative silver haired man in the background.
There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. The Doctor was suspended halfway to the ceiling in plain view.
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