The Long Way Down, Part 2a
Continued from Part One
Title: The Long Way Down, Part 2/5
Author: Llywela13
Show: Classic Doctor Who
Characters: Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan
Rating: PG
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."
On to Part 2b
Title: The Long Way Down, Part 2/5
Author: Llywela13
Show: Classic Doctor Who
Characters: Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan
Rating: PG
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."
On to Part 2b