Post by Fitz Kreiner on Jun 1, 2010 15:29:23 GMT
Day five, Jailbreak & Tom’s story.
The time seemed to drag after reading Tom’s note. I knew now that he was on the ship somewhere, possible in another cell, and he had an escape plan. Not only that, he knew that I was here as well. How he knew this, I don’t know, but I was glad he did. I was also quite impressed that he’d managed to take in some of what I’d been teaching him with music.
The news seemed to please Theoris as well. I wondered whether it would just be the three of us escaping or whether there were more Anubians on the ship that Tom was planning to get out. He could have said that he was coming to get me, but he said ‘jailbreak’, which must have meant something.
There was nothing to do other that eat the food, if food was the right term. It was slop; that was the best description. Slop with dirty water. It tasted as bad as it looked. There were a few times when I gagged on what I was eating it was that gross. I was far too excited now to sit still, which really seemed to annoy Theoris.
After what felt like days later I heard a faint tapping coming from the door. It wasn’t a regular noise and if it had been the Drachnith, they would have just opened the door, I was sure of that. I suddenly realised where I recognised the beat of the tapping from; it was the This Lizzy song Jailbreak. That meant it could only be one person; Tom.
When the tapping stopped, I knew what had to happen next. I’ve seen enough films with prison breaks and the likes, and I’ve watched some of them with Tom in the TARDIS. Plus, I know what he’s like.
“Get back, get away from the door,” I said to Theoris.
She looked confused, but she did it. What happened to the door was hugely disappointing. There was just a small burst of sparks before the door slid open. I was expecting an explosion. I’d even lined up the perfect retort for when I saw Tom, the classic Michael Cain ‘you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off’. Instead the door just slid open and revealed Tom. Even though he’d ruined my line, I was so glad to see him. I ran to him and threw my arms round him to hug him. He almost seemed surprised. When I looked at him properly, it probably wasn’t surprise.
He had a black eye, swollen lip and cut on his eyebrow. His shirt was missing several buttons and torn. It looked like he’d really been in the wars.
“Hello Jess,” he smiled as he looked down at me. It was the most comforting thing I’d seen in nearly three days.
For some reason, the first thing I could think of doing now was to introduce him to Princess Theoris. Why this was my first thought at that time, I really couldn’t tell you.
“Tom, this is Princess Theoris,” I said, looking round to Theoris.
Tom just nodded and looked at us both. “Princess, Jess-ess, this is a jailbreak, let’s run,” he said.
“Wait, wait,” I shouted after him. He turned round and walked into the cell towards me. “What’s the rush? I mean, I’m not ungrateful, but can’t we just say hello?” I asked.
“Jess, you’ve no idea how good it is to see you again,” he said gripping my arms and looking into my eyes. I felt so comforted by him. “But we’re going to have the Drachnith after us, if they’re not already, and we’ve got to get from here to the landing bay. Trust me.”
Those two words made me grin even bigger than I already was. I did trust him, and I knew that he’d get us out of here. This time, I took his hand and we ran from the cell. Theoris was close behind us as we ran. I was surprised as soon as I left the cell to see that there was already a group of Anubians in the corridor. It seemed that Tom’s jailbreak consisted of more than just me and Theoris.
While we were running, I noticed that Tom was wearing something on his right wrist. It was rather large for him and was resting against both our hands. I was able to look down at it as we ran; it was a Drachnith wrist gun thing. There was a dirty mustard coloured stuff around it. I really didn’t want to think about what it could be. I asked Tom where he’d gotten in and all he said was; “You really don’t want to know”. I had the thought that I really wouldn’t want to know, those guns looked very close to the skin of the Drachnith and I doubted that they’d let them go easily.
I was thinking this when I found that I’d ran into the back of Tom. He’d let go of my hand and was keeping himself in front of me. It was when I heard the growl of a Drachnith and realised that we’d been caught! My heart was in my throat and my mouth was dryer than the Sahara Desert. I was more scared now that we’d been caught again, mainly because I didn’t know what the Drachnith would do to escaping prisoners. I was expecting us to be shot dead. I remember closing my eyes as I heard the sound of a gun.
Several long seconds passed. It could have been hours as I waited for the next gunshot to hit me, but it never came. For a brief moment I thought that shot had killed me, but it was Toms hand in mine again which brought me back to reality with a jolt.
We were running again. After so long in that pod, my legs were aching still and boy were they telling me now that I was running? I should be used to all this running. It seems that that has been a lot of my life since being with the Doctor. Let it never be said that I’m unfit!
I looked down as we ran; the Drachnith was lying on the floor. It didn’t take a Time Lord intellect to know what had happened. Tom had shot first and got the Drachnith before it could get us. I tried not to look at the body as we ran past; I just focussed on the running. If Tom had an escape plan, then surely he would take us to the Doctor, or he would find us. I just hoped that Tom had a plan; he’s said to me before that sometimes he wings it, trying to work like the Doctor, but they don’t always work the way he hopes. I tried not to think about this being one of those times as we ran.
Tom didn’t say much as we ran, none of us did. I think everyone knew the seriousness of the situation. If we were too loud, the Drachnith might notice. At least, that’s how I felt. I didn’t want to think about how many security cameras may have caught us, or any other security devices.
We eventually stopped outside a large door. Tom hushed us all and motioned for us to stay down. I watched, wanting to call out to bring him back as he went up to the door and shot at the access panel. The door clanged open loudly and I really thought that his was it and we were going to be caught.
“Come on; run, quick!” he shouted back at us.
It was one of those moments that you see in films as he herded us through into what I discovered was a docking bay, standing by the door waving us through. I deliberately stayed just inside the door. I wasn’t going to let him send me somewhere and then disappear again. To my relief, he followed straight after me and took my hand again, leading me into the docking bay.
“What now?” I asked.
The Anubians were all stood around Theoris, as if they were protecting her.
Tom pointed to one of the space ships behind the Anubians. “We’re stealing one of them, and getting the hell outta here,” he said.
“You have yet to tell us how,” one of the Anubians said.
“Piracy, me hearty,” Tom replied in a typical pirate voice. He was in good spirits, which always made me feel better. I could tell how he felt a situation was going on the style of his humour. It wasn’t dry and cynical, which meant he had a good feeling.
“Aye cap’n,” I said, knowing that I was grinning.
“Then c’mon me wench,” he winked back at me.
The old Tom was back. I knew that things were going to go well now. I followed him up a ramp to one of the ships; the Anubians were close behind us. The inside of the ship was as dirty and industrial as the rest of the Drachnith mother ship. I still didn’t feel hugely comfortable and I knew I wouldn’t until we were in space and away from the Drachnith. That was something that bothered me; how were we going to get away. Until Now I’d just accepted it, but now I was wondering.
“How are we going to get out of here now?” I asked.
Tom was sat in the pilot’s seat, which was far too big for him. It made him look like a kid in a grownups chair! He seemed to know what he was doing though.
“They made this so simple,” he said before showing me some of the controls. “Thrusters, star drive, navigation, ion cannons and missiles.” He looked at me after the last two grinning. I suddenly knew what he had planned. “Get ready for fireworks,” he said.
I heard the low whine of the engines as he started moving his hands over the controls and felt the ship start to rise. He’d chosen a fairly small ship, to evade their sensors, he had said. There was just enough room for all of us to fit in with Tom and myself in the cockpit.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” I said, looking at him.
“Don’t I always?” he said, looking at me with one of those looks of his that was filled with a jokey look of hurt. “Stand by everyone,” he shouted over his shoulder.
I knew what was coming and found myself putting my fingers in my ears. I was expecting this to be loud. Tom reached out and touched a control and I saw two faint white lines shoot out from the ship, under the view screen in front of us and hit the main outer doors. It was quite impressive to watch the explosion. The doors exploded in a fireball which was quickly extinguished and pulled out into space as the docking bay depressurised.
I really didn’t need to cover my ears; the explosion was silent, at least from inside the ship. I watched as Tom hit the thrusters control and we sped out of the docking bay. I saw some of the other ships start to get pulled towards the docking bay doors. It was rather strange to watch.
“Where are we going?” Theoris asked. I turned round to see her stood in the door to the cockpit.
“As far away from these bastards as possible,” Tom muttered.
I could see small but bright explosions flash all around the ship, through the window. I took that to mean that the Drachnith new that we were escaping and were shooting at us. It wasn’t like how it seems in things like Star Wars or Star Trek; there were no loud explosions or any fire because of the vacuum.
“We’re going, Princess, to Anubis. We’ve an appointment to keep with the Doctor and your father,” Tom said, looking round.
He looked back to the controls and flicked some of the switches which he said were the star drive. Then everything in the windows seemed to go mad!
“We’re on our way?” I asked.
“Be in orbit round Anubis in about, ooh, about forty minutes,” Tom said, looking at his watch.
I could see from here that he watch was broken as well and I knew that it was purely a symbolic gesture.
“So forty minutes, eh? Time to break out the rum?” I asked.
“Have you got any?” Tom asked smiling.
“No, but I’ve a question or two,” I replied. It was true, I had. I wanted to know what had happened to him after he left me at the pod.
“I told you, the Doctor wanted me to do something,” he replied before checking a few controls. I did wonder for a moment whether that was all he was going to say. “I really didn’t want to leave you,” he continued after a moment, “but the Doctor was pretty adamant. He was going to try and get Rameso, Tuchaneth and as many of the cities dignitaries as possible out of there and I was to try to save as many as possible, send them in the directions of the escape pods. We wanted to save as many people’s lives as possible. I don’t think, no, I know we didn’t get as many people to safety as we wanted. I know the Doctor wanted a 100 percent survival rate, but that was already impossible.”
Tom looked down. I could see him deliberately avoiding any form of eye contact with Theoris, I think he knew that she would have wanted 100 % as well. And I know that he was upset at not having saved more as well.
“I was meant to find Princess Theoris and get her to safety; it was only when I’d made to go away that I saw her run to your pod,” Tom finally continued. “I hoped that I’d meet up with the Doctor again soon and we’d get you back straight away. He told me that if needs be we’d all meet on Anubis and that if worst came to worst and we were caught he had faith that we’d get away.”
“And we did,” I said grinning. “Thanks to you though, how did you do it?”
Tom smiled at me and held up a silver tube from his trouser pocket. I’d not spotted it on him before and it must have been that he used to open the cell door. I recognised it immediately; it was the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver. But there was something wrong, I’d seen it having been destroyed by the Cybermen a few weeks ago, and told Tom this.
“That was a few weeks back, the old boy’s built himself another,” Tom explained. “He leant it to me this morning before he left with the words ‘just in case’. He had a quick chat with me about his fears for the conference and that the Drachnith were likely to take important prisoners to use as bartering chips. You, myself and Theoris were all the ace cards for their pack so to speak; you and I to hold against the Doctor and Theoris to hold against her father.
“I was able to get some people to the escape pods; I don’t know whether the Drachnith destroyed any, as some of them seem to be unaccounted for. Some of the fellows in the back there I helped escape, but the Drachnith caught them again. Others, I don’t know.
“I was making my way back up to try to find the TARDIS; I knew that the Doctor would try to make for there, and I don’t think the Drachnith would have known what it was had they seen it. It was then they caught me. One of the buggers whacked me round the head and then it all went fuzzy. I can just about remember them dragging me off and the pull of a transmat beam, so I imagine they spotted me as a target and wanted me back on the mother ship ASAP.
“I had a brief meeting with the Drachnith Prime, so I assume that he transported himself back over before the attack began. All he did was walk round me, laugh and breathe on me. Have you noticed how bad that guy’s breath is? Then he had me dragged off to this cell. Well, I say cell, it was more like a light cupboard. I think it was designed as some form of torture or something. It was a room about four feet square and both the floor and the ceiling were just large, bright lights.
“Fortunately they didn’t have the foresight to search me. Maybe they thought that one small humanoid couldn’t be any danger to them. The thing is, I didn’t want to escape straight off in case they caught you, so I sent my spies out to keep their ears open. I had a feeling that someone like the Princess would create a stir when she arrived.”
“Your spies?” I asked. I felt a little bad for cutting Tom off in the middle of his story.
“Yeah,” he said, smiling, “the other Anubians. They brought me food and water, what there was of it. Each time there were Drachnith outside and I couldn’t do anything. As soon as I knew you were here, I sent you that note. I had a feeling you might like it; I do take in some of what you tell me.
“Well, anyway, I waited for a while until I knew that the note had to have reached you. Unfortunately I didn’t have any pens on me, so I kinda forced open one of the cuts I’d got from the Drachnith and used my blood as ink and the end of the spoon or whatever it was that was meant to be a spoon from the so called food to write. Was the best I could come up with.”
That’s when it hit me, the dirty brown ink that Tom had written the note in. I hadn’t thought much about it at the time, but now it was blaringly obvious. It made me shudder slightly to think that he’d written a note in his own blood. It’s the sort of thing you read in books about people who are being tortured, writing notes in blood in case they die without telling their stories.
“I gave it three hours,” Tom continued, “until I knew that you’d have got the note and then I made a move. I used the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver to open the door. Imagine my surprise when I spotted a guard outside. Well, he was as surprised as I was, if not more so. The guy was two feet taller than me, so I just went for a rugby tackle. Brought him down, but rather painfully, found out later I’d broken my watch in the process. It was a bit of a struggle, if I say so myself. I eventually got his wrist gun off him and gave him a quick shot.
“It was a pretty tough job getting him back in that cupboard, but I just about managed it. I then ran for it. It took a while to find the rest of the prisoners, I’d not been given a tour of the cell block when I arrived, but I managed it. You, well, you know the rest,” he finished almost lamely after the rest of his story. Anyway, I was bloody glad he’d found us.
“How many of my people did you save?” Theoris asked.
I turned round. She was still stood behind our seats looking at us. She must have been as interested in Tom’s story as I was. After all, it was a story about her people.
“I honestly don’t know, Princess,” Tom said. I could see that he was sad about it. “All the people in the back there are those I found on the Drachnith ship, as for pods that made it out without getting caught, there could be loads. It takes what, four days for them to reach Anubis? The Drachnith mother ship can make it in just over two, the attack craft can in about one and a half.”
“So we can get to Anubis before the Drachnith, warn them and get them to send their fleet out to stop them?” I asked. I felt like we could solve this one quickly and before anything worse happened.
“My people do not want war,” Theoris said, pretty quickly after. I could hear the agitation in her voice.
“Yeah,” Tom replied looking at me. “And that was one thing the Doctor was adamant about, whatever happens, this must not become a full scale war.”
“I thought he told us not to interfere?” I asked. It was something the Doctor had been pretty adamant about when I spoke to him.
“It’s complicated. But he told me enough to say that we don’t want full scale war. It’s a delicate situation,” Tom replied. There must have been more going on in that mental message than he was telling.
“But still, we can get there before them, get something set up can’t we?” I asked.
“Well, yes, in theory,” Tom said. He was doing his rubbing his eyes thing. He does that when there’s something troubling; he folds one arm across his chest, rests his other elbow on his hand, screws up his eyes and then rubs them with his thumb and middle finger before pinching the bridge of his nose.
“The thing is,” he continued eventually, “We’re travelling faster than the Drachnith mother ship, but they could have sent a war fleet of attack ships before we left, and they could be there waiting for us.”