Post by Fitz Kreiner on Aug 16, 2010 12:15:16 GMT
A Bloody Incursion
“Come on man, push,” Jess chuckled as she steered Bessie into the garage forecourt.
“You’d have thought the Doctor would have thought ahead and filled the tank,” Tom puffed as he pushed the car the last few feet.
“Oh stop moaning,” Jess laughed.
“It’s alright for you, sat in the dry and not having to push an old car through the streets of Colesham.” Tom said leaning heavily on the car to catch his breath.
“You don’t expect a lady to do that, do you?” she replied with a put on prim voice and a wink. “Now, petrol or diesel?”
“Or steam?” Tom said climbing into the back and collapsing heavily onto the seat.
“Petrol,” Jess decided finally, picking the pump and slipping it into the fuel tank.
“We should have asked those coppers for a lift,” Tom said, remembering their encounter with two police officers and how they explained away being caught leaving a house with a broken window panel in the front door in an evacuated village and carrying a small dog.
“Alright, what you kids doing?”
The voice made both Jess and Tom start. Rounding the front of a car was a middle aged man in a Chief Inspectors uniform, grey hair poking out from underneath the cap and a frame that may have once been athletic, but was now approaching overweight.
“Kids?” Jess said, flabbergasted.
“Oh dear. Very wrong choice of words, mate,” Tom said, sliding out of the back seat of Bessie and standing between Jess and the policeman.
“I don’t care about my choice of words, sonny,” the policeman said looking at Tom. “I want to know what you’re doing filling this old crock at a petrol station in an evacuated village.”
“We’re with UNIT,” Tom replied, fishing in his inside coat pocket for the UNIT pass he’d been issued with last time he was on Earth. “Military Investigation team; scientific division. Official secrets and all that, so can’t talk about it. I’m sure you understand.”
“Now just a minute,” Webb said stepping forwards.
“Oh, and about the petrol, just charge it to UNIT,” Tom added, clapping Webb on the shoulder and smiling before turning away.
Reaching out, Webb put his hand on Tom’s shoulder and turned him back so that he was facing him again.
“Now, you may be attached to UNIT, young man,” he said, rage apparent in his eyes, “But I am the law in these parts and I can still have you taken to the nick.”
“I’d like to see you try,” Tom replied, squaring up to Webb.
Stepping forwards, Jess placed her hand on Toms shoulder and gentle pulled him back, sensing the anger building in him. Roles reversed, she calmly stepped between him and Webb and smiled sweetly.
“What my colleague means,” she said, adopting a professional manner “is that whilst we are with UNIT and this area is centre of a UNIT operation, you don’t have the authority to arrest us. We’re dealing with something here which is far beyond your capability.”
Webb took a step back, unprepared for the sudden change of roles, or even what Jess had said. He was sure that his presence would have had an effect on the two youngsters.
“Now just a minute, Miss,” he started.
“We’re already running late,” Jess cut in. “We were expected back some time ago, so if you don’t mind, and if you’ve any complaints, take it up with Captain Morris.”
Webb took another step back and watched as the girl climbed into the driving seat and the young man clambered through the back seats before slipping into the front passenger seat. With a wave, the girl turned the ignition key and drove off, the young man glancing over his shoulder at Webb as they rounded the corner. With a grimace, Webb returned to his Panda care and picked up the radio.
“Webb here again, sir,” he said.
“What is it Webb?” the voice replied, the weariness more prominent. “It’s getting late.”
“Yes, sir,” Webb replied. “Sorry about this, but I’ve just had a run in with two civilians in the Colesham area.”
“Civil- I thought you said you have the area evacuated?” the voice said.
“I saw them earlier, at the UNIT area near that crashed craft.”
“Webb, don’t waste my time with,” the voice suddenly stopped.
“Sir?” Webb asked as silence descended.
“The Doctor often has accomplices with him,” the voice said, almost distantly. “Webb, I want you to keep an eye on these two, inform me of anything they do that’s out of the ordinary.”
“Yes sir,” Webb replied.
*
Sergeant Lovatt watched, her eyes wide, as the alien creatures surrounded the Doctor. The Time Lord was calmly standing his ground, his hand held out, to greet them, when one of the creatures jumped at him and clubbed him to the ground with its weapon. Without waiting for any orders from Morris, she stepped into action; stepping round the pylon and towards the aliens.
Her sight was focussed on the Doctor, lying prostrate on the ground, and the six aliens surrounding him, slowly moving towards him. Her pistol was already in her hand, and bringing it up, her left hand cupping the butt of the pistol, she stepped up her pace into a near run. The aliens are all she could focus on and one of them was leaning down towards the Doctor. Lovatt knew that the Doctor was their best hope for dealing with this situation, she could clearly remember both the Derbyshire and Camden incidents and she wasn’t about to let the Doctor out of her sight.
Without realising, Lovatt started to shout wordlessly as she approached. A roaring battle cry that she never remembered doing before. And it worked. One of the aliens stopped and turned to face her. As soon as she saw it, Lovatt’s attention focussed solely on the creature. She could see it raising the greenish-brown stubby weapon up towards her. She already had her own pistol up and with a swift movement of her arm, the barrel of her weapon was pointing at the creature.
Lovatt didn’t have to think as the battle reflex kicked in and her finger squeezed the trigger. The shot exploded out of the gun and impacted into the thorax of the alien, knocking it backwards. Another shot followed by another exploded from the barrel of Lovatt’s gun, each shot ripping into the black carapace of the alien. Jets of greenish steam shot from the holes torn through the body armour.
The closer Lovatt got, the more the aliens backed away, the wounded alien scrawling on the ground in the mud. They were still gathered round the Doctor, although weren’t as close as they had been. Keeping her gun trained from alien to alien, Lovatt put her arm round the Doctor and pulled the Time Lord to his feet. An alien jumped close to her, but soon jumped back when Lovatt fired a shot into it.
“Come on, you,” she shouted at the Doctor, as the Time Lord used her to struggle to his feet. “We’re getting you out of here.”
“Wait,” the Doctor muttered before another alien jumped forward.
“No time,” Lovatt said, firing off another shot. “I’m getting you back to HQ.”
*
The sound of the gunshots could be heard inside the HQ, bringing Morris out of his office with a loud crash of the door.
“What’s happening?” he asked, as he skidded to a halt by one of the desks and looked up at the LCD screed attached to the wall.
“I’m not sure,” Loding replied. “Something’s made Sergeant Lovatt open fire.”
Morris looked up at the screen; Lovatt was firing round after round into the group of aliens, who were gathered around something on the floor. It took several seconds for Morris to work out what the crumpled heap was; the Doctor.
“Get some men out there, medic too; now,” Morris shouted towards the door. “Back her up and get the Doctor back here.”
Morris turned to look back up at the screen. Lovatt was supporting the Doctor back towards the cameras at the electric barrier.
“As soon as they’re past the barrier, activate the electric field,” he said, turning to Loding.
“Yes, sir,” she replied, turning back to the computer terminal she was at.
Swiftly returning to his office, Morris grabbed his cap and stepped out of the trailer and jumped down to the ground. The sky was getting darker and the rain heavier. Ignoring the weather, he pulled his pistol from the holster and stepped towards the forward observation post at the playground.
Already, several UNIT troops had started to move towards the electric barriers. He found he was wishing he still had more seasoned soldiers at his disposal as opposed to the young men at the moment. He had been told that UNIT had a high turnover when he was made captain, but it hadn’t seemed as real until the Camden incident. His troops seemed unsure about heading towards the alien ship. Only Lovatt and Loding were here who’d had experience of dealing with extra-terrestrial life forms before.
Beyond the barriers, Lovatt was struggling with half carrying the Doctor towards the HQ. Her progress was slow and the aliens were starting to advance on her. Morris saw her fire two shots before it became apparent that the clip was empty. She needed help.
“Well come on then,” Morris yelled as he ran towards the wavering troops. “Lay down covering fire. Matthews, Crawford, get down there and help Sergeant Lovatt.”
Morris climbed to the top of the slide he had stood at before. The heavier rainfall had made the steel more slippery than it had been before. Ignoring when his left foot slipped, Morris found a better footing and looked down through his binoculars at the scene beyond the barriers. Matthews and Crawford had reached Lovatt and the Doctor and were now helping them back towards the HQ. Beyond them, two aliens were writhing on the floor, slowly heading back to the ship. It seemed that bullets had some effect on them.
“I hope you’ve got that barrier back up and working,” Morris muttered under his breath.
Looking through the binoculars, Morris saw that the small party were back past the barriers and the aliens were now closing in on them, one of them leading the way. The covering fire laid down by the rest of the troops seemed to be holding the aliens off, but they were still advancing, and now they had started to return fire. Morris could see the shimmer of air as the aliens fired their weapons.
Returning his pistol to the holster, he grabbed his radio from his belt, he flicked the switch with his thumb as he brought it to his mouth.
“Corporal, get ready to activate the barrier,” he said into the receiver. “Now,” he added as the first of the aliens reached the barriers.
Morris smiled as he saw a crackle of electricity, like lightning, flicker from one of the pylons to its neighbour, with the lead alien in the middle. A small smile of satisfaction grew on Morris’s lips as he saw the alien twist and writhe in the electric field before collapsing, the other aliens keeping their distance.
Jumping down from the slide, Morris let the binoculars drop, hanging round his neck from the strap and stepped over to the men.
“Get down there and start to push them back. Don’t touch the barrier,” he ordered. “I want that alien captured.”
Morris waited until the soldiers started to move before he started to make his way over to the playground benches, where the Medic was attending the Doctor, who seemed determined to wave him away.
“Will, will you tell your chap here to do something useful like put the kettle on, rather than fuss around me?” the Doctor said.
The medic looked up at Morris, who nodded. With a nod in reply, the medic packed his equipment away and headed back to the trailer. There was an uneasy silence for several minutes until the Doctor finally looked up at Morris.
“Is all that really necessary, Will?” he asked, nodding down to where the soldiers were approaching the prostate alien.
“It saved your life, Doctor,” Morris replied.
“Or did they hit you so hard you forgot?” Lovatt asked.
The Doctor put his hand to his forehead as if he hadn’t realised that he’d been hit. “Oh yes, that,” he said absently. “I wonder what Jess and Tom have to tell us.”
“Doctor, what?” Morris asked.
“You sent them to find that dog’s owner, remember?” Lovatt said, slowly and placing her hand on his arm.
“Yes, as it happens, I do. I was there at the time,” the Doctor replied, his soft voice clear over the sound of gunfire. He looked from Lovatt to Morris with a degree of annoyance before taking his pocket watch from his waistcoat. “But it was about an hour ago, they should be back any minute now,” he said, closing the cover on the watch and slipping it back into his pocket and looking up towards the mobile HQ.
Morris turned to look where the Doctor was and saw that the canary-yellow car was parked beside the HQ, Jess and Tom stood by the entrance to the trailer, talking to Corporal Loding, who looked and pointed towards them.
Aware of some movement out of the periphery of his vision, Morris turned to see the Doctor on his feet and breezing past him towards his companions. Turning back to Lovatt, who simply shrugged in reply, Morris set off after the Doctor, Lovatt following on behind him.
“Well?” the Doctor asked as he approached.
“We’ve given the dog over to the police,” Tom replied.
“There were still lights on and everything in his house,” Jess continued. “The TV was on and there was nothing packed or anything.”
“We think you were right,” Tom said nodding towards the ship. “He’s in there.”
“Yes,” the Doctor said sadly. “I thought as much. I think we may have to face the possibility that Sally’s owner may well be living on borrowed time, or worse; dead.”
“What makes you say that?” Morris asked.
“I really hope I’m wrong here, Will,” the Doctor replied turning round to face Morris and putting an arm around his shoulder. “But it has been known for several species to collect specimens from the local environment and dissect them to gain knowledge. It’s even happened on Earth to crews of crashed space craft. It’s a horrible and barbaric practice, but it’s one that is far too common for my liking.”
“So you’re saying we’ve got a rescue mission to plan?” Morris asked, breaking away from the Doctor’s arm and looking over to Lovatt in preparation to give the orders.
“No,” the Doctor replied, stepping back and holding his hands out. “Not at all. They could misconstrue any incursion into their ship as an act of war.”
Morris returned the Doctor’s steely gaze, his face grim. “Doctor, if there are innocent civilians in there in danger of being dissected, then I say that they’re the ones who are verging on declaring war.”
“Will,” the Doctor almost cried, his hands to his head, almost as though he were about to start tearing his hair out. “Will, Will, Will, Will, Will, don’t you see? They’re alien. They have hugely different customs to you or I. Did you ever dissect a rat in biology at school?”
“Well, yes, but,” Morris started before the Doctor continued unabated.
“Have you ever sunk your teeth into a steak whilst thinking about the cow who laid down its life so you could eat it? It’s the same mentality.”
“Doctor, there is a distinct difference between an intelligent human being and a lab rat,” Morris said.
“Some people may argue the reverse,” the Doctor muttered before. “Not necessarily to them.” The Doctor grabbed Morris by the shoulders and turned him so that he was facing the ship, and pointed towards the rear. “Those are phased Ion drives, far in advance of anything humanity is currently capably of. To them, you are the equivalent of laboratory rats. Possibly even the equivalent of amoebas swimming in a Petri dish. Don’t think for a moment that you’re the most advanced and intelligent being in the universe, or even on this planet.”
“Well, thank you for your opinion, Doctor,” Morris said stepping away from the Time Lord and pointing to where his men were now carrying the alien back towards the HQ. “But I think it’s time for the lab rats to start a dissection of their own.”
“Will,” the Doctor warned.
“Or, if it would please you,” Morris said, raising an eyebrow. “We could use it as a prisoner exchange. We return their crewman in exchange for any hostages they’ve got in there. And you can negotiate it; you’re the one who wants to try the talking and diplomacy, and as you seem to enjoy reminding me, I’m just a simple primitive soldier.”
The Doctor looked at Morris and then to the fallen alien. “If you want to do a prisoner exchange, then so be it. But there is to be no mistreating that creature. Remember, it’s an intelligent alien life form.”
“We’ll do it your way,” Morris said, clapping a hand on the Doctor’s shoulder, proud he’d found an accepted compromised. “Although my men will be on guard in case our guest or his friends start to get violent; purely for your protection, of course.”
“Hmm,” the Doctor muttered, as though only half believing Morris.
Having watched the exchange, Lovatt moved to step in behind Morris and the Doctor and return to the mobile HQ. She paused as she got closer to Jess and Tom, still stood a way back, under the umbrella Jess was holding. They’d watched the exchange between the Doctor and Morris so silently she’d forgotten they were there.
“What about you two?” she asked.
“I think we’ll find somewhere to get something to eat and have a rest,” Jess said quickly.
“We’ve got a paddy wagon with food,” Lovatt said, pointing to a smaller van which had arrived in the last hour.
“Erm, thanks, but army food and all that,” Jess replied, cutting in before Tom. “We are civilians after all.”
“Fair enough,” Lovatt said. “We’ve made arrangements to use a B&B in Sherringham if there are any needs. Just ask Loding for the address.”
“Thanks,” Jess smiled.
“Why did you say all that?” Tom whispered after Lovatt had moved off. “What’s wrong with their paddy wagon?”
“Because we don’t really want food,” Jess replied, looking up at Tom with a sly smile. “We’re going back to the TARDIS to pick up two of those space suits and then we’re going in there,” she finished pointing at the ship.