Perfectly Comfortable, 2/2
Part 1
A week later, Hartman told him, 'Your weekly visits are cancelled indefinitely.'
Inside, the Doctor gave a whooping cheer. She'd done it! Oh, you brilliant, fantastic Rose!
On the outside, he was outraged. He railed at Hartman through the transparent wall of his cell. 'We had an agreement,' he growled, pulling at his chains. 'How do I know you haven't hurt her? Even killed her?'
'You've been so uncooperative lately that I'm cancelling all your privileges,' said Hartman, her voice metallic through the grill. 'No visits, no more reading material. And you'll eat the food you're given.'
'Forget it,' said the Doctor. 'We both know I'm not going to teach your backwards species how to use that engine as a weapon. You'll have to stick with your homegrown weapons of mass destruction.'
Hartman was furious, but she was too professional to idly take it out on him. 'We're so close to a breakthrough. The smallest piece of information could make it all happen.' She took out her mobile phone. 'Since you won't help us, I'm going to have to start talking to anyone who can. Starting with Rose. I've been wanting to get my hands on her for a long time, and now you've given me the excuse.'
'She's gone, hasn't she?' The Doctor flashed her a nasty grin. 'Vanished from the face of the Earth. Go on, you can tell me.'
Hartman gave him a sour look. 'We can't locate Mrs Tyler, either. Michael Smith went to ground a month ago, but we've been tracking him all that time, and he's dropped off the radar too. Doctor, if they're in league with the Chariclos -'
'Don't be ridiculous,' said the Doctor. He closed his eyes. He felt his shoulders relaxing for the first time in weeks, despite the awkward way he was chained today. 'You can't touch them. Never again.'
'Then I'll have to bring someone else in,' said Hartman. The Doctor looked up sharply. She was speaking into her mobile: 'Bring in Smith.'
'You said-'
'Sarah Jane Smith,' she told him, with a 'duh' expression. 'I want the Webber mother, too,' she told the phone.
'She couldn't possibly tell you anything!' protested the Doctor.
'And you'd better pick up Elton Pope while you're at. Yes, and the girlfriend... well, take a box with you.' Hartman closed her phone. 'That ought to do, for starters,' she said. 'Smith we ought to be able to hold for months. Her career is over as of now.'
'This is pointless!' The Doctor was shouting, not even trying to keep up his careless facade. 'I won't help you - I can't! You'll be terrorising your own people - British citizens - for no reason!'
Hartman held up the phone. 'Say one word,' she said. 'One word, and I'll stop it at once.'
The Doctor slumped in his chains. 'That's it, then,' he said, to no-one in particular.
#
Escaping was easy; it was making it stick that counted. He'd got out of his chains and away from his guards a dozen times, but he'd never once made it all the way out of the building.
Mind you, he thought as he dashed through a badly lit maintenance area, he hadn't been trying to get out of the building every time. Once he'd just wanted a really good rummage in their alien artifacts. Once he'd spent an hour examining the J'thar ship and then broke into the cafeteria and ate most of the jam. The rest of the time, though, the combination of their world's best practice security and the threat to his friends had been enough to contain him.
Not this time.
They cornered him at the service lifts. He flung himself through the door to the fire stairs, but a team were waiting on the floor below. He felt the stab of a tranquilliser dart in his calf as he headed upwards, and then a second blow, another of the darts landing in his hip.
He stumbled and fell onto the concrete, vision blurring. Two doses of the stuff, he thought, I wonder what that'll do.
'Jesus Christ, he's fitting!' someone shouted. It echoed wildly in the stairwell - or was it just inside his skull? Someone rolled him over, painfully hard against the edges of the stairs, but in an instant his body dissolved into blackness under the onslaught of the Chariclos' standing wave.
There was a violent wrenching feeling, like being buffeted by ocean waves. He held on grimly until they tuned the blasted thing properly. Then a screaming whine like feedback as they zeroed in on his head. Presumably they hadn't managed to burst his skull, or he wouldn't be seeing the images that blurred into view.
Rose's voice, sounding so close that he could reach out and touch her, if this wasn't just a recorded message being played back at full volume in the psionic centres of his brain. '- they've got her a TV and a supply of tea and she's pretending she's just in a hotel, for now. Mickey's making them give him a tour of the ship.' Her chatty, newsy tone fell away. 'Doctor - listen - I know the only way you can be safe is if we're not around. The fact is, the only way we can be safe is not to be there either. So we're staying with the Chariclo Fleet.'
He heard that sound in her voice, her imaginary voice, that meant she was forcing herself not to cry. 'I wish we could do more. I wish we get you out. The Chariclos say there are force fields and things that prevent them from getting to you. I know you'll get out of there without their help, now they don't have us for hostages. I know you'll be safe.' She was crying, now. 'The way their ship works, we won't be back for years. Maybe a lifetime. I don't know if you'll be alive or dead or regenerated by then. But I know you'll be safe. You'll be free, and you'll win. 'Cos you're the Doctor.'
Goodbye, he thought at her, my brave Rose. Goodbye. Forgive me.
He woke up with a shock in the medical wing. It was the middle of the night. He had been out for about six hours.
He slid easily out of his restraints, rigged the hearts monitor to keep bleeping away happily, and rendered one guard unconscious, then slipped past another, padding silently to the stairwell on bare feet.
He raced up the stairs, not as fast as he'd like, still a little heavy and woozy from the tranquilliser. Alarms were already sounding below, muffled echoes in the concrete stairwell. He wasted precious minutes trying to jigger the lock on the roof door without setting off the silent alarm. Finally he snarled and smashed thing thing. He only needed thirty seconds.
There were armed guards on the roof, meeting someone stepping from a helicopter. The Doctor didn't wait to see who it was. A bitter rain lashed his face as he bolted for the edge. The Chariclo ship hung over London like a Magritte apple, unfalling.
'Stop! Stop or we'll shoot!'
The Doctor looked over his shoulder as he clambered up chicken wire fence. Machine guns. He just grinned at them, considering his last words. At the top he gave them a cheery wave don't look down you won't be able to do it and said, 'Tell Hartman her career just ended, will you? Bye!'
He let go and fell backwards into the sky.
The Chariclo ship caught him with a blinding purple ray and snatched him out of the air to safety and Rose.
A week later, Hartman told him, 'Your weekly visits are cancelled indefinitely.'
Inside, the Doctor gave a whooping cheer. She'd done it! Oh, you brilliant, fantastic Rose!
On the outside, he was outraged. He railed at Hartman through the transparent wall of his cell. 'We had an agreement,' he growled, pulling at his chains. 'How do I know you haven't hurt her? Even killed her?'
'You've been so uncooperative lately that I'm cancelling all your privileges,' said Hartman, her voice metallic through the grill. 'No visits, no more reading material. And you'll eat the food you're given.'
'Forget it,' said the Doctor. 'We both know I'm not going to teach your backwards species how to use that engine as a weapon. You'll have to stick with your homegrown weapons of mass destruction.'
Hartman was furious, but she was too professional to idly take it out on him. 'We're so close to a breakthrough. The smallest piece of information could make it all happen.' She took out her mobile phone. 'Since you won't help us, I'm going to have to start talking to anyone who can. Starting with Rose. I've been wanting to get my hands on her for a long time, and now you've given me the excuse.'
'She's gone, hasn't she?' The Doctor flashed her a nasty grin. 'Vanished from the face of the Earth. Go on, you can tell me.'
Hartman gave him a sour look. 'We can't locate Mrs Tyler, either. Michael Smith went to ground a month ago, but we've been tracking him all that time, and he's dropped off the radar too. Doctor, if they're in league with the Chariclos -'
'Don't be ridiculous,' said the Doctor. He closed his eyes. He felt his shoulders relaxing for the first time in weeks, despite the awkward way he was chained today. 'You can't touch them. Never again.'
'Then I'll have to bring someone else in,' said Hartman. The Doctor looked up sharply. She was speaking into her mobile: 'Bring in Smith.'
'You said-'
'Sarah Jane Smith,' she told him, with a 'duh' expression. 'I want the Webber mother, too,' she told the phone.
'She couldn't possibly tell you anything!' protested the Doctor.
'And you'd better pick up Elton Pope while you're at. Yes, and the girlfriend... well, take a box with you.' Hartman closed her phone. 'That ought to do, for starters,' she said. 'Smith we ought to be able to hold for months. Her career is over as of now.'
'This is pointless!' The Doctor was shouting, not even trying to keep up his careless facade. 'I won't help you - I can't! You'll be terrorising your own people - British citizens - for no reason!'
Hartman held up the phone. 'Say one word,' she said. 'One word, and I'll stop it at once.'
The Doctor slumped in his chains. 'That's it, then,' he said, to no-one in particular.
#
Escaping was easy; it was making it stick that counted. He'd got out of his chains and away from his guards a dozen times, but he'd never once made it all the way out of the building.
Mind you, he thought as he dashed through a badly lit maintenance area, he hadn't been trying to get out of the building every time. Once he'd just wanted a really good rummage in their alien artifacts. Once he'd spent an hour examining the J'thar ship and then broke into the cafeteria and ate most of the jam. The rest of the time, though, the combination of their world's best practice security and the threat to his friends had been enough to contain him.
Not this time.
They cornered him at the service lifts. He flung himself through the door to the fire stairs, but a team were waiting on the floor below. He felt the stab of a tranquilliser dart in his calf as he headed upwards, and then a second blow, another of the darts landing in his hip.
He stumbled and fell onto the concrete, vision blurring. Two doses of the stuff, he thought, I wonder what that'll do.
'Jesus Christ, he's fitting!' someone shouted. It echoed wildly in the stairwell - or was it just inside his skull? Someone rolled him over, painfully hard against the edges of the stairs, but in an instant his body dissolved into blackness under the onslaught of the Chariclos' standing wave.
There was a violent wrenching feeling, like being buffeted by ocean waves. He held on grimly until they tuned the blasted thing properly. Then a screaming whine like feedback as they zeroed in on his head. Presumably they hadn't managed to burst his skull, or he wouldn't be seeing the images that blurred into view.
Rose's voice, sounding so close that he could reach out and touch her, if this wasn't just a recorded message being played back at full volume in the psionic centres of his brain. '- they've got her a TV and a supply of tea and she's pretending she's just in a hotel, for now. Mickey's making them give him a tour of the ship.' Her chatty, newsy tone fell away. 'Doctor - listen - I know the only way you can be safe is if we're not around. The fact is, the only way we can be safe is not to be there either. So we're staying with the Chariclo Fleet.'
He heard that sound in her voice, her imaginary voice, that meant she was forcing herself not to cry. 'I wish we could do more. I wish we get you out. The Chariclos say there are force fields and things that prevent them from getting to you. I know you'll get out of there without their help, now they don't have us for hostages. I know you'll be safe.' She was crying, now. 'The way their ship works, we won't be back for years. Maybe a lifetime. I don't know if you'll be alive or dead or regenerated by then. But I know you'll be safe. You'll be free, and you'll win. 'Cos you're the Doctor.'
Goodbye, he thought at her, my brave Rose. Goodbye. Forgive me.
He woke up with a shock in the medical wing. It was the middle of the night. He had been out for about six hours.
He slid easily out of his restraints, rigged the hearts monitor to keep bleeping away happily, and rendered one guard unconscious, then slipped past another, padding silently to the stairwell on bare feet.
He raced up the stairs, not as fast as he'd like, still a little heavy and woozy from the tranquilliser. Alarms were already sounding below, muffled echoes in the concrete stairwell. He wasted precious minutes trying to jigger the lock on the roof door without setting off the silent alarm. Finally he snarled and smashed thing thing. He only needed thirty seconds.
There were armed guards on the roof, meeting someone stepping from a helicopter. The Doctor didn't wait to see who it was. A bitter rain lashed his face as he bolted for the edge. The Chariclo ship hung over London like a Magritte apple, unfalling.
'Stop! Stop or we'll shoot!'
The Doctor looked over his shoulder as he clambered up chicken wire fence. Machine guns. He just grinned at them, considering his last words. At the top he gave them a cheery wave don't look down you won't be able to do it and said, 'Tell Hartman her career just ended, will you? Bye!'
He let go and fell backwards into the sky.
The Chariclo ship caught him with a blinding purple ray and snatched him out of the air to safety and Rose.