The Long Way Down, Part 2b
Continued from Part 2a
Clutching the print-out Valina had given her and buoyed by hope for the first time since the ground had disappeared from beneath her feet, Sarah rushed back out into the store to re-join the Doctor just in time to see one of the protestors hurling something at the armed militia confronting them and the soldiers opening fire in retaliation.
Her heart skipped a beat. The Doctor was in the middle of all that, somewhere.
"No!"
She began to run, to plunge herself into the melee in search of him, when a strong hand caught hold of her arm and yanked her behind a stack of shelves nearby. For a moment she almost believed it was him but it was Valina.
"What are you doing, do you want to die?" the alien woman hissed.
"The Doctor's out there." Sarah's fear lent ferocity to her voice. "I don't know where he is, I can't see him "
She broke off, because she could hear him now, that powerful voice booming out through the shouts and screams and gunshots. "Stop this! Stop this! This is madness!"
"That's the Doctor! He's still out there." She poked her head around the shelf unit to see what was happening, only for Valina to pull her back again.
"There is nothing you can do."
Sarah shook her off. "No, I have to do something. Let me see."
The shooting, at least, was over already and what she saw as she peered around the edge of the shelves was a scene of bloody chaos, the forecourt near to the entrance strewn with bodies, while those few protestors still standing were being rounded up by fierce, implacable soldiers, helmeted and anonymous and heavily armed.
There was that icy fist again, clutching mercilessly at her heart. So many dead and he'd been right there, in the thick of it.
"Oh, Doctor, where are you?" she murmured, and she didn't even care if it was safe, pushed out of this refuge anyway, because she had to find him, that was all that mattered.
"Wait." Again Valina caught at her arm, and she might have argued some more, pulled away and gone charging on over there into the fray, except that she could see him now, alive and on his feet and being arrested, and a wave of relief washed over her.
He'd seen her, too, and caught her eye, his shaggy curls dancing as he shook his head; it was only the slightest of movements but enough a warning for her not to intervene.
Sarah had never been one for following orders and wanted, with every fibre of her being, to pay him no heed, to carry on over there and get arrested right alongside him, because at least they'd be together but she knew he was right. She'd be able to achieve far more free than captive in theory, at least.
So she watched as he was taken away with the other prisoners and tried to tell herself that it would be fine. She could find out where they were taking him and go after them, rescue him if he hadn't talked his way free already, and then they'd find Harry together and then they'd find the TARDIS together and it would be over, they could leave this stupid, hostile world and never come back.
Right?
She turned to Valina and found her staring at the carnage with the shocked, horrified expression of one who'd never witnessed violent death up close until now.
"They shouldn't have done it," the alien woman whispered, wide eyed, as relief teams began flooding into the store to clear away the corpses and round up witnesses, frightened staff and customers slowly trickling out of their hiding places. "Why did they do it? They must have known how it would end."
"Perhaps they did," Sarah told her, watching warily as stern-looking officials headed their way. "Perhaps they thought it was worth it."
"Worth this?" protested Valina in tones of deep distress, but then the militia were upon them and she rallied, every inch the snooty executive once more as she railed at them for allowing such a thing to happen here, in this high end establishment, disturbing and upsetting the customers.
And the staff, she didn't need to add.
The militia wanted witness statements. With the Doctor already well and truly off the premises and out of sight, Sarah surrendered herself to the process on the theory that she might learn something from it, such as where he had been taken, and opted not to identify herself as his friend on the principle that it might defeat the object of not getting herself arrested with him in the first place. Yes, she'd been in the store when the protest broke out, no, she hadn't really seen anything "I'd gone to customer services, you see, in that alcove back there, and then I hid until it was over" and if there was a slightly sticky moment or two when they wondered what a human was doing in this citadel, it was nothing she couldn't handle. If there was one thing any investigative journalist worth her salt learned early on in her career, it was how to bluff her way out of being caught someplace she shouldn't be. It was a skill that had come in handy many times, even before she met the Doctor.
It was all worthless in the end, though, because she couldn't find out anything at all about where he had been taken. And it wasn't as if she had any way of getting there, even if she had, stuck way up here in this immense skyscraper, high above the ground.
Sarah had had to make shift for herself on more alien worlds than she could count, but she couldn't remember when she'd ever felt quite so alone.
"Are you all right?" It was Valina, come back to check up on her, and that unexpected gesture of concern from someone she'd initially thought so cold touched her deeply.
Sarah sighed. "Not really. Harry's disappeared into thin air, the Doctor's been arrested and I'm stuck here at the local cash and carry "
"This store does not accept cash," Valina pedantically corrected.
" on a world I don't even know the name of," Sarah glumly finished, and Valina stared at her in surprise.
"How can you not know where you are?"
"I've been a bit busy falling off tall towers to ask! I just if I knew where the Doctor was taken, perhaps I might find a way to get there, but oh, where would I even begin?"
Valina studied her for a moment, her expression confused but concerned. "This world is called Skyrn," she said at length in a carefully neutral tone. "It was bio-formed for the support and maintenance of types two through six life-forms a little over fifty standard cycles ago, established as an outpost for trade and tourism. And there are few enough places where a political prisoner might be processed it would not be hard to determine where those arrested here were taken."
It was a statement of fact rather than an offer of help, but nonetheless Sarah seized upon it for the hope that it promised. "Can you show me?"
"You should not interfere," Valina cautioned, and she looked deeply shaken still, beneath her surface veneer of cool composure. "The penalties for such affray will be severe."
"But the Doctor wasn't part of it, you know that," Sarah argued. "He went out there to help. He was trying to save lives "
"And he failed." It was a harsh statement of truth and it hit Sarah like a slap to the face.
"We can't always win," she unhappily admitted. "But at least he was willing to try, which is more than anyone else did. So now I have to help him."
Valina hadn't wanted to help before, but her conscience had won out in the end. Now again she visibly wrestled with herself. "You are very fond of your friends," she said at last.
"Yes," Sarah quietly replied. "I am. Harry's almost like a brother," and there was another stab of pain at the thought of what might have happened to him. "And the Doctor is " She didn't know how to even begin to explain what the Doctor was to her, could only stupidly say, "Well, he's the Doctor."
"The store is now closed," said Valina. "All customers and staff are dismissed for the day there is damage to be repaired "
"Blood to mop up," Sarah pointedly added.
"But there may be some little time before the doors are locked. We will see what information we can find."
dwdwdwdwdw
"There. That's the one," said Ren as she brought the shuttle in low and slow past a complex that, to Harry's human eyes, resembled nothing so much as those government buildings that had been thrown up in England during the 1950s and '60s: a squat concrete block, no more than three stories high tiny, by the standards of the sky-rises he'd seen earlier. This was a different part of the citadel entirely.
The missing Brunnal, it seemed, was somewhere inside this particular building, held captive. As the shuttle ascended to land on a flat roof a little further on, Ren offered her assessment: "Abandoned factory or office unit, perhaps slums like this are full of them could be worse."
"It could be a lot better, for my money," Dilly glumly countered.
Not feeling that he had a great deal to add to the discussion, stranger to this world that he was, Harry kept quiet and listened as they debated the point.
"There's no sign of external fortification," said Ren. "They've not been here long, then a temporary hideout, perhaps."
"Or it could be just one of many."
"Or that," she conceded.
"And there'll be guards in there, security measures," Dilly pointed out.
"No doubt."
"You know they will expect for us to come for him."
"They'd be fools if they don't at least anticipate that we might."
"Then what do we do? We need a plan."
Harry stood to peer out through the broken windshield again, across to where the building in question stood. "Well, a plan of the layout in there would be a good start," he offered, in an effort to contribute, and both aliens turned to look at him as if they'd forgotten he was there.
"The Earth man makes a good point," Ren conceded. "So let us see: is that scanner-rig of yours up to it, Dilly?"
Dilly chittered, and Harry couldn't tell if the creature was frightened or indignant, but, "Check central records also, there may be blueprints filed," was the only response, rather sniffily said, and Ren nodded.
A short spell of rapid work later and they had a complete floor-plan, the original blueprints somehow pulled from the citadel authority and augmented by Dilly's scanning device, displayed as a holographic image. Harry was impressed.
"There are security monitors," and Dilly pointed them out. "Thermal imaging shows lifeforms at these locations and Brunnal's sub-dermal places him here."
"Always supposing he is still attached to it," Ren dourly remarked, and Dilly chittered nervously again.
"We need support for this, back up we are outnumbered, outgunned."
"There's back up?" It came as a surprise to Harry that this might actually be an option.
"No, there's no time," said Ren, ignoring him completely. "The others are three systems away. No, we must move now or never."
Another anxious, fretful chitter. "This should have been a milk run, Ren: supplies for the rebels and away."
"Yes, and if we'd known the Shad had moved in we'd have planned the run differently, but we must deal with the situation that is," Ren snapped, as Harry's ears pricked up.
"What rebels?" he asked, curious to know how this snippet of information tied in with what he already knew, but Ren ignored him again, staring intently at the patterns of the floor plan the static symbols of the security devices and shifting images of the lifeforms moving about in there.
"They have Brunnal," she slowly said. "And they've seen you, Dilly. They can trace that link back to me; one glimpse of either one of us would trigger an alert. But the Earth man is an unknown, with no such affiliation "
And then both Ren and Dilly were regarding Harry with appraising eyes and various other sensory appendages, Dilly's antennae wiggling and claws clicking and he began to feel apprehensive once more.
"Er, yes?"
"I have an idea," said Ren, and she began to outline her plan.
It was a crazy plan.
dwdwdwdwdw
"I will take you as far as the vehicle bay near the detention centre," Valina said as she hurried Sarah out of the store. "But no further, I cannot be seen helping you further than that."
"Of course I'm grateful, thank you," said Sarah, scurrying to keep up with the pace the other woman was setting. Truth be told, the offer of a lift was more than she'd dared hope for.
"I've my family group to think of," Valina fiercely continued, swiping her ID card through a reader to open a door out into what appeared to be a staff car park or vehicle bay, or whatever they were called. "There are children and too few incomes already. We cannot afford to lose mine. This is my vehicle here."
Sarah clambered aboard and distracted herself from worrying about her missing menfolk on the journey to the detention centre by asking questions about Valina's people and their family group structure, fascinated despite her other concerns by this insight into an alien race and culture, in which an entire extended family pulled together as a single economic unit. To Sarah, who'd only ever had Aunt Lavinia to call her own, it sounded incredible. They were not native to this world, she learned no one was, this society was a melting pot of different alien races, all attracted by the potential the outpost had seemed to offer.
"How long ago did your family come here?" she asked.
"Oh, a good many cycles now. It was our fresh start security and opportunity. Or so we thought, but "
"But the reality didn't quite live up to the dream?"
"I suppose we should have known," Valina said with a sigh.
"If it seems too good to be true " Sarah softly replied, gazing through the window at the spectacular aerial view.
"For some the economy functions as intended," Valina immediately defended. "There are many who prosper here, with great comfort and wealth."
"But not enough," said Sarah. "We've seen that today, with the protest those people must be desperate, surely, to go to such lengths."
Valina's face darkened. "They are fools. What do they hope to achieve?"
"I don't know," Sarah admitted, and she wished now that she'd been able to talk to some of the protestors, or at least that she'd listened more carefully to the slogans and demands they'd been shouting at least then she might have some idea of what they were trying to achieve. "But I do know that when you are caught at the wrong end of an oppressive or unjust system, sometimes fighting back is the only option it's might be hard, but sometimes it's the only hope for a better future."
"If you die fighting there is no future," said Valina. "So who benefits? No one. Better for all to mind their own business and be grateful for what they have. The system cannot be fought. It is pointless."
"Then why are you helping me?"
Valina did not reply and for a moment there was silence. "We are here," she quietly said at last, manoeuvring the air car into another large vehicle bay to park up in the darkest, emptiest corner available, quiet and unobtrusive. "This is where I leave you wait, be sure no one sees you leaving this vehicle."
"Still afraid someone might think you're endorsing sedition if you're seen helping me?" But that was unfair, Sarah told herself, and she softened her tone to add, "Well, thank you for bringing me this far, anyway, I am grateful. I don't know how I'd have got here otherwise." She hesitated, looking around trying to plan her next move. "Um so how do I get to the detention centre from here?"
"Wait, keep quiet get down, hide!" Valina was suddenly on alert, ducking down to hide as another vehicle zoomed into their dark, quiet corner and Sarah followed suit. Best not to take any chances, not now she'd come this far.
It sounded as if a whole group of people were getting out of the other vehicle. They were being quiet, though, and furtive. Crouched low beneath the control console of Valina's vehicle, the scent of engine oil and grease filling her nose and something sharp digging uncomfortably into her back, head bent at an awkward sideways angle, Sarah strained her ears trying to make out words from the muttered conversation she could hear. Valina's vehicle had been noticed and she felt the other woman clutch reflexively at her as someone stepped closer for a quick glance through the window before moving away again, satisfied that the vehicle was unoccupied they hadn't been seen.
When a furiously whispered argument broke out just at the edge of hearing, Sarah could stand it no longer and raised her head to take a peek at the group of around half a dozen people aliens, two or three distinct species standing around the other vehicle looking fierce and determined yet also strangely unsure of themselves. She heard the words 'detention centre' and 'allies', 'militia' and 'guards', a flurry of debate about weapons, specifically the lack thereof, and realised with a sudden shock who and what these people were.
"It's more of the rebels they're trying to get their people out!"
In her surprise she forgot to whisper, or perhaps it was simply that some of those aliens had particularly acute hearing, because the next thing she knew the jig was up, they were surrounded, Valina was hissing at her in furious dismay, and those alien rebels were calling for them to exit their vehicle quietly.
Sarah could have kicked herself and was quite certain that Valina would happily do it for her!
"What are you doing, spying on us?" shouted one of the rebels the moment they were out of their vehicle, this one squat and grey-skinned, young-looking, almost dancing with agitation.
"What did you hear? Why were you hiding there? What do you know?" demanded another, this one almost a double of that reptilian giraffe Sarah had met up on the re-fuelling station, all four eyes glowering, and then they were all babbling at once and she was angry all of a sudden.
"We were hiding because we didn't know who you were," she snapped, loudly enough to cut across their chatter, aware that Valina was trying to hide behind her, still reluctant to be seen and identified with or by such people. "And it looks as if we were right to take care what do you think you're doing?"
With the tables thus turned on them, the aliens fell silent, shooting worried glances at one another. "Who are you?" the reptilian giraffe asked. "What do you want?"
"You're protestors, aren't you?" Sarah pushed, and the giraffe creature snorted.
"We are the People's Resistance," he declared, rather more grandly than Sarah felt was entirely called for but then he caught the eye of some of the others and his head dropped, suddenly sombre. "Well, part of it what's left of it."
"But we aren't alone. There are other groups out there and more join our cause all the time. We won't let them beat us and we won't let them hold us!" insisted the grey-skinned one, defiant.
"You've come here to get your friends out of the detention centre," Sarah guessed. "But how? You must know that a direct assault would be suicide, surely."
"I thought you said it was worth it," Valina sourly muttered behind her back and she swung around to face the other woman, shaking her head.
"No, not worth this there has to be another way."
"Why do you care?" one of the rebels sullenly asked, a female, bright-eyed and petite the same species as that grey-skinned young firebrand.
"I care because my friend is in there, too, he was arrested with your allies," said Sarah, knowing that an edge of desperation had tinged her voice now and not caring, because there'd been one bloodbath already today because of these rebels and perhaps Valina was right, maybe they were fools and not worth the trouble they caused.
The aliens looked at one another, more suspicious than ever. "Arrested at the store? Why?"
"He got involved in something that didn't concern him." Valina glared at Sarah as she spoke, but Sarah wasn't having that, not any longer.
"Whatever's going on is everyone's concern, surely," she argued. Valina shook her head.
"No. No, it is not my concern I cannot afford for it to be my concern. All I wish is to keep a roof over my family's heads and food on the table "
The hot-headed young grey snorted in derision as his female compatriot angrily burst out, "That's all any of us want. Freedom, equality, subsistence is that so much to ask?"
"You brought your troubles to my store, and how does that help you?" Valina fumed. "How does dying there further your cause?"
It was a low blow and Sarah could see that Valina regretted it at once as the sorry group of would-be rebels reacted the protestors killed at the store earlier had been their allies, their friends. The little grey female recovered first.
"Your store?" she snorted in disgust. "Essential supplies priced as luxuries for off-worlders and you work there. Good for you. But can you afford to buy the goods you sell? What do you go without for the supplements that keep you alive? You know what would happen if you spoke out do you believe that's fair?"
"That's enough," Sarah cut in before the argument could spiral out of control. "Arguing isn't going to help any of us. Look, we all want the same thing here, don't we to get our friends out of the detention centre safely." Valina was shaking her head, and Sarah knew she regretted ever offering that ride here in the first place, but the others couldn't deny it. "What was your plan?"
"What was your plan?" the squat grey hothead immediately countered, and Sarah had no idea how to reply because she couldn't honestly say that she'd had a plan. She hadn't thought any further ahead than getting here.
"Look, do you have any weapons at all?" she asked, trying to get a better feel for the situation, and wasn't sure how to interpret the looks they cast at one another, read anguish and regret and anger in those alien expressions.
"We should we'd sent people to get them, new stock from off-world, it was needed. They must be made to take us seriously, they must," one of them said, a being with enormous ears and a snout of a nose, face and hands covered with sleek brown fur that Sarah longed to touch. "We should have been there, at the store but our supplier let us down." Despair was written all over that furry face.
"They were attacked, driven away and our comrades killed," said another, the same species but a little taller, its fur longer and elaborately braided. "And they were the last who would deal with us. The Shad have seen to that, they've cut off every supply."
"Oh, it doesn't really matter anyway," Sarah quickly said, before they could elaborate any further on these details that she didn't entirely understand and didn't think were relevant. "Even if you did, what I said before is true a direct assault on the detention centre would be suicide, and that won't help your cause at all."
"Then what do you suggest?" demanded that angry young grey.
"Subterfuge," said Sarah, in the most determined tone she could muster. If they wanted to get their people out, it was the only thing that would work, she was sure of it, and then before anyone could ask her to elaborate which she was equally sure she couldn't, because she hadn't had time to think this through a deep, blessedly familiar voice boomed out behind her.
"That's an excellent suggestion, Sarah. What are you talking about?"
Sarah span around, eyes wide and mouth dropping open with disbelief, because there he was: scarf trailing, battered hat pressed down tight over that mess of unruly curls, toothy grin plastered all over his face, with yet another alien being lurking just behind him. It was the Doctor!
dwdwdwdwdw
"You are certain you understand, Earth man?" Ren turned sceptical eyes upon Harry, who told himself not to take the implied mistrust personally. They both knew he'd been out of his element since landing here and she had a lot riding on this mission potentially the life of her comrade.
Oddly enough, though, with a clearly defined mission to carry out, he was at last starting to feel as if his feet were on solid ground once more and not just because they were now parked up at ground level, just around the corner from their target. He was to be the decoy, Ren had decided, and, although the role left him feeling uncomfortably exposed, his job was relatively simple even if it did involve walking right into the lion's den, so to speak.
So he said, "Of course. It's not that difficult," and made an effort to sound confident. "Go to the front door, ring the bell and ask for directions or some such keep the blighters distracted while you two slip in round the back and disable the whatsit."
"In essence, if not substance," said Ren with an eye-roll that could only be described as sardonic. "Wait two minutes for us to reach the service door at the rear, then go. Once we're inside, Dilly will work to access the security feed, so you must be in place by then. The timing must be exactly right."
"Well, that's why I've got this, isn't it?" He raised his arm to show her the strap around his wrist, having been persuaded to exchange his own trusty old wristwatch, which had survived his fall almost intact, for a rather more high tech device that did much the same job and a lot more besides.
Dilly chittered and plucked at his sleeve with an oversized claw, antennae waggling as the creature's odd little face creased in the equivalent of a smile. "Luck be with you, Earth man."
Ren lifted an eyebrow as she reached for the door control. "Luck be with us all," she grunted, and they were off.
Harry followed them out, sealed the door, and looked around at what he could see of his surroundings in the fading evening light: a shabby and sparsely populated area that was the image of urban decay, complete with peeling paint, crumbling walls and cracked street surfaces growing weeds. Like the warehouse they'd visited earlier, and in stark contrast to the vast sky-rises he'd first seen on this world, the streets and buildings here looked so normal and unassuming that this could almost have been Earth.
Almost.
It felt good to be out of the confines of the shuttle after being cooped up in there for so long.
He waited for the allotted two minutes to give the others time to reach their destination and trip the locks, leaning against the side of the shuttle trying to look nonchalant while checking the display on that high-tech wrist piece every few seconds until the time was right to set his own part of this little scheme in motion. Dilly, he'd been told, once inside the building, would be able to remotely access all the security camera systems in there, using equipment that was illegal on fourteen worlds, apparently; Harry hadn't asked how they'd smuggled it onto this world, he suspected it was one of those things he was better off not knowing. He understood very little of the technical jargon the creature had spouted at him by way of explanation, but hazily grasped the idea that an older image from those camera feeds could be 'looped' so that intruders could sneak in and move around without being seen, because stealth was the order of the day. It sounded jolly useful, he had to admit, and, as the only face unknown to the Shad, Harry's job was to create a diversion so that no one was looking at the security monitors at the moment Dilly tripped the system to set up the loop.
Well, he had rather liked the idea of working for the security services when the transfer to UNIT first came up, he reminded himself, and this was undercover work, of a sort albeit just about as far removed as could be imagined from anything he'd ever anticipated, back when he first accepted that transfer.
It had to be done. They were here to save a life.
He checked the display on his new wrist-piece for the umpteenth time the two minutes was up. Time to go.
The front entrance of the building was just around the corner, no more than a few hundred yards away, manned by heavy, thickset individuals with skin like rhino hide and prominent fangs rather like the mythical vampire, oddly webbed hands and beady little eyes that glowed disturbingly red. There were three of them, one sat at a desk alongside a bank of screens, clearly on duty, while the other two appeared to just be hanging around with nothing better to do. They were all heavily armed.
Harry was nervous, so it wasn't hard to play at being lost and frightened, a tourist who'd wandered astray in an unfamiliar place. Really speaking, it wasn't even a lie. The guards were extremely suspicious of this stranger at their door and didn't care in the slightest about his supposed predicament, but they were also suitably distracted from those screens at the crucial moment, so that was a success that he decided he could be pleased about later. He tried to keep them occupied for as long as he could, because he had another part to play, in case anything went wrong which of course it did, because that was how this entire day had played out. All too soon alarms began to blare and the sound of gunfire rang out from deep within the building, Harry's heart sank like a lead balloon, and there was nothing else for it but to switch to Plan B and then run.
As one of the guards turned to run deeper into the building to investigate and the others turned on Harry, angry and suspicious, he slid a hand into a pocket to activate the other device he'd been given for just this eventuality, quickly pulling it out and throwing it to the ground. It was called a flash bomb, he'd been told, and would both fry all the electrics in the building and temporarily blind anyone within a certain radius of the blast "so do make sure that your own eyes are closed, Earth man, or you too will be incapacitated," Dilly had fussily instructed, and Harry did just that, even though it went sorely against the grain to close his eyes when armed enemies were advancing toward him at speed.
Even with his eyes firmly closed the flash of light was blindingly brilliant and the percussion of the blast knocked him off his feet, while the shouts of the shocked guards and the spark-hiss of the electrics shorting out rang in his ears, smoke slowly filling the air. He struggled upright again at once, because there was no time to lose, not even a moment to pause and catch his breath; the guards might be blinded but they were still armed.
With spots dancing in front of his eyes, the afterimage of that brilliant burst of light, Harry staggered toward the exit and away ducking as he heard shots fired behind him, at least one of the incapacitated guards having enough wit still to fire blindly in his general direction. One or two of those shots came uncomfortably close, singeing his hair and sleeve as he ran, out of the building and away. He sprinted the distance back to Ren's shuttle without stopping, hoping against hope that the others had also made it out safely, because he couldn't even begin to imagine what to do if they hadn't.
They weren't there.
Harry hit the button to open the doors and dashed inside for an almost frantic look around, just to be sure of what he already knew.
They weren't here yet. Maybe they never would be, and then what would he do? He'd never get them out of there alone, but he could hardly just leave them, yet he had to consider the Doctor and Sarah as well he was starting to feel as if he'd never manage to find them.
He waited in the doorway, fidgeting and worrying, expecting armed and angry aliens to come after him at any moment and starting at every sound. This wasn't a heavily populated area, but there were people creatures around, and he wondered that they weren't taking more interest, gloomily suspected that perhaps this was the kind of place where everyone knew to mind their own business or else.
At last he heard footsteps, running footsteps, and then there they were, at full pelt and exchanging weapons fire over their shoulders with Shad guards hot on their heels: Dilly scuttling faster than he'd thought the creature capable of and Ren struggling to support a third person who must be Brunnal, stocky and dark and staggering slightly, limping along.
They'd reached the shuttle, shots flying in every direction, when Dilly suddenly gasped and staggered as a shot glanced off that shiny carapace. Ren cried out in alarm, swinging around to catch at her friend even as another shot found its mark. Caught square in the soft underbelly beneath the outer shell, Dilly dropped like a stone.
On to Part 3
Clutching the print-out Valina had given her and buoyed by hope for the first time since the ground had disappeared from beneath her feet, Sarah rushed back out into the store to re-join the Doctor just in time to see one of the protestors hurling something at the armed militia confronting them and the soldiers opening fire in retaliation.
Her heart skipped a beat. The Doctor was in the middle of all that, somewhere.
"No!"
She began to run, to plunge herself into the melee in search of him, when a strong hand caught hold of her arm and yanked her behind a stack of shelves nearby. For a moment she almost believed it was him but it was Valina.
"What are you doing, do you want to die?" the alien woman hissed.
"The Doctor's out there." Sarah's fear lent ferocity to her voice. "I don't know where he is, I can't see him "
She broke off, because she could hear him now, that powerful voice booming out through the shouts and screams and gunshots. "Stop this! Stop this! This is madness!"
"That's the Doctor! He's still out there." She poked her head around the shelf unit to see what was happening, only for Valina to pull her back again.
"There is nothing you can do."
Sarah shook her off. "No, I have to do something. Let me see."
The shooting, at least, was over already and what she saw as she peered around the edge of the shelves was a scene of bloody chaos, the forecourt near to the entrance strewn with bodies, while those few protestors still standing were being rounded up by fierce, implacable soldiers, helmeted and anonymous and heavily armed.
There was that icy fist again, clutching mercilessly at her heart. So many dead and he'd been right there, in the thick of it.
"Oh, Doctor, where are you?" she murmured, and she didn't even care if it was safe, pushed out of this refuge anyway, because she had to find him, that was all that mattered.
"Wait." Again Valina caught at her arm, and she might have argued some more, pulled away and gone charging on over there into the fray, except that she could see him now, alive and on his feet and being arrested, and a wave of relief washed over her.
He'd seen her, too, and caught her eye, his shaggy curls dancing as he shook his head; it was only the slightest of movements but enough a warning for her not to intervene.
Sarah had never been one for following orders and wanted, with every fibre of her being, to pay him no heed, to carry on over there and get arrested right alongside him, because at least they'd be together but she knew he was right. She'd be able to achieve far more free than captive in theory, at least.
So she watched as he was taken away with the other prisoners and tried to tell herself that it would be fine. She could find out where they were taking him and go after them, rescue him if he hadn't talked his way free already, and then they'd find Harry together and then they'd find the TARDIS together and it would be over, they could leave this stupid, hostile world and never come back.
Right?
She turned to Valina and found her staring at the carnage with the shocked, horrified expression of one who'd never witnessed violent death up close until now.
"They shouldn't have done it," the alien woman whispered, wide eyed, as relief teams began flooding into the store to clear away the corpses and round up witnesses, frightened staff and customers slowly trickling out of their hiding places. "Why did they do it? They must have known how it would end."
"Perhaps they did," Sarah told her, watching warily as stern-looking officials headed their way. "Perhaps they thought it was worth it."
"Worth this?" protested Valina in tones of deep distress, but then the militia were upon them and she rallied, every inch the snooty executive once more as she railed at them for allowing such a thing to happen here, in this high end establishment, disturbing and upsetting the customers.
And the staff, she didn't need to add.
The militia wanted witness statements. With the Doctor already well and truly off the premises and out of sight, Sarah surrendered herself to the process on the theory that she might learn something from it, such as where he had been taken, and opted not to identify herself as his friend on the principle that it might defeat the object of not getting herself arrested with him in the first place. Yes, she'd been in the store when the protest broke out, no, she hadn't really seen anything "I'd gone to customer services, you see, in that alcove back there, and then I hid until it was over" and if there was a slightly sticky moment or two when they wondered what a human was doing in this citadel, it was nothing she couldn't handle. If there was one thing any investigative journalist worth her salt learned early on in her career, it was how to bluff her way out of being caught someplace she shouldn't be. It was a skill that had come in handy many times, even before she met the Doctor.
It was all worthless in the end, though, because she couldn't find out anything at all about where he had been taken. And it wasn't as if she had any way of getting there, even if she had, stuck way up here in this immense skyscraper, high above the ground.
Sarah had had to make shift for herself on more alien worlds than she could count, but she couldn't remember when she'd ever felt quite so alone.
"Are you all right?" It was Valina, come back to check up on her, and that unexpected gesture of concern from someone she'd initially thought so cold touched her deeply.
Sarah sighed. "Not really. Harry's disappeared into thin air, the Doctor's been arrested and I'm stuck here at the local cash and carry "
"This store does not accept cash," Valina pedantically corrected.
" on a world I don't even know the name of," Sarah glumly finished, and Valina stared at her in surprise.
"How can you not know where you are?"
"I've been a bit busy falling off tall towers to ask! I just if I knew where the Doctor was taken, perhaps I might find a way to get there, but oh, where would I even begin?"
Valina studied her for a moment, her expression confused but concerned. "This world is called Skyrn," she said at length in a carefully neutral tone. "It was bio-formed for the support and maintenance of types two through six life-forms a little over fifty standard cycles ago, established as an outpost for trade and tourism. And there are few enough places where a political prisoner might be processed it would not be hard to determine where those arrested here were taken."
It was a statement of fact rather than an offer of help, but nonetheless Sarah seized upon it for the hope that it promised. "Can you show me?"
"You should not interfere," Valina cautioned, and she looked deeply shaken still, beneath her surface veneer of cool composure. "The penalties for such affray will be severe."
"But the Doctor wasn't part of it, you know that," Sarah argued. "He went out there to help. He was trying to save lives "
"And he failed." It was a harsh statement of truth and it hit Sarah like a slap to the face.
"We can't always win," she unhappily admitted. "But at least he was willing to try, which is more than anyone else did. So now I have to help him."
Valina hadn't wanted to help before, but her conscience had won out in the end. Now again she visibly wrestled with herself. "You are very fond of your friends," she said at last.
"Yes," Sarah quietly replied. "I am. Harry's almost like a brother," and there was another stab of pain at the thought of what might have happened to him. "And the Doctor is " She didn't know how to even begin to explain what the Doctor was to her, could only stupidly say, "Well, he's the Doctor."
"The store is now closed," said Valina. "All customers and staff are dismissed for the day there is damage to be repaired "
"Blood to mop up," Sarah pointedly added.
"But there may be some little time before the doors are locked. We will see what information we can find."
dwdwdwdwdw
"There. That's the one," said Ren as she brought the shuttle in low and slow past a complex that, to Harry's human eyes, resembled nothing so much as those government buildings that had been thrown up in England during the 1950s and '60s: a squat concrete block, no more than three stories high tiny, by the standards of the sky-rises he'd seen earlier. This was a different part of the citadel entirely.
The missing Brunnal, it seemed, was somewhere inside this particular building, held captive. As the shuttle ascended to land on a flat roof a little further on, Ren offered her assessment: "Abandoned factory or office unit, perhaps slums like this are full of them could be worse."
"It could be a lot better, for my money," Dilly glumly countered.
Not feeling that he had a great deal to add to the discussion, stranger to this world that he was, Harry kept quiet and listened as they debated the point.
"There's no sign of external fortification," said Ren. "They've not been here long, then a temporary hideout, perhaps."
"Or it could be just one of many."
"Or that," she conceded.
"And there'll be guards in there, security measures," Dilly pointed out.
"No doubt."
"You know they will expect for us to come for him."
"They'd be fools if they don't at least anticipate that we might."
"Then what do we do? We need a plan."
Harry stood to peer out through the broken windshield again, across to where the building in question stood. "Well, a plan of the layout in there would be a good start," he offered, in an effort to contribute, and both aliens turned to look at him as if they'd forgotten he was there.
"The Earth man makes a good point," Ren conceded. "So let us see: is that scanner-rig of yours up to it, Dilly?"
Dilly chittered, and Harry couldn't tell if the creature was frightened or indignant, but, "Check central records also, there may be blueprints filed," was the only response, rather sniffily said, and Ren nodded.
A short spell of rapid work later and they had a complete floor-plan, the original blueprints somehow pulled from the citadel authority and augmented by Dilly's scanning device, displayed as a holographic image. Harry was impressed.
"There are security monitors," and Dilly pointed them out. "Thermal imaging shows lifeforms at these locations and Brunnal's sub-dermal places him here."
"Always supposing he is still attached to it," Ren dourly remarked, and Dilly chittered nervously again.
"We need support for this, back up we are outnumbered, outgunned."
"There's back up?" It came as a surprise to Harry that this might actually be an option.
"No, there's no time," said Ren, ignoring him completely. "The others are three systems away. No, we must move now or never."
Another anxious, fretful chitter. "This should have been a milk run, Ren: supplies for the rebels and away."
"Yes, and if we'd known the Shad had moved in we'd have planned the run differently, but we must deal with the situation that is," Ren snapped, as Harry's ears pricked up.
"What rebels?" he asked, curious to know how this snippet of information tied in with what he already knew, but Ren ignored him again, staring intently at the patterns of the floor plan the static symbols of the security devices and shifting images of the lifeforms moving about in there.
"They have Brunnal," she slowly said. "And they've seen you, Dilly. They can trace that link back to me; one glimpse of either one of us would trigger an alert. But the Earth man is an unknown, with no such affiliation "
And then both Ren and Dilly were regarding Harry with appraising eyes and various other sensory appendages, Dilly's antennae wiggling and claws clicking and he began to feel apprehensive once more.
"Er, yes?"
"I have an idea," said Ren, and she began to outline her plan.
It was a crazy plan.
dwdwdwdwdw
"I will take you as far as the vehicle bay near the detention centre," Valina said as she hurried Sarah out of the store. "But no further, I cannot be seen helping you further than that."
"Of course I'm grateful, thank you," said Sarah, scurrying to keep up with the pace the other woman was setting. Truth be told, the offer of a lift was more than she'd dared hope for.
"I've my family group to think of," Valina fiercely continued, swiping her ID card through a reader to open a door out into what appeared to be a staff car park or vehicle bay, or whatever they were called. "There are children and too few incomes already. We cannot afford to lose mine. This is my vehicle here."
Sarah clambered aboard and distracted herself from worrying about her missing menfolk on the journey to the detention centre by asking questions about Valina's people and their family group structure, fascinated despite her other concerns by this insight into an alien race and culture, in which an entire extended family pulled together as a single economic unit. To Sarah, who'd only ever had Aunt Lavinia to call her own, it sounded incredible. They were not native to this world, she learned no one was, this society was a melting pot of different alien races, all attracted by the potential the outpost had seemed to offer.
"How long ago did your family come here?" she asked.
"Oh, a good many cycles now. It was our fresh start security and opportunity. Or so we thought, but "
"But the reality didn't quite live up to the dream?"
"I suppose we should have known," Valina said with a sigh.
"If it seems too good to be true " Sarah softly replied, gazing through the window at the spectacular aerial view.
"For some the economy functions as intended," Valina immediately defended. "There are many who prosper here, with great comfort and wealth."
"But not enough," said Sarah. "We've seen that today, with the protest those people must be desperate, surely, to go to such lengths."
Valina's face darkened. "They are fools. What do they hope to achieve?"
"I don't know," Sarah admitted, and she wished now that she'd been able to talk to some of the protestors, or at least that she'd listened more carefully to the slogans and demands they'd been shouting at least then she might have some idea of what they were trying to achieve. "But I do know that when you are caught at the wrong end of an oppressive or unjust system, sometimes fighting back is the only option it's might be hard, but sometimes it's the only hope for a better future."
"If you die fighting there is no future," said Valina. "So who benefits? No one. Better for all to mind their own business and be grateful for what they have. The system cannot be fought. It is pointless."
"Then why are you helping me?"
Valina did not reply and for a moment there was silence. "We are here," she quietly said at last, manoeuvring the air car into another large vehicle bay to park up in the darkest, emptiest corner available, quiet and unobtrusive. "This is where I leave you wait, be sure no one sees you leaving this vehicle."
"Still afraid someone might think you're endorsing sedition if you're seen helping me?" But that was unfair, Sarah told herself, and she softened her tone to add, "Well, thank you for bringing me this far, anyway, I am grateful. I don't know how I'd have got here otherwise." She hesitated, looking around trying to plan her next move. "Um so how do I get to the detention centre from here?"
"Wait, keep quiet get down, hide!" Valina was suddenly on alert, ducking down to hide as another vehicle zoomed into their dark, quiet corner and Sarah followed suit. Best not to take any chances, not now she'd come this far.
It sounded as if a whole group of people were getting out of the other vehicle. They were being quiet, though, and furtive. Crouched low beneath the control console of Valina's vehicle, the scent of engine oil and grease filling her nose and something sharp digging uncomfortably into her back, head bent at an awkward sideways angle, Sarah strained her ears trying to make out words from the muttered conversation she could hear. Valina's vehicle had been noticed and she felt the other woman clutch reflexively at her as someone stepped closer for a quick glance through the window before moving away again, satisfied that the vehicle was unoccupied they hadn't been seen.
When a furiously whispered argument broke out just at the edge of hearing, Sarah could stand it no longer and raised her head to take a peek at the group of around half a dozen people aliens, two or three distinct species standing around the other vehicle looking fierce and determined yet also strangely unsure of themselves. She heard the words 'detention centre' and 'allies', 'militia' and 'guards', a flurry of debate about weapons, specifically the lack thereof, and realised with a sudden shock who and what these people were.
"It's more of the rebels they're trying to get their people out!"
In her surprise she forgot to whisper, or perhaps it was simply that some of those aliens had particularly acute hearing, because the next thing she knew the jig was up, they were surrounded, Valina was hissing at her in furious dismay, and those alien rebels were calling for them to exit their vehicle quietly.
Sarah could have kicked herself and was quite certain that Valina would happily do it for her!
"What are you doing, spying on us?" shouted one of the rebels the moment they were out of their vehicle, this one squat and grey-skinned, young-looking, almost dancing with agitation.
"What did you hear? Why were you hiding there? What do you know?" demanded another, this one almost a double of that reptilian giraffe Sarah had met up on the re-fuelling station, all four eyes glowering, and then they were all babbling at once and she was angry all of a sudden.
"We were hiding because we didn't know who you were," she snapped, loudly enough to cut across their chatter, aware that Valina was trying to hide behind her, still reluctant to be seen and identified with or by such people. "And it looks as if we were right to take care what do you think you're doing?"
With the tables thus turned on them, the aliens fell silent, shooting worried glances at one another. "Who are you?" the reptilian giraffe asked. "What do you want?"
"You're protestors, aren't you?" Sarah pushed, and the giraffe creature snorted.
"We are the People's Resistance," he declared, rather more grandly than Sarah felt was entirely called for but then he caught the eye of some of the others and his head dropped, suddenly sombre. "Well, part of it what's left of it."
"But we aren't alone. There are other groups out there and more join our cause all the time. We won't let them beat us and we won't let them hold us!" insisted the grey-skinned one, defiant.
"You've come here to get your friends out of the detention centre," Sarah guessed. "But how? You must know that a direct assault would be suicide, surely."
"I thought you said it was worth it," Valina sourly muttered behind her back and she swung around to face the other woman, shaking her head.
"No, not worth this there has to be another way."
"Why do you care?" one of the rebels sullenly asked, a female, bright-eyed and petite the same species as that grey-skinned young firebrand.
"I care because my friend is in there, too, he was arrested with your allies," said Sarah, knowing that an edge of desperation had tinged her voice now and not caring, because there'd been one bloodbath already today because of these rebels and perhaps Valina was right, maybe they were fools and not worth the trouble they caused.
The aliens looked at one another, more suspicious than ever. "Arrested at the store? Why?"
"He got involved in something that didn't concern him." Valina glared at Sarah as she spoke, but Sarah wasn't having that, not any longer.
"Whatever's going on is everyone's concern, surely," she argued. Valina shook her head.
"No. No, it is not my concern I cannot afford for it to be my concern. All I wish is to keep a roof over my family's heads and food on the table "
The hot-headed young grey snorted in derision as his female compatriot angrily burst out, "That's all any of us want. Freedom, equality, subsistence is that so much to ask?"
"You brought your troubles to my store, and how does that help you?" Valina fumed. "How does dying there further your cause?"
It was a low blow and Sarah could see that Valina regretted it at once as the sorry group of would-be rebels reacted the protestors killed at the store earlier had been their allies, their friends. The little grey female recovered first.
"Your store?" she snorted in disgust. "Essential supplies priced as luxuries for off-worlders and you work there. Good for you. But can you afford to buy the goods you sell? What do you go without for the supplements that keep you alive? You know what would happen if you spoke out do you believe that's fair?"
"That's enough," Sarah cut in before the argument could spiral out of control. "Arguing isn't going to help any of us. Look, we all want the same thing here, don't we to get our friends out of the detention centre safely." Valina was shaking her head, and Sarah knew she regretted ever offering that ride here in the first place, but the others couldn't deny it. "What was your plan?"
"What was your plan?" the squat grey hothead immediately countered, and Sarah had no idea how to reply because she couldn't honestly say that she'd had a plan. She hadn't thought any further ahead than getting here.
"Look, do you have any weapons at all?" she asked, trying to get a better feel for the situation, and wasn't sure how to interpret the looks they cast at one another, read anguish and regret and anger in those alien expressions.
"We should we'd sent people to get them, new stock from off-world, it was needed. They must be made to take us seriously, they must," one of them said, a being with enormous ears and a snout of a nose, face and hands covered with sleek brown fur that Sarah longed to touch. "We should have been there, at the store but our supplier let us down." Despair was written all over that furry face.
"They were attacked, driven away and our comrades killed," said another, the same species but a little taller, its fur longer and elaborately braided. "And they were the last who would deal with us. The Shad have seen to that, they've cut off every supply."
"Oh, it doesn't really matter anyway," Sarah quickly said, before they could elaborate any further on these details that she didn't entirely understand and didn't think were relevant. "Even if you did, what I said before is true a direct assault on the detention centre would be suicide, and that won't help your cause at all."
"Then what do you suggest?" demanded that angry young grey.
"Subterfuge," said Sarah, in the most determined tone she could muster. If they wanted to get their people out, it was the only thing that would work, she was sure of it, and then before anyone could ask her to elaborate which she was equally sure she couldn't, because she hadn't had time to think this through a deep, blessedly familiar voice boomed out behind her.
"That's an excellent suggestion, Sarah. What are you talking about?"
Sarah span around, eyes wide and mouth dropping open with disbelief, because there he was: scarf trailing, battered hat pressed down tight over that mess of unruly curls, toothy grin plastered all over his face, with yet another alien being lurking just behind him. It was the Doctor!
dwdwdwdwdw
"You are certain you understand, Earth man?" Ren turned sceptical eyes upon Harry, who told himself not to take the implied mistrust personally. They both knew he'd been out of his element since landing here and she had a lot riding on this mission potentially the life of her comrade.
Oddly enough, though, with a clearly defined mission to carry out, he was at last starting to feel as if his feet were on solid ground once more and not just because they were now parked up at ground level, just around the corner from their target. He was to be the decoy, Ren had decided, and, although the role left him feeling uncomfortably exposed, his job was relatively simple even if it did involve walking right into the lion's den, so to speak.
So he said, "Of course. It's not that difficult," and made an effort to sound confident. "Go to the front door, ring the bell and ask for directions or some such keep the blighters distracted while you two slip in round the back and disable the whatsit."
"In essence, if not substance," said Ren with an eye-roll that could only be described as sardonic. "Wait two minutes for us to reach the service door at the rear, then go. Once we're inside, Dilly will work to access the security feed, so you must be in place by then. The timing must be exactly right."
"Well, that's why I've got this, isn't it?" He raised his arm to show her the strap around his wrist, having been persuaded to exchange his own trusty old wristwatch, which had survived his fall almost intact, for a rather more high tech device that did much the same job and a lot more besides.
Dilly chittered and plucked at his sleeve with an oversized claw, antennae waggling as the creature's odd little face creased in the equivalent of a smile. "Luck be with you, Earth man."
Ren lifted an eyebrow as she reached for the door control. "Luck be with us all," she grunted, and they were off.
Harry followed them out, sealed the door, and looked around at what he could see of his surroundings in the fading evening light: a shabby and sparsely populated area that was the image of urban decay, complete with peeling paint, crumbling walls and cracked street surfaces growing weeds. Like the warehouse they'd visited earlier, and in stark contrast to the vast sky-rises he'd first seen on this world, the streets and buildings here looked so normal and unassuming that this could almost have been Earth.
Almost.
It felt good to be out of the confines of the shuttle after being cooped up in there for so long.
He waited for the allotted two minutes to give the others time to reach their destination and trip the locks, leaning against the side of the shuttle trying to look nonchalant while checking the display on that high-tech wrist piece every few seconds until the time was right to set his own part of this little scheme in motion. Dilly, he'd been told, once inside the building, would be able to remotely access all the security camera systems in there, using equipment that was illegal on fourteen worlds, apparently; Harry hadn't asked how they'd smuggled it onto this world, he suspected it was one of those things he was better off not knowing. He understood very little of the technical jargon the creature had spouted at him by way of explanation, but hazily grasped the idea that an older image from those camera feeds could be 'looped' so that intruders could sneak in and move around without being seen, because stealth was the order of the day. It sounded jolly useful, he had to admit, and, as the only face unknown to the Shad, Harry's job was to create a diversion so that no one was looking at the security monitors at the moment Dilly tripped the system to set up the loop.
Well, he had rather liked the idea of working for the security services when the transfer to UNIT first came up, he reminded himself, and this was undercover work, of a sort albeit just about as far removed as could be imagined from anything he'd ever anticipated, back when he first accepted that transfer.
It had to be done. They were here to save a life.
He checked the display on his new wrist-piece for the umpteenth time the two minutes was up. Time to go.
The front entrance of the building was just around the corner, no more than a few hundred yards away, manned by heavy, thickset individuals with skin like rhino hide and prominent fangs rather like the mythical vampire, oddly webbed hands and beady little eyes that glowed disturbingly red. There were three of them, one sat at a desk alongside a bank of screens, clearly on duty, while the other two appeared to just be hanging around with nothing better to do. They were all heavily armed.
Harry was nervous, so it wasn't hard to play at being lost and frightened, a tourist who'd wandered astray in an unfamiliar place. Really speaking, it wasn't even a lie. The guards were extremely suspicious of this stranger at their door and didn't care in the slightest about his supposed predicament, but they were also suitably distracted from those screens at the crucial moment, so that was a success that he decided he could be pleased about later. He tried to keep them occupied for as long as he could, because he had another part to play, in case anything went wrong which of course it did, because that was how this entire day had played out. All too soon alarms began to blare and the sound of gunfire rang out from deep within the building, Harry's heart sank like a lead balloon, and there was nothing else for it but to switch to Plan B and then run.
As one of the guards turned to run deeper into the building to investigate and the others turned on Harry, angry and suspicious, he slid a hand into a pocket to activate the other device he'd been given for just this eventuality, quickly pulling it out and throwing it to the ground. It was called a flash bomb, he'd been told, and would both fry all the electrics in the building and temporarily blind anyone within a certain radius of the blast "so do make sure that your own eyes are closed, Earth man, or you too will be incapacitated," Dilly had fussily instructed, and Harry did just that, even though it went sorely against the grain to close his eyes when armed enemies were advancing toward him at speed.
Even with his eyes firmly closed the flash of light was blindingly brilliant and the percussion of the blast knocked him off his feet, while the shouts of the shocked guards and the spark-hiss of the electrics shorting out rang in his ears, smoke slowly filling the air. He struggled upright again at once, because there was no time to lose, not even a moment to pause and catch his breath; the guards might be blinded but they were still armed.
With spots dancing in front of his eyes, the afterimage of that brilliant burst of light, Harry staggered toward the exit and away ducking as he heard shots fired behind him, at least one of the incapacitated guards having enough wit still to fire blindly in his general direction. One or two of those shots came uncomfortably close, singeing his hair and sleeve as he ran, out of the building and away. He sprinted the distance back to Ren's shuttle without stopping, hoping against hope that the others had also made it out safely, because he couldn't even begin to imagine what to do if they hadn't.
They weren't there.
Harry hit the button to open the doors and dashed inside for an almost frantic look around, just to be sure of what he already knew.
They weren't here yet. Maybe they never would be, and then what would he do? He'd never get them out of there alone, but he could hardly just leave them, yet he had to consider the Doctor and Sarah as well he was starting to feel as if he'd never manage to find them.
He waited in the doorway, fidgeting and worrying, expecting armed and angry aliens to come after him at any moment and starting at every sound. This wasn't a heavily populated area, but there were people creatures around, and he wondered that they weren't taking more interest, gloomily suspected that perhaps this was the kind of place where everyone knew to mind their own business or else.
At last he heard footsteps, running footsteps, and then there they were, at full pelt and exchanging weapons fire over their shoulders with Shad guards hot on their heels: Dilly scuttling faster than he'd thought the creature capable of and Ren struggling to support a third person who must be Brunnal, stocky and dark and staggering slightly, limping along.
They'd reached the shuttle, shots flying in every direction, when Dilly suddenly gasped and staggered as a shot glanced off that shiny carapace. Ren cried out in alarm, swinging around to catch at her friend even as another shot found its mark. Caught square in the soft underbelly beneath the outer shell, Dilly dropped like a stone.
On to Part 3